“Who knows, Maybe they are right but not while I live. It’s because of these spies that the moment our ship leaves the port for the main land someone will send word to the Handson kingdom.” Cadeyrn continued watching the weather tearing passed the window. The weight of the rain was making the roots sag in places and it looked like they might start retracting soon. A large splatter of rain carried in the breeze snapped her attention back and she continued. “Whoever I sent would be apprehended the moment they docked. It’s for all of these reasons that you will be leaving two days before Brantley and you will be going vie Port Lust and not docking south of Neeskmouth as he will be. That way any plan to stop us will be sent the wrong way and by the time King Harvey gets that information out of Brantley you will be deep inside the Scorched Lands.” Cadeyrn paused and panic flushed through Fintan who half expected her to turn around as he was mid way through pulling up his brown linen trousers. She didn’t but she did giggle softly under her breath. “Relax Fintan. You have nothing I have not seen before.” She said realizing why the often chatty Fintan had been quite as quiet as he had behind her.
“You haven’t seen mine though your majesty.” Fintan said nervously wrenching his belt closed and reaching for a jacket. “ A shame indeed I fear.” Cadeyrn joked. At least Fintan presumed she was joking. “There is always time for that after this is all over. I put my trust in you Fintan to find the heart. Once you dock you’ll be on your own. You must find out what you can about the heart and find the humans in the Scorched Lands. Our druids have asked the animals and they know nothing of the heart. Let us hope this sudden blessing from the Earth Mother last night was a sign.” Cadeyrn said once again looking outside. The foul weather would hide Fintan’s departure. She had to put hope in the old teachings and pray this was the Earth Mothers will. “I must be going now, you have fifty minutes to get your stuff together and be gone. Earth Mother watches over you.” Cadeyrn begun to walk towards the door and was about to open it before she turned back to face Fintan, she stifled her laugh at his back to front shirt. “There will be a suit of blessed armor aboard the ship. It bares our flag and belonged to my father. He wore it during the Dragon blight. It was a gift from the Dwarfs before they sealed up the mine. He was always like you. He never fitted in either. You remind me of him Fintan. Come home safe wont you.” Cadeyrn said with a smile and vanished out into the cold. Fintan stood in shock as the door clicked shut before struggling to take the shirt back off.
Fintan sprinted towards the secret boat but not before the rain and foul winds grew even harder, this would aid in him being unnoticed as only the insane or desperate would venture out into a morning like this. The wind had turned into a full blown storm and the trees that marked the edge of the forest swayed like drunks. The strong winds that had been battering the Alienage village when Cadeyrn had visited were nothing in comparison to the raging torrent they had now become. The gale inside the forest was weakened by the trees. So the sudden blast that hit him as Fintan pushed out into the marshes staggered him sucking his breath away and stinging his eyes. As the forest receded into grasslands, the grass at waist height whipped at Fintan’s legs like an angry slaver. The silt laden mud gripped his feet making moving forward difficult as the muddy hands clung to his boots like crap to a blanket but Fintan pushed on. He’d practiced his whole life for just a moment like this, but it was a damn sight harder to actually slog through weather like this than in his imagination. He had pretended as a boy to be climbing mountains with the wind blowing in gales but he had never imagined the burning cold in his lungs or the inability to see. The rain came down in droves and soaked everything it touched in moments. The sodden earth had quickly turned into a soup and the marshes hid Fintan’s footsteps in the flood of brown sludge. It was as if the world itself was helping with the Queens’ plan to hide Fintan’s voyage. He wondered if it really was the great oaks wishes or just a turn of bad luck. Fintan had expected the vessel he would be travelling in to be small but he hadn’t expected the small two man yacht that greeted him as he slid down a muddy embankment. It was a small fishing vessel that would normally only be crewed during fine weather but now it was being tossed around next to the small jetty like a gold coin being rolled between a rich man’s knuckles. The ‘ships’ captain much to Fintan’s surprise was a human. The sea sprayed figure was that of a gruff old looking man whose beard looked like it could have crawled off his face and lived independently. That was if it was not attached to the bright purple nose that sat like a plum on the old man’s face. The aged captain helped Fintan aboard with his hooked arm, not in the pirate sense of cold steel but in the old very bony and extremely weather worn sense. Fintan was thankful for the aid as his feet slipped from under him and without aid he would have probably fallen into the breaking waves that rattled the ship. Once onboard and safely gripping onto a rope the old sea captain had passed him Fintan tried to gaze through the rain. The deck of the ship was soaked and was pretty bare apart from gathered up ropes and a chest that had been bolted down which Fintan presumed held the armor of his dead king. Even soaked to the bone Fintan tried to edge his way towards the box. The chance to actually wear the royal armor was an honor Fintan couldn’t have imagined. It was then that it hit him. Fintan had been too busy to really think anything apart from fighting through the harsh weather. But now that he had a few moments while the captain readied the vessel, when his mind should have been questioning if he would survive and why Cadeyrn had sent a human to aid him. Fintan’s mind floated back to his parents. He would have loved for his parents to know that he, a trader’s child, a druid, would wear the king’s armor. The memories dropped on him like a ton of lead and out shadowed any other thoughts Fintan might have had. It was a stormy night much like this when Fintan had lost both his parents. They had been traders for the Elves taking the fallen wood from the forest they didn’t need to trade with the White Isle. That was one of the few boons of the rivalry with Neeskmouth. It had formed a strong alliance with the White Isle. The human sharing the rough voyage with Fintan was probably one of the captains. As the sailing ship driven by the aged and probable White Flag pirate pulled out into the open sea Fintan’s mind couldn’t help but invasion the images of his parents clinging to the small ship as it was tossed around and finally over in the White Sea. The guilt was choking and it was something he had not thought on in a long time. He should have been with them that day but he had been taken ill during the morning and had spent the day at home alone. He might have been able to do something, save them or at least say goodbye. His parents never came back, no one had confirmed their death but the storm that day had been so bad. Fintan was sure they had died, He could not think of any other reason they never have come back. Fintan’s eyes clouded over as his thoughts faded from his parents to the harsh reality as a wave beat the side of the ship almost knocking him free. The wind for his voyage was thankfully at the small crafts back and the huge waves pushed the craft onwards northwest knocking a day or more off of the journey so long as his grip held on the sodden rope.
