The Coming Of Shadows (The Shadow Tide Book 1) Read online

  He was going to have to do it just right or he would be dead. It was a way he had thought about doing but had never done it since he was able to go in and out of the gate.

  He turned into an alleyway and ran up the stairs on the outside of the building that bordered the estate. He got on the roof and found himself looking at two Crimson Guard soldiers who had just reloaded their muskets.

  Both startled, they looked at him, then sloppily shot at the same time. Missed, he thought as he pulled his pistol and a throwing knife and ran toward them. They both pulled rapiers and waited on him, mistake, he thought as he ran.

  He raised his pistol and fired, the first guard took the shot in his chest and fell. He dropped to his knees and began to slide. He could see the rapier of the other guard start to swing, and then he threw his knife, sending it into the base of the soldier’s chin.

  He came to a stop and got back to his feet. He looked and saw the wall of Easterway beside him, the top about ten feet above his head. He backed up and took off, running toward the wall; everything had to be perfect.

  He got right to the edge and jumped extending his hands and arms as for as they could reach. He flew through the air, hoping that he’d jumped hard enough, and then he hit the wall. His fingers grabbed the edge, and he held on.

  He was hanging thirty feet above the paved streets. He pulled up and strained to get himself over the wall, and he did. It felt good to have his feet on solid ground. He looked around. Why aren't they defending this part of the wall? He thought as he started to run toward the area of the battle.

  He ran the wall keeping an eye below at any troops trying to flank the main front's position. As he got closer, he started seeing more and more soldiers defending the wall and moving power and musket balls to the area of fighting.

  “Give me one,” he told a young soldier who was carrying a bundle of muskets to the front. The soldier handed him one and he pulled the ram from it. He loaded and started to run to the area of the gate.

  He looked down. Below he saw several soldiers trying to advance on the gate but most stayed in covered positions outside of the main street that run along the wall of the estate.

  He took up a position and watched until he had a shot and then he found one--a soldier raising his musket from a covered position in an alley. Ash raised the one he had grabbed and took his shot.

  The lead ball struck the soldier in the head and his musket fell.

  He reloaded and started scanning for his next shot. The soldiers trying to advance on the gate were now within a few yards of being able to take cover under the large stone arch of the gate.

  If they could make it there, it would be hard to hit them without opening the gate or worse.

  “You, who are you?” he heard a voice shout from his left.

  “A friend who are you?” he asked the man.

  “I'm Allan Southerlin, Lord Carlye's first. Who are you?”

  “He is a friend.” It was Idris. Ash had never thought he would see Idris in battle but here he was, musket in hand and sword on his side.

  “Looks like we have ourselves a fight here?” Ash said looking at Idris.

  “Seems that way, Allan this is Ash; he is a friend and can be trusted.” He told Allan as the three stood and looked at each other.

  “Very well, how are you with a musket?” Allan asked him.

  “How many do you want dead?”

  “That’s what I like to hear. This way.”

  They ran along the wall, back to a guard shack close to the gate. “If we could get them all in one place we could bottle neck them, but they are too spread out...” He stopped and raised his musket and took a shot down toward the street.

  “Concentrate our forces in one place. If we do that they will have to move soldiers to attack us,” Ash said.

  Allan looked at him and then back to the street. “It could work.”

  And then, suddenly, the entire wall shook under them. “What the...” It shook again and then Ash realized what was happening. “Artillery,” he said, looking out into the street.

  “From where?” Idris asked as he too looked for the cannons. “Artillery towers,” Allan said pointing toward one of the main gun towers located near the estate. They were firing at the wall trying to bring it down.

  XLIV

  Mariella sat in the corner of her bed chambers as the sounds of the fighting continued outside. She could feel the walls of the estate shaking from what felt like cannon fire.

  Please let me live. She thought in her head as tears covered her face. The house servants had left her and she was alone. She had never been so scared in her life.

  Dominic please ride in and save us. Please. She was like a child begging and begging now, but no one could hear her. Dominic wouldn't come; he was so far away now, and she knew he would never make it back in time.

  Please. She heard the sound of screams coming from the hallway and she heard the sound of clashing and then the screams become silent. She crouched in her corner even more and waited for the inevitable.

  It was forever, and she waited. The halls were quiet outside now but not for long. She heard more screams and this time the words that she had feared. “They are inside!” someone yelled. She started crying even harder, and then she remembered something.

  Under the bed she found a small box that had held Dominic's pistol. It was the pistol that his father had given him the day he left Denoi. To her knowledge Dominic never carried it.

