Engaging Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 2)

by Cary J Lenehan

  The mage then came through and, from above him, the little brown-skinned woman leapt. Ignoring whether she had succeeded or not Basil sprang to close the gate. The key to these operations is teamwork. You do your job well and trust everyone else to do theirs in the same fashion. As his side closed he noticed that Harald had moved as quickly as he had. He heard Rani shout as loud as she could. The gates slammed and, leaving Harald to lock them, Basil turned ready to throw something or to draw his shortswords, or to leap onto someone.

  He wasn’t needed. Lakshmi was sitting on the withers of the horse behind the mage with one blade against his neck and the other further down. It must be in his groin. The horse is plunging and she is using the two blades to steady herself. That must be uncomfortable for the mage. The top blade, at least, has drawn a little blood. The armsmen are moving around in circles, swords in their hands, looking up at the roofs. Everyone up there is now standing with bows drawn, pointing at them.

  Basil moved. If they have to fire, I hope they hit the men and not me. He moved first to the mage and drew his sword and dropped it on the ground and then, reaching across him, his dagger and two wands that were also on that side. Those he tucked in his belt. Lucky it was a short horse. The mage glared down at him, a thin line of blood was starting to trickle down his throat from where Lakshmi’s dagger was held, its point dug into his flesh. I was right in my guess. The other blade is planted firmly in the groin.

  He went to the first armsman. The man had already dropped his sword, so Basil only had to remove his dagger and untie his crossbow. “Down” he ordered. The man obeyed. Basil slapped the horse away up the village street; people were emerging up there. They can deal with it. “Lie face down, legs apart, arms held out straight.” He obeyed. Basil knelt and felt for hidden blades. None I can find. “Now don’t move. There are archers aiming at you and they have exploding arrows.”

  He went to the next. The armsman still held his sword. “Drop it,” said Basil, out of caution drawing his left hand blade. It was just as well. The man slashed at him. Basil blocked it and grabbed the man’s arm with his free hand, pulling as he did so. The man gave a cry as he came off his horse. There is a shaft in his back. Someone has felt confident enough to fire. He hit the ground hard and Basil kicked his sword out of his hand and then quickly used his feet to spread the man’s legs. The man tried to struggle, so Basil kicked his groin…hard. The man screamed and tried to clutch himself. Basil dropped on his back with his knee and forced him flat, his breath whooshing out. He was now kneeling hard on the man’s back beside the arrow. “Stop moving.” He pulled out the man’s knife and patted him. A knife, no two, down his back, he felt lower, one in each boot. As he pulled them out he threw them away. He then put his shortsword away, still kneeling on the man, and checked his arms…one blade up each sleeve. That seems to be all. The man now lay there groaning. “I am standing up now,” said Basil “and you make a fine target for the archers. Spread your arms and legs and stay still.” This time the man did as he was told and stayed still.

  He now turned to the mage and drew his right hand shortsword. He placed it in the man’s groin. “Now you get down…and do not try and say a word.” The man started to dismount and Lakshmi came after him. As soon as she was down she reached up and again placed her daggers hard against his throat and groin. This time she stood in front of the man. She is smiling at him like a hungry beast. Very disconcerting it is indeed; that sort of smile on such a pretty face. It is a grimace that is barely human. He pulled his sap out and brought it down hard on the base of the man’s skull without warning. The man collapsed as if he were boneless.

  “Right,” he called. “We are clear. Someone call Astrid in please.” To Lakshmi he said, “Well done girl. I might give you a recommendation to my Strategos for my old job instead.” He turned to the two on the ground. Harald was already standing over one and he took a place beside the other. Soon the courtyard was full of people looking on. Just like crime scenes at home, he thought. Rani has gone up to Lakshmi and openly given her a hug and a kiss…well, it looks like I won’t need me to write a letter after all.

