Bad to the Throne, page 42
part #15 of The Good Guys Series
“Yeah, I…” I paused, feeling a vague fuzzy sense of unease and hesitation. That there was something trying to work on me to keep me from talking, it had to be the Underwatch oath. But I overrode that thought in my head, telling myself to shut the fuck up, because even though it seemed like I was doing the wrong thing, I was doing the right thing, because this was all a plan that would help the Underwatch and would keep the secrets safe. So my body and my brain needed to get their shit together and stop fucking with me.
“There are these ruins under the city,” I said.
“You know of these ruins?” The Harbinger asked.
“Yeah.”
“And you know of this doorway?”
“Well, I don’t know about a doorway. But I know that there’s this temple there.”
He held up his claw-hand thing. “You know of this? You speak the truth here? For though I am a creature of mercy, I will not broker any falsehoods.”
“No, no, I’m serious. I was just there. I could take you there right now if you want.”
“You swear to this?”
“I do. I’m part of the group now, aren’t I? Aren’t we doing whatever we can to help and bring forth the traveler so he can cleanse the world? And then—”
“Yes, yes.” He said, interrupting me. “Yes. We are. We had hoped, with our great member, Regina, gaining the throne, that she would be able to aid us in this. We had heard there was something of these ruins that the Emperor had access to and none other. But you having been there, and you having discovered already this temple, you would do this? You would guide us there this very night?”
“Yeah. Why should we wait, right? Let’s do this.”
“You are ready now?”
“Yeah, I mean, look, I’m ready. Are you ready?”
“This is quite--” He stopped, and really looked at me with his weird freaking bug eyes.
“Yes. Yes,” he finally said, as if he had found something within me to make him believe I wasn’t lying. “My children,” he yelled out. “It has been found. We have the path to the doorway. Gather all the children, for we will go now. We will go now and we will bring forth the traveler and we will make this world anew.”
And he ran out of the room.
110
After hours of walking, we made it.
Even having been there once before, it was still startling to see the temple coming up out of the bare area around it. I could hear people muttering in amazement, and where it had been largely quiet the whole long walk, now there was a palpable excitement. Everyone was eager to get to, and the mood amongst the almost two hundred ‘children’ became almost giddy.
Only the Harbinger seemed unaffected by everything. It wasn’t like he was bored with things, it was more like he was tempered in his excitement. Like he was hopeful, but ready. Although, to be fair, it’s not like I knew the guy, or if he was a guy, because he was more like a big bug. Except, not, because, well, he didn’t fit this world in the way I could understand.
As we took the steps up the temple, I started to feel a twinge of anxiety.
There was no sign of the Underwatch. Nor of any other army that might have been sent down here to deal with this cult. I didn’t want to think that Valamir had bungled the gig, or that somehow Clyde had gotten lost. But I felt like there’d be something to indicate the passage of a group of people. We, the cult, certainly seemed more than capable of making a mess as we walked along.
The cult quieted down, once more, taken in by the palpable power of the place.
As we reached the top of the stairs, the Harbinger turned around, looking across the gathered folk.
He held his hand out to the Empress, who stepped up next to him.
“Witness,” he said, his voice strangely loud in an otherwise silent space, “at all points, we have faced doubt and challengers. We alone knew what the world was, and we alone knew how to fix this world. The doorway is near. We can feel it. We need but open the path so the grand might of the Traveler can come through. So much has come together so fast, allowing this perfect moment to happen. We wait no longer, you will be in pain no longer. We unleash the beast so it might feast, and its feast will prepare this world for the great next thing.”
Seemed to go off a little at the end there, but given the looks the Harbinger was getting, no one else really noticed that he sounded like an idiot. I guess that was part of the whole cult thing. Cults probably didn’t work that well when people doubted what the leader said.
The Harbinger turned, headed up the last few stairs, and walked through the archway into the temple itself.
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I was the eighth person into the temple, which I didn’t really think was very important, but the other cultists were definitely jockeying for position, somehow putting together a pecking order. When I went in, I was prepared to see whatever ambush Valamir had set up.
That was not what I saw.
It was an empty amphitheater, just as Clyde and I had left it what seemed like ages ago, but had really been earlier that very morning. Nothing had changed.
The Harbinger went straight for the stage with the Empress following close behind. Most of the other cultists spread out in the seats, moving reverently, as if they’d come into the holiest of sites. Which, I suppose, it probably was to them.
What struck me as odd, or maybe one thing that struck me as odd with this whole panoply of strange, was that it didn’t seem to me that any of these people had any hesitation regarding their own impending death. Or, maybe they thought that they weren’t going to die. The rest of the world would be destroyed around them, but then they could sally forth and take their pick of pristine untouched world.
I didn’t know. They all sounded nuts when I really stopped to think about what the cult said and believed.
The Harbinger, for all he’d managed to avoid seeming concerned or intrigued or feeling any emotion at all while we’d been walking, hesitated as he neared the raised area. He inspected one of the black streaks closely, careful not to make any contact with the stone itself. I felt like he could sense the power radiating out — how could he not?
