The Exodus Sagas: Book III - Of Ghosts And Mountains (14 page)

Confusion quieted the chaos, bringing focus back to the arena, as the two bloodied minotaurs did not roar in triumph, and threw nothing to them of the blood and spoils they dearly craved. They watched in amazement as the savage victors charged one another, horns lowered, each intent in killing the other.

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Koyd turned from his menial paperwork of logging new slaves into his quarters, something stirred. That something now seemed curious, hearing mass whispering in the low light of the barracks and cages.

“Ccrreeenn, clank, clank
…”

“Guards on your feet, cages are open!” He grabbed a rapier from the wall and dropped his quill and ledger as he stood from the wooden desk covered in dust.

Grunting, shouting, torches passed and sconces came ablaze revealing to ten ogre and twenty hired guards that three cages had been opened and a Harlian man was working on a fourth, broken dagger blade in hand prying quickly as he glanced at Koyd.

“
Get them
!” Koyd’s slavers went to motion, as did the dwarves, a centaur, and three husky bearded men from Shanador. To the weapon rack they scrambled, hoping to get their hands on something before their pursuers were upon them. Desperate cries of fear and adrenalin set in, as but six starving slaves were soon to be surrounded by more than thirty guards. Norrice took a breath, realizing now that he should have waited to see if Saberrak survived the match. He fought the tears welling, accepting his last moments would be to the sound of battle with cheers in the background, yet not for him, for no one would ever know his fate.

“Backs to the doors men, stand hard!” Norrice issued his last command to a dwarf with an axe, a centaur with a spear, and three men who looked to be purchased prisoners now holding greatswords. He raised his saber, and gave the meanest look of intimidation to the largest ogre of the ten fast approaching.

Koyd shook his head in disbelief. “Surrender and I will not have you executed, you will only be---
ggrrgglll, thump
.” Koyd looked to the blade that had just pierced through his spine and out his throat, saw it withdraw, then all went dark and numb.

Kaya T’Vellon kept moving, behind cages in the rows before her. Another target turned, and another throat was cut before he could get his guard up. She glanced to her right, seeing Shinayne gracefully rush in silence up behind an ogre. Two inhuman flashes of elven steel and it fell to its knees, another slice and she was moving past it before the corpse hit stone.

“
Orfullumar Vundren da Vun
!” Azenairk, fighting to keep up with his taller companions, had enough darkness. He prayed to Vundren for light from stone, warhammer in hand, knowing that behind them was more than they cared to deal with. He had counted forty in the tunnels chasing them, and even Kaya had not stopped running for nearly a quarter hour.

James ran past Zen, broadsword in hand, as light of the sun seemed to cast from the cavernous ceiling illuminating the whole slave quarter. Hundreds of cages, most every one occupied, and the smell of old sweat and blood hung in the oily air. He readied his enchanted shield, and marched toward the ogre on instinct.

“
Ogre! Face me!
Gwenneth, free the slaves!” James yelled, he felt he was back in Arouland, back in some war or lost battlefield. All he knew was that the ogre had to die by his blade before someone got killed again.

Gwenneth looked ahead, seeing the heads of ogre turn toward James Andellis. Many men turned and saw Kaya, Zen, and Shinayne fast approaching. She noticed a small odd group at a set of giant doors that also looked to James, confused for certain. The staff of Imoch glowed as she walked with it, letting her subconscious know it could be of assistance.

She looked to the lock on the end cage, a troll, fat one missing an arm, sat inside glaring back at the wizard. “Play nice now
. Jiliath uul
.” Gwenneth whispered, held the staff tight, clenched her right hand, and the metal lock bent and twisted making an ear-piercing screech and pop, then fell off and dissolved to dust. She opened her eyes, then smiled and moved to the next cage. The troll scrambled out, and ran out the back away from all of the chaos without a sound.

“
Cowardly beast.”
Gwenneth continued unlocking with the arcane.

