The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures

by Craig Halloran

  The metal bars groaned. The door bowed against the lock.

  Nikkel wrapped his arms around Venir’s waist and started pulling him back.

  “Keep pulling! Keep pulling!” Billip said.

  The metal tore out of the lock. The heavy metal door ripped from the hinges.

  Venir threw it aside with a heave.

  The women rushed out of the cell.

  Jasper was wailing, “Get it off me! Get it off me!” The eebler was crawling up her robes. Billip grabbed the robes at the hem and tore them off over her head and tossed them far away. Aside from a flimsy cotton shift, Jasper was practically naked.

  The second eebler was crawling back out of the men’s cell. Its hungry jaws were chomping and grinding. Antennae popped up out of its back like horns, and it started to make an eerie shrieking sound. “EEEEeeeee!”

  “I’m not waiting around to see what happens!” Jasper turned to run away and bumped right into Melegal. She pushed past him, saying, “Where have you been, idiot!”

  Venir grabbed Melegal by the collar and shook him. “Where did you go?”

  “Unhand me.” Melegal dangled a ring of keys in front of Venir’s eyes. “I’m not a runaway like you.”

  Venir let him go, glanced back at the eebler, and started shoving everyone toward the door.

  CHAPTER 17

  The stable was the first place Venir went. He was relieved to find Chongo there, wagging his tails. Venir saddled up the two-headed dog and told him to find the dwarves.

  The huge dog led them into the greater depths of Dwarven Hole, farther down than Venir had ever been before. It must have been hundreds of feet down. Perhaps thousands.

  “We go any farther, and we’ll wind up in the Underland,” Billip said, eyeballing the cavernous stalagmite ceiling. “I say we head back out.”

  “No, we need to find out what happened. This is too strange.”

  Chongo was leading Venir now, and all of them were together, men and women. Everyone was oddly quiet. Venir couldn’t blame them. They must have been tired of the dwarven place after being cooped up for days.

  Venir rubbed Chongo’s necks. “Besides, Chongo is onto something, or we wouldn’t be down here.”

  They traveled another hour down wide passages and winding corridors. The smoothly cut stones no longer formed the tunnels; instead the fine architecture of the dwarves was nothing but cave walls.

  Chongo barked. The loud echoing sound startled everyone. He surged ahead, jostling Billip and Nikkel out of his path.

  Venir jogged after Chongo.

  The beast was sniffing and snorting at the floor and walls. Chongo let out a bark again and sprinted ahead.

  “Keep up, everybody!” Venir yelled back at his friends and took off at full speed.

  Chongo turned down one tunnel that formed a straight line. It got bigger, taller, and wider the farther he traveled. Chongo came to a stop. His stiff tails wagged from side to side. His huge heads hung over a ledge.

  Venir came alongside Chongo and looked down. Thousands of dwarves were milling about a camp-like city inside miles of humongous cavern. Tiny torches, lanterns, and glowing green rocks illuminated the odd place with strange light. There were tents and other small structures, stables, fences, and gardens as far as the eye could see. An underground river ran between the rocks and disappeared in the ground underneath. Almost all of the dwarves stood around quietly, as if they were waiting for something.

  Everyone finally caught up with Venir, and most of them were laboring for breath. Astonishment filled their eyes.

  “What are they doing?” Kam asked.

  Venir grabbed his pack off Chongo’s saddle and slung it over his shoulders. “Just wait here. I’m going down there to find out.” He took steps carved in the rock a hundred feet down into the underground valley and walked into the camp.

  The dwarves paid him no mind. Instead, they whittled, tended sheep, hammered iron, and completed dozens of other purposed and mundane tasks.

  What’s wrong with them? Why don’t they notice me?

  He sought out a dwarf dressed in a leather apron who hammered steel at a forge. “Blacksmith,” Venir said, “what is everyone doing down here?”

  Continuing his hammering, the blacksmith said, “The King told us to wait here until he returns, and we shall. Feel free to do the same, stranger.”

  “Mood told you this?”

  “Aye. King Mood. He’ll be back once the war is over.” The dwarf pounded the hot steel with his hammer.

  Bang! Bang!

