Take the body and give me the rest (21 page)

‘
What of these
two?
’ it boomed in his mind, still hungry
for more and knowing, in taking Seraphina, Seth would be putting
himself beyond anything ever known. Even the knowledge that Dirst
had was incredible, and his two kinsmen being takers. He’d never
heard that word before, but there it was clearly in his mind.
Taker.

Seth looked at
Elizebetha. ‘What’s the plan? We have her now.’ he said.

‘Send him away,
Seth. Send him away first.’ Seth looked at the creature by his
side. It was covered in human and darker blood. They had just
killed a room full of enemies together. He didn’t feel ashamed at
all; he felt proud. There were only a few who could stand against
him now, with his powerful ally at his side. They had brought seven
men and it hadn’t been enough; they had brought beasts from the pit
and it hadn’t been enough. All he had to do was take these two as
well and he’d be unstoppable.

‘Send him away,
Seth,’ she said again. Without too much thought, Seth opened up the
rift and, with words of thanks and feelings of hunger sated, the
creature walked slowly through the opening and left the world. As
it went, so did part of Seth’s bloodlust. He surveyed the room and
the human wreckage with a different eye. Elizebetha could see the
change in him.

He still had
the arrow pointed at Seraphina, who was now sitting up amongst the
bodies and looked even paler. She’d lost a lot of blood, but could
still summon if he didn’t have the bow pointed at her. She looked
so young, only a few years older than he. She truly was beautiful
as well, even with a blood-smattered face and a look of defiance
that had turned to fear. He could feel the General’s feelings of
love for her trying to bubble up and influence him.

‘You look
scared now,’ Seth said to her.

‘We’re no
strangers to blood in the Dark Guild, but this was an impressive
feat,’ she said.

Seth laughed.
‘I doubt the Duchess thinks it impressive. Can you even look at
me?’ he asked, turning to Elizebetha.

‘Of course I
can, Seth. I know it’s not you but the creature.’

He was less
sure of that himself. ‘So what do we plan to do with her now?’

As he spoke the
words into the room, at the very end came four men running in. It
was Goldie, Grimm, Flint and Stone. Seth looked first and saw red
faces from running and more than a few scraps and scratches, but no
glowing hatred just concerned looks. As they entered the killing
room, they stopped dead.

‘Holy hell,
Boss, are you still alive?’ asked Goldie.

‘We’re fine,
boys. I’ll tell you all about it. Now just go guard the stairs and
I’ll be out in a minute.’

‘Did you kill
all these yourself?’ Flint said.

‘Am I from the
North or not? Just go out and wait!’ he shouted.

They filed out
of the room to guard the stairway from outside. He was glad to see
they were still alive, fearing they had been waylaid as part of
Seraphina’s move.

Seth looked
again at Elizebetha and Seraphina. He was loyal to one and sworn
against the other, but it was less clear than that in his mind.
Surely enough, Seraphina had been trying to kill him but now here
she was, a beautiful young girl afraid at his feet, not wanting to
die. Seth thought about the movements of the Guild, the pieces they
moved. He thought of Minsetta, that beautiful fierce woman, and how
they had moved her right into his path and forced her hand.

‘So are you
going to take her?’ Seth asked, resigned to be a good soldier and
push the General from his mind.

‘We can’t leave
her alive; she’ll keep hunting us and now she knows where I am
going. I need my arrival at the Keep to be a secret or everything
is lost.’

‘We can’t keep
her prisoner; it would be a moment before she was in the guise of
me and asking Flint to let her go and to kill you for good
measure.’ Seth placed his bow on the floor and, drawing his dagger,
knelt behind Seraphina on the blood-stained wooden floor. He slowly
pressed the cold blade onto her fine neck, trying not to feel the
warmth of her lithe body against his chest.

He looked over
her shoulder to Lady Elizebetha, who was again looking at him with
a shocked expression. ‘I’ll kill her for you, but not with an
arrow. You say the word and it’s done, but it’s you doing it. I’m
just the knife in your hand. You want her blood, have it on your
hands.’

Elizebetha
almost cried, ‘I can’t, Seth. I wanted her gifts but I can’t kill
her in cold blood to do it. This isn’t the world I want. I felt the
greed when you told me what she can do, but I can’t just murder her
to get it. I don’t want us to become monsters.’

