The Dark Rider (Fading Light)

by Andrew Critchell

‘Falk.’

  He looked back to her.

  ‘If they catch us,’ she faltered and then, swallowing with effort, continued. ‘I mean kill us, kill me here, in this world.’

  He nodded almost imperceptibly.

  ‘Will I die?’

  He paused trying to find the right words to say.

  ‘Let’s hope it does not come to that.’

  Her chin sank, her head dropping forwards. Could this really be happening?

  He came to her, gripping her arms again.

  ‘Alex.’

  She did not respond.

  ‘Alex,’ he said again louder.

  She raised her head to look at him. She took in the sword and shield on his back, the bow and arrows, the two knives strapped around his legs.

  ‘Where’s the girl brave enough to question me, to make me run away?’

  She smiled weakly, half raising her hand.

  ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. ‘We can do this. All we have to do is keep running.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said in a small voice.

  He squeezed her arm.

  ‘You can do it.’

  He turned, taking in the clearing one last time.

  ‘Come on,’ he began to head off. ‘This way.’

  They ran down the hill and into the trees, Falk covering their tracks as best he could with magic. As they ran he turned to check on her. After a couple of minutes he saw that she was tiring already and then the first tinges of doubt began to creep into his mind. He knew he could outrun them and, even if he was surrounded, he could escape into the sky, yet the girl did not have that option.

  ‘Faster,’ he urged her. ‘We must be faster.’

  She grimaced, knowing that keeping fit had not been a big part of her life, and tried to speed up.

  He looked ahead. The land was sloping downwards and would eventually flatten out into an open plain with nowhere to hide. To the left, about a mile away a series of steep gullies ended against a vertical cliff face. He turned that way, instinct driven by the realisation that was now dawning on him, for he knew they could not outrun them, that he could not leave her. His focus narrowed, the culmination of his whole life coming to this now, as a needle narrows to an infinite point. He found a remarkable calmness entering him, now that he knew this was the end, and this surprised, and at the same time pleased him. He let his mind relax, to embrace the rhythm of constant movement as they threaded their way through the trees.

  Alex followed him as he veered off, felt herself tiring but knew she had to keep running. She was breathing hard, legs feeling weak but she gritted her teeth and concentrated on keeping her balance on the snow and ice and, through this, she did not have to think about anything else and this kept her fear at bay.

  Falk could see the land beginning to undulate and soon they were amongst the first outcrops of rock. He felt the Serenti in his mind, nearer now, a mass of malevolent evil. They were branching out left and right to box them in, to cut off any possible escape.

  An unearthly cry sounded out across the air causing Alex to stop and turn, her whole body constricting in fear.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ she cried out.

  Falk turned back, saw that she had stopped.

  ‘No, Alex,’ he shouted. ‘You must keep running.’

  More cries began to permeate the night. Alex looked left and right, her body paralysed by fear. There, through the trees, like a shadow in her vision, dark shapes were moving towards them. Then she felt something pulling at her arm and she turned to see Falk his mouth shouting but it sounded muted. Her brain was speeding up her awareness until everything began to happen in slow motion. She found her balance going and she had no alternative but to turn and start to run again and, as she did, something whooshed through the air inches from her face but she did not see what it was for she was stumbling forward, Falk pulling her down into a crouch, and she almost fell past a thick outcrop of rock. Regaining her balance she looked around again to see the shadows everywhere amongst the trees, so much closer now. Images burned onto her consciousness as her vision flickered across them. She saw alien eyes flaming with hatred and glee, barred teeth, claws and fangs, metal armour and fearsome looking weapons, their jagged edges glinting in the moonlight, and she began to scream.

  Falk stopped and turned, coming back for her. He pulled her down into a natural passageway between the rocks, placing the hilt of a knife into her hands as he did so.

  ‘Keep going,’ he shouted to her, pushing her down the passage. Then he turned, kneeling as he swung his bow from his back and notched an arrow before aiming and firing, all in one motion. Up ahead to the left one of the shadows fell, merging into the ground. Six more fell in quick succession as Falk fired and then he rose up and ran after Alex, the passage twisting and turning as it dropped further down until its rocky sides were above head height.