  “We’ll be fine until then.”

  “What if he doesn’t return?”

  “We’ll give him fifty years.”

  Venir departed and rendezvoused with his friends.

  “Well?” Melegal asked.

  “I think your underling friend Elypsa has something to do with this,” Venir said as he took Chongo by the reins. “And my gut tells me Mood and the dwarves are heading into a trap. Kam, I’m going after him. I hate to say it, but—”

  “Don’t say it.” Kam hefted Erin up on her shoulders. “Because wherever you’re going, we’re going too.”

  Joline stepped forward. “But I’m not.” Her sweet face was creased with worry. She hugged Kam and Erin. “My heart can’t take any more adventure. I’d rather stay here with the dwarves, if they’ll take me in.”

  Billip took Joline’s hands. “I will stay with you, my sweetest.”

  A tear ran down Joline’s cheek. “No, they’ll need you. I’ll be here. You just make it back to me when this mess is over, Billip.” She gave him a long kiss followed up with a hug, and her body shuddered as tears ran down her cheeks. “Now go and put an end to the dirty little fiends.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Elypsa stepped out of a black portal onto the sand. The portal closed. The bright suns glared into her eyes, and she shielded them with her hand. Two black silhouettes stood in front of her with the suns to their backs. Her vision cleared, and she got a better look at them.

  A slender underling with citrine eyes, short hair, sharp teeth, and sandy-gray robes spoke first. “Greetings, Elypsa. Glad to see you are well.”

  “Of all the underlings to be found by, I am found by you, Kuurn.” She leered at the figure beside the mage. It was a vicious, all black and covered in smooth muscle. He was different than the others, however. A row of spikes went down his spine like hard jagged rocks. His elbows had spikes too. A sword was strapped on his back. “And what manner of fiend is this?”

  “Oh, my companion is a vicious of a new sort.” Kuurn looked at the humanoid with admiration. “He’s more underling than monster. A mind of his own and everything. Another successful experiment of Master Sinway’s.”

  Elypsa shot Kuurn a look. “Sinway sent you?”

  “So to speak. I volunteered, of course. Master Sinway offered his assistance.” The underling made a coy smile. “And if I’m successful, he’s promised me your hand.”

  Elypsa’s hands fell to her swords. “If you try to take my hand, I swear I’ll take yours.” She couldn’t stand Kuurn. The underling had fawned over her for a hundred years. She didn’t like his attention. Or his arrogance. Or the fact that he was a rival to her family, Catten and Verbard. Ever since the pair of brothers had died, Kuurn had reveled in reminding her family of their deaths.

  Standing a little taller than her, Kuurn smoothed his robes with his long fingers. “You really ought to be thankful, Elypsa. You were in quite a predicament. If not for my grand skill, the dwarves would have turned you into a pot of stew.”

  Elypsa turned around. Dwarven Hole was miles away. “I had it under control. I soon would have been free without your help.”

  “Oh, you don’t know these lands well enough to survive on your own, Elypsa. You’re skilled with the sword, but you’re a kept woman. Without Sidebor, you never would have made it this far. What happened?”

  “I believe I had a run-in with the Darkslayer.” She ground her teeth and squeezed the hilts
of her swords. “I almost had him.”

  “What happened to Sidebor? The slayer killed him? It looked more like something else happened.” Kuurn floated beside her and held a ruby gem. It gleamed in the suns for her to see. It was Sidebor’s eye.

  “So you found him. Good. And no, the slayer didn’t kill him. Someone else did.” Still staring toward Dwarven Hole, she noticed something else coming. It was the black shadow from the dungeons. “Your elemental returns, I see.”

  Kuurn revealed a small black gem-speckled jewel-box from his robes and opened it up. The shade, part man and part shadow, blinked its pair of glowing eyes and vanished into the box. The underling mage closed it and tucked the box back into his robes. “Feel free to thank me anytime, my soon to be betrothed. Now, it’s time to resume our journey. Master Sinway is waiting to hear about your betrayal and your adventures.”

  “Not yet.” Her eyes were still fixed on Dwarven Hole. “Where is Master Sinway?”

  “He’s in the City of Bone.”

