Spirit of the King (13 page)

“He lives. Barely.” He looked up at the other prisoner. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know,” the man who’d told them his name was Callan said. “He was like that when they brought him.”

“And how long have you been here?” Khirro asked.

Callan shook his head. “A few hours before they brought your friend. Then you came perhaps an hour later. It’s difficult to gauge the passage of time in the dark.”

“Why did you not show yourself?” The magician pushed his fingers against the fallen man’s throat, then touched the back of his hand to his forehead.

“Didn’t know who you were. Don’t know what’s going on.” Callan leaned against the stone wall and allowed himself to slide down it into a crouch, head in his hands. “I was asleep in my bedroll when I woke with a start, my hands bound.” He paused for a deep breath that made his shoulders tremble. “There were things in the forest, dancing around me, with green flesh and yellow eyes.”

Khirro nodded. “I saw them, too.”

Athryn stood and looked from Khirro to Callan.

“Forest nymphs. They are said to lead travelers astray, make them hopelessly lost.”

Callan laughed nervously. “They seem to have done a fine job.”

Khirro looked at him and wondered about his reaction. A big man with broad shoulders and thick arms, Callan didn’t strike Khirro as the type to cower in the face of fear.

“But what were you doing in Lakesh?” he asked.

Callan looked up at Khirro, eyes wide with surprise. “Lakesh? What are you talking about? Do I look stupid enough to be caught dead in Lakesh?”

Khirro looked at Athryn, brow furrowed. “If you weren’t in Lakesh, then where were you?”

“Kanos, of course. Where were you?”

Athryn shook his head at Khirro then crouched again, returning to his survey of the injured fellow.

He’s right. Best not to say where we’ve been or what’s happened. Especially not to a Kanosee.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re all trapped here, now.”

Callan pushed himself to his feet, eyes narrowed. “You’re not Kanosee, are you?”

Khirro glanced at Athryn. “No.”

“Me neither.” His face relaxed and a sly smile crept across his lips. “I was passing through on my way home. To Poltghasa.”

Khirro saw that their cellmate intended the statement to inspire fear or awe but, after all they’d been through, the mention of the city of thieves and murderers meant little. There wasn’t a human alive—thief, rapist, murderer, or the like—half as fearsome as the giants, water serpent, or dragon he’d encountered in Lakesh. He was about to tell Callan so when Athryn interrupted.

“Something is happening.”

The magician opened the man’s jerkin, exposing his chest. Khirro and Callan both knelt at his side so they could see. Athryn pointed to the fellow’s stomach where the flesh pulsed and rippled, expanding and contracting like an irregular heartbeat underneath his navel. His belly appeared to glow dully.

“What’s happening?” Callan whispered.

Athryn shook his head. A few seconds passed and the palpitation shifted further up his torso, slipping under the man’s breast bone, pushing his rib cage unevenly. He gasped, his body jerked. The three men stood and took a step back.

The body on the floor convulsed; his head rose then fell back hard against the stone. The man-lump in his throat bobbed as though he wanted to speak, but no words came from his pale lips.

“What’s going on?” Callan said again; this time his voice was louder and held a note of panic.

Khirro looked at him, saw the expression of stark fear on his face, and looked away before it spread to him. The unconscious prisoner's cheeks bulged and a dim luminescence shone though his flesh. His lips parted.

And then the worms came.

They spilled out of his mouth and down his cheeks, their glow spreading and casting shadows across his strained flesh as they tumbled to the floor or caught in his hair. More emerged from his nostrils; Khirro watched in horror as they squeezed out around his eyeballs. Some caught on his cheek or in his ear, immediately burrowing themselves back into the body they’d left. Athryn thrust his arm in front of Khirro and pushed him back a step.

“Stay back.”

The things continued to overflow the man’s body until his head lay in a gradually expanding pool of glowing lice. More and more squirmed out of his head. A popping sound made Khirro jump as the worms pushed one of the poor fellow's eyes out of its socket. Some crawled from holes in his tattered pants and Khirro shuddered to think out of what orifices they’d emerged.

