by Mark Boutros
Bar Witch threw her the Man-Hawk’s sword. ‘If any feathered idiots find their way in, put your aggression to good use. And if you get hungry…’ She nodded to the dead Man-Hawks. ‘Feast on some feathery meat.’
Bar Witch and Hargon moved barrels off the stones and sealed the room, then walked out into the open.
Lord of the Land
Karl and his friends, their legs and wrists bound by rope, lay on the back of a cart. Karl’s head throbbed, and the high sun burned his body.
They travelled through the desert surrounded by forty weary humped horses. Some pulled supply carts while others supported warriors.
Rows of cages followed, stuffed with people wearing rags similar to the tongueless boy and woman.
Karl wanted to cry at the thought. On exiting Barma, the boy and woman were displayed on spikes, their bodies ripped as though a fork had shredded them. Karl thought about the suffering the people must have faced under Lord Lofad’s rule and whether things were about to get worse.
Lord Lofad rode three rows ahead, his axe sheathed to his back. He laughed and joked with one of his warriors as though betraying people was normal.
The walls of Jermal dominated the horizon.
Frong looked back at Sags’ body, draped over a humped horse, while Marlens stared at her potion belt on another cart along with everyone’s weapons.
‘Are you okay?’ Karl asked Sabrinia.
She stared at the wood of the cart. ‘I’ve failed. This is all my fault.’
‘No,’ Karl replied. ‘You made the best choice you could and did what you thought was right. It just hasn’t worked out.’ His words echoed his own failings and role in Sags’ death. ‘You’ll never be a failure.’
Sabrinia’s lips creased into a faint smile and she raised her bound arms. ‘Thanks, but this screams failure.’
Lord Lofad stopped his humped horse and dropped back to them. He grinned. ‘Are you having a pleasant journey?’
Sabrinia turned to him. ‘Whatever your plan is, I guarantee it’s a bad one.’
Lord Lofad chuckled. ‘Why risk my life and those of my warriors when I can trade upwards?’ He ran his fingers through Sabrinia’s hair. ‘If these Man-Hawks are as brutal as you say, then your weapons, the offer of my slaves and Arazod’s wife will mean I join the winning team and can find this magical relic myself.’ He blew his hair out of his face.
Sabrinia’s face reddened. ‘They’ll take what you offer and peck your eyes out! You’re an idiot!’
Lord Lofad’s jolly expression vanished. He nodded and rejoined his warriors. Lord Lofad’s lack of a reaction terrified Karl more than if he had lashed out.
The cart continued until they were alongside Jermal. The sun clipped the top of the walls, at least fifty people high.
While it was majestic, a heavy energy clogged the air.
A shriek pierced Karl’s soul. In the arch, a sad ghostly woman lay on her stomach. Her bones poked out of her skin and her ragged crown was so tight a line of dry blood surrounded its rim.
It was as if she were stuck between life and death. Her white pupils with black irises showed an aggressive hunger that contradicted her frail form.
Lord Lofad laughed. He rode his humped horse close to her, stopped and spat through her. She ignored him.
‘Hey, look at me!’ he said.
She stared towards the back of the group, towards Sags.
Lord Lofad continued to torment the woman, but Karl turned away.
Her eyes burned in Karl’s mind and his stomach twisted. He refused to look at her.
‘Onwards.’ Lord Lofad turned to Sabrinia and Karl. ‘We’ll stop to rest soon and maybe we’ll have some fun with you.’
Something Fishy
Rings of tents surrounded Karl’s cart and the cages of the tongueless.
There was no escape.
Everywhere he turned, the skeletal fish symbol of the Barmashins taunted him.
A fire pit illuminated the night and the heat suffocated everything within range.
Two warriors placed a steel stretcher on branches wedged in the ground and created a cooking platform.
Other warriors drank from pouches and got louder with each sip. They bellowed about Lord Lofad’s excellent plan and celebrated their new lives that hadn’t started.
Lord Lofad gulped his drink and swirled it in his mouth.
Three warriors dropped to their knees and craned their necks towards their saviour. They opened their mouths like chicks to a mother bird.
Lord Lofad spat the drink into the female warrior’s mouth. She swallowed while the other two congratulated her.
