Darkblade Slayer

by Andy Peloquin

  The Hunter pressed her, hacking at her mailed hands with his long sword. Her greaves and gauntlets kept his sword from slicing flesh, but they failed to dull the impact. Sir Danna grunted in pain, the daggers falling from her grip.

  The Hunter drove his boot into her chest, and the force of his kick sent her staggering backward. A gasp arose from her Cambionari and Warrior Priests as Sir Danna tottered on the edge of the cliff. She righted herself and, fixing him with a venomous gaze, drew Lord Knight Moradiss' iron greatsword.

  Ildaris seemed to sing as it slipped free of its sheath. The blade was nearly as long as Sir Danna was tall, with a tapered blade and shortened fuller. The extra-long hilt provided space for two gauntleted hands to grip, with an extra-wide, sharpened crossguard to serve as both protection and an added weapon. Near the crossguard, the blade lacked an edge, perfect for a gloved hand to grip in a wicked maneuver known as half-swording. In the hands of a trained combatant, the greatsword could deal impressive amounts of damage.

  And Sir Danna clearly had spent time training with the weapon. "It ends here, Demonspawn," she growled as she hefted the blade.

  The Hunter shook his head. "If you kill me, you are bringing about the end of Einan. The Sage must be stopped at all costs."

  "And he will be." The knight stalked toward him, greatsword held out before her. "I will hunt him down and put an end to his machinations."

  "Just how do you plan to do that?” the Hunter snapped. “If you couldn't even sense Garanis right in your midst, how can you find one demon in the middle of Enarium?"

  Sir Danna's eyes narrowed, and she hesitated a moment.

  The Hunter held up Soulhunger. "You said you can feel the dagger I carry. The Sage carries no weapons for you to track. Your abilities will not serve you when hunting demons, will they?"

  The tip of the sword wavered as a hint of doubt pierced the knight's mask of anger.

  Hope surged within the Hunter. "You have no idea what the Sage looks like or where to find him. But I do. I can track his scent, the foul odor of decay that marks him as an Abiarazi. He has abandoned the last of his demonic powers to become fully human, but he cannot escape me. I am the Hunter of Voramis, and I always catch my prey."

  For a single moment, Sir Danna actually looked like she would accept his words. He saw the truth flash in her eyes: she had no way to hunt the Abiarazi. She had spent her life preparing to hunt Bucelarii like him, but her training hadn't prepared her to face a full-blood demon.

  The moment passed, and the uncertainty faded from her expression. Her face hardened and she lifted the iron sword. "Your lies will not sway me from my true purpose, Hunter. If the Sage truly exists and hides in Enarium, my Cambionari and I will find him."

  "How?" the Hunter asked.

  Sir Danna shrugged off the question. "We will deal with him and prevent the return of the Destroyer ourselves. You will join the rest of your kind in the grave."

  She took two quick steps forward and brought the huge blade swinging across in a horizontal attack aimed at the Hunter's chest. The Hunter leapt backward, and the iron tip whistled past, a finger's breadth from carving through armor and flesh. Sir Danna didn't give him a chance to recover, but kept up the pressure. She whirled the sword around in great, sweeping arcs that forced the Hunter backward.

  The Hunter gave ground, using his long sword to deflect rather than block the strikes. Against a steel blade, he'd take a hit to get inside his opponent's guard. But facing the iron sword, he couldn't risk even a glancing blow. The iron's poison would dull his reflexes, sap the strength from his muscles, and ultimately kill him.

  Sir Danna's greatsword gave her a longer reach, but it also weighed far more than the Hunter's longsword. The anger on the knight's face grew ragged as her breaths came harder. Her blows lost power and speed, becoming wilder and more desperate as she fatigued. One cross-body blow dipped at the end of its arc, her tired muscles unable to control the weighty blade.

  The Hunter seized the opening and leapt toward Sir Danna, hacking out with his longsword. She threw up an arm to protect her unhelmeted head, and the Hunter's steel blade clanged off her heavy gauntlet. She grunted in pain, but brought the hilt of her sword up one-handed to punch out at him. The Hunter slipped aside from the blow and drove his own crossguard into her face. She staggered backward, blood streaming from her nose and split lip.

