“Brother Catten, do you mean to tell me that the large leather sack Eep pulled out from under that cot was the single thing that could resolve our horrendous predicament?” he rasped while clenching his hands and teeth as if he want to wrench the life of anything in his bare hands.
“Indeed,” Catten muttered, sticking his nose deeper in the book. His nails riddled the table as he read farther. “The acquisition of that sack would not only be the permanent demise of the troublesome Darkslayer, named Venir, but it might be a tool that we could use for our own gain as well. I cannot believe we were so close!” He slammed his fist down. “And now we have to wait for another chance. Coming across the book itself was hard enough, but getting that sack will be tougher.”
“Any ideas, brother?” Verbard asked.
“We can have Eep wait for a chance to snatch the sack. If we don’t get a chance in the city, then we will have to track him into the Outlands,” he answered, slapping the book shut. He sat up and ran his nails along the rows of jars. “If we are patient, I think we can have it all once the man heads to the Outlands, but if he wears that armament, it will be a trying fetch. I think Eep can do it when he sleeps … maybe. If this man is but ten feet away from the filled sack, Eep shall have it!”
“Yes, and to think we will not even have to engage the man ourselves. Surely Master Sinway will be overwhelmed by our success.”
“Indeed.”
Of course, Catten’s wicked thoughts had no interest in pleasing Master Sinway. No, the sack would warrant the power to usurp Sinway instead. Catten caught his brother smiling right back at him.
“Verbard, even though we understand where the armament comes from, we still do not know much about it. It seems too easy,” he said.
“There is only one way to find out, brother,” Verbard said.
Then Verbard summoned Eep. The timing couldn’t have been better. He and his brother watched through Eep’s eye as the Darkslayer carved a host of Shadow Sentries into bits in a dark alley of Bone.
“I am certain that I want Eep to be successful at his task, brother,” Verbard said.
Catten could hear the awe in his brother’s voice as the two of them watched the Darkslayer kill the last Sentry.
“I don’t want within fifty yards of him, either, brother,” Catten said.
His hatred was mixed with reverence as he watched Venir stumble off in the early morning darkness. Even Eep expressed his malice for the man that had skewered him and used him as a lightning rod.
Catten laughed at the imp’s thoughts. It seems the imp hates the man just as much as we. He couldn’t have better company to kill the man and take the sack.
Again, Catten would have to wait for the right opportunity, but he knew they were getting close.
CHAPTER 48
Melegal stopped as he headed for the barn door. He signaled to Lefty that someone was coming. He and the boys ducked into the shadows and waited. A few seconds passed and Venir came limping their way.
“Vee!” Georgio cried. “It’s Vee!”
Melegal’s heart stirred as the limping man ran to embrace the boy. It was a long hug filled with blood, sweat, and tears. Melegal was glad to see them both alive. Lefty sobbed from behind him then ran over and jumped on Venir as well. All that gore didn’t seem to bother them. As Venir stood up, a boy in each arm, Melegal could see in his friend’s eyes that it wasn’t over yet.
“More Sentries are coming, Melegal. We have to go now,” Venir said.
“How much time?” Melegal asked.
“Several minutes, maybe more. I can’t be certain. Let’s just go.”
“Not yet, we have to dispose of something first. Follow me?”
Heading back into the stall, Melegal looked hard at the corpse of McKnight as Georgio and Lefty stripped the man down. The detective and Melegal went way back. McKnight had mentored him. And tormented him. And tortured him. Still, McKnight had been the closest thing to a father he ever had.
Melegal hated him.
“Now what?” said Venir, looking about.
Melegal’s voice was flat as he said, “To the hogs.”
“Then you’re gonna need this,” Venir said as he held out Brool.
Melegal had never held the weapon before. He’d never even considered it. But he wanted it now. He wanted to make sure McKnight never saw life again. He grabbed the blood-slickened armament. It was much lighter than he’d suspected. He had never even swung an axe before. He stood over the corpse. He brought the blade down as hard as he could. Chop! It was so easy. Chop! It was good. Chop!
