Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series (Dark Gods & Tainted Souls Book 2)

by Julius Schenk

  The instant carnage was like nothing she’d ever seen. She’d not called one of these things, but many, and now a pack of them came bounding through the rift on string black legs and attacked. They fell on the Duke, who was still acting like a slavering beast, and taking him between a pack of four, they ripped him apart. Sharp animal teeth sinking into his dead flesh with vigor. They fell on the hearts as well, knocking over the vase and devouring the contents like the hungry dogs they were. The vase fell so that it knocked the boxes that made the circle of power askew, and she saw it shudder. So did the Duchess. With a cry, she started the chant again, and within a few tense moments it was closed and there was only silence again, the beasts being pulled back in as they ate.

  Her husband was nothing more than a bloody pile of wreckage on the tent floor, and the hearts were all but destroyed and devoured. She dropped to her knees and cried and cried. She turned to her guards. ‘Rip this room apart and try to find anyone.’ But she didn’t believe there was anyone: just her own failing. Josette had already slunk out of the pile of bodies once the black dogs had done their work, and was slinking through the bushes completely covered in blood, head to toe, but smiling. The Duchess would have to wait.

  Chapter 36

  Somehow they had tricked her. She had a feeling it had happened when the Wolvern had attacked her. After that, her champion had been a very different person. He’d acted differently, walked more like a woman and with less cocky swagger, and fought very differently. Now she stood over the blonde girl who was tied to the eating table and saw that it had been her since then. Somehow, this girl could change herself and the world to look as she liked. It was a child’s power, but she’d developed it to a point which Silver could almost admire. Still, the girl had defended her, even though she clearly had no control over her, and the brute of a Northman had come back and saved her, though clearly he was only there for the girl. Silver had no idea where she had come from and assumed the only reason she hadn’t heard her heartbeat before was her powers.

  She looked at the girl’s face as she lay, and liked it; she had long blonde hair, which even matted and dirty, was still fine. Refined face, and she was tough. It made sense to her now, that she had started growing attracted to her champion recently, she finally realised it was since she was actually a girl in disguise. She remembered her licking her neck with a shudder. It had only been a few hundred years since someone had touched her in any way at all.

  ‘Wake up,’ she said, looking at the girl. Her protectors had scattered when they saw Silver being cut free, and they were alone. Seth lay on the ground near the stone pillar, slowly dying from blood loss.

  Seraphina opened her own blue eyes and looked at the woman named Silver. ‘I wasn’t really asleep, just pretending.’

  ‘Seems like you like pretending,’ she said as she cut her bounds and let her sit up.

  Seraphina looked over at Seth’s crumpled body and was surprised she actually felt a pang of concern. He was like a force of nature, and seeing him brought low like this was a shock. She looked with concern. ‘Are you going to help him?’ She asked.

  ‘Why should I? I have you now, and you’re much stronger than him,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t have me, and if you don’t help him, I won’t help you,’ she said simply.

  ‘Then I’ll kill you,’ Silver said, drawing and raising her sword.

  Seraphina just smiled, and then letting the image of her fade, showed that she really stood behind Silver with her own sword drawn at her back. ‘You can try, or you can stop being such a Princess and actually ask for help,’ she said.

  ‘I don’t ask for help. I’ve always been alone and always will be,’ she said sadly, but with defiance.

  Seraphina spun her around with her hand on Silver’s pale arm and slapped her hard across the face. ‘That was for my friend the Wolvern, you’ll answer for that, but first we will help you because one thing I know is Queens, and even you’d be better than her. Now come and help him.’

  Seraphina turned away with her hand still hurting a bit from slapping the woman’s face, which had been like slapping a statue, and walked down the rough black stone stairs to where Seth lay. He was breathing very slowly, and she saw the bright red blood slowly pouring from a wound in his stomach. He was hunched over the knife, with both hands on it by instinct, holding the blood in. She saw he had only minutes.His normal color draining from his face as his life ran from him.

