A Warrior's Legacy

by Guy Stanton III

  She rested a hand on the corner of the window and gazed out at her people’s land and the sea beyond. He would be coming soon.

  She would make sure that all was in readiness for him and his brother’s arrival to her land, but whether or not her heart would be ready she was not sure. What manner of men would these two brothers be?

  She had known that there lay a larger body of land off to the Northeast. That was where they had come from long ago. Legend had it that when her people were brought to this world that they had not been well treated because of differences in their ancestry and appearance by the others of this world.

  It was said that the great lord Ta’lont known as Tadias had not been happy with the treatment of the survivors of Berniam at the hands of his own kind. He had relocated the people of Berniam to these shores and forbid any of his own kindred from following.

  That had been long ago. Had the people of the other lands changed in how they thought of her people any?

  Time would tell what manner of men these two brothers would be. Her whole body started shaking suddenly and she held onto the window frame to keep from falling as she bit her lip to fight off the pain.

  Not all her ailments had been cured then. She had hoped so, but apparently the Sorcerer’s curse on her people was still in effect, but maybe soon her people could be free of it to. She hoped so

  Chapter Four

  Voyage into Deception

  The sea breeze ruffled my hair across my eyes and I had to brush it back. I watched as the land of my birth fell rapidly out of sight on the horizon. All that could be seen now was the tops of the mountains.

  I looked over at Gavin. He wasn’t even looking at our fast disappearing homeland, but instead he was gazing out at the flat slightly undulating sea that stretched out before us like a fast unexplored plain.

  Things had come together a lot faster than I had imagined possible. It had been but four days since I had arrived back in the Valley Lands and now I was leaving them again, perhaps for forever.

  Our convoy of three ships sliced through the open sea, as if they too were eager to discover the unknown. The ships were of Tranquil Islander design. Both the ships and the sailors had been supplied to us by our good allies the Tranquil Islanders, when they had learned of the mission.

  They were a seafaring people and they depended on trade for their livelihoods. The possibility of opening up an entire new trading opportunity had not been one that they could pass up and they had offered the ships and the men gladly.

  My father had still bought the ships and hired the use of the sailors from them anyway to assure that the focus of the mission would be elsewhere and that trading would be a secondary objective at best.

  Each ship was manned by forty sailors and a Captain. Along with supplies my father had complemented each ship with a force of two hundred picked warriors. Father had placed me in charge of all the men and the decisions of the expedition were solely up to me to decide.

  No pressure.

  I walked up beside Gavin and shared his view of the sea ahead of us.

  “When do you think we’ll be there?” He asked.

  “Well from the maps it doesn’t appear to be all that far. About three weeks should see us there if everything goes right.”

  He looked bothered by the length of time involved to make the journey.

  I slapped his back, “Don’t worry Gavin we’ll get you there in plenty of time to save the girl.”

  He didn’t respond right away when he did it was cryptic at best, “I had another dream.”

  And that was all he said.

  “Care to enlighten me a little further on this dream brother?”

  A terse, “No!” followed.

  Exasperated I asked, “Do I need to know about the dream for either the safety of the men or the success of the mission?”

  He looked at me briefly and said, “I don’t think so.”

  And that was all I could get out of him.

  Everything did not go according to plan. Just short of three weeks saw our convoy run into the worst storm any of the sailors had ever seen. We could see no way around it so we decided to fight our way through it.

  Two days into the storm we realized that it would be impossible to make our way through it and we tried to turn back, but we were caught within the storm’s savage grip.

  We were tossed around like a piece of wood in a pond with a herd of boys throwing rocks at it to see if they could sink it.

  The storm drove us southward with no end in sight. I wasn’t even sure we were headed southward as we hadn’t had a clear view of the skies since we had entered the storm. It was hard to even tell if it was day or night.

  The third day of the storm we lost sight of one of the other ships, but it reappeared the fifth day and we did our best to stay together. A week into the storm and still we found no way free from it.

  We lost all hope of survival. The hulls of the ships were taking on water from the savage pounding of the waves that we were buffeted by on every side.

  It was all we could do to keep the water pumped out as men worked around-the-clock manning the pumps. Most of our sails were either torn into shreds or ripped free entirely. We’d lost several men overboard, if we didn’t break free of the storm soon the ship would break apart, because of the strain it was under or because the men might just give up and let the ship fill and slip under the waves in search for the piece of the depths of the sea.

  I sunk to the floor of my cabin beyond exhaustion. We had no chance for sleep or even food, since we’d been caught in the storm.

  Wearily I croaked out, “God have you led us here to this storm to die?”

  My head slunk down to rest against a bench seat cushion. I was giving up the fight. The cabin was a mess from the upheaval of the storm. What possessions I had brought with me were strewn about the cabin.

  My weary eyes caught something glowing in the dark. I tried to focus on it. It was the box holding my sword. It had broken open and my sword had half spilled out of it and it was pulsing with color.

