“Put out the fires and lanterns. Stay low, men!” Eden shouted.
James quickly found his feet again but only made it to the bottom of the stairs before a flurry of enemy bolts leapt out of the darkness on the starboard bank and created carnage at the starboard rail with every second or third soldier being thrown back.
“Men in the trees!” soldiers began to shout, some loosing off crossbow bolts.
James saw them, too; scores of them, attired in black hooded robes ready to swing aboard on ropes.
“Return fire and prepare to repel boarders.” Eden’s voice boomed over the chaos.
The rapid clunk of Arkaelyon crossbows sent enemy warriors tumbling from the trees and into the river. It wasn’t enough to stop the attack and the archers made a hasty retreat, working to reload their crossbows, as the first wave of boarders swung across the water to the ship. Arkaelyon knights and swordsmen met them head on and all along the starboard railing men clashed in mortal combat.
James drew his sword, and rushed to defend the door that gave access to the passageway that led to the royal cabin. A few of the enemy warriors managed to break through the ranks of Arkaelyon soldiers and bolted for a hatch on the mid deck. Sir Jeffery shouted a warning and led a small counter attack, slaughtering two of the warriors before they could get inside the ship. James braced himself as more of the enemy pushed through the ranks of soldiers. One came at him with an axe. James ducked as the black robed man tried to take his head off. Then he stepped away and ducked again before catching the man’s weapon with his blade and head butting him. The warrior stumbled back and James rammed his sword into the man’s ribs, killing him instantly.
Suddenly, somewhere in the distance a war horn sounded a general retreat. James watched, bewildered as the enemy turned and fled back over the side of the ship. Arkaelyon archers harried the retreating men, killing dozens before they could scurry up the riverbank and disappeared into the fog and dark forest beyond.
Eden bellowed an order to cease-fire. There was silence for a moment. Everyone was puzzled by what had just happened. As soon as it was clear there was no threat of another attack the prince began give orders to his knights; some of the men were to see to the protection of the ship, the rest to take care of the wounded and dead and put out the few small fires that were still burning around the deck.
James was about to go and check on Dee, when Eden called out, asking him to wait. The prince gave a few more instructions and then walked over.
He took James aside from the activity beginning to take place around the ship.
“I take it this was Fren’s doing?” He asked.
“That would be my guess,” James replied. He understood the implication of the act well enough. “The black robes and chainmail. Dee saw men like these in her first dream. They called themselves the Sword of Larnius. They fought with the same suicidal abandonment as well.”
“Why did they retreat?”
“I don’t know.”
Eden nodded, not happy. “You can tell my sister that we’re turning back.”
“Eden, she will not be pleased to hear that.”
“I don’t care. This was a bloody ambush. They knew we were coming and if we had not had extra men on board or that horn had not sounded, it would have been a close fought thing indeed.”
James understood that well enough; he even empathised with the prince. Unfortunately he also knew what Danielle would say and when Eden moved to go, he grabbed the prince’s arm preventing him. “What about this summons?”
“If this Druid is so wrought with power and if my sister is so important to his cause, he’ll find a safer place to meet her. Until then, it will have to wait.”
James couldn’t argue with that. “I’ll tell her.”
“Thank you. And James, whatever you do, keep her in that cabin. She doesn’t need to see the mess out here.”
James nodded his agreement and stepped inside the starboard passageway below the aft deck. In truth, he was surprised Danielle had not made an appearance before now. Though the guards at her door had likely gone to extreme measures to prevent her.
James was halfway down the passageway when he heard the druid’s horn sound again. He stopped half fearing another attack. A moment later the ship suddenly lurched violently to starboard, throwing him off his feet. James grabbed the handrail to climb back up, but he was thrown backwards as the vessel shuddered violently and ground to a crunching stop. He heard the mast snap and come crashing down on the deck outside and objects fall off shelves in cabins around him.
It was obvious they had run a ground, and with the deck beginning to list to port, and fearing the worst, he picked himself up off the floor and ran towards the royal cabin.
“Danielle!”
The lanterns swayed wildly in the passageway ahead. He could hear the drumming of boots as men came up from below. The ship seemed to be sinking by the stern and the oarsmen were likely trying to escape the rising water. That thought was immediately dispelled when he heard a shout of warning and the clash of steel. A moment later Sir Hamdlesome and his two companions suddenly appeared, backing around the corner in front of James. All three knights had their swords in hand and were fighting off a horde of crazed oarsmen. The latter were armed with cutlasses, and as a knight’s sword opened the throat of one, another took his place. It was the same suicidal abandonment they had just witnessed out on the deck.
James was suddenly conscious that fighting had broken out on the deck behind him as well. Not sure what was happening, though convinced it was the work of the druids, he drew his sword again and took over from Sir Hamdlesome. The grateful knight staggered to the rear, puffing for breath. It was then, as James fended a blade and opened a belly, that he realised the attackers eyes were black as onyx and unblinking and that they were snarling like wild pigs. He’d never seen such a thing before. These men were no longer men. What they had become he could not name, but it confirmed his reckoning that magic was definitely at work here. It angered him. These were men loyal to the house of de Brie. They did not deserve an end like this. But there was little choice; it was kill or be killed.
