The ships crept toward the shore despite the meager attempts of the defenders. The chaotic cries of the Acedens within Alkanost’s walls reached their ears. The army was amassing.
Aren ducked under a soldier’s shield. Arrows thumped against the wood. “Your plan, Cain. Anytime now!”
Cain looked out over his men. He drew his sword from its baldric and held it overhead. “We’re going to strike the enemy’s heart. We will not rest until we repay our dead a thousand-fold. Fight with me, my brothers. Fight with me and earn your vengeance!”
The Alliance roared at their leader’s words, weapons and shields raised high.
Aren shook his head. “When I said you better have a plan—this wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Cain turned back to Alkanost. “I know, but sometimes there’s no other choice. Listen, their walls aren’t fully completed yet; they’ll either move to prevent us from coming through the gaps or they’ll retreat and hunker down inside the inner ring. I’m counting on the first.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Doesn’t matter. We just need to hold them, distract them. I’ll slip around and find Adriel.”
“And then what?”
“Just have Valerik hold the ships until I get back. They’re our only way of getting back to Brunein.”
Aren moaned again but relayed his orders. Men passed the message to the other ships, and soon, the rear line of ships formed into a defensive ring to return to the edge of the bay.
The raining arrows stopped as men retreated from their towers and made for the fort. Archers gathered atop the wall walks and men formed shield walls to plug the gaps.
The Alliance ships slowed their advance as they neared the shore. Gangplanks dropped, and arrows flew on both sides. Men moved in steady streams from the shallow waters to the shore, bodies tumbling over the gangplanks.
Blocked by the front line of ships and unable to reach the shore, the middle formation of transports slowed to a stop. Alliance soldiers jumped off the decks and into the sea. They fought through the chest-high water, shields raised to the constant volleys that now rained down.
“Wait,” Aren reached for Cain as he stepped forward. “Good luck.” Cain nodded and bound off the railing. He crashed into the bone-chilling water and the waves splashed up around him.
Together, Cain and his men battled through the churning water. Flaming arrows whizzed about them and drilled into their shields. Dying screams echoed in the open sea. Bodies floated about the red-tossed waves.
Aceden forces crossed the beach and met the Alliance in the swells. Men clashed swords and grappled above and below the waves, battling through flesh and fire and sea, the three as one wild, writhing mass.
Cain ducked underwater as a volley of arrows arced over them. He forced his eyes open underwater and watched arrows shoot about in all directions before losing their momentum. Men split the waves and sank around him, blood evanescing in the black.
Cain burst from the water. He brought Ceerocai up in time to block an incoming Aceden’s sword. He blinked away the brine in his eyes and punched the man in the face. The ocean buckled and slammed the men into the depths.
Cain sank, strong hands wrapped around his throat and murderous eyes burning down at him. He struggled for air as stinging saltwater filled his lungs. He reached out for Ceerocai, yet the current carried it away across the sand.
He twisted as the Aceden pressed him against the sea floor, roiling mud and water about them. Bodies floated past and knocked against them as they fought to overpower each other.
Cain managed to sweep the legs from beneath his foe and throw him underwater. He ripped himself from the Aceden’s grasp and drew his knife in time for the current to rip it from his hand and drag them away. The two combatants rolled across the sea floor until Cain reached out for the man’s foot. He latched onto his ankle, pulled himself forward, and exploded from the sea. He gulped for air, raised a rock above his head, and smashed it into the Aceden’s face.
Cain looked around, his eyes smarting with seawater. Blurs filled the air, dropping the men behind him with muffled screams. A great mass hung in his vision, and he shook his head. Alkanost awaited. He gasped for breath and took his first step upon the rocky shore. Ceerocai washed up beside his feet with a gentle wave and an influx of bodies.
He watched his army amass on the sands. They formed a shield wall and began their advance up the shore into the spears of the Acedens.
