A Gleaming Path

by Jeffrey Pawlak

  That was Raissa’s brother who he insulted and fought with. Even if Tridian had been in the wrong, Alamor knew that he should have been more respectful to Raissa’s last living family, if for no other reason, for her.

  “He’s never abandoned me like you did!”

  Her words still stung. Alamor had never seen Raissa so distraught before, even when they had spoken about sensitive subjects, like the deaths of her parents.

  And I’m the reason why… Alamor thought to himself. A crippling sense of disappointment rushed through him. He had gone through so much on his way to rekindling his bond with Raissa. Together, they overcame struggles that would have separated most people for life.

  Now, a foolish outburst seemed to have negated all of that progress.

  Raissa was right, after all. Tridian had been by her side for her entire life, and he must have offered tremendous support following King Aurilion’s death, without doubt the most trying period she had ever gone through.

  Where had Alamor been that whole time? Moping and pitying himself, among many other decisions that he regretted. While his beloved friend was in pain, he sat around feeling sorry for himself.

  The situation was not so different now, but there was little he could do to change it. Raissa had locked herself in her room all day, initially even refusing to let Hinton and Pauma in, until the Bachus managed to calm her. Alamor thought about going to see her earlier, but he realized that would not have been a good idea until the Bachus could confirm that she was ready to be spoken to.

  Alamor was not sure what hurt more—how upset Raissa was, or that he could not do anything to help her.

  He heard a knock at his door, a loud thud that could have only come from a huge fist. Alamor immediately knew who it was. “Come in,” he said, scarcely any energy in his voice.

  The door opened, and Rawner stepped into the room. While he appeared to be in a pleasant mood, as normal, his big face was missing the grin it usually wore, as if in respect to Alamor’s situation.

  “Hey, kid, how are you feeling?” Rawner asked as he took a seat next to Alamor on his bed.

  “Guilty,” Alamor answered, not even bothering to turn his blank eyes away from the storm outside.

  It was inevitable that a grin would eventually make its way across Rawner’s face. “Because of everything with the Princess, or because you punched royalty square in the face?”

  “I never landed a single punch,” Alamor answered, being completely honest, even though it was obvious that Rawner was making a joke. He lifted an arm and patted his elbow. “I hit him with this, instead.”

  Rawner laughed. “Where did you ever learn to fight like that?”

  Alamor shrugged. “Something I picked up while I was training to be a King’s Fang, believe it or not. They always taught you that if you don’t have your weapon available, you fight with the part of your body that’s most similar to it, and I am a swordsman, after all.” Alamor showed a flicker of a smile, but only for a moment. He dropped his gaze and let his head hang in shame. “A really stupid one.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Rawner said. “Maybe you did make a mistake, and maybe it’s even a pretty big one, but it’s not the end of the world. I mean, if the consequences were that dire every time someone messed up, I’d still be stuck in a dungeon somewhere for one of the countless blunders I made when I was younger.”

  Alamor sat back and looked up to the ceiling, releasing a gusty sigh at the same time. “I just feel awful about all of it. Raissa’s gone through so much, and nothing about this journey is easy on her. I should be one of the people who helps her get through all of this—not someone who just makes it more difficult.”

  “Who says you still can’t be?” Rawner asked.

  “Well, right now I can’t be because she probably doesn’t even want to see me, let alone talk to me,” Alamor grumbled, perturbed by Rawner’s blithe question.

  “You’re being overdramatic, again,” Rawner said. “It took some work, but Hinton and Pauma seemed to have gotten through to her. That’s why I came to find you. This might be the best time to go talk things out with her.”

  “Are you sure?” Alamor asked, very much hesitant.

  “No way to know unless you try.”

  Alamor stood, another hefty sigh shooting past his lips, as if he exhaled a thick cloud of stress from his lungs. “You’re right about that,” he conceded, and started to the doorway. Just before he stepped into the hallway, he glanced back at Rawner, showing the big man a faint, but appreciative smile. “Thanks, Rawner.”

  Rawner crafted his own smile and nodded back. “Don’t mention it, kid.”

