A Knight's Requiem

A Knight’s Requiem

 

I was doing the right thing, or so I decided since what was the right and what was the wrong thing to do were based on perspective. As such, so long as I really did believe I had made the right decision than I had, like I said, sometimes my problems were just bigger.

Caravans were attacked all the time and people died every day, Symonds on the other hand wouldn’t be hanging around Hollowdell forever. Unless of course he managed to actually take the place and enforced his right to rule as Duke. If that happened my chances of ever bringing the man to justice were impossibly slim.

“And what do we need the Manhunter for anyway girl?” I asked Pandora. “He only ever slowed us down”

It was true, I could travel considerably faster alone than with anyone else including the Manhunter. I was happier when I was alone too.

The land was slowly starting to become flatter and less ragged, and off in the distance I could see the beginnings of what looked like a road. It wouldn’t be long before I reached Hollowdell, I would be upon the city before night fell. That would give me enough time to start planning what I was going to do next.

“When we get to Hollowdell, the first thing we’re doing as getting you some apples girl” I said tapping Pandora’s muscular hind.

For once though the horse didn’t respond to my mention of apples, she must not have heard me I decided. Or maybe the beast was ignoring me, in any case I continued to ride on at a slow pace.

As the road drew ever closer the silhouette of a man could be made out standing directly in it’s middle, his back turned towards me. At first I thought I might have been imagining the figure after being hit in the eye with a branch but the apparition failed to disappear.

The lone man set me on edge and I started to scan the bare surroundings for any signs of an ambush. After all, whoever had damaged the caravan could be lurking about here waiting for new victims rather than back with Martyn.

“I don’t see anyone else Pan” I whispered to my mount. “So what the hell is this guy doing in the middle of the road?”

It really was a complete mystery, unless of course the man was deranged or lost there was no good explanation for him to be there. I moved towards the man cautiously, slowing Pandora down so that I could check if the man was carrying a weapon.

Although much to my displeasure, and due to my prior incident, the man remained murky thanks to my still recovering vision. Taking a chance I got down from Pandora and took a step towards the mystery man.

“Can I help you?” I asked loudly. My question was met only with silence.

“Excuse me sir, Do you need some help? The middle of the road is a strange place for someone to be standing” I asked, even louder this time. Again though, there was only silence.

So much for trying to help the guy I decided. I took a few steps to cover the distance between us and placed my hand on the man’s shoulder. It was like touching ice, he was so cold that my hand felt like it was burning. Had I not been accustomed to such injuries from my father I would have cried out in pain.

“Excuse me” I repeated gruffly. “Are you alright sir?”

All of a sudden the shadowy man spun and clamped his hand down hard around my wrist. Ice raced up my arm and though my veins, freezing my blood, and all over my body I could feel goose bumps starting to rise and my hairs beginning to stand on end.

It was no ordinary man I realised as I looked up at the man’s now visible body and into his eyes. All trace of blood was gone from the man and his skin was deathly pale, sunken eyes topped by curly hair stared back at me. And the scar of a mortal wound sat upon the man’s chest. It started to rain, heavily.

“Piers” I whispered to the spectre.

He released my hand and although the ice ceased to run through my veins the pain failed to subside. Piers shook his head slowly and a tear trickled down the side of his face.

It was obvious he was trying to tell me something, and to anyone else this thing would have been clear. It took me a while to understand though.

“How-W-What are you doing here?” I stuttered. The man was dead though, he couldn’t reply, instead he just pointed as he had done before.

I followed the arm over my shoulder and back in the direction I had come from, he was pointing to Martyn. The man who had for no reason other than his own compassion taken me to Piers’ parents.

I now knew exactly what he was trying to tell me, and what he wanted me to do. He simply wanted me to do what he would have done, he wanted me to do the right thing.

Turning away from the ghost I took a few steps back towards Pandora before stopping.

“I won’t let you down again” I called back over my shoulder without looking. Had I looked though, I was certain that the knight would already have been gone, and I doubted that he would ever be coming back.

 

 

As I returned I could see Martyn’s brown horse tied up to a small tree, but the Manhunter was nowhere to be seen. I had expected as much, he was more than likely already stalking over the trail in the dirt. It hadn’t been that long though, so he couldn’t be far.

