About an hour before dusk, the troll jumped up and down and pointed as it ran. “Sweeeet!” said Doughboy.
The Black Keep came into view beyond a distant outcropping of stone that ran east to west. The keep looked imposing as hell in the dying sun, and I couldn’t have been more happy to see it.
When Doughboy released the troll, it dropped dead at his feet.
I’d thought we would have to put the poor bastard down, but it seemed Doughboy had pushed it too hard.
“Poor thing,” said Eva, staring at it.
“It would have eaten us if it had gotten a chance, so don’t waste your tears,” I replied.
“It’s still a living being, and it didn’t deserve to be pushed to death. Doughboy, can’t you be more humane to the monsters you possess?”
Doughboy’s big eyes moved from me to the princess and back to me again, then he burst out laughing and rolled around on the ground.
“He’s right, you’re hilarious,” I said and turned toward the keep.
It looked like a giant black needle in the lush green trees, and I wondered how big the thing really was. It dwarfed the trees around it, but I couldn’t imagine how such a structure had been created in the Badlands.
The land was easy to traverse, and luckily we didn’t run into trouble the rest of the day. We reached the keep by nightfall, and I stared up at the massive structure with awe. It was at least ten stories high, with a wide ring near the top from which men might stand lookout. The base was as wide as a city block, with ramparts circling it.
I was heartened to see other humans on the battlements, even if they were pointing arrows at me.
“We come in peace!” I said, arms up.
“Not sweeeet!” Doughboy added, throwing up his arms as well.
“Gentlemen,” said Eva with a royal air. “You may put down your weapons, for I am Princess E—"
“Jake Baker?” said a familiar voice, and a man rose behind the ramparts.
I knew him. I’d been introduced to him when I met Red and the others. What was his name again? “Perrywinkle the Steelfist,” I said affably.
“Call me Perry,” he said with a smile and gestured to someone out of sight.
The big black gates rolled open, and Eva, Doughboy and I went inside, leaving the wild world behind, if only for a time.
“What in the hell are you doing in the Badlands?” Perry asked, shaking my hand vigorously. “I figured a man who was recently knighted would be enjoying his estate.”
“I’m on a quest to find your sister, Scarlett.”
His smile faded, and he slapped my shoulder. “Come, you must be hungry, and Red will be eager to speak with you.”
Perry led us across the charcoal-colored walkway toward the main entrance. The keep was dark inside, illuminated only by low-burning torches hung every five feet or so upon the shale-colored walls of the great hall. Fires burned in each corner of the large room, and staircases wound upward to lofts that branched off to different sections of the keep. At the center of the room was a series of long tables surrounded by chairs, but currently no one was seated there. Only a few people were congregating, and they stayed by the fires.
“This place is impressive,” I said, marveling at the high ceilings and gnarly black chandeliers made of thorny iron vines.
“Thank you,” said Perry. “It was built long ago by the Order of Atraeu. Are you familiar with them?”
“No.”
“They were the first Badlands rangers, but their leader fell into darkness, and they became that which they sought to defeat. But that was many centuries ago. By the time Red arrived and began making renovations with the first members of the clan, it had become a nesting ground for goblins and orcs.”
We climbed a spiraling staircase to a loft and continued down a wide hall. Doors lined both sides, and we stopped before the largest of them, which was situated at the very end.
I heard the angry voice of Red Black, muffled but unmistakably irate, arguing with someone. The door flew open, and a man slunk out, downcast from the verbal beating.
“Suggest we abandon the keep again, and I’ll feed you to a damned dragon!” Red bellowed in the man’s wake.
“Sir, Jake Baker is here to see you,” said Perry, gesturing for us to enter.
Red turned from the window, and his deep scowl was replaced by a sly grin. “Sir Jake bloody Baker,” he said with a laugh.
“Red.” I crossed the room and shook his hand.
“And the princess too.” He , kissed her hand and glanced at her with appreciation.
Doughboy cleared his throat, and Red bent and patted him on the head.
“What brings you to Black Keep?” he asked, straightening to his full height.
“Scarlett’s disappearance,” I replied.
“I thought you were going to say that.”
Red dismissed Perry, and when the door had closed behind him, he strode to the other side of the room and poured drinks. His chamber was a mess of maps, books, and scrolls. Tall bookshelves lined one side of the semicircular chamber, and on the only straight wall hung various monster heads on ornate plaques. I recognized goblins, imps, trolls, orcs, murlocs, and others, but there were twice as many that were completely foreign to me. A fire burned low at the center of the curved wall, and above it was a large map of the Badlands. Torches and black candles burned, illuminating the dusty room in yellow light. The only window was behind a thick, wooden bar.
Red invited us over to the only table in the room, which was placed near the window and covered with books and scribbled parchment. We all took seats, even Doughboy, and Red placed four crystal glasses in front of us. He uncorked a tall bottle with his teeth and poured us all two fingers of amber liquor.
“You’ve heard rumors of the warlock Gorrcon’s return?” He tossed back his shot and poured himself another before sitting down.
