“You always did talk too much,” Minsetta said.
As she approached the woman she let her face turn to that of the monster. Her teeth grew long and sharp her eyes black. Gods she was hungry she thought as she leapt at the screaming woman.
Chapter Thirty Four.
Renfra had gone and the Captain he sent after him never came back either. It was one of those situations which he hated. He had people that needed to do jobs and they never did them right. Thellas thought he was the only one in the circle, thought he was calling the shots but he was wrong. He wasn’t going to sit here and do nothing while this idiot ruined everything. They needed to make the attack on Twin Plains and take the nobles, but they needed to cause some trouble first. He had no idea why Renfra had picked those temples but they were as good as anything else.
He looked at the orders for them. Some desert savages a temple of females and the gambling den of the Lucky Lady. He’d always hated that place. They made so much in illegal revenue they never declared and he knew well they were bribing and corrupting his tax men.
He marched back towards the Keep and was starting to feel better. He marched into his rooms and slowly took off his boots. He looked around the room and it felt so empty. For some reason, his mind kept coming back to his father. Did his office feel like this before he was taken by those beasts? As he looked it seemed as if the shadows were growing and moving in on him.
He could feel some feeling of fear growing inside him. It wasn’t something he’d felt since he was a boy. He tried to shake it off but couldn’t. He thought he could hear something as well. It was like a whisper but it was growing. He strained to hear it, the feeling of fear growing and growing in him and then he heard it fully.
Thellas it said clearly in his mind, he almost screamed aloud.
“Who is there?” he spoke to the voice in his mind.
You can just call me master, as Renfra does, it said.
Renfra had never spoken of this. He’d spoken only of order and rules and making the world safe for normal people.
“What I don’t understand?” he said.
You need not, you only need to do what I say, Renfra has been useful but it was always you that I wanted and needed, not him, it said.
“What do you need me for?” he asked.
Why be king when you can be an emperor, why worry about these nobles when you could crush them under your boot, you could be the greatest man that ever lived.
He felt the power in those words, this thing whatever it was seemed to be bursting with power and strength. He could feel it running through him with every word. As it spoke visions appeared in his mind of the king he could be. He saw the nobles bowing before him and saw what a weak dream it had been, he could bring the every land under his command.
“What do I need to do,” he said.
You’re on the right path and I’ve been guiding you. You need to kill the man Goldie, you need to destroy that den of hers and every other temple you come across, it said with anger.
“I will, but why? They are a small threat,” he said. “The nobles are the real threat.”
They will fall soon enough, their cities will be in chaos and yours will stand strong, but you must do this for me, there will be only one god, me and there will only be one king, you.
Thellas smiled to himself, as he thought of it, but why would their cities be in chaos and his not. The voice spoke knowing his mind.
Your cities run on laws and reasons, they follow the teaching of the weak Pellosi gods and soon they will be nothing more than a faded memory and broken stones.
The voice faded away and Thellas stood shaken but filled with purpose. He could see the visions in his mind of the new world to come. No more games it was time for him to bring the fight to all his foes. His cries had brought a guard who stood in the doorway.
“Go get captain Jenson,” Thellas said to him.
Jenson was another young man who looked every bit the soldier yet he was loyal. He’d already done a few things for the king to prove it.
“We have a problem,” he said.
“Yes majesty, orders?” he said smartly.
“We're going to that gambling den with all the men here and we’ll send work to others out in the field I want our full force located one day's ride of it. Send word we march as soon as able,” he said.
“Of course, but I thought our mercenaries were taking care of it,” he said.
“I trust them as far as I can throw them. I’ve heard no news from anyone. Not a single letter or missive back to me about anything. One thing I hate is being left in the dark, am I the king or not?” he yelled.
“You are,” the man said back.
“That’s right. I am. so we’ll just do this ourselves. I’ve been told the word and the word is victory. We will finish Goldie, the Red’s and then Twin Plains ourselves. The time for games is over.”
***
Something had changed. The bastards were never good sorts of people but once Farirkar had taken over, the worst of them had left. Now they were more rough fighters than the horrible scum they had become known as.
She walked through the camp and was truly grateful from the looming bulk of Flint and Stone at her sides. A man who looked like Skinner’s uglier brother approached them with his hand behind his back. This was the third time tonight. He had dirty clothes and stank of cheap wine.
Pulling his hands from behind his back he pulled out a fat coin purse. Flint who had his hand on his sword visibly relaxed.
“How much for the girl?” he asked.
Stone leaned forward and hit the man hard in the face. No conversation needed. The skinny man left the ground and flew and a short distance to land, out cold in a heap. A small gathering of Reds sat around a fire laughed at him, but too many eyes followed her. She’d never felt this unsafe here.
She walked quickly into the tent Skinner was using, he sat whipping some blood off a dagger and quickly tucked it away as she came in.
“What you too? What the fuck is going on?” she asked.
“It’s hard to say, but I’d venture that these men have been idle for too long and they are going crazy, one little fool just tried to take my purse right out in the open. I asked him why and he said he wanted it.”
