Venir got the feeling that even though he and Melegal had made a ruckus, it wasn’t them the underlings were looking for but some other kind of threat. With Helm throbbing on his head and a rush of hot blood flowing through his veins, he backed away from the edge, turning his gaze away. The urgings subsided somewhat. Meanwhile, Melegal lurked on the building’s edge liked a perched crow. The unflappable thief stirred at the sound of a wooden rustle below.
A woman cried out. A girl screamed. The underlings dragged both of them down the street, kicking and wailing.
Melegal said, “Slat, I think I know her. Caution, Venir. There are too many to take at once.”
Brool cocked over his shoulder, Venir launched himself at the distracted brood of evil.
CHAPTER 38
Venir’s muscle-bound frame collided with the underlings in the street with a sharp swish of fury. Brool splintered a pair of them, goring them to the bone, cutting through the marrow before the other fiends could gape. Two-handed Venir swung Brool in mighty chops, cleaving metal and unleashing gore. By the time the underlings gathered themselves, it was too late for half a dozen of them.
Venir’s hatred was just beginning. “Get the Bish out of my city!”
The underlings’ scowling faces turned angry. Their eyes sparked with a hateful fire. They attacked from all directions, chittering and swinging. Razor-sharp steel in well-trained hands licked out at Venir’s knees. The fiends jabbed and stabbed. Reckless in their fury, the simmering warriors fought like hungry tigers from the darkest jungles. Metal pierced Venir’s skin. The bottom haft of Brool cracked an underling’s skull. Using his reach, Venir jabbed the spike through an underling’s eye socket. He swept a leg with the edge of the steel, cutting it off at the knee.
“Kiss my metal, you evil brothers and sisters!”
The underlings came with weapons raised over their heads. They chopped, cut, stabbed, screamed, and spit.
Venir let them have it with blood-splattering blows. Brool collided with a sternum. The underling’s chest exploded in a rainbow of blood. Something dug into the meat of Venir’s shoulder. An underling clung to his back. He grabbed it by the black mop of hair on its head and yanked it to the ground. He stomped its throat, ducked a flash of metal, and gored the fiend. Glitch!
Helm united with his body, heightened his instincts, and anticipated the underlings’ every move. Venir remained a step ahead, attacking through their defenses and cutting them down. Slice! Chop! Stab!
***
I’ll never get used to his madness! Melegal climbed down to the street. Once his toes hit the ground, he watched the underlings circle Venir in a knot of bodies determined to do nothing but kill the man. Venir was heavily outnumbered, but the fiends were falling fast. I’ll never get used to that butcher!
He spied the woman and girl racing down the street. An underling broke from the fray, chasing after them. Melegal sped after the underling. The women vanished into an alley. So did the underling. Melegal rounded the corner seconds later, finding himself face-to-face with the underling. The green-eyed fiend had chased the two into a dead end. They huddled in the back, eyes fearful. The underling chittered, poised to strike. Its strong fingers and sharp nails that could peel flesh to the bone gripped a short sword with a nasty hook on the end.
Melegal drew his weapon and brandished it in front of the underling. The little monster, with bare arms knotted in muscle, chuckled. Melegal prepared to parry the first strike, setting his feet shoulder width apart. I feel so barbaric when I do this.
The underling rushed. Melegal shot it in the face with one set of the dart launchers.
Twing! Twing! Twing! Twing!
The underling screeched. Clawing at its face, it didn’t catch Melegal’s blade popping through its throat. It died gurgling and chittering.
Melegal wiped his blade on the underling’s back and looked up at the older woman. “We meet again, Rayal.”
“Detective Melegal! I couldn’t be more thrilled to see you.” She rushed over and kissed him full on the lips.
“Ew,” the girl said with a scowl. “Why are you kissing that old lady?”
“Shut it, Elizabeth. This man saved us.”
Fully caught up in the splendor of Rayal, Melegal lost himself in her gorgeous eyes. Rayal Kling was a raven-haired beauty with a sweet and confident demeanor that was rare among the royals. She was everything a woman should be and more.
