‘Hel knows?’ Thom’s voice was strangulated. ‘She knows you are needed to free the beast also?’
‘And she deliberately hid it from you.’ Bran gestured expansively. ‘She hid it from all of you and she is the goddess you all worship. Doesn’t it make you question why?’
Cadence skulked besides Bran, crying out as he grabbed her arm. Although she was taller than him, the necromancer’s grasp was iron-tight.
‘Do not touch her!’ Thom commanded. ‘She is mine. Release her immediately or I will kill you!’
Cadence looked from Bran to Thom and back again. ‘Take me,’ she said so only Bran could hear. ‘I won’t struggle.’
With a minute nod of his head, Bran laughed. ‘You can’t kill me, Draugr, you aren’t powerful enough. I’m stronger than you. Don’t you wonder how I’ve been able to enter your sacred palace?’ Thom didn’t answer so Bran continued. ‘My powers have multiplied ten-fold since my return to Hel’s realm. I absorb more energy down there. It is to Hel’s realm I will take your new wife. You’ll have to make another Draugr wife to help you in your bid for a Draugr army!’
Thom’s and The Salloki Loyalists’ howls chased after them as Cadence let Bran toss her over shoulder and run superhumanly fast out of The Salloki palace.
* * *
Chapter Sixteen
‘You can put me down now.’ Cadence kneed Bran in the stomach. ‘I’m not an invalid, and I’ve had enough of your coat flapping in my face. It stinks.’
‘It’s not my coat that smells it’s you.’ Bran shrugged Cadence off his shoulder, glad to be rid of the weight. ‘You reek of eau de Draugr. You’re an undead, you will stink for eternity.’
‘Hey!’ Cadence protested, stumbling on the stony street in the abandoned Salloki town. ‘There’s no need to be so thoughtless!’
‘If I were thoughtless, I’d have left you to your fate in the Salloki palace. A thank you would be nice.’
Cadence smoothed down her unruly chestnut hair with her large, pale-blue hand. ‘Thanks.’
‘You don’t have to sound as if the word tore your gullet up on the way out. I did provide you with the opportunity to not follow the Draugr path by sending that dimwit physician to rescue you from the Draugr’s realm but you were so stubborn you followed Thom, no questions asked.’
Cadence, a whole head taller than Bran’s six-feet-four-inches, scowled. ‘I didn’t ask you to send Calix to rescue me. I didn’t need rescuing from the Draugr realm. I was right where I wanted to be...being made immortal!’
Bran arched his left eyebrow, the scar slicing through it and across his eye stretched, slightly pulling down his lower eyelid. ‘Immortality always comes at a price.’
‘Don’t I know it? Those sickos were going to drink my blood!’
‘And it isn’t over yet!’ Bran glanced over his shoulder. ‘We need to leave right now!’
Wails and shrieks bounced from the walls of the empty Salloki buildings as loyalists made their presence known. The childlike creature with the horns protruding from her cheeks led the advancing pack. The horns on the ridges of her arms glinted in the eerie light. Dark shadows—souls of dead Salloki Loyalists—writhed in the air above the living loyalists, who pounded the ground with hoof or foot.
‘Don’t just stand there, idiot!’ Bran tugged at Cadence’s arm. ‘They’ll know you wanted to escape and they’ll do worse things to you than drink a little of your blood!’
The stony ground shifted under Bran and Cadence’s feet as they sped towards the shadow gateway back to the human world. Bran lost his grip on Cadence’s arm, and he stumbled forwards, splaying his arms out to steady himself. The ground rumbled beneath him, sending vibrations through his body.
‘They’re trying to stop us from leaving!’ he shouted.
‘No kidding!’ Cadence skidded, abruptly changing direction as the pathway reared up from the ground, stretching in the shape of a horned, two legged creature. ‘What the hell are they doing?’
‘They must have a dark Sifar within their ranks who is controlling the stone!’
‘Dark Sifar?’
‘A Sifar, like you were before you turned Draugr,’ Bran amended. ‘But able to control not only natural things but dead, organic matter...what is this, a lesson in dark magic? We don’t have time for explanations!’
