by Matt Wilk
“No exiled half-blood can divide the House of Goja.”
“Forgive me sire, I have forgotten my place. In fact, I have forgotten most things. After that knock on the head, I cannot even remember the time of day. Is it tomorrow already?”
“It is nearly dark child.”
The priest knelt down and laid his hand on my shoulder.
“The allFather still warms our earth with his glow. You fell so very hard. The son of Boagrian cannot control his own strength. It was not easy- resting control of the mine. Do you remember how long Warden Tunney has kept you down here?”
“Sir?”
“Your father has been worried sick. The Emperor misses dearly his favorite grandson. Tell me Gojinus, do you remember home? The salty air, the endless steaks, the most beautiful spotted harlots in all the world? Do you remember Swillia?”
I let my eyes lose focus and my neck drift subtly back and forth. The priest did his best to put me in a trance, so I humored him thusly.
“Master Priest, I remember. I can see, the bull. I showed him mercy. I- I ate of his heart.”
Goja and Alaric were pleased. The party backed away to allow the priest room to work. He revealed his crystal ball and channeled the spirit of Gojinus from the underworld.
“Oh, the gods of might, send him back to us. The line of his blood cannot be cut by the swords of men.”
Major Talon had taught me the dark pseudo-honor of his speech. I mimicked it for the priest.
“The Lantos. They have stolen my weapon. The hammer, it speaks. Take it priest.”
Then my voice changed back, and I did my best to show a struggle over my soul.
“No! It is my body! That is my hammer! I will use it to tear down everything.”
“Yes, tear it all down! They took it all from you Gojinus! They took your woman, and in return, they gave you the whip. They locked you down here for so very long. We will avenge you my child. The mining masters of Ulfbar will know your anger.”
“No, not anger. Rage. The blood red rage of a thousand barbarian kings burned on the pyre- and returned to do battle once more.”
“Yes, yes my child. Bring us back the rage of Gojinus.”
“My hammer. Forged of my blood. Imbued with my power.”
I held out my hands, the chain tightened about my waist. I reached for the hammer, making Alaric question what was happening. He looked to Zara-grast for trickery, but he was merely bleeding to death. His slow wheezing breath was convincing, nearly cementing the charade. Then I added the final touch.
“The Lexicon demands my return. These Tunney’s lock me down here, because they fear me! Give me my hammer, Ulfbar must be destroyed.”
I writhed about on the floor and reached for the hammer. The priest wanted to prove he was in control, so I followed his every order.
“The hammer is just there. You must crawl back there. Now, roll through the hot coals.”
I grunted and blew on my skin, rolling into the wall without traveling any distance.
“Yes my child, you’ve almost reached it. But, there is a Lantos in your way. He wishes to stop you.”
I flipped over and sunk my teeth into Zara-grast’s shin bone. I growled and threw my head about. I did my best not to draw blood, and he did his best to feign sleep.
“Ah, this one is no more. Where are my true enemies? Where is my worthy foe? Tremaine!”
“Yes, Tremaine. He has your hammer. You must take it from him. Woo. Take it. Woo.”
I crawled to Alaric, no easy task. He moved away, dragging the hammer from side to side.
“You almost got him. Take it! Take up your weapon and slay the enemies of your Emperor- all of them!”
“Grandfather! I will show your strength to the world. The Lantos will fall, the Queen will fall. The Swillian Empire will reign supreme!”
“Yes, I can feel Gojinus in my presence. The Lexicon calls to us. Woo-woo.”
The men and the Opa alike were entranced by the priest. His crystal ball had them all convinced that the spirit of Gojinus was in control of my body. Only Alaric remained suspicious. Our fathers were born rivals. As well, he had been backed all the way to the wall of the cavern. When I finally reached the hammer, I simply caressed it and curled around it on the floor. As far as they could see, I rocked back and forth, muttering to myself, and was lost in the madness.
“I have conquered the world. All the world is mine. The power. The power is mine.”
“Gojinus, just as arrogant as the day he died.”
