Paladin's Oath

by M. H. Johnson

  “Silly Hound,” Twilight huffed. “As if I’d let you live to see a full century, with that much power coursing through your veins.”

  “That’s not funny, Twilight.”

  “Isn’t it? I thought so.” Jess’s cat smirked. “The answer is simple. The Shadowlands themselves are anomalies, both a part of our universe and a threat to it. When you absorb power here in the Dreamrealms, or Shadow or Regio, call it what you will, you are also feeding upon the very essence of these intrusive dimensions, so at odds with the world of Dawn, our home. Its anomaly fades, and Dawn is safer, even as your own power increases. This keeps our realm in balance, even if your own lifeline is stretched the longer for it.”

  Malek nodded. “So only vile rats would dare to drain innocent lives to increase their lifespan, an act that puts our entire realm in peril. But a Delver, killing creatures of nightmare, is safe even if he lives for centuries. He is not tearing apart Dawn, and I am guessing that Dawn shall only grow stronger when he eventually passes on, the power he absorbed from other worlds flowing into the earth, much like mulch feeds and nurtures a farmer's soil, I suppose.”

  Twilight gracefully shrugged his feline shoulders. “Close enough. Suffice to say, a silly Hound like you is no peril to our home in your present state, as the good-natured lad and steadfast shieldbrother to our Jess that you are.”

  "Malek, Twilight!" Jess abruptly raised her fist in a Commander's sign, all eyes immediately upon her. "I hear screaming again, just ahead."

  11

  Though faint, the agonized cries could be heard emanating from a throat raw with screaming. It sounded close, perhaps just around the next passage. By silent agreement, they picked up their pace, blood armor and rawhide boots alike padding silently upon the ground.

  Cautiously, Twilight darted past them to peer into the room that was the source of those bloodcurdling cries, and with a sharp hiss, her familiar darted back to her side. "Large chamber, looks like a diabolist's lab. There is a boy inside constrained to a slab of stone, caught in enchantments, being slowly drained. Be careful, Jess. I sense demons ahead, as well as the subject of our portraits. The doorway is within their line of sight, and you and Malek both radiate so much power that there is no way we can cloak your auras. They will sense us coming."

  Jess nodded coldly. “Let’s pay this diabolist a visit direct, shall we?” She turned to her companion. “So, what say you, Malek? We charge in, disembowel anything that dares to stand against us, stun them senseless with the savagery of our assault, and cut down as many of them as we can before they can mount an organized defense?”

  Her shieldbrother’s grin was savage, and Jess felt a curious thrill as she gazed upon his darkly handsome features. Not for the first time, she wondered what would have happened had fate cast a slightly different die. “Indeed, my sister. My bloodwards are cast. Let’s go forth and have a ‘conversation’ with this madman who thinks to trade the lives of children for his own benefit. It's time he was made to pay for his sins!”

  Jess nodded as the sweet, heady rush of righteous fury swept through her, her body tingling with excitement. “Let me lead! Any conjurers, I’ll do my best to slice through their webs of power before they can unleash their spells. Let's preserve your wards for as long as we can. On my mark… charge!”

  With that the two young adventurers dashed around the corner, serpentine bladed greatsword and mithril longsword raised together in unison. In the instant they turned the corner Jess beheld the monstrous chamber before them, taking in the positions of the half dozen concrete slabs covered with beakers, vials, crystals and tubing, all interconnecting to one vast slab of shimmering emerald upon which was strapped down the writhing form of a victim trapped in the extremes of mortal agony.

  He appeared both young and hideously wasted, as if infected with leprosy or worse. His flesh hung from his once young frame in tatters, face sharp with wrinkles and ragged flesh, hair an odd mixture of brilliant lush curls and wispy white tatters. His eyes were open sores, rot and pus leaking from them. His voice, though, tore at Jess's heart. He was sobbing, gasping, his voice that of a young boy.

