The Ninth Prophecy

When Faris opened his eyes, the rocking of the floor on which he laid was the first thing to catch his attention. It was dark. He could smell the salty water as waves gently caressed the sides of the ship. As he got up, he noticed light further to the front. Approaching it, he saw the stairs going up. Coming up from below deck, he was blinded by the bright light which overwhelmed him. For a second, he thought that his soul had risen to bliss from the hell of the battlefield where he was just seconds ago, as he perceived the time. He looked around as the large sails were occasionally blocking the sun. Up at the stern he saw Yon and Hadera standing and talking. He came to them slowly.

When Yon noticed his brother, he hailed him with his hands wide spread.

- “My brother,” Yon said exaltedly.

- “Was it you? Did you knock me unconscious?” Faris went straight to the point. Yon looked down for a second. Then he looked at Hadera before answering affirmatively. He waited for his brother response. “I am ready. Whatever it is that you want to throw at me I am prepared. Whatever you might say or think, know this: I couldn’t afford to lose you. The cause could not afford to lose another Kulin. I did what was the best for both of us and for the kingdom.”

- “Maedur?”

- “He stayed behind. I am sorry…”

- “That poor boy. I guess…I guess you are right,” Faris started, scratching the back of his head, leaving his brother and Hadera quite surprised. “I am glad you prevented me from fulfilling my obligation towards the order. I…I know it’s a terrible thing to say. You know, I would have descended and fought with them, no doubt about it.”

- “It’s all right. You don’t have to explain,” Hadera interrupted.

- “No, no…I do. You see, I was more than willing to lie down beside my brothers, but…but I was glad when I woke up. I was glad that I was still alive. I guess it is only natural that we all prefer life over death, whatever it may bring. But, the One is my witness, I was honest in my intentions. I…I didn’t tell you to knock me out, did I? Did I, my brother?” Faris said with a tear sliding down his cheek.

- “No, no, you did not my brother. By the name of the One you did not. You were brave, braver than all of us. You embraced the fear in you as your kin and were ready to charge nobly with it. You were the only one willing to go that far…You and Darion.”

The mention of Darion occupied Faris’s thoughts with a different fear: “Darion, where is the hero? Does he live?”

- “Yes, yes,” Hadera calmed him down. “He’s in the captain’s quarters. He has many contusions, his right shoulder is pierced and the left one was dislocated by the jerk of the catapult when it pulled him up, but he held on. He broke a couple of ribs and his right arm.”

- “That poor bastard. As if I hadn’t tortured him enough earlier,” Faris spoke with a sense guilt in his voice.

- “No, no! He’ll be fine,” Hadera reassured Faris, “the healers are doing a magnificent job. He just has to rest. He is sleeping. He will be well – certainly not as well as he was before, but well. ”

- “He’s asleep, you say,” Faris continued, “How long have I been asleep? ”

- “Well the battle had just ended…yesterday at about this time,” Yon answered with a smile.

- “Yesterday you say?!”

- “Yes brother, I don’t know if it was the knock you took or were you just exhausted from all that slicing up of the Koprites and the Karosians,” Yon continued, tapping his brother on the shoulder.

- “Yes, Koprites and Septors. I don’t think it’s just that we call them Karosians. I believe there are many people in Karos who would like to see you on the throne. Maybe even some of the soldiers we cut down. They were just fulfilling their duty. We shouldn’t enjoy cutting down those who you are looking to turn into your subjects. ”

- “What makes you think I want to be the king of the realm of straightwalkers? ”

- “Well, you do, don’t you? After all, it is a war of kings. ”

- “I agree. The only problem we face is that our king has lost his mother city. We must correct that,” Hadera joined the talk

- “He didn’t lose the city. The city is here, aboard these ships. Daors didn’t get Baan Senicore. He got an empty shell. Buildings don’t make a city. People do, and the people of Baan Senicore are here, ” Faris said, swooping with his hand across the sea where several dozens of ships where sailing together northwards.

- “Yes, I am a king of the refugees - king with no land. That doesn’t give me much of a chance in this war.”

- “You are wrong my brother. These people here…they are your army. They all chose to follow you with their free will. Yes, Daors controls almost all the land except Nox, but ask yourself: How many people would be willing to abandon their comfort and follow him to the end of the world, as your people follow you? Not nearly as many, I bet. This is where your strength is – you are the king of people. Daors is the king of land, the king of dirt and dust. Remember this and don’t you ever betray their trust, brother! ”

Both Hadera and Yon were moved and stunned by Faris’s speech. It gave them a new found of confidence they needed, although they wouldn’t say it. - “I won’t…I will never betray the people my brother, rest assured.” Then, Faris changed the subject rather abruptly, as if he himself was surprised by his personal emotional outburst. “Yes, coming to the issue – what is Daors’s army? How badly wounded is the beast? ”

- “We believe that he has lost every third soldier that marched on the field, and we managed to give the horions a beating too. It will take them some time to recover. We gave them hell, didn’t we bro?” said Yon, seeking comfort in defeat.

- “Yes we did my brother, and don’t you dare think that there was anything more we could have done, you could have done. They surely didn’t expect that. What are our loses?”

Hadera then delivered a brief overview. - “Well, we lost some two out of three soldiers. The survivors are distributed and serving as crew aboard these ships. It could have been worse, a lot worse. If it hadn’t been for that traitor Aegor, we might have even…”

At this moment general Geren approached them. “My lord, general Darion is awake.”

- “Finally, I knew that rugged son of a bitch would make it out alive,” Yon spoke trying to hide his excitement, “We’re coming down to see him. ”

As the three went inside, admiral Geren moved the silky cover around the bed. There laid Darion, beat up, broken, swollen, but still laughing and talking to the pretty healers around him.

