by Anton Le Roy
Chapter 15
Tolvik is pinned. With the assistance of those shadow tendrils he heaves at the lifeless bulk of the Vamonkey, desperate to shift it off his trapped legs. His dual swords are trapped too, wedged into the monsters chest up to the hilts. His sides have been torn by claws: armour is dented, leathers torn and fastenings popped. Leaking from somewhere within is thick dark blood, almost invisible against the dark grey garments if not for the wet sheen caused. His complexion is already grey from the loss of blood. As I stand over him he pauses in his struggle and collapses back, momentarily defeated and a wind picks at his short pale hair because his head is hanging over the edge. I have to admit, the sight of him helpless and injured like this is very satisfying – shame I don’t have long to gloat.
His cold eyes glimmer within a wry expression. “Come to finish me off?”
Wary of those black tentacles I lean onto the Vamonkey with one foot. The body shifts against the damaged wall that’s stopping it from tumbling over into nothingness. Dust and small pebbles trinkle from the cracks in the wall. If the Vamonkey goes then Tolvik does too. He tenses slightly, aware of the danger. To be honest I could do it accidentally because my head is still hurting and it feels like the ground is the deck of a ship on a choppy sea. Need to concentrate, make sure I’m not clumsy enough to fall along with them! “Remember what I said about the death of arrogant men?” I ask sarcastically.
An odd little chuckle at that. “I would have bested you all if not for the intervention of this beast. That was not your doing.”
“I take my luck where I can find it.”
There are more howls from nearby: the rest of the pack is almost upon us. Up on their feet the Twins face the noise, getting ready for another fight. Glad they’re okay.
“Vet,” scowls Gregor, pale and hunched over his injury as blood pools about one foot, “We gotta leave, now.”
“You’d best heed your friend’s warning,” Tolvik sighs, eyes searching for a sign of danger.
“First, you’re going to tell me all about Satipo.”
“My decision on that hasn’t changed because of this new situation and there’s nothing more I can say on the matter.”
Anger bubbles within and now it’s my turn to stick a blade under his chin. “Tell me!”
There is only cool consideration from the man. “I wonder, will you push me to my death or will you take my head instead? It matters not. I’m prepared to die for my beliefs. Are you, Veteran?”
A brief tug at my collar and my name hissed into my blood soaked ear. Gregor. He starts to leg it and the girls have decided to join him. Best I do likewise.
“I will find him,” I say, walking backwards from the scene.
“Perhaps, yet you’ll not stop him. Nor will you ever stop the Newborn.”
“Get it through your thick head: I don’t care about your Newborn!”
“More fool you.”
I back away to the sound of thunder from pounding feet, while a deep throaty howl judders the bones. I can almost taste their anger, can almost smell the impending violence if we do not get out of here fast enough!
Tolvik calls after us as he once again pushes at the Vamonkey. “Are you ready for your day of reckoning, Veteran? I am!”
At that the first of the Vamonkeys bound into view, their concentration fully on the priest. As they swarm Tolvik I glimpse his tentacles obliterating the wall behind him. The dead Vamonkey finally slides over the edge and inevitably Tolvik does too. Enthusiasm causes two charging Vamonkeys to follow with a surprised wail. Meanwhile the female Newborn is still alive and isn’t even back up on her feet before two beasts grab her from either end and wrench her body into bloody halves. Her scream is short. The other two Newborn bodies are stamped on and pounded in a wild fury and then jaws clamp down onto flesh as they begin to feed.
I’m already running at full pelt by now. Well, by full pelt, I mean as quickly as my dazed head and tired legs will allow an older man like me to run. Gregor is slow too, hindered by his wound. To be honest though, he’s a big lad and he’s never been the fastest anyway. Neither of us are as quick as the sprightly Twins who are a good few yards ahead of us. My head pounds just as loud as the Vamonkeys while the borders of my vision begins to fizz a little.
Back the way we came. Through the snow. Through the gardens. They’re chasing us now, uncaring who we are, furious at failing to protect that armour and about their dead kin. And all that rage has only one place to go. Us. Maybe they’re simply hungry too.
They’re right behind us, on the walls above and dropping down all around. One beast appears in front of the Twins and then four blades appear and disappear in a flash and the creature is stumbling back in momentary surprise. It gives us all enough time use the entrance to the palace again and disappear into the gloom.
Once inside, their echoing howls sound even more terrible. A Vamonkey eagerly rushes from the gloom, slips on ice and crashes into a statue, both rolling to the floor close enough that I must leap over the debris. A paw almost swats me from the air like a cat snatching a bird. We’re nearly there! Bursting outside again. Back over the bridge, down the steps and onto our horses. They need little encouragement to flee.
We’re galloping madly down the main street before we realise that the clouds have broken and the sun is out again and the Vamonkeys no longer give chase, so we slow to a canter until we’re outside of the city gates, the distant howls of the Vamonkeys reaffirming their territory. They’re welcome to it.
