Night Of The Taking

by Scott Kaelen

  Without looking back, the nameless man clutched his chest and walked from the ruins. The Retainer, obediently, silently, walked at his side.

  A Note To The Reader

  Thank you for reading Night of the Taking. I hope you enjoyed this short entry tale into the world of Verragos. If you did, please consider giving a brief Amazon review to show your appreciation. Reviews mean as much to authors as their stories being read. All reviews (however short or long, praising or criticising) will be seen by me and accepted with gratitude. You can leave a review by clicking this link and scrolling down to the reviews section.

  If you enjoyed Night Of The Taking, be sure to check out The Blighted City, the first novel in the Fractured Tapestry series. You can find it on Amazon via this link.

  – Scott Kaelen

  Keep turning the pages to read the first scene of The Blighted City, followed by a glossary of terms found within Night of the Taking…

  THE BLIGHTED CITY

  CHAPTER ONE, SCENE ONE

  THE CHIDDARI CONTRACT

  The battle’s almost over. The thought filled Maros with a shameful sense of triumph as he glared at his final challenge. Across the clearing, the cottage’s shuttered windows returned his gaze with prodigious disinterest.

  “Just another hundred yards. Get on with it,” he admonished himself. He stabbed his crutches into the dirt, and a jolt of pain lanced up his leg. Gritting his teeth, he lurched into the clearing. Slowly, the distance to the cottage shrank, with Maros grunting and cursing the whole way.

  “Should’a sent a runner,” he muttered. A year ago, I could’ve run this in a quarter of the time and still been ready for a fight at the end. Now? He barked a wry laugh. Dripping like a spitted pig.

  With a loping stride, he reached his target and stifled a roar of jubilation. His face was a mask of sweat, beads dripping to the sun-drenched dirt to be consumed under the noon sun. Composing himself at the door, he cast a sideways glance to the far edge of the crescent-shaped hamlet where a middle-aged woman was busy pegging out her linen and eyeing him over the sheets. He switched his gaze to two young girls in the centre of the clearing. Sensing Maros’s scrutiny, they ceased their game of hop-rings and stared at him with undisguised horror. He flashed them a wide grin, and they bolted away into the surrounding forest.

  He shook his head. Folk in the hamlet of Balen rarely left their quaint little microcosm and weren’t accustomed to seeing anything out of the ordinary. The woman no doubt regarded him as a freak of nature or, worse, a gods-cursed creature to be pitied. The gammy leg didn’t help matters. If they had ever heard the name Maros the Mountain, they would not recognise the exhausted human-jotunn at the cottage door as the man from those whispered tales. His reputation belonged to the past. These days he was scarcely more than an oversized quill-scratcher.

  He wiped a forearm across his brow and rapped his knuckles upon the door. The muffled sounds of dragging feet drifted from within and the door clicked open to reveal a gaunt, elderly woman. Her dewy eyes lifted to regard him, a mask of austerity plastered over her wrinkles. She looked him up and down, frowning at his crutches and sweat-soaked vest.

  “I presume the commotion I heard out here was you?” she said. “One would presume an ox was being slaughtered. What on Verragos were you doing?”

  “I…” Stifling a sigh, Maros waved a feeble gesture behind him to the woodland trail. Well done. Show the frail old lady how you were traversing a flat, open area. That’s sure to impress her.

  “Hmph,” No matter. I must say, I haven’t seen one of you in decades.”

  He frowned. “One of me what? A man? A cripple?”

  “A halfblood.” Her rheumy eyes narrowed to slits. “Well then, what do you want? I don’t have all day.”

  “I, ah…” He cleared his throat. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance. The name’s Maros, Official of the Alder’s Folly Freeblades. Might I be speaking with Cela, ah…” Rummaging into his vest pocket, he withdrew a sweaty sheet of paper and brought it to his face. “Cela Chiddari?”

  “You might at that. Official, you say? Not accustomed to memorising family titles though, are you? Hm. Well, since they’ve sent me the man at the top, I suppose I should feel honoured.”

