The Darkness of Dawn

by Braden Michael

  Asher stared at the prisoner in silence. The man looked down pitifully, refusing to make eye contact with anyone in the vicinity. Blood dripped out of his mouth, staining his jaw, neck, and collar.

  “Who the fuck is this?” Asher asked.

  “Prince Hideki Yamamoto.” Black Eyes sneered.

  “Bullshit.”

  Every Emberlander squinted and glanced at one another.

  “Tell them who you are, Hideki,” said Black Eyes.

  The prisoner began to mumble incoherently, causing Asher to look at him puzzled until he saw that the man had no tongue.

  “What the fuck kinda game are you playing, asshole?” Asher seethed, grabbing the handle of his sword.

  The Emberlanders all grabbed their swords as well, looking at Asher to watch his moves carefully. The Bargemen backed away cautiously while Black Eyes stood firm.

  “No games on my end.” Black Eyes looked up at the cloud of smoke rising from deeper into the town. “I can see that you’ve made a proper game of murdering civilians and burning their homes.”

  Asher clenched his fist and thrust it at Black Eyes’ jaw, but he dodged backwards. Before Asher could recover, Black Eyes swiftly jumped and swung his leg, landing a powerful kick on Asher’s face. He went crashing backwards into one of the men, who caught him.

  Damon shouted furiously and darted towards Black Eyes, who hit him across the face, pulled his disoriented body closer, and drew a dagger onto his throat. The Emberlanders drew their weapons and marched forward.

  “Don’t come any closer!” Black Eyes screamed, holding his dagger into Damon’s throat, keeping him locked in place.

  “Stand down!” Asher bellowed, wiping fresh blood off his face. He then gestured towards all his men.

  The Emberlanders carefully sheathed their swords, continuing to dart their eyes back and forth between Asher and Black Eyes.

  “You mean me too?” said Black Eyes. He kept his dagger’s blade locked onto Damon’s throat, who softly grunted but did not struggle.

  “You will this instant if you have any sense of self-preservation.”

  “Fine.” Black Eyes lifted the dagger off Damon’s throat and pushed him towards Asher.

  Damon quickly went back to Asher’s side, wiping droplets of blood from his neck.

  Asher shifted his jaw, groaning, while massaging the spot Black Eyes had kicked. He turned to face the prisoner. “Prince Hideki Yamamoto, you say?”

  “The one and only,” said Black Eyes.

  Asher walked slowly and menacingly towards the prisoner until the two were face-to-face: Hideki refused to make eye contact. “You killed my father?” Asher’s voice was filled with a calculated rage he had never once heard himself speak with.

  The prisoner did nothing except look away meekly. Asher seized him by the throat and twisted his head in his direction. “ANSWER ME!”

  The prisoner closed his eyes and nodded, tears beginning to stream down his face. He collapsed onto his knees and began sobbing quietly.

  “By the Stars… The fuck did you do to him?” Asher glared quizzically at Black Eyes.

  “Only what he deserved.”

  “Deserved?”

  “He killed our father!”

  “My father!” Asher screamed with grief-stricken rage.

  “Really? Are you fucking kidding, Asher? This fucking animal is gonna cut open our father’s throat and you’re more upset about my fucking choice of words!?”

  “He was never your father, you freak! You came in and started acting like you weren’t the creepy mutant outsider you really are!”

  Black Eyes smashed his forehead directly into Asher’s nose, causing him to reel backwards and collapse onto the ground. Andy immediately drew his sword and approached Black Eyes, who simply kicked him in the chest, making him fall backwards onto the ground. Damon glared at Black Eyes with homicidal fury and marched towards him, attempting to seize him. Instinctively, Black Eyes struck Damon in the throat with a closed fist.

  “No one come any fucking closer!” Black Eyes drew his sword and held it towards the Emberlanders, all of whom backed away with fear on their faces.

  Asher and Andy collected themselves, but Damon remained on the ground, appearing to seize and struggle for air.

  “Damon?” Asher asked cautiously.

  Damon continued to flail around, unable to breathe. His face acquired hints of purple and his eyes opened wide with terror.

