by Anton Le Roy
“Now you're waffling,” I sigh, “Like a madman.”
That irritates him. “Can’t ya see I’m on the verge of greatness?”
“Oh I can see what you’re on the verge of. At this point you’re like all the other maniacs I’ve killed before – oblivious to just how far you’re going to fall. It’s really going to hurt when you land in the steaming pile of shit that used to be your grand plan.” Just because I’m here to try and make peace it doesn’t mean I have to take his shit.
Satipo laughs as he stands up again, “Wise, wise, Veteran. Veteran is never wrong. We always gotta trust his instincts.” Anger suddenly floods his face, “Arrogant shit! When ya witness what Umbra does to this world it’ll be ya doing the falling.”
Difference is, I don’t have far to reach the bottom.
The young lad who taught me how to skip stones, who I shared jokes with, who stood by my side as friend and comrade, now grabs the bars with both deformed hands, his deformed face contorted with such rage that he resembles a furious demon. “With Umbra we’ll change everything,” he spits, “The weakest shall fall and the strongest will rule!”
“Umbra’s nothing more than a wisp right now. Do you and your other insane family of fools really think you can turn her into a fully-fledged goddess?”
“Aye, we finally got strong enough to call her down and in a couple nights time she’ll arrive. The moment she steps upon the world her power will be infinite.”
“And you will have your immortality.”
A wild grin beneath crazed eyes. “Aye. She’ll grant me anything I desire.”
Immortal youth. In body only he will once again become the young man I once knew while his twisted mind will remain the same. Who’d have thought that all those years ago, that dreadful day would eventually lead to this. Who’d have thought my best friend would become my enemy? All this madness is my fault!
He grins. “Wanna know the really funny thing?” He pulls Loktie’s pipe from his pocket. “This holds enough power to finally bring Umbra to us. This’ll help destroy all and ya gave it to me. By ya hand this world will fall!”
The final hammer blow shatters my mind into a million pieces. There I was on that mountain, handing over the pipe, knowing that it was the wrong thing to do. Killing a god for money and handing over a magical artefact of such significant magnitude to people I knew would use it for nefarious means. Aye, this is on me all right.
I crawl towards him on my hands and knees until I get to the bars separating us. “I came to make peace. I came to save us both… Please, Satipo! Stop this madness!”
“And why would I do that, Vet? Because we’re old mates?”
“We’re so much more than that! Me, you and Gregor… We vowed to be brothers till the end!”
He sneers down at me and while his voice is level it’s also laced with a tremor of fury. “Why can’t I get it through ya thick skull? I hate ya, Vet. I hate everything about ya! I wanna destroy ya. Wanna cause ya agony and suffering. Want ya in the dirt begging for forgiveness and I’ll tell ya again and again that I ain’t never gonna forgive ya and it’ll break ya. Ya’ll learn pain, just as I did, when ya ruined everything and left me to die.”
I reach out a hand through the bars, “Please, Satipo, let me save you. Maybe, if you take my life, you won’t need to do this!”
He watches me in disgust. “I can no sooner turn away from this than I can ever forgive ya.” And I know that is true. His path is set and he will never be able to step away from it, just like me and my own path. He takes the torch and backs away from the cell and composes himself. “Going now. Gonna get everything right for Umbra.” He kicks at the bars and they thrum on impact. “Ya won’t be waiting much longer in here, Vet. Don’t worry, we’ll come back for ya in time for the ceremony and ya’ll get to see the end of all things. Then maybe ya’ll watch me cut Wetlock’s throat. Or maybe we’ll just burn the witch. Or maybe Umbra would like a play with her.”
“No!”
Satipo sneers as he turns and leaves, sending me into darkness. “How does it feel to fail, Vet?” he calls out.
It feels like shit.
My head rests on the cold, damp floor and tears sting my weary eyes.
