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“Trust is the human weakness that makes betrayal certain.” -- Gemini the Assassin
In the sleepy predawn hours, a wee lassie and two monsters crossed the river via university bridge, whose guards had unaccountably fallen asleep. They entered the university complex, slipping through shadows to avoid observation. The wee lassie was indeed very short. Gemini was an elf, a thief and assassin, perhaps the most dangerous person in all the five provinces. Accompanying her was a yellow ape, or Yeti: A creature oftentimes employed as a bodyguard due to its strength and wild ferocity when enraged. The second monster was a dragon woman whose nine foot frame, clawed hands and elongated snout hid an intelligence at least equal to the greatest human philosophers and scientists. Her flame breath was an advantage few humans could match. The three intruders made their way to the inner chambers of the library. There amid the annals of the Kingdom, secreted books on dark Magic, and the prophesies of Merlin, they quietly committed the crimes of theft, arson and murder.
Chapter one: Alan Dark, first secretary to the royal household, bon vivant, gentleman farmer and head of the secret service was worried. When Alan became worried, he held a party on his estates outside the city. His offices within the royal palace were for his many tasks as first secretary. He ran the secret service from his estates while circulating among his many guests, most of whom had no idea of his semi-secret identity. Preparations began early in the day. Two steers were butchered and numerous beverages prepared. Alan’s present girlfriend was a druidess and bee keeper. She ran the estates while Alan was in the city. Their orchards were famous for the fruit, hard and soft ciders they produced as a hobby. Today they introduced a new product: Apple jack, a whiskey to compete with the malt whiskeys of New Scotland province. A hundred guests of all classes arrived by coach, chariot and foot from the city. Edward, the black prince, put in an appearance with his three daughters. Baronets mingled with river traders, guildsmen, and the occasional criminal or mercenary. All guests were equal at Alan’s parties. Among the dozen criminal types invited to the party were a one-armed dwarf and a human who had at one time been a river pirate. Both had served time in jail and were beholden to Alan Dark for an early release. The dwarf had been a marriage counselor whose techniques included arranging the beating of unfaithful husbands and sending undead creatures to haunt the unfaithful. The two had gone straight, more or less, and now hunted and captured monsters for the arena. They occasionally ran errands for Alan Dark. The only creature at the party was a hyena man hired to watch the booze, making sure that no one slipped any poison into the brews and also to make sure the servants did not partake of any expensive beverages and remained reasonably sober. The ugly creature, whose name was Erock, had received druid training from Alan’s girlfriend who had recommended him for employment. That evening he received a large bonus to his pay and was told to meet the man codenamed Scorpion and the dwarf codenamed Wolverine after the party was over. A cheerful, somewhat inebriated babble covered the few words between Alan Dark and his operative Scorpion as they helped the rich into their chariots. “Someone or something entered the library three nights ago, murdered the librarian and torched the secret books.” “Why kill the head librarian?” Scorpion murmured. “Someone must have been really pissed off at overdue fines.” Alan chuckled but replied, “Obviously she was killed because she was the only one who could tell us what books were stolen. We have to assume that the blackest grimoires on magic are gone and the applicable prophesies of Merlin regarding the use of black magic against the kingdom and the royal family were taken also. “I want you to take one of the three little princesses to her great uncle the Sorcerer Kevin Droom in his castle within the Mountains of Terror. We can not risk the loss of the entire royal line of Merlin and Arthur. Beg the great Sorcerer for his help. You can promise him anything short of the crown itself. One of the young maids in waiting can impersonate the missing princess long enough for you to get clean away.” “Thank you very much, sir,” Scorpion said loudly as he pocketed a gold coin. In a quiet voice he added, “You are not telling me everything, but that is your call. We might just get away with this. We have the advantage of surprise. No one could expect you to be stupid enough to trust the life of a member of the royal family to a former pirate, a crazy dwarf and a hyena creature.” There were indeed good reasons why Alan Dark had entrusted a little princess to Scorpion. The reasons, however, were on a need to know basis and Scorpion did not need to know in order to fulfill his mission. On the same night as the librarian’s murder, an attempt had been made on the lives of the three princesses. Only the lucky chance that they were attending a slumber party in a different part of the palace had kept them alive. Worse, the assassination attempt was the work of trusted members of the palace guard. Trust is the human weakness that makes betrayal possible, Alan reflected.
