CHAPTER 13 - TERROR
Taloned fingers reached out to grab Tress, when a brilliant arc of light flew out from the crystal statue situated directly behind the beast. She tried desperately to pull her tattered cloak about her, hoping to vanish and evade the promise of harm that loomed over her, but the damaged cloak only managed to partially hide her head. The beast’s cold eyes gleamed with the imminent victory that it knew would soon come. A beam of light glared through the room as a portal began to form, it struggled at first, due to the extreme range of the magic, but then, amplified by the statue, it stabilised directly behind the beast. Lewem was first through.
‘Quickly friends, this way,’ he hissed, motioning them towards the open portal, his last word stuck in his throat as he stared at the Soul Beast’s back.
The Soul Beast swung around on its new prey, catching a surprised Lewem in its grasp. His eyes budged in terror as he suddenly comprehended the full danger of the situation that he had walked into. He screamed his last breath as the fangs of the beast plunged down deep into his head. Tress felt the bile rising in her throat at the sickening sound of Lewem’s skull being crunched inwards. His eyes rolled upwards and his legs flailed around wildly as the last essence of his soul was sucked from his body and a new entity swirled within the Soul Beast’s translucent fangs. His legs ceased their swinging and the shrivelled, emaciated husk that had once been Lewem, dropped to the floor.
During the fleeting seconds of Lewem’s death, Corvus had desperately been straining against the unholy aura surrounded him. The beast’s magic preventing him from further raising his axe in his trembling hands, as it now felt as heavy as a blacksmith’s anvil. Unusually for Corvus, he could barely summon up the courage to face the beast. Before it, he was but a small child.
Sorus was next through the portal and into the fray; he wore a leather helm and breastplate that ill suited him, and in his hands he wielded a large iron trident that was instantly raised on seeing Lewem’s husk. He jumped from the portal into a defensive fighting stance. The Soul Beast’s talons ripped out at the newcomer but Sorus was better prepared than his companion and was able to deflect the death blow with the shaft of his trident. The magician opened the palm of his hand and blew forth a black powder towards the beast; the powder seemed to expand and swirl around the room like a swarm of bees, finally dissipating into the air of the vast hall. To her relief, Tress slowly felt signs of movement returning to her leaden arms.
‘Get yourselves through that portal quickly,’ Sorus shouted.
‘Not you though, my pretty,’ he snarled, turning his attention back to the Soul Beast. Tress didn’t need telling twice and immediately closed the distance to the portal.
‘You’re staying with me - or going back to hell,’ stated the magician.
The points of his trident flashed upwards and the Soul Beast backed off while simultaneously swerving to avoid Corvus’s wild axe-swing as he suddenly regained his strength. The laughter that had earlier emanated throughout the chamber had now changed to a lower tone, one more akin to a series of angry animal growls. The beast raised its fist and bit deep into its own hand. A great shockwave radiated from the beast and shot across the room, as the air around the beast was sucked from the hall. The resulting boom produced a painful sound pulsing through their ears that was almost as bad as the shockwave itself. Tress was not hanging about; she had already looked into the face of death and headed for her chance of escape, when the shockwave hit her it sent her cart-wheeling forwards through the portal. With the force of the air Corvus and Sorus were thrown in the opposite direction across the room, the wall of air passed harmlessly around Athene, merely ruffling her hair. Amazed still to be standing, Athene actually started to believe that she might have some kind of power after all, but how could she harness it to help the situation? She still felt helpless; after all she was surrounded by greater company.
She quickly decided her best plan of action would be to follow Tress and run towards the portal and safety, the beast was obviously dangerous. She almost made it, but the Soul Beast moved with incredible speed for something now so large and was upon her before she could reach the transportation portal. She could tell from the malice burning in its blood-red eyes that something was preventing it from slaying her. Corvus and Sorus were quickly on their feet and closing back in on the beast fast.
