Take the body and give me the rest

by Julius Schenk

  Seth was shocked at the ferocity but lifted his bow on instinct, drawing back and firing in one precise motion. He fired straight and true, cleanly into the one called Anton’s throat, which dropped him to the floor, with his knees buckling beneath him.

  Seth stepped out from behind the cover and drawing his blades, engaging Dirst as he lunged into the cleared space and flicked out with his blade. On seeing his face Seth felt the recognition that this was the General’s own son he was facing and knew was very skilled with the blade he held. The sound of metal rang as they clashed. Seth attacked with an energy and anger he didn’t know he possessed. His sword smashed again and again into Dirst’s. When the man took a weak step backwards in retreat, Seth drew his dagger with the backhand and plunged it deeply into in his chest, he died easily.

  The last was Seraphina and slipped nimbly past Dirst’s falling body and thrust her thin flat blade so close to Seth’s torso it scored a long light wound along his side. Seth lashed out, clubbing her with the blunt end of the dagger, then with a backhand slash, cut her throat with a rough stroke of the blade. Dark red blood poured from the clean cut as she dropped to the floor, blood gushing from her white throat as she collapsed on the ground before him. Her cold blue eye’s finding his as she bled to death before him.

  Now there was just silence and the murders he’d committed. Months of running to come down to this? A bloodbath that was over in just moments. Seth didn’t understand. He looked at the dead forms of these three and couldn’t believe it. He looked at the face of Dirst and felt such overwhelming disappointment bubbling up in him, all those years in sword training and masters the General let him take and that was it, no form, no power or skill. He looked at the crumpled form of Seraphina and thought the same, no summoning just a mad rush to her own death, against a fighter clearly better? It was just all too easy and too senseless.

  Much too easy Seth thought again as at the end of the room, Goldie, Flint, Grimm and Stone barged in with weapons drawn. He quickly stepped back to his bow and notched an arrow to it.

  ‘Are we too late for some fun, Boss?’ shouted Goldie.

  Seth didn’t like the sound of his voice; too precise. They looked right and sounded almost right, but when Seth looked again they even walked wrong, not the rolling strides of born sailors, and that posture. No wonder it had all been so easy, the first round was a diversion, just some poor guardsmen not ready for a fight with some like him. Seth raised his bow to aim Goldie’s throat.

  ‘Fucking hold, Seraphina, Dirst, Broncks, whichever one you are, or I’ll drop you,’ he said. It was confirmed to him when they stopped dead. He now noticed Elizebetha had been there the whole time, watching him dispatch man after man. She looked a little white and sickly. He was just starting to warm up.

  ‘She’s Grimm, I can see her Seth,’ she said quietly.

  Changing his aim to the guise of Grimm, he drew the string back and looked him in the eye. He thought he could see something else in those eyes. Some malice and rage that didn’t belong. As he looked, he could see some slight tension in those eyes release as the guise dropped away.

  In front of him stood a beautiful blond woman of a young age. Fine face, but hard firm lines around her mouth. She was very attractive but looked cruel and hard. The man next to her drew his rapier and sneered at Seth. Seth looked at Dirst and thought it looked more like him now, a good proper spoilt expression. The two others had very similar looks and were all clearly cousins or some sort of family. All Dark Guild.

  ‘So, I finally get to meet you. Seth, is it? You’ve killed a lot of people so far, my uncle for one, that tavern keeper and his whore, Minsetta, plus all my colleagues at the library and here. You really should be on our side of the bow,’ she said.

  He was in a very bad position. Weapon sheathed against weapons drawn, one bow draw against four people and who knew what else they could call.

  Seraphina looked at Elizebetha and spoke. ‘Lady Elizebetha, still alive. What a shame,’ she said.

  ‘I had some help on The Opulent with your assassin,’ she said.

  Seraphina laughed loudly and Dirst spoke. ‘No problem, talk about two throats with the single blade. We’ve been looking for you for such a long time. We were surprised you raised your head again. What brings you back out of hiding?’

  ‘Claiming my birth right the seat of Black Rock,’ Elizebetha said.

