The scream only lasted a moment, however.
Caleb had drawn his sword, dashed forward, and brought the blade around in a swift arc, beheading the bald man with a single stroke. His head flew a few feet away, where it hit the ground and rolled into one of the nearby tents.
“I’m the one who’s going to kill you,” he said plainly, his eyes shifting between the men that stood before him. Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see men begin to come out of their tents.
Caleb quickly jumped back as all of the drunken brigands drew their weapons and charged at him.
Seeing the somewhat coordinated attack directed at him made him worry. He was not too worried about fighting a single person at a time, but even he could see that he would lose if he tried to fight too many at once. He would have to kill every one of them, but there was only one of him for them to kill.
“Duck!”
The sudden shot made Caleb drop to the ground without a second thought. He had immediately recognized the feminine voice as Katie’s.
It seemed that he had dropped to the ground just in time too.
A knife soared through the air where his head had been and struck the nearest brigand between the eyes with incredible force.
Another knife followed the first.
Within the space of a few moments, Katie threw all of her knives, striking the brigands with the deadly accuracy that she seemed to excel at.
Once the final knife was thrown, Caleb jumped to his feet and began to strike at the distracted brigands. He only showed how unnecessary skill with a sword was as he decapitated the drunken men and stabbed the men that were half asleep through their hearts.
It only took a few minutes for the battle to come to an end, and Caleb was the only one standing amongst them. His goal had been met, it seemed. They were dead, and he was alive.
Caleb took a deep breath as he looked around at the twenty-five corpses that were strewn across the ground of the camp.
The sun had already begun to rise, making it much easier to see everything than normally. That was what allowed him to easily see Katie begin to retrieve her knives from the bodies of the men she had killed out of the corner of his eye.
He was not disillusioned. He knew that he could not have defeated them all without Katie’s help, despite the fact that he thought he could earlier.
Apparently, the odds that he had been faced with were even more overwhelming than he had initially thought.
“Next time, you might want to come up with an actual plan,” Katie commented, rolling her eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’d be dead if I wasn’t here.”
Caleb looked at her with a small smile. He could not contest her words. It was the truth, plain and simple. He was just thankful to have someone like her on his side for such an endeavor.
But… I still need to do this on my own.
He took smiled grimly as he looked at Katie.
“Katie, I need you to go get our horses and bring them to the gates.”
The redhead looked more surprised at those words than she had ever looked before. It was quite understandable that she would be surprised as a result of him suddenly telling her that she could not see the end of his quest.
“Why?” There was no doubt about it. She looked, and sounded, furious. “Why do you send me away after I helped you get this far? It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I know,” Caleb said with a frown. “It’s not fair, is it? I’m sorry, but that doesn’t change the fact that I have to do this on my own. I need to confront him by myself.”
“And you think you can win on your own?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “You also thought you could handle these guys on your own. You obviously don’t know your limits.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Caleb said as he glanced at his sword. “I can handle this. It’s what I have to do.”
“But Caleb-”
“If you come with me and you kill him, then I’ll always wonder if I could have done it. I’ll never feel like my quest was completed,” Caleb interrupted. “So please… let me do this.”
Katie looked down at the ground at those words. She seemed to think about what he said for several minutes before finally said something in response.
“Fine, I’ll go and get the horses then. But if you’re not done when I get back, I’m going to go after you.” Kate crossed her arms as she looked at him with her penetrating gaze. “Kill him before then… or I’ll do it.”
With her words spoken, Katie began to walk away, headed to the gates of the camp.
Caleb, on the other hand, began to walk towards the tent that had been set up in the center of the camp.
Halfway to the tent, he paused. He could see its canvas opening be moved aside from someone inside of it. It seemed that someone was coming out of it.
A man with short dark brown hair and a goatee walked through the opening. He was clad in brown leather boots, brown trousers, and a dark green tunic. The most striking thing about him, however, was the longsword that he held clutched in his right hand.
“Well… you’ve put me out of a job, it seems,” the man chuckled darkly. “You now have my rapt attention. What can I do for you?”
“Your name is Cain Fell?”
The man grinned at the question and nodded.
“You could die,” Caleb said as he drew the Sword of Kirakath from its scabbard.
“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” Cain remarked. “I half expected you to ask me why I did it.”
“Does it matter?” Caleb asked angrily. “You slaughtered them. There is no excuse for that.”
“And you honestly think you’re any better than I am?” Cain asked, gesturing to the bodies near the campfire.
“Yes,” Caleb said, looking at Cain as if he just said the stupidest thing in the world. “I only kill those who deserve it.”
