09/11/2025 Snippet, IRONGHOSTS (Part 2)

Axe!

…

The light showed a charnel scene. A dried-out and long-dessicated charnel scene, so old that the apprehension and horror had leached away and replaced with melancholy, and a terrible pity. Many dark things are pointlessly done where no-one can see.

There had been a battle here: a savage one, fell and grim, and with no survivors. Most of the central area was filled with the hollowed-out remains of thorny vines, each one as big around as one of Oxman’s arms. They had swarmed up the walls, all tangled up with each other — and the moldering remains of a score of fighters, each one dressed in gear so old, it could have come from before the end of the world. In the center was a great trunk, transfixed in twain by an odd-looking axe. “Is that an adze on the other end of the blade?” asked Nat, careful not to go too close. It was never wise to touch an unfamiliar weapon, particularly when it was caught up in something uncanny.

“Yes. It’s a pull-axe,” Oxman told him. “The Old Americans used them as tools for fighting fires. To pull away burning wood, you see? They’re not used much in the Marches, though.”

Patreon!