The Ninth Prophecy

Several days had passed since Yon was informed that his brother was coming to Karos. He grew extremely anxious. The Karosian troops were on high alert. Yon had just received the news that Faris’s army had passed the Convergence. Yon spoke to his troops inside the gates: “Beware, my brave fellowmen. The enemy is skilled in cunningness. We don’t know when and how they shall attack, but we should expect a perfidious attack, not an open one...” Before Yon could finish, the sound of drums interrupted his speech. His brother was approaching and he wasn’t hiding. Yon didn’t allow himself to get distracted: “Go, my men, fight the enemy out on the field. They must not be allowed to even scrape the gates of the city. You are more numerous. You are better equipped and you are better trained than they are! Go out and employ your skills and virtues. The enemy shall enter the gates of Karos, but it will be their own funeral they will be attending! Go out, face them and rip them apart!”

The soldiers screamed in approval. As the Karosian troops were getting positioned on the battlefield in front of the city gates, Yon went to the place of his most memorable triumph, the plateau of the Tower of Five Fires, from where he was to oversee and organize the defense. Wago joined him. The Dabors and other slaves working on the inside of the gate at the opening of the Tunnel of Red Rock stopped working. A lash of a whip licking Goras’s back got them back to work, as if nothing was going on outside.

As the sound of the drums got closer and louder, the beat got faster and faster. By the time Faris emerged at the helm of his troops, the drums were beating frantically, still in a unified, fast rhythm. The trick seemed to have worked, because Karosian army appeared to be hypnotized by the beat, their commanders dumbstruck. Faris seized the opportunity and ordered attack. His army, although visibly outnumbered, charged and cut through the Karosian troops like a breath of wind through fallen leaves.

Even Yon was breathless at first, seeing his lines fall apart like that. It didn’t take him long to pull himself back together: “What are they doing? That’s just a bunch of primitive shadowers! I don’t want them to come near the gates! Hell, I don’t want them to even breathe at the front gate. Those damn demi-lords’ troops. Send out the Septors. Signal for attack, damn it,” he ordered a soldier at his side.

The gates opened and Septors rushed out, several emerging on the walls, mercilessly taking out Faris’s men who got near the gate. Surprisingly, the Noxian troops fought back efficiently, taking out most of the guards at the gates and several Septors on the battlefield. “That’s not right, they shouldn’t be able to take out Septors with such ease.” Yon thought there was something unusual about the shadower and Noxian troops, but he couldn’t quite get what it was. Soon, it became clear to him: “The bastards are carrying slingshots. Those are not Noxians and shadowers. Those are the layun! Well, my brother did manage to pull off a surprise regardless of all, you gotta hand it to him. He’s got style and he is a fast learner! Too bad for him that the layun never fight past the gates. He pulled off a nice trick, but it won’t be enough,” Yon spoke, still visibly relaxed.

Even when the rest of the Noxian army and shadowers emerged from behind the lines and pushed back the defenders, Yon didn’t seem to even twitch, although Wago was growing more and more nervous. The drums were still playing in the back, giving a beat and a sense of orderliness to the bloodshed. Yon addressed the soldier who was signaling the troops once again: “All right, send out the cavalry.”

The front gates opened up and hundreds of cavalrymen rushed out, led by Thrax in person. “This is going to cost me a bit more. The damn lords charge too much for hiring the cavalry, but it had to be done,” Yon commented calmly as he watched the horsemen dominantly break through the enemy lines and kill everything in their way. It was now obvious that Faris was in a lot of trouble. He was cut off from the rest of his troops with a small group of soldiers as he desperately tried to push the enemy back. He was stranded behind the lines. All Hadera, Sethon, Maedur and others could do is watch from behind as Faris struggled to stay alive, fighting alongside a rapidly decreasing number of his comrades. Hadera was already injured. Two Septor arrows hit her in the left shoulder.

Things were looking grim for Faris and his army. Faris managed to climb up on a rock arising from the middle of the field and cry: “Ratana! Ratana!” Within moments, like an ominous shadow, the horion appeared out of the thick smoke. As Faris climbed on its back, one of the Karosian soldiers managed to cut his leg just before Ratana froze him to death. Yon watched it all from the safety of the tower: “He’s retreating already. That’s too bad.” Despite Yon’s disappointment, Wago seemed to be quite relieved seeing Faris rise up on the animal’s back.

