Four Sunrises

by J C Maynard

  Kyan stared at Raelynn, a girl he knew who did not know him. “I’m an agent for Prince Eston; I’m a spy. I’ll explain later but for now, listen. The Cerebrians are going to kill the Queen; will you help me stop them?”

  Raelynn looked at him with confusion, then looked at the burning city behind them and the ship ahead and nodded. To the side, a battalion of Cerebrian troops was unloading from their ship and marching into the city. Down below, Eston leaned on a container to get a better view. Kyan tensed as he watched himself, No, No, No. The container slipped, and the whole pile fell over. The battalion of green soldiers stopped, and turned to the princes, who tried to run, but were stopped by a volley of arrows ahead of them.

  “We need to do something.” said Raelynn as the battalion surrounded them.

  Kyan closed his eyes to think. “They’ll be escorted to the Cerebrian commander; we need to get on that ship.” He grabbed the edge of the building and slid down, Raelynn followed. Kyan saw himself in the distance drop his weapon, along with Fillian, and the troops grabbed them, pushing them toward the ship. Running behind shipping containers, Kyan reached the dock and ducked underneath it, where the edge of a wave grazed his boots on the stony beach. A few snowflakes landed on his jacket.

  Raelynn knelt beside him. “There are too many guards; we can’t just walk up the ramp to the deck.” Her fake Ferramish accent was nearly gone. The platoon escorting the princes approached the dock.

  The water of the inlet moved up the stone again, kissing Kyan’s boots, on which another snowflake landed. “The water will be cold.” Kyan took off his jacket and set it on the stone.

  Raelynn whispered as troops began to pass on the planks overhead, “You can’t be serious.”

  Kyan took off his boots and whispered, “This is the royal family, Raelynn . . . there’s a shutter open near the surface of the water to the left of the second mast; we’ll enter there.” He looked up through the gaps between wood beams and saw himself and his half brother pass overhead. Kyan took off his socks and stepped into the water; a searing sting, the heat drained from his feet. He took another step and the stinging intensified until he lost feeling.

  Behind him, Raelynn took off her jacket and shoes. Kyan was now waist-deep, and his pants stuck to his skin beneath the freezing water. Raelynn entered behind him as the last soldiers passed. Kyan pushed off the rocky bottom and plunged his body, except for his head into the inlet. The two swam underneath the dock. The water drained their energy and made it hard to breathe. Kyan and Raelynn reached the mossy and barnacle-covered edge of the ship. Shivering and teeth chattering, they pulled themselves up into the open shutter.

  Their breath froze in the air, which vanished in the moonlight and the light of the occasional fire of a cannon. Although his movements were slower, Kyan moved silently through the bottom of the ship and up multiple sets of stairs, followed by Raelynn.

  Kyan stopped on one of the middle floors, which was loaded to the brim with a pile of explosives, the same kind the Evertauri was using at this very moment to destroy the Great Gate. Most likely reserves in case the attack proved harder for the Cerebrians, he thought. Dozens of cannons pointed out into the harbor, but the floor was abandoned; most of the troops had been sent into the city and wouldn’t risk being vulnerable to friendly fire.

  Kyan rushed up the staircase and onto the floor beneath the stern. The room was lit by a small vent in the ceiling. Kyan and Raelynn looked through it and saw a group of Cerebrian soldiers, Eston and Fillian, and General Heirmonst standing next to Queen Eradine with a knife. Only a second after arriving at the vent, Kyan and Raelynn heard Eston whisper, “Xandria doesn’t want peace . . . she will stop at nothing to destroy what father stole from her . . . Saving my mother will not save my people.”

  Kyan’s stomach dropped as Heirmonst nodded. “As you wish, Prince Wenderdehl.” Heirmonst drove the dagger forward, and Eradine screamed something in her gag before she fell limp, and blood streamed from her neck.

  Kyan stared at Raelynn with his face enraged. “That pile of explosives — blow this ship in two. I’ll get the princes off.”

