Arrival

by William Dickey

  “Albert, how’s the Archlord doing?” I asked. Albert was the closest thing we had to a doctor.

  “Not great,” said Albert. “I managed to sdop the bleeding but dat’s the best I can do. He needs ein proper healer.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “We have to return to Crystalpeak anyway.”

  “Return?” said Zelus and Mercowin at the same time.

  “The beastmen are set to invade Crystalpeak,” continued Mercowin. “And the kingdom isn’t sending any reinforcements. If we return to the city…”

  “Would you rather keep going?” I asked. “How long do you think you will survive out here? How long before they strike again? I don’t know why they retreated. They could have destroyed us. So if you want to take your chances out there go ahead. I’m going back to the city. At least we have some protection there.”

  No one made any argument after that. We all understood what was happening. Beastmen raiders were already in the area. Our escape had already been cut off. Our best bet was to try to ride things out in Crystalpeak.

  Out of the Archlord’s thirty guards, 15 had died and another nine were badly wounded. We had plenty of horses, but it wasn’t as if we could strap the injured on. The heavy gallop of the horses would reopen and many would bleed out before we got back to the city.

  We ended up scrapping both carriages, ripping off the roofs and fusing together the floors to form a single large flatbed. The job was haphazard but the well-traveled road was smooth and it didn’t have to last long.

  We set the patients on the long flat bed of the double-carriage and by sunrise, we were headed back.

  Chapter 33: Truth

  The Othans regathered a league away. They spent a few hours treating their injured and cremating the dead. It was customary to cremate and spread the ashes of a fallen warrior near the site at which they fell. This ensured them a place on the battlefield in the afterlife. Izusa had lost three of her people but they’d defeated a mage as well as a score of human knights so she had no complaints. Even though they pulled back and gave up a portion of the spoils, they’d still managed to acquire a dozen sword and armor sets.

  Izusa had her men strip all useful equipment from the five human bodies they’d taken and had them cremated as well. They may not have been Othan, but they were still warriors and deserved a modicum of respect.

  “Capsain,” called one of her men.

  “Yes,” Izusa answered.

  “Good thing called us back so quickly,” he said. “Otherwise we might have got caught in a fight with a couple more mages.”

  “Yes,” Izusa agreed.

  “Wonder how’d know were mages?” he asked. “Hadn’t even used any magic yet.”

  “The look,” Izusa lied. “Who else would charge in like that without armor and weapons?” Her orders had nothing to do with the mages at all, but her men didn’t need to know that.

  The warrior left apparently satisfied with her answer. Once he was gone, Talia approached.

  “Just lied,” she said.

  “How could tell?” Izusa asked.

  “Always do that thing with lips, the half-pucker,” Talia explained.

  “Have to work on that,” Izusa sighed.

  “Don’t worry,” said Talia. “No one else would notice. Had the benefit of knowing something has been up. Did deliver those messages to the clan chief, after all. So what’s the real story?”

  “Real story?” said Izusa.

  “Know what mean,” said Talia. “What’s really going on?”

  “Know the spear told about,” said Izusa.

  “The one whose maker suicided rather than be captured,” asked Talia. “The complicated one with all the moving parts.”

  “Yes that one,” Izusa confirmed. “The dead maker wasn’t so dead.”

  “Was at the raid?” Talia asked.

  “Yes,” Izusa replied.

  “But witnessed death,” said Talia.

  “Did,” said Izusa. “But is one of those new Fallen, the ones who cannot seem to stay dead.”

  Izusa went on to explain the situation with the spear, the strange symbol engraved on it and its potential connection to the northern shrine.

  “Think we can use?” Talia asked.

  “Perhaps,” said Izusa noncommittally. “At least warrants further study.”

  “And just let the spear maker go,” said Talia with a slightly curious tone.

  “Of course not. Had Horseback and Cowhoof track. Went back north to the big city,” Izusa explained.

