Rise of the DarkWalker: The Chronicles of Carter Blake, Book II

Carter glanced around at the arena where he’d been held. Bodies of demons lay here and there. Some were missing body parts, others were whole. All rested on dried puddles of ichor.

Seats were broken and destroyed. The walls of the arena had bricks and chunks of mortar missing. As he moved down to the floor of the arena, he spotted bodies embedded in the wall. Some were broken alone the top, and impaled on the spikes that were to protect the spectators.

The gates to the prisoner areas were ripped apart and none were behind them. ‘What happened here?’

He found the cell he’d been in, the graffiti he’d put there to mark his time as a prisoner was the giveaway. He glanced in, not intending to go further. ‘I spent enough time in that cell. It has nothing for me.’ A sparkle near the back wall caught his attention. ‘Hold on. What’s that?’ He walked over and reached to pick up the sparkling object. A flash went off behind his eyes and he collapsed.

###

The crackling of a torch and chatter of teeth woke him. ‘Ugh. Being knocked out all the time like this sucks. Feels like my head is trying to pop off.’ He sat up, clutching his head.

A slow creaking to his left made him open his eyes and look in that direction. A skeleton stood there opening and closing its jaw. Carter pushed himself to his feet while watching the skeleton. Its jaw opened and closed again before it turned away. ‘Am I really going to follow a skeleton?’ He moved to the doorway and glanced down the hall after the bony guardian. It moved in a loose-limbed waddle. In the other direction, a solid wall. ‘I guess so.’

As he walked behind the undead, he noticed a series of scrapes - like nails on rock – and several sharp squeaks. He moved with greater care and stealth. A few moments later, he found himself at an opening to a small, circular chamber. It was cobbled with cracked granite. Four dead bodies were within, three sprawled on the floor, and one standing up with a javelin skewering its skinny chest, pinning it to a wooden door. The bodies were dressed in simple leather armor. Their red skin was dulled by death.

Carter stole over to the bodies, and examined them closer. All four had long, floppy ears, bulging yellow eyes and jagged teeth. ‘Goblins.’ He knelt next to one on the floor and lightly touched it’s skin. ‘Desiccated. They’ve been dead a month, or more. Rats were at them at one point. Wonder why they stopped eating them?’

A couple squeaks came from behind him. He whirled around, but saw nothing. Water dripped down from above. He followed the wetness upward with his eyes. He tilted his head to stare at the rest of the tower. Loose masonry rose up thirty feet to open and cloudy sky. The intervening floors and stairs were long gone.

He returned his attention to the dead goblins and took a step back. Before him were a pair of dire rats. The size of a golden retriever, they were covered in coarse fur that was brown-black in color. Large, yellowed incisors dripped saliva as the two hissed at him.

He glanced around and spotted a short sword near a goblin corpse. The rats separated and stalked forward.

“Not much time. I hope I get my hand on this sword with my somersault.’

He launched himself forward into a somersault, grasping for the blade. At the same time, the dire rats leaped for him.

One flew overhead, but he felt the other’s paw scrape over his head. It wrapped its tail around his neck as his fingers clutched the hilt.

The rat around his neck tightened its tail and bit his shoulder.

Carter bellowed in pain and chopped backward with the sword.

The rat dodged and the blade cut into his shoulder.

“Mother fucker!”

He threw himself back to the floor, managing to land on the dire rat with a crunch of bone. The tail loosened a bit.

The other one bit his other shoulder.

“Fucking rat.”

He swung over his body, and managed to nick the second rat on the neck.

It squealed and pulled back.

Carter quickly reached up and pulled the tail from around his neck.

He rose to his feet, stabbing the dazed rat panting on the ground.

The remaining rat jumped at him.

Intercepting it with the edge of the sword blade, he managed to bisect it due to its own momentum.

He leaned over, hands on his knees and panting from the sudden fight. Blood ran down his back and chest from the throbbing bites on his shoulders. ‘Hope they didn’t have any diseases.’

He straightened and lifted the shirt from his torso. Moving his head back and forth, he tried to get a good look at his injuries, but the angles were all wrong. ‘Damn it.’

