He turned away, chin tilted toward the rising moons. “You would know.”
“You should consider my words. Nothing can wound a man faster than an appealing woman.” She stood beside him with her hands behind her back, following his stare. She was a fascinating woman, strong and alluring. Her chain-mail skirt twinkled in the shiny moonlight.
He found himself unable to resist a look at her long legs. His mouth watered. As callous as Jarla might be on one end of the spectrum, she was even more enticing on the other end. Shaking his head, he said, “Why does it even matter to you?”
She shrugged.
“You call that an answer? Hah, some brigand queen you are.”
She gave him a quick smack in the back of the head. “I’ve killed men for less.”
“No doubt.” He rubbed his head. She’d caught him good with the hard edge of her rings. “But I’m still going to be bold enough to say that you are jealous.”
“Now you are the one who makes me laugh,” she said. “I just don’t want to see a man as capable as you make a fool of himself over the likes of that woman. She’s bewitching.”
“I never met a woman that wasn’t.”
Jarla revealed a slight smile of brilliant teeth. For a moment, the scars that damaged her face lifted. Joy was revealed in her deep-blue eyes.
Fogle’s gentle fingers found a spot just above the cuff of her boots. He massaged the firm muscle in her calf. “Why don’t you sit down? It’s just us, you know.”
“Why don’t you stand up?”
Fogle’s hands turned clammy. His heart began to pound. Cass and some of the others had departed for the Black Column on the back of Blackie, leaving him back with Jarla. Slim was the only other one who hadn’t left, but he hadn’t seen the cleric for hours. Only he and Jarla were there, and she’d come out of nowhere. He’d given her little thought since Cass had appeared. Now a bizarre triangle of lust emerged. Taking hold of her open hands, he stood.
She pulled him into her firm breasts. She was an eyelash taller than him. “It’s just us and the moons. What are you going to do, mage?”
With lust igniting the passionate flames in his heart, he said in a shaky voice, “Your timing is suspicious. My mind tells me to pull away, but the rest of me rushes forward. I’m at an impasse.”
With her lips touching the hair on his ear, she replied, “You wouldn’t be foolish enough to scorn the brigand queen, would you?”
“Am I being coerced into sex?”
“Sometimes that’s the best way to do it.”
***
The sensation Brak felt as Blackie launched himself into the air with powerful wings beating left his stomach in the sand. Fear and elation filled him. Scooted into his chest, Jubilee sat in front of Brak with her mouth wide open.
Boon, who sat behind Cass, said to the older girl, “You might want to close that mouth. Choking on a bug at these heights can be deadly. Trust me.”
Jubilee clamped her jaw shut and looked up at Brak. He started laughing. A new life filled him as the cooler air of the unseen heights lifted his spirits somewhere they had not been before. The heavy beat of wings and the winds combing through his hair took him into a part of the world he didn’t think existed. With one hand fastened to the handholds on the dragon’s saddle and his other arm locked around Jubilee, he let out a bellowing, “Wooooooooo!”
Blackie turned his neck around and gave him a look. The beast snorted, lifted his head to the sky, and flapped with a power that made them go higher and faster.
Jubilee looked down at the lights below that gathered like fireflies in the night. “Is that Bone?”
The little woman nodded. Brak marveled at how small Bone seemed. His entire perspective had changed. Perhaps the world was not as big as he thought it was.
Blackie circled in the open space of the night sky. Boon talked as he pointed. Practically shouting in the rush of air, he said, “There is the Black Columns. The dwarves gather there. Some of them. That is where we go.”
Brak gave it some thought. They traveled at night to avoid wary eyes below even though being observed seemed insignificant from such heights. Still, they’d agreed that they didn’t want to alert the underlings to Blackie’s presence. Brak wasn’t sure how the dwarves would react, either. He knew little about them, but they were an aggressive race—especially against things much bigger than them.
“So are we going to drop right into the middle of the dwarves?” Brak yelled up to Boon. “Don’t you think that they will attack?”
