by Tim Paulson
“Oh he was a thief all right,” Celia said, now leaning against the inner wall of the doorway.
“What?” Giselle and Aaron said in unison.
“He might have run off but he left one of his little pouches behind. I took the opportunity to peruse it when we recovered you. He had these in it,” Celia said as she pulled an inlaid ivory cameo ring and a golden amethyst necklace from a small pocket at her waist.
“Those are mine! I thought I'd lost them while we were escaping the castle,” Giselle said, retrieving her jewelry.
“You did,” Aaron said, following her to the door. He kept a hand on her waist as if afraid to let her go. Giselle appreciated the sentiment and pressed back against his hand, letting him know.
“I hope he's alright. I suppose you can be a thief but not a bad person. There aren't many stories like that,” Giselle said. “Oh, that reminds me, where are the children?”
“They're fine,” Celia said, waving a hand dismissively.
“Better than fine. They're having a ball,” Aaron said. “This place Giselle... the technology here, it's fantastic!”
“It's sorcery! They're wizards Aaron! Didn't you listen before?” Celia said.
Giselle held up a hand. “Please no arguing yet! I'm still trying to fully realize I'm not dead.”
The skull creature was back and peeking a horned head around the edge of the circular doorway.
“Giselle meet Daniel,” Aaron said as he gestured at the creature. It waved a single tentacle at her.
“What is he?”
“I'm not sure,” Aaron said. “The, uh... person who lives here has lots of them around. They called them acolytes. They're helpers, like servants.”
Daniel nodded, fully showing himself again on the other side of the doorway.
“Someone lives... here?” Giselle said, gesturing toward the black crenelated walls and floor. “Where are we? And why is it so dark?”
“Oh someone lives here alright, a very odd someone,” Aaron said.
“He's not odd! He's mysterious and sophisticated. You're odd!” Celia said, pointing directly at Aaron's nose with one sharp black finger nail.
“He's a ghoul Celia,” Aaron said.
“Those are real?”
Aaron and Celia nodded together, as did Daniel, his skull bobbing up and down on top of the pile of shiny black appendages that made up the rest of him.
“Before we see the rest of Vex's... house I suppose you'd call it,” Celia said. “Why don't we have Daniel turn on the lights and get you something to wear without so much blood on it.”
Daniel reached one of his tentacles out and touched a spot on the wall inside the door. A globe of white light illuminated in the center of the ceiling above them, finally revealing the whole room. No wonder Giselle couldn't see anything when it was dark, every single item and piece of furniture in the entire room from the squishy bed to a squarish block of something she presumed was a bureau, all of it, was pure midnight black.
Then her eyes found the attached bathing room and saw the bright white tub within and next to it a commode. Each of these things, though familiar, was not quite as expected. Celia explained it all while the creature named Daniel hovered along behind to demonstrate when necessary.
Thankfully, though different, none of it was hard to understand so before long she was able to send them all out and perform all the duties she had need of, not least of which was a bath. Giselle emerged later feeling refreshed and clean and wearing the lightest colored piece of clothing she could find. It was another form fitting garment similar to Celia's only a light ashen gray.
Apparently this place detested color. There wasn't even any red polish for nails or lips. She would find some eventually. A girl had to have some absolute necessities and those were among hers.
Thankfully in the top of a drawer shaped like a yawning creature's mouth that was recessed in the bathing room's wall, she found a hair brush. It looked like it had been carved from bones but she wasn't about to complain as it worked beautifully. When she exited she found Aaron and the creature Daniel waiting outside.
“Ready?” Aaron asked.
“Yes! Where's Celia?”
“She mumbled something about taking forever and went back to the main room. We'll probably see her there, sharpening her knives or... something,” Aaron said.
“So show me around,” Giselle said as she took her husband's hand.
They walked down a hall that looked like the rib cage of some ancient monstrous beast but burned to a shiny charcoal black. Small lamps hung from the ceiling here and there. They too were patterned after bones, or made from them, Giselle wasn't sure. About halfway down the hall she could just barely discern a banging sound coming from behind a closed circular door.
“What's that? Do I even want to know?” she asked.
“That my dear... is your brother,” Aaron said.
“Why is he locked in there?”
“He went nuts.” Celia was walking down from the hall ahead. “I had a feeling you might be done by now, I'd started growing a beard.”
Giselle glared at her. “No really, why is Liam in there?”
Aaron sighed. “He doesn't like this place. He thinks its demonic. Your mother had him confined so he can't leave.”
“Why would he leave? Where else would he go? The palace in Valendam?”
“He wanted to go back home and drive out the men who took over the castle and imprisoned your father,” Aaron added.
“With just his own sword? Is he mad?” Giselle paused. “Father's alive!?”
“According to your mother, yes he is,” Aaron said.
“I would be careful about trusting everything she says,” Celia said.
“Why's that?” Giselle asked. This was new, Celia had never said anything negative about her mother before.
“I just would,” Celia said.
“Ah... alright,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “Anyway, if you need to talk to him, he's in there.”
More banging sounds from inside the door, some yelling also.
