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Blood Bond – Extract

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BLOOD BOND

THE ROAD OF THE HOLLOW KING

John French

Cado swung the halberd as he came around the shoulder of rock. The blade hit the outrider across the chest and right arm. Iron discs sewn onto hard leather turned the cutting edge, but the force of the blow was enough to shatter bones. The rider cannoned back off their horse and onto the road. The horse reared. Cado spun the halberd as a second rider appeared, but they were already half past him and the blow skimmed off their forearm. He could hear the wagon approaching, the breath of the horses and the rattle of wheels on the road. The second outrider was coming around, an axe in their hand. Cado leapt as the axe hacked down at him and swung his halberd. His blow took the outrider in the shoulder. The haft of the halberd broke with the impact. The rider tumbled, blood scattering from a wound at the base of his neck. The man’s leg caught in the stirrup as he fell, and the horse dragged him as it bolted. Cado landed drawing his sword.

The wagon came into sight. The men on it must have heard the cries of their outriders. The driver was whipping the horses. The guard beside him had a crossbow up and ready. A bolt flew at Cado. It went wide. Cado could see the driver’s eyes above a high leather collar, wide with shock. The guard was already dropping his crossbow and drawing an axe. Cado set himself in the wagon’s path. The horses’ strides were like thunder, an avalanche of muscle and iron-shod hooves. They were almost on him. He leaped aside at the last moment and brought his sword up and down in a circular strike. Wood and leather and iron parted under razor-edged silver. For a second, the wagon continued. Then the traces and reins parted. The horses galloped on, dragging the driver from his seat and along the road. The wagon slewed. A wheel caught on a rock at the road-edge. It skidded, then pitched over. The guard on top fell like a doll cast aside by a child, rolling in a bloody tangle, then lying still.

Cado could taste blood on the air. Hunger rose through him, red and roaring to bite and drink from the dying men on the road. He forced the instinct down and moved towards the wagon. The outrider came at him from the ground. His arm and shoulder were broken from the blow and the fall. There was blood on his lips. He was bleeding internally. But he was tough, and he had a knife that gleamed like furnace coals in the dawn light. Cado’s hand lashed out and gripped the man’s neck. The knife came up and Cado felt the blade slice across his thigh under an armour plate. Pain, bright and burning. Cado snarled. The man scrabbled to stab again. Cado closed his hand. There was a snap, then a dead weight hanging from Cado’s grip.

He let the man drop. Ash fell from the wound where the dagger had cut Cado. He picked up the dead man’s blade. It glittered with Aqshian runes… The guards had not been from Glimmerheart. They had the look of sellswords: hard, competent and well paid. Just the sort someone powerful would hire to further a grudge or get revenge; that was what Byrazan, Cado’s employer for this task, had said was happening. A rival had been lured out and had kidnapped the son of one of Glimmerheart’s older and more influential families.

‘Leverage,’ Byrazan had said, after laying out the situation. ‘They want the youth for leverage and are likely to be unpleasant about it. I, and others of my association, have invested a deal of time into this family. They have a bright future in this city. So we need the youth back. They are taking him on the north road at dawn.’

‘What do I get in return?’ Cado had asked.

‘A way to find the precise path that the acolytes of the False God of Change took when they fled the city.’

Cado had agreed. There was nothing to trust in Byrazan, but Cado believed the man could deliver what he promised. Now, with an ashen wound in his thigh, he wondered if he should have trusted his initial suspicions. Someone had given the guards and outriders fire knives, weapons that could hurt a vampire if not destroy them. They had been prepared for him… or someone like him.

Cado tucked the dagger into his belt, then went to the wagon. It was fire-hardened wood, studded with iron, and a heavy padlock and bar secured it. Strong enough to keep most mortals out, but not him. He gripped the lock and braced to rip it free from the door.

