“It will respond to your will. The Thetracite stone set in it makes sure of this, as well as making sure the gauntlet can assemble itself and soar through the air.”
I raked my Ghost Hand gauntlet at a nearby shield hanging on the wall. I saw claw marks etch into it instantly, and I heard the scrapping sound of metal against metal. I then hurled my Chain Claw at the same shield. It clamped itself onto the shield just as if I were gripping it. I yanked back as if I were pulling a choke chain on an unruly hound. The shield went hurling through the air and it was in my grasp just as the gauntlet reformed onto my right hand.
“You will grow even more accustomed to them in time. Already they bond well to you.”
“Aye. How far can I reach a thing with these arcane gauntlets?”
“The chain grows by magic force, though I have never known it to go farther than 100 feet. The Ghost Hand can reach anything within your sight. However, its force weakens the farther your target is.”
“I’ll make sure to remember that.” I went on looking at armor and was trying the fit of a breastplate when the door to the chamber creaked open.
“Lady Tiloshar,” the stitched servant said, “I bring you the creature from the collection, dressed and ready, as you requested.”
“One Eye.” I flung the breastplate aside. Standing next to the stitched servant was my old companion, the one who had helped me escaped from Kenessos and loyally served my father. I hurried toward him. He was wearing a breastplate the color of brass with a striped emblem on one breast. The rest of his armor was of black boiled leather, save for greaves which were charcoal grey. His long cloak was night black, and contrasted sharply with his hair that had been bleached bone white. His skin was a sickly pale, verging on grey, and his one flesh eye was paler still, like smoke caught in a glass orb, though now this iris was upon a black eyeball. There was a new device in his missing eye socket, this one was silver and where there should have been a pupil was a glowing red dot. “One Eye, it’s me, Rothan.”
He stared at me for a long moment. His red pupil enlarged. “Rothan.” He gave the slightest nod.
“What do you remember, One Eye?” I put my hands on his shoulders, almost embracing him.
“Do not strain his mind like that. Remember he only retains the most rudimentary—”
“Let me speak to him! One Eye, tell me what you remember, about me, how you got here.”
“You…” his red pupil became small, then large again. It seemed almost a chameleon eye. “You. Are good.”
“Gods… One Eye. Don’t worry. You did not give up on me in Kenessos, though any of right mind would have thought me dead. Because I was.” An ironic smile spread on my face. “I will not give up on you now. Though you also… are dead in a way.” I glanced side eyed at Tiloshar. I had grown fond of her in some ways, pitied her state of being—with no memories, being a creature of darkness without knowing why she was so. Yet there was part of me that wanted to see her answer for what she had done to my friend.
“I… am dead?” One Eye spoke in a slow monotone, the way someone might speak after smoking much Swamp Weed.
“No… you’re not, Karlstaff One Eye.” Tiloshar looked between the two of us as she spoke. “And should you and Rothan be successful, you will have no doubts, as you will have all your memories returned to you. As soon as I have mine.”
“Tiloshar.” I stepped close to her and spoke in a low voice, “What good will One Eye be if his mind is not present?”
“That which he needs—his skills, his instincts—they will still be there. I have taken these from his mind gem and put them back in his body. Watch. Servant, hand One Eye that bow and quiver.” Tiloshar gestured at the weapon on the wall and the servant obeyed.
One Eye turned the bow over in his hands. “I know... how to use this.”
“You do.” Tiloshar pointed to a suit of armor. “Hit the helmet on that suit.”
One Eye notched an arrow and was about to loose. At the last moment, Tiloshar flicked her fingers and by an arcane power the helmet went leaping into the air like it had been shot from a catapult. One Eye did not blink. He adjusted his aim and the arrow went flying. The helmet clanked as it was shot out from the air.
“Well done, Karlstaff.” Tiloshar clapped gently. “Servant, hand Karlstaff the Iron Cross.” The stitched servant went to a case and grabbed a massive crossbow, nearly long as a spear, its limbs as large as a compound bow’s. It was made of iron or some alloy akin to it and would have been heavy for even a strong man to carry.
