A Clash of Shadows (23 page)

The old woman came with the shovel, another villager had gotten his hands on a wooden mallet and the third a logging axe. All three charged at her from separate directions. Katja dodged the shovel and ran in the fourth one. She arrived at a fence forming a sty by a relatively large house.

She couldn’t just run. Fleeing into the night until what little stamina she had left petered out would do no good. She had to stand her ground. And she had to reduce the opposition.

She stepped up on the rail, then the post and leapt toward the roof before she could overbalance. She hit the roof edge and clawed herself up. Fingers stroked her feet a moment but didn’t get a grip before she could pull her feet up.

She rose clumsily as the first demon began to climb up after her. Katja slashed at its hand. The man-demon screamed and fell down, but three others had similar plans.

Katja heard the demons gather around the house. They were on every side. She was surrounded.

Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea!

She climbed up to the centre of the roof. The thick carpet of twigs the roof was made of cracked and creaked, but it held for now.

The buzzing of the demons filled her mind. Or perhaps the blow was the cause. Or the fatigue. So many things weighed down on her.

Come on, come on, she thought and focused on the Sentinel Flame. The blow, the fatigue, the fear, the horror and the buzzing the demons caused within her fought her; tried to drag her down. It hurt to think. It hurt to move.

For a moment she tried to spot the sorcerer, but had no more time than that before the moment of peace was over. Two demons came up the roof’s north side, one the west and yet another one was climbing up the south side.

She held the sword above her head and forced the fear into a new channel; let it grant her clarity and power. The Sentinel Flame burned into the sword and illuminated the roof. The closest demon grunted and hesitated. The hatred in its eyes turned into a fierceness perhaps caused by fear.

The other two did charge. Katja turned on her heel and slashed. The hand flew off of the faster one and the demon fell and began to roll for the roof edge. The other one now hesitated as she thrust the point at it.

The third one sprang into action and attacked her with a work knife. Katja turned again and slashed it in the chest. The Flame burned the demon away and the body fell down as it was supposed to do. The last one tried to tackle her. She managed to dodge and stabbed it in the back.

A burning torch flew up on the roof. A moment later the sorcerer shouted something and Katja felt power in the air. The fire spread at unnatural speed and became a pyre in two blinks of an eye. The heat hit her and she jerked away in terror. She couldn’t battle fire.

She stumbled down along the roof, with heavy, clumsy steps which sank ever more into the twigs. The fire intensified and stretched up into the sky. The demon corpses seemed to fear it about as much as her. They awaited her down on the ground; screamed, reached in her direction and shook what weapons they had. Falling into that group would be an ugly death. Perhaps uglier than the one this roof had to offer.

Arvar continued chanting his sorcery and the fire continued eating up the space Katja had.

She braced herself, took a deep breath and channelled all her strength into her legs before taking the leap. For an instant she was relieved to escape the fire. The gravity took over and she landed feet-first in the little cart she had aimed for.

The wagon did shorten the fall but she still took a hard blow throughout the body and the cart fell on the side. Katja managed to roll as she hit the ground and the screams and footsteps of the corpses were encouragement enough to rise quickly.

Katja stumbled to an animal fence surrounding a residential house. She turned in the open gate and waited for the horde with her weapon readied. With a bit of luck she could fell at least one and then retreat as the fence delayed them a bit.

An old man was in the front of the screaming pack that headed towards her. She quickly went over the reach of his limbs and waited to swing.

She heard more incomprehensible words through the noise of the demons and felt a sudden sting in her right arm. She screamed and felt a cold numbness go through her arm. She lost power in the limb and retreated hurriedly while switching the sword into the left hand. The old man sped through the gate and she slashed clumsily at him. The blade struck him in the jaw and the old bone gave in. It didn’t stop his attack though, and he snatched at her with thin, knotted fingers.

Katja backed into the doorway and lit the Sentinel Flame in it. The monsters shrank away from it and hesitated. Katja slammed the door shut and almost shouted with joy at seeing a bar within reach. The loss of focus cost her the Flame and the screaming mob attacked the door as soon as she put the bar across the door with her left hand.

Fists beat on the door with force and fury. The door was sturdier than Katja would have expected, but would nonetheless not hold out for long. She moved the sword from her armpit and tried to shake life back into her right arm.

She looked over the space. A table. Stools. Two chests. Four beds. One small, rough cabinet and another larger one. A fireplace. These were the most notable inventory. She strode to the table and dragged it to the door with her left hand. She pushed it over and placed it against the door. The table wasn’t very heavy but would at least delay them somewhat.

The fist blows on the door grew rather fewer, but instead she now heard a thundering one which caused the first visible damage. The wooden mallet was probably being put to use.

Katja looked all about, at everything, in search of something useful, but it was too dark to see anything other than the furniture.

The mallet hit the door again and one board began to sway inward.

She put her right hand between her teeth and bit down hard to force it to cooperate. She wasn’t sure whether it worked or whether the effects were simply fading out, but the arm began to come to life.

She moved the sword to her right hand and used the left one to drag the larger chest up against the table.

The mallet knocked for the third time and the fourth. The door’s upper portion was starting to break apart. She saw faces outside, illuminated by the burning roof; sick, dead and contorted with the rage of consciousnesses not of this world. These looks did not belong on human faces and there was something very unsettling about seeing a demon’s gaze coming from a person.

“Wasn’t killing them enough?!” she screamed at the sorcerer, wherever he was. Fear, anger, outrage and combat frenzy lent strength to her voice. “Did you have to defile them as well?!”

