The Ninth Prophecy

The morning after, Maedur still between sleep and awareness, a knock on the door alerted him. “Who is it?” - “Sir, lord Faris requests your company before the war council meets,” said the voice from the other side of the door. -“Yes, tell him I will be there right away.” As Maedur entered Faris’s room, he saw his lord looking out the window, as if expecting someone. “Master, is everything all right?” - “Yes, perfect. I called for you because I want you to send another message to the Fraternity. You can use a hound. And Maedur, just ask, all right.” - “What?”

- “Whatever it is you want to ask. You overheard the whole conversation yesterday at the council, didn’t you?”

- “Well, the walls of lord’s…pardon me, king’s tower are not all that thick. I just stood outside and waited for you. I heard as much as the guards at the door and as much as all others who were passing by. I didn’t make an effort to hear it, but I couldn’t shut my ears.”

Faris laughed at this explanation, as Maedur continued to speak. “I heard you mention the Illuminated again…” - “Yes, the Illuminators. I owe you that knowledge from a couple of nights back, don’t I? The Illuminators are an ancient order, at least one hundred and fifty summers old. They are a group of some ten to twenty strange-looking fellows…”

- “What do you mean by strange-looking?”

- “Well, they all wear long hooded robes, much like the Fraternity. However, unlike us, they wear headscarves and cover their faces up to their eyes. This is for the purpose that they stay unrecognized when attending whatever public business and to be kept safe from abduction or assassination by possible rivals of the king or of the order itself. They are the first and so far, the only order that re-mastered some of the skills of the knowers. They devote their lives to investigating the ways and the order in which our world is set. They are even said to hold in their possession the only remaining books on the knowledge of the knowers, apart from the few held by the prophecizers. They have been trying to decipher the meanings of the symbols in these books ever since they found them. Thanks to it, their efforts brought many improvements to the afterknowers, especially for the city of Karos. They are probably the main reason why Karos is the center of our kingdom. However, they are great opponents of the prophecizers. They consider the prophecizers to be charlatans, living myths that should cease existing as an institution. The city of Karos owes a great deal to the Illuminators. They coined the alloy of which the armor and weapons of the king’s army is forged. The domination and reputation of the king’s army is largely a consequence of this fact. Thanks to the inventions of the Illuminators, a king’s crossbowman is worth at least as five other soldiers, because at least that many he can kill before he is struck down. You see, their crossbows fire five arrowheads and have five triggers…”

- “Yes, I have heard that part.”

- “Anyway, the only way to shoot down a Septor is to strike him in the head. Because the illuminated metal is so sturdy, it is very hard to shape it. This is why even the Septor armor is rather seamy and rugged-looking with all its bulky corners and uneven curves. But, at the end of the day, it gets the job done. Unless you are a Septor yourself or have a weapon forged from Galian metal, there is no way to cut down a Septor except by striking him in the head above the neck. Their helmets are the only part of their armor made of common metal. Are you satisfied with my answer?”

- “Yes, although it doesn’t sound very comforting in the light of the battle, we are to take part in.”

- “Yes, I just hope that one battle won’t end the war. That would be bad for us.”

Although Maedur didn’t seem to quite understand what Faris implied, instead of asking for an explanation, he decided to seize the moment to ask more while his master was in a talkative mood. “May I ask you one more question before we part?”

- “Yes, ask.”

- “Who are the horions?”

- “Not who, but rather what. Horions are hideous flying creatures, sized as ten straightwalkers. They were born in the lights of the knowers. It is said that it is a strange creature that transformed into a horion after some interventions were done to them back in the time of the knowers. The story has it that the knowers, just before they were to destroy each other, managed to revive this beastly creature which used to be the master of the skies and of the land thousands of summers before the time of the knowers. They kept them in cages until all hell broke loose and knowers started killing each other with their screaming lights. The horions managed to get loose, but not before the light had touched them and changed them. They have long bodies like snakes, except that they have a small hump on their backs. They have four fangs, two on each side of their jaw, pointing outwards. The ones in the lower jaw are larger, sharper. They have massive bony heads and wings like that of a bat, only, of course, much larger. A horion’s wing can cover the sun over a city. They were tamed by the Koprites. They are so precious to the Koprites that they have even made special armor for them which covers their entire bodies, except for their belly. They wear better armor than the Koprites themselves who prefer traveling and fighting just lightly burdened. The eyes and the backs of their heads are their key vulnerable spots, if you manage to get an arrow off before they get to you, as they are as fast as a lightning. Even if you do get a shot off and even if you hit the target, one arrow is not enough to stop a horion, not nearly. They have really sharp claws on their two legs. But their main weapon is their breath.”

