Chapter VI

Boom... Boom... Boom... Boom...

“The church bells,” Michael exclaimed, - “why are they chiming?”

Going to the gate of the city was still a senseless idea. They were hiding under the staircase and when they were about to lose hope of survival, finally they came...

“The cavalry!” Michael gasped as soon as he saw the riders seated upright on galloping horses.

The knights rushed through the gate. Mounted on horses and clad in shining chain mails, they seemed like a stroke of wrath, sent to help the city defenders in the fight against the yellow-eyed army.

“One horseman equals three or four infantry soldiers,” Lucius recalled the words of the old warrior in the village. There were so many of them they filled the entire city. The rattle of the armor and the clatter of the hooves was like a river, a sea of unstoppable movement.

Deep in heart, Lucius hoped that the appearance of the cavalry meant winning the war. They could enter the noble district. That’s what he had been waiting for...

Herbs worked, mom was in a deep sleep, and the boy knew she would not wake up for a while. He knew that the key to the cellar was kept in the room. He had turned everything upside down before he found the key hidden in the farthest corner of the lower drawer in the cupboard.

“Stay here, Laili!” He ordered the girl and closed the door behind.,

The stairs went deeply into the cellar and with each step, the cold got stronger. There were books downstairs... dangerous books. One could also find rare herbs and dangerous plants too.

Lucius knew where to look for that book...

“How to find the house here?” Lucius could barely hear his own words amongst the neighing of the horses and screams of the people.

“The nobles’ houses are located deeper in the neighborhood. If we reach the place, we can find the house we need by the family symbols”, Michael answered, almost screaming.

He was leaning against the bloody wall and could hardly breathe. He could not believe that they were surviving through this horrible slaughter.

“We have to move, we should not stop!” Michael screamed at Lucius, who instantly came back to reality and forced his feeble body to stand up. Once again they crawled towards their goals and safety through corpses.

There was a raven with open wings engraved on the man’s ring. Lucius hoped to find the place where his little sister could have been. Michael also remembered seeing some similar signs on one house during one of his Sunday trips, but he could not recall exactly where it had been.

The boys were waiting for the right time to continue their way, still hiding behind the corpses. Suddenly a drop fell on Lucius’ forehead. It was about to rain.

“Come on!” Screamed Michael once again, running ahead. Lucius followed him. Having lost their way, they accidentally ran in the middle of the battlefield, so they had to get away by crawling on the ground, with the spears and swords sparkling in the fire above their heads.

“To the right! Careful!” Michael’s screams helped Lucius to jump quicker, avoiding the hatchet hitting his head, but couldn’t survive the horse.

A wavelike hit threw him away. He felt a terrible pain in his entire body. Still, he glimpsed a horseman in armor, riding away.

Every street, every corner was full of the neighing of sweaty horses, screams of the exhausted citizens, moans of the dying, wounded people, and mixed blood and human flesh. As if all this was not enough, it poured down together with a strong wind. The lives of nobles, still hiding behind the thick shutters, had not yet been maimed with the swords of the enemy, which filled Lucius with hope. He believed that if his sister was still there; she was safe yet, and he had to find her. These beasts would not back off, they were planning to attack the noble quarter.

Lucius had been standing for six hours. Six hours of concentration surrounded by the herbs and mixtures in dusty flasks...

“Can you recognize any of these coats of arms?” Michael heard his friend’s question. Lucius, relying on his friend’s shoulder, tried to hold himself against the rain and wind. Flags were hanging on the balconies of the castles, but the blowing wind made it difficult to distinguish them. Neither the weather nor the circumstances made it easy to observe the symbols on the coats of arms.

“Let’s get closer!” Lucius tried to scream, but he could only let out a whisper. Still, Michael understood what his friend meant.

