Recruited Mage (14 page)

14 The invasion

“There they are!” s
houted someone at the front of the boat and everyone leapt to their feet straining to look. I struggled upright and looked toward the front of the boat. I could not see anything from my position except everyone in my way. One boy suddenly started crying in fear. There was no cheering or anything.

Why should there be?

Not even talking or whispering.

It is here. Our first time in the line of fire. Huge chance of death. Are we ready? I am not!
We shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here!

A horn was blasted on a nearby ship and
flags were raised on almost every ship. A man walked to our mast where a flag was already flapping. The flag of the Engineers. Everyone ran back to their seats and started buckling on their gear. I did the same, struggling against the pain to stand and stumble over to the bench. I tried to attach my gear like everyone else but I could not put it on, and there was pressure on my rope belt as it went around my wounds. I ended up strapping my short sword to the back of my shoulder so that the handle was next to my head, ready for me to grab when,
If
I needed it. I could not put the crossbow strap on either and so I ended up just leaving it on my lap.

All around on the hundreds of boats around and in front of us a bustle of activity was going on. Bombards where be being taken away from the holes to I assumed be loaded. Catapults where being wound down and loaded with anything from rocks to huge jars of what I guessed was oil, ready to be lit. I
realised we were near the front of the fleet. All the boats at the front where transport ships like ours, filled with men and boys. As I looked around I saw there were more ships containing boys like us than I thought.

Maybe we
make the holes in the walls for the army to follow.

As I looked around I saw that I was probably right, the boats behind the front boats were nearly all men and they were better armed and
armoured than us.

So we have one purpose, breach the walls.

Everyone I looked at looked scared; their faces ashen, breathing quickly. A few were trembling, their eyes closed as if praying. I could hold it back no more and broke into a cold sweat, feeling dizzy.

We sailed ever closer to the I
slands, the wind going in the right direction. As we neared the tops of the Islands became visible over the front of the boat. In minutes I could see the fortresses rising of them. Circle upon circle of walls leading to a huge keep at the centre of the island. The biggest Island was like a mountain, rising hundreds of metres into the air, nearly the whole island a fortress. The Islands slipped nearer and nearer, starting to tower over us. There was shouting on the other boats, all of them. War cries and chants that echoed over the water to our boat. We were heading for the mountain Island.
The most heavily defended.

I heard bells ringing in the dist
ance, from the Islands of course.
They must be ringing every bell they have. Calling their men, women and children to fight us, to ready defences and weapons to kill us with.

The Isl
ands neared to just two kilometres away and everyone readied.

Just three or so minutes left.

I looked beside me to Donal and Detarian.

I don’t remember them being friends.
I thought then rebuked myself.
Thinking about that now? How could I? We could all be dead in a minute.

Donal looked like he was crying and Detarian was trying to comfort him.

“Ok for you!” Donal blurted out at Detarian. “You have been training for months. We have only for a week. You know what you are doing!” Then Donal glanced at me. “But what can I do to complain.” he said and then looked up at me, staring me in the eye. “You almost died four days ago! You can barely walk!” Then Donal looked back to the front of the boat where the Captain was now standing. I saw the boy with the golden stripe on his waistcoat on the other boat with the rest of our Assault Group doing the same.

“Read
y now all of you!” shouted the Captain and we all stood. The captain looked straight at me and shook his head. I sat again slowly.
But I can’t just sit here and do nothing.
“Today we fight for the Emperor!” Everyone gave a shout “For the emperor!” in response. “Good luck all of you and…”

A huge sound like a massive g
ong rang out from the mountain Island that we were less than a mile away from, cutting out sound of the Captain’s voice. The sound of the gong stopped and everyone went silent. Then out by the Islands the water started rippling in many different places.

Then the water nearest the Is
land shifted. Out of the water reared a head at least half the size of our boat. My blood went cold again and everyone gasped in horror; it was the head of a giant serpent, no doubt hundreds of metres long. It swung it’s head towards out fleet and with a gigantic splash it’s head disappeared into the water.

“It’s coming!” s
omeone shouted and the fleet spurred into action. Suddenly over the side of the boat I saw a huge shadow pass in the murky water. Then I looked back towards the island and all the ripples we had seen were racing towards the fleet. I looked in horror as fins and the tops of huge creatures became visible in the water. Suddenly faint screams filled the air behind us and we all turned and stared in fascinated horror as one of the multi-levelled ship was suddenly over shadowed by the head and part of the body of the serpent. One of the bombards fired point blank at fifteen-metre thick body and the metal ball ripped into it. Other bombards fired as well, ripping chunks out of the sea monster. The serpent screamed an unearthly scream and fell forward onto the boat. The head went straight through the hull splitting the boat in two.

Suddenly screams erupted from other places in the fleet; sea monsters where attacking other boats. There were huge monsters that
looked like squid but where ten metres long. There were smaller serpents, tens of metres long, and huge shark like creatures that where simply biting boats open. The screaming was horrific and I saw people being ripped in half and devoured, their blood splattering on the decks of the ships.

However the crews stated fighting back; firing arrow after arrow, bolt after bolt into the creatures. We were killing them by the do
zen. We kept going towards the Island, leaving wreckage and dead sea monsters behind us.

