Bad Blood Runs Black - chapter six

Bad Blood Runs Black - chapter 6 - by John "Basileus Ioannis"

***Quick recap: our heroic trio sneak into Lord Heizmall's castle, and Pana eavesdrops on viceroy Stengel the weasel and finds out A. he is indeed responsible for the Blackstonian invaders, and he controls the troops remaining in the capital; B. they have a prisoner who is to be offed when Pana's father's body arrives on the Luftschiff; C. the weasel is to be coronated Grand Duke soon after the funeral; and D. a mysterious woman in a hooded cloak is in charge!***

A cold sweat beaded on Pana's forehead as she slept uneasily, hiding under the cloth-covered table in the dark narrow corridor...she dreamt that Stengal the weasel was chasing after her, with a horde of monsters behind him...suddenly a black spider was in front of her, hanging in the center of a gigantic web, laughing at her...she recoiled, and tripped on something laying on the floor...as she fell, she turned over to see what it was, and it was her father's dead body...his face was blue, and his Spatha was clutched in his hands across his chest...as she touched his face, suddenly it turned black, and he broke out in a big white toothy grin...his eyes opened, and they were ruby red...he spoke to her, in a husky feminine voice..."hey missy..."

"Hey missy," hissed Chawinda, shaking Pana gently. Pana awoke with a start and a gasp, hitting her head on the underside of the table. "Easy...it's time to go," reassured the drow. Haergrim apparently had awakened by the noise of Pana's gourd striking the wooden table above. "It's just before sunrise...outside of the occasional pair of guards and that stupid dog, it's been quiet," continued the drow. Pana rubbed the crown of her sore head, and Chawinda put her hand on top of hers. "Low dexterity, much?" chuckled the drow. In the inky blackness, her red eyes glowed faintly as they formed a pair of bemused half-moons, flat side down...it was too dark to see her grinning.

The trio carefully lifted the dusty sheet covering the table, and crawled out. Chawinda put her ear to the door. She cracked the door open, peeked, opened it enough to peer out toward the guard room first, then the other way..."Okay, let's move out." They left the narrow corridor, and turned right, toward the side doors of the castle. Haergrim silently closed the door behind him as the trio snuck towards the exit. The drow again listened at the doors, looked it up and down, along the frame, the hinges, and grunted. "Not trapped or magicked...I guess they figured it was interior access," she confirmed. The double doors appeared worn, as old as the walls themselves...Chawinda opened the right hand door, and peered out into the pre-dawn darkness. "Parade ground is lit by a ring of blue light orbs laying on the ground...I see maybe three or four uniforms on the other side of the ring, just standing around bulldunging. No dogs. There's a wooden tower next to the main army barracks building, two uniforms up there," she analyzed.

Pana poked her head out the doorway above Chawinda, and Haergrim above Pana. There were some bushes growing to the right, giving a good vantage point to the parade ground. "Let's make for those bushes...go," hissed the drow. Again, Chawinda, Pana, then Haergrim crept out, closing the door gently. The trio bolted for the bushes, and slid in at its roots. Chawinda peered through the bushes at the parade ground. "No movement, good," she whispered.

The sky was just turning a dark shade of blue when a faint buzzing like a distant hive of bees came from the sky...voices could be heard atop the wooden tower. Shafts of bright white light stabbed out into the sky and began panning around...Chawinda cursed as she pursed her eyelids. "Dung...stupid spotlights..." but the lights continued sweeping the sky. The beams criss-crossed for several minutes, and Pana could see the four soldiers running to the center of the parade ground, stopping one by one until they formed a line several paces apart in the center of the ring of dim blue light orbs. Suddenly one of the shafts of light illuminated an ovoid object several hundred yards away, like a big grey sausage. The other beam flicked to the flying sausage, illuminating its tail...four big fins, two vertical, two horizontal, the vertical ones emblazoned with the royal blue Duchy of Hannetzbirg's coat of arms...the Luftschiff was early.

