The Song and the Serpent

The attacking warriors pressed their way through the defenders lining the rail, hacking and slashing against sword and shield in an attempt to get past the first line of warriors. Ryland’s men held the line as best they could, but several warriors had fallen already, their blood adding new stains to the worn wood of the deck.

Adan tore his eyes away from the bleeding men and watched the line. He and Kian couldn’t get past their own men as they crowded the rail.

As he watched, he saw an enemy soldier make two skillful strokes with a curved blade that killed two of Ryland’s men.

Adan felt his blood begin to boil as the two men fell to the ground and the attacker broke free of the line. These two warriors whose blood was adding to the stains on the deck had volunteered to come on this voyage like everyone else. They had families waiting for them in Farel, families who would never see them again.

Adan rushed forward, his sword lifted high. The enemy warrior saw his approach, brandished his curved blade, and shouted in anger. Adan roared back and brought his blade down on the attackers head. But the enemy pivoted and dodged the blow, slashing out toward Adan’s midsection. Adan had expected the warrior’s move and parried the thrust with blinding speed.

Then, without pause or hesitation, he flicked his blade up and stabbed the warrior in the throat. He heard a choking gag, and the warrior went limp on the end of his sword.

As the man fell to the deck, Adan yanked his sword free and looked at the blood on the blade. He had expected to feel some remorse after his first kill, but all he felt was rage at the enemy, and satisfaction that his training had enabled him to stop this murderer.

“”Well done!” Kian shouted, coming to his left side.

But before Adan could answer, a group of seven enemy warriors rushed through the opening in the line and ran at the two of them. They braced for the attack, and Adan felt a stab of fear.

With a ring of steel, the group crashed into the two of them and forced them both backwards. Adan was forced to parry and block a series of blows and stabs as he backtracked. They were shoved apart by the group and Adan was left with three enemy warriors trying to converge on him at once. He tried to maneuver himself to avoid being surrounded, but the cabin wall prevented him. He was trapped.

A figure darted up behind the three attackers and stabbed one of them in the back. As he fell, the other two turned to face him. Adan seized the opportunity and lunged for one of his attackers just as the newcomer killed the third. The enemy tried to parry but was too slow and Adan’s blade was covered with another enemy’s blood.

He looked to his savior and saw Rocco’s face illuminated in the torchlight. He was about to offer his thanks before remembering Kian.

With another stab of fear, he looked to his left and saw Kian, trapped against the cabin wall, frantically blocking blows from his attachers. He had wounded one of them, but Adan saw Kian bleeding in several places as well.

Protect Kian!

Fear and rage exploded in Adan’s chest and he bellowed as he dashed to Kian’s aid. He struck the first enemy warrior with a powerful blow to the neck. The man crumpled instantly and another warrior turned to face him. Adan lashed out with a series of cuts and thrust that drove the man back. He gave no thought to what he was doing, he relied on his training and fought on instinct, instinct and fury. In moments he had killed the second man and turned to see Kian impaling another on his blade. Rocco had arrived behind Adan and disarmed the final warrior.

Adan shouted and swung at the man’s neck with all his strength. His sword cleaved through the man’s neck and his head rolled to the floor, leaving the truncated body to crumple.

Adan looked at Kian with concern. “Are you alright?”

Kian had a long gash running up his right forearm, as well as a cut on his left thigh and shoulder. A slice ran along his left side, but from the look of his wounds, nothing was fatal.

“Nothing I won’t heal from,” Kian replied. “But what about you?”

Confused, Adan looked down at himself. Blood covered his leather tunic and breeches in several places. His hand and sword were drenched in red and dripping with the blood of his enemies.

“None of it’s mine,” he answered, to Kian’s obvious relief.

Several men began shouting nearby. They looked up to see several of their own warriors leave the side of the ship where the battle was raging and dash to the opposite rail.

“What are they…?” he began, but a look at the opposite rail answered the question forming on his lips.

The other enemy ship, the one they had passed thanks to Rocco’s seamanship had turned around and was pulling alongside them. They were about to be fighting on two fronts.

“Where’s Ryland?” Kian shouted.

But before they could search for the captain, a group of enemy warriors broke through the line, and they were forced to engage them.

The warrior aimed a blow at Adan’s head, and he dodged it easily. He flicked his blade up and pinned the man’s curved blade to the wall of the cabin. The man tried to pull the sword free, but Adan kicked the warrior’s stomach. The man doubled over in pain, and Adan slashed upward with his sword. He caught the raider full in the face, and Adan heard a cracking sound as the man stumbled backwards and fell to the deck.

