CHAOS AT THE CASTLE
The Darkslayer (Book 6)
CRAIG HALLORAN
THE DARKSLAYER: Chaos at the Castle (Book 6)
By Craig Halloran
Copyright © September 2013 by Craig Halloran
Amazon Edition
TWO-TEN BOOK PRESS
P.O. Box 4215, Charleston, WV 25364
ISBN eBook: 978-0-9896216-3-2
ISBN Paperback: 978-0-9896216-4-9
THE DARKSLAYER is a registered trademark, #77670850
http://www.thedarkslayer.net
Cover Illustration by David Chen
Edited by Cherise Kelley
Map by Gillis Bjork
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Publisher's Note
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chaos at the Castle
The Darkslayer (Book 6)
CHAPTER 1
Blink.
Eep looked like he’d been chewed up by a dragon and spit out. He lay quivering on the cave floor. His eye was red. Swollen. The wings on his back were mangled, and many of his teeth were broken. He let out a ragged hiss.
“Masstersss …”
“I hope you have the Keys, Imp,” Verbard said, his eyes glowering with silver fire.
Eep opened his palms. They were empty.
“Vicious!” Verbard snapped.
The hulking figure emerged from the shadows, snatched Eep by the neck and squeezed.
Verbard kept his rage in check as Catten chuckled at his side.
“Brother,” Catten began, “we will get the Keys in due time, if need be, but let’s find out what happened first before you pull the imp apart, like old times.”
Verbard wanted nothing more than to destroy something or someone, but Eep was his most trustworthy servant. Master Kierway wanted his head, but Master Sinway had saved it. Jottenhiem was a loyal soldier and comrade, but even he couldn’t be trusted. Now, his brother, Catten, had returned, and that only made him all the more uncomfortable. He should be relieved, but he was far from it.
“What happened, Eep?” he said, looking right into the imp’s great eye.
Eep’s eye bulged in the socket. He could not speak.
“Ease up!”
Eep gasped.
“Thank you, Mastersss—”
Verbard snatched his snake-like tongue and said, “It’s Master.”
Eep glanced at Catten, then back at Verbard and nodded.
Verbard released his tongue.
“Pardons, Master Verbard. Ah … the skinny man I found under heavy guard. I had him, but a man, a large man, smote me with white magic. Cracked bones. Eep had no choice. Return or be banished.”
“Next time,” Verbard said, “I’ll have to keep watch on things. Can you find this man again, if you have to?”
“Certainly, Masterss … er … Master.”
“You were supposed to bring the Keys or the man, Eep. You have failed,” Verbard said, letting a wave of energy course through him. Eep wasn’t of any use to him now. The creature was broken and would need time to heal. He couldn’t tolerate failure. Not from the imp or any other. He’d make an example of the imp, and he’d do it now.
Save your energy, Brother. Catten had entered his mind. Banish the imp. Bring him back later. The Keys can wait for now.
Verbard wanted to smite his brother. Everybody. But, he let his magic ease.
It’s time we talked about the Keys.
“Be gone, Imp!” Verbard ordered.
“But Master, I hungers,” Eep hissed.
“Be gone!”
Blink.
Catten still sat on his throne, sipping port.
“Up, Brother.”
Catten rose, poured another goblet and handed it to Verbard.
Verbard took his seat. Eyeing his brother, he sipped.
“Alright, Brother. Now that we are alone, tell me everything. And don’t mince words. I want it all. Your resurrections. Master Sinway’s plans. This ludicrous notion that the underlings once lived in this city, and what is so important about these Keys.”
Catten’s gold eyes brightened. His voice was almost cheerful. He said, “Certainly, Brother. Where would you have me start?”
Verbard patted the Orb of Imbibing that now rested within the folds of his robes. Its presence gave him comfort. An edge he didn’t have before with his brother.
“And don’t be humble, Catten. It’s unlike you. It’s difficult to think that you are actually you, seeing how you have changed bodies. It will take some getting used to. Now tell me about your resurrection?”
Catten held his fist to his mouth and coughed.
“Unpleasant. It was bad enough when the Darkslayer ran me through, but merging into another body was far worse than that. The pain was excruciating—”
“I don’t care how much it hurt! What happened?”
Catten stiffened, a darkness falling over him as he came closer and said, “I was getting to that, Brother.”
That’s more like it.
“Good. Continue.”
“Master Sinway was alone as he moved me from one body to another. It seemed not all underlings were fit for my powers. Some died and others remained blind in the process.”
“I don’t care,” Verbard said, taking another sip. “What happened?”
“There is a tomb in his Castle filled with many well-preserved underlings. He merged me with one of them.”
It was one thing to raise a dead underling, but quite another to raise one without a body. The eyes of the underlings held many powers, and on occasion those eyes, if powerful enough, would be collected and turned over to the master underling. Verbard always suspected he hoarded the magic in them. That they gave him power.
“He merged you with the dead?”
