Chapter 44
“Everyone in this room has exactly two seconds to drop their weapons!” Artham shouted, holding his sword at the ready.
“Artham!” Esben’s face lit up and his spark of hope flared again. The warrior behind him still had a grip on his arm, and he shoved Esben to the ground again.
Esben grunted as the rough pressure on his twisted arm sent another spike of pain up into his shoulder.
Barely a second after Artham had spoken, someone swung a blade at his face.Artham’s sword flew up to meet it with a clang.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he muttered as he slammed his sword forward.
Now he had a full view of the room, and it was terrifying. Nine armed warriors that he could see, against him and his brother, who was tied up at the moment. And thus extremely vulnerable. He tried to push the fear and the thoughts away because at the moment the two flashing swords stabbing toward him required his full concentration.
The wall was behind him, which was good and bad at the same time. Good because having a wall behind him was better than having a person with a sword behind him, bad because if they got him too close to it his movements would be limited.
For about one second he tried to weigh the two in his mind but then he felt the wind of a sword as it swung at his chest and he simply focused one one, not dying so that two, he could get his brother out of here.
Every muscle was tense and alert and every sense was sharpened to a fine edge as he dodged and lunged and swords clashed.
Fear flooded through him every time he looked around the room. He was only fighting three or four of all the warriors in the room. The rest stood by watching, two standing guard over Esben.
He swung his sword around hard sideways, knocking aside a blow that what almost reached his chest, and as he lunged forward to push back his eyed caught on a form that he hadn’t noticed before, wide, dark, terrified eyes watching him. Even with the mask and the bruises on his face Artham recognized him as Aro.
Shock and surprise jolted through his mind as his thoughts ran wild trying to connect the Aro he knew to the wild eyed boy in warriors garb and a black mask.
*
Esben twisted his hands behind him, straining to reach the knot around his wrists. He had loosened the rope enough so that he could feel the knot with his fingertips. His hands and wrists burned from the coarse rope and his shoulder was throbbing. Something had been pulled or twisted when the warrior had jerked him up multiple times and even harder this most recent time, then shoved him back down again when his arms were already in an aching position tied awkwardly behind him.
But everything in him absolutely refused to sit still and not do everything he possibly could to get free and get his hands on a sword and fight beside his brother.
Clangs and clashes and shrieks of steel echoed in his ears and he was pretty sure that by now his heart could not beat any faster. He had been staring at the floor, concentrating on that stubborn knot but something made him look up. His hands didn’t stop moving but he watched Artham. He was sweating despite the cold and his teeth were bared and his body straining at every movement, every inch of him on high alert as he fought.
As he watched Artham’s face Artham’s eyes caught and focused for one second on something in front of him, on the other side of the room from Esben.
Automatically Esben moved to see what his brother had seen.
Aro. Of course. Even when he wasn’t trying to, that traitor caused problems.
Esben’s gaze flew back to his brother. Artham had only been distracted for one second, but the confident, sure, steady strokes of his sword faltered and someone got around behind him.
“Artham behind you!” Esben screamed, his eyes licked desperately on his brother despite the agitated kick to his side that made him have to bend over and gasp for air.
Artham jerked around, dodging and raising his sword, and was almost too late. The warrior that would have driven his sword into Artham’s chest stumbled forward from his own momentum and his sword skimmed across Artham’s back, ripping his shirt and then sinking into the wall.
Artham hissed in pain, turning and stabbing his sword forward hard, lulling it back again with a grunt and turning to face the others he was fighting.
The sword stayed in the wall and another warrior quickly replaced the one that had fallen.
Stabs or pain throbbed out across his back and shoulders and his heart pounded wildly as his sword flew, at every second knocking away blades that came much too close for comfort.
*
One of the warriors also stood guarding Aro. But they had taken his weapons, including the knife he kept in his boot, and he wasn’t even strong enough compared to the rest of them for them to think he needed his hands tied.
His bruises ached and as he watched Artham fighting for his life the storm inside him that had been building for months and that he had held back erupted and raged in his mind. He put a hand to his forehead.
