Asgoleth the Warrior - By Bill Kirkwood Page 0,23

the cage, eager to grasp the struggling girl.

Amira, stricken with horror, stared at the monster as it roared with impatient excitement. For a moment her eyes met those of the terrified girl, saw the fear and horror there, then her gaze moved to the face of Demos and his Akonites. What manner of men were they? In their faces she saw only cruel lust as they watched the girl’s frantic struggles. In that ghastly moment she knew that he had beaten her. She could not allow the ladies of her court to suffer such a hideous fate.

Desperately she fell to her knees before him and, in a stricken voice, cried out,

‘My lord, I beg you to stop this! I will do as you ask.’

Demos held up his hand and the guards halted just outside the reach of the man beasts clutching hands. Demos sneered down at the kneeling princess and demanded,

‘You do this of your own free will?’

Amira’s shoulders shook with sobs of despair as she whispered,

‘Of my own free will my lord.’

‘So be it then!’ he cried and Zann’s roar of anger and frustration was drowned out by Demos as he laughed out loud in his triumph. Now Torr was truly his.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The battlefield, upon which but a few short hours before, had sounded the din and clangour of war, lay now still and silent beneath the cold, uncaring stars. The dead lay in their gore among the wreckage, glazed eyes staring unseeingly at the slowly rising moon.

Among the fallen; furtive figures moved, stooping here and there to prise the gems from the hilts of broken swords or to cut the rings from cold, dead, fingers.

Sometimes a pain wracked moan would sound only to be silenced by the swift, vicious thrust of a dagger as some sorely wounded wretch was discovered by the robbers. Then, with their latest victims valuables added to their haul the stealthy slayers moved off in search of still unlooted corpses.

It was one such shadowy figure who came upon the place where king Aractus and his men had fallen. The king’s body was gone and his head now adorned a spike atop the city gates. His warriors however remained where they had fallen.

The heaped bodies of Akonite warriors which lay in piles three and four deep attested to the fact that the king and his men had died bravely and well. The robber cared little for that and was intent only on looting the dead of their gold and jewels. He bent eagerly to his grisly task, moving swiftly from one body to the next.

Soon he came upon the body of a huge man wearing the uniform of the captain of the king’s guard. The looter stared thoughtfully at the body. The fallen warrior was a barbarian from the far northern land of Calthia. He had heard of this man, Asgoleth by name. He had heard the tales of the warrior’s prowess in battle and of the events which had led to his promotion...

A hard, mirthless smile touched the looters lips. He too was of the north and his people, the Kalchik Nomads who roamed the wide Kalchik plains, had long been the bitter enemies of the men of Calthia. This fallen enemy of his people had been a great warrior but now he was only food for the scavengers. One day he too would travel the same road the dead man had embarked upon this day but until then he would continue to supplement his mercenary pay with the gold of his enemies. He had fought hard this day and he intended to gain as much wealth as he could for his labours.

He gave a snort of disgust as he saw that here lay no bejeweled nobleman. He noted the helmet, crushed by a blow from mace or axe no doubt that had been the blow that felled the Calthian. The man’s heavy northern broadsword, a huge length of fine quality glittering steel, would bring a good price but the warrior’s strong fingers gripped the hilt in an iron death grip. He would have to cut the hand away in order to free it. The sword though would be heavy to carry and he decided to leave it for some other scavenger. He wanted only gold and jewels, things that could be carried easily and concealed from prying eyes.

Then his eye fell upon the golden buckle of the sword belt that would have to do. He bent to his work but the buckle resisted