Luke Scull - The Grim Company

The two of them continued on up to the gates. The uneven surface caused the wizard to bounce up and down like a man sat astride a particularly recalcitrant mule.

‘Halt!’ demanded the Watchman. He levelled his spear at them. ‘The Obelisk is not expecting visitors.’

‘Well met,’ said Eremul brightly. ‘I am the Halfmage. You may have heard of me. I am here in answer to his lordship’s summons.’

The guard appeared unimpressed. ‘Tough shit. I was told to allow no one through. Thurbal’s orders.’

A strange expression slowly distorted Eremul’s face. Cole almost shuddered, so gruesome and unnatural did it appear. It took him a moment to realize the mage was smiling. ‘Come now, friend. We both know Lord Salazar does not explain his whims to the likes of us.’

The Watchman’s monobrow arched in confusion and his eyes seemed to glaze over. Finally he nodded and lowered his spear. ‘Right you are. I’ll open the gates. Ah, about your friend here…’

‘He’s with me. While my compact frame bestows many benefits, traversing multiple flights of stairs by myself is not among them.’

‘Of course.’ The guard’s face seemed frozen in a peculiar dreamy stare. He turned and unlocked the great iron gates, then beckoned Cole and Eremul through with his spear. ‘How’s it going on the wall?’ he asked as they strolled by him. He gestured in the direction of the fighting.

Eremul gurned again. ‘Your brave colleagues fight with the courage of men possessed. They will never surrender so long as our beloved ruler watches over us.’ He made a show of patting his robes suddenly. ‘You know, I do appear to have dropped a sceptre on the floor back there. I don’t suppose you would be kind enough to retrieve it?’

Much to Cole’s surprise, the guard nodded happily. ‘Aye, not a problem.’ He turned and began searching around for the non-existent silver coin.

Eremul shot him an urgent look and made a fierce stabbing gesture.

‘What?’ said Cole. ‘I… Oh.’ With a grimace, he drew Magebane and sidled over to where the Watchman was picking around in the dirt.

‘There doesn’t seem to be anything down- Urgh .’

The guard tumbled to the floor. Cole wiped the bloody edge of Magebane on the man’s cloak and gave the wizard a reproachful look. ‘We didn’t need to kill him.’

Eremul sneered unpleasantly. ‘That guard was not overcome by my irresistible charm alone. Sophistry is one of the hardest forms of magic to master. I was fortunate he was a dull-witted sort or manipulating him might well have proved beyond me.’ The mage paused. He seemed to be trembling now, his face sweating with exertion. ‘My spell would have worn off at any moment. He needed to die.’

Cole stared at the corpse. A hero doesn’t manipulate people. A hero doesn’t stab someone from behind . Sasha’s words returned to haunt him again. You’re an asshole, Cole. Your father would be ashamed of you. And so would Garrett .

He had spent the last four days turning those words over in his head. He still wasn’t sure what he had done wrong, but he had evidently misread the situation back near the Fade ruins. Sasha had always been feisty and unpredictable. That was one of the reasons he found her so attractive. But what if she had meant what she said?

Damn Isaac . It was all his fault, with his stupid lute and irritating face. He had waltzed in and stolen Cole’s rightful place in the group, somehow fooled them all into believing he was a boon companion when he was nothing but a dirty fraud. He would have told the man that himself, but as far as Cole was concerned Isaac was beneath him. No doubt the bastard had his eye on Sasha and had been working to turn her against him from the moment he wormed his way into her company.

He shook his head. There was no hope for deadbeats like Isaac. When it came right down to it, he was the one standing at the entrance to the Obelisk, preparing to rid the world of a foul tyrant. Not Isaac, oh no. He’d probably have pissed his pants if he’d found himself in this situation.

He would show them all that he was a hero just like his father. He would make Sasha proud of him. Make Garrett proud of him.

‘Are you just going to stand there?’ The Halfmage sounded vaguely annoyed.

‘I was just working out the best way to make Salazar suffer,’ replied Cole. He set his jaw in what he hoped was a suitably grim fashion. ‘Let’s do this.’

They entered a sparsely decorated hall. A scarlet carpet ran for perhaps sixty feet before terminating in a set of doors. Other doors led off the passageway into plush sitting rooms.

‘The kitchens and servant quarters are near the back,’ muttered the Halfmage as they progressed down the hallway. ‘Keep your head down. They know me.’

A couple of old maids eyed them warily as they passed a small mess hall set with a long table covered in breads and cheeses. Cole felt his stomach rumble. The gruel that had been served in the militia camp was barely fit for a dog, but he had forced it down.

They reached the double doors. They were unlocked, and creaked open to reveal a set of steps leading up into the darkness. ‘The Grand Council Chamber is on the second floor,’ said Eremul. ‘Keep going on up. Pass through the library and then up to the fourth floor. The Stasiseum should be unguarded. Salazar will likely be on the sixth floor, if it is not destroyed.’

Cole scratched his head. His cropped scalp was still itchy, though having caught sight of himself in the waters of the Redbelly River he had to admit he looked rather fetching. Dangerous, even. ‘What’s a Stasiseum?’

‘You’ll find out soon enough.’ Eremul spun his chair around to stare him directly in the eye. ‘This is where we part ways.’

‘You’re not coming with me?’

The wizard shook his head. ‘The incident with the guard left me emptier than a magistrate’s pockets after a night of moon dust and expensive whores. I will be impotent, figuratively speaking, for the next few hours. Focus on killing the Magelord and nothing else. Do you understand? We will never have a better opportunity to rid the city of that genocidal, deicidal son of a bitch. Salazar must die .’

Cole nodded. He gripped Magebane’s hilt tightly. ‘I won’t fail. This is what I was born to do. My father’s legacy to me.’

Eremul looked at him, a strange glint in his eyes. ‘Go and make your father proud, Davarus Cole.’

The second floor of the Obelisk opened before him like the entrance to hell. Unlike the first level of the tower there were no windows to let in any natural light. Torches on brackets provided the only illumination. Cole crept down the narrow passageway, sticking to the inside wall, a loaded crossbow in hand. His booted feet made no sound on the soft carpet.

The passage curved slowly around the side of the tower. He followed it until he spotted a shadow looming on the opposite wall, moving towards him. He crouched low and prepared to shoot. The shadow suddenly wavered, then turned and disappeared in the other direction. Cole took a deep breath and padded forwards until the shadow reappeared and he could see the Watchman who cast it.

The sentry was facing away from him. He appeared to mutter something, and Cole’s heart sank as another voice mumbled a reply. Two of them. This could prove tricky .

He retreated back down the passageway and waited. After a minute or two the shadow of the closest Watchman drifted back into view. He moved with it, keeping just out of sight. When the sentry finally stopped to turn back in the other direction, Cole made his move. He raised his crossbow and fired. The bolt hit his target in the neck. He was on him in an instant, Magebane silencing the guard before he could utter a sound.