by BJ Hanlon
The rider pulled up on his reins and the horse skidded to a halt a half yard from Edin. “They’ve been spotted,” he spat. “Two leagues off shore…”
Edin looked at the men, they wore hard but contemplative expressions.
“They’d be foolish to attack at night…” Placisus said.
“I do not think they will. I doubt all of the forces have made it here yet. They won’t attack until they have an overwhelming majority,” Le Fie said. “Let’s get back to the celebration, no need to worry just yet.”
As if just to spite Le Fie’s assumption a large pillar of flame burst into the sky from the southwest.
“That’s one of ours,” Le Fie said. “A flame rune. It’ll cause them to think twice.”
Placisus turned to the party and yelled. “It is but a little entertainment for the happy celebration. More to follow.”
This didn’t seem to raise or lower any spirits. People were still whispering quietly to each other, Edin went to the band, asked them to start playing something with a quick rousing beat. ‘The Princely March of Jantol’ would be good he told them.
The flame died down and people began to stop worrying, at least outwardly. A human circle was formed and people began forcing Dorset and Cannopina into the middle of it to begin a dance. Cannopina had to drag her new husband out, the man looked nervous and dead on his feet. They switched to a slower song and then Edin was pressed into the center with the sister. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen and barely came up to his chest.
The dance was one he’d never seen and he tried to keep up. He stumbled over his own feet a few times and finally stepped back.
“That was pretty awful,” Arianne said appearing next to him as a boy took Edin’s place in the circle.
Edin shrugged and his headache subsided.
About two hours later, he moved to the tip of the center finger, and stared out into the black sea. The moon, which had been full very recently was shrouded behind clouds. Everything was black outside of the fire light. It took him a moment to realize that the celebration was a signal, like a lighthouse. It was an invitation to anyone miles away that people were here.
A sick feeling began to sink into his gut. Anyone could be out there… watching them.
This was a bad idea, he thought. A moment later small flames began flickering about the black ocean like hundreds of firebugs waking at night.
17
Burning of the Reaches
He watched them with curiosity. Little other made it into his thoughts and the celebration went quiet around him. Edin tried to focus on them. It could be some sort of night fish, something that he hadn’t seen before? He’d read of migration patterns where huge schools of fish or whales moved north or south during certain seasons. Could this be one?
But they were almost steady as if the lights were floating on the water, bobbing ever so slightly up and down.
The sick feeling came back to him.
Footsteps padded the ground behind him, “I see them,” Le Fie said, he glanced back toward the party. “We’re an easy target here.”
“It’s the armada isn’t it?” Edin paused, he didn’t need Le Fie to answer, “they won’t care that there are women and children here, will they?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
More sparks began to appear, barely visible so far out and it strained Edin’s eyes. Then they rose into the air like fireworks at Wintertide. It seemed almost too slow, as if they were defying gravity.
There were hundreds, all rising up and coming toward them.
Edin stepped back and Le Fie yelled, “Attack!” As loud as he could. Edin turned to see the blank faces of some revelers nearest them. Behind, people continued to dance as the band began a much quicker song, one meant to bring people to their feet and drown out the rest of the world.
Then more and more turned and looked at the sparking orbs, like stars against the black sky.
Le Fie hollered again.
People nearest began to turn, their screams of terror began to drown out the music. They were on a small peninsula high above the lapping waves. People began pushing through each other, knocking young, old, weak and fit out of their way. Kids cried, someone knocked into the archway causing it to tip, twist, and then topple. It landed into the fencing. In an instant, it fell over the edge of the cliff pulling the rope over the edge. The posts popped out of the ground like plants being plucked for harvest.
He watched as a man, leaning casually on one lost his balance and disappeared over the edge before the woman he was talking with knew what happened.
The wave of man and magi pushed and soon everyone was beginning to understand. The problem was, they were slow.
Further in, far from the edge of the Reaches, near the large tent and the bar, people were running and screaming like they were being chased by a horde of crillio beasts. But in the odd way that these things happened, Edin and the people nearest the edge, were barely moving.
He glanced back but the flames were higher than he had suspected and seemed to hang for just a moment. Slowly, the whistling of their flight through the air became more pronounced. He felt Le Fie’s hand on his shoulder, pushing him or pulling him, Edin couldn’t be sure which.
They still were barely moving. An old woman with her long dress hitched up, was moving slowly with a man gripping her bicep in an attempt to force her to go faster. It wasn’t working.
Edin heard the first explosion and ducked. A ringing pierced his ears and felt a stream of something warm flowing down his neck.
He tapped his head were a burning feeling began to pulse and pulled it back. Blood. Edin glanced at Le Fie. The spy was on one knee, a piece of black metal sticking out of his calf. He felt the explosions, more than heard them. The connection to the talent was severed, or at least suppressed somewhere deep.
More bursts dotted the air like locusts. Some were below the lip of the cliffs, others at his height but most rained down from a far above.
Edin watched a sparking black orb, glowing with the firelights come down. He waited for the explosion and for the shrapnel to pierce his body. It grew closer, Edin ducked and felt the rush of air slip over his head and watched as it crashed into the slow old woman. He felt the splatter as blood peppered his face.