  He hadn't. It was there, and if she knew her husband, it was loaded. She grabbed it and pulled back with both thumbs on the hammer. Before she could think anymore, the door to her room flew open.

  In the doorway stood a soldier, Crimson Guard, who had a rapier in his hand. His eyes caught hers and then the pistol in her hand. He started to run toward her but she raised the gun.

  The trigger was hard to pull but she didn't notice it. The sting of burning powder hit her face and she closed her eyes to keep from going blind. She didn't know if the man was dead or not when she opened her eyes.

  He was lying on the floor motionless. She looked at him and started crying again. The pistol dropped from her hand and hit the floor with a loud thud. She held her face in her hands and cried harder than before. She had never taken a life.

  He would have killed you, she kept telling herself.

  “You did well my lady but you forgot to reload your pistol.” a voice she never heard before said. She looked up and through her tears at a man who was a stranger to her.

  His hair was deep black and his features were dark almost gray. He wore a long black cloak and black clothes. “So you are Lady Mariella. I am here for you, my dear,” the man said.

  Her tears started to fall again. He raised his sword, it was so black that it shinned in the night and as he walked, she could have sworn that his shadow didn't move.

  XLV

  The cannon ball struck the wall too close to where he was. He dropped the ram rod as he tried to reload his musket and try again to take one more soldier down before they breached the wall.

  The Crimson Guard soldiers had dug in under the arch near the portcullis and getting a shot on them was impossible. The only way to get to them would be to drop onto the streets, below but that would be pure suicide.

  He finally got reloaded and found a soldier running toward the cover of the arch. He shot, and the man fell. “Idris, there!” he told the old man as he looked around for his next shot. He pointed toward three soldiers moving from the south carrying a small cannon. Idris raised his musket and shot, dropping the soldier leading the group.

  Ash reloaded and fired on another carrying the cannon. “We have got to do something about those artillery towers,” Idris told him as he started reloading again. Ash knew that as long as those cannons fired it would only be a matter of time before the Estate walls would breach.

  “Can you do it?” Idris asked. “Yes, but it will take some time...” Ash looked below him. The soldiers under the arch had run o
ut and started taking cover. What the... He saw one of them carrying a roll of string… no not string but fuse.

  He watched, it suddenly hit him on what was about to happen. “CLEAR THE YARD, FALL BACK NOW, RELOAD!” He yelled at the soldiers below as he saw the fuse being lit.

  It burned fast but it seemed like an eternity and then it happened. The walls shook and a huge orange fire ball threw him backwards. His head was slow, but he had to get to his feet.

  He watched as Allan reformed the line in the courtyard and then he heard the volley of musket fire go off. The walls had been breached and now the Crimson Guard was inside the Estate. “CHARRRGGGE!” Allan yelled, drawing his sword and charging the oncoming Crimson Guard.

  They collided. Muskets were no good now and the fight had been taken to ground. Those who had loaded pistols used them; those who didn’t, fought with pikes and swords.

  Ash got to his feet and found the stairs leading down into the courtyard. He ran down them reaching into his cloak and finding two throwing knives. He pulled them threw them, striking two Crimson Guards in the soft tissue under their arms.

  He reached his back and pulled his sword, striking another in the neck, another and another. He pulled his pistol and fired his last shot off, the ball ripping through the thin breast plate of another Crimson Guard.

  All around him they were fighting. He fought as he looked. This wasn’t his fight but he chose this side to fight for. These people had done nothing wrong, not to his knowledge, plus the one man needing protection was Idris.

  He killed another soldier and then he saw him. He sat high on his horse and gave orders to even more men in ranks outside the destroyed wall. He reached into his pouch and pulled a ball, then his powder horn.

  The power went in first, then the ball and the short ramrod. He watched Lord Candrin sit on his steed and then like fate his eyes caught Ash’s and a smile came across his face. He looked at Ash and watched him. Ash holstered his pistol and walked toward his prey, “Draw, you coward.” he yelled across to the man on his horse. “Draw you bastard. Draw, and I will end you now.” He yelled even louder.

  The man was laughing. BOOM, another explosion.

  “Fall back, Fall back.” He heard Allan yell.

  The fight was being lost. Easterway had been taken by surprise and now would be in ruins. If Candrin could be killed now there might be a chance, a slim one.

  “So, assassin, you choose the side of the enemy?” Candrin said as he stepped from his horse and looked at Ash.

  Ash was outside of the Estate now. And everyone was now inside the walls, it was just Ash and his adversary. “I will kill you tonight, but before I do, tell me where is Oberon?” He asked Candrin as he raised his sword over his head ready to strike.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Candrin pulled a pistol and fired it. Ash moved dodging the ball. He charged him but his sword was met with Lord Candrin’s rapier. They clashed; Ash went on the offensive as Lord Candrin did everything he could to keep up with the speed of Ash’s blows and strikes.

