Chapter Nine: Provoka Under Siege
They left at first light just as Thol had said they would. He had noticed that Matoya had been acting a little strangely, but she also seemed to be relying on Goro to lead her around so he was able to spend more time with Melira. In that respect, he wasn't complaining. Melira had also been acting rather strangely since she stormed out of the cave the day before. He didn't have an answer for that one and he wasn't about to ask.
The road to Provoka from Coneria had fallen in to disrepair since the bridge had been destroyed, but traveling down it was still easier than trying to find your way through the forest. The way to Provoka took them two days to travel and it was getting close to dark when they finally arrived.
"Okay, Tor. This is your town so tell us, what is the easiest way to get in?" Thol asked as they looked down upon the village from atop a hill.
"Well usually I'd say slip around and get in through the docks, but seeing as though the town is being held up by pirates, that isn't such a good idea," Tor replied. He thought for a moment. "I think, due to the current situation, the best way into the city would be through the tunnels under the brothel."
"And how would you know of these tunnels, Tor?" Thol asked in a slightly amused voice.
His friend suddenly went red and got very uncomfortable. "It's not what you think, Thol. My brother and I were hired by a certain local businessman who liked to frequent the place. He needed to make sure he was undisturbed, but the building has escape routes like the tunnels just in case. If word got out that someone like him was going to a place like that, his business would be ruined."
"Sure, sure," Thol said, grinning.
Somehow, Tor managed to get even redder.
"Thol's just kidding, Tor. Weren't you?" Melira said.
"Of course I was," Thol replied, still with a grin plastered on his face.
"Thol," Melira said.
"All right, all right. I'm sorry."
They decided to wait until nightfall before attempting to enter the city. Due to the late hour, they weren't waiting long.
Tor led them around to the entrance to the brothel tunnels. They were carefully concealed so that you wouldn't even notice them unless you were looking for them.
It was obvious that Tor hadn't been in the tunnels for a while as he had to stop at every fork and think of the way. Despite his hesitant decisions, he managed to get them to the brothel without leading them astray. There was a rather filthy looking man at the end of the tunnel that 'greeted' them.
"Tor! Holy crap! Do you have any idea what's going on in the city? This place is crawling with pirates! You picked a really bad time to come back to town," the man said.
"Rall. I've come back to the town to free it from its captors and bring that scourge Bikke to justice once and for all."
The man, Rall, nodded fiercely. "You know, if you had stayed here, this wouldn't have happened."
"No time for that now. Where is Bikke holing up?"
Rall hesitated for a moment. "I hate to tell you this, Tor, but he's taken over your home."
Thol imagined that it took all of Tor's willpower not to explode and seek out the marauding pirate right that instant. He managed instead to contain his anger to a grim mask of determination.
"He's finished," Tor said between clenched teeth. "Bikke and his pirates will not live to see another sunrise." That being said, Tor headed through the brothel and exited the building. The others followed him immediately.
Directly outside the brothel, Tor gave them a quick run down of the house and surrounding property. Thol thought through the information he was given and made a decision based on it.
"Right. We'll wait until we get closer to the building before we make any solid decisions here. I want to see how well they have the thing guarded. Is there any place nearby there that we can observe it from and not be seen?"
Tor thought for a moment. "Well, the inn across the street has a backdoor and we should be able get on the roof and not be seen."
"Excellent. Tor, Keza and I will go up on the roof and see what we can see. We'll devise a plan and get cracking at it. The rest of you will stay in the inn," Thol said.
"What do you need me for? Goro would be much better at formulating a plan then me," Keza asked.
"Maybe so, but that's not why I want you up there with us," Thol explained. "As I've said on countless occasions, you are a thief, right?"
Keza nodded.
"Well who better then a thief for getting in a place undetected?"
Keza looked thoughtful for a moment and then grinned widely. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because I thought of it first, that's why. Now let's get going before it gets too late. After all, we don't want Bikke to see the sunrise."
Tor led the other five to the backdoor of the inn. After he quickly explained the situation to the innkeeper, he made his way to the roof with Thol and Keza right behind him.
"Keep low. You never know when one of those idiots will decide to look up," Thol said just as they got on the roof.
The three of them crouched down and edged as close as they could toward Tor's old house. Thol looked at the pirates guarding the place and almost laughed aloud. Keza took one look at the house and the position of the guards and immediately figured out the best way in.
"Over there," he said pointing. "The guards there aren't patrolling with much zest and it's a fairly isolated area. That would be the best way to get onto the compound."
"Can we get in from there?" Thol asked.
"Yeah. There's and old utility door on that side that leads to the basement. It was boarded up last I checked but it wouldn't take much to fix that."