  He turned to stripping the mage, and as he did so he yelled, “Valeria…get me the gag from that woman’s room…and bring some of the restraints there for the other two. They are better than this rope.” Valeria caught Theodora’s approving eye and raced off. Once the mage was stripped and Basil had searched him, Basil lugged him towards the whipping frame and securely trussed him there where he could not move.

  ~~~

  Rani

  “Why is he doing that?” Rani asked Theodora.

  “You told him to do what he did at home. I imagine that this is how you would treat a captive mage. I don’t know. I didn’t go out with his people on things like that. He is just doing his job I suppose.” She sounds a little shocked at the casual brutality she is seeing.

  Chapter XXX

  Basil

  By the time the mage was fast in place Valeria was back and Basil tied the gag with its leather ball in place on him. It forced the man’s mouth open and prevented him biting himself when he woke, but it also stopped him talking or casting a spell. Basil checked that the restraints were tied tight so that the man could scarce wiggle and turned to the other two. Father Christopher was tending the one with the arrow wound, so Basil went to the other.

  “Stand up now and keep your hands away from your body.” The man did so with fear in his eyes. He caught sight of Bryony and looked even more scared. Stefan was holding Bryony back. She had obviously heard what Ayesha had said and she was crying and trying to get at the man. “Now strip… Don’t make any false moves…Lakshmi, get behind him.” She did so. “If he tries anything, take a kidney…either one, but I want him alive afterwards.” The man looked terrified as he hurriedly began to strip off his clothes and his shoes. He was staring wildly around. He finished stripping and stood there naked with his hands covering his groin. “I would imagine that a few of you ladies,” said Basil, “will enjoy this part. Here is rope and some shackles…Tie him up…hard.”

  He turned to the last bandit. “Have you finished, Father?” Christopher nodded. The arrow had been removed and the bleeding staunched. “Now it is your turn…Lakshmi, get ready…now stand and strip. Remember, a false move will not be your last, but it is going to be painful, very, very painful and, even if we decide to heal you, you will be pissing blood for a long time.” The man grunted and stood. Defiantly he removed his clothes and stood naked. His hands were clenching and straightening at his sides. “Ladies, you get to tie him up as well.” The man struggled at this, but stood no chance, all it got him, in the end, was a knee in the groin from Verily and a punch under the small of the ribs from Anahita that left him gasping for air.

  The men were left trussed and lying naked on the ground.

  Basil said to the mages, “Criminals apprehended and restrained, ma’m. I await orders as to their disposal.”

  “You seem to have done this a few times before, Basil,” said Theodora.

  “All part of the job,” he said smoothly, and with a smile. This is the most normal I have been for quite some time and damn, it feels good. “Even at home we had enough low-lifes to keep us busy. Now you will want to question them.” He said to Bianca, “Will the Presbytera be doing the questioning herself this time? Might I suggest that we start with the mage? Once you have broken him, these two will be easy.”

  He saw Bianca go white and clutch Christopher’s hand and had to listen hard to follow what they said. “You don’t have to if you do not want to, my dearest,” Christopher said to her quietly. “Although, and I hate to say this, you are very good at it from what I have seen. You get the information more from what you say than what you actually do. I am sure that Basil’s people use much rougher methods.”

  Basil nodded, and kept his voice low. “Unless we have someone around with some truth spells. A good truth spell makes everything else unnecessary.”

  “I am sorry, my dear
est” said Father Christopher. “I am not strong enough to pray for one of those yet.”

  “I can, though,” said Rani. “I don’t know anything at all about that area, but if anyone can give me the principles…I am sure we can manage.”

  “If you can get the truth from the mage…with these two watching…then I will handle them both,” said Bianca. “I am sure that they will be more…open once they have seen him talk.”

  “Let us prepare then,” said Basil, and he raised his voice. “Can you ladies take these two gentlemen over near the whipping frame please? You don’t have to be too gentle with them but—” Bryony is drawing a dagger. Stefan has to be quick. “Stefan hold tight to Bryony.” He grabs her. She is trying to get at the bandit who talked about her. Tears are streaming down her face. She is incoherent and she is seeing nothing but the man, the nemesis that has destroyed her life. Stefan is trying hard to holding her tight…he is suffering scratches and cuts and even a stab from her knife as she tries to break free. Basil moved quickly over and, pinching the nerve in her wrist, disarmed her. Stefan gathered her up in a sobbing bundle in his arms as other women came around to help. Several are kicking the man in whatever part presents to them as they pass by.

  Basil bent down to him. “You are going to tell us absolutely everything, aren’t you? Otherwise, if you think she would be bad, well, you should see how quickly the Presbytera Bianca broke Dharmal. I have never seen better before and I work with Darkreach law enforcement.” He smiled evilly.

  The man looked up at his black eyes two hands away and flinched back. “I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything. Conrad, the mage, he organised things. He just got us to do things for him and find out things and we would be well paid. I just told him about the wedding and he arranged the rest…told me not to go, he did. I just work for a living, really I do.”

  You just have to push in the right places… “Be quiet now. We will talk about your work later.” Basil patted the man’s cheek. “I am sure you will be able to remember more then, lots more. I hope you are not too attached to all your parts.” Basil straightened up. “Ladies, take him away.” He went over to where Rani, Bianca and Christopher were. “If it helps in the spell, his name is Conrad.”

