The realization, though, made him feel like a pretender. This wasn't his world. He wasn't a man of these people. Outlander. Barbarian. That's what they called him, and yet he was given such power and opportunity to reinvent himself and quill his name in this land's history. It was unfair. He didn't deserve these powers, whatever they were. He didn't deserve to be in the company of these women, to be seen by them as some fledgling god. He earned none of it. Yet here he was, all the same. His guilt changed nothing unless he made the decision to feel it so deeply as to ignore his obvious calling—to refuse to explore his potential—and that wouldn't do. Not with the golden ticket he'd been given. Nothing seemed worse than refusing the call to adventure when it had been so specifically gift-wrapped and given.
He realized suddenly that the three of them had all been quiet in their thoughts for several minutes. He watched the women before him lift their heads, one at a time, as the realization hit them and they all faced each other.
“Are you with me, then?” Billy asked, clearing his throat and standing up. “If we do this, I mean.”
Kaya nodded and looked at Audelia. The battle maiden grinned wide at Billy. “Hell, why not?” she asked. “Yes, we're with you, barbarian. But don’t think this means you won’t help me with my own goals one day.”
Billy sat back down awkwardly, unsure why he stood in the first place. His cheeks turned red at the realization, but the two women didn't seem to acknowledge any strangeness in his conduct. Their eyes were fixed on him for different reasons.
“Then I figure the next thing to nail down is discovering what the three orbs I absorbed even do,” he said.
“Try just focusing on them. Can you feel them inside you?” Kaya asked.
He took the suggestion, closing his eyes and trying to become aware of their presence inside of him. At first, he felt nothing, but the more he focused, the more he became sensitive to three distinct energies coursing through him. He found it impossible to hone in on all three, so instead, he targeted the strongest of the three signatures.
Suddenly, as he felt himself homing in on its power, a change in him took place. The ax at his side suddenly changed from the simple wooden hand ax that he scavenged on his first day in this strange land, turning into an enormous double-bladed battle ax with ornate runic inscriptions and a spiky crown that sat atop the ax-head. The cheap wooden handle had become flawless mahogany, stained to perfection, with a supremely comfortable grip and a golden pommel with inscriptions matching those on the edge of the ax.
Billy remained unaware of this outward change at first, but he felt himself make contact with the core. “I feel it,” he said to them.
Kaya shrieked in surprise, pointing at the transmogrified ax in his hand. “Billy, look!” The barbarian opened his eyes and looked around, eventually seeing what she was pointing to.
“Whoa.”
“Can I see it?” Audelia asked, admiring the craftsmanship of the weapon in front of her.
Billy nodded and handed it over, but to the warrior woman the ax was apparently impossibly heavy, much too cumbersome to lift or carry. She dropped it to the ground, where it dug a small crater into the soil with a thunderous crash.
“It's so heavy! How can you carry it?!” she asked, wagging her hands to shake off the pain of trying to hold it.
Billy shrugged, picking it up off the ground as easily as if it were still just the hand ax he had before. “Feels the same as before to me,” he said. “Maybe lighter.”
Kaya's eyes widened. “This is powerful stuff! Billy, what about the other two cores?”
Billy tried to refocus, hoping to awaken the power of the other two cores as well, but found he couldn't do it. He was spent as though he had exhausted a part of himself in awakening the ax core, and he wasn't ready to try again.
“I can't,” he said. “I'll have to try again once we’ve rested a few days in town.”
Kaya nodded, but her lip twitched in disappointment. “Still, that's really incredible, Billy.” She sat back down and watched the barbarian twirl the huge ax around like it was a simple stick. “Incredible,” she repeated, and then she thudded to the ground, unconscious.
“Kaya!” Billy yelled in terror, putting down the ax and rushing to her side. Audelia was already there, cradling the redhead in her arms.
“She's burning up,” Audelia exclaimed. “Fever from infection, I fear.”
“What can we do?” Billy asked.
Audelia just shook her head.
