Dagger - The Light at the End of the World (21 page)
Read Dagger - The Light at the End of the World Online
Authors: Walt Popester
Tags: #horror, #fantasy, #heavy metal, #dagger, #walt popester
look to the sky and saw a few tiny black dots, such as birds flying
at high altitudes. Kugar looked up too. The birds came nearer, so
that now it was possible to make out their shape: they had webbed
wings and long and hooked beak.
“
And what the Ktisis are
those?”
“
Troubles,” she said after a
little.
those beasts were ridden. Some shadowy silhouettes that he knew all
too well sat on their back, holding long reins in their hands.
Gorgors had followed them all along and were now hunting them from
above. Dagger found himself shaken by memories too vivid to be
easily erased.
“
Do you have armor?” Kugar
asked.
“
What’s the use of an armor
when you’re immortal?”
“
Yeah, sorry. Professional
deformation.”
looking at the ship on the horizon. “Cruachan!” she cried.
Just hearing that name, Olem and Moak
suddenly looked up. Even the Guardians who were still in the hold
got up to show outside, some of them already with a sword in
hand.
Olem approached them with great strides.
“Get down!” he ordered. “Everybody, get down! Arm yourself to the
teeth and wait for my orders! If we have to fight in this world
too, we’ll do it, Ktisis bastard!”
The Guardians did as ordered and descended
into the belly of the ship.
Olem turned to Kugar and looked as if he
wanted to kill her just with his glance. “Try to spread panic among
my men again and I’ll cut your tongue!”
The girl bowed. “Forgive me, Dracon.”
Moak came to them. “They don’t want to
attack us for the moment. Otherwise, they would have already done
so. It seems they are just following us. What do we do,
Dracon?”
“
Dammit!” Olem growled,
turning to the sky again. “If they have brought their fucking
Cruachans on this world—”
“
Gorgors have created a
stable base on these islands,” Moak finished. “That’s no secret.
But where did they get out from?”
“
And that ship?” Kugar
added.
it had taken the shape of a war vessel of the navy of Melekesh,
sailing for them.
Olem nodded imperceptibly. “They’re
following us since we left the harbor,” he said. “They waited for
us to take into deep water and find ourselves trapped among these
rocks. With those sails and this wind, it’s no surprise they’re
traveling faster than us.”
“
I think the situation is
clear,” Moak said. “This whole world has been turned against
us.”
“
How did they
do?”
“
It no longer matters, now.
Now we have to be sharp.”
“
Our blades must be!” Olem
replied. “They want to hunt us down? Fine with me. They’ll find
themselves in the belly of the sea before they have a chance to
plead to their obscene god!” That said he disappeared through the
door.
too fast. Olem is not Marduk. Not having much time at his disposal
prevents him from thinking. And when he can’t think, he thinks to
kill which is what he does best. How I wish Marduk was here!”
“
The Divine,” Kugar
muttered. “Even Mawson and the Melekesh authorities work for him!
There must be another link between the two worlds!”
“
Stop
talking nonsense,” Olem opposed.
“
If Gorgors are attacking us
they are doing it only for one reason— they know they have victory
in hand!”
Moak turned Kugar to face
her. “Knowing that you’re going to lose is not a sufficient reason
to stop fighting! It’s the fifth commandment, dammit! The most
important! Don’t you
ever
forget it!”
too!”
“
Don’t be stupid, you’d just
get in the way. The two of you will remain hidden. When the ship is
boarded, we’ll fight to the death to beat them back.”
“
And if you don’t make
it?”
Well… I hope that someone at least discovers how do Gorgors get on
this world!” He left them alone.
“
I hope that someone
discover how Gorgors get on this world,” Dagger repeated, looking
around. The sails were spread to the wind and sailors, with the
sun-baked skin and dark hair, idly managed the ropes under the
orders of the bosun, a fat bald man who had more fingers than
teeth. At the helm, there was another old man with both eyes and
both legs, which was a rare quality for someone aged on the sea in
that corner of the world.
“
These people have no fear,”
Dagger noticed.
“
So what?”
“
You don’t understand. They
are the ones who sold you out,” Dagger deduced. “They’re too calm.
They’re waiting for a reward. I’ll be damned another time if
there’s not the shadow of betrayal in their attitudes.”
nothing.
The ship plowed the waves
among the high cliffs of the archipelago. He knew those islands
were virtually unpopulated, except for a few villages along the
coast, inhabited by fishermen so used to the adversities of life to
fear nothing, neither isolation nor storms, nor the violence of
pirates.
Just as well
, he thought to himself. He had many things to ask Skyrgal. He
would run against the first sharp sword that someone would be so
stupid as to put it before his nose.
wore armor too, though he doubted that simple boiled leather
cuirass would be of any use for at least two reasons: the first one
was his immortality, the second one, concerned the sharp arrows
with which Gorgors had started to hit them and that had already
killed two sailors.
The sailors, for their part, were so
frightened they had taken refuge under the deck and nothing, not
even Olem’s curses, could convince them to get back out there to
steer the ship. Some of them knelt down and began to rock back and
forth. Many yelled at the captain that they did not want any damn
reward, while the latter striked struck them with his glances.
Soon, his head rolled down the stairs, sheared clean off by Olem’s
sword.
“
Traitors!” the Dracon
growled.
rough statuette of Ktisis they brought around the neck, begging for
their god, and even Olem, to spare their lives. They had left the
sails unmanaged and the rudder locked, so the ship was now
traveling out of control. In the midst of all those rocks, it would
soon become a problem.
