The Darkslayer: Book 02 - Blades in the Night

by Craig Halloran

  He rolled his eyes. “I can’t imagine that the three of you actually know something. Please, delight me with what that might be.”

  “Okay, smart pants,” Sis said, her pimpled face turning red. “If you’re too dumb to see we have something important you need to know, then we won’t tell you.”

  “Hmph!” Frigdah muttered, standing next to Sis, arms crossing her big chest as she nodded like an imbecile.

  Melegal was losing his patience, so he started to get up. But Haze walked forward and tossed something onto the table. His eyes widened.

  Venir’s hunting knife …

  “Where did you get this?” Melegal said.

  Sis wagged her finger at him. “Oh, so now you want to hear what we have to say, do you? Well, it’s gonna cost you, smart pants.”

  “Yeah, smart pants!” Frigdah shouted as she sauntered over and picked up the bottle of wine.

  Melegal watched her take a big swig, look down at the table, then spit out the wine. She jumped back, tripped, and smashed into a table. That’s when Sis and Haze walked up and noticed Luke’s stiff body and the pudgy fingers scattered on the table. The two sisters pulled their daggers out as they looked at the table in terror.

  “Why’d you kill the lute player?” Sis asked.

  “And cut off his fingers too!” Haze yelled.

  He couldn’t believe how stupid they were, but it did give him an opportunity.

  “Oh, him,” Melegal said. “I asked him where my friend Venir was and he wouldn’t tell me.”

  They stared back at him, eyes wide. Looking at one another in confusion, they began shifting back and forth on their feet.

  “Now can you tell me where he is?” Melegal said, even louder.

  Sis and Haze’s faces looked aghast, no doubt uncertain of his claim of killing Luke, but their fear didn’t overcome their lips.

  “He’s in Castle Slerg!” Frigdah shouted.

  Then the big woman rushed through the tavern, bottle of wine in hand, and out the door.

  Melegal folded his arms over his chest. “Is that true? Remember, your life depends on it.” He nodded toward the body of Luke.

  Haze rubbed her bandaged hand, staring at the fingers on the table.

  “I don’t think you killed him,” Sis said.

  “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Now tell me what you know of Venir.”

  The two remaining sisters looked at each other. His voice, he knew, was convincing. Plus he knew they were in over their heads—but he needed help, and if it cost him some coin, so be it. Still, they seemed to want to help, and he had no idea why. They had a tough exterior, but they were women, and something under their greasy hair and ragged clothes seemed to compel them to help him. Their shared past intrigued him as well.

  Sis sighed and elbowed Haze.

  “Tell him,” Sis said.

  After Melegal had the corpse of Luke the lute player removed, the atmosphere of the Drunken Octopus seemed more back to normal. The two women sat and relayed the details of Venir’s battle in Death Hall. Melegal believed them, as they weren’t smart enough to tell such a detailed lie. It wasn’t very common to have such assistance in the City of Bone, but the Motley Girls, despite their unpolished exterior, seemed to be good people.

  Of course, the news about Venir did not help matters; it only made them worse. Georgio was still missing, as was Chongo. His mount Quickster, he believed to be dead. Men he thought that were once dead now lived again. The key to saving them all was Venir, and he had been taken prisoner for an unknown reason. He pondered all this information for a long moment. Haze and Sis sat before him, eyes wide, lips shut, waiting.

  “Do you still have friends inside the Slerg House?” Melegal finally asked them.

  “Yes,” they said in unison.

  “Will you go and find out what you can? I will pay. I need to know something fast, so if you aren’t up to it, let me know. I can only give you a few hours at best.”

  Sis got up. “If we help you and your friend, you better not be mean to my sister anymore. You owe her for what you did to her hand. We shouldn’t be helping you out anyway, but we owe you. You don’t know it but we do.”

  Melegal raised an eyebrow at her. He had no idea what she meant.

  “Tell me all about it later then,” Melegal said. “And Haze …”

  She looked at him, waiting to hear his apology. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He looked down at the table and then back up at her. His eyes must have told her that he didn’t mean the harm he caused her. Haze smiled a big toothy smile and then got up to follow Sis out of the tavern. Melegal couldn’t believe how desperate he had become. Where in Bish is Vee?

