CHRONICLE

BOOK ONE: LYDIA

PART THREE: THE ENDER WARS

Chapter Nineteen: Attack of Castle Arrenvale

Year 274 F.E. (First Era)

The Morning of The Tenth Day of Spring, Day Three of Terra's Festival

He'd wet the bed again.

Everyone knew when they woke up and saw the stripped-down bed empty of both its blankets and its usual inhabitant. Whenever Remund wet the bed, he would get up as soon as he awoke and strip his bed hide the evidence as best as he could before the matron came in. As long as he was back to remake the bed in time with fresh linen, she was none the wiser.

Unfortunately, others in the Temple dormitory always knew. Often as not, they were awakened when he screamed in his sleep, thrashing in the grasp of his nightmares, which seemed more common these days despite the festival. Usually, the festival of the earth goddess was blessed with sweet dreams and quiet nights.

The other Temple boys suppressed a groan and buried their faces in their pillows as Remund rushed back in to remake his bed. To his credit, he was very quick about it, tucking the sheets in with just a few quick, efficient motions and smoothing the coverlet over it all in perfect order. Then he sat on it all and made it look just imperfect enough to look slept in and rushed. The matron had caught on to his trick a while ago and knew what to do when the bed was too perfect.

When he was finished, Remund went to the corner beside the window and sat down on one of the mats on the straw platforms, crossing his legs in a fluid, practiced gesture and closing his eyes, trying to push aside what he saw in his dreams the night before.

People were screaming in his dreams. Stone fell from collapsed doorways, arches, walls, crushing fleeing shadows as they tried to escape the flames. Here and there, things would explode. Creepers would walk in front of people, blowing them into little more than vapor. He tried not to focus on that too much. The spindly green creatures were frightening enough, but the people... He couldn't see them clearly- just a slip of fabric here and there, the flare of a torch, the lower half of a mother's face bending down over a swaddled babe cradled in her arm. But he could hear their pain, their fear.

A castle. He always saw the castle. Banners fell flaming from their windowsills and flagpoles. A great causeway exploded from within, and a crown tumbled down and down into the abyss. It wasn't much, just a thin circlet of gold, barely enough to catch the light. Delicate enough to be a woman's crown, and the sort that would be worn only to gently remind others of her station and nothing more.

But the dreams didn't end tonight with the crown. They went on. There was a rider, running her horse into a lather across the dark predawn plains, leaping fences and ignoring the angry shouts of farmers as she trampled their fields. Her cloak streamed out behind her, the green of a forester or a ranger. A ray of light illuminated her face, and Remund could see that she was still a young woman, but she seemed weathered and aged, under a dark tan and frown lines. She crossed field and forest, reaching the Temple as the sun rose. Her horse collapsed beneath her, chest heaving, and she stumbled away, continuing the rest of the way on foot and pounding on the Temple doors.

The sun traversed across the sky as the dream changed, and the sky and white walls of the temple were red under the light of the sunset, and the clouds above were a bruised purple, covering all but a fine line of the sky at the horizon. Dry lightning raced across the massive underbellies of the thunderheads, threatening to strike, but even as thunder rumbled no rain came.

Then the earth began to shake. It started as a deep rumble in the hearts of the mountains to the west, and it traveled along the length of the range, growing stronger as it came closer and closer to the Temple. Rock began to fall, plaster began to crack.

The proud top of Notch's Peak began to shudder, and with a sound like the mountain itself screaming, the peak cracked in twain, and the two halves tumbled down the snowy face of the mountain, bringing with them an avalanche of ice and snow and rock and scree that grew larger with every meter. The Temple, the Library, and even the Great Sanctuaries were crushed and buried beneath a black tide of rubble.

Remund jerked when someone touched his shoulder.

"Matron's coming," someone whispered in his ear. With a nod, Remund uncrossed his legs and stood, shuffling his sleeping tunic back into its proper place and hurrying to the bed, throwing on his robes and tugging at the corners of his coverlet along with all the other boys in the room. The black-robed matron appeared in the doorway, and her glance didn't linger for more than a few moments on Remund. As she stiffly patrolled right past him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He would have to see the head priest this morning. His nightmares had come during Terra's Festival- such dreams were nearly always prophetic if they didn't include the typical pleasures of spring.

The Matron snapped her fingers and dismissed the boys, and Remund followed the tide out the door to attend to his daily duties with the others.

