Lords of the Sands: An Epic Dark Fantasy Novel
Page 18
Reaching around him, she embraced him, his warmth seeping through the layer of clothes between them. It was a nervous hug. She had never had a knack or desire for intimacy, but as his arms smoothly wrapped around her in return, the tension melted from her slightly shivering frame.
She had peered into his vision during the healing, and she had been awash in the searing pain and duress that he had been subjected to constantly over the past months. She could only imagine how he felt now, to be free of control and from having his senses hijacked. He was able to feel the warmth of a hearth, the pleasantness of a quiet evening, the loving touch of a friend.
He placed a hand on the back of her damp head, placing his nose to her hair, smelling the desert rain that had a slight floral note mixed with her scent.
A head rush of feelings and emotions dizzied her as his warm hand slid from her hand to the curve of her hip.
She wasn’t sure what was going through Nomad’s head at that point. She hadn’t been expecting this from him. They had been close, dear friends, but never intimate. She had very little experience in that area, and the rush of implications were too much for her to sort through just then.
Breaking away, she headed back to the main room, sitting on the bedside, her breathing shallow as she tried to get space to consider the situation.
Nomad stayed in the washroom for a few moments, giving Reza time to collect her thoughts, strolling in after a minute to sit on the bedside beside her.
“I—am sorry. I should not have been so forward,” he whispered, softly patting her hand, flopping back on the bed, arms wide, letting out a sigh to release some of his tension.
“Hiro—” Reza softly spoke, but after a moment of silence, instead of continuing her thought, she laid back on the bed on top of Nomad’s arm, curling up beside him.
Hesitating a second, Nomad draped an arm around her there on the bed, holding her next to him. The flicker of the fire pit cast its comforting glow upon them as they shared each other’s company in silence, other than the soft crackle of the popping wood and the steady drum of rainfall outside.
It didn’t take more than an hour for Reza to succumb to sleep, her body badly needing it from the day’s events, her breathing shifting to a deep, steady rhythm.
Nomad brushed her now dry hair out of her face, smiling as he looked upon her sleeping features, experiencing the bliss of the quiet moment beside his closest friend in all of Una in quiet solitude.
27
A Fell Presence in the Jail
Fin slammed the rotting skull through the jail bars, the mushy skull easily fracturing into pieces, smashing through into a pool of gore in the empty cell.
“Fin!” Cray called, coming down the dark hallway from the entrance.
“Where’s Matt?” Fin replied, turning to see that Cray was visibly shaken and somewhat out of breath.
“He stayed behind, told me to tell you to find the crew, bust them out, and get back to the entrance to help him.”
“Great,” Fin murmured, yelling to Cray, “help me find your gang.”
The two burst through the adjoining jail block, coming in on a group of arisen lurking by the cells. Fin was the first to move, sweeping his leg under a hefty arisen, yanking on its wrist to send it toppling over, Cray following behind to behead the thing with his short sword, hacking at the back of its neck until it severed.
The next guard was on alert, and Fin had to duck and dodge to the side to get out of the way of its heavy swing in time, backing up to dodge the follow up swing from the lumbering corpse. Luckily for Fin, Cray had taken notice of the scuffle.
Lunging the ten feet between him and the arisen, Cray hacked at its outstretched arm, lopping it clean off. By the time it took note of the dire wound and turned to face the new threat, Cray had swung the other sword blade directly at its neck, slicking halfway through the thick meaty stalk of rotting muscle and bone.
Fin returned the favor, slamming a wide gouge dagger into the back of the last arisen’s neck, severing its spine, instantly dropping it to the stone floor.
“Nice...hacking,” Fin said, attempting to compliment Matt’s young one, but it came off sounding more sarcastic than anything.
Cray didn’t notice, seeing his two comrades locked up in the cells at the far end of the room.
“Malagar! Hamui!” he cried, rushing to their cell doors, jangling the locked door, attempting to rip it open.