“Here you go, boss,” the stitched servant croaked as he handed One Eye a case of crossbow bolts. One Eye loaded one. Took aim.
“Hold.” Tiloshar held out a hand and lowered the weapon in his grasp. “Do not fire it here. There is no need for such a… mess.” She turned to me. “I believe you are ready.”
“Only problem is I still have no idea where you’re sending us.”
Tiloshar gave slight nod. “Yes, of course. Grab the last of what you need and follow me.”
I quickly threw on a suit of half armor I found appealing. The pauldrons were sculpted into sharp hooks with tortured faces emblazoned along their black curves. The greaves were spiked along the shins and the couter on my fully armored arm was sculpted in the form of a raven’s wing. One Eye took a silent liking to a pair of dirks with blades slightly thicker than the common type. He sheathed them on his lower back and I hoisted my massive ax upon my shoulder.
I looked over to One Eye, the neutral look on his face reassuring me that whatever his condition, he was not suffering. I gave him a warrior’s nod. “Just like old times.”
10
We three of us stood in the Planar Gate chamber once more, under its tall battle-scarred arches. I turned to Tiloshar, my ax’s weight now slung on my back.
“Here.” The queen of Black Tear looked down at her hands and slipped off two of her rings. “Give me your hand.”
I held out my gauntleted left hand to her and she began slipping a ring onto it.
“It will not fit, Tiloshar. My hand is far too big.”
“These are not ordinary rings, my Fenrir.”
“You speak true!” I watched as the ring expanded to just the right size to fit around my metal-encased finger.
“This first ring will allow you to stay close to One Eye. When stepping through planar gates, one can end up in many places within a realm. To keep you two from being separated, you will wear these matching rings.” She slipped a duplicate of the ring onto One Eye’s finger. He stared at it as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. “This other,” Tiloshar said as she slipped off another of her rings and put it on my finger, “will allow you to speak any of the Infernal tongues. Though some creatures living in Malfeon speak Common, I would not have you relying on only them. And this last Planar Ring is the most important, it will allow you to return back to this very room. Will yourself to return anywhere within Malfeon and you will return here. However, do this only once you’ve recovered my mind gem, and only when you have time to concentrate, for it takes time to gather its energy. The Planar Ring can be used only once in several months, for it expends great power to traverse the planes.”
“Aye, and these other rings?” I looked at the near dozen rings she had on her hands.
“You cannot wear them.”
My mind turned to the thought of walking into a demon hellscape. “Would they not be of more use to us than to you here in your castle walls?”
“That is not the question. Arcane rings cannot be worn by any, and even those who can wield them cannot do so without limit. Depending on a ring’s nature and their degree of power, only certain beings can wield them. The wielder’s inner nature, the nature of their mind, their soul, their arcane power and many other things determine this—even the rings you wield now would be more powerful in the hands of a practiced magic wielder. In any case, I have already given you many arcane items, and so you have reached your limit. You cannot bond with any
more.”
I nodded. “True enough. I am no wizard.”
“Right, and besides, would you have a lady part with all her jewelry?” She flashed a fanged smile at me then turned to the gate.
“How will I know once I’ve found this woman who stole your memories?”
“She is a woman among a world of demons, she should not be hard to miss.” She reached out her hand to my forehead. “But I will give you a glimpse of the fragment of memory I have of her fleeing through the gate.”
As Tiloshar’s fingers touched me, my mind went dark. The image of a young woman, thick sandy brown locks and large brown eyes came to me. She was rather beautiful, with a long, tapering jaw, an elegant long neck that matched her limbs. She wore a white dress trimmed in gold. The gate’s magic swirled all around her in blazes of energy. Within that swirling energy I thought I saw a shadowy figure, as if gripping the brown-haired woman by the arm, perhaps a demon already waiting for her, but could not be sure—it might have been a trick of the shimmering light. The memory was only a fraction of a moment. I saw the woman be swallowed into the glowing gate in a panic, then she was gone. The entire image vanished and I was with Tiloshar again.
