by N M Thorn
“Oh God,” exhaled Eve, pressing her hand to her chest. Her lips parted, her breath quickened and for a quick moment her eyes darkened with lust. “You are a magnificent creature, Zane Burns. Almost as impressive as your legendary master, the Great Salamander.”
Gunz sat down on his heels, breathing heavily and scrutinized Eve with his burning eyes. “I will never do anything for you,” he said quietly. “You can torture me for as long as you wish, I will never give in to you.”
Chuckling, Eve leaned forward and fixed his face between her hands. She leaned closer and planted a gentle kiss on his bleeding lips.
“Who said anything about any torture? I don’t need you to give in to me, Child of Fire,” she said, raking him with a scornful stare. “All I need you to do is die. A human death, that is. And for that, I don’t need neither your obedience nor your consent. Now you understand why you are so important to my plan?” Eve observed him, and he caught something resembling sympathy in her eyes. “Well, it’s almost time. Now, go to sleep.”
She whispered a spell, softly touching his forehead with two fingers. His eyes closed, and the darkness softly embraced him. A last painful thought lingered in his mind a moment longer, the words that Jim said to him a while ago.
You are a supernatural weapon of mass destruction.
~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~
“Wake up!”
Gunz felt someone shaking him roughly. An even noise filled his ears and he forced himself to crack his eyes open. His vision was still a little blurry and the dizziness made everything around him dance. As his eyes started to focus, he lifted his head and saw a large crowd of people, standing in front of him. The mass of people seemed to be extending to his sides and farther, outside his area of visibility. Some people were dressed in regular modern clothes, but some were wearing the strangest set of garments. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was on a set of some crazy mix of historical and fantasy movies. The people were chatting and laughing, pointing at him.
Gunz moved to get up, just to realize that he couldn’t. He could hardly turn his head from left to right as his neck was secured by wooden stocks. He couldn’t see his body, but he was sure that he was lying on a horizontal platform and his body was bound to it with heavy chains. His arms were twisted behind his back at a most uncomfortable angle and shackled together. With his every move, the iron cuffs were painfully biting into the skin of his wrists.
He looked from left to right and saw a wooden poll on either side of him. With an effort he turned his head as far to the side as he could and glanced up. Chills went through him and his heart thundered in his chest. He was lying down at the bottom of a tall wooden frame. At the top of the frame, he saw a large, angled blade. The edge of the blade was either bloody or rusty, but it still looked dangerously sharp.
Holy shit! It’s a guillotine, he thought, struggling against his restraints, just to realize that he was bound in a way that was leaving him completely immobilized. He wanted to scream, but his jaw was sealed shut by some kind of leather straps, most likely a mouth harness. A cool evening breeze touched his skin and with aggravation, he noticed that on top of everything else he had no shirt on. A goddamn dominatrix nightmare!
Gunz stopped struggling and took a few deep breaths through his nose, trying to calm down. Eve had him strapped to a guillotine and he was surrounded by a huge crowd of humans. If this blade fell, decapitating him, all these people were as good as dead. Hundreds of people. Where was he? Why was he surrounded by so many people? And, come to think of it, why were they dressed so strange?
“Aw, look who is awake and back with us.”
He heard Eve’s voice somewhere above him and the crowd responded to her words with a loud laughter and cheers. She strolled around the guillotine and squatted next to Gunz.
“Welcome back, Child of Fire,” she said quietly, so except for him, no one could hear her. “How do you like the settings?” Gunz stared at her, breathing heavy as anger swept through him, but couldn’t say a word. “Aw, I’m sorry, I forgot you’re a little inarticulate at the moment. Blink once for yes, blink twice for no. Do you understand me?”
Gunz blinked one time, his chest locked with fury.
“Hush, little one.” Eve chuckled, patting his cheek. “I can’t even imagine how angry you must be. But I’m sure by now you already appraised your situation and you know that you have no way to escape. My magic keeps the Fire Salamander in you under control and these wonderful iron chains are keeping the human in you immobilized. Do you agree that you can’t escape your destiny?”
