The Darkslayer: Book 01 - Wrath of the Royals (19 page)

Another chill creased his spine as he lifted his sack-filled hands up, and made a slow turn. Indeed it was his latest adversary, Tonio. Now the man he’d busted to bits stood there without a noticeable scratch around his curled sneer. The pupils of the man’s eyes were big dots of coal, glaring back at him. The quivering hands were now wrapped about the trigger of a double crossbow that was pointed dead at his chest. Venir fought the urge to lunge underneath. He began lowering his two sacks slowly to the ground.

“Keep those sacks up! You in the back, toss the blades.”

Venir heard the daggers clatter behind him. He could hear the boy asking, “Who’s that guy?”

“Can’t believe I’m better, can you?” Tonio said in a throaty voice. “You should have killed me. Because I’m a Royal, I have the best healing at my disposal.”

He watched the tips of the bolts swing from belly to belly. The boy’s labored breathing caught his ears. He couldn’t have been is a worse situation if his pants were down. No weapon or armor. How did they miss the man? Tonio was sweating, hands clammy and eyes dilating. All those signs made the situation more dangerous. Venir kept his cool.

“Don’t stop, you two! Boy, go open that empty stable back there, or I’ll shoot your friends.” Tonio said.

The boy fumbled over his feet, clutched at another stable door and pulled it open. Georgio managed to conceal himself behind the planks on the other side.

Venir and Melegal moved backward, step for step, along the opening of the stable and stopped again.

“I said don’t stop!” Tonio yelled. “Are you deaf? Keep moving! Get in there! ”

Venir watched the man’s finger twitch on the triggers. He and the thief stood motionless, ten paces away, blocking Tonio’s view of the boy.

A pair of lion-like paws reached over the gate and tore into Tonio’s face. A burst of snarls and barks followed as the claws pinned the man to the gate.

“Aagh!”

Tonio wailed and thrashed as a massive dog head snapped at his head. Tonio raised his crossbow, eyes bearing down on Venir like charging lances.

Clitch! Zip!Zip!

Venir dove to the ground as a bolt shot his way and clipped the back of his calf. He didn’t notice as he scrambled back to his feet.

The crossbow fell from Tonio’s limp hands as he screamed, fighting for his life. The beast kept pulling at him, tearing his clothes to bloodied shreds.

“No! No! NO!”

A massive maul bit down on Tonio’ horrified face, gripping it tight, while another set of teeth sank into his neck. A resounding
crunch
sent a flock of doves from the rafters in a plume of white and grey. Outside the stables a few noticed their flight, for it was nothing extraordinary to a commoner’s eye, but one person noticed the uniqueness of the event.

Venir saw Tonio’s body go limp. Two giant dog heads came into full view, shaking the body a couple of times and dropping it to the stable floor like a discarded toy. He pulled the man’s still breathing body out of the way and swung the door open.

The two faces of Chongo bounded out, his two tails wagging with enthusiasm. The pair of monstrous, bloodied heads licked Venir like a happy puppy. He tried to fight the giant dog off, but it was in vain. Chongo came out of the gate, standing the size of a small horse. Venir’s canine friend, now a two-headed beast was one of a kind in the world of Bish. The shaggy red-brown coat shone in the morning light as Venir tried to calm his excited pooch. He rubbed the massive dog’s chest and belly as it rolled onto his back.

“Good boy, Chongo. Good boy.”

He scratched the dog’s ears and looked about for the thief and boy. Georgio stood shaking at the gate staring at the crossbow bolt imbedded in it. He signaled the boy over. Melegal, with a foul look on his face, was leading a shaggy, dark gray pony out of another stable.

“See what you’ve done!” the thief blurted. “The City Watch is gonna be all over us. The Royals will have a price on our head so high we’ll never be able to come back. They’ll be hunting us nonstop.”

Venir held two fingers to his chest, paused, and held up one. Melegal repeated the signs back to him, and handed Georgio the saddle of his pony. With a parting glare, Melegal shook his head and disappeared.

Georgio scrambled to saddle the pony. They moved like soldiers breaking down a camp. Venir slung Chongo’s leather saddle over his back and was ready to move out.

Georgio stepped in Chongo’s stable and pulled an old rake off the wall. The boy stretched it upward, catching it high above the rafters and yanked at something. An angled wooden walkway dropped down at the back of the stable. It opened into a deep passage facing south and slanting down.

The mysterious passage had been revealed to Venir by an old stable hand. The old man said he had seen it used only used once when he was a boy. It was just another forgotten secret among a thousand in the great City of Bone.

