Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:39:33 -0600
From: Michael Offutt <kavrik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Chapter 13-The Orb of Winter-Gay Science Fiction

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				   *****

			     Chapter Thirteen

   It took practically all day to scale the Bone Wall and descend the other
side.
   Ephram let go of the rope and dropped fifteen feet onto the meadow on
the other side of the wall. When he landed, he fell upon his knees and
kissed the rich brown earth. Behind him, Akagi, Henna, and Annie
arrived. Then Fiver and the others rappelled down into snow banks. Jareck
came last, untying the ropes as he came, hopping from ledge to handhold,
sometimes using the hooked blade of his axe, the Howl of Night, to grip a
protruding bone spur. Ephram marveled at the agility of the mountain dwarf,
who seemed to approach each challenge with courage rarely found in men
outside the Valion order.
   "My love, I'm exhausted," Annie said, settling into the mud next to
him. Her red hair fell over the left shoulder and caught the last rays of
the suns before they set in the west. It definitely accentuated the
freckles that dotted her face, something that Ephram liked very much. "I
think we should camp so that I can rub your sore feet and hands and you can
preach to all of us from The Book of Thomas. I'd love to hear the story of
how he runs with the wolves on Midwinter night."
   Ephram grinned sheepishly and said, "I-I don't think the others like
hearing about that stuff, and you've heard it, what, a hundred times now?"
   Annie shook her head and laughed. "Oh you're wrong, my handsome lover. I
could listen to stories of Thomas all day long." She pounced on Ephram,
pushing him to the cold earth and started kissing him over and over again
with those tender, pink lips. Ephram felt himself grow hard between his
legs.
   "We've got a ways to go yet," Brunhilda said striding up to them. The
fierce ursuul warrior looked ready for battle. "There's time enough for
that when we camp for the night."
   A black-skinned gladiator from far away Nymrodel, Brunhilda was the
tallest member of their party when Tomoluk was absent. She wore a plaited
gold skirt over ring mail that covered her whole body up to her neck,
leaving only her huge muscular arms bare. In her hand, she carried an axe
with a solid oak shaft and a blade of cold iron. Draped about her shoulders
was the skin of a dire wolf, a thing she claimed she killed with her bare
hands. That's quite a feat, considering they grew to the size of warhorses.
   Annie stood up and turned to face Brunhilda, whose snout already
bristled for what was coming.
   "You'll address him as Ser Ephram Skye," Annie said. "He's got a title
and lands, which is more than I can say for you, pit fighter."
   Brunhilda growled, baring her tusks.
   "Now now," Akagi said, extending a hand to Ephram who still lay on the
ground. Ephram thanked Akagi with a nod and then got to his feet. "We don't
know exactly where we are, and we're on the wrong side of the fence now. By
my calculation, the Well of Zanda is under a hundred miles from here, so we
need to proceed with caution."
   "We're at the edge of the Forest of Ice Maidens," Fiver said, readying
his bow. He stepped forward and regarded the giant ponderosa pine trees. As
tall as they were, nothing seemed big this close to the Bone Wall, which
soared behind them like an endless white cliff catching the last rays of
the sun. "By Rhya's nails...I never thought I'd see such a thing, much less
climb it."
   "You almost fell...twice," Salina told him. The elvish Valkyrie was busy
putting away the ropes and climbing gear. "We wouldn't have stood a chance
had Tomoluk and Hunter not consented to lure the hell crows away. We should
wait for them to cross and meet up with us."
   "How do we even know they're alive?" Fiver asked. "And thank ye, lady
for having my back on that last misstep."
   "Don't mention it," Salina said, wiping sweat from her brow.
   "Once they took off toward the river," Fiver continued, "I lost track of
'em. By the time we were high enough to where I could see the bridge
clearly, all I saw in my spyglass were the corpses of those hell birds. As
for Tomoluk and Hunter? I can't say where they went. But they killed them
all, that's for sure. Made it so all we had to do was focus on the
climbing."
   Ephram nodded. "Let's get away from here and into that forest. Fiver,
once we're a safe distance, pick a good place for us to camp."
