The Brotherhood (The Eirensgarth Chronicles Book 1)

by Philip Smith

  “Hello, princess,” the dryad called over his shoulder. “Have a pleasant evening in the castle?”

  “What on earth?” she screamed, wincing at the stabbing pain in her side.

  “I’m fine. Thanks for asking,” Dinendale called out to Duelmaster, trying to hold an old sack to his arm to slow the blood loss.

  “Well, I think the prince wanted you both to stay for dessert,” Duelmaster jabbed his thumb behind them. She looked and saw guards pouring out of the palace like termites on an upturned mound. “Or maybe that’s because Broadside and I lit their bunker on fire. Who knows? It’s hard to keep track of who’s mad and why.”

  “I told you we should have used more powder,” a gruff voice said, buried in the straw mound.

  “Oh, shut up Broadside. Hold on,” the dryad shouted back, and they made a sharp turn to the right. Paige felt her stomach lurch as the two outside wheels left the ground.

  “Ho,” Duelmaster called. Paige heard the creaking of the gates as the shouting intensified.

  “Twostaves,” Dinendale called as they burst through the gates. Paige saw a huge shape leap off of the rising gate, blotting out the stars for a few moments. With a crash, the giant landed in the back of the wagon with them.

  “Nice to have you drop by,” Duelmaster said, snapping the reins again for more speed. The crew took off through the barracks towards the second gate.

  “Get off me you lumpy lard ridden,” Broadside hollered.

  “Oh, do shut up.” Twostaves shoved a fist into the hay as the dwarf yelped.

  “Where is Olivian?” Paige asked.

  “We got Woodcarver a couple horses. He took Olivian, and Robert managed to climb up on the other one somehow. They rode out at a solid gallop while we were delaying the guards at the barracks,” Dulemaster shouted.

  “They passed the gate from the stables about ten minutes ago,” Twostaves confirmed. “After that, I’ve no idea how they fared.”

  A thud of arrows hit the wooden wagon. “Stay down,” Dinendale shouted. The giant threw himself over the princess, and she heard a grunt of pain as a bolt thudded through the armor in his back.

  They raced through the streets, and the archers were soon out of range. Twostaves got off of her and grunted as he snapped the shaft of the arrow lodged under his shoulder plate. They heard the warning horn blast from the palace. The horn to wake the whole army in the city. The city they now raced through.

  “Horseman,” Dinendale shouted. Paige turned and saw a lone rider galloping low over the saddle of a blood-red colt.

  “Jesnake,” she cried.

  “Get on. It will lighten the load,” he shouted. Dinendale stood up and leapt onto the horse. He nearly slipped off the saddle, but Jesnake grabbed his arm and hauled him up back up, which wrenched a cry of pain from the dark elf. Paige noticed a slight shift in the speed of the cart, but then she heard something that made her heart stop.

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  There were war drums beating all across the city. Outposts lit up. Towers came alive with staggering soldiers rushing to arms. The commotion of the palace had spread. Officers shouting orders attempted to resolve the widespread confusion and chaos. All around them, men stumbled out of tents in various states of undress, grasping for swords and shouting out commands.

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  “The gate!” Paige pointed forward at their last obstacle. The main gate and the bridge across the gorge loomed before them. The bridge was jerking its way up as several guards twisted the giant windlass near the gates effectively sealing them inside the city. Paige felt her throat tighten. They were going to be trapped. Paige felt her heart sink as they came ever closer to the bridge.

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  “Go on.” Duelmaster shouted. “Get ahead!”

  “We’re not going to make that!!” Twostaves shouted.

  “We have to try!” Paige shouted.

  Boom. Boom. Boom.

  Jesnake pressed his steed on harder, and they inched slowly ahead of the wagon. The bridge was only a bowshot ahead of them. Paige saw the blood mare gallop forward with a burst of speed, closing the gap for the jump. Several guards stepped out with raised spears, but Jesnake let go of the reins and fired several arrows in quick succession, wounding two of the men and killing a third. The horse clacked up the inclined bridge and leapt beyond the edge of the gorge.

  “Hold on,” Duelmaster shouted.

  Paige grabbed the side of the wagon and held her breath. Quite suddenly, she heard a sickening snap as the back wheel crunched and shot off the wagon. Paige cried out as her cracked rib slammed into the jolting cart. She heard the dryad curse.

  “Princess!” Twostaves cried out. “Move to the far left front of the cart.”

  Paige did as he said as the giant moved forward. The grinding axle lifted with the shift of weight but tottered dangerously on the brink of falling over. The bridge neared, and Paige shut her eyes tightly. She felt Twostaves wrap himself around her.

  “I’ve always wanted to do this,” Duelmaster screamed as they hit the bridge.

  Paige felt the change of incline. The wagon seemed to go limp. It tottered in the air as they launched into the night, the horses screaming in fear and protest as the wagon sailed through the black void. It lasted only a few heartbeats, but each heartbeat dragged on for an hour in her mind. The wagon jolted as it crashed onto the other side of the stone chasm.

