by Shawn Muller
Max and I exchanged glances yet again as we started learning about what we had gotten ourselves into.
“All will be explained sooner or later to you,” Smoothie told us, catching our looks to each other.
Farpae appeared onboard then, looking flushed and angry.
“Where is the Prince? I have some disturbing news for him,” he asked, slightly out of breath.
“He went down below to rest. Come, I will take you to him,” the Admiral offered Farpae.
Jeroch and Smoothie followed them, leaving us on deck with the sailors, who were preparing the ship for departure.
A crewmember approached us and offered to lead us to our cabins below deck. We followed him and he took us to our cabin we were to share with Farpae and the second mage in Prince Marcus’ company. The mage was lying on a bunk bed in the room when we entered. He was wearing plain black leggings with a black shirt, unbuttoned to his naval. He was a large man, I estimated just under six feet, but heavy set and barrel-chested. His hair was cropped short and was a carrot colour that stood out against his pale, fair skin. Faint snoring could be heard from him as he dozed on the bed, sunlight filtering through a small porthole.
“Hello, sirs. We haven’t been formally introduced yet,” he spoke to us as we were stowing our bags, his eyes still closed and faint snoring still heard.
“No we haven’t. The name’s Bob and this is Max,” I introduced us, sticking my hand out towards him on the bed to shake hands.
His body wavered and seemed to dissolve in front of our eyes. Wide eyed at this, we were startled when he appeared directly behind us, seeming to form out of a shadow like a wraith. He gave a low chuckle, which raised the hair of my arms and sent cold shivers down my spine.
“Relax. It was all just an illusion. I gotta keep in shape. Soon there will be a need for me again and I don’t want to be caught with my pants down, again,” he said.
A smile crept across his face, his eyes dancing in amusement.
“And why is that?” I asked.
“You’ll see. Soon it’s the season for the trolls’ rite of passage, when the lake freezes over right up to the castle. Then we will have a lot of fun and games again. But, perhaps it will not happen,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“By the way, I’m Thackeray, apprentice to Smoothie. However, I’m no water mage. I like to mix it up a bit more, slightly darker, more, how can I say, forceful. But enough of that, rum anyone?” He said as he pulled a bottle out of thin air.
“As creepy as you make yourself to be, I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna get on like a house on fire.” Max reached for the bottle of rum.
And so, we settled down to wait for the ship to set sail.
We left Sakyno early the next morning, the sun peeking over the horizon, and I was invited by Prince Marcus to join him as he watched our progress from the ship’s prow.
“It appears that I should apologise for my behaviour earlier,” Prince Marcus said.
We stood looking over the crystal clear blue water of the lake, basking in the sunrise with a stiff wind at our backs.
“Relations with my sister and brother are strained, to put it very mildly.”
I turned from looking at the water and faced the prince.
“Sir, there is no need to apologise for anything. I am sure that you have your reasons. Besides, I barely know you,” I tried to fend off the prince’s apology.
“Indeed Bob, we do not know each other at all. Yet you have saved my life and that of my men and I feel indebted to you and your companion,” said the prince as he turned to face me.
“We saved ourselves first,” I admitted.
I shrugged my shoulders before leaning on the railing with my elbow.
“Yet your honesty in admitting that does you more favours than harm. I feel that I may trust you, that you and Max both will offer me a loyalty that will be truly returned. I look after my friends as they look after me.”
I held his gaze, trying to judge what he had said
“I am flattered sir,” I said eventually.
“It matters not in my eyes that you do not originate on this world. If my mage Smoothie declares that you from this, Earth as you call it, then I believe him. This is why I must warn you about my history.”
Prince Marcus seemed to age as he turned to look over the waters again.
The ship was carving its way through the water, white foam spraying out from the sharp prow. A large fish, a dolphin I thought at first leapt high over the wake before disappearing beneath the surface. I stood quietly as Prince Marcus seemed to weigh his words carefully. Long moments passed before he finally spoke again.
“Do you have any siblings?” he asked me.
“Yes sir I have two sisters,” I replied.
“And I assume that your relationship is sound?”
“Well, we have our moments but we get along most of the time.”
By now I was wondering what his point was.
“I hate my sister and brother with a passion,” he hissed through clenched teeth.
He turned and stared into my eyes, a hatred burning deep within those dark brown eyes.
“They plotted to murder my father and mother and took my rightful place as king of Curixeus!”
“And yet I am powerless to prove it, never mind do anything about it,” he said with a sullen voice.
He turned once more towards the water and leaned on the smooth wooden railing. I almost missed what he said next, his head was bowed down, almost touching the railing with his forehead.
