Swords of Steel Omnibus

by Howie K Bentley et al.

  Once they reached the cracked pyramid, they could feel the heat of the boiling stone within the fresh chasm. They searched for a way to cross, and after scaling the stone steps of the pyramid, found that near the apex was a space which could be leapt across. First, Ruhgar attempted, and as he did, a large chunk of stone splashed down into the inferno below. His trajectory faltered, and his hands narrowly grasped the opposite edge. The Earth Warrior quickly jumped across, although he felt again the oppressive effects of the gravity of this world while in the air. He reached down to grab the arm of his guide and pulled him to safety.

  “That’s twice,” Ruhgar said shortly as the Earth Warrior nodded.

  From the top of the pyramid they saw fields of dead and dying vegetation. Far off into the plains was one lonely peak where stood the castle of the King in Yellow. The warrior took the steel dirk from his belt and handed it to Ruhgar.

  “Take this as defense in these, the enemies’ lands.”

  They continued on their quest, edging with caution. Among the singed and burnt leafy plants were the bones of alien creatures, strange and terrible. The warrior mused that these were remains of the creatures who had stalked them out of sight. The grand towers of the castle beyond stood proud against the whirling orange sky. Lizard beasts from the Earth Warrior’s vision stalked the parapets and a strange glow illuminated stone crenellations. Each step drew them closer to doom, and the foreboding weight of the Faellnochian atmosphere fell heavy on their shoulders.

  At the base of the mountain, Ruhgar turned to the Earth Warrior. “It was near here where I was removed from the castle dungeon,” he said.

  They peered beyond a large chunk of stone and saw two grotesque guards armed with spears standing watch on an iron gate, torchlight flickering and glinting off their crude armor. The warrior drew his sword silently. From his back he slung his shield, which bore the ancient winged predator insignia of the forgotten lore of Eyrn. Ruhgar drew his dagger and they made their attack, charging at each of the guards with fury. The mutant guards readied their position with spears pointing to their assailants. The Earth Warrior deflected the oncoming spear thrust and forced it against the guard as his sword pierced its throat. Ruhgar grabbed the spear of his guard, then buried the dagger in the creature’s heart. Both mutants fell, their thick yellow blood oozing and bubbling onto the stony ground. The Earth Warrior searched the fallen corpses and found a crudely formed key, which he fit into the slot on the iron gate. It turned with a crunch and the gate creaked open. Ruhgar took a torch from the rock face and led the way inside. They stalked slowly inside, and found that they were in a passage of crumbling brick with many heavy doors lining the walls.

  “We are in the castle undercroft; this place is a labyrinth of sorts,” said Ruhgar. “Beyond each door is a series of shifting paths. The very walls here are alive. When the guards dragged me through these halls, they became lost several times and argued in their harsh, primitive language. We may remain lost here.”

  The warrior with no name nodded. He approached a door and pulled the iron latch. As the hinges spoke, the door swung open. The warrior peered into the blackness. Something shuffled heavily in the darkness within. Again he took the key given to him by the Lady in Blue and held it in hand with his sword. As he did so, his sword swung away from the open door, and pointed to another door further down the hall. This door seemed to be turning to dust where it stood. The warrior approached it and grasped the latch. It pulled free and crashed to the stone floor. He kicked at the door and the rotten planks splintered. Ruhgar approached the passage and lit his torch. Within were a continuing series of claustrophobic stone hallways. The adventurers walked along, twisting and winding further into the labyrinth, always following the pull of the magick key.

  XI

  The four warriors sent from the far regions of Eyrn had left the guild hall. They were to return to their kingdoms and raise armies fit to fight the demons of a faraway planet. The Lady in Blue and Immerus now sat at the guildhall table, deep in thought. Their prophecies had only revealed how this tale would begin. Now fate’s hands were shrouded in mystery.

  It was after their would-be protectors had left that the guildhall door burst open, and a war band of mutants crashed into the room. The Lady and Immerus leapt from their seats to draw weapons against the beasts, but were too late. Immerus was cut down by a nameless demonic creature of the Oxuul dimension. His blood spattered across the table onto the tomes and vellum scrolls, and the Lady was bound and taken. The cruel captors shouted at her in their wicked tongue. She did not understand the words, but ceased her screaming. The creatures barricaded the entrance to the hall and threw her into the room at the end, barring the door.