  Twostaves held on tightly to protect Paige. The impact sent tsunamis of pain through her body, and she screamed. Hot tears ran down her face. The wagon rattled on as she bit her lip. They continued for what felt like an eternity until the wagon abruptly stopped.

  “Twostaves, there’s a spare wheel lashed to the bottom of the wagon,” Duelmaster instructed. The giant and dwarf popped out of the hay and went to work while Duelmaster bandaged Paige’s wounds.

  “Thank you.” She held his eyes. “I can’t believe we got through that.”

  “Aye, I told you we’d get her out.” He placed the bandages back in his pack and hopped into the driver’s seat. “But we’re not out of it yet. Hold on tight. We’ve still got a little lather left to work out of these steeds.”

  They continued down the road away from the castle at a steady trot turning along the northward road as fast as the horses could muster. Their mouths were frothing from the mad dash.

  Paige was sweating from head to toe, so the cool night breeze was welcome as it washed over her. She breathed it in as if she could never get enough to wash out the stench of that accursed place.

  “Are you okay?” Duelmaster asked.

  Paige winced, but nodded. “What now?” she asked.

  “We need to put miles between us and that city,” Broadside muttered.

  She heard a horse trotting from in front of them, and soon Jesnake and Dinendale were back by the wagon’s side.

  “Paige,” Dinendale said as he jumped into the cart. “Are you alright?”

  “I just asked that. You’re such a copycat,” Duelmaster pouted.

  Dinendale ignored him, looking into Paige’s eyes with worry carved in every feature on his face.

  “I’m fine. How is your arm?”

  “It will mend,” he said, shrugging it off. “To be honest, my throat is what hurts most.”

  Paige looked up at the elf’s sturdy neck and saw a raw, red patch right under Dinendale’s jaw. It was a large blister with a squiggle shape branded beneath it. The brand reminded her of coils of rope or maybe a snake.

  “Come on,” Jesnake said, clicking his weary horse on. “The others will have made it to the rendezvous point by now.”

  “Aye!” Duelmaster called out, clicking his tongue and coaxing the horses. “Oh, I know girls. Daddy is asking a lot of you tonight. But if you can get me a little way farther, I’ll let you free to run where you please for the rest of your lives.”

  “Will the mounted soldiers pursue us?” Paige asked.

  Broadside laughed. “I imagine they will onc
e they can catch their horses.”

  The jolt of the wagon tossed Paige against Dinendale, and he caught her in his arms. Paige didn’t pull away, and he didn’t let go. She looked into his deep brown eyes and let a hint of a smile tug at her lips. He smiled back, and she wearily rested her head against his chest. She let out a tired sigh.

  “Din?”

  He looked down at her, holding her softly in his embrace. Her heart fluttered for a moment.

  “Yes, princess?” he asked.

  She inhaled then said, “Thank you.”

  He smiled at her, his smooth, white teeth gleaming in the faint light. It felt good to see him smile again. It made her suddenly have a harder time breathing. Though she wanted to blame that on her ribs, she thought it might be some other reason.

  “No trouble at all,” Broadside grunted in the moonlight, but Paige didn’t care. Right now, she felt a feeling she hadn’t felt in months.

  She felt safe.

  ◆◆◆

  Paige’s eyes ached as they fluttered open in the early morning light. She thought she was still asleep and dreaming, but the pain when she moved told her she wasn’t. Dreams didn’t have real pain. She found herself inside a small tent made out of blankets, the pinkish grey light from outside streaming in through the greyish material.

  The princess was wrapped in an identical blanket to the ones constructing the tent. She vaguely remembered having Woodcarver ease her wounds at some point after the jarring ride finally came to an end. She checked her side. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as before, and she could feel the soft leaves of some healing plant under the bandage.

  The full weight of what they had accomplished hit her and she staggered to her feet in earnest. Stumbling out of the tent and into the misty dawn, she clutched her blanket around her as her lungs sucked in clear, frosty air.

  The Brotherhood were camped in a small meadow nestled between two large mountain peaks. They were still in a gloomy, misty area of the range, but they had made it far enough away from Aschin that the grass was vaguely green even well into the cold season. Paige wasn’t sure how long they had continued on, but it had been well into the pre-dawn light before they had stopped.

  “Princess,” Woodcarver called out, breaking away from the fire where the Brotherhood sat in a huddle. “How are you feeling?”

  “Where is she?” Paige demanded, ignoring Woodcarver’s question and craning her neck around his tall frame to look past him. He smiled at her and gestured to the left where a small shelter had been constructed out of thick evergreen boughs.

  She walked over to the shelter, the tall wizard guiding her by the arm like a gentle grandfather. Woodcarver motioned for her to enter as they reached the door, so she stooped low under the small opening.

