Griidlords: The Bloodsword Saga (Book1&2 Complete, Book 3 Posting 4x Per Week)

Book 3: Chapter 70


I carried the bodies of Julia Rosegold and Joel Montagnion over each shoulder. I brought them back, bearing my grisly cargo, for four hours. The weight of their forms was nothing to my strength, but they made for disturbing company.

I stopped at a point to the north of the city of Boston. I wanted them close so I could access them easily when Door was returned to me. I also wanted to find a way to minimize the effects of the interim time on their bodies. It was nearing sunset when I stopped at the copse of trees. They would need to wait here for more than twenty-four hours. At midnight of the next day I would be able to step through to the City of Angels, leave the bodies, and step back a moment later.

So I wanted to do what I could to preserve them for thirty-six hours. The wounds they had suffered would not help the process. I needed to keep flies away from them, animals, the heat of the day. There was a village only a few miles away from the copse, but incredibly, I had no money. I never thought about money and never needed to carry coin. If absolutely necessary I could steal or use my authority to demand what I needed, but I did not want to reveal myself. I did not want to be connected with the bodies.

I lay them down beneath the trees and considered them. Julia's suit was largely intact. I knew there was a treasure of mystorium in the suit, but I could not bring myself to strip her of it. I think all of us, all of Enki's A-team, had felt the same sad affinity for Julia. She had stayed in the suit too long, clinging to the power and immortality rather than giving it up. It happened to too many of us. It was a fate we would all have to toy with. No, she could keep her suit.

Joel was another proposition. He bore a trove of prizes on his form. These were personal prizes. I had already lost my bracer and the fortune it had cost. The relics he carried on his form would be worth an incalculable fortune. I wondered if maybe he would want me to have them anyway. He was gone so suddenly, his campaign in this world abruptly ended. I could not be sure I would be taking up his mantle exactly, but the path I walked then had been partly set out for me by him.

With no small shame, I set about removing the gear from Joel's body. Many of the items were useless to a Griidlord. They might elevate a mortal, but were redundant to a suit wearer. There was also the issue that I simply did not understand or could not recognize many of them. I knew they would be precious, but it would take research to ascertain their functions. There were pistols, threaded over with fine gold lines and embedded with dark orbs. The sword, something more, I thought, than a power weapon, but somehow less than the sword of a true Griidlord. A belt of what I took to be grenades, though their actual applications were completely unknown to me. There were packs and pouches. I could see they were ancient and hummed with old powers, but what to do with them I could not possibly say. Under the cloak he wore to disguise himself, I found he also wore a cape. A beautiful red cape. Like some of the other relics, it seemed to be threaded through with fine gold filaments. I ran the material through my fingers and felt certain this was a rare and special treasure.

I bundled the relics together in the cape. Even with my upbringing, with the wealth I was accustomed to, I found myself awed by the value of what I held.

I needed to disguise myself. I cursed myself for discarding the robe I had used to conceal myself in the City of Angels. I had thrown it to the wind when I confronted my would-be assassin there. I committed to acquiring another, something that would fold up neatly and could be stored in a fold of my suit. For now, I had but one option. I put Joel's cloak on me — the cloak of the dead man.

I could not leave the bundle of relics behind. It was impossible for me to leave them. So I hefted it, just a red bundle to any passing eyes. Joel had carried a heavy pouch of coins so I brought that as well. I used a touch of footfield to bring me close to the village, then entered on foot. I played the same trick as before, folding the armor back from hands and face. The cloak hung low enough, and I stooped to help it, to conceal my boots.

In the village it was an easy task to buy canvas and a shovel. The villagers were not delighted to be intruded upon so late in the day, but they overcame this at the price I was willing to pay for the materials.

Digging the earth afterwards was no difficult task. The strength of my suit made it paltry, and soon they were lying beneath the earth, wrapped in canvas, away from the heat and animals and flies. It was the best I could think of. Part of me felt like they should rest there forever, at peace. But no, they belonged in the empire they had built, so I would return.

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Then there was the matter of what I should do with my relics. Castle Bloodsword was not ready yet, not secure. There was the townhouse, which I should probably dispose of, but keeping the relics there would require posting more security. There was my room in the Tower. But I would be seen bringing the bundle in and wanted no more questions.