Cain waited for the two forces to collide before slipping around the fight. He made his way to the low section of the wall and climbed onto the scaffolding. This place was obviously unprepared for an assault. If he could—
An archer peered over the wall and aimed his bow at Cain. Cain groped for his belt knife. It wasn’t there, of course. He ducked, and the arrow just barely whizzed over his head. Before the archer could reload, Cain grabbed a nearby brick from a pile and lobbed it at the man. The Aceden flew back over the wall with a pained cry. Cain rolled onto the battlements and swung his sword, dropping two archers. He dropped onto a nearby set of stairs and jumped to the street as archers noticed him.
Cain sprinted across the road, arrows biting up behind him. He slid into an alley and worked through the narrow gaps between buildings. He stopped between two buildings and scanned the road ahead. Acedens swarmed the courtyard here. He turned around and backtracked through the alleys, coming out onto another road.
Cain jogged down this road until he found the inner wall. He worked his way around the wall, searching for a low spot, scaffolding, anything to reach the other side. After long minutes of zigzagging between roads and buildings, he eventually reached the opposite end of the fort.
A gate lay open ahead. Acedens rushed in and out of the gateway, barking orders and filing into formations. Men and women of different ages shuffled among them, passing food and bandages and weapons. Other civilians retreated in a steady stream through the doors and into the inner fort.
Cain watched for a time until a large formation of Acedens marched away. He wiped Ceerocai on a nearby haystack, sheathed the sword, and threw his sodden cloak over it. He approached the gateway, fighting the urge to watch the Acedens as he passed. He tussled his hair to veil his face and stepped into the jostling line of civilians entering the gate.
Once inside, he let the crowds carry him deeper into the fort. As they moved toward a series of barracks, Cain turned and slipped down a side road. He maintained a quick step until he rounded the buildings and broke into a run.
He turned another corner and tackled into a group, scattering the frightened women and children. He burst through another group and came out onto a road. Several Acedens blocked his way.
Cain drew Ceerocai with a flourish. They paused only briefly at the sight of his sword before charging. Cain swept a man’s feet out from under him and raised his sword to block an attack. He spun around his attacker, severing his spine with a quick slash. Cain swung into an attack, knocking the man’s sword back before slamming Ceerocai into his face.
The alarm bells tolled again, sounding the loss of the outer wall. The sounds of combat echoed nearby.
Cain pulled his sword from his victim and eyed the remaining Acedens. Killing all of them would take too much time. They simply watched him from behind their shields. Several shook with fright. “Go.”
The Acedens shuffled back a few steps, then fled down the road. Cain turned but stopped as a contingent of Acedens appeared.
A woman screamed for them and pointed toward Cain. The soldiers shoved her aside and charged through the crowds toward him. Cain looked around for an escape and shot back into an alley.
He noticed a nearby door and tried to open it, but the handle wouldn’t budge. With a kick, the door burst open. He crossed the larder, opened a second door, and stumbled into a candlelit den.
Several scarcely dressed women shrieked at the sight of the bloody Warrior. Some of the braver women ran from their hiding spots and began throwing everythi
ng from goblets to footwear at him. He sprinted through this gauntlet toward an ornate door.
The shouts of Acedens echoed in the den behind him as he reached the door. He turned the corner of a dark hallway and entered a large room. This one was much larger and grander, from its elegant columns and carved walls to the incense thick in the air.
The screams of women wrapped in linens and sheets nearly dropped Cain to his knees as he sprinted past the many four post beds. Arrows whipped by him as the Acedens entered the room.
Cain jumped onto a four-post bed and kicked a man from the sheets, sending him tumbling to the floor.
Cain dug a knee into the man’s chest and aimed his sword’s point between his eyes. “Where is Adriel Ivanne?” he growled.
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about!” the man blubbered. “Please, please just let me go!”
“Where is she? Tell me, damn it!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Honest. I’m not even a soldier, I’m just a stone mason.”
“I don’t care what you are. Where is she?” He prodded his sword deeper, drawing a thick dribble of blood. “Where do you keep the prisoners?”
“They keep the prisoners in the innermost tower. The Veles Tower!”
