The Cross Guard
Purgatory Wars: Book Three
Dragon Cobolt
Uruk Press
Uruk Press
Great Britain
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© Dragon Cobolt 2017
All rights reserved.
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Cover by Remy Malara.
Also from Dragon Cobolt
Purgatory Wars
The Murder Stroke
Riposte
The Cross Guard
The Blood Groove (forthcoming)
Other works
A Fetch Job
"The Last Mage" in Sex & Sorcery 3
Also from Dragon Cobolt
The Cross Guard
Prologue
Part One
One
Two
Three
Four
Part Two
Five
Six
Seven
Epilogue
Introducing Uruk Press
Uruk Novellas
Uruk Press - Fantasy
The Cross Guard
Prologue
Liam watched as the last bit of Cindier Stonespeaker, the former mayor of Troy's Folly, vanished under the earthen ground that made up the center of the smallish Hellenic village that sat on the edge of the Wastes of Ra, and considered that there were far better ways to spend his anniversary.
“Well,” Megara the Messenger said, sitting down beside him, “We did warn the git.”
Liam looked at his lover and tried for a smile. But it was hard to feel anything but a grinding frustration and gathering dread. He had been on Purgatory – or, since Purgatory was an immense hollow sphere with a sun in the center of it, maybe the better term would be inside Purgatory – for almost a year, give or take a few weeks. And what a year. He had faced down literal gods – all of them banished to Purgatory in the ancient past – matched blades and wits with assassins and savage lizardmen, slain monsters and lain beautiful women.
And yet, despite all of that, he could still be completely caught off guard sometimes.
“I've still not found any records of it over here!” Tethis called from the building across the way.
Any town – even one as small as Troy's Folly – that called Athena their patron goddess would have a library, especially half a year after the first printing press had been built. And of their small group, Tethis was the one most likely to end up cowering atop said library when thrust into a situation like this. The short, curvaceous gobliness - scribe, mage and his occasional lover - was cupping her hands around her mouth to help her voice carry across the space between the library and the temple that Meg and Liam and a few dozen other villagers were sheltering on.
“Of course you haven't found any records,” Meg called back. “No one's ever run into one of these fucking things before.” She paused. “Do you think it's still there?”
Liam sighed, picked up a discarded sandal – left behind by Stonespeaker – and threw it out over the open ground that stretched between the two buildings. Detecting motion, the creature that had been hounding this village for two days and Liam's party since they arrived, broke the ground above it's be-tentacled, razor-toothed maw, and spat. Several dozen green-slicked crystalline darts flew into the air, leaving behind white contrails of smoke as they shredded the sandal into pieces.
Meg shook her fist at the maw as the ground shook, shuddered, and subsided – the earth flowing back into place over where the creature had opened its firing hole.
Liam and his party – Meg, Tethis and his former slave and current bodyguard, Liviana – had been sent to Troy's Folly after the roundabout chain of political dominoes that usually operated in Purgatory had fallen into place. Athena had stopped getting tithes from the village and had a sudden uptick of desperate pleas for aid. The soldiers she sent had vanished. Being unwilling to risk her men and women's lives needlessly, she had tapped a messenger to head to Sobek.
Sobek – the crocodile-headed Pesdjeti god of ameliorated evil and Liam's patron – had extorted a few chests of gold from her, then dispatched Liam.
Why me? Liam had asked even as he packed his belongings.
Why you? Sobek had asked, sounding shocked. You defeated Aries' daughter in single combat. He had jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Liviana, who at that moment had been sharpening her short sword. You foiled one of Purgatory's most dangerous assassins, killed a basilisk single handed, broke a lizardman tribe over your knee, killed a minotaur with your bare hands...do I need to go on?
The fact the minotaur had died of an aneurysm – as Tethis had determined afterward while a baffled Liam and Meg watched her cut into the monster – didn't seem to faze a single bard in the whole damned world. And now?
Now, the only good thing Liam could say about this expedition was that the monster had eaten their horses first. Well, that, and the fact that Tethis had gotten used to her new adornments. Even with healing magic, getting sensitive parts of one’s anatomy pierced made the rigors of the road somewhat harder to bear.
“I suppose it could be worse,” Meg said, nodding. “It could be-”
The sun that hung overhead plunged from light to darkness as if a door had been slammed. Despite a year of experience, Liam still jerked with surprise. He missed sunsets. He missed driving places. He missed the internet. He missed not having to worry about dying constantly.
The sky rumbled and rain started to patter onto the roof
“-raining,” Meg finished.
“I also miss weather reports,” Liam muttered, then forced himself to his feet. He hurried back to the makeshift shelter that several of the villagers had erected on the temple's roof to protect them from the sun. Sitting underneath it, he pulled out his iPod and fiddled with it. A blessing from the goddess Bridget months before had prevented it from running out of batteries, but he was pretty sure music wouldn't help his mood at the moment.