  "Father. Please! Make it stop!" He cried out before gasping and shrieking, and Jess saw to her horror the silver-white strands of magic flowing from the child through the complex myriad of tubes, crystals, and wires, all of it infusing a vast throne of brilliant ruby upon which indolently sat the very man Jess had seen seducing Sissela Turnsby, lost in an opiate induced rapture, but hours before. None other than Lord Lessel himself, and Jess realized to her horror that the boy he was draining dry of all vitality was none other than Josiah Turnsby. His image was a tormented mockery of the frail boy she had seen smiling so brightly from the portraiture Onnika had shown Jess. Yet there could be no mistake as certain horrific truths clicked into place. Josiah was not just his ward. The withered child screaming for mercy even as the diabolist drained every last drop of life from his tortured body was Lord Lessel's own son.

  Lessel had not even the decency to show the slightest shred of remorse, face a mask of ecstatic pleasure even as he gazed at the shrieking boy.

  Jess felt a curious roaring in her ears, her heart pounding with blackest fury.

  "Lessel Turnsby!" Jess roared, pointing her blade straight toward his heart from across the room. "I accuse you of Diabolism, Progenicide, and the willful endangerment of this realm! Your acts are unforgivable, and no mercy will be shown to you or your soul! I swear by my blade that I will see you dead, and your soul burning in Hell!" Jess felt a shiver of terrible wrath overcome her as she roared her challenge, Malek's war cry echoing her own.

  They charged forward in tandem then, and so focused Jess had been at the outrage perpetrated to an innocent child before her very eyes she only noticed the bat winged monstrosities as she passed by them. Black as liquid shadow, their hisses of hatred brought Jess’s blade snapping into position, Malek instantly at her back, and time seemed to slow as she prepared to do fierce and terrible battle with the eyeless demons before her.

  The room echoed with laughter. Lessel looked upon them from his ruby throne with the wry amusement of someone witnessing a jest in his honor. His eyes twinkled with merriment even as he lifted a crystal glass filled with amber liquid, saluting them before he drank.

  "My, what an interesting vision we have before us today, dear Hissel." Lessel turned to peer at the small, toadlike creature who was even then consulting a silver gold ledger held within its slime covered paws.

  “Yes, my Lord Turnsby. A vision of the future, I suspect.”

  The bemused lord tilted his head. “At first I thought I was to pay court to a Queen. An unexpected honor that would have been, but 'tis only an adventurer after all, is it not?”

  The strange toadlike being fastened his bulbous eyes upon Jess's furious crimson glare. He shuddered before pulling his gaze away. "A being of power that is, dark in the true arts. As are her familiars. Not to be trifled with, my lord, whether she be a Queen or no."

  The diabolist's laughter was soft and mocking. "Oh, I think I know how best to deal with righteous Delvers and seekers of justice, if that is indeed what we face." He turned to Jess. "So tell me, fair damsel of flaming hair and eyes of sweetest blood, are you a Queen who seeks an audience with a true master of life and death? Do you seek a doorway to be opened, so you may tear free of your abyssal constraints and feast upon sweet living flesh in this, the lowest of all mortal realms?" His voice turned dark then. "Or do you seek to contest this domain that I have carved out from myself, in this darkest of dreams, between the realms of Hades and the realm of Life? I warn you, Queen, if that is what you are, covenants I have made with Courts and Powers as potent as your own. I am not one to be treated lightly!"

  Jess's eyes flashed with a hatred so fierce Turnsby's mask of condescension was ripped off, showing the fear and rage simmering just underneath the surface even as he gasped and hissed, wine spilling upon his silken doublet, even warded by the bridge of time and distance. For J
ess could sense as well, now, that this was but a ghost of time past, a potent twisting of reality in this deep pit of Regio. "I will come for you, diabolist! For what you did to your own child, I swear I will cut you down like the monster you are, and send your soul screaming into the pits of Hell!"

  The odd toadlike demon hissed. "Twice it has sworn an oath to your destruction, my master. I can feel the chords of fate moan and cry out, even now. My lord, we must take steps!"

  Lessel grinned with jaded pleasure, his mask of jovial control once more firmly in place. "Can you see the time of its arrival, my dear little Hissel?"

  The creature shuddered and nodded. “Like a tsunami, its power washes through the fate lines too fiercely to hide. None with the gift could possibly be blind to her presence.”