However, much to Yon and Wago’s dismay, Faris grabbed the beast and screamed: “Over the gates, Ratana, now!” The animal charged and flew over the wall, struck by several arrows, but also striking down several of the guards with her deadly breath. “What is he trying to do?” Wago spoke out loud.

Ratana rose up above the city and circled around a couple of times. Behind them, far on the field, Faris’s troops watched in shock what was happening. They watched Ratana, with Faris on her back, circle and then take a steep descent, arrows flying all around the two. Hadera, seriously wounded, jumped forward and rushed towards the enemy lines: “Attack! Save our brave king, in the name of The One!” Faris’s bold strike and Hadera’s cry gave Noxian soldiers a new found of confidence. As if they were a different army from the one that was earlier pushed back, they charged forward, pulling down one horseman after another. The battle was revived once again, along with Noxian hope of emerging victorious.

Back behind the city walls, Faris was struggling to evade arrows and lances which were being thrown at him. He looked around and pointed: “There Ratana, there he is! Land there!” Ratana obeyed the order and landed right next to Goras. “How nice of you to drop in!” Goras spoke while Ratana was shielding the two with her wing.

“He’s going to free the Dabors!” Wago screamed in panic. “Relax. He can’t do that! The chain that holds them stranded together is as thick as my arm. There’s no way he can break it!” Yon calmed the man down. Faris glanced at his brother and grabbed Ratana. The animal had suffered more strikes than she could take. She was barely alive. “Ratana, I need you. Blow,” Faris spoke with tears in his eyes. Ratana pulled her head up just few inches above the earth and blew on the chain which instantly changed its color from metallic to a deathly white.

The animal fell back and breathed no more. Even Yon leaned forward, as if trying to stop Faris. Faris turned to Ratana, wanting to shield her, hug her. He restrained himself and pulled back. With fury in his eyes, he lifted his sword up and struck on the frozen part of the chain with all his might. Like glass, the chain broke into hundreds of pieces. “Fight, my brave Dabors! Fight for your freedom and for the freedom of the realm,” Goras shouted as loud as he could, pulling out from the shackles the chain that stretched all the way into the tunnel. The freshly liberated Dabors grabbed their mining tools, the pickaxes, shovels and even chisels. They hacked down the lightly armed guards and swarmed gates and walls. Now even Yon got worried. He managed to keep his cool, however, and spoke: “Damn it! They managed to desecrate the city! My brother never seizes to amaze me! He always pulls off some kind of a new surprise. Unfortunately for him, he’s fighting an adversary who could never underestimate him because I know him the best.”

- “What will we do! What will we do, my king!” Wago cried out, grabbing the few hairs on his head.

- “Stop it, Wago. You’re embarrassing yourself. Now I am glad I went through all the pain to bring them in. Gul, send out the Koprites!” Yon gave the order to the Koprite commander who was down, lurking from the shadows. Within moments, hundreds of Koprites and argorites rushed from the shadowy streets and barns. Yon was looking down on the carnage as if enjoying it.

- “But, my lord, how did you get the Koprites by the Devil’s Tooth?” Wago asked in amazement.

- “My dear Wago, this is precisely why I let my brother hold the Convergence. I wanted to trick him into thinking that he controls all the passages and that he can stop the Koprite reinforcements from joining us. What he didn’t know is that, much like all other cities, Karos too has its secret passages and tunnels. Thrax was kind enough to inform me of their existence. It was only a matter of finding the best way to use them.”

Their dialogue was interrupted by the noise which was coming from beneath the plateau where they were standing. Yon looked down and saw Faris, accompanied by two Dabor warriors, push his way to the top through the guards. He didn’t wait for Faris to come up. Instead, he pulled out his sword and rushed down the stairs. He almost slashed his brother with the first blow, taking Faris by surprise. Faris managed to evade the strike. The two Dabors were not of the same luck. Now, two brothers were fighting on the narrow stairway. Yon had the initiative, pushing Faris lower down with his blows met by Faris’s shield. “What’s wrong my brother? Did you somehow think you could kill me, the rightful king of the realm? Look down as your army is devoured by my Koprite throng!”