  Alamor left his cabin and started down one of the long corridors inside the Balcryst’s hull. It was a few minutes before he rounded a corner and spotted Raissa’s bedroom at the very end of the hallway. Her door was open, and Alamor could see Raissa sitting on her bed, Hinton and Pauma by her sides. Raissa eventually noticed him approaching, but only spared Alamor a distressed glance before looking away. The Bachus noticed him, too, and after whispering a few final comments to Raissa that Alamor could not hear, they got up and left the room.

  There was a look of sympathy in both Hinton’s and Pauma’s eyes as they came to meet with Alamor in the hallway. Still, they both managed a smile. “I think we got the job done, lad,” Hinton said proudly, adding a wink afterward.

  Alamor lifted his eyes to Raissa once again, who only sat stoically on her bed, refusing to look in his direction. “I hope you’re right about that.”

  Pauma only partially hid her grin. “Trust me, Hinton is right,” she assured. “The Princess may still be a little unnerved, but we reasoned with her plenty. The lass simply needed some time to cool down, that was all.”

  Hinton nodded firmly. “Yep yep! You’re all clear to sit down and chat with her again. Just take it slow and easy. The girl’s still a tad tender, and by the looks of things, you seem to be, too.”

  “I can’t deny that,” Alamor admitted.

  Pauma gave Alamor a gentle, encouraging pat on the hip. “Be a gentleman like you normally are, and things will turn out just fine. The husband and I will leave you kids to yourselves.”

  The Bachus continued on down the hallway, but Alamor paid no attention to them as they left. He only stared straight ahead, his pained, guilt-ridden gaze fixated on Raissa. She still had not looked at him. She almost seemed afraid of Alamor’s presence.

  Alamor knew that it was not going to be an enjoyable conversation, but it had to be done.

  He started forward, and only took a few steps before the entire hallway shook. Alamor lost his footing and toppled into the wall as it felt like the ship had been thrown into the air. When he recovered, he saw that Raissa had fallen off her bed. She was just as stunned as he was.

  He began to call out to her to ask if she was okay, but his words were drowned out by a series of thunderous sounds which boomed above them. Raissa lifted herself to her feet even as the floors, walls, and ceiling continued to shudder. Her widened eyes met with Alamor’s, the two of them wordlessly asking one another—“What’s going on?”

  Alamor wasted no time in trying to find out. He turned and began to hurry throughout the hallways, struggling to keep his balance as everything shook and trembled around him. He eventually found his way out of the hull and onto the main deck, where he stepped into a scene of complete hysteria.

  The storm had grown even more violent, filling the air with furious sheets of rain. Arcs of lightning flashed in the sky, ripping through the clouds before sonorous claps of thunder roared over the ocean.

  It was difficult to see through the heavy rain and darkness, but Alamor was able to make out the figures of Tridian and some of his companions standing atop the aft deck. He started toward them, navigating through the crowds of men and women who labored frantically to keep the Balcryst right. Gigantic waves continued to thrash about the ocean’s turbulent surface, striking the Balcryst and the other warships with stren
gth that threatened to drag them beneath the waters.

  As he ran across the decks, Alamor heard what he thought was more thunder, but the booming sounds were too near and too numerous. He eventually noticed flashes of fire and smoke through the rain, and he realized that the Balcryst’s cannons shot at something out in the ocean.

  He also noticed Tiroku, who raced over the decks toward the stern. “Tiroku, wait!” Alamor shouted, somehow loud enough that the Champion of Light heard him over the din. “What’s happening?” Alamor asked as he joined alongside Tiroku. “Why are the cannons being fired?”

  “The ships are under attack!” Tiroku answered as they pushed across the Balcryst. “Some kind of giant monsters have ambushed us!”

  They climbed to the aft deck where the others stood, and where Tridian paced about frantically as he shouted orders. The Prince of Tordale brandished a weapon that Alamor had never seen him use before—an ornate lance that seemed to be fashioned entirely out of gold, aside from the steel blade at its head.