Chapter 16
A day of reckoning, Tolvik had said, and I can feel it waiting just beyond the horizon. Ever since we, sorry I, decided to search for Satipo I’ve set things in motion. Yes, my path is fixed now, that much is clear, and there’s no undoing that. Gregor sees it too, however much he moans. An approaching tidal wave of an event due to change us forever. Thing is, I suspect that the wheels started turning long before Almaz, maybe even from day one: the first day I ever drew breath in this world. Destiny awaits us. It awaits us all.
I once knew a scholar who believed in unlimited parallel universes, each created by decisions we otherwise may have made. Dunno if I believe in that. My personality dictates my decisions. I could quite easily have made different choices in the past and yet I didn’t because my character at the time would always do the same. Same for everyone else. Therefore there’s barely any opportunity for a parallel universe to be created. From the minute we are born we are set on one course alone, despite interference from other persons. I guess that means I believe in destiny, that the future is set in stone just as history is, that we all will only have one final result at the end of our life, whatever it may be, and that day of destiny will finally intervene with our path like a slowly intercepting comet, striking us down for good. It’s inevitable. Depressing? I think not. I find the notion that there are is an unlimited number of Veterans in endless parallel universes having a better time of life than me much more depressing.
Now, where next will my road of destiny take me? Broken Naile of course. It hadn’t been hard obtaining a route map from a local denizen and I’ve added it to Tolvik’s scroll tube that contains Princess Icromm’s letter and the map to Almaz. We’re really close to reaching our goal, I know it. Can feel it. I’m willing to wager that Satipo is in Broken Naile and if he is there, now he knows we’re coming, he’ll wait for us. I’m sure of it.
“We’re supposed to be using this gold for fun stuff,” grumbles Gregor as he appears through the doorway of a small and elegant Temple of Healing.
Looks a lot better than he did yesterday when he was bleeding out. Now that wound is stitched up and he’s already rehabilitated well beyond anything that just ointments and potions could do in such short a time. Magic does have its good side sometimes. Gregor was lucky today, any worse and he would’ve had to have stayed at the Temple for the duration of his recuperation and on-going treatment. Could have been days, or more. My own head wound has also been mended and even the thumping headache c
leansed. Had a nice warm bed for the night plus a good wash and hair trim and I’m feeling pretty good at the moment.
We seem to end up in this sort of place more and more often these days, giving all our gold to skilled shamans to repair us with their healing spells alongside good old fashioned needle and thread. Sometimes we ask for full body regenerative treatment too, in order to partially fade the aches and pains accumulated over time. Did that last night. This doesn’t last for long though because it’s only a temporary boost, so I bought some extra Redleaf anyway, just for later on the road.
Unfortunately these healers can’t perform miracles. Can’t stop the aging process and the degeneration of joints and the like, well, not the healers I’ve seen anyway. And these services don’t come cheap, most people of our standing couldn’t afford it and would have to see a physician of dubious skill, which is why we sometimes spend a good percentage of our pay on getting magically patched up after a big contract. Fortunately, we’ve never been that bad that we cannot be healed at least in some sort of capacity.
My time with the shamans had been a blessing. I finally feel fully refreshed after our stint with Blackwater Company. The shaman who treated me had advised a week of rest or risk burning out again. Obviously I can’t do that. Probably told Gregor he needed a couple of weeks rest. Obviously we can’t do that either and Gregor wouldn’t want to regardless.
“Maybe you should fight better, Gregor. That way you’ll not get hurt,” I quip, leaning against the wall of a terrace overlooking the main square in the city of Haer. It’s a nice day, despite the chill, and people are milling about the great markets. Haer is a wealthy Ellen town, a stark contrast to the squalor and poverty witnessed back in Eiseggar and it’s warmer too, with much less snow on show. Spring is definitely coming. In the distance, within the flare of a morning sun, we can see the frozen city of Almaz sitting high up in the mountains, straddling the great waterfall. Doesn’t look as deadly from down here.
“You taking the piss, Vet?” Gregor barks, making an old man who was sitting peacefully on a bench nearby jump out of his skin. “You’re the clout who fell in my way and got me hurt in the first place!”
I shrug, “You know what Goudo would have said to that?”
“Bah!” huffs Gregor, “Goudo was a prick!” The pleasant old man has had enough. He gets off the bench with a frown and a mutter as he leaves to get some peace.
“Goudo was usually right though.”
“He was a know it all prick, then!”
I chuckle at that.
Goudo, our old training master in the army. I wonder what happened to that old git? Still clearly remember all the trials he put us through. Damned near killed us sometimes. Wouldn’t be the man I am today without his invaluable teachings though. Hell, I probably would’ve been killed for real.
Gregor stands beside me against the wall. “I suppose we ain’t gonna be hanging around to sample the delights of the city?”
I shake my head.
Gregor resembles a sulking boy. “This quest gets worse by the day! Have you seen the whorehouses we passed in this city? Some really classy places.”
“Aye, I noticed.”
