Night Cursed

by Mark Albany

  “Thank you.”

  “Of course,” she replied with a gentle nod.

  I could feel Leena stifling the need to interrupt. Eira was there too, I realized. Like looking through a foggy mirror, just out of reach. I was reminded of the first time I’d laid eyes on her through that impregnable icy barrier. It had been a dream, but I knew she felt like that was when we’d met. All I’d seen at the time was a flurry of snow that felt and sounded like a beautiful ice woman that I would come to meet.

  Somehow, I knew she was thinking of me too. Of when she reached out through the barrier and drew me through. In my mind’s eye, I could see myself as the one reaching through now.

  Suddenly, the connection seemed a lot clearer, like she was right next to me. I’d never felt this close to her when we weren’t having sex. She seemed surprised too. In our shared bewilderment, the moment slipped away and the distance returned.

  I sighed in frustration, shaking my head as I looked up to see Kalna offering her hand to help me stand again.

  I took it, grunting softly as I came to my feet. For some reason, my body felt sore, like it had after the battle to evict the Trelans from the castle and restore Olin to the throne. It seemed that even with this power surging in me, there was still something between what it might be capable of and what my body could actually do when pushed. I felt like I’d spent a whole day doing heavy labor.

  The Darkness was trying to tell me something, but after what Kalna did, it seemed it was struggling to do even that.

  It was better that way, too. I didn’t want to deal with it now, either.

  “Are you feeling better, Braks?” Leena asked.

  “Yes, thank you.” I rolled my shoulders.

  She smiled, seeming genuinely happy to hear that. Through my connection with her, though, the images of what had happened were a lot more vivid.

  “Good,” Leena said. “Because I think we have a problem in this young man that needs solving.”

  “I won’t be a problem,” the Trelan said softly, still looking at me with adoration on his face. “I promise. I would never stand between a Great One and his destiny.”

  I narrowed my eyes, taking a few steps nearer. I still didn’t want to get too close, so I dropped into a squat a few paces away from him. He seemed as uncomfortable with me staring at him directly as I had with him watching me. He looked away, squirming visibly.

  “Why do you insist on calling me that?” I finally asked, deducing nothing from watching him.

  “You are blessed with the power of the God-King,” the young boy said, still not looking me in the eye. “You are his emissary to us. If we had known that you would be arriving, we would not have attacked your lackeys.”

  “His… lackeys?” Leena asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well, yes,” the boy said, looking at her like she’d spoken in a foreign language. “His followers. All those blessed have those that do their bidding.”

  Leena looked over at me with amusement on her face. She leaned against the tree she’d tied the boy to. “Are you going to correct him, or should I?”

  “I can do it, lackey of mine,” I replied, grinning, jumping up and out of the way as Leena tried to kick me. The young Trelan looked shocked.

  “As you can see,” I said once Leena stopped trying to kick me, “they aren’t my lackeys. While we work toward a common goal, they don’t always do my bidding.”

  “Prince Drucio would flay any man that even questioned his orders.” The boy leaned his head back against the tree.

  “Sounds like a fantastic fellow,” Leena commented. I didn’t need our connection to feel the sarcasm.

  “Wait,” I said. “Who is this Prince Drucio? I thought the Grand Marshall was the prince.”

  “The God-King has many sons. Only those imbued with his power are allowed to live. Of those, the most powerful are blessed with leading his armies to spread his thoughts and mind to all those who would be under his rule.”

  “I think we need to find a better name for him than God-King, don’t you?” Kalna interjected, watching the Trelan closely. “Does he have a name?”

  “I am sure he does. But it has not been spoken since his elevation. In fact, he has not been seen by any who are not his chosen for many generations. His words are spread by those sons that are graced with his power.”

  “Sounds like the man spends more time making sons than doing any ruling,” I quipped. There was a hint of confusion from Kalna. “What?”

  She nodded toward the Trelan. He was still seated, but his mouth was open in shock and anger, his face turning red.