Never come back.
He swung hard. Chop!
His arms quivered.
Bastard!
Venir had to pull Melegal’s shaking body away.
They carried McKnight’s limbs to an inner pen that had a large opening to the mud holes outside. Venir kept watch as Georgio and Lefty helped Melegal toss the parts over the rail. The boys watched in horrific wonder as three big hogs began devouring the man in bone-snapping chomps. It made Melegal’s spine tingle with delight. His dark expression eased as satisfaction flowed through him.
Back in the stall, Melegal pointed to McKnight’s garb and belongings. “Get all those things, Lefty, every bit.”
They all hid in the stable and enjoyed a moment of peace and seclusion. The enormous barn was still silent, the rising sun’s light entering through the slits overhead. Melegal rummaged through McKnight’s clothes as if he were looking for something in particular and then he began tearing off strips of cloth and dressing several of Venir’s wounds. The warrior was gashed and punctured from head to toe, some wounds deep, but amazingly most of them were cosmetic. Venir’s leg was the worst, but a tourniquet would not be required, it seemed. Melegal wondered if his comrade was either lucky or invulnerable.
“It astounds me you are still alive,” Melegal said.
“I could say the same for you … and Georgio,” Venir said, rubbing Georgio’s curly head with his blood-caked knuckles.
“I’m not the one who plays with glass all the time like you do,” Melegal said. “So how did you survive that fracas back their? Did you tell them one of your stories?”
The stable erupted in uncontrollable laughter at those words. Even Melegal couldn’t help but laugh at his own comment. Anguish turned to a deep sigh of relief, but it didn’t last. They heard a rustle of men in the distance. Time had run out.
“Melegal, get some supplies and meet us outside the city,” Venir said.
“No. I’m staying,” Melegal said.
But even as the words left his mouth, the warm stable became cold.
The boys’ eyes got big, not expecting Melegal’s response. Venir gave his friend a worried look.
“Me, what about that assassin and those Royals?” Venir asked. “They aren’t done with you or me. It’s not safe here.”
Melegal sighed. He felt different now. A weight had lifted from his chest. He knew he didn’t need Venir anymore. He stood by him as he said, “Vee, this is my home. They never wanted me, they wanted you. That assassin won’t get the drop on me again. The Royals will forget about me. I’m not the one that killed one of their own.”
Venir stepped away like he was bitten, shaking his head. But Melegal was not like him. He was loyal to a point but not to a fault, and his fate was better served in his own hands for a change. The thief barely noticed Lefty’s tiny hand tugging on his own.
“What?” Melegal said, jerking his hand away.
“You have to come,” Lefty pleaded.
Georgio was beginning to cry now. It made Melegal uncomfortable.
“You can stay with me if you like, Lefty,” Melegal said. “You don’t have to go.”
“Oh no,” Georgio said. “He’s coming with me. He’s my friend and I’ll take care of him!”
“It’s his choice, Georgio,” Melegal said. “It’s still much safer for him here in the city than it is out there. I’m just trying to help.”
It was a
sincere offer, and an honest one as well. Lefty had a big decision to make. Melegal liked him, but he knew Lefty couldn’t leave Georgio. He wasn’t like him.
“I’m sorry, Me. Thanks. But I’m not leaving Georgio’s side,” Lefty said.
Melegal knelt down eye to eye with the halfing boy, then put his hands on both of his shoulders.
“It’s okay, Lefty,” Melegal said. “I understand. You just remember everything I have taught you. You will especially need it out there.”
“Will you take care of my books while I’m gone?”
“Yes, and I will require something of you.”
“What?”
“Will you help Georgio take good care of Quickster? Make sure that Georgio doesn’t eat Quickster’s food and that he feeds him more than he feeds himself for a change?”
“Speed it up, girls,” Venir said. “They’re still coming.”