   "There isn't a good place to camp, ser," Fiver replied. He bent to
examine tracks in the mud, rabbit ears twitching. "These are ice maiden
tracks. They've been through here in great numbers recently. It looks like
they may be headed for that fort we planned on taking out just to the
south."
   Annie grabbed Ephram by the wrist. "But my arms and feet ache, Eph," she
complained. "I don't want to go any further today."
   He smiled at her and said, "Come on. I'll carry you on my back. It'll be
fun."
   Akagi shook his head. "Ah love," he said. "How it reduces even the
greatest warriors to mindless oafs is an ailment doctors have been trying
to cure for centuries."
   Annie stuck her tongue out at him and then hopped on Ephram's back.
   Even when traveling amidst the trees, the Bone Wall rose above the
canopy to their immediate left like a gigantic mountain range that refused
to be ignored. They traveled in somber silence for the better part of an
hour. Fiver led them through the thick snow at the base of many tree
trunks, over small brooks, and through beautiful moonlit meadows to a
steep-cliffed canyon. Nearby, a gorgeous ice bridge that crossed the narrow
chasm, gleamed in the cold air all frost-covered and white with fresh
snow. Above them, clouds scooted in front of the stars.
   Fiver pointed down at a crevasse a mile or so from where they stood and
said quietly, "In there lies a local lair filled with ice maidens. This
whole area is their domain; I've been seeing their symbols on the trees and
rocks this entire time. All of its cleverly hidden unless you know what to
look for. My guess is that Zanda has made some kind of treaty with them to
put an outpost in their domain, and that they've broken it somehow."
   "Do you think we could find allies among the ice maidens?" Ephram
asked. "I do worship the god of winter after all. That may be good for
something."
   "Not at all, good knight. They would sooner eat you than speak with
you. I don't think that any of them are capable of emotion, kindness, or
compassion of any level. It has to do with their composition I think."
   "Their...composition?"
   "Their entire bodies are composed of frost that looks like flesh, their
hearts are beating things of pure living ice, and their blood is frigid
even if it appears as red as your own. Being so physically cold seems to
have rendered them incapable of compassion." Fiver hopped in front of them
and scrambled up a steep slope of snowy drifts to begin crossing the
bridge. Once on the other side, he signaled for them to follow.
   Wind whipped Ephram's cloak around and Annie held tight to his
shoulders. Behind them, the others followed with Akagi taking up the rear.
   After another forty minutes of travel, Fiver motioned for all of them to
crouch. Ephram set Annie down and then crawled forward on his belly to peer
beyond the edge of the tree line. Just beyond them lay a valley ringed on
both sides by forest and on the left by the enormous Bone Wall. A single
road wended its way through the snow, and a river free of ice flowed past a
keep made from white stone. Ephram counted six parapets topped in red
conical roofs. An outer wall enclosed the courtyard with a high and narrow
portcullis, probably suitable for two horses to travel abreast of each
other.
   "That's more of an outpost than I thought we'd find. I'd think no more
than a single garrison of fifty men could find shelter there," Ephram
said. "Hot springs keep the river free of ice; I can see steam rising up
from them."
   "What are we looking at gentlemen?" Henna asked, joining them at snow
drift.
   "Just watch," Fiver said, so that's what they did.
   Ephram saw gray smoke rising from chimneys. It was a clear indication
that warm fires burned within those walls. The portcullis opened and twenty
heavily armored soldiers displaying the flag of the Blades Acuuarum rode
forth on the backs of ice mares, hooves churning up thick gobbets of
snow. Without warning, the featureless moonlit plain erupted on either side
of the road and red haired, white-faced women carrying a serrated sword in
each hand leapt up from the ground. Ephram was shocked and amused at the
same time.
   "I count two score," Jareck said as he fell next to them. The others
soon joined. "And something else there—what in Djoser's name is that?"
Ephram followed his index finger which was pointing to a great lump in the
snow. From this distance, it looked like a small hill. Only, this hill was
moving.
   The ground rumbled and quivered.