Gunz blinked once and a low growl escaped his tightly shut mouth.
Eve laughed quietly, a carnivorous fire burning in the bottom of her eyes and waved her hand at the crowd. “Do you see all these people? I would say, there are at least a few hundred humans here surrounding you.” She tugged at the rope that was holding the blade suspended at the top of the frame. “As soon as I release this rope, the blade will fall. You’ll die a human death. Your wonderful fire energy will rush through this place like an atomic blast, in a heartbeat obliterating hundreds of humans. All I need to do is infect all these newly dead spirits with my demonic energy. With no Reapers to get in my way, it’ll be a piece of cake.”
Gunz grunted, straining to break his restraints. Eve got up, her eyes sliding up and down his unobstructed torso.
“I think I already told you how magnificent you are as the Fire Salamander.” She stroked his shoulders, brushing her fingers over the strained muscles of his arms and back. “I would love to tell you to stop struggling, but you have no idea how delectable your unclothed back and arms look when you’re straining to break these chains. So, keep fighting, boy. You are eye candy for this hungry mob. The more people you attract, the easier I’ll break the veil. So, please, don’t feel shy to show off your breathtaking physique to your adoring fans.”
Gunz grunted and turned away from her. His stomach heaved, and the leather harness that was keeping his mouth shut didn’t help with the nausea. Eve was telling him the truth. As soon as the guillotine did its bloody job, all these people would be burnt to ashes. He wasn’t afraid to die. It wouldn’t be the first time for him. Back in Kendral, during his swordsmanship training, Kal decapitated him a couple of times, just to demonstrate what happens when he dies a human death. The agony of the sword slicing through his neck was something he could never forget. But as soon as his heart stopped beating, his magical fire energy exploded, immediately restoring his physical body and bringing him back to life.
It wasn’t the prospect of his own death that terrified him. The idea that he would kill every single person around him was making his blood run cold. The understanding that there was nothing he could do to stop this massacre was sending him into an abyss of despair. He moaned softly, his hopeless situation making his eyes sting with angry tears.
Eve walked around him and leaned down, wiping his eyes with a white handkerchief. “Aw, my sweet lad, is that a tear I see in your gorgeous eyes?” she said softly, but her face lit up with ravenous anticipation. “Don’t cry, Salamander. It’ll hurt just for a second. You know that guillotine was considered a more humane form of execution?”
Gunz blinked once and then moved his eyes down, staring at the leather straps that kept his mouth sealed. Eve followed the movement of his eyes and snickered.
“Are you trying to show me that you want to talk?”
Gunz blinked once, staring at her pleadingly.
“No, Salamander,” she objected icily, rising. “I’m one step away from getting my retribution. There is nothing you can say that would make me stop what I’m doing.”
She glanced at her wristwatch and a monstrous smile stretched her lips, distorting her features, displaying a set of long sharp fangs that could rival the fangs of any vampire. For a moment, her eyes flooded with a yellow light and the true face of the air demon gaped at Gunz. He held his breath, shocked by the grotesque, repulsive sight. Finally, Eve’s horrid face was t
ruly representing her vile insides. A split-second later, Eve’s human appearance was restored, and she smiled at him sweetly.
“It’s time, Child of Fire,” she said, straightening and fixing the folds of her long medieval dress. “Let’s give these people a spectacle they would take with them to the other side.”
Eve raised her arms up, requesting the attention of the crowd.
“Welcome to the first day of the Florida Renaissance Festival!” she announced, going down in a deep elegant curtsy. The crowd cheered loudly.
Oh, no, thought Gunz, feeling numb on the inside, I’m in the Quiet Waters Park. God damn it all! There are thousands of people here, not hundreds.
The Florida Renaissance Festival had grown into one of the biggest in the country, with the attendance record of nearly a hundred thousand people. As far as he could see, the first day of the Festival drew a hefty crowd.
