Red Axe, Black Sun

by Michael Karner

  The notion of such numbers attending sent chills over Argis’s spine. He was doing the unthinkable: hosting a celebration while war was raging all around them. It took guts to pull this off. It was the most illogical and unethical thing to do under such circumstances, which was why it succeeded. It made the Cairn-breaker ooze calm and decadence, as if he had seen it all, and it mirrored on his disciples. They believed him, because he had no fear of what was coming. Because he was the only one who had seen what was coming. Like rats, they followed him.

  The wine and drug cellars of his residence had opened early that day. Sweet smoke drifted over the shisha-lounges in his house.

  “The star alignment will complete today,” one of the sojourners said to him.

  “Without a doubt,” Argis replied and raised his goblet. “War will knock on our door. But we will have nothing to fear. The constellation will blot out the sun. It will plunge everything into darkness, and a new power will rise. We will witness the downfall of this world order, and we, the maggots, will emerge out of its ashes.”

  He put the goblet to his lips and swallowed, even before the wine had filled his throat. He realized his hands were shaking.

  He hadn’t seen anything, not by himself. Elven divine seers had told him what lay ahead of the rumored mark. For most, the future was impervious blackness. To them, it was a twisted mist, penetrating their minds so that their perceptions of what was real and what was fiction blurred. Argis had the seers in his service so he didn’t have to endure the mind-wrenching horrors of this art himself. Many of them had lost their sanity. Nearly all had given up their bodies. The seer elves had inflicted wounds on themselves, ritual scars and injuries during seizure. Some had cut out their own eyes with shards of the place’s stained glass windows. One could not look into the future while distracted by the present.

  Argis took another gulp.

  But they had meddled in this art for a long time, often in minor affairs, to increase their and his own wealth. Argis was an enthusiastic card-player. On many occasions during tournaments, he had wished to see which cards would fall next into his hands. To take only a small peek into the future. It was at this time that he had begun to experiment with the divine seers. Their services weren’t inexpensive, but they were worth it. Knowledge was power. Now, incomparably more was at stake.

  He had to stand steadfast behind what they believed. Only confidence would ensure persuasion, be it towards his followers or the members of the warband that would soon stand at his threshold.

  “LORD.” Another guest pulled the Cairn-breaker out of his thoughts. The newcomer bowed slightly. It was an elf, that much he could not hide behind the mask. “I came to your sanctum, only by a sudden turn of events.”

  “How so?” Argis asked, his own countenance concealed by the mask.

  The sojourner looked at him through his eye-slits, the only place to give away emotions. “I am Kolanthel. And I request your asylum.”

  “This is no place for the radical,” Argis said without sentiment. “I could have you killed right now for coming here.”

  “Know that this would be your death,” the Kolanthel answered with a nod.

  Argis grinned, a grin that could be felt even with the mask. He cocked back his head and poured a hefty sip down his throat. “Now that wouldn’t help any of us.”

  “I guess so,” the elf said. “It didn’t help the recently deceased fire mages, for sure.”

  Argis raised an eyebrow. “Your work?” He earned a content nod from his opposite. “Delicate,” he remarked. “To lay open your cards to me that way tells me you must be quite desperate.”

  “Not at all,” the assassin replied. “You know the mindset of a terrorist like me. I have done my deeds. I have nothing to lose. But the next scheme needs my attention soon, before time runs out.”

  “Whatever it is, that doesn’t make a good base for negotiations for you,” Argis said.

  “It depends, if everyone’s life is hanging on it,” the non-human answered.

  Argis secretly forced a smile. “I’m all ears.”

  “In the underground of this city lies a weapon guarded by ancient wardens, who swore their lives to protect it,” the elf said. “I’m there to steal it and wield it against the evil things that will come through the alignment of stars.”

