Take the body and give me the rest (28 page)

‘Do you need
anything from him? Is there anything you need to know?’ Seth
asked.

‘Not me, you.
You need to know who is coming, exactly why and with how many men,
don’t you?’ she asked.

‘I do,’ he
said. ‘But you can just tell me; can’t you just see it?’

‘It is all a
fog, he’s protecting it from me, I can see it’s the Duke of Twin
Plains but that’s all’ she said

‘Well I can do
it myself, you don’t need to be here, that’s my job after all’

As he said the
words, Her Ladyship’s attendant, still alive but shaken and scared,
wandered through the doorway and into the room. Seth had to admire
that she tried not to look at the dead guards that littered the
floor and only to Elizebetha. Seth reached out with his non-bloody
hand and, taking Elizebetha’s, gently helped her to her feet.
‘Please get her cleaned up. We’ll need to talk to the people who
are left and calm them, find out which guardsmen are loyal and
not.’

Elizebetha was
led quietly from the room by the woman, casting a last glance at
her brother’s slowly breathing body on the floor. Just another
reason for her to hate you, thought Seth. Still, he always had the
strength to do what she couldn’t.

Boots tracking
through what was now a large pool of blood, Seth walked to the door
and, pushing the body of a dead guard to the side with his foot,
shut it as best he could. Standing with his back to it, he started
the chant in his mind. He saw the air darken and thicken and, when
the silver rift in the air appeared, he called through the
creature. It walked proudly into the room and paced slowly around.
It sniffed with its Wolvern muzzle at the dead guards and then
Rosen and Lord Renton.

‘
I had faith in you, boy, all those
many, many years ago, and you have not disappointed me at all. I
felt in you the hunger and you deliver me from it. Tell me the
words.
’ The words boomed in his mind, but
the creature did sound happy thinking of the feast to come. Lady
Elizebetha would be appalled; she thought only of the need to take
the brother, gathering of knowledge only. She would already hate
him, so Seth did something she would at least need and never take.
He pointed to her brother’s form, lying still alive on the floor.
‘Take his body and give us the rest.’ As he thought the word ‘us,’
he imagined The Duchess Elizebetha.

The creature
pounced on the still live body of Lord Renton and, with vicious
power, ripped his throat out of his neck, he never even woke up. As
the creature devoured, Seth felt the power hit him. Without knowing
how, he channelled it. He took all the knowledge, all the memories,
all the thoughts and personality. To Elizebetha, he pushed the
years Renton had left, the life, the energy, the vigour. She would
know what he did and surely she would look less aged, but so what?
They were used to that here.

Without looking up from the body of Lord Renton as it ripped
and chewed, the creature’s words sounded in Seth’s mind.
‘
And what about the rest of them? All dead
except the fat one; a waste to leave them.
’

Seth started to
laugh. ‘We’re not going to waste all of this,’ he said. ‘Take them
all and give me the rest.’

‘
Even the fat one?
’ it said with a sound of almost distaste.

‘Even he. He
might have something buried somewhere I can use’’

Seth heard a
low rumble in his mind and knew it was the creature laughing as
well. He squatted down where he stood blocking the door, watching
it as it slowly went from man to man, tearing into their chests,
devouring hearts and more, ripping, eating, enjoying. There were
too many for it to devour them whole like it had the General, so it
went from men to man feasting on only the finest parts. Feeling the
rush of power and memories as each one found its way into him.

‘
Boss? Boss? Seth, are you okay?’ The shouts from Grimm and
Goldie woke him from where lay asleep at the foot of the broken
door, surrounded by the now mauled and mutilated corpses of the
Black Rock guardsmen and the Wolvern gone. Opening his eyes, Seth
felt energy and strength he’d never had. He fairly glowed with
vitality. The knife wound in his arm was not even a bruise on fine
skin.

‘You okay,
Boss?’ asked Grimm once more. Behind him stood the others: Goldie,
Flint, Stone, Dagosh and the troop of archers and their
Captain—Seth needed to find out her name. ‘I’m more than fine,
Grimm. How about us? How did we fare in the battle?’

Dagosh stepped
forward with a broad smile. ‘I’d say we did very well. We’ve
secured over two hundred prisoner, all guardsmen. A lot of them
fled through the open gate with most of the common folk,’ he
said.

