A Plot in the Darkness, part 1

The rain fell unrelentingly soaking his clothing in minutes. He grimaced as he hugged his rain soaked cloak to him. Little good it would do the rain had seemed to even soak through his skin. It had been raining non-stop for two weeks, the peasants he’d met on the way said the rain started when the princess was murdered. He knew that wasn’t true but he dare not say anything about it.

As he passed another cart laden with starving people, he kept his head low, he was somewhere along the fringes of his home and it would be worse for everyone if he were spotted. The townsfolk were heading for dryer land away from the flooded rivers and marshes around the keep. Although the keep was built to withstand these floods the lands around it never fared half as well, and entire towns would be awash with water. So when the rains started people started to worry.

Now that they had been going on this long only stragglers remained filing down the road in small groups, with whatever possessions they could carry. The few he passed now gave him strange looks but no one hailed him.

It was a day later when he finally made it to the edge of the widened river that the keep was situated on. After waiting for an hour a small raft with a lone man poled itself onto the shore. “You’re late,” the oarsman told him as he stepped onto the raft.

“The rain kept me,” he responded to the oarsman.

The oarsman only chuckled and began poling back across the swollen river. It took hours to cross the river, but soon enough they were flowing under a dark stone archway that led to the underground dock. As he stepped onto the small stone causeway his brother stepped out to great him, “Joran, it is good to see you again.”

“And you Kearan,” Joran smiled.

“I take it the job is finished?”

“It is, both the princess and her lover dead.”

"And the river lord's daughter?"

"Asleep eternally."

“Good,” Kearan started walking, “now we just need to wait.”