“You make a good point, but I’ve given thought to that. I’ll set their minds at ease as best I can.” Boon leaned over the side. “It sure looks like a long way down, but I think that I can handle it. I’ll give the burly beards a warning that a dragon’s coming. It will be interesting to see how they take the news.” He gave Brak and Jubilee a smile. “Just give me a few moments.” He wriggled his arms, took a deep breath, and swan-dived into the blackness.
“Boon!” Jubilee cried out.
The wizard vanished in the night. Brak swore he heard the old man hollering, “Weeeeeeee!”
CHAPTER 37
“That thing is not flesh and bone.” Melegal’s narrow eyes enlarged the closer the apparition came. “We need to get the Bish out of here.”
A frost started to spread over the top of the cut stone. His breath showed in the air. Melegal’s teeth clattered. He shoved past Venir, practically sprinting in the direction they’d come from. Venir took one last look through the frosting eyelets of his helmet. The ghost appeared to be a man with a sunken face and eyes that burned white.
Melegal was right. Flesh and blood he could understand, but this creature from another world was different. Helm warned him. You cannot fight the wind. You will only find death.
He rushed after Melegal. Beneath him, the tunnel iced over. His feet slipped. He ground in, digging forward with his axe and fingernails. A cold breath was upon him. His lids became heavy.
“Faster, Venir!” Melegal punched into a smaller tunnel, crashing through the icy webbing covering the hole. “Slat on this madness!”
Venir lumbered forward. The chill air took his breath. White light closed in behind him.
A moan rushed over his limbs, engulfing his body. “Death comes to all trespassers! I hunger. I conquer. I devour.”
With a swing, the axe bit into the stone of the narrow tunnel. Venir pulled himself inside, panting for hot breath. The suffocating light slowed his thoughts. The moaning voice disoriented him. With his guts churning, he crawled onward. Fight or die!
Melegal vanished through the next opening.
Helm spoke to him. He didn’t understand the language, but he knew what it meant. Trust me. Shutting his eyes, muscles straining, he clawed through the black hole until he fell into another. The moaning became a high-pitched wailing. The sound locked up his joints.
“Get your arse up!” Melegal screamed.
He felt the thief’s hands lock around one of his wrists. The warmth in the thin-skinned thief awakened Venir from his slumbering pace. Fighting his way to his feet, he followed Melegal’s lead.
“Get up there! Quick!” Melegal yelled.
Eyes still shut, all Venir knew was that he was climbing upward, using small metal rungs for handholds. The metal of his helmet banged into steel. Straining, he pushed the storm grate out of the way. He fought his way into the warm air, pushing against the freezing vortex of sound and ice that was trying to devour him whole.
The dark streets greeted his opening eyes. His boots dangled over the edge of the drain, the icy whiteness lighting up his vision. From the hole, a trembling hand coated in frost stretched out into the night. Venir seized it.
With Melegal’s flesh as rope, a supernatural tug-of-war began.
“Don’t let go of me, oaf!” Melegal said. “I would have been free if not for you!”
Jaw and feet set, Venir pulled the man free of the angry light. Melegal popped free. The ground trembled with an awful,
earsplitting wailing. The light went out. The sound stopped.
Melegal’s teeth chattered. He dusted the frost from his clothing, eyeing Venir. “Don’t ever take me down in there again.”
“It wasn’t my idea to begin with.” Venir shoved the grate back over the hole. With a throbbing head, he said, “You better go back.”
Flicking his fingers and looking paler than normal, Melegal said, “Why?”
Venir rapped his knuckles on his helmet. “Company’s coming. Now I do it my way.”
Scanning the streets from one end to another, Melegal said, “Which way?”
“All directions.” He stood, banging the icy fragments off Brool with the heel of his boot. “It beats the Bish out of whatever we encountered down there. Slat on it. If I have to carve a way to the west gate to get a closer look, then I will.”
“And attract them like flies to honey?” Melegal scanned the top ledges of the buildings. “I say we climb.”
“I say we kill.”
Melegal rolled his eyes. “Just follow me for a few more minutes.”