  CHAPTER 27

  His brain pounded all the way into his ears like some stampede. Venir remembered a blinding flash when he was mere moments from breaking free. Now he was in yet another cell, much larger than last one. This time, though, he was restrained in a different fashion: his head was surrounded by sand, and it appeared that the rest of him was buried in it. He couldn’t believe it. He was in the manbox.

  And this time, Venir knew, he wouldn’t be going anywhere without help, as he knew all too well about the manbox. Long ago, while cleaning dungeons for the Royals, he had seen prisoners buried in the manbox. It was a clever contraption. Little more than a large, rectangular crate, it was used not only to secure prisoners but to interrogate them. The prisoner was strapped to an upright plank inside the crate while a massive iron vat filled with sand was raised overhead on chains and pulleys. Then the sand was poured over the prisoner, making any movement below the neck impossible. The captors would then use vermin and/or poisonous or flesh-eating bugs to torment their prisoners or interrogate them.

  Venir recalled stinger gnats consuming wailing faces, crimson scorpions popping cherry-sized welts onto cheeks, and onyx woodpeckers drilling holes straight through ears, eye sockets, and even skulls.

  He felt his stomach knot. His body was completely immobilized; he was helpless to defend himself.

  No. No. No!

  All he could do was try to talk himself out of his situation. He’d been a prisoner before, but this situation was extreme. His body ached from the gritty sand rubbing into his wounds. He shuddered as he thought about his face being mutilated beyond recognition. He blocked it out and waited.

  The dungeons were quiet. No other moaning or breathing or voices could be heard. The sound of dripping water and scurrying rats was it. He was alone in the dimness. As the minutes passed into hours, he catnapped off and on while his keen senses remained on alert.

  He had no idea how long he had been there. Maybe a day or more. The faces of the busted man-urchins filled his thoughts. Then something else. He finally fell into a deep sleep filled with long-buried memories …

  She stood before him as she had so many times. She was unlike any other woman on Bish. Dark, radiant, and seductive, her hair draped itself like a pelt of black silk over her broad shoulders, framing high cheekbones scarred from a strange twist in her life. Her smile was playful, rueful, and vengeful as her azure eyes bore into his body, weakening his knees.

  Taller than most men, her tanned, athletic body was extraordinarily raw and powerful. She was the Brigand Queen whom he had sworn he would kill and had not. She had been his greatest lover and then had become his ultimate betrayer.

  He had yet to overcome her power over him. Every so often, something would remind him of her: a fleeting gesture, a moment on a battlefield, a hint of perfume, the shift of a shapely shadow.

  Fighting side by side, they devastated their enemies. It fueled their insatiable passion for one another, which had found expression on countless nights in her tented quarters.

  He had been the brave young warrior. But he had lacked the foresight of a wiser man. She was not who he imagined her to be. She was fascinating, but also evil, damaged, hateful, and merciless.

  Despite the clear signs of danger, Venir remained blinded by her allure. His pride had almost co
st him his life, but he had survived. Yet so long as she lived, she would haunt him. He could not shake it, though he had sworn he would get her one day.

  He stood before his enemies as the Darkslayer, Brool in hand, the eyelets of his iron-banded helmet glowing. He rushed headlong through clutches of orcs, ogres, goblins, and kobolds that guarded their Brigand Queen. Blood covered the ground like rainwater as Brool carved into his enemies, blow after blow. Bones were shattered, bellies gutted, skulls crushed under his boot in a sea of rage and fury that the brigand army could not resist. Limbs, heads, and bowels lay scattered across the ground, yet still he could not kill her.

  All around him was death, but never hers. He could not catch her. Whenever he got close, the underlings were there, distracting him from his mission. The underlings that he had spent a lifetime pursuing and destroying, chunk by chunk, kept him at bay, kept him always from obliterating his one last haunting memory.

  Jarla …

  His eyes popped open. Venir heard something. A dungeon door screeched open and clanged against the stone wall. A pair of hard-soled boots echoed his way. He feigned slumber. He could hear light breathing now, and sense a steady gaze upon him. Jarla?

