Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  "You bear the burden of their deaths on your conscience, if you still have one." Kiara's expression hardened. "The lives lost in your pursuit of revenge, even after you learned the truth."

  "And what truth is that?" Sir Danna's face creased into a snarl, and her eyes went from Kiara to the Hunter and back. "That you two are in league, and that you've been working together since the very beginning? That you have been conspiring with him all along, helping him to evade me?"

  "And how exactly would she do that?" the Hunter asked. "Until I saw you in Vothmot, I had no idea you were hunting me."

  "Until I saw him on the stone bridge, I had no idea who we were hunting," Kiara added. "All these months, as I followed you blindly in your quest, can you possibly say that I was working with him? When would I have had the time to do that?"

  "He is a Bucelarii!" Sir Danna shouted. "You have no idea what dark powers he possesses, what evils he is capable of."

  The Hunter shot the knight a mocking smile. "If she was working with me, she would."

  "Enough!" Sir Danna shouted. "I will hear your lies no longer!" She rounded on Kiara with a furious glare. "You will deceive me no more!"

  Ice froze in the Hunter's veins as Sir Danna's hand flashed to the hilt of her greatsword. He moved without thinking, his right hand darting into the folds of his cloak for a throwing dagger. He brought his arm up, back, and forward in a blur of motion. Sunlight glinted off whirling steel as the blade spun through the air toward the knight.

  Sir Danna hissed in pain as the razor edge of the blade opened a gash along her right forearm before she could draw her sword. Her fingers unclenched and the sword clunked back into its sheath.

  The Hunter's eyes widened as he realized what he'd done. The Stone Guardians would sense the knight's blood. He had to get Kiara out of there before the monstrous creatures came for Sir Danna.

  He sprinted down the hill, crossing the ten paces to Sir Danna in four quick steps. Before the knight could turn to face him, he leapt onto a stone beside the path and threw himself at Sir Danna. He slammed into her armored chest and wrapped his arms around her midsection. The impact knocked her from the saddle, and the two of them crashed to the ground behind Sir Danna's horse hard.

  The Hunter twisted his torso as he flew through the air, landed atop Sir Danna, and rolled off onto the trail below her. He came to his feet, sword held at the ready. Sir Danna, stunned by the fall, lay groggy and dazed on the stony ground. She'd struck her head on a stone, and blood turned her red hair an even darker shade of crimson.

  "Kiara, you need to get out of here!" he shouted. "The Stone Guardians are going to smell the knight's blood and they'll be coming for her."

  "I'm not abandoning her to those monsters." Kiara's jaw set in a stubborn expression.

  The Hunter's eyes went wide. "If you don't, they're going to kill you, too." He could hear the roars of the Stone Guardians growing louder.

  "You've got more of those plant things, right?" she demanded.

  The Hunter nodded. "But enough for one or two."

  She threw up her hands. "You're the Keeper-damned Hunter of Voramis. Are you going to let some bloody stone monsters beat you?"

  "No, but I'm going to let them take her." He thrust a finger at the prone form of Sir Danna. "It's no more than she deserves for—"

  "For doing exactly what you did after the First hurt your Farida?"

  The Hunter's eyes narrowed.

  "She's just as wracked by guilt and anger as you were that night I saw you in the tunnels. Yet something stopped you from becoming the monster that the First and the Third were. Even if you are the descendant of demons, there's enough good in you to be worth saving." Kiara leaned forward and spoke in a growl. "Just as there's enough good in her to be worth saving, too. Even if neither of you can see it now, it's there."

  The Hunter shook his head. "I won't risk Hailen's life by drawing the Stone Guardians to her blood."

  "Oh, no?" Kiara's hand flashed toward the dagger at her belt, and she drew it and sliced a shallow cut across the back of her arm. "Now there are two of us bleeding. Are you willing to let me die, too?"

  The Hunter's gut twisted. He couldn't risk Hailen's life, but the same thing that had prompted him to help Kiara the previous day cried at him that he needed to save her, too. Which meant he had to save Sir Danna as well.

  "Damn you!" he growled at Kiara as he stooped and hooked his fingers into the gorget of Sir Danna's armor. "Get into the standing stones!"

