The collar on Venir’s neck was fastened to an iron ring mounted in the wall at neck height. Venir sat with his right shoulder beneath it. His strong fingers locked into the chain links that rested over his shoulder. He pulled it tight. An underling guard cast an ugly leer at his wriggling hands. Venir narrowed his eyes on it until it looked away.
I’ll kill you first.
Squaring his shoulders against the wall, he leaned forward with a gentle heave. The chain tightened in his grip. Venir had snapped thicker chains. Careful not to be noticed, he strained against the links whenever the underlings’ attention turned. Timing was everything. If Creed fell, and he was guessing the man would, he’d be next. It was clear he wasn’t going to get more than within earshot of Master Sinway unless he made it happen. He sought out the master underling.
There you are. I’m going to cradle your scrawny neck between my fingers and snap it like a twig.
Master Sinway sat forward on the edge of his seat, the sack clutched firmly in his fingers as his iron eyes settled on the action. All of the underlings were hungry for the Bloodhound’s death. Venir fought to set his concerns for the sack aside. He’d used it as a crutch for too long. It was bound to end. If he was going to finish the fight, he’d have to finish it himself.
I might die today, but I’m taking more of you fiends with me.
The crowd oohed and made delightful shrieks.
Elypsa scored a slash across Creed’s thigh. He limped. He bled. His broad shoulders sagged.
Venir shouted out, “Stop dancing and start fighting before we’re finished, Creed!”
An underling solider popped him in the head with the pommel of its sword. Blood ran into Venir’s eyes. His chest heaved. The length of chain tightened. He put his back into it as soon as the underling turned away. Fight or die!
CHAPTER 9
Ebenezer watched the fight between Creed and Elypsa with his jaws clenched. His fingers dug into his knees. Sweat ran down his temple.
What a marvelous display.
He’d tested his steel again Elypsa before. He’d almost died for it. Now he watched Creed fighting for his life against the ultra-quick swordswoman. Swords flashed like lightning. The ring of steel jostled his own lust for battle. He wanted to jump in there and attack with Creed. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill the raucous underlings.
Manamus squeezed his hand. The touch from his mother was a shock. Warmth flowed through her fingers. Her grip was strong. He gave her a quick look. Her pupils were gone, the whites of her eyes showing. Suddenly, her pupils dropped back down. She made a wry smile.
Turning his attention back to the fight, under his breath he said to her, “What is it?”
“Something. Be ready.”
Creed, a fluid and perfect fencer, started to stiffen. His steps became sluggish. His parries desperate. He hadn’t unleashed a riposte in over a dozen strokes. Elypsa was toying with him to the glee of the underlings. They shrieked for spilt blood.
Venir called out. He balled up his fist.
Do something, Creed! Do it!
***
Venir’s voice renewed the strength in Creed’s fading limbs. He batted Elypsa’s thrust aside with a snap of his wrist. Steel banged on steel. They locked up arms. Face-to-face, he leaned on her.
“Tired, Creed?”
“No.” He panted. Sweat dripped from his chin. His long, sweat-drenched locks clung to his shoulders. “You?”
“I don’t tire… ever.” She pushed away from him and cut her sword across the ground.
He rolled his neck. The collar and chain weighed on him. His lower back burned. “Take this collar off me?”
Keeping her distance, she nodded at the underling guards. One of them held a long spear on Creed while the other removed the collar and slung the chain aside.
Rubbing his neck, Creed said, “Thanks.”
“No need to thank me. It won’t make any difference. Your death will come quick. I’ll have vengeance for my brothers. Then we will kill Venir.”
Creed loosened up. The chain was gone. He felt lighter on his feet already. It was time to change tactics. He had to act quickly before he bled to death. The nasty little wounds had taken a toll. He hadn’t put a mark on her. I can’t die like this. He held the sword in a two-handed grip, one hand over the other. “Let’s try this dance again.”
“You lead,” she said.
He rushed in. He struck downward in a powerful blow. She blocked. Clang! The blow jolted her arms. She grimaced as his blade slid off. She moved away. Creed kept coming. He delivered one high-hand chop over another. He cut at her with all of his strength and speed. Wear down, woman fiend!
