Over the dull, atonal rushing sound of the rain, the patter of rain on leaves and ferns and bushes and the almost constant low rumble of thunder, Katarina heard it: chanting. She jerked her head at Sasaki, who nodded, and they dropped into a crouch at the base of some mammoth tree trunk.
"They're not making an effort to stay hidden, I think." Sasaki hissed, and Katarina nodded.
"That tree over there." Sasaki whispered, gesturing. "Cover me." Without giving Katarina time to react she took off, running to the tree she'd pointed out, and crouched. She peeked in a few directions, and then made a 'come-along' gesture. Katarina trotted over, and spent a few minutes examining the path they'd taken to get here from Higgenfal.
Somewhere to the north, fifty or seventy miles or so, the river that supposedly made its headwaters in the great Spine of Hesperia split in two courses. The western river had been dammed to create the small lake Katarina and Sasaki had visited earlier, and the eastern fork eventually joined another river, which in turn joined another and still another until it flowed down to the Gulf of Mirras at Einsamkeit.
Sasaki and Katarina had tracked whoever had taken Mystia from the church down to near the river's edge. Were they going to take her by boat somewhere else? The chanting didn't seem to support that theory.
After carefully checking their route back, she scanned the trees and bushes for signs of a guard or sentries, but in the dim light and the pounding of the rain, someone could be fifteen feet in front of her and she wouldn't be able to tell.
"Behind is clear." She hissed to Sasaki, who nodded.
Katarina turned to look ahead, but still couldn't see much. Up ahead there was the flickering light of campfires or torches and a regularly pulsing pale light that she guessed was probably magical. They moved closer to the camp in short spurts, taking the time to check for sentries, and as they drew closer, the chanting resolved itself into several distinct strains: There was a low chant of what sounded like "yom, yom, yom", a high pitched piping voice seemed to caper through the trees, shrieking "tekili-li! tekili-li! tekili-li!" and still a third voice that gibbered incomprehensibly much like the clucking of a chicken.
As they moved to another tree, they could finally see into the camp, which was set up on a short meadow with tumbled ruins that ended in a straight drop to the furiously churning river below.
Mutants of all sorts filled the small glade. Things that had the upper bodies of women but the lower portions of slugs dragged their ponderous bulk over the grass, leaving rancid slime trails. They gazed vacantly at everything with vapid, unblinking eyes on stalks, and their hands made wavering gestures. A hunched man with skin the color of charred flesh crouched near one of the fires. Erupting out of his skin in irregular, rashlike patches were clusters of eyes that gazed stupidly at everything.
Some hunched and bulbous horror that was mercifully indistinct in the low light of the campfires lay near a stone slab that was covered in indistinct dark stains.
"By the Rings, that's disgusting." Sasaki muttered under her breath and turned away. Katarina made a face and turned away as well.
"'By the Rings'?" Katarina asked under her breath as she peered around the trunk. "I thought you didn't follow the Rings anymore." Katarina inquired.
"Oh, fuck off." Sasaki hissed irritably. "It's a habit." She peeked over the thick bole of the tree. Only a dozen running steps separated them from the pair of slug girls.
A human figure swathed in tattered clothing consulted a handful of crumpled pages and gripped a staff, the source of the pulsing magical light. "Tonight is the night I summon a god for you!" He announced to the mutants, who didn't seem to pay attention to him and continued their ceaseless chanting. "I shall summon Kringolith the Unbowed, who will grant us power and dominion over people as they once had power over us!" He declared imperiously. He gestured at the stained slab. "Bring forth our sacrifice!"
Katarina nodded in grim triumph. "Got you." She sneered at the man.
The indistinct mound by the fire shivered, the flesh rippling as it simultaneously rose up and unfolded, revealing dozens of strangely jointed arms with grasping hands and filthy nails. A human-like head emerged on a neck too long for it, draped in thick black hair. It grinned maliciously in the low, flickering light, a wide, inhuman grin that was improbably large, too large for the size of the face, with broad, flat, spatulate teeth like that of a horse or a mule.
The hands grasped and pulled and pushed at the earth as it rose up, and the thing laughed, a rusty, throaty sound as it dragged a battered form with a wispy cloud of blonde hair out from underneath it and placed the body atop the altar. Even from this distance Katarina could recognize the form of Mystia.
"We're going to have to stop them." Katarina whispered to Sasaki, who nodded.
