Part 24 (2/2)

Krulshards looked from mother to daughter; the grey strips of flesh bound across his forehead drew into a frown.

'Elionbel?'he whispered, holding them both at arm's length in

l a vice-like grip. Undecided, he turned to Kerzolde.

'Which one is Elionbel?'

'Master, Master!' Kerzolde cried, cleaning the Server's blood from his chin. 'The younger one is the one we took from this Wayhouse, but we did not ask her name.'

'I am Elionbel!' Martbel shouted, struggling to bite Krulshards'

hand. Elionbel slipped her hand inside her cloak and unsheathed a small narrow-bladed dagger. 'Nightmare!' she hissed as she thrust the blade upwards into the folds of the malice.

Krulshards felt the point of the blade tear through the malice and shrunk away from it. Lifting his foot he kicked Elionbel's wrist, numbing her hand into dropping the knife.

Frowning he pushed both women towards Kerzolde. There was a strange power in the Wayhouse, clearly these women were not kings and yet twice they had hurt him. 'I have two queen-like creatures who have dared to hurt me, the Master of Darkness. I shall take you both!' he hissed. 'Both of you shall come into the darkness of the City of Night.'

Kerzolde snarled and held them tightly, pinching the skin of their arms in his one good claw. Krulshards reached into the malice, digging with his long sharp fingernails into the layers of rotten flesh that covered his black heart, and carefully pulled out his life thread. Thin and spider-fine, it glistened in his hands. Carefully he looped it around both Elionbel and Martbel's necks and tied the end in a b.l.o.o.d.y knot. Stepping back he laughed and turned his head towards the remaining servers crouching in the stairhead hearth.

'Darkness is spreading across all Elundium,' he sneered.

Elionbel bent, scooped up the dagger and made to plunge it into Krulshards' back, but as the blade touched the malice the life thread looped around her neck began to tighten, choking

her to her knees. Krulshards turned his head back towards her, a sneer of delight wetting his lips.

'You are mine now, you are a part of me, joined by my life thread. If danger threatens me the thread will shrink. Sleep

113.

ing or waking you are bound to me!' Gripping Elionbel by the folds of her cloak he pulled her close, lifting her off the ground, and spat the words into her face. 'If the foul Marchers or Gallopers attack me it will be you that suffers my pain. If an Archer's strike of arrows breaks through this malice, it will be your lives they threaten. You are nothing now, nothing!'

Krulshards dropped Elionbel on to the hard stone floor and turned away. The thread slackened around her neck but she could feel it pulsating with every beat of the Nightbeast's heart.

'You have us in your power. Please let the servers go,'

pleaded Martbel.

'My Captain is hungry, he needs food for the long road ahead of us,' mocked Krulshards, letting Kerzolde climb on to the first step.

'Please,' begged Elionbel.

'Wait!' ordered the Master of Nightbeasts, halting his Captain on the second stair. 'We must leave our mark in this Wayhouse for all Nightbeasts to see.'

Picking up the finger bowl he placed it at the centre of the hall, and in a pattern around it he stamped his name into the flagstones, shattering them with large black letters, 'KRULSHARDS THE MASTER OF NIGHT'.

'Meet me beneath the walls of Granite City,' he shouted to Kerzolde. 'I shall be with your brother Kerhunge who is leading my Nightbeast army. Together we will finish the siege and destroy the last Granite King!'

Krulshards turned away from the stairway and strode out on to the dark Greenway, dragging Elionbel and Martbel behind him.

'The servers, please, spare them,' Martbel cried. Krulshards only laughed and quickened his pace.

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