  The man at the top sent himself, you aged fruitcake. Maros forced a congenial smile. “I’m sure the pleasure is all mine.”

  “Then allow me to thank you for responding to my summons. As you can see, I’m in no fit state to be traipsing all the way to the Folly.”

  Summons? His smile faltered. “I don’t tend to do house calls in person, but when I read your note from the courier I was prepared to make an exception.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” Cela peered around the door at her neighbour across the crescent. “You had better step inside, young man,” she muttered, shuffling into the gloomy cottage. “Our discussion is not for prying ears.”

  Maros leaned lower on his crutches and squeezed through the threshold. He heeled the door shut and squinted as the room was plunged into darkness. A few thin slivers of daylight knifed between closed shutters, and the musty stench of age wafted into his nostrils. He swallowed a cough and watched the old woman lower her skeletal frame into an armchair beside the empty hearth. As she shifted to sit upright, he imagined her toppling to the rug in a heap of dusty bones.

  “Take a seat, freeblade.” She waved a hand around the room. “Whichever is best for you.”

  Maros scanned the dark lumps of furniture for a suitable sturdy perch and limped across to a bench on the opposite side of the hearth. He eased himself down, stifling a sigh as the aches in his leg receded.

  “I hear you’ve been keeping Alderby’s tavern ticking over in his stead,” Cela said conversationally.

  “I have.”

  “Running a guild and a tavern. Quite the workload.”

  “Nothing I can’t handle. Truth is, it was a boon when old Alderby passed so soon after my… accident.” Maros rested his hand on his knee. “Sad, though. The place was never without one or other Alderby at the helm.”

  “So I gather. Well, enough chitter-chatter.” Cela’s eyes were glints in the shadows. A tight smile sliced her wizened features. “To business.”

  “To business indeed. The bounty you’ve offered is enough to raise even the Brancosi Bank’s eyebrows a touch. No offence, lady, but I’m looking at this cottage and thinking I don’t see five hundred silvers’ worth of property here.”

  “I dare say you’d be right if I was offering my house. You’ll be getting coin, freeblade, rest assured. My savings will do me little good now unless you acquire that which belongs in Chiddari hands.”

  “Yes,” Maros said carefully. “How is it that you hold a family title when they fell into disuse centuries ago?”

  Cela issued a reedy laugh and ticked a finger at him. “Questions, questions, halfblood. Shall we stick to the matter at hand?”

  “Fair enough. Other than the reward amount, your note was vague at best—”

  “For good reason. You appreciate the sensitivity of information, I’m sure.”

  “Then, please, tell me what you need of the guild and I’ll see if we can accommodate.”

  “My family’s heirloom has been lost to us for many generations.” Cela regarded him intently. “Lost, and yet I know of its precise location. It resides in a graveyard dating back to a time when the dead were still buried intact.”

  “Those places are all sunken beneath the wilderness. There’s scarcely a trace of the old kingdoms left.”

  Cela’s tight smile returned. “Except, that is, for one place.”

  “Now listen here. If you’re implying what I think you’re implying, then you’re asking me to send freeblades into Death’s Head territory.”

  “I’m not asking. I’m offering you a contract for a considerable reward. If you don’t want the job, I can look to less reputable sellswords…” She shifted in her chair and eyed him askance.

  This is likely a fool’s errand,
he thought. But for a bounty of that size… “I should warn you that the guild deals in real issues, not in legends. There’s only one burial ground that was never purged. If that’s where you’re talking about, then let’s stop bandying words. Where exactly is this heirloom?”

  Cela sighed. “In a crypt within the Gardens of the Dead, in Lachyla, the Blighted City.”

  The last pretence of formality slipped from Maros as he roared a hearty laugh. “I knew it! Let me get this straight. You want my lads and lasses to cross a vast region that’s been devoid of gods and men for centuries. You expect them to risk their lives scouring a cursed city’s boneyard in search of some trinket your ancestors left behind to rust in a crypt?” He snorted. “Lady, either you’ve lost your mind, or…”

  Cela glared at him in stony silence.

  Or you’re serious. He shook his head and cast the floorboards a bemused smile. “Alright, what exactly does this heirloom look like?”

