“I was just admiring your castle,” Kam said. “I’ve never been to Bone before.”
“Well, you couldn’t have picked a worse time to stop by for a visit. It used to be a beautiful place, but now we will have to rely on your own natural beauty to brighten our rooms and halls.”
Kam smiled. “We were just laughing as we noticed one of the faces in your portraits looks very much like our friend Melegal.”
“Is that so? Let me see?” Ebenezer’s great height allowed him to look almost directly at the picture. He pointed. “This one?”
“That’s the one,” Jubilee said.
“I agree. It’s a remarkable likeness. That’s very interesting, seeing how this painting, I believe, is centuries old. My mother, Manamus, would bring me down here when I was a boy and tell me stories about some of the more recent people. I fear much of our family lore has been lost.” He turned and put his large hands over the women’s shoulders. Pointing them toward the hall, he said, “Speaking of my deceased mother Manamus, I think there might be some items of interest to you, Kam. You are a sorceress, are you not?”
“Yes,” Kam said.
“My mother was always disappointed in my lack of interest in magic, and now, without any heirs of interest—after all, Rayal takes after my fighting spirit—she leaves me with knowledge I can’t begin to comprehend. May I take you to her chambers?”
“Yes.” Kam took one long lasting look back at the painting as they left the room.
CHAPTER 25
Venir woke to the sound of groaning wheels and the pop of wood coming from the siege towers. He’d been catnapping most of the night with his head positioned between the battlements. He lifted his arm, which felt stiff as a board and heavy as a bag of sand, and hit Fogle. The mage slept with his mouth hanging open. He stirred, but kept on sleeping.
“Soft,” Venir mumbled. As he started to rise, he caught sight of Melegal standing behind the parapet wall. He was drinking from a clay mug of coffee. His steely eyes were fixed on the siege towers that began to slowly roll forward. The towers were moving on their own, without the strength of their breed, but by the power of something unseen. “Did you bring any more coffee for our guests?”
“Underlings don’t like coffee.”
“I do.”
Melegal shrugged. “I don’t think a good cup of coffee is going to do you much good at this point. Just ready that battle axe of yours and start swinging.”
The dwarves lined up along the wall as far as the eye could see, two men deep. They carried crossbows and spears. Spaced out every thirty feet were small catapults. On dwarven command, they launched stones bigger than a man’s head. The stones bounced off an unseen force.
Grinding his teeth, Venir reached down, grabbed Fogle by his robes, and pulled him to his feet. He picked up the spellbook, and shoved it against the man’s chest. “Do something.”
Fogle flicked his fingers and wrists. “My joints are still sleeping. And just so you know, while you slept, I was reading. I’ve something prepared for those towers, well, at least one, but that will be one less that you have to deal with.”
“Get on with it, then,” Venir said.
“They need to be in closer range. They are too far away at the moment.” Fogle set the book down on the parapet, read from the pages, and started speaking rapidly. It lasted a few seconds before he stopped. Looking outward, he said, “I’m ready.”
The siege towers advanced in a slow and steady creaking of wheels. The underling army lined up between them. Many of the underlings were carrying long ladders made from metal. Also among the ranks were hundreds of riders on spiders in the front, as well as gigantic spiders in the rear.
“That is the creepiest army I ever saw.” Melegal set his coffee mug down on top of the battlement and drew a dagger. “I’m ready.”
“I think you’re going to need a bigger knife.” Venir rolled back his shoulders. His body had a sluggish feel. His rucksack lay on the ground at his feet. He was tempted to put the helmet on. It would provide the endless energy he needed. Perhaps much more than he needed. A dwarven horn sounded. He turned toward the city. Soldiers marched down the streets to the battles that began anew at the blockades. “I better get down there.”
Melegal showed a look of surprise. “You aren’t going to stay and watch my glorious triumph over the underlings? Or marvel at Fogle’s spell weaving? Methinks you fear that our efforts might outshine your own.”
Venir hefted his axe off his shoulder and grabbed his pack. “That will be the day, but I’ll stay long enough to see what Fogle will unleash. I’m curious.”