  “DAMON!” Asher panicked and rushed over to him, frantically trying to help.

  Asher furiously tried to take the armor off Damon, who continued to grasp at his throat. His face was bright with shades of blue and purple as his flailing began to die down. He made a few more pitiful attempts to breathe, but he slowly approached a certain death.

  “WHY’RE YOU ALL STANDING THERE!? HELP!” Asher’s voice was wrought with despair.

  After a few more moments of helplessness, Damon’s body stopped seizing, and his eyes turned cold and lifeless.

  Asher looked down at him, ready to sob at a moment’s notice. Before he could, his ears and mind were invaded by the jarring hum of the Artifact. The sound filled his ears with poison, and he instantly relived every terrible moment of the village massacre. Damon’s face instantly morphed from Danny’s and Garret’s. Asher’s face broadcast heavy distress as he stood up. He felt a raw level of anger he had never known before. The anger he felt watching Black Eyes mutilate the flagpole prisoner or imagining his father’s death did not come close to the fury within him at this exact moment.

  “BARGEMEN!” Asher roared.

  The Bargemen perked up, shocked, and Black Eyes recoiled.

  “If you don’t want us to flay every single one of you to the bone, then you’ll take this Abomination back to the Deadlands where you came from!”

  Black Eyes’ sorrowful face turned into a cocktail of anger and confusion. The four Bargemen looked at one other hesitantly.

  “I’m sorry?” the apparent leader of the Bargemen asked.

  “Black Eyes is hereby banished to the Deadlands! He will remain on that forsaken shithole with the other Exiles until he withers and dies! And you’ll take him there if you plan to leave this fucking town alive!”

  The Bargemen looked at one another, muttering amongst each other. Black Eyes continued to stare silently at Asher.

  The apparent leader of the Bargemen walked forward. “Your Majesty, this, uh, person, here offered us 10,000 gold pieces if we escorted him and the prisoner to Ashguard.”

  “Your point?” Asher glared at the Bargeman, who looked back in silence. “Here’s how I see it. He made a promise of great wealth to you, one that he couldn’t deliver. Reason enough to send him to the Deadlands. Not to mention, it’s how you’ll atone for killing my men.” Asher pointed back to the dead Emberlanders on the road.

  The leader of the Bargemen looked back at his men and shrugged. He turned back to face Asher. “We can be amiable to that, your Majesty.”

  “It pleases me to hear that. I will be taking Yamamoto of course,” said Asher. He pulled the prisoner up to his feet and threw him back to his men. “Get Lieutenant Francis. Tell him to assemble twenty men to take Hideki back to Ashguard. I want him locked up at Steeltower.”

  “Aye. C’mon, scum.” a few Emberlanders took Hideki by the arm and took him away.

  Asher looked over to Black Eyes, who did not move, protest, or otherwise speak. He simply looked down at Damon’s corpse with the guiltiest face Asher had ever seen the freak wear. This monster has the nerve to fake remorse?

  “Get him out of my sight, Bargemen,” said Asher.

  “C’mon pal, time to go on another journey,” said the Bargemen’s leader.

  Black Eyes did not resist, nor look away from Damon’s corpse. His face remained covered in apparent grief as he was dragged into the carriage.

  Asher looked back at Damon, clenching his fists. Danny, Garret, and now you. As he stared down sorrowfully, his men remained silent, looking in v
arious directions.

  “You—I, uh—” Andy began.

  “There’s nothing to say, Andy.” Asher looked around at his men. “Do a full accounting of what happened here. Losses on either side, people we’ve captured, all that. Then, loot the ever-loving shit out of this town.” The men nodded and slowly walked away to carry out their orders. “Oh! And be quick about it. We ain’t gonna be here much longer,” he finished.

  As the men began to disperse, a different soldier came from elsewhere. “Your Majesty! Lieutenant Francis wants me to inform you that we captured a large supply of firedust barrels and even a cannon!”

  “A cannon?” Asher perked up. “How large?”

  “A small one, as far as cannons go, but it’s still quite the salvage!”

  “I agree, thanks for bringing me the news. You’re dismissed,” said Asher.

