With hot blood surging through his veins, Venir turned on the last underling. The underling made his way to his knees. Venir kicked the underling in the face, and the underling’s neck snapped.
“Stop! You fool!” the jailer called the other underlings down on Venir. They formed a tight circle of steel around him. “Back off, warrior! One more step and we will gore you.”
Venir dropped the bloody stick. Without even breathing heavily, he said, “Is the audition over?”
The jailer sought a signal from the audience. Kazzar gave him a nod.
“Back to the cell.”
***
Venir and Creed were chained up in their dungeon cell. Corrin was gone.
“You bleed,” Creed said, eyeing the bloody gash on Venir’s hip. “A little slow on the draw?”
“There were two of them. Slippery devils got a nick, but I finished them for good.”
“Did you see Altan Rey?”
“Aye, I’m not so sure what to make of the situation.”
Creed drew one knee to his chest and leaned against the wall. “Having any doubts about this plan?”
“There’s always risk. This isn’t exactly my area of expertise. I was planning on Melegal for that. Now he’s gone. It’s an issue.”
“So, you think that you’ll get the axe back when the time comes, don’t you?”
Venir nodded.
“That’s quite a leap of faith. I’m not so sure I’d go that route.”
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Touché.”
Venir matted his hand over his wound as he gave Creed’s word some thought. He’d put faith in the armament and Melegal. Faith wasn’t his forte. He relied on himself. Now, his instincts were crying out that he’d made a mistake. He mulled it over a few more times and let it go. If one door closes, I’ll kick another one open.
About thirty minutes later, the dead silence in the dungeon was interrupted.
“Corrin returns,” Creed said with a smile.
One underling unlocked the cell, and another two underlings shuffled through the door. Between them they carried a carpet roll that was stuffed in the middle. They set the roll down, exited the cell, slammed the door shut, sniggered, and departed.
Creed’s eyes were bigger than saucers. The carpet was stained with fresh blood. He looked at Venir. Venir shook his head. Hand over hand, Creed unrolled the carpet. “Gah!”
Corrin’s head rolled over the stone floor. His limbs were severed. The body was gashed all over.
CHAPTER 19
Barton scooped up a stone and hurled it at Georgio. Georgio dove to the ground and scrambled behind the trunk of a tree.
“You cheated! You cheated!” Barton screamed. A rock smashed into the tree trunk, jarring Georgio’s body. Fruit rained down from the branches.
“You lost, Barton!” Georgio yelled back. “Now you’re cheating!”
Another boulder smote the tree.
“It is impossible! No one knows my name! Never, tiny people, never!” Barton’s footsteps shook the ground. He rushed the tree where Georgio sought cover. Branches snapped. With a heavy rustling sound, they were slung aside. “I will kill you, curly head. I will kill you and the squirrel man!”
Georgio took off at a dead sprint as far away from Barton as his legs would take him. There was no sign of Lefty in the grove. Where is he? Barton tore the tree down with his bare hands. Georgio spied a hiding spot among a large pile of moss-covered boulders. He crammed his body into a cleft where the rocks butted up with one another. His hips got stuck. “Donkey crap!” He spied Lefty burrowed deep in the cleft. “Lefty, help me!”
Lefty crawled over, grabbed Georgio’s arms, and pulled. “You have to push!”
“I am pushing!”
“You aren’t moving!”
“You aren’t pulling!” Georgio wriggled with all of his might.
Lefty’s expression strained. He puffed out and pulled.
“Ack!” Something clamped down on Georgio’s legs. “He’s got me, Lefty!” Their fingertips locked. “Don’t let go of me!”
Barton ripped Georgio out of Lefty’s grip and held him upside down by the ankles. “You lied. I kill you now!”
“I didn’t lie, you lost!” he shouted.
Barton slung Georgio into a pile of nearby boulders. Georgio hit the boulders with a sickening smack.
