A Choice of Blades: The Blade Remnant, Book One

by D. N. Woodward

  As Reed studied the medallion, Ferschall inserted himself into the conversation. “Leon, I promised you a reward for what you did in bringing me my pottery, yes?”

  “No worries, Ferschall. We can settle up later.”

  The old man chuckled but continued, “I think I know where.”

  Leon had to do a double-take. The old man wasn’t making sense. “You know where what?”

  “I think I know precisely where one of the last two Royal Trees reside! It took me a few days of research, but I thought that writing on the back of your medallion looked familiar. I have been able to decipher the messages! They are directions, yes? This is from the first age of Fayden. Back in a time of prosperity, when the seven tribes were ruled by Bladed leaders. Each emerald gem represents the location of an ancient stronghold,” he flipped the medallion over, “each message corresponds to the general locality of one Royal Tree within the stronghold.”

  “Ferschall, that’s great news, but I think I already know where one of the two last Royals reside. One is in the Silent City, and that’s practically impossible to visit from what I’ve been told."

  Ferschall shook his head like he was about to give some bad news, he pointed at one of the green emeralds in the center of the medallion. “The Silent City killed their Royal Tree ages ago after the first culling departed.”

  “How do you know that?” Leon asked.

  Ferschall’s excitement waned. “Because my father was of the Vindarri Tribe. Trust me when I say, nothing green thrives within the Silent City, but…” Ferschall’s finger moved up to the topmost emerald on the map, “this is nearest to the Northern High Pass, where I suspect one of the remaining two Royals is located.”

  "It certainly matches up with what Shay was able to confirm from her book!" Leon said.

  The others leaned in to follow Ferschall’s finger.

  Sved walked back into the room after a talk with his mother. When they filled him in on Ferschall's newfound discoveries and showed him the location on the medallion, he whistled, “Am I wrong or is that nestled up in the forested ruins just east of the Northern High Pass?”

  Leon frowned as he realized something. “Ferschall, if that's the case then I think that's the tree I originally used to travel out of Fayden. How do you know it isn't withered like the Royal Portal was when we arrived?"

  "Was there a fourth Royal in your world, near where you lived, that had withered and died after you arrived as a child?"

  "No, actually, you're right! Gus and Ethan both believed no one had used a Royal Portal for hundreds of years. Gus would have surely known if there was another Royal that had withered in recent years!"

  "So, you see, the tree may still be available for one to use, yes?"

  "Then how come the Royal we used when we arrived died?"

  "Ah, now, that is an interesting question!" Ferschall scratched his chin as he considered the implications, and Leon could tell there was a question forming on the tip of his tongue.

  Reed cut in, "Still, guys, there’s an army of giants about to attack that pass. Why would the Vin be helping Ben and his men to get all the way up there unless Ben shared our story with them as well, and they were working with the Fae all along?”

  “Another good assumption, and I don’t think it bodes well for your world or mine. We need to get to the Otterkin Kingdom first, then we must decide our next steps, yes?”

  Haddie popped her head in the room. “Guys, we have to go!”

  Reed clenched Leon’s arm and brought him in for a half hug and a back thump before they too left the shelter of the Haberkorns. “By the way, Haddie filled me in on your trek behind the slavers. Thanks for what you did to free us.”

  “Are you kidding me? Have you met my fiancé? Believe me when I say any effort on my end was well worth the trouble buddy!”

  # # #

  Leon caught his first glimpse of the Fang Guard as he and his companions piled themselves and their gear onto floating barges tied off along Haberkorn Market shores. Haberkorn merchants had led the Guard on a merry chase through their patchwork maze of tents, but the officers had at least seen through the misdirection. They arrived to intercept his party just as the Otterkin were cutting the mooring lines to the barges.

  Thick leather breastplates and scimitar swords appeared to be standard issue for all city guard warriors. Several stopped in their tracks and hunched over, changing form from the shadows near the edge of the market's tents.

