Fate's Hand (26 page)

“
Why are you doing this?” Val asked.

Pent took an extremely fast step forward toward Val, startling all three men. The man stood at the edge of the fire, fully illuminated. His eyes were dark black and yellow, his features grotesque and elongated. His clothes were tattered rags, all soaked in new and old blood. His face was covered in lacerations and scars, apparently self inflicted.

“This?” he asked as his voice trailed off into another screech into the night’s air. He snapped his head back, bones cracking violently.

“
This is all I know now, Val. A gift from the abyss. I may have only been in the ground for a short time but it seemed like forever.” His fingers tore at the rags across his chest and opened the cloth, exposing a gaping hole where his sternum used to be. Val gripped his sword for courage.

“
The devil that took my hand?”

Pent’s lips curled into an evil smile. “He is nothing in comparison.”

Val lifted his sword up to rest on his shoulder. Pent smiled and looked to the three men one at a time.

“
Come when you are ready,” he said, and slowly walked backward to let the darkness swallow him.

Rylan spread on a little bit of blood and looked out into the darkness as he began to transform. He cut it short, wiping the blood off.

“He's gone.”

Val saw Daria watching from the window. Asher threw out a few more logs of wood and replaced them with new logs.

“I am good here. Go talk to her.”

Daria was wiping tears from her eyes, but only cried harder when she looked at her brother.

“It is him, isn’t it?” she asked.

Val put his sword near the front door and sat down in front of his sister.

“No, The Pent we knew and loved is dead. That thing out there is something created by evil. And tomorrow I will end it.”

Daria fell out of her chair and wrapped her arms around Val’s neck.

“I already watched him die once before. I can't do it again.”

Val hugged her and she held him even closer. “He tried to save me, Val. Even when the slavers beat him for trying to defend me, he stayed strong. He did his best to keep everyone in the group strong and healthy while he waited for the right moment to try and escape. Even the ones that had been in the group for a long time found a new hope in his strength. We truly believed he would get us to safety. But then they caught him trying to steal a weapon and took turns beating him till he was dead.” She put her head into Val’s arm and began sobbing.

Rylan began to walk from the room, but she reached out and grabbed his pant leg. “I just want you to know he was a good man. He was a quiet and hard man, and I know we didn’t always like living with him. But he was a good man. He doesn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve for that to be his end!”

Val cried with his sister and she eventually released Rylan’s leg. He walked out on the front porch with Asher and sat down on a cutting stump. Asher looked out over the small fires in silence for a long time. “She knows we have to kill him, right?”

Rylan ran his fingers through his hair and let out a deep breath. “Yeah. She knows.”              

Asher nodded and looked on into the darkness. “You love her?”

Rylan let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I guess I do. Why don’t you go rest? I’ll keep watch.”

As Asher walked away from the fire, Daria passed him and sat next to Rylan. She threw out one side of her blanket and covered his shoulders as she put her head on his shoulder.

Val finished up the watch and kept the fire going as the morning sun came out and tried to fight off the low sitting fog. The sky was still grey and the clouds were thick in the sky when the rest of the group came out of the cabin. Asher and Rylan checked their gear as Daria went through the kitchen and looked for something to make for a quick meal.

“
How are we going to leave her behind and make sure she is safe?” he asked quietly.

“
We can put her up on a roof. That’s about all we can do. Give her a sword, hide her away while we fight the ghoul and then come back to get her.”

Val shook his head. “That’s pretty much what I was thinking. I just don’t want that thing to use her against me. I can’t fight and defend her at the same time.” The three shared a look and nodded in agreement. Daria came out through the cracked front door with her sword and pack. She tried to put on a strong smile, but it was obviously a lie. “There really isn’t any food. Let's go find me a roof.”

Val, Rylan, and Asher walked together toward Val’s home. Rylan had put on panther's blood. For the first time, Val saw him in his transformed state and didn’t not smirk or find humor in the sight. His large golden eyes flashed a predator's guile. His exposed skin was covered in smooth, black fur and he had a long, sleek tail that made his walk seem more balanced and steady than the other two. Asher was armed with his bow, but had his sword tied on with a breakaway string for back up. Val felt under prepared for the fight.

Judging by what they'd seen the night before, they determined that speed would ultimately be Pent’s main advantage. Asher made Val fully aware what would happen if he was scratched or bitten by the ghoul. As the three neared Pent’s house, they could see where he had been buried some time before. A fresh mound of dirt and broken wood laid under the shade of a large tree on Pent’s property. When Val looked back on the house, he felt like it had been forever since he had been home. Memories good and bad came flooding into his mind.

The door was still kicked in. Since then, the elements had made a mess of the inside of the house. As Val stopped and looked in, Pent came sliding out from the other side of the door. Val immediately brought his sword out before him, preparing to attack the undead monster.

Pent looked different in the morning light. His skin was a pale greyish hue with dark veins running under his skin. He stepped quietly outside the house and onto the open grass. Asher started to circle around to the right of the men as he drew his bow string. Rylan took a step away from Val to stay out of his greatsword's reach, but stayed close to the man. Val looked at Pent’s eyes and realized there was a complete loss of reason or humanity. Val tightened his grip and threw away the reservations against harming his beloved Uncle.

Pent opened his arms wide and three walking corpses came shuffling from the inside of the house.

“
Welcome home.”