The clatter of steel bent his ear. He peeked out of the alley. Venir stood in the slop of underlings, splattered in blood, chest heaving. His eyes were black fires that smoldered. Under his breath, Melegal said, “It’s a good thing we’re not underlings.”
“What?” Rayal said.
Melegal stepped aside. Rayal took a long look at Venir, who bellowed like a wild thing over the slaughter. Her mouth hung half-open.
Elizabeth pushed between their legs. “Whoa, he killed them all? Go get him, Rayal. He’s going to be my personal guard.”
“We need to move.” Melegal headed for Venir. The man didn’t acknowledge him. The helmet was tilted over, and Melegal swore he heard it either humming or talking to Venir. “Vee?”
Venir faced him. “More come. Many more.” A battle grin formed over the marred grizzle of his short beard. “I’m going to wash my streets with their blood tonight. Get out of here.”
“Fine, but remember the mission. Get that through that metal skull of yours.”
Shadows fell into the streets from far away—underlings and spiders. Melegal took Rayal’s hand. She took Elizabeth’s. Together, they started running, snaking through the alleys, avoiding the sounds of battle. Time and again, they almost crossed paths with squads of underlings. He pressed into the shadows cluttered with filth and garbage and locked his fingers over Elizabeth’s complaining mouth as underlings slunk into the alley. Keep moving! Keep moving! Keep moving!
The underlings hustled right by them, except for one that stopped and turned. Its ruby-red eyes glanced over top of them and froze. It chittered. The others, three in all, stopped in their tracks. The underlings pointed at Melegal, Rayal, and Elizabeth and came right at them.
Slat!
CHAPTER 39
Watching the underlings close in, Venir wrestled with Helm. The mystic contraption urged him to rush headlong into the fray. He opted for another course of action. He ran. As he led the underling flock through the streets and alleys, the angry knot of little black men gathered into a small army of dozens.
Come and get me! He led the underlings west, knowing Melegal would be heading east. The City of Bone was Venir’s home. He’d give the fiends his own version of city warfare. He climbed up a set of scaffolding and hunkered down on the planks, ready to spring. An underling on the back of a spider passed underneath him. Venir dropped a block of rock on the underling’s head. The spider scurried away like a frightened dog.
Swinging off the scaffolding, Venir picked up the underling’s corpse, and with the power of a mountain goat, he scaled two floors to the top of the building. He peered over the edge and into the streets. Underlings gathered below, chittering and searching. Venir knew the little monsters couldn’t see him until he revealed himself. Then they’d fall into a frenzy. He hefted the dead underling onto his shoulders. With a heave, he tossed the fiend like a bale of hay into the flock of underlings. The corpse collided with another underling with a heavy thud.
Gemstone eyes filled with rage looked up at him. Venir laughed. “Come and get me, fiends!”
***
Melegal summoned the power within his cap. Go away! Go away! Go away! It didn’t work. The underlings came at them with the ease of assassins. He moved out of the shadows, swords ready, facing them off. Outnumbered three to one, Melegal wasn’t fond of his chances. He could fend off one man well enough, but not three killers at once. It would only take one cut in the right place to end him once and for all. This is it. Fight or die. I can’t believe I’m thinking that.
Elizabeth let out an ear-numbi
ng screech.
A spider bigger than a man crawled down the wall right at them. With eight hungry eyes and a small mouth opening and closing, it began to spit strands of web.
The nearest underling chopped at Melegal with a wavy sword. He turned loose more darts into the underling’s neck. Twing! Twing! Twing! The underling backpedaled. The second underling struck with a crude-looking flail with spikes on the head. Melegal flattened himself on the ground. He snagged the underling’s ankle just as he cocked back the flail to deliver a finishing blow. Melegal unleashed the charge from his magic ring.
Zap!
