by Aaron Bunce
He had never seen a gnarl fight with such discipline before. Hell, half the men he trained with weren’t as capable fighters. The gnarl showed the balance and footwork of a seasoned fighter. Julian feared that he was overmatched without a sword.
The spiked blade cut in and Julian swatted it aside with the haft of his axe. But he was slowing. Each attack brought the gnarl close, increasing the odds that it could land a crippling blow. The creature knew it too. He could see it on its face. It danced around as it started to toy with him.
It was all Julian could do just to hold the axe out before him. He wheezed painfully, each breath setting fire to his battered ribs. Emboldened, the gnarl stabbed hard with the spiked handle. The sharp point of the weapon glanced off of the axe shaft and slipped into the gap in his armor plates, digging painfully into his thigh. Julian fell back, but the gnarl fell over him, jabbing at him like an angry hornet.
Julian caught the gnarl’s arm as it stabbed in, the blade just missing its mark. He wrestled the creature back, using his weight to push it back into the row of cages. The gnarl tried to push him back, but it was wrenched back suddenly. Hands emerged from the darkened cage, grabbing fists full of the creature’s fur and ripping the whip from its hand.
“Grrrrppp, kill you,” the gnarl spat.
Julian drove the axe down hard, silencing the creature forever. The gnarl jailer’s body crumpled to the ground, the rocky cavern going eerily quiet.
“I knew you would come,” a hoarse voice echoed behind him.
Julian spun on the spot, his legs shaking beneath him. A stone’s throw away, perched like a hungry cat atop the far row of cages, was the masked man.
Julian’s eyes instantly went to the ground, and the handle of the axe still embedded in the dead gnarl’s chest. His gaze slid to the gnarl’s whip, but he didn’t even have a chance to reach for either weapon before the masked man moved. He slid down from the cage, lithe and silent as a shadow. The people locked in the cage behind him smashed their bodies together, frantically putting distance between themselves and the masked figure.
“I used to be just…like…you,” he said quietly.
“I am nothing like you!” Julian spat, backing away as the man walked casually towards him. He chuckled quietly, shaking his head. The man’s voice sent a shiver down Julian’s spine.
“I think that, in time…you will come to see how wrong you truly are,” the masked man said. He continued to pace, completely at ease.
“I must say, I am disappointed. I was sure that you would come against me in force. You, of all people. The warrior, the lover…the city’s hero,” he said.
“Worry about me!” Julian said angrily. “What kind of man betrays his own kind? Kills his people, and works with these beasts?”
“What kind of man indeed,” he replied. “These people…” he continued, and walked over to the nearest cage and gestured to the prone, trembling figures inside, “are not my people. When my masters found me, I was broken, destitute, and surely to die. All thanks to these people. People like you.”
“The gnarls are animals, beasts, rabid and savage,” Julian said and backed up into a cage. He looked around subtly, trying to find the glint of his lost sword.
“You really don’t understand, do you? So predictable! The gnarls are only a tool. A savage pawn, which pointed in the right direction, can be quite effective. My masters understood this, just like they understand you.”
“So, that makes you a pawn as well,” Julian cut in.
“Indeed. In return for my life…my service, they offered me wisdom, power, and strength. They are ancient and more powerful than you could ever imagine. Did you know that this world belongs to them? You fools just haven’t realized it yet. It is their time again. You will see. They will burn your world to the ground, and in its place they will give us paradise.”
The masked man’s words filled Julian with an undeniable sense of dread. He knew Denoril had its fair share of fanatical groups, druid sacrifices, dark offerings, and magic of terrible and unexplainable origins, but this was something entirely different.
“Where is Tanea? Release her, now!” Julian demanded, continuing to move and scan the cages.
“They have been chosen…they will serve a greater purpose than they could have ever hoped for in their lives before,” the masked man continued, ignoring Julian and gesturing to the expansive row of cages.