His eyes twinkle. “I can just imagine the beauties they got waiting for us in there… ready and willing.”
I don’t think we can dally. “We need to keep moving.”
“Even just one night…”
“One night would turn in to three. Then it might as well just be a week. Then you’d barely have any coin left.”
“Would’ve had a damned sight more coin if we’d not been battling in sieges and fighting demented priests!” He’s just moaning for moaning sake. To make a point. I know for a fact he was like a happy pig in shit when we were in that siege and fighting in Almaz.
I give him a sideways look. “We always get into a fight one way or the other.”
He laughs at that as we lean there, watching the world go by. A world we sometimes don’t seem to fit into properly.
A bit more perked up he juts his chin towards Almaz. “Those Newborn… How many times have we met fanatics babbling on about the end of the world?”
Too many times. “Their religion doesn’t concern me.”
Gregor starts stretching his torso in different ways to see how it feels. His flexibility is unaffected. Not that it was great to begin with! “The fanatics concern you though.”
“Aye.”
“As they should. If there’s more like Tolvik and Vim waiting with Satipo…”
“Then we’ll just have to knock on his door a little bit harder.”
“Easier said than done. And you’ve also seen the magical artefacts they’re collecting along the way?”
What is this? Gregor wouldn’t ever step away from a challenge. I turn to him. “You’re trying to change my mind again.”
“Because I still think this is a fool’s quest.”
“I’m not forcing you to come with me.”
“I’m a free man, right? Ha!” A roll of his eyes.
Neither of us are free. We’re both stuck, unable to escape our path. This is the life we made for ourselves decades ago and there is no going back. He doesn’t wholly follow me out of loyalty, nor does he follow me out of curiosity. He follows because I’m able to take him where he wants to go: to the next fight; to the next adventure; to the next pot of gold. He needs to follow me. Just like I use him, he in turn uses me and thus we are trapped together even if we wished it not so.
Gregor stops his exercises, happy with how he moves. “After Awt and hearing Satipo talk to the priests it’s clear he doesn’t want to see us anyway. He’d rather see us dead.”
“Knew that already. Doesn’t change anything.”
“Maybe not for you, Vet.”
I understand, old friend. Hearing Satipo saying it in person doesn’t really change anything though, all it does is remove that ounce of hope that it’s not true. Despite this I still can’t give up hope. I need to try and speak to Satipo, try to fix things between us and if I can fix us then maybe I can fix Satipo himself, and if I do that then maybe I can fix the past. Maybe I can fix myself.
Gregor huffs. “Satipo’s just as crazy as the rest of them. You’d have to be, wouldn’t you? To lead people like Tolvik and Vim?”
“Or he’s simply very good at controlling people.” To an extent, he was good at controlling us when we were young and impressionable. An image in my mind of us three standing amongst men, women and children we’d slaughtered while making a blood oath. Friends until death.
“Hmph,” is all Gregor can say. “Was weird seeing him again.”
“I know.”
We don’t say any more on that, just continue leaning there against the wall watching the world some more, until he says, “You think Tolvik survived the fall?”
Me, “I hope so. Then we get to kill him a second time!”
“Aye to that, Vet! The kids did well laying into Vim. Glad they showed up.”
Definitely.
We’re on our own again. The Twins were a bit bruised from Tolvik’s attacks, nothing bad that needed healing. Hell, they’re young enough, they’ll shrug it off anyway. We’d parted ways just outside of Almaz – understandably there was no way they were going to join us in Haer, what with a war going on! We had no way to thank the girls and I think they were okay with that. Our goodbyes were sudden and quick after briefly dismounting. Smiles and surprise hugs from them both and then they were disappearing into the forest to return back to their people. I didn’t fear for their journey back. They’d be okay, well, until Capt sees them again and gives them a good rollicking and the crappiest duties he can think of.
Gregor gives me a sideways look. “What they said about the Coyote speaking to them…”
I shrug. “You know as much as I do.”
“Because you ain’t one to keep stuff to yourself, of course,” he sarcastically drawls. “A lot goes on in that potato head of yours that I never know about.”
F
air enough, can’t argue with that. I deflect that line of discussion with, “All I know is that it’s following us.” Or is it nudging us in the right direction? I never thought of that. “If what I sometimes see is real anyway.”
“Another ghost, eh?”
I ignore that comment too. “Let’s go.”
“To Broken Naile?” asks Gregor.
“No,” I reply. “Not yet. First, breakfast.”
Gregor moans in appreciation. “I like that plan!”
Chapter 17
Before.
Soft skin beneath my hands, cool to the touch in the chill night air. Goosebumps. Wetlock’s naked form arced up beneath me. Her hushed, quick breath in my ear, her limbs wrapped around me like vines and her sweet lips fizzing upon my flesh. I fell deeper into this world of pleasure. I fell deeper into her and we were as one. The world outside our bubble was non-existent. Time was irrelevant. There were no troubles. There were no fears. There were no boundaries. We two had merged like metals, forged in a fire of passion to emerge as strong as any blade.