“That does sound impractical,” Himari spoke up thoughtfully, “but it can’t be absolute, or they wouldn’t be working with the Malus Earthborn at all, after they let you escape.”
“Exactly.” Wes nodded. “But I can definitely tell my survival has strained the two groups’ working relationship. At any rate, the reason for this meeting is to discuss how you five can help with the auxiliary invasions here.”
“You want us to help you strike out at them,” I spoke up, figuring I could guess what he needed. “Your own crew could handle any one of these smaller armies like you just did. But there are too many for you to take care of at once, and if you don’t deal with them, they’ll choke off other routes you need open. And if those routes get choked off, then you can’t have your people running patrols and dealing with the big armies, or retaking the other towns you’re after.”
My boy grinned at me, and suddenly it was like when we were playing co-op together back on the console.
“Nailed it, man,” he said happily. “I’ve heard reports about how well you all have been hitting the Horde in the Woadlands. These are probably going to be a lot tougher, but I’m thinking they’re still within what you all are capable of. And since you’re Challengers, you’ll Rise faster than our other people will, and gain more power from each Rise. So I’m assigning your group some guides so that you can hit some key groups, and clear up the way for our normal operations. Any questions?”
“Where is that other person you’re expecting to meet?” Rachel asked, after taking a sip of water. “Isn’t there a piece of Stell on this world?”
I was going to ask that, but I kept getting that woman’s names and bodies all mixed up, and I didn’t want to say the wrong name.
“She is still on her way,” Breena said, and I thought the little fairy looked worried, “and she is taking longer than usual. We can tell that she is alive, and in another city to the south, but she hasn’t contacted us recently.”
Wes made a small frown, but his expression remained determined.
“Any other questions?” he asked, placing his hands on the table. But no one said anything.
“Good,” he replied, “then I’ll add one more thing. There’s a chance that one of those Pit Knights, or a Dark Icon, or some other new, powerful threat will accompany these smaller Horde armies. If that happens—”
“Run like hell?” Andre asked.
“No,” Wes answered flatly. “Stand and fight. Buy as much time as you can for any non-Challenger in your group to escape. That includes dying if you have to.”
I saw his jaw clench after he spoke those words, but his face didn’t soften.
“I have to ask you all to do that,” he continued, in an apologetic, but still firm, tone. “You all can come back from the dead if you’re slain in combat. But the rest of our people are gone for good if they fall in battle. Your lives are one of the only renewable resources I have right now, and if I don’t recognize that, dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people will probably die for good.”
Silence settled over us, as we took a moment to process that yes, this was war, and yes, we would be expected to die if we had to.
But none of us complained.
And I knew none of us would.
Just like we all knew that Wes had already paid that cost himself too many times to count.
He met each of our eyes, and then his expression finally softened.
“Thank you all,” he said, sighing in relief. “And believe me, I know what I’m asking of you. Now here’s the plan…”
CHAPTER 15: TAKEDOWN
Chris’ Perspective
I really, really didn’t want to be here. And I’ve learned too late that thinking that phrase only made sure I wouldn’t end up anywhere else.
But here I was, in the Golden Sands, burning sun over my head, in the middle of one of their largest cities. After going from Earth to Pangea, traveling across all the damned jungles and mountains full of all kinds of giant, murderous beasts, just to get to the Pathway of the Golden Sands. Then, I had to hop on a damn horse and ride for God knew how many hundreds of miles to one of the major cities.
All just so that I could play nanny again with our fantastic new goon squad.
I found Travis in the alley I was told to meet him in. I suppressed the desire to ask why we were meeting in a goddamn alley instead of a secure location like our local headquarters, and gave him the greeting sign he requested.
“Thank you for coming, Tyrant Prince,” the former person told me, his eyes blinking oddly as he bowed.
“You are welcome,” I replied, refraining from pointing out that it was Dad’s people who had called for this meeting. “I’m in a hurry, so I hope you forgive me if I skip the pleasantries.”
“Our brethren’s time is valuable,” Travis replied, and I looked at him more closely.
His skin had lightened a bit, making him look even more like one of the locals, in that sense. If it weren’t for that new unnerving, focused stare of his, he’d probably blend right in.
As it was though, he was probably calling all kinds of attention to himself. But I knew I couldn’t say anything. My goal was to help ensure the Horde were compliant, and now that looked completely different than it had just a few weeks ago.
Before, I was threatening or beating senseless the low-level Horde that drifted off to do their own thing, mainly to find and kill the traitor-prince. I wasn’t supposed to put up with any crap, and I had a free hand to kill as many of the disgusting little bastards as I wanted.
