by Ivan Hladni
"I will also need your northern ideas at the council," said Taren to Kerkio who accepted the invitation at once with a quick bow. Dion watched Taren wondering if he too would be called upon, but it soon turned out that he wasn't going to be.
"Let Dion see the events south of the city." said Taren to Dion, giving him an order as he spoke. When he was done speaking, Taren's eyes brushed Arnos's eyes silently seeking his approval.
"Take notice of any and all details, especially on the road to Doros and then bring us the news as quickly as you can. We shall be in the citadel. Tell the guards I called upon you and they will let you attend the council."
For a short while Dion still stood in his place and just looked at Taren until he realized that Taren was done speaking. Dion then looked at his father and Arnos slowly closed his eyes to confirm the task Taren gave him. Dion obeyed and started running towards the south end of the walls.
On his way south he passed by only a few people and among them were far more unarmed people than there were guards. He ran on the right side of the walls and looked through each crenel he could, but the walls were so tall and built so close to the river that he could only see across the river. He would need to push his head out of one of the crenels to see the bank of the Calapis under the walls and the thin strip of land that could be seen only when the waters were as low as they were now.
The short rest that he had while talking to his father and the others turned out to be too short and Dion again felt fatigue stalking him. He pushed himself to run a bit farther until he at last reached the end of the western wall which connected with the eastern wall there at a right angle and thus formed the sharp southern tip of the city that pointed towards the middle of the confluence of the rivers Calapis and Naumona. It was the tip of a triangle formed by the old walls of the city of Echa. The city lost that shape through the years as the city grew towards the north. New walls were built around the new city quarters and the north wall of the old city triangle became known as the Inner wall.
The clear green Calapis that joined the murkier waters of the river Naumona took his eyes south towards the horizon and the hills rising there, far beyond the kingdom of Aelan. Even there, in the distant lands belonging to the kingdom of Irion, he saw pillars of smoke breaking the dull monotony of the horizon's whiteness.
"They burned themselves first and then us?" Dion scoffed at the sight but immediately a new thought came to him. "They are under attack as well."
He looked towards Echa Rei, the smoke rising above it, and the villages where he was attacked, but a sound closer to Echa captured his attention. He was sure he heard water splashing so he pushed himself sideways into one of the openings in the western wall and looked down to the river. He heard splashing again and now he could see the source of the sound - one of the large Eaters entered the river and was swimming quickly towards the city. It moved as if something tugged its body first left and then right while it was using its tentacles like paddles to push itself forward. The creature pulled many men behind it who were holding onto two ropes strapped to the Eater's back. Dion's eyes followed one of the ropes to the river bank. The rope disappeared between the trees that grew there but he could see soldiers entering the river one by one and then laying down sideways in the river. They held on to the rope with one hand and let the monster drag them towards the other bank.
"They don't even need boats to cross the river," understood Dion and then saw another Eater enter the river and wobble-swim towards the eastern bank.
He watched each of them drag tens of soldiers across the Calapis and then realized - "They will surround us completely."
Fear crept back into his bones and he understood he must alarm the city, but also remembered that he did not complete the task Taren gave him.
He pulled himself out of the crenel and started running down the eastern walls as fast as he could. Even though the forest on the eastern bank of the Naumona was cut thinner each year it still obstructed his view of the east. He had to run farther north, beyond the old city and onto the new section of the walls. From there he knew he could see over the Eastern Bridge towards Echa Doros and the seemingly endless green plain that stretched from Echa to Echa Doros and even farther east.
There were no enemy forces on the road that led to Doros or in the surrounding area. He thought for a moment that he saw something in the distance but he decided that he had seen enough. There was nothing of importance in the east.
"Until the Eaters swim to there," he thought and started running back towards the south point of the walls. He could not clear his mind of the Eaters.
He pushed himself into the same crenel from which he saw the Eater for the first time but this time he saw nothing.
"They are out of the river already!" he panicked. "Where are they?"
He pulled himself out of the wall again, ran across the battlement to the opposite crenel on the eastern wall, slid into it sideways and looked down towards the Naumona. The very next moment he screamed and tore himself out of the crenel, ripping his shirt and chaffing his shoulder on the rough stone of the walls.
One Eater was almost at the top of the walls already and the ropes Dion saw earlier were not only ropes - they were ladders to which the soldiers held onto and climbed over them while the Eater dragged its body up the city walls with its large tentacles and clawed feet.
"Guards!" called Dion.
"They are climbing on the walls!" he shouted a moment later.
"Enemy! Enemy!" That was the last thing that he managed to shout with a sharp and broken voice of an already sore throat. An Eater's tentacle grabbed hold of a merlon in front of Dion and then another tentacle appeared and wrapped itself around a second merlon.
He was still alone. He took two steps back and one thought became stronger than all the others.
"No one heard me."
All that he could see now were tentacles filled with claws scraping on the stones of the wall. He heard voices, but they were coming from the other side of the wall and they sounded ready for an attack.
"Now!" cried his subconsciousness.
"Now, while they still haven't climbed all the way up!" He felt tingling in his muscles but he could not move.