Elypsa parried and dodged the furious blows. There was no room for her to counter or riposte. She backpedaled.
Creed pressed forward.
Thrust! Strike! Slash! Thrust! Strike! Slash! No longer shackled, he had the freedom he needed to chase. The entire arena was his. Strike! Slash! Thrust! Thrust! Slash! Strike! Strike! He changed up his combinations. The sword in his hands took on a new life. Man and steel became one.
Elypsa’s confident expression hardened. Her lips tightened. Creed put the full weight of his arms behind his blows. He didn’t aim for her. He aimed for her sword. He wanted to knock it free of her hands. He beat it down, running his sharp blade toward her sword guard. The heavy impact showed in her face.
She skipped back and hid her sword behind her back. In anger, she said, “Are you fighting me, or my sword?”
“I’m just doing whatever it takes to kill you.” He went after her. She slipped under his attack. With a flick of her wrist, her sword cut open his exposed left forearm. The underlings let out glee-filled howls. Creed dropped the wounded hand aside. It was his left arm that he’d been fighting with from the beginning, testing her skill against his own. He was stronger with his right arm. Now he had to use it. Elypsa didn’t catch the switch. He jabbed through her guard. The tip of his sword caught her in the meat between the shoulder and chest.
Elypsa jumped back and hissed. Her chest was heaving now. Blood ran freely from her wound. “You dare defile me!”
“That’s the point, isn’t it?” He thumbed the blackish-red blood on the tip of his sword. “Pity, I was hoping that you only bled red. It seems you are only underling after all.”
“And you will be urchling food!” She attacked in a brilliant display of acrobatic chops and slices. The sword cuts whistled through the air. Creed focused on the whirling blade. He knocked one blow aside. He tried to counter, but every time he tried to uncork a lethal strike, she was out of harm’s way.
Impossible! No one moves that fast!
In the back of his head, he knew better. The armament provided power that defied reason. He quickly surmised that he was fighting against more than flesh and blood. Elypsa had magic. They fought on. His stomach turned queasy. The blood loss was taking a toll on him. If she didn’t slow down, or he didn’t speed up, he was doomed.
Elypsa attacked like a wild cat. Each strike inched between his guard. She struck his chest to the bone.
“Argh!” Creed staggered back. The painful wound took more of the fight out of him. Elypsa’s own blood oozed down her chest to the waist. At least I got a piece of the dark little cheater. “I don’t suppose you want to call it a draw,” he said, gasping.
“I won’t settle for anything less than your head on the end of my sword!”
Shrugging, he lumbered forward. “If you say so.” He slashed at her waist.
She spun into his body, away from his blade, and chopped down hard. The strike cut his right sword hand off at the wrist. Blood spurted from the wound.
Creed gaped. “Sonuvabish. I’m doomed.”
CHAPTER 10
Creed’s eyes fell on his detached sword hand. The skin was ashen. He bent over, pried his sword out of his right hand and picked it up. With his stump still bleeding, he said to Elypsa, “I can still dance.”
Every eye hung on the fencers, incl
uding Venir’s. But he was busy with something else. He pulled at the chain that collared his neck. His arms bulged. Muscles rippled. The chain groaned. Elypsa stuck Creed deep in the left shoulder. The sword fell from his fingers. The man was caked in sticky, free-flowing blood. His body swayed. He was speaking, but Venir couldn’t make out the words due to the buzz coming from the underlings. They howled for Creed’s death.
Creed sank to his knees. He lifted his chin. It was only moments before he bled out and died. Venir read the words on his lips. “Elypsa, take the sword to me. Sword master to sword master. I’ve earned it.”
She nodded.
A sharp pop of glass cracking cut into the rousing atmosphere. Heads turned up toward the ceiling. Many underlings gasped. Thirty feet high, the stained-glass dome cracked. Shadows shaped like men moved above it. Elypsa gave pause. Underlings came to their feet, chittering to one another.
Venir heaved against the chain. “Hurk!”
The glass shattered. Razor-sharp edges rained down in jagged chunks.
