Shroud of Shadows

Defeat

Despite the clanging of the alarm bells and the flickering torches that painted everything we saw in disgusting monochrome, there were no other Royal Knights or guards that we saw. The Castle of Melior was uncomfortably silence, and it unnerved Oscar. "Where are the others?"

I shook my head as we hurried down the ghost like hallways. Each of my attempts to use the crystal to communicate with Renning and others was met with cold silence. "Engaged against the flayed ones. They are too busy to return our messages or are too far away to make any difference. That can be the only option."

It was a lie. My two subordinates looked unconvinced. So was I.

There was another one and Kieran looked knowingly to Oscar as if he nonverbally said it. I knew what the other option was, and I did not to say it.

No further encounters with the flayed ones held us up before we reached the apothecarion. As we stood at the end of the short hallway to the chamber's entrance, I realized why.

There was no entrance. It had been entirely consumed by the veil of darkness.

An ethereal wind sung in the air, drowning out the chiming of the bells. It was as if the shadow became sentient and in response to our presence, belched out nightmares of skinless flesh wrapped in living metal. It twisted and unraveled like mortuary drapes, each time it brought forth another warrior.

Three of the flayed ones stood with proud tower like shields that pulsed with some long forgotten energy. Three armored warriors stomped towards us, coffin-shaped shields locked together in the manner of some ancient empire. Unlike the other flayed ones we had faced, these carried energized khopesh blades and were emblazoned with dynastic symbols. I knew a warrior elite when I saw it. I also knew who they were protecting.

A slender flayed one, not an assassin but one nobility cowered behind this wall of formidable guardians. Stone like lapis lazuli accented his mechanized body in long strips and a gilded beard clasp protruded from his chin. In one metal-fingered hand he carried a staff; the other clutched the tethers of the veil. Here was the architect of darkness. And it was through him we would have to go if we were to reach our stricken Queen. As his guardians marched towards us, the Baron extended a talon in our direction. His voice echoed with the resonance of ages. "Defilers. Infidels. You are an inferior species, lesser in every way to the calligans. Behold what your arrogance has wrought. You will have all eternity to regret it."

I cracked a dry smile as I drew forth my sword. "Those are bold words. I believe they sound like a challenge." Oscar shouldered his lance and flicked out his compact bow and had already notched three arrows with small vessels of corrosive acid at the end.

"Which I gladly accept." He loosed the three arrows against one of the flayed ones, whose true name was the calligans I suppose. The three arrows shattered in a splash of the green liquid enveloped the tower shield wielding warrior. The acid quickly ate away the metal on the shield and exposed the dangerously unarmored soldier. Almost instantaneously, new metal from the shield began to branch out to repair the damage done to the piece of living metal but Oscar had tossed his bow to the ground and threw his wyrmslayer like a javelin. The lance struck the monster behind the shield and it collapsed in the death convulsions.

I raised my Dao to my eyes to salute the last two of the Baron's guardians. Oscar shook his head as he drew forth his falchion and stabbing dirk from his belt. "No Geoffrey." He pointed into the direction of the Baron and not his guards. Kieran also readied his axe and I knew what these two were willing to do. "Kill that thing."

"Aye, save the good queen!" Kieran exclaimed. After a moment's hesitation, I knew the fate my two second in command soldiers had condemned themselves to. Each one of these warrior elites were capable fighters against an entire platoon of Knights, two against two were not favorable odds.