Lord Bardhol awoke to the sound of screaming. He knew
he’d been living on borrowed time and luck and now it seemed both had run out.
Without a second thought he threw back his bedding, pulled on his clothes and
reached for his sword. He looked up to his armour that was strapped to the wall
by his bed but shook his head at the thought before it had fully completed. It
would take far too long. Silently he slipped from shadow to shadow wanting
nothing more than to find his daughter and find her before anyone or anything
else found her first.
At the sound of footsteps Bardhol pressed himself against
a wall. The cold from the stone began to seep through his shirt making him
shiver. Bringing the sound of his breathing down to a minimum Bardhol waited.
Silver was strapping her daggers to her belt and was just
about to reach for the door. It flew open. Silver jumped back a silent scream
on her lips and one of her daggers in hand.
"What in the name of all…" Bardhol motioned his
daughter into silence and then for her to follow. Her soft leather boots barely
made a whisper on the flagstone floor as they made their way out towards the
court yard. Thoughts rushed around Silvers head but pushed them aside and
focused on following her father.
Bardhol kept his mind blank. Years on the
battle field had taught him that an idle thought, a single one could mean the
difference between life and death.
Out in the servants quarters the screams had long since
died away. In the stables a young man lay in a corner with a body at his feet
and a large pool of blood creeping ever closer. The fear that had a strangle
hold on Jasper began to loosen. Slowly, painfully slowly he made his way out of
the servants’ passage ways and towards the relative safety of the countryside.
Out in the court yard the cold was sharp and the silence
deep. The smooth sound of a sword being drawn made Bardhol turn around.
"Why!?" The lords’
voice boomed of the walls around him and huge falcon wings spread from his
back, a deep dark brown leading down to white which shimmered in the moon
light.
Silver had only ever seen her fathers’ wings twice before
once as a child and then when her mother had died of the fever all those years
before.
"I will not ask again, why are you here?"
In a blinding flash of
movement Bardhol’s sword point was resting on the throat of the hooded figure
stood before him. The point tinged red by a small drop of blood.
Unmoved the man chuckled before raising his own blade and
taking a step back.
"You mean you do not
know?"
Silver
was so focused on her father that she did not notice another cloaked figure
stalking her from the shadows. Hands gripped tightly around her neck so tight
that she could not cry out. In the struggle that ensued Silver managed to get
her right arm free and reach for one of her daggers. As her vision began to
grey Silver planted the small blade into her assailant’s arm, the grip only
tightened.
"Silver!"
Bardhol pushed the body of the dead man off his blade and
rushed to where Silver was rapidly losing her grip on consciousness. With a
smooth strike, the grip on Silvers throat immediately slackened.
Silver managed to lift her head and would have wept if
she could. Her father’s wings were tinged with blood. Silver felt a rage boil
with in her lending her the strength to get back to her feet.
"Father, you’re hurt" Silver placed a hand on
his shoulder but quickly pulled it away. Without looking she knew it was slick
with blood. A groan escaped from the man who had only a few moments before been
choking the life from Silver. Ignoring his daughter Bardhol knelt down and
dragged him into a sitting position.
"I will ask
you this only once more. Why have you come?" Bardhol’s voice was little
more than a whisper yet the venom that dripped into his words was as strong as
that of any viper. Bardhol shook the man but he had already slipped into the
realms of the dead, but the Lord of Firth got his answer as the hood fell from
the dead man’s face. The tattoo across his forehead and the chain around his
neck gave Bardhol all the answers he needed and in that moment all his worst
fears came into being.
"Silver, take this” He passed his daughter the
chain. "Keep it safe not matter the cost"
"But…"
"Just do it, now follow me we need to get out of
here…alive"
Bardhol
took off and Silver was left to try and follow. Silver tried to watch every
shadow. She could still feel hands around her neck. There was no time to think
only time to keep moving and hope. With that Silver lost sight of her father
and stopped dead in her tracks to look for some sign of where he had gone.
Blazing pain ripped through the left side of Silvers
face. She bit her lip to stifle her scream and crept back into the shadows
hoping that she could no longer be seen. Tentatively Silver raised her hand to
her up her face, she almost screamed again as her finger tips found what was
left of her ear. A crossbow bolt had taken almost half of it away. Blood was
flowing down her face and onto her hands. She cursed herself for a fool
in-between the throbs of pain. When she opened her eyes Silver found herself in
the shadow of the stables. Her father was knelt beside her.
