Chapter V

The surgeon's knife was glistening white in the light. Lucius, curled up on the floor, was bleeding from the nose and lips. He was eagerly trying to reach the knife snatched from him, lying close by. He was being pressed by the sharp spur that made it infinitely difficult to grab the weapon.

"There is nothing to be done.., the Commander loves beautiful women...". The wide-shouldered soldier had a deep, heavy, and husky voice, heavier than the steel sabatons he was wearing...

The iron gate was rumbling and booming. Boom... Boom... Boom..."Quick, Michael!" Lucius felt as if his own voice was cutting through his throat while he was running down the trail, panting. He jumped over huge stones and bushes, trying not to slow down. While running fast, he bumped into the trees, rolled down the slopes; his clothes had become dirty, torn, and ragged. He ached and bled from painful scratches and bruises all over his body. A long trace of blood followed him, but neither the pain nor the scratches could stop him from rescuing her sister.

The silhouette of the city in flames flashed in the turns of the road and spurred Lucius to run even faster, but their bruised body made this impossible for both Lucius and Michael.

They were heading towards Mondelay, to the city lit up in bright scarlet flames, to the city in which Laili was supposed to be.

The fire made Lucius feel strange and experience an awful fear and unsurmountable attraction at the same time and he could not decide whether he loved or hated this yellowish, devastating force.

Apart from the wounded who kept his eyes shut, there were the Commander and a well-built warrior in the room. The warrior had a heavy voice and a long scar across his cheek.

"How did this bastard manage to reach me?"

"Don't kill him", the Commander's whisper was distinctively sharp and memorably indifferent...

"Let's go!" He stood up instantly and walked towards the door. Without wearing armor, the Chief was armed only by the sword.

"Should I stay for a bit?" Lucius could see the smirk on the warrior's face, the snigger that embodied his hunger.

The Commander suddenly stopped at the door and turned around: "When were you knighted De Caravel?"

"Sixteen years ago."

"Who knighted you?"

"Arian De Brail, I was his squire. Why?"

"I knew De Brail, he was a good warrior. I will be waiting for you in the yard. Stop the bleeding first".

"I don't understand", said the warrior with the scar on his face heavily.

"My brother will even be grateful, the boy will confirm that I provoked you". The Commander pointed to the wounded boy.

"Is this some kind of joke?" De Caravel could not believe his ears.

The Commander looked at him with his straw-colored eyes. " I will wait in the garden", he said and left the room...

The winter had robbed the nature of the green color. The bare trees painted skeleton-like shadows on the muddy ground.

The bare-chested Commander was holding a sword. The knight in the greenish armor was spinning a spiky ball attached to the club. He was still bleeding from his wounds.

The Commander no longer suggested stopping the bleeding. He swung the sword several times.

They only used their weapons four times...

The Commander cleaned the sword splashed with blood droplets, trickling from De Caravel's throat onto the cloak of the defeated warrior.

Boom...Boom...Boom...the voice of the terrifying rumbling could be heard miles away. " It must be really horrible up there", thought Lucius. Seeing the city burning in hellish flames brought back the memories of the huge bonfire in the center of Ardiel, where the red-headed woman was burnt. The woman, who...

Lucius knew he could never get rid of this memory...

He was trying to concentrate on the meandering trail leading to the city and there was only one reason for this - to forget about the flashbacks still roaming in his head and to survive. As the shortcut to the city that Michael had chosen turned out to be dangerous, one could easily slip and fall into the abyss. The city's main headway was extremely long, that's why they had decided to use this secondary road.

Lucius's whole body ached, pain was becoming more severe at every move he made. Although he was losing the hope of ever reaching the city, he never stopped running. Michael was following him without any complaint, even though he was much more bruised than Lucius. They headed towards the rich quarter of the city. They believed Laili must be there.

When standing on the shelter wall, Lucius first caught a glimpse of the city in flames, he was horror-stricken realizing that Laili, his sister, was somewhere there. Then the hot airwave threw him down and when he regained consciousness, he rushed back to the collapsed gate of the shelter together with Michael. The building of the shelter and the yard had turned into ashes, together with the people abiding there. The shelter was shining bright yellow like a beacon in the middle of the yard. As soon as it was hit with the fireball, it caught on fire and burnt down together with people inside.