  “I think you offended him,” Kalna said with a smirk.

  “Oh, for the love of…” I turned back to the man. “If you feed me some shit about not calling him a man, I will slap you. Now, I’m not going to flay you alive like this Prince Drucio, but you have to stop getting on my nerves with all this holy, religious,” I waggled my fingers at him, “nonsense. Understood?”

  The boy’s mouth snapped shut, and he quickly nodded in agreement.

  “Good,” I said, forcing a smile. “Now, tell me more about this Prince Drucio character. First of all, why is he called prince while the one that we ran into before was the Grand Marshall?”

  The boy still seemed too terrified to speak.

  “Look, while I steer clear of flaying folk for the most part,” I said, feeling like I should still leave room for what I might be capable of when the Darkness took over. “You’ll find that I have ways of making this conversation very uncomfortable for you if you try to make it one-sided. So talk.”

  He jerked as I snapped the last word at him and nodded quickly.

  “The prince. Prince Drucio, I mean. Only the firstborn are named as heirs to the God-King. The rest are given lesser titles and sent off to prove their worth.”

  “So, if he’s one of the firstborn, he’s one of the oldest, yes?” Kalna asked.

  “No, he is among the firstborn,” the boy answered, struggling to find some sort of translation. “They are selected from the children as being the most powerful, the most possessed of their father’s traits.”

  “Oh.” I nodded. I understood, or thought I did, anyway. Enough to be able to move on. “So why is Drucio here when it’s the lesser sons that need to prove themselves?”

  “This task was issued from the lips of the God-King himself.” The boy nodded to emphasize his comment. “Not as a test of virility, but from His will. These islands were to be subdued, and he did not want this task left to those that might fail.”

  “Like the Grand Marshalls, I suppose.” It sounded like the man I’d killed was one of the lesser sons of this deity monarch. Which meant that the man who had taken this island over was, by their estimations at least, even more powerful.

  “It’s not just the prince, though,” the boy continued. “The God-King has Viziers, men of power but not of lineage, that he trusts to do his bidding.”

  “These Viziers… serving him, I’d assume they have to be special in some way,” Kalna commented. “Wizards?”

  From what I knew of him, that could be true. Even though I’d never heard the word before. Maybe it was something in their language that couldn’t be translated to ours?

  “And if this wizard’s powerful, let’s assume more powerful than the prince, that could be why he’s come to oversee the occupation.” As I said it, I could see terror starting to spread across the boy’s face again.

  “Let me guess,” Leena chuckled. “Anyone who compares the power of a prince and a Viz—wizard, is flayed too?”

  The boy nodded.

  I dropped to the ground, sighing deeply. This was a lot of information to be processed. Knowing that there was a whole cadre of men as powerful, if not more so, than the Grand Marshall boggled the mind. So many enemies to fight. I felt bad for the boy, having to live under that kind of oppression. I wondered if I could change his mind, maybe get him to fight alongside us. Maybe he was one of those who had been brainwashed into
fighting for the Trelans, like they had been back home.

  A sudden movement made me twist my head around. The Trelan wasn’t tied to a tree anymore. I wasn’t sure how he’d escaped. Leena had tying people down to a science, considering that capturing them and sending them back to where money would be paid for their capture was what she did as a bounty hunter.

  Leena was the first to react, but as close as she was, even she didn’t have time to draw a weapon before he was on her. The Trelan grabbed her hunting knife and pushed her away, dragging it clear of the sheath.

  I was on my feet in a second. My sword was somewhere—I had lost track of it—but apparently, I didn’t need it to stop just one man. Kalna had her knives out before I had even stood. It was what came with her having the training and reflexes of an assassin, while my own were that of a lowly guardsman. Well, that of a guardsman with enhanced speed.

  But before either of us could act, the boy raised the knife to his throat and slashed it open. Blood seeped out from around the knife blade, gushing heavily as he dropped to his knees. The knife fell from his numb fingers, and his eyes went dead a moment before he fell face down on the ground.

