Going Home - Part Two

Going Home - Part Two

 

The Rain was more like fire than water now.

After losing consciousness I must have been found by some of the Duke’s men and dragged into the castle. Or something like that anyway, because when I awoke I was once again lying in bed.

At first I clung onto the slim hope that it had all been a dream. I didn’t dare move nor did I look down at my hand. I just lay there motionless and pretended that nothing had happened to me. Deep down though I knew, and eventually I had to look. It was a mistake though, as soon as I looked the rain somehow grew even heavier.

Down by my side lay my arm. At the end of that arm was a clean white bandage, on which had probably been replaced multiple times after turning red. That was it though, there was no hand at the end of my arm, just white bandage.

Everything else hurt too. Even the slightest movements could send ripples of pain throughout my entire body. This especially applied to my leg, arm and back. They all hurt an unbelievable amount every time I shifted in bed, however slight my movement was.

The first few days consisted of nothing more than sleep and foul tasting medicine. Various women would constantly come to redress my wounds and feed me like I was some kind of child. It was on the third day I think, that Rolland came to visit me.

“How’s the arm, Danny?” he asked quietly. It was the worst conversation starter I ever heard in my life, it really was.

I grunted. “I’m missing a hand Rolland. How do you think the arm is.”

He nodded and pulled a chair up to the side of my bed. Then took a seat and proceeded to stare at my missing hand. It was healing well so far, or so they said. I would be good to go within a week or so if I really pushed it. Hell, they wouldn’t be able to stop me if I wanted to go. The only problem was that I had nowhere to go.

“Where’s Martyn?” I asked abruptly. The thought had only just occurred to me that he too could be dead.

“Don’t worry about him, he’s perfectly fine.” Rolland replied. “Said he had to ‘report back’ or something like that though, reckoned he’d been away from home or something for too long. Before he left though he told me to give you this.”

Rolland bent down from his chair and retrieved something from just under his chair. He then placed the object on my lap and offered a weak smile. It was a wrap of brown cloth, bound up tightly by thin rope. A little shorter than a sword.

I carefully started to untie the rope and then proceeded to peal back the layers of cloth. Sure enough when I looked inside there was a silvery flash as light reflected off one of the shards and into my eyes. It was Piers’ sword, shattered into several pieces.

The blade had shattered after being struck by Symonds with that axe. Now all that was left were lots of jagged pieces of metal, a few were bigger than the rest but the weapon was now useless. Even the hilt had warped and twisted from the sheer force of the blow. It hurt me more than a little to see my dead friend’s sword in such a state.

“He spent an entire day making sure he had found all the pieces. Said the sword meant something to you.” Rolland explained.

I nodded while still facing the shards of Piers’ sword. “It was a gift, from a friend of mine.” I wasn’t sure whether I was talking about Piers or Nicholas. Did it matter?

“You know, the men are calling you a hero, Danariel.” Rolland said after a long moment of quiet. “They all say that if you hadn’t fought off my son than Symonds would have lead his men to victory.”

 I snorted derisively. “You call this fighting him off?” I raised my right arm to show my missing hand. “Heroes win battles, they don’t lose to the bad guy.”

“Say what you will. The men still believe that you are our Guardian.” Rolland smiled. “You may have lost your battle, yes. But regardless, you won our war.”

 I pushed myself up against the wall so that I could sit up and face Rolland. Biting my lip and squeezing my one hand into a tight fist both did little to ease the pain of my movement. Although I found myself doing both anyway.

“And why exactly did I lose my battle?” I stared at the Duke, awaiting his reply.

The Duke shot me a quizzical look. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

I groaned and shifted weight on to my good leg. “Why is Symonds such an excellent warrior? And I mean he said that I lacked discipline in my style… or something like that. Basically what I’m asking is; who trained your son?”

Rolland sighed and started to rub at the dark bags under his golden eyes. This was the kind of question I should have asked before going up against Symonds. I had been so stupid, heck, I still was.

“Do you recall me telling you of how your father an I were close friends?” the Duke asked at length.

I clenched my fist even tighter into my sheets. “You’ve got to be  f*****g kidding me”

“Well your father trained Symonds.” Rolland continued. “At first I thought it  was simply a good idea to keep my son from dying, I mean as a father it’s my place to worry…”

“And you never stopped to think that since your son was pure evil it might be a bad thing?” I scowled. “That he might become even worse of a man than he already was?”

Rolland shook his head. “It is my fault he’s like this… I was too blinded to realise what the boy was like. By the time I had it was already too late.”

My father was originally the source of all my problems. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time now that I knew he was the source of many of my other problems too. After all, it was only fitting that he had trained Symonds. One monster to train another.

“What do you plan to do when you leave?” Rolland asked after another short silence.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I had several ideas though, only one of which I suspected would work.

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe you, Danny”  Rolland replied smugly. He was sharp sometimes, still didn’t mean that I was going to tell him anything.

