by B J Hanlon
Edin tripped, it threw off his balance and he barely got the sword back to turn aside the attack. A moment later, a deep excruciating burn pierced the side of his gut.
He stumbled back into the bureau and dropped a hand to the wound. He felt blood dripping warm and smooth down his back and his front. It went all the way through.
“I will take your life quick. Trust me. We are friends,” Sandon said.
The man was quick and fought different from Polus, less aggressive but more assertive. No anger coursed through this man. He was as calm as if this were nothing more than a training ground sparing match. How did Polus ever best him?
A moment later, he blinked and saw the movement the Marquees was about to make but it was as if he were suddenly fighting in a river against the current.
The man flourished his sword above his head and he came in for the slash to lop Edin’s head from his shoulders.
Edin ducked as the blade flew over his head and slammed into a wooden chest.
The Marquees’ face morphed slowly into a panic.
Edin had no choice, he felt his body weakening, his strength ebbing. He was about to become the most wanted man in the continent. Edin slid his blade beneath Sandon’s arm and into his twisted heart. The heir to the duchy dropped slowly to the ground with no fight left in him.
For a moment, Edin just stared. Watching the blood gurgle from the man’s mouth and the wound. Drops of his own blood were making it to the wooden floor next to him.
Edin staggered to the bed and wiped the blade on the sheets and sat staring at the closed door. He’d lost a lot of blood and needed help. Edin was certain someone would come, a guard or a curious busybody who’d heard the clash of blades.
He pressed his hand to his wound and felt the blood trickling through his fingers. If they found him dead along with the Marquee, maybe Arianne could escape. She could leave the city on her own and find the ship from Carrow. His head swam. Did she know what ship? Did Edin ever tell her? He wasn’t sure. Heck he didn’t know where she was.
The room was growing dark, then a moment later, a bright yellow light flickered and he heard the thunder from outside.
He hadn’t told her, had he… She needed to know, needed to be safe. Edin stood and felt a quick wave of nausea and dizziness. He had to sit back down.
Edin looked down at the yellow tunic with its red stain slowly growing. He couldn’t go through the main room and out the front door. Not like this.
He peeled off the vest and slowly cut away a strip of the bloody sheet. Edin looped it around his body and tried to tighten it. His hands were weak and he could barely pull it tighter than a loose knot.
“Arianne…” his words barely moving from his lips.
Footsteps came from the hall followed by a quick knock. “Master Berka?”
“Yes,” Edin croaked. “Your lady friend left a message… she said she would see you in the garden.”
“Thank you Heldren.” He swayed slightly as the handle began to move. “I’m changing.”
“With another man in the room?” Edin looked down at the corpses.
“No, he left, you must’ve missed him.”
“I see.” Her voice sounding pensive.
Slowly, he heard the footsteps disappearing down the hall. He definitely couldn’t go out that way, not with a bloody sheet tied around him. He turned toward the window and then thought of something.
It wouldn’t take much, but maybe…
With Asmov’s stiletto in hand, he slid it into Marquee’s stomach before dropping it next to the so-called teacher. It surprised him how little blood came from the wound he’d just made.
Edin stumbled to the window. At least he was on the second floor. He heard another crack of thunder and saw small droplets of rain plopping onto sill and his hands.
A small ledge hung below the windowsill sticking out like a saucer beneath a tea cup. Further down, the glimmering grass stood poised like a troop of soldiers over ten feet below.
Throwing open the shutters, Edin stuck a foot out, then another and sat. He turned, pain and burning running through him as the blood seeped down into his pants. Edin suppressed a scream and tried lowering himself.
He held for just a moment, when a hand, then the other slipped. Edin dropped. His feet struck the grassy earth and he fell back. Pain rattled his back and knees but he could move.
Arianne could’ve only meant one place… though how long would she wait?
Edin sat there for a moment thinking about the garden. He pictured it as it was that morning, dry and safe. Him holding Arianne as she cried. Edin had been the hero for one moment.
