Take the body and give me the rest (20 page)

Grimm turned to
them. ‘No doubt said he was directing us from afar, much like an
overweight General.’

‘Well, boys, I
think it’s time for you to start your production. I’ll see you on
the other side,’ Seth said, turning away and walking to find Lady
Elizebetha. Grimm, Goldie, Flint and Stone now began to perform one
of the most shameless displays the North could be proud of.
Literally waving some of their gold around, they went down the line
of the caravan gathering single men and some single women to head
with them for a drink, their shout of course. They asked after
taverns, whorehouses and more than once shouted to Seth they would
see him tomorrow and hopefully not be spending the night in the
gaol house of the city watch.

During the
noise and excitement being caused by the boys, Seth and Lady
Elizebetha slipped quietly into the city. She guided them through
the busy midday streets, past traders, markets and food stalls. In
the middle of the city, off one of the main roads, was a luxurious
boarding house. She walked in through the entrance, where stood two
servants simply bowed as they passed.

The place was a
large, four-tiered sandstone building that looked like it could
weather a storm. Elizebetha spoke to the man behind the wooden
bench top and, after passing over what seemed like a good few too
many silver coins, they were led by the bowing servants up the
stairs to their lodgings.

She had taken
the entire of the top floor. At the very top of the stairs was a
solid wooden door. Through the door was a very large room
comprising couches, tables, chairs and one very large bed curtained
in thin fabric in the far corner.

‘It’s big,’
Seth said, walking in past the clutter of fine furniture. ‘One
door, no escape except from windows that are four stories up.
Perfect place to murder someone in their sleep!’ After the slaves
had left Seth, he turned one of the large couches on its side and
cleared some space in the centre of the room. From his large bag of
belongings, he drew his stolen bow and laid the arrows he had along
the edge of the couch. He had an even dozen of them.

‘Glad I can use
this thing now,’ he said to her.

Elizebetha was
distracted like he’d never seen her before. She was barely present
in the moment with him. He’d also never seen her look so much like
an old lady as tonight. He just hoped that Grimm, Goldie, Flint and
Stone wouldn’t let him down. He didn’t like his chances of taking
all of his enemies on by himself. He also had no way of knowing
what other kind of help they could, or would, summon.

Seth walked to
the very end of the room and opened the door wide. He then moved
all the small tables, chairs and couches in the way between them
and the door, leaving a free space in the middle. It was a fine
furniture version of trenches and spikes, the General was happy to
have some obstacles for any charging men; Yend was thinking of the
cost of replacing it all.

Seth had his bow strung but resting on the edge of the
upturned couch, within easy reach. They had been standing waiting
for more than two hours of near darkness when he heard the sound of
quiet feet coming up the stairway. Finally they were there at the
end of the room, the three people who had been chasing him since
the beginning. The Cold blonde girl and her two cousins who looked
much like richer, more dangerous versions of the Officers of
The Opulent

Then without a
single word spoken all three pointed their blades at him and rushed
towards him a mix of male and female cries of hatred ringing out
though the air as they charged as one.

Seth was
shocked at the ferocity but lifted his bow on instinct, drawing
back and firing in one precise motion. He fired straight and true,
cleanly into the one called Anton’s throat, which dropped him to
the floor, with his knees buckling beneath him.

Seth stepped
out from behind the cover and drawing his blades, engaging Dirst as
he lunged into the cleared space and flicked out with his blade. On
seeing his face Seth felt the recognition that this was the
General’s own son he was facing and knew was very skilled with the
blade he held. The sound of metal rang as they clashed. Seth
attacked with an energy and anger he didn’t know he possessed. His
sword smashed again and again into Dirst’s. When the man took a
weak step backwards in retreat, Seth drew his dagger with the
backhand and plunged it deeply into in his chest, he died
easily.

The last was
Seraphina and slipped nimbly past Dirst’s falling body and thrust
her thin flat blade so close to Seth’s torso it scored a long light
wound along his side. Seth lashed out, clubbing her with the blunt
end of the dagger, then with a backhand slash, cut her throat with
a rough stroke of the blade. Dark red blood poured from the clean
cut as she dropped to the floor, blood gushing from her white
throat as she collapsed on the ground before him. Her cold blue
eye’s finding his as she bled to death before him.