I half laughed, nearly smiled too. “Yeah well… you and me both”

He left soon after. I only saw the Duke one more time before I left Hollowdell.

 

 

“Milord please! You’re hardly ready to be going anywhere. You should still be in bed!” one of the nurses screeched. Her voice was loud and pained my ears, a lot.

A few of them had already told me that I should not be out of bed. Also that I should get some rest and that I was in no state to go anyway. None of them had actually stopped me though, and I had continued on my way and started to collect my things. This one though, physically barred my path.

My hand instinctively lowered down towards the hilt of my sword. However, upon finding only thin air I remembered that the blade was broken. “I’d advise you to move out of my way.”

I was reaching the limits of my patience. The desire to be far away from Hollowdell had already taken root in my heart, the whole place stunk of Symonds now. Not that I would find where I was going to be any nicer, that place could quite possibly be worse.

“I’m sorry milord but-”

“Leave” Rolland cut in sternly as he appeared behind the woman.

I smiled as the woman moved away. She went quickly, looked like she was sulking too. Now he stood in the woman’s place, my path was still barred.

Rolland raised an eyebrow at me and leaned against the doorway. “They are right you know. You’re far from regaining your full strength, Danariel.”

“We both know that even as I am now I can easily make it to my destination.” I replied. “Now would you kindly move out of my f*****g way.”

I was about to raise my hand and grab the Duke but he simply smiled and moved out of the way. Going through the doorway and starting to head down the hallway I found that the Duke was ever present at my side. He was silent though, which made it all the more unnerving.

“And where would that destination be?” he asked, finally ending our silence.

I grimaced at the Duke. “Make an educated guess, Rolland.”

We continued to walk in silence after that as the Duke thought. Well it wasn’t exactly silence, the golden eyes man had a habit of making strange sounds as he thought. So instead we walked to the sounds of humming some occasional whistling and other annoying sounds.

It was only when we were standing outside the castle itself and before the massive broken walls that the Duke finally spoke again. He stood just under the gate and watched as I started to walk away and towards his broken city.

“You’re going home. Aren’t you, Danny.”

I stopped dead. Home, it was my first home. I had lived there for a time, not a good time mind you but a time nonetheless. It was my home no longer though. I could not be bothered explaining that to the duke though. I was in another lazy kind of mood.

I turned and nodded to the Duke. “Home… yeah I guess you could call it that.” I didn’t want to call it that, but you could if you really wanted to.

“And what exactly do you plan to do once you get there?” Rolland asked.

“Is that a real question or are you just drawing out this conversation in the hopes that I will decide to put off going for a while longer?” I demanded roughly.

Rolland shook his head and started to walk towards me. Once he was close enough he put an arm up on my left shoulder. I had seen him about to touch my right arm and then reconsider. That made the rain hurt a little more.

“No Danariel.” Rolland smiled and shook his head again. “I only mean to make sure you know what you’re doing. You seem to have made your mind up and once you do that there’s no dissuading you. A trait you and your father share.”

I was about to say something when Rolland cut me off. “I know I know, ‘you’re nothing like Reubin’. You two have much in common though, you shall come to see that soon enough.”

Rolland removed his hand from my shoulder and started to walk back towards his castle. I simply watched him go.

“Oh and…” the Duke said, looking over his shoulder at me. “I had your horse, Pandora was it, brought up to wait for you just around the corner. Caused Eugene and Damon a spot of trouble she did, but we all noticed you collecting your things and knew that you were going.”

I wanted to say thankyou. Wait no, at the time I did not want to say thankyou but I regretted it later. I didn’t even say goodbye to the old Duke. I still remember that he said goodbye to me with a very pained expression on his face as I walked off to get Pandora.

Sure enough Eugene and Damon were both standing there watching over Pandora. Her white coat seemed to have grown a few shades darker from the rain though.

“Would you look at that Damon!” exclaimed Eugene as he caught sight of me.

“Oh my lord!” said Damon dramatically.

“Well if it isn’t the Hollow Guardian” the two soldiers called out with a bow.

“The Hollow Guardian?” I asked, my expression was a mixture of confusion and disgust.

“Well that is what the men call you now” Damon explained.

“You did practically win the battle for us by holding off Symonds” Eugene added. “Titles usually accompany such great deeds.”

I laughed even though really I had wanted to cry. Titles that could be linked back to your father who you hated were not the kind of thing that I usually enjoyed. Just being his son was enough to ruin my life after all.

 “You really are leaving aren’t you, Danny?” said Damon, all of a sudden sounding far more serious.

“First Martyn and now you” added Eugene. “The two of us really are going to miss both of you, not to mention how great an addition you both were to Hollowdell’s army.”

Damon nodded, agreeing with his friend’s sentiment. I’m not sure whether I really appreciated those words at the time, I sure as hell did later though.

“I’m sure the four of us will meet again sooner or later” I replied, placing a hand on each man’s shoulder. Well a hand on Damon’s shoulder and a stump on Eugene’s.

