Once We Were Kings (Young Adult Fantasy) (The Sojourner Saga) (18 page)

He shut his eyes.  For the first time since they'd taken him prisoner he allowed himself to drift off into a deep slumber. 

He didn't know how much time had passed when a sudden jolt woke him up.  Tingling and alert, Bai Juang's shoulders tensed at the muffled sound of people shouting outside the wagon.  From the sounds of it, one of them was a woman.  And a fierce one.

The chains that locked the door rattled outside.

Bai Juang coiled back, ready to strike out with his feet or head if necessary.

The door swung open and blinding white light stabbed his eyes.  For the brief moment before it blinded him, he saw that in the midst of a deep purple backdrop, it was the moon.

Before his eyesight cleared, his captors threw a dark hood over his head and dragged him out onto the cold, damp ground.  His knees scraped against twigs and stones, his feet sensed pressure, but nothing else.

"On your knees, Tianese dog!"  The man's voice was rough, unrefined.  Precisely what one would expect from a Torian soldier.  A pair of hands slapped down upon his shoulders and forced him down.

The sound of a long sword whining as it scraped out of its sheath could mean only one thing.  They meant to behead him.  He thought about begging for mercy, but realized they were not the sort that would be moved by such pleas.

Instead, he held his covered head high as he could.  His chest firmly set and shoulders back.  He would never understand the mechanism to their taking him for days from his home, only to execute him, but he would meet his death with dignity.

The soldier made a loud grunting strain.  Bai Juang knew the sound of a heavy sword lifting over its wielder's head, slashing heavily through the air like a large bird.

He clenched his jaw, and took one last breath.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Lying stunned amidst the debris, it took only a moment for Render to surmise that the castle had been struck by a flaming incendiary cauldron from a trebuchet.  Shards of the earthen vessel lay scattered around his room.  A gaping hole had been smashed into the wall where the window once stood.

"Edwyn!"  Acrid fumes from burning chemicals choked him as he cried out.  Smoke stung his eyes.  Though he could open them, he could not see a thing through the billowing clouds and searing flames.

"Here, Render!"  He felt Edwyn's hand grasp his forearm and pull him to his feet.  "We must find the door."

Another projectile hit the side of the castle.  Render almost lost his footing at the impact.  Through the crackling flames, the sound of crumbling stone and sand hissed.  He clawed blindly for the door.  "I can't see!"

The skin on his face burned, he wanted to open his eyes, but every time he did, the heat forced them shut.

Then came a heavy pounding.

"Guards!  Let us out!"  Edwyn cried.

Render found the door and joined in the pounding shouting.  But to no avail.  It had been chained.  "Where are they?"

"Must have fled."

"Then we're trapped."  A sinking sensation pulled at Render's innards.  The only other way out was the hole in the wall.  And a three story drop.  The choice was clear.  Burn to death or risk breaking their necks.

Something from above fell with a heavy thud.  A rush of cool air from the floor shot upwards.   A rafter from the ceiling had fallen and the floor from the room above them had opened.

"Quick," Render said, pushing his table under the opening.  "Climb up!"

"You go first!"

"No, Edwyn, you're too heavy for me to pull up."

"Thanks a lot."  The bulky Don stumbled to the top of the table and leapt up to the remaining rafter.  Straining aloud, he pulled himself up through the opening in the ceiling.  Choking on the smoke, he rolled away from the hole and reached his hand down.

The fire grew even hotter.  Flames licked up from under the table.  Its legs were burning.  The opening above sucked out whatever little air came into the room from the gash in the wall and it only made the fire burn hotter.  Render climbed up onto the table.  Stretched his hand upwards. 

Reaching. 

Reaching. 

Almost touching Edwyn's outstretched hand.

A slight groan from bending wood.

The table collapsed.

Render gasped as it fell out from under his feet.  This made him cough violently even as he anticipated hurtling down into the fire.  But something yanked his wrist.  Pulled him upward.  Sir Edwyn snarled and huffed and strained as he pulled Render up through the hole in the ceiling.

When he emerged, Render rolled onto his back and drew a deep breath.  There was enough fresh air in this room to breathe.  But not for long.  The flames from below continued to climb.