Now, though? My job was to meet with their commanders and crack troops—some of whom used to be our crack troops—and try and be diplomatic. Try and reason with them, see if we could get them to go along with our plans if we just gave them what they needed. And it couldn’t be anyone else, because the Horde generals like that Gore-crusted pen guy were still specifically asking for me by name.
So here I was, trying to figure out why our freak allies had deviated from the plan they had insisted we all follow so closely.
But enough hate-ADD. Back to the conversation.
“Listen, Travis—it’s still Travis, right?” I clarified, quietly hating that I had to at all. He nodded indifferently. “Thank you. Travis, my father wanted to reach out to you guys and let you know he’s worried that he had a different understanding regarding the plan that your people did.”
But the Horde-blessed human only shook his head.
“Your father and his people have been generously submissive. The Pits sing praises for it. They say the Many-Crowned King rejoices in our brotherhood with you.”
“O…kay…” I said slowly, trying to figure out how I should handle this. “We’re still concerned, because our local operatives have said your Pits have begun producing extra troops, and sending them in small companies. We weren’t aware your forces could do that—and we don’t understand why they’re traveling in small armies where they can be obliterated piecemeal, instead of reinforcing our main regiments. For that matter,” I continued, “why are you so far south? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of the army?”
“The Tyrant Prince’s confusion is understandable,” Travis said with a bowed head. “We regret that we acted without notifying you. But we have good news to share: we have him now.”
The Pit Knight’s eyes shone with those last words.
They kept shining as he looked at me expectantly, not saying anything more.
Man, fuck my life, I thought quietly, inhaling to try and make sense out of this situation. I bet Wes never has to deal with crap like this. “By ‘him,’ I’m assuming that you mean the traitor-prince, but I don’t know what you mean beyond that.”
“Yes!” Travis shouted, his eyes flaring, black scales briefly creeping up his neck. “He has stumbled! He erred, and touched our hunter and bait! And so our king was able to touch him back!”
“Huh?” I asked, baffled and disturbed by my former youth pastor’s choice of words, before it suddenly clicked. �
�Oh. With magic. You guys managed to scry him or something.”
“Yes!” the Pit Knight shouted again, making me glance toward the crowds of people walking in the street beyond the alley. “As he knows us, so we finally know him! As we have needed to for so long!”
Fuck my life, I thought again. Then I focused on composing my face to hurry up and get this shit over with.
“Alright. In that case, before we can continue, I’m going to ask you to share whatever tactical advantages you might have gleaned, so that we may make use of it as well.”
“Of course,” the former person said eagerly, “first of all, he is strong. Strong despite barely partaking from Father Aegrim’s blessings. And he has another bond,” Travis continued, eyes flashing, “with something bright, and alien. Something kin to Father Aegrim, in the way that light is kin to shadow. The combination has harmed him, and yet he persists. We do not yet understand it, but we know if he is allowed to grow any further, doom will become him. Even if he continues to do nothing more but stumble his way through his unearned blessings, he will become an abomination to rival all natural-urged beings—even,” he added with a conspiratory whisper, leaning forward. “…our Many-Crowned King, and your patron from beyond the dark. But it will not come to that,” he announced loudly, “because now, thanks to his hunter’s sacrifice, our king knows his strength! He is not yet strong enough to demand a throne! His body is only as strong as the weakest of champions! The weakest of kings and Icons! His magic still no match for the archmages beyond these weak worlds!”
“It was my understanding that your people were the ones considering him to be a threat to begin with,” I said patiently.
“He is!” Travis hissed. “And we know now that he is chief among threats! But because we better know his strength, it is even easier to forgive you all now,” he said soothingly.
I quietly reflected that my former youth pastor was nowhere near this fervent of a believer in his last life.
“We understand now,” he continued. “He cannot yet hold a candle to your elite chosen in any one of their chief disciplines, much less those still lurking in the Deeps, who have had untold centuries to master their crafts. But that is where we have all erred, young tyrant prince.” Travis sighed. “Like you, we mistook his current puissance in any one field for the sum of his might, and considered him a minor threat. Though, where it caused your father’s people to ignore him altogether, it caused us to strike too early. To attack with inferior forces and end his influence on us quickly, instead of gathering the amount of might needed to truly take him down. And so we all suffered, and lost even more.”
“Like the forces you just sent out, on their own?” I asked, letting myself be a little ruthless in trying to get some goddamned sense.