Voices cried out from the tower, and the white lights snapped off, and a bell clanged on the tower. The four soldiers on the parade ground shuffled about to form a line in the direction of the approaching Luftschiff, held up bulls-eye lanterns, and began flicking open and closed the shutters in sequence. A soldier ran from the army barracks toward the side door of the castle, and went in. Soon a light went on in a small window on the second storey of the Schloss. "Looks like the weasel's up," Haergrim noted. The dark form of the Luftschiff approached the parade ground, coming lower, lower...soon Pana could see a dim green light on the bottom of the vessel. The humming noise grew louder and louder. The bulls-eye lantern shutters continued clacking their rhythm...snap snap snap snap, snap snap snap snap. As the Luftschiff's nose crossed the threshold of the parade ground, about a hundred feet in the air, the buzzing noise abruptly halted...the four soldiers flicked open the shutters simultaneously, and moved about to form a diamond formation.

As the vessel sunk lower, heading for the center of the ring of blue light orbs, the men closed formation...a rope dropped from the Luftschiff, and the four men set down their lanterns lens-up and grabbed the rope. The huge grey sausage sank down gently, as more soldiers rushed up to take hold of the rope...the four lanterns lit the underside of the vessel, revealing a long boat-shaped gondola suspended beneath the sausage. The dim green light was affixed to the side of the gondola facing the Schloss. The grey sausage was as long as the parade ground was wide. Slowly, the vessel turned in place, until its nose faced the wooden tower...a dim red light was on the left side of the gondola...a clack sound rang out as the men in the tower caught a loop on the nose with a hook...the Luftschiff had landed, tethered to the tower.

The double side doors of the Schloss opened with a whack...the viceroy Stengel led a contingent of guards out of the hall, followed by the hooded woman Pana saw earlier in the library, with several hooded figures following...must be her bodyguards. In all, about forty people walked past the bushes in which the trio hid, and walked straight over to the Luftschiff. A door opened on the side of the gondola, and a wooden ramp dropped to the ground with a thump. The weasel stopped at the ramp, as several guards went up the ramp into the gondola. The hooded woman stopped next to Stengel, and her bodyguards stood several paces back. Soon the guards reemerged, bearing a uniformed body on a stretcher. Pana gulped...at the distance and darkness, she couldn't see her father's body very well. The weasel examined the body carefully, apparently to his satisfaction...the woman gestured to the Schloss, and Stengel again took the lead of the party and they all marched back to the castle side doors. As they passed by, Pana tried in vain to get a good look at her father, at his face...but the darkness conspired against her. As the last of the hooded woman's bodyguards stepped through the doorway, both wooden doors were slammed shut by guards.

"I couldn't see the face," whimpered Pana. "I couldn't see..."

"Well, we're just gonna have to get back in there, then," whispered Chawinda, "the light would be better anyway, and they might leave him in state on a bier. Come on."

The trio looked toward the parade ground, and all the soldiers appeared concerned with the docked Luftschiffe. They crept back to the Schloss, and Chawinda again put her ear to the door, then laid her head on the stone steps and peeked under the door. "Doesn't look like any guards are behind the door...they're all gathered in the audience chamber, it's well lit." She opened the door slowly, and Pana and Haergrim could see that everyone was down the hall in the audience chamber...the hooded woman's bodyguards were closest, about ten feet past the guard room, with their backs to the side door hall. The trio slipped in unnoticed, and Haergrim again shut the door silently.

Suddenly a pointy black shape popped out of the guardroom, about two feet off the floor. It turned toward the trio, and sniffed. Chawinda hissed "Dung!" Pana's heart jumped. Haergrim murmured a magic incantation, gesturing to the mastiff. The dog panted, and loped toward the hidden trio...the ranger kneeled, pet the dog on its head, scratching behind its ears, and whispered something in its ear, and the sable canine happily trotted off, ducking into the guard room. Pana and the drow breathed a sigh of relief. "Good job, elf," whispered Chawinda, "how long is that gonna last?"

"Only a couple minutes or so...let's not be here when he returns," said Haergrim.

Chawinda quickly surveilled the situation...a spiral staircase of stone was to their immediate right. "Dung, I had hoped we wouldn't have to go upstairs," she hissed, "but it gives the best vantage point. There might be a guard up there, so be on your toes, missy."

The trio silently crept up the spiral staircase, which led up to the upper gallery that wrapped around the audience chamber. Further to the right was a hallway to the Duke's living quarters. He had neither a wife nor children, so apparently the viceroy took the bedroom with the window that they had seen light up...the hooded woman and her retinue probably took the rest of the rooms. The garde-robe was indeed at the far end of the hall, even Pana could make out the hanging winter coats in the light of the torches along the walls. Chawinda looked around the gallery, "good, no guards, guess everyone's downstairs...come on." She zipped behind the railing from where the long blue banners were hung, and hid behind it, motioning for the others to wait. The drow flitted from shadow to shadow, then turned and waved for them to follow.