“Cray, stop. I got the door,” Fin said, snatching the jailer's keys from off the wall, opening both doors up quickly, handing him the keys to help unlock his friend's manacles, looking briefly to the third person in the line of cells, noticing that it was an arisen.
“Mal! Matt’s in trouble. We’ve got to go, now,” Cray urgently said, undoing his cuffs, the tall haltia rubbing his wrists after being freed, sorely getting to his feet to help Cray with Hamui’s locks.
“Matt’s taking on all those dead things by himself?” Malagar calmly asked, helping Hamui to his feet after Cray unlocked the smaller cuffs set around the heavily robed praven’s wrists.
“Yeah, just down the hall a ways—”
“—I know you,” Fin said, cutting Cray off mid-sentence, sneering at the animated bones gazing at him from within the locked cell.
“And I, you,” the skull’s jaw creaked as a hiss issued forth barely discernible words.
“How...do you know an arisen?” Cray questioned, pausing for a moment, helping Malagar to the door they had entered from.
“This wanker took some very important items from me. Almost got the best of me a year or so ago back in Brigganden when it was under the control of his master. Be glad I don’t have time to deal with you just yet,” Fin spat, his contempt for the thing clear and unveiled, calling to the others, “Matt needs us. He’s not indestructible you know.”
“Release him. He’s coming with us,” Hamui said in an uncompromising tone.
Fin scoffed at the little praven, thinking it some sort of odd jest, but Hamui held out his little gloved hand for the key from Cray.
“You’re serious, little one?” Fin asked incredulously.
“Call me little one again and I’ll see to it you sire no younglings,” the inexpressive praven threatened, adding once more, “Keys, now. He’s coming with us.”
Fin, seeing this was no jest, reiterated, “The thing is clearly not alive if you haven’t noticed. Arisen are under the control of their master, and their master is a warlord hell-bent on ending all life in this region. Why in hell’s sake would you want that thing released?”
“He’s—not like the others. It seems he possesses his own will,” Malagar answered.
Fin threw up his hands, giving in, “You want that monster for a travel buddy, whatever. The trouble he’s going to cause is on your head though, and I’ll end him the moment he steps out of line. I don’t have time for this. Matt needs our help.”
Cray needed no further convincing, agreeing that Matt was in great danger the longer they lingered there. Tossing the keys to Hamui, Fin didn’t wait around for the three to follow his lead, sprinting through the rooms and corridor looking for Matt, following the sounds of battle.
The crack of a skull sounded, and an armored body clanged as it slumped down against the wall as Fin rounded the bend. Seeing a heap of bodies lining the hall in front of Matt, Fin looked past at the host of dead still waiting to advance.
“Duck!” Fin shouted to Matt, which he did just before an arrow whizzed overhead.
“Fall back, Matt. More archers are lining up!” Fin shouted, tugging out dagger after dagger from a long sheath along his hip, hurling them into the advancing arisen, moving to the side as Matt jogged past him back into the jail. Fin covered Matt’s escape as the two narrowly dodged a volley of arrows that came flying down the hallway, bouncing further in past the two.
The ground shook and the walls rattled, and Fin turned to peek at what was rushing their way.
The
entrance of the building had been blocked out by some mass. He only caught a glimpse before seeing two giant hands reach in and rip the top of the doorway apart, the hallway coming down around some of the arisen that had been pursuing them.
The structure shuddered, but Fin, grabbing Matt’s hand, leading him at a sprint to the jail cells, made it to the jail’s entrance room just as Cray and the others showed up, Hamui and Malagar having finished rearming themselves, rushing to meet them.
There was another smashing sound, and the jail shook violently, settling dust from the wooden roof overhead showering down upon them.
“That is their giant. It seems Denloth is taking no chances with you escaping,” the skeleton aside Hamui hissed, another slam, closer this time, shaking the building more, a billow of dust from the open door spewing into the room they were all in.
