Path of Ruin

by Tim Paulson

  Henri complied, glad he didn't have to hit moving targets, and carefully excising the creatures' frozen heads.

  “Where to next?” the baroness asked.

  “It's here!” the black wizard said as his old woman form clambered past the remnants of a dismembered Veil company soldier wearing a red sash toward a massive steel door at the far end of a long hall.

  It turned out to be a series of heavy steel doors, all hanging open. There were hundreds of claw marks on their inner walls but the door mechanisms were intact. Someone had opened the doors deliberately.

  “This has to be a trap,” Henri said.

  Vex waved one hand dismissively while the other dug into Henri's pack. “Be still,” the old woman said.

  There was a lot of snarling coming from the next room. Henri could already see at least ten horrors milling around inside. Above them an eerie golden glow filled the room, washing out into the hall beyond.

  “I think there are... a few of them in there,” Henri said.

  “There would be, yes,” the baroness said.

  “I said be still!” Vex said before finally retrieving a smooth metallic sphere from the pack.

  The ten horrors had become fifteen, then twenty five, all turning in their direction, all preparing to charge, slavering for the taste of flesh. Worse, Henri had just begun to realize that the golden glow above them wasn't coming from the gate itself but from hundreds of veil spirits swirling in circles. Behind them, he could just barely discern a whorl of chaotic light surrounded by a dark and horrific machine.

  “Planning to do something?”

  “You worry too much blacksmith,” Vex said as his old woman form smiled a near toothless grin at him and tossed the sphere into the center of the other room. There was a loud crack and then nothing.

  Henri winced but then slowly opened his eyes.

  The veil spirits were gone! The horrors lay dead, not broken or exploded like a veil powder barrel had been sent alight, but simply dead, as if the life had been torn from their bodies.

  “What is that thing?” Henri said.

  “Do not touch it,” Vex said.

  “It's a container of sorts. Like those glass boxes lined with veil crystals that you use for your goliaths, only more powerful,” the baroness said.

  “She is correct,” Vex said as both of them walked into the room, giving the sphere a wide berth as they did. As Henri watched, the steady stream of veil spirits emerging from the gate had now redirected. All were flowing into the sphere.

  “There appears to be some mechanism at work here. Find it blacksmith. I will summon your child. We don't have much time. The sphere will fill quickly,” Vex said.

  “I'll stay with him,” yelled the baroness over the twin roar of the wild gate machine and the swirling vortex of moving air that surrounded the sphere.

  Henri did not like the look of this veil gate at all, certainly compared to the other he'd seen. When he lifted the goggles it appeared to be a serene silvery sphere but through them grotesque tendrils of light and masses of ejected material were pouring from it like an open ugly wound.

  The power was being funneled into Vex's sphere in the room's center but a set of lights on the device kept getting brighter as time passed. If those indicated its fullness, Vex was right, they did not have much time.

  Vex left to set up on the other side of the room. The wizard turned old woman was currently engaged in drawing sets of glowing yellow symbols on the floor.

  Henri followed the signs and soon ended up in the control room, overlooking the main floor. The glass viewing window had been smashed and shreds of some very thick padded leather suits with gold leaf overlaying the leather lay strewn across the floor. The people in the control room had fared as poorly as the rest. There were levers to extend and remove each of the crystal shards that opened the veil. There was also an emergency release that removed them all.

  “Do you know how to work this?” the baroness asked him. She looked haggard again.

  “I'll give it a shot,” he said. “Are you alright?”

  The woman waved her hand at him. “I'm fine. I'm doing well for a salsu I'd say,” a hopeful note in her voice.

  “What's that mean?” he asked as he tested the controls, pushing each back and forth, trying to make sure they still functioned.

  “It means three in their tongue. I'm a third class mage.”

  “Is that good?”

  “It's quite low actually. I'd hoped for much greater potential,” she said.

  “Is that what the... ah old lady is?” Henri asked, indicating Vex.

  “No. Vex is a sebu, class seven. Vex is bound however, it limits him.”

  “What does that mean?” Henri said as he used an oil can to grease up the action on the emergency release lever.

  “It means he's a criminal forced into servitude as punishment. He was given the duty to prevent the looting of the ancient city.”

  “Do you know what his crime was?”

  “No. Whatever it was it merited an eternity of servitude,” she said.

  “He seems to obey you,” Henri added as he pulled at the release mechanism from below. He'd been wondering why Vex did whatever she asked him to.

  “Of course he does,” she said. “I'm the only living mage in the whole world, as far as I've been able to determine. The bound must obey living citizens, even a lowly mage like me.”

  “He complains about it quite a bit,” Henri said.

  “Oh he can, but he still has to do it. Though I will say I've noticed he can be quite tricky about how he goes about it. Don't ask what he was doing when I met him.” She shook her head, a look of disgust on her face.

  “There,” Henri said as the crossbar locked into place. “It's ready.”

  “Good!” The baroness said, standing from the seat she'd taken on an overturned cabinet. “I was sure Mia had the gift when I found her. It seemed impossible that anyone could be so proficient at fighting so young, especially as small as she is. Alas, it was not to be.”

