In the street, Corgren slipped into the opening of a dark alley. People exited the warehouse. Some staggered and shouted their pleasure or dismay at the outcome. Others milled by the door. They were casual, but several of them didn't fool Corgren; they were waiting for him.
A shadow shifted in the alley. Corgren whirled and pulled a knife, holding it out of any light. A pale hand motioned for quiet and then beckoned him further into the alley's darkness. The stranger wanted a meeting now? Most of the lingering men at the door wandered along the street but a few remained. Corgren followed his benefactor deeper into the alley but held his knife ready.
The cloaked figure stopped at the end. "You've agreed to serve."
Corgren shifted peered along the alley. "Yes but we need to be quick here. Paugren's coming with the purse and those thugs are waiting." No doubt there were plenty more men waiting in hiding.
"Paugren is well. You need to take my marks now." The stranger flipped his cloak aside.
"There's no time for tattoos." Voices echoed along the street beyond the alley.
"There's time and it's now. Roll up your sleeves."
Corgren hesitated. This man was powerful to heal him so easily - that was clear. But many men threatened. "What's your name?"
"Put the knife away and show your arms. We must seal the agreement." The stranger's eyes glowed beneath the hood and his voice deepened. "Now! Will you renege on this and your other debts to me?"
Corgren shoved the knife into his belt and rolled up his sleeves. He extended his hands, palms up. But his eyes strayed along the alley. Pain seared his arms and he whipped his head back.
"Listen now to my instruction, always listen. First, be still for this ritual." The stranger's voice rumbled like thunder. His fingers clawed the skin on Corgren's arms. The wounds glowed as the fingers wiggled.
He clenched his fists and strained against the pain.
"Concerning spells, write them if you wish but know the proper tones or suffer the consequences." Twin dragon's heads appeared on his arms, glowing and bloody. "Blood is the price of my powers. It's why your brother put you in so many fights of late." Now shoulders and forelegs glowed in the alley. "Learn these words now." The fingers writhed and the stranger snapped foreign words.
Corgren repeated what he heard, but he knew nothing of their meaning. Through the last of the searing pain, the dragon's tails grew in his flesh, lashing for a moment across his skin and then stilling. He finished the words.
"There goes the brother!" Voices shouted in the street beyond the alley. Boots slapped upon street stones.
The stranger pulled a curved dagger, its pommel worked into the shape of a snarling wolf's head. "To you I give a new knife. It sears the soul for the blood you must pay."
He took the dagger.
"Corgren!" Paugren stumbled into the alley and fell.
"Here we have him! Pay your fees, Rokan dog!" The sounds of a beating began behind Corgren.
"You owe me more than service now, Corgren. Twice I've saved you and now again. Each is a blood payment. How will you pay? Your brother who risked you for blood or those you hate?" A long-nailed finger covered in scales pointed behind him. "I am Magdronu, the Terrible and Glorious, who will ascend to the heavens! Say my name and choose the blood!"
Corgren stepped toward his brother and the ruffians. The knife flashed in the darkness.
One man looked toward Corgren. "And here's the brother!" Eight men dropped Paugren and faced him.
Corgren raised the dagger and pointed it toward the Hartian thugs. "Magdronu, the Terrible and Glorious, who will ascend to the heavens!"
The Hartians gasped. "I can't move!" They struggled but failed to lift even a finger.
With the dagger raised, Corgren advanced on the attackers. "Hartian dogs, now you pay for all you've done!" He slit the first man's throat and the others begged. He ignored them and killed in the name of his new master. Blood spattered the walls, ran along the alley and festooned Corgren's clothes.
Paugren lay at Corgren's feet and groaned. "Brother, so good of you to join me."
"It is complete." Corgren found Magdronu at his side, a hand, now human-looking, laid on his arm. "You shall have all you need to rid Rok of Hartian rule. Only follow my commands."
Corgren helped Paugren to his feet. He turned back to his new master and found him gone. But at the far end of the alley, the shadow of the old man in the hat stood back-lit against dim lamp-light. That crazy geezer. He dismissed "Eloch" with a wave of his hand. When he looked again, that man was gone too.
