“Boys will be boys,” Carrie said, her fur creasing into laughter lines.
Su smiled but didn’t say anything.
“Well, best tell the rest of the convoy,” Su said with a harrumph. Phila increased her pace as he moved up and down the convoy.
***
Su rode ahead with Gus and Dadri as they got closer to the camp area.
He checked the ground before the carriages arrived.
“All right, swing around in here. We’ll keep the bedar loose but ready to be hooked up, so make sure that they have spacing to do their business and eat,” Su said.
The traders were old hands at this and they followed his in- structions, creating a circle of carriages that could act as their tem- porary camp and their defenses if there were any hungry beasts looking for an easy meal in the night.
There were a number of children with the caravans. The mer- chants travelled far and some brought their families, unable to bear the time apart. With that, they took on easier routes that were still profitable but safer, with short distances between cities and areas where there were few reports of bandits and aggressive beasts in the area.
The caravans formed a circle as Gus rode in toward Su. “Any issues?”
“No, but I could hear some people talking back some way and they were heading this way. Don’t seem like bandits, just a loud group of friends.”
“No need for us to do anything then. This area is pretty safe,” Su said as he got off Phila.
Gus joined him as they started releasing the straps on their be- dars.
“I’ll get a list up for the watch and check on the perimeter, not like you won’t in another hour.”
Su didn’t say anything, focusing on brushing down Phila and getting some of the dust out of her fur.
Everyone gathered together as they created fire pits and started to gather firewood and prepare the night’s meals.
When in the cities, we fight one another for every copper, but out here we’re just people travelling from one place to another.
Su saw Dadri moving from group to group, introducing him- self and meeting with different people in the group.
Su sat back, relaxing against his bedroll and the side of the car- riage when he heard someone walk up toward him. “How’s it go- ing, Carrie? Have you got dinner yet?” he asked, hearing the famil- iar steps of his friend.
“Thought that I might as well get both of our servings, with how bad you are at forgetting when to get food.” She passed him two bowls of stew with hard bread stuck in them, softening. She groaned and sighed as she lowered herself to the ground, leaning against the carriage.
The bedar looked up from their eating to see whether there were any treats before they went back to eating their prepared food again.
“Another week, another city,” Su said. “The life of a trader,” Carrie said.
They both started to eat as they got comfortable and ready for bed, knowing that it wouldn’t be long until they had to wake up again.
Su looked up as someone stumbled across the camp.
“Looks like someone had a bit more to drink with their food,” Carrie said in a knowing tone.
Su pulled out a pipe and started to prepare it and pack it. He heard someone fall. He looked over to see a guard who had been sitting on a carriage had fallen off.
Su put his pipe away, frowning. “It’s one thing for the mer- chants, but the guards...” he said as he got to his feet.
Carrie left him to it as he walked over toward the man. He got a few steps before his head started to spin.
“What?” His vision was swimming. He reached out, trying to stabilize himself, but his legs only collapsed beneath him and he was on all fours, looking around.
“How did I get here? Wasn’t I standing?” Su turned back to look at the badger. “Carrie?” Her eyes were closing slowly and then flashing open.
“Poison,” Gus said as he wandered into the camp, stumbling. “Poi—” Reality hit Su, clearing his mind for a few moments.
It wasn’t long enough for him to completely collect his thoughts. One second, he was trying to move forward; the next, he was open- ing his eyes to a very different scene.
His head was still blurry, trying to pull information from the sights and the sounds around him and draw upon the half-faded memories, his mouth working before his mind fully processed.
“Poison...watch out...Gus...go warn the...where...what’s happen- ing?” Su looked around. Everyone was in some kind of under- ground area. There was writing on the floor. Fires around the room showed they were broken into different groups: the guards and stronger merchants, the women, the children, the remaining small- er merchants and guards.
Then there were the rough-looking people wearing worn cloaks, who were around the outside of the people, penning them in like beasts.
Su moved around. He, like all of the others, had been hog-tied with a strong rope, making it impossible to escape.
“You did well,” a powerful-looking human said, patting Dadri’s back. There was no longer the innocence of youth in his eyes.
Instead, there was a dark and sadistic look that covered his ex- pression as he looked over the merchants.
The women averted their eyes and the children cried out in fear.
The other cultists smiled and laughed, enjoying what was just a game to them.
“Thank you, master.” Dadri bowed his head to the man.
The man sent him among the ranks of the cultists and stepped forward so all of the traders could see him.
“Don’t worry, your lives will serve a greater cause. Instead of pining for wealth and riches, you will create chaos, create a new De- na for us all. All things come from chaos and all things will return to it. This is our fate! This is our destiny!” The man raised his hands up and lights of different colors appeared from his body, as though he had a million glowing lights trying to burst free.
He stifled a cough. Blood appeared on his teeth as he smiled.