  Argis let out laughter that prompted the other attendees to turn their heads. “I really would like to know who your client is. You must have pissed off someone big time to get a one way ticket like this. First of all, the wardens of this weapon are fanatical, with their whole existence determined to fight off any thief. Not only their fighting skills and zeal will best you, they have also rigged the whole area in which the weapon is held with traps and even self-destruct mechanisms. No one goes down there. We just leave them there to rot and forget about them. Second, wanting to steal and wield this weapon lets me know you have no idea what you are dealing with.”

  “And third?” the Kolanthel asked.

  “Third is, I know what is coming. But don’t let me discourage you from trying to take it. What I wonder is, though, what you are able to offer me for any help I might provide you with. I am not afraid of you for being a murderer and terrorist, Kolanthel. You offer me my life for your life – fine, we’re even. You request asylum in my sanctum and want me to give you information about this secret weapon – you have to make a better offer.”

  Argis watched the elf retreating into the crowd. What he gave him with him was that there were people who knew more about the Kolanthel’s target, and that Argis was one of them.

  Still brooding, Argis turned his attention back to his drink. He was not alone in dabbling with the possibilities that lay beyond the time mark, that much was sure. What might others have seen that the future held? At least he could be certain that he could have a deal with the Kolanthel if he needed to.

  The first cards had been dealt, and the day just got interesting. Without a doubt, it would turn into the longest day before the sun set.

  “ARGIS.”

  The Cairn-breaker heard someone call behind him. He turned his head. A man he had never seen before stood in front of him. He looked like he had gone through battle to reach his residence.

  “It feels so good to have finally found you.”

  “Do I know you?” Argis asked.

  “I have an offer for you,” the man said. “I have someone you have been looking for for a long time. Someone who carries your name on a death-list.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I am a bounty-hunter,” the man answered. “I caught the girl you were searching for, something your other goons couldn’t accomplish.”

  Argis breathed out. It was highly likely that the man talking to him was the reason Haddock and his men hadn’t made it back with the subject.

  “Of course, I wasn’t working on your behalf,” the bounty-hunter added.

  “And yet you are here,” Argis said. “Hoping for a better price?”

  “How much are you willing to pay?” the man asked.

  The Cairn-breaker laughed. “You brought her with you, didn’t you? At least into my city.”

  “It’s not your city,” the man replied. “So, how much is she worth to you?”

  “Her existence is a nuisance,” Argis said. “But if a man knows the whereabouts of something I want, I just let my torturer drill into his skull until he gives it away for free. So, in your case, I just have to weigh up if the whole effort costs more, or if you will give it away for less.”

  The man gave a wry smile. “See, here is the pickle. You see a man standing before you that is immune to torture.”

  Argis shrugged. “How so?”

  The man came closer to let Argis see that he meant what he said. “Because I am already dead. That is my predicament. When I hunted down the girl, I clashed with Haddock and his goons. I killed them all, but Haddock managed to poison me. I came here to get the antidote to that poison from you today. I need you to resurrect me.”

/>   Argis clapped his hands and rubbed them, starting to enjoy the drama. “Well, as much as I would like to help you, my hands are really tied. I don’t have the poison; I don’t have the antidote. But I know which poison my goons are using. It’s Kolanthel made. I imagine some non-human conclaves might have an antidote.”

  “Help me out here, Argis. Which one?” the man asked.

  Argis stroked his chin and realigned his mask in place. “Like the one residing beneath the city.”

  The bounty-hunter let out a sigh. He probably had hours left and not much strength in him.

  “Bring me the girl, and I’ll see what I can do,” Argis said.

  “Wrong. You bring me the antidote, then I will give the girl to you,” Dryston replied. “If I don’t survive, you will never see her again. You will have pursuers tracking you as long as she’s free and breathes.”

  Argis considered this for a while. “You know how to play,” he eventually said and left the poisoned man alone in a crowd of criminals.

  ARGIS WAS ON THE WAY to retire into one of his shisha lounges, when an extravagantly dressed woman caught his eye. Her high-heeled boots were crossed, as she was relaxing on a low couch.

