Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set 2

by BJ Hanlon

  “I do not.”

  She leaned into him and brought her lips to his. “You do.” She turned back out and toward the open fields that lay before them.

  To the right was a great burning brazier. One of unending flames that burned hot and lit up a great circumference of around twenty yards. There were more all along the outer wall and a fence of three chains that were strung across the Crystalline.

  Chains that were aflame and burned unnaturally. All courtesy of a Dorset-created spell.

  The pits and ramparts were being dug easily. Many more terestio had shown up and they moved dirt and stone like a dog trying to cover its droppings.

  Though with a bit more care.

  Then there were loads of trees being brought back on wagon carts. Edin saw the line of them a mile or so away on the flat northwestern plains. It was like watching a line of ants heading back to their burrow.

  The thin trees would be sharpened to a point and dug into one of the many pits as a defense. The larger ones would go across the river to the old town for either firewood to keep the smithies going or being hewn and turned into planks for new ships.

  From behind, he heard someone yell, “They nobles are leaving us!” It was a man’s voice and suddenly there was a great scuffle. Edin turned around and walked to the inside of the large wall. Below, civilians and soldiers were struggling. The commotion grew louder. People were screaming in pain and in anger.

  The sea of people that had been resting on the stone road were rising as the soldiers tried to get out of the city gates. Edin spied Berka and Vistach in the group, both mounted and dressed in leather armor. Something that few guards in the city were offered. Other guards who were on foot were pushing back and one swiped his blade out. It hit a man who cried out and fell back into the crowd.

  Then there was more yelling. More fighting back against the foot soldiers and then brushing against the mounts.

  A few of the mounted soldiers pulled their weapons but were stopped by a command.

  “Do not kill them!” cried the head guard, though he wasn’t very loud. Then one of his mounted soldiers disappeared from his horse and into the crowd. There was a scream and another mounted soldier pushed that way and began swiping. “Stop! We are patrolling you damned mongrels!” he shouted but the press of the crowd, which had suddenly grown quite large, began to crush them. Another two soldiers, footmen, fell beneath the crowd and a man, grimy and wild like the cutthroats in the forest, pulled himself onto a horse.

  He started shouting, “Down with the city! Down with the prince! This curse was brought on

  by¬—” suddenly a great gust of wind roared over everyone and the man flew off about twenty yards and landed amongst the crowd. He and quite a few more fell like the child’s game dominos.

  Berka smashed a man on the head with the pommel of his sword. Vistach was punching them and fighting them off as commoners tried to pull him down.

  The guard yelled, “Stop!”

  “They’re sending off the rich to safety,” someone else yelled. It was a man, clean cut and standing on a large box. Then the wind hit him. Edin turned and saw Arianne next to him, her arm outstretched in the second man’s direction.

  “Aren’t you going to do something?” she yelled over the crowd.

  He nodded and then felt the talent and the energy from all of those people down below. Edin took a breath and let his hands float above them like a priest giving a sermon. Then, he summoned a great ethereal light. It spread forth from his hands in a wave, as if he slapped water and the ripples grew from it.

  With a thought, it descended over the crowd and continued expanding. It grew larger and larger and then was over the crowd like a ceiling.

  Soon, they grew quiet as everyone was gazing up at Edin through the ethereal white bubble. It grew over the open square and down city streets and alleyways.

  He looked down upon them and then caught sight of the head guard. The man was looking up with a bit of fright but Edin nodded to him.

  Then the man started to talk. Though it was not heard by Edin through the veil, he saw some people beginning to move away, others were being helped up including the grimy cutthroat who’d been the first domino.

  One soldier was lifted back to his feet, though he was wobbly. Others were being carried off by civilians. Edin saw at least two bodies. One soldier, one civilian. Both were clearly dead with eyes open and staring at the white ceiling, unblinking.

  Then he released the ethereal blanket and the world plunged back into night with only the orange glow of the fire light showcasing the city.

  The gates opened with a rumble and then the soldiers were going through. He saw Vistach salute and Berka nod at him. The head guard didn’t acknowledge him, but that didn’t matter to Edin.

  The line of soldiers disappeared, riding with their unending torches out to the road toward the line of incoming wagons and trees.

  Then a larger group of soldiers appeared and began disbursing the crowd. Well, as good of a disbursing job as they could do with little room to put them. Tomorrow, when there was more room in the city, hopefully, they’d begin separating people in accordance with their skills. Or so was the next phase of their plan.

  Soldiers would be recruited from the men who’d come to the city unless they had some other sort of skill.

  Edin turned back to the outer wall and watched as the soldiers met up with another group of men coming from a western gate.

  Those men and a few women were also on horseback but didn’t carry weapons. They were the weapons and hopefully, they’d be able to boost their side of the war.

  Though he wasn’t completely sure that it would work out that way. Not with the god coming toward them. What destructive capabilities could Yio hold? Edin wondered. Could he just snap his fingers and make the city crumble?

  That would make all of this preparation useless.

  11

  Preparing with preparations

  Their room was tiny and the bed was made for a single person and not two. But they made it work. It was lit only by an unending oil lamp with the flame turned low, barely above a flicker.