- “Their breath?” Maedur said keeping his eyes and mouth wide open.

- “Yes, you see, they have icy breath. If you get in the way or if they breathe on you, you turn stone-cold, literally. It kills you on the spot. I have seen people who were mighty alive in one second and who would shatter into pieces in another, just after they were touched by a horion’s breath.”

- “But then, why don’t they use them more often?”

- “At first, they did, all the time, up until some twenty summers ago. Then, the Dabors found their weak spot. You see, horions love meat. So, what the Dabors would do is hunt down a deer or a wild horse and then leave it in plain sight all bloody and inviting. A horion just can’t resist the temptation. And once a horion would land, the Dabors would attack after waiting in ambush. Straightwalkers picked up on this strategy and even perfected it with the help of the Illuminated. After the number of the horions was reduced to only a dozen, the Koprites pretty much stopped using them, or would use them only in attacks they would carry out as a horde. Also, this is when the Koprites reinforced horion armor with several layers, but they were still very reluctant to use them outside the Doomed Dome. Once again, I have to call an end to our talk as I am to attend my first war council meeting. You go your way and do as you were told.”

- “Yes, master.”

As Faris walked to the lord’s chamber of judgment, he met Hadera in one of the passages: “I hope you slept well last night?” - “Actually, not all that well. I was alert because of a couple of councilors who see me as an intruder. You never know what someone might do.”

- “Oh, come on. You don’t honestly think…Well, think what you will, but I still don’t trust you.“- “Think what you will because I honestly don’t care what you think.”

“Fair enough,” said Faris, taken aback by the Hadera’s bold, snappy replies, as he switched to a different subject: “And just for the record, the Fraternity allows its members to marry. We are not some kind of a secluded order or a sect. Our members have families. They give their noons and afternoons to the Fraternity and they have their nights and mornings for their wives and for their families. What they earn through the Fraternity they get to share with their families.”

Hadera then resorted to sarcasm: “How very noble of you!” Faris, already starting to feel insulted by Hadera’s constant downplaying of his arguments continued to compete in words with Hadera. - “Yes, it is! We are not priesthood, just a…a group of fellows working together and supporting each other.”

- “No, priesthood is banned in the kingdom, am I right?”

- “Very much so.”

- “Yet we have prophecizers, fraternities, the Illuminators... The old names of the knowers are banned too, yet we find ways to give those that mirror them. The old knowledges are cursed, yet the two most powerful parties do all they can to revive them.” - “Get to the point.”

- “People will do anything just to assert any form of power and control. If they don’t get official power, they will seek control through imitating priesthood which controls the mystical or through taming wild and secret practical knowledges the lords of which we present ourselves to be.”

- “I am not trying to gain power or control, I despise hierarchy. I am simply…“- “Oh, yeah? Really? What do your pupils call you? ‘Master’, was it?”

- “First of all they are not my pupils! They call me master because I share with them the skills I have mastered, not because I aspire to be the master of their destinies.”

- “So, do you call one of them a master when he shows you something you didn’t know?”

- “Well, that’s different. That is not the right perception.”

- “We must enter now. We are out of time just as you are out of arguments”, Hadera concluded calmly, opening the doors of the chamber where all other members of the council had already found their seats. “Come, sit down,” Yon invited the two.

As Faris and Hadera sat across each other, Yon took the floor. “My companions, we are faced with a grim threat. In some seven to eight nights we are to face a great army, the greatest ever to march on the south. We are going to defeat that army. It will drown in its own blood, I promise you. We are summoned here today, as we will be every day until the day of reckoning, so to find the best ways to defeat the enemy and preserve the city, the whole of the south and its citizens.” Aegor then spoke next. “How are we to organize our defenses, my king?”

- “That is why we are all here. Aegor, how many Sciprians do we have?”

- “Some six hundred, half of them on horseback.”

- “Darion, how many of the city guard?”

- “Some fifteen hundred, three hundred of them on horseback.”

- “All right. With the fifty men of my personal guard that sums it up to just over two thousand men.” Hadera however corrected Yon, delivering information which caused excitement among some and unrest among other councilors. “Two thousand three hundred to be precise, if we count in the one hundred and fifty soldiers from my personal escort, who are to be here by tomorrow.”

