~Chapter 4~
The young boy of about twelve years, with short dark hair and light brown skin covered in soot and dried blood, lay dying in the arms of a stranger, under the night sky made ominous only by the great fire raging in the darkness of the woods. Van Kolte looks down at the boy with a look of shock on his face having never had expected such a young child to embrace death with such courage and peace, despite the horrific events that had just occurred leaving his chest split open and deep cuts from rager claws dividing his face.
Kolte's ear twitches as his eyes turn from shock to relief, having heard the boy's weak heart, slowly beating in his chest.
"I shall not fail you, not again!" He shouts as he stands up with the boy in his arms and whistles for his horse, Shaedee, who is just arriving at the scene of the massacre. In one swift and effortless motion, he jumps upwards about seven feet into the air and lands perfectly on the horse's saddle as it passes under him having barely slowed down. The horse ignores the blazing inferno as it speeds through clouds of thick black smoke blending in with its black coat making it look as if it were a creature straight out of the deepest darkest abyss.
The horse gallops away from the choking scene so fast that it leaves a trail of black smoke in its wake as if it were a dark aurora escaping from the beast's tail as it carries them back the same way Van Kolte had come, until yet again arriving at the forked road at the end of the meadow. This time going down the road to the right, with the pointed road sign reading "Kolte Manor." With haste, Van Kolte speeds down the road leading him into the Dark Wood, riding as if it were midday with the sun overhead and maneuvering around the thick woodland trees and shrubbery with ease. His eyes glowing blue like fireflies in the pitch blackness flying through the air, the only part of him that is visible. The silence of the darkness is broken by the thundering sound of the horse's gallop and the clangor caused by the steel reins repeatedly hitting against the silver armor plating of its neck and front legs, sending flocks of crows flying out of the high tree canopies and into the night sky, almost eclipsing the moon and filling the night air with their crippling cries and songs of death.
As they approach the tree line at the edge of the wood, Van Kolte looks down at the boy with his eyes shining a luminous blue light on the dying child, like lanterns making his now blood-soaked shirt look purple.
"Hold on, we're almost there."
He whispers urgently to the boy as they enter an open field of lush, green grass with a stone pavement leading across the field to a humungous barred gate made of black steel with silver spikes on along the top edge and a large letter 'H' also made of silver, welded on the center of the gate. The Kolte Manor gate stood between stone walls standing twenty-five feet high and seven feet in thickness, held together by molten silver instead of mortar forming a rampart wide enough to be manned by a small armada.
In the fields between the tree line and the wall, along the sides of the stone road, stood thin towering pillars made of the same black steel and being the size of two grown men with a brazier at the top end of each of them. Van Kolte continues down the path, his horse fracturing the stone beneath its hooves as the braziers ignite and burn in a blue flame when he passes them, illuminating the entire field as if it were daytime with the blue of the flames being captured by the silver of his armor. The fractures in the stone heal themselves as soon as the horse lifts its legs from the ground and once again making the stone path look as smooth as polished marble while reflecting the midnight moon lurking in the darkness of the night sky above.
Slowly, the gates made of black steel slowly start to open as Van Kolte approaches them, with the sound of a war horn being blown as their only welcome. The bone-chilling sound of the horn shakes the leaves and pinecones from the nearby trees and rattle the bars of the impregnable gate, while the ground shakes lightly as if it were the arrival of the archangel himself. Van Kolte speeds through the manor's gates before they can fully open and enters the courtyard of the great Kolte Manor that was now close ahead in front of him.
His horse slows down as it approaches the entrance to the manor, a large wooden door with the same silver letter "H" welded onto its face. Van Kolte dismounts the stead with care and haste, considering the boy in his arms fighting for his life. Kolte runs towards the door of the manor and again leaping into the air, and soaring over the staircase that leads up to the entrance, landing right in front of the door which opens on its own as the braziers hanging on the doorposts ignite and burn in blue flames. Footsteps echo through the manor's empty halls as his boots meet the elegant black marble floors as he enters the manor.