The chain snapped from the ring. Venir sprang into action. He grabbed the hair of his underling guards and slammed their faces together. The cartilage in their noses gave way. Teeth broke, and they sank.
Out of the corner of his eye, Venir caught Elypsa diving one way and Creed jumping another. Venir sprinted toward the stands. His eyes were locked on Sinway. No one had paid Venir any attention whatsoever. They were focused on the beasts that followed the stained-glass rain. Two bulks landed on the ground. One was a tarantula bigger than a horse. The other barked—Chongo. There were riders on the backs of each. Venir paid them no mind. He wanted Sinway. Chain in hand, he climbed into the stands. His fist broke an underling’s face. Sinway must die!
***
The startling sight of the monsters dropping through the dome sent every underling in the stands into a frenzy. Hands and fingers lit up with radiant energy. Bolts and darts of energy zinged through the air. The two-headed dog leapt into the stands. One of the beastly dog’s heads chomped down on an underling and tore the fiend apart.
Ebenezer’s sword snaked out of his scabbard. From his seat, he turned on the underlings behind him. He thrust his sword into their chests with two quick strikes.
The arena became a war room. There were men. There were shrieks. The battle was on.
“Sinway!” Manamus shouted to him. She was pointing. “This is it. Get him!”
The underling leader floated into the fray with his iron eyes burning. Lightning burst from his fingertips. Bolts of fiery energy ripped into the spider that spit webbing and chewed on an underling’s skull. A lengthy man and pale woman rode on the spider’s back. Their hairs stood on end. The woman, an intoxicating albino, turned the bolts aside with a wave of her hand.
Ebenezer surged after Master Sinway. A host of soldiers cut into his path. He split the closest underling’s head open with his broadsword. A second thrust gored another underling’s chest. The underling pack grew in number. They attacked with precision and speed. Ebenezer fought for his life, parry after riposte, metal clashing against metal. Vastly outnumbered, he’d soon be cut into ribbons.
***
“Hurry, Fogle!” Kam said. She, Nikkel, and Billip stood behind the mage.
The mage popped one portal open at the dome where Inky was pinned by webbing. Chongo darted into it. The spider, Archibald, ridden by Slim and Cass, took after the beast. It wasn’t the best plan, but it served a purpose. When the glass gave, Inky dropped to the arena floor as well. It gave Fogle another pinpoint location for the portal. Hands rotating in the air, he cast open another portal. A black doorway opened before him. On the other side chaos waged. Underling wizards fired fiery darts across the way. Underling soldiers charged with weapons.
“Let’s go find Venir!” Kam said. Flanked by Billip and Nikkel, they rushed out of the portal. Kam held the Orb of Negation outward. It sucked the mystic energy out of the room. The underlings screeched as their magic sizzled out. Chongo mauled the helpless fiends. Billip shot arrow after arrow into chests and faces. Nikkel shot through two underling warriors, charging them at point-blank range.
Underlings were falling, but there were scores of them left. The small group was outnumbered ten to one.
“Do you see Venir?” Kam kept the portal at her back and the orb up in the air as she searched the fracas.
“There!” Mikkel pointed into the stands as he reloaded his heavy crossbow.
A monstrous man plowed into the underlings. His punches were hammers. He slung the gathering fiends aside like children. He choked one by the neck with a chain. The warrior stormed toward the iron-eyed underling, Master Sinway.
Sinway’s cold stare locked on Kam. She lost her breath. The air turned cold in her lungs. He pointed his sharp-nailed finger right at her. A red missile shot out of his fingertip. It made a straight line for her heart. Inches from her chest it fizzled out.
“Blast, that was close!” she said. The Orb of Negation held off his all-powerful attack. The plan was working. She shouted after Venir. The wild warrior caught her eye. His expression turned to worry. Kam’s neck hairs prickled. A sharp pain exploded in her side. The orb slipped from her fingers. Her blood went cold. She looked at the figure beside her. Elypsa slid her sword out of Kam’s ribs and laughed.
CHAPTER 11
“Mum! Mum!” Erin cried out from the other side of the portal located in the barn. She strained to wriggle free of Jubilee’s arms.
