The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces

by Craig Halloran

  From the rooftop, Frigdah called down to Venir, “Keep going!”

  At the far end, a crowd of men had gathered. They carried crude knives, clubs, and hatchets. Chongo lunged forward. At full speed, the dog jumped over the heads of the men. Venir turned back. His heart swelled with pride. The citizens of Bone came to life. Hundreds of men spilled into the alley. Hundreds more lined the rooftops. They pelted the underlings with rocks, bricks, and anything that could crack bone.

  Venir thought he’d never see the day when the rotten citizens of Bone, known for little more than rollicking debauchery and self-indulgence, would fight together in a unified purpose. It was a beautiful thing. It took all he had not to join that battle with them. He found Sis and Frigdah on the roof and gave a nod. “Yah, Chongo! Yah!”

  Faster than a horse, they headed to the western gate. The citizens pulled riders out of their saddles. They climbed the walls onto the ramparts and took after the underlings. Venir made a beeline for the crossbowman on horseback shooting at Melegal. Brool whistled. Slice! He took the man’s head off.

  Melegal lay against the iron gate, holding his bleeding neck. He was more peaked than normal. “I can’t believe I got hit.”

  Venir jumped off Chongo. “You should be more careful. If you aren’t going to die, get that last peg out. Brak! Get over here!”

  Brak emerged from the slaughter. The white on his cudgel was gone. It was covered in blood down to his knuckles. “Yes?”

  Venir pointed at the pulley system to the gate. It was made from heavy chains. On each side was a huge wooden wheel with arms made for men to push and lift the gate. The arms were busted off. “Bone! Grab those links and start pulling.”

  “You won’t be able to lift that,” Melegal said.

  “We’ll see. Knock the peg out, bleeder. Brak! Get after it!” Venir set his axe and shield aside. He grabbed the links of metal, and pulled. The gate held fast. “Melegal, get that peg out!”

  The thief hammered away at the peg. “It won’t budge.”

  Brak sauntered over. Taking the hammer from Melegal, he swung it into the peg. The peg shot out like a cork from champagne. He handed the hammer to Melegal. “There you go, little man.”

  “Together, Brak!” Venir said. “Hand over hand, one link at a time. Heave!”

  “Ho!” Brak fired back. The gate groaned. The metal teeth rose out of the ground.

  The hardening muscles in the men’s arms bulged. The gate climbed higher. The seven-footer pulled down the chains like he was raising a flag.

  “Slat,” Venir thought, admiring his son. “He’s stronger than me.”

  The gate hit the top. Melegal locked the mechanism that held the gate up. “One more to go.” People pounded at the door on the other side. “This one is solid. It will be heavier to heave for you mortal men. We’ll need horses.”

  “I bet I can lift it,” Brak said. Unlike the iron gate, there was a handhold at the bottom. The pegs that held it fast were on the side. Melegal knocked the smaller pegs out. Brak put his back into it. Veins popped out on his forearms and temples. He growled. The steel gate inched upward.

  Venir joined his son. Together, they lifted tons of steel as high as their ankles. “Bone, my back is breaking!” The gate inched downward.

  A dwarf with more black beard than face squeezed through the gap. He strutted over to an alcove hidden under the archways. The was a loud clank. Gears turned, and the steel gate glided upward.

  Brak flung his arms up along with it. “I told you I could do it!”

  “I’ll be,” Melegal said as he looked up at the huge metal cylinders hanging from chains. “It’s a weight and pulley system. Gah!”

  By the hundreds, the shield-bearing dwarves streamed into the City of Bone. Like worker ants with steel armor, they took to the ramparts and secured the walls. Hours of fighting went on, inside and outside of the city. The gates were lowered again. The western quadrant of Bone was secured by dwarves and men. The citizens that didn’t make it back inside were slaughtered.

  Near the gate, after the fighting settled and the underlings slunk back into the castles, Venir sought out Mood. “Welcome to Bone.”

  Mood lit a cigar. “It smells as bad as it ever did.”

  “It wasn’t as bad until your arrival.”

