devilstone chronicles 01 - devils band by anderton richard

Author:anderton, richard [anderton, richard]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: JBA Books
Published: 2015-11-26T05:00:00+00:00

14

THE LAZAR HOUSE

At dawn the following day, the fugitives were woken by the sound of church bells ringing across the city and they guessed the call to arms meant their escape had at last been discovered. Once the tocsins had fallen silent, the men listened to the faint shouts of a large crowd gathering on the other side of the river until Nagel arrived with boiled eggs, bread and cheese for their breakfast.

“Your departure has caused quite a stir Everyone is saying the Graoully has eaten you!” Nagel said excitedly as he handed out the food to his guests.

“The what?” said Bos filling his mouth with cheese.

“The Graoully is the monstrous dragon cast out of Metz by St Clement,” said Nagel and he gleefully began to describe the fearsome beast.

The Graoully was a gigantic, two-legged wyvern with leathery scales, bat-like wings, a pointed tail and breath so foul it poisoned the land for miles around. This monster had lived in the city’s ruined Roman amphitheatre until St Clement had arrived in the city with a promise to send it back to Satan if the pagan Messines embraced Christ. The terrified citizens had happily agreed so the saint had commanded the Graoully to ‘reside in a place where neither men nor beasts could dwell’. As soon as Clement had finished his prayer, the monster had fled into the watery depths of the Moselle.

“A silly story to scare fools and fishwives,” sniffed Bos.

“Perhaps, but people are saying the English sorcerer summoned the Graoully to free him from his cage. That suits our purpose admirably,” replied Nagel and he told the men that their former gaolers had been threatened with their own rack unless they confessed to aiding the prisoners’ escape. The cowardly brutes had begged for mercy and had sworn by everything they held holy that they’d seen the monster rise up from the river and bend apart the cage’s iron bars with its talons. They also swore that the wizard could not control the creature he’d released from the river and it had devoured everyone inside the cage before returning to the water.

“Ha! Do these poltroons really believe Thomas could summon a dragon? I’ll wager those guards were lying to save their skins,” said Prometheus.

“Of course they were, but with everyone thinking you’ve all been eaten by a ravenous beast, the city watch won’t search for you too hard, will they?” said Nagel with a smile and the others roared with laughter. The thought of the superstitious constables believing their prisoners had perished in the belly of a dragon brought tears of mirth rolling down their cheeks. Nagel also had good news about Thomas, his fever hadn’t worsened during the night and Father Sebastian felt sure the Englishman would make a speedy recovery provided he received plenty of rest and lots of good food. Happily the barns and larders of the leper house were well stocked with fresh bread, meat and vegetables.

Just as Nagel had promised none of the city watch,

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