  Kiara grabbed the reins of Sir Danna's horse and galloped the ten paces up to the Dolmenrath. To his astonishment, the Hunter found himself dragging the dazed form of Sir Danna up the trail. The knight was a short woman, but powerfully built and heavy with muscle. The added weight of her armor made her surprisingly difficult to move, even with his inhuman strength. The knowledge that the Stone Guardians would be coming for him in seconds kept him hauling her as fast as he could manage.

  He reached the standing stones mere seconds before the first Stone Guardian appeared below him. The Dolmenrath sat atop a hill, offering clear views of the mountainside around him. He could see half a dozen of the huge reptilian monsters climbing up the incline toward him, with more and more appearing from the surrounding mountains.

  The open gate to Enarium lay just a few hundred paces from where he stood, yet it could have been across the Frozen Sea. He wouldn't leave Kiara to die, and Kiara wouldn't leave Sir Danna to the Stone Guardians. He had to fight.

  "Wake her up!" he shouted to Kiara. "We're going to need her to survive this."

  Kiara crouched over the knight and tried to shake her awake. Sir Danna mumbled an incoherent response, but her eyes remained glazed, unfocused.

  The Hunter growled a silent curse. The blow to the head had dazed her, perhaps even fractured her skull. He'd have to face the Stone Guardians alone.

  He whirled toward Kiara. "Keep him behind you," he said pointing toward Hailen, "and keep him safe. Shout out if any of them get too close."

  Kiara nodded and drew her sword. She gripped it with the familiar ease of someone who knew their way around a blade. It seemed the months she'd spent with Sir Danna hadn't been passed in idle luxury.

  The Hunter crouched before Hailen. "The stone monsters are coming, and I'm going to need your help to fight them."

  Hailen's eyes went wide. "What can I do?"

  The Hunter gripped the boy's hand and held it up. "Your blood is the key to whatever power is in these stones. When Kiara tells you, I need you to use it, okay?"

  Hailen nodded, his expression a mixture of confusion and fear.

  Kiara stepped toward the boy and held out a hand. "Nice to meet you. Hailen, right? I'm Kiara. We're going to watch each other's backs, okay?"

  Hailen nodded, and he actually smiled as he shook her hand.

  The Hunter gripped Kiara's shoulder to draw her attention. "That power the boy has, only use it if things go really bad. Got it?"

  She raised an eyebrow. "You going to tell me what it is he's going to do?"

  The Hunter shook his head. "No time. But when the time comes, get to the ground as quickly as you can."

  Kiara nodded. "Got it. And Hunter?"

  The Hunter had begun to turn away, but her words brought him spinning back around with a curious expression.

  "I never expected I'd run into you again, but now that I have, there's one thing I need to say."

  He raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

  "Thank you."

  The words caught him off-guard.

  She smiled. "It took me a while to realize it, but you really did give me a second chance at life. It won't be wasted."

  The Hunter felt his lips stretch into a grin to match hers. "Let's see if you say the same after we get out of here, eh?"

  Kiara chuckled and nodded. "May the Watcher smile on you, too."

  He saluted with his sword, then turned to face the first monster to crest the hill.

  Chapter Forty-One

  The
Hunter sized up the defenses of his position at a glance. The four standing stones of the Dolmenrath stood nearly thrice his height and easily two full paces wide. The gaps between the stones were large enough for two men to walk through, but the enormous Stone Guardians would have to twist to enter the circle. They could come at him from all four sides, but only one at a time. Unless his luck turned rotten, he'd have a heartbeat or two to strike down each monster before he'd have to turn to face another.

  He hacked at the first of the Stone Guardians to squeeze through the standing stones, but his steel long sword clanged off the monster's stony skin. The creature let out a terrible roar, revealing long, sharp fangs. The deafening rumble brought back the instinctive fear the Hunter had felt in the tunnels beneath Voramis, when he faced one such monster summoned by the First. A great deal had happened since that day—the Hunter's fear had faded with everything he'd endured and survived since.