The shocked underling twitched. Melegal struck home with a dagger aimed right in the underling’s exposed belly. As the underling fell away, the last one pounced. With hands filled with knives and the strength of a wolverine, it tore at Melegal with everything it had. Melegal fended off the deadly onslaught with hands and elbows blocking the steel that poked at his guts. He paid for it. The metal sliced through his arms. He couldn’t match the underling’s animal-like strength. The fiend clocked him in the head with the back of a knife. Bright spots formed in his eyes. His arms went numb. He lost track of them. He opened his eyes long enough to see the underling about to deliver the finishing blow.
A sword exploded through the underling’s chest. Slit!
Using the sword, a tall man lifted the underling to his feet and slung the little monster aside. The man had tangled locks of long red hair. He leaned down, extending his hand. “Well met, Melegal.”
Arms burning, Melegal managed to rise to his feet all by himself. “Nice timing, Creed.” His eyes slid over to another man, who was busy stabbing the spider to death with a pair of daggers. The insect twitched in one last spasm. Gory daggers flashed in the man’s quick hands before he stuffed them into the sheaths at his hips. Melegal nodded at the insect killer. “Corrin.”
***
Jasper almost fell over when she jumped off the stool inside the Drunken Octopus and rushed over to Melegal as he sauntered through the door. His arms were covered in blood. His white face was ashen.
“Wine. Get me some wine.”
Jasper set him down on a chair. Immediately, she ripped his sleeves off. His forearms were gashed. “What did you do, wrestle an underling?”
“No comment.”
“I need a needle and catgut,” she said.
Nikkel, Hoff, and Billip surrounded the table. All of them looked groggy.
“What happened out there?” Billip asked.
“The same thing that always happens. Underlings, underlings, underlings,” Melegal replied. “Why don’t you quit gawking and go shoot some of them?”
“No need to be so nasty. Heh-heh,” Billip said, cracking his knuckles and laughing. He looked up at the newcomers. “I see some new faces. Pretty ones at that.” He stood and took a bow in Rayal’s direction then bumped forearms with Creed and Corrin. “It’s been a while. I’m glad to see you’re vertical.”
“A delight,” Creed said. The rangy fighter stood taller than any man in the room. With fine steel crossed over his back, he had an air of command about him. He stepped aside to introduce the others. “This is Rayal and Elizabeth Kling.”
“A true pleasure,” Billip said with a broad smile.
Hoff dropped to one knee. “An honor.”
Elizabeth broke away from the group, her dark eyes locked on Octopus. She rushed right over to where the big black eight-clawed cat lay on the table. “I will have this kitty!”
“I wouldn’t try to touch him unless you want your pretty little eyes clawed out,” Melegal warned. He said quickly to Jasper, who was sewing his skin back together, “Stop shaking, I don’t want any scars.”
She chuckled. “I’ll do my best, gentle one.”
When Melegal looked up, his jaw almost hit the floor. The little brat Elizabeth cuddled the huge cat in her arms. Her smile warmed the room.
“Now I’ve seen everything,” he said to Octopus. “Traitor.”
With the graceful ease of a queen, Rayal took a seat in a chair. “I’m astonished. I can’t remember the last time I saw my little sister smile.”
“Mean cats for mean people,” Melegal said. Frowning at Jasper, he took the needle. “Dear, you hold my flesh together, and I’ll do the sewing.” She nodded. He began stitching himself up, biting the collar of his shirt as he did so. An odd silence fell over the room.
Finally, Nikkel broke the silence. “Where’s Venir?”
CHAPTER 40
Like a shadow from the bowels of Bish, Venir crept down the alley toward a pair of underlings that had their backs to him. He brought Brool down with wrathful force, splitting one underling from skull to belly. Slice! He suffocated the second underling by the neck in the crook of his mighty arm. Toes dangling in the air, it kicked until it kicked no more.
He moved on, skulking in the alleys, striking, unseen to the naked underling eye. The slop of death reeked in the alleys and streets. Venir moved like a panther, hungry for death. The mystic armament that fought to control him obeyed him instead. He embraced the full use of its power. He was a storm, a gale, an inferno, but the Darkslayer was in command. He could sense the underlings. Their oily smell. The acidic breath. Chittering carried through the streets and alleys.
There are so many. One at a time, two or three, I’ll take them all!
