An Archaic Memory (1)

Chapter 1

Honor Among Criminals

THREE YEARS AGO

“We are going to be executed, aren’t we?” Liraz asked.

Several heads turned in his direction. A few people muttered under their breaths, turning back to the front of the vessel. Others hung their heads down, going back to staring at their feet. A girl sitting next to him surveyed him for a moment, as if debating if the question was rhetorical. She held a dark blanket around her. It was covered in mud, grease and, if he wasn’t wrong, blood. Her face was lean, and she had high cheek bones, with auburn hair running down her back. Her eyes were a deep green, and bloodshot – the dark circles barely visible. And she had a cut lip.

“If the crime fits,” she said in a smooth voice. The waves around the vessel picked up, rocking it harder than ever. The girl caught herself from falling over and sat on her folded legs. She stretched back and put her hands behind her, exerting herself at an incline, relaxing. “What are you in for?”

Liraz averted his eyes from her, looking down at his torn boots. “I stole from my Master, and tried to escape”, he said.

She turned away, her expression unchanging. After staring at the sea nonchalantly for a while, she looked up at the sky and momentarily closed her eyes. Liraz looked at her face, and saw a smile forming. The cut in her lip stretched to reveal all possible shades of crimson red that he could imagine. Spume droplets kissed her face, mists seemingly touching and condensing. She was beautiful. He blushed, reverting to staring at his shoes.

“What is your story?” he mumbled, his words barely leaving his lips. He managed a quick glance at her, making sure his words were heard beyond his little bubble.

“I killed someone” she replied, unflinching. “Well… more than one.”

He froze, eyes stuck to her face. She couldn’t have been older than his sixteen years. Yet, she had more composure and grit. She didn’t seem keen on elaborating further, so he turned away from her, contemplating if she was only playing with him, lying to get him to stop bothering her.

 A couple of people in front of them spared the pair a quick glance, shaking their heads.

“Brace!” a crewman yelled. Everyone on board automatically scrambled and held on to the handles wedged into the floor near their sitting positions. Liraz shut his eyes, gripping the black metal handle on his right. They had been traveling in the smaller rowboat for more than two hours now.

The vessel shuddered as something hit its bottom. The water splashed from the left side, drenching almost everyone on board. Liraz shivered, taking off the wet blanket that was wrapped around him and throwing it to the ground. He wished it were noon with the Sun high up in the sky, but instead, the sky in the west was blood red.  It would still be high noon back home. He wondered if Stun, Hia and Nor were heading to the water pits like they all did, almost everyday at this time. Elwyn would probably be with them.

He figured they must be close to the shore by now. The thing that had hit the vessel was obviously a rock. Here in the North, Feli were used to draw the boats. Though a Feli cry was almost impossible to hear above the water surface, the song scared away smaller marine animals away from the creature. This ability of the Feli combined with their inclination to be easily tamed was why they were preferred for transport in waters close to land.

The vessel was semicircular in shape, with the end elongating ever so slightly at the back in a smaller semicircle of a lesser radius. Despite there being enough space on board, the prisoners huddled in an exceedingly small area in the midsection of the vessel. Although the current crew of the vessel didn’t care if the men and women they were transporting behaved like slaves, Liraz and the other prisoners knew their place. Everyone sat close to each other, not daring to leave the shelter of the group.

The vessel crew was one of the better trained group of soldiers Liraz had encountered. They kept their talk to a minimum, barely uttering a word or two when their Captain gave a command. They also had a very weird salute, crossing their arms in fists about two inches from their torso on either side and giving a curt nod. Their uniform was a deep blue, like the sea. The shade of blue turned light as it reached their thighs. They had white trousers underneath, and a pair of black knee-length boots. Only the captain giving the orders and two other crew members had a light armor on. The breastplate was a faded silver, although there appeared to be a slight bluish hue to it. A silver helm structured around the face articulately made the three men seem like they had metallic heads. The ensemble was completed by a fading red plume on top.

“Don’t talk much, do they?” the girl asked, following his gaze and looking at the crew members.

One of the soldiers scowled at her but didn’t say anything.

When Liraz didn’t answer, she continued to stare at him, frowning. “I’m sorry about earlier. I’m Nyssa,” she said.

He didn’t look up when he gave his name. “Liraz” he said, almost inaudible.

“You know, they can’t harm us” she said, glancing at the crew, “They are of the Fell Guard. It is against their code to harm someone who doesn’t carry a weapon. They especially can’t harm the ones they need to take to Deepcross.”

He gulped. “How do you know?” he begged.

“Where are you from?” she asked instead.

“Sarag port. About 70 charenths from Shiraz city” he said, thinking of home.

“Haven’t heard of it,” she said. “How long has it been since you were last there?”