The table that had been positioned to block the stairs and entrance into the hall, suddenly splintered inwards as a green-taloned arm punched through the half-rotten wood. In that moment, taking advantage of the slight distraction, Sorus thrust the point of his trident forward piercing the Soul Beast’s hip. The enraged beast quickly chopped downwards, its backhand blow, smashed the shaft of the weapon and then frantically clawed at the trident’s embedded head, eventually pulling it free, sending a glowing red fire spraying out of the wound where blood should have been, Sorus was caught in the radius of the flames and was badly burnt before he could bring his magic protection to bear.
‘Barashek,’ he shouted and the flames pushed past the sides of his outstretched hands and harmlessly past him. Athene struggled frantically to free herself from the clawed hand pinning her to the spot. She drew her dagger and stabbed at the gnarled claw that held her. The Soul Beast did not flinch as the dagger pierced its tough skin and more fire pulsed from the resultant wounds, but unlike Sorus, the flames fell harmlessly around her, without so much as singeing a single strand of hair. Astoundingly, and to their horror, the jagged wound inflicted by the trident had now miraculously healed, but at least this had stopped the flow of fire spewing from the punctured flesh.
‘With Hellfire for blood and such physical strength our defeat looks inevitable,’ thought Sorus who had seen nothing of its kind before. Smashing through the remains of the table blockade a green possessed one had now entered the chamber. Corvus rapidly assessed the changing situation. He knew that striking the Soul Beast would burn him to a husk, yet he needed to make himself useful in this encounter. He did not posses any magic protection like Athene and with one green part-man, part-demon creature making its approach from the right; a quick course of action was required.
‘I’ll take the Green,’ he mused and shouted his decision to the group.
He sprang forward to meet the green possessed one. The two toppled to the ground, Corvus’ battleaxe deeply embedded in the green humanoids chest. It gasped its last gurgling breath before the axe came down again severing the thing’s head. Corvus watched the doorway for any further beasts that might follow, none came.
Sorus had conjured an invisible barrier about himself, absorbing the raking blows from the enraged Soul Beast that seemed to grow feeding from his magic, although, from the desperate look on his face, it didn’t look as if his magic would hold for much longer. The beast sunk its teeth into the magical shield and the invisible barrier became visible for several seconds as the beast began to suck the magic out of Sorus through his protective shield.
‘It’s no use,’ he shouted panting for breath. ‘The portal will close shortly and this beast is just too strong for me.’
With that, not wishing to share Lewem’s fate, just as his shield collapsed a smouldering Sorus dived back through the portal to safety. The beast’s laughter echoed about the hall once more.
‘Krakan’s shit-house’ - this wasn’t good, thought Corvus, just himself and Athene left to face an impossible foe, this was not how he had pictured his death. Without thinking, roaring a final shout of despair and anger rolled into one, he threw his battleaxe towards the mass of the beast, in the vain hope of ending the fight quickly, one way or another. The Soul Beast twisted with a speed not of this world and the axe flew harmlessly past the creature, smashing into the crystal statuette directly behind it. The portal abruptly closed with a tremendous shockwave that flung the nearby beast to the ground. As the beast pulled on the still-standing Athene’s leg, to get back to its feet, she looked down at the pitiless eyes beholding her and slammed her dagger down into its face, the hellfire that spewed from the wound enveloped her arms yet she remained unharmed. Her second strike shattered one of its long, protruding fangs. The tooth snapped with a sickening sound, releasing thousands of consumed souls into the air. The red mist of the escaping souls swirled around the room like a tempest with an unearthly sound, like that of a crowded room filled with a thousand voices. The murmurs suddenly disappeared in an instance. The Soul Beast screamed and clawed at its mouth, as if in an effort to keep the forgotten souls in. Its mouth finally erupted with a blinding light and a final magical pulse tore through the hall as the beast was ripped back to its own dimension. The pulse blasted Corvus backwards with such force that it flung him from his feet far into the side catacombs of the hall, knocking him senseless. Even Athene was knocked from her feet by the great wind that erupted through the chamber. When the red mist and dust finally cleared, the Soul Beast was no more. In a serenely peaceful moment the dust settled gently back to the floor of the room.
