by Jason Kenyon
Archimegadon noticed that Mellara looked particularly pained, and wondered if he should comment. He didn’t know too much about her past, but he did remember that when she’d been lost in the Sideslip during her younger years, she’d returned to find that the man who supposedly loved her had already replaced her. It was hard for him to imagine something hurting Mellara, but like with anyone, it was possible.
‘Valia, things went wrong before,’ Archimegadon said. ‘Do you know why I am here with the others tonight?’
‘To kill me.’
Archimegadon blinked. ‘No, that’s not the reason.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Valia gave an uncharacteristic giggle. ‘I wish you would.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Tharanor would be happy,’ Valia said, swirling her finger in her wine. She drew the finger across her throat, and droplets of red wine trailed down. ‘For what I did. One life for another. Is he wrong?’
‘I am not the person to ask that question,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘I would like to believe that we can overcome what happened, and perhaps find a more… positive route.’
‘I don’t want to keep going,’ Valia said. ‘I’m done, Ardon. It’s all so empty. Nothing makes me smile. Not… not really smile. Not in here.’ She patted her head, staring dejected at the floor.
‘It’s difficult to keep going when those we love are taken from us,’ Archimegadon said, trying his best to sound confident.
‘What would you know about that?’ Valia asked.
‘At my age, Valia, I have lost quite a few of those I cared about,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘Parents, friends… you should certainly know about the latter.’ He regretted that last part just as he’d wished he’d not snapped at Tharanor, but Valia simply sighed.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I did take Yuriath from you all. As I said, you should get rid of me. I can’t fix things.’
‘But you can,’ Mellara said. ‘I don’t like it, Valia, but we need your help.’
Valia snorted. ‘You don’t need me. You’ve never needed me. You’re always getting in my way, and stopping me, you lot.’
‘Listen, Valia, what we…’ Mellara began.
‘I don’t care,’ Valia said, and she grabbed a new bottle of wine. As Archimegadon looked at Mellara, silently querying if he should interrupt, Valia popped it open with practiced ease and drank straight from the bottle.
‘Oh, sheesh,’ Mellara said, lunging from her spot on the wall too slow to stop Valia.
Valia just smirked at her, arching one of her thin eyebrows, and slammed the bottle back on the table. Then her head dropped, and she sprawled across the table, sending her glass and some of the bottles flying as her arms splayed out. Obdo managed to catch one of the bottles, and Archimegadon saved the wine glass, but everything else shattered on impact with the floor. Two of the falling bottles had been full, and red wine seeped into the floorboards.
‘Well, there we go,’ Obdo said. ‘We’ve defeated Valia!’ He cheered.
‘She is a mess,’ Ithalna said.
‘You know, I was actually kinda planning to kill her,’ Mellara said. ‘But look at her.’
‘You were planning to do what?’ Archimegadon asked, whirling to face her.
‘Sorry, Archie, but I didn’t really agree with your plan too much,’ Mellara replied. ‘But I was wrong. I think she actually meant what she said. Doesn’t look like she’s putting on an act this time.’ She poked Valia’s mess of hair, but the knight didn’t stir.
‘Uh, she’s still breathing, right?’ Obdo asked.
‘She’s fine,’ Mellara said, checking over Valia. ‘Wouldn’t wanna be her in the morning.’
Looping an arm under Valia’s, Mellara pulled the knight up out of her chair. With some effort, given that she was much smaller and lighter-built than Valia, Mellara carried her over to her bed and laid her down. Valia unconsciously grabbed at her pillow and squeezed it close.
‘So what now?’ Obdo asked. ‘We gonna stay here tonight and make sure she doesn’t die?’
‘I don’t think there’s any risk of that, but we should probably stay here with her anyway so we can talk to her tomorrow about dealing with the Shield,’ Mellara replied.
‘I can’t believe you were just going to kill her!’ Archimegadon said.
‘Did you forget my old occupation?’ Mellara asked, grinning. ‘But it’s okay. I’m gonna go with your plan for now.’
‘You said that before.’
‘Yeah, well you should just believe me this time,’ Mellara said.
‘What about you, Ithalna?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘Are you planning to murder her too?’