“And have my arse turned into an icicle. No, you follow me.” Fighting the urgings within his metal skull, Venir scaled the edges to the top of the nearest building. From the new vantage point, he kept his eyes on the activity forming in the streets. Melegal lurked at his side, shaking his head. “You climb like an animal. Think like one too.”
“Just remember, they can’t see me, but they can see you.”
“We’ll see.”
Two squads of underling soldiers met in the street close to the grate where Venir and Melegal had made their escape. Two huge dogs—shaggy beasts almost big enough for an underling to ride and chained with leather leashes—sniffed and snorted the cobblestone street.
Venir could interpret the words the underling leader, carrying a small battle-axe, said to the others. “Keep searching. Someone is near. We must find them.”
The underlings split up. They skulked into the alleys, searching high and low, kicking through trash and knocking over any vehicles of commerce that weren’t fastened down.
Venir got the feeling that even though he and Melegal had made a ruckus, it wasn’t them the underlings were looking for but some other kind of threat. With Helm throbbing on his head and a rush of hot blood flowing through his veins, he backed away from the edge, turning his gaze away. The urgings subsided somewhat. Meanwhile, Melegal lurked on the building’s edge liked a perched crow. The unflappable thief stirred at the sound of a wooden rustle below.
A woman cried out. A girl screamed. The underlings dragged both of them down the street, kicking and wailing.
Melegal said, “Slat, I think I know her. Caution, Venir. There are too many to take at once.”
Brool cocked over his shoulder, Venir launched himself at the distracted brood of evil.
CHAPTER 38
Venir’s muscle-bound frame collided with the underlings in the street with a sharp swish of fury. Brool splintered a pair of them, goring them to the bone, cutting through the marrow before the other fiends could gape. Two-handed Venir swung Brool in mighty chops, cleaving metal and unleashing gore. By the time the underlings gathered themselves, it was too late for half a dozen of them.
Venir’s hatred was just beginning. “Get the Bish out of my city!”
The underlings’ scowling faces turned angry. Their eyes sparked with a hateful fire. They attacked from all directions, chittering and swinging. Razor-sharp steel in well-trained hands licked out at Venir’s knees. The fiends jabbed and stabbed. Reckless in their fury, the simmering warriors fought like hungry tigers from the darkest jungles. Metal pierced Venir’s skin. The bottom haft of Brool cracked an underling’s skull. Using his reach, Venir jabbed the spike through an underling’s eye socket. He swept a leg with the edge of the steel, cutting it off at the knee.
“Kiss my metal, you evil brothers and sisters!”
The underlings came with weapons raised over their heads. They chopped, cut, stabbed, screamed, and spit.
Venir let them have it with blood-splattering blows. Brool collided with a sternum. The underling’s chest exploded in a rainbow of blood. Something dug into the meat of Venir’s shoulder. An underling clung to his back. He grabbed it by the black mop of hair on its head and yanked it to the ground. He stomped its throat, ducked a flash of metal, and gored the fiend. Glitch!
Helm united with his body, heightened his instincts, and anticipated the underlings’ every move. Venir remained a step ahead, attacking through their defenses and cutting them down. Slice! Chop! Stab!
***
I’ll never get used to his madness! Melegal climbed down to the street. Once his toes hit the ground, he watched the underlings circle Venir in a knot of bodies determined to do nothing but kill the man. Venir was heavily outnumbered, but the fiends were falling fast. I’ll never get used to that butcher!
He spied the woman and girl racing down the street. An underling broke from the fray, chasing after them. Melegal sped after the underling. The women vanished into an alley. So did the underling. Melegal rounded the corner seconds later, finding himself face-to-face with the underling. The green-eyed fiend had chased the two into a dead end. They huddled in the back, eyes fearful. The underling chittered, poised to strike. Its strong fingers and sharp nails that could peel flesh to the bone gripped a short sword with a nasty hook on the end.
Melegal drew his weapon and brandished it in front of the underling. The little monster, with bare arms knotted in muscle, chuckled. Melegal prepared to parry the first strike, setting his feet shoulder width apart. I feel so barbaric when I do this.