- “You old mule,” Yon said as the healers bowed before him, “When am I finally going to get rid of you?! ”

- “Not so soon, my lord, not so soon,” Darion replied as Yon bowed down to hug him.

- “What does it take to finish you? ” Yon continued to joke.

- “A woman and a bottle, my lord, ” Darion replied as all were seated around him.

- “What is your condition?” Yon asked.

- “Forget about my condition. What is our condition? ”

- “Well, we lost over a half of the army. As you know, Hiraq is dead too. The enemy captured Rhyius. Dokal is with us. ”

- “Great! Of all the councilors we get the fat guy,” Darion commented the state of affairs. “And Aegor? I would like to call him a son of a bitch, but he is your blood after all. ”

- “That son of a bitch," Yon replied, “that’s some blood I would gladly have gone to waste. Spilling it would be a pleasure. How did I miss it?”

- “We all missed it. He’s a skilled conman. He had a great disguise. His ‘ay’ always came first. He volunteered to put his chest out for his lord waiting for the enemy outside the walls…” Darion stared up for a second, and then asked: “Do you think…Do you think that when we sent him out the day before the attack…Do you think that he used that night to go over to the enemy camp and negotiate his joining the army of Karos? Maybe he was afraid of our defeat; maybe he saw it as imminent that night and decided to change sides to save his skin. Who knows? ”

Faris took a second and then gave his thought on the matter: “No, Darion. He was in on it with Daors all along. That’s why he wanted to discredit Hadera. He definitely played a part in organizing the stakeout for your party when you went to Karos. He probably killed Eldon himself.”

- “But he was wounded at Turtle’s Back,” Yon made a point.

- “Yes, he was struck in the leg with no major parts harmed. It sounds very convenient…and do you remember when Jorry was retelling how the decoy party was attacked? If I recall it correctly, he said that the attackers’ arrows first struck down those whom they thought to be Eldon and Yon. He said that the one they killed last was the man who pretended to be Aegor, after they had approached the party. Why wasn’t he killed from far away with a bow or a crossbow? The truth is that they had no intention of killing Aegor. They killed the impersonator when they realized that he is not the real Aegor.”

- “By the name of The One, you’re right!” Yon said with rage in his voice.

- “Not only that - I am sure that the assault on you, my dear Darion, was no accident. It was no spontaneous quarrel.”

- “Which assault,” Yon asked in surprise.

- “The assault that happened few days prior to your trip. I didn’t believe it when Darion tried to explain it to me, but now I do,” Faris continued putting the pieces together. “Darion, didn’t you say that you didn’t remember anything and that it was not in your nature to be…forgetful or careless? ” Faris picked the words carefully.

- “Yes, it is true.”

- “You see, I think you were probably given some kind of a potion or some other ill food which took your mind, probably at the inn. That made you an easy target. You were lucky that a patrol of the city guard was passing by. That’s what saved you. Aegor was simply trying to get rid of all the commanders.”

- “What about me? You said he suggested you two kill me,” Hadera asked next.

- “Yes. He was obviously trying to convince us that Nox is our enemy. Your arrival was probably a nasty surprise for him, just like the decoy party, but he tried to make the most of it. At the time, the theory of you being the rotten apple seemed plausible, especially when we had no information about your father. I was tempted to play along, you know, but I did what was for the best in the end. I am glad I rejected his proposal to kill Hadera. That was his plan.”

Hadera lifted her eyebrows as Faris continued, unconcerned by Hadera’s reaction.

- “He probably even tried to eliminate you himself, but you were too well protected. Needless to say, that your death would immediately put the blame on Yon and your father would almost surely turn against us. As you can see, he tried to remove all three of the commanders. He only succeeded with Eldon. From the very beginning I thought that the pieces didn’t fit in well and I wasn’t quite sure what it was. Now I know.”

- “Well, it’s a good thing you first turned against Darion and me. So much about your delicate nose,” Hadera said with a touch of irony, as both Darion and she smiled.

- “Oh, screw you two,” Faris replied, “You gave me all the reason to suspect. I am sorry but I am not going to apologize for the assumptions I had to make.”

- “Well, you just did…apologize I mean. You said: ’I am sorry but...’” Yon joined the talk, amused by his brother’s attempt to defend his position.

- “Oh, fuck you too,” Faris went on as all others laughed, pleased to have thrown Faris out of his cool and diverted him from thinking about the loss of his dearest friends with the Fraternity.

- “So where do we go from here,” Darion asked with a sense of concern. Yon explained his simple plan:

- “We are going to disembark in Venegor. It is the furthest port to the north and the closest to Nox. It is the only port large enough to take in this many ships, too. We will then go on foot to Nox. When we reach Nox we will figure out the rest. Something tells me that we will have another defensive, decisive battle to prepare for.”

The chat was interrupted by a noise coming from one of the ships far on the edge of the water caravan. As the party rushed out on board, they saw general Geren, standing peacefully, his arms tied up behind on his butt.

- “Don’t worry, my friends. It was just a small group of two drifter ships. They tried to ambush one of our ships but they are already backing down. It didn’t take them too long to realize that they were fighting against a professional crew and too large of a fleet.”

Drifters are outcasts from the land who found refuge on the Grieving Sea. Their ships are decorated with tusks of sea animals and skins of the great animals of the land. The display is intended to intimidate the prey. They are generally scattered all over the sea and, at best, they operate in small packs of four to five ships. Drifters, like all predators, are skilled in attacking separate ships, but even their packs could do little harm to greater herds, as the fleet of Baan Senicore appeared to be. Rarely would they appear in large formations, mostly with intention of attacking and looting shore towns, for which they would require a joint effort. To Yon, they were one worry more. “I hope this is the last of the drifters we see on our trip. I can’t afford losing any more people.”