Everyone began coughing, and the room, previously dimly lit from the slits in the ceiling beams above, was clouded out by the dust, blinding them. Matt grabbed Fin, pulling him back with the rest of the group just as the doorway blew apart, stone, dirt, and splintered wood flying everywhere.
Half of the roof was gone, and most of the wall that had been on the other side of the room had been leveled. The sun shone defiantly down through the plume of dust that had been kicked up, a giant figure, fifteen-foot tall, looming in the dark cloud it had created.
An arrow flitted through the dust, skipping off the wall between Cray and Fin.
Fin scrambled up a broken rafter beam, running up along it, leaping atop the side of the blasted wall that opened up to the patrol wall above.
He could partially see the thing now for what it was. As the skeleton had said, it was an arisen giant. It seemed to be a construct of multiple bodies, its tight bluish-black sickly skin seeming well past the rotting phase as though it had been baked dry at the height of its putridity. Its hulking structure appeared to have been stitched onto the frame of a mammoth gorilla, its bloodshot, milky white eyes gazing haplessly up at Fin, a slave to the powers that bound its once primal nature.
He needed to get the hulk away from the others. If they continued to run further into the jail, it would simply follow, blasting the fort apart until they were cornered. As long as the dust cloud hung around, they would be fighting blind, and he figured the giant didn’t need much precision to land a lucky blow with how massive its club arms were.
Blowing a shrill whistle, loud enough to even merit the attention of the archers far beyond, a few stray arrows flying in his general direction, Fin pulled a dagger from his side, tossing it into the face of the beast, the point barely piercing through the thing’s hardened skin, hanging from its cheek.
It looked at him for a moment longer, as if considering if Fin merited his attention or not. It was the first quiet moment the group had had in the past few minutes, the silence being broken as the giant lifted its huge foot, stepping towards Fin, lifting its arms to slam through the wall he was perched on.
Fin jumped early, as to not be caught in the blast, but the moment his foot left the stone, a whirl of events ensued.
A battle cry from within the jail sounded, ferocious, loud, and clear. Cray brought down his swords, landing meaty hacks upon the flesh of the giant, severing both tendon and sinew. It started to lurch off balance, falling forward, slamming short of the wall top as it toppled early.
It was then, with his focus on the fall of the giant, that a missile split through the gloom, taking notice of it a moment too late, the arrow piercing into his shoulder, throwing off his composure mid-flight, falling below the fort’s wall line, removing him from the whole chaotic scene as he landed on the slope of a sandy dune, his plans to lead the giant out of the fort ruined in an instant.
“Shit!” Fin yelled, pushing himself up with his good arm, looking back at the wall that shook slightly as the giant rumbled around on the other side of it.
Holding the shaft of the arrow sticking out of his right shoulder, he ripped it straight out, screaming, allowing himself a moment to work through the pain and assess if the point had split an artery or not.
The wound was a sharp pain, and sand had gotten in it, but minimal blood issued forth, and as he got up to head back to the fight, guards that had been along the walls, watching his escape, had already began to come around the fort, rushing to his location.
“Cray, I’m gonna kill you if we make it through this,” Fin grumbled, drawing a dagger with his good hand, covered in sand, gritting his teeth as a team of arisen ran down the dunes, spear points first.
The dust was settling somewhat by the time the giant collapsed against the wall, most of its left knee tendons severed, largely rendering his left leg useless. It flopped over on its side, looking with its dead, white eyes at the small creature that continued to harass him with cutting hacks, slowly dismantling his frame.
Cray had scored a vital hit with his first few attacks, felling the beast with the blows to its knee, but now, vital targets were out of his reach, and the slices he was opening along its flanks didn’t seem to be worth the effort he was dumping into the assault. A massive backhand slammed him across the room, back to the entrance of the tunnel as the beast began to rouse.
Arisen flowed into the room over the rubble that had freshly settled, stepping over Cray as they came at the group on the far end of the room.
