The Golden Knot: Book 1 of the Echo Land Chronicles (UPDATED WEEKLY)

Jonas V

"...We dance like shadows in the darkness, faceless fools who fail to realise that darkness is merely the precursor to the coming of light..."

(The Final words of Aero'man Shadowbane)

"...Across the path I walk, I walk,

through the water I swim, I swim,

upon the mountain, I rise, I rise unto the women's glory.

She takes me here, I follow her there,

I pulled the hag by her hair;

passed the brush into the deep until the girl was burning..."

Against the setting sun, a stark silhouetted figure with a walking stick tottered into the alleyway.

"Best get away, mate." One of the boys shouted. But the little man didn't listen, instead, the hunched figure continued toward them casually singing his tune.

"...Now the old hag she were a tricky,

that not to say I didn't get a stiffy,

so, I smashed her head against the rock,

so she stopped talking..."

That voice. Jonas squinted. "Sam?" He called, trying to push himself to his feet, but his arms buckled from under him, "Sam... is that you?"

Jonas saw the man had paused. "Oh, hello there, my friend. What are you doing down there?"

"By the Mothers, Sam," Jonas said, "get away from here!"

Rob sniggered. "Reckon you should do what he says, old man!"

Through blinding flashes of pain, Jonas could just about make out Sam's brow arched and a grin on his face.

"But my friend's hurt," Sam said, "and I wanted to share a few coppers with him... I do owe him after all."

The Urchin boys inched towards him. Rob brandished his blade whilst the other dragged his morning star along the paving; it bobbled, bounced and scratched with each cobble. A rhythmic beat, a song of death.

"Please, Sam..." Jonas begged, the taste of blood from where he'd bitten his tongue filled his mouth. "Do as I say and leave now..." Jonas crawled one-handed to the wall and pushed himself up to a seated position.

"I see," Sam said, "But I don't think they would want to hurt old Sam."

The Urchins chuckled to one another. "Of course they would." Rob said.

Rob and the other Urchin circled Sam, shifting again to fighting stances. There was a pregnant pause. Jonas scanned the alley; the wooden windows were all shut tight. All that remained were black brick and litter. He could shout for help, but no-one was coming. They would've come by now.

There was a shriek. Rob moved in first. He swiped down with his rusted short sword, but the old beggar dodged with a deft shift. The other boy then launched his morning star for Sam's feet, but Sam lifted his foot as casually as a man might step over a puddle.

Jonas pushed his back against the wall. He slid up and tottered to his feet, propping himself up against a wooden beam.

"Sam!" Jonas shouted. "Please... they're going to kill you..."

Sam seemed deaf to his plea and twisted from another one of Rob's swipes before dancing around another clumsy hurl of the other boys' morning star.

Sam looked over his shoulder and winked. "No, my friend... I don't reckon they will." There was a sudden shift in Sam's voice. It seemed livelier, less rustic, more assured. He shifted to Scorpion stance, and in a single sweeping motion, Sam unpinned his tattered old cloak. Before it touched the ground, he swung his ash staff with a frightening burst of speed, landing a powerful arching blow that smashed down on Rob's head with a dampened crunch. The boy collapsed like a house of cards. Blood trickled from his cracked skull, running in-between the cobbles. The other boy's eyes widened, wild with fear. He hurled his morning star, but Sam ducked and thrust his cane into the Urchin boy's stomach. The boy dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. Sam towered over the Urchin, shook his head and shifted his feet to a half-scorpion stance, and cupped his hands by his waist as if he were holding a small ball.

Like a wounded animal, the boy tried to clamber to his feet. Then he stopped. He looked around, startled. Jonas saw it too. The rain had stopped falling mid-flight. Jonas looked up. Black clouds above swirled cyclonically, like a great storm cell focussed to a single point. The cyclone emitted sparks of purple and pink lightning that jumped between and travelled down the streaking strands of silvery rain.

Jonas gasped and winced with each booming thunderclap, which forced the lines of petrified rain droplets to quiver in place.

Jonas turned back to Sam. Mothers be damned. His eyes had glazed over to a shining white. He's one of them.

More fingers of lightning, like the baron branches of a burnt tree; of gold and purple, pushed their way down the petrified rain. Each droplet seemed to capture the light, transforming it into a small golden sun.

There came a pause and a silence. The droplets began to shudder. At first, Jonas assumed it was a mere trick of the light, but the shudders soon became more violent. The water was moving. Yes, he was certain of it now. They were pulling and shifting. In the beginning, their movements were strained as if resistant, but soon the water glided through the air sideways, gravitating toward Sam's cupped hands.

More bolts of lightning screeched down, harder and harder until the roar of thunder consumed Jonas. Every water droplet in sight emptied from the air and condensed into a small ball in-between Sam's palms.

Another screaming roar bellowed through the air. Jonas caught the glint in the boy's eyes; they were alive with terror. With another crash of thunder, a bolt of lightning shot through the air, covering the ball of hardened water in sparkling liquid fury. Sam grunted and thrust out his hands. With a high-pitch whistle, the thunder infused liquid-ball hurtled out at the little Urchin boy. A sparkling trail like a comet's wake blew a smoking hole straight through him and smashed against the wall behind him, leaving a gaping cavity where the Urchin's chest used to be.

Blood continued to trickle down from Jonas' shoulder. His eyes grew heavy. Then, through weighty stutters of light and shadow, the world faded into black.