The Safety of Darkness

Chapter 1

The air was filled with screams of the injured and the pitiful moans of the dying. He relished each and every panicked note that was carried to him on the wind. Adjusting his grip on his sword his lip curled as he watched the scars Victor left in wood of these mere huts that the locals seemed to call homes. Even the rats were vacating the burning village. Taking aim he sent one flying into a nearby wall, the rat squirmed for a few moments before a fellow Knight ran a sword through it.
"Anyone hungry?" He laughed as he waved the skewered creature about before using his foot to pin it down in order to free his sword. Felix turned his attention back to his own. A movement stopped him mid step, peering into a dirty window he saw flashes of ankles as females hastily packed bags, an infant was sat on a table wailing. It's noise lost in the commotion happening around him. A man entered from a rear room his eyes bulging as he stared back. Felix was not one to pass up an opportunity of destruction so with one well aimed boot, the door almost broke in two. His large frame filled the doorway and he openly grinned at the sight before him.
The woman stood before the table, in an attempt to shield the wail of the infant that was now audible he assumed. Two young girls clutched to their mothers skirts, while her arms held them to her. The father held a broom in hand with a boy no older than thirteen hiding behind him.
"What might you be planning with that peasant?" Felix approached one of the now abandoned bags, pulling at the contents he raised a brow. "I am uncertain if you are brave or stupid. Everyone else is running away." He gestured towards the door. "Yet here you are wasting time packing away your belongings. There are men out there, killed as they fled with no more than what they wore."
Felix stepped closer to the family, Victor leaving a trail in the wooden floor. "Or are you a coward? I think you knew you would die running so decided on hiding away in here. I don't like Cowards."
"Please Sir. Please don't hurt my family. I know who you are." The mans eyes darted from Felix to the three females. "You like women. I'll give you my wife." From the look on his wife's face this clearly had not been part of the escape strategy.
"You will let me ruin your wife?" Felix pointed Victor at her before laughing. "This is a first. Looking at these four, yes I'm not deaf, and at you I would imagine she's already had a number of soul destroying moments." The man opened his mouth and closed it again before he seemed to be able to form anymore words. Hastily he took hold of one of his daughters and pulled her away from her mother, who seemed to guess the meaning of the gesture before Felix did.
"No! No, I'll do it, I'll do it I swear!" Clutching her daughter the women fell to her knees before him still begging. Felix eyes the girl, she was flat with no shape and her face which was looking at the floor had looked fresh. Using Victor he lifted her chine so that she was now facing him.
"How old are you?" Her mother began begging more loudly and now the girl began to cry. "How. Old." He stated firmly.
"She's ten M'Lord."
"Ten. Very innocent then." He smiled at the girl before slowly drawing back his sword. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and the mother scrambled to her feet to come between him and her daughter. Felix plunged Victor deep into the mans abdomen. The man gasped, before falling to his knees clutching his stomach. "You Sir are probably more vile than I am." Felix looked at the boy who had stood hidden by his father until now. "Tell me boy, did your father deserve that?"
The boy looked him in the eye and Felix saw something, there was fire in this boy, he could see it in his eyes not the fear of those that had tried to flee him all day. Defiance.
"Yes." It was a short answer and it told Felix everything he needed to know about the boy.
"You want to be like me." The boy didn't reply. "You can be. If you come with me willingly, I'll let your sisters and mother pass freely."
"If not?" He seemed more confident when he spoke and looked him in the eye.
"Then being free of your father will be very short lived by you all." Felix expected the boy to look to his mother for guidance but instead he stiffened before nodding. He liked this boy, he wasn't weak like the others. He wondered if his mentor had gone through as many before he had found him. "If you prove loyal and trustworthy I'll even allow you to summon your family. Who knows maybe by then I'll reconsider your fathers offer." Grabbing the boys shirt he pulled him towards him, their noses almost touching. "You better prove very loyal boy as I never forget a face and they will never out run me. You'd see every moment of it before I ended you in the worst way you can imagine." The mother began crying as she clutched her remaining children to her, knowing there was nothing she could do to save her eldest child. "Come." Dragging the boy by his collar they left. His men were further up ahead having set a number of homes alight as they passed.
"What's your name boy?"
"Roland Sir."

The screams were the loudest he had ever heard, he knew tonight was different. He knew something bad was happening, not the usual bad they were used to but something really bad. As he sat huddled in the corner of his cot Felix tried to block out the day he had been taken. His family had not even known they were at war when the three men had burst into their home, two carrying torches the other an arsenal of the most terrifying things Felix had seen. He had made quick work of cutting his family down, enough to ensure death but not a quick one. Felix had waited for the fateful blow as he'd stood frozen to the spot in a puddle of his own urine. It had never come, instead he had been grabbed and a far worse fate had been forced upon him as his family lay watching in their final moments. He shuddered and clutched his legs closer to him as another scream ripped through the air before cutting off at an unnatural point. Heavy boots approached and Felix reluctantly lifted his head.
"You're learning boy." Master stood in the doorway, adjusting himself. "I'd have not caught him had you not proved your loyalty."

"Well Roland don't give me cause to punish you and we'll get on just fine."