“Loiosh, you wouldn’t believe—”
“I think you should get up.”
I know that tone. I did so. “How long was I—”
“Not long, just a couple of minutes. But just as you vanished, there was that sound.”
“What sound?”
“You know, like, stones rolling?”
Crap.
“Yeah, I must have set off an alarm.”
“Uh-huh. Should we run?”
“To where?”
I glared at me in the mirror I’d just tried to break, and I glared back.
That’s when I heard a scuffling sound behind me, just as Loiosh said, “Boss!”
I turned around, and there was the big, ugly, misshapen thing making its way toward me from down the hall. As far as I could judge, it wasn’t coming to raise my Imperial county to a duchy.
No messing around this time; I drew Lady Teldra.
“Plan, Boss?”
“Can you distract it?”
“Maybe.”
“Let’s go for that.”
It was coming very fast, and it was very big.
Okay, thing. Let’s do this. I dropped into a crouch, watching how it moved, gauging distance. Loiosh and Rocza were on its back, biting it, filling it with venom that none of us expected to have any effect, at least not soon. It didn’t even seem to notice them, and I could tell that Loiosh was offended. As the thing got up to me, Loiosh left its back and flew into its face; I rolled to the side as it continued right up to where I’d been and stumbled into the mirrors, which caused nothing whatever to happen, unfortunately.
But it did leave the thing’s back exposed.
I struck, and it twisted like it could feel it coming and I missed, and at the same time it lashed out at me and I caught a hand to my head and saw spots in front of my eyes and felt a little sick. I backed up as fast as I could, but it was faster; at the last minute I rolled forward, scampered between its legs without a shred of dignity, and came up behind it, but I didn’t even try to take a shot; I just put some distance between us. Loiosh and Rocza landed on its back again and bit it some more, and it still didn’t seem to even be aware of them.
It was really fast, that thing. Inhumanly fast. I scrambled to the side and ducked, avoiding another great thump—I swear the air of its fist passing almost knocked me down. I looked for an opening, but it stopped and turned too quickly for me to do more than gaze wistfully at its exposed back before its teeth were in my face again.
Rocza flew close enough that I felt the psychic equivalent of an indrawn breath from Loiosh, but the thing stopped long enough to swipe at her, and that gave me a moment to pull a shuriken from my cloak and—here’s hoping—whip it at the damn thing’s eye.
Almost. It hit it where its eyebrow would have been if it had one, which caused it to flinch for a second, at which time the shuriken fell to the ground; it didn’t even stick. Really? I backpedaled, pulled another, tried again, whipping it like a throwing knife, overhand, which sacrificed a little accuracy for force.
The shuriken went flying over its shoulder and I turned and sprinted down the hall. Was the armory near by? Was there anything in the armory that would help? I could see the advantage of having a halberd, I just couldn’t see the possibility of finding it and taking it and positioning it before that thing crushed me.
I tossed a knife over my shoulder and heard it clank. Stupid—the thing wasn’t smart enough to slow down. There were more flapping sounds. Then I had a great idea: there’s a pocket that I had tailored in the back of my cloak to keep various odds and ends, and one of them was a small vial of oil that I’d use to keep doors from squeaking, and I realized that I might be able to spill it on the floor and make the thing slip. Two problems: one, pulling something from the back of my cloak without slowing down enough for it to get me, and two, I no longer carried the oil.
But it was a really good idea, wasn’t it?
When I felt its breath on the back of my neck I stopped and dropped to the ground, fully prone, fists clenched against my head, elbows locked at my sides, then I said something like “Ugh” as its foot hit my left arm enough to numb it and make me wonder if I’d broken it. It went sprawling. I didn’t even wait to stand up, I just sort of got to my knees and leapt on top of it, Lady Teldra first.
It was already rising, but Lady Teldra went into its side nearly to the hilt, and then I was flying through the air, and I swear to you by my hope of rebirth, I hit the Verra-be-damned ceiling. Then, presumably, I fell to the floor, though I don’t exactly remember that part.
Some time later—Loiosh says about ten minutes—I sat up and looked around. I knew I’d been in a fight, and I figured I’d probably won, but I couldn’t make it come together. Eventually I spotted the big, ugly thing with Lady Teldra sticking out of it just above where people have a hip, and I wobbled over there and drew her, and cleaned her off on the thing’s body as my brain reconstructed the events.
I stared at it. At him. Poor bastard. Toddler goes wandering off, gets possessed by a demon, or maybe just warped by one, I don’t know, and then spends I don’t know how long locked in a little room and then ends up like this. I felt bad for him.
Then I ended up needing a minute for introspection. I felt bad for him? Since when did I start feeling bad for people I had to kill? Well, yeah, but this wasn’t the usual thing. Other times, what led me to kill them was a result of their own decisions. This thing, this person, had never made any decisions. It had all happened to him, and then I had happened to him. A lousy way for a life to go. And there wasn’t even, really, anyone to blame for it. I hate it when I don’t have anyone to blame. I usually get out of it by blaming Verra.
Verra. Sheesh.
“Boss? What happened when you vanished?”
“Loiosh, when we get out of this, you and I are going to have a long talk about it, and maybe you can make sense of it.”
“Uhhh. I can’t wait?”
I took a last look at the poor creature I’d just killed, then turned away.
Well done, Vlad. You lived. You’ve also almost certainly pissed off a few people as soon as they find the big white naked, ugly dead guy. I wasn’t sure there was anyone left in the place I had any reason to be afraid of, but I couldn’t be completely sure there wasn’t either.
I went back and stood in front of the mirrors. I had dried blood on the side of my face, and it looked like I was developing a black eye.
“Boss, you’re beautiful.”
“Shut up.”
I checked to see if my hands were shaking. Is it strange that I needed to look? Anyway, they weren’t shaking much. I was convinced these mirrors were the answer, or at least a big part of it. That when I’d struck one with Lady Teldra I’d been transported to Verra’s Halls, and that the beast had come after me, seemed like good evidence that I was right.
“Boss? Any ideas?”