The Girls of Ohmer Chapter 9 Chaos and the unfortunate child

The Girls of Ohmer Chapter 9
Chaos and the unfortunate child

The supreme khan of the Black Wind, known simply as Brock, sat brooding in his underground throne room. It was cold and dim, several torches lined the wall in the massive chamber but they did little to cut through the darkness which seemed to have actual mass and weight. It was oppressive.

A wrinkled old servant scurried toward the throne, bowing in deference to his master.

"My lord Brock," he started, the fear and respect apparent in his trembling voice. " the last four Ohmer witches have been spotted in the village of Silverbrook, a patrol is moving to capture them now."

"I trust the patrol has a stock of magic traps in supply? I will not accept any excuses for letting.them get away." Brocks voice was higher than what would be expected from such a massive man. It was higher in pitch and volume, sometimes it split into two or ten voices at the same time.

"Yes my lord, they have some mine traps, also a behemoth should the need arise." The servant averted his eyes quickly, he was afraid for his very soul, but one does not refuse service in the Black Wind. To do so was suicide, very horrific and painful suicide.

Brock had made many concessions in order to escape that cave where Serendipity had entombed him. One of those concessions was agreeing to be inhabited by a horde of demons. Sometimes when he spoke it was in their voices. Having the demons enabled him to use magic after all these long years of destitution. But the side effects he suffered were a new kind of torture. He only hoped he could regain his former power and banish these demons before he went completely mad.

The servant continued bowing on one knee in front of Brock. He dared not move or speak. The last servant to interrupt Brock had been dragged from this chamber, a headless corpse.

"What of the mother and the child?" Brock inquired. This time his voice was deeper and supernaturally raspy. Like saw blades dragged a through ice.

"They are the same my lord, the mother is in the dungeon as you ordered. The baby is in the south tower, he is well." The servant swallowed hard, working up the courage to ask a question that may result in a very painful, very immediate death.

"My lord," He cleared his throat, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid staring at the bloodstained floor. "My lord, is it completely necessary to torture the wet nurses before they feed the child?" The servant looked up at Brock with pleading eye's." It's just that my daughter ,Emilia, she volunteered to serve you and now she is being beaten and burned, sometimes worse before she feeds that child. Please show her mercy my lord, she is on your side, we both serve loyaly!"

The old man fell prostrate before Brock, weeping with his face on the floor. His fair Emilia was all he had left in this world. She had come to this place on her fathers recommendation. All she wanted was to care for a sweet little baby after losing her own to some unknown disease.

"Mercy?" Brocks voice was a calliope of pitches, as if every tainted voice inside him was competing to be heard. Brock stood from his throne as the servant began trembling with fear. Every demon in Brocks being was chattering with glee; suffering was comedy to them, delightful play. " I will show your daughter the mercy of removing her sniveling worthless father from this world."

The old man began to speak" But, but I've been true to you lor.."

With a mighty swing Brock brought an Iron hammer down on the mans head, driving it into the floor and crushing it to bits.

"And so I make your departure quick!" Brock dropped the hammer and sat down on his throne, as demoms delighted inside him.

++++++++++

Outside the managerie was a chaos of screaming horses and shouting soldiers. Many riders had been knocked off of their mounts and some had been crushed underneath them as Blue blasted through the formation like a wrecking ball. His gold horns pummeled horses,men and armor. Nothing withstood the force of the ram.

Inside, the sound of the havoc subsided and silenced as Erika finished invoking nevertime. She opened her eyes to see that everything was silent and still. Now she had all the time in the world to move her sisters to safety. But she couldn't bear the thought of leaving Nina and tom here to fight off the attack alone. If she could just get a cart, she could take them all to safety. She remembered that the honey merchant down the street had a fine cart that she should be able to pull with everyone in it. It may take a while but there was always time in nevertime.

Erika opened the door, the scene outside was as a diorama of a battle she had seen in school. Soldiers in black cloaks and armor lay on the ground, some were mounted, holding swords to strike the great beast that had decimated their line. Others were in the act of trying to remount or scramble out of the way. One was under his overturned horse, the look on his frozen face clearly one of pain and surprise.