  He seized the Stone Guardian's spiked chin and head and, with a powerful wrench, twisted its neck. Its roar of triumph turned to a howl of pain as the movement contorted whatever it had for a spinal column. The huge beast flopped, its too-long arms sagging, and the Hunter shoved hard, hurling it back off the edge of the cliff it had scaled. Stone clattered on stone, followed by a distant crunch as the Stone Guardian hit solid ground far below.

  "Behind you!"

  Kiara's call brought the Hunter spinning around in time to see a Stone Guardian shoving his spiked head, massive shoulders, and heavily-muscled arms through the opening behind him, two paces from where Kiara stood crouched protectively over Hailen.

  The Hunter sprinted the four steps across the ring of standing stones toward the massive beast. He had no idea how he'd take the bastard down. He'd gotten lucky with the first one, but--

  "Use this!" Kiara said as she tossed something to him.

  The Hunter's gut clenched as he saw Lord Knight Moradiss' sword, taken from Sir Danna's unconscious hand, hurtling through the air. The stink of iron made him hesitate, but only a heartbeat. He dropped his long sword, reached out, and seized the hilt of the greatsword. His skin crawled at the near-contact with the metal, even through the leather wrappings of the guard. If he was to survive this, he'd have to use whatever tool got the job done most effectively.

  The Hunter brought the heavy, black-bladed sword whipping around his head in a two-handed blow that crashed into the Stone Guardians' neck. Even as he struck, he dreaded the inevitable jarring sensation as the sword rebounded off its stony skin. But instead of painful clanging of metal on stone, the greatsword sheared through. The monster's furious roars cut off in a choked cough as the sword nearly severed its head. It slumped to the ground, spraying black blood.

  The Hunter stared down at the sword in astonishment. What in the bloody hell?

  Back in the tunnels beneath Voramis, he'd tried to attack the monstrous Abiarazi using the Swordsman's twin iron blades. They had done little more than chip its stony skin. But there was something different about this sword. It seemed to hum in his hands in a way that no inert metal should. He didn't sense a presence from it as he did with Soulhunger, but the subtle vibrations ran down the length of the blade, through the hilt, and into his hands.

  He had no more time to contemplate the marvel, for another cry from Kiara brought him wheeling around to face a Stone Guardian clambering through the stones to his right. The creature opened its mouth to bellow, revealing hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. The Hunter rammed the five-foot iron blade straight down its throat. The gasping, gurgling sound of the dying Stone Guardian filled the Hunter with hope.

  That hope died a heartbeat later as the horses screamed, a sound of terror and pain. Kiara's cry echoed a moment later, accompanied by the clang of metal on stone. The Hunter whirled, and horror turned his blood to ice. One Stone Guardian tore the two horses apart, ripping at their flesh with six-fingered, taloned forepaws. Kiara lay on the ground, her sword on the floor out of reach. A Stone Guardian crouched over her, its liquid black eyes fixed on Hailen and clawed hand raised to strike.

  Time slowed to a crawl. The Hunter knew he couldn't cover the distance in time to save Hailen. In desperation, he thrust his hand into his pouch and drew out one of the toadstools he'd plucked from the cliffside. He hurled it underhanded even as the Stone Guardian's claws descended toward Hailen's head.

  The toadstool exploded in a puff right between the monster's hind paws. The Stone Guardians let out a shriek of pain and terror as the bright purple spores enveloped them. The cloud caught a third beast that had clambered in behind the first, and it fell back with a howl. Their stony flesh sizzled and turned a sickly green before dripping off in great gobs of sludge that puddled at their feet. The three huge creatures collapsed and lay still.

  "How bad is it?" he asked as he backed toward Kiara, not taking his eyes from the surrounding hillsides and the Stone Guardians moving up toward them.

  "Hurts like a punch to the tits," Kiara grunted, "but I don't think the arm's broken. The horses, though…" Sorrow filled her eyes.

  "We need to wake Sir Danna up. We could use her help about now."

  "I've tried, but she hit her head hard. She may need more time to—"

  A Stone Guardian's bestial roar drowned out the rest of her words. The Hunter hacked at the reptilian face poking through the obsidian stones, and the greatsword sliced through the monster's broad, grey-scaled snout and tore through its jaw. It let out a rumbling growl of fury, its shattered mouth hanging open, but its beady black eyes showed only hate and rage. The Hunter buried two feet of iron in its right eye socket.