“For the opening of our beloved Festival, we prepared an unusual spectacle for you,” continued Eve. She walked toward the guillotine and waved her hand up and down in a fluid gesture, like a model demonstrating the latest prototype of an iron. “Even though this particular guillotine was built after the Renaissance era, during the Reign of Terror in France, and it still remembers the taste of the blood of its famous victims – King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the true reign of this spectacular machine began a lot earlier.
“The proud ancestors of this guillotine were the Italian ‘mannaia’ that was popular during the Renaissance era, and the ‘Scottish Maiden’. Both of them claimed hundreds of lives way ahead of the French Revolution.”
I wonder if she witnessed “the proud ancestors” at work, thought Gunz, attempting to reach his fire. It was unavailable, and he switched his attention back to Eve’s historical lecture.
“Let me introduce my wonderful assistant, Zane,” said Eve to the crowd, ruffling Gunz’s hair with her hand. “Normally, he is extremely obedient, but yesterday he decided to be a bit nutty. Well, I thought that he needed to learn his lesson and today I volunteered him for this demo.”
She slapped Gunz playfully on his shoulder and the audience responded with giggles and laughter. Sick of her cheesy jokes and humiliation, he growled and jerked in his restrains, earning the next wave of titters and chuckles.
“So, Kings and Queens, noble Knights and beautiful Ladies, and other creatures of the unknown realms, are you ready to see this terrifying device in action?” Eve raised her arms up and the crowd exploded with applause, cheers, and laughter. “And don’t you worry, after all said and done, Zane will still have his head firmly attached to his shoulders.”
She squatted in front of his face and whispered into his ear, “As I release the blade, I will also free the Fire Salamander in you. Brace yourself, Child of Fire, for death is eminent and it’s coming for you now.”
At a funeral pace, Eve rose and sauntered toward the place where the raising rope that was supporting the blade was tied up. Gunz watched her, his heart beating slower with her every move. She untied the knot and held the rope with her both hands, keeping the blade at the top of the frame. Her cold eyes found his and he silently pleaded with her for the life of all these innocent people.
In response to his desperate plea, her eyes gleamed yellow and the revolting face of the air demon emerged again. Her blood-stained thin lips separated, flashing the terrifying set of fangs.
There was no reasoning with her.
No one was coming to help.
There was no hope.
Gunz moaned and turned his head to the opposite side, staring up at the blade. Like through a thick wall, he heard the crowd shouting something and then a collective gasp flew through the field as Eve released the rope.
The time slowed down, all sounds disappeared, and the blade started to descend.
~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~
The time was almost at a standstill and Gunz had no idea why he was counting as the blade was slowly progressing down. Once it passed the half way mark, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the excruciating pain. The pain never came. Instead he heard a light popping sound and a powerful impact crushed the stocks into dust and slivers of wood.
Time resumed its full speed. The noise of the crowd, shouting and applauding, hit him like a sledgehammer. He turned his head to the side and raised his eyes to see the sharp edge of the blade lingering within an inch off his neck. Eve was shrilling and chanting somewhere behind his back. He was still bound to the platform and couldn’t move a muscle. Gunz growled and pushed with all his strength against the chains.
Slowly the blade was pulled all the way up to the top of the frame and Aidan stepped forward where Gunz could see him. He snapped his fingers and all the restraints were gone, including the leather mouth harness. Gunz inhaled a deep breath through his mouth and tried to sit up, fighting the dizziness. Aidan helped him up and tapped him on his shoulder.
“Zane, you wanted me to stand and fight?” he asked, a ferocious smile on his lips. “So, here I am.”
“About time,” mumbled Gunz, “I wonder what woke you up.”
“Your friend, Sasha Shevchenko. They’re all alive and free, by the way. But let’s kill first, tell tales later.” Aidan laughed, his eyes burning with excitement and the brilliant glow of his magic. “I hope you will honor me by fighting by my side, Fire Salamander.”
