Trojian Horse

There was blood everywhere. So much blood. The expression on the face Iris projected on the screen made it clear to Roue that there was nothing she could do to help him. Reinon sat on the floor of the ship cradling Arien in her arms, speaking unintelligible words to him in hushed tones. A sombre mood descended on the ship as they zipped toward the capital. They all felt it, creeping on them, threatening to suffocate them. Any hope they had felt in defeating Reeger was gone.

There was an air of excitement when Arien had proposed the mission to Roue and Turo. They knew it was dangerous but they had never imagined this kind of outcome. Seeing Arien lifeless in a pool of his own blood made him question the point of it all. Arien was supposed to have the most powerful weapon in the known universe and yet he had been dispatched so easily, what hope could they reasonably harbour in the fight against Reeger. Reinon had pulled the sword out of Arien’s stomach and laid it by her side. Turo sat silently in her seat looking on, while Mato and Elia stood next to Reinon heads hung as if in shame.

“He wanted to save us when he did not know us,” Mato said. It was the first time Roue had heard him speak. They had managed a brief introduction as they battled out of the holding cells.

“Yes, he did. It was weird I thought but he insisted he had to get you out of there. Kept talking about some grand plan,” Roue said.

“And what plan was that? Did it involve this?” Reinon asked clearly distraught.

“Look, I understand your disappointment but you seem more broken than I would expect,” Roue said rather pointedly. “You only knew him for a few minutes.”

Reinon laid Arien’s head gently down on the floor before stomping toward Roue. She stood so close to him with such a fierce look in her eyes that he thought she would headbutt him.

“You don’t understand maybe because you don’t understand what we have lost. I may not have met him but he was everything to me. The reason I, we, fought. I saw him in my visions. He was supposed to lead us to many victories. It just doesn’t make sense.” She stepped back and took her place next to Arien’s body.

“Okay,” Roue said apologetically.

“He was the one who was supposed to stop all of this. And now he’s gone. What do we do now?!” Reinon asked, still breathing into Roue’s face.

“Yeah, what do we do?” Roue asked. “Turo?”

“I don’t know. I…I…” Turo replied. She kept her eyes fixed on Arien’s body, her knife loosely gripped in her hand.

Renin stood up and collapsed into a seat next to Turo. Mato and Elia also followed suit as if they had finally received permission to be seated.

“Iris, can you get him cleaned up?” Roue said loading Arien into the medical compartment. He received several accusatory looks from Renin and Turo. “I can’t let the only parents he has ever known see him like this. Bloody and beaten. Defeated.”

“You’re right. I wasn’t thinking,” Reinon said. “How do we fix this? How do we fight?”

“We can’t. It’s over. Reeger has won. I was barely in this fight a day and we’ve already been defeated,” Turo said holding her head in her hands. “I made some assurances and its gone horribly wrong.”

“You can’t blame yourself. None of us can. Arien had a plan and it didn’t work out the way he planned but he would want us to keep fighting. Right?” Roue posed the question to the whole group. He was met by silence which didn’t surprise him because he lacked conviction when he had asked the question.

“I hope you are this motivational when we get where we’re going,” Turo said.

“We must avenge him,” Reinon said quite suddenly and loudly. “Whatever happens we die on our feet, fighting.” There was a mettle in her eye as she spoke, a determination that Roue had not often come across.

“Vengeance, I can definitely get behind that,” Turo said.

The ship fell into silence. All that could be heard was the wind howling outside as they sped through the air, the beeps from screens, and the machinery humming all around them. Roue now regretted listening to Arien and in the silence his decision started to haunt him. It would be the first time he would see the Vulpeculae in a long time and he would meet them holding the lifeless body of their first Ser-ooit son, their champion, in his hands. Their world would come crashing around them quickly. He felt he had failed them although they were not the ones that tasked him with helping Arien.

He knew Reeger, and he knew this was all part of the plan. Reeger hoped to crush them even before he lifted a finger. He probably wanted them to retaliate and spare him the trouble of having to find them. They barely stood a chance without Arien but now he knew that their only chance was survival which meant not all of them would make it out of this scenario still breathing. At the very least he had to make sure they did not fall into despondency before the battle with Reeger which he knew was coming. Arien sacrificed to help these misfits escape and while it seemed Arien was not great at sharing plans but Roue meant to honour Arien by completing the task of uniting the escapees with the Vulpeculae. He figured there must be a reason Arien would have been willing to face an enemy he must have known he could not defeat to free Reinon and her company. Perhaps that reason would be evident when they reached the Vulpeculae.

“Approaching the Vulpeculae capital, Roue,” Iris announced. The ship jerked forward then began to slow down and descending down through the clouds. Soon they could see the Capital, first as distant indistinct features in a sea of green then as they got closer they could see the unique designs of the buildings, the hive of activity in and around the city.

“Put us down over there, Iris,” Roue said pointing to the middle of a courtyard very close to the centre of the city. The courtyard was almost empty apart from a few Vulpeculae walking lazily through it in on their way to gate on the other side.

The ship circled the area getting closer to the ground with each loop before hovering over the ground for a moment and then landing. Despite the circumstances Roue was happy that he would see Hethios, the Queen and all his other friends after so long. The doors of the ship slowly slid open.