Chapter 38: Ewoden
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Before the blade could strike Ramak, Ewoden's Havoc axe acted as a shield and sent it cascading backwards. Gaunt turned in alarm, just in time to see the blade of another axe could arching toward him. With a sickening crunch, Malice sunk into the armour around his shoulder and bit the flesh within. He cried out staggering back in pain.
Using the momentary confusion to his advantage, Ewoden tore his axe from the startled knight and arched it back at the nearest Sarafan solider holding the Master-Smith down.
The curved blade smashed through armour and cleaved the man's entire torso in half in a spray of blood. The body fell back against the floor convulsing. With his arm freed, Ramak grabbed one of the Sarafan and twisted the limb back until it broke displaying his enhanced strength.
The unmistakable hiss of swords being drawn reached Ewoden's ears and reacting instinctively, he about faced and tossed Havoc through the air. The axe smashed into one of the Sarafan and sent him flying back through a window and out into the street outside.
"You!" Gaunt snarled; his eyes set on Ewoden. "I have prayed for this moment ever since you revealed what sort of devil you are!" The former knight turned with both axes in his hand to face him. Gaunt brandished his sword towards him threateningly with a fire of malice burning on his face. "This is for my brother!" He swung his blade down and Ewoden blocked it with Havoc, before swinging Malice around in a circle trying to strike him. Gaunt dodged it and while spinning, raised his right hand. A fire ball burned for a moment between his fingers before the spell completed itself and the attack flew at the former knight.
Ewoden caught it full in the face and was sent cascading backwards long the floor until he slammed into the bookcase, a collection of literature falling out and half burying him.
"Your brother was trying to kill me." Ewoden replied as he picked himself back up. "I was simply defending myself."
"Do not try to pass off your evil as self defence, demon." Gaunt snarled turning to face him with his sword left aloft. "The lord god has opened my eyes and allows me to see through the torrent of lies that stream from your mouth."
"I harboured no malice against your brother and I harbour none against you." Ewoden continued regardless. "It is you who is the aggressor, not me."
"Cease thy heretical babbling!" Gaunt declared, firing another spell at Ewoden. This one sent bolts of blue lightning coursing through the air. The former knight ducked and the struck the books behind him. The pages burst into flames and quickly spread. "I will not let you profane my brother's martyred sprit with your black lies!" He raced forward with his sword drawn high. Ewoden arched his hands together with the words of a spell already all his limps. His palms flew forward and a shockwave passed through the air, the full burnt of it sending Gaunt flying out the only unbroken window in a spray of glass.
"We must flee this place." Ramak announced as confused shouts began outside. Gaunt had landed onto of a platoon of soldiers and was already getting back up, howling in anger. Ewoden scoped up his axes before pushing one of the bookcases over the door blocking it. It was not slow them down for less than an instant, but that may be all they required.
The fire was spreading across the wall and the curtains had already been set ablaze, the flames spreading up towards the ceiling. The two of them bolts out of the burning library and into the kitchens. They could already hear Sarafan soldiers racing into the manor by the score. Ramak almost flew down the trapdoor into the cellar with Ewoden close behind. The entrance to the secret escape route lay open for them, a false wall concealing the tunnel.
The master-smith went first and Ewoden back him up; replacing the concealment as soon as they were through.
"We can not risk them following us." Ramak announced and held out his hand, muttering the arcane language of the ancients as he uttered a spell. The ground beneath their feet vibrated angrily for a spilt second and the stone and motor began to collapse, burying the entrance to the tunnel in rubble. "Come, that may not hold them for long."
The tunnel was long and winding and judging by the distance, Ewoden guessed that they had travelled across town. Finally, they came to a junction where a large copper pipe wide enough for a man to stand up inside jutted out into the tunnel. The escape route was part of Willendorf's sewer system.
Ramak lead them down the pipe, wading through the knee high water and into near total darkness. Eventually they came across a hole in the pipe and they descended through that.
Waiting for them on a stone platform above an underground stream was Obelisk.
"Sire, what happened?" He asked as the two of them descended a rope ladder to join him.
"I was recognised." The master-smith relented with a sigh. "If it were not for Ewoden's timely intervention, my head would be a pike right now." He glanced past him towards the doorway leading further into the sewers. "Where are the others?"
"We have decided to regroup at the warehouses along the western docks." Obelisk replied. "The Princess is being escorted by her personal guard back to the keep."
"Good, then this evening has not been a total loss." Ramak said with relief. "Quickly, show me to the meeting place. I have to see what effect the current inquisition had and reorganise our groups for the coming assault." He turned to face Ewoden. "Are you injured?" Apart from the sting of the fire ball spell, Ewoden had sustained no injury in the brief clash. "Good. Then if you're up to it, I have a special assignment for you."
"For me?" Ewoden asked sounding a little surprised.
"Strange shipments of bones and other human remains were brought in through the docks last night, at pier 56." The Master-Smith continued. "They were taken by the keep under heavy guard. I suspect them to be used in some sort of ritual and I doubt it will be friendly to our cause.
I want you to find out what this entails exactly. Sabotage their efforts if you can or must, but it is imperative we know what they're plotting so once you have finished your observation you can find us at the docks." The former knight nodded.
"I understand."
"You saved my life this night Ewoden." The Master-Smith added quickly. "I would prefer for you not to die, and the Sarafan will be there by the score. Avoid being seen..." With that, both he and Obelisk disappeared inside the doorway and vanished into the darkness.