“I think that can wait until he calms down,” Giselle said, pursing her lips.
“I concur,” Aaron said, nodding. “This way.”
Chapter 21
"You've done good work, girl. Lads didn't even see it coming. You clean off that dagger and I'll let you keep ten percent."
-Excerpt from The Miranese, first printed 1545
Mia was pulled backward, down the stairs. She thrashed as best she could but in the dark, not knowing the distance to the walls or the size of her attackers, it was near impossible to push off enough to tumble them.
Mia cursed at herself. She should have been paying better attention.
They dragged her all the way down the stairs and out into the open hall of the stable's lower floor. There they threw her to the ground and removed her weapons.
“You may remove your hood,” said a familiar man's voice.
She pulled off the hood and spat on the floor. “Michael Hinds.” Beside him stood his accomplice, or perhaps he was hers. “Ada Wolff,” she snarled at the tall lantern jawed woman with the cold blue eyes. “I'm going to kill both of you,” she said at the former members of her corps.
Now it all made sense. Michael had been in the goliath that immobilized Zeus while Ada had stabbed him in the back.
“I don't think you are,” Ada said with a satisfied smile as her eyes traced the ring of company soldiers that surrounded Mia.
At least twenty of them. Rapiers, pistols. Mia couldn't defeat them without weapons. Her only hope lay elsewhere.
“How could you betray Marcus Halett?” Mia said loudly. “He was your baron! He trained you, fed you, gave you titles in his corps. He trusted you!”
“Shut up!” Michael said as he thrust a gloved finger in her direction. Both Michael and Ada had given up the blue and gray of the baron's goliath corps for the burgundy and gold of the Veil company.
“Make me Michael, if you're not a cow
ard!” she said and laughed at him. It was his weakness, like so many men, Michael's ego easily outmaneuvered his intellect at every opportunity.
Michael bared his teeth at her. “Give her back a sword!” he yelled, spittle flying from his lips.
Ada grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait!” she said. Then she gestured to two of the company men. “Hold her.”
“What are you doing?” Michael said.
“Even if we blind folded her she'd cut you to pieces you idiot.”
“That's not true!” Michael said as Ada drew her blade.
“It is. I'm going to even the odds for you,” she said and stabbed the rapier through Mia's left thigh. Then again through her right arm above the elbow. Hot blood stained her clothes.
“You disgust me!” Mia said as the soldier's arms released and she stumbled forward. Her rapier was thrown at her feet.
“Pick it up!” Michael said as he drew his own glowing veil blade.
“You killed my Zeus and you killed Baron Marcus Halett!” she yelled as she bent to retrieve her weapon.
“Shut up!” Michael said as he lunged forward.
Mia evaded his thrust, but just barely.
“Was it for money? Did you sell out your country for coin?” she asked him.
There was a thump from above. It was working! Marian was listening.
“So what if it was? I like money!” Michael said as he slashed at her.
Mia tried to duck but her bleeding leg gave out on her and his blade drew a line of red on her left forearm.
“You're going to kill me? Do you plan to kill the rest of the baron's children as well?” she asked him, knowing his next attack was about to come, trying to raise her sword.
“Wait!” Ada said, her eyes fixed upward. She was starting to catch on. A look of fear began to tug at the corners of her mouth and widen her eyes.
Michael ignored the warning, as Mia hoped he would.
“That's why they rushed us back from the front! We're to hunt the rest of you down and cut you up, just like your wretched fool of an adopted father, if that's what he really was and he didn't bring you here as a plaything to satisfy his appetite for exotic women!” Michael said, laughing. “Did you see his body hanging from the battlements? It's spectacular!”
Michael lunged, he would have hit her too, his rapier was aimed directly at her breast, but instead a chunk of granite from above crashed down upon him, smashing his body into little more than a red smear. His sword clattered to the stable floor with Michael's dismembered hand still clutching the hilt.
Ada and her men scrambled in all directions, seeking cover as a second heaved granite mass tumbled down and swept away three of them as if they were a child's painted lead figures. This was followed by a loud crack and a rain of stone and metal that signaled Marian's escape from her stall.
The behemoth stone creation took two thunderous steps before dropping to one knee and slamming a great hand, palm open, into the floor, crushing four fleeing company soldiers like grapes.
Mia stepped forward, sheathing her sword.
Ada was nowhere to be seen but Mia had an idea where she'd likely disappeared to. The Veil company wouldn't have spent so much effort and money getting their pet goliath pilots back here just to hunt down the baron's family. It was also to steal the remaining goliaths.
As she looked up her eyes met Marian's. Fierce blue catlike pupils glowed as a gigantic hand extended toward her, open, waiting. She stepped up on it and went to one knee as Marian stood and placed Mia next to the steel door at the nape of the goliath's neck. Wooziness from loss of blood caused her to pick her way carefully down the ladder into Marian's center. As she tethered herself there, she patted the stone around her lovingly.
“Thank you Marian. You are a loyal friend,” she said as she connected to the link as quickly as she could.
There was no time for binding wounds. Ada would be on her way.
