The Duelist 4 Read online

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  Chapter 1

  The dark musty space was cramped, and it smelled of mildew and rancid dead things that had mistakenly ended up inside the narrow space between Monger Manor’s walls. The hidden crawlspace was actually more of a labyrinth of interconnecting corridors, and they all led to some central location.

  Whatever was at the center of this maze was only known by the estate’s former owner, Gella Vane: the Duelist and former Magistrate I’d killed nearly a week ago, Aventoll Standard Time.

  “Hey, Horus?” My voice ricocheted off the high narrow walls of the corridor, and I craned my neck back to try to see the ceiling, but the light from my Duelist Stone wasn’t strong enough to reach the top.

  “What’s on your mind, chief?” the falcon-man with the black-feathered crest asked as his shoulder bumped into mine.

  “Remind me again what you guys call a ‘week’ here in Aventoll,” I requested.

  Since I’d really embraced this world When in Rome style, I’d had a plethora of helpful people attempting to teach me the ways of Their People, and none more “helpful” than Horus.

  “Ah, yes,” Horus started like some Aventoll culture aficionado. “Ahem, yes, what you call a ‘whack’ back wherever it is you come from-- Hearth? Farth? Fart?”

  “Earth, you goon,” I scoffed. “You know, just like the dirt you walk on? I’m not sure exactly how this translation magic works, but I know I’ve heard ‘earth’ in your Comicon.”

  “Lexicon,” he corrected.

  “Whatever,” I said. “And it’s week, by the way, not whack.”

  “What you call a week, is called a fickle, and one fickle is approximately eight days,” Horus recited like a textbook.

  “Approximately?” I snorted as we both slowed when the corridor ended in a previously caved in section. “How can you have ‘approximately’ eight days?”

  “I wasn’t very good with astrological mathematics or almanac reading even at the Academy,” he said as he scowled at the wall of rubble and then back at the parchment in his hand. “Something to do with how the Goddess is feeling that particular fickle.”

  “Right, clear as mud,” I said. “So, what’s the map say now?”

  The falcon-man held up his glowing stone lantern in order to see the hand-drawn map a little clearer.

  “Hm,” he hummed as he examined the mysterious space inked into the map and denoted with a large question mark. “I actually don’t know what’s beyond here because Jenner said the original archive Tovish recorded must have been degraded or ruined. Whatever the case, this part of the map was a mystery, even to the Old Archivist-- may Bhraya Guide him.”

  We both had a moment of silence for the koala-elder who recently sacrificed his life so we all could have a chance to escape The Aerie. He also managed to gift us the archives of Gella Vane, which he thought might have been useful before the paranoid Magistrate began torching them all.

  “May Bhraya Guide him,” I murmured.

  “I hope you don’t still think any of that was your fault,” Horus half-joked and half-legit asked if I was doing okay.

  “I used to at first,” I admitted as I examined the cave-in for any sort of gap toward the top we could tunnel through, but it was still too dim. “But then I thought that was selfish because what he did wasn’t even about me. He sacrificed himself for the bigger picture, and it reminded me I need to see that picture, too.”

  “Spoken like a true leader.” The falcon-man gave me one of his genuine roguish-grins that crinkled the corners of his gold-green eyes. “You speak like One-- one of my good friends. He is the leader of his… people.”

  “Wow, Mr. McVague, did that hurt coming out?” I teased but clapped him on the shoulder. “One day, I hope you tell me about these mysterious people you were with when you were a fugitive. I’d like to at least thank them.”

  “Aw, stop,” Horus gushed obnoxiously like Scarlet O’Hara as he fanned himself with the map. “I knew you cared about me, chief. What’s a lass to do?”

  “Nah, I just need a guy who can read this gibberish and knows about swords.” I shrugged as I pointed to an eroded Rune etched into the wall next to us. “You’re like a Swiss Alchemy Knife.”

  “A what?” the falcon-man snorted as he crouched slightly to get a good look at the Rune.