“Do not scold me for making these nobodies useful!” the man replied from somewhere outside.

The mallet smashed a larger piece from the door, perhaps enough for a skinny person to squeeze through. The demon corpses needed no more encouragement and a few of them flocked to the hole. They got in each other’s way, but a woman of about fifty got through after a few moments and put her arm through the door. The crush pushed on her back and her head broke in between the planks.

Katja severed the arm. The woman flailed in the hole. Katja didn’t know whether she was thrashing with pain or trying even harder to break in, but a blow to the head ended it.

The other monsters pulled the body aside and trampled it down. A large hand clamped on one of the planks and broke it off.

“
Sentinel
!” the demon growled in the distorted voice of the man whose body this had been.

She stabbed out through the hole and hit someone in the chest. Another tried to grab the blade but she managed to snatch it back inside.

A demon grabbed another plank as its fellows squeezed through the hole. Katja stabbed it in the fingers and it sufficed to make it stop and instead start beating them again.

Katja heard a familiar sound and felt great heat on the top of her head. She looked up and saw fire through the ceiling. Arvar had repeated his trick.

Some of the demons hesitated a bit due to the fire. Others continued demolishing the door and Katja slashed desperately. The hole wasn’t wide enough for a proper swing. She inflicted a minor wound which didn’t discourage the demon corpse. She stabbed again and again and again, with wild force to try to clear a way out.

The heat intensified and the crackle of the flames became a roar. Sparks fell down on her and she smelled smoke.

I am not going to die in fire
, she thought and fought the panic. She struck a man in the neck and he fell away from the door.
I am not going to die in fire!

Someone drove a pitchfork through the hole and almost hit her in the face.

She shrieked and ducked under the attack.

“This isn’t working!” she said to herself and took up position in front of the door. She held her left palm out to the monsters and reached within herself. The Flame would cost her energy she barely still possessed, but there was no other option. She had to get
out
!

She found the Flame within herself and given their sudden hesitation the demons sensed what was coming.

Flaming debris from the ceiling fell down next to her. Her start ruined her focus and the Flame sank back down into her soul.

She cursed shrilly and heard something come through the hole in the door. The smoke the debris had brought with it obscured her vision, but she walked to the attacker and swung.

The blade passed over the head of the little boy who ran at her and clasped his small hands around her left arm.

Katja saw a grown man force his way through the door. She beat the hilt into the demon boy’s head. His feet failed but the grip remained.

Katja pulled against the weight and swung at the man as he was getting up. She hit him in the right arm he held up in defence, then the shoulder as he rose. Finally the third blow landed on his head and stunned him.

The little boy locked his teeth around her index finger and bit.

Katja screamed and staggered away from the door. She frantically drove her knee into his belly, but it wasn’t enough and he bit the finger off at the middle joint.

Katja screamed again and kicked him away. The kid hit the floor and grimaced at her with the finger between his teeth.

They had gained control of the doorway and were pushing away the table and lifting the bar, the roof was almost entirely on fire and the air was turning unbearably hot and her left hand spewed blood.

Katja backed to one of the corners as fear mixed with desperation and formed a whirlpool. The demon boy stood up.

She held her left hand to her chest and tried to ready the sword with her right one. In doing so she bumped her elbow on something.

It was a window shutter. She hadn’t noticed it in the darkness. She didn’t waste time seeing whether it had a latch, just raised her left arm and drove her elbow into it with all her strength.

The shutter burst open and Katja let herself drop out.

The chill of the night received her like a hug after the heat of the fire. She crawled the first few steps but then pulled herself up. She turned on her heel and ran to the window sword first. She stabbed the demon coming out of it and then ran off. She had to find the cursed sorcerer and end him.

She couldn’t help looking at her left hand. The stump bled hard and the pain was kicking in after the initial shock. There was something wrong about seeing this physical change.

It will grow back
, she thought in an attempt to calm herself.
It will grow back, Serdra said so!

Arvar stood some distance from the house, in front of the one he had set fire to first. He had an axe in his hand and observed his minions break into the house. He saw her head his way and shilly-shallied a moment.

The demon corpses were quick to realize what she had done and she didn’t need to look back to know they were chasing her. But she would kill him first. She would
avenge
all this.

The terror that had filled her a few moments ago took a sharp turn and channelled the momentum into rage. These people had been innocent. Now they were monsters.

She sped over the last metres to Arvar. The Brotherhood man spoke a word Katja felt in her head. She felt the burn begin in her mind and started to forget the time and place before a white wall of pain.

She abused her throat with an angry roar which carried her through the fog and sent the sword towards Arvar. The man narrowly managed to parry with his axe. The blow knocked him off balance and he stumbled over the corpse of a woman he hadn’t awoken.

The corpse sat up and Arvar suddenly looked frightened. Katja now sensed something fear had overshadowed earlier; the same cold abyss as had emanated from the sarcophagus. She took a few steps back and Arvar crawled from the corpse as it rose.

Katja looked about. More corpses were rising. They did not possess the fury that characterized the others and they didn’t breath any more than regular dead bodies. The gaze of the woman who now looked at her was cold and dead. Something moved her but it wasn’t life of any kind.

This was the work of the Death Lord.

The dead woman snatched at Katja, who slashed her in the arm. The corpse did not react to the wound, nor the one Katja inflicted on its face. It finally fell as she slashed it in the neck and went almost all the way through.