Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 17:19:59 +0300 Reply-To: Marko Lidman Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Marko Lidman Subject: In The Dark IV of VII IN THE DARK (c) by Marko Lidman PART IV 1703, France, Anjou Dorine Daumier lived in her study, she had left the stately businesses to her advisors to take care of. The books and papers she had read were fascinating but also frightening. 'How did my father get his hands to all these books?' she exclaimed at the sheer weight of ancient knowledge present in the room. Biographies of people long dead, yet some of them so like his father. In fact the handwriting was same in many of the books, and it was her fathers! There were also books about magical lovepotions and such, but those Dorine skipped over quickly as worthless, books about histories of European nations and so on. The biographies her father had written seemed to form some kind of continuum. At first Dorine didn't realise it, but as she read the books, her mind instinctively put the stories in chronological order and one morning Dorine woke up sure of the fact that all of the books told of the same man, living under different names, forever. The man was her father! It all sounded like magic and she had seen books about magic in her fathers bookshelves. Maybe there were more on the subject in those books. Dorine cleaned the tables of all the other books and concentrated fully on the text about magical things and spells. She would get burned for it if anyone ever found out, but she trusted herself. Months passed in Dorine Daumier's life. -------------------- 1703, France, Provence Marseilles was an ancient looking city. As Carrera lived in the city he saw ancient roman built abbeys and many pieces of fine art around him. He had been in the city for two weeks and hadn't still found out why he had felt it so important to come here. At the moment Francis walked around the streets looking for someone to teach him in the arts of rapier-fighting. He knew he still had a lot to learn. A sign caught Francis's eyes: Boxe Francaise savate. Francis decided to look inside. Door was open and so he walked quietly inside where numerous men were practising against each other. "Good day, may I help you somehow?" man who came towards Francis asked with happy voice. He was wearing only trousers and Francis admired his well formed upper body. "Good day," Francis adopted the greeting the man had used, "I was wandering around the streets and saw your sign. I am quite interested in this 'boxing' of yours." "Ah, well, it's called 'boxe Francaise savate'. It's originally a kind of kicking brawling -sport, but our training includes boxing maneuvers from English boxing. That's where I'm from, England. It's a real climatic shock to be here in this warmth and I've got quite a tan to show my friends when I go back home. May I introduce myself? My name is Jack Shepherd." Francis stood there trying to figure out something to answer, but Jacks speech had really taken him by surprise. "Oui, my name is Francis Carrera, could you teach this savate to me?" "Yes, I could, but it has a tendency to cost some. Can you pay for teaching?" "I can. By the way, I was really looking for a guy to teach me swordsmanship too, could you direct me to someone?" "Ah, you can learn it here too, I'm rather a skilled fencer myself and the owner of this hall is city's best. I see that your rapier is quite an old model, and heavy. Would you like to buy a newer and lighter one?" "No, I like this sword quite a lot. I got it for my birthday." Francis Carrera started the long road to master both fencing and savate-boxing. In half a year he got to learn with the best savateurs in the city. Francis's great agility and his adeptness in acrobatics made him one of the best students among the other young men, althought his style differed much from the accepted. He also learned that this martial art copied manoeuvres from some oriental arts; it included cane- fighting techniques some of which Francis adopted to his rapier. -------------------- 1703, France, Anjou Dorine Daumier sat in her study as she had done for the past six months. She had read through most of the books of magic, but the ones getting deeper into the dark secrets took a lot more time than she had expected. As the sun slowly set behind a far away forest, Dorine concentrated and mumbled a couple of words. A magical light erupted on a knob of her stool, allowing her to read throughout the night. Seldom did Dorine come out of her fathers room and in the town it was rumoured that she had been utterly devastated by her fathers death and had closed herself among the only things he had left behind to her. Her appearance had suffered for this, but she didn't appear to take any heed of it. Some day soon she would be ready to find her father and the burglar who had changed her life. She didn't know anymore if she was angry to the burglar or not. Her reading was interrupted as someone knocked at the door. Dorine dispelled her magic light and called the knocker in. "Your ladyship, I have prepared the meal in the dining room. Young lord Scarron is waiting for you." "Argh! I had forgotten him. Tell him to wait for a moment." "Oui, milady." Lord Scarron had contacted her a couple of weeks before, by letter, suggesting to come to a visit. Dorine knew that she would be a catch after her fathers death, but she didn't really mind the men who tried. Her fortune wasn't big