  “Nothing,” I said and got closer as well. “You’re useful, is what I’m saying.”

  “I’d be more useful if I had some more light to read this blasted thing,” he grumbled, but then he grinned as he took my meaning for what it was.

  “I’m as close as I can get,” I said and held my Stone out as far as it would go until the wooden carving of the canterfly pendant spun around the taut leather cord. Then, with a small chinking sound, the tiny creature actually broke free and flew off into the darkness. “Damn.”

  I looked around at the ground as I strained my eyes.

  “You can make the light in your Stone brighter, you know,” Horus said after watching me tip-toe and squint around for the hand-crafted gift Rylan carved for me. I was too afraid to move too much just in case I crushed the delicate thing.

  “Really,” I deadpanned. “How, then, smart-ass?”

  “No idea,” he said with his typical shit-eating grin. “I just know that’s, like… A Thing. Especially now that you are a Fifth-Rank Duelist.”

  “Thaaaanks.” I rolled my eyes before I closed them, and then I focused on the still well of dormant power inside me that I was learning to recognize more and more through meditation these days. Even though I wasn’t trying to summon my time-trance powers, I figured that’s where all of Aventoll’s mysterious powers lived inside me, and from there it was just a matter of Willing the light in my Stone brighter.

  “Woah, turn it down a bit, maybe?” the falcon-man chuckled as he shielded his eyes.

  “Sorry,” I apologized and grinned when I instantly found the pendant sitting on a little cushion of moss. I picked it up, wiped a bit of slime off the little guy’s intricate wing, and tucked him away in my pocket for safekeeping. “Okay, how’s that?”

  “Perfect,” Horus said as he inspected the sigil, and his eyes flashed gold as he “read” the alchemical rune. “That explains the cave-in. It’s a Trap Rune.”

  “So, I’m guessing the actual point of this maze is just on the other side,” I huffed. “How far do we have to double back?”

  “Not far at all,” Horus said as he turned the map this way and that. “Then we can continue on to the next possible corridor that leads to this mystery. Do you think there’s treasure? Or maybe a really cool artifact that can dry all the feathers on my head at once after I bathe.”

  “Hairdryer, hairdryer, my kingdom for a hairdryer,” I snorted as we headed back the way we came.

  “Alright, then, what do you think is there?” Horus challenged.

  “Maybe it’s the other half of that book Gavlain gave me,” I said. “I was bummed The Aerie’s library didn’t turn up with anything.”

  “I share the sentiment,” the falcon-man grumbled. “Mr. Jenner says there are only about five volumes of usable and relevant information in all of the tomes he and Tovish recorded, so far. I hope there’s more, but Jenner hasn’t finished cataloging them yet.”

  “Only five?” I asked. “But didn’t you guys pull at least three-hundred off those shelves?”

  “Yeah,” he sighed as we turned left at the end of the passage and continued south. “But I am glad we at least have that much. Like I’ve been saying, not many people are crazy enough to combine herald cores.”

  “Everyone keeps telling me that, but I still don’t--” A deep rumble suddenly cut off my words. “Did you feel that?”

  “Feel wh--?” Another rumble, and this time particles of dust and dirt shook loose from the mortar and rained down on the two of us from above.

  “Roooooaaarrrr!”

  “The fuck was that?” I whispered after Horus and I whipped around and peered into the darkness where the unsettling roar sounded from.

  “Roooooaaarrrr!”

  “I don’t know, but run!” Horus yelled as the unnerving galloping of some large quadruped sped up, and it snarled ravenously behind us.

  We both took off down the corridor at a dead sprint, and I simultaneously focused on the beam of my Stone light so we could see as far ahead as possible.

  “Ummm, H?” I squinted into the distance with my eagle-eyesight. “We’re coming up on a fork, what do we do?”

  “Working on it,” he grunted as he tried to flatten the map and run at the same time.

  “Rrrrroooooaaaaaarrrr!” The beast behind us sounded even closer than before, and I darted ahead of Horus a few paces.

