Knight Purged

by Jason Hamilton

  “Hell?” Guyon adjusted his feet, readying for a fight if it was to come.

  Mammon smiled, a cruel, yet somehow charismatic smile. “No, I think not. You would not last long in that place. Not in your current form, that is.”

  “So this is some sort of in between place. Very well, what do you want of me here?”

  “To give you what all men want. Wealth beyond imagining. You see this?” he pointed to all the gold that surrounded him. “All of this can be yours, if you agree to work with me.”

  “I care nothing for gold.” “Yet gold is what buys shields, horses, swords, all those things you have lost.”

  “Some money is necessary, but it can easily be taken to excess. Money is responsible for turning men evil, men who would do anything to get more.” The image of his parents flashed before his eyes. Guyon set his jaw, taking hold of that image and using it to fuel his resolve. “I am a knight. I concern myself chiefly with honor and glory, not with monetary gain.”

  “How very noble of you.” Mammon adjusted himself in his seat. “Well no matter, I know there is one thing you want.”

  Guyon grew still. “The Amulet of Odysseus.”

  “Indeed,” Mammon smiled. “I can show you where it lies.”

  Guyon tensed, searching for a trap. Yet Mammon simply continued to lounge in his golden throne. There appeared to be no immediate deception about him. Yet if he was offering to show Guyon where he could find the amulet, it had to be a trap. No Sin would willingly give him a weapon to be used against the other Sins.

  “Why?” Guyon asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “I did not say you could take it,” Mammon’s eyes twinkled. “Though I suppose you could, if you can pass my realm and come through to the other side unharmed.”

  “How am I to know you won’t attack me the moment my back is turned?”

  “It doesn’t work like that in this place,” said Mammon. “As I said, you cannot die in a place where you are already so close to a state of death.”

  Perhaps that’s what Phaedria had meant when she said the threats were different here, the fact that they would not be physical threats. But something else Phaedria said tickled his memory. Turning back to Mammon, he said. “I was told I could not stay here for longer than three days.”

  “That is correct,” said Mammon with a twisted smile.

  “So the real threat is to stay put and not push on.”

  “I suppose you could see it that way.”

  “Then why didn’t you just let me continue wandering in this wilderness? Why come to me at all when just leaving me alone you could have simply waited for my time to pass.”

  “You are a smart one, I will say that.” Mammon picked at something in his teeth. “Except you weren’t wandering aimlessly.”

  “But…”

  “It might have seemed that way, this is Limbo after all, the Shadow Realm. But every time you took a step forward and did not give up, you drew closer to me. But time also works differently here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve already lost one day.”

  Guyon stilled, his flesh growing cold. “I see. And I don’t suppose you want me to leave.”

  Mammon smiled again. “No, no I don’t suppose I do.”

  “But you also cannot physically stop me.”

  Mammon shook his head, never taking his eyes off Guyon.

  “Well then,” Guyon rolled his shoulders. “We should be off. Show me this amulet.”

  Something twitched at the corner of Mammon’s mouth, the barest indication of annoyance. But it was gone before Guyon could get a good look, and Mammon finally rose from his throne.

  With a snap of his fingers, the ground rumbled and part of it opened up beneath them, exposing what looked like a cave, a dark tunnel leading further down.

  “After you,” said Mammon, waving his hand forward.

  Guyon squared his shoulders, and proceeded ahead, down the dark tunnel. Mammon followed, and the opening closed behind them, plunging the way forward into complete darkness.

  23

  Guyon managed to find the way forward by simply putting his hands out to the sides and feeling his way along the passage walls. It was an odd sort of cave, not one that behaved like any others he’d seen. This tunnel was straight and direct, without any sort of winding or split passages.

  After several minutes of wandering in the dark, a dim, red light appeared ahead of them.

  “Once you see what I have to offer, perhaps you will feel differently about staying,” said Mammon behind him.

  Guyon doubted that very much, but he could also not afford to let his guard down. Mammon undoubtedly had more tricks up his sleeve, and Guyon would be a fool to underestimate the power of one of the Seven Sins. Even though Mammon was not Acrasia, and therefore not the source of his immediate goals, he was still one of the sins, and he would need to be removed from the board sooner or later. If not by Guyon, then by another servant of the Faerie Queen.

  The red glow began to grow brighter, and soon the tunnel opened up into an enormous cavern, eliminated by the light of fire and...something else in the distance. Guyon couldn’t quite make out what it was. The walls and ceiling were nothing but rock, with no plant life anywhere to be seen, not even a small patch of lichen.

  Ahead of him was what looked like a small city, with buildings of various sizes. Some were so tall they almost reached the cavern ceiling high above, but others were shorter and wider. One building in the distance was far more ornate than the others, the red light glittering off what looked to be gold trim along its edges.

  And there were people here too, most of them wandering aimlessly among the buildings, blank expressions on their faces. Their complexions were almost devoid of color, even in the red light. It was as if they had no warmth to them.

  “Where are we,” he asked.

  “I told you, we are in Limbo, though we are now far closer to the gates of the Underworld. The gates that lead to Hell or Annwyn as we call it.”

