A Soldier's Life - 443 - Serpents On The Tide (quick edit on 8-24-25)

Chapter 443: Serpents On The Tide

It was a long sail back to Sanctuary, and some of the remaining strongest Sentinels were on the deck of the small fishing cutter. The ship cut through waves against the wind, with water being manipulated by multiple mages on deck. The mood was somber and dark. While the Sentinels were all warriors and trained regularly as such, they were rarely tested. Over the past two weeks, they had failed their tests, and the burden of that failure fell on Fenlorian.

I was on the stern, unable to take my eyes off the Brotherhood fleet. They weren’t chasing us but heading toward the ports of the soulless village. Fenlorian came to stand beside me after talking privately with a few Sentinels. His eyes followed mine even though the ships were now just dots in the distance. “Lepidus is safe?” he asked softly.

“He is.” I needed to know the truth. “You said Lepidus wanted to use me to kill the lich emperor; was this also your goal?”

“No,” was all Fenlorian said. There was a long silence before the High Sentinel spoke again. “The Brotherhood signed their own death warrant, aiding the undead lords.”

“The Sentinels are but 1500, maybe twice that with the Death Hunters. I do not think you could take on a nation of millions for vengeance,” I replied.

“We,” he corrected me when I slipped and used 'you' instead of 'us' while I was speaking. I had joined the Sentinels, but clearly didn’t think myself wholly part of them. “It will not be us, but the other nations that will punish them.” I had only read brief histories of the Brotherhood of Mitzra and knew the serpent men frequently sent large fleets to conquer the continent. It always ended with enemy nations banding together to fight off the invading Nashasari. I wondered if the Nashasari we found in the sect in Godok were part of this conspiracy with the undead.

“Unless no Sentinel survives the attack,” Torandir said from behind us, interrupting my thoughts. The fire mage’s robes were bloody and torn, and he looked exhausted.

“I have considered that. The loss of our ability to send messages by spell may be part of their plan. Still, each of their ships might have 200 Nashasari. Maybe a thousand warriors when you discount the sailors. The soulless number a thousand warriors, and they have lost a hundred in the last two days. The undead lord and their minions would be ineffectual against Sanctuary’s defenses.” I didn’t point out the fact that their focus on defending against the undead was going to be their downfall. The demons had rampaged, and now the Nashasari would do so as well. “We can defend against 2,000 warriors,” Fenlorian said with conviction.

“And their mages?” I questioned. “The Nashasari mage took over the mind of a soulless, sent it into the dungeon, and when we restrained it, it killed the soulless it was possessing. The dungeons are a dozen miles or more beneath the earth. How powerful would he have had to have been to maintain the connection over that distance?”

“The Nashasari have few mages of power,” Fenlorian said dismissively, but a hint of doubt was in the response.

Torandir, one of Fenlorian’s loyal council members, disagreed with him. “Don’t let time and ancient reports fog your objectivity, friend. You know how the Brotherhood breeds, they could have changed in the last two hundred years.”

“How do they breed?” I asked, unfamiliar with the race.

Fenlorian answered gravely, “Like snakes, they lay a clutch of eggs. The nest is left in a chamber unattended. When they hatch, the young are forced to eat each other to survive. Only when one remains does the mother gather the newborn and raise it. It means their strongest survive.”

I was shocked sentient creatures would do such a thing. “That is brutal.” I looked at Torandir as a thought occurred to me. “And you think they might have evolved and care for all the hatchlings? How many in a clutch? How frequently do they breed?”

Torandir seemed to be the expert on the race. “The females come to maturity after ten years, and have an egg cycle every two years. They lay twelve to twenty eggs in each cycle,” said gravely.

“They could number in the billions in a few decades…” I said in disbelief.

“If there were not so much infighting among their castes, they could overwhelm the continents,” Fenlorian interjected. “They are also cold-blooded and do poorly in cold climates.”