A crystal chandelier hung over the entrance of a long hallway leading to an ancient-looking door at the end of it. The door was unlike any other in the manor and made of wood, black wood decorated with silver metalwork and a silver wolf's head welded on to the center of it where the door knocker would usually be. Against the walls of the hallway stood several sets of knight armor made of polished silver and helms in the shape of wolf heads, with greatswords in the hands of each knight, pointed downwards towards the dark floor. Between each knight stood much shorter black steel braziers which ignite as Van Kolte storms down the hallway towards the mysterious door at the end of it.
Van Kolte stops running and begins to skid on the smooth marble floor as he nears the door, which does not open as he approaches but begins to ripple like a pond in the rain as he effortlessly goes right through it as if he were an ethereal entity walking through a solid wall. Finally, he comes to a stop on the other side of the door, finding himself in what appears to be the inside of a dark and wet cavern, as if he were not just in a luxurious mansion in the woods. Van Kolte looks back at the door and sees the marble-floored hallway, the silver knight armors against the walls, and the crystal chandelier catching the light of the burning braziers, all rippling against the cavern wall like a giant water painting.
Van Kolte looks back ahead into the dark cave and continues moving forward with sounds of screeching bats and water flowing from the cracks on the roof and dripping into small puddles, echoing through the tunnels of the cavern. Kolte walks a couple of feet forward until a dim light begins to shine at what seems to be the end of the tunnel. He gets closer to the light; with every step, he takes covering his boots with thick mud from the wet tunnel floor. The strange light seemed to be reflecting from a nearby water source making the light ripple against the cave walls. Van Kolte runs towards the light, his ear twitching once more as he listens to the heart of the dying boy take its last slow beat.
"We're almost there, hold on!" He shouts at the child as he reaches the light and enters another cave shaft lit by burning candles on an iron chandelier hanging from the cavern roof. Candles made of black wax and burning in a blue fire similar to the flames burning in braziers in the hallway and the fields outside, with the chandelier hanging above a large pool of water in the ground reflecting its light like the sea reflecting the sky.
The pool of water looked like a pool of icy flames lighting up the entire shaft and covering its floor with snow, and its roof with icicles as sharp as canine teeth and as hard as diamonds. Van Kolte's breath freezes in the air as he rushes into the mysterious water standing waist-deep in it with the boy in his arms, as still as a rock and skin as cold as ice. He gently lets go of the boy and watches his body floating face up in the water before removing a knife from the sheath on his thigh and raising it into the air, chanting in Latin as he slowly begins to lower the blade slowly towards the boy. Beside the pool of water stood a stone statue of a dire wolf with eyes made of blue sapphire gems, howling up at the chandelier which begins to burn brighter as Van Kolte chants the Latin prayer. The chandelier changes from burning normally to sending roaring flames from the candles which don't melt as the fire begins to burn like the flames of a furnace.
The sapphire eyes of the stone dire wolf begin to glow and shine like two north stars in the dark night sky, making the water bubble as if it were boiling, before igniting the surface of the water with blue flames, and Kolte standing in the middle of the pool waist deep inside, not minding the burning water. Van Kolte brings down the blade onto his own hand and cuts deep into his palm allowing his blood to drip into the bubbling water, all the while chanting his prayer with his eyes as blue as the flames raging above and below him. He then takes the boy's hand and cuts it as well, holding it with his bleeding hand.
"On this day, I take my soul and make it one with thee. To be bound by blood and bone, Like stars and skies. Like salt and sea…Amen!"
He shouts as the cavern echoes his words, the stone wolf returns to its slumber, and the flames on the candles burn calmly once more. The boy sinks into the water, while Van Kolte collapses into its depths face up, unconscious.
The darkness seemingly swallows all hope and embraces the silence in the shadows of the cave, a silence broken by the wales of hundreds of souls floating within the dimly burning water, before the cave once again falls into silence and black.