Take the body and give me the rest (18 page)

‘If it wasn’t
for them I’d be the one dead at the top of this ridge, and they are
loyal. Please don’t let him die’ He spoke the words out loud and in
northern so the men would hear and understand as well.

Without any more words, it began to rip into the nearest body,
tearing away the flesh and bloody meat from the bone. It slashed at
the bodies, ripping the armour out of its way. It went from one to
the next, tearing into ripped chests, devouring the hearts and
viscera. Gorging itself on the bloody feast Seth had prepared. He
stood motionless, watching it destroy them and tried to stay
motionless inside as well. Truly, he felt he was as monstrous as
the creature. These were just men after all, men just like him and
his little troop, maybe on the other side of things but not that
far apart
.

He felt the
hunger fade to nothing and then a glowing sense of warmth. It grew
until his entire body was hot and surging with strength. Memories,
thoughts and feelings from the five men washed through him, some
staying and some leaving. He saw as they knelt, the bodies of his
men started to shake as they were hit with the wave of power, he
knew that Grimm’s wound would be healing on its own and within
minutes he’d been back from the edge of death.

As the memories
washed over him, he felt that he had everything from every one of
the men, but that was only a part of it; it was even more powerful
than just one set of memories. He had five lifetimes of training,
fighting, surviving and killing. It was a bloody education but a
powerful one.

The creature
turned to regard him with its intelligent yellow eyes and slowly
licked the blood from its hairless muscles.

‘
You’ve done well, my boy, and now I
can rest again for some years . . . until you call me
again.
’

‘Years for you
is only weeks and months for me,’ Seth said.

‘
That’s true, but don’t be
ungrateful. It’s a bloody price, but look at all the gifts I can
give to you and your followers.
’

Seth had never
talked properly with the creature but now wanted to know more. How
was it different from the dead called back by the people of the
desert?

‘I have
questions to ask you, if I can,’ Seth said.

‘
You’ve pleased me, so I will answer
one.
’

‘The desert
people call back their own dead to share the memories, but you’re
not one of them. I don’t know what you are.’

He felt a laugher deep and painful in his mind.
‘
They are just what you say, the dead of
your people. They live in my cold dead land and when one of you
creates the gateway over, they cross over. As many things other
than people live in your lands, the same is true for mine. The
sharing power comes from my land. When your dead come back, they
bring it with them, but the power is meant for
us.
’

‘Are there
others like you?’

‘
A few, but you mustn’t deal with
them; your pact is with me alone.
’

‘I have no wish
to meet them.’

‘
No, you don’t’
it said, walking from the world.

Seth went to
the circle and pulled aside Grimm’s shirt and saw the wound was
completely healed if he was still covered in blood. They stood in
the circle, three opening their eyes and stared at him. Goldie
looked at him with a strange mix of fear and jealousy.

‘Well Grimm,
looks like you’ll live’ Seth said sadly, he was so troubled by this
but what choice did he have.

Grimm surprised
him by actually laughing and then he embraced Seth hard ‘You saved
me and not only that I feel so strong and filled with all of these
memories of those men, I think I could use a bow now’

Seth talked to
them as they fell back to their old habits and quickly looted the
brigands taking their bows as well ‘it’s true we have taken their
memories into us and now we know what they did’

Goldie spoke
‘what was that thing?’

Flint spoke
before Seth could ‘What do you mean a thing?’

‘He called
something and it came and devoured these men’ Goldie said ‘it was
like a big, ugly wolf but with no hair’

Flint and Stone
looked at each other ‘What is it?’ they asked, some of the wonder
of their gifts gone.

Grimm spoke up
loudly ‘I don’t care what it looked like, it saved me, it’s saved
Seth many times no doubt and it’s on our side. Now shut up and get
moving back to camp, I’ve got drinking to do.’

Seth loved him
for that.

