Cedric Bonne stopped playing. The final notes from his grand piano reverberated over the stone walls of the manor house and dissipated. He flexed his shoulders and hands; he had been playing for a couple of hours.
A voice from behind caused him to straighten.
"You know why I am here?"
Cedric nodded, not turning around. Footsteps approached and two hands encircled his neck. Pulling back, they left the steel amulet lying against his muscular chest yet again. Cedric turned around to face his friend and mentor. This man resembled his departed father and grandfather but was neither of them. He somehow seemed older and more dignified.
"This will be the final challenge," the stranger said in a husky voice. "Bless you, my friend." The man stepped backward, reality swallowing him as it had every time before.
Cedric stood from his piano and stretched again. He walked past the door at the back of the room, and as he did the amulet glowed slightly. This door only opened when he was wearing the device. He had tried to open it at other times to no avail.
But he was not ready. A quick left turn and then a door to his right led into the ancient armory of his family. He flicked the light switch and removed his clothes, revealing muscles flowing under tanned skin, and then dressed in his ancestral armor. First the padded shirt, then the chain hauberk slid on with practiced ease. He stepped into his sturdy leather pants and hob-nailed boots. The cool feel of the green cape that bore his family crest as it slid around his shoulders was comforting. Lastly, he equipped the belt with three sheaths: the one on the left hip for his sword, which gleamed coldly even in the bright light of this room; the one on his right hip for the black mace; the one set at an angle across his lower back for the sharp silver dagger.
He returned to the door and again his amulet glowed. Opening silently on its hinges, the door revealed a hall of portals. The man who brought the amulet had directed Cedric to this hall several times over the years, and he had completed many challenges behind these doors. He fought monsters, solved puzzles, and saved small towns. But tonight was different. The door at the end of the hall was illuminated. Before, it had always been one of the side doors. Gold, green, red, orange, silver, and pewter doors passed to his left and right as he walked to the end. As he approached, the final door began to glow brighter, the blue luminance nearly engulfing him as he drew near. He ran his hand over the gold stitching above his heart. Generations of Bonnes had worn this cape, and it was not the least bit frayed. Ready now, he reached out his hand, touched the door, and felt the pull to enter the portal.
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When the sense of disorientation left him, he found himself standing in the snow looking up at crisp stars in a too-dark night sky. He knew this place; the low wall, the street before him. But he did not know this time. The wall was in near-perfect repair, the road was cobbled and littered with spilled hay and animal dung. He also did not know this sound. Gone was the rumble of the factory, and gone was the distant roar of the motorway. In their place, the lowing of cattle, the creak of a distant cart being pulled by animals.
A hand touched him from behind. "I am glad you are ready, lad. This is what you trained for, tonight the Bonnes make their stand."
Yes, the voice was the same.
He turned slowly to view the face he had seen so many times. But this time, the familiar stranger did not disappear. Tonight the man wore what appeared to be the same clothes and weapons he did.
"Come, follow me."
The familiar stranger led him around the corner to the entrance of the family estate. The wood on the gate doors looked strangely new, just like everything else. Then he saw it, eight other men of the Bonne line, all dressed like him, all a little confused.
"I am Arthur Bonne, and I have a need this night. A lifetime of preparation is represented here. I am the one who built the hall and the doors. I built them to train you, and in the end, to call you here tonight. Not every firstborn son is here, not all answered the call, and some answered but proved too weak. But each of you has passed the tests and stands ready.
"This night is All Hallows Eve, the year of our Lord 1600, and tonight you are called to defend your birthright, to defend the Bonne ancestral home from a curse." Arthur looked up before he continued. "All of this began with an evil enchantress my benighted father dallied with. I cast her out as soon as he died, but she left a terrible curse behind, and that curse comes due tonight. I feel them now. Bonne men, defend your home!"
The group of men standing before the gates drew their swords and settled their stance.
Cedric had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he was ready. He loved his family, and he would not let the Bonne estate fall on his watch. Not while he still had breath.
Across a cold, fallow field, a line of creatures approached. They limped and waddled, they howled and screamed, they glared and they cowered. The mob of monsters showed flashes of fur, feathers, scales, and skin; it looked as if every evil thing that lived under every cursed rock, in every blasted hole, had risen and was coming here tonight.
