As Far As You Know
Teasers
Victory of Doom
Blazing light flashed across the mountain, revealing the jagged shadows of the rocks. An instant later, a deafening roll of thunder shook the ground. Three men crouched in the lee of a pointed boulder that thrust upward from the earth like a giant fang. The shadows sank in close around them, even resisting the glow of the lightning. They were armed, and waited in tense alertness, ignoring the icicles that hung from their clothing, weapons and faces. One of them spoke in a soft voice to his companions. “They’re coming. Wait for them to pass the rock.”
On the slope, three other men trudged upward through the gusts of blowing ice and snow. One of them, the tallest, motioned for his fellows to stop. He pointed up at a pointed boulder above them on the slope, and reached for the axe that hung on his back.
Theodoric led Brother Jon and Edmund up towards the boulder, his axe at the ready. Just before he reached it, a fog made of darkness itself grew from the ground and engulfed him, hiding the form of the armored knight who was suddenly standing before him, with sword at the ready. Theodoric jumped back, and swung his axe. There was a clash, and the harsh sound of grating metal as the sword was knocked to one side. Another figure appeared in front of the swordsman as he struggled to keep his balance. Edmund grappled for the hilt of the sword as the shadows withdrew from around them. Twin columns of orange flame crackled upward from the upraised palms of a stern-looking monk, and the unnatural light drove back the unnatural darkness. "Colwan—I mean, Saturn! It’s us! We have come from Constantinople!"
Saturn lowered his sword uncertainly as he recognized Edmund and Theodoric. From around each side of the boulder came two noblemen. One wore crusader’s armor and silks, the other was donned in a white fur cloak and a strange cap studded with jewels. Heath Egan was the first to speak. “Well met, Edmund. We did not expect you to arrive so soon, in fact we had doubts you would arrive at all. Heath gazed nervously at the monk who seemed unconcerned that his hands were wreathed in flames. Who is that?”
The flames lowered, as did the monk’s arms, which returned to his sides. “I am Jon Areson, the Tremere emissary to Constantinople.”
“Usurper!” The other nobleman’s features suddenly flickered in the newly-returned darkness. He suddenly turned and marched back up the slope, leaving his companions to glance at each other and at the monk in puzzlement.
There was a wrenching sound, and Theodoric grabbed hold of both Saturn and Edmund to pull them aside. The white-cloaked nobleman was now holding the immense boulder over his head, his face the horrific grimace of something not human at all. The monk’s eyes went wide with fear and he looked for a place to leap to safety.
“Stop!” The command froze them all in their places. I would have none of their bickering. I stepped from the shadows of the rocks where I had been waiting and allowed them to see me. “You are all bound by oaths to me, and I will have no quarrels come between us this close to completing our mission. From this moment forward, you are all brothers.”
Irving threw the rock away, and it crashed and rolled down the mountain through the snow. “You said nothing about bringing an Usurper to help us! His kind has slain many of my people. If the Voivodes catch him here, they will do worse than slay us for traveling with him.”
“Concern yourselves not with traveling, but with the task at hand. I brought all of you to the top of this mountain to complete this most serious of missions. Our quarry waits at the top.” I pointed then to the summit behind the clouds, not half a furlong from where we stood.
“How was Rome?” Saturn glared at me, his mouth a cruel sneer under his ice-coated visor. “Are we excommunicated?”
“We will likely be soon, I think.” Edmund broke in. “The crusaders have probably burned Constantinople to the ground by now.”
“What?!” Heath looked from Edmund to me in horror. “Why under heaven would the crusaders burn a pillar of Christendom?”
“Sadly, it is true.” Theodoric grimly nodded his head. “And I fear that there may be no city left for our master to rule, even with the Patriarch slain.”
“The Patriarch…” Saturn trailed off in shock, and then raised his sword. “You had best begin explaining yourself, master. What kind of an agent of Rome would want to see Constantinople burned? Was it you who diverted the crusade to Constantinople? What have you gotten us all involved with?”