  Leena recovered, roaring in anger, pulling another knife from her belt as she looked around, ready for a fight. Soon, she was sporting the same face Kalna and I were wearing as we stared down at the young man’s dead body.

  “What the fuck?” I asked, to nobody in particular.

  Leena nodded, staring down at the corpse. “I suddenly don’t want that knife back anymore.”

  “Really?”

  “No, I just need a few moments.” She turned away and put her hands on her head.

  I nodded, completely understanding. I was having a hard time thinking about picking my sword up again, too.

  Kalna shook her head. “What sort of fear do these men have to feel to take their own lives, and in such a way?”

  “The kind of fear that power instills,” I said softly. “Power like mine, I guess. And considering that the Darkness told me it is at least familiar with what we’re fighting here, I think…” my voice trailed off as I looked away from the body.

  “You can fight this,” I heard Kalna say as she placed her hand on my back, finding the groove of my spine and tracing her fingers up and down. “You can win.”

  I nodded, although I wasn’t sure if she was talking about the Trelans or the Darkness.

  Chapter 10

  It felt wrong to leave the bodies out on the beach, especially those of the last of the men that had joined us on our little expedition. Leena had the idea of putting the bodies on the boat that we’d used and letting it drift out to sea, but Kalna reminded her that we would need that same boat to make our way back home. Or off this island, at least.

  Lining them and the bodies of the Trelans up in a neat fashion would have to do since we didn’t have time to bury them, nor the ability to burn them.

  It still felt wrong to just leave them out there as food for the scavengers.

  The mood was decidedly dark as we started moving again. I’d recovered my sword, putting it back in the sheath and ignoring the way it seemed to call out to me. We decided to keep following the beach. We’d lost our guides to this place, and as much as Kalna and Leena trusted their sense of direction to keep us from getting lost, there was still no telling what we could run into.

  For all we knew, the locals would be picking a fight with us since we looked more like the Trelans. We had come here to save folk, not make the killing worse. So far, it had been a spectacular failure. We had to play it safe for now.

  Following the beach, with Kalna working as a scout ahead and Leena taking up the rear, we made good progress. I suddenly realized that both of them were tired from not having gotten any sleep the whole night before. Sure, I didn’t feel the same need, but they didn’t have some primal power in them like I did.

  They hadn’t complained about it yet, but I saw Kalna toying with a few potions from her pack and drinking them, while Leena seemed to be stumbling and having a hard time staying awake.

  We needed to find somewhere to take cover and rest. I didn’t want it to be out in the open, certainly not on the beaches where we might be spotted by patrolling ships or soldiers.

  I realized I was gripping my sword and, for some reason, was anticipating a fight; even though there weren’t any enemies in sight. I gritted my teeth, shaking my head and jogging to catch up with Kalna.

  “Are you all right?” I asked, patting her gently on the shoulder.

  She nodded, putting an empty vial back into her pouch. “Just a bit tired.”

  “Leena is feeling the same way,” I said as the woman picked up the pace to catch up with us. “Do you have anything that might help her?”

  “Sure.” She looked back at Leena, who had to know we were talking about her. “Do you need anything yourself?”

  “I don’t need to rest the way I used to,” I answered as Leena came within earshot. “It comes at a price, but when an evil has a silver lining to it, I’ll not complain. Well, maybe I will,” I added after even Leena looked at me oddly. “But not overmuch.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Leena asked.

  “We need to find some place to set up camp,” Kalna said. “How are you feeling?”

  Leena shrugged. “Like death, but I can probably keep going for another week. Why do we need to set up camp?”

  “It’s still best for us to keep moving at night.” I spoke softly. “That’s my thought, anyway.”

  Leena nodded. “I agree.”

  Kalna only shrugged. “Where do you suggest we set up camp? We’re in hostile territory with no knowledge of what we’re looking for or what could be looking for us. What do you suggest?”