They watched until the clatter of the makeshift door opening pulled their attention from the grisly sight at their feet. Five of the pale-skinned men entered, growling and barking commands in their strange, guttural language. Khirro and Athryn fell back as the leader of the group menaced them with a black sword crawling with glowing red runes.

The Mourning Sword!

Relief washed through Khirro despite the threat before them. He’d thought the sword lost, and its disappearance left a hole in his soul he’d have been loathe to admit—weapons were never important to him before.

Callan also backed away from the shaggy-haired men, but he stepped in a pile of the worms which had writhed away from the body. His foot slipped and he went to the floor hard, three of the men falling on him at the leader’s command before he could recover. They grabbed him by the arms, pulled him to his feet and dragged him out of the cell. Khirro saw glowing worms smeared across the back of his shirt and breeches.

“No,” Callan screamed, voice high and shrill, and Khirro felt ashamed for him, and for hesitating to aid him.

He moved to help, but the man holding the Mourning Sword slashed the air in front of him and Khirro shrank back. The sword-wielder backed out of the cell, shouting at Khirro and Athryn as two of his companions replaced the wooden bars over the doorway. They rushed to the door, the luminescence emitted by the mass of worms wiggling on the cell floor spilling into the tunnel, but it was empty. They were left alone with the glowing worms and the sound of Callan’s screams echoing along the stone walls.

***

Not long after they dragged Callan away, the men returned with pieces of wood fashioned into shovels and their hands wrapped in beaten leather to gather the worms spilled from the dead man’s body. And none too soon, by Khirro’s estimation; the longer the body lay there, the more of the tiny grubs that emerged from it. The leader held Khirro and Athryn at bay in the corner with Khirro’s sword while the others scooped up the worms. They left the corpse and, an hour after they’d taken Callan, the body started to smell.

Khirro sat against the wall, as far from the dead man as he could get.

“Where do you think they took Callan?”

Athryn shrugged and scowled, concentrating on a line scrolled across his left forearm. A few glowing grubs had wriggled their way out of the body since their pale-skinned captors left, but they didn’t cast enough light to read by. Khirro shuffled to his companion’s side, giving the corpse a wide berth.

“Have you figured out how to use your magic?”

The magician looked up from his musings and gazed into Khirro’s eyes.

“I think so. But I cannot know until I try.”

Khirro rolled up his sleeve.

“Do you want me to draw blood again?” He didn’t like the possibility of wounding himself, but it couldn’t be worse than whatever they were doing to Callan and might eventually do to him.

“No. I think it will take more than a few drops of blood.”

“I can cut deeper. I can use my fingernails.”

Athryn’s eyes dropped back to the writing on his arm.

“No, Khirro. I think it will require a life. I felt the power when the worms overtook our friend.” He nodded toward the corpse, then rolled up one leg of his breeches to examine the tattooed writing on his calf. Khirro watched, waiting for further explanation, but hesitated at asking why he didn’t do anything when he felt the power.

A minute passed without words. Khirro shifted and was about to ask the question when Athryn’s gaze flickered up to meet his, then away again.

“I am sorry, Khirro, but I was not ready. When the power comes, the window of opportunity to cast a spell is brief.” He sighed and looked into Khirro’s face. “That is the second time I have let you down.”

“It’s all right, my friend.” Khirro put his hand on the magician’s shoulder. “I know it won’t happen again.”

***

Khirro slept in brief snatches. Each time he woke, he found Athryn sitting cross-legged, examining the incantations inscribed on his flesh. Between the sleep and the dark, Khirro couldn’t tell how much time passed before their captors returned.

The wooden latticework bars scraped against the stone floor and the first underground-dweller through menaced them with the Mourning Sword as they jumped to their feet. The blade whistled; the runes glowed a smear through the air in front of them. Khirro and Athryn retreated and watched others enter the cell, two of them gripping Callan under the arms, legs splayed out behind, the toes of his bare feet scraping the ground as they dragged him in. They struggled to the middle of the cell and dropped him unceremoniously beside the dead man. The way he fell to the ground without catching himself told Khirro he was either unconscious or already dead.