Su shot a look over at Gus, whose eyes moved to Su’s broken horn and his bindings.
It was hard to move hog-tied, but he could roll over and flop about like a fish.
Su looked to the others, capturing their eyes; he’d need them to make a ruckus.
One let out a yell and jumped forward; the others joined in as Su and Gus used the cover, getting close to each other. Su braced his head against the floor, making it look as if he were stuck as Gus contorted his body bit by bit, cutting his bonds.
“Silence!” The “master” waved his hand.
The cultists stepped out and kicked or punched the restrained guards on the ground, sending dirt into their eyes and noses. With their limited ability to breathe, they started coughing and panick- ing.
“Cultists! Power of chaos! Nothing but bandits, child killers, and murderers!” Carrie had somehow got rid of the rope that was meant for her mouth.
“You dare to call us bandits! We are leading Dena into a new future. We’re more paladins than those puppets of the Light!”
Carrie started laughing, forcing it out.
Su caught her eye. All the attention was on her, allowing Gus to work harder. The rope was nearly broken.
“Puppets? You’re the real puppets! Nothing but a bunch of idiots, believing in one another’s lies so that you can rationalize killing others for some greater good. You don’t have a cause—you have an excuse!”
The master raised his hand; a brilliant ray of color shot out and hit Carrie.
She screamed out as her body started to contort and change.
Her bones broke and her fur burned away.
Gus and Su screamed against their bindings as those near Car- rie leapt back in fear.
The master coughed; it was wetter now. He looked tired, but his eyes were still filled with that crazed look as he stepped forward toward Carrie’s body.
It looked as if she had fallen down a cliff, breaking the bones in her body, and then set on fire.
“That�
�s better. Don’t worry, your ignorance has been cleansed with the power of chaos.” His eyes fell on everyone lying down. “You’ll all be saved by the power of chaos, and I must thank you for your selfless sacrifices!”
The traders all tried to move, to escape as the cultists moved among them once again, kicking them back.
Gus worked harder to break his bonds, his and Su’s eyes res- olute.
Even if we die, I’ll take at least one of these bastards down!
***
Anthony’s head snapped to the side, staring through the trees as if they didn’t exist.
“What is it?” Aila asked.
“Cultists of the chaos lords.” Anthony’s voice was perfectly cold as he wrapped his hand around his sword.
“What?” Tommie asked.
“Stay here. I’ll handle this.”
“Aren’t we supposed to work together? You make too much noise in that armor. I can scout it out,” Aila said.
“I can watch the gear!” Tommie hissed-yelled, his face pale.
Anthony could tell he was terrified of possibly getting into a fight. Not everyone is a warrior.
“Thank you, Tommie, Aila. I will take you up on both of those offers. Solomon can help you with getting closer to the cultists. They should have a warren or something that they’re using in order to stay hidden. With the power that they’re using, they must be up to something and by the markings back a ways on the road, there was a caravan moving down this way not long ago,” Anthony said, looking at Aila. His glowing eyes froze her. “Time is of the essence, Aila Wranoris.”
Aila quickly got down as the shadows moved. In the darkness, she could barely make out Solomon as he wrapped around her. She could feel him, darkness mana, wrapping around her like a wet tow- el.
“Wow, I can hardly see you unless I’m looking right at you. You
blend into the night perfectly.”
“It should be much easier for you to hide. The more Solomon shakes, the easier it will be for you to be seen. He can guide you to the location of the cultists. If you need me, just tell Solomon and he has his way of getting a message to me,” Anthony said.
“I’ll be back soon.” Aila stepped forward and ducked into the underbrush. She moved through the forest. Her light footsteps were soundless as she flitted across the ground like a specter.
She passed a cleared area. There were carriages all in a circle, with bedars tied up and sleeping. Fires smoked and sputtered as they ran low on fuel.
She moved to the nearby stream, her eyes glowing as she used a tracking spell. “There you are.” She found an entrance hidden be- hind a boulder, leading downward.
Her feet stopped as she discovered a magical trap at the en- trance. “Crude and elementary.” She checked around as she started to disable the trap.
Aila heard screams as she disabled the simple trap formation and stepped into the cave system. She moved through the tunnels, following the noises and then the person speaking. “Solomon, get ready.”
The darkness moved around her.
She snuck forward, taking time to listen to make sure that there was no one around the corners before she moved. In her right hand, she held her curved dagger; in her left, she had prepared a spell but hadn’t activated it so there was no light being given off.
“Solomon, tell Anthony,” she said as she saw the cultists kicking the people into order as one man walked up to a pedestal in the middle of the room.
Solomon disappeared in a second. There was no wind but his speed was like an arrow being released from a bow.
Aila studied the formation that held the people inside and the items that were on the pedestal to be used to activate it. “This is some kind of magical manipulation and there are elements of death magic mixed in.” She shuddered, looking at the people.
