Hellsborough Chronicles - Hellsborough and The Dark Peak
The semi-mythical Van Hallam's adventures in Hellsborough and The Dark Peak.
The finished version of Dark Peak: Hellsborough Chronicles Book One, is now available in Kindle and paperback formats from Amazon -- or you can download the first 7 chapters for free in ePub or Kindle mobi format from Hellsborough Library
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Introduction » Chapter 1 » Chapter 2 » Chapter 3 » Chapter 4 » Chapter 5 » Chapter 6 » Chapter 7 »
The xin, after conversing for a short time, turned and flew away in the direction from which they had come, leaving one of their number alone by the enclosure. When they had covered perhaps two hundred paces they halted, and turning their mounts toward us sat watching the remaining warrior.
He was the one whose spear had so nearly had me, and did skewer poor Shad, who lay lifeless in front of his mount. He was evidently the leader of the band, and they seemed to have moved to their present position at his direction. He dismounted, threw down his spear and small arms, and came around the end of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed and naked, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head, limbs, and breast.
When he was within about fifty paces of me he unclasped a metal armlet, and holding it toward me in the open palm of his hand, addressed me in a clear, resonant voice, but in a language, I couldn't understand. He then stopped as though waiting for my reply, cocking his strange looking eyes in my direction.
The throwing down of his weapons and the withdrawing of his troop before his advance toward me seemd to be a mission for peace. I placed my hand over my heart I bowed low to this leader of the xin and explained to him that while I did not understand his language, his actions spoke for peace and friendship. Of course I might have been babbling like the Porter brook for all the intelligence of my speech, but I think it did the job alright.
Stretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took the armlet from his open palm, clasping it about my arm above the elbow; smiled at him and stood waiting. His wide mouth spread into an answering smile, and locking one of his intermediary arms in mine we turned and walked back toward his mount. At the same time he motioned his followers to advance. They started toward us on a wild run, but were checked by a signal from him. Evidently he feared that were I to be frightened I might take immediate flight, which I might well have done, taking my chances with their rifles.
He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me that I would ride behind one of them, and then mounted his own beast. The one designated as my ride reached down two or three hands and lifted me up behind him onto the back of his mount, where I hung on as best I could to the belts and straps of the xin's black armour.
I spoke to the xin whose warty back now pushed into my face to pick up Shad's body, which lay only a few feet a way, but the fella just grunted and kicked his heals into his mount, spurring us forwards and after the other members of the band, leaving Shad's fractured body exposed to the elements in the heather and bracken at the base of the enclosure that housed the hatchlings.
We all then turned and flew off at pace towards a range of wooded hills in the distance.
Where in The Dark Peak is this Van? I asked, as he came to a natural pause in this part of the story and counting his crib box, then moving one of the pegs along the board by nine holes.
At the time of course, he said in answer, I didn't really know, never having visited before, but later on my return to Hellsborough, I studied any map fragments that I could find that documented the area. There wasn't much to go on, a scrap here, a ripped section there, but I decided that, as it was xin warriors that I encountered, and not nascenti, then I must have been in the uplands somewhere; which is, of course, pretty obvious when you consider it. The xin, being composed how they are, are creatures of the uplands, and their natural environment is the swamps, marshes and wetlands that are the sources of the rivers in this area as they drain away from The Dark Peak and head down towards civilisation. Well, our human civilisation at least, if you can call it that. If you asked me to put money of it, I'd say we were somewhere beyond the Bradfield moors, somewhere like Blackhole or Flint Hill, but it was a long time ago and my knowledge sparse, so you forget and as time goes on those memories turn into false memories, rewritten with newer and more relevant experiences.
But one thing I does know is that those mounts of the xin -- they're called mentiloth -- they move with the swiftness of anything that I'd ever experienced before or since. With their masters the xin, that made them powerful and fearsome allies, and I'd have many a battle against them in the years to come.