"Good," Thol said. He glanced briefly at the surrounding area. After several moments of thought, he had their entry plan. "Alright. Let's go back inside. I've got a plan worked out."
The others were anxious to hear about what they seen.
"Well? Can we get in?" Valon asked.
"Yes, but we're going to have to take out a couple of guards. Here's what we're going to do," Thol began. "We're going to leave this inn through the back, same as we came in. Then we're going to circle around to the east side of the compound. There are a lot of buildings on that side that will conceal our approach. The garden on that side of the building will keep us mostly concealed from the other patrols. When we get to the garden, you two," he said, pointing at Melira and Valon, "will cast fog so that the guards can't see. The rest of us will incapacitate the guards and we'll slip in from there."
"Why fog? I can cast sleep on them all and then we wouldn't have to do any fighting," Valon said.
"It would be quieter, Thol," Goro said.
"Yes, but sleep is an unpredictable spell and is too chancy. Besides, we're here to get rid of these criminals, not baby them," Thol said.
Valon shrugged in agreement.
"Any questions so far?" Thol asked.
"What do we do if we run into more pirates on the inside?" Keza asked.
"You mean 'when we run into more pirates'. After we're actually inside the building, the need for stealth is largely un-needed, but we'll try to avoid as many encounters as we can. In the event that we do run into them, then we'll cut them down as fast as we can. Our main target is Bikke. The rest will fall in short order after he is out of the way. Anything else?"
They were all quiet.
"Good. Let's move then," Thol said. "Tor, you take the lead. If there are any archers in there, your armor will protect you from the arrows, but I doubt there will be any. Pirates aren't known for their archery prowess."
"Better safe than sorry I always say," Keza commented.
"Of course you do. You're a thief," Thol pointed out.
After they had exited the building, they were all silent. Getting into the building unnoticed was almost as important as actually killing Bikke and they all knew it.
They reached the garden and were undetected thus far just as Thol had planned. A quick nod told the other two mages to cast their fog spells. There was a short series of confused cries as the garden filled with a thick fog that only the six Light Warriors could see through. The cries only lasted for a moment as their owners were quickly disposed of.
The magical fog lifted just as quick as it had spread and the six of them easily found the utility door Tor had mentioned. The boards were old and half-rotten so they were inside in less than a minute.
The house itself was quite large and under normal circumstances would be a nice place to live in, but the residence of the pirates had changed that. Tor again managed to keep his ever-increasing anger in check. He led them through the passages of the house wordlessly.
As Thol had said, they eventually ran into more pirates, but they still managed to get the drop on them and they were disposed of in short order.
Thol glanced at Melira after the encounter and noticed that she was rather pale. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"I-I'm fine. It's just that. . ." she began, but was unable to continue.
"I know," he said. "I understand. I'm sorry we brought you into this."
"No, it's alright. It's just that I didn't think I'd be fighting other people when I offered to join you all. Well, except Garland."
Thol nodded. He understood what she was saying though he did not feel the same way about it. She should be healing people, not destroying them, he thought as he followed their point man.
Tor led them up a royal looking staircase. He seemed to know exactly where Bikke would be.
They ran into more pirates just outside a huge set of ornate double doors. They didn't have the advantage of surprise this time so the battle took a little longer then the last. Thol took a minor flesh wound in the battle but he just shrugged it off and continued to bombard the pirate horde with magic.
"He's in there," Tor said with acid dripping from his words. He cast aside the huge double doors with one vicious sweep of his arm.
Thol suspected that the commotion of the battle had alerted those inside to their approach and that they would be ready for them. What they weren't ready for, however, was Tor's titanic rage. He managed to kill four of them single handed before the others even made it into the room.
Thol recognized Bikke immediately from Tor's description of him. Tor was headed directly for the pirate captain and no one was able to stand in his way. Thol decided that the other pirates would be an unneeded distraction in the upcoming confrontation, so he eliminated them at once with a violent inferno of magic.
The other's stood in awe of Thol's power even though they had all seen him cast the spell before. Last time, however, they were busy fighting with Garland and didn't have the time to fully appreciate the magnitude of the spell.
They eventually shook off their amazement and started toward Bikke. Thol quickly waved them off. This battle would be between Tor and Bikke only.
Bikke stood up to meet Tor as he strode across the corpse-filled room.
"So, whelp, you have returned to the scene of your greatest failure," Bikke said as Tor stopped only a meter away from him.
"It might have been my greatest failure, but it was your greatest mistake to come back to this city."
The pirate's eyes narrowed at his proclamation.
Tor stood up perfectly straight now and spoke in a loud, clear voice. "Anos Bikke, Captain of the vessel Sea Scourge. I, Sir Tor Zakon, Knight of crowned princess Sara of Coneria and retainer of Provoka hereby avenge the murder of my kinsman, my brother, Madon Zakon, and sentence you do death via trial by sword. Justice will be served this day."
