Path of Ruin

by Tim Paulson

  “What do you mean? What are you doing?” Henri shouted over the din of the machine. Wind from the swirling forces at work was blowing his hair and clothes like he was caught in a tornado, a vortex of doom.

  “What's necessary,” Vex said and raised his hand, guiding Adem toward the roiling silver surface.

  “Daddy! I'm scared!” Adem said.

  “Stop it Vex! Put him down or.... or I'll shut it down.”

  “It's too late now blacksmith. It's done!”

  “Just put my boy down!” Henri said. “Please!”

  “I'm sorry but this boy cannot be allowed to live.”

  “WHAT?!?” Henri howled.

  Adem was trying to claw his way out of the invisible prison that held him, crying for his father. Then he slid into the silvery membrane and was gone.

  “NOOOO!!!” Henri roared. He aimed the spear at the wizard and tendril of purple shot out from it.

  Vex merely waved it aside. The line bent and ate a large hole in a metal wall nearby. Then he reached out and the weapon was torn from Henri's hands to fly across the room into the wizard's.

  Vex seemed to dismiss Henri then because he collapsed the spear into a much smaller size and bent down, placing it and whatever else was on the floor into the pack. He was preparing to leave.

  Henri shuddered, grabbed the sides of his head with his hands and sobbed. “No! I won't let this happen! I won't!” He said and ran for the metal gantry that led to the gate.

  “Henri NO!” Mia yelled, hoping he could hear her.

  * * *

  “What's happening!” Aaron asked.

  “They're dying!” Giselle said. “There's something in the middle of the men that's keeping them at bay.”

  “I think I see it!” Celia said. “Look at the back of the horseman, mounted to the rear of his saddle.”

  “Oh yes!”

  There was something there. A twisted black something that looked decidedly out of place among the shining metal, leather and burgundy cloth of the company soldiers. It was a little double spiral, pure black that looked like it would be at home in the building they'd just left. Giselle stood up and turned back toward that building.

  Aaron caught at her arm. “Where are you going?”

  “We need Liam,” she said, handing the controlling necklace to him. “Tell them to harass the soldiers but to back off. The muskets can't harm them.”

  “But veil swords can,” Celia said.

  “Right. Let's hope they don't realize it.”

  “Do you think you'll be able to find him?” Aaron asked.

  “I have to,” Giselle said and ran.

  Amazingly, she managed without much trouble to find her brother. The building, as wild as it was, seemed to make a sort of sense to her. She just ran, thinking about where she needed to be and ended up standing in front of Liam's room. The veil glasses she wore revealed the little triangle that would open the door.

  Her hand hovered next to it. Giselle clenched her jaw, steeling herself for the onslaught to come, and pressed.

  The door dilated open revealing her brother. Rather than waiting, poised to pounce, he was currently lounging on the room's cot, the same black squishy kind she'd awakened upon.

  At first glance it looked like he might be comfortable there, at peace even, but Giselle knew otherwise. Sitting around was not something Liam did to relax. It was only through movement that he found peace, through work. Seeing him there on the bed, one knee up with a muscular arm draped over it screamed to Giselle of only one thing: white hot rage. As the door finished its retraction she finally saw his face. His furious expression told her unequivocally that she was right.

  “Where's mother!” He said.

  “Not here.” Giselle shifted uneasily.

  “I assume you need me then?”

  “Yes, there's-”

  Liam held up a hand, standing. “I don't care. I'll do whatever you need me to. On one condition.”

  She'd suspected this. “I can't let you go-”

  He folded his arms, mouth forming an unmistakeable expression of extreme distaste. “Then I'll just stay here.”

  “But you could get hurt, maybe killed. Please. Help us, then stay with us.”

  He looked away. He was done listening. The discussion was over. Giselle knew this. He'd been this way since he was a little boy. He made mules seem easy going.

  “Alright. Help us and you can go.”

