It looked at him with familiar yellow eyes, but it had changed. Its body was now covered in thick white hair and its tail, once long and rat–like, was fully like that of a wolf, if much longer. It opened its mouth and howled in triumph. Its elongated jaw yawned open, that of a normal wolf, but still with double rows of teeth. It was even bigger than before and stood almost as tall as Seth while it was still on all fours.
The Wolvern looked at him and spoke in his mind. ‘You almost had it right, but the words are ‘give us the sun and take the darkness’.
Chapter 20
She’d waited ‘til Goldie had left and then rolled out from under the wagon and looked at the fallen body of the Captain, and the sword wound in his stomach which had killed him. It made no sense: the man should have been Goldie’s natural ally and now they would have to get there little rogue army on the road even sooner to escape the investigation of who had killed him.
As she’d left the front city gates, she’d seen groups of rough men milling around, talking, laughing and waiting, even the rat-face from last night was there. Clearly the early birds of the Red Bastards and the random men that Goldie had hired. She guessed they would be marching within a few hours time and would head straight for the Duke’s camp to start negotiations on the cost of a keep.
Pulling her hood over her face, she started to walk up the main road to Black Rock. It would be a half a day’s very hard ride for her, and a day and a half’s march for them on foot, but Goldie and the King Bastard would take horses. She needed to get a horse, and quickly, but had no idea how to get one easily, and then the lucky lady shined on her again.
‘Hey you, what’s with all those men at the gates?’ She looked up and saw two soldiers in the garb of Twin Plains, both with black sashes across their chests. She drew back her hood so they could see she was a girl and she saw the normal effect as they visibly relaxed and took their hands off weapons. Men.
‘I heard they are the Red Bastards, and others, some mercenaries going to help Black Rock.’
The men actually started laughing. They were still laughing when the first of her arrows flew. The first man was knocked clear from his black and grey horse as the arrow hit him hard in the right eye. The second one’s horse reared, causing her to hit the poor beast deeply in the chest, killing it. It collapsed to its side, crushing the rider. She walked to the man as he screamed, his leg completely destroyed by the horse’s strong body. ‘Sorry,’ she said to the horse not the man, and with her notched arrow she fired it at arm’s length into the broken soldier.
She liked the other horse. The black and grey just waited, standing there, its rider dead, but no fuss: a good battle trained stead. Reaching to the reins, she pulled herself into the saddle. Josette flicked the reins hard and let her long red hair get caught by the wind. ‘Let’s see how fast you can run, then’ she said giving it a hard kick, and the horse bolted to life beneath her, feeling like it wanted a challenge.
Goldie walked back into the warmth of the tavern and sat down hard next to the ‘King Bastard’. He had a name but Goldie had already forgotten it. He just thought of him as the smug pretty boy. This group of scum were really living up to their reputation, and it was all he could do not to start swinging his sword blade around the tavern and calling the whole thing off. Still, he’d do what he had to.
‘So what happened with the Captain of the Guard?’ Pretty boy asked.
‘I killed him,’ said Goldie simply. Good for these scoundrels to know he was dangerous as well.
‘Why? He was an agent of the Duke.’
‘I didn’t like his face,’ Goldie said, taking a drink of his beer.
The men at the table laughed at that, even the Bastard. ‘Oh well, more credit for us I guess. What about the girl?’
Goldie looked around and saw that Flint was sitting far away, now talking with one Northman who was part of the Bastards. ‘No sign, must have escaped’
‘Oh, that is a shame. I really wanted to have some fun with her first, it’d been a long time coming.’ the Bastard said.
‘Really? You knew her?’ Goldie asked.
‘I tried to buy her once, but that old fuck Dagosh stuck his hooked nose in and we couldn’t,’ he answered.
‘You could put a red wig on your friend there,’ Goldie said with venom.
The man laughed. ‘I don’t understand you Northmen... you’ll betray your friends, but you get angry if we mistreat women or talk bad about them.’