Titus couldn’t believe his luck as he entered the great chamber of worship. After being slowed by the injury to his leg from Henrick, he had fully expected to be taken off this contract. But his sponsor had once again contacted him, supplying him with the location of the Shrine and had also used some dark art to accelerate the healing of his wound by the red crystals. Ordinarily a wound of this magnitude would take around a week to heal with the aid of the red crystals and over a month without, yet he was once again mobile in half a day. This had put him back in the chase again.
It all appeared far too easy to him, as he entered the chamber. The girl was lying dazed on the ground with the unconscious warrior crumpled in a heap nearby. This was too good to be true and his years of experience made him stop and re-evaluate the situation. Things were never as good as they would at first appear, there were signs of a desperate struggle and a newcomer had also been involved, judging from the state of some of the corpses not all involved in the struggle were human. He noticed that the one called Tyranny, his secondary mark, was no longer with them or perhaps she was hiding again? The depleted and smashed crystal statue shards indicated that magic had been used, maybe a portal for escape but as ever he assumed nothing.
The colour drained from Athene’s face as she looked at the unsavoury and familiar visitor looking across the hall at her, she dashed over and began to shake Corvus frantically.
‘Wake up Corvus, please wake up,’ she pleaded in a panic-stricken voice.
Titus sheathed his fearsome new Sword Breaker blade that he had selected from the Croweheim armoury. It was the length of a long hunting knife with deep groves in the back of the blade designed to trap and snap an opponent’s weapon. Against a swordsman it was a very intimidating tool, although Titus knew through his endless years of training that the Sword Breaker should really be called the Sword Catcher, as it rarely snapped the blade. Tress’s old sabre was wrapped and strapped to his back, being too valuable to be left with the saddlebags and horses above. With his now spare hand, he scooped up some of the plentiful dust that caked the ground and threw it about him in a wide arc, carefully studying its effect as it had always been his habit to be cautious. He then continued to limp purposefully towards Athene. He carefully vectored in on her, blocking her angle of escape to the only exit from the chamber behind him. As he approached her, unexpectedly he spoke very softly with the same sweet whispers that he had used to calm his first wild and stubborn pony, trying his best not to startle her into doing anything stupid. His soft tone caught her off guard for just a moment.
‘I know what you are thinking Athene.’ He used her name to try and give a more personal touch of familiarity.
‘How deep was that wound in my leg and can you make it past me? I can assure you, that thanks to the healing crystals, I am quite mobile and you won’t make it past me.’
‘Murderer.’ she screamed. The words continued to echo about the hall.
Titus threw another handful of dust into the air behind him and watched its effect.
‘Murderer? No, my little lamb.… slaughterer of the numerous men that have tried to kill me over the years, YES and too many to count, but they all died in battle, as did your comrade.’
Quickly reading her body language he realised that whilst Athene was seething with such rage the softly, softly approach was not going to work. It was time to become more direct.
‘Throw away the dagger that you hold concealed behind your back and discard your bow or you will feel the wrath of my displeasure. Come with me now without any further trouble and you will have my word that I won’t truss you up like a chicken bound for market. I am not here to kill you. If that was so, you would be dead already so just consider me your escort.’ He smiled unnervingly.
‘I won’t let you kill my friend,’ sobbed Athene as she shuffled over and hovered in indecision above the unconscious form of Corvus.
‘You are quite right,’ answered the growingly impatient Su-Katii.
‘As long as your friend has the sense not to follow us,’ he looked down at the sprawled figure.
‘If he ever wakes up, he will keep his life. I am not in the habit of slaughtering unconscious opponents. Call me old-fashioned but I prefer them with a bit more of a fight about them. Now come on or I’ll change my mind.’ he barked, his voice rising to a shout, leaving no doubt as to his authority.
After half-jumping out of her skin at the warrior’s sudden change of tone, Athene quickly weighed up her options. With the crystal statue shattered there was little hope of another portal or rescue, so with all hope draining from her limbs she gave in to his request, throwing her weapons to the ground she nervously shuffled over to his side. Anything else she knew would have been foolish.
