“Cass is. I don’t think she’s going to be waking up anytime soon. It won’t be safe forever here either. Fogle, I’m scared.”
“Nothing wrong with that. Fear happens to all of us.”
“Not to Venir. I don’t think that man is scared of anything. Are you?”
“I used to be. Not so much anymore.” He closed his spellbook and tucked it under his arm. “Certainly, my bowels quake before battle, and I guess some of that is fear, but whatever it is, I’m willing to face it.”
Jubilee spun around with Erin. “So, you won’t run?”
“If it’s something I must face, I’d say I wouldn’t.”
“Really.” Jubilee offered a smirk. “So, if Venir wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t run?”
Fogle stiffened. “That’s an odd question. Are you sure that you are scared?”
“Yes. I can tell because my imagination begins to run wild. My heart races and my mind goes crazy.” She bit her nails again. “It’s weird.”
“So, you are imagining Venir and me fighting?”
“No, I’m imagining him chopping you in half with Brool.”
“Why would Venir do such a thing?” he said.
“I see the way you cozy up to Kam. Your eyes devour her. I don’t think Venir would like that. He’d probably kill you.”
Fogle’s knees quaked. Guilt and shame stirred inside his chest. If Jubilee saw it, there was no telling how many others did. Venir was a hard man. Fogle respected him, but there was some lingering jealousy that rose to the surface too. “Is it so obvious?”
“You aren’t fooling anybody, but she isn’t fooling anyone either. The eyes are a dead giveaway.” She hoisted Erin in the air and started spinning. “Your father’s going to beat up Fogle, little lady.”
“Don’t say that.”
Erin made loud gleeful giggles.
Jubilee came to a stop. Her eyes grew big. “Venir!”
“No need to start the teasing,” Fogle said. A bestial snort lifted him out of his sandals. He almost tripped over his robes as he turned. Venir led Chongo inside the barn. Brak was behind them. Matted in blood, paint, and gore, even with the helmet off, Venir’s appearance was terrifying. Fogle’s heart thumped so loud he could hear it.
“Brak!” Jubilee let Erin run to her father as she ran over to Brak. “I’d hug you but, ick! You’re a scary mess.”
Brak patted her head. “I know. It’s good to see you too.”
Venir scooped Erin up in one arm. Cradling her, he said to Fogle, “Where did you put Kam? Did you bury her?”
Fogle’s pale face brightened. “She lives, Venir, but she’s in a coma. We have no idea if she’ll wake up or not.”
Venir’s expression darkened. “Take me to her.”
CHAPTER 36
Kam lay on a clean bed of hay with a blanket covering her body. Venir held her hand in his big paws. She was cold. Her complexion was as bleak as he’d ever seen. The only other person in the stable was Cass. “She’s alive?”
“If barely breathing is living, she’s living.” Cass traced her soft fingers over Kam’s forehead. Magic markings pulsed on her skin. “Don’t let my ministerings bother you, Venir. They let me know if anything goes wrong. Frankly, I’m very shocked that she still breathes. You can thank Slim for that. He sacrificed much to save her.”
“I’ve seen countless people die. She was dead when she went into the portal. I know it.”
“She was dead for a little while. Slim’s powers revived her.”
Venir rubbed Kam’s hands with his thumbs. “Slim is not a man in the way that we are men, anymore. He is different. I don’t think Kam would want to be like that.”
“Do you fear that she will have bug fingers? Would that be so bad if she lived?”
“She wouldn’t want to live if she wasn’t fully a woman. I know that much.” The guilt Venir carried that he’d fought so hard to tamp down began to resurface. Kam had suffered more than anyone because of him. She’d lost a hand, been kidnapped, got overtaken by Master Sidebor, and was stabbed to death. He didn’t want her to die, but he didn’t want her to suffer anymore either. “We can’t stay here. We need to take her somewhere safer.”
“No, she is safe enough here. I can conceal her. You’ll just have to trust me to do this while you battle against those underlings.” She stroked Kam’s cheek with the back of her hand. “She is a very strong woman. She fights for her daughter… and you I suppose. As long as you keep fighting, I think she’ll keep fighting.” She touched Venir’s arm. “Don’t blame yourself. Bish has messed up since long before you got here. Take care of those underlings. Avenge her.”
