Chapter 7: Phantom Ship          Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath

 

   Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel

   Our ship drew in to the port of Taizel the next day, as planned. All the soldiers and Myrrh were below deck, hidden from view. Syrene and I stood in the door to the cabin, sheltered, watching the sailors rush about. No arrows and fire had rained down on us as we entered the harbour, so I assumed we were not suspected yet.

   “There’s no sign of enemy troops, either,” Syrene said, reflecting my thoughts.

   “Let’s move quickly and prepare to go ashore. The capital is straight down the highway but we’ll be fighting for every step of the way.”

   “Yes, and it will grow fiercer the closer we come,” the pegasus commander said with concern. “My lord, I would like to make a suggestion about troop distribution…”

   “Yes?”

   “The Grado Army outnumbers us by a tremendous amount. We’ve noted this many times. We have ready reservists to protect our supply convoy, but it is no good to defend the supplies if we lose the front. We should bring up all our soldiers to strengthen the van.”

   “No, Syrene, that won’t do. I cannot approve of sending reservists to fight on the front lines, and we cannot abandon our supplies in enemy territory!”

   “Prince Ephraim, we have talented soldiers, but that counts for nothing against those numbers!”

   I looked quickly outside, but no one seemed to have noticed our heated argument. “Syrene, I know you only want to improve our chances of success, but when we are flanked on both sides by hostile armies, maybe towns, too, we will need that convoy. I also know that you make these suggestions to try to keep me from harm… but I have no intention of changing my mind! – Myrrh?”

   The dragon girl had padded up behind me silently, her hands clutched to her chest. She reached out and touched me, and I had jumped and whirled on her.

   “Oh… pardon me…” she stammered, looking rather frightened. “I-I… nothing…” And she fled deep into the ship.

   “Myrrh…!” I called after her, apologetic. I had not detached myself from the discussion with Syrene, and turning the full intensity of my attention on Myrrh had probably not been the best thing to do. I sighed. I hoped she would forgive me.

   “Sir! Prince Ephraim, Lady Syrene, sir!” Pounding footsteps brought me back to the intensity of the present. A guard in nondescript armour whom I’d posted myself dashed up to us from his station at the gangway. “Enemy soldiers have flooded the docks! It’s a trap! Orders, sir?”

   I hazarded a quick look. There were Grado troops running towards us, all right. Some of them were at the foot of the gangway already.

   I turned back. “All troops prepare to fight!” I bellowed to below decks. Of course, they were ready to fight. I had expected this.

   The cavaliers were ready, and it only took a moment to open the horse loading door… or whatever it’s called… to let them out. With them I led a charge of foot soldiers backed up by archers to keep the enemy busy while we ran up to them.

   We left on the east side of the ship. Deussel led the cavaliers off the west side of the ship, with Rachel among their number in case of emergencies. Syrene and Vanessa shot out of the horse bay and wheeled overhead, dodging flak from enemy magic users.

   Then I saw a sight that chilled my skin. Lurching from around the corner of a building appeared first one, then a pack, of revenants. Over on the left, mauthe doogs sprang out at Deussel. Syrene had to swerve suddenly to avoid a javelin from a gargoyle that had been hiding on the stern of our own ship. Far back, at the top of the harbour, I saw a massive slouching figure that I could not identify.

   “Th-they’re working with Grado!?” I cried. “How can that be?”

   I had to duck, then, from the lance of a human cavalier.

   It was a hard and cautious struggle up the slope of the harbour towards the upper terraces. As we came closer, I saw what the strange figure was. It was a cyclops, a huge ogre with one eye, hefting a huge axe.

   Moulder was there first, guarded by Gilliam and a number of other soldiers. I was close by with my group, but there were a number of enemy soldiers, mostly human, between me and them.

   A young boy who had but seen us and joined us, ignored the human enemies, running around them, and caught up to Moulder just as the priest sent a small blast of white light against the cyclops. The monster blinked and swung its axe carelessly at the group, hitting Gilliam with the flat of it. Gilliam went flying.

   I whistled as I pulled my lance away from a body and stood watching. There were only a few soldiers between us and them, and some ran.

   Gilliam rolled over as he hit the ground and stabbed the cyclops’s paw with his lance. I ran forward to help him up, and Syrene landed beside me in a flurry of white feathers.

   “My lord!” she cried. “Not too close!”

   Her warning was accurate, as the axe whistled past my head. Vanessa, with a shout, tried to distract it by stabbing it in the shoulder, but she barely grazed its tough hide.

