“For me? Fly.” Cro laughed. “But you have the only option, and that’s fetching one of those scary looking flying horse from the stable unless you want to jump or climb that high cliff.”
“Let’s have a look at the cliff first,” Aylan put a heavy stone on the trap door and crawled to the fountain and peeked out to see if anyone was watching them. Assuring the yard was clear he crawled to the edge of the garden and looked down. He could see the vertical stone wall went all the way down to the shore that was covered with stone as well. It doesn’t matter how strong could he be if he falls on that shore, he’ll torn into million pieces. “Just a second thought, I should probably try to fetch one them flying horses. Show me the way, the guide of the secret garden,” he said, dramatically.
“This way please, sire,” Cro replied in an even dramatic voice. He flew to the stable gate, to check if there was anyone, though he knew by now that it was still too early for the Dainees to get up from their bed. “Clear,” he said to Aylan.
Aylan ran to the stable, keeping his head low, quickly opened the door, tried to enter as slow as possible to make sure the flying horses don’t get scared. He then slowly closed the door and turned to the animals, and missed a heartbeat.
There was a beautiful young woman, wearing a dark gray gown and a same colored, rather funny looking tall hat, looking at him with her big surprising eyes. They both kept looking at each other, speechless.
“Cr-u-ck,” Cro tried to get their attention. He knew that they didn’t have enough time to waste.
The Dainee looked at Cro. “You know him?”
Cro stayed silent. Pretending to be an ordinary crow.
“Yes, it’s my crow,” Aylan said. “My name is Aylan, by the way.” He was looking around the room to find something that would come handy if she attacks him.
“Aylan Bytheway? Cute name, but if you came here to steal the Uronto then prepare for your death, Aylan Bytheway.”
“Okay, first of all, my surname isn’t Bytheway. And secondly, you’re not strong enough to kill me, whatever is your name.” Aylan saw a fork leaning on the wall, but he had to cross the Dainee to get to it.
“Who said I’m going to kill you?” The Dainee chuckled, and Aylan missed another heartbeat. Last time he heard this kind of laughter, was at the slave trader Khatash Shiyalsor’s place, which had a tragic end. “If you try to touch any of these Uronto, they’d just rip you off with their teeth. And my name is Ava. Happy to see you a silly thief. How did you even get here?”
“That’s a long story,” Aylan moved to his right, keeping his eyes on the Dainee. Expecting her to either attack him or scream for help. “I need one these Urontos, to escape from here. The Kingsmen are after me.”
“Kingsmen?” Ava moved to her right to let Aylan get to the fork. She already knew his plan by judging his movement. “What have you done?”
Aylan stopped in his place as Ava moved. Her movement proved that she had no plan to attack him. “I’m a Dainee hunter, and the king wants me dead.” He said, keeping his eyes on hers. He expected her to be scared or angry, but instead, Ava smiled.
“In that case, I’m more than happy to help you,” Ava slowly poked her hat with a finger to reveal her face better. She looked determined.
For the first time, Aylan tried to read her mind and surprised. This Dainee wanted to take revenge to the Queen Mother, who’s, in fact, the head Dainee. And she was ready to go against her own race. “Revenge?” he said. “I don’t actually care about that. But if you think my escape would help you, then we better rush.”
Ava nodded. “There’s only one problem. The male Urontos can fly for longer, but they wouldn’t let you ride on their back as you’re not a Dain. And the females aren’t the best choice if you’re thinking to run away from Ashaland.”
“Can they be able to fly till the gate-tower?” Aylan asked.
Ava thought for a moment. “I think it’d be alright. But I will let you get one of them if you take me with you.”
“Huh!” Aylan was about to walk, stopped and looked at Ava. Before she explained, he read her mind. This Dainee was different than the others and always wanted to leave, but didn’t even try to escape as she was afraid of the Queen Mother, Chaya. And now, for an unknown reason, she was trusting him for her safety. “Okay, let’s go. We’ll talk about the rest, later.”