  “It’s a gemstone.”

  “You’ll have to give me more than that. Whoever takes the job needs to know what they’re looking for.”

  “I’ve never seen it, have I? All I know is it’s banded with burial runes, and larger than your average gemstone. They will find it at the tomb of my most ancient ancestor.”

  “And who might that be?”

  “I have no idea,” Cela said curtly. “Do you know your lineage, halfblood?”

  “Fine,” Maros sighed. “A stone of unknown description, at a tomb of unknown name. Do you realise how large that boneyard’s reputed to be? They could search the place for days and still not find your stone. You’ll have to give me something better or it’s no deal.”

  “Oh, I will.” Cela reached to the table beside her and picked up a folded square of vellum. “It’s only a rough copy, but it’s accurate enough.”

  “What is it?”

  “A map of the Gardens of the Dead.”

  Maros repressed a chuckle. “Where on Verragos would you have gotten hold of that?”

  “More irrelevant questions, freeblade. You have all the information I can give. Make your decision.”

  He looked at her levelly and considered the ramifications. What happened in Lachyla was the catalyst for the dead being burned nowadays. The city, and its graveyard, were more steeped in myth and superstition than anywhere else on Himaera. But who really knows what’s down there at the arse-end of the Deadlands? Maybe the legend’s true, maybe not. Either way, securing such a bounty would be a great boon to someone. Plus, my own modest cut wouldn’t go amiss. Not to mention the reputation that’d put the guild back on the map. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s cut to it. Show me the dari.”

  Cela reached into the neckline of her blouse and withdrew a thin chain. She gave the rectangular pendant on the end several twists, then passed him the lower half; its interior had been fashioned into a key. She pointed to an ironwood stump in the corner of the room, upon which a squat coffer was securely bolted. “Open it,” she said.

  Maros heaved himself from the bench. He unlocked the coffer and loosed a whistle at the neatly piled silvers.

  “Five hundred in total, as promised, and not a copper among them.” The old woman issued a rattling sigh. “I fear there may be very little time to waste, so tell me now – will you accept?”

  Maros licked his dry lips and glanced sidelong at her. “Lachyla, you say. Well. I guess it is only a legend…”

  Cela Chiddari smiled. The murky light deepened the hollows of her face and, for a moment, she resembled the death’s head symbol itself. “That’s the spirit, freeblade,” she crooned. “Such bravado. Congratulations, the job is yours. Now, find me my heirloom.”

  NIGHT OF THE TAKING GLOSSARY

  DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

  EPHEEMA – The tribeswoman betrothed to Lonaris Cri. Mother of Tira.

  HAKHOS – Once the friend of Lonaris Cri and Epheema, during the harvest celebration he – along with all the tribesfolk – turned on the Volami and massacred them to the last. It was Hakhos who caused the wound that should have killed Lonaris.

  LONARIS CRI – A Volami resident of the city of Midhallow. Husband of Epheema, and father of Tira.

  RETAINERS – The caretakers of Midhallow, in servitude to the Volami, but also servile in a limited capacity to the tribal guests dwelling in the city. The Retainers guard the sections of Midhallow closed off to the tribesfolk.

  TIRA – The baby daughter of Lonaris Cri and Epheema. Tira is a halfblood, being the offspring of a Volami and a woman of the indigenous tribes.

  VOLAMI – A race of people living in the city of Midhallow, to which Lonaris Cri belongs. The Volami typically have crimson hair, pale skin, and the irises of their eyes are copper-red.

  DRAMATIS DEĪ

  BANAEL – The sun that lights Verragos. The greatest of the Unbound Gods. Revered in an earlier age as the Empyreal God of Fire and Light, worship of Banael waned with the emergence of the Dyad.

  CHERAK – The God of Mountains and Stone. Portrayed as a massive stone golem, glowing from within with molten rock. Cherak is the brother of Khariali. His heart was cast into the void by Teuveyr, there to merge with Khariali’s skin and form their offspring, Banael.

  THE DYAD – The collective name of the gods predominantly worshipped by the tribesfolk. The individual gods are known as Aveia and Svey’Drommelach.