  As these things transpired, a great army of grey humanoid creatures amassed in the forests surrounding Ardona. Trees were felled, and crude siege engines were built. Through mirrors and still waters, more barbaric hordes crossed over to the planet Eyrn. In the very homes of the citizens of this world creatures were emerging, shouting and pillaging. The dark days had arrived, and the Lady thought of the Earth Warrior.

  XII

  After navigating the maze of corridors, Ruhgar and the warrior with no name arrived at the end of a long stone hall to find a door unlike any of the others they had seen. The door was of a shining crimson lacquer, seemingly untouched by the dust and grime which coated the stones of the maze they had navigated. Ruhgar first reached out to the golden ring at its center and paused. As his fingers touched the yellow metal, a low rumbling laugh echoed through the halls, its reverberations bounding down through the darkness. The deep sounds rumbled, then a rattling sound grew to replace it. Ruhgar turned to light the passages opposite the crimson door, and saw nothing at first. The sounds grew louder, and the clanking of metal arose to join the chatter.

  Again they lit the halls with the torch and saw a company of skeletal undead warriors, each wielding a sword and shield of rusty iron, running down the hall towards them at a great pace. The Earth Warrior charged forth into the first three skeletons. The reanimated bodies broke on his shield like a wave of bone meal and dust. Ruhgar turned to face two oncoming skeletal abominations and thrust the torch into one’s ribcage, igniting the dry bone instantly. The flaming mass crashed into his comrade and the fire spread. The flaming undead gasped ghostly cries as they crumbled to the floor in smoldering ash. The low rolling laugh began again as the crimson door clicked open.

  XIII

  A wide stair of perfectly carved crimson stone lay before them. It was buffed to a mirror shine, and glimmered in faint torchlight from above. Thin green mist arose from the piles of bones around them and crawled up the stairs, clinging to the ground, moving almost as if in reverse as the laughter continued.

  “Enter my court, travelers, and behold your doom,” a voice called after them, seemingly in many simultaneous tones.

  Brandishing their weapons, the adventurers climbed the stair and entered into a hall of mirrors. As the stalked past, their reflections refracted into disfigured and bizarre forms. The reflections they could see were altered beyond recognition by evil magick. The warrior turned to gaze at his reflection, and the mirrored room around him and Ruhgar melted away.

  He was at once alone in his bedroom, a child on Earth, the album sleeve for Rush’s Caress of Steel lay beside him on his bed. The stereo crackled:

  “The men are free to run now

  From labyrinths below

  The Wraith of Necromancer

  Shadows through the sky

  Another land to darken

  With evil prism eye”

  The final line distorted as the record slowed to a halt. Flame shot up all around the walls of his room. Posters curled and framed pictures crashed to the floor, and the room was consumed in fire. He raced to the door. He reached for the knob and it burnt his hand with a sharp hiss. He backed into the center of the room as all around him burned, and smoke filled the air. He lowered himself to the ground, covering his head as the black smo
ke rose.

  When he raised his eyes, he had returned once again to the court of the King in Yellow: the Necromancer. Again there rolled the now maniacal laughter from beyond. Ruhgar, who had walked ahead, turned back to see the warrior rising from the ground.

  “What happened?” said the rogue.

  “A vision of another time: a cage of mirrors,” the Earth Warrior answered. “There seems to be no end to the court. The mirrors go on out of sight.”

  As he spoke these words, the terrible form of the King in Yellow appeared in each of the mirrored panes, grey hood obscuring his face. The warrior, in anger, crashed through a mirror on the wall near him, plunging his sword into the chest of the reflection. The laughter rolled on, coming from nowhere and everywhere. The floor beneath his feet disappeared into a black void of nothing. He began to slowly sink into the darkness. He reached to the edge of the crimson floor, pulling himself back up and out. The warrior got to his feet, and rejoined Ruhgar, huffing with rage.

  “There must be an answer to this riddle,” said Ruhgar, puzzled. “This is dark magick, but there must be a source.”

