Brave Men Die: Part 2 (5 page)

The thought of the brothers drunk at the tavern came to his mind, how they would stumble home sometime in the early morning. They were part of his arsenal and they needed to be at their optimum too. When everything was done and all three artefacts were in his possession, he would take them up on their offer for a night of drinking, but for now, he had to hit the books.

The work crew were returning to the tent camp established to the north of the site as the sun crested the horizon. Nervous eyes shifted from one shadow to the next as they hobbled along the dirt track, tools in hand. The five men and lone woman were trailed by a dozen young boys that were encumbered with even more equipment, pushing barrows and carrying packs over their shoulders.

Passing through the small gate that broke the wall of sharpened stakes, they quickly hurried past the two mercenaries standing nonchalantly to either side, silently counting heads to make sure the archaeologists and their support team returned from the day’s work.

‘They’re all back,’ Mr Green yelled into the camp. The two men remained outside the wall, returning their gaze to the wilderness around them and the drifting shadows. Their eyes were alert scanning for the movement that had appeared every night for the last two weeks since the discovery had been made.

‘Well done, Finn, your team kept them all alive today,’ Rigel teased, poking his uncle in the ribs.

Finn Strom stood with his huge arms folded across his broad chest. Dressed in leather armour, scars running across the length of his body, he looked very much the mercenary captain he was. His dark hair was cut short and he had the same intense green eyes that Rigel had inherited from his mother.

‘I wouldn’t have asked you down here if I didn’t think I needed your special kind of help.’

Lines of worry momentarily crossed Finn’s brow before he took control again, repressing the memory of finding the boys’ bodies ripped to shreds at day break after the night-long, self-enforced siege. After that night, he had ordered that they return by nightfall to the safety of the barricade and doubled the defences. They had argued but he would hear nothing of it. Finn couldn’t explain why they needed to be back before dark, only that something was out there.

The howling convinced them on the third night, spontaneously starting just after midnight. Finn assumed the beast was finally hungry and it was calling them out, daring them to hunt it and leave the safety of the walls. But it was enough to scare the archaeologists shitless and they hunkered down under their bunks as the mercenaries patrolled the camp. They didn’t complain after that, nor did they sleep.

The mutilated bodies plagued his thoughts. Every time he closed his eyes for an instant, they were there. He didn’t dare fall asleep. Hollow eye sockets stared up at him, a rib cage torn open, limbs scattered on the bloody ground. He’d buried them himself, five foot deep as was proper, to spare the archaeology team from the sight of it. Finn had then returned to the camp and posted men at vital positions and at the ruins around the clock. Then he’d written to his nephew in the hope of getting some much needed muscle.

‘You said you’d pay,’ Rigel reminded him. His nephew was standing with his hands on his hips, dangerously close to the hilt of his weapon. His face was as cold as ice and his green eyes bored into him, a familiar stance when he was determined to get an answer out of him.

Finn broke out into a grin at the memory of when Rigel was five and wanted to know why he couldn’t run away from home and become a mercenary. ‘But what could a mercenary captain like myself have to offer to a Seventh Circle mage and my dumb-arse nephew?’

The captain’s arms dropped by his side, his palms turned up to shrug his shoulders. The two men smiled at each other, the familiarity of family finally relaxing the two fighters. Rigel lowered his hands and the two men quickly embraced.

‘Really? You’re grown men, is this display really needed?’

The two men shifted their gazes to the previously silent third party in the room. The young blonde had her lithe arms folded across her breasts, glaring at the two men. Finn looked away, unsettled by the power radiating from her eyes but her attitude didn’t faze the acolyte in the slightest and the corner of Rigel’s lips twisted up into a smile.

‘And the payment better be worth the hassle of coming down here Finn.’

‘Is she always this serious?’ Finn asked Rigel.

‘I think it’s kind of cute.’

This was only the third time Finn had met Carina, and she had only got more ferocious every time. The first time she was still a Fourth Circle, the next a Fifth. But the jump in power between then and now had had some serious ramifications on her attitude and presence. She was fucking scary.

‘Carina you have to understand—’

‘You promised payment in your letter, Finn.’

