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Child of the Empire
Chapter 4 Escape from Heaspicus!

Chapter 4 Escape from Heaspicus!

Chapter 4 Escape from Heaspicus!

            I dreamed again that night of the wolves and the forest. But this time things were different. Without warning men had come and attacked the small village. On their horses they cut anyone down that was on the only street in town. They blocked doors and threw torches on the rooftops to burn whole families alive inside. Above them the two full moons filled the sky one red the other white. They ruthless cut people down where they stood or ran them over. Cries of fear and foul laughter filled the air. A man that I couldn’t see clearly was screaming something to the woman holding a baby in her arms. She ran but the man on the horse and swung his sword at her hitting her across the back. She fell and turned trying not to crush the baby underneath her.

            Slowly she crawled and made her way passed the burning home. The man watched cruelly with a smile on his face he already knew she was dead he let her leave as he went back to the slaughter. Through the pain she managed to get up and she ran across the field to the forest. She panted with exhaustion she had run farther than she thought would from her burning village. Her brown hair was soaked with sweat her tanned skin was marred with her blood. She though she didn’t know it, she was dying from the sword wound. But she had to continue for the small child in her arms. As if responding to her thoughts the child let out a small cry in response. On the babes left arm was a tattoo of a wolf’s head, bird with a long tail and a dragon. She covered the arm with the blanket. She continued to move now more slowly towards the woods and under their cover.

As she passed a few of the trees she rested her back into a tree then slowly sank down. With the baby still in one arm she tried to get up but immediately lost her remaining strength and her back was resting on the tree once again. “Must keep going” she mumbled to herself. She tried once more and couldn’t get back up. She put the baby in her lap as she lost the remaining reserves of her strength.  What little was left of her blood began to pool around her. Slowly her breathes became short and longer apart. All that the woman could think in her last dying breathes was that if the gods had any mercy they would send someone to save her child.

            Thinking it might help conserve any amount of strength she closed her eyes but only a few quick short breaths later she was dead. The child cried aloud possible sensing his mother’s death. It took a while for the child’s cries to die down. Out of the shadows of the trees stepped out six wolves. They were the size of horses even though their eyes were the same sapphire blue each had different colors. One of the three males was a reddish-brown, another was almost pure black except the white spot on his chest and the last one the biggest one grey mixed with some white. The three female wolves were just a varied as their male counter-parts. The one standing next to the black and white wolf had patches of white and black all over her body, another one had pure grey fur that glistened like silver, and the last one was whiter than even snow. This time I looked into the eyes of this new wolf, unlike the others her eyes look wild, untamed and something else I couldn’t place it.

            “Hurry Amaru you time runs short, he is coming you must get out of the city.” the voice came from the black and white wolf

I woke with a start to the sound of giggles. I opened my eyes to see that som time during the night I had managed to wrap my arms around Yulia. With both stretched and were slightly embarrassed but not too bad. I rolled up the bed rolls while Yulia helped the children set the table and cook the morning breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t full of the laughter as the night before. In the mornings we had to prepare for the day ahead those who Lucas had approved of to go out and pickpocket or go to noble house and play the part as pages to steal some of their dirty linen. The rest would have a day off from learning what they needed to but they were still responsible for cleaning and making the lunch.

            I busied myself sharpening my blades for a while, and then I went and found some old but sturdy leather armor and tried it on. It fit well enough that it wouldn’t chafe to bad, though it needed some repairing it wouldn’t take me long to complete. The smells of leather oils and smell of the laundry being done reminded me of the old days. Lucas and John just didn’t teach us how to fight and steal, they also taught us how to read, write and do are numbers. They also taught us how to barter, sow, sharpen are blades, and repair leather armor. Hey don’t give me that look again yes I said sow, you can’t get a good price for damages or marked goods. Once I had the armor properly fixed I moved on to the small task of filling up the four quivers I had laid out for both me and Yulia, I figured having her carrying and even learning how to use a bow and arrow would be helpful.