  “We aren’t going back to the Underland?”

  “No, he requires our services in Bone.”

  “And what about the dwarves marching toward Bone? Are the underlings ready for that?”

  “You planted the seed, Elypsa. Whether or not it blossoms is yet to be determined. Either way, our kind is ready for them.” He stretched out his hand. “Come now. We need to begin our journey.”

  “We’re walking?”

  “For now.” He looked at her feet and rose higher from the ground. “Well, you and the vicious will be walking.”

  “We need to wait.”

  “And why is that?”

  “In case those humans survive.”

  “You mean the eeblers didn’t take care of that?”

  “I didn’t stand around and watch. The portal was open, so I went.”

  Kuurn shrugged. “Fine. We’ll wait a bit, but only because it’s my wish to please you, and I know you’ll want to delay your reunion with Sinway as long as you can. See how compassionate I am?”

  She didn’t reply. She stood with the suns at her back, wind whipping her cotton-white hair like a flag. Keen eyes searching the barren landscape, she stood as a statue hour after hour. Finally, a small party on horseback and on a beast emerged from the ground.

  Kuurn leaned over her shoulder and smirked. “Are those the people you should have killed?”

  She nodded.

  He glanced at the vicious. “We’d better finish the job.”

  “One of those people is the Darkslayer,” she said.

  “Even better. I’m sure Master Sinway would love to have his head.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Coming out of his trance, Fogle stretched out his arms and yawned. He opened and closed the spellbook in his lap.

  One. Two. Three.

  The book shrunk down to hand size. He set it aside, rubbed his eyes, and yawned again.

  Hours of study take it out of a man. I wonder if there’s any coffee in our packs.

  He pushed the tent flap open and crawled outside. It was morning, and the first sun was already above the tree line. The camp was quiet. “Jubilee?”

  “Mrph!”

  Fogle’s head whipped around. Jubilee was bound up in the same spot Jarla had been. The brigand queen and her horse were gone. He scrambled over to Jubilee and pulled the rag from her mouth. “What happened?”

  Jubilee spat. “Blecht! Thing tasted awful. It’s about time you crawled out of there, Fogle. I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up.”

  Untying her bindings, he said, “I wasn’t sleeping, I was meditating. Now, what happened? Where’s Jarla?”

  Rubbing her wrists, Jubilee said, “I don’t know.”

  “How did she get away, Jubilee?” He grabbed her shoulders. “Think!”

  “Settle down, will you?” She shoved his hands away and pointed. “I was sitting right there in front of the fire, and we were talking. She was giving me some sob story about her troubled life. It was boring. I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was tied to this tree. Happy?”

  “Slat!” he said, rubbing his neck.

  Jubilee got up and went to check on Brak. He was still sleeping. “He still doesn’t look so good. Are we going to go after Jarla?”

  “Bish, no,” he said, scanning the camp. “Why would we do that? I’m trying to figure out why the woman didn’t kill us all.”

  “She probably figures we’re as good as dead already,” Jubilee said. “We really need to do something about Brak. His fingers are turning blue, and his nose is all snotty.”

  Fogle stood up and slammed his hands on his knees. “Let’s pack it up, then.”

  She looked around. “Pack it up? And go where?”

  “Two-Ten City, I suppose.”

  “Why?”

  Rubbing his head, he said, “I don’t really know why, but I can’t think of anywhere else to go, so it might as well be there.”

  “And you know how to get there?”

  “It shouldn’t be hard. It’s not like there aren’t trails everywhere. Who knows, maybe we’ll find good fortune along the way.” He reached down and pulled out one of his tent’s stakes. “I hate doing this.”

  It took half an hour for them to pack everything up. They still had the horses and mules. Fogle couldn’t help but wonder why Jarla would leave them, but as far as he could figure, she must have wanted to move fast. Still thinking of her, he threw his pack on the saddle and tied it down. “Jubilee, make sure Brak is secure.”

  “I will,” she said from somewhere out of his sight.

  He turned to grab another pack from the ground and found himself face to face with Jarla. “You?”

  Jarla slugged him in the jaw so hard it knocked him on his knees. “It’s me, mage.” She kicked him in the gut. “Now tell me who’s in charge.”