Parts of the rising pathway crumbled, raining sharp fragments atop Cadence and Bran’s heads. The horned, path creature grew taller, drawing up the pathway and sending the fleeing pair tumbling back towards the stampeding Salloki Loyalists. Its featureless face opened, creating a tunnel for a mouth and its gigantic, stony head shot down, threatening to encase Bran and Cadence in a darkened tunnel.
Bran blasted a stream of violet light into the path creature’s tunnel mouth, which ignited down the length, spitting out violent sparks on its descent. The creature swayed before crashing to the ground, shattering into yet more shards of stone.
A shard whizzed past Cadence’s ear, its sharp edge slicing away a section of her hair. Stunned, she froze until Bran elbowed her in the side.
‘Move it!’ he ordered, twisting out of the way before a shard the length of a javelin impaled between them both, forcing them apart.
‘You cannot escape us!’ The childlike creature with the horns charged at Cadence, butting her in the stomach with her head and knocking her over.
Cadence struggled for breath. ‘Go to hell!’
‘Been there, done that!’ The childlike creature kicked out, smartly booting Cadence in the stomach with the toe of her pointed boot.
Swiftly, Cadence grabbed the girl’s ankle and pulled her to the ground.
‘Let go!’ The girl kicked out with her other leg, catching Cadence in the mouth.
Cadence licked away a trickle of blue blood from the corner of her mouth. Smiling, she grabbed the girl’s free leg. Rising to her own feet, she held the scrawny creature upside down. ‘Why should I?’
Bran sighed. ‘Put the brat down, Cadence, we don’t have time for games!’
The girl screamed and lashed out, trying to gouge Cadence with her horns. ‘Thom was a fool to bring you into our midst, Draugr whore, you are not Salloki material. You are not good enough!’
Cadence, her arms longer than the other creature was tall, laughed. ‘No, I’m better.’ With a roar she swung the wailing childlike creature into the air and threw her into the legs of the oncoming loyalists.
‘You just had to, didn’t you?’ Bran blasted a bolt of light after the childlike creature. The loyalists scattered amid a fanfare of wails and screeches. The horns of the childlike creature tore through the legs of a giant cat, bringing them both to the ground in a tangle of fur, blood, and limbs. ‘Now you’ve really made them angry!’
‘It wasn’t just me, you didn’t have to fire at them!’ Cadence replied.
Eddiss’ voice cut through the shrieks and wails. ‘Bring me the necromancer alive!’
‘No!’ Bran released a stream of light balls, blasting the Salloki priest in the chest.
Eddiss tore off his purple cloak and tossed it to the ground just as the material was consumed by flames. Lowering his head, his raisin eyes narrowed into pinpricks. ‘Before now I never understood why Leader wanted you kept alive, if I had my way I would have destroyed you centuries ago!’
Bran blasted out another bolt of light and directed it straight at Eddiss’ head. ‘I never knew you were such a comedian, Eddiss. You’re far too puny to be a proper match for me!’
Violet flames engulfed Eddiss’ head and, screaming, he clawed at his face, and in turn inadvertently knocked into a robed figure beside him, spreading the flames.
‘Capture them both!’ Eddiss cried out, seizing the opportunity to use the robed figure to snuff out the flames on his head.
The robed figure pushed back at Eddiss, but the Salloki priest ignored the other Loyalist’s pain, using the figure’s robes until he was free of fire.
‘Eddisssssssssssssssss!’ hissed the robed figure, squirming beneath t
he burning folds of material. ‘I cursssss you!’
Eddiss tentatively touched his face, skin puckering beneath his fingertips. ‘Fool! We are all already cursed as it is! Quit faking pain and shake the flames off, you’re an old one for Loki’s sake, and flames cannot destroy you!’
The robed figure clawed at its neck with gnarled fingers. Violet flames raged silently from its head to feet. Without replying to Eddiss, the figure collapsed to the ground and was still.
Eddiss watched for a moment while the flames burned intensely, swallowing the robed figure and turning it into a pile of ash which floated up, twisted into a coil and shot into the ground. ‘Well, well.’ He chuckled. ‘I was wrong.’
Bran, fighting off a gaggle of wailing shadows, did not miss the look of evil satisfaction that flitted across the priest’s face at the demise of the old one. Having had enough, he raised his hands above his head, emitting forks of violet light, and simultaneously dropped to his knees, sending his lightning forks into the ground. The shadows’ wails rose into a crescendo of agony before the lightning shot up from the ground and split off, spearing through the centre of each and every shadow and tearing them all apart.