  “Come now, Venir. I know you’re awake,” said a familiar voice. “You always were a light sleeper.”

  It was not her. It was not a female at all. Venir forced his mind to awaken from the effects of the dream. His thoughts raced to put a face to the voice.

  “I don’t have endless patience, Venir. Shall I send in Creighton and Hagerdon?”

  “Leezir!” Venir snarled, his eyes still closed.

  “Ah, you remember me. Or us, shall I say. It’s been fifteen years, maybe more. And my, but you’ve grown! From urchin to warrior in the blink of an eye. Quite impressive.”

  He could feel Leezir’s breath on his face. Finally Venir opened his eyes and stared into Leezir’s pudgy pitted face.

  “Are the Slergs now in the business of enslaving overgrown orphans?” Venir asked. “I have no quarrel with you, Leezir, so what is it you want?”

  The cleric stepped back and smiled. “Easy now, Venir. I know you had a horrible past here, like most children, but you survived. And in a strange roundabout way, it seems you’ve remained in our service, however unwittingly.”

  Wary of the mind games the Royals liked to play, Venir said nothing. It was times like these he needed to be strong and silent. It increased his chances of escape.

  “You might recall the Royal braggart Tonio you thrashed in the Chimera months back?” Leezir asked. “We set that up, you know. We rather hoped you would kill him. It’s been months since he was last seen, but he just may be in the safety of Castle Almen. I suspect this is what they want other interested parties to think. Are you with me so far?” Leezir said as he twirled his grubby fingers through the sand below Venir’s nose.

  “I would be if you let me out of this manbox. Otherwise I have nothing to say.”

  Venir didn’t remember the Royals’ demeanor as softened as it seemed now with Leezir. It was hard to believe Leezir was still with the Slerg House. Venir had never had a full conversation with a Royal as a teenager, but they were always condescending.

  Despite his past and his contempt for most Royal families and their methods, Venir knew they weren’t all bad. He even had friends among them as a soldier from the Outlands. But the Royals in the City of Bone were something else.

  “You’d only escape and kill my sentries, if not me,” Leezir said. “But I didn’t bring you here to punish you, Venir. If I had, you’d be dead already. I brought you here to help us.”

  “Not interested,” Venir said. “Let me out.”

  Leezir’s nostrils flared. Common people did not make demands on Royals. The man scooped up a handful of sand and let it pour to the floor.

  “You’re good-natured, Venir,” Leezir said, pacing around the manbox. “A man of your word. Dutiful. Loyal. You were unlike the other children in the castle. You were raised right. So if you just give me your word, I know I can trust you.”

  Venir said nothing.

  “There was a reason you escaped the first time, you and some others,” Leezir said, fingering his dark cowl. “The Royal Almen House was below us back then, you see, and we had a growing alliance. But then they deceived our family and almost destroyed us. Many children died during that battle, but you few escaped. We were very lucky to escape with our lives ourselves.”

  “I’m all teary-eyed, Leezir. Let me out and I’ll give you a big hug,” Venir said, his voice echoing throughout the dungeon chambers.

  Leezir chuckled. “You’re one of a kind, Venir, and we want your help. The day has come for the Slergs to take revenge on the Almens. I will pay you well.”

  Venir raised an eyebrow, surprised at the rare offer. And though he had no intentions of accepting it, he needed time so he decided to play along.

  “You’ll pay me how well?” Venir asked.

  “First, your freedom. Second, ten bags of gold and a bag of rubies. All you have to do is complete a simple task,” Leezir said.

  “What?”

  “First, tell me what happened to Tonio.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, picturing the moment months earlier in the Great Forest when he had cleaved the man twain.

  “Come now,” Leezir said. “Certainly you can give more assurance than that.”

  “It’s safe to assume he’s dead. Now what do you want of me?”

  “To kill more Almens,” Leezir said.

  Venir watched as Leezir slapped his palm with a white cudgel—no doubt the infamous

  “Spine-Breaker” that Venir had heard of at one time or another.