  The Hunter drove Soulhunger up toward her throat, but she managed to twist her head aside at the last moment. The dagger shrieked in delight as it carved a shallow line along her jaw and up her cheek. Sir Danna's armored knee flashed up toward the Hunter's groin, but he sidestepped the attack.

  A shout of alarm sounded from Sir Danna's men as the Hunter slid his leg behind the knight's and threw her over his hip. She crashed to the ground in a cacophony of clattering steel, landing less than a hand's breadth from the edge of the cliff.

  The Hunter raised his sword to strike, but a Warrior Priest lunged in the way, hacking at him with a steel sword. The Hunter caught the blow with Soulhunger and brought his own sword across in a blur. The tip of the blade ripped through the side of the man's neck. Blood misted in the air. The Warrior Priest fell to one knee, crimson gushing from his sliced throat.

  A cry of pain echoed somewhere far behind the Hunter. Behind? His heart leapt to his throat. No!

  Before he could move, a terrible roar echoed from the canyon walls. All eyes flashed toward the top of the nearby cliff and the massive, stone-skinned monster crouched there. The Stone Guardians smelled blood.

  "Back!" Kiara cried, sawing at her horse's reins. Chaos gripped the lines of the Warrior Priests and Cambionari as they tried to retreat. With another gut-twisting roar, the Stone Guardian leapt from the cliff toward the corpse of the Warrior Priest. The ground shook beneath the impact of the monstrous creature, and its bulk crushed the two white-cloaked figures that had been racing toward the Hunter and Sir Danna.

  The Hunter shot a glance at the knight. Sir Danna had risen to her feet, and she held the greatsword gripped in two hands as she stared at the massive Stone Guardian.

  "Final warning," the Hunter called as he sheathed his sword and Soulhunger. "Leave me alone to reach Enarium, and you can hunt me down after I've dealt with the Sage. Try and stop me, and I'll put you down."

  "You will not escape me, Hunter!" Sir Danna shouted.

  "You've been warned," the Hunter growled, then turned and raced up the trail.

  He leapt into Elivast's saddle and kicked the horse into motion. He'd stalled Sir Danna to give the rest of his small party time to get farther away. He'd known the Stone Guardians would come the moment they smelled blood, so he needed to buy a few minutes to get Hailen and the others far from the Stone Guardians.

  But that cry had to have come from one of his crew. He tried to remember the sound—had it been high-pitched enough to be Hailen? He could only swallow the dread writhing in his stomach and spur Elivast to greater speed.

  The trail wended its way upward, passing through a tunnel carved into the stone, between a narrow crevice in the bluffs, and around a sharp bend. The Hunter scanned the way ahead, desperately hoping for any sight of Hailen and the others. When he finally saw them, his blood ran cold.

  Evren and Hailen sheltered in a small hollow at the base of the cliff, staring wide-eyed at the two figures on the trail. Darillon lay on the rocky ground, expression twisted in pain, one corner of a massive boulder atop his chest. Rassek struggled in vain to lift the huge chunk of stone.

  The mountaineer whirled at the sound of his approach, his face ashen. "Hardwell! Help me here."

  "What happened?" the Hunter asked as he reined Elivast to a stop and threw himself from the saddle.

  "Th-those things," Rassek stammered, "the huge stone monsters, we heard them comin’, so we hid here, we did. We heard a crumblin’ sound, and when we looked up, the boulder was fallin’, ‘twas. Darillon he…" The man swallowed hard and shook his head. "He got the others out of the way in time."
/>   The Hunter studied the boulder. Twice as wide as he was tall, it had to weigh more than four horses. Yet the opposite end of the corner crushing Darillon was curved at enough of an angle he should be able to roll it slightly. Just enough to get the mountaineer free.

  "Help me here," he told Rassek, then turned to Evren. "Get ready to drag him out from underneath."

  Evren stared wide-eyed at the man on the ground. "H-He saved me. Hailen, too."

  "Evren!" The Hunter's voice cracked like a whip. "Be ready!"

  Evren blinked and nodded. "R-Ready."

  The Hunter ran his hands along the boulder's surface until he found a suitable grip. He clenched his jaw, drew in a deep breath, and heaved. The powerful muscles in his legs bunched with the effort of lifting, and fire burned a sharp pain down the back of his right calf. The boulder shifted slightly, but the Hunter’s grip slipped as the chunk of rock in his hands crumbled away. Darillon let out a weak gurgle of pain at the renewed pressure on his chest.

