42: The Inquisition
Liam stared at the three Inquisitors moving in around him. He was already thinking of one as Black Beard, the second as Red, and the third as… well, it wasn’t exactly a charitable thing to think, but he was thinking of him as Streaks, because the streaks of white running through his otherwise dark beard reminded Liam of nothing more than seeing some of the stuff birds left on the roof of the barn.
He glanced over to Conrad next. The insufferable prick was standing there with a wide grin on his face, like he was enjoying the idea of a bunch of assholes from the Inquisition coming along and ruining Liam’s day.
It probably was the highlight of Conrad’s day. He’d made no secret of how much he disliked Liam, after all, and no doubt he was excited to finally have somebody take care of that problem for him.
Liam let out a grunt as Red brought his felblade down again. He held his own up, only this time when the swords made contact, there wasn’t an explosion and the thing didn’t shatter like Conrad’s sword had inside his cottage. They slammed against one another, and a spark of purple magical power flew off the things.
Something alighted on his shoulder.
“A pity you can’t draw a magical spell fast enough to take care of these assholes.”
Red looked at Liam with wide eyes. He turned his attention to Albert, who was on Liam’s shoulder holding on as though it wasn’t a problem at all for him to maintain his balance in the middle of a fight while sitting on somebody’s shoulder.
“Do you have something useful that you want to contribute, or were you just going to offer up sarcasm?” Liam asked.
“Oh, I was going to try and help by pointing out several spells that could help,” he said. “But then it occurred to me there’s a good chance you’ll blow everything up if you try to actually work a spell.”
“Would you hold still?” Red growled.
Liam stepped to the side as the Inquisitor tried to stab him in the gut. That would’ve been painful.
Though as Liam stared at the sword, he found himself wondering if the Inquisitor would actually be able to hurt him if a blow landed. He reached out to feel at the man, the same as he reached out to feel at Ana’s essence when they were at the tower just outside Isai.
The man looked up at him in surprise, and then his head shot back as though he’d been punched in the chin and he went stumbling back a couple of steps.
Which was a relief, but it didn’t provide Liam with relief for long. The other two were moving in on either side of him. Streaks to the left and Black Beard to the right. Both of them were looking at him warily. Streaks glanced over to Red, and he seemed nervous.
“You have to know what we’re doing here, boy,” Streaks said, holding his own felblade out. “You can come with us and let us have the demoness. I promise things will go easier on you if you go quietly.”
“Like hells will it go easier on me,” Liam said with a snort. “I’m aware of what you do to people. I’m aware of what the promise of an Inquisitor is worth.”
Both of them let out yells and raised their swords, running at him like they were going to try and chop various bits of his body off as a punishment for his insolence.
But he was well aware of what it meant to comply with the Inquisitors. They would do that chopping, but it would be slow and painful.
Either way, once someone was taken by the Inquisition it was a given they were going to die. It was just a question of whether or not you were going to be tortured before they killed you.
He brought his sword up and around to take care of Black Beard, but Streaks was going to cause a problem. His sword was coming down, and Liam could see it going for his shoulder.
He wondered what Ascension these men were, but he also knew all the stories agreed on the point that it didn’t matter how high of an Ascension somebody was. The idea that a person of a high Ascension was somehow untouchable was true to a point. Still, it was still possible for somebody to get in a good shot and kill somebody of a much higher Ascension if they were caught unawares.
Not that he had much of a chance of doing that here, but it was the only chance he had. So he took it.
He let out a scream as he kicked up at Black Beard. The man grunted as Liam’s foot made contact with his stomach, and he went flying back as well.
Liam winced, waiting for the moment when Streaks’ sword would land in his side and he would feel a searing pain. He got the feeling that the power these men were putting out was enough that they could put enough strength into their chopping motion to do damage, even with his Arcane and Infernal Ascensions.
Only that moment never came. Liam blinked and turned, and he saw a clawed pink hand holding onto Streaks’ sword. The man looked over to Ana, and there was wide-eyed terror in his eyes as he took in the demoness. He saw his death in her clawed hand in that moment.
A moment later, it became abundantly clear just how certain his death was. She raked her other clawed hand across his front, and a streak of blood shot out from his body. He let out a grunt of surprise, looking down, and then he turned to look at Liam with hatred in his eyes as he doubled over and collapsed in on himself.
“What the hells,” Liam said, looking down at the man and then over to Ana.
