Evil Within the Shadows

By Troy Beardsley

The Paladins thought this was going to be just another day but they were wrong. Little did they know the knights of the black rose had a new commander, and he was on the move to try and take over the world from the shadows. The Paladins had their hands full trying to stop them, but when you looked into the shadows long enough, something even more evil looked back at them. A barely alive evil entity from the past was feeding on all the war and strife slowly building his strength to escape its prison. It will take both of them to stop it from the conquest of the world. But they will have to learn firsthand because there is very little information available for them to learn how to stop the entity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669877295

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Copyright © 2023 by Troy Beardsley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/11/2023

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

My first book is dedicated to

my mother. She is

my inspiration for becoming an author.

CHAPTER 1

Present Day

As the citizens of Halvard were waking up to start a new day, they did not realize the Razorback clan led by King Bloodhorne was gearing up to raid their town because of the hatred the king had for the people of Halvard and what the citizens did in the past to his clan and family.

King Bloodhorne came to power about ten years ago after a long battle of killing and bribing the competition that would be on his way to the top. Once Bloodhorne became the king, he started to build his army up so he could take his revenge on Halvard. While Bloodhorne was watching the soldiers training, he started to remember what the humans did to his family because the noise of the swordplay brought back painful memories. To this day, he still can’t figure out why the humans murdered his parents and some of the clan’s women and children. It just doesn’t fit any kind of logic.

Bloodhorne remembers the attack like it was yesterday, he watched the incident unfold from a hiding spot his mother put him in. Bloodhorne watched his family be murdered right in front of him, and there was nothing he could do about it. King Bloodhorne vowed to God and his family at the time he would do everything he could in his power to get revenge on the people who did this to his clan and family if it took the rest of his life, upon hearing a sword break brought him back to reality. But little did they know his clan was about to have a visitor.

These attacks happened off and on throughout the years. One day, a large group of bands was traveling through the hills heading to any small towns to raid them and came upon a village of Razorbacks, and they saw an opportunity to raid them for the fur and other supplies they had that the raiders did not have.

So the raiders surrounded the village and went into the village and murdered women and children indiscriminately and left before the warriors returned from a hunt. But the raiders left a child alive that had been hidden by his mother before she was killed right in front of him.

About an hour after the raid was over, the warriors returned from the massacre. While searching the village for survivors, they found the boy in his hiding spot. It took a few days for the boy to recover from his shock to tell the king what had happened. After that, the Razorbacks stepped up their attacks on the humans and conducted their own raids on the homes of human farms in the flatlands off and on.

The boy that survived never forgot what happened to his mother and began training to fight so he could get his revenge on all the humans he could find.

Halvard

The town of Halvard was built about forty years ago by the Handley family and the Bane family. The town of Halvard started out as a large trading post for people to bring their crops to sell or buy lumber or seed to plant on their farms, plus other trade goods were brought there too. After several years, the town started growing with more people joining to make the town a home.

With all this growth happening, they needed lumber to do that, so the townspeople went to the hills to cut down trees to build what the people did not realize was they were trespassing on the territory of the Razorbacks until one day, there were attacked by them. Only half of the group of people who went to cut the lumber survived the attack and made it back to town to let everyone know what happened.

Once the whole town heard what happened to their people, they all decided to hire ex-soldiers to protect their people from the Razorbacks the next time they went to the hills to cut lumber.

About a week later, the group of ex-soldiers arrived in town to start working for the people. A couple of days later, the new group of people and some of the soldiers went to the hills to try again. The Razorbacks tried again, but this time, the people were ready for them with the soldiers’ help and stopped the attack this time.

Pre-Attack on Halvard

Silentmoon had been out on patrol for a few days and was returning to the headquarters of the scouts when she came across a Razorback encampment that was training with weapons, so she decided to observe them for a little while to see what they were up to.

Sneaking around the camp was easy to do because everyone was training except a few of them here and there watching over the camp. Silentmoon was sneaking around when she came upon the king’s tent, so she entered the tent and saw a map of Halvard with the path clearly marked on how to get there from the spot she was at. The maps definitely piqued her interest. After five minutes of looking at the maps on the table, she realized the people of Halvard were in trouble because the Razorback clans were going to attack it.

With that conclusion, Silentmoon turned and snuck out of the tent and tried to get closer to see exactly how they were training. As Silentmoon was approaching the spot where the king was shifted and was no longer downwind of them, the king got a whiff of a strange smell in the air. Silentmoon saw that and realized she might be in trouble, so she turned and left the area to get away and go to Halvard to warn them of the impending doom that was coming toward them in the next several hours. When she got away from the camp, Silentmoon mounted up and headed for Halvard very fast to warn them.

It took Silentmoon about two hours to reach the walls of Halvard, but King Bloodhorne started marching for Halvard one hour after Silentmoon took off from the campsite, so Silentmoon did not have much time to tell anyone about it.

The town of Halvard is not very large but is larger than most of the towns out in the countryside. Halvard has a population of five thousand people plus the people passing through each day. They also had a platoon of city guards that had been trained by the military liaison before they left. So Silentmoon realized she had to get the leaders warned as soon as possible before King Bloodhorne attacked Halvard.

At first, Silentmoon did not see any movement at the front gate. But the closer the gate came into a vein, the city guards were moving around the gate checking people entering and leaving Halvard.

Silentmoon arrived at the front gate and approached the first guard in view.