  Guyon proceeded forward, his eyes continuing to stare upward at the buildings they passed. Mammon led him forward across one of the streets and down through the passageways on an incline.

  Guyon couldn’t help but take the time to look all around him. This place, though foul, was also fascinating. If he had to guess, he would say he was probably the first from the outside world to enter here in a long time. The first who wasn’t destined to stay there at least. Was this what truly awaited the dead? Or was it reserved for a very particular type of person, one who had not mastered his baser instincts as others had? Others like himself.

  “These halls bear more wealth than all of the nations of the Earth combined,” said Mammon as they walked.

  Guyon shot him a glance. “It cannot possibly hold that much gold.”

  Mammon returned his glance with a slight smirk, but he said nothing. It wasn’t until later that Guyon recognized the error of his statement: not all wealth was of gold.

  Passing another building, Guyon caught site of an enormous iron gate. Had this been a fortress of man, it would have been the most impenetrable fortress in all the world. Every inch of it was covered with overlapping iron plates, and it stretched so high that someone standing on the top would have been able to touch the stone ceiling. That had to be at least half a mile upward.

  “The gates to Annwyn,” informed Mammon. “The real Annwyn. Guarded by beings not of this world, of revenge and pain.”

  “How does one pass through such a gate,” Guyon said, staring up at it in awe.

  “It is rare,” Mammon admitted. “Only on occasion do beings of your realm ever pass through, and it has been long since there was a mass imprisonment.” He grinned at Guyon. “But its opening to let others out has been more...recent.”

  “The breaches,” said Guyon, swallowing. He stared again at the gate. What manner of spell could open this enormous gate, and from magic in the mortal realm no less. The amount of sorcery and witchcraft that ha
d to go into such magic must be abominable. For nothing but the darkest of dark could open a gate like this. Even now as he stared at its peak, and imagined what lay beyond, he felt an uncharacteristic shiver run down his spine. Not all of Annwyn had been unleashed in the breaches up to this point. Beyond that door lay something more, something dark.

  “Come,” said Mammon. “This is not our destination.”

  Guyon stepped forward, shaking the eerie feeling out of his head, and followed Mammon.

  Their next stop was at a large, rectangular building that nevertheless took up more space than was physically possible. Guyon didn’t even think such enormous weight could be supported in a building up in the real world. But this wasn’t the real world.

  “Welcome to my House of Riches,” said Mammon with a flourish of his hand as he pointed at the enormous building.

  Guyon stared up at the decorative trim and the way gilded sections of the structure made it seem like gold was flowing from the top like waterfalls.

  But while the iron gates to Annwyn had set Guyon on edge, this structure did nothing to impress him. Though the building was large, and in the real-world would have been considered a marvel of engineering, housing treasure was hardly a worthwhile pursuit.

  Mammon looked at him like he was expecting a more dramatic reaction. Guyon gave him none. For the second time since Guyon had come, he thought he saw a flicker of annoyance on the man’s face, all gone in a flash however.

  “Come,” Mammon waved him forward. “I think you’ll find that what I have in here is yet to your liking.”

  “Is this where you house the amulet?”

  “Indeed,” Mammon regarded him, calmly.

  Guyon nodded to himself. Undoubtedly Mammon would try to tempt him in this place. Well he would not give in. He would keep moving on until he found that which he was looking for. The amulet would be his, and then he could use it to get out of this place.

  A door covered in relief sculptures opened ahead of them. Guyon had thought it was part of the wall itself, based on the heavy ornamentation it possessed. The entire building was covered in the same decor. Well, despite the clear extravagance of the place, he would not be deceived.

  Following Mammon’s lead, he stepped inside the huge building, and the doors shut behind him with a ringing boom that echoed throughout its halls.

  Inside was the most impressive collection of jewels that he had ever seen. They lay in giant pillars of glass that seemed to glow with their own illumination, scattering multi-colored light all throughout the hall. Even Guyon had to pause at the beauty of the place.

  “And this is just the great hall,” said Mammon. “There are chambers full of nothing but these gems. Or precious metals if you prefer.”

  “All I seek is the amulet,” Guyon replied.

  “Very well. We have several chambers to visit before we reach that one. Follow me.”

  Guyon followed, though he did not stop himself from taking in the room as they left, as well as the next one they entered.

  This chamber was not what he expected. Oh it was still extravagant. The walls and columns holding up the ceiling appeared to be made of solid gold, and there were great chests and cases of treasure all around them.

  But what startled Guyon were the bones. There were dozens of corpses everywhere, strewn about the chests, some lying on the floor, some bent over one chest or another. Others with arms stretched out towards the doors on either end of the hall, as though they had been trying to flee.

  “Those who tried to take that which was not theirs,” Mammon explained, and he raised one finger to point upward.

  Guyon followed the indicator and looked upward to see the ceiling was pitch black, covered in...something. Guyon peered closer.

  There were multiple somethings. Dark, multi-legged creatures all huddled together in a group, and hanging from some kind of dark web.