  “Why’d let go? Could take here.” Talia asked.

  “Suicided last time was captured. Need a better plan this time,” Izusa answered.

  Talia paused to take in all the new information and the more she thought about it, the more she felt a strange excitation stirring within her.

  “Don’t know what this feeling is,” said Talia.

  “Hope?” Izusa suggested.

  “Hope,” Talia agreed.

  We made it back to the city by noon and moved as quickly as possible to the Archlord’s manor. Once there, we sent for a healer to look at both the Archlord and the other injured soldiers and returned Cerise, the Archlord’s daughter, to her nannies. The Archlord was in the worst shape and the city’s finest healer spent over three hours on him before finally emerging from the ill noble’s bedchamber.

  “Is he going to make it?” I asked the healer as he came out.

  “Yes, barring any unforeseen complications,” said the healer as he wiped the thick coat of sweat from his brow. “Your man, Albert was it? Did a good job cleaning and patching the wound, but even so, the greatest concern is infection. It is unfortunate you couldn’t get him to me sooner. The purification charm I made takes time to do its work. All we can do now is hope that he can hold on long enough.”

  “How long until he wakes?” I asked nervously.

  “He’ll be out for several days at least,” the healer answered.

  “Is there any way to wake him sooner?” I said ruthlessly.

  “You want to rouse a sick man,” the healer scoffed. “Hasn’t he suffered enough?”

  “I’m more afraid of what’ll happen if he doesn’t get up,” I said. I pointed to the mob growing just outside the estate.

  We had tried to remain inconspicuous when we returned to the city but it was a complete failure. Even with their roofs ripped off, the Archlord’s ornate carriages were still easily recognizable and people took notice of a dozen badly injured soldiers wheeled to the Archlord’s manor.

  “It’s been what three, four hours and in that time word of our arrival spread, commoners gathered at the wall, illegally breached the inner city, and are now banging on our front door. There must be twenty thousand people out there. They know something is wrong and someone needs to tell them. Do you really think we have a few days?” I explained. The rhythmic chanting, faint but clear from this side of the glass, served to underline my point. “And what about after? We still have the beastmen to deal with. They can attack at any time. We must use what time we have left to reinforce our defenses.”

  Silence followed my pronouncement. They all knew I spoke the truth.

  The healer broke the quiet with an announcement of his own. “It won’t do any good trying to wake him up early,” he said firmly. “Even if you did, he wouldn’t be in his right mind.”

  We all frowned at this bit of news.

  “So I guess you’d better go tell them,” said Zelus.

  “Who?” I asked.

  He pointed to me.

  “Me,” I exclaimed only to have the rest of my companions nod in agreement.

  “Why me? Shouldn’t it be Zelus? He’s a high-ranking noble. People will listen to him,” I said all the while, Zelus shook his head.

  “I may be Lord of Aquivane but frankly I keep a rather diminutive profile. The nobility know of me but everyone else…” Zelus trailed off.

  “But they know me,” I said mockingly.

  “Of course they do
,” said Rose. “You’re famous.” She stated it in a matter of fact way that made it seem like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  “I am?”

  “Are,” Titania agreed.

  “Yes,” Albert grinned.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, slightly outraged as Mai giggled delightedly in my ear.

  “Just think about it,” said Rose. “First you break into the inner city and ring the long unused sanctuary bell. Then, just when everyone thinks you’re going to be executed, you reveal to everyone the beastmen have been secretly attacking us for months.”

  “Den you get into the prestigious magic academy vere undil recently only nobles vere alloved,” Albert chimed in.

  “But I’m not a student at the academy. They just let me use the library,” I stammered.

  “Do you think that other people care about the details? They just know you were inside,” Rose explained.

  “Then next thing, a complete amateur, win the Millenius Tournament,” said Titania. “Using self-invented tools and devices that shatter the fundamental principles of magic.”

  “B-But…” I stammered.

