Shadows of the Soul

Chapter 2

Smidge, chartered wizard to the First of the Unbound, knew things had gone from bad to worse when it started raining blood.

“Anything you can do about this?” asked the big man standing beside him, as he gestured toward the sky. Captain Toehold was a wide set figure draped in a black cloak and heavy plate mail, and Smidge couldn’t help but think the blood running down his face in rivulets was…appropriate. Toehold was a hard man, from what he’d seen, but one of the few of the Unbound who seemed more brain than brawn. Which was saying something, as the man was a long way from small.

Smidge answered the man’s question with a shrug. He reached over and flipped the hood of the captain’s cloak over his head. “How’s that?”

Toehold gave a rueful smile. “Not quite what I had in mind, wizard.”

Smidge followed the man’s gaze up to the cathedral wall looming atop the hillside above them. The massive structure was all daggerlike towers and spires—a relic of a time long gone, a time when men were ever reaching toward the heavens in hope and faith. Smidge shook his head. Oh how things had changed.  

“Are we dealing with something so formidable?” the captain continued. “I was told you were good. The amount of coin the Unbound coffers paid out was certainly enough for good.”

Smidge sighed. “You paid for an Initiate of the Word, captain. You have one. I’m not sure ten would be enough.” The wizard ran a slender hand through hair already slick and sticky with blood. “You have any idea of the kind of finger waggling power it takes to make the sky rain blood? Any at all? And this isn’t just a little drizzle of red water, either. We’re talking real, shit-that’s-running-through-your-veins blood. Where’s it all coming from, anyway? Who keeps a skyfull of blood to just toss around?” He shook his head. “Anyway, I don’t have the vaguest idea what we’re dealing with, captain. All I know is that it’s nasty, and old, and makes the meanest spells I can throw at it seem a toddler’s temper tantrum. Be glad it’s focused on making it rain. If it focused on killing us instead, we’d all be messy stains on the ground by now. And not a thing I could do about it. Besides,” he finished, muttering, “I’ve no say in the charter price. I see little enough of the coin as it is.”

“Well. Be that all as it may…try harder, wizard. All I need is an inch.”

Smidge nodded reluctantly. “I’ll try, captain.”

Smidge turned away from the captain and went back to staring at the cathedral. Not surprising the man asked for an inch; that’s why he was called Toehold, after all. Let him find that first toehold, they said, and you’ve as good as given him the wall. Well, maybe Smidge could manage an inch. With luck. He wasn’t quite out of tricks yet, and as nasty as it was, whatever was up there didn’t seem too bright.

The ground jumped as another trebuchet launched its payload, sending headsized lumps of stone crashing into the side of the cathedral. From here it should have been enough to put a hole in a castle wall, but as the cloud of dust and debris fell away the cathedral stood as pretty and whole as ever.

“I can smell it thick in the air here, wizard,” the captain said.  “The sickly sweet stench of divinity. This close it teases like fine perfume on the corpse of a beautiful woman.” He turned and caught Smidge’s eye. “Something holy dwells here, weaving its web of false promises. I mean to see it destroyed.”

Smidge wanted to roll his eyes, but just nodded instead. Men were serious about their religion--or the lack of it, as it happened. The Unbound more than most. He was as wary of godliness as the next man--any but a fool was, now, ever since the gods had gone crazy and started eating their worshipers a few hundred years back.  Or whatever had happened. History wasn’t really his strong point, and even scholars were hazy on the subject. But even with all that, the single minded tenacity of the Unbound was difficult for him to understand. The gods were gone, locked away safe and sound.  Everyone knew that. So why the endless quest to destroy what wasn’t there?