by Sam Ferguson
That was when Janik realized that the beasts without wings had large, horn-like hooks instead of hands on their arms that extended all the way down from their elbow joints. Janik wasn’t sure how many there were. Maybe fifty, maybe seventy, it was hard to tell as the darkness was closing in again.
Cyrus sent a whirling tornado of fire directly at the monsters. Janik charged ahead, taking on a few that were able to evade the tornado of fire. He dropped two of the flying beasts before one reached down and grabbed his shoulder with talons sharp and strong as any saber Janik had ever seen. The talons ripped through his armor and pierced his flesh, enabling the flying monster to fling Janik thirty feet away. As he landed on the stone floor, the experienced warrior tucked and rolled to minimize the impact. He pressed up to his feet and scanned around him.
Janik was not about to give up. He saw a trio of winged monsters flying toward Cyrus that he could intercept if he moved quickly. He rushed in to reengage the enemy. In a matter of seconds he crossed the five yards between him and the enemy and using his right hand to wield his axe, he brought one of the three flying beasts down with a solid chop to the middle of its skull. He jerked his weapon free just in time as one of the grotesque beasts on foot ran directly for him from behind. Janik dodged to the left as the large monster swung its wicked claws at him. Then Janik deftly jumped up and over the creature’s whirling tail. The mighty warrior let out a yell and brought his axe down, severing the tail in half. The monster howled in agony, but it did not let up its attack.
It snarled at Janik and came on. Janik swung his axe horizontally, but the beast dove under it and grabbed the back of the axe with its left claw. It raised its right arm over its head, preparing to chop down and hook Janik’s head, but Janik ran forward, using the shaft on his axe as a bar with which to push the beast back. When he got in close enough, Janik deftly kicked the monster’s front knee in backwards. The cracking bone could no longer support the monster’s weight, and the beast fell to the ground. Janik kicked the beast twice in the head and brought his axe down to sever its neck.
Janik whirled around in time to see a spear of ice run through three similar monsters that were charging him and had come within only a few yards of striking. Janik nodded his thanks to Cyrus and then continued on. There were a lot of monsters, but they were not coordinated in their attack. Each monster tried to fight on its own and cared little for the other, fallen monsters around. None of the creatures attempted to protect each other’s flanks, which made it much easier for Janik and Cyrus to work through the group.
Within five minutes the battle was over and all of the ghastly creatures were dead.
Janik surveyed the scene. He had taken down ten, or perhaps twelve of the creatures with his axe. Cyrus had done the rest. Scores of creatures lay upon the stone floor. Many of them smoldered from magical fire attacks, while others were pinned to the wall or floor with great spears that had been fashioned from magical ice. The scene of carnage was far beyond anything that Janik had ever witnessed a wizard do before.
“I do believe the battle goes to you,” Janik said.
Cyrus looked at Janik questioningly.
“You have the higher body count,” Janik explained. “That means I buy you a round at the nearest pub.”
Cyrus smiled appreciatively and offered a nod. “If you survive, then you can buy me a beer.”
Janik frowned, but the old wizard only laughed and began walking toward him.
Cyrus concentrated once more on the door and cast another spell like the first. A red glow expanded in the doorway and sizzled and cracked with bolts of lightning streaking over it. After a few moments, the door shattered and crumbled to the floor.
“Time to move,” Cyrus said.
In the two ran through the entrance to the castle, Cyrus’ spell still crackling and popping inside the entrance, holding the granite jaws open. The two only just made it inside when then the jaws snapped shut. Inside they were confronted by mirrors lining the walls, making it hard for them to know which way to go.
“I will handle this,” Janik said. He swung his axe into the nearest mirror, shattering it into a thousand pieces. “I hate these kinds of tricks.”
The old wizard let the warrior break a few more mirrors before finally growing impatient. Cyrus summoned a whirlwind with his staff that shattered all of the remaining mirrors before them and sucked the sharp shards of glass into a swirling cyclone. Cyrus then caused the cyclone to disappear, along with the shards it carried. Afterward he summoned two more orbs of light.
