by Paul Kidd
The Justicar still had not drawn his blade.
Another man swung clumsily with his fist and was punched in the jaw for his trouble-a single massive blow that lifted him off his feet andsent him senseless to the ground.
The last man came at the Justicar with a hammer held high. The ranger caught the man as he charged, turned with the passing blow, and hurled the man to the street. He knelt, hammered the apprentice three times with his left hand, and left the unconscious youth sprawled across his friends.
Six feet overhead, Escalla dodged random pots, pans, and missiles flying from the melee.
“You do good work!” The faerie had to shout to make herselfheard above the mob.
“Where’s that dead priestess?”
“No sign!”
Cinders suddenly jerked his ears, and the Justicar whipped his head about to follow the hound’s lead. Escalla followed their gaze and saw ablood-spattered female figure borne by a pair of young Geshtai priests.
The supposedly dead priestess suddenly sprouted claws and tore into the priests’ spines. The men fell dead, and the woman laughed as shestrode away from her self-made civil war.
“There!” Escalla’s little voice cut through the battle.
Beside the temple, the “dead” Geshtai priestess whipped aboutto give the faerie a stare of pure malice. The priestess shimmered, cast away her previous form, and became a tall, slim female with long tresses of red hair. Her old clothing dropped away to leave her a gleaming nude. Several of the nearby rioters stopped fighting to stare at the voluptuous figure in open-mouthed shock.
Escalla cast a spell, and a thick, putrescent cloud quickly spread through a sizeable chunk of the market, sending men and women retching and staggering aside. The red-headed woman strode uncaring through the cloud, building up to a run as she changed shape into a powerful black dog.
“Damn!” Escalla blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Anerinyes! Just what this town needs.” She knew of erinyes, but she had neverseen one before and had certainly never dreamed of having to actually fight one. “Oh well, first time for everything.”
The dog sped beneath tables and stalls, heading for the edges of the markets. It dodged and doubled back, sprinting through melees. Clinging to her quarry like glue, Escalla finally outsmarted the thing. Picking the dog out as it ran toward an alleyway, the faerie whipped beneath a line of stalls and suddenly had a clear shot straight at the black dog’s back.
“Hey! Suck on this!”
A fireball ripped from Escalla’s hands and blasted straightinto her victim’s back. To the faerie’s surprise, the dog barely staggered. Itwhipped its head about and stared at her, its eyes suddenly turning a poisonous green. Escalla felt fear slam into her like a physical blow and wrenched to a complete stop. The black dog snarled and slowly approached the faerie, who could scarcely move as the fear spell twisted through her mind.
The Justicar came striding through the stinking cloud, his hell hound skin cloaking him in sheer, savage anger. The black sword came free from its scabbard, swinging light as a toy in the big man’s hands. The black doglooked at him with its evil green eyes, then blinked as its fear spell failed. Hackles raised, it began to back away.
The dog suddenly shifted form. In a flow of melting shapes, it became a magnificently naked woman with pointed ears and pure white angel’swings. She hissed in a raw explosion of hate, savage hellfire gleaming in her eyes.
“Jus!” Escalla shouted. “Jus, it’s an erinyes! Watch out!”
The devil-woman whipped out a long rope and lashed it straight at the Justicar. The rope whipped around him in a blur, trapping his arms and binding him in loop after loop of cord. The erinyes gave a scream of triumph. The Justicar stood his ground, stared at her, then nodded his head toward the rope. Cinders gave a manic grin and blasted out a jet of flames to burn the rope in two.
Appalled, the devil-woman backed away, holding the end of her rope and screaming in anger. The Justicar freed himself from the limp coils, flicking free his sword. With a thundering growl, he charged toward his enemy.
A flash of motion streaked from the rooftops above. Four figures, each armored in black leather, landed on the ground between the Justicar and the erinyes. One of them was dead almost before he struck the ground, his guts ripped open by a flash of the Justicar’s sword. A second mantried to parry the ranger’s sudden attack. He caught the first blow then spun asa huge swipe of the black sword cut him almost in two.