The Night Before

Lydia blinked at the lights in the distance, and wondered what to do. With every moment that passed, her intuitive warning of danger grew stronger, but without a concrete enemy, she couldn't do anything at all about it.

Fireworks exploded somewhere over her head, making her flinch. Taking a deep breath, Lydia went back inside where the noise was somewhat dampened and opened her weapons chest, pulling out her riding gear. Stripping off her gown, she pulled on her leather chaps and cotton shirt, putting on her leather tunic and iron-reenforced forearm guards and strapping on her sword belt. Hopping on one foot and then another to get on her boots as she crossed the room, Lydia hurried out the door and down the stairs. She almost ran straight into Hanna in her rush.

"Lydia!" Hanna exclaimed. "What ever is the matter?"

"Something's wrong," Lydia said, glancing at Corren, trying to think. "I spotted something outside the castle walls, and it's given me a bad feeling."

"Well, can't the other guards do something about it?" Hanna tried to grab Lydia's arm, but she pulled away, continuing down the stairs.

"I'll alert them myself." She stopped and turned at the base of the staircase. "What I saw outside the walls were lights. They weren't from the town, and it wasn't firelight. Something strange is going on, and I doubt anyone else has seen what I have."

Hanna sighed. "Be careful, Lydia." Lydia nodded curtly.

"I will."

Lydia made her way down the mostly-empty corridor, her soft boots quiet on the flagstones. There weren't any party guests here, but the palace regulars gave her inquisitive looks as she passed, mostly directed at her armor and sword. Peeking around the corner, Lydia spotted several nobles that knew her well enough meandering outside the ballroom, which sounded packed. Swallowing, she took another hallway, exiting the keep through the servant's door.

The tower guard greeted Lydia with a grunt as she jogged up the stairs onto the wall, which she returned with a nod. Once on the wall, the wind whipping at her tightly braided and pinned hair, Lydia started scanning the hills for any sign of the lights she saw earlier.

They were gone.

Shaking her head, she began to jog along the wall, looking for any sign of mischief. At each gate, she called to the guard if he had seen anything. Some of the guards were too drunk to answer straight- she marked them for punishment in the morning. Perhaps while they were still hungover. Shaking her head, she ran on.

Then heard something that made her freeze in her tracks.

As she listened, she heard the crank and clatter of a portcullis gate opening, and when she looked down, a dark-cloaked figure ran through. Heart in her throat, Lydia backtracked to the nearest tower and pounded on the door. On the tenth knock, the door burst open to reveal a wary-looking sentry that glared at her.

"What ails?" he asked gruffly.

"Someone just came through the cliff gate, someone in a black cloak. I heard the gate open but no challenge from the guards. Something bad is about to happen. Rally the guards." Lydia answered, still a little breathless. The sentry squinted at her.

"Are you sure, Lady?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Lydia snapped. "Rally the guards or enjoy your reassignment to the bogwatch." That got the sentry moving. The bogwatch was Lydia's personal creation- a unit where she assigned troublemakers, to keep witches and other bog-monsters from escaping the confines of the biome. It was hot, sticky, mosquito-bitten work, and not without the added dangers of the monsters that arose by night.

Satisfied, Lydia took the tower stairs down to ground level off the wall and ran to where she had seen the intruder enter. The portcullis was open, and the two guards manning it were both slumped against the wall, dark spreading stains on the ground around them. Lydia didn't have to check to know they were dead.

Footprints in the dust led towards the outside entrance of the dungeons, following the path that hugged the cliff. Lydia looked around, but there were no guards nearby enough that she could call for help in time. Mentally cursing, she followed the trail on the little-used path and caught sight of a dark cloak vanishing around a corner.

"Gotcha," Lydia whispered, drawing her sword. She began to creep forward around the corner, but froze when she smelled something burning. There was a distinctive hiss.

Twine and wax. That was a dynamite fuse.

Dropping her sword, Lydia clapped her hands over her ears and dove for cover under a wagon against the cobblestone wall. An explosion rocked the night, and dust blew over Lydia from the road, coating her entirely and getting under her tunic. Peering out from under her cover, Lydia spotted the dark figure escaping out into the night again right past her, not even glancing at where she hid.

