Wrath of the Greimere

by Case C. Capehart

  “I said no noise!” Falfa cried as the hum and glow softened.

  “That came from one of the miners,” Longinus said, ignoring the Vi-Sage.

  Soon other screams joined the first and Nero heard something heavy drop down into the clearing with them.

  “It can’t be,” Pikan said, letting go of the cannon and drawing his sword.

  Nero’s breath froze in his chest as the orange grin of the monster widened in the darkness beyond. The gray beast stepped into the light of the Breach symbols and its large head scanned them. It crouched and the Darkling shouted at Pikan to move.

  The Paladin did not react in time. In one instant, the monster tensed and in the next it yanked Pikan off the ground and flung him into the wall.

  Nero yelled and released the cannon, but the Darkling stole the sword from his sheath before he could grab it. With a wild cry, she charged the monster bearing down on Pikan.

  It turned and swatted at her, but the Darkling slipped the strike and countered with a slash that dented its hide. She hit the ground and rolled out of the monster’s reach as it snapped at her.

  “Elements, is it back?”

  Nero turned to see Falfa had not opened his eyes or pulled his magic from the cannon.

  “Can you trap it with vines or something?” Nero asked, pulling his hammer free to join the Darkling.

  “Come back, you fool,” Falfa yelped. “I can’t pull my magic out just like that. Vines won’t work on it; I’ve tried. Turn the cannon for me. I’ll blast it.”

  “We need that shot to collapse the breach.”

  Falfa clenched his jaw as the glow began to fade. “We won’t be collapsing anything if we don’t stop that thing from eating us! Now shut up and aim for me.”

  Nero turned to Longinus and Dormas. “I can’t hit a moving target,” he said, grimly.

  “Understood,” Longinus replied, pulling his sword and looking at Dormas. “Keep your shield up. Don’t let it grab you.”

  The monster lifted its head and the kicking lower half of Pikan slid down into its gullet as the Darkling slashed vainly at it. Dormus cried out and launched his hammer at full force. The mallet slammed into the side of the beast’s head and knocked it sideways, but its legs did not stagger.

  The monster snapped it jaws, severing Pikan’s legs at the shins so that it could focus on the new attackers. It moved to the side, but Dormas blocked its path with his shield and swung his sword into its legs. The Darkling charged as well, cutting off its left side. Annoyed, the monster crouched in preparation to leap over one of them.

  “No, you don’t!” Longinus flung his shield into the beast’s neck, jostling it and then the Paladin lunged for it.

  The monster caught Longinus in the air with both hands and pulled him toward its mouth. Longinus screamed and swung his hammer back and forth, swatting the monster’s head from side to side and throwing off its coordination.

  “Just a moment longer,” Falfa hissed. “Aim true, Soldier.”

  The Monster dug its claws into Longinus, spilling the Paladin’s blood across the ground below him. Dormas and the Darkling hacked wildly at the creature and Longinus hit it with another swing, but the man had no power left.

  As his head dropped into the open maw of the monster, Longinus called out weakly. “Blast the fucker already.”

  “Dammit, Falfa, do it now. He’s not moving.” Nero placed his cheek against the tube and looked straight down the barrel at the monster.

  “Elements guide me.”

  Falfa screamed as his magic flooded the tube in a burst of green light. Thunder deafened Nero and the blast of brilliant light threw him to the ground. Without men on the sides of the cannon, the recoiling tube slammed into Falfa, cracking something in his lanky body.

  The Darkling rolled away at the last second and the monster slammed into the rock behind it, squealing in pain. Stone cracked and cratered behind the beast and acrid smoke filled the air, choking them with atmosphere.

  Nero shook the pinpricks of light from his vision and stared forward, praying to the Fates.

  The smoke cleared away and Nero saw a mangled and singed, gray arm fall to the ground. The cannon had ripped a hole right through the monster’s right shoulder.

  “You missed!” Falfa screamed from the ground. “Elements be merciful.”

  “Dormas, get out of there,” Nero cried out.

  The Paladin could not hear him, though. Dormas didn’t read the blast like the Darkling did. Black char streaked his face and he stumbled about like a drunkard.

  The monster fell on him like a wild animal and Dormas could not summon the coordination to fight it. A croaking scream spilled from his throat as the monster tore through his guts and rammed its gaping head deep into the Paladin’s chest.