Inside, in his most undevout of ways, he prayed to his grandfather's gods to return to his arms the dexterity they had surely lost. A year has passed since he last trained with his father. He went for his belt and sword with both hands, grabbed and held the scabbard with his left hand and unsheathed the sword with the right.
He looked for his target and after one blink of an eye he noticed that the tentacle holding the merlon on the east was tight and was stretched across the merlon's edge.
"I could cut it," he thought and with that thought he surged forward. The sword went through the meat of the tentacle and the strike of the sword against the stone underneath it rang through Dion's bones. The creature let out a gargling sigh but then roared angrily. Dion could feel the air vibrating and his ears started to hurt.
The severed limb fell off the merlon onto the walls and in its place three new tentacles appeared along with the head of the creature. Dion's brown eyes looked straight into the slimy darkness that were the Eater's eyes, hidden inside a thin slit in the dark red skin of its head. The Eater roared again and swung towards Dion. Just as it was about to hit Dion, the tentacle caught the edge of the walls and only the tip of the tentacle reached Dion's already painful shoulder and cheek. Dion's sword flew out of his hand all the way back towards the wall of the citadel when Dion's back smashed onto the floor as he fell.
His back and the struck shoulder screamed in pain. He felt dizzy but stayed conscious the whole time. His mouth filled with the taste of blood.
He tried getting up, spat to clean his mouth, checked his teeth with his tongue to see if any were broken, then looked around and found the sword behind him, touching the high walls of the citadel.
He went for his sword, still half-bent, as the Eater behind him rose all the way up the
walls and anchored itself with all its remaining tentacles.
"It's over," Dion thought when he grabbed the sword, turned and saw soldiers climbing over the ladders onto the walls.
"Echa!" he tore his throat shouting. He coughed and then shouted again.
"Echa!" he called for help again as two soldiers climbed off the Eater and entered the city.
"They broke into the city!"
That miserable thought fired an instant anger in him. He ran into one of the soldiers and found his stomach with his blade but when he turned to face the other soldier he saw that he was already fighting someone else.
"Run away!" Dion shouted when he understood that the man who fought the soldier was one of the citizens. "Run for help!" Dion shouted to the man once more and the man from Echa threw away his attacker and listened to Dion.
Dion turned his back to the man from Echa and heard his feet running down the Western wall towards the city. He was again alone with the Eater. New battle cries came from the soldiers climbing over the ladders and he knew time was running out. His eyes caught sight of new tentacles appearing over the battlement of the Eastern wall. They were of a darker red color, almost brown, and they belonged to another Eater.
Two almost naked men climbed over the Eater that was already anchored on top of the walls. Dion knew the creature was watching him ever since he cut off one of its tentacles, but he could not worry about the creature now. He was watching the two attackers who climbed up the walls. One of them turned his back to Dion and started helping the other attackers climb over the ladders and the other drew out two curved knives that were sheathed inside two thin leather holsters on his chest and started walking carefully towards Dion.
Dion reciprocated and started walking towards the thin young stranger with grayish hair. He knew he should move away from the wall to give himself room to maneuver with the sword. The stranger stopped and the stripes of red war paint around his eyes drooped. The attacker was set aback by Dion's unwavering advance towards him and the Eater. He flipped over one of the knives and grabbed it by the hilt.
Dion's eyes widened. He slowed down when a wave of panic surprised him. He took a quick step left, just as the knife flew out of the stranger's hand. They were only a few steps apart and the knife was instantly near Dion. He had very little time to lift the sword to intercept the knife. A clang of metal sounded when the sword struck the flying knife but that did not stop the knife completely. It spun around the sword and slid all the way to Dion's forearm and cut it before it loudly fell to the ground beneath Dion's feet.
Dion drew air between his teeth but did not look at his wound. He was surprised he survived the knife attack and felt weakness in his legs and stomach. He stared at the stranger who could not rid himself of his last knife and then Dion decided to finish this affair.
He squeezed the sword's hilt with both hands as hard as he could and stepped forward into his final attack.
"Not again!" Dion raged when an Eater's tentacle appeared in the air behind the stranger. His focus was broken in the middle of the attack. The tentacle missed Dion and hit the floor next to him in the same time that Dion missed the stranger who moved right to avoid the sword.
"No!" Dion panicked as he stumbled forward. He somehow managed to avoid falling but found himself bent down between the tentacle of the Eater that obviously watched him closely and the knife-wielding soldier on the other side.
"Left!" his mind ordered his body and he reacted before his next heartbeat. He threw himself left and landed onto the tentacle with his back wanting to roll over it to safety, but the creature twitched at the first touch of Dion's shirt and threw him into the air once more. Dion struck the Eastern Wall just beneath the second Eater. His eyes lost clarity for a moment but he saw enough to know that he had freed himself from encirclement.
He took a few short breaths and his eyes cleared. Four more attackers climbed off the Eater and ran down the Western Wall and then two more appeared over the Eater.
