The Toldar Series Box Set

by Matt Mememaro

  Chains dangling by his side, Abner descended into the chaos, striking out at any jailors or any prisoners that came near. Malvrok’s scent was lit up for him and he continued to dive deeper into the tunnels. He left the prisoners here alone, leaving them to their own devices, only pausing to break the necks of the jailor’s as he snuck up behind them.

  The tunnel narrowed and Abner found himself inside a room covered in blood from the floor to the ceiling. A body lay strewn on a slab, disemboweled by the hatchet that hung overhead. He heard screams from another room and he raced around the corner to find Malvrok strung up, his limbs left to dangle in the air.

  One masked jailor had a dagger dug into his gut and a small black object in the other. Abner raced forward, swinging the chains around his body before flinging them forward. One chain cracked into his spine, whilst the other wrapped around his neck, taking his legs out from underneath him. The man sprung to his feet, reversed the knife grip in his hand and stared Abner down.

  “Are you the Doctor?” Abner asked.

  The jailor cocked his head to the side, assessing Abner. He took a step back and lifted one of the braziers off the wall. “I am, what concern is that to you, prisoner? You’re next.”

  “Usually when someone takes the time to go out of their way and hurt someone I care about, I’ll take my time to find a way to make them suffer,” Abner said.

  With a sharp cry that sounded almost like a bark, the Doctor leapt forward, stabbing at the air with his dagger. Abner stepped out of the way, tripping the jailor with a chain. He sprawled forwards into the dirt. Abner brought the chain down where he has had been, but the Doctor was fast.

  He was back on his feet and struck forward, an overhand right almost connecting with the Hunter. Abner stepped forward, forgoing the chains and parried a follow up strike from the Doctor, his own connecting with the collarbone. The Doctor stumbled and Abner hit again, his power too much for the mortal human. The collarbone cracked under the third strike and the Doctor fell to the floor.

  “Stay down,” Abner said. He walked over to his uncle. “Malvrok, are you alright? Need to stop the bleeding.”

  “Fuck off me,” he said. “Get the fuck away!”

  “I’m trying to help you!”

  Abner heard the knife being scraped off the floor, but he turned too late. The dagger came down in his left shoulder and he swiped madly at the Doctor. The backhand caught the jailor in the side of the face and sent him sprawling. This time he wasn’t fast to recover. His head smashed into the dirt and Abner grabbed a handful of his hair sitting down on his chest.

  Abner wrenched the knife from his shoulder and thrust it into the Doctor’s stomach, moving it several inches either side of the entry point. The Doctor cried out, his arms flailing hardly phasing Abner as he went to work.

  He removed the knife from its original point and pushed it through the Doctor’s knee caps, once again moving it several inches to either side to tear and the tendons and to leave permanent damage. Abner then got up and went to remove Malvrok from his bonds.

  “Fuck off, why can’t you just leave me alone!”

  Abner pulled back his fist and made a quick sharp jab into Malvrok’s temple. His eyes immediately rolled back in his head and he was out cold. Abner cut him down from his restraints and turned back to the Doctor who had tried to crawl away.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Abner grabbed him by the foot and dragged him around to here Malvrok had hung. “I told you this is what would happen. Why are you surprised?”

  “Please spare me, I have a wife and child I have to provide for,” the Doctor said.

  “You should have thought about that before you start tying up my family members and started using them for sport,” Abner said.

  He grabbed a fresh piece of rope and tied it around the Doctor’s leg before hoisting him into the air, tying him to the suspension piece. Abner then grabbed a second and repeated the same with his other leg, leaving his arms dangling and the blood rushing to his head. The blood trickling from his wounds running up his body rather than down, adding to the discomfort. Abner knelt to pick Malvrok up and threw him over his lifeless body over his shoulder.

  “You can’t just leave me here like this!”

  Abner paused. “You’re right.” He placed Malvrok gently back down onto the floor and picked up the knife again. He examined the Doctor hanging upside down. “But what state do I leave you in?”