  Instantly he strode forth. “Take me to my weapons. Then show me what you need me to do.”

  They ran back up the stairs, pausing only for a moment in the main room so Liam could collect his equipment, the pistols and his sword and knives, then they ran on.

  Liam said nothing, he merely followed her through the warren of tunnels in silence.

  Aaron met them on the way out to the street.

  “It's bad,” he said, looking stricken with grief.

  “How many of our friends are left?” Giselle asked. The poor things. If any had been killed it would be her fault.

  “None.”

  The word hit her like a hammer. She stumbled but Aaron was there to hold her.

  What could they possibly do now?

  “Where is this thing I'm to destroy?” Liam said to his brother in law. His hand rested on the hilt of his rapier.

  “On the back of their commander's horse, or so I heard.”

  “He's right,” Giselle said. “It looks like a black spiral. I'm sure it's what was stopping them... but I don't know why it matters now.” she said, choking back a sob. “They're all gone! Those poor things!”

  Liam nodded. “I'll take your two pistols then.”

  “Mine?” Aaron said, looking down at his satchel. “But they're not even loaded.”

  “Yes they are. I loaded them myself while you were off doing something stupid. I figured even if you can't shoot you ought to have them ready.”

  “Thanks... I suppose,” Aaron said.

  “For me of course, so you could hand them to me and I could be useful with them.” Liam smirked, holding out his palms.

  Aaron gave him the gifted long barreled pistols. “It's a waste of time though. As Giselle said, the creatures we had to attack them have all been destroyed.”

  “I keep my word brother,” Liam said.

  Giselle's hands moved across her husband's chest “Wait... What about the ones in your pockets Aaron?” They were there! She tore the necklace back from his neck and started scooping the last handfuls of bones from Aaron's baggy technician pockets.

  Celia was waving frantically from up ahead at the mass of broken stone where they'd been before.

  “We're coming!” Giselle yelled but to her horror realized that wasn't why Celia was waving so frantically.

  The goliath had sighted them. It was stepping over the very debris where Celia still hid, stomping their way, its great glowing purple eyes looking down at them.

  Liam was already gone.

  “Come on!” Aaron shouted at her. “Back inside!” They ran together for the door to the dark curled building but a massive foot came down from above, missing them by only a few feet. It had blocked their retreat purposely. A great hand was now reaching down to snatch them.

  “Get behind the foot!” Aaron said.

  She ran with him around behind the Goliath's massive foot. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement.

  It was Daniel!

  He'd returned from shuttling the children to safety. Instead of running to them, he vaulted up onto the goliath's leg and began climbing toward the steel knee.

  Giselle feared for him. She wanted to cover her eyes but then realized when she looked at her hands that they were still full of the tiny bones. There was a crack from behind her and something whizzed by her right ear. It was the muskets. The company soldiers had lined up at the end of the road and were firing at them. Musket balls pinged and clanged off the steel sheeting that armored the goliath's foot.

  “We need to get inside!” Aaron said.r />
  She could barely hear him over the guns popping and the goliath stomping again, this time trying to dislodge Daniel who was scrambling up his thigh.

  “Gah!” Aaron said. He fell to the ground clutching his left leg.

  He'd been shot! She threw down the bones and rushed to his aid.

  There was another higher pitched crack sound from her left. She paused to look for it and saw Liam, laying down on a broken piece of black pavement, a puff of smoke rising from a pistol in his hand.

  She looked back toward the company soldiers. It looked like Liam had missed. The man on the horse was still there, standing just behind the lines of musket men, sword raised high above his flat feathered hat.

  Behind him on the horse, just barely visible, was the black spiral, still there. Then the horseman's sword dipped and the man fell. Liam hadn't missed at all! A second crack rang out and the black spiral device shattered like glass.

  “He got it! Liam got it!” She said.

  “Wonderful, now send them,” Aaron said through gritted teeth as he clutched at his oozing leg wound.

