This chapter has been edited due to content. If you want to see the unedited version GO HERE.
ALEX CASEY
I took another sip of coffee as the wind began to pick up. It was more bitter than anything on Earth but it still did its job. It made me feel slightly more alive than before. I avoided looking back at the cave entrance to Bloodchill Manor, a small thing that the few travelers that came by wouldn’t notice, and thought about going back inside.
It was warmer and there was more than enough wood to power the fireplaces.
But I stood still with my cup of bitter coffee. I had been here a few months and the vast manor had begun to feel cramped to me. Every few weeks Serena or a Dark Brotherhood Initiate would make sure I had enough supplies.
Like I was a ******* child.
I took a deep breath and looked down towards Dawnstar where there was a pair of grieving parents I would have to lie to very soon. Sometimes being married to Jash wasn’t the easiest choice but one I had never regretted.
One of the Dark Brotherhood Initiates had told me about the parents in what could barely be called a city. The parents were in a panic because their son hadn’t been back home in over a week. The boy had never been away from home for more than a day.
I shivered at the memory of the grin the Initiate had had on his face. He was proud that he could do something for the husband of the Listener. He was happy that he was about to mutilate the corpse of a dead boy.
The memory of how I had made the decision to hide the real cause of death made me drink my coffee so fast that it began to burn my throat. I stopped drinking and waited for my pulse to calm down.
Being an agent of the Federal Bureau of Intelligence had forced me to witness the most depraved scenes and talk with monsters that should only exist in some ****** up fairy tale. So I knew exactly what the parents and other bystanders would look for in the boy’s corpse.
The lie about the boy being attacked and eaten by wolves had to be what the people of Dawnstar believed. That was the only way to help cover up the truth of a Dark Brotherhood member randomly killing the boy.
I would imagine Jash would have strong words if he could be here. Unlike me, though, he would see the death of the boy as being beneath the Dark Brotherhood. This due to the fact that killing an innocent boy was too easy and would hardly be considered a test of skill.
If not for the fact that Jash was the Listener and I loved him more deeply than any other man, I would have killed every last Dark Brotherhood member.
“I found your boy along with two hunters.” I said and could barely feel the lingering heat of the coffee. “All of them had been ravaged by wolves. No, the hunters weren’t trying to harm your child. They were trying to protect him. Why did I venture so far from my manor? I needed to stretch my legs after being in there for so long.”
I allowed the coffee to scald my throat as I remembered that the boy was close by. To make sure it was not damaged anymore I kept it close to the entrance so that it could also be kept cold.
Xul howled at the top of his lungs and I dropped my cup which proceeded to shatter on the ground.
“****.” I hissed and turned to the Bone Wolf.
The undead abomination didn’t spare a moment to worry about me and instead ran past me. He was probably howling at nothing, again, but I couldn’t take the risk of ignoring him. Especially with me living here alone.
I would go to the Mountain, Jash’s realm of Oblivion that he shared with Hircine, after death but I didn’t feel like going through all that pain right now. Not when it would be some time until Jash would be able to join me in that strange place.
When a cloaked figure approached on horseback, I stopped and put a hand on my dagger. My usual bow and arrow were back in the manor.
Xul ran around the figure in joy and I realized that the person was a Saxhleel.
No. It couldn’t be.
The figure wasn’t just any Saxhleel, he was someone Jash had loved deeply, had had portraits painted of, and was supposed to be buried at Lakeview Manor.
“Scouts-Many-Marshes?” I asked. “How?”
No comments:
Post a Comment