by Travis Bughi
“Yes,” she said, for she could think of nothing else.
Gavin stared at her in shocked silence, almost uncomfortably so, until Neil had unlocked his cage. Once outside, Neil tossed the key to Duncan who unlocked a chest at the front of the room. Inside of it was an assortment of weapons and armor, the top set of which clearly belonged to a knight.
“Suit up, Gavin,” Duncan said. “You’re not the only one we’re saving tonight.”
“Who else?” he asked, snapping out his trance and running over.
“Adelpha,” Emily replied, “and, if we’re lucky, all of Lucifan.”
“Just us?” Gavin questioned.
“Emily recruited two minotaurs to help us,” Duncan said. “It’s her you have to thank for getting this entire thing together. Now finish suiting up, and we’ll meet you upstairs. You two help him. Make it quick.”
Duncan and the other knights, minus Neil and one other, sprinted back up the stairs. Neil quickly began digging through the equipment and handed the other knight what he gathered. Gavin began putting on what pieces he could while keeping his other limbs immobile so the other knights could strap metal plates onto them. Emily stayed behind, as well, because Gavin had locked eyes with her. As the two other knights circled around him, encasing his body in armor, he looked at her with what appeared to be embarrassment, or perhaps disappointment. Why? she wondered.
“Thank you,” he finally said. “May I ask how you recruited two minotaurs into this insanity?”
“They were Talvorn Bloodhoof’s brothers,” Emily said. “Do you remember him? It doesn’t matter, actually. Count Drowin killed him, and so now his brothers are dead set on taking revenge. They sought me out so they could find Drowin.”
“Revenge? Sounds like you have something in common with them,” Gavin replied.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Emily narrowed her eyes.
Gavin went silent for a moment. Neil and the other knight, although they had yet to make a sound, became somehow quieter as they continued to dress Gavin in plated armor. After getting a particularly difficult strap to set in, Gavin finally sighed and looked at her.
“This is dangerous, Emily,” he said. “You shouldn’t be here. I thank you for rescuing me, but you should leave right now. We can handle the rest of this. I’m only saying this because I care about you. You’re important to me, do you understand?”
Emily’s heart soared at the moment her jaw dropped open. She felt at once both elated excitement and complete revulsion. She didn’t know what to say. On one hand, Gavin had just admitted he cared for her. She’d always known it, somehow, or at least had anticipated it. To hear him say so was music to her ears, and her heart lifted with the thought of it. Unfortunately, that had not been all he’d said. Before her emotions had a chance to soar into the clouds, Gavin had somehow managed to drag them through the dirt. Of all the things she’d expected to hear from Gavin at this very moment, an order to leave had not been one of them.
“What do you mean I shouldn’t be here?” she stammered. “And you’re important to me, too! And so is Adelpha. Why would you ask me to leave? You need me right now.”
“I need you to stay safe,” Gavin replied softly, mistakenly thinking he was winning this argument. “Go now, please.”
“I’m staying.” Emily shook her head. “Just, hurry up and finish. I’ll see you upstairs.”
Emily turned to leave, and Gavin said nothing. Emily thought she heard him take in a breath to reply, but she was already gone. As she reached the doorway above, she thought she heard Neil say, “Well done.”
She passed through the threshold back into the ogre dormitory to see the knights arrayed about the room, some at the stairs leading up to the throne room, others near Rautor and Harvok who were watching the barricaded entrance to the tower. The doors shook as something violently struck them. A moment later they shook again, and the massive bang of force vibrated off the walls. The iron bar holding the doors shut clanged and rocked against its holds with every blow.
“They are,” Harvok stated, “trying to . . . break through.”
“Let them,” Duncan said. “Those doors were made tough for a reason. It’ll take them time, so let’s use what we have left. Is Gavin ready?”
The question was directed at Emily, but she was interrupted before she could reply.
“I am,” Gavin said, stepping through the doorway in full plate armor with long sword and shield in hand. “Let’s move.”
