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Shadow Cursed Page 5


  As he entered he passed the remains of the mainframe computer. The entire outside was marked with dents where it had been smashed by a blunt object. Next to it was a large blood stain on the floor that still looked wet.

  When his eyes adjusted to the darkness Gabriel spotted the General seated behind a large oak desk, sipping from a glass. When he reached the desk he saluted and asked, “Are you all right General?”

  The General studied him carefully for a moment as if judging the sincerity of his question before he answered, “Yes, I wasn’t here when they came in and destroyed the mainframe. Apparently a marine caught one of those monsters smashing it with a club but he was too late to save the mainframe. The beast still managed to take his head off before it finally died. Until we get a radio tower up we have no way of communicating with any other base.” The General took another sip and watched Gabriel closely over the rim.

  “Good to know you’re okay sir,” said Gabriel remaining at attention.

  General Allister could see the resemblance between father and son but Gabriel didn’t have the air of command that his father did. “I wanted to personally thank you for your efforts last night,” began Allister. “You held one of three breaches the goblins managed to create in the fence. When the rest of your squadron arrived there wasn’t a single goblin near the breach so they were able to send help to defend the other two and turn the tide. They even used your mortar bomb idea to kill three other shamans. I have therefore decided to award you with the medal of bravery. Commander, do the honours please.”

  The commander slipped out from behind the General and produced a small box from his pocket. Opening it he removed a medal and pinned it to Gabriel’s torn and tattered shirt. “For actions above and beyond the call of duty and so forth.” The commander moved back behind the General where Gabriel found it very hard to see him.

  “I believe you have lunch to serve, hero. Dismissed,” said the General abruptly waving him away.

  Gabriel saluted, turned and left.

  The General half turned in his chair to find the commander and asked, “What was that in aid of?”

  “You wanted a good look at him sir, what better pretext. Besides the medal will rally men to him, maybe some we don’t want to have on the base. Also, so long as he believes the mainframe communication systems are completely destroyed then he may believe he has no way to reach General Esperanza.”

  “I see. But he doesn’t appear to be as much of a threat as I believed.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving sir,” said the commander moving in front of the General’s desk. “May I ask you for a favour sir?”

  “A favour commander, this is the army not a political party,” said the General as he traced the neatly trimmed edges of his moustache

  “Of course sir, I merely wished to take charge of the interrogation of the prisoners.”

  “Very well, you are the most qualified. Consider it an order. Find out what they want even if you have to kill every single one of them,” ordered the General.

  “I would also like to study the staffs we collected as well. They may be of use to us.”

  “Those things are cursed, but if you can find a way to use them then by all means do it. But don’t get yourself killed, I still need you.”

  “Yes sir,” agreed the commander saluting as the General looked at the paperwork on his desk.

  The General dismissed him but when he looked up the commander was already gone.

  CHAPTER 12

  Commander

  The guards dragged in the fifth goblin stunned to immobility by tazers. The commander watched as they removed the last one from the table and wrapped it in plastic sheeting before hauling it out of the interrogation tent. Moving with practiced skill the commander chained the creature’s arms and legs and wrapped another steel chain around its neck a few times before locking it with a padlock.

  Blood covered the table, the floor and the commander’s arms but he made no move to clean any of it off.

  As the goblin recovered it began to struggle uselessly against the chains, and the commander waited until the goblin realized that it couldn’t escape. Moving to where it could see him he looked down on the shaman and said, “Your companions were not very enlightening. I don’t think some of them could even talk my language.”

  The shaman tried to spit at the commander but his throat was too dry.

  “I stopped the water rations after the first goblin spat at me. Now tell me, how many of your kind are there?” The shaman merely turned his head to the side.

  “You were very talkative with Lieutenant Gabriel, the white shaman.” The goblin turned its head back to face him.

  “I was also impressed when I heard what he did during the fighting, he’s a bright young man and a good soldier,” said the commander trying to lure the shaman into a conversation.

  “Nothing to say?” asked the commander. “At least the others had the courtesy of telling me they were going to kill me.”

  The goblin bared its teeth in what the commander had come to know as a smile and said, “You are all going to die.”

  “Very well, I’ll have to do this the hard way.”

  The commander began by taping the shamans eyelids open. “I had a lot to learn about your species strengths and weaknesses when I started which is why I interrogated only the warriors until I was ready.” Moving across the room the commander wheeled a light stand over and positioned it above the goblin’s chest.