   A tiny fireball exploded on the back of the creature’s head. It turned, blinking, and with a roar of rage, came stomping swiftly towards Moulder and the young boy who had cast the fire spell. An equally young lancer stepped up to defend against the cyclops’s charge, and I began to call out an order to rearrange the group, to properly defend against a ridiculously strong axe-wielding foe – which meant, of course, swordsmen – but I was too late. The monster was too close.

   An arrow came arcing up from the crowd and plunged right into the ogre’s eye. It stopped immediately.

   “Now!” I called. “Swordfighters, forward-“

   The creature raised its hand to its face, and fell over, dead. The ground shook.

   When the dust had cleared, Syrene, after a minute of conferring with the unit captains, came to me and saluted. “The enemy has been defeated, sir, and we’re taking care of the wounded now.”

   “Good job, Syrene. We’ll rest in this city tonight. Replenish all the food and weapons, and find a place for us to sleep… Oh, yes, remind every soldier that anyone who breaks the city’s laws will be severely punished. Anything else?”

   “We should prepare some defence in case we are attacked in the night from the east. Fresh enemy troops could be here at any time.”

   “Good point. All right, we’ll post sentries on three rotating watches at all gates and the east wall. Then tomorrow we’ll set out half an hour past dawn. Oh, and please commend those young soldiers who brought down the cyclops. They were very brave.”

   “Yes, sir,” Syrene said crisply, happy, I think, that I had taken some of her advice for once.

   “Dismissed. Don’t forget to rest, yourself.”

   “Thank you, Prince Ephraim.”

   If I had turned my head to the left just slightly, I would have seen Myrrh, cloaked and hooded, staring up at me…

 

   The next morning, Syrene came early to see me in my room in the inn. I had just woken and was in the middle of my second piece of toast when she knocked and entered hastily.

   I ran a hand through my bed-mussed hair. “Something important?”

   “It’s… Myrrh,” she said, uncertain how to call the girl, I think. Myrrh never talked to anyone very much; she was shy of strangers, and we had been in a whole camp-full of them. “She’s been missing since sometime last night. There are no signs of a struggle, and it seems she left of her own accord.”

   I dropped my toast with my mouth full. I tried to talk and ended up choking and coughing instead.

   “My lord!?” Syrene quickly poured me a glass of water. I nodded and sipped it.

   “Where did she go? Didn’t anyone see her?”

   “No, no one at all. The gates were shut all night…”

   “She can fly,” I said heavily, running a hand over my eyes. “Oh, Myrrh, what are you up to? Prepare to head out. We’re heading east.”

   “Prince Ephraim…”

   “Not just looking for her. We’ll find her on the way to the capital.”

   Syrene frowned slowly. “And if we do not find her?”

   I glared back at her. “I’ll keep looking for her. She is my responsibility. She’s alone without her dragonstone, and she doesn’t know either the land or the people. Did you hear how I found her?”

   Syrene nodded slowly. “Prince Ephraim, I will not stop you in any way. I only want to warn you of dangers…”

 

Chapter 7: Phantom Ship          Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath

Chapter 6: Turning Traitor         Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel

 

   Chapter 7: Phantom Ship

 

   A few hours, we were in the middle of the great Western Bay of Grado, also known as the Falisean Sea. It was getting close to sunset; we would dock in the port of Taizel close to noon on the next morning.

   I was looking for Myrrh; she had been hard to find the last few days. I wondered if she’d been avoiding me, or if I was not paying enough attention to her. I resolved that I would hang out with her for the rest of this voyage, assuming Syrene had nothing important to say.

   At last, I caught up with the small indigo-haired girl near the bow, gazing far across the waves as if she would never grow tired of the ceaseless swells. There were clouds and fog ahead, shrouding the far-distant shore which would have just been visible otherwise, making it look like the ocean went on forever.

   “First time on the ocean, Myrrh?” I asked quietly, leaning on the rail beside her.

   She looked at me quickly, surprised, I think. “Yes… It’s so blue, so vast.”

   “It certainly is,” I replied cheerfully. “It’s my first time on a ship, too. It’s hard to appreciate just how big the sea is from land.”

   “I would never have guessed,” she answered, shyly. “You seem so calm…”

   I shrugged. “If I’m to properly lead us, I have to be somewhat stoic. You know?”

   She slumped over the rail and I wondered if it was something I said. “Ephraim…”

   I leaned towards her, wondering what she was going to say next. She had definitely been reclusive since we had set out with the army. ‘She must be lonely,’ I thought. We had been pretty close back when it was just me and my knights; I had chatted with her and encouraged her, and she had been hopeful and sweet as the child she appeared to be, even though I knew she was much older.

