The Great Hearts II: A Game of Gods

by David Oliver

  In a short time the spider queen realised that it could not dislodge me alone, and it began sending it spiderlings to crawl along its body to try and attack me. Luckily, my panther honed senses made sure that I was aware that they were coming. Those that approached met a grisly end.

  The roars of the troll began to lessen and so I forced myself to move faster, slicing my blades in long lines across its rows of eyes, popping each one. Sadly, I was wrong to think that defeating something as big and dangerous as this spider would be as easy as that. Shimmering power began to gather around the spider and the hairs on my arms and neck stood up like in the air before a storm. Currents of purple light shimmered across the thick hairs of its body. The energy sparked and crackled and began moving in random arcs between its follicles. Knowing that it was likely my death I grimly continued hacking away. My mission was not yet over and if I left the spider its eyes we would be in trouble regardless of if I saved the troll - if the queen was still around it could send its minions to hunt the others down before they got out of the ice caves.

  I continued my work, hoping upon hope that whatever the purple light was it wouldn’t do as much damage as I thought it might. When it hit the pain was indescribable. Intense agony that - if I hadn't already been subjected to mind altering torture earlier - I surely would have crumbled. Screaming aloud, I hacked and sliced, venting my pain and fury upon the beast beneath me. The sparking energy shimmered along the metal blade I held in my hand, turning it into a blaze of purple that sizzled the eyes of the queen, turning its own magic against it. Soon there was nothing left that I could do. My insides were likely a charred and broken mess, my hands blackened along with the rest of my own skin. Even with the regenerative powers gifted to me by Seya, my body was crumbling beneath the spider queen's assault. With a final, agonised swipe I managed to darken the final segment of the queen's head, rendering it completely blind.

  And that was as far as I could go.

  With a gasp, the blade fell from my charred hands and I slipped from the thick hair of the beast to plummet to the floor below, landing on something soft and squishy that left a vile taste in my mouth. The spider queen was stamping in pain and horror, its wild hissing like a pit of snakes. Its legs flailed wildly, each one capable of sending myself or the troll flying into the wall and most likely into the next world. I could only watch through bleary eyes as one of those legs came perilously close to my torso. Relief turned to panic, turned to mind bending agony as just as I thought I was safe it rose up and with immense ease crushed my foot to powder.

  If I'd thought I had felt pain before, this was a whole new level. I would like to say that my scream was a manly thing full of grit and determination - but that would be about as far from the truth as it could possibly be. It was a high pitched, wordless thing composed of sheer agony. Every nerve ending in my brain exploded in pain until, blessedly, I blacked out. When I came to, seconds or eternities later, a small part of my mind hoped that I had missed the rest of the battle. Sadly, as is often the case in my life, things rarely turn out how I want.

  My eyes opened and I saw the spider queen's leg descending again; no doubt she had heard my piercing scream and pinpointed my location, seeking to take revenge for the loss of her eyes. The great foot descended and squelched the spider that had been my cushion, my last second roll flinging me out of harm’s way. Thus began the strangest game of cat and mouse that I had ever partaken in, a surprising claim to fame considering that I had a giant cat as a training partner.

  As I rolled weaponless amid the dead and dying spiderlings, trying to avoid the tree trunk legs of the spider queen, I soon discovered that some of the spiderlings were still alive enough to complain about my treatment of them. There were only a few, however even that small amount was enough to pose a threat - and that is how I found out how it was to bite into a spiderling with my bare teeth. I felt a strange satisfaction in being able to fight so effectively whilst down one limb. I knew that what I was doing was long beyond the scope of most humans, possibly even beyond the scope of Tyrgan with his tyrant blades, and that my broken and charred body still functioned at all was a wonder. Seya’s regenerative powers were nothing to be sniffed at but I didn’t want to test if they would be enough if one of those errant tree trunk legs hit me dead centre. As I continued my desperate rolling I could feel strength slowly beginning to return. Though just a trickle, it made the dodging ever so slightly easier, or as easy as dodging with one foot could be. Casting my eyes wide, looking for an advantage - anything at all that could help - I saw a tell-tale glint of metal shining from one of the mummified larders hanging from the ceiling. With my weapons long gone it was as good an option as any.

  I rolled my way across the broken spiders, my ankle sending mindless waves of pain radiating through my body. Powering off my remaining foot, I jumped the short distance to the hanging larder and dragged it to the ground. The web was thick and sticky, and I imagine if I had the strength of a normal human I could have found myself in a very precarious situation indeed. Quickly I managed to tear a gap for the hilt and grasping it I hauled the blade out of the thick webbing. Just in time too for the spider queen had heard my liaisons with its harvest and multiple legs were thundering towards my position, likely moving faster than I could roll. Aware that I was about to die, I raised the blade and thrust it at the closest leg, sidestepping as I did so. If I had had time to admire the sword that I pulled from the larder, I would have noticed that it was a thing of beautiful construction. A curved blade the length of a standard military sabre, its edge gleaming with razor sharpness and the blade itself seemed to glow with an inner light. As I thrust towards the leg I felt something pull inside of me and something flashed; a gleam of light that extended out from the blade and was gone in a second. Instantly I felt tired, drained in a way that I had not felt since before meeting Seya. Exhaustion was the better term; every single cell in my being felt like it was slowly switching off.

