Rend Hope (8 page)

             
"Medical supplies?" She inquired with interest, but Ebrim snorted in disgust.

             
"Mayor Fallon's men already confiscated it." He informed her, Patricia visibly sagged.

             
"Oh." She responded simply, Ebrim growled.

             
"They hoard all the best stuff for him and his cronies, while the rest of us get scraps.  Mayor Fallon's henchman are always there to 'Protect' us on scavenge runs, but really, they are nothing more than common thugs who think they are entitled because they’re butt-buddies with the wrinkled nutsack." The dark-haired man ranted.

             
"Well it's not like we have much of a choice honey, besides Stonehollow, there's nothing out there besides the Desert of Despair and we both know how well people fare in there." Patricia said, Ebrim let out a frustrated sigh.

             
"I know that, but this isn't too much better, the people are dying a slow death with Fallon's cronies always confiscating things." The dark-haired man told his wife.

             
"And a quick death for standing up to Mayor Fallon is better?" Patricia asked, taking another sip of her coffee, Ebrim shook his head.

             
"I didn't say that." He answered.

             
"You didn't need to.  I know that look in your eye." Patricia said, Ebrim grunted knowing he was caught.

             
"Look, Fallon's only got a handful of thugs, there are way more struggling people here, we could take over his residence with sheer numbers." Ebrim said.

             
"Mayor Fallon also has his thugs well equipped, we've little more than sticks and stones, not something you want to wage a war with.  People would be massacred if they tried." Patricia pointed out.  After a moment, the dark-haired man's shoulders slumped in defeat.

             
"You're right, but we can't go on like this, I've started to give Randal my share of our foodstuffs and that's not near enough for a growing boy."  Ebrim said.

             
"We'll find a way dear, we always have." Patricia reassured him, leaning her head on his left shoulder, slowly, very slowly, she felt him relax.  They sat like that for a few moments, each enjoying the other's company when suddenly Patricia leaned forward and began coughing excessively, covering her mouth with her right hand.  Ebrim eyed her worriedly, rubbing her back with his left hand.

             
"You all right?" He asked, concerned.  Patricia continued to cough for a few more moments before answering.

             
"Yeah, just caught some dust in my lungs when I inhaled that's all." The long-haired blonde woman answered.  Ebrim wasn't convinced, he spotted the blood on her hand when she moved it from her mouth, saw how she was now a shade paler, but he let it slide. They rarely got moments like these and he didn’t want to waste it arguing with her about her declining health.

**********

Present Day

Gudale Prison

              Ebrim growled as he brushed the old thoughts aside in his mind.  That day set into motion events that changed his life forever.  And while he didn't regret his choices, he did regret some of the people he had lost along the way.  It didn't matter anymore though, that was in the past, he had to look to the future now.

             
Taking long purposeful strides, Ebrim pushed open the heavy oak doors of Gudale Prison's main entrance.  He needed more corpses to bolster the army he was making and no one would miss people stuck in a prison would they?

**********

              Sahiron was hungry. 

             
It had been days since the prison guards had come to feed him.  And they only fed him junk like scraps of bread and cheese.  They didn't bring him the good stuff, the human flesh.  What he wouldn't give right now for just a taste!

             
He grumbled to himself in his cell.  Dressed in the light-green uniform of a prisoner of Gudale with a white straight jacket strapped around his torso.  His brown hair was greasy with dirt and lack of bathing, and his beard was starting to stretch out from his chin.  He wore no shoes as no one wanted to scavenge around or waste time making shoes for people in Gudale Prison.

             
As he sat in the corner of his dark and damp cell, fantasizing about eating human meat, he heard a commotion beyond his cell.  It sounded to Sahiron like a fight was going on, which was rather surprising.  Ever since the man with a staff came through and basically slaughtered the entire prison staff, only the occasional looter would come by.  The prison didn't have too much, but the guards had to be fed somehow.  And food was pretty valuable this day and age.

             
This commotion wasn't a fight between looters though.  Sahiron could feel the air around him tinged with sorcery.  Someone was casting spells out there, good ones too, not the half-assed ones that feral magi perform.

             
His thoughts were interrupted when one of the looters was thrown across the hallway that housed his prison cell.  A rather scrawny man the looter was, dressed in something slightly better than rags.  As he went to stand up, the looter was hit with a dark violet beam of magic energy.  The beam hit him in the torso, incinerating it.  His limbs and head flew in different directions, one arm bounced across the bars of his cell door.  The barrier that kept him there glowed blue for a moment upon contact from the arm and then disappeared.  A reminder of his imprisoned state.  Sahiron snorted in disdain at the violent display, what a waste of good meat.

             
Into his cell's hallway came a tall man with dark hair.  A blue scarf went around his neck and he had these weird elbow length dark brown leather gloves.  The man took a quick look around before his gaze fell upon Sahiron's cell.  He walked briskly up to the cell and placed his hands on one of the bars.  Instantly the barrier glowed blue.  Sahiron snorted at the man's actions.

             
"Good luck trying to get past that.  I've been trying for years." Sahiron informed the man.

             
"Really? and exactly how long have you been here Mister..." The man trailed off, waiting for Sahiron to say his name. 

             
"Sahiron, and I've been here for two years I believe." He stated, The man shifted position, placing his left forearm against the bars and leaning into it.  The blue barrier once again came back, glowing brightly, but the man didn't seem to mind at all.

             
"Imprisoned for two years within a cell sealed by a glyph? Interesting.  Tell me Mr. Sahiron, exactly what crime did you commit?" The blue-scarfed man asked, Sahiron snorted, getting to his feet.