Knuckles rapped lightly on the outside of the closed stable door.
“Go away,” Venir said, not hiding his irritation.
The stable door cracked open. Melegal slipped inside. Seeing Kam, he took his hat off. He gathered himself on the other side of her body across from Venir and said, “I just found out. She lives though?”
“It was a mortal wound, but aye, she lives,” Venir said.
“She’ll make it. I’m sure she has plenty of coarse words to share with you. For what it’s worth, I got the flag up.” Melegal dusted a strand of hay from his sleeve. “The underlings have taken it down, however. I’ve no idea if the others saw it. Jubilee told me Billip and Nikkel are tracking Hoff. He had many riders, but I saw no signs of them on my way over here.”
“No, we’ve got to get that gate down. I just wanted to see her again before I left.” His gaze hung on Cass. “Thank you for taking care of her. I’ll be back.”
Venir and Melegal departed. Melegal closed the stable behind them. Fogle, Jubilee, Erin, Brak, Ebenezer, and Creed were waiting outside. Creed had been patched up enough by Cass to stop the bleeding. His severed wrist was bound up in rags.
“How is Kam?” Brak said.
“She’s still with us,” Venir said.
Erin rushed over to the stable and pounded on the door. Cass let her slip inside.
“If you like, I’ll see if I can’t track Billip and Nikkel down,” Melegal said as he placed his cap back on.
“I’ll go with you,” Jubilee offered.
“No, you will not.”
“But I’ve been in this barn the entire time. I need to get out of this stale air. And away from these spiders.” Cornered in the rafters was a pigeon trapped in webbing. “They make me miss the nasty birds that crap everywhere.”
The old stableman ambled into the room. “Someone comes.”
Everyone spread out, concealing themselves among the stables. Jarla limped into the front entrance of the barn, using one sword like a cane. A crude cut stretched over her forehead.
Fogle hustled over to her. “Are you all right?”
“Don’t I look all right?”
“I’ve seen you look better. Quick, someone get her something to drink.”
Jubilee brought over a bucket of water and stuck it in Jarla’s face. “Drink up.”
Peering in the bucket, Jarla frowned. “No thanks.”
Jubilee poured the foul water onto the ground and said, “I’m disappointed you’re not dead.”
“I feel the same about you, but I can always take care of that if I need to.”
“Do it then,” Jubilee said. Brak led the girl away.
Jarla gave Venir and Melegal a once-over. “I should have been dead. The underlings had me in their sights, but something led them away. I’m guessing it was the armament. I was ready to cash it in, and they all left. I managed to slip out after that. It wasn’t easy.” She glanced at everyone. “Should I move on?”
“Of course not,” Fogle said. “You are among allies.”
“Do you feel the same, Venir?”
“We settled our issues some time ago.”
A horse in the stables made a very distinct nicker. Jarla’s coarse expression lightened. “Nightmare!” She hobbled to the stable and led the grand black horse out. She hugged its neck. “How?”
F
ogle wiggled his fingers. Addressing Melegal, he pointed at another stable and said, “Oh, and your pack mule is here as well.”
With a wry smile, Melegal said, “Quick pony.” He gave a nod as he started toward the stable.
The distinct and rich sound of a dwarven horn sent the birds out of the rafters and the spiders scurrying. Jubilee jumped.
Venir’s blood ignited. “Hear that?” Horse hooves thundered down the streets. He grabbed his axe and helm and jumped onto Chongo’s saddle. “It’s time to take down the western gate!”
CHAPTER 37
With dust devils swirling around his feet, Lefty said to Georgio, “I’m ashamed.”
“Ah, get your chin up. I’m alive, aren’t I?” Georgio gulped from a water skin. “Ah! Want some?”
“I’m not thirsty.”
A strange turn of events had occurred since Georgio had survived the pyre of fire. The striders, one and all, had embraced him. According to Kocus, he was a great sign from Bish and they would do anything he asked, within reason. Now, for the most part, Georgio was leading the striders toward Bone to join the war in the wasteland.