  When they straightened once more, ethereal howls broke loose from toothy maws. Then the skin-changers charged the fleeing barge boats. Leon did notice one Fanged officer attempting to calm the situation and stop the impending violence, but he was utterly ignored.

  A vain effort was also made by several of Sved’s men to broker peace before the fighting ensued, but their pleas were disregarded entirely by the wolves. When one of the Otterkin was cut down where he stood, the remaining men fled back to the water’s edge. Following their attempts to avert hostility, Otterkin men plunged into the river all around them.

  Shay gave an order, and her people faced their attackers together. She and her Fae changed shape as well. Their eyes glowed purple and mocking laughter broke the spell of fear generated by the chorus of howls. Glowing stones were flung into the mob of charging warriors. A few went down. Some simply dove for cover. The majority made it to the shore without missing a beat.

  Almost all of the barges were tied within relatively close proximity to the shore when the wolves attacked. Their lupine bodies leaped from the shoreline to the barges. Each of them came down swinging heavy scimitars at any target close enough to slash. A few of their savvier individuals grabbed anchor lines and flung them like grappling hooks, further pinning the barges in place. Kyra and Leon stood with her brothers and Grumpy on one barge. Dimples, Rezz, Merle, Ahab, and the Thunderbird stood on another.

  The Fae were spread out over three more. Madam Hazzel, Haddie, Reed, and the two other Bladed Fae rescued with Reed were at the front of the line. They had boarded first and managed to disengage their lines and drift out far enough away that no wolves or grapples could reach their barge. No one else had time to do the same.

  Leon gave a request through his Blade to Westley. The owl took flight before the first wolf made it onto his deck. He also sent a directive for Merle and Ahab to defend Dimples and Rezz.

  Then the wolves came calling on his barge and his focus was pulled back to his immediate surroundings. He and Stonebreaker siblings met saber with Blade. The first wolf to come down attempted a quick slash at Kyra. She had already gracefully stepped back out of reach. Simultaneously, Fane darted in to stab his Blade through the wolfman’s sword arm. Chocum went in low and cut his hamstring on a leg.

  Daz simply stepped forward and kicked him square in the chest. Though the wolf-changer stood nearly seven feet tall and could move with lightning-fast precision, everything happened at once and the wolf had no room to dodge the big man’s foot. He stumbled back and fell into the dark waters below. Leon only saw small ripples and a few bubbles break the surface above where the man sank. Small flickers of movement from below the surface told him Otterkin were providing some form of cover from below.

  Then two more men leaped onto their boat. One well-timed swat from Grumpy took care of the first. The second one made a mistake when he tried to fight through the three Bearskinner brothers and forgot about Leon and Kyra. The two of them cut him down from behind and once again, a wolf was tossed from their boat into the water.

  The fighting became hot and heavy from there on out. As soon as one wolf would make it onto the boat, another two were leaping in from behind. However, boarding room was limited and as the Stonebreakers all tapped into their Bladed gifts, the playing field remained level.

  Kyra’s strength surprised more than one wolf. Chocum could move with such superhuman agility he was able to dodge and contort himself out of every tight situation that came his way. Daz had a unique ability to roar. He could stop any wo
lf directly before him, dead in its tracks. Fane, however, was art in action. The man possessed a unique combination of speed and an uncanny ability to find weakness, which allowed him to go toe-to-toe, at least for short spurts, with a fully changed wolf.

  Leon marveled at their prowess but, at the same time, did his best to remember his training. He would dart in and out of exposed openings when his attackers were distracted. His Blade was somehow always there to save Kyra from a powerful back-handed slash or a lunging stab from a newly arrived wolf and, thankfully, hers was there on more than one occasion to do the same for him.

  The group worked well together and fell into a rhythm. Daz would roar to distract the incoming guards, while others worked to hack and push them back off the barge. Grumpy pretty much did his own thing, mauling anyone that came within his reach like some giant grizzly waiting on a fat trout to come jumping upriver, right into his angry paws.