“And I suppose they didn’t have a say in all of this. You don’t normally lock up volunteers in cages. Are they going to be your pawns, to spill their own blood…and for what?” Julian asked as a hand emerged from the cage behind him. He felt the person pawing at his back, grabbing at his shirt and his belt.
“Their lives are inconsequential,” he replied flatly.
Julian reached back nonchalantly and tried breaking the person’s grip on his belt, but as he did someone grabbed his arm. They pulled his arm back so hard he was turned painfully with the force.
“I knew you would come here. I could see the strength in you, it is your defiance! We’ve been watching you for a while now. You don’t have to die like the others, Julian,” the masked man said.
Julian’s head snapped up as he said his name.
“Yes, I know who you are. I probably know more about you than the men who accompanied you up here. Yes, the same men who took the half-blood back with them,” he continued, and Julian knew that his face betrayed him.
“Don’t look so surprised, I let you have the smith. He’s of no further use to me. But you, Julian, you are different. You are not like the other men that have flocked to us, men so desperate for wealth, power, or status they would kill without a second thought. They begged me to take them in.
“They reek of desperation, and weakness, but not you. I can feel your strength, your resolve! My masters respect strength above all else. That is why I asked you to come here, so I could help you understand the truth. And when this world ends, as it must, you will be a prince amongst paupers.”
“Ask me to come? You took someone from me and killed my men. I came here to take Tanea back, and kill you!” Julian growled, but as he spoke, he felt the small, cold hands of the woman in the cage behind him fumble something heavy into his palm. He let his sword come to rest behind his leg.
“Do you know what I was before, in my old life? I was a thief, a scoundrel, and a murderer. I picked pockets, robbed carriages, and broke into people’s homes to rob them blind. I stabbed men, and women, in the back. Some of them were even my friends,” he said, chuckling horribly. “But I was a coward. I was small, weak…nothing like you, given everything, taking everything else. I was forced to live in the streets, sometimes the wilds, fending for myself like an animal…barely living what you would consider a life. But then, he found me one night, and he looked inside me and saw my pain, saw my anger. He spoke truths to me that made me drop to my knees and weep. They used to call me Seth, but that was another life, that weakling is dead and gone. I am Spider now, first of the faceless!
Julian circled the smaller man, working to keep his blade hidden behind his leg. He measured his steps and tried to calculate the distance between them.
“Our time of skulking in the shadows is almost at an end. We will step out into the light, and your kind will know the end has come. You will see it happen, Julian, see your people fall to their knees in fear, and beg for mercy. Well, they will be shown none, only the justice of real power,” Spider continued, his voice hoarse and broken.
“Where is Tanea? Release her, now!” Julian growled impatiently, as he watched Spider pace back and forth. The smaller turned on him suddenly, his body like a coiled snake.
“No, Julian don’t!” a woman screamed from somewhere out of sight.
“Tanea, where are you?!” Julian yelled, but he did, Spider started to laugh. His voice, gravelly and hoarse, started to change as he laughed, and when he spoke again the voice that issued from his mask was not his own. It was Tanea’s.
“Don’t you se
e? She was never here! She was the chink in your armor,” Spider said, his voice morphing back once again.
“You lie! Where is she? Show her to me, now!” Julian screamed, the people in the cages shifting noisily.
“You mean her,” Spider said, and with the flick of his bejeweled arm a haunting figure appeared out the darkness.
“Help me! Julian, save me!” the haunting shadow of Tanea cried…her voice hollow and empty.
“Do you see now?” Spider asked, and with another flick of his wrist the ghostly image vanished.
Spider didn’t flinch as he charged in. Julian chopped down with his sword, trying to cleave the smaller man in half, but Spider was already in motion, dipping aside as his blade fell.
“Yes! Excellent!” Spider said, ducking a sidelong follow through, and Julian’s frustration grew.