“I saw her. She might be dead already. It seemed there was some dark presence waiting for her.”
“What’s your meaning?”
“I cannot be sure, but it seemed there was a shadowy figure within the gate. Perhaps a demon.”
“Perhaps you are seeing things, Rothan. In any case, I doubt she would perish easily if she was able to battle me so.” She gestured toward all the chamber’s scars from the battle. “We will reach no answers by speaking—find her, my wolf. Now that you have glimpsed her yourself, you will have no doubts should you somehow come across several human women in a demon plane. Stand back.” Tiloshar walked to the gate. She held her arms out to the large metal contraption. “Are you prepared now? For once I activate the gate, nothing can undo its pull on those I command it to transport.”
“I am. Open it.”
“Good, then give me silence. I must concentrate.” Her eyes began glowing a brilliant, ominous red. Her fingers shared in that light. She spoke arcane words and I had to tense my body as a powerful gust began swirling within the large stone room. “Gate of many realms, open yourself to the realm of the red and green suns. Open yourself to the realm of the skyrocks! Open yourself to the realm of endless red mist! Open yourself to Malfeon!”
Within the center of the portal, reality itself began wrinkling. It ripped open, as if an invisible mouth tore at the very fabric of existence. Then a moment later, darkness began emerging from within the gate.
Tiloshar grimaced with exertion as swirling magical strands of every color began sizzling all throughout the room. “Take Rothan the Fenrir, take Karlstaff One Eye to this realm! I, Tiloshar, Queen of Black Tear command it!”
“Tiloshar!” I shouted as the gate’s magical winds began pulling at me. My hair and One Eye’s cloak began whipping wildly under its strain, and even the very reality of my body began rippling, as a mirage upon a hot desert. Tiloshar’s raven hair danced about her beautiful, strained features as she met my gaze. “Tiloshar, once you are yourself again, I hope you turn out to be… good.”
Her eyes went wide with surprise, and her lips parted—for a moment even this terrifying vampire queen seemed vulnerable. She seemed to gather her resolve then, and her sharp, narrow features filled with a ravishing grimness. “Whatever my true self, good, evil, or something else altogether, that is what I will be! No matter what, I will remember you did this for me. Go now, my Fenrir!”
Taking one last look at this strangely enchanting being, I let myself be pulled away by the gate’s pull. As I was swept back, so was One Eye. The gate swallowed us into its darkness. We swirled through the air, having become like paint upon water.
For a split moment I felt as if I had become a bolt of lightning. Everything was crackling energy, a roar like the sky was breaking. Then a moment later I was solid again, I was hurtling through a red sky, and there was no ground beneath me.
11
“Gaaaaah!” I screamed as I fell through an endless red sky. The wind burned my face as I plummeted through mists and vapors, through red clouds and pale grey ones. Next to me, One Eye fell as well. He made no noise, but his face was frozen in shock as his cloak rustled about him.
My mind clung to whatever shred of calmness I could summon. I looked all about me. There were no features to get my bearings. Then we rushed out from the clouds we had been falling through. Red sky engulfed the horizon, but now I could make out what might have been islands...but islands floating upon the sky. And far below us was a massive flock of birds. They numbered in the thousands, larger than any flock of crows or starling I had ever seen. They might as well have been locusts. These were enormous brown birds, and as we fell down toward them, I realized they were not birds at all. They were some kind of manta ray. I was amazed, but there was no time to consider it.
“One Eye, hold onto me!” We clasped arms, and for a split moment I felt how strong One Eye’s grip had become now that he was whatever manner of undead Tiloshar had turned him to.