  Whilst I focused on the workings of my body and the strange new exhaustion, I realised that I wasn’t yet crushed to death. Looking up I saw the leg that had been descending to crush me was no longer there. Instead the limb was sheared through and a black, blistering substance was eating into the stump of the spider queen’s leg. I noticed then that the high-pitched screeching that I had been hearing and assuming was part of my brain going to sleep was in fact the spider queen’s screams. Acrid smoke billowed out of the spider queen’s leg and sizzling sounds could be heard underneath its hissing screen. Unfortunately I did not have time to admire my apparent handiwork as the queen flailed crazily, overcome by anger and pain. A leg came out of nowhere and took me in the side of the chest, breaking bone and sending me cartwheeling across the room. When I came to a stop everything hurt. I struggled to breathe, the bone in my chest having perforated my lung. Blood spattered my hand as I coughed; a wet, thick sound.

  Vision swimming, I tried to sit up and promptly passed out.

  I was in and out of consciousness over the next few moments or minutes or hours; time is a weird thing when you’re concussed. I recall seeing the spider queen moving in my direction, I saw a hazy figure standing before me and I remember bright bursts of light, and then I saw no more.

  Chapter 15

  Recovery

  Waking up after being knocked unconscious is a very strange experience. Especially if the place you end up waking is not the place you remember being last. It makes you realise that you were either far more hurt than you had previously thought or were so tired that your body had no choice but to shut down and sleep. In my case both applied. I woke in a comfortable bed covered by thick furs, with a warm, mellow feeling deep inside my chest. I was aware of the pain that still wracked my body and knew that I should be screaming in agony but it was kept at bay by something strange and wonderful. I didn’t know what it was but all I knew was that I wanted more.

  I only realised that I had verbalised those thoughts aloud when a chuckling figure moved into the edges of
my vision, his young face seemingly aged with worry. Cassius.

  “The medicae did say that it was potent stuff,” he said as he sat on the side of the bed. “I have a feeling that it’s a mixture of poppy and alcohol, something that is certainly going to leave you feeling in a good mood.” He sighed a deep and long sigh. “A reward, I guess, for someone who managed to get beaten up quite so badly as you.”

  I coughed and reached for the glass of water next to my bed. Calidan quickly sprung to his feet, grabbed the water and guided it to my lips. After quenching the desert that was my throat, I nodded at him thankfully and spoke.

  “What happened?”

  “What do you remember?”

  I thought back to the battle, my memories after my injury fragmented and splintered. “I got hit by the leg,” I said slowly, thinking. “No, wait. I grabbed the sword, the sword that was hanging in the larder. The spider was going to hit me and I moved to deflect it. Something happened and its leg was gone and this black...bubbly...something was moving up what remained. Then it hit me and everything from then on is a bit of a blur.”

  Cassius’s face was grave. “I saw you get hit,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I honestly thought you were dead. I didn’t think anything alive could survive the impact that you took.”

  “You were there?”

  A nod. A grim smile. “Of course I was there.” A spark of humour lit his eyes. “I knew that left on your own you would end up getting yourself hurt, if not killed. So I saw the others into the main tunnel and then came back just in time to see you grab the blade and stand against the spider queen. You swept the blade up, and for a moment you glowed, then the spider’s leg simply...cut.”

  “What do you mean I glowed?” I said incredulously. “It’s not something I often go about doing.”

  “I mean what I said,” Cassius said casually. “I mean what do you expect? You went and picked up what I’m fairly certain is a tyrant blade, one that seems to forcibly draw seraph from you and use it to fuel its attacks. I’m pretty confident that’s why you were so tired, it expunged your entire seraph pool.”

  “...Then the other person?”

  He nodded. “I saw what the blade had done, I figured it was our best shot at staying alive. Whilst the queen was flailing in pain I sprinted, grabbed the sword, and did my best to figure it out.”

  “You stood against the queen? Alone?”

  “She was hurt, blinded and mad with pain,” he replied with amusement in his voice. “But yes, yes I did. Though I certainly wasn’t alone. You forget our muscular and troll-like friend. Between the two of us we managed to drive her deep into the tunnels where she is either dead, dying, or licking her wounds. Either way I managed to pick you up and drag you back to the others.”

  I looked at my friend with awe. “If you wielded that sword and you didn’t collapse, then your seraph pool must be…”

  “Massive, apparently,” Cassius replied with a laugh, “and yours my small, panthery friend, is tiny. Good to know that you can’t beat everyone at everything! And that reminds me.” He reached over to his side and deposited a sheathed blade on the bed. “This is yours.”

  I reached down and slowly removed the blade from the sheath, examining the exquisite workmanship with a careful eye. “It’s a magnificent blade,” I murmured softly, before sliding it back into its sheath. “And it’s yours.”

  Cassius gave me a stunned look. “You can’t be serious! That’s a tyrant blade! You don’t just give those away.”

