Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series

by Schenk, Julius

  She tried to blame the Duke for bringing them here and making them fight, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty. The battle finally stopped when the Duchess herself came riding across the hill on her lean grey horse, and entered into the middle of the melee. She screamed, ‘stop, stop, stop,’ in Pellosi, Northern and any other language the mercenaries might speak. The fury on her face and radiating from her was such that everyone did stop. She shouted that they get back to their camps, and slowly, like people coming awake from a dream, they seemed to realise the extent of what had happened. The Twin Plains army retreated in an orderly fashion and she got to see the Red Bastards actually laughing and looting the bodies of the fallen. She overheard one saying, ‘Where's the bloody gold he’s meant to have’, searching through the dead boy’s pockets and boots.

  Once they were gone she could see the light of the sun starting to lighten the sky, and she knew it was only a few hours ‘til dawn. She stood up and stretched out the cramps in her legs, and started to jog back to the meeting point. She was almost there when she heard voices speaking in dark tones. She looked through the short trees and saw what she didn’t want to see: Grimm and his group of fake mercenaries on the roadway, along with her friends, dressed in their tattered and blood-stained uniforms. The troop of men guarding them was small and she saw a horse light out to bring more. There were just five of them left guarding the group of more than twenty, and she hoped the rest were already safely within the wall.

  Crouching, she looked at the five soldiers. Could she actually take down all five? Before she’d have been able to take maybe two before they had her, but now she was meant to be so much more. Still, her previous effort had done little to boost her confidence. Josette let her mind drift back to the cellar, the wine, and the memories of the old archery master. She imagined the look of his old hands on the bow and held it the way he had, with her top finger pointing out; she adjusted her quiver so it pointed a bit to the left and ruffled the arrows as he would have before a shoot, attempting to loosen them. She was feeling the connection with him and stepped out into the roadway.

  Without trying to look at her targets too closely, she drew and fired again and again. Four of the arrows found their targets within seconds of each other and the four men fell back with arrows neatly in their left eyes, and one in the open mouth of a stunned target. The last whistled past the target who had turned to his falling comrades. He drew his sword and started running the short distance to her. Grimm was on his feet but bound from behind, but he lunged and smashed his face into the running man’s legs. Her next arrow was already in flight and caught the lone survivor in the throat. He fell back with a muffled cry and collapsed onto Grimm.

  She walked casually up the road and looked down at her fallen targets. That was more like it. As she stood over Grimm and the dead man, she heard a voice in tired Northern say, ‘Get this fucking guy off me please,’ and relief washed over her and the rest of the troop. She pulled the body off of Grimm, and going from one to the next, cut the bounds that tied her friends’ limbs.

  When the rest of their fake army was through the hidden doorway, Grimm looked at her and motioned her in first, she just shook her head.

  ‘I’m going back I only wanted to make sure everyone else made it’ she said.

  ‘Why? Because you missed the shot? We played on making them fight and win did, tonight was a win for us.’ he said with passion.

  ‘The Duchess Dierda, I have to try get to her, Elizebetha is afraid she’ll call her man back, or worse’

  Grimm exploded with rage and then calmed himself ‘Whenever killing needs doing she’s happy to send someone else, never bloody her royal hands but send a young girl that’s fine. Look, I know you have to do this, but I’m telling you to trust Goldie if you have to. He’s still with us.’

  She just shrugged, as she was far from sure. ‘You know where to go?’ She asked.

  ‘Yeah, I got a good look at the blonde bitch on the battlefield, and she doesn’t look that tough.’

  Chapter 32

  The fields leading to what they termed a city were deserted, and Seth tried not to look at the stone circles they used as houses. All he saw was an area for killing people, and not a lot more. It would be easy to bring his rage against these creatures: all he could see of their culture was the murder of his people. Silver had said to him they experienced the memories of those they took, and he could imagine them sitting around enjoying themselves as they ate and spoke in their slow voices of the things this and that one had done before finding their way to that cold stone table.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ He asked of the Wolvern as they walked towards the cold stone walls of the city. At his back walked a group of at least one hundred dead humans. He’d spent time stopping here and there, bring them back, but they weren’t fighters: they were lost children and mostly weaponless.

  ‘We hope that the little princess has succeeded in killing the mother and the daughter.’ It said in his mind.

  ‘Is this Silver our ally or enemy?’ He asked. ‘Seems like she’s against all this killing as well.’

  ‘She had no problem in trying to kill me, did she? She’s as bad as the rest, but we need to find out what has happened while you’ve been digging up the snow.’

  ‘I’ll go find out then.’ He said.

  ‘You’ll go into that city alone?’ It asked.

  ‘Of course, if Seraphina’s done anything, they should fear me if nothing else, and we can’t take these ones in. They aren’t ready for a fight and you said there were thousands of these things.’

  ‘Fine. Go in and try not to die. I’ll wait here with these.’

  Seth just nodded to the Wolvern and started a slow jog towards the gates. The snow was heavy outside and he knew they wouldn’t see his small force as they sat in the snow like silent children, just waiting to be lead on.