As they began their ascent out from the dank air of the shrine, Titus limped along silently behind her, the hairs of her neck stood on end during the long and silent trip to the surface. On reaching daylight, she noticed that the protective dome that had magically surrounded the area had now totally disappeared. Taking a deep breath, she relished the fresh air that once again filled her lungs, a small pleasure against the dread and uncertainty that now filled her.
Athene tried to cling to a small fragment of hope – after all, she and Corvus were still alive. The swordsman had at least been true to his word and left the Nordheim King lying on the floor still drawing breath.
Tress was extremely relieved to be through the portal and into the safety of Tamar’s compound, but she was still apprehensive about what might come through the opening behind her, so she quickly moved away from the Vortex of power and begun to study her new found surroundings, looking for the nearest exits and escape routes. She begun to weave a spell of misdirection that Zerch had taught her, it may give her the vital time needed to escape, should the beast follow through the portal. After what seemed like an age, Sorus jumped through the portal, she could see immediately that he was in a bad way, his arms were charred black and elements of his clothing were still alight and smouldering. Tress acted quickly, dragging a nearby drape from the wall and smothering him in its folds to extinguish the last of the flames. The portal suddenly snapped shut behind them.
‘What happened back there? Where are the others?’
After catching his breath the exhausted magician just managed to stutter out, ‘I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help them, the beast was to strong for me. Poor Lewem.’ A wave of despair blew over her; she had become quite comfortable with the odd group of characters, more comfortable that she had felt around other people for a long time since her slavery. She genuinely hoped that they had made it to safety as well, but who was she kidding, with the portal closed they were as good as dead. Tress quickly pulled herself back together, her real emotions rarely surfaced. There was no point in beating herself up about matters outside of her control, yet with the shrivelled image of Lewem still in her thoughts, she could not stem the tide of pity that she still felt for those poor souls left behind. Wiping a tear from her eye she noticed for the first time the quietness of the complex about her. The place appeared to be deserted.
‘Where is everyone?’ She enquired. Tamar had always seemed to make out that he had a busy network of people working around him but now that she was here, it would appear otherwise.
‘It’s a long story, but to be brief, let me just say that the place is empty because everyone is out there, on the front line facing up to the current dangers and challenges that plague us. Tamar will hopefully be back here shortly, he got tied up on another job. But for now, would you be so kind as to fetch a burnt old man his crystals. They are in a chest under my bed, down the corridor, third room on the left. The red ones if you please.’
After patching up Sorus and dozing on the soft silk bedding of the guests’ quarters for a few hours, she was gently awoken by Cedar, Tamar’s House Master, he had returned from one of his many tasks. It had been a monumental struggle to pull herself up from the soft sheets and on leaving the room she promised herself that when she settled down, she would spend some of her profits on a bed and sheets in the same design. Tamar had at last returned, looking as weary as she had felt when she had arrived earlier.
‘Nice to finally meet you in person, Tamar,’ she greeted him, with arms outstretched. Tamar appeared awkward at the gesture of a hug and Tress quickly withdrew the offer, remembering that magicians rarely engage in such normal activities and bodily contact. In return, Tamar expressed a nod of greeting, which by magicians’ standards was as good as a hug.
‘I am relieved to see you are still alive and well Tress,’ he replied.
‘As am I; to see you,’ she retorted.
He rubbed his shortly cropped blond beard, Sorus here has informed me of the struggle with the beast, I would have sent you more help if I could have, but it was only by pure luck that I even managed to get Sorus to you in time. He patted his injured companion gently on the back. This poor thing has been both flying and burnt to a crisp in the same day; it’s much more excitement than he is used to.
‘I know and I can’t seem to escape it. Every time I mention my retirement you seem to find me new challenges to meet,’ complained Sorus.
‘Well old friend we still have plenty to do so your retirement will have to wait just a little longer.’
Sorus quickly cut in, ‘You said that last year.’
‘Well I truly wish that we had time to talk about more pleasant things but after our little confrontation with Bellack, we are against the clock and need to act fast. I have had to redeploy our allies to cover some of the other possibilities that I discovered from his mind and I have made arrangements accordingly with the Nordheim King,’ Tamar smiled.
