The Memphis Knights

by Phillip Drayer Duncan

  “We’re going to find them,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to find the people responsible.”

  He met my gaze for a moment, then the anger faded as a rogue tear slid down his cheek. He gave me a brief nod then looked upward and wiped the tear away. He paused mid wipe, his eyes staring past me. In a quiet voice, he said, “I don’t think we’ll have to look far.”

  I felt a tremor from the sword on my back as I turned around and glanced upward as well. On the balcony above us, where I’d stood minutes earlier, was a figure in a charcoal gray robes. His face was hidden in the shadowed depths of his cowl, yet, I knew he was watching us. There were hundreds of people in the vast space around us, yet, somehow, I knew that his eyes were on us.

  I reached for my sword and staff.

  Chapter 22

  A mist began to rise around our feet.

  Uriah drew his massive broadsword with one hand and his silver plated 1911 in the other.

  Two more figures in charcoal gray robes approached the ledge and stood on either side of the first. Two more followed after that. They took their place by their fellows, their faces hidden beneath their dark cowls.

  The sigils on my staff glowed bright as I gathered magical energy. White flames danced down Drynwyn’s blade.

  The first dark mage raised a black staff into the air and dark energy crackled all around us.

  I summoned my shield to its full strength, hoping I’d be able to defend Uriah and myself from whatever spell the black hearted bastard intended to throw at us.

  Only it wasn’t an attack spell. Instead, a great shimmering wall rose up from the floor some distance behind us. It grew toward the ceiling at an angle, creating a dome shape that extended almost to the ceiling. It spread from behind the dark mages on one side, then covered nearly half the dance floor behind us, putting Uriah and I near the center. A quick scan and I guessed roughly fifty guests were caught in the magical snow globe with us.

  I wanted look for Axel, Vittoria, and Eilidh, but I dared not keep my eyes from the dark mages for more than a moment. I could only hope they were clear of the dome, as I suspected being trapped inside it would soon prove detrimental to our health.

  I also suspected the orb was meant to contain, but there was no telling what it might do. Magic of this magnitude was beyond me.

  The mist continued rising as well and was nearly up to my chest.

  Behind us the band stopped playing and there were few disjointed shouts as every attendee saw the giant magic field appear in the center of the room.

  “Are we trapped?” Uriah asked.

  I nodded, my eyes still on the dark wizards. “All that’s missing is a hamster wheel.”

  “What do we do?”

  “You’re religious. Now might be a good time to start praying.”

  “Very fucking helpful, wizard,” he spat, cutting his eyes at me. “Maybe the witches will have a more useful contribution.”

  “Or maybe they’re in league with these assholes.”

  No sooner than the words left my mouth, there was a scream from the balcony. Two more hooded figures in the gray robes stepped forward dragging Sister Betran with them. Behind them were even more of the gray robed figures and they had Anna and the other witches as well. I didn’t see any sign of Eilidh, though. Could they have snatched her in the short time since I left her on the dance floor?

  “Dearest Knights,” the leader said, his raspy voice magically amplified so the whole room could hear him. It wasn’t the same voice as the man in the black robes. This was not the leader, then. At least, that was my impression. He continued, “Behold the witches you thought might be your salvation in these dark days.”

  Sister Betran struggled against her two captors like an animal caught in a snare. Her eyes glowed with white light and she was chanting some ancient incantation. We never found out what spell she was summoning as the mage slapped her across the face, nearly knocking her to the floor.

  They raised the dazed woman to her feet again and the leader took hold of her hair in one hand as he turned to face his audience. “She can’t protect you, Knights. None of them can.”

  In on smooth motion, he drew a curved black sword from beneath his robes and swung it through the eldest witch’s neck. Her head came free and her body toppled to the floor. He held her severed up for everyone to see, then tossed it over the balcony like old trash. It thudded against the floor in front of us, her eyes turned up, looking our direction.

