He made his way to his father’s private chambers through the main entrance. What once had been a spacious room, where the count would meet people was now thronged with people. They sat or lay where they could, from all walks of life, farmers, the blacksmith, even the whores.
We need to find them something to do, he mused to himself as be moved carefully through the throng. Once through the room he made quick progress, the guards standing to attention as he made his way through corridors.
As he approached his father’s chambers, he gestured at the two guards outside to stay at ease.
Might as well surprise the old bugger, he thought. He approached the door of his father’s study, knocked quickly and walked in.
His Father was sat in his chair, it took a moment for Kepler to realise that his father’s head was at an unnatural angle, then he saw the deep gash in his Father’s neck, saw the muscles and tendons and the blood, oh the blood. He screamed.
The two guards who had been standing outside rushed into the room and stopped abruptly as they saw the Counts body.
Kepler snapped at the two men ‘Go. Fetch the Orcslayers. Now men!’
The two guards rushed off.
Fighting back the bile that was trying to force its way out, Kepler looked at the room before him, tried to make sense of what he was looking at. His father was in his chair, behind his desk. There were no signs of a struggle, no papers on the floor, a sheet of paper lay on the desk, but what was on the sheet was anyone’s guess, as the sheet was covered in thick, sticky, crimson…he bent down and threw up.
He had just finished clearing up the small patch of vomit when the two guards returned with the two elven Orcslayers.
The male, Saethryth, moved into the room first, and his eyes were immediately scanning all around.
‘Hmm, no signs of a struggle.’
Kepler wiped his mouth with his sleeve ‘No. There’s a piece of paper on the desk, but it’s covered in blood. I doubt we’ll get anything from that.’
Tierra turned and spoke quietly to the two guards, one of the guards saluted and rushed off.
‘Where’s he going?’ asked Kepler, suspicion in his voice.
‘To get Melress, he is, after all, a priest and may be of some use.’
Kepler nodded, ‘Good idea.’
He moved to a side table and opened the doors, ‘Anyone fancy a drink? Gods knows I do!’ He started to pull out a bottle of brandy and several glasses.
Saethryth meanwhile had made his way to the desk and was looking at the corpse. The count, Kepler’s father.
‘Can’t smell anything odd so it’s unlikely he was poisoned or drugged. Fuck!’
Tierra spoke, ‘We have another one of those things in the keep, don’t we?’
‘Looks like it. Perhaps this is what the orcs are waiting for, someone is going to give them an opportunity to get in and when they do we're fucked. We need to find the creature first and stop it.’
‘Kill it, you mean.’
‘That as well.’
Footsteps came running down the corridor as the guard returned with Melress. The young battle mage visibly flinched at the sight of the corpse but as Kepler was finding out all that practice never prepared you for the real thing.
Suddenly Kepler was standing in the corner of the room his back to the walls and his sword in his hand.
‘What the...?’
‘Captain!’
Kepler replied to the confused cries, ‘It could be you, or you or even you.’ He pointed his sword at the three even as he spoke, ‘It could be one of the guards or both for all we know. It could be anyone. I don’t know who to trust anymore!’
Tierra glowered at Kepler, ‘Just calm down, Captain.’
‘Calm down! My father is sat there, dead, and you want me to fucking calm down!’
‘This isn’t going to get us anywhere.’ Saethryth looked over at Melress, ‘Can you learn something from the count, something that can help.’
‘I don’t know. I was about to see if I could get the statue to work but if this is more important…’
‘It is, Melress. The statue won’t help us if the keep is breached, we need to know who the other creature is.’
Hesitantly Melress approached the corpse, trying not to look at the wound in the counts neck, he reached out and touched one of the Counts cold hands.
The room suddenly seemed to still and grow cold, as a black cloud gathered behind the counts body. Baleful red eyes shone with evil intent from within the writhing coils of smoke.
‘Why have you summoned me from my sleep?’
The voice cut through all in the room, there was no discernible mouth on the apparition, making the experience strange.
‘Speak avatar of Octarion, and let me rest again!’
Melress stammered, ‘W…who…killed you, Count Kepler?’
‘Oh, avatar, a friend I thought him. When he came to me with a plan for victory! But when I looked at the parchment he had placed on my desk his dagger sliced across my throat.’
‘Who?’
‘I see my wife, dear Isabella, who died giving birth so long ago, she calls me, and I must go. Humphrey is the one you seek avatars; Humphrey is friend killer!’
‘Isabella, I am coming…’
It seemed to all in the room that the cloud was more grey and the eyes a little less baleful as it swirled and disappeared.
Saethryth turned to the guard, who stood with his mouth open. ‘Where is Humphrey now?’
The guard shook his head as if dazed before answering ‘Said ‘e was going to the entry tower to check on the soldier there…sir.’
‘Shit. Alright everyone let’s go. Simon, it is Simon, isn’t it?’
Kepler nodded.
‘Put your sword away for now and let’s go and avenge your father!’
‘No! How do I not know, that Humphrey hasn’t killed one of you, any one of you could be the creature!’