  Abner slashed out with the knife, and the Doctor’s mask was torn in half, falling neatly on either side of his face. He smiled weakly at the Hunter and a second later Abner’s foot connected with his face. Abner felt the blood spurt out onto his foot as it left his face, and then continued with the knife.

  He tore open the Doctor’s shirt, not being careful with the knife, ripping flesh as he cut through the fabric. With each cut the Doctor would jerk violently trying to escape the pain. Abner then worked on his legs, opening the Doctor’s pants half on him in nothing more than a few pieces of tattered rawhide. The man now bled from over a hundred small cuts, Abner’s work with the knife messy and uncaring. It looked like the work of an amateur.

  “That’s how I will leave you.”

  He turned to leave, picked Malvrok up from the floor. Abner hoisted his uncle onto his shoulder and ignored the screams and pleads of the dying man suspended in the room behind him.

  29

  Escape

  With Malvrok still on his shoulder, Abner now searched for a way out of the hole. Each way he turned led to a dead end, filled with more prisoners and more guards. Going up in the Lock’s tunnels could mean he would eventually find himself at another dead later down the path.

  Abner moved slowly through the tunnel system, avoiding the guards when he could, often stopping and ducking behind the nearest rock. Due to the slaves yet to be unchained there was a constant clanging of steel on rock or thud as the chains hit the dirt. The jailors paid no attention to him as they passed, unable to barely see their hands stretched out in front of them.

  Time dragged on, as did the painful movements of sneaking Malvrok silently past the guards. His uncle started to grow heavy, Abner put him down to relax his shoulder and to consider a plan. Malvrok was in no state of mind to don the garb of a jailor to see himself freed, the man barely wanted to be touched when he was conscious. They would reach the outside and if it was day, and be thrown straight back into the cells.

  A yell came from up ahead, the rebellion he had started hadn’t reached this far into the tunnels yet. No prisoners could be heard shouting for their freedom, but those around Abner now looked up at the sounds. Through his Vampire sight, Abner saw jailors falling to a ranged assault, crossbow bolts catching them unawares. Further down the tunnel he could make out three Hunters coming towards him.

  “There he is!” Lois said. “Nowhere near where he was meant to be. Abner!”

  Abner waved at the group, gesturing them over. Lois fired her crossbow at the final jailor and he slumped to a heap on the ground. There was only fifty meters now between her and Abner and she ran to him. He picked her up by the waist, not caring what he was covered in, dirt, shit, and blood prevalent. among them. She kissed him with a fire, they’d been separate far too long.

  “I love you, I missed you,” she said. She kept repeating herself.

  “You finally came for me,” he said.

  “I couldn’t in Alilletia, my hands were tied,” Lois said. “Gareth had too much control and he’s been imprisoned at the Huntrey.”

  “You didn’t bring him here,” Abner said. “He betrayed us and the Huntrey. He should be left here to rot.”

  “You’re more important at moment. Holy shit! Is that Mal?” Lois asked.

  “Yeah, he’s been driven mad by this place,” Abner said.

  “I will carry him if you like brother,” Zarazenih said. Abner nodded his agreement. “I can also remember the route we took. It won’t be long until you’re home. We just need to fight our way out firs
t.”

  Following Zarazenih’s guide the group found their way to the surface, the sunlight blinding Abner as they emerged from the tunnel. Memphis tore off a piece of his shirt and gave it for Abner to cover his eyes whilst they adjusted to the sunlight that now burned across the Lock. Gunthos, Tori and Maxton had long since ceased firing, what guards that hadn’t been caught in their massacre were hiding inside what few buildings remained.

  The Hunters had left their mark in scaring the Lock, and the tunnel group now passed the mostly demolished town to well within range of the group on the wall. Abner kept his eyes on what guards remained, hidden inside the barracks with the angry prisoners storming around what remained of the town.

  “Abner do you like what we did to the place?” Gunthos asked from atop the wall. Abner looked up and gave his friend the thumbs up. “Sorry we couldn’t flatten the place for you. I ran out of cannonballs!”