  KHARIALI – The Goddess of Metals and Gemstones. Portrayed as a beautiful female forged of metals and gleaming jewels. Khariali is the sister of Cherak. Her skin was cast into the void by Teuveyr, where it merged with her brother’s heart to form their offspring, Banael.

  TEUVEYR – The Battle God and the Arbiter of the Gods. It was Teuveyr who cast judgement on the gods and sent several of their aspects into the void as punishment for their treatment of the people of Verragos.

  LOCATIONS

  ANG-KHUR – Ancient ruins situated several miles north-west of Midhallow.

  BHAR’A’TOTH – A land to the east of Midhallow.

  MIDHALLOW – A city of towering spires situated between two mountain ranges.

  VERRAGOS – The name given to encompass the world in its entirety.

  VÖRENDHWEL – A land situated far to the west of Midhallow.

  MISCELLANEA

  THE FOURTH AGE – Also known as the Age of the Dyad, and the Time of Discernment.

  HALFBLOOD – A man or a woman who is the offspring of two different species.

  HALLOWED SYMBOLS – The symbols found adorning many of the walls, doors and floors of Midhallow, including the Needle at the heart of the city.

  MONTH: VINDERE – Meaning Vindala prepares, referring to the Patroness of Wealth and Fortune preparing her skills for the coming harvest. Vindere is the ninth of the thirteen months, and marks the beginning of Herfos, the Harvest season.

  NAMING RITE – A tribal ritual whereby on the second annual celebration of a child’s birth, the child’s name is formally added to the tribe’s records. There is often much rejoicing during the rite, as it is believed the child has passed the uncertain time associated with the arbitrary taking of the child by the god, Drommelach.

  NIGHT OF THE GIVING – An annual custom of merry-making at the height of the season of Harvest, celebrating good crops – or praying for the poor crops to improve – by the exchanging of gifts and tokens between the tribes.

  NIGHT OF THE TAKING – The name given by Lonaris Cri to the Night of the Giving, as it was on this night that his wife, his daughter, his kin, his city and his heritage were taken from him.

  SEASON: HERFOS – The fourth of the five seasons of the year. Also known as the season of Harvest.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Scott Kaelen writes in the genres of epic fantasy, science fiction, horror, humour, poetry and non-fiction. His published works include the poetry volume DeadVerse and the essays book Life, The Universe & Free Thinking. His current projects are a second novel in The Fractured Tapestry series and a second volume of poetry.

  Scott’s inte
rests include etymology, psychology, prehistoric Earth, the Universe, cRPGs, and reading and watching sci-fi, fantasy and horror. His favourite sci-fi shows are Stargate, Farscape, Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Primeval and Killjoys.

  Blog/Website: authorscottkaelen.wordpress.com

  Amazon US Author Page: amazon.com/author/scottkaelen

  Amazon Global Author Page: author.to/scottkaelen

  Facebook Profile: facebook.com/scottkaelen

  Facebook Author Page: facebook.com/scottkaelenofficial

  Facebook Series Page: facebook.com/thefracturedtapestry

  Twitter: twitter.com/scottkaelen

  Goodreads: goodreads.com/scottkaelen

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The Fractured Tapestry

  Night of the Taking (2015)

  The Blighted City (2018)

  Encyclopedia Verragos: A Companion Guide To The Blighted City (2018)

  Poetry

  DeadVerse (2015)

  Non Fiction

  Life, The Universe & Free Thinking (2016)

  Miscellaneous Short Stories

  When Gods Awaken (2014)

  Bleak '93 (2014)

  Moses Garrett (2014)

  The Lingering Remains (2015)

  The Hyperverse Accord (2015)

  COPYRIGHT

  The Fractured Tapestry copyright © 2015 Scott Kaelen

  Night of the Taking copyright © 2015 Scott Kaelen

  All content copyright © 2015 Scott Kaelen

  Cover design by Scott Kaelen

  All rights reserved

  Any reproduction, publication, or sharing of contents,

  listed either as free or for profit, unless expressly