CRY HAVOC (Jack Frey Book 1)

by Mike Morris

  A chestnut colored horse snorted at Lin as she peered inside its stall and she jumped back, startled. Despite how tall she'd grown, the horse towered over her. It looked her up and down and Lin found herself shrinking under its gaze.

  Grais chuckled as he walked up to the horse. He gently stroked its nose while whispering to it. "Don't let his fierce behavior frighten you. Look after them right and they'll treat you right. Just never forget they’re warhorses. The Masters specially breed them to be stronger, faster and more vicious than most normal horses. They strength they need just to carry the Masters any sort of distance is incredible."

  The horse still eyed Lin warily but Grais' calm demeanor soothed it. It had a short back and well-muscled loin and a well-arched neck.

  "See how strong its hind-quarters are?" said Grais. "Its perfect for lunging forward or turning in an instant. You wouldn't believe the things I've seen a Master do with his horse while training. I wouldn't want to be chased down by one of these horses." He paused, stroking the horse's neck. His eyes were full of admiration for the animal. If Lin had been scared of the horses before, the thought of a Master charging at her on one of the animals was almost too much to consider. She wasn't sure if Grais had done her a favor getting her transferred. At least the stone didn't kick you while you were sweeping up around it.

  "Come. I'll show you around the rest of the stables and, more importantly, where you'll be sleeping. It's a bit better than what you're used to," continued Grais.

  "Thanks," said Lin. She still didn't know what to make of it all. With Old Jahn and his crew, she knew what to do and how to survive. Pet'r and Jaar and her were a team, looking after each other and watching the others' backs. She knew where trouble could come from and when she could relax. Up here it was a different story altogether. She fingered the knife in her pocket. Grais had always been good to her but what about the others in his crew?

  Somewhere in the distance a bell began to ring. It stopped Grais in mid-stride and Lin could see the rest of his crew all paused in their work. "What's that?" she asked.

  Grais held up his hand to silence her.

  The others headed towards the entrance to the stables. Grais grabbed Lin's hand.. "Stay here in the stables. Don't let anyone see you. It'll be better that way."

  There was no hiding his anxiety. His face had lost all its boyish charm. An old, familiar chill crept back into Lin and suddenly she felt seven years old again, about to see her friend murdered by a Master.

  The other groomsmen lined up just outside the entrance to the stables. It was a beautiful wide and open courtyard. Stone carvings of dragons stood guard in each corner, rearing on hind legs and wings outstretched.

  Lin followed Grais to the entrance but he grabbed her wrist, stopping her once more. "I mean it, Lin. Stay out of sight."

  "Why? What's happening?" she asked. Her voice broke with fear.

  "Masters are coming. Including His Lordship." Grais ran to the end of the line of groomsmen and slipped into place.

  Lin's heart sunk. The groomsmen dropped to their knees in readiness for the Masters’ arrival. For a moment, she didn't know what to do. The thought of seeing the Masters again paralyzed her. Grais looked back, scrunching his eyes and motioned her inside with a quick flick of his head. It was enough to force Lin into action. She backed away from the entrance and found a spot in the corner of the stable. A gap between two planks of wood provided her with a view of the courtyard.

  Sounds echoed from the various directions. Hooves beat against cobbled stone. Tramping feet and excited voices descended stairs. She looked around her, unsure of anything except how scared she was. What had Grais gotten her into? Why couldn't he have left her where she was?

  Grunts arrived first, armed and armored, filling the far end of the courtyard. Small banners, each with a dragon sigil, flew from sticks attached to their backs. They were different from the guards who guarded the work crews, smarter, more organized and carrying spears rather than clubs. Several of the Masters' Children arrived behind them and Lin recognized the flame-haired woman amongst them. Grim-faced, their blood red eyes swept over the sweats. A few of the crew pressed their foreheads down against the ground but the Children had already moved past, ignoring them.

  From the opposite end of the courtyard, five fully armored Masters appeared on horseback. A red eagle sigil flew on green banners attached to their saddles. Three men were dragged behind them, tied with rope.