  “She is... impressive,” Henri said. Terrifying at times as well but he'd never feared her.

  The baroness nodded, her brown eyes focused on his own. “Yes, and she seems to trust you for some reason. I'm not sure it was the magic Vex used on her. Do you know why that might be?”

  Henri's mouth opened but no words came. He had no response.

  “I see. You don't know either.” She sighed. “Your son is our best hope Henri. I hope very much that we can save him,” she said placing a hand on his shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Truly.”

  “Blacksmith! Get down here!” Vex said.

  “I've fixed the emergency shut off lever! It will disengage all the crystals!” Henri yelled as he trotted down from the control room to the main floor. Only when he reached the floor did he realize he'd left the lance in the control room.

  The horror charging in from the hall didn't give him time to move or even react, only to picture that lance in his mind leaning against the left side of the control board.

  It slammed into his body, driving him backward toward the center of the room. Jaws and claws gaped for him and would have torn him to shreds had the two of them not just barely slid past the threshold of the sphere's effect. Instantly the creature shuddered and collapsed.

  “Damn! Why couldn't you have avoided it?” Vex said.

  Pushing the lifeless horror away Henri rolled over, picking himself up. Several of the items in the pack had jammed painfully into his spine when he'd hit the floor.

  “I'm fine,” he said.

  “Of course you are you idiot but now everything in that pack will be useless. Luckily we have an alternative,” Vex said, a single bony finger raised in the air.

  Henri crossed the floor in front of the machine cautiously. When he finally arrived the first thing he noticed is that the circle Vex had painstakingly drawn on the ground before was pulsing with light.

  “Get over here! Haven't I said we don't
have much time?” Vex growled at him. “Get the pack off, open it. We need the communication device.”

  Henri did as instructed but as soon as he placed the pack on the ground there was a bright flash and a warping of the air above above Vex's complex glowing circle.

  Adem appeared, sitting cross-legged, in the center of the circle.

  “Daddy!” he said. “We're under attack!”

  “Who is?” Henri asked. Adem did not look well at all. The poor boy was far past time for draining and he looked it.

  “The people at the dark place, the nice lady. She told me to tell you and miss Christine,” Adem said.

  “They most assuredly are under attack,” said a man's voice from behind them. “As are you!”

  Henri picked up his son, turning to face this man. He recognized him immediately. Buckley, Veil company chief executive. The man stood flanked by rows of heavily armed soldiers. Scores of muskets were trained on them.

  “I surrender. Please don't hurt my son!” Henri yelled but Buckley acted as if he didn't even hear. Instead, he addressed Vex.

  “Give up demon. You cannot escape. This time, I have you,” Buckley said, his shining golden doublet reflecting the light of the still roaring gate.

  “Never!” Vex said.

  Chapter 23

  "Three of the granite slabs you sent in the last delivery were defective. One was too short and the other two were cracked. This is your last warning. If this continues I'll be looking for a new supplier."

  -From a letter from goliath production manager Gunter Schubert to Calacian Quarry master, 1612

  Outside the pine forest that concealed the hidden city it was a crisp fall day. The few clouds edged in from the South where a storm had come to drench Valendam but here, two days journey to the North, there were only gentle winds, blue skies and the chirping of birds. It was in this idyllic purity that the first of the Veil company musket men fired, peppering the massive pines with shot.

  “Reload!” the luitenant said as he held his saber aloft. His horse clopped in behind the lines. The muskets were arranged in three escalating rows, one kneeling and two standing.

  “Second row take aim!” the man said, but seeing the confusion in the faces of his men chose to repeat his earlier instructions. “Remember, target any of the trees. Any tree will do! FIRE!”

  Another line of muskets cracked in near unison causing a cloud of white smoke to rise like a ghostly serpent from the front.

  “Row three! Take aim! Any tree, any one of the damned things. FIRE!”

  The third and final fusillade of fire poured into the pines, carving bark away in chunks.

  “Infantry reload!” the luitenant said from his horse before gathering the reigns in his hands and using his heels to goad the animal to the left until it faced behind the lines of infantry.

  “Goliaths! Advance!” he yelled, mostly to make the infantry aware that the five goliaths behind them were already on the move.

  Carefully they stepped over the reloading soldiers, bringing their Veil weapons to ready position. They had been equipped purposely with gigantic ten ton Veil bladed axes, ideal for pruning hostile shrubbery.

  Then the trees attacked.

  * * *

  Inside the twisted dark artifice of Salmu dark sorcery, Giselle, Aaron and Celia stood over the long black oval table in the center of the main room.

  “What do we do now? Just wait?” asked Aaron.

  Celia shrugged.

  “We hope Adem delivers the message,” Giselle said.

  “He may forget, he's very young,” Aaron said.

  “I don't think so but even if he does, they may be unable to come.” Giselle had her hands pressed to the table, thinking of the children downstairs playing. “Daniel? Can you please make sure one of your friends is watching the children?”

  Daniel nodded to her, showing he understood, but then he looked toward Aaron. Neither he nor the other two creatures in the room moved to comply with her request.

  Aaron raised an eyebrow. “Why won't you do as she asks?”

