Mighty Hammer Down (11 page)

"Don’t you dare take that tone with
me, boy. I can call my guards if you are in the mood to run your
mouth," the man said as he violently wagged a finger in front of
Rommus’s face.

"I don’t think that’s necessary, sir.
I’ll be on my way if you would just give me my two gold
pieces."

The man rolled his eyes and sighed in
frustration. "Wait here," he said before slamming the door in
Rommus’s face. Rommus waited patiently, taking the opportunity to
check the shadows for any possible attackers. The door opened
again, and the fat man held out his meaty palm for his
axe.

Rommus handed the axe to the man.
"Here you are sir, I’m sure it’s everything you
expected."

After inspecting it briefly, the man
threw the two gold coins out into the street. "There you are
Tirinius. Go find your coins. Crawl in the streets like some
worthless beggar." He laughed a deep and rumbling laugh before
slamming the door a final time. His booming laugh could be heard
through the thick door for quite a while.

Rommus desperately wished he could
have punched the man and taught him a lesson, but such a man was
too powerful for things like that. Even though Rommus was the son
of the General, and close to all those in the Emperor’s Hall, he
could not commit such a crime and go unpunished. Surely an example
would have to be made of him, so he avoided offending people;
especially people of stature. He shook his head, took a deep breath
and went to pick up the coins. Luckily the fat man’s plot had
failed and they were easy to spot, and he was able to pick them up
before some thief could emerge from the shadows and claim them. He
couldn’t believe how rude the man was to him. There was just no
reason for it, especially since he was considerate to everyone he
encountered. Most people either ignored him or made quiet comments
behind his back, but to be so blatantly rude was totally
inconceivable to him. To Rommus, it seemed like so much more work
to be so discourteous, and he simply could not fathom the need for
it.

Normally his rage would be boiling and
he would have to fight to restrain it, but tonight he felt in good
spirits. He wasn’t going to let this rude Nobleman shatter his mood
when he almost never felt this way. Try as he may, he couldn’t
think of the reason for his uncommon cheer. He eventually came to
the conclusion that it was probably for helping Alana earlier in
the day. He wondered about her and hoped that she was feeling all
right and that she wasn’t bored. He was also concerned that she
might be having a hard time dealing with killing those men earlier
in the day. For some people, it haunted them for the rest of their
lives.

He was surprised to feel a cool
raindrop touch his skin. He remembered that only moments before
there were just a few clouds stretching across the sky, allowing
the bright stars to send their rays to the ground. He looked up,
expecting to see them, but instead saw dark clouds racing in from
the east, swiftly covering them with an inky curtain of mist. The
raging clouds above him boiled violently, and he was reminded of a
feeling he had not long before. He couldn’t remember exactly what
it was, so he assumed it was a forgotten dream. Judging from the
dread it conjured, he thought it was more likely a forgotten
nightmare.

A few fat drops of rain fell to the
cobblestone as the city grew darker. A major storm was coming, and
he all of a sudden felt very uncomfortable about it. He turned the
corner to the road leading to Mirra’s and rested his hand on the
hilt of his sword.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alana moved through the shadows as
quietly as possible. She not only feared that some soldier would
see her and capture her, but she was greatly concerned with the man
following Rommus. She gave up on following him to Mirra’s and
instead trailed this man, who was carefully staying well out of
Rommus’s sight. She made no move to harm the man, since it was
possible that it was someone that Rommus knew, but she could feel
in her bones that that assumption was wrong.

The swift clouds roared by and cloaked
the moon and stars, making it even harder to see the man in the
shadows. For some reason looking to the sky made her more nervous,
and she couldn’t understand why. She thought that maybe it was
because the clouds were moving much faster than she had ever seen
them move before, and that the darkness they brought with them was
making it harder to see this mysterious man. She realized that
although they swept over the city with great speed, she felt no
wind whatsoever on her skin. Along with darkness they brought with
them the chill of fear.

She was careful not to irritate her
wound, but it did hurt her as she walked. If Rommus knew she had
followed him, he would probably be angry with her for getting out
of bed, but worst of all, he might think that she wanted to harm
him, thinking she was indeed the guilty Vindyri who stabbed his
father. Although she really was that Vindyri, there was nothing she
could do to change the facts, and she would do all she could to
hide the truth from him. As the cold rain started to fall harder
upon her, she decided that she would make sure that this man did
not hurt Rommus, and then she would leave Brinn. It broke her heart
to have to go, but she really had no other choice.

She moved from building to building,
pausing when the man paused, advancing when he moved. The rain made
it even harder to see, but at least it helped to cover the sound of
her footsteps. The air had gotten much cooler and the chill stole
its way down to her soul. Something was causing her panic to rise,
and she began to be more and more afraid; not necessarily of this
man, but of the unknown force that was beginning to consume her
thoughts. She looked to the churning clouds that brought down the
sheets of rain drenching her. If only the rain would let up, her
task would be so much easier. When she looked back to the man in
the shadows, he was gone. She frantically searched for any sign of
him, but he had vanished like a wisp of smoke without a trace. She
had lost him and Rommus both, and had no idea which way to go next.
Although it seemed impossible, her panic rose even more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rommus came to Mirra’s door and gently
pushed it open. A candle was lit in the room, so he assumed she had
to be there somewhere. He stepped inside and quietly shut the door
behind him, careful not to alert her to his presence. Pulling the
pendant out of the soft velvet bag, he placed it in his hand and
looked at it shining in the golden glow of the candle. He smiled to
himself, feeling a bit of pride as he closed his hand around the
object and moved quietly to the stairs.

