The Seven Sins - Joslinne Morgan (unputdownable books txt) 📗

which one miscalculated swing could cost the other his life.
In no time at all, Phantom had gained the upper hand. Whatever Ralavar could throw at him, he could parry and match with twice his foe’s strength. To Ralavar, it was almost like fighting an advanced version of himself, a thought he found most unsettling.
The swords met again in the air as Ralavar attempted and overhead chop and Phantom managed to parry it easily. He then feigned a swing at his opponent’s legs, bringing up his sword and catching Phantom’s forearm as he did so. Blood welled from the cut, staining his white blouse. A frown creased Phantom’s brow and he cut the back of his adversary’s legs, sending the man tumbling forward before Phantom used his knee to propell him backward by digging his knee under the ribcage and literally knocking the wind out of him. Ralavar collapsed and shuddered as if in his death throes, Phantom placed the tip of his sword at his opponent’s neck.
“Tell me who this Lord Valadik is and why he wants you, and I just may let you live.” He said. He wasn’t even breathing hard.
Ralavar, on the other hand, was fighting hard for breath.
“Lord of Shadows, and his intentions were to use me to defeat you,” he answered, layering his voice with spite.
“And what is this Lord of Shadows offering you in return for your services?” Phantom asked in conversational tones.
“My life, isn’t that enough?”
“Much more than you shall receive from me, old friend.” Phantom used his free arm to wipe sweat from his forehead, leaving a smear of blood. “Tell me, why does Lord Valadik want me eliminated?”
“Who knows.” Ralavar shrugged.
“What a well of useful information you are. Now answer me one last question – if you can – who are these most delightful women I keep running into?”
“The Seven Deadly Sins. Lord Valadik controls them, and he has been sending them after you. So far you have managed to defeat-“
“Gluttony and Sloth. I would have guessed as much.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, then shrugged, lifting up the point of his sword. “Thank you my old friend. You have been very useful.” With that, he conked Ralavar over the head with the butt of his sword, rendering him unconcious.

“Did you kill him?” Pike asked, peeking over the rim of his spectacles at Phantom. His response was a glare.
“No,” Phantom said. “I didn’t. But I have a good mind to kill you.”
“But I want to come with you!” Pike protested. “You would be dead if it weren’t for me! You owe me!”
Phantom sighed irritably.
“I do,” he said. “Not that I would ever admit it to everyone, especially not an annoying little insect like yourself, I do owe you…a great deal.” He sheathed his sword and Pike, relieved to see he was not going to have a run-in with the business end of a sword this day, happily emerged from the tall grass. Phantom explained the situation to him, and then shaded his eyes and looked to the horizon.
“North, I think,” he said, partly to himself.
“What’s north?” Pike questioned, stumbling to keep up with the long-legged man’s quick strides.
“You’ll see when we get there,”

“And then, there were five,” Lord Ralavar said as he turned to his remaining five Sins, blood streaming from his nose and dripping onto his chest as he cradled his injured wrist. He looked pointedly at Envy, who sighed and stepped forward.
“Soon to be four,” she muttered.


4
Envy/Avarice

“Oh, oh, oh!” Vanity rang her hands in distress. “Oh my, oh my!”
“Will you calm down?” Wrath hissed. “It’s not your neck on the chopping block, so shut it up!”
“Poor Envy!” Vanity wailed. “She shall share the same fate as our other sisters! Soon there will be none of us left!” she threw her arms around Envy’s neck and sobbed. They were dry sobs, because if she summoned up actual tears her mascara would run and her face would become all red and blotchy. “Poor, poor, poor Envy! You were never quite so pretty as me but I have always loved you as the sister you were to me!”
“Will you stop reffering to me in past tense?” Envy snapped, breaking apart the smothering embrace. “It’s like I’m some blamed ghost!”
“But you are, you are and you just don’t know it!” Vanity’s moans and cries were by Avarice putting one talon-like fingernail at her sister’s throat.
“Shut up, or I’ll stab you in the throat here and now.” She warned.
Vanity sniffed a couple more times for good measure, but otherwise fell silent.
There had only been a few moment’s peace when the portal that had taken both Sloth and Gluttony to the World of Form appeared to escort the next Sin. Envy smoothed her green silk gown and stepped forward. The portal appeared, not as hole exactly but more of a seamless dark mass, like a tear in the delicate fabric of Time and Space. A silver aura surrounding its perimeter simply reeked of dark enchantments and black magic. Envy took another step forward, ignoring Vanity’s horrified stares and pitiful whimpers. She stuck her hand out and touched the darkness with the tips of her fingers, immediately snatching them back. Gods alive, it was cold as a crypt! Envy took a deep breath and, with an effort that can be described as nothing less than heroic, she plunged into it.
The cold seized hold of her limbs, freezing every breath, slowing even the pace of her pounding heart. The blood pounded in her ears and her chest began to feel as if a dozen marble slabs had been placed on top of it. The darkness was stifling her, she couldn’t even tell if her eyes were opened or closed, because it didn’t really matter.
It was over as soon as it began. The sin landed spread-eagle and unconcious on a hard marble floor, and the black hole vanished, as if simply it had never existed.

