by Philip Blood
- From the Dark Prophecies
For three days the Togroths attacked, day and night. Each time they managed a foothold on the wall they were pushed back. Tocor and Yearl entered the fighting on the wall six times, and swiftly became legends among the Guardsmen. At first, they feared the Quarian and showed disdain for the Willowman, but when the fighting got tough, they welcomed them on the line. Soon word of their exploits overcame the fear and prejudice and the Guardsmen welcomed their aid.
Aerin learned of this after the third day, when he overheard two Guardsmen discussing the strange pair. During the same time Aerin, Lor, Dono, and Katek had been keeping up their nightly watch on the gates out of the Seat. So far nothing else had transpired on that front. Aerin tried to get in to see Gandarel, but he was told the heir to the Seat was too busy to meet with friends. Aerin didn't know if that came from Gandarel, but he doubted it. Aerin just wished he could get in and warn Gandarel about the possibility of a traitor. He still wasn't sure if there was a traitor, or if Betrayer had been an assassin from the outside. Regardless, he knew with a certainty he couldn't explain that Betrayer was still out there and still scheming.
The promised lessons on fear had not happened as of yet, and Aerin didn't mind at all. The siege took up all his time. He'd watched many of the attacks from the roofs with his cohorts, but they had not gotten embroiled in the battles themselves, at least since the first night. Being hauled like a sack of turnips by a Togroth had made Aerin a little more respectful of the Togroths than he had been. He just wished he could have seen Tocor when he stepped into a group of eighteen slavering killers, each weighing over three hundred pounds. Aerin still didn't know how Tocor had killed them all without taking a scratch.
As far as Aerin was concerned, Tocor could take on the whole Togroth army.
It was on the third day that Gandarel came to see Mara. She was out when he arrived with his troop of Guardsmen. He left them in the courtyard and went up to Mara's room. After knocking, Gandarel tried the door and found it unlocked; Mara trusted those who had access to the inner courtyard. Gandarel checked the courtyard and found only his Guardsmen present, so he stepped into Mara's room and looked around.
The room looked clean, like normal. He noticed the worn wooden box on the desk and went over and opened the lid. Inside he saw a stack of old documents. He wondered if this was the prophecy that Aerin had looked at, the one Mara had mentioned to his council. He picked up a few sheets and thumbed through.
His eyes caught on something and he started to read.
"…and inside the Chamber of Stone, he will know that his failure has killed his best friend. From this day forth, the world will shed tears of blood..."
Outside Gandarel barely heard his Guards calling. His heart pounding, he quickly put the documents back into the box, then swiftly crossed to the door and went out.
On the balcony, he looked down in time to see Lor, Dono, Aerin, and Katek reach the ground from the roofs.
"Milord, I just wanted to tell you that these four had arrived," the sergeant of his guard called up.
Aerin looked up and saw Gandarel on the balcony, he grinned at his friend.
Gandarel came down, but his eyes were haunted with the words he had just read.
Aerin came over to meet him at the bottom of the stairs and they shook sword arms.
"It's great to see you, Gandarel!" Aerin exclaimed.
"And you, Aerin," Gandarel answered, but his voice caught in his throat.
Aerin frowned, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Gandarel stated.
Aerin knew him much better than that, and told him so. "Hey, you can't hide things from your best friend!"
That made Gandarel even more nervous.
"So, what brings you to Mara's? Need to get back into training?" Katek asked, walking up.
Gandarel shook his head, "I wish that were the case, but I've just come to talk to Mara. I need all the council I can get. The Togroths are still outside the walls, but they are getting more desperate. From reports, I have heard they nearly made it into the city on the last attack. I'm getting worried. My councilmen are considering ordering the Guard out in a sortie, but I remember Mara saying that the Togroths would leave. I want to know if she is guessing, or basing this on some old document. I have to make a decision soon, and it could send many men to their deaths."
