Kethril by John H. Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

from
coming near.
    He continued to explore at night. Each time
he came close to a ghost, it would fade out and he still couldn’t
make out the details. There was something very, very wrong with
them. The knight spent hours focusing his will and could make out
more details each time. After a while, he began to recognize the
style of clothing and that’s when he became certain they were his
people. Their ethereal garments varied from the sturdy outfits worn
by common workers of his time to fine suits and dresses worn by the
wealthy. The one thing they had in common was that all of it was
torn and tattered.
    No one knew what happened to the citizens of
Morhain in the Great Disappearing. Ghosts weren’t mentioned at the
time, so he didn’t believe at first that it could be them. However,
the more he saw, the more he realized it had to be true.
    A spirit appeared to his left, startling him
out of his thoughts, but faded out when Sir Danth looked at it.
Another passed between a pair of trees in front of him. Sir Danth
focused the face as it floated near. The appearance horrified the
knight.
    The spirit’s jaw was hanging down to its
chest in a broken, silent scream. The eye sockets were hollow with
a dark mist behind them that threatened to pull Sir Danth’s mind
into it. The apparition floated past Sir Danth just to his right,
enabling him to see mangled ears. Sir Danth put his arm out to stop
it. The phantom stopped and pushed against the metal. The armor’s
enchantments prevented anything from passing through, even ghosts.
It pushed again before emitting shriek that pierced the air like a
rusted blade. Other spirits in the forest responded with
otherworldly shrieks of their own, somehow communicating in a
different realm of existence.
    Then the phantom turned its hollow eyes
toward him and the dark mist within noticed Sir Danth. Other
specters appeared around him, rotating in the knight’s direction.
The piercing shrieks coming from their mouths reverberated through
his armor. There was no recognition of who he was, only a great,
evil hunger emanating from the hollow eyes. That hunger perceived
Sir Danth and it desired him. The swirling black mist began to flow
out of the eye sockets of the phantoms, reaching for the
knight.
    For the first time in his existence, Sir
Danth experienced fear. A new scream rose above the cacophony of
sound. His voice made the ungodly noise. The metallic scream
carried supernatural powers he didn’t know he had. It physically
pushed the apparitions and misty tendrils away from him. When he
stopped screaming in surprise, the tendrils began reaching out for
him again.
    There was no way for Sir Danth to escape.
They surrounded him and the knight let panic overtake him. His
sword appeared in his hands and he cut the ghosts and tendrils into
pieces, much to their surprise as well as the surprise of the evil
entity. Yet it didn’t stop them from coming towards him, fighting
past the knight’s supernatural screams and blade. There were rows
and rows floating in his direction through the trees.
    The knight began shifting through space as
he swung his sword in terror.
     
    ***
     
    Liselle and Vevin turned to each other when
they heard a scream ahead of them. “What in the world was that?!”
Vevin asked.
    “How should I know?” Liselle said. “You’re
the one who knows everything. Should we investigate, or run for
safety?”
    Vevin frowned. “I never run for safety.
Dragons don’t go backwards.” They heard the scream again. This time
Vevin tilted his head to the side to concentrate on it. “It sounds
like metal screeching and there’s . . . stuff in it.”
    She blinked. “Stuff?”
    “Yeah . . . stuff. I think Sir Danth is
screaming. I didn’t think he was the type to do that,” Vevin
mused.
    Liselle’s eyes widened at the mention of the
knight. When another scream pierced the air, she ran in that
direction as fast as possible. The screams continued one after the
other. Vevin kept