As soon as the group left the tavern, they could hear a sound of smiting coming from the blacksmith’s workshop, as it usually does, but what was strange is that each blow of the hammer made witch-hunters deaf for a fraction of a moment, and they could swear they could see brief flashes of white light each time the hammer struck against the iron.
Luthor, as if led by some unseen force, walked straight towards the smithy, and there he saw the old blacksmith, his son, an apprentice and Garric Thane working together with them. Even when busy, the whole room was afflicted by a strange evil feeling. At least Eldon could feel it, and nobody else seemed to react.
The old watchmaster brushed a sweat off his forehead with his coal-streaked hands and greeted the witch-hunters.
“Oh there you are, our welcomed guests! you may have already heard that the king has imposed a quarantine.”
“There is a matter to discuss, Garric.” Luthor said coldly.
“Then speak! we can discuss right here, like honest folks without any scheaming” Garric replied and grabbed a handful of charcoal, throwing it into the fires while the blacksmith’s apprentice stoked the flames with the bellows, heating up a piece of hot iron.
“I want you to keep your men safe, hogwatch should serve a defensive purpose only”.
“Hogwatch already serves a defensive purpose, as it was meant to be.” Garric replied, while focusing mainly on his work.
“You don’t understand me Garric, the powers that we deal with are not something that can be fought with mere iron tools and wooden stakes.”
“I am aware of that, witch-hunter, that is why I am forging a weapon”.
As soon as he spoke, Eldon could hear a deafening hum in his ears, and as he looked in the forge fires towards the red-hot steel, he could hear the bellow’s breath and the roaring of flame, which for a fraction of a second brought back the image of burning witches.
It was clear, the nails were collected by the priest’s apprentice that dug through the ashes that night, and Garric decided to forge them into a blade.
“Do you think one sword will be enough to protect the entire village?”
“I will make it enough!, do we have any other options left? King has forsaken us, witch-hunters! His men have already written off Aerinthorn, he’ll wait for the plague to settle and repopulate our villages with new peasants from hills in Darstulia once when we are dead, It is up to us to fight for ourselves, and we can not wait for anyone else to do that job.”
Luthor thought for a second, maybe Garric was right.
“Alright then, I certainly can not stop you, the people trust you, make sure you do not waste their lives.”
“I will.” The watchmaster replied, his voice dimmer than usually, clearly bearing the burden of duty.
As they left the smithy behind, Edgar spoke with his ragged voice:
“I knew he won’t listen, you will soon learn that Garric Thane will prove to be more of a threat than ally”.
“We are yet to see” Luthor replied, “he speaks with the zeal in his words, clearly passionate in the quest to protect his people.”
“Clearly passionate in his quest to murder the innocent!” Edgar yelled on the muddy street, his voice clearly intoxicated; and he continued;
“Half-breed! Convert! Do you think he slaughters out of his benevolence? don’t be naive, you remember when that young woman confessed she’s a herbalist and nothing more? He burned her at the cross!”
“Woah, wait! Half-breed?” Eldon asked.
“He’s from the north, born of pagan blood! now he’s trying to wash it away by slaughtering the innocent! He is the reason why Aleena is dead!”
It was clear that out of his Ire, drunk Edgar spoke too loud, and the word will sooner rather than later reach Garric, since many of his watchmen, ordinary peasants at day, were in the village at the time.
“Silent, fool!” Luthor yelled and grabbed the drunk man by his elbow and turned him towards the gate.
“Garric is the most influential person in this village, since the quarantine is introduced, formal authorities won’t last long. His watchmen outnumber the kingsmen up in the towers!”
“There are twenty guards and around ten watchmen at a time.”
“At a time” Luthor replied, “Garric circles his men, there must be atleast twice as much,if not even more! how many men are in this village?”
“Around fourty.”
“They outnumber the Kingsmen two to one!” Luthor yelled, as they left through the gate.
The men walked towards the nearby lake and sat at the fishing platform.
“You see what you did fool! We no longer know if we are welcome to the village, and we can’t spend a night outside it’s walls, the kingsmen won’t take us into their towers, and we can’t leave Aerinthorn!”
Edgar stood up and took off his boots before walking straight into the shallows of the lake, searching for something, and after a couple of moments he lifted a rock from the bottom, with fishing nets hanging from it, with lots of silt, algae and pond scum.
“Did he go insane?” Eldon questioned as the drunk man walked back to the platform and placed the rock on it, water still dripping, before sifting through the lake plants in the fishing net, and finding a bottle of wine.
“Ah yes, just where I left it” He proclaimed before he threw the rock back into the lake and took a sip from the bottle.
“Is this a right time for drinking?”
“Indeed, this one is infused with mugwort and ember root, true Eucharist!” Edgar spoke and handed the bottle towards Luthor, but it was clear that the master-hunter was not in mood for the overindulgence in alcohol.