We hurtled down toward the manta rays. Without hesitation I snapped my arm out and my chain gauntlet went hissing away from me, its chain coiling out from me at a blurring speed. This had to work. The chain hissed as it wrapped itself around the trunk-thick tail of one of the flying manta rays. The claw then imbedded itself in its thick hide.
“Gaaaauuuhhhmooooonnn!” The manta bellowed so loud it felt like the sky rippled, its cry like a mix between an elephantis and an ox.
I willed the gauntlet to retract its chain, and it yanked me down toward the manta even faster than I had been falling. “Whatever you do, don’t let go!” As I spoke the words, the momentum swung me below the huge flying creature. For a split second, I saw this flocks’ enormous shadows swimming among the red cloud canopy below us. Then the momentum went carrying us back up, looping around the creature’s giant tail, once, twice, then finally the chain shortened enough that I was left clinging to the base of its tail where it met the rest of its body. The tail was thick as a tree trunk, and merged onto the rest of its body that was a hundred times more muscled and leathery than any war elephantis. One Eye had been obedient and his hand had nearly torn into my flesh with how hard he had held to me.
“Find a way to grip onto this thing!”
One Eye didn’t hesitate—he drew out one of his dirks from his belt and dug into the manta’s hide.
“Gauuhhmooonn!” The creature let out its piercing below once more.
“Forgive us, creature!!” I yelled loudly, though with all the wind kicking around us my shout was hard to hear. I would have been more worried had the manta not been as large as the spotted whales that swam in the cold seas around Skald. They could take a harpoon a man tall and still swim off, so I imagined this manta could survive a knife. “You angered it!”
One Eye only looked at me with a blank stare. It began flying erratically, like a horse kicking. It swooped up so that for a moment my feet completely left its hide and I was only holding onto it through my chain entangled around its tail.
“Hold on, One Eye!”
The manta spun in the air. Somehow we both managed to hold on. It swooped up and down several times. We held on for dear life. With each swoop the creature seemed to calm more.
As it calmed, I got my bearings—as much as one could while flying through the red sky of some demon hellscape. The sky was like a veil which hid a great world-sized fire behind it, shining a red which seemed to swell and dim with intensity. The air was thick with brine, so that my nose nearly burned. The manta had large protruding bone-hard fins all along its back, and this with its grooved hide made it look ancient and alien. I retracted my chain gauntlet off its tail and whipped it around one of these fins that was taller than I was. “Come, One Eye, grab onto one of these!”
He drew his knife out from the creature’s back
, carefully climbed next to me, then stabbed the same knife into the spine.
“You fool!” This time, however, the creature did not scream. “It must… not feel anything on its fins. Or perhaps not as much.” The manta’s fins were ridged, a pale stone color that contrasted with the deep ochre of its hide.
I looked around me and saw that we still flew among a vast flock of these manta creatures. “I must learn to control him, or we will fly to hell knows where!” One Eye only replied with his usual stoic silence.
I uncoiled my chain and made my way up his fins, coiling my chain around each one as I went. I worked my way up to the fin that was closest to his head. This fin rose as high as my chest. My chain wrapped around it tight. I took a knee and stared down. I had to become accustomed to staring down into open sky—it made my whole body feel like it was spinning out of control. I focused on finding the creature’s eyes. I was surprised to see that it had two large eyes on the side of its head, and three smaller eyes in between those. Two of the smaller eyes were clearly fixed on me.
“Creature, forgive our… landing. And forgive my friend for the knife.” The manta gave a small half bellow. “You understand me, don’t you?” I saw the indigo ring Tiloshar had given me was glowing, and realized I was speaking an infernal tongue—”Eshera mendesmumnos kags krehgarra,” It sounded like—foreign, yet I understood myself. I could have sworn the creature understood too, as it replied once more with a muttered bellow. “You must help us. Our lives depend on it. Fly us to land. I will find some way to repay you, if I can. I swear it!”
The giant manta bellowed once more, “gaaaauummooon,” this time in contempt.
Wolf Blade: Chains of the Vampire Page 9