Venir grabbed the big dog by the scruff of its chest and led both animals into the tunnel. Back inside the stable, the boy raked at the hay, manure, and dirt and waved. The secret door closed and Georgio’s broad smile left his sight.

It was pitch black. Venir traveled at a sluggish pace for over a mile. He crossed over a large metal grate, with the sound of water running far below. Venir always assumed it was a large storm drain, but wondered if that was its only purpose. From there, the passage began sloping upward and he came to a dead end. There he waited ….

At last the dead end opened up and scattered daylight poured in. They were inside a small cave. Georgio’s flushed pie-face appeared, whispering.

“Coast is clear.”

“Good job, Georgio. Now, help me adjust Chongo’s saddle. I’ll keep him calm while you tighten the buckles.”

The husky boy closed off the secret passage and took the large saddle from Venir’s shoulder. Venir sat Chongo down, talking to him and scratching his head while the dog-beast growled as Georgio saddled him. Venir kept Chongo calm long enough for the boy to finish the last buckle, and tossed each head a red apple. Chongo chomped them down, whirled and began barking at the boy who backed up on ginger feet.

“Heel!” Venir said.

The dog lowered his heads and lay down at his feet. Venir loaded his two sacks onto the giant dog. One head licked at his boots, while the other kept a wary eye on the boy.

“Why’s he doing that Vee? He never does me like that in the stables?” Georgio said as he clambered onto Quickster’s saddle.

“Ah…he’s just testing you. Besides, he doesn’t like me saddling him either.”

Venir slung himself up on Chongo’s back and led the way. It was late morning, and the two suns were hot over the dry, open land. The City of Bone’s southern wall stood like a blackened monolith over two miles away. In the south, the barren Outlands looked dry and dreadful. Venir smiled.

The air was fresh and pure, the sunlight hot on his face. The clouds had broken apart as the rain traveled into the distant north. He could still see several groups of nomadic people and farmers clustered near the distant walls. Most were not welcome in the City of Bone. It was either sell or be sold if you weren’t careful. The main caravan trail was busy with the comings and goings of all types of trade. Heavy clouds of dust from the beasts of burden obscured the figures traveling along with their carts and wagons.
Fools.
But what better choice did they have.

Georgio rode along his side as he set off.

“Where to?” the boy said.

“I’m taking you home. Melegal will meet us in a couple of hours. You’ll be safe; the City Watch don’t come out more than a day’s ride.”

Georgio frowned as they rode in silence. The dog led the way, with a fluid gait, tongues hanging out in the heat, ears and eyes all alert.

“I told you before,” he said as irritation rose in his voice, “quick ponies move just as fast, but they carry like a pack mule. Melegal thinks he’s going to find a hoard of treasure one day. Besides, it didn’t cost him anything; he won Quickster in a bet.”

“Well, Quickster’s a stupid name. He should be called Poopster.”

“Enough!”

The land south of the city was mostly clay, dirt and rocks, vegetated with cacti and thick thatches of thistles. It was flat and the footing was hard. The suns burned front and back on a day like this. The Outlands offered little comfort to those who were ill prepared.

Not much was to be encountered between cities or villages, except in the cool of the evening. Bandits knew the pickings on the trails were riskier at night, but that was when they came. During the day the dreaded, blistering heat of the suns helped to protect travelers. Still, day or night, you could never get comfortable. That was when the bandits watched and laid there traps. Many wearied travelers perished under their desperate steel. It was only one of many terrors to be encountered in the Outlands.

The two hadn’t traveled far when they came upon a dry well with sparse vegetation. The cacti were abundant, it was good fortune. Venir found a nice round cactus, lopped off the top, and started pulling out the watery pulp and feeding it to Chongo. Georgio did the same for Quickster. In the distance, the City of Bone hovered like a mirage, wavering in the sunlight like a ghostly castle. His intense eyes squinted towards it. Georgio, soaked in sweat, grabbed a waterskin and gulped it down.

“I moved the body, covered the tracks. There was a stir as I left the stables. The City Watch filed in with some Royals. I thought I saw a familiar face from the Chimera, but I recognized no one else. But you can bet your ears they’ll be looking for us for a long time coming. He wasn’t alone, I’m sure.”

“—you know as well as I, not a man in all of Bone can hide forever when he’s on the list. All you can hope is that we don’t make the list. But now that Chongo’s turned one of their own into a chew toy— I’m pretty sure
we
are on that list!”

Venir kept his own discomforting thoughts to himself. All that trouble over him was excessive, even for a Royal.

Melegal snatched the waterskin from Georgio’s hand.

“I don’t understand why that Royal brat Tonio even conceived of coming after you? Usually, they get their dirty work done for them. It was insane!”