The War of Stardeon (The Bowl of Souls)

by Cooley, Trevor H.

  These were the things that Ewwie had taught her to say. These were the things that she knew would bring fear to her prey. It had always worked before, but the giant’s reaction was disappointing. All she saw was sadness in his eyes.

  “I wasn’t that much different than you once,” he said, then looked away. “Well, I hope I wasn’t quite so . . . broken as you.”

  Talon didn’t like his tone. She put on her most hideous smile. “I will killss you! Eatss you!”

  The giant sighed. “I suppose I can’t put you down and let you go. You’d probably go kill some farm family.”

  Now she saw a hint of fear. Talon pressed the advantage. “Yess! Make them cry. Eatss the babies! Make them ssee the blood.”

  “I will try to make this quick, then,” he said with a sad shake of his head. “I wish my master had been brave enough to do this for me long ago.”

  “Eatss your masster-!”

  The giant slammed his forehead into hers with a thud.

  Talon’s neck bones compacted. Her skull fractured in several places. The pain was so sharp and quick that she wasn’t able to enjoy it. Her limbs spasmed. He squeezed her with his powerful hands. She felt bones break and organs rupture. Her vision dimmed. Blood poured from her open mouth and the giant threw her on the ground. The last thing she saw was tears on his face as his enormous foot descended on her again and again.

  Then there was only darkness. Even her new eyes couldn’t see. There was . . . nothing.

  “Wake, foolish one . . .”

  Talon’s eyes fluttered open. The sudden light was overpowering and she winced. The sun was shining directly overhead.

  “You are amazing. You really are. I see now why he favors you so much.”

  She sat up and looked around. She was sitting in the impression the giant had stomped her into. Her body ached and tingled, but it was the familiar ache of newly healed flesh. Her bones were unbroken. Her organs tender but whole.

  “That attack would have killed most of us. Even your master would have died, crushed faster than Stardeon’s rings could have saved him.” Her voice grew thoughtful. “This explains why he is so fixated on bringing in your brother. It is hard to imagine there being two beings like you.”

  Talon struggled to stand and barely made it to her feet. Swaying weakly, she looked down at herself. She was emaciated to the extreme, her muscle all but gone. Her skin left looking as if it were plastered on her bones. Her body’s healing ability had taken over again it seemed, using up all her stores in order to heal the damage.

  “How long hass I-?”

  “A day and a half. And Ewzad is very angry. He is throwing a tantrum about it right now,” the moonrat mother said casually.

  “Ewwie iss mad?” she asked with a shudder.

  “I think I shall take you for myself when we return. Oh the things we could do together. If only he hadn’t used such a pitiful eye when joining you to me. If I had known, what he was up to, I would have sacrificed one of my most special children for you. I bet he will put an orange one in you for me when we return. I shall have to be sweet to him for awhile . . .”

  Talon ignored her, placing one thin hand against her shriveled stomach. Why wasn’t she hungry? Whenever her healing magic had to repair heavy damage, it made her ravenous.

  “I have taken your hunger away for now. It was too overpowering and I need you to focus on the reason Ewzad sent you here. The site of the bandham’s demise is very close by. You can eat after we get there.”

  “Yess. I eatss later,” Talon agreed. She crouched low to the ground and sniffed at the impressions left by the giant’s feet. With his scent firmly in mind, she began to follow his trail. The taste of his blood still lingered on her tongue and she wanted more.

  “No,” said the moonrat mother.

  “Will you hurtss me again?” Talon said, with a smile.

  “I will do worse,” she said and Talon sensed the female moving around in side her mind again. Talon opened her mind in anticipation of the pain, but she felt nothing.

  Talon blinked. She felt nothing. She could see, but she couldn’t hear. She couldn’t feel the air on her skin or the ground under her feet. Panic rose within her. She raised her bony arm and bit into it, but there was no pain, not even the sensation of tearing. She couldn’t smell or taste the blood, though she saw it flowing from her arm. She screeched and threw herself on the ground, but there was no sound, no sensation. Just complete numbness.

  “You disobeyed me, dear Talon. This is your punishment.”

  Talon raised her right arm in front of her face and looked at the shriveled eye that bulged from her scrawny forearm. It would be so easy to tear it out and be rid of the female.

  “You do that and you will lose your senses forever.”

  Ewwie would not let you, she thought desperately.

  “As if he could stop it.”

  “Why you do thiss?” she said aloud, though she could not feel her lips and could not hear the sound.

  “Because you disobeyed me,” she said. “And because I know you now.”

  You know me? Talon thought.

  “It took me a while to realize why my efforts at punishing you were worthless. But I have been around a long time. I have been in the minds of countless beings and though it has been a very long time since I encountered someone like you, the giant said something that jogged my memory. And he was right. You, my dear, are broken. Ewzad broke you long ago.”

  Talon lay still, not even sure if she was breathing. Not that it mattered. Without sensation she would rather die. I am . . . broken?