‘What, Corvus is alive?’ Tress’s face beamed with renewed colour and expression.
‘Yes, rest easy, I don’t know how – but they are both alive.’ he sucked in a large breath of air.
‘That just leaves me with one more base to cover and only one agent left, it must be fate,’ he stared directly at Tress.
‘You can take Sorus along with you, even in his roughed-up state I’m sure he can be of some use to you.’ Tamar’s eyebrows rose hopefully, expecting the agreement that did not come.
The thought of being sent directly back out into God knows what by this magician, was not an appealing one to Tress.
‘You forget Tamar; I am not one of your agents to command. I’m just a freelancer who has helped you out once or twice in the past for my personal gain. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate my rescue, but had you not redirected me to ride south and assist Athene I would have been home and dry already. Let’s not kid ourselves here, I know that the rescue was set up for Athene, I have been around magic for far too long now to know that there is something different about that girl, even if she doesn’t know it.’ Tress was tired and abrupt and she craved little else other than to return to the comfortable bed again.
‘You’re quite right Tress, I know from your past that you have spent your lifetime being ordered about and controlled by magicians and sometimes even worse. It was merely a request, I know that I already have the debt of an amulet in payment, but this was precisely where I was hoping to send you - my next mission would have taken you to pick up the magic amulet as I promised. It also involves another task that would require your stealth. If you were willing to undertake it I would send you and Sorus down to my armoury, to get yourselves kitted out and prepared. I’m sure that he could repair your cloak as part of the deal and I could also throw in say three thousand gold Tanarian sovereigns for your troubles?’ Tamar noticed the widening of her eyes as he spoke to her. It was a figure that she could easily retire on, living in total luxury every day. His negotiations needed to be swift for he was himself beyond exhaustion from his convoluted trip back and he desperately needed to recuperate immediately for the tasks ahead.
‘I must admit, your offer of gold is both generous and attractive to me,’ she began her words slowly and with deliberation. ‘But, the price must be equal to the danger involved. I prefer to be around to spend my retirement fund, so I will have to say, NO.’
Tamar managed to totally hide his anger from her, ‘I can offer you one further redemption that gold cannot buy,’ he mentioned casually.
‘Oh, go on …now you have really got me intrigued.’ She smiled girlishly back.
‘I can take you to the one lover whom you will actually remember after the weeks pass.’
‘What? How do you know about…’ she stuttered her words in confusion as the colour drained from her face.
‘You and I know that you can never remember your lovers for more that a few weeks at best, therefore you will never experience, well at least remember the joys of true love. Just describe to me now if you can, what did the last one look like? Or can you even remember any details of the night.’ His words rang true in her mind, he was right – there was an empty hole in her heart that she yearned to be filled, she knew that she had been with many men but not one face or event of their passing could now be remembered – she never could. But how could he know this, only through his magic arts could he probe the recesses of her mind. She was wise to the ways of magic and had not detected such an attempt. His words jolted her attention back to his offer.
‘You can never truly experience love if you can never remember it. The gaping hole in your soul can be filled. Do you believe in destiny Tress? Because the one man that you can love and remember every day waits for you on the other side of the portal that I will create. It is a fate you both can’t run from. Neither of you know it yet, but trust me, it is an unstoppable force - you will be lovers. Don’t you want to remember? I can help you remember.’ he walked around her as he spoke his gentle words.
‘Just say ‘yes’ to my offer and I will help you remember, I can also stop your dark dreams that come back to haunt you.’ He touched the curls of her long blonde hair, then quickly withdrew his hand as his desire to have her again threatened to grow.
‘Who is this man, at least tell me his name?’ she asked.
‘Barrad,’ was his simple reply.
Tress cheeks flushed with a crimson glow at the thought of remembering a man’s touch. She bit her lip in thought.
‘Your terms are acceptable Tamar, explain what is required of me,’ nodded Tress.