‘Dagosh is a good man and she’s a good archer. I’ll kill who I have to, but they are still better people than you or me. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you at the gate in a few hours and we’ll go get rich.’ Goldie stood up and left.
‘You trust him, boss?’ Asked one of the Bastard's men.
‘Not really, but I trust him to get us into the Keep, and then we’ll show him just how big of bastards we can be.’
On the battlements of Black Rock Keep, pacing in the darkness was the man Grimm, wondering why the Duke’s army had left off their attack that night. Sitting in the command tent and drinking her nightly blood from her metal flask, Dierdra smiled for the first time in days. Her two guards were joining her, as she wanted some company and had learned their names, which were Rendorf and Plaite.
‘What cheers you, Duchess?’ Rendorf asked. She’d given them permission to speak freely.
‘I got word yesterday that they rode to Pellota to seek reinforcement,’ she said as she placed a small piece of roast chicken into her mouth and chewed it slowly. Food tasted like ash still, but sometimes she liked to try it.
‘And that’s good news is it?’ He asked.
‘Who do you think they are trying to recruit?’ She replied with a sly smile.
‘Well, Dagosh has no men left, the city guard wouldn’t help, and the King is miles away, so that means tavern scum or mercenaries.... Oh, I understand,’ he started laughing lightly. ‘They wouldn’t really sink that low, would they?’
‘They would indeed. Our little friends the Bastards will be here in a matter of days to come and defeat us,’ she said laughing.
‘Have you got word from him yet?’ Plaite asked.
‘Not yet, but I’d be extremely surprised if I didn’t by tomorrow. Besides, he knows how to play these things. Siddle up to the enemy and promise them a quick victory, and he can even talk about the other times he’s defeated my husband on the field.’
‘You mean the times we let him take the field and then do the dirty work,’ Rendorf said.
‘Exactly. I have sent a few men to keep an eye on the gates and let me know as soon as they begin to move, but he’ll send us word as well. He always wants to have a nice meal and girl laid out for him when he arrives,’ she said casually. Finally, someone to fight her battle for her.
Chapter 21
Like all girls of noble or refined upbringing, she had done her fair share of acting. Nights spent reading passages from plays and composing poems, but pretending to be a big stupid Northern warrior, was some of Seraphina's best work to date. She’d lost control of herself when she’d seen the body of the Wolvern lying broken in the gathering snow, but had managed to redeem herself. Now she walked along quietly next to the silver woman and planned her next move. She was so filled up with rage that it gave her purpose. She was used to this feeling and had harboured it towards Seth for so long. He’d killed her uncle Stephan who was much like a father to her. She understood in her mind that it was an act of self-defense, but that did nothing to make her heart less angry. Now she felt the same way towards the silver woman, but there was more to this. Now she was feeling the lust and greed for more that was the driving force behind the Dark Guild. What was this power that she possessed and what did Seraphina have to do to gain it for herself? The problem was that Seth wasn’t a talker, and starting now would be hard.
‘We’re almost there, so get ready, champion,’ said the silver women as she drew her huge black sword from its scabbard and carried it swinging free. Her good mood at killing the W
olvern had been replaced with cold determination.
‘Almost where?’ She asked in Seth’s voice.
‘The home of my people,’ she said, looking back with those lovely blue eyes. No wonder Seth was following her around like a puppy: she was enough to inspire lust in anyone.
Dark shapes started to appear in the distance, out of the snow drift, and she saw what looked like huge dark standing stones. As they walked closer she saw that they were arranged in very large circles. Each circle of the rough stones was at least the size of a house or drinking hall.
‘These are our houses of sorts. We don’t sleep, but this shows where one begins and one ends.’
Looking into the distance, Seraphina could see there were lot and lots of these rings of tall stones that reached up into the sky. Each circle had eight of them, and they were all different sizes, some vast circles and some much smaller.
Seraphina walked into the nearest circle. The stones that made up the eight points were smooth and cold. Strangely, no snow seemed to fall within the circle and the ground itself was the first dirt she’d seen so far. She walked to the center of the circle and looked at the only furniture of sorts. It was a large stone table or slab. A shudder ran up her spine as she looked at it, as it was stained with the blood of countless people and scarred with nicks and marks from swords and axes.