“Hell, yeah,” said Gunz jumping off the platform.
Finally in a vertical position, standing on firm ground, Gunz could see that the machine was positioned in the middle of a wide field that was supposed to be used for the knights’ tournaments. The crowd was still surrounding them in a wide circle, standing around the perimeter of the field. They cheered and applauded, thinking that everything that was happening on the field was a part of a play.
Eve was levitating a few feet above the ground inside a semi-transparent bubble, furiously chanting something. Her voice was fluctuating, going lower and higher, switching to wild shrills once in a while. Her arms were raised, and a rotating dark mass was gathering between her hands. Gunz had no doubt that the bubble was some kind of protective shield, conjured by Eve’s magic.
“I tried to break through her shield alone and couldn’t,” said Aidan. “Let’s try together. Maybe by combining the powers of Fire and Water, we could burst her bubble.”
He gave a dark chuckle, pulling the long sword out. The weapon glistened in his hands like it was made out of ice. A collective gasp swept through the mass of people as they watch Aidan in awe.
“Aidan,” whispered Gunz, “with all these humans around, I can’t use my full power to fight. Too dangerous.” He reached into his pocket and pulled his Swiss army knife out, turning it into a long sword and ignited it with the fire. “We need to guard the people from my fire energy but also from Eve’s magic. Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
Aidan glanced in Eve’s direction and cursed quietly. As Eve kept chanting, the dark mass between her arms was growing bigger, long slithering tentacles spewed out, moving through her shield toward the crowd. A few of them already reached people. They wrapped around their necks, entering their bodies through their eyes, nostrils and mouths. The people didn’t scream and didn’t struggle, hanging limply sprawled in the air. No one in the excited crowd noticed that and Gunz wondered if their oblivion was inflicted by Eve’s magic.
“Uri!” yelled Aidan over the noise. “We need a protective dome! NOW!”
“On it! Almost there!”
Gunz heard Uri’s raspy voice coming somewhere from above and looked up. The creature that he saw above the field was Uri, but it wasn’t him. The man was levitating a few yards above the ground supported by giant flaming wings. The only creature of magic that Gunz knew of, that had fiery wings was the Phoenix. Gunz saw him flying enough times to recognize that Uri wasn’t a Phoenix.
His body was glowing with fierce flames, but he wasn’t emitting any heat. His fire was shining with golden shades and was completely cold. Besides that,
Gunz didn’t sense the presence of the elemental power in Uri’s magical energy signature. Yet Uri’s whole appearance was breathing with dangerous power the likes of which Gunz never sensed before.
Uri outstretched his arm forward and shouted something. However, no matter how much Gunz strained his hearing he couldn’t make out his words over the noise of the crowd. A wall of flames surrounded them, leaving all the humans outside the circle, isolating Eve inside. The fire was rising high in the air creating a large dome, but there was neither heat nor smoke.
As soon as the golden fire touched the black tendrils of Eve’s magic, they hissed and dissipated. Eve noticed the fire and shrieked, the air demon’s true face manifesting through her human face, her yellow eyes blazing with fury. Shouting curses, she pointed her hand at Aidan and hissed something. A wave of dark energy emerged from her hand and impacted Aidan in his chest.
Aidan cried out and fell to his knees, wrapping his head with his arms. He was whispering something incoherent, bending forward like he was trying to conceal his face. Gunz grabbed him, shaking his shoulder, but Aidan didn’t respond. Gunz scanned him with his magic, noticing that Aidan was surrounded by a powerful illusion. Uri realized the same thing and swooped down, kneeling next to Aidan.
“Zane,” said Uri urgently. “I can take care of this illusion. Can you keep Eve busy? We need to wait for Angel to arrive. He has what we need to send Eve where she belongs.”
Gunz spun around. The wall of fire was separating them from the humans, but he wasn’t sure if that was enough to contain his power. Uri noticed his hesitation and gave him a heavy stare, infused with a golden glow.
