Dark Healer (An Empire Falls Book 1)

by Harry Leighton

  Marlen sighed. Another link from happier days gone. He supposed he’d better read the rest of the report, though his concentration was shot now. He started walking towards the farmhouse.

  Marlen felt a sudden stab of pain. Wait, what was that? Another of his altered was dead. This was different though, no surge of panic or fear first, just death. Maybe one had met with a sudden accident. This had been happening a little too often over the last few months though. It was time for his people to start checking in.

  *****

  “I think we may be out of our depth,” Daeholf said as they watched the shack burn.

  “I think we should probably move away from the big signal fire,” Trimas said.

  “We need to decide what we’re doing next,” Jonas said. “We’re clearly in the right area but our lead didn’t quite work out as expected,” he said, motioning towards the fire.

  “I think we’re out of our depth,” Daeholf said again.

  “I certainly am,” Alia said.

  “Three arms tips it for me,” Zedek said. “If he’s capable of that…”

  “Just imagine an army of them,” Trimas said with a shudder.

  Jonas looked uncomfortable.

  “What’s wrong?” Daeholf said.

  “The three-armed man. That was one of my nightmares. It was something Marlen had discussed in the past, though I assumed in jest. If he’s actually managed to do it and it works as well as that did, well, he’s gone further than I thought.”

  “And?” Trimas said.

  “I think Daeholf is right, I think we need backup.”

  “Who?” Trimas said.

  “Authorities,” Zedek said. Jonas nodded.

  “Can’t we just round up more Hunters?” Daeholf said. “I’m not entirely comfortable with getting the watch involved.”

  “Doesn’t work like that,” Jonas said. “There’s no money in this anyway so we’d not have much to offer anyone either.”

  “The watch then?” Daeholf said.

  “I think so,” Jonas said.

  “So we’re calling the professionals in?” Alia said, looking slightly cheered.

  “I’m not sure I’d put it that way,” Trimas said.

  “Why not?” Alia said.

  “We’re the professionals, for one,” Jonas said. Alia gave him a look.

  “The watch out here probably won’t have seen anything like this and won’t know what to do either,” Daeholf said.

  “So why are we involving them then?” Alia said.

  “They have numbers and power,” Zedek said.

  “If we can convince them,” Daeholf said.

  “I think a three-armed man should do it,” Jonas said.

  “If they don’t freak and arrest us for making him ourselves,” Daeholf said.

  “Had some bad experiences with the authorities?” Jonas said.

  “I may have been on the wrong side of the somewhat incompetent law in the past.”

  “Haven’t we all,” Jonas said. “But I think if we can persuade them to take this seriously we could get the help we need. Or enough of a distraction to Marlen that we should be able to get to him in the confusion anyway.”

  “So what do you suggest?” Daeholf said.

  “It’s good that we didn’t mangle the body too badly, it won’t take much looking at to realise something is badly wrong. Alia and I both have official authority to bring this sort of thing in. We go to the nearest big watch station, drop the body off and let me do the talking.”

  “Okay. What are we hoping they’ll do?”

  “Investigate. Flush Marlen out so that we can get to him.”

  “Let’s get moving then. Draw straws for who gets to ride with the corpse?” Trimas said.

  *****

  They crested a hill and looked down at the city.

  “Impressive,” Alia said, looking at the tall, thick walls surrounding a cramped and bustling city.

  “Not really,” Trimas said.

  “Can you not see the walls?” Alia said.

  “Walls are okay, city is a dump,” Trimas said.

  “Snob,” Daeholf said.

  Alia looked again. “What are you seeing that I’m not?”

  “It might look impressive at first but it won’t when we get closer. There’s no real money here. City is at the arse-end of the empire and gets little central funding. It’s only got the walls because when it was built it was expected to be another war-torn border. Not much has happened out this way for years.”

  “You been here before then?” Zedek said.

  “No. Just know my history,” Trimas said.

  “Or an overprivileged capital-dwelling fop,” Daeholf said with a smile.

  “You used fop recently,” Trimas said.

  “Damnit.”

  “That’s the problem with you mud-eating peasants, no vocabulary.”

  “I’m sorry, milord, it won’t happen again, milord,” Daeholf said tugging his forelock.

  Zedek looked at the two of them and rolled his eyes.

  “Speaking for us mud-eaters, if we’re done I’d like to get to the city before dark,” Jonas said.

  “Um, I didn’t mean…” Trimas said turning towards him.

  Jonas grinned at him.

  “Can we hurry this up please?” Alia said. “Our friend here is starting to smell,” she said, pointing to the corpse tied across the back of her horse.

  “I thought that was you,” Jonas said. Alia glowered at him.

  “I’m surrounded by idiots,” Zedek muttered to himself, shaking his head.

  They rode towards the city and the walls became more imposing the closer they got.

  “Who were they planning to keep out?” Daeholf said, looking at them admiringly.

  “The unknown east,” Trimas said.

  “And?”