  The structure was huge and very badly made. He imagined it was created with a lot of labour and not many tools. It would have taken these things years and years to build it, years of toiling away in the perpetual nighttime. They had no horses, and he was sure inventions like pulleys and ropes would be new to them. What had they once been, and how far had they fallen?

  Where the gate should have been was just a huge open mouth of stone, and Seth walked inside. Thankfully, there was still not a soul in sight and he crept through looking from left to right. There was no snowfall within the structure, which was bizarre, as it had no roof and was just a huge empty circle. Inside was no cover at all that he could see. No structures, no houses, nowhere to hide.

  The sounds of shouting and many ugly voices drew him to the center of the square. Then he saw it. There was a huge stone platform, and on the top of it he saw himself fighting for his life. Truly, the Wolvern had spoken rightly when it had said that Seraphina was the strongest of them all. She stood in his guise and he saw her fighting one of the pale things. She lunged at it with her sword, which it easily blocked but then it was run though from a seemingly invisible blade, it feel back dead with a look of pain and shock on its face. He’d have to watch out if he ever fought her again. She had clearly learned to be deadly.

  She turned and he saw her standing next to the silver woman. On the stage was a huge stone throne of black rock, and he saw the worst example of their kind sitting upon it. Clearly, this was the mother. She stood laughing and then that was it. The entire mass of white things that had been watching and shouting attacked. There were at least a few thousand of them and they swarmed like a wave of putrid flesh. He saw himself getting struck in the face and dragged down. Seth looked around and finally saw some cover. There was a huge pile of broken black stones, and scraps from building. He hid in a gap in the pile of rubble and looked on as they passed his body over the crowd from hand to hand, and did the same with the silver woman who fought like fury, but was pinned down by four or more of their fat bodies.

  He saw them placing the body of himself on the stone table, and watched as the guise cha
nged from him back to Seraphina. She looked so different, and he saw what he’d done to her by sending her to this place. She was very skinny and her once perfect blonde hair was matted with streaks of dirt. They looked shocked at her change, but he knew even she couldn’t hold the power when she was in the dark sleep. Silver herself wasn’t given such fine treatment, as she was hauled screaming by four of them, down the stairs on her knees and then thrown to the empty area in front of the stone pile that Seth was hiding in. The mob of them grabbed up a large stone piece in front of him. Tens of them lifting it and pushing it upright, until it stood as tall as her. Her hands were tied around it with rough pieces of leather.

  He heard the huge woman on the platform screaming to them. ‘Do what you will to her but keep her alive for a very long time!’

  Chapter 33

  Grimm stood in front of her, the blood of another and himself covering his clothes, and his axe literally dripping dark blood onto the fine carpet of her study. He screamed in her face like she was a tavern server and not a Duchess.

  ‘You had no fucking right to use her like that; you should have sent me or anyone else. Why send little sister to her death?’

  The battle had gone well and all of them had returned now, except for Josette: she’d made it back to the gate to report in and then trekked back to the camp to finish her mission for Elizebetha.

  ‘Because I don’t trust you, Grimm, I don’t trust anyone but her, so I had to let her into all of our secrets, the summoning, the songs... what would you do with that power? I have no idea, and I don’t want to know. What would you have done to those bodies you burned if you could have?’ She asked back softly, with truth. She admired this man for what he’d done, but knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do to win.

  He started breathing more deeply and tried to calm himself. ‘You fucking nobles, always with your plans and using your soldiers as you like. I don’t care who you trust or not, it’s about her not being ready, it’s about sending a 24-year old girl to her death because she’s good and loyal and has a flame for Seth that’s the size of a house.’

  That almost broke her. In truth, she felt horrible for using the girl, but her father had told her not to trust anyone with their secrets. He himself had time and time again had to strip people of their takings and banish them from the order because they were corrupted by it. The reason he’d let the Gatherers and all that knowledge fade away was because it was just better for the world not to know some things. The dark desires always won in the end.

  ‘She will succeed, and she’s not some lovelorn thing doing this for Seth, as you say. She’s doing it for all of us.’ Elizebetha said.

  ‘If she dies, I’m done, I’ll leave you to defend this pile of cold rocks yourself.’ Grimm stormed out of the room, leaving a small pool of blood on the floor behind him.

  Elizebetha looked down at the pool of fresh blood and tried not to think about the enlisted soldier from Twin Plains who it probably belonged to. She just had to be strong for a little longer and then it would be over. She just hoped that Josette could do it.

  Josette was terrified, but terrified for the right reasons. She hated having so much resting on her shoulders. Even when Elizebetha had sent her along in that wagon, she’d said yes, but she’d have rather said no. She viewed herself as a fighter and nothing more. She was good with a bow, yes, but an assassin she wasn’t. Now she was once again crouched in the brush in the fallen dark of the pale moonlight, waiting for her chance to kill a Duchess.

  Maybe if she wasn’t built the way she was, none of this would have happened. She often wondered what turn her life would have taken if she’d just been born ugly, or fat. She had a sister and a brother, and neither of those ugly fucks got sold to support their family’s failing business. As far as she knew, they were still working their fingers to the bone, baking clay pots with their drunken father in Pelloss city. She, on the other hand, had gotten to go to the pleasure house to be trained. She was sure they actually got about four golds for her, as skinny redhead girls were popular all over.