“Get some shut-eye, and we take off first thing in the morning,” Billy ordered. “We finish this flippin’ journey tomorrow, and we'll make sure Grint gives us the money for her recovery.”
The battle maiden nodded solemnly and set Kaya down softly. “I'll watch her for a while,” she said. “You rest first.”
Billy nodded, though it would be a near-impossible rest to take. There was far too much on his mind for sleep—the cores, the wizard, and now this. He wouldn't lose Kaya, though. He told himself that would be a failure too many, a loss he couldn't accept. He reached out mentally to whoever his patron deity was, the one who brought him here, and he pleaded, almost tearfully, for some relief for Kaya.
“If she survives,” he muttered, “I'll owe you one. I promise.” Just then, he saw a comet shoot across the sky, and he chose to take it as confirmation. Reassured, the barbarian found it much easier to rest. He closed his eyes, and though he didn't sleep, he found rest enough to press onward for the next day.
Chapter 10
◆◆◆
Their road had been long and perilous, but at last, the journey had come to its culmination as they arrived after days of travel at the gates of a town known as Turik. At this point, Billy was carrying Kaya on his back, who was burning up from fever and infection from the wounds she'd endured at the hands of the snakemen who'd kidnapped her just a day ago. They'd all endured wounds on the journey, some worse than others, but Kaya's were far too numerous, and all of them were exposed to the elements. They all needed rest, ointments, water, and bandages, but if Kaya didn't receive treatment soon, Billy and Audelia knew they would lose her.
Fortunately, the journey had come to a close. “There's a cabin outside town,” Billy said. “That's where Grint is. Do we go there first or look for help for Kaya in town?”
“Help will cost money,” Audelia pointed out. “We must have the silver first.”
Billy grunted in understanding. “To the cabin, then.”
The cabin wasn't large, having maybe three rooms from the look of it, sprawled out across a singular floor. It seemed as though it was meant to serve exactly the sort of purpose that it was serving now, as a go-between spot, a rendezvous point, or a drop-off location. Billy noted with all the tall, climbable trees nearby and with the bushes as well as the cabin's location at the top of a steep hill, it was relatively defensible yet still easy to find. Still, you wouldn't find it unless you were looking for it. Fairly ideal for a discreet business meeting.
When they climbed to the top of the hill, they found Grint, the one-eyed man waiting for them, dressed much nicer than he had been the last time Billy saw him. For a moment, he looked shocked to see the barbarian, but Billy quickly realized it wasn't that he was shocked to see him—it was his companions.
“I see you've made friends,” the seedy man said, grinning at the barbarian and standing to greet him. “Welcome. You aren't expecting anyone else, are you?”
Billy shook his head. “No,” he said. “Just us. If it's all the same, we're going to have to make this quick.”
Grint nodded darkly as he noticed Kaya in the barbarian's arms. “Poor girl got diced up, eh?” he remarked. “Put her on the cot inside, and we'll get down to brass tacks.”
They followed him into the cabin, where a warm fire burned in a hearth. They sat at a simple wooden table, and Billy was surprised at how happy he was to sit on a chair of any kind, even tough wood, after so many days of roughing it on the ground. He groaned audibly upon sitting do
wn, eliciting a chuckle from the man in front of him.
“Been a long journey, eh?” he said.
“So, we went to the tower,” Billy said, ignoring the comment. “And we were immediately attacked by some kind of giant burrowing worm.”
Grint laughed. “Off to a hell of a start, then!”
Billy took a good look at Grint as he spoke. Something was different about him. Hadn’t he been missing a finger or two the last time they’d met? Save for a missing eye, he looked right as rain. He even had more teeth than the barbarian was expecting. Still, he pressed on with the conversation unflinchingly, eager to get Kaya the help she needed.
“We killed it, but our stealthy approach was blown, so we headed into the tower directly.”
“What?!” Grint yelped. It was more of an expression of surprise than anger. “You didn't have to do that. You could have waited it out and watched like I said.”