Meg joined him a moment later, slowly closing a single wing around his shoulders. Being a valkyrie, Meg had to feel even more useless. What use was her immense strength and incredible physical acuity, against an enemy the size of a house that had a shield of earth to protect it? Even her flight was useless – the thing could spit those acid-covered darts faster than even she could fly. Liam leaned against her and sighed.
“You'll think of something,” she said, her voice confident.
Liam grunted.
“Come on,” she said. “This isn't even as bad as when we were tasked to kill that dragon.”
“It wasn't a dragon, it was a crystalback with delusions of grandeur,” Liam said, grinning slightly. “And this is, easily, ten times worse.”
“Says you. That crystalback blew a wing off.” Meg lifted said wing, flapping it once. Only quick action by Tethis' healing magics had knitted flesh and bone back together, and only Meg's amazing stamina had got her back to flying again within weeks. Liam rubbed his chin as the rain continued to patter against the temple roof and the makeshift protection. He blinked.
“Wait, why are you saying this is better than that? You-” He stopped, spluttering. Meg beamed at him, delighting in his confusion. Liam laughed despite himself. He leaned against Meg, relaxing slightly. No matter what happened, if he was with her, he'd be okay. He closed his eyes.
An idea formed...
The next morning, the sun burst into life and cleared away the clouds in about five minutes of shining. The rain faded and the surface of the temple gleamed with reflective light. The pails and buckets that the
villagers had set out were tapped for water, and Liam splashed some into his face, beaming as he stepped to the edge of the temple, stretching.
“I knew it,” Meg said. “You have an idea.”
“Kinda,” Liam said, rolling one arm. “Anyone got a pair of sandals they're willing to give up?”
One of the villagers – a pretty elf girl who smiled at Liam shyly – stepped over, holding up her sandals. Liam took both of them and hefted them, then tossed one out over the field. Once more, the monster opened fire. Once more, steaming contrails were all that could be seen of the haze of crystal darts that shredded the sandal. Once more, the shredded chunks hit the ground with terrible finality.
Liam tossed the remaining sandal from hand to hand.
“Do you know what causes condensation?” he asked.
Meg shrugged. “I don't even know what condensation is.”
“Basically,” Liam said, “It's due to temperature difference. That thing is a lot hotter or colder than the world above it. Well, its guts are. Like, a lot hotter or colder.”
Meg nodded.
“Any chemical process that creates that kind of heat can't be stable,” Liam said, looking at her. “At least, that's what my layman's knowledge of biology says. And, I mean, this critter lives underground and is rare enough that no one on Purgatory has seen one before. Being underground is a great thermal regulator.”
Meg chuckled. “Like a leaf pile.”
“So, we just need to screw with that heat difference,” Liam said. He rubbed his palms together, then cupped them around his mouth. “Oi! Tethis! Liviana!”
A moment later, the gobliness and the elf were standing at the edge of the library.
“Liam had an idea!” Meg shouted to Liviana. “You owe me coin, Liv.”
“I'll pay up when you admit Plato was wrong about everything,” Liv shouted back.
“That-” Meg spluttered. “That wasn't part of the bet!”
“I'm changing the bet,” Liv called back. “The parameters have changed – you can't stick with an old bet when the situation's changed.”
Meg clenched her hands, then glared at Liam, who was covering his mouth with one hand. Meg scowled. “Spartans. You can't trust them.”
Liam shook his head. “You slept with her.”
“Well, that's because she's incredibly attractive,” Meg said. “And most of the time, she's perfectly reasonable-”
“She tried to kill us when we first met,” Liam muttered.
“But this is just-” Meg continued, ignoring him.
Liam held up his hand, pausing her tirade for a moment. He called over: “Tethis, can you make a conduit spell through space via a physical object that is linked to another physical object?”
“They'd need to be made of the same stuff,” Tethis said, nodding. “And in a great deal of contact. It'd be better if said contact took place over a sympathetically relevant situation.” She stroked her chin. “What are we channeling?”
“Fire,” Liam said.
“O-kay,” Tethis said, her brow furrowing – visible even at this distance. “What are we using as a conduit?”
Liam slid his finger to his neck, then tugged off his crucifix. He held it up, and it glinted. In Purgatory, the cross had never transmuted from symbol of hideous torture to what Liam thought of it as – a symbol of hope, unity, forgiveness, sacrifice, the endless compassion of the Savior. All things worth wearing around one's neck. But it had gotten him attacked at least three times by people thinking he was some kind of wandering sadist – usually, they were folk whose family and loved ones had died nailed to a cross in one of the harsh punishments that the gods and kings of Purgatory meted out.
It was still gold.
Tethis' ears – a visible tell even at a distance – perked up. “But we don't have any gold over here!” she said.
Liam glanced at Meg. Meg arched an eyebrow.
“Yes, you do,” Liam called over.
Tethis' blush was bright enough to almost glow. “N-No, we don't.” She crossed her arms conspicuously over her chest.
“For the Gods' sake, woman, lives are at stake!” Meg called, her voice amused.