“Please,” she said, rolling her eyes and holding up a hand with clawed fingers that were bloody at the end. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those soft people who thinks we shouldn’t kill people who are trying to kill us.”
Liam glanced down at the Inquisitor and then back to her. Then he took a deep breath and let it out.
“No. He attacked us, and he was going to kill us. He deserves what he gets,” Liam said.
“Then why the hesitation?” Ana asked.
“I’m adjusting to a world where I’m fighting Inquisitors and killing them, or where a friend is fighting Inquisitors and killing them.”
“A friend?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and hitting him with a mysterious smile.
A scream interrupted them. He turned to see Red and Black Beard coming at him. Not to mention there was another, even louder scream that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
It was coming from Streaks. His back was arched and his body was letting out a scream that seemed to be magically enhanced. It had to be magically enhanced. That was the only explanation Liam could think of for how loud it was.
He had the sudden sinking feeling that there was a method to that magic. That the Inquisition was using that as a last-resort way to let others know they were under attack. His eyes darted to the hill between his cottage and the manor house, and he wondered if there were more from the Inquisition in there.
He looked over to Conrad. The princeling looked at him and tried to crawl away, but the injury from in the cottage when he tried to pull away was clearly causing him pain and keeping him from moving too far.
“How many of the Inquisition are in the area right now?” he asked.
Conrad stared at him with fear in his eyes, but then he seemed to recover from that fear after a moment of thought. He collected himself and took in a deep breath.
“I don’t have to tell you anything, commoner,” he said.
Liam took a step toward Conrad and was gratified to see that the princeling tried to scramble back, but it only lasted for a moment. Then he shouted as he pointed to the hill. He started waving his uninjured arm, though he still winced in pain.
Liam turned in that direction, and he felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach that went straight to the cores pulsing in counterpoint to one another in his body. More Inquisitors were cresting the small hill that separated his cottage from the manor house, and at least one of them was in glowing blue armor that seemed to sparkle and shine in the light streaming down all around them.
“Right here,” Conrad shouted. “He’s down here. You need to come and take… oof!”
That last bit was a grunt of surprise and pain. Liam’s fist had made contact with Conrad’s stomach, and he doubled over down on the ground. Liam felt something crack in there. A part of him worried that he might have seriously injured the princeling, but it was only a part of him.
The larger part of him figured the princeling deserved whatever he was about to get because of everything he’d done. Or because of what an absolute terror he’d been, making Liam’s life miserable for so very long.
Conrad looked up at him, and then he leaned over and emptied the contents of his stomach on the ground. Which wasn’t a very brave look. And it smelled. Liam’s nose wrinkled as he turned away, though that didn’t help with the smell.
Ana had engaged both Black Beard and Red in a fight, and she was moving fast. She was deadly everywhere she went. He could only stare at her and wonder at the way she was able to move so quickly.
“Do you see that?” Albert said, talking into his ear. “Do you see what she’s capable of? And she’s only at her First Ascension.”
“What does that mean?” Liam asked.
“It means that even if you can’t manage to get a spell off, you should be able to fight like that. You can move faster than they could ever hope to move. You have them beaten. You just don’t know it because you’re so used to the way your body worked before your Ascensions.”
“What about the one with the armor?”
Albert turned and looked at the armored Inquisitor coming in their direction. He frowned as he got a good look. Which was odd for a cat.
“Okay, so we might be in a spot of trouble here. I think we should try and get back to the woods.”
“What?” Liam asked, turning to stare at him.
“Back to the woods,” Albert said. “You’ll be able to hide in there.”
“What if they have people waiting in the woods?”
“They do,” Conrad said, letting out a low chuckle.
Liam looked down at the princeling. He’d spit up a bit of blood, and Liam wondered if he’d hurt him worse than he’d intended. Though again he found himself having trouble coming up with much sympathy for the princeling considering what a pain he’d been. And that he’d tried to sell them out to the Inquisition.
“They have Inquisitors in the forest searching for the demon infestation that killed you,” he said, letting out a laugh as he rolled in pain on the ground. “You’re not going to escape. They’re going to get you no matter what you do.”
Liam looked off to the forest. As though in time with that look, there was a loud, bellowing roar, and then some Inquisitors burst out of the forest. They weren’t running toward them. No, they were bursting out of the forest and running in terror.
Liam looked down at Conrad and grinned.
“I suppose we’ll see about who’s running from who.”