Dagger - The Light at the End of the World (19 page)
Read Dagger - The Light at the End of the World Online
Authors: Walt Popester
Tags: #horror, #fantasy, #heavy metal, #dagger, #walt popester
look like he was obeying his orders. Then he sat on the stool in
front of him and stared through the purple light.
“
I am Olem, Dracon of
Golconda,” Olem said. “And this is Moak, the best friend I could
ever want, or perhaps the only one who I managed to endure in my
short but meaningful existence. You are on a ship bound for the
world where you belong. You will follow us without making a fuss.
You do not belong only to yourself and, if you have a little wit in
that head, you should have already figured it out. Otherwise, it’s
time you get used to the idea, or you’re not going to last much
even though you are immortal.” He said no more, and it did not seem
he wanted to add more.
Skyrgal, he felt that none of the experiences had in that life and
on that world were important anymore, nor the words heard, nor the
people met. “From one prison to another,” he murmured. “I had
already figured that out. And, once we get to there, what will you
do with me?”
“
This will be the
Pendracon’s decision,” Olem said dryly. “You can be sure, you’re
lucky that this decision is not up to me.”
“
And who might the Pendracon
be?”
“
Our guide in the dark,
according to the language of the ancients. In your veins flows the
blood of some of them. You are come from an illustrious family, on
your mother’s side. Certainly better than what you’d
deserve.”
“
I thought only Skyrgal’s
blood flowed in my veins.”
froze and every trace of mockery disappeared from their face.
“
Who told you about
him?”
“
Oh, You would never
guess.”
neck, moving so fast that Dagger, the Spider with the most ready
reflexes of his guild, could not even see him. The Dracon clenched
his fingers as if to choke him but, before the situation could
escalate, Moak put a hand on his arm and Olem let him go.
“
The typical irony of his
family, don’t you think?”
eyes off Dagger. “Yes,” he replied, while everybody around started
to talk again. “And you know how much I hated their irony.
Sometimes I think that was their ruin.”
“
He must have talked with
his father when he died,” Moak speculated, looking straight in the
eyes of the boy. Dagger tried not to show that this assumption was
correct. “When they die their souls are reunited, at least from
what I’ve studied on the code of Benighted. Surely he won’t tell
us. He does not trust us, why should he? It’s a miracle that he is
not gone crazy.”
“
What do you think about
him?”
“
What do I think? Judging
from the smell, he’s swum in a more or less metaphorical sea of
shit, and it will be difficult to manage him. But we might as well
give it a try. I’ll take care of it. Since Araya sent me around
Candehel-mas to study everything that concerned his coming, I’ve
always wondered what he really looked like. He looks so…
human.”
“
He looks like a jerk!” Olem
replied. “But I have to admit that it was not entirely a mistake to
take you with us, Moak. You’ve wasted a lot of time behind all this
crap.”
“
It’s called ‘studying’, my
Dracon.”
“
Studying? The fuck! It’s
called ‘waste time on books instead of training’! A bit of
admiration for what they have created shines through your voice. I
am just afraid.”
“
It’s ok to be afraid. Even
he is afraid of himself, can’t you see?”
himself. And everybody is a bit sick of himself.”
“
Oh, what a deep
thought!”
“
Fuck you.”
“
You’re drunk. And when
you’re drunk, you begin to act like a philosopher, even though you
can’t afford it. You’ve wasted too much time with a sword in your
hand to be able to think in a manner worthy of a human
being.”
“
You decided to piss me off,
Guardian?”
“
Oh, come on!”
“
Bringing him back to the
Fortress will be like leading him straight into the lair of the
enemy! And if he runs away? How can we defend him if he decides to
do so? At Golconda, life is so hard that we’re all used to fighting
since the cradle, he—”
“
My whole life has been a
struggle!” Dagger broke. “What the fuck do you know about
it?”
“
Dagger,” Moak
interrupted.
“
No, no, let him finish!”
Olem said, glancing back at him. “Let me hear the whine of the guy
who has seen
too many
things
. What is it, you got stabbed
sometime? You’ve seen so many people die? You are ridiculous. Your
world is ridiculous, and it’s false! It’s the world we used to keep
you hidden. Dammit! We hid you so well that we could no longer find
you ourselves!”
“
Olem—”
“
Well,
Dracon
, I bet you’ve never risked to
have your balls ripped in front of an applauding
audience!”
“
Dagger!”
“
Oh, really? Well, the worst
part of your life is just about to begin!” Olem continued. He
grabbed Moak’s mug without asking for permission, and drained it.
“Those shadows are hunting you down and now they know where you
are! Do something stupid – only once! – and you will not have just
a black eye to show your guild fag buddies! You! What the fuck
do
you
know,
asshole?”
“
Olem!”
away either. Not a single blink of an eye. After all the times he
found himself face-to-face with death, he did not find it too
difficult. He realized that Olem too had struggled a lot in his
life.
“
Look in his eyes,” the
Dracon said. “He’s just a thief. He grew up in the streets and we
can’t expect anything good from him.”
“
Do I have to remind you the
asshole out of which Crowley and Aniah pulled you out?”
“
I was different!” the
Dracon broke. “And certainly I was not a—” He paused, lowering his
voice to a whisper. “…damn monster.”
“
Olem. Many things have
happened down in Melekesh. Marduk thought it right to get the boy
out of this place. After all, at this age, he’s got the right to
know the world he comes from.”
have him brought to this world was the first mistake,” he pointed
out. “If this decision had been up to me, the story would have gone
differently. I would have buried him in a crate of Amorphis, to rot
with his cursed blood for all eternity.”