“Yes. The corpse with the best likeness to me. My eyes and essence filled his body.” He fanned out his hands. “And now here I am.” He coughed. “I lay catatonic at first while Master Sinway let me recover. He told me about your mission and that you would need help. I, like you, Brother, felt him to be insane, but the part about the underlings living above in Bone might be true. He showed me glimpses of his past. He took me across the world. I saw where we underlings finally have men on the run. They are collapsing. Darkslayer or not.”
Verbard rubbed his finger under his chin. “There are many humans, Brother. The city above alone holds many more than all of us.”
“But, they are not united. They squabble with one another. They fight over power and gold. ‘We have corrupted them before, and we can corrupt them again,’ Sinway says.”
Men could be bought, that much was certain, but Verbard would rather kill them then work with them. After all, the greed of men had led to the fall of Outpost Thirty One and many others. But taking the entire city of Bone still seemed ridiculous.
“Am I to assume that we are to live among them? Make them our slaves?”
“We will use fear against them. Taking one Castle, this Castle Almen, will lead to the capture of others.”
“Does this have something to do with the Keys?”
Catten smiled. “’The Keys are only one means to an end,’ Master Sinway said. Having them could aid us in the battle, but they are no guarantee of vi
ctory. But, he insists that we acquire them, for they are powerful weapons in our enemy’s hands.”
“Or they are worthless baubles? Hah! Kierway has spent years trying to find them, and now we are being told we don’t need them. Tell me more, Catten. Something is not well with Sinway. You know that. I know that. What did you find out?”
“We should not speak of such things, Brother,” Catten said. He eyed the Vicious.
“What? Do you think the Vicious can send a message? It can neither write nor talk. They follow orders. They kill. Now out with it, Catten. What did Sinway reveal to you?”
I feel your suspicions are correct, Brother. He’s going crazy.
Verbard sank back into his chair. Catten was lying. Or was he? Verbard hoped that he wasn’t. If Master Sinway was falling to madness, that thought was comforting. It would lend a greater understanding to it all. Besides, destroying the humans and taking their city wasn’t a bad idea. Just a grand one. A grander one than he’d ever imagined before, hence opening the doorway to his doubts.
“Why do you say that, Brother? Is it because of this conquest, or was it something else?”
“Brother, I’m elated with the idea of overtaking the city, if not the entire world. I’m tired of sitting beneath the world of men, and clearly Master Sinway is as well. There is something ancient that he knows, that he remembers, that has come to life and begun to burn. A vengeance hotter than the hottest of fires. An impatience that spreads like a forest fire on a gusty day. He’s bringing them out, Brother.”
A deep crease formed on Verbard’s brow as he sat up and leaned forward.
“The legions.”
Verbard nodded.
“How many?”
“All of them.”
The Legions consisted of every armed force in the Underland: soldiers, mages, clerics armed with metal and magic from head to toe. They had defended the Underland in centuries long gone, and now they were coming above ground. They would be a black plague on the land. They would destroy everything in their path. If they won, they won everything. If they lost, they lost everything. The Underland would not be defended. It was an insane idea.
Catten shrugged.
Verbard smiled. He loved the idea.
“Well, Brother, let the havoc begin. Jottenhiem!”
CHAPTER 2
“Nay, Rayal! They cannot enter. Your father left the strictest of orders,” the sentry said. The tall figure stood, spear at his side, in the entrance of Castle Kling.
It was a spectacular thing. Spires jutting into the moonlit sky, copper tiles twinkling like gold. It was the tallest building in all the City of Bone.
Georgio gawped at its highest point.
“Let me in, Cletus!” Rayal shouted back. “I demand it.”
“You can come, and your guards, certainly Rayal, but not the others. Klings and Royal Klings only,” the man returned.
The sentry stood firm in his coat of mail and helmet that bore the Royal insignia. A longsword was strapped at his waist. Georgio could see callouses on the insides of his palms as he held them out. This soldier had seen many battles, maybe even been to the Warfield. There was just something about him, but still, he was mindful of the raven-haired woman who seethed with outrage before him.
Her fists were balled up at her sides. She said, “Cletus! My father has his affairs, and I have mine. I owe these two my life.” She gestured to Melegal and Haze.
Melegal was draped over Quickster’s back. Georgio held him tight. The skinny woman he thought he recognized as Haze. She was one of the women who had rescued him from Tonio and McKnight. She was draped over the shoulder of a large man, called Brak. A girl, Jubilee, hung on to Brak’s arm.
Cletus shook his head. “I don’t care if they saved your father, you mother, and the grand ones of your family. They are not coming in, Rayal. I’m not losing my head over them, and you might just lose yours as well if you don’t get inside these walls now.”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, you oaf. I’ll have you quartered.”
Cletus tugged at his beard. His face flushed.
“Er, Rayal, you know I am fond of you, but I cannot abandon my duty, no matter how much I’d want to.” He bowed. “Forgive my directness, Rayal, but underlings!” He peered over the streets behind them. “They crawl through the city now, leading monsters and horrors that I’ve not even heard of. I’ve seen underlings, Rayal. I’ve seen what they do to people. I cannot bear the thought of them getting hold of you. Please, come in so we can talk about this. We’ll find another remedy for those people.” He looked Georgio and the rest of them over as if they were little more than urchins. “Perhaps a supply of food and water will help.”