Regina, Empress of Glaton, stood right next to the cult leader. But while he seemed to have an increased emotional response, she was oddly cool. She sat delicately on the nearest stone bench, crossing one perfect leg over the other, just sort of taking the situation in.
I made my way down the stairs and took a seat next to the Empress.
She glanced my way, seeming at complete peace.
I smiled at her, although I was feeling less than ideal inside. My heart was thumping in my chest, and I couldn’t help glancing around.
She put her hand on my leg.
“All will be well,” she said softly. “Our part has finished. All we need to is wait. The doorway will open, and the world shall know its folly. The grand slate will be wiped clean to begin anew.”
“Yeah,” I said, kinda because I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Do you, um, know what, or, um, how the door opens?”
“The Harbinger knows.”
“Okay, but, um, you don’t?”
“It is not important. I have done what I needed to — I have delivered the Harbinger here. As well as all the other members of the family. Thus, I only need wait. I feel such relief. In this last moments of ours, I feel… unburdened. That I might take a breath without worry of all other things.”
Looking back, I saw that most every member of the cult was inside the amphitheater now. They were, for the most part, moving slow and staring at the altar.
The Harbinger, meanwhile, had a book out, and was leafing through the pages. It was all written in that impossible script, and though I caught a few strange diagrams, I couldn’t make out a damn thing.
A bell rang out. Nearly as one, all the members of the cult looked up to the sky, as if something might drop out of darkness above.
Nothing did.
The Harbinger looked back at the Empress and then at me, I think confusion or anger on his alien face. But honestly I had no idea what his facial expressions meant. The limited ones he could do with his insectoid features.
“Do you know of that noise?” the Harbinger whispered, coming closer to Regina.
“The bell?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s just a bell.”
“But why?”
“Is it not just a manifestation of the ritual to open the path for the traveler?”
“No. The ritual has yet to begin.”
“What is the ritual?” I asked.
The Harbinger fixed me a pointed glare, irritation evident.
“Your part in this is finished,” he barked. “Intrude no more and I will allow you to watch close. Otherwise, begone to the back rows and hope I do not order you removed entirely from this holy moment.”
He went back to his book. I looked over at the princess, I mean, empress, giving her a what-the-fuck look.
She just shrugged.
Then a second bell rang out, which sounded a little different. Marginally different tonality.
This time, the Harbinger threw his book down and stood up straight. He clawed hands out, ready for something.
But he was the only one who responded that way. Everyone else looked up again, enjoying the bells. Which might have been why they didn’t notice that all the exits had been blocked.
Valamir’s private army, mixed with some Underwatch guys I recognized, had come into the amphitheater via every archway, blocking any attempt of the cultists to exit. More and more soldiers filed in, filling out the top rung, preparing to take all the cultists prisoner. Or, you know, in the case of the carcajou, just throw down and start killing people. They looked particularly ready for war.
“Treachery!” the Harbinger shouted.
The Empress looked right at me. I knew she knew.
I held up my hands.
“You,” she shouted.
“Hey,” I said.
“You betrayed me,” she said.
“You swore an oath,” the Harbinger snarled.
“Yes, well, I also crossed my fingers, so…”
“So?”
“Doesn’t that mean the same thing here?”
The Empress stabbed me in the stomach.
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As befits a tiny royal person, it was a tiny royal dagger. While it certainly hurt, I don’t think it hit anything vital.
Out of instinct, I popped her one in the mouth.
Which, unfortunately, snapped her head back. She went limp.
The Harbinger bashed me across the face with one of his claws, putting a truly surprising amount of power behind it. I fell over backwards into the next row up.
Screams went up as the cultists grabbed arms and mounted their counter attack.
Some had weapons and wore armor, but most were just regular people who had almost zero in the way of combat training. All the same, they were prepared to die, which meant they weren’t ready to back down.
As I picked myself up off the rock floor, I saw that the Harbinger had grabbed the Empress and was taking her toward the set of stairs that would lead them onto the stage.
Someone jumped onto my back and was trying to choke me.
I grabbed the offending arm and executed a proper judo toss, slamming Maelith into the floor in front of me, knocking the wind out of her.
“I’m just not that into you,” I snapped, and then raced after the Harbinger.
But she wasn’t done, slapping my left foot as I picked it up so that I caught it on my right foot, tripping me.
I went down hard, face-first toward another stone bench, but I managed to catch myself before smashing my nose.
Someone else was on me, and I felt a stab into my side.
I threw myself up, but I didn’t bring my feet down so much as around, so that I landed on my back. Or, rather, I landed on someone. Who got all four hundred plus pounds of me on top of them.
With a gross, wet crunching noise, their grip released on my neck, and I rolled over to my knees.
A cultist I’d never met was somewhat squished on the ground, blood coming out of their mouth in a dribble.
