The Fire Salamander Chronicles Series: Books 1 - 3: The Fire Salamander Chronicles Series Boxset Book 1

by N M Thorn

  “What would you like to know, my lady?” asked Gunz, bowing to her.

  “Do not bow your head, Child of Fire. I want to see your flaming eyes when you’re trying to lie to me.”

  She grasped his chin with her fingers and jerked his head up. Gunz met her icy gaze and shuddered. In her eyes, he read his own judgment. It didn’t matter if he told her the truth or lied to her. She would torture him anyway, for the pleasure of hearing his screams.

  “Tell me why you are here, in my husband’s domain,” she said.

  “I was forced to cross the veil, my lady—,” repeated Gunz, but she didn’t let him finish.

  Slowly and deliberately she moved her long fingernail across his face, leaving a trail of frost and ice on his skin. Gunz moaned, her touch sending him into the dark pool of agony.

  “I didn’t lie, my lady, please,” he hissed, his jaws locked.

  “Why did you come here? What do you want in my husband’s domain?” she repeated her questions.

  “It wasn’t my choice. I was sent here against my will,” he repeated.

  She let go of his chin and ripped the shirt on his chest, exposing the glowing rune. Then she backhanded him, sending him flying to the floor. Gunz didn’t even try to get up. He was lying on his side, blood slowly trickling down from the corner of his mouth to the polished black tiles.

  Morena got up and put her high-heeled boot on his chest, turning him to his back and pressing the sharp heel between his ribs.

  “Husband!” she yelled, pouting like a little girl who was ready to throw a tantrum. “Your pet is lying to me. He disrespects me and refuses to tell me why he is here.”

  Chernobog turned around and frowned at his wintry wife. Then he sighed and kneeled next to Gunz. Gently he lifted his wife’s foot off Gunz’s chest and probed the rune with his fingers.

  “Curious,” he said. “Child of Fire, now I believe that you were forced to come here. No one in their right mind would choose to have this rune burnt into his own chest.”

  “Why?” whispered Gunz, choking on his own blood.

  “A few reasons,” explained the god of Destruction. “This particular rune has multiple qualities and powers. For one, it is hiding your fiery presence, shadowing your elemental fire power. I would assume that this effect was desired. But did you know that it also drains you? So, you have to feel weakened and sick all the time. My realm feeds on your life energy and this rune is feeding on your magic. Whoever placed this curse on you, didn’t wish you well, Child of Fire.”

  “I figured as much,” muttered Gunz, wiping the blood with the side of his hand. “Like I was trying to tell your wife, I was thrown here by some insane mage.”

  “Let’s assume for a moment that I am actually stupid enough to believe you,” hissed Morena, stamping her high-heeled boot. “What did this crazy mage want you to do? I’m sure she didn’t go through all the troubles of opening the gate into the Dark Nav, just to send you for an evening walk.”

  Gunz tried to get up but had no strength and fell back. Chernobog seized his shoulders and yanked him up into a kneeling position. Gunz swayed as everything spun around him and pulled on the chains to stop himself from falling back.

  “She wanted me to…” His voice trailed off as he realized that he was about to admit that he was here to steal something from the god.

  “What did she want you to do?” asked Chernobog, his voice almost sympathetic. “Tell me the truth, Child of Fire, don’t be frightened.”

  Are they playing a “good cop, bad cop” routine on me? Gunz glanced at Morena and then back at Chernobog.

  “She wanted me to steal a magical artifact from you, my lord,” Gunz blurted out in one breath and fell silent, bracing himself for more pain.

  Chernobog and Morena exchanged a quick look, and both started laughing.

  “Do you know how many powerful magical artifacts I have in my possession?” asked Chernobog when he finally was able to speak again. “Which one did she want? The name of it, please?”

  “I don’t know the name,” said Gunz. “She said that it’s a pendant that looks like a double-edged axe decorated with gold inlays.”

  The silence that enveloped the throne room sounded like his death sentence. Neither Chernobog nor Morena said anything, but Chernobog’s hand automatically went up to his neck. He reached under his leather armor and pulled out a gold chain.

  At the end of the chain where the pendant was supposed to be, there was nothing.