He could almost feel the frost of her breath as those ice blue eyes of hers stared into his. For someone so young and beautiful, the girl was an ice queen.

‘You let her read the letter Rigel?’ Finn demanded.

‘How else do you think I convinced her to come down to this shit hole?’ Rigel replied, shrugging his shoulders. ‘It’s not like she listens to me …’

‘The payment Finn, or we’re leaving.’ Carina’s hands sunk to her hips, her stance widening slightly.

‘You didn’t need to come Carina, I asked Rigel because I needed the extra muscle.’

‘You think he’d be here if I didn’t let him? He’s my acolyte, he’s given up his freedom to serve me. He can’t even scratch himself without my say so.’

A look of disbelief flickered over Finn’s face. His eyes darted to Rigel to confirm Carina’s accusation.

‘She lets me scratch myself. And pee. She lets me do that without asking,’ Rigel assured him with a grin.

Finn didn’t know what to believe and was shaking his head. Then he noticed the shift in Rigel’s face, the seriousness slowly descending across his features

‘I had to beg her,’ Rigel whispered behind his hand. ‘Just tell her how much.’

Finn looked between Rigel and Carina. He couldn’t see why his nephew would sign his life away for this bitch. But he had. He’d given up his life to undergo the procedure to make him an acolyte; faster than other men, more stamina, but at the cost of protecting a mage for the rest of his life. And his choice of mage … But that was the reason why he needed him now.

‘I can’t pay you with money,’ Finn revealed with a hint of defeat in his voice.

Carina didn’t even pause. ‘We’re out of here. I’ve got work to do at the Academy that is more important than sitting out in the woods in the middle of Firadon.’

Carina pushed between the two men toward the exit of the tent, her black robe engulfing her tiny frame and masking the sounds of her movement.

‘Wait.’ Finn exhaled loudly. ‘I don’t have money but I can offer something else.’

Carina stopped at the entrance of the tent, waiting expectantly for the captain to finally reveal what he should have offered in the first place.

‘You both know the ruins those book types are digging around in. For your services, the archaeologists have agreed, completely off the books mind you, that you can take anything magical that they find.’

Carina slowly turned around to face him. ‘The Academy cleaned those ruins out centuries ago, there’s nothing left.’

‘That’s what you think,’ he said with a smile.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘The diggers found something, in fact, the discovery is the whole reason why I needed Rigel to come down. There’s a chamber, completely untouched, you can take your pick.’

‘No restrictions on what I can choose?’

‘None whatsoever.’

Carina paused to appear if she was weighing up the decision, despite the smile creeping onto her lips in giddy anticipation of finding something utterly brilliant down there. ‘Fine, we’ll take care of your problem.’

‘What do I get?’ Rigel asked.

Carina and Finn both turned to look at the acolyte, neither expecting him to inquire about payment after Carina’s bargaining, both of them expected that she had negotiated Rigel as well.

‘What do you want?’ Finn asked.

‘The chamber is full of valuable old shit?’

‘I’ll talk to them …’ Finn shrugged.

‘And tell them that I’ll take what I want.’

Rigel left Carina in the tent to sleep and went searching for his uncle. Pushing aside the flap, the warm night air blasted his face and he immediately looked up to the dazzling stars against the pitch-black sky.

Noticing that nearly all of the mercenaries were active as he went to the gate, Rigel wondered exactly why he had been asked to come to Firadon. Some discovery at the ruins wouldn’t make Finn post guards in the camp, the extra security would be needed at the site. Something had made him shift his priorities.

Finn was standing at the open gate, staring out into the shadows, his arms folded across his chest. Two other men of the company stood to either side, weapons in hand, focused on nothing but the captain’s face, as if watching the reflections in his eyes.

‘We really need to talk captain,’ Rigel said as he stopped by his uncle’s side, his eyes drawn toward the darkness.

The three men were so still, so motionless. They could have been mistaken for stone. Rigel didn’t envy them for it — he just couldn’t stand still anymore.

‘You can’t take your eyes off the shadows if we do,’ Finn replied, indicating the woods across the way.

Rigel was puzzled but he agreed and Finn indicated for the two men to leave them at the post. He kept his eyes on the shadows beyond the open field in the tree line, noticing the slight breeze rustle the tall grass and the leaves clinging to the branches.

