Dark Healer (An Empire Falls Book 1)

by Harry Leighton

  Jonas raised a hand and shouted a greeting, keeping the stride of his horse the same, but the men didn’t react. Just sat there, still, staring at him. Staring very oddly. Jonas knew then there would be a battle here, knew that something was very wrong. Four versus two, although Alia should be able to reduce that to three. Workable odds. He also knew that his student had noticed how his hand had fallen onto the handle of his sword, and knew that as he drew it she would be pulling at her bow, notching an arrow and firing.

  Yes, as the silent men now finally reacted, pulling axes and swords, an arrow flew towards them and struck one man straight through a faded tunic and buried itself deep into the heart beneath. That was when the man looked at the arrow, snarled a deviant smile, and all four charged at Jonas and Alia.

  *****

  The day progressed. Traffic was light on the road so they made good progress but in the late afternoon Daeholf called another halt.

  “What’s up?” Trimas asked.

  “Lost them,” he said. “I’ve been concerned for a couple of miles, but now I’m sure.”

  Trimas looked down. “Plenty of ruts,” he said.

  “That’s the problem. Can’t tell if any of them are ours.”

  “Ah.”

  “So what do we do?” Trimas asked. Zedek looked on, impassive.

  “I’m not sure. At a guess, we’re probably still about five miles out from the next town. I think it’s very doubtful they’ve gone as far as that. Can't see them getting through the gates with that sort of load.”

  “Backtrack and check the last side road or carry on to the next one then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “We did check the last side road,” Zedek said.

  “True,” Trimas said.

  “I can’t be sure they came this far though,” Daeholf said.

  “Do you have a map?” Trimas said.

  “No,” Daeholf replied.

  “Hang on, might have,” Zedek said, rummaging in his saddlebag. “Aha,” he said after a moment, “and you two still mock me for carrying all this stuff around.”

  “We’re sorry,” Trimas said, doing his best to look sincere but it was spoiled by the hint of a smile.

  Zedek dismounted and folded the map out on the back of his horse. The horse took the opportunity to crop some grass at the side of the road.

  Zedek looked at the horse. “You seem to have got me a compulsive eater. No wonder he costs us so much in oats.”

  Daeholf and Trimas dismounted, tied their horses and joined him.

  “Let’s look then,” Trimas said.

  “It’s not a very good map,” Daeholf said frowning after a quick study. It’s certainly not a hundred miles between Deepwater and Fulton.”

  “You got a better one?” Zedek asked.

  “Ah, no.”

  “So let’s go with what we have.”

  Daeholf held his hands up in surrender and looked again.

  “I guess we’re about here then, a few miles outside Fulton,” Daeholf said, indicating a point on the map.

  Trimas looked around. “Probably,” he shrugged.

  “There’s some hills up there,” Zedek said, indicating the destination of the last side road.

  “It might be a good place for whatever is going on and the cart of bodies was needed for,” Trimas said, thinking.

  “And I can’t be sure they came this far,” Daeholf added.

  “It’s agreed then,” Trimas said, “we go back.”

  “It’s only a couple of miles so it’s not really going to cost us a lot of time,” Daeholf said, nodding. “Let’s get on with this then and if we lose them we can still make town by night.”

  They rode back the way they came for a couple of miles and dismounted at the side road, studying the ground carefully.

  “If they did turn here, they were certainly careful about it,” Daeholf said. “There’s not much of a track, though there are a few horse marks.”

  “How would you hide a cart trail?” Zedek asked.

  “Take the weight out of it, maybe run it over some branches?” Trimas suggested.

  “Might work,” said Daeholf. “Let’s go a bit further and see if there is anything further up.”

  “How far are the hills?”

  “Far enough that at the speed they’ve been going they’d already be there,” Daeholf said.

  “So we need to be looking out for an ambush then?” Zedek suggested.

  “I doubt they know anyone is following but yes, it certainly pays to be on our guard.”

  “We’re away from the main road so it’s less of a problem for us to have weapons out now anyway,” Trimas said, unsheathing his axe.

  “Ride carefully with that thing,” Daeholf said, though he also loosened his sword in its sheath.

  They didn’t ride far before they heard the familiar sound of blades clashing. They kicked their steeds into action, racing up a slight slope to the top of a hill. At the bottom on the road they saw a small battle.

  Horses were scattered across the road, but two people, a huge warrior of a man and a fierce looking young woman stood almost back to back, fending off blows from four men.

  Not knowing who was who or what was going on, the trio paused for a second to take in the scene. The pair fighting back to back were doing so efficiently, working as a pair, blocking blows and landing a number of their own but these seemed to be having limited effect and they were tiring.

  “Am I seeing this right?” said Zedek in disbelief. “There’s an arrow sticking out of one of the four’s heart and he’s still fighting.”

  “Magic,” said Daeholf grimly.

  “That’s decided it,” Trimas said, dismounting quickly and rushing down the hill, axe raised.

  Daeholf leaped from his horse and ran to his side, sword in guard. Zedek followed behind, bow raised. He put an arrow in the back of one of the attackers, who barely seemed to notice. He sighed and drew his sword, following his friends down the hill.