Fogle shrugged. “No pressure.” His eyes remained on the siege towers, which crept forward at an agonizing pace. In long minutes, they moved from fifty yards away to twenty-five. They were so close, he could see the bright colors in the fiends’ eyes. Fogle’s fingers flared up with a golden hue. He made a motion like he was turning a wheel with his glowing hand. The left-front- bottom wheel of the siege tower in front of them popped off. The tower tilted and wobbled. The underlings let out uneasy chitters. The tower came to a stop. It leaned on the front corner.
Melegal looked at Fogle and said, “That’s it? You knocked a wheel off. I think I could have done better than that.”
“You are more than welcome to try,” Fogle said, not hiding his frustration. “Whatever is in those towers is dispelling my magic. I can feel it.”
“No matter, we don’t need your magic, anyway.” Venir watched the towers creep forward at a snail’s pace. The tower missing a wheel pulled forward with its corner in the dirt. He could see huge metal arms on the towers designed to lock the tower to the wall while the enemies crossed. “Looks like I’ll be fighting by your side, after all.”
A shadow crossed over the wall.
All three men and some of the dwarves looked up. Whatever flew above was blotted out by the blinding suns.
“Was that your bird, Fogle,” Melegal asked, “or a really big pigeon?”
“It wasn’t me.”
Whatever it was, it was gone. Venir fixed his attention on the siege towers that crawled within twenty yards of the wall. The gap between them was impossibly close. The underlings hissed as they stirred. The leather on Brool’s handle squeaked in Venir’s mighty grip. His heart pulsed in his ears.
In a harsh whisper, Melegal said, without pointing, “Look! Beyond the tower.”
Two black slivers glided over the Outland horizon behind the siege towers. Silently, the great wings closed in fast. In the last moment, a great black dragon pulled up behind the towers. A geyser of flames erupted from his mouth, turning the tower into a pillar of fire.
Flame-covered underlings jumped out of the tower. The rolling building became a pillar of bright flame.
With his face toward the searing heat, Melegal shouted with surprising glee, “Yaaaaaaah! Burst the slat out of them, dragon!”
The dragon, Blackie, flew backward and upward. Wump! Wump! Wump! The dragon rose hundreds of feet high then descended again with an earsplitting roar. The dragon passed one tower at a time, shooting flames from his mouth, catching them all on fire, one by one. The flames consumed the dried wood. The wroth heat was that of a furnace, which took the air of life from the struggling underlings.
Venir couldn’t help but watch with fascination. He noted three figures on the back of the dragon.
Fogle said, “I never thought I’d be happy to see Cass riding on that dragon.”
“Or your father, for that matter. That’s him, isn’t it?”
“There is only one of him that I know. Thankfully.”
Blackie turned, rose, and dove. The dragon’s flames engulfed one siege tower after another. At the same time, the dragon flew over the tops of the towers and swatted underlings out of the top roost with his tail. The dragon’s roar was a sky filled with thunder. Even the dwarves were cheering.
The dragon ravaging the towers was a thing of beauty.
“So much for those towering
infernos.” Melegal sheathed his dagger and started back on his coffee. “I’ll save my energy for later.”
Blackie disappeared for a long time after he’d torched every tower that Venir could see. He assumed the dragon flew around the facility. But, despite the victory over the towers, the underling troops on the ground kept coming. The spider riders went up the wall. Another strong force of underlings renewed their savage assault on the gate. The dwarves renewed their clash with the underlings.
Pointing toward the sky, Melegal said, “He’s coming back.”
Blackie circled and made a soft landing inside the East Gate plaza. Venir was the first one to climb down and greet them. Cass remained in the dragon’s saddle, while Boon climbed down. He was followed by a bearded, beefy man with a head full of curly brown hair down to his shoulders. The man stood almost as tall as Venir, but had his back to him. “Boon, your arrival couldn’t have come at a better time. Who is this that you brought with you?”
“Venir!” The man with his back to Venir turned. “It’s me, Georgio!”