"C'mon, let's get to the boat and cast off." Paugren snatched Corgren's sleeves over his forearms and the exited the alley.
As they turned into the street, Corgren paused a moment and surveyed the lifeless shadows in the alley. "Everything I've done is for you, Lucinda." He followed Paugren to the dock and their boat.
The End
Thank you for reading Trading Knives, feel free to review it at your favorite retailer or site. I'm pleased to present an excerpt from The Bow of Destiny on the following pages:
THE BOW OF DESTINY
Sample Chapter
When his dead father touched his hand, Athson almost dropped the arrow. He squeezed his eyes shut. Ignore him. Focus. He took a slow, deep breath. Not this, not now.
"That's it, slow breaths, steady your hands." His father helped him nock the arrow.
"You're not here. You're dead." Athson whispered lest he startle his prey. He didn't need help with the arrow.
"And Athson, make sure you keep that secret I trusted with you." Ath's hand dropped away.
"I've held my tongue." Athson's lip quivered and he forced his hands steady. A memory and nothing more. That's what he got for forgetting his medicine. But he had kept the secret over the years since his father taught him the bow that day.
Athson knelt on one knee with an arrow nocked and gauged each target. Wind gusted and flattened grass in its weaving dance. Waves boomed against the Sea of Mist's rocky shore beneath the cliff's edge two hundred strides distant. The pheasant was trickier, he decided. The rabbit would do. His gaze shifted between the two animals. No shakes, no more old memories while cleaning the kill. He brushed the vane feather with his thumb. But the memory didn't bode well.
Athson eased into his stance at the shaded edge of forest, waiting unseen by his prey. The wind fell still. He drew the arrow to his cheek, aimed, and exhaled. A litter of kits hopped near his intended meal. He blinked. No killing a mother. He shifted targets and released.
The arrow sprang away in silence and pierced the green-feathered head.
Athson strode from hiding, high grass tangling at his shins. The rabbit and her litter scrambled into their hole. "You’re safe this time."
He squatted by the pheasant and plucked out chestnut tail feathers. When he cut the striped neck, Athson shut his eyes. The less blood seen, the better, to avoid the memories. Athson yanked his arrow loose with a grunt. "Sarneth sends me to the middle of nowhere so I waste time hunting." Father plucked the arrows with more care. Maybe his father should have used other things with the same care.
He thrust with his belt-knife and gutted the bird. Torn innards stank. Images flashed behind his eyes of bodies writhing as weapons were yanked free. He swallowed. Why this, why now? He sat on his heels and counted the months since his last fit. Over a year, and his elvish tincture of Soul's-ease lay forgotten at the ranger station. Not good. He needed that medicine. He rubbed his temples. Fits were hard, but seeing things later confused him. He sighed. Days of parsing reality lay ahead. Gweld, his elven friend and fellow ranger, would be disappointed at his laxness with the medicine.
He buried the bird's offal well away from his camp. Athson brushed a hand over his eyes with a sigh. No shakes, no memories. He took a deep breath and marched away, teeth grinding. He needed to seek peace and not anger. The wind picked at foliage and birds called in the forest. But tension clung to his shoulders.
At his campsite Athson hun
g his kill over his fire from a makeshift spit. Early chill sent him gathering more firewood, a worthless duty at an empty border. He eyed the stand of fir trees, doing anything but thinking. They were a good windbreak but wouldn't guard against that night's nip. Building a canopy of fir limbs near the fire at the opening would warm his cold feet.
The breeze rose stiff with the promise of a frigid bite later as Athson gathered armloads of deadwood. "I'll need that canopy." The gust blew stiffer.
Athson frowned at the smoke marking his position for miles when he approached his camp and muttered in dissatisfaction. Rocky ground and no smokeless pit-fire. He shrugged off the irritation. "There're no trolls this far west in the Auguron Forest."
Racing the dusk while gathering firewood was all the excitement Athson encountered. He snagged another fallen limb, hurrying more now to check his roasting pheasant than to beat nightfall.