“Not sweeeet,” said Doughboy in a way that reminded me of a man at a bar, drinking his problems away. He mimicked the way Red had drunk his shot, but when he swallowed, his eyes bugged out and he coughed violently.
I slapped him on the back and took his glass away before turning my attention back to Red. “We ran into Blue and Gray Black on the other side of the mountain. They told us about Gorrcon.”
“And how did you know about Scarlett’s disappearance?”
“Doughboy told us,” said Eva, and she explained how the three of us had set out in search of Scarlett.
“And you intend to find her and kill Gorrcon?” he said with a laugh.
“If need be, yeah.” I sipped my drink, which tasted a lot like spiced rum. “That’s why we’re here. I figured you were preparing a massive offensive. Gorrcon has other clan members, correct?”
“At least twenty-five of us have gone missing in the past month, including Scarlett.” He wasn’t full of bluster and cocky assuredness like he had been, and it was unsettling. This dude had defeated Gorrcon once, but now he looked defeated.
“And you think Gorrcon is singling out Clan Black members to get revenge?”
“That, and we are the mainland’s first defense.”
“Forgive my ignorance, but you killed him once before. Why can’t you do it again?”
“It took me years to gain an audience with the warlock. He surrounds himself with powerful minions, and their loyalty is absolute. I will never have a chance like that again, nor do I want it.”
“How did you kill him?” I asked.
“An enchanted blade to the throat,” he said grimly.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” said Red. “Gorrcon’s power doesn’t lie in being invincible. His power lies in his ability to manipulate the dark arts. He is a master necromancer, a soul juggler who can shift between realms with a thought. I caught him off guard.” Red shrugged. “I got lucky.”
“But he has returned,” said Eva. “How?”
“I feared he might someday. That is the nature of necromancy, is it not? Mastery
over death. I do not know what form he has taken or how powerful he is. I know this: he is amassing an army, and sooner or later they will march against the mountain pass.”
“Blue mentioned the wizard Maximarus. You think he can defeat Gorrcon?”
“He is the most powerful wizard in the human kingdoms,” said Red. “Whether he can defeat the warlock or not remains to be seen. But if anyone can, it is he.”
“And if he won’t fight?”
Red finished his drink and topped off everyone’s glasses. “Clan Black is sworn to keep the monster hordes at bay, and we will continue to do everything in our power to do so.”
“Doughboy was there when Scarlett was taken, and I had hoped to discover what I could of Scarlett’s location. Maybe you can save me some time. Do you know where Gorrcon’s lair is located?”
He nodded.
“Can you tell me where it is?”
“I can do you one better,” he said. “I can provide you with a map. But tell me, what do you hope to accomplish? Surely you do not think you can defeat him.”
“I intend to free Scarlett.” I took a long pull of rum, choking it down. “That’s why I’m here. If I manage to free the others and kill Gorrcon in the process, that’ll be a bonus.”
“It would be suicide for you to attempt to free Scarlett.”
“Then you have no intentions of freeing your children?”
Red hung his head and looked grave. “They are all as good as dead.”
“You’re just giving up?” said Eva. “Some hero you are.”
“I did my part!” he barked. “Would you have me march the entire clan to Gorrcon’s lair and see them all slaughtered?”
“But how can you abandon them?” I asked.
“Sometimes doing the right thing is unpleasant, lad.”
“I’m not giving up on Scarlett.”
“I know.” He smiled, but his eyes were sad. “A man will do anything for the woman he loves.”
Red provided us with a map of the Badlands and outlined an area far to the north, where he thought Gorrcon’s lair might be located. It was more than five hundred miles through rough terrain, but Red said he would provide us with hardy mounts that were used to it.
We stayed in the keep that night, and I lay there for hours, unable to sleep and worried about Scarlett. She had been missing more than two weeks, and my blood boiled when I thought of what they might be doing to her.
Sleep took me at some point, and I dreamed I was running through a never-ending maze of crystal.
“Jake, help me!” Scarlett called over and over. She sounded close, but every time I turned a corner, expecting to find her, she was once again out of sight.
The sky was dark and angry. When it broke with a crash of lightning, blood rained down on me, and the crystal maze became a river of crimson.
“Please don’t leave me here. He’s hurting me!”
“Scarlett!” I bellowed as I sloshed through the thick blood.
I turned a corner, and she was standing before me nude and covered in blood. She reached for me, and I fought to reach her, but I felt like I was walking through mud. The harder I tried to get to her, the thicker the rising blood became. Skeletal hands clawed at me as they broke the surface.
“Jake!” Scarlett floated away, and high above her was a cloaked figure.
The skeletons tore at me, pulling me down, but no matter how hard I fought, I continued to sink. My head went under, and all around me, the hungry dead grinned.
True to his word, Red provided us with hearty mounts that could easily traverse the harsh north. To my utter surprise and delight, they weren’t horses but Pegasi.
“Jesus, Red,” I said as I petted one of the beautiful creatures. “I didn’t even know these things were real. How did you ever catch one?”
The Pegasus snorted and shook its head.