  Why was it doing that?

  It never glowed or showed any color unless I was holding it in my hand. There must be a reason and I forced my body to listen to my mind’s commands as I reached out for it and pulled it to me. Staggering to my feet I made it back outside.

  I was knocked off my feet and I settled for crawling along the slippery deck, until I reached the ladder to the bridge.

  Gaining my feet my eyes met Gavin’s as he stood at the wheel and fought the storm with a willful strength that I knew I had never had.

  He looked at the sword glowing brightly in my hands and then back at me with a sardonic look as if to say, “What are you going to do with that? Attack the storm?”

  It was as good a suggestion as any I thought in our current condition. Instead of raising the blade to the sky I raised the pommel stone of the blade with the ruby colored crystal.

  I don’t know why I did that.

  Red light shot out in multi faceted directions and then began to alternately flash on and off for the space of five seconds and then a solid column of red shot into the dark clouds overhead.

  Waves ramped up to over twice the height of the ship, but they did not fall upon the ship. They were held at bay by some unseen force. A channel of calm water formed ahead of us that ran through the ramped up waves.

  “Into the gap Gavin!”

  But he was already bringing the ship about. The other ships followed suit. The ships shot into the calm waters as if propelled from below.

  The giant waves crashed closed behind the last ship even as strong winds blew at our backs. We shot out into an unbelievable bright light. I threw up a hand to shield my eyes.

  Had we sailed into heaven?

  Blinking away the glare I lowered my hand and beheld in astonishment the calm rippling surface of the sea stretched out before us.

  It was hot except for a gentle breeze. Incredulously I turned around and beheld the stor
m that still raged on several hundred yards behind us.

  How could this be?

  “The storm appears to be of man’s construction and control!” Said Captain Sargas glancing at the quietly glowing sword in my hand.

  I turned to Gavin, “The red crystal pommel stone. Did father tell you anything specific about it?”

  “He said it was a keystone and that it was fitting that it should be a pommel stone on such a sword. He said it dated back to Tadias’s time.”

  I nodded and turned back to look at the storm behind us. Whether knowingly or unknowingly father had given us the key to survival.

  If such technology that could create such a hellish deathtrap of a storm still existed what else could there be waiting for us on Assoria.

  I turned back to Captain Sargas. “Captain what do you recommend our course of action be?”

  He responded quickly, “I would let the men rest and repair the ships the rest of the day, since it appears the storm is stationary. Tonight I should be able to determine how far off course we are. Rest through the night and we’ll start off on our quest again in the morning.”

  “Sound advice Captain. See that the other ships are informed.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  The wind while not overly strong was still sufficient to help us make considerable speed with our new canvas sails in place. By Captain Sargas’s estimations we should see landfall in two days, but it would be the south western side of Assoria instead of the north eastern side we had originally planned to land on.

  Hopefully we would all be recovered from our ordeal with the storm, before we made landfall. Sleep had never been more welcome than last night and it was hard to fight the urge to go back to my cabin and get more of it.

  What mysteries would this new land and people hold for us to discover? I felt an inward tenseness that I couldn’t shake off at the prospect of what lay ahead.

  We had the good fortune of coming up on an area of the coast that was occupied. At least I hoped that was good fortune. The entire population could be cannibalistic for all I knew. As we drew closer towards land and the city came into view I couldn’t hold back my admiration of it.

  The architecture was different than any I had seen before, but it was done well and from what I could see of the size of the city and the busy seaport we were approaching, it appeared that these people’s cities could match any of the Zoarinian port cities in grandeur, perhaps even exceed them. The people of Berniam had been very busy over the years.

  Our ships drew up at a safe distance from the shore in a more secluded area of the harbor. We furled our sales away and dropped our anchors, while still ready to reverse the process at a moment’s notice, if these people gave us a reason to flee their port.

  I stood at the railing and watched the flurry of activity that was taking place on shore at our unexpected appearance. Both Captain Sargas and Gavin stood beside me.

  “Captain at first we are going to maintain the façade that this is entirely a trading venture until we test the waters some. You have my permission to buy any merchandise you should see fit to purchase, while keeping the true purpose of our mission a secret for the time being.”

  “Understood Sir. Could I also replenish our stores of freshwater Sir? The Sanjo and the Vanetia still have adequate supply, but the Lantia lost most of her provisions in the storm.”

  “See to it Captain.”

  The Captain left and I looked over at Gavin.

  “Gavin I want to make this very clear. You under no circumstances are to open your mouth about anything in concern to bringing these people to the saving knowledge of the Creator’s Son before I give you leave to or if you hear from the Creator’s Spirit to do so! Is that clear?”

  “Perfectly brother I understand the risks and I don’t want to endanger the men.” He replied simply.

  I didn’t think he did understand the risks. As for myself I wished I could ease the tightness of concern I felt inside. I saw a small masted vessel approaching and I gave the order to prepare for visitors.