Ithalna shook her head. ‘My father’s death was the result of his poor life choices, much as Valia’s regrets now are the result of hers. I bear no love for her, but I also have no particular desire to take her life.’
‘Alright then,’ Archimegadon said. He glared at Mellara again out of principle. ‘Well, let’s sort out who will be on watch when, and then try to get some sleep.’
‘Count me out of the first one,’ Mellara said. ‘I’ll drop by the Battle’s Reward first to let the others know what’s up. Don’t worry, though – I’ll be back to take one of the watches later!’
‘No secret Valia-stabbing, please,’ Archimegadon said.
‘You have my word!’
*
‘Obdo, bucket!’ Valia said the moment she woke up.
Obdo stirred and then looked up in surprise. Slow to take stock of his surroundings, he still registered the word ‘bucket’, and noticed he was leaning against it. As Valia charged towards him, he turned it the right way up and handed it to her just in time for her to dispose of her previous day’s food and wine from the same place it had all gone in. Archimegadon was woken up by the shout and rushed over, bumping into Mellara on the way.
Mellara squeezed Valia’s shoulder as she cleared her suffering stomach, and then said some gentle platitudes as Valia began crying. Archimegadon hovered nearby, not certain if he should be doing anything. Mellara crouched next to Valia and offered a handkerchief to clean the sides of her mouth, and then Valia buried her head in Mellara’s shoulder and stayed there for a while, shaking.
Archimegadon gave Mellara a look, and Mellara replied with a helpless shrug. She then gave Valia an encouraging squeeze, her face totally baffled by the situation in which she found herself.
It was a few minutes before Valia let Mellara go, and she sat back against the wall and glared up at the companions, blushing furiously.
‘It’s not a show,’ she said.
‘Erm, sorry,’ Archimegadon said. ‘We were wondering how you were.’
Valia gestured at the bucket. ‘Go look in there. That’s how I feel.’
‘I… I get the idea,’ Archimegadon said, stepping away from the bucket instead.
‘Ahm, is there somewhere I can get rid of this, ma’am?’ Obdo asked, patting the bucket.
‘Side door over there,’ Valia said, looking exhausted. ‘Should be running water too.’
‘Righto,’ Obdo said. He grabbed the bucket, not even blinking at the vile stench, and set off to dispose of its contents.
‘Thank you,’ Valia said as he passed her.
Archimegadon noticed that Obdo looked for a moment at his missing forefingers. Valia had been the one to hold him in place so that Bartell’s clerk, Elsim Redrock, could cut off those same fingers. As Obdo shrugged and smiled at Valia, Archimegadon realised just how much he was asking of his companions in expecting them to work with her. They’d almost all lost things to her in one way or another.
‘Why are you all doing this?’ Valia asked.
‘Because we’re allies now, whether we like it or not,’ Mellara replied.
Valia looked disappointed by this answer, but she nodded anyway.
‘We’re stuck,’ Mellara continued. ‘Time’s running out, we don’t know where to find the Shield, and we doubt we have to numbers to deal w
ith them either.’
‘I see.’ Valia took a deep breath. ‘So, what – you want me to help you out?’
‘We do.’
‘Perhaps,’ Valia said. She gave a nervous smile. ‘Can you help me stand? I don’t think I’m quite up to it yet.’
Mellara nodded, and she lent Valia her arm, standing alongside her and pulling her to her feet. Valia gently tugged Mellara towards the window, and they both walked over to it slowly. Archimegadon followed them, and he pulled aside the tatty curtains. He blinked as the morning sun glared in, and then admired the pleasant view Valia had of the edge of the tournament grounds.
‘It’s there,’ Valia said.
‘The tournament grounds?’ Mellara asked.
Valia laughed softly in spite of her poor condition. ‘No, no, look behind it. Just over there.’
She pointed a finger, and Archimegadon stared across the tournament grounds and saw nothing of particular note. Just the stands, and some of the industrial district of the city. Was it to do with the banners around the tournament grounds?
‘I don’t understand,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Me neither,’ Ithalna said.
‘Wait, do you mean that large building with the gates?’ Mellara asked.
