The Record of the Saints Caliber (69 page)

Behemoth Kraken still held her face firmly in his hand. Her eyes glanced up just enough to see him hulking over her and Rathaniel sliding off his horse. She could smell his putrid breath upon her cheek; smell the sickly sweet saliva as it dried on her chin. She felt nauseous and her hands moved up and grabbed his and she tried to pry his fingers away, but even flaring her Caliber she couldn’t get them to move.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
D
ON’T YOU LIKE TO SUCK COCK AFTER BATTLE?!
R
ATHANIEL, HAVE HER SUCK YOUR COCK AND LET ME KNOW IF IT’S WORTH MY WHILE!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
I
F SO, SHE CAN PRACTICE ON MY HORSE!
”

Nuriel’s heart pounded as Rathaniel walked up. His white eyes were blank; his face held no emotion, no expression. He was a walking, living corpse. Like a robot he stopped before Nuriel, and with his single, trembling hand began taking off the armor around his waist.

Nuriel grabbed Behemoth’s arm with both hands. Together they didn’t even wrap around his wrist. She tried to pull away, tried to rip his hand from her face, but the man’s strength was otherworldly. Her Caliber flashed white and she screamed, but his hand wouldn’t budge.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
” Nuriel felt his fat, armored finger violate her mouth and she choked. “Y
OU’RE A FEISTY ONE!
R
ATHANIEL, SHALL
I
PLUCK HER TEETH FOR YOU?
”

“No need, glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken.” intoned Rathaniel.

Nuriel struggled, her face held firmly in the beast’s hand. Her eyes glanced sideways and she could see Rathaniel standing with his disfigured penis exposed and erect. He looked out upon the world with eyes that seemed to see nothing. His hand was down at his side, trembling. His crotch was shaved and his genitals bore many scars, both new and old. Most notably, Nuriel noticed with equal parts of fear and disgust, his legs were covered in bite wounds so large they could only have come from one mouth. Nuriel screamed and tried again, without success, to pull free.

Suddenly Nuriel was released and she fell backward onto the road. She looked up and saw Kraken slap a meaty hand upon Rathaniel’s back. “H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
S
HE’D TAKE YOUR COCK OFF AND THEN WHAT WOULD
I
HAVE?
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
H
ERE
,” he said, picking up one of the bodies in the court. He plucked the head from the neck as one might pluck a flower from the earth. He jammed a finger into the mouth, and with a flick sent the teeth flying out. He placed the head into Rathaniel’s arms. “H
ERE, TRY THIS MOUTH!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
”

“Yes, glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken.” said Rathaniel. He put the head to his crotch and began pumping his waist.

Nuriel stood up to her feet, looking on in horror and disgust. Her arm began to slowly raise up to grab her sword when Kraken boomed out, “W
HERE ARE THE YOUNG ONES?
W
HERE ARE THE REST!
C
ERTAINLY THERE IS MORE FUN TO BE HAD HERE!
A
DONAEL!
O
VID!
H
ADRANIEL!
C
OME FORTH AND REPORT!
”

Nuriel watched as the three came down the stairs, Adonael and Hadraniel keeping their eyes to the ground. Ovid, despite his terrible wounds, somehow willed himself to walk on his own, though Nuriel could see he was not steady on his feet. Of the three, he was the only one who didn’t seem to mind (or fear) keeping his eyes on Kraken.

The three stopped just short of Kraken. With his eyes looking down, Adonael said in a quavering voice, “Glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken, the city has been cleared. We just need to do clean up.”

“J
UST CLEAN UP?
W
HERE ARE THE YOUNG ONES?
W
HERE ARE THE BABES?
” Kraken’s voice began to take on something of a terrifying edge.

“G-Glorious and e-e-exalted Behemoth K-K-Kraken,” said Hadraniel with his chin locked to his chest. “Th-Th-There w-w-were some d-d-down there in o-o-one of those h-h-houses.” He pointed feebly down the road, his finger trembling. “Th-th-they’re a-a-all d-d-dead.”

“D
EAD
!” boomed Kraken. He stomped his foot and Nuriel thought she could feel the ground quake. “S
OME SHOULD BE SAVED FOR ME!
A
LWAYS!
”

“Ovid,” said Adonael, still looking at the ground and struggling to keep his voice clear. “You said there were some in the church that got away and are yet to be rounded up?”

Nuriel could see Ovid scowl. She could see that the black-haired Saint didn’t want Kraken to know this. He pursed his lips and then said quite coolly, “Glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken, there were some women and children hiding in the church. We were about to go after them when your exaltedness came.”

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
T
HERE WE ARE!
O
NE OF YOU, BRING THEM TO ME
!” Kraken slapped Rathaniel on the back. “S
TOP FUCKING THAT AND SAVE YOUR ENERGY!
W
E’LL ALL HAVE SOME BOYS!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
R
ATHANIEL LIKES THE YOUNG ASSES, DON’T YOU!
”

“Yes, glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken.” said Rathaniel blankly as he dropped the head and began dressing himself again.

“I’ll go after them.” said Ovid.

“No,” said Adonael, looking at him. Then he said more quietly, “You need to rest.” He turned to Nuriel and said with an unspoken ‘you owe me one’ in his ruby eyes, “Nuriel, hunt them down and bring them here.”

