Dead Man's Hand_The Knights of the Golden Dragon_Book 2

by Troy Reaves

  Boremac, who had moved to the base of the dais, grinned at Dena’s ready dismissal of Rinoba’s attempt to alter their agreement. He assumed that the unlikely pair of rogue and sister had entered into a blood bond when creating the terms of their agreement. The mingling of the blood in the handshake that sealed a blood bonding created the only honored pact among those who favored the shadows. The rules set with a blood bond could not be broken without mutual willing consent of all parties. The bonded were not necessarily forbidden for setting verbal, or even physical, traps to get whatever they wanted from the bonding and release them from the pact, but direct attacks or breaking a blood bond had only one consequence. The offender was hunted down by all rogues, even independents, and their head delivered to Alchendia’s Path once they were found. It was not a thing the shadow dwellers entered into lightly.

  Boremac turned from the other two and went to keep an eye on the entry to the throne room. It occurred to him that although the King’s corpse was sealed in well enough not to be troubled by the ooze, judging by the fact that food had rotted and even the clothing of the patriarch had remained undamaged, the well-constructed doors that had prevented its feeding were now wide open. Boremac felt a surge of dismay, mingled with fear, as his eyes came to rest on the channel that the doors had exposed as they recessed into the walls. It glimmered as if it was filled to overflowing with water. “You two may want to finish your discussion later. It appears we have company.” Boremac gestured to the door as Dena and Rinoba turned to look at him.

  Dena ripped the head of the dead King from his bony shoulders and began moving down the dias but Rinoba was too quick for her. Three long steps brought him to the base of the steps, the King’s crown already in his hand, as he snatched his prize from the sister on his descent. She cried out in alarm, “No, stop!” Rinoba never even slowed as he ran across the vast room, building speed to leap over the creature.

  Rinoba made his attempt a moment later and, to his credit, the self-serving Prince of Thieves almost made it. He would have been half way up the wall toward making his escape with the crown except for one small problem. The ooze had other plans and more flexibility than it had chosen to demonstrate until now, though the bones of the bats they had found should have been a clue. A large appendage snatched Rinoba from the air, attaching itself to his boots. He was saved immediate knowledge of the creature’s digestive inner workings only by his momentum. The newly formed appendages elongated as Rinoba fell on his face some distance away from the outside of the door. Boremac spoke even as Rinoba clawed away from the creature’s extending arms reached for him. “This is so not good.”

  He never saw Dena preparing the small explosive in her hand as she followed quickly behind him, but he trusted her enough to do what she said when she shouted out. “Get down, you stupid bastard!” Boremac was not completely sure who she was speaking to but he hit the ground well away from the ooze, noting that Rinoba pressed himself to the hard cold platform where he had landed, in spite of the melting boots on his feet and the creature’s apparent focus on engulfing the rest of him. The glob shimmered with the glow of the wick as it passed cleanly over Boremac’s head and landed neatly in the newly formed center of the ooze pool slowly inching closer to Rinoba.

  Boremac noted with a questioning turn of his lips that it appeared her device had failed to do whatever she had intended. “Well, that went well. What is your next plan, sister?”

  Her actions said as much as her answer. She dove to a prone position and shouted affirmation that this was not over yet. “Down!”

  Boremac had just enough time to see that Dena was covering her head with her arms and had formed a protective shell with the pack on her back before her bomblet exploded. The ooze went everywhere. Rinoba crawled away from the remains that still clung to his boots, discarding them in the process and hurriedly brushing the bits of the foul creature off of his leathers as Boremac and Dena did the same.

  Even as Boremac and Dena joined Rinoba, the Prince seemed moved by his arrogance to chastise his savior. “What in the name of the God you serve were you trying to do? You almost killed me! Are all Death bringers so inclined or are you singular among your order!” He kicked one of his hardened leather boots over the edge of the outer entryway where they stood. Boremac noticed the leather was already melted in places and malformed where it was not already dissolving. He could not think of a more horrible way to die, no matter how hard his spinning mind tried.

  Dena’s reply chilled Boremac to the bone despite her usually light tone. “No time! Move! Go up! Hurry!” It was an order, plain and simple, and one he planned to make speed following to the letter.

  Dena did not stop moving until the trio had made three long leaps into the upper region of the castle, well away from the throne room below. She allowed only a moment to gather her wind and allow the rogues to join her before unleashing fury on Rinoba. “Greedy, stupid, fool!” Each word was like a hammer blow and Boremac was glad he was not on the receiving end. “I had planned to stun it if necessary before we made our way out of the throne room! You really thought that was a stroke of brilliance?!? I, Rinoba, Prince of thieves, master of sly plots, will make away with the crown of the cruelest King of all time! Well, how did that work out for you, Rinoba? A thought for you to consider next time, and I am certain there will be a next time, you turn on your partners. You may want to weigh your chances of survival alone a bit better! Look!” She leaned over the edge of the stone column they now stood on to illuminate the area in front of the throne room entry. Already a glimmering pool, much smaller but no less visible for that, had formed. Even as they watched more bits of the ooze flowed into the main body, its dimensions increasing to regain its former size soon.