Scrambling out from under the wagon, Lydia reclaimed her sword and looked around the corner to see what had been blown up and immediately went the other direction. All the monsters that had been captured and put away in the dungeons were escaping now, all the creatures that would rise again each night even after they were repeatedly killed. A hail of arrows followed Lydia, slamming into the wall behind her as she rounded a corner.

The guards were up and about now. Lydia waved for them to flee towards better cover. "Breakout!" she cried. "Dungeon breakout! Defend the guests!"

An arrow whizzed past Lydia's ear and struck a guard ahead of her in the throat. Risking a glance over her shoulder, Lydia redoubled her pace. The monsters were gaining. More arrows came by- Lydia turned and struck a few away with her sword. One lodged itself in her upper arm, making her stumble back. A guard came to her aid, but a creeper got to him first. The explosion reduced him to a red mist that splattered across Lydia, and the blast sent her off her feet and tumbling to the ground. A zombie came in for the kill, but Lydia swung wildly with her sword, knocking off its barely-attached leg and then beheading the monster.

Stumbling to her feet, Lydia ran for the keep, shouting the alarm all the way. She could already hear the screams of the party guests as the first wave of escaped monsters found easy prey. Snatching a red-gowned lady by the arm, she hauled her into the walls of the keep and ordered the guards to get everyone inside and then bolt the doors.

"Cedric!" Lydia shouted. A guard in ceremonial uniform looked up from where he was finishing off a spider outside the keep's doors. "Get to the king! Warn him!"

Cedric nodded and ran in, but a wave of arrows flew through the door after him. Two struck Lydia at an angle, one glancing off her raised arm guard as she ducked, the other grazing her leather tunic and leaving a long tear in the tunic and the shirt underneath. Blood oozed from a shallow cut beneath.

Cedric was not so fortunate. Four arrows punched through his armor in his back, but he did not slow. Reaching the throne room, he stumbled to his knees, crying "Your majesty!" all the way.

Richard sprang to his feet from his throne as the dying guard fell inward. "What's going on?" he demanded, rushing up to the guard. It was Cedric, one of his elite personal guard.

"Dungeon break," Cedric coughed. "Monsters-" He didn't finish. Swaying on his knees, Cedric fell face down and did not stir.

Richard was horrified, and about to demand that someone verify this claim when an arrow flew through the open door and missed him by a hair, slamming into the back of his throne. Brow furrowing, the king, went to the edge of the throne room. "Summon the King's Own to me," he called to the guards behind him, and exchanged his crown for the polished diamond helm on his father's armor stand. Picking up the diamond sword, Richard led the way out of the throne room with the guards at his back and charged.

The king's old sword lessons paid off, fortunately. This wasn't his first battle, although he had never faced violence on this scale before. The last guest was brought inside the keep, and the doors boomed shut. The guards, aided by Lydia and her team of the King's Own, hauled the massive iron crossbar in place to secure the door. Now all they had to do was deal with the monsters that had managed to get inside.

"How did they get out?" Richard called to Lydia as they fell into rhythm together, fighting the zombies and skeletons threatening the nobility in the courtyard.

"Someone broke in and blew the wall off the dungeon. South side, by the cliff."

"Explosives?"

"Naturally. I couldn't catch the intruder. I was overrun before I could give chase."

Richard ducked a swipe from a sword-bearing zombie and parried another stroke. Lydia stepped in and skewered the beast on her own sword, letting it fall limply to the ground.

"We didn't have this many in the dungeons, did we?" the king asked. Lydia considered the question for a moment.

"I don't know. Where else could they have come from?" She was about to add something else, but a shout from the keep's watchtower stopped her.

"Breach! The main gate is breached!" The crier's voice rang out clearly just as there was a lull in the battle, and Lydia heard an ominous rumble. "Intruders at the-"

An explosion blasted the keep's doors inward. Several armored guards were crushed between the flying iron-studded doors and the stone walls. Lydia winced, but her eyes widened when she saw the figure standing in the ruined door frame.

Herobrine.

Without taking her eyes off the cloaked figure before her, Lydia grabbed Richard's shoulder and roughly shoved him towards the throne room doors. "Get out of here. Now." Richard, eyes equally wide, obeyed without question. This was not his battle. Swallowing hard, Lydia raised her sword, but did not attack. She didn't think she could defeat someone as powerful as this.

Herobrine raised his arms by his sides, and the ground on either side of him cracked and lumped up. Something was struggling to surface. Lydia still stood there frozen, fixated in place by the one feature that was absolutely wrong, something that struck fear into her very core.

