Chapter IV: The Stables (Cont)

The hooded assassin wrapped his hand around her mouth as he lifted her off the ground to calm her down. “Shut up,” the assassin hissed as he looked around at the broken stables.

Once they had been as majestic a place as a beastiary could be, the wooden gate were solidly enforced in over ten places and they were built to the roof with barely a single opening, since feralites had a knack for escape. The small cells that the feralites had dwelled in were bedded with soft hay and grass and overall, it wasn’t a bad life to life as far as feralite’s lives went. But now the row of cells that spanned for yards was deserted and destroyed: a graveyard, a tomb.

When the stables had been sealed all those years ago because of the laws against inhumane execution, the feralites were said to have been released. But the enigmas and thus the Black Lotus had known better. The feralites had been bred to feed on man, to devour their bones, organs, flesh, all of them. And there was no way they could let those beasts out into the wild and hope that they wouldn’t stalk the city’s walls and hide along the trade routes to lesser cities. They had heard the stories of Il-Kamar.

Il-Kamar had been a tiny city built upon a remote outcropping atop the canyon wall. They had, for defense reasons, destroyed the only connection to the main canyon wall, thus making them a remote city who relied on tunnels dug down to the canyon floor to leave and enter the city. The city was a center of smithing, so they really had no need to farm and thus the setting seemed ideal. But Il-Kamar, a city not high on the chain of politics, had not foreseen the dangers of the feralites. After the humanity mandates had been signed, they immediately released the feralites far from the city atop the canyon walls, believing themselves safe from attack by the creatures. Soon, however, the feralites had found their way to the canyon floor and back to their home and surrounded the city from below, allowing nothing to enter or leave. The people starved and died slowly, trying to wait out the creatures. An army was sent to battle the beasts, but the army failed. For although their army was fitted with the finest weaponry on Azurat, they could not undo the sheer frenzy the feralites had been bred to feel the minute they smelled human flesh. Soon, the feralites grew impatient of waiting for more humans to come or go, since none dared. And on a night that only a few escaped to remember, the feralites, with their bony claws, climbed up the sheer rock walls that lifted Il-Kamar up high, and fed upon the city. The rampage within the city walls lasted for four days, until Azurat city sent a squadron of ballistas armed with explosive arrows and catapults loaded with vats of oil to alleviate the problem. The city burned to the ground in three hours and three survivors were plucked from the wreckage, having hidden in the very stables that had been abandoned; it was an irony all remembered.

Azurat city had decided it was best to bury the stables, and that is exactly what they did. Over the next years, the Garmut shrubs had begun to find their way through the sewage outlet until they had found their way into the stables, an ideal spot to grow in darkness. Once the waterworks had finally been cutoff from the area, the Garms began to grow and feed upon the several feralites who had managed to survive for the weeks it had been without food, a feat not very difficult for feralites. The feralites could not escape their cells, since they were built without space big enough for one to escape but big enough for a tiny Garm to enter.

The hooded assassin pulled his hand away from the struggling Adelia, whose face was stricken with horror. “It’s….”

“Dead, yes,” the hooded assassin said, setting her down on the ground. “Sucked dry of the water in it.” He looked around at the walls, the webbing was beginning to rustle.

Kiki, who had backed herself away from the carcass, growled in absolute terror. Blackheart looked at her, her eyes fixed on the way ahead. “HERE THEY COME!”

Blackheart heard the legs scuttle, he heard the screech, and then he swung. His blade caught the garm in mid air, cutting it in perfect halves which spiralled in perfect angles away from him. “Wait for the screech! It means they’re preparing to jump at you!” Blackheart yelled back as he stomped on another garm who hadn’t been paying much attention. “If you stomp them, watch out for their spines,” he said waving the lantern ahead again.

Adelia gasped at the sight as she raised her sword. Every inch of the wall was crawling with the little brown creatures, a mess of spines and suckers. “We can’t kill them all!”

The hooded assassin reached into his cloak and revealed two small glass balls with green liquid sloshing inside them. “MOVE!” He grabbed Adelia and threw her aside, hurling the balls towards Blackheart and the swarm. Adelia opened her mouth to warn Blackheart of the danger, but the assassin’s hand was clamped over hers. “You and I are getting out of here and we don’t need that man,” he whispered in her ear.

Adelia closed her eyes as she saw the glass balls shatter on the ground near Blackheart’s feet. Blackheart yelled for a moment and then there was a swish of air and sand cascaded from the roof as a tremendous wooden thud was heard. She opened her eyes. Flames were spitting up and around the burning garms and webbing. They peaked all the way to the ceiling, burning an intense blue that she could even feel from here before dying away. The lamp, which lay on it’s side near an open stable cast light on the mound of rubble and garm bodies. The scuttling stopped for a moment, then began to move away from them.

The hooded assassin and Adelia rose to their feet. “Let’s get moving, we need to find the sewage ducts before they decide it’s best to come back and eat us again.”

Adelia raised her sword, “I don’t need your help you bastard!”

The hooded assassin dodged her swing and planted his knee in her gut, she stumbled back. “You don’t want to kill me, you’re not a killer. When you stabbed my female associate back in the other room, you didn’t even watch it go in. I’m too fast for you to kill with your eyes closed. You don’t have that kind of merciless streak in you,” he said confidently. “Besides, you need me.”