William King - Shadowblood

Their foes were packed so close that they could hardly miss. Walking corpses toppled to be trampled underfoot by their companions who kept on coming.

It seemed like only a matter of moments before they had reached the walls of the cottage. Sardec could see their yellowish faces, bloodshot eyes gleaming, the blood of old wounds running down their heads. He had faced crowds and regiments before but there was something about the silence of the undead that was deeply unsettling.

Silence was the wrong word, he thought. They did not speak. They did not shout. They did not whisper. They made no attempt to communicate. The only sounds that came from them were involuntary. The whistle of air from corrupted lungs, strange groans that might have been the emissions of animals. They looked like humans, but they came on like an army of ants, and whatever intelligence that was in their eyes was as different from that of humans as an insect’s might have been.

The door bulged as the weight of dozens of bodies pressed against it. With a crack it gave way and the undead monsters began to crawl in over the piled furniture. Sardec prepared himself for close combat.

The door exploded inwards and Asea entered. In one hand she held her lightning wand, in the other was a sword of truesilver. The runes on the blade blazed in the eddy currents of powerful magic. There was a brilliant flash, and the smell of ozone filled the air. One of the guardians fell, skin blackened, and then Asea spitted him on her blade. His flesh sizzled as the blade worked its way in; when it reached his heart, the chest seemed to collapse inwards as if bones and internal organs had liquified. If they were magical in nature that was quite possible.

Rik redoubled his efforts, fighting his way over to Asea and preparing to defend her. With the aid of her magic, the fight was soon over. Once they had done with the guardians, the sorcerers were easy prey. They never stirred from the ecstatic communion with the Mirror even as he killed them. They stood uncontested in possession of the gate chamber. In the distance, alarm bells rang.

Rik looked at his patron. “What now?” he asked.

“You and Tamara hold the door. I will do what we came here to do. After that is done you must flee.”

“What about you?”

“I will try and get out but if worst comes to the worst you must abandon me. You and Tamara have the means to get out. I do not.”

“I won’t do that,” said Rik. “I won’t leave you here.”

“I don’t think you have any choice in the matter, Rik, unless you are keen to die. Now take up your position. We must get on with it.”

He stared at her, not yet willing to do what she said. She shook her head and smiled. “I thank you, Rik, for what you mean to do, but your death will serve no purpose. It would suit me better if you lived. I have made provision for you in my will. Karim has the documents with him.”

“You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”

“I suspected it might come to this, but I hoped it would not. Now in the name of the Light let me get on with this, or we shall all die here in vain.”

She tossed him the blade and the lightning wand. He held the blade gingerly by its insulated hilt and stuffed the wand into his belt. It was useless to him at the moment since he did not know how to use it.

He glanced around the room taking in the scene of utter devastation. All of the guardians were dead and decomposing with supernatural swiftness, taking the evidence of whatever supernatural tampering had been done to them to the grave. The air stank of rotting flesh and things long dead. The glow of the glittering gateway anchoring the spell hurt the eye if he looked at it too long. The sorcerers lay sprawled in their own blood, smiles etched eerily on their faces.

He glanced at the silver-masked figure of Asea, bowed to her and took up position beside Tamara. Behind him he could hear Asea making preparations. A glance backwards showed him that she was inscribing a circle of power around the gateway in chalk, kicking the bodies of the dead out of her way where necessary.

Whatever she was planning he hoped it would work. He could hear alarms ringing and the sound of men approaching from the distance.

Tamara grinned at him. “I never thought it would be this bad,” she said conversationally.

He took his bantering tone from her. “You call this bad?”

“I have broken into the Palace Imperial in the company of two foreign spies, one of whom is a wanted traitor and the other of whom is suspected of having assassinated a high noble of the realm as well as the Queen of a neighbouring province long regarded as a rightful vassal. Since illegally entering the aforementioned Palace I have slain several more of Her Majesty’s devoted subjects and guards. I am now aiding and abetting in the performance of some doubtless forbidden ritual designed to undermine the power of the spell that is winning the war for Sardea. Have I missed anything out?”

“I could see how your enemies might put a negative interpretation on your deeds, but you missed my point.”

“Which was?”

“You call this bad.”

“Don’t you?”

“Not compared to some of the situations I have been in.”

“Perhaps you would care to while away the time before legions of our enemies appear by describing one or two of them to me.”

“I was once stuck in a coffin plunging from leagues above the clouds along with an unconscious Queen while a Nerghul battered away at the outside.”

“You are exaggerating.”

“Not at all. If anything I understate the peril of the situation.”

“Out of modesty, no doubt.”

“I do not like to boast.”

“Modesty is your greatest asset.” Behind them Asea had begun to chant. The hair on Rik’s neck began to stand as he sensed the flow of mystical power curdling the air behind him.

“When did this happen?”

“After I single-handedly broke into the Serpent Tower and freed the imprisoned heir to the Kharadrean throne. It turned out that the Tower itself was some kind of ancient star-faring vessel and it was returning to the place from whence it came.”

“I am gratified to be in the presence of such a hero.” Rik was certain that he could hear men approaching now. They were coming in great numbers. It would not be long now before the guards arrived. He hoped they were not bringing more of the guardians with them.

“Then there was the time when we broke into the lost city of Achenar, wiped out the last remnants of an Elder race and banished a demon god.”

“I begin to understand why you decided to come along on this mission. To a man of your accomplishments this must seem a mere bagatelle, a thing hardly worthy of your talents.”

“It whiles away an otherwise dull hour in a dull city.”

“I find that, like your presence, oddly reassuring.”

“I am gratified to hear it.” The flow of immense energy around them grew stronger. Asea’s voice was raised to a scream. He took another glance at her. A glowing nimbus of light surrounded her, so bright that it was almost dazzling. Even after he looked away the outline of her form still blazed upon his retina.

“Do you think she is all right?” Tamara asked.

“You would know more of these things than I.”

“I am beginning to doubt that.”

“We’ve escaped from tighter situations than this. We were surrounded by the city guard in Halim. The Quan had closed the seaways to us and the only way from the city was over water.”

“Naturally this provided no insuperable obstacle to a man like yourself.”

“The Lady Asea managed to get most of a company of us out in balloons, wafted over the walls, swamps and water by the power of her magic.”