by Lucas Thorn
He tried to pluck it from her grip, but then looked confounded by the rags which tied it into her fist.
The worms pushed down her bicep, a flood of them.
Churning.
Then he paused. Cocked his head. Breath, reeking of rot and slime, exhaled across her face as he peered closer. “I didn’t see it before,” he whispered. “But I do now. I see it. It’s there. Inside you. What are you? I must know…”
She gulped air. Tried to say something, but her throat felt twisted. Dry.
His hand took a fistful of her jacket and he lifted her so her feet dangled from powerless legs. The tentacle slid from around her body, draping instead over the Madman’s shoulders like a python bloated and fed.
He sniffed the air between them like a dog testing for scent. Showed the glinting pale fangs and insanity bubbled just behind his pupils as he pulled her close.
“I’m-” She managed to squeeze the word, though it sounded feeble through her teeth.
“Tell me! What are you?”
“-pissed off.”
She let him blink. Then buried Queen of Hearts in his throat.
They screamed as one.
Kraken and Vampire Lord.
Elf.
Three voices raised in rage and agony. A single howling chorus which rocked the draug to their knees and left the remaining raiders staring in open-mouthed bewilderment.
Ainu dropped down from her place of safety and rushed toward the altar. Axe in hand. Nearne rocked back and forth, down on one knee, body wet with the blood of draug. Grief and horror working to rend the young girl’s conscious thoughts to ribbons. She looked up as Ainu crouched beside her.
Rockjaw and Lux were in front of the stone door, the ork straining as he pushed on immovable stone. Muscles bulging. Teeth bared as the deathpriest fended off draug with blasts of vibrant green energy.
And Nemo emerged slowly from the fog, the old raider with a face made of steel and spite. Expression stern and commanding, he waved an arm and a dozen more just like him rushed from the fog.
All brushed with blood and sweat. Gleaming with the pride of violence. Mailshirts glinting. Boots treading heavily. Fear lost from their minds as they advanced on their god.
And Nysta saw none of this.
Saw only the fury in the eyes of the Vampire Lord as the enchanted blade lashed hungrily at the inside of his skull. As it searched every crevice of his insides.
As it tore holes in his face, erupting like leeches through his cheeks.
Searching.
Sifting.
Then she was flying. Weightless and serene. A shooting star spat from the clouds.
Didn’t have time to think about impact until it happened. Until she hit the altar and crumpled back down a few stairs, unsure if she’d ever move again.
Her head hurt.
Back hurt.
Her chest and leg hurt.
Shoulders hurt.
Arms hurt.
Hands hurt.
Everything hurt, she decided. Everything.
Tasted blood and the iron taste of defeat.
Looked down at the rags which had held Queen of Hearts. They’d been ripped away to expose her ruined palm. A hole squeezed shut like the closed lips of a snake. Blood no longer pulsed from the wound but she still couldn’t move her fingers.
Her head rolled sideways.
Chin pressed to her shoulder. She had no strength to lift it.
But she could see the Madman, his arms flailing. Tentacles lashing blindly, battering the stone ground with the titanic flailing of its boneless arms. Queen of Hearts stuck firm in the Vampire Lord’s ancient throat. The black enchantment still clawing at the inside of his head. Still searching.
Squirming.
Tearing.
And finding nothing. Because he wasn’t like Vampire Lords. Also wasn’t like the draug.
He was what he said he was. His magic had warped and twisted him. He was something else. Something different.
The kraken roared. A skull-wrenching sound which made her flinch and finally prodded her mind into a frantic train of thoughts cascading behind her eyes as the squealing Madman turned and aimed blazing violet eyes in her direction. As he bared his fangs and took a fevered step toward her.
Black blood spurting from his throat, raining down his chest to crash to the floor in sodden clumps of rancid necromantic fluid. One hand stretched out to her, long thin fingers curling into primitive claws. The other tugged at the blade which refused to leave his body.