Phantom knew he was dreaming, for he fell asleep at the foot of a mountain and awoke in a grand hall. It stretched on forever, it seemed. The walls were emerald green, engraved with ancient gold runes that seemed to hold no meaning when read and echo emptily when spoken. The torches burned green fire and fit into sconces carved to resemble twisted, scowling faces with cold, calculating eyes and fanged maws. It gave one the eerie sensation of being watched. They too, were green. Even the marble floor was tinted greenish in hue. Something compelled him to move forward, and he did. The hall never changed nor did it ever seem to end.
Approaching faster, or maybe Phantom was just getting closer, was a bright, white light. It drifted closer, and Phantom’s pace quickened. Unlike the ever-burning torches that remained cold even though they were blazing, this light was warm, flooding his limbs with welcoming warmth.
As the light came even closer, Phantom bnecause aware of strange noises. He hadn’t noticed them before but now they surrounded him, filling his ears and racking his brain. A baby crying, a woman screaming, a Crawler hissing, a dog barking…as if the light were some sort of embodiment of chaos. Phantom plugged his ears against the sounds, but they remained in his head, pounding against his skull.
At last, his eyes flew open.
He was staring straight into the morning sun, his head hurt badly and his tongue felt heavy. They probably went hand-in-hand with the strange dream as a result of the previous night’s wine. Pike had brought food along with him, one of the perks to keeping the wanker alive was that he had also brought amongst his possessions a bottle of perfectly aged wine. Phantom drank half of it that night, feeling that after all he had been through that he deserved it.
The sun’s glare was beginning to blur his vision. He sat up, realizing he still clutched the neck of the half-empty bottle in his hand and took another swig of it. The sweet, chilled liquid tasted like Heaven and he savored it, rolling it around his tongue and pushing it into his cheek. His lips as another side-affect of the night before were numb, so a little bit of the wine dribbled down his chin. He barely had time to wipe it off before Pike grabbed the bottle from him and poured the liquid into his waiting mouth.
“Ahh. That’s a blessing, I was parched.” He said, placing the cork back into the now nearly-empty bottle. “Traveling will do that to a body. Speaking of which, where are we?”
“The Drüel Mountains,” Phantom replied, shading his eyes against the sun. “Just bordering Sèntrài.”
“So we’re heading for Sèntrài?”
“It would appear to be that way.”
“Ok, what did you do?” Pike asked, hands on hips.
“What?” Phantom turned on his companion.
“Why are you fleeing the country? Are you trying to avoid a run-in with the law?”
“I am not running from the law!”
“But you said-“
“No such thing,” Phantom finished for him. “And if you’re going to be annoying you may turn around and march right on home. I am going to Sèntrài because it suits my own purposes.”
“I see,” Pike said, although he clearly did not.
Phantom stood up, slighty swaying, and fairly stumbled towards a matted clump of brush.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Pike called after him. Phantom didn’t answer, he just stood in front of the brush and massaged his temples, as if asking for a straight thought at the moment was too much for his poor groggy brain.
“Dem,” he muttered thickly. “I knew it was here somewhere.” He moved forward, branches sticking his face and brambles scratching his skin and snagging his clothes. He batted away what he could, hacked to pieces what he could not. He was soon well on his way to clearing a path for himself. Pike waited a moment, and then followed him.
“I knew it was here somewhere,” Phantom said, sheathing his short sword and placing his hands on his hips. He stood in front of the yawning mouth of a large, dark cave. The numerous species of stalactites and stalagmites that hung from the roof and jutted from the floor added to the appearance of a giant mouth, just waiting to swallow up anyone who was fool enough to enter. Phantom took a step forward, Pike grabbed a hold of his sleeve and pulled him back.
“Has all that wine gone to your head? We can’t go in there!” he was speaking rapidly in a high, almost panicked voice. “Who knows what evils lurk inside that place? Come on, we’re going to find a road around the mountain.”
Phantom shook himself free of the smaller man’s grip.
“I’ve been here before,” he was trying to sound reassuring, but it wasn’t working. “It’s our most direct route and will take