by Eric Vall
“Holy shit, that was intense,” I said as I tried to catch my breath.
“Joe, you were incredible.” Jessamine gazed at me in admiration, and I felt a little weird given the look was coming from a large, gray-haired man.
“Uh, well, I wasn’t sure we were going to make it out of that one.” I rubbed the back of my neck.
“If you had fought him, I know you would have won, hero, ” she told me.
Thank god for the princess’ admiration, because it pretty much seemed like the only good thing going on right now.
I thought I’d seen some sort of town square up ahead before we were stopped, and I hoped that might be a good location for an inn.
We quickly made our way through the panicking crowds toward the open area. All of the peasants seemed to be running in the opposite direction we were headed, which didn’t necessarily seem like the best sign. Nonetheless, my instincts had been correct, and I soon spotted a large, stone building with a sign reading “Inn.”
The inn appeared to be a two-story building, and it came complete with a tavern on the first floor. If there was one thing I knew about bartenders, it was they always seemed to have the scoop on everything, and the building hadn’t even been burned down yet, which was a double bonus.
Luck was on our side.
As we crossed the plaza, I tugged at Princess Jessamine’s arm to slow down to a walk. I didn’t want to create a scene, but the plaza appeared fairly empty as we headed across toward the inn. Soldiers were headed west out of town like the man who stopped us had mentioned, but none of them looked in our direction. I could hear screams coming from a distance away, but where we were, things were relatively quiet.
I tried to resist the urge to keep turning around and checking behind me as we walked. Finally, we reached the inn’s heavy wooden door, and I pushed it open. The air inside the tavern was at least ten degrees cooler than it was in the midday sun outside, and my eyes took a minute to adjust from the brightness to the dim candlelight. Once I could see again, I looked around the low-ceilinged chamber and noticed the long slab of wood on one side of the room, low tables on the other side, and, of course, the smell of beer.
Minus a pool table and a couple of neon signs, it didn’t seem to matter what century, or even what universe you were in: a bar was a bar.
The room was empty other than a large, bearded man who appeared to be packing things into crates.
“We’re closed,” he announced without looking up. “Closing up shop. Too much going on outside right now.”
Jessamine was quick on her feet.
“Listen, just give me a drink and shut up about it,” the princess replied in a gruff voice. “I’m sure you don’t want any more trouble than you’ve already gotten.”
The large man looked up, rolled his eyes, and grimaced, but he fell for it.
“Fine, one drink,” he grunted.
“What happened to the other soldiers?” I asked him.
“Listen, man, I don’t have time for this,” he grumbled without looking at me. “I’m busy packing up.”
I frowned, but I felt a motion from behind me.
“Just how busy are you?” the soldier-princess asked, and she flashed a large gold coin she’d pulled out of her pocket.
“A soldier with a bribe?” The man was suspicious, but he still turned eagerly at the glint of metal. “That seems a little backward… ”
“Do you want it or not?” Jessamine asked.
“I might have a minute or two, I suppose,” the bearded man said with a greedy look, and he quickly poured two ales and set them down on the bar in front of us.
I needed a strong drink, but I needed to keep my head straight more, so I picked up my glass and sipped slowly.
“Have you heard anything about a princess?” Jessamine began, and the large man turned away again.
“Why don’t you already know about this like the rest of the troops?” he asked gruffly. “And like I said, I’m pretty busy.”
The princess sighed and pulled something else out of her pocket, and this time it didn’t shine so much as glitter.
“Hey,” she called out, and the bartender turned to see the large, sparkling blue stone she held out to him. I knew her pockets were full of jewels, but I was still amazed at the ease with which she tossed away valuable possessions.
“Fuck it,” the man sighed. “I need that. So, you wanted to know about a princess? I may have seen a thing or two. A couple weeks or so back, a blonde had been staying in the inn, but alone, no man in her room with her or anything. She seemed pretty important, had a bunch of soldiers with her and whatnot. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it. I may have even heard she was some kind of royalty.”
“Go on,” Jessamine urged as she set the gem on the surface of the bar.
“About a week or so ago, things started to get really bad around here, as you well know,” the man continued as he grabbed the jewel quickly and stuck it into his pocket. “That’s why I’m getting the hell out of here. I don’t know if it had anything to do with that blonde or not, but things seem to have gotten a lot worse since she got here.”
“Where is she now?” I asked since I wasn’t able to contain my curiosity any longer.
The barman glared at me again, but he answered.
“You know the direction the common people are headed right now, out of town?” the man began in an ominous tone. “You’re going to need to go the other way, which is west.”
The man turned around to examine his boxes, and Jessamine kicked me in the shin.
“Joe, look,” she hissed and held out her hand.
I looked down and saw her right hand looked smooth and delicate again, more like a princess’ than an old man’s. I grabbed her quickly, but the illusion had definitely started to fade.
We needed to get out of here.
“Thank you!” the princess called out as we jumped up and left the two ales sitting on the bar.
The bartender looked at us for a minute, and then he shrugged.
“Thanks for the business,” he called out after us.
We’d finally received news of the princess, and it seemed we needed to head west.
