Lord of the Inferno - Chapter Twenty Four

This week’s episode features a chapter from Lord of the Inferno, Volume Two of War of the Fathers. War of the Fathers is available as a free ebook if you sign up for the Dan Decker Newsletter. Here is an excerpt from the show:

Neare came to with a start. It was dark outside, and the fire had died down, only the glow from the embers giving him light to see. Thon’s chest continued to move, despite the lack of proper medical attention. It was surprising the man hadn't long since died.

I wouldn’t be stuck in this mess if I had killed him when I had the chance, Neare thought. The other men and I would be miles away by now. Instead, here he was waiting for Thon to die. And the bloody fool was taking forever to do it.

It was the only option at this point. He and Erro had spent a considerable amount of time giving Thon additional attention after their efforts to find a local healer had failed. Erro would notice if Thon had any new or enlarged wounds.

Neare closed his eyes, willing himself to go back to the sleep, but they popped open, and he sat up.

Where’s Erro? He was supposed to have awoken me by now. Erro had offered to take the first shift, but Neare had refused and made the boy rest.

Neare had hesitated for a long time before waking his son. It had gotten to the point that Neare was barely able to keep his eyes open anyway and he’d been forced to take the risk of leaving his son on guard duty.

He arose and stepped outside the doorway, hoping that Erro had just gone to relieve himself. They had been lucky so far that the former occupants of the home hadn’t returned, but he didn't know how much longer that would hold.

Erro had wanted to cover the open space where the door had been, but Neare had kept him from doing it because he hadn’t wanted to advertise their presence.

Neare had also moved an overturned table to the fire to keep the flicker of light from reaching those outside.

Erro wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and after several deep breaths, Neare went back in and walked through all the rooms of the home before going out what would have been the doorway of the back. It was now a much larger opening than it should have been. Much of the brick wall was now on the floor, and the door had been broken in two.

Neare stepped gingerly by the light of the moons to avoid disturbing any of the rubble as he moved outside.