The Darkslayer: Book 02 - Blades in the Night (36 page)

Venir sat up. “Works for me. I’ve always wanted to do this.”

Fogle Boon began muttering rapid words. In one instant, Kam knew, the tavern’s customers saw a big man and a small man with Kam, and in the next moment, they saw a curvy painted trollop wooing two burly dwarven statesmen. The illusion concealed their conversation as well and no one seemed to even notice the change because of the power of Fogle’s spell. As for Kam and Venir, the setting had not changed at all, but they knew something was different because of the different stares they received. Then the illusionist continued, his voice down.

“
After our contest, my mind was crushed for weeks. My head was splitting in pain and no healers could sooth it. Finally I awoke at home with some clarity of the situation. I had lost. I lost to a warrior that appeared to have little intellect. When I was younger, I had lost to a man well beyond my years, but I was barely a teenager when that happened last. Ever since then, I’d only gotten better and better. I never lost again.”

He fidgeted with the rings on his fingers as he bit his lip.

Kam couldn’t believe her ears: a Royal wizard, admitting defeat? It was no wonder he’d cast the illusion. But Fogle Boon’s voice brightened.

“
Much like you, Kam, I had tired of the tawdry chores of living within the belabored and exquisite confines of the castle walls as they limited me.” He ran his hands through his thick hair, resting his elbow on the chair arm. “I wanted to test my will against people from all over, so I left the castle and did my part with them on the outside. It was challenging to meet other minds from all over, but I still did not have an equal. I came to the conclusion that my intellect could survive anything, and from the comfort of your tavern, I lived out my adventures there. Or here, rather.” His beady eyes gleamed. “I felt I was invincible and no one could prove me otherwise. ”He paused.
Don’t stop talking now!
Kam thought.

As if he heard her thoughts, he went on.

“
Then this man …” His hand leaped out. “He came in one night and got my dander up. As soon as you came in the door, Venir, I just wanted to crush you. The women were making fools of themselves all on account of your long straw hair, suntan, and bulging muscles. My colleagues and I laid it out, like we always did, but the plan was to make sure that you left a babbling fool not fit for orcen conversation.”

All you had to do was leave him alone and let him drink if that’s all you wanted. Men!

Venir chuckled.

“
My plan, or my pride rather, almost proved to be my undoing. Not only did I almost die in the process, as well as you, mind you …” He winked Venir’s way. “… but I lost all confidence after my recovery as well. I was bitter and broken.” He slumped in his chair, painful memories in his expression. “My reputation among my colleagues had been damaged. Slowly, month after month, year after year, I was my old self again and back to the same old tricks and full of excuses. It wasn’t long before everyone was patting me on the back and telling me how great I was again, but I knew they didn’t really mean it.”

Fogle sighed as his voice trailed off. He lifted his head up to Venir again. Kam rubbed her knees.

“
I couldn’t really admit that I lost to you. My pride would not let me. I ignored my thoughts and finally one of my colleagues reminded me of something I’d said. I think it was in mockery, but nonetheless I said it.”

He took a long pause after that.

Say it, for the love of Bish!
Kam thought.

“
I said that if anyone ever beat me, I would follow them to the bottom of Bish and back again.”

Venir broke out laughing, but Kam didn’t think it was funny.

Mood’s blood-red beard bristled in the stiff winds as he knelt down and scratched at the dirt. He sniffed a grimy substance that was smudged between his thick fingertips. The
scent was peculiar and pungent, but it was exactly what he suspected. The king of the Blood Rangers had his enemies just like any other warrior on Bish—and he was hot on the trail of one.

He whipped his hand axe into the ground. This enemy had managed to elude him over the decades but the bitterness was still the same. Mood had hunted everything from underlings, ogres, bears, winged lizards, clawed harpens, striders, lycans, and beyond, but not with the vengeance he had in his heart for this creature.

Mood tugged at his red beard. His eyes began to water as he remembered so many scenes of slaughter. His kinsfolk, women and children alike, died not far from here. He should have saved them the last time. But he was with Venir, fighting the underlings, elsewhere. He looked at the ground and he could still picture their bodies strewn and crushed along a serene and captivating place. He couldn’t let that happen again. He knew Venir would be coming this way, and he didn’t want him to cross the giant alone. It was too dangerous. Underlings were one thing, this giant was another. This was his fight.

“
Smell him, Chongo. I need you for this one,” he whispered in his low rumble as he twitched his fingers under the mastiff’s snout.

Chongo’s heads snorted in acknowledgment and his paws began to stammer in excitement as the pooch realized a new hunt was on.

Days had passed since their departure from Venir and the boys at the City of Three. Mood and Chongo had headed southwest toward Dwarven Hole, and there they would await Venir. Mood and Chongo had long been companions even before Chongo had become Venir’s pup. The mastiff-faced dog, with a long pelt of soft golden fur, was part of a special breed on Bish raised by the dwarves. Chongo was a dwarven dog, similar to retrievers and mastiffs bred to hunt and guard. They were large, usually bigger than a normal dwarf, and were excellent swimmers, amazing trackers, and unrivaled in loyalty. The dogs chose their masters and served them faithfully all of their lives, sometimes more than one or even an entire clan, which was the case with Chongo. Mood scratched his ears as he rode atop him. Chongo’s snouts snorted at the sandy ground.

Mood was glad to have such a special companion along. Chongo was a part of Mood’s clan, but he was the top of his breed in character and training. The dwarves called them Setters, and they were only born with one head—and Chongo had been born with only one head as well. It was after his adventures with Venir that he’d gained another head as well as becoming as big as a small horse. Both of those heads made Chongo the greatest tracker in all of Bish as far a Mood was concerned, and this day, he was determined to put Chongo’s great snouts to use. Mood never had the advantage before when hunting the giant. This time would be different.

