Gemmell, David – Morningstar

Suddenly the last creature emerged from the undergrowth. How it had escaped I do not know, but it advanced into the smouldering clearing and stood, its grotesque arms unfolding from its hump. Jarek Mace sent his last two shafts into the flanks of the beast but it ignored them and advanced on the tree, continuing to dig at the roots.

‘Piercollo has had enough of this,’ said the giant. Taking hold of a long part-burned branch he wrenched hard, the dry wood snapping with a loud crack. The branch was some six feet in length and as thick as four spears bound together. He proceeded to strip away the twigs and shoots growing from it. ‘Give me your dagger,’ he ordered me and I did so. Resting the broken length of wood in the crook of the bough on which we stood, Piercollo began to cut away at the tip of the branch, shaping it to a rough point. I could see that he was trying to craft a weapon, but what kind? It was too large for a spear, and too unwieldy to be used as a lance.

At last satisfied, he returned my dagger, then hefted the branch and edged out along the bough some twelve feet above the ground.

‘Ho, there!’ he called out. ‘Creature of ugliness! Come to Piercollo!’The beast lifted its grotesque head, its huge eyes focusing on the Tuscanian. Piercollo stood very still with the huge spear held vertically, the point aimed at the ground below. At first the creature just stood, staring up at him, then it moved across the clearing.

‘That is it, monster! Come to me!’

With a roar it charged at the tree.

Gripping the weapon with both hands, Piercollo dropped from the bough, his enormous weight driving the huge spear deep into the creature’s back, through its enormous belly and into the ground beneath. The monster’s legs buckled and it sank to the earth with blood pouring from its mouth.

Slowly I climbed down and walked among the many corpses.

Megan had said that magick and sorcery were more closely linked than I knew. But as I gazed upon the dreadful, fire-blackened bodies I hoped – prayed, almost – that she was wrong.

Five years before, when I had been living with Cataplas at his home by the Sea of Gaels, I had watched him experiment with dead mice, dissecting them, examining the innards. Then he had laid the bodies side by side.

‘Look at them, Owen, and tell me what you see.’What is there to see, save two dead rodents?’Use your Talent, concentrate. Think of colours, auras.’I stared at the mice and true enough they glowed with a faint light, radiating out from their tiny bodies. ‘What is that?’ I asked, amazed.

‘The essence of life,’ he told me. ‘You will see that light for three days more – then it will be gone. But watch this!’With a sharp knife he cut the bodies neatly in two, then took the hind legs and rear body of the first and laid it against the severed front torso of the second. Cataplas took a deep breath and I felt the gathering of his power. The light around the two halves swelled and I watched the skin of the bodies writhe together, the edges meeting, joining. The rear legs twitched, the head moved. The hybrid struggled to rise, took several weak steps, then fell again. Cataplas clicked his fingers and the light faded, the twinned beast ceasing to move.

‘You are a sorcerer!’ I whispered.

‘I am a seeker after knowledge,’ he replied.

Here, in this clearing, I could see the result of his quest and it sickened me.

Jerek Mace moved alongside me. ‘Where do they come from?’ he asked. ‘There are at least three men here, and several hounds.’The beasts are . . . were . . . merged . . . creations of sorcery. Hounds, horses, men, boars, bonded together into . . .’ I turned away, desperate to put the Hellish scene behind me.

‘Sorcery or not, we killed them,’ said Mace, slapping my shoulder. ‘The fire you sent was unbelievable. I did not realize you had such power.’Neither did I. Can we leave this place?’Presently,’ said Mace, with a smile.

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