THE MAN IN BLACK

In the twentieth year of his reign as the king of England, king Henry the forty third, caught word of a strange man stalking the land. According to the report this odd man was roughly four cubits in height but only three hands in width. Tall yet thin and dressed entirely in black. Except for a grey bandanna or a piece of metal shaped like one that was over his mouth.

The man wore a long coat and black boots with iron buckles and a wide brimmed hat that hid his face, though some claimed a faint white glow came from where his eyes should be. His hands were covered with black gloves and not hair or hide of him could be seen. His pants had an odd gleaming quality to them, that too was consistent. The hat was like that worn by Inquisitors or those on the American frontier, or so he’d heard. The reports consistently noted a crow perched on his left shoulder and a great golden eagle on his right. The man didn’t seem to do anything but his appearance caused quite a stir as the locals quickly grew fearful of the stranger in their midst. He would stay, perhaps a week, doing who knows what then he’d just leave only to appear elsewhere. And disappearances followed in his wake, no more than the usual in most cases but the man was inevitably blamed.

A month passed when a priest came to him and claimed the man would spell his doom, so said the Pope. So the king agreed to send his knights after the man and they would work with the Vatican Inquisition until the man was stopped. Many men went out in search of the man but none found him, and some of the hunters never came back. So the king hired mercenaries to hunt this man and put out a bounty for his capture or killing. He was never brought in.

A year passed and the king was terrified but questioning his faith in the Vatican’s prophecy. Then a messenger told him the man was in the capital and presumed to be headed his way. The king rallied his knights and called on the local priests and Inquisitors and as many guards and soldiers as he could spare. They all waited in and around the palace, vigilant for this terrible and feared invader.

The king and his soldiers soon heard the calling of birds, it was an ominous sound in all accounts. Ravens, crows, vultures, eagles, gulls, and all manner of verminous and predatory avian was heard in a great cacophony the likes of which did not exist in nature. Then the king began to hear screaming. Screaming that was eerily like that of men. The screaming was followed by gunshots and cannon as the men fought back against this faceless terror. After a time the sound of metal on metal faded, as did the gunshots, and even the mighty cannon fell silent. A sole shot from what was probably a pistol barked out and there was no more. The birds had reduced their cries to a very low chatter.

The survivors in the castle shook in their boots but stood firm, they were many and whatever it was would have to face them in this most fortified and treasured place now. A low knocking sounded against the gate, even the king could hear it from his throne deep within, and the riflemen nearest formed up behind it. They were in rows with the first on their bellies the second on one knee, the third the same, and the fourth and fifth stood and they stood eighteen men abreast. They were certain no being that walked the Earth could survive this.

A single volley was fired by all at once, then the men all screamed as something killed them. The other warriors ran to fight, despite the futility, and the calling of the birds grew in number and volume. Only one shaking man returned.

This lone man was streaked in blood and wild eyed as he ran back to the throne room crying and bleeding himself. He professed to an absolute lack of hope as this fiend was unstoppable, nothing seemed to bring him pain and nothing could stop him or his evil flock. The first group of men had been felled after that failed first volley, despite most of the shots hitting the man, when the vicious beasts swarmed them from above. They had stood no chance against such a foe. Most of the knights had died by either eagle’s talons or the tall man’s pistols, their armor was of little use against whatever composed the dark man’s bullets. The Inquisitors and priests had no effect on them either. Many birds died but the man was untouched, so said the survivor. Then he shot himself with a pistol taken from a dead officer.

The king was silent as he listened to the sound of the man’s heavy boots stepping upon the castle floor, “Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, crunch!” and then the thunking resumed uninhibited. The men in the throne room locked and barred the double doors closed and barricaded it with what lengths of lumber they could find.

The thunking stopped just outside of the barred doors to the throne room and not a man dared to move, they hardly even breathed so great was their fear. The door blew down and a cloud of ash blew into the room. A tall, solitary, figure stood in the portal. He was silent and calm to the eye and his own two gleamed white in the darkness of the cloud despite the lanterns’ yellow glow. All but one man stood aside and let the monster pass and birds hopped in after him, refusing to fly.