He was still miles from the massive holes in the surface that led down into Dwarven Hole. The midday suns made for excellent light in the barren landscape that led over the rock-filled terrain that was marred by massive boulders and leafless knotted trees.

In some places, the boulders seemed piled hundreds of feet high, and others seemed to have been smashed together by some other unearthly force. The terrain made for great hiding for bandits and ogre clans, as well as the most fierce wildlife on Bish. Mood was worried as they moved, avoiding detection from the harsh races all around them.

Mood continued in his thoughts of crimes that warranted his worst. He chewed on a cigar that he could not light for fear of detection. His nerves were boiling. He couldn’t fail his people again. His green eyes flared like emeralds beneath his bushy blood-red hair as he again smelled the unforgettable scent on his fingers his greatest foe: Horace the hill giant.

Venir laughed at Fogle Boon so hard he almost fell from his chair.

“
You aren’t going to follow me anywhere, little man. Stay within the comfort of this fair city. The bugs will eat you alive out there.”

Kam twisted her auburn hair as she contemplated the wizard’s want for sudden adventure beyond. Even she’d never considered it. Her kind shunned travel and adventure, as they preferred to build their skills with practice and plans. It was a mental discipline with them that developed through tests, trials, and training.

“
This is not normal, Fogle. Why?” Kam asked.

He looked at her, eyes pleading. “Purpose, Kam. I have no purpose.”

She actually felt sorry for him.

“
After I healed, I seethed and my pride guided me nowhere. All I wanted to do was regain my reputation as a powerful mind. Then it dawned on me.” He lifted his arms high. “Who cares?
You are just like all the rest. I already beat everyone I could except for this man. I let the conclusion of that battle humble me. I saw some of what this man faced and survived.” Fogle gritted his teeth. “And I knew that there was more to my life than passing trials and winning contests. I’ve passed! I’ve won by all the standards set by my peers and colleagues! This man showed me that there is a world full of new challenges and only he can take me there!”

He pointed at Venir’s chest.

“
You can call me ‘Venir,’ you know.”

“
I know, I’m trying …
Venir
.”

Kam chuckled as she understood that men like Fogle Boon and the like tended to treat other people like inferiors and didn’t dignify them with a name.

“
Well, Fogle, I think what you are proposing is nonsense,” she said.

“
Me, too,” Venir said as he slapped his mug on the table. “Another round.”

“
No,” Fogle said.

“
Where’s the waitress?” Venir said, whipping his head around.

“
They can’t see us, man,” Fogle said.

“
Oh, well, are we done with this?” Venir asked. “Because you can come along, Boon, but I’ll not be risking my neck for you.”

Venir stood up and sauntered over to the bar, breaking the spell, and startling the crowd with his sudden reappearance.

The two magi sat and looked at one another. Kam didn’t understand Venir at all—either of them, for the matter … both of them running off, facing death. Fogle never looked better, but his shell of a body didn’t look like it would last a day in the sun. He must have lost part of his mind.

Stupid men,
Kam thought
.

“
Fogle,” Kam said, “will you tell me what you saw in that man’s mind that shattered you?”

There was a moment of pause.

“
Underlings,” Fogle said. “That man
really
hates underlings.”

“
How do you know?” She leaned in.

“
I thought I had him in the lock when I decided to take him down permanently. I tried to bury him under a horde of underling hunters. The image of the terrifying creatures usually shakes people, but in his case in enraged him, and in an instant, I was in the fight of my life,” he said.

She saw him shudder. She felt a chill, remembering the bloody scene.

“
Oh … well, Venir hunts underlings for a living, you know,” Kam said. “So if you want to meet underlings face-to-face, then you’ll soon get your chance.”

“
He’s a mercenary that hunts underlings? That is odd.”

“
He’s … the Darkslayer,” she whispered.

Fogle sat up, eyes wide. The underlings were a hot topic in the northern cities as their resurgence in the south was an ever-growing cause for worry. Most conversations about underlings included the Darkslayer.

“
Venir was there when Outpost Thirty-One fell,” Kam said. “He is the one who helped save the ones who could be saved.”

“
I can’t believe it. It’s funny how these things happen. So he is more than some brutish lout of a man after all. That is good to know, though it lessens my humiliation very little. How about some wine then, as it seems our mutual friend has gone out for a stroll?”

She looked around. Venir was nowhere to be seen.

“
Suits me.”

After the wine came, Kam listened to Fogle and she told him what she knew of Venir and underlings. She liked this new Fogle Boon. She hated the thought of him going out with Venir and dying. She told him what she understood about the fall of Outpost Thirty-One, as well as information about the two northern cities, Three and Hohm, and how they no longer trusted Bone. He didn’t seem surprised when she told him it was the Royal soldiers of Bone that rode out against the remaining soldiers from Three and Hohm—an ultimate betrayal. She didn’t know that wasn’t the case, as it was only one lone house from Bone that did so. The slaughter on that day shook the fairer cities of the north and they refused aid from that point on in the south.
Men and their grudges.
At least Fogle Boon no longer had one.

The underlings didn’t occupy the outpost but they controlled it. She didn’t understand that, either. Venir told her it would take a massive force to oust the underlings. The Royals would not agree to commit troops to the task as they could not agree as to who would control the key outpost after it was regained. So Outpost Thirty-One sat, abandoned in pride, alone on its grand forest hilltop. She told him how Venir planned to return and take it back one day. Fogle Boon seemed impressed.

Fogle departed early in the morning and Venir returned back to her table. She was glad to see him. His charming smile covered his heavy scars. She felt his warmth, and liked his eyes on her. She missed that about him. She felt like the only woman on Bish. It stoked her fires as he took her hand.