Lucius and Michael stopped at the edge of the cliff to look down at the city. That's when they first saw the ogre-like creature roaming in the center of Mondelay; when it roared and turned around, the terrified boys covered their ears with their hands.

The gargantuan monster ran forward, with the ground shaking violently with each of the steps he made. "It is moving towards the rich neighborhood gate," cried Michael.

"Laili!" Lucius once again realized what fate might have in store for his baby sister. They had just passed by the monster and now they were running towards the city without any idea what to do next.

They tried not to speak about the people burnt alive in the shelter. It seemed so surreal that they could not even believe it was happening. They felt that if they talked about it, it would help them grasp the graveness of the situation, but it would be rather difficult to come to terms with the tragedy.

The attack on the city started from the harbor. The fishermen's settlement was only partially ruined. Although the entrance of the settlement had not yet caught fire, in the middle of the village and a little bit further, almost up to the end of it, burnt-down walls and roofs of the buildings were covered in smoke rising from the wet sand. The yellowish, disastrous force had swallowed the huts- on-stilts, lined along the beach.

The fire did not spare kids, women, youth, or the elderly. The people, who had miraculously survived, were hectically carrying buckets of seawater to their burning houses trying to put the fire out, but would that be enough?!. The number of burnt, dead bodies was huge, one could hear the heart-wrenching cries of pain. Lucius could no longer cope with these hopeless, painful cries. The smell of the burnt flesh made him feel like vomiting, he believed he had to get away from there, his memories were gradually drifting back and he hated the part of himself that was so attracted to those dancing, yellow-red flames.

The closer they got to the city, the easier it became to realize the scope of the catastrophe that had happened. Dead and burnt bodies were scattered on the ground, one could hear war cries and swoosh of swords. The citizens and the soldiers dressed in red uniforms could not even identify who or what they were fighting against. The invaders must have been genuinely powerful as amongst the dead people one could only see red uniforms or the fishermen's bodies; the attackers' dead bodies were nowhere to be seen.

The attacks were getting more and more fierce and lasted only several seconds. Equipped with a scythe of death, the invisible enemy left the wounded warriors behind and penetrated deeper into the city. The wounded asked for help desperately, however, Lucius knew he was not able to assist anybody as he required help himself. They had to reach the rich district surrounded by high walls as soon as possible.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The boys, who had miraculously survived the attacks, were hiding away from the danger behind the wall, escaping the fate of the dead warriors. The swooshing of the crossbows and arrows made the air heavier - the people ambushed on their own balconies also fought against the enemy with their own arms. Arrows were more successful than swords. Dead blackish-green bodies, with the arrows sticking out like the spikes of a hedgehog, started to appear lying next to the red uniforms. Hearing the deafening noise, Lucius realized that the gate had collapsed. They rushed towards it. The streets were covered in corpses, the blood was flowing in streams. The boys slipped, fell on the sticky blood rivulets, and got back on their feet, covered in blood. Death makes everybody equal whether the rich or the poor. As if to prove this, the long-haired and amber-eyed soldiers with their carved daggers painted red and looking like death messengers under the moonlight killed everybody in their path.

The red uniform warriors, equipped with crossbows fell from the balconies and roofs of the houses. Those left in the streets were dying slowly and painfully. Lucius felt he and Michael would share their fate unless they managed to get back to safety as fast. They crept up to several houses and banged on the doors imploring to be let in, but nobody proved to be courageous enough to open the doors to the people needing help desperately.

Lucius and Michael were not the only people looking for the shelters behind the tightly locked doors. The wounded soldiers also tried to break into the houses but in vain. The buildings behind the well-locked doors hid away the faces of people trembling with fear.

"Careful!" Lucius heard Michael's voice and saw the glowing amber-colored eyes and raven black hair...

