by Andrew Lynch
‘Well?’ I couldn’t think of much else.
He remained silent and unmoving.
‘You’re like a cat. Toying with your prey.’
Still nothing, so I moved to attempt to stand and continue the fight.
He slowly, and gently, placed his maul on my chest and pushed me back down. I guess my slow movements were the proof he needed that my fight was over. His helmet cracked and crumbled away again.
‘Are you ready to listen now?’
‘I have no choice, clearly.’
‘No, Moxar,’ he said, annoyance in his voice. ‘Listen. Not hear, listen.’
This was exactly what I needed. As he spoke I could think of a way out.
‘Very well. Speak.’
He began talking. Calmly and gently, treating me with velvet gloves, thinking that if he just spoke quietly I wouldn’t hear the venomous meaning behind his words.
He was trying to justify using a God’s power. Oh, he was a fool, but I kept quiet. I started formulating my escape. I'd need to return after I had healed. I'd know what I was coming back to face, so I could prepare.
I heard a loud scuffing of shoes behind me, and Malum looked up.
A bright blue light overpowered the golden glow of the God for a brief second before dying out. Shards of rock showered the room around me. I couldn’t move to see what had happened. But then I heard her voice. My love was here!
‘Taken in my sleep?’ She was outraged.
Malum’s eyes widened. ‘I can explain. There’s no need to do anything rash.’ He dropped the maul and it crumbled to rubble as it left his grasp.
A blue bolt shot towards Malum, and he deflected it with his rock gauntlets.
‘sha’Laria, I assure you, I had no intention of keeping you in that prison for long.’ Another blue bolt that he deflected. It spun off and dug a crater into one of the walls.
‘You could have done anything to me, yet you want forgiveness?’ My love was in a rage. I didn’t know what had happened exactly, but this might explain why she missed our rendezvous.
Malum’s attention was no longer on me. He was edging his way round the dais and towards sha’Laria. I could strike.
With Sharfaas still in my good hand, I leaned against it to rise. sha’Laria saw me, and as she smiled she looked as radiant as the day I first met her. For a moment I was entranced. But I had work to do.
Malum followed her gaze to see I was standing once more.
‘Fine. I can’t risk failure. For the good of the people, I'll end this,’ Malum said.
He pointed a hand towards each of us and closed them. At his command, rocks rose from the ground, binding my feet. It had caught sha’Laria too, but she could still use her magic. She started firing bolts of brilliant blue. She was the only magus I had ever seen able to harness raw magic, and she did it beautifully now. She had even used raw magic to break out of her stone prison, despite stone being naturally resistant to magic. She could hold Malum’s attention as they faced each other.
I had hoped to slice his throat from behind, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t risk freeing my feet with my axe in case I went straight through and hit myself. I'd give up anything to save this world, but only if there was no other way.
How could I help? I looked around. Throwing a stone at him? It would do little more than annoy him, but maybe a distraction was all sha’Laria needed.
I could throw Sharfaas? Smash his chest armour, and then maybe sha’Laria could get a stray bolt through. He seemed to be deflecting all her attacks though. Curse his use of rock.
There was no other choice. I raised Sharfaas and pulled back my arm. Sharfaas pulsed, trying to get my attention. I stopped, and looked at the axe. It didn’t pulse again.
‘What?’ I said to Sharfaas.
Nothing. I was talking to an axe. I felt foolish.
And that was exactly the problem. I was focusing too much. I needed to release my mind. Allow Sharfaas to work through me. Allow the trapped Lich to be as devious as it wanted.
I pushed away the sound of grinding of rock, the hiss of raw magic, even the glow of a God. I let it all go. I went blank. I saw only a soft blue in my mind. Very distantly, I saw a figure in that blue spot. I saw... it was gone.
When I came back to the world, my hand had moved. A pillar of rock fell to the floor.
One of the spikes that had pinned God Mercy. Of course!