Chapter 20

It was strange
for Seth, who was feeling deeply troubled about the day’s events,
to be received along with his men as heroes with no reserve by the
caravan of people they had saved from the ambush. Rosen toasted
them loudly; music was playing and people they were travelling with
but hadn’t even met were coming to talk to them, shaking their
hands and giving them small gifts of food and drink.

He could see
the broad smiles and happiness in his men. It was easier for them;
they had followed orders, fought well and received gifts from a
dark wolf god of some kind. Seth had planned to find some men to
kill. He’d found them, led men to murder them and then fed their
bodies and maybe their souls to a creature from another land, the
land of the dead, who’d devoured them and taken all their gifts and
talents.

Still, all the
caravan people knew was that some men had planned on killing and
robbing them, but they had been stopped. Seth had found some new
enemies and he clung to the idea that the world was a better place
for the actions of his small troop of killers.

Seth left
Goldie, Grimm, Flint and Stone by the fire, drinking and enjoying
the moment. He sought out Elizebetha, whom he’d not seen in four
days. To be honest with himself, it was becoming harder and harder
to stay connected with her, he felt more like member of the Guild
than one of whatever she was.

He found her
sitting around her own roaring fire, with her attendant who just
posed as a travel companion, stood and left, as if planned, as he
approached. She smiled with a very sad and knowing smile as he
approached the fire.

‘Captain Seth,
with his brave troop of Northmen.’ She said.

‘Is that who I
am now? Not a runaway slave leading men to kill others’

‘You’re a hero
to those of us in this caravan who are still alive because of your
actions, but I could feel it happening Seth, I felt Grimm slipping
away and then you calling the creature. Now he’s here by the fire,
drinking and shooting a bow with too much skill for a novice’

Seth knew he
was getting closer and closer to his darker nature but what choice
had he been given? At every turn his hand was being forced, now he
grew angry with her ‘What choice did I have, they would have killed
the people in this caravan, so we stopped them, and what am I meant
to do? Let Grimm die for the act of putting his body on the line
for strangers.’

‘Seth you need
to know I felt those men as a dark cloud over this caravan. Had you
not been here, they would have attacked anyway and killed many more
than you were forced to,’ she said with sincerity. ‘But I’m afraid
for you, how many in the Guild started this way feeling they were
forced and getting darker and darker in their actions. Wasn’t
Stephan forced by the hunger when he took your story teller in
Dacar? Just beware Seth you’re treading in some very dangerous
waters.’

He sat down
next to her with a sigh, his anger gone, she was right, he needed
to remember who he was and who he wanted to be. He smiled at her
‘you’re right, I’ll fight it, don’t worry.’

‘We’ve been
spared for now, but I’ve a strong feeling tomorrow is the day we’ll
have some new additions to our caravan. I’m not sure if they will
attack straight away, would you?’

‘Rosen says
we’re five days from the next city. I think they’ll wait and attack
then.’

‘Why wait?’ she
asked.

‘Our heroics
have drawn attention to us but also bought us more allies in the
caravan. All they have to do is wait for us to separate in the city
and strike then. They’ll also assume that I’ll let the boys loose
in the city. What do we know about them?’ he asked.

‘Only that the woman leading them is called Seraphina. I met
her before years and years ago. She’s very strong in the Guild and
she’s Stephan’s niece. They want to kill me as much as they do you.
In fact, they have been following me since I boarded
The Opulent
but you’re
becoming more of a thorn in their side than I ever was.’

As she said the
name ‘Seraphina’ Seth was filled with a flood of the General’s
memories. There were so many in there that Seth never came close to
touching them all. But now he saw her as she was in Stephan’s mind.
He loved her as a daughter and respected her as a guild member. If
Stephan respected her that meant one thing, she was a killer
too.