Lucius could not really recall how he managed to avoid the sword that cut his hair off and left a trace on the thick, wooden wall he was leaning against, but what he knew for sure was that several seconds before he had tricked and escaped death. Now when he thought he was safe and away from the danger, the death was lurking at the end of the alley in the face of a tall greenish creature. The devilish amber eyes glowed in the darkness. The scar on his face looked like an eternal smile of death.

The boys were looking for a place to get away from him but in vain. The window bars were locked from inside. One door, probably a back door, was so tightly closed that it turned out to be painful for the boys even to try breaking in.

"This cannot be the end", Lucius thought to himself; hearing a buzzing noise, he saw an arrow stuck into the greenish creature's back. Some wounded red uniform soldier must have noticed them from the roof, gathered his last strength, and shot the enemy down.

"This way", Michael pointed at the door left ajar.

Lucius rushed in and an old man closed the door after them instantly. The beast hit the door so powerfully that it was obvious the door would not hold for too long.

"Follow me!" the old man cried in a faltering, weak voice and led the boys into the hall leading to a bigger room. The room was filled with people. Although there were mostly the wounded red uniform soldiers, there were quite a few citizens as well. Most of the people in the room were not injured seriously and holding the weapons in their hands, they were getting ready for the attack. Lucius felt much better at that moment.

No matter how strong the scarface creature, treading towards them was, he was injured and bleeding heavily. Four soldiers were ready to fight against him and waited with their swords and spears up in the air.

The curved swords gleaming in the candlelight threw millions of sparks around when the fight started. Together with the broken spear, the first red uniform soldier also fell whereas the other miraculously saved himself by jumping back, or he would have followed his comrade's fate. The head of the spear sparkled in the shadowy room. Although the soldier aimed at the chest of the amber-eyed monster, with every strike of the sword he missed the target. The sword was smeared with the droplets from tiny scratches of the monster's flesh. The third spear was not idle either and aimed at the monster's throat, giving some hope of survival to those in the room, but it soon died together with the soldier, who had his face split into two halves with the monster's sword. However, the beast was hit by one of the spears in the chest, but while falling, it still managed to throw his weapon at one of the remaining soldiers and killed him. The monster left without a weapon, grabbed one of his enemies by the throat, and cracked his neck in a second; then, he sprang up and pulled the spear out of his wound as if it was just a splinter.

Lucius and other people stood dumbfounded, staring at the monster pulling out the spear from his wound which foreboded their deaths; despite this, they were unable to act. There was nowhere to hide in this building and other creatures were shedding the soldiers' blood out in the streets, making it even more difficult to leave the room.

The fight, in the house, only continued for several minutes and the monster managed to kill four more warriors. Lucius had no idea how the kids, the elderly, and several wounded men could fight against this monstrosity, especially without any arms at their disposal.

Lucius' was worried about his sister's fate, but he knew deep in his heart, that he was worried for himself too, especially when he noticed the amber-eyed creature walking towards him with a broken spear in its hand.

"What shall we do?" He heard Michael's whisper and looking around he realized he was standing in front of the others. Only Michael and himself were standing in the middle of the room, while others were hiding in the corners of the room as if that could change their ultimate fate.

If death was inevitable, was it really that important when to die? Was a ten-second life worth trembling in the corner of the room?

A pair of devilish eyes approached them, causing horrible fear in those around them, reminding inevitable death. But as soon the monster raised the weapon he was holding to strike boys, he fell on the floor, lifeless from the bleeding wounds.

There was a brief silence, then everybody sighed with relief.

Lucius was looking down at the humanoid monster and his heart filled with ease and happiness. You could hear people fussing around and helping the wounded.

Lucius headed towards the broken door. "Where are you going?" He heard the voice of the elderly man, who had saved him by letting him into his shelter.

"To the rich district", Michael was the first to answer. The boys walked to the door.

"You won't be able to reach the place alive", said the elderly man peeping through the curtain, "The fight in the streets is not over yet", he added in a frail voice.

Lucius was never given the cellar keys. He could only go down there with his Father, where they would make poisons and medicines.

Mother was crying since the Commander had left. It was the second time Lucius had seen her crying. The first was when the ship sank near the Mondelay harbor.