It seemed Gorgors had already won the
battle simply manifesting their presence. Olem was anxious to go
out on the deck to fight, but currents were stronger in that
stretch of sea and now the ship was moving so violently it became
difficult to keep one’s balance.
The big ship that was pursuing them was
approaching faster and faster, safely plowing the waves. Dagger,
grabbed at a porthole, watching it get closer. It had hoisted the
banner of Melekesh, only the last evidence that the whole world was
now under the control of the Divine.
“
They want to sink us,” Moak
whispered. “They have no scruples. They will send us into the abyss
knowing that you will not die, anyway. This way they would get
everything they want: our death, and your blood!”
better plan than let them do it.”
A predatory cry crossed the wind, making
him creep. He saw the face of the Guardians grow dark, terrified.
Apparently, the enemy ship could not board them in those weather
conditions, but nothing could prevent Gorgors’ winged beasts to
land undisturbed on the deck, now deserted.
“
On guard!” Olem roared,
unsheathing his sword.
the trills of Gorgors, landed on the bridge deck. Only a wooden
door, not even locked, divided men from shadows, armed to the teeth
to kill each other.
“
Kugar,” Moak called in a
whisper. “Go down to the deck below and do not come out for any
reason, even at the cost of losing your life. You know what I
mean!”
and dragged Dagger away.
“
I can walk!” he said but
Kugar, pressed by the eyes of Moak, took him down just like a
prisoner. They descended a half-moldy staircase and found
themselves in complete darkness, at the mercy of waves and with a
battle about to burst over their heads. Dagger felt the girl’s hand
flapping tar on him.
“
Use this!” she said. “Maybe
it will prevent them from smelling you!”
found himself covered by a layer of tar. “It burns!”
“
Remember you are immortal,
unlike me!”
beam, trying to figure out what was going on above their heads.
Soon they heard the infernal cries of the shadows, mixed to the
voice of blades. The battle had begun but, before they could
realize who was getting the better, they realized that it was
already concluded. They heard the wails of the last dying
Guardians, then nothing more. Dagger found that silence more
sinister than any battle cry. Now they were alone, and knowing to
be immortal was no longer a consolation.
“
It’s over!” Kugar
whispered. “At least for me. For you, it’s only just
begun.”
“
We must do
something!”
“
Like what? Go out there and
ask them to let us pass?”
hit the rocks and they were thrown to the ground. The ship tilted
and the rocks tore its side while it, driven by wind, still
followed its way. In the darkness, he heard the thunderous roar of
water burst into the decks and realized that the gash was straight
in front of him. The ship struck another rock. He found himself
immersed in the salty and turbulent water, trapped, unable to open
his eyes until the ship did not start to turn, turn and turn,
finally laying on its side. Now one of the gashes faced the
sky.
Dagger looked around and saw that Kugar was
unconscious, maybe dead, her face underwater. He put his arm under
her shoulders and pulled her back, while the ship was unleashed
back again on its uncoordinated trail. He climbed to the gash,
finding in his senseless fear of dying a courage and strength that
he would never have suspected inside himself. He looked outside.
The Cruachans were back in flight, but they were no longer ridden,
a sign that even Gorgors had been trapped in the wreckage. The ship
continued to sink, so that even that hole was soon underwater.
Holding his breath, sure that waves would hide his runaway, Dagger
managed to get out from that huge coffin dragging Kugar with
him.
Slipping below the water, he tried not to
breathe but he found out that he needed to. Probably, if he drowned
he would rise again. He began to think that a power like that would
serve little purpose in such situations. He came up to the surface
and looked around. The wreck of the ship had beached once and for
all, half submerged, with a rock firmly planted in the right side
holding her still, masts broken, torn sails. A dead animal, once
alive, whose ligneous lament still rose high into the air.
Kugar was not breathing. He swam to shore
as fast as he could, thanking the rocks that split the waves and
made them more lenient. Soon he reached a small cove located
between two high cliffs. Glad to feel again the sand under his
feet, he dragged Kugar by her clothing soaked with water to the
edge of the forest that covered the entire island. In the shelter
of trees, he lay her on the ground and slapped her several
times.
“
Breathe!” he screamed, but
Kugar stared at him pale and silent. Dagger knew what had to be
done. He had seen it for the first time practiced by one of the
smugglers of the cemetery, a man who came from beyond the sea. He
placed his hands one over the other at the center of her chest and
began to push several times, as if to coerce life back in the body.
It did not work. He breathed into her mouth, continuing until he
found himself exhausted. Then he screamed with anger and struck her
with a single punch on the heart, putting all his strength in it.
Kugar exhaled only a “What the fuck?” Imbued with new life, she
turned on the side and vomited all the water she had drunk,
breathing once again.
“Seriously, what were the chances it would work?”
Kugar, exhausted, did not seem to hear.
Dagger focused back on the situation, even if it did not take long
to figure out it was desperate. They were on an island in the
middle of nowhere, surrounded by a sea in storm and killer shadows
who wanted him, only him. Looking up he saw there was no trace of
Gorgors, but he could hear their distant trills.
Approaching.
“
They’re… calling you…”
Kugar whispered.
“
Do you think someone
survived?”
Gorgors surely did,” she replied, sitting against a rock. “Ktisis
bastard!”
A few moments later a lightning revealed
the warship that had hunted them down, making it emergence from the
fog. The enemy ship had dropped the anchor at a safe distance from
the rocks and seemed to be waiting. The Cruachans twirled above it,
trilling nervous.