Nemo’s raiders reached the circle of destruction being created by the kraken’s wild swinging tentacles. And they didn’t stop. They waded into the melee, hacking with axe and sword. Gouging bloody holes in the side of the massive tentacles. Suckers flowered open, silently screaming.
“Shit,” she mouthed. And scrambled away from the oncoming creature who seemed oblivious to Nemo’s new crew.
So focussed on reaching her.
On tearing her to pieces.
“Nysta!” Ainu stretched an arm to haul the elf onto the stone slab which served as an altar. “Come on!”
She rolled graceless across the stone and landed with a grunt. Saw Rockjaw had managed to push the great stone door open enough for Lux to be trying to squeeze inside. The thin deathpriest aimed ahead of himself with the staff, unconcerned by the awful darkness choking the interior or the chaos thriving in the courtyard behind him.
Nemo darted up the stairs, the old man looking more grizzled than he’d ever been. He took the elf’s arm with his gnarled fist and looked down into her face. “In case I don’t get to say it later, I owe you an apology, I think,” he said. No trace of the scowl he’d often aimed at her. Just a peevish look of regret. “I figured there was something off with Maks. Knew there was something going on with his group. Something was off. I knew they were waiting for someone at Southlight. And it weren’t right. I knew it in my bones. I thought it was you.”
“Weren’t me,” she said tightly, still remembering the look on the old raider’s face as he’d left her to die on the sinking ship. “He figured me for a feller named Willem.”
“Then we were all wrong about you.” He dragged her closer to Rockjaw. The big ork was already having to fight to keep draug from following Lux inside. Into where Ihan was no doubt waiting.
She looked over her shoulder.
The Madman was struggling to haul his burden but had made it halfway up the stairs to the altar, eyes still fiercely fixed to her. He mouthed words, but the thick tendrils of the enchanted blade filled his throat like a nest of snakes. They whipped and snapped across his tongue and between his teeth, still searching for the spark of life on which they fed.
After each step, he paused, the burden on his back rocking him. Swaying for balance so he could take another step.
And another.
The kraken wrapped two thick arms around one of Nemo’s raiders. Lifted him high. Uncaring of the man’s pain, it tore him in two, showering itself with blood. Blood which rained onto its mutilated and bulbous head to dribble down the Madman’s forehead.
He shook his head. Eyes wide and manic. Tongue flicking out to taste the crimson flowing down his cheeks.
Pushed himself forward.
Ainu, still holding her on one side, looked to the slitted opening. Shrieked; “Ihan!”
Then Lux thrust his head from the darkness. Teeth bared and papery skin more dry than before. More pale.
“He’s dead,” he snarled, eyeless gaze fixed on the elf. “Caspiellans cut him open. He must have climbed in here and locked himself in. Let himself die. And his death has woken the sleeping god. Nysta? I might need help in here.”
“Then there’s no priest?” Nemo licked his lips. “No priest to make the sacrifice? To take the vows?”
Lux hesitated, then his lip twitched. Ghost of a smile slithering across his teeth to be swallowed by a look of calm. “You know the consequences? Of having no priest to guard the temple?”
“Aye. I
know. Ihan was my uncle, deathpriest. We didn’t talk about it much, but I knew enough of what it means.”
“I don’t understand,” Ainu said. “What are you talking about?”
“Whatever the fuck you’re going to do, do it fast!” Rockjaw slammed a draug against the wall and split its head in half before tossing it back in front of the oncoming Madman. “I can’t do this forever.”
Nearne skipped between them, shouldering up against the wall near the opening. Frightened and quivering, she pushed against the wall as though she could pass through it to safety. “He’s coming!”
The kraken tore another raider into pieces. This time flung the shredded torso towards the elf’s feet. The sloppy mess rolled with the ugliness of a life still clinging by its most unlikely thread as it slid to a halt with a warm shiver of meat and splintered bone.
Nysta shrugged free of Nemo and Ainu.
Stood with one hand dangling useless and the other only barely able to bend at the elbow. Heaved breath into her body and glared right back at the twisted creature. Spat through the corner of her mouth. “How long you need, feller?”