  Alamor tried to spot the creatures further away. Through the curtain of rain, he made out two huge shapes in the distance. One was vermilion, and the other bright blue, azure. He peered closer, and he got a better look at the reptilian monsters as they swam on the ocean’s thrashing surface beneath the Waveskimmer, striking at the ship’s hull. Their long necks sent their fang-filled maws darting up along its wooden frame, while their claws tore out entire chunks with each swipe.

  “Continue firing!” Tridian roared. “Get them away from the ship!”

  “But, your Highness, those monsters are too close, now,” said a nearby soldier who was manning a cannon on the aft deck. “We may actually hit the Waveskimmer if we do that!”

  “And if we just sit here and watch, the ship will be destroyed by those things!” Tridian’s fiery expression shot back to the Waveskimmer and monsters in the distance. “Aim and fire!”

  The soldiers obeyed, steadying the cannons as best that they could in the torrid conditions. The hulking barrels recoiled and screamed, launching their shells through the pouring rain and far over the waves. Two of the shots landed just short, while the third struck the azure beast on the back and sent it tumbling under the waters.

  But it appeared to do little lasting damage to the monster, who along with its vermilion-scaled partner quickly craned its long neck in the Balcryst’s direction and began swimming after Tridian’s ship.

  The Prince of Tordale nearly had his soldiers open fire once more, but before he could utter the command, he balked at a sight ahead of him. A third monster emerged from the roiling ocean, a gargantuan behemoth of emerald scales that was twice the size of the other two, nearly as large as the Balcryst. It leapt clear out of the water, pouncing onto the Waveskimmer as a predator did to its prey.

  The enormous monster crushed the deck beneath it, and the warship’s entire frame came apart. In just a few moments, the Waveskimmer and her crew were swallowed up by the ocean’s furious waters.

  “Everybody head to the main deck!” Tiroku yelled. “Hurry!” He was seemingly the only person who had not been frozen in horror by what they had just seen. The Champion of Light got everyone down the stairs just in time as they felt the Balcryst buckle beneath their feet, surely from the two smaller monsters ramming into its sides.

  Dozens of soldiers and sailors crowded the railings as the monsters surfaced and attempted to climb up along the Balcryst’s hull. Tridian’s troops released salvos of spears and arrows at the monsters, but their weapons were not even an aggravation to the creatures which had withstood cannon fire. The azure beast managed to pull its upper body onto the main deck, snatching two soldiers in its jaws before flinging their mangled, lifeless bodies away.

  As the soldiers retreated, Alamor, Tiroku, Rawner, and Joth charged to meet the creature. Alamor felt a rush of energy shoot through his whole being as he took hold of his sword and shield. He began to call upon the Serenity rooted deep within his soul, ready to use it for the first time since Raissa helped him unlock it in the Hallowed Plane during his duel with Ilios and Iras, two of the Sages of Loyalty.

  Alamor came to the monster before any of his companions did. He struck at its flank with a mighty cut as he summoned every measure of his magic into the blade.

  His sword merely bounced off of the creature’s azure hide, failing to graze a single scale.

  Time seemed to stop as Alamor’s mind separated from the situation at hand. His stunned eyes stared in disbelief at his sword’s steel blade, which had not shone with even a flicker of the luminous energy he wielded just a few days ago.

  His Serenity refused to answer his call. He failed to summon it yet again.

  Alamor was so distraught that he did not see the monster swipe at him with the back of its claw. He was thrown clear off of his feet and slammed onto the deck. He could only watch helplessly as the creature aimed its jaws down at him.

  Tiroku rose to intercept it just in time, his sword flaring with white light. He slashed at the monster’s throat, and the magical aura burning around his blade seared through the monster’s armor-like scales. The creature lashed out with its free claw as Tiroku hurried away.

  The ocean beast did not seem to notice Joth as he stormed in and attacked where Tiroku had already wounded it. The man from the Arid Reaches sent his saber darting into the open cut that Tiroku’s Serenity had made, stabbing through layers of soft flesh beneath the azure scales. The monster hollered in pain and reeled back, soon throwing itself off of the Balcryst and back into the raging waters below.