‘Was that wise Finn? You obviously feel you needed to tighten security.’

‘You’re worth five men Rigel, if it tries to come through the gate, let’s just hope that we can stop it.’

‘Stop it? I thought there was something you weren’t telling me, something that would make you want to call me. So what is it?’

‘The archaeologists were working late into the night, determined that they were close to the discovery, kind of obsessed like. We were brought on just to keep others away from the site, an easy job really, but it turned messy a couple of days after they discovered the chamber.’

‘The first night it happened the diggers were coming back sporadically, whenever they tired out to be honest. We weren’t really keeping an eye on them, their whereabouts or their comings and goings. We assumed they had all come back, but we were wrong.’

Rigel nodded, encouraging him to continue.

‘It was close to midnight when someone reported the two boys missing. Then the howling started. It was deep and guttural, like nothing I’ve ever heard before.’

‘Really, Finn?’

‘I’ve been out in the wilderness for longer than you’ve been alive Rigel. I know the howls of the deadliest creatures out here and I swear this was like nothing I’ve ever heard before.’

‘What did it do?’

‘I went out the next morning, I sent out two others that I trust completely, and shut down the camp and the site and let no one out. I found what was left of their bodies. They were torn to shreds, their flesh was flayed, their insides were eaten. Buried them myself, didn’t let anyone else see the bodies, it was just fucked.’

‘So you sent the letter that day?’

‘You better believe it. I doubled the guard, spent the afternoon reinforcing the barricade around the camp and kept the diggers inside for the next couple of days. During the day there was no sign of it, but at night … that’s when we could hear it. The howling. And when we looked into the shadows almost all of us swore we could see it move, but still have no idea what it really was.’

‘So you needed me or Carina?’

‘I figured with your abilities you could handle it on your own. Maybe I’d throw in my lot with you and we could take it. But with the blonde here, it will help,’ he said with a smile.

Both men hadn’t shifted their gaze from the shadows beyond the open gate.

‘How game has it been?’

‘It tore into a man stationed here at the gate and dragged him off into the woods. His partner swears blind the creature was made of nothing but shadow and teeth and claws.’

‘What about guarding the site? The diggers must be losing their shit if none of your mercenaries are over there.’

‘With that thing out there, it’s doing that part of the job for us. I’m focused on keeping the people alive.’

‘So when are we going to take it out?’

‘I’m thinking the sooner, the better. I’m sick of having this post every fucking night.’

‘Carina and I will scout around the area in the morning, see if we can find anything. But if you are right and it only comes out at night, then I guess I’ll go hunting when the sun goes down.’

‘You’ll want to go get some sleep boy, you’ll need your rest before taking on the beast.’

‘Finn, I’m an acolyte, I can go without sleep for weeks without any ill effects. You sleep, come replace me at dawn, and if it comes at me before then I’ll have saved us the trouble of having to look for it in the morning.’

Finn patted him on the shoulder and walked off to the field of tents, never turning back to check that he would be okay.

Rigel continued to stare out into the shadows, tracking the beast every time it crossed his field of vision. It was huge, easily twice the size of him and just as fast. His fingers brushed over the hilt of his blade but he left it sheathed, and waited for it to come to him.

‘I’m guessing you want to go and look inside the ruins?’ Rigel asked Carina as she was dressing. He stood back at the entrance of the tent, half guarding the entrance, half stopping her from leaving.

She stood as she slid her pants up over her thighs, never once sparing him a glance. Carina held her tongue as she laced up the front of her vest and flicked her long blonde hair out behind her to free it.

‘Of course, why wouldn’t I?’

‘You don’t want to come with me?’

‘And traipse through the bloody woods chasing shadows? I don’t think so,’ Carina said, smiling. This morning she was clearly in a playful mood despite spending the night in a tent. Rigel suspected it was because this morning she would have her pick of some ancient treasure, or her recent orgasm.

‘I hope you find what you’re looking for down there.’

‘Why are you so annoyed?’ Carina picked up her robe, dusted it off before deciding to leave it on her bunk. She wouldn’t need it down there.