What have I done?
He looked up in time to see Artham see him. Artham’s eyes went wide and a thousand things flashed through them in one second, shock, surprise, fear, concern, confusion, hurt, betrayal.
“Artham behind you!” Esben screamed from the other side of the room. Aro watched, eyes aid with horror as Nyoken’s blade cut across Artham’s back.
He clamped his hands over his ears and ducked his head. He didn’t want to hear Artham’s hiss of pain or the continuing clash of steel or Ryith’s flat comments to Jaid, who stood next to him as they watched.
Watched as if the lives at play didn’t matter. And it was so wrong. And it hurt to see.
You did this! His mind screamed at him and he found himself breathing harder and harder.
Rykth saw and after a second of confusion he watched with a mix of anger and cruel amusement.
Why did I do this?
It’s too late to change anything!!
A small whimper escaped him and after a second he straightened back up, watching. The storm was building into a panic but for a moment everything seemed to stop in an awful, flat desperation.
He had done this. And now he couldn’t change it.
Artham’s eyes flashed past his again and his gaze hurt because it was full of anger and betrayal and more hurt.
I did this. Things he had never felt or thought and certainly didn’t understand flooded through him.
He acted before letting himself think any longer. Other than the guard in front of him there was no one between him and the door. Artham continued to fight and defy death and another warrior fell. The rest were growing agitated and concerned and angry.
Aro kicked hard into the back of his guard’s knee and ran. He had almost reached the still open door and the night beyond when something slammed him hard against the wall.
Instinctively his hands flew up against the one trapping him and he fought wildly for a second. But the person didn’t move, just waited. He opened his eyes and he already knew who it was but he still didn’t want to see.
Ryith’s eyes were blazing and furious and the pressure of his hand and forearm on Aro’s chest hurt.
Panic choked him and he couldn’t breathe and for a second he fought even harder before a blow to his head stopped his fists for a minute.
“I gave you far more chances than you will ever deserve and you threw them away. I don’t care how good you are with a bow, you worthless, cowardly traitor. I thought we could deal with this when we got back to the Woes, but you’ve gone too far. This ends now.”
Aro’s breath came in gasps and he flinched at the words as I’d they had been blows.
“This was your last chance,” the words were cold and deadly and when Aro looked up Ryith had a knife in his hand. Aro cried out in terror and he would have fought again but he knew Ryith was stronger than him and his heart was pounding in his chest like a hammer.
But Ryith expected him to fight, so when he slammed his knife forward he wasn’t ready for Aro to have grabbed one of the rough planks of the wall below him and yank himself downward as hard as he could, kicking out at Ryith’s legs at the same time.
Aro’s chest felt like it was about to explode but then his knees hit the ground and he heard the knife drive into the wall and he pushed himself up again and ran and this time he made it to the do and out into the forest.
*
Artham saw all of this happen out of the corner of his eye but there was simply far too much going on at the moment for him to even think about it. He was struggling to hold off three warriors at once, with four more simply standing and watching, waiting.
The leader took a step towards the door but then turned back around, hissing something under his breath in frustration.
He yanked his knife wearily from where it was stuck hilt-deep in the wall, sheathing it with a snap. Then he crossed his arms and watched, his cold, glittering black eyes watching Artham’s every move.
Whatever it was in Esben’s shoulder still throbbed, and his wrists burned badly. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep twisting the rope. He gasped in relief and his face lit up when he finally caught the knot. Now came the easy part.
*
Aro ran through the forest faster than he had ever run before. He followed the trail because he didn’t know the woods well enough to do anything else. Adrenaline still pounded through his body and he didn’t realize until something trickled into his eye and he had to blink it away that he had a cut just over his eyebrow across the side of his forehead above his temple.
It wasn’t deep but he had ducked almost too late. It sent another jolt or fear through him to realize how close he had been.
He swiped his sleeve across his forehead and kept running, crashing through the woods.