Pana reached the dark side of the hung banner with ease, followed closely by Haergrim. She peered between the posts of the railing, and she could see down to the floor of the audience chamber...the body was indeed on a bier right in front of the throne dais, about thirty feet from her vantage point, as close as she could get. The weasel and the hooded woman were poring over the body, with over thirty guards in mail and helm surrounding them, holding halberds upright. She could not see the four bodyguards of the hooded woman, they must be directly below her.

She could get a clear look at her father's face...indeed, he was wounded under his left eye. A tear rolled down Pana's cheek as she gazed upon her father's lifeless form...he wore his battle armor, and his fingers were locked together on his chest. So it was true then...he was dead, struck down by a Blackstonian arrow. Suddenly Stengel spoke loudly in his squeaky voice to the hooded woman, "remarkable...it looks just like him!" Of course, thought Pana...why wouldn't it? "Even the wound looks perfect...a killing blow, just as our messenger told the family...and the way the hands are locked together, it looks as if he was praying." Pana bit her tongue...she so wanted to spit at the weasel...what a thoroughly disgusting individual.

Suddenly, a voice yelled "INTRUDERS!" from the far left side of the gallery...two guards had been lurking in the upper storey! They charged, halberds at the ready. All heads at the ground floor below looked up in unison. "Dung!" hissed Chawinda, and she flicked both her arms towards the charging guards, who both suddenly stopped dead in their tracks with a dagger in one of their eyes, collapsing in a heap. The weasel and the hooded woman pointed at the gallery where Pana was, and half the guards ran with their halberds below the gallery towards the main stair case, while the other half dropped their halberds and produced bows from their backs, and a hail of arrows came up towards the gallery.

Haergrim suddenly produced a shortbow from under his cloak...it held five arrows on a clip attached to it. Pana was impressed...she never noticed it on his back before, perhaps her gaze had been too low...he let fly, and two guards dropped. Chawinda spoke something Pana didn't recognize, waving her hands through the gallery railing like she was playing a harp...suddenly half the ground floor went dark, and yells of confusion and chaos could be heard from within...arrows went up toward the ceiling in all directions, only the few guards still in the lit area continued firing accurately. Pana could see that both Stengel and the hooded woman were taking cover behind the bier, the woman appeared to be getting ready to cast spells...oh no you don't, thought Pana, as she unleashed Silence spell toward the bier. But the hooded woman was quick, she recognized Pana's gestures, and quickly counter-spelled just as Pana completed her incantation. The two spells collided in mid-air right over her father's remains, and suddenly Pana saw that the body on the bier looked different...older, with a distinctive well-groomed grey beard...and he wore the royal blue fitted plate armor with pink decorations of House Rosenstein. The powerful illusion had been affected by the hooded woman's Dispel Magic spell...the dead man was not Pana's father, it was Lord Heizmall, Grand Duke of Hannetzbirg!

Haergrim fired off his last arrow, and yelled "back to the staircase, now!" Pana stared transfixed by the figure laying on the bier...Chawinda shoved her toward Haergrim, and yelled "go, missy!" as she hurled herself over the railing, clinging to the banner, and disappeared into the inky blackness below. Haergrim grabbed Pana's hand, and yanked her to her feet, and they ran toward the spiral staircase, as guards reached the top of the main staircase and charged. Pana managed to lob a Fireball at the charging mass...in the narrow hallway, the detonation not only blasted the guards, but also blew every door in the hallway down, and roared down the corridor...the front ranks had no chance, and screams of surprise and pain were heard from the landing. The pair used the blast to mask their egress, flying down the spiral staircase.

They reached the bottom, and turned right toward the darkened audience chamber...standing shoulder to shoulder across the side hall were the four hooded bodyguards, swords drawn. The hooded woman suddenly stepped out of the darkness in the middle of the line. Haergrim raised his sword, while Pana drew Vicama...she almost lobbed another Fireball at them, but suddenly realized that somewhere in the darkness behind, Chawinda had dropped down from the gallery above!

