Aegwyn turned around to see a tall man standing on deck with his hands crossed over his chest. He wore a battered blue cap and had a pair of worn spectacles that hung on his long nose. His sea blue coat was ragged and patched in several places. The wind forced his long oily black hair to fly and dance upon his shoulders as he walked forward.
The elven sailor took a brief glance at Aegwyn and then turned to bow towards the man. “This is the Guardian of Tirisfal, Captain Grastan,” he said beneath his breath. There was no respect in his voice.
“The what?” The captain raised an eyebrow towards the elven sailor. His eyes flashed brightly with opportunity yet his face seemed as confused as his voice.
The elven sailor took a sharp breath. The fog made his fair hair hang limply about his face and his body shivered. “The Guardian of Tirisfal. Haven’t you heard of the Guardians?”
The captain narrowed his eyes. “No.” He straightened his stance and then took a brief glance over his shoulder before he turned to the elven sailor and Aegwyn who stood in front.
“Regardless of who this...Guardian...is, she is a stow-away. And you know that I can’t have those on my ship.”
The elf’s eyes widened and he took a look back at Aegwyn before turning to Captain Grastan. “But Captain! You can’t!”
Captain Grastan grabbed the elf by the collar and dragged him forward. Even though his coat was thick and heavy it didn’t hide the muscles that appeared through the heavy wool. Captain Grastan jutted his jaw forward and his eyes flashed. “And who say’s I can’t? You?”
The captain flung his arm and the elven sailor along with it. He let go and the elf slid along the deck until he crashed into a pile of crates on the other side of the ship. Several crates tipped and fell into the water and several more fell atop him.
Captain Grastan looked at Aegwyn with narrowed eyes. He turned and let out a shout in the thick elven tongue. His speech moved so fast that Aegwyn was barely able to understand a word of it.
Several elven sailors merged onto the deck from the shadows of the fog. They were about as large as the one that had led her on deck and none of them looked at Captain Grastan kindly.
“Take her below!” Grastan said, his elven speech was drenched with the accent of the common speech. Humans were never very good at speaking in the old languages.
The elves said nothing and one of them took Aegwyn by the hands. The others just walked away, feeling that there was nothing they could do. Aegwyn pulled uselessly against the grip of the sailor that held her wrists firmly. It was useless.
She looked back to see that the elven sailor who had been tossed aside had gotten up. He was rubbing his head and staring at her with eyes of anguish. He turned and looked forward to the alliance ships that loomed nearby. “Don’t you think we’re a bit close, Captain?”
Aegwyn was pulled further away and their voices grew distant. Their bodies seemed to blur and darken until she could only see black silhouettes in the fog.
***
She sat on the cot as the felt the ship rock and shift beneath her. The feeling was hard and the chill of the fog seeped in through the walls and flooded the room with its icy touch.
Aegwyn shivered and pulled her cloak about her as close as possible. The ship rocked and she had to shift her balance in order to stay upright. The lantern that hung in the hallway moved like a bell on a string, casting light all over the place. This place looked too much like the goblin tunnels. Reminded her of them too much. Even the stench was the same.
Aegwyn closed her eyes and tried to lie down and rest. The damp fog reached towards her, through her clothes, chilling her until she trembled from the frost. She was so tired. So much had happened, so much. It had exhausted her. She hadn’t had a good night’s rest since her time in the dwarf halls of Khaz Modan. It seemed so long ago.
Even chilled to the bone, she started to drift into sleep. The faces of many monsters emerged and disappeared from her every thought and she could hear the sounds of the innocent drowning in their own blood. The visions seemed to merge and fade, swirling and moving together and then apart in a chaotic dance of the tormented.
Suddenly it all went black and faded into a bright red. She saw the face of a hideous demon in her mind. It’s eyes burned with hellfire and the madness of the twisting nether came howling into her mind. She struggled and shivered, closing in on herself as the darkness and the wrath of the damned came streaming into her consciousness. In the darkness she cried out and tried to get away but the eyes of the demon were following her every step. She could feel the power, the sheer immensity of the demon’s wrath.
Aegwyn woke and felt the coldness around her. The eyes of the demon still burned into her mind. In a cold flash she remembered who it was. In the darkness she gasped and began to tremble. Such hideous power was unleashed! The blackness and scourge of all that was good had been let loose upon the world once more. She could feel it. Even though she was no longer in the dream the eyes of fire still burned fiercely in her mind.
Aegwyn thought she heard something. She sat up in her cot and saw someone standing in the hallway through the cell bars. His cloak hung loosely about his shoulders and though the light shone, his face and body were hidden from the beams. His eyes glowed a dull green and he looked at her with the intensity she had never seen in a long time. In his leather-gloved hands he held a scepter on the end of which was an emerald. The stranger saw that she was looking at him and then the light in his eyes started to fade. The body seemed to shimmer and then it disappeared entirely
.
She blinked and then stood up and rushed to the cell bars. She looked to the left down the hallway and then to the right. There was nothing out there; and yet she was sure she had seen someone!