  ~~~

  Conrad

  Conrad woke up with a head and neck full of pain in an uncomfortable position. My groin is on fire from where that bitch stuck her blade. My face and body ache as if I have hit the ground and the back of my head…it feels like straps are running around my head…something is lodged hard in my mouth…I cannot close it and it is hard to breathe properly. Cautiously he ran his tongue over it.…a sewn seam in a leather ball…the taste of leather and blood and spit. He bit…it gives a little, but not enough to let me do more than gurgle. I cannot move my mouth enough to cast anything. He flexed. My arms and legs are tied fast and my fingers are forced straight by splints and held apart. I can feel the wind on my skin enough to know I am naked. Whoever has done this to me has done it before. I have no chance of casting…it will be hard to resist. I can hear the murmur of women’s voices around me. He opened his eyes. Gwillam and Cuthbert are lying naked and trussed up before him. No aid there. The rope is cutting into their skin and Gwillam is bleeding from his wrist and his feet look to have little circulation. Cuthbert has lost control of his bladder. He lies in a pool of his own piss that made mud of the dirt he lies in. Someone must realise I am awake…they have hold of my hair and are forcing me to look at the other two on the ground and around. By Morrigan that hurts as well. We are well and truly fucked.

  “Hello Conrad,” the man said in Hindi. He has an odd accent. “My name is Basil and I work for Darkreach law enforcement. Have a look around you.” The roots of my hair really do hurt as he moves my head around to see the women…some of whom I have sent here and many of them I have used as they all deserve…they are all staring at me. I know what is in my mouth…one of the women bandits owned it, but would loan it out if you didn’t want to be distracted by screams or pleas. There is also a woman with gold eyes watching…her eyes are…oh shit…gold eyes…Darkreach…another, obviously Havenite, preparing a pentagram. I am bound to the bloody whipping frame and there is at least the edge of a pentagram drawn in the hard dirt around it. Bryony is sobbing in a man’s arms. I remember her body well. I took her first on her wedding night and her husband had never ever gotten to it. Bloody hell my groin is responding to the memory of that. One of the women is pointing at my manhood and…now it shrinks…this is not a good idea. I will have to fight with my mind to stay alive…not give way. His reminiscences were cut short by reality. “Payback is a bitch,” said the man who said he was from Darkreach. He felt his hair released as the man moved clear. His head dropped and now he had to use his own muscles to see. My neck is in pain…a lot of pain.

