“Fine, fiends! Come and get me!” With hands filled with sharpened steel, the underlings crept toward her. “But I’m taking many of you down with me!”
CHAPTER 23
Something wriggled at Jarla’s hips. The sack bumped around like a wild animal was in it. The neck of the sack was trapped between her waist and belt. It slipped to the ground. The neck shoved open, and a one-eyed imp crawled out. It had tiny horns, a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, hands with three fingers like the talons of an eagle, and the wings of a bat. It floated up in front of Jarla.
Flickering its forked tongue at Jarla, it said, “I am Eep. I come to play. I come to slay!” Eep turned his attention to the advancing enemy. “Underlingssss. Perfect.” Eep’s wings buzzed with the roar of a giant humming bird. He flew right at the underlings. A quick swing from an underling bounced off the hard knots on his skin. Eep ripped the underling’s throat out with his fingers. “Time to play! Time to slay!”
Jarla picked up the sack and tucked it under her belt. She attacked in the opposite direction. Using Brool’s superior length, she forced the underlings back with quick steps and jabs. The underlings backpedaled. She gored them one at a time. Where five once stood, now they all lay dead. She checked the exit of the secret tunnel. More underlings were storming her way. She shut the door and bolted it.
Eep hung in the air in front of her. His teeth, claws, and body were bloody. He grinned. All of the underlings behind him were dead. Pernsky’s body was pressed against the wall. Splattered in underling blood, he shook like a leaf. Cocking his head like a bird, Eep said, “Do I kill that one?”
“No! No! Please!” Pernsky pleaded. “I am sorry, my queen!”
Underlings pounded at the door she’d just closed. “Do what you want. I need to get this to Venir.” She ran up the corridor. She didn’t give Pernsky a look. There was a sickening glitch sound after Eep passed the wart-faced man.
“He’s dead. I like dead,” Eep said. The oversized head servant was still pushing his way down the corridor. “Ah, a juicy one!”
Blink!
Eep reappeared on the other side of the head servant. The man jumped out of his sandals.
Jarla shouted out, “You don’t have to—” Eep tore into the man like a ravenous wolverine. The head servant fell flat on his face. Jarla stepped by the man. “Kill him.”
“Eep likes killing.”
“I can see that.” Jarla kept moving. She’d relied on Pernsky to take her to the arena before, but it shouldn’t be that hard for her to figure out on her own. She’d just have to get out into the main hallways.
“Where are you going?” Eep said.
“To the arena.”
“You are going the wrong way. Thisss way!” Blink! The imp vanished again. Blink! He reappeared. “Heh, that won’t work. Time is running out.”
“Just lead me to the arena like you had legs like my own.”
“No time for that.” Eep fastened his grip on Brool’s handle.
“Let go!” Jarla said.
Blink! Eep and the axe were gone.
Jarla was still trapped in the secret corridor. She could hear more underlings coming. “Well slat the bed.” She unfurled the sack on her hip and stuck her hand inside. She pulled out Venir’s helmet.
Blink! Eep appeared. “I’ll take that.” He fastened his claws on the helm. Blink! Eep and the helm were gone, leaving Jarla holding the bag.
“Bloody Bish!”
Blink! Eep grabbed the sack.
Jarla jerked it away. “No you don’t!”
Eep hissed. “Give me sack!”
“No!”
Blink! The imp was gone.
Jarla searched for an exit. Blink! The sack vanished from the tight grip of her fingers. The underlings were coming. Jarla seethed. I hate Bish!
***
Rolling his fingers, Sinway instructed the racked weapons in the arena to float into the air. Every edged weapon was pointed at the men and the beast caught in the web.
Venir’s singed hair and clothing was still smoking. It felt like a fire inside him had just been put out. Ignoring the weapons, he said to Melegal who was cast in the web beside of him, “Glad you could make it.”
“You know me,” the rogue managed to say with his lips partially stuck to the webbing, “I never like to miss a party.”
“Thanks for coming.”
“Heh.”