“Are you reading my mind?” Ava asked as she was running beside Aylan to the end of the stable.
Aylan just shook his head. He had a feeling that the Dainees would be aware of his presence soon and his chance to escape would get narrower. When they approached the end, Ava went into a different room to get the female Uronto for Aylan. While she was there, Aylan quickly picked a small sack from the floor, put the five stones in it and gave it to Cro, “Fly to the Stone Hedge. Tell the Stone King that I need their help. Also, ask King Daleem Kumar, if he’s able to help me, as well. Tell them to meet me by the gate-tower.”
Cro grabbed the sack with his sharp nails and flew. Aylan could feel how excited the raven was.
Within a moment Ava returned with two Urontos. Aylan took the smaller Uronto’s bridle as he guessed the bigger one was the male. After a few moments, they flew over the cliff. Some of the Dainees, including Sior, were awake and came out to walk. They saw the pair fleeing with the Urontos; however, it was too late to stop them.
Chapter Seventeen
Bolin’s workshop set by the dawn, a little right, outside of the gate-tower. He had brought in his tools with him. Also, they have found a lot of hammers, anvils, and chisels in a small room under the tower with a vast stock of coal and charcoal, which were there to facilitate the guards in need of an emergency.
Several men and women were accustomed to blacksmith work as they had to do almost everything by themselves in their confined life. That made Bolin’s work easy. They had set up a big furnace and made swords and spears. They used the carts and horses to bring water from the canal by which the gypsies set up their camp before.
Jeem, Laam, the gypsies, and the elders, who were soldiers in their youth trained the able ones. Those who weren’t fit enough to fight didn’t sit down either. They helped to carry stuff and being watch-guards from the top of the tower.
The training ground was built on the left, outside side of the tower. They have cleared all the bushes and boulders from the ground to make it plain and usable. The training ground turned into camp in the night. The poles and the canvas clothes used to build temporary tents for the evening.
Satisfied with the situation, Laam and the others sat on the roof of the gate-tower to discuss the upcoming war. So far the plan went smoothly as Aylan thought of. He told everyone about their responsibilities but didn’t get a chance to discuss the next moves. Now then he is arrested, and there was no guarantee when would he join them, it was Laam’s time to carry on the preparation until they face their enemies.
Laam already had thought about that. He had realized that Aylan wanted him to be the next king if they win the battle and for that, he pushed him this far. Aylan trusted him and his decisions. Even though he didn’t know what the next part of the plan was, but he remembered Bolin telling him about the delivery that had two crucial things for the king. One of which was dear to Bolin, for his signature blacksmith work.
“Ahem,” Laam coughed to get the attention of his outside court. Once everybody turned to gather around the fire, he said, “I believe you’re eager to know what the next step is.” Everyone nodded. Laam gave a glance to the faces around him and continued, “There’s a delivery coming tomorrow morning. Bolin told me that the delivery is vital to King Khuli and he wouldn’t want to lose it for anything in the Duray. Also, he said how Aylan was eager to capture it.”
“You mean robbery?” Damal frowned. “If it is so important to the king, then he would attack us even quicker then he thought of.”
“That’s true,” Laam replied. “As far I have understood Aylan, capturing the delivery is an important task, probabl
y for our safety. I don’t know what’s in it, but that would bring the king’s force come out from the city quicker and face us in the Mathagor. The more we delay, the more he’d get time to gather more soldiers to crush us.”
It was evident to everyone now. The decision was made that, at least a hundred men would wait by the small mountains, just before the turning. As soon as the caravan arrives the men would surround it, arrest the merchants and bring them into the gate-tower.
The meeting had finished, and everybody was about to go back to their positions, all of a sudden a watch-guard shouted, “Incoming!”
Everyone turned around and saw the guard was pointing at the sky. There was two dark bird like structures flying from the city side, coming straight to the gate-tower. Nobody had any doubt about those creatures were nothing but the Uronto, carrying the Dainees again.
“Soldiers!” Budhil shouted to the newly formed force. “Get the bows ready. Start shooting arrows as soon as they come to your range.”