“It’s only Pellosi,” Stone said simply.
“What?” she asked him.
“The only ones acting stupid are Pellosi, we're fine and so are the desert men,” he said.
She loved them sometimes, they saw a simple truth that others, including her, often missed.
“You’re Pellosi Skinner, what’s up?”
He laughed. “I can’t say, if I was one to describe my feeling and I was asked to I’d say it was like your stern father just died and now I can do whatever I want, it feels a bit like no one is keeping watch anymore,” he said.
“Ok, we’ll just say this is something to do with whatever we're fighting, why aren’t you going nuts as well?”
He laughed again.
“I’ve stopped caring what the gods thought a long time ago. I have my own code and always have. It may feel like there are no rules, but for me, it’s been that way a long time.”
At that moment, Farirkar walked into the tent. Flint and stone drew their blades and he drew his. He glared at them and at her. Then putting is huge sword back in its scabbard.
“I just had to kill someone who said he wanted to come in here and take you. It was Rogresh, he’s been with me for years, good man, if a bit repressed and now he’s talking rape and murder what the fuck is going on?”
“We think it’s like the Pellosi don’t have any rules anymore,” she said.
“I think it’s the Judge, no one is going to his shrine anymore,” Skinner spoke up. They had a very smaller shrine to the Judge in the camp and indeed in the last day, not a soul had been to it. She would sometimes hear the men muttering their sins to it. They were dark men but at least, he had some hard and fast rules for them. Don’t steal, rape or k
ill for no reason. Fairly basic principles for an orderly world.
“And what now? You saying this has some shit to do with gods or something?” Farirkar asked.
“I guess so, why aren’t you acting crazy?” she asked.
Farirkar laughed and poking out his tongue showed them all that it had a symbol tattooed on it.
“I worship Famir, the god of battle,” he said with pride.
Flint and stone nodded their heads to him. She hadn’t heard of it but clearly it was a Northern thing.
“So what do we do, how can I lead an attack with this rabble?” he asked.
“It’s an attack against a compound of women it won’t be a problem getting them to do it, it’ll be a problem keeping them in line. It’s only the Pellosi, you can trust the Northmen and Desert Nomads,” she said.
“Ok, I’m not letting us slip into old habits. The Pellosi in the group are around half I’ll send them back to the Keep on some bullshit mission and we’ll do it with the rest.”
“That means it’ll be even numbered and they have a Keep,” she said.
“Better that than the alternative. Be ready, we leave in an hour,” he said and walked out of the room.
Turning to Flint and Stone she just nodded and they followed her out of the tent as well. She walked to the shrine of the Judge that was in a small tent on the edge of the camp. She was a Pellosi as well and felt nothing of this internal turmoil. Still she’d embraced the North gods and their ways, clearly they were fine. She opened the tent and saw what she hadn’t expected.
The room was destroyed. The short wooden statue of the Judge was destroyed with an axe. Roughly chopped bits of it lay on the floor, the ground was littered with trampled bit of paper with sins written on them. A lone man sat at the foot of it and cried, she looked at his face and saw it was covered in bruises and cuts.
She knelt at his side.
“What happened?” she asked.
The man looked at her. “Can’t you feel it? He’s gone! They did this for fun, they enjoyed it, they were never that strong in their beliefs but they did this, the men I was teaching and now he’s gone. I can barely feel anything, just sadness.”
Josette stood up and looked at Flint and Stone “What the fuck is going on?”
***
It was working. All the long years they had struggled fought and gained power it was finally working. Renfra read the small piece of parchment in his hand and clapped them together with glee. His master would be so pleased, the first one was gone and just a few more stood in his way now.
“Why are you so happy?” the young captain asked.
“Good news from the capital. A crime wave, people looting and killing in the streets, they are without the guiding hand to lead them and they run like lost sheep, surely the terror of people floats like a fog in the city. Locked in their homes as the city burns around them,” he said with passion.
The young man laughed.
“The job is far from over. The Judge is but one of at least twenty Pellosi gods and they all have rules and virtues, he was just the most well-known,” he said.
“True, true but if this is how they react to the loss of just one, what of the rest? Now enough tell me what you have seen?”
“I followed the Northman on horseback, he dismounted and built and little fire with the women, she was injured but alive, then a very surprising thing happened, he brought some dark skinned man from somewhere. Then they sat around talking by the camp fire. They are still talking.”
Renfra laughed, so he was right this Northman was the new threat. While the king was running after some uppity nobles he had the major threat right here. He’d never heard of this man before which was strange his network of spies normally told him of any person who was growing in power, yet this man seemed to have just arrived. Maybe he was from the far north where they paid no attention.
“Did you hear anything,” he asked.
“I was too far away to hear but I left him be as you commanded, do you think he’ll be traveling on or was simply running from us?” the captain said.
“When the sun is up we’ll head there in force, a hundred men should be enough and we can’t have them crossing the desert and rejoining with those people, we’ve worked too hard to get them where we want them.
