III
"Ay boys," Stephen Gerrad called from the docks, "There's a late ship coming in." Not far offshore, a badly damaged trading ship limped towards Ramschek, where several men had gathered to unload it. Matthew quickly made his way to join the crowd.
It had been a normal day in Ramschek for Matthew. By normal, that also meant relatively boring for the youth. The only thing that brought excitement was more news about the pirates pillaging the Stormborne Sea. It had been over a week since he had first been told about the pirates, and over half a dozen more sailors had spread the news.
However, all it consisted of was rumors of something that had little effect on him. The monotony of dock work could hardly be broken by a fisherman's stories. He almost missed the battle training he had been enrolled in after he turned fourteen. While learning how to wield a sword and ride a horse was useful and fun, he didn't take to the strictness and routine of a soldier's life.
Now, he was just a sixteen-year-old kid whose only source of real entertainment was on a day like today. When some old fisherman got cocky and thought he could handle waves bigger than he thought.
"How the hell is that thing still afloat?" he muttered under his breath, staring as the ship limped its way into the docks. He had made his way out to the wooden walkway that connected the dock to land.
"Looks like we get some extra work," Sparky yelled to him from the bay where the boat had been tied down.
Matthew ran up to the ship to help the passengers on board, but was surprised to see who came off. Captain Dree Magor, also the province's Governor, stepped off with some other men. Two were locals who often accompanied Magor on trade missions, but there was one other who had a badly hurt arm and seemed to be dressed importantly. Although it was difficult to tell with his clothes soaked and ripped. Finally, the last man who stepped off, Matthew recognized as the militia sergeant. The two boys approached them, wondering what in the world they had gotten into.
"We were ambushed by three Hesperian ships," the boys heard Magor say as they approached, "We lost one ship and every other man."
"One of you, quickly get me the local courier now," commanded the man with the mangled arm. Clearly, the man was in great pain and exhausted, but his manner told another story. He was furious. It didn't help that three of them: Matthew, Sparky, and a new boy named Earl, just stood there in shock until Magor shook them out of it.
"Earl, go get Jakob and tell him to meet us at the pub with his horse," Magor said sternly, and the boy complied. Matthew's older brother was the courier assigned to this town and reported back and forth to Castle Marymont. Like his younger sibling, he'd been living in Ramschek for all nineteen years of his life, but at least had the opportunity to travel. Matthew was three years younger than his brother, but already they had lived very different lives. Unlike Matthew, Jakob had known their parents but only held onto very vague memories of them. Jakob always told his brother that their parents had been visiting family in a town over during a storm, but the family got separated before they could make it. The next morning, Jakob stumbled into Ramschek with a baby Matthew in his arms.
Years ago, Magor had persuaded Jakob to go through training to become a courier at Castle Marymont. Ever since his brother has feverously taken up the duty.
Earl doubtlessly ran to the Hurt's home to find the courier as Matthew joined the arrivals. They began to urgently walk up towards the town with Magor talking ardently with the injured man.
"Is there anything else, Magor?"
"I need a good drink and a fast rider," Magor responded, "Jakob covers one of those and we're on our way to the second." One reason Jakob had listened to Magor years ago in part due to his skill as a rider. Every two years, there is a horse-riding competition at the Carnival Aurelia - a month-long set of competitions with people from all over the kingdom. The horse race is one of the bigger events, and Jakob has ridden to third place in the last three Carnivals.
Soon they arrived at the Sea's Breeze, where Magor had told Earl to meet. They sat down at a table, and Sparky was sent for the town's healer. Unfortunately, the man was not currently in this part of the province, but his apprentice was. A tall, graceful, blonde girl, Matthew knew well. While Katherine was making excellent progress in her learning, she was still very inexperienced. Matthew had fostered somewhat of a crush on her since the day they had met. It didn't take long for the feeling to be reciprocated. A lot of common ground was shared between them as she, too, was an orphan.
While they'd been waiting, the injured man was laid down across a table, and Magor broke into explaining.
Most of what was said didn't seem to make sense. Why would Hesperia attack some simple trading ships? Especially if they belonged to a kingdom currently at peace with them.
After he got his drink, Magor got to the point, "There have been rumors of pirates attacking our Aurelian skiffs and ships. Clearly, we are not dealing with mere pirates."
"We were on a route that brought us through a narrow strait and were attacked by three Hesperian ships. Our other ship got destroyed, and we ourselves barely survived." The mug of ale in his hand was quickly depleted and replaced with another.
"But that's not the worry now," Sergeant Alic interrupted, speaking for the first time, "Usually these attacks have been on lone, civilian boats and have left no witnesses." Alic was one of two sergeants in the Ramschek militia who had been mentored by Magor himself.
