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The dead numbered in the thousands and of them most were Turned. After he’d killed them he went somewhere secret to be alone.
I don’t know why but it was long hours before anyone saw Bent again. He must’ve had a lot on his mind, had a lot to mull over, to think about. I knew he didn’t want to be this great killing thing and yet he couldn’t change what he was. It probably shamed him, what he did today, and yet simultaneously afforded him a sense of achievement for avenging Smidgen’s death. He was mixed up and confused but weren’t we all and especially today of all days.
I felt numb. So much death and destruction. So much all-consuming despair.
“They’ll want retribution for this,” Drawn said. He was with me and Evin and Ordesky in what remained of The Fortune of War. Smoke from isolated fires wafted in from every breeched wall and it stank of burning flesh and hair.
Bannin had already organised parties to pile up the dead Turned and torch them but there were other fires in Never, started by battle and crumbling buildings. It would take a while yet to locate all of them and put them out. The sky was covered in the smoke, the air heavy with choking, drifting ash.
“Will they still want this?” I asked. Thanks to Bent I had the bag back. I wore it as Smidgen had, tied to my back. I didn’t want to think about Smidgen. He was my friend and I loved him. I missed him.
“Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Best take it somewhere secret and lose it. One thing is for sure, they’ll want to get to Bent and to you too for what you’ve done here.”
“Maybe we’ll go south. Find them first and kill them.”
“Brave words,” Drawn stretched and we lost him out of the top of the building. He curled back up in time for me to answer him.
“I have Bent.” I said, puffed up and invincible.
“Everything has a vulnerable point, everything has a weakness. The Witches are good at finding such faults and exploiting.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just think carefully, plan carefully, before you set off. They won’t be easy to kill. You destroyed only one of them and there are more Witches waiting for you in Kakkakin.”
Drawn’s words fell on deaf ears. I would get them, every one of them, for what they did to my Smidgen.
A shrunken head bobbed in and circled me. “Bannin wants to see you,” it said. “Tankready’s been gobbled up by another Turned.”
“I don’t care,” I replied and I meant it. I wrapped an arm around Ordesky’s shoulders. “You did well my friend,” I said and he grinned back at me, rightly proud of his accomplishments for he’d stared death in the face and, instead of cowering, he had dared it on.
I beckoned Evin with my free arm and she came to me. I kissed her on the cheek and, linked arm in arm, we three walked out into the open. We passed down The Moss and through streets still smoking and rubble strewn. There weren’t many people here for most were by the busted tower of The Eagle and the Rose.
We joined the crowds there; the air was quiet save for the crack of a burning fire and the occasional groan of a weakened wall threatening to give.
There was a gentle hush of conversation and then nothing, total silence. All eyes looked at the body of Smidgen. Some brave souls had entered the tower and dragged him out and now it was resting on a carriage. Tears welled in my hot eyes at the sight of his poor broken body.
A handful of ladies, probably ones he had rescued from New District, fed white serritan flowers in parts of his hair that hadn’t been burnt or cut away.
“Flendin one moment,” said Nice. He sidled through the throng to get close enough to whisper in my ear. “There’s a man, a wizard, who lives in Propagate. It’s said he can bring the dead to life.”
I looked at him, at his wide eyes and open expression. He wanted me to say yes. An excited murmur broke from those stood closest to me who’d overheard.
“We’ve got nothing to lose, Flendin. Me and Nice can take Smidgen’s body to Propagate no problem. Be quicker than bringing the wizard here,” suggested Rauper, stood never far from Nice. There was a sudden optimism in the air that was groundless.
It was more than a murmur now as everyone had an opinion and that opinion was go fetch the wizard, or drop Smidgen off; just do something. My monster was more popular in death than he’d ever been in life. And there lay the problem, the one thing that stopped me jumping on the carriage and driving it myself to Propagate.
I studied Smidgen’s great lifeless mass. He’d endured such a cruel end to such a cruel life. If miracles be true and that man in Propagate could bring my faithful friend back to life what quality would that life be? His first was full of hate and pain so why would the second one be any different. No. I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. Let him rest. Honour his name, his courage and his good soul but let him have some peace.
“Put him in the ground,” I said finally turning away. I couldn’t look at Smidgen any longer. My faithful friend, my conscience. Before I looked away I took one of the rings off of his jerkin. As soon as I could I’d buy a chain and wear it around my neck. A momentum I’d wear for the rest of my days.
I was sick of Never. It was time to leave my home.
There were arguments and angry voices and I ignored them all. Evin walked with me, so too Ordesky and we clambered over broken walls towards the south of the city where me, Bent and Smidgen had entered only days before.
The Green Man was suddenly there, before us, battered but well enough. He raised a clutch of broken branches like he meant to impede me, and he said, “I’ll stand over your friends grave. I’ll protect him as he sleeps.”
I bowed. “Thank you,” I said for with The Green Man guarding Smidgen’s grave no harm or mischief would come to his body and it would be like having a monument too, a testament that someone truly loved was missed enough to be remembered forever. “When his horse dies put her next to him. He loved that horse,” I said and with that I stepped through the wall and never looked back.
––––––––
He’d been down there long enough. Wastewater stained his clothes and all he could smell was sewage. He tried to spit the taste away but couldn’t so spat harder. Lawskin mirrored him.
“Come on. It’s gotta be this one,” Porland pulled at the grate and slowly, incrementally, it started to move. “Don’t just stand there, help me shift it.”