One could see various emblems on the flags hanging from the balconies: the snake around the spear against the red background, a bear, a turtle, three swords, a fish, a circle, and many more, but a raven with open wings was nowhere to be seen. The noble neighborhood stretched over a vast territory. In the torrential rain and gale, it was almost impossible to find a house they were looking for. They had left the battlefield behind, but no one knew when the enemy army would reach the center of the town. The emblems on the houses made the old buildings look majestic. Their grandness shone through the rain. The boys felt as if the cold permeated their skin and reached their bones. The icy rain droplets scratched their faces like sharp knives. “Where are you, black raven?!” They had to find it before the yellow army approached the center...

“Can it be this one?” Michael sounded tired. Lucius looked at what Michael was pointing at and glimpsed a blackbird on a cloth fluttering in the wind; however, the bird’s wings were not open. The boys moved faster. After a couple of buildings, they saw a bird with open wings. Lucius leaned against Michael’s shoulder. The figure slowly took shape in front of their eyes, and it resembled the bird with open wings carved on the man’s ring. Meanwhile, the battlefield was moving towards the noble district and the rich, who were protected by the thick walls from death, were getting ready to protect their properties, together with their bodyguards and servants.

This part of the noble quarter had not yet witnessed ruthless battles, and the streets were not yet scattered with dead bodies; the boys had to look for shelter in case they had to hide. Lucius knew they would have to. The wind’s howling noises drowned out the ferocious battle cries and screeches, the rain blurred the vision.

“Jump! Quickly!” Michael pushed Lucius towards the canal. Lucius realized swimming in icy cold water was the only chance to survive. They took a deep breath and dived underwater. At that moment, it seemed unimportant to them what they could die of - the hands of ruthless warriors or be drowned in the canal.

Lucius was the first to emerge. Only when he breathed in the cold air, he believed he was alive.

They agreed not to surface often, so they could remain safe and sound for some time. They squatted in the water, leaning against the canal wall, shivering with cold. Even though the torrential rain could, they hear the shouts of the warriors and the clanking sounds of the swords, which were becoming more and more distant. That meant the army was moving deeper toward the center.

“Shall we follow up the canal?” Michael was still shivering from cold, “Wow! If we survive all this, it would be unimaginable, Lucius!”

The boys tried to swim along the canal so they would not fall and be dragged backward by the strong current... Repeatedly they would emerge to the surface to breathe in the air. They felt the enemy was attacking the family castles. The roar of the golem was so strong that the airwaves made the canal vibrate and despite every trouble, they had gone through so far, the fear evoked from this impact was still incomparable.

It was pouring The slippery walls presented a perfect hiding place, but getting out of there would be difficult. It was unbearably cold, but they could not risk coming out. In the end, when they were out, they feared there would be no one else to save in the noble neighborhood.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“It’s stupid to get out of the canal now”, chattering his teeth, Lucius repeated to himself. The battle sounds gradually died out, which meant that they had moved ahead again.

“Should we check out what’s happening?” Lucius started crawling up the slippery wall. After several attempts, he was successful and standing on Michael’s shoulders, he tried to look across the canal.

The houses around the canal lay in ruins. Yellow-eyed soldiers were looking for people in the rubble. They could hear a deafening roar in the distance. This only proved the fact that the cavalry was helpless against him.

Now or never, thought Lucius, and, leaning on his elbows, crawled out of the canal. Next, he helped Michael out of the water. Raven imprinted fabric covered the ruins of the building on the opposite side of the canal. The boys sighed and ran across the street to the ruins.

Only a wall remained from a large building, the facade laid in ruins. The boys ran through the rubble, getting more and more worried about seeing bodies under the stones and mud brought by the flash flood. They looked around the collapsed buildings and halls, but there was no one to be seen. The enemy knew his job perfectly well.

Some of the half-ruined buildings had kept their past grandeur. In some of them, even candles were on. Looking at the red walls, black wooden ornaments on the staircases and dimly lit halls arose the feeling of mystery in Lucius.