   “Prince Ephraim!” Drat. It was Syrene.

   “Yes?” I called back, patting Myrrh’s shoulder to let her know she was not forgotten. “Forgive me, Myrrh. We’ll have to continue this in a minute.”

   “All right,” she whispered, nodding at me and walking away towards the middle of the ship. The sailors were still giving her strange looks, but none took much notice of her.

   “There’s a ship following us,” said Syrene, walking up to me looking very serious, the wind whipping her long green hair. “It’s right on the edge of the fog where we can’t get a good look at it… We can’t tell if it’s Grado or not. Shall we ready the troops?”

   I looked around. We were surrounded by thick fog; I had been so intent on Myrrh and reflecting that I hadn’t noticed we’d sailed into it already. Behind us, barely visible, was a formless shadow.

   “Yes… yes, arm all infantry. Tell the cavaliers to fight on foot. How about you and your sister? Would you like to fly? Can the pegasi be gotten out?”

   “Absolutely, my lord,” Syrene answered, already turning away to shout orders.

   The ship following us, I suppose, realized we’d seen it, or that the fog was thick enough for their purposes… because with an unearthly howl of battle came plunging down on us through the mist.

   I took one look at it and looked frantically around for Myrrh. She was frozen by the mainmast, staring in horror at the rotted wood, the tattered sails, the way it practically boiled with gargoyles and giant eyeballs and skeletons.

   “Myrrh!!” I shouted, racing off the foredeck towards her. She whirled at my call. “Myrrh, get below, quick! We’ll deal with this. Go!”

   With a frightened nod, she fled, neatly dodging around Vanessa’s pegasus awkwardly ascending onto the deck following its mistress. I hastily looked around for my lance, turned, and found Gilliam there, holding it for me. I gave him a grim nod as I took it.

   The monster ship closed fast onto our left side, and boarding ramps were being made ready. Syrene and Vanessa picked off a few far-ranging gargoyles, but the main group were just waiting for us. I clutched my lance tightly in anticipation.

   “Protect the sailors!” I barked one last order as the ramps fell and skeletons began pouring across. “Push them back, board their ship, and seize the blasted thing!”

   I matched action to words, in the forefront of one thrust of skeletons. I heard the twangs and pings of bows behind me, and gargoyles yowled above me. I had to keep looking to see if they were going to fall on me.

   Over at the other ramp, Gilliam and Deussel, fighting together, were a huge barrier, with Moulder behind him, making small flashes of light as he began using his brand new Light spellbook. The creatures flinched back from the pair. Overhead, Vanessa was being chased by about five gargoyles; Syrene stabbed one and archers took out two more, and then Vanessa dodged around a sail and decapitated one.

   I carefully made my way onto the rickety ramp, smashing through damp bones with my lance haft. A pair of swordsmen followed me; one of them was a cavalier whose name I had forgotten, and the other was a tall strapping fellow. “Stay with me,” I called to them as I reached the end of the ramp, only to be surrounded by skeletons and eyeballs.

   Another ship came streaking out of the mist beyond the monster ship, white sails tearing through the fog. “Reinforcements!?” I exclaimed, anxiously.

   But no. The monsters turned, and with a screech of joy, fell upon the unfortunate newcomer, swarming it.

   Swarming it until a blast of light erupted amidships and sent a half dozen eyeballs plopping into the sea. After the blast – I took a gouge on my leg while defending as my eyes cleared – a shrill but joyful laugh, a woman’s laugh, echoed across the water.

   “With me!” I called again to my two bodyguards, and the forces lined up behind them, as I whirled, slammed, and jabbed my way across the deck, hoping to meet the newcomers.

   They came to meet me, a light-green-haired woman in white with a staff and a spellbook, and a massive warrior in green with orange hair and a huge axe, and others who were rather frightened looking sailor-guards. We met and the battle retreated from around us. I could see Deussel’s group still fighting on the rear deck of the monster ship; I would go and help him in a moment.

   “You are…” I said to the woman, who seemed to be in charge.

   “Fear not,” said she, smiling sweetly, “for your rescue is at hand! I am the fair Rachel. You have heard of me, perhaps?”

   I frowned. “I’m afraid not…”

   She actually turned pale and looked to be on the verge of swooning. “Alas…”

   “Is something wrong?” I asked, blinking. Women were weird.

   “No… I just feel like crawling into a hole and weeping…”

   “What? No! This is no time for crying.” Now I was really confused. “I know you’ve noticed but we’re under attack and we could use your help.”