  “But —”

  “The fuse should take about ten seconds to reach the explosives. Light it in a half minute from now, and then jump out the stern of the ship.” Before Raelynn could say anything, Kyan darted for the ladder to the main deck. He scrambled up, counting as he went. Raelynn tore down the staircase and into the room of the explosives, taking hold of the fuse and counting. 15, 14, 13, 12 . . . Kyan emerged on the top of the deck and located the two princes far off in a mass of soldiers; they stood next to a railing in shock from what had just happened.

  Sprinting, Kyan drove forward behind troops, and before they could jab at him with their swords, Kyan dove into the princes and knocked them off the railing. The three fell through the night air off the stern of the ship, trying to position themselves in the air to plunge safely in the water. As they fell, shattering glass sounded next to them as Raelynn jumped out.

  They hit the icy water hard and plunged beneath its dark surface. Not a half second after, a burst of orange lit the surrounding water and a shockwave of deafening sound pushed the four down further into the sea. Wood from the ship came shooting by in the water as the four tried to discern which way was up. From the orange glow, Kyan could pick out Fillian right next to him; but he barely looked up soon enough to see one of the masts of the ship plunge into the water and ram into their heads. A crack of pain, and everything went black.

  Kyan’s eyes were closed, and he felt his chest pressing against cold pebbles. His head throbbed, obscuring his vision, but he could hear the waves moving up and down the rocky beach. It was silent everywhere, save for a very distant screaming. He could tell that it was light out and his clothes were no longer wet, but it was still very cold. With much effort, Kyan pushed his torso off the rocky shore and opened his eyes to a reddish-gray light. His eyes could only first focus on his hand, on which a couple little gray snowflakes had landed — it was ash.

  All around him, the beach was ash, and the sky was grey and stank of flesh and smoke. He was alone. His eyes couldn’t focus on the shoreline before the first beam of sunlight of the new day shot over the eastern horizon; then in a burst of light, the throbbing in his head stopped, replaced by a throbbing in his heart as he stood on the stern as Eston, looking at the limp body of Queen Eradine.

  ◆◆◆

  Back on the ship, Eston stumbled backwards in shock as Fillian stood still. The whole ship was silent in the night as the screaming from the shoreline and the crack of the cannons continued. General Heirmonst walked over to the princes and put his hands on their shoulders and clicked his tongue. “What a pity. You could have saved thousands of lives, but instead, you chose to look brave.” Another cannonball soared from the harbor and knocked out a stone bridge of the Palace. Fillian stared blankly at his mother, weak and helpless with a gash from Whittingale still throbbing in his side. The Princes didn’t notice the boy sprinting toward them. Guards yelled and tried to grab Kyan, and Eston turned right as Kyan knocked them over the edge.

  As they fell, Eston frantically tried to locate the surface of the water and angle his feet toward it. The sound of shattering glass, a hard impact, bitter cold water surrounded him, and a blast of sound and light threw him even further down in the water where the pressure tortured his eardrums. Beams of wood began to shoot around him as he located three dark figures beside him. The icy water began to drain his energy as one of his boots fell off. A huge dark mass blocked the light of the burning ship above them, and Eston dodged the mast of the ship as it plunged through the water. The mast hit Kyan and Fillian in the head with a thud and knocked them unconscious.

  Eston saw Raelynn’s long light hair trail behind her as she dove down to grab Kyan’s hand while he sank, and Eston instinctively swam after Fillian, whose body was being dragged down into the black abyss by the mast. Eston wildly kicked his legs as he touched a finger to Fillian’s. The cold
stung him and shook his body as more debris shot around him. Eston dove further and stretched forward, grabbing Fillian’s fingers. The pressure of the water around him pounded on his ears making him want to scream. Fillian’s fingers began slipping off Eston’s as the mast sank faster than Eston could swim; Fillian’s hand drifted an inch below Eston’s, three inches, six.

  A stream of black energy surrounded the mast, shattering it and freeing Fillian. Eston kicked again and wrapped an arm around Fillian, then he turned back toward the surface and used a free arm and his legs to pull the two of them up. His lungs jerked for air and his vision began to turn black and he could no longer see the warm light of the exploded ship above. Eston kept swimming up, but with every second, he slowed. An arm reached out and helped pull Fillian up, and the surface was closer than it appeared, for Eston gasped five seconds later, slapping one hand on the surface of the frigid water and holding one shoulder of Fillian with the other.