  The Sweats all pressed their heads against the ground on their arrival. Lin nearly dropped to the floor herself until she reminded herself that they couldn't see her. She knew she’d die if anyone spotted her but she couldn't stop herself from watching. The fear grew stronger as she watched the Masters and their prisoners but they were from the world outside Grosnar and she had to find out more.

  The Masters stopped their horses in the courtyard's center and the men collapsed on the ground, half-dead.

  They were dressed in black and, even though their clothes were ripped and torn, their uniforms were unlike any worn in Grosnar. They weren't Sweats or Skins or Meats. Blood ran from various wounds over their faces and bodies. Lin was transfixed. They were proof life existed away from Grosnar, away from the Masters.

  As the Masters dismounted, the Grunts snapped to attention and the Children bowed reverently.

  "Welcome! Welcome!" called out a voice. A Master strode into the courtyard from the castle. His hair was pulled back, accentuating the high cheekbones, and held in a ponytail. His dress was extravagant even for a Master. A deep red cloak fell across his left side and flowed across his back. His armor sparkled with accents of silver. "I am Lord Dorian. We are honored to have you as our guests." A dozen more Masters followed, accompanied by even more guards.

  Lin's heart all but stopped when she saw the Master standing by Dorian's right side. She clasped her hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. His face still lurked in her nightmares. It seemed like yesterday when he’d torn Droonan's throat out. He towered above all the other Masters. Dressed in light battle garb, his jerkin swallowed the light around him. His hair was tied back into a heavily lacquered topknot. His long sword was at his left side, a short one on his right. Under his left arm was his war helm. A grinning demon's face molded out of steel, accentuated with large curved horns.

  The visiting Masters dismounted and their leader walked over to Dorian. He slammed his fist against his chest in salute. His armor was more basic and dirt stained. "My Lord. My name is Rysor from Liege. We've chased these scum for three nights now and seek shelter from the coming sun."

  Dorian returned the salute, tapping his own fist against his chest. "Of course, of course. You are more than welcome. We have plenty of room and your prisoners will feel at home in our dungeons."

  Rysor bowed. "I thank you, my Lord. The pursuit was more arduous that we expected. These... dogs killed two of my men."

  Lin gasped when she heard the words. How could anyone kill a Master? Who would dare?

  "Silence!" roared Dorian. "How dare you say such a thing? There are humans present. Such things are not for their ears."

  Rysor looked around, seeing the human guards and the groomsmen as if for the first time. "I'm... I'm sorry my Lord. I... I didn't think."

  "Do you know how hard it is to train these animals to look after my horses? To protect my castle?" demanded Dorian. He didn't wait for Rysor to answer. He turned to Bale. "Kill all of them."

  The words had barely registered with Lin when she saw Bale draw his sword. The huge blade whispered promises of death as it slipped from its sheath.

  The groomsmen raised their heads as the Masters' Children raced towards them. Bale and three Masters headed towards the Grunts. Confused faces looked up and down their ranks.

  Grais was on his feet, followed by a few of the others as the Children fell on them. Lin screamed as the red haired woman ripped out an old man's throat. Another of the Children, a bald man, punched through the stomach of a groomsman. Lin saw the fist eru
pt from the man's back.

  Bale and the Masters hacked their way through the guards. Silver blades sparkled in the moonlight, leaving trails of blood and guts. No one put up a fight. Only a few attempted to flee.

  Grais made it to the entrance of the stable. He locked eyes on Lin. A pair of hands grasped his shoulders. "Run!" he screamed as he was yanked back into the courtyard.

  He continued to scream as Lin sprinted further into the stables. Even amongst all the other cries, his voice stood out. It accompanied her for three, four, five steps and then suddenly it stopped. Lin swallowed her tears as the panic inside her urged her on. She clambered up a ladder leading to the loft. It was darker up there, filled with stacked bales of hay.

  19

  708 PN

  They killed the crew still in their sick beds next. They died with a whimper, to weak to even protest.