            Once I finished filling up the quivers I went over to the weapons locker and looked at the swords and dagger wondering if I should bring one for Yulia. Then Jenny came in with Yulia to have her fitted into some leather armor herself. Yulia was already in pants and from her expression on her face didn’t like it all that much. It couldn’t be helped I thought to myself she would just have to deal with if she was committed to coming with me. Luckily for me when found the armor that she fit into didn’t need to be repaired in anyway. So I laid the armor next to her stack of items she would be carrying. I didn’t get long to think further on whether or not I should bring a sword or dagger for Yulia when John and Jason came in with are supplies.

They bought us extra cloaks, flint, a small amount of spices, a small green tent for shelter, a pot, bowls, spoons, healing item and kaffee. We worked together to evenly split all of that between me and Yulia. But this didn’t stop me from thinking about if I should bring something other than a bow for Yulia to learn how to use so I asked John. “John, do you think I need to bring an extra sword or dagger to teach her how to use? I’m already bringing an extra bow to teach her how to use that but I’m concerned that might not be enough.”

“Yes you might want to, but I would focus mainly on training her with the bow first if she learns quickly enough with that then start slowly training her with a sword or dagger.” I nodded understanding that was the best advice he could give me.

              It was noon before Lucas came back with both the good and bad news. “Well Amaru, Yulia I’ve manage to secure your escape from the city it wasn’t easy but I did it. Kira didn’t like it when I forced the poison down her throat. Then I used my only favor with her to get you guys out cheaper she was even less happy with that.” Well at least that part was taken care of. “But,” there always has to be a but, “here’s the bad news while I was out I heard that Emperor Darlesh was on his way and security is starting to get tighter out there. I had to no choice but to demand we get you out of here today.” I groaned this day couldn’t get any worse.

          You know I should really stop saying things like this because for whatever with their twisted reasons the gods just have to prove you wrong. To be safe Jason and Yulia left for the smuggling warehouse first I didn’t like it but I agreed after a lot of arguing that it was the safest way. Before we left Jenny handed me a mask and told me to put it on. The mask was plain enough it had a hole where my eyes were and covered half of my face. It was finally time for us to leave the hideout. Lucas and John walked ahead of me and Jenny, she held my hand. The walk was slow and without saying much it seem to take twice as long. The city guard and soldiers were all over the place so I had to keep my hood up and my head down. This was one of the most nerve wrecking days of my life. More than I would have liked guards and soldiers had gotten a little too close to seeing who I really was. I was thankful for the half mask and the story that Lucas had told the guards and soldiers if they started to question me about my mask.

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The story was simple four days ago I had gotten drunk at home and fell into the fire. My “wife” they pointed out was Jenny couldn’t bring me to a healer because we didn’t have the coin for one. So she tried the best that she could with some of the old wives tales of using different herbs to treat serious burns. Luckily this convinced most guards and some of the soldiers not to question us further and let us move on our way.

By time we got to the warehouse I was so nervous that I was almost any time a guard or soldier even looked like he was heading our way. I saw Yulia and Jason standing next to Kira waiting for us. Yulia looked even more scared than I did. Kira was a tall woman almost a full head taller than I was. Her black hair only came to her shoulders, she had hazel eyes, she wore similar clothing like both Yulia and Jenny, and on her waist was a spiked mace. She somehow managed to look like she wasn’t happy to see us and relieved that we were here also. Once I was fully under the protection of the busy warehouse my nerves calmed a little. I walked over to Yulia and gave a hug. Most of her fear had ebbed from her face but there was still enough.

“Ok let’s get this damned mess over with because unlike you boy I’m on a very short deadline.” Her voice had become ruff from years of shouting orders at her men and women that worked for her. “It seems I will have to personally see you to safety outside these walls,” she shot a dirty look at Lucas, “so you’re to follow every order I give you while you are under my care. I’ve already had your horses sent on ahead by time we catch up with them they will be out of the tunnel.”

She yelled an order to open the hatch and we started to make our way there and that’s when everything went wrong. “Halt in the name of the Emperor!” All of a sudden the warehouse door was block by dozens of imperial soldiers.

