Vaughn Heppner - Assassin of the Damned

Maybe because I had my eyes closed, I felt a soft voice calling. It was soothing. I cocked my head. I heard nothing audible…I felt the voice, and I found that I clutched my belt where I kept the coin hidden. I palmed the coin, fingered the engravings. The sense of soothing grew. I had the feeling that if I begged the Moon Lady, if I knelt and pledged my soul that all would be forgiven. She would show me the way out of these tunnels. I could walk under the stars again. I could-

Something roared in the tunnels behind me. My eyes snapped open. I twisted round and stared into the dread blackness. It had sounded like the guardian beast, the chained thing. Was it loose? Had it sniffed out my trail?

I sensed the softest of chuckles. I stared at the traitorous coin, at the mocking curve of the Moon Lady’s lips. The coin had led the beast to me. The coin, or the Moon Lady, had betrayed me.

I wanted to hurl the coin into the darkness, but didn’t dare. It held my spark of life.

“I’ll never be yours!” I shouted.

An answering roar dislodged a shower of droplets. One hissed as it dripped into my torch. Another slid under my collar. Then scratches and leathery sliding sounds told me the beast wriggled through a narrow part of the underground tunnels. I believe I knew where it was by my memory of that particular tight spot, and it was much too near to me.

I saw a momentary picture in my mind of what would happen when the beast arrived. The thought showed a giant, lizard-like creature dragging me back to the castle like a wolf-bitch carrying a pup.

I squeezed the traitorous coin. Then I thrust it into my belt. It was impossible that I could fight such a monster in these narrow tunnels. I heard a clink, maybe that of a giant collar striking rock.

“Curse you,” I whispered. The black splotches before my eyes increased. I fled crouched over. My poor eyes missed a curve and I slammed against stone. I wanted to weep. Then I slammed against stone again. The jar knocked the torch out of my hand. It slid into a puddle. The flame hissed. I snatched it up, shook the torch and watched as the flame shrank. I would rave like a lunatic if it went pitch black.

The monster roared once more. It was closer than before. The tap of its claws and the brush of its leathery hide-

I scrambled faster and with grim fatalism took yet another crash against a rock wall. This couldn’t last. Then I realized the tunnel had widened. I could stand upright, and did, and I ran. I took corners faster and struck outcroppings of rock less often. Then I noticed the faint scent of…of lilies! I laughed like a madman. I must be near the surface. Hope revived me, and it shot anger through me like hot oil. I cursed the priestess of the Moon and her beast. I would never enter a deep tunnel like this again. It would be better to die fighting above ground than allow oneself into this wretched kingdom of rats and worms.

The strain of my thighs told me the grade angled steeply upward. Unfortunately, the wheeze of the beast behind made my back crawl. I could hear its belly slide over rock. Then the ceiling vanished. And in the dim illumination of my flickering torch, I only spied rock walls. I had raced into a cul-de-sac, a dead end.

I must have taken a wrong turn. The urge to grab the coin and make a deal-

I looked up at a glimmer of faint light. I hurled aside the worthless torch. The walls around me had cracks and stony juts. It would take an acrobat to scale them or a desperate soul. I put my boot onto an outcropping and hoisted myself upward. I had no time for niceties, no time for caution. The approaching monster roared. I hoisted myself higher. The boots must have had magical qualities. The slightest protrusion was enough to push me upward. My fingers and wrists seemed stronger than I recalled. I was almost like a fly in my ability to cling and climb. The opening above was a jagged crack, the kind earthquakes make. It seemed too small for me.

A loud, leathery scrape announced the monster as it popped out of the underground tunnel. It was huge, a giant lizard greater than the crocodiles that Moors boasted lived in the Nile River. Its flickering tongue darted at the torch on the stone floor, and it hissed in rage as it burned itself.

Maybe I should have flattened myself on the wall. I was about halfway up. Maybe my cloak had properties that would have allowed assassin-like stealth. But I feared losing my grip if I didn’t keep climbing. It would be a wretched end, swallowed alive into the beast’s gullet. I kept climbing, and my belt-buckle scraped against stone.

The monster’s head jerked up. It was a lizard-quick move. It lunged awkwardly as its tongue darted at me. Like a frog’s tongue, it was much too long. The tongue lashed against my boot with a wet splat and held as if glued. It numbed my ankle as if a strong man had hit it. The tongue yanked at my boot as the beast dropped down. I clung to cracks in the wall with manic strength, but felt my fingers slipping. I shook my foot, tried to dislodge the sticky tongue. The tongue stretched to an obscene degree. Then, just before it tore me off, the tongue peeled away and slithered back into its gapping maw.

I scrambled like a beetle, and would have fallen but for the magical boots. The beast croaked a deafening cry, and it lunged upward once more, claws scrabbling rock. Its long tail seemed to propel it higher. The forked tongue shot out and wriggled inches from my boot heel. Then the giant creature slumped back onto the floor.

My fingers latched onto an edge of dirt. My biceps bunched. My head broke through to the surface. I heaved, squeezed through the narrow opening and rolled onto damp grass. Then I scrambled upright and laughed. The monster roared below, and my laugh turned into a snarl. I pried a rock out of the ground and heaved it at the beast. A leathery thud told me I’d hit. I hurled more stones, certain it would find a means to climb out otherwise. Finally, it retreated into the stygian gloom of the tunnels.

As I stood there peering into the depths, strength flooded into me. Weariness vanished, as did the black spots before my eyes. I seemed to swell with power. Baffled, I turned. The full moon blazed. It fed me strength like a maiden trickling me grapes. I’d yet to see the moon since waking with grass through my armor. When I’d been with Ofelia, there hadn’t been a moon. Staring at the bright orb made me wonder about time. How much of it had passed since Ofelia had driven me through the castle’s black gate?

By the phase of the moon, it seemed as if many nights had passed. Perhaps the castle had been like an evil fairy tale. In those, time often moved strangely. The nightmare of the tunnels…it seemed like I’d been down there a lifetime.

I lifted my arms and soaked in the moon rays. This was my food, water and air. It felt wonderful, glorious. The coin wanted my attention. The presence felt stronger now that I stood in the moonlight.

“No,” I said.

I felt a brief moment of anger-that I’d be sorry for this decision. Then there was nothing at all.

Shortly, I recalled Lorelei’s parting words. I must beware the minions of the Lord of Night. They would be hunting for me. The priestess of the Moon yet hunted for me, I knew. I glanced about, but couldn’t spy the vile castle or even the hills that had surrounded it.

I did notice a faint stench. The crack lay at the bottom of a narrow valley. There were pools of scummy water edged with lilies and nearby hills. Those were more jagged than the pervious hills and lacked vineyards. A fire shined like a beacon on one of the hills. With my hand, I shaded my eyes from the moon. A dark town lay higher up on that mountain. A dirt road wriggled its way past the town. The stench came from that direction.

Was that a watch fire? Did a sorcerer and his underlings wait for my arrival? I needed directions to Perugia. Maybe Erasmo waited there with his minions. He was the Lord of Night. Erasmo. My hands clenched of their own accord. I headed for the hill fire, all the while keeping a wary eye out for the lizard-beast.