The (Solo) Adventures of Solomon Kane
The Rattle of Bones. Chapter 6: Mine Host
Not the best starting stat line in the world!Breathing heavily, Mane slides the blade of his dirk from Gaston’s body and wipes it on the corpse’s lacy collar. The bandit was a hard opponent to be sure, fast and treacherous. On hands and knees, he looks up before standing, only to be confronted by the bulk of the landlord, looming in the doorway.
“Ho, Ho!” the landlord roars. “What do we have here? Half my work done for me. Back!”
A bloody cleaver is thrust into Kane’s very face. In his other hand, the landlord clutches a heavy, vicious looking knife.
“Back!” he repeated with a tigerish roar, causing Kane to retreat from the menacing weapon and the insanity in his red eyes.
The Englishman rises and stands silent before his captor, his flesh crawling as he senses a deeper and more hideous threat than the Frenchman could ever pose. There is something inhuman about this man, who now sways to and fro like some great forest beast, while his mirthless laugher booms out again.
“I must calm this man before he acts”’ Kane thought, “He seems to be unstable and likely to act to sudden movement or missteped speech”.
The landlord speaks slowly, his voice breaking as he recounts his torments. Kane makes no answer, though his compassion for this man fills his eyes. He was not the first, nor will be the last whose brain was shattered by the deprivations of the continental prisons. But compassion does not stop a madman’s blade, so the act continues as Kane encourages the man to talk, rather than act.
Compassion in crisis. Hope it holds up for the next chapter
Leave a Reply