Blink! Eep appeared, hovering in the arena, holding Brool in his fingers. The underlings’ faces drew tight as their murmurings stopped. Elypsa was on her feet. “What is the meaning of this intrusion?”
“Slay that thing!” Sinway said. With a flick of his wrist, he slung every hovering weapon at the imp.
Eep tossed the axe at the web. He vanished the moment the weapons would have ripped through him. The barrage of weaponry clung to the webs.
Venir’s eyes hung on the axe. The blades turned end over end. Time seemed to move in slow motion.
“What’s happening?” Melegal murmured.
Alongside Venir, Brool’s blades sliced into the webbing. The tacky web peeled away. Venir was falling. They all were. His eyes didn’t leave the handle of his axe. He grabbed hold of the haft. He hit the ground on his feet.
Master Sinway screamed in underling.
Blink! Eep reappeared above Venir. He jammed the helmet on Venir’s head. “Time to slay, Darkslayer!” Blink!
Vitality raged through Venir’s limbs.
Sinway’s lips curled back over his teeth. “Impossible! Kill him! Kill him now!”
With their gemstone eyes aglow, the underling mages in the stands charged up their fingers with crackling energy. Shards of fire and lightning lanced through the air. Venir swung into the scintillating display with his axe. The mystic metal collided with dark magic. The explosion sent him head over heels.
“That stung,” he said, pushing his face off the ground. His head was ringing like a warning bell. He rolled to his backside, helm sideways on his head. He buckled it. “Let’s try this again.”
CHAPTER 24
While the dwarven forces battled below, Mood watched from above. From a jagged pinnacle, with a spyglass to his eye, he observed the City of Bone. Aside from the thick walls of stone, and the desperate crowd in a heaving flux outside its western and southern gates, the foul city within appeared in order. That was his problem.
Mood collapsed the tarnished black spyglass in his meaty hands and handed it down to a black beard dwarf. He puffed a ring of smoke. “Something needs to change soon, Aaluun.”
“It will be a valorous stand either way, my king.”
From his cigar, Mood sucked the soothing smoke into his lungs. He huffed it out. He’d hoped to see the white-and-red banners flying from the castle hours ago. That, or a sound blast from the dwarven horn that he’d given to Billip. He knew that odds were slim, but he had faith. The group he’d fought with lately was as stalwart as he’d been with, but even the best fell at some point in time.
They’ve had quite a run.
For centuries, Mood had either seen or fought everything living on Bish. Though he and the dwarves had sought peace, they’d fought in countless wars. This one was different. The underling menace had become a contaminating swarm. Everywhere they went, they tore down the entire civilization. Mood had seen what they were capable of. They would slaughter and kill everything that wasn’t underling. Even the races of giants, orcs, and ogres didn’t cross those lines. There was a natural order of things. Now, that delicate balance had been upset. If the underlings weren’t stopped, Mood feared they might consume everything.
“What is your wish, King Mood?” the black beard said. He stood five feet tall, a stout child compared to Mood. His plate armor was stained from battle. The toe of his battle axe blade had busted off. The bare skin of his shoulder showed from where underling steel clipped him.
“Do you have a suggestion, Aaluun?”
“We are buying little time in the Black Columns now. The underlings
and their spiders are crawling over our defenses. I say we form a dwarven knot and head for the City of Bone. If your allies cannot open it, we’ll open it ourselves.”
“I’ve always liked the way you think. I’m giving it consideration.” Mood puffed out a ring. He offered the cigar to Aaluun, who took it. He was waiting on more than seeing the gate come down. He’d hoped to have allies in the fearsome four-armed striders and the nomadic Jung warriors. There wasn’t a sign of them. Kark was the Jung leader, and Tarcot led the striders. He was confident they would come even though their numbers were small compared to the underlings, yet they hadn’t. “I figured some other allies might have shown by now. I made a mistake counting on others.”
“If you are speaking of the Jung and the Striders, I say spit. They only fight in their own interests. They move with the land away from trouble. They don’t fight until trouble comes to them.”