The woman spoke to Pana in a very familiar mature voice, "so, Pana...in your ineptitude, you have managed to unmask our little charade...well played." She pulled the cowl of her hood back, and Pana gasped...

"Matriarch Benevolencia! But why?" she cried. It can't be...the matriarch of Grusskirche cathedral, the leader of her church? She was the one controlling Stengal the weasel, she had Lord Heizmall killed, she disguised his body as her father...she, who had shown her such kindness and consoled her just a few hours ago?

"Our church, dear Pana, determines who wears the Grand Duke's crown. We oversee and approve every coronation, after the army chooses who to elevate on the shield." It is true that the army selects the candidate by the old tradition of having their chosen candidate step onto a shield, and several stout soldiers lift the shield into the air; the church merely must concur, then place the crown on the candidate's head. "With this process, there is an unwritten contract, an understanding, that once we place the crown on the candidate's head, that he must serve not only the army, not only the people, but also the church. A breach of this sacred trust is punishable by revocation of the crown. Since we must not allow a disgruntled former Grand Duke to call upon the army loyal to him alone to mount an insurrection against the state, such a demotion must be accompanied by assurances that the former Grand Duke will do no such thing," Benevolencia explained.

"Heizmall of House Rosenstein's only fault was that he was too popular, not only with the army but the people. He would not bend to our will, our church, we who had placed that crown upon his head. Our chosen candidate had been Stengal of House Pippenstock, for we had established that understanding ahead of time. But Heizmall was the army's candidate, and the people would have no other, so he was crowned Grand Duke. But," Benevolencia continued, "he rebuffed our authority over him, our church, HIS church."

Pana felt inadequate in the presence of her superior, but she had to ask, "what did you demand of Lord Heizmall that he would reject? He was a good and just ruler, a good steward of our people, the defender of Hannetzbirg."

Benevolencia's eyes looked kindly upon her misguided acolyte. "As you know, Heizmall was unwed and childless...and these interminable wars were costing us the flower of our youth, male and female alike. Blackstone is a theocracy, there will always be strife between us. Unlike our army with their mounted knights, Blackstone depends on Charrs to form the backbone of their army. These creatures are magically created in the frozen north, and use technology as a weapon. Their army can be reconstituted in a fraction of the time it takes Hannetzbirg to raise more knights. The solution, the ONLY solution, to avoid extinction, is to form a new hegemony under Blackstone's leadership, and we would come under their protection as a vassal state."

"Are you kidding me?!" blurted Pana, the daughter of a general of Hannetzbirg. "What you are saying is, to cave to our enemies, to succumb to vassalage, and lose our autonomy?"

"The alternative, dear Pana, is attrition to the point of extinction," said the matriarch in a sad tone. "Please understand...I did this to protect you, and other citizens of our country. What use is our autonomy if it costs us our very lives?"

Haergrim glared at Benevolencia. "Madam, you are a coward, and a traitor."

Suddenly the matriarch let out a cry, and her arms rose up as if to cast a spell. Blood streamed from one corner of her mouth, and as she collapsed, a gloved hand holding a bloody dagger could be seen suspended from the inky blackness behind her. "And you also talk too much," chuckled Chawinda.

The two bodyguards closest to the fallen matriarch whirled and stabbed the darkness below the extended hand, even as the drow's gloved hand disappeared into the darkness. Both swords appeared to hit something solid, and a muffled groan came from within, followed by a thud. Pana yelled "NO! CHAWINDA!" The two remaining bodyguards nearest the walls lunged ahead toward Pana and Haergrim...swords clashed. All four bodyguards now faced the pair, rushing them toward the side door of the Schloss behind them.

Her eyes filled with tears of rage, Pana thrust with all her might at the center mass of the nearest bodyguard, but he easily parried. Haergrim parried one attacker, while the other landed a blow on his left arm. The remaining bodyguard moved in on Pana, sword raised for the kill...suddenly a dagger came out of nowhere, catching the guard in the shoulder, spoiling his aim. Pana kicked her target, and brought Vicama upwards as the wounded guard stumbled forward, impaling himself on her blade. He collapsed, tearing Vicama from her grip...the kicked guard laughed and moved in for his kill shot.

Haergrim whirled away from the sword that cut his arm, brought his sword up, and decapitated one guard while slashing the other across his face. "Pana!" he yelled as the last guard lunged toward the disarmed Pana...

--- oh you bet this is to be continued! ---