Chapter 21

The boys were
spending most of their time now patrolling up and down the length
of the caravan, checking new comers and scouting out the passes for
any possible ambush. Seth, for his part, stayed now with Elizebetha
in her covered wagon, mostly they travelled in silence. He kept
imagining an arrow to come buzzing through the leather sides of the
wagon or a female hand with a dagger to slip in and into his
throat.

It was a good thing he was now known as Captain Seth and his
martial appearance wasn’t remarked upon. He was now fitted with a
bow, broadsword
,
rapier and dagger, all strapped to his mount. He had fired a few
practise shots with the bow and was impressed with his own skill at
it for a person who had never trained in earnest
,
it was strange to use different muscles and he could feel his body
getting used to the new movements of the art.

Grimm kept a
steady report back to the wagon of any people who had joined the
caravan. So far there were a few families, some musicians from a
small hamlet they had passed and a slaver’s train that had caught
up to them on the road and wanted to stay with them for protection,
having heard about the brigands. Rosen was happy to add their fee
to his trip.

Goldie spent a
good amount of time talking with the slaver and looking over the
people with him. They were only six slaves in total, tall men and
women from the southern desert, dark skin and long matted hair.
Along with the slaver and a guard, Seth felt they were travelling
in the wrong direction in that they were going back towards their
homeland, not the normal direction for slaves, but there was
nothing suspicious about them. Seth decided that Seraphina and her
group were simply shadowing the caravan and waiting til they
reached the next stop, the smaller city called Pellota.

Seth was
sitting in the bumping wagon and reading through one of the many
stolen books he’d taken out of the library before burning it down.
It was a very small black leather one and it was written in uneven
dark ink. Unlike many of the others that were diaries, this one was
the passing of knowledge. Seth surmised it was at least a few
hundred years old. As he read, a slow smile began to appear on his
face. Elizebetha noticed and spoke up.

‘What have you
found in your studies?’

The book spoke
of the dead land, the bridge that you could create and the
creatures to be found in the land. It spoke mostly of the Wolvern,
as it called them, but also spoke of the human dead and of the
lesser creatures that resided there.

‘It speaks of
the creatures in the land of the dead and what use this guild
member had put them to.’

‘Let me guess:
you’re thinking of calling something to help us track down our
hidden foes.’

‘That’s the
plan, and I think I might have found the perfect pet for the task.’
He handed her the book and let her read the page.

As she finished
she slowly shook her head. ‘Just be careful, Seth; you’re delving
deeper than anyone I’ve known and it’s starting to get scary.’

He laughed,
taking the book back. ‘Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine.’ His
casual attitude far from reassuring her but he was getting so sick
of her holding him back.

That night once
the caravan had stopped to make camp for the night, Seth crept out
from the covered wagon. He was glad to see Flint and Stone on
guard, sitting near a fire talking quietly. He walked passed them
without saying a word into the darkness. They noticed him pass but
made no comment or move to join him.

In his pocket
were the stones, pieces of carved metal and skulls that had formed
the circle the very first time he’d been imprisoned. He’d never
need to use them for himself before, but Elizebetha had told him to
be careful, and he’d protect himself as best he could, though he
felt this would be a lot less dangerous than a night with the
Wolvern.

He crept
through the darkness away from the camp; when he was a good
distance past it and bathed in the moonlight, he stopped. In a
large circle, he placed the little stones, metal bits, carved bone
and the tiny animal skulls. He stepped out of the circle and
thought about the words from the book. He couldn’t read in the
moonlight anyway, so he had memorized what he needed to know.

Seth began the
chant, the words forming clumsily in his mouth, first spoken in a
hesitant way. None of Seth’s passengers had ever used this, not
even Minsetta, who had thought it was beneath her. The words grew
stronger and faster as he got used to them, concentrating on the
form of what he wanted to pull through. Seth felt the air start to
thicken, the dark night grew darker still, and a sliver of a rift
started to appear in the air. He spoke the words more quickly and
with more confidence. He pulled with everything inside of him and
felt an exertion like he’d never before.