The Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal (Book 1)

by Joshua Hoyt

  Chapter 11:

  Tom woke, on the morning of his seventeenth birthday, from another nightmare about the Order of The Rose. The Order had chased down yet another enchantress and snuffed her life out like it was nothing more than a candle flame. The face of her counterpart twisted in pain and fury as he saw her struck down. The man turned on the Order with such fury that it took several bolts of lightning to take him down and even then several of the brethren had been seriously injured. Tom walked out of his room and into the front entryway trying to shake the memory away. He looked out the window and saw the first rays of the sun glistened on a fresh blanket of snow. He wondered at the beauty of the rising sun as it topped the ridge so far off. He reveled in the power of the sun. It had seemed so small a short time ago but as it rose in the sky it now gained power over the darkness. The sun chased the shadows and darkness from every corner of the small valley. I need to watch the sun more. It has so much power and beauty in the renewal of life.

  Tom continued to watch the sun rise for a short time when footsteps approached from behind him. He turned and saw Aithnea standing there with a blanket wrapped around her slim body. The sun warmed her sharp features and turned them into a soft glow. Her long black hair shimmered in the light of the morning rays as it fell lightly across her shoulders. She smiled as he stared at her and became mesmerized by her dark green eyes. Tom wished that this moment would never end. Aithnea slowly raised her hand to his face and moved closer. He felt the warmth of her body as he drew closer to her and put his shaking arms around her, embracing her. He swallowed as he felt the small of her back with his hands and pulled her closer. An energy rose from inside him as they stood close for several minutes. The energy filled him with peace and comfort. And power. Like a small fire had been lit deep within him that he knew could never be extinguished not as long as Aithnea stood by him. He felt the energy rolling around in his body like a slowly building volcano. Aithnea smiled at him for the briefest of moments before resting her head lightly on his chest. He felt her breath come out slow and steady, as he continued to hold her softly against him. The power warmed him from the inside out. He closed his eyes.

  The window exploded behind him. Glass fragments showered down on him and Aithnea. Warm liquid ran down the side of his face where glass had pierced his skin. Several pieces had hit Aithnea as well. Four tiny drops of blood formed on her perfect face. Tom pushed Aithnea toward the door to the dining room as footsteps crashed toward them from the outside. After Running through the door he slammed the door behind them and turned the lock. Aithnea prepared a spell. Tom pushed his own energy toward her adding to her power. The door splintered as a large axe slammed into it from the other side, a huge gash formed in the door. Aithnea finished the spell as another axe hit the door. The gash opened even further. The man standing at the door looked confused, turned and then attacked those who were with him. Several of the men, surprised, fell to his heavy axe. Chaos erupted. The men with red dragon capes turned on each other not knowing who was friend or foe.

  Tom turned to Aithnea, grabbed her arm and ran toward the kitchen door. I hope the others get out. They must have heard the noise. The servant looked up in surprise as the door slammed against the kitchen wall. “You need to get out,” Tom yelled. Tom held Aithnea’s hand and they ran toward the back door. The servant stopped and stared at them. “You must run now,” Tom yelled at the servant again.

  The battle grew closer as they reached the back door. He opened the door and to his horror he saw several of the dragon men running toward them. He had no weapons and felt completely useless. He held Aithnea’s hand and watched the men, with long swords, coming closer and closer. “Tom, concentrate,” Aithnea said. She shook her hand loose from his grip and prepared another spell. He felt the power slowly increase in himself as he started to chant the words with her. The power grew between them manifesting in a shimmering sphere in front of them. Aithnea flicked a small pebble into the sphere and the pebble instantly grew to the size of Tom. The two simultaneously pointed toward the oncoming enemies and the boulder hurtled toward them. The man in front had no chance. The boulder hit him square on. The two behind the man leapt to either side of the man who flew past them thudding into the ground. The large boulder lay on top of him, more than ten feet away. Tom and Aithnea ran past the stunned attackers.

