Chapter3

AN. First of all I'm going 2 go completely mad cos I have now got 3 reviews, 1madcat and greywhich don't count as I know them so I'm saying thanku 2 Archer Yi, I finally got A REVIEW!YEY! thankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthankuthanku! – also in this nxt bit there is a Crete guy i have called Jason and a boat i have called the Maria, plez don't get confused he is not Jason from Jason and the Golden Fleece cos i just needed an authentic name and do not have time 2 look 1 up, i have been looking this stuff up in the encyclopaedia 4 ages trying 2 get my facts right, i even scanned a map of ocean currents out of a giant atlas 2 try and get this stuff right so plez be nice i've done my best! I do want reviews though, good or bad. OK rant over, here's the story.

"…three canoe like things of giant proportions with strange cloud like things pulling them forward and many long thin spidery legs coming out of each side that every now and again would spin in a circle pushing against the water like canoe paddles, I think they were powered by people." Finished Amonsovn in the stunned silence.

Jason had been on the Maria for so long he could understand why travellers in stories started kissing the ground and all that when they finally found land. He watched as the land drew closer. Minos was the king of Crete and was building himself a huge empire and he was employing them to explore and scout out the land around them, raiding and pillaging the settlements they came across. Jason shuddered, that man was evil. He just hoped there were not any natives on the land ahead, just food, water and a means to find out were they are, maybe from the stars. If the islands were inhabited they would have to burn the settlements and plunder the place for goods that might amuse Minos, even people, Minos seemed to enjoy having them as helpless slaves in his hands, particularly the women. He shuddered again, he hoped it was totally uninhabited and then they could head back home. He was relieved there was land though. They had been caught in a terrible storm and driven North for many days and everyone was on skimpy rations to try and make the food last.

The land they reached first was all steep cliffs. They continued along the coast until they reached a gap in the shear rock, the flag ship of Minos turned in there first; it turned out to be a large bay though it had a narrow entrance. With a sinking heart Jason saw the canoes beached under a crude shelter above the tide line.

There was just about enough deep water in the bay for the three ships to anchor off, although the last one was blocking the exit. Jason was not the first to go ashore but from the corner of his eye he saw them sink the canoes and dismantle the shelter for fire wood. This always happened, a few things were salvaged and the rest is destroyed. The first time he had been taken on a raid he had been horrified, since then he had learnt to retreat inside his own mind during the attack. At least he tried just to kill cleanly, what some of the others did was much worse, it was the only way he could live with himself.

Everyone sat in grim silence, Ruatonim watched as it was announced that the scouting party sent out earlier that day still had not returned so the strangers had to be presumed hostile

"Stay in your homes and keep hidden," continued Amonsovn, her face shadowed and her voice threaded with anger, "when they arrive here I want all of you who are in fighting condition to meet them with me, perhaps they are peaceful, but those who come in peace would not stay hidden till the sun is slipping over the horizon, and the light is fading as I speak. All families with children I ask you to make sure someone stays with them. Let us hope there is a simple explanation for their seeming hostility." She paused then added in a sadder tone, "I'm sorry."

She paused again, face lined with grief for her lost people, but then she lifted her head stubbornly her jaw set in anger, "but if we must go down we will go down fighting," There was a noise, it started as a murmur and then began to rise as she spoke, "and I will be at your head." The people had their blood boiling and Ruatonim found himself beginning to shout with them,

"We are not as helpless as we seem," Continued Amonsovn, "if they think they can kill our son and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and then think we will be easy prey they are very much mistaken!" Amonsovn was now shouting over the noise hair flying about her face in a fiery golden halo, her eyes on fire with passion and anger, they had dared to attacked her people, her people! And they would regret it, "If we are to be defeated then let it be a glorious end!" Aroused by her fiery speech, grieving families whose children or relative and loved ones had been in the scouting party were now screaming for blood and arming them selves, "Let no one say we were defeated easily, with out a fight, for if they do they are lying from the bottom of their soul and may the ghosts of our people arise and make them right their grievous mistake!" The noise was now deafening, only snatches of words could be heard now and again as one and all shouted for blood. Kataalac had been aloud out with her torso heavily bandaged and a wooden board keeping her back straight and she too was screaming, even round Omiphaiga was jumping around and forgetting about her patient anger pumping through her veins.

Ruatonim limped over to Amonsovn, his leg was still paining him.

"No, Ruatonim," Amonsovn began before he could open his mouth, "You cannot fight, you must take Kataalac back to your home and guard her and your son, Kataalac can fight but she has been injured very badly and you must protect your son, you cannot come with me."