He and Emily exchanged glances, and although Gavin appeared sorry for his earlier comments, she did not see regret in his eyes. Gavin walked by her in silence, Neil and the other knight just behind him, to stand by Duncan.
“Mathew is injured, but he’ll survive,” Duncan reported. “We convinced him to hide in this room until we return for him. He argued back, of course, but we can’t take him with us, and if those ogres break through, they’ll slaughter him without hesitation.”
“Well done,” Gavin said. “Only one injured? That’s remarkable.”
“We were lucky they were unprepared,” Duncan countered. “Half of them didn’t even reach their weapons in time. I doubt we’ll be so lucky in the next room.”
“Let’s find out,” Gavin replied.
He made the statement sound like a command, and it was taken as such. Harvok and Rautor turned away from the besieged doors and took up the lead ahead of the humans. Rautor went first, followed by Harvok, then the knights who formed up two abreast, and finally Emily at the back. She gave her bowstring a touch and took in a deep breath.
“What are we facing?” Gavin asked.
“Not entirely sure,” Duncan replied. “But at least Ichiro Katsu, his wife, and his samurai bodyguards. Borgan is likely up there as well, and he’s never without ogre company, and then the infamous Count Drowin himself.”
Gavin shook his head.
“Facing Count Drowin is suicidal enough. Do we have any plan to win this?” he questioned.
They were halfway up by now, and the knights were beginning to breathe heavily.
“Yes,” Emily replied, saving Duncan the breath. “Drowin should have a two-piece bow that acts as a cage for a blind basilisk. If we get that bow, we get the poison needed to kill the last vampire in Lucifan.”
“In the world,” Duncan said, correcting her.
The other knights grinned and gave a small cheer, and the minotaurs snorted and grunted in acknowledgement. They were nearing the top of the stairs, now, and the group went silent, as if it mattered with the all the ruckus their rampage had caused thus far. Only the sounds of heavy breathing and clinking armor could be heard, and that alone seemed deathly quiet to Emily.
Rautor and Harvok reached the doors first. Just beyond them was the final room of this massive structure, once the angels’ throne room, but now the killing ground where Lucifan’s fate would be decided.
Rautor stopped in front of the door and held his hammer out to give the others pause. He looked to them and bowed his head.
“My brother and . . . I can handle . . . the vampire,” he said. “Take . . . the others.”
The knights and Emily nodded in reply. Rautor then motioned at the knights and pointed to the doors with his hammer. Two of them hustled past Duncan and Gavin and took up positions on either side of the door. They wrapped their plated fists around the handles and looked to the minotaur for the cue to open them.
Rautor took in a massive breath and roared out with all his strength. The noise chilled Emily’s blood, and she could feel her heart vibrate as the sound echoed throughout the hollow building. The knights jumped, but understood that the signal had been given.
They jerked open the doors, and Rautor went silent.
Chapter 21
Rautor’s terrifying cry was cut short, and his body froze as if turned to stone. The change was so sudden that it caused all those around him to pause as well. Harvok and the knights had been poised to charge, but now they stumbled as Rautor’s stocky fram
e blocked the entrance.
Then his body shuddered, and the tip of a bloody blade erupted from the back of his neck. Rautor fell to his knees and then collapsed altogether as the tip of the sword was dragged back out of his neck. When at last Rautor had crumpled, never to rise again, the calm form of Takeo stood before them. In his hand, the curved blade of his warrior race dripped, painting the floor with beads of red, yet not a single splatter of blood graced his white robes.
Takeo was calm, his face a blank sheet of confidence devoid of every emotion but sorrow. Behind him, the angels’ room was shrouded in shadowy torchlight. Despite the brightness of the day outside, the blackened windows that stretched from floor to ceiling hid it all, and the only light came from torches perched on the various pillars buried into the walls. In that shadowy illumination, on the left side of the room, Borgan huddled like a scared child amongst ten grinning, armed and armored ogres. On the opposite side, the right side of room, were eight men. Three of them were clearly samurai, standing with their curved swords drawn and wearing the distinct robes. Another four appeared to be nothing more than common servants, but Emily’s heart skipped when she saw one of them holding the leather satchel used to carry Abe’s six-shooters.