  The warrior again held out the key given to him by the Lady in Blue. He closed his eyes and felt it twitch. He followed the force which pulled on the key and walked blindly. After many paces, he heard the chime of metal on glass, and stood back, raising the ancient sword he wielded. His reflection shifted violently into that of the King in Yellow, his cloak billowing in unearthly winds with a bony hand outstretched. The warrior brought his blade down with a crash on the mirror in front of him. Shards of glass fell to the ground, glittering in the air as they fell. Beyond the mirror lay a small room, lined with glossy crimson stone. At the center the square room was a golden picture frame of elaborate design standing upright on a pedestal of white marble. The picture frame housed a smooth golden panel with a keyhole at its center. Ruhgar ran to catch up with the warrior and peered into the room.

  The warrior placed the key into the keyhole, and it turned with a mechanical click. As the key turned, the golden surface of the panel floated back and out into darkness, taking with it the key. A low rolling wind began to howl from within. The golden picture frame grew larger and wider, and the blackness within grew deeper. The adventurers backed out of the room as the darkness spread, engulfing the room which held the box and moving onto the court. The marble pedestal broke with a snap as the void of golden darkness continued to grow, cracking and shattering the mirrored walls as it expanded. The winds from within picked up, pulling the shards through the air and cutting the adventurers in their flight. The court rumbled and shook and a harrowing voice rang out.

  “Gaze at the void in despair! The dreams of gods lie within and are beyond time.” The adventurers watched as the shards of mirrors and crimson polished stone flew into the golden gateway before them. They turned to see that one mirror behind them remained intact, and within it stood the King in Yellow, who walked toward them through the glass as if it were air. He towered over them, his yellow cloak flowing wild in the dark wind.

  “Secrets beyond time I hold,” he said. “Great mysteries of all life and existence await. Faellnoch is a dying world. Join me in cosmic travel: I can return you to your home-world, Earth Warrior. You may yet breathe the air there again.”

  The warrior searched his soul, and thought of his burning bedroom on Earth. This illusion was part of the cage of mirrors he had destroyed. He walked toward the King in Yellow, who awaited his response. The Earth Warrior bent to pick up a single crimson stone which lay in the black void. He looked into the eyes of the King in Yellow, and they flashed at him in panic. The Earth Warrior hurled the stone at the remaining mirror, and instead of crashing through, splashed as if into a pool of water. It was then that the very form of the King in Yellow shattered into thousands of tiny shards, which were pulled through the air into the void opened by the ancient key. As the ripples in the mirror cleared, a familiar reflection appeared. Within the gateway, the warrior recognized the room he had rested in the guildhall of Ardona. He and Ruhgar made a dash and leapt through.

  XIV

  With a crash the adventurers landed on the floor in the room of the guildhall, its fixtures utterly destroyed by the forces of the King in Yellow. The two found that the main room where the Earth Warrior had met with the guild had also been destroyed. Upon the floor lay the bloody remains of Immerus. With sword in hand, his strength was outmatched in the end. The Earth Warrior knelt to close the eyes of the fallen sage, and solemnly the adventurers exited the guildhall to seek the streets of Ardona. Once they opened the secret door, they found naught but carnage. The city was set aflame, and the gray mutated troops of doom ransacked the buildings in careless greed and plunder. Distant screams of the villagers filled their weary minds. The adventurers then sought cover behind destroyed crates of supplies and bore witness to a strange scene. The King in Yellow drove his chariot through the city streets with triumphant swagger, shouting eerie commands in a wicked tongue. Strange reptilian creatures toiled and pulled the demonic entity along the cobbles, forked tongues probing the air.

  “This cannot be,” mused Ruhgar. “He was all but devoured by the void on Faellnoch.”

  “It may be that time between the worlds moves differently,” the Earth Warrior suggested. “Let us remain hidden and find a way out of the city.”