Almost dropping his axe, he said, “Georgio?” He stuck Brool in the ground and swallowed the young man up in his arms. “Hah! I can’t believe you’re alive!”
Returning the warm embrace, Georgio said, “I knew I’d find you where the action is. Oh, and I’m not the only one that’s still alive, either.” He turned toward Blackie.
Lefty stood behind the dragon’s wing, gently waving. Georgio and Lefty had the appearance of men who were five years older. Whatever hardship they’d been through showed up in the creases in their young faces. “What are you waiting for, Lefty? Come down and let me see you.”
The blond-headed halfling hopped to the ground in a single bound. He found himself face-to-face with Melegal.
CHAPTER 26
With an angry thought, Master Sinway turned a castle wall into a pile of rubble. Before he got his anger under control, the furniture in the room busted into splinters. Every crystal on the chandeliers shattered into powdery fragments that dusted the marble floor and lavish carpets.
Elypsa stood rigidly, half inside the mouth of a massive fireplace, throughout the entire escapade. Her heart fluttered. There was a dead underling on the floor. She had a sense of Master Sinway’s power, but she’d never felt it so close before. She was left with a strong impression that he could take down the entire castle if he wanted to.
“A dragon, of all things. A dragon.” His chest heaved underneath his robes. His iron eyes still had a hot glow to them. “One can never predict what will crawl out of the Under-Bish. First giants, and now this.”
When one of Master Sinway’s commanders brought the startling information about the dragon attack on the siege towers, the entire building shook. Master Sinway had lashed out at his commander, a juegen with hard ruby eyes, and sent the man flying through the air into a stone wall. The juegen still lay dead by the wall. There was black-red blood on the stone that had crushed his skull. Elypsa could still hear the distinctive smack of skull against stone. It was like a ripe melon busting open. She stepped out of the fireplace. Her feet stirred the rubble. She froze.
“Fear not, Elypsa. You are not going to be the source of my wrath. The humans and dwarves will be.” He floated downward until his robe-covered feet hit the ground. “Even I’m not above a temper tantrum, but I feel much better now.” With his fist clutched at his chest, he said, “Sometimes, you just have to let a little out. Little is what you saw, Elypsa. There is more.”
“You’ve certainly convinced me, Master Sinway, though I didn’t need it.”
“Sure you did. You doubted me. But even I have had doubts, Elypsa. Few, but I’ve had them. When one rises to the top like me, he has to expect anything. When anything happens, adapt and move on. It’s time to move on.”
“I’m eager. Will you share how to contend with this dragon?”
“It’s not the dragon that I’m concerned about contending with. Even such a grand beast’s powers are limited.” He started walking out of the deteriorating room and into the hall. “It’s that armament. It has powers that I cannot comprehend.”
Trailing along behind him, she said, “I see. It’s unpredictable.”
“And powerful. Yet, forgettable. Long ago, and on more than one occasion, the armament served the underlings. Warriors such as you wielded it. Magi like your brothers Verbard and Catten, too. The armament is a shadowy thing. Just when you think you control it, it moves on, manifesting itself with different powers in a different place.” Sinway dusted the crystal fragments from his shoulders. “But now the armament is content in the hands of one man. It’s far from typical.”
“Let me help you,” she said, using her hands to dust off his robes. “So, you have been in this situation before?”
“Not on such a severe level. No, the world changed the moment Trinos and Scorch entered our midst. They poisoned our well.” His eyes flashed with a deeper anger. His hands clutched at thin air. “I was close, so close to having it all. And I will have it all when I take down this Darkslayer.”
“Can he be killed?”
“You saw what happened in that arena. The armament is with the man. But such power is too much for any mortal body to control for long. It will ravage him. His mind cannot control it. I will provoke him, leaving him with no alternative but to destroy himself.” Sinway’s feet lifted from the ground again. “It must happen.”
“I fought this man, and he did quite well on his own, Master Sinway. Please forgive my ignorance, but if many such as I attacked at once, could we not kill him? We could turn his flesh into fragments, just like you did that wall.”