   A huge shaggy white beast with enormous horns made of ivory that twisted
and curled about its head rose up from the valley floor. This massive
creature shook out its long tangled locks of unkempt hair. Huge snowballs
as large as wagon wheels dangled from the thing's body like ice on frozen
hemp rope. A colossus, the white beast was fully half the size of the stone
keep itself, had four blue eyes, and a maw with fangs that Ephram surmised
were at least the length of his leg from groin to toe.
   "Great Kylo's ghost," Ephram swore.
   "A chaggeroth," Henna said. "It's a fey giant of the old world, and I
thought them extinct. They feed on ice dragons, of which there are plenty
here in Zanda. The chaggeroth along with the ice dragons are at the top of
the food chain in the wilds of this insane country."
   Ephram watched as the chaggeroth swept a huge clawed forearm through the
ranks of mounted soldiers, tossing them from the backs of the translucent
ice mares. The tips of the chaggeroth's claws looked clear as ice and razor
sharp, but Ephram suspected they'd be hard as forged steel. However, the
soldiers riding under the banner of the Blades Acuuarum were not to be so
easily dismissed. Before his eyes, their armor repaired itself, and one by
one the men got up, growing long claws from their gauntlets.
   Salina drew in a sharp breath. "By the gods, no. Those aren't
men. They're necrolords of Zanda."
   "We've seen the necrolords before," Shae explained. "They mowed through
a legion of cyclo-titan imperial legionnaires like they were nothing. They
don't use swords like conventional warriors. Instead, they're fighters
trained in hand-to-hand combat. They have enormous steel claws on the ends
of incredibly muscled fingers and the ferocious living armor they wear is
coated in spikes meant to pierce as well as protect. They get you in close
quarters, and you're in trouble."
   "How can they wield those knives on their fingers?" Akagi asked. "It
gives me arthritis just thinking about it."
   "Training," Salina said. "They aren't proportioned like you or I. Their
hands are mutated gnarled things that result from broken bones forced to
heal over and over again through dark magic. Many of their joints are so
encased in bone that they're no longer flexible, so they use their slaves
to perform activities that require fine manipulations."
   "They're also undead," Henna said. "Once the men reach a certain age,
they're murdered and summoned back to the world by a necromancer. Their
strength is maintained by drinking the blood of the living."
   "I didn't know that," Salina said. "Are you saying that they're
vampires?"
   "Not all that drink blood are vampires," Annie said, rolling her
eyes. "Some who partake just enjoy the taste of life."
   Henna gave Annie a strange look, and then said, "They drink blood to
live, but the act of taking blood doesn't change you into one of
them. That's something only a powerful necromancer can do."
   "Necromancy," Ephram said, with a definite tone of disdain in his
voice. "The dreadful practice should be stamped out. I won't complain at
all if we happen to torch the Girl's Academy of Lianon Pard" on the way out
of town. That vile necromantic school has churned out more evil doers over
the years than there are murderers in Noremost."
   Down below, the carnage kicked up a notch, and Ephram licked his chapped
lips. The ice maidens shrieked and attacked the necrolords. He saw the edge
of weapons gleam and body parts fly off into the snow. Blood that looked
black in the silver moonlight erupted from necrolord and ice maiden alike
staining the snow with the remnants of their carnage.
   Nothing, however, could harm the invincible chaggeroth.
   Ephram watched as two necrolords in ornate living black armor raced
toward the icy behemoth. They slashed at the chaggeroth with their long
steel fingers. It looked like their weapons were unable to penetrate the
thing's thick white hide. In response to the assault, the chaggeroth let
out a monstrous bellow and a ball of ice flew from its mouth and exploded
in a cascade of deadly ice shards. Five necrolords fell dead, the ice
shards that erupted from the detonating sphere tore them limb from limb in
a shower more deadly than a storm of glass. The ice slashed through flesh,
bone, and even plate armor as if it were wet tissue paper.
   "Does the chaggeroth have a weakness?" Ephram asked.
   "One," Henna said. "It's immune to most magic and immune to blades. I
have a few spells that might affect it, but they won't kill it. There's a
pearl on the back of its neck that can only be shattered by a magical
weapon. If this happens, the Chaggeroth dies."