Bikke snarled and drew his saber. "Your colorful words won't change the fact that you're going to follow in the footsteps of your brother and be killed by my blade!"
Tor brought his gauntlet up to block the first attack and drew his sword at the same time. In a matter of seconds, it was clear that Bikke stood no chance with only a flimsy pirate saber.
The pirate made several desperate sword thrusts and one of them managed to get by Tor's guard, but his armor was more then a match for the thin bladed weapon and the thrust bounced harmlessly off the plated surface.
In a last ditch effort, Bikke ran at Tor with his sword held high intending to plunge it down on his head. Tor sidestepped the clumsy move and made a turning slash that caught Bikke directly in the ribs. Bikke unceremoniously crashed to the ground, it all ending in that instant.
Tor stood breathing heavy for a few moments, looking down on the fallen form of his opponent. Bother, you have been avenged, he thought in silent tribute to his brother.
Thol walked up beside his friend and looked him in the eye. Words were unnecessary. Thol simply nodded and Tor nodded back.
Tor sheathed his weapon and turned to the others. "Thank you my friends. I would not have made it all the way without you all."
After a moment of silence, Keza finally spoke. "So it's over now."
"No," Thol said.
The others looked at him.
"The city is still infested with pirates. We have to clear them out of here. Then we have to take care of the Sea Scourge. Only then will it be over."
"Right. Come! Let's finish this now!" Tor yelled. He drew his sword and headed for the doors. The others followed instilled by the courage of the young knight.
It took them twenty minutes to rid the residence of all the pirates. They then strode out the front gate and walked directly into town, mercilessly killing any pirate they saw. The citizens cheered as Tor and the others passed by. The remainder of the pirates that were in the city had all been backed into a corner and had tried to rally their defenses for one last stand. It was in vain as Thol gave them another display of his incredible powers by freezing the entire alleyway in which they were holed up in. That left the source of the plague of pirates. The Sea Scourge.
The six Light Warriors all had determined faces as they walked up the unprotected gangplank. The first of the pirates to notice that there were intruders on board didn't live long enough to even draw their weapons.
They methodically went through the ship eliminating the pirates until they had reached the hold. The last of the pirates were there and seemed to be led by a man who didn't look anything like a pirate.
Tor's eyes widened at the sight of the man. "Tynceder! What are you doing here?"
The man looked up and growled. "You meddling fool! If it wasn't for you and the others I could have owned this pathetic town! But I needed Bikke and his pirates for that, and you ruined it!"
"What are you saying? Are you behind this invasion? Why, Tynceder? Why? We were like brothers! How could you do this to Provoka, our home?" Tor said in a stricken voice.
"Idiot! Of course I'm behind this! I've been leading these pirates for their entire pathetic existence!"
"No! Then it was you who ordered. . ." Tor started to say, but his voice broke. He couldn't accept that a man whom he had thought was his friend had ordered his brother killed.
"That's right, Tor! I had your brother killed! He was standing in the way of my plans. I had you ordered to be killed as well, but Bikke's stupid pirates couldn't do it."
It dawned on Keza then. Tynceder was the third one who had finished their training under Zakon. Tor had never got around to telling him about the third one when they were talking about it in Coneria.
Goro stepped forward then. "I don't know who you are, but if what you say you have done is true, then your actions are inexcusable and you must be brought to justice."
Tynceder laughed at him. "And just who is going to do that? You? Fool! You aren't even armed! I'd kill you in the blink of an eye."
"We'll see. Prepare yourself, criminal," Goro said.
Laughing, Tynceder drew his weapon: An exact copy of Tor's sword. The Zakonian warrior made the first attack, one that he had thought was going to be a killing blow, but Goro expertly dodged the move and countered with a blinding combination of punches and kicks. Tynceder was knocked down and completely winded from the attack. He also thought that he might have a cracked rib from the fall. The Zakonian got up and more wearily attacked again.
Try as he might, Tynceder could not hit the martial artist. Goro was inflicting punishing blows in retaliation to every more he made and he was soon bleeding from the mouth, evidence of internal bleeding.
"Yield!" Goro shouted.
Tynceder spit out a mouthful of blood. "Never! I'll die before I allow myself to be taken by one such as you!"
"If that is how you feel then so be it," Goro replied. Not having a reason to hold back now, he prepared for his next attack to be without restraint.
The Zakonian made his last attack, a downward slash that was probably the beginning of a cross-slash maneuver. Goro evaded the attack and struck him directly in the chest with both fists. There was an audible crack from the impact and Tynceder stumbled backward. A roundhouse kick sent him spinning and Goro finished him off with a fatal knife hand strike to the throat.