Mara came in through the front gate at that moment with Tocor at her side. She paused on seeing the Guardsmen and then noticed Gandarel.
"How did you get away from your councilmen?” she asked in way of greeting.
Gandarel gave her a sly look, "They were meeting about the Togroth situation and I told them I had some thinking to do. They were glad to get rid of me for the moment, I've been... a bit headstrong lately," he noted.
Aerin snickered and Lor laughed outright.
Gandarel gave them a shrug.
Mara appraised him for a moment. "You're not here for my lessons, why then?"
Gandarel explained as he had for Aerin.
"I see," Mara stated. "Well, I could tell you that it is written in an old prophecy, but that isn't going to convince you, is it?"
"It's not me that needs convincing," he answered.
"You are getting smarter, Gandarel," Mara noted. "Well, let's just apply some logic. How long have the Togroths been outside the city?”
"Three days."
"Correct, and in that time have you seen any supply wagons arrive?"
Gandarel considered the question; he had not had any report of any wagons at all. "No."
"So, what are they eating?" Mara asked.
Gandarel hadn't considered it. "I guess they are foraging for food."
"No doubt and that should last an army like that about, oh… two days, and that was up a day ago."
"So you think they will leave for lack of food?"
"No."
Gandarel's head hurt, as it often did when he spoke with Mara, she would lead you down a path to a conclusion, but then tell you it was the wrong one. "All right, what will they eat?"
"Well, they eat people. Their first thought is going to be to eat us, and everyone inside these walls, except you, if they think about it," she explained.
"Why not me?"
"Because, unless they get too hungry and forget, you are the reason they are here."
"I don't understand this," Gandarel exclaimed.
"I know you don't, but whatever you do, don't allow them to capture you, Gandarel. Just stick inside your Seat and don't let anyone pry you out until the Togs are gone."
"All right, I can do that, but you still haven't explained why they will leave."
"Well, after they get real hungry they're going to attack, and I mean attack like they haven't yet. Many of them are going to die, and if we hold, they are going to start eating their own dead."
"That is disgusting," Dono noted.
Mara shrugged, "I've seen it before."
Aerin thought, You have? But he let it go by.
"That's bad, then they can stay because they will have eaten, no matter how disgusting the meal," Gandarel said with a sigh.
"No, then they will leave. If they were on their own, you would be right, but these Togroths are guided, and their master won't let them destroy themselves, and that's why they will leave."
Gandarel nodded. "We won't have long to wait to see if you are correct?"
Mara shrugged, "A day or two."
Gandarel nodded again, more curtly. "I should be able to hold the council to a couple of days; they tend to deliberate longer than that on even simple matters." Then he motioned to his guards and headed for the gates.
"Don't be a stranger, Gandarel," Mara said as he left.
Gandarel paused for a moment, but he straightened his back and headed out of Mara's courtyard.
Yearl appeared in Aerin's room that night, suddenly standing next to his desk, though Aerin hadn't even heard the door open.
"Gaa!" Aerin exclaimed, startled.
"You startled me, don't DO that," Aerin said, his heart pounding.
Yearl waited a moment, "Is your heart at rest now?"
"Yes, as long as you don't startle me again."
"Good, then I'll risk telling you, the Togroths seemed to be hungrier than Mara said yesterday, they are attacking with everything they have. Mara wants you and the others to arm yourselves. We're not sure if the wall will hold."
Aerin leaped to his feet and spun around the room three times, trying to decide if he was heading for Lor's room, or grabbing a weapon first.
"They're over there," Yearl said, pointing to the corner of Aerin's small room where the weapons were in full sight.
"Yes, I know," Aerin answered, and made a growling sound in frustration.
Yearl growled back at him and then headed for the door.
"Why did you growl?" Aerin asked. His momentary panic abated as his mind tried to take in the normally quiet Willowman growling.
"I thought we were growling goodbye, perhaps it is a human thing?"
"Huh?"