“Can you hear that?” Michael whispered. The boys kept still for a minute. Soon they heard footsteps and talk in rough, guttural sounds. They moved closer to the wall. Several seconds later, four enemy soldiers appeared, holding torches. As soon as they noticed anybody alive, they instantly killed them with their spears. One of them said something in their guttural language and all four of them ran away shouting.

As if hovering above the floor, Lucius carefully tiptoed to the room with a broken door and peered inside. They were there in the room, standing at the bookshelf, discussing something. Although Lucius could not understand a word they were saying, he still listened carefully so that he could at least grasp gestures and infer something from the context. They were talking, pointing to the bookshelves. The second one walked to the row of shelves and touched it. The shelves started moving and revealed a secret door. “This must be the secret hiding place of the aristocrats”, whispered Michael, watching the last amber-eyed disappear through the door.

“It must be..” Lucius’s voice trailed off as he entered the library. He carefully headed towards the shelves, when...

Screams, shouts, clatter... It didn’t take Lucius long to guess that must have been the hiding place of the aristocrats, and Laili could have been there with them. With the help of a chair, he took down the torch attached to the wall and looked for a weapon, but the closest he could find was a bottle, and Michael was already holding it. Lucius felt every second was precious and decisive, so he ran straight through the small door leading to the basement with bare hands and ran down the stairs. It was damp down there; the noises came right from the depth of the basement. He jumped several steps and rushed towards one more door broken into by the enemy soldiers.

A dozen torches blinded him and ran into Michael, falling on the stone wall. There was a heated fight between the castle defenders and the enemy. The aristocrats’ guards outnumbered the visitors and had already killed most of them with their arrows, but the enemy’s strength considered the fate of the battle was difficult to be predicted. Lucius searched for the inhabitants using the torchlight. Finally, he glimpsed a group of people hiding in the farthest corner of the room, among which there was a little girl.

“Laili!” Lucius recognized his sister instantly and approached her stealthily, with no one paying attention to him amidst the people slaughtering each other. The girl also saw her brother and tried to run towards him, but somebody’s hand was holding her back. When Lucius thought he could finally hug his sister, he bumped into someone and fell again.

What drew Lucius’s attention was the man’s elegant clothing and a shining sword. Then suddenly he saw the bottle, the only weapon Michael had, hit his head.

“Let the girl go!” Lucius heard a stern voice and when he tried to get up, he saw Michael threatening the nobleman with his own sword.

“Quickly!” Michael added again, and the woman let the girl go.

“Take the girl and go, I will catch up with you soon”, Michael said in a low voice. Lucius hugged his little sister and followed Michael’s orders. He would not show off fake bravery. He had not persuaded Michael to help him with pathetic words. Lucius had to save his sister and would not let go of the chance because of the remorse. Their lives had been put in danger for a long time, anyway.

“Where are you taking Lizzie?” He heard a woman’s desperate voice. They have given his sister a new name.

“Her name is Laili”, he whispered and headed towards the exit. He walked, stooping, holding his baby sister in his hands. The little girl was hugging her brother.

Lucius reached the door slowly and carefully, but as soon as he got there, he ran up the stairs. He could not yet believe that he had found his sister. He could not believe that he could do so much, that he was so able and powerful, that his broken and frozen body was still alive and he could even run up the stairs. Now it was important to leave the building in one piece.

“Lucius!” He heard a scream from behind and saw Michael jumping from behind the door, followed by three men.

“Run!” He shouted to Lucius, who felt the imminent danger. Could they really take his sister away after all this? Could he lose her? He could hardly run fast with the little girl in his arms. Lucius asked Laili not to cry; they had to get away from the place as soon as they could. He ran along the hall and ran down the stairs, but then bounced back into the hall. Noticing that one room still had a door, he ran towards it and into the room. The ruined wall presented a view over the garden from the second floor. He turned around to find another way, but it was already too late- Michael and three other men were in the hallway and while there was only one door in the hall, there was no point going back. He put Laili down on the floor. “Don’t worry”, he whispered to her and ran to the door so that he could lock it as soon as Michael was in.