“Well, long story short, we solved the mystery. There was a wizard in the tower, trying to contact creatures from beyond the stars. He had a highly evolved octopoid preserved in a red crystal, and he was trying to contact its people to save its life.”
“I see,” he said. “And you spoke with this wizard?”
Audelia spoke up. “It got complicated. There was a lot of, uh, miscommunication, and we ended up killing him.”
Grint didn't look particularly unhappy about the revelation, but he certainly was surprised. “So, you marched into a wizard's tower, killed all his henchmen, and then killed the wizard himself?”
Billy gulped. “Yes. The tower is unoccupied now.”
Grint's eyes lit up. “Now, that's the best news I've heard all week.”
“How's that?” asked Billy, confused.
“There's an unoccupied wizard's tower full of secrets and relics just sitting there in the wilderness, waiting to be claimed and cleaned out. That'll be quite a haul.” The man licked his lips in excitement. He tapped a little bell under the table nonchalantly, but the act didn't go unnoticed.
“What was that?” Audelia asked, sitting up suddenly and furrowing her brow. She instinctively unsheathed her sword.
“Why did you ring that bell?” The atmosphere had shifted, but Grint's gleeful expression didn't change.
“Is there anything else I should know?” he asked, ignoring their worried looks.
Billy stood up suddenly. “I'd say we earned our bag of silver, Grint. We'll be taking it now.”
“Aye, I do have it for you, but I'm afraid that I can't afford to let what you know about the tower reach any other ears before I have a chance to go there myself,” he said. “Which means I have to kill you.” He sighed with mock disappointment as he rose and took a step back from the table, pulling two short knives off his belt.
Billy was angry but also confused. How could he think that he could take the two of them on by himself? And then, as if in response to his silent query, he heard the sounds of men climbing through windows and emerging through both doorways, and before they knew it, they were surrounded.
“Grint,” Billy said. “We've killed dozens of men and monsters in the last few days, and we're in a very bad mood. Think about this. Last chance.”
The one-eyed man laughed and opened his mouth to speak, but Audelia had already hurled a dagger through his throat. His eyes went wide with shock as blood poured down his chest and the color drained from his face.
“I address the henchmen now!” Audelia said as Grint fell to his knees, bleeding out rapidly. “See what happened to your master. Who do you serve now? Who will pay your widows when you fall to our blades? This is your last chance.”
But the resolve of the henchmen didn't waver, and they began to close in on the pair of them. Thankfully, Audelia and Billy would note later, none of them attacked Kaya as she rested, still unconscious, on the cot by the fire.
And then something happened which stirred fear in Billy's heart the likes of which he hadn't felt since arriving in this world. Grint reached for the dagger in his throat and pulled it out slowly, gouts of blood squirting from the room, but against all reason, he seemed to be regaining strength. He stood back up, the color still gone from his face but alive all the same, and he grinned at the two of them maliciously.
“Pulled a fast one on me, did you?” he rasped, his voice now a hoarse death rattle. “Unfortunately for you, you just made an enemy of Grint the Deathless.”
“Impressive stuff,” Billy nodded, and then, lunging forward, “Recover from this!” He hurled his ax, and it spun through the air, cutting Grint's head off at the shoulders, and his body slumped to the floor. The ax returned like a boomerang into the barbarian's hands, and without delay, both he and Audelia began punishing the lackeys, slicing and dicing them one at a time as they carved through the room with their combined fury.
Three throwing knives and an arrow were lodged in Billy’s hulking body by the end of the fight, and Audelia had also taken her share of nicks. They were all in danger of infection now, and they were horrified to see Grint's body sitting back up and groping around the floor for his head. Billy took a few steps toward the body.
“What are you doing?” Audelia asked, breathing hard from the exertion of combat.
“Buying us some time,” he said, and Billy began dicing and hacking Grint into as many pieces as he could and then threw them one by one into the raging fireplace. He rushed over to Kaya and, as they headed out the door, grabbed a bag of silver that he'd figured was supposed to be their payment before Grint had decided to complicate things needlessly.