  Olivian lay on a pile of gear and blankets that kept her off the cold, wet, ground. Her thin frame looked as if it might disintegrate at Paige’s lightest touch. The princess’s hollow cheekbones stood out on her thin face, casting dark shadows under her once vibrant eyes.

  Paige noticed that under her sister’s fluttering eyelid, her left eye was now an opaque, milky white with a spiderweb of scar tissue that made her left side look like it was glaring. Her skin glowed a ghastly white, but her hair had been gently washed and combed as rudely as one could comb another’s hair. She was wrapped in what appeared to be Jesnake’s cloak since her own garments had been shredded to ribbons in the prison.

  “Ala?” the older sister said feebly, weakly raising her head a bit to see. Paige gulped, emotion clogging her throat. “Is… is that you?”

  “I’m here, Liv,” she managed to say, her voice choking back tears.

  “Am I?” Olivian asked. “Or am I just dreaming?”

  “It’s real,” Paige assured her with a smile. “You’re safe.”

  “Oh,” Olivian’s eyes fluttered closed again.

  Paige knelt down next to her sister and picked up Olivian’s hand. Warm tears that could no longer be dammed, trailed down her cheeks and cascaded to her hands. It was all Paige could do not to throw her arms around her sister and crush her in a huge hug. Olivian’s body was icy cold and thin, but Paige prayed a hard, earnest prayer to the Creator thanking him that it had a pulse.

  They sat there for a long time, not speaking.

  After a while, Paige finally whispered, “What happened to you?”

  Olivian’s eyes snapped open, looking angry and fearful at the same time.

  “When they attacked,” she breathed, “they took me and several others in the midst of the… massacre. A poor little girl tried to curtsey to me… so the Prince found out I was father’s.”

  “So they made you a hostage?” Paige asked.

  Olivian nodded. “He took us on a forced march to Aschin. He drove us hard, never resting. Many of our captured people died along that road. If the trail did not kill them, the Shauds would. A few of them purposely dropped just to end the suffering. I had to watch all this chained up in a cart like an animal.”

  “When we reached the city, the prince had what was left of our captured people sold off, except for me. I was put in that cell. For the first few days, I wasn’t bad off. Then the prince began to interrogate me about father and you, things about leather scrolls, and keys, and things I had no understanding of in the slightest. When I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, he became… so angry.”

  “My living conditions became worse, and then he began torturing me with no mercy. He kept demanding where this scroll was. I tried to tell him I didn’t know what he was talking about, so he began to torment me with even more intensity. After he gave me… this,” she said, motioning to her scars and now blind eye, “he gave me only enough food and water to keep me alive. He said he’d heard about you from some soldiers and figured you’d come for me. Once he knew you were coming...” Olivian halted, shuddering.

  “Liv?” Paige asked, her own voice trembling.

  “He… he...” Olivian tried to get out, but she began sobbing uncontrollably.

  Paige threw her arms around her sister, sobbing with her. “It’s okay Liv,” she cooed, stroking her sisters nearly white hair. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt us anymore.”

  “I know,” Olivian choked. “I never thought I’d see you again. The men told me you were dead. They told me I would die in that prison.”

  “But you didn’t,” Paige said. “You are safe now.”

  “It’s all thanks to you and those strangers out there,” Olivian said, sucking in a deep breath.

  “They are my best friends,” Paige said. “They all are so sweet and respectful. I am beyond fortunate to have them on my side.”

  “Especially that elf,” Olivian said smiling through the tears. “Last night I don’t think he ever left your side.”

  “Oh,” was all Paige could say feeling the tips of her pointed ears flushing with embarrassment.

  “The large one, too,” Olivian said. “The one with the robe and the spear.”

  “Robert?”

  “He wouldn’t shut up about you.”

  “They’re both just… friends,” Paige insisted, blushing. She didn’t really want to think about any of that at the moment.

  “Well, you’ve turned into quite the little social butterfly while I was away,” Olivian chuckled, laying her head back and closing her eyes as she drew in a shaky breath.

  “Get some rest,” Paige insisted. Olivian sighed and Paige patted her hand comfortingly before exiting. When she walked out, she nearly ran into Dinendale. He looked at her quizzically, his brown eyes probing her.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She nodded her head.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, searching her face.

  “Should I not be?”

  “Well,” he chuckled, “you’re nervous.”

  “What makes you think-”

  “Princess, those tapered ears of yours may be the elf in you,” he smiled. “But when they turn pink like that, that’s the human in you, and they are as
red as a poppy flower right now.”

  Paige looked up at him. He was looking at her, his eyes soft. Her heartbeat quickened. She felt uncomfortably warm, yet it was still chilly enough to see her own breath coming out in short bursts. Was she coming down with a fever?

  “Fine,” she said, and then mentally slapped herself. Fine? What kind of response was that? She sounded like an idiot, and why was it so hard to breathe?

  “Listen,” he said, stepping closer. “I need to ask you something.”