Chapter Text
I stood on the rocky outcrop and stared up at the stone farmhouse. The biting wind whistled down from the foothills and if I lifted my eyes I could see the first flakes of snow, softly announcing the weather for that night. Even before the winds had told me to, I had been trying to herd my sheep to lower ground. It was safer, much safer in the thick folds of the woods. Yes, the air would be as biting but the snow would be less ... mortal.
There was something there. Something real. I know I had seen it. The faint glow of something orange from the broken window had caught my eye as I had tried to guide the flock down the track. But now it was gone. It was a fallen place with no windows and a lintel that had collapsed. Thick, strong slates kept the semblance of a roof but holes told tales of a desertion long ago. No-one had lived there for years.
Except tonight.
I crouched down and waited. Maybe whoever was in there would move eventually. This was my master's lands and he would want to know if there were bandits about. He would need to know how many and what threat they posed. I needed to investigate. Unsheathing the stout blade I kept for fending off wolves, and feeling completely unprepared, I threw one last glance to the sheep that had been coralled into a dip in the hills, away from the worst of the winds and weather, and moved forwards. I knew there was something. Somebody was there.
As I drew nearer, I could even smell the smoke of a freshly extinguished fire. I knew it! The only sounds I could hear were the harsh moans of the air moving down from the mountains. We were in the foothills of the Frostbacks. Storms frequently burst upon the unsuspecting and were heralded by strong and screaming winds. Gravel crunched under my feet as I inched forward. I was getting nearer now. Near enough to know that the small building meant for a shepherd like me, possibly with only the one room, was inhabited.
"Come out." I cried, trying desperately to avoid sounding as nervous as I felt. "I will not hurt you."
Nothing.
"The soldiers from the outpost will be arriving soon. If you come out now, I will tell them you came willingly." I lied.
Still silence.
Slowly I moved forward. I could just see the back of the room from where I stood. It was in shadow but the dying light from the afternoon sun scattered the wall. A crunch from within! Someone, something, was moving! I took a deep breath to calm the rapid beatings of my heart.
"Come out, I tell you!"
My voice broke as the hidden spirits moved within. In my panicked state my mind would only tell me that demons were pouring forth within the room beyond. From the shadows, I first saw a boot. Black, thin legs followed it and I looked up to see a man staring at me with utter hatred. Time slowed down as I tried to remember anything before fear called me. His face stayed mostly in the shadows. I could not see anything else; no markings, no clothing, nothing. He would not come out into the light. He would not be seen and that told me something; he was recognisable.
"Run." he growled.
"No." I cried bravely. "You're on Ser Dellian's lands. By his rights, I order you to remove yourself forthwith."
And that's when I truly knew what fear was. Flickers of blue light limned the outline of his body. Set against the backdrop of shadows, it was truly cursed. They tapered up and down his skin, writhing around his body like he had been locked in demonic chains. A voice burning with malice called to me from the inhuman shadows. Shadows I was now sure were windows into the Veil. "I warned you to run."
With a blur, he moved several paces with the rapidity of a hunter.
"Stop!" a second, female, voice called from within the small stone house. Instantly the predator ceased, coiled and ready to pounce. Whoever was inside had power over this animal. And that scared me more than the killer that run towards me.
My eyes flickered to movement from behind the beast. A human moved with the grace and measured calmness of one used to studying their prey. This was not an out-and-out warrior, but a refined and deliberate killer. Slowly, ever so slowly, they emerged from within, out of the shadows. They moved with the beauty and measured gait of a steel butterfly, against the devastating and leashed power of the caged tiger who stood ready to kill me. I was only a lowly shepherd; I should not have to deal with this. Wolves were all I needed to kill. Those and the occasional robber. Not death and it's mistress. My heart pounded against my chest as my mouth ran dry. Who was it that stood against me?
The second incumbent now stood clear of the deadly statue. It was a woman; thin, with cropped black hair and impossible beautiful. She stood and stared at me, a smile breaking the tension of the moment.
"My friend and I need shelter for the night. May we stay here?" she asked. Why was she asking me? "Forgive our brutishness but we have fought our way over the mountains. We did not know if you were truly part of a larger group. Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Alone?" she smiled again. A smile edged in silver and steel; one not to be ignored and not underestimated either.
I looked to the bound executioner who had frozen under his mistress' spell. Still studying me with the glare of a mountain lion, and the intent to kill too. Bringing my gaze away from his, and back to the woman's, my face fell to the floor when she stared at me. I was pinned under her bewitching and deadly eyes.
"Yes."
"You are a shepherd?" she asked in a tone that dared me not to answer truthfully.
"Yes."
"And this is your master's hut?"
"Yes."
"What is your name?"
"Garren. Garren Yulias, of Rognac."
"Is that far from here?"
"Yes. I have a small cabin in the woods at the feet of these hills. This is an old hut for when hunters prowled these lands. But the town itself is several miles away."
"Well, Garren, we need a place to stay for the night before we move on. We need to do this secretly. Now, you are a good man, I can see this quite plainly. Why else would you have approached danger but to serve a master?"
"I am." I nodded, honour and pride stoking a fire within me that she had noticed.
"We are ghosts in these lands, Garren, and must remain so. No-one can know we are here. And I mean no-one."
The last words bit into the air with a deadly pledge. I swallowed against a dry mouth. Fear had robbed my throat and parched it. I nodded. My eyes flashed to the man in black who was locked in controlled rage. He held my eyes with a promise; a dark promise that should I ever betray them, he would hunt me down. It was wordlessly said and silently vowed.
"You may stay here. You need not fear discovery from me." I whispered.
"Thank you." said the woman, a steely gaze softening for the briefest of moments.
The statue, however, growled. "Leave us. Now."
With that instruction pounding through my ears, more from malice than volume, I turned on my heels. As I walked down the path leading to where my flock waited, I tried to sheathe my poor blade. Trembling took my dexterity and I slunk onto a rock, my sword collapsing onto the soft grass beside me. I was used to fending off wolves and mountain beasts, but these two? They had pierced my bravado so completely that it took me a while before I could stand again. The sheep seemed to move a little quicker towards the haven of the little corral in the woods. Maybe they sensed it as well, sensed the ruin they were escaping from. Please Maker, I thought as I drove them down the hill.
Let the two have passed from my life, forever.