The blasted fiends are everywhere!
The pit of despair in his stomach grew. At the same time, his anger toward Altan Rey surged. The mage had betrayed them. The traitor had stolen something very special, and he was going to get away with it. He wondered if the mage knew of the cap’s power, or the ring for that matter. Mages had a knack for such things, but how would the mage know?
Melegal was marched out of the alley that he’d originally dashed into. Back in the streets, the prison wagon he’d escaped was being led across the street toward the gallows. Sanny screamed through the bars at him. Practically squealing, she said, “Gloomy, why did you leave me? I don’t want to die alone. Die with me!”
If she wanted to die so badly, I should have killed her myself. I am such a fool!
The underlings hurried Melegal across the wide-open Royal Roadway with nothing but underlings, and a few city watchmen who assisted, among the gathering crowds. The underlings lined him up with the others being herded out of the prison wagon. Men and women wailed. They dropped on their knees, threw their arms around the underlings, and pleaded.
Sanny squeezed through the flock and wrapped her arms around him. “We shall die and be together forever, Gruesome.”
“I can’t imagine anything worse than that.”
“Me either.”
The underlings drove them up the steps to the top level of the gallows. One by one, nooses were slung over their necks. Melegal eyed the trap floor that groaned under his feet. It creaked as if it was about to give any second. He searched for familiar faces or some ally in the crowd. There was nothing but a flock of evil howling for spilt blood. For the first time in his life, Melegal the Rat didn’t see a way out. Bish!
CHAPTER 22
Creed had rolled Corrin’s body back into the blood-soaked carpet. His hands were stained in blood. Flies gathered over the corpse, and it began to stink. With his head down, Creed said, “He was an unlikely friend. He stuck by my side for no reason that I could see other than helping me fight underlings.”
“Losing any man that kills those black bastards is a loss for us all.” Venir fanned a fly out of his face. “Just take more of the black hearts down when you get a chance to avenge him.”
“Is that what drives you, Venir? Vengeance?”
“I enjoy killing the bastards.” He smashed a fly between his hands with a clap. “Perhaps I could call it vengeance, but deep in my bowels, I know that it’s survival. It’s them or us, always.”
“That fight will never end,” Creed said with his head still down.
“It will if I kill them all.”
“Don’t you mean if we kill them all?”
“I’ll take all of the help I can get.”
“You talk like a one-man army.”
“I’ve been at this a very long time. Most of what I’ve done, I’ve done alone.”
Creed lifted his head. “How many underlings have you killed?”
“Thousands.”
“Single-handedly?”
“Most of them. They really pile up when you chop down two at a time.”
Creed shook his head. “I can’t imagine myself killing that much of anything. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t wield the armament.”
“Sometimes, the armament wields you.”
“Yes, I think that was my problem.” Creed’s eyes fell on the bloody rug. “I don’t suppose he’ll get a proper burial.”
The main door to the dungeon opened with a skreel. Venir could hear cell doors being opened and prisoners being led out. After several minutes, he got the feeling they were all alone as the main door was closed. Altan Rey appeared in front of their cell. “We are alone. It’s time to speak.”
Creed jumped to his feet. The chains snapped taut. His sinewy arms bulged. Spitting out of his mouth, he said, “You killed my friend!”
“No,” Altan Rey said, “You killed him. Both of you. His blood is on your hands. You were told not to kill the underlings, yet you did. It was an exhibition, and even the underlings have honor. They took retribution out on your friend.”
“You could have stopped it!” Creed yelled.
“And draw suspicion? That would be mad! Be glad that the both of you still live after your clever tricks. That was foolish.” Altan Rey’s yellow eyes flashed. “You almost ruined everything! Do as I say!”
Brows knitted together, Venir came to his feet. “Why would we do that? You poisoned us, and Melegal is gone! Where is he?”
“I had to sell the capture, Venir!” Altan looked toward the main entrance and lowered his voice. “I have to be able to sell the underlings on this. Do you think it is easy for me to pull off this disguise of Kazzar? The underlings are not fools.” He wiped a fly from his chin. “As for Melegal, he was not meant for fighting in the pits. It was certain death for him. He’s imprisoned elsewhere.”