‘You didn’t
bring us to this, they did. They wouldn’t stop hunting us. Sure, we
could have ambushed them on the road and saved ourselves some
trouble, but it was always going to end in blood.’ Seth muttered
‘Up, up, up’ to Seraphina and raised her to her feet. She whimpered
as she put some weight on her injured foot. At least she’d gotten
the arrow out.

‘So what do we
do with her now, Seth?’ asked Elizebetha exasperated.

‘Give her to
someone else,’ Seth said.

With a string
of words in his mind and force of will, Seth created a nearly
invisible rift in the room in front of where they stood.

Seth whispered
into Seraphina’s ear as they stood in front of the invisible void.
‘Stay strong, Lady Seraphina.’ With that, he shoved her through the
rift into the land of the dead and sealed it closed behind her.

In his mind, he
reached out to the creature. ‘Try not to let her die.’ He felt its
cold laughter in his mind.

Chapter 23

Seth and his
troop were on the road, fully mounted and armed well before
sunrise. They had left the boarding house in the very dead of
night, leaving behind six human bodies with chest cavities and
throats ripped out and the three fairly unrecognisable black
rotting masses that had been the black dog creatures. The city
watch would surely be descending on the scene, and, hopefully,
Duchess Elizebetha hadn’t given her actual name to the boarding
house owner.

She was not
talking to Seth, and he was happy enough to spend a few days in the
company of his men. He could tell they were more than eager to find
out just what had happened but waiting until he’d broached it with
them. They were once again out of immediate danger, all threats
piled high in the boarding house or in the dead cold world with no
escape. Seth couldn’t tell if Elizebetha was upset at him because
he’d killed Seraphina or because he hadn’t or because she hadn’t
gotten her gifts. After all her protesting of how wrong it was,
Seth could still see the greed in her when she’d refused to look at
him after he’d closed the rift on Seraphina. As far as he was
concerned, Seraphina might still live; he was giving her a chance
to survive, better than a knife blade across the throat. Besides,
she was too beautiful to kill.

‘So, boys, not
a lot of bloody use in that fight were you. What happened?’ he
asked as they rode in a line up the road to their next stop. Their
white chargers were freshly fed, washed and with black harnesses
looking pristine. They still looked hung over, scratched and most
of all embarrassed.

Grimm spoke
first. ‘We’re so glad you’re okay, Boss. Problem was some of them
women that came with us were paid by those people chasing you. I
think, well I know, they drugged our drinks,’ he said.

‘I thought you
were pretending to drink only?’ ‘I know, but we didn’t think one or
two flagons would hurt. Turns out it did a little bit,’ said
Goldie.

‘Oh, well, no
harm done. Just next time make yourself a little more use. I can’t
have all the fun!’ he said.

Flint asked
bluntly, ‘What happened in that room? Looked like a battle.’

‘I guess it was
a battle. Let’s just say my new skill with a bow served its
purpose.

‘But the real
question is, boys: did those vixens part you with your hard earned
gold coins?’ Seth asked them, trying to turn the conversation. The
men started laughing.

‘Had mine in my
boot,’ said Grimm.

‘Mine in my
quiver,’ said Goldie.

‘Had ours tied
in a cloth around my waist,’ said Flint.

Seth laughed with them. ‘It’s true: only death will part a
pirate
from
his gold. Good work, lads!’

Goldie spoke up
for the men. ‘Boss, any thoughts on what we’ll do after we see the
Lady to Black Rock Keep? Are we staying?’

‘We won’t be
staying. I don’t think that ever was her plan, and it’s really not
the plan now. Any fondness she had for me disappeared in that room
of blood. Heading back home, I guess. Any thoughts from you boys?’
He knew they must have had plenty of thoughts about it. It made him
smile to think they had plans and dreams and talked about them when
he wasn’t around.

‘We’re nothing
back home, Boss,’ said Grimm. ‘This coin would go a decent way to
letting us live like kings for a few months, but then it’d be gone
and we’d be just four more tall bastards in a country of them. Here
we’ve already got a reputation; here we could be something.’

‘What could we
be?’ Seth asked.

