Weak

'The Kamari are weak because of you,' Malkor said.

Jacob shook his head. He tried to speak but his throat was swollen and dry. Silver flecks danced across his vision

'Without me, you can achieve nothing. Men need to be ruled. It's the only way you can simulate strength. Stand in my shadow and you may one day grow strength from the scars of a slave.'

'No,' Jacob said. He wanted to say more but his throat was too dry. He burst into a coughing fit.

'You don't even know your enemy,' Malkor said. 'How will you defeat Hades? Do you know who he truly is? Do you understand his strengths and weaknesses? How will you defeat an enemy you do not know? You can't even defeat the woman.'

'What woman?' Jacob said in a dry, rasping whisper. His face felt hot and water welled in the corners of his eyes. Who was this fool in front of him? He just had to bide his time until his throat recovered. Then he would turn the tables. Then this Malkor would find the true meaning of strength.

'They will kill you and your hopeless army,' Malkor said. 'How did you ever hope to succeed without me? Do you know the hearts of your enemies? They will kill you all.'

'We won't fail,' Jacob said. 'We are stronger than you think.'

Malkor laughed. 'What do you know of strength? Did you stand in the Iridium Wars? Did you face war lords with countless legions of slaves? Did you fight and destroy war droids with your own hands? You know nothing of war.'

'I don't know about your war,' Jacob said, 'but I have fought enough battles of my own. Was it you that gave me the schematics for the TS86? Why did you put those thoughts in my head?'

Malkor smiled, revealing black teeth that stank of rotting flesh. 'Help me brother,' he said in a mockery of Isor's voice.

'Bastard,' Jacob said. 'It was you who filled my mind with lies. What have you done to me?'

Malkor laughed, throwing his head back as his chest shook beneath his black robe. His breath filled the room with the smell of rank decay.

'Your mind offered no resistance. Your thoughts are open for all to see. Hades would break you like a stick. You would lay dead at his feet before you could raise a hand against him. That's why humans should never be more than slaves. Their minds are more primitive than animals. At least an animal has the sense to fear what it cannot understand. You pride yourselves on the battles of men, but you are nothing but ants compared to the lords. How do you expect to deal with more worthy opponents?'

'You're talking about Hades?' Jacob said. 'What do you know about him?'

'Hades and the woman. They're both too strong for you. She is still growing, but you will fail against her even now.'

Jacob climbed back to his feet and let out a string of hacking coughs. 'You said Hades could break my mind. Do you mean he can enter my thoughts like you?'

'Humans are open to the lords.'

'Why are you here?'

Malkor clenched his bony fingers, cracking the knuckles. 'I can remove the obstacles in your path. I can lay Central Command at your feet. Even an army as weak as yours could take it, if I kill Hades and the woman before you attack.'

Jacob frowned, rubbing a hand across his throat. He flexed the muscles in his legs, preparing himself to attack. 'Suppose I agree to take your help?' he said, playing for time. 'What do you want in return?'

'You must play your part in the bigger game,' Malkor said. 'Once Hades and the woman are removed, you must do your part to eradicate them all.'

'Why should I trust you?'

'Trust? What do I care about trust? Obey or die.'

Jacob looked for his impact pistol and saw it lying on the ground between them.

Malkor followed his eyes and smiled. 'Make your choice. I can lead your pitiful army myself.'

Jacob hesitated. Was Malkor really a Lord? What else could he be? 'The voice in my head, it was you all along wasn't it? My brother never spoke to me.'

'Forget the dead. I can grant you great power or I can wipe you from the land and take this army of fools for my own. I have no time to waste on the needs of men. That's why I've decided to take you as my slave. You are mine now. You must accept this. Don't make me punish you again.'

Jacob pulled a knife from the back of his belt and swung it in a tight arc towards Malkor's neck. The blade never reached its target. Malkor snatched Jacob's hand and twisted the knife out of his grasp. Jacob tried again, bringing his knee into Malkor's crotch. The blow had no effect. Jacob continued his attack, stepping to one side and throwing a series of vicious punches at Malkor's head. Around half of the blows landed on target, but Malkor's opaque eyes showed no reaction at all. Jacob felt his feet lifting from the ground. His back slammed into the ceiling, hard enough to jar the bones in his spine. He grunted as pain spread across his shoulders.

Dust trickled down from cracks in the stone ceiling. Jacob grabbed hold of Malkor's upturned bony arms. He could feel that same presence penetrating his mind, like it had in his waking dreams of Walstone Forest. Claws tore into his mind. Agony filled every part of his body at once. His eyes rolled up inside his head as his jaw clenched, and thick muscles strained in his neck. Jacob bucked and twisted in Malkor's hands. His mind burned like acid, and his body convulsed in a series of agonised contortions as Malkor subjected him to a continuous torrent of pain. Spittle flew from his Jacob's mouth as he let out a roar of frustration. His face was red and covered in sweat. Malkor lowered Jacob onto his shoulders and then slammed him into the ceiling again and again.

'Stop,' Jacob said, between gasping breaths. His mind felt as though it had been torn into chunks and thrown across the floor.

'You are already my slave,' Malkor said. 'Accept it.'

Jacob shook his head, crying out as Malkor slammed him into the ceiling once more.

'Accept it,' Malkor said, smiling up at Jacob with opaque eyes.

Jacob twisted back and forth on the ceiling with sweat covering his face. 'Stop,' he said. 'Stop this.'

'Say it.'

Jacob shook his head, his eyes bulging in their sockets.

'Say it. You will serve me either way.'

'I'm your slave,' Jacob said between clenched teeth, but he didn't mean it, and his eyes were full of hatred.

Malkor swung him down onto his feet in one smooth movement. Jacob's legs buckled beneath him and he crumpled onto the floor.

'So weak,' Malkor said. 'Your kind will always be slaves to us.'

Jacob gasped for air, sweat covering his face. He had never felt such pain before. He had never faced such a powerful foe. He stared at Malkor, working through a thousand tangled thoughts in his head. He reached up to see if his skull had split in two, but it was still whole, and sitting where it should be on top of his neck.

Fists banged on the locked door behind him. 'Jacob! We received the alarm. Deactivate your locking codes. We can't get in.'

Jacob turned to face the door, wondering what would happen if he opened it. When he looked back over his shoulder, Malkor was gone.