Maybe that was all that mattered. He’d saved the princess like in the legends of old though… no bard would sing his name, no historian would write it down. At least Arianne would know… but first, he needed to get her a message.
Edin stood… or tried to anyway. The pain tormented his gut. He tried to get his bearings as he followed the rear wall toward the square. The city lamps would keep it lit and the rain should keep people indoors, Edin hoped.
He swayed and staggered into the square and began to head toward the docks. Edin tried to keep a hand pressed to the front puncture. He could do nothing about the back one.
His vision blurred for a moment as he was crossing a main avenue.
“Out of the way drunkard,” someone yelled.
Edin heard a horse neighing and the rumble of wheels on the cobblestone. Edin stumbled. He felt his energy fading as his boots scrapped the stones.
A blurred version of an alleyway appeared… it looked familiar, but he’d seen so many and for some reason couldn’t picture any one of them. Edin’s brain wasn’t clicking.
Every heartbeat seamed to cough more blood from his body. Edin tried turning down an ally and stumbled into a stone wall.
“Drunks,” a man said in a loud disapproving voice.
As Edin pushed off, he saw a large red splotch left in his place slowly streaking down the white wall with the rain.
Keep moving, find her, he repeated it in his head like a priest’s chant for salvation.
The alley sloped down and Edin kept looking for the X he’d left but saw none. Then he glanced at the homes attached to those gates. They looked different, standalone homes and none with boarded windows.
He was pretty sure the garden they’d hid in was row housing. Wrong alleyway.
Edin kept going until he reached another angled cross street with the triangular white buildings the city seemed to sprout like weeds.
It looked similar… but most of them did in this area. He turned north and the street curved ahead.
Where was he? Edin stopped and leaned against the side of a white home and looked at his hand. In the glow of the street light it looked black.
Thunder burst above him and Edin could feel the static electricity in the air.
Cold raindrops continued to pelt his head. Edin looked up and opened his mouth. He let the water crash into his mouth for a moment.
He heard a woman call out from somewhere behind him. Edin turned hoping it was Arianne.
It wasn’t. She was much shorter with dark hair and was quite plump. The woman seemed to have the same thought as Edin and she turned away.
The sight gave him a small boost and he pushed off the wall.
He looked in front of him and behind him. Which way?
The only way to go was to keep moving forward. A piece of wisdom from Grent.
I’ll be joining you soon my friend, Edin thought.
He kept going until another street. Glancing up and down he saw it didn’t look familiar. Edin took a step, the front of his boot clipped a loose stone and his knees crashed into the cobblestone.
Edin groaned and barely caught his face from crashing into the street. Edin paused for a moment trying to catch his breath. Slowly, he stood and stepped. His eyes stayed on the ground. Cold rain drops burrowed into him like mice fleeing a hawk.
Another alley he looked up a
nd saw the white row houses. Could this be it?
Edin shuddered and moved into it. His feet grew cold as a rapidly growing stream began flowing around his boots. He saw the wooden gate of one, then another. It looked like the alleyway.
Edin peered at each of the gates, looking for the one he’d marked. An X right? Or was it just a slash? He stumbled and somehow stayed on his feet. As he stood, the numbness in his body grew. He leaned against a wall.
In front of him at the far end of the alley stood a lone oil lamp post. Its eerie glow flickering in the rain.
“Arianne?” he called out sure his voice was gargled and too quiet. He tried again. Edin blinked slowly, the firelit and rain drenched streets reminded him of a dark tale of murder and intrigue from one of his fiction books.
Edin blinked again and appearing as if out of nowhere was a figure in black. It was a ghost he thought. A spirit here to take him to the underworld and to Yio Volor.
“Not yet…” he croaked.
“Edin?” The figure moved toward him, hesitantly at first and then at a brilliant run. He blinked and she was next to him.