The man had stopped and was staring at a hole in the ground. His mouth wide open and he held an arm with no body attached. A ring on the hand twinkled in the firelight.
In front of him, some people were hobbling, others were collapsed to the ground, unmoving with small pools of blood forming from wounds. Where was Arianne?
He jumped and looked, felt the concussive wave of an explosion push him back down. Le Fie grabbed the old man and began dragging him forward. Edin followed, trying not to step on the floor of bodies that littered the ground.
He saw blond hair poking out from beneath a large body that had at least four black spikes protruding from it. Each with their own blood spots growing larger. Edin bent down and tried pulling the body.
It took a large heave, and the body turned over. The blonde beneath wasn’t Arianne, but a woman he’d noticed before. She stared at him with empty eyes.
His hearing returned and he heard the screams and moans of pain. He was just about at the knuckle of the Reaches where people began scattering like the explosions.
Then he realized, the attack stopped. He turned back and saw only darkness, as if the attack was somehow conceived by the black sea and then hidden by it.
Le Fie was a few yards ahead pulling the old man, still clutching the arm, into the lee of the tower.
Beyond him, a large crowd of people were all running for shelter. Some were stuffing themselves into the stables. He hoped Gary was okay.
He heard a moan and saw a woman getting to her feet twenty feet back. She was listing, her hand holding her other arm. Bloody tears running down her face. She was dangerously close to the precipice.
Edin ran toward her, he could hear his name being called
but ignored it. He was almost five yards away when the woman tilted.
She couldn’t right herself.
Edin tried to move faster, like he could in battle when he slowed down time. But it wouldn’t work.
They locked eyes and she reached out toward him then tumbled over the side. Her last scream became a whisper and then silence as Edin hopelessly dove to try and grab her.
He landed on something hard, knocking air out of his lungs. Edin saw black for a moment as he heard the crash of waves down below. He pulled himself to the edge and looked over. No light penetrated that deep, it was like looking into the deepest abyss in his dreams.
It took him a moment to stand. On the Reaches, he was the only one on two feet. He heard a moan near him, he ran over and found Belo, a dark stone pierced a spot between his shoulder blades.
“Belo…” he huffed, “can you move?”
The man moaned. Edin grabbed his arms and tried pulling, he was too heavy. The body of another man lay motionless across his legs. Edin pushed the man off and began to try and lift Belo to his feet.
He screamed as Edin grunted. There wasn’t even the hint of Belo trying to help. Then Dorset appeared next to him. Dorset grabbed the other arm and they pulled, but there were too many bodies in the way. Other people began moving toward the body riddled field. All of them bloodied. He heard snaps of whips and saw two large carts being pulled by horses coming toward them. Le Fie was at the reigns of one, with Cannopina on the other.
They met Cannopina’s cart, she somehow kept her calm, only telling saying “daddy, it’ll be okay,” in a childish voice.
They hefted him, leaned him on his side. Edin reached for the shrapnel in his back. “Ready?” Edin asked, Dorset had to use a healing spell.
“I can’t… I have little strength…” Dorset said.
“He’s my father.”
“Do you see that? There are more people that will need the help,” Dorset said to his frightened young wife.
“You’d better…”
“Dorset said and leapt down from the cart. Get Laural, she’s better…” Dorset said and leapt down from the cart.
“She’s gone…” Cannopina muttered, tears forming in her eyes. She absently gazed out over the scenes of a battlefield. “Go help them.”
Edin and Dorset moved as quickly as they could back toward the site. Other men and women were turning over unmoving bodies looking for friends and loved ones. Edin still hadn’t seen Arianne. His eyes scanned it. Where could she be? Where’d he leave her?
At the bar.
Edin turned to look in that direction. The bar was a disaster, shattered glass sparkled between the splintered boards that were sticking up like spikes from a central point like some sort of flower. A splatter of blood was riddled on the tallest board like the spray after a sword’s slash.
“Here,” Dorset called behind him.
It snapped Edin back and he turned. A crying child no more than eight was being carried by Dorset. He handed the kid to Edin and turned back toward the grim task. Edin ran toward the cart, the screaming in his ear was wrenching and he felt something tapping against his hip.
As he set the kid next to Belo, he noticed the kid’s right leg was nearly severed just below the knee. It was held on by a small sinew of skin and muscle.
Edin felt his stomach turn and nearly fainted.
The cart was near full now and more men and women were bringing the wounded, and some dead, to the carts. People were carefully trying to position bodies as to not exacerbate their injuries.
Edin ran toward the bar, he stopped just short when he saw Baili’s body hidden behind the pile of debris. Her chest was pierced by a long thin piece of wood like an arrow.
For a moment, he thought she was dead, but then she groaned and moved her hand to the injury. She was wheezing with blood gurgling out of her mouth.
He couldn’t leave her… though would she live? He was uncertain.
Edin reached under her back and legs and lifted. She cried out as he took her back toward the cart.
“Arianne,” Edin asked, “have you seen her?”
Baili’s eyes just rolled around in her head not seeing anything, not registering anything. Edin reached the back of the cart. It was full.