There was actually more than just one trail I realised now that I had a closer look, and they all looked as if each person had struggled to escape their captors. They all went in the same direction, down and into the rockier parts of the hills.

If memory served from when I had read about my father, than there was an old abandoned mine somewhere around here. It had long since run dry even in my father’s time, he had fought the Barbarians around it. It would be the perfect hideout for those who made a living though law-breaking.

 “Just wait here with… whatever this guy’s name is girl” I said to Pandora as I tied her up alongside Martyn’s horse. “This shouldn’t take too long”

Following the trail I found that I was slowly starting to head downhill. If that mine really was around here, I would certainly find Martyn and whoever else was here inside.

Emerging from between two rocks I looked in front of me at a steady slope of sand leading to ground several meters below me. It was far sandier here and the place was starting to look more and more like a desert by the second.

The slope in front of me as composed of loose sand that started to roll down to the ground below given but the simple disturbance of my weight. That ground too, was entirely flat yellow sand with all but a few bulging lumps that an ant would consider hills here and there.

The flat area went on for a little bit before all ending at one huge wall of rock, due to the lowered ground it looked like a mountain. But, when looking from the other side it was probably just a really big hill.

“A really big hill that houses a mine” I remarked, spotting an entranceway to what I assumed was the old mine.

The trails lead down the slope, across the sandy floor and seemingly into the depths of the mine.

I slid down the hill slowly, bringing a landslide of sand with me and broke into a run as I reached the bottom. I headed straight into the darkness of the mine and drew Piers’, supressing a scream I hardly even knew the reason for.

I stopped moving entirely when out of the corner of my eye I saw the small flicker of firelight. I twisted my head around to look towards the light but found only torches, there were no men there.

“We should be more careful though” I muttered quietly, creeping forward ever so slowly.

I continued to move forward in a crouched position so that the shadows would mask me, and also so that I could spring away from any possible danger.

After another several minutes of moving without seeing anything or anyone the sound of two men talking penetrated through the darkness. I ducked even lower and slid against the wall, willing the shadows to cling to me even tighter as I peered around the corner.

There were two men sitting down illuminated only by a lantern that sat on a table between them. They were both armed with small hand axes, neither of them looked like the greatest fighters though. However, in numbers even the feeblest of warriors could massacre you, if they called for help it wouldn’t go well for me.

“Let’s go and introduce ourselves shall we” I whispered to the dully-glowing blade.

Moving into a darker area of the opening that lead to the two men I stood and faced them. They couldn’t see me where I was or were else to preoccupied to look in direction, instead they continued talking.

“Where’d ya get that?” one of them sneered.

“That  wagon thus mornin” the other replied. “From the little lady”

So Martyn had been right in saying that people could need help, the owner of that necklace and her companions would be down here somewhere. And sadly enough even among the ‘best’ of criminals women were spoiled quickly. It was lucky that it was still early in the day.

“Looks shiny Sus” the first one said. I assumed Sus was the other man’s name.

“Wadis it?”

“You really are an idiot” Sus replied. “It’s a… umm a neck… thing” he added dull-wittedly.

The first man looked over in my direction and his eyes opened wide, he had seen me, I bit down hard on my lip hoping for a moment that he hadn’t.

“Oi!” he yelled. “What did me tell you about skulking in the dark buts Sus”

I let out a quiet sigh of relief, so he thought that I was one of his friends, how very wrong he was.

“Skulking’s a bit of a big word for you isn’t it?” I said, stepping out and into the light.

“Hold up, how are you in toe places at twice Sus?” he asked stupidly, scratching the back of his head.

I pounced onto the table as Sus turned to look at me and plunged my sword straight into the man’s chest before he even had to see me. Being the brighter of the two he may have actually reacted to me presence.

Yanking the necklace from the now dead bandits fingers, I quickly pulled my sword back and in the same motion spun, slicing open the other man’s throat. He was still scratching his head as he started to die.

I held my right hand closer to the lantern, examining the necklace I had nabbed from Sus. The chain was made of a silver material, from the look of it real silver, and suspended upon it was the symbol of a hawk. It was the kind of thing that could be worth a fair bit, I would be returning it to its owner though.

