Heart of the Maiden: (Lords of the Deep Hells Book 3)

by Paul Yoder

  He caught up quickly with his centurions, drawing them close for orders.

  “They return to Rochata today, but they will be on our trail tomorrow, after their men are safely returned and details of the massacre are made known to their High Judges. We’ll use that time to move deep into the dunes. They are infamous for their harshness and difficulty in traversing them. It should slow their pursuit even more. We will camp this night and give the men and mounts rest. They all need it.”

  Kissa, Undine, and Tau nodded their heads in approval, glad to be following their leader’s clear vision directly once more.

  “Move out, see to your companies,” he ordered, catching Kissa before she rode back to her Shadows.

  “See that you keep a few Shadows on watch. I want to know well before anyone crosses our path or is on our trail. And Kissa—good to have you back with us.”

  She nodded sternly, adding, “I’ll see to it done. Six of my finest will scout for us in all directions.”

  The two trotted off, Kissa to her post and Hathos to Henarus to check up on the injured man which was doubled up with his priest on a larger steed.

  The man’s injury did concern him, but that night, he would see what could be done to relieve him of his brain fog from the blow he had taken to the head.

  The saren had been able to heal the woman and child. Perhaps he could utilize her or the abilities of her other strange companions. Metus did value them as a high priority, though he wondered if his sultan overvalued the mismatched band of misfits.

  He suspected he would be able to find out for himself in the days ahead. He would need all the help he could get with the monumental task before him.

  13

  Bear Witness to Power Unchained

  Fin peered around the archway, seeing at least half a dozen gleaming eyes in the shadows waiting for them to exit the light of the room they were in. Looking back in front of them, he saw the sarens giving ground as the three ominous dark knights slowly advanced forward with Denloth and Sha’oul close behind.

  There was no way around it, he knew. They were going to have to press one way or the other or risk being attacked from both sides. With the tides of the battle turned so badly for the worst even before blows had been thrown, he made the call.

  “Revna! Fall back!” he called, and though she was only fifteen feet further in, the ringing of the crystals drowned the order out, and instead of running, he saw her staff lighting up as she chanted, a pearlescent shockwave blasting the Oathbound in front of her and her sisters.

  A magenta hue flickered from two of the Oathbound as they were thrust to the ground, the one on the far right disappearing just before it was hit, reappearing behind the saren’s defensive line, shoving a rondel dagger in a saren knight’s side before she was able to react, the point jerkily splitting the chainmail and gambeson she wore, causing her to clutch her side and draw away in pain.

  The other two Oathbound recovered quickly, two saren knights taking the recovery time to charge them. The other priestess shouted blessings upon the two knights, imbuing their swords with radiant light just as they struck out at the two dark ones, which brought their shotel’s up just in time to bind up the attack.

  The black metal the shotels were made of began to turn a dark red, rattling, cracks beginning to form where blade met blade.

  One shattered, the bright longsword slamming through the curved sword, slicing through parts of the Oathbound’s armor like wax, searing the abomination housed within the iron tomb of armor.

  A bright light flashed, ejecting the embedded sword back, the saren halting the momentum just before she was cut by her own blade, standing at the ready once more as the damaged knight discarded his broken sword, drawing two stubby sickle daggers, coming at her again.

  Still rattling, the other Oathbound pivoted its curved blade around the saren’s longsword, digging the tip into the woman’s neck, driving her back, swinging wildly in defense, managing to shatter the blade that likely just landed a fatal wound upon her.

  Two daggers flew over her shoulder as she turned to fall back, both points hitting their marks, sinking into the Oathbound’s helm slits, toppling the dark knight to the ground, dropping its broken sword as it fell.

  Fin caught the mortally wounded saren, quickly realizing that if she did not staunch the blood spurting from her neck, that she would be dead within moments.

  Another saren stepped up and took her fallen sister’s post, squaring off with the dark knight that was getting to its feet, drawing a pair of twin sickle daggers.

