by Ren Ryder
I’d been so distracted by the construction of such a mind-bending edifice that I failed to process the presence of spectators.
These attendees were no doubt dressed different compared to ages past, all in black robes and cloaks with their hoods pulled down low. Over their faces rested elaborate masks of feathered birds and sometimes wild, savage animals. For a gathering of beasts, I thought it apt.
I stepped down off the lowest bleachers and was led up onto a raised dais by a smattering of guards. The remaining hunters took up positions all across the stage, a show of force no doubt. This was a stage of the worst kind, the kind Ouroboros no doubt used to push cattle, both human and otherwise.
Light from innumerable sources lit up the stage, blinding me. “This, ladies and gentleman, before you stands our scrumptious appetizer for the night, the infamous Specter!” There was a dramatic pause, into which the spectators gasped.
“Ah, so you’ve heard some of the tall tales, then. And, as you also might have already heard, New London’s ghost has been quite a thorn in Ouroboros’s side, in the past as a rogue vigilante and instigator of the Yellow Scarves, and again, just last night.
“For the opening act tonight, he’s slated to fight in the pit against Ouroboros’s pet monster. His death should be quite the spectacle, so, whatever you do, don’t miss it!
“Bookies will be taking bets on how long he’s expected to survive, so take the time to make your bets while you’ve got it. Please assemble in the viewing area by the end of intermission. As always may the odds be ever in your favor, dear guests.”
To the applause and delight of many— how many, I couldn’t tell for certain— I was swept offstage. Graf kept a firm hold on the scruff of my neck, leading me gruffly up a set of bleachers. We arrived outside a palatial version of boxed seating built from crystal and tempered glass.
My heart thudded in my chest.
Who’s on the other side of that door?
“Hey, you listening to me, trash?” Graf whacked me upside the head.
I couldn’t help but inject my words with teenage angst and rebellion. “Sorry, I missed that. What’d you say again?”
“I said, you best keep in line in there, ghost-boy. Don’t make any sudden moves, or I’ll poke you real good with this, or this,” Graf emphasized his points by patting the saber and short sword strapped to either side of his waist. “If you really make me mad, I’ll cut you in two with this,” he tapped the hilt of a hand-and-a-half sword strapped to his back. “Savvy?”
I stared blankly at Lieutenant Graf in response.
Graf drew his saber halfway out of its scabbard. “Understand what I’m saying, boy?”
I sighed. “Step out of line, get stabbed. I got it. Can we go now?”
Answering without words, Graf opened the door and threw me bodily inside.
My world shattered, then pieced itself back together one by one. Everything, all of it connected.
Duke Regulus Maddox had always been possessed of a large, regal frame and bearing, but some of that had been chipped away with age. He stood without the assistance of a cane or staff, but the lines of his body were all crooked and hunchback. The Duke’s scarred skin was pale, liver-spotted and sallow; the pale green veins that I saw beneath his skin were tinted black. His eyes were bloodshot orbs staring back at me.
The resemblance is undeniable, but is this really the same Duke Regulus Maddox? And to think, I’d once been intimidated by this man, by the status and power he wields.
The Duke took three huge steps across the room, then took my hands in his own and greeted me. “Kal, how wonderful it is to see you, and after all these years, but, oh— you don’t seem to have aged a day in your absence! Truly, you’re a fount of youth! What’s your secret, if you don’t mind my asking?” My chains clinked and rattled.
A dark power coiled and writhed beneath Maddox’s skin, giving me the shivers. From our brief contact I was struck by the boundless hunger from a monstrous creature that would never be satisfied.
What in gods name does the Duke have inside of him, and had it been there all along?
I shuddered. “There’s something, something inside you, something wrong.”
Maddox stroked the scar tissue that covered his body from head to toe. “Do you know how I got these scars? My old man, then the leader of this ragtag group, gave them to me. I was never seen in public after that, for obvious reasons. I became something of a blight on the noble class, you see. I became its dirty little secret, as well as its protector. Ah, I remember my screams, so loud, so pitiful, so pure…
“I don’t regret it, the life I lost to gain this one, I never have. On the contrary, each cut, each scar, they freed me from the shackles of rule, of society, of expectation and stifled upbringing.”