  She’d seen him run into the fray of them to defend the woman’s honour. She was his enemy and someone he should hate, but he’d still protected her from being raped at the cost of himself. She had known since the moment they faced each other in the room in Dakar that they should have always been on the same side. He was the darkest of the Gatherers, and she was perhaps the lightest of the Guild. They had to try meet in the middle. Besides, she needed him alive if she wanted to get back home.

  Silver walked up next to Seraphina and looked at the fallen champion, Seth.

  ‘He protected me with his life as he should, mine’s more important’ she said, but she didn’t sound like she believed it.

  ‘Who is he to you?’Silver asked.

  ‘He’s my enemy, He sent me here and killed my uncle.’ Seraphina said as a statement of fact, and there was no conviction in the words.

  ‘Then why help him?’ Silver asked.

  ‘When you’re surrounded by enemies on all sides, you take what friends you can get. That’s why I’m friends with you.’

  ‘We’re friends?’ Silver asked with shock on her face.

  Seraphina laughed. God but this creature was a lonely sort. ‘Sure, why not? Now heal him up and let’s escape before more of your brethren come along.’

  Silver lent down next to Seth and, reaching out with her strong pale hand, pulled the dagger from his stomach. He grunted as she did and his blood flowed more freely. Drawing the bloody blade across her hand, she made a cut and pressed it against his wound. As she held it there, the blood flow stopped and then the wound began to heal. She then pressed it to his mouth and let the silver blood drip into his mouth. Even deep asleep, his body recognised it and drank. Within moments, he opened his eyes.

  From his position on the ground, he looked at the faces of Seraphina and Silver. Both beautiful powerful creatures who probably wanted to kill him. He simply sighed.

  ‘Seraphina, Silver, you save me just to kill me again?’

  Seraphina just laughed and, taking his hand, pulled him up.

  ‘No, Seth, there’s only three of us and we’re going to stick together until the end,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, that’s good... but there are actually four of us, you see.’

  As he said the words, the Wolvern with its beautiful white fur came bounding into the clearing with a flock of humans trailing behind him.

  Chapter 37

  The first thing Goldie heard were the screams. You could really tell a story with screams. First there was the vicious sounds of dogs, then a long male scream, then that cut off, then a woman’s screams of rage. The story to him was that she’d tried to bring her old husband back, and he’d got all eaten up somehow. He didn’t expect the little redhead to do something like that, but rather kill the Duchess before she’d had a chance, but clearly she was an initiated in the Gatherers now, lucky.

  He tried the bonds on his wrists and yelled out, ‘I’m ready to leave now,’ to no one in particular. He had to get out of this camp now. Things were about to get very bad for him. They had been bad from the beginning, but he was proud of himself. He’d lived up to his name and made the best of a complete fuck-up. He’d hated the plan to start with: hire some scum to save them. It was shameful for one, and two, he trusted mercenaries as far as he could throw them. They were greedy and untrustworthy, traits he only liked in himself, not others.

  So when he’d been sent out with all that gold to come and hire them, he’d done so with many reservations. Then it had gotten worse because every tavern scum he talked
to warned him off them. One man in particular who was well worth the gold was a lean rat-faced sort who called himself Skinner. Goldie had no idea why and didn’t want to know, but Skinner had spilled the story that the Bastards were the Duke’s little dirty force that did his killing. The King didn’t like his dukes to fight for expansion, so the Duke used the Red’s to do his dirty work. If Goldie hired them on, he’d be giving them the Keep and his friends inside.

  He could take or leave Seth. He really felt not a lot of love towards the childman. He was too young and brash, but he had freed them and he had freed Grimm. Now that was a man he could respect. Many times Grimm had saved his arse in the slave pit or on their ship when his smart mouth and clever hands had caused him grief, he’d not let Grimm down.