I need to do something before they’re able to use the formation. Bow—can maybe get off a few shots before they start fighting back. I can raise a few golem shells and then give them souls to increase their fighting abilities. The spell takes a lot more mana. I’ll have to take the risk of being found out. Anthony must be on his way.
There were people in tattered robes around the outside of the formation and those who were moving between the sections of the formation.
She took out items from her pouch that would accelerate her spell and increase the strength of the created creatures.
***
Su and Gus watched the master stepping up to the stage; he was preparing himself. Gus had been able to cut through one binding and was working on another, looking for an opportunity.
The master raised his arms as Gus’s tribal tattoos flared to life, giving him immense strength; he broke through his bonds and tore apart Su’s bindings. He charged forward as the cultists yelled in alarm, some pulling out their blades.
The master looked back as Gus crossed the formation.
“Come on.” Su had activated his tribal tattoos. Old power flooded into him as he increased in size. He used his hands and his horn to cut the bindings, freeing another who rushed forward as well, their tattoos flaring to life.
“Halt,” the master said as the formations activated.
Su’s hands were frozen, picking up another guard, as Gus’s charge was halted, frozen in mid-stride.
“Why must you fight your destiny!” the master yelled out. His body glowed with those multiple colors and his power seemed to be going crazy.
“Dadri!” The master waved forward the young beast kin.
He bowed to the master and pulled out a small blade; he walked freely into the formation and stood before Gus, turning his head to the side. “Don’t worry, I’ll take my time,” he said.
“Let him go or I’ll kill him!” A voice came from the other side of the room.
The cultists all looked over to see a woman in the shadows, holding a cultist. Her dagger shone against the flickering light of the underground ritual room.
“Chaos lives!” the master yelled, signaling to Dadri.
A cold look appeared in his eyes as he looked at the woman, locking eyes with her. He reached out with his dagger and slowly inserted it into Gus’s stomach; he cried out against the magical binding of the formation.
There was a flash of light between the chaos cultists and the woman.
Three gray spell formations rotated on the ground, making everyone look at them. Stones rose up from the ground, forming together into humanoid creatures.
“Destroy the golems and kill her!” the master said in a cold voice.
The cultists ran forward. Dadri joined them and left Gus, while the cultist in the woman’s grip twisted in her arms.
She drew her dagger across his neck and he dropped to the ground, screaming. Her hand was wrapped in purple, drawing out his soul and turning it into a tool. She closed her fist, destroying the consciousness within and turning it into fuel for her own spell.
Three threads of purple shot out from her hand and struck the golems.
Purple lines burned into their surface and filled their eyes as they reached down, grabbing stone spears from the ground.
The woman moved back. A golem stood in the way of the cultists. It threw a spear, piercing one and nailing another to the wall. It reached down with its opposite hand to grab another stone spear, throwing with both arms.
It only got two more before the enemy closed with them.
The master started chanting and returned to his position on the altar. The different reactants were consumed by the formation to power the ritual functions.
Su watched as power started to drain from the formation sec- tions containing the women, children, and traders, routing back to the altar.
The people there started to look fatigued and tired, their very life force being dragged away. That pure energy was twisted with the power of the altar and routed toward the section with the guards.
That multicolored light of chaos started to reach out from the ground, entering their bodies.
They let out y
ells as they started to change and grow. A new twisted power entered their bodies, eroding their minds.
Two of the golems advanced toward the altar. Although they were smarter than other golems he had seen, they were still big and not agile. The cultists were being killed, but there had to be around fifty of them. They worked the golems, chipping away at their blind spots and weakening them. Even if a few of their numbers were killed, it didn’t matter to them.
She was being pushed back. Her main golem was fighting the good fight, but he was being worn down faster than the others. He’d lost one arm already and his side was being torn into.
The woman was fast and deadly, mixing in spells with her close- in fighting style. Two had already been claimed by her blade.
A roar shook the entire ritual room. A light, like a sun, ap- peared through one of the tunnels.
A dragon appeared and shot out of the tunnel. A man shot out from its body; he reached out and the dragon turned into a ray of light as it wrapped around the man’s armor.
He drew his sword as the shadows distorted around him, his left side armor covered in brilliant golden flames, while shadows writhed around on the right side of his armor.
When he looked up, his right eye glowed black, while the left was golden. Black and Golden mana wrapped together around his body.
The master looked over at the knight. “Don’t let them interrupt the ritual!” He went back to chanting, speeding it up.
The human knight rushed forward. He turned into a ghostly specter of shadow, flashing past the cultists. His blade extended out; the cultist, unable to stop their momentum, struck the blade.
The man tore the blade out of their chest; he deflected one blade, kicking a man’s shin. His blade lashed out, cutting their neck. They dropped to the ground as he spun, striking a man in the face with his elbow and kicking another in the side.
Death Knight Box Set Books 1-5: A humorous power fantasy series Page 17
