The Mountains Rise (34 page)

“What are you going to do?” said Seth loudly.

“I’m going to hurt them,” said Daniel in a tone almost too low for them to hear.
I’ve had five years to learn all about pain. If they think they know how to hurt
me—they’re about to discover the real meaning of the word.

“That won’t make anything better!” shouted Kate.

Something in her tone finally made his anger flare, and he stopped, turning for a
moment. “I don’t give a damn. Hurting people is
the only thing I’ve ever been good at.”

Her reply was quiet, without hope, but his ears caught it anyway, “That’s a lie.”
There were angry tears on her cheek
,
and Brigid was watching her, unsure why she was so upset. Kate hid her face against
Seth’s shirt to conceal her anguish.

Dappled sunlight from the late afternoon sun ran over his shoulders and flickered
through his hair as Daniel
followed the road to
Colne. He walked alone except for his anger, but it
stayed
close beside him, whispering words of death and vengeance in his ear.

Daniel kept a normal walking pace rather than use his abilities to speed the journey.
One thing he had learned from Thillmarius, whether intentionally or not, was that
pain was better when it wasn’t rushed. The walk gave him time to cool his temper,
letting it change from rage to an angry simmer. It also gave him time to plan his
response.

Before he arrived he came to the conclusion that he needed to make sure none would
escape. The people
who
had attacked his father had no idea of his capabilities, or they wouldn’t have done
something so foolish, but once he showed his power
,
it was entirely possible they would scatter like rats.

To that end he left the road a half a mile from town and approached from an unexpected
direction. Once he neared the outermost buildings of their small town
,
he stretched out his hand and exerting his will
,
he began to carve a deep line as he walked. He circled the town slowly, until he
reached the other side where the single road that passed through Colne emerged again.
He was worried he might encounter someone there, spoiling his surprise.

His magesight had already shown him that a number of people were in the buildings
on that end of town, but none of them were outside so he continued onward.
A boy darted out of one house
,
however, and noticed him before running further along the road.

If he alerts them
,
they’ll come running to this end of town, but I won’t be here when they get back.

He shrugged mentally and kept moving, following the outer line of buildings on the
other side of town. He heard a few shouts as he went
,
and his magesight showed him a number of people moving through town, back to the
place where he had been seen. As he went
,
he passed the back of the Banks’ house.
Larry Banks is probably one of the ringleaders,
he noted.
I killed his son
,
and then his daughter killed herself after having my bastard child. He probably
has more reason to hate me than any of the others.

There was no one in the house, though, so he kept going, engraving his trench as he
passed. Eventually he reached the road again, this time on the side he had initially
come from. As he had expected
,
a mob of men and women
was
waiting there. The looks of anticipation and excitement, mingled with anger and
hatred filled Daniel with disgust.

For some of them this was entertainment
, the most exciting event to occur in ages. For others it was time for a comeuppance,
their long anticipated moment of revenge.
He ignored them and walked by;
wanting to make sure he completed his circle before facing them.

“Where do you think you’re going, boy!?” shouted Larry Banks from the center of the
mob. He had at least eight or nine other men with him along with a collection of
women and children. Tom Hayes and his wife Alice were there, and their son Aston
had made sure to come for the show. He also spotted Dalton Brown, John Wheeler, and
Brad Harper. Billy Hedger was in the crowd as well; a grown man
,
he stood beside his friend Aston.

“Just a minute,” said Daniel loudly, ensuring that they all heard him. “I’ll be with
you shortly.”

A rock sailed by, missing him narrowly. A second followed it, this one better aimed
,
but Daniel nudged it with his mind, sending it far enough off course that it missed
as well.
Don’t do anything to scare them until the circle is finished,
he reminded himself again.

“I knew you was a coward, Daniel!” yelled Billy Hedger. The entire group was moving
toward him now.

“What’s that trench next to him?” said Mr. Wheeler as they got closer.

Too late, asshole,
thought Daniel and extending his arm
,
he sent his power out, finishing
the last thirty feet of his circle ahead of him. He turned toward the crowd and
began advancing on them, intending to move the fight away from his line. That way
he could wait to use his power on it after the fun had started.

Several more rocks flew at him
,
and he didn’t bother avoiding or diverting these, allowing them to bounce off his
shield. The people at the edge of the crowd parted for him, until Billy Hedger advanced
and threw a punch at his midsection. Daniel just hardened his personal shield and
anchored it firmly in the ground, s
miling when Billy began howling;
the bones in his hand broken.

More rocks came at him, and someone swung an axe handle, using it like a club. None
of them came close, though. Daniel had expanded his shield, giving himself several
feet on either side so that they couldn’t crowd him. Billy was inside it now, still
screaming over his broken fist.

Billy was a solidly built young man but he had already lost his will to fight. Daniel
floored him with a jab to the stomach followed by an uppercut to the jaw. He knelt
beside his stunned opponent and put his right hand over Billy’s
face
.

“What was that you called me, Billy? A coward?” he asked, and then he
used his right index finger to mark the letters on the mostly helpless man’s forehead,
searing them into the skin with lines of fire. The screaming was terrible to hear
,
and the angry mob watched impotently as Daniel finished the job.

Many of them were backing away now, frightened by the oddity of the invisible shield
and disturbed by the apparent torture of one of their own. Most of them still weren’t
sure what had happened, but fear was contagious.

“Don’t even think of running!” shouted Daniel, sending a surge of power into the line
that he had drawn around the town. He gave that shield a hazy red color as well,
to help them understand the situation they were in. “If I have to chase you bastards
down
,
I might get angry,” he warned them. “Then I’d be tempted to do something rash.”