Chapter Two: At the northern end of Golden Arrow, the southern province, a family endured its well deserved and luxurious exile. The T’Argyll family were mostly insane killers and a danger to all around them. Some of them actually believed themselves to be werewolves. Their close blood relationship to the royal family was all that kept them from being institutionalized. The government could not afford such a scandal. Lady Elspeth, dowager head of the family, was engaged in a heated argument with Captain Uthar T’Argyll, an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos. “Donald Mac Sorley, earl of New Scotland will move soon to declare full independence from Anderida. His agents will assassinate the entire royal family except for the Queen Empress. She is too popular to risk killing and so old that she must die soon. “This can only work in our favor. We shall seize the throne under the guise of steward for the realm. Once we are in power, we shall never give it up.” Captain Uthar smashed his fist down onto the table. “Just for once in your life, can ye not give over this scheming and plotting!” Uthar had sublimated his homicidal madness into a successful career in black ops in the R.M.C. “Stand we with the Queen against this treason and we will surely be rewarded and our exile lifted. Think ye not that Earl Donald plans our destruction along with the Royal Family? “Even if his rebellion succeeds, he still will face the revenge of Brand Helsun, ‘Deathschilde’ as he is so aptly nick named. I have served with him in the commandos and I know what he can do! Brand will wipe out every member of the Mac Sorley clan then start on disloyal families like ours even if we were no part of the conspiracy. He will go on killing until all of us are dead or he is killed. Brand is the grandson of the Goddess and very, very hard to kill.” “We also,” the dowager replied, “are descended from the gods as well as from Merlin and Arthur. We need fear no commoner, even if his grandfather screwed a goddess and got her knocked up.”
Six Years Before: The overturned coach and the bloodied rags of flesh that surrounded it bore mute testimony to the tragic and savage deaths of an entire family. The full moon shone down on tracks made by barefoot humans leading away from the scene of slaughter and back toward the city of Anderida. Outside the city sprawled the palatial villas of powerful nobles. Most opulent of all was the villa T’Argyll, country home of that powerful family. It was toward this villa, by a circuitous route, the barefoot tracks returned. Loyal retainers were ready to pass the werewolves into the safety of the villa and destroy all tracks leading there. It was a full moon night just like many others, violent death and a practiced cover up. However, the worm was about to turn, and he was armed with a repeating crossbow and silver bolts! Ensign Brand Helsun stood up and opened fire without warning. Two supposed werewolves, a bitch and the alpha male, screamed as bolts attached to slim chains of silver smashed into their bodies. “If you are really werewolves, you would have smelled out my ambush. But, you are only sick, cannibals, and the payback is a mother fucker!” Terrified of the silver bolts the remaining half dozen members of the pack scattered and fled. Brand clubbed the wounded Lycans, tied them up together and hoisted both upon his back. Scarcely slowed by his 250 pounds of captives, he carried them back all the way to the coach they had just waylaid. There, he crucified them both to the carriage frame with stakes of silvered iron. The private bedroom suite of the Queen Empress Victoria Regina was crowded with soldiers, politicians and ladies in waiting. Even here the fine chairs and the beds were covered in all different tartan designs from the clans of New Scotland. Her Imperial Majesty suffered from execrable taste in furnishings. “Horrible tortures were inflicted upon the two nobles to extract confessions, your Majesty”, a herald told the queen. “When a half dozen retainers, men at arms, in the service of the T’Argyll family arrived on the scene, this Brand Helsun killed them all. “He claims justification and right under the ancient laws of our realm. As the grandchild of a goddess, he has the right to hold and question by agony persons guilty of crimes against the gods and humanity. He refuses to surrender the prisoners and states his intent to turn them over to the temple of Hel after he has extracted the maximum pain and payback for the innocents they have murdered and eaten.” “Insanity” a courtier offered. “ The T’Argyll family is obviously hopelessly insane and not responsible for their actions. They must be sent away into exile and this whole matter hushed up. The two captive werewolves must die and their confessions must be destroyed. This Brand Helsun is mad. He must be silenced.” “Send the young man to visit me”, the queen injected. “I shall ask him as a personal favor to destroy the confessions and take an oath of silence. It will be pleasant to meet with a child of the gods who is not one of my relatives.” Few could resist the blandishments of the dumpy old woman who was the Queen Empress. Governments had fallen because she refused to invite a Prime Minister for tea. This Brand Helsun would be no exception. He would do whatever the Queen Empress asked. And so it was decided. The T’Argyll family went into exile. Various conflicting rumors were circulated, blaming the killings on vampires, or enemy agents, or a murder cult. Brand Helsun was knighted and became an agent and close friend of the royal family.
