Bringer of Darkness (The Bringan Saga Book 1)

Chapter 7

Taryn

The sun was setting, the sky was darker, and the moon was already peeping through the clouds. The air was humid. Taryn and her men had crossed the border for a day, had not seen snow for at least three, and were marching for five.

They proceeded at a slow pace. They were waiting for the whistle to give him the passage's green light.

They had decided to adopt that method on the second day of the march, after various unpleasant encounters on the first day of the journey. During that day, they encountered a white-capped bear, who they met as they crossed the forest at first light.

They were passing by some caves, whose openings were covered by a layer of ice, and small frozen lakes when Aiden managed to notice the animal’s red eyes. The huge bear had come out of his den to drink at the small lake and, if it were not for her knight, surely they would have had an unpleasant close encounter with the animal. They managed to circle around the bear, and after they had finished, he returned to his lair quietly, allowing him to continue their journey.

On the second day of the march, they had a new, more dangerous encounter. They came across different animals or rather the carcasses that remained.

As they went on they found traces of blood that, the more they went on, the more full-bodied they became until the white mantle that covered the ground turned completely red blood. They found several carcasses torn up with pieces of animals scattered here and there. When they got closer to the bodies of the animals, his men were able to recognize the footprints that crowded the place. Wolf footprints.

Probably a pack was wandering in that part of the forest, and they thought themselves extremely lucky not to find them near their banquet. They would have survived a bear, but not a pack of hungry wolves.

After that unpleasant encounter, Lord Grander had suggested sending two men on a reconnaissance journey through the northern woods. Using that method they had been forced to slow the pace of their march and make more stops to avoid animals or camps of men.

Each day that passed, Taryn had the impression that time was passing more slowly, they did not have much to do, and her escorts were not the best company. Taryn had limited herself to observing the landscape of the north, trying to imprint in her memory everything she saw. The trees whose leaves were covered with snow and which joined together created a wonderful snowy landscape; then there were the frozen waterfalls from which only a few drops of water fell.

For Taryn, all those landscapes were new. She had never been outside walls that could not protect her. His lords made sure of it, his knight made sure of it. They had protected her for over twenty years, and Taryn had never had a chance to explore the world around her. Everything she saw fascinated her, kidnapped her, and Aiden was worried about telling her stories about every place they met. Whether it was a simple river, an abandoned tower, or a temple built on a large lake. Aiden was worried that she would know the history of those places, and Taryn was more and more enchanted imagining the ancient times in which their ancestors had lived those moments. Sometimes she tried horror stories that sometimes made her skin crawl, like the one she had told her the day before when they had passed by an abandoned stone building that nature had taken possession of.

They were crossing the part of the border of Elder, where the snow did not bother them anymore, and the ground was covered with green grass and some flowers, while the climate had become warm enough not to make them tremble anymore because of the cold. They had entered a dense forest whose vegetation made it almost dark, with some solar rays filtering through the jagged foliage of the trees. As they continued their journey, they noticed among the vegetation the facade of this imposing structure was almost in decay. The stone in front was completely covered with moss, and the windows were broken, as well as the wooden door that made the interior visible covered with vegetation and completely dark. Taryn had had a strange feeling of unease when he looked at the building. On the outer walls, she could see, under the moss, symbols painted in what at first glance looked like red paint, but was much darker and encrusted.

Taryn had shuddered, her stomach had closed, and her breath had sped up, as they continued to approach the structure.

At that moment, Aiden had told her that the structure had been discovered twenty-five years earlier as the home of the Ucries. According to his knight, one night, a man from the ancient order of the old men had denounced the king of Aeris that place, saying he had discovered the Ucries performing rites there that were used to bring back to life an old deity.

Aeris' soldiers had arrived at the scene, but the Ucries had already fled, leaving everything they had prepared behind them. According to the testimonies, they had prepared an altar where they would sacrifice a newborn in the name of the god which they believed to be able to bring him back among them. Still, no one had ever been able to find the body of the newborn, let alone the witches.

According to Aiden, not even the old sage was present, returned to the kingdom from which he came, and had never talked about what happened.

Taryn got chills at the story, while Aiden laughed and said it was just a story to scare the children.

Taryn looked at the back of her knight, protected by an iron sleeve, on the belt he had tied the sword that had belonged to his family for centuries, the golden hilt sticking out of his left flank with every movement. Aiden proceeded in front of her to lead the small group so that they did not fall into natural wooded traps.

Sometimes Taryn forgot that her brave knight had spent the first years of his life traveling. He knew almost all the places of Mihdel, the customs, and customs of every kingdom. Aiden had traveled far and wide with his father before they were instructed by Taryn’s late mother to care for and protect the queen. Her brave knight was almost ten years old when they began to run from one side of the North with a newborn to protect from the murderers of her uncle.