His thoughts wandered to the city’s busy streets that were always overflowing with merchants and traders from foreign lands, all on their way to Shiraz. The nobility lent their slaves to help the traders, haggling on the price of things that Liraz didn’t even comprehend. His family was of Renns, a class just above slaves but far below nobility. His father was a wine trader who sold local wines to the foreigners, occasionally trading it for nonnative wines that he brought home. They could not afford servants so Liraz had helped his father with the restocking and carrying the wines from the cellars, along with his two brothers and his sister. Thinking of home brought a lump in his throat, his emotions cruising dangerously close to sorrow. He pushed the images aside, trying to focus on the girl’s question instead.

“I was detained by the Shiraz imperial force about a month ago,” he said. “Since then, I have been in two different prisons, and on the road. They dragged me out and put me on the Izaz before I knew what was happening.”

The girl nodded. “You know about Chaelen then?”

People around them hissed, moving away. An older woman spat at the girl and continued to glare at her.

Liraz shook his head frantically. He quickly looked at the crewmen, expecting them to punish the girl and himself. The soldiers hardly took notice of them.

“You… you don’t talk about that place!” he hissed at the girl, scowling. He glanced at others around him, trying his best to look apologetic.

“We are heading there, lordling” she said, finally losing her cool. “No use pretending.”

He turned away from her, ignoring her completely. She didn’t try to coerce him into conversation again.

Of course, he had heard of Chaelen. The Dragon. The largest dragon in the world. Dead. Very few brave souls ever did mention the place. On a tiny island in the north, surrounding the carcass of the dragon, there was a city with the same name. They said that Chaelen was a cursed city, its people twisted by the forces of nature. He had heard about it from a merchant in Riaz, a town north of Cuheg city. It was a forbidden subject to bring up at any decent place and his father had refused to tell him about it. Sadly, it was also the pit where wrongdoers were thrown. Murderers, Traitors, Thieves – all put in the largest prison in the world – Deepcross. Every second now took him closer to that place. Closer than anyone that willingly made a trip this far north.

“Land ho”, one of the crewmembers shouted, pointing to the north.

Liraz found himself standing up, despite his fears. He was not alone. A few slaves stood up with him, staring in the direction pointed by the soldier at the front of the vessel.

And then he saw it. Against the blood red sky, a shadow much larger than the enormous temples of Shaz loomed over a large island. The Dragon was broken, its mouth wide open, as if screaming at the skies above. The sharp spines over its head were pointy, each larger than any building the nobility had lived in. A single crack at its eye, against the red of the sky, seemed to Liraz like the Dragon had tears of blood flowing out. A spear had pierced its neck, coming out the other end. The butt end of the spear had a ring attached to it, a thick rope flapping against the wind ran all the way down to the land.

After gaining his wits from the initial shock, his eyes darted to below its stocky neck, towards the damaged wings. A strange golden-orange glow seemed to radiate from the upper belly of the beast, a steady pulsing of lights making it seem like the beast was breathing. Before he could make sense of what could be causing the lights however, a loud horn sounded.

Three loud blasts.

The Dragon breathed fire. Chaos reigned. Men scrambled across the island. The people scrambled to the city behind. And some of the prisoners on the vessel screamed, mirroring what Liraz felt inside – the Dragon was alive? The figures in blue uniform formed a quick paced perimeter around the shore, falling in ranks. The soldiers in the darkest shade of blue gathered at the beach, the men with lighter armor moving to their rear. There were hundreds of the Fell Guard on the island, their discipline surprising Liraz. Even the planned and practiced formations of soldiers during parades back in Shiraz seemed sluggish compared to the men in blue. But instead of defending the people from the Dragon, they faced the waters surrounding the island. They were facing Liraz and the vessel. Confused, Liraz looked at the crewmembers on the vessel, huddled at the very front, and happened to glance at Nyssa, running towards the pointy back of the vessel.

Nyssa shrieked, pointing to the West. His heart sank. There, in the deep waters behind them, about a charenth away, were hundreds of larger vessels, some drawn by Feli and the larger ones being rowed by soldiers in grey. Black arrows flew at them from the attacking vessels behind, some toward Liraz and the vessel full of prisoners but most of the arrows were aimed at the island in front of them. Toward Chaelen. Within moments the arrows pierced two of the Fell Guard on the vessel and several prisoners. An arrow penetrated Liraz’s thigh and he yelled out, falling in pain. The crewmen scurried, shouting instructions to the remaining prisoners to move to the front of the vessel. They had their shields out and moved to the back.

“Get behind the shields,” the Captain yelled through the screams. The Fell Guard got into a defensive formation, three soldiers on each side standing spread out in an acute angle and one at their front, holding their shields a little above their heads, tilted. The Captain stood behind the lone soldier at the front, instructing the prisoners to get behind the safety of their shields.

Someone pushed Liraz and he stumbled, one of the spear-ends of the crew hitting him over the head. He spun, seeing black spots, and fell onto a corpse, whether that of a prisoner or a soldier, he could not tell. He almost passed out, adrenaline kicking in at the last second, barely keeping him conscious.

And then someone was hoisting him up, pulling his right arm over their head and dragging him, forcing him to take steps that his thigh refused to support.

“We need to jump, okay?” Nyssa said. “Can you swim?”