Renfra walked away from the captain and entered his tent. Inside he allowed himself a small glass of spirit to celebrate. The liquid filled his mouth and felt fine running down it, washing the sandy taste from his mouth. He went to a small wooden chest in the corner and drew out the black leather mat. He laid it neatly on the ground and knelt.
Renfra closed his eyes and began. He needed to build the fear first. He thought of the times in his life when he was scared and let the feeling grow and build. It was a way to let his lord be aware of him. When it was more than he could stand he felt it. A solid presence in his mind, like a weight, he heard the voice and the intent.
“I have news?” he spoke aloud and heard a soft voice whisper back in his mind.
How goes the battle? It said but with a note of hope he hadn’t heard before.
“The city is in turmoil, the first blow has been well stuck, does it aid you?”
He could feel the voice was stronger than ever. It had started as a whisper when he was just a child guiding him to the path. Now he heard it like a faithful friend, always there to show him the right path to take and the sure knowledge that he was the special one who would be chosen when the master made his return to glory.
It does my son, soon none will be able to stand against me, but surely you have a question other than this? Why do you seek my council? it said.
“A Northman with much power, he has learned the desert ways and seeks to journey to them. I plan on stopping him but I need to know what to do if I can’t reach him in time and he corrupts them,” Renfra said, hoping for the answer he wanted to. They had spent a lot of time and money converting a lot of the desert people to the Pellosi religion. They sent missionaries out to them, with gifts or food and trinkets. It was easy to get a people with no real written language to believe in what was told to them.
He knew the answer but wanted to hear it.
The voice laughed in his mind, If they will not follow me or the Pellosi gods who are weak and feeble then they will die, kill them all and crush their way of life into the very sands that they once worshiped.
“Yes my lord” Renfra said quietly with a smile on his face.
Renfra stood and stretched his legs. “I think I’ll have some wine,” he yelled to the young captain. No one answered him. Renfra walked to the mouth of his tent and looked out. At either side were his two guards with black and red arrows sticking from them. He looked to see chaos in his camp. Men were running under fire from the darkness. He looked out into the shadows and saw something.
He felt a thud and looked down, sprouting from his chest. He collapsed backwards with the arrow in his heart. Renfra cried in pain and anger. Surely his Lord wouldn’t let this happen to him. He was needed, he was useful. Renfra let the fear of death build in him and it gave the strength, he ripped the arrow from his chest and stood again. Another arrow and another hit him, he fell again.
He stood tall as they kept hitting him and staggered towards the arrow fire. Something was rushing towards him and he saw it was the Northman, he had a huge axe in his hand and he swung it down at Renfra. The bald man raised his leather baton but the axe smashed through it into his chest. He looked at the wound and called out to his lord in his mind, asking him for strength. He could feel it bubbling up in him and the wound started to close.
The man smiled down at him. “You’re a tough one.” He whistled. It was such a sweet sound, it made him just want to rest, to sleep. He knew everything would be fine if he just let go. So he did.
***
He needed help. He thought that he could do this alone and wanted to prove to them all he could but that flash from the Lucky Lady was enough to convince him otherwise. She was still
strong and she was just one of three or four who would prove difficult. The girl. Seraphina, had agreed to help him which was good, he was sick of dragging her around like a lost puppy and wanted her to pull her weight. She’d probably get weak again when the fighting started but she’d be useful for a while. The power he was drawing from the land of the dead had reduced but it was still enough, he knew he would still win.
“What are we looking for?” she asked him.
He had been walking up the rows of statues, looking at each of them and trying to find one, muttering to himself again. He had to break the habit of always talking to himself.
“We have to find my sisters, sadly we can’t just will ourselves there this time, oh here they are, aren’t they pretty?” he said.
Before them stood a statue of the three sisters of fury as the mortals called them. The statues depicted the three sisters standing together, with his elder sister in the middle. She was beautiful in the face but stood with a look of rage that distorted her looks. Her arms were feathered and she had the claws of a bird.
He felt a burst of fear from the girl, which thrilled him, this journey should be fun, for her reactions alone.
“Fear not, they aren’t that scary, the sculptors always get carried away, they don’t actually have claws and feathers, it just shows they are fierce,” He said.
Placing his hands on the statue's forehead he took her hand.
“Make sure you hold my hand while we are there. A weak thing like you can’t survive alone where we are going. Normally one look or word from them would kill you, but I’ll protect you. They don’t mean to it’s just they are not for mortal eyes,” he said.
“Why can I look at you?” she asked.
“This is not what I really look like, or sound like,” he said back. In fact this guise he’d been holding was starting to drag at him, he wanted to rip free from it and show her his true glory but that would be foolish, she’d be dead in moments.
“Shut your eyes and we’ll go, fear not.”
He staggered to the floor. He felt a very human pain, something he’d not felt in an age and reaching out with his mind he saw his servant, the man Renfra and the Northman, who killed him. He saw him pushing aside all of his own power and lulling him to sleep and death, it was the power of that stupid little North deer thing.
Take My Heart...: Dark Ages - Fantasy (Dark Gods & Tainted Souls Book 3) Page 18