"You were a fool. You should have given up," Goro said quietly to the now dead Tynceder.
The remaining pirates that had stood, statue like, in fear throughout the battle threw down their weapons and gave themselves up. Keza and Valon lead them off the ship and to the local authorities.
Tor stood looking at his former friend with an agonized look on his face. Thol and Goro stepped in beside him and looked down as well.
"He deserved it, Tor. You know he did," Thol said.
"But I don't understand why he did it. I knew him for years. He was never the ambitious type. And to kill my brother. . . Madon was as much a brother to him as he was to me."
"So he was one of Zakon's students to then?" Goro asked.
"Yes. The three of us were the last one's to finish our training before Zakon passed away. I'm the only one left. His last student."
"Then you'd better live through this so that you can pass on his knowledge. It's the least you can do," Thol said. He stood there for a moment then walked off to where Melira was. Goro left a few moments later and Tor stood by himself.
He's right. I have to pass on what Zakon has taught me. He turned to face his comrades and walked to the door. He paused and turned around in the doorframe. "We have won. Come. Let's celebrate our victory and all of our future victories as we fulfill our destiny!" he shouted.
The others replied with their own shouts. . . .
* * * *
They stayed in Provoka for a week and were treated to a celebration almost as extravagant as the one they received in Coneria. The townspeople fixed up the Sea Scourge to a more respectable vessel and renamed it The Zakonian. As a way of thanking them, the townspeople gave it to the Light Warriors so that they could get to Melmond and revive the Earth Orb.
Some of the townspeople who's homes were ruined during the siege volunteered to man the ship for them so with Tor as the captain, The Zakonian set out for Melmond.
Thol walked up to where Tor was steering the ship. "You do remember that we're supposed to stop at Elfland to check on this Astos character, right?"
Tor cringed. "I'd completely forgotten about that. Sorry," he said. Without warning, he made a near 90 degree turn and headed off on a different course.
Thol stood clutching the railing for dear life. "Are you sure that turning like that is all safe?"
"Probably not, but I do it anyway," his friend replied calmly.
"I'm going back down below. At least I won't get thrown overboard if you decide to make any sudden changes in direction again."
Tor just nodded.
Thol walked away from him muttering about curses under his breath. He went down into the ship where the others were, still cursing.
"What's happening up there?" Valon asked as he saw him. He was busy picking up an assortment of scrolls that had been obviously thrown to the floor when Tor made his sudden turn.
"Tor. The idiot decided to change directions suddenly and not tell anyone. I thought that I'd come down here to avoid being thrown overboard."
"Wise decision," Keza commented from where he sat, drinking some sort of drink.
Without even thinking of what he was doing, Thol sat across from Melira. "Where's Goro?" he asked, noticing that the large man was missing.
"I'm afraid our friend isn't made for sea travel. Right now he's meditating in the center of the ship somewhere trying to keep down his last meal," Keza replied.
"Is it working?"
"Let's just say he wasn't ready for the first bout of sickness. He's been doing pretty good so far though," Keza said. He paused for a second looking thoughtful. "Of course that's probably because he hasn't anything left to bring up."
"Poor Goro," Melira said.
"Don't you have some kind of spell you could cast on him?" Thol asked.
"If there is one, I don't know it." She looked down as if ashamed of herself. "My list of spells is rather limited of course."
"Don't worry. We can get you some new ones in Elfland. It's the world's second largest center of magic after all," Valon assured her.
"And at least they aren't all puffed up with their own importance," Thol said, almost to himself.
Melira heard him but said nothing. She knew what he was talking about due to the incident with Matoya.
The room was quiet for a few moments. Thol leaned his head back against the wall and put his legs up on a spare chair. He was still a little worn out from casting so many high level spells in the battle for Provoka.
"How long until we get there?" Keza asked.
"I've never been to Elfland myself," Thol said. "Valon could probably give you a better idea."
Keza looked over at the red mage.
"Well it took me about five days to cross the sea, but the ship I was on wasn't going all that fast. With Tor steering this thing, I'd say we'll be out here for only two or three days."
Keza nodded. "Swell."
They were all quiet for a moment.
"So," Keza said after a moment. "Any one care for a game of dice?"
"With or without the customary betting of gil?" Thol asked.
"With of course."
"Are you sure you want to play? Nobody is stupid enough to play for money against a thief," Thol said.
"Without then?"
"Forget it. You're still going to cheat."
"Tsk. Fine," Keza said, sitting back down where he was.
Another few moments of silence passed.
"Well, how 'bout a game of cards then?" Keza asked.
Thol groaned. . . .
* * * *