Yearl ignored him. "Get your weapons and meet me outside," he said with a nod toward the corner.
"Right."
Outside Yearl and Aerin met with Tocor, Dono, Lor, and Katek. Tocor was just coming down with Lor next to him.
Lor had a rapier and some knives she was busy stashing about her person.
Katek was sporting a shield and a spear while Dono had a bow and a short sword.
"Are we really going to fight?" Dono asked nervously.
Mara stepped out of the shadows by the wall, "Only if forced. You will be staying out of the general fracas if at all possible. Katek, bring along an extra sword."
Lor looked a little disappointed.
Aerin wondered if the extra sword was for Mara. In all the years of weapon instruction, Aerin could not remember Mara holding a weapon other than her cane.
"There will be plenty of Togroths for you to tangle with in your lifetime young lady, don't get impatient," Tocor noted.
"Promise?" Lor asked mischievously.
"Let's go," Mara said, heading out the entrance to the street. As far as Aerin could see she only had her cane for protection, that is, if you didn't count the rest of her lethally armed troop. Again he wondered if the extra sword was for Mara, he just couldn't picture her carrying an actual weapon. She'd never needed more than the cane and her wits, and when Aerin thought about it, he doubted she needed the cane.
Mara led them to Netter Street and paused outside the house where the crazy man lived. She motioned Katek forward.
"Stick the sword into the ground, there," she ordered, pointing to a patch of ground with her cane.
Katek shrugged and stabbed the sharp point into the ground. When he released the blade it swayed slightly as the metal flexed.
"Someone is going to steal it, if we leave it here, especially in this neighborhood," he noted.
Mara glanced into the gloom of the open door. "Hopefully, the right person, but it's the best I can do for him, right now. Come along," she said and headed them for the west gate.
"Where are we going?" Aerin inquired, as they left Netter Street behind.
"We’re going to the weakest part of the defense; the wall to the south of the West gate. That's where they will most likely break through."
Aerin didn't question how Mara knew these things if she said it he assumed she knew what she was doing.
"Shouldn't Gandarel be sending reinforcements over here then?" Katek asked.
Tocor answered him, "By now the reserves have been committed at the southern gate, where the Togs are attacking in force. That is likely a feint; they will send the real attack at the weakest place after the reserves have been committed."
"How do you know?" Dono inquired.
"It's what I would do," Tocor noted.
As they neared the outer wall they heard the unmistakable sounds of fighting.
"It seems I underestimated their time schedule, the attack has already started," Mara noted. "Tocor, Yearl, you best get up there and hold them down. If any singles get through, let them go, you need to hold that wall from the ladders."
Tocor and Yearl ran for the stairs that led to the top of the wall moving at inhuman speed.
"I want the rest of you up there," she said, pointing to a rooftop with her extended cane.
Katek looked indignant, "We can fight too! We don't need to hide."
"Listen to me, boy, your job is to warn the Seat if the Togs break through over the wall. If you see more than single Togs making it past the defender's, I want you to run for the Seat and warn them that the walls have fallen to the east. Now heed these words: Gandarel must remain at the Seat of Stone, do not let him come to do battle."
Katek nodded, though he did not look happy.
Mara looked at Dono and Lor, "Here is what the rest of you are to do. Dono, use your bow to pick off any Togs that make it past the wall. Lor, pick your targets carefully, and if Dono misses, you try and nail the Tog with a dagger throw. No heroics, you do your fighting from up here and fade if they start climbing, got it?"
Lor, Dono, and Aerin nodded.
Katek asked, "Why did we bring weapons if we aren't supposed to fight?"
Mara raised her right eyebrow but then answered: "Sometimes the fight comes to you, it's just better to be ready. Now, Aerin, you're with Katek, your job is to keep a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary."
"What about you, Mara?" Aerin asked.
"I'll be down here; my body is too old to climb upon rickety rooftops today. Don't worry, I have my cane," she noted as if it was some magical weapon.
