The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1)

by Nielsen, D. S.

  When Jak got back to the campsite, he could tell, that not only was Nicoldani on edge, even more so than before, but Benjim seemed to be equally troubled as well. Both of the men kept glancing around, eying the tree line as if they expected someone to pop out at any moment. Knowing it wasn’t just his own imagination made Jak even more uncomfortable than before, he approached Benjim and asked, “What is it?”

  The old man stared off into the distance for a moment before answering, “Perhaps nothing, I am not really certain.”

  “I keep having the feeling of being watched. I thought it was just my imagination,” Jak said, peering around the little valley. “But you can feel it too, can’t you?”

  Benjim cast a glance in Nicoldani’s direction, and the big man just nodded once in ascension. Benjim motioned for the two of them to come closer, so they could speak together softly as to not alarm Gin. Benjim leaned close and spoke softly, “It would be a good idea for us to keep a watch tonight. As we all know, the witch is loose and evil stirs in the world once again. The awakening and stirring of which I speak, is not just the witch alone, evil is drawn to evil, and evil begets evil. With the Blood Witch free, there is a darkness that is oozing over the land, and things that have lain dormant are once again awakening. We must remain watchful.”

  They kept the fire burning brightly that night. After a time, Gin was fast asleep, exhausted from the long day but seemingly unaware of the unseen watchers. Everyone else was still awake, restless, and unable to sleep.

  “I think it is time we have that talk,” Benjim said casually, after a time of silence.

  The old man’s words made Jak forget all about the watching eyes. He dreaded having to tell the other two men about what happened to him in the cave that night with the witch.

  As the three gathered close around the fire, Jak glanced to make sure Gin was asleep before he started the conversation. His stomach was tied in knots, but he just wanted to be out with everything, once and for all, and get it over with.

  It was difficult for him to tell the story of the night he and Brigette had spent in the cave, but once he started he didn’t dare stop. This time, Jak didn’t leave out any of the details, as he had when he told Nicoldani the story the first time in Elsdon. Jak told of the ridge cat, and the shaking of the earth, and how they had taken shelter in the cave that had been uncovered by the rock-slide. Jak even divulged the part about the woman calling to him from deep within the cave, and how he was unable to resist. He even confessed of the witch chained to the wall, and most especially the part where she bit him on the neck, before she turned into a hideous beast and disappeared into dust.

  The part Jak was most reluctant to speak about to anyone, finally came to light, and he revealed the terrible thirst he had been feeling since that night. Jak was relieved at the end that everything was finally out in the open. He felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but he wasn’t sure how the other men would react to his story.

  When Nicoldani heard the tale, his face hardened to stone, his eyes narrowed, and he seemed on the verge of drawing his sword to strike Jak down right then and there. Jak doubted he would even try and stop the big man at this point. It might actually be for the best to end it now, considering what Jak was afraid he was becoming. It might be best for everyone if the big man just killed him now to get it over with.

  “You are the key lad.” Benjim said, easing the tension of the situation. “You are the one the prophecies have foretold would come. You share at least part of the witch’s power. She told you that she gave you a gift, but it is that gift inside you that can bring and end to her. Only you have the power to destroy the Blood Witch.

  According to the prophecy, you can be either the savior, or destroyer of the world. I did not see it before, but from what you have just told, the pieces of the puzzle come together, and I am certain of it now.”

  The revelation was a kick in the stomach to Jak, and did nothing to ease his mind. How was he supposed to be the savior of the world? Why him? Jak didn’t want all of this. Brigette was all he really cared about, and it was only her that he was searching for. Jak didn’t want to confront the witch again, not really, since once in his lifetime was more than enough. Besides, how was he, just a sixteen year old boy, supposed to do anything, let alone destroy the Blood Witch? She had survived for centuries and wreaked havoc on the world, from what Nicoldani had said.

  No, the thought of facing the witch again didn’t appeal to Jak at all. He just wanted to find Brigette and get as far away from the witch as he could.