Aegwyn stumbled forward as the barred door opened before her with a startling creak. She took a few steps back into her cell and waited. The only sound that she heard was the waves lapping against the side of the elven ship.
Her heart beat in her chest as she walked forward, sweat forming on her brow. Aegwyn cautiously looked down to the left of the cell entrance and then to the right. As far as the light of the lantern would go she couldn’t see anyone. No trace of man or elf.
Aegwyn took a deep breath, and then walked down the hallway of the ship. The floor beneath her rocked and moved with every single wave that struck the ship. She kept her arms extended and made sure to brace herself when the sea struck.
A light appeared at the end of the ship, branching out into the hallway from a room on the side. The door was open ajar and inside she could hear the sound of steel clanging and foul voices talking. Aegwyn crept slowly forward, trying to keep her balance as the elven destroyer rocked beneath her feet.
As the light got closer she could make out the voices more clearly.
The whole room suddenly roared in fierce laughter. Aegwyn furrowed her brows. The speech was familiar yet she couldn’t remember what it was. It was on the tip of her tongue. And what were they discussing that involved Captain Grastan?
Aegwyn got close to the door and then peaked inside. She gasped and then stumbled backward.
There were Orcs in the room!
The door opened with a splintering crack and the light of an axe gleamed in her eyes. The door was ripped apart as the axe hewed away the wood. An Orc, lightly clad in armor looked at her with fierce yellow eyes. It bellowed and then charged at her.
Aegwyn dodged to the side just as the axe came down upon her. The bladed weapon lodged itself into the wall on the other side. The Orc snarled and yanked out his weapon, pulling away some wood chips that scattered onto the hallway.
Aegwyn stumbled backward and started to run away. She could hear a frustrated shout from behind her and the sound of feet against the wooden floor. The light from the room was starting to fade and she continued to flee into the darkening hallway.
She crashed into a man that was walking down the hallway. He had been hidden in the shadows and they both tumbled backwards.
She felt a hand push her away. “Who are you? What are you doing out of your cell!”
She heard a snarl and then felt air brush against her hair. She felt warmth splatter onto her skin and then realized with horror what had happened to the man she had bumped into.
Aegwyn got to her feet and felt a touch of air against her back. She heard the sickening sound of an axe smashing into the wooden floor behind her. There was another snarl that seemed closer than before.
Aegwyn tripped as she felt something catch her feet. The stairway! She scrambled upward as the orc axe fell down where she had lain. She felt hard wood atop her. With all her strength, she pushed on the doors and then fell out onto the deck, the light of the sun blinding her.
“What in the light is going on?”
Aegwyn crawled away just as an Orc emerged from below deck. Several sailors nearby gave out cries of surprise and then she saw several of them charging with swords in hand
.
She turned around to see that three orcs had come up the stairs and were battling with the sailors. Aegwyn stood up and turned right into Captain Grastan.
“You little harlot!” he growled at her. She felt pain slash across her cheek and stumbled
backward. “I should have killed you the moment I saw you!”
She fell backwards and looked up to see the Captain staring down at her with eyes red with rage. He snorted hot blasts from his nose and his very sneer threatened death.
The clanging of the battle behind her filled her ears and the cries of the dying deafened her to everything else. She heard a shrill whistle and then the ship started to rumble.
The Captain looked at her with surprise and then turned around. The ship was surrounded by several large ships with sails of tanned leather and decks that looked like they were held together with cheap mortar. The cannons fired around her as she heard the battles come from the veil of the fog. Another high-pitched whistle entered her ears and she saw a black blur streak across her vision. The object crashed into the deck and the elven ship shook again. The Orcs and humans weren’t battling anymore, they were too surprised.
Captain Grastan let out a shout of rage. The ship rumbled and shook and the human sailors tried to hurry to the cannons to retaliate. The Orcs were either chasing after the sailors or jumping off deck.
The ship rocked drastically and tilted. Aegwyn was thrown to the floor as the destroyer trembled and groaned beneath her.
Captain Grastan was standing near the bow of the ship, waving his arms wildly. “No! You fools!” he cried out, as if the enemy ships would hear him.
There was a deafening explosion and Aegwyn looked up to see an enormous dark shadow approaching them through the fog. She got a look of the flare of the cannons when the ship was thrown from the water beneath her. She was tossed into the air like a rag doll, flinging her arms, trying to catch onto something.
The water rushed towards her, no matter what she tried to do to stop her descent. The coldness bathed her as she crashed painfully into the sea. She sputtered and struggled to stay atop the water, coughing and gasping for air. She saw the debris of the ship fall into the sea about her.
Aegwyn took a deep breath and dove underwater. Several large planks of wood crashed into the water with a large splash and dove deep into the water, piercing the sea with enough force to kill a man. She struggled upward and then clung to a floating plank, and tried to hang on tight. The cold waters froze her skin and chilled her. She started to shiver despite her attempts to stay warm.
The sounds of the battle started to drift away and the ships took sail and retreated from the death site of the elven ship Pride. Aegwyn was left alone, stranded at sea. She looked around, trying to find any other survivors.