Soldier, I need to see the person in charge right away, it’s an emergency, demanded Silentmoon.

Who are you? asked the guard.

I am Scout Silentmoon, responded Silentmoon.

After hearing Silentmoon identify herself, the guard turned and ran to get Captain Dewley. After a few minutes went by, the guard and the captain came back to the front gate.

I hear you’re looking for me, scout. What is the emergency? responded the captain.

You’re about to have a lot of trouble from King Bloodhorne. He is gearing up to attack you, he will be here shortly so I would get ready as much as you can before he gets here, said Silentmoon.

Whoa, whoa, how do you know this?

I was returning from a scouting mission, and I came upon his camp, so I investigated and saw the maps detailing the attack, answered Silentmoon.

Okay. Okay, how strong is his army?

I did not get an accurate count, but I would say one thousand to start and heavily armed, also they should be here within the hour, I barely just got away to inform you in time.

Once the captain received the information from Silentmoon, he knew she was telling the truth because she is always correct, that is how she lives and also her reputation. So the captain turned to one of the guards and told him to sound the alarm to get all of the available guards on alert then told the other guard to find the Paladins and ask them to come to my office right away.

Wait, you have Paladins here in town? asked Silentmoon.

Yes, they arrived last night and have not left yet, but if we don’t get their help, this town is dead because we are outmanned, responded the captain.

Yeah, I hope they will help with the Razorbacks, answered Silentmoon.

I also need your help to if you’re up for it? asked the captain.

You have it, Captain, what do you need to be done? responded Silentmoon.

Good, good, I need you to go delay the Razorbacks until we can get situated to defend the town.

Understood, Captain, said Silentmoon.

After Silentmoon received her orders from Captain Dewely, she remounted her horse and rode off in the direction of the Razorbacks to delay them as the captain ordered.

Now the captain had to get a request for help written for the nearest military written and sent before the Razorbacks attack, so back to the office he went. The captain entered his office and sat down to write the note, it took five minutes to write it and another five minutes to find someone to deliver it to the military post. After all of that, it was complete. He was able to sit for a short period to try and let everything sink in, but it did not work.

About five, six minutes passed before the guard knocked on the door and entered the captain’s office.

What is it, Private?

Sir, I found the Paladins and asked them to come so you could talk to them. They will be here in a few minutes.

Okay, Private, go get ready for the attack.

Yes, sir, responded the private as he left the room.

About ten minutes later, Captain Dewley heard the Paladins approach his office door and then knock on it. Enter, said the captain as they entered the office the captain saw two decent-sized men enter the office dressed in the amour of the Paladins. He easily saw the Paladins had a commanding presence when they entered a room.

Hello, gentlemen, I am Captain Dewley, welcome to Halvard, said the captain.

Hello, Captain, I am Sergeant Rayine, and this is Private Briggs, you asked to see us about a problem with some Razorbacks or something? asked the sergeant.

Yes, I did, Sergeant, we have had a problem with the Razorbacks for a long time now, up till now it was nothing serious till now. A new king has taken power and has got them all worked up over past aggressions against them by people and is on his way to attack us, stated the captain.

Okay, now I understand the issue but why do you need us?

I need your help because my guards are poorly trained to deal with this kind of issue, me being ex-military, I can take care of myself, but I will need help till the military gets here to take over the situation. I believe we will be all killed if we don’t get some help either from you or the military, stated the captain.

Okay, Captain, you will have our help until the military gets here to take over, what is their strength, and when are they coming?

The scout said the king is bringing his army in the next couple of hours or less, and their strength is one thousand strong or more, I sent the scout back out to delay them long enough to give us some more time to get ready.

What scout is that? asked the sergeant.

Silentmoon, a royal scout.

Good choice, she is the best of the royal scouts you have. Now, let’s go see what needs improvement on your defenses before the Razorbacks get there, said the sergeant leaving the office with the captain.

The messenger the captain sent to get word to the military to get help had been traveling for one hour before he was attacked by a group of thugs who stole anything to sell it for profit. Little did they know or care, they were sealing the fate of Halvard by attacking and killing the messenger.

CHAPTER 2

Attack on Halvard

Silentmoon traveled the same path back to the Razorbacks as she traveled to Halvard. There was only one spot available to create a bottleneck to delay them. But trying to block the path is the problem to figure out Silvermoon was thinking about it for several minutes. Finally, she decides to attack and run to delay the Razorbacks. So blinds were made in different spots to shoot at the Razorbacks from different spots with some protection.

Silentmoon knew there was not much time before the Razorbacks showed up, so she got going on the blinds. Just after the third blind was complete, the Razorbacks showed up, so the fourth and final blind was not built. Silentmoon chose to go back to the first blind to start the attack. While sitting in the first blind, Silentmoon waited to do her attack until she found the right person.

To shoot them and who to shoot to disrupt them. It was decided to shoot some in the middle of the column to get the max disruption. Silentmoon raised her short bow and waited for the right shot and fired, only two shots were able to happen in one spot so Silvermoon fired two arrows and ran to the next blind to start again. The arrows hit their intended target several times, the Razorbacks never knew what hit them. It took several minutes for King Bloodhorne to get his people under control and organized. Once that was done, Silentmoon observed seven of the Razorbacks were dead and several were wounded. Thinking to herself hoping that was enough to give them time to prepare for the attack because she could not