  “Not a problem, Gunner, are we ready to go?” Lois asked as she reached the top of the stairs.

  “Absolutely! You said you wanted a hole in the wall, but this’ll be just as fun,” Gunthos said. He looked as happy as a child who’d just shot his first deer.

  “A zipline?” Lois asked. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  “We needed a way out, you’ve got a way out,” Gunthos said. “Quit your bitching and get on. I’ll go first.”

  “Is it even secure?” Abner asked. “It’s a piece of rope.”

  “More than what you and your uncle have got on at the moment, Toldar,” Tori said. She looked at them both and smirked.

  “We’re in a hurry,” Abner said. He wrapped the cloth that Memphis had given him around the rope. “I’ll find something when we get to a ferry.”

  “Alright, I reckon it can take two at a time,” Gunthos said. “Maxton, you’re next.”

  The guards saw the Hunters disappearing over the edge and began to emerge from hiding, emboldened by the shrinking number left on the wall. They began to clash with the prisoners, flesh and metal colliding together.

  Zarazenih slid down one handed, clutching Malvrok with his free hand and within minutes all Hunters had left the Lock behind. Gunthos was the last over the edge and he raced to the ground to meet the rest of the Hunters. When he landed he cut the rope leaving it dangling off the Lock’s wall. The jetty was abandoned, those stationed to guard it had been killed during the fighting.

  They ran to the now vacant guard house and out onto the jetty to the closest ferry. Tori picked up a pair of breeches and threw them to Abner. He pulled them on as Gunthos began to ready the ship for sail. Winds roared through the channel, and immediately the sheets began to take wind.

  “All aboard!” Gunthos said. “Quickly, the sooner we’re off this rock the sooner we can get home!”

  “Have you sailed one of these before, my love?” Tori asked.

  “Of course, used to sail the longboats at the Islands all the time!” Gunthos said. “Slightly different ship, but we should be able to get across the channel without too many concerns. My young Hunters burn those other ships! We don’t want a party chasing us!”

  Maxton and Memphis took up shooting positions on the bow of the ship, taking the braziers that were on the ferry and using them to warm the tip of their crossbows. Their fiery bolts then lit up the sky, making pincushions out of the remaining ships at the docks. The sails and mast quickly caught which then raced to the deck of the ships, leaving all four behind in a fiery blaze.

  “I never want to see that place again,” Abner said. He looked over his shoulder, but nobody was close enough to hear him.

  Zarazenih had sat Malvrok down on the deck, tying him to the mast in case of another violent outburst. He still hadn’t stirred. Abner ducked into the cabin, eager to scrub himself clean of the marks that the Lock had left on him, leaving Gunthos with Tori alone at the helm. Memphis and Maxton were left talking amongst themselves as they admired their handy work at the docks.

  Abner stood facing the mirror in the captain’s cabin, seeing himself clearly for the first time in weeks. He stripped the breeches off and once again shivered in the cold his nakedness provided. Dozens of small cuts lined his body, the mud numbing the stinging and his nose now sat in a crooked position, pushed to the side.

  There was a knock on the door. “Do you mind if I come in,” Lois asked.

  “Come in,” Abner said.

  She slipped inside, shutting the door silently behind her. She took one look at his body and shook her head. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’ll live,” he said. He looked up and stared at Lois. “Gareth took the amulets from me. Did you go back to the Huntrey with him?”

  “I did,” Lois said.

  “Did he have them with him?”

  “I couldn’t tell. When I was with you I was aware of their presence, but with him there was nothing. If he had them I think he passed them along to someone else.”

  “So who did he speak to when you were with him after my arrest?” Abner asked.

  “A lot of high profile Alilletians, many of the legal counsel, other representatives he had meetings with, I don’t know, Ab! I wasn’t there, only when he came to release me.”

  “Zarazenih was hunting Barros, and he was always interested in the amulets even when we were at West Anacore. Yet he told us to never put them all together. I need to find out who Gareth gave them to,” Abner said.