  Trimas and Daeholf entered the fray, two of the attackers turning to them, but something was clearly wrong. Blows that would have hampered, disabled or felled a normal opponent seemed to be brushed off. The tall warrior had run one of his opponents through but was struggling with his other hand to stop the man from braining him with a mace, almost as if the belly wound was nothing more than an irritation.

  Trimas and Daeholf worked as a team against their opponents as Zedek moved to help the woman.

  Trimas forced his opponent to duck back from a big swing and it crashed into his comrade, unbalancing him and knocking him forward, enabling Daeholf to land a haymaker swing with his sword on the back of his opponent’s neck, decapitating him cleanly. Almost as if a signal had been triggered, this seemed to panic the remaining three who immediately disengaged and ran for the woods, one with an arrow sticking from its chest and another with a sword through the belly. The tall warrior, having lost his sword, drew a knife and faced off warily against the new arrivals. Looking at how much damage had been required to fell the body on the ground, no one felt like immediately pursuing the three remaining attackers into the woods.

  “Jonas,” the tall man said after studying them for a moment and lowering his knife. “And this is Alia,” he added, indicating the young woman.

  “Thanks,” she said, trembling slightly, the shock of the battle and the near-miss evident.

  Daeholf put away his sword and clasped the man’s hand. He introduced himself, Trimas and Zedek. “So, I assume you’re bounty hunters?”.

  “Obvious is it?”

  “To us, yes.”

  “Thanks for your help,” Jonas said.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  “We’re trailing a cart from a farm. Something terrible happened here and we think it came this way. The men who attacked you seem to support that. You?”

  Jonas looked at Alia for a moment, making a decision. “Our quarry is in
these woods, in the caves along the road. Might be behind the people you’re following. I think we might be after the same person. I don’t normally do this but I think it might be better if we join forces given what just happened.”

  Alia nodded readily.

  “Any more like these?” Daeholf pointed to the corpse with his blade.

  “We think there’s just the four. These should be it.”

  And our target is?”

  “A healer. Gone wrong.”

  Jonas hadn’t expected to see Trimas laugh, but he breathed a sigh of relief when the three had exchanged looks and agreed. The horses were quickly gathered, but Jonas once again saw something unexpected: Daeholf was dumping the beheaded corpse over his horse.

  “What are you doing?”

  He received a smile in return. Who were these people?

  Part 2

  “So what now?” Trimas asked.

  “We follow the trail,” Zedek replied grimly.

  Daeholf and Trimas turned to look at him. Jonas and Alia noted their sudden look and exchanged a glance themselves.

  “It’s why we’re here,” Daeholf acknowledged after a moment, “but let’s be prepared — these guys go down hard.”

  Alia bent and unstrung her bow.

  “What are you doing?” Daeholf asked.

  “Didn’t seem to do any good, and there’s no point stressing the string if I’m not going to use it,” she replied matter of factly.

  “You’re the one that made the clean chest shot?” Zedek asked.

  “Yes. Not that it helped any. He just kept coming,” Alia said as she walked in the direction of the horses. They seemed spooked so she approached cautiously, making soothing noises.

  Jonas felt protective as he watched her. “Well whatever or whoever they are, we’ve seen that they can be killed,” he said.

  Daeholf and Trimas both noticed and exchanged a glance. Zedek sighed and released the tension on his bow too.

  “You too?” Trimas said, surprised.

  “She’s right. There’s something very wrong with these men and it looks like it takes more than an arrow or two to stop them. No sense wasting them.”

  “I’ll go get our horses,” Daeholf said.

  “So who’s in charge?” Jonas said to Trimas and Zedek as Daeholf walked away.

  “Um, no one really,” Trimas said, shrugging.

  “Probably not me though,” Zedek said.

  “How does that work then?” Jonas said, curious.

  “Well, I suppose we just sort of go along with the consensus,” Trimas said. “I’ve not really thought about it too much. Looking at you two though, I’m guessing master and apprentice?”

  “Yes. Although don’t make the mistake of thinking that she’s green or just here to make up the numbers. She’s very competent and has my back.”

  Trimas studied Jonas for a moment, assessing, then nodded.

  “Thanks,” Alia said, walking over, holding the reins of two horses.

  “And has annoyingly good hearing,” Jonas added.

  Alia smiled at him.

  Daeholf came back with the other horses. “Yours was eating again,” he told Zedek.

  Zedek sighed.

  “Good thing too, actually,” Daeholf said, “the others seemed to think that if he wasn’t worried about running away, they didn’t need to either. Saved me running miles after them.”

  “Good horse,” Zedek said, patting it on the flank. The horse ignored him. Zedek shrugged. Alia laughed.

  “You’re not really horse people, are you?” she said.

  “Used to walking,” Daeholf said.

  “You don’t have the look of bounty hunters,” Jonas said.

  “We’re not.”

  “So you all ex-army then?” Jonas said.

  “Yes,” Trimas said.

  “Indeed?”

  Daeholf noticed Jonas’s wary stance. This far from the capital, bandits were not uncommon and since he didn’t know them, there was every reason to assume trouble.

