Page 32 - SagaOfBarak1
P. 32
‘Look you here at these arrows Aulric, the tips are not finished with off steel
heads, no these are blunt and wooden things. Then look you at the wounds
inflicted upon the boy’s body, the legs the arms aye and even one in the backside.
So, this attack, however foul and cowardly, however pre-planned and wrongful
was not done with any murderous intentions. Aye and of that Aulric I am most
sure and certain,’ Barak added positively. Aulric was at once struck numb and
dumb with both shock and sheer disbelief. All of this information was just far
too much for him to take in at once. Perhaps because of this reason, quite simply
the information Barak had gave him, well it was yet again both correct and
accurate. Aye on reflection all and everything big Barak had just said to him
made total sense.
At length after some while deliberating this new situation the much confused
king spoke up.
‘But my own physicians, they said the young prince my son was dead Barak,
aye they to a man looked to him and all and every single one of them had him
slain. ’
Barak grumbled away to himself angrily at these words, the ogre as it so
happened was a man who had long been most unimpressed by Aulrics so called
healers.
‘Umph, your physicians Aulric, why, those imposters are not fit to doctor a
worthless hill sheep,’ the giant declared angrily. ‘Truth said these fools of yours
are little more than witchdoctor's who cast the bones of chickens and scream at
the stars in childish and vacant wonderment. Aye indeed your so called doctors
are no more than uneducated morons each, all and every single one of them.’
Barak said this with some conviction, and with a certain degree of rising anger.
After all had he not returned earlier than planned the young prince would of been
placed upon a high pyre and then burnt to ash, aye and all of this while he was
still alive. However, Barak had the feeling Aulric perhaps needed a little more
solid proof that his son lived. Being so, then proof the king would have.
‘Now look you here Aulric..’ Barak next produced from one of the front
pockets of his thick knee breeches a small burnished copper mirror. Next this
mirror the ogre held close over the lips of the young Prince. Aulric stood back a
pace or two as the king was in all truth not quite sure what he was even looking
for, or even looking at for that matter.
‘Here, look you my friend, do you see it?’ the giant pressed offering the copper
disc to Aulric. ‘That my friend is the boy’s life’s breath, indeed, it is his very
being, look Aulric do you see it now? ’ the ogre asked urgently. ‘The young
prince still breathes, the boy he lives, can you see it now Aulric?’ Barak repeated
this question a little urgently as he held out the polished copper disc toward
Aulric. Now the king with his bloodshot eyes popping from his throbbing troubled
head at once clasped the mirror in gleeful disbelief. For a moment or two Aulric
36