Read Dagger - The Light at the End of the World Online
Authors: Walt Popester
Tags: #horror, #fantasy, #heavy metal, #dagger, #walt popester
Dagger - The Light at the End of the World (33 page)
“
I said, follow
him!”
been watching over them, waiting for its companions, plunged again.
Dagger threw himself to the ground, just in time to hear the hiss
of its passage above his head.
“
Run, damn you!” Araya
boomed again.
the lizard covered their shoulders with his formidable chains. He
landed and killed the Cruachan, however this did not intimidate the
others, and soon he found himself repulsing their attacks with his
saber, receding more and more under the blows of sharp claws and
scimitars. A Cruachan flew around the chains and threw itself
immediately against them, but Olem encircled Dagger by the
shoulders and threw him to the side. He got up again, then a dart
whistled through the air— the Gorgor on its saddle was targeting
them with his crossbow.
“
We’ll never make it, we
have to fight too!” Dagger cried.
pushed him forward, falling behind with Kugar resting on his
shoulder and the giant sword in the right hand. He beheaded the
Cruachan as soon as it attacked him again. In a single, fluent
movement he stuck the blade into the head of the Gorgor too. Dagger
quickly understood the message. He ran. He found the bottom of what
was left of his strength and ran, as fast as when he was just a
Spider struggling for survival in the muddy streets of Melekesh.
The Portal appeared, straight in front of him. The two impenetrable
rows of trees that had led them there were almost suddenly sucked
into the vortex of light and darkness, melted with the high rock
walls that flanked it. It was far away, yet so damn close. Dagger
regained hope and ran even faster, trusting in the darkness into
the light. But he turned around and saw that a Cruachan had grabbed
Olem by the shoulders, pulling him in flight. He stopped, looking
at the lifeless body of Kugar lying on the ground, abandoned by the
Dracon just before the attack.
I’m not a coward!
he told himself.
I’ve
never been!
He watched the Portal one
last time, then spun on his heels. Looking to the sky, he saw Olem
piercing the Cruachan’s chest and hoisting himself on its back,
knocking the Gorgor that sat on it with a kick in the teeth. He
glided to the ground with the beast dripping with blood, and slid
in the dust until he reached Araya. He limped to his side, then,
arms at hands, the two Dracons unleashed hell and tried to resist
to the last. They surely didn’t
need
him. As Guardians, they only had
to sacrifice their lives to give him as much time as
possible.
his shoulders and ran back toward the portal. It was not long,
before the Cruachans renounced their revenge against Olem and Araya
to throw themselves against him, driven by the lashes of their dark
knights. When he saw the whole squadron come to meet him, he
realized his flight was over before it began. He felt the fetid
breath of death on the neck. He did not even turn when three sharp
claws penetrated into his back, sticking between his ribs. He tried
to scream, but couldn’t. He found himself lifted from the ground as
blood flooded one of his lungs. He crushed his suffering under the
heel of will so not to drop Kugar to the ground. The portal was
already far away.
I had almost made
it
, he thought,
almost
. He looked up and saw that the
Cruachan was ridden by the Divine himself. He could hear him
laughing of his silly claim to survive the long hunting. He
tortured him with the shock of Mayem while the Cruachan scorched
his scalp with his spout. It was only the beginning, he thought, of
what awaited him.
smiled. She was still alive.
Hang on, at least you! Don’t you ever leave
me.
Then a blinding purple light swept the
world and time stood still. His sight faded. He could no longer
feel fatigue or pain, fear or torment. Light passed through him
from side to side and permeated throughout the world. He heard the
Divine’s scream of agony, as a strong wind swept away the
Cruachans, as well as the Gorgors who sat on them. A lightning
flashed, burning them alive. He heard their agony and terror, and
saw their charred skeletons dashed without remedy. He felt a strong
heat and immediately after a chill, while the claws that had
gripped him, lifeless, let him go. Dagger fell to the ground and
rolled over. He encircled Kugar by the shoulders and breathed in
her hair, bittersweet smell in the middle of hell, then continued
to drag her on toward the portal. In front of him, he saw the
Divine rising, just a shadow against the purple haze. The shiny
beast went out to meet him, growling with its ivory tusks, and
staring with the one burning eye. Two huge wings overshadowed the
forest, covered with feathers that had all possible shades from the
bright white of pearls to the purple in the sky after sunset, as
well as the fur that covered the immense body of a wolf. “Crowley!”
he roared, shaking the entire world. “Why, Crowley?”
The Divine laughed in lucid madness,
raising his sword to the god, but Angra snapped him by the chest,
shaking him furiously. Mayem armor’s pieces flew everywhere,
uncovering the body of the last Warrior king, devastated by the
living death. Dagger closed his eyes. He crawled in his own blood
to the portal, because he could not walk, then felt himself lifted
and dragged in flight. He picked up what was left of his strength
to observe the face of his savior: the gleaming wolfish fangs; the
thick shiny coat. It was a terrifying and wonderful sight, as dawn
in a battlefield after a night of war. He felt good. He felt at
peace. He did not fear anything. In that moment, he could surrender
to the superior will and let his fate slid out of his hands, given
he had ever had control on it. Everything was perfect. He was
intoxicated by the endless relief, such as sleep after a long
effort, the swig of water that extinguished thirst.
The portal was in front of them. Exhausted, Dagger fainted and
surrendered to the embrace, this time pleasant, of the great
silence.
He felt better, as he died.
* * * * *
hands.
“
Oh no, not again!” He heard
a laugh, slow and sarcastic, and looked up.
watching his every move. “Now that you’ve found out you can come
back to life as many times as you want, you just can’t resist the
temptation to die every ten minutes, can’t you?”