The last two split up. One, wielding twin swords, veered left while his companion with a double-ended spear ran to the right. Jus tracked one, had Cinders burn him, then whirled and caught a spear blow with his sword. The double-ended spear flashed fast and bright, ringing sparks from Jus’ blade ashe caught attack after attack. A sudden upward flick of the rangers sword hooked the man’s left foot out from beneath him. The ranger followed with a savage stabinto the torso as the man smashed to the ground.
Twin blades flashed as the last attacker, burned and furious, came rampaging into the fight. Sparks rained down as his two swords cut and flickered in a blur. The Justicar backpedalled then flashed sideways, his sword whipping downward with an almost inhuman speed. His attacker managed to catch the blow with crossed blades but was hurled a pace backward by the Justicar’ssheer strength.
With a wild cry, the man charged. Jus whirled sideways, ending up behind his enemy. As the man passed, the Justicar sliced the full length of his sword across his enemy’s abdomen. The man lurched forward, horrorin his eyes as he fell dying to the ground.
With a snarl, the erinyes looked to the rooftops to summon her last reserve. Rising dazedly from hiding, a black figure silently sprang down from the rooftop above and landed behind the Justicar. Cinders hissed in alarm, and Escalla blasted a sudden mass of web down upon the newcomer, plastering him against a wall.
Escalla breathed hard, still shivering with the aftereffects of the demon’s fear spell. She lowered her hand, wisps of spider web stillfloating down from her fingertips.
“Jus, look at his sword!”
The newcomer roared. A myriad of faintly pulsing and flickering stars seemed to dance slowly along the blade, and a weird energy pulsed up from the blade into his flesh. The man began to move with unholy speed, each sweep of his black sword severing a dozen sticky web strands. The sword eked a sinister black radiance and moaned in ghastly hunger as it smelled the scent of blood. With a final slash of his sword, the man ripped out of the web and threw himself toward the Justicar
“Jus, look out!”
Escalla saw the devil-woman charging toward her friend’s backand fired a spell. Swarms of biting, stinging insects formed high above the street then slammed into the woman, wreathing her in a cloud of agony.
The erinyes began to fight off the insect swarm. Escalla cursed like a stevedore and backpedalled madly in midair as the woman sprang aloft to lunge up at her. Escalla led the screaming monster away from her friend, firing a stream of little magic missiles at the creature in an attempt to hold it at bay.
Far below, the Justicar readied himself to fight the sinister, moaning sword.The sword’s wielder-a tall, scarred man-raised the screeching blade and racedforward. He made one huge, twisting cut, and Jus’ parry rang against the weaponlike a bell, both black swords meeting in a flash of light.
The Justicar moved as fast as he could to block another strike, but the man was pushing him to his limit. His attacker was filled with a magical energy that seemed to skitter him forward through time. Moving insanely fast, the man made cut after cut with the evil sword, laughing and overconfident in his magical speed. He sliced at the Justicar’s feet and when the blow wasparried, he whipped the hellish blade around in an overhand cut intended to shear his enemy in two.
The Justicar parried, pivoted aside, and struck, aiming for his enemy’s forearms rather than the sword. His blade struck, severing thethief’s arms clean through. Screaming, the thief spun away, and the black bladefell skittering across the cobblesto
nes. Still accelerated by magical speed, the thief bled to death in a single horrific gush of blood.
From high above, the woman gave a terrified scream.
“Blackrazor! No!”
The creature forgot her attack upon Escalla and whirled to save the sword. She had only just begun to move when a figure stepped suddenly forward from the nearby crowds.
A gigantic opaque fist shimmered into existence, picked up the sword, and whipped it though the air. Floating above the street, the fist settled above a thin, balding sorcerer who awaited the sword with open hands.
The Justicar started as he recognized the face of the librarian laughing in triumph. As the erinyes lunged for him, the librarian simply stepped through a glowing portal in the air. With a silent flash, librarian and magic sword instantly disappeared from view.
The devil-woman screamed in loss and panic, passing through the empty space where the librarian had stood. She searched wildly for the portal, found nothing-then saw the faerie and the Justicar racing toward her.