  "Very good," The diabolist nodded. "We shall prepare a present for our dear guests. A surprise, if you will." His smile was one of savage glee as he stared tauntingly into Jess's seething gaze. "Come then, my dear friends, enter my domain at your pleasure and embrace the presents I have waiting for you!" He laughed loud and mockingly at that. "Should you survive the experience, by all means, make your way up the tower. Come meet me at the heart of my power. Both I and my associates would love to converse further with you then. Farewell, and enjoy!"

  Lessel Turnsby's arrogant laughter faded as did his wavering image, the demonic court of bat-winged servants and his screaming son all disappearing as one into the mist.

  “Jess, run!” Twilight cried, and by sheer reflex alone Jess leaped back to the hallway as the floor of the room they had been in began to collapse, cracked and pitted slabs of granite tumbling straight into a hideous whirlpool of blackness, the air suddenly alive with the shriek of howling winds. Jess felt strong arms grip her from behind as she teetered at the edge of what was now a broken cliff, oblivion an endless distance below.

  Malek hissed and turned around. “We've got trouble, Jess!”

  “What?” Jess demanded, twisting around to see hundreds of hissing, screeching, cackling monstrosities filling the corridor from whence they came.

  Trapped between an endless drop behind them, and a legion of foes ahead.

  Jess found herself laughing with savage delight as death slowly wove its trap around her. A glance to her friend showed that despite his terror, Malek also felt a terrible exhilaration at the prospect of fighting a desperate, frenzied battle for their lives.

  “Are you ready, shieldbrother?”

  Malek nodded, face alight in a berserker's grin. "Let's show these monsters what it means to battle students of Highrock! On my mark Jess… charge!"

  Their roars equal parts terror and exhilaration, they charged into the roaring mass of monstrosities as one.

  12

  “Behind you!” Twilight cried as their blades lashed out, tearing through the thick chitinous carapaces of the insect-like beasts before them. Jess could feel the slightest shudder of resistance as her blade neatly cleaved through her latest opponent's torso with her fierce Mittelhau slash, executed only after weaving to the side to dodge her foe's massive pincers. It screeched and fell to the ground even as Jess spun around, delivering a savage Oberhau strike to the snakelike beast who had snuck from the rear. Jess step-slid away from the massive corpse, skull split cleanly in two, pivoting to her right even as Malek lashed a terrific Zornhau slash, the massive bearlike beast that had been flanking Jess rupturing with the force of the blow, Jess and Malek moving in perfect tandem as they weaved and struck, cleaving through the endless waves of demonic monstrosities seeking to overwhelm them.

  Together they immersed themselves in a terrible dance of blood and death, every step in perfect synchronicity, every thrust, lunge, slash, and parry done with an utter awareness of their partner’s position. It was the most graceful of unions, a glorious symphony of destruction. The tiles at their feet were already flowing with blood and gore, shattered bodies being instinctively incorporated into their masterwork of violence even as their enemies stumbled and tripped over their fallen comrades, collapsing in broken heaps seconds later, flesh torn asunder by Jess and Malek’s combined onslaught, their terrible blades throbbing with the sweet rush of power as dozens upon dozens of demonic souls roared their dying essence into the young adventurer’s bodies, till Jess and Malek felt fit to burst, drunk on madness and power, fueling their terrible strength to every greater heights, lost as they were in the purest of all arts, the clean lines of death and intricate swirls of agony demonstrated with furious, loving detail upon the living canvas of hellspawn that dared to oppose them.

  Endless nicks, cuts, and narrowly avoided blows still took their toll, Jess spinning about madly, just barely dodging a savage slash to her shin, only the tip of the hideous blade tearing through bronze guard and hooking her flesh nonetheless, though slicing only skin. Yet such was the potency of the power flowing into her that Jess felt her flesh knit up, whole and unbroken, the instant her foe's blade left her flesh. And Jess laughed with exultation as she spun under the massive bellowing warrior's guard, her blade swinging upwards in a fierce Unterhau strike, cleaving through the beast from naval to shoulder, her mithril blade so sharp and with such power behind the strike that even its thick chitinous armor could do little to slow the force of the blow, the nightmarish apparition stumbling back and collapsing, spasming in death as its entrails poured in a steaming pile upon the blood-slicked tiles, even as Jess in that very instant spun around, blade knocking aside the massive polearm spearing toward her head before launching forward in a vicious Stechen strike, rupturing yet another horned skull, hideous eyes staring stupidly at her even as the demonic corpse shrieked and shriveled upon her blade, before Jess tore the mithril sword free to parry furious blows aimed at her shieldbrother's side.