  The soldier nodded and ran back to where he came from. Andy walked up to Asher and offered a final look at Damon before looking back up at him.

  “Where’re we headed next, Asher?” Andy inquired.

  “The Furakuhold.”

  “Won’t we need an army to get there? I’ve heard stories…” Andy protested.

  “We won’t be needing an army, since we aren’t going to the Furakuhold’s front gate.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If we have many barrels of Firedust and a field cannon, we won’t need an army, we won’t attack the front gate.” Asher crossed his arms and rested his chin on one of his hands, deep in contemplation.

  CH 33 – Vaishalla VI

  The Rockland Army overslept with zero consequences. Just as Archard had planned, the Headlanders never dared storm the hill. Instead, they remained in battle formation the entire night, inevitably making them exhausted. Archard prepared another speech from his elevated rock.

  “Men!” The soldiers immediately turned their attention to Archard. “The day has finally arrived! We have decided how this battle will go! Those invaders are sitting down there, and they are terrified of you! Right now, we will defend our country, and we will be remembered for our triumph! Do you plan to triumph?”

  “YES SIR!”

  “That’s what I love to hear! Now, remember your training, and you will see that triumph!”

  The men roared. Archard motioned his hand behind him, and a woman with a helm and battledress clambered up the rock beside him. Elizabeth, Vai recognized.

  “With the help of our Empress Vaishalla Robinson, we’ve designed the optimal formation for battle! We’ll avenge the late Emperor and bring her King Hiroshi’s head!” Archard held the supposed Vai’s hand in the air, meeting the roars of the men.

  How’s the sweet girl doing? I wonder if she is as nervous as I am, Vai thought.

  “Fight to protect your Empress! Fight to avenge your Emperor! Fight to protect our Empire!” Archard finished dramatically.

  The men bellowed out their grandest roar yet. Archard waited several moments for the cheering to die down. “Meet with your commanders and await your orders!”

  All twenty thousand men shifted around one another in a sea of bodies and confusion, searching for their commanders. Vai desperately looked around for Colonel Auckland. Everyone hindered her vision, being taller than her, and the combination of her helm and the linen that disguised her face did no favors for her sight either.

  “Follow me!” Nick tapped Vai on the shoulder and gestured her to follow him.

  Nick and Vai ran through dozens of infantry and cavalrymen, following the general direction the archers ran in. Slowly but surely, they waded their way through the crowd to Colonel Auckland and the rest of the archers.

  “Archers! Get down the hill into hundred-man formation! Follow me!” bellowed Auckland.

  Auckland began running through all the archers towards the edge of the hill. While thousands of infantry and mounted cavalrymen began down the hill, he started down the hill and a chaotic mess of archers shortly followed him. Vai and Nick rushed with them.

  “Where’s Garrod and Tuttle!?” Vai shouted.

  “I don’t know,” Nick responded.

  The mob of soldiers meshed and forced itself forward down the hill, and Vai could not make sense of her surroundings. However, as she descended the hill, she got a split-second view of the Headland Army in formation. They must be thrice our size, perhaps larger, she thought.

  All perception of time was fully distorted. Before Vai consciously realized, she was standing amid ninety-nine other archers in a square while the rest of the army ran into formation. As she jumped back into reality, she could not see the entire formation of the army but did see the war cart of the Royal Line hundreds of feet away, with the false Vai atop it alongside Archard and ten shield-bearing pikemen. In front of her unit was a formidable line of infantrymen wielding shields, spears, swords, and javelins.

  The rest of the army formed quickly, ending the sounds of storming footsteps throughout the field. As the two armies, both tens of thousands of soldiers strong, faced each other on the field in a dramatic display, the air was eerily quiet: only the sounds of soft, muffled breaths and commanders trotting around the army on horseback could be heard.

  Archard’s booming voice broke the silence: “Rockmen, listen up! Obey your commanders every step of the way! Do not do anything unless you are ordered to! Now, are you feeling good!?”

  “YES SIR!” The twenty thousand Rockmen roared with the fury of twenty million.

  The Headland Army remained silent, continuing to stare down the opposing army without budging an inch.