   "The thing stands thirty feet off the ground," Akagi said. "There's no
fucking way I can get to that."
   "At least thirty feet," Ephram added. "When it stands on its hind legs
there, it's taller." He looked at Akagi, "If we can get it down to your
level, do you think you can destroy the pearl with your kanabo?"
   Akagi's expression changed to one of puzzlement. "Are you suggesting we
go down there and attack?"
   "Look," Ephram stated, "Now is the best time. They won't be expecting an
assault, the gate is open to that outpost, and it won't be once this battle
ends. And if we wait, there's no telling what's going to arrive from the
holy city by morning. We've lost a lot of men, but there could still be a
traitor in our ranks right now. I'm not accusing anyone here with any
specific crime, but it's foolish to think that two Timeron knights with
skeletal titans made from the teeth of the Golden Hydra just managed to
stumble across our camp by accident. Someone got word to them, and because
of that, Zanda and Kahket knows we're here somewhere. I think they sent
Timeron knight scouts out from every keep up and down the wall; that's 150
leagues north and south. It's just this one that found us. If we don't
seize our opportunity now, we lose all chance to kill everyone in that
fortress. More troops could show up, or some horrible demon even worse than
the chaggeroth could come bounding down that road."
   "If we take the outpost, won't they suspect something after they don't
hear from them?" Jareck asked.
   "Of course, but that buys us time. By then we should be well on our way
into the holy city or there already. Once within the city, we hide," Ephram
said. "Half a million people live in Zanda. They'd have to tear apart the
place brick by brick to ferret us out."
   "I wouldn't put it past Kahket to do that," Shae said.
   "I wouldn't either," Akagi replied, "but it's a matter of math. There
just aren't enough resources for a door-to-door search of that scale,
especially if we keep mobile. Zanda's a sprawling metropolis that's
overgrown its walls, and it's surrounded in foothills with thousands of
caves and strange passages that go both away and under the city. We make it
to Zanda and Kahket will have one choice: to wait for us to strike."
   "What of the god of chaos and illusion?" Dallin Christopher asked. Up
until now, the bard had held his tongue just content to listen. "He's flesh
and blood now. He could search for us with his mind."
   "I'm already taking care of that," Henna said. "When we landed on the
shoreline, I cast a spell over all of us to make us appear as a tree to
anything that used psychic means to seek us out. The only one I couldn't
affect was Hunter, but he's got something else that shields him. Something
incredibly strong. As long as we don't stand before the All-Seeing Eye
itself, we should be okay."
   Akagi smiled. "Eph, have I told you how glad I am that you brought a
druid along?"
   Henna grinned and winked at Akagi. Then she asked, "Who's all going? Is
it just Ephram and Akagi?"
   "No one has to come on this," Ephram said. "Akagi and I are more than
capable of handling ourselves. In fact, I recommend that you stay safe
behind this hill and wait 'til we signal to you that it's safe."
   "I'll wait up here," Annie said, with just a hint of relief. "Godspeed,
and...I love you."
   Ephram cracked a smile but stopped short of saying the "L" word.
   "The rest of us are going, Eph," Salina said. "You can't face that thing
alone." He started to protest but she just said, "Shut up. Let us help."
   "You guys get the attention of the chaggeroth," Henna said. "I'll knock
it down so that you can get at the pearl, Akagi."
   "Knock it down? How?" Akagi asked.
   "You'll just have to see," Henna said grinning. "I'm not a disciple of
the Great Forest Spirit for nothing."
   "I guess that's that," Jareck said. "Good, all this talk was putting me
to sleep."
   Ephram charged down the hill, turning invisible in the snow. Once at the
bottom, he raced up behind a necrolord that had just killed an ice
maiden. Up close, these necrolords were tall, about seven feet, and the
thing towered over Ephram making him feel small even though he wasn't. It
withdrew the steel spines that attached to the fingers of its gauntlets and
tossed the bloody body at his feet. Then, it slowly whirled on Ephram,
sniffing the air, realizing that what it smelt belonged to neither
necrolord nor ice maiden, but something else—something fresh.