Karl wished he’d never met these people. ‘On the hopelessness scale where does this sit?’ Karl asked Marlens.
‘Our weapons are in that tent in the inner ring and we’ve no chance of gettin’ to ‘em, so I’d say ultra hopeless.’ Marlens shook her head.
Karl would have rather died by Ryza’s sword. He turned to Sabrinia. ‘I’m sorry, for everything.’
Defeat covered her face. ‘Me too.’
He moved his tied wrists and held her hands.
She showed a hint of a smile through the sadness. ‘If we get through this, I’ll change the laws.’
Karl chuckled. ‘Are you just saying that because we’re definitely dead?’
She rested her head on his shoulder. ‘I think so. But I’d love to be bound to you.’
He kissed the top of her head.
She wiped her nose against the ropes. ‘I did read about someone who once unbound two people, so it isn’t impossible.’
Frong scratched his beard. ‘Vasen, where me and Sags met.’ He coughed. ‘There were a few situations. People like us would get themselves unbound from former lovers. It was all done in secret though, to avoid punishment.’
Karl pictured his wedding in Flowforn’s Great Hall. All of his friends there, watching, but Sags and Larnela weren’t. A happy scene drowned in tragedy and blood.
Lord Lofad approached Karl. Two warriors carried a wooden coffin and set it down behind their master. They opened it and calm water rocked back and forth.
Another warrior approached carrying a ceramic vase. She poured hundreds of small fish into the water.
The shredded tongueless boy and woman invaded Karl’s mind again.
He turned onto his knees and stared at Lord Lofad. ‘Is this how you bathe? It would explain the heavy smell of fish on your hair.’
Lord Lofad smirked. ‘We don’t need all of you, and you’ve just volunteered to be the entertainment for our evening meal.’ Lord Lofad grabbed Karl by the hair, yanked him onto the mud, and dragged him towards the coffin.
‘Leave him!’ Sabrinia demanded but a warrior stood in front of her.
Lord Lofad spoke Barmashin with the warrior.
The warrior grabbed Sags’ body and dragged him towards the cooking platform.
‘No!’ Frong protested. He and Marlens flung their bound arms but were met with punches. Frong wept and the sizzling began. He tried to break free, but a warrior held him down.
Lord Lofad booted Karl in the gut and held his head over the fishy coffin.
Karl glanced up at Sabrinia. She swung her bound legs over the side of the cart and hopped off it.
A warrior grabbed her, but she bit him and took a punch. The warrior unsheathed his sword.
‘No!’ Lord Lofad commanded. He spoke in Barmashin and the warrior growled. Lord Lofad pointed at Sabrinia. ‘I’ll stop him killing you, but I won’t stop him beating you.’
Karl studied Lord Lofad’s steel leg. He could try to swipe it and pull him down, but what would that do?
Sabrinia hopped forward. The warrior knocked her to the floor but she got up.
Lord Lofad sighed, pushed Karl onto the mud and kicked him in the stomach. Lord Lofad approached Sabrinia, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her back against the cart. ‘Hop back on there.’
Karl spat blood. He knew what she was doing and thought it was a ter
rible idea. ‘Do as he says.’
‘No,’ Sabrinia replied. ‘You need me, Lofad. So I know you can’t hurt me.’ She smiled.
Lord Lofad pulled on his hair. ‘Fine. I’ll tell Arazod and his sister that we found you with no legs. And you won’t be able to tell the truth, because it seems your tongue left your mouth.’ He held his hand out and yelled in Barmashin.
A warrior approached with a dagger and placed it in Lord Lofad’s hand.
Sabrinia tried to fight him off but a warrior helped Lord Lofad to hold her still. Sabrinia moved her head out of the way but Lord Lofad grabbed her face and jammed the dagger between her lips and pried it between her teeth.
A warrior yelled some Barmashin.
‘What?’ Lord Lofad replied. He listened to his warrior and released Sabrinia. ‘I’ll be back.’ He walked towards the outer ring of tents and some warriors followed.
Sags’ skin darkened. Marlens held Frong’s head against her chest.
Karl thought he hallucinated seeing Peezant again, this time in a tree.