  “You’ll get your chance, my love,” Lois said. She took a cloth from the nearby table. “We need you to rest for now. And now that I have you back we also have a wedding to plan. I’ll help you clean yourself up.”

  30

  Rebirth

  Abner stood unmoved by Lois’ touch as she moved around with the cloth, scrubbing away the cloth, cleansing his body of the Lock. She began with his face, wiping away as much as possible, continuing to clean the cloth in a bucket of sea water she had retrieved from outside. They remained together for a while, Abner taking solace in her company, not exchanging another word.

  The ship came into land a short time later, Gunthos landing it a kilometer north of the receiving jetty. The party disembarked, Malvrok still out cold, carried by Zarazenih. Their camp remained untouched, Jarral had tended to it and kept the horses well-watered by the time they got back.

  “You got him out then?”

  “Got more than what we bargained for,” Lois said. “We dragged out his uncle as well. We need to get out of here now.”

  “Well you’ll find the horses are full of energy, no Vampires came by in the night and we’re ready to go,” Jarral said. “Sooner we’re away from here the better.”

  “We need to find out what’s happened to Malvrok,” Abner said. “Zarazenih if you’d please.”

  The wolf lay Malvrok in front of the group of Hunters and Abner sat down beside him. He slapped Malvrok across the face, gently at first, before the slaps became vicious. Malvrok woke up, his eyes snapping open, trying to get to his feet to strangle Abner. Eight years of being in the Lock had weakened Malvrok and Abner simply pried his hands away.

  “Get the fuck off me!”

  “Mal, stop! You’re free, you’re out of the Lock and we’re taking you home!” Abner wrapped his arms around his uncle again, staring him in the face. “Look at me, it’s Abner. We saved you from the Lock!”

  Malvrok froze and started to shake. “You didn’t save me, you shouldn’t have saved me, I didn’t deserve to be saved! Take me back!”

  “No listen to me!” Abner pulled him close to whisper into his ear. “Do you remember your brother, Mal, do you remember him?”

  “Barros!” Malvrok said.

  “Yes, keep your voice down,” Abner said.

  “He left me to die. I thought he’d come back for me, I thought he’d save me!” Malvrok said.

  “Yes, but you’re here now uncle. I’m his son, Abner. You raised and trained me, do you remember me?”

  Malvrok stretched out with his hand and touched his nephew’s face. “Boy, I remember
you. You survived. I’m so proud. All these years I thought you were dead.”

  “You taught me well, uncle. Lois is here too,” Abner said. Lois waved as she readied her horse.

  Malvrok smiled. “You two look so good together. Is that a ring I see on her finger?”

  “It is, we’re due to wed,” Abner said.

  Malvrok looked up to the sky and smiled again. “Ah wonderful, I hope you haven’t misplaced my invite.”

  “We haven’t, you’ll be front row. But before we get back to the Huntrey I need to know something. Do you remember what Barros wanted with the amulets of Tal’davin? One of the amulets that you left me when the fortress fell?”

  “I remember,” Malvrok said. “He wanted them all to keep them out of the Vampire’s reach locked away. ”

  “To keep them all for himself do you mean?” Abner asked.

  “Yes, that’s the future he had envisioned, even though ever since Lars Hunter walked Taagras we were told nobody should unite them all again. Unless they wanted Tal’davin to return with his Vampire horde.”

  “I thought he died not long after you did, but it’s recently come to light that he’s still alive and I have reason to believe he’s taken the two amulets I found and is now holding them,” Abner said.

  “I’ve thought back to when you were young and when he used to visit me. You changed him Ab, just like the Lock changed me. I feel so much worse, I’m weak. Do you have water?” Zarazenih already held a waterskin at the ready and passed it to Malvrok. “Here you go, uncle.”

  “Uncle?” Malvrok looked up at Zarazenih. “Did Barros fuck an Alilletian I didn’t know about? Gods, he was a busy man.”