The Darkslayer: Chaos at the Castle (Book 6) (33 page)

Glitch!

Melegal stabbed him in the heart, plunging his blade hilt-deep in the chest.

“
No!” Sefron coughed up blood, groaned, and gurgled before falling over, dead.

Melegal pulled out his dagger
and stabbed him once more.

Sefron’s
stare was glassy, and the cleric’s body reverted back to normal.

Filthy Bastard.

Melegal fell flat on his back, sucking for air. Rolling onto his belly, he groaned. “Slat, I feel like I’m a hundred years old.” He crawled over the floor, aching from head to toe.

Nearby,
Creed was about to die.

So much for him.

He turned his attention elsewhere.
Get to one of the doors!
He had a Key; he could still feel it, but at the rate he was moving the nearest door might as well have been a mile away. Going up the stairs looked impossible. Everyone was fighting everything everywhere.

Bone, I’m not going anywhere!
I might as well die right here.

***

Clang!

The sound of clashing steel was music to Creed’s ears. He rolled away and sprang to his feet
, limping. The underling, Kierway, was tangled with a big, ugly menace of a man he would not have known had he not called Lord Almen Father. Tonio had changed.

“I like these odds!”

Rejuvenated, Creed jumped into the fray, stabbing his gleaming sword.

On the other side of Kierway,
the big ugly brute hammered away with fast, heavy blows.

Kierway parried, the man on one side, the monster on the other, with speed and expertise
Creed never before imagined. Still, Kierway was hobbled, blood dripping from his thigh onto the blood-sucking floor.
Wear him down! 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Creed pounded at the underling’s steel. Now, Kierway’s chest began to heave, and sweat dripped from his nose.

Stab!

Kierway poked straight through the monster’s belly and ripped it out.

T
he monster grinned.

“You’re no man!” Kierway exclaimed, side stepping a heavy swing and chopping into
its leg.

“Nay, underling. I’m a monster the likes you’ve never seen
!”

It
chopped high.

Creed sliced low.

Kierway howled, tumbling to the floor.

The Bloodhound swordsman felt his sword hit bone
.

Kierway’s sword clattered over the stones
; with the other one, he still parried. In the next instant, Kierway stuck a small whistle in his mouth and blew.

Creed smacked the whistle
from Kierway’s lips with his blade.

Two more underlings emerged, but
Tonio was already assaulting them.

“Time to finish this!”

“Hah, Human! You think you’ve defeated me. I still have one sword,” Kierway said, rising.

“And a really bad limp
.” Creed huffed. He didn’t have much left in him, if anything at all.

“Tell you what, Human. Let’s settle this with a draw.” Kierway lifted his eyes and made the motion to sheath his sword.

“You first.” Creed panted, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Kierway slid his steel over his back and extended his hands. “Now you?”

Creed did the same, over his hip.

“First one out gets the first swing
.” A wicked smile formed on Kierway’s lips.

Creed swallowed the little spit he had left. He’d never been beaten in a draw, but this underling was quick. At least it was an honorable way to go. At least he
’d bought more time to live.
Come on, Creed! Think of all those years of training. All those Royals snubbing you. Fight or die.

“On my wink,
Underling.”

“Perfect
.” Kierway casually dropped his hand over his head.

Creed
took a half breath, cleared his mind and focused.
One. Two. Three.
He blinked one eye and drew.

Kierway’s blade was already out.

Impossible!

CHAPTER 44

Melegal inched his way over the floor towards the nearest door in sight.
Look away! Look away!
So far, his plan seemed to be working, either from his hat, or the confusion that was going on around him.
Not my kind of party. Look Away! Look away!
He had to go at least two dozen feet more, every movement in his joints stiff and painful. Still, he was aware of everything.

Jarla cut an underling down with a stroke to its throat.

Lord Almen buried a nasty-looking dagger in the spine of another.

Tonio and Creed battled the one called Kierway with flashes of lightning and
the resounding sound of steel meeting steel.

No, it wasn’t his kind of party
at all.
Vee! I need you. Come through that door any second now.
Grumbling, he slid over the floor: one foot closer, then two.

Down the stair
s the underlings kept coming: one to a man, then two.

All the wh
ile, the floor seemed to wriggle, draining the life of the fallen, turning their bodies to husks.

They’ll never make it out of this.

Everything was happening so fast, but he was moving so slow.
What did that Cleric do to me?
He clutched at the Key inside his clothes and touched something else.
What is that?
Curious, he produced the black rectangular case he’d take from Lord Almen’s study above. Opening it, he found a wand-shaped rod made of dark wood with ornate carvings.

Out of nowhere, Lord Almen came and snatched it from his hand.
“You just gave your worthless life a few more precious moments, Detective. Enjoy them while they last.” Lord Almen snapped his wrist. The rod flared with life, a glowing purple tendril of energy extending from it.

Melegal shield
ed his tired eyes.

WUHPAZZ!

Two underlings whirled on Lord Almen, ruby eyes wide.

“Taste this
, underfiends!” Lord Almen stroked the mystic whip of energy.

WUHPAZZ!

It sheered the arm off one, shooting blood over the room.

