Chapter Thirty Three – The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep by Kelly D. Tolman
Posted by admin on May 11, 2009
The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep is a fantasy novel describing the adventures of Colter Halfspear as he becomes a man and an initiate of magical powers.
I worked at the forge until late in the evening. I found Tarkin, Pascalli, and Dina just finishing a fine meal. “Sit down, lad,” invited Tarkin. “You’ve worked yourself over-hard since you came. I can never repay such kindness. Enjoy some of this roast.”
I knew that I smelled of the forge and that my unwashed face must have appeared rather unruly to Dina. I became conscious for the first time of how graceful she truly was. She had tied her hair in a tight knot at her neck. Her eyes were a penetrating shade of jade, almost like a cat’s that still glared at me across the table. In her boots she stood as tall as me. I noticed that she kept her cutlass and bow close by.
“I believe that you have not been properly introduced,” said Pascalli casually. “This is my knight and protector, Sir Lanseg.” She nodded. “And this is Dina, third daughter of Lord Taradurk.” I bowed deeply, remembering my manners.
I had not learned to speak with much grace and I felt my cheeks flush, so I did the only thing my mouth was good for and stuffed it with food.
“Her ladyship has come to avenge the loss of the blacksmith, Sir Lanseg,” said Tarkin. “She is a very great hunter of evil, both of men and creatures.” The farmer seemed genuinely excited about the arrival of that surly girl. “She was just telling us of a particularly nasty creature. Please continue.”
“There really isn’t much more to it,” she replied. “We came upon them just after dawn and slew them quickly.”
“What sort of creatures were they?” asked Tarkin.
“Beasts that walk like men, with horns and claws. One had the head of a dog, the other the head of a goat. Both were covered in black fur and scales.”
I opened my mouth to say Kaarum, but caught Pascalli’s eye and stuffed it with food instead.
“When was this?” asked Pascalli.
“Two markets ago, near the great wall,” she replied.
“Do you hear that Lanseg?” he said. I nodded. “We will have to make haste. We must be at our destination before winter arrives and already the hills grow dangerous.”
“After we solve the murder,” I said bluntly.
“Oh, of course,” he continued casually. “We were just discussing the matter when you arrived. I have done some scouting, and I believe we will be able to take care of that problem without too much trouble in the morning. Then it will be a small matter for the farm to find a new smith and we can be on our way.”
“Where are you going?” asked Dina.
“Why, to Darnuth Keep, my dear,” said Pascalli as casually as if we were taking a summer stroll to go fishing. My jaw dropped. My fork dropped. I did not have the presence to even hide my surprise my stuffing my mouth again. Winters now of traveling in secrecy and he just spouted it off.
“You are joking of course,” replied Dina, her voice betraying her shock. “That place is haunted, filled with deadly evil beasts. Legend has it that it was cursed from the breaking and can never be made whole again.”
“Never is a very long time,” said Pascalli. “Despite the dangers we are going there. I am surprised at you, Dina, frightened of mere stories when you have yourself fought and conquered evil. I should think you would want to come with us.” Now I really was struggling to keep myself composed. The last thing I wanted along was a silly girl who couldn’t take care of herself, let alone help out in a tight spot. But my fears were unfounded.
“I have other duties,” she replied. “I am not always free to chase my quarry or to follow fools into darkness.”
“Of course,” replied Pascalli, and as far as we were all concerned the matter was closed. The conversation turned to more mundane topics until I drifted to sleep at the table from exhaustion.
The morning found us looking for over-sized gopher holes. “What we are looking for, are holes about this large,” described Pascalli very carefully. He held his hands apart to form a circle about the size of my head. “They will be surrounded by the burrowed out dirt, and probably by a sort of yellow slime or yellow dirt. I have already marked three of them, but there should be a few more, possibly as many as ten or twelve.”
“What do we do when we find them,” I asked.
“Just mark them with a stick, like this, and a bit of cloth.” He handed each of us a few strips of cloth. “Whatever you do, do not put your hand or foot inside one of these holes! The creatures inside can be very dangerous, as you will soon see.”
As Pascalli had guessed, the work was relatively quick and easy. Both Tarkin and I had experience hunting vermin of this sort in the fields, so we knew what signs to look for. Dina learned quickly what we were searching for, and in less than an hour we had all nine burrows marked.
Pascalli gathered us together with several of the other farm workers. “Now for the fun part,” he said. Each of you put a generous amount of this powder down a hole, all except one hole, which Lanseg and Dina will watch with their bows.” He passed a generous round of reddish powder to eight different willing parties. “When I give the signal, put your torches to the powder. Mind you be careful, and if you see any creature coming out of the hole run back away and call out for assistance.”
“What are we to do?” asked Dina.
“Shoot them as they come out, of course.” Pascalli winked. “I did say this was the fun part, didn’t I. Oh, but be careful not to get bitten. I believe you will find that they move spectacularly fast when frightened, and their venom is quite deadly.”
Just as planned, eight torches set off fire and smoke in unison and a few short seconds later out crawled seven enormous lizards. I call them lizards but truly they were more like giant centipedes with lizard-like heads. They sported just one vicious fang, almost like a horn. Their mouths opened with rages of fear, pain and anger as they emerged, and their bulbous eyes blinked in the morning sun. One by one we shot them with our arrows as they emerged. Most of them required more than one shot to stop. They had some inner desire to keep moving, to keep attacking that went far beyond normal instinct. The last one very nearly reached Dina’s legs before I put an arrow through its eye. She gave me a grudging thank you, and turned to survey the situation.
After a few moments, the fury was over and I began skinning one of the creatures. “What could you possibly want with that,” asked Dina, a look of disgust on her face.
“New boots,” I suggested, indicating my worn footwear. I’m not sure what made me continue, “I can make a pair for you if you’d like.” The words seemed to escape my lips before I knew I was even speaking.
She looked at first taken aback, and then wary, then replied, “I’m sure you’ll be long gone before you can finish them. Besides I have business.”
“Then I will send them to your father as a trophy of his daughter’s triumph.” To my surprise there was no note of mockery in my voice. She had done very well that day and I did want to make up.
“Thank you,” she stammered. I believe that was the first time someone had sincerely complimented her in her life, if not, it was certainly the most powerful. She was used to the idle prattle of hangers-on and the expected kindnesses of servants.
“Taking trophies already I see,” interrupted Pascalli. “Wonderful. I could use a new belt, but mind the fangs and let me know if you see any of their eggs.”
“I’ll be careful,” I grumbled. “The hides are already spoken for.”
“Oh well, another time then,” responded Pascalli cheerfully. “Ho, Tarkin, come see what we’ve managed.” The farmer was already halfway to us of course. “Now mind you that we may not have gotten all the eggs. If we didn’t you’ll see a few young come out in one or two markets. The young will be looking for mice or frogs, whatever they can get. I suggest you set some traps around the burrows at night. Go ahead and plug as many as you can.”
Copyright 2008 Kelly David Tolman
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