Blood, Blades and Bacon (Thorns of the Shadow Book 1)

by Matthew Roys

  Robby leapt back with an unmanly yelp at the sight of the carnage. He had never seen anything like it. Blood spattered the snow and misted in the air while red light cast the world in crimson. Magic users had set up shields against the devastation, however they seemed ineffective.

  Abruptly the lasers stopped. Glory swayed then fell into a puddle of melted snow and gore. No longer suppressed, Annis’ forces converged on her with a terrifying bloodlust. She didn’t look up. Robby screamed a wordless cry as he clove the skull of a man in half. He swung about himself with the hatchet in an inhuman fury then crouched and grabbed hold of Glory.

  “Come on! I am nae goin’ te bury another woman yet.”

  A smile flittered across her face. From her position on the ground she tripped a troll with her staff then gave a poor man a firm thwack to the balls when they threatened to overpower the young MacFeelan.

  “Maybe you should worry about not being buried yourself,” she chided him. He helped her to her feet then she shook off his grip on her. “We should probably run now.”

  “Agreed,” said Robby. He could barely keep hold of his axe now.

  They ran as fast as they could back toward the village. Bullets and blasts of magic shot past them into the chasing ranks behind. Blue Bands and grim faced Scotsmen shouted encouragement from the village’s edge. The two passed the first line of men into a rubble strewn space. Only a handful of the building still stood.

  Glory noticed three men stood atop one of the remaining houses and vaulted up to join them. Robby stared after her but decided against clumsily clambering up the wall. Instead he sought out other MacFeelans. He saw a knot of them holding off the remaining trolls and moved over to support them.

  The three men were clan chiefs. They watched Glory as she approached but did nothing else to acknowledge her presence. She ignored them too. Her eyes scanned the battlefield and didn’t like what they saw. Most of their forces had been able to retreat and now held the ruins of the village but there didn’t seem to be an end to the enemy numbers.

  “We cannae hold here,” a grey haired, broad faced chief grunted. Glory recalled his name as being Denn. “We have to act fast or we’ll be swept away.”

  “Tell us the obvious some more,” snapped another. “I’m sure that will help.

  “It cannae help any less than sarcasm,” Denn countered angrily.

  The third chief, a huge, bald man with a long white beard, frowned. “We’re in the centre of events grander than we ever imagined. Annis couldnae have gathered this army. Why would they fight for her? What do they have te gain? Nothing. Déaþscúa has gotten us inte a full blown war whether he kens it or nae.”

  Glory gave up waiting for them to actually do something useful. “Enough with the philosophy, old man. Shit has hit the fan. Don’t waste time deciding who threw it while the flies are gathering and the smell’s getting worse.”

  “Aye. The lass is right,” Denn said. “Where are Niall and Dorren?”

  “Niall is dead. If this Dorren isn’t here then count him as dead too,” Glory told them bluntly. “Our plan has gone to shit so we need a new one. Fast.”

  “What we need is Déaþscúa,” the middle chief added dejectedly.

  Glory’s earpiece buzzed. “Glory. We are down. We’re setting up defences as we speak. Head to the coastline about half a mile from your position.”

  “Easier said than done, Ace. I’ll see you there or in Hell.”

  “Roger that.”

  She turned her attention back to the men. “We have a foothold half a mile away. You think that you can get everyone there?”

  “No, but we’ll try,” answered the bald chief.

  “That’s the spirit,” she told them enthusiastically. “Get going. Me and my men will fight our way back while you take everyone else at a run. Don’t argue.”

  Reluctantly they agreed and began to tell the combatants below the plan. Glory jumped down too. She was greeted by a brown-skinned man with the blue bands on his wrists.

  “Jal, get the men into formation Seventy Two B. Mark Two variant. A steady retreat to the coast as we funnel their forces and slow their advance. No unnecessary risks.”

  “On it,” the man said with an offhanded salute. He left without hesitation to organise the battle-bound Blue Bands.

