by RG Long
Speakers were performing tests all along the ship, checking to see if everything was sealed correctly and to inspect whether or not their rimstone housed within it was still working as it should.
Evan had come upon some of his speakers examining a stone on the deck and had asked him what was wrong with it.
The had shown him a piece of orange stone that had a smudge a black within it. That was a big new tournament even though he was not a speaker or well-versed in the craft; he knew that the inside of the stone was mostly pure. Some Rimstone would have cracks or imperfections inside, but none of the stones he had ever seen had a black smudge inside of it. And this looked like smoke that moved as the stone was turned.
“What’s wrong with this?” he asked the Speaker in charge.
The middle-aged woman who was in charge of the operation furrowed her brow as she continued to stare at the rock.
“It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before, sir,” she said. “This is not a physical affliction of the stone. It seems to be a magical imperfection.”
“Will it be a problem?” Lord Evan asked.
The woman did not reply with words, but rather held her hand over the stone and began to Speak. The rock glowed, making the black smoke within it come more apparent. But it did not prevent it from glowing.
“I do not think so, Lord Evan.”
The Commodore nodded.
“Let me know if you find any more that are afflicted in such a manner,” he said as he straightened up.
Inspecting more of the ship as he walked along, Lord watched supplies being moved from the city and placed into the airship. Soldiers were also bustling around the deck, having returned from the places they had been assigned within the city and were being checked off as they reentered the ship as well.
They would soon be off and join up with the rest of the fleet.
Commander Evan would ensure that the Court of Three regretted beginning another war with Rerial. He was furious with them at the moment, specifically Commander Sefen. He was sure the battle-hardened elf had something to do with this invasion.
Didn’t they see it that they had instigated a war that neither country needed? Evan found that he was furious at the fact that he had been unable to join the fight until this point.
He was furious that the king of Rerial was dead but more than anything, he was furious that his children had been a part of the rebel rebellion that had sprung up in Rerial.
And that made him furious at himself.
How could he have failed his family so? And to hear Elise say that his wife had been a part of the rebellion as well was the most heartbreaking thing of all.
He was an excellent Commodore. Under his leadership, the fleet of Rerial had grown and expanded to be the most powerful force in the nation.
How had he accomplished so much but failed his family?
He did not have long to brood on this. There were repairs to be done. Maintenance to oversee. A battalion to feed and get back to the battle.
As he made his way along the dock, a mechanic came to him and saluted.
“So far as we can tell, the repairs are complete, Commodore!”
“Excellent,” Lord Evan replied. “Let’s get her in the air.”
“Yes, sir!”
The mechanic ran off to obey as the Commodore looked around for a captain. They would need to inform everyone in the city that it was time to board the ship and get back. If there were any stragglers, they would need to hustle to get themselves back to the ship as soon as possible.
He was just wondering how they might ensure everyone would know when he heard the bells ringing from the middle of town. That was not what he had in mind. Looking around the deck, he saw his own soldiers look up in confusion, while the people of Poral began to shout.
“The warning signal!”
“The bell’s ringing!”
“Quickly! To the House of Poral!”
Such warning bells were not a good omen.
One of his captains came running up to him. She hastily saluted before giving him the news.
“Commodore! There’s an army on the way to Poral!
“Truly?” he asked. Instinctively he looked out of the sea. If the Court of Three was coming to Poral, they would have had to sail past many of the defenses of Rerial.
The captain shook her head.
“Not be sea, Commodore. By land. From the west.”
“The west?” Lord Evan asked, confused. “But that’s the territory of the Skrilx.”
“Yes, my lord,” the captain said. “It appears to be an army of Scrilx and soldiers from the Court of Three, as well as more under another’s banner.”
“The Scrilx and the Court? What madness is this?”
In answer to his questions, the sky lit up with the screeching of birds of prey as well as the great roar of a beast Lord Evan was unfamiliar with.
Coming up over the horizon was the largest construction of metal and rimstone he had ever seen. It had the neck of an eagle, claws like a bird, the body of a lion and a wingspan the size of his treasured airship.
“Ready the crossbows!” he ordered his soldiers. “Prepare the ballista! Speakers! Dismantle that thing!”
Lord Evan was running before he finished giving out orders to his captain.
“To arms Rerial! To arms!”
The birds of prey began to swoop down on the city of Poral, tearing stones from buildings and wall and engaging with his soldiers. The mighty griffin landed in the middle of the city and opened its beak wide.
A burst of magical energy came from within it and laid waste to the buildings it was in front of.
“Speakers!” Evan called again. He knew this fight would not be won with soldiers alone. They needed their magic.
Three birds of prey landed on the deck beside him. His captain drew her blade and launched herself into one of the birds. He drew his own blade and ran to help her, but it was too late.
The metal beast put a claw through her chest, and she fell to the ground dead.