‘Dinner table?’ Seraphina asked.
‘This is where they kill and consume your dead, yes.’ Seraphina looked out and with her own eyes could see tens of these circles of stones.
‘How many circles are there?’
‘One family or clan has one of their own, there are a few hundred I suppose.’
‘You said they consume our dead, not we,’ said Seraphina.
‘I’ve told you before, champion, do you forget? I am pure, the moon provides for us and we don’t need to do this: its greed and hunger and sacrilege.’ The women spoke in tones Seraphina knew well enough, as there were many zealots in the Guild and this woman was one of them. She clearly viewed herself as a priestess of the moon and the only true one left of her kind.
They left the circle and kept walking on. They passed more and more of them until Seraphina realised they were walking on a road of sorts. It was a path as wide as a main trading road and could have fit a few wagons on it. Marked out with small standing stones that held strange markings which she assumed could be distance.
‘We’re very close now, they will be waiting for us,’ the silver woman said. She stopped in the roadway and, taking the small leather strip that covered herself and her breasts, tucked them into the bottom of her scabbard. She stood for a moment, letting the moonlight shine on her. Seraphina was shocked and more than a little bit jealous, as she was truly perfectly formed and even had a tiny tuft of silver hair above her entrance.
‘Stop staring at me, champion: if I am to face my kind, I need to do it correctly, with mother moon shining on all off me. These dogs all wear clothing now to cover their hideous deformity.’
She grabbed hold of Seraphina’s hand and led her onwards. The thrill of skin contact was too much and she almost drew her hand back, but restrained herself. The woman’s hand was warm and soft, and it was the first contact Seraphina had felt in literally years.
‘They will want to take you from me, but this will show them we are linked.’
Seraphina hadn’t seen the others before, but was scared. The silver woman was an intimidating creature. She was so tall and lean and strong, but her beauty weakened any negative emotion one felt. She assumed they were all trained to trust beautiful people and things, regardless of their poisonous nature.
The noise was the first thing that started to reach her ears. It was a loud hissing and wailing sound. It grew stronger and stronger as they walked, and she felt her hand clutched harder, she realised the silver woman was actually afraid, and trying to hide it. Soon Seraphina saw the source of the hissing, and almost turned and ran herself.
The sight of these creatures was truly disturbing. Along the roadway, they were lined up like revellers watching a procession. At first just a few, then more and more, and they were walking in between them like a prisoner getting led to the execution block. They even had the horrible crowd of bloodthirsty wretches to shout at them. They were disgusting in every way Silver was beautiful. Seraphina looked at one which stood hissing at them through broken and sharp yellow teeth. It was a woman, she supposed, as tall as Silver but huge, and with fat hanging from her in rolls and dangling from otherwise skinny arms. Her silver hair was lank and sparse, and her entire body was covered with deep scars, cuts, and seeping abrasions.
They walked on between the howling crowd of them. They all stood outside the stones of the roadway and didn’t come closer, but Seraphina could feel their evil intentions as they looked at her with hungry eyes. One of them leapt into the roadway and faced them to the almost-cheers of the others. Silver dropped her hand and whispered into her ear.
‘Time to prove yourself to these wretches, champion: kill that fool.’
Chapter 23
Josette’s stolen horse was left behind to wander on the trail and she crept as slowly and quietly as she could through the sparse foliage at the side of the path. The Duke’s men had discovered the back route into the Keep and were guarding it in force. Beads of sweat rolled down her pale forehead and into her eyes as she looked on. The gate into the Keep was sheer rock, and while they hadn’t found the entrance itself, they were guarding the road and knew it was there somewhere.