‘How many
dead?’ Seth asked as he started to walk out of the Keep. His
Northmen stood behind him and Dagosh took a spot at his side.
‘Around fifty dead on their side, mostly in the uniform of Renton’s
guard but some not. On our side we’ve got exactly fourteen dead,’
he said.

‘Fourteen?
Shit, who were they?’ Seth asked.

‘All pikemen
from the troops that Flint and Stone led against the wall; that’s
where it was the fiercest,’ he said.

‘Fourteen men
to take the place is a pretty good butchers bill; still, I’d rather
it were none.’ Seth walked out of the Keep and wasn’t expecting the
roar of praise from his new army. They cheered and shouted, banged
shields and spears together and were all talking wildly. Seth was
proud to see their Captains were still holding them in formation in
the courtyard. Indeed, they were in the same exact formation they
had been in when they had pledged to follow Seth only three short
nights ago.

The township
and the Keep felt deserted, but he knew people must still be hiding
in their houses. Her Ladyship was cleaning herself up to talk to
the remaining townspeople and the prisoners, but while it was just
he and his men, Seth wanted to speak. Seth stepped forward on the
Keep stairs and looked at the assembled troops. Armour was dented
and dirty, faces stained and tired and shields had scuffs and hung
a little lower. Still, it was triumph.

Keep it simple,
the General counselled. Seth raised his sword in the air and
shouted, ‘Victory!’

He then stepped
down from the platform of the stairs and, still a good head taller
than most of his men, began to walk amongst them. Goldie, Grimm,
Flint, Stone and Dagosh followed his lead and, trailing behind,
started to shake hands, talk and even embrace some of the troop.
Seth looked at the people who made up the Cold Death and saw them
as people truly.

He saw a
pikeman with blood from a cut on his arm. ‘Are you okay, soldier?’
Seth asked the man who was at least twenty years his senior.

But the man
answered with respect. ‘I am. Thank you, sir.’

‘Get this man a
bandage and some care and get some food for these men!’ Seth called
out. Some of the Keep chamberlains Dagosh had rounded up ran to get
it done. Seth walked through, talking to them all, even the
wild-haired desert raiders. He laughed and spoke with them in their
tongue, surprising them. Indeed, as he walked he spoke to all in a
native language: Cravosi, Pellosi, Northern once or twice and the
desert language.

He soon came to
his troop of archers. The Captain was a proud woman, Pellosina,
tanned skin and lean, with a wicked cut lip. Seth shook her hand.
‘And your name, Captain?’ he asked.

‘It’s Stellos,
sir,’ she answered with a deep bow.

‘A fine shot
you are, Stellos, and all of you. I thank you and know I wouldn’t
have made it through that room if not for you all. He looked at
them from face to face. So many young women, from all over the
lands, and all looked at him with pride, fighters all, strong and
fierce.

‘So how many of
you saved my life tonight?’ he asked. ‘Raise your hands. You too,
Captain Stellos. I see four of you, more like all of you but four
of you in that room at least. Thank you for your help,’ he said
again. Seth turned to walk away, but one of the archers stepped out
of the line and touched his arm with her small hand.

Seth turned and
saw it was the girl he had saved with his broad sword. She was
around his age and, even covered in blood and streaked with dirt,
she was pretty, long hair in a plaited ponytail, her hair was soft
red. Tight leather pants and tunic, her earlobes notched from a
slaver’s knife—but Seth barely noticed that.

‘Sorry Sir Seth
I just wanted to thank you for saving me,’ she said, bowing.

The troops
cheered for him as they had already heard the story of his bravery
in the guardroom in breaking down the door, as well as saving the
girl.

Seth laughed
loudly and leaned in and kissed her on the both cheeks in the
Pellosi fashion. ‘It would be a shame to let someone so beautiful
get hurt.’ He said, playing the role of the cheeky Captain. The
troop cheered again as they repeated his words, they were still
former slave mercenaries after all.

Food was
starting to be brought to the troops by servers, and Seth climbed
back up the stairs to the Keep looking to find the Duchess
Elizebetha and get this production started.

‘Dagosh, take
Stellos and her troop, go get those prisoners. Goldie, Grimm, boys
can you take the desert men, round up whoever from the township is
left? Tell them the Duchess will be speaking to them.’