“Pig,” Rayal said.
Georgio heard the girl, Jubilee, giggle. He turned. Brak’s eyes locked on his. There was something there. Something familiar. Something sad in the man’s eyes. Blinking, he turned towards Rayal. Everything from her hips to her lips was perfect. The young woman was angry, but poised. She was one of the most gorgeous women he’d ever seen. How the sentry, Cletus, resisted her, he did not know, but he’d dive into a barrel of fire for her if she asked. Wiping his sweaty palms on his clothes, he realized something. I like brunettes. He cleared his throat.
“We’ll go,” Georgio said.
Rayal spun on her heel. “Excuse me?”
“Uh … I said, ‘We’ll go.’”
She reached over and twirled Georgio’s curly locks in her fingers. “What was your name again?”
He blushed. “Ah … Georgio. Uh—”
“How well do you know these people, Georgio? Are you their leader?”
“No. I’m no one’s leader, but Melegal is my friend.” He patted Melegal on the back. “Well, not really a friend so much. More of an acquaintance. But we’ve been together a long time. I used to live with him and Venir.”
Georgio saw that Brak’s gaze fell on him and that his eyes narrowed.
“What?” He shrugged. “It’s true.” He looked back at Rayal, smiling a little. “I don’t know those two so well, but the woman over his shoulder saved me once. She saved me from that monster, Tonio.”
“What!” Rayal stood up to her full height. Her nostrils flared.
Cletus stepped forward, reaching for her arm.
She jerked away.
“Rayal, Please! You must come inside now. We’ve word underlings are all over. The menace grows, Rayal!”
“Silence, Cletus.” She cusped her hands under Georgio’s face and calmly said, “Georgio, tell me more about this Tonio. When did this happen? What does he look like?”
She smells so good. So beautiful.
Rayal pinched his cheeks.
“Tell me!”
Georgio swallowed hard and started blurting words out. “He’s a monster! A murderer! Insane. He keeps trying to kill Venir. He’s dead, but lives. He tried to kill us days ago in the stables. His face is split. Venir killed him once, but he lives again. No, he killed him twice, actually.”
Rayal’s eyes were wide as saucers. Her delicate fingers slid from Georgio’s face.
“The boy rambles, Rayal. Come in,” Cletus said.
She staggered back. Lost and uncertain.
“Did you know him?”
Rayal nodded. “Does Detective Melegal know all this?”
Georgio felt chilly. It seemed he’d already said more than he should have. And this woman was a Royal. No matter how wonderful she seemed, Melegal and Venir both had warned him Royals could not be trusted. What do I do? He wasn’t a fast talker either. Not like Melegal or Lefty. He wondered how his former halfling friend was doing. He could use his quick wits right now.
“I can’t say,” Georgio said. “All I think he knows leads me up to the last time I left Bone. And I was getting ready to leave Bone again when I ran across him again.”
That part was most of the truth. He’d seen Melegal only once before, this time in Bone, but they hadn’t said much, and there’d been no mention of Ton
io. Just the Blond-Haired Butcher.
“Sentries!” Cletus said. The soldier grabbed Rayal by the wrist and held her fast.
“Let me go, Cletus!”
“Stop that!” Georgio said. He jumped off Quickster and grabbed at Cletus.
Whop!
Cletus slugged him right across the jaw.
Georgio’s knees wobbled. It might have been the hardest he’d ever been hit.
Rayal fought against her bonds.
“Cletus! Unhand me, you pig-headed soldier!”
Half a dozen men in coats of chainmail and brandishing spears stormed out the door. They shoved Georgio, Brak, Haze, and Jubilee back with the tips of their spears.
“That man comes with me, Cletus!” Rayal said. She kicked, thrashed and screamed. “Bring them in the castle with me, or all of your soldiers will suffer the penalty!”
The soldiers paused.
“Get her in there!” Cletus said. “Lord Kling will show no mercy to any who don’t follow his direct orders. I won’t either! The guillotine is wet enough with blood already.”
“Unhand me!”
Catching her eyes, Georgio started to wave. The butt of a spear caught him in the back of his head. When he looked up again, it was pouring rain. The angry wails of the beautiful woman were gone. He rubbed the knot on his head. I hope I see her again.
The soldier named Cletus stood at the door with his hands on his hips.
“Get out of here, you over-sized urchins! Hide before the underlings get you. If you stick around any longer, we’ll be more than happy to put you out of your misery ourselves.”
Wiping the rain from his eyes, Georgio took Quickster by the reins and backed away until he could see the gate of the castle no more.
Brak and Jubilee followed.
“What are we going to do now?” Jubilee asked. Her eyes were bright. Inquisitive.
Georgio didn’t know who the big lout Brak and the droopy girl Jubilee were, but he could only assume they were Melegal’s friends. If Melegal woke up, maybe he’d know what to do with them.
Something exploded in the air. Everyone flinched. Despite the rain, smoke and fires could be seen lighting up the city in all directions. The City of Bone always had an element of danger, but now it was taken over by something dark and eerie. He wondered if Billip and Mikkel were all right. Perhaps they needed him.
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