There was not a long-distance left between the pursuers and Michael. As soon as he ran into the building, they locked the door behind him. The second passed, and terrible kicks and jerks shook the door. Both boys looked at the ruined wall -the only way was to jump out of the building.

“I will jump first, throw Laili to me, I will catch her, then you follow us,” Michael said and Lucius nodded without saying a word.

Lucius hoped that after the rain, the ground would be softer than usual. They had to hasten; the enemies were about to break into the room. Michael stood on the edge of the wall. One, two and go! The boy fell on the wet ground.

“I am OK!” Michael shouted from downstairs and spread his arms to catch Laili.

“Don’t be scared”, Lucius encouraged his sister. However, he hesitated before letting her go. Suddenly, the door banged open. And he had no other option but to throw her to Michael.

Michael skillfully caught the little girl. Lucius was about to jump too when somebody caught him with his collar. The boy tried to get away from three followers, but in vain.

“Where is the girl?” Screamed one of them. He then saw Michael in the yard and shouted: “Don’t move, or I will kill him!”. When Lucius started rasping, he realized the men were talking to Michael.

He could barely breathe, everything was getting blurry, however, he could still make out two yellow dots at the door, but did not know whether he had to be happy about that.

Two of the noblemen were armed, but partly because they saw the yellow-eyed soldiers late and partly because the adversaries were much stronger than the noblemen, they slaughtered all three of them on the spot. Lucius, however, crawled to the edge of the ruins and fell into the yard.

Lucius’s shirt got caught by the protruded edge of the ruins, but this did not stop the fall, it only tore the last shirt Lucius owned.

The boy fell on the wet grass. After a painful fall, Lucius slowly stood up and, with the help of Michael, slowly headed towards the castle yard gates. The broken fences circled the yard. Michael was carrying Laili, and both of them were full of hope. When the boys heard a thug behind them, Lucius knew who that might have been without looking back...

The yellow-eyed soldier was covered in blood, however, it was difficult to tell whose blood it was, his own or the dead ones he had just slaughtered. He was moving towards the boys sitting on the ground, tired out and waiting for the soldier to approach. There was a sound of a siren which sounded like a scream. The amber-eyed suddenly turned around and ran away.

Michael stood up, looked around, walked to the fence, but returned in a minute. “They are running away”, he said, confused. Then he kneeled near Laili, caressed her, and smiled at her: “What’s your name?” but the embarrassed girl hid behind her brother’s back. Lucius laughed at this sight. Michael joined in as if nothing had happened that day; as if they had not seen bloodstreams, had not heard moans, deafening rumbling, they stood in the middle of the yard of the castle and laughed nervously until the horsemen appeared to make sure there were no amber-eyed people left in the buildings so that they would never scare people.

The commander was wearing crimson armor. One could see his amber eyes below the lifted face- shield of the helmet. He was sitting in the armchair, sipping wine from a red, gilded chalice. Lucius knew he would never understand the reason the commander had preferred to wear armor in the tavern, but the boy who had just come out of the cellar could not care less. He had been choosing the herbs for some time, making sure the result was effective and slow so that every soldier would have enough time to drink as much as possible before the herbs showed the side effects. The mud floor in the cellar was still wet from wine. Lucius looked in the eyes of the commander, which stared back for a minute before averting them. Indifference could be seen in that gaze, the indifference that was replaced by the sudden fear and falling on the floor. The red, gilded chalice broke into small pieces. The commander seized his own throat with one hand, trying to grab the edge of the fireplace with the other, to escape falling. Lucius saw the fulfillment of his ambitions in the commander’s rasping. He headed to the commander, while other soldiers were twisting in pain on the floor. Lucius could also hear the screams of the servers and the owner of the inn, but he was not sure where from. He slowly moved towards the commander and saw fear settle in his amber eyes... His face was crimson-mauve and thus it remained in Lucius’ memory, when, pushed by him, the Commander fell in the fire and his painful shrieks deafened the whole tavern...