Parrying away a slash from the boy, Pearl blocked another attack from the girl. They exchanged blows for several moments that lasted hours, before Pearl kicked the boy’s legs out from under him and punched the girl square in the nose. With another punch, the girl joined Duncan, Pat, and the third boy on the ground, all out cold. Pearl surveyed the damage she had dealt and took a deep breath. One more left.
Mrs. Graham waiting for Pearl in the clearing. Though no different than before, the woman appeared more feral. Her body shook with every breath. The branch she wielded touched the ground, its weight taxing on Mrs. Graham’s thin arms, but she raised it when she saw Pearl. A growl rolled out from Mrs. Graham’s clenched teeth as Pearl raised her sword. “Mrs. Graham. I’m taking all of you back to the town, willing or not.”
The ultimatum fell on deaf ears. Mrs. Graham let out another roar and lifted the branch over her head as she rushed at Pearl. However, she only took a few steps before coming to a stop. The emotion drained from her face until she looked like a frightened child lost in the woods. She stared at something deep in the forest Pearl couldn’t see, then ran off into the forest without warning. Pearl raised an arm to stop the woman, then heard a growl coming from the direction Mrs. Graham had stared in.
The wolf-demon limped into the clearing, panting and wounded from its fight with the slender figure. Dark mist floated out of its wounds and dissipated into the air around it. It caught Pearl’s scent and eyed her like a chunk of meat, as if recognizing her from before. A growl rolled out from its throat as it circled her. Pearl kept her sword between the two of them as she recalled the lessons about what to do if you ever fought a demon. Three things came to mind: ‘Stay on your feet,’ ‘Hold onto your sword,’ and ‘Don’t die.’ The rest had remained in town, a world away.
“Come on then,” she coaxed. She didn’t want to prolong the inevitable any more. She swore the demon smiled before lunging at her with teeth bared and gnashing. It leapt out of the way of her first slash, and lunged again as she turned to face it. Once it realized how much faster it could move than Pearl, the demon changed its tactics. It leapt from side to side to throw Pearl off balance as she tried to protect herself. She lost track of it for a moment and then it disappeared.
A burst of warm air on the back of her neck told her where the demon had gone and she jumped away. The demon’s claws raked across her back, and she fell to the ground, shaking in pain when she tumbled onto her back. What remained of the clothes on her back drank up the blood from her cuts and stuck to her skin. She raised her sword at the demon as she struggled to her feet. The wolf-demon took its time pursuing her, each step a chance for her to stand and fight again. The threat of her sword didn’t faze the demon, which didn’t hesitate to get within the weapon’s reach when it knew it could just jump away. Pearl stood up anyway, ready to die in battle like a true Lamplighter.
Over the demon’s shoulder, Pearl saw a shadow, as silent and foreboding as a dark spectre, reach out with arms that splintered into numerous, shapeless limbs. The demon howled, a sound full of anguish and sorrow, as the shadow’s limbs pierced its body and it exploded into a cloud of black mist. The tall, slender man, the Grey King, stepped forward as the black mist parted for him and stared at Pearl with his eyeless face.
She walked backwards as fast as she could to get away from him, tripping over her feet and falling into a tree. The pain from her back hitting the rough bark, which would have brought her to her knees otherwise, couldn’t compare to her body’s desire to escape the Grey King. He crept closer to Pearl, each step it took lasting seconds that stretched across hours, and her heart slammed against the wall of her chest. He paused, then swooped down to the ground like a hawk before arching back up to Pearl’s face.
Ithasnofacewhereisitsface. The jumbled thought bolted through Pearl’s head. Its head lacked any feature, just pale skin wrapped around a skull. Their faces only inches apart, Pearl couldn’t feel its breath, if it breathed at all. She wanted to look away, but couldn’t. A voice whispered in her head, telling her all would be well. Though she didn’t believe the voice, Pearl felt a smile stretch across her face.
“Yes,” she answered a question in her head, unsure if she had said it aloud. “I’ll come with you.” Pearl never saw her join them, yet Mrs. Graham knelt next to her. The woman offered Pearl a hand up, a false serenity on her face.
“Pearl!” A familiar voice filled the world, and a flash of light blinded Pearl. Screams of pain replaced the whispers in her head, ripping her mind open from within. Mrs. Graham screeched in a language full of gurgling, hissing, and hacking sounds. Pearl tried to make sense of it all, but the burst of light had darkened the rest of the world, leaving her unable to see anything but simple shapes once more. The Grey King coiled, swayed, and twisted like a serpent to avoid the arrows of light coming from a small figure on the far side of the clearing.
Pearl ignored the pain in her body and mind, and struggled to her feet. She readied her sword as she staggered towards the Grey King, unconcerned about the child-size figure shooting at him. Just another problem she would deal with if the need arose. She drew close and stabbed out with a shout, half battle cry, half pained scream. Movement came from her right and her arm shook as the blade struck its mark. As her eyes readjusted to the dark, she heard her blade slide forward with a squish and felt warm blood on her hand.
“Not you…” Pearl whimpered. Mrs. Graham stood in front of her, her mouth and eyes open, Pearl’s blade pierced through her stomach. The red stain on her dress grew the longer Pearl stared at it. Mrs. Graham reached out and pulled Pearl towards her, driving the sword deeper into her gut. She gasped, but smiled as she looked into Pearl’s eyes.
“Thank—“ Mrs. Graham collapsed onto Pearl with her last word. Pearl let out a short scream before pushing the dead woman off her blade. The effort threw her off balance, her body too weak to catch herself, the fall hurting her entire body. She wanted to sleep, despite the present danger. Everything felt heavy and kept her pinned to the ground. She closed her eyes for a second, or a minute, or an hour. She couldn’t tell. When she opened them, the Grey King stood over her.
“Pearl!” She didn’t know who could be yelling. The arrows of light had stopped flying and darkness had reclaimed the night. She closed her eyes again and when she opened them, the Grey King’s no-face waited a hair’s width away from her own. Her eyes started to close again, coaxed by the returning whispers, when she heard the crack of thunder and witnessed a bolt of lightning strike the slender figure in the arm.
“Pearl!” The slender figure twisted towards the source of the bolt, then swooped away from the lightning. Pearl turned her head and watched a man with fierce eyes and a white beard that sparked with lightning coming towards them. He threw lightning bolts like stones, each thrown with roaring fury. In the space behind the man, a tear formed in midair. Not on anything, just hovering above the ground. It opened like a maw, and white light poured into the night. No one but Pearl noticed it. More tears formed, peeling apart the world around her.
“Pearl! Fight it!” Pearl’s eyes couldn’t stay open any longer. The image of a tall, powerful bearded man with sparks dancing on his arms burned into her memory as she fell unconscious.
Then she remembered. “This…already happened. This isn’t real. Something’s…”
The Grey King. Pieces fell into place in her fractured memory. He had invaded her mind, just as he had done to Mrs. Graham and the others, and when that failed, he removed himself from her recollection. Who knows how many times he had done that already?
She steeled her mind, picturing the hollow tree, and sensed the roots the Grey King’s mad whispers had planted in her thoughts. His hold on her faltered, some distraction pulling his efforts elsewhere. As her grasp on her mind returned to her, reality ripped apart and light devoured everything.
Chapter 13
“Pearl!” The light collapsed and narrowed into a bolt shooting past her. The darkness around her retrea
ted, as the Grey King twisted away, and a pained screaming struck Pearl’s mind. Theseus hurried to Pearl’s side, but the boy lunged past them towards the Grey King, who’s splintered arms aimed at the boy like a legion of spears. A white metal glove replaced the boy’s armlet, and the boy used it to shoot bolts of light at the Grey King. But the fallen Guardian’s body bent around them, like smoke curling around piercing arrows.
“He made me forget…he made them…she…” Pearl’s mind still reeled from the whispers and screams. “Why is the Grey King attacking us?”
“I don’t know. I…just don’t know.” She heard a whip crack, and the boy crashed to the ground. Theseus drew his swords, as the gems on his Titan Gloves flashed to life, and charged the Grey King with a roar. Pearl’s arms, weak and shaking like a newborn calf’s legs, couldn’t lift her to her feet, forcing her to watch.
