The Toldar Series Box Set

by Matt Mememaro

  “Show yourself,” she said. Her crossbow found it’s way into her hands.

  A streak of white flash through the gap in the trees, more kindling and leaves, being crushed underfoot. Lois readied the trigger and sent off a bolt into the shrub.

  “There’s no need to be so aggravated, Lois,” Zarazenih said. The Ghost revealed himself with the bolt grasped firmly in his hand. He wore his loincloth and his white hair was now shaved close to his skull. “I didn’t want the other Hunters to know I was here until you were ready to introduce me.”

  “Why are you here, what happened to Barros?” Lois asked.

  “I couldn’t kill him, he was too strong.” He touched his side and stomach. “These scars were given to me by him. He said it worked and I had something to give you,” Zarazenih said. He reached behind his back and revealed the dagger, holding it outstretched towards Lois. “Take it, he said you’ll know when to use it.”

  “This is a Dreyth blade. The only other one I’ve ever seen was Abner’s. How did Barros come by this?” Lois asked with a slack jaw. She ran her hand along the runes.

  “I’m not sure, but as far as I know he intends to kill Abner, you can’t use it,” Zarazenih said. “If anything we need to see if it will do anything to Barros.”

  “No, we’ll do as we have been instructed to. If it was too dangerous you would have used it then and there. Abner will taste this blade, one way or another.”

  “Lois, who are you -”

  Lois rammed the dagger into her overcoat, beside the other, not wanting to raise any suspicious. She turned around and saw Gunthos stepping through the brush to meet them.

  “This is Zarazenih, Gunner. He’s the Ghost I told you about. He helped us tracking Gareth.”

  Zarazenih took a long bow to show he was not a threat. “Gunthos, finally we get to converse at last. This meeting is long overdue. We have both had losses to each other’s side in the past and I hope we can put that behind us.”

  “Your family killed my brother, I responded in kind. What do you want with us, wolf?” Gunthos asked. “This isn’t an ambush is it, Lois?”

  “No, he’s here to help get Abner out of the Lock. We could use the extra manpower,” Lois said. “He’s a big target.”

  “You trust him already? We’ve been hunting him for years.”

  “Gunthos, your quarrel is no longer with me. I was engineered to hunt you, but I now have a new purpose. Freeing Abner is the first step towards that purpose. I am his biological brother,” Zarazenih said.

  “You what? Barros Toldar only fathered one child and that child we’re trying to get out of the most impregnatable prison in the known world,” Gunthos said.

  “And like I have told you, I am here for the same reason you are. Should we get started now or wait around until he dies of starvation or torture?” Zarazenih asked.

  The Hunters and Zarazenih were gathered under the cover of night up the coast from the guardhouse and jetty. It could be seen in the distance out towards the open ocean. The moon illuminated the open passage between the main land and the Lock, the dark water swirling and raging out towards the open ocean.

  Sharks were notorious in these parts at this time of year, but the currents would be more of a concern. The distance between the two land masses was also a worry. From here the Lock’s walls were shrouded by the darkness, even with the moon shining on them. They wore no overcoat, the weight would be too much, and every Hunter carried the bare essentials, their swords, crossbow and their climbing knives, leaving the rest at the camp with Jarral.

  “Hope we’re all strong swimmers,” Gunthos said. The Islander was at ease in the water. “Might need to grab a ferry to do the trek back.”

  “It’s a long way out to the island,” Tori said. “We’re fucking crazy.”

  “We need Abner back. I need Abner back,” Lois said. She waded out into the shallows with her hand on her sword hilt. “Are you all coming or are you just going to stand there?”

  Memphis was the first to dip his toe into cold, dark waters of the channel and join Lois paddling out past the small break. The other Hunters and Zarazenih joined them moments later, out past the break and continued out into the darkness.

  The hours passed at an exhaustingly slow pace and slowly the island loomed closer. A shark had circled as the shoreline came into view, Zarazenih chasing it off, transforming back into his wolf form. The cannons on the walls stuck out from the ramparts like sore thumbs. At this range it would be next to impossible to miss the Hunters if someone began firing.