  ‘I think your little brother Renton might have something to say about that,’ Seraphina said. ‘Now, enough talk.’ Then she shouted, ‘Some help, gentlemen?’

  Within moments, all four of them were chanting with different voices and at different speeds. Dirst, Seraphina, the men at the door. Seth cursed loudly and, seeing Seraphina was the strongest, lowered his bow and fired the arrow he had knotched, hard at her left foot. It struck through her fine black leather boot and pinned her foot solidly to the floor as she screamed in pain, all thoughts of a summoning forgotten in a bloody wave of agony. Seth quickly took a few large steps backward, as they had also done. Thinking hard of the creature, started the chant in his mind.

  Seth felt the air start to ripple and darken between them. A shivering rift began to appear and dark shapes paced on the other side. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before; it was so dark and angry, like a gathering storm. Four people were still creating it, him and the other three men. He called his creature; it leapt through the swirling storm and stood beside him. He’d never seen it react with such anger and readiness. It lashed its whip tail and howled.

  In front of them from the darkness appeared three identical shapes. They weren’t wolves but things like massive, misshapen dogs, covered with short black bristles. Same razor teeth, but with the black and soulless eyes of the dead. With a deep, vicious growl, his creature leapt at the closest one. It turned to bite as the wolf came in, but it was too slow. Those teeth closed around its throat in a moment and with three snaps of the Wolvern’s head left and right, it tossed the now lifeless body to the side. The two other black feral shapes leapt onto the Wolvern, sharp teeth sinking in its foreleg and snapping its face, snarling as they fought.

  The Wolvern turned to the one attached to its leg, which was now dripping with dark blood, and clamping its open mouth around the creature’s skull, crushing it with a slow powerful compression of its jaws. The dead destroyed creature dropped off its foreleg as the third leapt again, snapping at the Wolvern’s face, razor teeth just gazing it. The Wolvern snapped its head out of the way, too fast, and then it slammed its head back into the smaller creature and, with the placing of two paws, pinning it down and ripped into its soft underside tearing out its black, stinking innards in moments. When its howling and whimpering had stopped, the Wolvern licked its paws clean and came limping to stand calmly next to Seth. The whole scene had taken less than the time Seth had to drop his bow and pick up his sword.

  A storm of violence exploded inside the huge room. Seth drew his blade just in time to defend against a powerful lunge from Dirst, and saw the other two men also drawing blades and running to engage him. Lady Elizebetha, looking horrified and too shocked to move; with Seraphina still grasping her foot and trying to staunch the bleeding through her tears of pain and anger.

  His muscles straining, Seth pushed back against Dirst’s blade and, drawing his dagger with the backhand, slashed wildly at him, creating space. The creature leapt at the two advancing men and reaching down low, bit off a man’s leg, dragging him up and off his feet. Seth turned from their fight to focus on Dirst. It was all he could do to maintain his ground. The man had the same look as all Guild members: young thirties, but his eyes held in a very calm fighting reserve. They traded a furious round of attacks and blocks with both of them expending seemly limitless amount of energy.

  Seth had the experience of literally hundreds of sword fights now inside of his mind, but it seemed that Dirst did as well. He was one like the General, who’d prided himself on his fighting prowess; it was his life. Dirst thrust his rapier at Seth with
three quick jabs and then the same with cuts of the dagger, Seth taking the back foot, being forced just to block and defend. He was thinking too much and as punishment, he felt the sharp burning pain of Dirst’s blade sliding into his arm, making him drop the rapier.

  Dirst laughed loudly and advanced with confidence. Without a thought, Seth leapt forward, changing his stance, attacking with the dagger in his new lead hand. He crouched down low and, when the next lunge came, he spun around the outside of it and, with a callous move, slashed Dirst’s sword hand. Dirst almost dropped his rapier as his hand bled but thrust again at Seth’s chest. In another night blade move, Seth ducked under it and brought his dagger up hard into Dirst’s unprotected armpit, holding him close as the blade slid in and he twisted it. He saw the lights in Dirst’s eyes go out as his body slumped to the floor.

