by B J Hanlon
They sprinted past keeping to the shadows.
After about two hundred yards of the workshops, they saw the first of the dry docks. It was a long and tall wood building pointed toward the river. On the side closest to them there was a set of large double doors. On one was painted the number three.
That wasn’t their target. They were after number one. They turned right sprinting and stopping between the shadows of the buildings.
The smell of hay and animal dung came from a building off to the side. He could hear animals braying and neighing.
They reached the second-to-last building and Encenzo lifted a hand up to tell them to pause. Edin stopped and looked back at the last three men of the group. Behind them, another unit was starting to disappear into the small door of the barn.
Edin heard a thud then a cough and someone trying to scream. Looking forward, he saw Encenzo pulling a man into the shadows, a rope around his neck.
Edin glanced down at the guard, the guy was around his age, his eyes were wide and he was staring into space with his tongue lolled out of his mouth. A bloody line crossed the man’s throat.
How many people had died while he attempted to escape from Bestoria, fifty? A hundred? More? How was his life worth more than theirs?
“Hey,” Arianne whispered snapping his attention back at her. “Stay with me, we’re almost there.”
Edin nodded and smiled, but he was sure she couldn’t see it.
Encenzo paused again, looked around the corner then whispered something back to Arianne. She turned and said, “two men, he needs you.”
Edin swallowed and moved past Arianne. The shuffle of lazy footsteps on the dirt came from around the corner.
“You take left, I take right.”
Edin nodded. He didn’t carry a rope but he knew he needed to be quiet. They waited until the men were in view before Encenzo leapt. He threw his arms around the first man and swung behind to gain leverage.
Edin followed as the second man screamed. With a quick kick, an ethereal light kick. Edin caught him in the stomach and the man balled over. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Encenzo still struggling and the man fighting back.
Edin threw a fist across the guard’s exposed jaw. The man hit the ground.
Glancing back, he saw one of the other men step out and slip a blade into the second guard’s side. The man stopped struggling and Encenzo let him down. In a moment, they dragged both over to the shadows. ̶
“I’ll finish him,” said the man with the knife.
“Why?” Edin asked. “He’s knocked out, the Raven said this was a raid, not a murder spree.” He glanced toward Encenzo who just shrugged.
“Fine,” the man huffed and adjusted the bag slung over his shoulders. “Damn tourists…”
In a moment, they were crossing the dirt. He stepped over the blood stains before they reached the final building across from dock one.
Encenzo ran across the patch of dirt and quickly opened the lock. Inside it was dark and two of the three men disappeared inside.
Encenzo came back. “Three minutes,” he said.
“Where’d the last guy go?”
“Other mission,” Encenzo said. They stood next to a smaller door behind the building that looked like a barracks and waited. If this was it, he’d be happy. No more issues with guards, he didn’t kill anyone…
Slowly, he began to calm as he leaned against the wall.
A moment later, he heard a latch opening and barely had time to react. Suddenly, Encenzo was standing in a rectangular shaft of light staring at someone.
“Alarm!” A man shouted as Encenzo leapt at him, his sword slashing through the man’s neck as if it were water.
He began to hear the rumble and rattle of soldiers arming... Men yelled and swords were drawn. Edin drew his own and looked back at Arianne. Her face was covered in shadows, but he could see a pensive look.
“Blow them!” Encenzo yelled as he leapt at the first set of attacking men.
He was quick and attacked them in wild arcing swipes. One man made to block and took the blade in his forearm. The second tried pulling his but didn’t have the chance. As Encenzo’s blade pierced his gut.
Both men were screaming as Encenzo shouted, “We have to hold them.”
Edin took up position behind Encenzo as about thirty guards began to descend on them. “Stay behind me,” Edin said to Arianne.
Edin took a spot next to Encenzo as the men tried exiting the door. As more came forth, Edin raised his blade. The man looked confused for a moment and Edin slashed into his leg. Not enough to take it off, but enough to drop him.