  “Never been tested. An ambitious folly.”

  “They’d probably hold up to a pretty serious assault. Best approach would probably be at night,” Daeholf said, musing.

  “Or we could just use the gate,” Alia said, pointing.

  “Or we could just use the gate,” Daeholf said with a laugh.

  The guards looked bored as they approached. The tall one at the front looked at them suspiciously when he caught a whiff of the smell.

  “What have you got with you?” he said. He looked at the back of Alia’s horse and saw a foot sticking out of the blanket-wrapped lump draped across the back of her horse. He snapped to attention and readied his partisan, his companions following suit.

  “Easy there,” Alia said, holding out her rod of office. “Bounty hunters.”

  The guard looked at the rod from behind his weapon and frowned. “Smells to me like you could have dropped him off somewhere else, earlier.”

  “This one is special,” Alia said.

  “Special or not, you can’t just be openly bringing corpses into the city,” the guard said stubbornly.

  Alia gave a despairing look backwards.

  Jonas moved his horse forward. “Yes we can,” he said firmly.

  “And who are you?” the guard said.

  “I’m a bounty hunter,” Jonas said.

  “So?”

  “So I have the right to collect people and bring them to the authorities.”

  “Show me the bounty sheet then.”

  “As the lady said, this one is special.”

  “No sheet means someone you’ve just murdered. We don’t want that around here. And maybe we should arrest you for the crime.”

  “That would be a mistake,” Trimas said.

  “Easy,” Jonas said to him. He turned back to the guard. “I don’t want to pull rank here so maybe it would be easier if we just show you.”

  “Pull rank?” the guard said, looking confused.

  Jonas sighed and carefully drew out his rod of office. The guard looked at it suspiciously for a moment.

  “Lot of markings on that,” he said.

  “There are,” Jonas agreed. />
  “Doesn’t mean you can just kill people though, senior or not.”

  “Let’s set that aside for a moment. Here, let me show you what we’ve brought in.” Jonas dismounted and walked to the back of Alia’s horse. He picked the body up easily and deposited it a few feet in front of the guards who all looked at it distastefully.

  “Have your men guard the gate and I’ll show you what we have,” Jonas said, waving to the talkative guard.

  The guard looked doubtful but motioned to the others who took up formation. He approached the body. Jonas carefully unwrapped part of it.

  “What am I looking…” the guard said, then recoiled in horror. “Watch station two streets down on the left,” he said, still backing off. Jonas wrapped the body up carefully and put it back on Alia’s horse.

  “Could have gone on your horse for a bit maybe,” she said.

  Jonas sighed, moved the body across to his. He looked at it, decided against mounting and started leading his horse through the gate.

  “Two streets down on the left?” he said to the guard.

  “You can’t miss it,” the guard replied, giving him a wide berth.

  The others followed Jonas through the gate.

  “Well we’ve announced our arrival then,” Daeholf said.

  “Couldn’t be avoided,” Jonas said. “We should have wrapped the body better.”

  “Or taken it elsewhere,” Trimas said.

  “We’ll get someone with the authority to do something about it here,” Jonas said.

  “Let’s hope so,” Zedek said.

  They followed the guard’s directions and he was right, they couldn’t miss the fortified building.

  “Expecting trouble it seems,” Daeholf said.

  “Maybe someone was a bit overzealous,” Trimas said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Jonas said. “Let’s get our smelly friend dropped off before his aroma becomes a permanent addition to our group.” He walked up to the station door and pushed. The door seemed locked. He looked and saw a bell which he rang. There was no response.

  He rang it again, harder.

  After a moment the door opened and an annoyed looking man appeared.

  “What do you want?” he said, eyeing them suspiciously.

  “Bounty Hunters with a body to drop off. We need to see the captain,” Jonas said, holding out his rod of office.

  “Bounties go to the council offices.”

  “This one is special,” Jonas said.

  “Doesn’t matter. Go away.” The man moved to close the door. Jonas stepped forward quickly, shoved the door wide and grabbed the man by his shirt, lifting him easily into the air and pressing him against the wall, his feet dangling above the floor.

  “We need to see the captain,” Jonas repeated, holding the rod close in front of the struggling man’s face. The man continued to struggle. Jonas slammed him none too gently against the wall.

  “I’m getting quite tired of the reception we’re getting around here,” he said.

  The commotion had drawn the attention of other watchmen in the room beyond. They scrambled around, reaching for weapons.

  Jonas held out the rod. “Get the captain. Now,” he said firmly.

  “What’s all the noise?” a thin, tired looking man said, emerging from an office to the side of the room.

  “You the watch commander?” Jonas said.

  “Yes. Put my man down please,” the commander said, looking carefully at him.

  Jonas put the man down gently, who then ducked and scurried away to his comrades.

  “Who are you?” the commander said.

  “Bounty Hunters,” Jonas said.

  “And?”

  “We have something for you.”