“That wasn’t the agreement,” Venir said.
“No, but there wouldn’t be any other explanation to my superiors for it. Melegal is an apt fellow. I’m confident he’ll slip out of his shackles given the opportunity.”
Glowering at Altan Rey, Creed said, “For all we know, he’s dead, Venir.”
“I don’t suppose there is any way for us to know one way or the other, is there, wizard?” Venir said.
“I’m moving forward with the original plan at hand.” Altan glanced at the rug. “Certainly you knew there would be casualties. Be glad you are not among them.”
With a growl, Venir said, “Where is my gear, Altan?”
“It is in my possession. Is there anything in particular that I should know about it?”
“Not letting it out of your sight would be one thing.”
“It’s secured. Listen to me now. Despite your ill-advised actions, I have good news. Your formidable actions impressed the underlings. You are being taken to Castle Kling. Now, play along, and keep your mouths closed. We will only get one more shot at this.” Altan gave them a quick bow and departed.
“I don’t know if this situation is getting better or worse,” Creed said.
“Worse,” Venir said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Altan had Melegal’s ring on.”
CHAPTER 23
Georgio lifted his busted face off the soft ground. Blood dripped from his nose. His jaw hung and his breathing rattled. With burning pins shooting through his limbs, he managed to climb to his feet. Across the way, Barton was on all fours with his behind pointed toward Georgio. Lefty was crying out his name.
“Coming,” Georgio said, but it came out as garble. He held his sagging jaw with one hand. He couldn’t see out of one eye either. He ran his meaty fingers through his locks. They were sticky with warm blood. “Feels like I have a dent in it.” He spied his sword lying on the ground. Stumbling over, he picked it up. The grove started to spin. The ground beneath him wobbled. He fell down.
“Get out of there, little squirrel!” Barton yelled. “You trickster. I will eat you for it. Come out!”
Georgio took long, deep breaths. Gathering himself, he set off toward the backside of the giant. On unsteady feet, he ambled over close enough to swing. The giant’s toes were deep in the soft earth. Barton’s Achilles tendon was exposed. Georgio hacked right into it.
Barton lurched up. “Aaaaargh!” He jumped up and fell back on the ground. Leaning against the boulders, he held his ankle. “I can’t walk! I can’t walk! What did you do to me?”
“I tried to cut your foot off!” Georgio said, but it didn’t come out right. His jaw ached.
“What?”
Georgio moved toward Barton and cocked his sword back.
The giant cringed. “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! Please, that hurts!”
Lefty crept out of the hole. He got big eyed when he saw Georgio. “You look like you should be dead.”
Slurring, Georgio said, “I feel like I should be dead.” He swayed. He puked.
Barton’s fingers loosened from his bleeding ankle. From his
seat, he inched toward Georgio.
Georgio drew the sword back. “Get back, giant. I’ll cut your toe off and more of the rest of you. This sword can cut through anything, as you can see.”
Barton sank back. “No, no hurt Barton with that sharp toy.”
Lefty hopped over to Georgio. “I’m glad you aren’t dead. It looked like you were finished. I hope your face straightens up. Before was bad enough, but this time it’s hideous.”
“You make is sound like my gray matter is spilling out.”
“It looks like some of it is. Maybe you should sit down.”
“Take this.” Georgio handed Lefty the sword and sat down where he stood in the bed of flowers.
Lefty, holding the sword two-handed, faced the giant. “Barton, we’ve bested you twice, and now you need to honor your word, or we’ll cut you to pieces. You’ve underestimated us. We aren’t little scraps to feed you. We are formidable.”
Fixing his heavy gaze on Lefty, Barton said, “You don’t sound formidable.”
Lefty stuck the sword in the ground and drew his dagger. The blue blade shone brightly. “See this, Barton? One poke and your skin shall shrivel from your sinew!”