“Look at this, Lefty,” he said, dusting his charred skin from his flesh. It flaked off, revealing pink skin underneath. “I think in a few more hours I’ll be whole again. I wonder if I can’t be killed.” He guzzled down more water.
“Be careful. Maybe you can drown.”
“Will you quit being such a sap? I’m alive.” He thumbed his chest. “It feels good to be alive.” He scratched his head. “I’m not very keen on my hair missing. Do I look funny bald?”
Eyes toward the ground, Lefty managed to peek up at him. “Well, no, not really. Georgio, what happened to you haunts me. How can you go about this as if it didn’t happen? You were terrified! Do you remember screaming? I can’t close my eyes without hearing it. I know I’ll never be able to sleep again.” His face drew taut. “The horror.”
“I must have blacked out. Bish happens. Now quit sulking. We have weapons, a small armory, and those strider women are pretty interesting. Did you see them? Very ample for bug-faced ladies. Is that twisted?”
Lefty punched him in the leg. “You’re twisted. What is wrong with you? If what happened to you happened to me, I’d crawl into a hole and never come back out.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Yes, I would.” Lefty stuck his hand underneath his armpits, muttering to himself.
“Say, perhaps you can put this venture in one of your tomes. What happened to all of those?”
“I’m not writing it down.”
“You wrote all of Venir’s. And many others. Why not mine?”
“I don’t want to. Leave me alone.”
Georgio shrugged. He wasn’t exactly sure why Lefty was mad at him. If anything, it should have been the other way around. The truth was, he’d never felt more alive. He’d been stabbed and burned all in one day. The pain was excruciating. He saw his own skin smoking. His blood boiled from the heat. Yet, he lived and laughed about it. For the longest time, he was terrified by the vicious underling that slashed his throat in the Warfield. Even knowing he could regenerate, the mere thought of it terrified him. Now, that fear had passed. He was ready for anything.
The columns of marching striders stirred. There was a commotion in the front. In a herd, all of the striders moved as one.
Georgio chased after them. Lefty sped in front of him. The striders encircled a giant. It was Barton. Running through the striders’ ranks and waving his arms over his head, Georgio shouted, “Don’t kill him. He’s a friend!”
Kocus barred his path. A dozen striders with spears did the same. “This giant is no friend. Giants are enemies of the striders.”
“You’ll have to trust me.”
“No! Giant will die!” Kocus raised a spear high in the air. “Hauk! Hauk! Hauk! Kill it!”
***
A brawny giant with shoulder muscles up to his ears slugged it out with a giant arachnid as big as him. Hard punches landed in the spider’s abdomen, shaking the underling rider off. The spider sank its venomous teeth in the giant’s shoulder. The teeth snapped off on the hard metal armor. The giant picked the arachnid up over his head. With a roar, he slammed the spider to the ground and stomped on it. Bug guts and goo squirted out.
Nearby, a second spider just as big as the last scurried toward the giant. Its spinnerets shot webbing into the giant’s face. The giant clawed at his eyes. The webbing held his hand fast. The spider covered the giant in webbing. The giant fought and strained. The huge man fell down, pitching forward on top of dwarves and underlings. The ones that didn’t dash out of his path in time were either crushed or stuck to the web.
The huge arachnid sank its teeth into the giant’s foot and began sucking the blood out.
“Get those torches lit!” Aaluun cried out to the dwarves. The huge spiders were spraying strands of webbing everywhere. The dwarves did their best to fight through the webs, but their efforts did little. Finally, the dwarves began passing burning torches through the ranks. The strands burned, but not as fast as they came. “Keep them coming!”
Back in the columns, Mood fought along with his brethren, keeping the underlings at bay in the western channel. Munitions for the ballistas and catapults in the rocks were getting low. The giants were a great help, but it wasn’t enough. The underlings were too many. It was only a matter of time before the underlings overtook them.
The giants cut, stomped, and chopped the underlings with huge swords. For every ten underlings that fell beneath the mighty sweeps, another dozen came. Mood couldn’t see an end to them.
Aaluun wiped the sweat from his brows on his forearm. “The giants’ ranks are thinning, it seems. Normally, I’d be happy about that.”
