Defiant Guardians Anthology

by Jacob Peppers

  “Leader Nawgheed wishes you to remain alive. He still finds promise in you.”

  That had just brought more questions than anything. How could someone, half demon as they say, be of promise to a secret organization? What would they need from me that they didn’t already have?

  “Why deprive me of food?”

  “It is the only way we know how to bring the demon out of its host.”

  “Why? How? What happens?”

  “You will see, pastor boy.”

  That was the last question I asked him. The euphoria stopped around day eleven. I just sat there, still as the dripping wall behind my back. Gauss now force-fed me the sweet juice. My thoughts were replaced with the same buzzing noise I had heard when I was first stuck in this dungeon.

  I lost count of how many days passed after that. How many days did Gauss and I stare at each other before that black thing crawled from my mouth?

  The darkness within me responded to the squeaking mouse; it did this because it knew I would not. It wanted me alive. The unholy parasite sought survival.

  My mouth wrenched itself open, my jaw coming unhinged. The pain of this brought me back to life as a hand black as night shoved itself out from my throat, scraping its dark cold skin on my grimy teeth.

  Once clear of my teeth, the dark hand lurched me forward as it caught the now screeching mouse. It crushed it, blood shooting through its fingers. Tears welled in my eyes as the skin of my cheeks ripped from being so taught.

  As the hand began its retreat back into my body, another hand shot out from the wall, which now jiggled like gelatin.

  Soon, I was surrounded by men, but these weren’t like the ones I saw back in the Refuge. They did not wear tunics but shiny armor tinted a midnight black. That’s all I could see as they forced my head sideways, my ripped cheek dragging on the rough cobble.

  “Hold him still,” came Gauss, walking up to me and his soldiers.

  The man held out his hand and he was handed a long-curved blade.

  “Extend the demon.”

  My feet were pulled back as the demon arm was pushed down by the wrist. I screamed as the foreign limb was pulled from my body. I felt as though I was continuously retching but with no half-digested food to show for it.

  “There!” cried Gauss. He lifted the sword over his head and without pause brought it down.

  CRACK!

  The blade cut through the demon arm like hot butter, clinking loudly on the cobble only half an inch from my lips. They let go of me and I pulled myself up, frantically crawling backward as far from the black thing as I could.

  The arm convulsed for a few seconds before melting into a black sludge into the cracks of the ground. The room was silent, all except for my heaving breathing.

  “It didn’t work sir,” said one of the black armored men. He was pointing at my right arm.

  I looked down at it and screamed in horror. It was shriveled like the skin of a sausage. When had that happened? Had this transpired while I was in a daze? How had I not felt it?

  Slowly, meat and liquid, which I assumed to be blood, poured back into the soft skin sack and my arm began to take shape once again.

  “Hold him!” commanded Gauss one more time. The men did so without hesitation.

  I could scream without issue now and so I did. I cursed them all, I kicked as hard as I could, I even tried spitting. My breathing was so heavy that I could feel my belly pull so far into my stomach that it hid underneath my ribs.

  It was over within a second. They held out my limp meat sack of an arm and Gauss cut it off. It too melted into the cobble.

  The men who held me were breathing heavy now as well. They, nor I, had ever seen anything like it. Unlike them, though, I waited for the pain. I clenched my teeth together and squeezed my eyes tight.

  But pain never came.

  What did come, however, was a pure black stem that budded from the already healing nub that stuck out from my right shoulder. I concentrated on it and… I wiggled it.

  Gauss looked at me. This was the first time I saw utter confusion on his face.

  9

  The dark armored guards were ordered back into the adjacent rooms to await further orders. I watched them leave through the jiggly walls and disappear, leaving me alone once again with the ever-staring Gauss. He gave me a sip of sweet juice before making his way back to the bench.

  “What now?” I asked him with a shaky voice.

  “We wait.”

  “Wait for what? For me to die?”

  There was no answer and for once I didn’t really care. I could feel my eyelids growing heavy and felt the relief of sleep overcome me. It had been a long time since I had been the one to need sleep rather than it just coming naturally.

  When my eyes again peeled open, I gave one last attempt to beg the Almighty to let this all be just one big nightmare. I prayed with all my soul for this to be true. But of course, it was not.

  Gauss was within a few inches of my nose which gave me a terrible start. I didn’t mean to punch at him but it also wasn’t my fault he had scared me. With a black blur, I sent a right cross towards his jaw. He caught the fist, but what I heard I did not expect.

  There was a sick crunching noise as my right fist broke bones in his hand. I watched his face grimace from the pain but nothing more. He dropped his arm and mine.

  Wait, how had I punched with my right arm?

  I looked down and screamed. I tried my best to squirm away from the black limb but it was all too well attached to my torso. It was thin, as thin as a writing utensil perhaps. And black. Oily black. But the worst part were the fingers. There were only three of them with each being a little thinner than the arm. A white dagger shaped fingernail protruded from the tips of the digits extending out about an inch. I flexed the hand and felt massive power there.

