The chimerian was a horrifying sight. His skin was streaked with blood, glistening in the light of the globe-torches hung around the fold platform. He had extended his body to its full height, and all four arms stretched out from its sides, each holding a different type of sword. The chain mail vest he wore was ragged and broken, pierced in several places where the creature’s own blood oozed out. But it was the eyes-fixed wide open and unblinking-that were windows into a torment without depth and a mind lost to its merciless ravages.
“Run!” the chimerian screamed. “Run from your lives!”
The mad creature lunged forward, leaping from the platform, its blades slicing with soft ringing sounds through the evening air. Heedless, the chimerian dashed forward into the herd, sword blades churning. The surprised warriors leaped back, several of them reacting instinctively to face their opponent, but the chimerian continued to dash across the base of the hollow, deftly slipping past one, slicing into the side of another, rolling around a third. The sound of the Impress Warriors rose to a thunderous roar, and still the chimerian continued its pell-mell charge across the field, its eyes fixed on one thing.
An exit portal. . and Soen’s Quorum alone stood in its path.
Soen stepped forward, spinning his Matei staff deftly in front of him, then gripping it in both hands. The headpiece suddenly flared with brilliant light, an incandescent blade forming outward from the top of the staff into the shape of a razor-edged scythe. At the bottom of the staff, a globe of crackling blue light was forming at the same time.
Soen kept his eyes on the mad chimerian, widened his stance and waited.
The chimerian plunged directly toward the Inquisitor, its mind fixed on reaching the exit portal beyond, its blades whirling so as to obliterate anyone or anything that stood between it and its next passage.
The young Assesia Wreth took a step forward, brandishing his own Matei. . but Qinsei held up a cautioning hand to restrain him.
“Run from the dreams!” it babbled as it charged. “They’re coming! They’re right behind! Run!”
The chimerian lunged at Soen.
The Inquisitor rolled backward, his Matei spinning in his hands. Soen planted the headpiece in the ground next to him just as the glowing ball at the bottom of the staff discharged.
The chimerian soared straight up into the air, its body bent double by the force of the Aether discharged into its abdomen. The mad creature screamed horribly, and its arms-still gripping the blades in its hands-twisted angrily in the air. Soen held firm to the staff, his arms shaking with the effort. The glowing blade at the head of the staff was now against the ground, Soen using its force for leverage against the chimerian as the creature continued to writhe, now suspended over the staff in the air.
Soen looked up, his black elven eyes fixed on the chimerian. “I am Iblisi; I am the Emperor’s Will. . you are commanded to obey!”
The chimerian fixed his hateful gaze on the Inquisitor and then, screaming, slashed at the air with all four of the blades in his hands. “Death to the Emperor! Death to his dreams!”
Soen’s eyes widened.
The chimerian’s back arched impossibly backward, and then its entire body suddenly contracted and thickened. The tall lithe form was replaced by a stocky short one. “I’m awake now!” the creature said with a dangerous edge in its voice. “I won’t sleep ever again. . not for you or any of your bastard brothers!”
Soen nodded, then yelled, “Death to the Emperor! ”
Assesia Wreth gasped.
A shocked silence filled the space around them. Jukung stepped forward, an angry frown on his face but Phang placed a restraining hand against the young elf’s chest.
“Death to his dreams!” Soen shouted. His eyes were fixed on the chimerian above him.
The mad warrior suddenly relaxed.
“What is your name, friend,” Soen asked quietly.
“My. . name?” came the whimpering reply.
“I’ve come to end your dreams, friend,” Soen said in even tones. “But I must know your name.”
The chimerian blinked at him, unsure.
“What was your name in the dream?”
The chimerian curled his lips back in loathing. “Chentas-that is what they called me.”
“And your House, Chentas,” Soen’s voice was calm, his eyes fixed on the chimerian. “What was your House in the dream?”
Chentas began giggling, blood running down from the corner of his mouth. “I won’t tell you! You’re going to put me back to sleep-send me back to those dreams!”
“No, Chentas, I can’t do that,” Soen replied. “I’ve come to end your dreams.” The Inquisitor was beginning to sweat with the effort of keeping the chimerian suspended above him in the air. “I promise you. . tell me your House in the dreams, and I will end them for you forever.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
Chentas shuddered.
“TELL ME!” Soen yelled at the chimerian hovering ten feet above him in the air.
“I dreamed of a slave named Chentas, of the House. . of the House of Acheran,” the chimerian sneered. “Now keep your bargain, Iblisi!”
Soen frowned and then nodded. The magic holding the chimerian collapsus at the Inquisitor’s command. Chentas fell, but before he reached the ground, Soen whirled with the Matei, the scythe blade flashing through the air. In a single deft stroke, the wheeling Soen drove the long, mystical blade across the neck of the chimerian.
Chentas’ head rolled a few feet across the ground, coming to rest at the feet of Assesia Wreth.
Four swords rang against the ground, falling from the limp hands of Chentas’ body just as Soen finished his turn, planted his feet in a wide stance, and swung the blade down from above his head, driving it through the back of the chimerian and out the front of its chest.
Only then did Soen hear the thunderous shouts of the Impress Warriors around him. The Tribunes were quickly sorting them back into their units and regaining order, as Soen knew they would. He whispered to his Matei, and the glowing blade vanished, leaving only the blood to emerge from the wound.
“Master Inquisitor,” Qinsei spoke as she approached him. “What does it mean?”
Soen knelt next to the body, considering it for a time, and then stood up, shifting his gaze to the fold portal at the other end of the marshaling field. We have not even crossed the Ibanian borders, he thought. It is worse than the Keeper believes. . worse than even I could imagine.
Soen turned back to his First. “It means that the trouble has found us. We will not be camping here or, I suspect, anywhere else tonight. Phang, have Assesia Yarou make a sketch of the Devotional tattoo on the chimerian’s head-he’s got a talent for that sort of thing-then prepare the Quorum for battle.”
“Battle, Master?” Phang asked in surprise.
“Yes, battle, Phang,” Soen said, placing his long hands on his hips as he thought. “We’re going to follow the trail back to its source, and if this Chentas is an example of what we have ahead of us, our best course will be following a trail of murderous, insane slaves attacking everyone in sight to their source.”
Qinsei’s eyes narrowed. “Back to this. . this House Acheran?”
“Yes, if there is such a House,” Soen said. “Have you ever heard of it?”
“No, Master.”
“Phang?”
“No, Master.”
“Neither have I,” Soen said, fingering his Matei staff as he thought.
“It must be a minor House nearby,” Phang said. “Some Fifth Estate fool who lost control of a handful of slaves.”
“No, Qinsei,” Soen said, looking down at the body of the dead chimerian. “The Keeper tells me this trouble started in Icara-and that more than a dozen Houses are involved.”
“Icara!” Qinsei’s voice rose in tone. “That’s at the edge of the Western Provinces. . it would take us another day just to get there.”