With the rock removed from his forehead, the God’s eyes opened. The trickle of golden blood stopped flowing, the wound instantly healing. He looked confused. He mouthed words to himself. He looked into my eyes and I saw recognition. I withered under his gaze as a flash of anger stole his features.
‘Moxar.’ His voice boomed. It seemed to skip the space between us and entered straight into my head. The others stopped their fight in astonishment.
‘If you’re here, then I assume the plan failed.’ A statement, not a question.
He looked down at his body, and with the wave of a hand snapped all of the stalactites leeching his power.
He sat up, and looked at the two duelling magic users. ‘Malum. You have failed.’
Malum dropped his guard from sha’Laria, and faced the God.
‘Yes,’ was all he said. I couldn’t read his face, but he was a man who accepted his destiny was no longer in his hands.
How he managed to capture the God in the first place, I didn’t know, but clearly he couldn’t do it again.
‘The plan is foiled. Well done, Moxar. sha’Laria. Let us leave.’ He stood, towering over me. He must have been at least three metres high. sha’Laria and I moved automatically to follow him, his mind-voice a powerful compulsion.
Malum ran to the exit of the cave to block our path. ‘No! Please. I just wanted to help!’ He was panicked, begging the God.
God Mercy looked at him and hesitated. I lifted my axe. ‘The God of Mercy wouldn’t kill you, scum. But I will.’ I moved to where he stood, ready to make the killing blow.
‘No.’
Against my will, I lowered my axe and backed away from Malum.
‘But, God, he will surely try again. The world will be better off without him,’ I reasoned.
God Mercy looked at me, sorrow on his face. He looked to Malum. ‘Very well.’
As he passed Malum, he gently struck him with the back of his hand. Malum flew out of the cave, across the entire throne room - leaving a dent in the opposite wall - and crumpled to the floor.
God Mercy paused for a moment. It must have been hard for the God of Mercy to take a life.
Then we walked away.
Chapter 21
As Lucian woke, his first thought was that the golden glow was gone. They were left in near-total darkness. The magma lights from the throne room barely illuminated the cave. However, he could make out the prone forms of his group. He reached out to the nearest one and shook.
A snort, a cough, and Khleb spoke. ‘I’m here for you, boss.’
Lucian gave a soft laugh and squeezed whatever part of Khleb he was holding. He hoped it was a shoulder, but couldn’t be sure.
Gar and Jess woke without issue.
They all brushed themselves down in the darkness to remove the rock dust which covered them.
They began stumbling their way out of the cave, the room dark and treacherous with all the rubble under foot.
‘Let’s get Darrius, and get out of here.’ Lucian said.
‘I’m sure he is fine. He is most resilient,’ Jess said.
‘Wolf with him,’ said Gar. ‘No problem.’
‘Well, we've got the clear-up to do. Then a long walk home. And reports to write. Let’s get started,' Lucian finished.
They arrived at the throne room, where the great doors, big enough to let several ogres through at once, had been blown off their hinges and halfway down the corridor.
‘A God'll do that, yup,’ Khleb said.
They had almost reached the doors when they heard a groan from behind them.
T
hey all whipped around and readied their weapons. Lucian didn’t have one, so just grasped at air where his axe should have been, and tried to look menacing. It didn’t work.
Nothing happened. There was no-one in sight.
‘It couldn’t be Moxar, could it?’ Khleb asked.
‘I’m not psychic,’ Lucian said.
‘Sure, boss. Well, best be off then.’ Khleb started backing away slowly.
‘Job done. Let’s go,’ Gar agreed.
‘Wait, wait,’ Lucian said reluctantly. ‘We need to make sure the job’s finished. And if it is Moxar lying there, then we need to save him. Can you imagine how angry the Company would be if we let their Hero die?’
Khleb made some hesitant noises, but shuffled forward.
The entire group walked slowly towards the source of the sound. A large mound of rocks had broken out of the wall and fallen in a heap. Lucian decided it probably wasn’t the rocks that were making the noise, unfortunately.
