Assassin of the Damned

— 22-

I stood on a crag of the northern slope of the Apennines Mountains. Pine trees spread out below me. Even farther north was the vast Po Valley.

I’d left the ruins of Perugia several nights ago. My left eye saw shapes now, but not the details. I could defeat any man I met, but wouldn’t try a fifty-foot leap. In a few nights, perhaps I could.

The Po Valley was formerly a lush land, rich in crops, industrious peasants, shrewd merchants and cunning princes. Milan was its greatest city, although it had others almost as strong. Venice stood to the east, on the edge of the Adriatic Sea. North of the Po stood the mighty Alps. It separated the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France from the Po Valley. The notable thing about the Holy Roman Empire was that it was neither holy nor Roman and could hardly be called an empire. Instead, it contained princedoms, dukedoms and city-states each filled with sauerkraut-gobbling Germans, who only stopped bickering long enough to resist their feeble emperor. The French on the other hand….

Englishmen with longbows and cunning tactics had repeatedly trampled the French in a series of off again, on again wars. The only sad aspect to that was that after thoroughly looting the French, many Englishmen had trekked over the Alps to enlist as mercenaries here. Ofelia for instance had hired a White Company captain and his ruffians to do her bidding.

I sighed. The plague must have changed some of what I’d known. The unleashed magic would have altered things even more. I marveled now that I hadn’t asked Lorelei about it. Still, I knew the priestess had cajoled princes to raise an army against Erasmo. That surely meant dukes and barons of Milan, Savoy and other cities and surrounding regions.

I glanced at the moon and began the trek down from the Apennines. The scent of pine needles dominated and my boots often crunched upon them.

I knew too little of this Black Death world. The trouble was that most people locked their doors at twilight, barons raised their drawbridges and magistrates ordered town gates shut. Except in the larger cities, few people moved at night. There might be outlaws or daring knights who planned a dawn ambush, but those labored hard to remain hidden.

I’d tramped through forest and over hill in the sight of wolves, owls and bats, but no people. During the day, I hid in caves or in a deep forest or dug a hole and crouched in it.

The next night I left the foothills and strode through grasslands. I headed east as much as north. I avoided cultivated fields and walled hamlets and stuck to pasturelands, brush and forests.

I made an exception the next night. I headed through a park. I knew because foresters had obviously cleared brush from the birch and oaks to make it easier for when his lordship hunted. The sight gladdened me. It meant that despite the plague and despite evil sorcerers, there was still some normality in the world.

A breeze rustled leaves. The wind brought the odor of fire mingled with barbecued pork. Horrid shrieks salted the smells, and it reminded me that humans and swine often smelled the same when burned.

A half mile later, I exited the tree line. Nearby lay a village-sized heap of embers. It was either a colossus’s campfire or the site of the atrocities that I’d sensed earlier. As I neared and felt the heat, my face tingled in remembrance of the living flame. I quashed any irrational fears-and the rational ones-and skulked nearer the burnt remains. I found mutilated peasants hung by their heels. I found fire-shriveled corpses nailed to burnt barns and I found headless, axe-hacked sheep.

A large man tied to a post still stirred. Unspeakable acts had been committed upon his person. He had glazed eyes and blood oozed down the bridge of his nose.

I crouched beside him. “Who did this do you?”

He moaned. I cut him loose and laid him on his back.

“Who did this?” I whispered. “Tell me, and I will avenge you.”

His lips writhed.

I put my ear near his mouth. “The Devil’s music,” he whispered. Then he died.

When I’d been prince of Perugia, wars had been a regular occurrence. The usual strategy was to burn your enemy’s fields and slaughter his peasants. Without crops and peasants to grow new ones, he would lack money or the means to feed his troops. The thoroughness of the gutted village and the sheep carcasses were an ordinary hazard of war. These atrocities meant it was something more.

A bloody footprint in the mud of a sheep-pen either implied the Devil or evilly altered men. The cloven-hoofed print was many times larger than what a ram could make.

I followed the sinister tracks to a rutted road. The dirt road revealed nothing because it was nearly as hard as brick. I looked all around, glanced at the stars and listened. The man had spoken about the Devil’s music. I only heard the breeze. So I hurried north along the road.

On a weedy hill, I heard the piping for the first time. It was eerie and yet compelling. It disgusted me and it stirred lusty memories. I left the road and hurried down the side of the hill, following the piping. I passed unkempt hedgerows and strode through oat fields thick with thistles. A fox yipped from the door of an abandoned hut. An owl winged overhead as it headed toward the piping.

Images of Laura and me entwined in love, of maidens I’d known in my youth filled my thoughts. Was a Darkling still a man in that sense?

I stumbled through an old grove, and I spied a bonfire ahead. It was then the Moon Lady whispered to me. I had run far tonight under her silvery influence. Her siren call dampened some of my lust. I stopped, shocked at myself. The piping remained, but I heard other sounds now. People shrieked. Others howled. There was a roaring sound of fire. The music had trapped me unawares.