These men did nothing to him. Why would he kill? The second man out went to Encenzo’s side and was cut down. But now more came. Two at a time, and with barely a foot between their exit and him.
Edin was parrying and dodging thrusts and slashes. He jumped a knee-high cut and came down with his hilt on the man’s head. More kept coming.
A blade came toward his head and Edin didn’t have enough time to duck or raise his sword. He could only shield.
A moment before the ethereal shield appeared, it was knocked out of the way and Arianne appeared next to him.
“If you don’t start killing them, they’ll kill us.” Arianne huffed as she whipped the staff around and slammed it into another guard’s chest.
“Edin, down.” Arianne pushed him sideways. He faltered to the left and caught the blur of a crossbow bolt. A moment later, he heard a cry of pain. Glancing back, he saw Arianne crumble to the ground. “Arianne!”
Fury raged in him as men poured out. To his left, Encenzo was beginning to falter. Then out of the corner of his eye, a bolt hit him in the throat. Then another pierced his chest.
A large boom came from behind him, then another. A wave of something bellied him forward as if he’d dove into the barracks and tackled the men.
Edin pushed himself to his feet as another boom came from somewhere in front of him. He saw the far end of the barracks explode out with red flames and the blackest of smoke.
Edin glanced back at Arianne, a tear of blood hung near her lip. He screamed as the soldiers turned toward him. Edin raised his blade and men looked bewildered.
Edin picked up her staff and leapt toward them, his body moving by itself. He cut down a man, then another. He smashed heads in with body parts breaking and guts exploding as if he were squishing a slug. Edin felt the pain, the anguish and the rage… He put his energy into his attacks. The sword snapped others, the staff bashed through heads and ethereal strikes were like being hit with a hammer.
There was no need for wounds anymore. Not here. Not with them.
Edin roared as he cut through three more without stopping. A moment later he felt the presence of a bolt zooming toward him. With a thought the ethereal shield appeared and it clattered down. Edin turned his blade toward the man on the roof and pointed. A bolt of electricity came out of a clear sky and crashed into the man. The front of the building exploded as people screamed and cried out. He shielded himself and Arianne again as the flying boards, blades, and body parts flew around him like debris caught in a tornado.
Edin turned back to Arianne, but in the corner of his eye, he saw one man still standing. He couldn’t have come from the barracks.
The man swallowed and raised his blade. It took a moment for him to recognize the man.
“So, you’re the magus everyone is hunting… and now you join scum and murder fifty innocent soldiers.”
Edin clenched his teeth. Foristol. The man who’d given him a silver. Helped homeless kids escape their lives in the streets as best as he could. The rage suddenly left… something else tickled him…
“You magi are evil.”
“I’m trying to be free.”
“You joined with this lot… that is a poor life decision. As is this.”
Foristol pounced forward with his blade coming down. On instinct, Edin stepped out of the way but left the blade it cut across the old guard’s stomach and For
istol collapsed to the ground only a half yard from Arianne. He saw the old man’s face looking up at him as blood burst through the fingers on his stomach.
There was a soft expression on his face. The same he’d seen the morning before when he’d woken Edin. Then his eyes closed.
Edin ran to Arianne and placed his fingers on her neck. He felt the pulse though small amounts of blood were coming from her mouth.
“Stay with me,” Edin said. He scooped her up and looked around. Giant roaring fires lit up the sky. He could see at least two of the dry docks were aflame as were many of the out buildings.
Bells began to sound from almost everywhere and he saw men darting in and out. Some soldiers, others thieves…
Where did he go? The skiffs back to the warehouses… that was so far… He could carry her that far, but could she survive? What else could he do?
Suddenly a hand dropped on his back. Edin turned to see a man in his blurred vision. He didn’t even realize he was crying.
“Come.” The voice was familiar from somewhere.
