The Dark Paladin

by Rex Jameson

  Allison’s Twin Sisters sliced through one undead and then another. Cedric felt an immense pride at his wife and children, who cut and sliced through the undead like agile panthers. Even Sarah, whom he hoped would heed their advice to aim higher than being just a paladin whose soul belonged to another, made her presence known with fierce slashes and stabs through eye sockets and collarbones.

  They reached the cave entrance and Cedric took stock of their casualties. No fatalities. Everyone had made it, but there was blood everywhere. The paladins were mostly fine, as they were mainly protected with plate and heavy armor. The young ones had cuts on their hands and legs mostly, where mail and leather were scarcer. Jonas Arrington had cuts to his face and shoulder.

  “I want five paladins here,” Cedric commanded, “and all of the young ones just behind them at the entrance in case undead try to come back into the underworld. All other paladins are with me.”

  He turned around, and the men looked to him for courage. He nodded in understanding. Cedric thought of his father on the day he died. He remembered his father’s speech and the adrenaline he felt as the stone was being rolled away from the cave entrance.

  “Ready yourselves,” he said, “for death comes for us all… but today, death will have to wait… for we have demons to smite back to the Abyss!”

  The men gave a cheer and Cedric pushed forward. Jayden joined him in the front.

  “Nice speech,” the elf said.

  “Thanks,” he replied. “How far in do we have to go?”

  “It’s a bit of a hike,” Jayden admitted. “An old arcanist’s study. I don’t know… probably a thousand to two-thousand paces. It can be a maze down here, and I only came here to visit and fight.”

  Cedric’s black armor gleamed in the light of the dozens of Light-infused weapons. He gripped his war hammer and placed his spear against the cavern walls. He’d retrieve it later.

  “Let’s go,” Cedric said.

  Henry Claymore and the Shelby twins led the way with Cedric just behind. Allison stayed at his side with the Twin Sisters in front of her. Francis Jericho, the third member of the Council, flanked to the right while Allen Bigsby and one-armed Fred Collinsworth formed on the left. Behind were the footsteps of several other paladins and Prince Jayden who extinguished Aikanaro but refreshed the shard in Khelekhoon.

  The floors and walls of the cavern were smooth. This system was obviously hewn by dark elves, not carved naturally by streams or earthquakes. The group picked up speed as they met no resistance. The claustrophobic space opened to a well-lit, large room.

  “Wait,” Cedric said, holding his hands out. Henry, Constantine, and Corbin stopped. “We’re in a cave. This room shouldn’t be lit. Something’s here!”

  A fire demon climbed over a stone fountain that no longer pumped water. The creature was large, obviously a higher-ranking naurun. Other demons came out of nearby doorways. An ancient tree, planted and long-dead, caught fire at the touch of one of the naurun.

  “Can we put the device here?” Cedric asked.

  Jayden raised his right hand with Khelekhoon and tucked the silver box under his other armpit. He shook his head. “There are side passages that may not be blocked from here. We need to deal with these creatures and then move maybe two more chambers over.”

  Four additional naurun prowled into the room, bringing the total to nine.

  “We’ve trained for this,” Cedric said. “Stay disciplined. Hold your line and smite these bastards down!”

  Fifteen paladins and a dark elf moved forward with Light-infused swords, hammers, spears and an ice shard. Two demons lunged at the left side of the paladin formation where Fred looked like an easy target with his bandaged stump. Fred drove his spear through the lead attacker’s face with a strong thrust of his right hand. His friend Allen slammed the other demon with his hammer, sending shards of flame crackling in the air and around the carved room.

  The right side was not so lucky. Francis Jericho had been fighting all day and was sluggish. A demon leapt unnaturally fast from the fountain and burned through his torso with a fiery hand. Henry cleaved the naurun in two, but not before a long-standing member of the Council had fallen.

  “For Francis!” Cedric shouted, and the angry paladins advanced.

  The big demon, the leader of the pack, retreated behind the others.