Cain rolled over the adjacent bed and rushed across the room as arrows snapped past him. He ran into a connecting room, weaved through tables, and leapt over a bar. Arrows thudded on the other side of the bar.
Cain flung open a nearby door. He clambered up a narrow stairway and threw himself into another door, breaking it open and rolling out onto the rooftop. He ran across the brothel’s roof and jumped onto the roof of another building. The Acedens came out onto the rooftop behind him and loosed a volley at him as he ducked behind a chimney.
Cain crossed the rooftops, following the curving road inward. Here, the streets were in chaos. Acedens marched about, directing throngs of civilians into barracks. Others barricaded the road with stretches of palisades.
There were hundreds of civilians here, yet why they were here in this remote supply fort was a mystery to Cain. And then he saw it. It was subtle, their downcast eyes, bent backs, the way they twitched when an Aceden gave them an order. They were slaves.
Cain had heard the rumors that the Acedens kidnapped and forced people into slavery. The thought sickened him. That was something that hadn’t existed in over a thousand years. It should have remained dead in history.
He shook his head of the dark thoughts. He needed to focus.
The Veles Tower lay just ahead, over the next few rows of buildings. Below, the Acedens were gathering up the slaves and corralling them into the quarantined area, so Cain simply leapt over their heads and rolled onto a building on the other side of the blockade. He watched the crowds to ensure he hadn’t attracted their attention before dropping into an alley and approaching the foot of the Veles Tower.
Skinny and tall, the structure was likely more for observation than defense, confirmed by the bell at its peak and the lack of soldiers. Cain bound up a stairway and threw open the tower’s iron doors.
He jogged through the narrow, dark halls. The place was silent, empty. He moved toward a staircase spiraling upward. He paused. Was that too obvious, keeping her at the top of a tower in the middle of this place? Or would they keep her below, hoping he’d go up?
He stepped away and searched for a way down. He moved through the halls, scanning empty rooms. Eventually, he found another metal door tucked away in a branching hallway. Cain opened the door to a stairwell leading down into darkness. He jogged down the steps, sword held before him. He came to another room and another stairway, climbing down to yet another empty room.
This place was too quiet. It couldn’t have screamed trap any louder. Did they think he was stupid enough to fall for this? Well… obviously he was. But he didn’t care, he’d spring their little trap if it meant getting Adriel.
He crossed the small room to another iron door, its hinges groaning in protest. Cain readied his sword and descended a flight of stairs into the quiet dark. He came to a narrow hallway, or rather, a chasm cut in the earth, shored up with stone and iron. The smell of rich earth hung in the air, nearly overpowering the musty sweat and death.
Through the nearly pitch black, Cain could see the cold iron of bars, and through them, the remains of prisoners. Rags and bones still hung shackled to the walls. Rats crawled over them and made nests in the bundles of threadbare.
Yet, upon further inspection, many of these were not skeletons at all. They had flesh, blood, and eyes, though little enough between them. They wilted away in the blackness, with only the bones of their fellows for companions.
His breathing filled the black like a gale, pounding against the brick and dirt walls. The footfalls of soldiers thundered above to ripple away like far reaching storms. The wailing of prisoners echoed in the porous stone, the rattling of their chains, and the beating against their bars.
Ahead, the brick walls formed squared joints and level lines, fashioned of epoch old stone. Arches that had long since lost their battle with time held the roof up with frail, boney fingers. Slivers of moonlight trickled through cracks in the feeble sinews of stone. And there, through the strands of light, he saw her.
Adriel’s body hung limp and broken on the opposing wall, arms twisted above her head by rusty chains. Her ragged clothes were stiff with sweat and blood and her matted hair draped her face. She glowed in the moonlight like a pale corpse.
Cain stood frozen at the entrance, eyes affixed in horror. His breathing trembled, his body heaved. Ceerocai’s handle grew warm in his hand and a faint light twinkled in the ruby of its blade to illuminate the tears in his eyes.