"Follow me," said Edwyn helping Render to his feet.

As they stepped outside, it felt as though a thousand fire ants were crawling up Render's back.  His mouth fell open.

Up on the fourth floor of Castle Mittlevald, instead of staring across the cavernous foyer below, he was gazing at the heart of Valdshire Tor.  The entire southern wall was gone.

"Come, come!" Edwyn urged.  "We must get out."

They rushed down the winding staircase.  But just as they were about to pass the third level.  Render stopped.

Down the hall way, the sound of chains rattling and pounding rang out.  "Render!  Are you in there?  Answer me!"

"It's Kaine," Render said.

"The stairs may collapse at any moment," Edwyn said.  "We must continue."

"I can't leave him there, he's my brother."  Render pushed away and called down the hallway.  "Kaine!  I'm here.   Hurry!"

He looked up and came running.  The smile on his face bore witness to his relief.  "Render!  I thought for sure you'd—"

An earsplitting explosion shook the ground.  Kaine nearly stumbled.  The door to Render's room blew open sending fragments of the chain clinking to the floor.  Flames roared out angrily through the door's fissures.

"Come on, hurry!" Render said.

"You're all right!" said Kaine as he arrived.  He pulled his brother into a tight embrace and his weapons rattled against his armor.

"We must find Folen and Stewan," Edwyn said.  

"Don't you think they'd have evacuated like the rest?" Kaine said.  "Come to think of it, why haven't you both done the same?"

"House arrest," Render said.  "The guards abandoned us."

Another incendiary hit the castle.  Render never had much contact with any of the inhabitants, and the few he saw regularly, servants and staff members were nowhere to be found.

"Stop wasting time!" Edwyn rushed down to the second floor, where the twins resided.  Render had never seen him move with such speed. 

"Folen!"

"Stewan!"

They arrived to find their door shut.  Edwyn grasped the door handle and pulled it away quickly.  "It's too hot inside."  With his hand wrapped in the loose fabric of his cloak, he tried the door again.  But it was locked.

"We're too late," said Kaine.

  Ignoring him, Edwyn grabbed a heavy chair from the wall.  With a shout, he smashed it into the door once, twice, and finally on the third strike, the door burst open.

Flames roared out from the bedchamber.  Render shielded his face from the searing heat.  Bright amber and golden light flooded the entire room.  If the twins were inside, there was no chance of their surviving.  This did nothing to deter Edwyn from calling their names over and over.

One of the tall pillars out at the front of the castle began to groan and crumble.  Before Render could draw anyone's attention to it, it fell with a ground shaking crash into the middle of the courtyard.  As it fell, he took in the full panorama of the citadel.  Strange, where was the royal army?  As far as he could see, Castle Mittelvald seemed a lone target by the Tianese troops.  Why was it that no other parts of the citadel had been attacked?

"We really must get out," Kaine said, pulling him by the arm.  Then to Edwyn he said, "They may have escaped with the rest."

By the time they got back to the staircase, Render could see the enemy forces.  They had begun withdrawing through the opening they'd made by ramming a large part of the citadel wall.  Enemy torches faded back into the wood though the occasional flaming arrow flew back at what remained of the castle.  Edwyn and Kaine had already entered the foyer.

Nothing could have prepared Render for what he found as he stepped through the rubble.  The bodies of several members of the castle staff lay strewn on the floor, some with arrows sticking out of their backs, others soaked in puddles of blood.

Though Kaine leaned against the open space where the massive doors to the main entrance once stood, Edwyn knelt at a pile of hulking stone bricks.  Both hands on his head, he rocked back and forth and wept.   When Render came to his side, he realized why.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

From within his hood, hot steam from Bai Juang's breath and tears nearly stifled him.  He prayed the blow to the back of his neck would be swift and clean.  But the next sound he heard was not what he had expected.

A swift whistle. 

A flying arrow.

Coming straight at him.

He held his position, determined to die with dignity, whether by sword or by arrow.  But the sound of it piercing flesh, cracking through bone, was not his own.  Unless he had grown so numb that he could not tell.

