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It was pouring with rain as Salick crossed the courtyard. After escaping from Semis and his guards, he had moved quickly to find where they had been keeping the woman he loved. A few quick turns had led him out here. It must have been a castle or a keep of some sorts, to have an internal courtyard, but Salick saw no gate or portcullis which might suggest an exit.

The candlelight in a small stone window flickered as five men ran past. Salick saw they were heading for the door he just exited from, and he took to the shadows in a corner of the courtyard. The rain was freezing, but it soothed his wounds. He judged that three of his ribs were broken, and his arms and legs had many deep cuts in them, half healed since Jerod's last visit. Taking the five men on would not be a good plan.

The five of them dashed out into the courtyard with lanterns, and began searching.

"He must have come this way, find him!" One of them shouted.

Salick needed to act quickly. Picking up a stone from his feet, he threw it up and across the courtyard, smashing a window on the far side.

"He's into the main hall! He's heading for the door! Do NOT let him escape!" The captain shouted, as four of the men ran back into the keep. The captain remained, guarding the window and continuing a search of the courtyard. A lightning bolt hit nearby, and a few tiles fell from the siding of the keep, smashing on the floor. The guard spun round and instantly spotted Salick, but it was too late. Salick picked up one of the tile shards and flung it at the captain, embedding it in his neck. He now knew where the door and the remaning guards were, and headed back inside, after relieving the captain of his belongings.

As he stepped inside, one the men turned a corner.

"Captain! We could find no sign of him!"

Salick improvised a quick voice like that he had heard the captain use.

"I saw his shadow in one of the courtyard windows, he must be headed for her cell and the rest of the guards, lets go!"

The guard passed him, not looking at his face as he hurried off down the corridor. Salick followed him, loading the captains small crossbow. When they entered a room after a few extra turns, Salick was shocked that any man could stand upright in a room that smelt so bad. Julie's body lay broken in a corner of the room, she had been killed weeks ago. Three other girls bodies lay nearby, one of them faintly crying. Semis must have been torturing the girls to make Salick think Julie was still alive.

"Captain?" One of the eight guards in the room looked up and saw immediatly that Salick was not the captain, and began to draw his sword. Salick pulled his crossbow and grabbed the guard he had followed here, and pointed it at the mans head.

"Lower your weapons! NOW!" Salick shouted. The guards, looking nervously from one to another, slowly layed their swords on the floor. Salick began backing out of the room. The cold metal of a crossbow bolt touched his neck.

"Such a shame about the girl. Turns out she wasnt anywhere near as much sport as you tend to be. Died in her second sitting with Jerod, such a shame. I sent the men to take these ones from the Abbey, grape pickers i think. They were such fitting stand in's, scream just as well as your little lady did."

"Semis you bastard" Salick kept a hold on the guard in front of him.

"And so now. Ive taken something priceless from you, just as you took something priceless from me, all those years ago."

"Id hardly call it priceless. As i remember i got a fairly -good- price for it"

"Oh im so glad for you. Drop the weapon! You know she's dead so i guess my fun is over, but im sure i can make you last at least another month or two. Drop it"

Salick tried the only move he could think of. Pulling the guard closer to him, he spun toward Semis. The crossbow fired and cut a large chunk in Salick's neck. It did not go in however, and went straight into the head of the guard Salick had been holding. Salick stabbed Semis in the stomach with the crossbow bolt, and kicked the door behind him closed, tapping the latch into place with his toe. Semis gasped and backed to the wall. Salick followed him there, hand still on the crossbow trigger.

"I think i'll last a bit longer than that. You however..." Salick looked down at the wound in Semis' stomach, Semis was trying to pull the bolt out, but Salick pressed on the crossbow, driving the bolt deeper.  "...most certainly wont".

Salick angled the crossbow, pointing the bolt up and inside Semis' ribcage, and pulled the trigger. The sound of Semis' internal organs being torn apart by the force of the bolt was interrupted by only a slight gasp from Semis' throat, as blood began to well up out of his mouth and down his chin.

Salicked dropped Semis to the floor and ran. The guards behind him were using the table in the room to bash open the door. Despite its heavy frame Salick doubted it would take eight men long to break the door down. Heading back out into the courtyard, Salick lept through the window he had smashed, taking out a ring of keys he had taken from the captain earlier. He was indeed, as the captain had said, in the main hall. A large set of double doors were at one end, and Salick made a run for them. His broken ribs were starting to make his breath short, and he needed to escape and hide before the guards could give chase.

This wasnt going to happen however, as four guards appeared at the other end of the hall just as Salick was trying to unlock the main door. He quickly tried key after key on the chain as the men ran down the hall, knocking over chairs and candelabras as they went. The sixth key produced a click and Salick flung the door open and hobbled off into the night. Outside was a dismal sight. The keep was in a clearing, with no cover for a good hundred yards. Salick made for the tree line as quickly as he could, but the men were faster, and keen to avenge their employer.

The first of them caught up to Salick and raised his sword to strike. Salick dived to the side but the blade nicked the back of his leg, almost hamstringing him. Salick fell to the floor, and the guard recovered to deal a killing blow. As he raised the sword over his head, a crossbow bolt hit him square in the neck.

The weight of his sword pulled him backwards, and the guard fell to the floor, dead. The other three however were not far behind. One of them was struck in the arm by another bolt and Salick looked up and behind himself to the treeline. Mela was re-loading her crossbow as Hoagie charged toward him, longsword at the ready. He all but cleaved in half the first guard, who was caught by surprise and trying to remove a bolt from his arm.

The third guard tried to tackle Hoagie, but fell flat to the floor as Hoagie sidestepped him. Hoagie turned to deal with the guard when the fourth came up behind him and grabbed him in a bear hug. The two stood and wrestled as the other guard regained himself and readied his weapon against Hoagie. Salick reached out with his foot and kicked Hoagie square in the shins. Hoagie cursed as he was taken off balance and began to fall. He slid out of the guards hold and fell to the floor. The guard looked at his empty arms for a second and then down at Hoagie, holding his shin on the floor. A second later he was struck in the chest by a crossbow bolt from Mela, who was now running toward them, crossbow reloading.

The final guard began to run back toward the keep, shouting for the rest of the household guards. Salick picked up a crossbow from the fallen guard and shot at the man from the floor. His bolt was followed by another from Mela, perferating both the mans lungs. His cries stopped, and he managed another few bounds toward the house before he seemed to realise that he wasnt able to shout any more, and that this was probably a bad thing.

"That hurt you bastard!" Hoagie cursed as he got to his feet.

"Worked well though" Mela said as she reached the two of them. "Good Job Salick"

Salick managed a small chuckle before holding his ribs in pain. Hoagie took a spare cloak from his pack and the two helped Salick to his feet.

"What the hell took you so long" Salick managed to whisper, a cocky grin on his face.

"No point in saving someone who cant be bothered to do some of the saving himself" Mela jibed, holding Salick up by the arm.

"Aye! You are only a watchman after all, your expendable you know" Hoagie chuckled.

"Ill try to remember that next time" Salick said, as the three of them stumbled off toward the treeline.

(OOC - Basically i got round my Uni firewall, and so im hoping to make a return to UO. Got some Uni work to do in the meantime so i might not be overly active, but at least i can log back on, yay! /OOC)

Part one of the story can be found here:
http://cove.fantasyworld.nl/forum/index.php/topic,5939.0.html (http://cove.fantasyworld.nl/forum/index.php/topic,5939.0.html)

And part two is here:
http://cove.fantasyworld.nl/forum/index.php/topic,6223.0.html (http://cove.fantasyworld.nl/forum/index.php/topic,6223.0.html)