‘Stop them both!’ Eddiss ordered. ‘Spilia, Morteuis, Ezreem, bring down the Draugr bride!’
The giant, blood smeared cat slunk forward and hissed. At its side, a heavy set man with rippling muscles and a mouth filled with rows of pointed teeth, stepped forward. A growl rumbled from between his thin lips, and he flicked his head, bringing a long ponytail over his shoulder which wriggled at the ends with the heads of a dozen fanged reptiles. ‘Consider it done, Grand Priest. Ezreem and Spilia will hold her down and I will poison her immobile.’
‘I won’t hold her down, I’ll kill her!’ Spilia, the childlike horned creature struggled to her feet. ‘Look what she did to me!’ She held out her bloodied left arm, most of the horns along its ridge were torn from the bone beneath the flesh and hung on by a mere thread. Blood tracks veiled her arm and dripped from her fingertips as she pointed at Cadence. ‘You’ve made your last mistake, Draugr whore. Now I’m really angry!’
Cadence laughed. ‘You’re really angry? Come closer and I’ll show you how angry I am as I tear you apart piece by piece!’
‘Enough!’ Bran wrenched Cadence backwards. ‘We must leave.’
Cadence struggled in the necromancer’s hold. ‘We can take this bunch of inbreeds!’
Bran spied Thom approaching at the rear of the group of loyalists, with Aleinia in his shadow. ‘If you want to live, you will leave with me now.’ He lowered his voice. ‘You cannot let Thom know you are only half Draugr.’
Cadence curled her lip. ‘With my Sifar power I must be stronger than him, I will destroy him.’
‘You are not and you cannot. He is your creator.’ Bran jumped in front of Cadence a split second before Morteuis pounced before them and whipped his reptilian hair in attack. Bran deftly caught the length of hair in one hand and wrenched so hard he tore the ponytail from the roots. Morteuis and his reptilian heads, screamed.
Sinking to his knees, Morteuis clutched at his bloodied head and trembled, with each surge of blood from his wound he decreased in muscular size. ‘You have ruined me!’
Bran stretched the ponytail between both hands, taking care not to touch the fangs of the dying reptiles. ‘I have done more than ruin you, Viper, I have handed you a death sentence, albeit a slow one.’
With a hiss, Ezreem the giant cat pounced. Catching Bran off guard, he clawed Bran, slicing four deep claw marks into the side of his neck. Bran dropped Morteuis’ reptilian hair and struck back. Grabbing the cat’s throat he lifted the immense creature into the air with one hand.
‘Loyalists,’ he bellowed, ‘continue and I will destroy you all. I am growing tired of your punitive attacks; I could wipe you all out with a single blow!’
‘You’re lying!’ piped up a voice from within the group of loyalists.
‘Of course he is!’ shouted another. ‘If he weren’t then he would have killed us already!’
‘Kill him!’
Bran lifted the giant cat into the air, and then threw it to the stony ground. A sickening crunch of bones momentarily silenced the loyalists. They watched silently as blood pooled around the cat’s furry body.
‘Rip his head off!’ screamed a female voice, breaking the hush.
‘No!’ Thom, cloaked in a veil of smoke, strode to the front of the crowd, putting himself between the loyalists and Bran.
‘You’re not fit to be Leader!’ a reedy voice cried. ‘I say we destroy The Dark One once and for all, who’s with me?’
‘Me!’ cried several voices at once.
‘Fools!’ Aleinia shouted. ‘You cannot turn against Leader, we need The Dark One!’
‘We can turn against Leader, and we will!’
‘It’s about time we did. He does nothing for us apart from telling us what we can’t do!’
‘I agree. We are forbidden from leaving this dismal realm. I think we need a new leader who will give us our desires,’ spat the woman who had suggested ripping Bran’s head off.
The smoke surrounding Thom exploded, showering everyone in a foul, cold Draugr mist that clung to the skin. ‘You!’ He pointed to the woman. ‘How dare you disrespect me?’
The loyalists shifted uneasily, gradually moving aside until the woman stood isolated in their midst.
