by Dave Skinner
My Father’s Swords
My Father’s Swords
By Dave Skinner
Warriors, Heroes, and Demons
Book 1
Copyright © Dave Skinner, 2016
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Published by Dave Skinner 0-9918966
Haliburton, ON. K0M 1S0
Edited by Ann Westlake
www.wcediting.com
Map by Xanworx Studio
http://xanworx.com/
https://www.facebook.com/xanworx/
Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-9918966-3-9 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-0-9918966-4-6 (paperback)
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks to a number of people for their assistance with this book. Most of all, a special thank you to my wife, Laurie, for her edits, her encouragement, and for listening to the drafts on many long drives.
Special thanks also go to Shirley Barker, for reading the final draft, and finding those things the rest of us missed.
Although I spent a few months as crew on a yacht many years ago, I needed help with nautical terminology. My thanks go to Kathy Penfold and Barbara O’Reilly for their help in that area.
Despite herculean efforts by numerous people there may be a few errors in this book that were impossible to find before publication. I apologize for them, but acknowledge that they are all mine.
Chapter 1
Atop the mast the royal pendent of Nadia fluttered and went limp. A single cloud sent a spatter of rain across the knot of ships, as if the Mother cried for those below. The sound of fighting fell away as the last of the ship’s crew died under the swords of the pirates. Now only two remained.
Argon rested against the cabin wall, conserving his strength for the fight to come while guarding the cabin door that led to the ship’s deck. There was blood on the left side of his shirt. There was blood dripping from the swords in his hands. There was blood seeping across the cabin floor from the bodies jammed in the doorway. He wanted to embrace Bray and reassure him that they would be okay, but Crown Prince Argon of Nadia never lied to his son.
“What are they waiting for, Father?” Bray asked.
“I believe they are getting set to attack through both doors.”
“Can we stop a double attack?”
“We must try. I will cover this door, and you should be to the left of the balcony doors. As soon as they break through, you must attack from the side. Do not try to stand against them, just dart across in front stabbing as you go. Surprise is your ally. Then repeat the move from the other side when the second wave comes through, or slip behind them if possible. I will break off from the defense of this door as soon as I can. Together we will rush the balcony doors. Maybe we can break through and get into the water. Once under the ships we have a chance and may be able to make our way to shore.”
Argon paused and looked away from his son, as if listening for movement outside the doorway he guarded. In reality he was thinking that the next attack would most likely include the use of crossbows. Fighting against crossbows with swords, no matter how good your swords were, was doomed to fail. He must consider his final words to Bray.
“We will fight to the end, Bray. That is what we Nadians do. If you survive but I am killed, you must promise me something. You understand that our swords … Nadian swords … are special. They must be returned to the family. You must make that your goal if you survive. At some time you must retrieve my swords, or at the least inform the family about who has them. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Good, then rest for now. They will not keep us waiting for long.”
Prince Argon looked to where Bray was seated on the floor of the cabin. Bray’s eyes were closed, his brow furrowed slightly and almost hidden by the sun-bleached brown hair that had come loose from the leather thong that had held it back from his face. His two small swords, really only long knives, lay across his legs, held in his tightly closed hands. Argon wished he could have more time with his son, time to see him reach manhood, time to teach him how to be a prince, and most of all, time to tell him how much he was loved.
Chapter 2
In the captain’s cabin of the Blood Rose, Yucan Vee listened without comment to Singh’s raging. Being berated by the pirate warlord was not a new occurrence for him.
“Yeh be a snivelling, useless, pigtail sucker,” Singh spat. “Thirty ships against one an you still manage to stretch the attack out for three hours. What yeh here for now, more men, or want me to come an finish off the Prince myself?”
Yucan Vee did not react to Singh’s comments. He knew that Singh hated him, almost as much as he hated Singh. He did step back from the spittle Singh spewed while he raged. The old fool’s time had come. There was only one step left to settle Singh’s fate.
“We’ll finish the prince an his brat shortly. They managed to take refuge in the captain’s cabin, an are like badgers in a tree trunk, but we’ll have em soon. I simply came to give ye an update while we ready our next attack. But there is one thing that would bring bout success in a timely manner.”
“A timely manner,” Singh spat. “That ship has sunk, Vee. This business should’ve been over hours ago. Just get in there an slay the man. Yeh be always braggin bout how right good you be with your swords. Let’s see some proof.”
“I plan to kill the prince myself during the next attack, but I needs a distraction.”
“What kind’a distraction? You need fifty more men to disarm and hold im while yeh stab im in the back?”
“No, I only needs one man. Cracker.”
Singh looked at the man standing behind him, his personal protector and henchman. Cracker was a giant, or close to it. He was easily the largest man Vee had ever seen, hugely muscled, and probably the ugliest person he had come across. Men joked that Cracker’s mother had been a giant ground sloth and his father a cave bear, although no one said this close enough for Cracker to hear. That mistake had proved fatal enough times to make even the most fool hardy cautious.
