Chapter Four- Episode 14-...in the wind...

ejaredallen (60)in #story • 5 years ago

In the wind...

The wind whistled, whipping through the sails of The Lady Brilliant as she rode the crashing waves near the shallows, speeding for the pirates off the bay. The cannon fire grew louder as the Imperial captain and his men gained ground on the fray. A bloodlust sparked in the captain’s eyes as he glared with a killing stare upon the dark ship before them. It wasn’t marauders. It was the Uprising; it had to be. Too much was at stake here.

“Ready the guns!” The captain yelled. His second repeated the order, which changed mouths several times before they heard the creaking of the cannon bay doors opening and squeaky wheels roll the large guns into position. The Lady Brilliant was a 38 gun war machine, light enough to make speed on the high seas, and powerful enough to bring down any ship she came up against. Neither the fastest nor the strongest of ships, yet her captain was what most feared.

He now stood on the quarterdeck, braced for impact: for battle. A sadistic smile on his face over the impending carnage. Brutality followed this man wherever he went. It almost made one think the stories could be true. For the common folk tell tales of the Imperial commander, that he was born of the witches of Sorem Mountain, the son of the devil Agva; so cruel and vile was he that Agva disowned him and sent him to earth as punishment, to live out his days in torment as a mortal being.

Others tell tales of a lost boy, one called to save the people of Kodaia from the Imperial Dynasty, who would liberate the people. Some thought at first it might have been this commander, his past told a convincing tale and he seemed to do good at first. But his influence on the Imperial Dynasty was to make it more cruel not less.

Everywhere his name was heard it struck fear in the hearts of those listening. Death was not simply his job, it was his passion, an art form gentle and carefully cultivated over two decades of slaughter. His hands were covered in the veritable blood of the innocents he’d killed. But many were not innocent. As The Lady Brilliant came upon the rebel ship, the captain gave the order to open fire.

Cannon blasts shook the ship as hot metal spat from its sides, hurtling across the breakers into the body of the black vessel. The rebel ship which had been accosting the harbor city swung about, its crew working frantic to bring the ship to bear on this new assailant. By the time she was swung to face The Lady Brilliant sidelong, the Imperial captain knew it was over. The enemy’s gun deck had been splintered by cannon fire and her crew like madmen raced about the deck. This was too easy.

“Grapples!” The captain ordered as he marched down from the wheel and the quarter deck. His second stepped in and took over without missing a beat, the man was flawless as second in commands went. The captain walked up and down the deck preparing his men for battle.

“Who you are about to face,” the captain yelled above the noise of war and the roaring of cannon thunder. “These are not men! They are animals; wild and untamed: ferrel and diseased. If this sickness is not cleansed it will infect our people, OUR families, and OUR lives.” He barked as the ships grew closer. They were almost in range. “We don’t fight for victory, we fight for justice! We fight for order! We fight for the Imperial way!”

The men chanted the word vic-tor-y over and over as the captain paced behind their line of attack on the deck amid a wall of smoke from the blasts. He counted off the seconds in his head as the distance between the ship narrowed. The captain could do this in his sleep, and it was his favorite part.

“Throw!” He screamed the order and as one the grappling hooks flew from the deck of The Lady Brilliant to the black ship of the rebels. The Imperial crew pulled on the many cords and the ships were brought nearer, nearer, nearer… and crash! The ships collided in the middle of the shallows. The fight had begun. The captain of The Lady Brilliant drew his cutlass and charged the enemy ship with Imperial sailors in his wake as he hurtled the sides of the ships and fought like a man possessed.

Terrified, no sailor could hold their own against him as with power from another world, he ruthlessly beat down their guard and hacked them in pieces. The fear of the devil was upon the rebels as the put up whatever fight was left in them to make a final stand for themselves against the Imperials. That was the one thing the captain found himself admiring about these rebels, they never surrendered. Even when there was no hope of victory, they would give as good an account for themselves as they could before giving their lives for their cause. There was no turning back for them, it was freedom or death, and the captain was sent to ensure it was the latter.

A sword swung at his head from the right, blindsiding him, but the captain caught the motion in his periphery before it happened and ducked the blow casually, bringing his sword about to parry the recoil strike as the man backlashed from his mad swipe, regaining his guard. The captain was surprised to see that his attacker was only a boy. No more than 16, yet this one showed skill and spirit. It was a shame really, all of that youth and strength wasted on ideals and principals.