  “May I?” Argis asked politely while taking her hand.

  “It is your house,” the woman replied. She bowed her head to signal her companions to leave the two of them alone together. The pair of men left and joined a woman and another brute outside in the hall. Argis sat down close to the woman.

  “How come I don’t remember inviting a lady of your caliber?” Argis said.

  The woman pulled out an invitation from a guest that wasn’t her. Argis knew his crowd. The one on the invitation was probably lying blindfolded and knocked unconscious in the surrounding gardens as they spoke. the woman smiled. “The mask adds to the theatricality.”

  “See, that’s why,” Argis replied playfully, before he frowned. “I can smell a lie from a mile away, but what I can smell even more is the stench of sorcery and witchcraft. And you, young lady, reek of it.”

  “And I can recognize a murderer when I’m sitting next to one,” the sorceress said.

  There was a strained silence.

  “Who are you, and why did you come here?” Argis demanded.

  “I’m here because you are suspected of having arranged the death of a young boy,” she said.

  Argis leaned back, scratching his beard. “Could be. Go on.”

  “Two days ago, a carrier from the artillery corps was killed in the warband’s army camp,” the sorceress explained.

  “Kids die all the time,” Argis said. “Especially at war. What makes you think I wanted him dead?”

  “To make someone else pay for the crime,” the sorceress said. “There is an aspiring Vacomani champion who’s accused of the murder. All evidence points against him, except there isn’t much. My client doesn’t believe in it and wants me to find the real culprit.”

  She looked at him intensely with her dark eyes.

  “This Vacomani champion,” Argis began, “is called Thrynn Godsmite?”

  She couldn’t hide her surprise.

  “How do you know his name?”

  Argis chuckled. “I’ve known him for a very long time.”

  “Then it’s true?” the woman said. “You are longtime enemies?”

  Argis nodded. “Arch-enemies. I can’t believe that it worked. It was a long shot. He really slaughtered an innocent boy?”

  “Who did?” she asked.

  Argis shrugged. “The man who wanted to kill me.”

  “You are saying Godsmite really did it?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No. It was the lone berserker, who met his Valkyrie, a girl with a tattooed death-list, shortly before my goons could reach her. He came to me to kill me.”

  “What happened?” the woman asked, hanging on his every word.

  “I bought him,” Argis answered. “And turned him against my own enemy. I realized he resembled Godsmite when I first saw him. I feared he had finally found me. Godsmite is the strongest warrior to have ever walked the earth, you know? But then I saw the potential and havoc I could wreak if I unleashed the berserker in his own camp. I just had to try and send him in. Now you’re telling me it worked.” He laughed. “They accused Godsmite. Blessed be the old Vacomani laws that the warband holds so rigorously to. I guess he is in chains now, awaiting his execution. Just where I always wanted him to be.” Argis let his gaze fade down to the floor.

  “So, you were behind it,” the sorceress concluded. “But you don’t seem satisfied now.”

  Argis regarded her. “Why do you think I’m telling you this? One, because I am going to eradicate you and your merry band anyway. And two, because, although everything I ever wanted has finally come true, it happened at the worst time imaginable.” He looked up at her, not trying to hide his desperation anymore. “We will need the strongest warrior on earth tonight. We need Godsmite.”

  THAENA ASHCROFT ENTERED the threshold of Cairn-breaker’s sanctum. It had been a long way, and she had seen horrors that the attendees couldn’t match. The gathering was a congregation of the lowest and most dangerous scum of a city she had ever seen. Not once had there been a point in her life where she would have plucked up the courage to enter this house and walk among them. Until now.

  Thaena’s arrival turned heads. Masked heads. Parodies of what lay hidden behind. Muggers, thugs, thieves, murderers, rapists, organized crime members welcomed her. It was a whole group of individuals like the three goons she had last met in Skybridge that had made her blood run cold that night. This time, it wasn’t worse, only different. She had evolved through her experiences.