“That depends,” Lux said. Blind eyes staring with empty disquiet at Nemo. “On whether the nephew will follow the path of his uncle and take the knife.”
A curious thrill stole down the elf’s spine at mention of the knife. The darkness behind the deathpriest suddenly seemed to thicken at mention of it. But far from horrifying her, it invited her. Called her inside.
A whisper on the wind trickled from the dark.
Sullen echoes of those which haunted the yellow fog creeping around her toes.
Kill!
Mad laughter cackled like thunder and she spun back to face the slow and wretched advance of the Madman and his mammoth burden.
Torn suddenly between the savage need to face her fear and try killing the creature, or turning and diving into the dark to sate a crazed hunger bubbling in her heart.
The knife!
The thought cut like ice through her brain.
Take the knife!
Nemo looked from Lux to the Madman, the lines on his face deepening as he wrestled with conflicts of his own. Gnarled hands trembling, he reached for the deathpriest. Took him by his coat and pulled close. Hoarse, his voice crept from his mouth. “You don’t know what you’re asking!”
“I know enough,” Lux said. “And I’d give anything to spend more time squeezing what I don’t know from your miserable memory. But the ork is right – we have no time. It may already be too late. Ihan lies inside, body broken and soul departed. The knife lays by his side and it calls. Calls on the breath of the mists for another to take it in their hand. You’ve heard it calling. The voices of those who wielded it before. They call you, Nemo. Listen to them. Listen!”
“I hear them,” he said. Three words the elf echoed under her breath.
“Go to them.”
“I’ll lose myself.”
“Perhaps,” the deathpriest mused. “But perhaps you’ll find something more than yourself. Every sacrifice has its reward.”
“I’m not sure…”
“We don’t have time for this!” And with unearthly speed, Lux reached with a growl and took him by the throat. With a snarl of effort, the deathpriest lunged back into the dark, dragging the frightened old raider with him.
They disappeared into the gloom, followed only by Nearne’s strangled cry of disbelief and a shriek of utter fear which rose in pitch to an inhuman squeal as Nemo screamed and screamed again.
And the Madman’s hollow moan drowned it all.
The elf’s eyes had flicked to the darkness for the barest fraction of a second. But it was long enough for her to be sent sprawling as the kraken’s tentacle sliced out of the yellow fog and hit her in the side with a titanic blow. She felt a few suckers snap as they tried to get a grip on the wyrmskin jacket.
She wrestled with it, tearing loose with a throaty roar. Slammed A Flaw in the Glass into the leathery arm of the ancient kraken. Venomous green light bubbled and fizzed as it sawed eagerly through flesh.
But the creature had more than one arm. Many more.
Ainu rushed up beside her, hacking with frenzied energy. Delivering blow after blow on the tentacle trying to snake around the elf’s stumbling body. “Nysta!”
The elf looked up, straight into the wide eye of the creature who belonged not on the back of the twisted Vampire Lord, but in the depths of the frozen seas far to the north. The void of its pupils wept at her. Wept with insanity she could put no words to.
Then an arm struck, clawed fingers digging into her jacket, reaching for flesh. The Madman’s victorious roar threw foul air into her face.
Nysta felt her body shudder as it began to give in. She couldn’t take any more. Where was Lux? How long did he need? “Shit.”
Ainu leapt. High into the air. Axes, one each hand. Curved blades flashing bright. Still wet with the blood of draug. Flecked with the blood of the kraken. Now hungry for the blood of the Madman himself.
Her eyes so wide. Bright with fear and determination.
Let loose a warcry which echoed through the many hallways and evil hollows of the temple’s bowels. A cry of defiance which promised death.
The elf lifted her wounded hand as she saw what the raider couldn’t see.
The kraken’s whipping arm snaking out of the fog. It struck. Snapped around the young raider’s waist with all the finality of a cobra’s steely jaws. Lifted her high even as another arm writhed out of nowhere to clamp around her legs. Squeezing tight. Suckers opening and closing. Gripping.
Ainu screamed.
Nysta screamed.