A warrior grunted towards the cages of the tongueless.
A swarm of them burst out of their prison and attacked him. Floods of tongueless overran warriors and entered tents. They savaged any warrior they saw, not caring about their own casualties.
Fists smacked skin and steel sliced flesh.
A grandmotherly tongueless woman nodded at Oaf.
Oaf…
Karl wept, a mixture of hope, happiness, and surprise that fate smiled on them.
Oaf untied Sabrinia and handed her a sword. She cut Marlens and Frong free while Oaf helped Karl to his feet. ‘We’ll save the hugs for later.’
Frong and Marlens retrieved Sags.
Sabrinia entered the tent and emerged with their weapons. She gave Karl a curved sword and readied her bow and arrow. They battled the warriors, and while they weren’t as skilled, they were sober.
A warrior lunged at Oaf. Sabrinia fired an arrow into its back.
Everywhere Karl looked, they were gaining the advantage.
Oaf knocked a warrior out, Karl stabbed another, and Marlens threw a potion into a tent, setting it ablaze.
‘Put. Your. Weapons. Down!’ Lord Lofad commanded. He held his axe against Questions’ throat and approached the coffin of fish.
Karl’s eyes widened. The colour drained from Oaf’s face.
They all placed their weapons on the ground.
The tongueless elder waved her hand and her people stopped rampaging.
‘You’ve ruined everything!’ Lord Lofad said. He drove his elbow into Questions’ neck and kicked the back of her knees. He grabbed her hair and held her face above the ravaging water.
Karl wanted to slice Lord Lofad’s good leg off.
‘You left us no choice,’ Sabrinia said. ‘Release our friend, and you can go back to Barma and start your life again. We’ll pretend we never met, and hopefully we’ll never meet again.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve nothing left.’ He pulled Questions’ head back.
Karl’s heart leapt into his mouth and Oaf lunged forward with no hope of making it, but before Questions became fish food a blade hacked Lord Lofad’s good leg. He screamed and fell, holding the back of his knee.
Arazod, frail and wingless, stood above him.
Too many thoughts hammered Karl’s brain.
Questions stumbled to Oaf and hugged him.
Arazod grabbed Lord Lofad and pushed him into the fishy coffin. Lord Lofad’s screams drowned under thrashing, bloody water. He tried to climb out, but tipped the coffin onto his back. His shredded arms pushed it off and he dragged his torn body across the mud. Fish hung off his ears and the loose flaps of flesh on his back. He stopped at Sabrinia’s feet. ‘Please...’
Karl wanted her to leave him there.
She kicked him onto his back. ‘You don’t deserve our mercy, but I’ll show you some so I can be sure you’re dead.’ She took her bow and arrow and shot him through the heart.
Karl charged at Arazod.
Oaf grabbed Karl.
‘Let me go, Oaf!’ Karl begged.
Oaf pulled him down to the mud and held him. ‘There’s a lot we need to tell you, Karl.’
Karl had no way out of Oaf’s grasp.
The tongueless loaded their dead onto a cart while Oaf explained everything to Karl, from Quizmal being kidnapped to how they found Arazod. Oaf and Questions wept at the news of Sags.
Karl couldn’t accept that they had helped Arazod.
‘Everything has changed so quickly,’ Oaf said.
He was right. From happy and quiet lives they were all broken in some way. Years of peace ruined by a moment of disaster.
Arazod raised a claw to speak.
Karl hated the thought of his voice.
‘My sister,’ he said weakly. ‘She has your Soul of Illuminus.’
Karl’s chest tightened.
‘And she wants to use it to reawaken Death,’ he said.
Frong’s head turned from Sags.
Arazod’s claws trembled. ‘She said she needs something called the Gauntlet of Seliria. It was too cold where Death is—’ he wheezed. ‘The frosty magic nearly killed us.’
Frong stood. ‘We have to find the gauntlet. If she awakens Death then the whole world is hers.’
Karl couldn’t get beyond his desire to snap Arazod’s neck. He turned to his friends. ‘Don’t listen to him. He’s a liar and will kill us at the first opportunity.’
‘He’s not with them.’ Oaf pointed to Arazod’s ruined back.
‘This is what he does! He’s part of the reason Sags is dead!’