  Dark-skinned arms wrapped around Nero and pulled him away from the cannon. Falfa struggled to one foot and scampered after them, dragging his right foot behind him. The three of them huddled in a corner. The Darkling drew Nero into her chest and held his sword out in front of them. Nero lost his shield during the fight and he gripped his Arbiters hammer with both hands.

  “I am Octavius Nero, of the Storm Line… I have family there still. Uncles and aunts. My grandparents.”

  Nero could not explain what made him speak those words to the two other survivors. Perhaps he wanted some witness in his final hours. Perhaps he felt the Fates would hear him and convey some manner of comfort to his family after his death.

  “My name is Hitomi. I have no noble name.” The Darkling’s grip tightened again as the monster finished with Dormas and turned toward them. “I am the highest general to the Grass-Haired Demon, Warlord of Greimere, and have fought beside him since the beginning. I have no family to grieve me; only Grass-Hair, the Helcats… perhaps Ariadne and Chev’El. I have no mate still living, but I will see Naoko again.”

  “Chev’El.” Nero smiled and shook his head. “She’s still alive?”

  “She is Greimere,” Hitomi replied. “She carries the bow once used by Naoko… the one you killed before me.”

  Nero stared at the monster as it focused on the three of them. “I’ve been chasing you for so long, Hitomi. Nevertheless, I’m sorry… for Naoko. She fought admirably.”

  “She was a Helcat.” He felt the woman shuddering behind him and heard her sobs. “I am sorry for making you watch your village burn. Our war will seem so unimportant in the days to come.”

  The orange grin of the monster drew them in and it shrieked as it crouched. Nero wondered if it would hurt inside that thing.

  Suddenly the monster stopped and turned toward the breach. The symbols flared, startling the beast and causing it to retreat a step.

  The blackness within the breach swirled and swelled and from inside the darkness stepped a cloaked figure, shorter than Nero and standing on two legs like a man. A mottled, reptilian right hand gripped a gnarled staff that clinked against the stone floor as the figure walked. Deep within the darkness of its hood, two emerald eyes fixated on the monster.

  In a blur of motion, the monster lunged at the figure, but the figure darted to the side, pushing the monster away with the end of the staff. As if shocked, the monster recoiled from the slight blow and skittered against the ground to avoid contact with the Breach.

  The cloaked figure widened its stance and reversed its grip on the staff. Arcs of electricity exploded down the staff and the wood splintered in ripples along the length. In the span of a second, the staff violently shattered and reformed into a mammoth, black-bladed cleaver. The sword had a single edge to it, with a drastic taper at the tip and the back side of the blade bent at a subtle angle halfway up. The hilt appeared to be wrapped in foreign, grayish-green leather with black fur at the quillion.

  The weapon crackled with energy in the figure’s hand.

  An ear-rattling roar erupted from the monster and it charged again, springing forward faster than an adder’s strike. Nero yelled for the figure to move, even though he couldn’t be sure th
e figure wasn’t simply a worse monster.

  The figure did not dodge this time. Instead, with one hand, it swung the enormous cleaver upward as if it weighed nothing, catching the monster with an uppercut that took its other arm off. The monster spun away to the ground behind the figure and rolled to its feet.

  The figure descended on it before it could flee. The black blade crashed down like a wave and cleanly sliced through the monster’s rock-like hide, cleaving its head and the remains of its right shoulder off its body.

  With a shudder, the monster’s body crumpled to the ground and oozed glowing orange blood that hissed and popped like lava against the stone.

  As Nero looked on in awe, the figure turned and approached them.

  “Are you okay?” The figure’s voice sounded unexpectedly young and soft, but with a slight rasp.

  “We are safe, thanks to you,” Vi-Sage Falfa replied, rising to his feet. “I am Vi-Sage Falfa, of the-“

  The cloaked figure’s sword shot out and impaled the Vi-Sage through the chest. Nero felt Hitomi’s arm clench around him and both of their weapons went up in defense.

  Nero had been right to worry about the stranger. Falfa had been dead wrong.

  “I don’t understand…” Falfa groaned, gripping the blade embedded in his chest.

