William King - Shadowblood

“Perhaps she might be able to do the same for us here.”

“I am not hopeful.”

“You will have to arrange our exit yourself then.”

“Such thoughts had crossed my mind.”

A mass of uniformed men surged in at both ends of the corridor. They carried muskets and they looked like they knew how to use them.

“It was a bit thoughtless of the Lady Asea to destroy the door to this chamber when she entered,” said Tamara. “Otherwise we could have simply sealed it and barred the entrance.”

“Doubtless she felt the need to make a spectacular entrance.” At the far end of the corridor men raised their muskets. They did not seem at all keen to ask any questions of intruders, merely to fire their weapons.

“Might I suggest that we step back into the chamber and out of the line of sight of these would-be marksmen?”

“A capital suggestion. Let us suit actions to words.”

They threw themselves backwards as the first musket balls peppered the walls all around them.

“They do not seem keen to negotiate,” observed Tamara.

“Doubtless they fear our power,” said Rik. “They know we must have slaughtered the Guardians of the Gate and thus have proven ourselves foes of supernatural strength.”

“Their fears are justified given your amazing exploits in the past. Perhaps it is time for you to stride forth and slaughter them. After that, you can clear the Palace and declare me Empress.”

“I am surprised to hear you voice such treasonous sentiments towards your rightful liege.”

“I apologise. I was merely carried away by the excitement of the moment and your overwhelmingly heroic presence.”

Outside things suddenly went quiet. Rik risked a glance to see why. A monstrous figure advanced down the corridor towards them while the soldiers looked on with horror written on their faces.

“What in the name of the Light is that?” Rik asked.

“It has nothing to do with the Light,” Tamara said. “Lord Xephan has come himself.”

There was fear in her voice that communicated itself to Rik.

Rik had never seen anything quite like Lord Xephan before. Spiked armour encased the Terrarch's form. Something about it reminded him of the Nerghul, that strange creation of alchemy and necromancy. It was a carapace of rotted muscle and fused bone.

Its movement was like watching exposed sinew and cartilage flex and spasm as a patient writhed in agony under a surgeon's saw. The armour seemed alive but a moment's consideration told him that this was the wrong word. It was undead in exactly the same way as the walking corpses created by the plague.

A monstrous crest of bone rose from Xephan’s back, webs of flesh woven between it like some strange sail. They burned with sorcerous power, drawing energy from the Black Mirror. The thing was the product of the darkest sorcery and the mere fact that Lord Xephan dared wear it here told Rik that he was either desperate or supremely confident.

The armour made Xephan much larger and bulkier, at least a head taller than Rik and Rik was a tall man. Only Xephan's face was exposed; its delicate Terrarch beauty incongruous amidst the horror framing it.

His gaze met Xephan's and something passed between them, the knowledge of shared sins. In some ways, for Rik, it was like looking in a mirror. The Terrarch’s ecstatic face spoke of unspeakable appetites and strange sorcery. Rik knew without having to be told that he was in the presence of someone who practised thanatomancy.

Lord Xephan gestured for the soldiers to step back and they did so, only too gladly, obviously wanting to put as much distance between them as possible. Tamara stepped forward into the corridor as soon as she was certain that she was not going to be shot. Xephan sketched a bow. His movements were obscenely delicate given the enormous bulk and power the armour lent him.

"Tamara," he said. "I confess that you're the last person I expected to see here. When the alarm was given I thought it was one of my comrades making a bid for power. Oh well, perhaps I was right anyway even though I thought that you had defected to the other side."

"What are you going to do about your soldiers now that they've seen you in your fine new raiment? You surely can't let them live. Or are they all sworn to the Shadow as well?"

Rik knew that she was speaking for the benefit of the soldiers, letting them know what was going on here, hoping that they would rebel if he knew exactly who it was they were serving. He doubted that it would work but it was worth a try. Anything that bought time to let Asea close the Gate was.

"It's nice to see that you still have your wits about you, Tamara, but your sharp words will have no affect on the loyalty of these brave warriors. They can see through your tricks. They know that my magic is used only for the benefit of the Empire."

Rik could hear the subtle sorcery in his words. It was the same sort of magic that he had suspected Joran of and which he knew that Lord Azaar practised. It was magic intended to sway the hearer and make them believe in the speaker’s words. Such casual use of magic made him envious.

"By that I take it that you mean the men will be dead by the end of the day. Thus you will repay their loyalty."

"You are a persistent, lovely Tamara, but come — you have not introduced me to your friend. I do not recognise him as one of our Brotherhood although I can see that he shares some of our favoured practices."

"Why don't you ask him? He can speak for himself."

"No need. I can guess who he is. There's only one person he really could be, isn't there? I believe that this is the famous half-breed Rik. Am I right?"

"What if he is?"

"Then you are, as I suspect, a traitor and you've brought an enemy into the very heart of our realm. The question is why? Why have you brought Asea's puppet here?" Lord Xephan smiled. The expression was eerie, written as it was on that beautiful face floating above the magical armour of fused bone and animated rotting flesh. "Of course, you've come to either close the Gate or destroy it. That’s it, isn't it?"

"We've come to destroy you," said Rik.

"It speaks. I am honoured. I had thought I knew everyone who practised our ancient art. I am astonished to learn that this was not the case. You will tell me how you mastered our secrets, won't you? I don't suppose you'll have any choice once you're strapped to the dissection table."

"I learned thanatomancy from the same man who taught you," Rik lied, just to see what the response would be.

"Ah, my dear old master has been busy. I don't suppose I should be surprised that there were things he did not tell me. Are there any more like you?"

"Dozens," said Rik.

"You interest me. We shall discuss this further, under circumstances that I fear will not be much to your liking."

Rik wondered how Asea was doing. There was something about Lord Xephan that made him deeply uneasy. He doubted whether he and Tamara would be able to stop the Terrarch when and if he decided to enter the chamber.

"I will give you this one chance to surrender," Xephan said. "If you do not, you will suffer the consequences of disobedience."

"Your offer might have seemed more generous if you had not explained what was going to happen to us once we were in your power," said Tamara.

"I suppose that was rather thoughtless of me," said Xephan. "In all the excitement, one rather tends to lose sight of these things."

"I don't suppose you would consider surrendering to us?" said Rik. "I may be inclined to spare your life."

"As you spared the life of Tamara's father?" Rik wondered whether Xephan was waiting for reinforcements or whether something else was happening elsewhere in the Palace.

It did not matter, just as long as Xephan was prepared to keep talking, he was prepared to participate in the conversation. Suddenly, the bony wings on Xephan's back flexed and opened. An aura of power surrounded him, crackling with strange energy, and Rik understood why the dark lord had delayed. A terrible smirk transformed Xephan's face. He looked positively demonic.