Loyalty Oath

by Edmund Hughes

  “You like to kill, too,” said Reese. “I know you do.”

  She took a step toward him and pressed her still naked-body against his. Jack kissed her, and he felt a flash of shame at how easy it was to ignore the fresh death nearby and instead focus on Reese’s soft breasts and delicious lips.

  “Send your cats into the jungle to do something with the body,” he said. There was the option to search it for clues, but it didn’t really appeal to Jack, given how much damage the cats had already done to him. He also doubted that anything worthwhile he might find would be written in a language he could read.

  He and Reese returned to the tent and slept through the rest of the night. The body was gone come morning, but the bloodstains left on the grass in its wake were a grisly reminder of what had happened.

  Jack rifled through the food rations in the Hummer until he found some granola bars to munch on. He offered one to Reese, but she declined, instead having some of the meat scraps left over from their meal the night before.

  “Any idea how far we are from Kamarang?” asked Jack.

  Reese looked around them, considering the question. It was windy out, and the breeze made her sundress flutter incessantly. She didn’t readjust it to keep it in place as a typical woman might have, and it made looking at her into an interesting experience, as though she was perpetually on the verge of having a Marilyn Monroe, out-of-control skirt moment.

  “We’re close,” she said. “A few hours, maybe. We should travel slow. Stay quiet.”

  “Alright,” said Jack.

  “Are you thirsty?” asked Reese. “For my blood?”

  He almost said yes on reflex, but in truth, he was still sated from the night before. He’d taken a lot from her, and Reese seemed no worse off from it. Mezolak had picked a quality thrall for him. Recognizing that fact made him feel more than a little uncomfortable.

  “I’m fine for now,” he said.

  They struck down the camp, packed everything up, and climbed back into the Hummer. The cats arrived back at camp seconds before they were about to leave, all of them soaking wet. Jack raised an eyebrow and looked over at Reese in the passenger seat.

  “I thought cats didn’t like to swim,” he said, in a teasing voice.

  She simply smiled at him. They didn’t see eye to eye on everything, and she was kind of weird, but Jack could feel himself starting to like her.

  He drove through the morning and into the afternoon, taking Reese’s advice to travel slowly. The road got rougher by the mile, weaving in and out of the jungle, until they finally exited out of the dense vegetation and into a more open, hilly landscape.

  At that point, it didn’t make sense for them to follow the beaten path, given how plagued with potholes it was. Jack drove on the grass instead, taking full advantage of the Hummer’s off-road capabilities. He floored it a little as he went over some of the smaller hills and caught enough air off of one to make several of the cats screech in panic.

  It was approaching evening when he reached the top of one hill and finally spotted their destination. Kamarang was a small farming village, very traditional and poor. Most of the houses were made of tan brick with thatched roofs, and there were no electrical lines, paved roads, or modern vehicles in sight.

  One building stood out from the rest. In the back of the town, on the edge of the river, there was a large, ancient-looking temple made of polished white stone and decorated with murals. It looked clean, like it was in active use, and Jack knew without needing to be told that it was where he would find Pierce and the scepter.

  He backed the Hummer up a few feet, parking it in a spot on the hill where it would be out of direct line of sight. He climbed out and kept low to the ground as he approached the top of the hill again, taking in the situation.

  Most of the people he could see weren’t in the village itself but working in the farms off to the side, along the river. If he approached immediately, he might be able to get to the temple without attracting much attention. Then again, if he waited until nightfall, he’d have his blood magic, though there might be more people around to respond to the presence of an intruder.

  “Let’s wait,” he said to Reese. “For another hour or two, at least. Until it’s dark.”

  Reese nodded slowly.

  “Is it alright if I kill people again?” she asked.

  Jack shook his head. “No. At least not unless I ask for it. In fact, I want you and your cats to hang back. Find a good hiding spot on the edge of the village and stay there until I call for you.”

  “I won’t be able to hear you if you’re far away,” said Reese.

  “You will,” said Jack. “I won’t call out to you with my voice. I have a spell that will let me reach you.”

  Blood Sight was basically a spell designed for this very purpose. It was effectively a way of giving Jack an open line of communication with people he’d fed off recently. He’d be able to expend some of his blood essence to silently reach out to Reese, which would be extremely handy, considering the backup she’d bring along with her.

  “Are you sure about heading in alone?” asked Reese. “You’ll be vulnerable.”

  “Trust me,” said Jack. “It makes the most sense. You and your cats are too conspicuous.”

  She frowned, but gave him a slow nod after a few seconds. There was another reason why Jack didn’t want to bring her along if he didn’t have to. He had to assume that she was still, on some level, loyal to Mezolak.

  He couldn’t trust that Reese wouldn’t have objections to him using the scepter in the way he intended. He was taking a pretty huge gamble, and there were an infinite number of ways his plan could go wrong. He needed to get Zedekiah’s Scepter from Pierce and find a time to use it when he wouldn’t be left too vulnerable in the aftermath.

  “I’ll be waiting,” said Reese. She walked over to her cats, reached down to the hem of her sundress, and pulled it off. Jack had a total of one point five seconds to ogle her naked body before it flashed with white light and transformed.