  “Who?” Giselle asked. She looked around them and realized that though she'd heard the muskets popping, the rounds were no longer whizzing by her head or hitting them. They were surrounded by about a dozen of the acolytes. Like ants around a drop of honey they stood motionless, waiting to be told what to do and harmlessly deflecting shots as they did.

  “All of you... please, we're under attack! Defend us!” she cried.

  In unison, like the many tendrils of one horrifying super organism the creatures barreled forward and fell upon the soldiers. Screams could be heard from their enemies who couldn't come close to matching their many armed assailants in close combat without the protection device.

  Above them, the goliath had stopped moving its feet. Instead it looked to be trying to tear off its own steel skin.

  Daniel must have found a way inside!

  Abruptly, the goliath ceased moving. The hands dropped to its sides and the great ax fell to the stone with a loud clang, embedding its glowing blade deeply in the black stone. The lights went out of its eyes. Then, finally, the monstrous man shaped creature above them wavered, staggered, and fell, crashing into a pile of rubble.

  “Did we just win?” Aaron said.

  “I think so!” Giselle said with a broad smile. “I think we actually did!”

  Chapter 26

  "...their goliaths came at us fast, hard and from the sea. The first two we'd anticipated, the third won them the war."

  -Lord Rudolph "Stenfaust" Herrmann's musings on the 1599 Faustland independence war

  “Henri!” Mia screamed it this time, from the depths of her soul. It was enough for Vex to notice her as he picked up his now full bag. Henri had nearly made it to the gate now, any moment, he'd be able to jump inside.

  “Henri! I...” she yelled, feelings overwhelming her but the words caught in her throat, jammed, like a pistol with too much wadding and too little charge.

  Henri leaped from the metal gantry. As he went through the silver gate it looked like he turned his head and said something but she didn't hear it.

  Then he was gone.

  Mia's gaze fell upon the wizard. “Get them out of there you monster!” She raised her sword and stalked toward him, stepping over the bloody crushed corpses of fallen company soldiers.

  Vex laughed at her. Not a full belly laugh but a tiny little chuckle, the kind you might make if only half amused by something so insignificant it barely deserved the air it took to laugh.

  “Why it's Christine's little puppet. You have no idea what you're dealing with.”

  “I'm no one's puppet!” Mia said, continuing to close the distance. “If you don't bring them back. I'll gut you myself.”

  “I've been around far too long to be intimidated by some girl with a sword,” Vex said. He gestured toward the machine. “That is death for any living thing. It consumes them. There's no coming back. They're gone.”

  “You lied to us the entire time,” she said, lips curled in a sneer. “Why should I believe you now?”

  “I withheld information.”

  “Why?”

  “I needed help to make this happen. And all of you helped me. Thank you, now go, or I'll be forced to kill you as well.”

  Mia kept moving. Soon she would be in range.

  “Why do this? What are you trying to accomplish?” she asked.

  “You wouldn't understand if I tried to explain. Suffice it to say that there are things humanity should not meddle with. They are too big for little minds to comprehend-”

  Now!

  Mia rushed at him, rapier poised to pierce the creature's throat at an oblique angle that she would then wrench in one smooth motion, severing most of what tethered his grotesque head to his body.

  With the flick of a single finger Vex seized her. She hung motionless, on her toes, her rapier extended only inches from the wizard's neck. The sword dropped from her frozen fingers, clanking as it hit the metal floor.

  He beckoned her, drawing her forward suspended in the air until his thin fingers curled around her neck one by one. Then he lifted her by his own strength and brought his gray face to hers.

  Blood red eyes burned at her and the long nose nearly rubbed her cheek. She could feel his breath, smell the rancid stench of rotting meat that lingered there among his rows of needle sharp teeth.

  “I may just have to eat you,” he said as a long blue tongue slid along his teeth. “The bard was small. My body is still... hungry.”

  “Celia may object to that,” Mia said.

