Chapter XXII

Youngsters were called to the commander's room, without giving a reason. Lucius had already been to this room twice today, once in a dream and a second time for real, though he never voluntarily went there.

"Why do they want?" - Whispered Angela.

"They probably want to interrogate us about Lord Marcus," Uriel replied in a whisper.

No one raised their voices until the officer in front of them entered the room and led them inside.

The room was still lit by candles as the morning twilight faded. Five people, including the officer, were in the room - the commander, two officers, and two strangers in red and gold robes, one of whom was a black wizard, whose combat abilities made a great impression on the spectators from the bell tower. A middle-aged red-haired woman with a slender appearance sat with her back to the door. The black man looked out the window, but when they entered, none turned around.

"Why did you call these kids?" - asked a deep and powerful voice.

"These children know a lot more than I do about the necromancer you are looking for, and I thought it would be useful to listen to them," - replied Lord Felix in a tired voice.

Slowly the black man turned around, apparently still suffering from the wound that the marked one's spear had inflicted on his thigh. Had he been an ordinary man, he would not even have been able to stand on his feet, but Lucius did not expect normalcy from him, and it doesn't surprise him at all.

The wizard stared at the children for a second, but that one was enough to make all four of them squirm.

Commander, why do you think these kids know something? Asked the man.

"My officers have seen Lord Marcus talking to them several times, and finally, even before his disappearance, they were seen with him by my soldiers.

The black man turned again.

"Your name?" - addressed to blondy.

"Uriel," he replied.

"Uriel ... is a good name, my name is Vittorio, Vittorio de la Arcane, and I want to hear the truth from you. Where is Marcus de la Crowley?"

"I do not know," Uriel replied. They really didn't know about Marcus's whereabouts. He didn't tell us if he was leaving either.

Lord Vittorio nodded slightly as if believing his answer.

"What were you talking about, with Marcus?" - This time the woman questioned them.

"On many things."

"About what things?"

"For example, that help would come in ten days and we have to survive before that, but he did not tell us that your goal would not be to help us but to capture necromancer, and you probably realize that he would not have told us if he was the one," Uriel replied.

"What about the red-eyed creatures? Who are they?" Asked Vittorio.

"As far as I can remember, he said little about them," Uriel replied. Silence followed his words, but the commander broke.

"You what? You do not know what you have been fighting all night?"

Silence again, and then:

"No, we have not met such creatures before," answered the black wizard.

"It is strange, but your necromancer knew what he was doing when he was helping to fortify this city," said the commander, then as if remembering something, he added: "Marcus once mentioned a name. It happened the night the Red-eyes attacked us. When we won that battle and burned their bodies, we heard a strange voice that almost drove us crazy, Marcus could stop it somehow, and when we asked whose voice it was, Marcus referred to the red regatta, or rather the vessel of the red regatta, and said that..."

The commander abruptly stopped narrating, looking at expressions of a black man and a red-haired woman. One could read extreme fear and surprise on their faces.

"Did he say Regad?" - The woman asked as if she could not believe her ears.

"Yes, I'm sure Regad it was," the commander confirmed.

"Vittorio," the woman addressed with a name.

"It's Impossible Jahna, Marcus's lied, probably to confuse us, what on earth could the vessel of the Regad be doing here?! - But still we must put the temple guards on the city walls, along with the followers of Ba'Allah." - added Vittorio.

"If you do not believe, then why do we need all this?" - Jahna asked.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Because these red-eyes could be still somewhere?! Vigilance is always vital."

"Could it be that we really are dealing with a vessel of the Regad?"

"I've already said Jahna, even thinking about it, is total nonsense! But anyway, taking the precautions is always important in such situations."

Jahna no longer argued, got up from her chair, and hurried out of the room.

"What is this red regatta?" Asked the commander.

"It's Regad! But never heard of about the red one," replied the wizard.

"What about Regad anyway?" - Asked the commander again.

"It's hard to explain. You can't understand," Vittorio replied.

"Is it dangerous?" - The wizard looked strangely, but said nothing and walked out of the room with a slight limp...

"They locked the gate again, we can not escape" - this thought was running through Lucius' head as he walked out of Laila's room. The girl was up all night and as soon as she lay down in bed, she immediately fell asleep. Livia was talking to the hostess of the house, while Angela, Michael, and Uriel were waiting in the hall. They were going to leave this building and find a place where no one could see them if their eyes turn red. They left the house, warning no one.

As soon as the wizards arrived, Lucius had the idea to tell them about their condition and ask for help, but depending on how they reacted to the mention of the Red Regad, it was unlikely that they would help Lucius and his friends. They could even kill them. So he gave up on this idea. A similar idea came to Uriel, but after a joint discussion, they decided that for their own safety; it was not worth revealing the story. Anyway, at least for now. The four of them, contemplating their destiny, walked down the blood-soaked street and searched for the house they had found after Michael's first seizure and spent the night.