  Glory watched him go. She rubbed a finger across her nose distractedly. “Hurry the hell up, Déaþscúa. Even if we could win here, there’s still no sign of Annis. Without her dead, all of this is for nothing.” She strode towards her men. “Where the hell is that wretch Ailia? It's time we fuck some shit up.”

  Chapter 26.

  Time didn’t seem to move in the fairy glade. Anything electronic didn’t work either so the hours passed by at a sluggish pace. Déaþscúa sat with his back to a tree and his eyes closed. He could have been sleeping but KT could see the tension that had a hold of him. She sat nearby and no matter how hard she tried not to, she couldn’t help but to keep staring at him as a new memory cascaded through her aching mind. Ghodot’s constant attempts at conversation were not improving her mood.

  Kai had been pacing for a while now. “How much longer do we have to stand around here waiting?” he asked. “I can’t even tell how long we’ve been here. My watch has been going backwards for at least an hour.”

  Déaþscúa didn’t move. KT had no idea either but Ghodot’s voice pushed its way through her thoughts with an answer.

  “Twenty three hours, twelve minutes and forty seven seconds,” she relayed passively.

  “So we still have another hour to stand around, twiddling our thumbs? The battle has probably started already. People are out there dying while we prance with bloody fairies! We don’t even know if Annis will still be in that village. This could all just be wasted time.”

  “She’ll be there,” Déaþscúa’s voice cut in. “Trust me on that.”

  Kai grunted noncommittally.

  Silence returned. Each kept to themselves as time meandered by. It felt like several hours passed until a fairy fluttered over to them. It directed them to the newly formed faegate. Hundreds of the portals dotted the area regardless of the fact that a single gate could take you to any other.

  Allow me, Ghodot said smugly. KT felt a tugging at her limbs. She signed and allowed the fairy king to direct her hands to input the correct coordinates into the mushrooms. The fairies stood watching them with expressionless faces. KT would be glad to be away from them. For such cute creatures, they instilled a strange fear in her which was not helped by Ghodot’s constant presence. The three stood in the centre of the ring and waited for the warping rush.

  “Draw your weapons and be ready for anything,” Déaþscúa told them. “A cornered beast always fights hardest.”

  KT tapped the last mushroom and the world folded in upon itself. Teleporting usually made her feel sick to the core but this time she felt nothing. Kai still retched so she could only assume that her steady stomach was Ghodot’s doing.

  Unaffected by nausea, KT could actually see what was happening for the first time. Blinding light flickered and streaked in a rainbow of swirling colours. Images flashed into existence for a split second then distorted and disappeared. It was beautiful yet inexplicably hellish. Then, like a stretched rubber band snapping back, everything was still and darkness masked their surroundings. KT’s eyes adjusted quickly to the dark but Déaþscúa was faster.

  He scanned the room they were in then moved to the door by the time that KT could differentiate objects through the darkness. Kai had always had the better eyesight but he took several seconds longer to move.

  “Keep together and make no unnecessary sound,” Déaþscúa ordered in a low whisper. He splayed his hands. “Five humans in a room below us. Nobody else is in the building.”

  “So Annis is gone,” Kai growled.

  “We’ll see,” he said. He took out a bottle from his coat and downed it. It smelled familiar. Elizabeth had used it on Déaþscúa’s wounds after the battle at the fort
. Silver Devil, KT recalled.

  “This’ll give me a short term boost to my healing but I’m still far from my peak. I’m relying on you two, okay?”

  Déaþscúa motioned for the two teens to stand at either side of the trap-door. He tried the handle but it was locked. He took a step back then blasted it with a hammer of compressed air. The door shattered into splinters. KT and Kai jumped down into the room with guns at the ready.

  The room was exactly as Kai remembered it, or would have been if there were more huddled figures in the corner. The group had been diminished since then. He ran to them, noticing that each had a blindfold wrapped around their eyes and a gag in their mouths. KT and Déaþscúa were with him a moment later. Picking his father from the group, Kai pulled the blindfold from his head then began to work on the gag.

  The gag loosened enough for Bob to force out words. “Run! Annis is next to me!”

