The Hunted

Chapter Three

Chapter 3

Tor was in the middle of morning prayers when the monastery bell started to ring; the alarm signal. The signal had been established years ago, when the Ishrack plains were plagued with raiders. In fact it still was but the Legion patrols had long since restored order to the area. Many of the raiders now served as bodyguards against the surviving robber bands.

The orphans immediately started to scrabble about in fright whilst the priests frantically tried to restore order.

"Orphans to the assembly point. Staves will be handed out at arrival." were the lines echoed by priests and monks alike around the hall. It was traditional that young orphans taken in by the church were taught the basics of fighting with a Krutaal, a weapon which was made up of a stout wooden fighting staff and two twenty centimetre blades, one at either end.

However, before Tor could move towards the small door that lead out to the courtyard assembly point, the main doors crashed open and twenty men, all in black, swords in hands rushed in. Before they could move an inch the door behind the altar to Romanus splintered into tiny pieces with a deafening boom. More men, this time in brown poured into the room.

For some reason, far beyond Tor's comprehension, both parties looked directly at him before starting a mad rush towards him.

With a mad cry the two bands crashed into each other, hacking and slashing in a berserk frenzy.

But one man stood aside; the leader of the second party. He swept up his gnarled hands in a mystical gesture. The room shook and a crack of lightning followed by a boom of echoing thunder rebounded through the lofty chamber. The windows flashed a hue of blue and the tiled floor of the abbey cracked straight down the middle. The faces of the other party turned pale as they began to writhe in grotesque pain.

As their hands gripped their throats they started to cough and choke in such powerful blasts that they were bowled from their feet. Suddenly they all fell limp, dead on the floor of the Gods embassy.

As crimson liquid began to pour from beneath the corpses, the man responsible for their tortured deaths stepped forth towards Tor.

Tor stumbled back, out of arms reach in a desperate bid to escape. He didn't notice the man with a club behind him, even as he began to swing it down...