by Tony Johnson
Luckily for Quintis, he had a direct shot on the unsuspecting warrior.
The first arrow pierced through Malorek’s shoulder, pinning him to the wall. The second went through his foot. Taking out his secondary weapon, a half sword, Quintis descended the roof he was on and ran into Malorek’s apartment, but his target was gone. The bloodied shafts of the arrows were all that remained in the location where he should have been.
Knowing his enemy was armed, dangerous, and willing to kill, as evidenced by the many bodies littering the room he was in, Quintis gripped his swordhilt tighter and called out, “Surrender yourself, Malorek. You can't escape.”
Heading upstairs, the archer was on edge that an attack would come from any possible direction. “We have twenty more men surrounding the house outside,” he lied, shouting out as loud as he could, attempting to convince Malorek of his inevitable defeat. “King Zoran wants you brought in alive. I'm not here to...”
In the middle of his sentence, Quintis felt something hard smash into the back of his head. Everything immediately went black.
Awaking to shooting pain in the back of his head, Quintis found Malorek standing over him, bleeding profusely from a multitude of cuts, not to mention the holes in his shoulder and foot.
With the tip of Malorek’s sword resting on his chest, Quintis began hyperventilating, knowing there was no chance of escape. “I have a wife and a four-year-old daughter. Her birthday is next week. Please don’t do this. My family needs me!” he pleaded through ragged breaths, thinking of how he had just taught Kari how to hunt only a couple days ago. She had shot and killed a squirrel with the very bow he was holding.
With Malorek continuing to remain silent, Quintis realized he was doing so on purpose. “You're enjoying this, aren't you? Making me panic and beg for my life. Did you make Caesar do the same before you killed him? What'd we ever do to you?”
“You all abandoned me,” Malorek shouted angrily, as if he was holding in a grudge that had happened yesterday.
“What are you talking about?” Quintis asked in a tone that implied Malorek was crazy. “You left our group. We were good friends to you!”
“I've never had any friends! Every single person I've known in my life has used me for their own gain. No one has ever cared about me.”
“That's not true! We tried everything to keep in touch with you. We even invited you to our weddings, but you never responded.”
“You didn't really want me there.”
Quintis shook his head. “There is nothing I can do to convince you. I swear Malorek, you have some sort of disorder.”
“Not a smart choice of words,” Malorek seethed, angrily pressing his sword tip further into Quintis’ chest.
“Oh come on,” Quintis said, his breathing coming back under control. “If you wanted to kill me you would've by now.”
“You’re going to die. I just need you alive for a moment,” Malorek claimed. He dragged a body across the floor and laid it atop of Quintis. He then did the same with another, piling it on top of the other body so that Quintis couldn’t move.
“What are you planning?” the encumbered archer asked under the weight of over four hundred pounds.
“I am going to be the king,” Malorek claimed defiantly, as if it were already a sure thing. “In a minute I'll be heading to the castle to assassinate Oliver Zoran. With no male heirs age sixteen or older, it'll be my responsibility to take over the throne as the princess’s legally-wedded husband.
Malorek kneeled down next to Quintis, who was struggling uselessly to free himself as he spoke manically, “But before I go to the castle, I’m going to alert warriors to this house. You’re going to be arrested and I'm going to tell everyone it was you who killed Oliver Zoran. I’ll make them believe you murdered him because you were having an affair with the queen and when I sent these nine warriors to seize you, you attacked and killed them all. Then, before you’re executed for the murders, you’re going to admit what you’ve done. If you don’t, I’ll see to it that your wife and daughter are killed.
“People will believe every piece of the story I’ve crafted and I’ll be seated on the throne without anyone second-guessing my role in all this.” With that, Malorek picked up a bow and quiver one of the fallen warriors had brought into the apartment. With his two swords, bow, and arrows, the villain exited the house and headed towards the castle to kill the king. Minutes later, warriors converged on the house and arrested Quintis for the murder of the nine warriors whose bodies held his arrows.