  So he’d played his role: he’d hand over the Keep, he’d said, and he’d gotten in with both the Bastards and the Duchess. He’d had to kill that captain because he would get his city guard involved, and that was one more set of troops he didn’t want in the field. The only good thing in the whole mix was the little redhead; she was a tough one and, when he’d seen her hiding under that prison wagon, he’d smiled for the first time in days. She’d run like a rat and rat him out, she’d spill the plans he’d spoken about, and she’d let the Keep know what they needed to.

  Grimm had done more than his part and taken their fake battle and turned it on its head, but still, now a battle was coming for real. If the Duke’s wife was as mad as he thought, then it would be full-scale attack, no trickery. No, it was time to leave before his head got cut off.

  A stale smell of wine and filth came to his nose as he sat bound to the desk.

  ‘Thank for coming,’ Goldie said over his shoulder.

  The rat-faced man Skinner stood over him with a dagger. He’d slipped in through the hole in the tent made by Josette.

  ‘My pleasure, boss, it’s not like I haven’t been waiting for hours in the dark; you hear that screaming? That’s not good, is it?’ He asked in a nervous voice. He cut the rope that tied Goldie to the chair and let him stand. Goldie stretched out his sore limbs.

  ‘Did I mention you’re the best five gold pieces I’ve ever spent?’ Goldie asked with a smile.

  ‘You better believe it; the others are waiting and we’ve been oh so busy running our nasty tongues to all that will listen.’

  Chapter 38

  Seraphina dropped to her knees and literally started crying when she saw him. The huge Wolvern was beautiful. She could tell it was him, but had never expected something like this. She thought it was dead, but now it was almost reborn and glorious. It nuzzled against her and she felt the warmth of emotion in her mind.

  ‘Never fear, child, I live, and stronger than ever.’ It said so they could all hear it in their minds.

  ‘But she killed you: what happened?’ She asked.

  ‘Our North boy brought me back, and as I once was, and now to it.’ The Wolvern turned to the silver woman, and crouched low and growling. ‘I said I’d kill you and now I will.’

  She was beyond stunned at the reappearance of the Wolvern. Seth watched the way she looked at it and she could tell he thought it was strange, as if she’d never seen what it was before. That beneath all the mottled skin and fangs it was a powerful thing to be respected, not some vermin that was hard to kill.

  Silver bowed down in front of it and tilted her head forward. ‘I’m yours to take, Moon Wolf, and I’m sorry for my sins against you. I had no idea of what you were,’ she said with sincerity.

  ‘What’s a moons wolf?’ Asked Seraphina.

  ‘It’s what him and his kind were called in legend: they would bring our dead back home to judgement,’ she said. ‘It’s a sin to kill one and that’s what I tried to do, and I’m sorry.’

  ‘Say you’re sorry for all of my kind which you killed when you banished me.’ It said, about to lunge forward.

  ‘The sins of my mother, I assure you, but I’ll take the punishment; I deserve it and more for hurting you,’ she said.

  She saw the vision in her mind as the Wolvern pushed its powerful mind into Silver’s and searched it. It ran through all the memories and saw it all from her. She wasn’t the one on the plain that day, but it had been her mother. Her first encounter with him was when he was already changed and he’d tried to kill her unprovoked. He’d thought he had a score to settle.

  ‘Stand up, Silver hair, I forgive you, but your mother must die’, He said darkly.

  ‘Well, we all agree on that,’ said Seth, ‘but I’ve got a feeling our plans are going to be decided for us: we’ve tarried much too long here.’

  They turned and saw the Queen at the head of a mass of her people coming towards them. She was being carried on a huge sedan chair litter, supported by long poles carried by others, and she looked weak, with her head rolling to one side as if asleep, but all she needed was a word.

  ‘We can’t fight them all and we have much more important things to do.’

  The words of the Wolvern filled all of their minds, and as a group they turned and ran. They had come in the front gate, into the centre, and now they ran from it. The burning in Seth’s hand pulled them away from the howling mass, which was a stroke of luck. The Wolvern took off far ahead, not wanting to be in earshot of her with its great hearing, and was soon gone from sight.