  “Ho-ho! I suppose not.” Mood reached over and petted Chongo’s snout. “You bailed the dwarves out of one big hole. We’ll always be grateful. But the fight is far from over.”

  “I know.” Venir unbuckled his chin strap. He sensed something. He felt eyes on him coming from the towers of Castle Kling. “If anything, the war for Bone has just begun.”

  EPILOGUE

  Inside the highest tower of Castle Kling, Master Sinway watched dwarves and men working together. Elypsa shook her head, her lavender eyes aflame. “The tide has turned. I don’t like it. I just don’t understand how this can be.”

  “You are young.” Master Sinway’s clasped hands clenched. He was still wrestling with how the Darkslayer slipped through his fingers. The man should be dead, but the armament kept him alive. It defied probability. “Stay close and you will learn.”

  “Such learning is painful. Our people have suffered great losses, all on account of one man. He wields that armament. I don’t understand it, but even you could not stop him.”

  Sinway turned his gaze on her. “I don’t take your meaning, Elypsa. What are you suggesting?”

  She stood her ground. “In the arena, you should have fought, but you fled.”

  Sinway took her white hair with a firm grip. “Do you question my wisdom?”

  “No, Master Sinway.” Sweat beaded her forehead. “Forgive my lack of faith.”

  “I don’t forgive. I don’t forget. But I will let you learn, Elypsa.” He released her. Turning back to the window, he said, “Let them think they are winning. Don’t you probe your opponents for a weakness when you fence with them?”

  Thumbing away the tear running down her cheek, she nodded.

  “And then what do you do?”

  “I deliver the lethal blow when they least expect it.”

  “Yes, it will be like that, but one thousandfold.”

  BOOK 10: THE BATTLE FOR BONE

  CHAPTER 1

  In the barren stretch of the outlands, Georgio brushed his curly, sweat-drenched locks out of his eyes. With Lefty Lightfoot standing beside him, the pair, man and halfling, made an insignificant shield in front of the young giant, Barton. The striders, dozens, had encircled them all. Spears ready, the bug-faced mantis-like men advanced. Clutching his sword, Georgio said, “What are you doing, Kocus? Just leave us and the giant be, and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Hauk! Hauk! Hauk! Kill the giant!” the leader of the striders, Kocus, hollered out. “Step aside, human.” The four-armed strider, with extra-long legs, cocked back two spears at the same time and launched them at Barton. The spears sailed true, imbedding themselves deep in the meat of the giant’s forearms, which shielded his face.

  The towering Barton, standing over ten feet in height, let out a howl of rage. His burned face and drooping eye, wounds suffered long ago, lit up from an inner fire. “Stop attacking me!”

  Georgio swatted a strider’s spear aside. “Stay back!”

  “Step aside, human.” Kocus’s bug eyes narrowed on Georgio as he made clicking sounds with his mouth. “Or you will die in one hundred pieces. So will the halfling.”

  “I don’t owe that giant anything,” Lefty said to Georgio. “I’d rather live for me than die for him.” He looked over his shoulder at Barton. “No offense, but you did try to kill us once.”

  Barton plucked spears from his arms and flung them away. He stomped at the advancing striders. The striders backed off, only to come back at him again.

  “Georgio, we need to step aside,” Lefty pleaded. “I’m not like you. I can die from this.”

  “I know, but it’s not right. Something is not right.”

  “I don’t want to wait to find out.
Just get out of the way.”

  “I can’t. I don’t know why, but I can’t.” Georgio slowly shook his chin. He knew Lefty was right. They didn’t owe the giant anything, but Barton, though big, had the mind of a child. It seemed cruel to let him be butchered to death. “Forgive me, Lefty, but I’m making my stand.”

  Lefty’s face paled. “You are choosing this giant over me?”

  “You can surrender. I won’t hold it against you.”

  The halfling’s shoulders sagged. He sighed. Remaining at Georgio’s side, he withdrew his dagger. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Fight or die.”

  Georgio grinned. “Fight or die.”

  A shadow moved over them like a great cloud in the sky. A foreign sound followed.

  WUMP! WUMP! WUMP!

