Dungeon Master 5

by Eric Vall

Fea and Macha swooped along the red-carpeted hall, and we followed along behind them. Each time the birds went around a blind corner, my women and I stopped and waited, but there were hardly any soldiers or guards in this area of the palace. I didn’t have to guess as to the reason why as the hall we ran down suddenly slopped downward then led to a spiral staircase. There was only one place that this staircase could lead us to, and it was the place I’d already assumed we were going, down to the pools where he dragged all of his women in the end.

  My minions glanced at me warily, but I plunged forward without looking back as I listened to Baudouin’s heartbeat. I didn’t need Fea and Macha’s help anymore. I could hear the pounding of the Lord's heart loud in my ears. We were close as we came off the staircase, and I held up a hand to slow them in the depths of the stone cave.

  I didn’t want to reveal ourselves to him yet as I took in the lay of this chamber around us. Like Annalise had said before, Baudouin’s palace was built on a series of cliffs, and Morrigan later had described the Rusalka’s bodies thrown in pools underneath the castle. My jaw tightened, and my eyes narrowed on the path ahead of us as I found it was all here. The pools, the cliffs, and even Baudouin running away with his newest bride. All the clues and pieces were snapping together with reckless abandon.

  My minions and I pressed ourselves against the moist stone wall as Lord Baudouin’s voice reached our ears as he spoke loudly to his bride, but the terrified woman didn’t talk back to her new husband. I slowly leaned out from our cover to watch.

  The room beyond the hall we hid in was huge, and part of the far wall opened up to reveal the dark blue water of the Riese River and the reflection of the full moon against the rippling surface. The room was dim, barely lit from a few flickering torches pressed into the stone, and I watched as Baudouin dragged his new bride closer to the water. His blonde hair, which had been slicked back earlier, was now messy and fell in his eyes as he pushed the new bride away from him. The poor woman stumbled and nearly fell into the dark water as Baudouin began to pace and mumble to himself as he ran his hands through his messy hair.

  Annalise stiffened from beside me. I glanced over at her and saw that Carmedy’s potion had worn off, her stunning face back to normal. The High Queen’s hands trembled as she reached for Bloodscale at her hip and gripped onto the hilt with determination. My warrior queen pulled the sword from its scabbard silently and held it at the ready as she peeked around the corner towards Baudouin and the woman in white.

  Just as quietly, Carmedy pulled the bundles from her pockets and began to mix them with her eyes trained around the corner silently. Rana was the only one who made soft noises as she bent and lifted her skirt to draw her daggers, but the sound was masked underneath the calm waves of the Riese as it hit the far rocks. The redhead had one in each hand and a third placed savagely between her teeth.

  Morrigan was the only one who didn’t have a physical weapon beside me, but she lifted her delicate pale hands into the air, and green light flickered from her palm silently as we prepared to attack Baudouin.

  “I know you have burning questions for me. Why don’t you ask?” Baudouin’s assured and confident voice reached our ears as he circled his bride, and the poor woman watched him with cautious eyes.

  “W-what are we doing down here, m-my love?” his bride stammered as she attempted to give him a smile and Baudouin’s laughter echoed around the caves as his head rocked backward on his shoulders.

  “You don’t have to pretend down here,” Baudouin stated as his golden eyes moved over the woman. “You don’t have to keep up the act, Ines. I don’t love you, and you surely don’t love me. There is no need to pretend anymore or keep up the boring façade.”

  As Baudouin came around the woman and faced her back, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small dagger. The lord held it up to the light and examined the silver blade as it reflected the light of the moon. My minions tensed beside me, and Annalise slipped her hand into mine as Baudouin stepped forward. In one swift movement, Baudouin slashed out at the back of Ines’ wedding dress, and she gasped loudly as she attempted to hold on to the ruined fabric.

  I held my breath as I glared at him, but it wasn’t proof enough yet. I could tell that my minions were getting antsy. They didn’t want to watch any more of this, especially with how things were going as Baudouin stepped around Ines. The lord slashed out at the wedding dress that barely clung to his new bride's body, and Ines cried out in fear as she turned and attempted to run towards the hall where we hid from sight. My women and I quickly pulled back to avoid being seen, but I kept my eye on Baudouin as the lord swept out his foot and tripped Ines.

