The Night of Shadows by Markus Bitner

Author:Markus Bitner [Bitner, Markus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ringwarden Press Inc.
Published: 2024-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

The inside of Doctor Adriel’s house was pure darkness. Windows were shuttered, no lamps burned, and the door was now closed. All he noticed was breathing . . . that and the pain in his leg and back. Oddly, he couldn’t feel any fresh blood. When had he stopped bleeding?

“Where are you two?” Jacob said. His voice sounded out of place in this void.

“Here,” two voices whispered at once. One on each side of him.

“Sorias, lead him to the second room,” the voice on his right said, moving past him and Sorias. “It doesn’t have any windows, so I can spare some light.”

A rough hand grasped Jacob’s arm, squeezing a little too tightly. “Follow me,” Sorias said.

Jacob nodded, even though no one could see it, and walked in the direction Sorias tugged. The fact that Sorias knew his way around the place supported Jacob’s theory. What happened between them? Whatever it was, it seemed to be Sorias’s fault. Why else would Adriel be angry with him? Fortunately for Jacob, she wasn’t so resentful that she didn’t let them in.

Sorias’s tug pulled upwards, and Jacob nearly tripped on a stair. Even after he started ascending, he had trouble with his footing. The steps were so small that he couldn’t predict where the next one was, and they curved in an odd direction. He reached out to the right, finding the banister and holding on. Its surface was smooth like glass, but its shape was wavy, like a serpent in motion. More like a rockweaver, probably. He doubted they had any snakes in Barabus.

On they went after crossing the last stair, Sorias’s boots drowning out any potential footsteps from ahead. As they rounded a corner to the left, Sorias released Jacob’s arm. Jacob heard shuffling and muttering ahead. The shuffling moved about the area, growing quieter, until finally a flame ignited some five feet away from Jacob. It wasn’t much light, but it nearly burnt a hole in his eyes.

“The door,” Adriel said, looking at Sorias.

“Of course.” Sorias reached beside Jacob and grabbed a knob of brass. The door had been camouflaged into the wall until Sorias swung it into its frame.

Meanwhile, Adriel walked around the room, lighting torches on the wall. She was half a head shorter than Jacob, wore a loose dark-green dress, and had dishevelled light-blond hair falling just past her shoulders. Hair that light was an extremely rare trait no matter which region one lived in, but in Barabus it was remarkable.

The room itself was simple. A bed with white sheets in the back-right corner, a dresser and a rolling table next to it, and a long table with a basin on the left side of the room. There was a torch in the middle of each wall, even above the foot of the bed. Jacob would have thought it hazardous, but doctors needed light, didn’t they? One torch would have flickered a good deal. But with four the light was near constant.

For the first time, Sorias removed his helmet, revealing shortly trimmed black hair on a round head with a strong, stubbled jaw.

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