When the connections took hold, waves of sadness and anger poured in from Marian. The goliath hadn't known the baron was dead. All she'd known was that three days before he'd stopped visiting her for their morning exercise as he always did.
Then the others had come and tried to ride her. She'd been furious and rejected them all. They brought their weapon and shot at her and starved her. She'd been so hungry and so sad. Now she had hope. She wanted to help.
“Good, I'll get you some food,” Mia told her. Still, just as she felt Marian's pain, Marian felt hers. The goliath was horrified at her wounds.
“I'll be fine,” she said. “Just stay aware. Ada will be coming for us. Watch and listen.”
Marian did listen. The goliath swiveled her head to the left and right and caught a glint of blue out of the corner of her eye.
Instantly she pivoted and slapped the head of the onrushing veil ax with the flat of her fist, pushing it to the side so that it missed her entirely.
Mia was stunned. Zeus had been good, but not like this.
Though it was too late to use the ax's momentum to attempt to throw the opponent, they could use the time to close in. Marian approved of this course, instantly flowing into the space directly in front of the attacking goliath, a former ally.
Mia knew this goliath as well, it was another of the titans and bore the image of a snarling bear painted across its left breast. It had been ridden by Gordon Ayers, one of the baron's most trusted men. Now his goliath was surely controlled by Ada. It was as obvious as the clumsy way the titan class monstrosity fumbled to push Marian away, placing a flat palm against her steel plated chest.
This gave them the perfect opening to grasp the arm and execute one of Mia's favorite throws. No sooner had she envisioned it, then Marian executed it with enthusiasm. Ada's great titan goliath toppled like an entire mountain torn up and thrown to the ground. It landed upon its own glowing blue ax, the veil blade embedding deeply in its back.
The sprawling monstrosity took up nearly the entire stable floor as it lay stretched out on its back on the floor. It scrambled to regain enough composure to get up but Mia and Marian had no intention of allowing that.
They took two quick steps and pulled Marian's two handed veil sword from its resting place. Such a blade could be used to devastate entire teams of enemy goliaths on the battlefield with one swing but inside the stable it was too close to swing the sword. Marian knew this however and had already shifted her left hand to the dull fore grip that allowed the sword to be used like a short spear in close quarters.
The moment the enemy goliath had regained enough sense to put its hands down behind it and push its torso up, Marian jammed the sword directly through its chest. The light died in its eyes.
Mia said a silent prayer that the spirit now released from within would find a home in another core container and not the body of some hapless denizen of the castle, corrupting them both.
More importantly, she hoped Ada had been torn to pieces. She deserved it for what she'd done. How many of the Halett goliath corps died because of her betrayal? For that matter, how many of them still lived?
Once they'd dealt with Veil, Mia would find out.
Marian yanked the sword from her foe, allowing the goliath to tumble back to the ground and stepped over it, toward the stable door. There was a loud crack and a flash of light from behind and below. Marian turned, weapon at the ready, sliding naturally into the proper defensive stance.
It was then that Mia realized the true secret behind the baron's ability with his goliath. There was no special move or secret training technique that made him great. The man did it with love. He'd connected with Marian so thoroughly that she'd become more than a steed, more even than a friend, but a true companion, a comrade at arms.
“Marian, you really are something!” Mia said aloud, her voice overflowing with admiration. The goliath responded with a feeling that Mia could only describe as an embrace, like a long and loving hug.
There was another crack and a flash. This time they both saw that it had come
from outside the stable door. Marian's eyes searched the ground for the source of the fire. Two circles of fire burned on the stone outside the stable's door surrounded by the prone bodies of several company soldiers.
Mia could feel Marian's curiosity.
“I think I have an idea what's going on. Let's go out there.”
Marian complied without question, stepping through the stable door into the sun beyond. In the center of the courtyard stood the source of the fire. The baroness held her right hand high above her head, holding a ball of flame while company soldiers brandishing swords and muskets poured from a door across the courtyard.
“Let's give her a hand,” Mia said with a smile.
Marian stepped forward and flicked the end of her sword to the side, obliterating the men and leaving an enormous gouge in the loose stone of the courtyard. The flame in the baroness's hand winked out and she waved up at Mia and Marian before pointing at the ground in the center of the courtyard. Through Marian's veil blue eyes Mia noticed something here she'd hadn't seen before. There was a gigantic glowing white circle spinning slowly on the ground of the courtyard. That must be how Christine was planning to get them to their next destination.
Mia told Marian to hold up one single finger.
“Do you see what I see?” She asked Marian as the goliath's eyes drifted to the far side of the courtyard and a cart overflowing with veil powder cubes.
“Let's get you a snack.”
* * *
A young couple holding hands nearby as they watched the marchers eyed the laughing old man suspiciously. Henri winked at them. Now it all made sense. He'd thought that stone cairn by the haunted forest had seemed familiar.
Old woman Vex was standing again when Henri returned, but still breathing heavily. One of her hands was pressed against her side while the other held down the broken lady's hat. Eagerly she reached for him.
“Did you find them?”
“I know where they are,” Henri said.
“Where? Are they still buried?”