“Aye. Our ranks are thinning too. I never thought I’d live to see the day so desperate where dwarves and giants would fight together for their own survival.”
“It makes me want to regurgitate.”
The sound of an ancient dwarven horn echoed throughout the Black Columns. The dwarves, one and all, let out a shout.
Mood slapped both hands on Aaluun’s shoulders. Glee filled his voice. “It’s now or never. All dwarves to the western gate!”
CHAPTER 38
Billip stared at the dwarven horn. Its very sound jolted the city.
Nikkel had his fingers inside his ears. His smile was as wide as a bridge. “Do it again!”
“I don’t know about that.” Billip touched his tingling lips. They were vibrating.
“Just do it, Billip! How many times in your life are you going to be able to make a sound like that?”
Billip lifted his shoulders and said, “Why don’t you do it?”
Nikkel opened up his hands. “Gladly!” He took the curled horn, put it to his eager lips, and blew. The blaring sound sent every bird in Bone into the sky, blocking the suns like a sea of clouds.
Hoff, high in his saddle, led the royal knights down the streets. The galloping horses sounded like thunder. The further they rode, the more riders in full armor joined them. What started as little more than a score of men became a hundred. The men and women in the streets started to cheer. The small underling patrols were gored by lances and trampled over.
“Yee-hah!” Nikkel shouted. “I’m blowing it again!”
BAAAAAAH-WOOOOOOOOO!
The dwarven horn wasn’t some ordinary instrument. It had true mystic power that sent energy throughout the city. They rode down the streets, wind tearing at their faces. The blurry eyes of the citizens were wide open. The spark became a fire. The citizens attacked the underlings.
Barreling down the road, Billip regained his senses. “Nikkel! Put that horn away and get that crossbow ready! It’s not going to shoot itself!”
Still smiling, Nikkel looped the horn’s strap over his neck. He snatched up his crossbow that hung from the saddle. “I bet I kill an underling before you!”
Stringing his bow, Billip hollered back, “I bet you m
iss. Have you ever shot anything riding from horseback?”
“Of course I have! First one to take down an underling from the gates wins!”
The regiment of riders poured straight down the path toward the western gate. The underlings posted at the gate numbered in the hundreds. A small wave of the fiends advanced with fury in their eyes. Hoff’s lance skewered the first of them. A dozen more fell quickly after that. The western gate became a battlefield.
Clatch-zip!
Twang! Twang!
An underling standing in one of the gate’s guard towers clutched its chest. A heavy crossbow bolt tore through its head. Two arrows were buried feather deep in its chest.
“You idiot!” Billip said to Nikkel. “You shot the same one as me!”
“No, you shot the same one as me!” Nikkel loaded another bolt. His arm muscles flexed as he cranked back the string. “I shot first. I hit first!”
“No you didn’t!” From the rear rank, Billip fired a volley of arrows over the riders. The shafts sailed true. Underlings fell from the turrets positioned on both sides of the heavily fortified gate. “Bish, how are we going to get that thing open?”
The western gate had three doors. The inner door was made from wooden planks from the cedars of the Great Forest of Bish. Each door was a foot thick. They stood open. The underlings and royal soldiers who aligned themselves with the underlings started to close them. “Hoff! Hoff! Don’t let them close those doors!”
Hoff swung his sword around. “Keep that gate open, men!”
Inside the wooden gate was a middle gate made from inch-thick strips of iron. Teeth at the bottom of the gate were locked into the ground and secured by metal pins. Visible through that gate stood the final outer barrier. The outside gate was thirty feet of riveted steel. On the outside, the desperate outcast pounded at the gate day and night.
Three underling foot soldiers broke free of the horse riders. They fired hand crossbows. Billip’s horse took a shot in the neck. It reared up. He rolled off the back of the saddle, agile as an acrobat, and landed on his feet. He unleashed an arrow, striking an underling at point-blank range. As it fell, a second underling rushed past it and tackled Billip. The fiend’s claws dug into Billip’s neck. The slighter underling had the strength of a wild animal. It spit in Billip’s face. Choking, he went for his dagger, fingers fumbling to find his scabbard.
The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures Page 51