“You’re insane,” I told him.
The Duke waved away my assertion with all of the concern that one waves away a fly. “That’s a matter of perspective. Your inability to see from mine is your folly, Kal, but I don’t hold that against you.”
“What’s keeping you alive, what’s inside you?”
“You see, I’m— well, there’s no getting around the truth— I’m old, and the special, very special… creature implanted inside me promises I’ll live a long life, possibly an immortal one. Unlike a young, strapping lad like yourself, I don’t have the luxury to be picky about my methods. The hunger, it adores children and faeries, but especially faeries. Can you imagine how I feel, the despair? Now do you see, do you understand my interest in your condition?”
Feigning nonchalance, I shrugged. “I’m no different from anybody else. There’s no secret, just a series of coincidences, really, it was all just a matter of chance.”
Duke Regulus Maddox eyed me like a predator would prey. “I doubt that. You see, I don’t believe in coincidences.” A smile played across the man’s dry, cracked lips.
“That reminds me,” I struck a pose with my index finger outstretched, as if struck by a sudden question. “How’d you happen to take the helm of a criminal organization that you had nothing to do with? You had nothing to do with it before we met, right?”
“Oh, stop, you’ll make me blush. Or, I would, if I were able to. The scars, you know… and so, you were saying?”
I covered my mouth with one hand, let loose a giant yawn. My gesture was accompanied by the clinking of chains and the acrid scent of burnt hair and skin. Despite the pomp and circumstance, after all, I was a prisoner.
“Old friends like us, we can skip the pleasantries, right? Sammie, she’s here, isn’t she? I want to see her. Then we’ll talk.”
“You wish to see her? Fine, but know this. My patience is not infinite. I will have my answers, one way or another. Whether I hear them from your lips or drag them from your corpse, it makes no difference to me, in the end.”
I glowered at him.
Regulus snapped his fingers, and a shadowed doorway swung open to admit my onetime little sister. Sammie strode into the room with a grace and poise that oozed confidence. After taking in the room, she pierced the Duke with a challenging gaze. “Uncle Reggie! Those chains are hurting him!”
She had changed little since I last saw her, grown in size and stature but still the Sammie I knew underneath it all. Her flame-red hair and green-green eyes reminded me of home. Sammie was in there, I just had to get through to her, somehow.
“Don’t worry, Samantha. Those restraints are there to protect him, not me. Don’t you worry, this is all in Kal’s best interests. With your brother’s reputation, I can’t keep the men in line with half-measures.”
“You promise?”
“Promise,” Maddox’s reassuring smile was a sickly parody of what it should have been.
Seemingly satisfied, Sammie turned to address me. “I told you not to get involved, Kal, didn’t I? I told you. But you’re here now, and I’m happy to see you.”
My gaze rested on the tattoo marking her as a bona-fide member of Ouroboros, the serpent eating its own
tail. “Why, why are you here, Sammie? Why’d you join Ouroboros? Did you have a choice?”
“You worry too much, Kal. And didn’t I tell you to call me Samantha? Ever since Uncle Regulus wrested control away from his father, Ouroboros has done a lot of good for this city.” Sammie spoke with the tone of someone who was wholly convinced that what they were doing was right, or, seen in the worst light, with fanatic fervor.
“Good, what good? Pushing drugs, keeping child slaves, selling people, capturing and killing faeries? What about any of that is good? Please, tell me, because I’d like to know!”
Regulus held a hand to his chest, as if in distress. “You wound me, Kal. It’s the age of enlightenment, of magic. We do no such thing. A man can only stand to be insulted so many times before he lashes out.”
“You’re deranged.”
Regulus cleared his throat. “Samantha, dear. Kal and I are going to have a serious discussion about his future. If you don’t mind, will you leave this to me? I promise I won’t do anything that would make you unhappy.”
