The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (38 page)

The deer scruffed his paws in the dirt, nudged Kendari, and shook his head to the no.

“The deer goes with you, I cannot change the will of the Mother.”

“Fine, just make sure you find them, and travel fast and safe.” Kendari nodded to the deer and squinted his eyes in displeasure. “And you, stay close, quiet, and do as I say.”

“And you? What is your plan Kendari of Stillwood?”

“Trust me, I will get in.
I have a summoning to disrupt.
You just do,
whatever you do
, and do not fail them.
Leave Vin Armon to me.
”

“Then this is f
arewell, my
vigilante swordmaster
.” Angeline closed her eyes and breathed in the calm air. “Watch over him.”

“I will.” Kendari nodded.

“I was speaking to the deer.” Angeline patted the young buck on the head and rubbed his little horns.

“Ahh, amusing. Farewell,
flying woman
. If one or both of us should die, it has been an adventure crossing blades with you in three different kingdoms.”

“She works in mysterious ways, never forget this. You can find redemption, I know from experience. It has been a dangerous twist of fate meeting you, to say the least. Seirena’s blessing upon you, Kendari of Stillwood.” Angeline reached out her arm, she saw him hesitate and stare, then he took a breath and shook her forearm to his.

“Well met, Angeline of Charity, of the Knights Soujan.” It had been centuries since he had met someone he felt respect for. Longer since he felt to shake arms, hands, or embrace anything. Quickly, Kendari pulled the cowl over his head and dashed into the darkness north and west. The deer cast a
knowing glance or three to Angeline, but he followed the Nadderi elf
closely. Within moments, they were gone.

Angeline was alone in the dark, under the moons, she closed her eyes and knelt in the grass.
She heard Kendari’s trampling horse ride off north.
She drew Charity from her scabbard and laid her in front of her knees. Clearing her mind, she allowed the stars, the white moon, and the earth itself to come to her. Charity sang a song that only she could hear, sending blessings out in poetic verse for Kendari and the deer. After moments in silence, the lady of the Knights Soujan opened her eyes and looked at Charity. A leaf had blown onto her anglic carved crosspiece of little feminine faces. The leaf pointed due south
, then blew away in the night breeze.

“South it is.” Angeline picked up her hand and a half blade of her secret order, kissed it, and sheathed it. She felt a throb, a sound in her head, Charity was telling her something.

“I know, I feel it too. A child to be born soon, one of the Caricians is close
by
, and so is Gwenneth Lazlette. Sing to me Charity, for we have a long travel to cover in short time.” Angeline felt the grass and air lift her, felt the wind in her face as she hovered with inhu
man steps, and followed the guiding will
of the children of the Mother.

Castle Valhera, Valhirst

“
Capitan D’Littai, your men are falling back on the south and north walls! Send out your reserves!” Johnas yelled from the catwalk of Valhera castle a
s arrows flew over his head from
the enemy and stones from catapults crashed into his city.

“Yes, m’liege! But I have no more sergeants to lead them!” The Harlian capitan had four thousand men outside the walls of Valhirst battling the armies of King Mikhail and Chazzrynn. One legion to the north, one to the south, and two on the western entrance. Half of those men were de
ad and dying already, only half an hour
into the siege.

“Do you need an invitation? Get on your damn horse and
charge the field, capitan!” Johnas drew his longsword and pointed to the leader of the borrowed Harlian forces. Capitan D’Littai drew his rapier, pulled the visor on his helmet down, and marched down the stairs to what remained of his men.

Johnas
had not expected Mikhail to charge in so hard, head on as he had
, surely knowing he was outnumbered
. The king with Lord Corey’s forces had rode right through the Harlaheim infantry, and even match of numbers but not experience. Aelaine Lazlette and her Kendrynn Shilde had occupied the archers and infantry there with hit and run tactics into the south wall. Her arcane powers were eating up arrows and time as her balls of fire and strokes of lightning weakend the castle gates. General Fandruss had waited for the late arriving Sir Jallan of Hurne, and now outmatched the forces on the north wall as well. With his walls so occupied with the deafening barrage of battering rams, he had not had time to counter Chancellor Marcus who relentlessly fired catapults
and volleys of arrows
, one after another, into his city.

“My prince, why do we wait? We have two thousand men of our own with bows
and blades, and Lord Unarvin here and his thousand
, not to mention our agents all ready to spring from the sides spill blood for you.” Oggidan ducked a spear thrown from the battle below that somehow reached up near the top of the catwalk. He looked down with his prince.

Four
thousand or more men on foot and horse were carving each other red through steel and standards
on three fronts of the castle
. Just as many were dead on the green summer grasses and being trampled underfoot. Their bridge was up, yet Mikhails’ army had placed three siege bridges over his moat, and had gotten two wheeled battering rams across. One was useless, covered in oil and flames, one hundred dead around it already. The other was covered with shields and still cracking through the main gates of the castle. They watched King Mikhail rally his men, fighting like he was half his own age, fighting while surrounded and never faltering. The black falcon fl
ags and banners would not fall
, his men were winning, and Johnas knew it.

Lord Unarvin, the traitor from Saint Gavrielle spoke solemnly as well, watching the deaths of thousands this close had humbled him. “Seems we are losing the north and south, but barely holding the
west gate
---“

“I know what form the siege is in, fat traitor and one handed boy! I need not a lecture!” Johnas yelled.