  He ran on, the cries of the Serenti ringing in his ears, and as he turned a corner he found Alex pressed against the side of the passage, her eyes wild with fright, fingers clutching the knife he had given her. Just behind her the passage disappeared into a rocky crevice barely wide enough for one person.

  ‘Does it go anywhere?’ he shouted over the clamouring of the Serenti. Dumbstruck Alex shook her head.

  He looked around in desperation before grabbing her arm and pushing her into the darkness.

  ‘Just keep still,’ he said to her. ‘And don’t come out for anything.’

  She stared back at him and nodded needing no further encouragement. He pulled back from the narrow opening and then turned around pulling his shield from around his shoulder and unsheathing his broadsword as he began to move back up the passageway. He stopped a metre past its narrowest point, raising his shield. Levelling his sword, he pointed it back along the passage, his body poised and ready. Surreally everything seemed to go quiet for a few seconds and then a scrabbling noise of cries and screams began to grow louder as the pursuing Serenti approached. Falk tensed up and then without further warning a mass of flashing teeth, claws and steel fell against Falk's shield with a thunderous crash. Falk fell back until the shield stuck fast between the rocks. Weapons stabbed the air around him as he dropped and hamstrung the leading Serenti with his sword before thrusting upwards into its guts. He then pulled back, his knife whirling in his hand before its blade embedded in the face of a Serenti that had climbed up over the shield. It fell back, taking the blade with it and then, as Alex watched Falk's battle in wide eyed horror, a huge shadow dropped between them for a Serenti had climbed up the side of the rocks and jumped down into the passageway behind him.

  The creature was huge, over seven feet high and covered in armour and muscle. As it landed the ground seemed to shake and then it roared, raising a massive club with spikes jutting out of it, to strike Falk's unprotected back. Seeing this something snapped inside of Alex and, screaming, she launched herself forward out of her hiding place, the knife clutched in her right hand. As she reached the creature it half turned in surprise but she had already jumped up onto its back and as she steadied herself she sank the blade deep into the side of the Serenti's neck. The next seconds seemed to pass forever. Over the Serenti’s shoulder she could see Falk turning, his face registering everything. Screaming with rage, the Serenti thrashed its arms out and Alex felt a sudden blow to her head before her vision was momentarily filled with flashing lights. Then she felt her body being lifted through the air and then battered hard against rock, something cracking in her middle followed by a sharp pain in her side. Then Falk was turning and lunging forward, his sword cutting into the Serenti's throat, fatally severing arteries and bone, and the body began to crumple to the ground in front of where Alex now lay helplessly on the floor. As Falk regained his balance his shield gave way behind him, snapping and then shattering into several pieces. With the way no longer blocked Serenti surged forwards down the narrow confines of the passage. Falk turned, his sword scything round to disembowel the leading Serenti whose inert bulk fell f
orward, partially blocking the passage. The next Serenti began to clamber over the body, thrusting forwards with a jagged edged spear which Falk sidestepped, before cutting deeply into the Serenti’s shoulder causing it to roar in pain. Through sheer mass of numbers more Serenti spilled over the body, coming at Falk with flashing teeth and weapons. Falk blocked the first strike, sparks of metal scything down the blade of his sword as the weapon was deflected away. A blade tip raked his thigh sending hot pain lancing upwards. Crying out in rage he blocked down and then thrust forwards raking the Serenti's bowels in a spray of blood. He pulled back, trying to twist from an incoming spear but it glanced off his head and stunned him and he felt himself falling, his back jarring against the side of the passage. Above him a fearsome jagged axe blade scythed downwards through the sky.

  Alex tried to focus on Falk but something had gotten in the way, a massive shadow that loomed up suddenly in front of her. She screamed as the Serenti grabbed her ankle and dragged her roughly towards the razor sharp teeth that lined its mouth. Pain lanced up her side as she kicked and struggled for all she was worth but it was useless against the Serenti’s strength and she found herself picked up by the neck and pulled upwards to face a monster that could only have come from her worst nightmares.