***
Lefty screamed. Georgio slid like wet mud down the rocks. The man’s face was bleeding. His eye socket was crushed. He didn’t move.
Barton fixed his good eye on Lefty. “You are next, cheater!”
“You are the cheater! I won fair! It’s true what they say! Giants are liars and murderers!”
Barton lunged at him.
Lefty darted into the hole.
The giant stuffed his hand inside. “Come here, squirrel man. Let me crush you in my fingers! Barton will eat good this night!”
CHAPTER 20
A battle raged between a battalion of dwarven soldiers and thrice the number of black fiends. The swarm of evil plowed into the everlasting steel of the durable dwarves that secured one of the necks leading deeper into the Columns. Dwarves fired into the underlings’ ranks from rocky ledges with crossbows and ballistae. Higher above, small catapults hurled rocks with deadly precision. A stone bigger than Brak turned four underlings and the spider they rode into mush. He let out a cheer.
Chongo’s nostrils flared as he snorted. Brak and the beast followed two blood rangers charging into the back right ranks, where the dwarven forces had thinned. Underlings riding the backs of spiders, and many scurrying on foot, scrambled up the face of the rocks and into the channel. They cut dwarves down from behind.
“Go, Chongo! Go! Yah!” Brak roared. The dog leapt forward. Chongo bore down on a spider as big as him with a pair of underling riders. The beast smashed into the spider full force. His jaws locked on the long, hairy spidery legs. He ripped them off.
Small crossbow bolts ricocheted off Brak’s breastplate. Something sharp skinned his face. He brought the cudgel down in a windmill chop. The underling’s sharp teeth busted out. Its skull cracked like an egg. Brains oozed out.
An underling leapt from the writhing spider’s back at Brak. Chongo’s right head snatched the underling out of the air. His crushing jaws cracked bones. The dog shook the underling like a rag doll and slung it aside.
Underlings and spiders scurried up the jagged rocks toward the dwarves, who fired volley after volley from above.
“There, Chongo! There!” Brak pointed. Chongo was already moving at full speed. The dog leapt onto a ledge in pursuit of the underling climbers. The dog’s claws dug into the stone, taking them higher and higher from one ledge to another. Brak clung fiercely to the saddle as Chongo scrambled up the side like a mad beast. Brak took a swing at an underling climber that didn’t see them until it was too late. The blow crushed the back of the underling’s neck. “Feel my fury!” Brak laughed wildly.
Chongo’s paw sank into the back flesh of an underling climber he’d overtaken. The body bounced down on the crushing rocks of death. A dwarven crossbowman fell from one of the higher ledges with a javelin sticking out of his neck. They scrambled up to the next ledge. Chongo engaged in a fierce fight with another massive spider. More underlings crested the rim. Brak swung at everything that moved that wasn’t a part of Chongo.
Underlings hacked at Brak with axes and knives. His cudgel collided with bone, and the underlings howled and screeched. Small crossbow bolts zinged off his armor. Brak couldn’t get his bearings on the smaller and quicker force. He got hit with everything, but the dwarven armor held.
“Come on, black fiends! You can’t hurt me!” he roared.
Rope lassoed his neck. Three wiry underlings with steel-strong muscles ripped Brak out of the saddle. He hit the ledge, coughing and choking. The trio of underlings jerked the rope on his neck hard. His eyes bulged. Another knot of the fiends pounced on him. Their steely knives jabbed between th
e gaps in his armor. One of them bit into his neck. “Gargh!”
Where did they all come from so fast?
The underlings clung to his arms and legs like leeches. The trio with the rope stretched his neck. The rope burned. Red blood splattered in his eyes. His blood. The underlings stabbed into him with all their strength. Brak rocked against them. “Get you’re arses off of me!” They kept jabbing and chittered with wicked glee.
