THE GOLDEN HILT 9 | EDDIE | PART 4 | MEDIEVAL SERIES

ADVENTUROUS MEDIEVAL SHORT STORY SERIES

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THE GOLDEN HILT

They were going at a slow pace, Henry was singing another song, this time about lost love. While Eddie and Othor were enjoying the forest and Lakmeer stared at Lykos. They were going at a very slow pace and he knew Lykos would get angry and he saw his expression change from angry to angrier. He said with an angry voice,” Do you want to reach your village today or sometime next year.” Henry stopped singing and the two stopped admiring natures elegant work and for a time all were looking at Lykos. But Lykos wouldn’t have it and he urged his horse faster and the others followed.

It was a very cool morning, and now that they were going very fast it felt much better. He urged his horse to go faster, and so did the others. They kept going at this pace for a long time. Trees passed and two rivers passed, as he heard Eddie shout their names but the winds took that away. This place didn’t seem to be influenced by the war at all. The others had burnt tree at places or far away in the trees you could see smoke, burning villages probably. But this area was totally innocent and pure of all that.

But this was only for a short time. Just when he thought he would doze off in all this beauty, he saw some seven men on horses with arrows pointed at their direction. He and the others stopped near them. Two more men came out of the trees with swords in their hands and with warhorses, the archers put their bows away and unsheathed the swords at their hips, and the voice of blade rubbing against the sheath echoed in the forest.

Lykos didn’t take his sword out, Lakmeer had seen him fight, and even when the opponent is ready to fight with sword in hand, he would stand and stare at the enemy mocking him. He did the same now, the enemy had swords while Lykos started to talk,” Who are you people?” one of the them who had the best clothes and the best steel spoke,” You need not know who we are, just get off those horses. Give us your gold, horses, and steel and I might find this generosity in me to let you live.” Lykos laughed mocking them, the loudest laugh he had ever heard, and was a bark of a laughter that echoed around the forest.

Lakmeer didn’t like the sound of it. They were nine people, four more than what Lakmeer had. The odds were totally against them and Lykos was making it even worse. The expression on the man’s face changed and a silence fell. When Lykos and the others took their sword out, Eddie took his dagger out, Lakmeer knew it wasn’t going to go very well. He had come all the way from the desert and when he is so near to his destination, he is going to die.

Lakmeer couldn’t be the weakest of them, even he knew they were going to die he couldn’t stand and look, being the best target for the attackers. He unsheathed his sword as well, the best looking sword in the hands of a child who was scared to use it. For a moment there was silence in the jungle but the silence was ended when the attackers gave a loud battle cry and came at them. Lykos, Henry and Othor were in the front while he and Eddie were in the back.

He thought they were going to hold them but that was foolish. Henry was busy with one of the fighters, while Othor was keeping two busy. Lykos was doing the same, he had the two leaders busy but there were many others. One of them came at Lakmeer but Eddie got him with his dagger and he called out at Lakmeer,” Lakmeer fight them, don’t be scared.” How could Lakmeer fight them when he didn’t know how to fight. All he did was fight with the ones that were his own size and age and experience, while these men had been killing before Lakmeer was even born.

Lakmeer saw another one coming at him he held his sword high to block the blows of the attacker. The attacker hit him twice with the hardest blows he had ever felt and with the third blow he lost his balance and before he knew it, he was down. He came forward to complete what he had left undone. Lakmeer looked at his sword fallen at his feet, he knew he was dead so he didn’t make any move for the sword and bravely closed his eyes, ready to die.

But he only heard a thump of a body fall and hit the ground he opened his eyes at Eddie’s shouts of motivating him to get up and fight. He looked at Eddie but he had to warn him of the man coming at him from behind. Lakmeer couldn’t speak, he only pointed at him. But before Eddie could look behind him the man’s sword was through Eddie chest and came out on the other side. The man took his sword back and was about to cut Eddie’s head off. Before he could do it somebody cut his head off, the man’s head fell, not long after that his body fell down and his horse ran away. Eddie fell from his horse, at Lakmeer’s feet, he was still alive. Lakmeer went to him putting his head on his lap, and Eddie looked at Lakmeer in the eye and said,” I wish I could’ve done more for them.” He only said that and his body grew still.