“Yeh wants Cracker to kill im because the great Vee is too scared to face a Nadian swordsman?”
Yucan Vee thought that he would be happy to have Cracker fight the prince, but he would not admit it. He was sure the Nadian would carve the big man up like a giant carp. He wanted to put Cracker in harm’s way. If he was killed it would make Singh’s assassination that much easier. In fact the only reason Vee had not tried to kill Singh before now was because of Cracker’s presence, and his belief that Cracker would seek revenge on Singh’s killer.
“I needs someon to draw the Prince’s full attention, get im to move in the direction I want. Cracker’s the only person large enough to do it. I’d need to get ten men into the cabin to equal im as a threat. If ye wants these two dead, as ye say, then this is the fastest way.”
Vee watched as Singh realized he had been out maneuvered. The old pirate was not happy about it. Vee knew Singh had placed him in charge of the attack hoping that he would be stupid enough or unlucky enough to cross swords with Prince Argon and get killed. But that had not happened, and now Singh was stuck. This attack had taken too long. Another ship could appear at any moment. If the Nadians found out what had happened to their princes they would hun
t the pirates down no matter what or how long it took. The king of Nadia was a ruthless ruler, Singh needed this to end, now, and he needed the prince’s swords brought to him. Vee’s spy within Singh’s inner circle had told him that the swords were part of what had been promised to Singh by Artan, Argon’s younger brother. Vee had been chipping away at Singh’s authority for years now, but possessing Nadian swords would ensure Singh’s position as the unchallengeable leader again.
“Okay,” Singh agreed. “Cracker will join the attack. Now stop wasting time. Finish this, and remember I need proof that both of them is killed dead, absolute proof, no foul ups. It be the lash for anyone who messes this up.”
Yucan Vee turned away from Singh and carried his smile out of the cabin. He heard Singh command Cracker to make sure both Argon and his son were dead, and bring the Prince’s swords to him.
Cracker’s smile was spread across his face when he joined Vee on deck making him look even uglier somehow. He nodded his bald head and followed Vee to the captured ship.
Chapter 3
“Up Bray, take your position.”
Bray scrambled to his feet, and flattened himself against the wall, with the balcony doors to his left. Nothing had alerted him to a change, but perhaps he had been lost in his own thoughts. He had been picturing the movements he would have to make when the men came through the door, as he had been taught to do. The sudden dash from his hidden position, sword held thus or swords … should he carry both of his swords or just one … no, both swords for sure … left hand slashing … right hand protecting. Now he checked to make sure the leather thongs that would keep his swords from falling away—if dropped—were secure around his wrists. Something he had checked a number of times already.
Suddenly everything was still, as if the Mother was holding her breath, and Bray knew it was about to start. He glanced towards his father to issue a warning, but his father must have sensed it too. He was ready.
The balcony doors burst inward. Two men smashed through feet first, and sprawled on the floor. The ropes they had swung in on snaked back out the doors. In his planning the men were supposed to be standing, he was going to dash across and slash their stomachs, but they ended up on their backs. As he was thinking these thoughts he was already moving forward. Bray was proud of his actions; do not lock yourself into your own plan because it will not always go your way, his teachers had said. With a slight change to the plan, his sword slashed down across the exposed necks instead of up across the stomachs. Bray jammed himself up against the wall on the other side of the doors. He glanced at his father. The prince was still managing to hold the attackers outside the main door. He glanced towards Bray.
For a second Bray saw the light of hope in his father’s eyes, but then they changed. The eyebrows went up, the eyes opened wide, as something blocked out the light from the balcony. Bray swung back to the door. As proud as he had been of his actions in the first moments of the fight, now he found he could not move at all, locked into place by a monster standing in the doorway. The biggest, most grotesque man he had ever seen.
He heard his father issue a war cry, as he started across the cabin towards the monster-man. Bray also sprang towards the giant, his inability to move shattered by his father’s cry. In another second he would be slashing the monster’s legs from behind. Instead, in that moment his life shattered.
As if in slow motion Bray watched his father start across the floor at the same time a man carrying a crossbow squeezed in through the main cabin door, now at his father’s back. Simultaneously, Bray saw the back of a massive open hand, attached to a massive arm, swinging towards him as he tried to duck behind the man’s legs. The monster’s backhanded swipe caught Bray on the side, stopping time, lifted him off his feet, driving him across the balcony, over the railing, and into the water. His last sight was not of his father, who was flung off his feet by a crossbow bolt tearing into his back. It was the sneering face of his father’s killer, the man with the crossbow.
Chapter 4
Yucan Vee dropped the crossbow and drew his sword. The prince was trying to push himself up off the floor when Vee’s sword slashed across the back of his neck. Prince Argon died spread eagle on the cabin floor without another sound.
Quickly Vee sheathed his own sword and pried the Nadian blades from the dead man’s hands.
“I take those swords to Singh,” Cracker announced.
“Singh also said to make sure they were both dead.”