  “He’s trying to get away,” Cedric said.

  Henry hacked the arm off a naurun that swiped at him and someone else finished the demon off.

  Constantine Shelby feinted at another, and it jumped right into the sword of his brother Corwin. Cedric broke through the Shelby twins and rammed his war hammer down and through a third demon, leaving a direct path to the pack leader. It retreated as Cedric charged, and the paladins gave a triumphant war cry as they overwhelmed the remaining demons in the room. Dozens of footsteps followed him through the hole in the wall.

  A fleeting illumination from the demon along the walls teased Cedric as he ran along the bend to the next room.

  “Be ready for an ambush!” Cedric yelled.

  He stopped and waved his men onward. Every man was a colleague and friend. He struck each of their pauldrons with his plate-gloved fist as they passed. Henry. Allen and Fred. Constantine and Corwin. Allison. Sylas.

  “Wait!” Cedric said as he grabbed his eldest son’s leather armor. “I told you to stay back.”

  “We’re not leaving you, Dad,” another voice said from the shadows.

  “Jonas?” Cedric asked, crestfallen.

  “And Sarah,” his daughter said as she emerged beside Jonas.

  “It’s not safe here,” Cedric said.

  “It’s dangerous everywhere, Dad,” Sarah said.

  “Allison!” Cedric called.

  She came back as other paladins moved forward. The sound of metal hitting stone echoed to him from the next room.

  “Did you know about this?” Cedric asked.

  “Our children are not leaving our side,” Allison said, her eyes clearly daring him to protest her decision. “I’m not losing my kids.”

  Cedric shook his head. He looked over his youngsters, took off his helmet and put his forehead against each one.

  “You stay behind your mother and me,” he told each of them. “Don’t be a hero. Do not throw your lives away. This is not a game. You are the future of our family.”

  “Yes, Father,” they said in turn.

  “Let’s go,” Cedric said.

  They marched into the room, and the large cavern was alight in flame. Elven banners burned along the wall. Four paladins lay on the floor, and a fifth paladin was lifted into the air, sliding down the burning hand of the pack leader of the nauruns.

  “Come, paladins!” the large demon with a black breastplate roared. “Gorshtag hungers!”

  The retreat from the other room had obviously been a setup for an ambush, just as Cedric had warned his men. Judging by the scorch marks on the floor, the paladins had killed a dozen demons already. Henry Claymore swung wildly at a group of three who were pushing him into a far wall. The Shelby twins fought atop the still writhing body of a horribly disfigured Fred Collinsworth.

  Allen yelled as he drove Fred’s spear into a naurun who screamed in pain before shattering into fiery shards. The spear’s power sputtered and went dark. Allen looked at the weapon in disbelief. He then looked at the heap of metal and flesh where Fred no longer moved.

  Allen howled in anger and fetched his war hammer from his back holster. He lunged at a demon with his bright weapon, smashing it in one swing and dispersing its fiery body into many pieces. Constantine and Corwin followed him, swinging their own hammers.

  Cedric headed straight for the lieutenant, the leader of this pack. The demon was ten feet tall and emitting black, red and yellow flames from its massive body. The fire licked its breastplate, pauldrons and leg guards, and it growled and hissed as it turned from Cedric and reached for Allen. Allen saw Cedric coming though and backed away.

  Ce
dric slammed his hammer down on the demon’s backplate, knocking it forward and getting its attention. The demon screamed in fear, and there was a noticeable reaction from the dozen or so demons still alive in the room.

  They stopped their attacks on the other paladins and redirected. Cedric quickly realized his predicament. He turned and ran but panicked when he found his two sons right behind him.

  “No!” he yelled, pushing them back and then grabbing and pulling them with him.

  “We can help you, Dad!” Jonas said.

  “You haven’t been initiated,” Cedric said. “Your weapons are useless against them. Do as I say!”

  Sylas obediently jogged back to the entrance, where a ring of paladins still held the field. Jonas gripped his hammer in frustration and hesitated while the demons charged.

