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Authors: Brock Deskins
Tags: Fantasy
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hand on the furious sailor. "The next round of drinks is on the house. Celeste! Get upstairs and clean yourself up, and when you come back you had better treat my guests with a hell of a lot more courtesy! And the contents of that tray is coming out of your pay, you can be assured," he barked at her back as she fled up the stairs to her room.
Another serving girl brought fresh drinks to the sailors who settled back down, mollified somewhat by the free alcohol. Delbert went back behind the bar once he saw that everyone had calmed down and had gone back to their drinking.
Celeste was in tears as she stripped off her soaked and soiled dress, cursing Harlow, Delbert, Duke Ulric, the King, and the gods themselves for the plight in which she and her son had found themselves. She knew that Delbert would make good on his threat of making her pay for all the drinks and the stew that had been spilled as well as those that were "on the house." She was barely able to make ends meet by taking in laundry and this would put her in debt to that fat pig Delbert, and she liked that not at all.
She had been able to fend off most of his lecherous advances for nearly a year already and did not like the idea of actually being in debt to the man, and knew what he would demand to pay it.
She felt a hard, calloused hand suddenly clamp over her mouth and pull her back towards the bed. No one heard her muffled struggles just as no one but Harlow's friends ever noticed the big man leave his table and stalk up the stairs.
*****
With the purpose and direction of revenge now in his life, Azerick headed back to the shabby inn and up to his and his mother’s room. At the top of the stairs was a group of people. Three city watchmen, the innkeeper, and one of the other women that worked at the inn gathered outside his room. The woman spied Azerick as he crested the top of the stairs. She broke ranks from the group standing outside his room’s open door, gently grabbed him by the arm, and turned him back towards the stairs.
“What’s going on?” asked Azerick as he was hustled back down the stairs.
“Just wait down here, boy, and someone will explain it all in a bit,” the woman replied.
Azerick did not know what was happening, but he thought he glimpsed something through the open doorway that looked like blood. The sight made his mind run wild with thoughts that made his blood run cold.
He waited for nearly an hour before he heard the group tromping down the stairs. The same woman who had brought him downstairs approached him with a look of sorrow on her face.
“I’m sorry, kid, but there has been a terrible accident and your mother was hurt very bad. I’m afraid she’s gone.”
“Gone? I don’t understand,” he said weakly, blinking away tears that threatened to escape and run down his dirty face.
However, inside he did understand. He just refused to accept it. His brain blocked out the possibility of him losing the only person in the world that he had left. It was simply too much of a shock for him. It had been less than a year since he lost his father and now his mother was gone too.
“I’m sorry, boy, but done is done and there isn’t anything that can be done about it now,” The fat innkeeper said without a hint of compassion as he dropped Azerick’s bag at his feet.
The bag carried what appeared to be all of Azerick’s clothes but little else.
“What about my books?” Azerick asked quietly in a toneless voice.
“Um, the constable said that everything else had to be left untouched so they can investigate and see if anything is in there that can help them find out who cut up your mother. Now you just move on and go wherever it is you gotta go. I’m not running an orphanage here,” he said cruelly.
“Delbert, have some compassion, ain’t you got no heart under all that blubber?” the woman asked accusingly.
“I’m just an innkeeper, there’s nothing I can do for the boy. Are you going to take him in? Are
Another serving girl brought fresh drinks to the sailors who settled back down, mollified somewhat by the free alcohol. Delbert went back behind the bar once he saw that everyone had calmed down and had gone back to their drinking.
Celeste was in tears as she stripped off her soaked and soiled dress, cursing Harlow, Delbert, Duke Ulric, the King, and the gods themselves for the plight in which she and her son had found themselves. She knew that Delbert would make good on his threat of making her pay for all the drinks and the stew that had been spilled as well as those that were "on the house." She was barely able to make ends meet by taking in laundry and this would put her in debt to that fat pig Delbert, and she liked that not at all.
She had been able to fend off most of his lecherous advances for nearly a year already and did not like the idea of actually being in debt to the man, and knew what he would demand to pay it.
She felt a hard, calloused hand suddenly clamp over her mouth and pull her back towards the bed. No one heard her muffled struggles just as no one but Harlow's friends ever noticed the big man leave his table and stalk up the stairs.
*****
With the purpose and direction of revenge now in his life, Azerick headed back to the shabby inn and up to his and his mother’s room. At the top of the stairs was a group of people. Three city watchmen, the innkeeper, and one of the other women that worked at the inn gathered outside his room. The woman spied Azerick as he crested the top of the stairs. She broke ranks from the group standing outside his room’s open door, gently grabbed him by the arm, and turned him back towards the stairs.
“What’s going on?” asked Azerick as he was hustled back down the stairs.
“Just wait down here, boy, and someone will explain it all in a bit,” the woman replied.
Azerick did not know what was happening, but he thought he glimpsed something through the open doorway that looked like blood. The sight made his mind run wild with thoughts that made his blood run cold.
He waited for nearly an hour before he heard the group tromping down the stairs. The same woman who had brought him downstairs approached him with a look of sorrow on her face.
“I’m sorry, kid, but there has been a terrible accident and your mother was hurt very bad. I’m afraid she’s gone.”
“Gone? I don’t understand,” he said weakly, blinking away tears that threatened to escape and run down his dirty face.
However, inside he did understand. He just refused to accept it. His brain blocked out the possibility of him losing the only person in the world that he had left. It was simply too much of a shock for him. It had been less than a year since he lost his father and now his mother was gone too.
“I’m sorry, boy, but done is done and there isn’t anything that can be done about it now,” The fat innkeeper said without a hint of compassion as he dropped Azerick’s bag at his feet.
The bag carried what appeared to be all of Azerick’s clothes but little else.
“What about my books?” Azerick asked quietly in a toneless voice.
“Um, the constable said that everything else had to be left untouched so they can investigate and see if anything is in there that can help them find out who cut up your mother. Now you just move on and go wherever it is you gotta go. I’m not running an orphanage here,” he said cruelly.
“Delbert, have some compassion, ain’t you got no heart under all that blubber?” the woman asked accusingly.
“I’m just an innkeeper, there’s nothing I can do for the boy. Are you going to take him in? Are
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