  “People know you,” Zelus finished. “They’ll recognize your authority more than any of us.”

  “Even yours,” I said turning to the head of Quewel’s personal guard.

  Mercowin had no interest getting involved either. “Like the Lord of Aquivane, I’m only known to the nobles. Ordinary people know nothing of me.”

  “B-But…” I tried to get out.

  “Come on. It was your idea,” said Zelus. “You said that we need to let everyone know what’s going on. We agree. Now do it.”

  Before I knew it, my ‘friends’ dragged me upstairs and pushed me unceremoniously out onto a balcony. Below I could see the thousands of people seeking answers. None of them seemed to notice me yet. I was only a small blob on the face of the Archlord’s massive palatial estate.

  From my position, I could hear what the crowd was grumbling about.

  “Why was the Archlord outside the city?”

  “Why is he hiding in there?”

  “Bring him out. We want answers.”

  “Why haven’t we heard from the troops lately?”

  That seemed to be the loudest of all the various complaints. Normally, even when the army was stationed at some far-flung edge of the kingdom, they’d still be able to write letters to their loved ones. These letters would be viewed via scrying, manually copied, and delivered to the appropriate recipients. Like any operation that required the hiring of mages, the service was expensive but it was still a service many used monthly. In the last week, not a single of these messages had been delivered. While no individual missing message was out of the ordinary, no messages at all was suspicious.

  “What have you done to my son,” a red-eyed old woman cried. “A mother deserves to know what happened to her son. Tears poured down her face as she moaned pitifully from the front of the crowd.

  Others were yelling about their husbands, their fathers, their friends and their brothers. The army that had left only six weeks ago consisted of 40,000 people. Everyone knew at least one person who’d joined the army. Many would know several.

  “I can use that,” I told myself.

  ‘Use what?’ Mai asked. She was the only one who could have possibly heard me over the roars of the crowd but even so, I was somewhat surprised. I certainly couldn’t hear myself.

  “Use what little I have at my disposal,” I answered her. “I don’t want what happened at Mill Valley to happen here.”

  ‘Now you’re talking,’ said Mai excitedly. ‘What’s the plan?’

  “I don’t know but I have to try something. Worst case we go back and hide in the underground base,” I said. I was sure the beastmen couldn’t get in. I had the only key and that place was virtually indestructible. My only limitation was food and my greatly expanded inventory went a long way to fixing that. My Otheristry had reached level 9 and could hold an incredible 512 cubic meters. Food didn’t spoil while it was stored so as long as I could get my hands on enough food, I could live underground indefinitely. I could hole down in the Traveler fortress for months, maybe even years if I had to, but that course of action didn’t really appeal to me.

  I took a few minutes to myself and mulled over everything I had experienced. I had suffered something akin to what these people were experiencing during the fall of Mill Valley but I had only known those people a few weeks. These people had lost family, friends, lovers. What I felt would be a pale shadow in comparison. I let the emotions of the past wash over me and I knew what to do.

  I moved to the edge of the balcony where all would see me and turned back to my ‘friends’ who watched from inside. “Zelus, think you could make my voice louder so everyone can hear.”

  “I can do better than that,” Zelus replied.

  Zelus waved his hands and next thing I knew there was a twenty-foot projection of my face hovering above me. The face, my face, was bathed in a golden light that radiated the entire crowd with its warm glow.

  ‘I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ,’ Mai shouted, tempting me to do the same, but I resisted. It wasn’t the time to joke.

  “As most of you have guessed much has been kept from you. But that changes now,” I said, the giant floating head repeated everything in an almost ridiculously loud voice. I wondered if anyone would be deaf by the end. Most likely me since I was the closest.

  As Rose and the others had indicated, people recognized me. I could tell from their mumblings between sentences. “Isn’t that the doomsayer?” “It’s the winner of the Millenius Tournament.” “The gadget guy.”