‘That’s the one,’ Valia replied. ‘They’re keeping it in there.’
‘Ugh, and I’ve been past it about a dozen times,’ Mellara said, rolling her eyes.
‘What’s that?’ Obdo asked as he returned with the emptied-and-clean bucket.
‘Valia’s just shown us where we need to go tonight,’ Mellara replied. ‘They’re keeping the Syrakh in the Crowntown Tea Factory.’
Chapter Thirty-Two: Forces Opposed
It felt incredibly odd to be looking after Valia, but that was how Archimegadon found himself spending his morning. Once she felt strong enough to walk again, she threw on her cloak and put up her hood, hoping to hide her eyes in the shadows. Mellara followed along, her own eyes concealed by her goggles once more, and occasionally she exchanged some quiet words with Valia.
Archimegadon was half-tempted to take back Tharanor’s sword when Valia retrieved it from under her drinking table. He regretted not thinking about it earlier, and then recalled the argument of the previous day. Perhaps he was happier with Valia keeping the sword after all.
They managed to make it back to the Battle’s Reward without earning the attention of the paladin guards, and Archimegadon was ready for a hearty lunch. Valia, paler than most Valanthians anyway, went even more pallid as she smelled the scent of booze and food, and needed to be hurried up to the room Archimegadon shared with Obdo. Once she was settled there, away from the inn’s colourful atmosphere, she looked a lot more comfortable.
‘So, where are the others?’ Obdo asked.
‘They should be along soon,’ Mellara replied. ‘I arranged for us to meet up in about an hour.’ She checked the clock on the small table as she said this.
‘Alrighty, guess we get to do some catching up,’ Obdo said. ‘So, uh, Miss Ha… Valia. Miss Valia. Where are your friends waiting?’
‘The demons?’ Valia asked. ‘They’re creeping about in the forest.’
Mellara blinked. ‘The forest just outside the city?’
‘Yeah.’
‘They must be well-hidden,’ Mellara said.
‘They’re used to it,’ Valia said. ‘We’ve been sneaking across Valanthas for a while now, since things went sour in Ferrina.’
‘So, you can summon them?’ Obdo asked.
‘No, can’t do that,’ Valia replied. ‘Thanks to Marr, I can communicate with them, though, so they follow me around. It’s like a psychic voice that almost has its own language. I kind of speak to them with feelings, and we understand each other.’
‘Must be fun,’ Obdo said. ‘I can barely get this bunch to listen to me, let alone an army.’
Archimegadon appreciated Obdo keeping the conversation going. He still felt quite nervous around Valia, and wasn’t too sure he could talk to her much himself.
‘It has its benefits,’ Valia said, smiling. ‘But whatever the Shield made to control the Syrakh seems to have stopped me communicating with it – at least not from a distance. That doesn’t matter, for now – I still have my own honour guard of sorts. The toughest ones protect me personally.’
‘Those two large red demons?’ Archimegadon asked.
He remembered two that had followed Valia around, back when the demons were essentially invincible, brought back to life by Marr the Summoner each time they perished. They’d lost that benefit after Marr’s demise, but he expected that they would still pose a formidable threat. Similar to the others, the red demons were reptilian beasts with no eyes, and nimble leonine bodies, stockier than those of their green fellows.
‘Yeah, those ones,’ Valia replied. She grinned, and Archimegadon was reminded of just how different Valia looked on the rare occasions when she did so. ‘I named them, too.’
‘They’re not pets,’ Obdo said.
‘Doesn’t mean I can’t give them names,’ Valia said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. ‘I called them Obdo and Neurion.’
‘You didn’t,’ Obdo said.
Valia giggled. ‘I did! I thought it was funny. You know the old man killed Obdo once, though he did get better. Tharanor killed Neurion as well. That was before you dealt with Marr, when they could still come back from the dead.’
Archimegadon rubbed his forehead.
‘I named the giant demon, too,’ Valia went on. ‘The one you call the Syrakh. I called him Ardon.’
She reminded Archimegadon of Anjilo talking about her experiments, and he almost laughed at her enthusiasm.
He gave her a frown instead. ‘That was not very nice of you.’