A direct path to the honey merchant was not possible, there were too many riders in the way. She thought about just crawling under, but she had to find a path to bring the cart back through. So Erika walked to the biggest openening in the formation. No good. There was a horse laying on the ground, its skull clearly smashed on one side. The unfortunate beast stared fearfully with its one remaining eye.

The next biggest gap showed promise. Erika believed the cart would fit.

As she passed a dark rider trying to remount, Erika had an idea. She went down the line unbuckling saddles. Then she started stealing every arrow she could reach from the saddle mounted quivers.

Just as she started taking arrows, Erika spotted something curious.

A glimmering orb was attached to one saddle. She was about to ignore it when she noticed a tiny figure inside the orb. Upon closer inspection the figure was a tiny version of Erika! The tiny Erika was riding a unicorn. "Oh how wonderful!" Exclaimed Erika as she clapped her hands together. She knew that stealing was wrong, but if she could just hold the little glimmering ball, just for a minute.  Then she would get back to her duty.

Erika reached for the orb and Flash! A blinding light emitted and the chaos around her erupted! The rider closest to her tried to turn his mount to meet Hilarios next attack. The mans unbuckled saddle slid neatly off with rider and gear, they landed on Erika knocking the wind out of her. She was pinned under the rider, eyes tearing and gasping for breath that refused to fill her burning lungs.

The rider rolled off of Erika and grasped her by the throat. "Well lookie here!" he growled "If it ain't a little prankster!"

All around, riders were falling and unsaddled horses were running for their lives as Hilario charged in for another pass with the massive ram.

Erika started to fade, her vision was closing in and sounds started to echo in her mind. She felt herself slipping. In her tingly fingers she held a bundle of sticks. Sticks? Where did she get sticks? Her confused thoughts chased this question to a bright white answer. Her only hope. NOT STICKS! ARROWS!

She jammed the arrows into the soldiers face, skewering his eyes and lacerating his cheeks and forehead. He dropped her and stumbled off screaming woefully.

Inside the house, the group stared terrified at the sudden onset of realtime. The door was wide open and Erika was being strangled right in front if them. Vay thought of nothing but her big sister. Although Erika had escaped the grasp of the bad man, there were lots more coming for her. As well as troops who realized the door was open and their quarry was in site. Vay screamed with all of her might! "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Soldiers tumbled back off the steps. The ones after Erika stopped to cover their ears. Then there was a huge thump and the ground shook, followed by another and another. Down the street one of the shops was knocked down in a plume of dust. The sun had completely set and nothing could be seen by the torchlights on the street. Just a cloud of dust and ominous ground shaking thuds.

Nina called to Vay, "Get in here baby." And then to Tom "save Erika!"

Hilario plowed into the soldiers, scattering them. As he passed the cloud of rising dust, something knocked him and Blue across the street. The ram sailed through the air crashing through a shop window. Hilario tried to land gracefully but could not avoid smacking into the side if the building.

The behemoth emerged from the dust cloud. It was a twisted monster, twenty feet tall and somewhat man shaped, with knots of muscle bulging unnaturally. Its head was almost square shaped but it was not centered between the massive shoulders due to a very crooked spine. It had thick gray skin.like an elephant, with three stubby fingers on each hand and three stubby toes on each foot. It grimaced showing blunt black teeth as it spied the two figures running up the steps.

Tom ran into the fray, ducking sword swipes and spear thrusts. He grasped Erikas wrist and yanked her along behind him, all the while jinking and jiving, ducking and twisting, narrowly missing being stabbed or decapitated several times.

Tom lunged up the porch as the behemoth lumbered after them. When Tom tried to slam the front door the behemoth reached forward and yanked it off its hinges, tossing it aside. Tom pulled a red lever in the bank of levers next to the door. There was a twanging sound as twelve balistas released twelve bannered spears aimed at the street. The behemoth was skewered through gut and shoulder. The other spears clattered off the cobblestones only one finding a target as it pinned one soldier to a dead horse.

The behemoth staggered back. It was trying to dislodge the spear from its shoulder. The soldiers regrouped and charged toward the front door.

There was a low hollow moan behind Tom and Nina. It rose in volume to a howl as they turned to see a stunning female vampire behind them. Her expression was of hot rage and cold anguish.

"Oh dear lord" Tom gasped. " you poor unfortunate child."

Nina was speechless as Bear Dog Vampire streaked past her, out the door and into the fray.