Fiction

“Then what is our first small step?” I asked.

“You know how the king has had his forces reduced about the orc attack at Demon Road?”

“Yes, I was there.”

Drarak narrowed his eyes a little as he looked at me. “I see. You made it here awfully quick. The kings soldiers only got back a couple days before you arrived in the city.”

“I took a raft.”

He quirked a smile at me, “A raft? That doesn’t sound like something a normal person would do. Or even possible.”

“It was made of ice.”

“That is just your guess right? Humans using the powers of gods could never reach the level of powers of the gods.” I responded desperately.

“You think that it is possible. If you didn’t then we wouldn’t think it. Already now you are becoming something not precisely human. You know that this scene is not normal. It is formed like the dream you had of the Slayer, part real and part fiction. We are part of you but able to speak our own voice.”

“We need to talk.” I told her.

The was a few moments of silence before the Slayer said, “I see that they didn’t kill you. That is good. The fact that you are allowed to return to your conduit means that you must have made an alliance with them.”

“Indeed, they are the people that you expected that they would be. They call themselves the Loyal and they are counter to the Cloaked Betrayer. They claim that some of them are descendants of those who helped you in your battle against the gods a hundred years ago.”

When I woke up it was not very comfortable. I was laying on a bed but it was lumpy and small. I sat up and glanced around the room. It was small and sparsely furnished. There was a small window that let in dim light, I must have slept through most of the day. Somebody had changed my clothes and I was wearing plain cotton clothing like a commoner would wear.

It was the Apostate that spoke back to me. “Huh, money, you think you can bribe me. Just because I work for money doesn’t mean I can accept any counter offer I receive. You must understand that if I did that them my reputation would be ruined and nobody would ever hire me again.”

“So where do we begin?” I asked. It was the morning after I had arrived at the capitol and I slept long enough that I think I was on a normal schedule again.

“The grand library is our first stop. It is the least risky so we will begin there.”

“The grand library? Do you think anything would still be there. It has been a hundred years and surely Eyyo would have had his agents look through it for anything.”

“I don’t think our journey is that urgent.” I muttered to myself and the Slayer. “We can delay ourselves long enough to take a safer route down the waterfall.”

“And here I was waiting for you to scream in terror as you fell down a waterfall.”

I had been picking my way down the edge of the waterfall trying to find a way down that wouldn’t kill me or break a limb. I looked to one side partially expecting the Slayer to be there, obviously she wasn’t though. “Was that a joke that you just made?”

I motioned vaguely, “How is the battle at the walls going?”

Sir Janet looked grimmer then normal. “Only bad news unfortunately. Scattered reports mainly. There aren’t many who are leaving the front line to give us details. The injured that are falling back from the wall are our only source of news. I’m not certain if the reports are to be believed however.”

“What are they saying?” I think I already knew what she was going to say but I needed to hear it anyways.

The Slayer’s warning game me enough time to jump to one side and avoid the arrow that was aimed at my heart. The remaining orcs were drawing their blades. They were poorly made things that barely qualified as a sword. Orcs may not be the best sword makers the be blades were sharp and orcs were strong.

A drew my sword and called for guards but I didn’t expect anyone of them to arrive. They were still fighting the other orcs at the bank and where unable to hear me shout. There we a dozen of them approaching me.

It was possible that the servants of Eyyo would attempt to kill me while the soldiers were fending off the orcs. I had Sir Janet assigned to protect me during the battle and give me any advice that I needed.

The next day was the calm before the storm. You could see the orcs gathering just outside arrow range. We had no idea how long they would wait. They would wait until all the orcs had arrived and them pour upon us like a flood. There was no knowing how long that would take and the tension was thick as mud. We needed to be alert for when the orcs attacked.