The Darkslayer: Chaos at the Castle (Book 6) (26 page)

“But, certainly, you won’t kill all of us? Underlings and men have held many alliances before. Outpost Thirty-One and Castle Almen were united on that endeavor.” He wiped the swea
t from his brow with his robes. “Certainly we can be united on this endeavor as well. I killed off two Royal magi who held a pivotal location.” He crawled towards the two husks on the floor and lifted one up. “I am not loyal?”

Catten snapped his fingers. The entire room shook, knocking Sefron over and turning
what remained of the corpses into dust.

“Kierway,” Catten said, “You say this one is a life drainer
?”

“
It seems he has that craft,” Kierway said, checking the bandolier of knives on his chest. “What of it?”

“Give him your hand,” Catten ordered.

“Give him your own hand!” Kierway fired back.

“You’ll do as I say
, Kierway!” Catten’s voice shook the chandeliers.

Sefron ca
me forward, his limbs stiffening. The power he got from draining people didn’t last forever, but the magi he’d drained would hold him for hours. He extended his hand.

Kierway sneered at Lord Catten
, who sneered back.

“You’re such a fool
, Kierway. Stupid and cowardly.” Catten snatched Sefron’s wrist with a grip of iron and said, “Drain me, Human!”

Fearful, Sefron hesitated.

“Do it, else I’ll have Kierway skewer and skin you like a rodent.”

Sefron summoned his power. The dust stirred on the floor, mystic powers flowing through him, giving him
more enriching vitality.

“You like that, do you
Human?” Catten ran his tongue along his teeth. “A taste of centuries of tempered energy, something your kind cannot comprehend.”  He pulled Sefron in face to face. “Well, I’ll share a secret with you. I’m feeding you my power, Weakling. You are not taking it.”

Catten closed his eyes, holding Sefron fast.

An urge to pull away overcame Sefron.

B
ut Catten held him in a supernatural grip.

Something was wrong. He wasn’t draining the underling
. Instead, the underling was feeding him dark, exhilarating energy.

“Human,” Catten
said, “certainly you knew that you are only capable of draining your own kind. I, however, can do both, and what I give, I can take away.”

Sefron choked. His breath was gone. All of his
vibrancy was being sucked dry. He shrunk. He shriveled. He wheezed, fought to stand, and teetered to the floor. He pleaded with his eyes. Catten released him. He fell down and clutched his chest.

“You really should consort with a better class of
human, Kierway. But I should expect so much.”

Sefron looked down a
t his flabby belly, and the skin jiggled under his chin. Wheezing, he pushed himself up on his staff.

Just need another fresh body and I’ll be fine
, thank you.

“Now, Kierway,
take your flabby ally away. Take some of your men and secure the Chamber of Keys. Certainly, someone will show up eventually. As for me, I’ll see to it the demise of the Castle is completed.”

Sefron’s shaky legs struggled to move. He was in worse condition than before. His good
eye caught Lord Catten’s hard stare once more. He turned away. It wasn’t likely Lord Catten would keep him around if he didn’t think of something.

Kierway shoved him forward, “Lead the way, you
saggy piece of meat.”

CHAPTER 34

“Die, Fiends! Die!”

Jarla’s inner fires ignited with every stroke. Underling
s, one after the other, fell under the precise patterns of her blade.

Chop!

Glitch!

Zurk! 

She rammed a dagger into the last one’s throat. Beside her, Tonio hewed the underlings down with powerful blows. A tireless machine among the chaos. The underlings, as well prepared as they might be, couldn’t have been prepared for this; two skilled fighters with an unrivaled passion for killing.

Body splattered with red-black blood and gore, Jarla churned out one death after the other.

Toowah!

Toowah!

Toowah!

The darts struck her arms and legs.

“Cowards!” she said.

Whack!

She split one amber-eyed underling’s skull.

Toowah!

Toowah!

Toowah!

Tonio laughed, half a dozen darts in his face, and yelled in his garbled voice, “There is no escape from me, underlings!”

The
y chopped at the man, jumped on top of him, tried to drag him down, but Tonio shook them off like a dog sheds water.

Jarla stayed close. Her lungs were burning behind her heaving chest. Her sword became heavy, sluggish. Still, she hacked. She chopped. Cognizant of the pound
ing on the door behind her. The underlings would chop through that door at any moment.

“We’re going to have company!” she rasped. “I hope you can hold the
m all, because I can’t.”

“Let them come!” Tonio said, ramming his sword through one
’s skull.

Claw
s and fangs bared, an underling charged, leaping towards her from the bar. Engaged with another one of the underlings, she caught it in the corner of her eye, but couldn’t turn in time.

S
lice!

Toni
o cleaved through it in mid-air, sending a shower of dark blood everywhere.

Over a dozen underling bodies were piled up, some twitching on the floor, behind them another dozen or so
, when they backed off.

Jarla wiped the blood from her eyes, trying to catch her breath. The
y needed an escape route, but the only way was to carve through them.

“Think you can cut a path to the back through them
?” she asked Tonio.

“Certainly, but I haven’t the same need as you. I can fight them all day and all night if I have to,” he said
. “But you won’t last that long, will you, Woman?”

Chop!
Chop! Chop!