  Lin lay curled up in a ball, squeezed between a bale of hay and the rafters. Straw dug into her skin. She took little gasps of air, petrified that anything more would give her away. She listened to the Masters' Children walking around below, acting like they didn't have a care in the world. She prayed to whatever gods there were to protect her and keep her safe then cursed them for creating a world where the Masters existed.

  The sound of feet climbing the ladder startled her once more. Lin's whole body tightened as she listened.

  The feet reached the top of the ladder and stepped onto the loft floor.

  Lin held her breath and shut her eyes. A child's logic told her that if she couldn't see them, they wouldn't see her.

  The footsteps walked right. Each one echoed through Lin's body. Whoever it was in no hurry.

  Lin pressed herself against the hay, wishing that she could sink deep inside it and disappear. She waited for the hand on her shoulder or the fangs at her throat.

  The footsteps reached the corner of the loft and turned around.

  "Anything?" A man's voice called up from below.

  "Nothing yet," replied a woman's carefree voice. The flame-haired woman's image flashed in her mind. She was so fast and so strong. She remembered her nearly ripping out Old Jahn's throat.

  Lin bit her lip to stop the whimper of fear scratching at her throat. She could hear the flame-haired woman wandering between the bales. She found the courage to open her eyes. They flicked from one side of the loft to the other seeking a way out. A wooden beam straddled the roof but it was too far away to reach. She'd have to jump over to another stack of bales to climb up to it and any movement would give her position away. She swallowed another cry as she realized she was trapped.

  The flame-haired woman stopped just to the right of where Lin was hiding. Lin could just see the tip of her hair. Had the woman heard Lin? Could she smell Lin's fear?

  More feet climbed the ladder. "What's keeping you?" asked the man.

  "The groomsman shouted for someone to run before I killed him," the woman replied.

  "So? He was probably trying to warn the ones still in the dormitory," said the man.

  "Bah. They'd never have heard. I think there's someone else we haven't found," said the woman.

  "There's nothing but rats up here."

  "Then you go and when I find someone, I'll be sure to tell the Master how you helped," laughed the woman.

  "You wouldn't dare," said the man but Lin heard the doubt in his voice.

  "Oh Darius. I thought you knew me so well," the woman cooed.

  Darius climbed the last few steps to the loft. "We should just burn the place down."

  "As much as I love a good fire, Master Dorian may not like that. He still needs his horses looked after."

  Together, they searched the loft. Occasionally a sword slashed through hay. Darius over-turned several bales, nearly catching the woman as they fell. They bickered while Lin waited above them. Time passed but the Masters' Children were in no hurry.

  Terror continued to claw away inside Lin. Every breath threatened to betray her. Her own heart beat so loudly she could not believe they didn't hear it. Yet she remained undiscovered.

  "Come, sister. This is pointless. There is nothing up here but rats and straw," said Darius. "The others will be waiting."

  "Fine," conceded the woman. They walked over to the ladder. Lin risked peeking around the edge of the bale to watch them leave. Darius went first. The flame-haired woman climbed down after him but she stopped just before her head dropped out of sight. Her red eyes stared up into the darkness.

  "Eva," called Darius.

  The woman smiled and continued down to the stables.

  Lin forced herself to take a deep breath. She jumped over to the next bale. It wobbled under her weight and Lin grabbed the beam before it could topple. She hauled herself up and lay flat across it while she checked if she were still safe. It was good to have a solid piece of wood shielding her and the danger below and, for the first time since the madness began, Lin could feel some of the fear and tension leave her.

  Below, the Masters' Children put the visitors' horses into stalls and stacked the bodies into a corner of the courtyard. Blood smeared the stone as far as she could see, staining the red rock further.

  It took a good while for them to finish and lock up the main stable doors. Still Lin waited. She could only hear the snuffling of the horses but she had to be sure she was alone.

  She dropped back down into the loft and climbed down the ladder. She spotted the chestnut colored horse from earlier. It looked at Lin with sadness in its eyes. She touched its nose and the horse pressed itself into her hand as if understanding the pain she was feeling.

