The Elderkin Prophet

Chapter 16

After moving down a flight of stairs that seemed to be endless, Ino finally was able to see a shimmer of bright light from the direction he was headed. His eyes had grown weary to the dimly lit passageways. The muted sounds of the battle had begun to rise once more. The sounds of battle drums banging in the distance coupled with a whirlwind of other sounds signalled Ino that a huge battle was taking place nearby. He steps out and is immediately hit by the blinding rays of the sun. His visibility was recuperating from the vicious rays. Slowly things started to fade into vision; He could see almost a thousand and more faces all around him. On one side there were the platforms from the docks that connected all the ships while on the other were a few harbour blocks with a long stretch of coastline behind them. Ino turned to his right to only see horror. Countless soldiers were marching down towards the dock along with a large fiery battle ram. They were preparing to break through the wall that wrapped around the harbour.

Ino saw Jayyed high atop a tower along with his unit of archers. He was extremely focused and was doing his best to buy enough time for everyone to make it through the passage. Things still felt incredibly hopeless but looking at the determination in everybody’s eyes brought around a sense of morale and a slimmer of hope. Several ships big and small dotted the coasts and harbour bridges. Most of the ships had already set sail. The ships sailed in small fleets of five passenger ships and two large warships which protected them. There were a handful of ships left at the harbour and were waiting patiently to disembark.

Moments after stepping out, Ino was being forcefully escorted by the soldiers present on the field that were doing their duty. They tried their best to bring Ino onto the ship but Ino resisted. He was adamant that he did not want to leave without his siblings. He waited by the docks behind a small barricade that protected him and several other soldiers from becoming loose arrow fodder. His eyes were fixated on the iron doorway of the passage and kept switching between that and Jayyed. He was scared and worried. He prayed that both would make it to the ships unharmed. Ino was mesmerized by Jayyed’s skills as a master archer. He grew a completely newfound respect for his older brother as he manned the frontlines. He made every shot count. He used to remember playing a game with Jayyed when he used to teach him how to use a bow; He would keep a count in his head of how many pots and vases he broke every minute. He tried to beat that record every time he tried again.

Some of the ships were assisting the army fight. They launched big shots of cannonballs well above the height of the gates and onto the Murakans behind it. Archers were lined up and ready on board for whenever the gates were broken through. There was a battle going on over the battlements on the wall. This wall was not as big and wide as the one protecting Feregar, this allowed several hooks and ladders to be placed on it easily. There was a pool of blood nearby where a pile of bodies lay lifeless. The fallen soldiers were quickly dragged to this pile by some of the soldiers waiting on the backlines. It was horrifying to see so much death; Ino struggled to keep on watching.

Suddenly a chaos breaks loose near the passage door. Nita quickly broke out of the shadows along with her forces behind her. They were covered head to toe with dark red blood which almost looked black. They looked as if they were running from something. Nita called out to Jayyed in haste.

“Close the doors behind us quickly!” She yelled.

“Jayyed board the ships and prepare them to leave!”

Jayyed turns around immediately and takes a look at what happened. Once all the royal gaurds had made their way through, some soldiers began to seal the door shut. But before they could even touch the door, an entire swarm of spiders began to push their way through the narrow door. They instantly decapitated the soldiers outside.

Jayyed looks at this event unfold in disbelief. He calls out to his archers.

“Take cover! Turn around and defend the harbour immediately!”

Almost all the archers turn their focus towards the spiders and begin to barrage them with arrows. The thick front hide of the spiders protected most of them from straight shots. The joints where the spider’s bodies connected were the only weak spots they had. These spiders looked bigger and way more vicious than the ones from before.

“Head to the ships quickly! Leave!” Jayyed shouts to Nita.

She nods her head as she continued running towards Ino. The spiders were pushing through the unprepared soldiers protecting the gates. They began to scale the barricades but were immediately stopped when the ships heavy ballista’s shot their powerful bolts at them.

As Nita drew closer to Ino, he could see that she was covered with spider guts and pieces all over. The two quickly made their way onto one of the larger warships along with the remainder of the royal guard.

“Jayyed!” Nita called out.

Jayyed shifts his attention.

“COME… NOW!”

“Leave! I will escape with another ship. Don’t worry about me, just go!”

He gives the order to the ship’s captain to leave. Soon enough, the ship unfurls its large sails and the wind carries it forth.