  Reese was still elegant and beautiful in her werecat form, but in a different way. She took on the form of a white tiger, one smaller than the other one she’d brought with her but still large enough to be scary. She walked over to Jack with smooth steps and brushed up against him for a moment, lifting her head to let her eyes meet his. Those, at least, still looked the same.

  He watched as she and her fellow cats took off down the hill and into the thin sliver of jungle running along the village’s northeast edge. Then Jack walked over to the Hummer, took a seat on its bumper, and waited.

  CHAPTER 8

  It took a while for the sun to set over the horizon, but he was in no rush. He started to get a little anxious as he returned to the edge of the hill and gazed down on the temple. Zedekiah’s Scepter represented the best chance of getting a normal life back that he would ever have.

  It felt audacious to let himself harbor fresh, growing hope. Hope for his future. Hope for a chance to maybe see the people he loved again. Mira, Ryoko, maybe even Katie, if he went back to being an ordinary human. He could go back to Lestaron Island, fix up the mansion, and sit back on his inheritance. Enjoy himself, for once.

  The people in the fields slowly trickled back into town as it became too dark for them to work. Jack noticed that they were all men and frowned a little as he considered the fact that he hadn’t seen any women in the time he’d been watching.

  He waited until it was as dark as it was going to get and then slowly began to sneak forward. If he’d wanted to go totally incognito, he could have just cast Shadow Form. It almost felt like it would be a waste of blood essence, however. The only exterior lights the village had were a few torches, and it was so easy to dodge their fields of illumination that giving himself the extra advantage seemed pointless.

  The village was quieter than it should have been. Jack didn’t hear anything, even as he passed by houses that obviously had people inside. He slowed to a stop as he approached the en
trance to the temple. The heavy wooden door was slightly ajar, and light, laughter, and the sounds of conversation came from within.

  It was only then that Jack cast Shadow Form, letting his body transform from its normal, physical state into an incorporeal mass of darkness and smoke. He had to stick to the interior of the temple’s shadows, which limited him to the corners of the chamber, along with long channels created by the shadows of the six massive, stone pillar supports.

  He rematerialized behind one of the pillars in order to get a better sense of what was going on. With his back pressed tightly against it, Jack peered around, staying hidden while taking stock of the situation.

  The interior of the temple had electricity, much to his surprise. There were torch sconces in the walls and on the inner faces of the pillars, but each of them had been retrofitted to cast light with small lamps. Jack made a mental note of how he might use that to his advantage as he looked toward the back of the room.

  Pierce was there, and he was sitting on an intricately carved throne. He wore strange clothing: a black and red tunic, along with golden jewelry and a thin, jewel-encrusted circlet. He was surrounded by more than a dozen attractive young women, all of them dressed in thin, spiraling silk gowns that were far more titillating than they were practical.

  The women were all fawning over Pierce. Some of them were caressing him with their hands, and in at least one case, underneath the bottom half of his tunic. A small group of them were sitting on the floor in front of his throne, listening to him talk about something in a language Jack didn’t recognize. Another stood holding a basket of fruit, not actively feeding Pierce, but there at a moment’s notice if he called for it.

  Jack spotted Zedekiah’s Scepter as he drew his eyes away from the numerous, nubile bodies. It was hanging from a hook on the side of Pierce’s throne, and it was effectively out of Jack’s reach.

  The illumination surrounding Pierce was too strong and consistent for him to use Shadow Form to get in close for an easy heist. His Spectral Hand tendrils would work though the artificial light, but Pierce would see them coming from a distance, and he wasn’t sure if they could snatch the scepter out of his range quickly enough.

  He turned that conclusion over in his head, realizing that he had some other options, though none of them were very good. He could try diplomacy, and attempt to explain his situation to Pierce. Jack didn’t actually need the scepter, since he’d be abandoning Mezolak’s service, anyway.

  It was straightforward enough to be a little tempting, but he didn’t think Pierce would go for it. Or rather, he wasn’t sure that he trusted Pierce to use the scepter to restore his freedom and humanity. It was very possibly that Pierce, being the type of person that he was, would lie and say that’s what he intended to do before just killing him anyway.

  One of the women tending to Pierce’s needs had begun to kiss him. He seemed distracted. Jack chewed his lip, toying with the idea of taking advantage of the moment and attacking immediately. He might be able to catch Pierce off guard, but he might also be putting innocents at risk.

  Waiting until Pierce fell asleep posed a similar problem, given that it seemed incredibly unlikely that he’d be sleeping alone. Pierce also wasn’t stupid. He’d kept the scepter nearby, positioned in a way to make it difficult to steal and easy to defend himself with. He’d know that it was a bad idea to lock an artifact away in a safe or a vault after how things had transpired in the Emerald Keep with Volandar.

  Jack found himself wishing that he had more shadows and darkness to work with, and suddenly realized the restriction was something he could address. He slipped back outside and sneaked around the temple, examining the stone wall until he found what he was looking for.

  There were solar panels on the roof, with massive lithium batteries to store and release electricity during the night. There was also a single, obvious cable running down from them and into the temple through a carefully drilled hole midway up the wall.