"You always were a lucky sod"
"That’s what you think" Silver chided her
father yet she knew the truth in his words. That bolt could have just as easily
killed her. She heard a grunt from the stables and jumped to her feet and
almost laughed when she heard hoof steps. Ever obedient was Swordrunner, Bardhol’s
war horse.
Silver was pulled into the saddle behind her father.
Every step sent a jolt of pain from her ear down her neck. Only keeping her jaw
clamped tightly stopped any sound escaping. Without a word of warning Bardhol
put his war horse into a gallop, Silver had to bite her tonge.
As they reached the gate Swordrunner reared nearly
throwing Silver from the saddle. Three figures stood blocking the path. There
was a faint tingle in the air. The magik they were using spooked Swordrunner
and he was not going to take another step closer. Bardhol dismounted and patted
his horse on a large muscular shoulder.
"Steady old friend" He turned to his daughter
eyes blazing "Silver go!"
"No" Her voice almost chocked "Not without
you and not without a fight" Before she had finished her words a dagger
had left her belt then her hand and found its way into the throat of the figure
nearest to her. Ignoring his strangled cries Silver pulled another dagger from
her belt and chose her target. Her father only just his blade up in time to
block a killing blow.
Bardhol could not believe the speed or the skill with
which these men fought. It was a fine balance, it had been years since Bardhol
had met anyone with even half his skill with a blade and now he was being
pushed to his very limits. He ignored any contact made, there was nothing, no
sound, no light, no dark he was just an extension of his sword.
Silver knelt to retrieve her other dagger, keeping her
eyes locked with the figure in front of her. A small buckler was strapped to
the front of his arm so he could block but keep his second hand free for a
second weapon. He drew two short swords.
Slowly they circled one
another looking for any sign of weakness. Silver jumped forward to strike but
was met with a solid defence and she gained a deep gash along her arm for her
trouble.
With all she speed she could find Silver swept across
with the dagger in her right hand but in mid-swing drew it back and came across
with her left. The strike found its mark, the blade dug deep into his gut.
Silver dragged the dagger across before pulling it free.
Bardhol raised his sword and went on an all-out offensive;
stroke after stroke landed with lightning speed gradually beating down any
defence, with a final strike the sword whipped its way across his assailant’s
chest.
Falling to his knees Bardhol looked into the face of his dying
opponent and whispered.
"It’s
a shame your soul fell into darkness, you made a fine swordsman"
Silver rushed to her father’s side as he fell to the
floor. From the first touch her hands were covered in blood and when Silver
looked into her father’s eyes she could see they already held a death glaze.
A groan escaped him.
"Silver…please go" Silver felt his hand squeeze
her own. She could see the effort it was costing him. "Be…strong"
Silver screamed as she saw her father’s chest rise and
fall for the last time. With his head held in her lap she cried out. She wanted
anyone or anything to stop the pain. The moon passed behind a cloud as if it
could not stand the sights and sounds of what had come to pass. When her sobs
began to subside Silver took her father’s sword and strapped it to her hip.
Silver somehow managed to lift her father’s body across Swordrunner’s saddle.
The horse tossed his head and whickered. Silver whispered a few gentle words in
to his ear before leading him into the night.
Out on the road footsteps echoed. Swordrunner’s ears
flicked forward at the sound. Silver held a dagger with a white knuckled grip..
The footsteps where becoming louder.
"Show yourself"
The footsteps faded quickly in the opposite direction.
Silver turned off the road and led the war horse towards a thicket of trees.
Exhausted and weak Silver collapsed against a tree. She
could now feel every wound on her body, with her right arm held tightly against
her chest Silver let out long keening sobs which were only answered by the
wolves in the forests that surrounded Firth.
A single star shone through a break in the clouds. It
took all of Silvers will power to tear her gaze away. It was so easy just to
sit and stare and not to think but deep down Silver knew that would do little
good and it certainly would not avenge her father. Pulling a dagger from her
belt Silver marked out and area for a grave and began to clear the earth. She
ignored all the stones and roots that tried to cut into her hands.
Silver gritted her teeth and continued, when she finally
looked up the first streaks of dawn were showing in the sky. Gently Silver
placed her father into his final resting place. Tears made streaks down her
dirty face.
"I’m so sorry father…I couldn’t leave you" A
sob racked through her "I couldn’t…save you…I love you"
Leaning forward she kissed his cheek then set
about replacing the earth. With a heavy heart Silver found some small stones
with which she could mark his grave. Once the stones were set into the shape of
a pair of wings Silver mounted Swordrunner and nudged him into a gallop. Silver
didn’t look back
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