“Watch for any opportunity,” Athryn whispered, his words soliciting a grunt and a wave of the Mourning Sword from the leader. Nerves coiled and knotted in Khirro’s stomach.

He wants me to kill one of them.

Even after all that had happened since the day the king fell atop the wall of the Isthmus Fortress, the thought of killing sickened Khirro.

What choice do I have?

One of the men who dragged Callan in spoke and the others laughed, all except the one holding the sword. He barked a command, silencing them. More words spilled from his lips, all of them unrecognizable to Khirro’s ears; three of the bearded men nodded and moved toward him and Athryn. The companions tensed, ready to fight. Khirro glanced at Athryn and saw his lips moving, practicing the spell he would cast if the opportunity presented itself.

Kill a man with my bare hands.

The men rushed them. One pushed Khirro away while the others grabbed at Athryn, grasping his clothes and pulling him away from the wall. Khirro jumped one of them, got his arm around his neck, but the Mourning Sword’s pommel cracked against his skull before he cinched in.

The impact crumpled him to his knees and set stars swirling about his head. He ground his teeth and breathed deep through his nose trying to retain focus as the world swam. Through the haze, Khirro saw the three underground-dwellers grab Athryn, arms pinned, and drag him across the room toward the door. Khirro shook his head to clear the fuzziness from his eyes.

“No,” he said pushing himself to his feet.

A knot twisted his belly, the pressure of it building and spreading until it filled his chest. Warmth spilled down his arms and legs; his cheeks burned. The cell sprang into flickering view, darkness driven from it by an unseen light that set shadows dancing on the uneven walls. He said again, more loudly: “No!”

Khirro jumped at the men, a tongue of flame trailing behind his fist looping toward the nearest one. The man’s jaw cracked and fire leaped into his beard. He screamed—the most recognizable sound Khirro had heard any of them make.

The others gasped and released their grip on Athryn as they stumbled over each other, rushing for the narrow door. The
sword-wielder
made it out first; the others pushed and scratched each other in their haste to get away from Khirro’s flames. The latticework bars slammed into place before Khirro got there and the wide, scared eyes of their captors reflected the blaze engulfing his fists as they jammed the logs into place and backed away staring at him.

Khirro reached for the wooden bars—the tinder dry twine lashing them together would burn easily. Before he touched them, the tip of the Mourning Sword came through the widest gap between two of the bars. He grabbed the blade in both hands, stopping it less than an inch from his stomach.

Beneath the flame, the sharp edge of the sword cut deep into his palms, but Khirro held on. The man yanked on the sword, trying to release it from his grasp and Khirro grimaced as steel grated against bone. He held on a second longer before then letting go, sending the man with the sword stumbling into his companions. They gibbered and yelled but didn’t approach the cell door, instead turning to flee, their guttural cries continuing as they slipped away down the tunnel.

Khirro lurched forward, grabbing the wooden bars, but the flames were gone. Instead of fire to burn the wood and twine and set them free, blood smeared across the cell door and dripped to the floor. Elation and despair spun in his head. A manic laugh spilled from his lips, then the world darkened and the wood disappeared from his vision. The last thing he felt before the world went black was his companion’s hands lowering him to the hard stone floor.

The dreams are getting more frequent, more vivid. This night I dreamed he was three men, not one. All three had their way with me, passed me around like a doll sewn together strictly to give them pleasure, then they beat me and left me for dead. Then I was in a lagoon, bathing with the corpses of all the people he murdered floating around me—hundreds of them. Many of them were women, many more children, and in my dream I hated him more. I wake and wipe cold sweat from my brow, but it isn’t because of the horrible dreams that I’ve woken before morning light.

There’s someone in my room.

I slip my hand to my waist but the smooth-gripped hilt of my dagger is missing. I feel no panic or confusion about this, not now—taking the time for either of these could mean my life. Instead, my muscles coil and I roll to where my sword and scabbard lay beside the straw mattress, but it’s gone. I push myself to a crouching position, ready to spring or defend myself, but there’s little to be seen in the dim room. A shadow flickers to my right and I lunge, but it’s gone before I reach it: a black cloak, almost indistinguishable in the benighted room.