  “Okay, so, I think we were both wrong,” I said, glancing at Uriah. “I don’t think the witches are in league with the dark mages. Also don’t think they’re going to be much help.”

  He nodded. “Wish I’d been right, though.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “We just have to hold on,” Uriah said with what felt like forced confidence. “Victor and the other Knights. We are not without some magic of our own. They’ll get through.”

  “I’m not sure they will,” I replied.

  The other sisters of the Colonial Coven met the same fate as their leader. Other hooded mages drew similar dark blades and beheaded them, one by one, tossing each of the heads over the balcony.

  “We have to do something,” Uriah said, nearly on the edge of rage.

  “Uriah, I’m going to level with you since we’re about to die, anyway. As far as magical ability goes, any one of Betran’s witches could mop the floor with me. And these guys just subdued and beheaded them in front of a whole room full of people. There’s not shit I can do except go down swinging right beside you.”

  He seemed about to reply when Anna was shoved forward to the lead dark mage.

  “No,” he said, glancing at me. “No, we have to stop them.”

  I didn’t reply. There was nothing I could do to stop what they were doing, but perhaps, there was still some way I could help everyone else. I just didn’t know how. I couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so helpless. In my hand, Drynwyn pulsed with a righteous fury, just begging to cut loose.

  “Let her go!” Uriah screamed. “Let her go, you son of a bitch!”

  “And this one,” the dark wizard said, grabbing a handful of Anna’s hair. “See how the child of your recently deceased leader seeks to protect her? Why do you suppose that is, Knights?”

  “I’ll trade my life for hers,” Uriah said. “If you let her go, you can have me. You can do to me as you did to my father, if it pleases you.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Uriah, my respect for him rising. He’d seen what his father had gone through, yet he hadn’t thought twice about making the offer. I had little doubt he’d see it through.

  “And why is that? Hmm? Why would you give your life for her?”

  “Let her go and you can have me,” Uriah repeated, standing tall and defiant. “Harm her and I will hunt you to ends of the Earth.”

  The dark mage cackled and shook Anna’s head at the crowd. “This witch was the secret lover of your dear leader. He, who was holiest among you, took a witch to his bed. Isn’t it so, dear?”

  Anna didn’t reply. She was a bit busy crying snot bubbles and trembling in fear. Couldn’t say I blamed her.

  “Tell them,” he commanded, pulling on her hair again. “Tell them how you laid with him in sin. Tell them how you seduced dear Abner. Tell them how their leader sullied his purity in your filthy cunt!”

  “No!” she cried. “I loved him! I loved Abner!”

  “I know, dear,” he said, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “And now you may join him.”

  He swung his sword into her neck, severing her head, just like her sisters before.

  Again, he raised the head high for all the crowd to see, then tossed it over the rails with the others.

  Uriah opened fire.

  He squeezed off all seven rounds in rapid succession, until the slide locked back.

  The slugs shimmered in the air and stopped a foot or so from the dark mage’s face. They just hung there, as though time had stop
ped. Casually, he raised a hand and brushed the floating bullets away, allowing them to fall to the ground along with the pile of human heads.

  “And now for the main event,” he said, raising his staff into the air once more. “I give you the death of the son.”

  The floor crackled beneath our feet, and for a moment, I thought he’d summoned an earthquake beneath us. Then the piece of ground we stood on surged upward, pitching me from my feet. Uriah managed a little better and only fell to his knees.

  Our piece of floor, big enough for five or so people, ascended into the air with Uriah and me still on it. I risked a quick glance around. Outside the snow globe, the Knights stood ready. Inside the dome, the mist was so thick I could only make out the vague outlines of the people trapped within. Like shadows wrapped in fog. I knew they were there, but I couldn’t make out any details.

  The lead mage extended a gloved finger and pointed it directly at me. “And the death of a Blade Mage.”