  Flames and spikes of rock materialised before the words were fully spoken. They slammed into Déaþscúa and pinned him to the wall. A woman beside their dad stepped forward, flickered, then took on the appearance of Black Annis. The teens tried to react but Annis had them in invisible bonds before they had fully registered the attack. KT could feel the pressure around her but it was more like water than anything physical.

  “Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me, Déaþscúa,” Annis said slowly. Power radiated from her. She stepped up to him. She had to look up since he was impaled to the wall several feet from the ground, but it was clear who had the power. “Did you really think that such a feeble plan would work? That you could sneak up on me when an army suddenly marches against me without you at its head? I expected so much more.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” Déaþscúa wheezed faintly. “I do have a few tricks up my sleeves though.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Yeah.”

  KT’s doublesword slashed into Annis’ throat from behind. Her head should have been severed but instead she was thrown across the room. The younger woman didn’t let that deter her. She sprang after Annis. Kai found himself able to move again and rushed to help KT. Déaþscúa called to him.

  “Take your dad and the others to the faegate. Get them to Jearl and Elizabeth. You remember the coordinates?”

  Kai nodded. He cast another worried glance at KT but obeyed. He grabbed his father’s arm and shepherded the other three out of the room and back to where the faegate had grown. Déaþscúa watched them go then struggled to force himself off of the spikes.

  KT attacked Annis relentlessly but the older woman dodged and spun with an agility that would put gymnasts to shame. The slashes that the woman could not dodge she parried with her metal claws. Ghodot worked inside her head, scanning through memories to throw out techniques that KT would never have thought of alone. He saw Annis’ movements before KT could register them herself. It was like having a computer in her head.

  A wave of flame knocked KT back. Both women stood staring at one another. Tension hung thick in the air. There was a loud thud as Déaþscúa dropped face first to the floor. He laid there groaning for a moment then pushed himself up. Both Annis and KT had turned to watch him.

  “Don’t mind me,” he coughed. “Just need a second to catch my breath. I’m getting too old for this.”

  “You’re too late. The battle above is almost over. Your excuse for an army has been all but destroyed,” Annis told him. She clapped her hands together, causing the ground to crack. Earth shot up, tearing up the walls and ceiling in a geyser of dirt and stone. Déaþscúa was caught in the centre of it. When everything had stopped, the basement and the outside had become one. Déaþscúa was laid in a pile of rubble in the middle of a churned up street.

  Bodies were everywhere. The weather was a raging blizzard but even that failed to cover the blood that seemed to soak everything in sight. Annis stood amidst all this like a proud queen. She watched amusedly as Déaþscúa climbed out from the rubble and brushed himself down.

  He reached for his sword but it was his gun that fired. The bullet hit Annis square in the forehead, jerking her entire body back with the force. She was flung through the air only to meet with KT’s doublesword which threw her in a different direction. Before she landed, Kai came charging up the ramp from the basement and slammed his axe into her spine, smashing her to the ground. Déaþscúa was on her in a heartbeat, his sword positioned with the point between her breasts.

  “You don’t want to do that,” broke in a new voice. Déaþscúa glanced to the side to see the white swordsman stood behind KT with his blade to her throat. “Step aside or I’ll make sure that the girl dies this time. I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

  Déaþscúa looked from KT to Annis and back again. Then he stabbed down. Saint had seen that brief flicker of his eyes and reacted by throwing KT straight at the man. The two collided and went sprawling across the debris. Annis was back on her feet in an instant.

  “This is my fight now,” Saint directed to Annis. “That was our deal.”

  “I am a woman of my word. Deal with him quickly. I need to open the gate now. I can’t hold this power much longer,” Annis answered.

  “Like hell I’ll let you!” Kai roared. His axe made a vertical arc at the witch’s head that she blocked with her nails. They glimmered as they moved, slicing across the shaft of his weapon. The axe fell to the floor in a dozen separate pieces.

  “You’re brave but outclassed. Go, run away now. You know that nothing you ever could do would even slow me. My next attack will kill you,” Annis sneered. She advanced on Kai until KT stepped between them.