  Their pursuers gained on them as they ran toward the forest ahead. Aithnea looked over at Tom. “We can’t go to the meeting place while they’re chasing us.” Tom looked over his shoulder and saw that the two men were only ten yards back and gaining fast. He turned and moved his hands. The men stopped and looked at him briefly before they turned and ran. Tom looked at Aithnea and smiled with a shrug. Aithnea giggled. “You were bluffing weren’t you?” Tom laughed and nodded as they continued on to the hut.

  When they reached the hut they slowed their pace. “Do you think they know about the hut?” Tom asked.

  “I don’t think so. There’re no tracks around,” Aithnea replied. Tom couldn’t see any either so he crept closer looking for any signs that someone could be near.

  They entered the small hut and Tom couldn’t see anyone inside. “I don’t think anyone has made it here yet.”

  Aithnea’s lip quivered slightly. “What if they were all captured at the cabin?”

  He grabbed her shoulders and said, “They’ll be all right, Aithnea.” Tom pulled Aithnea to him and held her for a few minutes before grabbing a bag which he started to fill with supplies. He found a sword and strapped it to his waist. “We need to prepare for the worst...” he looked up at her quickly, “…it won’t be hard for them to follow our tracks through the snow…You must be freezing!”

  She had only her nightgown and slippers on and he could see goose bumps on her arms and legs. She looked at the door and began to cry. He hurried over to her with a blanket and held her close again. They embraced for a moment and then she wiped the tears from her face. “I’m all right, we need to get going.”

  Tom held her at arms length. “There’re some clothes in the chest. I’ll finish packing and then…” Tom looked around bewildered, “…and then I think we better head out.” He looked at the door hoping that John or Karman would come through and tell him what to do, but no one came. He went back to packing while Aithnea got dressed.

  Aithnea looked up from tying her shoes. “Someone’s coming.” She grabbed a dagger out of the supplies and held it close. Tom carefully pulled the sword from its scabbard and snuck to the door. His back against a dark corner behind the door, Tom crouched low to get even deeper in the shadow. His breath quickened as he heard the snow crunch outside the door. Whoever came moved fast and struggled as they ran. Tom waited, ready to pounce on whoever came through the door. The persons pace slowed and loud panting could be heard just outside the door. The door started to open slowly. “Tom is that...” Tom pounced, grabbing the person by the arm and throwing him in to the shack. Aithnea moved in quick and brought her dagger down to plunge it into the person’s back. Cody’s eyes opened wide and his face turned as white as the snow outside.

  “Aithnea no, stop” Tom yelled as Cody deftly rolled to the side. The dagger slid to the side of Cody.

  “Cody, Cody are you all right?” Aithnea cried. She knelt down next to him and looked him over to make sure.

  “I’m fine, lucky you’re slower than me,” Cody said wincing as he smiled at Aithnea. “I’m sure glad to see you guys here. We have got to move fast. I think they’ll be coming soon.”

  “You’re bleeding,” Aithnea said. She pulled his arm closer to inspect the jagged cut on his arm.

  Cody stood and pulled his arm from her. “We don’t have time.”

  “Cody if you bleed to death it won’t matter,” Tom said. Tom grabbed a bandage out of the supplies and wrapped Cody’s arm.

  Aithnea sheathed her dagger and packed another bag. “Where’s Kristiana?”

  “I don’t know. There was a lot of fighting. They were still fight
ing when I left them. Karman had already fallen.” Cody looked down at his hands. “I couldn’t help him, he, he....” Cody stared blankly at the ground.

  “What do you mean he had already fallen?” Tom asked.

  Cody wiped the tears from his face. “There were just too many of them…” he looked up into Tom’s face, “…he held them off long enough for me to escape but then....” Cody couldn’t continue and Aithnea started to cry softly. Tom put his head down grieving for the older man that had been like a grandfather to him.

  Cody put his hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Tom, we need to hurry…” he began packing another bag, “…John told me they would be coming soon and that we needed to be ready to go when they got here.” They packed the gear waiting silently for Kristiana and John to show up.