The wind shifted and carried the hint of smoke from his campfire. Sudden nausea left him unsteady. Memory of other fire on a different night quickened his heart. Athson snagged the last of the wood for his final armload.
"You take this bag and hide."
"Leave me alone mother, you're long gone." Athson coughed and stumbled over roots.
Smoke curls through the thatch over the rafters. His mother shoves food and a coat into the bag.
That wasn’t now, that was ten years past. He groaned and blinked a tear away.
Athson sank to his knees and coughed against choking smoke. His mother acts calm but he sees fear in her wide, hazel eyes and her rigid movements. Smoke thickens and flames roar beyond the door. The warning horn blows. Screams erupt outside and mingle with joyous snarls of attacking trolls.
Athson's mother heaves him out the window. "Hide as best you can."
They both cough. Athson nods and opens his mouth.
The door slams open. His mother snatches an iron skillet and cracks a hobgoblin in the face. The attacker collapses but others leap through the door. His mother yells and flails with the skillet.
Athson ducks away and runs into the night amid the dancing light of burning Depenburgh.
He coughed and shook his head and found himself on trembling hands and knees. The armload of wood lay scattered where he had fallen. He swore and ground his teeth. "Get up and see to the bird."
Athson lunged from the ground, forgetting his wood, and wrenched his gaze away from the mound of the pheasant's buried offal. Dinner needed attention. Athson's dragging boots as he stumbled along sounded like shovels biting the dirt.
"This is taking too long." Athson's father stands massaging his back, his haggard face smudged with soil. The other men pause, sweat drenching their chests. "We need a pyre for this many bodies. We need to search for prisoners." He means his wife, Danilla. The men nod and shift scarves over their faces against coffin flies and stench as they trudge off in search of surviving wood.
Athson braced himself against a tree. "Go away, father. You're dead." Fir limbs caressed his face and clothing as Athson marched into his camp. "Forget the past. They're gone!" He kneeled and reached for the spit with a trembling hand.
The wind shifted and billowed smoke into his face. Athson choked, coughed, and turned his face from the smoke.
Ath scratches the dark bristles grown over his face during the days of troll-hunting since they set out from Depenburgh. "We take back Danilla and the others now. If the wizard arrives, we have no chance." Athson's father hisses plans to his seven comrades - huntsmen turned would-be rescuers. Bon-fires flicker along the Funnel where the trolls hold their prisoners at their altar. Ath fixes each man with his dark-eyed gaze.
Athson grabbed his head. "Go away, leave me alone!" His shout echoed through the forest, startling a dove. They were all gone, but he'd still never tell anyone.
Whispered plans meld into action as Athson's father leads the other hunters toward the leaping troll-fires. Shouts and clanging steel announce the raid. Shadows weave among the blazes in the night wind. Fierce snarls answer angry shouts. Trussed prisoners wail for help.
Ominous silence interrupts the clash of weapons.
His father shouts. "Run, Athson, run!" The desperate command echoes in Athson's memory.
Another voice laughs in mockery. "Run, Athson, run."
Athson crouches and hugs himself. The fear and cold bite him into shivers.
Another man stands visible in the troll camp. His bald head glistens in the firelight while his hooked nose lends him a lingering sneer. "I'm Corgren. Come into my camp, boy, and I will welcome you. You will be safe. I can help you."
Athson squeezed his eyelids but the face remained. He would find the wizard—no, he couldn't seek revenge. He wouldn't even search. Athson hunched and gasped.
Athson wants to comply, wants a warm fire but hesitates.
"If you don't come, bad things will happen." Corgren waves trolls into the concealing heather.
The choice hangs in the air like meat smoking over a fire. Athson weighs his choices and almost shouts for his father.
"Run, Aths—" His father's voice cuts short in mid-shout with a muted grunt. The frightened boy trembles.
Trolls snort and tramp into the undergrowth.
Athson bolts into the night and falls into a crevice along the Funnel's rocky edge. Trolls miss him in the dark. The next day, Athson finds his father's broken sword in the abandoned camp.