  Still screaming, Alex pushed her legs against its chest trying to get away from the gaping, roaring mouth but in a second she felt hot, stinking breath in her face and as rows of teeth filled her vision something clicked inside her mind and she felt a charge like a thousand volts throbbing through her body. Still struggling, her right hand brushed against something hard and before she could consciously recognise it her fingers had wrapped around the knife’s hilt and pulled it free from an armoured belt around the Serenti’s waist. As the Serenti opened its mouth to consume her face she stabbed down with all the fear, anger and rage that had been coursing through her body and as she did so her mind unleashed the power that had been locked within it.

  A blinding light exploded across the clearing followed by a thunderous rumble that made the ground shake. As the light touched them the Serenti fell to the ground, already dead before they hit the frozen earth. Alex felt herself falling as the Serenti that had attacked her crumpled forwards. The last thing she saw was Falk staring at her, his expression a mixture of incomprehension and fear. She fell next to the now lifeless body of the Serenti that had attacked her, her mind already unconscious before she hit the ground.

  Slowly Falk regained his senses. He pushed himself up, shaking his head. He stumbled dizzily, his ears still ringing from the blast that had hit him. All around the ground was littered with the bodies of dead Serenti, and lying a few feet from him, her face ashen, eyes tightly closed, was Alex. Crying out Falk ran to her, kneeling by her side. He reached out, placing his hand on her forehead, his awareness expanding into her body. With relief he saw that she was still alive but it quickly turned to dread for something had happened to her mind and it was closed to him. He could still feel the power that Gwen had placed there but it was as if a circuit had burned out and now it was behind a wall that he could not penetrate. Stomach churning, he pulled his hand away and looked down at her face, now pale and drawn.

  ‘I don’t know what you just did Alex, but you saved us,’ he said grimly. He looked around but nothing moved and he could sense nothing for miles around. However, he knew such an outburst of energy would have been like a siren. He had to move.

  He placed his hands gently under shoulders and back and lifted her into his arms. As he stood there surrounded by nothing but frozen forest and the corpses of Serenti he looked up to the empty sky.

  ‘I wish you were here now Gwen, for I need you,’ he whispered.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Paul drifted in a sea of pain and delirium. His shoulder was burning, an acid fire that now spread through his body. His overloaded senses began to shut down as each wave of pain took more of him away. It was eating him from the inside, steadily consuming his flesh and bone with indescribable agony.

  He accepted death.

  With a final effort he pulled an image into his mind and held it there. Nicola on the morning he met her, her face lit with a smile, her eyes falling for him. He had known her and she had loved him. Was that enough for a life?

  The pain was fading.

  This must be the end.

  A numbing chill began to fill him. A small speck at first that grew with each second, meeting and extinguishing the fires that had seared through him. It surrounded the source, smothering it and binding it with thick strands of darkness so that it could never escape again. Once this was done, feeling began to return as his damaged tissue was reborn. Dark magic forced its way inside, flowing effortlessly along his synapses and through the very cores of his nerve endings.

  He was alive.

  Myrkur had saved him.

  Paul opened his eyes. He was lying on his back on a table in a darkened room. To his left the lights of the city stretched out to an endless horizon. Slowly Paul pushed himself up and twisted round. His shoulder was healed, yet he could still feel the corruption within his flesh bound tightly by Myrkur’s magic. He knew he should feel elated, for he had escaped death, yet he felt nothing but apprehension. His body was empty, somehow hollow. It was almost alien to him and now part of it, part of him, was Myrkur.

  What had he done?

  ‘You are careless Rider.’

  Paul blinked.

  Myrkur stood by the far window as he had before, yet Paul was sure he had not been there a moment ago.

  ‘I have invested a great deal of time and energy in you and this is how you repay me?’

  Without conscious thought Paul opened himself to the taint and it flooded through him, filling and expanding his consciousness. Immediately he saw Nicola, a bright ball of light, followed by something else, the unmistakable shadows of wolves. They were closing in on her. He felt his heart accelerate in his chest. Nicola would be killed and Myrkur would end the Light. A shudder ran through his body.

