Chapter III

Ohmac squinted at the setting sun, screening his eyes with the palm of his hand to avoid its glare. It was nearing dusk, the seventh time it had done so since the start of their journey. The day had been hot and sticky just like it had been yesterday and the day before, the hot summer afternoons they’ve been subjected to were only getting hotter and muggier. The pace the caravan set wasn’t helping matters either, they were travelling with it for protection, but at the speed they were travelling at even turtle could beat them to their destination; the free merchant city of Aracnon.

The mercenary guards his father had hired to protect him where in their iconic diamond formation, with Ralf still in front of him and Georgie still behind, Kolo and Sven were riding their respective mounts on either side of him, the day wouldn’t have been so bad if they both hadn’t refused to talk to him, complaining that they were tired of his incessant interrogations over the past few days.

“Sven, look for a place to camp for the night, Georgie it’s your turn to build the fire and cook dinner, Kolo, secure the perimeter, you’re also on guard duty tonight, second shift goes to me and the third to Sven, hurry up, night will be upon us soon.” Ralf barked at them from the front of the procession slowing down in response to the oncoming night; the caravan must have had the same idea as well as they also slowed down and veered off the dirt track to set up camp.

Ohmac had learned to love this moment of the day as it signalled the end of the harsh sun, the promise of food, and the sweet embrace of rest. The setting up of camp was usually done by the mercenaries, none of them had ever asked him to help and even if they had Ohmac highly doubted he was up to the task, it was all fine and dandy to ride a horse a couple of hours a week, but it was another matter entirely when you rode one for an entire day, his backside was so sore the first few days that he had trouble sleeping at all which only made the fatigue only that more nuanced. He got off Norman, slowly, careful not to aggravate the pain in his backside more than it already was.

Ralf strolled up to him smirking, clearly amused by Ohmac’s predicament. He silently asked for Ohmac to hand the bridle over to him; it was his turn to water and feed the horses again. Ohmac handed over the lead silently, not reprimanding Ralf again like he had done the first time, he had learned to trust Ralf’s skill with the horses as adequate over the few days he’d been with the man, even now he could see him, expertly controlling five tired horses as if it was nothing.

He looked over the campsite wearily, like always Ralf had picked a small grove of trees to sleep at for the night, there were no large forests in the Dermish plains, but thickets like these dotted the landscape. When the sun finally started sinking over the horizon, it cast a bloody light over the trees, creating the illusion of menacing figures in the shadows, he almost thought a few of them were moving, no it was just his eyes playing tricks. He made his way to the pile of rucksacks Ralf had left on the ground picking out his one and dragging it to a suitable looking spot under a relatively large oak tree; this place seemed as good as any place to sleep for the night.

He looked over his shoulder, turning around to ask Georgie where he was going to build the fire. He didn’t want to sleep directly in the path of the smoke, that would make for a poor ending of the day. What he witnessed however stopped him in tracks. He caught sight of a spear of light speeding towards Georgie, before he could warn it had already impeded itself in his eye, he squinted at Georgie trying to see what had hit him, closer inspection of the projectile revealed it to be a bolt, a crossbowman was firing at them? Sven ran towards Georgie body, more bolts rained down on the camp, the second volley turning Sven into a pincushion. He fell down on the ground lifeless, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“Kid, get behind cover!” Kolo shouted to him, he and Ralf had gone into cover as soon as they had noticed they were under attack. Ohmac quickly followed their example, diving behind the tree he was next to.

Kolo resumed shouting, this time at Ralf. “Ralf, get the kid out of here, I’ll buy you a few seconds, get to the horses and hightail it out of here!”

Ralf ran out of cover sprinting towards Ohmac, using the trees as cover, the bolts stopped raining down in them, they were reloading for the third volley. He slid to a stop, quickly making sure he was secure before looking at Ohmac, “you heard the man, he’s going to buy a few seconds, he’s going to attack while they’re reloading, follow me and don’t ask any questions, were going to sprint to the horses, they’re unsaddled, so well just have to ride them bareback, there are two men guarding the horses, they know that one of our escape routes but they haven’t really coordinated this attack well. I’ll take care of them, don’t do any thing stupid, we leave on my mark, you got it.” Ohmac nodded his understanding, these men were highly armed and dangerous, but if they played their cards right then they should get out of here alive, it was a bit sad about Georgie and Sven, but he couldn’t do anything about that now, but how was Kolo getting out of here? He was going to charge an unknown number of assailants of ambiguous skill; it was highly unlikely…

Kolo burst from his cover, not giving him time to finish that line of thought and shouting a war cry, his naginata held up high, bolts started to rain down on him as soon as he showed himself, but in a rare display of incredible skill and accuracy, he batted them away with his naginata.