  “Master…” Carmedy whimpered with wide eyes as Baudouin slid closer to the cowering Ines and held the knife up.

  I raised a hand to silence the feline as Ines’ eyes fell on the glittering knife, and she struggled to scoot away on the wet stone. Baudouin fell on her, and I half expected him to kill her then, but the Lord spoke in an assured tone of a man who always got what he wanted. I was waiting for something… or more specifically a group of someones, people who needed to be here for their proper justice more than us. Besides, I was confident that I could stop the madman if he went for a fatal blow before their arrival.

  “Is this what you wanted?” Baudouin snarled as he held the knife to her throat with just enough pressure so that a single drop of blood welled up on her pale flesh. “You wanted to be the Lady of Tintagal, and you were so desperate to have the title that you didn’t even take the time to get to know me. I’m not a gracious and loving man. I’m your husband, and I can do whatever I want with you.”

  “Please… stop…” Ines whispered as she stared up into Baudouin’s flushed face, but the lord only smiled wickedly as he used the tip of the blade to widen the nick at the flesh of her neck. Small droplets of blood swelled and dribbled down her throat as Baudouin stared down at her with his heated golden eyes.

  “Why would you say such a thing?” Baudouin whispered as he drew back in mock surprise. “You and your parents practically forced me into this arranged marriage. Shouldn’t you be happy that I’m here with you now? Think of this… as our honeymoon suite. It may be a dank cave with some pools, but this is where something truly romantic happens.”

  Annalise shifted beside me uncomfortably as she tugged on my sleeve, and I glanced down at her, but her chocolate eyes stayed hard on Baudouin’s looming form over Ines. “Master, please.”

  I turned my eyes back to the two people around the corner and then I saw what I was looking for, the sign of Baudouin’s comeuppance. In the dark, undulating water of the Riese, a small translucent head bobbed up to the surface. The face was small and childlike, but the features were unforgettable from when we’d seen her on the ship towards Machstein. It was the very same Rusalka we’d encountered before, and her dark, hateful eyes were trained straight on Baudouin as he moved the knife back towards Ines’ neck. Suddenly, more translucent, ghostly heads rose from the water, and I counted twenty in total. Some of them stared, their faces hard with rage while others looked mournfully on.

  I turned back towards my minions and saw Morrigan’s face in the shadows for the first time since coming down to the caves. Her colorless lips pressed into a hard line, and her dark eyes were wholly black as they concentrated down on Baudouin. Her gaze snapped to me as her delicate hands fluttered down to her lower stomach. They rested there and pressed into the dress just below her belly button, and I remembered what the elf had said to me while on the island of Machstein.

  Now was the time to end this sick farce and see vengeance served. There were at least twenty Rusalka in the water, maybe more, as I stepped out into the open before Baudouin could hurt his poor victim anymore.

  My power moved around me in a tidal wave and washed over Baudouin. The lord didn’t seem to notice us at first as my minions fanned out around me, but with a backhanded wave of my hand, the lord’s dagger flung away into the dark water of the Riese. The Rusalka
converged on the spot where the dagger sunk down into the depths of the water. I couldn’t understand the words they spoke, but the high-pitched shrieks and cries we’d heard before on the ship exploded up from their throats. Baudouin’s eyes widened as he realized what was going on, and his head snapped up to lock eyes with me.

  Before he could react further, Carmedy stepped out from behind me with her slingshot raised. The lord rose to his full height as the alchemist let fly, and he dodged out of the way of the flying bundle right as it landed. No doubt he thought himself quick and clever, but he didn’t know what I did, that the golden slingshot could never miss. Beside me, Carmedy laughed darkly to herself as her shot hit exactly where she wished.

  The bundle landed with a soft plop then sizzled once. It didn’t explode like most of her others, but instead, the loosely tied ends of the bundle broke open, and noxious plum colored smoke belched out. The billowing and churning smoke swallowed both Ines and Baudouin, but with my perfect eyesight, I could still make out both of their shapes. I motioned Morrigan forward with a wave of my hand, and the elven woman dove into the dark smoke with her eyes wholly black.