He inspected the doors nearby. One opened to a small room. ‘Looks like a closet.’ The one with the goblin pinned to it swung open to reveal a narrow chamber. Cold and damp, it was empty except for a tiny shrine, melted candles, and a single, dusty bottle with a red liquid. ‘Is that a healing potion? Oh, please let that be one.’

He picked it up, opened it, and waved his hand over the opening. Sage and mint scents wafted to his nose. ‘Ha ha, excellent.’ He tipped the liquid into his mouth and swallowed. A warmth ran through his body and he felt his wounds knit closed. Energy washed through him, bringing a smile to his face. ‘Ooh, energy rush. Forgot about that part.’

He stopped, eyes wide. ‘Damn it. I should have saved it. No telling when I’d be able to get another.’

Carter backed out of the shrine room and opened the last door. The masonry walls of the hall were like the tower behind him, crumbling and in disrepair. The far end was especially bad as the ceiling had collapsed, sealing it off. The other end was in better shape. The walls were solid looking and a door sat closed.

Leading with the point of the sword, he moved with care to it. The door was stone, and hand a rearing dragon carved on it. A small keyhole sat in the middle of the dragon’s open mouth.

‘Damn it. I gotta go back and see if I can find a key.’

As he took a step back to the tower, a dire rat leaped from a hidden crevice near the wall. Carter lurched in surprise as the rodent landed on his chest. It bit at his chest. Before it could succeed, he grabbed it by the nape of the neck and flung it to the floor. The rat hit the masonry with a stunned squeal, and before it could recover, Carter ran it through.

A glint at its neck caught his attention. ‘I’m not gonna fall for that again.’ He prodded the object with the tip of his sword and was rewarded with the clink of metal on metal. ‘Is that a key?’ He bent close. ‘I’ll be damned. It is. Was this creature someone’s pet?’ He shuddered. ‘Gross.’

He snapped the string collar around the rodent’s neck and lifted the key. When he slid the key into the dragon’s mouth, a white light shot over the door and it swung open with ease. ‘Excellent.’

Carter peered into the doorway. The dust of the ages covered the surface of everything in the large gallery beyond. Four alcoves were across from him. When he poked his head further inside, he spied four more along the wall where he stood. Each nook contained a small sphere on a stone plinth, covered in dust, cracked and dark. One at the far alcove shone with a soft green light. Faint music seemed to be coming from it.

He gazed upward. ‘Any animated objects flying overhead? Those suits of armor in the Abyss were difficult to defeat. Left me bruised for weeks.’ The air was as empty as the rest of the gallery. ‘Good.’

As he approached the orb, the faint music increased in volume and intensity. Carter’s eyes drooped and he turned back the way he came. ‘Gotta go back.’ He sprinted out of the gallery and when he came back to himself, he was in the tower room with the dead goblins and rats.

“What the hell?” He peered around. ‘Oh, interesting. That sphere has a compulsion effect on it. The music must be how it works.’

He jogged back, and when he reached the gallery with the orb, he plugged his ears with his fingers. He approached it and the music was muffled. He studied it, trying to find some way to turn it off. The music grew louder still and he once more sprinted out of the room.

“Gods damn it. Back here again?” The goblins didn’t respond. Nor did the rats. He sighed. “Guess I’ve got to break it.”

He scooped up a chuck of broken wall and once again headed to the gallery. ‘I’m going to try this once, and if I fail, I’m climbing out that tower.’ He looked down at the floor, checking how far he had travelled through the dust previously. ‘Is it possible to be outside this thing’s range?’ He decided to stop a foot before his footprints did and threw the stone.

When the piece of wall collided with the sphere, it shattered with a hiss and the green light faded away. Silence reigned.

‘That’s good. Let’s see what else is in this room.’

He moved around, studying each plinth and cracked glass sphere. One, near the middle of the wall near where he entered had one side worn smoother than the rest of them. ‘I wonder…’ He lightly touched the base of the crystal sphere where it was smoothest.