  Rawner grabbed Alamor and hauled him back to his feet, but Alamor was still in shock as his companions regrouped at the center of the ship’s main deck. By then, several men had poured out of the lower holds to inform Tridian that the Balcryst had suffered damage along the hull, and was already taking on water. Several rooms were flooded, and there seemed to be no way to stop the leaks.

  Tiroku was the first to offer a solution. “We need to get off this ship, now,” the Champion of Light warned.

  “And jump right into that storm?” Tridian questioned. “We’ll never survive out there!”

  “We won’t survive on board a sinking ship that’s being attacked by those monsters, either,” Tiroku argued, his eyes and words hardening. “At least out there, we have a chance.”

  Tridian did not immediately have a reply for Tiroku. He desperately looked about the Balcryst’s chaotic deck, as if making one final effort to search for another possible plan of action before he would give in to Tiroku’s urging.

  But Tridian found no other answer. He begrudgingly shouted a command for the lifeboats to be readied, and took the others to one side of the Balcryst where a pair of the small, wooden crafts could be lowered down into the waters. A handful of crewmen loaded the boats into their harnesses. With the boats dangling along the Balcryst’s hull, Tridian began directing Alamor and the others to drop into them.

  Dayneth went first, although only to catch Raissa, who was hurried into the dingy by the others. Joth was the third to descend.

  He would end up being the last. None of them paid any attention to the largest of the three ocean beasts as it surfaced and charged the Balcryst. Every cannon that could be aimed in its direction was fired, peppering the emerald behemoth with a barrage of explosive shells that bathed it in fire and smoke when they struck. It was enough to halt the monster’s advance, but not enough to save the doomed Balcryst.

  The colossal monster’s jaws fell open and dispelled a concentrated beam of scalding water. The stream was like a laser as it passed by, slicing the ship’s masts clear in half and sending the wreckage spilling onto the decks. The monster quickly swept its beam over the Balcryst a second time, pulverizing the aft deck and tearing deep into the hull.

  Nearly half of the ship exploded from the inside out. The lifeboat that held Raissa, Dayneth, and Joth dropped from the devastated warship, while the others still aboard the Balcryst were flung into the raging ocean, where they were
swallowed up by the waves.

  Alamor’s world became a dull blur of water and darkness. He was dazed and battered after being hurled from the ruined Balcryst, his consciousness hovering on the edge as he was slowly dragged deeper into the merciless ocean. His blank eyes could only make out the vague shapes of his friends nearby, some of them fighting doggedly to overcome the violent waters, while others were helpless to keep themselves from sinking further to the depths.

  And then he felt something take hold of him. At first Alamor believed it was merely the powerful currents continuing to toss him about, until he realized that whatever had come upon him was pulling him along through the water in a deliberate direction. He tried to get a look at it, but by then his vision was only flashes of the murky and distorted surroundings.

  Soon, he did not even know that, as the last of his consciousness faded away.

  6

  The day after Baldaron cast his sinister spell upon Heaven’s Bay and cursed its waters, he set his army’s course through the Tower Mountains, into the region that he once called home—the Arid Reaches. It lay in the far northeast corner of Tordale, a realm that was known to most only for its seas of sand, its hordes of outlaws, and its scorching heat. It was said that if a traveler wandered too long within the desert before finding shelter, the sun’s rays could eventually burn the clothes right off their flesh.

  Although, when that sun retreated from the sky, and night took over the region, a bitter chill swept over the sands. The once-blistering air became caught in an icy grip that cut as deep as winter’s coldest gale.

  The frigid air was so penetrating that even Tauroc and his fellow members the Rockclaw Tribe felt it prick their skin through their thick fur. Most of the Baroso warriors had spent their lives within the Tower Mountains, where Tordale’s tallest peaks were often enveloped by freezing air, and the winters were among the most brutal in the kingdom, but they still saw a need to build a sizable bonfire every night when Baldaron brought their march to a halt.