Night Cursed

by Mark Albany

  We were soon on our way, the first of the three parley ships heading toward the inlet. It took me a few tries to remember how to work the oar, but before too long, I was smoothly joining the rest of the men in steady, practiced motions that were pushing us closer and closer to land.

  The waters were surprisingly calm, even though the sky was starting to darken with clouds. They weren’t storm clouds, though. They gave the sky a thin grey cover which blocked the sun, even as it was climbing higher into the sky. It was cooler, but as Eira had reminded me, cold didn’t really bother me at this point.

  As we came closer to the cliffs, my rowing rhythm faltered as I looked up to their tops. Most of what I could see was covered by a heavy forest. The trees were a type I’d never seen before.

  They were massive. Even close enough to the cliff that an errant wave might make them fall, the trees were thick enough around for someone to carve a house into and live comfortably. The trunks were straight, reaching up hundreds of feet into the sky. They looked similar to the pine trees I’d seen growing in Okiim’s forest, but these were many, many times larger.

  “Beautiful,” Kalna whispered softly. She was staring up at them too. It was a breathtaking sight.

  “Keep rowing,” the captain ordered, and I snapped back into my seat, gripping my oar tighter and falling into stroke with the rest of the elves. We rowed closer, the captain gripping the tiller and guiding us into the small inlet.

  Immediately, I could tell that something was wrong. A small village sat along the shore that faced the deeper part of the harbor. It had no walls and no stockades, but that didn’t mean it was defenseless. We were still about a hundred paces or so from the village itself, but I could see soldiers in the streets. They wore black armor that had become very recognizable to us over the past few months. Most were still on horseback, corralling a group of younger men and women—prisoners apparently—while one man had stayed behind, using a torch to set the hay roofs of the houses on fire.

  “Get me to land.” I gritted my teeth. The captain nodded, not even caring that I wasn’t rowing anymore. The elves picked up the pace, rowing us closer to the village. As soon as I could see that the water was shallow enough, I jumped out of the boat, shivering and spluttering as the icy water immediately soaked me through. I waded toward shore as quickly as I could while wearing the light plate armor. I reached it before the boat did, and pulled my sword from its sheath.

  A collection of people, mostly men in poorly-assembled armor and mismatched weapons, were fighting a group of Trelans on horseback. They seemed understandably angry, keeping the men on horseback at bay with a collection of spears, farming implements, and bows. The Trelans were playing with them, though, using lances to get past the shorter spears, injuring the men. As I ran over to help them, a group of six men and women came out of the cover of the buildings, thinking I was with the Trelans. The Darkness roared at me to kill them, but I clenched my jaw and held back the urge. I was here to fight Trelans, not some villagers.

  “I’m a friend!” I shouted, shaking my head.

  They didn’t understand and kept their weapons pointed at me. These weren’t soldiers. They were a couple of old men with bows, and the rest were women. One of them, a lean, hungry-looking redhead, caught my eye as she snarled, waving a sickle in my face.

  “Oh, fuck this.” I looked over at the Trelan soldier who was gleefully setting fire to the village. He still hadn’t noticed the boats pulling into shore, although I had no idea how he hadn’t seen us. I hefted my sword, and, after a moment’s thought, threw it at the man. The villagers raised their weapons again—I could see that a couple of the older men were about to loose their arrows at me.

  They lowered their weapons, though, when the sword hit the Trelan soldier hard enough to knock him from the horse, sending him tumbling head over heels to the ground, my blade buried deep in his chest.

  “Does that prove I’m not here to hurt you?” I cried, looking around. They still didn’t understand me, but their eyes were drawn to the rest of the Trelans, who had noticed that their friend had been killed and were coming back around to investigate.

  “Good enough.” I jogged over to where the man lay. His horse seemed oddly calm, considering that the buildings around it were on fire. And the small matter of its rider having being killed with a sword thrown from twenty paces away.

  It was a damn good throw, I thought with a grin, pulling the sword clear and flicking the blood from it as I looked up. The rest of the Trelans seemed happy enough to let their captives be reclaimed later. They had now seen that boats were coming into the harbor and one of their men was dead.

  I rolled my neck and took a deep breath. Then I flooded my limbs with the kind of power I needed without actually letting the Darkness take over. It was a trick Eira had taught me, one I’d finally managed to master on boat ride over here.

  It felt surprisingly good, less like I was holding a hound on a leash, and more like I was using a weapon to my advantage.

  The men surrounding the militia noticed that there was trouble brewing and broke away as the rest of my team jumped out of the boat and started getting into a battle formation. Three of them joined Leena and Eira as they ran, stringing bows and shooting arrows at the men approaching from the land side, the two dozen soldiers that had been keeping control of the prisoners. Eira didn’t have a bow, but I could see a pair of icicles forming in her hands. She didn’t even throw them. She just raised her hands, and they flew as if of their own will, speeding into the charging horsemen.

  The first volley of arrows threw the charge into disarray. Horses tripped over their fellows, followed by the sounds of men and beasts crying out in pain. Kalna, the captain, and the rest of the elves charged into the fray as the men tried to regain control of their horses.