Uriel found a house in the Nobel district that was burned and ruined, but more or less good than nothing. As they were about to enter the building, it was then that Uriel had his first seizure and froze. Lucius took off his coat and immediately covered his head so that anyone would not see his red eyes. So they entered the building trembling.

They sat and discussed from dusk till dawn what to do next. Whether Lord Marcus was a necromancer, and if so, what did it change? What did it mean to be a necromancer at all? Why he was wanted, and why an entire army of wizards and weapon masters came to kill or capture him. What was happening to them and what could have been done to stop it? How would they escape from the city when the gate was locked again... What did the word Regad mean and why did this name have such an effect on the wizards who recently destroyed the red-eyes? Lucius witnessed with his own eyes the battle of Vittorio de Arcane - a black wizard who single-handedly defeated eight red-eyes at once, and how powerful this Red Regad could be that even mentioning his name changed the mighty wizard's face.

Kids planned to stay in these ruins all day and night. They stocked up on food and water. But in the afternoon, all four of them heard a strange melody, that at first sounded very weak but got louder later. After a brief hesitation, they went outside to find out where this melody was coming from. Angela was the only one in the room who had not yet been under a seizure, and it was more dangerous to take her out. So she stayed and the three of them went to find out the source of this melody, though they soon discovered that the townsfolk did not hear any melody unlike them. The source from which this sound was coming was hard to find, for even after about an hour when they had walked half the noble district, they didn't have a slight idea where the one who was producing this melody might have been.

Finally, they climbed the bell tower again so that they could still look around and find something. The sound did not fade from the ears; it did not even weaken and was already becoming unbearable. Lucius was rubbing his hands on the stone. His fingers were so numb that he could no longer feel them. The muscles tensed, but with great effort still climbed the dome.

"Do you see anything?" - Michael asked.

"Nothing" - answered Blondy.

"What a massive ship it is, right?" - Huge vessel caught Michael's eyes again. "Have you ever seen such a thing?"

Lucius grew up in a village and had not seen the port before, so it was no surprise that it also fascinated him. But Uriel, who was a prince and usually sailed the kingdom's largest ships, shared Michael's emotion too.

"It's weird how a ship of this size entered the harbor," Uriel said thoughtfully.

"Perhaps with the help of magic," Lucius suggested. Uriel nodded in agreement. Michael did not make a sound, he was looking at something insistently.

"Did you see anything?" Uriel asked.

"Are there people on deck there?" - Michael turned to Uriel.

The blondy narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, there are people."

"It is not surprising that a ship of that size did not have only thirty people, also some of them had to stay to protect it," said the blondy.

The melody was piercing the brain. They stopped to look at the harbor and resumed the search for the melody stream. They hoped that if they found what they were voting for, they could get rid of it as well.

"Look what's going on!" - Michael shouted, pointing to the port. The ship on which the wizards came to Mondelay was on fire, and the distant sound of fighting and explosions was coming from there.

"They are fighting on the ship," Uriel whispered.

The fight, which started a few seconds ago, did not last long, probably a minute. The explosions stopped, and it left the ship on fire.

"Is it sinking?" - Michael was shocked. Lucius suddenly realized that the melody had disappeared as soon as the battle at the port was over.

"What the hell is happening at all?"

Said Uriel when he saw how the gate of the fence was opened, and the seven horsemen and three officers on horseback marched towards the harbor.

Whether they stepped into the smoke-blackened building and cracked the walls, they immediately discussed what had happened in the harbor.

"Why did the end of the fight coincide with the termination of the melody, if you think about it?" Asked Lucius.

"I thought of him, too," replied Uriel. Michael said nothing.

"Where do you think that melody came from?" - Asked Uriel, who thought for a while and then asked the following question:

"Do you think the same as what I do?"

Lucius silently nodded his head in agreement.

"So you think that this voice belonged to something?" - Michael asked.

"A vessel of the Red Regad," Uriel specified.

"What will happen to us if this is true?" Asked Angela, and Lucius noticed more firmness in her voice than fear - even though her face was still pale. She was a beautiful girl with black wavy hair and magnificent but fierce eyes. The lightness of the dancer was so evident in his every movement and it was no surprise Michael liked her so much.

"We have to run away, all four of us in danger, while staying here," Uriel said.

"But how? They locked the gate, didn't they?" - Angela answered.

"Today, after the attack on the ship, a group of wizards left this area, accompanied by three officers. I guess they will first go to the port and find out what happened there, but they should eventually come back and it will be necessary to open the gate to let them in, so we will have our chance to escape then. Also, we will need horses," the blondy concluded.

"Then we must hurry, otherwise, they may return before we are ready..."