  Zarazenih was the first to shore, pulling his massive frame onto the rocks, panting from exhaustion. The party had let the current take them some of the way, and they were now situated on the north western side of the island.

  “We need to rest,” Tori said. She sat down beside Zarazenih wringing out her leggings. “That was a long swim.”

  Gunthos stood alone, looking out over the channel. The swim hadn’t tired him, and the Islander was now planning their next move. The pre-dawn sunlight was beginning to wash over it, turning the water into an odd yellow, brown color.

  “Are you lot ready to go yet? We need to get up and inside the Lock sooner rather than later. This island smells like shit as it is.”

  “Apologies we’re all not ironmen like yourself, Gunner. Tori, I don’t know how you do it,” Lois said. She winked in the couple’s direction.

  “You just have to take it as it comes,” Tori said. “Right what are we doing?”

  “I’m going to go into the prison and find Abner,” Lois said. “Gunner, Tahilia, Maxton, I want you three doing whatever you can to draw the guards away from our positions. There’s no way that I am swimming back across the channel, so we’re going to need a clean path to the pier. The cannons will be your first priority so we don’t get sunk crossing back.”

  “Got it. They’ll be out of commission in five minutes time,” Gunthos said. He pulled two climbing knives from his belt. “Time to impregnate this bitch.”

  “Oy,” Tori said.

  “Anyway, that leaves Memphis and Zarazenih to come with me. Any prisoners we can free, the better and more chaos it’ll be for the guards to clean up when we’re getting out of here,” Lois said. “Any questions?”

  “Yeah, can we go now?” Gunthos asked.

  Tori hit him. “Shut up, smartass.”

  Lois nodded and drew her own climbing knives from her belt. “Let’s go.”

  27

  Impregnation

  Lois was the first to reach the top of the wall, the other Hunters spread out over the course of several hundred meters for maximum effect. Zarazenih was the closet to her, thirty meters to her right. The wolf climbed in his human form, claws acting as his knives to find the flaws in the stonework.

  Lois had now reached the ramparts, to her right a guard stood idol with a longbow in hand. He looked out over Sauuria, watching the sun turn the land into a beautiful orange grassland. Seconds later, Lois leapt up in front of him and before he could usher a scream she had turned his vision red as he dropped to the floor in a pool of his own blood.

  The other Hunters were now attacking their prey. Zarazenih ran straight into a group of guards convening on the ramparts, sending them flying over the edge. Gunthos targeted the cannons, both of his knives almost causing a red mist in front of him. Other guards from along the ramparts saw what was happening and raced to aid their comrades.

  “Zarazenih, Memphis! We need to go now!”

  Lois was joined by the wolf and the younger Hunter and the three made their way down the stairs. The Lock looked different from the inside. Now looking up at the walls around them, this it was easy to see how escape was made almost impossible. Prisoners, a collection of naked men worked around them, pickaxes in their hands, digging into the dirt.

  “I can free those men,” Zarazenih said.

  “Do it then!” Lois said. “We need to find the registry and find where Abner is on this island. Can you track us?”


  “Of course, now move.” Zarazenih bounded over to the prisoners and began hacking at the communal pike set in the ground to keep them all chained. After two strikes from his powerful claws the shackles broke free and each man looked up at the giant wolf man, shocked. “Don’t just stand there! Take the fight to them!”

  Thirty prisoners were on the loose, members of the first group running to others, smashing their pickaxes into the shared pikes to free multiple men at once. Soon thirty became a hundred and their numbers continued to grow. With the other Hunters on the wall, most of the Lock’s guards were caught surprised by those kept under lock and key for so long rising up against them.

  Finally, an alarm began to sound, coming from a bell tower that stood above the town. Lois looked to the ramparts to see Gunthos flipping a cannon around before proceeding to load and fire it at the bell tower. Three shots from the cannon tore through the structure and began to collapse falling on other buildings around it, burying both prisoners and guards in the rubble.