No. He refused to accept it. “Adriel,” he screamed, rushing forward. “Adriel!”
A man stepped from a shadowed side hall and stopped before her. Cain slid to a stop and eyed the man in his path.
His blood red armor glinted in the pale slivers of moonlight, painting a portrait of death in the darkness.
A cold grin split his ugly face, shifting the scars on his bald head. “Cain Taran, it is a pleasure to meet you at last.” His gravelly voice rumbled in the quiet. Cain remained silent. “I am Malleus Taraus, leader of the Blood Guard.”
“Move. Aside. Now.”
Malleus laughed. “I knew you’d be testy, but this? The girl must truly have meant something to you. It’s a shame.”
Cain raised his sword, wet with blood. “Step aside.”
“I’m afraid I can’t.” Malleus shook his head. “Iscarius wants your life, not hers. She was merely a tool I used to lure you here.”
“I know.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” He stroked his coal-black goatee. “That’s almost disappointing. No matter, I have you here now. Lord Iscarius will be thrilled to hear that I’ve finally killed you. Me! No one else.”
“Take me then.”
“Don’t be foolish, Taran; she’s not worth a drop of your blood.”
Cain looked to his sword. “Then take Ceerocai. Just let her go.”
Malleus laughed again. “It’s not just the sword he needs—”
“Enough of this!” Cain roared. “Step aside or die.”
Malleus unbuckled a halberd from his back. It loomed as tall as its wielder, its double blades grinning in the night.
“I alone will take the honor of killing you. I—”
Cain charged, cutting the man short. Ceerocai trembled with a strange heat as their weapons met. Scarlet rays bounced across the walls.
The two swung again, the powerful blows nearly throwing them both back. Malleus deflected Cain’s sword and swung past a counter, sending shards of brick at Cain’s face as his weapon missed and struck the wall.
Cain rose from his dodge and jumped away from a swipe to his legs. He deflected the halberd’s other blade and another strike, then another. He pressed back beneath the barrage, waiting for an opportunity.
His sword blazed now with a brilli
ant radiance, filling the former dark with a bloody light. He tossed the dazzling blade into an attack and sent Malleus stumbling. Cain knocked his foe’s weapon into the ground and swung. The Blood Guard lurched back and slammed his halberd into the attack. Rays of light exploded as the weapons clashed. Malleus shielded his eyes and fumbled into a wall.
Cain rushed his opponent, but Malleus leapt aside, blades singing. The two men bound across the hall, thrusting, parrying, evading, each blow shaking the air.
Cain’s experience slipped beneath his anger, each swing growing stronger, frantic. But he didn’t care. He would kill this man!
Malleus shot by a powerful strike and slammed Ceerocai into the ground, bringing the other end of his halberd into Cain. The blade slashed through his arm and across his chest, spraying blood as he staggered back in pain.
Cain shot away from another strike and crashed into a wall. Ceerocai’s light vanished as it flew from his hand, instantly returning the hall to blackness. Cain leaned against the wall, gripping his arm. He turned to see Adriel, unmoving in her chains. This was a waste of time. He had to get to her!
Cain grabbed one of the many chains that lined the wall and whipped it out. It struck Malleus in the face as he charged, dropping him to his knees. Cain kicked off the wall, swung around his foe, and wrapped the chain around his neck.
He gave a yank. Malleus dropped his halberd to claw at his throat. Cain kicked the weapon away and pulled harder, causing the man’s face to redden like a fruit ready to pop. At the last second, Malleus gripped the chain and gave a desperate heave, pulling it from its rotten post.
Cain fumbled from the force and Malleus stood, gasping for air. Cain lunged.
Malleus shrank back beneath a barrage of fists. Eventually he gathered his breath, blocked a blow, and punched. Cain faltered from the hammer blow to the face, spitting blood.
Cain knocked away a strike and punched Malleus’ jaw before evading a second swing. He blocked a backhand and ducked under his opponent’s arm, coming up with a swift blow to the chin.
A New Reign Page 20