‘Oh for…right…your father just called Melress the avatar of Octarion, right?’
‘Yes.'
‘So, can we assume that means he is still himself, because if the creature had taken his place, he would no longer be the avatar?’
‘Err, yes.’
‘Right, Melress take out your dagger.’
Melress took out the dagger from the sheath at his side.
‘Stab me.’
‘What?!’
‘Stab me, go on.’
‘I can’t just stab you, it’s not right.’
Tierra moved forward and wrapped her hand around Melress’s and plunged the dagger into Saethryth’s chest. Melress looked on horrified, waiting for his newfound half-brother to collapse.
Nothing happened.
Saethryth looked at the handle of the dagger sticking from his chest. ‘Bit deep, that.’
Tierra just looked at him with a ‘you asked for it’ look.
Reaching up to the hilt he pulled the dagger out. There was no blood, no wound, nothing.
He passed the dagger back to Melress, who was standing with his mouth open and turned to Kepler.
‘So as we can see, I am still the avatar of Lillithel, and I can vouch for Tierra as she has been on the battlements with me. Now, can we please go and find Humphrey and kill him?’
Simon put his long sword away and, flanked by the Orcslayers started to make for the outer tower.
58: Killing Your Own
The four figures moved cautiously toward the tower, there should have been at least four guards before the portcullis, but there was no one obvious.
‘This does not look good.’ Saethryth whispered to the others, ‘Tierra you come with me, we’ll take the guard room on the right. Melress, Simon you take the left one.’
There were nods of assent from the other three, and drawing weapons the four moved into the shadow of the tower.
As Saethryth began to swing his foot into the door that would allow them into the right portcullis winch room, Tierra spoke, ‘You know he’s not going
to be working alone.’
Saethryth stopped his leg from kicking the door and put it down, ‘Who?’
‘Humphrey, he can’t be in both winch rooms.’
‘Shit! That makes sense, but then the creature in Ashen Falls…’
‘You mentioned that before when we captured Ishara, but you said they were similar.'’
‘Yeah well, called herself The Black Empress and had a load of thieves and ne’er do wells in her thrall. There are some differences between the two creatures, so I'm not sure if they are relevant.’
‘So, this Humphrey could be controlling the guards then?’
An explosion came from the left winch room causing the two Orcslayers to look up.
‘So it would seem. Oh, well, more to kill then.’
‘Is that your answer to everything, those soldiers have families and friends, they probably don’t want to be there, being controlled by some enemy! You can’t just kill them.’
‘Sorry, that’s just my inner psycho talking, ignore him and hopefully, he’ll go away. I will, of course, use the flat of my blade, while you take out Humphrey if he’s in there.’
They started as the portcullis started to rise.
‘Let’s go!’
Saethryth raised his foot again and kicked the door, it flew back and smacked into someone standing behind it, before bouncing closed again. Turning the handle, this time, he pushed the door open slowly and charged in, Epiacum flashed in his hand.
Seven of the guards that were barracked in the room were still standing. As Saethryth stepped into the room, he saw one was down on the ground unconscious, and four were turning the huge wheel that would open the portcullis. The other four guards were spread out in an arc facing towards him, all four were armed with long swords. Saethryth moved towards the nearest guard swinging Epiacum towards the guard’s head.
‘Remember, no killing!’ Yelled Tierra.
At the last moment, he turned his wrist, and the blade clanged off the side of the soldier's helmet, the soldier dropped like a sack full of potatoes.
‘I know what I’m doing, you know!’
The other three guards all started to bring their blades to bear on the Orcslayer. The nearest one thrust their blade at Saethryth’s stomach, and Saethryth parried, but as he did so, the other two guards swung down at his exposed arm. Their blades sliced through Saethryth with no effect and as they stood confused the Orcslayer brought Epiacum down on the head of another of the guards knocking them out cold.
Tierra had drawn her trusty army blade, and as the last guard swung a low blow to Saethryth’s legs, she hit him across the back of the head, and he slumped to the floor.
Up until now, the other four guards had been concentrating on the wheel, now however with their friends down they had to shift priorities, they reached for whatever weapons were on the racks close at hand. Halberds.
Saethryth looked at the weapons, he wasn’t so much bothered by the metallic head with its axe-like blade at one end and the spike at the other. It was the seven feet of wooden pole that was underneath, luckily they weren’t designed for close quarter fighting and the four bunks in the room would hinder them in combat.
The four guards lowered the halberds as if they were spears and charged at the two Orcslayers.
As the guards charged at Saethryth, he weighed up his next move, and as one of the guards thrust forward, he let the blade pass harmlessly through himself. As the guard looked on perplexed at the lack of blood, Saethryth slapped the oncoming wooden shaft with the flat of his sword, leaving the guardsman exposed. With a quick backhand, he brought his flattened blade down on the guard’s head. The guard dropped to the ground with a grunt as Saethryth leapt once more to land on the floor.
He grunted as one of the guards’ halberds slammed into his back, pitching him forwards. He managed to scrabble back up as the halberd smacked across his back again.
