The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) (35 page)

The past two days on the road had been long and hard because they were all more than eager to quickly get as far away from the valley where the graywraiths had attacked as they could manage. This meant they would set off at first light, and wouldn’t stop until it was too dark to go any further. The first night after the attack everyone’s nerves were on edge. Jak didn’t sleep well at all that night, tossing and turning, and waking at every little sound he heard. The others didn’t fair much better being on pins and needles themselves.

Benjim didn’t know if the graywraiths would follow them out of the mountains or not. They were still quite a ways from any civilization, and the night was dark and ominous, making it necessary to keep the fire burning brightly. The old man seemed to think that the graywraiths would not follow this far, but his uncertainty showed on his countenance, and he was just as nervous and on edge as everyone else.

Benjim speculated that the stone marker they had seen on their way up the mountain had actually been a warning sign telling people not to pass that way. Perhaps the graywraiths had always been there in that valley. and would not, or could not leave the place. Or maybe the marker had nothing to do with the graywraiths at all ,but the speculation still did nothing to ease any of their paranoia.

The second night wasn’t nearly as bad as the first had been. They had moved south out of the foothills of the Achii Mountains, and were now in more open rolling hills. The trees were patchy and further between, and in many spots there were large expanses of rolling grassland where no trees grew at all. But the memory of the beasts, and their terrifying attack was still fresh. Jak wasn’t sure he would ever completely get over it, and be comfortable in the wilderness at night again.

But tonight it seemed Jak would not have to worry about graywraiths or sleeping on the hard ground in the dark. The Big Elm Inn was the only one in the small town of Hellstone. It was however, fairly large, and had ample rooms. Merchants would come to Hellstone on occasion from Yilavo City to buy and sell goods. The merchants would take rooms at the inn for several days at a time while they did business before heading back south.

Yilavo City was two days ride further south down the North Sanchi Road. Jak was fairly certain that was where the witch…….and perhaps Brigette was located. His feeling of being drawn in that direction hadn’t changed in quite some time. The pulling remained constant in the same direction, just growing a little stronger the further south they traveled. Jak was filled with a mix of apprehension and excitement at the prospect of getting to Yilavo City since he wanted to find out what had happened to Brigette.
Was she alright? Did the witch have her captive….…..or….worse?
But at the same time, he dreaded the thought of seeing the Blood Witch again, and hoped he could find Brigette and avoid seeing the witch altogether.

As Jak was stabling the horses behind the Big Elm Inn at Hellstone, he couldn’t help but look out at the gigantic rock that gave the village its name. It was a rather curious thing, and he had never seen anything like it before, but then again, he had not traveled anywhere outside of Hlifglynn in his life before now. There were a great many things he had never seen before. His curiosity got the best of him and he asked Benjim if he knew anything about the large stone sitting to the east of the village.

“Legend has it, that in the time before time, when the gods and devils fought for possession of all the land, there arose a mighty devil, bigger and stronger than all the others. This devil had ambitions to rule all things, both in heaven and on earth, so he hurled a giant boulder from the depths of hell at the heavens in an attempt to crush the gods. Instead of crushing the gods, the boulder fell back to the earth, landing right on the devil, and thereby crushing him beneath it, hence the name Hellstone.” The old man chuckled at the end.

“Did you just make that up?” Jak asked suspiciously.

“Oh no my boy, the legend of Hellstone is even older than I am, and that is saying a lot,” the old man smiled again before he headed towards the inn.

The horses had been put in the stables, and Jak belongings were given to the attendants to be taken to his room. So he was finally able to sit down to eat a good hot dinner. It seemed like forever since he had a good hot meal, and he was looking forward to it as his stomach grumbled in anticipation. But then again, he had been feeling that way quite often lately. He missed his mother’s home cooked meals. The thought of her threatened to dredge up painful memories, so he squashed them quickly and tried to take his mind of it by looking around the common room.

While he was waiting, Jak noticed the innkeeper and some of their help glaring suspiciously in his direction. But then it occurred to him, that he was in a rather odd traveling party after all, and perhaps the villagers were just trying to figure them out. In any event, he didn’t really care at the moment since he just wanted to eat a good meal and go to bed. He was almost looking forward to the bed, and a good night’s sleep more than the food.

The innkeeper hesitantly approached their table to tell them that their things were in their rooms. He also gave them instructions as to which rooms were theirs for the night since the inn was fairly large.

“How have things been here lately?” Benjim asked the innkeeper in his friendly way, “Everyone seems a little on edge, has something out of the ordinary happened here recently?” Apparently, the old man had noticed the strange, suspicious looks from the innkeeper and his staff as well.

The innkeeper looked on the verge of ignoring the old man and walking away, but paused for a moment before turning back to Benjim and answering, “Well, it’s been strange goings on here for the past week or two as near as I can recall. More than a week ago now, can’t recollect exactly how long ago…… but it seems about a week, there was a young girl came through. She was awful full of herself, that’s for sure. Seemed a bit young to be traveling alone, not more than sixteen or seventeen, I’d say. But that wasn’t the troubling thing; she started asking questions, all sly like. But her questions were ones she shouldn’t be asking. She was trying to stir up trouble she was. I was glad when she left the next day. I didn’t want her staying here any longer. People were starting to talk. Saying she was one of them dark witches or something. I don’t know maybe she was, and maybe she wasn’t. But she shouldn’t of been asking questions like that.”