He still had trouble seeing clearly and tried to nod. His head spun, and his strained thigh was already numb with pain. She saw the arrow sticking out of his leg and cursed.

“Stay here,” she shouted over the chaos, leaving him to hold on to the railing for support. Pain coursing through his leg, blood flowing out of his thigh at an alarming rate, Liraz stumbled, looking around him to make sense of the past few moments. More than two thirds of the prisoners were dead, the rest huddled closely behind the eight shields of the remaining crewmen. Some gawked at him from their secure positions, waving at him to join them. Others prayed to the Almighty, looking up at the sky from their sitting positions. He turned and saw something that made his stomach drop further. The vessel was on fire, but he couldn’t figure out the source. The lower curve at the back was already burnt. Dark smoke rose at a rapid pace, filling his eyes with water. He covered his mouth and nose with his free hand, coughing, turning back to the island.  He could now clearly see the Fell Guard formations. The Fell guard on land were firing arrows of their own, towards the enemy behind his vessel. The pain lessened sharply, his head feeling lighter than it had in ages. Perhaps he had lost too much blood?

Nyssa returned then.

“Tie this around your wrists” she said, handing him a rope. The other end was tied to a broken plank. “It’ll keep you afloat.”

As she tightened the noose around the plank, he shakily did the knot around his left wrist. His own focus confused him, as he automatically grabbed the plank from her into his hands.

“What about you?” he said sharply.

“What about me?” she asked, almost smiling. “Honor among Criminals, eh?”

Almighty! Who could smile in this situation?

“I don’t need a plank to help me, lordling” she said. “Don’t stop till you reach land. Go now.”

Liraz spared her a glance, and then prepared to jump off the vessel. Having spent a lot of his time around the ports of Shiraz city, he was a good swimmer. Almost all the organized tourneys there required that the participants be good swimmers. Most citizens knew quite a few tricks to stay afloat for better part of a day. Often, he and his friends swam the lakes for hours on end. He climbed over the railings, careful to stay out of range of the arrows that were raining down upon the vessel. First, he aimed the plank towards the island, mustering up his strength to throw it as far as possible. As he released it, he gave the plank two heartbeats of a head start, before diving into the water himself.

He hit the water with a splash, feeling a slight tug of the rope tied to the plank, as it landed some distance ahead of him. He moved towards the direction it had initially pulled him, swimming underwater rapidly. The reverberations from the Feli cry came from his left, and he turned, looking at the magnificent beast. The Feli looked scary to those who weren’t used to them, but Liraz had done his fair share of helping out at the docks to know that they were harmless to people. The creature had its mouth open, large pointy teeth extending from its upper mouth in a slight curve. A faint glow came from its open mouth, casting a yellow light underwater. The open mouth stretched the skin on its sides, some openings stretching further in the moment. The fins of the beast pulsed with a green glow. He couldn’t tell if the fins were themselves radiating the light or it was a trick of the water refracting the glow from the creature’s mouth. He couldn’t make out the eyes, but the sharp fins at the top of its head were brushing the surface of the water, breaking the calm.

Liraz broke to the surface, inhaling a large amount of air. He began a quick paced stroke, steady but fast. Behind, he heard another splash. Nyssa, he thought. The plank was a few feet in front of him, the rope flaccidly floating in a random shape. He pushed farther, hearing nothing but the rush of water around him. This was liberating. He took another deep breath, breaking into the water once more, gaining on the plank’s location. The exhaustion was gone, the arrow in his thigh had come free as he had hit the water and there was hardly any pain. That surprised him. But he swam on.

He reached the plank and grabbed it, giving his legs and hands a breather. He turned around and paused. The fire on the vessel was burning higher than ever. Many of the other prisoners had seen him jump and were following suit. He could hardly see the remaining crewmen in the smoke rising all around the vessel. Arrows no longer flew to it. The attacking army in Grey had now turned their complete focus to the island. More arrows flew back and forth between the two armies. The remaining survivors from the vessel were in the middle, trying to find ground.

Liraz quickly undid the knot around his wrist. The coast was now awfully close from his position. A hundred feet or so. A figure moved close to him, her hands flapping at the water in a masterful stroke.

“Not until you reach land, idiot” Nyssa shouted. She didn’t pause as he picked up his pace again.

He wasn’t a match for her in speed, even though he was the fastest amongst his friends when they were out swimming in the lakes. She was already rising at the coast ahead when he was halfway across. He pushed his body further, feeling ground underneath his feet.

When he reached the shore, he ran. The Fell Guard in Blue automatically parted to make way for them. He paused, looking to make sure that Nyssa was already ahead and then raised his head to look at the Dragon that still breathed dark smoke. This was it – Chaelen. His new home. He was either going to live the rest of his days here or die. He looked at the army surrounding him, ready for battle at a moment’s notice. Were they expecting an attack? Who was attacking them? How was the Dragon still alive? Before he could take another step, however, the exhaustion returned, more than ever. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell, everything going black.