Blades danced in and out of the tight spaces between cages, bodies fell, men screamed, and Shinayne continued forward. An ogre charged her, huge mace overhead, she slid on her knees between his legs, turning and cutting it down from the hamstrings and then the neck. Completing her turn, rising to her feet, she disarmed a guard and thrust
Carice
into his chest. To her left
, Elicras
shot out and plunged into the ribs of another.

Kaya feinted a lunge, fell short, then swung her bladed buckler across a guards throat as he came for her. She threw her shortblade end over end, it landed into the back of an ogre stalking for the elf. As it turned and reached, Jade of the West grabbed it, jumped up and grabbed a handful of hair, pulled herself up and carved the edge through its windpipe. She rode it to the ground, and two quick cuts later, another two surprised guards fell clutching their chests. Neither her or Shinayne stopped moving.

James blocked an axe with his shield, thrust ahead with the blade into the gut of an ogre warrior. Another parry with the enchanted shield, and he stepped in and slashed upward twice dropping another beast. A third and a fourth flanked him and he ducked both blows and took the foot off of one at the ankle, then turned and stabbed the griffon pommeled blade of Arlinne through the thigh of the other. They reached for him, each feeling the cold steel run them through before they got hold. His shield arm was numb from taking blow after blow, yet he did not care. A fifth ogre charged from the doors where his brethren were killing a centaur. James saluted the bloody blade to his face and kept his march, hearing the thud of a warhammer finishing his work behind him. Without a blink, the knight of Chazzrynn sidestepped the beast, split his flank wide open, stabbed the blade behind him through the ogres spine, and continued forward to save the others fighting for freedom.

Eight guards surrounded Shinayne, Kaya, and Zen as the cages gave way to open ground and there was nowhere left to hide their lesser numbers. The last ogre fell with a guttural roar, and James turned to the two men standing at the door, one he recognized.

“
Sir James
? Sir James of Chazzrynn! Alden be praised!” Norrice fell to a knee, weak and bloody. He looked to the men beside him, all dead but one. The crowd cheering behind the door brought him back to the urgency at hand.

“Capitan Norrice, where is Saberrak?” James breathed out, letting go his hatred for the ogre that lay dead around him. He turned to see his friends surrounded by eight guards of the former slavemaster. He smiled.

“Gentlemen, drop your swords.” The voice of Gwenneth Lazlette carried over the fight about to ensue. She was levitating five feet off the ground, staff and eyes glowing green as electricity danced between her fingertips. More than fifty men and beasts below her moved to surround their former captors, snagging weapons from walls and the bloody stone floor as they did.

“Restrain them, painfully, but do not kill them.” Shinayne wiped her blades clean across her cloak. The men that understood her, did as they were asked, having just seen these five cut through four times their number without a scratch and set them free. Most were agaze at the women, astonished at the carnage, and in too much awe to hear the sound of the crowd and the flooding footsteps behind them at the entrance to the slavequarters.

“Saberrak is fighting, in there!” Norrice pointed to the doors, barred shut from their side by an immense iron slab.

The agents of the White Spider, Devonmir guards, arena mercenaries, ogre, and even Rinicus Three-Blades marched into the cavernous room. Forty, fifty, now over seventy on but seven. James looked to Gwenneth as their pursuers took formation, three dozen crossbowmen aiming, and fifteen armored ogre readying a charge at the commanding word of the domenarch. Rinicus stroked his stubbled face and flicked his dark brown locks, drew his blade, then another in his other hand, and waited.

Gwenne concentrated, murmuring some arcane words, and a barely visible barrier spread out across the cavern, wall to wall, floor to ceiling. It flashed with crackling electricity, and she smirked knowing not only the bolts would be useless, but anyone passing through would get quite a shock. The prodigal daughter of Lazlette focused on holding the spell in place. “We have a moment, make it quick.”

“Men, you are free. However, to escape, we need to rescue Saberrak the gray. I have a plan, once we get the door open, follow my lead and ---“ Shinayne looked up from the men, sensing something unnatural, evil, it stopped her thoughts and turned her stomach. Following her pause, then her aquamarine eyes, everyone looked to the far end as Rinicus bowed to a robed figure.

