Blood on the Horizon: Chapter Two

## Chapter 2 – Into Darkness

 Thran pressed his head back against the cold hard stone wall of the keep, closed his eyes and exhaled deeply as he shuffled along the wall inch by grueling inch, his hands scraping every crack and crevasse as it passed.
 It was late, at least midnight and the courtyard was pitch black save some dim light coming from the tavern across the courtyard. Storm clouds hovered above, shrouding the castle in brooding darkness, but the rain had subsided…… for now. Thran shivered as he shuffled along the wall. Fear consumed him this night. If he failed, the woman and child he loved so dearly would die, the most gruesome and painful death imaginable……. Because of him…. Because he failed. He wouldn’t let that happen.

 The only semblance of light in the keep illuminated softly from across the flower gardens and to his right. The sounds of flagons hitting table as men at arms singing songs about everything from sword to sexual conquest wafted across the courtyard to where he stood in silence. These are crass songs, but ones which Thran knew all to well and would gladly belt out with them over a pint of ale.

 Tonight though……things were different. Normally, Thran would be suspected of no wrongdoing, having worked as the local arms merchant and representative for Arkland’s best armorers and blacksmiths. He was well liked, an honest and decent man who was well know for being completely unbiased and fair in his business dealings. But no one in King’s Crossing had heard from him in several months and townsfolk and those he represented suspected he had been kidnapped or murdered by another trader trying to oust him.

 They say true Sons of Arkland are strong, both mentally and physically and it was unbecoming of a true Arklander to have his spirit broken through torture tactics and intimidation. But every man has a price and Thran had been pushed too far. His young wife and newborn daughter were threatened, then kidnapped by the Minsheng bandit Zhou Yu. Thran is not a traitor, but he is a man of principle who cared for his family more than anything. And that, some would argue, is his biggest weakness.

 His mission was the highest form of treason against the crown, a crime which would see him executed if he were caught – break into the barracks, steal Arklands war plans and deliver them to the Minsheng garrison encamped outside the abandoned town of Organi, to the South and West of Kings Crossing, just across the border between Arkland and the Sand Seas. “Den,” shrieked Zhou Yu’s raspy voice in his head, “And onry den will you get your family back!”

 Thran inhaled deeply, heart pounding out of his chest with every step. Another two hundred feet and he would reach the barracks. He pushed himself away from the wall and ran as hard as he had ever run before toward the tower. As he ran, he felt drops of moisture on his face. The clouds opened up. It began to downpour, the thundering of the raindrops drowning out what had once been an eiry and alarming silence. He welcomed the noise.

The dirt turned to mud. Thran felt his left leg turn in unexpectedly, and his foot slid straight out to the side. He fell back hard, sending a giant puddle of mud in his wake as he slipped and leaving his cloak complete drenched and frothy with brown sludge. Embarrassed, he glared into the darkness all around to make sure he had not been spotted. Good, no bleeding or broken limbs.

“This damned mud” he thought. “How could you be such a clumsy oaf. Pull yourself together dammit!”

He pushed himself to his feet, tiptoed carefully the remaining twenty or so feet to the tower door and fondled the handle. Sweat flowed from his pores as the rain bludgeoned him mercilessly. He turned the knob, holding his breathe… It opened. He exhaled. “Thank the Light”

Thran slid through the door and closed it carefully behind him so as not to startle any unexpected foes, should they be lurking around the barracks instead of drinking with their brother knights. He found himself in a long room enclosed by stone walls, sparsely decorated to his left save a long row of beds stacked against the wall. The fireplace to his right was newly kindled, and the pops and roars of the burning wood eased is nerves a bit. This was the barracks where Arklands finest knights stayed to sleep while they prepared themselves for the coming war. To his right past the fireplace gleamed a set of purple and white armor with the iron cross of Arkland engraved on the breastplate.

Thran knew this suite of armor well. It had belonged to Pender Tallymore, one of Arklands greatest unsung heroes of the 2nd War. Pender had been slain in the days immediately following the end of the conflict when he and a meager handful of bloodied and mortally wounded knights were ambushed by Minsheng ronin while in retreat to Kings Crossing.

“Poor bastard was too wounded and weak to put up a fight and those bloody whoresons beat him to death.”

He spat and made the sign of the cross of Arkland on his forehead to honor the long dead warrior. Now, the armor had been passed down to Fabian Paquin, the new King’s Champion and the most decorated and respected knight in Arkland.

Further down the stone walls hung shelves full of herbs, skulls, various gems and spell tomes, and rare alchemy ingredients.

“So, the rumors are true,” He thought. “The knights of Arkland are magic users indeed.”

In the corner at the far end of the room, past the beds and random shelves of battered and broken training armor, stood an ornate chest, made of solid oak and lined with gold. It had been given to Kings Crossing by the Great Forest Tribes as a sign of respect and a gesture of peace, before the 2nd war…. Before the betrayal.

Thran shed the muddied and wet cloak, grabbed his satchel and rummaged through the contents. He found his two lock pick pieces, knelt in front of the chest and stuck them in, feeling around for the mechanisms. He fumbled with it for what seemed like an eternity. As he caught on the lock he felt a thud, blunt steel and intense throbbing pain on the back of his head. Then everything went black.