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“Do you realize what situation we are in?”
“Relax, as soon as we see the hogwatch leaving the gates tonight, we’ll join them and access the situation, I know Garric will mind what was spoken, but I doubt he’d ask his men to expel or hurt somebody because of his personal grudge”. The weathered man spoke held the wine.
“Alright...” Luthor replied and yanked the bottle out of Edgar’s hand before drinking a hefty amount and passing it to Eldon.
“This will be a long night.”
“You mentioned a certain name while you were getting us in trouble” Acolyte asked before sipping a bitter mugwort-infused drink.
“Forget it.” Edgar replied.
As the time passed, cold fog came down from the nearby mountains shrouding the lake, and sun slowly went behind the horizon. The night was setting in, and the frogs were creaking from the reeds, together with the sound of crickets.
“They should leave the walls soon” Edgar spoke, as Luthor polished his blade under the moonlight.
“I have some ominous feeling about this”. Master-hunter declared and looked across the lake into the dark woods, the heavy presence was felt, almost as if the group was being watched.
Eldon stared at the lake’s calm surface, he could see his reflection and the ripples that flickered with the moonlight, and the middle of lake was blanketed with a thick layer of white fog that slowly crept towards the witch-hunters. They could feel a breeze of cold wind and soon enough they were engulfed in mist. The mirror surface of the lake had a thin veil of the mist covering it, and as Eldon stared in his own reflection, he saw it.
For a brief second, he saw a face of a woman appear under the lake’s surface, ghastly and bleak, and her eyes stared right at him. The young acolyte instantly recoiled and when he looked back at the surface, there was nothing.
“What is it?” Edgar asked curiously.
“Um.. nothing... I must have fallen asleep for a moment!” Acolyte answered with anxiety in his voice.
The large wooden doors of the village nearby rumbled and their hinges creaked as a river of men with torches and weapons started pouring out of it. It was Hogwatch, with Garric Thane at it’s tip together with the priest, and its force was much more numerous this night.
There were atleast twenty men, twice as much as the initial group.
“There they are, It’s time for us to join them.” Edgar proclaimed and stood up, and the rest of the group followed.
“Let me do the talking.” Luthor demanded, and the weathered man nodded, letting him take the lead.
As they walked uphill towards the muddy road, hogwatch stopped for a moment to let them join their ranks.
“So you have decided to lead a patrol again Garric?” Luthor yelled
“Indeed, two of them to be exact, Father Theolyn will lead the second group.
It was common for priests to lead such patrols in outer reaches of the kingdom, specially Aerinthorn and mostly in times of suspected witchcraft, and such was this case.
“The priest will protect us from their vile spells!” Garric proclaimed as the men joined the ranks of the armed peasants.
“We will protect you from the things your eyes can not see”
“Good! It is always perfect to have a witch-hunter among our ranks! But what about the drunk man? What is he doing among the witch-hunters?”
“I thought you said they know who you are...” Luthor said silently to Edgar
“They do”.
“He is a witch-hunter too.”
“Haha! That was almost twenty years ago! If he is still a witch-hunter then I suppose I am still a young lad in flame of youth!” Garric mocked and the rest of the men started laughing.
“Witch-hunter? More like witch-fucker!” A big man from the crowd added to the mockery, town’s butcher, laughing and grunting hideously like a pig with his rotting black teeth, and the whole group burst into laughter.
“Oh you tell me, swine!” Edgar yelled and strode with determination towards him before swinging his fist at his brow, knocking the man down into the mud.
“Okay that’s enough!” Garric proclaimed but Edgar already jumped after the man and proceeded to fist-fight him on the ground, bashing his nose and almost strangling the life out of him before rest of the men broke up the fight.
“This kind of behavior won’t be tolerated, save your petty disputes for the tavern!” Garric yelled and added; “We have no more time to waste! Let’s go!”
“Aye!” The men shouted in unison, raising their torches and lanterns and not a moment later, they were already on the move.
Edgar tried to clear the mud from his already dirty leather coat and the angry man cleared the blood from his nose, his face steaming red-hot with ire.
“You need to control your impulses.” Luthor calmly said, as he handed Edgar a piece of linen to clear his face.
“Don’t lecture me, you know nothing!” He answered and adjusted his coat.
It wasn’t a long walk, but it seemed much longer due to the cold and the eerie atmosphere below the dark forests, combined with the thick dreadful feeling in the air, a dull weight of the spell. Only a couple of minutes have passed, and the group found themselves at the place where the bodies were found together with the horses, however only a couple of days later, there were only bones remaining.
“Something dwells inside those forests.” Garric proclaimed, as he brought the torch closer to the bones, and the silence prevailed, while fear could almost be seen with the naked eye.