The soldier standing above him let out a gurgling cry.

A heavy thud fell by Bai Juang's side.

He turned his head to the left, then the right, trying to discern what he could by sound alone.

Another arrow.

A second man, blubbering in fear.

Then another pained cry and thud.

"What is happening!  " Bai Juang cried out.  "Who are you?"

The reply came with a quick shove in the back as someone grabbed his wrists, slipped something between them and then cut the cords.  He was free.

"Wait!" The woman's voice, smooth as satin, was furtive, urgent.  "Hold still!"

Still on his knees, Bai Juang pulled the hood from his head.  Gasped deeply as though he had been holding his breath underwater longer than he should.  He turned to look over his shoulder.

A lady in a dark cape was cutting the rope that bound his ankles.

With that, He leapt to his feet.

A very large Torian soldier lay on his back, his mouth and eyes agape as though the last thing he saw were a ghost.  Two arrow shafts rose from his chest, still as silence.

"Who—?"

"A friend." The lady, a fair skinned Torian who exuded aristocracy lifted a slender finger to her lips.  Her ebony hair, shone in the brilliant moonlight which stung his eyes like needles.  She held her head high, her chin tucked down and eyes, sharp as a bird of prey.  Her crossbow at the ready, she searched the surrounding area.  "We must go, quickly."

"How can I know where I am going when I don't know where I am?"

"Keep quiet!"  She stepped over the second soldier, who in his death pose looked as taken by surprise as the first.  Then she pointed through the tree branches.  "There."

As his eyes adjusted to the moonlight, he blinked.  Then blinked again.  Through the tree leaves and branches it was unmistakable. 

"Mount Handara."

How could his fortune have changed so drastically? Bai Juang rubbed his eyes and looked again.  He could not help but smile.

"Yes, Bai Juang.  I have come to bring you to the Sojourners Council."

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

No.  

Words could not escape Render's mouth.  With eyes wide open, a look of surprise and fear etched eternal into his features, Folen lay on his back, an arrow, the shaft of which still burned, protruded from the center of his chest.  By his side, the upper half of Stewan's still body extended out from beneath a pile of enormous stones.  Blood drew a dark line down from the corner of his mouth, his eyes, devoid of life, were still pooled in tears.

Sorrow upon sorrow fell upon Render.  He never spoke to Edwyn about letting them go and visit their adopted parents.  Had he done so, they might be in their loving care now.  "What kind of soldiers would kill even children!"

"Tianese, Sojourners," Kaine said, through clenched teeth.  He wiped his eye and peered out at the courtyard, where the fallen column almost blocked the entryway.  His eyes widened suddenly.  "Take cover!"

Because the Tianese troops had been withdrawing into the wood, and because the castle was all but demolished now, Render hadn't expected any further attacks.  The explosion of the incendiary corrected that assumption.

A downpour of splintered wood, stone and dust followed.  When he could see again, he perceived Kaine and Edwyn stumbling out of the castle, arms over their faces and coughing.

He was just about to run out to join them when he heard a faint sound.  Like a child crying.  A quick glance down at his feet reminded him it was neither Folen nor Stewan.

"Render, come on!  Quickly, before the entire thing collapses!" Edwyn shouted back into the ruins.

But Render followed the sound to a door towards the castle's east wing.  To his dismay, it became necessary for him to climb over the open-eyed body of a man servant crushed under a large slab of stone the size of a dining table.

It was from beneath that very slab that Render noticed a small white hand extending and flexing its fingers.  Muffled cries emanated from the rubble.

He knelt down and found a boy trapped in space between the slab and the ground.  The gap was not quite tight enough to crush him, but sufficient to entrap him.  "Hello, are you all right?"

The boy turned his face.  "I'm trapped!"

"Branson!" 

"I can barely breathe.  If this slab pitches one way or another, I'll be flattened!"  A dark voice whispered into Render's thoughts, It'll serve the little monster right! 

Partly because he wasn't certain how exactly to help, and partly because that voice had taken him aback so, Render stood frozen.  Singeing heat from the flames encroached.  The fumes provoked a fit of coughs.