“They do send vast armies across the sea every century or so, but the nations band together and repel them. They are a devious race, and now, after breaking treaties and betraying allies so many times, they are rarely received diplomatically,” Torandir explained. “Is Lepidus?” He said, letting the question hang. Fenlorian looked at me as well.

I sighed and considered angling his reappearance so that he ran over the rails. But the boat was moving at a steady speed, and we didn’t have time to turn around and pick him up. Instead, I just made him appear a little off the ground and in a way that he was likely to trip on a coil of rope. “I have him. He is all yours,” I said as Lepidus appeared in stride. His momentum was robbed, and he pushed off with his leg oddly as gravity dropped him six inches to the deck. The rope caught his foot, and he tumbled across the deck, his legs tangling in the rope.

There was a slight commotion from the Sentinels on deck as Lepidus flailed on the deck. My secret was out, but it was unlikely to matter if the Brotherhood attacked. A lot of the Sentinels were just as surprised to see Lepidus without his mask as they were to learn what I could do.

“Lepidus, join us in the stern,” Fenlorian said after he untangled himself with help from a pair of Sentinels. Neither Torandir of Fenlorian seemed surprised nor disgusted by Lepidus’ appearance without his mask.

“We got away?” Lepidus asked when he regained his composure.

“We have fled the isle. But a Brotherhood fleet arrived offshore. They are likely planning to assault Sanctuary,” Fenlorian said. “Why would Septimus Aquilinus work with them?”

Lepidus gave me what was probably an angry glare before he processed the information. “It was a trap. They wanted to weaken Sanctuary before assaulting it. If I had to guess the Emperor’s motivations, I think he plans to destroy the Sentinels and then the Hunters so he can act unimpeded on the mainland. He wants his Empire back, and then the continent. He will target the Citadels after Sanctuary.”

“How did he get the Brotherhood to work with him?” Fenlorian asked again.

“I cannot answer that. I am assuming there is some mutual benefit for both parties, but I cannot even begin to guess what the Nashasari are getting out of it,” Lepidus replied.

Fenlorian looked to Torandir. “I couldn’t guess either. But if these castes are united, it could be terrible news for everyone on Desia. We should send out the cutters to deliver the news.”

“Suicide. They would capsize in any modest storm. We will get the shipwrights on the Mourning After, and it will hopefully be ready to sail before they attack,” Fenlorian said in open thought.

“The more Sentinels you send, the weaker the defenses of Sanctuary will be,” Torandir warned.

“The world cannot handle an undead and Brotherhood scourge at the same time. They need to be warned so they can prepare,” Fenlorian said, undeterred. The discussion turned to preparations that needed to be done as soon as they docked. As the ship sailed into the sheltered cavern, it felt more like a tomb. Did I make a mistake coming here? Was this where the seer saw me and Evie? What difference could placing us here make?

Our arrival was unannounced, and I climbed the stairs to the plateau to find Blaze and Evie eating in the common room. As expected, Evie rushed over and hugged me. Blaze seemed mildly amused, gesturing for me to have a seat. They were eating a fish pie with mushrooms and vegetables. It was clear the mushrooms and vegetables had been rehydrated by their texture and appearance.

“Did it go as planned?” Blaze asked after Evie made sure I was not an illusion.

“Does anything ever go as planned?” I said sarcastically. “They were expecting us and ambushed us. It was all a plan to weaken Sanctuary and kill Fenlorian. They didn’t succeed, but good Sentinels died. Bharok among them,” I said heavily.

“Is Baelira okay!” Evie asked earnestly.

“She is well. She was good friends with Bharok, and it shook her,” I said. Relief flooded Evie’s face.

“What happens now? Is this a repeat of Macha?” Blaze asked, intentionally using a reference that Evie wouldn’t understand.

“The High Sentinel is confident, but I have doubts as we do not know what we are facing when it comes to the Nashasari. I will be going to the repository and researching the Brotherhood in a short while. I just wanted you two to know I was okay.” The fish pie was terrible, but since Evie made it, I finished the helping on my plate.