  Something struck him from behind, hurling him into the nearest standing stone with enough force to make him see stars. He rebounded off the hard surface and barely caught himself before he collapsed. Pain flared up and down his spine, and he gasped for air as he turned to face the Stone Guardian that had caught him off-guard.

  The monster stood in the circle of stones, its eyes fixed on the Hunter and six-fingered fists descending toward his head. The Hunter dropped to one knee just in time to avoid the swipe that would have crushed his skull, then pushed off his back foot to drive the iron sword clean through the monster's chest. He didn't know if he'd hit its heart—twisted hell, did the thing even have a heart?—but the iron did its work. The Stone Guardian stumbled backward, colliding with another massive creature entering through the stones. The falling monster took his companion with him off the edge of the cliff.

  The Hunter's arms and shoulders ached from swinging the huge sword, and his breath came in ragged gasps. Pain raced up and down his spine and ribs with every step. Yet he couldn't slow, couldn't pause for a breath. The Stone Guardians kept coming, implacable in their desires to rend him, Kiara, Sir Danna, and Hailen limb for limb. They were hate, death, and fury incarnate. If he stopped, they all died.

  Yet even he couldn't keep fighting forever. He hadn't eaten in more than a day, and he knew he was close to dehydration. His body had its limits—every blow he took sapped his energy as muscle, bone, and tendons re-knit. The iron greatsword also seemed to be weakening. The humming vibrations within the blade grew louder and more painful with every blow. The brittle iron couldn't withstand the impacts like steel.

  In a desperate gamble, the Hunter hacked off a Stone Guardian's arm, bringing the creature down to the ground. He ripped Soulhunger free of its sheath and drove it with all his strength into the monster's skull. The tip of the dagger punched through stony skin, and black blood poured from the wound in its head as it shrieked in pain, shuddered, and crumbled to the stony ground. But the expected cry of delight from Soulhunger never came. The gemstone in the dagger's hilt remained crystal clear, dull.

  The Hunter's heart sank. During his time on the Warmaster's torture table, he'd learned the secret of Soulhunger's gemstone: the screams of terror activated its power and enabled it to consume his victims' souls. The sadistic demon had spoken of specific frequencies and resonances—it had to mean the Stone Guardians' monstrous forms c
hanged their cries, preventing them from activating Soulhunger's gemstone.

  Soulhunger could kill the monsters, but the dagger would not absorb their power or give him what he needed to keep fighting.

  Growling in rage, the Hunter left Soulhunger embedded in the Stone Guardian's skull and swung the iron greatsword in a powerful two-handed blow. Backed by the force of his fury, the heavy blade hacked completely through a Stone Guardian's head just below its eyes. Black blood washed over him as the monster stumbled and flopped to the ground within the standing stones.

  Damn it! The Hunter growled a curse. He had to leap over the prone form of the Stone Guardian to bring down the next one. It cost him precious seconds, and by the time he turned, two more of the enormous figures had entered the ring of stones. They ignored Kiara and Hailen, who crouched behind the bulk of a fallen monster. Their eyes, pools of liquid emptiness, focused on him, the true threat.

  Despite their bestial nature, he could see some semblance of intelligence gleaming in their dark eyes as they hesitated. Three of them faced him, a man less than half their size, yet they could understand the danger he presented. The slain corpses of their brethren made that much perfectly clear.

  But the primitive fire burning within their bestial brains drove them on. The three leapt toward him at once, and it was all the Hunter could do to bring the iron sword up to block their slashing claws. The force of their attacks hurled him back against the stone, and his head struck hard. Before he could shake off the impact, agony flared in his face. The Stone Guardians' raking talons slashed his leather armor—and the flesh beneath--to ribbons. Blood gushed from the gaping wounds in his chest, abdomen, and legs.

  The Hunter managed to bring one down with a desperate thrust, but that left him open to the other two. A massive fist punched into his midsection. Bone buckled and snapped, and the Hunter's breath whooshed from his lungs. He sagged to one knee and tried to bring his sword up to block another swipe, but the Stone Guardian battered through his weakened guard. The thing’s claws nearly removed the side of his face, and his neck protested as his head was snapped to one side.