Edin couldn’t wipe his eyes but he saw the man was wearing the skin-tight outfit they’d all been using.
He turned and his black ponytail whipped in front of Edin’s face. Edin followed, he had no choice. The tears made the firelight into bulbous circles in his vision. They ran between the burning docks one and two. “Who are you?” Then Edin remembered it was the man from the market. The one who’d made the terrible joke.
“I’m Le Fie, if you wish to save her, we must go now.”
III
The Isle of Mists
1
The Castilander
Safe? That’s what Le Fie had just told him. Did he see what was around them?
They ran. Arianne was heavy in his arms. Sweat beaded on his brow and ran into his eyes stinging painfully. There was screaming all around, the smell of burning wood and an almost sulfurous odor hanging on the fringes like the crust of a stink pie.
The heat grew more intense and he began to see the river expanding out in front of them, huge fires burning in the water like candles.
A loud crack came from his left; he looked just in time to see a wall collapse. Taking its place a moment later was a large billow of smoke and sparks heading his way.
Edin skidded to a stop, turned and felt hot ashes landing on his back with the sting of a hundred bees.
“Don’t stop,” Le Fie yelled. He was some ways ahead of him now, just about at the water. Edin ran again, his heart thumping rapidly, the smoke filling the air making it hard to breath.
“This way.” Le Fie waved at him.
Edin began to see dark shapes on the water, floating down the current from somewhere in the west.
He blinked, opened his eyes and lost track of them, of everything. A great billow of gray smoke rushed over him with a soft wind.
Edin nearly stumbled, he lurched forward. Arianne’s weight pulled him down. He couldn’t drop her, with a last effort he twisted, twirling her in the air. He landed hard on his back, his breath bursting out from him like a snake leaping at its prey.
A moment later, Arianne was lifted off of him. “Get up,” Le Fie said and ran with her toward the river.
Edin coughed twice, letting out small puffs of smoke as if he’d just taking a drag of Horston’s pipe. Then a few quick breaths of cleaner air. He flipped over and looked at the river.
Beneath the cloud, he saw Le Fie wading in toward a wooden rowboat. He handed Arianne to someone inside, but the water was pushing them downstream. Edin pushed himself up and began to run.
Le Fie looked back, saw him, and leapt into the boat.
“Come on kid,” he urged. “Quit your little lollygagging!”
Edin didn’t know the word, but understood the context. The water was gaining a bit of speed. Edin still had no idea what happened. Then a moment later, he heard the burst of something downstream of him. It was that same explosion he’d heard before, but it was followed by something else, something that reminded him of a sluiceway being released.
Suddenly, the water began to pull the boat forward. He could see other row boats, but they were all ahead, some viscously rushing forward as men, trying to escape the current, got swept away.
Edin crashed into the water, the boat was ten feet away, then fifteen, then twenty. It was rushing too fast. He thought he heard Le Fie yelling something like ‘damned moronic…’ but couldn’t make it out.
The water didn’t push as much as pull him. His head slipped under and his hands skimmed the riverbed.
Not again, was the only thought that went through him. Trying to hold back the river was too much, it took everything out of him the one time he tried. Edin used his talent and found a small current, it was the one pulling him down.
He held his breath and let a small stream of it catch under his body and push him up. Edin burst out of the river a moment later, he felt wind rushing past him as he completely left the water.
Then it was coming back, he was going fast and dropping faster. The boat with Le Fie and Arianne was still rushing and from this vantage point he could see where to…
A large pit that had once been a dry dock had been breached and water was rushing to fill it. A boat, filled with at least ten men in black, raced toward it and the burning husk of the ship and building that surrounded it.
Flames were bellowing out toward the river in great pulsing waves. Just as he was about to go back under, he saw the boat slid inside before it was enveloped by the fire.
Luckily, he didn’t have to hear them scream as he crashed back under.
His stomach churned. Arianne was in the boat ahead of him and she’d meet the same fate. He found the current and let the water propel him forward like a fish.