The harbour looked almost completely overrun. The spiders had created enough chaos to allow the Murakans to siege through the gates. They began to pour inside like flies. Ino and Nita were safe. They feared for Jayyed’s safety but Nita was confident that he would make it out; he almost always would make it out, even in the toughest of situations. The battle began to fade into the distance with each passing minute. Soon enough they could see the entire plateau where Feregar sat upon along with the Foye and the keep. There was smoke and fire almost everywhere. This was a devastating defeat for the kingdom of Feregar.

Ino turns to Nita.

“What happened in there?”

“More than I could have imagined. At first we pushed through but then were starting to get surrounded.”

Ino looks up and down at Nita.

“How many did you kill?”

“Don’t even ask. I’ve never fought so many at once. They were slow and sluggish, well that was until these bigger ones showed up. They began to pick off my guards with almost every opening they got. It was pointless to stay there as it would only lead to our death.”

“I’m glad you made it out. I was really scared.”

“Don’t worry about me so much. I can hold off at least a thousand of them and still fight on.”

Nita tries to smile but it quickly descends into crying. Ino tries his best to console her. He decided to stay silent.

“Father is dead. I heard the entrance to the passageway collapse while inside.”

“What? How could they … Kill a king..” Ino descends into tears as well. Both of them knew that it was inevitable. They let out a prayer in form of a final farewell so that both their parents could find each other in the travels.

Nita was looking towards the ocean as her tears trickled off her blood smeared cheeks.

“I swear I will return and put an end to them.” She spoke bitterly; her tone was cold and dead.

They were safe from all the fighting. Some time later, a soldier ran up to Nita and informed her.

“My lady, Jayyed is on board another ship. They managed to escape along with some of the remaining soldiers. Sadly most of our forces perished while holding off the walls. The spiders had cut off access to the harbour, preventing many to be trapped and left behind. This is the end of my report.”

Nita was pleased to hear that Jayyed made it out alive. She was concerned about the large amount of lives that were lost as well.

“Thank you.”

The soldier disappeared back into the crowd. Nita finds Ino and informs him about the news.

“Get some rest, it will take us an entire day to reach Brigna.”

Some of the ships had united caught up to theirs. Together they started to move as a fleet. Jayyed was present on one of the ships.

Night approached steadily as the day went by. There were enough supplies on each ship to last the crew and the passengers for almost an entire week. The moon was small but still bright. Ino was in the lower decks of the ship. He was updating his diary, when he heard a disturbance going on over upstairs. A storm had kicked in as it began to rain. The waves were large and tough but the ships were built specially to handle them. Most of the fleet were prepared for the storm since they were very common occurrences during the night because of the varying phases of the moon. Thunder was crackling outside. Ino decided to go up and check on what was happening.

As he climbed the stairs, a ringing sound of a bell began to play. The sailors on the crow’s nest of all ships in the vicinity were ringing their bells. They signalled a high alert. As Ino ran up on deck, he almost slipped and fell onto his face but Nita was there to catch him.

“Thank you!”

“What are you doing up here?” She asked grimly.

“I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.”

“Go down quickly. Our fleet was being tracked this whole time by those damn sellswords, the Sword of the Serpents.”

They were interrupted when the flash of lightning struck the ocean. In that minute of silence, the horizon was seen dotted with numerous silhouettes of ships along with their sails poised high up almost touching the sky. Everyone froze as they realised what was happening followed shortly by the crumbling sound of thunder.

The ships drew closer with every flash; they had turned off every source of light to avoid detection until now.

A horn blew in the distance from one of the Feredian ships.

“Eyes to the left! Portside!” She yelled.

The whole crew of the ship prepared themselves as the sails were moved in a better position to escape from the fleet.

“Head downstairs this instant!” Nita yelled at Ino.

He quickly listened to her and hid himself down below deck. The storm worsened as they sailed closer to the eye of it. There was barely any visibility. The only moments they saw anything were the brief intervals when lightning struck.

Nita turned to one of the officers on board asking for a report.

“Status?”

“Most of the ships have made it past the storm safely and are headed towards Brigna. Since we were the last few ships that left the harbour these pests were at our trail following us like mice to breadcrumbs.”

“How many of them are there?”

“We can’t tell, we cannot see them in the darkness at all.”

“Prepare the ship for impact, it is imminent.”