The Bonne men had formed themselves into a line, standing before the gate to their estate; a home that each, in turn, had ruled. Faces were grim and firm, fearful but reserved. These evil beings would not pass, they would not defile this home.
The shambling mass of dark creatures moved into a jog, and then a run. Feet slapped on stone, hooves dug into dirt, paws pushed against grass. Soon they were crashing into the defenders' line with a great howl.
Cedric had drawn his sword and mace, so when the line closed, his sword arm was already arcing downward, cleaving through the skull of a birdlike man. His mace blocked its clawed hands as they darted for his neck. He spun before the dark thing had dropped, jerking the sword out of its shattered skull. A werewolf was already mid-swing when Cedric saw him. He attempted to dodge, but the blow from its clawed hand still caught him, lifting him from his feet. The beast was quick to follow its victim, dropping on top of him and raking its sharp fingernails across his chain-mailed chest, and into an unprotected portion of his sword arm leaving three long gashes. The wound hurt but was not disabling. Pain could be ignored.
The creature was perched on Cedric's other arm. He had lost the sword in his fall, but he twisted and reached to the small of his back, extracting the silver knife that was hidden there. He brought it up and struck, but the creature was too quick, knocking his blow aside easily.
A familiar mace suddenly appeared, arcing down to crush the wolfman's skull. A hand pulled the furred body away and then offered him a hand up, the smiling face seeming as familiar as his own. Cedric quickly sheathed his dagger and retrieved his sword, entering the fray a second time.
A large lizard was attacking a nearby defender, and Cedric lunged forward, sinking his sword point into the back of the creature's skull. He spun, looking for another opponent as a group of small, almost childlike creatures sneaked up behind him. Their skin was almost black and their eyes glowed a dark red. Each of them had a wicked-looking curved dagger in their hand. He continued his turn; a broad sweep of his sword caught two of the five creatures unaware, ending their existence. The other three leaped back, spreading out and seeking to flank him. Cedric had faced similar situations before and immediately charged the one to his right. The imp quickly fell with a mace in its skull. The other two closed quickly, but his rapid movement had earned him the initiative, and their attacks came moments too late for a mortal blow to be landed. He took a cut to his left hand and the leather of his pants stopped what could have been a disabling blow to his leg. Again he lunged, this time at the attacker to his left, his sword taking the dark creature directly in the chest and felling it. The final enemy darted in as soon as Cedric had committed to his attack, but Cedric was prepared and parried with his mace. The creature knew his advantage had been in numbers and turned to flee. Cedric threw his dagger, catching his fleeing attacker between the shoulder blades.
Cedric turned again and watched in despair as a man in a green cape fell under the weight of three attackers, his wails piercing the night. Cedric rushed to assist, but by the time he and two others had killed the enemies, their fellow heir lay dead, eyes staring cold and sightless into the night.
Looking around, they could see a few Bonne men putting the last of the horrors out of their misery. The defenders had held. Four lay dead, but six yet stood. The men began to cheer but their voices fell again as they heard a great thumping stomp erupt behind them. Approaching from the field was a giant girded for war with two axes as long as Cedric was tall.
The defenders tensed, here was the true enemy, the others driven before its storm. The creature stood twenty feet tall, arms banded in steel with muscles visible under pale skin. Its eyes were completely black, yellowed teeth peeking from a tight grimace. As one, the remaining defenders rushed the giant. They flew forward, battle cries erupting from their mouths. The man to his left was cut in two by a mighty blow as Cedric darted between the monster's tree-like legs, hacking with dagger and sword as he ran past. He spun and hewed at the back of the giant's knee, severing a tendon, and causing it to fall. But the creature was not finished. It screamed and flailed about on every side, catching Cedric on the side of his head with the haft of one of his axes. The world faded to black even before his body crumpled to the ground.
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Cedric awoke in his armory, neatly placed on the floor. Getting up, he walked to the front door still dressed for battle. The gates to the manor house stood, in all of their aged glory. Cedric pulled up his mailed sleeve and there, stark white against his brown skin lay three scars. Cedric heard the distant sound of the motorway and sighed.
He had met his family obligation, but more, he was honored to have been chosen to stand beside his fathers, to defend this home.
