The Brotherhood of the Twisted Iron: A Case of Whims, a Sack of Wisps - Chapter 11

[seymoure]

Know Your Enemy 

Grath and Bizjon conferred for moments in the corner. After the pair decided that jewels were more easily transported, the plan was rejoined.

Thwan-Tang motioned them to join him around his bubbling cauldron in the center of the room. Grath noted that there was no fire under the pot and yet the liquid within it roiled just the same. The black water turned to a mirror and the face of a man appeared in it. He was large, judging from the men standing around him. He had the grizzled look of a barbarian who had weathered more than one battle.

“This is Phrang,” the Wizard announced, “He leads the army of Carpath. Only three years ago he lead the junta that deposed the king of Preteen, making him the ruler. It is rumored he was a mercenary who clawed his way up in that army by murder, mostly. His time on the throne was so merciless that the people of the kingdom rose up, while most of them wanted nothing more than his death, the side effect was that they launched a new government. That government was quickly supplanted by another military take over, and Phrang escaped into the infantry of our land.”

“My sword is named the same as he?” Grath asked.

“No, yours is called ‘Fang’ while he is ‘Phrang,’” Bizjon correct authoritatively.

“Along with his newly found minion, Grubagmal (they call him ‘Grube’), he began another assent to power.”

A new face appeared in the cauldron before them. With a thin, almost sharp face that the rare smile would make more sinister. They didn’t need to be told that this was the follower of the barbarian. It would be the only way he would have any friends.

This image dissolved to a view of thousands of armed men. This was, without a doubt the army of Carpath. It was evident they came not from academies, but from prisons and insane asylums. It sent a small shiver through Meri-am.

“This is what you are going to face,” Thwan-tang summed up, “Phrang has taken little interest in the cannonette, preferring always the blade. He revels in the personal kill. This is what he has taught to the members of his forces. Imagine what these men, who love nothing so much as killing, are armed with a weapon of the killing ability of the small cannon. Not to mention those with no aptitude for swords, but the will to kill.”

It was obvious that this could not be allowed to happen. They had fought monsters before, but this was the most terrifying they had faced.

 

© C. Wayne Owens
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