“My father in his wisdom predicted what would happen when he made his intentions clear to name me his successor. My twins would predictably try to enforce their own will on the outcome. They did succeed partially. My sister was too slow with the hiring of an assassin, while my brother, the king found Father’s will and forged it, altering it to suit himself.”
Prince Marcus gave a deep sigh while I looked on over the water. Clearly what had happened affected him deeply.
“In the end my sister did have my parents murdered hoping that she would be crowned queen. Yet my brother was crowned instead through his own guile. That left my half-brother and I on the back foot as we knew my father’s true intentions.”
“Why didn’t you challenge your brother? Why didn’t you take what is rightfully yours then?” I asked him bluntly.
“I cannot I am afraid. The forged will was ratified by the Council of Lords making it legitimate. My brother had foreseen that too and lined their greedy pockets.”
I snorted a response while I shook my head.
“Thank the gods that there were some level headed Lords. An uneasy alliance was formed between them, with the aim of neutralising the growing powers of my brother the king, and my sister. The realm was divided between the four of us. Yes even my half-brother received a fair sized portion of land far to the north to rule over.”
Prince Marcus sighed again before standing upright, gently resting his palms on the railing.
“I was given the far south to rule while Wendyaline, my sister received Mountdom to the west. Of course King Dwayne would rule from The Capitol, the official seat of power for the king.”
“So you resent them for stealing what was rightfully yours? And you feel powerless to do anything about it?” I asked.
“Oh I can do something about it. But the option of a civil war is not the right option,” Prince Marcus said while shaking his head.
“As it stands now we were on the brink of a civil war and through shear hard work I managed to pull us from that brink of ruin.”
Prince Marcus turned to me once more before speaking again. The gentle rolling of the ship proved to be relaxing as I felt the tension of the Prince loosen.
“Once she married Goldfinger, the dwarven king under Mountdom, she gained limitless wealth. She enslaved the dwarves to strip the mines for her personal use. As the dwarves either died from the brutality or fled to the Great Divide dwarven kingdom, she used her pris
oners and political dissidents to continue the mining.”
“Slavery? That’s harsh,” I remarked.
“Indeed yet it did not end there. Soon enough the mines ran out of more workers and my diabolical sister turned her sinister glare on the non-humans who lived within her realm. Entire villages of orcs and elves were enslaved and burnt to the ground. Centaur wells in the Western Arid Lands were poisoned in order to steal their birth lands.”
“And still you did nothing,” I interrupted the prince.
I turned to look at him, the disgust showing on my face. I had my fair share of slavery on Earth after eradicating the Sudanese flesh markets.
“On the contrary my dear friend,” Prince Marcus relied with gentle eyes when he saw my face. “My brother Prince Owyne and I formed an alliance with the non-humans and sent in troops under the guise as mercenaries to assist,” Prince Marcus shook his head sadly.
“Why didn’t you officially declare war against your sister then?” I asked, shocked by my new friend’s history.
“If only it were so easy. If we had declared war on her, it would have forced King Dwyne to declare against Prince Owyne and I, which would have resulted in a civil war, something that we all wanted to avoid. But now, I am beginning to regret that decision. We forced her to end the war against non-humans, and she signed a shaky peace treaty with those non-human territories around her. But those living within her realm are virtual slaves. As I have said before, scores of dwarves have fled the Western mountains, seeking freedom in the mountains of the Great Divide. Tales of the horrors that they had to endure have filtered down from the dwarves living there who trade with us.”
Prince Marcus took a deep breath, calming himself before he continued speaking to me. I turned once more to look over the lake and kept quiet, watching water birds fly over us and plunge deep into the water to rise up once more with small, silvery fish in their beaks.
“It seems that she had pre-empted my demise in the attack at Traders Post. She arrived at Castle Doorengaan not even two days ago and started to make herself comfortable there. Farpae was informed through my spy network when we were busy boarding the ship and the rumours on the streets are that I was killed in the goblin raid. She was to take over as curator of my realm until a suitable leader could be nominated by her and my two brothers. I should have waged war against her and brought her to justice a long time ago, my friend. But my sense of duty to my people has prevented that. I will not kill innocent people to remove her from power, I can only try and limit her damage to others,” he tried to explain to me.
“Look, Marcus, if there is one thing that I have learnt is that there will always be those who seek to impose their will on others. There will always be leaders and followers. And, unfortunately, humans tend to have a dark side to them that makes them want to dominate others and everything around them. It is up to good, loyal, kind and caring people like you to balance out the evil that they are doing and to stop it where possible. It may be hard to do, but all of the pros and cons need to be weighed up, and sometimes the lesser evil task offsets a larger threat to society as a whole. As long as you never lose sight of your objectives and why you are doing it in the first place, and stay grounded in reality, good will always overcomes evil eventually,” I advised.