‘It’s true.’ The woman with skin of an alligator, glared defiantly at Thom. ‘I joined The Salloki as a young girl; I am old now and have spent too many years in this prison of a realm!’
‘You were never young, Crone.’ Thom reached the woman in the blink of an eye. His long, bony hand caressed the top of her head, smoothing down tendrils of wispy silver hair. ‘You were never able to control your insatiable appetite. If you were to walk the human world once more, you would be captured by their armies in no time. At the mere whiff of a human child’s flesh you lose your mind. Do you not recall how I rescued you?’
The woman struggled to nod underneath Thom’s large hand. ‘I remember.’
‘You were this close.’ Thom held out forefinger and thumb of his free hand. ‘To being captured by the humans in London city when I found you, a century and a half ago. If I had not spirited you away, you would have become nothing more than a science experiment.’
‘I remember,’ the woman whispered, clasping her hands to her concave chest. ‘The babes tasted so very delicious.’
Thom grabbed the old woman’s hair, yanking a fistful between bony fingers until her eyes watered. ‘You have always been sloppy, Crone. You terrorised the human streets, ripping open the stomachs of pregnant human women so you could feast on their unborn children. You are foolish and reckless, and still unable to obey commands. I should never have initiated you into The Salloki. It is time to correct my mistake.’ With an almighty tug he wrenched the woman’s head clean off her shoulders and brandished it in the air, strings of muscle and sinew, and streams of blood trailing from it. ‘Let this serve as a warning of what happens to those who dare defy me. You will all be free to leave this realm when we are strong in number, until then you will remain here. It is for your own protection. When we are many, we will be stronger together.’ He clicked his fingers at Aleinia. ‘Deal with the other traitors.’
Aleinia lowered the hood of her robe and nodded. Her curled fingernails clinked together as she gestured at two other robed figures. ‘Behead the traitors and spare them no pain.’
A crescendo of terrified cries obliterated all other sounds. Several loyalists broke into frenzied attempts to flee but Aleinia’s robed companions moved at lightning speed, tearing the heads from the turncoats with deadly precision, their long, curled nails razor sharp.
‘We must run, Cadence.’ Bran’s face was visibly paler than usual. He held a hand to the wounds on his neck but the pressure did little to allay the blood surging from the slices. ‘We must flee while they are distracted and I still have half my strength. You must
stay with me if you want to make it through the shadow gatekeepers back to the human world. Those shadow claws are a real pain-fest on the way in but they’re a zillion times worse when you’re trying to escape.’ He held out his hand. ‘However, I’m not called The Dark One for nothing. I can inflict pain on those dead claws as easily as they can on you. I am your only ticket out of here.’
Cadence looked at Bran’s hand, and then looked back at the loyalists and their leader, and put her hand into Bran’s. ‘Just make sure you’re not a return, one way only is fine with me.’
* * *
‘You will allow them to leave?’ Aleinia lifted her long robe and carefully stepped over a decapitated body of a fallen Loyalist to stand beside Thom. Although she was taller than the Draugr, her reed thin frame appeared frail compared to the strength of his.
‘I will reclaim my bride.’ Thom withdrew a handkerchief from the pocket of his tight, dark jeans and wiped the residue of blood from his hands. ‘The necromancer has only taken her to rile me.’
‘Did you know his touch was also needed to melt the blade between Vanagandr’s jaws?’
‘Until he spoke those very words I did not.’ Thom tossed the bloodied handkerchief on the floor.
A frown creased the papery skin of Aleinia’s forehead. ‘I had assumed you did know which is why you have never disposed of The Dark One.’
Thom did not answer.
‘Or is there some other reason why you want him kept alive? You are never as lenient with those who resist or oppose you.’
Thom rounded on Aleinia and grabbed a handful of the swathing, drab cloth covering her chest. ‘You know full well why I want him alive.’
Aleinia carefully prised Thom’s fingers from her robe and dusted herself down. ‘That kind of behaviour will not work on me, Thom. I am older and wiser than you. I know you want the necromancer because you believe he is the only one capable of bringing Kaelia into The Salloki fold. I do believe you really did not know about the blade and the necromancer’s touch, yet I do not think you have been sharing the whole story.’
Mortiswood: Kaelia Falling (Mortiswood Tales Book 2) Page 14