"Mara, if you need help..." Aerin started to say.
"Get up there!” she exclaimed, pointing to their proposed perch with her cane. "Help indeed," she muttered.
Aerin paused at the bottom of the wall, where Lor and the others had started climbing. He was worried about Mara. He looked back and saw her standing in the center of the square, near a short circular brick wall that marked a well. She was leaning on her cane and looking toward the battle waging on the massive city wall. She looked so small and frail standing alone in the street. Aerin didn't know what he would do if he lost Mara. At that thought, all the pain and loss of his murdered parents came back to him. The world suddenly lurched, and there was torchlight. Aerin stood as if in the center of a cloudy looking glass. All around him the world stretched and warped. He saw Dono crouched over a body on the ground. Around them on the floor, he saw bodies, Togroths, and humans, all slaughtered. Dono turned and there was anguish on his face.
"Get Mara, I need her help!” he called desperately.
Katek, his arm bloody, stepped into Aerin's strange view and spoke, his voice held pain, "Don't you remember? Death came for her and she's gone."
Aerin saw another version of himself run to Dono's side and kneel down by the body.
Slowly Aerin's warped view of the scene moved as he tried to see who it was that lay on the ground.
As his view shifted, more and more of the bloody body came into view, and Aerin stared in horror, he knew who it was even before the bloody face came into view.
"She needs help, Aerin!" Dono said, and it echoed strangely.
"I... there is nothing I can do, she's dead," Aerin heard his own voice say.
Suddenly he staggered and the world was dark and cold again. Katek was calling down to him from above. "What's wrong?"
Aerin looked around, but there were no bodies, and Mara still stood alone in the street. He looked up and saw Dono, Lor, and Katek looking down at him in puzzlement.
Aerin shook off the strange vision and started to climb.
When he reached the top, Dono pulled him over the edge and Lor growled at him. "What were you goggling at?"
"It was strange, I was thinking about Mara and I was concerned that we were leaving her alone when suddenly there were torches and bodies.
.."
"Did the Togroths get past Tocor and Yearl?" Katek demanded.
"I... I don't know, I don't think so. What I saw wasn't real, but you were all there," Aerin tried to explain.
"Gedin, that's all we need, daydreaming at night," Lor said in disgust. "Maybe you are still asleep?” she suddenly slapped him a good one across the mouth.
"Ow... hey!" Aerin exclaimed.
"There, you're good and awake now."
"I already was," he growled.
"You didn't sound like it," she replied with a quick flash of a grin.
Katek called to them, "Hey, get over here, something got over the wall."
They all went to the edge of the roof and looked down. Dono already had his bow out and was sighting down the shaft.
"Don't shoot until we know what it is," Aerin advised.
The building beneath their feet suddenly shook from the deep impact of some massive weight striking stone.
Dono forgot to keep aiming and looked at the other boys, "What, in Gedin's ship, was that?"
"There!" Katek pointed, he was still watching the street below.
A dark shape moved from shadow to shadow.
"That's no Togroth, it isn't large enough. Hold your fire, Dono," Lor stated.
The dark shape was trying to skirt the square, and stay out of the pools of moonlight.
Mara's voice called out in that same language that Aerin had heard her speak once before in the Seat, it wasn't Tog, or common, for that matter.
The dark shape paused, then gave up on the dark shadows and came toward Mara in a crouch. A wicked looking broad-bladed ax was in its hands.
"That's no Guardsman!" Katek exclaimed.
The man who approached Mara lowered a black cloth that was obscuring his face, revealing dead white skin. The eyes seemed to glow with their own inner light as he approached.
The sight froze the boys; the man had an unreal quality that mesmerized them, like a moth to a light at night.
Mara laughed and said something in the strange language.
The man stopped his approached, and his face twisted into a sneer of pure hatred, it was an expression like none the kids had ever seen before.
"Loose your arrow!" Aerin suddenly yelled, free from the frozen tableau.