  It was her last hope, she just needed him off guard for one second.

  Vex looked surprised. “Oh? Did she... did she mention me?”

  That was it.

  Mia swung her legs backwards, causing a startled Vex to adjust automatically to return his balance by leaning back. That was when she curled up with all her might, swinging her legs up and around the creature's neck.

  It gave her just enough reach to use the small knife she'd palmed to cut open the slit at the back of his neck and rip out the green glass marble inside.

  The ghoul's eyes unfocused and both of them collapsed to the floor in a tangled heap.

  Mia stood up, pocketing the gem.

  “I am not 'Some girl.'” she said and spat on the ghoul's lifeless corpse.

  The noise from the gate was now painfully loud. Metal parts were beginning to shake loose from it and crash to the floor. Somehow, through it all, she heard crying.

  Mia ran to it and found little Adem. He'd dropped from the boiling surface of the gate and lay curled up on the floor, shaking. She picked him up, cradling the boy in her arms.

  “Is your father coming too? Adem, where's your father?” she said.

  The boy's teeth were chattering, his skin felt cold, freezing.

  “R...r... run!” stuttered Adem.

  Mia didn't want to. She wanted to stay and wait for Henri to come but she didn't. She ran. It's what he would have wanted, she knew it.

  She held little Adem to her breast and ran from that room as fast as she could, ignoring the pain of her wounds, ignoring the roaring noises behind her. She'd barely made it past the second pair of doors when she heard a boom like a thousand thunderheads exploding at once.

  It knocked her down. She and Adem fell together, thrown down the hall with various other debris. Finally they came to a halt near the tattered remnants of an oil painting of an ugly old man.

  Despite the pain, Mia picked herself up. She gathered Adem in her arms and willed herself to move. Back up the stairs, past the blood soaked shreds of expensive clothing, past smashed doors and crushed furniture.

  Mia trudged on until she found the baroness, panting as she lay propped against a wall. Mia then hauled the broken woman to her feet and dragged her as well, step by step, up the stairs.

  After what felt like an eternity of toil, they emerged into the tender sun of the early afternoon. The rain storm had pa
ssed. Now light streamed like golden spears though the waning clouds.

  It was here, in the rubble of a crushed building less than a block away from Veil Headquarters, that Mia finally collapsed, unable to move.

  A great shadow appeared above. It was Marian. She had not fled back to the barony as Mia had ordered. She'd stayed, waiting, and used her gigantic hands to scoop the three of them up and bear them away.

  * * *

  Many floors above, a dying man coughed blood as he stumbled into the bedroom that adjoined his office and activated a secret doorway. The clothes cabinet moved aside, revealing the steel door. Buckley's blood slicked fingers fumbled with the keys.

  “Save... me,” Buckley said as he pulled open the trunk lid.

  “Free me,” came a hoarse whisper in response.

  “I... can't... I...”

  “Then die, salave,” said the arm less, leg less corpse.

  “Please,” Buckley said.

  “Free me!” It said.

  Buckley nodded slowly, “Alright.”

  * * *

  “It will destroy the city, including the tower,” the baroness said. She was looking better now, her nose was no longer crooked but a few of the bruises still remained. Mia had asked her why she'd left them.

  “Reminders,” she'd said.

  Adem looked bored as he held Mia's hand. His color was still good, even several days after he'd come out of the gate. The demons were gone and by the grace of God, the boy seemed to have suffered no ill effects.

  If only Henri had returned as well. Mia hadn't yet allowed herself to fully accept that he was gone. Adem hadn't either, no matter how many times the baroness tried to explain how unlikely it was, he still expected to see his father every time a door opened. He was a little boy however and understood little of what had happened.

  Mia had no excuse.

  “We can't do that!” Aaron said. “There's so much to learn here.”

  “We must,” the baroness replied. “I don't like it either but they know about this place now. They know what's here and they'll come to take it. The real pity is that we didn't have time to get Adem started training.”