She added two ingredients to the medicine prepared for the wounded and opened the bedroom door. "Take this, it will help you", it took her a lot of effort to say those words and leave the room...

The houses in Mondelay were built close to one another from the very beginning. This, however, helped them greatly: it was risky to walk out in the streets of the town, and the boys decided to get to the rich quarter of the city jumping from one rooftop to another. Even though this was not safe either, it was much better than the other option. Lucius regretted not thinking of it earlier.

"Stay here, Michael, I don't want you to risk your life because of me", Lucius insisted, but Michael refused to stay behind. Truth be told, Lucius was deeply grateful for not having to walk close to all those dead bodies and bloodshed rooftops on his own.

They could already see the gates leading to the rich people's quarter quite clearly. One of the iron doors was broken off, the other one was heart-wrenchingly screeching on the remaining hinges. Such strong gates could have been destroyed only by the monsters they had seen in the center of the city when running away from the shelter. "Can you imagine the real size of that monstrosity? Does not he look huge?" Michael asked and pointed at huge deep footprints imprinted on the muddy road.

Jumping from a rooftop to a rooftop, from a corpse to a corpse, from the bloodstain to the bloodstain, in the end, they reached the gate. Exhausted, covered in blood, smelling like corpses they were facing a totally different problem: they had to climb onto the balcony first, then slide down into the yard. Time flew faster than ever. No one knew when the amber-eyed enemies would appear. Dead bodies were scattered all over the balcony.

Lucius started climbing first, gripping the edge of the wood with his hands, slowly moving his body over, and trying to reach the pillar of the balcony with his foot. His hands, sticky with blood, were slippery and he had no other way but to jump down on the dead bodies with a thud.

Lucius looked around. There was no one alive. The boy prayed to Rahail to let this situation remain unchanged, or rather, he would pray if he was a believer, but his faith had disappeared together with him witnessing a body burning on the campfire in Ardiel, accompanied with dreadful shouts: witch... devil... witch... and in this ocean of sounds, he could still remember one distinct heartbreaking scream which was especially difficult to bear, the scream of the woman on fire, not only before she surrendered to the flames, but after that too.. in Lucius' memory, in his heart, and his whole body... even now... her screams lived in his mind all the time.

Since that very day, apart from the desire to save his sister, he was driven with the desire for revenge. And now, hanging from the rooftop he tried to jump down, following Michael; he hesitated, but his friend beckoned him to hurry up. Lucius did not wait any longer and jumped.

The starry sky flashed in front of him; jumping down he brought the banister down with him, which rolled towards the street. Michael ran after the banister frantically, grabbed it, and brought it back. Lucius was still breathless. They quickly lay flat amongst the bodies. The amber-eyed monsters strolled along the street. The boys could distinctly hear their voices, talking in a strange language, which sounded as if spoken through their teeth.

The boys did not leave the place for a while. Although Lucius' back was hurting it did not bother him. He stood up to continue walking. The boys crawled over the banister carefully.

"Jump on three", Lucius whispered to Michael, and started to count." One, two,.." He had not yet counted up to three when Lucius jumped. His back hurt so badly that he bit his lips, still, they were lucky to be alive.

The pavement leading to the rich quarter looked like a death path. The arrow-stricken bodies mostly belonged to the enemy's army. Everything was covered in blood and some black liquid which Lucius could not identify. Michael realized that people must have poured boiled oil down from the gates. The gate was broken into with an inconceivable force, half of it was still swinging on the hinges while the broken parts of the other half were scattered on the ground.

Weeping and moans, shouts, desperate screams, war cries, orders, buzzing of the arrows, and rattling and jingling of the armor coming from the rich neighborhood were deafening. A savage fight was in progress between the city defenders and the amber-eyed monsters.

"How are we going to get there?", Michael gasped. Lucius had no answer to that question. Dreadful images of the battlefield started from the gate, near the houses built in the gothic style with tall windows and meandered through the riches lanes.

Together with the maddening things happening around, the wide squares and statues of the fountains were arranged as a background to the insanity happening in the rich quarter. Lucius was about to become a part of this ocean of madness...