A Soldier's Life - 448 - (minor edit 9-1-25 +100 words)

Chapter 448:

Two young elven Sentinels were in our blind and nodded to us as they packed up their crossbows and left. Our supplies had been completely restocked, and my composite short bow and two regular long bows had been added under the cover. I picked up my bow, recalling the irony that I had picked this one up in Macha during that hopeless defense so long ago.

Chairs had been added under the triangular roof, and Blaze made himself comfortable and struggled to close his eyes. “How are you still tired?” I asked.

He opened one eye. “I barely slept. Every time the stone floor reverberated, I woke in a panic. A few times, I hallucinated, seeing Adrian or Delmar standing over me.”

“You were lucky it wasn’t Konstantin,” I said, and we both laughed. I offered him a red pill. “An oblivion pill? One shouldn’t interfere with your readiness.”

At first, he looked reluctant, but eventually, he took it, swallowed, and closed his eyes. Adrenaline could surpass fatigue, but the subsequent crashes worsened. With Blaze knocked out, I pulled out the spyglass and moved to the edge of the roof. Looking down at the breakers, I saw two ships anchored; there had been three visible yesterday breaking through the walls.

I scanned toward the isle and found a sail in the distance. After a few adjustments, I zoomed in. The ship was approaching us, but the deck was empty except for a few Nashasari sailors. The large serpent men wore almost nothing, and their green and brown scaly skin reflected the sun. I assumed this ship was bad news if the undead wards had been destroyed.

I checked for more ships and other dangers before calling a runner up to deliver a message to Jalorien. The runner came back telling me they already knew about the ship sailing back to the soulless village, but had not been alerted that it was already returning. With few people on deck, it was likely the hold was packed with undead for tonight’s assault.

I watched the Sentinels on the plateau as they prepared and rested. In my time here, I learned that many of the Sentinels were craftsmen first and warriors second. They still approached their tasks with a dedicated determination. My mind drifted to Benito and Lesna. I just hoped that if Sanctuary fell, the Brotherhood would be gone before they returned. If they were ambushed when sailing into Sanctuary, the entire crew of the Salty Maiden would be doomed.

Evening crept closer with the inevitable approach of the ship. I was hoping the summoning runes around Sanctuary would activate again, and another juvenile kraken would appear, but nothing materialized. I felt a series of rumbles through my feet, indicating the fighting below was resuming in earnest, probably to distract from the ship delivering reinforcements.

I almost felt guilty about remaining on the plateau while such intense fighting was going on below. When I was asked to go, I would answer the call. I pulled out my aether shield amulet to make sure it was charged. I frowned as I sent an earth pulse into the metal. Although it didn’t look damaged, I could tell it was nearing the point of breaking apart, with tiny fracture lines forming. It would work at least one more time, and then I could hopefully get another one. I missed Selene’s dungeon-constructed amulet, which I had taken from Corvus.

I was a little shocked when, in the peripheral of my vision, a Sentinel jumped off another building. At first, I thought he was trying to commit suicide, but then I recognized it was Aurenis. He quickly gained altitude and headed for the incoming ship. It was clear he planned to attack it, and I hoped he would succeed in some manner. Others turned their eyes to watch the encounter.

I took out my spyglass to watch, praying to Fortuna for his success. He settled high over the ship and started dropping vials. When the vials crashed on the deck, a small fireball erupted. When they hit the water, a small fire settled on top of the waves. The ship began to tack back and forth evasively. A gull screeched from below, and my brain instantly processed the danger. I sprinted to Blaze and kicked him, grabbing my bow. Blaze's chair toppled over, and he woke up as he hit the ground.

I was dragging one of the barrels of arrows to the edge as he got to his feet. “Aurenis is in trouble. The gulls are going to attack him,” I shouted as I got to the edge of the roof and saw some of the gulls flocking below. They were hundreds of feet below, and I doubted I could hit them. It didn’t matter as I started to release a steady stream of arrows into the forming flock. Blaze joined me but mumbled the pointlessness of the act. Together, we shot more than a hundred arrows, adjusting our aim as we tracked the flight of the arrows. Only three of the gulls fell to the sea while the flock of some fifty birds moved toward Aurenis.

Helpless, I trained my spyglass on the action, and the ship was burning in three locations with Aurenis half a mile above it. He suddenly saw the gulls and started to return, but it was futile to avoid them. When the flock clashed with him, he had his blades drawn. A few fell from the sky, but he was soon covered. Either his concentration to maintain his flight was broken, or he ran out of aether, and he fell from the sky, failing.