  “Horus!” I yelled.

  “Left!” the falcon-man hollered, and I careened around the corner just as Horus apparently changed his mind. “Right! I meant--!”

  I slammed on my heels as a red light flashed from the weird symbol carved into the wall on my right.

  Another Trap Rune.

  “Back!” I ordered, and something cracked from above.
“This part of the ceiling is going to collapse!”

  “The creature!” Horus reminded us as we both pushed hard in order to make it past the fork before the proverbial minotaur to this fucked-up maze trapped us.

  “Roooaaarrrr!” The thing rounded the corner a second before we made it. It’s head looked like that of a warthog crossed with a rhinoceros beetle, and it raced along the ground on all fours like some sort of hairy bear-human.

  Oh, and it was also seven feet tall.

  Stooped over.

  “Horus!” I yelled and urged him faster with a shove to his shoulder.

  As if we were in sync, the falcon-man bolted ahead so he could slide under the monster’s bowed legs while I came to a stop and planted my feet.

  When the minotaur-creature glanced back up after confusedly watching Horus slide under him like he was sliding for home plate, I was able to actually roundhouse kick it in its distended jaw.

  It shrieked, stumbled, and then glared right at me with its four rheumy and crusty eyes as it struggled to work its lopsided mandible.

  “Ah, shit,” I mumbled as it snorted and stamped its back feet at me like a furious bull with a hot poker up its ass.

  “Chief, run!” Horus bellowed right as the rest of the buckling ceiling caught up with us.

  Large hunks of stone threatened to crush every one of us, and instead of fighting each other, the minotaur-creature and I ended up just trying to run for our lives as the Rune sealed off the corridor and separated Horus and me from each other.

  The dust cleared as I took the time to catch my breath against the wall, and the minotaur-creature wheezed and slobbered like a geriatric rottweiler that had just ran up a flight of stairs.

  Great gobs of putrid greenish ichor flung from its broken jaw, and with a disgusted grimace, I backed away as soundlessly as possible and slipped around the next corner.

  My heart hammered inside my rib cage, but I turned and raced down the corridor and willed my feet to grow wings like Hermes before--

  “Rawwwwlllrrrggg!” came the garbled roar of the creature just as I skidded down a corridor on my left.

  I tried to make my footfalls as silent as falling snow and prayed to Mercedes I lost the minotaur-creature.

  “Chief?” Horus’ faint voice sounded through the walls up ahead, and I skidded to a halt in order to listen better. “Chief?”

  I held my Stone up and increased the beam to see down the corridor to my left, and then to my right.

  I decided to take a chance and called out, “H?”

  Suddenly, mechanical grinding and clinking started up, and my decision was made for me as all of the corridors began to shrink and collapse either vertically or horizontally and forced me into any available gap or cubby.

  I rolled to my right and army-crawled until I finally spilled out from under the ceiling of one shrinking corridor like Indiana-mother-fucking-Jones.

  “Alex?” Horus called over the din of the mechanical roaring, and I spotted the falcon-man in the center of the large chamber on a pedestal that slowly rose from the middle of the floor. “Hurry, jump on!”

  “Rawwwwlllrrrggg!”

  The minotaur-creature finally found its way into the center and rushed at me like a freight train on fire.

  “Fuck!” I screamed and sprinted for the revolving pedestal just as Horus loosed one of his longbow arrows.

  The deadly projectile harmlessly bounced off the hard dome of the creature’s head and only caused the beast to snort and pick up steam.

  “Jump!” he yelled, and he dropped to his stomach and flung an arm out just as I leaped through the air.

  “Argh!” I roared as I reached hard for Horus’ extended hand right as the creature snarled and jumped after me.

  “I got you!” the falcon-man said and strained to pull me up by the wrist, and my feet scrambled for purchase against the smooth stone.

  “Rawwggg!” A long claw caught the leather strap across my boot and threatened to drag me down.

  “Hold… on…!” Horus strained as he used both hands to grip me around my arm.