  “I suspected there was something unique about you when I first met you.” Benjim continued. “I have known the Blood Witch for a rather long time. I thought I could sense part of her in you, however, it was peculiar and strange, and I could not figure it out.

  On the other hand, I also know you are a good lad and will do the right thing. You can resist the evil, and overcome it. You have the power within you to overcome the evil that she has brought upon you, and with the power she has given … you can destroy her.”

  There was silence for several moments before realization dawned on Nicoldani, and he spoke up. “What do you mean you have known the witch for a very long time? How is that possible? She has been imprisoned for many centuries…..or even longer.”

  “Well I guess it is now my turn then?” Benjim said wearily. “I was there at the beginning of all of this. I was only a young man at the time, perhaps forty years of age. It was then when I saw the witch taken and imprisoned. I was one of the mordji present, during her trial before King Erlandas.

  Arch-Mordji Bellfornas was my mentor and teacher, as well as my friend. He was a good man and an excellent teacher of the arts. The task fell to him to take the witch to the cave to imprison her. I was not supposed to know it was he who took her to the cave; no one was supposed to know. For that matter, no one but Bellfornas was supposed to know where the witch’s final prison was to be. Most believed she was being taken far to the west to be imprisoned at a monastery.

  Because Bellfornas was my teacher and friend, my curiosity overcame me, and I covertly followed him. I was too young at the time, being only mordji, and had not yet risen to be Arch-Mordji so I was not chosen as one to fill the Watch. They chose older more experience Arch-Mordji for this task. Nevertheless, I have been a Watcher all this time, and I took it upon myself, when there was no one else to do the job that needed to be done.”

  “How is that possible?” Nicoldani exclaimed in shock. “You cannot have lived for that long. Do you mean to tell me that you knew King Erlandas, and actually saw him, and the witch? No one lives that long” the big man said in utter disbelief.

  “I do not know anymore,” Benjim said truthfully. “Every year that passes, I think is my last. But the years just keep coming and going. Perhaps it is fate that has chosen me for a greater purpose. Perhaps I needed to be here, when the witch once again was freed from her prison. Yes, I saw King Erlandas, and his fall from grace, and I saw the witch at her trial before she was imprisoned.”

  “What do you mean, King Erlandas fell from grace? I thought he was supposed to be the best king ever? Wasn’t he?” Jak asked in confusion.

  “Oh, he was lad. But he was also human, and given to weakness, and ultimately greed. By chance, during the trial of the witch, the king touched the Staff of Power. Even in that brief encounter the staff infected him. The king ultimately succumbed to the greed for even more power than he already possessed. It was the power he thought he could gain from the staff. His heart was in the right place, but it was that greed for what he could not attain that was his downfall. In the end, the staff destroyed him. It has been said, that only the Blood Witch can wield the staff.”

  Nicoldani shook his head in confusion, “What do you mean he was destroyed by the staff? I thought you told me that the staff was taken by one of the mordji to be hidden away in a secret location. If that is so, then how did King Erlandas get it?” Nicoldani asked.


  “Well it is a long story…….. what I told you before was not untrue, just not the entire truth. Suffice it to say, after the staff destroyed the king then one of the mordji retrieved it, and secreted it away in a safe spot,” the old man said guardedly.

  There were several moments of silence before Nicoldani’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “It was you!!! Wasn’t it? That is how you know all of this. You were the one who took the staff and hid it,” the big man said, with excitement in his eyes. It was reminiscent of the look on Gin’s face when the old man would tell her his stories.

  The old man just smiled noncommittally before saying, “All I know is that we must stop the witch before she can find the Staff of Power, or we are all doomed. There are no other mordji left to bind her this time. If she can somehow find the staff, then there will be little that we can do to stop her. I alone cannot stop her, and I am the only Arch-Mordji left. The art has been long lost.”

  The three sat there for a long while, each contemplating the astonishing revelations that had just taken place. Finally, they decided to try and get some sleep before morning. Nicoldani agreed that they should rest, but said he would take the first watch.