“We did not catch these magnificent creatures. They go where they please, and sometimes it pleases them to come here and adventure with members of Clan Black. If they like you, they will carry you. If they do not like you, well, you’ll know it.”
“Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot,” I told the Pegasus and stroked its neck.
Its big eyes regarded me intelligently, and I wondered if it could read my mind.
When the princess stepped onto the courtyard, the Pegasi eagerly trotted over to meet her.
“They like her,” said Red.
“You sure you don’t want to come along?” I asked. “You know, bring the kids, all two hundred of them. March on Gorrcon’s lair, burn it to the fucking ground, and call it a day?”
He shook his head, looking at the ground and seeming to struggle with himself. “This time it’s up to someone else to save Tarth.”
“That’s kind of a cop-out, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps.” He left it at that, and I wondered what had gotten into the old guy. I wasn’t his biggest fan—the bastard had pushed me over a cliff once into a horde of goblins, just to see how good a fighter I was—but he used to have a loud personality, a spirit that burned like the sun. He was a shadow of the man he’d once been.
Maybe it was the helplessness he felt. Maybe the disappearance of so many of his clan members had him down. But one thing was certain: Red Black had lost his fight.
Thanks to Eva’s charm, the Pegasi allowed us to ride them, and soon we were flying north toward the last known lair of the warlock Gorrcon. Doughboy must have still been pooped from controlling the troll for so long, or maybe it was being turned to stone, but the little guy slept in my backpack the entire time.
Eva rode beside me on her winged mount and seemed to be meditating or praying the entire time. I supposed she had to put in some homework after using the kick-ass lightning-summoning power yet again to save my ass.
She hadn’t technically saved my life, but she had saved me from being raped by a fairy queen.
I heard Becka’s laugh when I imagined telling her that part. She would love the entire story, and she would think the part about Eva pretending to be her own handmaiden was extra juicy. Then there was the part where Eva and I had sex.
Would I even tell her about that?
She would ask me so many questions about my latest adventure that I was bound to screw up and spill the beans at some point.
Would she even care? She’d told me more than once the story would have been better if Eva and I had actually gone through with it. But that was when she thought we were just talking about a story I was working on.
My mind drifted to Scarlett, and once again I fretted over her fate. I had no real plan, aside from reaching Gorrcon’s lair. I didn’t know much about the dude, except that he was the most powerful warlock ever, and anyone in their right mind wouldn’t be flying toward him.
I realized, not for the last time, how brave Eva was. She didn’t have to sneak off with me. She could have stayed safely in her chapel tower, meditating and waiting to see what the outcome of my quest was. But she had insisted on coming along. Being able to shoot lightning out of your friggin’ fingertips will make a person cocky, but she had signed up to face off with the Tarth equivalent of Lord Voldemort, and that was saying something.
The chick had guts.
As we flew through the morning, into the afternoon, and on into night, my trepidation grew. What if Scarlett was dead? What if they were all dead? What if we’d taken too long?
When we were attacked by the demons and imps, I’d assumed that Gorrcon had sent them to take care of us before we got too far, but now I began to think they had nothing to do with each other, which wouldn’t be that weird, given the violent nature of the Badlands.
This quest was a mess. Red wasn’t even trying to get the Blacks back, and the dwarf king was a dismissive twat about the whole thing. How in the hell had this world gotten along without my help?
It seemed like the only one who gave a shit about the worst warlock of all time returning was me, and I wasn’t even from this damned planet.
&nbs
p; “Look!” Eva yelled from the other Pegasus.
I snapped to attention and peered ahead. The land below was snow white, and in this winter wonderland a single, crystalline tower rose like a prismatic beacon, set aglow by the setting sun.
“That’s it!” I hollered. “Let’s land and figure out what the hell we’re going to do!”
“What?”
I pointed to the ground, and my mount spiraled gracefully to a gentle landing in a barren field about a mile away from the tower. Even from that distance, it looked huge.
Eva landed and approached, her breath misting in the cold air.
“It’s always towers,” I noted. “Don’t bad guys like castles? What about a sweet underground lair or a floating palace made of—”
“Jake?”
“’Sup?”
“You’re rambling.”
“Sorry.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Yeah. You?”
She smiled and gazed at the tower. “Celesta will watch over me.”
“That reminds me, why isn’t she doing this? I mean, as fun as it is traveling through the monster-infested wilderness, being attacked by demons and imps, almost being raped by fairy queens, and fighting trolls, she could have wrapped this up with a wave of her hand.”
“This quest was given to you by me, not Celesta,” she reminded me.
“Right, but you’ve got her favor, right? Couldn’t you have just asked her to bring Scarlett to you?”
“You know Celesta cannot interfere with the affairs of mortals.”
I laughed. “Oh, really? What do you call turning a bunch of imps into fried chicken or demolishing a mushroom palace?”
“The imps are not mortals, and neither are the fae.”
“Nice loophole.”
“You need to focus on the task at hand.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded. “I can’t kick the feeling that something is wrong here. It feels like, hell, I don’t know… maybe I’m losing my nerve.”
She touched my shoulder, full of compassion and concern. “What is it?”
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