“Yes, Uncle Reggie. Certainly, I will.” And, just like that, Sammie left the room without a backward glance.
The Duke waited for the door to close behind her before continuing our conversation. “She’s adorable, isn’t she? Naive and power hungry are the perfect combinations. I’ve been grooming her to take my place you know. After all, preparing to pass the torch to the younger generation is a responsibility of the powerful.”
It’s my fault. I left her with him. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t left her on her own.
“Let her go. Let Sammie go!” I raged, flying for the Duke’s throat like a rabid beast.
I was pulled short by my chains. It seemed Graf had gotten ahold of them at some point. They were pulled taut, unrelenting. The message was clear: I wouldn’t be getting to their leader, not on his watch.
Regulus paused, then laughed. “You’re not in what I would call, a position to negotiate, Kal, but lucky for you I’m feeling rather magnanimous tonight. To keep things interesting, let’s make ourselves a deal. If you defeat Ouroboros’s serpent, if, Sammie goes free— after you tell me what I want to know. Easy as that. Simple, Right? But, for now, she’ll remain with me as insurance that you don’t, shall we say, disappear. You understand, don’t you?
Oh, I understand all right. He’s using Sammie’s life as a bargaining chip! The bastard!
I smiled savagely. “For Sammie, I’ll defeat any monster.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lieutenant Graf gestured and his fourteen hunters unlimbered the tools of their trade, taking up offensive positions. I was surrounded in a semicircle array of bristling weapons, then herded until my back was against the wall. The smooth crystalline surface pressed against my back was cold and unyielding.
“You must enter the tiger’s den to catch its cubs.”
Lieutenant Graf rested each of his fists on a weapon, the threat clear in his stance. “I’m going to take off yer restraints. Try any funny business, and you’ll have more holes in ya then you can count.”
Graf stepped up to me, then stopped a hairsbreadth outside my range. Even with the chains limiting my movements it seemed he was being extra careful in his handling of me. How much had rumor exaggerated the tales of my deeds?
“Say ya understand. I want to hear it.”
I shifted the weight on my feet for the umpteenth time, and thought how my hands had lone gone numb to the pain of lost circulation. My wrists and ankles were on fire wherever the iron touched my skin. Even my magic felt… far away, somehow. As I was, I felt impotent.
We exchanged nods; it was an understanding briefly formed between two predators at a watering hole in the desert. “Yeah, alright, I understand,” I said.
Graf produced a skeleton key and bent to remove the manacles on each of my ankles. As they clinked, clanked against the metallic earth, I felt relief flood my lower limbs. I glanced down. White knobby bone showed through on either side of my ankles around red, inflamed flesh.
Graf grunted. “Last two.”
Suppressing a relieved gasp, I shook out one foot as the lieutenant raised himself to his full height in front of me. Face-to-face, the lieutenant’s muscle-bound, tattooed frame made for a truly intimidating presence. I had to restrain myself from following through on a sudden urge to lash out.
Seemingly satisfied, Graf grunted and ended our stare-down. He produced another, different key from somewhere secreted about his person and removed the final two manacles.
I felt a sudden rush of energy as mana flooded back into blocked passageways. Pain funneled through to my extremities as my body reestablished its equilibrium. The beat of my heart was loud in my ears, it was hard to hear anything else. My wrists throbbed in sync with my heartbeat. I rubbed the seared flesh to work feeling back into my numb hands.
Graf backed off, right hand on his saber, ready to draw. “Do it,” he called out.
Two hunters, already in position, reacted to the lieutenant’s orders and, in tandem, slammed fists against their assigned mechanisms. The ground beneath my feet shuddered and shook as the gateway opened. I rode the wave with slightly bent knees and kept my balance until the movement stopped.