  Edin tried hard to sleep after they’d made love, but despite the calmness and the release of tension, his mind was still on the coming war.

  Or coming slaughter.

  Arianne stayed awake as well, but she said nothing as they held each other through the night. Maybe at one point he dozed staring up at the flickering shadows from the oil lamp.

  While awake at one point and staring at the soft flame over Arianne’s soft shoulder, he remembered having bonfires as a boy. Either in the firepit or near the edge of the woods when camping. They never camped in the Darkener Forest. Too many cursed locations, evil spirits, and beasts.

  The most cursed of which were the elven ruins near his home. He remembered the crillio beast attacking and the talent appearing. Where would he be now if it hadn’t appeared?

  Probably on one of the ships fleeing with the rest of the nobility. Or at least the nobility without any soldiering or command experience. He’d be one of the cowards with his mother.

  Or he’d be dead, killed by the crillio. Then he wondered what the world would look like now. If there’d be any hope at all.

  The magi would most likely not be here, Arianne would still be asleep, and the city would certainly fall very quickly.

  That day in the elven ruins. That was the most important day of his life and one he cursed for over a year.

  Why was he thinking about the ruins now? Edin closed his eyes and pulled Arianne closer into his arms. He wanted to feel her closeness, to feel her heartbeat beneath her breast, and feel the warmth of her skin on his. Edin felt safe here.

  A rapid knock woke him from a dream, one in which he was running through the woods. One where he leapt on a log and tried to twist in the air and come down slicing an invisible opponent.

  Edin looked up toward the door but didn’t move.

  It pounded again, harder and fas
ter and his name was being called.

  Arianne popped up, her hair hung over her face and she was looking at him with a panic and fear in her eyes.

  “Stop!” Edin shouted and put a hand on Arianne’s own and an arm around her waist.

  “Sir, Master Edin, it’s a patrol. It hasn’t come back.” It was a voice he didn’t recognize and young. There was a formality in it like that of a soldier sending a message.

  “Everything is fine,” Edin whispered to Arianne, “it was just a dream.” He brushed hair from her face and they stared into each other’s eyes. Her chest, which was heaving, slowly began to relax and the wildness dissipated like water on a blazing stove.

  “Sir?” the voice said.

  “I’m coming,” Edin said and squeezed her hand. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Her mouth moved but no words came out. Arianne nodded and squeezed his hand back. Then he stood and dressed.

  Outside the door was a man about his own age though he was thin and looked like he’d need to fill out a bit more before he could really be called a man.

  “You may want to take your weapon,” he said, “don’t want to be caught without it.”

  Edin followed him quickly, first he stopped at the toilets and then they went out of the apartment that was in the castle wall and down to the city. He tramped through the streets following his leader.

  A single clocktower above showed the hour hand on three and he guessed it was three in the morn.

  They passed a rickety old house with pointed peaks and a long and low porch. On the front was a sign, so old and dark he couldn’t make out the words.

  They crossed the river and went past some of the armorers and weaponsmiths who were working while under the guard of men with sharper weapons. There were kids around too, running this way and that with hands full of items or mouths full of instructions.

  Then they walked the road next to the Crys, he could hear it on the other side of the riverfront taverns, boathouses, and warehouses.

  He thought again of his dream of leaping through the Darkener Forest.

  How long ago did this water pass the manor?

  Above on the wall, he could see great torches lighting up men who were working on things up there. Edin wasn’t sure what they were, but they were large contraptions. There was wood and great stone rocks being hauled up by pulleys or on men’s backs.

  The pounding of hammers and the sawing of wood grew louder. They reached a gate next to the river.

  “Our last patrol was to be back two hours ago,” said a large man, a captain from the other gate. Other soldiers came toward them on horseback, one was leading a horse with no rider. “It was the one your friend was in.”

  “Berka?”

  He nodded.

  Edin grumbled. “Why didn’t anyone get me sooner?”

  “We kept waiting and,” he looked around, “then I thought maybe you’d want to join.”

  Edin went to the horse and leapt on. He kicked the spurs into the beast and it leapt forward without even knowing where to go. The patrol could’ve been anywhere.

  “Keep to the paths,” a voice shouted over the galloping hooves of the horses behind him.

  Edin sped off into the darkness with only the lights of their unending torches to keep them from being completely blind.

  Ahead, there were small flames. Yellow dots that offered up small bulbous glows but offered little definition. He saw far to the right, workers with guards putting sharp spears into mounds and saw glows of magi casting spells. To the left there were others. Men and mage working together all over this open field.

  It would take a heck of a force to get through that. A force like the God of the Underworld.

  A soldier galloped next to him, a sergeant by the look of the uniform. “They were to patrol the western and northern roads. Left up here.” He pointed out an arm that was shaking in the wind. Edin nodded.

  Soon, the crossroads appeared. There was a road that headed directly west and they turned down it. The wind howled and the night smelled like the decaying vegetation of a bog. The plants to either side were turning brown and dying.

