Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold

Author:Luke Arnold [Arnold, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780356512914
Google: oZ2xDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0316455865
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2020-09-21T23:00:00+00:00

We walked through the grass, side by side, about ten meters apart. The plan was to get past the point where an arrow could be fired from, spread out from each other, go back to the road, spread out again, and repeat till we stumbled upon… something.

“What are we looking for?” I called out. “An armchair and a telescope?”

“Maybe. If I was going to lie in wait for a car to come up this road, I’d want to be somewhere comfortable, well-hidden and out of the elements. It would be impossible to know exactly when a certain truck would arrive, so I’d want to feel safe.”

We went beyond the point where even a specialist Elven archer would be able to hit a target, and separated ourselves. I counted out the distance, turned and walked back towards the road.

“You said you saw this Deamar guy?”

“Yeah, twice.”

“And he looked Human?”

“As far as I could tell. That’s what the witnesses say, too.”

“You know what it means, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Deamar.”

I started to wish I hadn’t brought someone who liked making me feel so stupid.

“No,” I conceded.

“I guess you wouldn’t. It comes from one of those old stories that even most magic folk have forgotten, so I wouldn’t expect it to spread to your kind.” She lifted up a pile of weeds but didn’t find anything interesting. “At the beginning of creation, a piece of the river stepped out onto the surface of the world so that she could be a guardian to all the creatures. Deamar was her first son. He defied his mother by declaring war against the Humans. His desire was to wipe their entire species from the planet. To protect the Humans, the Creator banished Deamar to a dark place, under Archetellos, using the power of the river to keep him locked away.”

“You think an ancient angry teenager is hobbling around Sunder City killing businessmen?”

“No. But whatever Mr Deamar is planning, choosing a name like that makes his intentions clear to those of us who know what it means.”

My foot hit something hard and hollow. I kicked away the dead grass and found a floor beneath my feet.

“Hey! Come here.”

I peeled away more of the foliage. There had been a hut here once. The roof and walls were gone. The furniture too. But maybe…

I stomped against the floor and heard the hollow sound again.

Linda arrived as I pulled back the hatch to the basement.

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