Another groan came from the rocks, and Gar instinctively reached out an arm to stop Khleb from running away.
Almost there, they held weapons ready, apart from Lucian who just held his hands in front of his face, attempting a brawler’s stance. Possibly it looked more like he was just shielding himself.
A hand burst from the rock. A black sleeve looking ragged and dusty.
‘Help,’ came a thin voice.
The group had jumped into a battle formation. Gar’s shield up front, and everyone behind it. Nothing else happened for a few seconds, though, so Lucian elected himself to investigate. He might have been pushed from behind, but he chose to ignore that.
He stepped up to the hand, now lying limp, and peered through the cracks. He jumped backwards.
‘Bloody Gods, it’s Malum,’ he whispered - his thinking being that if Malum didn’t hear them, then they could just walk away. Perhaps run.
Everyone else cottoned on, and started backing away, keeping their feet silent.
‘I know you’re there,’ Malum said, still in a thin, weak voice, although a twitch of his hand seemed to express discontent.
Lucian muttered a slew of curses to himself, and moved back towards the pile.
‘Hey there. Umm, how’s it going?’
‘Honestly? I’ve had better days,’ Malum replied, his voice barely audible. ‘I think I’m dying. You couldn’t remove a few rocks, could you?’
‘Oh, umm, sorry to hear that. But you’re a little bit, well, evil. So, if it’s all the same to you, I think I'll leave you there. No offence of course, just letting nature take its course.’ Lucian shrugged at his team and they shrugged back. They’d never dealt with a live end-villain before. Evil lords were normally missing several limbs - and their life - by the time the group were around them.
‘Oh,’ Malum said. ‘I do see your reasoning, but what about, if I wasn’t evil?’
‘If I may, Mister Malum, I think that I’ve just seen you trapping a God and leaching its power. Seems a bit damning?’
‘I would happily...’ his voice faded away, and for a few seconds nothing happened.
‘Umm, Mister Malum?’
Malum groaned. ‘Sorry, I must have blacked out. Was I gone long?’
‘Just a few seconds.’
‘Not too serious then,’ the buried Malum said, and coughed wetly. ‘Anyway, I would happily give you a different version of events, but I’m not in great shape to do so. If you’d simply uncover me, I could tell you the truth.’
‘Umm, one moment.’ Lucian turned back to his group.
‘Oh yes, no rush. Take your time.’ His hand went limp. Either he was waiting patiently or had blacked out again, presumably overwhelmed by his own sarcasm.
Lucian didn’t know how best to handle the situation. After hushed conversing, the group collectively decided to free Malum. A tough decision - he was evil, so would say pretty much anything to get himself free only to then turn around and kill them, but also, he did seem to be almost dead, and if he was unable to free himself, then probably couldn’t hurt them.
Needless to say, Lucian would do the actual digging him out. The rest of the group would stand just on the threshold of the great doors ready to run. Away. They had made it very clear that they would be running away, not towards him to help.
Lucian decided not to attempt to wake Malum, and set to work uncovering him. He felt it was only polite to start with the head.
Lucian winced, and Malum opened his eyes at the sound.
‘What?’ Malum asked.
‘Oh, nothing much. Well, nothing much, considering that you’ve just had a wall fall on you.’
‘Ahh. To be fair, it was probably being hit by a God that did the damage. Walls are kind of my thing.’
‘Not affecting your speech though, so there’s always an upside.’
‘Yes, well. One must be grateful for small mercies, I suppose.’
Seeing that Malum hadn’t killed him yet - and if the ruin of his face was anything to go by, couldn’t kill him - Lucian uncovered the rest of him as the evil lord popped in and out of consciousness.
By the time Lucian was done, Malum had passed out. He lay before Lucian, battered and broken. His chest rose and fell in an irregular rhythm and, at least one of his legs had snapped to a very painful angle from the middle of his thigh.
Lucian called Gar over. Stepping back to let Gar have a look, it didn’t take long before Gar said there was nothing he could do. Malum had died when God Mercy hit him, he was just taking his time about it.