- “I will kill you I swear!” Faris said waving his sword almost uncontrollably, exhausting himself rather than doing any harm to Yon.

- “No, you will not. But I will let you live long enough to witness the doom of your army,” Yon said and ran up the stairs to the plateau. Faris followed him, failing to catch up with him. At the plateau, they stood at opposite sides, breathing heavily and looking at each other. “Watch, Faris, as your troops perish.”

Faris said nothing. Yon watched as the Dabors, cramped on the wall passages, desperately tried to escape and hold back the charging argorites and Koprites. Outside, the Noxian army was being pushed back and encircled on the surrounding highlands by the northern troops. Faris turned towards the other side of the steep city and looked at the walls on the opposite side, facing the Dead Lake. Yon grabbed his sword and said: “So, you choose not to watch?! All right, then I might as well kill you now!” He approached Faris and started to deliver vicious blows. Faris, whose leg was hurt from earlier in the battle, was managing to lift up the shield and repel the blows. However, he was much more exhausted than Yon and it was starting to show. The duel had come down to Yon striking with his sword and Faris getting pounded on the shield. At one moment, Yon struck, hitting the shield which finally cracked and broke in two pieces. A smile appeared on Wago’s face as he exclaimed: “Will of The One can never be omitted!”

Yon was positioning himself to deliver the final blow. At first, he seemed hesitant, but, not too long after, he fixated his look and tightened the grip on the sword. He was determined to put an end to the story. Just before he struck, thundering noise spread through the air. The earth shook underneath their legs. Yon lost his balance too and fell back. Faris slowly lifted his head, seemingly unsurprised. Both men got up and looked toward the source of the clamor which was coming from behind the walls, from the Dead Lake. There were only a couple of guards left on that western wall. Yon saw them wave frenetically, trying to warn the Karosians of something. A split second later they were blown away by an explosion which also took out a big central part of the western wall. To Yon and Wago’s disbelief, water gushed through the hole in the wall. Thousands of gallons of water flooded the city, wiping away everything in its way. The only ones who were safe were the Dabors on the wall passages. When the mighty wave reached the front gate, it smashed it open and water continued its deadly surge right onto the battlefield. It took in all of the troops. Again, Noxian army was at a safe position, huddled up on the few high points. Yon watched in horror as his troops were being wiped away by the mighty flow.

- “How, how...this is not possible. There is no water behind those walls all the way up until the great dam...The great dam,” Yon stuttered. Faris just smiled. Yon looked back down in disbelief: “But that’s not possible. No ship or man can get near the dam without being spotted and taken out.”

- “That may be true, my brother. However, horions are a completely different story.”

Just then, a fleet of horions flew in over the damaged wall, followed by hundreds of men. There was not much work for them to be done except sweeping the corners and houses which were not completely under water. The argorites which were already drowning were an easy prey for the Dabors and the Noxian soldiers who were picking them out one by one from their elevated positions. The opening in the wall created by the explosion was practically sealed by a ship that rammed into it. Instead of water, tenths of men poured out of the ship too. Yon thought the man who was standing at the front of the ship and commanding the troops looked somehow familiar, but he couldn’t quite decipher who it was. “Who are those men? How did they break through the dam?” he asked Faris, now not even trying to attack him.

- “Those men you see are the drifters...and our friend Geren with the navy. That young man you see commanding them is our dear friend Damius Barantham. The drifters grew very fond of him.” Yon couldn’t hide the shock. “Yes, Yon, you heard me well. Damius was more than willing to assist us, along with his drifter friends, in taking over his hometown,” Faris continued to explain.

- “Geren...I should have known the expelling was some kind of a trick! And what did you promise the drifters in exchange - women, goods, ships?”

- “No, not that. I only told them that they are free to take all they can find in the temple of your interpreters. They were satisfied with that. They had heard about the wealth you had provided them with.”

- “You want to give them my temple?!” Yon exclaimed furiously.

- “What do you mean your temple? I thought it was supposed to be a temple of The One...Oh, yes. I will also pardon them for all that they have done.” Yon answered nothing. He just asked Faris another question: “And the filthy Barantham...what promise did you give him?”