  Could I use this demonic extremity to escape? But where would I run to? Not to my chapel, that was for sure. But they said they knew of Mother. Should I just stay here then? Or were they just telling lies? No, these people could not be trusted. So far, they had brought me nothing but pain with few or no answers as to what the hell was going on.

  Gauss could see escape in my eyes. He dodged backward as I yet again sent another swift punch at his face. Guards were already pouring back into the room, pushing me down hard by the shoulders. I swept one off his feet with a wide swing of my black arm. I pushed another and he was sent flying across the dungeon cell, slamming against the rusty bars.

  But more guards came.

  Soon, I wasn’t able to see anything but dark armor as they pushed me down to the ground with all their might. I felt something hard crash down on my new hand, pinning it with such a force that I knew it would be impossible to get free from.

  “Hand me a sword,” said Gauss.

  “No!” I screamed. “No! Not again! Please!”

  No answer came, meaning my pleas were futile. My mind went into panic as it sought to find a way out of this mess. The back of my head was aching as they pressed it hard into the cobble, sending tears to my eyes and making it hard to think. One of the guard’s hands slipped from my sweaty cheek and onto my mouth making it hard to breathe.

  I could feel the skin prickle on the demonic arm as it waited for the oncoming blade. It was beyond nerve-wracking knowing that you were once again about to be dismembered.

  And when I thought all was lost, a verse from the old scriptures formed in my head. And as they formed in my head they then formed in my throat.

  Before I knew it, I yelled, “Put on the full armor of the Almighty, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes!”

  There was a period of silence. The guards holding me down went completely still.

  “What did he say?” asked Gauss.

  I repeated the verse to him but this time I did not shout. “Put on the full armor of the Almighty, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” I said this to him in the same way I would if I’d been prea
ching a sermon. The words on my lips gave me a little courage and my breast felt a little warmer.

  “Let him go,” I heard Gauss say.

  The guards did so and backed away from me. Gauss was there, holding his sword low. For a second there I really thought he was about to end me. He could have done so with ease, just one big sweep of that sword would have done me in. I imagined half of my body sliding one way while the other slid the opposite.

  Then, Gauss continued the verse, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

  He too was familiar with the ancient scriptures.

  “Carve this verse into a leather band and place it over this demonic arm of mine,” I said, leaning up. “I’m sure that it will help me to control it.”

  Gauss surprised me by nodding. Then, he gestured for one of the guards by his side. He spoke to the side of this man’s helmet but I could not hear his words. Then, once again, all the guards exited leaving just Gauss and I alone in the cold room.

  We didn’t speak for what seemed like hours. With nothing better to do, I resorted to playing with my new limb. Whether it was curiosity or that I was still half crazy from lack of food, I wasn’t sure, but I picked it up. Dropped it. Picked it up. Dropped it again.

  I squeezed the tiny fingers together. The grip was strong, very strong. I poked at one of the claws but winced as I drew blood with the slightest of taps. This was truly an evil thing that was now attached to me. With nothing else to call it, I decided on just referring to it as my demonic arm.

  Again, I asked myself: What the hell was going on?

  The loud footsteps of heavy armored feet snapped me out of my lazy experiments with my arm. Men rounded the corner from each side, covering the walls beside me and soon the wall behind me. They saluted to Gauss who stood from his seat. He walked to the middle of the room and stared down at me. His eyes were hard.

  He held his hand outwards, his palm facing up. More clattering came from the back halls and yet another guard came walking briskly into the room. What he had in his hand made me jump to my feet only to be swarmed yet again by the black armored guards.

  “Hold him tight!” Gauss commanded. He looked at me again, his eyes softer now. “This is going to hurt, Ira, but it is the only way we can be sure. A simple leather bracelet can be removed but this cannot.”

  The guard handed Gauss a red-hot iron brand, smoke steaming from the top of it. The brand was a jumble of thin backward words that I could not read, but I didn’t care! I had to get out of here! I didn’t want to be touched by that thing. No! I wanted to live! No more pain! No more pain!

  I knew the arm had been strong but I did not know that it had the power to send six men flying backward, but that’s exactly what it did. They slammed hard against the wall, each slumping limply to the ground.

  With my amazement still set on what I had just done, I did not see Gauss jab at me with the brand. It struck the forearm of my demonic limb, pressing it firmly to the ground. Brown smoke lifted from it and filled the air, and instantly all the strength had been zapped out of it.

  The pain was not instantaneous but took a while to build. Yet when it did, my whole world turned upside down. My head arched back as I let out a horrific scream, spit flying from my mouth and onto the armored guards holding me. The pain was white hot and crawled from my arm to my shoulder, to my head, down my spine, and into my legs.

  And yet, I sat still, the sizzling sound and the smell of frying rotten meat filling the dungeon. One of the guards gagged making a few others do the same. I had never smelled burnt skin before, but I somehow knew that this was not that smell. This was much worse. This was… an evil smell.

  The heated brand was released but the pain did not subside. In fact, it grew worse. My bloodshot eyes peered down at my trembling arm and there read the verse I had spoken hours ago, cauterized onto my body.