“Trouble comes to us all. They should know this by now. They have seen it.”
Aaluun handed back the cigar as he sucked the vapors from his mouth into his nostrils. “They have seen the tens of thousands of underlings as well.”
“There are a lot of them, aren’t there?”
“More than the hairs in my beard, it seems.”
Mood flicked the butt of his cigar over the ledge. “Keep the battle horns ready. Time to shave those fiends from the face of Bish.” He took his oversized hand axes from the sheaths on his brawny shoulders. “Two at a time.”
They traversed the narrow ledge that wound down and around the pinnacle. The setting suns revealed the colorful luster in the dark rocks that were rich in minerals. The Black Columns offered them excellent protection, but it did little good against wall-climbing spiders. Dwarves clustered in war against the surge of underlings trying to overrun their positions and rousted them out. Across the chasm, an underling rode on the back of a spider. The arachnid was as big as a pony. Somehow, the fiend had slipped through the dwarven defenses. There was a wooden barrel on its back. Mood stopped.
“I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
Aaluun squinted. “That barrel appears mighty suspicious. I’ll sound the horn.” He put a weathered brass pipe to his lips, the horn curled and ancient with dents in the metal. He sounded out a blaring note. Dwarven eyes fell on his position. Aaluun pointed at the underling on the spider. A score of dwarves broke out of the ranks. They climbed the rock with battle lust in their eyes. “That should put an end to the gray devil.”
Mood wasn’t so sure. The underling rider dismounted the spider. The hairy arachnid, towing the barrel on its back, scurried underneath an overlook that hung over the position of hundreds of dwarves that were engaged in battle below. The bright eyes of the underling sparkled as it saluted Mood and Aaluun with a foul gesture. “Shoot that underling!”
Dwarves stationed inside the rocks on Mood’s side fired ballistas across the way. The large missiles clattered off the rock, busting up at the feet of the underling. A second missile hit the underling full in the chest. Clutching the missile, it waved at Mood and pitched forward, plummeting toward the rocks. Its lips were still moving as it fell.
Mood looked at the overhang where the spider was. There was a bright flash followed by a rock-jarring Kaboom! Huge chucks of rock bounced down the walls, crushing the dwarves below. The rocks came down in sheets. More explosions echoed all around. Pinnacles and spires broke off in thousands of large, jagged pieces. The thunderous explosion echoed all around.
“Shields! Shields!” Mood called out. It was too late. The Dwarven Holes army was getting crushed. The underlings crawled over the fallen rocks, emerging through the thickened dust, weapons high, chittering in triumph.
CHAPTER 25
“Stay behind me, Lefty,” Georgio said, eyeing the underlings advancing toward them.
“I’m not staying too close. I’ve seen how you swing that sword sometimes. You might kill me.” Lefty dashed toward a mound of sandstone and hid.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m hiding until the fight is over. If they find me, I’ll sting them.”
“You little coward!” Georgio looked back and forth between Lefty and the underlings mounted on the spiders. “Get over here!”
“They can’t kill you, Georgio, but they can kill me. You wouldn’t want me to die again, would you?”
“No, I’d rather kill you myself if I get the chance.” Georgio stole a glance at Barton. The giant was gone. “Great, I don’t guess I can count on either one of you.” He set his feet.
The underlings vanished underneath the sandy horizon. The wind picked up. He dusted the sand out of his eyes. Georgio’s heart pounded. It was a very long minute before the underlings reappeared. Riding on the backs of the giant sand spiders, two underling riders approached. Coming to a stop, they flanked Georgio.
Georgio’s eyes slid from underling to underling. He was certain there were at least three riders that he’d seen. He took a glance over his shoulder. No one was there. He positioned himself between the sandstones where Lefty hid and the underlings. “What are you little freaks waiting for?” He beckoned at them. “Come on!”
The underlings rode on the backs of the spiders like a man rode a horse. The insects had a unique harness that the underlings hooked their legs in. Each underling carried a sword made from blackened steel with a sharpened barbed point at the end. They chittered.
