The Living Night: Box Set

by Jack Conner

  He struggled against the psychic dominance of Junger and Jagoda—struggled fiercely—but to no avail. Within a minute, his own body was acting on its own, and it was then that he agreed with Kilian’s earlier statement: he began to envy the dead.

  * * *

  Accompanied by the contingent of soldiers under Captain D’Aguila’s control, Ruegger entered the main chamber of the Libertarian and Balaklavian encampments.

  Raulf had prepared him for the division between the Mistress Maleasoel’s army and that of the Balaklava, a barrier guarded not only by a host of zombies but by a towering Collage, as well. Ruegger wondered how many of the great beasts his enemies had created; D’Aguila said that he knew of two for certain.

  D’Aguila had also prepared him for the carefully-guarded human fodder, and while Ruegger wished there was something immediate that he could do to relieve their situation, he knew there wasn’t.

  The Libertarian encampment itself was divided. In the near sector gathered the hundred or so soldiers that Raulf had commanded when they thought their Mistress dead; to them, Raulf was still the leader. It would have been otherwise, Raulf said, had Malie acted differently upon her belated arrival, but she had already entrenched herself in fawners and lackeys and seemed quite content with that lifestyle. Raulf’s followers found her new ways distasteful and, even, obscene. Strangely, the half of the army loyal to the Mistress stood guard in three circles about their queen, as if not only to protect her from the Balaklava but from Raulf’s followers as well.

  Accompanied by Raulf and several other soldiers, Ruegger pushed through these three rings and into Maleasoel’s inner court, where she sat upon her throne happily watching a few fool-type dancers swaying to the rhythm of a small band’s music. The notes were pretty, and the dancers graceful and light and festively painted, but the soft-spoken singer that put lyrics to the melody sung only about the great qualities of the queen and of her victories yet to come.

  Despite himself, Ruegger felt great sympathy for D’Aguila.

  Raulf had not prepared him for the absence of Junger and Jagoda, who had abandoned their own boney thrones for unknown reasons. When Ruegger quietly asked the Captain about this, D’Aguila seemed just as puzzled. “They were there when I left,” was all he could say.

  Then, at last, Ruegger found himself standing before the dark adobe throne of his oldest and best friend’s widow, who looked down on him with surprise. Now was his chance.

  He took a deep breath to begin, but Maleasoel spoke first:

  “Ruegger … Jesus, what have those bastards done to you?”

  Hope flooded him. If she referred to the Balaklava in such a manner, maybe she wasn’t as far gone as he’d feared. Squaring his shoulders and looking her straight in the eye, he said, “They were trying to prevent me from seeing you.”

  “Why should they do that?”

  Suddenly, Ruegger felt uncomfortable. If he was going to bring her down to earth, he needed to talk to her friend to friend.

  “Malie,” he said. “May we speak somewhere privately?”

  “I see no need for that.”

  “You will,” he said.

  “Anything that must be said shall be said before my court; if I kept secrets from them, how could they serve me—and the cause?”

  His brief surge of hoped turned to anger. Raulf had been right about her.

  “Please,” he tried again.

  “Ruegger, I’ve already turned down your request. Don’t make me turn it down again.”

  If she wanted to play that way, he could play as well as any. Bluntly, he said, “They never raped you, did they?”

  She seemed taken aback for a moment but recovered herself quickly. Ruegger knew, from D’Aguila, that she had kept this part secret—but why the Captain did not know.

  Then, to Ruegger’s chagrin, she gave a small shrug, as if the whole business was insignificant. “That. Yes, it’s about time I let everyone privy to that little scene, since it’s from that that this whole thing arose.”

  “What really happened?”

  She sighed, pausing a moment to gather her thoughts. “You want me to begin at the beginning? The night of Ludwig’s murder?” Off his tense nod, she said, “Well, Ludwig knew they were going to kill him. He sent me away so that I, at least, would be spared. When he told me he was about to be murdered, I was ... well, I didn’t take it well.”

  “I can imagine.” At least she sounded human now, and he allowed himself to wonder if some hope might not be warranted, after all.

