"Musashi in King Arthur's Court" Chapter 5

[seymoure]

Chapter 5

“Many Kinds of Demons”

 

 

In the short journey from our peaceful picnic site to the crisis that summoned Ambrosius, we were all different aspects.

We four were smiling and excited, youth approaching adventure. We knew not what awaited us, but welcomed the chance exploits that we would speak of for years to come.

Ambrosius was somber. He had been in the center of chaos before, and he knew that much would fall upon his young shoulders.

I had seen the young man grow older by the day. We began our knowledge of each other when we were very near in years, and yet now, less than a year later, he was much advanced upon me.

Merlin had been called away often and the mantle of responsibility had weighed on Amby’s mind and drawn him from childhood play to battles that he would not even speak of to me, though I tried to be an ear for him.

I knew that he had battled often with someone called Nimbue, an offspring of a sprite that troubled Merlin often and was nothing if not vengeful and powerful.

He had been the invisible power behind tilting the outcome of several frays against invading Picts and Vikings toward the forces of Camelot.

This day we had no idea about the source of the menace we rode to face, but it was magical and therefore something that only Ambrosius could be asked to engage.

We crested a final hill and then saw something beyond our limited experience to understand.

The beast was twice as tall as the largest man I had ever seen. He stood like a man, on two legs, but that was most of the similarity.

His skin was a coat of light blue scales. It had four muscular arms ending in massive hands that held Knights’ lances like they were chew sticks. On the top of his head were nubs that were they longer, would have been horns. Instead they were short and ended in balls of flesh.

His eyes were half the size of his face, with three circles where men have one in each eye. What is white in a man’s eyes was green in his, while the centers were red.

Its roar was less like a beast than like the cry of a great bird.

The ground around him was littered with Knights and their steeds.

Its second roar made our horses to rear and panic, and we fought to keep a saddle on them.

I looked around and found that Melly was still on her horse; Cedric and Brie had taken to the ground. Neither of them seemed to be hurt, but they huddled together behind a large boulder.

Amby was nowhere to be seen.

I slid off my gelding and hit the ground harder than I thought I would. I recovered. At this point I saw my friend approaching the gigantic creature. I pulled the small blade that I had sheathed on my saddle and ran to join him.

I had no idea what I would do against such a thing, but I couldn’t leave my chum to stand alone.

“Mandiafore,” Ambrosius said in a voice that was steady and confident. Both his arms were extended above his head as he said, “Shamma daie porandia shaganore!”

There was a flash of power; not lightning, but something blue like it, struck the beast and threw it back.

Amby took a deep breath.

But the creature slowly stood again. It looked confused, but nonetheless angry and ready to attack.

“Vazin, vazin forge!” Amby shouted, again with his arms raised, “Legaun karzaivan. Whazzz!”

A second blast of power struck the creature, but this time it stood. It was stunned, but nothing like the first time.

Amby looked at me with concern. I raised my sword and he smiled a tiny smile.

And then he got an idea. He put out his hand to me, requesting my weapon. I, of course, gave it to him.

The young mage raised the small bodkin into the air and spoke the words, “Likeness, shanto, everwhen bazzaback Pawdan.”

Suddenly the sky opened with a thunder unlike anything I have ever heard.

Before us stood something like a man. His stance was that of an uncivilized warrior, and he held a massive curved sword.

His hair and his eyes were black as could be; the hair was pulled up into something like a bun in the back. He was clothed in a robe unlike anything I have ever seen.

On his feet were tied planks of wood.

The being looked at us and gave a growl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand erect.

Then the beast behind him roared again and launched itself at the newcomer.

Never have I seen anything that could move so fast.

In an attack that seemed to be a single movement, no dancer has moved so gracefully, no combatant has ever moved with such deadly ease.

With that single maneuver, he severed one of the monster’s arms at the base joint, and the screaming demon fell to its knees.

Spinning completely around, the demon Amby had summoned relieved the blue being of its head.

He stood without movement of any kind as the blue creature toppled to the ground amidst a burst of dust.

The warrior from the sky slowly turned and gracefully returned his strange blade to its sheath. He sat upon the ground and looked at us.

“I think you should send it back where it came from,” I suggested in quiet speech.

“I wish I knew how,” Ambrosius whispered back.

We stood smiling at our visitor.

He did not smile back.

 

 

© 2009 C. Wayne Owens

Continue on to Chapter 6

Link to Chapter 1