At the base of the hill was Temson, a little village south of the country. Sir Ashford Dawn made his way through the rain-slicked grass. The rains had continued for three days straight and it did not seem like they would let up soon. The sky darkened as the water soaked through to his smallclothes. He had been walking for miles, and the weight of his sodden cloak did not make things easier.
He slipped in the mud and fell on his hands and knees. He sucked air through his teeth when he felt a pain in his palm. What was that? he thought as he raised his cut, muddy hand to his face. Below him, he saw the gleam of steel; a dagger forgotten by its owner.
However, when Ashford lifted a small rock next to it, he could see the ribs and half of a cracked skull buried in the muck. Twelve hells, thought Ashford with astonishment, they did warn me about this horrid village, but this ...
Even in the rainfall, he knelt and prayed for the poor soul. It was what the knights of Diacedes, the beloved Father in the Land of Light, did. May you rest in peace, whoever you are, Ashford began, may your sins be forgiven. May your soul find tranquility ...
When he was through with his sacred duty, the holy knight stood up and headed into the village. Most of the villagers had taken refuge from the rains inside their houses. Ashford saw one man with his dog, sitting under a wooden awning and eating bread and boiled eggs and decided to ask him the whereabouts of the woman named Milady Malice.
"Pardon me, sir," Ashford asked the man politely.
He grunted and looked up, awaiting his visitor's inquiry.
"May I ask," Ashford began, "do you know where I can find Milady Malice?"
"Ah," said the man as he scratched behind an ear of his dog, "the witch, huh?"
Ashford expected him to say more, but when the man didn't, he explained himself.
"Well, yes," said Ashford, "I need to see her. She is an expert in the arts of healing."
"No, she's not, and you know it," the man retorted. "Why don't you call her what she is, fool knight? She's a witch." The man pointed at the silver symbol of Diacedes hanging on his neck by a cord: it was similar to the shape of a horseshoe.
"Please, sir, there is no need—" Ashford started to say.
"What? Are you here to behead her as you do with all the other witches?" The man growled, his dog becoming just as agitated.
"She is not in any danger."
"I've heard that before from many knights of your order, sir, during the Inquisition!"
"I promise, I will not harm this woman. I need her help to heal my wife who is very ill."
"Hmph. Why don't you just pray for her illness to pass, eh? I suppose it didn't work and that is why you are here seeking Milady. The help of a witch."
"Diacedes is merciful to all men, and he who serves others serves him," Sir Ashford said as he bristled.
Though, he said this more for himself than for the man. This woman may serve fiends and demons, but perhaps she will reach salvation if she helps a holy knight like me. Because of this, Ashford believed this quest was one truly made to serve his god.
The man snorted and laughed.
"If you say that nonsense to Milady, she'll turn you to a frog!" the man shook his head, "serving Diacedes ... "
"So you will not assist me?" asked Sir Ashford.
"No," said the man as he poured ale into a bowl on the floor for his dog to lap up, "no, I happen to like Milady a lot and would rather not see her dead." He drank some of the ale in a cup and pointed at his dog, "she healed my Flint. He's a good boy, look at him. Ripped and tossed around by a bear, he was, and only a drop of blood left in his veins when I found him. Now, look at him."
I've never taken an innocent life, he told himself, all who have died by my or my brothers-in-arms' sword were devil-spawn and heretics that were guilty of heinous crimes. Though some of the witches and warlocks that were dragged from their huts in the woods did not have the look of vileness in their eyes. Rows and rows of them, Sir Ashford remembered, hung from gallows as their flesh rotted, their fly and maggot-ridden mouths never again to speak such incantations that threatened the Most High. Some days he would question if the Inquisition was right or wrong, but such thoughts he feared would lead him to question his faith.
The treatment had been the same in the communities of men and women of weaker faith. Someone even spat at him and called him a holy bastard. He wanted to shout at this man for the disrespect against his order, but that was not how a knight of Diacedes should act.
Sir Ashford gave him a stiff nod and left the man to his dinner. He headed down the road, looking for more pleasant villagers. From out of the corner of a cottage, a little boy with hay colored hair and black eyes, about five years old, approached him.
"You are searching for Milady Malice," the child stated without emotion.
The boy's eyes were wide and he did not move his gaze from the knight's face.
"Yes," said Ashford wary at the strange boy, "I am. Aren't you cold?"
The boy only wore a shirt and hose, both soaked.
"Follow me, Sir Ashford Dawn," said the boy, "Milady Malice awaits you."
The holy knight was taken aback by the boy's knowledge of him, but he followed him nevertheless.