  Revna was there suddenly, laying hands upon the throat-stabbed saren, performing a healing, Fin could see, as her hands began to radiate with light, Fin removing his hand from her neck to find the tear closed, a bright red scar rapidly forming.

  Another flash of magenta sparked to his left, and he could see the Oathbound that had Seam-jumped into their ranks being battered by two saren knights, bashing along its armor and stabbing through slits as it attempted to ward off the assault.

  A purple bolt of crackling electricity tore through the room over everyone’s heads, striking the sandblasted archway, bringing down large chunks of sandstone in the doorway, dust covering their exit, shutting out a saren knight and Yozo who were still out in the hallway keeping the shadows in the dark at bay.

  “Shit,” Fin coughed, the sand pelting hard against his cloak, pushing him back to Revna’s side as the two frontline saren knights did their best to fend off the Oathbound’s assault.

  An angry purple light struck the roof of the doorway, felling sections of roof, filling in most of the archway, the dust from the explosion drowning out the blinding light that had been keeping the shadows in the dark at bay.

  Yozo’s blade came out, cutting a line in the dust as a small praven figure lunged in at him, its erratic bouncing and hopping throwing off Yozo’s strike slightly, lopping off digits when he had been going for the creature’s whole arm.

  The creature’s teeth gleamed as it snapped at Yozo’s face but was forced to lunge back against the rubble that was still coming down as Yozo’s sword sliced at it once more.

  The falling rubble smacked the greyoldor against the crumbling stonework which partially buried the creature, giving Yozo time to face the other three figures that were hopping in at him.

  Runa, the saren knight that stood guard alongside Yozo, rushed the nearest set of eyes, swinging her shield widely, attempting to catch the childlike figure in the head with the shield, but it skipped jerkily away, the other two shadows lunging in as the opening in the saren’s defenses was presented to them.

  Bringing her shield back in tight against her body, the creatures clamored over and around the wall of metal franticly, clutching and ripping at the corners of her armor, seeking the soft flesh that lay beneath.

  Runa let out a scream of frustration, bashing one of the greyoldors in the head with the pummel of her sword, sending it to the ground, the other one managing to crawl around to her back, gnawing at the chainmail coif as the third creature lunged beneath her shield, binding up her legs, toppling her to the ground, all three corrupted pravens scrambling franticly to mount her, tearing at her armor once more.

  Yozo glanced to his right and took note of the downed saren. He wanted to help her, but the three figures twitched wildly, ready to jump in at him at the first sign of a break in concentration. He had no armor, unlike his comrade. The moment the little wretches latched onto him would quickly become disastrous.

  The greyoldor in the doorway wriggled free from the imprisoning rubble, reaching for Yozo’s silken robes, but this time, not being able to leap away, Yozo made a short-arched slash, lopping off the outstretched hand, causing the creature to recoil back into the smokescreen of the sandy downpour along the doorway.

  The other three piled in, rushing the swordsman with such swiftness, even Yozo couldn’t respond to the six clawed hands that thrust in, ripping at his clothes, shredding and binding up his sword arm, pushing him back a
gainst the wall where the other one-armed greyoldor sprung out from, joining the imminent feeding frenzy.

  An azure bolt sliced into the side of one of the creatures that hung off of Yozo’s shoulders, felling it to the ground. It shrieked and writhed as it clutched the still glowing hole in its side that fizzled with dark blue sparks.

  The other three twisted pravens halted their ripping to look up, assessing what had happened to their ally.

  Hamui’s sneer was outlined and emphasized by the glow from his staff, hatred for the dark counterparts of his race clear as he lit the room with another bolt of blue, slicing the air between him and the group of darklings in a split second, melting the corner of one’s head off, oozing glowing brains from its skull before dropping it next to Yozo.