  “Tenth Legion, second foot,” Daeholf said, rolling up his left sleeve. “Retired, of course.”

  Alia screwed up her face when she saw the mess of scar tissue that made up one side of his forearm.

  Jonas saw the mangled army tattoo and nodded. “Saw some action I see,” he said.

  “Just a bit,” Daeholf said, smiling and rolling his sleeve back down.

  “How’d that happen?” Alia said, nodding at his arm.

  “Axe,” Daeholf replied. “Hurt too,” he added with a smile.

  Jonas and Trimas both snorted at the same time, smiling.

  “Show off,” Trimas said. Zedek rolled his eyes.

  “Well now that we’re all friends, don’t we have something to do?” Daeholf said.

  “How do you want to play this?” Jonas said. “We don’t really know each other as a team and don’t want to get in each other’s way.”

  “Follow the trail,” Daeholf said.

  “Agreed,” Jonas said.

  “How are you at tracking?” Trimas said to Jonas.

  “He’s very good,” Alia interjected.

  “Good, because our last guide lost the trail and we had to double back,” Trimas said, inclining his head at Daeholf.

  Daeholf sighed loudly and shook his head wearily in a slightly exaggerated fashion.

  Alia laughed. Jonas looked at her.

  “What?” she said, smiling. “I think they’ll fit right in.”

  It was Jonas’s turn to sigh.

  “How about you and I lead,” Daeholf said to Jonas, “and we’ll let the others follow just behind.”

  “Okay,” Jonas said, reaching into a long bag by his saddle. He pulled out an evil looking mace.

  Daeholf raised an eyebrow.

  “They ran off with my sword,” Jonas said simply.

  “That’s an ugly looking weapon,” Trimas said.

  “I prefer ‘intimidating’.”

  “Fair description,” Zedek said.

  “I don’t think anyone will be getting back up if you hit them with that,” Daeholf said.

  “That’s the idea,” Jonas replied. “Let’s go.”

  They mounted up and followed the road slowly, keeping a wary eye on the woods either side.

  “They did run this way,” Jonas said, looking down at the road then straightening up and indicating the road ahead with his mace.

  “The one you stuck was bleeding too, though not quite as much as I would have expected,” Daeholf said.

  Jonas looked worried.

  “According to the map, we’re probably only a mile from the end of the road now,” Zedek said from behind. “Looks like a mine at the end.”

  “We have a decision then,” Jonas said.

  “Yes,” Daeholf said. “Ride in fast and noisy with the horses or try to sneak up on foot.”

  Jonas replied “I doubt we’ll be able to catch them by surprise anyway but I’m not much of a fighter from horseback and these horses are not battle trained.”

  “On foot then.”

  “Don’t want to lose the horses though. And I’m not prepared to leave someone behind with them. Against the people we’ve just fought there’s no way they’d hold those three off if they manage to sneak behind us.”

  Daeholf nodded to himself and dismounted. “Okay,” he said.

  “What are you doing?” Jonas asked.

  Daeholf walked over to Trimas and handed him his reins.

  “This is what I do for a living. Or did, anyway,” Daeholf said, checking his sword’s edge.

  “This is a bad idea,” Alia said.

  “I’m inclined to agree in this instance,” Zedek said. Trimas and Jonas both frowned.

  “If I see trouble I’ll run back. Don’t worry, they won’t catch me. Just be ready in case of trouble.”

  Jonas studied him, then nodded. Daeholf smiled and then ran quickly off along the road ahead.

  “He doesn’t hang about, does he?” Alia said.


  “Somewhere along the line he got a lot of practice at running,” Trimas said.

  “Coward?” Jonas said, confused. “That’s hardly supported by him running ahead alone to scout.”

  “Not at all, and not what I meant,” Trimas said with a grimace.

  “Poor choice of words perhaps,” Zedek said, scanning the area.

  “What I mean is, he’s good at running. Not away, or to, just running.”

  “Fair enough. There’s time for us all to get caught up on history later.”

  They all sat quietly at that, keeping a careful lookout.

  Daeholf came jogging back a few minutes later.

  “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home,” he said easily, not out of breath.

  “Where’d they go?”

  “I didn’t go into the mine but I did see a small trail leading on from the road and there are signs of at least two people running that way. There is some blood at the mine entrance though and the area has signs of use so I think we need to check it out.”

  “Horse?” Trimas said, offering him the reins.

  “Thanks,” Daeholf said, stowing his sword temporarily and mounting. He and Jonas resumed their position slightly ahead of the others.

  “Blood?” Jonas said as the followed the remainder of the road.

  “Some congealed, some fresh.”

  “How sure are you we won’t have company?”

  “Not that sure. Signs are that the people we fought may have paused at the mine but kept going. Trail carries on intermittently and I followed it for a few hundred yards and there was no sign of them turning off but I certainly wouldn’t rule out them doubling back around.”

  “No offence but your friend wasn’t exactly complimentary about your tracking skills.”

  “That’s part of our banter. Trailing a cart on a well-used road wasn’t easy.”

  “No, not at all easy. Okay, so it seems that they carried on then.”