Chapter 305 - Army of the Undead part 17

The battle raged until dawn, but we emerged victorious.

A few of Khronos's minions escaped, but most lay dead at our feet, dead and fallen to dust and bones. And we had taken the Clan Master captive.

His name was Yul. He was an Eternal, as all Clan Masters are, and impossible to kill, but our warriors had torn the limbs from his body, as Zenzele had instructed them to do. All they brought to me was a very angry torso.

Judging by the length and breadth of his torso, he had been a large man until recently, almost as tall as myself. He had a proportionally large, broad head, and blunt, crude features: a heavy brow, flat nose with flaring nostrils and long fangs. His arms had been removed at the shoulders, and his legs broken off at the knees, and he was naked.

"Usurper!" he roared as my warriors bore his crippled body across the battlefield. "Traitor! Fiend! Restore my limbs to me now or your suffering will be a thing of legend!"

Seeing the creature-- pale, limbless, genitals flopping—I could not help but laugh at his impotent threat.

"You dare?" he howled, bucking in the arms of his captors. "You DARE?" He wriggled loose of the men holding him and fell to the earth with a thud.

"My suffering is already a thing of legend," I said.

The Clan Master had landed face down. They rolled him over as I approached so that we could look each other in the eyes.

Zenzele glared at the immortal with contempt. As a former Clan Master, Zenzele knew all of the God King's Eternals, though she had no great love for any of them.

Yul spit dirt from his mouth. "The God King has your blood child," he said with a grin. "He sent us to carry a message to you, to demand your surrender. Taste my blood and see for yourself."

"I know," I said evenly. "I have already seen it in Palifver's blood."

"Then restore me, and I will accompany you to Uroboros," Yul said. "Perhaps the God King will be merciful. You can swear your allegiance to him. Beg him for forgiveness. I will be your advocate."

"Oh, yes! We all know just how merciful your God King is," I said mockingly.

He trembled. "Fucker of dogs! Eater of mortal shit! I will enjoy watching the God King tear you limb from limb!"

"I don't know how you'll do that. You are not leaving these mountains alive."

He laughed. "I am an Eternal! You cannot kill me! Carry my pieces to the furthest corners of the world if you wish, my clan will search them out. They'll find every part of me and restore me."

"That is not the fate I had in mind for you," I said.

He looked suddenly, pitifully, encouraged. "Then you do intend to release me? What would you have of me? Do you wish me to carry a message to the God King for you? Bring me my arms and legs and I will do it!"

"No," I said sympathetically. "I plan to employ you as an instructor. You, fiend, shall teach us how to destroy an Eternal. I'm sorry. I'm sure it will not be pleasant. In fact, I'm certain the pain will be worse than anything you remotely deserve, regardless of how cruel you've become in the God King's service. But it must be done. We must find a way to do it if we hope to destroy Khronos."

"What? No!" Yul shouted. "I cannot die! I will not!"

"Take him to Neolas," I said to the warriors who had carried him to me. "He knows what must be done, and keep a guard posted on him at all times. I don't want him… wiggling away like a worm."

The Eternal cursed me some more as they jogged away with him. Nothing too original. Mostly what animals I had a proclivity for fucking. What nasty excretions I was fond of devouring.

"You intend to drain him?" Zenzele asked.

I had been surveying the battleground, taking an inventory of our casualties, healing whomever I could. I continued on with a nod. "It is the living blood that animates us, that heals our injuries when we are wounded. Most blood drinkers die when they are wounded too grievously for the living blood to repair. The blood is vulnerable to the air that we breathe, I think. That is the impression I got when I Shared with Khronos, anyway. Our bodies insulate it from the atmosphere. That it why it dies when our bodies are pierced or torn apart. But for some reason, the living blood of Eternals is more resilient. It does not fall to dust when it is exposed to the ether. We need to find out why, and how we might circumvent it."

"Khronos has tried," Zenzele said. "He is ancient and merciless. He has tried a hundred different ways to destroy an Eternal, surely."

"You might think so, but he has not," I said. "He enjoys quartering his foes too much. He likes the idea of their endless suffering. I am not so cruel as that, but I am determined to find a way to destroy an Eternal. We must find a way."

"So you will not be surrendering to the God King? Not even for the Tanti?"

I kneeled down beside a writhing warrior. It was a new blood drinker. Young. He had been ripped in half. His intestines stretched out between his gaping ribs and the bottom half of his body, which was lying several meters away.

"Please, Father, heal me," he gurgled. "Heal me or… or kill me. I don't care. Just make the pain stop."

He was a beardless young man with short, curly, dark hair and fine features. He reminded me of Ilio. So young!

I could sense that he would not survive, even if I Shared my living blood with him. He was dying. He was just too strong a blood drinker to die quickly.

"Thank you for your sacrifice," I said to him, and I felt the black tears well up in my eyes.

"My sons," he said, and I nodded.

"They will know that you died for them," I said. "I swear it. What is your name?"

"Ranolf," he answered.

"With your permission, Ranolf, I will Share with you so that your soul resides within me for all time. You will watch your children grow into men through my eyes. You will cradle your children's children with my arms, and love them with all my heart."

He nodded gratefully. I lifted him into my arms, so like a baby, and put my mouth to his throat.

"Father," he whispered.

After I had saved him, I set his remains aside. I rose shakily, my mind still trying to process the thoughts and memories I had absorbed from his blood. Zenzele took my hand and steadied me.

"Sacrifices must be made if we are going to win this war against the God King," I said to her. "I must weigh the worth of the Tanti against the worth of the whole world. If I must let them go to preserve all living men, then I will, no matter how much it pains me."

Zenzele narrowed her eyes.

"Please do not press me about it," I said. "It torments me badly enough as it is."

We went on to the next casualty.