Lord Evan stood alone as the three birds came closer to him, each of them making a sound that reverberated in his head. The griffin was flying towards his airship that they had only just finished repairing, reaching with outstretched claws. It landed on it and began to tear the ship apart as if it were made of paper.
Commodore Evan looked at one of the metal beasts that was coming at him with a bloody claw. He stared it in the eyes and let out a yell of rage. It echoed across the docks as more birds swooped down on his soldiers, each of them fighting off the magical creations to the best of their ability.
All were too consumed with the hundreds of birds that landed among them to come to Lord Evan’s aid. He stood alone.
As the creatures came closer to him, Evan thought of his children and his wife. He had built up a legacy of airships that had gained for him fame throughout the land of Rerial. Now his greatest creation was being destroyed right in front of him.
He prayed his son and daughter would not fall as easily.
Brandishing his sword and roaring with fury, the Commodore disappeared underneath the attacks of the birds of prey as the dock collapsed, sending soldiers and speakers to the sea.
34: Sorrowful Sightings
The trees of LeGrove passed by them slowly. Tall and ancient and reminiscent of the ancient forest they had passed by once, the landscape of the elves slowly gave way to the rocky terrain of Severn. The warmth of the suns mocked them as they marched. Paula and the guards who had survived the ordeal with the tower of elves and the ancient forest walked westward back to Severn.
They had failed.
The elders of the tower had explained that they had seen the future and that Severn was doomed to fail. It would fall and be a kingdom of ashes. With the struggles facing their own nation, they could hardly spare warriors to help Severn with its own difficulties. That combined with the visions of ruin the elders had seen, they were not willing to send what scant fighters they had to their
deaths.
So they said.
Paula was furious.
She had hoped that they could come together as living beings and protect one another. Not as elves and humans, but as those who drew in breath. She was sure this had been governor Thamund’s hope as well.
Now, instead of returning with the promise of aid or an army to help bolster their troops, Paula was returning with a handful of guards and nothing else. No promise of an alliance. Not even a mention of future unified working.
All she had was a bitter taste in her mouth and bad omens of destruction.
The rimstone that has been infected for the elves would soon find its way toward the human nation of Severn. She was sure of this. So not only did she not have help, she was bringing back bad news of future destruction and a world where the Speakers themselves would be powerless.
Crossing over what she knew to be the boundary between LeGrove and Severn, Paula took a deep breath. There have been a small part of her that had been hoping this encounter would have gone differently. She had hoped that she would’ve been able to find healing and help. Help for her country, and healing for her tortured soul. She still could not forgive the elves who had murdered her family.
A part of her, even now as her feet crunched along the road that led back to the capital, wondered if those assassins from LeGrove had walked this same path in order to kill the political leaders of Severn. It made her blood run hot and her hatred for the elven race she had told herself she had forgotten returned with a vengeance.
She had hardly been able to bring herself to speak of them to the kind elf who had helped her through the forest. A part of her had wished she had brought it up. Maybe she could have found closure as to why the elves had been sent to slaughter.
To have her mother and father stolen away from her at such a young age have been traumatic. To not understand why they had been taken was even worse.
So lost was she in her thoughts that it took one of her guards nudging her with his hand to bring her back to the present. She was unsure how much time she had spent contemplating what could have been.
“Yes, Wallace, what is it?” Paula asked.
The young man did not answer. Instead, he was looking forward at what laying in front of them. They had just crested a hill and had before them the view of the city they had marched from.
The capital of Severn was surrounded. The dwarves of Taystone were laying siege to their great city. Smoke and fire rose from the capital as Paula looked on in horror. How long have they been gone? Two weeks? Maybe three?
Had the capital been under a siege for the entire time they were in LeGrove? The banners of the dwarves surrounded the city, and the cannons that the dwarves had used to great effect in their last war stood upon a hill just beyond the city. They would lay waste to the whole capital with those cannons. Paula had seen them in action before. It was a horrible sight to behold.
Seeing the might of the dwarves surrounding Severn made Paula despair even more. Not only had she been unable to secure help for their home, from the looks of things, but they also would not be able to return to their home either.
“What are we going to do Senator Paula?” Wallace asked her. She could hear the sorrow in his own voice. “We’re just a handful of guards. We can’t get through that blockade. We'll never see our families again.”
“We may not see the end of this day,” Paula replied. All the fight and hatred that she had allowed inside her was dying away. She was losing all hope and contemplated just sitting down on this very hill and watching her city be burned to the ground. What was the point of it all?
“Perhaps you would be all right with some companions by your side?” said a voice from behind.
Paula turned around and saw Laserie climbing up the same hill, a sword at her side.
“You came?” Paula asked, looking back at the young elf. She was sure she must be having another dream or vision inspired by the awful blackness from the forest. Only it could be so cruel.
But then the elf came up and put her hand on the Senator’s shoulder. The elf was real. Paula took a deep breath.