Moments later Adan had killed another two of the enemy’s men, and was straining to see Ryland through the press of armored bodies.

Then he saw him.

Standing on the rail where the enemy had first attacked, the Captain was whirling his battle axe with blinding speed, killing warrior upon warrior as they tried to board his ship.

Even as Adan watched, an enemy warrior near the port rail, a short wiry man with white hair flowing out from under his helmet, nocked an arrow to the string of his longbow. The wiry man took aim at Captain Ryland, who was oblivious as he fought.

“No!” Adan shouted, and ran toward the captain. “Ryland, lookout.”

The enemy warrior fired. The arrow left the blow and struck the captain in the chest.

“Ryland!” Rocco appeared at Adan’s side.

Rylands eye’s widened and his ax fell from his hands. Several enemy warriors, seeing his plight, lunged forward with blade and spear. Ryland was pierced in several places, blood flowing from his chest.

Adan and Rocco tried to reach him, but there were too many men between them and their captain.

Adan saw Rylands hands go completely limp. He tottered on the rail for a moment, and then fell forward, disappearing from their sight as his body plummeted into the channel of water between the battling vessels.

Adan’s shout vanished on his lips. He stood in silence, staring at the place where the captain had been.

“Hold!” A deep voice thundered over the mayhem. “Stop the fighting.”

Adan turned toward the other enemy craft, following the sound of the voice. A long figure stood on the rail of the second attacking ship. The tall, broad shouldered man was dressed like the other attackers, save for the white wolfskin draped across his shoulders, and his uncovered head and face. The orange glow of the torches revealed a shaved scalp, a thick jaw, and a nose like the beak of an eagle.

The fighting on the deck subsided as all eyes turned to him. The clash of metal and the shouts of the fighting men stopped, but the cries of the wounded continued. From what Adan could see, out of their force of a hundred men, only about twenty now remained.

“Your captain is dead,” the man said. “Your numbers are reduced, and you cannot win this fight. Surrender now, and your lives will be spared.”

For how long? Adan wondered, but he kept silent and looked at Rocco and Kian. The three of them exchanged glances.

“There’s no point in more unnecessary bloodshed,” the man said. He leapt across the water to the rail of their ship, and jumped down onto the deck where several of his men stood.

The defending warriors looked at Kian and Rocco.

Kian looked at Rocco. “What should we do?”

“Begging your pardon, m’lord,” Rocco whispered back, “but that’s your decision.”

Kian looked back at the man offering them quarter. “He’s right. We can’t win.”

Adan watched Rocco as he glared at the man and nodded, hatred in his eyes.

Kian hesitated. Adan knew he was weighing the lives of the men in his charge along with his hatred of the enemy, and his desire to go to his death, killing as many as he could.

It would be a good death, Adan thought, a good way to die. He would follow Kian, whatever his decision.

Finally, Kian decided. He dropped his blade and it clattered to the deck. Like a rainfall of steel, swords, knives, axes, and other weapons hit the deck of the ship as the remaining defenders followed Kian’s example.

A small smile touched the man’s face. “Wise decision. Bind them!”

The attackers rushed toward the unarmed men, bunching all of them together and forcing all of them to their knees. Rope was sent for and Adan looked around to see how many of their men had survived. Out of a hundred warriors, it looked as if less than thirty remained.

“You will be taken to Undelma,” the large man said over the heads of the prisoners. “And there be brought to the house of Sithril, who is lord of man and beast and devil. Your fate will be decided by his priest.”

Adan looked at Kian, who returned his questioning gaze. Neither of them recognized the names of Undelma or Sithril.

Their captors bound them at the hands and began to lead them away.

“Wait!” Kian shouted.

Everyone stopped and the man looked over at Kian.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” said Kian, “or who you think we are, but I am Kian, son of Hathian, Lord of Farel and heir to his estate. My father is one of the three lords of Esta and will pay a high price for my ransom.”

The man stared at Kian for a moment before taking slow steps in his direction. He walked right up to Kian until he stood towering over him with one eyebrow raised.

“Well, son of Hathian,” said the big man. “I am Hugo, son of nobody important, Commander of the Serpent army, and leader of the Southern invasion. I couldn’t care less about who you are, only what you can do for me. And right now that is precious little. So hold your tongue.”

Rage boiled up inside Adan and before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “You won’t get away with this!”

Hugo turned a steady eye on Adan. “And who are you?”

“This is my bodyguard,” said Kian.

Hugo looked Adan up and down. “And pray tell me why I won’t get away with this, boy?” Hugo asked.