  A few charging footsteps of one in heavy armor preceded a shield point as it thrust one of the greyoldor’s straddling Runa in the stomach, driving it into the stone floor, the dull shield pressing through the small creature’s middle until it punctured, grinding through skin and organs as Hassa skid the thing along the floor with her shield, tossing it off to the side as she slashed at the other two surrounding her shieldmaiden.

  The remaining greyoldors disengaged, reassessing the new threats.

  Runa got to her feet, smashing in the head of the one that languidly writhed on the ground with its entrails exposed.

  Yozo took the reprieve to reposition himself, sprinting to Hamui’s position, lining up next to him to face the three that had roughed him up, which now eyed the group calculatingly.

  Hassa swung her mace at the scurrying greyoldor that was latched onto the back of Runa. It leapt off at the last second, Hassa having to pull the swing short to avoid from slamming her comrade.

  The other praven continued to bind Runa’s legs, tripping her up just when she had gotten her footing back, ripping into the woman’s groin with its teeth, clawing her midsection as it made its way underneath her layered armor.

  Hassa tried to help her sister, but the other greyoldor snuck back in, tugging at her cloak, pulling her off-balance as it poked for vulnerabilities, jumping off to the side as she made a blind swing at it once more.

  Yozo and Hamui could see they needed to finish the three remaining greyoldors quick, hearing the trouble the two sarens were having with the two that proved to be too quick for the armored warriors, but the three that lurked closer and closer to them were not yet committed to the attack, twitching irritably, blood dripping from the side of one and from the severed arm of another.

  Yozo lunged in, knowing he could wait no longer for their charge, focusing on the furthest one on the right who had a faintly glowing hole in its side.

  It was sluggish from the wound, which Yozo suspected would be the case, and as he slashed in, it struggled to tumble off to the side, no footing to dodge the follow up thrust to its throat as Yozo deftly stabbed through its neck, removing his blade to swipe away the middle greyoldor’s lunge towards him, forcing the thing to skip to the side, just as Hamui thrust his hand forward, grabbing it by the wrist, electricity popping along its body, crackling angrily as the thing went rigid. Hamui surged another wave of energy through the creature, its eyes exploding from its skull with the blast, easily indicating its life had snuffed.

  Hassa swung angrily, missing again and again. The hopping greyoldor bounded easily about her, distracting her, then attacking when she tried to go to Runa’s aid.

  Runa was on the ground again, the greyoldor that harassed her continuing to rip the armor from her, slashing and gnawing at her exposed parts. She backed up against the rubble doorway, clutching at her shield to protect her vitals as the creature tore at her limbs, bleeding her out slowly.

  Giving up on the nuisance that plagued her, Hassa dropped her shield and mace and rushed the distracted little greyoldor that was gnawing at Runa, snatching him up by his leg and neck, and brought him down on her knee.

  The snap of the greyoldor’s spine resounded through the cacophonous chamber as the other greyoldor latched onto her neck, gouging into her throat as she finished dealing with the other lifeless greyoldor, tossing it off to the side.

  Runa struggled to get up, watching horrified as the greyoldor crunched deeper into the tall saren’s neck, buried beneath her coif, blood gushing out into the wretched thing’s mouth and face.

  Hassa fell to her knees, collapsing before a mangled Runa, who lifted her sword, bringing it down in vengeance upon the oblivious greyoldor who was too involved in reveling in the fountain of blood it had struck to notice the blade slice into its back, again and again, until it collapsed onto the large saren it was feasting upon.

  Runa heaved a few times, collapsing against the wall, taking in her final breaths, looking to Hamui and Yozo who were squaring off against the final greyoldor, slumping lifeless as Yozo once again drew his blade, arcing a slice at the armless greyoldor.

  The greyoldor dodged, then dodged again as Yozo followed up the swing, tumbling, when Hamui shot a blue bolt at his fallen counterpart, blasting off one of its feet. As the greyoldor went to leap away, the fresh stump stole its spring, and Yozo slashed cleanly through its midsection, sheathing his sword as the small body crumpled in two sloppy heaps on the dark, stone floor.