  Heads, man, strider, and giant, tilted toward the sky. A great black blot three times the size of Barton dropped down from the skyline. The striders scurried backward with their jaws clicking. In a panic, they ran to their camp.

  “NO!” Barton yelled. “NO! NO! NO!”

  A black-scaled dragon with a broad belly fastened its talons into the meat of Barton’s shoulders. With its long, powerful wings pounding the air, the dragon lifted Barton into the sky.

  WUMP! WUMP! WUMP!

  Barton kicked his legs and screamed, “Put me down, Blackie! Put me down! I hate you, Blackie! You stink, lizard! You stink!”

  Unfettered, the dragon sailed toward the suns, higher into the clouds, turning from monster to little more than a bird in moments. Then, the dragon and giant were gone.

  “Whoa,” Georgio said, searching the sky. “Did you see that?”

  “Of course, I did. I’m not blind,” Lefty said. “I think that was a dragon. Now that’s worth writing about. Do you think it will come back for us?”

  “It will be back,” a man with a rich voice said.

  Georgio’s and Lefty’s heads snapped around. An old man in blue robes with a white moustache and shaved head stood with his hands on his hips.

  “Boon!” Georgio said with elation.

  The man’s eyes grew. “Georgio? Lefty? Call me an underling, but I never imagined I’d see the two of you again. I must admit, I’m perplexed. Yet, delighted as well. I hardly recognize either one of you. You look… horrible.”

  Lefty threw his arms around the man’s legs. “I never thought I’d ever see anyone else I knew ever again! Aside from Georgio, that is.”

  “Oh ho, boy, this world is full of surprises. They just aren’t usually pleasant ones, especially in this world filled with doom and gloom.” Boon peered off after the dragon. His nose twitched. He peeled Lefty from his legs. “Let’s walk. I’m not sure that Blackie will be back, but he sure scared the slat out of those striders. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that tribe. They are very superstitious people.”

  “Tarcot wasn’t,” Georgio said as he sheathed his sword.

  “No, but he was from a tribe of a more-elevated position. Let’s go, before they become brave again.” Boon ambled away from the strider camp. “How on Bish did you wind up here? Blackie led me here. I wasn’t certain why, but now I know. He’s Barton’s fetcher. Yet now, we’re leagues from the action.”

  “What action?” Georgio hustled up to Boon. “It’s Venir, isn’t it?”

  “It’s always Venir these days, it seems. But yes, we are going to the City of Bone.”

  “Bone?” Georgio’s haggard face brightened. “He’s in Bone?”

  “Yes, the underlings have taken over the entire city.”

  “What?” Georgio laughed. “No teasing, Boon. Really, is he in Bone or not?”

  Boon stopped in his tracks. “If there is one thing I don’t jest about, it’s underlings. Their poison has seeped into the very pores of that foul city, just like the City of Three. You remember that, don’t you?”

  Georgio nodded.

  Lefty then asked, “But Venir’s alive?”

  Georgio nudged him. “Of course, he is… isn’t he?”

  Boon shrugged. “We won’t know for certain until we get there.”

  CHAPTER 2

  It was the first time in centuries that a host of dwarves had set foot inside the City of Bone. Now, the short stocky men went to work. Thousands of dwarves, accompanied by hundreds of willing royal soldiers, pushed the underling menace out of the streets, under the ground, or into the castles. But for the first time in months, one quadrant along the western wall was secured.

  Venir stood on the top wall with his helmet tucked under his arm. The outland wind beat against his face. Standing above the West Gate, he looked downward. Tens of thousands of underlings waited outside the city’s wall. They’d killed everything that wasn’t an underling. The pyres of bodies were stacked higher than ever. The stench of death was heavy.

  “They aren’t attacking. We can breathe for the moment,” Mood said from where he stood with some dwarven soldiers stationed a few yards away. The grizzled, dwarven blood ranger puffed on his cigar. “We will wait and see what their game is.” He blew a ring of smoke and pointed with his thick fingers. “We make better use of the royals’ equipment than they did. Huh, we built most of it for them, way back when.”