  Daniel shook his skull head back and forth and pointed at Aaron's chest with a single tentacle.

  “What? What does that mean?” he looked to Giselle. “Why exactly did we have to send away the only child who could understand these things?” He said.

  Giselle couldn't help but smile. He was cute when he was angry.

  “Because Vex asked us to,” Celia said, arms folded as if that were the only word on the subject.

  Daniel smoothly crept forward on insect-like legs, extending one long black arm out. It reached into Aaron's shirt, making him grimace, and brought out a little skull on a chain.

  “What's that?” Giselle asked.

  “Oh! I'd forgotten all about this thing. Celia told me to put it on earlier but she didn't say why. She just walked up and said 'here.'”

  Celia shrugged. “Vex said I had to give it to you. He didn't tell me to explain what it was.”

  Daniel raised his glowing eyes and two of tentacles up as if to say: “really?”

  “Celia, it matters. Tell us what it does!” Giselle said.

  Celia rolled her eyes. “Fine. It's a controlling thing. I can't remember what he called it, a key or something. It means they do what you say,” she said, pointing to the skull creatures.

  “I see,” Aaron said.

  “I'll be taking that then,” Giselle said, extending her hand.

  “What?” Aaron said, shocked.

  “I love you. You know I do. So listen when I tell you this. You're going to hand it over to me before you get us all killed.”

  Aaron frowned. “What do you mean!?”

  “Oh no! If anyone should have that, it should be me!” Celia said.

  “Why is that?” Giselle asked, eyes narrowed.

  “Because I'm the only person here who appreciates him for who he is!” Celia said as if this was obvious to all.

  “For what, being a flesh eating ghoul?” Aaron said, a single eyebrow raised.

  “Among other things!” Celia said.

  Giselle stared at her for a moment. Then she turned back to Aaron. “Seriously, dear, give me the pendant. You're a wonderful man, an exceptional thinker, but you're not a leader.”

  “Ouch,” Celia said.

  “Who is? Your brother?” Aaron said. He looked incensed but Giselle could also see the disappointment in his eyes.

  “Heavens no! Someday Liam might be fit to lead, if he calms down enough to not lead people off a cliff,” Giselle said as she walked around the table, past Celia.

  She put her hand on her husband's chest and kissed him softly on the lips. “I love your brilliance, I do, now give that thing to me.”

  “Not all your decisions have been best of late,” Aaron said. He wasn't trying to be contentious, merely pointing out the truth, she knew this.

  “I grant you that. So help me make them better.”

  “Will you listen to me?”

  “I will,” she said, staring into his eyes.

  Aaron looked back, eyes full of love, of admiration. She loved him so much. He took the pendant from his neck and put it on hers.

  “For you my love. I trust you.”

  She kissed him once more. “Thank you.”

  Celia looked like she was about to gag.

  “Oh and I'll need those veil glasses,” she said to Celia, who looked surprised.

  “Don't ask her. I still... hey!” Aaron said, startled to find his breast pocket empty.

  “How did you see me take them?” Celia asked as she produced the little green glasses from a pocket at her waist and handed them over.

  “I didn't see anything,” Giselle said, taking the place at the head of the table. “But I know you Celia,” she said.

  Giselle looked over to Daniel and his two friends. “Have any more of these?” she said, indicating the veil spectacles.

  All three creatures nodded in unison.

  “Good, you go get two more pairs for Aaron and
Celia. You go watch the children and make sure they're well. I'm sure they'd appreciate a few more snacks by now, get them some and tell me if anything happens to them. Daniel, what can we do about this attack?”

  As the first two skull headed creatures scurried off to start their tasks Daniel moved up next to her at the table. He pointed at her veil spectacles, then at the table and waved his tentacle over the table.

  When she put on the glasses Giselle finally understood why Aaron had been so amazed. The whole room came alive with arcane symbols and lines, all glowing in various shades, some of them flashing and others moving. The table before her was no different, it was ringed with all kinds of symbols, none of which made any sense to her.

  Daniel repeated his gesture and pointed at her. Giselle copied him and almost squealed with fright as the table itself began to change. The surface seemed to become liquid, covered in slowly moving ripples.

  Daniel pointed at one of the symbols on the edge of the table that was flashing and mimed touching it. Giselle followed suit, wincing.

  Her mouth dropped open as the liquid of the table reformed into a moving representation of the forest outside the city. There was a tiny line of soldiers on her left but they were more or less stationary. The real action was on the right side where much larger things were fighting each other hand to hand.

  Immediately she recognized the shape of the living tree creature that had stolen Aaron. There were quite a few of them, too. On the map the tree shaped guardians were shown as black, while the enemies, the soldiers and what looked to be goliaths, were pure white.

  Unfortunately, black was not doing well. The tree guardians were less than half the size of the Goliaths and though there were twice as many of them, they were clearly not meant to fight big things. As she watched a goliath ax swung and one of the guardians fell. It disappeared from the display.

  “Those big white ones, those must be goliaths.”

  “The Veil company has goliaths? I thought they just made them,” Giselle said.

  “Clearly they know how to use them too,” Aaron said. “They'd love everything in this place Giselle.”