enough to attract the richest of lords but there were always families with smaller estates than hers. Lord Scarron was the third to try her. Dorine checked out her wardrobe and found a stunning piece which she decided to wear just to get the poor guy out of balance. Maybe it was a little childish thing to do, but it would serve as a great way to distract her thoughts of the continuous studying of magic. Dorine finished putting on her fabulous dress; she had long ago given up all the dresses which needed someone else to help her to put them on. A delicate final touch with magic made her look even more beautiful. As she opened her rooms door and stepped into corridor, her male servant couldn't make a move for a long time, he just stood there ogling until Dorine snapped to him. The servant led the way to dining room and announced her to her guest. "Lady Dorine Daumier," the servant stepped aside bowing and let her come in. Lord Scarron turned from the painting he had been watching to see the most radiantly beautiful woman he had ever seen. Lady Daumier walked in a jewelled light blue frock, her long curly brown hair flowing over it. Her large eyes shone as her full lips mouthed a kind of greeting, Scarron really couldn't make himself hear the words, he could just look at the woman. It was like she was surrounded by a shimmering unearthly cape which lightened the air around her. "Um... Your Ladyship, I greet you." Lord Scarron felt stupid after saying the words, he surely should have said something more elegant and witty. Dorine smiled to herself, she really had accomplished what she had wanted, now she could smash the man in little pieces. -------------------- 1703, France, Provence "Your healing is really fast, Franc, how do you do it?" Francis looked at his teacher, trying to think what to answer, but couldn't really decide as he didn't know the answer himself. "It's always been like this. I think it is just something I have to thank my father for." "Well, it's heck of a strange. I just beat you up last night and here you are, no sore muscles or anything!" "Jack, hear me, I just don't think that we should discuss about it just now. We have a much more important business to attend to. New year is coming up and we still haven't figured up what to do about this loss of fighters. King Ludwig XIV is drafting all our men to this war against the Spaniards and I don't think that he is going to wait for long 'asking' me too. I don't really think it's my place to fight in wars which I don't even understand!" "Hey you could come to England with me. You have mastered the language and you sure seem to have got the money it takes to start all over in a new country. Maybe I could arrange a meeting with some higher class people I know up there." "Well, you sure don't have to worry about any kings as you've got that Anne, the Queen." "That's right, and I honour her. Your king is nothing but a double-crosser." "You may be right in that and it is just one of the reasons I don't plan to fight in his wars." "Well, we could leave in a month so you can celebrate the Christmas here in your home-country. I've noticed that you haven't really been in contact with local girls so I gather you won't have to take anyone with you?" "That's right, unfortunately. I don't really know what it is, but I seem to find all these shortcomings in the girls I meet. May be that I've just got too high expectations." "It is not always like that, might be that there is some special girl out there you are meant to marry. In fact she might be waiting for you back in my good old home country!" "Hah, maybe that's it!" Somehow Francis just couldn't believe it. They boarded a ship for England just after Christmas. They had decided not to ride north to avoid any drafters. Francis hadn't had to go to get his money from the old church in Le Puy, he had made enough money fighting in matches against other savateurs. He carried only one sack full of his own personal things; medals from fights, spare clothes and some other things, like the picture of Daumier's daughter. He didn't know why he carried it with him but couldn't make himself throw it away either, Francis knew that he wouldn't see the girl ever again but... First month of the voyage went well, Francis and Jack practised their fighting skills on the deck as some of the sailors admired and sometimes put wages on behalf of one of the men. During his about twelve months of practise Francis had developed a skill almost matching his teachers in both savate and fencing. They were usually very equally matched but as they first had set sails for England Francis had got sea-sick. Luckily ships cook knew some healing drugs and Francis got up in a couple of days. In most windy days fighting was almost impossible but they still fought just to train their balance. Francis was quite happy with his skill as he knew that Jack Shepherd was one of the best boxers in England and had mastered savate to be the master savateur of Marseilles. Jack still had his experience on his side and they both knew how a serious fight between them would end, it would take a great deal of practice for Francis to be better or even as good as Jack. One day, about a month after they had left Marseilles, as they were once more training on the deck, the look-out man cried aloud. "Sail dead ahead!" Francis and Jack hurried to the bow of the ship and tried to see what ship it was this time. They were still trying to make out how