  ‘They will finish what you did not,’ said Myrkur.

  Seeing no trace of his sister, Paul widened his search, sending his awareness into the forest world. He felt where a massive blast of energy had ripped across the land. Already the remains of a group of Serenti were dissipating back into the taint. Something drastic had happened. He expanded his search. There. Almost discernable and moving west, the signature of the warrior Falk. He was moving slowly, holding something but what it was Paul could not tell. Already more Serenti were closing in on him.

  ‘What happened to my sister?’ asked Paul. ‘Why can’t I sense her?’

  ‘Serenti cornered them. Somehow she embraced the energy and now the Serenti are dead. What this has done to her mind is not clear.’

  Paul fell silent as Myrkur’s words sank in.

  ‘She has no place in this,’ he said.

  ‘If you want your sister to survive you must find her before the Serenti.’

  ‘Call them off,’ pleaded Paul.

  ‘That I will not do,’ replied Myrkur.

  ‘Why? I can handle him.’

  Myrkur turned and walked towards him.

  ‘While I was mending you I took a look inside your mind.’

  He stopped in front of Paul, his black eyes devoid of life.

  ‘It seems a little bit of Arachar was left behind last time.’

  Memories flashed at Paul. A forest in summertime. Friends and warriors. His wife Amalia. Then the darkness had come and he, Arachar, warrior of the Light, had gone to fight the monster that threatened to devour them.

  And he had lost.

  ‘No,’ cried Paul backing away. More flashbacks came to him. Pain, unbearable pain, white hot fire that seared his body and tore at his mind. Myrkur’s face filling his vision, laughing at him as the last of him died and the Rider was born.

  ‘You are special Rider. You are the only one who can sense the Warders. The only one who can hunt them down and gut them in their hiding places. I can
not afford to lose you again.’

  Myrkur had not moved but Paul felt him entering his mind. In desperation he opened himself fully to the taint feeling the power burning his veins but it was no good. Still the presence of Myrkur grew within him, dismantling his consciousness. His vision began to darken as he fell away into his mind. A soft chuckle hung in the frozen air.

  There was one final chance. With his last ounce of strength Paul shot a bolt of power straight into Myrkur’s face. For an instant the presence inside him weakened as Myrkur deflected the blow. In that moment Paul reached out weaving the taint around him and wrenching himself free. In a flash of light his body shimmered and then was gone leaving Myrkur standing alone in the room.

  Myrkur stared at the empty space where Paul had been. After a few moments a smile began to curl along his lips.

  Nicola began walking in the direction of more houses and streetlights and away from the swallowing darkness of the moorland, all the time knowing that she had no real plan other than to get back to her hotel and hope Paul would find her like he had done before. Over the sound of her footsteps she thought she heard a soft moaning and ignored it until it came again. Stopping, she listened, her ears straining to pick up the sound. There it was again, very faint but definitely sounding for everything in the world like the howling of a wolf. A shiver ran down her spine, the energy stirring and sending tremors of alarm though her body. Like muscle memory, some instinct she was not consciously aware of had woken within her. With a desperate fear gnawing at her stomach she quickened her step, checking over her shoulder every few seconds as she hurried past more houses and up towards what looked like some kind of main road. She stepped out onto the pavement, quickly looking around her. Fifty metres away the road curved round while in the other direction it went on in a straight line as far as she could see past the street lamps which soon disappeared. There were just a few houses on the road and a grass verge on either side lined with trees. Opposite was a pub and she could just see the tops of people’s heads through the windows as they sat at the bar. As she watched, the door opened and light spilled out onto the street as a group of teenagers came out chatting animatedly and laughing. Nicola watched as the group crossed the road and headed towards a bus stop on the other side. She began to walk slowly towards them and then, hearing the noise of something approaching, she turned and saw headlights appear around the corner, and lit up above them the destination board of a bus that said ‘Number Four Penwryn Harbour.’ Making the decision quickly she began to sprint as the bus whooshed past her, its indicators and brake lights flashing as it began to pull in to the bus stop up ahead.