Then she looked past the bag to the last man in that group—an elegantly dressed man who reeked of a creature born to privilege. His nose was thin, his cheeks were slightly gaunt, and his beard and moustache were trimmed to line his mouth perfectly. However, more importantly, to his right stood Heliena, flashing a wicked grin, and at Heliena’s feet knelt Adelpha with her legs and arms bound.
Perched atop Ephron’s throne in the center of the room was Count Drowin, wearing a look of sheer ecstasy, with the basilisk cage resting at his feet. He was leaning back into one corner of it with one leg draped over the other. He caressed his smooth chin with pointer finger and thumb, running them along his jawline as he smiled. Emily was barely close enough to feel his cold, yet her skin shivered regardless.
“AHHH!” Harvok roared.
He leapt over his fallen brother and brought his war hammer down for a crushing blow to Takeo’s skull, but it struck only stone as the samurai rolled away nimbly.
“AHHH!” the knights yelled.
Led by Gavin and Duncan, the knights flooded into the room with Emily in the rear. As Harvok pursued Takeo towards the center of the room in a blind rage, the enemy broke ranks.
The ogres charged from Borgan’s position, leaving the leprechaun to squeak and run for cover behind an open throne near Count Drowin. The other samurai leapt into action, holding up their blades with a calm professionalism that masked any bloodlust within them. The knights formed up into a line on either side, the majority bracing to meet the ogre charge with raised shields and readied swords.
“Yes, Emily! Yes!” Adelpha yelled and then screamed at her sister. “Oh no you don’t!”
Heliena had reached for her bow, but she stumbled as Adelpha flopped over and lashed out with her legs. The feeble kick was just enough, and Heliena crashed to the ground where Adelpha began bashing her with sandaled feet.
Emily grabbed her own bow and drew two arrows. She aimed for Heliena first, but Adelpha was blocking her shot. So she scanned for another target, her eyes settling on the charging ogres. Before the ogres could close the distance with the knights, she shot at the front brute.
The arrows pierced the ogre’s leather coverings, but failed to stop it. All of them were encased in what appeared to be hardened leather with patchwork plates attached to broad areas. What was worse was that half of them carried shields that were bigger even than the knights’ kite-shaped ones. Emily’s arrows failed to harm their targets, and the moment for a preemptive strike expired when the ogres collided with the knights. Shield on shield, armor on armor, sword on sword, the two groups cleaved into each other with all the brutality one expected of war.
Emily drew two more arrows.
Beyond the knights, Harvok was chasing Takeo in a furious onslaught. Again and again, the minotaur swung his heavy hammer with enough force to shatter anything it touched, cracking even the stonework bricks in the floor with surprising ease. None of his strikes connected with Takeo, though, for the samurai was masterfully agile. He ducked and dodged, rolled and tumbled like a gremlin in a dream.
“Distract him!” Takeo commanded.
The three samurai that were headed towards the melee between the knights and ogres diverted quickly towards their fellow warrior. With light feet unburdened by heavy armor, they leapt to Takeo’s aid and surrounded the minotaur. Takeo tumbled away, and Harvok attempted to follow, but a short jab from another samurai’s sword let him know that his fight was here.
Harvok roared and did a round sweep with his war hammer to clear the attackers, but they proved to be just as nimble as Takeo, and the hammer hit nothing but air. As the hammer swung by, harming no one, each samurai ducked inside Harvok’s reach and stuck their swords into him.
The minotaur roared again, this time in pain, and Emily’s next two arrows were directed toward him. She released them at the same time and, as the swords pierced Harvok, so did her arrows pierce two of the samurai. Their unarmored bodies, freed of weight to allow for ample movement, proved most ineffective against this attack, and both of them went down with wooden shafts in their hearts. Harvok, injured though he was, twisted away from the blades and remained standing. With two of his enemies down, he turned on the third with hammer in hand and blood trailing from his body.