"You're the Witch Hunter." Sasaki whispered fiercely. "What's the plan? Run in, gun blazing?" She asked, and glanced back at the taller woman.
"No." Katarina replied shortly. "I count... fourteen of those things." She muttered. "I have the bullets- you saw me make twice that number- but I can only shoot three at a time."
"I put us north of them." Sasaki advised, and Katarina nodded.
"I think we should flank them and hit them straight on." The Witch Hunter pointed. "I'll attack the mage from there, and they'll have their backs to the river." She decided, pointing to a short outcrop of rock that was almost directly behind the mage. "You stay here, and cut into them when they run your way. I figure they'll come this way when I start shooting." She glanced at the smaller woman. "You think you can handle that?" She asked, and Sasaki nodded. "Don't waste your worry on me. That mage- I'll leave him to you. He's your specialty, after all. Leave the rest to me."
Katarina checked her gun in her holster. In this rain it could get fouled quickly. She eased the sword from her scabbard and moved carefully from tree to tree, keeping the camp on her left as she circled around. She moved as quickly as she dared, hoping that no sentries were out. She settled her back against a tree and was judging the distances for her next dash when a voice gurgled at her from the tree.
"S-sweet thing." it giggled, and she moved without thinking, thrusting her sword straight up. The blade bit into flesh as she stood and twisted, the thing losing its grip on the tree and falling heavily to the wet grass. Her blade had gone directly into its mouth and down its gullet. Katarina yanked her blade free and grimaced in disgust; the blood was blackish and lumpy. A surge of hate rose up in her, twisting her pretty features. Savagely, she thrust her blade into the thing's body several times, twisting the blade as she yanked it out. "Vile thing." She spat, and realizing her predicament, dashed off to the next tree.
Overhead there was a crack of leathery pinions and the thunderous sound of heavy wingbeats, forcing Katarina to dive at the nearest bush for cover.
"What is this?" A clear voice rang out. Katarina had a shadowy impression of massive, batlike wings as something touched down by one of the sputtering fires.
"What is this, Karingdol?" A female voice cracked out. "I thought you were indoctrinating another mage into your cult."
The figure was taller than any man, nearly seven feet in height, but was obviously female. At first Katarina assumed she was dressed in a snug-fitting scale armor, but as she focused, the woman herself seemed to be covered in scales. She had a pair of horns erupting from her skull and a pair of massive wings from her back. Loosely curled around her feet was a lengthy, reptilian tail.
The robed man gestured angrily at the woman. "Get out of here, Cerioth." He scolded disdainfully. "You're disrupting the ceremony. Your part is finished. Go back to the rest of your kin and leave me be." He replied irritably.
The woman raised a bow that was about as tall as Sasaki. "I am not your underling, you do not command me. Now answer my question: What is this? A 'sacrifice'? You think to summon a demon?"
The man turned to the winged woman. "So what if I am? Your role in this is complete." He replied testily. "I asked you to get the mage from that village for me, and you did." He spat, obviously uncomfortable. "What does it matter to you what I do with her?"
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
The woman gestured angrily. "Where are your protection wards? Your pillars? You don't know the first thing of demon summoning. You're going to get yourself and all these..." She glanced around the glade and her face twisted in disgust. "...things... killed." She turned back to Karingdol. "And what would be the result then? A demon, free and unfettered in the world."
Strange that a beastwoman would fear a demon, Katarina mused. Ultimately it didn't matter; between Katarina and Sasaki, hopefully everything here would die tonight.
"Of course I know what I'm doing. Kringolith will possess the young mage's body and then he will in turn grant us power. I have foreseen it. I have not been lazy; I have been in contact with him through many rituals!" He argued, gesticulating angrily.
The winged woman stared at him, her head slowly tilting to the side, her expression turning blank, as if she were observing some new, particularly stupid creature.
There was another exchange of dialogue Katarina couldn't hear over the rainfall, the winged woman turned and seemed to melt into the night, moving out of sight.
"Stupid bitch." Karingdol cursed. "All right, all right, shut up, shut up." He yelled at the mutants. "I need to concentrate." The command didn't seem to have any effect as those that chanted continued to do so.
Katarina couldn't tell how long ago she'd left Sasaki. Circling the camp wouldn't have been easy in daylight with clear skies. There were large open spaces, plenty of twigs and roots and rocks to trip the feet. In this torrential downpour it was even worse. Puddles splashed underfoot. Rain tapped on leaves. She had only a few feet of uncertain visibility around her. The ground was lumpy and irregular, and she couldn't even see the spot she'd pointed out to Sasaki before she moved.