“Run, get it open, now, now, now, hurry!”
Kaya moved in with the freed slaves, assisting in lifting the two ton iron slab meant for ogre to heave.

Shinayne trembled, though she had not meant to, her eyes were fixed on this hovering robed figure. “Why, who is it?”

Trehad

Die now you will, Lady Shinayne

How can you speak to me like this?

I am inside you now

Lord Trehad lowered his hood, revealing a reddish skin, shimmering as if it were oiled with blood, a mouth of fangs, and pointed ears. The top of his head shimmered white, as it was bare bone, and his eyes were as circles of black then red, then black that Shinayne seemed drawn to.

“Who is that, Kaya?” James heaved again, with so little room to get enough hands on the bar, it seemed futile in hurried fashion.

“One of the Lords of Devonmir, a sorcerer that is part dead, part demon, and no longer of the living world. We have to get out!” Kaya heaved again, yet the left side was not ready and the bar slid back into its rest.

“
He is in my head, I can hear him
.” Shinayne looked at her hands, she had her blades up to the throats of two of the slaves without realizing it. She struggled, something making her want to kill, against her will, her arms shook to not do it. “
Hurry
!”

Gwenneth concentrated, yet the sinister sorcerer looked to her magical barrier and it began to diminish in size. Gwenneth held the staff, the emerald glowing, sweat running down her temples onto her neck from the force of the battle of arcane wills.
“I cannot hold… the barrier, he is too… powerful… the crossbows… hurry!”

Zen grasped his hammer and moons symbol and walked forward in front of Gwenneth. He chanted an old passage of demonic banishment. “
Demonia das demoni inferallu, Vundren gris gan tathe!”

Lord Trehad stared at the dwarf. The demonic laughter sent chills up the spines of all as they heaved on the iron bars to the Arena of Ajastaphan, and whatever remained on the other side.

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Nose to nose, horn to horn, the crowd amazed and bellowing for more blood despite receiving two fights instead of one, as Saberrak turned his head to try and overpower Chalas Kalaza. The brown lifted his greatsword, pinned between two greataxes of the gray, only managing to lift his enemy off his feet an inch and then back down. Saberrak regained his footing, legs poised ahead with all his weight and force against a similar Chalas. Sweat dripped into the blood then dripped to the stone floor from them both. A quick turn, then another, a raging jerk of bovine neck muscle and then another and again. Nothing. The brown minotaur would not give, they were locked.

His legs tiring, arms beginning to shake, Saberrak the gray fell backward, heaving with all his strength to throw Chalas off of him. His breath knocked out as his shoulder blades hit the stone, his enemy hurled over ten feet ahead and sprawled out across the ground. He got to his feet the same time as his adversary and readied his axes. He hoped Chalas was as exhausted as he was, but it did not look so.

Saberrak lowered his horns, circling as Chalas circled him, getting his breath and blinking the sweat from his eyes. He watched for a motion, a hint, there was none as to who would strike first. He charged, axes to the side, then stepped right with a ferocious spinning set of axe slashes. Two, then four, then seven toward the body, and he continued his steps past Chalas, who had parried every one.

The brown held his blade in one hand, open palm with the other, switching hands every few seconds as he marched straight on Saberrak. Two hands to the pommel now, the blade went up, then down, then sideslashes and diagonal crosscuts, each blocked by the gray as he backpeddled from the force of the blows. The sparks shot into the air from the steel colliding with steel, Saberrak keeping his distance from the larger bull.

“Quit toying gray one, I will never tire with you in front of me. Like your family, your blood will cover my blade.” His eyes, deep set, intimidating, wickedly savage and cruel, looked to meet the gaze of his nemesis.

“
Aaarrgghh
!” Saberrak let his anger loose, strength from somewhere inside, and weaved blow after blow toward the brown. He jumped up, blocking the sword with his axe handle, yet landed the other across the left side of Chalas, taking half a foot of horn and an ear with it. He did not stop, he turned after his landing and hoped to catch his opponent off guard as the chunk of horn skittered past. The axes went up and down, menacing strikes intent on killing.