   She brightened up right away. “Oh! Well, in that case I can educate you. Now! Watch my graceful actions closely!”

   I nodded, but I didn’t have much time to look as Syrene’s pegasus landed heavily next to us, her wing torn by a lance and Syrene herself bleeding badly. She nearly fell off, and the swordsman steadied her.

   “Hold on!” I told her. “I’ll get Father Moulder.” I was off into the thick of it before I realized that the woman, Rachel, was calling me back indignantly.

  “Now watch me! I can help here too!” she cried. She raised her staff, and Syrene’s bleeding stopped.

   I bowed to her. “Thank you. You may have saved her life. Now we must join up with Deussel and Gilliam and Father Moulder! Follow me!”

   A sailor near me took a hit from a dark magic spell and crumpled, his face pale and covered in sweat, his mouth hanging slack. While Rachel healed him, I stabbed the eyeball viciously, accidentally covering myself in guck.

   “Ah…” I shook my head to get my now-disgusting green hair out of my eyes and continued.

   I drove a wedge through the remaining forces and met up with Gilliam. “Sir.”

   “Good fighting, Gilliam.”

   Deussel suddenly pointed. “Prince Ephraim! Over there!”

   A hulking shape drifted over the rail and slammed into a group of weaker soldiers, scattering them. I flinched from the piercing screams – at least two of the soldiers were women – and darted forward through the press.

   Several bodies lay still around the monster gargoyle. “Healers!!” I shouted,  bringing up my lance to block its next attack. I was dimly aware that others were dragging the injured away, to give me room to manoeuvre.

   It lunged in a flurry to my left. “Oh, no you don’t,” I growled at it, sidestepping in front of it. I was barely in time, and barely strong enough to hold him back. I felt like the goalie of some sport, making a save… That ridiculous comparison flitted through my head and out again in an instant.

   The monster kept trying to get past me, to where the healers and weaker, slower soldiers were, I assumed. “Hey,” I said, jerking my thumb at my chest, “don’t even think about it. You’re not going to touch ‘em. You’re fighting ME!”

   “And me!” cried Gilliam, stomping up beside me. I nodded in acknowledgement.

   “And me, of course,” said Deussel, on my other side. And I heard many more cheers from behind me, and some over-enthusiastic archers fired arrows inaccurately at the monster.

   It bellowed and came at me; the two warriors beside me fanned out to block the others. The archers kept shooting – the gargoyle kept dodging – and Vanessa and Syrene, now healed, hovered circled behind it, blocking its escape. I parried and blocked with all my strength. “I’m going to feel this tomorrow,” I grunted.

   “Keep it up, Prince Ephraim!” Deussel egged me on.

   I smiled fiercely and stabbed, then froze in surprise.

   It fell back first, Reginleif my lance deeply embedded in its chest.

   The world blurred and overturned  on me, except for the cold steel in my gut between my belt and my armour…

 

   “Prince Ephraim! Prince Ephraim!!” Women were calling me.

   “Ungh… Eirika…” I offered, flailing, seeing blackness.

   “He’s awake!” cried a man in relief, and something thin and tenacious latched onto my left arm.

   “Mmg… where?” I blinked and opened my eyes. Hovering over me were Syrene, Deussel, Moulder, and behind them were Vanessa and the woman Rachel. Clinging to my arm, her eyes squeezed shut, was Myrrh. “Oh! Hello. Did I win?”

   “It was still twitching when we brought you below, so I stabbed it a few times,” said Deussel. “With my axe. It won’t move again.”

   “Fabulous,” I said, lying back again. “Hello, Myrrh. I’m sorry to worry you.” She shook her head vigorously.

   “Well!” I said, sitting up, “I guess I’d better help deal with the aftermath. How many injured?”

   “None,” said Moulder. “The healers have dealt with them all, and we owe much thanks to Lady Rachel here.”

   Rachel bowed with a pleased smile.

   I got up. “Yes, thank you, Miss Rachel. May I ask what you were doing here in the first place?”

   Her eyes brightened with glee. “Do not be startled by what I say. I am a Lady of Rausten, Theocracy of the righteous! I am on a never-ending quest to destroy all evil. Lady Syrene told me of your quest to defeat the Grado Empire. I must come with you.”

   I stood up and spluttered. “Wh-what? Are you crazy? We’re facing vast numbers and our odds of success are embarrassingly small!”

   “I have faith,” she said simply.

   I sighed. “Well, we will be very happy to have you with us. I just wanted to be sure.”

   “Of course,” she said.

   I turned to Syrene. “What else has happened?”

 

Chapter 6: Turning Traitor          Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel