When certain spells or methods of utilizing magic were used, they could have unintended side effects on people nearby, even if they couldn’t use magic themselves. Irritability was common, as the body and mind tried and failed to interpret the sensations it wasn’t familiar with. Anger and suspicion invariably followed. It was one of the things Outriders had been trained to look for and root out, especially in small, far-flung village settings where some hedge mage or local practitioner was trying something they shouldn’t be.
Kinnese was reminded of a small hovel, “village” being strong a word, that he and his old Outrider unit had encountered in the south of the Dominion. The people there were outright hostile, to the Outriders and to each other. Gallows, the unit medico, noted that the people’s heart rates were unusually high, their breathing shallow, and their skin had gone paper thin. An hour or so later, they had discovered the source. Three self-styled warlocks were less than a mile from the cluster of houses, performing some half-crazed summoning ritual. It was a particularly gruesome ritual involving a number of sacrificial victims, and some of the elements of that ritual, the anger, the fear, had seeped into the nearby populace. Granted, it had taken three mages performing a sustained, intense ritual, but the effects were still felt by the regular folk nearby.
What they were seeing now in Bellkeep was so much greater than that, on a larger scale, that Kinnese could understand Naria’s unease about being here. This wasn’t dozens of people, this was hundreds. Possibly thousands. Whatever was brewing within this city, it was dark and had evil intent. Perhaps staying to help wouldn’t be such a great idea after all.
It took a while to lead their group through the busy streets of Bellkeep as it transitioned from day to night, but upon their arrival in the craftsmen district, Kinnese’s growing unease intensified. Where the rest of the city had been softly lit by a combination of torches and alchemy lights, bustling with the sights and sounds of city life, the Craftsman District was dark, cold, and empty. All there was was darkness, and a faint, corrosive smell in the air, like in an alchemist’s laboratory. The only positive that Kinnese could find was that sense of...wrongness that had pervaded the rest of the city wasn’t as noticeable here. Which, he guessed, meant that this area of the city was deserted? Pela drew out a small but powerful lantern, and two of Naria’s girls conjured floating orbs of light to combat the darkness around them. The light sources scanned the area, finding nothing but vacant workshops, stables, and stores with doors broken open and windows smashed in.
They also had to ride slower and more carefully, as the streets were strewn with broken crates, shattered tables, and other materials that had been dragged out of the workshops and storefronts and left. It was as if a tremendously violent riot had happened, localized in only a few city blocks.
“Is it just me, or does it seem like a bad idea to keep going this way?” Kinnese asked, looking around.
“Nonsense,” the Underking replied. “Bellkeep is one of the safest cities in the west. Granted, it may not be as...metropolitan as Tethis, or as whimsical as Skyton, but it is a far cry from Vonderhall or any other crime-infested town.”
“You’d know best then about that, I suppose,” Kinnese said.
A few more moments of riding through the streets and they came to the Broken Axle. Or, at least, where the tavern should have been. A massive crater greeted them, like the gaping maw of some gigantic stone beast. Twisted spikes of melted metal, jagged stone, and charred timbers dotted the crater. Whatever had happened here wasn’t localized. For a city block around the crater, buildings were smashed and burned out. The faint chemical odor was much stronger here.
“This is where the Broken Axle used to be,” the Underking said, halting his horse. “Strange that this is the first I’ve heard of this. I am to be notified immediately of any large-scale events such as this. Strange indeed.”
“Explains why no one is home,” Undis said, his voice flat as he led his horse to the edge of the crater.
“This city,” the Pela said, drawing back her hood and looking at the others, “something is terribly wrong with it. We passed many signs and marks throughout the city indicating such. Thieves’ shortspeak scrawled on walls and arches, as well as a few other sigils from people who operate shy of the law giving warning. But I didn’t think it all meant something like this.”
“Something like what?” Naria asked. “Do you know what is afflicting this place?”
“No, not specifically. However, the wind as an edge here. Something unwholesome is brewing.”
“Naria, is there anything you can do to figure out what is happening here?” Kinnese asked. “Like figuring out what caused all of this?” He gestured at the ruined city around them.
The witch shrugged slightly, and Kinnese instantly felt a pang of guilt. The woman was still exhausted. “I can try,” she said, “though this isn’t really my area of expertise. I can’t promise any results.” She dismounted, with her four apprentices doing the same. As they walked towards the crater, Kinnese turned to the Underking.
“I don’t know about you, sir, but I’ll feel a lot better back in a populated area of this city. Once Naria does her magic, I think we should head back to the business district and get ourselves some rooms. Some hot food and a good night’s rest will do us all some good. In the morning we can try to find both your people and the man I’m looking for. If that is alright with you, that is.”
The barest hint of amusement crossed the Underking’s face. “I’ll say this; you know how to be subordinate. Yes, I think that is really the best course of action. I need to make contact with my people, but that can wait for the morning.”
Kinnese nodded and looked back at Naria as a soft corona of white light grew around her and her apprentices. Next to him Undis snorted.
“The soft-touch approach isn't the quickest,” the lich mumbled. “Her methods may take too long to figure out anything here.”
“And what would you do differently?” the Underking asked, his clipped words making it difficult for Kinnese to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
Undis did not take his eyes off Naria. “For starters why risk spells or the like just to discover and interpret any magical after-effects? I’d find a local or a City Watch and simply ask him what happened. Just blindly casting spells is foolish. Sometimes tinkering with someone's equipment is dangerous if you don't know what they are experimenting on.”
The Underking gestured around them. “And what if there is no one to question?”
“Then I’d ask myself, ‘is this vital to our task at hand’? If not, then I wouldn't bother getting involved. If it is vital, and the stakes are high enough, then I'd stop these half-measures rip the answers out of someone. Time is usually critical in these scenarios.”
It ground on Kinnese’s nerves that Undis's words actually made sense to him. But this wasn’t what they were here for. He shared a look with the Underking and turned back towards the crater when Naria yelled.
“Oh gods, it’s coming!” she cried out, and her four apprentices turned, standing back to back with Naria between them.
“What is-” Kinnese began, but was cut off by Pela aiming her lantern at the wreckage of one of the nearby stone houses.
Three people in tattered rags were loping towards them. In the light of Pela’s lantern Kinnese could see that they were all covered in bandages and shrouds. Stains dotted their rags, as if seeping blood from numerous wounds. It was a plague, his mind flashed. To his horror, Kinnese could also see that the assumed plague victims were human shaped, but only vaguely. The person in the center had what appeared to be a large, disjointed jaw dangling through rags around their face. The person on the left had a series of small spines jutting through its torso leaking dark fluid, and the one on the right was about seven feet in height, with out of proportion hands and feet. And all of them were running straight towards Naria.
Kinnese and Pela drew their blades as the Underking uttered a sifar curse. While the thr
ee silent, misshapen figures moved unnaturally fast, they were unwavering in their direction towards the girls in the crater. Kinnese extended a hand, surged the Power within him, and unleashed a bright white beam of power at them. The white light sliced through the closest figure and pierced the second. The first kept moving, literally ripping itself to pieces as its sinews and tendons were cut. The second, the one with the odd jaw, simply dropped to the ground as the beam burrowed into it from its side. The third one halted momentarily, pivoted on its heel like a dancer, and charged Kinnese by running along the edge of the crater.
Undis gasped. But Kinnese couldn’t tell if Undis was surprised by the monsters, or impressed.
As the third creature rounded the crater, Kinnese unleashed a second bright beam, cutting it down quietly. Though the monsters were finished, Kinnese’s stomach dropped. He had seen the white flash of Power he had used reflected in half a dozen pairs of eyes from nearby buildings, and six more of the creatures darted out of more ruined buildings like so many roaches. Three hurled themselves towards Kinnese while the other three broke off, again charging towards Naria who was hurrying back to the horses with her apprentices.
“I do hope you can hold these off as well,” the Underking said. His voice was calm, but he was still backing his horse away.
In response, Kinnese fired a third beam, much dimmer than the previous two. It caught the lead monster in the area where, on a human, the pelvis was. The beam didn’t fully penetrate the monster, merely slowed it down behind its fellow creatures as part of its clothing caught alight with flame, but it kept coming.
“Shit,” Kinnese muttered, taking his reins in his left and holding his longsword in his right. He charged forward, finding himself within striking distance much quicker than he had hoped. He rode to the left of the two creatures to avoid being caught between them. He slashed at the head of the nearest creature and felt the satisfying throb in his arm as his blade met flesh and sliced through it. The creature toppled to the ground as its head went flying, a dark fluid spouting out of its neck. In the dim light provided by the glowing orbs of Naria’s apprentices, Kinnese could barely make out the cruel deformed hands of the final creature as it leaped at him with freakish speed.
The monster toppled both horse and rider, and Kinnese was barely able to leap from the horse before being pinned underneath. The monster took an instant to remove itself from Kinnese’s thrashing, neighing charger, and he saw that instead of hands, the abomination had two simple digits, each ending in jagged bone, the tips of which were still thrust into his fallen horse. As it struggled to pull itself free, Kinnese swung his sword downward, severing both of the creature’s arms at the elbows. It staggered backwards, its wrapped and shrouded face uttering no sound, giving no clue as to what horror lay beneath. Kinnese pressed his attack, swinging again, but the creature was more nimble than he had expected, and sidestepped the blow. A vicious kick caught Kinnese in the midsection, sending him sprawling backwards. He was able to stay on his feet, and as the monster pounced on him, Kinnese met it with a thrust of his longsword, his blade piercing the creature’s chest almost to the hilt. With an upward surge of Power-aided strength, he pulled his sword upwards and free, ripping the blade through the creature more easily than it had shredded the reinforced shield of Johan Else, sending the monster up into the air before it fell back to the cobblestone street, silent and unmoving.
Kinnese looked back towards the crater, afraid he would be unable to help. He watched as three glittering shards of metal impacted on the lead creature charging Naria, shredding one of its legs. It went down, thrashing silently as it struggled to stand. Pela had put herself between the remaining creatures and Naria. Kinnese watched as Pela didn’t miss a beat, charging the other two on her horse as Kinnese had done. Before they reached striking distance, however, she launched herself forward off her horse, her hands extended outwards at the nearest creature. She slammed into it, her fists working like pistons against the monster’s skull even as it fell. She turned and threw two long, thin knives at the final creature as it ran past her towards Naria. The knives flew true, both striking behind the knee of the humanoid monster. They may not be human, but the monsters required similar moving parts like humans, and a knife to the knee dropped them as a fast as a person.
Naria and her apprentices hurried to Pela and, after making sure she was unharmed, together made it back to their horses. The conflict was intense, but only lasted a few short moments. Kinnese pulled his pack off his dead horse just as Naria rode up to him, sliding the pack awkwardly over one shoulder. She slid forward slightly on her saddle and patted behind her. Kinnese leapt up, doing his best not to crush the smaller woman as he held on.
“Ride, dammit!” Kinnese shouted.
“Where?” Naria demanded.
“Back the way we came!”
The apprentices surrounded them, with the others behind them. Naria nodded to them, and the apprentices raised up their hands. The two soft orbs of light they had conjured earlier intensified. While a first the light was dim and weak, it soon grew in strength until it resembled the light cast by a bonfire.
“No you fools!” Undis shouted, his voice echoing off the cobblestones. “Don’t use magic!”
“It’s too dark to ride fast,” Naria snarled. “If we lose another horse with those things after us, we are piked!”
“Can’t you see?” Undis was shouting now. “It’s the Art that’s attracting them!”
The retort on Naria’s lips died as she realized Undis was right. Kinnese heard her utter an unladylike curse as she looked behind and saw more shadowy figures emerging just past the circle of light cast by her apprentices. “Ride!” she yelled, and Kinnese lurched back as she spurred her horse on.
The silent figures bounded after them as they rode, leaping over obstacles in the road or climbing on the rooftops of the buildings that lined the road. The horses were fast, and Kinnese knew that Naria was using the Art to speed them up as much as she could, but the creatures were gaining. They reached a small crossroads, having to slow as they turned sharply. As he held on for dear life, Kinnese watched as one of the creatures, with the broken ends of its collarbone emerging from its chest, dove in amongst them. It swung at the Underking with one backhanded swipe of an overly large arm and grabbed one of the apprentices around the neck with another. Kinnese gaped as the apprentice screamed, the light around the horses dimming significantly. The creature applied pressure and with a wet popping sound it broke her neck. The creature broke off pursuit as it threw the broken girl to the ground and began to devour its victim. Kinnese watched as four more creatures shot past it in pursuit, their tatters and rags trailing behind them like thin, wispy tails.
“No!” Naria screamed, and she tried to wheel her horse around, but Pela was next to Naria in a flash and put a hand on her reins.
“If we stop, more of them will die! All of them will!” Pela yelled.
“They will keep coming if we stay and fight!” Kinnese shouted, lending his voice to Pela. “We need to get out of here! We can’t save her without losing more!”
Kinnese saw Naria’s knuckles turn white as she gripped the reins, and he could feel her begin to sob heavily, but she listened to them and kept riding hard. Ahead on the road they could see the light of the rest of Bellkeep. The road became clearer of debris, and they rode straight into a well-lit section of the city, with taverns and bars just beginning to fill up for the night’s trade. The stark contrast between the city as a whole and the craftsmen district was almost unbelievable to Kinnese. They had to slow down almost immediately to not trample any of the people, but they kept going, putting the horses at as fast a trot as they could.
Kinnese spared another glance behind them, and he saw a single figure standing at the edge of the road they had taken, partially in the light. The figure wasn’t garbed and bandaged like the monsters that had chased them, but Kinnese felt sinister intent radiating from it. He noticed that the townsfolk were crossing the str
eet to avoid walking near the road the figure was standing on, as if its very presence repelled people without them realizing it. Kinnese thought he saw a mass of figures behind it, cloaked in shadow and darkness, but it was too indistinct to tell. He blinked, and the figure was gone. His attention was snapped back forwards as Naria’s sobs grew, and she halted their horse to hold her head in her hands as she wept. Naria’s three remaining apprentices joined her in sorrow, and Kinnese dismounted to give them some privacy.
Naria had stopped them in front of a tavern of sorts, The Steel Bells, and he tied her horse to a hitch provided for customers. Guilt slowly rose through the cracks of his mind, like the precursors to a flood. It was his fault that poor girl had been killed. He had taken them all away from the safety of Oberon. And for what? His uncertainty over his purpose only amplified the guilt. A stinging realization hit him; he didn’t even know the girl’s name. He’d have to ask. Just...not yet.
Undis and Pela joined him in hitching the horses, and Kinnese took stock of Pela. The woman had a splattering of dark stains on her clothing, but she otherwise seemed unhurt. He saw that she wore inch-long spikes over each of knuckles. Small wonder how she had devastated that one creature using just her fists.
“Thank you for protecting her,” Kinnese said quietly.
“It is my duty,” Pela responded before moving to be closer to Naria.
“Well sir,” Kinnese said as he turned to face the Underking, “I hope that this place...oh pike me.”
The Underking, horse and all, was gone.
Chapter Nineteen
It was dark by the time Johan led his Outriders through Bellkeep’s main gate. Ryker was tired and saddle sore, but he wasn’t yet ready to call it a night. And he knew without question that Johan wasn’t done yet either. A few paces inside the gate Johan wheeled his horse around to look at his men, and Ryker joined him. He could see by their faces that they shared his determination, if at least outwardly. Garm looked as fresh and ready as ever, and Johan knew that the scarred man wouldn’t give up the search for his former employer as long as the Underking was within ten miles. Vegard and Toma looked alert if weary. Then there was Alek, with that strange golden aura of his. He looked like he was enjoying himself.
Chasing Down Glory: The Outrider Legion: Book Two Page 31