  The signs of violence scarred the crew's living quarters but all the bodies had been removed.

  A cup of water sat alone on the table and Lin forced herself to drink it. It did little to settle her stomach.

  She knew she couldn't stay in the stables. They'd be back with new Sweats to man it sooner rather than later and, if they found her, they'd surely kill her.

  Her only option was the waste chute at the back of the kitchen. Now she was older, it seemed to be half the size it had once been. It was hard to imagine she'd ever fitted in with ease. The grime surrounding it was still the same though and the stink remained. She had to crunch her shoulders

  together as she forced herself in. Even the pull of the ground below didn't help as she wriggled inch-by-inch lower into the chute.

  She pushed herself past putrid garbage. She couldn’t see where she was going — all she could do was wriggle downwards and pray it would bring her to an exit at some point.

  The deeper she went, the worse the sense of claustrophobia grew. She expected to get stuck at any moment, to find no way down and be stuck until she starved to death.

  Even the air abandoned her. Every breath she took tasted of nothing but toxic fumes. A coughing fit struck her and she nearly threw up as her body tried to expel the poison inside her.

  She lay for a moment with slime sticking to her skin utterly exhausted. Maybe she should just give up and quietly die. It couldn't be worse than dying at the hands of a Master or one of their cursed children. Droonan didn’t get such an easy death, nor had Grais.

  No. The thoughts of her friends stirred something within her. They'd not given up even at the last. Droonan had fought even though it was hopeless and Grais’ last thoughts were only to save her. Lin owed it to them to keep on fighting. No matter how tired or how difficult, she needed to keep going.

  She’d no idea how long it took or how far she journeyed down that chute. She just concentrated on pushing herself the next inch and nothing else. Inch after inch. Wriggling her hips and dragging herself by her fingertips. On and on. Down and down. It went on forever.

  Exhaustion gripped her, panic squeezed her, fear held her but still she moved on.

  Suddenly her feet slipped into open space. It was a way out, a possibility of escape. She only hoped the drop was a short one. What would she do if she broke her legs in the fall? She fought to remain calm as she wriggled more and mo
re of her body into the gap.

  Her legs swung free and she fell into another empty kitchen. Everyone was still at work but Lin wasted no time. She darted out in the corridor, scanning for anything that would give her a sense of where she was inside Grosnar and a way back to her own crew.

  She ran down one red corridor after another, aware that the shift could end at any time, or that she could run into a Grunt after every turn.

  Relief flooded into her when she recognized her dormitory. The door, as ever, was unlocked and she slipped inside. She nearly cried being back in familiar surroundings. She washed the dirt and grime from herself, feeling more normal by the second. If only she could pretend none of it had happened.

  Lin sat at one of the tables in the mess when the crew returned. She got a few strange looks as people wandered in but most went about their business as normal. When

  Old Jahn saw her though, he made his way straight over. "Whadya doin' 'ere, girl?"

  With him there, Lin couldn't stop the tears from falling.

  Jahn hugged her and stroked her hair. "Shush. Shush. I'm sure it ain't that bad, eh."

  "They're all dead," blubbed Lin into Jahn's chest.

  He lifted her chin up and looked her in her eyes. His voice was very quiet. "Who's dead?"

  "Grais and all his crew. The Masters did it 'cause of the strangers."

  “How’d you know?”

  “I was there. I saw it.”

  His eyes went cold. "Why you still alive then?"

  "I hid in the rafters and they didn't find me. Then I ran back here." Lin was starting to feel confused. Jahn didn't seem too happy at her being back all of a sudden.

  He pushed her off him and stepped back. "But they know you were they don't they. They'll know you’re still alive the moment they do a count."

  "They won't know it was me though," replied Lin.

  "Someone will," said Jahn. "The Grunt who authorized you to work up there will. The Grunt that took you up there will. Fuck knows who else but those two's enough. Shit. What you done, girl?"