  Jak tried to sleep, but the feeling of eyes watching him wouldn’t go away. It seemed stronger at times, and would subside at others, but it never went away completely. As a result, the little sleep he managed to get was fitful and restless. After several restless hours, he was actually relieved that it was his turn at watch.

  Jak walked to where Nicoldani was sitting on the trunk of a particularly large tree that had toppled over sometime recently. Jak approached the big man, but without even looking in Jak’s direction, Nicoldani said, “Go back to bed. I will take your turn at watch. You just get some sleep.”

  Jak couldn’t see the man’s face, and wasn’t sure from his tone whether Nicoldani just wasn’t tired and wanted to spare Jak, or if the big man didn’t trust Jak to be on watch by himself. In either case, Jak didn’t particularly like the implication. He wanted to take his turn at watch, and it also disturbed him, the fact that Nicoldani might not trust him.

  “I can’t really sleep,” Jak said tersely, “is it alright if I sit watch with you?”

  This time the big man eyed Jak sideways, before finally saying, “Do as you wish.”

  Jak took up a seat next to the big man on the trunk of the large tree, where they both sat in silence for a while. Jak realized that he really did care what the big man thought of him. Nicoldani had become a friend to him, and was the closest thing to family Jak had left. It saddened him to think Nicoldani didn’t trust him.

  Finally Jak spoke, “I’m sorry for…….for what I did to you in Gloryvane.”

  Nicoldani turned to Jak and studied him a moment. Jak didn’t think Nicoldani realized that he could see his face so clearly, along with the look in the big man’s eyes. Jak almost thought he saw fear in the Nicoldani’s eyes. Jak struggled to keep the shock from his own face. He thought back to the previous night and what he had done. Jak had handled Nicoldani like a child, lifting him off the ground and holding him helpless. Jak supposed the man had never been handled in that manner before, especially not by a boy. Jak wasn’t sure how he had been able to do it.

  Jak pressed on before Nicoldani could respond, “I would never hurt you intentionally. I was confused, and caught up in the fight, and didn’t know it was you.” Jak could see anger creeping into the big man’s expression, and quickly changed his approach. “They would have killed you and Benjim…. and Gin too. I couldn’t let them do that. You are my friend, and the closest thing to family I have left, other than Gin. You have to believe me. I….I wasn’t myself.”

  As Nicoldani continued to study Jak, his expression began to soften a bit. This time, Jak could not hide the shock from his own face and quickly turned away. Jak thought he saw……tears beginning to well up in Nicoldani’s eyes. But perhaps he was mistaken. When he turned back, Nicoldani was composed and stern faced again. Maybe it had been his imagination.

  “You did what you had to do boy. I suppose in a way I owe my life to you,” Nicoldani said grudgingly.

  “I don’t know what you ar---” the big man cut off and began again, “the old man seems to think you have an important part to play. I believe the old man to be wise, and I trust him. I suppose we all have our secrets, although I think you already know most of mine after the other night.” The far off look in his eyes seemed to say he still had more secrets that Jak didn’t know about.

  Placing a large hand on Jak’s shoulder, the big man said, “I trust you too Jak. I am sorry for the way I have been treating you. You are a good boy……..a good man. I know you will do what’s right. I know you did not choose this for yourself, but fate plays a part in all or lives. We just need to do the best that we can with the hand we have been dealt.”

  It felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from Jak. He felt so good he almost forgot about the watching eyes…..almost.

  They both continued sitting there in silence scanning the trees, with a sense of unease. Jak was more than relieved when the eastern sky started to turn amber with the coming sunrise because he wanted to be gone from this place. The others seemed to share his enthusiasm, and they gathered camp quickly and set off east out of the valley, down the slope towards the shore of the East Sea.