Cracker looked back towards the balcony doors, for the boy’s body, but it was nowhere. “I hit him,” he said, as a worried look crept over his face. “Where’d he go?”
“Ye knocked him out the balcony doors. I think I heard im hit the water. Best make sure he be dead.”
Cracker ducked his bulk out through the doors. From the balcony he could see a triangle of open water delineated by the stern of this craft, and the sides of the two pirate ships from which the attack across the balcony had been launched. The boy’s body was not there. “Where’s the kid’s body?” he called to the men crowded around the railings of the other two ships.
“Hit the water and sank,” someone called.
“He dead?” Vee asked. He had followed Cracker out onto the balcony.
“Probably is now, unless he’s a fish,” someone called. This was followed by a burst of laughter from the assembled men. Cracker turned back to Vee. “Yah, he probably drowned,” he said, a smile creeping across his face.
“Ye sure? I think that’s the question Singh will ask.”
Cracker’s smile slipped away. “No, not sure,” he admitted in a low voice.
“Well, I would make sure if I were ye. Wouldn’t want to tell Singh that the body just disappeared, and ye didn’t try to find it.”
Vee watched Cracker digest the statement. Although he was an awesome fighter, it was not in Cracker’s nature to be subtle. If he had any thoughts at all, they were easily read on his pock marked face. Vee could see Cracker struggling to grasp a solution until a look of despair settled on his face. It was like watching a pot almost ready to boil, always on the verge, but never quite getting there. Finally, an idea bubbled to the surface.
“You should make sure the kid is dead. You was in charge of the attack.”
“I would, but Singh told me to get back to im as soon as the fight was over. Ye stay here while I tell Singh what has happened. I’ll tell him that you accidently knocked the kid into the water, and now you be making sure he’s dead as he instructed. I’ll tell im that ye have men in the water here searching under these ships, and ye set men with crossbows on the outer ships with orders to shoot anything they see in the water. Singh will be mad that ye didn’t just kill the kid, but he will take his anger out on me instead’a you. There be anything else ye wants me to tell him?”
Cracker looked relieved when he managed to digest what Vee had said. He turned back to the men on the ships and started bellowing instructions. Vee made his way back to the deck, and across to Singh’s ship.
***
Singh’s cabin aboard the Blood Rose was crowded with all the other captains squeezed into it, but that was the way he arranged it. He wanted all of them there to witness him belittle Yucan Vee. He would put Vee down and then, with the Nadian swords in his possession, no one would challenge his authority again. He knew Vee had the support of some of the captains, so he kept close those men whom he knew were faithful.
Singh watched as Vee came down the stairs into the cabin. He expected Cracker to be right behind him, but the giant was not. Singh felt some apprehension evidenced by a foul smell that rose around him. Pushing the feeling aside he concentrated on Vee and the two swords he was holding. He had seen fancier swords in more splendid scabbards. There were no jewels decorating the scabbards, or the handles as far as he could tell. The cross guard was plain also, but they had something about them that made Singh’s heart race. Nadian swords had a look.
“Bout time yeh finished, Vee
. This attack should’ve been over way before this. I see yeh got my swords. Did yeh manage to kill both of the Nadians or yeh back for more men?”
“The Nadian prince is dead, but we be not sure bout the boy. His body is missing.”
“Missing! How can his body be missing?”
“Cracker knocked him into the water and his body vanished. He has men searching now.”
“The level of stupidity you’ve shown in this business, Vee, makes my head hurt. Almost half the chase wasted, scores of men dead, and now one Nadian missing. I’m sorry I ever gave yeh command of this little action. I won’t be making that mistake again. Now hand over my swords, and yeh be givin Cracker a hand to find the boy’s body.”
Singh expected Vee’s face to show anger, but instead a smile spread across it.
“I believe I’ll keep the swords as my part of the spoils. After all, I killed the prince while you be hiding in your cabin.”
Singh’s hatred of Vee flared. He had taken everything he was going to from him. For years Vee had plucked at the threads of his authority without success. Singh’s captains were still loyal to him. It was time to kill this upstart. His hand slipped easily onto the handle of his sword where it stood beside his chair. He hoisted his bulk up. “Kill him,” he roared.
Grunts, groans, and curses filled the cabin. Singh expected a surge forward as his loyal captains rushed Vee’s supporters, but instead his men were slaughtered. Five were struck down by men he thought he could trust. They were knifed in the back, or they were garrotted. The slaughter didn’t last long, just long enough for Singh to realize he had been set up. Bellowing his rage he swung his broadsword over his head and charged Vee who brought the two Nadian swords up to stop Singh’s blade from crashing into his head, but Singh wasn’t worried. He too was a giant of a man with enormous strength. His huge broadsword had crashed through many opponents’ defenses before. His blade swooped down on the Nadian swords and broke. One of the Nadian swords flicked out and seemed to caress his throat. He tried to bellow again, but it came out as the sound of blood bubbling from a slit throat, his throat, the sound of his own death.