  Seth turned to see his creature doing badly against the two swordsmen—with a damaged foreleg already, and they were attacking fiercely with thrusts from their swords and fighting together, with well more strength than normal men. Seth didn’t have time for this. He walked back to where his bow rested on the couch and, drawing an arrow, fired two bolts in quick succession, hitting one right in the eye socket and, before he even fell, hitting the second in the open mouth. They both fell dead in front of the creature.

  The creature spoke in his mind. ‘There are so many here and strong ones too. I want them all.’

  Seth said the words out loud—‘Take them all and give me the rest’—and felt the flood of power as the energy of the two men hit him first. The creature stalked slowly around the room, burying its muzzle in the chests of the fallen and ripping into hearts, licking and tearing the flesh from the bodies. Seth felt that wave of strength washing all through him. When the creature went to Dirst, Seth felt the sensation of so many other lives coming into him as well. He felt himself growing in strength and power, his arm wound healed in mere moments, as did the Wolvern’s own injuries. Elizebetha stared at him from the floor; she looked more than horrified. Seraphina was watching him too. He drew another arrow and placed it in the bow. The creature came to stand beside him again, fresh blood on covering its face and paws.

  ‘What of these two?’ it boomed in his mind, still hungry for more and knowing, in taking Seraphina, Seth would be putting himself beyond anything ever known. Even the knowledge that Dirst had was incredible, and his two kinsmen being takers. He’d never heard that word before, but there it was clearly in his mind. Taker.

  Seth looked at Elizebetha. ‘What’s the plan? We have her now.’ he said.

  ‘Send him away, Seth. Send him away first.’ Seth looked at the creature by his side. It was covered in human and darker blood. They had just killed a room full of enemies together. He didn’t feel ashamed at all; he felt proud. There were only a few who could stand against him now, with his powerful ally at his side. They had brought seven men and it hadn’t been enough; they had brought beasts from the pit and it hadn’t been enough. All he had to do was take these two as well and he’d be unstoppable.

  ‘Send him away, Seth,’ she said again. Without too much thought, Seth opened up the rift and, with words of thanks and feelings of hunger sated, the creature walked slowly through the opening and left the world. As it went, so did part of Seth’s bloodlust. He surveyed the room and the human wreckage with a different eye. Elizebetha could see the change in him.

  He still had the arrow pointed at Seraphina, who was now sitting up amongst the bodies and looked even paler. She’d lost a lot of blood, but could still summon if he didn’t have the bow pointed at her. She looked so young, only a few years older than he. She truly was beautiful as well, even with a blood-smattered face and a look of defiance that had turned to fear. He could feel the General’s feelings of love for her trying to bubble up and influence him.

  ‘You look scared now,’ Seth said to her.

  ‘We’re no strangers to blood in the Dark Guild, but this was an impressive feat,’ she said.

  Seth laughed. ‘I doubt the Duchess thinks it impressive. Can you even look at me?’ he asked, turning to Elizebetha.

  ‘Of course I can, Seth. I know it’s not you but the creature.’

  He was less sure of that himself. ‘So what do we plan to do with her now?’

  As he spoke the words into the room, at the very end came four men running in. It was Goldie, Grimm, Flint and Stone. Seth looked first and saw red faces from running and more than a few scraps and scratches, but no glowing hatred just concerned looks. As they entered the killing room, they stopped dead.

  ‘Holy hell, Boss, are you still alive?’ asked Goldie.

  ‘We’re fine, boys. I’ll tell you all about it. Now just go guard the stairs and I’ll be out in a minute.’

  ‘Did you kill all these yourself?’ Flint said.

  ‘Am I from the North or not? Just go out and wait!’ he shouted.

  They filed out of the room to guard the stairway from outside. He was glad to see they were still alive, fearing they had been waylaid as part of Seraphina’s move.

  Seth looked again at Elizebetha and Seraphina. He was loyal to one and sworn against the other, but it was less clear than that in his mind. Surely enough, Seraphina had been trying to kill him but now here she was, a beautiful young girl afraid at his feet, not wanting to die. Seth thought about the movements of the Guild, the pieces they moved. He thought of Minsetta, that beautiful fierce woman, and how they had moved her right into his path and forced her hand.

