Bond Of Blood

Chapter 9

"I am telling you, I heard something!"

"Shut up, you always keep saying that...remember what happened the last time? You said there was an intruder and by the time we amassed all our men, it turned out that you had heard a rat that had knocked over a stack of old chamber pots!"

The first guard snorted as he bit back the scathing retort that had been at the tip of his tongue and stayed silent. He had been mistaken the last time, but as far as he was concerned, he had done the correct thing in reporting in.

Ever since Erikur...Jarl Erikur, he corrected himself, had come into command of the Blue Palace and Solitude shortly afterwards, there had been a need for soldiers who were not blinded by the 'false Dragonborn' that Erikur had been snarling about at every person he had come across. The number of men and women who had come forward had been few however.

"Think we should check?"

"Honestly, who do you think would enter the Palace in the dead of night, knowing it is well defended and that it would take a small army to get past us? No-one would try it."

"She would," the other muttered sourly.

"Yeah, but she always has been a crazy bitch. Besides, no-one has seen the Dragonborn since Jarl Erikur put the bounty on her head."

"You did say she was crazy...maybe she is coming for him."

"Yeah...and run right into a whole town full of guards. She's crazy but not stupid. Now shut up and..."

CLANG.

"I TOLD you there was something down there!"

"Shut your fucking mouth and follow me. Maybe its another damned rat after all."

"Shut up," the guard muttered as he followed, unsheathing his iron blade and clenching it with a slightly sweaty hand.

The two guards ran around the corner and scowled at the sight of the small mice that scurried amongst the ruined bookshelf that had obviously collapsed from wood rot.

"Tell me again why we stand guard here?"

The other man chuckled as he sheathed his blade.

"You know that the Pelagius Wing is not exactly the most...sturdy part of the Palace. The doors and windows are still strong though, so even if someone were to break in this way, they would struggle to get through all the ruins without falling through the floor."

The guard laughed and put his blade away.

Just as a sharp blade slashed right through his throat, the edge easily cutting through the skin and sinew before slicing through the windpipe before he even had the chance to take a breath.

The other guard fared no better.

He had heard the soft gurgling sound coming from the other guard, but his blade had only been partially pulled from his sheath before a foot suddenly appeared from the gloom and connected with his jaw, sending him crashing to the ground. He tried to reach his dagger in his belt when a knee appeared from above him, the appendage dropping onto his shoulder and pinning his arm down.

Two glittering eyes appeared from within a black cowl and he shivered as they stared at him. Bright orange, they were not the eyes of a person, but those of a monster.

He didn't see the blade coming down, and only felt a sharp pain on the side of his head before everything went black...

Morgan stood up and ran the blade along the tunic of the dead guard lying under her and sheathed the dagger when most of the blood had been wiped off. She looked around and nodded to the pale blue apparition that had appeared out of nowhere, a feral grin on his face.