“We'll be taking this,” Audelia shouted in the general direction of the burning hearth. They ran back toward the town, Turik, still frantic and unnerved by what had just happened in the cabin. As they arrived at the gates of the palisaded city, they were stopped by a pair of guards who halted them and looked them over.
“What happened to you?” they asked, equally alert and concerned.
“We were attacked,” Billy said.
The guard shook his head, “I can see that. Be more specific, please.”
“Please let us in!” Audelia shouted. “Our friend needs an apothecary desperately! She's dying.”
“Not until you tell me what happened,” the guard stated firmly.
“We had a meeting at a cabin nearby,” Billy said. “Do you know it?”
The guard nodded. “I'm aware of a cabin, yes.”
“With a man named Grint. He was supposed to pay us for a job, but he decided to try to kill us instead. We ran off, and now we're here.”
The guard looked them over. His eyes widened noticeably at the mention of the name Grint. “Open the gates!” he shouted. “Open the gates. Travelers here!” He looked back at them again, this time leaning in. “Don’t say that name too loudly in these walls. You’ll call attention to yourself.” He slapped the barbarian on his arm and stepped aside.
“Ko'ra bless you,” Audelia said as they limped through the now open portcullis into the dusty city streets. Despite there being thick forest all around, the town seemed to use a surprising mix of wood and clay in the construction of its buildings. Logs made up the base and frame of each building, but gray or red bricks provided the walls of most of the structures. The doors were often open to the elements, with only hanging straw or wool tarps covering each entrance. Some homes had standard wooden doors, though they tended to be the sliding type rather than one that opened and closed on a hinge. None of the buildings could have been over two stories high.
The gates of the town gave way to a bustling marketplace. People traded goods openly and happily in the light of day, seemingly unaware of the horrors of the outside world.
They walked through the bazaar and asked an old lady selling linens and furs for directions to the apothecary. She refused to tell them anything unless they bought something, so Billy ordered a new loincloth that would conceal more of him and be more comfortable. With the purchase secured, the woman became suddenly very agreeable.
“Just two roa
ds over, and take a left,” she said, pointing them down a specific street. They took her directions, and before long, they saw a sign that Audelia could read that said “Iskar's Potions and Salves.”
They hurried through the door and saw a man with a pair of primitive spectacles examining the leaves of a strange fern. The man immediately took notice of them and dropped what he was doing, rushing over to help. His hair was blond, though with hints of gray, and he had a handsome face, though he could have done with a shave. His olive-colored skin was already dampened in sweat from his labors of the day, but he was clearly eager to begin a new task if it meant saving a life.
“How long has she been like this?” he asked, taking Kaya from the barbarian's arms and setting her on a table. He shoved books and jars onto the floor carelessly as he made space for the injured girl. Billy cringed at the destruction, but was immediately endeared to the man for his desperation to give his aid to Kaya.
“Since last night,” Audelia said. “Can you help her?”
“It's an infection,” he said. “I have some herbs and ointments which will help bring the fever down and treat it, but I can't make any promises.”
“Please try,” Billy pleaded, misting at the eyes.
The man looked at Billy carefully. “For a bulky barbarian like you, you're quite concerned about your companion,” he said. “And by the looks of you, you've taken a beating yourself. I like you. My name's Iskar, and don't you worry. I'll do everything I can to help her, I swear it upon the Lord of Life and Death.”
They got out of Iskar's way as he began to work, applying salves and creams to her infected areas, even stitching some of the more extreme wounds closed. Before long, the girl was covered in professionally applied bandages, and within the hour, her fever was down.
“She needs time to rest,” the apothecary said. “I only have one spare bed, but she can use it.”
Billy the Barbarian 1: The Heights of Dread: An Isekai Sword and Sorcery Harem Lit Adventure Fantasy! Page 9
