It disconcerted Raven that she couldn’t resist looking back at Tom. Shoving him to the back of her mind she concentrated on the task ahead. The man who supplied her weapons had given her a gun that jammed, which could have led to Aidan’s death. He needed punishing. She wouldn’t kill him, he was far too useful and had never let her down before but she needed to make it clear that future failure would not be forgiven. She was doing it for her husband. This made her feel less guilty about wanting to look back at Tom again. It was a relief when she turned the corner and she could no longer feel his eyes boring into her.
“My brother is dead?” growled a deep voice from the corner of the room.
Aksel shifted from foot to foot. He couldn’t make out the features of the figure sitting in the armchair, his face in shadow. Perhaps that was for the best? Even the room itself was making him nervous - a draughty wooden cabin filled with trophies of the owner’s hunts. Animal heads hung on the wall, sad glassy eyes staring down at him.
“Y…yes. We tried to save him but there were too many of them. Henrik and Mathias died too.”
“I don’t care about them. I only care for my brother.”
Aksel’s eyes widened when the figure unfolded itself from the chair, so tall their head almost brushed the ceiling. He watched with mounting fear as the figure flung off the blanket that had been covering his shoulders, raspy breathing echoing through the cabin.
“You left my brother to die,” growled Kurt Hagen.
“No,” retorted Aksel. “I tried to help…”
“Then how is it you live and Silas does not?”
Aksel started backing up when the figure took a step towards him.
“We were outnumbered. One Eye…”
“One Eye,” roared Kurt. “That blind bastard killed my brother?”
“Y…yes, with a sharpened stick.”
Kurt’s eyes bulged. “He killed Silas with a stick?”
“It was a big stick, he made it into a spear and threw it at him. It speared him through the chest. I saw it all.”
“And what were you doing while my brother was being murdered by that hestkuk?”
“I was injured. I had been shot in the leg…”
“Yet still you live,” he growled, advancing on him.
Aksel continued to back up towards the door. “I escaped because I knew Silas would want me to tell you what had happened to him. I want to help you get revenge.”
His eyes widened when Kurt stepped fully into the light cast from the open fire. His face was a mass of scars and creases, the skin red and leathery, two blazing black orbs glaring out from the hideous mask. It was much worse than Silas’s scarring had been. Not a patch of skin on Kurt’s face and neck had escaped the wrath of the flames. The majority of his thick black hair was gone, only the odd patch clinging to the creased scalp.
“Shocked Aksel?” said Kurt.
Deep breath. “No.”
“Liar.”
“I want to help, for Silas…”
Kurt tore the huge knife from his belt and plunged it into Aksel’s abdomen. His eyes bulged as he gazed up into Kurt’s pitiless glare.
“What use is a liar and a coward to me?” said Kurt before dragging the knife higher, up to Aksel’s sternum who twitched and spasmed on the end of the blade. His mouth opened and closed, pleading even as his life blood drained out of him.
“I will kill One Eye and his friends,” said Kurt as he twisted the blade. “He will scream as I torture him. Then I will take out his bowels, like this.”
He dragged the blade sideways, there was a ripping sound and Aksel’s guts spilled out onto the wooden floor. Kurt let him drop, his body jumping and twitching.
“Hestkuk,” he said, glaring down at the corpse before spitting on it.
A door at the back of the room opened and a woman with long dark blond hair and green eyes stepped through it carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming broth and enormous chunks of bread. She came to a surprised halt. “What happened?”
“He let my brother die.”
The woman’s eyes widened with surprise. “Silas is dead?”
He nodded. “One Eye.”
The woman calmly placed the tray down on a table before throwing back her head and howling with anguish. She snatched an axe off the wall and began hacking at the wood piled up beside the fire while yelling obscenities.
Kurt nodded in approval at this show of grief and rage.
“I will kill him,” she screamed, breathing furiously.
“I need to finish healing,” said Kurt. “I am not yet strong enough to tackle One Eye but one day I will be. Then together my love we will go to England and take his head and those of his children for this insult to our family.”
The woman nodded, slowly letting her arm holding the axe drop. “Sit and eat your food. It will help you heal faster. I will clear up the body.”
“Thank you Adela,” said Kurt, retaking his chair in the corner.
Adela placed the tray on his knee and he calmly ate as she wandered over to Aksel’s still body carrying the axe. She raised the weapon over her head, releasing a war cry as she brought it down on Aksel’s right arm, severing it at the elbow.
Kurt ate up all his food as Adela systematically and efficiently chopped up the body into more manageable pieces.
One Eye thought he had dangerous people around him.
They were nothing compared to his family.
THE END
Many thanks for reading Journeyman, I do hope you enjoyed it. Raven and her family will be back in book number three soon. If you’re interested in reading more about Jules Maguire and her family, the Dividing Line series is available to download on Amazon Kindle.
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