“Now Goja, what better way to finish the tunnel? With the boy leading the dig, we will break through onto the Sheek-tee plain within the week.”
“You had better hope Fourteen is in place by then. None of the fallen managed to fulfill their duties. We cannot afford anymore upsets.”
“You question the loyalty of my son?”
“I am confident the Lokah will refuse any bribery. They must be swayed by the sword. That is why you should have sent me.”
“You will see. Fourteen can be just as ruthless as- uhn, as...”
Goja stopped talking, suddenly confused. The priest stopped whispering ridiculous noises into my ear to look up. By the light of his crystal ball, we saw Zara-grast. He had stolen the lion’s tooth from my hair during our ruse. When the royals had begun walking away, the guards were all left staring at the priest. In the time it took them to explain how they would murder all of his people, Zara-grast had assassinated Goja the Thirteenth. He pulled the long tooth from the man’s liver, and tossed it to the Opa.
“Fresh man flesh! Come and get it!”
Alaric began pulling his sword, but it was too late. With both feet, I rolled the crystal ball quickly across the cavern floor. It picked up blood, which then picked up dirt. The light was nearly covered completely. No matter, it fell over the edge and exploded at the bottom of the pit. The scattered torch light was not bright enough for our human eyes, and we had no time to adjust. The Opa pounded the ground with their bone clubs. Alaric called his men to form a shield wall, and I stole the key ring from the priest’s belt while he threw his self on top of Goja. Zara-grast managed to escape from Alaric’s sword by using my shell as a full body shield. I got the cuffs off of my ankles in time to dodge it myself, though I lost the key on the floor. His men lost ground to the Opa with every moment, and their master knew to toss the torches away from our eyes.
“Stand and fight me, you dirty little trickster.”
“Honestly, Alaric, no.”
“What?”
He hesitated, and it was all the time I needed. The hammer was light as a hollow stick in my hands. I spun with all my might, cracking the cave wall. The battle stopped for a moment. Dust fell from the ceiling, and a roar bellowed out from the depth.
“Kill the boy? Only to be eaten by giants? Shame on you Alaric.”
“Fall back on my right. Protect the last torch.”
He shouted orders to his men without taking his eyes off of mine. I spun again, and he moved in. If Zara-grast had not leapt in the way, he would have cut through my spine. The shell saved both of our lives. The crack grew deeper and the ceiling shook off more dust. I feinted another spin, and, when Alaric swung I caught his hand with the base of the hammer’s handle. His sword flew to his left, and was promptly snatched up by one the hungry Opa. He ran to retrieve it, and I slammed the hammer into the cave wall as many times as I could. Down on my left, a single ray of light shone through. I swung the Broadhammer low and sent the wall flying out into the day.
“No!”
I turned just in time to stop Alaric from finishing Zara-grast. His massive sword broke the cuffs on my waist, and still cut a straight line into my wrists. The little Lokah spit, and then shot through the tiny hole faster than a snake. The cave walls continued to tremble, but I was on my knees fighting a superior aggressor. The only thing that saved me was the Opa War Chief. In his quest for vengeance, he tackled Alaric from behind, so that my death would be on his hands. Zara-grast reache
d back inside for my shell. Seeing that the hole was wide enough for it to fit, I crawled backwards. The Scarlet Opa had mostly retreated, giving up the space for their giant brethren to mount an attack. In the fray, the little turtle disappeared with the new Half-an-Assassin.
“Finish it!”
The dwindling afternoon light was blinding, but it filled me with unlimited energy. I followed Zara-grast’s eyes to a crack in the mountainside. I ran away for some room, and sprinted towards it as fast as my legs would carry. I was up, then a jump, I slid for a moment, found a foot hold, and jumped higher than ever before. I swung with both hands creaking from the pressure of my grip. The Broadhammer landed on the rock face with enough power to blow me back down into the valley. The loudest bell in history rang right into my ears. When I sat up, the ringing was all I could hear. Through the blurred daze, I watched the high cliff turn to dust. The cavern collapsed in on top of the Swillian insurgents, and all their man eating Opa. The war was over before it ever began.
