Ch. 11 - The City

“How do I look?”

“Like a scrawny, low-life, half-starved, no-name beggar,” Andrew responded to Benji’s question.

“Good.” Benji grinned. Jessica and Andrew had spent the last half hour ripping Benji’s clothes and covering him with dirt. No one could know this was the king’s son. There was no telling how people would react. They had decided the farthest thing from a king would be a beggar, so they had done their best to make Benji look like one. Jessica rubbed her chin, scanning Benji’s features.

His hair was now considerably darker due to the mud and dust covering his natural blonde mop. The dirt and grime over his cheekbones made his blue eyes seem brighter, but blue eyes weren’t uncommon. His pants were frayed at the bottom, and Andrew had ripped the neckline of his shirt. Jessica nodded, pleased.

“It’ll do.”

The three companions turned to survey the large city outstretched before them; they were on a large hill below which Darwol lay silently a mile away. From the looks of it, Darwol was like most of the cities in this kingdom. The walls around the gate, though still standing, were deteriorating. Shrubs and grass had claimed the piles of broken stone as their own. The towers, which had once been uniform and impressive, were now crooked and bent over. One of the towers studding the corners of the city had completely fallen over. The gate in the center of the tall, old walls had been opened, as if eager to welcome anyone foolish enough to wander into the bleak city.

As Benji, Jessica, and Andrew walked down the hall toward the city, a feeling of reality began to settle over them. For Andrew and Jessica, this was their new home. For Benji, this was horrifying. They grew closer to the city, and the road they were traveling on grew rugged and uneven. Benji glanced from the faces of his captors to the city.

He was beginning to understand. This was the life they had known. The life his father had forced upon them. The pair of friends looked weary and tired. And yet, they were relieved. There was an unspoken acceptance in the eyes of the kidnappers. Benji wondered what kind of people they were returning to, that made them find composure in this dismal place.

The trio passed through the crumbling gates. The inside of the city wasn’t any better than the outside. Houses were crammed together so tightly their roofs had become crooked, like they were being pushed by the roofs around them. Shingles and tiles littered the streets. Doors hung, half-open, in empty doorways. Some people wandered about the street, with large eyes and thin stomachs.

Benji’s eyes connected with those of a young boy’s. The boy stared at him without blinking as they passed by, then darted around a corner without saying a word. The men and women wandering the streets didn’t give the newcomers any acknowledgement; they kept about their business, whether that was finding their children or trying to buy something to eat. No one noticed the two youths with a beggar in tow wandering down the streets cluttered with broken barrels and crates.

“There’s the North Tower,” Jessica pointed out to Benji, whispering over her shoulder. He grunted in response, still gaping at the pathetic city around him. Jessica nudged Andrew with her elbow and gestured to the solitary building. Her heart was glad; she was so close to being united with the resistance. So close to being in an environment in which she could properly function. So close to what she would soon call home.

“Not much to look at. Kind of twists your tummy a bit, doesn’t it?” Benji said softly. No one answered.

A rising excitement had seized Jessica, jolting her stomach and giving her a giddy sense of expectation. She worked hard to keep her energy from spilling onto her face. They were not far now. Soon she’d see the faces of her friends, and –

Someone screamed. A bell began ringing. The sound of pots being dropped and broken reached her ears. The people meandering about suddenly began to dart through the streets. Panic gripped Jessica’s heart. Shouts echoed from the lips of one hysterical citizen to the next. A growing sound reached her ear. Horses. Hooves pounding against crooked, stone streets.
“Attack!”
“Soldiers!”
“Hide!” Various cries echoed about the frenzied streets. The hope in Jessica’s eyes died, and in its place, a fear born of confusion began to grow. For a moment, she and her friends stood completely still, shocked. The sound of horses surging around the city streets echoed dully in their ears, slightly distant and muffled. Then, as if awaking from a spell, she and Andrew dove across the street, pulling Benji behind them.

They crouched behind a row of disintegrating crates as sleek, dark shapes began streaming through the city streets. Jessica’s body was rigid as she held herself low to the ground, every muscle in her body tensed and ready. How could this be happening? They were home…everything was supposed to be made right now. A shadow fell over the three from behind the crates, and they barely had time to move before a sword came swishing through the air, splitting the boxes in half. Jessica rolled over and jumped to her feet, her dagger already flying through the air.

It lodged itself in a soldier’s chest, and he slid off his black steed with a dull “thud”. The horse reared and galloped away, nostrils flaring and hair blazing behind it like dark tongues of fire. Jessica retrieved her knife, her heart beating quickly and making the blood rush to her face.

All around her, citizens were running from the soldiers, or trying to fight them. The men on horses struck at them with spears, swords, and cutlasses. Their dark armor was painted with a red crest of arms. A sign Jessica had come to fear and hate. King Darfane’s sign. The commoners were desperately running inside the buildings closest to them, but the warriors would only follow them in and slay them where they cowered. A few brave men faced off to them with axes or knives, the only weapons they could find on such short notice.