  ‘So are you going to take her?’ Seth asked, resigned to be a good soldier and push the General from his mind.

  ‘We can’t leave her alive; she’ll keep hunting us and now she knows where I am going. I need my arrival at the Keep to be a secret or everything is lost.’

  ‘We can’t keep her prisoner; it would be a moment before she was in the guise of me and asking Flint to let her go and to kill you for good measure.’ Seth placed his bow on the floor and, drawing his dagger, knelt behind Seraphina on the blood-stained wooden floor. He slowly pressed the cold blade onto her fine neck, trying not to feel the warmth of her lithe body against his chest.

  He looked over her shoulder to Lady Elizebetha, who was again looking at him with a shocked expression. ‘I’ll kill her for you, but not with an arrow. You say the word and it’s done, but it’s you doing it. I’m just the knife in your hand. You want her blood, have it on your hands.’

  Elizebetha almost cried, ‘I can’t, Seth. I wanted her gifts but I can’t kill her in cold blood to do it. This isn’t the world I want. I felt the greed when you told me what she can do, but I can’t just murder her to get it. I don’t want us to become monsters.’

  ‘You didn’t bring us to this, they did. They wouldn’t stop hunting us. Sure, we could have ambushed them on the road and saved ourselves some trouble, but it was always going to end in blood.’ Seth muttered ‘Up, up, up’ to Seraphina and raised her to her feet. She whimpered as she put some weight on her injured foot. At least she’d gotten the arrow out.

  ‘So what do we do with her now, Seth?’ asked Elizebetha exasperated.

  ‘Give her to someone else,’ Seth said.

  With a string of words in his mind and force of will, Seth created a nearly invisible rift in the room in front of where they stood.

  Seth whispered into Seraphina’s ear as they stood in front of the invisible void. ‘Stay strong, Lady Seraphina.’ With that, he shoved her through the rift into the land of the dead and sealed it closed behind her.

  In his mind, he reached out to the creature. ‘Try not to let her die.’ He felt its cold laughter in his mind.

  Chapter 23

  Seth and his troop were on the road, fully mounted and armed well before sunrise. They had left the boarding house in the very dead of night, leaving behind six human bodies with chest cavities and throats ripped out and the three fairly unrecognisable black rotting masses that had been the black dog creatures. The city watch would surely be descending on the scene, and, hopeful
ly, Duchess Elizebetha hadn’t given her actual name to the boarding house owner.

  She was not talking to Seth, and he was happy enough to spend a few days in the company of his men. He could tell they were more than eager to find out just what had happened but waiting until he’d broached it with them. They were once again out of immediate danger, all threats piled high in the boarding house or in the dead cold world with no escape. Seth couldn’t tell if Elizebetha was upset at him because he’d killed Seraphina or because he hadn’t or because she hadn’t gotten her gifts. After all her protesting of how wrong it was, Seth could still see the greed in her when she’d refused to look at him after he’d closed the rift on Seraphina. As far as he was concerned, Seraphina might still live; he was giving her a chance to survive, better than a knife blade across the throat. Besides, she was too beautiful to kill.

  ‘So, boys, not a lot of bloody use in that fight were you. What happened?’ he asked as they rode in a line up the road to their next stop. Their white chargers were freshly fed, washed and with black harnesses looking pristine. They still looked hung over, scratched and most of all embarrassed.

  Grimm spoke first. ‘We’re so glad you’re okay, Boss. Problem was some of them women that came with us were paid by those people chasing you. I think, well I know, they drugged our drinks,’ he said.

  ‘I thought you were pretending to drink only?’ ‘I know, but we didn’t think one or two flagons would hurt. Turns out it did a little bit,’ said Goldie.

  ‘Oh, well, no harm done. Just next time make yourself a little more use. I can’t have all the fun!’ he said.

  Flint asked bluntly, ‘What happened in that room? Looked like a battle.’

  ‘I guess it was a battle. Let’s just say my new skill with a bow served its purpose.

  ‘But the real question is, boys: did those vixens part you with your hard earned gold coins?’ Seth asked them, trying to turn the conversation. The men started laughing.