From Hell with Love Read Free Page B

Horseman, Niccolo did have his faults.
    “Yeah, there’s a lot of fighting and everything.  It’s just…  The people are all so… dumb ,” he whined, but he was interrupting by a deep laugh.
    “You’re one to talk, leper,” followed after the laugh, the voice so familiar that the Horsemen knew exactly who had joined them.  They turned to find an armored giant mounted on a massive red horse lazily approaching them.  The brute’s armor was red and black, fearsome carvings and etchings throughout the hell-forged pieces, but most impressive was the massive blade mounted on his back.  It was more a slab of iron than a weapon, but their fellow Horseman knew how to wield it masterfully.
    “You know, Ajax, I think I know exactly where they get it,” Niccolo said as he adopted a hostile stance toward the new arrival.  “After all, since you fly off the handle when anybody points out the obvious, they have to pretend for your sake.  Or, you know, get a sword crushing their ribcage.”  Niccolo crossed his arms as the legendary warrior swayed in his saddle, a handled jug in his left hand.
    “I don’t mind if people are smarter than me, Nico,” Ajax said as his horse loomed over his rotting counterpart.  He dismounted from his horse, which seemed to implode into a bundle of muscle tissue and blood before disappearing completely, and stood near the other Horsemen, his breath reeking of strong wine.  “That’s never been what I respect from a man.  That’s why you’ll always be little Nico to me.”
    “And here I thought that I held a special place in your heart,” Niccolo said as he adopted a sullen expression and kicked at the street, the sole of his boot scraping against cobblestones.  “Whatever will I do without the respect of an alcoholic swordsman?” Niccolo accented the question with a wink, which brought a laugh from the warrior.  Ajax set his arm on the smaller man’s shoulder and then engulfed Niccolo in a fog of alcoholic breath.
    “That you have to ask shows just how little you know.  A man must be able to kill his enemies and fill his belly with fire, little Nico, and I should know.  I’ve been killing men for thousands of years and have discovered the truth of the universe,” Ajax claimed, tapping Niccolo’s chest plate with an armored finger.  The leper cocked his head to the side and looked at his elder with incredulity.
    “You?  The truth of the universe?  Forgive me for thinking you’re too simple to know more than which boot goes on which foot,” Niccolo tried to antagonize the giant warrior, but Ajax just laughed before bringing his face closer and bathing his fellow Horseman in the stink of wine.
    “Little Nico, the world is simple, just like me!  I like my wine, I like my blood.  I don’t see why either should ever stop flowing.  And don’t even talk to me about what it’s like when they swirl together,” Ajax said, shivering at his own memories before tipping his jug, threatening to pour its contents on Niccolo’s shoulders.  “I could show you right now, Horseboy.”  Niccolo rolled his eye before using his hand to wave away the warrior’s threat.
    “I appreciate the offer, Ajax, but I have no desire to cut you open and drink wine at your defeat.  I just respect you too much.  C’mon, Cadmus, let’s stop wasting time.”  Ajax scoffed at Niccolo’s dismissal as he waved around his jug, red wine sloshing out from the lip of the container.
    “The only use you have , little Nico, is wasting time.  What are you doing in my quarter anyway?  Had enough of your rotting friends and skeletons?  Wanted to spend some time with real men and real demons in the Pits?” Ajax asked before losing his balance and stumbling to the side, his giant body falling into the wall of the hovel nearby.  The roads leading toward the massive pavilion, the complex devoted to the fighting pits, were lined with layers upon layers of small homes and bigger buildings all