The guards’ camp was big, much bigger than she could take by herself. She counted over ten men sitting around a camp site right in the middle of the trail. A few scouts walked around aimlessly with pikes held casually in hand as they chatted and didn’t do their jobs. She had to get into that Keep, and now. Goldie and the mercenaries’ captains would be arriving just a few hours behind her, and while the main body of men would take another day, she wanted to speak with Grimm and Elizebetha before he got a chance to do the same. Her two options were to try and kill to ten well-armed men by herself or to get her arse over the main Keep wall and hope she didn’t get filled with arrows by her own men.
She couldn’t think of a solid plan so she decided, when in doubt, to trust the stupidity of men... and these certainly didn’t look like the cream of the Duke’s army. They sat around laughing and talking as if they were on a camping trip. Looking at their uniforms, see saw they were very neat and clean, as were their arms. She guessed they were just levies raised from the Twin Plains farms to act as fodder. Stepping out into the path, she started to strut down towards them with confidence, pushing her hood back and letting her hair flow out.
‘Who the fuck’s in charge of this rabble?’ She yelled as she walked towards the men.
They scrambled for their weapons, and within moments, she was at their makeshift camp with three bows, five pikes, and two swords pointed at her. One man looked flustered in the extreme and held a rapier pointing at her. The Officer, of course.
‘Hold there, woman, who are you?’ He said back.
‘Who am I, Captain?’ She spat at him, ‘I’m the one who’s got to lead you fuck-ups into this Keep and take Duchess Elizebetha hostage.’
She pushed passed the stunned man and his men, and within a second she was at the blank black wall searching for the hidden keyhole. Elizebetha had given her the large metal key. Even if they knew where it was, it would never open without the key.
‘What the hell are you talking about? And what are you doing? Men, I want you to fire on this woman,’ he shouted.
She turned back. ‘I wouldn’t do that if I want to live. Duchess Deirdra has paid me a lot of money to get you into this Keep and that’s what I’m going to do. Now hurry up.’ She found the hole and, putting in the key, swung the black stone door outwards. The men were stunned and just looked at their Captain, and then back at her, bows drawn.
‘So are you coming or not?’ She said, turning back and putting one foot through into
the cold.
‘Really, Captain, us ten against all of them in there?’ Said one very young and nervous man holding a pike.
‘Look, the Duchess has paid me to get you in, so if you want to go tell her you just wasted all her gold and time, that’s fine.’
‘Men, this is our chance. It was shit detail but we can snatch victory this very day.’ Said the moustached man as he walked forward and pointed his rapier against her back. ‘But I don’t trust you, so go slowly.’
Within moments she and the ten guards from the Duke’s army were within the stone doorway and walking up the small dark corridor. The only light was cast from the doorway. ‘Shut the bastard door or they’ll see the light.’ She said in an angry whisper. The stone door swung shut with a heavy thud and she felt the fear in some of the men. Her own heart was racing. She was in the Keep, but with ten enemy men at her back in a small dark corridor. Still no real plan, so she pushed forward with this idiocy.
She turned back to the Captain and spoke into the darkness. ‘If we follow this passage, it comes out in the Duchess Elizebetha’s study. She’s always alone. We take her prisoner and take her back to the Duchess for a fine reward.’
‘Okay, you lead, but if you’re lying you’ll die before me, I promise,’ whispered a voice back.
The corridor was almost entirely dark and she crept along with her hand on the walls, trying to find the right one. Beneath this Keep the Gatherers had built so many secret paths and doors, there were a lot more than just one. Slowly, light began to creep into the corridor and she saw the staircase, its tall metal spiral that went up and up.
‘This is it,’ she said and started climbing. It had stood for at least a hundred years, but was such a solid metal that it didn’t even creak at the weight of the ten men. She could hear their heavy breathing and tinkling of armour and weapons, though, and hoped her friends could as well. At the top of the stairs was a large stone room. In it were a table, chairs, and couches. It was even lit with a lantern; the men all piled into the room and she looked at their faces in the darkness. She had them all now: they listened to her words, hanging off every sentence. ‘It’s just through that doorway, it opens out into a bookshelf. Captain? What should we do next?’ She asked.
Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series (Dark Gods & Tainted Souls Book 2) Page 10
