Statues to Hantestum had been deliberately damaged, and several had no heads. One was even missing a groin, an indictment to the hatred of the man.
The clearing before the castle was looming and Coinin took this moment to halt his horse and stood up in the saddle. He looked around at all the exhausted, blood splattered faces of those expecting so much of him and his heart felt as if it would break. He knew that he needed to inspire these troops to take one final push towards the enemy, defeat those forces remaining and then storm the castle. He sensed loyalty from the elven warriors, despite their king’s absence, and knew that an elf’s word was a bond. All present had knowingly agreed to battle to oust the usurper, Lordich, a most disloyal and corrupting influence who could unsettle the balance of power. Coinin knew that they would not fight to save the planet from destruction since his gods meant nothing to them. Thankfully, the elven-king had persuaded his council of advisors that Lordich was the threat.
‘Friends,’ he yelled. ‘I am but one man who seeks to put an end to the tyranny of the dark wizard, Lordich Secracar. I thank you this day for standing with The Order of The Wulf as we take the fight to the very man who seeks to destroy us all, our way of life, and everything we hold dear. And I say, no, evil shall not prevail, for I have an army willing to do battle to the very last man, elf, orc or giant.’ Coinin paused briefly and quickly assessed the mood. The crowd were listening intently, but he needed to motivate these people further, get them into a frenzied state, willing to go to all lengths to fulfil their leader’s wishes. ‘Your very families are in danger from this man. Did our spies not report that this coward held simple city folk hostage only to murder them where they stood? They were expendable to him. Is that the actions of a man who should lead the five nations of Rosthagaar? I again cry, no. The dark deeds of this man are known far and wide. Did not the then Brotherhood of The Wulf execute this man for treachery and the killing of thousands? He is an abomination, scarred from the fires of the pit. This evildoer made a pact with Death himself. His soul in exchange for life. This cannot be allowed to continue. I ask only one thing of you today. Fight and fight well in the knowledge that you stopped a most dark evil from gaining more power than any one individual should have. Brothers and Sisters, will you follow me into the pits of hell and come out fighting to secure a glorious victory?’
The crowd gave an underwhelming cry of support and Coinin thought quickly. He needed them chomping at the bit. They had, though, already put so much into the campaign and he could see their exhaustion.
‘I know that you are tired, that your only wish is to go home and see your loved ones. But I say this, if we quit now, the reach of this dark wizard will see no boundaries. He will forge an army so vast, that we will not be able to stop his advance. He desires to conquer your very lands, take what is yours and keep it for himself. He will stop at nothing. Our very families are in danger. Imagine for a moment, if you will, your wife, husband, daughter, son, brother, sister, father, mother paraded before you while Lordich demands your loyalty, your gold, your land, even your king. Failure would lead to their deaths. He has already destroyed The Order’s most sacred temple, sacked this city and killed its king.’
The crowd became rowdy, yelling abuses and curses at the name Lordich and it was then that Coinin knew he had them hooked.
‘March with me, brothers. Let us storm that castle and hang the evil high. Who is with me?’
A great cry rang out, with cheers and shouts of “death to the enemy”.
‘I said, who is with me?’ Coinin punched the air.
Again, the gathered roared in delight and bashed swords against shields or breastplates. Spears and boots were stamped upon the cobbled street, and the noise was invigorating. The troops were spurring themselves on.
‘Then, let us march to victory!’ Coinin roared, and punched his arm forward in the direction of the castle.
❖
Jericho came to an abrupt halt and hopped from his horse. He had stopped beside a three-storey building, a rickety affair thanks to the damage it had endured at the hands of cannon fire and an attempt to burn it to the ground. The building’s ground floor was of red brick, while the upper floors were of timber construction, and Jericho had the impression that this had been added later.
Yet, it was the tallest building around and closest to the airships. Without a breath, he raced to the main entrance and kicked the door open and ran inside, seeking a stairwell. The building was an inn and hostelry, the signage above the bar indicating so, though the furniture and bar also gave it away.