A naval warfare started to form at the outer edges of the fleet. Using the darkness to their advantage, the enemy ships had collided into some of the smaller ships. Their rams crushed the ship as they sunk into the depths. An exchange of cannonballs commenced as more ships started to appear out of the darkness.

Out of nowhere, a ship had managed to catch up to the ship Nita and Ino were on. Both the ships were lined up next to each other. Hooks and ropes were thrown onto their ship and the sellswords began to jump on board. A fight had broken out on deck and Nita and her forces fended off the attackers. They were ruthless but no more skilled than any other ordinary bandit. Nita could easily finish them off one by one. As both the ships rubbed against one another, the entire hull quaked. This threw many people off their footing allowing either side to win their respective duels while some were unfortunate enough to be thrown off the ship and into the maelstrom below.

Some of the sellswords had managed to slip into the lower decks to locate the gunpowder storage. It was well protected by the royal guard. This made it hard for any of them to even get a glimpse of it. Ino had blocked himself in a narrow room of the sleeping quarters. He was thrown off when someone began to kick at the doors. He knew that whoever was kicking behind that door wanted to kill him. He prepared himself and drew out his dagger from his waist belt. He was equipped with light leather but had no helmet on. He backed away from the corner he was in and into a much more open space. The door broke open and a mercenary holding a long jagged blade pounced inside. He looked at the young boy and smiled.

“All to myself eh?” He cackled.

Ino stood steadfast.

“Alright then, let’s finish this quickly.” He looks at the tiny dagger Ino was holding and laughed further. He was overconfident.

The mercenary took a wide lunge at Ino but missed. Ino threw a blanket on the man and stabbed him in his side. He tried to make a run for the door but tripped and fell when the man caught his footing.

“GARHH! You little s**t!” He yelled in pain. He was furious and took a few more impatient and inaccurate swings at Ino.

He began to close in onto Ino. He drove his blade straight at him and it struck into near his collar. It pierced his leather vest and ruptured his right shoulder. Ino kicked the man straight in his core and moved a few inches back with agonised pain. He threw his dagger at the man in panic and missed completely.

The blade ricocheted off one of the wooden beams and hit the floor far away from him. The sellsword began to close in once more.

“Oh…hoho Nice try whelp… But it wasn’t enough. Now, time to squeal like a pig.”

Ino was terrified, he tried to run but the man caught his hand and held him in place. Ino collapsed onto the floor in fear and shut his eyes. The man was about to drive his blade into Ino. But before he could, he heard quick shuffle of footsteps behind him.

Ino looked straight into the sellswords eyes; he was so scared that he shut his eyes tightly. Suddenly he heard the sound of a blade tearing through skin. Blood spew across his face, it made him jerk back. He opened his eyes slowly only to see the sell swords face almost split in half. A long blade had been rammed through his head and had split open his neck and broke through his jaw. Slowly, the man dropped onto his side and Nita was standing behind him. Ino looked up at his sister, afraid as a cat.

He was speechless but ever grateful to his sister for saving him.

“I’ll always have your back, don’t worry. I’ll always be there when you need me the most. You and Jayyed are the only family I have left.”

Tears roll down Ino’s cheeks as he picks himself up. He hugs his sister tightly. He grunts in pain as he moves his shoulder.

“You’re hurt! Let me take a look quickly!” Nita began to search for his wound. It was still bleeding but thankfully wasn’t too deep. The padding of his armour was ripped to pieces and would have to be replaced. Nita finds some bandages from a supply box nearby and begins to tend to Ino’s wound. For her, Ino was still small and would always consider him as her young little brother. She was incredibly protective of him.

“We’ve held those mercenaries off, we are safe now. I just hope Jayyed isn’t trapped in this mess and can escape with ease.” Nita explains.

“I’d rather stay down here…I’ve had enough of the sea for one night.”

“Alright, take some rest. We should dock at Brigna by noon.”

Nita returns to the ship deck where almost all of the crew were either resting or recuperating from the attack. Some soldiers were looking off into the distance from one side of the ship. The storm was still going on but had settled down as they moved farther away from its core.

Nita looked into the distance and could only see the glow of fire and explosions in the distance. Darkness swallowed the rest. Thunder and the occasional sound of a cannon going off in the distance was the only thing she could hear as their vessel charted through the rough ocean.