many masts the boat had as the look-out man cried again. "It's a Spanish merchantman and it's coming straight at us!" Francis turned to see the ships captain on his side. The big man looked a little troubled as he looked through his telescope. "Captain, what is it, are they friendly?" Francis asked the man. "Boy, I wish I knew. She has a Spanish flag on her mast but it is hard to say from here. If she tries to turn her cannons to us, we'll know if she is friendly or not! Better to get prepared, thought!" Captain turned to his crew to shout orders. "Jack, what would you say if we tried to find some muskets here somewhere?" "You know, Franc, it could just be a very good idea!" Both men ran back to their cabin and Jack took his musket pistol and rifle from there, he gave the rifle to Francis and dug out his black powder and bullets. As they got back to the deck they saw that the other ship was very near and the men aboard were just changing her flag to a classic black with skull and bones. The pirate ship was first to fire her cannons but also a little too early, she hadn't yet fully turned her side to them. Their captain was more patient and cannons were fired just to the right direction but with a little too much powder. Most of the cannonballs went cleanly over the pirate ship. The captain yelled and tried to get his ship turned towards the pirates so that the enemy would have a much smaller target to shoot at and they could try ramming. Pirate-ships crew loaded their cannons and shot again. Francis could count twelve cannons before the balls hit their ship, crashing through sails and deck. Many sailors yelled in pain as they got caught by falling sail or hit by splinters of wood. Then the pirate-ship was on their side, the men attacking yelling and shooting their muskets. Francis shot his rifle at attacking men and backed up to load his musket again. Then he felt it. It was like some warning of danger and the first thing Francis thought was lord Daumier. Last time he had this feeling was when he had been in lord Daumier's study so many months ago. Instinctively Francis took a look around and saw someone in the enemy ship, the man was looking straight at him. He had a long silver hair, not grey but silver, pale face except for dark eyes. He was wearing black clothes and cape, both had silver trimmings. 'Eyes... so dark... dark...' "Franc, don't just stand there! I need help here!" Francis barely managed to turn his eyes from the pirate captain and saw Jack fighting off three men. Francis lunged forward and smashed his musket into first mans face, thus rendering him unconscious. "That should do it, I'm sure you can take those two guys yourself!" Francis yelled back to his friend. Then he concentrated in loading his gun again. 'This bullet is meant for you,' he silently promised to the dark figure observing the battle. As he watched, the black-clad man ran and jumped in to the crippled ship and attacked their captain. Francis raised his musket and aimed the man, 'now you die!" At that moment the man stopped fighting and turned to look at Francis. The bullet hit in the strangers chest and he stumbled overboard. Francis lowered his gun and saw the captain waving his hand in thank you. The feeling he had felt before had gone away. What ever it had been, it was gone now. Francis dropped his musket and drew his rapier joining the general fray on the deck. Fire erupted on the deck, one of the pirates had set fire on their ropestacks, despite the fact that the pirates were clearly losing or because of it, for all Francis knew. He crushed the windpipe of the man he had been fighting with by striking with his swords hilt. Then he turned and kicked one of the other pirates flailing overboard. Getting ready to off the man he knew was coming behind him he turned again only to see Jacks rapier sticking through the mans chest. "Hey, I was ready for him!" "Sure you were," Jack replied and attacked one of the last pirates near him. Francis looked around trying to find someone he could fight and saw a man in the pirate-ship loading one of the cannons, clearly planning to do something malicious. Francis climbed to the railing and jumped, landing cleanly on the other ship. The man loading the cannon saw him and, clearly panicking, turned back to the cannon. As Francis advanced a man attacked from somewhere and he couldn't do anything but fight him first. The attacking man was a bad fighter, but desperate. It gave him enough strength to send Francis stumbling backwards. Encouraged, the pirate attacked with his curved blade and met his destiny in the tip of Francis's rapier. Francis stood up and saw the man with the cannon setting fire in the fuse. The cannon was aimed at the other ships waterline. Francis ran desperately for the cannon, but couldn't do anything before the cannon exploded sending both Francis and especially the pirate firing it, flying backwards. 'Stupid man, loaded too much powder,' Francis thought before he fell unconscious. -------------------- Remenber to send some comments (and even flames) to: * The secret of a warm heart is a fireplace | __ (just throw it in to the flames...) |/ \ Check out my WWW-page for a cool gif of a rapier O[&%&%&%<====>================================================- \_____/|\__/ Dedicated Amiga-user now and in the future | -Rapier (malidman@kauhajoki.fi) * (http://kauhajoki.fi/~malidman/) =========================================================================