Arc 1: Chapter 30: Recusant
There were other Mistwalkers in the castle. None of them were as dangerous as Vaughn had been, and I slew every half-dead in my path. By the time we were in the upper sections of the castle, my bloodstained axe smoldered with molten light.
The little victories felt hollow, after what Quinn had revealed. Even still I advanced, and killed.
Catrin, for her part, didn’t slow me down so much as a beat. She was no fighter, so far as I could tell, but her sharp senses and awareness of the massive castle’s layout were indispensable. She’d warn me when danger was approaching, melt into the shadows, then reappear by the time I’d dispatched a group of guards to warn me of more threats. More than once I managed to avoid a nasty ambush that way.
It felt strange, having a comrade backing me up. I’d fought alone for so many years. It reminded me of the old days. I’d had allies back then, too. Donnelly. Lias.
Donnelly would have liked Catrin. Her skills were much like his, as was her sense of humor.
And this was no time to be thinking about a different life. I put my mind on the task at hand, as loathsome as it may have been,
“There are too few of them,” I said with a grunt, pulling my axe from the skull of a ghoul. We stood in a nexus chamber connecting several parts of the castle. Three branching hallways, all splitting from a cylindrical space guarded by time-worn statues. The stone faces watched us in sullen hostility.
Orson was watching us. Or, his haunted castle watched us. Like many old halls, the entire edifice was an extension of his will.
This is too easy, a voice in the back of my thoughts warned me.
“Yeah…” Catrin looked at the smoldering bodies of the three Mistwalkers I’d just dispatched. “It’s like there’s just a skeleton crew. There were over a hundred of the bastards here just a couple days ago.”
I considered the idea that the gluttonous commander I’d spoken to at the council, Issachar, had taken the brunt of his troops and left with the other Recusants. Where had they all gone? What did they plan with the monster the Baron had conjured for them?