Chapter 24
A second night spent in here and the cell is crowded. They’re all pushing against me and staring down at me. Most of them rotten and disfigured from decay, as if they’ve just hauled themselves out of whatever grave they inhabited. Many of them still wearing the wounds that killed them. I see blade thrusts and slashes and broken arrow shafts jutting here and there. One person even cradles their guts in their arms like a sleeping baby. Whistle, Rum and Link are here, all mangled up, crispy and black from the explosion. Other old friends join them and also many others that died when the Six fell: a whole damn army of them all! Then other comrades from more recent times. Then many more figures from the past who are not friends: people I killed, innocents I murdered and enemies I faced – have I really slain that many? Then there are the citizens of Awl. And finally, people I have never known, never met, never had anything to do with. Where do they all come from? Why are they in such abundance? Suffocating me with their numbers. I cannot look! I cannot breathe! My heart is hammering and my skin is clammy. Squishing myself into a little ball with my head in my arms until I cannot see them.
“Leave me alone!” I scream. “Please! Go away!”
Why do they torment me? Why do they drive me insane? Words coming from dead lips in such a vast quantity that I cannot fathom what they mean, cannot decipher anything from the onslaught of noise. Trying to block my ears doesn’t work because they’re in my head. Constant murmurs, screams and shouts. I feel every single one of them and I know without counting there are several thousand lost souls here with me. Drowning me. Leaving me as a gibbering wreck.
“I’m sorry!” I wail, looking up at my old friends and then my gaze shifting to a child with her head half caved in – I cannot remember if I was the one who killed her or not and that truth tips me further over the maddening edge. I’m clawing at my own face, almost digging out my own eyeballs. “I’m sorry!”
They cannot answer beyond the clamor of voices.
And then the ghosts turn their heads as someone approaches. They part to reveal a figure beyond the bars. Even in the gloom I recognise him by his body shape and weapons.
Gregor.
The big man steps forward and apart from a strange red hue to his eyes he’s just as I remember.
“Have you come to take me to hell?” I utter, wide eyed and slack jawed. “I will not fight you, for I deserve it.”
Gregor speaks and I can hear him properly. There is bitterness in his voice. “You left me behind.”
“I couldn’t find you… and now you’ve come to join all the other ghosts.”
“They’re here?”
I wave a hand to gesture behind me. “Aye, they’re all in here, thousands of them. Friends and enemies. Innocents. There’s even faces unknown to me. Can’t you see them?” Sagging against a wall I begin to weep. “Feel so tired, Gregor.” Funny thing is, you could say I’m one of them, just a mere reflection of the past, of the man I once was.
Silence for a while as he stands there staring at me. Then, “Someone’s coming,” and then he’s gone.
Torchlight. The Reeve. I pay the man little attention as he inspects the cell. I duck my head down. Is that fear I feel? Is that why I don’t want to antagonise him, why I avert my gaze? Coward!
“Thought I heard you speaking,” he growls, “Talking to the rats, old man?”
A voice from behind him. “No, he was speaking to me.”
Gregor slams the Reeve’s head into the bars once, twice and then a third time as blood splatters from his ruined face. He tries to retaliate until Gregor hammers a fist into his lower back causing the Reeve to bend backwards with an awful cracking sound, enabling Gregor to loop his arm over and around the Reeve’s head. With his face in an armpit and the rest of his body po
inting away from Gregor the Reeve is lifted off the ground by just his head. Gregor brings the Reeve down onto his knee and there is a sickening snap and pop as the neck breaks beyond Gregor’s knee, the spine and jugular punching up through the neck in a horrific spray of blood. Gregor watches the blood pumping with hungry eyes while the Reeve twitches. A lick of lips.
“Gregor!” I yell, coming to my senses and suddenly understanding what’s happening, “No! Don’t do it!”
Like it takes all his willpower my friend closes his eyes and drops the body. “I know, Vet.” He shudders for a moment and then it passes.
A jangle of keys from the Reeve’s belt and then the cell door is open and I can escape the ghouls. We grab each other’s wrist in a warrior’s greeting and he helps me onto my unsteady feet. Stepping over the Reeve I cannot believe how easily Gregor took him down.