             
"Why in the world would I tell a complete stranger?" Sahiron answered the man's question with a question of his own, the man grinned.

             
"Allow me to introduce myself then.  My name is Ebrim Thraves, to put it simply I'm a pioneer for a new age Mr.Sahiron." The man named Ebrim stopped staring at the bars absent-mindedly and turned all of his attention on him.  "Now that we're no longer strangers tell me, what was your crime?" Sahiron stared hard at Ebrim.

             
"What's it matter?  Obviously it's bad if I've been stuck in a glyph-ridden cell.  What more do you need to know?" Sahiron said, Ebrim stopped leaning on the cell door and turned so his back was facing the jailed man.  The necromancer shrugged.

             
"Well, I need to know if you wish to be free again.  Being stuck in this prison for two years must drive a man crazy." Ebrim stated, turning back around to face Sahiron once more.

             
"Oh you have no idea." The imprisoned man stated, the longing to be free obvious in his tone.  "It doesn't matter though, wishing to be free doesn't make it reality." Sahiron replied bitterly, there was a glint in Ebrim's eye when he spoke again.

             
"What if I said I could free you?" The necromancer declared, Sahiron let out a harsh laugh.

             
"I'd call you a liar.  Don't take me for a fool Ebrim, I can tell you are definitely a step above most sorcerers I've encountered, but the magi who cast me in this cell was exceptionally powerful..." Sahiron was interrupted by a giant skull nearly the size of his cell door.  It opened its jaw wide and sucked the barrier into its mouth.  The blue glyph etched into the bars quickly fizzled out and the force of the inhalation also collapsed the bars of the cell door.  The skull then bit down on the metal bars with a mighty crunch, swallowing them in one big gulp.  Sahiron was speechless for a few scant moments.  Necromancy, and some pretty potent stuff at that.

             
"It's a good thing then that I'm exceptionally powerful as well isn't it?" Ebrim gloated.  "Now about your crime..."  He was interrupted as Sahiron strode briskly past him and immediately went towards the mangled corpse of the looter he had killed.

             
"Hang on, I need my lunch first." Sahiron stated, grinning widely.  It had been far too long since he had a decent meal.

             
The recently freed man opened his mouth wide and the nearby corpse of the looter that was killed was lifted into the air.  Sahiron could feel Ebrim watching with keen interest as the corpse's flesh literally flew off it, leaving nothing but a skeleton.  The flesh proceeded to fly right into Sahiron's mouth.  The azure-scarfed necromancer probably also noticed that the interior of Sahiron's oral cavity seemed, wrong.  Beyond the jaws and teeth there was just...darkness.  That said darkness was the physical manifestation of his hunger, brought to life thanks to his sorcery.  It absorbed all the blood and flesh that was ripped from the corpse and Sahiron felt the power of his hunger dim.  Eventually, the imprisoned necromancer closed his mouth and the floating corpse, now picked clean of any flesh, fell back to the ground.

             
"Well I must say..." Ebrim started with a smile.  "...You clean corpses better than any vulture I've ever seen."  Sahiron snorted in amusement.

             
"That was just me getting my first meal for days." The former inmate replied, turning to exit the hallway of the cell he was in and stepping out into the prison's central hub.

             
The stones that made up the prison were dark green, as far as the eye could see.  There were four wings of the prison, connected by corridors that were wide enough for three men only.  Two to guide the prisoner and the prisoner themselves.  The wings were located in the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast areas of the prison.  Spiral staircases at the west and east side of the prison led up to the higher levels and the exit.  Sahiron's cell was of course, located at the bottom floor in the Northeast wing.

             
The former prisoner raised his head and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply.  The air in the central hub smelled way less stale than his shitty cell.  He had been out of there only briefly during his tenure.  When he first arrived here and when they transferred him for killing most of the inmates in the southeast wing about a year ago.  Other than that they hadn't let him out, he was too dangerous to them.

             
The sound of shoe leather hitting stone brought Sahiron out of his reverie.  And he looked up to see four looters frantically ascending the east spiral staircase.  Pieces of ragged linen covered the bottom half of their faces and they wore goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes as they traversed the desert, the rest of their clothes were torn and ripped in several places, each had a backpack on that looked full.  It would be a nice haul for them if they got away.  Sahiron's stomach suddenly grumbled and he frowned slightly, now that he thought of it, that corpse he just ate was nowhere near enough to satisfy his hunger. 

             
"Looks like you missed a few Ebrim.  Mind if I take these stragglers?" He asked the necromancer, who shrugged in response.

             
"Be my guest, they're all yours." Ebrim told him, Sahiron smiled.  He crouched low then leapt high into the air.  Quickly, the recently-freed criminal became eye level with the four looters trying to escape, just twenty meters away from them.  The four looters eyes bugged out at the display, before one of them pointed at him.

             
"Shoot him! Shoot the shit out of the bastard!" One of the looters said to his companion, who was carrying a rifle.  The looter with the rifle took aim and fired, but he hit only air.  With a burst of magic energy, Sahiron had changed his direction in mid-air.  The bullet from the rifle soaring under him.  The looter fired again and Sahiron managed to dodge by performing a forward somersault.  As he got into melee range of the looters, Sahiron brought his right leg up and then drove his right heel into the stone of the staircase.  The strike shattered the section of the staircase the looters were on.  The four looters managed to dodge the attack, two ran up the staircase to avoid it while the other two ran down.  The looters were effectively split up.