  Things were going better than expected until one wolf managed to grab hold of Daz as he fell backward into the Brindle. Kyra’s brother didn’t have time to react. He was pulled overboard and disappeared before even Chocum could nab his flailing arm.

  There was a brief break in the fighting at about that time and everyone held their breath watching the ripples in the water until they heard sputtering laughter from the other side of the boat. Daz flopped up onto the deck smiling like a madman.

  “Those wolves are fools to jump at us out here on the water! It's murky as can be down there, but I think there’s an army of little furry Otter-men surrounding us, all armed with three-headed spears!”

  It was true. Leon noticed with mixed feelings of relief and trepidation that not one wolf that went down had yet managed to re-enter the fight.

  Everyone had a moment to catch their breath just in time for a larger wave of wolves to arrive.

  “Incoming!” Leon heard Chocum yell. It definitely sounded like the brothers were enjoying the fight.

  Leon remembered the anchor lines which held their barge in place. “Cover me while I cut these lines,” he said. Then considering the other barges, “Everyone, cut your lines!” he shouted above the sounds of battle. He saw several individuals on other barges working frantically like him to sever the mooring lines and extract the improvised grappling hooks before the next batch of wolves arrived.

  As he worked, he looked up and down the edge of the market, searching for any sign of the giant hippos he had met on the Murk Water river. They were nowhere to be seen. However, what he did see brought a smile to his face. Bound and gagged wolves were being spewed up onto shore about a hundred yards downriver. Their location was partially blocked from view, so their brethren on the shore would be hard-pressed to find them anytime soon.

  Then the fighting picked up again and Kyra and her brothers fell back into their roles of harassment and attack, freeing him to finish freeing their bonds. Only one wolf managed to make it past their guard. He leaped onto their barge with two others. Leon looked up to see a wolf leering down at him at the last possible moment. Observing the bloodlust on that snarling face was enough to freeze him in his tracks. Just as the wolf lifted his sword to deliver the killing blow, Westley came diving in, attacking the wolf's eyes with his talons. The howl of pain was immediately silenced by Fane. No one came close to interrupting his work afterward.

  A few more rounds of heavy fighting and the last line dropped free. Moments later, there was a large disturbance at the edge of their barge, just below the surface of the water. The slack grew tight on the ropes hanging from the front of the boat. The barge jerked forward, and everyone stumbled back into Grumpy at the sudden movement. Soon, Leon’s barge was also too far from the shore for any wolves to board.

  The fight, however, was still going strong. He looked back at the others. Shay was a one-woman wrecking crew with her long, delicate sword. She managed to injure or maim just about every wolf that landed on her barge. Her immediate guard split time helping her to clear the deck and slinging rocks at the steady stream of new arrivals. Dimples, Rezz, and Merle were also working well together while Ahab circled from above, diving down to knock wolves off their trajectories and into the Brindle as they leaped towards his floating barge.

  The remaining two barges, full of the rest of Shay’s guard, were not fairing so well. Leon could see that two of the largest of the wolves to have arrived had managed to find purchase amongst the Fae warriors and the results were devastating. More and more wolves leaped onto those barges, boarding, and cutting through the Fae like furry buccaneers from some lupine pirate ship until the few surviving guards simply bailed off into the water.

  The small victory for the wolves, however, was short-lived. Those two barges mysteriously and abruptly sank. Then, the wolf guards who were on them were individually yanked beneath the surface as they attempted to swim for shore. Meanwhile, the few surviving Fae guards popped up beside the other barges and were quickly helped aboard.

  Soon all the remaining barges were moving forward. The barges continued to pick up speed while a larger contingent of enraged guards kept pace at a safe distance from the shoreline. Yet the guards lost the race to the barges when the presence of buildings, interspersed along the water’s edge, blocked their path.