As the hunters poked and prodded me none-too-lightly, I stepped through the open gateway into the dark expanse beyond. I trusted my night vision to guide me through even the darkest spaces, and to keep me from tripping all over myself. I kept my eyes forward as I walked, trying to ignore the itch between my shoulder blades and the certainty that several archers had taken a bead on me.
I need to focus on what’s in front of me, not worry about what’s behind me.
“Close it, double time!” Graf barked.
The hunters started the closing sequence with rapid-fire precision.
“Right, boss!”
“Closing, one-two-now!”
The ground shuddered as the gate began to fall towards the earth.
I sensed a wave of tension flow through the party of hunters. “Faery!” Larz shouted the warning.
“Archers!” Graf barked, and a swathe of arrows were loosed at Bell. The sylph dove and dodged through the hail of iron death to alight by my side. I raised my eyebrows, impressed.
Bell leaned forward, stuck out her tongue, and formed her little fingers into a “V” for victory. “Bleh— Neener, neener~”
With an air of finality, the gateway slammed shut behind us.
I nodded a stiff greeting, clenching and unclenching my hands into fists at my sides. “Bell.”
“Heya there Kal~ not surprised to see me?” Bell pouted.
“I sensed you were near. It was smart to wait to make your appearance, you’d have been in danger had you met the Duke. I do wonder why you showed up at all though…?”
Bell poked me, hard. I groaned and doubled over. “Do you have to ask? We’re partners. And besides, even if I didn’t want to, our contract compels me to. You know that. Besides, if you croak, I get an all you can eat buffet, m-mmm-nummy~”
My face crinkled into a smile. The first in ages, it felt like. “We were having a moment, and you just had to go and ruin it, didn’t you?” My muscles had been tight as bowstrings drawn taut, but Bell’s presence combined with our familiar back-and-forth calmed me down.
Bright white light, filtered through a refined crystal array, flooded the cave. “Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, Specter versus the serpent of Ouroboros!”
The sudden change in the quality and quantity of light blinded me for a span of seconds. I fought to keep calm, staying alert to my other senses, sensing any changes in the air currents around me.
Soon my vision cleared, and I saw it, the pit. Despite all the light that seemed to shine into every crevasse and disperse even the stubbornest shadows, a cloying darkness remained in the center of the circular enclosure I’d been tossed into.
A slithering sound started up at the edge of my hearing, slowly drawing closer. Some
thing was coming.
The taste of dust and grit stuck on my tongue, making me gag. My muscles twitched and tensed. Along with the wild drumbeat of my heart, my vision pulsed and wounds old and new strained. Sound became more pronounced. Hissing and scraping sounded in my ears, they were the noises an apex predator made while hunting in its territory.
Ouroboros’s serpent emerged from the shadowed abyss with slow intensity. I gulped. The gray-scaled beast was thirty feet long from tip to tail and was three or four feet wide. The serpent possessed wings drawn back and tight against its torso, but they looked too small for its gangly body and were tattered and full of holes.
Bell whistled from on top of my head. “A lesser wyrm! I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard the stories. Magic isn’t very effective against them, and their scales are so hard that most blades bounce off. Now that I think about it, isn’t that all kinds of unfair? How are you going to beat that, Kal?”
I glowered at her. “We. We’re going to beat it.”
“Ooh, but if I told Daddy I beat a wyrm, even a lesser wyrm, he’d be sooo proud~” Bell started mumbling silly mental arithmetic to herself, so I tuned her out.
The serpent’s long tongue snaked out, tasting the air. Its humongous blood-red eyes blinked rapidly, once, twice, three times. Then it turned its head around to face me.
It screeched, loud and piercing enough to make blood dribble out my ears. I winced and almost flinched reflexively, but I kept my eyes open wide and all my senses trained on the threat.
The serpent reared its head back to strike, but I was faster. I sent a focused burst of mana into the enchanted gem Koji had given me. It made sense that whatever help a mage prepared would be magical in nature; I just wish I’d understood its purpose before it had to be used in combat. The purple talisman glowed brilliantly for an instant, then crumbled to dust in my hand.