“There’s no need of that,” Jeem commented from a small wall. He let the invisible object go and jumped down from the wall, smiling. “That’s Aylan, probably being accompanied by a Dainee. They are both smiling, by the way.”
The people saw Jeem’s funny gesture on top the wall, and now he told them something, what even the man with the best vision couldn’t see. They remained in their positions.
Laam looked at his friend and judged his desperate reaction. “Hold your bows,” he shouted. “If Jeem says it’s Aylan, then trust him and wait.”
The councilors and the others didn’t like the idea as almost all of them had a bad experience with the Dainees. They hesitated to see Laam’s firm body language. Damal signaled the soldiers to lower their bows. Soon the two structures got close enough to see them clearly. Aylan and a Dainee.
At last the Uronto riders arrived on the roof. Aylan’s Uronto looked as it had barely made it to the gate-tower and about to pass out. The Dainee jumped off from her Uronto and grabbed the bridle of the shaking animal and rubbed its neck. “Bring some drinking water, quick!” she shouted to the men. Two of the men ran to the stairs. Everyone else stayed away from the Dainee. They were angry at her, but at the same time, her worried face made them feel confused. Only Aylan stood next to her, rubbing the Uronto’s back.
Within a few moments, the two men returned with a bucket full of water and left it in front of the Uronto. Ava pulled the Uronto’s face down to it and let it drink a few gulps of water, then pulled its face up. She repeated for a few times until she was sure about it was okay to drink water by itself.
Aylan smiled at her and turned to the men, who were looking them, eager to know what’s happening. First of all, Jeem jumped ahead and hugged his friend, “Great to see you back, man. We left you alone for a few hours, and you already have paired up.” He joked.
“I haven’t paired up, yet.” Aylan patted his friend’s shoulder, smiling.
Laam stepped ahead and shook his hand. “Yeah, it’s great to see you are okay.” He looked at the Dainee. “Who’s this beautiful lady with you?”
“Oh, yeah.” Aylan gave a glance to Ava and then turned to the others. “Gentlemen, this is Ava, my friend. The only Dainee, whom you can trust.” Then he introduced everyone else with her.
Ava tried to smile at them, but their unwelcome faces made her feel nervous. “I know you all are angry at the Dainees and you have all the right to be mad. But trust me, I have tried my best to stop them since they started from burning your crops down. But I was alone against more than fifty Dainees. Couldn’t do anything. Still, I’m apologizing to you.”
“It’s okay, you don’t need to apologize for what you haven’t done,” Damal said. “In fact, we should be grateful to you, as I guess, Aylan could escape because of you.”
“Yes,” Aylan said. “If she didn’t help me, I wouldn’t be able to make it.” The unwelcome faces had changed quickly. Everyone gave her a friendly look. “By the way,” Aylan continued. “I think she better get changed into regular human clothes. Because we have thousands of people here and I’m sure at least one of them would try to harm her. And, I want none of you to speak about her to anyone. Not even to your family and friends until the war is over. Okay?”
The men shook their heads. Jeem went downstairs to get his mother. At least one woman needs to be with her all the time. Once Jeem’s mother took Ava with her, Aylan asked Laam about the current situation. Laam showed him the training ground and Bolin’s workshop from the rooftop. Then he took back to the place where Aylan landed with the Uronto. Pointing at a big and strange crossbow, Laam said, “And here it is, my prototype crossbow, which can shoot ten arrows at the same time.” He patted the crossbow as he spoke. “I read about this sort of weapon in the book at the monastery. Last night was spent making this and now I’m going to test it.” He looked at his friend with pride.
Aylan was impressed. “What are we waiting for?” he said.
As Jeem joined them, Laam put ten big arrows in the ten holes of the crossbow. Then he pulled the rubber that was attached to the back of the arrows with a hook and stuck with a metal pole. He held the lever and looked at his friends, “Here goes my arrows…” He pulled the lever. The rubber had released and thrust the arrows to go up. The arrows flew to the sky and landed well inside the Mathagor. Aylan, Jeem, and the men, who were witnessing Laam’s weapon testing, applauded for the success. Laam sent five men to collect the arrows back as he didn’t want his enemies to know about his advent. Jeem suggested tightening the rubber to shoot the arrows even further. Laam liked his idea.