A click sounded. With a rumble of ancient gears, a section of wall slid into the ground, spilling a cloud of dust.

“That’s interesting.”

He entered the doorway and found himself in another dusty hallway. It spanned about twenty feet from one side to the other. Red-veined marble statues lined the hall. Each resembled an elf in primitive armor. The far end of the hallway ended in a wide stone arch which opened into a broad room from which a yellowish light emanated. A dark pit started about three feet after the terminus of the corridor.

Dust coated the everything, floors, walls, and statues. ‘Wait a second. That dust is disturbed.’ Carter moved closer to an empty plinth. ‘Hmm. More dust. Means whatever moved this dust did so a while ago.’

He straightened and moved into the room with the pit. The yellow light came from within. He peered over and spotted upright spikes rising from the floor. “That would suck to land on.”

The flap of leathery wings caught his attention. ‘I’m not alone in here.’ He looked around, but didn’t see anything.

“Come out, come out, whoever you are.”

The flapping came closer and a winged humanoid came into the light from the other side of the room. It seemed more pitiful than frightening at first glance, a hunchback-like monstrosity about the size of a dwarf with arms nearly as long as its body. Its distended mouth was full of cracked, yellow teeth, and its red eyes glared at Carter with unabated loathing.

“Dretch.”

As if naming it was the signal it was waiting for, the demon flew across the pit and attacked.

Carter waited with his sword angled tip forward and hilt back near his shoulder.

The dretch swiped at his face with a long arm, claws at the end of its hand extended to rip at his flesh.

The Walker drove his sword forward and around in an arc to intercept the assault.

The dretch yanked its arm back and flew in a tight circle. It attacked with its other arm.

He again arced his sword around to parry the demon.

The dretch again safely withdrew its arm and flew in a circle, this time going in the other direction.

Carter kept his eyes on the demon, and reached down to the floor to collect a rock.

The demon paused its flying to hover in place, watching.

He straightened and threw the rock before the demon could react.

The stone flew true and hit the demon on the forehead, knocking it backward.

“You broke the pact! I am free!”

The demon’s yell was gleeful and it flew near the ceiling, out of Carter’s reach. It ignored him as it moved out of the area and down the hall.

‘It could talk?’ Carter glanced down the hall and then shook his head. ‘Weird.’

###

Sera stalked down the mausoleum’s hall to its central chamber. ‘Drago consorts with all sorts of disgusting beings in his desire to win this war.’ She paused next to an ornate sarcophagus. ‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear he is as evil as those damned half-elves.’ She rapped on the lid with the back of her knuckles.

The richly carved lid slid to the side and an elf dressed in archaic, yet richly appointed clothing sat up. “I wish you would not do that, Sera. It is rude and uncultured.” The elf’s voice was soft and breathy.

“I’m not going to say your name three times, Betelgeuse.”

“I cry your pardon?”

“It’s a reference to my world. Never mind.”

“Fascinating.”

“On your feet, vampire. Lord Drago has a mission for you.”

“As you wish, Rishka.” He swung his legs over the side of the coffin and rose.

She sighed. “I’m still not your beloved.”

“No one and nothing can change my mind. You are sacred to me.”

‘Okay, that was actually sweet.’ Outwardly, she rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Lord Drago wants you to track down Adora and kill her.”

“Does he have a preference for how he wishes for her to die?”

“Just make it as public as possible. Let her people see no one is beyond his reach.”

He swept forward in a bow. “As the Lord commands.”

She nodded. “Good.”

The vampire took her hand in his larger, colder one and brushed his lips across her knuckles. “One day, Rishka, I hope to show you how much I care for you.”

She stared at him. “We haven’t had that many interactions, so how much could you really care?”

He placed his hand on his chest, over his heart. “You wound me.” He took her hand again. “You enhance my life like no one else, in ways I never imagined.”

“You have your mission, Deoradhán.”

He paused. “As you wish, my lady.” He griped the side of his cape in his right hand, swept it over to his left shoulder and vanished.

‘As if I’d have anything to do with a knife-ear, much less a vampire.’ Her upper lip curled in a sneer.