Dark Healer (An Empire Falls Book 1)

by Harry Leighton

  “There’s something else.”

  “Oh?”

  “I found the cart we were following. It’s at the mine entrance.”

  “And?”

  “It’s grim.”

  “Grim?”

  “We didn’t tell you why we were following it, but it came from a farm we chanced upon. We found bits of the farmers left behind, but most of them went on the cart.”

  “Bits of them?”

  “A pile of severed arms.”

  Jonas growled.

  “You okay?”

  “One more that I owe our quarry.”

  Daeholf looked at him sharply but let it pass.

  “The cart still laden?” Jonas continued.

  “No. Tarps in the back covered in day-old blood though, and there’s the ashes of a pyre nearby. With unburned bits sticking out.”

  “Ah.”

  “How strong is Alia’s stomach?”

  “She’s not a little girl. You don’t choose this business if you’re soft.”

  “This is not your usual hunt though.”

  “No. No, it’s not.”

  “So?”

  “She’ll be fine. What about your boys?”

  “My boys?”

  “Your companions then. Zedek for example? I can’t believe he was a frontline soldier. He seems a bit soft.”

  “No, he was logistics. And don’t worry about him. He’s been through a lot. He’s reliable.”

  At that they approached the mine entrance.

  “Well since we’re all reliable then, let’s see what we’ve got.”

  The cart was abandoned to one side of the hole in the side of the hill. There was a haze of smoke in the air along with a slightly sickly burned smell. Zedek and Trimas both gagged. Jonas looked at Daeholf who shrugged. Alia covered her face with a scarf as she looked around.

  “I wasn’t expecting this,” she said quietly, eyes fixed on the remains of a bonfire.

  “We were,” Trimas said, not much louder.

  Daeholf dismounted. “They carried on that way,” he said, indicating a small trail that carried on north from the mine.

  Jonas dismounted and joined him, giving the burned remains a wide berth. He looked at the trail for a moment. “I concur,” he said simply.

  The smoke and the smell was beginning to agitate the horses and it took some effort to calm them.

  There was a hut nearby, out of the stream of smoke, and the five of them tied the horses there. This time they stayed together.

  There was no suggestion of anyone going into the mine alone.

  *****

  “Torches by the entrance,” Trimas said, investigating the opening, axe in hand.

  “It looks like it’s been in regular use for a while,” Daeholf added.

  “Can’t hear anyone home now,” Alia said. “Over the sound of you lot talking anyway.”

  Jonas looked quickly at their new trio of companions to see if anyone had risen at Alia’s slightly abrasive tone. To his surprise none had and even more so, Daeholf and Trimas in particular seemed chagrined.

  “You make a good point,” Daeholf said quietly and they all stood silent for a minute, listening.

  “Sounds clear,” Alia said, “unless anyone home is good at being quiet. What do you think?” she added, aimed at Zedek.

  He shrugged. “Can’t hear anyone,” he said.

  Daeholf took an ember from the remains of the pyre and started blowing on it to make it glow again.

  “That’s disgusting,” Alia said.

  Daeholf used the glowing ember to light a torch, face neutral. “I don’t have to like the source of the fire, it’s just handy and we needed it.” He handed the torch to Jonas who nodded and lit a second which he handed to Trimas.

  “Shall we?” Jonas said.

  Daeholf and Jonas led the way into the mine, followed by Alia and Zedek, with Trimas bringing up the rear. All had weapons drawn. They moved quietly and in unspoken agreement. The passage branched to the left after twenty yards and there was flickering light at the end of the branch. Daeholf held up his hand and they all stopped. He motioned to the others to hang back and he crept forward, placing his feet carefully, taking advantage of the limited light available. Jonas looked back briefly at Alia, who nodded.

  Daeholf made it to the end of the corridor and peered into the room at the end. The others saw him straighten up. “No one home,” he said in a casually. “Well, sort of. You’d better all come look.”