A noise caught Jessica’s attention and she whipped around, ducking in the process. A blade sliced the empty air where her neck had been moments ago. She kicked the knee of whoever had attacked her and reached out to steal his weapon. Gripping the shaft of his spear, she twisted it hard until it was released with a yelp. Something slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground.

Jessica sprawled out on the cobblestones, the spear falling inches away from her fingertips. The sound of metal clashing against metal met her ears as she desperately crawled forward to grab the spear. As her fingers brushed the weapon, a metal boot stomped down on it. Her heart stopped beating as she fearfully glanced up to discover who the boot belonged to.

A soldier with a drawn cutlass stared down at her before raising his arm to slice her head off. A sword burst out of his chest. As quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared. The man’s weapon slipped from his fingers and he fell to his knees so quickly Jessica barely had time to move out of the way before his body toppled to the ground. When she rose, spear in hand, she found Benji panting and brandishing a bloody sword. Their eyes met, and she hoped he could read the wordless gratitude she felt.

“There’s too many!”Andrew shouted, somewhere to Jessica’s left. She turned and saw him finishing off a soldier with a short sword. He was right. The people were weak, and few. The soldiers were strong, and many. They didn’t have a chance. She frowned. More black shapes began to filter through the men and children wandering around. Those weren’t soldiers. But they carried weapons like soldiers. Her eyes studied these new arrivals as she wrestled with the panic rising in her chest.

Men dressed in black armor ran through the streets, slicing and killing with the soldiers. Jessica had never seen these men before. They looked like men, at least, though the way that they moved suggested they were animals. They crouched low to the ground, almost in a squat, before leaping up and striking their prey. They twisted their heads side to side, as if listening, and then moved quickly toward their next foe in a lolloping gait resembling a gallop. The way in which they killed their enemies sent a cold, numb feeling across Jessica’s skin. It was unnatural. Inhuman. She couldn’t catch a glimpse of their faces, for they were all angled away from her. It unnerved her.

“Jess!” a cry reached her ears. A moment later she found herself blocking the blow of one of the black-armored creatures. The spear she had been carrying was split in two by the force of the cutlass swinging down on the old wood. She stumbled back, her eyes locked on the man’s face. Only it wasn’t a man.

Two red eyes stared at her from above a hooked beak. The beak opened, revealing shark-like teeth, as it raised a shrieking war cry. It lunged forward, but she stepped aside. It shuffled toward her like a crab, swinging its cutlass the whole time. Its neck twisted and it looked at her as a bird might look at a worm before gobbling it up. She tried to scream, but the sound stuck in her throat and she could only gape at the creature before her.

Andrew was suddenly on its back, his face distorted with rage and ferocity. He stabbed his knife into the beast’s fleshy neck, and it cried out. He stabbed it again, yelling. It screeched and toppled over. Andrew jumped up and turned to Jessica.

Before he had uttered a word, the creature was back up again. “Wha—” she started to murmur, confused.

It pulled back its cutlass and struck at Andrew. Benji jumped in between the blade and the boy, pushing Andrew out of the weapon’s course of motion. The metal had found a home in Benji’s stomach, and he fell to his knees slowly, his face scrunching up in a grimace. The beast warbled a joyous cry and drew the weapon out of the boy, turning to his other victims.

Streaks of fire began to fall from the sky. Jessica glanced up quickly, curious but afraid to divert her attention from the warrior for more than a few seconds. Archers! The resistance! The heads of men and women could be seen poking up from the rooftops, their flaming arrows casting heavy shadows on their faces.

A fiery arrow landed near Andrew and Jessica, but it had missed the monster approaching them eagerly. A hand grasped the arrow’s shaft and rammed the burning tip into the skull of the beast. The creature fell, and this time it didn’t rise up again. Benji crossed his arms and eyed the carcass. “Sorry, but we can’t have two regenerating warriors running about, can we?” His voice joked but his eyes were like two stones. “Too much of a good thing can get old and all that.”

The resistance on the roof aided the fight, and almost instantly the odds were turned. There were a great number of archers; maybe seventy-five or so. The citizens on the ground took a new, fresh hope, and fought with more vigor. The king’s soldiers and the creatures in black sensed that they were fighting a losing battle. The call for retreat sounded loud, and the army withdrew from the streets like a cat retracting its claws.

The commoners let out a triumphant cry. Jessica, Andrew, and Benji joined in, raising their weapons and smiling. Jessica almost laughed to release the tension that had built up inside of her. Joy erupted on Andrew’s face, and he let out a whoop. Benji joined in, and they clapped each other on the backs like they were old friends. Jessica shook her head and smiled. She wasn’t going to try to understand them. She studied the archers on the roofs and a warm feeling spread from her heart throughout her body. This was home. These were her friends fighting beside her. It was like smelling a hot, apple pie after returning from a five-mile walk.