He took a circuitous route through the darkened bar on the ground floor. He failed miserably as he tried to not inhale the smell of stale ale and ignored the stickiness of the floor.
He wrinkled his nose, and mere moments later he almost forgot the smell when he found the stairwell. Taking a deep breath through his mouth, he jogged up the steps, three flights in total, passing rooms that had apparently been looted, until he reached the top landing, where above him a hatch led out onto the roof. He jumped for a thin rope used to pull the hatch open. Gravity did the rest, and the hatch dropped open. Only now, he needed to get up there. He looked along the darkened landing and was happy to see a small amount of light coming from a hole in the roof further along. There was a significant amount of damage to the building at the far end of the corridor, and he hoped that it would hold together just for a little while longer. He also saw that a dresser of some kind was positioned against the wall roughly halfway along the corridor, beyond the landing. The floor was bare with floorboards that were warped with age and creaked terribly as he picked his way along it carefully. He did not know to what extent the damage to the building ran.
Several unlit oil lamps were hanging from the wall, but with no way to light them Jericho moved on. He kept as close to the wall as possible, and twice he thought he was going to plummet three storeys as the floorboards moved quite some way. He would try to avoid that section on the way back if he could.
At last, he reached the dresser and quickly examined it. He thumped it with the edge of his fist and felt satisfied that it would hold his weight. Now all he needed to do was drag it along the damaged corridor, avoiding any loose floorboards and crumbling walls.
With his back to his destination, he gripped the dresser and heaved. With a scrape of wood on wood, it shifted. Again and again he pulled and tugged until finally the dark wood piece of furniture was under the hatchway.
He felt the building sway unsettlingly, and Jericho knew that time was rapidly running out, and the building was in imminent danger of collapse.
Clambering aboard the dresser, he hauled himself into the hatch and after a struggle getting his cuirass through the opening, he was on the roof of the building.
A small wall ran around the perimeter, and he noted that the roof was watertight, fashioned like the sides of a ship with pitch and wadding sealing the gaps in the wooden boards.
Above him, his prize awaited. A pirate ship hung in the air roughly one-hundred feet above the rooftop.
As quickly as he could, the general removed his boots and clasped them to his chest before closing his eyes and concentrating on his destination. With his feet touching a solid surface, he called upon the elemental forces.
A stiff wind whirled around him, his cloak and hair wafting wildly. A gentle hum surrounded him, an ethereal note, unlike anything produced by the country’s finest musicians. Quite suddenly, he vanished with a blast of air.
Aboard the pirate ship, the Captian, Wayland Ravenback, leant over the bulwarks of the bridge and eyed the enemy below.
The Order, as far as he could tell, was close to defeating the enemy at the gates of the castle. The sounds of battle were fierce and he did not envy the struggle ongoing below. He flicked his gaze right and saw a new party entering the foray - a young rider followed by a multitude of soldiers, both elven and human. Thirty minutes before there had been a bottleneck at the entrance to the clearing, which had cleared as more soldiers vent
ured into the battleground. The only issue was the dragons. For now, they had taken a respite, resting atop the castle towers.
Any moment now, urged by their riders, the dragons could glide down with renewed energy and attack those engaged in battle below. He had witnessed an airship crash land after encountering the beasts and made the decision then to make an escape before his own was burning in a pile inside someone’s home.
He felt a gust of wind behind him, unusually strong, and he almost lost balance. ‘Wha’ the bloody ‘ell?’ Ravenback exclaimed.
He turned and saw an Order soldier standing on his bridge, grasping a pair of boots and looking dazed.
‘How’d ya get ‘ere?’ Ravenback demanded, and walked up to the man. He towered over the soldier, his greying hair windswept. He grasped a cutlass he had slipped into his belt. ‘Hey!’
Jericho swayed a little, and it took several moments before he began to refocus. He blinked his eyes a few times and snapped out of his stupor. He spotted the captain. ‘Ah, Captain, do forgive this intrusion. I am General Dareth Jericho, Order of The Wulf.’
‘I s’pose I best welcome ya aboard then. What’dya want?’ Ravenback released his grip and studied the general before him, envying the armour he wore. A pretty sum of gold that’d fetch, he thought.