Zara-grast pushed me to my feet. He was yelling something that I could not hear. I tried to cup a hand around my ear. That’s when I felt the blood. Clearly, he wanted us running to the high ground just in case. I put my shell on my back and helped him up. The wide cavern we were just in had once been an ancient washout- before the builders of the mine redirected the flow of the river. The waterfall was now three hundred feet further east, and much more powerful. The cut into the mountain was so deep that water spilled over with every spring melt, slowly destroying the artificial slope running along either side of the deep river valley. We were mere miles from the Giant’s Dam. The water had left a set of stairs in the rock, ending down into a shallow pond. Once we were at the peak, the ground beneath our feet went soggy. We were so far from Ram’s Peak that I could not see it in the south through the trees. I heard the rushing falls echo from odd angles, bouncing back from the small cluster of trees that shielded the southern tip of the outcrop. It circled around like a horseshoe, providing a more easily defensible break in the wall. If only we had had archers, the area would have made for a perfect shooting gallery. As my ears healed, I began to hear more, and I caught Zara-grast forcing himself to vomit.
“What are you doing? What are we doing? Can you hear me?”
He held up his little finger while I wiped the blood from my ears. I heard something knocking, causing me to spin around and scan the sky. I searched aimlessly for the phoenix, but the canopy beside us was empty as the cliff face.
“Did you hear that? There it is again.”
“Quiet.”
Zara-grast revealed the source of his wheezing. There in the pool of vomit, he retrieved his whistle. First he blew it out in reverse, then he blew again with all his might. The training sergeant had suffered hiding the thing in his stomach for nearly a day. When he finally needed to call for reinforcements, they did not come. He blew left and right and up, making a different pitch with each movement.
“Nothing? What happened to your Seals?”
“Where is your bird?”
My hands were raised with my shrugging shoulders. I let out a sigh of relief, and began stretching for the walk back. Zara-grast did not move. Even the wind died from all the insects fleeing for dear life. The gliding squirrels, the ground nesting birds, and every field mouse in the area scrambled out in all directions. The knocking sound I had heard was the rolling of a stone down the rock face that I had just destroyed. More stones came loose, and a loud thump expelled a cloud of creatos dust. The Opa War Chief had somehow survived. I could hear him growling orders to the giants, convincing them to ram the wall head first.
“They are not finished.”
Zara-grast straightened his undersized leathers and pulled his hair back into a top knot. He locked his legs together, and stuck his jaw out like a stoic. We saluted one another, and I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat.
“Let them chase me into the gorge. Then, you charge their leader.”
“And the giants?”
“They will surely kill you, so make it quick. You will only get the one chance.”
He gestured west to the setting sun, which was slowly being consumed by the moon.
“No.”
Zara-grast knelt, plunging his hands into the wet grass. With both hands soaked in mud, he dragged his fingers across his face and away from his mouth. Like the grinnlies, it gave him the appearance of a massive set of teeth. He did not look at me again. With the whistle, and the stomping of his feet, he broke into a hymn. I did not understand his words, but the message was clear. The song filled him strength and courage. His noise fought against the rumbling of the approaching enemy. The moon covered the sun until there was only one sliver remaining at the bottom. A sign from the gods, as the allFather too was left with only a hilt. They would not allow for the red shadow to lend me its power. Just as Zara-grast had done, I consigned to fight and die for the honor. Out on the plains, where only the gods could see, it was on us to save the world. And, when the battle was finished, no one would ever know we were there.
Zara-grast blew his whistle in spurts and threw up hand signals that I had never learned. When he ducked behind a low bush in front of the tree line, I understood to do the same. The ground shook hard enough to push ripples outward through the small pool. Dust blew out through cracks. The darkness covered our position and I felt the hilt go cold. Then the mountain face blew apart. One of the giants led the way through their new exit, falling over from using his iron shielded face to form the hole. The Opa War Chief roared at his tribe to charge, but he waited inside the cave. With most of his elites long gone, he had only a few dozen fighters. However, he had three giants, and my hilt had no power.