CHAPTER 21
Melegal angled toward another alley. A steely-armed underling dove on his legs. Its claws dug into the backs of his thighs. He punched the underling on the top of its head. Another underling clubbed him in the side of the jaw. Melegal’s world wobbled. The club dashed him in the face and ribs several times.
I hate these things!
The underlings delivered several more bone-jarring lumps. Blinding pain shot though Melegal’s joints. His face swelled and bled. Melegal wasn’t used to bleeding. Ever. He avoided it, but now, he’d been consumed.
So close. Why are the women always so attracted to me?
Melegal had almost pulled off the perfect escape if not for the woman, Sanny. She had belted out his departure to the entire city.
I should have choked her out.
The underlings secured his hands behind his back and shoved him back down the alley. He limped along, leaning heavily on his good leg. His knee had cracked the cobblestones hard when he was tackled. He scanned the alley, searching the windows, doors, and storm grate. There had to be another way out.
The underlings poked into his back with the butts of their weapons. They chittered and spit on him. The knot of black fiends was a dozen strong. The other underling sentries and their spiders had crept out of sight, down the alleys, around the corners, up the walls, and onto the roof. Melegal spit blood from his busted mouth.
The blasted fiends are everywhere!
The pit of despair in his stomach grew. At the same time, his anger toward Altan Rey surged. The mage had betrayed them. The traitor had stolen something very special, and he was going to get away with it. He wondered if the mage knew of the cap’s power, or the ring for that matter. Mages had a knack for such things, but how would the mage know?
Melegal was marched out of the alley that he’d originally dashed into. Back in the streets, the prison wagon he’d escaped was being led across the street toward the gallows. Sanny screamed through the bars at him. Practically squealing, she said, “Gloomy, why did you leave me? I don’t want to die alone. Die with me!”
If she wanted to die so badly, I should have killed her myself. I am such a fool!
The underlings hurried Melegal across the wide-open Royal Roadway with nothing but underlings, and a few city watchmen who assisted, among the gathering crowds. The underlings lined him up with the others being herded out of the prison wagon. Men and women wailed. They dropped on their knees, threw their arms around the underlings, and pleaded.
Sanny squeezed through the flock and wrapped her arms around him. “We shall die and be together forever, Gruesome.”
“I can’t imagine anything worse than that.”
“Me either.”
The underlings drove them up the steps to the top level of the gallows. One by one, nooses were slung over their necks. Melegal eyed the trap floor that groaned under his feet. It creaked as if it was about to give any second. He searched for familiar faces or some ally in the crowd. There was nothing but a flock of evil howling for spilt blood. For the first time in his life, Melegal the Rat didn’t see a way out. Bish!
CHAPTER 22
Creed had rolled Corrin’s body back into the blood-soaked carpet. His hands were stained in blood. Flies gathered over the corpse, and it began to stink. With his head down, Creed said, “He was an unlikely friend. He stuck by my side for no reason that I could see other than helping me fight underlings.”
“Losing any man that kills those black bastards is a loss for us all.” Venir fanned a fly out of his face. “Just take more of the black hearts down when you get a chance to avenge him.”
“Is that what drives you, Venir? Vengeance?”
“I enjoy killing the bastards.” He smashed a fly between his hands with a clap. “Perhaps I could call it vengeance, but deep in my bowels, I know that it’s survival. It’s them or us, always.”
“That fight will never end,” Creed said with his head still down.
“It will if I kill them all.”
“Don’t you mean if we kill them all?”
“I’ll take all of the help I can get.”
“You talk like a one-man army.”
“I’ve been at this a very long time. Most of what I’ve done, I’ve done alone.”
Creed lifted his head. “How many underlings have you killed?”
“Thousands.”
“Single-handedly?”
“Most of them. They really pile up when you chop down two at a time.”
Creed shook his head. “I can’t imagine myself killing that much of anything. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t wield the armament.”
“Sometimes, the armament wields you.”
“Yes, I think that was my problem.” Creed’s eyes fell on the bloody rug. “I don’t suppose he’ll get a proper burial.”
