Free Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series by julius schenk, Manfred Rohrer

coin, its power, and now she’d left a wake of dead in her path, and things were just getting worse and worse.
    She sat in her room crying uncontrollably as the smell of burning bodies reached her nose. She’d seen the piles of the fallen that Grimm had made the men and women of the Cold Death collect. So many, and all so young. She had stood in the back courtyard and looked on as the mercenaries brought wagon after wagon of the fallen, and piled them up without so much as a word of regret. They didn’t know why they were doing it and some refused to take part, but Grimm had just yelled at them in Northern until they complied. It was a hideous sight. More than a hundred dead boys and men all piled up. Broken bodies, mostly riddled with arrows and eyes open and staring at her, with looks of pain or surprise on their dead faces.
    In the corner of the courtyard were piles of arrows, bows, and weapons looted from them. She’d seen Grimm’s reflection cast in the firelight as he’d had them set ablaze, and then she had fled inside and away from the horror. She knew why he had to do it. Dierdra the Duchess would just take the men and share their talents amongst her troops, and soon they would have been facing a force of people like Seth, but still she was sickened by it all.
    She couldn’t do this anymore. If it was her they wanted then she’d gladly give herself up if it would stop all of this bloodshed. There were so few left in her Keep now. Almost all of the town’s people had long since fled, and her own guards were left wandering back and forth, taking orders from men they didn’t know to do things she didn’t want them to do. It was all too much. She wondered if life wasn’t better for all under Renton. Sure, he was sick and had killed some of their slaves, but had he brought wholesale death down on them all?
    Wiping the tears from her face with her hand, she stood up from her couch. When Seth had been here, at least it was a noble mission she’d felt they could win, and that winning would actually be worth the cost.
    Walking to a side panel of a bookshelf in her bedroom, she reached out and pulled a book out. As she did, a small doorway opened to her right. She’d follow the path out and under the Keep, and hand herself over to the Duchess. Maybe she’d stop if she did, or at least she could die and stop this madness.
    As she was walking through, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw it was Linda, her lady’s maid. She’d been with her since “ The Opulent ”, and years before. They’d travelled the realm together. She held a cup of tea on a silver serving tray in her aged hands. She looked as old as Elizebetha should have, sixty name days at least.
    ‘If you’re leaving, I’ll come with you.’ She said in a quiet voice.
    Elizebetha turned and looked at the aged face of her friend. During this whole ordeal, they had barely talked at all. It was all about battle, war, and tactics. She came away from the doorway and sat back down on her chaise lounge. One more cup of tea, she thought. She took the cup in her hand and let the warm liquid fill her mouth and she swallowed. It was so good, and reminded her of much simpler times in this Keep.
    ‘I just can’t stand all of this horror. It’s too much, and I’m the cause of it all,’ Elizebetha said.
    Linda sat next to her and took her hand gently. ‘You’re not though. It’s always been this way. Your father knew the Dark Guild would always come to our door, and he’d have to fight them... do you think he liked what he had to do? No, but he had to fight them, for they can’t be allowed to win.’
    ‘But what can I do? I’m not a leader, I can’t defeat the Duke, I can’t even control the men here to protect me.’
    ‘You're the Duchess!’ Linda nearly yelled. ‘Not them: they will follow you if you command them to.’
    ‘I don’t want to command, I just want the killing to stop.’
    ‘It will never stop until the Dark Guild