Several of the villagers who were sheltering on the library were looking at Tethis curiously – while Liv was covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Tethis looked completely miserable, then turned her back to as many villagers as possible. She tugged her shift up, squirmed, then turned back around, holding a pair of golden rings connected on a chain.
“You're paying to get this replaced!” she shouted.
“Of course, I am,” Liam said.
Meg whispered to him, sotto voce: “Think she hates you now?”
“No, no,” Liam said, shaking his head.
“What will we use for the fi-” Tethis started. Then she stopped. Her eyes widened and she almost dropped her gold chain off the roof. “Oh no, you don't, don't you dare!” She shouted, shaking her free fist at Liam.
“Now she hates me,” Liam murmured to Meg. Louder, he called back to Tethis. “Listen, Tethis, everything in that library can be replaced. The price of books has dropped to coppers since the printing press came out. Athena will pay for it, I'm sure.”
“But they're... they're...” Tethis spluttered. “They're books!”
“I know, I hate it too, but do we have any other choices?” Liam called over.
Liv stepped up beside Tethis, putting her hand on the shorter woman's shoulder. “There actually is a minor problem with us setting fire to a building we are currently standing on.”
“No,” Tethis said, shaking her head, her hand going to Liv's hand for a moment, squeezing her. “The channeling spell will dump the fire through the connective items. The fires go out – we just need to time it properly. The fire needs to get hot enough – the spell needs to be ready, and we can't set the fire while that thing is down there.”
Liam remembered the first horrifying hour after they fled into town. The monster bursting through the floor of the small tavern that they had come too. The shopkeep dragged screaming underneath as his daughter reached for him. He shuddered.
“Well,” Meg said, “She's got a point. What do we do?”
“We distract it,” Liam said, turning to face the townies. “All right, everyone! Let's get some ammunition!”
A few moments later, everyone was ready. Liv was at the side of the library's roof, rope in hands, the rest of the length held by several volunteer villagers. They would provide an anchor, while she swung around to land in the library's bottom floor and start setting the fires. The spell was being created – Tethis knelt in the center of a glowing sphere of geometric lines, her foci crystal in her hands. Years of practice had made most of her spells no longer require the crystal, but the extra power couldn't hurt.
Liam already felt his crucifix shivering with sympathetic magic. The connection felt sturdy enough that even someone as mystically inclined as him – read: amazingly little – could sense it. He remembered how Tethis' chain and his crucifix had met and smiled faintly. She might not have been as submissive as the woman who had inspired her to get the, ah, accoutrement, but she still enjoyed what it brought to the act of lovemaking.
Meg bounced from foot to foot, holding one of the many sandals. Other villagers had made throwing implements by balling up clothing, and they were waiting as well.
“Remember,” Liam said. “We need to time this right – the distraction has to last.”
The villagers nodded.
“Ready!” Liv called out.
Tethis – being too focused on the spell – merely nodded. One of the villagers watching for just such a gesture, called across the way: “The little priest ready too!”
“She's a wizard, thank you very much!” Liam shouted. “She casts arcane-” He stopped himself. “Nevermind. Liv! Now!”
Liv swung herself forward and whipped through the window into the library. Liam threw the first sandal. It was shredded. Another was pressed to his hand and he threw i
t. It was shredded. Across the way, he could see light starting to bloom behind one window. Liv had fought as a warrior for Aries for decades before joining him, and he could see her experience at the less savory tasks of being a soldier hadn't left her. He threw another sandal.
It plopped onto the ground, unharmed.
“Oh shit,” Liam hissed. And before anyone could stop him, he ran forward and leaped off the side of the temple. This was one of the times where Liam had a few moments to think about how much of an idiot he was. The ground was about twenty feet away and rushed up towards him with frightening swiftness. Memories of falling before, of falling when he first arrived on Purgatory, of falling when Meg crashed while carrying him away from Aries soldiers, of falling when a malfunctioning Ancient teleportation shrine had dropped him several feet to the right of a city's walls.
Then there were no memories and just the physics of hitting, rolling, and coming up onto his side. His body felt battered and bruised and completely soaked with mud – but it was the mud that kept him from feeling more than just idiocy. Adrenaline burned away the remainder of the pain as he forced himself to his feet and started to run, his bare feet slapping on the soaked ground. He felt his feet skittering underneath him with every step and held out his arms, yelping as he skidded forward and almost slammed into the building built beside the temple.
Then the monster, drawn away from the library, burst from the ground behind him. Here, the mud saved Liam once more. Rather than emerging cleanly, as it had yesterday, the monster had to force itself through the mud. Its tentacles got gummed up on clods of soaked earth, and Liam had time to yank his blade free and slash at one. The tentacle bent with the impact, but razor sharp steel and Tuatha enchantment both sent the tentacle tip to the ground with a spray of black blood. The monster screeched and surged out of the ground more, exposing most of its hideous greyish bulk.
Liam rolled to the side as a spray of crystal shards filled the air that he had been occupying moments before. He felt his sword Delenn slip from his palms and slap into the mud. “Fucking-” Liam grunted, reaching for it.
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