The main door to the dungeon opened with a skreel. Venir could hear cell doors being opened and prisoners being led out. After several minutes, he got the feeling they were all alone as the main door was closed. Altan Rey appeared in front of their cell. “We are alone. It’s time to speak.”
Creed jumped to his feet. The chains snapped taut. His sinewy arms bulged. Spitting out of his mouth, he said, “You killed my friend!”
“No,” Altan Rey said, “You killed him. Both of you. His blood is on your hands. You were told not to kill the underlings, yet you did. It was an exhibition, and even the underlings have honor. They took retribution out on your friend.”
“You could have stopped it!” Creed yelled.
“And draw suspicion? That would be mad! Be glad that the both of you still live after your clever tricks. That was foolish.” Altan Rey’s yellow eyes flashed. “You almost ruined everything! Do as I say!”
Brows knitted together, Venir came to his feet. “Why would we do that? You poisoned us, and Melegal is gone! Where is he?”
“I had to sell the capture, Venir!” Altan looked toward the main entrance and lowered his voice. “I have to be able to sell the underlings on this. Do you think it is easy for me to pull off this disguise of Kazzar? The underlings are not fools.” He wiped a fly from his chin. “As for Melegal, he was not meant for fighting in the pits. It was certain death for him. He’s imprisoned elsewhere.”
“That wasn’t the agreement,” Venir said.
“No, but there wouldn’t be any other explanation to my superiors for it. Melegal is an apt fellow. I’m confident he’ll slip out of his shackles given the opportunity.”
Glowering at Altan Rey, Creed said, “For all we know, he’s dead, Venir.”
“I don’t suppose there is any way for us to know one way or the other, is there, wizard?” Venir said.
“I’m moving forward with the original plan at hand.” Altan glanced at the rug. “Certainly you knew there would be casualties. Be glad you are not among them.”
With a growl, Venir said, “Where is my gear, Altan?”
“It is in my possession. Is there anything in particular that I should know about it?”
“Not letting it out of your sight would be one thing.”
“It’s secured. Listen to me now. Despite your ill-advised actions, I have good news. Your formidable actions impressed the underlings. You are being taken to Castle Kling. Now, play along, and keep your mouths closed. We will only get one more shot at this.” Altan gave them a quick bow and departed.
“I don’t know if this situation is getting better or worse,” Creed said.
“Worse,” Venir said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Altan had M
elegal’s ring on.”
CHAPTER 23
Georgio lifted his busted face off the soft ground. Blood dripped from his nose. His jaw hung and his breathing rattled. With burning pins shooting through his limbs, he managed to climb to his feet. Across the way, Barton was on all fours with his behind pointed toward Georgio. Lefty was crying out his name.
“Coming,” Georgio said, but it came out as garble. He held his sagging jaw with one hand. He couldn’t see out of one eye either. He ran his meaty fingers through his locks. They were sticky with warm blood. “Feels like I have a dent in it.” He spied his sword lying on the ground. Stumbling over, he picked it up. The grove started to spin. The ground beneath him wobbled. He fell down.
“Get out of there, little squirrel!” Barton yelled. “You trickster. I will eat you for it. Come out!”
Georgio took long, deep breaths. Gathering himself, he set off toward the backside of the giant. On unsteady feet, he ambled over close enough to swing. The giant’s toes were deep in the soft earth. Barton’s Achilles tendon was exposed. Georgio hacked right into it.
Barton lurched up. “Aaaaargh!” He jumped up and fell back on the ground. Leaning against the boulders, he held his ankle. “I can’t walk! I can’t walk! What did you do to me?”
“I tried to cut your foot off!” Georgio said, but it didn’t come out right. His jaw ached.
“What?”
Georgio moved toward Barton and cocked his sword back.
The giant cringed. “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! Please, that hurts!”
The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures Page 33