Ohmac didn’t get to see any more of the fight, however, as soon as Kolo started the charge, Ralf had tugged at his shoulder “Mark” Ohmac got up stumbling to his feet, Ralf let go of his shoulder and sprinted towards the horses Ohmac right behind him.

Ralf picked up speed as they neared the duo guarding the horses, slamming into them and dispatching each of them with his dagger faster than they could raise their unsheathed swords. Ralf tugged at his bandoleer bringing out one of his powder flasks and pouring some of the powder onto his palm, he handed the flask to Ohmac the message was clear, activate his powers, Ohmac took Ralf’s lead, pouring out some powder into his palm, they looked at each other before throwing it into their mouths. Ohmac gagged at the horrible metallic taste of the powder, as his saliva mixed with the powder to create a sludge-like, the tangy metallic taste just got worse, he closed his eyes and swallowed the horrible cocktail.

As the powder made down its way down his throat his blood started to boil, he knew from experience that his face would be as red as a tomato and his eyes would be similarly bloodshot right about now, the haze was what happened to any keeper who has activated his powers, the priests of the cardinal churches preached that the human body couldn’t handle the power of the gods, so it overheats, to date no keeper has died from overheating, they simply blackout and their powers deactivate. More than anything the haze made it easy to identify those that were using their abilities in areas were the activation of one’s powers were explicitly forbidden, like the royal court, or any respectable establishment really.

Ohmac looked up at Ralf who was also in the haze, his muscles hadn’t grown, but that was to be expected, Ralf had told him that he was a relatively weak keeper. They finished getting they’re feet under them, the haze was intense in the first minute of activation, but it always dispersed into the background, like an annoying buzz in your ear that you aren’t fully conscious of.

“Come on let’s go; we don’t know what they might have up they’re sleeve” Ralf hissed at him beckoning forwards. Ohmac didn’t reply, just mounting Norman alongside Ralf, riding bareback was a pain, literally, but he would doing anything to escape the hell they’re camp had become at his point.

Ohmac had really thought that they made it out, the eery howl that followed them seconds later though dampened that hope. It came from behind them, followed by the thundering sound of paws hitting the floor, it reminded him of the sound Mr Derwent’s hounds made when they were chasing prey in the hunting, they went on regularly. He looked behind him to see what was chasing them. The creature was a hulking, dog-like animal, its front legs disproportionally longer than its whole body. Was that a barghest, what the hell were they doing with a barghest of all things.

“There’s a barghest chasing us!” he shouted at Ralf who hadn’t looked back, which was probably a good idea “and it’s closing in!”

“What?” Ralf responded still not looking back.

“Look it’s catching up to us, we can’t keep running, we have to fight it here” Ohmac shouted back at Ralf, slowing down. Barghests were tough monsters on the same league as wendigos or higher ghouls, except they were exterminated from the kingdom for their penchant of attacking defenceless citizens, they were semi sapient allowing them to pick up skill such as trap detection and limited problem-solving skills, all in all, they were smarter than pigs or ravens which made them a pain in the arse to kill, dozens of cocky soldiers have gotten killed by the witty beasts, but as long as Ralf and him worked together, they sho..

“argh urgh.”

He looked up in front of him to see a second jinn on top of Ralf’s horse biting his throat out. Norman reared back in fear, throwing Ohmac of into the ground, a similar thing had happened to Ralf who was on the floor, dead, both their horses had fled. There was a Barghest in front of him, getting up from Ralf’s bloody corpse looking like something from a child’s worst nightmares, and another one behind him, this was a total nightmare! He was boxed in from all sides, and his one method of escape had escaped without him.

A man in a dark cloak walked towards him, stopping next to the Barghest that had been chasing them, the bastard seemed amused at Ohmac’s situation.

“Ohmac Gera of Gobkav, what brings here of all places may I ask?”