  “There is no easy way to put this,” I continued. “So I’m just going to come right out and say it. Eight days ago, our army met a beastmen force near the border between our nations. As far as we can tell, the battle was, in a word, calamitous. The vast majority of those sent are dead and the few who survived are now held captive.”

  An eerie silence filled the crowd. Most were simply too stunned to react. The rest were torn. Their hearts screamed that I was lying, that their loved ones were just fine, but their minds knew I spoke the truth. It was the only thing that explained it all, the strange silence from the troops, the odd behavior of the Archlord and other officials the past week, everything.

  “The Archlord witnessed the battle through scrying and immediately requested aid from the crown. He didn’t receive the king’s response until yesterday. Intense fighting with the Drulorians prevents the kingdom from sending any reinforcements. For now, at least, we are on our own.”

  A wave of terror rippled through the crowd. You could feel people would crack at the slightest wrong word as I slowly described the events of the past day. That the Archlord had tried to get a head start on everyone else and flee south. That he had been set upon by party of beastmen on the road and ended up coming back.

  People didn’t like this news at all. It had taken a month for their army to reach the border and fight the beastmen. They all knew the beastmen could travel faster than their army could, but to be here after only a week. It was a disaster.

  A wave of depression ran through the crowd. They thought it hopeless, that all they could do was wait for the enemy to arrive. They couldn’t even run since that would only mean losing what little protection the walls gave as the roaming bands of beastmen hunted them down like rats. I knew the next moment would be the turning point and chose my words carefully. Sadness and fear wouldn’t serve me or the people gathered here.

  “I know the news is fresh. That you all want time to mourn those you have lost. Time to piece together what you have left. Time to heal. But we don’t have time to indulge such luxuries. The enemy is out there. And we aren’t sure how much time we have left. It may be a week or a month but the fight is coming here. To our doors. You can run, take your chances on the road, Maybe you will make it to Dermentine or Eastden. Maybe you won’t.”

  “You can sit here and wait fo
r the beastmen to come. Maybe they’ll let you live. Let you spend the rest of your days serving them like a dog. Maybe they kill us all. Maybe they kill you last, as you cry over the still warm bodies of your children.”

  My eyes flashed with a sudden fire. “Or you can fight. Fight for your friends, your family, all those you hold dear. Fight for the guy down the street you buy your groceries from. Fight for the old lady who always reminds you to dress warmly in the winter. Fight for the stranger beside you because we are all in the same boat.”

  I saw the fire of my eyes reflected back at me, a thousand glints from all those looking up at me. A surge of emotion welled up like a great furnace igniting everyone. “Most of all, fight for the ones you’ve lost. Think about those who have left us. How they were stripped away from us, too young, too soon, unfinished. Think about their final moments, clawed, bitten and chewed alive. We cannot let that stand. We will not let that stand.”

  “I know that you’re afraid. That the beastmen are strong, that they are fast and vicious. All true. But what you don’t realize is our strength. We stand in one of the mightiest cities in the continent. Our landscape is bent and shaped to our will. Our walls and buildings stand defiant even to the rule of gravity.”

  “Our soldiers may have fallen in some forsaken wilderness, but that is beastmen territory. Here we shall make our stand. Here we will match knowledge and culture against bestial savagery. Here amongst our homes and workspaces, amongst our friends and neighbors, we will show that we are men and this land is ours.”

  The crowd roared in a chaotic swirl of emotion. Hope, fear, anger, and pride all inextricably tangled together. People were scared, down right terrified, of the incoming beastmen forces, but they didn’t give into despair, they were up for a fight.

  “Lead us,” shouted one man over the energetic buzzing of the crowd.

  “Tell us what to do,” yelled another.

  “How are we going to get our revenge?”

  “We’ll follow.”

  It wasn’t until then I realized exactly how people were taking my words. I wanted to get them to fight, to not lie down and be rolled over, not make me their leader.