“Where’s the princess?” he shouted over the mayhem, blood splashing his clothes as he stabbed an oarsman through the chest.
“Don’t know,” was all Hamdlesome could manage. “She tried to get out on deck during the last attack, but I sent her back to her cabin.”
“Danielle!” James raised his voice above the clashing of steel and the screams of slaughter, but there was no answer that he could hear. If she had got her hands on a sword, he was sure she would be holding her own for these poor souls were almost running themselves onto his sword, the same way the attackers from the riverbank had.
Hamdlesome replaced one of the younger knights at James’ side. “Gods have mercy, they’re possessed. Look at their eyes.”
James was trying not to look at their eyes. Getting to Danielle was what mattered right now. He fended a blade and head-butted its owner in the face then caught the next blade with his heavier and longer knight sword and slashed down almost taking the man’s sword arm off at the shoulder. With only five of these poor devils left standing in his way, James yelled at the resting knight to replace him and then surged forward, shouldering and chopping at the last of the oarsmen before bursting into the clear behind them. Bodies littered the floor, and his boots slipped in the blood and gore as he rounded the corner in the passageway. The two palace guards who had been standing watch at the door of the royal cabin were dead on the floor, their swords still in their scabbards and the door to the royal suite smashed in. No one was pursuing him so he crossed the threshold and found four dead oarsmen and the dining room wrecked by violence. He called to Danielle and bolted into the day cabin. There was no reply so he ran to the sleeping quarters. Like the sitting room it was untouched and there was no sign of Dee. Nothing.
Sir Hamdlesome stepped through the doorway as James returned to the dining cabin. Panic was beginning
to consume him.
“She’s not here. Search the ship and get any men you meet to do the same. She has to be here somewhere.”
The knight was breathing hard, his face glistening with sweat. Blood dripped from his sword and a cut on his cheek. He nodded and turned on his heels, shouting at the two men with him to follow, and began down the stairs to the galley and the cabins below calling out to their lady.
The wisest thing to do now was to find Eden, and have the search widen. It was what James was about to do when a gentle breeze touched the nape of his neck. He stopped in the doorway and turned to face the curtained window. A horrible thought occurred to him and he bolted across the cabin and threw back the velvet drapes. The window was open, as he feared it would be, a rope hung down to the water, and out in the foggy darkness he could just make out a lantern and what looked like a small boat.
“Danielle!”
A tussle broke out and a head of blond hair rose momentarily from the bottom of the boat. “James, help me!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
James rushed into his cabin, grabbed his longbow and quiver of arrows and ran back to the mid deck. He pushed past a group of soldiers who were putting out the fires and tending to the wounded and turned to face the aft deck. “Eden, Eden, Milord!”
The prince had just started restoring some order to the chaos aboard the stranded ship, and was now up on the aft deck talking to several of his knightly retainer and the captain beside the helm. His frown was severe in the firelight as it lowered to the mid deck. Others, too, were surprised to hear someone calling the Prince Regent by his given name. But this was not a time for formalities.
“They’ve taken, Danielle, this whole thing was a diversion. They’re rowing down stream as I speak.”
Not waiting for a reply, James ran to the railing, leapt onto the ladder and descended down the side of the ship. The cold water came up to his waist and he waded ashore as quickly as he could.
“James, wait!” Eden was at the railing, silhouetted against the lantern light. One of the men of his retainer was already climbing onto the ladder, his armour making for slow progress. More knights were ready to follow.
“There’s no time. Follow as you can.”
James scrambled up the riverbank. They had to get to Danielle before her captors put into shore. If they failed, they would likely lose them in the forested wilds and there would be no chance of a pursuit until at least dawn when there would be enough light to follow a trail. Assuming they left a trail to follow. Who could tell with these people?
Flames from the ship threw a flickering yellow light over the foggy riverbank and out into the forest. Dead Druids lay everywhere, yet the forest was far too quiet to be anywhere near safe. There was a chance the enemy were still around, but there was no time to worry about that right now. James headed back the way they had come, trying to see through the darkness and fog ahead of him and keep up a good pace. The uneven ground, thick grass and branches protruding from the woods made it difficult going, and he tripped and stumbled regularly. But there was no thought of slowing down.
A slight dawn breeze had picked up and the fog was beginning to ebb a little out on the river, making it easier to see if there was anything out there in the dark.
James had run for what seemed about half a mile before he saw a light out on the water. Or he thought he did. Slowing to catch his breath, he studied the spot where he had seen it and when the billowing fog ebbed for a moment he saw it again—a faint light and the outline of a small rowing boat. As before, two men were sitting on the centre bench, mere shadows in the gloom as they pulled at the oars with slow regular strokes. Another-hooded figure had the tiller and the fourth was at the bow, holding up a lantern. The vessel was slowly closing on the shoreline as it progressed down river.
