Dark Soul Silenced - Part One by Simon Goodson Read Free Book Online

picked up his sword.  The scabbard and belt were both covered with thick trails of the leader's blood so Daniel took them down to the sea, washing them clean in the salty water.  The leader wore thick, good quality boots.  With a start Daniel realised he recognised them, right down to the broken eye part way up the left pair.  He removed them then washed them off in the sea too.  They had no blood but the thought of wearing them without first cleaning them turned his stomach.
    Next he turned to the other body.  He removed several gold rings, a tinderbox and a plain handled but sharp knife.  The crossbow the dead man had used to shoot at Daniel still lay nearby.  Daniel collected it and the spare bolts, deciding to give it to the family.  Even in untrained hands a crossbow was an impressive weapon, enough to make someone stop and think twice.
    The last item he found was a locket, secured on a chain around the dead man's neck.  As soon as Daniel touched it he knew it was different, that it had belonged to the dead man and that it had meant a huge amount to him.  Opening the locket he saw a portrait of a pretty young woman with long dark hair and a bright smile.  Suddenly he felt dizzy, his vision blurred and he found himself staring at the young woman, not a portrait but at the woman herself.  The image was static though, unchanging, and overlaid with several very strong emotions.  Love… loss… anger.
    The image swirled and changed again.  This time he held the woman in his arms, carrying her towards a small cottage.  She stared at him with eyes full of love.  She wore a traditional wedding wreath on her head, made of willow and flowers.  Daniel realised it wasn't him she stared at, that somehow he was seeing the memories of the dead man.  Year after year of the man holding the locket while these images played through his mind had left an imprint.
    The image swirled again.  Now she was standing outside the cottage on a bright, sunny day, she was clearly pregnant.  Her hand rested on her bump.  Daniel thought she must be six or seven months gone.
    The image swirled once more.  As it cleared Daniel cried out in horror, dropping to his knees in anguish.  This image must have been soon after the last.  She was still pregnant and the bump looked no larger.  Nor would it ever grow.  She lay collapsed on her back just outside the cottage, blood pooled around her head where it had poured from a jagged wound to her neck.  Three soldiers dressed in bright red uniforms were leaning against the nearby fence, joking and laughing.  One was cleaning blood off a long knife.  The feelings of loss and anger were overwhelming with this image.  Daniel felt tears pouring down his cheeks. 
    Once more the image swirled.  Now he sat by the woman with her head in his lap.  The strong feeling of love remained, but the feeling of loss was far stronger, overwhelming it.  The anger was banked, burnt low for the moment but never to be gone again.  On the edge of the image three bodies in bright red uniforms lay crumpled in the dirt.
    The image swirled again and Daniel found himself back on the beach, kneeling in the sandy dirt and still staring at the locket.  With a shuddering sob he closed it again, lifted the dead man's hands and closed them around the locket.  He wept – not just for the woman he had seen, but also for the dead man whose life had been ripped apart.
    Once the tears stopped he realised he had to change his plans.  Before he had only intended to drag the bodies down the beach a way, to bury them under sand.  It wouldn't protect the bodies for long but would spare the family from having to see them.  Part of that choice had come from his belief that the outlaws deserved nothing better.  Now he felt differently.  He had no doubt the man with the locket had committed atrocities, had maimed and killed for profit or enjoyment, yet the matter was no longer black and white.  The man had known great