"Goddess, please." She prayed in a tight whisper, and rolled her eyes. What was she to pray for? That they wouldn't see her? They wouldn't break and charge her the moment she opened fire? That Sasaki would stay? "Lend me your fury." She decided. "Lend me your hate. If it's your will that these blighted things die tonight, let my aim not falter." She finished.
She peeked around the tree she was behind, and at that moment lightning split the sky, revealing Katarina was not but a few feet from the boulder she'd pointed out to Sasaki. From this angle, the rock didn't look difficult to climb, but rainwater sheeted down the rock relentlessly. She grit her teeth, feeling her stomach churn, and she bolted from her spot, trusting her momentum to carry her at least partway up the lumpy rock. As she hit the rock, a scrawny thing, something that looked at least something like a man, though hunched with stumpy legs and long spindly arms with unnatural joints rose up from a shadowy cleft. Katarina didn't hesitate; letting out a wordless scream she brought her saber in a hard, savage arc, shearing through flesh and ribs and organs. When her blade slammed into the things' spine, she continued running up the rock, forcing her blade through the bone, punching through the thing's back. As she completed her slash, the thing fell apart in two pieces; the head and one arm, the rest of the body fell away and slithered bonelessly down the other side of the boulder, right into the camp.
A brief jolt of adrenaline coursed through her, guilt and shame that she'd lost the element of surprise.
"Fine." She spat, and drew her gun with her other hand. Katarina judged the distances as the mage gaped up at her with unfiltered confusion. If it were daylight, with no rain, she would be confident in her skill, but with the darkness and the pouring rain she didn't think she'd be able to land a fatal shot.
As she leveled her gun a preternatural calm settled over her. Everything fell away. This was who she was. She was never more sure of who and what she was than at this moment. She had practically been born a Witch Hunter, guided and shaped and cultivated to accomplish but one task, the one task that lay in front of her within easy reach. She had but to pull the trigger. She whispered a prayer to the Golden Lady, a protective spell that extended a barrier around her that cancelled out and suppressed magic in a radius around her. She twisted a little and braced with her feet, and fired when she was certain she would make a sure shot.
The crack of the pistol drew everyone's eye immediately. Flinging soggy ropes of hair out of her face, Katarina shouted.
"For the crimes of heresy and mutation, for the crime of demonancy and witchcraft, you are all sentenced to death! By the Goddesses' holy name, none shall survive!"
The mage staggered, clutching his arm, the staff falling from his puckered fingers. "Kill her!" He screeched, and Katarina fired again. The man crumpled, clutching his hip. Katarina raised her sword and leapt to the first that moved to intercept her, the man with the angry, charred flesh and clusters of eyes.
"Witch Hunter?" the man snarled as he bounded to meet her. "Fuck off, Witch Hunter." He snarled. "You have no power here." He parried her blade with his arm casually, the blade scraped against the man's hardened flesh harmlessly.
"Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Katarina replied, quoting from the Goddesses' teachings as she dodged a blow from his hardened fists.
Katarina rained slashes on the man, but he ducked, dodged, and shrugged off the score of strokes that hit him effortlessly. His skin was rough and hard and deflected her sword like armor. The clusters of eyes erupting from his flesh like rancid boils glanced about frantically, each seemingly searching for something.
Katarina thrust with her sword at one of the clusters on the man's chest, between the sternum and his nipple, grimacing with revulsion. The blade punched through the eyes and into the flesh beneath; jets of clear jelly from the ruptured sclerae slimed her blade. The man screamed and delivered a savage right hook to Katarina.
Her head rocked back, but she shoved her blade in deeper with an angry scream of her own. The charred man groaned breathlessly as the blade punched through his lung. He sagged to the ground bonelessly and Katarina tugged her blade out with an angry twist. Frothy blood spurted and the mutant made weak noises as he died.
She twisted, seeking a new foe. She spotted Sasaki as the smaller woman darted towards one of the slug girls, her blade flashing. One seemed to simply explode into carved pieces of flesh, the other lost her head, flying off a short distance into the murky gloom.
