Kaira stepped back. A wave of nausea hit her as she witnessed the corruption.
Again the tree shook.
She could hear Rogan in the background ordering the first execution.
The trunk of the tree creaked and groaned as it moved, bark snapped, branches shuddered into life.
With an ear-splitting crack, the ash tree broke in two along its trunk.
The amphitheatre fell silent.
As though rearing its head, half the tree rose up. The branches, which before had reached up towards the sky, were now draped down its back like some ghastly mane.
‘To arms,’ Kaira cried. She recoiled, dragging her sword from its scabbard as screams rose up from the crowd.
With a violent wrench, the tree pulled itself from the ground. Loose soil and stone were dragged up as its roots formed a dozen rudimentary limbs, hauling it from the earth. Its branches writhed — like the tentacles of some colossal squid — and it raised its eyeless head, opening a toothless maw in a silent newborn wail.
The arena broke into uproar as the sight of the creature struck terror in the spectators.
Someone rushed past Kaira, a Sentinel knight, his spear held out to attack. With a growl of fury he pierced what seemed to be a leg of the monster, and Kaira stared in horror as white cruor spewed from the wound. The hellish monster spun round, its mouth wide in a silent cry of pain. With a swipe of one thick branch it smashed the knight across the arena and into the fleeing mass of spectators where he landed with a sickening thud.
Kaira saw the ash tree turn ominously to face the queen. It seemed to lock her in an eyeless stare until, with the grinding of massive limbs, it moved towards her, dragging itself across the arena as those thick roots dug into the earth.
She could hear Lord Marshal Ryder screaming at his Wyvern Guard, who duly rushed in disciplined ranks to stand in the creature’s path. Sentinels ran to join them, raising shield and spear as the crowd fled.
Kaira felt unusually sluggish. Her injuries still troubled her, but she had to act.
The creature dragged its huge bulk ever closer to the queen, batting some unfortunate courtier from its path and sending him smashing into a pile of loose masonry.
Tannick bellowed to his men who rushed forward, chopping at the trunk of the ash tree and hacking at its flailing branches. White gore seeped from the creature, but still it battled on, tearing a path through the bronze-armoured knights that stood against it.
They would never stop it before it reached Janessa.
‘Get the queen to safety!’ Kaira yelled desperately.
Merrick tore his eyes away from the creature, grabbing the queen and pulling her from the dais. There was no way he could reach the exit from the amphitheatre, which was blocked by the monster’s approach, so he guided Janessa into the crumbling tunnels of the arena, followed by several other Sentinels.
Kaira turned back to the foul monster, and saw its onslaught had been checked by the knights, but they looked unable to destroy it. They could never defeat such a creature; surely a thing born of such dark magicks would kill them all. She briefly wondered where in the hells that magistra had got to, but then all thought but battle was gone from her mind.
Gripping her sword tight, Kaira rushed to join the defenders.
FORTY-FOUR
It had dragged itself out of the ground with the sound of a thousand breaking bones. Merrick had watched as it turned its giant creaking head, pulling itself along on rotten twisted limbs. It wasn’t until the killing started, and Kaira screamed at him, that anyone had moved.
And that was when Merrick grabbed Janessa’s arm. Regardless of protocol, it seemed the right thing to do. He all but dragged her down from the wooden podium, slipping on the bottom step, almost sending them both sprawling.
The exit from the amphitheatre was across the arena floor. There were around a dozen knights in the way, their weapons flailing.
Merrick pulled the queen after him towards a gap in the broken wall. Odaka and two more Sentinels were right behind them, and that made him feel a little better. The break in the wall led to a crumbling stone passage. Merrick could see through the rotted mortar of the stone wall to the other side, to freedom, but there was no way through.
‘Keep moving,’ growled Odaka.
Merrick didn’t have any quarrel with that, and he hauled the queen along the corridor. For her part, she made no complaint, following as best she could as the passageway reached a set of stairs. Merrick paused at the bottom.
‘Up,’ Odaka ordered. ‘We will guard the way here.’
As Odaka and the two Sentinels took up positions, Merrick dragged the queen after him. Outside he could hear the sounds of battle; someone was screaming, there was a clash of steel on wood and something roared like a beast.
The staircase led to a rickety platform with passageways that led off to either side. Merrick picked a path, the one he thought might lead away from the carnage and pulled Janessa after him.
You’ve got no idea what you’re doing or where you’re going, have you? Get a fucking grip.
The passage darkened before they came out into another room, one with no exits. Merrick stopped dead. On the ground was the body of an armoured knight, a Sentinel. There was a single puncture wound in his breastplate, right above the heart.
Whoever had killed this Sentinel might still be around and Merrick was none too keen to meet him. He turned, ready to flee back down the stairs, but stopped as someone walked out of the dark passage behind them. For a moment he hoped it was Odaka, come to find him and tell him everything was going to be all right.
Inside, he knew it wouldn’t be.
The man was old, too old to have such a confident gait. His shoulders were wide, his hair and beard greying, but his eyes … those eyes were like two deep pools of winter staring out coldly as if they hated the world and would turn it to ice.
Merrick backed away, Janessa behind him, but there was nowhere else to go. They were trapped.
The old man held a sword at his side, the blade straight, the handle worked in a fashion Merrick had never seen before. He got the impression that, despite his age, this fella knew how to use it.
‘No closer,’ Merrick said, brandishing his own sword. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’
The old man took two steps forward and stopped. ‘You won’t hurt me, boy. I am the Father of Killers. There is nothing you can do that would hurt me. But I have not come for you, I have come for-’
‘Yeah, yeah, I get the picture.’ Merrick dropped into a defensive stance. ‘You’ve come to kill the queen, blah blah. I’m going to stop you, blah blah. Let’s just get on with the fucking fighting, shall we.’
This seemed to amuse the old man, who walked forward, his guard down.
Never squander an opportunity, Ryder.
Merrick leapt to attack, feeling not a little guilty for taking his opponent by surprise. It didn’t matter anyway, as the old man batted the thrust aside, his sword coming up in a counter that Merrick struggled to avoid. He stumbled back as the blade almost took his eye out.
This was looking all too familiar. He’d had his fill of being humiliated by better swordsmen, he couldn’t let this old man join the list.
Merrick struck again, this time totally focused. This time he’d make no mistake. Everything he’d learned from House Tarnath-
The old man parried again, and this time Merrick’s blade almost flew from his grip. He was forced to dance back to stay out of the old man’s range, Janessa moving along behind, staying at Merrick’s back.