  “From your accent and your appearance, it looks like you’ve travelled a long way so perhaps you don’t know the procedures around here. Local council has the money and pays the bounties. You need to go and see them,” the commander said patiently.

  “This is a little different.”

  “Indeed?”

  “Indeed.” Jonas motioned to Daeholf and Trimas who brought the body in and deposited it on the floor. The commander motioned to his men who moved in behind him as he approached the body. Daeholf unwrapped the blanket carefully and stood back. There were gasps.

  “What is this?” the commander said, bending to look at it closely.

  “A three-armed man,” Trimas said unnecessarily.

  “I can see that,” the commander said. He poked at the body. “I’ll grant you, it doesn’t look like a trick, the arm does seem part of him. What do you want me to do?”

  “Investigate,” Jonas said.

  “This is beyond us here,” the commander said, standing up. “I don’t want anything to do with this sort of thing. You need to see my superiors.”

  Jonas sighed. “This is getting tiresome.”

  “I also don’t want to get blamed for not doing anything about this sort of thing,” the commander said, looking at the body again. “I’ll take you to the chief myself.”

  “Okay,” Jonas said. Daeholf and Trimas wrapped the body up again.

  “You two with me,” the commander said motioning to two of his watchmen who stepped over reluctantly.

  The commander led them all back out into the street. “A group of you I see,” he said, looking over the other two. He led them on foot through a series of streets.

  “Where are we going?” Jonas said.

  “To the top,” the commander said.

  *****

  They waited in the anteroom, standing near the blanket-wrapped body, trying not to look too suspicious. The commander had led them to what looked like an old legion command house, a fortified compound where in the past an army might have been housed until the change in imperial policy. Now it was the home of the city guard, though from their numbers it gave the site a half-abandoned feel. The commander had got them in without too much hassle as clearly he was known and they’d been led to the old commander’s house, no one paying too much attention to the smelly heavy bundle they were carrying. Now they were waiting awkwardly in a room, waiting to meet the ‘chief’ and trying to overhear the conversation muffled by the door.

  The door opened. “Sounds exciting,” came an unknown voice from the other side. Two men emerged. One the watch commander that they knew, the other a chubby, sweating, overdressed man.

  “Gentlemen and lady,” the chubby man said.

  “This is the head of the city guard,” the commander said deferentially. “General Arek.”

  “General?” Trimas said quietly in disbelief. Daeholf shot him a warning glance.

  “Pleased to meet you,” Alia said sweetly.

  “Charmed,” Arek said.

  Alia resisted the temptation to curtsey sarcastically.

  “So I gather you have something interesting to show me,” he said.

  “You’ve not been filled in?” Trimas said.

  “I want to hear it from you.”

  “We came across part of a people-smuggling operation. This man was directing some of it,” Jonas said.

  “Okay.”

  Jonas unwrapped the body carefully.

  “So you weren’t exaggerating then,” Arek said to the watch commander.

  “No sir.”

  “How interesting. So, who are you all?”

  “Bounty Hunters,” Jonas said simply.

  “Well thank you for bringing this to me,” Arek said. “I’ll make sure it is dealt with appropriately.”

  “What are you intending to do?” Jonas said. The watch commander shot him a sharp look.

  “Well, investigate of course. You can go. My friend here will take you to the purser who will make sure that you are compensated,” Arek said, motioning to the watch commander.

  “Don’t you want to know where we found him?” Alia said.

  “Of course, of course. Leave the details with the commander on your way out.” He waved at them dismissively.

  He
didn't notice their frowns as they trooped out.

  “So, a three-armed man then,” Arek said to himself when he was alone and looking at the body. "What are you? Mutant? Magic? We must find out. Maybe there are more of you.” He stood just looking for a minute. “And this is clearly a watch matter so we don’t need to involve my uncle either,” he said with a smile.

  *****

  “All I’m saying, all I’m saying is that if he never comes back I want first dibs comforting his wife.” He paused then, making a show of leering, his one eye gleaming above the crate he was carrying.

  Opposite him, a far smaller man looked down at the crate he was pushing on a trolley, and shook his bald head. “You can’t say things like that, what if he’s really dead? God will be offended.”

  “They killed him, they can’t be that offended.”

  “That probably offends them too.”

  “He didn’t go drinking with us last night, so where’s he likely to be? Not like there’s a ritual this morning he’ll go and gawp at and try to be pious. No, the rebels have got him.”

  “The rebels have not got him.”

  “How do you know? People have been going missing, and that’s a fact.”

  “Well…”

  “Well is it a fact or not?”

  “Okay, people have been going missing. Quite a lot of people. Mostly poor bastards like us. But…”

  “And did my friend in the watch not blame the rebels for abductifying these people?”

  “Okay, she did…”

  “So there you are, a conclusion. Rebels have him, and I’m having his wife.”

  A door opened at the far end of the warehouse, and two people walked in. One was tall, thin and wearing the rough clothes of his workmates, while one was far better dressed, opulent even.

  “Oh fuck it, he was with the boss.”