That was going to bruise, he thought, as he tried to go with the blow as much as he could. Turning, he managed to parry the halberd as it came at him for the third time. Epiacum forced the halberd away, and Saethryth stepped into its arc, as he kept the halberd away with the sword, Saethryth brought his other hand up in a fist and punched the guard in the face once, twice, and the guard went down. A broken nose the least of their problems as he slid into unconsciousness.
Saethryth looked over to where Tierra had taken one of the guards down but was struggling with the last guard who was thrusting towards her. As Saethryth watched Tierra managed to block the weapon as it punched towards her, she then pivoted and brought her blade up in a thrust, the blade ripped into the guard’s throat and thrust out the back, crimson blood sprayed out of the wound. Tierra dropped the blade and held her hands to her mouth the shock palpable on her face.
‘No, no, no…’
Saethryth ran over and sheathed Epiacum as he did, he put his arms around her and held her, even as the tears began to flow.
‘I…I didn’t mean it.’
‘Shh, I know, you’re a soldier, and your instincts took over.’
He held her, it was all he could do, hold her and try and help her as she cried. ‘It wasn’t you fault, Tierra, it was Humphrey’s, the creatures. You have to understand that.’
He took Tierra’s chin and tilted it so he could see her face, ‘You have to stop, you don’t have time for this we have an army to fight. Tierra, listen to me, we will pay restitution. I know it won’t bring them back, but it will help.’
‘Bring them back! That’s it, I’ll ask Melress to bring them back, he can, can’t he?’
‘I guess so.’ And he brought his head down and kissed her, and she didn’t pull away straight away. Which made the slap, when it hit him more of a surprise.
‘Really? You men!’
And then she was turning and leaving the winch room, with Saethryth behind her rubbing at his burning cheek.
59: Simon Versus the Creature
Melress and Simon had opened the door to the winch room as quietly as possible. Inside Humphrey - or the creature that wore his appearance - goaded the eight guards in the room to turn the winch. As the duo sneaked into the room, the portcullis started to rise in small increments.
Humphrey must have seen them enter as he suddenly started to gesture at the pair. Four of the guards stopped what they were doing and advanced on them drawing swords as they did so.
Melress knew he couldn’t just kill the soldiers out of hand it wasn’t in his nature to kill for killings sake, and he turned to Simon, ‘Cover your ears!’
‘What?’
‘Cover your ears!’
Simon put his hands over his ears as Melress pointed to the furthest corner of the room and started to use his magic. The resultant explosion of noise was in his opinion awesome. The air was pushed out of the room in a rush carrying the dust along with it and knocking everyone over with the density of it.
Simon was the first to recover as the dust was still swirling around the room. He knelt towards Melress who was unconscious on the floor and shook him.
Melress groaned but didn’t seem keen to wake just yet.
Drawing his long sword, Simon moved into the swirling cloud of dust, stepping over the guards who had been advancing towards them when the detonation had gone off. He could hear coughing and cursing from in front of him.
Moving ever forward he could just make out a figure hunched over in the dust and as he neared, he recognised Humphrey. The man was holding his sides and coughing as the dust swirled around the room he didn’t look as if he knew Simon was even there.
Oh, well, never mind he thought as he swung the blade of his long sword down.
Somehow he missed, some inner sense from the creature must have alerted it, and it had moved at the last possible second. It looked at Simon through red eyes, but whether this was the creatures natural eye colour or because of the dust Simon didn’t know. It opened its mouth, and he could see sharp, needle-like teeth and a tongue that looked too long to fit flickered
out.
‘Looks like I get to kill the Counts brat too.’
‘Leave my father out of this, abomination.’
The creature moved sideways like a crab as it was talking, ‘Oh the things I could tell you about your father, all from his most loyal of servants…’
Simon could feel himself getting angrier and angrier as the creature spoke he tried to fight it knowing that anger in a fight could be a weakness, could cause him to make a mistake.
‘...And Humphrey how he screamed as I consumed him and took his identity. Oh, such exquisite pain!’
‘I am going to cut you into tiny little bits, you bastard!’
‘Yum! Nom, nom!’
Simon yelled as he rushed towards Humphrey, he brought the long sword down in a sweeping arc which the creature sidestepped, laughing.
‘Is that the best you can do boy, your father moved quicker than you, and he was sat down!’
A rushed chop at the creature missed by several inches when it stepped backwards, all the time the creature was edging towards the exit.
The creature was now next to Melress’s prone body, and he stopped to look down at the unconscious half-elf.
‘Oh, I can’t wait to have this one for supper after I’ve dealt with you.’
Again, Simon tried to hit the creature, this time with a piercing thrust towards its chest. The creature stepped back, placing a foot over the body underneath him.
Suddenly Melress was bringing his dagger up and slicing through the cloth and into the creature’s testicles which fell to the ground with a splat.
The creature howled in pain and as its mouth was fully extended Simon thrust his sword into the open maw. The blade slid into the creature’s mouth and punched out of its skull. Brains and blood splattered on the wall behind it.
‘That’s for my father you bastard!’
The Eighth God (The Orcslayers Book 1) Page 16