Now there was
just silence and the murders he’d committed. Months of running to
come down to this? A bloodbath that was over in just moments. Seth
didn’t understand. He looked at the dead forms of these three and
couldn’t believe it. He looked at the face of Dirst and felt such
overwhelming disappointment bubbling up in him, all those years in
sword training and masters the General let him take and that was
it, no form, no power or skill. He looked at the crumpled form of
Seraphina and thought the same, no summoning just a mad rush to her
own death, against a fighter clearly better? It was just all too
easy and too senseless.

Much too easy
Seth thought again as at the end of the room, Goldie, Flint, Grimm
and Stone barged in with weapons drawn. He quickly stepped back to
his bow and notched an arrow to it.

‘Are we too
late for some fun, Boss?’ shouted Goldie.

Seth didn’t
like the sound of his voice; too precise. They looked right and
sounded almost right, but when Seth looked again they even walked
wrong, not the rolling strides of born sailors, and that posture.
No wonder it had all been so easy, the first round was a diversion,
just some poor guardsmen not ready for a fight with some like him.
Seth raised his bow to aim Goldie’s throat.

‘Fucking hold,
Seraphina, Dirst, Broncks, whichever one you are, or I’ll drop
you,’ he said. It was confirmed to him when they stopped dead. He
now noticed Elizebetha had been there the whole time, watching him
dispatch man after man. She looked a little white and sickly. He
was just starting to warm up.

‘She’s Grimm, I
can see her Seth,’ she said quietly.

Changing his
aim to the guise of Grimm, he drew the string back and looked him
in the eye. He thought he could see something else in those eyes.
Some malice and rage that didn’t belong. As he looked, he could see
some slight tension in those eyes release as the guise dropped
away.

In front of him
stood a beautiful blond woman of a young age. Fine face, but hard
firm lines around her mouth. She was very attractive but looked
cruel and hard. The man next to her drew his rapier and sneered at
Seth. Seth looked at Dirst and thought it looked more like him now,
a good proper spoilt expression. The two others had very similar
looks and were all clearly cousins or some sort of family. All Dark
Guild.

‘So, I finally
get to meet you. Seth, is it? You’ve killed a lot of people so far,
my uncle for one, that tavern keeper and his whore, Minsetta, plus
all my colleagues at the library and here. You really should be on
our side of the bow,’ she said.

He was in a
very bad position. Weapon sheathed against weapons drawn, one bow
draw against four people and who knew what else they could
call.

Seraphina
looked at Elizebetha and spoke. ‘Lady Elizebetha, still alive. What
a shame,’ she said.

‘I had some help on
The
Opulent
with your assassin,’ she
said.

Seraphina
laughed loudly and Dirst spoke. ‘No problem, talk about two throats
with the single blade. We’ve been looking for you for such a long
time. We were surprised you raised your head again. What brings you
back out of hiding?’

‘Claiming my
birth right the seat of Black Rock,’ Elizebetha said.

‘I think your
little brother Renton might have something to say about that,’
Seraphina said. ‘Now, enough talk.’ Then she shouted, ‘Some help,
gentlemen?’

Within moments,
all four of them were chanting with different voices and at
different speeds. Dirst, Seraphina, the men at the door. Seth
cursed loudly and, seeing Seraphina was the strongest, lowered his
bow and fired the arrow he had knotched, hard at her left foot. It
struck through her fine black leather boot and pinned her foot
solidly to the floor as she screamed in pain, all thoughts of a
summoning forgotten in a bloody wave of agony. Seth quickly took a
few large steps backward, as they had also done. Thinking hard of
the creature, started the chant in his mind.

Seth felt the
air start to ripple and darken between them. A shivering rift began
to appear and dark shapes paced on the other side. It was like
nothing he’d ever seen before; it was so dark and angry, like a
gathering storm. Four people were still creating it, him and the
other three men. He called his creature; it leapt through the
swirling storm and stood beside him. He’d never seen it react with
such anger and readiness. It lashed its whip tail and howled.