  Gauss had given me the armor of the Almighty.

  10

  An orcish doctor, which was an unheard of combination, tended to my arm over the next three days. His name was Varok and he stayed in the cell with me, even practically slept there sometimes if one counted dozing off. He was an elderly orc, a cone of white hair shooting from his chin and forming a tight point at the end of it. His skin was wrinkled, dark green, and dry, but his eyes were very kind.

  “I think my work here is done,” Varok said, standing up.

  “Don’t go,” I begged quietly. It sounded more like a whimper. “Please.”

  The orc gave a husky laugh, “But I must! There are so many out there that need my help, young human. However, I hear you will save much more, am I right?”

  I tilted my head at this, “What are you talking about?”

  The orc looked at Gauss worriedly. The dark-skinned man of Roth had not left the cell since the branding. Did he ever use the bathroom? I wished he would just leave and let me suffer by myself, or rather with Varok still by my side. However, judging by the orc’s nervous face, he would have to leave.

  “I’m sorry, young human. I’ve said too much as I usually do. I must be going. Please, take this as a parting gift.”

  Varok shoved his hand into his medical pack and produced a brown spongy cake. They had allowed me to start eating right after the branding. It had been a bittersweet moment because I could barely eat anything that night for the pain had dulled all of my other senses. They had had to force the food down my throat.

  But it got worse. When hunger did come to me I was told that they couldn’t just feed me all at once. Varok warned Gauss that if he did this, my stomach might burst from the unexpected amount.

  I took the sponge cake from the orc and watched him turn and leave. And again, I was alone. Varok seemed to be a light in this dark place, someone who cared for me and could see what I was going through. He was surprisingly hospitable for an orc, maybe even more so than most humans.

  I took a bite of the cake. It was the most delectable thing I had ever tasted in my life and I shoved the entire thing in my mouth. I couldn’t get it down fast enough! I let out a tiny burp and sat back.

  “I’ve never seen goblins and orcs, only heard of them,” I said. “I thought they were supposed to be beastly.”

  “They are beastly,” agreed Gauss. He was bent over as he usually was, his elbows on his knees and his eyes directly on me. “But here it is different. We are all given a second chance.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You will be instructed in this at a later time. For now, Varok has finished with you and it is time we test you.” Gauss stood and held out his hand for me to grab it.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said.

  “You will either come of your own choice or I will have my men carry you. Our time here is complete and there is no time to waste. The darkness arises.”

  “What darkness?” I asked. “What are you talking about? Give me some answers!”

  Gauss pierced his lips in preparation to whistle for the men he and I both knew hid behind the walls. I didn’t care. Let those bastards come. The food they had been feeding me had restored my energy and I was feeling more confident that I could beat them with this arm. But wait. What if I pretended to follow Gauss out of this cell and make a run for it when there was a clearing? Yes, that was a better plan than fighting. Any plan was better than fighting.

  Gauss let out the very start of a whistle when I said, “Alright, I’ll go.”

  The man of Roth stopped his signal and the walls jiggled ever so slightly. He nodded his head, turned and started to walk away. I figured that meant I was allowed to follow and so I did.

  We walked down the dark corridor lit by candles, the wax dripping into large puddles on the ground. On the walls were paintings of men I did not know, each of them wearing the same black armor Gauss’s men had been wearing. Who were these people?

 
; There was light coming from a room up ahead. Gauss turned into it and I peeked in before stepping inside. There were more candles in here, many more. It reminded me of the candlelight vigils Mother and I would set up when others had hired us to hold their funerals. Only, this room was much different than that.

  The wall before me was covered in every weapon imaginable and I was only familiar with a few. There were swords, bo staffs, bows, daggers, throwing knives, whips, and even a few lances. Each looked to have just been cleaned and spit-shined only moments before we had entered the room. This was quite the opposite from the rest of the depressing and filthy dungeon. Why did they keep their armory down here?

  “Your mother and her father before her all stood where you stand now,” Gauss said, his arms crossed over his chest as he gazed at the wall. He’d most likely been in here multiple times but his eyes were wide with wonder.

  “My mother’s a priest,” I said. “I highly doubt that.”

  Gauss chuckled, “Your mother is more than a priest, boy, and so you will be.”

  “I’m not following you,” I said, reaching out to touch the steel of one of the greatswords but Gauss turned and slapped my hand away.

  “Not for touching,” he said. “These are not toys. These are tools, blessed by the Almighty.”

  “Tools for what?” I asked. “the Almighty has no need for these. He needs only those to spread his word.”

  “Says the one who is trained with the sword.” Gauss raised an eyebrow. “Am I right?”

  How’d they know that? Had they been spying on me? “That was only for exercise and self-defense. There isn’t a sin in that.”

  Gauss waved his hands across the room, “And so these are made for that same reason. Self-defense.”

  “Against what?” I asked.

  Gauss’s eyes dropped to my arm. “If Samuel is correct, then the devil’s army may soon be upon us.”

  I snorted at this, but it was louder than I had intended. Gauss turned to me with an intense look. The man was serious!