  “Fuck yeah! Get that into you boys!”

  “Where are we going to find the records of the prisoners?” Lois asked.

  “Biggest building ought to be where they keep the records,” Memphis said. “Looks like that over there beside the bell tower.”

  Lois blinked and brought her Seeker vision forward. “There’s too many people in there for it to be an archive. Are you sure?”

  “One way to find out,” Memphis said. He opened the door and was met with the faces of fifty now armed and armored guards. “Think it’s the barracks. Zarazenih, want to handle this one?”

  Zarazenih was already half way changing into his wolf form. He stepped between the Hunters and the guards, growling, bearing his teeth his hackles raised. The first guard turned but found himself packed against his comrades. Zarazenih leapt forward and tore him to pieces.

  “Think we’ll leave him to it,” Lois said.

  “Truth be told I just wanted to see what he could do,” Memphis said.

  “It’s nice not being on the receiving end of it for once. The archive is behind the barracks. Let’s move.”

  The two Hunters raced alongside the barracks, listening to the screams of the men inside being torn apart by Zarazenih. Gunthos continued to fire the cannon overhead, destroying key parts of the Lock, including the gates that held the prisoners working in the underground tunnels.

  Lois barged her way into the archive to find a frail, graying man with a torch setting fire to the records. She stormed over to him and snatched the torch from his hand, pressing her hand against his throat. His wrinkled barely seemed to stay on his bones and his face reddened with her grip.

  “Tell me where Abner Toldar is!”

  The man’s voice was barely audible. “Who?”

  Lois slapped him across the face, her hand sounding as loud as the cannon outside. “A Hunter, a high-profile prisoner who would have been sent to the most isolated work unit! He would have come from Alilletia in the past two weeks!”

  “Cant... breathe.”

  “What?”

  “He needs air, Lois,” Memphis said.

  “Of course,” Lois said. She relaxed her grip. “Tell me where he is.”

  “I have a record here still of every prisoner to come in from Alilletia in the last two weeks. If you would let me go get it, I will able to be of assistance.”

  Lois drew her sword and poked it into his stomach. “Turn around slowly and show me, don’t try anything stupid.”

  “I’m an old man, I’m no threat to you,” he said. “But please follow me.”

  He walked down the furthest aisle on the left and pulled a leather-bound book from the middle shelf. The old man opened it and began turning through the pages. “Toldar, wasn’t it? Malvrok?”

  “Malvrok Toldar was shipped in here two weeks ago?” Lois asked. She snatched the book from the old man. “Eight years ago? But he died!”

  “I assure you my records are most up to date. If there is no date of death on that page, the prisoner is either still alive or has died in the past week!”

  “There’s no date of death,” Lois said. “And where’s Abner?”

  “It looks like they’re in the same work area. Section F-7 is where you’ll find them. If you go down into the tunnels, I’m afraid you’ll get very likely lost. I have a map if you would find that of use.”

  “Give it to me,” Lois said.

  “It’s on the table,” the old man said.

  “Brilliant, thank you, we’ll be on our way.” Lois rammed her sword into his gut, leaving the old man gasping for air.

  She snatched the table and walked outside, Memphis right behind her. They turned left and saw guards running. Zarazenih continued to tear through their ranks, his claws and entire head covered in fresh blood. He turned his head to the side responding to Lois’ whistle and paused tearing the head off a guard he’d had in his mouth. He began to transform back to his human form.

  “They taste like shit,” he said. The wolf put a finger into his mouth and picked out a piece of a helmet. “Metal doesn’t go down easily. What did you find?”

  “We’ve got a map and a location of where Abner is. It seems your uncle is also still alive,” Lois said.

  “Malvrok? But he’s been dead for years,” Zarazenih said.

  “We’ll find out,” Lois said. “Our source told us he’d be with Abner. We need to get down into the tunnels.”

  “It’ll be next to impossible to get out, do we get the rest of the group to come and search with us?” Zarazenih asked.

