Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 16:10:39 +0300 Reply-To: Rapier Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Rapier Subject: In The Dark VII of VII IN THE DARK (c) by Marko Lidman Part VII 1704, France, Anjou Dorine looked around her room, there had been quite a lot changes since her father had 'died'. She laughed a little at her memories of the time she had been so innocent, so vulnerable. Nowadays the windows were covered with black draperies and only light came from the magical light she had created. It was a little flying ball of light which appeared whenever she stepped in to the room. Dorine stepped in front of her mirror to see how the yellow colour, she had changed her fingernails to, fitted with the rest of her appearance: The dark green dress with silver stipes and the faint halo all around her. She smiled, her appearance was truly unsettling to anyone seeing her. Unfortunately she had fired most of her servants and there weren't many left to test her outlook on. Her musings were interrupted when she heard loud sounds outside. Dorine walked to the window and shifted the draperies a little. The sight outside startled her a bit, raging people were waving their pitchforks and burning torches. "Burn the witch! Burn the witch!" Dorine stepped away from the window, so the people outside wouldn't see her and turned angrily to her desk. 'What am I going to do this time?' She wondered. Earlier there had been some individual people accusing her, but she had always succeeded in turning their thoughts to other matters, with a little of magic, if not otherwise. Her thoughts were interrupted again as she heard another voice. "Excuse me, may I come in?" Dorine snapped her head up to see who was at the door, but there was no-one there. "Excuse me again, but I'm here!" Cold shivers ran up Dorines back when she realised where the voice was coming. Slowly she turned to look at her wallmirror and saw someone BEHIND the glass. As she watched, the stranger walked through the mirror to her room! The stranger had silvery hair and pale face with dark eyes. "Hi, my name is Eremis, and I suppose you are the doughter of my old friend Daumier. Am I right?" "...yes, but who are you?" Dorines hand shaked a little as she touched her hair and muttered a spell to calm herself. "Well, well, well... I see you have been studying some of my books! It makes my job that much easier." "What do you mean? What job?" "I came to tell you that your father isn't dead yet and to ask you to come with me to revenge his fate to the man who 'killed' him... and is actually about to kill soon for good!" Dorine fell silent as she saw how the image in her mirror shifted, revealing her father on a ship somewhere, and the burglar who had killed him stumbling to shore carrying someone... -------------------- 1704, France, Bretagne, island Ushant Francis Carrera lay on his back on a beach he had barely reached with his friend. Before collapsing he had only managed to turn Jack on his stomach so that water would come out of his lungs. Francis breathed heavily trying to gather enough strength to sit up and help his, possibly dying, friend. Then he heard a cough; 'Thank god, he is still alive,' he breathed and relaxed. After a few minutes Francis sat up and looked around himself, he had his rapier on his belt but his beret was nowhere to be seen. There were some other unconscious sailors on the beach, propably the ones who Daumier had ordered overboard before attacking to the captains cabin. For some reason the merchantman was anchored just a hundred feet from the beach but Francis couldn't see the sloop anywhere. There was a lifeboat dragged to the beach farther away. Something was wrong! "CARRERA! This way!" Someone shouted from the hill to the east. Francis turned to see Daumier holding his sword on Thomas Blackburn's throat. "As I understand, this captain is of some meaning to you," Daumier continued. "Don't hurt him! It's me you want, let him go!" Francis shouted and drew his sword. "Well, I think you should come and try to save him." Francis ran up the hillside to meet his opponent. The way wasn't long, but Francis hadn't had time to rest properly after his long swim. "Too slow, boy, if you want to save your captain, you'll have to do better than that." Francis was only a few yards away from Daumier when he sliced Blackburn's throat open and pushed the dying body away. Then he faced Francis, slowly waving his bloody rapier. "My sword needed the starters, but don't you worry, she is still hungry enough to drink you blood too!" Francis looked at the dead captain he had grown to like during their long voyage. Blood rushed in Francis's ears and blind fury built up inside him. "YOU BASTARD! You are going to pay for this!!" Francis yelled and jumped forward slashing with his sword furiously. Daumier dodged the attack and the subsequent attacks as well, he didn't bother to attack in turn, there would be enough time for that when Francis had used up his strenght. -------------------- Jack coughed the rest of the water out of his lungs and stood up. He didn't remember why he had inhaled water and turned from the rescuer to the one in trouble. He couldn't see Francis anywhere and looked around more closely. There were some sailors around helping their friends from water as some others rowed a boat out in the freezing sea, trying to find someone who was still alive among the many dead. Jack walked to the nearest sailors and asked for Francis, but no-one had seen him. He turned back to the place he had come to the beach, planning to find some tracks, but as he turned he saw something in the corner of his vision. He looked more closely and saw someone on the top of the nearby hill. He made sure he still had his sword with him and started jogging up the hillside. As he came closer to the body, he heard swords clashing against each other on the other side of the hill, but before he had time to start wondering, he recognized the body. The good man so brutally murdered. Jack was about to fall on his knees, but then he heard the swords again. Slowly Jack walked the rest of the way to look down the eartern hillside and saw his friend furiously hacking, rather than slashing, at his enemy. Jack remembered the man from the ship, the man who had wounded Francis and then pushed him to the sea. There had to be some reason why this man had attacked them, other than piracy. Normal pirate wouldn't come after any of his enemies without a good reason. Jack saw