Leaf and Branch (New Druids Series Vol 1 & 2)

by Donald D. Allan

  Brent could not believe what he was hearing. The man was insane. Demons? What was he talking about? He looked over to Comlin and saw him thinking. He hissed over to him. "What is he talking about?"

  Comlin shook his head. "He's insane. The black boots. The man who killed Bill wore a pair. They're assassins."

  Brent snapped back to Seth. "Seth Farlow, you have no jurisdiction here. I am the General of the Lord Protector's Guard on a mission here in Jaipers. Standing before you is the Captain of the Jaipers Garrison and the Reeve of Jaipers. We are the only authority here in Jaipers. We represent the Realm. You represent treason. Treason by the Church of the New Order. You have killed men sworn to defend this nation. You have raised weapons against the laws and order of the Realm. Stand down and surrender. Your trials will be swift and just, I promise you that. You have my word."

  Seth smiled. "There is only one law in the Realm. The Law of the Lord. Suffer no demon to live." Seth whipped his crossbow up and fired the bolt. It hissed through the air and took Captain Gendred in the throat. Gendred dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees and grasped the bolt shaft. He sucked in a wet breath and blood bubbled around the shaft. Comlin cried out and knelt to his side.

  "Attack!" screeched Seth. "For the Lord!" His men growled and raced across the square.

  "Hold the line!" yelled James and the men clashed.

  Brent met the man in front of him. He wore black boots and black leathers. His eyes were wild, but whether lost in bliss or anger, Brent couldn't tell. He carried a long thin dagger that glinted in the afternoon sun. Brent watched the feet and the dagger arm. He cleared his mind and relaxed into his training. A sword, even a ceremonial one, had a longer reach than a man with a dagger. It gave him an advantage. Brent feinted. The man ignored it and moved to close. Brent reached to the small of his back and pulled his dagger free. The man moved inside his sword and then looked down and blinked. Brent had buried his dagger up under his rib cage and into the man's heart. Brent twisted the dagger and pulled it free. He twisted left and moved a step past the dying man and parried a sword strike from another garrison traitor.

  For a time, there was nothing except his opponents and staying alive. Sword fights are always quick, thought Brent. There is a feint, maybe a parry, but almost always a quick strike. The idea was to be the first to strike. The man in front of Brent fought to bring his sword back in position and grunted once as Brent slashed his throat with his dagger. It wasn't a perfect slash but it was enough to open one side of his throat. Brent ducked the heart blood spray and stepped back to maintain the line.

  He looked right and saw Comlin fighting a black boot. Beyond the line, men moved to flank them. He looked left and saw James strike down a garrison traitor and step back to the line. Beyond the line and to the left, men moved to flank them.

  "Circle formation! Move!" cried Brent. His men reacted and pulled the garrison men with them. They were too slow, too much confusion, and two of his men went down. The ringing of swords and the gasping of breath were the only sounds. Men struck down had not yet had a chance to scream in pain.

  "Left side move quickly we're being flanked!" yelled James.

  "For the Realm!" cried Comlin with a voice that spoke from experience. He is a fighting man, thought Brent. Much more than a simple Reeve. Perhaps there is hope for us.

  Brent caught a swift movement in the corner of his eye. It was Seth, moving at an inhuman speed. He moved beyond his field of view and Brent lost him. He swivelled his head to find him and his head exploded with pain and light. He got behind me somehow. No helmet, that was stupid of me...

  Brent awoke with a massive headache. He was sitting up with his upper arms tied to something behind him. His hands were tied together and on his lap. His legs were extended straight out and tied at the knees and feet. He was naked and sitting on the ground. He moved his head and nausea flooded him and he threw up in his lap. The pain in his head doubled and he blacked out again.

  He woke under a deluge of water. Water had been thrown in his face and he gasped to breathe. He blinked his eyes open and saw a man in black boots standing in front of him holding an empty bucket.

  "Wha-what?" he croaked, his headache bounced around inside his skull and he groaned.