Several times he tripped and fell hard to his hands and knees,,but he pushed himself up and kept going.
It seemed like hours but finally the woods ended and there was light ahead.
His forehead stung now and his whole head ached. He barged through the back gate and ran around the building, finally reaching the huge front door. He almost collapsed and now his lungs burned from running but he had made it and he was trying so hard not to think as he pounded on the door of the Keep.
*
Artham was breathing hard now and his muscles had started to ache and the cut on his back burned because there was no way he could possibly not move it so he had thrown caution to the wind, and one more warrior was on the ground.
Esben yanked the rope one last time and his hands were free. The warrior guarding him had slowly drifted to the other side or the room, sword drawn as he watched for his chance to attack Artham.
Esben let out a whoop of victory and grabbed a sword from one of the fallen warriors. A few turned around in alarm, but Esben had surprised them and he went through them easily, not managing to get in a strike or his own but also warding off each of theirs.
He reached Artham just in time because someone had gotten behind him and was rearing back to strike hard.
Esben grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back. He tried to stab at him but the warrior had a large shield with a small, heavy, round metal dome in the center. He raised it in time to block Esben’s blow and them both brothers were locked in combat.
“Are you okay?” Artham asked between gasps for air and grunts as he blocked the heavy swings and tried to fight his way forward.
“Seriously Artham? Now is the worst time you could ever possibly ask that!” Esben shouted back.
*
Dru and the other three were still at the Keep, with a small company of Durgans, eating before they went on their watch around Oak Hill. Everyone’s heads shot up, startled, when someone banged on the door. They didn’t knock, they just kept pounding on it.
Aspen and Dru and the others looked at each other in alarm and Aspen jumped up to open the door.
Aro stumbled in the room, and by then his head was spinning. The shouts that erupted around the room were fractured and disjointed, and the loudest thing was his own heart beating in his ears.
“-a Wanderer-” “-how did he get in here!?” “-where-”
He saw Dru leap over the table and Aspen step forward and then he was pushed to the ground and his arms wrenched behind his back and something cold and thin and sharp resting lightly against his throat.
“Go help them!” Aro shouted.
“Who? What’s going on?”
“It’s a trap!” Someone else shouted and grabbed his mask and tore it off and there was a shocked pause in the room.
“Aro?” Io asked incredulously. The knife at Aro’s throat faltered.
“We attacked Esben in the woods and Artham came to save him and he’s already hurt and there are too many please go help him!” Aro’s words rushed out in a torrent.
“We?” Dru’s voice was confused and dreading. “Aro what’s going on!?”
Aro’s breath was coming in wild, uncontrollable gasps and he couldn’t make himself speak and he didn’t know how to answer.
“He’s a Wanderer of the Woes,” Josif realized out loud, his usually calm, unruffled voice tinged in surprise.
Aro didn’t deny it and when Josif said it it was obvious to everyone that it was true.
A wave of reactions spread throughout the room.
“You have to go help them!” Aro repeated.
“It’s a trap!” Aspen said. “There are others waiting outside the door, aren’t there?”
“No! There are no others, I swear I came alone! Please believe me! I-I’m telling the truth!”
A Durgan stepped up to Dru.
“We’re enough that if it is a trap we can fight out way out. If the king is in danger, we need to go.”
Dru nodded. “You’re right.” He looked down at Aro, unsure of what to do.
Another patrolman stepped forward.
“I’ll take him to a cell until…until the situation is more clear.”
Dru thanked him, withdrew his knife, and unsheathed his sword.
Io turned toward the door. Barks had erupted from outside and Connolkn came crashing into the room, barking wildly. He bounded up to Dru and whined. He ran back and forth between Dru and the door, then he grabbed Dru’s shirt between his teeth and pulled.
“It’s Artham’s dog!” Aspen exclaimed. The Durgan commander and Dru were already out the door.
“And he knows where Artham is, I’ll bet!”
*
There were only three warriors left. Ryith watched with rising fury and concern. He drew his sword, watching incredulously as yet another of his warriors staggered back with a cry or pain.