  “The first thing I learnt was that sharp instruments don’t scare you which should have been obvious by the amount of scars on your bodies. Removing body parts also did not work as you seem to revere that as some sort of warrior status symbol. I became very irate at that point and I admit to killing one of you out of anger. I then studied your cage and it dawned on me that sunlight does not seem to agree with you. I tested my theory with every manner of light source I could find until I came to UV light. Now I know that you have no idea what that is so I will have to demonstrate it for you.” The shaman watched as the commander’s hand moved to the light switch.

  “I found that of the spectrum of light emitted by the sun, ultraviolet light is damaging to your kind. Case in point.” The commander turned the light on and bathed the goblin’s chest with blue light. The goblin’s skin immediately began to smoke and blister. When the shaman finally screamed in pain the commander switched the light off.

  The commander pulled up a chair next to the shaman and turned on a nearby recording device. Making himself comfortable he began switching the light on and off at intervals without saying another word.

  Fifteen minutes later the goblin broke and the commander began questioning him.

  The last questions the goblin refused to answer but the commander moved the light above its face and after only a few minutes the shaman held nothing back.

  “The stones are what power the staffs.” answered the blind and burnt carcass through broken lips.

  “What stones?” asked the commander.

  “Inside the skull of each staff is a magic stone that has been drenched in the blood of many sacrifices.”

  The commander moved across the room and opened a long metal container. Inside was a pair of thick rubber gloves and a pile of long wrapped bundles. Pulling on the gloves, he opened one of the bundles and removed a staff with a small skull on top.

  He moved to a table to examine it. The staff was made of a dark wood and was roughly carved with symbols. Each symbol appeared to be a hole that had been chiselled out and filled with clear crystal dust suspended in hardened black material. Held by the commander it rose to the top of his head but held by a goblin it would only reach its shoulders.

  Using a hammer and chisel the commander struck the skull until it cracked. Working deftly he broke the skull into two pieces with a few more well placed blows. Inside he found an egg-sized jagged crystal that appeared to be made of the same material as the dust in the symbols on the shaft. Flakes of dried blood broke off the crys
tal as he removed it from the hollow.

  The commander held the crystal in his gloved hand for a moment before calling out, “Private Douglas, please come in for a moment.”

  The guard hesitantly entered, his gaze immediately drawn to the goblin chained to the table.

  “Catch!” said the commander throwing the crystal to the soldier who instinctively caught it.

  “Sir?” asked the private, holding his other hand across his mouth to stop himself from throwing up as the smell of burnt meat reached him.

  “Is the crystal cold at all?” The man shook his head. “Bring it back please.” The man pointedly looked away from the table as he returned the crystal. “Would you mind bringing the staff to me as well, it’s on the table.

  The man nodded and hurried to pick up the staff so that he could leave as soon as possible. A look of surprise filled his face for a moment. Then he turned to the commander and asked, “Where do you want it, sir?”

  “The staff was cold wasn’t it?” asked the commander seeing his reaction.

  The soldier answered, “Only for a moment sir. But my hand is still a little numb.”

  “Put it back and leave,” said the commander dismissively.

  The private rushed to obey and forgot to salute before leaving.

  Removing the gloves the commander held the crystal in his hand but felt nothing.

  “How does it work, shaman?” asked the commander.

  When the goblin didn’t answer the commander moved to the table and realized the goblin had died. Angrily he struck its chest with the hand holding the crystal. Blinding light flashed from the stone and he dropped it from his burnt hand yelling in pain. On the table the goblin’s body began to burn ferociously.

  The guards rushed inside to find out if he was okay and when they saw the fire they immediately set about putting it out with fire extinguishers.

  Looking at his burnt hand the commander noticed that all the goblin blood on that arm had dried but not on the other arm.

  The commander picked up the crystal and the broken staff from the floor and left the guards to battle the fire.

  CHAPTER 13

  Gabriel

  Gabriel sloshed another spoon of mash onto a soldier’s dinner plate while he thought about the mainframe and its broken communication set. His thoughts then returned to what he had overheard earlier. Two prisoner guards had been talking in whispers about the interrogation of the prisoners and the standing order that only shaman prisoners were to be detained from now on.

  Gabriel picked up another conversation while he continued to serve the line of soldiers.

  “I tell you, the ammunition is good for maybe a few days of fighting but without the main armoury we don’t have the cannon shells or bullets to hold off another attack if they come in greater numbers.”

  “But surely we would be moving out if the situation is that bad?” asked his companion.

  “Maybe not tonight, of course, but I told General Allister personally and he said he would get back to me. The only thing he did was replace me with one of his supporters and he stuck me in the motor pool. I don’t know anything about maintaining vehicles.”