  “I have seen it before. Indeed, I have been the cause of it before. The pain your master put you through would have killed most beings. But not you, Talon. No, you are a survivor. You would not die and that allowed Ewzad to do things to you that he could not do to others.” She chuckled. “There was a point some time along the way where his experiments went too far. You had a choice. Either die, or embrace the pain. You went a step further. You chose to love it.”

  In a brief moment of clarity Talon saw that she was right. She could dimly remember that for most of her life, she had seen pain as something to be avoided. Deathclaw spent decades trying to save the pack from pain. Deathclaw tried to save her from it again when he freed her from the wizard’s castle. Talon realized that he had still been trying to save her from it one last time the day he tried to kill her. Was he right to do so? Was she truly that broken?

  C-can you fix me . . . Mistress?

  The moonrat mother let out a gloating laugh. “Oh I could, dear. But why would I? I know what your weakness is and now . . . I control you.”

  You control me?

  “Do you wish to feel again?”

  Yes, Mistress.

  “Then you shall do as I command.”

  Talon would have grit her teeth if she could feel them. Yes, Mistress.

  The world of sensation came back in a rush. She gasped in the sweet air, absorbing the scents around her. She felt the pain of her arm knitting itself together and her fleshy tongue hurt. She had bitten it several times without knowing.

  She stood, enjoying the feel of the earth beneath her feet. “Where sshall I go, Mistress?”

  “Follow the forest edge towards the river.”

  Talon walked south along the treeline until she came upon the grassy slope leading down to the shore. She smelled faint traces of smoke in the air and saw a burnt patch of ground. A small trace of Ewwie’s power clung to the area and she knew that one of his creatures had died there.

  “There. Ahead.”

  She ran down the slope and across the graveled riverbank and came upon the scene of the battle. The earth was blackened and in places had turned to glass. Sheets of rock had turned molten and fused together. And at the center of it were the remains of Ewwie’s pet bandham. Her mouth watered as the stench of decay filled her nose.

  Talon sniffed at the gelatinous chunks of its flesh that still rotted on the ground. The remains were u
nrecognizable as the creature that had battled her for days before dragging her back to Ewwie’s side. Talon only knew what they were because of the tiny shreds of her master’s power that still clung to them.

  The mother of the moonrat released her hold on Talon’s hunger. “Now you can feast.”

  Talon had no choice but to obey. Her body cried out for sustenance, and it did not matter that the bandham’s remains were devoid of texture and repulsive in taste and smell. She was consumed by the need to fill her belly. Her body demanded the building blocks it needed to replace the tissues that it had broken down to heal her.

  She gobbled it down by the fistful, unaware of anything but the sensation of swallowing. Her body took care of the rest, breaking the material down and redistributing it as fast as she could eat. The remnants of her master’s power combined with her own, speeding up the process. Finally she slumped to her side, the hunger sated. Her body had already begun to fill out nicely.

  “Now,” said the moonrat mother. “Find the trail of the bandham’s killers.”

  “Yess, Misstress,” Talon said and obeyed.

  Chapter Nine

  Justan released the arrow and smiled as it struck the stump, proud to see it quivering precisely in the center of the rest of the arrows he had fired. He could feel Ma’am’s pleasure at finally being put to use. Justan slid the bow across his back and went to retrieve the arrows.

  The further east they traveled, the more it seemed that spring was setting in. The forest in this area had already budded with new leaves and he could hear birds chirping in the trees.

  “Good shot, son,” Lenny said and Bettie, who was standing beside him, added an impressed nod. It had been the dwarf’s idea to get in some practice with the bow. The other members of the group were setting up camp for the night. Justan had been reluctant to leave the work to everyone else, but they hadn’t seemed to mind and shooting was a welcome diversion after the daily ride.

  They were only a week out of Sampo and the Mage School was only a half day’s ride from there. The only thing slowing them down was stopping in the towns and so far, their excursions hadn’t provided much information they didn’t already have. The townsfolk knew of the siege and most of them seemed to be of the opinion that Dremald should send its garrison to help. However there were others who believed Ewzad Vriil’s claim that a foreign army was approaching and the garrison was needed to protect the city.

  Meanwhile, the entire Dremald army was huddled around the city. About the only useful rumor was that the army had been slowly reducing in numbers. They had heard some say that a disease was killing the men. Others said that a group of soldiers had deserted in order to help the academy on their own.

  Justan wrenched the arrows from the stump, surprised to see that all but one of them were still useable. He placed them back in his quiver, glad he had decided not to use the dragonhair string. It tended to blast the arrows to pieces and though Bettie had told him she didn’t mind making more along the journey, it seemed a waste.

  “Alright. Your turn, Bettie,” Justan said as he started back towards them, making sure to step out of the line of fire.

  “Yeah-yeah. You know it ain’t fair you got that Jharro bow while I got this dumpy one.” The half-orc lifted a wooden bow that she had carved and runed the day before. Master Coal had magicked the wood for her and she said that the runes would keep the wood supple and protect it from the elements better than any seasoning.