Pocketing the jewellery I continued to move down the dark passageway, tentatively peering around each and every corner. I was sure to either bump into Martyn or come across the owner of the hawk necklace soon enough. I needed to be on the lookout for them though, in case I missed them or ran into yet more raiders.

 I continued on my way until the sound of two pieces of metal colliding sung through the cavern as I rounded a corner.

“Martyn” I whispered under my breath.

A pinprick of light sat at the end of the tunnel I crouched in, the sound had definitely come from that direction. Launching to my feet I sprinted down the halfway, no longer caring if I was seen or heard. Letting Piers down was a worse fate than dying.

The darkness peeled away into light as I sped through the passage’s opening. My muscles ached but I refused to stop until I had at least fully entered the cavern, when I did though, I was looking down into a bowl of fire.

Wooden constructs covered the walls like the webs of a spider, and it was easy to see that this scaffolding had been used to mine the place to the point of exhaustion. Even though in reality the place was probably sturdier than most houses, due to the large number of cracks I spotted in each wall I felt as if the place was about to fall down.

A large fire sat in the middle of the mining bowl, illuminating the room alongside thousands of its smaller sister torches that were littered about the place. The stone here was oddly white, although due to the firelight it occasionally appeared to be bright yellow in some places.

Martyn was down in the bowl, standing with his sword drawn alongside another man who held in one hand an axe and the other hand a knife. Behind the Manhunter stood another man who stood protectively over two women who could only be his wife and daughter.

It wasn’t what I would call a fair fight, two armed men and a family against at least a half dozen raiders. Even if Martyn and his newfound ally managed to defeat the raiders there were more waiting around the outside of the bowl, such as the one who stood but a few meters in front of me.

He hadn’t noticed me presence yet, instead he was focussed on aiming his bow in Martyn’s direction. I knew he wouldn’t loose an arrow if there were a chance he would hit one of his friends though.

“Let’s not wait around until we’re seen this time,” I said, glancing at Piers’ blood stained blade.

It would be best not to knock the man down into the bowl just yet, his bow could come in handy and this was a relatively good spot to deal with some of the spectating men.

Wrapping my free arm around the archer’s neck I plunged Piers’ swiftly into the man’s chest and watched as the blade emerged gloriously from the other side, coated in generous amounts of deep red blood. As much as I hated it I was starting to accept the fact that, I enjoyed killing men, their murder was comparable to sport for me.

“Who the f**k is that?” I heard one of the raiders screech as the archer’s quiver settled upon my back.

My first arrow was aimed straight for the man’s chest, flying true the shot collided with his shoulder and sent him spiralling from his perch down and into the bowl.

The next shot I fired as I slid down from where I was into the bowl, the arrow fell short and clattered harmlessly to the ground though. Nocking another arrow I shot once more at the pack of men advancing upon Martyn. However with more luck this time, one of the men fell to the ground slowly, the feathered shaft of an arrow sticking out from his back.

“Danny?” the voice that echoed to me was unmistakably Martyn’s.

I started to laugh and loosed another shot into the crowd. “Did ya miss me Manhunter?” I shouted back.

I fired one last arrow and sped over towards the battle, grabbing a knife from the ground as I closed in on my enemies.

My knife bit into the first man’s neck as he turned to face me. Falling to the floor he started to gag and garb at his throat, blood pouring from his neck and mouth. After a prolonged moment of suffering the man finally ceased to move and lay dead on the floor.

There were then three bandits remaining, two of them faced Martyn and his young ally, they would be dealt with quickly enough. The other bandit though, had snuck up behind the family of three and was about to reach them.

Taking a hold of the weapon in my hand by its hilt, I flung the knife in his direction praying that I was as accurate as Piers and his father. Like a bolt of lighting the blade let out a flash of light and flew straight into the bandit’s neck, dropping him to the floor.

I let out a heavy sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from my brow with the sleeve of my shirt. My heart was still beating wildly as the man who had been fighting alongside Martyn ran it me, axe raised high above his head.

“I’m not one of them!” I yelled to the man.

It didn’t stop him though. He continued to run directly at me with murderous intent in his eyes. I leapt to the left of his swing and reached with my right arm, smacking him in the face with the bow.

“Cool down kid, I’m not here to kill you” because if I was, you would already be dead.