“I hate the sounds you make.” Georgio moved left. The spiders scurried sideways, maintaining their position in front of him. Even with the hot suns on his back, it gave him a chill. “Are we going to fight or not?”
The riders crept closer. As they did, the spiders began spinning a glistening web, using their front tentacles.
“Bish on this!” Georgio charged. Taking aim at the rider on the left, he unleashed a sideways swing. Thwwip! Something snagged his feet out from under him. He hit the ground face-first and rolled to his back. The third rider, sword in each hand, pounced off the back of a spider. It landed right beside Georgio and took a stab at him. Georgio swatted the blow away. “Not today, fiend!”
The underling backed away, hissing. Suddenly, it lunged. Its blade dug into the meat of Georgio’s thigh.
“Aargh! Curse you!” Georgio chopped at the underling. It chittered back at him. Shaking its shoulders, it spoke to the others. The other two underlings dismounted. They darted in, taking jabs at Georgio. He knocked one strike aside but took another hit in the meat of his shoulders. He started swinging like a wild man, but the spider dragged him off the ground, keeping him off balance.
The underlings chittered and poked at him. He bled. Pain assailed his body. He screamed. “Get off me!” Wriggling away from the next strike, his feet came loose from the webbing. At the same time, the spider let out a high-pitched shriek. Lefty gutted the arachnid from underneath with his dagger. Regaining his full mobility, Georgio rolled up on one knee. He turned loose a lethal slash. Georgio’s blade cut the knee out from the nearest underling. It toppled. “You shouldn’t have played around so long!”
The remaining underlings stabbed Georgio in the chest at the same time.
“Gah! That hurts!”
The underlings looked between him and one another. Their ruby eyes widened. Together, they tried to drive their blades deeper.
Georgio struck the underling on the left in the middle of the skull. The blow split its face open. The remaining underling gaped. Georgio seized its throat with his fingers. He crushed its windpipe. It made one last long, rattling gasp. He pushed it away. “Lefty?” His mouth was dry as a bone. He could barely speak. “Lefty!”
The halfling wandered over, half-covered in spider guts, with a sour look on his face. “Yes.”
“Will you pull these swords out of my chest?”
“What if you need an extra?”
Clenching his eyebrows, Georgio said, “These things hurt! Get them out!”
Setting his foot against Georgio’s bleeding thigh, Lefty grasped the hilt of one.
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“No, wait. Let me get myself ready.”
“Shall I go on the count of three?”
Georgio nodded. “Yes, but I’ll count.”
Lefty nodded.
“One, two, three—”
Lefty ripped the sword out.
“Son of an ogre!” Georgio cried. “Bish, that hurts! Just leave the other one in.”
“You can’t do that. Just close your eyes and suck it up. You’ve been through worse things than this.”
Panting, he said, “No I haven’t!”
“Yes, you have. Now, lean forward. I’ll count.”
Georgio swayed on his knees. “Fine, I’m too tired to count.”
“Here goes… one, two, THREE!” Lefty ripped the sword out!
Head to the sky, Georgio screamed at the top of his lungs, “Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” He fell flat on his back.
With the expression of a curious child, and standing in Georgio’s sun, Lefty said, “I see what the problem was.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I thought these swords would come out easy, but see here?” There was a hunk of flesh on the end of the blade. “There’s a little barb on the end, like a fish hook. It looks like it’s more for show than function, but it’s not. It’s a cruel device that takes a piece of you.”
“I’m going to take a piece of you!” Every breath Georgio took made him wince. “Where are those other spiders.”
Lefty’s head swiveled. “Gone.”
Georgio closed his eyes. “Good. Do you see any more?” When Lefty didn’t respond right away, he opened his eyes. “Now what?” Lefty stood with a spear tip lowered on his chest. It was held by a seven-foot-tall strider.
The Darkslayer: Series 2 Special Edition (Bish and Bone Bundle Books 6-10): Sword and Sorcery Adventures Page 47