The tall reds hid behind their even taller cousins. The giants instinctively huddled together, resting while they waited for orders. Then Zara-grast stood up and blew on his whistle until they were all watching him. Half of the small army ran down the hill into the shallow pool. The Opa were falling for the trick, and I saw my opening. It no longer mattered. One of the giants charged on all fours towards the little Lokah. That, I could not allow.
“Hey! Up here- idiot!”
The beast turned his head and slowed his charge, but he could not see me. Just as he passed the tightest pinch point before the pool, I leapt out into the air. My hammer came down on his head from the side. I was close enough to hear the pop. I thought it might have broken his neck until he huffed out of his nose. The Scarlet Opa all stopped and turned to watch the massive beast get back to his feet. All I had managed to accomplish was to knock the protective mask off of his face. He slammed his knuckles down, spread himself wide, and roared at me with all his might.
Zara-grast blew his whistle to distract them all. That slight hesitation was all the time I needed. I was down between his legs before he even noticed. Left, right, and roll. The beast lost both of his knees and fell flat on his face. One of the tall reds tried to stop me but he became my own personal spring board. I was up in the air when it let out its final whine. Just as I had watched Gojinus do, I landed my Broadhammer at the base of the spine. The poor thing felt no more pain. As for the rest, my own roar taught them to fear the world of men. The Opa War Chief crept out of the darkness to urge them on. They looked from me to him. Their jaws snapped shut, changing their faces from horrified disbelief to a snarling madness. One of the giants rushed me on all fours. I checked behind me for the proper foothold, preparing another jumping lunge. When I turned back, I learned that the Drakkah gauntlets could be upgraded with a repeating assembly- and had been as well.
“Drakkah!”
Major Swiftblade leapt from the back of Eso to form a tall arc of automatic fire, raining lightning enhanced fire balls down on the savage Opa in a way that they could never understand. Half of the army fled then and there. They tried to pile back into the cave while their leader tried to turn them around. The rest were no longer waiting around to die. I had to choose between aiding my superior and our ally. I could
see the Opa War Chief readying a giant and stuffing Alaric’s broadsword into its massive hand, but Zara-grast was left defenseless. I ran straight into the pool, knowing that it’s what the Swiftblade would have wanted.
“Behind you!”
I yelled so loud that even Zara-grast checked over his shoulder before scrambling into the small patch of trees. I could not stop those whom had already jumped up onto the ledge. There were only five left in the pool. With all eyes on me, I made it four. They did not fight like men, waiting for their turn or attacking from all sides like the raptor. They went wild with blood lust like that foolish lion. The momentum drove me into the mass as they swarmed, so I slid onto my knees. My shell kept me afloat long enough for one breath before they wailed on me with their massive fists. Finally, one grabbed the Broadhammer with both hands and lifted me up out of the water. He let go quickly, howling from having fallen for my ruse. I kicked off of him with both feet, taking another sailing with me- ribs cracking from the impact with my back shell. The blood red sky above me was intruded upon by his blood-ridden, squealing, spoiled egg breath. I closed my eyes and finished him quickly, using the bounce back to throw myself forward. The last three Opa were ready and waiting.
“Jump!”
Major Swiftblade called out just in time. The very moment I was airborne, he sent a shockwave of lightning threw the pool with his last shot- thirty by my count. The blue flash was followed by a rush of heat that made its own smaller pool of fire that spread outward across the surface while he reloaded. The Opa were shocked into paralysis and I made sure that they felt no more pain. The second giant lay dead at his feet, while the third waited with his master. The Opa War Chief still had twenty or so troops at the cave entrance. He had not yet convinced them to return to battle, but he had gotten them all to throw stones. They had successfully distracted us long enough for the bravest to bite Eso to death, whilst being speared right back with his mighty horn.
“Stop hesitating. Go after Zara-grast!”