Barton cringed. “No poke! No poke!”
“You will honor your word and take us back to Bish, then, right?”
Barton stuck his bottom lip out and turned his head.
“Barton?”
“Barton can’t walk.”
“You can walk. You’ll just walk with a limp.” Lefty got closer. “What’s it going to be, Barton?”
“I take you out. I was just playing with little people. Just jesting. Barton was going to take you out all the time. I didn’t hurt anybody.”
“You tried to kill both of us.”
“Barton gets excited and carried away. It happens.”
Holding his face, Georgio said, “I bet he’s killed plenty of his toys.”
“Are you ready to journey?” Lefty said to Georgio.
“I suppose.”
Lefty climbed up Barton’s chest and sat on the giant’s shoulder. He held the dagger in Barton’s eye. “Don’t try to trick us, Barton. Got it?”
Barton nodded. Grumbling, he stood up. “You are mean little people.”
CHAPTER 24
Brak’s fingers snaked around the rope corded about his neck. He yanked it out of the underling’s hands. He hooked his finger between his neck and the rope and yanked it off. With underlings latched onto his great limbs, he sucked in a mouthful of air and let out a roar. “Get your arses off me!”
An underling stabbed him in the back of the thigh.
Spine Breaker came down on the fiend’s skull. Crack! The underling’s neck sank into its shoulder. Its red eyes and tongue hung out as it rolled off the ledge.
Brak sank his fingers into an underling’s neck that was pinned to his leg and slung the fiend over the ledge. Its body dashed against the rocks. Bleeding all over, Brak beat the underlings down with his cudgel one by one. Spines snapped. Jaws crushed. He hoisted an underling high over his towering frame and flung it headlong into a spider climbing the rocks.
The underlings surged up the jagged landscape. Spiders raced along with them. Chongo attacked every fiend that crested the rim. His massive, blood-soaked jaws clamped down on two underlings’ heads. He bit them off and swallowed them down.
“Feast, Chongo! Feast!” Brak stepped on an underling’s hand that was trying to swing up over the ledge. The fiend chittered at him. “Smile!” Brak busted the underling square in the face. The underling slid down the rocky slope. Brak beat the underlings down as fast as they could come. The cudgel’s heft became weighty, his swings a little slower than the last as the battle on the ledge raged on.
Fifty feet below, the dwarves fought with uncompromising durability. They’d walled off the channel, and their vigor battled the underlings back. The black bodies piled up at their feet. The dwarves stomped the fiends. The underlings climbed over their dead, fighting the skill, gnashing teeth, and fury.
A squad of dwarves armed with crossbows joined Brak and Chongo on the ledge. Their deadly volley sent underlings and spiders to the grave. The underlings advancing up the rocks broke away. Spiders and all, they scurried toward the next pinnacle and vanished in the ledges.
Brak mopped the bloody sweat from his brow. It hurt to breathe. Parts of his piecemeal armor hung from their leather straps. “That was nasty.” A stiff breeze whistled through the rocks, making a low, shrill howl. Loud clamors and curses joined in the spooky harmony. He slung the gore from the cudgel and climbed back onto Chongo. He wrapped his wrist up in the reins. “Hunt, Chongo, hunt.”
***
Cass sat on her knees alongside the cot where Nikkel lay still as she massaged his arm. The whites of his eyes were showing. His eyelashes fluttered. She said to Kam, the only other person in the room, “He’s a strong young man. Bish should be kissing him, but he lives. You have very headstrong friends, Kam. They don’t die when they are supposed to.”
Kam placed a wet towel on Nikkel’s forehead. “I like them stubborn, I guess.”
“These men are bullheaded. All they do is fight. The world would be better off without them.”
“You seem as fond of them as any. I think you would be at a loss if they were gone.”
“I don’t need anyone, just my forests and streams. The animals keep me company. And they don’t betray me either.”
“Yet here you are, caring for this man,” Kam said.
“This one hasn’t betrayed me, yet.”
“Who do you think betrayed you? Fogle?”