I didn’t get to go to the repository because the bell rang to gather everyone in Sanctuary on the plateau. It didn’t sound like an urgent summons, but the Sentinels and children went there to find out what was happening. It had been two weeks of uncertainty for the residents, and I already knew the news to be shared wouldn’t be good.

To Fenlorian’s credit, he didn’t sugarcoat the delivery. “Thank you for coming with haste. Time will be precious as we prepare for the greatest threat Sanctuary has ever seen.” Okay, the next time I saw the goliath seer, I was going to give her a piece of my mind, although coming here had been my decision to protect Evie.

The Sentinels went silent as their High Sentinel continued. “The Brotherhood of Mitzra has allied with the undead lords.” Murmurs rippled through the assembled, and Fenlorian waited until they fell silent. “We expect them to attack Sanctuary and leave no one alive, so word of their treachery to the living cannot spread.”

The Sentinels got angrier at this proclamation. They had dedicated their lives to holding back the undead for the living, and this felt like a betrayal. Fenlorian acknowledged their anger and allowed the discontent to grow until he silenced them. “We will not let this happen!” Some cheers and affirmations arose from the crowd. “We need everyone to work tirelessly to prepare for the serpent men’s assault. We will build defenses from the bottom to the top of Sanctuary and make them fight for every inch up the stairs.” More cheers echoed. “We start our preparations now! See your work group leader to find your assigned task.”

“Looks like I am going to be making a lot of arrows,” Blaze murmured unhappily.

“What about me?” Evie asked. “I want to help too.”

“I will walk you down to the hatchery and find out,” I said, rubbing her head. Lepidus was the artificer workshop leader, and he could wait. As we descended the stairs, I did my best to reassure Evie that things would be fine. I assured her there were a lot of powerful mages in Sanctuary, and we had the advantage because we knew they were coming.

We reached the hatchery before many others, but we quickly learned that the chicks and fertilized eggs would be moved up to the plateau. The children of Sanctuary were going to be responsible for saving as much as they could by moving it as far from the conflict as possible. Knowing where Evie was going to be, which stair she would be using, and the final destination of the chicks gave me enough peace of mind to head back to the plateau and report to Lepidus.

The artificers’ workshop was unexpectedly empty when I arrived. Lepidus was alone, packing the runic books into crates. He looked up and had a replacement bone mask—the new one was slightly yellowed with age. “I suppose I should thank you,” he said flatly.

“You're welcome,” I replied.

“If you had—carried—me in your space before we entered the dungeon, we would never have had to enter the dungeon,” Lepidus stated, and that was like a kick to the nuts. He didn’t have to say it for me to know he was transferring the blame of Bharok’s death to me.

“Where are the other artificers? What is my task?” I replied tightly.

“They are enhancing what defenses we can to include the living as well as the undead,” he said, unconcerned about my discontent. Maybe his comment was payback for releasing him on the cutter into the rope. “You will be helping with the plateau defenses. The undead lords have numerous flying creatures they can send against Sanctuary. It will also be our last line of defense, if they manage to ascend from the water to the plateau. Talk to the castellan.” He turned his back on me and started packing the books again.

I found Jalorien directing men on the plateau. He gave a few orders before turning to me. “Rumor is it you are packing a large space?”

“I have been told that I am bigger than most,” I replied reflexively.

“Good.” He put a neatly written list in my hand. “I want all these supplies from the storerooms brought to the plateau.” He turned away to give some orders on a barricade being built. I looked at the list, and it had a storeroom number, with a note of what the castellan wanted from it. I assumed they were in order of importance.

Sentinels were rushing up and down the stairs like ants in a nest to get ready. Most of them carried supplies. Earth mages used stone to block open windows in the stairwell. Other Sentinels built small barricades on the landings of each floor and stocked spears and arrows in barrels behind them. It was a coordinated effort, and everyone looked determined. When I reached the level at the top of the repository, I got off the stairs and paused just long enough to look up where the books on the Brotherhood of Mitzra could be found. When I needed a break, I knew exactly where I would spend my time. For now, I would do my part to help prepare to defend Sanctuary.

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