"Indeed, something caused the pirates to step up their game and become more aggressive," Magor finished, "They may not have known what exactly we were, but that didn't stop them from attacking." Everything had happened so fast since the arrival of the broken ship that this was finally the first moment the group had time to relax and think.
This silence and stillness were broken by Sparky charging into the inn with Katherine following close behind. Magor was about to fill her in, but got cut off by Jakob and Earl arriving as well. The nervous silence was quickly replaced with chaotic chatter, confusion, and attempts to explain what was going on to the new arrivals.
"Alright, everyone listen up," Magor commanded, slicing through the noise, "Katherine tend to Console Chark, Alic inform Jakob about the message he is to deliver to Marymont, and Earl gather some men to go close off the docks and bring everyone into town." Once he finished, the group dispersed to do their assignments, but Matthew stood alone, ready to do whatever was told of him.
"Matthew, when you were younger, you had quite the talent for climbing," Magor said, "Is that still so?"
"Yes sir, I can still climb up anything from the Milliard's silo to the church tower.".
"Alright, listen carefully. I need you to go to the highest point in the town and look out for any ships coming into Ramschek. Stay long enough to figure out their numbers and then return." A moment later, the boy was at once off to do just that. He knew the highest point was at the top of the church, but that would take too long to climb. So, he went to the next option, which was a storage building that was right by the docks. Not quite as tall, Matthew thought, but there was nothing obstructing its view.
It didn't take long to run to the tower, but Matthew was out of breath once he arrived. It seemed the initial rush from all the excitement had started to die down.
Matthew had climbed this tower probably hundreds of times as a child. It was the perfect place to hide from the stresses of orphanhood, and it was accompanied by a magnificent view. Never once had he felt any sense of nervousness before the climb began, but today was different. Matthew could feel his palms begin to sweat and his arms shake as he felt in his stomach that terrible feeling of tightness.
He found some adequate handholds and paused to reel in his breath. With haste, he started climbing up the side of the building, but when he got only half up, he saw eight ships heading their way. To him, they appeared to be scout ships that he recognized from his brief stint in battle school. These were short, stubby boats with only sails to drive them. Making them out with any confidence from this far was a near-impossible task, though. If he was correct, then Matthew knew from his training that each scout ship had about ten lightly armed men capable of fighting with two or three more crewmen who could join in if necessary. As they got closer, he could make out one longship, too. That would hold whoever was commanding the assault, as well as about fifteen more fighting men. He quickly climbed back down and ran as fast as possible to the inn to warn the others.
Matthew quickly dropped his hands to his knees as he burst through the inn's doors. Inside was chaos: Katherine was working on Chark's injured arm, Jakob was carrying his saddle for his horse with Earl not far behind with a pack bag, Alic was briefing the other sergeant, Phillip, and Sparky and Magor were discussing something over by the bar. But everything came to a standstill at Matthew's interruption.
"Eight ships are sailing this way!"
"What are you talking about, kid?" Console Chark asked, grimacing as he attempted to sit up. Katherine's firm hand put a quick stop to that.
"I told him to look out for any foreign ships that followed us back," Magor said.
"Matthew, how many did you say there were?" he asked, as an obvious expression of fear began to spread across his face.
When Matthew reaffirmed the number, the look of fear spread to the console.
"If I had to guess, then that means there are seven long ships and one flagship holding at least one hundred men," Alic said, looking over at Chark as if to relay another unspoken message.
Philip finally chimed, "If there are that many men, then putting up any sort of a fight would be useless."
Then Matthew realized that he should probably correct Alic's guess, "They appeared to be mostly scout ships with one longship." This seemed to lessen the men's tension a little bit. They knew these soldiers wouldn't be as heavily armed or experienced, although it's not as if the training received by the men of Ramschek was the same training as those in Castle Marymont. Nevertheless, they would be outnumbered four to one at least.
"Alic, you and Philip get the rest of the local guard as well as the rest of our ship guard into defensive positions by the docks," started Chark, "Jakob, I think it's time you headed off to Marymont. The rest of us will have to be ready to fight if the guards are overcome." Sparky, Katherine, and Matthew were all who remained and followed Magor and the injured Chark outside the Seas's Breeze.
"Alright, Chark and I will fight with the guard. You three stay in the town with the rest of the people," Magor said, "Katherine, gather all the women and children into the inn."
It didn't take long to gather all the residents of Ramschek, and Earl led them into the back kitchen. The Sea's Breeze was run by his parents, who helped gather the town, too. Matthew quickly relayed any new information to Earl and his parents. After everyone had been separated, there were roughly twenty-five men left, but only twenty or so who would be able to stand and fight.
