Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series Read Online Free

boys: we’ll walk in our fathers’ halls after all.’
    ‘Thank fuck for that, I thought we’d be dog meat for sure,’ Goldie said.
    Elizebetha was laughing with relief as well. ‘You boys are crazier than Seth.’
    ‘We can’t let him steal all the glory,’ Grimm said. ‘Now he’s got a friend on the way; at least we’ve done that.’
    As they stood in the circle filled with relief and a new sense of pride in themselves, Dagosh, the mercenaries’ captain ran into the room. His face was red with exertion and held a look of worry. He was flanked by the female archery captain, Stellos, with her stern face and arrow notched to bow.
    ‘The Duchess Dierdra is on the march, and they are close.’

Chapter 4
    Seth woke slowly with a groggy head. His body was wet from lying in the snow and he sat up in small increments, his head still ringing. With a careful hand, he reached back and touched his head. It came away slightly bloody. Looking up, he saw the women, ‘Silver’ she had called herself before she’d sent him to sleep in the cold snow. Now she sat in the snow a few feet away from him, staring at him with piercing blue eyes. He looked around and saw his own sword laying within hand’s reach to his left, half covered in snow.
    He sat fully upright and peered back at her. She had covered herself partially in clothing, and was now wearing a piece of ripped black fabric across her breasts, one more piece hanging from her scabbard belt and covering her womanhood. That was good: he didn’t want to die thinking lustful thoughts about his killer. She still looked like a goddess to him. Pale skin, white like the snow itself, and even as she sat just a few feet from him it was hard to make her out in the thin drift, she blended into the background. She was tall and lean and had refined features. He was shivering from the cold, but she seemed fine. Before she’d knocked him out, he’d bowed to her, which clearly didn’t buy him any favours, so he’d just address her as an equal now. Maybe she wasn’t a goddess, but he’d never heard of creatures like this. Her beauty was astounding.
    ‘I’m Seth.’ He said, looking right back into her eyes.
    ‘I know you,’ she said in a soft lilting voice, speaking a very ancient form of Northern that he struggled to understand.
    ‘Sorry about the strike, but I needed time,’ she said.
    ‘To do what?’
    ‘Let the moon reveal to me the truth of you,’ she said in a very matter of fact way.
    ‘And what did it say?’ He said trying to be serious, but damn his life made not one straw of sense. He was sitting in the land of the dead and talking with some beautiful creature, who by her language, was at least a two hundred years old, and about what the moon’s opinion of him was. A long way from the Levies in Bloodcrest, that was for sure.
    ‘You’re the one I’ve been waiting for, the marked one,’ she said, and as she spoke he saw a silver tongue flashing in her mouth.
    ‘You’ll be my champion and help me regain control of my people. To bring us back to glory and to redeem your Northern people for all of their sins against us.’
    ‘Oh,’ was all he could say.
    ‘Now stand and show me your skills with that blade. The moon says you’re the one, but I would test this myself.’
    Seth had no wish to fight her, but he felt the power of her words within his mind. Before he could stop himself, he was on his feet, broadsword in a double-handed stance and facing her. He had no idea if she was his friend or foe, if this was a test or the end of him, but he’d go down swinging regardless, and for the second time in the day Seth looked death in the eye and raised his blade.
    The pale woman, Silver, drew out her long black blade and faced him. She was the same height as him, and he knew that even with a broadsword he would have to dodge rather than block. He had some idea of her strength and speed, and knew this would be the hardest fight of his life.
    She smiled at him