Other sentinels watched him helplessly. At least the alchemical fire was spreading on the deck of the ship and up the masts. The water the crew was using to douse it was only spreading the flames faster. The black smoke got thicker as the ship burned, and whatever horror was in the cargo burned with it. That would be the second of nine ships the Brotherhood had lost. I saw Castellan Jalorien staring out at the ocean, probably deciding if Aurenis’s sacrifice had been worth it.

Blaze sat and drank some water while he stretched his forearm. He had fired two arrows for every one of mine. He clearly didn’t want to discuss what had just happened, even though it counted as a victory for Sanctuary. “Any news on who we will be partying with us tonight?” Blaze asked tiredly.

“Do you need one of these?” I asked, producing an aether restorative.

He waved it away. “Barely takes any aether to use it,” he said, patting his new bow affectionately. “Tore some calluses off my fingertips, though. Can you hand me a healing potion?”

I tossed him one of the potions from the supplies before replying. “No sign of anything flying from the isle yet, but darkness should be upon us shortly.” I noticed the gulls starting to return after making sure Aurenis was dead. “Do you think you can make sure none of those survive the night?” I said angrily.

“Aye, I will do my best,” he said, nodding in agreement. As the gulls settled above us on the plateau, Blaze managed to ground eleven of them before they realized his impressive range and accuracy and soared high out of his reach. Then night fell, enveloping us. With the emergence of flickering stars, glowstones and braziers gradually illuminated the plateau as they did last night. I could hear the Castellan’s voice periodically calling for Sentinels to reinforce certain stairs.

A sustained rumble came from below, continuing for nearly a minute. Then the entrance to the east stair across the plateau erupted in a cloud of dust and explosive air. Jalorien shouted for calm. “It is fine. We collapsed the stairs. Hundreds of the invaders have been killed!” Some weak cheers erupted across the plateau, but the truth was probably several Sentinels were also caught in the collapse—more sacrifices.

A flash from another blind signaled the start of our night. Echoes of “ghoul bats” sounded, and soon everyone was looking at the sky. Tonight, magical flares were launched from one of the rooftops, illuminating the plateau and a good distance out into the ocean. It was similar to Lesna’s use of the spell, but her light was brighter and lasted much longer. The mage casting them needed to refresh it every ten minutes.

The wave of ghoul bats was much less impressive. “Eleven,” Blaze muttered as he counted them.

“The Lich Emperor has an ally still on the isle, then. There are eleven giant bats in the dungeon, and I am guessing these bats are newly raised,” I said, connecting the dots.

The bats just hovered out of range while the rumblings of the fighting within Sanctuary got louder. After almost an hour, I yelled for relief. “Someone take our position!” Blaze looked at me questioningly. “They are just trying to keep us here. The real fight is below.” He nodded, quickly packing.

As soon as two young Sentinels climbed to our roof, I descended to find the Jalorien. He was listening to a message sending in the air, and then called out four names and told them to enter the south stairs. I waited till he wasn’t busy before approaching.

“How far have they retreated below?” I asked.

The Castellan looked at me, recognition on his exhausted face. “We are maintaining positions at the tenth and eleventh levels currently. Fenlorian will be pulling back to the eleventh soon.”

“And who are they defending against?” I questioned.

“We collapsed the eastern stair on the Nashasari warriors, perhaps three hundred supported by at least four mages. The ghouls and the last of the soulless are in the west. The other Nashasari warriors are pushing up in the south and north stairs.”

“How many Sentinels are lost so far?” Blaze asked.

“A third of our strength is dead or unable to fight,” the Castellan said heavily. “The Nashasari warriors are worth three times a soulless, and our defenders are tired and wearing down much quicker tonight.” My thoughts immediately went to Baelira. Was she one of the Sentinels who had fallen in the last two hours?

“If they reach the thirteenth, will Fenlorian retreat to the forty-third?” I asked. The Repository spanned the 13th to 43rdlevels of Sanctuary.

“I do not know what Fenlorian is planning. There is too much chaos below,” he admitted.

“Send me down to help. Tell me where to go,” I said resolutely. Blaze stepped forward, but I shook my head and told him, “Watch over and protect Evie. Your bow is better utilized up here.” He clenched his jaw but knew what I said was true.

The Castellan only looked indecisive for a moment. “Fenlorian should be on the west stairs.” I quickly clasped wrists with Blaze.

Blaze pulled me closer to whisper. “Since Benito is not here, I am betting ten gold we see each other alive and whole again.”

“Agreed,” I said, releasing his wrist and jogging toward the stairs.

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