  Chapter 17

  ~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~

  The silence was deafening. No one said a word. Karma was still unconscious, spread on the floor. Chernobog was staring at his chain that was missing the most important element—the magical pendant. Voron’s face fell, like he just lost something precious to him. But for some reason he was staring at Gunz, not at the chain in Chernobog’s hand. And the haunted expression in Voron’s eyes wasn’t giving Gunz a warm and fuzzy feeling.

  A heartbeat later, the silence got shattered into thousands of shards, exploding like a broken windshield. Morena filled her lungs with oxygen to the maximum and emitted an ear-piercing shriek.

  “You!” she squealed, pointing at Gunz. “You and your girlfriends. You stole it! You stole it and gave it to your witch-girlfriend. And then you two stayed behind to cover up her escape!”

  It makes no sense. Gunz raised his hand up, shaking his head no, his heart beating desperately against his ribcage.

  She didn’t pay attention. Reaching Gunz in one long jump, she punched him, driving her fist infused with her deadly winter power into the bridge of his nose. The bone broke with a sickening crack and a blinding white light exploded in his head. Gunz fell on his side, sliding on the floor as far as his chain allowed him. He didn’t scream, there was neither strength nor desire for that.

  He lay motionless on the cold marble tiles, sprawled in an awkward position, helplessly watching Morena pulling her foot back and slamming it into his stomach. At the moment of the impact, the frost spread over his skin, penetrating his body. Gunz coughed, splattering the blood all over the beautifully polished black floor and moaned. The pain was excruciating, but he couldn’t make a sound, his vocal cords frozen and locked.

  Morena grabbed his shirt, yanking him up and pulled her other hand back, determined to strike him again. Gunz closed his eyes, ready for the next punch. But nothing happened. He cracked his eyes open and saw Voron, holding Morena’s wrist.

  “My lady, I am begging you, do not strike an innocent man,” said Voron calmly.

  Morena gasped and let go of Gunz’s shirt. He dropped back on the floor into the puddle of his own blood.

  “How dare you touch me, you worthless maggot,” hissed Morena. Voron released her wrist and dropped to his knees, bowing his head low. She stood, breathing hard, her glacial eyes burning with wrath. She extended her hand, and the scythe vanished from her throne, materializing in her hand. She brought the scythe above her shoulder, ready to swing it.

  Chernobog stepped between his wife and his right-hand man, raising his hands up. “My love, please do not do something you surely will regret later,” he said as peacefully as he could muster. “Voron did nothing wrong. He was trying to prevent you from making a mistake.”

  Morena gaped at her husband, her true desires written all over her snowy face. Then she took a few deep breaths and smirked. Her eyes darted from Chernobog to Voron and then to Gunz. Her smirk stretched wider. Malignant and predacious as a feral snarl of a wolf, it exposed her small sharp teeth.

  “Fine, darling,” she seethed, “you’re right. If I smite your loyal servant, you probably would make me regret it at some point. But I will not regret killing these unworthy thieves. So, my love, I spare your servant, if you give me what I want.”

  “What do you want?” moaned Chernobog, dropping his arms to his sides. “Ask and see it done.”

  Morena cackled, patting her godly husband on his shoulder. “I want these two executed. And I want it done imm
ediately.”

  Chernobog threw his hands in the air, gazing heavenwards. “Sweetie, please be reasonable,” he mumbled with a sigh. “I can’t just execute them—”

  “And why not?” asked Morena furiously, taking a step closer to Chernobog and pushing him in his chest with her finger. “Aren’t you the Lord of this realm?”

  “Yes, I am, but—”

  “Aren’t you the god of Destruction?”

  “I am, my love, but—”

  “Then do your job and destruct! Um… I mean destroy.”

  “Morena!” yelled Chernobog, his eyes flooded with darkness. “Be reasonable. I can’t execute a Fire Salamander because he is an immortal Child of Fire! Immortal! Means he cannot be killed. Not even by the god of Destruction!”

  “Fine!” yelled Morena, twirling in place, aggravation pouring from her every move. It started to snow inside the throne room. “Execute her”—she jerked her thumb at Karma—“and give the Salamander to me. I will put him to torture that would make him wish he was dead. I will find out where he is hiding your magical axe and then I will continue tormenting him until he will choose to die on his own volition.”

