Chainers Torment

CHAPTER 2

"Azza, old girl," Skellum said, and the massive dog beside him pricked up her ears. "Check on young Chainer, will you?" Despite his pain, Chainer was thrilled. Only the Cabal elite had access to the hellhounds, and Chainer had never seen one so close. Major Teroh regarded the new arrivals suspiciously. Chainer watched his eyes dart from Skellum to the dog to the doorway of Roup's tavern. Chainer knew all of the Order's toy soldiers prided themselves on their ability to control every situation they encountered. Teroh was clearly weighing the odds as Azza came closer.

"Stop right there," Teroh said. Azza paused, then growled at Teroh so deeply that Chainer felt it in his spine twenty feet away. "This boy-" Teroh began.

"Chainer," Skellum corrected him gently. "He is called Chainer." "This boy," Teroh repeated, "is transporting contraband. When we tried to examine it, he lashed out at Trooper Baankis and ran. When we caught up to him, he killed one of my best crusat birds. He is coming with us."

"Oh dear," Skellum said. "That is a problem. Are you sure we can't come to some sort of arrangement?" He smiled.

"We don't make deals with the likes of you," Teroh said.

"Everyone does business with the Cabal," Skellum said cheerfully. "This is our city, after all. It's merely a question of what you want and what you're willing to give."

Teroh's voice rose. "If that dog takes one more step toward that boy, I'll give it the flat of my blade. Call off your dog, and leave us to our duty."

"Well now, that raises another problem. I can't 'call her off.' Azza here has been in the Cabal longer than I have, so technically she outranks me." As Skellum prattled on, Chainer stood and gathered up his tangled chain as inconspicuously as he could. Where Roup talked too much because he was lonely and pathetic, Skellum talked too much to defuse the situation and give Chainer time to recover.

"I could suggest to her that she back off, but if she doesn't want to… Hang on. Chainer? Are you bleeding?"

"Yes, Mentor." Then he hissed to Azza, who was closest to him, "There's a big bug in that alley. And something else, I-"

"She knows," Skellum called. "Officer… Sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I am Major Teroh, and this conversation is over."

Skellum stroked his well-trimmed beard. "Major, officer, officer, major. What's the difference?" He looked at Chainer. "A major is an officer, isn't it?"

"This major is an ass," spat Chainer.

Teroh stiffened, and Skellum sighed.

"Anyway. Major Teroh. Was it you who damaged my pupil?"

Teroh sneered. "I had him damaged, yes. Because he resisted, just like you're resisting now. And if you don't want to be damaged, I suggest…" Teroh's voice trailed off.

As soon as the word "yes" passed Teroh's lips, Skellum changed. His calm demeanor grew darker, and his voice hardened. The happy gleam in his eyes became a cold, penetrating glare. Little knots of muscle formed in his cheeks, and he spoke through clenched teeth.

"The Cabal is here, Major, and everywhere. Chainer is Cabal, and more, he is under my protection. Whatever Chainer has done to you, you in turn owe us for his injury. Now we have to come to an arrangement. No one walks away from a Cabal debt. No one."

"True gods," Teroh snapped in exasperation. "Do any of you bog-wallowers live in this world? We are the Order. We are the law. And we have you outnumbered. Reseda!"

Chainer was ready for the blur this time. As the mantis sprang out of the alley toward Skellum, Chainer tried simultaneously to shout a warning and draw back his chain. He needn't have bothered.

Fast as Reseda was, Azza was even faster, and her center of gravity was far lower. Reseda's thorax crashed into Azza's driving shoulder, and even Chainer winced as he heard the insect's exoskeleton crack. Six hundred pounds of magically bred and enhanced canine reared up and slammed her powerful head into Reseda's shoulder and throat. The crippled mantis spun painfully onto the paving stones, and the hellhound clamped onto him, gripping Reseda's shoulder joint and half of his face with her massive jaws. Azza bit down to immobilize the mantis, but she did not injure Reseda further. She let out a single, explosive bark, and Reseda screamed in his eerie, alien tongue. Teroh and Baankis were wide-eyed and speechless.

"Now, Major," Skellum said coldly, "about that arrangement."

Teroh recovered first. He pointed his still-glowing sword and said, "Turn my ally loose, Skellum. Your dog is impressive, but you've just overplayed your hand."

"Have I?" He walked over to Azza and Reseda, who was hissing and chittering out a steady stream of mantis talk. Chainer didn't understand a word of it, but he guessed it was either a prayer or a curse.

"It seems to me," Skellum continued, "that we have the advantage. Granted, I'm not a military man like yourself, but still…" Casually, he reached up and gave the brim of his hat a push. The yoke-and- hook rig he wore was designed to let the hat spin freely, and it did, revealing Skellum's face in brief flashes as the gaps went round and round.

A secret, electric thrill ran through Chainer as he watched Teroh's face. The major had no idea what Master Skellum was doing-or how dangerous it was.

"You're through, Major," Chainer called out. "And you don't even know it."

Azza growled at Chainer, and the next flashes of Skellum's face showed an angry glare directed at his pupil. He gave his hat another spin and refocused on the matter at hand. Baankis looked at Chainer in confusion. Teroh ignored them all. Instead, he concentrated on the words pouring out of Reseda and nodded to himself. Reseda had been repeating the same syllable over and over, his clicking voice growing louder and more shrill with each repetition. "What's he saying?" Skellum asked. Teroh actually smiled, cruelly. "He's saying 'kill.'" "Oh, it's not that bad." Skellum's voice was becoming distant, almost sleepy, and the strobe flashes of his face revealed eyes rolled back and jaw hanging slack. "A few herbs, some bed rest, maybe some time in the hot springs… "

"He's issuing a command, not a request. I am a military man, Mr. Skellum, and we military men know enough to keep some forces in reserve." From deep within the alley Reseda had occupied came a rumbling, trumpeting roar. Trooper Baankis side-stepped away from the entrance, and Major Teroh waited confidently for his reserve forces to appear. Skellum gave his hat another spin.