  The visitors that climbed up onto the deck were bedecked in every imaginable bright color under the sun. I had never seen the hues of so many colors ever worn in one display before.

  They stared at us in utter amazement and admittedly we did some staring back in return. We both, as peoples, had to appear completely foreign to each other. They were smaller of stature than we were, but the lithely muscled physiques of what I took to be guards escorting the heavily dressed and bedecked officials, were nobody to be trifled with.

  The tallest of them wasn’t over five and a half feet tall, but height wasn’t everything. They all had coal black hair and eyes. Their skin wasn’t white like ours, but neither was it olive complexioned as the Zoarinians or the Attorgrons. And it certainly wasn’t black like the Khartians and some of the Attorgrons.

  Their facial features were completely foreign and dominated by a slanted look about the eyes as some Tranquil Islanders had.

  So these were the peoples of Assoria. I stepped forward and bowed my head respectfully.

  “We have come in peace only wishing to trade with your people and perhaps in time to share more with you if you should seek it.”

  They seemed to be even more shocked as they heard me speak. They looked among themselves and then one, who appeared to be the spokesperson spoke.

  His words spoken in our language had a rusty quality to them. “How do you come to speak the great sorcerer’s language?”

  The great sorcerer?

  Not what I had been wanting to hear.

  “It is the language of our birth. We have come from the northern lands from across the great sea.”

  “How did you make it through the great storm?”

  “Our ships are powerful and we found a way through. Tell me, has our long journey to your lands been all for nothing or will you trade with us and strengthen the bonds of friendship between our two peoples?”

  The official gave me an immediate toothy grin that I did not care for and bowed down indicating the city as he did so, “Our lands and cities are open before you. Come and see all that the Western Kingdom has. Buy and trade with us to your hearts content. We eagerly welcome this new friendship between our peoples.”

  “We are in need of provisions for our ships may we procure the necessary provisions in addition to our trade?”

  “I would not hear of it, it will be our great honor out of hospitality, to provide such provisions to you without charge. Give us only a day to prepare and we will have all that you seek and more delivered to your ships.”

  “Thank you. Your hospitality is extremely generous and we look forward to knowing your people better. May we come back with you to shore to see for ourselves the wonders of your land?”

  His face flushed with pride at my flowery words and he bowed again and indicated that we should proceed before them to their craft pulled up alongside of our ship.

  Watching the dock come closer I asked our official guide.

  “Are your people the only peoples of this land?”

  A shadow passed across his eyes briefly before he responded, “Sadly yes. There were once three great peoples that dominated Assoria. We are the Western Kingdom. The last of the three powerful clans of Berniam.”

  “What happened to the others?” I asked watching him closely.

  “A great sickness befell the Eastern Kingdom. Most of the people died and those who survived went mad and roam the barren streets of their cities frothing at the mouth. None dare go there for fear of catching the dreaded disease and bringing it back to our land. It is forbidden to go to those lands. As to the fate of the Northern Kingdom, it was a natural disaster that ended their reign as a great people. The great River Yasana that watered their lands dried up and without it they began to starve and die of thirst. We spared all that we could to aid them, but they turned on us and rewarded our generosity to them by attacking us seeking to claim our lands by force from us. Sadly we killed many of our broth
ers, as they threw themselves heedlessly against our fortifications. Now the remnants of their people are little better than soulless savages that raid and attack our outlying villages and farms in search of food and plunder. We take slaves of them as often as we can instead of killing them outright as they deserve because of their atrocious deeds. At least as slaves they receive food and water in plentiful supply. It is the least that we can do for them our one time brothers.”

  I had never heard of the option of slavery being a mission of mercy before, I thought ironically to myself. I kept my doubt of his entire story from off my face however and punched Gavin slightly to remind him to do the same.

  “You mentioned a great sorcerer?”

  “Yes, the savior of our people. It was him that took the sickness away from our people by giving us the cure and it was also him who told us of the Northern Kingdoms treacherous decision to attack us, which gave us the time we needed to prepare for their invasion.”

  I nodded my head, “Where is he now?”

  “He lives in a castle in the great Zessan Mountains.”

  The official said indicating the mountain range that rose impressively in the distance beyond the city.

  “Is he your ruler?”

  “No, we are governed by a ruling council, but he suggests courses of action time to time and we are always wise to listen. We have never found fault with any of his suggestions though and have always been quick to act on them.”

  I left off questioning the man and sat out the rest of the ride silent. As we stepped free of the boat we were the subject of intense and highly speculative study that I found extremely uncomfortable to be under.

  The official clapped his hands sharply and the crowd dissipated back into the busy activities of the dockyard market. All of our onlookers, as we made our way into the market, were male.

  Where were the women?

  I had never known of a marketplace not crowded with women before.

  Gavin whispered into my ear, “Where are the women?”

  I nodded my head and whispered back, “Gavin I fear that we have walked into a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, if you know what I mean.”