“Up here,” Cannopina called. She was back at the reins sitting on the edge of the wooden platform. Blood covered her wedding dress, but it didn’t look to be her blood.
Edin pushed Baili up, her scream cut by a gurgling, bloody cough.
“The tavern, Le Fie is already on his way.” Canno said.
There were still more folks being dragged toward the carts, but they couldn’t fit any.
“You need to come back,” Edin said.
She nodded and whipped the reins causing the horse to kick into motion and jerking the cart to the painful chorus for the wounded’s cries.
Edin turned, where was Arianne? A sick feeling grew in his chest. His mind was going wild, Arianne, Arianne, Arianne.
Her name flew through his mind over and over as he tossed his vision across the corpses. Was she under there?
He glanced back toward the bar and headed there. She wasn’t around, twenty yards away was the collapsed ruins of the staging tent. It had fallen in on itself. The twin posts that had held it up, were sticking up like peaks of mountains.
“Incoming!” a voice yelled.
Edin glanced out to the black sea and watched the orange balls rising like comets going the wrong way.
Edin ran under the tent. It was hard to see and the canvas was heavy. The outside air flowed through spotted holes.
“Arianne!” he shouted, his voice seemingly muffled by the fabric.
“Here,” the voice was just as quiet and seemed to be coming from somewhere ahead. Edin used Mirage and sliced through it. He pushed through like a man trying to walk through water.
“Where?” he called. He could hear the rumbling of people trying to flee all around him.
“Here,” her voice was strained. “The pole.”
Edin cut through more canvas, splitting it like scissors through paper.
Then he saw her, in a seated position, her back against what had been a bedframe with a fallen post across her legs.
Edin dropped down next to her, he pressed his lips to hers, but she didn’t kiss back.
“It hurts…” she said.
Edin glanced at the pole, it was probably a foot in diameter and at least ten long. He hugged it pressing his legs into the ground and tried to lift.
His back and arms burned and Arianne cried out. It wouldn’t move, but he wasn’t giving up.
In the distance, he heard explosions, at this distance they popped like dried corn in the kettle but he knew they were growing closer. “I wanted to make the bed perfect for the couple,” she whispered.
“Looks great,” he said through gritted teeth. But he didn’t stop trying to lift. He strained, the necessity of moving this now beat at him quicker than ever. He tried adjusting his grip. He reached under with both arms and squatted.
“I’m going to try to lift that way,” Edin said nodding with his head, “you slide out this.”
Her head lolled. “I love you,” she said.
The words pushed into his soul, they were like a pump pushing clean water through disused pipes. But this pump was one of energy, determination. Edin didn’t feel his body anymore. He felt nothing but the pounding knowledge that he had but moments before a second barrage was to land and hh ee couldn’t let her die. They were meant to be together.
Edin lifted trying to straighten his legs and back. All of his muscles screaming. There was a slight creek in the wood and he heard Arianne cry out. He lifted, or thought he did. Inching up. She moaned and something kicked his foot. His knees locked.
Edin didn’t know if she was out. His hands felt slick. Edin strained his back, using every muscle he could.
“Out…” she whispered.
He released and dropped down, he fell forward, legs t
ripping over the post. His jaw smacked the bedframe and his head snapped back.
He felt a hand on him as he turned over and looked up. Arianne was next to him, the crushed bedframe acting as a wall, its frame keeping the canvas from smothering them. Through a gash, he could see brilliant orange orbs coming down toward them. Arianne placed a hand on his chest.
“It’s a beautiful night,” she said looking up through the same hole. Her strained voice quaked. “I wonder if this was how it happened to my father, unable to use his talent to protect himself.” A bright flash appeared somewhere off to the right. Then above, another orb seemed to be directed directly on top of them. “I’m glad I’m here with you,” she said.
Edin’s mind was buzzing, his body hurt, but he had to protect her, save her, everything screamed as he rolled to his side, his body was verging on collapse.
He crawled on top of her and laid flat. Her arms wrapped around his back and she kissed him. Edin felt his heart leap.
A deafening explosion came somewhere above him and he felt a twisting in his stomach. He latched onto something deep within him. A part unknown to his brain or his body as he closed his eyes. He heard nothing and just kept his lips moving with Arianne’s.
Then he felt her tapping his shoulder. Edin opened his eyes.
Around them was a dome of ethereal light holding up a portion of the tent. On top of it, right above his torso was a black stone.
As he took note, the shield disappeared and a heavy piece of metal dropped to his back. “Ow!” he groaned as he felt the piece bruise his spine. At least it didn’t kill him.
“How’d you do that?” Arianne asked.
Edin didn’t answer. He tried standing but couldn’t. Then he heard people to his right knocking things back.
“Here, help him.” Edin knew the voice but couldn’t place it. Soon he was lifted up and being carried through the debris of the tent. He was put on a wooden surface and closed his eyes.
Edin woke to the cart rumbling beneath him. People were breathing heavy all around, some groaning. Something tight was wrapped around his head, when Edin opened his eyes he saw a bit of cloth at the edge of his vision. But that wasn’t what mattered.