Janik glanced to Cyrus.
Cyrus shrugged. “My way is faster.” He then pointed to the orbs of light above them. “These are not just to light our way, they will help us find the right path to the vampire.”
“How can they do that?”
“They are designed to sense the vampire’s magic. Come on, try to keep up.” The two of them walked through the main entryway and then down the corridor on the left. A pair of disfigured creatures entered the hallway from an adjacent doorway. Cyrus was quick to catch them with a blast of fire that reduced them to a smoldering pile of gray ash.
“I am going to enjoy watching you both die,” a voice taunted.
Janik glanced over his shoulder but saw nothing there.
“He is just trying to scare you,” Cyrus said. “He is still far off. The orbs will turn red when we get close.”
Janik nodded, but the statement did little to calm his nerves. He wanted to know how the vampire knew where they were.
The pair followed the orbs as they glided through a maze of halls and a staircases. The two turned up a stairway that was flanked by a pair of large, hulking stone gargoyles at the base of the stairs. Janik readied his axe, but Cyrus sneered and shook his head.
“These are made of stone,” Cyrus assured Janik. “Save your strength and follow me up the stairs.”
“How can you tell?”
Cyrus didn’t bother answering the question and instead pushed beyond Janik and made his way up the stairs. Janik kept an eye on the stone gargoyles for a few moments before deciding Cyrus was correct. He made his way up the stairs as well, following Cyrus as the wizard turned into a corridor on the right. After several yards they passed under a large arch and stepped into a grand ballroom.
Everything up until now had been granite carved from the mountain, but the floor in the ballroom was made of pink, green, and blue marble tiles. Four massive, granite columns stretched from floor to ceiling. Each column held four sconces with burning torches. Above them, the underside of the cupola was painted with a macabre scene of a silver haired man raising the dead from a graveyard and subjecting them to his servitude.
Along each of the four walls were hung several tapestries. Some depicted beasts and monsters that Janik knew and was familiar with, such as werewolves, imps, large snakes, and ghouls. Other tapestries showed great horned beasts and monsters the like of which Janik had never seen before. His eyes fixed upon one such tapestry of a large, greenish humanoid. Small spikes grew out of the humanoid’s shoulders, curving forward and out to the side. Larger, triangular spikes protruded out from the monster’s back. Instead of hands, each arm ended in two wickedly sharp hooks, much like the creatures they had just fought before they entered the castle. The legs were thick and muscular, shielded with scales that ended abruptly above the sharp hooves. Three tails protruded out from the back of the beast, and small spikes jutted out from the end of each tail.
“That is a wylkin,” Cyrus said, noting Janik’s wide-eyed stare as they walked past. “Not to worry, though. As I understand it they mostly prey upon cows and sheep.”
Janik nodded and the two turned toward the northern wall. There they saw a closed door of ebony wood. Brass straps encased the door, shining brightly in the torchlight. There was no keyhole, and no doorknob. Cyrus directed the two orbs toward the door. The closer they got, the more red they became.
Janik held out his axe and then gestured to the door. Cyrus shook his h
ead. The wizard took a silver coin from his coin purse and flicked it across the room to hit the door. A great flurry of lightning bolts assaulted the coin, holding it suspended in the air for a moment before allowing it to drop to the marble floor. Smoke rose from the coin as it glowed red hot for a full minute before fading.
“That is the right way, but we will need to find the proper method for opening the door.” Cyrus leaned upon his staff and stared at the door for a long while.
Janik stared at the wizard incredulously. “Shall I just wait while you catch your breath?” he asked.
Cyrus dismissed Janik with a wave. “Go stare at the tapestries and leave me be. I am thinking.”
Janik huffed and thought of a clever retort, but it would have to wait.
The other doors leading to the ballroom slammed shut, echoing loudly in the chamber. Janik startled and held his axe up at the ready.
“It looks like we are now trapped,” Janik said.