The shore slipped nearer and nearer and our catapults fired. What must have been almost three hundred shots arched through the
air in a graceful but deadly arc at the Island. The most beautiful ones where the pots of flaming oil, brightly flashing across the sky. The chunks of stone smashed into the walls and mountainsides, smashing holes into them. The pots of oil shattered into brilliant fireballs, engulfing towers and houses.

Then the I
slanders fired back in a terrifying hail of stone and pots of oil similar to ours. We watched in horror as the shots flew towards us. They hit all around the fleet, smashing boats in two and setting others aflame. Where the shots missed great plumes of water rose up before crashing down on boats. Our catapults fired back again and again but so did theirs, more and more boats where hit. We screamed in terror as a shot came towards us. It flew over the water straight at us and we all ducked, expecting death at any moment.

A huge plume of water rose just next to our boat, showering it with water. I was soaking in an instant. Up ahead I could see that was not all. The walls where lined with archers and the shore was covered in wreckage. We sailed forward closer and closer. Everyone was on full alert, sweat steaming down our faces. Some of us were crying others just waiting in grim silence.

In seconds we were less than one hundred metres from the shore from which there was a good one hundred metre stretch of gravel and stone, littered with huge boulders and rubble.

Then ballistae
all along the walls fired. The two-metre long arrows sped over the beach and shallow water in a second, some of them aimed at us. One hit the sail ripping it almost in half. Two more smashed into the deck, miraculously missing everyone. The shore came closer and closer and we pulled out our shields, holding them above our heads. Then a huge rock smashed into our boat.

Our boat snapped right in two and splinters flew everywhere. The ends of the boats tipped up and we fell into the water. All this happened in a second and I barely reacted at all before I was flung in to the water.

The water was deathly cold and the impact jarred my stomach. OI screamed in pain underwater, my air pouring out of my lungs. I surfaced yelling, the pain was excruciating and I thrashed about in the water. Suddenly hands grabbed me and I was dragged through the water to the beach, the stones smashing into the wounds on my back. In a few second my mind cleared and the pain became bearable. We were crouched behind a huge rock, and all around us was madness. There where arrows flying past us into the water or smashing into the rock. My saviours where Donal and Detarian, somehow still live and together. More arrows whizzed past, peppering the water.

I saw to bodies in the water, boys just like us. One was peppered with three arrows and
a huge splinter almost as big as him impaled the other. There was shouting all around us, it sounded like many were hiding behind the wreckage of the ship, just suck in the shore. Another group of shouts came from our left on the other side of the wreckage of the boat, washed onto the shore. Donal saw me try to peep around the rock at where the shouts were coming from.

“There are about twenty in the wreckage of the boat and thirty behind an
other rock over to our left,“ he yelled over the sound of the sea and the arrows whizzing past. “The rest are scattered around,” Then he stopped and looked sadly at the bodies in the water, “or dead.”

No one dared move and we sat in terrified silence. To our right was the other ship with the rest of us in. They had reached the shore but were pinned down like us under hail of arrows. Catapult shots continued to fly over our heads, in two different directions.

Behind us I could just make out the rest of our fleet, racing towards the shore. Many ships where gone however and the rain of catapult fire was not stopping. Our catapult fire had stopped however and only tens of shots now came from out boats, the number decreasing with every volley.

How could we be doing this badly
? Hundreds of boats do not just sink! We cannot have lost that many! In only a few minutes!

Way further along the beach an attack was going on. Hundreds of men had landed safely and were now charging up the beach, gunpowder packs in hand. They were being slaughtered though. Men were falling every second, arrows ripping through their chests.

My feet were still in the water and I tried to pull them out but the pain in my stomach stopped me. I pulled up my shirt to see blood in my bandage.

Some stitches have ripped!
I almost passed out in shock.
I am going to die! I am going to die!
Then I reassured myself that it was not much, and I was going to be ok.

Then a piece of
bobbing wreckage moved. It shook from side to side and moaned and I gasped in fear. Then a boy stuck his head out; it was streaked with blood and water.

“Help me…” h
e pleaded, “…help me, please. I am stuck, I hurt my leg, help me please.” The boy looked badly hurt and I knew the blood on his face was his.

Before we could stop him Donal ran out towards the man, sprinting into the shallows beside the boy.
Quickly he dislodged the boy and started dragging him back towards us. The boy’s leg was definitely broken as it was twisted at a horrific angle. As Donal pulled him back an arrow whizzed past him and splashed it the water behind him.
The archers have seen him!

“Run!” Shouted Detarian and Donal strained harder. Another arrow flew in and broke on a rock right next to him. Donal was back in seconds, the boy safe against the rock.

Donal suddenly spun around and fell face first onto the sand, into the safety of the boulder. Sticking out of his back was an arrow, embedded almost up to its proud feathers of red and white.

“Donal!” I yelled, crawling over to him and I turned him onto his side. He was not breathing, he had stopped moving and when I checked he had no pulse. “Donal!” I shouted again, shaking him.

He’s dead!

I started crying then and there. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I burst into uncontrollable sobbing.

He can’t be dead! He can’t!

“Wake up! Wake up!” I yelled, sobbing more and more, tears rolling down my face. “No!” I screamed.

This should be me! I should be dead not him! I was already injured, already almost dead. I should have been me!

I could barely be
lieve it. Donal who had shot a man and cried for two days! Donal who laughed with me when we were pushed in the river. Donal who sent me ahead during training to draw fire and had to rescue me. Donal who saved me from the wolf finishing me off. Donal who just gave his life to rescue someone he did not know!