  Rinoba said two words that were weighted with new understanding of his own mortality. “Unholy bane.” Despite the fact that the words referred to the ooze, they sounded like they would be more comfortable on a cleric’s lips at sermon than coming from Rinoba.

  Dena corrected him almost immediately. “The thing is neither holy nor unholy, it simply is. The rupturing of the earth below this massive structure probably opened the fissure that allowed it to climb closer to the surface, closer than nature ever intended. An ample food source created the giant ooze we now see. I cannot think they ever grow to this size, wherever it came from, by feeding on blind grubs and mosses. Someone would have noted their existence by now, I am sure.”

  “Someone should post a warning. I hate to think that thing might grow enough to find its way out into the forest.” Boremac shuddered openly at the implications of his statement.

  Dena looked at him, considering her words for a moment. “I will be certain that all the mine shafts are marked and word is spread of the creature here within the temples. An adventure related at the services piques a great deal of interest, hopefully carrying the message of the service with the tale as well.” She smiled lightly, calming Boremac in the process, before continuing. “My observations indicate the creature is quite satisfied to remain where it is. It will certainly not starve and it seems to prefer the dark cold of the caves and stone it haunts. It has a prime location for seeking warm prey, or foolish interlopers like ourselves. I really think we should be on our way. There is a crumbling area of the wall not far that we should have little trouble climbing with your equipment. It should be safer to go up and over than risk the attention of the ooze again.”

  “Agreed.” Boremac and Rinoba said the word as one person, each nodding to the other with their shared wisdom. Rinoba could not justify treasure hunting within the confines of his blood bond and Boremac just wanted to be under the sky and well into the forest as soon as possible. He preferred to trust his climbing ability to his luck. Alchendia’s blessings had their limits and Boremac was pretty certain the trio had gotten all the help she would be willing to share.

  Despite occasionally staring at Boremac’s thick boots longingly, Rinoba managed to keep up as they ascended to the wall. The prince even kep
t his curses to a minimum as rocks scraped through the thin protection of the socks he had retained. Dena seemed not to notice, or was making no comments at least. Boremac kept his mind focused on making it over the wall and into the forest, choosing to keep his own mirth hidden with sneaky smiles each time Rinoba slipped on the loose gravel on their path. It was a good lesson for the arrogant rogue, but Boremac was in no position to teach moral lessons.

  Dena spoke once they made it to the wall a short time later, seemly familiar with to the art of issuing commands as if they were humble requests. Boremac assumed it was something they taught to all the servants of the God of Light. It would have been very useful when sharing’the word’ with the unwashed masses. He could not contain the upward bend of his mouth at this thought but Dena proceeded without appearing to notice. “A simple task now. Boremac, knot all the rope we have together and toss the climbing claw to the top of the wall here. The worse part of this will be remaining at the top of the wall while we bring up the rope and drop it over the other side. There are probably brambles at the base and I doubt we have enough rope to reach the bottom so, well, we will figure something out.” Dena removed a large cutting blade with a serrated edge on one side and a razor sharp edge on the other. She set her pack down briefly, transferring the contents of two of the pockets into the main section of the pack before cutting the leather and lining away from her kit bag. Dena then removed some leather straps from another of the pockets and handed the pieces to Rinoba. “Sorry I cannot offer more but you can at least wrap these around your feet. They will make passable moccasins anyway.” Rinoba nodded by way of thanks and secured the makeshift shoes with only a small amount of soft grumbling, mostly in words that were thankfully unintelligible.

  As Dena had noted earlier, the trip to the top of the crumbling wall had been the easy part. Boremac reeled in the rope once they were all at the top and secured the grappling hook once more to hold them safely for their decent. “I will go first. Even with the pack on, I think I am the lightest,” Dena leaned over the precipice, taking in the thorny brambles below, “and I can use my machete to try and clear a landing spot for the two of you, at least as far as I can reach.” She shook her head and it was easy to see why. The brambles were easily four feet high and nearly as wide all along the wall here, making for a very dangerous potential fall. “It looks like we are a few feet shy of the top of the brambles. God of Light bless me with enough channeling strength to heal us.” Boremac felt her tone indicated a plea, as much as a prayer, in those last words.

  Dena shimmied down the rope with the familiarity of a trained burglar. She demonstrated another unexpected talent as she reached the end of the rope, dangling as close as possible to the ground and kicking out with her legs to swing free of the reach of the thorny patch below her. The sister managed to almost clear the entire thing as she let go of the rope, soaring momentarily over the brambles before scraping herself a bit and landing on her back using the backpack to cushion her fall. After a quick peek in the rucksack, Dena removed the machete she carried at her side and went to work on the brambles. They were slashed down to about half their size in about a minute, at least it the point the rogues were most likely to hit.