Just as Emily’s hand reached back to her quiver, Takeo finished tumbling away from Harvok and made eye contact with her. A look of icy vengeance crawled over his face, and hatred burned in his eyes. Emily felt it in her heart. That was the same look, Emily imagined, that she had when she looked upon Heliena.
Takeo sprung into motion and brought his body to a full sprint almost as quickly as Emily could string an arrow to her bow. She brought up the tip and pulled it back not a moment too soon. Takeo was upon her already, and she released the arrow with inadequate time to aim.
And it showed, for the arrow barreled through a corner of Takeo’s robe but did not strike flesh. Emily dropped her bow and yanked out her knife as the remaining distance between them came to a close. No sooner had her blade cleared its sheath than Takeo’s sword reached for her throat. Emily leapt back, but Takeo was on her like a fiend, and his sword sliced through the air with a speed she normally saw from arrows. He did not let up either, and the next attack came right after the first. Occasionally getting lucky enough to deflect a strike with her knife, Emily leapt back again and again as Takeo attacked her, but she was so terribly outmatched that it terrified her. Her only hope was to keep a safe distance, but Takeo was pressing toward her just as quickly as she was stepping back.
His sword swung at her again, and as she dodged away, she swept her knife up in a fleeting attempt to parry. She wanted to attack, but there was no time. Takeo was faster than her, so much faster, and before she could recover, another barrage was raining down. Emily twisted back, avoiding the first blow and then jumping back again to avoid the one that would surely follow. She heard the swish of air being sliced cleanly, and then she stepped back again, straight into a wall.
Emily’s heart stopped as her back hit cold stone. Takeo had been smart, herding her like a behemoth into a dead end. As she gasped in shock, Takeo took advantage of her surprise and struck her knife with his sword. Her loosened grip wasn’t enough to hold it, and the knife was flung into the air. She was now both trapped and unarmed, and Takeo would finish her off. She had nothing left to do.
She met the samurai’s eyes and let the scorching, burning hatred that flowed from them bore into her. He raised his sword for the final blow, and Emily continued to look at him. She could see the pain in his eyes, the sorrow and regret he seemed to carry, and knew that same look was carried on her own face. In that final moment, she realized that the vengeance that was about to bring her down was the very vengeance that had kept her alive in the fir
st place.
“I’m sorry,” Emily whispered.
Takeo swung his sword, and Emily closed her eyes.
Then she breathed, and breathed again.
She opened her eyes. Takeo’s blade had stopped at her throat. Rautor’s blood, still dripping from it, stained a perfect line across her neck. She looked up from the sword into Takeo’s eyes. They were still narrowed, black to the core, and the hatred had not disappeared. However, alongside it was something new.
Confusion.
“Stop!” Count Drowin yelled. “Keep the rest of them alive.”
Emily’s eyes lingered on Takeo’s for a moment longer, and his lingered on hers until the gaze was mutually broken as they turned to look back into the room.
Harvok was dead. Over him stood Count Drowin, breathing heavily, with his hands drenched in blood and what appeared to be a chunk of Harvok’s hair hanging from his mouth. Drowin’s clothes were torn where Harvok had gouged with his horns. A few paces away from them was the other samurai who lay prone on the ground with what appeared to be a massive hoof-shaped dent in his chest. He was neither moving nor breathing.
In the center of the room, six knights faced off against five ogres. Scattered around them in the pooling blood, were the other ogres and four dead knights. Emily recognized Neil among them because his face guard had been ripped off before he died.
And the reinforcements that had been banging on the door below had arrived. Another twenty well-armed ogres stood just inside the entrance, and at their head was Sir Mark O’Conner himself.
The knight looked straight past all others in the room, directly at Count Drowin.
“I came as fast as I could, my Lord,” Mark said.
Chapter 22
“Stop! Don’t kill her!” Count Drowin ordered, ignoring Mark.
Emily switched her attention to the vampire. At first she thought he’d been speaking to Takeo, but Count Drowin was actually looking elsewhere, and Emily followed his gaze to Heliena.