  “I know who you are, Vi-Sage, and I have waited a long time for this moment.” The stranger bent close to the Faeir at the end of the sword. “I claim vengeance for the deaths you caused, both directly and by your actions. Hemmil. Boram. Onyx. Ebriz. Raegith.”

  “What are you…” The words faded from Falfa’s lips as the life faded from his body.

  Behind the cloaked figure, the breach shimmered and more monsters, these ones resembling lizards that walked and dressed like men, emerged from the darkness beyond. The figure pulled the sword free from Falfa’s chest and in seconds it transformed back into the wooden staff.

  The stranger turned toward Nero and Hitomi. “A Lokai and a Saban together? Interesting. You can put down your weapons. You’re safe now.”

  “You killed Vi-Sage Falfa out of nowhere and there are dozens of monsters behind you,” Nero yelped, holding his hammer in front of him.

  “Those are the Sobeks. They are far different than the creature I rescued you from. And the Vi-Sage had it coming, I promise you.”

  “You said for vengeance.” Hitomi stood up behind Nero and addressed the stranger in the Rellizbix tongue. “You say you avenge Raegith? Raegith claims his own vengeance; he is Grass-Hair now… my Warlord.”

  The stranger stepped forward, startling them. “Raegith Caelum lives?”

  “Caelum?” Nero felt more confused now than when the stranger first appeared.

  “He is Grass-Hair,” Hitomi replied, standing her ground against the powerful figure. “He leads the Greimere. Who are you, that knows his old name?”

  “To think that both of us made it out…” The stranger pulled back the cloak hood to reveal a severely scarred female Saban. Nero looked closer and realized that the girl was not like any Saban he had seen. Her eyes glowed green and her right arm seemed closer to that of some massive lizard or gator than a Saban’s arm. The scars on her face had tiny scales in them, especially in the three pronounced lines running horizontally along her left temple, where her knife-cut red hair was shaved close to the scalp.

  “You must take me to see your Warlord,” the stranger said to Hitomi. “I must see him for myself.”

  “Who are you?” Nero stood and stared at the stranger, hiding his anxiety.

  She turned to him and burrowed through him with her glimmering eyes. “Someone who has not been home in a long, long time. My name is Zakk Hadrian, and I return bearing a terrible warning of days to come.”

  Index

  Octavius Nero [ahk-TAY-vee-uhs, NEE-roh] – Delta Company Corporal

  Sergeant Pledius [PLEE-dee-us] – Delta Company Sergeant

  Lieutenant Stratton [STRAA-tun] – Delta Company Commander

  Flavius [FLAY-vee-us] – Nero’s friend from the 9th Regiment

  Chev’El [shev—ELL] – Twileen girl from Duransk; black hair, amber-orange eyes

  Sevictus [seh-VICK-tuhs] – Saban woodsman from Duransk, Chev’El’s adopted father

  Gai’Aelen [guy—EY-lin] – Twileen who challenged Chev’El’s Gauntlet victory

  Markum [MAHR-kuhm] – Delta Company Scout

  Varrick [VAIR-ick] – Delta Company Private

  Corporal Arigus [EH-rih-guhs] – Delta Company 2nd squad leader

  Lium Septimus [LEE-uhm, SEHP-tih-muhs] – Nero’s uncle

  Silas Septimus [SIE-luhs, SEHP-tih-muhs] – Nero’s grandfather

  Bacilius Septimus [buh-SIH-lee-uhs, SEHP-tih-muhs] – Nero’s uncle

  Bayle [BAE-ill] – Delta Company Hunter/Corpseman

  Etticus [Eh-tih-kuhs] – Delta Company Private

  Raegith Caelum [RAY-gihth, KAY-luhm]

  Yumiko [YOO-mee-koe] – New Helcat; Lokai; black hair, pale skin, red eyes, uses a scythe

  Zurek [zuh-REHK] – Saban/Twileen; light-brown hair, golden eyes, metallurgist

  Helfrick Caelum [HELL-frihk] – King of Rellizbix

  High Paladin Thedas Andronicus [THAY-duhs, ann-DRAWN-ih-kuhs] – Saban, Paladin Commander