  “I begged him to tell me what it was all about. He said I knew too much already—but I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I didn’t know anything. He insisted I wasn’t safe, so he sent me off to a snowy cottage in the wastelands where he was sure I’d be out of harm’s way. Then they came and killed him. You know more of that than I, of exactly what happened.” She glanced away. “It’s still painful to think of.

  “Anyway, they came to me. How they knew where I was I still don’t know. Maybe they tortured Ludwig into telling, or perhaps, as they killed him, he realized that they would not harm me. Seems strange, but I now think it true. Anyway, they found me. Understandably, I put up quite a fight, but to my amazement they didn’t fight back. They said they came to me to tell me why they had killed Ludwig. At first I didn’t believe them. In fact, it took me several months to eventually conclude that they spoke the truth that night.”

  “What did they say?” asked Ruegger.

  “That Roche Sarnova had, through his Ambassador, contracted them to kill Ludwig, because he posed a threat to the Dark Lord just when he needed his threats minimized the most. They said that Roche Sarnova had lured them out of their voluntary exile to create a piece of art for him in his growing galleries, but it was a lie. Sarnova wanted them in his Castle, overwhelmed by his power and kingdom, so that they would be awed into accepting any missions he gave them. And, since they’d been assassins before retiring to Jamaica, he thought they would play his game. But they didn’t. They refused the offer.”

  Ruegger couldn’t contain his sneer. “So they say.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “So they say, and I’ve come to believe them. He promised to lavish gifts on them at the completion of their task, but they’d have none of it. Secretly, I suspect they would’ve killed Ludwig for Sarnova anyway, had he not been so pompous about the whole deal. But they were offended at the king’s power games and refused. However, he placed enough pressure on them to at least go and visit Ludwig, to get a feel for the situation there and then report back to him. Junger and Jagoda resisted, but there was little they could do against the Dark Lord.

  “Also, Blackie said that if they didn’t at least go to Liberty he’d destroy the art they’d sculpted for him. They couldn’t suffer that. They went to Liberty, not intending to kill Ludwig, exactly, but just to get away from the Dark Lord. But when they got there, Ludwig found out about them and requested an audience. They agreed. Once dinner was served and all formalities had been put aside, my husband asked those bastards to kill him.”

  “What!” said Ruegger.

  “That’s right, my friend. I didn’t believe it either, not for a long time. But it is, apparently, the truth. Ludwig, who wanted nothing more than to disband Liberty, was stuck between a rock—Raulf Alberto D’Aguila over there, who was the leader of the militant section of Liberty—and a hard place: his conscience. He would not allow the shades he’d assembled to conquer the world, as he feared they would use it for ignoble reasons, and they probably would have.

  “So he couldn’t proceed with his original plans for Liberty, and he couldn’t disband it. On top of that, you, Danielle and I were used as blackmail against him, in case Raulf’s threats and bombings weren’t enough.”

  “Ludwig wanted Junger and Jagoda to kill him?”

  “He said it was the only way out for him. If he died, he knew I’d assume control of the army, and he hoped that I would disband it. And when he found out I was sleeping w
ith Raulf—that’s not a scene I care to discuss, the fight we had about that—he knew I wouldn’t be in danger from the radicals. Seeing his desperate situation and probably hoping to capitalize on the riches Sarnova had promised them, Junger and Jagoda agreed to the task. Still, Ludwig feared the Balaklava and their violent tendencies, so he sent me away the night of his murder, thinking they might further quench their lusts for sex and blood on me. To my shame, I left. And they killed him. Then came to me, to tell me about it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Ludwig asked them to. He wanted me to know why. He also asked them to tell me to disband the army and live a peaceful and progressive life. He didn’t want me to give up my dreams for a better world, but he didn’t want me to think I had the right to take it over in order to change it to my liking, either.”

  Ruegger smiled darkly. “The bastards had other ideas.”

