Family of Outcasts, Aaron McLeod [best book club books for discussion txt] 📗

die there was a loud swooshing noise that caused an unnatural wind to blow past him. Now there was only one guard left and he quickly began to run. Azoth looked back behind him to watch the guard and just as another lightning bolt flashed, he saw a glimpse of what had been killing the guards. It looked as if it stood eight feet tall. Its limbs were human, but seemed unnaturally massive, even for someone who dedicated himself to becoming that strong. Whatever the creature was, its arm had punched straight through the guard’s armor and chest right out of his back. Another flash of lightning stuck and Azoth saw the creature throw the guard’s body away. One more flash, and the creature was gone.

Azoth quickly grabbed his sword and stood up from the mud. He held it in both hands and slowly backed up to the inn. Just as he reached the door and turned around, he heard footsteps approaching. They sounded heavy and were slowly getting closer. He opened the door to the inn, when suddenly a large scaly hand went over his mouth. Azoth struggled and tried to stab his sword backwards, but the creature’s other hand grabbed the blade and gripped his face tighter. That’s when Azoth noticed that the fingernails on the hand were more like claws.

“Quiet.” The creature said. Its voice was deep, but sounded slightly human. “I have been watching you since you arrived. I do not wish to harm you, your friends or anyone else here. I’m going to take my hand off your face and you’re not going to do anything stupid.”

Azoth nodded his head twice and the creature released his face and sword. Azoth turned and was speechless at what he was staring at. He dropped his sword in the mud.

            “I need your help” The creature said. Azoth didn’t respond. He was right about how tall the creature was. But now that he could see everything right in front of him near the inn’s outside lantern, he couldn’t bring himself to form words.

            He shook his head to regain his senses and finally managed to speak. “Help with what?”

            “You’re going to help me kill Andreas.”

 

Chapter 10

The dawn had come slowly for Azoth. When he had returned to his room the following evening, he did not sleep for hours. There was barely an hour left before dawn when he finally brought himself to sleep. Even asleep, he could not keep the voice of the creature that had stood before him out of his head. It echoed at the back of his mind, a constant thorn in his side, keeping him from the precious sleep that he needed for the task ahead.

            When the sun had risen, the rest of his company awoke with a cheerful attitude that did little to settle him. Eric’s mood had vastly improved from the previous night. He acted as if nothing had happened. Azoth knew it was all a show. Deep down, he saw how Eric was barely keeping his composure. Often times he would spot him just sitting quietly before someone called for another drink and in his eyes, Azoth could see his pain. When someone came up to Eric, he put up his curtain of content again. If someone asked where Roseanne was, he’d make an excuse that everyone ended up buying, and then go back to sitting. Azoth could barely stand to look at him. In his eyes, Eric was a pathetic man who didn’t have the guts to tell anyone about what happened. Granted, Azoth was equally as guilty. He hadn’t told anyone about his encounter.

            Before anyone else arrived at the inn, screams could be heard outside. Someone found the remains of the guards and what was left of them was taken away. Some more guards came in shortly after to question everyone. When they found that Azoth had two weapons, they initially threatened to take him in for questioning. Azoth simply got up and explained to them how he wouldn’t have been able to do that. “To get the bodies into the state they were in, I’d have to have used something other than two blades. Maybe with a hammer or something of the sort. But not with a simple falchion and a bolo knife.” The guards left him alone after thinking about it.

            An hour passed and Azoth had finished a small meal and a mug of milk to help wake him up. Everyone else was sitting at a different table from his. Azoth gripped onto his necklace tightly as he got up from his seat and went upstairs to his room. Inside, he took his falchion and wrapped the blade up in the cloth he’d been carrying it in. He loosened the leather strings and pulled the sword out as if the cloth was a sheath. When it came out smoothly, he put it back in and opened the window and listened. The only noise he could hear was the noise of the town. A merchant had arrived selling all sorts of cheap knockoffs that he claimed were authentic dwarf crafted toys. The people were buying what they could with what little they had left, swarming the merchant’s wagon like flies attracted to rotten meat. Azoth saw one little boy sneak in between everyone and grab one of the toys without paying anything. The merchant spotted and boy and grabbed his arm and dragged him back. He took a leather blackjack and struck the boy across the face with it three consecutive times, then took the toy away as the boy ran away crying.