Chapter eight – the great city no more The days had rolled ever on in Neeska as they tended to do and things in Neeskmouth had not been as quiet as Harvey had planned. His goal to send Darcy out to retrieve the heart in secret and return in time to save the kingdom before anyone found out the treasury was empty had been a long shot at best. It seemed that the time for change was rolling out swiftly across Valadfar and nothing would be left unaltered, no matter how careful the plans to stop it. Darcy had not been the first noble sent after the heart. Harvey had sent several nobles out to find out more information on the heart stretching back months to when he had first realized that the city was not strong enough to fight off the Poles in a fair war. Darcy had been the last hope to find it and change the fate of Neeskmouth but his time was growing short. Harvey was skeptical of Darcy’s chances at finding the heart and that was why he had no choice but to involve the mages, he had just to hope that it had not been left too little too late.
With the coffers empty and no real idea how deep into the scorched earth the heart was buried Harvey needed to keep control as long as possible. He had to hide the truth from the subjects of the Handson kingdom. The plan to buy Darcy time started the morning Darcy had left with the caravan. The wheels had barely rolled out of the city before the order to commandeer all the ships was sent out of the castle. King Harvey feared that there would be anarchy in the city if it became common knowledge just how empty the city’s coffers were. So he acted as swiftly as he could to try to beat the tide of titter-tattle. In the months that came before Harvey had anyone who had known about the empty coffers or the heart put to death if they had refused to help but that did not mean rumors would not emanate from the dungeons. It took time to arrange missing people without it drawing too much attention and there was no guarantee that those on death row had not told their captors why they were there and it was only a matter of time before everyone in the city realized the life blood of the city- gold- had dried up. The mighty ships in the harbor needed a crew so a second carrier left the castle with orders that the guards were pulled from their patrols in the farmlands leaving the miles of grassland outside of Neeskmouth empty. The lands had been a breeding ground for bandits ever since the Dragons left the great city of Neeskmouth but Harvey could not spare men to guard roads and farms. He needed every trained man aboard the fleet. The city streets were no safer of his need to stock the ships. The hand of Harvey swept the guards into a makeshift navy leaving the poorer parts of the city open to the whims of the darker hearted people. The confused and reluctant guards were loaded into the many ships that lined the shore of Neeskmouth and set sail for Raidaridin. Harvey had commandeered every ship and skilled arm aside from a small battalion he kept back to hold the castle. The kings’ plan remained the same, to bombard the coast and make the Poles return to defend Raidaridin, buying valuable time for Darcy to return with the mages, and more importantly, the Dragons’ heart. King Harvey did not know by the time his ships reached the western coast, and neared Raidaridin. That Briers Hill would already have fallen and his plan would come to nothing. The Pole army would not return to Raidaridin for a few cannonballs fired into the harbor and there were enough Iron Giant citizens within the city to deal with the few guards that Harvey had managed to gather who would survive an assault by land. Harvey did not know of this yet though and continued on blindly playing checkers when everyone else was playing chess. Harvey’s swift actions had more repercussions than he had expected and far more than he could cope with. He was a tactician, a man of war and his skills did not reside in the reactions of the common man. When the highwaymen and bandits heard about the empty roads they had started raiding almost every trade caravan that tried to make its way to Neeskmouth which strangled trade inside the already poor city. The caravans were not the only victims of the grasslands and farmers homes soon came under siege when the caravans lay empty. The city guards gone from the fields and roads made for easy pickings and the numbers of bandits seemed to have doubled over night. As you can imagine this didn’t sit well with the citizens of Neeskmouth and soon they started amassing in the streets wanting answers to why the guards were gone and what the city would do about the heavy losses to their livelihood and the rapidly emptying larders. It was the season of planting and now seven days into Nylar and the weather would start to turn from the rain and cold into warmer sunny weather. A time that should be spent farming but they dare not try to plant anything with the fear of bandits hanging over their head. It could be a whole season that would go to waste and a lot of empty bellies to follow it. Harvey was driven almost mad within the castle and shut himself away as the city fell apart from the inside out. His iron grip on the city was slipping. When no answer came back from the castle in answer to the empty bellies of the common people the scared masses turned on the nobles who lorded over them. They looted breaking down doors. Taking hostages until they learned the truth, that there was no money or food inside the rich and lavish houses to be given to them. The city fell into a slump worse than anyone could remember. Many people packed up their belongings and left heading out across Neeska but even more had nowhere to go. The city had isolated itself from everyone and had no real allies to call on who would accept the refugees, so they had no choice but to remain in the dying city. The threat of bandits in the fields around the city trapped the poor inside in a state of civil unrest while Harvey sat waiting for the heart to return. That would fix everything.