  “shhh, I hear something,” Tom said putting his finger to his lips. Tom walked to the door and Cody pulled his pistol from its holster. The door burst open knocking Tom to the ground. A man swung his huge axe down toward Tom’s head narrowly missing as Tom rolled into the man’s legs. The man lost his balance and stepped back. Cody’s pistol went off and Tom swung the hilt of his sword into the man’s knee shattering it on impact. The man fell to one knee as another man came into the small room. In one fluid motion Cody pulled his sword from his sheath and swung at the man on the ground. The man leaned back to miss the blade as it came within inches of his face. Tom took his opportunity and rolling to his knees plunged his sword into the man’s chest. The man fell back hard taking Tom’s sword with him, Tom seeing his mistake saw the other man move in quick and swing a huge hammer toward him. Tom jumped to avoid the hammer but moved too slow and he felt the hammer slam him into the wall. He fought to stay conscious as he felt the pain start to overtake him. Aithnea unleashed a fury of small missiles that hit the man as he moved in for the kill. The man screamed out in pain before falling to the ground motionless.

  Tom’s arm throbbed as he dragged himself up using the table for support. “We can’t wait any longer,” he said.

  Aithnea looked at him her eyes open wide. “Where will we go? We can’t leave them.”

  Tom came close to her and put his unhurt arm up to her shoulder. “They can take care of themselves. We’ll meet up with them in Darthmoth.” Cody put one of the packs on his shoulder and began to put another one on his other arm. Tom grabbed it from him with his good hand and slung it into place smiling at Cody. “It was just a glancing blow. I’ll be fine in a minute or two.”

  Cody smiled back. “Let’s go, tough guy.”

  Tom pulled his sword out of the man and cleaned it by wiping it across the red dragon. Motioning to Aithnea, Tom followed Cody out the door. Tom stopped as he saw smoke rising on the horizon from the direction of the cabin. Worry formed on his face. What was the smoke from? Had they burned it down to kill John and Kristiana?

  Aithnea ran toward the cabin but Cody grabbed her arm. “No Aithnea, we can’t risk it.”

  “Cody maybe we should circle around and see if anyone’s alive,” Tom said still staring at the smoke rising in the air.

  “Tom, what if they’re waiting for us?” Cody said.

  The three watched the black smoke turning the once clear day black as it blocked the sun. Tom walked toward the cabin. “We can’t leave them behind if they need our help.” No one talked as they headed toward the cabin none of them wanting to voice what they feared they would find there. As they left the trail that led to the hut, Cody covered their tracks with a sweep of branches and they carefully circled around towards the other side of the cabin. They walked slowly through the snow staying behind trees and boulders to stay out of sight. At the top of a ridge in front of the cabin they went down on their stomachs and crawled to the top. Tom looked over the top of the ridge and saw many bodies lying around the cabin but no movement. The cabin burned, sending black smoke high into the sky. Some of the trees closest to the cabin had started on fire as well but it didn’t appear to be spreading.

  “I don’t see anything,” Tom said. “Do you think that it’s a trap?”

  “I don’t know,” Cody replied.

  “I could enchant an animal to go and have a look,” Aithnea offered.

  “You can do that?” Tom asked in surprise.

  “Yeah it’s a simple enchantment the tricky part is getting the animal to do what you want them to.”

  “That’s a good idea Aithnea,” Cody said.

  “Wait, what’s that?” Tom said pointing toward the cabin.

  A group of people came around the corner as Aithnea started casting her spell. A woman wearing a jet black dress with black feathers coming out of it at the neck led the group. She looked around in disgust at the dead bodies lying on the ground and then scanned the horizon as another group of men came around the house. “Did you find them?” the woman crowed.

  A big man stood in front of her. “There’s no sign of them anywhere, they must have escaped the fire.”

  “What about the three that headed into the forest?” She asked.

  “I sent two scouts but neither of them has returned.” The woman continued to scan the mountain for a few more minutes before turning and looking at the man.