  The man stepped backwards and another stepped in his place. Seth Farlow looked down at Brent without expression. Brent looked around and saw he was tied up sitting on the ground. At his back, he could just make out James and Comlin. They were awake and tied together, James on his left and Comlin to his right. They were all naked sitting trussed together inside a large rectangular building. It was night beyond the windows. Benches were piled up on one side. Near them was a long table, with whatever was on it hidden from their view, except for the large lantern that was providing the light. Two other men were in the room. Both wearing black boots. The one with the bucket set it down and joined his companion on the other side of the table.

  "Good evening, General. I was worried you wouldn't wake."

  Brent tried to focus on Seth but his face swam. Concussion, thought Brent. Bad. "Fuck off, traitor."

  Seth calmly slapped Brent with surprising speed. It rocked his head back and he clunked the back of James' and Comlin's heads.

  "Ow," complained James.

  "Silence," said Seth in a monotone. "General, you are going to answer some questions for me. How you answer those question will determine what happens next."

  "Sorry, I don't think you heard me the first time. Fuck off."

  Seth merely looked back at Brent for a moment and then rose and moved silently to the table. He stood before it with his left side to Brent. Brent watched as he reached out to the table and lifted a steel tool of some kind. It looked like a pair of scissors but with a small blade to it. Exactly like a pruner for flowers, thought Brent and its purpose dawned on him.

  Seth stepped back to Brent and squatted before him and held up the pruner and twisted it. "See this?" he said. "With this, I can remove parts of your body. Fingers, toes, your nose. Understand?"

  Brent nodded and swallowed.

  "I can also remove your manhood. That usually works the best for quick results. The bad news is that I am not in a hurry. I have time to enjoy this. Draw it out. With the three of you. The night is young and quite frankly I am more than a little bit excited. It's been a long time since I got to enjoy my profession. I may be a little rusty, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. My brethren behind me need to practice. I'm going to start but they will have a chance to work on you before we are done. Education is important, don't you think?"

  Brent kept his eye on the pruner as it twisted in front of him.

  "I asked you a question, General. I expect a response when I ask a question."

  "Yes."

  "Yes, what?"

  "Yes...sir?"

  Seth cracked Brent's forehead with the pruner and light burst behind his eyes. The strike had been too quick to follow. He wasn't human. Nobody can move that quickly. "No, idiot. I asked you about education. It's important, no?"

  "Yes, it's important." Brent closed his eyes against the pain of his forehead. A gentle slap on his cheek had him open his eyes to see Seth glaring into them.

  "Keep your eyes open. You need to pay attention. I have some simple questions for you."

  Brent kept quiet.

  "Why are you here?"

  Brent shook his head and pressed his lips closed.

  Seth slowly shook his head. Disappointment marked his features. "Interesting choice. Let me describe to you a series of events. First, I am going to grab your little finger of your left hand. You are going to think 'he won't do it — he's only pretending'. But then I will place the cold steel of the jaws of this marvellous device around the upper knuckle of that little finger and I will apply pressure. A pressure you will feel as pain. It won't be a real pain. Not yet. But you will imagine it as pain. And then I will slowly increase that pressure. The real pain will start. You will watch as the blades start to separate the flesh.
You will feel the blades reach the bone. Blood will well. A lot of blood. You will think 'he's really doing it'. The pressure will continue to build until you hear a sharp little snick sound and the tip of your pinkie will separate from your finger. It may fly through the air. Sometimes they do. I like it when they do that. We measure the distance. We keep accurate records of our efforts. It helps future generations. We're back to that education question, you see?

  At this point, you will scream. The pain will be very real but it is the horror of what just happened to your body that will make you scream the most. A piece of you will be gone. Gone forever. Never to be replaced. That will cause you no end of distress. Through that pain and distress I will ask you the same question. The same question that you refused to answer that resulted in the loss of a part of you. You will wonder why you didn't answer it the first time and you will answer this time. Because it is a simple question and not worth losing a part of yourself over. So, General. I will ask one more time. This is the last time I will repeat a question without first removing a piece of you — or from one of your friends. So I want you to think for a little about that before I ask you again. You can talk to your friends. See what they have to say."