When he arrived at the top, he paused
to see if he could hear her through her bedroom door. He cocked his
head when he heard her voice. Although he couldn’t make out the
words, he could hear her speaking, then a playful laugh. He
listened a while for another voice but heard none. She grew quiet
and all was still. A cold feeling came to his stomach as he stood
there waiting for a sound, any sound that would dissolve the
dreadful thoughts he was having about what was going on beyond the
door in front of him. The sounds that finally came did not send the
horrible thoughts away, but instead solidified his fear.

With a mixture of anger and a cold
dizziness, he threw open the door. Figures shuffled in the near
darkness, attempting to hide the secret that had already been
unfolded. One stood in the corner and one huddled to the center of
the bed, seeking protection in the soft satin sheets. As his eyes
adjusted to the light, he couldn’t believe what he saw. His gaze
moved slowly from the eyes of the sobbing Mirra in the center of
her bed up to the eyes of a man he knew; a man he grew up with and
trusted.

"Uritus…how could you?"

He could barely hear his own voice as
the words came out on their own. The dizziness was growing
stronger, so strong that it totally encompassed the rage that was
burning in him only a moment before. Inside he felt as if he was
being emptied of his soul, and darkness crept in to replace it,
making a home of the remaining shell. He didn’t even hear the
pendant when it slipped from his hand and clattered to the
floor.

"Rommus," Uritus said, drawing out his
name in a long and mocking way, "I’m sorry." Through his blurry
vision he thought he saw a smile come to the man’s face.

Everything seemed to move so slowly.
For an instant he thought to draw his sword, but his muscles
refused to obey him. It was all he could do just to remain
standing. After what seemed to be an eternity, he found his gaze on
Mirra. Her eyes were wet with tears, but she sat straight and
proud. He could not understand this at all.

Instead of an explanation or an
apology, she cut him deeply with a cold remark. "Rommus, you need
to go." Her eyes remained locked on his.

His head swam as he tried to think of
what to do. He heard his own heart beating loudly in his ears. He
had to remember to breathe. He looked up once more to Uritus
standing there defiantly in the corner, his arms
crossed.

"You heard the lady Rommus. You are
not welcome here. Would you like me to show you where the door is?
I am quite familiar with this house," Uritus said with a smile so
evil that he couldn’t believe this was the same man he knew. The
same man who he played with as a child in the Emperor’s Hall. This
friend of many years with whom he shared so many
memories.

"I
¾
I
¾
" He couldn’t
complete a sentence. Horrible pain began to flood into his
emptiness; a pain that no hand could comfort. The room seemed to
shift suddenly to the left, but when he felt a jolt to his shoulder
he realized that he had fallen into the side of the doorway. He
stepped on something hard on the floor. When he moved his foot he
saw that it was a small gold object. He watched it for a moment as
a tear fell beside it. He blinked slowly as he tried to clear his
head enough to do something about this situation. When he looked
up, Mirra was in front of him.

"I’m sorry Rommus. I never meant for
it to be this way. I never wanted to hurt you. Please just
go."

He noticed suddenly that the door was
closing in front of him. He stumbled back a step and caught himself
on the railing behind him. There was nothing he could do to fix
anything now. The only thing that would save him was waking up from
this nightmare. Although he fought desperately to wake, his spirit
clawing for the real world, no other world came. He found himself
halfway down the stairs when pain hit him at his joints. He had
fallen down the last few steps and laid there for a moment looking
at the ceiling. His world was destroyed. He had nothing now, no
reason to go on.

Somehow he managed to reach the door
and open it. Outside a frigid wall of rain battered the streets,
laying siege to the city. He looked to the sky and saw nothing but
blackness as thunder rolled and shook Brinn in the darkness. He
stepped out into the river of water rushing down the street and was
immediately soaked to the bone from the unforgiving downpour. Any
tears that may have escaped from his eyes were instantly lost in
the cold streams of water running down his face. Stumbling away
from the door he had left open, he walked the way he thought was
the right way home. He almost instantly forgot where he was, with
all the buildings looking the same in the driving rain. He turned
to the only light he saw and realized it came from the very door he
had left open. The pain he was feeling seemed unreal, so much worse
than anything he ever imagined. His body and mind were giving up
and not working together, but he struggled against his invisible
foe and tried to stand tall. He looked inside Mirra’s door for the
last time and saw the candle sitting on the table, flickering and
waving, completely unconcerned with the storm outside. For a second
he wished for that kind of strength; to be able to stand tall and
be unaffected by the unfairness in the world around him. He did his
best to stand up straight against the angry rain. He thought he
heard a female voice cry out, but it was distant and too weak to be
sure he heard it at all. Ignoring the thought, he reached down deep
inside himself and examined the pain he was feeling.

Suddenly a different pain came to him;
a sharp, white-hot agony in his stomach. His eyes closed for a
second as he studied it. It was growing more intense at an alarming
rate, so he made an effort to comfort himself by bringing a hand to
his middle. A searing ache stung his hand and he looked down to
determine the cause. The rain seemed to go away as all sound left
his ears. By the dim candlelight he saw a blade, a gold blade, wet
with blood and rain, protruding from his belly. The sharp point was
probably what had hurt his hand. He could feel each raindrop as it
landed on the weapon, jarring it ever so slightly. His insides felt
as if they had turned to boiling water as he wondered if this was
all real or just a dream.

The pain faded along with the light.
He had always wondered what this moment would be like. He couldn’t
feel it when he fell to his knees and then facedown onto the rough
cobblestone. Blood swam eagerly out into the river of water rushing
around him. He always thought everything would fade to black, and
it did. He found himself surrounded in silent emptiness as all
thought slipped from his grasp.