Threads of Vengeance

Part 2 Chapter 3

Rizal’s Castle, Syral

The winds howled and snarled, throwing themselves furiously at the arched windows that boldly defied them. Proahn sat in a large armchair in Rizal’s private study. Hundreds and hundreds of books covered the walls from top to bottom. A small fire in the fireplace cast a warm glow on the room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A scent of fresh piss and shit barged into his nose and wrecked havoc.

He opened his eyes, which were immediately drawn to the source of the smell. A man covered in what seemed to be a year’s worth of the city’s waste stood, dripping wet in the doorway. He seemed out of place. A stain on the otherwise immaculate room.

“Daarva’s bloody breath,” swore Proahn. “What happened?”

The man coughed and spoke slowly, “She killed ‘em all. Only I survived.”

“I sent, over twice the men she took with her. And Rizal had some of his own men. Are you saying she killed them all?!”

The shit soaked man stared at his feet. “We ‘ad split up m’lord. The tunnels ‘ad too many paths. The dogs wouldn’t go ‘undred steps near the tunnels.”

The man lifted his hand, revealing a frozen head, badly hacked off at the neck. Rizal’s face stared out through the ice with an eerie expression. “I got this though. ‘alf the tunnel was all frozen.”

Proahn nodded lightly. If she had created as much ice as the man claimed, she would be more than a little weak.

“How did you survive?” asked Proahn. He already guessed the answer, but he asked anyway.

“I-I pretended I was dead m’lord,” the man mumbled.

“Fine, thaw the head by the fire and get a bath. You smell worse than Daarva’s breath.”

The man, looking relieved, placed the head by the fire and fled.

Proahn leant back in his chair and call out loudly. “Namir!”

A dark, ordianry looking man appeared behind him. With him was another man who was tightly bound in in chains. Proahn tossed him a small sacked. It jingled when Namir caught it.

“How long are you going to keep him?” asked Proahn.

“Not much longer,” The dark man lazily brought his hand down in an arc.

The man in chains looked on confusedly as blood dripped down his chest. He lightly touched his neck, from where the blood originated. Then, his head fell off his shoulders and landed on the ground with a thump. The rumours were true after all. He was a crystal user. Namir opened the sack and inspected the contents.

“You owe me more,” he said.

“That fool, has paid you too hasn’t he?” said Proahn, nodding at the head by the fire.

“That’s between me and him. This is between you and me,” replied the mercenary.

“I paid you, to get paid by Rizal. That’s more than enough,”

“No, you paid me to betray him,” Namir looked steadily at Proahn, unmoving.

“Fine, you pox ridden bastard, I’ll pay you when we get back to the Capitol,” snapped Proahn. “And tell someone on your way out, to ask the army to assemble again. I have an address to make.”

The mercenary nodded and walked out.

Proahn turned to the desk next to him and grabbed a parchment. He dipped an owl feather in ink and wrote, his hands flying across the parchment, causing long elegant letters to appear.

To General Icanan and Royal Advisors.

It is with regret and the deepest of sorrows that I write this. Our beloved Empress has passed away. She succumbed to injuries inflicted upon her by Rizal during his capture. I shall explain the details further when I return.

Captain of the royal guards

Proahn

He stared at the letter for a long time and then crumpled it into a ball. Tossing it into the fire, he sighed. It was far too much like Rizal’s writing.

“Old habits, eh?” he addressed Rizal’s icy head, lying upon the ground. He pulled out another parchment and started rewriting the letter.

                                                                   * * *

Proahn stared distastefully at the entrance to the tunnels under Rizal’s bedroom. A giant of a man covered from head to toe in steel stood next to Proahn. The armour looked heavy enough to be painful. The man wearing it, however felt no pain. He never did. He held an iron chain that served as a leash in one hand. At the other end of the leash was the man that had earlier brought Proahn, Rizal’s head. In his other hand was a monstrous spear.

Proahn led him inside the tunnels.

“Go,” he told the Hatth.

“Kill everything you find. He will show you the way,” Proahn gestured to the leashed man who looked ready to shit in his pants. Maybe he already had. The smell from the tunnels overrode everything.

The giant nodded and strode into the dark tunnels. He watched the Hatth vanish into the dark tunnels, dragging the poor sod leashed to him like a rag doll. Hopefully, the Hatth would do the job. Proahn’s master was not a lenient man. Failure, was not an option at all.