“SILENCE!” My command was immediately followed by a thunderclap, and I let it fade away before continuing. “Our mission has nothing to do with the Pope’s crusade, Constantinople or the Holy Land! It is about here, and now, tonight! At the top of this mountain is the foe we have all sworn to defeat. Leave your naïve accusations and worldly concerns behind, for we go now to confront the devilspawn.” I turned and looked into the eyes of each, in turn. “Are you with me?”
Jon answered first. “Aye.” Irving was next. “Yes.” Then Theodoric, Heath, and Edmund answered in agreement. Finally, all eyes were on Saturn, who still stood, glaring at me with his word drawn.
“Is your faith not strong enough, Saturn? Have you sacrificed so much for nothing? Or are you with us?
Saturn shook with fury. “Aye! I am ready to face the Beast!”
“Then, lead us to the summit.”
The rest of our journey was conducted in silence. Saturn marched ahead of us, his aura a red beacon in the night. Jon and Irving walked to either side of me, each casting hateful glances at the other. As we neared the top of the mountain, we stepped out of the storm and the clouds. The sky was clear here, and the stars were our only witnesses. Or so we thought.
The ground was a patchwork of dark stones and ice, and rather flat in all directions. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run to except the clouds below. Edmund was the first to sense it. “What is that smell?” The French knight wrinkled his nose. Saturn had stopped walking, and waited for us. We all came up beside him, forming a line. “What in the Lord’s name is that?” Heath looked on fearfully.
“Sir knight, the Lord had nothing to do with this. This is a well of sacrifice.” Irving glanced at the others, his face an emotionless mask. “The Kolduns draw their power from these places.”
Before us lay a fissure in the earth. It was jagged, and icicles led from the rim into the blackness far below. From this blackness could be heard a muted hum, echoing softly to the surface. The foul odor of rotting flesh, and something worse, could be detected.
“The Beast lays in sleep at the bottom of this hole. Soon his strength will allow him to awaken, and once he knows we are here I doubt we will be successful. Has the shroud been brought from the Patriarch’s palace?”
Jon touched his robe. “Yes, I have it here.”
“Then we are as ready as we can be. Do not hesitate, but strike with all the fury you can muster.”
Saturn was the first to enter. The fissure was narrow enough to brace oneself against it’s sides to climb down, and that is how we descended, one by one, carefully into the earth.
As the starlight faded and the entrance shrank to a small spot above us, the stench and the humming sound grew worse. The sound became a horrible buzzing, unlike anything we had ever heard before. It was then that Theodoric said, “Flies!”
And he was right. Even in this frozen mountain range, the fissure was full of them. Bloated, black, with swollen red eyes, the insects began to circle around us. There were only a few at first, but they quickly became more numerous. I did not feel the insects’ bites, but curses from the others revealed that they did.
The flies became a swarm, filling the foul dark air of the fissure and covering the walls. It was impossible to place one’s hands or feet without crushing the things, and they oozed black ichor that dripped down when we did. Soon they were crawling over us, unto our eyes, ears and our clothing. The others began to climb with haste and their curses could be heard as they were bitten. Jon was the first to slip.
The Tremere crashed into Irving, who fell onto Heath, who dropped onto Saturn. They plummeted down, cursing in panic. They fell to the bottom with a clatter and a sound like dropping stones into a well. The rest of us were unable to finish our climb either, our hands having become slick with the bile of flies. We fell to the bottom as well, and landed in a liquid heap of bones, ichor and rancid blood.
Saturn and Theodoric illuminated the chamber with their glowing eyes. The flies covered everything. They swarmed over us and swam in the ooze that we stood in to our waists. There was a passage of sorts leading off and upward from the ghastly pit we had landed in, and we hastened to climb out of the thick liquid.
When we had pulled ourselves to more solid footing, Edmund snarled and drew his sword. “Something…slithered away back there,” he pointed down the passage.
The others looked at each other, all covered with sticky black ooze and swarming flies, and readied their weapons. Irving held a long dagger in his hand. “They are called Szlachta. They serve the Voivodes. Take care, for every one is different.”
We walked as a group to the end of the passage where a square slab of stone was set into the wall. Something huddled on the floor. As we approached, it reared itself up. Vaguely resembling a horse made of human bones and dark flesh, it rolled and coiled like a snake. Theodoric split it with his axe, causing black blood to spill out. But instead of acting as if it had been injured, the thing let out a hideous cacophony of laughter.