Chapter 102
“My father may still be alive!” Kari exclaimed immediately after coming out of the vision. My whole life, I’ve had questions, but now I’ve seen what actually happened. He wasn’t murdered, he was arrested. “I know questions remain, but this is the most helpful lead I’ve ever received!”
“I’m sure it’ll all make sense eventually,” Ty encouraged her, realizing it must’ve been frustrating for Kari to know her dad was possibly alive, but not know where he was.
“What element did you receive?” Shana excitedly asked.
Even though she was wearing metal, Kari held her injured ribs as she reached down to the side of the bed and grabbed her bow, the weapon she closely associated with the fond memories of her father. As her fingers touched the steel, a layer of ice covered the metal. Kari then morphed her element into water that stayed encased around her weapon, defying the laws of physics.
“Thank goodness!” Ty joked seeing what element she received, “If you got the fire element that means Steve, you would've gotten water. You would've had to change your last name from Brightflame to Brightwater.”
“Steve?” Ty turned after hearing everyone laugh except his brother. Along with the other three heroes and Copper, they turned to the red-armored warrior, only to find him ghostly pale.
Standing up, accidentally tipping his chair over, Steve was lost in thought before his companions as he replayed the three visions back in his mind. After a moment, color returned to his face and he gulped and spoke to the group.
“For so long I’ve searched for the answers to the questions that have eluded me for so long: who abandoned me at the watchtower where Thatcher adopted me; why King Zoran looked into my eyes and recognized me; why I have this scar on my neck.” Pulling down his armor enough so everyone could see, Steve revealed the two-inch scar Ty and Kari had already seen back in the Evergreen Forest when they had checked his body for injuries sustained during the siege. “It all makes sense now. Shana, I thought the baby born in your vision named Cyrus was the same Cyrus that I jousted in Celestial, but it wasn’t. I thought he was the grandson of Oliver Zoran, and that Wexley, his newborn son with Emma was next in line to be king, but I was wrong. The baby born in that vision was me. I'm Cyrus Zoran.”
The four heroes remained silent, realizing the ramifications of the revelation. It was Ty, who, as usual, was the one to break the silence. “That means King Zoran and Queen Evalyn are your grandparents and Silas is your twin brother.”
“And that makes you my half-brother,” Shana turned to Steve, recognizing the relationship she shared with him with him through their father, Malorek.
Kari was the final person to piece together Steve’s revealed lineage. “You're the firstborn son of Princes Kyra. You know what that means right?”
Steve remained silent as he stood, having already realized what Kari and the others were now concluding. Moving his hand to Brightflame's hilt and gripping it harder than ever before, as he often did when he felt the responsibility to protect the civilians of Element, he said aloud, “I’m the rightful heir to the throne.”
Chapter 103
“What about everything Thatcher told you?” Kari asked. “You said you were told it was a commoner who gave you up, an average looking blacksmith with red hair.”
“I don't think Thatcher lied about that. It was the man who gave me away who must've lied. It can’t be just a coincidence that I have the sa
me scar that Malorek gave to Cyrus Zoran as a baby. Maybe I was kidnapped, or maybe my mother found someone to take me to the watchtower for safekeeping. I don’t know, but I assume the answers will come in my vision. Finding my true identity has weighed on my mind for so long, but we can’t let this change anything about the battle today,” Steve said, hoping his friends wouldn’t be hiding him in the dungeon for safety or feeling like they’d always need to be in arms reach of him since he was royalty. “We’ll go through with all the plans we made exactly how we drew them up.”
Outside, the bellowing of horns sounded throughout the city. “That’s the call for everyone to head to their positions,” Shana said. “The monsters are almost here.”
Saying “goodbye” and “good luck” to each other, the heroes left Kari’s room one by one, leaving Steve and Kari by themselves.
Pulling herself up, the Halfling hugged Steve tightly despite the pain it caused her ribs.
“I love you,” Steve confessed as he embraced her.
“I love you too,” Kari said back. “Promise you’ll come back to me.”
“I promise.” Steve was determined this would not be the last time he stared into the beautiful blue eyes of Kari Quinn.