“I thank you, Bob. You are a true friend for speaking those words. We may have only met a few days ago, but I sense that you are here for something great. And I will help you as much as I can, please, feel free to give me such sound advice when needed,” Prince Marcus turned to me and shook my hand.
“I am honoured Marcus. I will help you with your endeavours until I can no longer breathe.”
“Sir, I too pledge myself to you and your cause,” Max, who had joined us towards the end of our conversation, said.
Eyes brimming with tears, Prince Marcus shook both our hands, and embraced us as brothers.
“Pirates off the starboard side!” the cry came from the crow’s nest, breaking up our brief euphoria.
“Admiral! Signal our escorts to hunt them down. All ahead full to Doorengaan for us please,” Prince Marcus ordered Admiral Schemel.
“Aye aye my lord.” The Admiral acknowledged.
Soon, a flurry of flags was seen between the fleet, and within minutes the entire fleet barring the flagship, peeled off in pursuit of the pirate ship.
With the mood broken, and the afternoon starting to settle in, we all went below decks to eat a late afternoon meal.
Chapter 2 – Unforeseen Consequences
Our ship docked not long after dusk, and soon we mounted horses and set off from the harbour at Castle Doorengaan towards Prince Marcus’ palace, in the middle of the city. The harbour front was rather large, with various sized vessels docked and about twenty others waiting within the protected waters of the harbour to dock or to leave, with warships patrolling beyond the breakwater. Small warehouses lined the harbour front, leading up to massive fifty metre high walls, topped with battlements and large round towers at regular intervals. Half way up the walls were arrow slits and large openings where ballistae could be seen, trained out towards the lake.
We took a slow walk on horseback through the harbour streets, while the prince greeted almost everybody there by name. Not many soldiers were present for an escort, but a few commanders were waiting at the massive twenty-odd meter high gates. Passing through the fire hardened, metal banded gates I could sense I was being watched. I looked up into the dark, ominous murder holes where an invading army would be welcomed with boiling oil and pitch. A small shiver went through my spine as we walked through the thirty odd metre thick walls. Passing through the portcullis, a second higher and much thicker wall greeted us. More dark holes of death opened up seemingly at random within the wall. The odd glint of metal shone through a few holes as the soldiers within the walls moved about. Again, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine as we passed through the second gate, the murder holes and arrow slots glaring at my unprotected body. A solitary voice drifted through a hole above us:
“Long live the prince!”
Prince Marcus looked up and proudly saluted in the direction of the shout before leading us through the last set of portcullis and into a busy market, thronged with merchants, customers and people going about their business. Upon seeing the prince, the crowd raised a delighted cheer to welcome him home. Prince Marcus in turn greeted as many as possible face to face before being escorted by his guards down the main road towards his citadel. Children ran alongside us for most of the way, laughing and squealing with joy as soldiers gave them short rides on the horses or small sweetmeats bought at the markets we were passing. Dogs’ yapped along-side playing with the children, welcoming their masters’ home as they darted in between the horses. I looked down a few side streets and noticed that there were no straight roads at all. Max also observed this and asked Farpae about the poor planning.
“Actually, it is all part of a defensive plan developed centuries ago by the old southern king. It is easier to defend these streets, house by house as the streets have plenty of bends and twists in them; also if you observe the roofs of the buildings, they all have very sharp angles for the heavy snowfalls we get during winter, but it is law that each roof is easily dismantled to form platforms from where archers, ballistae and catapults can be fitted and fired from,” he explained “And trust me, it’s not because of human invasions, but because of troll raids. That’s why the walls are so high and thick. Luckily we have an abundance of stone from the Prince’s mine below us.”
Seeing the confusion on my face Farpae elaborated on the mine.
“Yes, it seems a meteor crashed from the heavens here millennia ago, and the core of it is made of precious minerals. Hence the prince is one of the richest rulers barring the dwarves. That allows him to look after his people, and they love him for that.”
Farpae pointed out the crowds lining the streets, cheering him as we trotted past.
“So how often do the trolls raid?” Max asked.
“They raid at least once every winter when the lake is frozen over enough for them to walk over it. But we try to break up the ice as often as possible, and sometimes it forces them to raid during other seasons.”
“And they get over the walls?”
“You’ll be surprised what a King Troll can do. Pray that you never have to meet one. I did and almost died in the process. That’s a story for another time perhaps.”
We left Farpae alone after that, his mood seeming to have darkened with those words. We rode the rest of the way to the citadel in silence, the crowds still cheering for their prince as he rode past. The closer we got to the citadel gates, the more agitated he seemed to grow. His sister’s presence in the citadel was obviously causing some irritation.