“No,” the Pit Knight said, shaking his head, “those were willing sacrifices. A desperate desire to slow the traitor-prince, to pin him in place for the rest of our forces, and to maybe, just maybe, prevent the violation of yet another still-growing Pit.”
“Okay,” I said, processing the news, “so you could have doubled the normal output of your Pits any time before now?”
Dad would want to know that news, and so would Wes.
“No,” Travis said, shaking his hooded head, “you misunderstand me. These were not newly created Horde. Not exactly. These were sacrifices made with the Deeps, so that they could find new life here, in a world close to the traitor-prince.”
“You mean…” I started to say, “you were able to bring troops here, despite the seal on the Pathway out of your world?”
“At great cost, yes,” the Pit Knight confirmed. “Each creature who has come here has lost much of themselves. Part of their minds, part of their lifespans, the non-necessary parts of their bodies. They will be in great pain, and therefore find reason difficult, but they are here, and they will serve in whatever capacity they can. Due to their broken states, they will have trouble with understanding complex commands, and they must be kept away from normal Horde, because the trauma they have suffered is sometimes contagious. But their personal skill in combat is barely affected, and they have been able to retain their armor and armaments.”
That didn’t seem like a downside at all, given how expendable the average Hordebeast already was.
“How many more can you bring?” I asked, trying not to get excited.
It wasn’t that I wanted him to lose. My survival still depended on Wes’ survival. I needed him to win.
But I had been trying to get everyone to take things more seriously for months. I had even continued to try when Wes had escaped, because I was worried it would blow my cover if I didn’t.
Yet everyone just kept dismissing my concerns as ridiculous, even when he started taking worlds away from us, for the very reasons Travis had mentioned earlier.
And now, everyone was finally getting their shit together, doing things they should have done right from the start.
I needed to know why, for my own peace of mind most of all.
“Only a few, for now,” Travis said sadly, “for only the most broken may survive the journey. Those most affected by the traitor-prince’s perverted proclamations. Those who most desperately need a bride-meal and can no longer partake.”
Never fucking mind, I said to my now-deflated excitement.
“These numbers are only the smallest of handfuls—though they grow by hundreds every day. We choose to now spend them because they are of no use within the Deeps, since they can no longer grow. And because, in truth, it is a mercy for them. We know for certain that the traitor-prince is on this planet, and we have a fair idea of his location. In bringing them across, we can let them find some shred of dignity in an honorable death, that both lessens the damage they would do in the Deep and gives them a chance to strike out at the traitor-prince.”
“How successful have they been?” I asked, crossing my arms as I considered the new ramifications.
“Slain to a beast, so far,” Travis admitted mournfully. “The forces produced today still live, but we can tell that someone other than the traitor-prince is slaughtering them. He has brought more forces here. Forces that know the Sands better than even the native slaves themselves,” the Pit Knight added, lowering his head. “As well as those who radiate a power similar to what the Chief Prey has given her champions, the ability to Rise quickly and challenge even death itself.”
Shit, I thought with a hopefully neutral face, Wes’ friends have been discovered.
But it was bound to happen eventually, I told myself, suppressing the weird worry I felt for them all.
“You think there might be more Challengers now?” I asked in what I hoped was a believable tone. “How would that even be possible?”
“We do not know,” Horde-Travis whispered, shaking his hooded head, “and in truth, we do not care. There should never have been more than one Challenger, just as there never should have been beings rising from a long-lost age to debase themselves before the traitor-prince. But they are there, and they are killing our most afflicted children, so all is well. Because best of all, they show us where the traitor-prince is not. Which will help us further track him, and finally kill him.”
“Except that you’re still down here,” I pointed out, “almost all the way at the other end of the civilized part of this world.”
“Indeed I am, Tyrant Prince,” Travis said with a smile. “Right where I need to be.”
“Continue, please,” I said, losing my patience with his cryptic fucking bullshit.
“We are the Pits’ Knights, young prince,” Travis confided. “We can travel in the same fashion the lesser minions can, without paying the price in sanity.”
I didn’t believe that last part, but that was potentially bad news for Wes.
“Best of all, each of us can shield a small retinue,” the Horde human whispered with a grin. “Your elites and our elites will come as support. All parties have already agreed to do so. Once we have verified the exact location of the traitor-pr
ince, we will all travel there quickly, wait for him to be at his most vulnerable, and then strike with overwhelming force.”
Fuck, I thought, I take it back. That was far too much competence.
Wes might die if he didn’t get that information immediately. Which would be really bad for me.
Knives in the Night Page 23