  Seth stood up and moved over to his men. They spoke in whispers and Brent strained to hear them but couldn't. He was very afraid. He saw no way out of this. He was trapped like an animal and with a man who was clearly mad and possessing powers beyond his understanding. He had been cloaked from sight during the fight and had moved faster than was possible. Brent didn't understand what was happening. The movements of James and the Reeve focused his thoughts.

  "James, are you okay?"

  "Yes, sir. I was knocked out and woke up here."

  "Same," said Comlin.

  "He moves faster than anyone I've ever seen before."

  "Yes," said Comlin. "He's using magyc. I accused him of it and he reacted poorly. Said it was God's power and not magycs. He's insane. Completely."

  "What did he do to you?" asked Brent.

  "Nothing. He just shouted at me. Then he calmed down. He just went quiet. You woke up then — the first time. It distracted him from me."

  "Our men?"

  "Gone, sir," said James. "We were slaughtered. Too many of them. All dead. I was the last to fall. I didn't expect to wake."

  "It's the Church of the New Order and the Archbishop behind this," said Brent.

  "Yes, so it appears," asked James.

  "I was warned. In Jergen."

  "Warned by who?"

  "A dead man," said Brent.

  "A what?"

  "Long story, I'll tell you when we get out of here."

  "Always stay positive," said Comlin. "Works for me."

  Brent's opinion of the Reeve went up a notch.

  Seth returned and crouched down in front of Brent. "Okay. Let's start again. Why are you here?"

  Brent hesitated only for a moment. He would tell this man anything he wanted to hear. There was no point in trying to hide anything. Torture always works. He had to stay alive to escape this and bring this man to justice. Until then he would tell them anything they wanted to hear. His brother and he had debated this concept one day over too much wine. Frederick felt a man should die with his secrets. "Resist for the Realm," he had said. It was all bullshit, thought Brent. The only thing that would still his tongue was if it would result in the death of others. That was worth dying for. Not secrets. Secrets are crap, he thought.

  "We are here to retrieve the belongings of Bill Burstone."

  Seth smiled. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

  Brent glared at him.

  "Next question. Who sent you?"

  "The Lord Protector."

  "Why you?"

  Brent opened his mouth to speak and then closed it and thought for a moment. "He sent me to fail."

  "Fail? Why?"

  "He wants me removed. Killed on the road."

  "Why does he dislike you so?"

  "Because I do my job."

  "You don't like the Lord Protector? The man you are sworn to protect?"

  "No. But I will protect him. That is my duty."

  "Explain the chest. Where did it come from?"

  Brent looked at Seth appraisingly. "You know that already. Munsten. From the treasury."

  Seth slowly nodded. His nose flared slightly but that was all. He kept his emotions in check. Much like the Archbishop, he thought. They are a pair.

  "Bill Redgrave. He stole it from the Lord Protector."

  "Is that a question?" said Brent and regretted it. Seth grabbed his left hand and pried the pinkie away from the other fingers and held it. "Sorry!" cried Brent. Seth placed the blades of the pruner just behind the first knuckle of his pinkie. He smiled and applied pressure to the pruner handles. Brent watched the blade start to cut the skin and pain shot up his arm and he screamed. "No! Don't!" Slowly the blade cut through the skin and blood poured out of the wound. The pressure continued until Seth paused at the bone. Seth looked into Brent's face and with a sharp snick the end of his pinkie flew off and landed a few feet away. Brent stared and screamed in horror at the damaged finger. Heart blood pumped in a long stream from the finger. Dear Lord, help me, he prayed.

  One of the men behind Seth came forward and pressed a red-hot tool against the stump. Steam and smoke billowed from the stump and burning pain cut off Brent's voice. His head and vision spun. He caught a glimpse of a gleaming black figure standing quietly behind the two Sect members and he blacked out.