“What do you want?” Ohmac didn’t like this at all, all the mercenaries were dead, and their enemies had barghests on their side. Some series power was backing up these guys, and Ohmac had no idea who what it could possibly be, who had the power to not only smuggle in barghest, that were not native to kingdom into the kingdom, but also train them. The beasts were expensive to keep, and the only other force in the kingdom who used them were the Redjackets, the elite guard that only answered to the king.

“Not one for games I see” the man actually seemed disappointed, “surrender and things don’t have to become difficult, we know that you have taken some ichor, if you don’t come quietly we can afford to rough you up a bit, your powers can heal most wounds can they not?”

Ohmac stared at the man, he was right, his powers weren’t potent enough to restore limbs or anything like that, or he didn’t thing they did, he never checked, never having lost a limb, the numbers weren’t on his side, however, disciples of Bast rarely had powers potent enough to restore limbs, despite this, he could heal broken bones that would’ve taken weeks if not months to heal in the matter of hours it would take for the powder to fade. If he was going to be taken in anyways shouldn’t he fight? Cost these bastards resources as precious as barghests in spite? They obviously wanted to keep him alive, otherwise why go to all this trouble? If he was going do this, he needed a plan.

“Why are you kidnapping me? Surely you know that my father won’t pay any ransom you have to offer him.”

The man cocked his head to the side, his face, cast in the shadows of his hood, made the simple gesture even more ominous, “you don’t need to know the machinations of our brotherhood, are you going to come quietly or are you choosing the painful option? Whatever your choice, the result is going to be the same.”

“Yes, I’m going come in quietly” Ohmac lifted his hands to show that he was unarmed, slowly walking to the man, two paces away from man, his foot leapt out, finding home in man’s stomach, his left hand went to the man’s side, taking the sword strapped there, it was too heavy for Ohmac to wield it properly, but for his purposes, it worked just fine.

He needed to get rid of the barghest next to the man, it wasn’t expecting Ohmac to resist as he did, so it was frozen in place, indecision clearly written on its vaguely human face, that was all he needed, he swung the sword in a close arc, forcing as much torc into the swing as he could, the sword hit the barghest in the nape of its neck, it got lodged there, he hadn’t beheaded it as he hoped, but that was alright, it was dead anyway.

A lunge to the left saved him from the other barghest, he had counted on its run towards him at the start of the fight and had planned to stick the sword in its gut as it pounced on top of him. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had time to get the sword out of the other barghests corpse yet, and barghest no.2 was bearing down on him, barghest was small, around the size of a wolf but they were nonetheless incredibly strong, wrestling them was akin to suicide, the only way he would beat this creature was to get back that sword, but it was smart enough to know that, which was why it was guarding it, it would attack him as soon as he left the range of the sword confident that he couldn’t reach it, but if he stayed, reinforcements would arrive,

The barghest was strong, yes, but it was also small and light, probably around two stones lighter than he was, he could probably… He rushed the beast running at it full tilt, the moment of impact was heavy, Ohmac wrapped his arms around its neck not caring for the burning lines its claws left on his shoulders, he pivoted to the right throwing the beast as far as he could, which wasn’t that far.

As soon as it left its arms leaving even more gashes on his chest and forearms, he turned to run at the corpse of its comrade, wrenched hard on the sword to free it, the sword took much more force to free it than had thought it would need, the barghest using that valuable time to right itself and come after Ohmac again, he leapt to his feet, and charged the beast a second time, swinging the sword with semi practised skill, it dogged to the right at the last second using the momentum of its dodge to spring forward and attack Ohmac’s side, he pivoted to the left letting the beast slide along his flank.

Ohmac took up guard again and prepared to swing a second time, something hit the back of his head with tremendous force, he stumbled trying to get a look at the culprit, his vision heavy distorted and going dark, he caught a glimpse of the hooded man he saw before total darkness overtook him was the grinning face of the man. Evidently, he had recovered and managed to sneak up on him, how had he forgotten about him, was he really so engrossed in his brief battle with the barghest? Where were these people taking him and who were they, these thoughts raced along with other meaningless fantasies and hallucinations. Ohmac’s regenerative were powers working full tilt to repair the damage done, but its efforts were in vain, he felt another dull thunk, the man was hitting him again, at this rate, he was really going to blackout….