He slung the blood off of his axe and onto a wall. With the smell of underling gore that coated his body, he moved up to the top of the buildings. It had been hours since Melegal had departed. Since the thief had made his escape, Venir had mowed down countless underlings. It wasn’t a fight but an assassination. When the throngs pressed, he vanished again.
He made his way close enough to the western gate to watch it. On either side of the metal mouth that devoured all that entered the city were the soldiers’ outposts that guarded the castles that lined up to the right and left.
The hunger inside him began to build. Underlings by the dozens, armed to the teeth, guarded the tremendous portcullis. Venir knew the gates. Everything was just the same as he and Melegal had discussed. On either side of the gate were the cranks that unlocked and lifted the jaw. Two men manned either side and worked together to turn the great handles. He swore that it was designed for men bigger than him. Still, he was confident he could manage one handle on his own.
It will take a hundred men to get in there. Where am I going to get a hundred men?
He spied the castles’ walls and turrets. The vibrant lights that had once illuminated the life inside the buildings had dulled. Despite his difficulties with the greedy and troublesome royals, they were still men. If he stayed out of their business, they stayed out of his, most of the time.
The underlings that were catapulting royals over the walls were manning the castles. There was a time in his life he’d have applauded such a move. Not anymore. At the moment, he felt compelled to save people who didn’t want to save themselves. The royals would cut a deal with anyone, it seemed. They deserved what was coming to them, at least some did, but when the royals suffered, so did the rest of the people. Huh. Perhaps we all have it coming.
Venir spied for over an hour. He watched the stir that began at the gate. The underling sentries that patrolled the streets spoke to the gate watchers. They warned them about the slaughter Venir had unleashed on them. The whispers started, murmurings and chittering about the whistle of an axe—the sound known as last call. Venir smiled when another combination of words turned his ears: “The Darkslayer lives.”
***
The new dawn brought a heap of worry. Mood stood high on the rocks of Black Column with some of his fellow Blood Rangers and many of his black-beard commanders. Underlings crept ever so close to Black Column in the night. They outnumbered the dwarves at least three to one. He sucked on his cigar. He’d never seen so many underlings before. He’d never heard of so many gathered on the surface, either. Ever. And he’d lived a long time.
Standing beside him, Boon said, “I’ve never
seen worse.”
“It doesn’t get any worse.”
“Not that we know of.” Boon shrugged. “I’m just looking on the bright side of things. It seems like we are in a really hard spot. But the good news is that there aren’t so many in the Underland. It’s much easier to defeat an enemy you can see, and our enemy is close.”
Mood puffed smoke in Boon’s face. “We need more bodies. Why don’t you conjure some up?”
“I’m working on the giants.”
“Are you mad? Dwarves don’t fight with giants. They’ll kill us the first chance they get. And we’ll kill them.”
“It’s all of us versus the underlings now,” Boon said. “Compromises will have to be made.”
“Never.”
“I bet giants could get that gate open.”
“Hah! Those gates are made to keep the giants out.” Mood made his way down the rocks to the ground level. Inside the camp, he found Chongo being dressed in a suit of chainmail that covered the great beast back to the flank. The dog’s ears were pinned down. The huge mutt whimpered.
“I know you don’t like it, boy, but those links will keep you going. War’s coming, and you are a war dog, aren’t you?”
CHAPTER 41
Master Sinway’s face was bunched up. His iron eyes fired with an angry glow. He no longer sat in the Kling throne room in Ebenezer’s chair. Instead, he was on his feet. Several commanders of the juegen underling guard kneeled on the steps. The huge cave dogs growled with dripping saliva, sensing their master’s fury. In a seething tone, he said to his men, “How many did you say?”
“Seventy-seven, master,” the underling commander stated, his neck bent over his chest plate. “Over half a dozen sand spiders were taken down too.”
Sinway’s fingertips ignited with a brilliant copper fire. “That is not a skirmish as originally reported. That is a slaughter.” He jammed his fist into the arm of the throne, shattering the wood and rock. His hot eyes landed on Ebenezer.
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 95