“Don’t worry” I heard Martyn say behind me. “He’s a friend”

The kid shot me a dirty look and brushed a stray lock of black hair from his face to reveal two shining blue eyes.

“Danny! It really is you” Martyn exclaimed, patting me on the back.

I turned around and smirked at the Manhunter. “Yes, it really is”

The Manhunter looked awfully tired from such a small fight, although I supposed when having to protect people who were helpless was no easy task.

“What made you come back?” he asked with a pained expression on his face. Probably remembering my abandonment of him.

I reached down and placed my hand upon Piers’ scabbard and nodded to the Manhunter.

He smiled before taking a step past me and offering his hand to the kid who still sat in a pile on the floor.

“We’ve still got a few of those b******s to deal with Manhunter,” I said, as he pulled the boy to his feet. “What’s the kid’s name by the way?” I added, trying to make up for hitting him in the face.

“Samuel” the kid replied, walking over to his family who were huddled up by the wall.

The rest of the bandits were beginning to stalk towards us slowly, they were spread out, probably in the hopes of preventing us from escaping. Unluckily for them though, we had no intention of running.

I reached behind my back to grab another arrow only to find that my quiver had run dry. I drew Piers instead, still keeping the bow in my off hand though, because as Rowan had once told me, everything was a weapon when used correctly.

“Do you ever feel bad when we go into battle together Manhunter?” I asked, holding in my laughter.

Martyn screwed up his face and looked at me sideways. “I’m sorry but, what the f**k do you mean?” he asked, maintaining his strange face.

“I mean well, they don’t even really have a chance against us,” I said, letting my laughter flow.

Martyn threw his head back and started to laugh like a madman. The bandits who were approaching us faltered for a moment and all wore the same puzzled look. They quickly resumed their advance after a few moments, and to me it looked as if they were moving faster.

“I guess you do have to feel kind of sorry for them,” Martyn said, still laughing.

I sure as hell didn’t feel bad though, I was nothing short of excited by the prospect of blood.

I rushed out to meet our assailants, swinging both my blade and my bow violently at anyone who was within reach. Luckily enough my attack had surprised the bandits, and as I ran between them only a few even attempted to swing their weapons at me.

Behind me I could hear many of the men fall to their knees and scream in pain due to their wounds. If my eyes had not deceived me than I had in fact severed one man’s hand.

The last bandit though was expecting me though, and I felt his club smash into my shoulder just before my sword reached him. Apart from causing a fair amount of pain the blow sent me reeling in back towards the rest of the raiders.

I stumbled and nearly fell, just managing to stay out of reach of the knife of one man, but then found myself in the path of another’s axe. I allowed how unbalanced I was to bring me to the ground and I felt a rush of air as the axe passed just over my head.

A satisfying crack came from the bow as I slammed it up and between the man’s legs, snapping the wood, and also the bow in one movement. He let out an ear piercing scream that sounded as if it had come from a woman, it might as well have though considering his predicament.

I stood and put the man out of his misery with a flick of Piers before turning to face the remaining raiders. For a split second they all stared at me, their faces a mixture of surprise and horror, and I could hear Martyn’s howling laughter over the top of all the men.

I too started to laugh as I once again rushed into the heat of battle; it was completely hysterical when you thought about it after all. I mean a man making that sound alone could have been enough to make me laugh.

Many of the raiders had already started to flee by this point, and I faced off against three of the remaining half dozen or so with Piers and a broken bow.

The first to charge at me received, as a cruel reward for his courage, a knock to the head from the broken bow as well as the pommel of my sword. The second to last man put up more of a challenge though, and we traded blows for a few moments before I literally disarmed the man.

The third raider, after watching on in horror only to find that he was the last man standing sped off in the opposite direction to me. I thought about giving chase, however my thirst had been momentarily sated.

“You really are off your nut today Danny!” Martyn shouted across the bowl. “Probably explains why you destroyed his,” he added, pointing at the man whom I had rendered no longer a man.

“No need to thank me for mopping up your mess by the way Manhunter” I said as Martyn approached me.

He grinned sheepishly and punched me on the shoulder lightly. I guess it was his way of expressing his gratitude without having to actually say thankyou.