  Thaena moved through the crowd. The shapes towered over her like the undead she had faced in the crypt, only these had feelings. Some blunted and many twisted beyond that of a normal citizen, but she knew that they still possessed the ability to feel fear. Not so with the undead draugr.

  Thaena, her husband Taric, and the necromancer Gabriel Werdum had lost their home to them. There were just too many, and you could not break the will of an unliving thing. Her kids were safe with their father now, in the outskirts of the city.

  At her side was the black figure of the necromancer, his dreadlocks gushing out of the edges of his white mask, which looked out of place on his otherwise completely dark form. The ink tears on his cheek were hidden behind the sterile visage, as was the rest of his tattooed face.

  “Friends,” he said, parting the crowd with conjuring gestures. “Bring us to the host!”

  ARGIS CAIRN-BREAKER looked up from admiring Kyra Celeste’s fingers, which were long and gracious poles of the powers of sorcery. The arriving necromancer was another sight some hadn’t made in years, or even in their lifetimes.

  “Hail,” the underworld boss greeted the talker to the dead.

  Thaena saw the faces of the Wild Hunt assembled, those wraiths that had haunted her dreams. She understood now. The masks the sojourners were wearing had occured in her dreams. This was a deja-vu. The members of the Wild Hunt were made flesh. They were no longer ghosts, but men. Dog-snouted, devil-faced, false angels, elvish clowns, orcish death-skulls, dwarven nutcrackers, human half-animals wearing the antlers of the horned god. But among them, she also felt familiar presences: Dryston of Decia, the sorceress Kyra Celeste, and faint, but still sensible, Skadi the Valkyrie.

  “Good that you caught the date of my calculation,” Gabriel Werdum addressed them without introducing himself. “Or found it out somehow by yourselves. Here is what will happen. The stars will align in three hours, forming a line from the other side of the universe that will rip open reality and create a portal from that end of existance to us. For the time when the stars are aligned and the sun is blotted out, this passageway is open.”

  The attendants stayed silent. Some swallowed involuntarily.

  “I don’t have to explain what will happen then. Truth be told, I couldn’t explain it if I wanted to. But you can all imagine what pot
entially could come through. Something unknown. Not anything we have faced yet and not anything we know how to banish. Some of you might have seen the abominations this world holds. Creatures, ghosts, risen dead. They were still familiar. You knew you had to oppose them with steel, or silver, or fire. Sometimes, even your instincts could tell you what to do against them. Not so with this new threat. It will have nothing in common with anything from our world. Godfrey was so afraid of it that he mustered a force big enough to made him an outlaw. He plunged the city into ruin. His and King Tancred’s armies are exhausted. So, we are all that’s left. I urge you to lay down your grudges against each other and form an alliance, as long as this is not overcome. We have to stand together; simple as that.”

  No one objected. Nevertheless, everyone knew it was only a fragile pact at best. In a band of opportunists that was thrown together by happenstance, everyone had to watch his own back.

  Gabriel turned away from the speech to Thaena.

  “Now, we have to find anything useful we can gather out of this bunch.”

  “I spotted some old friends,” Thaena said. She nodded in each direction. “Dryston, the sorceress, Kyra Celeste, and the girl we rescued from Skybridge, Skadi.”

  The necromancer was surprised at her acute senses. “That’s good,” he said. “We are refugees now, with the crypt lost to the undead.” She could feel the hurtful remembrance of his whole work lost in the tombs still stung. “We need people we can consider our friends now. Everything will be running through Argis Cairn-breaker, though. He is the lynchpin who has the connections. We will see what plan we can come up with. First, let’s catch up with our friends. But make it subtle. Let no one know that we are close to them.”

  “So much for trust,” Thaena said.

  “DRYSTON, WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

  He looked up, torn out of the thoughts that haunted him, as he monitored the changes the poison was making to his body. His hand looked strange, like the hand of a man he didn’t know. His skin was fragile and ripped open in several places.