  Eston looked over at Raelynn, who held Fillian’s other shoulder and whose wet face reflected the orange light of the massive burning ship beside them. The two pulled Fillian onto shore, passing the sinking bodies of Cerebrian soldiers and General Heirmonst. Eston touched the rocks on the seabed and dragged Fillian up. He saw another body, Kyan, lying on the stone-covered beach.

  Both Kyan and Fillian were still with their eyes closed. Eston reached over and put his fingers on Kyan’s neck, feeling a faint beat. He turned over to Fillian and did the same — nothing. No color could be seen on Fillian’s face. “Fillian?” Eston shook his brother. “Fillian!”

  Raelynn knelt over Fillian and put her hand over his chest. Although Eston could see no light coming from Raelynn’s palm, in a few seconds, Fillian’s body jerked, coughing up water. Eston let out a few sobs, hugging his brother. Fillian looked at Eston for a moment and then blacked out once more.

  Shivering, Eston wiped tears from his face. “Fillian and Kyan need to be warmed and dried off, or else they’ll freeze and never wake up.” He looked at Raelynn, knowing her secret, and then looked away, giving Raelynn a chance to use magic.

  Starting first with Fillian, she pressed her hand on his skin. Although no flame could be seen, steam rolled off Fillian’s clothes and turned warm and dry. Careful not burn him, she moved on to Kyan, repeating the process.

  When she was done. Eston looked over at Fillian, whose wound had reopened. Kyan lay still. Raelynn and Eston turned to the harbor, where fire burned on planks of wood that floated where The Desolator once was. The ships nearby had stopped firing cannons at the Palace, which, far above them, was crumbling and burning. The four had washed up below the cliffs of the Palace, rather than near the shoreline of houses and buildings that blazed in a great orange fire. Raelynn and Eston stood up when the clanking of armor and swords sounded from the other side of a hill. A group of fifty soldiers wearing scarlet ran toward them. The Guard . . . traitors.

  Eston had no weapons with which to defend himself, but he calmed when the soldiers slowed to a stop around them. A Guard stepped forward, “Are you alright, your Majesty? We saw the ship explode and came to see the wreckage.”

  Eston looked at the burning city beyond. “What are you doing here? The Guard —”

  “We know, your Majesty; most of the Guard has joined Cerebria, but not all of us have. We understand we probably should be executed for not notifying the government of the rebellion, but right now,” he motioned back to the platoon of soldiers in scarlet, “we will do whatever we can to help Ferramoor.”

  Eston looked back at Fillian and Kyan. “My brother and this young man need to be moved to a safe place where someone can take care of them until they wake.” The soldier nodded. Eston looked up at the Palace. “Look up there.” he pointed. “I see five of our trebuchets that they haven’t knocked out yet. Send the rest of your men to man those trebuchets. Knock out the ships that have fired the fewest number of cannonballs.”

  “Your Majesty, what is a cannonball?”

  Eston remembered he learned the name when Calleneck was with Mordvitch. “Those bloody iron boulders that they’ve been shooting at our Palace.” The soldier nodded and signaled two men to stay with Kyan and Fillian, while the rest marched forward.

  Raelynn looked at Eston. “Where to next?”

  Eston looked at the wall of fire on the waterfront. “I sent a group of Palace members to Camp Auness, but it will be at least another two hours before they arrive . . . until then, we fight.”

  Raelynn jerked his shoulder back. “Are you in your right mind? Your mother is dead and your father is sixty miles away; he’s probably just learning about the attack now by messenger bird, and your brother is unconscious . . . You are the current ruler of Ferramoor. You cannot go into battle.”

  “Then why am I here? To play my followers like chess pieces, letting them take the blows?”

  “It doesn’t matter, your Majesty. That’s your job and that’s who you are. What difference will you make as a soldier compared to a king?”

  “If I do nothing, Raelynn, there won’t be a Ferramoor for me to govern after tonight.”

  Raelynn breathed in deeply as an explosion went off in the distant city. “Where do you want to go then? What do you want to do? Look at your harbor! You have no way to combat these ships beside going into each one and blowing them up like I just did. Your few naval ships are burning and sinking; you have nothing left.”