‘Rich tall
bastards,’ said Goldie, making them laugh.

‘I’m in no
hurry to head home. The big cold North will still be there in a few
years’ time and we’re not getting old in a hurry. Let’s just try to
survive the next few weeks and we’ll be happy.’

‘But all your
enemies are dead, Boss,’ said Flint.

‘No, Flint. I
killed some soldiers. The army is still out there and thinking
about me more and more,’ Seth said.

It was four
days until Elizebetha spoke to Seth. He would ride alongside her
carriage every day from morning ’til dusk, with the rising of the
sun to the setting of it. The troop continued with Rosen. Now they
had negotiated an extra day rate to keep themselves interested. It
was only a few coppers a day but kept them smiling.

Seth was
getting tired of not know what they were doing, where they were
going or if he was even wanted or needed anymore.

‘Are you ever
going to tell me your story? I thought it would be like mine, but
it’s clearly very, very different,’ he said loudly to the side of
the covered wagon. After a few minutes, and clearly deciding if to
speak to him, she leant out of the wagon. Seth was surprised at how
old she appeared. It was like she was aging years every few days
now. She also seemed tired as she spoke to him.

‘We’ll be at
the Keep in just three weeks, and I’ll tell you my story then. It
is different from yours, Seth. I didn’t realise how different. I
made such a terrible mistake giving in to the greed like that. Even
though I didn’t take her, the fact that I wanted to was
heresy.’

‘That’s what
they do; that’s what they are for: taking,’ Seth said
defensively.

‘No, Seth,
that’s what we make them do. But you’ll see when we get back
home.’

‘Will you need
me after that?’ he asked.

‘No, Seth, just
walk me to the door and I’ll be fine.’

Seth spurred
his horse and rode away. He didn’t know what he’d expected from
her, but it was a little more than an armed escort. He had been
really hoping for a purpose.

With the
immediate threat to their lives gone, Seth spent the next two weeks
on patrol with his troop. It was like being in the Bloodcrest days
again. He had forgotten how much fun he could have camping by a
fire, shooting, riding and joking with other men. They soon forgot
their larger concerns and got on with the business of living life
day to day. The men treated him with the Northern respect of a
fighter and did not look at him as if he were always covered in
blood.

They patrolled
the passes and also up and down along the caravan. As they rode
slowly and upright past the traders, passengers and others, they
were always given a hearty wave or hallo from someone. They did
indeed feel like people here. Seth knew that it would be a simple
enough life, but he could see himself doing this. These were good
men and looking after these traders as they came and went was a
good enough way to earn a living. He didn’t need some big purpose
or plan; after all, when he’d struck out from the Bloodcrest line,
something like this had been just what he’d hoped for. Actually, to
be the Captain of his own troop of men was even more than he could
have hoped for. They looked at him with respect and thanks.

Rosen hailed
them one night as they rode back in from a forward patrol. He sat
on his open wagon, drinking from an earthen flagon as it bounced
along. His two guards stayed by his side, no longer with their bows
at the ready, just across their knees in a relaxed fashion.

‘Hallo, Captain
Seth, a quick word?’ he asked.

They brought
their horses alongside with him and kept the slower pace.

‘Hallo, Master
Rosen. How can I help you?’ Seth asked, giving him a short nod.

‘As you know,
tomorrow we will reach the small city of Pellotina,’ he said.

‘Isn’t that the
name of the other one?’ Flint asked.

‘No that’s
Pellota,’ answered Rosen. ‘Male and female, don’t you know. Anyway,
it’s our last stop for the caravan, so here are your final wages.’
He passed Seth a pouch with pudgy, sweaty fingers ‘Those extra
earnings for the lads and a small ruby chip for you are just to say
thanks once again.’

The men were
very happy at that. ‘You’re a very generous man, Master Rosen. We
thank you for it.’

‘Not at all. I
just value my life and good work. Now, also, I’ll be heading back
on my return trip in three weeks. So if you want to come back with
me, or indeed talk about something a little more permanent, I’d be
happy to discuss terms.’

Seth didn’t
want to give away what they were doing, but it had become common
knowledge they were going to Black Rock Keep and some woman was
paying them to do so. It was assumed it happened by chance once the
men had shown their mettle in the pass.