   "Warm blood," the necrolord shrieked.
   Its open mouth was all fangs, its eyes glowed crimson, and skin looked
bloodless. Long strands of hair hung down passed its waist. Ephram saw that
its belt buckle resembled an ornate skull with twisted horns. Dangling from
the waist, the necrolord wore a black steel skirt with iron rings fastened
upon it. The bottom swept the snow where clawed boots left tracks that
looked like those belonging to a reptile. From the necrolord's back draped
a cape, stretched tightly between steel spines to look like black wings.
   "Come and get it, big boy," Ephram taunted with his fingers.
   The necrolord lunged with astonishing speed, diving and slashing at him
with his hands; snow flew up in chunks from where Ephram stood. The Crimson
Guard charged in, knocking the hands aside with his shield and cutting with
his sword. He struck the necrolord in the chest with the edge of his blade;
it went right through the cuirass and produced a sickening thud. The
necrolord stumbled and fell, landing with a heavy plop in the snow.
   Next to him, Akagi attacked an ice maiden who whirled to face him as he
materialized from the gloom. Her red hair flew about her shoulders; blue
armor frosted over in a blistering aura of intense cold that emanated
outward from the surface of her skin.
   She swung at Akagi with her serrated blades; Akagi caught both on his
kanabo, deflected them harmlessly to one side, and then spun rapidly enough
to catch her off balance. The heavy iron club broke the ice maiden's spine
and she fell into the snow, spewing blood from her mouth.
   Two ice maidens charged both Shae and Salina with joyous shrieks that
promised exquisite pain at their hands. They slashed at the two Valkyrie
warriors furiously, blades almost singing in the frigid air. The two elves
spun around so fast that the snow swirled in a whirlwind about their
feet. Deftly, Salina and Shae parried the ice maiden's blows using their
silver scimitars to block, punch, and deflect the attacks that rained down
upon each of them almost simultaneously.
   Salina cut one of the ice maiden's serrated swords in half with her
scimitar and knocked that her assailant to the ground with a kick to the
head. Shae beheaded the other and then helped Salina to dispatch her foe in
a swift double-team effort.
   As Ephram killed his own ice maiden, he whirled to come face to face
with the chaggeroth. The colossal giant roared at him, strangely able to
detect the invisible knight. Then it hurled an ice bomb which exploded in a
deadly shower of violent shards. He just stood there and took it full in
the chest, completely immune to the giant's attack because Ephram suffered
no damage from cold or ice due to his faith.
   Behind him, Dallin Christopher tossed the dwarf Jareck into the air. The
dwarf landed on a necrolord's shoulders and drove his axe straight through
its face. Then he leapt off, did a summersault in mid-air, and landed right
as the air was clearing from the explosion of ice.
   Ephram killed an ice maiden on his left by shattering her jaw with a
blow from his gauntlet; he engaged a necrolord on his right by parrying the
finger blades with his sword.
   Next to the two elvish women, Dallin Christopher attacked with a
rapier. The bard moved his blade so quickly and deftly it almost seemed
like he was fencing. It was much different than Valion training, but also
more elegant. His opponent, a necrolord, made a fatal error: he followed
through with a critical misstep that caused him to overreach by a fraction
of an inch. Against a lesser opponent, it wouldn't have mattered. Against
Dallin Christopher, the necrolord was finished.
   Dallin deked inside and swung the blade up through the groin, slaying
the necrolord in a shower of foul blood.
   Ephram signaled Akagi to get ready with a single fist pump.
   The Crimson Guard tucked and rolled under the chaggeroth, ducked under
the attack from another of the necrolords, and swung upward with his
gauntlet into that necrolord's solar plexus. Valion knights practiced for
years with their gauntlets, performing special maneuvers and knowing
exactly where to fist punch something where it would do the most
damage. Here, Ephram's athleticism (and strange powers granted to him
through the god of war) were on full display, as he smashed his fist home
ten times in under a second. The shriek of metal and the crunch of bone
filled the air, and Ephram's fist exploded through the undead thing's back,
taking bits of spine with it and spraying blood, bone, and metal in a
circle. Ephram tore his fist free of the limp body.