So the next task for the group was to sit by a dying man’s side until he passed. This seemed awfully grim to Lucian. Too personal. Too real. Still, he found he couldn’t walk away.
So he sat.
‘Hey, friend, how are you feeling?’ Lucian didn’t know what to say, clearly.
‘Oh Gods. That bad?’
‘Our, semi, medicine man isn’t exactly positive about the situation.’ Lucian gave a small helpless shrug.
‘I feel I’ve had worse. I’m not saying I’m comfortable, but I’ve definitely had worse.’
‘Get hit by Gods often, do you?’
‘No, no, this is a first, I'll give you that.’
‘Must put a bit of a dampener on your evil plans.’
Malum tried to point an accusing finger. He still could. It was all about the minor victories at this stage, and Lucian smiled as a father might smile at a child, proud that it had managed to do something very unimpressive. ‘Look, just because I’m a villain doesn’t mean I’m doing anything bad. Common misconception. I just wanted to make the world a better place. How better to do that than team up with a God?’
Lucian gave it some thought. ‘You did have to insert several large, spiky rocks into the God’s body to “team up” with him though.’
‘True, but it was his... never mind.’
‘We've got time. Go ahead.’ Lucian could tell Malum was aching to defend his actions.
‘You think I’m as good as dead, right?’
‘Yes.’ Lucian said this as apologetically as he could.
‘How about, you take me out of here, drop me off at the next city you come across, and I'll tell you everything you want to know about villains, evil schemes, dark lords, whatever takes your fancy really.’
‘Well, we're not really supposed to be here now you see...’ Lucian trailed off. ‘And you are evil—'
‘Not evil, just a villain' Malum interrupted.
‘Right, a villain, and you have just been “laid low” by a Hero and a God. If I’m honest, it seems like bad practice to move you.’
Malum sagged into his rock bed, unable to tense his body anymore, the fight going out of him.
‘I can’t argue with that. So tell me, who am I spending my last moments with?’
‘Lucian.’
Malum stayed silent. Waiting.
‘Lucian Huxley. A Company man.’
‘That Company? The herald company? Silly question. You’re following a Hero and you’re not
supposed to be here, of course it’s that company. Zenith Keep.’
‘You... know?’
‘Oh yes, we're told all about you when we start. Top level stuff of course, don’t want the lower downs to know. A villain would never attack you if he knew who you were, but the minions... good bunch, but not always the most trustworthy, so they don’t know about your lot.’
Lucian was stunned for a moment. No, Heroes and villains weren’t allowed to know about them and their role in the Quests. This was wrong.
‘Wait, who tells you this?’
Malum ignored the question. ‘Tell me, Lucian, you’re leaving me here to die because that’s your job, right?’ Lucian nodded sheepishly. ‘But I can see something in you, you know? You’re not just in this for the money. You’re in this for... something more. What is it?’
* * * *
Darrius was sleeping peacefully when they found him, the wolf standing guard. The castle was already so pristine, the clean-up job was minor, only a few hours work rolling the shattered statue-guards away from the main pathways and ensuring the magma windows were fully charged. Jess managed this without any issue. With God Mercy gone, the subtercastle had stopped regenerating itself.
They stopped in Saphor for a few days, allowing everyone to rest and restock, preparing for the journey home. They could follow the great road all the way, so with a bit of luck they should be home in three weeks, and then get their well-deserved commerce break.
Gar had fun poking around local Saphor hospitals, Jess busied herself in a new library, complaining constantly that she’d read all the books already, and Khleb - well, the less said about his activities the better.
Darrius spent the days getting bandaged and pampered in the same hospitals that Gar was in, and Lucian enjoyed sightseeing and learning about the various ways in which the local fauna could kill a man.
When they left, they waved Malum goodbye.
Chapter 22
The building Lucian rented for his school “Battle Tactics, War Bows, and Technical Axes” had burned down.