Cass’s alluring features darkened. “I see how moon-eyed he becomes over you. He slavers like a hound in heat.” Her eyes grazed over Kam’s chest. “He would die for your nectar.”
Blushing, Kam pinched the collar of her robe. “Easy, Cass. I’m spoken for. And I don’t have any intentions with Fogle. He’s my friend. We’ve been through a lot together. I suppose that makes us close. He’s more of a brother than anything else.”
“You would not have him then?”
“No.”
“What if that blossom of brawn dies? Who will you copulate with then?”
“I… I don’t think about that. Especially now when we are surrounded by underlings.” Kam stroked Nikkel’s cheek. “He is a sweet one.”
“If he lives, he’ll break a hundred hearts, like the others,” Cass said. She checked Nikkel’s bandages. Fresh blood had seeped through the cloth bandages. Nikkel coughed. Bloody spittle and saliva dripped down his chin. She gently placed her hands on his chest. Eyeing Kam, she said, “Hold down his shoulders.”
Kam complied.
A warm glow radiated from Cass’s hands. Her eyes became soft fires. She spoke in a gentle voice with quick words. The sound of flesh, cartilage, and bone mending came from Nikkel’s body. He lurched. His back arched.
Kam shoved him down. Nikkel spasmed, gasped, and sighed. He lay like the dead in the cot, but his body was warm. His ashen complexion slowly turned back to sun brown, and his labored breathing eased. “You healed him, Cass. Well done.”
Cass’s fingers dusted over Kam’s arm. Kam tensed. Her body shivered, and she panted. The druid’s touch was vibrant, alive and intoxicating. “That felt good.”
“I know it did.”
Billip entered through the tent flap with his arm in a sling. Fogle was with him. “How’s he doing?”
“Shouldn’t the two of you be fighting for our safety?” Cass said.
“This isn’t a social visit. Mood wants us to evacuate, assuming we have the ability to do so,” Billip said.
Kam rose. “The Columns are lost? So soon?”
“The battle will be long and fierce, he says,” Billip shrugged. “But the conclusion seems inevitable. He wants us to go after Venir. Help me.”
“Are you fine with that?” Kam said. “You’ll run.”
“You, Erin, Cass, and Jubilee are the main concern. He wants you safe.”
> “There is nowhere else to go. We will stay.”
With his spellbook cradled in his arms and the metallic-looking ebony hawk on his shoulder, Fogle said, “I can get us into Bone.”
“We have no allies in Bone. I’ll stay with the dwarves,” Kam said.
“We’ll find our allies. I have my ebony hawk, Inky. He shall lead us to them,” Fogle said. “This is Mood’s wish, not ours. I’m not going to dispute his reasons. We don’t have to go into the city, for certain, but he wants us to take rations and get out of the Black Columns.”
Kam moved to the other side of the tent and picked up Erin, who was nestled in the blanks. The toddler cooed.
Cass absentmindedly twirled her hair. “I’m not going anywhere with you, Fogle, and I’m certainly not going in that wretched city.”
“I can’t shower you with affection if you don’t come,” Fogle said.
Cass blanched and gave him a look. “Now I’m curious. I’ll go then. But not for you, for them. I like them.”
“We aren’t going anywhere without Brak and Jubilee,” Kam said.
Billip started out of the tent. “I’ll fetch them.”
CHAPTER 25
The underling solider snugged up the noose around Melegal’s neck. He gagged. The coarse fibers in the rope bit into his skin. There were three prisoners to his left and three to the right. On the end to the left of him stood the underling executioner, staring at the group with ruby-red eyes. He wore a black vest of chain mail, revealing bare arms that bulged more than a typical underling’s.
I suppose underlings have their louts too.
Hundreds of underlings gathered on the Royal Roadway. They drank, caroused, and sniggered. Even though the fiends didn’t crack a smile, it was clear they were in a festive mood. Wooden tankards and clay goblets filled to the rim with booze clanked together.
Not even one last drink before I die. Pity me.
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 103