‘So are you!’ Frong yelled. His face reddened and Karl backed down, flooded with shame and regret.
Silence hung between them all.
Arazod coughed. ‘She might already have the gauntlet. But our only chance to beat her is to get ahead.’
Frong nodded. ‘It’s at least seven sunsets over the southwest sea to Mount Seliria, and those little boats we saw in Barma will get swallowed by the waves.’
Marlens’ face sagged.
Frong pulled on his beard. ‘The kind of ship we need is underground, in a tunnel that escapes to the sea. Back in Jermal.’
Karl remembered the ghostly woman.
Frong lifted Lord Lofad’s dead body and tossed it onto the back of a cart. ‘I suggest we gather the dead warriors. We’ll need them.’
Karl gathered weapons and water, but there was nothing resembling food.
He mounted a humped horse, wishing he could ride it into Flowforn and that everything would go back to normal. It was as if someone had lifted Hastovia and tossed it against a wall, smashing everything and creating chaos.
Sags, Frong, Marlens and Arazod climbed onto the back of a cart. Marlens treated Arazod’s back wounds and Sags’ burns. Karl wondered if he was having a nightmare.
Karl pointed his sword at Arazod. ‘He needs to be tied.’
Sabrinia remained silent, and Karl was too busy experiencing his own hatred to think about what she must have been feeling. Arazod had ruined her life too. More than that, he had ruined her afterlife.
‘Very well.’ Arazod held his arms and legs out.
Frong tied rope around Arazod’s limbs.
The humped horses started the journey, but Questions refused to get on hers. ‘Will I go to Flowforn?’
Oaf climbed down from his creature. ‘We have to stay together.’
‘Do they need your strength to find the gauntlet?’ she asked.
‘Well, yes. But we all need each other.’
‘Is Quizmal alone?’ she asked.
He nodded, crying. ‘I’ll come with you.’ He took her hand but she pulled it away.
‘Does he need his ma?’ she asked.
‘Yes, and his dad,’ Oaf said.
‘Is it better we split up? Is it better if I fail that you still have a chance? Is it better if you fail that I might help him?’
Oaf’s eyes burned with more
sadness than Karl had noticed the first time they met.
Questions was right. She couldn’t rely on them getting the gauntlet, and she couldn’t rely on succeeding her way. So they had to try both, and Oaf increased the chances of securing the gauntlet, not so much sneaking through a castle.
Peezant flew onto Questions’ shoulder. ‘I can help. Hargon and Bar Witch are in Flowforn,’ he squawked.
The silence suggested the decision was made.
‘What about you?’ Karl asked the tongueless.
They looked at each other and towards their elder. She held her arms out and bowed her head. She and her people turned and left.
‘That’s gratitude for you,’ Karl said.
Oaf squeezed Questions. ‘You be careful. I love you.’
‘Do I love you too?’ she replied.
They kissed. Questions climbed on her humped horse and Karl and Oaf watched her disappear into the forest. Karl placed a hand on Oaf’s shoulder. He hoped this wasn’t the last time Oaf saw the love of his life.
Ghost Town
They travelled through the night and the next day, sleeping on their horses and taking turns to lead the pack.
Karl struggled to rest with Arazod nearby. He remembered rescuing Arazod from the Lionbear lair a few years ago, only to be kicked off a cliff as a thank you.
Karl spoke to Oaf to shift his mind. He’d missed him so much and wanted to reassure him they would save his boy, but Oaf was more intent on asking the questions.
‘What’s it like, killing?’ Oaf asked.
Karl felt the weight of Oaf’s pain. His people had never killed, but now the darkness of the world tortured him.
‘It’s horrible,’ Karl said. He’d killed a Fool, Man-Hawks and now warriors. ‘And those I’ve killed were at the mercy of someone else. Prisoners in some nonsense cause or greed.’
Oaf nodded and sniffled.
Karl knew if it came to it Oaf would kill for his boy and Questions, but he also knew it would change him forever.
Karl stroked his humped horse’s neck. ‘My choices were kill or be killed, so I learned to get better at using a sword so I could defend first. I was told a weapon should be used first to prevent death, instead of trying to cause it.’