Just leave, you can set fire to the town and watch them burn inside it,
said the darkness at the center of his soul.

“That would be too easy,” he said aloud
,
and then he raised his voice, shouting to make himself heard. “Which one of you
organized this!?”

His only answer was another swing of the axe handle as Mr. Wheeler attempted to dash
his brains out. Responding almost reflexively
,
Daniel contracted his shield and created a blade of force around his right arm, lashing
outward with it, sending the axe handle and the lower half of the man’s right arm
flying off to one side.

The man screamed and fell to his knees, his left hand futilely trying to stanch the
blood pumping from the stump of his arm. Expanding his personal shield again, Daniel
kicked his latest antagonist in the head, sending him reeling onto the ground. Then
he paused to seal the skin and blood vessels, making sure
he
wouldn’t continue to hemorrhage.

“I wouldn’t want your death on my head, now would I? Fool,” said Daniel, and then
he burned the word ‘fool’ into the man’s forehead. “I do want you to remember this.”

People were scattering now,
running for the edge of town, for their homes, for anything they thought might give
them safety.

Using his power recklessly, Daniel began to move the air, whipping it up into a fierce
gale and sending it circling around the outer part of the crowd.
Gouging at the earth with his mind
,
he added dirt and rocks, making the howling wind even more dangerous. Those
who
attempted to run were badly hurt as sand tore at their skin and rocks began to pelt
them at ever more dangerous speeds.

The small mob was trapped now, locked within a cyclone of seemingly demonic wind with
a man
who
was clearly possessed. Daniel smiled and contracted his personal shield. When it
was close to his skin he added flames to the outside, making it appear as though he
were burning, but unharmed. These flames were purely illusory, but the charred words
on Billy Hedger and John Wheeler’s forehead’s were all the proof the onlookers needed.

Some of them had fallen to their knees, praying to the forest gods to save them, which
only made Daniel laugh.
If they realized the irony of that,
he thought. “Which ones helped beat Alan Tennick?”

Men and women cowered, children cried, but no one spoke.

“You’d best give me some names. If I have to guess
,
I’ll just kill everyone and be done with it,” he said, shouting to be heard above
the wind.

One of the women, Fiona Brown, pointed at Larry Banks, “It was him, he started it.”

“Thank you, Fiona,” said Daniel.

“You treacherous sow!” shouted Larry. “I just went along with ‘em. It was Tom’s
idea.” He pointed at Tom Hayes who was standing with his wife, Alice clutching onto
him nearby.

A chorus of shouts and denunciations went up after that, but sorting through the chaos
,
Daniel got a hazy picture of who had been involved in his father’s beating. It soon
appeared that the principle antagonists had been Larry Banks, Tom Hayes, Aston Hayes
and John Wheeler. All of those made sense to him, except for Mr. Wheeler, who had
no reason to hate him that he could think of.

Some people just like hurting others,
he thought to himself.

Daniel shouted for the crowd to be silent
,
and after a minute, they were. “Alright, I’ve made up my mind,” he told them. “Bring
Larry, Tom, and Aston over here to me.”

“What about John?” cried Larry Banks in a plaintive voice.

Daniel laughed at him, “I think he’s already paid his due.” John Wheeler had passed
out anyway, weak from loss of blood.

The crowd pushed and shoved Larry forward
,
but Tom Hayes and his son Aston stepped up on their own. Alice Hayes was crying
in the background, begging Daniel not to hurt her husband and son.
Exerting his will, Daniel opened the ground beneath each of the men’s feet, causing
them to sink several feet. He closed it on their legs just above the knees, trapping
them in place.

He addressed Tom first, “I’ll give you a choice Tom, since you were man enough to
step up. Is it to be you, or your son?”

“What?” asked Tom in a tremulous voice.

“You or Aston.
I’ll punish one of you and let the other go. You decide,” he explained staring at
the man with the heartless gaze he had learned at Thillmarius’ cruel hands.

“What will you do?”

Daniel began chuckling, giving the sort of laugh that normally one hears when two
friends are talking, laughing over some harmless joke. “I’m not telling you that,
Tom. I might cut off an arm, like I did with John over there. Or I might kill one
of you. Whatever it is, you can bet it will be painful, I’ll make sure of that.”

The man began crying, but he managed to choke out the words, “Damn your eyes, take
me then. Don’t hurt my boy.”

Daniel nodded, approving of his choice.
At least he’s man enough to protect his family.
He had already decided to let him live, but he had plenty of options.

“No, wait!” Aston Hayes blurted out. “I was the one
who
jumped in with Larry. My dad only
came
to try and drag me out.”

“I didn’t think you had it in you, Aston,” said Daniel.
“You were an asshole
growing up, but I guess maybe anyone can learn from their mistakes.” Erecting a shield
around the two of them
,
he shoved his old rival to the ground. “Out of respect I’ll leave you whole, but
this will hurt like
nothing you’ve ever felt before
.”

He put his hands together and drew them apart, creating the red whip that he had learned
from watching the wardens. It was something he had been on the receiving end of many
times
;
a weapon that inflicted terrible agony but left its victim unmarked and unharmed—physically
at least.

Aston’s eyes grew round
,
and he began to shake. Daniel began to lay into him with the whip and his screams
were terrifying to hear. He howled piteously, begging for forgiveness. Judging by
his own past experience
,
Daniel knew he probably felt as though the flesh
was
being stripped from his bones, bit by bit. The dark smell of shit and fresh urine
filled the air as Aston lost control of his bladder and bowels.
Tom Aston cried along with his son, begging Daniel to have mercy on his son the
entire time.
Daniel ignored him.