Cain laughed at the remark. “That’s rather callous us you. Who are you to determine who deserves death?”
“I only get to decide who deserves death when we’re talking about someone who killed unarmed men and women just for the fun of it,” Caleb said angrily. “Now shut up and die.”
“You’re welcome to try,” Cain said as he began to run towards Caleb.
Time seemed to slow down as pain engulfed Caleb. It felt as though his blood was on fire again, but it had a completely different effect on him than it had any of the other times.
Anger and the desire to kill Cain consumed him, completely outweighing the pain.
Time seemed to suddenly return at its normal pace, but not everything was as it would have been normally.
A single horizontal arc of Cain’s blade nearly caught Caleb off guard, but he angled the blade of his sword to the ground and caught the full front of the strike with only a little bit of effort. Sharp pains shot through his hands at the sensation, but it paled in comparison to the pain that he felt coursing through his veins.
Caleb closed the distance between him and Cain with greater speed and slapped him across the abdomen with the flat of his blade before jumping away.
Cain groaned, but he resisted the urge to hunch over to catch his breath.
“You’re fast,” he panted before he took off running towards him again.
Cain immediately began to assault the blond with a series of fast arcs, but Caleb seemed to be able to see them before they began and to parry them accordingly, causing the brigand to frown the entire time.
The pair jumped away from each other as their strikes failed to get through once again.
A look of desperation appeared in Cain’s eyes all of the sudden, catching Caleb’s attention and fueling his desire to kill the man even more.
Cain dashed forward and thrust the tip of his blade towards Caleb’s chest, but a sense of worry never let itself be known.
Caleb sidestepped the thrust and slammed the blade of his sword down on Cain’s, sending it crashing down to the ground. The action sent Cain off-balance, but it also presented something th
at Caleb had not expected. An opening. And it was as clear as day to him. He was amazed that someone as talented as Cain supposedly was would leave such a gap in his defense.
Taking advantage immediately, Caleb turned the tip of the Sword of Kirakath and thrust it forward. It sliced through the man’s wool tunic far more easily than he had ever expected.
Cain’s eyes went wide as he felt Caleb’s sword go clean through his abdomen. His sword fell to the ground as his eyes stayed on the hilt of the sword that had been run through him for a moment before he looked at Caleb with a smirk.
“Even if you kill me… you gain nothing. I am naught but the sword.”
The statement left Caleb with several questions… but he ultimately decided that they were not important enough to stall the man’s death, even for a moment. All that mattered to him was that Cain died for his crimes.
Releasing his grip on his sword, Caleb grabbed Cain’s head, one hand on each side. With a quick shift of his hands, he snapped the wanted man’s neck. The cracking sound that accompanied the action sent a chill down his spine.
It’s done.
Caleb then grabbed the hilt of his sword with his right hand and placed his left hand against Cain’s chest. With a single push of his left hand, Caleb removed his sword from the brigand and let him fall to the ground.
Chapter 23
Caleb closed his eyes and he turned around, looking away from the dead man before him. It was almost unreal to think about. Cain Fell, the leader of the Black Crows and the man who was behind the Massacre of Kirakath, was dead.
Without thought, he wiped his sword off on his pant leg and sheathed it, his grip growing too weak to keep holding onto it much longer. The fire that seemed to fill his blood every time he fought was weakening him.
It’s connected to this sword, isn’t it?
Memories of every time the sensation filled him came to mind. The sensation had filled him five times, it seemed. When he saw the mirage of Sir Edmond over two weeks earlier. When he fought the golem underneath Caldreth. When he neared the ruins of Draesa. When he touched the Sword of Kirakath in the fight with the specter of Sir Edmond. And, finally, when he fought Cain.
Taking into consideration that Sir Edmond and the Sword of Kirakath were connected, he could easily find links between all of the situations. Except for when he fought the golem underneath Caldreth, at least. He just could not find a link there.
Why has it felt different every time it’s hit me?
The first time, it had temporarily paralyzed him. The second time, he had still been able to move and fight fairly well. The third time, it had knocked him out. The fourth time, he had been able to fight on par with Sir Edmond. And the fifth time, he had not even felt pain. Instead, it had given him bloodlust.
Looking at the sheathed sword, he quickly came to a conclusion.
This sword isn’t a good thing.
Whether the conclusion was true or false, Caleb could only guess. There was no denying that the sword’s magic was unstable. Even he, a young man with no experience in magic, could see that.
Caleb looked away from the sword and back over his shoulder to the dead man. Cain Fell had caused more turmoil in his life than he had ever thought possible.