  “Yes. They were still bitter about how Sarnova had treated them. They urged me to avenge Ludwig’s death by killing him. If they hadn’t done the deed, they were sure Sarnova would’ve contracted others to do it in their stead. I was angry—furious—at them and Ludwig and myself and pretty much everyone else. I wanted them to go, but they wouldn’t. They told me that they’d discovered a safe place below Sarnova’s Castle, a place where we could all find shelter and, from there, plan a sneak attack on the lord himself. I told them they were evil monsters and to get the hell out. Of course they refused. They said that, as Ludwig’s widow, I had an obligation to find out why he was killed, and that if I didn’t believe them, then I should undertake a mission to answer that very question.

  “This I couldn’t argue. I was angry. I wanted blood. I still do. So, instead of disbanding Liberty as Ludwig had wanted, I united it to go off and disprove the assassins’ lies and avenge my husband’s murder.”

  “So they didn’t rape you.”

  “No.”

  “You lied.”

  “Yes.” There was no regret in her voice, only a flat statement of the truth. “They said that if anyone knew I was even a possible ally of theirs, I’d be in danger. They told me that I couldn’t keep my meeting with them a secret forever because later I would need to tell others about it, once I finally came to accept the truth that the Dark Lord was really the one responsible for Ludwig’s death. They said that, for the moment, people must think they came to me to rape and torment me. They said that if I was to gain your sympathy, this must be so, as they’d already been commanded to dog your every step, and they didn’t want you and Danielle to think I was acting in concert with them. Neither did I.

  “At that point, I still hated them and thought them liars. The first part hasn’t changed ... they did kill Ludwig, no matter if he asked for it or not. They could’ve refused. Anyway, with my permission, they tore off my wings and gave me some serious cuts and bruises to corroborate the story. They said that once I came to understand that they spoke the truth about Sarnova, then and only then I could reveal what they’d actually not done to me, and I could reveal the truth that they had spoken. So yes, Ruegger, I lied to you. I lied to you all.”

  When he said nothing, she continued. “They’d told me that a kavasari, allied with Vistrot, had ordered them to harass you and Danielle and to make it a public spectacle. They asked me to be lenient with them on this, as they had no choice. The kavasari—”

  “Amelia.”

  Maleasoel raised her black eyebrows. “They said she was too strong for them to resist, and that I should know they never intended to kill you; they just intended to avoid Amelia’s wrath. I knew I couldn’t protect you and Dani from two Balaklava and one kavasari, so I let them do what they had to, under the assumption they wouldn’t hurt you.” She paused. “But they did, didn’t they?”

  His one black eye stared into her, not giving an inch. His silence forced her to continue.

  She did. “Anyway, with help from Liberty, I set out to find the true party responsible for Ludwig’s death. I didn’t believe he could have himself killed, and I didn’t want to believe Roche Sarnova could, either. I figured the best way to disprove their lies was to go to New York, where their supposed kavasari master was, and ferret out any information I could. I knew I couldn’t attack Vistrot himself, not with a kavasari guarding him, so I chose a lesser target, but one who would know much about the inner workings of the Titan’s operation. I selected Jacob Ikaud, Vistrot’s right-hand man.

  “I captured him and tortured him, but he knew of no plot involving Ludwig. It was the best I could do; I figured Vistrot innocent. Unfortunately, I so much wanted to disprove Junger and Jagoda’s words that I tortured Ikaud past the point of healing. He died groaning about his boss’s innocence, at least concerning Ludwig. At this point, I had to decide if my quest for justice was worth the blood I had to spill. I’m sure you’ve held similar thoughts throughout the last few weeks. Of course, most of the blood spilt on your quest was your own ... or Danielle’s.

  “I went to London to find Subaire, Roche Sarnova’s arch rival, to do the same to her. I did. After a long and bloody interrogation, I found out she was innocent and, still feeling bad about what I’d done to Ikaud, I actually apologized to her, even went so far as to explain my predicament. And you know what? She actually forgave me for torturing her. Really, I think she just saw the strategic advantage my army might present to her, and she knew that if all else failed I would go to the Castle itself.