Chapter 7
We got out of the tavern just in time, because our appearances had rapidly started to change back. Jessamine was out of breath, so I put my hand on her arm, and suddenly, her transformation back to her original appearance paused for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it, because as soon as the effect began, it was over. It was lucky we’d left as soon as we did, since the wrinkles appeared to be melting directly off her face, and my uniform had quickly faded.
I wondered what the barkeep would have thought of that.
“Holy shit, that was close!” I hissed as the two of us ducked behind a wall to hide and catch our breaths. “But Jessamine, you were wonderful. Your magic held out as long as it needed to, and you got the right information out of the innkeeper. I can’t believe he revealed Cienna’s location!”
“Thank you,” she sighed as the wrinkles in her face continued to soften. Some parts of her body had started to change back more rapidly than others, and it was fascinating to see the soldier’s tall, thick body with the angelic face of a princess. “It’s not hard to get what you want when you can afford to pay for it. I’m lucky, Joe. I can flirt, or I can pay. I have many tools to keep us moving. But the illusion took a lot of work, and I’m really tired now. I know we can’t stop, though.”
She yawned widely, and it was contagious. We’d traveled on foot since the magic carpet stopped working way back in the desert, and I was exhausted, too. It would have been nice to have gotten a chance to sit and drink the ale we were offered, let alone had a hearty meal.
Still, thank god we’d gotten a lead out of the bartender. Or, rather, Jessamine had.
“He said to head west,” I mused.
“He did,” she agreed with a nod.
I looked up at the sky, and the sun had started to go down in wha
t I assumed was the direction we needed to travel. I surveyed the large town square and noted there didn’t seem to be any soldiers around. Many of the buildings surrounding the plaza had been burned, and a large fountain in the center was dry. The town common appeared to be empty in most directions, apart from a few shopkeepers who quickly packed up their goods.
“Princess Jessamine, it appears this square is largely deserted. I think we need to stop for a moment and collect ourselves before we travel again.”
We needed to consider the fact we weren’t going to be able to hide Jessamine anymore, and that we were due for a confrontation with one of Jamar’s soldiers at any time. Even if she didn’t get recognized, her extreme beauty was definitely a liability in this situation. Every man wanted to stare at the incredible princess, and she didn’t have the means to cover her beauty up anymore.
“I think I might need to change my clothes again,” she told me. “I want something that’s easier to run in.”
The princess began to rifle through one of our packs, and she pulled out a pair of long pants and a cropped shirt.
“So much of your clothing is in that turquoise color,” I remarked. “It’s beautiful, but it’s such a bright shade, I’m afraid you’ll stand out too much. Do you have anything less noticeable?
“It is a color significant to my family, but you might be right,” the beautiful woman agreed. “It is quite bright, but it might be best to travel more now that it’s getting close to nighttime. Joe, would you mind looking away for a moment while I change my clothing?”
“Of course.” I turned my back and let my imagination run wild for a moment. Even though I couldn’t see the beautiful woman, I could smell her musky perfume, and the scent was intoxicating. Although we’d been on the road for many days, she still smelled like flowers and sandalwood, so she must have had some scented oil somewhere in that pack.
“I’m going to have to find something new to wear at some point, too,” I informed her with my back still turned. The novelty of looking like an Arabian prince had worn off, and my clothes had quickly started to grow ragged. I wanted something a little warmer and more rugged, and I couldn’t believe I’d actually started to miss the plumber’s jumpsuit I’d abandoned back at Jessamine’s palace.
“Ta da!” the princess exclaimed from behind me, and I turned around. She’d pulled a fur cloak around herself and tied a brightly-colored scarf around her head. The cloak didn’t look quite so luxe in the deepening afternoon shadows, so I thought she’d done a decent job of disguising herself.
“Looking good,” I remarked. The outfit wasn’t ideal for fitting in as a peasant, but at least it hid her perfect body.
“Should we put on our armor?” she inquired. “I’d like to see what we are getting into before nightfall, and we need to be safe.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I responded.
Jessamine would be able to hide her shiny, gilded chainmail and breastplate under her cloak, and mine wasn’t nearly as fancy. I hoped I would be able to pass as another soldier from her kingdom, though I’d appear somewhat shabby. Then again, no one looked that great in these times of war, except perhaps the princess.
After we put on our armor, we set off across the town square with our packs on our backs. The man at the tavern had just said to head west, but I had no idea how far we would have to travel. We walked toward the setting sun, which was creating colorful streaks in the sky, and I reached up to shade my eyes from the glare.
After the chaos of the main road, the emptiness of the plaza was almost spooky. I could hear the sounds of hoofbeats and shouting from far away, and the smell of smoke lingered in the air, but we were basically alone.
“I don’t like this, Joe,” the princess whispered, and her words echoed a little bit across the empty space. “I don’t have a good feeling about anything.”
“Something definitely feels off,” I agreed. Most of the buildings in the square still stood unburned, but it was clear they were largely abandoned, since their windows held no candles despite the dying sunlight.