He recoiled, a snarl hissing from his mouth. Fine lines had lit on the black iron of the lock, glowing white-hot for an instant and then fading. He looked at his hand. The same lines had been imprinted across his finger and palm, burnt into the skin. He sucked a breath. He could taste the magic now, metallic and cold in the air. Cado paused for a moment. The wind was raking blossom from the trees that stood either side of the road. The air shifted. His head came up. The distant sound of hoofbeats shivered in his ears. There were more riders coming up the road, riding hard. Cado hacked his sword down into the lock. Blue and green sparks showered out as the magic in his blade and that which protected the lock clashed. He cut at it again and again. More sparks, and then the iron sheared with a scream. Cado yanked the door wide.

The figure inside came at him with a feral snarl. He jerked back. Chains snapped taut. Fingers clawed at the air just in front of his face. Cado stared.

The chained figure was male, starvation thin, skin stretched tight over bones. Rags hung from him in loose folds. Lank hair framed a gaunt face. The pupil in each eye was a black pinprick in a red iris. His mouth was open, snarling. His breath reeked of copper and iron.

For a second, Cado did not move. He had never seen this youth in his life, but as he looked into the red eyes he could see a shard of his own reflection down to the bottom of the youth’s blighted soul.

It cannot be… said a thought at the back of his head.

Of course it can, laughed an answer.

The youth’s teeth snapped together, chewing the air. His hands were still reaching for Cado.

‘Hear me,’ said Cado. The youth’s eyes flicked up to Cado’s and froze. The snarl faded from his mouth.

‘I…’ began the youth.

‘Kneel,’ growled Cado. The youth’s knees buckled. His head dipped on his neck. Anger, bright and red, was flowing through Cado. A long un-life had prepared him for many things – for treachery, spite and deceit. He had betrayed others once and been betrayed many times more. He had expected Byrazan’s task to include lies and obscured truths. He had not expected this…

He felt his sword arm twitch. The youth’s eyes twitched as the sword tip moved. The pupils were wide now.

Crows took to the air from the rock crag beside the road. Cado’s head came up. The sound of hoofbeats and cries were coming closer. He had to move. He looked back at the kneeling youth, raised his sword, and brought it down. The links of the chains parted. The youth looked around, confused. Cado picked up the severed end of the chain and yanked it.

‘Follow,’ he snarled, and moved off the road and into the crags. Behind him the crows were settling on the dead.

‘You do not look happy.’ Byrazan took a bite from the cinderfruit in his hand. He smiled. The blood vial hung around his neck. The city rose from the slope above them. Pieces of broken masonry from an older, greater version of the city dotted the hillside all around. Heavy red and pink blossom hung from the branches of the twist-trees that grew amongst the ruins. Cado stopped three paces from the man. He could feel anger pulling his lips into a snarl. Byrazan took another bite, and looked past Cado to where the youth knelt on the ground. Cado had half led, half dragged him back to the edge of Glimmerheart.

‘You were, however, successful.’ Byrazan grinned. Cado began to take a step forward.

‘Ah, ah, ah…’ Byrazan held up the blood vial on its golden chain. ‘Calm yourself, Hollow King.’ Cado felt the coldness pull at his muscles. He took a step back. The pull of sorcery faded from Cado’s limbs. Byrazan lowered the vial, stood up, and walked around Cado to look at the chained youth. He squatted down, took another bite of fruit, and shook his head.

‘You are both very foolish and incredibly lucky, Sire Hortio,’ said Byrazan. The youth’s head came up, teeth bared, hands reaching… and stopping just short of the man’s neck. Byrazan showed no concern. ‘We warned you not to leave the shelter of the mansion, until the… transmutation had full hold, but you decided to let hunger lead you right into a trap. An obvious one, too.’

‘Where is she?’ said Cado.

Byrazan looked up from the youth and shrugged, still smiling. ‘I see you have reached a certain point of realisation.’

‘I can smell my own blood in this cur’s veins,’ said Cado. Cold rage had hold of him. ‘There was only one other living who bears my lineage.’ He felt his teeth bare. ‘Where. Is. She?’

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