Athson startled from his fit. He squatted among the trees, poised for dashing away as his escape from trolls faded. Athson's chest heaved. Sweat beaded his face and stained his tunic. He gripped handfuls of dirt and fir needles.
"You are safe in Auguron, among the elves. Heth and Cireena raised you. Mother, father, and the others died years ago. You have friends like Gweld who helped you." But he would never forget their names or their faces. Danilla. Ath. He exhaled raggedly. He hugged himself and rocked while he hummed a lullaby his mother sang when he still clung to her skirts.
He swore again. The bird hung unturned, scorching over the fire. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to his burning dinner.
Meat sizzled over the fire as Athson knelt and tended his meal. His trembling hands grew still over slow minutes. Memory-fits! They froze him like wounded prey. They were gone. Why now? Not the dead bird. The smoke? "There's no peace in western Auguron either. It's what I get for a good deed with that rabbit." He pulled an angry frown and threw a pebble into the fir trees.
Athson turned back to his fire. A two-toned dog sat by his pack, brown sides flexing with each pant. "Spark?"
The dog’s pointed ears twitched at his name and his tail thumped the ground.
Athson squinted at the Mountain Hound’s shiny black back. "Where’ve you been?" He knew the answer. He always saw Spark after a fit. "You’re not real." But the dog comforted him. Still, it was bad when Spark appeared. Soul's-ease left the body too soon.
Athson sighed and rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes. Calm returned, and he went back for his dropped armload of wood. He gathered what he could find as dusk faded to night. On returning to camp, he fed the fire and then from his pack pulled dried fruit brought to the ranger station from the trading post in Afratta days earlier.
He tore a leg off the pheasant and tasted hot meat, then offered some to Spark. As usual, the dog took nothing. Athson scratched the dog's ears and sighed. "Well even if you're not real it's still good to see you."
After eating, Athson built up the fire and warmed his hands against the chill sweeping inland from the Sea of Mists. The moon rose in the east, lighting the promontory named Eagle's Aerie, rumored home of a Withling. The pinnacle jutted into the sky above the surrounding fir trees, stretching north into the Sea of Mists' crashing breakers. He spied in the glow of moonlight the slender shadow of the endless stair stretching like an age-line along the cliff's face.
Gweld and other elven rangers had told him stories about Eagle's Aerie when word of Sarneth's assignment to Western Auguron got out. Tales spoken in the barracks hinted
of hidden treasure and attempts to climb those stairs, but no one ever completed the task that Athson heard. Athson snorted. "Wild tales made up for my benefit."
Rangers told Athson that travelers reported an old woman of the mystic Withling order appeared in the area, lending aide or leading folks to dire ends. "And Withlings are good and wise agents of Eloch? Thanks for the fool's errand, Captain Sarneth." Athson tossed a stick into the fire with an irritated grimace and saluted the air. Sarneth either didn't trust Athson with more serious assignments or suspected him for some reason. How could Sarneth know more about him than Athson told or knew of his past?
At least Gweld was on the same duty. Athson would meet his oldest friend back at the ranger station in several days' time.
He muttered the elvish festival song, "Dance with the Moon." He smiled at the thought of elves dancing on a midsummer night and sighed as tension left his shoulders. Spark groaned in relief. Strange that he could hear the dog when nobody else did.
Athson yawned. Weariness gripped him soon after his memory-fits. Best not to fight sleep. He fed wood into the fire, pulled his blanket from his pack, and spread it over himself as he stretched out. Sleep soon covered him like a blanket, his thoughts of making a fir-limb shelter forgotten along with enigmatic Withlings and ten-year-old sorrows.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He struggles to breathe. Trolls stab helpless villagers through sliding curtains of choking smoke and raging flame. Dying children wail as mocking slayers howl. The violence fades into darkness. He flails and fears he lies in a grave yet finds emptiness instead of dirt.
Trading Knives: Prequel Short Story #1 to The Bow of Hart Saga Page 3