After that, they walked down to see the situation inside the tower. Laam walked to Bolin’s workshop to order for more of the crossbows and arrows. They needed at least twenty of them and many arrows.
Aylan stayed in the tower as he understood the men had a lot of questions for him. He read their mind and decided to answer to only the important ones. He turned to Budhil and said, “Ask me the question please.”
Budhil looked at him for a moment. He suspected about Aylan’s mind-reading ability. “Well,” he said. “I am just wondering why you guys would be risking to go to war with these inexperienced people? I could ask Laam, but guessed you had the best answer.”
“That’s not true.” Aylan said. “I can give you a list of eight hundred men and women, who can take down an entire army. And the spirit they have in their heart is unbreakable. And to assure you, we’re not alone. My friends from the Stone Hedge and Kingdom of Ratar Gul are coming to help us. They’ll be here soon.”
Damal was going to say something, but Aylan already started walking outside. They needed to set their final plan for the battle.
***
At the monastery, Master Dorian was forcefully knelt down in front of King Khuli. The soldiers have punched in his face as well. His face was swollen with bruises. The entire school was surrounded by the Midney and Kajlas soldiers. They didn’t find anyone else except Master Dorian. Even there was no clue about the Ashalandians.
The mad king was looking at him from the horseback with disgust and hate. He always considered Master Dorian as a traitor. He had been waiting for one chance to get him to punish, and today he got that.
“Do you realize that you have betrayed your own kind?” King Khuli asked Master Dorian.
Master Dorian smiled. He could read King Khuli’s mind. He too was waiting for the day when one of the Khuli comes forward and assault him physically and set him free from the oath. “I never have betrayed my kind. And you know the reason well,” he said.
“So, you deny that you secretly trained the villagers? Even though there’s a clear track from one of your student’s bakery?”
“I have trained no one and didn’t know about the track because I was never interested to know how they came here,” Master Dorian said, in rather firm voice.
King Khuli searched for more words to say. Seeing Master Dorian’s face, he understood that he wasn’t lying, but he wouldn’t let t
his chance go. “You’re a good liar. It is sad that you have chosen the wrong side and left me with no choice but punish you for your felony.”
Chief Lord Brirar was watching everything quietly, realized he needed to warn the king as he knew of the oath. “My King,” he came forward to stand by King Khuli. “By punishing Master Dorian, you’ll set him free from the oath he made with your grandfather.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, but I don’t care. He’s no use anymore, anyway,” the arrogant king replied.
“With due respect, my King, I’d like to protest against your decision. If you punish him, it’d be a big mistake. Otherwise, he’d remain under house arrest here like before and can’t do anything.”
King Khuli gave his advisor a cruel smile. “He wouldn’t be around to plot anything against me,” he whispered.
Lord Brirar didn’t like the idea but remained silent. He could feel the king’s time was near as he kept abandoning his long-time advisor’s ideas.
“Soldiers,” King Khuli called out some soldiers standing by Master Dorian. “I want you to tie him up with a rope and drag him by the horse as long as his last breath remains.” Then turned the bridle of his horse to ride back to the city. As the soldiers grabbed Master Dorian from the both sides, Lord Brirar sighed and followed the king.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, one hundred men hid behind the mountain to welcome the unaware caravan. At the third hour of the sunrise, the caravan appeared at the turning and walked right into the trap. As soon as the leader of the caravan realized the situation, he ordered his fellow travelers and guards to surrender even though deep down inside he was bursting out of curiosity to know how these men made it possible to rob the royal delivery just in front of the gate-tower. Soon he had realized as he and his group were taken to the basement cell and locked in with the gate-tower guards.
Son of The Prisonland (The Myth Shadow Trilogy Book 1) Page 18