  Helfria Caelum [HELL-free-uh] – Saban Senator, Oldest Princess of Rellizbix

  Senator Otho [OH-thoe] – Saban Senator

  Senator Gaius [GIE-uhs] – Saban Senator

  Counselor Xenon [ZEE-nahn] – Faeir High Counselor and Senator of Rellizbix

  Counselor Herod [HEH-ruhd] – Faeir Counselor and Senator of Rellizbix

  Helena [heh-LEE-nuh], Elena [eh-LEE-nuh], Lena [LEE-nuh], - Caelum princesses

  Kranston [KRAN-stuhn] Caelum – Youngest Caelum prince and legitimate heir to the throne

  General Arcturus [ARK-tuhr-uhs] – 7th Regimental Commander

  Lieutenant Exitor [EHKS-ih-tor] – Faeir, Terrestrial Battle Mage, 7th Regiment

  Lacetus [LAA-seh-tuhs] – Faeir Battle Mage, 7th Regiment

  General Comenius [koh-MEN-ee-uhs] – 8th Regimental Commander

  Major Ariadne [eh-ree-ADD-nee] – Faeir, Aerial Battle Mage, 7th Regiment

  Gerbix [GERR-bicks] – Gimlet sharpshooter

  Qufeng [KOO-fang] – Bog Lokai, Helcat trainee, black hair, light skin, short hair w/ braids

  Vi-Sage Marcellus [mahr-SELL-uhs] – Old Faeir commander with the 4th Regiment, Aerial Sect.

  Illicandus [ihl-lih-CAN-duhs] – Young Faeir Mage with the 4th Regiment.

  Tamyth [TAA-mith] – Female Rathgar in charge of the war orphans

  Belathid [BEH-luh-thid] – Female Rathgar, one of the war orphans

  Loegaire [loh-GEHR] – Male Twileen, Second in Command of the Carion Tide bandit group.

  General Cicero [SIS-er-oh] – General of the 4th Regiment

  Cressius the Nail [CREH-see-uhs] – Male Saban, Leader of the Coffinmakers; speaks with an accent

  Kor’Rin [kor—REHN] – Male Twileen, Chieftain of the Fallen Oak tribe

  Thessalonius [thehs-uh-LOE-nee-uhs] – Male Saban Founder of the Paladin Order and first High Paladin

  Senator Vilkas [VIHL-kuhs] – Male Twileen Senator and Guildmaster

  Judge Fahlrick [FALL-rihk] – Male Saban; Paladin Judge

  Braccus [BRAA-kuhs] – Male Saban; Blacksmith from the Crimson Banner

  Torin [TOR-ihn] – Urufen Tribal leader

  Light Hand Vandenberg [VAAN-dihn-berg] – Male Saban; Paladin Light Hand and Nero’s second-in-command

  Scout Tulan [TOO-luhn] – Twileen Paladin and Nero’s platoon scout

  Paladin Halverd [HAAL-verd] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Paladin Dolan [DOE-luhn] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Paladin Longinus [LAWN-jihn-uhs] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Paladin Odeon [OH-dee-ahn] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Paladin Pikan [PIE-kahn] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Paladin Dormas [DOR-mu
hs] – Saban Male; Nero’s platoon

  Kirika [KIH-rih-kuh] – Lokai female Blade Dancer

  Chisei [CHEE-sae] – Lokai female Blade Dancer

  Bugai’sha [boo-GUY—shuh] – Greimere name for the Denizens in their empire who are not yet Greimere

  Elathan Twileens [ee-LAA-thuhn] – Wolf-worshipping Twileen tribe in the Eastern Wilderness

  Hermesium [huhr-MEE-zee-uhm] – Metallic element required for Twileen Steel

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Eugene for the better map included at the beginning. You’re right, it fits better than the goofy, MS Paint-style map I did for Hell Cliffs.

  Thanks to Hilary Wallace for her amazing artwork featured on the cover of this book. I’m so glad you answered my commission call for Blood Daughter.

  Thanks to Veronica Scoggins for the absolutely pro job at editing this behemoth. You cut out so many commas and passive voices. You should probably get paid for this kind of thing.

  Thanks to my wife and kid for putting up with all the hours I spent in front of this computer with the music up. One of these days I might make enough off my books to take you out to a restaurant or something.

  Thanks to all my fans out there who have pestered me about a sequal for the last three years. Calling me a “poor-man’s George R. R. Martin” was a bit uncalled for, though.

  There will be more to come; I promise.