  Allison screamed and ran into the fray as she saw the demons advancing toward her son. She cut through one demon and then shifted her weight fluidly to dodge a fiery claw before cutting upward and dispatching another with her Twin Sisters. Cedric stepped forward again as the demon lieutenant came after his wife. It wielded a black blade, and he parried it as it came down at her head.

  The demon screamed a command again, and the remaining eight demons rallied to it.

  Allen and the Shelby twins closed in from the left. Henry and a few others from the right.

  “This is as dangerous as they get!” Cedric yelled. “They have nowhere to go! Be careful! Stay together!”

  Almost as if in response, two demons sprinted toward Cedric, their claws digging into the stone floor as they leapt like lions while three others pushed Henry’s side. Cedric smashed one of his attackers, expecting someone else to engage the second one, but Allison had pulled away to help Henry Claymore. Cedric found himself alone as he grappled with a creature that scorched his breastplate and flailed against his hammer.

  And then a hammer went through the creature’s head, and Cedric smiled, expecting the familiar hiss and the shatter into fragments of fire. But it never came. The hammer disintegrated, and Cedric heard a yelp in a familiar tone.

  There was no time to react. The demon acted too quickly. Cedric watched as his son Jonas was lifted into the air, still gaping at the melted hammer shaft and head. He must have thought he was saving his father. The six-foot, smaller demon ran his hand through the soft leather armor that protected his son’s chest. Cedric yelled in despair as his son gasped above him. The noises the pack leader made sounded like laughter.

  And then, the whole room went white. Cedric’s hammer reacted to his anger in such a way that it burned brighter than a star. He smashed the naurun murderer of his son with a mighty blow to its torso. His son fell to the floor through the flakes of fire. The room got so bright that Cedric’s eyes watered. He screamed as he ran at the largest demon in the room, the ten-foot tall one who had been laughing at his son’s last moments. The creature panicked as Cedric closed the gap. He slammed his hammer against the creature’s breastplate over and over and over again, yelling louder every time he did it. It fell backwards, and Cedric was atop it immediately. He hammered into its head again and again, long after it had disintegrated and the armor had rattled and clanged onto the floor.

  Cedric looked at his fallen son. His breath became shallow as he gawked at Jonas’ wounds. He forgot about the three demons who stood, dumbfounded, not thirty paces away. He watched his wife run over to Jonas’ body, and when he heard her wails, he broke down completely. His knees weakened and he cried as his hammer hit the floor.

  In Cedric’s periphery, Henry took down a demon. Another fell to Corwin. Allen lit up the third, and then the room went silent except for Allison and Cedric’s cries.

  Henry came over and put his hand on Cedric’s shoulder. “You have to be strong now. We all know your pain, but this is a battlefield, my friend.”

  Cedric nodded and caught his breath. “I know.”

  “We have to keep moving forward,” Henry said. “These are not the last demons to come through this cavern. Not unless we do something about it. Right?”

  Cedric nodded. “I just need a moment.”

  “Of course,” Henry said. “I’ll lead the men into the next chamber.”

  Cedric nodded again, unable to really speak about strategy or anything else.

  “Remember who we fight,” Henry said. “Orcus, Lord of the Undead… We have to prepare all of the bodies…”

  Cedric continued to nod as fresh tears spilled down his cheeks. He understood Henry’s implication. Jonas might return from the dead to attack him, but he still needed to look at his son for a moment. If Jonas came back, Cedric would handle it. No one else.

  Allison cradled Jonas in her arms. Sylas and Sarah knelt beside her, their faces hidden in darkness. Cedric ran his fingers through Jonas’s light brown hair, the texture and color of his wife’s.

  “Take our boy and get him out of here,” Cedric said to Allison. “I have to finish this.”

  Allison nodded wordlessly.

  “Have each of our fallen removed,” Cedric commanded to Henry, “and make sure they’re taken care of.”