  “Hi, there,” I said, waving at him. I was terrified, make no mistake. Practically pissing my pants, but if there was one thing I’d learned from Axel, it was to look death in the face and then fart in its general direction.

  “You will die alongside the Knight,” the mage said, as though that weren’t somehow obvious.

  I considered how Axel would respond to his very cliched threat. I’d seen him stall, infuriate, and confuse the hell out of beings that could crush him like a bug. And that’s what I needed. An Axel type response to pump the brakes a little. Unfortunately, he was somewhere below, hopefully on the other side of the magic snow globe. That left it up to me, so I went down the rabbit hole and asked myself the most dangerous of questions... What would Axel do?

  Once I answered that question, I channeled my inner-Axel and asked the dark mage, “So, are we going to die at the same time? Or are you going to kill one of us, and then the other? Just looking to be clear on the plan.”

  “What are you doing?” Uriah whispered in my ear.

  “Trying to gain us a tactical advantage.”

  “By asking which of us they plan to kill first?”

  “No, by being an obnoxious prick.”

  “How’s that supposed to help?”

  “Uriah, we’re both probably about to die. As my friend Axel would say, if you can’t win the fight then at least annoy the shit out of your opponent.”

  “Fair enough,” he said, shrugging.

  “He also likes to say if you can’t beat your opponent you might as well beat your meat. I don’t think that applies here, though.”

  “Would you two like to share with the rest of the class?” the dark wizard asked.

  “Apologies,” I said, forcing a smile. “Where were we? Oh, yes, we were working out the order of our deaths. Now, under normal circumstances, killing the Blade Mage would be more impressive. However, given the setting, killing the Knight is likely to make more of an impact. Or you could kill us at the same time. It’s really about the statement you’re looking to make.”

  “You disappoint me, Blade Mage,” he said, shaking his dark cowl. “Where’s the bravado from before? Where are your empty threats now? Oh, yes, we were watching. We received your message loud and clear. Where is that side of you? Are you afraid?”

  “Not particularly,” I replied with an exaggerated shrug.

  All at once, the other mages raised their wands or staves in the air.

  There was another sensation of dark crackling energy.

  And that’s when the fucking demons arrived.

  They appeared on the balcony, next to their summoners. There were several like the creepy face lickers we’d met that morning, but there were some new additions as well.

  One type had the body of a black wolf but with an almost human head. I said almost because its skin was the same weird translucent white with the black veins peeking beneath the flesh. Also, they were bald and their facial features were soft, almost baby-like. Oh, and they didn’t have eyes. Just black holes where eyes should’ve been. Long black tongues slithered from their lips hungrily. And they had a scorpion tail on their ass, because, why wouldn’t they?

  The other new demon-type was a long, thin, spindly, humanoid. Its skin was also translucent white and I could see its entrails pulsing through its abdomen. These guys had no facial features what so ever, like they were an unfinished model. They each had six arms with long black nails at the tips of their fingers. Both their arms and legs had multiple knee joints allowing them to bend in a variety of different directions, and giving them a strange squat appearance.

  So, the mage in black had been a necromancer, the mage in red a blood mage, and the charcoal gray, they were summoners. Demon summoners, to be more specific.

  “Are you afraid now?” the leader asked.

  Fuck yeah I was afraid. Wasn’t going to tell him that, though.

  “Are you kidding?” I asked, forcing a laugh. “Why? Because you summoned a few minor demons? Please. I’ve gone toe to toe with an Abasy. I slayed an Obayifo. I stood against a Valravn and his shadow horde. I am the Blade Mage, not some two-bit summoner. And you’ll have to do better if you want to scare me, ass clown.”

  “I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”

  “That seems to be a popular goal, but no one has accomplished it yet.”

  The leader raised his staff again and spoke a single word of power. All around him, the demons began to howl. The weird centipede-spider-face-lickers screeched like a broken record. The wolf-babies cried like, well, babies. And the skinny ones sounded like monkeys in heat. Mixed together, their cries sounded like a horror movie soundboard on acid.