“You cannot harm us with blades, fools.” The voice issued from several misshapen mouths, but was spoken in flawless Latin. Jon answered it. “What is your name?”
“We have many names, Warlock. At last you’ve come to face us. You cannot win. Our master is not here, but his god is!”
“Who is your master?” Jon began to move forward, but I held him back, mindful of the object he carried under his robe.
“Our master is Boyar Protasius! He will chase all of you Warlocks back to your house and devour you!”
“Who is your god?’ The creature scrambled back against the slab. “Answer me, cursed thing? Who do you serve?” Still it did not answer.
“As it is written, thou shall have no god besides the One True God of us all.” Saturn turned his sword and held it forth as a cross. “In the name of all that is holy, reveal him to us!” The creature let forth a deafening scream with half a dozen tongues. The word that issued forth was, “Achadremenos!”
Orange light flooded the passage as flame poured forth from Jon’s hands. We staggered back from the heat and the smoke, but we could hear the wretched screams and thrashing as the Szlachta was burned to death. When it was done and Jon doused his fire, we stepped forward to inspect the pile of bones and ash that was left. “You may need to do that again, Brother.” Edmund looked from the Tremere to the stone slab. “This is a door.”
“Yes.” Irving stepped forward, and pushed. It barely moved. “Saturn, help me.”
The two of them pushed the stone inward. It was actually more like a cube than a slab, and when it finally fell into the chamber beyond, everything was suddenly pulled through behind it by a great blast of wind.
I rose to my feet in a nearly lightless chamber. The others and I were in a rectangular vault, littered with twisted bones and a bronze sarcophagus in the center of the floor. When we had all come to our senses, I motioned for Jon to be ready with the shroud. When all were ready, Irving pulled the heavy lid from the coffin.
The shriveled figure inside appeared dead, or deep into torpor. But when Jon approached with the shroud to cover the body, it suddenly was one its feet, grappling him with ferocious strength. We fell onto our foe together, but one by one the others were thrown off to smash into the walls or the ceiling of the chamber until only I held onto the Malkavian, and it held Jon at bay with one bony arm. I knew then what had to be done. Bringing forth my fangs to their full length, I bit into the Cainite’s neck.
The little vitae that I was able to taste burned my throat like fire. I pulled myself away in pain, and called to the others to join me, to drain the Beast’s strength, for it was our only chance.
The others crawled back into the fight, dragging broken limbs and taking hold of their fearsome enemy wherever they could. We were all knocked away or thrown off again, and the bitter blood of the Malkavian was small use in healing our injuries, but slowly we drained him of his power. Irving repeatedly slashed at him with his dagger, and a ragged wound opened alongside the Malkavian’s face. Finally Jon was able to free himself and spread the shroud over our opponent. Perhaps realizing that he was near his end, the Malkavian uttered a curse. I did not understand his words, for he spoke in a long dead language, but we later learned enough of what he meant.
As his strength subsided, the Malkavian’s mouth opened wide in a shriek of rage and agony. The shroud began to wrap around his body of its own accord, and we struggled to be free of it ourselves. The shroud began to draw the Malkavian into itself, perhaps devouring him. His feet went in first, and then the rest of him sank into the cloth as it wrapped itself around him on the floor. When only his head and one arm remained free, the Malkavian grasped onto Jon’s shaven head with one clawed hand. Jon tried to push himself away by pressing the Malkavian’s head into the shroud. With a final scream, the Malkavian’s head disappeared into the cloth, and Jon’s struggles ripped a section of the being’s face away before his own head was drawn into the cloth as well.
The cloth fluttered to the ground, with Jon’s head partially stuck inside. We all grabbed onto him to pull him free. There was a cracking sound, and pull him free we did…most of him, at least. The top of his skull and his eyes were torn out and lost into the shroud.
Terrible as his injury was, Jon did not succumb to torpor, but writhed and moaned in agony as we made our perilous climb back out of the fissure. After removing the sarcophagus with the intention of melting it down later, we sealed the fissure with boulders from the mountain and Theodoric buried us in the cold earth for the dawn. That day, Achadremenos spoke to us in dreams.
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