Finally the grate moved and the men climbed up into desolation.
“What’s happened?” Lawskin wondered, his mouth agape, tongue lolling out parched of water.
Porland shook his head. Secretly he was panicking for the world he’d known was no longer here. There’d been a fire at the hideout for the rooms were stained black and the walls had cracked under the heat. There was a skeleton buried amongst the deep ash. Where was everybody? Where was Maver Kane? “This wouldn’t have been the Watch. This has got to do with that Turned that broke in a few days back. Perhaps the whole city is done for.”
Lawskin gasped. “What if it is?”
“What if it is nothing.” Porland sifted through some of the ash with the toe of his boot.
“What if we’re the only living things left?” Lawskin sounded horrified.
“So what. You worry too much. If that’s true no one’s going to stop us helping ourselves to what we like.” Porland’s boot hit something hard. He knelt down and franticly cleared away the ash. Displaced ash stung his eyes and filled his mouth yet he never slowed, not until he felt it, hard wood.
“What you got there?” Lawskin forgot he was dismayed and craned to get a better look.
“There’s another one over there, and another. Get digging.”
“We’d get a lot of money for these.”
“I’m not going to sell them,” said Porland opening a chest to look inside. “I’m going to use them. I’ll get the valuable King’s shield off of Flendin the Blade. Here, Lawskin, look here,” Porland found another mask and tentatively he put it to his face. “The Bear,” he growled and he swore he could feel its aggression pulsing down his arms already. “I can smell him now, with this mask so close to my face. I can smell him and we can follow his tracks and get him. Get him for what he’s done to Mister Kane and Never.”
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People remembered me from when I was last in Black Pots but none had the courage to confront me. They recalled Bent fighting the Turned, destroying half the town in doing so and they kept their sorry distance. They watched me though, with fearful eyes, and I liked the feeling of power that afforded me.
I was in the same room of the same inn we’d briefly stayed at when we’d first come to Black Pots. I was looking out of the same dirty window I had when, all those weeks ago, I’d seen those Turned grouped together along the jetty though there was nothing there to get my heart racing today. The Blue Lady was berthed close to the harbour wall. I could see the square sails of the trading ship and hear the tinkling of the bells someone had threaded through her rigging as a cool, shoreline breeze wafted through the town. Time to leave.
I struggled into the straps of the blue bag and fastened it secure to my back and walked from the room.
My heavy footsteps slammed onto the bare wooden steps and the clamour echoed around the tavern like hammer strokes and every step I took reminded me of the Golem and his ten tonne body.
I shivered with the memory of that abhorrent thing and wondered what other monstrosities the Witches had as lackeys.
I passed Pawney the landlord where I’d left him days ago, pinned to the reception desk with a dagger through his neck. I’d no tolerance any more, no inclination to stomach the weak and the grasping.
I left the tavern and its stench of death and made for the jetty and The Blue Lady, my transportation to wherever it was in the world I wanted to go. I checked the map as I weighed matters in my head. It couldn’t help me make a decision but I felt the urge to reference it anyway. South to Kakkakin or west to The Maw. Kill the Witches or dispose of the bones, did it matter which I actioned first?
For a sweet, brief moment it felt as if Smidgen was stood beside me and I turned suddenly and gasped but he wasn’t there. I was so used to him standing by my side protecting me that my mind had tricked me. I missed him and I still loved him. He wouldn’t have let me kill Pawney. He’d been a good man and the best friend I’d ever or would ever have. I truly missed him. My hound.
“She leaves within the hour,” said Ordesky the Brave. He rounded the corner in a rickety cart and I timed my step to climb up beside him for he wasn’t stopping. He had some sorry looking preserves loaded onto the back.
“We won’t starve if that’s what you’re thinking,” I said to him but he just smiled back. Evin was sat next to him, a fancy hat sitting uneasily across her head shielding her eyes from the morning sun.
He was organised as hell, was Ordesky. He’d everything planned, probably even how to kill the Witches and where to bury the King. I’d let him do the fretting this time as I’d had my gutful of worry these past long months.
The cart rolled to a stop at the end of the jetty and I dismounted. There were few people here as the sailors were already on-board and it wasn’t a remarkable vessel that warranted exceptional attention. Drawn appeared beside me, helped offload the cart and transport the barrels onto the deck of the Blue Lady.
Bent gestured at me from on-board. He was still unmasked as he’d been since the day he avenged Smidgen’s death. He was pale looking but easy on the eye and had his swords scabbarded around his waist now so that his spine was as straight as yours or mine. He looked almost normal.
I stopped to think before I took my first step onto the ramp and I sighed deeply. Here I was almost back at the start of my adventures and I still had the damn bag. Other than that revenge and anger were all I had left. Never was in ruins, a burning carcass of a once proud city. It would be long years before she was civilised again, before she had affluent streets populated with feather wearing tofts and thieves hiding in every darkened alley. Just like Never I was changed too, my fingers no longer itched to pilfer. I was once a thief but not any longer. Now I would really earn my moniker of The Blade. I would go south and kill the Witches. Would I succeed or fail in my task? Only time would tell.
Flendin the Blade will return in Time Tells....
A NOTE FROM CHRISTOPHER PERCY
Thanks for reading Since Never Book One of the Turned Trilogy. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Please consider leaving a review on your preferred digital book store or Goodreads to help others find and enjoy this book too.