  “Knights!” Uriah screamed from beside me, raising his giant sword into the air. His voice boomed out of over the sound of demon howls.

  I risked a glance his way. His eyes burned with intensity. Any fear he felt was gone and had been replaced with righteous anger. They had killed his father. More than that, he’d sworn a sacred oath to defend the innocent from beings just like this. He was a demon hunter. A Memphis Knight. “Listen to me, Knights! We stand true! We stand until the end! Who are we? Who are we?!”

  The response echoed throughout the mansion. A sea of them yelled out, all at once. “Memphis Knights!”

  The chant poured across the room.

  Uriah rolled his shoulders and moved to stand alongside me. I gave him a brief nod and prepared myself. The stalling game was over. It was time to fight.

  The dark mage uttered another word of power and the demons attacked.

  Chapter 23

  The baby-faced-wolf-scorpions came at us first. With a single bound they covered the distance to our hovering platform. I hit the first mid-air with a burst of raw energy. It sailed backward and smacked against the balcony rails, then disappeared into the darkness below.

  The next touched down for only a moment before Uriah cleaved its neck with his broadsword.

  The third one landed just in front of me and I slashed Drynwyn through its face. Its flesh sizzled and melted where I’d struck, turning into hot black goo. The effect carried through its body as well and in moments, the two dead demons were boiling piles of icky.

  Contestant number four actually managed to get all four feet on our little floating island without being immediately killed. It landed on Uriah’s side but kept its ass at the ledge and raised its scorpion tail, forcing Uriah on the defensive.

  One of the skinny ones took hold of the balcony railing, then hurled itself over at us like a monkey. It missed the top of the platform but managed to sink its black claws into the side of it and clung on. I made a mental note that I’d have to watch out for those claws.

  Screams sounded from the dense fog below and I realized the demons weren’t just after Uriah and me. Across the way, the mages were summoning more of the beasts and they were pouring over the balcony and headed toward the people trapped on the ground level. In the low visibility, they wouldn’t even see the bastards coming. There wasn’t anything I could do about
it, though. Uriah and I were busy with our game of King of the Hill.

  I ducked as the skinny one swung one of its long, multi-jointed arms at me. I barely missed the swipe of its claws, but then one of its joints snapped back the other way, and I caught a backhand across the cheek.

  It thought it had me then, but I fired a burst of raw energy under its chin, forcing it to stagger back. Drynwyn turned into a rapier and I leapt forward, jabbing the creature through the chest. Then my sword transformed into a calvary saber and I ripped it through the monster’s guts, spilling out its black entrails at my feet.

  I spun around just in time to see another of the skinny ones slink up the side and try a sneak attack on Uriah.

  “Watch out!” I screamed.

  Uriah spun, hammering his sword into the demon’s face.

  The wolf-scorpion pounced then, leaping toward the Knight.

  I hit it with a blast of energy, forcing its body off course. I was too slow, though, and one of its paws latched on to Uriah’s leather jacket. Uriah stumbled but managed to jerk himself free, causing him to stagger backward.

  Time froze for a moment and I saw clearly that his back foot had landed on nothing. Our eyes met for only a moment, then the Knight fell from our floating island and into the mist below.

  The wolf-scorpion leapt after him.

  I tried to follow, but from the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white flesh swipe at my foot. I dove forward and rolled back up, seeing that it was the same demon I’d already disemboweled. Apparently, that hadn’t done the job. Drynwyn had resumed its more common form of a katana, I slashed right through the creature’s temple, taking off the top of its head like a cap. That time it died.

  I turned back toward the balcony and saw that the mages had summoned more demons still. This appeared to be the last of them though, because all of them, save the leader, were mounting the backs of the creatures. Several straddled the wolves like they were steeds, while others climbed piggy-back style onto the skinny ones. I guess no one wanted to try and ride one of the centipede-spider-guys.