The Present: The smuggler’s craft landed its passengers onto the far side of the river, and after a large bribe for silence had changed hands, the four passengers walked swiftly south along the trail. “They betray us anyway. Should have killed them and kept the gold,” the hyena man declared as they strode along. “Teach your grandma to suck eggs”, Scorpion replied. “Of course they will betray us. They will sell the information that we took the princess down river. But after a couple of hours, we shall cut through the woods and head upriver. Then we turn northeast towards the Mountains of Terror. If it makes you feel any better, Erock, you can kill anyone we meet on our way and loot the body.” Two days of travel through trackless forest found them north of the city and ready to cut east toward the mountains. Erock led the way, slinking noiselessly through heavy brush and helping the little princess with his druid powers. Scorpion followed, his oiled chain mail some protection from the thorns and branches. Last came the dwarf, watching their back trail. The camped that night in a deserted cemetery protected, they hoped, by the fears most people have of the undead. Awakened by the sound of hoofs and the jingle of bridles, they watched amazed as a patrol of heavy cavalry rode into the cemetery. “Evil creatures move silently toward your campfire” the leader told them. “Best you look to your defense.” The patrol rode on deeper into the graveyard and sunk into the earth. A passageway lost for generations had opened up beneath the largest crypt. Creatures swarmed through the graveyard. Carrying the princess, the dwarf dropped into the passage, followed by Erock. The hyena man turned to block the entrance, swinging his lochaber axe, an ordinary axe head mounted upon a pole. The axe blade beheaded the first attacker and slashed on to bury itself in the side of another. A creature seized the pole and attempted to wrestle it away from the hyena man. Scorpion took off his head with one swing of his bastard sword. The fight continued with more sound than fury. The attackers were leery of exposing themselves to the lochaber axe and bastard sword. Erock and Scorpion were more than willing to hold the entrance to the passage and wait. A creature almost nine feet tall and massive as a bear pushed through his own men. It was the Yeti who, along with two others, had invaded the library to loot and murder. In his hands he carried an immense morning star whose head was covered with razor sharp flanges and cruel hooks. “What kind fool do you think I am? You lay false trail to lure me south while you head north. I find you anyway and now I smash your heads open!” Scorpion looked him up and down and responded, “You know, I never thought about what kind of fool you are. Give me a minute to think about it… You are an arrogant fool who thinks he can beat up anyone smaller. Perhaps you are the kind of fool who thinks he can stuff his entrails back into his stomach when I gut him with my bastard sword.”
Chapter Three: Brand Helsun was in the dungeon beneath his fortified manor. Beautiful women, at least five, kept luring him into isolated corners to kiss and fondle. Two turned into werewolves rending his flesh with their claws and savaging his throat with fangs. Others just stayed as beautiful unknown women. Eventually, he woke up grinning and went down to breakfast. “I dreamed that uninvited visitors came via hidden ways into our dungeons, killing me and perhaps all within this home. We had well be prepared for an attack. I suspect that silvered weapons would be appropriate. “We are to have guests for the next few weeks. Two royal princesses will be under our protection while their father, the Black Prince, leads a force downriver to fight off a raiding fleet. He has left me in charge of the defense of the city until further notice.” Rhino, a former professional pit fighter, observed, “And we are stuck here guarding some brats. We never get to have any fun.” “Well then,” Brand responded, “I have been placed in charge here. That means we can make our own fun.” All of Brand’s followers were hand picked: Warlocks, inquisitors, fighters and lore masters. They were also all technically dead! Hel, the goddess of death, refrained from taking them while they served her grandson. They lived on pledged service to Brand and he treated them very well. They were death’s paladins and Brand was death’s avatar. In the palace that night a small supper party was held in honor of Edward, the Black Prince, who was leaving early next morning for war. Midway through, the party was crashed by a one-eyed beggar carrying a spear. The two ravens perched upon his shoulders left no doubt as to his identity. “Welcome, All Father Wodan,” the prince said softly, rising and bowing. Victoria Regina, Queen Empress and direct descendent of King Arthur fainted dead away. Both Empress and Prince knew that the appearance of the All Father heralded great wars and cataclysmic changes. |