“Sorry my prince.” The
y
spoke quietly as the screams and clash of steel rang below them.

“We wait to get all the borrowed forces on the field. Once I am done with the Harlians, you
,
Unarvin
will lead our forces in the courtyard
. You will get to see a king die by my hand, so be ready on my command.” Johnas sneered at the traitor, he despised the fat bearded wretch.

“Yes, my prince.” Lord Unarvin bowed as another stone smashed new cracks into Valhera castle to their left.

“Oggidan, get me Farrigus and tell him to fetch his men
from the ships
, now.
All agents to the upper tunnels and balconies. Here, t
ake this, give it to Vermillion of the South
, tell him to guard the heir prince close.”
Johnas unbuckled his kris blade with the strange emerald pommel. It had been throbbing, his mother inside warning him of many things. In the midst of siege, he could not discertain what she was directing him toward, so he would send the steel blade to his brother, despite her obvious displeasures.

“My prince, the sword is, it is…vibrating and
ouch!
Ahhh…owww!
It stings me, how does it do that?” Oggidan held the grip and then switched to holding it by the scabbard as pain shot through his remaining hand.

“Do not touch it, j
ust carry it to Vermillion, now!
” Johnas took a shield held out by one of his many squires.
He had three thousand men, panthers, and agents waiting. Yet
, he felt timing was not right
.
“
And send the doppelgangers
to me
.”

Oggidan ran down the stairs to the courtyard, then into the castle to head below. Lord Unarvin followed Johnas to ready the men, then Johnas nodded to his guards and raised his hand. The north and south gates were sealed behind the Harlian forces outside in a desperate battle at the walls.
The thousands of soldiers of Valhirst backed up to the rear east wall in formation, drew
and raised
their bows,
then
waited.

“
What are you doing, my prince?
” Unarvin knew that the Harlaheim forces were mixed in melee with King Mikhail, and would be hit as well with the blind rain of flights.

“Are you Harlian, Lord of Saint Gavrielle?” Johnas clenched his fist in the air.

“No, my prince.” He bowed his head.

“Then what do you care?
Archers, loose!”
Three times he gave the order, and three times the two thousand
bows
of Valhirst fired over their western gates into the battle they could not see.

Screams, both Harlian and Chazzrynnian alike, rose each time mere seconds after the arrows filled the sky. Johnas smiled, mounted his stallion, and waited for his reinforcements to ready their blades and shields.
The steel portcullis was leaning in, coming loose from the stone, he knew his uncle would be through soon.
Several more duplicates of himself appeared throughout the caslte interior, and he grinned
even
more.

LCMVXILCMVXILCMVXILCMVXIL

“You
arrre
so lucky that Johnas wants you to hang
frrrom
his walls, little prince. If I had my way, you would be food
forrr
my men.” Farrigus kicked his boot into the fetal curl of Bryant again, then again. His whiskers were sprouting as the smell of blood rose faintly in the air and the chains rattled with every blow he delivered. He purred as he smiled, certain he had broken many bones of the heir prin
ce of Chazzrynn in the last half hour
of retribution.

Jehrale Valhera watched, no emotion on his face at all, and stood silent by the four a
gents in the prison corridors of
the White Spider underground.
The crashing of sto
nes and battering of rams echoed
little, but enough for him to hear this far under. His senses were keen, he heard someone approaching, yet he kept his eyes on this Farrigus creature, man, whatever he was.

“You know,
Brrryant
, no one
everrr
escapes the White Spider. No one ever has, so you know this is your last day,
rrright
?” Crimson of the North, a title now held by this strange man known as Farrigus Narminson, grabbed the heir prince by the hair and slammed his knees into his face.

Bryant fell back down and curled up. He could not see out of his left eye as it was swollen over. His energy was gone after two weeks of whatever they fed him and cold sweats in the dark. His breathing was short, something clacked in his chest, surely bones were broken. He tried to move his fingers into fists, yet only one hand would respond, and that hand was missing a finger already. His left leg was numb from the knee down, and his jaw felt strange from the right side up past his ear. The strength he had to fight, to talk and insult at least, was gone.
The stron
g
kick of this
man, who he vaguely remembered to start, was beyond the force
ful
beatings of the others. This man was not human, something was not right about him, but he remembered the patch. Bryant recalled the man on the Queen Sapphire that attacked his galleon, and he thought of how he had won and left her stranded in the islands. He tried to smile, knowing that he was right about the White Spider.
Another boot, then three, ended his pleasant thoughts.

“Enough. That is enough, someone is coming Farrigus.” Jehrale drew his twin shortblades and turned slow inside a shadow. The four agents did the same, though not nearly as well.

“I am now Crimson of the North, I expect the title to be
rrrecognized
, Vermi
llio
n.” Farrigus purred back, slowly turning darker with fur and also taking solace in a dark slant of shadow.

“Fine,
Crimson of the North
, shut your mouth. Your time with the prisoner is over.
Better
?” Vermillion watched a lone figure run down the stairs.

“You
arrre
lucky I smell your relation to Johnas, or the Emerald Eight would need another leg to stand on, Vermillion.” Farrigus walked on all fou
rs n
ow, the patch over his eye
, and prowled the underchamber. “It is the red headed boy, I smell him.”

“
Master Vermillion, where are you
?” Oggidan whispered. He jumped back and pointed his armblade. One feline eye was to his right while four sets of blades came from his rear and left.