Chapter 31

The sun was
finally starting to rise, showing just how empty the Keep had
become. On their knees, in row after black uniformed row, were the
remains of the Black Rock guards. Around fifty more than the number
of Seth’s men—but then, they didn’t have swords, bows or boots. In
front of the stairs of the Keep were the people left from the town
that was Black Rock. Nothing had been looted, nothing had been
burned and no one had been raped. Seth knew it was a good battle,
but the feeling he got from these people was little more than
hate.

Elizebetha
looked the best he’d seen her since they had met. She still looked
like an older woman but someone in her mid-fifties and glowing with
health and energy. She hadn’t spoken a word to Seth when he’d come
to get her and show her here. She spoke in a loud voice to the
gathered people and to the guards on their knees on the cold
stones.

‘Good people of
Black Rock Keep, I’m truly sorry for the night’s events. As you
know, my brother Renton has been killed. He planned to hold my
seat, rule in my place and murder me. I know you must be shocked by
this violence, but it was the only way for me to live.

‘These men are
not to be feared or hated. They did all that I asked and came here
to save me and did so with the least killing they could. Of you
guardsmen, I will ask you to honour your allegiance to Black Rock
and to myself as its ruler once again,’ she said, placing the
silver circlet back on her head.

The soldiers of
the Cold Death cheered and shouted for her because they had been
told to by their Captains. The gathered people looked suspiciously
like there still might be a massacre before midday.

A middle-aged
woman with a tear-streaked face stepped forward and yelled, ‘My
husband was a guard on the wall and they killed him! He was loyal
to Black Rock. What am I going to do now?’ She collapsed,
crying.

Elizebetha was
stricken and looked on the verge of tears. ‘I’m sorry for all of
this. Sir Seth, please come and talk to them now.’

Seth stepped up
to the rising and looking out onto the people. He felt conflicting
emotions. He loved his brave and loyal soldiers; he knew a bigger
fight was coming, and that these people and prisoners were just
going to get in the way of their survival. He had to do something
about them.

‘Some of you
may or may not know who the Duke of Twin Waters is. Twin Waters is
to the east of Pellosi, a very rich, fertile and beautiful land.
This man is marching with a troop at least one thousand strong to
this very Keep.’

A thrill of
fear ran through the people and the guards. He’d told his troops
all this as he’d walked amongst them.

‘I know this
man very well and he’s coming to kill us. His army will be here in
just five days. It will be a siege. There won’t be enough food or
water, they will launch fire attacks over the walls and they will
try to infiltrate us from the inside. So I want you all to leave
now. Get out of this town by sundown tonight or my men will walk
you out at sword point,’ he said. They looked at him, stunned. Lady
Elizebetha had walked back inside the Keep, crying on the shoulder
of her lady.

‘Start packing
now!’ he shouted pointing his sword at the body of townspeople.
‘Now, you guards. Any of you who stay will do so because you’re
loyal to The Duchess and you don’t want to see your home of Black
Rock burned to ashes. Anyone of you who wants to leave right now
can do so, but this is your only chance. Anyone who stays, I will
have a talk with. And I warn you: I’ll know your face if you’re one
of Renton’s favourites—and I don’t like them at all,’ he said. ‘Now
stand up, all of you who want to leave.’

Around twenty
men stood slowly to their feet.

‘It’s not a
trick; we’re honourable men as you can clearly see. Take this last
chance to get out now,’ he said again. This time another forty men
stood. He had reduced them by sixty and probably more once he
talked with them all, but it had to be done. He couldn’t have an
army when he could only rely on half of them.

‘Dagosh, get
these men their boots, walk them to their houses and then walk them
out the door. Rest of them back in the barracks for a talk,’ he
said.

Seth spent the
rest of the day in the barracks, talking to the remaining
guardsmen. He could almost gauge them as good men by letting the
ideas of Renton surface about them. If Renton had hated them, they
were generally good men in Seth’s opinion. If Renton had loved
them, then they were out the gate within minutes. He quickly turned
the remaining men into an even hundred he could truly trust. They
were the loyal one, actual fighters, who would do him proud. He
spoke with them, broke them into five groups, and gave them a
Captain each. The man he’d seen that first day at the
gate—Griffin—was to oversee the entire group. He seemed well
respected.