  “I’m not an assassin,” Venir said, all the while wanting to grab the cudgel and bash the man’s brains in.

  “But you are a mercenary.”

  “I don’t kill for money,” he said, but the thought of killing Royals for money was tempting.

  The man lit another torch. “But you’ll kill for survival. So you may like to know that they’re coming for you. They assume you’ve killed Tonio. They won’t let that go.”

  Regret sank into Venir’s heart. He should not have returned to Bone. He knew better.

  “I got word and pulled you off the streets just as they closed in,” Leezir said. “They were so close that you’re lucky to be alive. I mean, really, did you think they’d just let you off the hook?’

  “I didn’t figure they knew who I was. There are lots of people in this city.”

  “But few who cross an upper house of the Royals.” Leezir rapped his cudgel against the wall. “When they want to find someone, they do—trust me. I don’t want you to kill them if you don’t have to, but you’ll have to be the bait. I’ll keep it simple.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Go about your business. They’ll come for you. I’ll have my eyes ready. When they close in on you, you close in on them. It’s only a small strike, but it will weaken them. If we survive, you get paid. Do we have a deal?”

  The clang of the dungeon’s door resounded through the surrounding empty cells, interrupting Venir’s thoughts. Two men appeared, dressed in brown and red Royal garments, with sheathed swords at their waists. Leezir’s tattered clothes and dark cowl seemed out of place beside them as he raised his hands.

  “Stop right there, Creighton, Hagerdon!” Leezir said. “You have no business here. This is my prisoner. Go!”

  Venir watched as the two identical men looked at each other and laughed. The twins stood over Leezir, both tall and wiry with brown hair pulled back into ponytails. Their green eyes were arrogant but jittery as they surveyed Leezir and Venir with sneers. Venir’s blood rose as he still recognized Creighton and Hagerdon after all these years. There was a moment of silence.

  “Ah!” Venir finally said, shattering the awkward quietude. “Your acne’s finally cleared, Creighton. And you’ve worked off your baby fat, Hagerdon. Seems you two ladies finally hit puberty.”
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br />   “Urchin!” Hagerdon shouted. “You dare speak to me like that!”

  “Out of the way, Leezir!” Creighton had pulled a dagger from his boot. “I’ll carve out his mangy eyes and snip off his tongue!”

  Leezir raised Spine-Breaker and they stopped before him.

  “One step from either of you jerks and I’ll bust your chests in. Got it?” Leezir said.

  They backed off.

  “Got that, girls?” Venir said.

  “Why is this vagrant here, Leezir?” Hagerdon said. “We don’t need him! Let him go so we can give him a good thrashing.”

  Venir’s laughter echoed so loud that it sent the rats scurrying. His past with the Slerg brothers sparked bitter memories. Young Royals training as soldiers had always used enslaved urchins— such as Venir when he was a child—as practice dummies. The brattiest Royals would thrash their weakened and starving opponents over and over again, without mercy.

  It was all for show, and a great joke among the older Royals and soldiers. As Venir had always been taller and bigger boned than Creighton and Hagerdon, the twin teenagers had enjoyed proving their prowess by beating him with their wooden swords.

  Then, at their formal coming-of-age ceremony, with the whole Slerg family and their honored guests in attendance, Venir had faced the twin Royals in his rags with just a small club to fend off their large mahogany bludgeons.

  The goal of the battle for the twins was simple: to disarm and then humiliate Venir into submission. Venir had even been ordered to cry out and beg for mercy. He’d also been told to make the battle interesting or else he’d be whipped. He was neither defiant nor defeated, but wanted it over with. The twins, adorned in leather chest plates, arm braces, and helmets, had something different in mind. They’d tried to kill him.

  When the whistle had blown, they came at him with routine jabs and taunts. Venir made a game of it for a bit then gave some ground. As he lowered his guard, expecting a simple shot to the body, the brothers leaped on top of him and began beating him like he was some rabid dog.

  The other urchins watched the scene in horror. But the brutal assault turned as quick as it had started. Young as Venir was, he was fearless. He had survived much already and was not about to let the twins snatch away a life so hard won.