  Which just left the ten men on horseback galloping toward me.

  Well, I had been feeling a bit cooped up on the ship. I needed to get out and stretch my legs.

  Odd. That sounded suspiciously like something the Darkness would say, but it hadn’t come from that chilling voice in my mind. It was my thought.

  There would be time to consider that later.

  I gripped my sword tighter. I didn’t need to see it to know that it was smoking in anticipation of use. I would have to figure out if it was sentient in its own right, or if it was just an extension of the Darkness’s desire for destruction.

  One of the riders was slightly ahead of the rest, clearly a bit more confident about taking care of this impudent upstart once and for all. I charged at him, sidestepping the lance that was supposed to impale my chest. I chopped the lance’s head off in a swift cut and flicked the blade up toward the horse’s muzzle. The smart move would have been to kill the horse, of course, but I just couldn’t stand that one of my first actions in this new land was killing a horse. It just didn’t seem right.

  You actually killed a Trelan first. As well as saving a bunch of villagers.

  I didn’t tell the Darkness to shut up as the horse reared, avoiding my blade by a matter of inches. The sudden stop dislodged its rider, and sent him tumbling backward into the dust. I was on him before he could get up, delivering a swift chop that sent his head rolling a few feet away. His body lay flat and still on the ground a second later.

  The rest of the riders reined their horses in. I assumed they were part of an army. An army that would not appreciate them being wasteful with warhorses by charging them at a man who was clearly not afraid to kill the beasts. Or so they thought.

  They dismounted and started coming at me in a loose formation. I smiled. That made things a lot easier, and on top of it all, I wouldn’t have to kill any of the horses.

  Everything is going your way.

  I grinned, charging at the group of nine men. They quickly closed ranks, forming a phalanx, their shields making a wall with their lances pointed outward and aimed at me. I led with my sword, cutting the heads off the lances and coming in closer, raising my blade and swing
ing it down with as much strength as I could muster.

  The black blade cut through the thick metal shields like they were paper, cleaving into the steel helmet of the owner, as well as his head. I pulled my blade clear, using the motion to behead the man to the right. I kicked the first dead man back as I pivoted, hammering my elbow into the man to my left. I heard crunching bone, and he flew into the formation that he was part of, sending three men sprawling in his wake.

  The men quickly discarded their lances and tried to draw swords, but I was already on them. The three men still standing to my right were the first to go. One was dispatched with a firm punch to the face with my left hand as my right cut through another shield and into the man’s chest. The last managed to drag his blade clear of its sheath before I hammered a kick into his midsection, sending him to the ground. I’d felt his ribcage collapse under the black mail armor.

  He’s not getting back up.

  “That’s the idea.” I pulled my sword clear of the man’s chest. The remaining three men had already regained their feet and were clearly starting to question their decision to pick a fight with me. One of the men turned around and started running for his horse. The other two were distracted for a moment by their comrade’s sudden desertion. That was all the time I needed. I charged at them, smoothly beheading one and knocking the second to the ground. I planted my blade in his chest before he knew what was happening.

  I left the sword there for the moment, watching the one man who had made the wise decision to run. I shook my head, looking around and finding the lances that had been dropped. I hefted one of those that still had its head intact, weighing it quickly and then raising it.

  The man reached his horse and mounted it with a leap. He kicked the horse frantically into a gallop and tried to reach the forest and the cover of the massive trees.

  He was almost halfway there when his chest exploded outward from the lance that had pierced his back and continued all the way through his body. He swayed under the added weight, losing his grip on the saddle and dropping to the ground. The horse slowed and came to a stop just shy of the woods.

  “Damn good throw,” I commented with a satisfied smile, turning back around. I strolled over to where I’d left my sword in the man’s chest, pulling it out in a swift motion. When I looked up, I saw the villagers standing over the bodies of the soldiers I’d killed. When they noticed me walking toward them, they quickly raised their weapons.

  “In case you haven’t noticed,” I pointed at the bodies with my sword, “I’m not actually here to kill you. I’m a friend. Well, not an enemy, anyway.”

  They seemed to understand what I was saying, and the weapons came down again. A man with a rough, bushy beard approached me. He wasn’t wearing a breastplate, and his helmet was too big for his head.

  “That was terrifying.” The man spoke with an odd accent. It didn’t sound even vaguely like the way the Trelans spoke.

  “You’re welcome. I wasn’t aware that Trelans were fighting Trelans around here. Might have saved us some time. How can they be sending out such large invasion forces if they’re fighting on their own homefront?”

  The man tilted his head, causing his helmet to fall forward over his right eye comically. He quickly adjusted it.

  “We are not Trelans, Dark One.” He shook his head. “We fight them.”

  “Again, with this ‘Dark One’ business,” I muttered under my breath. “I have a map that says otherwise. There was no other kingdom marked on this continent.”

  “Was the map made by the Trelans?”

  “Yes—oh.” I realized what he meant. The Trelans clearly thought the whole continent belonged to them, whether the rest of the people on it liked it or not. “Who are you folks, then?”

  “We could ask you the same question,” one of the others said.