  He woke to another deluge of water from the bucket. He gasped and looked around. Pain rose in waves from his finger in time to his heartbeat. So much pain. He looked at his disfigured hand and the remains of his pinkie finger. They had cauterised the wound to stop the bleeding and it was now blackened and bright red. His blood lay soaking into the dirt floor and he followed it to see the tip of his pinkie lying on the ground. This can't be happening. Seth moved into his vision and smiled at him.

  "Three feet, two inches. Not a record, I'm sorry to report, but a respectable result. You should be proud."

  "You're a monster!"

  "No. I am a man of God. I do God's work. He has blessed me and told me personally I do his bidding. There can be nothing finer in this life than serving the Lord. You should know that. You were a man of God until you joined with the demons. You wore his mark around your neck. The amulet is over on the table. It is desecrated on the reverse with the demon mark. The same mark that was on the coin you sent to Bill Redgrave. Do you admit to sending the coin?"

  "The coin?" Brent struggled to keep track of the conversation. He was afraid to lose more fingers. "Yes. It came across my desk the same time as Bill asked for it. I sent it to him. I saw no harm. It was a worthless coin and misshapen. It wasn't even gold."

  "No harm? The coin is used by the demons to awaken their power. It is the catalyst that allows them to reach into Hell and pull power from the fire. They twist nature to their whims. They conduct unholy rituals and fornicate with animals! That coin was the last of them. We had been searching for it for years. And you sent the coin here. To a traitor of the Realm that you harboured."

  "I didn't harbour him."

  "Do not lie. I won't warn you again. You harboured him. You knew he was here. Why else would he reach out to you in Munsten?"

  "He...I...It wasn't like that. You weren't there. You didn't see the horror of how he was singled out and abused by the Lord Protector. He was an innocent man. Innocent!" Brent felt the futility of trying to reason with Seth. The man's eyes were lit by feverish religious zealotry. He was beyond reason. "How did you know about the coin?"

  Seth cracked him in the head with the pruner again. It was a solid hit and Brent cried out. "I ask the questions!" Seth moved to the table and moved some objects around on it. Brent watched in fear waiting to see what new tool was selected. But Seth kept the pruner in his hand and returned to crouch down in front of Brent. "I will humour you. Your man. The one who delivered the coin to you. He i
s a true believer. After he delivered the coin to you he came to us — the Church — and he told us about the find. He had discovered it lodged between the stones in his chambers." Seth smiled. "God works in mysterious ways. Did you know we have people everywhere in the Realm now? In every town and every city? Coast to coast. There is nothing that we do not see or hear."

  "I don't believe you. The Church is almost gone and has no power in the Realm. We hide ourselves and our faith."

  Seth raised a single eyebrow. "Not so. But no matter. We tried to get the coin before it left Munsten but we were too late. We missed the courier but discovered the destination. We tried to retrieve it. We sent our best men. One of them our top assassin."

  Seth rose and walked in front of the Reeve. Brent twisted his head to keep an eye on Seth. Seth grasped Comlin by the jaw and forced his head back. An excited gleam came to Seth's eyes. "And he was killed by this man. Your death will not be painless, Reeve Comlin, I promise you that." Seth jerked the Reeve's head out of his grasp and came back to crouch in front of Brent. "The evil of the demons was at play and the coin ended up in the hands of the last of the demons. The Target. The coin sought him out and woke his power. So you see, it all comes back to you, General. You unleashed evil back into the Realm. You are a traitor to the Realm. More importantly, you are a traitor to God. You will burn in Hell for this."

  Brent had no reply to that. He didn't believe in demons. He believed in God and he believed men could be evil. But, not it demons, never that. It sounded like children's tales to him. Brent looked for the black figure he had seen but it was gone. He looked at Seth's face. Twisted within by an evil he couldn't see. This insane man thought he knew God. He was a fool, lost in his insanity. God is about mercy, love and forgiveness. "I was warned about you," said Brent.

  "Warned? By who?"

  "By God. In the Cathedral of Jergen. He gave me that amulet," Brent recalled the peace in the cathedral and found an inner strength. "Tell me, Seth Farlow, do you have Faith?"