  An Otterkin man breached next to Leon's barge, nimbly landing on the barge deck. The man wore waterproof pants but was covered in a short auburn coat of fur. He shook himself like a dog and the water splashed everyone. His hands and feet were webbed, and his frame was sleek. The fur looked dry after only the one shake. He made an odd noise from the back of his throat.

  A moment later his skin changed back to that of a little man and Leon realized it was laughter he had been hearing. He also realized he knew the man.

  “Sved! What happened back there? Are your people going to be able to pull these barges for very long?”

  “Ha, no. Wish we could have got going more quickly, but we had to round up transportation.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We keep a herd of freshwater womb-fish close at hand here at the river’s edge. They are powerful swimmers and will get us to our border in only three or four days.”

  “Womb-fish?”

  “Sure, watch this.” Sved slapped the water, and a sleek teal fin broke the surface, followed by a leaping green dolphin. As he continued to watch, several more dolphins broke the surface out in front, they took in air and re-submerged to continue pulling them forward.

  “Man, that is amazing!”

  “Good, now you all help me restack these boxes along the edges of the barge, yes? The Brindle narrows at the edge of the city and if there’s a wall patrol nearby, the wolves may seek to cut us down with crossbows.” Leon could see other Otterkin helping the remaining barges to shift similar piles of boxes and gear to provide the same measure of cover.

  “What about the northern bank?”

  “There’s no bridge ahead. And the guard will all be coming from the southern portion of the city, yes? I doubt even the wolves have the speed to circle slaver’s bay in time to catch us at the Narrows.”

  Leon and the crew quickly re-stacked their boxes to protect the southern side of the barge, then they hunkered down to wait while the dolphins pulled them toward the Narrows.

  # # #

  While the barges were still moving at a steady pace toward the edge of the city, ripples of water came closing in from behind. Before anyone could shout an alarm more Otterkin warriors surfaced holding up long hollow sticks as if they were hoisting treasured trophies. Shouts of celebration broke out among the ranks of their original Otterkin escorts.

  "What's going on, Sved?" Leon asked.

  "The city guard may have crossbows and arrows, but now we can fight them on an equal playing ground, yes? These men snuck back into our storage tents while you all were fighting off that pack of Guards. They brought back poison blow darts!"

  The barge shifted and Leon could see the City wall ahead. Madame Hazzel in the lead barge spoke up, "Everyone
who can swim, into the water. Now! Those who can't, take cover!"

  Splashes could be heard all around them, and even Haddie and Madam Hazzel dove down.

  Leon pulled off his shirt as he prepared to follow the Otterkin into the Brindle. He glanced over at Kyra and her brothers. They were in some sort of argument. Fane threw his hands in the air. "Leon, talk some sense into her, will you?"

  "I don't need you to tell me what to do Fane, and neither does he. I'm a good shot with a bow, and so is Leon. There's no way we are going to leave Grumpy up here all on his own, are we?"

  Leon, who was quickly trying to pull his shirt back on over his head, felt four sets of eyes on him. He opted to freeze where he was, afraid to pull his shirt down and see the steam coming from Kyra's ears.

  I'm definitely going to pay for this later!

  She threw her hands in the air and grumbled, "You are all free to go! But I'm staying!"

  Minutes later Kyra, Leon, and all three of her brothers crouched down behind the cargo boxes while their barge slid quietly by the towering south wall. The Fae on the barges around them crouched together, their leather slings resting ready at their sides.

  The barges had almost all made it through the narrows without a hitch, and still, there was no sign of the city guard. Leon breathed a sigh of relief. As if on cue, an arrow buried itself in the back of one of Shay's guards. The man screamed as he splashed back into the Brindle. A second later, a glowing stone struck the head of another one of her guards.

  "From the north! They're shooting from the north!" Shay shouted.

  Leon pivoted around, firing into the shadows with a bow he had been given back before the left Haberkorn Markets. It wasn't as powerful as Rezz's bow, but it got the job done. While he and Kyra continued to fire at vague shapes keeping pace with them along the shoreline, Kyra's brothers resituated crates once more to provide better cover for them all.