  Now her light frame made her the perfect assassin. She was small enough to hide and creep, but strong enough to get the job done. Yet, this was a lot better than getting fucked for a living. Truth be told, she still had a lot of anger inside of her, and if she got a chance to take it out on the world with a dagger or well-placed arrow, then that was all to the good. Maybe she’d get a chance to kill the King Bastard, as well. He’d raped more women than were in the Cold Death. She smiled to herself in the dark, thinking of ending his worthless life and making up for her terrible shot with the bow earlier.

  Inside the tent, she could hear the Duchess’ soft voice and the rougher voices of two men she assumed were the two black sash guards that followed her around like angry shadows. She’d walked in a few minutes ago fuming, but had a glass of wine, or more likely blood if what Elizebetha said was true, and now she’d calmed down a lot. She talked with her two guards like they were her only advisors; seemed she was a lonely sort as well.

  ‘We should just kill that Northman, Goldie, I don’t like him, Duchess,’ said one of the male voices.

  ‘I know, I don’t trust him, and sure he had a part of this, but we need him if we are to get that Keep open.’ She said.

  ‘Why the games? If we combine with the mercenaries, we can take it in one night,’ the other said.

  ‘True, but my men will never fight beside them now, will they? Also, it’s out of my hands now anyway. We’ll let my husband decide what to do when he gets back. Speaking of which, how are we progressing?’ She asked.

  ‘Quite well, we’ve almost all troops’ bodies in a large tent at the back. It was easy, as the others helped once they saw the Bastards looting them. Few scuffles over that, but on the bright side, we have their fallen as well. ‘Bout four hundred, all told, will be collected shortly.’

  ‘Good, we’ll do it quietly and have him back. We’ll tell the troops he was given back as part of our retreat, and then we’ll wander off a bit and let the Bastards finish the game.’

  Josette had heard all she needed to and the situation was going to get a lot worse. She knew that the ‘he’ they were talking about was the Duke himself who was going to be raised. Deep in the memories of the Gatherers, she’d heard dark whispers of Guild practise. She knew a person could be brought back if they fed a lot when they first came back. Four hundred bodies should do it. So now, she had to try to take both of them out, even better.

  As she crouched next to the tent, her leg muscles really starting to hurt, she saw the two guards leaving the tent. She heard one mutter ‘what do Northern dogs eat’ and walked off to a smaller tent nearby. She thought that’s where they must be holding Goldie. She waited until the man had come out and left with an empty serving tray, and then she crept through the darkness towards the tent. Good thing the Duchess was so scary and the only people anywhere near her tent were her two bodyguards. Once they were back inside with her, she was clear.

  Crouching at the back of the leather tent, she drew her dagger, and as quietly as she could, she cut a small gash in the back of it. She climbed through into the low-lit tent. It was only lit with one single candle and Goldie sat chained to a chair and desk, eating some over-cooked meat, the large shackles on his hands making it a difficult chore. He didn’t look up from his food, but smiled to himself and spoke. ‘Hello, Josette, how is your night proceeding?’

  Swallowing a burst of fear that swelled in her, she stood up and walked over to his table. Pulling back her hood, she looked at him as he ate and, sitting on the table, lightly pressed her dagger to his throat. ‘Just whisper, Sir Goldie, these tents have very thin walls,’ she said in her own deadly whisper.

  ‘Never fear, I won’t raise the alarm. I’m on your side, after all,’ he said, and kept eating from the silver plate of meat, the dagger poised at his throat not fazing him. God he was cocky, she thought.

  ‘Grimm believes in you, but I’m yet to be convinced,’ she sai
d.

  ‘Good old Grimm, I knew he’d stay true and good work on turning them against each other. Very funny to watch, let me tell you.’

  ‘Glad you’re enjoying yourself, but you won’t get to spend your gold, as they’ll kill you even if we don’t,’ she said.

  ‘Have no fear on my account. I’m right where I want to be, doing just what I need to. Can you pass the wine? I can’t reach.’ She looked at the table and saw a small glass of wine, and raised it to his lips for him. He drank slowly, looking her in the eyes the whole time.

  ‘Now you want some directions, I suppose.’

  ‘Well, I know where the Duchess is, but not the big tent filled with bodies.’ She said.

  Goldie thought for a moment and then smiled. ‘If you plan on hiding in that pile of corpses, you’re a lot tougher than I gave you credit for. I’ll tell you, but don’t get caught. They think you’re dead, and if they catch you they’ll know I lied.’

  ‘Why did you say I was dead?’ she asked.

  ‘Cause I’m on your side, little sister. Now fuck off and let me finish my meal.’

  Chapter 34

  Seraphina’s face throbbed and she was sure there was blood dripping from her nose. Just another way her looks had been ruined by her brief association with Seth. Every time she got involved with him she ended up getting injured. Ally or enemy, he was dangerous to be around. She felt the cold stone beneath her body and knew she was lashed to the main black stone killing table. Her arms and legs were roughly bound down with black strips of leather and she could feel the cold night attacking her body.