The boy led him outside the village and through the woods in the hills.
"Do you have a name, boy?" asked Ashford, trying to break the silence between them that gave him discomfort.
"This one's name is Tyn," the child responded in flat tones.
"Tyn," Ashford confirmed, "are you Milady Malice's son?"
Sir Ashford had heard rumors that the witch had children.
"No," said Tyn, "all her children are dead. They were killed by men of your order. As for me and my master, our bond runs deeper than blood and filiality."
They came upon glade where, in the center, a large ring of stones lay, with smaller rings within. It looked quite like a target at an archery range. As Ashford walked closer, however, he noticed there were notches in the circle and some parts where lines connected the inner and outer rings. In the center was a black book with a plain cover.
A maze, Sir Ashford realized.
"Once you enter, you may not look or walk back until you reach the end," explained Tyn, "If you do, you will never see my master, Milady, and your wife will perish."
"How do you know all this? About my life?" Sir Ashford asked.
Tyn did not answer.
A silly little ritual, but I'll play along. Sir Ashford entered the stone labyrinth, looking only at the floor, following the path given by the stones. After dozens of turns, he found himself near the center of the circle. The last part of the maze had him walk down the length of the circle, turn and enter the middle where the book lay.
His journey complete, he looked up and around and did not see Tyn anywhere.
He knelt down and took the black book in his hands. What am I supposed to do now? he wondered. He opened the book from the center and a blinding light shot from the pages.
The world went dark and he fainted.
When he came to, the maze had changed. No longer a maze, it was, but a single outer ring with an opening. This is more than just a little game, thought Sir Ashford with fear creeping into his heart, may Diacedes forgive me for fearing such hellish illusions.
The forest was also different. A new path of beaten dirt cut through the trees. The rains had ceased and the sky was clear as if it was Spring again. Sir Ashford followed the path, which went up a hill. On top of it was a copse of evergreens and within, under the shade, was a cottage of whitewashed stone. Flowers of every color of the rainbow greeted him, sprouting and lurid in the brown-black soil.
The knight approached the door, which had no knob. He knocked twice, but there was no answer.
He called out to the owner of the little house, but received no answer from that, either.
"Hello?" he said loudly, "Tyn? Lady Milady Malice?"
The mentioning of the names may have done the trick.
The door did not swing open: the wooden panels came to life, twitching and unweaving itself to recede into the floor to let the holy knight in. Inside, there was a wooden table, made out of black wood. On its dark surface was a spiky metal cage the size of a lantern, the material also black.
The form of creation inside the cage almost made Sir Ashford vomit. Its surface was slimy and pulsing, the sober colors making it look the soft flesh of an oyster. It opened its human-like mouth to reveal sharp yellow teeth and a tongue as dark as coal. Five fish eyes it had, all on one side of its face, each one blinking intermittently. Appendages of different beasts sprouted from its body as well: the tail of a lion, two octopus tentacles, a small ram's horn, and a scorpion's stinger.
The splashing of water broke Sir Ashford's attention from the grotesquerie.
The knight looked to the left portion of the cottage and saw a woman, young and beautiful with long black hair that went down to the small of her back, get out of an obsidian tub. She stepped out, the water dripping down her bare skin, and greeted the holy knight.
"I've been expecting you, Sir Ashford Dawn, sixth brother of the Order of Diacedes," she said, unconcerned with her guest gazing upon her nakedness.
Sir Ashford's heart quickened at the sight of her beauty, realized he was staring, and snapped his head away from her. You are promised to another, Ash, he reminded himself, remember the dangers of temptation. Perhaps that is what this demoness has in mind. Sir Ashford told himself to be wise and strong.
The woman seemed confused at his behavior.
"You need not avert your eyes, sir," she said as she dried herself off with a cloth and took a long dark robe from off a hook, "and you need not fear that I mean to tempt you."
"You are Milady Malice?" asked the knight.
"Yes, that is I. Now come, take a seat. We have business to discuss," the spellcaster said.
She took a seat on a bench on one side of the table and bid him sit on the one opposite of her.
When Sir Ashford passed through the threshold his flesh felt like it was burning and he screamed.
"You must take off that little trinket," she said to him politely, "it has been blessed by one of your priests, or Fiers as you call them?"
"It is not a trinket," Sir Ashford said with slight annoyance, growing tired of such disrespect.
"I did not mean to offend," she said unapologetically, "but my home is my home and there are rules a guest must respect."
Part of Sir Ashford wanted to leave, feeling he has committed a mortal sin by even looking upon this witch and setting foot in her home, but he had come this far and this woman before him is the only one who can save his wife.
