El-Vador's Travels (31 page)

The
shadows sprang from Anacletus like serpent, twisting their way
through the air and forcing themselves into the gaping maws of their
attackers. Distrustful and shocked at the sudden movement, El-Vador
let loose an arrow that thudded into the assassin's back. He then
drew his sword to face the remaining threat with both Eihblin and
Phaedra at his side.

Only
there was no remaining threat, and Anacletus still stood.

He
turned to them then as the cloak of shadows surrounded him once more,
swirling angrily about as if thinking of striking him further. There
was a clink of wood hitting the floor, then Anacletus scooped up the
arrow and offered it back to El-Vador.

'I
trust that you will not attempt to shoot me further, Elf?'

El-Vador
refused to comment further and Anacletus turned and strode through
the door.

Anacletus
led them down a flight of steep stone stairs that winded their way
further into the darkened reaches of the fortress. Having failed in
his attempt to kill him, El-Vador sincerely hoped that the pawn of
Sarvacts did not prove to be precisely that.

Behind
them came the pursuit of many feet, apparently in killing the guards
Anacletus had roused those few forces that still remained in this
vast place. For once the sheer size of the building aided them in
their ventures, for the creatures did not track them down
immediately.

'It
will not be long until more automatons come our way.' Anacletus said,
looking hurriedly behind him as he picked up the pace.

'How
far are we from the heirloom?' El-Vador asked.

'There
is some distance yet to travel, though from this door it is mostly
straight on.'

The
assassin halted.

'Why
do you tarry here?' Eihblin asked, suspicion lacing her voice as she
addressed her nemesis.

Anacletus
ignored her, much to her infuriation. He was focused entirely on
El-Vador, even though the Elf could do little to harm him should he
choose to turn against them now.

'They
are gaining upon us, I do not know how they returned to the fortress
and found our trail so swiftly. Possibly it is a machination of
Sarvacts, I shall hold back to stall them as long as I can. You take
the heirloom and then Phaedra shall guide you to the Orc.'

Eihblin
spat at him. 'We cannot trust his words, he means to lead the enemy
right to us.'

El-Vador
shook his head. 'No, if he wanted to capture us he could have done so
already quite easily, if he can take an arrow then my blade would
have little effect against him.'

He
proceeded down the hallway a little further, half expecting Anacletus
to turn and stab him in the back. Instead the assassin turned away
from them to face the sound of the approaching horde of automatons.

'Let's
go, your heirloom awaits you.' El-Vador called to Eihblin.

It
was then he noticed that Phaedra had vanished for a second time.

I do not deny the terror, but I need not
document it at every turn. In those youthful years those very
feelings that you would embody should you suffer the same fate as I
were often present. Does that mean that I need expand upon them
constantly for the sake of a realistic narrative? I choose instead to
focus on other details, you may fill the gaps with your own internal
monologue should you desire. I will undoubtedly be misconstrued at
many points regardless of how intricate I am.

E
l-Vador
couldn't find out whether Anacletus had stayed true to his word or
not, for they had encountered a few forces coming the opposite way
and had hacked them down swiftly at the knee. Their blades could not
extinguish the life of these automatons but they didn't need to, all
that was required was to cripple them so they could not follow.

The
corridor ran like a gauntlet through the dark, occasionally groping
figures would leap out onto their swords but their progress was still
remarkably swift considering that the entire fortress now seemed
aware of their presence.

A
large door near the end of the corridor signalled the end of their
journey and the entrance to the treasury, it was now a matter of
quickly retrieving the heirloom before they were ambushed and then
somehow cutting their way through to Sarvacts.

Two
automatons came tumbling down the stairs to their right, El-Vador put
himself between them and Eihblin. 'Get your damn heirloom and let's
get out of here.' he said, before launching himself at the shambling
creatures and carving a path through with his blade.

Then
three more arrived on the scene as Eihblin entered the treasury,
El-Vador found himself fighting for his life.

He
tried to keep his distance from the closing creatures but with little
success, they were akin to each other in that they were all
enthralled by Sarvacts, but varied greatly in terms of strength and
speed. The three he had been laboured with seemed unnaturally fast
compared to the few he had cut down so far. His blade licked out that
them in quick swipes, but they seemed heedless of the damage it would
inflict. That or they knew that only an immobilising strike would
matter.

They
jockeyed for position, possibly buying time for their kin to come
rushing down the stairs and overwhelm him with numbers. Even if
Anacletus had somehow held out against the forces coming the other
way, he knew it was a matter of time before more of them came pouring
down the stairs.

He
chopped downward with his blade, biting into the thigh of one of
them. It failed to be a debilitating blow but it did slow it
somewhat, now he could perhaps deal with the others. He tried to
shunt his fear back down as it threatened to take hold of his limbs.

Seeing
now that its colleague was injured, the second automaton swung in
with its sword, hoping to wound El-Vador sufficiently to drag him
down. The Elf realised then that he had an advantage on his foes,
they were trying to take him alive for Sarvacts, while he had no such
compunction about their existence. He evaded the swing and stabbed
forward, lancing the throat of the creature but not causing any
significant damage that would stop its advance.

Behind
him, Eihblin yelled, 'El-Vador! Right side!'

El-Vador
leapt left without looking, finding himself uncomfortably close to
the wall now. Eihblin joined him with her sword and he was able to
glance at what he had evaded.

The
automatons he had wounded previously in their race down the corridor
had crawled their way to their current position, trying to trip him
up with outstretched hands. He didn't have time to deal with all
this, he needed to get to Sarvacts. If he could somehow stop him then
he might have a chance to end the nightmares that followed at their
source.

Or
they could kill him in spite of his destroying their master. Was that
what Anacletus had planned?