"Eight," he counted but then he felt a change behind his back when the brown Eater anchored itself on top of the walls. Still sitting, he tilted his head back and then all hope abandoned him. He could see the body of a third Eater behind him. He turned his eyes away from the creature and then pushed with both hands against the floor until his back touched the wall. The attacker laughed at him, now standing tall and proud on Echa's walls, breathing the air in so forcefully that the leather straps on his chest bore into his skin.
Two tentacles of the third Eater swallowed the merlons next to Dion. He was aware that he was only moments away from being encircled completely and that he would not live to see his twenty second birthday, his first adult birthday.
"A real man would not do this," flew through his mind but the fear and desperation were stronger than anything else and so he shouted for help.
"Dad!"
Once.
"Dad!"
He shouted long and loud for a second time and the stranger who laughed at him turned his gaze towards the western wall when he noticed that his skin became yellower suddenly.
A ball of fire as large as a man flew past the stranger on its way towards the Eater anchored at the tip of the walls. It engulfed Eater like fiery glue and its flaming tongues threw the men off its ladders down into the river. Then Malen, the Treewatcher's apprentice, stepped forth into view. He was thin and taller than most men and his face was now as pale as the stone of Echa's walls. He walked heavily, clenching his chest and leaning against the wall.
Dion waited for the moment when Malen would fall unconscious but that moment never came. Malen patted the pockets of his brown attire and found whatever it was that he was looking for. He quickly put it in his mouth, but Dion did not see clearly what it was. Malen chewed at the thing in his mouth and spat out a few times and Dion saw a small trace of light escape the apprentice's mouth as he grimaced while swallowing. He gripped his stomach with both hands when he swallowed but a few moments later the painful grimace faded away as did the paleness. Dion looked at him with wonder - Malen looked completely rested.
The knife-wielding attacker composed himself and turned to face Malen but then he found that the man from Echa who ran to get help had completed his task.
Kerkio and Taren appeared next to Malen and after Kerkio took his second breath there at the tip of the walls he threw a spear straight into the attacker's chest and then threw another one into the burning head of the half-dead Eater that still held on to the walls.
Arnos and a dozen legionaries then pushed their way between Taren, Kerkio and Malen. Arnos's eyes searched for Dion and found him next to the Eastern wall. Dion's black hair was heavy with sweat and covered with a layer of white dust it had gathered whilst thrashing against the stones of Echa's walls. He was missing his entire left sleeve so nothing hid the scrapes and bruises on his left arm. The right sleeve was cut and doused in blood which dripped onto the sword that his right arm still gripped. Dion could see shock reflect in his father's face and then both his father and Kerkio shouted at the same time.
"Left!" they commanded the legionaries to move with them towards the enemies who emerged behind Dion and climbed atop the red-brown Eater.
"Lie down!" Kerkio looked Dion straight in the eyes as he commanded him.
Dion went for the floor at once and Kerkio's last spear flew past him into the red-brown Eater.
With numbers now finally on Echa's side the legionaries swiftly cut the tentacles of the two Eaters on the Eastern wall and the creatures were felled into the river along with their deadly luggage.
"Home, quickly!" said Arnos and he and Kerkio took Dion under both arms and went north on the Eastern Wall towards the house of Odea's parents.
They could hear legionaries shouting "Lord Taren!" behind their back as they descended into the old city.
"They are moving across the Western Bridge. What do we do?"
Chapter 4 - Family Affairs
Arnos pushed away the doors of the house so forcef
ully that the doors almost jumped out of their hinges. Odea was making eggs for Dion and almost lost the frying pan in the fire of the hearth. She quickly put the pan aside when she saw Dion being brought in by Arnos and Kerkio into the kitchen lit only by the light of the hearth and what little daylight came in through a small window located next to the entrance. They sat him onto a hard wooden chair next to a table that was riddled with numerous holes and cuts from too many years of use.
"Place your right arm on the table," said Arnos to Dion. "Water," Arnos then said to himself and turned around the kitchen to find some, but he found none. "I'll do it," said Kerkio, grabbed the bail of the metal bucket that stood by the door and ran outside.
Odea left them for only a moment and went into the room on the left, the only other room in the house. She brought back two large candles, a few shirts and a small roll of bandage, as much as there was in the house. "I don't have enough," she said and showed what she had to Arnos. "You will have to bandage him with my shirts."
She handed the shirts and the bandage over to Arnos and went to light the candles in the hearth built into the right side of the house. Kerkio returned with the bucket overflowing with water and splashed a bit of it on the wooden floor of the kitchen with each step he took. His reaction when he put the bucket onto the table next to Arnos told everyone he did not mean for it to clang as loudly as it did.
Dion watched his mother put lit candles next to his arm. She tried not to disturb father while he was cutting the shirt sleeve with his knife. He glanced at Kerkio who looked for a moment at his face and then at the wound. He had a serious, but not a worried face.
Arnos wetted one of Odea's shirts in the freezing water that Kerkio brought from one of the city's wells and started to carefully remove the old crusted blood from the edges of the wound. A bit of fresh blood poured out of the long but shallow cut on Dion's forearm.