The Grey King’s boneless body twisted to avoid Theseus’s swords and his branching arms forced Theseus onto the defensive as he struggled to protect himself. The boy leapt into the trees, bolts of light from his glove raining down upon the faceless Grey King, who glared at the boy. A scream of pain, the first sound Pearl heard him make, erupted from the small limp figure falling from the tree. Theseus dropped his sword and dove to catch the boy.
“Theseus,” Pearl’s voice had no strength and her cry came out as a whisper. The Grey King stalked towards Theseus and the boy, his arms pulled back and pointed at them, lances ready to launch. They’re all I have. “You bastard. No more.”
In one motion, Pearl sprung to her feet and drew golden Ragenoz Rako. The Grey King turned to her as she charged, and her Forewarn remained silent as one of his arms shot out at her. She relied on her training to deflect the first spear-like thrust and dance around the rest. She stabbed her sword into an arm stretching past her, cutting it into two curling strands, and the Grey King let out a psychic scream which sent Pearl reeling. He retracted his injured arm and took a moment to study the wound.
The runes on her sword glowed, dim at first, but growing brighter as the blade absorbed bits of the mana cut loose from the Grey King’s wound. Pearl didn’t understand why it happened, but she knew it didn’t matter. She grasped her sword with both hands and resumed her assault. With the Grey King weaving out of the way of each slash and Pearl doing the same for each thrust of his tendrils, neither landed a blow, until Pearl ducked under an arm and severed it.
As it fell to the ground, the arm broke apart into fragments of mana her sword absorbed, the runes glowing brighter. Pearl leapt away, as did the Grey King, though it was more of a glide than an actual leap. The injured limb still attached to the Grey King grew and came to a point as nothing had happened. They both stood still, waiting for the other to make a move.
“Pearl, look out.” Theseus pointed to Pearl’s left. A cluster of the Grey King’s arms arched around the trees to hit her from the side. A quick glance to the right revealed another cluster coming from that side as well. She flipped backwards out of the way, when a scream inside her head dropped her to her knees. Theseus and the boy also cried out and grabbed at their heads. The clusters crashed together where Pearl had stood, then shot out at her as one large cluster. She struggled to stand and raise her sword above her head, but she couldn’t direct her swing and just let it drop down.
The moment it cut into the arms, a wave of fire erupted from Ragenoz Rako, filling the night with blinding light and soothing warmth. The flames rolled out in all directions, passing over Pearl, Theseus, the boy, and the surrounding trees, but their fury fell solely upon the Grey King. The psychic screams tearing through her mind faded into painless, agonized wailing, as the firestorm consumed the Grey King. It burned out of existence a few seconds later, leaving the scorched Grey King behind, his body retracted to its most human-like state.
He shook with rage when his burns didn’t heal like his limbs had and he unleashed a psychic shriek strong enough to throw Pearl onto her back several yards away from where she had stood. Her burst of strength from before now gone, she struggled to prop herself up on her elbows, and could go no higher. Prepared to face a killing blow, Pearl discovered with some surprise that the Grey King had retreated. The screaming in her head faded as he moved further away from them, until it fell silent.
“Are you two hurt?” Both Theseus and the boy shook their heads. “I thought the Grey King was our ally.”
“He was.” Theseus retrieved his swords and lifted the boy to his feet. The boy, though dazed and a little bruised, appeared uninjured. He wore his armlet again, but Pearl couldn’t see where he kept his glove. “I don’t know why he attacked us. Several rules were woven into his being during his creation. One of which being that he could bring no harm to humans. For obvious reasons. Could you imagine what he would do people if unrestrained?”
“No need. I lived it.” Pearl tapped the side of her head.
“Right. Well, thank the gods for that fire spell of yours.”
“The flames weren’t a spell,” Pearl corrected. “They came from the sword.” She handed him the sword and explained how the sword had absorbed the energy from the Grey King’s wounds, causing the runes to glow brighter until they erupted with fire. He moved his hand over the blade to examine it.
“Then the blade absorbs and convert chaos energy into mana to fuel its magics. But that’s impossible.” He looked away in disgust and returned the sword to Pearl. “Damn it all.”