  Eston looked out into the burning harbor. A wave of epiphany overtook him. “No, we still have something.” Looking once more at Fillian and Kyan, he took off along the beach.

  Raelynn ran after him. “What are you talking about?”

  Eston jumped over a dock. “Our navy is destroyed!”

  Raelynn jumped over the same dock. “And?!”

  “All of our big ships are gone!” called Eston.

  “So?!” shouted Raelynn, trying to keep up.

  “We still have fishing boats!”

  “What?!” she called out, stumbling over some rocks.

  “Fishing boats!”

  The two wound their way through the burning streets of Aunestauna, taking back alleys to avoid the Cerebrian troops. All the while, the sounds of screaming and roaring fire seeped into the smallest crevices of the city. Eston’s head still pounded. Passing hundreds of dead bodies made him sick; but he continued to make his way south, toward the poor districts of Aunestauna.

  He stopped when he reached a pile of dead Cerebrian soldiers caught and stabbed in the fishing net he helped set up. Other Cerebrians had pressed farther into the city to join the traitorous Ferramish Guard. To his right, down a street of burning buildings, were the small Poor Docks where Raelynn had arrived and Kyan had grabbed the old fisherman a net.

  Raelynn spun Eston around. “Do you want me to go aboard on each of those ships and light them up? I can’t —”

  “I’ll explain later; it’ll work.” Eston led Raelynn down the flaming street and toward the docks, where the same little boat Kyan had seen earlier still rocked in gentle waves next to another of roughly the same size. “The Cerebrians didn’t bother to burn a little fisherman’s boat.” Eston and Raelynn walked down the dock and stopped at the little boat. Eston looked in it and jumped when he saw the same old fisherman with a beard that hung to his waist. The boney, old man was facing the burning harbor.

  Eston walked up to him. “Excuse me. You know how to sail this boat? . . . yeah, sorry . . . stupid question. Will you help us?”

  The man nodded.

  “You see those Cerebrian ships? Our trebuchets have destroyed the ramps leading to them, so no more troops can unload into the city by walking, they have to go in boats. We need to sail in the middle of the fleet.”

  The fisherman looked over at the massive ships and whispered to Eston, “You’ll get destroyed in seconds.”

  “No we won’t.” said Raelynn. Another burst from a cannon shook the air.

  Yes! thought the prince as the fisherman asked why. Say it Raelynn.


  “Prince Eston, I don’t know your plan was, but I have a way. Tonight, a rebel Cerebrian group will attempt to destroy the Great Gate to let the Ferrs through; in the process, they will reveal themselves to the world. I am one of them, but I’m stationed here now. The rebels will either fail or succeed, but in either case, will demonstrate capabilities that will scare Xandria. The best thing for you to do is to take credit for the attack: say it was Ferramish special forces. This will provide us with secrecy and make your army look stronger. I’m a sorceress . . . along with the rest of the rebels. I can take down the fleet.”

  Here comes the second part. How do I get her to admit it? “Why haven’t you used your sorcery to help?”

  “I have.”

  “I would have noticed;” said Eston, “all the stories of sorcerers say that their magic is light — a blinding, powerful light.”

  “When Fillian was being pulled down by the mast, I shattered it, but there was no explosion of light. When I revived Fillian on the shore, no light came out of my hand. You’ve only seen me use magic at night . . . my true Taurimous is black; it produces no light. People think it’s evil and so I hide it. Even when others see me use sorcery, I use my strength to turn it another color, one that emits light. But when Fillian’s life was on the line, I could only save him with my true Taurimous.” The fire on the shoreline blazed and created its own warm wind. Raelynn turned to the old man. “Xandria will win the war tonight unless you put your trust in me.”

  “What do you propose, miss?” asked the fisherman. “The Cerebrian ships would see this boat if it were to pass between them.”

  “I can hide it with my Taurimous and blend it in with the dark water.”

  Eston scanned the fleet in the distance. “Each ship is loaded with explosives that I believe they plan to use once their forces have pressed far enough into the city. But if we get there before that, while most of the ships are still out in the harbor now that they’ve unloaded the troops —