  Allison looked up at him, tears flowing down her face and off her chin. She shook her head, seeming to understand the implication—that her son must be burned to prevent his resurrection under Orcus.

  “Just go,” Cedric commanded. “All of you. Bring our dead outside. Honor them. I’ll join you when the cave is sealed.”

  He kissed Allison, and she grabbed her son from his arms. He watched her and his two remaining children pull Jonas from the hall. When he turned back toward the chamber, he found Jayden standing there with the box.

  “My deepest condolences,” Jayden said.

  Cedric nodded once. He reached out toward the elf, and Jayden accepted his hand. Then they embraced in a strong hug.

  “My first losses to the demons,” Jayden said in a low, wounded voice, “were my father and then my fiancé. The losses… never got easier. Every day, my heart feels like its own Abyss, and I fall into that chasm the moment I wake up. But I still see them in my dreams… you’ll find your son there too.”

  “Thank you,” Cedric said. They admired each other with profound respect and empathy.

  Jayden nodded. He squeezed Khelekhoon and a new shard emerged. “Let’s finish this.”

  This new chamber was darker. There were no demons in hiding. There was no more resistance. Any other demons that had been lying in ambush must have spread the word about the paladin with the angry Light that filled the room and blinded their lieutenant. Distant echoes of screeching could be heard, none of which must have understood the implications of what was being done here.

  “We’ll have a few minutes to clear out,” Jayden said. “It has a timer.”

  “We’ll hold the corridors, just in case,” Cedric said.

  Henry Claymore took guard at one of the three corridors coming in. The twins took one and Allen took the last.

  The light from each of their weapons was just enough to illuminate a puzzle on one side of the silver box. Jayden pressed his fingers into a circular hole, which pushed aside an interlocking metal plate, revealing another button. He pushed and turned the box to open another hole. The elf turned the box without pushing this one and found another rune to press. Again and again, he expertly handled the box. After a dozen such movements, the dark lines on the box turned bright blue.

  “It’s time to go,” Jayden said as he put the box down on the ground.

  Cedric whistled loudly and made a circular motion above his head to indicate it was time to retreat.

  Each of the paladins reversed their path out of the room, still facing the potential threats. Jayden and Cedric backed out as well. A faint red light could be seen in the central corridor. Apparently one of the demons had become brave enough to venture close to the chamber. The device emitted a faint blue glow as it hummed and readied the transportation mechanism that linked it to the center of some cold world, somewhere off in the cosmos, just like Jayden�
��s Khelekhoon weapon did.

  Allison and his children were no longer in the second chamber. The fallen paladins had also been removed. Cedric jogged alongside Jayden until they reached the first chamber. The elf put his hand on Cedric to stop him, and Cedric turned around.

  “This should be fine,” Jayden said. “Now, we wait to make sure it’s not a dud.”

  A roar came down the corridors leading to the next chamber. It sounded much like the shard entering Khelekhoon but vastly louder. A wall of water came at him like a torrent but as it made its way down the corridors, it slowed and eventually stopped completely. Where open room had been moments ago, there was only ice. Cedric reached out and touched its cold surface. When he was convinced it was as solid as it looked, he turned to Jayden.

  “So, it’s done?” Cedric asked. “The demons are contained?”

  “For now,” Jayden replied.

  22

  The King Loses an Eye

  Ashton followed Mekadesh as she arranged her hair into a tight up-do and navigated the halls of the castle as if she had walked through it a thousand times. Frederick followed not far behind. She stopped when they came to a massive, opulently decorated room, 400-feet-wide and lined in white stone. He gawked at the purple and black curtains, drapes and furs along the walls. Then the foot-tall, black-metal sconces every ten to twelve feet. The balcony with the detailed masonry and decor that led out into the night where the moon lit the distant, abandoned city of Ul Tyrion. The purple carpeting that led up to the great marble throne and the two figures conversing there. Each held and earned his gaze. It was the richest, most important room Ashton had ever seen.