Chaos ensued, the cornered group fanning out, each taking targets as they came. Matt stood out front, easily side kicking and pummeling the closest guards, not too affected by the obscuring dust, other than sharing in the coughing fits everyone else was suffering through.
The skeleton that Hamui had insisted be released, stepped up, scooping up the closest guard and tossing it against the cell bars, snatching its sword up, and began hacking at the next oncoming arisen.
Malagar took a stance similar to Matt, striking at the joints of the armored arisen that flooded in the room, snapping heads back, and tripping the others as they rushed by him for other targets.
A shout and a burst of wind issued from Hamui’s outstretched hand, clearing the air and arisen in front of him. Chanting another mantra, he shot forth his crystal-capped staff, a strong gust of air clearing half of the room of the particles still floating in the air, toppling the arisen as well, Matt and Malagar standing firm.
Cray shook his head, coming to, his eyes quickly finding the giant just as it ripped its useless lower leg violently off, the sound of tissue rending gratingly sounding in everyone’s ears.
Slowly getting up, the giant half kneeled, resting its weight on its broken knee, holding its severed leg as a menacing club, looking to the little one that had caused it so much trouble.
Cray expected a primal roar, but the thing just stared at him with its soulless eyes and began slugging towards him, club raised, threatening to smash the life out of him if it was able to land a hit.
Stone, grit, and sand started rolling along the jail floor back towards Hamui as the hissing skeleton slashed down those arisen that tried to get close to his smaller counterpart.
Lifting in the air, the rubble rolled up into floating piles, crunching into a condensed conglomerate. A low guttural chant was beginning as Hamui worked his hand in a rigid configuration, twisting his fingers as he worked the floating rock orbs tighter, the electric blue glow in his staff’s crystal brightening.
Thrusting his staff forward, one of the orbs launched at the arisen giant that was lurking towards Cray who had finally gotten to his feet after the massive blow.
The smooth rock slammed into the cranium of the large creature, exploding into powder as the giant was forced to use its hands to steady itself from the impact.
Hamui had gotten its attention, its milky white eyes locking onto the little praven that stood with three more rock orbs ready for launch.
Another polished orb shot into its flat ape face, this ball holding together a bit better, crushing facial bone, opening up a few lacerations along its brow and cheeks.
It lumbered forward as its right ankle was severed, Cray slashing up along its exposed lower half, hacking at the meat on its lower and upper leg simultaneously with his twin short swords.
Large sections of its calf and hamstring bunched up and became undone as Cray stopped it short of his comrade, disabling its locomotion at that point but taking another blind swat from the ape’s large hands.
Slamming up against the giant’s large mass, pinning Cray long enough for it to get a solid grip on his torso, the ape dragged him up in front of itself as it flipped over onto its back, holding Cray above it with both hands.
It grabbed Cray by his head and stomach and began pulling.
Hamui yelled at their arisen ally to help, and with his sword, he chopped at the thing’s neck, beginning to split its feral, dead hide open, but the giant’s brute strength began to work, wringing and popping Cray’s neck loudly, his head ripping clean off, clutched in the giant’s hand just as the skeleton chopped through to the large beast’s spine, exploding a flash of dark light that blinded and deafened Hamui, Malagar, and Matt, blasting the skeleton back atop of Hamui.
The group had no time to let Cray’s beheading sink in as a purple bolt of crackling electricity split the settling dust, clearing the room as it sizzled up any particulates in its path, heading straight for Matt, who turned looking blindly upon his impending doom.
A pendant, gleaming gold against the high sun, intersected the bolt, just before impact, held by the skeletal figure, the pendant grinding the bolt’s path to a halt, slowly absorbing the energy, angry tendril after tendril sizzling the charm into a red-hot rattle in the skeleton’s hand.
With the spell squelched, all eyes turned to the direction from which it came. There stood a dark, robed figure, skulls adorning their many tattered hanging sashes. A spectral purple glow drifted about him, shifting from images of skulls and anguished faces—a display to his foes of his ominous might.