“I appreciate your spirit, and though what you suggest sounds reasonable, there is a problem. We’ve tried exactly what you speak of, and no one has killed the man yet.” Sinway stopped in the middle of the hallway. There was a grand chandelier wrought from gold that hung high on the ceiling. The candelabras on the walls cast a flickering light on the chandelier’s bright crystals. “Do you see those stones that sparkle so brightly as the stars?”
“Yes.”
“Can you imagine each crystal being a world of its own?”
“No.”
“There was a time in my life when I couldn’t either, but now I can. Here I thought I had it all on this paltry world; instead, I realize, I have nothing.” He wiggled his fingers. The crystals in the chandelier quavered. “The armament is the key to it all. I must unlock it.”
The words Master Sinway spoke were beyond her. How could the most powerful underling in Bish feel as if he had nothing? Studying the chandelier, she said, “I want to make you happy, Master Sinway.”
He looked her in the eye. “Elypsa, I’ll probably never be happy until I can control this world and all of the others. In the meantime, there is still a puzzle that I must unravel. At least I have that much to keep me going. Now, let’s take the next step in our war for the City of Bone. Go, summon my commanders. I wish to meet with them before nightfall.”
“What happens at nightfall?’
“Carnage and decimation.”
CHAPTER 27
Sitting on a bench inside the Castle Kling courtyard, Georgio scarfed down hunks of cheese and jerky. He hadn’t stopped eating since he got his first plate of food, and every hard bit was mouthwatering and delightful. He couldn’t remember how long since he’d had a hunk of meat, but it felt like years.
“I’ll never move away from meat again,” he said.
Venir stood nearby having a conversation with Melegal and Lefty. He walked over. “There’s not much to choose from in the Mist, is there?”
“There was a lot of fruit, which was tasty, but it wasn’t the same.” Georgio swallowed his food and washed it down with ale. “I hope I never see the Mist again.”
“It takes a toll on you. You’ve aged.” Venir dusted Georgio’s locks with his hand. “You carry it well, though. I’m glad you’re back, Georgio. Things aren’t the same without you.”
“I missed you
too, Venir. Not Melegal so much, if at all. Is Quickster still around?”
“Yes,” Melegal said, “and no thanks to you.”
“Some things won’t change, I suppose,” Georgio said.
The war that had been going on all day in the city had finally come to a rest. Many of the wounded soldiers were being carried into the castle for treatment. Cass was helping. Her fetching figure caught Georgio’s eye several times. Through the castle’s pedestrian gate, a mountain of a man entered who towered over Venir. He carried a blood-smeared cudgel. The sullen-eyed man nodded to Venir, then his eyes caught Georgio. He stopped in his tracks. His head tipped over his shoulder. The two men behind him, faces weary from battle, nearly bumped into him. One carried a bow, the other a crossbow and club.
The young black man said, “Keep moving, Brak.” He looked Georgio’s direction.
Billip stepped around the two young men. “What are the two of you gawking at?” He followed their line of sight. “Huh.”
Georgio started to rise to his feet.
“Georgio?” Nikkel said. The smile that long hours of battle took from his face returned. “Georgio! Tell me it’s you!”
Georgio nodded. Venir confirmed it. “It’s him. What does he have to do, slap you in the face to believe it?”
“Ha-Ha!” Nikkel and Brak ran over to him. They threw their arms around him and squeezed him half to death. “Yes! Welcome back, Georgio!”
“I didn’t come back alone, either.” Georgio pointed at Lefty, who was trying to hide behind Melegal.
“Don’t crush me,” the halfling said.
All of the young warriors gathered together, slapping backs, shaking hands, and hugging one another. Before long, they were in their own world, having excited conversations about their escapades, their spirits renewed.
***
“Young folk,” Billip said to Venir. They’d taken a seat in the courtyard and began eating.
The Darkslayer: Bish and Bone Series Collector's Edition (Books 1-10): Sword and Sorcery Masterpieces Page 130
