Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (51 page)

Sebastian barely saw anything between the blood and the sweat pouring down his forehead. He was losing this fight and he knew it. The soldier had more experience and had a better weapon. While he fended off the dagger, it cost him several blows to the head, and he was starting to feel numb.

The soldier stabbed again, forcing Sebastian to move away. Suddenly, he felt his left foot get stuck on a tipped over chair, resulting in him tripping backward onto the ground. The guard was on him in a moment. With a dagger coming straight at him, Sebastian used both hands to block the incoming attack. The weight of the soldier pinned him to the ground as he tried to use his weight to push the dagger down into Sebastian’s heart. Luckily, Sebastian still had some strength in his arms, which had been trained by traveling through the trees for years. It was enough to stop the initial attack, but now, he felt his arms grow tired as he tried to push off the full weight of the soldier. He saw the dagger inch toward his chest, going for the spot just above the edge of his armor. He felt his arms turn sour, unable to keep up the intensity of the push…another inch. The tip of the blade slowly passed his armor, he felt the tip of the dagger put pressure on his skin—the first sting of broken skin, as the dagger drew its first blood. His mind yelled out, since he had no power, no breath left to actually shout for help. This was it, he would die on this rotten continent, after all these years, unable to change anything……unable to be an influence in the world…unable to help.

Raylan! Where are you?

The soldier straightened upward for one final push, when suddenly the tip of a sword pierced straight out of the front of his neck. The shock on the soldier’s face was accompanied by his last blood-gurgling breaths as Raylan put his foot on the dying man’s ribs and pushed him to the side. The dead body crashed heavily onto the ground, dagger still in hand. Sebastian’s hands were still clamped around the dead soldier’s wrists, unable to let go after such a lengthy and forceful push.

Sebastian lay panting on the floor, Raylan crouched next to him.

“You okay?”

Sebastian’s eyes, wide open, looked to the side to meet Raylan’s gaze.

“I thought for sure I was a goner. You saved my life, thank you.”

“I guess that makes us even now,” grinned Raylan. “Come on, we have to keep moving. This already took a lot longer than I thought it would, so we need to hurry.”

“What about the Darkened?”

“He’s dead,” said Raylan, pulling a heavy Sebastian to his feet.

“That’s incredible…I’ve never known anyone to survive a Darkened one. They’re like death itself…”

“Yeah well, I wasn’t sure I’d survive, either…thankfully, I had a little help. Grab some of that soldier’s armor, I’ve got the keys.”

They ran back into the hallway with the slave cells. Raylan unlocked the door of Marek’s cell and threw in the armor.

“Quickly, put this on. We need to move.”

Marek put on the armor. He was slower than Raylan would have liked, but it was clear his body was hurting from the beating. It did give them a moment to catch their breath again. Raylan looked around and saw the other salves in the cells; he carefully checked them out to see what they were doing.

“Why are you the only one alone in a cell?” asked Raylan.

“I’m noth, butf the guyfs in my cell had a falling outf. The guardfs came and tfook tfhem away yestferday morning…If notf fseen tfhem fsince.”

Marek hopped on one leg to put on his final boot.

“Readfy…”

“Alright, follow me,” said Sebastian, as he disappeared through the door.

Marek followed him. Raylan started to move, but hesitated near the door. He looked back and saw the other slaves looking at him from their cells. He walked back and grabbed the keys.

“I don’t know if any of you speak Terran and can understand me…there are a lot of things going on outside, but you might be able to make use of this and make your escape…I hope you all make it…”

And with that, he threw the ring of keys into the hands of a young female slave, and then ran out the doors after Sebastian and Marek.

Galirras looked around the bay. He felt Raylan out there, but it was hard to pinpoint him in all the turmoil; he had no time to focus on his friend, lost in the fray. He darted to the right, moving away from a number of crossbow soldiers. It was becoming increasingly difficult to move around. At first, he had the element of surprise. He enjoyed not having to keep a low profile, anymore. Moving from one place to another, spreading his wings for all to see, it was his job to attract their attention after all.

After his announcing roar and flight across the shore to draw attention to himself, he had first focused on the piles of resources he could find. He located crates and barrels, picked them up and threw them down at soldiers or buildings or—if that was too complicated—just knocked them over; that often worked fine, too. He flew low to scare livestock brought in for the slaughter. He took the opportunity to frighten some horses, in an attempt to let them break out, but they were too well secured. He swooped in and picked up a small pig, which he ate as a snack in the air. It was the first time eating while flying, as well as his first time eating a pig, both of which he very much enjoyed. It took some getting used to, reaching down to take a bite while keeping himself from crashing, but he was skilled enough by now to quickly adjust his wing beating to compensate. Unfortunately, part of the pig was wasted, when he lost his grip on it, as he made evasive maneuvers to avoid a thrown spear.

He managed to knock over an oil lamp which spread a pool of flammable oil. The surrounding wooden structures quickly caught fire, and in no time, a couple of small sheds in the south end of the harbor were ablaze.

He shifted his attention toward the ships, where soldiers had just started coming to deck, woken by all the commotion. He tried to tear at the sails, but it was difficult to get close with all the ropes and masts everywhere. Thankfully, his dragon eyes had excellent vision, not only in the dark but also in the twilight hours. He saw the air flow around the objects, so he had no trouble steering clear of obstacles.

Slowly circling, he took some time to overlook the bay area. He had little time left. The Doskovian army was getting more organized, from the looks of it. Archers were getting to the watch towers and rooftops and they were already putting out the fires he managed to start.

A movement caught his eye as he saw one of the airships take off and head toward him. It was the same ship that had taken out the caravel. It was quickly becoming too dangerous to stay on the offense much longer, and Raylan did warn him not to take any high risks.