The lone man was the king’s most loyal knight and he had served him since his childhood, well before the king was who he was. The knight was slightly shorter than the man and was plated in armor. He drew his sword and held his broad shield before him and glared at the threat to his king. The knight charged and the figure stepped on him, pressing down and back on his shield, and the knight was smashed onto his back. The dark man pointed a long barreled pistol at his head and fired a bullet from the weapon with the silvery gleam. Most bullets were made from lead nowadays, so it should have bounced off. It punched a hole in his head and the knight stopped struggling.

The man walked right up to the throne as his pets began to pick at the fallen knight’s armored carcass. The dark man had not said a single word since his arrival but then he spoke.

“My master has a message for you.” His voice was cold and deep.

“What does your master wish me to know?” The king asked calmly, he knew his end was at hand as the man raised both the iron black pistol and the otherwise identical silver one.

The guns were pointed right at Henry’s head before he spoke again, and he said this.

“The king is dead, slain by hunter’s hand. All hail the new king, true lord of all the land.” Then he shot the king dead and kicked his corpse aside.

He sat in the throne for but a moment and closed his eyes, savoring the feel. He swiftly rose again and took a rod from a pocket that could not have contained it. With this rod his drew a symbol on the floor, poking it deeply down the king’s neck to get his blood. He placed upon the center of the symbol, a pentagon within a circle with lines leading from each corner to the other’s centered with a human skull laden with many cracks that was almost hidden amongst the lines, the hand of an unborn child ripped from its mother’s womb and waited quietly.

A minute passed and the symbol in blood glowed, those in the room tried to flee but the birds gazed upon them with hunger and they reluctantly stayed. The tall man took a knee and bowed his head before the blood as an image rose from the circle to fill its bounds. The head of a monstrous unicorn gazed down on the man with a smile. Its horn long, sharp, smooth, and yellowed. Its teeth like daggers and spotted with blood. Its fur as black as sin. But its eyes were the worst, like those of a serpent and red like dark blood.

“I have done as you ordered, lord and father. I thank you for your blessings that I might be the instrument of your will.” The dark man said to this monstrous figure.

“You have performed well my son, but your reward requires one last act in my name.” The great equine replied in a voice that shook the assembled men’s bones.

“Whatever you desire is my command.” The man said without rising.

“To earn my love, my child, you must end the lives of these sniveling cowards who stood aside and let their master fall. When you have finished, put the guns to your temples and fire while standing at the heart of my symbol. Then shall I send forth a host of angels to cleanse this world and bring it to heel.”

“Yes father.” The man said, and with his death did a realm of man fall under the fists and steel shod hooves of the demon’s legions. Angels and beasts like a sick combination of man and horse descended in gleaming ships, drawn by the signal of their maker, and no quarter was given and no sacred thing bereft of touch.

The man in the black cloak with the symbol of a pentagon within a circle with a metal fanged skull at its heart pressed the holographic button that deactivated the holo-book and waited for the inevitable questions that followed. At least one of his students always had a few, and who was he to deny them this small admission? At least the truth was something they could be given freely.

A young man raised a hand, machinery was visible against the pale flesh and the man felt a hollow pain in his chest at the sight of this formerly maimed limb. He pointed a finger at the young man and smiled at him as the boy’s eyes lit up. They met with the elder males behind the teacher’s glowing teal visor, across which red words in a fell language appeared syllable by syllable.

“Yes Michael?”

“Instructor Andrew? What happened to the man in black?” Michael asked.

“Whatever do you mean child?”

“Well, you said he shot himself for his father’s love and that brought the angels and the Loshed-andros. What happened after that? Did he come back to life, was he brought to the Lord’s side, did he go to one of the heavens, or did he go unrewarded?”

“Hahahah, ah you have ever been the curious one. An astute question my boy, but I don’t know. That is a mystery yet unsolved, they didn’t bother recording anything on him after that since they couldn’t waste time trying to find one odd man when the world was being invaded. Besides, I’m just an instructor so they probably wouldn’t tell me anyway. Since the record from the beginning of enlightenment on Earth five dash seven three has been observed, history class is dismissed until tomorrow. You will all be tested on it when you return. Now run along, its time for you all to go to recess. The Valkyries won’t be happy if they miss out on playtime because you all were late.” He suppressed a sigh of dismay when all but Michael ran off laughing and screaming, the boy was hungry for knowledge and always kept him late after school hours were officially over and his wife was beginning to question his faithfulness.

"Yes Michael?" Andrew asked. Michael gave him an odd look and rested his head on his wholly organic hand, his smile was most unsettling.