The underling rushed. Melegal shot it in the face with one set of the dart launchers.
Twing! Twing! Twing! Twing!
The underling screeched. Clawing at its face, it didn’t catch Melegal’s blade popping through its throat. It died gurgling and chittering.
Melegal wiped his blade on the underling’s back and looked up at the older woman. “We meet again, Rayal.”
“Detective Melegal! I couldn’t be more thrilled to see you.” She rushed over and kissed him full on the lips.
“Ew,” the girl said with a scowl. “Why are you kissing that old lady?”
“Shut it, Elizabeth. This man saved us.”
Fully caught up in the splendor of Rayal, Melegal lost himself in her gorgeous eyes. Rayal Kling was a raven-haired beauty with a sweet and confident demeanor that was rare among the royals. She was everything a woman should be and more.
The clatter of steel bent his ear. He peeked out of the alley. Venir stood in the slop of underlings, splattered in blood, chest heaving. His eyes were black fires that smoldered. Under his breath, Melegal said, “It’s a good thing we’re not underlings.”
“What?” Rayal said.
Melegal stepped aside. Rayal took a long look at Venir, who bellowed like a wild thing over the slaughter. Her mouth hung half-open.
Elizabeth pushed between their legs. “Whoa, he killed them all? Go get him, Rayal. He’s going to be my personal guard.”
“We need to move.” Melegal headed for Venir. The man didn’t acknowledge him. The helmet was tilted over, and Melegal swore he heard it either humming or talking to Venir. “Vee?”
Venir faced him. “More come. Many more.” A battle grin formed over the marred grizzle of his short beard. “I’m going to wash my streets with their blood tonight. Get out of here.”
“Fine, but remember the mission. Get that through that metal skull of yours.”
Shadows fell into the streets from far away—underlings and spiders. Melegal took Rayal’s hand. She took Elizabeth’s. Together, they started running, snaking through the alleys, avoiding the sounds of battle. Time and again, they almost crossed paths with squads of underlings. He pressed into the shadows cluttered with filth and garbage and locked his fingers over Elizabeth’s complaining mouth as underlings slunk into the alley. Keep moving! Keep moving! Keep moving!
The underlings h
ustled right by them, except for one that stopped and turned. Its ruby-red eyes glanced over top of them and froze. It chittered. The others, three in all, stopped in their tracks. The underlings pointed at Melegal, Rayal, and Elizabeth and came right at them.
Slat!
CHAPTER 39
Watching the underlings close in, Venir wrestled with Helm. The mystic contraption urged him to rush headlong into the fray. He opted for another course of action. He ran. As he led the underling flock through the streets and alleys, the angry knot of little black men gathered into a small army of dozens.
Come and get me! He led the underlings west, knowing Melegal would be heading east. The City of Bone was Venir’s home. He’d give the fiends his own version of city warfare. He climbed up a set of scaffolding and hunkered down on the planks, ready to spring. An underling on the back of a spider passed underneath him. Venir dropped a block of rock on the underling’s head. The spider scurried away like a frightened dog.
Swinging off the scaffolding, Venir picked up the underling’s corpse, and with the power of a mountain goat, he scaled two floors to the top of the building. He peered over the edge and into the streets. Underlings gathered below, chittering and searching. Venir knew the little monsters couldn’t see him until he revealed himself. Then they’d fall into a frenzy. He hefted the dead underling onto his shoulders. With a heave, he tossed the fiend like a bale of hay into the flock of underlings. The corpse collided with another underling with a heavy thud.
Gemstone eyes filled with rage looked up at him. Venir laughed. “Come and get me, fiends!”
***
Melegal summoned the power within his cap. Go away! Go away! Go away! It didn’t work. The underlings came at them with the ease of assassins. He moved out of the shadows, swords ready, facing them off. Outnumbered three to one, Melegal wasn’t fond of his chances. He could fend off one man well enough, but not three killers at once. It would only take one cut in the right place to end him once and for all. This is it. Fight or die. I can’t believe I’m thinking that.
The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures Page 25