  “Each and every one of you is hereby charged with killing ten of these filthy invaders. Then, and only then do you have permission to die fighting! Sound good!?” Archard bellowed again.

  “YES SIR!”

  “Commanders! Proceed!” Archard finished.

  Various shouts echoed from far away in the formation, but Auckland’s voice was powerful and clear. “Archers! Rightward march!”

  Standing by Vai’s left, Nick bumped into her, nudging her to march. In that instant, Vai’s doubts, insecurities, concerns, and fears melted into pure combat focus. No longer was she dealing with politics or geopolitical catastrophes: there was only the fight, and there were only orders to listen for.

  The rightward march continued for a few moments, the beat of a drum in sync with the breaths and footsteps of the soldiers. In front of Vai’s unit, the infantry line began a rightward march as well, matching their pace.

  “HALT!” Auckland shouted.

  The archers immediately halted, and the infantry line ahead halted seconds afterwards. Once the units around her were settled and quiet, Vai could hear horse hooves stampeding far off to her right and men releasing vibrant war cries. The sounds simultaneously emanated nearby the Rockland and Headland Armies. The fighting has started, Vai realized.

  The war cries slowly shifted into screams of pain from man and horse alike. Vai could hear swords hitting swords and swords hitting flesh. Soon afterwards, the terrifying sounds of cavalry clashing roared from both Vai’s right and left. It was impossible to distinguish whether the agonizing screams echoed from Rockmen or Headlanders. Who’s winning? Vai’s sweating began to intensify, dripping from her body.

  A deep and monstrous rumbling began to echo in between the two cavalry clashes, and it grew louder with each passing second until the apparent shouts of many tens of thousands of men accompanied the rumbling. Their infantry is charging at us, Vai realized. She glanced at the line of infantrymen in front of her unit, almost panicking when she saw it stretched somewhat thin.

  “INFANTRY HOLD!” a commander roared from the infantry line.

  With startling discipline and blood-lusted fervor, the infantrymen grunted and roared. Their armor clanked all at once as they immediately deployed their shields and spears, forming a single cohesive phalanx. Shield bearers occupied the front while swordsmen stood guard beside them, and spearmen occupied the space behind. The incoming storm of charging men was now almost
deafening. Still, Auckland’s mighty voice pierced through the drowning maelstrom of sound.

  “READY THE SPECIAL ARROWS!” Auckland commanded.

  Along with each archer who stood near her, Vai quickly fumbled through her second quiver and took out an Auckland Arrow, holding it with her right hand, bow in left. The archers remained still but ready for the next command.

  “NOCK!”

  Settling into her flow, Vai placed the arrow nock onto her bowstring in time with the others.

  “DRAW!”

  With arm strength she had never once known before, Vai pulled the arrow back past her chin, keeping the bow aimed up and her left arm extended.

  “HOLD!”

  Vai remained strong, inhumanly steady. She took several deep breaths as the storm was at its loudest.

  “LOOSE!”

  Thousands of arrows slung from their bows in a cohesive and satisfying whish. Vai watched with amazement and excitement as the sea of projectiles soared into the air. Thousands of arrows filled the noon sky in a scarce moment of glory. Her amazement transformed into morbid anxiety as they began to descend. Her mind conceived new thoughts twenty times faster than normal. Just one of those was quite loud. How loud will that many be? Will they even work? They weren’t rushed, right? What if it does work? Will we die too? Vai’s hyper cognition seemed to slow down time itself as the arrows appeared to levitate above the ground momentarily, until they disappeared from the sky.

  The rumbling war cries of the approaching horde were cut short by a blast unlike anything a single soul on the field had ever heard in his or her life. Vai’s body shook violently in a flash, rattling her teeth and bones. A gale force wind blasted through the entire area and a cloud of dirt hit everyone shortly thereafter. As the dust settled, the sounds of cavalry clashes stopped, and the once-roaring horde of men was now sparsely littered with screams of pain and agony. “I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” “STARS, HE’S DEAD!” “I’M BLIND!” Tears began to accumulate in Vai’s eyes as the terrifying horde of monsters became frightened and wounded children.