The fight around Lakmeer was over and they all got off their horses. Lakmeer saw Lykos come at him like an angry bull huffing and puffing, he took Lakmeer by the collar angrily and hit him to a tree and angrily said,” Why didn’t you fight, you craven.” Henry took Lykos’ hand and asked him to let Lakmeer go and Lykos threw him aside and angrily said,” If he hadn’t grown cold like the craven he is, nobody would have died.” Henry didn’t say anything and went to Eddie’s dead body. “That one is alive.” He heard Othor say. Lakmeer saw a man crawl towards the bushes, Othor went towards him and dragged him, he was about to kill him but he heard Lykos say,” No!”

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Othor looked at Lykos with a puzzled face, Lykos got up from the rock he was sitting on. He picked up Lakmeer’s sword and came to Lakmeer again taking him by the collar. Henry stood up to stop Lykos but Othor stopped asked him not to. Lykos grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the injured man. There he threw his sword at his feet and said,” This belongs to you craven, though I should be the one killing you. Which I will if you won’t kill him.” Lakmeer got up and took the sword in hand, he looked at the man whom Lykos had under his feet. Lakmeer closed his eyes and held his sword high and he hit him but in place of the sound of flesh getting cut by the blade, he heard the sound of steel on steel. When he opened his eyes it was Lykos’ sword he had hit, Lykos had brought it in the middle of the man’s head and the steel.

He looked at Lykos, he said,” Open your eyes when you kill him.” Lakmeer wasn’t a killer he couldn’t do it as easily as Lykos could. He had never killed in his whole life, he had seen people getting cut and killed, but killing someone personally was something very different. Lakmeer was putting his sword down when Lykos shouted at him,” Put that down, and you will hang with them on the tree, naked.” Lakmeer knew that it would happen if he didn’t do what Lykos told him to do.

He opened his eyes and looked at the bandit who was scared and all this time crying like a baby and telling Lykos to please let him go. Lykos punched him so hard that Lakmeer thought he would die before he could kill him. Lykos looked at Lakmeer with a look that suggested “Do it, or I will” he knew if Lykos was the one to kill this one, Lakmeer was next. So Lakmeer gathered his courage and looked at the man, who was whimpering now.

He took his sword high, not removing his eyes from the one he was killing, he heard Lykos say,” Cut his head clean off.” Lakmeer was scared and he didn’t want Lykos to know that, so he didn’t look at Lykos, or maybe Lykos already knew that. He put all his strength in the sword and hit the man with all his might, when the sword touched the soft meat on his neck it cut so easily as knife cuts through butter. He kept staring at his stump where blood was coming out with pressure, and he saw the head roll at his feet. He heard Henry’s cheers, Othor’s appreciation and Lykos say,” Good”. Lykos handed him a skin filled with wine, which he must have taken from one of the dead bandits, but he didn’t take it, he walked at a tree and sat there.

Lykos got busy doing what he always did, taking the clothes off of the dead bodies and castrating them and then hanging them to a tree. Henry and Othor began drinking from the skin Lykos had taken from the bandits, they looked at Lykos with puzzled eyes. He heard Henry say,” It’s a good way to avoid attention, making it look like “the bandit’s bane” did it.” Lykos looked at him but he didn’t say anything, Othor gave the same look as Henry.

Lakmeer sat there and still thinking about the kill. He had hunted and killed animals before and he had seen man kill other man. But killing someone personally was way far from seeing people kill other people. Lykos was a killer, it might be easy for him to kill anyone he saw, but the same wasn’t true for Lakmeer. He was taught to be a good person not a killer, he was taught to defend not to kill. After Lykos was done they dug a grave for Eddie. They put him inside and took a sword from a bandit and put on his chest putting his hands around the hilt, his eyes were blurred by tears, if it weren’t for him Lakmeer would be the one in the grave. He heard Lykos say,” He was a good man.” It was probably the first time he had heard something good being spoken about someone from Lykos.

After saying their good byes to Eddie everyone walked to their horses, except Lakmeer. He stood there looking at Eddie’s grave.” I am sorry, it should have been me. It would never have happened if I hadn’t turned into a craven in the last moment.” Lakmeer knew Lykos was right, if he doesn’t kill the one fighting him. Then he is the one going to die or there will be more Eddies. Lakmeer unsheathed his dagger and walked at the tree which was at Eddies head, like a headstone. He carved Eddie’s name on the bark of the stem and below it he carved “The man who saved lives”.

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