HELLMOUTH: A novella by Giles Kristian

Author:Giles Kristian [Kristian, Giles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Giles Kristian
Published: 2021-02-19T08:00:00+00:00

The forest north of the village is thick and dark, and at times they have to push through, using their swords to hack at branches which seem to grasp at them. But here and there, a snapped offshoot, milky white in the dark. A flattened patch of dog violets. A boot print in the soft ground. Signs which a man like Galien can read like a priest following inky scratchings on vellum. And, like a priest, Galien believes in other things too. Things which cannot be seen. Now and then there comes a sound among the trees. Like an exhaled breath or the flap of a great flame whipping upward to the sky. And other things, too, neither seen nor heard but only sensed. The way a man sometimes knows when he is being watched.

Galien says nothing, not to Godfrey or Reinald. Not to anyone. Because he has seen the others twisting in the saddle, looking over their shoulders, comforting their horses, glancing up to see how much moonlight they might expect. They feel it too. Evelina says her mount is jumpy because the stallion knows it’s foolish to ride through forest at night, where the ground is unseen and uncertain. But there is more to it than that. They all know it.

Maud knows it. Of that, Galien is sure. Her hands are white knots on the reins. She is not twitchy like the rest of them, but she is afraid. And the priest has barely taken his eyes off her all day.

They ride on, as the cloud above the forest breaks and silver light spills through gaps in the woodland canopy. And, after hours, or very little time at all – Galien realises he does not know which – they ascend a craggy mount, come over a ridge and there before them stands a castle. Not a castle like that belonging to any lord, duke or prince that Galien has ever known, but a simple fortification. A squat tower looming in the dark, encroached upon by the forest; like Christ at the heart of a throng of lepers, thinks Galien.

‘Why don’t we know about this place?’ Godfrey asks Galien.

‘It’s not been built long by the looks,’ Ancel says.

Something is nagging at Galien. Tugging at him the way a cold wind will pluck at your cloak. A feeling, as murky as the mist which is now rising amongst the trees, that he has been here before. And yet, would he not remember?

‘What the fuck is this place?’ Yvain says.

‘No road nearby,’ Godfrey says. ‘No trade route to protect.’

‘No stream nor river, neither,’ Fulchard says.

‘No battlements,’ Ranulf says, looking up at the tower. ‘But there’s something weirder than that an’ all.’ He lifts his mace, pointing it up at the dark, cross-shaped arrow slits. ‘Look there. See?’

For a moment Galien doesn’t see. But then he does. ‘They’re not real,’ he says.

Ranulf nods. ‘Painted on the stone. See the way the moonlight touches them.’

‘Why in God’s name would someone paint arrow slits?’ Ancel asks.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.