“I’m sure that Samuel and I would have had it covered” he retorted. “Isn’t that right Sammy?”

Two specks of sky blue could be seen as Samuel glared at Martyn over his shoulder. I assumed that as the family went Samuel was their son.

“They’re all one big happy family I take it?” I asked Martyn to confirm my own thoughts.

“It would appear that way Danny” he replied, withdrawing his pipe from a pocket. “Husband and wife, then those two are their son and little lady I guess”

Little lady…

“That reminds me of something…” I said reaching into my pocket to retrieve the hawk necklace. “I should be returning this to its owner”

The little girl stared at me from behind the safety of her mother, tucking her head away whenever our eyes met. I smiled to the woman and crouched down beside her, raising my hand to show the little girl what I was holding.

The silver chain dangled between my fingers and in front of the girl’s face, its hawk symbol staring her in the eye.

“I believe that this is yours,” I said, smiling as cheerfully as I could.

She snatched the necklace from my fingers without a second thought and placed it straight around her neck. Pressing the hawk to her mouth she moved back around to the back of her mother, once again hiding from me.

“Not much of a talker than…” I said, climbing to my feet. “But that’s alright” I added, directing my comment more to the mother than the child.

“I’m sorry” the woman replied, wiping underneath her eye with the corner of her sleeve. “She’s just a little… shy sometimes, especially around people she doesn’t know”

“Like I said, it’s quite alright” I replied merrily. “I can still remember being like that myself when I was a young boy”

 “I’m Gina by the way,” she said with a feigned smile. “And this little one here is Lucy, from what I’ve heard Martyn say you must be Danny”

Lucy poked her head out at the mention of her name but as per usual quickly withdrew from my gaze. I nodded at Gina to confirm my name and then turned to face Martyn and Samuel and his father.

They were standing a fair distance away; the father was conversing with Martyn while Samuel attempted to clear away the bodies’ of the dead Raiders. Possibly for his younger sister’s sake I decided, honestly in his position I would do the same thing for someone I loved.

“I’d best introduce myself to your husband” I said, taking a step towards the three men.

“Thankyou by the way” she called to me.

I stopped where I was and glanced back at the two girls’ over my shoulder, continuing to walk after nodding my recognition.

Martyn caught sight of me as I approached him and Samuel’s father, beckoning for me to come introduce myself.

“Danny” I said, offering the man my hand.

“Marcus” he replied grasping my hand firmly and shaking it.

“Now that we all know who’s who we can get to know each other later” Martyn said before Marcus had a chance to speak again. “Because I personally would like to get out of this hellhole, the walls all look like they’re about ready to collapse and it’s doing my stomach in”

“It’s like you read my mind,” I said grinning. “Now which way is it exalted leader?”

Martyn glanced at me, smiling, before pointing to a passage on his left.

“We head that way” he replied. “Go gather your family Marcus, Danny and I will lead the way”

Marcus nodded and turned in the direction of Lucy and Gina, starting of in a slow jog towards his wife and daughter.

“Thankyou, by the way” Martyn said quietly as he watched the man go.

“For what?” I asked, puzzled. If I hadn’t abandoned him in the first place there would have been no thanks, so why should there be any now?

 Martyn returned the pipe to his pocket and scratched the back of his head again. An action that was beginning to become all too familiar.

“You know, for coming back” he answered, sounding almost embarrassed. “I know you don’t think you care, or at least you don’t want to, and that you would have much preferred to just leave us but… but I know that you’re not a bad person Danny, so thankyou”

Even though he didn’t really know the half of it, and even though I knew that deep down, I could be just as bad as my father, or Symonds even, his sentiment was still nice.

I shrugged in response. “We should get going already exalted leader,” I said, attempting to change the topic to one a little less serious, to one that didn’t rain so much.

We headed off down the passageway Martyn had indicated before without another word. Marcus, Gina and Lucy trailed a few meters behind us with Samuel another few meters behind them.

“What do you plan to do with these folk now Manhunter?” I asked quietly, so that only Martyn could hear me.

He laughed at my question too loudly for my liking. “You make it sound like we’re about to cook up a meal from something we’ve just caught” he whispered back, once again laughing.

I didn’t say anything, and instead continued to stare at him waiting for an answer to my question.