  Rinoba all but pushed Boremac to the rope. “Let us see if you can make a safer place for me to land.” Boremac wished he had time to climb up and throw Rinoba off the wall, but there was the sister to consider. Boremac scaled down the wall as if he was examing the stone for footholds, taking his time in spite of his own desire to be away from the cursed place. His actions got the desired response as Rinoba showered him with vitriolic remarks cursing his parentage, his lack of talents and his desires toward various farm animals. Boremac was still several feet from the end of the rope when Rinoba’s barrage stopped momentarily. Rinoba’s next words issued forth is if Death himself had appeared next to him at the top of the wall. “It is coming! It is climbing the wall behind me! Damn you, Boremac! I am coming down!” Boremac thought Rinoba had to be joking until the prince leapt over the slide and slid most of the way down the rope, almost slamming into Boremac in his haste. Boremac had just enough time to slide down a bit farther and test whether Alchendia still found him amusing enough to keep. Despite the added weight on the line, Boremac managed to kick out and tuck himself into a ball, thankfully not impaling himself on his own daggers, though the biting thorns covered him as he rolled. Rinoba was not nearly as lucky. The ooze must have melted the rope because it dropped over Rinoba, tangling him even as he fell the last few feet directly into the brambles below. Only his leathers and his own reflective roll saved him more harm as he practically tumbled over the worst part of thorns before landing at Dena’s feet.

  Dena channeled healing magic into her hands, moving to attend Rinoba immediately. His leathers had saved him for the most part but Boremac figured it could not be wise to let that many deeper tears weep freely where Rinoba’s flesh had not been covered. Every part of the prince looked mistreated by the brambles, torn leather and flesh covered him from head to toe until Dena had managed to bring her healing blessings to bear. She wandered toward the woods down a hint of a path, suggesting she get them all some water. Boremac wondered how many different items the sister carried in the pack she wore as he went over to check on Rinoba.

  Boremac smiled down at Rinoba’s still prone form. “Well, that was interesting. It is always handy to have a servant of the God of Light around, it would appear. You will live at least. I would hate to have been blamed for your demise and it would have been difficult to explain the magnitude of your stupidity.” Rinoba only glowered at Boremac by way of reply.

  Dena reappeared a few moments later carrying full water skins in each of her hands. She removed her pack and knelt by Rinoba’s side, taking a cloth from her backpack and wetting it from one of the skins she carried. Dena paused a moment to pass the other skin to Boremac before cleaning the blood off of Rinoba’s exposed skin and checking that the wounds had healed. Boremac noticed two things; there were no marks where she wiped away the blood, even where it had dried in her brief absence, and she seemed to be very cautious about not dripping any of the fluids from the rapidly darkening cloth.

  Boremac was moved to question the latter, though he was curious about the lack of any scars as well. He was both disturbed and surprised by Dena’s explanation. “The ritual to release the spirit always requires some amount of blood, like the coin thieves leave for Alchendia when asking for her blessing. If the body of the deceased is available, this is not an issue. However it requires some amount of blood, usually from the Death bringer, in the event of someone killed in flame or it this instance where the flesh is long since rotted away. Normally I would make a small cut on my palm and heal it after the ritual but I see no point in wasting Rinoba’s misfortune. There is also the amount of energy required for the channeling we perform as brothers and sisters in our healing. In simplest terms, the process requires a great deal of personal sacrifice and drains our own life energy. It can be recovered through meditation and rest but…”

  “That is why you do not see priests constantly running among armies healing the wounded.” Boremac finished the thought for the sister. “It would kill you.”

  “It has, Boremac. There were many sisters and brothers that have sacrificed themselves at times of war in the past so that the soldiers they healed could go right on with the business of getting killed again. It is one of the reasons the Death Bringer Order was created. We are responsible for passage of the dead from this plane and into the next. More importantly, we are responsible for making certain the brothers and sisters responsible for healing in combat do not sacrifice themselves in vain. The Death Bringers have the terrible task of guarding against such folly that is cloaked in martyrdom.”

  Boremac only nodded slowly, his mind filled with thoughts of the sacrifices commitment to the God of Light entailed. He could not begin to imagine what type of person could make such a commitment and he found his new understanding of the members of th
e temple served to give him a greater respect for them. It was hard to think of them as pompous windbags that enforced their beliefs on others when you actually got to know one.

  Dena turned from the rogues and faced the crumbling castle as she began removing the implements of her calling from her back pack. A simple clay bowl was soon surrounded by several tall wax candles with short burned wicks. Next the skull of the dead King was placed gently in the bowl and Dena wrung out the rag she had used to clean Rinoba’s wounds over the dead King’s skull, careful to keep the precious fluid in the bowl. Dena turned toward Boremac, her eyes lit with a childlike anticipation. “Normally the ritual of passing is performed only by a Death bringer but these are not normal circumstances. I would have you and Rinoba participate, if you would like. The experience should be quite… singular. I have not performed one for so many at once before though I have studied the writings of the members of the Order that have. It is not dangerous but it can be somewhat disturbing for the uninitiated.”

  Rinoba inserted himself into the exchange before Boremac could form a reply. “I will on pass this offer, sister. I have had more than enough disturbing dangerous encounters on this trip. You go right ahead, Boremac, so you can tell me all about it. We could use something to talk about on the way home.” Boremac could not turn away from the unspoken dare that clearly showed in Rinoba’s eyes. He damned himself for the flaw even as he turned to Dena to nod his acceptance of the offer.