No, I could think of only one place I trusted for their safety and discretion.

I went again to Castle Oakcrest.

Katya accepted the relics and promised she could keep them safe. I saw the way her interest flared in them and thought I had made a good choice. She had buried herself in the writing of John the Dispeller deeper than ever in the wake of Lauren's death. It was a distraction, she told me, a way to make the days melt into each other and let time scar over the wound of her loss. These relics, fresh mysteries, might fuel more study. Katya might be distracted more and I might end up better informed.

My tasks disposed of, I supposed it was time to get back to the city I was sworn to — the city at war, the city that had been abandoned by its Sword. To justify my absence I needed to know what we faced exactly. I needed the intel Enki had promised in exchange for the grisly task I had taken part in. Again, I wondered what Enki had offered the others. None of them could have been facing the same pressure as Boston was.

As I approached Boston, Enki finally answered my calls.

What's up, kiddo? Gotta tell you, things are a lot quieter now. A whole lot quieter. Hear that? Oh, that's silence. No madness screaming into the void.

That's great. Glad my murdering could bring you so much peace.

Hey! Hey hey hey, kiddo! It wasn't murder. It was mercy. She wanted that as much as I did. You saw the way she was. What would you want if you went that way? Would you want to be left roaming the Wilds, your suit breaking down, forever, until eventually you just withered away? Hurting people? Not knowing friend from enemy? It's a bad way to go, kiddo.

She killed Joel. He was her friend once. Probably still was if he came out there to try and intervene…

Exactly! Do you want that? Now don't bring that treacherous prick up again unless you're going to tell me what he'd been talking to you about. I have an idea and I can tell you he was as mad as she was. Bad influence that mixed-up bastard was. Don't go down his path.

Then, after a pause, Enki's voice came again, darker, more sinister. Trust me. You don't want to join him… on his path.

I did not rise to the threat. I pushed past it. I need the intel. That was our deal.

Yeah, yeah. I haven't forgotten the deal. I'm working on getting you through those doors. So what do you want to know?

Boston was in sight. I slowed my pace in the footfield, wanting time to finish this conversation. You know what I want! Enemy troop numbers, positions, plans. How many Griidlords they have!

Oh, yeah, the standard package, eh? Okay okay, give me a sec, need to have a poke in a few heads… hmmmm… ohhh, that's a surprise… wait a second… mmmhmmmm…

I ran on, impatient, as the voice flitted in and out of my head, uttering vague sounds and disconnected little comments. Finally, it settled back in. Okay. I don't have everything, only what I could… uh, detect, from the perspectives available…

It did not seem to like to be explicit that it viewed the world through the eyes of Griidlords, even though this was something it knew I knew. I thought maybe it did not like to admit that its perspective was so strangely limited, or maybe it did not like reminding me that when present in my mind, everything I said or heard was available to it as well.

Give me what you have. I'll be with Baltazar in minutes.

Okay, okay. They're ramping up. You banged them up a bit at the battle of Albany, but they're none too stressed about that. Talk is that they have sources in Boston and knew the war was coming. That ungrateful prick Danefer is running the show somehow, and he decided to bring the fight to you guys before you brought it to him. Food is really short in old Buffalo now. They've been a disorganized shit show for a long time, no Flows, shitty government, and they can't feed all the Green Men he called. So, apart from anything else, he needs to either chew up some of those bodies so there's less mouths to feed, or he needs to get the food you guys have.

"I know most of this. Or guessed it. Troop numbers, locations. How many Griidlords?"

Enki hesitated. That part's not so great.

My heart sank a little.

You killed two of their bonus, and I think I already told you they got at least one more. It's not brilliant, I can tell you that for free… except it's not free, I got you to murder a mentally disabled person for it ha ha ha…

I gritted my teeth. Mercy, you said.

What? Oh, yeah. Anyhoo… I'm a little surprised myself. Been distracted with all the Julia bullshit. Looks like they've got eight.

Eight Griidlords. My heart sagged.

Apart from the power disparity, eight Griidlords meant the ability to maneuver eight divisions of their forces.

Even with the new intel, knowing their every position, it seemed unfathomable that we could defend against so much.

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