Those who were disabled or too old were sent to join Katherine and the others, while the rest looked for any kind of weapon to use if need be.
"Do you think they stand a chance down there?" Sparky asked Matthew while the two were looking through a carpentry shop.
Matthew knew as well as the rest of them that it would take a miracle to fend of the attack, but he didn't want to think what would happen if the men down by the docks were killed, "All I know is that if they don't make it than they better at least even the odds before they get to us."
"The forest isn't far," Sparky suggested, looking down into a barrel, "We would be able to stay hidden until we get to the next town or province".
Matthew gave a wandering glance over to the forest. He knew Sparky was right about being able to escape unnoticed, but he also knew they couldn't do it.
"It wouldn't be right, Sparky," he said, "This is our home, and I'd rather die defending my home than run away from what's threatening everything I've ever known."
"Everyone we have ever known is here. I can't imagine it's very easy to start a new life as a poor orphan. Besides, we would be abandoning our friends to die."
"So be it, Matt," said Sparky, "I just hope it doesn't come down to us dying."
They hadn't been able to find anything to fight with, so they headed back towards the group. Their bad luck wasn't shared, thankfully, as five of the men had been able to break into the town guard tower and drag a crate of old swords and various other weapons back to the group. Once they distributed the stolen weapons, there was nothing to do but wait. Wait until the inevitable moment when bloodthirsty foreigners would come to take their lives.
*****************
Waiting had been all Katherine could do. She had gone with the rest of the townsfolk, hidden in the kitchen. A few of them had armed themselves with knives or mallets, but she knew that would be fruitless in any sort of fight. There were a couple of other girls Katherine's age huddled in a corner, and she watched crying and panicking. She had seen them in town before doing chores or playing games. There were few people she didn't commonly see, and seeing these girls like this was pitiful. Of course, it was hard to blame them given the current situation, but the sight of all these people sobbing was strange. She had been taught by Gerald, the town's healer, to always remain calm in stressful situations, and she was thankful for that teaching now.
Katherine remembered him saying, "There is nothing worse than watching someone stitch up a cut who is shaking more than the person with the actual cut." Katherine was seeing firsthand what her teacher was talking about and knew that those girls would not be able to help if it was needed.
A knock on the kitchen door snapped Katherine out of her thoughts, and she quickly moved to see who it was.
"Maybe try to check who knocks first next time," Matthew said as she swung the door open.
"I have a feeling that anybody trying to kill me wouldn't knock on the door," She responded, letting a small smile sneak across her face. A break in the tension was appreciated.
"How's it going out there?" she asked, glad to have someone to talk to.
"It's fine so far," Matthew replied, "I need you to listen very carefully. If Magor can't hold them off, then I need you to take the rest of the townsfolk into the forest. Follow the secret trail we made and wait until my brother gets back."
"What about the rest of you guys. You won't stand a chance against actual soldiers," Katherine said, starting to feel panic creeping up.
"We'll hold them off as long as we can, but you must get the rest of them to safety. If you don't, this will be all for no purpose."
"I can't just leave you guys to get slaughtered," she protested with the panic in her chest now.
"We'll be fine, once they see Sparky's face, they hightail it back to their boats," Matthew assured her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
Katherine gave an accepting nod, not being able to respond, and once again let a smile creep across her face, appreciating the humor. She turned and closed the door, looking at all the people huddling together, clearly scared for their lives. A singular tear ran down her cheek as she thought of the worst that could happen. And now the safety of these people fell into her hands, and her memory of a hidden trail she and her friends made when they were eight years old.
Ramschek had been all Katherein had ever known, and it also consisted of everyone she had ever known. The town had adopted her and her mother when they stumbled into the same building she now waited in. Back then, she was only four years old and had just been dragged out of the house in the dead of night by her mother to escape what she later learned was an evil father who only cared for ale and lashing out at his family.
She quickly became friends with Matthew and his brother, and Sparky joined the group when they were twelve. Magor practically became her new father whenever he wasn't on the seas. The thought of her home and everyone in it being killed and pillaged nearly caused her to break out sobbing, but she stopped the tears before they began to flow. She didn't want to be like the girls across from her. She wanted to be ready to help, and a crying teenage girl is never any help.
She tried to remember the secret path Matthew, Sparky, and she had created years ago to distract her from any depressing thoughts. They used a stolen arrow they found to carve the first letter of their names into trees to create a route to a dirt path connected to the royal road. The only problem was that the path was made by three skinny ten-year-olds who were having fun climbing over rocks and walking through little streams. Some of the people in the room were older than sixty and wouldn't be strong or nimble enough to make the trek. Katherine knew that she had to come up with a way to traverse the woods with more ease. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to come to mind.