   Suddenly Brunhilda screamed, and Ephram's heart almost stopped.
   Ephram watched as the great ursuul warrior got run through from
behind. She dropped to her knees in pain, metal spines protruded from her
chest dripping blood. Then the necrolord that had skewered Brunhilda
withdrew the needle-like fingers cackling, only to get an elbow from
Brunhilda that shattered its teeth into small bone chips. Then she swung
her axe about in a brutal arc and lopped off its head. Wounds still
spurting blood, Brunhilda managed to get to her feet and staggered away
from the fight.
   Ephram couldn't do anything for her right now.
   The chaggeroth roared in confusion as glowing green vines appeared and
looped around its horns. As the vines slammed into the ground, snow
fountained upward in a white haze. The chaggeroth bellowed, fighting the
strange plants until at long last, they managed to pulled the entangled fey
into the very ice, toppling it.
   Go Henna, Ephram thought. The druidess stood on the sidelines of the
battle, hands glowing green with her magic, and eyes staring intently at
the mighty adversary now brought low by her plant sorcery.
   Brunhilda, despite her wounds, intercepted two ice maidens charging in
Henna's direction. Swinging her axe and letting loose a battle cry, she
managed to shatter their weapons and behead them both without sustaining
further wounds.
   A lunatic, that one, Ephram thought. But a brave lunatic.
   Akagi leapt onto the back of the chaggeroth and attacked the glittering
pearl with his kanabo. It shattered with one blow from his magical weapon.
   Simultaneously, three of the necrolords bull-rushed Ephram. The Crimson
Guard parried weapon blows with his sword and shield, and punched one into
the body of the Chaggeroth where Jareck cut off its head from behind.
   Then, Ephram punched the second; parried attacks from the third by
snapping his shield about with a loud "clang."
   When it came at him again, Ephram amputated the necrolord's arms. Then
Akagi smashed his the end of his kanabo through the thing's skull, spraying
pink brains over the snow.
   "Nice of you to join us," Ephram said to the ronin.
   Akagi bowed. "I saw you could use some help down here."
   Next to them, the chaggeroth shuddered, let out a breath, and then died.
   The battle over, the invisible knight dropped his skin of Thomas and
hugged Akagi in a victory embrace. "By Thomas, we did it!"
   Akagi laughed and looked around at the bodies that lay strewn around in
front of the keep. However, at their backs, Brunhilda collapsed.
   Ephram grimaced and ran over to the ursuul gladiator.
   "We need to get her inside," Henna said, arriving shortly
thereafter. "Her wounds are too grave to treat here in the open."
   "Aye and we've had a full day at that," Jareck said. "As much as I don't
like it, the keep's where we should hole up until morning."
   Ephram signaled Annie to come down and join them. As the red-head waded
through knee deep snow, he nodded in agreement. "I would have liked to put
some distance between us and that Bone Wall," he said, "but sometimes we
don't have many choices." Ephram bent down and lifted the ursuul warrior
into his arms.
   Brunhilda looked at him weakly. "Did we win?"
   "Yes," Ephram said.
   They started for the small keep with its high narrow walls and tall main
central tower. The portcullis was still raised and hung in place above
Ephram by about thirty feet. Fearless, he walked through the gate. The
others cautiously looked around for any sign of life, but there was none to
be had. Once they reached the courtyard inside, a stillness in the air
settled about them, for the wind could not reach this place. Snowflakes and
bits of ice sifted down from the empty frost-covered walls, and beyond them
the great Bone Wall rose in the moonlight like a ghastly cliff marking the
edge of the world.

				   *****

Chapter Twenty-Five is now available to read at
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label
"The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.

Are there any artists out there willing to draw some pics for my story? If
so, please email me.

There is an "Orb of Winter" map now in both the NEWS section of my website
and in the FORUMS of my website.

If you go to my website directly from this posting, you will want to begin
with "CHAPTER NINE" in the forums.