  Chapter 10

  The pathway down the eastern slope of the Achii Mountains wasn’t quite as bad as the climb up the western side had been, but traveling was still slow. It took most of the day for the small party to make their way down to the foothills, and finally to the edge of a great cliff overlooking the shore of the East Sea. The massive body of water gave Jak a sense of awe, as it stretched out endlessly to the horizon.

  Gin couldn’t stop talking about it “How big is it?” The little girl asked no one in particular. “Does it end, or just go on forever? Where did all the water come from?” The questions were incessant, but Jak wondered too, and didn’t mind, since he found himself wanting to ask some of the same questions.

  The smell of the salt air was refreshing, and the rhythmic sound of waves crashing against the rocks below was almost hypnotic. Jak could have just sat there watching the waves for hours, but unfortunately, he did not have time for that. It was nearly dark, and they were having trouble finding a path that led down the cliff to the sandy beach below.

  Evidently, according to Benjim the prophet lived in a cave by the seashore. By the time they found what appeared to be the trail leading down, it was too dark to chance the dangerous path. They decided to wait until morning to go the rest of the way down, and just setup camp for the night near the cliff.

  When morning came, Nicoldani had already scouted ahead and said there would be no way to get the horses down the steep narrow path. They would have to go on foot the rest of the way and leave the horses behind. Since they didn’t want to leave their horses unattended, Nicoldani offered to stay with Gin, while Jak and Benjim went to try and find the prophet. Nicoldani had no real desire to speak with a prophet anyways, and Gin was just as happy staying behind with Nicoldani. She just took up a position on the cliff overlooking the massive sea, to just sit and enjoy the enchanting sight.

  The tiny trail leading down the cliff was difficult, and Jak worried about Benjim. He was afraid the old man would have a hard time picking his way down the steep path. But as it turned out, Benjim seemed to manage it better than Jak. As luck would have it, the shoreline wasn’t really that far down, and it only took a half hour or less to get to the beach.

  After reaching the shore, they began to walk along the sandy beach searching for the cave where the prophet was supposed to be living. Not long after rounding a bend where the rocky cliff jutted out almost to the waters edge, they spotted a man hunched over near the water in the wet sand.

  As they approached, Jak noticed that the stranger seemed to be eating something. It nearly made Jak sick to his stomach when he got close enough to see what it was that the man was eating. The
ragged dirty old man was crouched over eating a fresh caught raw fish….. the entire fish. The grimy man was taking large bites from the fish….guts, head, fins and all. It appeared, that most likely the fish had been alive when the man started eating it. The strange man’s robe was tattered and torn, not to mention in serious need of cleaning. He wore no shoes, and his feet were dirty and calloused. His grey hair and full beard were matted with grime and tangled with twigs and dirt.

  Benjim spoke up then, “Greetings, we seek the prophet. Do you know where we can find him?”

  The grubby man eyed them suspiciously as if they were going to try and take his food. He turned away from them, eying the pair over his shoulder before hunching back over his meal.

  “Do you know where we can find the prophet?” Benjim asked a little more forcefully.

  The man continued with his noisy eating, before finally dropping the remains of the fish carcass and motioning up the beach. Then he started off in that direction, in a hunched over loping run, dragging his feet through the sand as he led the way.

  Benjim exchanged glances with Jak and shrugged his shoulders, before turning and following the man. After rounding another bend, they reached the mouth of a large cave. The dirty little man had outpaced them and was already inside.

  As Jak entered, immediately he choked back a gag. The smell inside the cave was horrible. A single lantern was the only source of light, and the smoke that drifted from it smelled like old rotten fish. But the odor from the burning lantern wasn’t the worst of it. Most of the terrible smell seemed to be coming from the man himself. He smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in a year at least…or possibly ever. There were rotting fish carcasses strewn about the floor of the cave, along with waste and other things Jak could not recognize. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to know what they were. He struggled to choke back the rising bile in his throat. The smell was so awful he wasn’t sure he would be able to handle it for much longer. Benjim seemed unaffected, other than wrinkling his nose a bit.