Holding hands as they walked out of the infirmary, the two split up at the entrance. Steve headed left to the battlements while Kari went right to the take shelter in the dungeons along with Emma, Wexley, Nash, and Dart, who, along with a couple warriors, were given the task of leading everyone to safety if the situation called for it.
Running to catch up with Shana, who was headed to the same place he was, Steve and his newly-discovered half-sister met Rylan above Casanovia’s main gate.
“How’s it going, Rylan?” Steve asked as the rumblings of thunder began and a light, misting rain fell from the sky.
“That’s Captain Rylan now,” the sentry warrior smiled at Steve and Shana. “Commander Nereus thanked me for all my work and promoted me.”
“Congratulations!” Steve was happy for the only sentry who had stood by him and believed that Casanovia could defeat Silas’s Army.
“Look, you can see them in the distance,” Rylan pointed.
Squinting, Steve and Shana both peered through the rain and saw the silhouettes of the dragons, phoenixes, and gryphons that had attacked the city hovering in the sky in the far distance. Below them, a massive horde of monsters marched forward.
I can make out the sound of some of their monsters bashing their weapons against their shields.
It took an hour for the army to come to a complete stop, about a quarter mile away from the main gate, just out of arrow range. Staring at the ominous sight, Steve saw orcs, ogres, cyclopses, spiders, and minotaurs standing before him, their weapons drawn, and many already showcasing their elemental powers as an intimidation factor. The army before him took up all the room from the tip of Port Misthaven to the access road from Casanovia’s main gate to Innercity Route Six. Half the army stood on the beach while half stood on grass. They extended as far back as anyone could see.
Taking in the size of the army, Shana realized, My nervousness must be contagious, because the warrior next to me is also constantly shifting the weight of his legs, anxious for battle.
“There are thousands of them!” she heard Captain Rylan whisper to himself.
On a horse, one of Silas’s warriors traversed the battlefield by himself, riding forward under the emptying rain clouds that cast dark shadows across the landscape. Since it was daytime, sun rays pierced through the overcast sky, casting their spotlights on Edgewater Beach and the waves of Lake Azure crashing against its rain-soaked sand.
“I could kill him right now,” an Almirian claimed, drawing his bow next to Steve, angry at one of the men who forced Almiria to evacuate.
I want to kill him too, Steve seethed. This is one of the twelve warriors that betrayed the Celestial. But, he vocalized the remainder of his thought, “It’s unethical to kill a messenger of war. You know that.”
“They would do it to us.”
“And by us not doing the same, we show why we’re different,” Steve put his hand on the man’s bow, forcing him to lower it.
“By the command of the new king, Silvanus Zoran, Casanovia is ordered to surrender,” the silver-armored messenger called up to where Steve stood in the center of the battlements. “We've already heavily damaged your city. If you surrender, we will let most of your people live. We already have taken Celestial, Serendale, and Almiria. If you refuse, we’ll kill everyone within your walls.”
“Try what you must, but we will not surrender!” Steve yelled down.
Nodding, the warrior turned his horse and trotted back, disappearing into the ranks of the monster army. After a few moments, the entire horde began beating their shields and armor, fiercer than they had during their march. When a series of horns emitted throughout the monster army, the monsters charged forward with a war cry.
“The Battle for Casanovia is about to begin! Ready your arrows!” Steve shouted so the three hundred men and women with him on the battlement could hear his order. Everyone carrying a bow dipped their arrow in pitch and set it ablaze in the sconce closest to them or lit it off the person standing next to them.
Raising his hand, Steve steadied the archers, while waiting what felt like an eternity for the monster army to come into range of where their arrows would land.
“Let us be the ones to cause both the first and final death!” Steve yelled, his voice echoing off the stone battlements from parapet to parapet. With a drop of his hand, he shouted “Loose!” and listened to the whistling of hundreds of flaming arrows launch upwards towards the stormy sky, whose dark clouds were temporarily lit up by a flash of lightning.
As the arrows finished their trajectory arc and crashed down into the first lines of the sprinting army heading for the main gate, Steve commanded, “Fire at will!”
