Enjoy…
Chapter 2: To Falador
The small group of kids stopped at the mine entrance. James was still a young boy, and was with a group of kids around his age. Most of them were desert folk, but that made sense. His father had business to do in the desert and told him to go play. James instantly found a group of boys and introduced himself. They said they were headed to the mine and asked if he wanted to go, he happily obliged.
The mine was cut into the desert, it was surrounded by high cliffs that would be impossible to climb and deadly to drop in. The only entrance was from the south, at the north end it stopped. All of the boys stood there, when finally one of them pushed James forward. Scared, James ran back to the group. They laughed and continuously pushed and shoved him, deeper into the mine. They were all considerably stronger than him, even the young ones. They were all being raised as fighters.
James finally screamed stop, and much to his surprise, they obliged. With looks of terror on their faces, they turned around and ran for it. Happy with himself, James slowly set back out towards the city. As he walked he thought he heard one of the boys behind him. Must be a joke he thought.
When he turned around he was instead face to face with a giant scorpion. It led out a hiss and reared its poison barbed tail, ready to attack. James closed his eyes, preparing for the worst. Nothing happened, then the scorpion hissed again. When James opened his eyes, he saw a boy of the desert, no more than two years older than him, fighting the scorpion with nothing but a steel sword. The boy was rather small in comparison still though, and James now feared for his life, as well as his own.
It turns out his stature was his biggest friend though. The boy slid underneath the scorpions legs easily and struck down hard on the tail, severing it in two. The sound the scorpion made was as close as it could get to a shriek of pain, before it fell to the ground, lifeless. The boy turned around and smiled.
"What's your name?" James inquired. The question echoed until James was surrounded by black, and began to shake.
James found himself being pushed and shoved. He finally opened his eyes and saw Haddlin. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. Everyone was packing their things and piling them on their horses. They had wasted no time getting ready.
No one said a word, nothing needed to be said. Mark and Merk looked grim, Sakir avoided everyone, and Danik and Haddlin weren't talking about battle strategies or anything of the like. Danik even looked worried, they all new their future looked bleak.
As James sat down for breakfast he looked up, no birds flew overhead. The sky was gray, a bad omen in times of war, Haddlin had whispered to him while they ate. They had steamed cabbage for breakfast, it was quick to make and horrible to taste. They day had already started out bad.
Danik told them it was about a half a days ride to Falador. Their mission was to assassinate Sir Amik Varze and escape to the northern gate. They would rendezvous at the dwarven mines with some Varrock officials who would escort them home. The chances of succeeding were very slim, not only were there city guard every where, Sir Amik Varze lived in the White Knight castle, and they would have some trouble getting through.
According to Varrock spies there was a break in the western wall that was where they were headed. From their, they were on their own, the spies had long since retreated or been caught.
James mounted his steed as did the others. They walked in a straight line formation, Danik first, then Mark and Merk, James came next, and Sakir and Haddlin bringing up the rear. They slowly passed the stone wall that divided Draynor (who was neutral in the war) and Falador country. As they went James could hear the waves crash at the nearby port. He had never seen the sea, only the River Lum. If he made it through the end of the war, he would come visit here, maybe even take a ship to a nearby island. If, I make it trough this, he thought somberly.
"I forgot to ask, who was the wizard?" James inquired, trying to make conversation.
"He was gone when I returned to the village, must of teleported somewhere. He should be friendly though, considering what he did. He probably went to Lumbridge or Varrock; I believe they have teleport spells to there." When Danik finished talking, everyone was silent; obviously no one wished to speak.
They continued westward from where the road parted north until Danik thought they were in the right spot. The headed north from there and came to the gate next to a peculiar mage who seemed to busy to notice them. They let their horses go here, only taking their weapons and armor with them and continued north.
They walked until they came to the break in the wall. It was still pretty high, just low enough for them to climb over. They all glanced at each other and nodded. One by one the climbed into Falador.
"Now what?" James whispered to the others. They didn't say a word and surveyed their surroundings. They were obviously better at these things than him but he began to look around anyway.
All the walls were made of whitewashed stone. The city was much cleaner than even Varrock, from what James new, he had never actually been in Varrock. In front of them was the bank, and a little north of that were four guards talking to each other. James couldn't hear what they were saying, probably something irrelevant.
"We need those guards, everyone follow me," said Danik as he ran to the shadows where the western wall and southern wall meet. "Guards, Guards, Come quick!" he shouted as loud as he could. He signaled everyone to draw their weapons. The guards quickly came over and were quite surprised at what they saw.