  Growling in frustration, the Hunter searched for a new handhold and shifted his position to get better leverage. He glanced at Rassek. Fear for his partner filled the mountaineer’s eyes. "On my count. One, two, THREE!"

  They heaved, and the muscles along the Hunter's spine groaned and threatened to snap at the strain. Yet the massive boulder shifted slightly, then lifted a finger’s breadth. A growl tore from the Hunter’s throat as he threw every shred of strength into the effort.

  "Got him!" Evren cried as he dragged Darillon from beneath the edge of the stone.

  The Hunter released the boulder, and the ground shook as the massive weight crashed to the ground.

  Rassek half-threw himself down at Darillon's side. "Darillon, can ye hear me?"

  The mountaineer was unconscious and straining to breathe. Though only the edge had caught Darillon's chest, the Hunter knew it had broken the man’s ribs. He’d seen more than his fair share of men in similar condition. Unless they received attention from a Sanctuary healer, they usually succumbed to their injuries.

  He placed a hand on Rassek's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said in a quiet voice.

  "No!" Rassek shook Darillon's head. "Wake up, Darillon. Don’t ye dare be leavin’ me, ye hear?"

  The Hunter went to Hailen, who stood nearby, eyes wide as he stared at the scene before him. He didn't brighten at sight of the Hunter, but sorrow filled his eyes. "Is he going to die? Like Eileen?"

  A lump rose in the Hunter's throat. Eileen had been the daughter of Natania and Ayden, the healer that traveled with Sirkar Jeroen’s caravan through the Advanat Desert. The little girl, weakened by influenza, had succumbed to her sickness and been discarded in the desert by the bandits that ripped her from her mother’s arms and killed her father. Hailen had been there when Il Seytani’s raiders dumped her like refuse.

  "I don't know," he told Hailen, truthfully.

  Darillon had a chance of survival, albeit a slim one. But one thing was certain: the mountaineer had to return to Vothmot.

  The Hunter went over to Rassek and crouched beside him "You need to take him back. You need to get him to the Sanctuary. It's his only hope."

  Rassek turned toward the Hunter, and tears filled his eyes. "But…Enarium…"

  "Will still be standing a month from now, a year from now." He thrust a finger at Darillon. "His only hope of survival is going back."

  Rassek scrubbed at his cheeks. "Our horses…"

  For the first time, the Hunter thought to look for the horses. Ash stood a short distance away, next to Evren's nag. But he saw no sign of the mountaineers' mounts.

  "What happened to them?"

  Rassek jerked a thumb toward the boulder. "It crushed mine, knocked Darillon's off the mountain."

  The Hunter's gut clenched. Darillon couldn’t survive the return journey to Vothmot on foot. Without a horse, the mountaineer wouldn't survive two hours.

  The words left his lips before he realized it. "Then you will take ours."

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Rassek stared at him wide-eyed. "What?"

  For a moment, the Hunter couldn't believe what he'd just said. He and Hailen needed the horses to reach Enarium, so why in the Watcher's name had he offered them to Rassek and Darillon?

  Realization hit him like a blow: he didn't want Darillon to die. Not that he had any great affection for the man, but he couldn't stomach the thought of another death added to his tally. Too many had died because of him. From Farida and the beggars in Voramis to Master Eldor in Kara-ket, the deaths had begun to weigh on him. He had no remorse for the lives he'd taken in self-defense or the guilty he'd killed, but there were other lives, innocent lives, snuffed out because of the Abiarazi and their machinations. He had grown tired of carrying the burden of guilt.

  "Take him back to Vothmot," he told Rassek in a quiet voice. "Get him to the Sanctuary. Save him."

  "Save him?" Rassek gave a sad little laugh, and fresh tears brimmed in his eyes. "He was the one who saved me, so long ago, he was. Even at the cost of his own soul."

  The Hunter raised an eyebrow.

  Rassek stroked Darillon's bald head and spoke in a halting voice. "Years ago, when we first started out, there was a client, a Malandrian nobleman, who…took a fancy to me. We needed the extra gold, see." He didn't look up. "But one day, the man turned violent, said he owned me. If I tried to resist, it only got worse, it did. He'd get his friends to join in the beatin’. I nearly died once. Until Darillon saved me."