Returning the attack with a slash from the boy’s right side and following it with an uppercut, the captain sent the boy staggering backwards, trying to hold his ground, but fearing for his life as the powerful strokes from the Imperial commander crashed into his sword. The captain toyed with the lad for a moment, backing him up the steps of the quarterdeck and cornering him again the wheel of the ship. It was just to easy. He could make this boy go anywhere he wanted. Years of training and practical application of swordsmanship had proved the better of the two.

Growing weary of the games and the futile resistance of the rebels, the captain ended it. Spinning his cutlass hard at the lad, who raised his own to block, the captain shifted his strike ever so slightly and crashed into the boy’s weapon near the hand guard. The boy dropped the weapon as he felt it fall from his grip and held up his hands in surrender. He opened his mouth to speak, but the captain rolled his eyes and ran the boy through.

“I don’t give quarter to animals.” The captain whispered close to the boy’s ear as the light faded from his eyes and the youth fell from his face, welcoming the grey fade of death to his body. The captain withdrew his cutlass sharply and gripped the dead boy by the neck with a large hand. Heaving the boy’s body over the railing of the quarterdeck, it struck the floor in the middle of the battleground below and for a moment all fighting ceased.

“Drop your weapons! All of you!” The captain roared. “Unless you wish to join him.” He pointed to the boy’s body on the main deck. There was a pause, and then the clatter of metal as swords fell from the hands of the rebels. It was over and they knew it. “Now all of you stand on the right side of the ship.” The captain commanded. Slowly, with some prodding of Imperial swords, the rebels gathered on the right side of the ship to be executed in some horrific fashion. What else would one expect from a man such as this.

The captain took the steps down from the quarterdeck to the main deliberately. The thudding of his steps emphasizing the last few beatings of their hearts before he slaughtered them like every rebel before. The captain’s footsteps carried him right in front of the rebel, his sword still drawn, still at his side, still dripping with young blood.

“You’re a monster.” One of the rebels spat. The captain just smiled.

“I need to know the locations of your other ships and how many there be.” The captain said it in the form of an offer rather than a command. None of the rebels spoke up. “Oh, come now. Surely one of you fine men has an idea where the rebels are hiding out in these waters.” Nothing. The captain had a little patience left in him and so he made them a proposition. “I’ll tell you what, if any man surrenders credible information concerning the location and number of rebel ships in these waters… his life will be spared. How about that?”

The rebels looked at each other as if each resolving silently to say nothing, but a few looked less certain of how willing they were to die today. The captain noticed this.

“Nothing?” He sighed, “fine. Kill them all.” He turned his back as his men raised swords and stepped close to end the rebel’s lives.

“Wait!” One of the men called out. The captain smiled and turned. A rebel broke from the group, much to the surprise of the others. They made to stop him, but the captain motioned his men to restrain them.

“Yes…?” The captain asked patiently. The man was nervous, but he would talk. The captain saw weakness in him. Stammering the man managed to get a few words out.

“Hackman cove…” He hung his head. “The rebels are hiding in Hackman cove. I-, don’t know how many ship.”

“No!” One of the other’s tried to reach the traitor in fury but was struck down and run through by the soldiers.

The captain smiled. “See, and that was all you need to do. That wasn’t so difficult, no was it?” The traitor hung his head in shame. He’d betrayed his cause to save his own neck. Even the captain saw that as the lowest of the low. Turning his back with disdain he gave the order. “Kill them all.”

The traitor’s eyes widened in shock. Men around him were slaughtered. The captain had broken his word. A soldier stabbed at his gut but the traitor side-stepped and disarmed the man, taking the cutlass he ran at the captain who’s back was turned. There was no time for anyone to warm him. The imperial commander died today.

As the sword came down from above in a strike to cleave the captain’s head in two, suddenly the Imperial commander spun around and the traitor’s cutlass met metal. The captain had blocked the death stroke and pulling a dagger from his belt, stabbed the traitor in the stomach. The man took a stunned step back, gagging on his own blood as his cutlass clattered to the deck. He dropped to his knees, mouth gaping and eyes bugged out in shock and pain.

His lips brimmed with blood as he spat his final words as the life left his grey face. “You’ll pay for this. Someday, Savoor, you will pay.”

Thanks for reading episode 14!

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