Free The Defiler by Steven Savile Page B

sun.
    He never thought for a moment he would ever be glad to see one of those damned crows. He was wrong.
    "Sláine! Sláine! Look!"
    And then the battle was joined with a hellish chorus of animalistic growls and roars as Sláine launched himself at the advancing beasts.
    There was a dark need in the barbarian to cause pain; that was the true Sláine, not the surly companion he walked with. Sláine was a warrior to the core. Fifty beasts, one hundred, a field of fiends, he did not think it too many. Ukko looked from the bird to the warrior and back to the huge circling bird.
    Brain-Biter dripped with the gore of the dead.
    "Kiss my axe, dog breath!" Sláine raged; his battle cry drowned out the screams of the animal-men as they threw themselves at the lone axeman. There was no compassion, no humanity, only naked savagery as the Sessair drove his axe in a glorious dance of death as he charged to meet his foe head-on. Even without the blazing power of Danu surging through him, the barbarian in battle rage was an awesome sight. The front ranks of the dog-faced guards broke, howling their frustration as Brain-Biter tore into their flesh and fur. Their cries ululated over the chitinous taunts of the insects. Their death-rattles punctuated the chorus.
    In moments the sun-blasted square reeked of slaughter and Sláine was in the thick of it.
    A dog soldier's arm fell at Ukko's feet, blood gouting from the ragged stump where it had been severed. The blood stained the sand a dark red.
    Ukko shuddered and kicked it aside.
    He struck the tinder, desperately trying to cause a lethal spark, but his trembling hands betrayed him. "Come on, come on, come on," he urged himself, almost dropping the damned flint again. He swallowed, mouth raw. He couldn't stop the shakes now that they had taken hold. "I've been in worse messes than this, just concentrate, you can do this with your bloody eyes closed." He fixated on his grubby fingers fumbling with the flint and steel, striking them again and again, begging the grease to catch one of the sparks and burn.
    He couldn't bring himself to look at the face trapped within the ancient tree, fearing what he might see in its ancient eyes.
    And then one of the sparks caught and the grease smeared into the tree smouldered. Ukko blew on it gently, encouraging the flame to feed on the tree. A moment later grease and bark crackled, the spark spreading. Ukko fanned the tiny flame, desperately trying to get it to bite...
    And the bark-covered eyes flared open, the face trapped within the tree wracked with pain and sudden fear as the flames caught, searing into it. The bark withered and blistered, splitting beneath the sudden intense bloat of heat. And as it cracked and flaked away, the flesh beneath emerged like a snake shedding its skin.
    The fire did not touch the Skinless Man as his distorted face pressed out from the charring bark, stretching the wood hideously until almost the entire head had breached the wooden prison. The bark across the Skinless Man's mouth splintered in a silent scream as the tormented soul tried desperately to vent his pain and anger. Ukko reached up with the smouldering tinder, touching it to the wood around the Skinless Man's screaming mouth. It caught and burned, shrivelling away to char and crumbling beneath the ferocity of his sudden cry as the grip of his prison finally relented and he tasted the acrid air of freedom.
    Ukko was torn between watching the destruction of the tree and the slaughter of the monstrous man-animals as Sláine hacked and slashed into their soft bodies, gutting them, splitting their carcasses in two, severing limbs, opening grotesque full-face smiles as Brain-Biter carved from bloody grins that split the heads from cheek to jowel.
    The air stank of blood and burning.
    The screams of the wounded spiralled, choking off abruptly, silenced by Brain-Biter's hungry edge.
    Ukko wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to calm his racing heart. The trembling had