Tamar had lied without remorse about her future lover, but he simply needed her skills and assistance at any cost. After seeing the mess that had been made inside her mind it had been easy to select the right cords to pull; besides if she indeed found what she now sought, he was confident that he could heal the deep wounds of her mind, well a least with a little help from Sorus who had a talent in these areas. But thinking back to the night when he had indulged himself and deceived her, the face that he had created from her fragments of desire had certainly not been that of Barrad.
They all sat down as Cedar supplied some refreshments and went over the required tasks and plans, after which Tamar retired to his quarters and Sorus led her through the corridors to the armoury. All manner of weapons and strange artefacts were arranged in the room behind its large iron-bolted door. Tress’s well-trained eye picked up the tiny slight-of-hand movement that Sorus made before entering. This room obviously had some form of magical seal protecting it. There were swords, armour and other items of clothing strewn all around the room. She even spotted a cat-box and Tress found herself wondering what possible magic could such an item contain that it warranted a space in Tamar’s armoury? Sorus rummaged through the piles of items talking away to himself, eventually pulling out a long bolt of woven cloth from amongst a pile of banners,
‘Ah ha, here it is,’ he muttered to himself.
‘Please remove your tattered cloak Tress and I will see if I can patch it up for you.’ She complied, passing it over marvelling as she watched him work repairing the cloak. He was like a seamstress sowing away at the fabric, only stopping briefly to enchant some further magic into his work.
‘You know, you’re very good at that,’ she commented.
‘Years of practice. Unlike a lot of mages I actually like to repair things rather than break them, its much more of a challenge,’ he replied, with out as much as an upwards glance as he focused on his task.
‘I know what you mean,’ she replied, ‘I also like to create things, but I’m just not very good at it. All I can create is chaos according to my old master. Well I guess he was right, I certainly created chaos for him in the end.’ She understood the true meaning of Sorus’s grunt in response to her comments; it meant without doubt that he would rather work undisturbed. She remained silent, picking at various items that surrounded her, until Sorus abruptly said ‘Please, do not touch.’
Pulling a face back at him she remain spread out on the floor uncomfortably, eventually nodding off until he loudly declared ‘Finished.’ He passed back her repaired cloak and after a quick inspection she nodded her appreciation of his work. Slipping it on she uttered the words of power and promptly disappeared from view.
‘Good, that seems to have done the trick, but I must warn you – my eyes are not as good as they used to be,’ he grinned.
Tress reappeared, ‘Ok, let’s go and get this over and done with, I have a date with destiny and I’m eager to retire.’
Sorus rummaged through several further areas of the room eventually pulling out a crystal-cut vial of liquid, he had also retrieved several small pots and handed them all over to Tress.
‘The contents of this vial would appear to be liquid, but I can assure you, it is not and you will need it to complete Tamar’s task. Inside is a potent magic that is very corrosive and the container itself is also not as it first seems. It is constructed purely by magic and made to appear exactly like glass. It is unbreakable by normal means, so don’t worry about damaging it. He handed it to her and as she touched it he chanted a short spell. ‘It is now bound only to your hands, so only your fingers can open the stopper, I’m afraid the contents are far too dangerous to be unleashed by just anyone.’ He paused and looked down at the other two jars in his hands. ‘With these on the other hand you will need to be extremely careful, inside these jars are three separate compartments, if you smash the jar the compartments will mix causing an instant explosion. They can be very useful in the right situation – sometimes you need something a little more instant than magic to get you out of a scrape. I like to call it Dragon’s Thunder, after its effect when the pot breaks and of course; don’t stand too close if you can help it.’ Tress took all of the items and placed them securely about herself, a little nervous about the Dragon’s Thunder packing and placement.
She also selected a new curved blade with a keener edge than her current Nordheim weapon from amongst the clutter of the room, hoping that it may contain some magical properties she closely inspected the blade but Sorus informed her that it had no magical powers.
‘Tamar had just liked the bird of prey fashioned into the handle,’ he said. Pushing the polished blade into her scabbard, she said with an air of bravado ‘I guess that we are ready now? Let’s go and get this over with.’ Sorus nodded and began the portal spell of transportation.