“Where are you guys off too anyway?” Martyn called back to the family.

“We were heading home before we were attacked” Marcus yelled back. “To Hollowdell that is”

“That’s just perfect” I muttered under my breath. Now I would be stuck with them until we reached Hollowdell.

“What was that Danny?” Martyn said, turning to face me again.

“Nothing Manhunter” I shrugged.

He turned to face Marcus again, this time walking backwards as he spoke.

“You can travel with us than, that way you won’t be troubled by anyone else”

“That would be much appreciated” Marcus replied. “And I know that you have already done much for us, but if it wouldn’t be too much trouble would you be able to help us repair our caravan? I fear it was damaged badly during the attack”

For the love of god, don’t agree to help them fix the caravan Manhunter; I don’t have time for this s**t.

“It looked pretty beat up when we saw it” Martyn remarked. “But we would be more than happy to help you” he said smiling.

I glared at Martyn’s back but he failed to notice. Speak for yourself Manhunter; I didn’t even want to save these people in the first place.

“Wouldn’t we Danny?” he said over his shoulder.

I smiled and nodded at the family before continuing to trudge on ahead of the group and around the corner. We had already been walking too long for my liking.

There were two paths now. The first was dark and looked as if it lead further down into the earth, and the other lead up and into the light. The latter was obviously the path that lead to the surface and the one that we would be taking, however, I couldn’t help but feel an urge to take the other path.

The darkness had always been a friend of mine, my only friend a lot of the time. In the darkness you couldn’t see rain, you could only feel it then. Only problem being that the tunnel wasn’t pitch black anymore, there had been a momentary flash of white light.

I continued to stare into the darkness and waited for another flash of light. Sure enough after not too long it came, followed by another flash, and then another. The light was pulsing, like a heartbeat. I prepared to take a step towards it, completely enthralled by this anomaly.

“There you are Danny!” came Martyn’s booming voice. The light’s control over me broken I turned to face the Manhunter.

“I was wondering where you had got to, but it seems that you’ve found the exit for us” he added shortly.

Martyn motioned with his hand at Marcus and the others, who were still around the corner, for them to hurry up. The three of them came around quickly and started to head up towards the light. Samuel, who for the first time since I had met him wore an expression that almost resembled a smile, closely followed them.

The pulses of white light, I realised, had now stopped and the other passage had once again become pitch black.

“You coming Danny?” Martyn called from halfway down the other tunnel.

“Keep going,” I yelled to the Manhunter. “I’ll catch up, I just need a moment here”

He shot me one of his classic strange looks and stood unmoving for a long while staring at me. Eventually though, he shrugged and continued on his way to the outside, leaving me alone in the cavern.

The moment he left my sight I once again saw a white flash down the other passageway, this time though, the flash had been bigger. Hypnotised by whatever was producing the flashes of light I stepped down and into the darkness.

My only clue as to where I was going was the flashes of light which, although momentarily blinding, revealed to me my surroundings. The room I stood in was relatively small, and strangely enough, was almost perfectly round.

The walls, or wall as it were, I could feel was perfectly smooth as I ran my hand over it. That was, except for a single part of the wall close to the ground that looked rough, and appeared to be the source of the flashes.

“What the hell are you?” I whispered into the darkness, staring at a glow issuing from the rough section of rock.

I approached the glow cautiously, raising one hand over my face to shield my eyes from the brightness of the flashes. The closer I got the more the flashes began to slow, until I kneeled down next to the glow rocks, upon which the flashes all of a sudden stopped.

I reached out and placed my hand upon the glow, the rocks were warm and jagged like knives. Not only that but they also felt loose.

Thousands of tiny needles bit unto my hand as I grasped at the rocks and pulled them away to reveal the end of a large glowing piece of white metal. Despite its appearance the metal was not searing to touch, just like the rocks nearby it was only slightly warm.

I tried yanking the hunk of metal free causing yet more rocks to fall from the wall but my efforts were to no avail, it was stuck. Why such a thing would be embedded into a wall was a puzzle to me, and the nature of the metal itself was a mystery all its own. All I knew was that it looked special, and I wanted it.

Refusing to leave without my prize I stood and proceeded to kick away at the rocks surrounding it. With each kick more and more rocks crumbled away from the metal and the glow surrounding it started to deepen as more of it became exposed.