  The man shrunk at her gaze. “You idiot! We had them and now we’ve lost them. If you had covered the back like I suggested then they would’ve been ours by now,” the woman said.

  “Listen here Ahti…” the man said, pointing at the woman, “…if your spell had worked correctly we would have had the boy and the girl right now without even a fight. So instead of having no fight, like you promised, I have seven dead men and probably more in the fire.”

  “It wasn’t my fault. The house must have had an enchantment of protection on it,” Ahti said looking at the cabin. “This is an ancient location much older than the cabin itself.”

  The man looked at her for a moment longer then looked at his guards. “I don’t want to risk any more of my men. This wasn’t in the bargain.” Ahti glared at him and raised her hand to the height of his neck. Her hand closed slowly. The man reached for his neck, his face turning red. The man’s group looked at the witch and pulled their weapons out. The group with the witch pulled their swords out and charged.

  Tom ducked down and listened to the ensuing battle hearing men scream and swords clanking on metal. He shivered as he lay in the snow wondering what to do next. Aithnea was close on one side and Cody on the other. “At least they’re killing each other,” Cody whispered. The battle died down and the noise stopped coming from the other side of the ridge. Tom slowly lifted his head and looked over the rim. Ahti stood with three other men who cleaned their swords on the fallen. She looked at the cabin one last time and turned toward the road.

  “We need to get more scouts to find them. We’re done here for now,” Ahti said. She walked toward the road and out of view with the three men following close behind.

  Tom watched for several minutes, hardly breathing. “Are they gone?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. But it looks safe to go down, maybe we should go down on the back side of the cabin just to be safe,” Cody replied. They circled around to the back of the cabin and approached it cautiously. The cabin still burned making it impossible to get to close to the building. Tom looked into the burning building but could see nothing but smoke and flames.

  Tom turned suddenly hearing a sound behind him. John waved for them up on the hill behind the cabin. Tom grabbed Aithnea and Cody and started to run toward John. The three topped the small hill and John quickly pulled them down, “It’s not safe yet. We need to get going now.” John had many cuts on his arm and body and his hair had turned black from soot and ash and when they moved out, he had a slight limp. His clothes were torn in many places and stained with blood. John ran away from the burning cabin for several minutes. Tom felt his throat begin to burn from the strain of running for so long. When Tom thought that he could not continue farther John finally stopped. Tom caught up to him and saw Kristiana lying on the ground wit
h her eyes closed and her breathing shallow and ragged. Her clothes were torn and tattered and in many places it looked like they had been burned clear through. Blood speckled her mouth, which John wiped away with a clean part of his shirt. He held her head and lifted her up to give her a drink from the water skin that hung around his waist.

  “I found them, Kris,” John said softly. Kristiana opened her eyes and gave John a small smile then closed her eyes again. Aithnea fell down next to Kristiana and held her hand.

  “What happened, John?” Cody asked.

  “There were too many of them, and combined with the witch’s power, we couldn’t hold them off,” John said.

  John looked back toward the cabin then dropped his gaze. “After you headed toward the hut, we tried to follow but were surrounded. Karman...” John sat silent for a few moments and then looked up again. “…Karman fell covering our retreat. I got Kris out of the cabin before the witch started the fire to finish us off.” Tom looked toward the cabin. The pain of Karman’s death weighed heavily on his mind. “If it hadn’t been for Karman we all would’ve been dead,” John said. John held Kristiana’s other hand and waited until the tears stopped falling.

  Kristiana opened her eyes and in a weak voice said, “John we need to be going. I think I’ve regained enough energy to move.” John raised Kristiana up to a sitting position. Putting her arm around his neck and his arm around her waist she stood. Aithnea held Kristiana’s other arm and gave her support from the other side as they headed off.

  “Where’re we going?” Tom asked.

  “We’ll go to Darthmoth. We’ve friends there,” John replied.

  “What about Archelaus?” Cody asked.

  “We’ll contact him there.”