  Seth, Silver and Seraphina ran fast to keep up, and they were a lot quicker than the mob of oversized creatures, but they couldn’t run forever. Huge black walls loomed before them and grew closer and closer, and they saw the wall had been guarded by four of the creatures, but they were fallen and dead. The Wolvern had already carved a bloody path. They made it through the gates and Silver stopped dead.

  ‘Why stop?’ Seth panted, halting his run as the howling mob closed in on the gateway.

  ‘They will not follow, so we’re safe from them now,’ she said, and started to walk at a casual pace.

  ‘Why is that?’ Seraphina asked.

  ‘There are those of our kind too far gone to live amongst us; it’s they who haunt the river and feed off any that make it that far.’

  ‘Can’t you just command them to leave us alone?’ Seth said with a sigh: he was clearly getting sick of this.

  ‘It only works when there is a mind to control,’ Silver said with a shudder.

  Chapter 39

  She was done. It was over. All the games, moves, plots, and ploys. She’d just seen the love of her life ripped apart in front of her like a piece of warm bread, and something inside her had broken. She’d felt rage before, when the bastard Northman had tricked him and sent him to the land of the dead to kill him, but she’d had hope. She could restore her love to her side and it would be as it was, but not now. Now, the last images of him she would ever have in her mind were that. His regal face being bitten apart by those dirty black dogs.

  She’d howled with fury and sadness as they came through the rift and attacked. There was a pack of them, and they tore him apart in moments, and then they went to work on the hearts and bodies of the fallen. The brazier of blood had fallen and weakened the circle. It held its power by the weakest strands, and she had had no choice but to close it and send them all back. The broken body of Luthor, her first and only love, and them.

  She knew the lore well, she knew all her husband had and he was the true Master of the Dark Guild. She knew that he was gone for good now. There was no coming back from second death. His fallen body was his vessel in the afterlife, a fragile thing, not meant for a violent world, just to travel from death to judgement. Now it was gone and so was his soul. Drifted off to some unknown plain, never to be redeemed, never to be judged, never to move on, just lost like a morning fog. She pushed out of the tent in a haze, flanked by her two loyal guards, who shoved the soldiers who got in her way as she staggered back to her tent like a drunk, staggering with shock and sadness.

  The rage in her was building and building, and she let it take over from her sadness. Someone had done this. Someone had called those b
easts, and she knew without a doubt that Elizebetha and those in the Keep were the ones behind it. She might not have been the sneak in the dark, but it was her guiding hand, and she was going to cut that hand off and eat it.

  ‘Get me the King Bastard and that Northern piece of shit!’ She yelled.

  Dierdra staggered to a seat in her tent and sat down heavily on the leather chair. She could feel her bloodlust rising, and the monster starting to come out, but this time she wouldn’t put it back. She saw her own appearance in the reflections of fear in her most loyal, but they still stood firm, and would ‘til they needed to pin her down and feed her.

  Pushing the flap of leather aside, the King Bastard came in. He looked pale from blood loss, but ready. He’d heard the screams from the tent and could feel the mood of the Twin Plains black sashes that had got him. He ran his hand through his pretty blonde locks and tried to smile, but she was scaring him. Her face looked like a monster and he could see her teeth looked sharp in the right cast of light.

  ‘What’s happened?’ He asked.

  The truth, but not the truth, she thought. ‘They have killed my bloody husband and now we’re going to kill all of them,’ she said simply.

  ‘So no more plans, just brute force.’ He said with a grin, which this time he actually felt.

  ‘That’s right, Bastard, you and your men are going to earn your names this very night,’ she said.

  ‘That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear, I hate all these games; so we get the looting of the Keep, right? That was never your thing, anyway.’

  ‘Loot it, rape the women, kill the men, and then burn it to the ground,’ she said, standing and spitting the words with rage.