A frown formed upon his face. Despite the fact that he thought relief would come to him with the deaths of the ones who massacred Kirakath, he felt nothing.
Emptiness filled him. His quest for revenge was over. He had killed them all. And yet… he did not feel relief. He did not feel anything. He had expected it to give him something, but it seemed that he had been wrong.
With uncertainty consuming him, Caleb walked away from the dead bandit and towards the still open gates of the camp, only pausing to retrieve his knife from the brigand that he had thrown it at. He carefully walked around the corpses of the men that he had killed on his way in. Seeing all the bodies only made his uncertainly grow even more.
There was no doubt in his mind that they deserved the death that he had given them, but that was all there was. He felt no remorse at seeing them dead. Neither did he feel any relief or happiness though.
“Caleb, are you okay?”
Caleb’s eyes suddenly shot up, immediately spotting Katie as she approached with their horses.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he began to walk towards her. “I’m done here.”
Katie nodded at that, a sad look appearing in her eyes that did not escape Caleb’s notice.
“Is something wrong?” From the way she quickly turned away from him, he knew the answer to his question even before she answered.
“This is where we part ways,” she said quietly. “I’ve repaid my debt to you. You saved me from a life of servitude, and I helped you on your quest.”
Caleb looked surprised by her words, though surprise was not the only emotion that hit him as he heard them. There was pain there too. Though they had only known each other for a few weeks, Caleb had become attached to Katie. Sure, they argued quite frequently, but that had not changed the way he looked at her.
“We don’t have to part ways,” he said once he recovered. He briefly considered telling her that he needed a friend around, but it did not seem like the right thing to say.
“Yeah, we do,” Katie said sadly as she looked at Caleb. “It’s been fun, but this is where we part ways. You need to figure out what to do next, and I need to figure out where my path leads too.”
Caleb’s shoulders slumped at the news. From the look in her eyes, it was clear that she was not going to budge on the issue.
“Don’t worry. We’ll see each other again,” Katie promised. She then reached for a small sack that had been tied to her saddle and undid the knot that held it. With a smooth toss, she threw it to him.
On instinct, Caleb reached out and caught it, a ripple of pain being sent through his arm as is struck his sore hand. He did not drop it though.
“Last night, I divided up the forty crowns that we still had left. Spend yours wisely,” she said as she turned and put her foot in her stir-up. She swung her other leg over the horse and sat in the saddle before she spoke again. “Promise me you’ll stay out of trouble. I don’t want to have to come to your rescue because rubbed someone the wrong way.”
“I’ll try,” Caleb said as he shook his head. He doubted such a thing would happen in the first place, but he thought he should go ahead and humor her.
“Good-bye,” she said with a small smile as she turned her horse around and kicked it into a trot.
Caleb’s eyes stayed on Katie until she was out of sight. Then, he walked away from his horse, letting it remained standing there. He was not all that concerned whether it ran off. Thankfully, it stayed where it was, though.
It was a short walk to where he had hung his bow, and it was rested on the tree branch untouched.
At least nothing broke this one.
While it did not have as much sentimental value as the one that the bear snapped in two, it was still important to him. After all, one of his few friends had given it to him.
He carefully grabbed the bow by its leather wrapped grip and picked it up. Removing the bow as cautiously as one would move a big piece of glass, Caleb removed it from the branch. With it free, he slipped his left arm and head between the bowstring and the bow so that it would rest comfortable on his right shoulder and left side.
At that point, he headed back to where he had left his horse.
He reached the horse again in no time. It had only moved a few feet away. Its head was down, chomping at the grass until he neared it. At that point, its head snapped up and looked to him.
Caleb walked up to the horse and rubbed its neck before placing his hand on the saddle.
Sticking his foot into the stir-up, he stepped into it and swung his leg over its back. He fastened the coin purse that Katie had tossed him to his belt before taking the reins in hand.
He looked out to the horizon, the sun having just become fully visible.
So whe
re do we go now, girl?
Though he had no idea where he would go, he did know one thing. He wanted to be as far away from the Shadowpeak Mountains as he possibly could.
So with that, Caleb of Kirakath rode away from the Shadowpeak Mountains. For the first time since his quest began, he allowed himself to grieve for his loved ones.
Epilogue
The sound of rain drumming against earth filled the dark chamber as the dark figure slowly moved, step by step. The melodic drumming of the rain easily broke the all too common silence that he had come to expect in the secluded chamber. By the subtle curvature of his mouth, it was clear that the figure was not upset by the change. He welcomed it.
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