We approached the town’s western gates and prepared to head back out into the countryside, and I wondered why all the townsfolk were headed in the opposite direction when this path seemed free of other trouble. I was curious where the rest of the troops were, but maybe we were in between waves.
I started to relax a little, in spite of myself. The princess and I had grown comfortable walking hand in hand, and her touch excited me.
“It’s nice and cool out here,” Jessamine murmured as she looked around. The evening air was breezy, and the sunset glowed in shades of purple and orange. “And the sky is incredible. I like being here with you, Joe.”
“I like being here with you, too,” I responded with a smile on my face.
As we left the town, however, cobblestones gave way to dirt again, and the path became more wooded. We walked for about an hour as it grew darker by the minute, and I was afraid we would have to stop for the night.
“I hope we can still find Cienna,” Princess Jessamine sighed, but suddenly, she pulled away from me and started to jog. “Look, Joe, a clearing!”
Then, from about fifty feet away, I heard a blood-curdling shriek of horror.
“Hang on, Your Highness, I’m coming!” I shouted and broke into a run.
I burst through the tree line, and a lone torch lit the clearing, as if it had only recently been abandoned. It seemed like we’d reached the grounds of a deserted farm. Burned fields stretched out into the distance, and the shell of a destroyed barn sat at the edge of the woods.
And I had never seen so many bodies in my life, except in the most horrific on-screen battle scenes.
It seemed like they were absolutely everywhere. Deep, slick pools of blood still ran from piles of corpses that laid on the ground, and bodies with horrible, deformed faces swung from nooses that hung from the trees.
The carnage extended beyond the clearing, and corpses were strewn as far as I could see. Further out into the woods, I suspected something feasted on a body in the dark. I could hear the terrible sound of bones cracking between teeth, and I thought for a moment I could see yellow, canine eyes staring back at me from the darkness, but I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination.
The smell was beyond sickening, and I’d never experienced anything like it. It had the horrible aroma of thousands of pounds of raw meat combined with fresh shit, and even in the growing dark, I could hear flies buzzing.
I began to retch and tried not to totally lose it. I thought the atrocities I’d seen the other night in the battle with Jamar were bad, but this was beyond comparison.
“I suppose this explains why everyone else was heading in the opposite direction,” I muttered. Now that I thought about it, we hadn’t seen a single other person on the path we’d taken out of town.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and I tried to look past the carnage to find the princess.
“Do you see them, Joe?” the princess rasped as she clasped her hands over her mouth. “All the corpses? I know this is Chernabog’s work. In my kingdom, we have mainly been plagued by Jamar’s zombies, but I have heard tales of the ways Chernabog can control human brains and cause them to commit the most shocking deeds. This is beyond normal warfare. This is disgusting.”
“This is beyond anything I’ve ever seen before,” I admitted and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. “And I know it’s awful, and we can’t stay here forever, but I think we need to stick around and look for information along with anything we can use in battle.”
“I know you’re right,” the princess responded as she surveyed the horrible scene. Then she grabbed a lantern from a nearby post. “Here, we can light this with the torch and use it to look around.”
I couldn’t believe a few short days ago, my biggest problem had been how many times a day my boss was texting me. I didn’t want to abandon Jessamine, but if I’d suddenly woken up from this nightmare, I wasn’t sure I would have complained.
Regardless, this was my reality now, and I needed to face it.
So, I tried to survey the scene thoughtfully.
“The barkeep said he’d heard the blonde princess was heading west, and we’ve made it to a location west of the town,” I began and scratched my chin in thought. “But so far, we haven’t seen any signs the princess was actually here. Things may not be as dire as we think.”
I gulped and tried to convince myself what I was saying was true. The situation certainly looked bad, and I hadn’t seen any signs of survivors yet. Then again, I hadn’t seen the body of a princess, either, so maybe there was still hope.
“Hmm… ” Jessamine pondered, and she appeared deep in thought. “I suppose we do need to look around more. And I think we need to hurry. What if someone comes back?”
The beautiful woman was right, since the torch seemed to have been lit fairly recently.
“Jessamine, I think we’re going to have to sneak around and try to figure out what’s going on,” I replied, and I sat back to listen to our surroundings. The breeze had picked up to a steadier howl, but it was mostly silent. I wasn’t sure if my ears were playing tricks on me, but I almost thought I could hear the sound of human laughter.
Suddenly, I heard a noise on the ground and felt a hand close around my ankle. I screamed, louder than I intended, and the princess jumped back, ready to strike with her scimitar.
Apparently, not all of the bodies were corpses, at least not yet. A man, half-dead, had reached out to grab my leg, and as a thin stream of blood ran out of the corner of his mouth, he called out to me in a weak voice.
“Please… please help me,” the man moaned.
I thought he was probably beyond help, but I wanted to hear what he had to say, so I knelt down next to him.
“Sir, please tell me what happened here,” I requested, and Jessamine bent down to hear his quiet, gasping voice.
“We have traveled… with Princess Cienna… ” he gurgled, and I was afraid he wouldn’t make it much longer. “We have come all the way from her kingdom… in her carriage. We are the elite forces, and we have sworn to protect the princess to our deaths.”