Once again I knelt beside the glowing object and grabbed it, letting its warmth ease the pain of the cuts on my hands and fingers. Then, I slowly started to wiggle the chunk of metal free from the last of the rocks surrounding it before becoming impatient and heaving it free, sending myself backwards and into the floor.

I had smacked my head on rock during my fall and an excruciating amount of pain sat in the back of my head. I reached back with my left hand to rub away pain from the injury and found the back of my head to be sticky and wet.

The metal! I remembered now. It lay just in front of me on the ground, still glowing as it had done when inside of the wall. While continuing to wipe blood from the back of my head I lifted the object, it was, much to my surprise, relatively light for its size.

The white glow immediately faded as I placed my other hand upon the object and I felt almost cheated by it as my only source of light disappeared. But then, just as quickly as the white light had faded, a dim red glow began to spread throughout the metal.

The red glow seemed to spread out like a liquid, slowly flowing around the chunk until the entire thing had become a dark red colour, the colour of blood.

Next, the metal exploded with a flash of crimson light that not only blinded me but felt as if it had set my eyes on fire. I screamed and let the chunk of metal fall to the ground with a thud, before starting to claw violently at my eyes.

My entire head now was ablaze and my vision was in its entirety only a cloud of red light. I writhed on the ground, trying to cool my head by pouring some of the water in my flask onto it. The water worked more like oil though, and the fire seemed to rage ever higher, fuelled further by the rain all around me.

This was it, this was how I was going to die. Set ablaze by the combination of a glowing metal and my own hallucinations.

Then all of a sudden the pain stopped, and the red cloud covering my vision disappeared with it. Touching my face and  head I found my skin to still be smooth and my hair to still be intact, both were quite unburnt.

“What the f**k is happening to me?” I panted, while rubbing my eyes.

The large piece metal sat on the floor once more, now though it glowed red rather then white.

“And I still have no idea what on earth you are” I said to the object, squinting my eyes in case it blasted me with light again. “In any case I still need to get out of here” I muttered, Martyn would be waiting for me.

I picked up the piece of metal and walked from the cavern holding it behind my back, so that I myself couldn’t see it. It wasn’t long after that before I had made it down the passageway and emerged back into the world of real sunlight.

Careful so as not to drop the thing and trigger another explosion I brought the metal around to my front to look at it in the sunlight. Its colour had now returned to white, and out in the sunlight it no longer shone or pulsed as it had done in the cave.

The metal was fairly large for a single chunk, about half the size of a proper sword and at least twice the width. Although clearly metallic due to its shine and slight slivery tinge it was shaped much like a large crystal. Pieces jutted out here and there ending in blunt spikes of smooth metal which looked almost like they had grown from its core.

Looking past the metal in my hands I could see a piece of paper pierced through by the branch of a tree. The paper looked like it had writing on it, probably a note from Martyn I decided. Pulling back on the note I slid it out from the branch it was on and read:

 

 

got board waiting for you

to get her, decided that

we would go nd get stated
n fixin that carvan of thers

go towords mountains rayng

love your salted leader

 

 

I threw the note into the dirt and started to laugh wildly, the Manhunter’s poor spelling alone would have made me laugh, but calling himself my salted leader, that was priceless.

“I wonder if he really does taste salty…” I murmured to myself before continuing to laugh.

The area I had exited too was quite similar to the one through which we had entered. A slight slope could be seen a few meters in front of me which lead up and out of the flat are of yellow sand I stood in. That would be my way out.

The pathway to this entrance, or exit, to the mine was also quite similar to the first. A path wound between many large rocks which all kinds of flora protruded from. Luckily enough though, this time I didn’t blind myself on a sapling, I had been blind far too much today.

“Towords mountains rayng”  I said mimicking Martyn.

That would take me east, and since I could see the mountains poking into the sky on my left that meant I was facing north. I set off at a slow pace, enjoying the solitude while it lasted and at the same time hoping the ‘carvan’ would be repaired by the time I got there.

“Yeah right, Danny, you’ll be working on that piece of s**t wagon long into the night” I said smiling. “I did the right thing though and Piers would have been proud of me, that’s all that really matters”

I returned once again to my examination of the metal as I walked. As well as losing its shine and becoming dull when I had brought it to the surface there was something else different about the metal. Opposite to shining in the darkness the thing now looked to be sucking the light of the sun into itself.

