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throne of the dark king
chapter seven

Written by Ted Spector

Bruno shook his head, and they left the unsettling house behind, continuing to make their way towards the tower beyond the village.

“I have to admit,” Cassian started, breaking the silence that had naturally fallen over the group during their travels. “I don’t know how fond I am of this idea.”

“What do you mean by that?” Bruno asked curiously, peering over his shoulder to look at the rogue.

“We’re headed to where the bell rang from. The bell stopped that thing from coming after us. Perhaps for a good reason, perhaps there’s something even deadlier in the tower. Or perhaps it’s playing a trick on us, perhaps it wants us to be at the tower to–” Cassian was interrupted as a hand grasped his own.

“Are you scared?” Adair asked, a somewhat cheeky grin playing on his lips as he stared up at his boyfriend. The way he tilted his head caused Cassian to exhale sharply and smile in return, visibly relaxing.

“With you by my side?” he asked sweetly, bringing their joined hands up to press a kiss to the criminals' knuckles. “Never, my love.”

“Lord,” Bruno shuddered, causing Cassian’s head to whip around defensively.

“I apologize. Are we…” he trailed off, steps coming to a halt as the group took in the sight before them. “....bothering you…?”

Bodies almost completely lined the road to the tower, piled up high enough to reach their waist. When Adair took a step closer to investigate, Cassian pulled him back by their still connected hands.

“Don’t go near them. Don’t breathe too much of them in, either. Just look at them,” he advised, motioning vaguely.

“Plague victims,” Adair noted, seeing the sickly skin, the bloodied faces. “But they didn’t die like that. Someone moved them here.”

“And they smell so terrible,” Florian grimaced, pinching their nose with their thumb and forefinger. “They’re rotting.”

Bruno moved forward, eyeing off the trees that lined the path before the corpses.

“Maybe it was other townspeople,” he suggested, reading the scrawled writing on the tree trunks. “They worshiped it.”

“Worshipped what?” Florian asked, moving closer.

“The creature that’s been chasing us down,” the scribe replied, breathing in something like disbelief, perhaps even a hint of amazement.

“Are you suggesting these are sacrifices?” Adair asked, following Bruno, moving forward with a renewed sense of purpose.

“I’m saying we don’t rule it out as a possibility,” the Scribe replied.

The rest of the trip to the tower was quiet and tense. The group tried not to breathe in the overwhelming stench of death as they proceeded forward. As they marched, Bruno pulled his own notepad out and scrawled a name into it, one he remembered seeing inscribed on the tree bark -- the name of a wizard he'd heard many times before.

Arcturus.

They continued down the trail and, eventually, came to a clearing. In the center sat a tower, tall and made of stone brick, covered with vines. Bruno expected it to be the home of Arcturus. The group looked between each other and nodded. Bruno stepped towards it, as did Florian. Cassian placed a hand on his sword still in its sheath and Adair gripped the handle of his dagger. They approached the tower cautiously -- but they didn't make it even halfway across the clearing before they heard heavy, clanking footsteps behind them. They spun around to see a hulking figure wearing unmistakable armor, gripping the handle of his black sword.

The knight.

Art by M4ngey