Jericho saw that Ravenback was eyeing up his costume and inwardly smiled. Ever the pirate. ‘The same thing you want. To win this fight. But first, we need to get rid of those dragons.’
‘An’ how ya s’pose we do that then?’ Ravenback raised his brows in expectation.
Jericho lifted a finger and wiggled it playfully. ‘As it happens I have some expertise in this matter.’ He smiled. ‘Just give me a moment to put on my boots.’
Ravenback nodded. ‘How did ya appear on my ship?’
Jericho sat down on the dry deck and pulled his boots on one at a time. He then scrambled to his feet. ‘Magic.’
Ravenback looked incredulous. ‘I’ve ‘eard of this magic of yours, and I don’t like it much.’
‘I do apologise.’ Jericho shrugged his shoulders. ‘But seeing as it was the only way, there’s not a lot I could have done.’
Ravenback grunted. ‘Your trick to rid me of them dragons best be good or we is a leavin’.’
Jericho nodded that he understood. ‘Understandable. Do you happen to have in your hold a mainsail?’
The captain frowned and cocked his head. ‘Now what ya be wantin’ with one of them for?’
Jericho sighed. The captain was making this much harder than it had to be. ‘Do you possess a sail, yes, or no?’
‘As it happens, we do. I was preparin’ to try a spot of sea piracy with it. Bit fed up of flyin’ about, not much pickins up ‘ere lately.’
Jericho cupped his hands together and circled the captain, his voice fast and enthusiastic. ‘In order to rid ourselves of these dragons, we need to trap them. The only difficulty is getting close enough.’
‘Is you mad? Trappin’ dragons? I never ‘eard of the like.’
Jericho ignored the man and continued with his thoughts, a solid plan, he hoped. ‘We need to drive the dragon towards us. The only way is to fire the forward cannons at the dragon. Believe me, it won’t like that and neither will its rider. They will mount an attack.’
The captain swore. ‘By all that’s damned it will.’
‘But that’s the genius of the plan. We need to encourage the dragon to move in close. When we do, we will fire your sail at it. The dragon will be taken by surprise.’
‘You is mad. The dragon will burn its way out,’ the captain rightly pointed out.
‘Aha, maybe if the dragon is permitted to fly under its own influence. But these dragons are tied to their rider by mind magic,’ Jericho said, trying to simplify it for the captain. ‘At the moment the trap is fired, I will transport from this ship and onto the back of the dragon, where I will kill the rider, momentarily causing the dragon to black out before it becomes self-aware. Are you following?’
‘More magic, huh?’
‘Exactly. I will have less than thirty seconds to make my escape. Yes, the dragon may well plummet to the ground. But a dragon released from its bondage will head home out of some instinct that drives it and will leave us be.’
‘Are ya certain? This be an awful big ask.’ Ravenback took a deep breath. ‘Is ya ‘onest to true certain it can be done?’
Jericho smiled confidently. ‘It can be done, exactly as I have described.’
‘What’s to be done with the other dragon?’
Jericho frowned for a second, his thoughts reeling. ‘I guess that’s where you come in. I would need you to convince the other ship to also create the trap.’
Revenback looked at Jericho as if the man was mad. ‘Me, convince the other cap’n to follow this crazy plan?’
Jericho looked at Ravenclaw steadily in the eye. ‘It will work. Trust me.’
‘I’d rather turn me ship around and vanish.’
‘Then, our deal would be forfeit, and no gold or pardon for your crimes would be forthcoming,’ Jericho said simply.
‘Are you threatenin’ me?’
‘No, I’m stating the facts. When The Order of The Wulf has regained its strength, we will hunt you down and try you for your crimes. Follow my plan, and you have an opportunity to amass a vast wealth, and you can retire with a pardon and find yourself a wife.’
Ravenback scowled deeply and kicked a bucket of water standing nearby, ignoring a deck hand’s protest as dirty water sloshed over his boots. ‘Then, so be it. I’ll do as you ask. But no more.’