  “She offered me her assistance if I were ever to go up against Sarnova. Later, as you know, I accepted. For the time being, though, I went out to the Congo and with my loyal followers plowed my way through the jungle until I got to Kharker, who had by this time publicly accepted blame for hiring Junger and Jagoda to kill my husband. But even he turned out to be innocent.”

  She sighed, as if the memories hurt her. “Throughout all this, Junger and Jagoda kept in contact with me, constantly offering me their services, saying they had a foolproof plan to kidnap Roche Sarnova and, perhaps, even take over the Castle itself. First, though, they said they needed certain bloods they could only find in the desert.”

  Ruegger scowled. Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, and he didn’t like it. Out loud, he said, “They just wanted Laslo’s blood.” His one hand balled into a fist.

  “Apparently,” she said. “As you can see, they were right. With their new bloods, they’ve converted many of the Castle servants and others into zombies, creating quite a powerful army for themselves. Not only that, but they brought the Sabo to its knees.”

  “You knew of the Sabo all along?”

  “Of course. They told me of it when they invited me to avenge my husband’s murder with their help. And, on the side, I knew I’d have Subaire’s backing if I wanted it. So, yeah, when I made that deal with Kharker for you and he to sneak into the Castle, I was aware he kept his secrets, and I let him. It’s better sometimes to let a man think he has something over you than to tell him he doesn’t. Remember that. I’m just sorry he turned on you and you wound up in the dungeon; that wasn’t part of my plan.” For a moment, she faltered, suddenly blurting out, “I just wanted you to know that.”

  For a second there, she almost sounded like her old self, and Ruegger’s heart swelled … until she began her next sentence:

  “Anyway, by the time I’d tortured and killed everyone I could think of that might have some reason to kill Ludwig, I gave up and listened to what Junger and Jagoda had been saying all along. I didn’t like it, but I knew I now had the power and the allies to crush the Dark Lord. And so, since he’s the last one on my list—and since I have witnesses to prove his guilt—I will.”

  “Trust me, Malie,” Ruegger said. “Roche didn’t kill Ludwig or have him killed. And as for what Junger and Jagoda said about him acting pompous—why, he’s one of the most unassuming rulers I’ve ever known. The fuckers have been lying to you this entire time, waiting for just this moment.”

  “Sorry, Ruegger. You’re my friend, but you’re also the Dark Lo
rd’s Heir—who better to stick up for him? Plus, he’s probably tainted your mind, building a better picture of him in your head than exists in reality.”

  “The opposite can be said of what the Balaklava have been doing to you. They’ve built up an image of Roche as a great and evil dictator—everything Ludwig despised. So now you want to kill him. But he did not kill Ludwig. Maybe he deserves death a million times over for what he’s done to his human victims over the thousands of years he’s been alive, but kill Ludwig he did not. Malie, are you listening?”

  She wasn’t. While he had been speaking, a stirring in her court had diverted her attention, and when he turned his head to see what the distraction was, he beheld Junger and Jagoda, accompanied by a tight cluster of armed deaders, entering the room.

  Both paused and swiveled their blood-shot eyes to stare at Ruegger, then grinned fiercely ... eagerly. He knew that grin. They marched on and retook their thrones. As soon as this was done, they sent a tall, beautiful and very casually naked woman out from beyond the line that the Collage presided over and into Libertarian territory. Libertarian soldiers leapt to her side and Ruegger was almost surprised at their speed, but then she was quite pleasant on the eyes … or eye, as the case may be.

  She strolled directly into Maleasoel’s inner court, bowed slightly, and said, “Good morning, Mistress Maleasoel.”

  “Good morning, Lyshira. Your chores done for the day?”

  Lyshira’s lips tightened, but to this she made no reply. “My masters wish to have a moment with you, Lady. On the border, with as many soldiers as you care to bring. They also suggest that you bring Ruegger along.”

  “Why? Haven’t they done enough to him already?”

  Lyshira rolled a shapely shoulder. “I know nothing of that, only of what my masters instruct me to do. They request an informal meeting on the border. The Collage will stand far away. You have nothing to fear. If you agree to the meeting, it is to begin in thirty minutes.”