“
Aniah would never let
you.”
“
Oh yeah, his mother. Dead
and buried like all heroes!”
Moak grabbed Dagger by the
arm, preventing any action the boy was going to take with his
already clenched fist. “Once you get to know him better, you will
understand that Olem is all smoke and no fire,” he continued. “It’s
just… he likes so much thinking about the past. Oh yes, he would
take a bath in the past. He always thinks back about how things
might have turned out, what he could have done, but most of all
what
others
could
have done. Sometimes he just doesn’t understand that what is done
is dead.”
“
Flattered,” he answered.
“And believe me when I tell you that, after all these years at the
helm of the Fortress, I recognize the smell of shit even from miles
away, unlike Marduk. And unlike you!”
Moak shook his head. “Marduk
has always proved right,” he said. “
Always
. And like all the right
decisions, his are unpopular. He seemed to have made a mistake only
when he pushed the Pendracon to choose you as the new Dracon of the
Sword, when you were just twenty years old. No Dracon had ever been
elected so young, and of so humble origin. Do you remember how many
people would have preferred to see you dead, in those days? And
remember how some
did
try to kill you? But then… then you rebuilt the Fortress after
the devastating war against Gorgors and Tankars. You pushed us to
raise our head even when the new Pendracon lingered. And today, you
defend the Fortress as if it was your home.”
“
Your false flattery will
not get you anywhere.”
“
Oh, I’m not flattering you.
I’m just saying that Marduk had never been proved wrong, not even
about you. Dagger will get back home and he will probably be
brought up as a Guardian. Right now, this madness is the only
sensible thing to do. The entire world, or worlds, out of the
impenetrable walls of Golconda are a death trap for
him.”
take leave from them, nor tease them one last time. He just
left.
Dagger watched him go and
disappear into the darkness at the bottom of the hold.
What kind of an asshole!
He thought.
Moak toyed with his empty
mug. Then he looked at him as if he was about to start a very
serious talk. “Olem is not a danger to you, Dagger. He was bound to
your mother and he has never forgiven himself for not
having…
helped
her
avoid her fate. I think in some way he even likes you.”
a mother.”
“
Your mother did not want to
abandon you, if that’s what you accuse her of,” Moak continued,
before stopping to look within himself for the right words,
probably not finding them. “You were a danger, and you still
are.”
“
A danger?” Dagger shook his
head. “When someone becomes a danger you leave him behind, or send
him away as far as possible, where he may not cause harm to others
than himself. If you think I’m going to look for the truth about my
mother with all my strength, you are wrong. I don’t feel anything
for her. In the end, I don’t even know her.”
“
No. It must not have been
easy for you, but her decision was right, my boy. She hid you even
from us. Did she already figure out what was the situation at the
Fortress?”
turned indecipherable to him. “And what’s the situation at the
Fortress? From what you say, it does not sound so safe to me.”
“
No, it is not. Olem is damn
right about this, yet there’s no other place we could take you,
right now. If you lingered in this world, this story would end very
badly, and very quickly. You already met the Gorgor. You know they
can smell your blood from afar and, if what I have studied about
the matter is founded, even your blood can
feel
them.”
The Guardian noticed it. “I see it is
true.”
“
My blood
comes out
of my body when
I am close to them, as if it were attracted. He wants to get back
to them or some shit of the sort?”
“
Very
interesting.”
“
Yeah!
Interesting!”
sorry.”
“
Why don’t you tell me
something about my father? By now, you’ve realized that I already
talked with him when I was dead. Why is Skyrgal there? What’s been
done to him?”
you. Skyrgal is an ancient god, even if the few who have studied
these matters know that this is a misnomer.”
“
A force that has lived
through all eternity,” Dagger specified. “Yes, I know that too.
Tell me what happened to him.”
stool. “It’s too late. It will be better to go to sleep.”
I had no doubt!
Dagger wanted to answer, but he did not. He merely
took note that on many things Skyrgal was right, those people were
lying and wanted to keep him away from the truth. Although, by the
time, he reserved the right to think that they did it for his own
good, or for any other good reason. Moak took him back to his room
and shut the door, without saying good night. The boy realized he
was the only one on board to have a cabin, which probably he was
not free to leave whenever he wanted. They had already begun to
keep him locked up in a cage and probably would never stop. He
looked at himself. The Spiral was there, silent and ominous, an
alien element that did not respond to his will. Everything revolved
around that. Just looking at it, a thousand faceless shadows
materialized in his head. Lying on the bed of straw he slowly
drifted into sleep, as Skyrgal’s voice echoed in his
mind.
‘
I know why you were born.
Everybody else is lying.’
* * * * *
found himself dripping with sweat, filled by a total and
overwhelming terror. He put his hand to the mark, but found it
silent. It was its fault, he knew— his blood was making fun of
him.
He stood up and looked out the porthole for
a long time, letting the voice of the waves clear his fears. He was
hungry and, even though he had slept for a long time, he was more
tired than when he had fallen asleep. Hunger and fatigue; it was
somehow happy to still feel them, but he knew it was all an
illusion. He could starve to death and then come back to life soon
after. He would live forever. ‘Forever’ was an easy concept to
understand in words, yet to find oneself living it firsthand was
slightly different. Nothing was forever in human life. Love was not
forever, not even the most intense; friendship was not forever; the
things that you bought or stole or tore away from the hands of
others were forever. Fear took over, when he realized that only an
eternal being like Skyrgal could really understand how he felt.
Only he, could understand how painful forever could be.