The corridor ran like a gauntlet through the dark, occasionally groping figures would leap out onto their swords but their progress was still remarkably swift considering that the entire fortress now seemed aware of their presence.
A large door near the end of the corridor signalled the end of their journey and the entrance to the treasury, it was now a matter of quickly retrieving the heirloom before they were ambushed and then somehow cutting their way through to Sarvacts.
Two automatons came tumbling down the stairs to their right, El-Vador put himself between them and Eihblin. 'Get your damn heirloom and let's get out of here.' he said, before launching himself at the shambling creatures and carving a path through with his blade.
Then three more arrived on the scene as Eihblin entered the treasury, El-Vador found himself fighting for his life.
He tried to keep his distance from the closing creatures but with little success, they were akin to each other in that they were all enthralled by Sarvacts, but varied greatly in terms of strength and speed. The three he had been laboured with seemed unnaturally fast compared to the few he had cut down so far. His blade licked out that them in quick swipes, but they seemed heedless of the damage it would inflict. That or they knew that only an immobilising strike would matter.
They jockeyed for position, possibly buying time for their kin to come rushing down the stairs and overwhelm him with numbers. Even if Anacletus had somehow held out against the forces coming the other way, he knew it was a matter of time before more of them came pouring down the stairs.
He chopped downward with his blade, biting into the thigh of one of them. It failed to be a debilitating blow but it did slow it somewhat, now he could perhaps deal with the others. He tried to shunt his fear back down as it threatened to take hold of his limbs.
Seeing now that its colleague was injured, the second automaton swung in with its sword, hoping to wound El-Vador sufficiently to drag him down. The Elf realised then that he had an advantage on his foes, they were trying to take him alive for Sarvacts, while he had no such compunction about their existence. He evaded the swing and stabbed forward, lancing the throat of the creature but not causing any significant damage that would stop its advance.
Behind him, Eihblin yelled, 'El-Vador! Right side!'
El-Vador leapt left without looking, finding himself uncomfortably close to the wall now. Eihblin joined him with her sword and he was able to glance at what he had evaded.
The automatons he had wounded previously in their race down the corridor had crawled their way to their current position, trying to trip him up with outstretched hands. He didn't have time to deal with all this, he needed to get to Sarvacts. If he could somehow stop him then he might have a chance to end the nightmares that followed at their source.
Or they could kill him in spite of his destroying their master. Was that what Anacletus had planned?
They needed to dispatch the able-bodied attackers swiftly if they were stand any hope of making it further away from the pursuit.
'Concentrate on the ones blocking the stairs!' El-Vador yelled. 'It won't matter how many we slay if we can't disarm them.'
Eihblin nodded and skewered the automaton that had moved slower due to injury. She leapt forward and pressed the attack with El-Vador, away from the grasping hands of those few crawling toward them on the floor.
They crept drawing closer, it wouldn't be long until they were too near to do anything about. They needed to act now.
El-Vador dashed forward recklessly, decapitating the nearest automaton with a mighty swing and almost hopelessly exposing himself but for the swift intervention of Eihblin's blade.
They pounded up the stairs, trying to put some distance between themselves and the crawling creatures that followed them without any chance of catching their prey now.
They were only half way up when the rest of the automatons came down to greet them.
He steeled himself for the inevitable, there was no way he could cut through the seven that flew down the stairs heedless of breaking their necks or those of their quarry.
El-Vador looked briefly at Eihblin as she clutched the heirloom gratefully to her breast.
'I hope you're happy now that you have your trinket.' he said.
Strangely, she was smiling back at him with a toothy grin. 'I am very glad, and perhaps you will be too.'
She pushed the heirloom forward in an open palm, her fingers gently gripping the outsides.
A gout of fire belched forth, engulfing the tumbling automatons and leaving nothing but ash in its wake.
El-Vador stared on at the scene of carnage dumbfounded, then his companion proceeded to turn the flame and blast the automatons that had been crawling up the stairs. They didn't stand a chance against this weapon.
'You never told me that thing was a weapon!'
She smiled at him, sweat pouring off her brow from the heat of the flames. 'An extremely volatile one that must be used with great care. It only serves against the kind that it has been stolen by.'
'Then my arrow did not kill Anacletus because he was an automaton.' El-Vador mused, storing away the information for later. He had wondered at the time why the assassin had called them his fellow automatons, now he knew.
With that, they made their way to the top of the stairs and back onto Sarvacts' level.
Anacletus swept over the bodies in a smoky haze, his insubstantial ally had been a substantial aid in dispatching the automatons that had followed. First forming an impenetrable barrier and then leeching off their efforts to propel into their mouths and someone dim the power that had been propelling them forth. Technically he had not done a thing, and his standing around in the corridors was not against Sarvacts' will either.
He became uncomfortably aware of the fact that the mysterious smoke could do the very same thing to him at any given moment should it not wish to aid him any further.
As he traced the passage of El-Vador and Eihblin toward Sarvacts he couldn't help but be intrigued, there were no corpses anywhere but there were clear signs of fighting and a thin lair of ash that coated everything. Perhaps he had underestimated their capabilities, there was clearly magic at work in their escape from the remaining forces of Sarvacts that he had been unable to hold off.