  “No, Gunthos and Tori don’t have the sight, we both do and I’m sure your wolf side has better vision than the normal human’s,” Lois said. “We need to get in and out as quickly as possible.”

  “I don’t think that the other group are in any trouble,” Memphis said. He pointed to the ramparts.

  Gunthos had now moved a second cannon into position beside the first and continued to fire both, screaming like a mad man. Maxton dueled with guards on the staircases and Tori rained death from above with her crossbow, ducking behind cover as the Lock’s archers fired back.

  Prisoners in their hundreds ran free, charging lines of guards with their pickaxes and shovels in hand. Fires burned from buildings that Gunthos had destroyed, torches once in their wall sockets now catching on floorboards or curtains.

  “We need to hurry,” Lois said. “Gunthos was kind enough to open our entrance to getting my fiancé back.”

  The two Hunters and the wolf moved towards the gaping hole that opened out of the side of a mountain. The smells of salt and shit greeted them wafting into their nostrils. Gunthos waved at them from the wall and moved one cannon to cover the entrance. Lois drew a vial of blood from her pocket, stabbed herself in the arm, pouring the blood into the wound and watched as her world turned red before her. The darkness in the hole became light as the group made their way inside.

  28

  The Doctor

  Abner couldn’t get Malvrok’s screams out of his head. The memories he had buried years ago, from the first time he’d picked up a sword through to the sight of the burning fortress inside the Tyrian Forest were all coming back to him. He hadn’t thought about it since his days with the Black Shards, and now each memory was as fresh as if it had only happened yesterday.

  Darkness encroached upon him once again when the jailor past him and Abner was left alone holding the pickaxe in his hands. The irons wrapped around his wrists and legs kept him weighed down and he could only move at a slower pace. But he needed to get to Malvrok.

  He tested the weight and the restriction the chains gave him by moving the pickaxe over his head. With a sword the movements would be easier, but this was all he had. The only way the pickaxe would be effective was with a slashing motion.

  “Jailor, I need assistance!”

  The torch the jailor carried blinded him to anything in the darkness and he stepped forward moving closer to Abner. The Hunter crowed and waited until he was just o
utside arm’s reach. He swung the pickaxe with all the force he could muster, bring it crashing down through the jailor’s head. His head exploded from the pressure, the torch dropping to the dirt, being snuffed immediately. Abner pushed blood through his veins to his eyes switching on his Vampire sight once again.

  Other jailors had heard the disturbance and they looked around to see the torch hit the ground. Abner allowed himself a smirk. With no light and even still in his chains picking off each guard would be child’s play. He turned around again and bought the pick down on the chains that kept him restricted, tied to the iron ball and he clawed his leg restraints off, ripping them in two. Now he was left with the two chains strapped around his wrists.

  “What’s going on here?” one of the jailors called out into the darkness. The only thing he could see were Abner’s red glowing eyes.

  Abner lashed out, the chains wrapping around the jailor bringing him closer. He let out a cry of confusion and shock before Abner leapt into the air, his knee connecting with the jailor’s chin. He fell backwards and didn’t get up. More torches came down the steep towards him at a rapid pace.

  Each man saw a glint of steel in the fire before the chain wrapped around their throats, pulling them to the Hunter. He flung one man off the side of the path, his screams falling with him until he hit the ground meters below. The other ended up with a rock in the place of his head, his skull beaten into the mound beside a prisoner as he dug.

  Abner grabbed the pickaxe again and walked between prisoners striking them free of their chains. Most of them looked as unkempt as Malvrok and looked as if they had been here just as long. Those that had been crouching or sitting stood and stared into the darkness.

  “What are you waiting for!” Abner asked. “Take your picks and see yourselves to safety! Fight for your lives!”

  As one the prisoners began to move, surging up the hill like a wave, charging headfirst towards the pickpockets of light that represented the jailors. One by one Abner watched as they were snuffed out, and the clanging of iron on iron meant more prisoners were being freed. He rounded on where Malvrok had been only moments ago, his scent still fresh. Abner left his pickaxe behind and followed the trail up the slope.