Ryith stepped forward.
Artham fly him coming from the side and whirled around barely in time to block his blow. Rutina fought fast and furious and Artham was hard pressed to fend him off, especially when there was another warrior fighting from the other side. Ryith’s strokes were wild and strong, but his guard was perfect and Artham couldn’t get in a strike of his own without his sword getting knocked aside and Ryith’s coming dangerously near him.,
The other one fighting him paused and stepped back, watching Ryith attack him. Out of the corner of his eye Artham saw him turn towards Esben.
Protect! Protect! Protect!
Artham lunged to the side, reaching the warrior before he reached Esben. He jerked his sword back and turned to block Ryith’s next blow. By now though he was exhausted and hurt in more places than just one.
Maker help me!
The next time his sword locked against Ryith’s he drove it downwards and twisted the blade. It sent Ryith’s sword flying across the room. Ryith stepped towards it but Artham knocked him to the ground, pinning him by the shoulders and panting.
He could hear Esben still locked in combat, grunting with the effort, but Artham could feel by the way Ryith was fighting under him that if he managed to get away he would fight like fury and not rest until they were both dead. And he was not exhausted and hurt, which was always an advantage.
Artham held his sword to Ryith’s chest.
“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right now!” He shouted, the pain and fear of months building up to a fury. Ryith’s expression didn’t change.
“You won’t get the chance,” he whispered.
At that second Artham heard a clash from Esben that was louder than the ones before and he glanced up, and in that one second that he was distracted Ryith’s arm shot out and grabbed the heavy metal shield lying a few feet away and slammed it up with all his strength.
An explosion or brilliant lights and sound and a flash of agony shot through Artham’s head and in the instant before everything went black he felt himself knocked back by the force of the blow.
*
Protect! Protect! Protect the King!
The voice filled the blackness in Artham’s mind and he was filled with a desperate need to get up. He forced his eyes open and his head was throbbing and the lamplight hurt and the ground moved in swoops under him.
He must have only been unconscious for a few seconds because when he forced himself up Esben dropped his sword to the ground and putting his hand to the wall to keep himself steady. His other hand was clamped to a bleeding cut on his thigh and he looked like he was trying not to pass out.
Ryith had stood up and reached for his sword. He ignored Artham as he forced himself to his feet with a groan behind him. Artham put a hand to his head and it came away wet.
Right took a step toward Esben.
Artham yanked the knife from his sleeve and lunged forward at Ryith. He felt the impact as he hit him and then realized that as they fell Ryith was turning around towards him and he couldn’t change course because he was already swinging his knife. He felt something burning rip across his right forearm and then they hit the ground. Artham’s head banged against the ground again and the blackness flashed and swallowed him up again.
Protect. Protect. Protect…
okay! finally read it!
I'll guess you don't want screaming, so I'll just. . . . faceplants into pillow and lets out a breath good now
I KNEW ARO WOULD END UP HELPING THEM! I TOLD YOU! I KNEW HE WOULD! (lol, not me saying I would't scream and then immediately starts screaming 🤣 that is far too TTH-ish of me)
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH I CAN"T READ IT YET!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
ARTHAM!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SOOO GOOOOOODDD!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and now you have me yelling and cheering in all caps!) (except I'm not literally yelling because there's a kid taking a video call class in the room with me!)
This was amazing!!! Intense and chaotic and full of run on sentences but that only adds to the story and the adrenaline and excitement and awesomeness!! (you do have a few typos, though! 😉)
Artham is fighting Jaid! Jaid is Aro's friend! Is Artham going to kill Aro's friend??? What is Aro going to think? One way or another his friends are going to die!!!!!!
I didn't expect Aro to leave the fight! Now he's safely locked up in the Keep and will have to face trial - I wonder how that will go!
Did Artham kill Ryith?????
AHHHHHH! This was an awesome fight scene! I loved it! Artham is awesome! And Aro!! Finally doing the right thing! This was great!!