“Aria…” he whispered.
“Gods… what. Never mind, where are you hurt, you look like death.”
Edin smiled weakly or thought he did. “Almost death… I had to tell you.”
“Shut it,” she reached under his arm and helped him from the wall. She squealed a soft pain but didn’t stop. “Come,” she said and took a step toward the lamp.
Edin moved but was barely able to keep his feet. He stumbled next to her, trying to keep his weight off her but not sure he’d be able to. The desire to sleep was pulling him down like it was part of the earth.
She pushed him into their small garden and leaned him against the wall. Arianne began looking at him, she was soaked. Her brilliant golden hair plastered to her head and looked almost ginger in the light. She reached for his side but Edin stopped her.
“Go, get out…” Edin paused and blinked. It was hard to breath, hard to think. He was here for one reason. It circled his head before landing like the scat of a bird. “The ship, Castilander, Carrow. Go without… me.”
“Like hell I will.”
She grabbed the white wrapping and his black tunic and peeled the bandage away. He couldn’t feel it.
“What happened? It looks like a blade went through?”
Edin nodded.
Her hands were shaking. “I can’t work in the cold… we need to find some place warm.” She glanced up toward the looming row house in whose garden they’d made their residence.
Edin slowly shook his head. “You have to leave… you won’t…” he tried but the words fumbled on his lips. “Marquees dead.”
He was sure her jaw hit the grass. “They’ll find my body and that will be the end of it.”
“Shut up blotard.” She said. “Damn pirates have my bag…” she whispered. He heard her doing something then there was a ‘hmm.’
Edin looked. “What is…”
“Zicels…”
Edin remembered it. The elven woman, she talked about it.
Arianne threw something in her mouth and started chewing. A moment later she pulled out a wad of what looked like something you’d step in while trooping through the cow pen.
His eyes lost focus as the pain rushed through him again.
She then did the same to the wound in his back and Edin howled.
“That should stop the bleeding.” She replaced the bandage and stuck the spout of a waterskin in his mouth. He barely had the strength to swallow. She pulled it back and capped it.
“Stay here, I’ll be back. Do not fall asleep.” His vision narrowed as he watched her disappear out of the gate. Edin shut his eyes.
At least she would be the last thing he ever saw.
12
No Not Dead… Not Yet
“You’re not dead right? I am your princess and I commanded you.” The voice was as shrill and worried as it was distant. As if hearing a wailing spirit through a deep black tunnel.
The rough shake was distant and thoroughly felt in his side. Edin’s head lolled and he felt the cold boring in like a pickaxe. He shivered.
“Get in the cart blotard.”
Edin blinked, Arianne was leaning over in front of him trying to peel his arm from its position under his pits. He tried to nod but his neck wouldn’t work.
Edin opened his mouth to speak but it was dry and scratchy. All he could do is stare. He blinked again as if trying to speak with his eyes.
“Get up, I can’t…” she sighed and took a step back. She glanced around, shaking in the cold rainy night. Suddenly, her hand came up and he felt a whoosh of air surround him. It felt like he was being wrapped in a blanket or a cocoon. He didn’t feel the ground anymore. He just felt the air, the compression and heard the roar.
Edin watched her, streaks of black poured down from her eyes like upside down crowns, her face was red and she looked nearly sick.
She slowly turned, her gaze intense but he could see the tears, or maybe it was the rain in her glossy look.
A moment later he was floating through the gate. Then an instant later, it all stopped.
Edin dropped, for the briefest moment, he thought he left his stomach where he’d been floating until he landed on something soft and mushy. Pain blinded him.
When he came back, he saw her pulling herself up next to him.
He was certain she was sweating and nearly exhausted. Edin wanted to help her, try and bring some of his energy into her… like Grent had told him. For some reason, he’d nearly forgot.
Edin closed his eyes and tried to picture the stars… the particles. He almost saw them when the cart began moving. It jerked forward for a moment and then faster. All he heard was the splashing of water and the rumble over the cobblestones.