“Jus, be careful!” Escalla screamed.
Escalla hammered at the erinyes with a spell that sent swarm of darts shaped like little golden bees arrowing straight for their foe. Staggering under the assault, the erinyes broke into a retreat. She raised her hand, and sinister energies twisted at the air. All about the Justicar and Escalla, butchered corpses streaming blood rose to their feet and made a barrier between the devil-woman and her enemies. She spread her white wings and shot up into the sky, moving at a pace that left Escalla tumbling in her wake like a butterfly.
Six shambling corpses charged the Justicar. He smashed the arms from one and clove another’s shoulder off its torso. A third corpse rippeda wound across the rangers shoulder. Cinders raked flame across two of the undead abominations and set them afire, sending them blundering off into the crowds.
Two of the undead still locked swords with Jus. Escalla poised in midair, licked her index finger, and pointed at a zombie. A stream of little explosive golden bees blasted into the creature’s spine, raking themonster as it tried to turn. The last zombie turned to make a clumsy swipe for the faerie but was smacked apart by one savage blow from the Justicar’s blacksword.
The city’s military had finally come on the scene. Soldierscame running into the marketplace, and priests and temple guards instantly withdrew from the fighting. The trident and magic hammer were hurried back into their respective homes. This left the common people fighting, leaderless and insane with fury as soldiers armed with staves tried to bring the fighting to a close.
A law officer stood bellowing helplessly at the crowd, waving his warrant over his head as though it were a magic scroll. A dozen rioters instantly surged toward the man, and he backed against a wall and drew his sword. The Justicar wrenched himself back from staring after the fleeing erinyes and began to shove his way toward the struggling man.
“Escalla, help the lawman!”
The faerie backed away from the open skies. She turned, spread her fingers in a sleep spell, and sent six members of the crowd slumping to the ground. The Justicar leaped over the bodies and brought his blade down on a rioter from behind. He killed a second man with a stab through the back, then joined the lawman side by side.
Rioters surged forward to attack only to be flung back by huge blows from the Justicar’s sword.
With the onrush of armored soldiers, the rioters soon began to scatter. Some dove into the river while others fled into alleyways. A great many of the refugees from the Duchy of Tenh managed to pour into their respective temples, barring the doors against other citizens following behind.
The Justicar hacked the legs out from under a last enemy and then stabbed the man through the heart. He wrenched his sword free with a look of absolute distaste and knelt to wipe the blade upon a dead man’s clothes.
Escalla had managed another sleep spell to clear a path for an inrush of city militiamen. Winded, panting, and scored by a rioters blade, the rescued lawman watched the soldiers come. He fought for breath, looking up at the grim shape of the Justicar as the huge man sheathed his blade.
“Whoever you are, I thank you.”
Escalla came twinkling down from the sky.
“All part of a day’s work, hon!” The faerie perched herselfprettily across the Justicar’s huge shoulders, reclining across the grinninghell hound skin.
With an expressive glance toward the faerie, the Justicar strode forward to help the law officer to his feet. The city streets were littered with corpses, and the main marketplace was awash with blood. Jus kicked a weakly flopping zombie out of his path as the stench of burning slowly began to fill the air.
Escalla peered down from between the ears of the grinning hellhound skin. “Hey, could any of you boys go for a drink right now?”
Beer! Cinders wagged his tail.
Helping the law officer keep his feet, the Justicar led the man away from the carnage. A tangled maze of corpses now marred the city streets, while from the temples there rose a fresh new chorus of screams.
10
“Who? Who did it?” Naked and screaming in rage, Saalashoved one of her thieves, the sheer force of the blow sending the man slamming a dozen feet back against a wall. “Who stole Blackrazor?”
“Lady, we weren’t there!” A senior thief half hid himselfbehind a chair in the Thieves Guildhall. “Our operatives swear they have neverbeen followed or observed at any time.”
“Liars! Incompetent liars! I’ll rake out their heartsand eat them whole!” The she-devil whipped her wings in a lather of rage,sending a sulphurous breeze twisting through the hall. “Of course they werefollowed! Someone knew exactly who to watch and where to strike! I demand to know who!”