The underlings were still
hewing at the door behind them, jostling Jarla’s indomitable shroud. She’d never quit a fight before, but at the moment, there wasn’t much fight left in her. She was exhausted, out of shape, and disappointed. 

How did I let myself get like this?
Lazy over-drinking bitch!

A twinkle caught her eye. She wiped the blood from the ring on her finger. It glowed a bright green color.

“What is that?” Tonio said.

Fool! How could I have forgotten!

“A way out of here, maybe.” She darted for the front door, sliding over the blood-slicked floor. “Hold them off!”

Tonio’s big frame stepped between her and the underlings, beckoning the underlings forward. “Come on,
rodents. My blade thirsts for your blood!”

Where’s the
Key! Where’s the Key!

Chop!

The blade of an axe emerged through the door. A sparkling eye peeked inside.

Glitch!

She jammed a dagger in its eye, let go and grabbed the Key. She jammed it inside the lock.

Chop!

The Key popped out and fell to the ground. She fumbled for it, grabbing it in her sticky hands.

Chop!

The underlings on the other side kept hacking at the lock. Chunks of wood fell.

Clatch-zip!

Clatch-zip!

Clatch-zip!

Small bolts ripped across the room, burying themselves in the door.

Tonio groaned. “Whatever you
’re doing, Witch, you better hurry. Looks like the rodents are just getting started.”

Thunk!

A javelin juttered in the door frame.

Jarla tried to force the
Key into the deteriorating lock. It wouldn’t go.

“Blast my eyes!
Get! In! There!”

The
Key transformed, its head matching the lock. She shoved it in and turned.

Clatch-zip!

Clatch-zip!

Clatch-zip!

Bol
ts and spears filled the doorway.  Over her shoulder, she could see Tonio was filled with them, still standing, snarling and chopping. She shoved the door forward and found herself in a black room. She stepped inside, huffing, then pushed the door shut.

A
lmost.

Fingers emerged on the door
’s edge, pulling it open. Tonio’s blood-splattered face leered at her.

“Not leaving the party without me
, are you?”

“Just get your dead arse in here and shut the blasted door!”

“My pleasure.” He closed it on the small fingers of the underlings, crushing them in the frame.

Jarla heard their angry screeches and howls cut short. Everything spun
. She wanted to vomit. Her world twisted bloody and black.

I hate this
part.

CHAPTER 35

Everything in her life had been turned upside down. And now, she was home, back inside her own room, and once more a prisoner.  Kam lowered her shoulder and pounded at the door.

Wham!

“Will you stop doing th
at, Kam?” Joline said. She was rocking baby Erin in her arms. “Can’t you just be thankful you are home, safe for the moment?”

“That troll cut my hand off, Joline!”

Wham!

“And when I get a hold of her, I’m gonna shove my foot up her—”

“KAM! Enough!” Joline said, setting Erin in her bassinette.

The bassinette started to rock itself
, and soothing music came forth, keeping Erin in a peaceful slumber.

Kam rubbed her shoulder
with her lone hand and fought the tears coming to her eyes. What in Bish was going on? She’d just escaped the unbearable, only to find herself at home, confronted with the inconceivable. She looked at her stump, stupefied. Less than an hour ago, she’d awoken in her bed, the wound dressed and cleaned. Joline had done that for her, saying the bleeding had stopped on its own and the flesh had mended itself.

Who in Bish is Scorch?

She gritted her teeth.

Wham!

Joline grabbed her by the arm
, dragged her over to the sofa, and pulled her down. Softly, the woman said, “Dear, I don’t know what you’ve been through, and I can’t explain what we are going through now, but you are home.” Joline looked around and shrugged. “And safe as far as I know. You, me and Erin.” She patted her knee. “A family.”

Her tears flowed like raindrops. Her body shuddered with every breath. Kam’s voice was a high pitched squeak
. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I don’t understand. I just don’t understand. I was so happy to be home, and n-n-now I’m a handless prisoner. Where’s my hand, Joline? Why’d that woman do that?”

Joline handed her a handkerchief and rubbed her back.

She blew her nose and wiped her tears away.

“The truth is, Kam, you look better now than when you first walked in here. You looked possessed. You weren’t yourself.”

Serve and live.

That voice. It would haunt her forever. It
had possessed her, controlled her. Empowered her. What was it? Who was it?

Kam
had made a deal.

It
had saved her. The power in the stones. A being was in the stones, like one was in the sword, the great sword of Zorth, the Everblade. It was her father’s sword, and she was going to return it. Her father would have to answer to her about his dealings with Palos. She shivered. The thought of that man having his way with her. Pawing at her. Humiliating her. Almost killing her. What had happened to him? She’d left him mumbling in his own drool.

I should have killed him!

Joline squeezed her hand. “What is it, Kam? What are you thinking? There’s murder in those eyes! You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

The question was like a slap in the face. Diller. Indeed, she had killed a man. Snapped his neck like a twig.
And there had been others. In the alley. Broken. Lifeless. Had she killed them too? She looked at the hand that was no longer there. She swore she could still see it, feel it. And the dark energy from it still lingered within her.

She shook her head, sucked in her breath, looked Joline in the eye
, and said, “I did what I had to do to save Erin, Joline.” She blew her nose again. “And let me tell you, those bastards down below will think a hundred times before they ever come up here again.”