            Azoth smiled as he saw some of the merchant’s customers throw their toys at his face for hitting the boy. The merchant quickly ran away and they pushed his wagon over into the mud. That’s when he noticed some men walking through the street on horses. One of them was Theodric, the big man from the previous night, and the other was a much shorter and plump man on a white horse. Azoth recognized that that one must have been Andreas. He placed his sword down, ripped his right shirt sleeve off and tired it over his nose and mouth, creating a mask. Taking a deep breath, he took hold of his sword and left the room. He moved quickly out the door of the inn, hoping that none of his companions would notice him. He went out the door to find that a crowd was gathering. Andreas and Theodric were surrounded by at least fifty guards, with at least another twenty that Azoth could see walking through the crowd. Azoth slouched and moved into the crowd, taking great care not to draw too much attention. He got closer to the edge of the crowd and managed to see Andreas more clearly.

            Andreas bore an unshaven face and short greasy hair that looked as if it hadn’t been combed or brushed in months. He had a large, stubby nose with nostrils the size of a large almond. What struck Azoth as the most surprising however was how fine Andreas’s clothes were. His jerkin was golden coloured silk with swirling patterns all across the chest laced in. The sleeves of the doublet beneath the jerkin were violet, also made of silk and with frills at the wrists. Something that Azoth noticed was that there was a large cage next to Andreas and that there was something in it that was making a snarling noise. He couldn’t see what was inside it though.

            Azoth approached the edge of the crowd, observing the guards surrounding Andreas. He’d expected only ten men guarding him, not fifty of them. Something wasn’t right and he knew it. Azoth slowly looked behind him and saw another guard approaching. He quickly hid his weapon in front of him as the guard walked right by. Sighing in relief, Azoth looked back at Andreas, who was saying something to Theodric that Azoth couldn’t make out. Theodric nodded and motioned for one of the guards to approach. Theodric spoke to that guard, who also nodded.

            “Take them!” Theodric called out.

            Suddenly, all of the guards ran out into the crowd and pushed everyone down, grabbing every child they could get their hands on. One woman was carrying a baby and when she refused to give her child up the guard punched her across the face and ripped the babe from her arms. As the guards pulled every child away from their parents, the ones that were in the crowd had run out to all the houses and took the children from their homes. Each child was dragged away in the direction of Andreas’s house, which stood high on a hill in the center of the town. Most of the men in the crowd tried to fight against the guards to take their children back. They were all pushed back by the guards, who restrained themselves from killing anyone. The mothers were screaming their child’s names as their husbands tried to keep them back. Soon all the children were taken away and all that was left were the screaming parents. Andreas pulled a wheel-lock pistol out of a holster on his saddle and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed across the town and the crowd quieted down. He put the gun back into its holster and cleared his throat.

            “I am very disappointed with all of you. I offer you protection from the foul things beyond our town’s borders. I hire men to watch over you when they have nowhere else to go. I keep you safe from the blaspheming elves to the east. All I ask for return is that you pay your taxes. And this is how you repay me?” Andreas said loud enough for the crowd to hear. “You murder the very men who have been tasked with protecting you? And in such a foul way too? They were torn to pieces. We could barely recognize any of them. One of them was my friend!”

            Andreas was beginning to spit with each word he yelled out. Theodric placed his hand on Andreas’s soldier and he managed to calm down. Andreas reorganized his hair as best he could.

            “Why do you do this? Why do you repay us in such a fashion?”

            One man walked up. His clothes were covered with old blood stains and he stank of meat. Azoth assumed he was the local butcher.

            “Whoever killed your men,” He said as he lifted his head up and pointed a meat cleaver at Andreas. “Is doing the right thing! You tax us to the point where we can barely afford to feed our families! Your men steal everything of value to us, claiming that they are illegal objects that are considered sinful! You speak of protecting us, but then you go ahead and take our young girls away from us and rape them! You took my daughter away when she was thirteen, and she came home, dead! You’ve done it to Eric’s wife! To Tomas’s two girls! Even one of the nun’s in the church after paying off the priest! Whoever killed his men, if you can hear me, I want you to kill every