Ewoden released the pent up sigh of relief he had been holding. He had just prevented one of the events his vision showed him would happen. Perhaps he had been correct in speculating that those events were not events that 'would' happen, but rather what 'might'.
Still, the image of Ramak falling did not leave his mind and lingered like a vengeful phantom. Had he averted that event or just postponed it?
From this point the sewers were remarkably easy to traverse and before too long he arrived back at the surface. Pushing the cover aside, he climbed up into a secluded alleyway. His arrival had been concealed behind some large stacked crates so anyone gazing in would not have seen him.
Peering out, he saw a stones throw from the market places that crowded around the bridge that ran from the mainland to the fortified island keep. Being so late and night, the only ones out on the streets were those without homes and the guards.
The docks in question were not far away, but they were within spitting distance of the fortified bridge. The Sarafan would be near omnipresent in those docks. The streets were far too dangerous so instead Ewoden took to the rooftops, using the canopy of tiles to cross unseen above as he neared the water's edge. The towering fortresses placed at either end of the bridge were viable through the mist that clung to the encircling river. The docks were nearby, a collection of ships and fraters still waiting at the piers while cranes removed their cargo. From the shadow of a tall chimney, the former knight watched carefully.
His face still stung from the fireball spell Gaunt had hurled at him. He ran his hand across his chin but the stinging continued.
"Did you hear, they found a Cabal hideout in the noble's district. Tonight as well." Ewoden leant over the side of the roof to see two guards standing beneath. They were apparently acting as watchmen for the crates being unloaded from the nearby ship.
"They did? But I didn't see anything about it in the official dispatches." One of them replied.
"You're not likely to, they all got away. Escaped down some escape passage into the sewers. They lost the trail, even with magic. I heard it all from Kirsk when he came off duty."
"Good lord, that'd be embarrassing."
"You bet, I heard their leader; Gaunt I think his name was, killed one of his own soldiers 'cause he was so angry." The other guard gave a disapproving sigh and shuffled his feet. "You hungry, 'cause I am."
"I could go for something." The other replied. "Here, why don't we go off duty a little early and get ourselves something?"
"The officer off the watch will have our heads for leaving these crates unguarded."
"Oh he'll never know. Look, how about 'I' go off and get some food for the both of us while 'you' stay here and watch the crates."
"Fine, but if we're done for it you're the one taking the fall." They began chattering about what they wanted and Ewoden made a move to get away. Unfortunately his foot dislodged a piece of loose stone and it fell off the roof and crashed to the ground.
"What the hell…" One of the guards began glancing up as the pile of broken fragments nearby. Ewoden held his breath and leaned back into the shadows.
"Just a piece of loose mortar, you're gettin' paranoid in your old age." The other said, writing the incident off as an accident.
The guard glanced along the rooftops, before sheathing his sword and turning away. Ewoden, as silently as possible slide down the side of the building's drainpipe and darted behind a crate behind he could be spotted. Using the series of crates as cover, he darted long the docks until he came to where the piers began.
There was numbered and the nearest was pier 40. Ramak had said… pier 56.Reading along the signs, the former knights spotted the one he was looking for. He was in luck, there was still a ship anchored at pier 56. All the crates had just been unloaded and the crew appeared to be preparing the vessel to get underway again.
"What's in these crates anywho?" One of the sailors at the bottom of the gangplank asked the first mate.
"Don't know and don't care. The gold's good enough so we don't ask questions." He replied gruffly. "The convoy'll be here to pick it soon enough." Creeping through the crates, Ewoden listened intently to every word.
Were these the shipments of human remains Ramak had spoken of? He sniffed the box beside him and the unmistaken scent of death came wafting out. His scene of smell, enhanced by the werewolf curse, told him he was standing in an open grave.
Just to confirm it, he pulled aside one of the wooden panels on the nearest crate and peered inside. The leering scowl of a skull met his eyes, marked on the forehead with blood script letters.
The clatter of horse's hooves broke the silence and Ewoden glanced up to see the banner of the order fluttering from the top of a collection of merchant carriages.
"This 'ere's the last shipment." The first man began to someone. "Sign…" his words were cut off by the sound of a sword being drawn. There was a sudden gasp followed by a loud wrenching as steal sliced through flesh. Ewoden knew the sound well enough.
He risked a glance around the side of the crate and watched as the last of the crew were dropped over the side of the dock and into the waters by armour clad knights. They were being silenced. The order wanted these bones for something and didn't want anyone to know they'd so much as taken the shipment.
"Get these loaded and quickly." Someone directed and the sound of feet wrapped in chain-mail began to draw nearer. Ewoden ducked back as a glyph knight began to move around the edge of the crate. As he neared, the former knight drew his axe up and tensed his muscle.
When Havoc came crashing down, it sank into his chest plate and directly into the heart; silencing the man before he could cry out. Knowing what he had to do, Ewoden removed the knight's helmet, shoulder pads and boots. He took off his own leather wrappings and placed the boots on. They were a size too big but it might go unnoticed. The shoulder pads went next followed by the helm. The cape he quickly detached and hung around himself.
Quickly he dragged the body over to the water and let it drop gently down out of sight.
With his disguise in place, no one noticed him as he aided the Sarafan in placing the crates on the wagons. Once the task was accomplished the convoy prepared to leave. The knights climbed in and Ewoden followed them. They were all half asleep at this time of the night and didn't even notice that one of their number had lining furs underneath his armour.