Once a Slayer by Justin Waine

Author:Justin Waine
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Low Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction About Witches and Wizards, dark fantasy, epic fantasy, Military Fantasy, historical fantasy, Sword and Sorcery
Publisher: Epsom Fantasy Press Limited
Published: 2024-03-15T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen – On the River

The mid-morning sun spilled over the River Irdun, bathing the barge in warmth. They had moved downriver to a place where the water was seeking to escape either side of its main flow, creating shallow marshlands on the broader flood plain. Long-legged grey and white birds flew low across the water, plucking small lizard-like prey from just below its surface. Larger lizards moved through the river and marshes, invisible but for the wake of their movement. They waited patiently to snaffle down any bird that became overconfident in their fishing.

The three Company of Slayer barges progressed at a stately pace down the Irdun. The boatmen used long punting poles to guide them, keeping the barges in the central flow of the waterway and away from the entangling reeds and eddies of the marshes. The barges, overloaded with refugees from the fall of Las Ma, wallowed low in the water despite the lack of cargo. The bargemen, who were all male, were great burly figures, muscled like Kyrian, although not with his looming height.

The wrestler himself sat on the front of the third barge, stripped to the waist, enjoying the sun on his skin. There was a light breeze playing across the river. It was the day after their escape from the city and they had now moved far enough south that the towers of Las Ma had moved out of sight. Hints of smoke could be seen back upriver, but it was hard now to distinguish them from the white fluff of the summer clouds, so maybe they were already out of sight of the city’s destruction.

Haydon Crux appeared from below, pushing through a pair of small, intricately carved wooden doors. He waited for Kyrian to turn to look at him. When that did not happen, he gave a cough hoping to attract his boss’s attention.

“How is she?” Kyrian did not bother to turn but continued looking downriver, enjoying the warm sun on his face.

“She’s still unconscious,” the Slayer agent replied, moving round so he was speaking face to face with Kyrian.

Saliana Slayer had not come round since her collapse following her act of magical destruction on the streets of Las Ma. She had now slept a whole day and night.

“Pendian!” Kyrian called the yellow-robed mage who had escaped with them.

The mage worked his way down the boat, around the refugees perched on the top and sides of the barge. Kyrian had learned the mage’s name and a little of his background the previous day. Pendian Sar was a Kanath from a village not far from the city of Tasana on the west coast of the Duchy of Las Ma. Kyrian had expressed his sympathies for the man’s family, as they were now likely suffering at the hands of the Samath who had overrun that part of Las Ma. Pendian had seemed oddly unconcerned, but it made more sense when the wizard explained he had barely seen his family since childhood.

His magical skills had been identified as an adolescent and he had been sent to the Order of Dawn school for mages on Anaror.

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