Lucas shot an accusing look to Kira. “I swear I didn’t say anything, you made sure of that remember.” That didn’t fully convince Lucas, but he knew the woman she only looked out for her own neck so I knew he had to believe. Then she yelled, “Guards kill these imperial dogs!” Her men that she had guarding this place where well-armed but we knew that she was sending them to their deaths.

“Lucas run with the others, give me the antidote and I’ll give it to Kira once we make it out the other side.” He hesitated but only for a second he handed me the antidote and ran with Jason and the others.

I quickly followed Yulia and Kira into the tunnel. When Kira closed the tunnel behind use she locked up behind her. “That should slow them down.” Kira grabbed a torch and gestured for us to run.

We ran as fast we could but Yulia wasn’t as conditioned as me and Kira so we had to slow down for her. The sounds of yelling soon filled the tunnel and each time it was only getting closer. I turned to see a few torches slowly making their way closer to us. I was glad I had prepared for the worst case scenario and keep my bow with me. As we ran I unsling my bow and knock an arrow. “Keep running.” I said as I skidded to a halt. I took careful aim near one of the torches. I let my arrow fly and in rapid succession let two more then I turned and ran to catch up to Kira and Yulia. As I caught up I took a quick look behind me notice that our pursers had fallen back. I couldn’t tell you how far we ran but I had to stop several more times to fire arrows at are pursers so that they would fall back.

Finally we could see the light at the end of the tunnel and Kira motion for me to move in front of her. As we ran up the stairs I noticed we passed two ropes. Once we finally got out of the tunnel I saw that Kira had grabbed both of the ropes. Connected to the ends of them was the wood that had been keeping the tunnel up.  Seconds later a plum of dust bellowed out of the tunnels exit.

“What did you do?” I asked through my heavy breathing.

She waited to catch her breath before talking. “I set off the trap that I made just for a condition just like this one. Those soldiers are now buried under ten feet of dirt.” Though I was appalled at what she had done I knew that if she hadn’t we may have been either dead or in chains right now.

For the first time I noticed my surroundings. We were surrounded by trees I couldn’t believe my eyes I never seen trees so tall. Some of the trees had little green needles on them I think they were called pine trees others had big and small leaves on them. Then I noticed the silence, there wasn’t any sounds of the city. No dogs barking, people talking over each other, children playing, my list could go on and on there were so many things. Then finally it hit me the smell it didn’t have the smell of decaying trash, unwashed bodies and many untold amount of smells the city had. I was overwhelmed with all this it was too much to try to take in at once. Then the cough brought me back to my situation at hand.

“If I could have the antidote I would like to be on my way.” Kira held out her hand for the vial. I grabbed from my pocket and handed it to her. Without a word of thanks she popped the cork and drank its contents. She gestured to the man that was holding the reins of our horses and walked off into the forest. One horse had a pure dark brown coat, the other had patches of white and reddish brown all over its body. They looked sturdy enough I just hoped that they would be up to the long trek ahead. He handed us the reins and wished us good luck and followed her.

“Do you need help getting up?” To answer my question she lifted herself up on the horse. “I’ll take that as a no then.” I got onto my horse and gave it a small kick.

Yulia follow me in silence as we made our way steadily through the forest it was slow going. For the first time I truly realized how hard this was going to be not only for myself but for Yulia. I turned and looked at Yulia she was as somber as I was and lost in her own thoughts. I wished I had tried harder to convince Yulia to stay behind but she had been so determined. In truth I was glad she came I don’t know if I could have done this on my own. I sighed, why I couldn’t just make up my mind.

Still I knew we weren’t prepared for this in the way we needed to be. I wished bitterly for more time to somehow learn something that would have helped us survive out here better. Out of the side of my vision I saw something move passed us. I looked to over where I saw the movement nothing was there. Maybe it was just a trick of the light I thought to myself. Then for whatever reason unknown to me the horse decided stop. I should have been paying attention to it nervously the way it swayed its head back and forth or even the way it neighed. I gave it a kick to make it move forward just as the five wolves from my dreams came into view. That was the last thing I saw just as the horse buck and launched me to the ground. As my world exploded in pain I heard Yulia scream my name just as I blacked out.