Early Extract from Chapter 2 of the Path of Dreams

Keldron watched Raoul hurtle across the road and behind some bushes where he noisily threw up. “What’s he doing that for?”

“Don’t know.” Belyn shouted back. “He opened the door of that cottage, took one look inside, and then ran for the bushes.”

Coughing now, Raoul stood back up, his narrow frame towering over the bushes that had previously concealed him. “I’ve never seen anything so horrific in my life. I wasn’t unprepared for it, that’s all.” Raoul remained where he was.

Keldron opened the door of the cottage and peered inside. “Oh good Gods above!” Keldron was amazed with the reaction he had shown. His own hands felt cold. He was surprised that the blood still ran in them, as the cold had spread all the way up to his arms. His feet were cold too, but the breeze was unforgiving. Back in Eskenberg, he would have just thrown more wood on the fire, but here he had to make do with extra clothing, but that still seemed not to help. Clenched up as he tried to control himself, he felt shivers running through him, and he was sure that they were not all physical. Seeing that bloody mess had rocked him to his very core.

“What?” Belyn shouldered past him and came to an abrupt halt. “Oh.”

“It stands against everything that the Old Law and therefore we stand for. Murder, and on such a scale. How can people do this?” The mere thought of such a contravention, and the agony that must have been involved set his stomach to clenching again, and he tried to heave, but Keldron had not eaten, and he just concentrated on the pain in his ribs until he calmed down once more. Moving a few paces away from the site of the bush, the tall skinny man in the dark clothes stood up, looking pale and weak. He held onto one of the stubby trees that grew in defiance of the weather, and forced himself to calmly breathe in the frigid air from the North. “That wind is penetrating.” He observed.

“Well it would be if you gulp it down like last orders, Raoul.” Belyn tried to sound jovial, but it had little effect.

“It is the only way I can concentrate.”

“Breathe through your nose. It will seem easier.”

After one final breath, the Guildsman, until recently of the Order of Law in Eskenberg, sighed and opened his eyes to the picturesque village once again. “Is this all we are here for now, to cross the land and stumble across horrors?” The time had long passed when Raoul had accepted the arguments of his two closest friends, Belyn Stroddick and Keldron Vass, that they had in fact suffered a de facto expulsion from the order that had been their home for so many years. Middle aged, they still looked young, a bi-product of the magic produced by the focus stones which wizards used to sharpen their abilities and perform feats that while everyday occurrences to them, were viewed as spectacular and wondrous by those not of their orders. Many commoners were afraid of the magic, but most, especially those who held to the tenets of the Old Law, accepted it as just another facet of the seven Gods’ blessings upon the land. As for Raoul, he had proven that he was no mean practitioner of the art, but Keldron knew it was not the reason he had joined the guild. A childish ambition of being a wizard often amounted to nothing in most cases. Raoul was more interested in preserving the law that so many seemed to be forgetting. He himself was not above bending the rules occasionally, but at heart he stuck to what he believed in.

“Are you going to stand there all day Raoul, you skinny son of a goat.” Boomed Belyn, the words aimed to repel the feeling of dread.

“I am over it brother.” He called, moving out from behind the tree. Belyn, as visually loud as his voice, stumped over to him. The big man had flame-red hair, and possessed one of those great bushy beards that made a face come alive with comic effect. He was a man who enjoyed his food, and it showed in his girth. His dark red cloak just set the colour of the man off perfectly; Raoul could not help but feel better when he saw his friend. Belyn was the man responsible for them not starving on this little venture. In fact, he had saved their lives several times with his extended knowledge of the properties of focus stones and which ones suited different situations best. His friend had come across a book, unsigned, that contained extensive research into what most had considered a lost topic. He was the only member of the Guild prepared to experiment with focus stones. Keldron remembered with regret and not a little disgust how all the old farts in their guild had stared down their noses at the three of them when sending them on a ‘pilgrimage’ to restore the temple in Caighgard. Well he knew that he would prove them wrong, and actually do it. The bonus for him was that somewhere in this great expanse of bitter cold land there was about a third of the Merdonese forest tribe wandering around willing to aid him.

Belyn strode up to Raoul, and peered at what Raoul had left under the bush. “That much, eh?” He commented seriously. Receiving a nod from Raoul he grunted. “Well I can’t say that I blame you my brother, it is one sticky mess in there.”