A wind suddenly rushed around the entire room, pulling the tapestries away from the stone wall and bringing with it the chill of death.
Janik looked up and his mouth fell open when a large snake fell from the tapestry that held its image. The serpent slithered toward the center of the room and flicked its tongue out. The tongue bounced in the air, tasting the scent in the room. Then it locked its eyes on the heroes and turned to strike.
“I hate snakes,” Janik yelled. Janik ran forward and swung his axe just as the snake struck out at him. Its fangs dripped with an opaque liquid which dangled grotesquely from the tip of each point. Luckily, Janik was the first to connect and the axe tore through the snake’s head.
“On your guard,” Cyrus called out. “More are coming.”
Janik’s mouth fell open as all of the tapestries began to shake and tremble. One by one, monsters dropped out from the embroidered scenes into the real world. Janik was quick to engage them on the ground while Cyrus did his best to set fire to the tapestries before they could give birth to the monsters whose images they held. The wizard succeeded in burning more than half of them, including the werewolves and the ghouls and the imps. For good measure, he also set the tapestry of the wylkin ablaze.
“I thought you said they only attack cattle and sheep,” Janik shouted as he battled with a giant wolf.
“I only said that so as not to scare you,” Cyrus replied.
The two heroes slew another pair of large snakes, a trio of braindead zombies, and a dozen skeletons.
This time, the body count was tipped in Janik’s favor.
“Now you owe me a round,” Janik said with a wink.
Cyrus shook his head. “I almost got half of the monsters,” he replied.
“Uh-uh,” Janik said with a shake of his head. “The battle goes to me. I have more bodies.”
Cyrus pointed up to the burnt tapestries. “Fine, then I am counting the ones I killed before they materialized. The battle goes to me, and now you owe me two drinks.”
Janik frowned and opened his mouth to say something. He huffed and set his axe back in its place. There was no way for him to refute the wizard’s logic.
Unfortunately, Cyrus was no closer to opening the door than he had been before the monsters appeared. Cyrus assaulted the door a series of spells. He tried lightning, fire, ice, and wind, but nothing so much as budged the ebony door.
“What do we do now?” Janik inquired.
Cyrus didn’t respond. He stood still, and continued to stare at the door.
The voice taunted them again, “You have done better than the others, but you will die here.”
The cupola above cracked and broke. Giant pieces of slab fell to the floor below, fracturing the beautiful marble floor and shaking the entire ballroom. Janik darted to the side while Cyrus threw up a magical shield to protect himself. Great columns of fire descended from the ceiling above with flames so intense, even Cyrus inside his magical shield had to shy away from it. Out from within the fire emerged a beast unlike any of the others they had fought heretofore in the castle. The demon had four muscular arms, each as large around as one of Janik’s legs. The demon’s legs, in turn, were larger around than Janik’s chest. Sharp, thick talons clicked and scraped over the marble floor, scratching and breaking the stone as the demon walked toward them. The demon had no weapons, but it did have a long snout filled with sharp, jagged teeth. Its eyes were black as night in their centers, and burned with flames which leapt off of them. When it caught sight of Janik gaping at it, it snarled and walked slowly toward Janik.
Janik studied the demon’s gait and then made his move. He ran forward, holding his axe up high, ignoring the pain in his left shoulder where he had been stabbed earlier. The demon turned his lower left hand out toward Janik and fireballs leapt from its palm. Janik only barely escaped the crackling fire as he jumped out to the left, but the demon had already lifted its lower right hand to lash out with a long whip of fire that it had conjured. The whip circled around Janik’s axe and ripped it from the man’s hand. The force of the blow was so intense that Janik fell to the ground with his arms singed and smoking. He looked up just as his axe melted away into molten steel and dripped to the floor below.
Cyrus sent in a series of magical ice darts, but none of them had any effect on the beast. The demon absorbed each dart directly into its chest and only grew larger and stronger. The demon then took both of its lower arms and clapped them together in front of himself, sending a shockwave out that flung Cyrus to the back wall and knocked him unconscious.