The minute they came into view Haddlin blasted one with an arrow. He fell to the ground and the other guards crowded around him to see if he was alive. Sakir, Mark and Merk ran up to the other three while their backs were turned and slit their throats.
"So tell me again why we just killed them?" said James, still not used to the whole aspect of killing.
"We're all wearing armor, but not white knight armor nor guard armor, the only people who wear armor in this city, meaning we would easily be noticed as Varrock soldiers, we needed disguises," said Danik as he pulled off their chain mail.
"But there are only four!" Mark yelled louder than was probably safe.
"I realized that, Mark and Merk, you two will have to take off your armor and pose as spies that we caught in the city. Put some chain mail on under your shirt though for at least some protection. Also, I know how hard it is for you two to act serious in the midst of a crowd, but please try. We can't have you waving to the crowd in times like these," Danik said and signaled for James and Sakir to grab Merk's arms, he and Haddlin got Mark.
The twins looked hurt that Danik would even say such a thing but didn't respond; instead they let themselves be taken. They were slowly dragged out in front of the bank and were headed for the white knight castle.
"Hey mister," said a little boy pulling at Haddlin's pant leg, "what did these guys do?"
"They're Varrock spies, we're lucky we caught them when we did," Sakir responded trying to fake a smile. This was met by loud gasps from the villagers now lining the streets to see them. They all look disgusted; some even threw rocks and old rotten food at them. The Faladorians really hated Varrock, whereas, in Lumbridge at least, they all hated the war itself, not the Faladorians.
They continued on until they saw a bridge to what looked like the white knight castle. They slowly crossed the bridge with Mark and Merk's feet dragging on the ground.
"What business do you have here?" asked one of the white knight in the courtyard.
"These spies were caught snooping around the city, we came to report them to Sir Amik Varze," said Danik coolly.
"Then on your way, if you haven't been in the castle before just up the ladder in the east room and follow the corridor to the south. There will be a staircase there, which leads to Sir Amik Varze's room."
They thanked the white knight and couldn't help but smile as the walked into the castle. Their smiles froze in a second, they looked to the cage at their left, two corpses lay there, next to them was the symbol of Varrock.
"We better do this right," Mark whispered to them, "Or that's where we end up."
They just nodded and continued on. They slowly walked up the stairs. The castle was amazing, James had to admit. It was all whitewashed stone, all the furniture was nicely polished, and the men were well trained. When they went up the stairs James saw a library with many books, he didn't get a good look at them but they were all very large volumes which undoubtedly contained magic spells and battle tactics. James never learned to read so he wouldn't know.
They continued on the corridor until they came to the final room with the stairs in it. "Sir Amik Varze is up there, continue on," said one of the two guards there. They nodded and walked up the stairs.
"What do you want?" said Sir Amik Varze. The war had obviously damaged him, physically and mentally. He looked very paranoid, with even the slightest noise and he'd jump. There were books all over the room, most of them were torn in places, some had something spilled all over them, on others the ink had smudged. Sir Amik was reading a very large book that Danik identified as "Gnome Battle Tactics." Sir Amik was definitely getting desperate.
"Uhh, Sir," said Sakir taking a tighter grip on Merk, "We caught these two spies in the city, we believe they're the only ones."
Danik let go of Mark and walked over to Sir Amik, ushering him to the window. "Even so, we have to be careful, there could still be more in the city," said Danik pointing to random people he suspected of treason, making sure his back was against the rest of the group.
Sakir slowly reached to his belt and pulled out a knife. He clutched it in his right hand and made his way towards Sir Amik Varze. "You have to be careful," he said now right in back of Sir Amik, whispering in his ear, "Anyone could be a traitor." With that, he stabbed Sir Amik in the back and returned the knife to it's sheathe. Sir Amik fell to the floor dead.
"Maybe we should leave, and quick," said Mark. The others agreed and they ran down the stairs.
"What happened?" asked one of the guards at the bottom of the stairway.
"We are to escort the spies to the torture chamber," said Haddlin.
"Oh ok," said one of the guards as he began to walk up the stairs.
"Where are you going," asked Danik nervously, the others were just as shaken as he was.
"Oh, well, I'm supposed to be guarding Sir Amik, he wanted some privacy before and told me to come back in about an hour, I reckon it's been about that time."
Everyone looked at each other, and without thinking Merk took a knife from his boot and stabbed the guard in the neck; Mark did the same to the other guard before he had time to react.