WUHPAZZ!

It coiled around the other one’s neck. Its skin sizzled. Its eyes rolled up under its head.

Lord Almen popped its head from
its shoulders with a yank, and then methodically made his way around the chamber.

The underlings, even the armored ones, were cut up
with the whip, like butter with a hot knife.

WUHPAZZ!
WUHPAZZ! WUHPAZZ!

Melegal, keeping his eye on Almen, continued towards the door.
I’m going to steal that… again.
Less than ten feet away.
I’m going to make it out of this slat hole!
Five feet away.

WUHPAZZ!
WUHPAZZ!

Good for you
, Lord Arsehole!
He reached inside his shirt and wrapped his hand around the Key. He was all alone. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught someone else.

A golden
-eyed underling floated in. Surveying the room, it shook its head, sneered, and opened its mouth.

Melegal
’s hat pulsated on his head.
Move!
Mustering all the strength he had, he lunged for the door.

A single word burst forth from the golden
-eyed underling, turning the chamber asunder.

A wave of energy slammed into
Melegal, jarring every bone, every fiber. The Key fell from his grasp, but he didn’t hear it land. All he wanted to do was cover his head. Instead, he collapsed, unable to move, hands twitching. He’d never felt anything so painful before.
Please don’t do that again. Kill me first instead.

In the center of the room, Lord Almen, Jarla, Creed and all the underlings aside from Kierway were sprawled out over the floor. Alive or dead, he did not know
.

Tonio still stood, listlessly dragging a gore
-dripping sword around the room.

Melegal’s
Key twinkled nearby.

He
stretched out his fingers.
So close.

Kierway
stepped on his hand and picked up the Key.

Melegal’s
vision faded. The last thing he saw was Kierway’s dripping blade.

Will death be as painful as life on Bish?

CHAPTER 45

“I’m hungry
.” Brak moaned.

You aren’t as hungry as me,” Georgio shot back, pushing back his sweaty brown locks. “Nobody gets as hungry as me!”

“Am too, hungrier!”

“Please stop it!  Both of you,” Jubilee shouted from Quickster
’s saddle. “You two idiots ate all our food!”

Billip wanted to kill both the young men. They
’d all departed the City of Bone in a rush, but were amply supplied, a couple of weeks’ worth anyway. But three days into it, the food was almost gone, with maybe a day left, maybe two, and it was still at least another week to make the City of Three. 

“I didn’t eat it all
; he did,” Georgio said.

Brak, who
se big feet shoved the dirt like a plow, chucked a rock at Georgio, smacking him hard in the back. “I’m going to cram the next one in your biscuit hole, so you’ll be swallowing your teeth.”

Good,
Billip thought, stopping to look.
I hope they beat each other to death.

Georgio picked up
a rock as big as his hand and slung it back. “Eat this!”

Brak jerked his forearm up.

The rock skipped off his wrist and clocked him in the head, drawing blood.

Brak’s
eyes widened then buckled, his big face drawing up. “You’re going to die for that!”

Georgio widened his arms and slapped his chest
. “I’d like to see you try, you droopy face bastard!”

“You shut up, Georgio!” J
ubilee shouted. “Go beat the crap out of him, Brak!”

Closing the distance in two long strides, Brak took the first swing.

Georgio raised his arms up, blocking the blow and laughing. “You’re too slow for me, Goon. I’m going to pummel you—
oof
!”

Brak uppercutted him in the belly, lifting him from his feet.

Billip winced.

Jubilee gasped.

Face reddened, Georgio scrambled to his feet and charged. Slamming into Brak, he lifted the bigger young man from his feet and drove him into the ground. Georgio’s fists hammered into Brak, hitting ribs, face and gut. “You’re gonna pay for that! I’m gonna beat you to death!”

Brak, the bigger and much older
-looking of the two, had his hands full.

Georgio, a big young man himself, was the quicker
of the two, sneaking in punches through Brak’s blocking forearms.

Billip yawned. He’d seen old three legged dogs fight better.

“Get him, Brak!” Jubilee yelled, shadow boxing in the air. “Bust his jaw so he can’t eat any more.”

Over the dirt they tussled, kicking up dust
, yelling and growling at eat other.

“I’m going to kill you!”

“I hate you!”

“You skinny ogre!”

“Potbellied urchin!”

Billip took a small sip from his canteen
, which was getting light. They’d run out of water soon. The past day had worried him. Normally, hunting game of some sort, be it a pheasant or an Outland fox, wasn’t much of a problem, but thanks to the mass exodus from the south, game was harder to come by. And Billip had led them on a more difficult path as well, fearing that other weary travelers would be after them or the meat of Quickster. 

He shook his head.

Only days ago, he’d been dead set on staying in the City of Bone, helping Trinos to fight and battle the underlings. The next thing he knew, he was leading the young men and Jubilee north towards the City of Three. Did Melegal talk him into it, or was it something Trinos had done?
I’m going to get that thief one of these days.

Turning his attention away
from the mirages that littered the barren landscape in the distance and back to the boys, he shook his head.

Georgio had his meaty fingers around Brak’s neck, and Brak had his around Georgio’s.