He received a large thump to his shoulder like he’d been hit with a piece of timber. He looked up and saw he was only a few feet from the rowboat with the occupants staring at the burning dock that was summoning them to their death.
Edin reached out and threw an elbow over the gunnel as the boat headed that way. They were only a few yards away now, a burst of fire erupted from somewhere and he heard another explosion somewhere behind him.
Edin raised a hand and felt the current wanting to follow the easiest path as it always had in the millions of years. A nudge; that was all he needed. One last nudge.
Edin pushed it, feeling a strong sensation in his gut, one he hadn’t felt in a long time. The boat began to turn, spinning like a top on the water.
He heard, “hold on,” from above him and felt the current twisting again. He concentrated more, feeling the power of the water pulling at him like he was being sucked down a drain.
His strength was fading, he was diverting too much of the water. He felt it begin to pull him down, felt his arms begin to weaken as if he’d just lifted a hundred cords of wood.
A moment later, the current stopped pulling them. Edin looked up and saw he was at the new stern and looking back at the flaming village behind them.
Le Fie seemed startled as he looked down at him. Edin imagined he looked like a monkey hanging from a tree.
The rower yelled something barely understood, and they both reached over. They grabbed him under the arms and hauled him out of the cold water before slamming him on the wet floor of the rowboat.
Edin stared up at the starry sky. A blur flew through his field of view from the north. It was fast and on fire. A moment later, it burst over them. Or at least what he thought was over them. Then he passed out.
There was a moment when he felt himself being lifted out of the small boat by ropes tied beneath his back and under his legs. He saw men staring down at him, their faces dark in the night.
Mouths moved and he assumed words were exchanged but nothing he could comprehend now. It was as if a bee were buzzing in his ear and he could hear nothing else.
He was set down on a wooden deck and saw the sails starting to unfurl like giant waves in the ocean. Men flipped around beams and ran up the
masts as if it were what they were born to do.
He lolled his head to the side and saw Arianne. She was pale and damp, her skin held gooseflesh and she barely breathed.
Edin reached over and ran a few fingers over her cheek. “We’ll be alright now,” he whispered and closed his eyes again.
Edin figured it was at least three days since the attack on the dry docks as the ship jolted with a thunderous wave. Not the first one of the storm, and definitely not the last.
Being inside the small, dank cabin with water sloshing outside made his stomach twist in uncomfortable ways. Edin had felt it briefly on the fishing trawler, but not like this. He felt wobbly, like a spinning top about to run out of revolutions.
As he tried to right himself, he heard a soft exhalation from Arianne. He glanced over and saw her looking at him. Her eyes were partially open but dilated. The light from the sconce flickered across her face.
“Arianne?” Edin sat up, pushing the scratchy wool blanket off the side of the chair. “How are you feeling?” The ship was rocking in what sounded outside like a light rain, though the rough movement of the sea said the ocean disagreed with his assessment.
Arianne smacked her lips and mouthed ‘water.’
He grabbed a cup and brought it to her lips. She was paler than normal. Almost gray.
Edin set it back into the cup holder and bent over her. He pulled back the bandage and looked at the wound. It was purple and black with a small scar that looked like an X protruding from it. That mattered little, the wound had closed up.
A part time surgeon on board had pulled the arrowhead from her. ‘Just like pulling out a fishin’ hook.’ He supposedly had said, according to Le Fie.
Le Fie also said her collarbone had cracked. It was healed partially but couldn’t be fully healed.
“I am no master healer. Only time can finish it.” he told Edin. “Though bone fragments will float around like plankton in the ocean inside her.”
Edin had no idea what plankton was, but he was worried. He’d slept through the surgery and the stitching and Le Fie used a healing spell in the room they now shared. The first treatment stopped the bleeding, the second one, a day later supposedly fixed the crack in the bone, and the third one just that morning finished closing the wound.