Herobrine's face was the same, but his clothing was tattered and worn. There were fresh weals and new scars on nearly every patch of exposed skin, but the one thing that screamed of wrongness was his eyes. They should have been dark and warm, those sparkling, welcoming eyes Lydia knew.

Instead, they were glowing death-white.

Not staying to find out what Herobrine was summoning, Lydia turned and ran, following the horde of screaming guests into the throne room.

Hanna was at the door leading to the ballroom when Lydia made it inside. Her sister's face was pale, and Corren was in her arms rather than at her side. She already had her hair down and her purple dressing-gown on, but she still wore her crown.

"What's happening?" Hanna asked, her regal voice trembling. Lydia glanced outside the doors. Nearly everyone was inside, but that protection wouldn't last. Herobrine was advancing, and in his hands now was a long black sword.

Closing her eyes, Lydia took a deep breath and found herself in a moment of total clarity. The exits were blocked by monsters, and their best defenses were down. Nearly half the guards were dead already, and the rest wounded. Lydia and the King's Own could hope to hold off the monsters and Herobrine for a few minutes at best. This would be no glorious battle for Arrenvale.

This was about to be a massacre. And in that moment, Lydia realized that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, she could do to prevent it from happening.

The best she could do was save her family.

"Richard! Hanna!" Lydia cried, pointing at her sister. Richard nodded and dropped his sword, running to his wife and taking her by the arm, half-dragging her across the throne room to the spiral stairs leading up to the causeway. The elevated bridge across the castle grounds to the cliff tower was their best bet to escape. So long as the way down the tower wasn't already blocked.

Lydia took a moment to sheathe her sword and snap off the arrow shaft near to the arrowhead sticking out of her arm before following.

But then she saw a group of zombies following her sister and brother-in-law.

Drawing her sword again, Lydia charged and cut down two of the zombies before her sister saw her.

"NO Lydia!" she screamed, fighting against Richard's grip. "Don't stay for us! Find a way out! Run!"

Backing away from the remaining monsters, Lydia caught up with her siblings and urged them on. They had nearly reached the causeway now, and Lydia stopped and turned, prepared to defend the way in and buy time.

An explosion from behind knocked her off her feet.

It was several moments later before Lydia was able to blink the black spots out of her eyes and regain her footing. Clumsily picking up her sword, she turned, to see Hanna and Richard struggling to their feet on the other side of a massive gap in the causeway floor. The structure wouldn't hold from another explosion.

"Hanna!" Lydia screamed, but her cry was cut off as a zombie approached from behind and bit into her shoulder. Enraged, she hacked it down, and stopped to clap her free hand over the wound. That swing had burned like fire, and sure enough, the teeth had gone clean through her leather tunic. Her ears began to ring loudly, a result of the explosion.

"Get out of here!" Hanna screamed back. "Run!"

There were too many monsters surrounding her and blocking the way to the causeway for her to protest. Lydia fled, taking a side hallway out of the palace and fighting through any monsters she encountered. Her vision was beginning to swoop and blur, and blood trickled from her various wounds. But she didn't stop until she had escaped the palace and kept on running, following the very path she had chased the intruder down in the first place, the one between the keep walls and the solid mass of the cliff. There were few monsters left here, with no living prey left to interest them. Lydia ran through the portcullis gate and kept going, leaving the castle far behind her. She took a horse from the royal stables in the nearby town and rode onward, moving farther and farther from her home with no clear sense of where she would go next.

Her sister's screams haunted her all the way.

Amanda the Huntress here.

Yep, I'm back. My school year is almost over here (Can I get a long-overdue AMEN?!) so I obviously have plenty of time to write again. This is certainly very, very nice. For me, and certainly for you. I've kept you waiting more than a month now.

An apology probably won't cut it, so I'll just promise more timely updates (again) and hope I keep to that promise (again).

Now- just a word to the wise: This is the second book in my trilogy, not the first. If you've read this far, remember that you need to read the first book as well, which would be Huntress's Tale. I'll be working on that one more often than this one, I'm afraid. Huntress's Tale has been neglected.

How did I do in this chapter? Remember to REVIEW, to let me know (Because frankly, how else could I know unless someone speaks up?), and if you liked what you saw and want more where this came from, FAVORITE or FOLLOW as well.

See you next update!

Huntress out.