  The others took the signal at his new lack of caution and proceeded easily to the room. Peering round the doorway it took them a moment to make sense of what they saw. Lit torches on the wall illuminated a clean looking but makeshift altar-cum-table in the middle of the room with a pile of very bloody blankets next to it. There was a pile of crates in the corner and in front of them on the floor was one of their previous attackers, laying still in a pool of blood, Jonas’s sword by his side.

  “Looks like I did kill him then,” Jonas said, “just took a while for him to notice.”

  “That’s very reassuring,” Alia said.

  Jonas looked at her sharply.

  “No, I mean it. They’re not quite as powerful as they first appeared when they attacked us.”

  “You have a point,” Zedek said, moving over to the body to examine it closely, an intensely curious expression on his face.

  Trimas stood at the room’s entrance, glancing warily back down the corridor. “So what do we have here?” he said.

  “I’d have been tempted to say some sort of cultist activity…” Daeholf began.

  “It’s an operating theatre,” Jonas said gruffly.

  “…but I’m coming to the same sort of conclusion as our friend here, given what we discussed earlier, who we think we’re after and what we saw outside,” Daeholf finished.

  “To what end though?” Zedek said, still prodding at the corpse.

  “Something to do with the spare parts? Organ replacements maybe?” Daeholf suggested.

  “Surgical enhancement,” Jonas said, tone grim.

  The others all looked at him. Alia in particular looked worried.

  “We’ve been chasing him for a while, picked up quite a lot of information and know something of his habits,” Jonas explained.

  “We need to look inside then,” Zedek said.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Trimas said, startled.

  “We need to look inside, see what he’s done.”

  “Really?” Trimas said, looking faintly queasy.

  “You’ve seen inside people plenty of times before,” Zedek said, confused, “and this time they’re not fighting back…”

  “That’s really not the same thing,” Daeholf said, also looking uncomfortable.

  Jonas looked at Alia. He could tell that she was also very uncomfortable but was hiding it as well as she could. He was instantly proud of her.

  “Someone help please,” Zedek said, struggling to lift the body onto the table.

  “Let me,” Jonas said, moving across and picking the body up easily. “I’ve done this before.”

  Another sharp look from the others.

  “Assisted a sawbones in the past I mean,” Jonas added, “before you all get too excited.”

  There was an audible sigh of relief.

  Jonas placed the body on the table.

  “We’re going to need some tools,” Zedek said.

  “Since the place seems to have been abandoned, I doubt they’ll have been left behind,” Jonas said. “Far too valuable.”

  “We’ll need to improvise then. I’m sure we’ve got a sharp enough knife between us and we can probably use Trimas’s axe to get the chest open,” Zedek said.

  “I don’t think so,” Trimas stated firmly.

  “It’s not going to be easy to get through the bone,” Zedek protested.

  “Still a no,” Trimas said.

  “I’ve got a hatchet in my pack,” Jonas said.

  “You’re using it to chop the w
ood in future then,” Alia said.

  Jonas looked at her sternly but said nothing. There was a hint of challenge in her return look.

  “I’ll go get it,” he said.

  “Excellent,” Zedek said.

  “We might as well get the other body then, if we’re doing this,” Daeholf said. “I’ll come with you.”

  The two of them disappeared down the corridor.

  “Are you really going to cut them open?” Alia said.

  “We need to know why they are so resistant to damage,” Zedek said.

  “What if you find nothing and it is just magic?”

  “Well at least we’ll know.”

  Alia obviously took little comfort in his response.

  Zedek rummaged in a little pouch in his belt.

  “What are you after?” Trimas said, curious.

  “Whetstone,” Zedek replied. “Ah, here we go.”

  “How can you be so calm about this?” Alia said.

  “He’s not quite like the rest of us. Slightly unusual upbringing,” Trimas said, jumping in. Zedek shot him a dirty look whilst he sharpened his knife.