  Venir spied the dwarves on the ramparts. The manned ballista and catapults lined up along the walls. The dwarves had even overtaken four castles, two to each side of the West Gate, and were stationed with long-range weaponry in the spires. “Your kin made quick work of those fiends in the castles. I’m not sure how grateful the royals will be though. After all, they are the fools that let them in. What kind of man trusts an underling?”

  “Men are easily seduced by darker offerings. It’s been that way so long as I can remember.” Mood laid his hand on Venir’s shoulders. “Men like you, and some of your friends, are a rare thing. You may be fool enough to fight for what is right, but plenty of others won’t. It’s your nature.”

  “Perhaps I should have been a dwarf.”

  “No, you’re too ugly to be a dwarf. An orc, maybe.”

  Venir huffed a slight laugh. Mood was the closest thing to a father that he had left. When he lost his family to the underlings as a boy, it was Mood who raised him. Mood taught Venir how to hunt underlings and kill them. “I never thought I’d see the day when an orc would be a welcome face.”

  “Aye. Do you want a puff?”

  “No. I could use some ale, though. I feel like I haven’t drunk a drop in a week.” He scoured the underling ranks. The gray-skinned fiends positioned themselves just outside of the ballista’s range. Many were bare-chested. Those were the badoon. But, most of the others wore black leather armor. Between the underlings and the wall stood a field of dead. Turkey vultures and the like circled above in the hundreds. Many of the birds were on the ground eating the carrion. Two hosts of the underlings broke off from the army. They marched in the opposite direction of one another, circling the rest of the city. “They are going to box us in.”

  “That’s what I would do. There are three other gates to this city that the underlings control. They’ll just let their foul brethren in and try to force us out again.” Mood sucked in a lungful of cigar smoke. “That’s what I would do.”

  “Yes, that was what I was thinking.” Venir traced the eyelets of his helmet with his blood-stained fingers. “When I have the helmet on, it feels like what we see is all of them. Is that possible?”

  “Certainly. Look around. This is every dwarven fighter I have left. Only the women man Dwarven Hole now. That’s never happened before, in my time. We came to fight this fight. We just have to find a way to finish it.”

  “I’ve been in plenty of fights, but not many wars. Do you have any ideas?”

  “If we’re going to win, we’ll need the royals. It’s the only way, but I warn you, they are tainted.”

  “I never met a royal that wasn’t, in one way or another, but this is man against underling. They’ll have to see the light.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Venir looked down
the inside of the wall. Billip and Nikkel were bundling up arrows and bolts with cords of leather. They turned them over to dwarves that hustled away with them. Venir called down, “Billip, find me Ebenezer.”

  “Right away. I’ll send him up.”

  Venir looked over the city. The buildings and roads made a straight line from one side of the wall to another. He could see the castles’ towers near the East Gate. The castles were spread out in the City of Bone with their backs to the main wall. There were dozens of them, great and small. “The one who rules the castles is the one who rules the wall,” he said.

  “The underlings are ruling the castles. Most of them, I’d reckon,” Mood said. “They need to be exterminated. We could take them one at time and strengthen our position.”

  “True, but it will be a hard fight to get in any one of them. They have to be taken from the inside out, but will there be enough royals willing to do that?”

  “Not unless there is something better in it for them. We need to convince them that there is.”

  “Agreed, but what might that be? What do royals value more than anything?”

  “Control. That’s not something we can offer to them yet.”

  Venir somberly shook his head. “I hate royals, but nothing like the underlings. We’re just going to have to convince them to fight.”

  Mood knocked his knuckle on Venir’s helmet. “Or inspire them.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Melegal snaked his way through the hundreds of people making a pilgrimage to the West Gate quadrant of the city. Their bleak expressions passed right through his invisible body.

  Such a shame that stealing isn’t the priority these days. I could have a field day with this vanishing ring.

  There was a break in the ranks of people, leaving Melegal alone on the Royal Roadway before another wave of people passed. Gone were the prisoner wagons. The gallows were empty. The underlings had all but disappeared into the building. But they were replaced by dwarves and volunteer citizens ready to fight.