The Written by Ben Galley Read Free Book Online Page B

could sense magick, smell it, like the wyrm
in the north. They hunted it, given the chance. The rain slammed
into him with hurricane force and rain pelted his face and yet
Farden didn’t even blink, completely focused on his task.
    Suddenly in the corner of his
eye something seemed to move on the hillside. The mage snapped his
head in its direction and stood upright just to make sure. Slowly
he inched his sword from its sheath and stood ready. Nervousness
crept over him and his breathing became short and quick.
    For an age Farden didn’t move,
watching the stormy hillside getting lashed with curtains of rain.
He slowly crouched down again with sword in hand and looked back at
the hut. The candle had gone out.
    From absolutely nowhere a
massive shape bowled out of the rain and barrelled into the mage,
driving the air from his lungs. He flew down the hill, barely
rolling as the hairy creature fell with him and snarled savagely in
his ear. His sword fell from his hand dug into the grass and he
grabbed it, letting the creature slide off him and tumble to a
halt. He scrabbled to get upright and once he did so he punched the
ground and a searing light cut through the darkness of the stormy
night. The light spell revealed a hulking creature standing a dozen
yards down the hillside, matted hair drenched with rain and plumes
of hot breath escaping from a mouthful of fangs. It growled and
snarled, words slipping through yellowed daggers of teeth.
    ‘Leave this place.’ barked the
monstrosity. Its long arms were hanging low beside muscular legs,
and its stretched hands and curving claws were dripping with
water.
    ‘I’ve come to find Jergan! I
must speak with him!’ Farden shouted above the gale. He slowly
moved back towards his sword and the creature menacingly took a
step forward in return. The thing’s eyes were red pools of pure
madness Farden slid a hand into his travel pack and searched for
something shiny.
    ‘Jergan is dead! He doesn’t
live here and never has so LEAVE!’ The lycan crouched low and his
thick mane stood up and flapped in the wind. Farden took another
step back and a sword hilt knocked against his leg. The mage held
out a hand, warding the animal off, trying to get through to the
man inside him.
    ‘I don’t want to hurt you,
Jergan, I just want to talk!’ Farden’s heart was beating double
time against his breastplate.
    ‘Arrrgh!’ The lycan snarled and
leapt towards the mage. Farden smacked his wrists together again
and stamped his foot. A wall of fire billowed out of the ground
towards the beast and ripped through the rain, but with a roar the
agile creature jumped over the flames and bared his teeth in the
red glow.
    Farden whirled his sword and
dodged to his right as Jergan flew past him. The lycan skidded on
the wet grass and with a terrible clicking he unhinged his jaw even
wider. The mage summoned a huge globe of fire and aimed a blow at
the growling animal. The fireball smacked into the lycan’s shoulder
blade and sent him sprawling. Farden bravely strode forward and
held his curved longsword high. Jergan jumped to his feet and
roared deafeningly. He sprinted towards the mage and swung his
claws in mad arcs. Farden blocked and cut straight across Jergan’s
left arm. It sent the lycan reeling backwards, yelping, but he
managed to reach out with one deadly punch. The swipe caught Farden
on the breastplate, winding him and cracking a rib. But the mage
did not falter and jabbed at Jergan, finding the skin beneath
matted hair at his neck. With incredible speed Farden yanked the
mirror from his bag and showed it to the cowering lycan, lifting
his light spell to blinding levels.
    ‘Look at this!’ The mage
yelled. Jergan blinked and squinted at the silver trinket, covering
his eyes with bleeding hands.
    ‘Look!’ Farden strode forward,
marching his mirror before him into the face of the lycan. But the
beast suddenly barked a guttural laugh and shouted above the
rain.
    ‘You should tell your