  “The spawn of Arachne,” explained Mammon. “Fiends of the Shadow Realm. They will stop you if you try to take anything.”

  “And what of the amulet?” Guyon said, suspiciously.

  “We shall see,” Mammon gave him a little smile, then turned to continue out of the chamber.

  Guyon followed, though with some trepidation. If there were giant spiders like these in every room, and they wouldn’t let him take the amulet, how could he even get out? He would have to hope that either Mammon would let him take the amulet, or that he could use it immediately after obtaining it. That way he could leave to the real world before these spider-fiends had any chance of stopping him.

  Be careful, Guyon. All is not what it seems.

  Guyon frowned and glanced around the room behind him. That had sounded like Una’s voice, and it wasn’t the first time he’d heard it. He was sure that same voice had called to him while he rested in the grassy glade. It had kept him from falling asleep and wasting his three days in this place.

  He paused long enough to listen well, but the voice did not come again. He would just have to push on.

  Following Mammon through the next door, he entered a new room. This time his eyes widened until they could not do so any more.

  This chamber was perhaps the largest he had ever seen. It was filled with riches of every type imaginable. This was greater than a mythical dragon’s hoard. Great piles of gold lay strewn about in every direction. More columns of gems lined the walls, glittering from the light that came from above through a great hole in the ceiling. Though the amount of light that came through that hole seemed greater than what Guyon remembered from outside. It was whiter and stronger.

  But it wasn’t only gold and gems. Great ornaments, dishes, silverware, goblets, vases, and sculptures piled high in places. It was more wealth than any human could dream of having all at once. And Mammon was right, this had to be more wealth than all the kingdoms of the Earth combined.

  He spied a path leading through the riches, a path that wound for what looked like a mile to the other side where he could barely make out a tiny door.

  “There, did I not tell you this place was full of riches?”

  Guyon nodded. “You did. Is this where you keep the amulet?”

  “Forget the amulet for a moment. Think of all the good you could do with all of this.” Mammon waved a hand around the room.

  “I thought I couldn’t take anything.”

  “Not directly,” he said with a smile. “But remember my offer. If you join with me and the other Sins, I would provide you with more wealth than you could imagine.”

  “I have no need of such things.”

  “So you’ve said. But you forget that money has its uses, does it not?”

  “Yes,” Guyon admitted. “In today’s age. But you also forget that money is an invention of modern man. There was a time when man lived by the sweat of his brow alone, and where we would work together for prosperity. The moment we began to obsess over precious metals and trinkets with no inherent value, that was the moment we lost our balance, when division and contention began to plague humankind.”

  “And yet you wander the Earth as a knight, asking for the charity of strangers, and otherwise using money to get what you need. You are not a farmer to sustain yourself with the...how did you put it? The sweat of your brow?”

  Guyon nodded, “It is true, I will not deny that we are far beyond that way of living. I live as a knight because it is my mission to stop those who crave excess. Those of imbalance.”

  “Then imagine, for a moment, what you could do with all the riches of the world,” Mammon waved a hand across the room. The gold seemed to glitter at Mammon’s gesture. “You would gain their respect, you could pass laws, you could set the world right. All you would have to do is say the word, and people would follow your guidance.”

  Guyon hesitated. He had never thought of it that way, mostly because he had never thought such wealth was possible. But what would happen if he had so much, if he used it for good? People would follow him, that much was true. Loyalty was easily bought. He could emplo
y half the country in a way that would make them better. Sure, he would be exploiting their love of riches so he could adjust their behavior to something he found more agreeable. He could bring the kind of order he saw among the Romans, but even greater. He could, essentially, buy peace.

  No Guyon, said a voice inside his head. That’s not what would happen.

  He shook his head, trying to clear it. Una’s voice had returned.

  Yet even as he tried to redirect his thoughts, images came floating into his mind. Images of wars, of armies and demons flashed before his thoughts. He saw himself on a great throne, passing judgment on all those who tried to usurp it, all those who tried to take his wealth for themselves.

  The voice was right. What Guyon imagined was not what would happen. In possessing so much wealth, the armies of the Earth would come against him. And no matter what he did to stop it, no matter how much he paid them to back down, they would always come for him. For wealth was not something one was satisfied with, even if you had it. People always craved more. As their lifestyle elevated, most would simply want to continue the trend, to become greater and richer until not even these stores of riches belonging to Mammon would be enough to satisfy the least of them.

  “I have a different dream,” he said, meeting Mammon’s eye. “To help others as a knight of the Faerie Queen. To be brave and serve her in whatever adventures she gives me.”

  “But you could accomplish much the same purposes with all of this,” said Mammon, his face full of incredulity. “It would be so much easier. You can buy anything in this world with money, even those things you seek.”

  “To buy a person’s loyalty does not make true devotion.” Guyon countered. “If they are loyal to anything, it is to the money, not to the person or the cause.”

  “You can’t seriously reject my offer.” For the first time, Guyon saw anger in Mammon’s complexion. “This is an opportunity that most men would give their lives for.”

  “All men die. What good do their riches serve them after that?”