  “There’s a village ahead,” Kalna replied. “We could probably take shelter there.”

  I turned to look at her, my eyebrows raised. “And you waited so long to let us know, because…?”

  “Because I like it when you show how much you care about us,” Kalna retorted with a cheeky grin. I chuckled softly, shaking my head. Leena couldn’t help but join in.

  Once we’d recovered our collective composures, we started moving deeper through the heavy foliage neighboring the beach. I wasn’t sure how Kalna had seen it, but sure enough, after a few minutes of hiking through the thicket of trees and bushes, they opened up, revealing a small village of two dozen or so houses made from the same brick and hay mixture we’d seen on the first island.

  There was a small difference in this case, though. There was no sign of scorch marks or fire on the buildings. It seemed like the buildings themselves were entirely ignored.

  However, there were bodies. Lots of bodies.

  They hadn’t been left out long enough for them to start smelling, but the stench of death and blood filled the small village. Other than the buzz of flies, the village was deathly silent. Even the animals that lived around here were avoiding the place. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of scavengers lived here, if any, that had left the bodies out for so long.

  They were piled up like they’d been tossed there haphazardly, as if there had been an intention to burn them, but whoever had done it had given up at the end and decided to just leave them there. Was it some sort of warning? A monument to remind the people living here of what happened to those that resisted the new regime?

  “I don’t think we should stay here,” I spoke softly, turning away from the horrifying sight. As I did, I saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. I would have thought it was my imagination—now given this nightmare fuel—playing tricks on me, but I saw Leena’s head whip around too.

  “You saw that?” She nodded. Kalna looked around.

  “I didn’t see anything.” The elf’s hands moved slowly toward her knives. Leena followed Kalna’s lead, stringing her bow again and putting an arrow to it. I gripped my sword but didn’t draw it. Doing so would only remind me of the kind of violence I was capable of.

 
So, it remained sheathed for now.

  “If it’s a Trelan scout, we can’t let him get word to his superiors of our presence here,” Kalna said. “So what exactly did you see?”

  “Just some movement out the corner of my eye.”

  “It was a man,” Leena supplied. “But not a soldier. He was dressed in rags, not armor, and he was old, too. Grey beard and everything.”

  I twisted my face. “I don’t like the idea of having someone here that we know nothing about. We need to find him and at least make sure he doesn’t mean us any harm.”

  Leena rolled her eyes. “You want us to go traipsing around this damned place looking for someone who knows this island better than we do?”

  I bit my tongue before I could snap back. “That’s a good point,” I conceded. “Let’s set up camp here for the moment. Just…as far away from the pile of bodies as we can get.”

  Leena nodded in agreement. We moved to the outskirts of the small village. All the houses seemed to have been left untouched, as if even the soldiers hadn’t wanted to loot and burn after having killed what I hoped weren’t all the inhabitants of the village.

  “I’ll take the first watch,” I stated as we found a small house just outside the village. It was as far as we could get from the corpses at the center.

  “You sure you don’t need any rest?” Kalna asked. As well as she was hiding it, our connection told me she was fighting to stay awake, even with whichever potion she’d taken.

  “Not as much as you two.” I didn’t want it to seem like I was boasting, but it was true. Leena wasn’t in as argumentative a mood as she had been before, so after a quick bite to eat they both settled in, with Kalna insisting on sleeping next to Leena.

  I smiled at the quick discussion being settled without words, as they curled up close together. Leena still seemed to want to keep her distance from me, but that didn’t seem to extend to Kalna. I settled down next to the door, giving the girls some privacy.

  Even with whatever changes had been made to my body, I still needed some sleep. After an hour or so on watch, I felt my eyes drifting shut and my head nodding forward. I lacked the willpower to fight the need. I only realized that I’d fallen asleep when my head snapped up at the sound of shuffling footsteps near me.