  Together, Jess and Malek lost themselves ever deeper in the deadly dance of death and fury they reveled in, embracing the darkest natures of their own terrible souls in a desperate bid to survive against terrible odds. As one, they fought and killed, performing feats of martial prowess that would have left their fellow Squires of War breathless with awe and terror as they increasingly forsook mere mortal limitations, the very fount of dread power they tapped into with the deaths of their foes bringing dark and terrible memories to the fore, their bodies flowing with odd remembrances, now possessing a speed and raw vitality that transcended mortal flesh.

  And in that odd flicker of sanity in the madness of melee Jess understood that they no longer moved like youths of eighteen summers. Rather they flowed with a terrible grace, no longer fully of the mortal realm, their bodies little more than precision instruments of death directing the dread flow of their blades where they willed them to strike, multiple foes falling in but fractions of an instant, until suddenly, victory seemed miraculously within their grasp.

  Jess felt a moment of sheerest exultation when the last of the insectoid beasts dropped to the ground, shuddering to ashes in final death as Jess and her brother fed upon its very soul, no more enemies save the ones unseen, only choosing to reveal themselves when victory seemed imminent, the sweeter to tear the taste of triumph from the starving foe, leaving them gasping and dying with despair choking their lungs.

  “Malek!” Twilight cried, and Jess spun around instantly, heart hammering, knowing something was terribly wrong. Her familiar's warning came but an instant too late, and Malek gasped, collapsing to the ground as a savage, carefully aimed spear thrust plunged through a gap in his bloodmail, lodging in the crook of his shoulder. His fiercely spinning orbs shimmering even now with a crimson fire, normally so good at knocking projectile attacks aside, had done little to ward the blow, his enemy's full weight behind the strike.

  It might have sunk in even deeper, plunging through her shieldbrother’s lungs completely, had Jess not spun around and plunged her blade deep into the heart of the shrieking locust-like creature that had been hiding in the ceiling above, slamming it to the ground in savage fury, decapitating it with a fierce Mittelhau strike an instant later, its spea
r still stuck sickeningly in Malek’s body.

  “Malek!” Jess cried, near sobbing in sudden terror.

  "Jess, they swarm, guard yourself!" Twilight said, even as he raced up the walls and to the ceiling itself, seemingly too stubborn a cat to let a mere inconvenience such as gravity frustrate him of his kills. Jess took in the sight of dozens of chittering, locust-like demons, all hiding in the vast ceiling crevices, diving down to swarm them as one.

  Jess screamed her fury, lashing out with her blade in fierce Oberhau strikes, cleaving mandibled heads from chitinous bodies, spinning around even as her foes thrust their obsidian tipped spears toward her, mithril longsword gracefully flowing from vom Tag guard to savage Zornhau strike as she dodged and spun, her terrible arcing blade blasting through the carapace of the locust-like foe ready to strike her from behind in a spray of shell and gore, just one more step in the fatal dance she embraced like no other.

  Jess twisted, spun, parried, and lashed out to deadly effect, her blood pounding with battlefrenzy and fear. For beneath her hot rage was the terror that her friend who she loved as deeply as life itself might die, gutted and savaged in these twisted halls, his life and dreams but a lost memory.

  "Your rear!" Twilight roared, and Jess instinctively danced and spun aside, her blade whipping out in a lightning fast slashing lunge that managed to score a gash in her snapping foe even as she grunted and stumbled, razor sharp obsidian blade cutting through her bronze greaves, leaving a ragged gash in her left shin. The creature hissed and prepared to lunge again before screaming and stumbling back, an enraged Twilight disemboweling it with ruthless efficiency before darting off to his next Locust-like foe. "Focus, Jess!" her familiar scolded, and Jess brought her mind firmly back to the battle at hand.

  There was nothing she could do for Malek if she herself fell to these pathetic excuses for demons, Jess fiercely remonstrated herself, even as she focused her rage into a righteous burst of hot intensity, demanding her body be whole and ready. And such was the power coursing through her that she felt a hot tingle ripple through her leg as she charged forth with a great yell, knowing that she was whole once more.