Something huge was dragging itself down the alley. Chainer stole a glance at Skellum, who was starting to weave and list from side to side as his hat continued to whirl. Chainer nervously wound his chain around one hand, then the other. He hadn't had a real look at the mantis's associate, but he knew neither his weapons nor his skills would be enough to stop it. He was relying on Master Skellum to meet this new challenge.

The monster lurched heavily out of the alley and cracked the stones beneath it. Its skin was hairy and warty green, and it had natural armored plates across its chest and shoulders. It dragged itself forward on tree-trunk-thick arms that were taller than a person. Its huge, round head sat directly on its boulder-sized torso, which tapered off at the waist down to two spindly legs that dragged uselessly behind it. Chainer thought it looked like a cross between a tadpole in mid-metamorphosis and a whale.

"Oooh," Skellum said dreamily. "A grendelkin. I haven't seen one of those since I was a boy. Pity about its hind legs, though. Was it born stunted, or did someone cripple it?"

The grendelkin opened its mouth and roared, displaying triple rows of gnarled molars.

"Take a good look," Teroh said grimly. "You'll never see another." He waved a hand to catch the grendelkin's attention, and then pointed at Azza, Reseda, and Skellum. Reseda was still screeching, "kill, kill," over and over. Azza shook him once, roughly, and the forest dweller finally passed out.

The sudden silence seemed to drive the grendelkin over the edge. It roared again and stomped angrily toward Azza. Teroh said something to Baankis that Chainer couldn't hear, and the two soldiers moved toward Chainer once more. Chainer started his chain whirling. He hoped to slam the weighted end into one of Teroh's softer parts and then cut Baankis's hamstring with his dagger before Teroh recovered.

Even as he prepared to fight for his life, Chainer kept an eye on

Skellum. He was the only one in the street to see his mentor reach up with both hands and decisively stop the brim of his hat with a gap directly in front of his face.

Master Skellum's entire head was gone. In its place was a whirling vortex of black smoke and purple light. There was a muffled boom from deep inside the hat, and a solid nugget of smoke leaped out through the gap, trailing charnel gas and soot. The nugget expanded at soon as it was clear of Skellum's hat, exploding into a full-fledged creature straight out of a madman's nightmare.

It was still smoking and burned from its journey. It was exactly as big as the grendelkin. In fact, it looked a great deal like the grendelkin, except its lower half narrowed into a muscular serpent's tail complete with rattle. Its eyes bulged out of its skull and looked independently in all directions. It had no armor plating, but it did have a long, barbed tongue that flashed out between its jagged teeth.

"Did I mention I had seen one as a boy?" Skellum asked. His voice sounded exactly as it had when Skellum first arrived, except it seemed to be coming from inside Chainer's head. Skellum's silky tone was as calm and measured as a man lighting his pipe. "I may have gotten a few details wrong, and I've always been partial to rattler tails…"

Skellum's nightmare grendelkin caught sight of its shrivel-waisted counterpart and screeched like a stooping eagle. The forest brute roared in reply. Both monsters simultaneously launched forward, coming together with a titanic crunch that partially flattened their torsos against one another. They tore at each other with their claws.

"Azza?" Skellum said, and the big dog grunted in agreement. She tossed Reseda's unconscious body at the soldiers. Baankis yelped and stepped backward while Teroh dropped his guard and threw himself in front of the flying mantis, trying to minimize Reseda's impact on the hard stone.

Chainer seized the opportunity and sent the weighted end of his chain screaming across Baankis's forehead. The deep slash began to bleed before Chainer could reel his weapon back in, and the hapless foot soldier fell to his knees, momentarily blinded.

Skellum's vortex-head boomed again, and two more smoking comets leaped out. One transformed into a scaly humanoid horror with long, dragging arms that ended in harpoonlike spikes. The other, smaller one seemed to be composed entirely of wings and legs. The harpoon-handed thing began to stalk the tangled heap that was Teroh and Reseda, and the flying thing howled like a wolf and took off into the air. It shot down the street and, still howling, disappeared around the comer.

Azza padded up to Chainer.

"Get on," Skellum called. "My other new friend has gone ahead to clear your path. I'll be along directly."

Chainer took one last look at the melee. The two grendelkin were locked in a brutal stalemate while sword and harpoon clashed, and Baankis groped along the ground for his weapon.

Azza urged him out of his reverie with a scolding bark. Chainer slung himself onto her back and took firm hold of the extra skin around her neck and shoulders.

"To the manor, please," he said, and Azza bounded off, fast as a small horse and ten times more dangerous. Chainer threw one last look over his shoulder as Azza followed the winged thing's path down the street. Major Teroh had managed to hack off one of the harpooner's arms at the elbow, but it was still pressing its attack. The officer had planted his feet, refusing to abandon the unconscious mantis. Chainer was mildly impressed, but such bravery could well cost Teroh his life. Baankis was trying to clear his eyes with water from his canteen. Skellum's grendelkin had its tail wrapped tightly around the space where its double's throat would have been if it had a neck. They rolled over and over, crunching paving stones and flattening storefronts in their wake.

The last thing he saw before Azza turned the corner was Skellum whipping his cape around himself with a flourish, his face smiling and normal, as he backed calmly into the shadows he'd come from.

Rescued by his mentor, safe on Azza's back, and en route to the First with his package intact, Chainer allowed himself a single, short burst of joyous laughter. Then he hunkered down to make sure he stayed on long enough to enjoy the ride.