Paladin - the path north volume one

Chapter 13

Bordin waited patiently, his eyes never leaving the silent sentinels by the door. He cursed under his breath, crossing his arms as he ignored the others stares.

"How long is this going to take?" he asked aloud, already annoyed he'd been left behind.

"As long as the Saints need him," Dagarn replied lethargically.

Bordin had seen the orc fight several times in the past and knew better than to pick a fight with him.

The sentinels suddenly moved their weapons aside and the door swung open, a few seconds later Tar'vid exited, his whole body trembled and his eyes were red raw from tears. Sah'rah followed behind closely, whispering in his ear and holding his arm in a comforting manner... what had happened in there? Tarquin took a step forward, willing to risk asking the question, but Sah'rah shook her head and the duellist stopped in his tracks.

"My chieftain, are you alright?" Bordin asked finally, it was doing Tar'vid's reputation damage just standing there.

He suddenly shrugged off Sah'rah's arm and pushed past them all without uttering a word, looking for all the world like a lost child.

"My chief..." he started to ask again when Sah'rah caught his arm.

"Let him go," she told him forcefully as he saw her eyes were also red from tears.

"What in the hells happened in there?" he asked angrily, removing her hand from his arm.

"There... was a messenger from Keldran, he brought ill tidings... Luna is dead, as is Tar'vid's child, Randell, their village has been razed to the ground... they only found chard corpses in the village hall" she replied, tears rolling down her cheeks once more.

Bordin grunted such things happened in undefended villages quite often. Why had he not sent her to a town or burgh? He looked back suddenly as Tarquin fell to his knees, trembling with rage.

"Who!" he screamed. "Who did this? They will pay for this!"

"The culprits were tracked down... and the King's justice was given swiftly" Sah'rah replied.

Why was she so distraught? From what Bordin knew, she'd met Tar'vid's wife once, and nearly been killed by her. Tarquin, though, had been close to Luna, perhaps more so than Tar'vid had been. Tarquin roared with anger and grief, storming from the entrance way and smashing several statues to pieces with his fists.

"How can you be so aloof Bordin?" Sah'rah asked him. "Tar'vid is your friend is he not? By the Gods, his first child is dead, before he could even see her."

"I have lost several children, to illness, to miscarriage... you see enough death and it strips you of something, pray you don't suffer the same as I have," he replied coldly before walking away, he had to drag Tar'vid back from the abyss he was surely on the edge of.

Bordin followed Tar'vid's tracks, his chieftain's tracks weren't hard to find, deep footfalls were everywhere he'd run. Bordin peered inside a room where the door had clearly been broken, though now it was repairing itself. Sat in the middle of the room was Tarquin, head hung low and crying. Just what was his deal with Luna? Tar'vid's reaction was in line with the way he worshipped her... hells below, she'd probably been his first, Bordin couldn't imagine marrying his first partner, she had been a whore after all. He left Tarquin to his strange grief, the strange man wasn't his priority right now, Tar'vid, and his weak mental state was. Bordin pushed on, the strange corridors twisted and warped in unfathomable angles, until, Bordin found a single door open and oddly inviting. He stepped through, finding a spiral staircase a few feet inside.

"He would've gone to the top wouldn't he" Bordin murmured to himself before beginning his ascent.

The staircase seemed to have no end, with every section well lit from endlessly glowing lamps set into the walls. Eventually, though the staircase finished and Bordin emerged out onto the roof, the brisk cold reminding him of how warm it was indoors. He spotted Tar'vid immediately, perched upon a parapet.