  “I pursue knowledge,” Zedek said. “Sometimes you have to distance yourself from the part of you that finds these things difficult, for the greater good. When knowing more about your enemy is the greater good, that is.”

  “I see. I suppose I don’t need to be comfortable with it to understand it,” Alia said, her expression a cross between thoughtful and uncomfortable.

  Trimas looked at her, assessing. Maybe he’d underestimated her originally. “How about the two of us make ourselves useful looking through these crates,” he said to her. “We don’t really need to watch what Zedek does.”

  Alia shot him a grateful look. “That’s a good idea,” she said.

  Zedek busied himself divesting the body of any clothing that was in his way whilst Trimas and Alia started to unstack the crates.

  “Still all clear outside,” Daeholf said, walking in, body over his shoulder. He dropped the body to the floor beside the table.

  Jonas followed him in holding the hatchet. “Here you go,” he said to Zedek.

  “Thanks.”

  “How do you want to go about this?” Jonas said.

  “We need to look inside his chest. I want to know why they are so resistant to arrows.”

  “Makes sense,” Jonas replied.

  “I’ll leave you two to it then,” Daeholf said. He walked over to Trimas and Alia as Zedek raised the small axe. “Let me know if you find anything interesting,” he added, looking away when he heard the wet crunch.

  Zedek grunted in reply, concentration fixed.

  “What are we doing?” Daeholf said to Trimas and Alia loudly, trying to ignore what was going on behind him.

  “We thought it’d be a good idea to look through these crates while they’re busy over there,” Trimas said, also directing his gaze carefully. He winced when he heard another crunch, followed by a crack.

  “What did he just do?” Alia said, pulling a face and not looking up from the papers she was sorting through.

  “Broke the sternum and cracked the ribs to open the chest, at a guess,” Daeholf said, looking down at the papers. “Do you have a pile for me?”

  “I found them in that crate,” Alia said, pointing to one nearby. “Help yourself.”

  Daeholf squatted and grabbed a handful of paperwork. It didn’t look particularly interesting.

  “Anything useful your side?” he said to Trimas.

  “No, just general supplies in these,” Trimas said. “Might be one or two bits useful for us to restock with though, I’ll put them to one side.”

  “Interesting,” Alia said.

  “What did you find?” Daeholf said.

  “Shipping manifest.”

  “Oh?”

  “Ah, I forget, you’re not in the business,” she replied.

  “Enlighten me,” Daeholf said patiently, smiling.

  “It’s always the little clues. This is one of a number of similar documents, actually, and they all indicate deliveries to another location. This is our lead, we know where we’re going next.” There was a note of triumph in her voice.

  “Good find,” Daeholf said, nodding.

  “Well that explains it,” Zedek said loudly at the table behind them.

  “Indeed,” Jonas said, bending over the body and looking closely.

  Daeholf, Trimas and Alia all stood up. “What did you find?” Trimas said.

  “Come and look,” Jonas said.

  Alia sighed and joined him, Daeholf and Trimas in tow.

  “What are we looking at?” Trimas said, peering distastefully at the body.

  “Ah. Two hearts,” Daeholf said looking quickly and responding before Zedek had a chance.

  Zedek frowned slightly, his thunder stolen. “Yes, two hearts,” he said, “though that’s only part of the story.”

  “Oh?” Daeholf said.

  Zedek smiled, pleased to be back in control of his moment. “Yes. Part of the story. There are clear signs of scarring from an operation. This extra heart here,” he said, pointing at the extra one, “was implanted surgically.”

  “So no magic then?” Trimas asked.

  “Oh, no, that’s not what I meant. There is no way that anyone could have done something like this without using magic. Impossible. This is way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of anyone doing.”

  “A combination of surgery and magic,” Jonas said.

  “To what end though?” Alia said.

  “I’m only speculating here, but I think this is an enhancement of sorts. Despite what you might think, I don’t really know all of what I’m looking at here, but it looks to me like this man has been altered to improve him,” Zedek said.

  “It fits,” Jonas said grimly. “It fits our target.”