“Why did you come all this way? I thought they were things that needed to be done at your tower?”
“Things do still need to be done,” Laserie said. “But some of it was made right already.”
She looked over her shoulder and down into the forest below.
Paula saw that there were many who followed Laserie’s path out of the trees. Hundreds. Maybe, even more, coming out of the woods behind them.
Each elf carried a sword at their side and wore a helmet on their head. The purple tower of Legrove was emblazoned on their chests. Some carried bows strung over their chests.
“The elders were right,” Laserie said. “There is a dark future in this for us. Many of the elves from the tower agreed.”
She looked back at Paula with a determined expression on her face.
“But more of them also agreed that if our future is to be bleak, we ought not to sit and wait for it to be so. If we can forestall the darkness even for a short time, it will be worth any pain and sacrifice. Our towers are dying. But our race is not. We would seek to help you, Paula of Severn. And rectify many wrongs that have been done. Perhaps we can form a union of our nations to endure such coming darkness.”
Paula was at a loss for words. She looked down at her city — the one she had spent her whole life serving and trying to protect. And for the first time, instead of hatred, she felt grateful for the elves of LeGrove.
“I cannot guarantee we will survive this day,” she said.
Laserie nodded.
“We understand what sacrifice means.”
Many of the elves close by solemnly bowed their heads at the sight and at Laserie’s words.
Paula swallowed.
“If we should survive, she said. I would like to ask you many questions. I do not think they will be easy. Nor do I expect to have an answer for each. But they would help heal my soul.”
Paula looked around and saw the determined expression that Laserie had was etched on every elven face. They were here to help her nation. They had come to help her — a human senator from Severn.
Paula breathed deeply.
“The process has already begun because of you today.”
“Then I will do my best to survive,” Laserie replied. “I pray you do the same.”
She drew her sword and touched the Rimstone on the tilt. It began to glow with a soft teal hue.
The elves who had accompanied her drew their swords as well and mimicked her actions.
Paula turned and inspected the lines of the dwarves.
“I do not know how much of the army of Severn has survived,” she said. “But if we can draw the attention of the dwarves away from the city, they may be able to meet us and help from within. And if not...”
She had not finished her words. It appeared that Laserie did not need them.
The elf nodded and slowly, they begin to march forward down the hill and into the fray.
35: Fire and Revenge
Chief Rark inspected her spear as she walked among the ruins of the city. It had not been a difficult fight. Most of the work had been done by the Court of Three and their magical creations.
They had simply come in behind them as soldiers and Skrilx to finish off whoever had remained. A small contingent of soldiers had put up a fight towards the center of town, but Chief Rark and her warriors had made short work of them. One female, in particular, had seemed to be of great importance to them.
Perhaps if that were a different time, Rark would have spared this woman as she seemed to be the leader of the humans here.
But this was revenge. And revenge often left no survivors.
As it stood now, Chief Rark was walking through the dead and the dying. Any human she found clinging on to life, she sent on with a quick thrust of her spear. At first, there had been many. Now that the day was falling and night was upon them, they were far less huma
n souls that needed ushering to the next journey.
Ferdinand had been very clear with his instructions. They were to make no mounds to burn the dead. The city itself would serve as a funeral pyre. Rark saw now that speakers were walking through the ruins, lighting anything that was wooden on fire. The orange glow of the flames lit the night sky.
Rark was trying her best to ignore the smell that was assaulting her snout, but it was inevitable. Smoke and death filled her senses. So she continued her task of death as efficiently as she could and focused on her revenge.
With the city of Poral laid to ashes, the Skrilx could, in theory, take over the island in full. It could be enough for them to grow and prosper here. But they had once ruled the continent. So why stop at a single island when there was more that they could claim for their tribe?
“Well done!” said a voice that walked up through billowing smoke in piles of rubble.
Chief Rark was ready with her spear but saw only that it was Ferdinand. He was accompanied by a woman with short hair and another guard who kept his helmet on.
Rark looked to her side and saw that there were a group of her warriors close by, and she breathed a little easier. Ferdinand had come to her nearly a year ago with the proposal of revenge on Rerial and the Court of Three. She had been with leery at first, but after her spies had informed her of the progress the Blackthorns were making on the continent and the chaos that was ensuing, she decided that if there was anyone to throw their lot in with to aid them in revenge, it ought to be him.
Besides, if this did not work, there was always the other plan she had been making. Studying the betrayal of men had led her to understand that one plan was never enough. Several must be placed in motion at once in order to survive. She did not fear this man or his actions.
She knew that betrayal could come from all sides or anywhere at once.
“My tribe and I will continue to fight with you,” she said she looked up at Ferdinand and cleaned the blood off of her spear. “Once Severn and LeGrove have been laid low, I expect you to uphold your end of the bargain. The Skrilx will claim the north of Redact, down to the dwarven mines. All else is to be whatever chaos you desire.”