In the corridor I gaze in wonder at my old friend and struggle to fight the lump in my throat. “Gregor… I thought you died!”
“I did.” He hands me my weapons with a wry grin and then slaps a hand to my shoulder. “And now I’m back!”
Chapter 25
Following Gregor out of the dungeons there are a couple of fresh bodies on the way: Gregor’s work. A sideways glance at my old friend as I glug water from a canteen and then chew on a piece of Redleaf. There’s something clearly different about him now with the way he moves and the way his eyes hint at something terrible inside. I know what it is, just got to hope he can contain it; that urge for blood.
“You needn’t worry, Vet,” he growls, “I’m nothing like those creatures from Almaz. I ain’t like a human vampire either. It’s like I’m somewhere between man and… bloodsucker.”
Because you haven’t taken that first drink that leads to evil. It will be a battle of wills to fend off the desire now torturing his body and mind. By the gods you’re a strong bastard, or maybe just a stubborn bastard.
He gives me a smirk. “I won’t ever become like them neither.”
Good, I hope not. He tells me how he awoke further downstream realising he should’ve been dead, that he should’ve bled out from his torn throat and also the impact of the fall onto the rocks should’ve shattered his body. Maybe both happened, except the blood of the Vamonkey had splashed into his mouth and healed these wounds, changed him. Gregor finished off the creature that fell with him and then he headed for Broken Naile.
“Satipo was here,” I say.
He nods. “Gone,” he replies, “Through that.”
We’re in the hall again, now brightened by dusty daylight and he’s pointing to the archaic symbols on the floor used to summon Umbra. There are three Newborn bodies sprawled across the area and Gregor tells me they came through a portal here, which means it must double up as a teleportation circle like that used by Vim back in Almaz. This will open a doorway back to the Princess’s palace where they’ll call Umbra down from the heavens and maybe these guys were coming to collect me to watch the end, just like Satipo wanted. I was in that cell for a while, whatever ceremony they’ll perform is tonight. If we can get this to somehow work then maybe we can stop it and make amends.
Make amends. That’s what I have to do. What we have to do. We gave Satipo the pipe. We gave him the opportunity to bring that bitch down and destroy the world. Now it’s up to us to stop Satipo, to put things right, and maybe I can still save him along the way.
“You saw Satipo?” I ask.
He nods. “Briefly. Not to talk to.”
“As far as he’s concerned, what was there before between us, as Red Dog brothers, is now gone. There’s nothing there. We’re his enemy. I tried to convince him, but you were right, he isn’t interested in peace or forgiveness.”
“Aye. Wetlock filled me in on everything, Vet, including what her crow heard of your chat with Satipo.” He raises an eyebrow. He knows what bargain I tried to broker with Satipo. Wetlock knows too. I’ll ignore that issue for now.
“You saw Wetlock…”
“Aye. After I killed the Newborn holding her prisoner in her own home.”
My turn to put a hand to his shoulder. “Thanks, old friend.”
He scowls down at me. “Soppy sod.”
I chuckle at that. “She’s okay?”
A nod. “Ok? I’ll say. By the Gods, what a woman she is! If you don’t come back and see her when all this is over I’m gonna beat the crap out of you till you do.”
“Fancy me in a fair fight, do you?”
He grins. “Who said anything about fair?”
We stand there for a bit, just enjoying each other’s company before we have to do what needs to be done.
I look back the way we came and can see, quite clearly, the spirits all packed in the doorway staring at me. I pull my gaze from theirs. Then I say, “He broke me in there.”
Those strange eyes of his lock onto mine. “Aye, I saw that. Look, Vet… that day… that bloody awful fucking day… We’d all go back and do things differently.”
I nod.
“You know I never blamed you for any of it. Most of us didn’t.”
“I know.”
“I don’t think you do. So you made a couple of mistakes? So what? Every soldier does, Vet. The world already turned to shit that day and what went down wasn’t by your hand. We all tried the best we could, you tried the best you could, and that’s all that matters, Vet. Those other times too, when we did things that weren’t right, we did what we had to do. We were just kids in the middle of wars. And Satipo? Well, what happened to him was just an accident and he’s a lousy fucker to still hold onto this grudge of his.”