I crept through the grove as the piping fed my lusts. I wanted Laura. I wanted any woman. The need was powerful, but I steeled myself and slunk to the edge of the grove. A mighty bonfire crackled below. Around it cavorted all manner of altered men and human hounds. The shrieks came from the center of the flames. People in a great wooden cage burned to death. They screamed, writhed and sobbed as smoke billowed from their flesh.

A huge creature stood upon a boulder with a flat top. He had hindquarters like a goat and goat-like legs and undoubtedly cloven hoofs. The upper half of his body was muscularly manlike and slicked with sweat. Goat horns sprouted from his forehead and he had a long, narrow beard like some obscene he-goat. Many of those cavorting around the fire were like him. The hounds that once were men barked joyfully. Naked women twirled around the fire with horror stamped upon their faces. The goat-men pawed and fondled them, and brayed laughter at their weeping.

One group, however, stood motionless. They were dead-faced soldiers. Among them sat a horseman with a wide-brimmed hat that sprouted a black crow’s feather. He stared at the scene, occasionally snarling and reveling wolfish teeth.

The wretched spectacle revolted me. I understood then that the Old Ones were humanity’s enemies. For I believed I viewed what it had been like in the dawn world. The old legends…they but hinted at the evils that had occurred when sorcery reined. Erasmo wished to return to that time for his own nefarious goals. What prompted these altered men to torture normal folk, to terrorize them so?

I was the Darkling. Maybe the magic worked upon me, had changed me, too. But I wouldn’t war upon humanity. I’d champion it against these vile predators.

I took out my coin and held it between my thumb and index finger. I turned from the bonfire, raised my arm and held the coin in front of the moon. The moon’s rays seemed to penetrate the metal and give an appealing haze to the Moon Lady’s portrait. She kept her mysterious smile, the beautiful profile. Then the coin became warm and dizziness threatened me. The smile shifted. Her portrait-she turned, facing me. She was even more beautiful than I’d realized.

“Moon Lady,” I whispered.

“You must kneel.” Her words were throaty like a cat’s purr but with incredibly sensual overtones. She looked into my eyes. Hers were silver, without any pupils. Her dark hair was like a curly mane. She wore a low cut gown. I wanted to kiss her throat, her lips….

“You must obey me,” she purred.

My arm felt heavy. I wanted to say yes. Then I heard a shout. It sounded as if from faraway.

“What is that?” she asked.

I remembered my plan and aimed her coin at the vileness below. I saw Lord Cencio, Signor Fangs for Teeth, urge his horse through the throng. He shouted at the Goat Man piping from upon the boulder.

I palmed the coin and looked down. Our eyes met.

“I ask that you restore me, my lady. Heal my eye. Give me my former speed.”

“I will,” she purred. “First bend the knee and vow me your soul.”

Part of me longed to do just that. But I whispered, “I am Gian Baglioni.”

She pouted, and she did it in a way that made me desire her above all things.

“The minions of Old Father Night will soon hunt me, my lady. Will you sacrifice me so easily? Or will you heal me and await the day I proclaim you as my goddess?”

“You cannot use me, my Darkling. Kneel. Obey and vow me your soul.”

I tore my gaze from hers and looked down. From upon his horse, Lord Cencio sat at the foot of the boulder. He shouted, and now the Goat Man listened.

The eerie piping stopped. The naked women collapsed as sweat poured from them. The lesser goat-men, the hounds and others looked to the boulder.

“The Darkling is near!” Lord Cencio shouted. “I feel him. We must stop this foolishness and hunt.”

“Do you hear?” I asked the Moon Lady.

She stared at me from out of the coin, and she shook her head.

With an effort of will, I folded my fingers over the coin, and I broke the contact.

“Which way?” the Goat Man asked.

Lord Cencio gazed into the darkness. He lacked a smile, and his eyes burned with insatiable hatred. “We must hunt,” he said.

It made me wonder if he’d lost some of his former power. As a dead man, maybe he was less than before.

The Goat Man rose to his imposing height. He bleated, “We seek the Darkling. So let us hunt.”

I pocketed the coin and slipped away. It had been worth the attempt. It had-

My nostrils flared. My left eye…I closed my right eye, but I still saw the grove in detail, a leaf at my boot. I felt greater strength and knew I had my former speed. I grinned, and I fled into the darkness. Erasmo’s minions thought they hunted me. But now I hunted them.

***

I reached the rutted road at the top of the weedy hill and ran down the other side. In the distance behind, I heard the bleat of angry goats.

My strategy was simple: separate the horde of altered men and kill them one at a time. I no longer heard the howl of hounds or Lord Cencio’s horn.