Julian recovered just as Spider lunged, the polished steel blade of his sword stabbing in impossibly fast. Julian couldn’t move in time, the point of the man’s sword coming to rest painfully against his sternum. All he could do was fall backward, sending himself into an uncontrolled tumble to the wet stone. Julian tried to roll, but his limbs felt dead with fatigue.
”Your fire is what we want. Your passion, your determination, even with your body failing you, you fight!” Spider cried out. His eyes burned like green embers deep within the dark recesses of his forged, metallic skin. They simmered with madness.
“Then why kill me?” he shouted back, lifting his sword defensively
Spider’s sword hovered before Julian’s face. “Kill you? Never kill you…but I had to be sure.”
Metal crashed against metal and Spider’s blade was knocked to the side.
“Get up, Ama’lik!” Sky shouted, jabbing and cutting savagely to force Spider back. Julian heaved himself off the ground, the sight of his best friend filling him with renewed hope.
“Fools, you fight against that which you cannot hope to defeat,” Spider croaked, and as he did, he jabbed his hand towards Sky. The gems around his wrist surged in the dark, but their light was not nearly as intense as before. A ripple cut the air, and Sky cried out as the force staggered him back.
Julian lurched forward before Spider could strike. He angled his sword in, towards the man’s midsection, forcing him to step back. He maintained his balance and let his momentum carry him into a spin. His sword arced out in a powerful swing Spider couldn’t dodge. The blades crashed together, metal ringing against metal. The vibration shot up Julian’s arm and almost jarred his weapon loose.
“Not bad!” Spider hissed and went into a fast, deadly series of attacks that Julian was barely able to block.
Sky dove back in from the side and managed a glancing blow to Spider’s leg before he could dance away. Julian anticipated Spider’s retreat and moved to counter. He jabbed once and then twice. Spider parried both moves, but his movements had become sluggish and predictable.
Julian and Sky worked together, anticipating each other’s movements to keep Spider off balance. Sky stabbed at his chest, and the man blocked the sword aside, but Julian improvised by ducking in and kicking at his front leg.
His foot connected with a satisfying impact and Spider’s knee buckled, causing him to lurch forward. Julian punched out, catching him squarely in the face with the handle and crossguard of his sword. Spider’s head snapped back, the blow staggering him. Spider wavered, stumbling back and holding his head in his hand.
“Enough of this, I have wasted too much time already!” Spider growled, jumping back a dozen paces in a single, cat-like leap.
Spider started to chant, his voice soft as he raised his hand towards a nearby cage. His arm began to tremble, spasms wracking his whole body as someone trapped within the cage cried out. The person in the cage began to thrash wildly, splintering wood and bludgeoning those trapped with them.
A horrible crackling noise, like brittle parchment, filled the air, and the gems within Spider’s bracelet surged to life, glittering anew like diamonds in the sun. Julian shied away, shielding his eyes as the light increased tenfold.
The light died away, and Julian dared a glance. An arm fell out of the cage, breaking free from the shriveled and ruined body. It hit the ground like dried firewood, a burned chunk of wasted life.
The burning gems within Spider’s bracelet surged, pulsing rhythmically in the dark. The masked man shivered, staggering drunkenly for a moment. Julian took a step forward, raising his sword to strike while the man was compromised, but something stopped him dead in his tracks.
Ripples of energy coursed through Spider’s body, changing his skin and contorting his features, so they looked less and less human. Julian looked to Sky, but as they turned back, Spider lifted his head, his eyes blazing.
Did he just drain that poor woman of her life? How is that possible?
Julian took a step towards Spider, Sky matching him, until a tremendous force took hold of him, squeezing his arms next to his body. His body was tugged off of the ground, the toes of his boots scraping against the stone before lifting clear.
Spider walked towards them, both arms extended, his fingers curling into the air. He raised his hands and Julian felt his body wrenched upwards. His sword fell free and rattled to the stone below.
“You fools…I could crush you as easily as smashing a bug beneath my finger. Death is too easy. I want you to see my truth, to despair knowing that you will be part of it all. I’m going to make you watch it all come crashing down!” Spider said in a contorted whisper, and off to the side, one of the cage doors opened with an angry squeal.