The world tilted for the elf as the Vampire Lord howled in her ear, dripping jaws preparing to feast.
The elf couldn’t shift her gaze. Couldn’t look away from Ainu’s bulging eyes. She watched the triumph snuffed from the girl’s expression. Saw the pain begin. And saw the yawning gates of the Shadowed Halls as they opened far in the back of the young raider’s eyes as though mirrored from her soul.
Blood exploded from Ainu as the kraken ripped her to pieces with deliberate and almost petulant precision.
Flinging limbs at the ork whose axe had already chopped one of its tentacles in half and was trying to cut the other free of his arm.
“Ainu.”
Nysta remembered the girl diving into the draug-infested sea. Risking her life for the elf. A risk she’d taken again, and this time paid the price.
She turned her face.
Saw the Vampire Lord looming over her. Fangs only inches from her throat.
“I will consume you,” he drooled.
“Reckon we’ll agree on that,” she said. Hatred melted the ice inside her guts. Washed it all away on oceans of flame and winds of rage-drenched ash. She felt the darkness shift inside her body as though great stone gears had suddenly locked into place. Teeth clamped hard as her jaw clenched around her words. “Because you can fucking bite me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Since taking ship from Southlight, the elf had felt periods of mental lassitude. As though a part of herself had been sleeping. Resting, maybe. Since the events on the Wall, she’d often been exhausted. Had put it down to her body needing to heal.
Now, she wasn’t sure.
But, in the grip of the twisted remains of the Vampire Lord called Ozric and the gigantic beast on his back, she woke. Woke with the sound of Ainu’s final agony-drenched scream ringing in her ears.
A Flaw in the Glass thrust up between those glinting fangs coated in the slime of the deep. The venomous blade cruised deep inside, splitting his brain. The bubbling enchantment burned and bubbled, mixing with the darkness still exploring his skull from Queen of Hearts fastened to his throat.
Convulsing, he tried to push her away. But she refused to be denied and instead twisted the blade, feeling bone and gristle split and crack. His rancid blood flowed in thick rivers down her arm to drool off her elbow and splash to the ground.
> He recoiled, his foot missing the stair. Tripped.
They fell together, locked in a hateful embrace. Snarling and spitting at each other.
She was tossed free as he slammed to a halt, though was still knotted inside a flurry of tentacles twitching and clenching in torment. Stabbing aimlessly, the elf cut through one and managed to find her feet before the Madman could recover.
Laying on his side, he had to work with all his strength to lift his torso. The kraken’s body was fused so fully with his skull and spine, he was like a turtle trying to regain its legs. He saw her coming, though. His eyes wide with crazed emotions.
Tried to get to his knees, but she was there.
A frenzy of rage as she stabbed him in the face. Again.
And again.
Obliterating his features. Eventually using the knife not to stab, but to get leverage. Leaned on the handle with her useless arm, pushing her weight down. Breaking off his face in splintered chunks. Ignoring his wailing voice and clutching hands.
The tentacles slapped at her, clawed at her. But she wouldn’t be moved. Couldn’t be moved.
She dropped onto his chest, wrapping legs around his chest and just kept cutting.
Gouging.
Digging.
Queen of Hearts dropped loose as she tore his lower jaw free and ended his gibbering moans.
Kept going.
The kraken screamed for him. A torrent of unleashed shrieks which the elf knew they’d hear even in the Shadowed Halls.
“Ainu,” she spat into the cavernous hole which had been the Vampire Lord’s face. “For Ainu. And Saja. And Mija. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.”
A mantra she repeated. Over and over as her arm grew numb and the blade bit with shallower bites. Chunks of meat and foul blood ran thick down her chest. Even her mouth and chin as the spray flicked up from each violent lunge.
Behind her, Lux was shouting something she couldn’t make sense of. His words just couldn’t penetrate.
She didn’t see Nemo come crawling out of the dark, old hands wrapped around the crimson handle of a sullen knife. Didn’t see him shuffle toward the closest raider and sink that dreadful knife into the raider’s back.