Nuriel nodded once and began to turn and walk away when Adonael held up a finger to her, motioning for her to wait.

“Glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken, I ask permission to finish our sweep of the city.” said Adonael.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
S
WEEP THE CITY AND TAKE
R
ATHANIEL WITH YOU!
A
NY LEFT LIVING, BRING THEM TO ME ALIVE!
”

Adonael nodded. “Thank you, glorious and exalted Behemoth Kraken.” He looked at the others. “Ovid, you come with me. Hadraniel, you and Rathaniel take the east side.” Then he strode up to Nuriel and grabbed her firmly around the arm. He hissed angrily into her ear as he walked her away. “Count yourself
incredibly
lucky. Now, you go find them quickly and get back here with them all alive. And don’t even think about running, or I can assure you far worse will await. If he comes for you again, just do what Tia—
what the rest of us do
—and pretend to enjoy it. Otherwise, you’re going to end up like that thing.” He motioned his head at Rathaniel. He turned her around and stared right into her eyes and whispered, “He
hates
when you enjoy it.
He loses interest
if you enjoy it.” He released her arm with a harsh push. “Go. And for the sake of the rest of us, get back here
quickly
.”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Rook shivered as he held Ursula to his bare chest. All he had on was an oversized vest of thin fabric that one of the older boys had given him. Ursula was bundled in his shirt, but there was no way he was going to take her out of it. His pants were soaked and stank of wine and pickled vegetables, and the cool spring air that floated through the shadowy forest was getting to be too much. Unfortunately, there was nothing he, nor any of the other escapees, could do about it right now. As it stood, he was lucky enough that the boy had worn the vest over his own shirt. Not a single other person had any spare clothing to provide.

There were about four dozen of them, mostly women and children. There were the women from the church basement and the rest of the young children and babies who survived Ovid’s rampage. They had slipped out the church and quickly made their way north through the narrow alleys to a small, rarely used gate that exited almost directly into the forest. There they had met up with the other escapees, some more women and children, as well as about six men and ten older, teenaged boys, all armed with swords and bolt-throwers.

Caer Gatima was a small enough city that Rook knew most of the people in the group, if not by name then by face. And those faces were grim. They had not a scrap of food or a canteen of water amongst them; there were no bottles of milk for the babies; they had no bows or arrows, fishing poles or traps to hunt with; they had nothing but the clothes on their backs. The one saving grace was that they were not completely emaciated, and the days of endless food they had been enjoying had built up their strength, spirits and wills. Most of them were already filling out their clothes nicely. Unfortunately, even Rook knew tough times were ahead. Even if they managed to evade pursuit, they had nowhere to go. There was no city they could run to; no place of refuge for them. King Gatima kept close tabs on the populace of each of his cities, and the Oracles and city officials would certainly take notice of nearly fifty new faces. The men who led their group had been silently bickering about what to do as they wove through the forest.

“We have to go west,” whispered Buckthorn, the eldest of the men. Rook’s father had known him well, and Rook remembered a couple occasions where Buckthorn and his family had come to their house. He was a dark-haired man with a thick coating of beard. He had quickly emerged as the group’s primary leader over the last forty minutes since they had escaped the city. He had a pair of bolt-throwers strapped around his back. He looked up through the budding canopy of maples and oaks that surrounded them. He pointed up at the sun and turned to address the entire group. “We follow the sun west and when the forest opens to plains, we move north. We head for Narbereth.” he said in a loud whisper.

“I told you, Narbereth is a fool’s mission.” hissed Forest, a lighter-haired man who had seemed to make it his mission to disagree with Buckthorn on just about every decision thus far. He carried a bolt-thrower in his hand and a sword upon his back. “Narbereth is five-thousand miles away, across treacherous swamps and deserts. And past that are impassable mountains, hunted by beasts. And
if
we survive all that, the Narberethans hate outsiders and guard their lands with man-eating wolves.”

Buckthorn shook his head. “That’s not true. That’s just what they want us to believe. I saw a map once, long ago, when my father was arrested for poaching. It was on a desk in the jailor’s dungeon. Narbereth is west across sparse woods and connected by a narrow land bridge in the northwest. There are no swamps or deserts. No mountains.”

“You saw a map once, when you were
twelve
. We’ve all heard your story.” Forest rolled his eyes. “You don’t even recall how many miles Narbereth lays. How do we even know your memory is true? You lead us on a fool’s errand!”

“I have to agree with Forest on this.” said another of the men who Rook had come to learn was named Thatcher. “Even if your memory serves you right, we have no way to know how many miles it is. We’re not Saints. We can’t run with the winds or bound over rivers and walls. And I too have heard that Narbereth does not welcome outsiders.”

“You’re right,” said Buckthorn coolly as he moved through the trees, towing the group along. “I don’t know how many miles. Maybe it’s ten, maybe it is ten-thousand. But we have nowhere else to go. And as far as Narbereth goes, I know for fact they welcome others. My father told—”

“Told you fairytales,” barked Forest. “He told you how the people there want for nothing and of the beautiful gardens and monuments King Dahnzeg has constructed for his people. He told you it’s the land of milk and honey where fairies suck your dick and leprechauns grant your every wish. He told you how they once almost joined with the demons of Duroton. Now tell me who’s sounding foolish.”