It was such a peculiar object, and why it intrigued me so much I had no idea. Maybe it was the mystery surrounding it, maybe it was how it had changed from shining to absorbing light so quickly, or maybe it reminded me a little of myself. I’d have to get around to asking someone about it eventually.

The metal slipped into underneath my shirt easily and the it now felt cold against my skin.

“You’re bound to be worth a bit though” I said softly.

And when money was involved people could never be trusted, it would be best to keep my treasure where the others could not see it. Even keeping the metal out of Martyn’s sight could be a good idea.

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

Overview:
A few things about this chapter overall don’t quite fit for me. First there is Piers’ ghost. I don’t understand what it is trying to accomplish and it’s appearances are inconsistent. It appears when he left Martyn behind but it seems to have no problem with Danny torturing and killing for sport. I would think Piers’ would be much more appalled by that behavior and would let Danny know so it makes me wonder what the ghost is actually trying to accomplish.

Danny’s sense of morality has always been rather inconsistent as well, but it especially comes out here. He’s willing to leave Martyn (without Piers interference) but he wants to return the necklace to its owner rather then sell it. He get’s a sick rush out of killing people, but he behaves luck Dudley Do-Right towards the family he rescued. Except when it comes time to fix their caravan, then it seems he’d just as soon leave them to another raider attack. Complex characters often act in unexpected ways and Danny is clearly complicated. However, this actions have to make a sort of twisted sense to him and, thus, a kind of twisted sense to us the reader.

One last thing, this is the third fight (I think) that Martyn and Danny have won handily. While a good main character should be strong and capable, I think he’s starting to reach the outer edges of credibility for me. Not only does he and Martyn defeat a band of warriors without a single scratch again, but Danny performs some feats with a bow and arrow that I doubt a master archer could do.

The point is these moments of action and excitement are a great way to raise the tension. However, if your hero is able to constantly beat his enemies over and over again without breaking a sweat, the reader will lose interest. The thing that rises tension and captures the readers attention is the idea that he might fail.



Additional Notes:
“I was doing the right thing, or so I decided since what was the right and what was the wrong thing to do were based on perspective. As such, so long as I really did believe I had made the right decision than I had, like I said, sometimes my problems were just bigger.”

So…. he’s doing the right thing then? This sentence was really confusing and fails to make the point you are trying to make. If he’s doing the right thing, just say that.

‘“A really big hill that houses a mine” I remarked, spotting an entranceway to what I assumed was the old mine.’

Either his quote or his assumption afterward is redundant.

‘“Hold up, how are you in toe places at twice Sus?” he asked stupidly, scratching the back of his head.’

I get how bandits probably aren’t the best educated bunch, but this borders on cartoonish. It might work if this book had a more comedic feel to it but as it is I don’t think it works.

“It was the kind of thing that could be worth a fair bit, I would be returning it to its owner though.” His morality here confuses me. In some chapters Danny’s a barely functioning sociopath. Here he’s almost Dudley Do-right.

“Even though in reality the place was probably sturdier than most houses, due to the large number of cracks I spotted in each wall I felt as if the place was about to fall down.”

This sentence is contradictory for me. Is it solid or does Danny think it’s about to cave in? Remember, we’re looking at the world through Danny’s eyes so it doesn’t matter as much what reality is. It matters how Danny perceives it.

“Martyn was down in the bowl, standing with his sword drawn alongside another man who held in one hand an axe and the other hand a knife. Behind the Manhunter stood another man who stood protectively over two women who could only be his wife and daughter.”

So at the mouth of this mine, there’s a couple of bandits just hanging out and playing cards while there’s a fight going on deeper in? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Either they’ve taken everyone prisoner and the bandits are relaxing as they count out the booty or they are still fighting in which… everyone is still fighting. I don’t think you can do both.

‘My heart was still beating wildly as the man who had been fighting alongside Martyn ran it me, axe raised high above his head.
“I’m not one of them!” I yelled to the man.’

Why on Earth would the man believe he was one of the bandits? Was he there watching the same fight? This also makes no sense to me.