  The adventurers continued on their way toward the city gates, ever wary of threat of discovery. Great violence and bloodshed was unfurled in the city, and the Earth Warrior held the secret hope that the four kingdoms of Eyrn had not failed in their quest. As they neared the gate, they caught the eye of a guard lagging behind his company of raiders. The Earth Warrior raised his sword in fury; Ruhgar sneaked up behind him and cut his throat, spilling the vile yellow blood upon the street. The body hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Ruhgar and the Earth Warrior ran through the unguarded gates for the cover of the tall hills at the edge of the fields. They reached the cool shade of the evergreens and made camp in silence.

  XV

  Beyond the walls of the city, far into the hills, a vast army amassed, comprised of the four kingdoms of Eyrn and lead by their warlords. They made their council in a ragged canvas tent which had seen many bloody campaigns. They discussed the sack of Ardona. They wondered the fate which befell Immerus and the Lady in Blue, who had remained. The force of Eyrn mustered, and began their march to Ardona in the evening. As they neared the gate, they discovered the humble camp of Ruhgar and the Earth Warrior.

  Once cool night fell, a great storm of war crashed upon the gates of Ardona. The mutant army had slammed shut the iron gate and gathered in formation. The archers of the nomadic eastern tribes launched volleys of arrows over the walls, while the Northmen of Irethorne used a makeshift battering ram to crush the gates into a mangled heap. Raiders of Westfold lobbed grappling hooks over the high walls and breeched the stronghold. As the heavy iron gates crashed to the ground the Uthynk tribesmen fell in with the Northmen, sweeping the city and overtaking the gray humanoid creatures. The streets ran with blood and carnage. Cries of fury and pain filled the air as the city burned.

  The Eyrnian forces swept through the city, hacking their way through hordes of vile hulking creatures. The armies of the four kingdoms pushed their way through to the mount on which the Tower Keep had stood, backing the gray mutants against the rocks. The creatures made a final stand, but were overtaken and slaughtered to the last. As the Eyrnian forces shouted and cheered in their glory, a lone figure emerged. From atop the mount the King in Yellow appeared with arms raised. Behind him was the winged demon with the Lady in Blue captive in his four armed grasp. She struggled not, but her azure robes billowed in the winds of sadness and defeat. The King in Yellow bellowed in the common tongue of Eyrn:

  “You who stand before me have borne witness only to the slightest of the storms of Oxuulian nightmares. My word holds the power to crack this planet to its core, and the vengeance of dreaming gods! They will seek further vengeance up
on thee in eternal suffering and pain! Hear now the song of your doom!”

  The King in Yellow raised his hands and his ragged hood fell back to reveal a grotesque undead countenance of white bone and sinewy strands of rotten flesh. He began to chant a lyrical and wicked incantation. The air seemed to vibrate, and the Eyrnian forces clasped their ears in a violent fury, falling to their knees. Buildings shook and chunks of stone fell to the street.

  The horrid words of the King in Yellow reverberated through the land; winds howled and buildings crumbled into heaps. The men of the four armies looked to each other, and hope failed as panic took hold. The song of doom reached deafening heights, and it seemed that all was in vain, when the spell suddenly weakened. The armies looked up again to see that the eyes of the Yellow King glowed white, and that the winds grew still. Light poured forth in thin beams into the blue midnight. Gleaming cracks started to form over his face, and spread out through his arms and down to the edges of his yellow tattered cloak, and a single crimson stone burst forth to land at the Earth Warrior’s feet. The cracks grew wider, finally shattering the demonic entity into thousands of razor slivers, bounding and breaking onto the sandy street.

  The demon holding the Lady in Blue released her and took to the air in retreat. His bat-like wings were silhouetted against the moon as the nomadic archers loosed their arrows into the creature’s heart. The demonic entity dissolved into dust as it fell. The Lady in Blue caught the eye of the Earth Warrior and ran to him. He crushed her white form in his battle-scarred arms, and a roaring cheer emerged from the victorious forces of Eyrn in unified glory. The gateway was closed once more.

  Uncertain years lay ahead, and new hulking towers of stone were built. The portals of time rested as dreaming gods: in uneasy slumber. Catastrophic evil must balance unwavering good, as utter chaos rivals tidy order. The Earth Warrior, traveled onward to meet his destiny, with crimson stone and ancient steel in hand, as dreams of Earth haunted the darkness of his mind ever on.