  “Get Ines to safety,” I instructed Morrigan in her mind, and a mental affirmative was her response.

  The elf moved swiftly, knelt beside the poor discarded bride, and helped Ines to her feet. Morrigan helped Ines forward, and soon, both women stumbled out of the smoke. Ines coughed heartily as the elf moved her to rest against the wall, as I stepped forward into the smoke, my eyes locked on the struggling, coughing form of Baudouin. Rana and Annalise snuck into the smoke beside me as we circled the lord. The two women spread out around him as I came at the lord head-on, all of us eager for a piece of the murderous monster before us.

  Rana jabbed out with her dagger as he threatened to slip away, and Baudouin staggered to the side as he cried out in pain. Baudouin grabbed onto his left forearm where the fox’s blade had pierced him, and as he turned to flee, Bloodscale came down and severed the right arm from the shoulder. Baudouin’s body spasmed with waves of pain as his head fell back, and he screamed loudly.

  I pulled my power to me as I outstretched my hands in front of me then whipped them out to my sides. The plum smoke Carmedy created billowed away with the force of my power and left Baudouin perfectly exposed to all of us. Rana and Annalise joined me at my side, tensed and ready to strike. The fox held her daggers tightly in her paws, and the High Queen held her sword at the ready over her shoulder.

  Baudouin’s eyes flitted to Rana then landed on Annalise. The lord stared at her in horror for a few moments, but the swordswoman only gave him a wicked smile and raised a single eyebrow.

  “What have I done to deserve not only a visit from the High Queen but also the High King?” Baudouin chuckled through teeth clenched in agony, but from the wild look in his eyes, I could tell he was faking calmness as I closed the distance between us.

  Blood spilled down his pristine white suit from his wounds, but he attempted to keep his face smooth as he stared intensely into my eyes from behind the mask. The Lord took a step back as I neared, and the back of his boot met nothing but open air over the lip of the pool. Baudouin’s eyes widened as he stared at me, and he waved his single arm into the air as he tried to catch his balance. I glared at him as my arm stabbed out and I grabbed him by the front of his snow-white and gold suit. His eyes bored into mine, but then his expression broke, and he gave me a shaky smile.

  “Why don’t we strike up a deal?” Baudouin chuckled nervously, and I moved my eyes behind him to the dark, churning water.

  The Rusalka pressed together in the water, and their glassy eyes stared up at Baudouin’s back as I held him out just above the surface. Their cries and squeals heightened in sound, peaked as every drop of his blood splashed into the river, and their voices echoed around the cave.

  “What kind of deal?” I asked back in a booming voice as I kept my expression severe and emotionless.

  “H-how about I hand over my kingdom, and, uh, you let me live?” Baudouin begged as I stared deeply into his honey gold eyes. “You can even have Ines. Take whatever you want, I don’t need her nor did I really want her. You can have all of Tintagal if you just let me go.”

  I tightened my grip on the front of his shirt and lifted him higher as I glared at him. Baudouin gasped loudly, and I glanced down at the water just below his hanging boots. So many faces stared back at me, but they weren’t focused on Baudouin, they were focused in on me. The Rusalka were intelligent, cunning, and knew exactly what was going on. They wanted me to drop him in the water, to give him to the water just as he had done with them long ago.

  I looked deeply into their eyes and could feel their pain for a moment just as Morrigan had back on the ship to Machstein. I felt their sadness and pain wash over me and almost take over my whole being. Their eyes reminded me of Morrigan’s for a moment, and I stared deep into the vast empty black space behind their irises. After that long moment of communion, I lifted my eyes from theirs and looked into Baudouin’s tense face. His blood flowed from his massive wound and dribbled into the water below his feet, but his golden eyes looked composed. Some of his blood even spilled onto the face of the Rusalka, but they didn’t wipe it away, only stared upward with a mixture of sadness and rage up at the both of us.

  I rarely spared anyone from my wrath, but Baudouin’s life wasn’t mine to take. I lifted my eyes to his and smiled. The lord looked relieved as he believed that I accepted his deal and set him down directly on the edge of the pool. I could feel my minion’s tension, they didn’t like what was happening or the fact that I was cooperating with Baudouin, but they would learn soon what I’d intended and planned to do with him.