  “Improve how, though?” Alia persisted.

  “Clearly to be more resistant to damage,” Trimas said.

  “Indeed,” Zedek said, “though I suspect there is more to that than just the addition of the second heart.”

  “It’s likely,” Daeholf said. “What else did he do?”

  “I don’t know. As I said, I’m not really an expert at what I’m looking at here, I only know what I’ve read from a selection of books. We need to open the other one up to compare them.”

  “It’s why I brought him in,” Daeholf said.

  “There’s room on the table if we top and tail them,” Jonas said.

  Alia made a choking noise.

  “And by that I mean putting them facing opposite ends rather than cutting bits off to fit,” Jonas added.

  “I’m glad you said that,” Trimas said.

  “Let’s get started then,” Daeholf said. “It’s starting to smell really bad in here and I’d like to get back outside. We can fill you in on what Alia found when we do.”

  Jonas looked at Daeholf then at Alia, who smiled a little.

  “I don’t think we all need to be in here for this,” Daeholf said. “Why don’t you and Alia take the papers outside and get a better look at them in daylight,” Daeholf said to Trimas.

  “Good thinking,” Trimas said instantly, sweeping the papers into the crate, grabbing it and marching off.

  Alia shot Daeholf a grateful look and followed him. Zedek picked up the hatchet again.

  “I think I’ll follow them,” Daeholf said, indicating the door.

  *****

  “We’re done,” Zedek said, emerging from the mine, still unconsciously wiping his hands.

  “Was it worth it?” Trimas said.

  “I think so,” Jonas said, stepping out of the darkness behind Zedek.

  “So what did we learn?” Alia said.

  “String your bow. Headshots will bring them down.”

  “Good to know. More difficult to hit though,” Alia said, getting up from where she was sitting and fetching her bow.

  Jonas frowned at her. “Centre mass shot isn’t going to cut it with the
se … what were we calling them?”

  “Altered,” Zedek said.

  “Altered indeed,” Jonas said.

  “So nothing done to their heads?” Daeholf said.

  “Not really that we could tell,” Zedek said. “Looks like the tinkering was mostly in the chest and abdomen.“

  “Tinkering?” Jonas said, turning to look at him.

  “Improvements then.”

  “Don’t leave us in suspense,” Daeholf said.

  Both of them had two hearts which was why the chest shot didn’t bring them down. Oh and their blood seems to congeal fast which is good for stopping blood loss,” Zedek said.

  “Anything else?” Trimas said.

  “Something has been done to their stomachs but I don’t know enough about what I’m looking at to know what. There’s probably plenty of stuff I’m missing. Like I said, I’m not expert.”

  “So what does that mean?” Alia said.

  “They’re harder to kill than normal men,” Jonas said.

  “We knew that anyway,” Alia replied.

  “But now we know why. Well some of why,” Zedek said.

  “So summing up, focus on the head when fighting them as they’re unlikely to bleed out unless the wound is severe and they have redundancy in their organs,” Jonas said.

  “How did he do it?” Trimas said.

  “Magic,” Jonas said.

  “We know that. It’s just that he seems to know what he’s doing,” Trimas said.

  “Magic and surgery. He’s a surgeon, a good one too. Looks like he moved from repairs to improvements and is using magic to take his surgical skills to the next level,” Zedek said.

  “Surgery?” Daeholf said.

  “Yes. Still some scarring around where he operated on both of them,” Zedek replied.

  “Sure it was from surgery?” Daeholf said.

  “Yes. Same marks on both of them,” Zedek said.

  “Interesting,” Daeholf said, looking thoughtful.

  “What are you thinking?” Alia said.

  “Let’s explore this,” Daeholf said.

  “Okay…”

  “He used surgery and magic.”

  “That’s what we said,” Jonas said.

  “Rather than just magic.”

  “Hmm,” Jonas said. “I see where you’re going with this.”

  “Do tell,” Trimas said.