Janik knew he was in serious trouble without Cyrus there to help. He reached for the short sword hanging from his belt, hoping against all odds that the blade would somehow affect the beast. The demon cracked his whip and sparks of lightning exploded over it. A moment later, Janik was flying through the air as scorching pain seared through his left leg. He stretched out his left hand to break his fall, but his wrist and forearm snapped in three different places. He called out in agony, writhing on the floor as the burning made its way through his leg up into his hip, while radiating pulses shot through his chest and shoulder from his left forearm. His vision blurred and he gasped for breath.
He rolled over and saw the fiery whip coming down for his face. The weapon seem to unfold over him slowly, as if time stretched out, allowing him to watch his death for much longer than he should have needed to. Yellow and gold sparks leapt from the bright red whip, but he felt no fear. He lay still, watching the weapon soar down toward his face and then all went black.
Death was anything but what he had expected, for there was no bright light, and no imp to drag him down to hell either. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he was dead, for he was still breathing, and from what he could tell, the sounds of battle still raged around. He tried to open his eyes, but they would not obey him, so he listened with his ears as Cyrus, apparently conscious again, threw spell after spell. He guessed that what he heard was lightning, or possibly spears of ice as he had seen before, but he had no way to be sure. He knew only that there were large, crackling sounds flying in the air around him, followed by gusts of wind and heavy thumps.
Janik had lost all feeling in his body. It was replaced by a cold numbness that left him confused and paralyzed. Then he felt a scorching heat on his right side. His eyes flickered open and a great flame stood before him. His left eye saw only red blood, presumably from his own face, but his right eye looked up at the demon from below with one leg standing on his right side and the demon’s other leg standing on his left arm, which he could no longer feel. Instinctively Janik reached for his short sword that was still tucked into a sheath on his right hip and thrust it upward, driving the point of that sword into the demon’s groin and twisting it as he pushed farther into the demon’s body. The demon howled and cried out as sparks of fire jumped out of its mouth. Blood as yellow as liquid gold coursed down the demon’s legs. The demon collapsed backwards, its four arms flailing and fire spewing out of its mouth. Janik saw a trio of blue spears strike down into the beas
t’s chest and the demon was no more.
Cyrus walked over and stood next to Janik, looking down and shaking his head in dismay. “There’s nothing I can do for you, other than to ease your pain if you are ready to die.”
“I don’t want to die,” Janik said.
“Everyone dies,” Cyrus said callously. “You fought well. You will be remembered as a hero.”
“Khefir take you!” Janik spat. “I don’t want to be remembered, I want to live! I want to live!”
Cyrus stiffened and arched a brow as he looked down at Janik. He tugged with his left hand on his gray beard and narrowed his eyes on Janik.
At that moment, a terrible burning overpowered Janik’s body. His back arched up on the floor and his right arm trembled and shook. He had no way of knowing if the wet he felt on his forehead was blood, sweat, or both. He cried out incoherently as his body spasmed and cramped.
Janik didn’t see the spell that Cyrus was weaving around him, nor did he comprehend the silver orb that encased him a moment later, all he knew was that he had been saved from his terrible torment and was now lying still and wet upon the ground.
“Your body is indeed broken, Janik. However, with a will as strong as yours, I can save you. I can end your torment and restore you to your body. It will not be easy, and I doubt I can fully save your arm and leg, but I can preserve your life.”
“I thought you said there was nothing you could do for me.”
Cyrus nodded his head slowly as he brought a hand up and smoothed his hair. He knelt down on to the stone floor on Janik’s left side. He waved a hand over Janik’s left eye and the blood was gone so that Janik could see out of both eyes again. With the vision in his left eye restored, Janik could see that the left side of his nose was gashed open and a bit of flesh from his eyebrow hung over his eye as well. The wizard brushed the flap of skin away, and to Janik’s surprise, there was no pain as the flap was moved.