"We should run before someone finds out," said Haddlin, and as if on queue another White Knight walked into the room. He didn't say a word but instead ran outside and yelled at the guard in the tower to sound the alarm. The giant bells began to ring all along the city. The group could here the castle, and city, gates being closed off.
Danik ran up to the man and killed him before he could come back in. "This way, there's a way down to the courtyard from here." Everyone went running over.
They went out onto the wooden balcony and noticed many of the white knights gathered out in the courtyard. Haddlin shot a few of them down and then noticed he was out of arrows. "What do we do?" he yelled concerned. They didn't have much time to think because one of the squires shot a flaming arrow into the balcony. The wood was old and burned fast. "Back inside, back inside!" screamed Haddlin. James, going back in last, noticed all of the other White knights going back in as well.
"They'll be waiting for us, on the Brightside, most of the knights are stationed in battle, but unfortunately for us, the only ones left, besides the squires, are the royal guard, the most elite of their soldiers." said Haddlin.
"Don't forget the gates are also closed," said James.
"If I could get my hands on an arrow and some cloth I could probably light it, the gates are made of wood and would probably burn easily, that's not a problem, I know they have at least one archer," said Haddlin glancing outside the window where the balcony still burned. "Wait a second, what just happened, look, out the window."
Everyone else looked, the flames had all been put out, the balcony soaking wet. The door creaked open; the first thing they saw was the wooden staff. As the figure walked in, they could tell it belonged to an accomplished mage, the staff itself looked very powerful.
"You! You were the ones at Draynor, the ones who fended off the White Knights, they were talking about you!"
No one had time to react; the wizard clutched some red runes and began saying an incantation James didn't understand. His eyes close and he began to hover a little. Haddlin reached for his quiver but realized he had no arrows. Lightning struck his body and down into the ground.
His eyelids shot open, his eyes had rolled to the back of his head. Immense power welled up inside the staff. "Saradomin guide me, help me destroy these foul creatures who go against your word!" yelled the man. He mumbled something James couldn't understand, there was a bright flash, and then James blacked out.
"Who are you?" James repeated to the boy.
"I am Sakir Aljinni of the desert, and unlike those others, I am a friend. I'm sorry for what they have done to you, and hope you're all right." James nodded. "C'mon," he said, leading the way back out of the mines.
When they returned to the city, they stayed with each other for awhile, playing pranks on the guard and trying (with no luck) to convince the shanty to let them through the desert. Indeed, when his father finally tracked him down, telling them they had to leave, James was extremely disappointed. Sakir was the only person he was ever able to call a friend, even in his short day of knowing him. It wasn't that kids didn't like him (besides the ones in the desert) but with so much work to do, he never had time. That was the first time in life he was really enjoying himself, not just getting by. "C'mon James, we have to go!"
"James! James!"
James slowly opened his eyes, he was in a large building, it seemed to be a castle. But not one of Falador, the stone work looked gray. It was beautiful though, with many gilded decorations and candles. The sheets of his bed were made of a fine white silk, has were to clothes he was in although he never remembered changing into them. In fact, he didn't remember anything.
"Wait a second; I must be in Varrock, but how? I just remember being in Falador and a huge flash." Said James to himself. He looked to his right to see Danik perched over his bedside.
"Are you all right?" he asked gently, James thought he would be happy, but he looked far from it.
"What happened?" asked James.
"We were retrieved by Varrock forces once news spread of Amik's death. Sadly though, Sakir is gone, he's presumed dead," said Danik, his voice lowering as he looked down at the floor. "The good new though, is that the war is over now; there are only a few Falador soldiers now that are being easily disposed of. I'm sorry James; I know you and Sakir were great friends." Danik left the room; it would have been too much to see James' reaction.
James didn't react at first, he was happy, happy that the war was over, but he then finally realized, Sakir was gone. He choked for a second, and then let the tears flow freely. He never really had any friends in Lumbridge; Sakir was his greatest friend, his only one unless he counted the others from his unit, although he hadn't gotten to know them as well. He knew that everyone would probably want to see him, they were probably worried, he guessed he was the last to wake up, but he didn't care, he just slowly went back to sleep.
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"So you're saying you want us to join you? In the war? I thought it would be over now"
"Yes, we believe that with your help we can win."
"I don't know, with the loss of your king you are still a weak nation, no offence, Burthorpe won't just be rushing to your aid, it would be a sacrifice of men!"
"We believe we could make some negotiations." As this was said, the man opened up his tent, revealing a dark skinned man tied up with rope over his mouth. "They call him Sakir."