Fogle’s heart quavered. Kam’s body slid off the underling’s sword. The life in Kam’s eyes was gone. The female underling with cotton-white hair tossed her head back and laughed. Fogle’s hand charged up with mystic light. He fired a blast of energy from his fingers. The light smacked Kam’s slayer square in the chest. The little woman flipped head over heels before smacking into the wall.
A tremor shook Fogle to the core. He turned. Master Sinway was staring right at him. The marrow in his bones heated up. His body burst out in sweat. He reached for Kam’s fallen body.
Twisting at the wrist, Master Sinway clenched a fist while saying a word of power in underling.
Fogle’s portal collapsed. He fell to his knees. “Noooooooooooooo!”
Flushed, Jubilee cradled Erin in her arms. “What just happened, Fogle?”
His fingers clawed at his head. Kam was slain right before his eyes. Right before her daughter’s eyes. The little girl’s face streamed with tears. “Mum! Mum!”
Teary eyed, Jubilee said, “You need to open the portal. Open it, Fogle. They’re trapped over there!”
Listless, Fogle patted the ground, absentmindedly searching for his spell book. He touched the tome and picked it up awkwardly. Everything that happened seemed surreal. Kam was dead. Everyone was trapped on the other side. They would die as well. In that brief interlude, he’d felt Sinway’s power. He didn’t have the strength to match it. Leafing through the pages, his fingers trembled.
Jubilee rocked Erin in her arms. “Sssh, sssh, ssssh, it will be all right, little Erin. It will be all right.”
Erin’s cries were muffled in Jubilee’s shoulder. “Mum. Mum. Mum.” She sobbed. “No, Mum.”
“Fogle, get it together,” Jubilee said. “You have to do something. Do something now.”
His mind was a cloud. He studied the pages, but he couldn’t read anything. Kam was cut down in cold blood. Just like that, she was gone. Guilt overwhelmed him. Tears filled his eyes.
Jubilee walked over to him on her knees and slapped him hard in the face. “Now is not the time for crying! More will die if you don’t open a portal over there! If you care about Kam, avenge her!”
He nodded. “Yes, you are right.” He sniffed. Trying to straighten himself, he focused on the pages in the book. He didn’t need them. He just needed to connect with Inky. With an aching heart, he fumbled with the words needed to open another portal. The syllables didn’t come easy. A portal door started to open. It fizzled away. “I can’t,” he moaned.
Hol
ding Erin tight, Jubilee stood and kicked him in the shin. “You have to do it, or all of them will die!”
***
With half a dozen wounds, Ebenezer thrust through an underling’s guard. The broad sword pierced its throat. Glitch! It gurgled blood. Ebenezer held his wounded side. He parried a flurry of swords strokes, lost his footing on the bleachers, and went down.
The underlings pounced. Their steely swords were moments from pinning him to the seat. The fiends stopped midflight. In the wink of an eye, they were flung over the wall into the arena by an unseen force.
“Ebenezer, come to your mother!” Manamus had a handful of underlings strung up by golden mystic cords. She waved him up to her with the other hand.
He bounded up the steps, fighting off more underling aggressors. He slashed an underling’s leg off at the knee. “What is your plan?”
Her eyes slid toward Master Sinway, who was fighting alongside Kuurn. The pair assaulted the dog and spider with a barrage of mystic artillery. “We have one shot at him. We can take it or we can go,” Manamus said. “But we’ll have no home left after today.”
Ebenezer blocked an underling’s sword strike. Bang! He stabbed it in the neck. Wrenching his sword free, he said, “I was born here, I’ll die here.”
With a flicker in her stone-cold eyes, Manamus said, “Then what are you waiting for, child? This is our castle. Take it to them!”
Ebenezer waded into the frock of underlings, unleashing deadly thrusts and key strokes. Beside him, Manamus flicked her wrists in scooping motions. Underlings flipped high in the air and across the arena. An underling blindsided Ebenezer, swinging at his head. An arrow zipped right past his eyes and into the underling’s throat. He gave a nod to the archer firing arrows, one after the other into the crowd.
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 112