  The man met the Hunter's eyes now. "People die in the mountains all the time, they do. No one suspected, not even the nobleman's friends. Not even me, until we returned to Vothmot and he told me what he'd done. That's the day I knew he loved me, and that's the day I fell in love with him, I did."

  The Hunter stood and placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Then take him home. Keep him alive."

  Rassek nodded. "I-I will."

  The Hunter left them there—Rassek cradling Darillon's head and whispering soothing words—and strode toward Hailen, who stood beside the horses.

  He drew in a deep breath. "Hailen, it's time to say goodbye to Ash."

  "Why?" the boy asked. Surprise and sorrow flashed in his violet eyes, and his little brow creased to match the frown on his thin lips.

  "Because Rassek and Darillon need them more than us right now." He crouched in front of the boy. "Darillon's hurt bad, and he needs to get to a healer. Elivast and Ash are going to help save his life."

  Hailen's eyebrows rose. "They will?"

  The Hunter nodded. "No one is faster than Ash, right?"

  "Right!" Hailen grinned.

  "So that means Ash is the best horse to get Darillon to the healer quickly."

  "And Ash would be sad without Elivast," the boy said, nodding. "They're best of friends."

  The Hunter smiled at the boy's innocent interpretation of the situation. "Exactly."

  Hailen glanced at Ash, and his eyes went round with sorrow. "I-I'm going to miss Ash." He rubbed the horse's long nose.

  "I know." The Hunter squeezed Hailen's shoulder. "Me, too."

  He strode to where Elivast stood waiting. The horse's ears pricked up, and he gave a little whinny at the Hunter's approach.

  The Hunter sighed. "Time for us to part ways, boy."

  Elivast nudged him, burying his long nose in the Hunter's clothes in search of treats.

  "Sorry, I'm all out of apples." The Hunter laughed and patted Elivast's face.

  The thought of saying goodbye brought a stab of pain to the Hunter's heart. He and the horse had traveled a long way together. They'd left Voramis, journeyed north to the Chasm of the Lost, and crossed the Bridge of Ilyerrion before Sir Danna and Visibos had thrown him into the canyon. He'd been surprised at his joy when he found the horse in the Beggar Priests' stables. Elivast had gotten him across the desert, to Aghzaret, and back to Il Seytani's camp to rescue Hailen.

  Though he'd never had much affection for horses in Voramis, the months of traveling with Elivast had chang
ed something within him. The horse was more than just his means of transportation or a beast of burden. In a way, Elivast had become a friend—one who never judged him, just accepted him with the simple affection only a horse could feel.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, the Hunter unstrapped his pack from Elivast's back and removed a bundle of hard trail biscuits, dried meat, and nuts. After removing Hailen's pack from Ash's saddle, he took up the lead ropes and led the horses to where Rassek sat cradling Darillon's head.

  "You'll need to travel slowly, else his injuries will worsen. The return journey will take a lot longer." He held out the bundle of food he'd taken from his pack. "You'll need this to get you home."

  Rassek's eyes widened. "But yer food—"

  The Hunter shook his head. "We've enough to get us to Enarium. This won't be enough to get you all the way back to Vothmot."

  "’Tis more than we have now." Gratitude filled Rassek's expression. "Thank ye, truly."

  The Hunter nodded, but could find no words. Instead, he simply dropped the horses' lead ropes next to Rassek.

  "We'll keep them safe against yer return," the mountaineer said. "Ye know where to be findin’ us."

  The Hunter nodded and held out a hand. "Watcher smile on you, Rassek."

  "Same to yerself, Hardwell," Rassek said as he reached up and shook the Hunter’s extended hand.

  When the Hunter turned, he found Evren already sitting in his saddle. "I'm comin’ with you," the young thief told him, his jaw set in a stubborn expression.

  "No, you're not." The Hunter shook his head. "Rassek's going to need your help getting Darillon back to Vothmot."

  "But—"

  "I can't take you with me, Evren," the Hunter said, his voice harsh. "There is only death in the mountains for you now."

  Evren's eyes hardened. "I ain’t no slouch. I can take care of myself. I can fight."

  "I know. You're as capable and clever a thief as I've ever met. But out here, that's not enough to survive."