- “My dear king, I must advise you against this. I don’t think it is wise to introduce a new troop. We don’t know anything about them, our soldiers don’t know anything about them and about their ways of fighting and, with all due respect, we all don’t know all that much about their commander and his…her affiliations,” Aegor spoke nervously.

- “Enough with that, Aegor! I don’t want to hear you or my brother doubt Hadera’s allegiance once more! We could use another hundred and fifty soldiers. Especially as I hear that they are skilled in handling siege weapons and catapults. We will need them on the walls,” Yon said with authority, putting an end to the discussion. Hadera simply nodded her head, pleased with Yon’s energetic response.

Aegor then put forth the first suggestion: “My lord, I think we should face the enemy out on the field. We can make better use of the space. It is our land; we know it a lot better than they do.” Faris then decided to step in: “I must disagree with my friend. If king Daors’s army is at least twice the size of ours, and it is expected to be, our best chance is behind the city walls which provide safety to our troops. Not to mention the fact that the alliance has some ten horions at its disposal as well as Koprite riders on argorites. They would hunt us down out on the open easily.”

- “Not if we use the cover of the woods,” Aegor replied.

- “I must agree with lord Faris on this one,” Darion spoke in support of Faris.

- “I am not all that sure,” Hadera spoke her voice. “The walls of the city are only some three – four lengths high.”

As the matter of fact, the walls of the city consisted of firm stockades which were only four to five-man sizes high. Massive beams were then dug into the earth from the inside. The logs are laid to rest against the city walls. With the rest of its length, the pointed tips of beams aim towards the skies on the outside. Watchtowers were built on the corners and in the middle of the walls, with a wooden path leading from one watchtower to the other.

- “Listen, we still have enough time. I want you all to rethink the strategies you prefer by tomorrow morning. Then you will come to me with definite proposals and I will decide,” Yon ended the meeting which lasted surprisingly short.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the city of Karos, king Daors had assembled his high council. He entered the chamber bursting in, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “My councilors, if there had been a doubt, there is none anymore! This is a letter from the south, brought by a bird. Lord Yon Kulin had attacked the party we sent for him. His men killed two of the men and wounded four more. Yesterday, his council declared war on us! So, I ask you: Is this war?!”

All councilors spoke as one: “Ay!”

- “I will ride southwards to join my son and the rest of the army. We will strike this snake down so that no one ever again even thinks about betraying the kingdom!”

Commander of the Septors, king’s personal protector and his right arm’s man Thrax then spoke: “Our lord, we do have to cut the snake’s head, but we should do it quickly. If the army is to wait for you that would postpone our attack for at least four-five days!”

- “It doesn’t matter. Whenever the fight is to happen, we will crush them. I will be that generous to give them few more days of life as a gift from me. The king should be with his army in battle. King has to take part. The prophecies are clear on that.” Terionus, king’s man of wisdom then decided to have a say. “My king, how can we be sure that they declared war?”

- “It is sure. All information comes from the source of the happenings. We leave as soon as tonight.”

“Damius!” the king called, as a boy standing in the corner of the wide hall answered. “Go to my room and order the maids to prepare my armor…And, have them prepare yours too.”

- “Yes, father,” the boy replied.

Damius was the younger of the two king’s sons. He was given the name by his father upon his birth seventeen summers ago, two days before the prophecy was proclaimed. Daors decided to name his younger son after his closest friend and his lord at the time. Later on, the boy suffered much because of the name he carried. Although Daors wouldn’t admit it, he deeply regretted giving this name to his son, but he was too proud to admit his wrongs. He couldn’t even afford it as a king, so the name stayed. The name burdened the king’s relationship with the boy ever since.

- “I want horns to announce war right away. Will you take care of that Thrax?!” Daors said commanding it rather than asking a question. Thrax simply left the room in a hurry. The chamber was silent. No one spoke as everyone waited for the horns to be sounded. Soon enough it occurred, the sound itself spreading chills throughout the city. It was so loud and in such a deep tone that one almost had a feeling that it would wake the dead. Just as the horns were silenced, quietness in the chamber of the high council was brought to an abrupt end, one of the deputy commanders of the Koprites rushing in, asking the king when they are to leave – as it was translated by an Illuminator. When the king spoke and said ‘now’, the Koprite let out a scream that sounded as if the creature had stolen a wolf’s howl and an eagle’s cry and merged them into one. As it was explained, it was a warrior’s cry aimed to freeze the blood which he is to take from his enemies. There was no doubt that the blood he managed to freeze right away was that of the high councilors. The Koprite then left in excitement, having to wait for Daors with his pack of argorite riders in front of the palace.