Relieved to have at least found her again, James set out again, careful now to stay as quiet as possible but maintaining a pace that would get him ahead of the small vessel. Once he had a hundred or so yards on the boat, he slipped his sword back into its scabbard, unshouldered his bow, and slipped down the grassy bank to the water’s edge and began to wade out into the river. This had to be done quickly and effectively, or he knew he’d never get to Danielle fast enough to save her life. He pushed all emotion aside and reached over his shoulder and drew four arrows from his quiver. Securing three between his teeth he notched the first and drew back the bow.
The boat was moving steadily through the fog towards him but was still well out of accurate range.
Suddenly a crow squawked loudly from somewhere nearby and heavy wings flapped just over James’ head only to fade into the distance. The cry came again, and again, growing louder as the bird circled back. The men in the boat turned to look. James felt his throat go dry and slowly eased down so the water rose over his shoulders. He had to get closer and quickly. He glanced over his shoulder as the bird flew past again, closer than before. Its sudden cry jarred every nerve in James’ body and he muttered a curse, only to freeze in horror. The fog bank had opened up a little and no more than three hundred yards away at the end of a small tree-lined bluff was the dark outline of the ruin of an old stone watchtower. He had not noticed it as they had passed this way, but now with a bonfire burning on its roof it was a veritable beacon, throwing a shower of sparks into the darkness. In that instant what sounded like a thousand crows took to the air, their ruckus cries cutting the quiet with chilling intent and their shadows almost blocking out the fire. James knew he’d been spotted and only had a moment to act so throwing off all caution he bolted forward to close the distance between him and the boat. The oarsmen in the small vessel had stopped rowing and as soon as the hooded figure with the lantern pointed in James’ direction and shouted a warning, James drew up in the frigid, chest deep water, brought up the bow, drew, sighted and loosed the first arrow. The figure at the tiller slumped over without a sound. The oarsmen were next. The first cried out and lost his oar, as an arrow sprouted in his chest. The second oarsman was trying desperately to turn the boat toward deeper water and the protection of the fog. The arrow took him in the throat and his oars slipped into the water as he slumped back off his bench. The fourth arrow would have been true as well except the druid at the bow of the boat, dropped the lantern on the floor of the dinghy and vanished in a flash of dark green light and winged up into the safety of the fog, its cries alerting the rapidly approaching flock.
Just before the lead birds fell on his position, James took a few deep breaths and dived beneath the cold water. He stroked hard under the surface to intercept the approaching boat. He saw its outline and flames reflecting on the water above him and surfaced, grabbing the bow of the small dinghy and careful to stay low in the water.
To his surprise a horn was sounding and the crows were winging away, returning toward the tower—or so it seemed.
“James, is that you?” Danielle said.
James grinned. Gods to hear that voice. “Are you all right?” Holding the bow he began to guide the boat towards the tree-lined spit opposite the tower.
“My arms and legs are bound, I have an itch on my nose and this broken lantern is setting the boat afire and likely making us a target for that tower,” she complained.
Not sure what the Druids were up to or how much time they had, James dropped his sword into the boat, and pulled himself up and hung over the side so he could cut Danielle loose. The fire in the boat was dying out, but it gave enough light to do the work.
“Why did they fly off do you think?” Danielle asked.
“I don’t know. Not that I think they’re going to let you go that easily. Not after all the trouble they’ve gone to. Eden is on his way.”
“It’s Fren and her kind. I know it. How did they know we’d be here?”
“I was hoping you could answer that?”
“If only I could.”
James could tell she felt responsible for what had happened aboard the Arkaelyus. “Don’t worry about it. Lets just get you out of here
. Eden is coming. Once we get into the woods, the darkness and fog will protect us until he arrives with reinforcements.”
Bowstrings sang from the top of the ancient watchtower on the other side of the river. James jerked his head round to see and immediately swore as a dozen beads of light arched into the sky like a swarm of fireflies and begin their descent in their direction. He quickly threw himself over Dee, protecting her as best he could and redoubled his efforts to free her. In a few moments the arrows began to rain down around them, hissing through the fog before slicing into the water. Two thumped into the boat, one on the centre seat and the other a few inches from Danielle’s side. She screamed in fright, and wriggled away from the flames, urging him to cut faster. He was cutting as quickly as he could. The heavy blade made for an awkward tool in the tight space. To make matters worse, they were drifting closer to the tower. That’s when he spotted a boat being pushed out into the river from the base of the tower. In the same moment the next barrage of arrows sung into the air from the top of the tower, heading their way.
James worked frantically to free Danielle as arrows hissed into the water twenty or so yards in front of them. A wall of flame instantly flared up on the surface of the oily water, blocking the way down stream.
“Shit!” They were drifting directly toward it.
James worked frantically. They had to get out of the boat and get ashore. He freed Dee’s legs and began to work on her wrists. More arrows hissed into the water in front of them and more flames flared up. Several missed their mark and Danielle screamed again as one of them lodged into the floor beside her head, the flames threatening her hair.
The rope around her wrists came free. James helped her up but before he could get her into the water an explosion of searing pain surged through his shoulder. The force knocked the wind out of him, and despite his best effort, he dropped the sword and slipped back into the water and went under. He kicked back to the surface and reached for the side of the boat, but the pain had him struggling to stay conscious.
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