They
needed to dispatch the able-bodied attackers swiftly if they were
stand any hope of making it further away from the pursuit.

'Concentrate
on the ones blocking the stairs!' El-Vador yelled. 'It won't matter
how many we slay if we can't disarm them.'

Eihblin
nodded and skewered the automaton that had moved slower due to
injury. She leapt forward and pressed the attack with El-Vador, away
from the grasping hands of those few crawling toward them on the
floor.

They
crept drawing closer, it wouldn't be long until they were too near to
do anything about. They needed to act now.

El-Vador
dashed forward recklessly, decapitating the nearest automaton with a
mighty swing and almost hopelessly exposing himself but for the swift
intervention of Eihblin's blade.

They
pounded up the stairs, trying to put some distance between themselves
and the crawling creatures that followed them without any chance of
catching their prey now.

They
were only half way up when the rest of the automatons came down to
greet them.

He
steeled himself for the inevitable, there was no way he could cut
through the seven that flew down the stairs heedless of breaking
their necks or those of their quarry.

El-Vador
looked briefly at Eihblin as she clutched the heirloom gratefully to
her breast.

'I
hope you're happy now that you have your trinket.' he said.

Strangely,
she was smiling back at him with a toothy grin. 'I am very glad, and
perhaps you will be too.'

She
pushed the heirloom forward in an open palm, her fingers gently
gripping the outsides.

A
gout of fire belched forth, engulfing the tumbling automatons and
leaving nothing but ash in its wake.

El-Vador
stared on at the scene of carnage dumbfounded, then his companion
proceeded to turn the flame and blast the automatons that had been
crawling up the stairs. They didn't stand a chance against this
weapon.

'You
never told me that thing was a weapon!'

She
smiled at him, sweat pouring off her brow from the heat of the
flames. 'An extremely volatile one that must be used with great care.
It only serves against the kind that it has been stolen by.'

'Then
my arrow did not kill Anacletus because he was an automaton.'
El-Vador mused, storing away the information for later. He had
wondered at the time why the assassin had called them his fellow
automatons, now he knew.

With
that, they made their way to the top of the stairs and back onto
Sarvacts' level.

Anacletus
swept over the bodies in a smoky haze, his insubstantial ally had
been a substantial aid in dispatching the automatons that had
followed. First forming an impenetrable barrier and then leeching off
their efforts to propel into their mouths and someone dim the power
that had been propelling them forth. Technically he had not done a
thing, and his standing around in the corridors was not against
Sarvacts' will either.

He
became uncomfortably aware of the fact that the mysterious smoke
could do the very same thing to him at any given moment should it not
wish to aid him any further.

As
he traced the passage of El-Vador and Eihblin toward Sarvacts he
couldn't help but be intrigued, there were no corpses anywhere but
there were clear signs of fighting and a thin lair of ash that coated
everything. Perhaps he had underestimated their capabilities, there
was clearly magic at work in their escape from the remaining forces
of Sarvacts that he had been unable to hold off.

His
thin boots told of the heated rock under his feet, there had
definitely been quite the fire fight here and the automatons had been
completely outmatched. For the first time, Anacletus felt a faint
hope blossoming in his heart. If they could command that degree of
force then who was to say they couldn't direct a similarly lethal
dosage of it at Sarvacts? He knew not what use he would be, but he
hurried up the stairs after them. He may yet have a part to play in
this, even if his own will prevented him from lifting a hand in
defence against the conjurer.

He
hurried along, searching for El-Vador and Eihblin.

The
huge chamber lay empty of any villain to dispose of, a faded and
worn-out place carved directly into the rock. It spoke of vengeance
that would have to wait even longer to be fulfilled, the only feature
of the place was a large bloody spike set in the centre of the floor.

Light
streamed down from on high, bathing the thing in a white glow that
stung the corneas of those used to the darker dwellings of the
fortress. It was toward this spike that El-Vador and Eihblin slowly
walked, appearing from one of the many doors that led into the
chamber.

Through
the other door Sarvacts strode, axe at the ready but surprise plain
on his face. This was shortly replaced with a wicked grin of
pleasure, as if they had played right into his hands.

He
was different from what El-Vador remembered, somehow older and more
weathered than before. A giant mass of scarred flesh enveloped the
right half of his face, clearly leaving him blind in one eye. Had it
been the liquid the winged creature had bestowed upon him that
brought about such devastation to his craggy features? El-Vador still
didn't know how the ensuing explosion hadn't killed the Orc.

They
stared at each other in fascinated silence, the look of shock on both
their faces quickly shifting to hatred.

'Finally
you are within my grasp.' Sarvacts said. 'You have brought the woman
with you too, good.'

'I
am here to finish what you started.' El-Vador said, hefting his
sword. 'Did I not warn you that it would be your death to continue as
you did?'

'Death
is an inevitability for all in life,' the Orc stated. 'Had you not
dabbled with the demonic we would have no quarrel.'

El-Vador
bristled at that. 'You killed my family.'

Sarvacts
shook his head. 'Your mother died of natural causes, your father was
on his death bed when my men slew him. I did not kill your family, if
anything your actions caused his end.'

'Had
he not been wounded in battle by your warriors he would still live!'
El-Vador yelled at the Orc, his high voice reverberating off the
walls as he lost his cool.

The
conjurer he loathed offered him a rueful smile. 'You really think I
had a choice in sending my men out there? We all have our orders in
life, young Elf.'

El-Vador
hesitated, what if this beast spoke the truth? What if he was simply
put into this position by his superiors?

'Yes,
you see how it is. Then you butchered the only family I had left,
destroying all that I owned and all that I was. You made me into this
with your resistance that cost the people you grew up with their
lives.'

Eihblin
stared at them both as the words went back and forth, not sure what
to believe. El-Vador was beginning to feel the same way.