The air shimmered and a heartbeat later Julian was flying through the air. The crushing force released as he toppled, ungainly in the air. He tumbled into the depths of the cage, landing in a heap of tangled arms and legs. Julian felt the suffocating weight of bodies as they crawled over him, and then behind them the cage door crashed shut.
Chapter 31
Into the Harrows
Shale Common House – Northern Karnell
Henri pushed the empty beer mug away, irritably mumbling to himself.
“Aye, I think you’re mad daft in the head if you go, Henri. You’re just back into town this very day, and you’re to be tromping right back out there. We all loved your little ones as if they were our own flesh and blood, but you have to face it, they’re gone!” barkeep Mattius Pillbottom said, slamming a new mug of frothy ale onto the rough, oaken table.
“Asked for another, not your thoughts, Mattius,” Henri growled, tipping the foamy mug to his lips.
“Well, that’s what your copper pays for, my ale and my thoughts. You can’t have one without tuther,” Mattius spat back.
“They’re out there somewhere. I am their father…they need me,” he mumbled, emerging from the mug’s depths.
“You’ve been going out there for so long. If they’re to be found, you would have found em by now,” Mattius argued, gathering up several empty mugs. “Aint no sense risking your own skin time after time. You have to let em go.”
Henri gave Mattius an angry wave and toppled drunkenly off of his seat. When the man next to him tried to help him, Henri pushed him away too.
“Leave me be. I can manage,” he spat angrily. They all claimed to understand his pain, to understand his loss.
How can they understand my pain? It wasn't their little ones that disappeared. He vowed never to forgive himself, to never forget his children, his three beautiful children.
“I don’t need anyone’s help,” he growled in response to the rising chatter. He knew he was making a scene, but he just didn’t care anymore.
“Sleep it off, you drunk!” someone shouted as he tight-roped his way between the tables and finally settled his weary body into a seat before the large circular fireplace.
Henri buried his face in his mug again, throwing back a large gulp of sweetly bitter ale, struggling to push the faces of his beloved children back out of mind. He pulled the mug down and rubbed his swollen, puffy eyes.
&
nbsp; Henri’s despair swallowed up most of his life, isolating him from pretty much everyone, especially those that wanted to help him. His trade business suffered, and even his wife had stopped speaking to him.
Damn you, Robert…damn you, Damon, Henri thought angrily. He felt guilty blaming his friends at first, but then he reminded himself that they promised to keep his young ones safe.
“They promised!” he whispered bitterly, knowing that if they were still alive he would say the same to their faces.
Men and women flocked to him initially, eager to help scour the countryside. They searched west to the Karnell Flats, east through the Boroughs and the Booted Hills, but it was to no avail. The sunsets wore on, and before he knew it, spring gave way to summer. Most that showed up to help returned to their lives, while those that stayed insisted that he pay them for their efforts.
“Parasites!” Henri growled, “Profit from a man’s misery.”
Henri was all alone now, but that was okay with him. He had but one place left to search, and it was dangerous. No one in their right mind would follow him into the Stone Harrow Hills.
Located between the Capital and the mountain city of Pinehall, the Stone Hallow Hills was a particularly dangerous stretch of wilderness. Rocky ground, dark forests, and dangerous creatures made traveling treacherous.
If that weren’t enough, hidden fissures dotted the ground and swallowed up those not mindful of the path before them. There were no roads, no caravan routes - not even the Silver Guard patrolled the area.
It is where I must go, danger or not.
Henri tipped his mug, letting the last foamy remnants slide down his throat. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, clearing away the tears that leaked down his cheeks at the same time. He stood up and teetered for a moment before dropping his mug onto and making for the door.
Henri pushed through the door, the cool autumn air washing over him. He stumbled a bit, but stopped and gathered up his balance.
“Henri! Henri! Wait for a moment,” someone called from behind him.