The senior thieves of three different guilds quivered. The erinyes had welded them together by bloody force and terror, and it had been Blackrazor as much as sheer fear of her powers that had made the thieves her slaves. She sensed the thought and whipped her head about, her eyes suddenly flashing green. Her spell instantly brought a senior thief kneeling at her feet.
“I want Blackrazor back, and I want it now.” Saaladrew a dagger from her belt, and it dripped an acid that burned sour patches in the floor. “All guild magicians are to use every scrying spell at their command.I want to know who has foreseen our plans.”
Her spell held the kneeling thief helpless as a lamb. Saala cradled her chosen victim against her lean, silken belly, feeling the man’s mindfight helplessly against her control. The erinyes slowly cut his throat, sawing her dagger back and forth to let the man’s blood spurt up over her naked flesh.She breathed in the terrified horror of her audience, then slowly sawed her victims head free from its neck.
The head thudded to the ground. Picking her nails with the blood-drenched dagger, the erinyes turned toward her underlings with a smile.
“I’m a reasonable woman. Now does anyone here have anythingto contribute to this discussion? No?”
Men stood and stared at the bleeding body of their comrade as blood flowed across the floor. The erinyes sat herself in a chair and used her victim’s corpse as a footstool. Her long, blood-spattered legs gleamed in thecandlelight as she sensuously wriggled her long toes.
With her dripping dagger, she pointed lazily at the door.
“Now then. Let us discuss our successes. We now have thetrident and the hammer. At least something has gone well.” The erinyes crossedher feet, heedless of her nakedness-shape shifting could change a body, but itdid nothing about providing proper clothes. “Open the door and bring the weaponsin. Let us see just what we have.”
No one moved. The thieves seemed to shrink in upon themselves, afraid to meet their mistress’ eye.
Saala interlaced her bloody fingers and used them to rest her chin. “Yes?”
“L-lady…” One of the guild’s senior sorcerers swallowedin fright. “Th-the strike t-teams have-”
“What have the strike teams done?” Saala leaned forward, herskin gleaming slick with patterns of fres
h blood. “You will never get anywherein life unless you learn to articulate.”
“Lady, th-the strike teams b-both report that they w-wereattacked just after making their escape from the temples.” Quite terrified, thesorcerer turned a pale shade of gray. “Each group was attacked by a singlesorcerer dressed in gray robes. Th-the magic w-weapons were taken from them. The hammer Whelm and the trident Wave… are g-gone.”
Keeping her face perfectly controlled and expressionless, the erinyes leaned back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to chill the room with an infinite dark.
“Find them.”
“Y-yes, Mistress!” The sorcerer began to back away. “It shallbe done, Mistress.”
Slit-pupilled eyes danced with flames as Saala flexed her dagger blade.
“I was attacked by a huge warrior armed with a fire-breathinghell hound skin. He was accompanied by a faerie, a pixie that has elected to become an accomplished sorceress.” The erinyes lifted her pure white wings.“They are involved in all of this somehow. I suggest that you also spy onthem.”
“Of course, Mistress.” Thieves began to move, realizing thatthey had survived their mistress’ rage. “At once, Mistress.”
“And cancel my appointments for the rest of the afternoon.”Saala slowly caressed her dagger blade. “The strike team leaders and I shall bein… discussion… for a great many hours to come.”
Heavy oak doors shuddered, the latch splintering as a bootslammed against the lock. A second blow sent the doors crashing inward, followed by a huge dark shape that dived and rolled across the ground. The Justicar slammed up against a wall, then sped into the shadows, his black sword hunting for prey.
The interior of the library remained still, the lights extinguished and the windows shuttered. Jus rose, took a glance around the corner, then dived amongst the tall library shelves.
Whirring in a panic behind him, Escalla hid herself behind her friend.
“Jus! Jus, this is not a good idea! I’m out of spells, anddoggie’s fires are low!” Escalla flapped and fluttered, weaving from side toside to make herself a hard target. “Jus, are you listening to me?”