Thank you. “There’s little hope left of saving Satipo. Anger has consumed him.”
“And guilt has consumed you.”
“He wants us all to feel his pain.”
“And you need to let go of yours.”
I chuckle again. “Did that creature infect you with something else or did the fall knock some sense into you?”
He barks a laugh. “I’ve pretty much been saying this for years but you never listen.”
No, I don’t. Maybe it’s time that I did. “Loktie’s pipe…”
“Aye, I know.”
“I saw what their Goddess can do. She’ll destroy everything. We have to stop him.” We have to make amends.
“Aye. And if the only way to stop him is to kill him?”
I don’t know how to answer that one. I know what I should say… I just can’t say it.
Gregor huffs and then gestures towards the exit. “Come, I want you to see something else.”
Through a few corridors and we’re out in the sandy courtyard. The late afternoon sun is low and dazzling and doesn’t appear to affect Gregor. Again the ghosts have followed and crowd the doorway into the building. Even though thousands of apparitions can’t possibly all fit in such a small space I get the sense they’re all there anyway. I can feel every one of them. Getting the sense they won’t ever be free from my sight now, I try to ignore them as best I can. More fresh Newborn bodies litter the ground and it’s who stands over them that surprises me the most: Blackwater Platoon. The Captain, Lt Jones, Gurny, Razor, Thumbs, Siek, the Twins and a collection of over twenty other soldiers no doubt recruited into the company.
“By Ganer’s holiest balls, it’s nice to see you boys again,” grins Capt as he turns towards us. “Someone said there was a fight to be had?”
Standing there looking at Wetlock’s building and wondering if Daida can see me.
“Then we sacked the great city of Haer,” continues Capt, chewing on a reed. “Just like that. It was like there was no stopping Eiseggar’s first major victory from happening. My lads did good. You should be glad you weren’t there though because once our army got inside things got real ugly real damn quick. Centuries of pent up aggression against the Ellen released in a single night. Nasty stuff. Really nasty…” He scrunches up his nose and shakes his head. “We left them to it.”
Seen that happen before with even decent men f
illed with bloodlust. Haer is defeated and possibly destroyed? Not too long ago we were there recuperating and preparing for the next leg of our journey. Who’d of thought it, eh? Eiseggar’s tin pot army against the Ellen might. How far Eiseggar has come. Their resurgence is building and building like a falling stone soon becoming a landslide. Just how far will they go, I wonder?
He sighs happily though. “I can’t believe how quickly things changed since you lads were with us. I tell you what, that day we held Dead Man’s, we ignited something and the fire’s spreading through all of Eiseggar. Everyone’s strengthening their hearts and minds.” His eyes sparkle with pride. “We’re gonna defeat Ellen, I can feel it. We all can. Maybe without you two boys there it would never have happened.”
I almost smile at that. Without taking my eyes off the building I respond with, “And then, after Haer, the dreams came, the ones you told me about?”
He rests his hands on the belt circling his proud belly – I thought he’d have lost some of that bulk by now. “Aye, that’s right, Veteran. A damned Coyote. It showed us some crazy things and somehow we all understood. Thought we were going mad at first until the Twins explained some things and it all seemed to fit. I told you we’d always be ready to fight with you boys again. We’re family now.” Family; just like the Red Dogs. I can’t not smile at that while the Capt adds, “In the end we knew we had to come. In the end we knew it would bring us. And it damn well did.”
And here they are ready to lay down their lives to stop an enemy they have never even met. They wear no colours or symbols of Eiseggar because today they’re here as warriors fighting for nothing other than righteousness. If not for that day at Dead Man’s Drop they would never be here to help, they would never willingly risk their lives for this. Funny how everything can end up connecting in the end.
“You’ve boosted your ranks,” I say.
“Aye,” replies Capt, “Blackwater is famous now and everyone was clamouring to join. The newbies here are so excited to fight with you they’re almost pissing in their pants.”