Signaling for Casanovia to blow their horns to alert the groups outside the city, Shana motioned to the warrior behind her, whose instrument’s bellowing sound was taken up by warriors on the parapets. Those in Highland Forest and those on ships near the Stacks echoed the call and carried out their planned attacks.
At the top of the ridge in the Forest, hundreds of archers sent arrow after arrow careening through the sky. Out of everyone participating in the battle who was capable with a bow, ten percent were on the battlements, ten percent were on ships, and the remainder were on the ridge. No matter where their arrows fell, each archer could be assured a monster somewhere in the massive army was being impaled.
The enemy army’s right flank suffered equally. Led by Commander Artazair and Grizz, dozens of weaponized ships sailed out from their concealment behind the Stacks, sailing past Fisherman’s Pier and began firing their cannons at the army. With no way for the monsters to defend themselves because of the water, the enemy aerial monsters were forced to attack the ships.
“Defend the ships!” Ty called to all the warriors on their monster mounts, launching his gryphon into the air, followed by Almiria’s dragons, gryphons, phoenixes, and warbirds. Together they rose up and out of the city, surprising the enemy army who had thought they’d killed all Casanovia’s aerial monsters.
Saving the best for last, Crimson Singe emerged, letting out a roar that out-voiced the thunder itself. Finally unleashed upon the army that killed his best friend, Oliver Zoran, Crimson’s scales burned red with fire as he cut through the battlefield with amazing speed.
Striking first, he dodged a blast of lightning by a yellow phoenix, coming up underneath it and chomping down on its neck. With his overwhelming size, Crimson easily twisted his head and broke the monster’s neck, before spinning in the air and launching the dead phoenix into a gryphon. With the dead phoenix entangled with the live gryphon, it fell, crashing down onto the shore, on top of the charging monster army. Since the gryphon was still alive, Crimson swooped down, sucked in his breath, and with a tremendous release, breat
hed flames over everything underneath him. Not only was was the gryphon burned to death in the attack, so were dozens of ground forces.
With only the city’s main gate and Highland Forest available for the monsters on the ground to focus their attack on, Steve watched as Silas’ army split in two, right down the center. Those who had been on the grass to Steve’s right headed to the Forest to attack the archers peppering them with arrows. All the monsters who’d been on the sand of Edgewater Beach converged on the main gate, unless they were further down the wall, trying to set up a ladder to climb to the top of the battlement.
“Keep firing!” Steve commanded, dodging and eluding archers as he ran to the northern parapet to get a better look at how those in Highland Forest were faring. Once there, he saw monsters trying to ascend the ridge, but because of the the gigantic ditch, few were able to cross. For those that did, death awaited from falling into covered pits, getting crushed by boulders and trees or burned by scorcher bombs. There were also booby-traps in the form of landmines – hollowed out cannonballs filled with blackpowder with a trip wire between them, that, once triggered, ignited a spark and explosion. These bombs caused many monster casualties as well.
As Steve watched, he saw another defense utilized, a rolling mine. Again, a hollowed out cannonball was filled with blackpowder, but instead of connected to another through a trip wire, it was given a fuse and rolled down the sharp incline of the ridge, where it exploded.
The defenses appear to be holding, Steve believed, using his eyes to follow the continuous volleys of arrows crashing down into the army below. We’ve tried to make Casanovia an imprenetrable fortress and, so far, we seem to be succeeding.
On his way to the southwest parapet to check on the status of the ships, he helped tip a boiling cauldron of pitch over the wall. Continuing along the battlement, he heard the screams of pain as archers lit the pitch-drenched monsters aflame with fire arrows. Even this rain isn’t enough to extinguish them, Steve knew, using his gauntleted forearm to wipe his eyes. Picking up his speed, at the sight of a disturbance farther down the wall, Steve used Brightflame to help cut down an orc and minotaur that successfully scaled a ladder and had killed some of the helpless archers. As he battled, Shana did as well, pointing her spear at the ladder and using her wind element to blast it backwards, killing all the monsters climbing it.