The blighted many-armed mutant scuttled, spiderlike, towards Katarina, teeth clicking, chittering laughter. It possessed sixteen pairs of oddly jointed limbs, each ending in a long hands with prodigious fingers, dragging a bloated, fleshy, abdominal sac behind it. It moved with unerring speed and slapped Katarina's gun out of her hand with a numbing blow to her wrist, while other limbs reached for her, gnarled fists pummelling her down with a relentless fusillade of blows. Katarina crumpled under the onslaught, screaming a prayer to the Golden Lady.
Sasaki attacked the thing from the side, her sword a thin line that glimmered in the uncertain light that flickered here and there. Blood sprayed as a dozen cuts appeared. It turned towards Sasaki and lost an arm when it reached for her, drawing back a bloody nub.
"You..." It gurgled with a sibilant rage, and then lunged at Sasaki, abandoning Katarina, who lay in the soggy grass, dazed and face purpled from bruises.
Sasaki backpedaled as the thing picked up detritus to fling at her. "Katarina!" She yelled as she blocked a blow from a shattered tree branch.
Katarina struggled to turn over onto her side. She felt like she'd been liberally worked over with a meat tenderizer.
"Hey Katarina, a little help?" Sasaki yelped, ducking to the side. The thing she fought chattered and spat at her. Katarina rolled to her feet unsteadily and tried to pick up her sword.
"Don't worry Sasaki, you've got him right where you want him." She croaked, and Sasaki laughed. "Of course I do." She called back sarcastically.
Katarina flexed her fingers experimentally. They were numb and jittery, but after a moment she decided she could still hold her sword. She clenched her hand around the grip as tightly as she could, and took a staggering step, then two, and then she was running. Unsteadily at first, but each step seemed to be better than the one before it. Katarina slammed into the fleshy ovoid that was the abdomen of the mutant, using her momentum and weight to drive her sword in up to the basket. The thing screamed, and Katarina planted her foot and heaved, dragging her sword out of it's side, sawing and twisting and tearing a great bloody rent. It lurched forward a few steps and collapsed, its cries getting weaker with every breath.
"Thanks, towhead." Sasaki stated dourly, picking herself up and retrieving her sword.
"Towhead?" Katarina replied quizzically.
"Huh?" Sasaki replied, and then brightened, her grin refreshing. "Oh. Out in the bay of Einsamkeit they call white-hairs like yourself 'towheads'. Don't ask me why, cause I don't get it."
Katarina blew out a breath. "Whatever."
"Are we done here? 'cause I think we're done here." Sasaki continued, glancing around. "I don't think there's anything left alive, but if you wanna double-check, that's fine." Her eyes narrowed. "Yon mage is still alive." She said, and gestured with her sword.
Katarina turned, and the man she'd shot twice was struggling to rise. Her first shot had taken him in the shoulder, the second shot had shattered his pelvis.
"Stupid bitch." He spat at her, and Katarina sighed, raising her sword. She pushed him down with her foot, boot pressing into his gasping chest.
"I told you the Goddess would lead me to you." She greeted him coolly. His eyes widened in realization as Katarina lay the point of her sword at his neck.
"In the name of the Golden Lady, die." She spat, and drove her sword into his neck.
Katarina jerked her sword free, and turned back to Sasaki. "Where's that winged one?" She asked.
Sasaki glanced around the glade. "I'm not sure." She replied listlessly. "You're talking about the one with the bow, right? I killed a bunch of things, but I don't think I got her." She offered.
Katarina frowned. "That one was the pastor's killer." She replied. "I'd hoped to at least avenge him."
Sasaki snorted. "He was an ass." She replied dismissively.
"He was a member of the Holy Church, Sasaki." Katarina gently reminded her. Sasaki rolled her eyes, but nodded.
Sasaki gestured at Mystia, who lay weakly gasping on the stone that was to serve as their sacrificial altar. "A shame for this one." She muttered, taking in the girl's torn clothes and conspicuous blood. "Looks like that thing had its way with her." She grimaced, and cast a glance at Katarina. "Shall I?" She asked, and raised her sword. Katarina shook her head.
"She's my responsibility." Katarina replied through swollen lips, and knelt. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Mystia." She apologised. "Go into the Golden Lady's merciful embrace." She prayed, and slid her sword into the woman's chest.
"Katarina, we should be getting back to town." Sasaki advised after a long moment. Katarina nodded, and gestured. "First, though, I have to gather proofs of my kills." She advised. "I have to turn in proof that these mages died at my hand." She explained, and Sasaki nodded. "How do they confirm it?" She asked curiously.
"Scrying. They can view the mages' last moments." She replied simply.