- “Simple lordship was enough. He will run one of the cities. And he is not filthy. He is more honorable than you or any of your men!”

- “You still didn’t answer how you broke through the dam?”

- “Well, we weren’t sure about it either. Basically, the plan included horions’ blowing at one single spot on the wall of the dam and then ships firing at the spot and piercing through...that was the theory. Obviously, it worked!”

- “You’re smart, my brother, really smart. Your pompous arrival, the drums...you were the decoy. You wanted our full attention at the front gate.”

- “Well, you know I always was the silent type. You should’ve guessed something was wrong when we marched in with drums. I’m afraid it’s over, Yon. You should surrender now.”

- “I’m not going to do that. I won’t be your trophy. I’m weighing my options.”

- “What options?!”

- “There are always options. I could kill you and try to take over your army, but I don’t think that would work. I could kill you anyway, out of pure satisfaction, but...that’s just it - I wouldn’t be feeling any satisfaction.” Just at this moment, Axion landed on a horion’s back right by Faris’s side. He dismounted and tapped the animal, signaling it to go way. “I could also try something else,” Yon said.

- “Like what?”

Yon just smiled at Faris and ran to the edge of the plateau. He jumped up and grabbed the horion which was flying away by the leg. “Yon, no!” Faris screamed. Yon practically wrestled with the animal in the air. The horion tried to shake him off but failed. The animal flew lower and lower, the weight of Yon’s body and his wiggling pulling it down. At one point, Yon looked down. As the horion flew over the front gate wall, he let go of its leg. He landed few feet away from Hadera who had already entered the city with her troop in support of the Dabors who were fighting off the remaining argorites and Koprites. In the heat of the battle, Hadera didn’t even notice Yon come from behind. At the last moment, Goras screamed: “Hadera, behind your back!” Hadera instinctively dropped her bow, swiftly pulled out her sword and turned, the blade swooshing through the air. She struck Yon right on the neck. He just smiled and uttered: “Perfect!” The next moment he fell before Hadera’s feet, blood gushing out of the wound. Almost at the same moment, both Faris, who was watching from the plateau, and Hadera, who was standing next to Yon, screamed: “No!”

Hadera kneeled before Yon’s dead body. He had no weapon on him, but there was no way Hadera could have known it. The battle was over. Faris almost jumped off the plateau, in his wish to help his brother, but Axion pulled him back. It was all over. Faris had managed to take over Karos. He had the realm on his palm, but he was grieving more than ever in his life. Hadera wept for Yon just as much as Faris.

Damius came to console him, but he also had only bad news: “You’ve kept your word, Damius. I will keep my word too. You are an honorable warrior. Where’s Geren?”

Damius unwillingly answered: “Geren...is dead. He was killed at the dam.”

- “No, no! How could that have happened?!” Faris said in despair.

- “When Axion and the horions took out the sentries on the dam, there was the question of how to break through it. We were already running late, as you must have noticed. The problem was that, whichever ship was to shoot at the frozen spot on the dam, it would have to come near the dam. It was inevitable that, if the ship pierces through the wall, it would be sucked in by the current of the water surging through the crack. Geren said that he would do it with his ship. He pointed out that his ship had the mightiest cannons of all. He said that this was anyhow the best chance he could get to die honorably at sea, which is what he had always hoped for. He wasn’t even willing to listen to us trying to talk him out of it. He just sailed off towards the dam. After the horions blew and froze a spot on both sides of the wall, Geren fired. The first salvo didn’t do much damage to the dam, just like the second, but the third...the third one got through. He tried to fight it off, but the water sucked them right in. The ship was grinded under the water. Even we, who were some thousand lengths away, barely managed to stay away, before the dam caved in. The water pulled us into the Dead Lake, still violently, but a lot more gently than Geren’s ship. We managed to stay on the surface. I’m sorry...”

- “The price...it was too great.”

-“The price is always too great, my lord,” Damius said and tapped Faris on the shoulder.

The following days were not days of celebration but days of sorrow. Funerals came one after another, most memorable being those of Geren and Yon. The realm wept before it could let out a sigh of relief.