  “I suggest you keep a low profile then, he may change his mind and decide to detain you or worse.”

  That shut the man up and Gabriel marked his face and name without drawing attention to what he was doing so he could question him later.

  He noticed the commander passing by with a bandaged hand but thought better than to ask him about it. Word had it that he was in charge of the prisoners’ interrogation and that some had been tortured to death.

  Gabriel had discovered that the mainframe had been moved to the commander’s tent which had raised his suspicions. So he decided to find the mainframe and check that the damage was as severe as the General had said.

  Searching the tent during the day was almost impossible with guards at the door and soldiers moving around so he decided that during dinner he would find a way inside.

  When the last of the soldiers filed past he slipped out the back and made his way to the commander’s tent.

  Guards were stationed at the entrance but were due to be relieved judging by their slack stances and bored looks.

  Gabriel slipped around the back and checking that nobody was looking he ducked down and made an incision in the tent canvas near the floor. Sliding carefully through the hole he came out under a table. Seeing the mainframe lights in the corner he moved quietly to it and began doing a cursory check of the equipment. All the readings were good except the backup power supply, even the broken exterior parts had been replaced. The mainframe appeared to be running a code-breaking algorithm on a list of weird symbols.

  The radio equipment diagnostics showed no problems so he entered a code into the keyboard and waited.

  Five minutes later a message scrolled across the screen. “What’s going on? You haven’t reported to me since you arrived?”

  Gabriel typed, “I’ve been compromised but I’m still okay. My equipment has been destroyed. I may not be able to transmit again.”

  “What is the situation at your base? Do you need help?” enquired General Esperanza.

  “We were attacked by a group calling themselves goblins. They have powerful staff weapons wielded by their shaman leaders. We managed to survive the attack but lost our ammo depot. Our weapons supply has been compromised. We need to be evacuated,” typed Gabriel keeping an eye on the guard’s shadows on the tent wall.

  “I will order it immediately,” replied Esperanza.

  “The General won’t listen. He has his own agenda, you have to pull him out by force if necessary.”

  “That’ll piss him off, but the civilians need to be moved if they’re in danger.”

  “What’s your situation sir?” typed Gabriel.

  “The warning we managed to get from the scouts probably saved our lives. We used our heavy artillery to good effect and broke them before they were able to reach the fences. I believe they are only the vanguard, a small swift strike force. Tonight their real strength will be shown but I’ve created a few surprises for them. If we survive tonight I believe I can start construction of better defences with the concrete mixers.”

  “Good. Send help as soon as possible.”

  “Of course. Over and out!”

  After checking that the typing hadn’t alerted the guards, Gabriel began to search the commander’s tent to find out what he was up to.

  On the table he found a shaman staff with its skull missing and a small locked box. He tried to open it but the guards outside started talking to someone so Gabriel quickly slipped out of the tent and disappeared into the night.

  The commander entered the tent seconds later and sensed something amiss. He glanced around the room and noticed that the locked box had been moved. A quick check showed that the crystal was still inside.

  The mainframe made a noise to alert him that the program had finished running. Earlier he had scanned the symbols of every staff that had been recovered after the battle into the computer and found that while they were all different, some patterns and symbols repeated themselves over and over enough to be a form of language. The beep was merely to indicate that the words or symbols for the language and logic rules for combining them had been identified. As soon as he could interrogate more prisoners he would understand the language and be able to use it.

  The commander picked up the staff and traced the runes with his finger, the intruder almost forgotten.

  CHAPTER 14

  Darklord

  Deep beneath the mountains that scarred the continent from north to south, in a cave carved out by an ancient lava flow and still lit by its fire, a gathering of darkness awaited the arrival of their brethren. A distortion in the shadows drew their attention as he began to collect together the tendrils of his being. His chosen shape, when it formed, mocked those from whom it was drawn. Its thin frame was seemingly elf like, its facial features pointed and youthful, but no elf would have
gone near this creature.

  Its presence drew warmth from the air, life from around it, and radiated only evil. The creature stretched its newly formed body and its clawed fingers clenched as it roared in pain. The others fed off its anguish and revelled in the pain that had driven it from its host.

  It collapsed on the floor and several others of its kind began to take on the forms of elves and dwarves and goblins so that they might feed on it.

  “Wait!” ordered a voice from the darkest corner. Those who had chosen to take form wavered and disappeared into the deeper shadows, fearing to be made examples of. The darkness moved forward and took form, a blend of goblin physic, elven features and dwarven strength. Fear filled the cavern and the darkness fed on it as he came to stand before the wraithlord on the floor.