It began to pick up speed. Too fast Edin thought. Edin tried to lift his head but couldn’t. He could only watch as the lightning cracked through the purplish gray clouds.
The cart rumbled and bounced down the alleyway. It felt like he’d fly off at any moment. He started to moan but it came out jerky.
“Stop,” Arianne hushed, but it came out like Edin felt.
Then the ground leveled out and they turned slightly to the right. The clacking rumble turned to a constant thump of wood on wood. The pier.
He had a sudden vision of her sending them off the pier and into the bay. One he was certain contained a fair bit of sewage.
But then, a heartbeat later, the cart slowed and suddenly stopped with a jerk. Edin felt the pain in his side again and screamed.
“Sorry,” Arianne said, her voice barely heard over the raging storm.
She started moving as Edin slowly tried to sit up. He barely got a glance at the white city rising from the sea like some goliath lit by glowing orange oil lanterns.
“Carefully,” Arianne put an arm around his waist. For a moment, they swayed. “Step.”
Edin lifted a foot and put it down. In front of them, was a boat, barely dancing on the waves. He blinked and was standing above it.
“Down,” she said and he stepped, dropping nearly three feet. Edin hit the deck and his legs gave out. He barely noticed her running down the gangplank only inches from his head.
“Get inside if you can...” Arianne said. “I need to cast off.”
Edin couldn’t. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The world seemed to fade away for a very long time. Edin woke in what seemed like a small boat cabin. Beyond his eyelids, a bright sunlight hit him. He looked up and through the open shutters to a blue sky. He was both freezing and burning. He couldn’t move and that feeling of being enveloped and trapped came back over him. His mind was blank. How’d he get here?
Outside, he could hear lapping waves and a soft wind. Water was near. Then he saw the ship’s wheel… they were at sea.
Suddenly, a great lurching wrecked his stomach. He turned and spewed a purplish liquid that had the consistency of a ve
ry watery soup. It came again, tasting both the burn in his throat and the bitterness of whatever came up. He laid his head back down on the floor and closed his eyes.
Sometime later, he woke again, the trembling and freezing feeling were gone. His stomach still hurt and there was a smell of something rather disgusting floating on the air. He heard soft snoring from behind him and tilted his head. On a small padded bench, Arianne laid with the blanket pulled up to her nose.
Edin was warm but had not the sick feeling that had come earlier.
He sat up, pushing a canvas blanket from his body. There was a deep throb in his side that felt like a small animal had leapt in and was digging.
Edin was shirtless with only a large wrap covering his torso. Slowly he peeled it back.
A small wound, barely an inch long was closed and covered with black stitches that looked like a ladder to a small freckle on his stomach. He remembered being skewered… killing the Marquees. How was he alive?
He touched it for a moment, feeling the ridges and then looked toward Arianne. She snored. “Thank you Arianne’s mom…” He whispered.
Slowly, Edin pushed himself to his feet and stood. He looked out the open shutters at the waves on the vast ocean as the boat rocked gently. A queasy feeling shocked his body. In a quick moment, he threw open a small door and ran into the sunny but cool day and leaned over the rail.
After nearly fifteen minutes of evacuating any remaining food and drink he sunk back to the deck and stared at the waves. He still felt sick but didn’t think he could throw anything else up even if he’d wanted to.
Edin closed his eyes and let the sun beat on his face for a long time. Eventually, he was able to stand again and circled the small cabin. There were nets, rods, reels, and other equipment meant to land a cache of fish. A small trap door sat in the middle of the rear deck.
What he didn’t see was land and the thought made him queasy. It was just as Falicia had said.
A gull squawked above him drawing his gaze to the billowing clouds in the sky. Despite the ocean… he was alive. Somehow. And Arianne had saved his life again. So much for being the hero, he thought but couldn’t get the smile from his face.