  “Come on, woman. Both of us know you did a dag-gum fine job with that bow,” Lenny said. “‘Sides, I told you this weren’t a competition. It’s just practice.”

  “Yeah-yeah,” she said, and pulled an arrow out of the quiver on her back. It was made of scotch bark and leather. Bettie had Lenny make it while she worked on the bow. She loved to ridicule him about his leatherwork.

  Justan had been impressed at how excellent an archer Bettie was. She had always seemed like more of a short range fighter, but after him, she was probably the next best shot in their group. He walked over and stood by the dwarf.

  “Thanks for suggesting this, Lenny. It feels good to get some practice in.”

  “Sure, son,” the dwarf said, scratching his upper lip. His mustache was growing in nicely, though Bettie still gave him grief about it. She thought it looked like a furry red caterpillar perched under his nose. “I done seen you runnin’ in the mornin and practicin’ yer magic at night. You aughtta be trainin’ with yer weapons too. It’s dag-gum easy to go rusty on the trail.”

  Bettie fired off two shots, both of them striking right next to the knot Justan had aimed for. “Ha! Nearly as good and I ain’t no named warrior!”

  “Nice, Bettie!” Justan said with a smile. He felt a sense of approval coming through the bond and he looked up in the branches of a nearby tree. I am surprised you took an interest in this, Deathclaw.

  It is good that you are not the only one who can attack from far away. This adds depth to the pack, Deathclaw sent.

  Deathclaw seemed to divide his time either scouting ahead as they traveled or staring at the various members of their party from some hidden vantage point. He was constantly evaluating them and even though Justan explained to the others what he was up to, it still made them nervous. Would you like to come down and try your hand at the bow?

  Deathclaw sent a mental snort. Raptoids do not shoot arrows.

  And why not? You just mentioned how useful they are. Justan sent.

  The raptoid’s only answer was another snort before he slid down the tree and slunk away. I go hunt now. Justan wanted to press him on the issue, but he was interrupted by an elbow from Lenny.

  “So listen son, there’s somthin’ I wanted to talk to you about,” the dwarf said.

  “You see that?” Bettie shouted, pointing towards her target. “Right on the center! Beat that, Lenui!”

  Justan applauded. “Bettie, I have to tell you. I’ve seen you run, I’ve seen you spar, and I’ve seen you shoot. I have no doubt that you could easily pass the entrance exams to the Battle Academy.”

  “Ha! Ain’t you sweet,” Bettie said with a grin. “But I’m a smith first, warrior second.”

  “The academy needs smiths too,” Justan said. “You would be a highly prized edition to the school. Your work is far superior to most of what I have seen out of the academy forges.”

  “Yer dag-gum right, son. At the least, she’s better at leatherworkin’ than Forgemaster Stanley and he’s a gall-durned legend!” Lenny said with a gruff nod.

  “You think so?” Bettie mused.

  Lenny looked startled by the speculative look or her face. He hastened to add, “But she don’t want to join the dag-burned academy anyway.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that, Lenui. I’ve thought about it before,” Bettie said. “But there’s two reasons it’d never happen. One, I’m a woman. Two, I ain’t human.”

  “That shouldn’t matter.” Justan replied. “Women may not be as common as men at the academy, but they’re there. Remember, I was trained by one. As far as being human is concerned. I’ve never heard of anyone being turned away. There are at least three dwarves at the school last I heard. And the bowmanship instructor Bill the Fletch is half-elf.”

  Bettie folded her well-muscled arms and frowned. “We both know that being half-orc is different. Most of the students would turn blue in the face if I was let in the academy.”

  “Yeah-,” Lenny started.

  “It wouldn’t be that way,” Justan assured, though he knew she had a valid concern. Half-orcs were the result of orc raids on human villages, which pretty much made them universally despised by both races. “Once they got to know you, they would have to be impressed. I could talk to my father and introduce him to you. No one would give you a hard time if Faldon the Fierce was on your side.”

  Betty’s brow furrowed as she considered it for a moment, but she shook her head. “Naw. Thanks for offering, but it ain’t worth talking about anyway. Home’s back in Razbeck and I’m going to
be needed back at the farm after all this is over.”

  Lenny’s shoulders slumped in relief.

  “Well, okay,” Justan said. “But if you change you mind, let me know.”

  “Sure, I’ll keep it in mind.” Bettie said and went to retrieve her arrows.

  Lenny elbowed him again and whispered, “Would’ja stop messin’ with the woman and listen to what I wanted to say?”

  Justan winced and rubbed his side where Lenny’s elbows had hit. The dwarf was strong. He was pretty sure he was going to have a bruise there in the morning. “Why don’t you want her to consider the academy?”

  “This ain’t about that, dag-blast it!” Lenny swore. “It’s about the dag-burned reason I wanted to talk to you away from ever’body. It’s about your dag-gum swords.”