Reaper of Souls: A fantasy short story Read Online Free Page A

stone above, taking down a thick layer of cobwebs with
her body, and gracefully landed on her feet before falling onto her backside. 
She was covered in a cocoon of cobwebs.  Reggie jumped to her feet and
frantically pulled the cobwebs from her body.
    “Oh,
disgusting,” she cried out softly.  “I hate spiders!”
    As she pulled
the last of the cobwebs from her body, she saw the golden dagger on the altar. 
Relief swept over her.  She hurried toward the altar, hesitated only a moment,
and reached for the dagger.  A large spider crawled across her arm.  She gasped
and frantically shook it off.  Reggie groaned softly then snatched the dagger
from the altar.  Despite that it was probably worth millions in her world, she
barely even looked at it.  Getting her brother back was the only thing that
mattered.  She looked at the main entrance and considered her options.
    “Now I just
need a way out.”
    The ape-like
creatures attempted to remain still and hidden along the path not far from the
temple entrance.  They were keeping close watch for her arrival.  Little did
they know that she was just inside the entrance behind them.  Reggie quietly
slipped out of the temple through the main entrance and kept close to the
vine-encrusted wall.
    †
    T he castle’s broad, marble
hallway seemed to extend forever, passing dozens of doorways and a sea of suits
of armor.  Kahn stormed along the hallway with an ape-like creature grunting as
it hurried after him, attempting to keep up.
    Kahn appeared
furious.  “I want her found immediately!”
    The creature
grunted a response, hurried past him, and left through the front door.  Kahn
approached the library with disgust, threw open the door, and suddenly stopped
in the doorway.  Reggie casually sat on one of the leather chairs with a book
on her lap.  She looked up at Kahn, glanced at her watch, and smiled.
    “You’re early,”
Reggie casually announced.  “I wanted to finish another chapter before
collecting my brother and heading home.”
    Kahn stared at
her with surprise then looked at the golden dagger in its rightful spot above
the fireplace mantel.
    “That’s not
possible,” he snarled.  “My troops didn’t see you pass through the temple
opening.”
    “You mean your
ambush party?”  Reggie shut the book, carelessly tossed it aside, and stood. 
“Please--” she scoffed.  “There’s your dagger.  Task complete.”  She glared at
him through evil eyes.  “Now get my brother.”
    Kahn’s surprise
quickly turned to hostility.  “How did you get into the temple?”
    “Through the
back door.”
    “There isn’t a
back door.”
    “I beg to
differ,” she scoffed.  “Where’s my brother?”
    “The rules of
the contract specifically stated through the temple door .  You didn’t
complete the task appropriately.”  Kahn held out his hand.  The contract
appeared in it.  He pointed to one of the paragraphs.  A sentence was
immediately highlighted.  “Right here,” he announced firmly.  “ Through the
temple door .  You didn’t complete the task.  You lose.”
    “You cheat,”
she snapped.  “The task was to retrieve the dagger and return it to the
library.  I did that.”
    “The contract
is the contract.”
    Reggie boldly
removed her copy of the contract from her pocket and shook it straight.  “Is
that so?”  She held up her copy of the contract.  “Then allow me to draw your
attention to paragraph four, addendum two,” she announced.
    “Addendum?”
    “So long as the
dagger is returned in said allotted time frame,” she read, “any means necessary
shall be considered binding.”
    She eyed him
and raised a cocky brow.  Kahn looked at his contract, saw her scribbled
writing, and appeared stunned.  He suddenly sneered and glared at her.
    “You added that
yourself.”
    “And you
initialed the change, thereby agreeing to it.”
    Kahn appeared
speechless.  His look suddenly turned harsh.  “If you want to play that