THE FINAL BATTLE
Coinin and Aniol clambered from their rides and joined the throng at the entrance to the clearing leading up to the castle. The dead and dying lay en-masse, to Coinin’s heartache. All this bloodshed because one man wanted something he should not have.
Now that he and Aniol were on the ground, soldiers all around patted them on the shoulders and wished them well. Others cried, “The prophecy is come. The day of reckoning has arrived.” To this, great cheers resounded, and the excitement seemed to spill onto the battlefield, and those amid battle appeared to regain a renewed vigour.
Coinin watched briefly as several hundred men and women, orcs and elves fought an equal amount of Lordich’s forces in hand to hand combat. He could tell that the enemy was falling fast due to the sheer speed and excellent weapon skills of the elves. For every one killed by an Order soldier, the elves killed a dozen.
The smell of iron from the spilt blood permeated the air, and the sheer number of flies covering the bodies was sickening. Crows began to pick at the remains, which reminded Coinin of his first battle in the temple grounds, though here, the crows were unlikely to die from eating the sinful flesh.
Coinin turned away briefly. ‘Where is General Jonjo?’
A few seconds later, the general pushed his way through the crowd with some difficulty. He was propped upon two branches crudely crafted into crutches. He limped forward and attempted to salute but nearly fell.
Coinin held up a hand. ‘No need to hail. What happened?’
Jonjo nodded towards the battlefield still raging loudly behind them. ‘Just doing my duty. It’s nothing a few days rest won’t sort. What can I do, Sir?’
‘Once our forces have triumphed here before the castle, I will call for Lordich to face me in person. I need you to protect me and keep the heads of his archers down.’
Jonjo nodded. ‘I will send archers to the rooftops. Is there more?’
‘No.’
Aniol stepped between them. ‘As your protector, I –’
‘Cannot let you go out there alone. Yes, Aniol, I know, I will not be alone. You will be by my side, watching my rear.’
Aniol seemed satisfied and stepped back. Her breathing quickened a pace. She was soon to be tasked with the protection of the curator in a scenario she had never trained for. Coinin was willing to march up to the castle and demand Lordich face him. Should the warlock decide to s
end assassins, it was her duty to protect Coinin. That was a very scary prospect for her. She had once before let him down in the alleyways of this very city. I must not fail, she thought with gritty determination. I will do my duty till my dying breath.
Jonjo sensed her trouble. ‘Don’t worry, Grand Protector; we will all see that no harm comes to the curator.’
Aniol nodded gratefully. ‘Thank you, General.’
‘One more thing, General. You will need to pull back the troops, for I fear Lordich will not venture from the castle walls unless he sees that I am alone.’
Jonjo looked uncertain but then capitulated. ‘It shall be done, Curator.’
❖
Aboard the pirate ship, Captain Ravenback returned from his parley with Captain Dillweed. He shook his head. It wasn’t good news. ‘Dillweed said no. They is leavin’. Their ship is badly damaged.’
No sooner had Ravenback returned, Dillweed instructed her crew to set sail.
Jericho watched with loathing as the airship stoked the boiler and departed quickly. That’s one pirate that will sincerely regret her decision, he thought. ‘We must deal with this ourselves.’
‘I ain’t ‘elping ya kill two dragons. I only ‘ave one sail,’ Ravenback objected.
‘Then, we will make do. Tell your men to make the modifications. We are losing valuable seconds.’
Ravenback scowled. ‘Don’t tell me what t’do on ma own ship.’
Jericho looked at the captain contemptuously and stared hard until the man broke and sighed, before heading away muttering to himself.
Jericho’s task was nearing. He knew that he had a chance to take down one of the dragons, but both was a tall order. Though ever positive, he would try and give the curator the best chance possible of success. Still barefoot, he placed his prized boots beside the ship’s wheel. ‘Helmsman, take care of my boots.’
‘Aye, I reckon I can, for some gold.’ The helmsman rubbed his fingers together as a sign of his requirement.
The Aduramis Chronicles: Volumes 1-3: The Definitive Collection Page 133