  “Sweetheart, it’s inhumane—,” mumbled Chernobog, burying his hands into his long black hair.

  “Do I look like a filthy human to you? It’s either them or Voron,” seethed Morena. A heavy blizzard rushed through the throne room. “Your choice… darling.” Quick as a winter storm, she swooshed her scythe through the air, stopping it an inch away from Voron’s neck. Voron shut his eyes, clenching his jaws, but didn’t move a muscle.

  “Fine! Fine! Stop!” yelled Chernobog, perspiration covering his forehead despite the freezing temperature in the throne room. “You can have them. Do what you want. Damn, woman! You always manage to get anything you wish out of me!”

  “Now, sweetie, it wasn’t that hard, was it?” Morena snickered, patting her husband’s cheek.

  Chernobog grunted, shaking his head. “At least tell me what you are intending to do with these two.”

  Morena kneeled next to Gunz, carefully making sure not to stain her silvery gown in his blood. She turned his head to the side, so she could see his face and glowered down at him, gloating over the sight of his defenselessness.

  “Tell me, boy,” she said frostily, “who is your true Lord and master? Is it Kalidus, the Great Salamander?”

  Gunz tried to speak, but no sound came out from his swollen lips. He nodded, calmly holding his torturer’s deadly stare. Morena glanced at her husband, arching her eyebrow and got up.

  “No, Morena,” whispered Chernobog, his face turning sickly green. “Please tell me, you are not planning to do what I think you are planning to do… Have a heart, woman…”

  Morena laughed, a cold venomous sound that spread through the throne room, repeated over and over by the hollow echo.

  “Yes, my dear husband, this is exactly what I am planning to do,” she hissed. “It’s only right that the son should follow in the steps of his father. I’m planning to do to him what was done to the Great Salamander centuries ago. And I will make this little bitchy-witch watch him suffer. I will make sure that she can’t sleep and can’t pass out and the only thing she can do is watch his pain, hear his screams and understand that there is not much she can do to help him. And the only way she can stop all this is by telling me where the stolen pendant is.

  “And after she finally tells me where her little friend with your magical axe is, I will execute her. I will burn her at the stake. After all, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Isn’t that what you, humans, say, boy?”

  She poked Gunz in his ribs with her shoe. He moaned and tried to say something but couldn’t. Gunz knew exactly what the goddess of Winter and Death was planning to do to him. Kal told him the story of how he was tortured for years, locked in some cave in the Land of Dreams by his crazy ex-girlfriend.

  But that wasn’t what scared him. He didn’t want Karma to watch and the thought of her dying in fire was hurting him more than the prospect of the terrible torture. He was sure that Karma didn’t have Chernobog’s magical axe, and neither did Milana.

  “Please,” he croaked, “spare her… do what you wish with me…” Gunz didn’t think that she could hear him, but she did.

  “I have to give it to him. He is valiant, your fire-pet,” huffed Morena, winking at her husband. Both Chernobog and Voron stood stupefied by her cruelty, unable to speak.

  “Morena, my beautiful goddess, I don’t want to argue with you. I love you and every argument we have pains me greatly,” said Chernobog pleadingly. “Listen to me, sweetheart. I’m sure these two witches or this young Salamander couldn’t steal a pendant that was attached to the necklace which I never take off my neck. It was someone a lot more powerful. These two are only guilty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Please, I am begging you to reconsider. Have a heart, my love…”

  “A heart?” Morena laughed, pressing her hand to her chest above the heart. “I’m the goddess of Winter and Death. What heart are you talking about? Ice!”

  She snapped her fingers, teleporting everyone from the throne room into the dungeons. Gunz recognized the same cell him and Karma were locked in before. Morena whispered another spell, erecting a tall iron pole that was running from the low ceiling to the floor of the cell. Rough iron manacles were attached to the top of the pole, dangling on a long thick chain.

  “Voron, do your duty,” she said coldly, pointing at Gunz and then at the pole. “You know what to do.”