Maelith screamed, coming at me again, this time with a blade. She cocked up and prepping for one hell of a swing.
I punched her in the face.
Thanks to momentum, her legs kept moving, going up and out from under her. She landed head first with a hollow thunk, getting knocked the fuck out.
I took a half-second to get a lay of the land, and also the state of the fray. I didn’t like what I saw.
The Harbinger and the Empress was almost to the stairs. The cult was pushing back the ambushers by sheer force of insanity, and mildly by numbers. The combination gave them something of an advantage over the professional soldiers who likely wanted to be able to one day spend the gold they were being paid to fight.
Given the way he was holding Regina, the Harbinger needed her for whatever ritual he had planned. I was very concerned it wasn’t a complex ritual requiring time and concentration, considering that the Harbinger seemed willing to give it a go despite the fighting happening around him.
I lunged after the Harbinger, grabbing Regina’s ankle as he took his first step onto the stage. I yanked the limp girl from his grasp.
He spun around, whispering something alien. A pulse of power slammed against my abdomen, pushing me back a few steps.
The bugmanthing looked confused, maybe thinking he’d have more of an affect on me.
I winked at him.
“Not today, Satan,” I said, still holding onto Regina.
He shot another pulse at me, this one with more power behind it. I assumed I’d get another force-push thing, but I didn’t. Instead it hit me like the first time I got to experience a police-issued tazer.
I let go of, well, everything, my muscles seizing up. I fell over.
He snorted, yanked the girl back onto his back and hurried up the stairs.
A grand explosion happened off to one side, sending cultists flying in the air before raining them back down into the stands.
I got back up and hurried after the stupid Harbinger.
He was a fast scuttler, making it across the wide stage much faster than me.
Partially because the stone stage didn’t really feel like stone. It wasn’t smooth and glossy like I expected. It was a bit more like corn starch, or maybe well-floured marshmallow. My feet were kind of sinking in each step, but also sliding around a little. And the stuff wasn’t coming off on my boots; it remained part of the stone that wasn’t stone. So I couldn’t really seem to walk in a straight line.
Someone landed on the other side of the altar. Clyde appeared out of mid-air to stand opposite the Harbinger. Would have been better if he’d stood between the Harbinger and the altar, but it’s not like I could talk, being stuck behind the bugmanthing.
“You’re surrounded and your people are being slaughtered,” Clyde said. “Stop.”
The Harbinger didn’t pay him any mind, and slapped the limp form of the Empress down on the altar.
“Get her off the altar,” I called out.
Clyde reached for her.
The Harbinger brought his hand down, and an arcane blade appeared, slicing through the air.
I think Clyde pulled his hand back fast enough, but it’s also possible he lost his hand.
I lowered my shoulder and launched myself into the midsection of the Harbinger.
Hitting him actually hurt. It was a bit like trying to tackle a telephone pole. Not that I’ve tried to do that more than once.
Still, I had enough oomph that I drove him into the ground.
He screamed.
I bounced off him, feeling a pulse of energy from his core that sent me flying into the stands.
While flying, I tried to orient myself, but I’d never mastered the aerial arts. So I just crashed into more stone stuff.
Which hurt.
Being unbreakable only goes so far.
I also had two blades in me, and I didn’t want to pull them out just to get blood everywhere.
As soon as I hit, I saw the Harbinger was back on his feet, racing toward the altar where Cldye was trying to yank the princess off.
The Harbinger unleashed a massive blast of power, sending Clyde flying back, just like I had.
I hauled my butt up, leaping straight to the stage.
The Harbinger whirled around, and I dropped to my knees, thinking I’d slide under the power pulse.
Didn’t work.
He drove me into the squishy stage, which brought my forward progression to a halt.
“Fucking mages,” I growled, having to pull myself out of the weird goopy stone.
“Children, I need you!” the Harbinger bellowed.
Some cult members came barreling toward the stage.
The Harbinger closed his eyes. I could feel him pulling energy from the space around him. He flung a glob of something glowing, and it shot across the space before splashing into a cult member.
The young woman got a single shriek out before her body exploded, bringing forth another Harbinger. Well, another creature that was like the Harbinger. She’d become another bugmanthing, but not like, an exact copy of the Harbinger.
The new bug seemed to know precisely what to do as it came on toward me, running faster than the other cultists and also seeming to unfold as it crossed the distance, becoming bigger and showing me that it had four legs and at least three arms, each of which ended in three digits tipped with dark claws.
I rolled out of the way as bugthing two slammed her claws into the stage.
Up to my feet, I spartan kicked the bugthing off the stage, feeling her hard carapace crack under my boot.
The Harbinger let off a number of other glowing globs, and more bugthings, and what looked kind of like bugdogthings, came into our universe, all bent on attacking me. Or Clyde. And here I was, still without a weapon.
I reached for my bag of tricks.
It wasn’t there.
I frowned, realizing I’d never taken it out of the locker after taking off my muumuu.