  It’s almost like you didn’t just save these men’s lives or something.

  “My name is Braks.” I took a moment to clean my sword of blood before slipping it back into its sheath. “I’m a captain and a warrior from the Kingdom of Radon, across the sea. And if any of you calls me ‘Dark One’ again, I will not take it well.”

  One of the other men looked over to where Kalna, Leena, Eira, and the elves had just finished dealing with the rest of the Trelans.

  “Are those Elves?” the young man asked, looking astonished.

  Oh, right. I had forgotten about the Trelans’ obsessive hatred for all things with pointed ears and other elf-like features.

  “Yes” My hand reached for my sword again. “And if having elves saving your lives is going to be a problem, I’m sure we can find a way to fix that.”

  “There’s no need for that, D—Captain Braks,” the bearded man hurriedly corrected himself. “The genocide of the elves is one of the reasons why we fight. It was one of the most hideous war crimes in our history, and if you knew our story, you would realize that this is a great feat. We just thought they had all been killed, is all.”

  “Well, they’re not,” I replied with a small smile. “Now, I’ve told you who I am. What are you doing here?”

  “The Trelans have been powering an invasion force into our lands,” the bearded man said. “There was a levy raised to repel them, but we didn’t have sufficient weapons or armor to go round, so those left without, like us, were reduced to support. And when word came that the Trelan cavalry was raiding the villages on the coast, what men could be spared from protecting the cities were sent to help.”

  “A bunch of support troops with no weapons and no armor sent to fight cavalrymen?” I shook my head. “I ought to have a word with your commander.”

  “We did the best we could in the circumstances,” the bearded man replied defensively.

  “Yes, I know. I’m sorry,” I answered quickly. “I’m just not in the best of moods. Although if I were you folks, I’d strip these Trelans of their weapons and armor before heading back.”

  The men nodded, clearly agreeing. I turned away, heading back to the small village. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. While this did seem like a very one-sided war these poor bastards were fighting, one might think that this God-King would want to focus on winning one war at a time. Well, maybe not. He clearly had the forces to spare if he could be winning this war so easily while sending two of his sons with fairly large forces each to start invading a whole other continent. It wasn’t like he knew that his sons would be dealing with the likes of me.

  I doubted he would be making the same mistake again. Even if he did, I had to plan as though someone had somehow informed him about the man who could tear his precious firstborns in half when he was angry.

  I was curious as to how he’d take the news. I didn’t have any sons, but I couldn’t imagine reacting well to finding out that any of them were dead. Then again, a man who called himself the God-King couldn’t be expected to react normally to anything.

  As I returned to the village, I saw that the horses were being led back to it by the elves. The former prisoners were quickly stripping the dead Trelans of weapons and armor, and the villagers all looked like they had no idea if they should be happy about being saved or terrified by the newcomers who had handled their attackers so easily.

  All but one, it seemed. Kalna was talking with the young woman with red hair I’d noticed earlier, the one that had been waving a sickle at me. She had shown no sign of being able to speak or even understand what I was saying before, but now she and Kalna were conducting a full conversation. I narrowed my eyes and approached them.

  “Oh, Braks, there you are,” Kalna said, quickly nudging the young woman to come and talk to me. “This is Jule. She was speaking a very ancient Elfish dialect when she saw us.”

  She smiled boldly, stepping in closer and offering me her hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you properly, Braks. I’m sorry about earlier.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. Before, she had shown no sign of being able to understand me, and now, she was speaking Common without even a trace of an ac
cent.

  Jule seemed to detect my hesitation and looked over at Kalna. “The Elf Kalna reached into my mind and taught me your tongue. It was a rather pleasant experience.”

  I looked over to Kalna. “You can do that? And you never told me about this skill of yours?”

  “Grandmother taught me a great many skills, Braks, but I don’t have the time to lay them all out for you,” Kalna answered with a small, teasing grin.

  “Right, but this does seem rather more useful than most other powers.”

  “Well, it requires us to be speaking a language that the other understands first,” Kalna explained. “She knew an old Elfish language that I could understand. Once that connection was established, I was then able to reach into her mind and expand her knowledge using mine.”

  “That’s impressive.” I smiled, but it disappeared quickly. “Wait. How come you never used this power of yours to teach me how to speak Elfish? Elven?”

  “Elfish,” Kalna corrected. “And I thought I had done that for you already. I mean, I did it with Leena and Eira.”

  I sucked in a deep breath as Kalna came in close to me, placing her hand on my back.

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized, trying to keep my voice lower now. I reached out to take Jule’s hand, which she had kept outstretched for the duration of the conversation. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jule. And I’m really glad you’re not still trying to threaten me with a sickle. I’d suggest picking up a more efficient weapon, like a pitchfork.”

  Leena came over from helping the released prisoners strip the dead Trelans of their weapons and armor, as well as recovering her arrows.

  “Well, there are plenty of weapons to go around now,” Leena commented with a grim smile. “A spear might be best for you, though.”

  “What do you mean?” Jule looked confused.

  Leena looked at Kalna and me for some kind of support before continuing. “A spear is a versatile weapon that requires very little training to put to good use.”