  Voron glanced at his master, but Chernobog just nodded to him, ordering to proceed. Voron carefully lifted Gunz and locked his wrist into the manacles. He pulled him all the way up and locked the chains.

  “I’m truly sorry,” he whispered into Gunz’s ear, leaving him strung up at the pole.

  Morena approached Gunz and ripped the leftovers of his shirt off. She drew a circle of ice on the floor around him and locked it with her spell. Then she touched the circle and a thin icy wall rose up, surrounding the pole and encapsulating it all the way from the floor to the ceiling in a cylindrical glass-like contraption.

  After that she touched Karma’s forehead waking her up. Karma sat up and looked around, horror reflecting on her face. She tried to say something, but Morena snapped her fingers removing her ability to speak.

  “Witch,” she said coldly, “I want the axe back. Tell me now where your little girlfriend is, and I’ll spare you both a lot of pain.” She snapped her fingers again, allowing Karma to speak.

  “My lady, I swear, neither I nor Milana touched the axe. I’ve never even seen it! Please have mercy, let him go,” Karma begged, kneeling in front of the goddess.

  “I gave you a chance,” growled Morena, staring down at Karma severely, “you chose not to take it. And now you both will suffer the consequences.”

  She approached the icy cylinder and muttered a spell. At once, the water slowly started to fill the cylinder, rising higher and higher with every moment. The water was frosty cold, filled with icicles. Gunz grasped at the chains as the pain ripped through him and his body arched like from an electric shock.

  Karma gasped, an expression of horror frozen on her face, and crawled to the cylinder, wrapping her arms around the ice. “Please, my lady,” she cried, tears running down her colorless face, “don’t do it to him… I would tell you where the axe was if I knew. I swear, I have no idea! Please!”

  Morena ignored her. She waited until the freezing water reached Gunz’s shoulders and stopped it. She drummed some complicated rhythm on the glass-like surface of the cylinder and smiled.

  “You’re not screaming, my sweet pet,” she said airily. “But you will, in a moment. You’re about to experience firsthand what your Lord and master went through centuries ago. Are you ready, boy?”

  She cackled and tapped the ice. At her touch the water inside the cylinder froze, turning into a solid chunk of ice. For a moment, Gunz thought his heart blew up, leaving a bloody mess inside his
chest and if that was the truth, he would accept the death with gratitude. But it wasn’t possible. He couldn’t die.

  The unbearable anguish unlike anything he experienced before, split his whole universe into billions of pieces, crushing him into nothing, and dunking whatever was left of him into a sea of torment. He didn’t scream. The sound that escaped his lips didn’t resemble the voice of a human being. It wasn’t a howl of a wounded animal either. It was something bone-chilling, indescribable and Gunz couldn’t believe that it was his voice cords that produced this awful, inhuman sound.

  He saw Karma, squirming at his feet, pleading for his release. He even heard Chernobog, asking his wife to stop it. Voron was on his knees, begging to take his life and stop the despicable torture. But nothing would make the Winter goddess change her mind.

  Gunz could see everything but his feverish brain wasn’t processing what he saw. Besides the unbearable agony his body was tormented by, the images of his past were flashing in front of his eyes, overlaying everything that was going on in the present, making it impossible for him to focus on anything.

  As the pain intensified, Gunz screamed again. Focusing on his physical pain allowed him to suppress the mental anguish the flashbacks were inflicting upon his mind. Like through the red distorted glass he saw a blinding light exploding in the middle of the cell and felt the ground trembling beneath his icy prison. Two men walked through the light and stopped in front of him.

  One of the men stood as tall as Chernobog. He had long silver hair that was falling down to his waist. His face, hardened by time and experience, was partially concealed by his thick gray mustache and beard. In his hand, he held a tall staff. The runes on the staff were glowing with the red energy of his magic. As soon as Morena saw this man, she blanched and vanished from the room.

  The man frowned at Chernobog and shook his head disapprovingly. Then he touched the cylinder and all the ice shattered into tiny sparkling cubes with an ear-splitting bang of a broken glass, releasing Gunz from his frozen prison. Gunz moaned as the pain slowly started to subside. He couldn’t stand on his own, hanging powerlessly in his restraints.