that his friend was led to a trap of exhaustion. Hurriedly he descended the hillside to the battling men. "Francis! Calm down! I don't want to lose you too! Try to remember what our swordsmaster taught us!" Francis turned briefly to look at Jack, then turned back to fight his enemy, only this time he was a lot calmer. Daumier got a little frightened when he saw how easily Francis calmed down. He decided it was time to start fighting before Francis could get used to the new rhythm. He changed his style drastically from defence to attack, driving Francis back. With a clever feint he opened Francis's guard and his next foin drew blood. As Francis yelled from pain, Daumier thrust again, drawing more blood from his exhausted opponent. Jack saw how his friend fell to his knees, head down and saw how Daumier raised his sword, about to cut through Francis's neck. He drew his own sword and desperately attacked the man, stopping his sword in its downward arc. Daumier backed away from his new opponent and considered the situation, if he spent too much time with this new annoyance, Carrera would have time to heal and get up again. 'Better take this one quickly.' Jack, also quite exhausted from his swim-trip, gained more strength as he saw how Daumier retreated and doubled his efforts. Jack used mainly slashes to drive Daumier safely away from Francis and quite easily deflected all Daumiers attacks. "Jack! This is my fight, back off!" Jack stepped a few feet away as Francis once again charged Daumier. Jack couldn't believe his eyes any more! Just a minute ago Francis had been badly wounded and now he was up and about again... It came like a flash. Jack remembered actually WHY he had inhaled water when he had been rescuing his friend. Francis had been down there as he was up here: Suddenly healed and no troubles breathing. Jack sat down, just watching as Francis fought his strange enemy. -------------------- Francis was alright again, he had had a chance to rest a little and calm down from the shock he had received when he had seen his Captain, his friend, being murdered. All those good sailors who had died with him. All those sailors he had had fun with, drinking rom and telling stories. It was still one of the reasons why he was fighting, but no more blinded him like it had earlier. Now he had the strength to fight in his own unique, acrobatic, way. Daumier was forced backwards again, this time for real. Francis wasn't going to play games any more. Some kind of calmness had come over him and he knew he was going to kill this man for good. 'No more tricks!' He yelled to himself when he thrust his sword through Daumiers belly. "You are not going to kill any more of my friends!" Francis yelled when Daumier fell on his knees, face down in agony. Francis, now when he really saw this man before him, helpless at last, finally let his rage come over him. Let his lost friends' images come back to him. Remembered how this man had ended his life so long ago in Anjou. He had had to leave his friends, his father. Daumier had brutally planned to kill him in his own room when Francis had been defenceless, held by Daumiers soldiers. Remembered how this man had killed Thomas Blackburn, with no reason. Had killed a man with dreams of future, a man who had never done anything to Daumier. Francis raised his sword and made the final cut. -------------------- 1704, France, Anjou "NOOOOO!" Dorine Daumier yelled when she saw how her fathers head rolled down the hillside. -------------------- 1704, France, island Ushant Jack stood up when he saw Francis do what he did. He saw how tears flowed down Francis's face as he staggered towards him. Then Jack saw something else. For a moment he saw huge face of a beautiful young woman crying in rage, staring at Francis from behind. Wind intensified and Jack was driven back by its force. He saw how Francis fell face down. He saw how the girls face disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Still the wind continued. Jack stood transfixed as he saw the beheaded body gloving blue, he saw how that blue intensified and grew in size. The blue energy seemed to waver for a moment before it found what it was looking for. Francis. Immediately the gloving blue thing lurched after him and Jack could only watch when Francis cried out his body jerking painfully as the blue thing merged in him. Soon after the wind died and everything went back to normal. Expect that Francis didn't get up. He just lay there like dead. Jack forced himself to go to his friends still body. Jack knelt on his friends side and looked at him. Nothing seemed to be wrong... Then he saw Francis's eyes. Cold, fearfull and liveless. Jack could feel Francis's heart still pounding but the man looked comatose. The only sign of life was the blinking of eyes once and a while. Jack stood up and lifted his friend with him. 'I'll take care of you, I'll take you to my home and take care of you.' Jack Shepherd walked up the hill, carrying his friend with him, tears gleaming in his eyes. -------------------- EPILOQUE 1704, France, Anjou "No!" Dorine cried again. The stranger, who called himself Eremis, held her. She had almost run to help her father, but Eremis had jerked her back. Now she only cried a little, not understanding why this stranger had wanted to show her her father again. She was quickly calming down, using her spells to drive away the sadness, the unnecessary feeling. She didn't need that any more. "The reason I stopped you is because if have planned a lot more satisfactory revenge than what you could have done in there. First I will teach you a little more in our craft and then you may move to America. There we will arrange your revenge." Dorine looked at Eremis, knowing the man had something more in his mind, but she didn't care. As long as he tought her and let her have her revenge, he could have as many secret plans as he liked. The End of Book I ------------ Dictionary: foin = 'The thrust of a sword' That was long, wasn't it? 8) --- Well the first part ends here, but the story doesn't! I'm just working on a sequel (well... I'm _starting_ a sequel---). So if you have anything to say or otherwise, write to me!!! I'll try to answer to all of those people who take time and comment on my story. If you have commented and have not received an answer, that is because of a crash I had with my computer-files..... * 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/) =========================================================================