  They continued on, the horses slowed from the gallop to a trot and Edin looked back. He had ten soldiers with him, all on horseback and all but the kid that’d fetched him, looked seasoned.

  “Eyes open,” Edin said as he continued to look around for any sign of person or thing. They began to watch, he saw small, hand-held crossbows being drawn and swords a few inches out of their scabbards.

  A wind howled like a banshee and the kid nearly jumped from his saddle as he yelped. A girlish yelp, but no one made fun. This wasn’t the place for it.

  The hooves clopped along the dry dirt road. To the north, the road followed a small creek, barely three feet wide and the water trickled slowly trying to feed the farms and the locals. Ahead an unknown distance he could see the outline of a home with a fire in the window. Someone who hadn’t fled to the city.

  It flickered as someone walked past the fire.

  They trotted on the road. It went for nearly a mile before another crossroad spread out north from it. At the crossroads was that house with the fire.

  A soldier appeared from beneath the porch, pipe in his hand and started to approach.

  Edin looked back at the sergeant. “Was this their route?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  Edin heard the neighing of horses and saw a group of them in a paddock. They were already saddled and ready to ride in case of attack.

  The soldier with the pipe came forward, he took a puff and Edin spied dark, suspicious eyes.

  “Soldier, when did you see the last patrol?” Edin asked.

  “Eight hours,” he said and then spat. Almost like he was chewing the tobacco and not smoking it. “Or somewheres abouts there.”

  “Which way?” Edin asked.

  “North.” He pointed down the dark road, “tis their route. They go to the forest.”

  Edin nodded and pulled the horses’ reigns that way. He didn‘t like the look of the man and just wanted to move on.

  They went on for another hour or so, the farm fields soon turned to a forest of cypress with little undergrowth. Edin saw markings on trees, slashes, crosses, and circles. All were painted on the southern side of the trees to tell of traps that magi and mundane had set.

  “Stay on the road,” Edin called back. It was growing a little lighter, though it was barely noticeable unless you were actually looking for it. The firelight almost completely nullified the notion of a coming day.

  Then he began to see things that didn’t look quite right. There were gouges in the road. One looked deep like a hoe or a plow had been drug through, though it barely went a foot. There were hoof marks and off to the side, a thrown away forearm guard.

  The sergeant leapt from the horse and picked it up. “Blood,” he said and then bent it slightly. A clean cut had gone through.

  “Any sign of the forearm or hand that goes with it?” Edin asked.

  The sergeant shook his head. “Blood is sticky though.”

  Edin looked ahead and saw there was a small scrap of cloth attached to a low hanging branch. Edin kicked the horse forward and approached. As he got near, he lifted a hand and let out a large ethereal ball.

  The bright white light blinded him for a moment like glimpsing the sun and then trying to look in a dark corner. Then he began to see what had been feared. Scattered to the right and the left, he saw hoofprints heading off into the forest. They split up immediately and went in different directions as if spooked by something. Then came the smell.

  Burnt meat and he saw the smoldering body of a horse and a man about twenty feet away.

  Edin leapt from the horse and started toward the body. As he passed a small tree, he saw gouges in it. Slashes like the claws of a crillio or a dematian. The ground was littered with them too, but only to a certain point. A point that stopped fifteen feet from the road.

  Edin swallowed and saw the movements until
he couldn’t see any further.

  “Dematians,” Edin called back and turned to see the sergeant on the other side of the road looking down at something.

  Then ahead, Edin began to see bodies. He picked up speed as he started running faster, his eyes scanning the corpses.

  There were men and horses mostly. Or at least parts of them. There were bodies of dematians also. Though a lot fewer of those. Parts were lopped off like a slaughterhouse.

  A great stallion laid on top of the body of a dematian. There was blood and other internal fluids splattered on the ground still soaking into the now damp soil.

  Edin kept searching. “Berka!” he yelled and heard a screeching of birds as they flew off with the noise.

  “Shhh,” Someone hissed rather loudly. Edin ignored that. He went from corpse to corpse looking for his friend.

  “Help…” Someone gasped from not too far from Edin’s right. Edin spun and looked toward the tree. He saw a guard with a deep gash across his cheek and blood pouring from a wound in his side. The man was pale and he was barely keeping his eyes open.

  He didn’t have long to live.

  “What happened?” Edin asked as he closed his eyes and put his hand over the person’s wound.

  “Don’t.” Someone called out from behind him and he was yanked back suddenly and thrown to his butt.

  Edin scrambled to his feet to see the sergeant standing between him and the dying man. “Don’t be brash, we need you to have your strength.”

  Edin started forward but the sergeant put out a hand.

  “I know you can throw me around and kill me but look at this place.” He waived a hand around. “There are at least ten of the twelve that left the city here and there are few dematians. It was an ambush.”

  “Do you think I don’t see that?” Edin hissed back. “This man will die.”

  “Yes,” he said, “and there are more demons out here and we need your skills. This was a slaughter.”

  “Sarge…” the man gasped, “don’t let me die.” He coughed and a large spew of blood sprayed out, covering the back of the sarge’s trousers. “I… don—”