Page 54 of A Kingdom of Lies

Onme.

Frustrated, the Hunters released a battle cry and lunged forward. Erix joined their dance gladly. He moved forward, slipping between the Hunters before their blades had a chance to arch down towards him. His footing was confident, sliding across the wet, muddy bed and turning his body back to face them. As he did, his own swords followed. In a clean slice, one that severed through the rain itself, his blades passed through flesh and bone with ease.

Duncan hardly reacted as he watched his two Hunters die, their heads tumbling from their necks and splatting onto the ground. Their bodies followed, as though pushed by an unseen force. Blood sprayed out of the severed necks, a fountain of gore. He just stood there and watched, calculating how two lives had been taken so quickly, all in a moment.

Whilst Duncan was a prisoner to his thoughts, Erix kept moving, leaving the dead behind him as he began his approach towards his true goal. The blood-soaked metal of his sword made it appear as though they were forged by death.

“All of you. Go. Stop him.” Duncan pulled forth his own sword, using the flat side of it to hit the backs of the remaining Hunters. “In Duwar’s name, kill this man. His blood will be sustenance this night.”

“Sustenance,” the Hunters cried in return. There was nothing confident about their cries. They were timid. Pathetic.

I knew we were doomed as the remaining Hunters rushed forward to meet the Berserker. I watched, helpless behind cage bars, as Erix cut his way through the men and women; it was rare to see another’s blade intercept his.

The closer he got the clearer I could see him. Shadows hung beneath his lightning-silver eyes. His black leathers were drenched in mud and gore, the white edges of his tunic and sleeves as sharp as the two swords he swung. He was striking, in both horror and power. And he was looking right at me, hardly paying any attention to the humans he cut down. They stood no chance against him, nor did they slow him down.

“This is it,” I said quietly, voice buried beneath the cries of dying Hunters. “All this for nothing. Doran has wonagain.”

Althea was at my right, Gyah to my left. Caged like animals, we were as useless as the humans whose blood now fed the earth.

“Do not give up yet,” Althea said, “We are safe within the cage. When Erix is finished with the Hunters; he will have to take us out. In here, surrounded by the iron, it will nullify his natural abilities. We can take him.”

“Althea, I could kiss you!” Gyah barked a laugh, one that sang of relief. “Your mind is truly brilliant, do you know that?”

Althea blushed, rain darkening the reds of her hair as it hung in wet strands across her shoulders.

“Then we know what to do.”

“Get Erix in the cage, then fight him. It will be hard, but remember it isn’t the Erix we knew anymore. At least in here it will be an even playing field. Let him come, for I have something I would like to say to him.” Althea watched, unblinking and fearless, as Erix faced the remaining Hunters.

I heard Althea, but somehow my mind refused her words.

He looked like Erix. He walked like Erix. He was the man I knew, the man I loved and the one who killed my father.

“Robin, can you do this?” Gyah asked, noticing my distant stare. “Can you face the man who killed your father and provide him the relief from Doran that he requires?”

I couldn’t answer. Seeing Erix had taken me back to the helpless feeling I’d experienced when my father had been killed before me. Even then I had refused to believe he was the one responsible, even though it was his hands that stole my father from me.

In my mind I’d worked hard to convince myself that it was Doran who was to blame. He’d ripped Erix’s will from him and replaced it with his own. The Erix I’d come to know would never have hurt me.

But seeing him now, without his puppet master, I couldn’t help but wish to take all my pain out on him.

“Yes,” I replied through gritted teeth, jaw aching beneath the pressure. “I’m ready. I can do this.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Duncan said, snatching our attention to the back of the cage. None of us had noticed him, our focus demanded by Erix and the death he left in his wake. “I think I’ll take you up on your offer after all.”

“I am afraid that offer has been retracted,” Gyah said through a grin. Her dark skin was slick with rain, her golden eyes narrowed as she glared at Duncan. “Good luck out there, Hunter.”

Duncan peered around the cage, wincing as the final Hunter died at the end of Erix’s blade. His stare was calculating; I could almost hear the wheels turning in his mind.

“Run, Duncan,” I said suddenly. “Get out of here and go whilst you can. He will not follow you. It is me he wants.”

Duncan sighed, reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulling out a closed fist. “Unfortunately, no can do. I’m going to need you alive, Robin. You’re my bounty.”

He thrust that fist through the bars and dropped something into my waiting palm. I knew what it was the moment the cold metal touched my skin.

It was a key. It was a chance.

“Free yourself and fight. Or are you going to let this Berserker ruin your only chance of avenging your father?”

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