He took his symbol of Diacedes off and placed on a wooden hook sprouting out between the stones and walked in. He took a seat, eyeing the creature in the metal cage. Its mouth began to foam as it snarled and snapped as if it was in some kind of pain.
"I know why you are here," said Milady, "you hear that I am a great healer, though too great, as the followers of Diacedes would believe. When the temples and their healers fail to save anyone and charge their families for every copper they have, they come to spell weavers like me, who only want to help and offer our talent for free. Are you not ashamed to be asking me for help?"
"You most likely would already know the answer to that," said Sir Ashford solemnly.
"My mother read knew how to read the stars better than your high priests," said Milady, "and by better I mean with the use of magic. I've learned some clairvoyance from her. Forgive me if I have intruded on your privacy."
"So you know my wife is dying?" said Sir Ashford, trying to keep their conversation short, "how can she be saved?"
"Your wife is doomed without my intervention, " said Milady, "you know that the plague has killed thousands and your wife is not an exception. So listen well, sir knight, and do as I say. If you deviate even by the smallest amount, your love, and the unborn child she carries, will both perish. You will live long after their passing, never to recover from the wound it has in your heart. Do you understand?"
Sir Ashford's heart began to pound and sweat dropped from his forehead.
"Yes," said Sir Ashford, "I will follow you and do whatever you ask."
"First," said Milady, "that little silver symbol of your god. Take it and feed it to the flowers."
Sir Ashford did not question her, and he got up, went back outside, and took his necklace from the hook. The flowers had sprouted bulbs on their stems of which bestial mouths have opened, hungry like wild dogs. Forgive me Great Father in the Paradise, he thought as he tossed the trinket into the flowers. The stong jaws marred and crushed the symbol. Am I dreaming? When will this farce end?
"Is that all?" Sir Ashford asked.
"No," said Milady, "there is far more ahead of us. I want you to slay your knightly brothers, the other eleven."
Sir Ashford felt like he was about to faint from hearing those words. He wanted to laugh as if it was a joke.
"They are far more skilled than me," said the knight with a weak smile, "Sir Blaise of Giant's Heart, the first brother, is blessed by Diacedes himself. No one in this realm is his match!"
He is a good man, too, thought Sir Ashford, sadly, they all are.
"If that is true," Milady gestured towards the abomination in the cage, "this will aid you."
"What is it?"
"Many names, this creature has. Alhuk-Zi is what your faith calls him."
Sir Ashford was taken aback by the witch's words.
"The devil himself?" said the holy knight, "that? The great king of darkness that has existed before Diacedes created the realm of man? It is nothing but a revolting swell!"
"Best not disrespect your new master," said Milady in dark tones, "the destruction your Order has left behind over the centuries has done this to him. The first twelve knights of the Order of Diacedes thought they got rid of him for good, yet here he is."
"They say you are a healer," Ashford asked as he stared at the dark god, its glossy eyes blinking at him, "why would someone with such benevolence serve such evil?"
"When the Order took my children, it revealed to me there was no hope or beauty in the world," said Milady, sadness clear in her eyes, "Our dark king will destroy this corrupted one and create a perfect one." Milady looked at him calmly and said, "You will be his knight. You will restore him."
Sir Ashford wanted to refuse but remembered his wife and child.
Milady seemed to sense his hesitation but went along instructing him.
"Your new master awaits your touch," said Milady, "know this: when you receive his power, you will be an enemy of Diacedes and all those faithful to him. A new era of darkness will be wrought, and spilled blood will run like rivers."
"Will my family's blood flow with the current?" asked Sir Ashford.
"Nothing will ever harm your wife and child if you accept. Nothing," was all Milady said.
Sir Ashford touched the caged god, and he felt the power surge through him. His veins blackened and his skin became pale. A thousand whispers swam in his head and he felt his body and soul rend itself within. He fell to his knees as a black fog poured from out of the dark god's mouth and into his. He screamed and he fainted.
When he came to, he was back in the glade. The stones around him were no longer in the shape of a maze but rather in the symbol of Alhuk-Zi: A star within a goblet. Before him, the black iron cage with the creature, his new master, sat in the rain.
When Ashford picked it up, the creature spoke to him.
"Your wife is cured," it said as reddish froth came from its mouth, "she is well and eagerly awaiting your return."
"What is it that you desire of me?" Ashford asked, in his heart, fearing the response.
It chuckled and did not deign to answer.
"Let us return to your lovely home," it said quietly, "worry not, rest, and be well, for tomorrow and the days after will be full of excitement."
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