In front of them from the darkness appeared three identical
shapes. They weren’t wolves but things like massive, misshapen
dogs, covered with short black bristles. Same razor teeth, but with
the black and soulless eyes of the dead. With a deep, vicious
growl, his creature leapt at the closest one. It turned to bite as
the wolf came in, but it was too slow. Those teeth closed around
its throat in a moment and with three snaps of the Wolvern’s head
left and right, it tossed the now lifeless body to the side. The
two other black feral shapes leapt onto the Wolvern, sharp teeth
sinking in its foreleg and snapping its face, snarling
as they fought.

The Wolvern
turned to the one attached to its leg, which was now dripping with
dark blood, and clamping its open mouth around the creature’s
skull, crushing it with a slow powerful compression of its jaws.
The dead destroyed creature dropped off its foreleg as the third
leapt again, snapping at the Wolvern’s face, razor teeth just
gazing it. The Wolvern snapped its head out of the way, too fast,
and then it slammed its head back into the smaller creature and,
with the placing of two paws, pinning it down and ripped into its
soft underside tearing out its black, stinking innards in moments.
When its howling and whimpering had stopped, the Wolvern licked its
paws clean and came limping to stand calmly next to Seth. The whole
scene had taken less than the time Seth had to drop his bow and
pick up his sword.

A storm of
violence exploded inside the huge room. Seth drew his blade just in
time to defend against a powerful lunge from Dirst, and saw the
other two men also drawing blades and running to engage him. Lady
Elizebetha, looking horrified and too shocked to move; with
Seraphina still grasping her foot and trying to staunch the
bleeding through her tears of pain and anger.

His muscles
straining, Seth pushed back against Dirst’s blade and, drawing his
dagger with the backhand, slashed wildly at him, creating space.
The creature leapt at the two advancing men and reaching down low,
bit off a man’s leg, dragging him up and off his feet. Seth turned
from their fight to focus on Dirst. It was all he could do to
maintain his ground. The man had the same look as all Guild
members: young thirties, but his eyes held in a very calm fighting
reserve. They traded a furious round of attacks and blocks with
both of them expending seemly limitless amount of energy.

Seth had the
experience of literally hundreds of sword fights now inside of his
mind, but it seemed that Dirst did as well. He was one like the
General, who’d prided himself on his fighting prowess; it was his
life. Dirst thrust his rapier at Seth with three quick jabs and
then the same with cuts of the dagger, Seth taking the back foot,
being forced just to block and defend. He was thinking too much and
as punishment, he felt the sharp burning pain of Dirst’s blade
sliding into his arm, making him drop the rapier.

Dirst laughed
loudly and advanced with confidence. Without a thought, Seth leapt
forward, changing his stance, attacking with the dagger in his new
lead hand. He crouched down low and, when the next lunge came, he
spun around the outside of it and, with a callous move, slashed
Dirst’s sword hand. Dirst almost dropped his rapier as his hand
bled but thrust again at Seth’s chest. In another night blade move,
Seth ducked under it and brought his dagger up hard into Dirst’s
unprotected armpit, holding him close as the blade slid in and he
twisted it. He saw the lights in Dirst’s eyes go out as his body
slumped to the floor.

Seth turned to
see his creature doing badly against the two swordsmen—with a
damaged foreleg already, and they were attacking fiercely with
thrusts from their swords and fighting together, with well more
strength than normal men. Seth didn’t have time for this. He walked
back to where his bow rested on the couch and, drawing an arrow,
fired two bolts in quick succession, hitting one right in the eye
socket and, before he even fell, hitting the second in the open
mouth. They both fell dead in front of the creature.

The creature spoke in his mind. ‘
There are so many here and strong ones too. I want them
all.
’

Seth said the
words out loud—‘Take them all and give me the rest’—and felt the
flood of power as the energy of the two men hit him first. The
creature stalked slowly around the room, burying its muzzle in the
chests of the fallen and ripping into hearts, licking and tearing
the flesh from the bodies. Seth felt that wave of strength washing
all through him. When the creature went to Dirst, Seth felt the
sensation of so many other lives coming into him as well. He felt
himself growing in strength and power, his arm wound healed in mere
moments, as did the Wolvern’s own injuries. Elizebetha stared at
him from the floor; she looked more than horrified. Seraphina was
watching him too. He drew another arrow and placed it in the bow.
The creature came to stand beside him again, fresh blood on
covering its face and paws.