  Jack summoned his Spectral Sword and cut through the cable with a small, easy flick. He couldn’t hear what was going on inside the temple, but the sound of hurried footsteps reached him as he made his way back around to the entrance. At least a few of the women, if not all of them, had taken the sudden cessation of light and power as a bad omen. As they should have.

  He waited for a minute, expecting Pierce to eventually come outside and investigate. He didn’t, and once it became clear that he wasn’t going to, Jack made his way back in through the door, into the cool darkness of the temple’s interior.

  He cast Shadow Form again, seeing no reason to telegraph his presence. Pierce was alone in the temple, standing in front of his throne and holding the scepter with one hand. His body gave off a small amount of ambient light in the form of electricity, crackling across his chest and shoulders. A residual effect of holding Zedekiah’s Scepter, being an artifact of such immense power.

  Pierce shouted something in a language Jack didn’t understand. He took a step forward, looking around the chamber, aware or at least suspecting that he wasn’t alone.

  “English, then?” shouted Pierce, as he shifted into words Jack could understand. “Whoever you are, know that I don’t appreciate people wasting my time. Come forth and see how you measure up against a god.”

  Jack would have grinned if he hadn’t still been in Shadow Form. He let his body reform, accepting the fact that there would be no way to avoid a fight.

  “You’re no god, Pierce,” he called out. “Even if you’ve fooled these people into thinking that you are.”

  Pierce’s expression shifted into a cold smile, and shadows danced across his face as the electricity continued to flicker and crackle across his body.

  “Now there is a voice I haven’t heard in quite some time,” said Pierce. “Jack Masterson. I thought I’d eventually have to go hunting for you to settle the score between us.”

  “It’s probably better that you didn’t,” said Jack. “For your sake. It would have ended badly for you.”

  Pierce’s smile remained frozen on his face.

  “How’s Katherine doing, by the way?” he asked.

  “She joined the Order, just like she said she was going to,” said Jack. “I’m surprised you’d ask about her, given that you seem to have collected your own harem. How many of those women were once the wives of the men in this village?”

  “Oh, yes, you’re one to pass judgement,” said Pierce. “With your broodmother and your maid, and who knows how many other thralls. Katherine too, even. She told me about how she cheated on her old fiancé with you. She wouldn’t even let me kiss her while we were in Romania. Do you really think that you weren’t taking advantage of her with what you were doing?”

  “I think Katie made her own choices,” said Jack. “I did my best to respect them and keep myself in line.”

  “That’s always been the problem with you, Jack,” said Pierce. “You’re so good at seeing the evil in everyone but yourself.”

  Pierce gripped his scepter a little tighter and took a step forward. Jack reached his hand out to the side and summoned his Spectral Sword. His last fight with Pierce had been relatively one-sided, and not in a way that had been good for him. Still, he felt confident in the progress he’d made since then, and knew that he had at least one hidden card up his sleeve.

  “You should surrender,” said Jack. “Give me the artifact. I know that you probably won’t consider it. But it’s better than dying. That’s what’s going to happen if you try to stand against me.”

  “Well, you haven’t gotten any less arrogant,” said Pierce. “You show up uninvited, thinking you can take whatever you want. I’d feel insulted if I wasn’t aware of how outmatched you are. I am essentially a god, Jack. Those villagers worship me for a reason.”

  “You’re deluded,” said Jack.

  He brought his sword up to bear. Pierce lifted his scepter, but his free hand was the one that moved. It shot into the inside of his tunic, and an instant later, pulled f
orth a small, impossibly bright stone.

  Jack recognized it immediately. It was a sunstone, a powerful magical gem that Pierce had once used in the basement of the mansion to defeat him without a fight. He’d been expecting Pierce to whip it out at some point, and he was wise to both its effective range and duration.

  Pierce started toward him, but Jack moved quickly, blending into the shadows and circling around to avoid the radius of the light trapped within the stone. The temple’s inner chamber was large enough to aid him in his efforts, and even as Pierce began to move around, sweeping the sunstone back and forth, Jack still managed to find darkened corners to hide in.

  The sunstone had one major weakness, and that was its limited duration compared to how long it took to recharge. After half a minute, Jack heard Pierce swear under his breath. The light in the sunstone began dimming, then flickering, and then it went out completely, like a fire that had burned through its fuel.

  CHAPTER 9

  Jack resisted the urge to taunt Pierce at the failure of his secret weapon, but only just barely. He took advantage of the moment instead. Pierce didn’t know where he was, and as he turned in a full circle, peering into the shadows of the room, Jack cast Spectral Hand.

  He could manifest a dozen of the dark, ethereal tendrils now, and he sent all of them reaching toward Pierce. They curled and reached like the arms of an octopus, but Pierce spun around at the last second, sweeping his scepter up to disintegrate half of them.

  A few of the remaining tendrils managed to loop around Pierce’s arms and legs. The electricity that ran across his body incessantly made short work of them with loud, static pops that dissolved the darkness they were composed of instantly.

  “Neither of us will get an easy victory, it seems,” said Pierce. He lifted his scepter into a duelist’s stance.