  The knights fought on, and the sarens were holding up against the Oathbound, but with each new reanimation of the wicked plated bloody skeletons came more of a toll on the sarens’ strength, wounds beginning to mount.

  Dark energy tentacles burst forth from Sha’oul’s hand, each greatly darkening the space around its licking tendril, reaching out to Tove, the other priestess, latching around her limbs, beginning to drag her to him.

  Slashing an Oathbound down, shoving the other one out of the way, a frontline saren rushed the giant of a man, swinging at his outstretched hand.

  The sword slammed into his hand but was deflected harmlessly off as a network of purple tendrils flared into a barrier around the point of impact.

  The saren swung once more, chopping in at the arisen lord’s head, but the web of tendrils appeared, almost like a second skin, deflecting the attack with a hiss.

  Sha’oul backhanded the saren before him, sending her tumbling back amidst the Oathbound which took the opportunity to thrust several times in at the saren, their blades beginning to come back bloodied as her shieldmate ran in to shove them off of her.

  Tove screamed, and her shouts, even a few strides away, were audible over the crystal’s buzzing. Her cries of pain and anguish got Fin and Revna to their feet.

  “Revna, I need to get to Sha’oul or we’re all dead! Can you do something about that hex?” Fin shouted, eyeing the giant of a man, seeing now that a simple stab likely would do nothing to the hexweave protected avatar.

  She nodded, understanding what Fin was asking of her. “I’ll do what I can,” she shouted back, though, she was not certain she could break any barriers the dark warlord wore. She would try her damnedest, nonetheless.

  Sha’oul clenched his fist, and the dark tendrils squeezed Tove, silencing her, two fat tendrils arching up, shoving into her open mouth, undulating and expanding, sapping the color from her as they piled their way down her throat, rendering her into a lifeless husk within moments.

  The moment was so violent that it stunned all watching as their priestess was reduced to a husk before their eyes. The Oathbound continued the press unphased, however, and the group’s shock was taken advantage of, two of the Oathbound Seam-jumping at two of the closest sarens, leaving streaks of brilliant phosphorescence in their wake, shoving the stunned sarens in the sides and back, felling Alva and finishing off Liv, who had already been waning from the multiple stab wounds she was suffering from.

  “I’ll hold them,” one of the knights, Jezebel, shouted back to Revna and Fin who knew they were planning an attack against the arisen lord. She swung out at the Oathbound knocking a helmet from its slick, bloody skull, everyone in the group now seeing the horrific face of the foes they fought.

  “Now Fin!” R
evna shouted, holding aloft her staff, as another saren fell to a mortal blow off to their side, the tides of the battle quickly turning. She shouted prayers to her goddess as she began to light the room around Sha’oul beyond the blinding light that blanketed everyone already.

  Fin bolted around the engaged Oathbound, the two wounded knights doing their job in keeping the reanimating skeletons busy as he rushed directly at Sha’oul. He leaped through the air just as Revna’s prayer crescendoed, white flame jolting down on the tall man’s dark armor of undulating tendrils, the flames jabbing in through the net-like barbs, hooking and ripping the hexweave shell apart.

  Fin landed on the man’s broad chest, latching onto his thick armor, holding him eye level as he lifted his hand, about to strike.

  Sha’oul snatched the man by the arm just before the strike, laughing at the nerve the man had to come at him unarmed.

  “You think to strike me down with your fist, little man? You had better come at me with more than that,” Sha’oul spat, throwing Fin behind him, Fin rolling fifteen feet down the line of rifts before coming to a stop.

  “If a brawl is what you desire, then I shall entertain you,” he said, lifting the tendrilled net around his body aloft as the flames continued to rip holes in its weave, thrusting a hand at Revna, sending the corrupted net of hexweave upon her, wrapping her up, sending her to the floor, the tendrils seeking ways to enter her body as it wrapped around her mouth, gagging her from praying to her god for further aid.