The Third Kingdom

As the man stopped and turned back to see who was behind him, Richard was already there, swinging his sword down with all his might. The ceiling wasn’t very high, so he couldn’t put as much power into a full swing as he would have liked. Still, it was a blade powered by more than mere muscle, the same as these men were powered by more than life.

As the man opened his mouth to bellow a threat at Richard, the sword came down with all Richard’s force and strength behind it. The blade cleaved the man from the top of his head down to the center of his chest. Parts of the head and neck fragmented off the corpse.

Richard didn’t wait to see if it was enough. He hacked furiously at the man, screaming in rage the entire time, cutting the threat to bits. As the men with the lanterns caught up from behind, Richard could finally see that the threat from this particular intruder was no more than rubble in the hallway.

With that one threat ended, Richard looked up. In the distance, faint candlelight came from a room to the right. Richard saw the silhouetted shape of the other man headed for that light. In that light, Richard could see that the hallway was a dead end beyond the room. Sammie was trapped down there. She had nowhere left to run, no way to escape.

Richard charged down the passageway, knowing that he was in a race to kill the man before he could kill Sammie. He yelled as he ran, trying to distract the killer. The man paid no attention to Richard. His attention was on his prey.

The hulking corpse stood just outside the doorway, looking in. Richard wasn’t close enough. The dark shape glanced Richard’s way with glowing eyes, then turned back to the room. He roared with menace as he stormed into the room.

Richard ran with all his strength. The dark shape disappeared into the room at the dead end of the hall. Richard wasn’t close enough. He wasn’t going to make it in time. He knew that Sammie didn’t stand a chance.

Just as he was about to reach the doorway, the big, dark shadow of the man flew backward out of the room and crashed into the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel. Dust billowed up from the impact.

The man was clearly stunned but he recovered quickly. As he regained his footing, Sammie appeared in the doorway.

Richard was almost there, but he wasn’t yet close enough. Sammie and her attacker were too far away for Richard to help her.

The man again let out a thunderous roar of rage as he rushed the girl. Sammie lifted both arms out straight, with her palms up, as if she actually thought she could stop the charge of the big man.

To Richard’s surprise, the man flew backward again, again slamming into the wall.

This time, as he came off the wall, flying toward the girl, she shrieked when she tried a third time to stop him and it didn’t work.

But this time Richard was there. With one mighty blow, the sword cleaved away the monster’s head and one shoulder. A second strike came like lightning, severing the other arm as it tried to strike at Richard. With quick swings, Richard hacked the body down to the waist, and then chopped the legs down at mid-thigh.

The head, with the neck, a shoulder, and one arm still attached, lay on the ground, looking up with menacing, glowing red eyes. The hand reached out and snatched Richard’s ankle. Richard brought the sword down a half-dozen times in quick succession, hacking the arm and head apart. He crushed the hand with his boot after smashing the head to bits.

Richard stood panting, sword in his fist, feeling the rage of it storm through him, drawing yet more of his own rage forth. He cocked his head, listening, but he didn’t hear any other screams or roars. It seemed that this was the last one.

Sammie stared up at him.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

She nodded as she let out a deep sigh of relief.

He pulled her to him and with his sword arm, embraced her around her small shoulders, thankful that he had been in time. She had managed to buy a few precious seconds until he could get to her and end the threat for good.

“You’re sure you are all right?” he asked again. “You’re sure that he didn’t hurt you?”

She held some of her dusty, frizzy black hair back out of the way as she looked down, taking a good look at the remains.

“No, I’m fine,” she assured him. She sounded remarkably calm.

“Then do you mind telling me what you were doing?” Richard gritted his teeth as his fist tightened around the hilt of his sword. He leaned down toward her. “I told you to protect the Mother Confessor. When I left, I clearly told you to stay there and watch over her.”

“I was watching over her.”

“Until you ran. I trusted you to protect her, and instead you ran. I can’t fault you for being afraid, but I was counting on you and you didn’t stay there and protect her.”

Sammie shook her head. “I was protecting her—”

“They came back in the caves after her. You ran.”

Sammie folded her spindly arms and glared up at him. “They weren’t after the Mother Confessor. They were after me.”

“You don’t know that.”