  “Nobody picks on my brother, bitch.”

  Annis ran her nails together. Sparks flared around them. “You don’t know what you’re involved in. You don’t understand. This must be done! Standing against me will only add another corpse to the pile and another sin to my conscience.”

  Power crackled across Annis’ body. A great pressure seemed to surround her. Through all of that though, KT could see that the woman was sweating. KT certainly hadn’t pushed her that hard yet.

  Annis has absorbed a lot of power, Ghodot’s voice cut into KT’s thoughts. She wishes to open Heaven’s Gate but her body is not capable of holding all of the power required. She is unstable.

  None of this registered with Déaþscúa. He and Saint had begun to circle one another with their swords out before them. Pain already consumed his entire body. He still hadn’t recovered from the shooting and any strength that he had recovered had been spent by being used as Annis’ ragdoll.

  “You’re a legend among legends,” Saint said praisingly. “A hero and villain in equal measures, a god of death to all. You’re the height of battle, the ultimate warrior. You’re the bar that every swordsman strives to overcome.”

  “Wow, you must really want to get into my trousers with all this verbal dick sucking. I’m truly flattered,” Déaþscúa mocked with more cockiness than he felt. “Feel free to work the shaft some more next time.”

  Saint’s face soured. He readjusted the grip on his blade then dashed at Déaþscúa. Déaþscúa blocked with his larger blade, kicked Saint in the gut and hurled a ball of magic at his face as he doubled over. The man recovered quicker than should have been possible and jumped at Déaþscúa with renewed vigour. His blade was a silver blur that appeared to be everywhere at once. It took everything that Déaþscúa had to keep pace with the onslaught.

  KT was suffering under much the same predicament. She had hoped that Annis’ ability to fight relied heavily on her mastery of magic but that was not the case. The witch was stronger, faster and had better reflexes. Ghodot offered suggestions but she shut out his voice angrily.

  Kai watched the two sets of fighters to see where he should help when a flurry of movement behind a levelled building caught his eye. He took a few steps to get a better look and saw two hulking shapes that clawed fiercely at each other. One was the dark furred Arteeru while the other was the blood lycan, Claine. The two werewolve
s were bloody messes. Chunks of fur and flesh were missing while blood ran freely.

  Kai’s thoughts raced. He knew that he couldn’t help both Déaþscúa and KT but with a lycan at his side things would be different. Shotgun in hand, he climbed up the devastated building until he could see the two brawling beasts below him. He gulped in a lungful of air then sprang from the roof. His fist connected with Claine’s jaw, the added velocity from the fall trebling the force of the blow, and sent him spiralling into the snow. Kai rolled to his feet and opened fire. Bullets ripped leathery skin like paper.

  The red lycan howled. Its jaw hung at an angle but the injuries were not keeping it down. Arteeru came up behind Claine and delivered a vicious punch to the spine. Claine reared back with its body bent almost double. Kai ran at him, pumping his shotgun, and blasted the beast in its now exposed throat. Arteeru grabbed the other lycan’s head, his claws gouging into eye sockets, then pulled. Blood sprayed and the head was ripped free from its body. The body spasmed briefly then began to morph back into its human form. The head too shrank and became that of a man. Arteeru cast it away contemptuously.

  “You have my thanks,” Arteeru said in a thick, gravelly voice. Now that the adrenaline of the fight was fading he looked barely able to stand.

  “Can you still fight?” Kai asked.

  Arteeru chuckled, a strange sound coming from a giant, black werewolf. “While ever I still breath, no battle shall I leave. That is a saying of my order.”

  Kai nodded. “Déaþscúa and my sister are in trouble. I haven’t even seen anyone else.”

  “The battle was not going well. We must finish this quickly,” Arteeru agreed.

  They ran around the building. KT and Déaþscúa still fought on but both were flagging. Kai charged straight for Annis and hit an invisible wall that knocked him back. He reached out and felt a solid barrier. Beyond it, runes were beginning to appear in concentric circles across the floor. Arteeru ran a claw across the unseen surface and shook his head.