  “Tintagal is mine, and now part of Tamarisch?” I asked in a gruff voice as I stared down at the man much shorter than my avatar.

  “Yes, Tintagal is now part of Tamarisch's territories,” Baudouin admitted as he swayed back and forth on his feet.

  “Did you hear that, Ines?” I asked over my shoulder as I took a quick peek at her. The blonde nodded once as she clung to Carmedy for support.

  “Why do you care if Ines heard?” Baudouin cried through gritted teeth as he clamped a hand down over his stump of a bloody shoulder.

  “Ines is our witness,” I said through a smile as I rested my gaze heavily on Baudouin. “She’ll be the one to tell the people of Tintagal how the Lord Baudouin passed down his kingdom to me before he died.”

  “We made a deal!” Baudouin cried as his golden eyes pulsed in their sockets, and I tilted my head to him. “You’d let me live if I gave you Tintagal!”

  “Of course, I agreed to let you live,” I snarled through a wide grin and glanced over his shoulder towards the waiting Rusalka. The translucent women dipped around the surface but kept their hard eyes on Baudouin as they waited to see what I would do with him. “But that doesn’t mean that they will.”

  Baudouin’s hand clamped down on mine, but I only shook my head as I gave him a forceful push backward. He tried to latch onto me, but right as he reached for me, I took a quick step backward. The Rusalka lurched backward as Baudouin fell back, but as soon as his body made contact with the water, they leaped forward with their lips pulled back against their razor-sharp teeth. Baudouin screamed as his body bobbed to the surface, and he scrambled for the pool’s edge, but the Rusalka drug him back into the river as they sunk their teeth into his flesh and ripped him to shreds.

  My minions came around me, and we watched disdainfully as the deep blue water undulated and thrashed with the lord’s dying struggles. More and more Rusalka dove into the fray, eager to consume some of Baudouin’s flesh for themselves. My minions and I watched the water together as Ines pressed herself against the far wall and slipped her eyes closed as she breathed heavily. Soon, the water only rippled and shook from the movement below the surface then it evened out just as suddenly.

  No more Rusalka or any sign of Baudouin broke the surface.

  I stared down at th
e water, astonished. It was a strange feeling, the cumulation of all one’s efforts peaking at a point. We’d traveled across the Riese, landed on Machstein, ripped through the dungeons there then continued on to Tintagal. We’d battled against not only the Tintagal soldiers but an old friend of mine in the heavens. Weeks and months spent fighting to get to this very moment, and within minutes, it was all over. All of that had led up to this moment as Baudouin’s picked clean skeleton drifted down to the bottom of the pools and would rest there for all of eternity.

  Fea and Macha cawed loudly as the water at our feet split open a hair, and a single soul undulated up into the open air. Silently, the birds took flight and picked at it until it was gone. Carmedy sighed loudly, and all of our attention turned to her as her silky black ears fell to the sides of her head sadly.

  “What’s wrong, pussycat?” Rana asked as she reached out and ruffled the feline’s still pinned back hair.

  “I just… I just hoped that the Rusalka would be released… or something since Baudouin is dead…” The petite alchemist sighed as she rubbed her elbow and kept her emerald eyes downcast towards the pool.

  “They’ll be released, eventually, right?” Annalise questioned as she reached out and lifted Carmedy’s chin.

  “Annalise is correct, though they will not be released until they pass the date they would’ve died in their natural life,” Morrigan told us.

  I nodded to her solemnly, though I could tell that wasn’t what Carmedy wanted to be told at this moment. Before I could say more, the deep blue water began to roil once more like the water was coming to life before our eyes. One by one, the Rusalka came to the surface, and their dark eyes met mine in the silence of the cave. The surrounding water began to darken even more than before and sparkle like the night’s sky. The Riese rolled and swelled, and I watched as the Rusalka faded in and out of view for a few seconds, then just as suddenly, they sank back down into the water. Loud pops reached my ears. Each of those pops churned the water more as I leaned forward to get a closer look. Right as I looked into the water, soul orbs rose from the river and collected around the ceiling of the chamber like bubbles.