"But…" pleaded Ruatonim

"No." Amonsovn finished sternly. She turned her back on him and he left with Kataalac. Many of the people were going back to their homes but a large group had collected around her, bringing spears, bows and arrows hunting knifes and even kitchen knifes and the odd sword, swords were treasured no one made them any more and the few that were left were honoured as they were left over from the ancestral battle many years ago about a kidnap and possible murder. In sudden silence they stood.

"As I speak our enemies as sneaking out in the cover of the coming dark, dragging their cowardly hides around us." Amonsovn spoke into the silence, "They out number us, they have superior weapons and armament, we are but a bunch of native savages to them, but they will remember this day to their last dying breath. We will make sure of that." A nod ran through the gathered people. "We are the Hytagarians; we will fight to the last. We must spread out; we do not know where they will first come from." They dispersed and spread out around the village.

Amonsovn drew the sword that was strapped diagonally across her back, this was the most treasured sword of all, it had been with the tribe for as long as could be remembered and was passed down by the tribe leaders from generation to generation, it was made out of a beautiful blue-grey metal and had an intricately wrought handle of many incomprehensible designs and a beautiful amber stone with a leaf buried in it, the only one of its kind, there was no amber on the islands. Amonsovn crept out through the darkness into the trees in the direction the ships were. Her thin animal skin shoes did not make a sound, she had had years of practise stalking animals in these very trees and she was one of the best stealth hunters. Hidden in the trees she saw the invaders. They were all men dressed in strange cloths armed with swords, bows and what she took to be poorly made clubs. They were marching along in a long column through the trees blundering and crashing about. The trees seemed to be unnerving them and they were all huddled close together clutching their weapons. Amonsovn crept back to the settlement and rounded up her fighters,

"They are very stupid; they are crashing though the trees in one large body, they have given themselves away with all their noise and babbling in their incomprehensible language and lost the element of surprise and they aren't even spreading out to surround us. They still have greater numbers and superior weapons so don't get too self assured, it looks like we are going to go down in the hands of imbeciles." Amonsovn whispered quietly into the darkness in disgust. "Right, we will all spread out in a line along here and bring down as many as we can."

Amonsovn stood in the centre of the line, the silence weighing down on her like lead, she could hear her blood pumping through her veins like a drum, a drum of doom. In a daze she watched the enemy appear, they waved their weapons around moving in slow motion towards her, the undisciplined mob crashed into the thin line of her people standing bravely before their home for the last time. Weapons crashed as blade met blade, she swung out Sagiaturiaris (pronounce: Saah-git-ter-e-aris), the blade of the kings in a great arc slicing through a man's sword arm then quickly back slashed through the mans neck.

Kieltavn saw her whirlwind through the enemies the great sword thrumming in her hands, her hair silhouetted her face and a wild light was in her eyes, the clan had done good the day they had chosen her as Lelta, she would never abandon them. He admired that woman with all his heart. The blade of the kings sung in her hands and they were one, Amonsovn alone took down half of the ones killed by them, around them enemies and friends alike fell. Kieltavn now saw the purpose of the ill made clubs, they had been set alight and homes were being torched and everything was now lit with the eerie flickering orange light of the flames.

The enemy leader was dumfounded, the skill of the raw natives they faced was astounding, at the centre of them all was a demon woman and a terrible sword, the last thing many of his men saw was her demonic face and the death song of the sword in her hands ringing in their ears. He had to do something about her. From the safe place where he was regarding the battle he strung his bow and reached over his shoulder for an arrow.

Ruatonim and Kataalac hid, Ruatonim stood behind the door and Kataalac took Icaieris, blissfully sleeping, and hid him in the deep shadows of chimney, then she took up her bow and hunting knife. They also stood in silence listening to the drum beats of their hearts and their ragged breathing sounding harsh and loud in the silence. The sounds of a fight began to filter in towards them, Icaieris woke in the corner but stayed hidden, and even he could feel the tension in the air.

Suddenly light flooded in through the windows, but not sunlight, this was the flickering yellow light of the flames on a funeral pyre. The shouts and cries drew closer and the sound of blade on blade shattered through the little hut. In the corner poor Icaieris whimpered in fear. Kataalac leaned around the door post and started firing arrows into the midst of the fight. For a while the area around the hut was clear of strangers but they just kept coming and then she ran out of arrows. Ruatonim took down the first man to step foot in the hut with his Kaeer but his broken leg was a real problem and soon they were both fighting inside the hut.

Icaieris, eyes wide with fear watched as first his father, then his mother went down and the flames crept in around him. He closed his eyes and slept, he new his life was ending and it ended painlessly. He dreamt of his mother but then she dissolved and became another, a tall beautiful woman with olive skin and black hair fluttering around her face in the nonexistent wind. The figure introduced herself as Kra, the Hytagarian goddess. She brought him to meet his family.

AN. Boohoooo! didn't want to write this, i feel like a murderer! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! (lots of !s) Going 2 have nightmares tonight about being a murderess!