Pent leaped out across the ground and sprinted toward Val. Asher kept his arrow nocked and paced the ghoul's run as one of the undead from the house neared him. At the last moment, Asher let his arrow fly and dropped his bow, drawing his sword and driving the pommel into the temple of the attacker. The arrow flashed a hand's width in front of the ghoul’s eyes. Val saw the arrow coming and anticipated the attack At the moment the arrow blocked his view, he slashed his wide blade across Pent’s left shoulder. He tried to follow the attack with a sweep into the creature’s body, but Pent dove sideways to avoid the blade.

Rylan leaped into the reach of Pent’s claws and the two exchanged a flurry of strikes, each one blocked by claw or dagger blade. Val ran after them and tried to match their footing, and almost ran into one of the corpses stumbling into the fight, quickly smashing the monster down with a chopping strike. As Rylan came through with a double downward strike at Pent, he immediately had to dive and roll backward. Pent read the attack and reached in behind his daggers to claw at Rylan’s arms. The man narrowly escaped the attack thanks to Val jumping at Pent’s side with a wide slash. As Pent and Rylan leaped away, Val steadied his arms and legs for another attack. As he locked eyes with Pent, one of the walking dead slowly made its way at Val. Val stayed calm and stared into Pent’s black eyes as the ghoul waited for him to break his stance, giving him an opening. In the last moment, an arrow struck Pent in his already wounded shoulder.

Val took the chance, swinging the massive blade around, taking the undead’s head off. From the corner of his eye, Val saw Pent break off the arrow in a fit of rage and run at him. The young man didn’t change his attack, and instead drove more force with his left hand to do a complete spin with the greatsword. The ghoul smiled, thinking he had the advantage and ducked under Val’s blade. Val’s devil hand let go of the sword and struck out across Pent’s face, stabbing his fingers into the creature's left eye. The hand then immediately grabbed his hip dagger and plunged it through Pent’s hand and injured eye as the ghoul grabbed at its face.

The momentum of the sword pulled Val away from Pent as he blindly struck out and tried to escape Val’s volley of attacks. Val finally stopped his run and tried once again to steady his sword. His shoulder was sore from the jerking he received when his other hand let go. He rolled his shoulder around to shrug off the throbbing pain. Pent violently snatched the dagger from his eye, throwing it across the yard.

Asher finished off the last of the corpses and joined his brother and Val.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Pent. I thank you for everything you did for us. Without you, we never would have made it. But you died a good man. And that’s how you will always be remembered. I will kill this hollow and evil demon, and with that I will avenge you.”

The ghoul stared at Val through his remaining eye. Val, Asher, and Rylan held their ground and waited for the ghoul to make a move. Pent finally screamed out in rage and charged the three men, his left shoulder and eye pouring black blood.

Pent ran at Val, but as he came close to him, he clawed across his arm with a violent movement and threw a spray of dark blood across Val and Rylan. The ghoul took the opportunity and dove sideways at Asher. The archer released his arrow and immediately brought his bow up to block the attack. Pent grabbed Asher’s bow with both hands and kicked out violently, sending Asher sprawling. As soon as Pent hit the ground, he ran on all fours across the ground and attacked the downed man.

Rylan leaped on the ghoul's back and began rapidly stabbing him with his dual daggers. Pent arched his back and let out a furious shriek before Val came and tackled the two. He rolled away from the flurry of claws and teeth as Rylan and Pent struggled. Asher coughed and held his chest, but looked okay.

Rylan let out a sharp grunt as Pent kneed him in the stomach. Val ran across and kicked Pent in the side of the head before the ghoul could bite into Rylan. Val grabbed Rylan and pulled him over by his brother. He picked his sword up off the ground and ran at Pent while he tried to recover. Val swung his sword down to the ground as Pent looked up and twisted to dodge the blade. Pent flipped back the other direction and landed on the flat side of Val’s sword, kicking it deep into the moist soil. Pent grinned wide at Val with blood streaming down his face.

As Pent tried to lash out at Val, the young man used all his strength and pulled the sword straight. The power behind the movement caught Pent across his chest and sent him soaring. Pent landed several feet back, rolling in the dirt. Rylan and Asher had recovered and ran up to stand next to Val. Pent got up and let out another piercing scream. The bloodied ghoul hunched down and eyed the three men before launching another vicious attack.

Val gave a battle cry and lifted his sword high. The ghoul accelerated his run and struck at Val. The young man released his sword and reached behind Asher, pulling out his secondary blade. Val struck like lightning, cutting off both of Pent’s hands, then reversed his stroke and swiped across Pent’s injured shoulder, taking it off at the joint. Val felt his hand pull slightly, so he released his grip on Asher’s sword and grabbed the back of Pent’s neck as he slid to the ground.

Rylan and Asher hacked away at the ghoul’s body as Val held it down. When the men finished, Pent’s body was slashed and hacked, but he was still breathing. Val walked over and picked up his greatsword. The tip dragged across the ground as Val moved to stand over Pent. Val used his foot to nudge over the ghoul’s body and looked at the gruesome, smiling face. He lifted his sword one last time, letting it hover over Pent’s neck.

“If there is any little bit of you left in there, Uncle Pent, I love you.”

The sword came down.

Asher went to help Daria off the roof as Val and Rylan washed the ghoul’s blood off themselves. Daria came running across the muddy street, slipping several times. Val stood up and hugged his sister. She released him and ran over to Rylan, embracing the man. With tears in her eyes, Daria looked at Rylan’s face.