  Jubilee rushed at Jarla with a knife. “Get away from him.”

  The brigand queen twisted the blade away from the child and backhanded her in the face. She glared at both of them. “I’ve been no more than ten yards away, watching your every move. A blind kobold could have found me.” She reached down, grabbed Fogle by the robes, and hauled him up. Face to face with him, she said, “I should have slit your throat.”

  “Why didn’t you?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she half said, half hissed. She pushed him away and marched over to Brak then reached inside a pouch and started putting blue-green moss in his mouth. “Perhaps because he’s still my commander.”

  Brak’s jutting jaw started to chew.

  Jubilee wandered over to Jarla. “What does that do?”

  With a little shrug, Jarla said, “We shall see, won’t we. Let’s go.”

  Rubbing his face, Fogle said, “So you’re cooperating now?”

  Jarla put her fingers to her lips and made a sharp whistle. Nightmare trotted out of the nearby brush. “Ten yards away,” she said. “You thought you could follow the trails to Two-Ten City, but you couldn’t find an orc if it sat on your nose.”

  With his hands on his head, Fogle said to her, “You really do have an unpleasant way with words.”

  “It keeps people away,” she said as she climbed up into the saddle. “Coming?”

  Fogle gave her a nod.

  I don’t know what’s going on, but I think I like it. After all, if she wanted us dead, we’d be dead. I must be growing on her. Maybe I should be surprised. I must have something going.

  The journey was slow and steady once they made it into the edge of the jungles at the top of the south. Jarla led the way. She seemed at ease and even talked from time to time. Fogle did his best to keep up with her and engage in the conversation.

  He smashed a mosquito on his arm and said, “Is it possible every part of Bish is insufferable? I thought the greenery would give me a break from the sun, but it’s worse.” Sweat dripped into his eyes. He mopped it away with his sleeve. “I miss the dry heat of the Outlands already.”

  Jarla looked back at
him. Her excellent figure glistened with sweat. She was like a panther back in her home. “You won’t get used to it, so stop complaining.”

  “Easy for you to say. It looks good on you. I must look like a sopping-wet hound.”

  “You do,” she said.

  With Jarla leading the way, they survived another two nights and a day. And then they emerged from the shortcuts of the southern jungles. The vine-coated trees thinned, and the open plains emerged. In the distance was a city. Dirt roads led to it from several directions. A few people milled about. There were buildings too. Nothing tall or notable, but many, huddled together, built from wood and stone.

  Squinting, Fogle said, “That’s Two-Ten City?”

  “Yes,” Jarla said. “You sound surprised.”

  “I just thought it would be bigger. Is it big enough to be called a city?”

  Jubilee rode up alongside Fogle and said, “It doesn’t look like a city to me. It looks like a bunch of slat houses.” She fanned her hand in front of her nose. “It stinks. What is that smell?”

  Sniff! Sniff!

  Everyone turned to where Brak lay on the stretcher. He’d been silent for days. Now, his eyes were open and he wrestled with his bonds. His nostrils were flaring, sniffing and snorting.

  Jubilee jumped from her horse and ran to him. “Easy, Brak. Take it easy!”

  “Hungry!” he said with a wild look in his eyes.

  “Oh no,” Jubilee said. “Fogle, he’s got that look in his eyes. He hasn’t eaten in days. He must be starving! And we don’t have any food.”

  “Keep him bound up,” Fogle said. “We’ll go into town and get him some food.”

  Brak strained against his bonds.

  Jubilee backed away.

  Brak tore out of his stretcher and ripped it to shreds.

  Snap! Snap! Crack!

  Wild-eyed and nostrils flaring, the mountain of a man stormed toward Two-Ten City.

  CHAPTER 20

  Melegal sat up in the saddle. His back was stiff. He stretched from side to side. For two days he and the company had been traveling nonstop at a quick pace. He’d sickened of the heat already. Now, suns high in the sky, traversing the barren Outlands, he and Nikkel remained with Kam, Erin, and Jasper. Nikkel was in front, and Melegal rode in the rear, talking to his pony, Quickster, more than anybody.