Tearful laughs burst through both boys’ lips. Melegal grabbed the blue-bladed dagger from McKnight’s belongings and tucked it into Lefty’s belt.
“You’ll need this eventually,” Melegal said. “I don’t know what kind of steel that is, but it should serve you well, I’m sure.”
Melegal got up and turned toward Venir. “Where will you go now, Vee? And for how long?”
Venir had shed his armament and managed to somehow look human again.
“We’ll catch up with Mood, Chongo, and Quickster, and maybe head north for a change. I have a feeling that Lefty and Georgio might enjoy seeing the City of Three or Hohm City. There aren’t too many underlings up there to distract me … hopefully. I am sorry you can’t come along. I just hope the smoke clears soon for you soon. I assume Tonio is still out there somewhere. I don’t think he can go home in his condition without me, either. He knows a lot about us. Me, we really aren’t safe here. You should come. We can start over, elsewhere.”
Melegal just shook his head. “No, this is it for me. You can find me when you return. Who knows, maybe I’ll figure out a way to solve all of our problems while you are gone,” he said while tapping his dark floppy hat.
He and Venir clasped arms.
“Maybe,” Venir said. “Okay then.”
Melegal let them out through the secret passageway. They were out of sight. Just like that. He nodded his head as he closed the door. Mixed feelings mounted within for Melegal. He didn’t know if he was happy or sad. He didn’t know if they would ever be back again. Lost in thought, Melegal almost forgot about the approaching Sentries. He gathered McKnight’s belongings. Hah, they’ll never catch me. He was smiling. Then he remembered Tonio. He frowned and disappeared.
CHAPTER 49
Leezir of the Slerg House was elated with their success in the decimation of the Almen House’s Shadow Sentries. He, along with Hagerdon and Creighton, had headed back toward the Slerg castle, making the city trek through the first light of day in the shadow-filled alleys.
The green-eyed twins nudged one another back and forth, bragging about the gruesome onslaught they’d inflicted on the Almens. Even Leezir couldn’t wait to share the tale of their spoil. Leezir tolerated their foul lips with a keen ear, but his thoughts were on Venir. He couldn’t help but wonder whether or not that man would actually survive the swarm of Sentries that had been on him. Even from a distance, it seemed unlikely the massive warrior would fall.
Creighton and Hagerdon bickered back and forth over who would possess the axe from his fallen hand. Foolish boys, Leezir thought, as he knew Venir to be more man than the two put together and then some on any given day. Venir proved that alone when he was just an urchin.
He headed home in haste, hoping to reach their castle’s sanctuary before traces of their involvement caught them in its own snare. The evidence of dead man-urchin bodies would lead the Almens back to the Slergs. He was sure of it—unless the other man-urchins managed to drag off their kindred in time.
Weakening the Almen House gave Leezir a thrill. He was almost skipping at the thought. And then he heard something.
Twing! Twing! Twing! Twing!
The twin brothers lurched before Leezir, each clutching a long dart deep in their throats. He watched, unable to move as the young men spun around. He could see the darts clean through their necks. Assassin! He couldn’t move. He only watched as the twins’ heads dropped, then their bodies twitched and fell stone cold to the ground with a thud. A dark figure in white robes stepped out of the shadows. Now what!
Leezir turned to take cover.
Twing! Twing!
He screamed as he fell to the ground, face down in the muddied alley. His back burned. He felt someone step over him and roll him over. He saw a face, but he didn’t know the man, although his filed teeth made Leezir think of underlings for some reason.
The man kissed his dart-launching bracers. Leezir looked at all the knives strapped inside the man’s robes and shivered. He wondered if he was going to cut his throat. He could still move. It hurt, everywhere. The poison was in him. Thanks to an earlier spell, it moved slow, like lava.
The olive-skinned man stared deep into Leezir’s eyes. Then Leezir felt a long blade on the skin of his throat. Leezir caught the assassin’s eyes one more time and managed a whisper, “Freeze.”