Pearl held the golden sword away from her body. “What? Is there something wrong with this sword?”
“No. The fact the chaos energy came from the Grey King means his body has been corrupted by it. No doubt from years of fighting the Khaous. But that alone shouldn’t have been enough. Something else…” He punched a fist into his other hand. “Damn. If he’s corrupted, no doubt the others are as well. That’s why they haven’t been seen in years. Who knows where they are now and what they’re doing.” A branch snapping somewhere deep in the forest made all three of their heads twist in that direction. Theseus beckoned for them to follow. “Come. If the Guardians have been tainted by Chaos, the lanterns will protect us.”
Sleep did not come easy as all three of them sat with their backs propped against the fallen tree, Pearl watching their left, Theseus their right, and the boy straight ahead. Fear chilled their blood, too cold for their meager fire to thaw. Nightfall came and went. They watched as Khaous stalked just beyond the lantern light, growling their frustrations at prey just out of reach, until the Khaous left them alone all together. Not that they cared. The idea of a wrathful Grey King watching them from the unperceivable black depths of the forest scared them more than anything. Their bodies tensed with every sound, and Pearl’s hands hovered over her bastard sword’s hilt.
Theseus fell asleep first, or at least he appeared to sleep. He laid silent with his eyes closed, but his hand rested near his swords. Their fire had died by that point, but the lanterns proved more than sufficient in lighting the night. Pearl yawned and her eyes felt heavy, but the boy sat alert and looked far from tired. He remained silent, even when spoken to, only nodding or shaking his head, or shrugging.
Pearl woke up, realizing she had fallen asleep, and looked around for whatever had awakened her. Theseus and the boy slept fast, their bodies collapsed next to each other against the log, their soft breaths lifting and dropping their shoulders. She scanned the trees around them, then dared to look over the fallen tree, but saw nothing. Then came the sound of something huge moving through the trees, stirring the forest to life. Startled birds took flight, silhouetted against the moonlight, as a ripping sound filled the air. Then the forest fell silent, and Pearl drew her katana out an inch.
“Theseus, boy, wake up.” They didn’t stir. Motion above the trees drew her eye. Something large and far away flew into the air, and grew larger each second. It looked like a tree, its roots still clinging to earth. “Good lord, it is. Incoming!”
The two of them turned in their sleep and awoke. His voice sluggish and d
rowsy, Theseus asked, “What is it?”
Pearl pointed to the sky. “Stay down!” Like thunder, the tree crashed down beyond their fallen tree, shaking the ground and tearing through smaller trees.
“What the hell was that?” A large stone falling to the ground just short of their camp answered his question. Theseus threw one of the lanterns to Pearl. “Run. Their aim is improving.”
“Who?”
“The Khaous. Bastards realized they can’t get to us themselves.” A tree next to them exploded into splinters as a stone shot through it. “Move. Now.”
“The Khaous can do that?” Pearl asked as they ran.
“They’re not simple. They can learn. In older parts of the world, where they’re been fighting men for much longer, some Khaous have learned to use crude weapons like wooden clubs. A damn thorn in the side.”
“God, could things get worse?” She checked for the boy, but he no longer followed them. She looked up, but didn’t see him in the trees, though the dimming light made it harder to see. With each step, the lantern’s shutters closed a little and their shield of light grew weaker. Stopping to readjust the lanterns would take too long and leave the two of them exposed to the Khaous, who tightened their movements around Theseus and Pearl to cut off any escape routes.
Theseus shot a glance at Pearl, and nodded. She returned the gesture and they came to a stop, back to back, weapons drawn. Her katana, lighter than her bastard sword, shone with the dim, orange light of the shuttered lanterns. The Khaous didn’t wait, falling upon them the moment they stopped. Pearl ducked under a claw and her sword bit off a chunk of a Khaous’s body. With another slash and stab, the Khaous burst into a cloud of black mist, blowing away as she slashed through it at another one. As the next one fell, Pearl’s blade felt lighter and it cut through Khaous like air.
The Lamplighter (Lamplighter Saga Book 0) Page 13