His thin boots told of the heated rock under his feet, there had definitely been quite the fire fight here and the automatons had been completely outmatched. For the first time, Anacletus felt a faint hope blossoming in his heart. If they could command that degree of force then who was to say they couldn't direct a similarly lethal dosage of it at Sarvacts? He knew not what use he would be, but he hurried up the stairs after them. He may yet have a part to play in this, even if his own will prevented him from lifting a hand in defence against the conjurer.
He hurried along, searching for El-Vador and Eihblin.
The huge chamber lay empty of any villain to dispose of, a faded and worn-out place carved directly into the rock. It spoke of vengeance that would have to wait even longer to be fulfilled, the only feature of the place was a large bloody spike set in the centre of the floor.
Light streamed down from on high, bathing the thing in a white glow that stung the corneas of those used to the darker dwellings of the fortress. It was toward this spike that El-Vador and Eihblin slowly walked, appearing from one of the many doors that led into the chamber.
Through the other door Sarvacts strode, axe at the ready but surprise plain on his face. This was shortly replaced with a wicked grin of pleasure, as if they had played right into his hands.
He was different from what El-Vador remembered, somehow older and more weathered than before. A giant mass of scarred flesh enveloped the right half of his face, clearly leaving him blind in one eye. Had it been the liquid the winged creature had bestowed upon him that brought about such devastation to his craggy features? El-Vador still didn't know how the ensuing explosion hadn't killed the Orc.
They stared at each other in fascinated silence, the lo
ok of shock on both their faces quickly shifting to hatred.
'Finally you are within my grasp.' Sarvacts said. 'You have brought the woman with you too, good.'
'I am here to finish what you started.' El-Vador said, hefting his sword. 'Did I not warn you that it would be your death to continue as you did?'
'Death is an inevitability for all in life,' the Orc stated. 'Had you not dabbled with the demonic we would have no quarrel.'
El-Vador bristled at that. 'You killed my family.'
Sarvacts shook his head. 'Your mother died of natural causes, your father was on his death bed when my men slew him. I did not kill your family, if anything your actions caused his end.'
'Had he not been wounded in battle by your warriors he would still live!' El-Vador yelled at the Orc, his high voice reverberating off the walls as he lost his cool.
The conjurer he loathed offered him a rueful smile. 'You really think I had a choice in sending my men out there? We all have our orders in life, young Elf.'
El-Vador hesitated, what if this beast spoke the truth? What if he was simply put into this position by his superiors?
'Yes, you see how it is. Then you butchered the only family I had left, destroying all that I owned and all that I was. You made me into this with your resistance that cost the people you grew up with their lives.'
Eihblin stared at them both as the words went back and forth, not sure what to believe. El-Vador was beginning to feel the same way.
Sarvacts let out a sigh. 'Yet now there is nothing further I can do but claim your life for all the destruction you have wrought. You have pushed me to this, Elf. It is only right that you be the one to bear the consequence of that action.'
Anacletus appeared in the doorway, startling Eihblin with the silence of his approach. 'No, he will not suffer any consequences for his actions, regardless of the morality of them. You will relinquish your hold over me, Orc. Or you shall die.'
Sarvacts laughed. 'You really plan to oppose me? Your own master? You cannot even control your own actions. Lift your left arm.'
Anacletus lifted his left arm.
'Take your dagger.'
Anacletus grasped the hilt of his dagger in a shaking palm.
'Now plunge it into your heart.'
Eihblin snatched away the blade and the assassin's fist pounded on his chest, much to the amusement of the Orc.
'You see? You are an irrelevance in this conflict, now stay still and watch me take my vengeance.'
The assassin remained rooted to the spot, unable to aid the Elf as he squared off against Sarvacts. Eihblin moved closer with the dagger in one hand and her sword in the other. 'He may not be able to strike at you, but can you really fend off three blades?'
Sarvacts swung his axe in a testing arc, as if warming up his arms in preparation for butchery.
'Yes.'
He turned to Anacletus then, a look of distaste settling on his face. 'I shall deal with your treachery soon enough.'
El-Vador struck with the speed of a serpent as Sarvacts was still speaking. The giant Orc sent the head of his axe swirling about in a defensive pattern, looking to bludgeon the Elf's weapon out of his grip before it could do any damage. The blunt end connected and the sword went flying to the floor, he had disarmed his foe with his first strike.
Phaedra appeared from the other side of the room, moving to Sarvacts' side without comment on the actions she had just seen.
El-Vador stood, waiting for Eihblin to unleash the power of the amulet upon her. Nothing happened.
Instead, Eihblin now walked forward and took her place on the other side of Sarvacts' broad shoulder.
'You were both his servants, all this time.'
Eihblin offered him a cold smile. 'Surprise.'
Phaedra picked up his sword and carried it over to Sarvacts in a reverential fashion. 'Here is the cur's blade, my master.'
With Anacletus at his back, El-Vador found himself surrounded by enemies.
Slowly he reached for his bow, Sarvacts continued to smile and raised his hand as if to ward off the light. A shimmering red wall rose from the floor of the chamber, compounding the red mist over El-Vador's eyes at the sight of such treachery.