“We look forward to that day” replied Damon.

Both men smiled at me.

“I’m glad to see that the arm has healed up well.” said Eugene as I took the stump down from his shoulder.”

“It was such a nasty wound when we first found you lying there.” Damon explained. “We were worried that you would die before we even brought you inside and out of that rain.”

“You two were the ones who saved me?” I asked slowly.

“Aye… well not exactly” replied Eugene. “We more or less aided your true saviour.”

“Martyn” answered Damon before I had even asked the question. “He got beat up pretty bad himself, nothing quite as bad as what happened to you though, Danny…”

“We found him crawling through the mud with you on his back” Eugene continued. “He was trying to drag you inside but didn’t even have the strength to stand. You can probably work out everything after that for yourself.”

I sighed deeply. I now owed the Manhunter for saving my life twice, and he had been sent to hunt me. I would repay him once the rain was gone though.

“Thankyou for saving my life than lads” I said, I meant it too. They had given me another chance to end Symonds.

“No no, thank you for saving our city milord” one of the two men replied before they both comically bowed. “Until we meet again” the other said as they helped me onto Pandora.

I can never quite remember which man said what. Heck, half of what I remember about each man could in fact be about the other man of the pair. The two were practically like one person to me.

There was something afterwards when I was riding through the streets that I can’t remember. Something to do with the people watching me leave the city. Don’t worry, it’s stupid anyway.

 

 

It only took a few days of riding before I started to see things that sparked my memory. The first thing was the trees. As a kid I had often hidden outside the walls of my home in them and away from my father. That was usually after a beating.

One of the nurses would always come out to find me after that and say: ‘It’s getting cold out Danny, time to come home’.

Or; ‘Let’s get you home so I can patch up those cuts shall we?’, that one had always smiled.

The worst of all though, had been when she would say; ‘Your father is very angry with you Danny, he wants you to come home right this instant.’ If they said that it usually meant that going home would result in a few new scars.

I think it was one time when a nurse had said that last one… That was when I had run away. I didn’t even bother to steal some of my father’s money or to collect any of my possessions. I had just run.

The next thing that I could remember from running away was the path that away from my home. Or to it now that I was going the other way. On my way out the trees that sat either side of the path had seemed to be trying to grab me. From memory the path was terrifying. Now it didn’t seem so bad though.

The trees did still reach towards me, but then of them dared to grab on to my clothes or my flesh for that matter. I was completely unscathed as the trees broke away and the stone path came into view beneath Pandora’s hooves. The path that lead to my father’s castle, the path that lead home.

I was inside of the raincloud now, and despite the sun it was dark. But despite the dark I could still see everything. Seeing everything only made everything darker though, it made it even harder to see.

“Welcome to my home girl” I whispered down to Pandora. My father’s castle was now in sight.

Unlike Hollowdell the place did not look demonic. Everything was clean, crisp, and unfathomably white. Just like the metal that sat in one of Pandora’s saddlebags. I had forgotten about it for a while, maybe my father would know what exactly it was.

The white walls however were not made of metal but instead stone. Apparently a type of stone that would never tarnished nor become encrusted with dirt. It was a shame that the same couldn’t be said for my father, he was a fallen hero now. He was supposed to be the Guardian, all he had ever done was hurt me though.

There were a few towers and such, nothing important really. The place was more or less just a larger and far less evil looking version of the Duke’s citadel in Hollowdell.

There were a few men standing before the gates. I think they might have said something to me but I ignored them completely and urged Pandora on into a gallop. I couldn’t be bothered dealing with people at that moment.

“Halt” is what I think the man standing in front of the big double doors said.

I batted his spear away with the back of my hand and kicked the large double doors wide open. It hurt every single muscle in my body to do so. Plus I could feel the wounds from Symonds’ daggers in my legs all over again. But it was a good pain, the kind that helped distract me from the rain.

“Reubin!” I screamed as the doors swung open. My voice echoed throughout the structure and came back to me multiple times.

When there was no answer I think I screamed again. After that, he finally appeared.

I remembered his appearance down to the tiniest detail. Jet-black hair, just the same as my own except now with streaks of grey... more like silver. Hazel eyes that at first always seemed to have nothing unique about them, I knew though that there were flecks of bright orange within his dark green eyes.

He had always seemed tall when I was younger, but from the look of things I was now taller. He was musclier though, about the same build as Rowan. Actually no no scratch that, he was a considerable amount smaller than Rowan.

Today he was clothed fully in black and a silver chain hung around his neck, he was like that sometimes. I think he said that wearing all black was fun, it scared people or something stupid like that.

During the time it had taken for me to think about my father’s appearance he had crossed the entire hall and now had a sword pointed to my chest. I could only have expected as much from the monster.

“I won’t repeat myself again boy.” He said slowly and rather angrily. “Who are you?”

I think I laughed. “It’s me Reubin, your beloved son.”