The man froze where his stood, his eyes darting back and forth. Leezir slid out from beneath him, fighting the pain. The magic suggestion he’d empowered had saved his life more than once, but this was his closet call ever.
Leezir groaned in misery as he pulled out his cudgel, Spine-Breaker. He hoped this was another one of Almen’s goons. It could only be. But Leezir himself wasn’t so easy to kill. He was a crafty survivor who didn’t mind being underestimated. Leezir would see to it that the Almens never underestimated him one more time.
He brandished the cudgel under the assassin’s nose then said, “This is gonna hurt.”
Sweat glistened all over the assassin’s muscular back. Leezir called on the cudgel’s power; it glowed white hot in his grip. He swung at the man’s hunched back.
Crack!
It sounded like a small bolt of lightning struck in the alley. He could feel the man’s vertebrae shatter into fragments of bone. The second blow had the same result when it landed on the man’s skull. The assassin lay dead like a wet sock in the alley. Leezir fell to his knees, holding his sides, wincing in pain.
Then he mustered the strength to try to save Hagerdon and Creighton. He reached deep in his reserves. His hands glowed, burning the long wooden darts from Hagerdon’s throat. The man coughed blood but was still alive. The poison hadn’t taken in Hagerdon as well, since he had received the same precautionary spell as Leezir. Creighton was not so lucky, as his neck had bled out and he’d died. Hagerdon knelt by his brother, fingers in his hair, sobbing, as Leezir stripped the assassin down. He poured oil over the man, and with a word, the corpse burst to fire, turning the man to ash in seconds. Hagerdon slung his brother over his shoulder, and they headed for home.
But they never made it there.
Leezir’s man-urchins stopped them along the way with dire news: the Slerg House was no more. The Almen House had ripped it asunder, inside and out. Some Slergs had escaped, but only a few. The Slerg House, then, once and for all, was no more.
Leezir and Hagerdon were now renegades without a Royal name. Leezir might have now been branded an outcast but he swore he’d lived on.
CHAPTER 50
Tonio had abandoned the Motley Girls in pursuit of the boy that escaped, the one named Georgio. The claws of the black cat Octopus had torn deeply into Tonio’s half-dead skin and inflamed it with allergies. His body had puffed up beyond recognition and he could barely see through his watery eyes. He staggered, moaning in misery through the streets. He gave up the search for the boy.
Dawn crested and his own demise began to set in on himself. He longed to be home again. He could still remember it well. It was where she would be. It was the time in the morning when his beautiful mother would be walking the wall of Castle Almen.
And then she came along … with two sentries at her side. She was wearing a silk gown that Tonio had bought her as a gift. She was a stunning woman, one that he felt his father, Royal Lord Almen, was not fit for. He didn’t like how his father treated her.
He saw her peer over the wall and scan the people below. The merchants that bartered outside the castles waved in reply. She was always liked by the people. She was gentle, not harsh, but also silent and strong. He watched her waving and talking to those below. He moved into her line of sight.
She caught his eye. His heart moved as he began to wave his scarred and bloated arm at her. He saw her recoil and turn away. The castle’s exterior ground sentries came after Tonio. He yelled for her, but his thickened tongue would not allow words to be formed. She turned back once more, and he could feel her gaze, but then she was whisked away. His heart was emptied.
As the sentries closed in on him, Tonio scrambled away, busting through the markets in rage. The people had seen nothing like him before. The City Watch came. He bludgeoned two of them to death with his puffy fists. People screamed in terror. He heard them cry aloud. He ran. Tears filled his eyes over rejection from the only person he’d ever loved.
Tonio stop and waited. He heard the pursuit of the City Watch. He contemplated letting the Watchmen carve him to bits. He knew their blades could not stop him, though. He felt little pain and let little blood in his condition. Yet his heart ached. He fled back to the stairs where he’d left the Motley Girls.
The Darkslayer: Book 02 - Blades in the Night Page 22