Adan gulped before continuing. “You seem very confident after taking one ship, but wait until all of Hathian’s ships are arrayed against you, and King Selwyn has mustered the men of Esta to war.”

“All twenty-three of them, you mean?” said Hugo, smiling and tilting his head to the side. “Hathian’s ships, that is. Eleven longships, six merchants, and six barges?”

A sick feeling of dread came over Adan. Hugo had listed the vessels currently anchored at Farel with perfect accuracy. The look of surprise on Kian’s face confirmed it.

“I know more about Farel’s defenses than the pompous windbag you’re in charge of protecting,” said Hugo, leaning down and looking into Adan’s eyes. “Wait until you see all of my ships,” he whispered. “Maybe then you might learn to control your tongue.”

He slapped Adan across the face.

Adan fell backwards, light dancing across his eyes.

“Take them,” said Hugo as he strode back over the deck and crossed back to the ship he had come from.

Bound at the hands, Adan, Kian, and Rocco were dragged onto the same ship the commander had boarded, they and less than a dozen fellow warriors.

“To the hull with you,” one of their masked attackers said, forcibly escorting them to an open hatch at the front of the craft.

Together, the prisoners were led down a ladder into a chamber under the main deck. Hammocks hung from the walls and low ceilings and the floor was a mess of clothes, weapons, and stale food. They were led through the sleeping chamber toward the back of the vessel, until they came to another hatch in the floor.

The hatch was opened and they were instructed to climb in. There was no ladder leading down into the lowest chamber, so they had to clamber down into the hull. The smells of filth, blood, mold, and vomit filled Adan’s lungs as he jumped in.

Adan’s feet splashed in water as he landed in the hull. The bottom of the ship was full up to his shins. Floor to ceiling, there wasn’t enough space to stand up, so they were forced to wade through the dark water while bending over.

“Have a comfortable journey,” one of their captors said, before slamming the trap door shut and plunging them into complete darkness.

For a moment, Adan heard only the creak of the ship, the water lapping at his feet, and the breathing of his fellow prisoners.

Then there were splashes and thuds as the others began to find their way around the hull. Before they had lost the light, Adan remembered seeing the large keel of the ship running down the center of the chamber. The curved beam was the only place to sit that wasn’t submerged in the foul water lapping at their feet.

Adan found the keel and sat carefully on the old wood. He could hear several others around him doing the same.

“Adan?” Kian whispered from right beside Adan. They had accidently found each other in the dark.

“I’m here,” Adan answered.

Blackness and silence.

“Governor Fagus was right,” Kian said.

Adan breathed a sigh. “Yes he was.”

“That man, Hugo, said something about a southern invasion. I wonder what he meant.”

“I’d hate to guess. We have no choice but to wait and see.”

“But– my family, and Vallessa,” an urgent note crept into Kian’s tone. “If he’s planning an invasion they’ll be in danger. They’ll all be in danger.”

“It will take more than a fleet of ships to invade the South. Esta has never fallen to invaders before. We have to hold on to that hope. And look for a way to escape.”

Even as he spoke, Adan’s thoughts drifted to the little island not far from them, where he had left Layla. Enys Island wouldn’t have a chance against this enemy.

We have to escape, he thought.

But for now there was nothing they could do but wait.

Then Adan remembered the bloody gashes he had seen on Kian’s body. “Do any of your wounds need attention?”

Kian actually chuckled at the question. “Yes, they all do, but the one on my side hurts the most. right now. It’s the deepest. You wouldn’t happen to have an abundance of bandages, would you?”

“Oh yes,” Adan muttered. “I never go anywhere without a bag of bandages on my belt.”

“I don’t think our genial hosts would be willing to provide us with such luxuries.”

“Don’t you think so? What gave you that impression? The sewage water or the rope tying our hands?”

Kian chuckled again. “I’ll have to make sure I lodge a complaint with the proprietor of this fine establishment.”

Adan removed his white tunic and began ripping the linen garment into large strips.

“What are you doing?” Kian asked, listening in the dark.

“Providing an abundance of bandages,” Adan said, passing the cloth strips to Kian.

Kian felt them in the dark. “You didn’t need to destroy your tunic for me.”

“Nonsense. You haven’t eaten since the meal on Enys and you can’t afford to lose too much blood.”

Adan heard Kian wince as he put pressure on his wounds.

“Thank you.”

Adan grunted, and silence fell. Adan put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands. He doubted he would be able to sleep, but exhaustion overwhelmed him. He didn’t know what the future would hold for them, or who Commander Hugo was, or what he would do to them, but those worries would have to wait. Besides, Kian was alive. He had done his duty and protected Kian in the battle. Now, he would rest.