  The Havenite woman began to chant. I must fight to…shit…he stuck a blade in my arse…resist…oh Morrigan that was in my ball sack…I cannot concentrate…shit…I cannot focus to pray, let alone…not my balls again…everything is muffled by the gag…I can feel blood starting to run down my legs…I have never felt pain like this before…much more fun giving…fuck…I cannot even make out what she is saying…shit…she has stopped…so has my tormentor…no new jabs or cuts are happening…everyone ahead of me is just looking…some of the cunts ahead look like starving dogs as they watch me. The Haven mage has said to remove this cursed gag…rough hands are untying the releases…it is being pulled out of my mouth…he sucked in a lung full of sweet pure air. Now a quick cast…I cannot frame the words…my mouth is no longer mine to speak with. The woman must have taken complete control of me while that bastard was sticking me. With dread he waited for his instructions. They soon came. I can try to fight, but the words just come tumbling out, one after another, to condemn me. I can hold nothing back. My mind can still think and want me to be silent, but my body is eager to please the woman who now owns me and it finds new things to volunteer.

  “I work for the Masters…I recruit for them in the Swamp and Haven and tell them things about caravans and prime women to bring here… I told them of Bryony…I paid for that one,” he nodded towards Lakshmi, “in Sacred Gate and then organised for her to be brought here… The young one there,” he nodded towards Parminder, “and her sister and the one holding her…and they brought her brother as well… The one who cooks here… The brewer here and that one,” this time he indicated Dulcie, “and another child and that one, Valeria…and others that are not here now.

  “I told them about when rich caravans were leaving and I told them about people they asked about. They paid me well and I came up here at least once a year to enjoy the women.”

  “How did the Masters talk to you?” asked the woman. My mistress’ name is Rani. Has she told me? No…it is stamped in my brain like fire.

  “Sometimes one would come and see me. Sometimes I had a note slipped under my door. Sometimes I used a mirror that is set up in a house that I rent in Sacred Gate. That is how I gave them information.”

  “Did you set up the mirror or did they? Does it have a diagram in front of it?” asked Rani.

  “They did and yes it does. I stand in the diagram to activate the mirror.”

  “Tell us all about the Masters. Everything you know about them and what they want and what they wanted from you,” commanded Rani.

  I can feel the sweat standing out on my brow as I try to fight the commands…it makes no difference. “They are not really alive, I don’t think, but they are not really undead. I have touched one accidentally and I lost nothing. They are all magicians, each more powerful than I am. They want to be fully alive, one told me that. They want to cause the Kingdoms to break up and then they will come out and each of them will rule an area. The one I met most, I think it was the same one, was going to rule Sacred Gate. Once he had control of it he was going to organise his re-birth into a body. I was looking for a suitable man to take to him when I was sent up here to take control. It was supposed to be empty
otherwise I would not have been sent. I am too valuable to risk in the field. I had to find something…they thought it would be made of jade and hidden and I had to either destroy it or to take it out where someone would get it from me.”

  So it continued. There is major harm to me and others in what I have left…in what I am saying, but they are writing lists of places where I hid things in Haven and other short lists with the names of agents, contacts and people I work with. I have met some of the people who organise other areas, but don’t know their names. Still I have given it all. Now Rani…dark-skinned cunt…beloved mistress…cherished owner is forcing me to cast my mana into a storage device until it is used up…now she is draining me into deficit…it hurts but my body and my hind brain want to please her…I am so far in deficit it is a wonder I am still alive. I feel foul…defiled. I have done this to others before, and especially to a couple of female mages. Now I am telling of that. To have one doing it to me now…I can feel my manhood almost shrink into me. I find it hard but I have to try and fight to do something. I must concentrate. I must ignore the pain even as my mouth still betrays me. I must ignore that my brain feels like it is being torn apart as memories spill out to condemn me…The control has left me. It may have even just run out of time for all I know…I may have done nothing, but I can stop speaking.

  He came out of the control spell swearing and cursing futilely and weakly from being drained. My head pounds …my neck is on fire and other places hurt in brief stabs. He started to swear aloud in his own language. Curse my bitch former mistress. Now the man in black, Basil, is stepping up to me…his hand back…he hits me in the mouth…I can taste blood…he made me bite my own fucking tongue.