‘I really don’t know what to say,’ Obdo said.
‘It’s okay, I’m not expecting you to talk to them,’ Valia said. ‘About summoning, there’s two ways to do that, actually – blood-summoning, and life-summoning. In theory, you or I could do a blood-summon, but it requires some knowledge and living sacrifices. It’s what Marr did to the Clerics – he moved the spirits of the demons across to your world, and sacrificed the cultists to manifest them there.
‘What Zamire used to do was life-summoning – she’d use a portion of her own strength, or life, technically, to bring them to Ferrina. Marr didn’t tell her, but each summoned demon reduced how long she’d live – which she did drastically when she summoned that whole crowd at once.’
‘I’m not particularly sure that I want to know the details,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Suit yourself.’ Valia shrugged. ‘But we should chat about a few particular things here while we wait for the others.’
‘Uh oh,’ Obdo said.
‘If I’m risking my life, and those of my demon followers – they’re called the Shulgar, by the way – then I want the whole gang coming as well,’ Valia said. ‘That’s you, old man, and Obdo, Unette, Mellara, Anjilo, Neurion, and Tharanor.’
Ithalna raised an eyebrow. ‘You know who I am?’
‘I ran into a few clues,’ Valia replied. ‘You other guys did know, right?’
‘Tharanor let us in on it,’ Archimegadon replied.
‘I assumed he must’ve done,’ Valia said. ‘It’s been a while since our last chat, though, so I wasn’t entirely certain on what’s happened since.’
‘Yes, Obdo told me about your meeting at Stornis Hold,’ Archimegadon said, before Valia could mention the other conversations they’d had.
‘Archie, stay on topic,’ Mellara said.
‘Oh, right, about the mission,’ Archimegadon said. He thought over what Valia had said again, and then winced. He’d expected to go with everyone anyway, but with Valia and her Shulgar followers hugely out-numbering them, he wasn’t particularly eager to deliver this news to Tharanor or the paladins. ‘That is not a decision I feel I can make myself, I would prefer to speak it over with the others.’
Perfect! It made him sound
like he cared about their opinions, rather than revealing that he just didn’t want the responsibility of deciding it himself.
‘Fair point,’ Mellara said. ‘Well, I expected this, I guess. If the others are up for it, then I will be too.’
‘Miss Valia, I’m not much of a fighter,’ Obdo said. ‘I mean, look – my hand.’
‘Sorry, Obdo, but those are my terms,’ Valia said, refusing to look at his old injury. ‘If you want to hang back and carry supplies, then fine, but my bunch will be taking most of the responsibility here, so you all need to bear some of it too.’
‘You are talking about your demons as if they are people,’ Ithalna said.
‘They might not be as intelligent as humans, but they’re not just objects to be thrown away,’ Valia said. ‘Marr controlled them and directed them to be killers, but they’re not so different from wolves if you leave them alone. And I love wolves.’
‘If you say so,’ Obdo said.
‘I do,’ Valia said, a flicker of anger passing across her face.
‘Ah, was there anything else you had in mind to discuss?’ Archimegadon asked, before Valia went nasty.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Valia replied. ‘Ardon is mine. I don’t want him killed. When we free him, and if we can get rid of the amulet they use to control him, I want to take him away with the others.’
Archimegadon took a moment to remember that Ardon was the name she’d given the Syrakh. ‘I… erm… wait, no! You can’t keep that creature! It’s a danger to everyone.’
‘Look, old man, I’ll put it to you plainly,’ Valia said. ‘My original idea was to wait for Salestis to initiate her plan on the third day of the tournament, and then have my Shulgar kill Malthanes, and after that get Ardon to eat Salestis and the rest of her upper-ranked paladin friends, so the Order would be left leaderless and ruined. After that, well, I guess it would be up to my mood. Point is, if you don’t like my terms, I’m going to stick to that plan, and I’d like to see you stop my Shulgar from carrying it out.’
Archimegadon prepared himself to threaten Valia in return, and then realised what a dangerous line he walked. He let out his breath and took the moment to order his thoughts. Letting Valia have the Syrakh was going to be a sticking point for the others as well.