“
Hello Dad,” Konkra said,
standing up.
“
Yeah. Dad,” Karkenos
replied. “I have to admit it feels strange to be called
that.”
“
Oh, you have to admit a lot
of things. I couldn’t wait to die! I have so many questions for you
that I don’t even know where to start.”
“
Really? Like
what?”
“
Araya said
that—”
“
Oh, perfect! Didn’t we just
lack the fucking lizard prince breaking my balls!” Karkenos
broke.
hated bad language?”
“
Yes, but those lizards have
the rare ability to make me lose my patience.”
said, as the light remained silent. “Yes. He scares the hell out of
you.”
“
See, my son. In many
cultures and philosophies, of yours and other worlds, the lizard is
seen as a symbol of wisdom for his unending search for light. A
lizard would stay in the light even at the cost to
burn.”
“
I’m not following
you.”
“
Just digressing.” He
paused. “Where did you meet him?” he asked then. “No, wait, don’t
tell me: you have gone through that sick thing Messhuggahs built up
to keep the two worlds separate, right?”
“
The Death Pass?”
“
Yeah, the Death Pass! Now
sit down and tell me what he told you.”
patiently, word for word, told him all that had happened since
their last meeting. Only then, he remembered that the light had
once said he could see everything through his eyes. He realized
that, in that way, he was just trying to understand his point of
view about the whole thing. His thoughts were impenetrable to him.
Could he really lie to that entity? Could he keep something hidden,
or was he just bluffing? Playing dice with a fellow in the guild
was different; there were facial expressions, the subtle movements
of the eyes to interpret, but with a light in the wind, the
exercise a bit more difficult. Could he read in his mind even
now?
“
What was I before I was
born?” he asked, concluding. “You don’t think of me as a son, only
as a mean to achieve your ultimate goal. Getting back inside the
body from which Angra kicked you out.”
elegance of the lizard. He has refrained from judging you. Those
you call Olem and Kugar, on the other hand, have talked about
things of which they don’t understand. Do you really think they
know about you more than me, who created you? I, who have crossed
the abyss of time to get you?”
“
What will
happen to me once I—”
“
You will die. You will die
once I have used you. I will squeeze you like a juicy fruit to draw
the blood needed to give new life to my body. I’ll leave you there,
empty, and life as you know it will no longer continue.”
“
And after hearing such a
thing, you’re still expecting me to help you?”
“
Yes. For many good
reasons.”
“
I’d like to hear
them.”
“
How many times did you find
yourself wishing the end of this life more than anything
else?”
irrelevant,” he answered. “Araya said that a real death is not what
awaits me. He says I’ll become again what I was before I was born,
so we’re back to the starting point. What was I before I was
born?”
Karkenos giggled again. He hated him more
and more each time he did it.
“
To be born, to die! You’re
still watching the whole thing with your mortal eyes. This is your
problem, and mine. Asking someone to talk to about your mortal
nature is like asking…” He stopped.
“
You can’t think about a
proper metaphor, right?”
“
Well, it’s like asking
someone something about which he doesn’t know a thing. You still
don’t understand the fundamental element of the whole matter. You
are my son. Only
my
son. The son of a god.”
“
And the son of a god lives
forever?”
“
No,” the light replied. “A
force that has lived through all eternity, even as you are,
lives
since
forever. It has always been.”
continued. “You still remember that feeling of having already been
in the temple of Adramelech, in the depths of the desert? As if it
was not the first time you were there?”
“
I had already been
there.”
“
Yep.”
“
And what happened,
there?”
“
A lot of horrible things,
my son. I was there, and you too. We’ve known each other since
before you were born, the lizard is right about that. But you don’t
remember.”
“
He never said
that.”
“
So I tell you. Your present
memory is nothing but a grain of sand in the desert. It begins from
the moment you came out of your mother’s violated womb. It’s really
a shame. All those memories, all that
knowledge
, gone up in smoke. Don’t
you worry. With time, everything will settle down. A force that has
lived through all eternity has always lived, the name itself states
it. You were never born, you’ve always been. Wait till you see the
prison Araya and his friends are going to build around you. Wait to
understand their real intentions. They are not going to do anything
different from the Gorgors and the Divine, who wanted to pierce
your chest with a Mayem knife and imprison you forever. The
Guardians will do it differently, but the essence will be the same.
Keep you away from what you were born to be. After all, haven’t you
ever wondered what lurks in that dagger?”
“
In Redemption?”
“
Just as you called it.
Don’t you wonder why it obeys only you?”
“
It’s a living weapon.
Someone is hiding in there.”
“
In a way, yes.”
“
I’m not that stupid, I
realized that. Some weapons can—”
“
Some metals, please,” his
father corrected. “The Mayem, specifically. The same that composes
the funeral equipment of the Divine.”
“
Whatever!” Konkra
impatiently replied. “Some metals may contain souls. Who is hiding
in Redemption?”
“
Someone about whom you care
a lot.”
“
Seeth?”
“
Yes.”
“
Seriously?”
“
No!” Karkenos laughed
again. “Come on, how would it be possible? No, in there lies the
soul of a key figure in your life. Perhaps the most important. Now,
you’ll ask what that has to do with what you call your death, or
what will remain of you once I have used your blood. Well, you only
need to know that, in that moment, only thanks to that dagger your
real life, your
divine
life, will start again. What you have been, what you will be.
One day, my son, we will climb once again the sacred stairs of the
temple of Adramelech to meet our destiny, to finish what we just
begun that distant day. Ah. I can’t wait.”