Alright, one more pass and I will draw them further south,
Galirras thought, to himself.
I hope the others were given enough time.

Galirras set in a low dive, aiming for the large open area in front of the south exit.

I will use my wind blast to knock over that large pyramid of barrels, and then I am out,
he decided for himself, locking in his approaching target.

As he descended, he left the airship behind him. He saw a few archers shoot off their arrows, but the smoke and darkness of the night made it very difficult to hit him. He only had to evade one of them.

Pulling in the tip of his wings to pass the large structures, he compensated with some upward wind currents. He quickly glided through the lane he chose to use for his approach. Everything was going smoothly, until he suddenly caught another movement in the corner of his eye. To his far right, on the roof of a smaller building, two soldiers were hiding. The movement he noticed was the throw of a net toward him, which was now coming at him, fully spread. He tilted his body to the left, but had too little room to maneuver freely. It caught on his hind right leg and partially wrapped around it.

Surprised by the weight of the net, he realized it was not constructed of rope but steel. Entering the plaza with the barrel pyramid, Galirras came dangerously close to crashing into the ground, thrown off balance by the net. He skidded to a halt, half limping, kicking his hind leg to get the net off. From all sides, soldiers poured into the plaza, spears at the ready, some with more nets. The archers and crossbows were the biggest problem. They were quickly becoming too many. Galirras kicked his leg furiously, finally throwing the net off as it unwrapped from the movement. It flew across the square, knocking two unlucky soldiers over. He stretched his neck and gave a full force windblast roar toward the crossbow soldiers closest to him. The blast lifted them off their feet and threw them backward. They weighed much less than the bear he had encountered.

Instead of taking to the air and exposing himself as an easy target to the archers, Galirras turned around and dashed toward the south exit. Pouncing onto two soldiers, he quickly broke through and made a run for it. His tail whipped from left to right as he ran down the street, knocking over small food stalls and piles of crates. He heard crossbow bolts hit the wood to the side of him as he shifted left and right, finally deciding to take his chances in the air. With a giant leap, he launched himself into the air, pushing the wind upward with all his might, shooting into the sky at lightning speed. Having gained some initial height, he moved quickly—and erratically—to throw the archers off target. Retreating south, he heard the shouts follow him into the forest.

Raylan, Sebastian and Marek moved to the north side of the bay. The streets of the harbor were a lot emptier now, but were not completely deserted. They would have to choose their route carefully with the others. Raylan forced himself to move slowly, walking silently and acting like he was right where he belonged, as best as he could.

Marek had a similar helmet, like Sebastian’s, providing cover for his swollen face. It hurt to put it on, but walking around without it would not be an option. They arrived at the edge of the harbor structures and moved into the shadow of one of the buildings. Standing below the roof overhang, they looked into the forest. Every eighty yards or so, there was a sentry along the border of the small harbor settlement, and they noticed three guards just leaving the area and moving into the forest to patrol.

They slid along the buildings, until they came to the northern most building. Looking toward the water, they saw the small airships, waiting. They would not have to cover much ground to get to them; but first, they had to meet up with the others.

“Wait here,” said Raylan to Marek, as he and Sebastian took off around the corner.

As they approached the edge of the settlement, they checked all sides. The guard to the right of them was facing south, transfixed on the scene of orange glow coming from that end of the harbor. The fire and smoke gave an eerie feel in the early morning, and they heard the shouts carrying through the night, across the water.

“Let’s do it now, while the other guard is distracted,” whispered Sebastian.

Raylan gave a short nod, and he inched forward to the guard which was barely twenty feet away from them. The guard, focused on the outskirts of the settlement and forest area, did not take notice of the man sneaking up to him. Standing dutifully with his long spear, he never felt the blade coming. Raylan kept a hand over soldier’s mouth to keep him from making any sound. Raylan remembered seeing his brother make the same kind of attack, the night they raided the enemy camp on that rocky hill. It had been the night he first killed a person. For a moment, he realized that it almost felt normal. He shuddered as he dragged the dead soldier away from his post. Sebastian passed him and picked up the dead man’s spear. Moving into position, Sebastian took up the spot of the dead guard, and looked into the forest…nothing…just shadows, trees and rocks.

An owl softly called out into the night. Sebastian answered with his best owl imitation. Two shadows suddenly took shape on a rock at the base of a small group of trees. Two figures came running over silently, passing Sebastian without saying a word. Galen and Gavin…

The others followed on the discussed signals, crossing the small open area between the line of structures and the edge of the forest. As the last one passed him, Sebastian slid back into the cover of the building. Raylan propped the dead guard up on a barrel, making it look like he was asleep…at least from a distance. Sebastian put the spear on the slumped shoulder as a final touch.

“What kept you so long? We’ve been waiting ever since Galirras launched his diversion. And who’s this?” said Gavin, who had just run into Marek.

“He’s our ticket out of here,” said Raylan, “He’s an old friend of Sebastian we ran into. He’ll help us fly out of here with one of the small airships.”

“Fly? Are you crazy? We were going for a boat, not going after the airships,” hissed Gavin.

“The ships are all loaded up already, with at least fifty soldiers per boat. We’ll never survive an open approach over water with that many men waiting for us on deck. Galirras will surely have put them all on high alert. Marek says he knows how to fly one of those airships. Sebastian thinks he can do it.”

“We’vfe gotf tfo movfe quickly tfhough. Tfhose ships…tfhey need some preparatfion tfime before tfhey’re able tfo tfake off intfo tfhe air……,” added Marek.

“Good God, I can hardly understand you…what do you mean preparations? How much time?” said Gavin, shaking his head. “You know what…never mind. We can’t turn back now, even if we wanted to. Raylan…you lead the way, it was your plan, make it happen…”