  “A blade which you have proven far more capable of using,” I replied calmly. “You saved my life down there Cassius. I might have been the one to find the blade but you’re the one who used it to defeat that beast. As far as I’m concerned you have far more right to this weapon then anyone. Besides,” I gave him a wink, “I can’t keep having all the fun. It would be good to have someone else who can take a few of the beatings every now and again.”

  He scoffed. “Pretty sure I can give you a beating right now!”

  I glanced at my bandaged form and wiggled my little finger. “I confess I’m not at my finest form right now. But I do have a functioning finger. Prepare for a whooping.”

  It turned out that laughing with broken ribs was a distinctly painful experience. Worth it.

  Cassius didn’t reach for the sword that lay on my lap, just sat by my side whilst I drifted in and out of sleep, updating me on the fort and the Meredothians when I was coherent enough for it and indulging me in drug induced nonsense when the blessed doctor came to refill my supply of whatever potent concoction she used. In my more lucid moments I asked after and saw the others, all looking battered, bruised but very much alive. All but Rikol who was feverishly sweating out whatever poison the spiders had used to keep him immobilised.

  And, every now and then, I asked about the troll.

  Cassius would stiffen slightly whenever I mentioned it. An almost imperceptible tightening of his muscles that I doubted even he knew he was doing. It didn’t take me too long to probe through his defences and discover what ate away at him.

  “I’m positive that I knew that creature, or whatever it used to be,” he said slowly, perhaps expecting me to laugh him out of the room. When I didn’t he continued less gingerly. “Something about its…”

  “Its eyes,” I finished, nodding. “I felt exactly the same way.”

  “It’s fucking eyes!” Cassius exclaimed, and that was when I knew that this had been eating at Cassius whilst I had been recovering. Cassius wasn’t much for vulgarity.

  “What happened to it?” I asked, before we delved deeper into the topic of how or why we both felt like we knew a strange troll out in a place we had never before been.

  Cassius’s eyes narrowed in recollection. “It was hurt. Really badly hurt. But it still kept on fighting. Its raw power was astonishing, able to tear through the chitin of those giant spiders where even you had trouble. I think the only reason we survived was due to the focus of the spiderlings being on that beast.” He shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. “Anyway, it was torn and bleeding, its flesh cut to ribbons and it had been stung so many times that I honestly was surprised that it wasn’t keeled over and bubbling poison. But whatever else it might be, it’s a troll. Its powers of regeneration are ridiculous. So whilst I picked up your sword-”

  “Your sword,” I interjected.

  “The sword,” he conceded, “and fought the spider queen, the distraction provided the troll with enough breathing room to begin healing. By the time I had driven the queen off, most of the cuts in its flesh were nothing more than scars.” He paused a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. “The spiderlings lost all sense of coherence when the queen fled, as though her pain or fear overwhelmed any intelligence that they might have had. They fled or attacked in aimless fashion. The troll ripped through them all with a vengeance. A massacre.”

  “They deserved it,” I replied firmly.

  “Perhaps,” Cassius shrugged. “Or perhaps not. Should predators be destroyed just because they follow the laws of their nature?”

  “Should trolls be destroyed, should the beast that murdered our village be destroyed?” I said rhetorically in return. “My answer is yes, if it threatens me or mine. That holds for a lion in the endless sea as much as it does for some demon from a different world.”

  Cassius considered this a moment before replying. “Would you kill the lion’s cubs?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they hadn’t done anything to me.”

  “A fair reply. You would kill that which seeks you harm, but not seek vengeance against anything else. Well...this troll slaughtered everything that remained in that cavern,” Cassius said heavily. “Everything except you and me. It chased after the weak, the wounded, and glorified in their deaths. It enjoyed it.”

  “Sounds like most trolls I’ve heard of,” I replied. “They aren’t exactly known for being squeamish about killing.”

  “But
they stop. They kill primarily for food, not for sport,” said Cassius. “This troll roared in delight as it shredded spiders leg by leg. Something that I don’t think its kin would do.”

  “If they are its kin,” I murmured darkly.

  “Agreed. It’s no troll that I have ever heard of or seen before. But we both felt that sense of recognition, something about those eyes that seemed so familiar. Plus even in its frenzied rage it didn’t kill us. Suggesting that for some reason it wanted us alive, whether by pure chance or because it needed to, I do not know.”

  “…So where is it then?” I asked slowly. “What happened to it?”

  “It...it…” Cassius broke off, frustration evident in his face.

  “It what, Cassius?”

  He sighed. “It came and watched over you. It let out the biggest growl when it realised you were breathing, almost like it was relieved and frustrated at the same time. At first I had the blade at the ready, though I was so tired that my arm could barely hold it steady, after all it was covered in spider ichor and I had just seen it peel a spider apart like a grape and eat it, but it made no move to hurt you. Just sat and watched until I recovered enough to move you. When I did it made no move to assist, just followed me out of the ice caverns as though keeping guard against potential threats. Ella and Sophia had set up camp a little way outside, waiting for us. The troll made sure I arrived there safely and then peeled off, heading back into the woods. I don’t doubt it kept watching, tailing us to the fort.”