The disorder on the streets would have pulled the city apart from the inside out in only a few days if the news of the riots had not reached across the seas to Slickrock. If there was one thing that could settle rioting commoners down it was the prospect of easy money and cheap grog. By the second night of rioting, William captain of the White Flags had sent his first mate to Neeskmouth and he had docked at the harbor bringing with him riches and food to disperse among the people. It was a move bold even for the Flags under normal circumstances but they would have been fools not to take such a colossal chance at gaining even more favor in the city for their governmental rule. They had heard that there were no guards to send them packing from the docks and they would not have to worry about sea battle. So while King Harvey hid in the castle behind bolted doors listening to the accusations of farmers and traders alike the crew of the White Flags spread their influence quickly with easy coin at the docks. They listened to all stories of hardship from the farmers and traders and awarded out loot from the hull of their ship to any whose story sounded even partly plausible. Every house on the northern side of celebration square was branded with the White Flags symbol, which was not too strangely a painted white flag on the door or wall. The White Flag had swooped in and with the money they had once stolen from the kingdom they seemed to save it singlehandedly. They brought food and gold and injected it back into the city saving it from death on the understanding those that took money or bread swore allegiance to the cause. At the other end of the city word made its way to the castle of what was happening in the docks and wooden hovels below celebration square. Harvey knew the money would not go far before the favor was called in but the average man on the street just saw that they had been given this generous gift. Leaving himself so lightly defended had given the pirates the very rebellion they had wanted. The war with the White Flags had, like all others, started with Harvey’s father but he had continued the struggle against the White Flags but had seen them gaining favor in the last few months. He should have seen this coming. With so many ships docking in the harbor and Harvey seemingly unable to drive them from the city, even if everything else went to plan they would probably gain a permanent foothold in his city. Harvey couldn’t help but wonder which knife would find his back first. Would it have been the Pole army, or one of his own people turn coat to the pirates cause. Harvey was not a stupid man and he could guess that the White Flag would ask for his head in return for the aid they were giving the city folk. The people would not see that it was only with stolen money that they were being fed. It was money that should have been in the city coffers bur had been bleed from it by the White Isle sitting out at sea like a gnat. The small group of reserve soldiers that Harvey had kept back as his private guard would not be able to hold out the rioters if the White Flags armed them or worse joined them in an open assault of the keep. Harvey knew he had to do something to turn this around but until Darcy returned with the heart there was not much he was in a position to try. King Harvey waited with bated breath inside the castle for word that the ships had succeeded at Raidaridin. If he could just show the people it had all been worth it and show promise of the gold that the mines would bring in time they might push back the pirates and his reign would continue. The only alternative to sitting and waiting was to have the city passed over to either the Poles or the White Flags, Harvey swore to himself that neither choice would happen while he breathed. The city was his by birthright. When the Dragons had been pushed away from the city and the last of them killed it was the Handson�
��s that had started the revolution. They had claimed the city and the people had basked in his bloodlines greatness. If it was not for Harvey’s family there would be no Neeskmouth. He would die before he saw anyone else take his throne. Harvey had barely slept since Darcy had left. Everything had happened so quickly. He had thought he would have a few weeks to organize things but in only nine days since the New Year’s celebrations the city had fallen to ruin and half of it was openly no longer loyal to the crown.
Harvey knew his plans of razing Raidaridin had failed when at sunrise on Duwek the tenth of Nylar as he was patrolling the ramparts of the castle wall clearing his head and watching the city tear itself apart. A voice called out from below among the throng of angry faces.
“ I have news from Briers Hill sire.” The young voice called out above the din of the crowd of disgruntled citizens. The guard looked tired and he had right to be, he had been forced to ride all night and day and was wounded from battle. It was only by sheer stubbornness that he had not fallen over into the sweet embrace of death. The Poles had raided Briers Hill and killed anyone who dared to raise a sword against them. The last remaining guard, who stood wearily three floors below Harvey, had been forced to leave the village that same night and travel to Neeskmouth to send word of the Poles march on the city. They wanted Harvey to know they were coming for him. Harvey could barley muster the energy to pull himself up to lean over the wall and see the face of the man who was calling out to him, he himself was so exhausted almost to the point of collapse but he looked down into a mass of angry faces that clung to the slops that lined the keep. He recognized some of them as people he had employed not long before but that didn’t seem to matter to them anymore. They swore and spat at the castle walls. Some threw stones and Harvey dare not linger at the walls edge for long.
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