'Take your best shot, Elf. You cannot kill Phaedra with an arrow, you cannot reach me through this shield and I do not care if you kill Eihblin.'
El-Vador sighted their smiling faces as ran his bow over the potential targets. Sarvacts was right of course, unless the red wall was some kind of illusion he was all but untouchable, and with El-Vador's bow useless and his sword taken from him, things were looking bleak.
Sarvacts watched him with satisfaction and more than a little interest in what the Elf would do next.
With the finality of knowing that his last shot would not lead to another, El-Vador let fly and watched as the arrow sped forth toward Eihblin, the only target he could harm.
Except it wasn't Eihblin that he was aiming for.
An explosion tore her to pieces as the arrow hit the heirloom, throwing El-Vador and the occupants of the room across the floor. Sarvacts let out a grunt of pain but held on to his axe, El-Vador heard the clatter of his sword nearby as it came loose from Phaedra's tenuous grip.
Rolling forward through the haze of the explosion, El-Vador snatched up his blade and decapitated Phaedra before she could rise, searching for the gore-splattered features of Sarvacts that he had seen in the haze of stone fragments littering the air.
The axe came scything down out of the dust, he dove to the right and heard it whistle past his ear to crunch on the already ruined floor beneath them. His riposte was immediate, thrusting his sword forth into the location of the swipe in an attempt to disarm the Orc before he could get another strike. The blade bit nothing but air, and El-Vador felt frustration at his foe having escaped retribution once more.
Backing away and waiting for the dust to settle, El-Vador chanced a look back to see if Anacletus had made a move. The assassin remained in the doorway, a pile of rock fragments gathered beneath the shadows that encased him.
Thinking no further of it, the Elf listened as best he could, though the blast had sent a ringing through his ears that dulled the sounds significantly.
He grew closer to the door now, careful not to touch any of the smoke that was whirling protectively across Anacletus' form.
Then the Orc came rushing forward, the blunt edge of his blade catching El-Vador off-guard for that split second and knocking the sword clear once again with a monstrous strength that left the Elf's hands writhing in pain. A second quick blow to the shoulder sent him to his knees, why hadn't Sarvacts killed him if he was so capable of doing so?
'Do you regret what you have done, Elf?' the Orc asked, levelling the blade for what was presumably his execution. El-Vador didn't give him the pleasure of desperately struggling for life, he knew there was nothing he could do now.
'All of my actions were done with good reason, I am not one to regret.'
It was the wrong answer, Sarvacts snarled at him and sent the blade crashing down.
XXXI
A debt to a monster is a strange thing and unenviable to the extreme. To be in the debt of two creates a very complex world indeed.
At the last moment possible, El-Vador threw himself clear of the blade. He had convinced the conjurer that he had accepted his fate and come to terms with facing death. In all honesty the thought of dying at this foul Orc's hand repulsed him as much as it terrified him.
He waited for the clang of the axe as it collided with the floor once again, or the inevitable angling of the downward attack like a woodsman would do to correct a wayward stroke from tired limbs. He thought briefly of his father then and all the pain that Sarvacts had caused him, and how he had done nothing to stop that from happening to many others of his kind.
The axe did not meet his flesh though, it didn't do anything.
El-Vador opened his eyes and peered up from where the blow should have landed, the axe was suspended in mid air, at
tached to quivering green limbs and covered in dark smoke that poured forth.
Sarvacts let out a strangled yell as the billowing clouds surrounded him and started to pass down into his open mouth. He tried to force his jaw closed by tearing at his face but it remained open in spite of his efforts, there was nothing he could do to prevent the black death that was entering his lungs.
El-Vador watched as the Orc took several steps back, staggering almost drunkenly toward the centre of the room. His wails were growing painful to listen to as more and more fumes invaded his shrieking body.
He had to put a stop to this, he had to enact his vengeance now or forever have it stolen from him by this vile cloud of darkness.
Slowly he rose to his feet, edging his way toward the now disarmed Sarvacts and closer to the centre of the room.
The Orc's face had changed, in his eyes he saw fear as well as loathing. Under the intense pain of the invading smoke his emotional defences had been stripped bare, he was naked to the Elf's gaze and El-Vador found little pity in his heart for him.
He could not allow this thing to kill Sarvacts, it must be done by his hand. He knew exactly how to do it too.
Sprinting toward the Orc he levelled a savage kick at him, sending him flying back with a satisfying thud and not disturbing the black cloud from its ministrations.
Sarvacts toppled backward with a look of horror plain on his face, it wasn't the roiling death in his body that caused it this time.
A scream cut the room as the bloody spike protruded from Sarvacts' chest, the Orc was still alive somehow, landing on it hadn't killed him as El-Vador had suspected.
He crossed over to his nemesis with hesitancy, there was nothing he could do now to pose any significant kind of threat.
Sarvacts looked up at him, blinking through the pain. 'El-Vador, please. Release me from this, I will not die otherwise.'
'Not so fast.' Anacletus had crossed the room to join the conversation. 'I believe there is still work to be done.'
El-Vador's Travels Page 23
