Mysterious Project Number 3 - Excerpt #2

Howdy.

Well... I don't really have anything important to say, so how about I just throw in another scene from my current project without any accompanying context or explanation? Sound good? Great!

I'll just drop some text this time rather than a screenshot, as I think there were some difficulties in expanding the posted image. Enjoy!

‘Can you not make an exception here, Master Guinne?’ Twill said.

‘The fate of the Kingdoms lie in the balance,’ Anastasia added. Bord either didn’t notice – or pretended not to – the dark look Anastasia shot his way.

‘Not for anyone or anything,’ Guinne replied solemnly. ‘My vows are beyond the petty agreements of mankind. They cannot be broken.’

‘Well… that’s us buggered then,’ Twill remarked placidly.

‘Perhaps not,’ Bord said, nodding at the small orb dancing over Guinne’s open palm. ‘Were Hemlock’s men armed?’

‘One moment.’

The orb disappeared around the corner once more.

Guinne’s eyes squinted at something they could not see. ‘Swords and daggers,’ he said.

‘Crossbows? Bows? Darts?’ Bord rattled off the weapons one by one.

‘Not that I can see,’ Guinne said.

Bord nodded, deep in thought.

‘We can take them,’ Skive said confidently. ‘But if they call for help, we’re damned.’

‘Can you attract them here?’ Bord asked Guinne.

The man’s moustache bounced as he smiled. ‘That, I can.’

The orb began to grow within his palm until it resembled the size of a melon, at which point Guinne ushered it ahead with a wave of his hands.

They waited behind the corner patiently. Tommy hoped the ploy would work. He dreaded to think what Hemlock’s men might do to them if they caught wind of their escape.

Eventually, their patience was rewarded with the sound of boots scuffing the corridor’s flagstones and concerned voices filled the empty space.

‘What the hell is that?’

‘Bloody Mandrake’s playing with us again.’

‘That’s a new one on me.’

‘Couldn’t sleep for weeks after he made me think I was drowning in spiders.’

‘Spiders? You were lucky. The arsewipe had me believing I was–’

CRACK

Bord pounced with unnatural quickness, falling on the first black-garbed henchman and twisting his neck to an unnatural angle. He had his bulging arms wrapped around the second’s throat before the first body had hit the floor. The man squirmed, kicking and punching at the air like a new-born whilst his desperate breaths scratched awfully from his collapsing windpipe. With one last terrible rasp, his chin dropped, limbs swinging uselessly at his sides. It all happened so quickly, Tommy had had no time to look away.

Bord dropped the body to the floor and began searching for weapons. He tossed Anastasia and Twill the guards’ daggers, sliding a sword across the floor to Skive before settling on the last sword for himself. Tommy quietly hoped that the man wouldn’t have to use it.

- Farrell

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