The innkeeper paused for a breath before continuing, “Then a few days back a young fellow came riding through here. Nothing usual about that except that he was riding like he had hell-hounds on his trail. Was in an awful big hurry he was. His horse was darn near dead on its feet, the poor thing. It was all lathered up, and breathing hard, and looked as if it would keel over any minute. We told him as much, since he didn’t seem to see it for himself. But then, he wanted us to give him a new horse. Hmph, he didn’t have any money to buy one he said, not that we have many spare horses for sale anyhow. But whoever he was carrying a message for was supposed to be real important. Said
she
would reward anyone who helped him.

Well of course we didn’t just give him a horse. Folks around here aren’t that well-to-do to just be giving out horses. But I did tell him he could sleep in the barn for the night, since he didn’t have any money, and should be letting his horse rest. He didn’t want to bed down in the barn at first. Said he needed to keep going. But then after a bit he up and changed his mind.

Found out why a little while later when he stole old Braken’s horse out of the stable and took off. We would have sent men after him to bring him back, but old Braken called them off. Since the thief had left his buckskin gelding, Braken just took it and called it an even trade. After all, the buckskin was younger and better than the one he lost. So he said there was no reason to waste the time runnin’ after the strange fellow”

“Is it not fairly common for you to get strangers through here often?” Benjim asked.

“Sure we do, on occasion at least. But these we’ve had lately were a little stranger than usual, if you know what I mean.” The innkeeper eyed the four at the table sideways for a moment before continuing, “We don’t get too many horse thieves around here often neither. It all just sets folks on edge a bit.

That’s not all though,” the innkeeper said glancing around the room nervously. “The past few nights some of our sheep have been turning up dead. They were torn apart like some wild animal attacked them. We don’t get too many wolves here this far from the mountains. Besides, from what I hear they usually don’t make that big a mess either. This looked like something
big
killed them sheep. Didn’t really eat too much of them neither, just tore them apart and left them there. Well, the one’s we found anyways. Seems like a few of the sheep are just…..gone, disappeared, and no one can find them. Willum swears he saw some big black shadows stalking about last night near the edge of town. Me, I just think folks are getting too worked up and letting their imaginations get the best of them.”

A chill pour over Jak like someone had upended a bucket of cold water on him and he immediate though of the graywraiths.
Could they have made it this far south? But if they did why would they attack sheep and not the people?
It didn’t make a lot of sense. Besides, the graywraiths had not really looked like shadows exactly. Jak dismissed the thought since it was probably just his fear of the soul stealers getting the best of him.

“Then you show up,” the innkeeper continued as he ran a wary eye over the people at the table, “you aren’t exactly the typical traveling party now are you? I’m just saying…folks are on edge, and suspicious of strangers these days. Just you watch yourself now,” with that warning the innkeeper abruptly turned and walked off, eager to be away from them.

For a man who didn’t seem to want to talk much the innkeeper had gone on for quite some time. Jak suspected he was normally a fairly friendly and talkative man. If not for the series of strange events, they would most likely be hard pressed to get rid of the innkeeper. It seemed now however, that the strange events had overcome his talkative nature, and he was eager to be away from the strangers.

Jak and the others continued to eat their dinner in silence. After a few moments two villagers walked through the doors to the inn and took up seats at the bar, calling for ale from the barkeep. Jak was sitting at the table such that he was facing the bar and the two men who just arrived. Nicoldani was sitting directly across from Jak with his back to the newcomers.

Jak noticed that the two men kept casting glances over their shoulders towards him and his friends. The looks of the two men were apprehensive and suspicious of the strangers at the table. They were leaning close together and talking low as to not be overheard. Occasionally they would ask the barkeep questions, before peering back over their shoulders at Jak and the others. The men seemed excessively agitated and unsettled by the strangers at the table. Jak leaned casually over the table and whispered to Nicoldani, “Those two men at the bar keep staring at us.”

“I know they are, just ignore them,” the big man said without looking up from his plate of food.

Moments passed, and four more of the local men walked through the door and joined the two already at the bar. They were all drinking ale and talking softly with each other. Finally, two more men came in and joined the others at the bar. With the added men, they started to get louder and bolder in their words on account of their increased numbers, along with all the ale they were drinking. They weren’t even attempting to hide their glares now, and Jak could overhear words on occasion like, strangers…do something…black magic....need to get rid of them.

Benjim, without raising his head from his plate of food, spoke softly, “There is going to be trouble before long. I think it would be best if we just retire to our rooms now before things get any worse.”

Everyone at the table agreed, but before they had a chance to leave one of the men from the bar walked over to stand between where Nicoldani and Gin were sitting. The newcomer was a big man, and had large well-muscled arms, presumably from hard labor. The man’s head was bald, but he wore a full well trimmed beard. It looked as if he had shaved his head bald intentionally since there was a faint shadow of stubble covering his scalp. The man was sweaty, and his clothes had dirt stains on the front and sleeves. He wore his shirt half-unlaced exposing a hairy, muscular chest, with skin sun-darkened from days in the sun. He wore a long dagger at his belt, and looked as if he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Jak realized the man had placed himself in that location intentionally to block Nicoldani’s sword arm. Nicoldani would not be able to draw his sword without moving to the side and back, giving the man standing an advantage if trouble broke out.

Three of the men at the bar had stood, and were now facing the table where Jak and his friends sat. Two had swords at their hip, and one a long curved dagger. The three men were not advancing, and had not drawn their weapons…yet. But they were poised to move quickly if the need arose.

“What business do you have here in Hellstone?” The large man asked contemptuously as he turned and spat a dark liquid onto the floor.

“We are just passing through,” Benjim said mildly, but at the same time Nicoldani said, “What business is it of yours what we do?”

The old man rolled his eyes in consternation since he was trying to diffuse the situation, and Nicoldani was making it worse. Nicoldani would never make a living as a negotiator.