Spear and Shadow

PART 6

Two days later they arrived in Cliffhold. It was vast and far more populated than Hamikstead with much larger buildings. They followed Cervas's lead through the town as he cast nervous glances at him. Nora titled her head occasionally at different buildings and glanced between them regularly. He sighed as they rounded a corner.
"So Cervas, where're we headed?"
"To my house."
His eyes widened.
"You live here?"
He nodded.
"Yep. Me and my family."
He tilted his head.
"I thought your family disowned you?"
He shook his head.
"No my parents disowned me. This is my family."
They stopped infront of a fairly average sized house with a thatched roof and Cervas cast him a sly grin.
"Sorry it isn't a Manor house like you're used to."
He scowled.
"Up yours."
He laughed as they walked through the front door and dropped their bags. A woman poked her head around the door frame and smiled. Cervas wrapped her in a hug and he glanced nervously at Nora, who was studying a particularly intesting floor board. He turned to them and smiled.
"Arvin, Nora, I'd like you to meet my wife."
The woman smiled at them and gave a little wave. She had long blonde hair and brown eyes.
"Hello, my name's Wick. Its a pleasure to meet both both of you. Can I get you anything to drink?"
They both shook their heads and she nodded.
"Well let me know if you need anything."
He nodded and smiled. He felt something thud into his leg and looked down to see a young girl sat on the floor looking slightly dazed. She laughed as he crouched down to help her up.
"Oh sorry about her, she's very clumsy."
He smiled.
"No need to apologise."
He turned to the girl.
"Are you ok?"
She nodded and gave a wide grin as she stood and brushed herself off.
"Yeah. Sorry for bumping into you."
He shook his head.
"Don't worry about it."
She smiled and ran towards Cervas. He laughed as she grabbed his leg.
"Well hello to you too Anri. How've you been?"
She laughed as Cervas picked her up and put her on his shoulder.
"Me and Mummy have been alright."
He smiled.
"Glad to hear it. Anything cool happen around here whilst I've been gone?"
She nodded eagerly.
"A new sweet shop opened on the corner by the church. Mummy said that when you get back you might take me."
He laughed and glanced at Wick.
"Oh did she? Well I can't very well say no now, can I? We'll go across straight away. It'll be a good opportunity to show the two of you around."
He put Anri down and allowed himself to be led out of the door. Wick smiled at them as they moved to follow.
"It was nice to meet you. I hope you'll be staying a while."
Nora smiled back and laughed.
"We might be. Cervas has been calling shots recently so who knows?"
She nodded and grinned.
"Well let's hope so."
They walked out and got a few metres before Nora burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?"
She pointed and wheezed.
"You. You looked so uncomfortable."
He scowled and kept walking.
"I'm not used to..... that."
She nodded and wheezed a little more as she caught up.
"No. We could all tell."
He sighed.
"You're vaguely irritating."
She smiled.
"Yep."
He laughed.
"This is gonna be a long trip."
Nora nodded.
"Yeah, it is. Wait..."
He tilted his head.
"What is it?"
She pointed towards the crowd.
"Is that Anri?"
He narrowed his eyes. Sure enough Anri was walking around frantically looking at all the people who passed her. Cervas was nowhere to be seen. They called out to her and she ran towards them. He crouched as she got to them and tilted his head.
"Are you alright?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know where daddy's gone. I was holding his hand and then he was gone."
She was on the verge of tears. He had to hold back a laugh. The whole situation was the most normal thing that had happened in the past three days.
He nodded and smiled.
"That's ok. We'll find him."
Nora nodded.
"Yeah, you two stay here and I'll look around."
Anri sniffed and nodded as Nora moved into the crowd. He stood up and Anri clutched his hand.
"So Anri, what do you do for fun around here?"
She sniffed.
"I like to read."
He nodded.
"Oh? What kind of books?"
"I like adventure stories. I tried to read one of daddy's books once but it was too difficult so I gave up."
He laughed.
"That's understandable. I wouldn't even know where to star.."
She tugged at his hand and pointed towards a man as he rounded a corner.
"Daddy's over there."
He smiled as she led them towards Cervas. She began to laugh and ran after him.
"Anri, wait up."
He jogged after her and smiled as Cervas stood in an empty square. Anri stood behind him and tugged at his shirt.
"Sorry I let go of your hand. Please don't be angry with me."
He reached up and grasped his scalp and tore his skin off with one swift motion. Anri screamed and Arvun grabbed her. She kept screaming even as he pulled her away from the skinless thing and picked her up. The thing turned towards them, skin materialising as it did. By the time it had fully turned it was a full person encased in a full suit of bronze armour. He narrowed his eyes at the sigil that was engraved into its chest. A snake coiling around a scythe.
"Well, we weren't expecting someone so young to enlist a body guard."
Anri sobbed into his chest and he glanced at the newcomer.
"What do you want?"
The newcomer shrugged.
"I don't want anything personally. However my next bag of gold wants that girl and she was kind enough to reward me with that brute in advance." Arvin grunted and fell to his knees as something slammed into the back of his head.
The newcomer wrenched Anri from his grip and he mumbled.
"give..... Her....... Back."
The Newcomer groaned.
"Can't do that I'm afraid."
He flet a dull impact to the front of his face and his vision went dark