I crouched behind bushes and waited. I might have miscalculated. The moon sank into the horizon. I would soon have to look for a place to hide. There was less than an hour until-

A bleat alerted me. I eased back a branch. Goat-men filed from behind a dirt hill. I counted nine of them. They bore axes and ropes. They were naked, although their hindquarters were hairy. Each had an outrageously sized member.

I debated ambushing them here. I would keep one alive and question him. Yet I feared that others were near. The country was too open. I tried to see if any of them had a horn. Two carried heavy sacks. They spoke in voices too low for me to catch their words.

I eased away. It was too near dawn. I should have paid closer attention to that. I slunk away and then ran. I fairly flew across the ground. Then I stumbled upon a pond and a stratagem blossomed. I did not need to breathe; they did. I waded into the pond. Muck sucked at my boots. I obliterated most of the tracks and waded toward the middle. The water rose to my waist, chest and then over my head. A catfish nosed near to investigate. I poked him. He fled in a flash of fins.

It was a good-sized pond, once likely kept for fish, ducks and cattle. The plague must have murdered the owners. The surface loomed thirty feet above my head. I crouched low and waited. I was sure the goat-men fled daylight like me and would correspondently feel compelled to catch me while it was still night.

Soon the water stirred. I squinted and thought to spy hoofs at the edge of the pond. I waited at the bottom, with a tight grin. Goat-men peered into the murky gloom. Then splashes heralded their entry. Several floundered toward me. Kicking hoofed feet little helped. They used their arms and hands.

I sprang, grabbed a sinewy arm and plunged my blade into his chest. His mouth opened and bubbles billowed upward. Four died deep in the pond. I waded up, slew two more in the shallows and chased down the seventh. The last two bleated horror and dashed faster than I could believe possible.

Dawn was minutes away. I hurried back for the pond and splashed past half-sunken corpses. Then the glimmer of sunlight made the water gleam and harsh rays slanted down like spears. I tried to remain alert as I weighted the dead with stones. The sun remorselessly gained ascendance, however, and I slumped and lost awareness.

***

The following night, I arose like a wary sea serpent and found bloody, trampled reeds.

I faded into rugged terrain. Rabbits, squirrels, even a fox, leaped in surprise as I squelched by in my waterlogged boots. Half the night passed. My garments dried out. I heard shouts then, the clangor of battle and mad piping. A horse neighed.

I broke into a sprint.

It was a hilly area, with low bushes and clumps of trees. I’d used the local road, a rutted track as before. I ran along it so my cloak flapped.

The piping was different. Last night thoughts of lust had nearly consumed me. Now fear mingled with bloodlust. Creatures bleated rage and I heard war cries and men’s shouts. The intensity of sword-strokes, of clashing steel, increased. Wood thumped, which likely meant shields absorbed otherwise debilitating cuts. I rounded a bend and jumped over a boulder. Bright light illuminated the darkness. Glass shattered. Men shouted urgent commands. The piping became crazed.

I slid behind a bush and peered at a desperate fight. Mailed men-at-arms stood in a knot, many back-to-back. They held dented shields and notched swords. Those in the middle raised torches and lanterns. One soldier wound a crossbow. Fear contorted every one of their faces. Around them in a swarming circle, savage goat-men clutched double-bladed axes. They darted in, swung and then nimbly jumped back. Beyond them strutted the muscular Goat Man. He blew his pipes and sweat slicked his hair. He had a vile grin and his eyes swirled with power.

It was a chaotic fight, and chunk by chunk, the goat-men hewed apart the terrified soldiers’ shields.

A campfire and cloaks on the ground told the story. The goat-men must have surprised the soldiers-mercenaries, I decided. Ah! Their armor gleamed. These were White Company soldiers, Englishmen.

The crossbowman slapped a bolt into his weapon, raised it and fired. The huge Goat Man ducked the bolt, and his thick fingers moved upon his vile pipes. Three goat-men leaped at the crossbowman. Men-at-arms converged. One hacked and cut a goat-man. A different goat-man loped off the man’s sword-hand. Then the three altered men jumped out of range of enemy weapons. The crossbowman, meanwhile, hurriedly rewound his weapon.

Four goat-men lay dead or dying in the glade. Three of them wore bolts in their bloody chests. Twice that many mercenaries were dead or clutched at their wounds. The mayhem of shouts, screams and savage bleats, the clash of steel, the thump of wood, the battle was brutal. The goat-men had the numbers and greater fury. The White Company mercenaries had armor and training, but the evil music meant their doom.

I had vowed to champion humanity, and I wanted to whittle down the odds. The Goat Man switched to a screeching tune. It must have been a signal. By now, some of the human shields were mere shards of wood. The mercenaries looked haggard. The mark of death was on their faces.

The Goat Man lifted his horned head star-ward and seemed to play his tunes to them. The lesser goat-men tensed, ready to spring upon the mercenaries. This time, I did not think the altered men would leap back, but rush in like wolves for the final kill.

I drew my deathblade. I rose up and charged the muscular Goat Man.