  “Get off, you fuck!” I hollered and bashed the minotaur-creature in its unhinged jaw again and felt the sickening crunch as I further pulverized its face.

  It howled, clawed at my leg once more, and finally fell when I kicked my foot free of the boot it was gripping on to. The beast squealed until it hit the bottom with a wet thud and was quiet.

  “Up you go,” Horus grunted as he pulled me over the lip of the pedestal, and we both gasped for breath flat on our backs as the pedestal finally came to a stop inches away from a metal ladder.

  “What did you even do?” I finally had the breath to ask, and I turned my head to look at my trusty Second with his roguish grin.

  “I found the center of the maze, and there was this turny lever-thing, and I-- never mind! I can’t believe you did that!” he exclaimed. “What the frox even was that, Alex?”

  “Some sort of horrible minion experiment gone wrong,” I muttered as I got to my feet and dusted the dirt off my shoulders and out of my somewhat shaggy hair. Then I glanced down at my bootless foot and scowled. “Aw, man. These were my favorite.”

  “No, not the creature, I meant, where in the darkhells did you learn how to kick like that?” he iterated. “And also: can you teach me?”

  “Hah, sure, I’ll teach you,” I said absently as I examined the skinny pillar structure Horus must have been talking about because it was the only thing on the smallish platform of interest.

  When I scrutinized it more, I noticed a dial-like mechanism that looked like it could be turned a quarter of the way to either the upright or horizontal position. But the thing about this structure that definitely stood out was the inverted claw-machine claw thing that looked as if something was meant to balance suspended between its three points.

  But what, I had no clue.

  “What do you suspect that’s for?” Horus voiced what I was thinking as he gestured to the points.

  “No idea,” I said and then craned my head back. “I’m currently more interested in where that ladder goes. Thoughts?”

  “Hm.” The falcon-man rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment and then shrugged. “Even if I hadn’t lost the map in the frenzy, it’s not like it would have given us any clue anyway, so your guess is as good as mine.”

  “Only one way to find out, then,” I said. Then I walked over to the ladder, placed my hands on the rung in front of me, and put my booted heel on the first step. “Ready?”

  “Lead on!” Horus said with another wild grin.

  I couldn’t help but smirk back, and the excited blood-surging energy of this adrenaline-fueled, mad-cap adventure buzzed tangibly between us like a live wire.

  Without further ado, I turned to the task of climbing up the ladder and toward the mysterious hatch on the ceiling. There was a lever that took some elbow grease to get unstuck, and then it felt as if something was covering the lid of the hatch from the other side.

  “Push it open!” Horus said like the Helpy-Helper-Schmuck he was.

  “Yeah, that’s the idea!” I growled as I tried to lift the manhole-like hatch.

  A deep ripping noise sounded as the hatch finally gave way, and when I swung the heavy thing up and off, the loud shrieking of someone in distress rang out.

  “Ahhh! Devils!” squawked a shrill yet familiar voice.

  “Mercedes be,” Horus grumbled with a wince as he followed me out of the hole and into the center of the scullery of Monger Manor’s Upper Wing.

  “Vile Scourge!” Vel-Rala screeched again as her white-feathered crest fluffed up like a cockatoo, and I held up my hand to forestall the violent bird-woman.

  “Vel!” I shouted as I got to my feet.

  “Oh!” she gasped and lowered the broom she was brandishing as a weapon. “M-Mr. Alex. I’m terribly sorry. I thought-- hey, just what exactly are you doing, coming through the floor like that? I almost died of fright.”

  “We didn’t mean to, Ms. Velly,” Horus said as he turned the wattage up on his boyish charm. “You see, we were exploring the walls of this place to make sure you are all safe and sound.”

  “Oh, of course,” the older woman said as her agitated crest slowly lowered back down against her sleek white head. “Forgive me. Can-- can I get you both some tea? Oh, how about wine?”

  “You don’t have to--” I tried to say as Horus and I moved the hatch back over the large tear in the threadbare rug we busted through.