  The man was not much of a fighter; he was slow, he was weak and he was now losing. “I made a promise that I would end you, Candrin, and now I am.” He swung again and he saw the rapier loosen in the man’s grip. Again, again, the sword hit the ground. Ash kicked Candrin’s knee as hard he could, feeling the bones crush in it.

  The man yelled in pain and collapsed to the street below. “Where is Oberon?” he asked as he put the tip of his sword into the man’s throat. “Where?”

  “GO TO HELL!”

  “No you tell me now.”

  “Never, and I know who you are...Ash, is you former master well?”

  Ash's nerves had been struck, he was furious and now Candrin's end was near.

  “So be it.” He raised his sword up. “When you see my master in death, he will bring to you the punishment you so deserve.” The sword fell into the throat on Candrin and the Lord took his last breath.

  Ash pulled the sword out and looked at him lying on the ground. And then he remembered the battle behind him.

  XLVI

  The battle outside was all but lost. Candrin's men had made their way into the courtyard and the remaining of the Easterway men had been pushed inside the estate.

  Idris sat at the door and watched as men boarded it up and waited for Candrin's men to regroup. He heard that Candrin was dead by the hands of an unknown man, and Idris hoped that Ash had killed him.

  He drank some water that the house servants had brought before they went back into hiding. “They are inside.” He heard a voice yell from the estate. A house servant ran toward them and stopped, screaming that they were inside.

  “Where?” Idris asked as he made his way out of the crowd of the soldiers.

  “That way.” The young girl pointed. It was back toward to family wing.

  He started running through the halls making his way to the living area of the estate. Lady Mariella was going through his mind as he ran. He hoped that she had found a hiding place and was safe but he had to make sure.

  He started seeing bodies littering the floor, all house servants and a few guards that remained in the estate. How did they get in?

  He slowed to a walk and looked around him. He was close to Lady Mariella’s bed chambers now and he made his footsteps quiet. “My Lady,” He whispered hoping she could hear him. “My Lady, it is me, Idris. Can you hear me? Where are you?” he said pulling his rapier and looking around.

  He could hear the sound of weeping. It was muffled, and he could see exactly where it was coming from. He turned into the bedchambers and saw her. She was standing. Her mouth had been gagged with cloth, and her hands bound to the bed post.

  “Where are they?” He asked hoping she would be able to tell her. She couldn’t move. He had no idea if the people who had captured her were in the room or not. He was cautious about entering.

  “She can’t tell you.” The voice was coming from out of view, back down the hall. “Ah, Idris I see Lord Carlye has kept you here after all. Tell me, was this in your plan - to leave a good, honest King and join the likes of criminals” Idris didn’t know him personally but he knew him, he was the king’s new Steward. “You’re Oberon?” he asked him turning to face him.

  “Yes I am - the man who will lead our King to greatness.” Oberon said.

  “The man who will lead our King, who is a good man, to shame if he continues to listen to men like you.” Idris said as he raised his rapier to him.

  “No Idris, I have triumphed where you have failed. I have shown the King his true enemies. Within the month those who mean harm to this kingdom will be dealt with and the people will drop at the feet of King Jayden and praise him.” He had a smile on his face.

  Idris knew that in some way he was behind this attack tonight. “This battle may be lost, but you will not return to the King tonight.” Idris raised his rapier and walked toward him.

  “The battle is lost for you, Idris, and after tonight House Carlye will think twice before conspiring against the crown again.” He drew his sword and Idris saw it. It had been many years since he had seen one but he knew what it was.

  For hundreds of years’ men had tried to perfect the art but no one had ever figured it out. The folding of black metal was something that mortal men and women could never do. It was an art that had been kept a secret among the Shadow Beings forever, and now he was seeing a weapon that only those creatures would carry.

  He raised his rapier and swung. The blades collided in midair, and Idris felt the shock of Oberon’s strength in the blow. He continued his attack, but Oberon was a great swordsman blocking and returning his attacks flawlessly.

  “Give it up, Idris; you can’t win,” Oberon said swinging and missing Idris’ face by mere inches.

  “I will not let you walk from here,” Idris said as he attacked hard and fast. Oberon was pushed back and stunned slightly long enough for Idris to use his fist and hit the man in the face.

  He attacked faster trying
to take Oberon from his feet but the man was able to counter everything.

  They were locked in an endless battle. Both men matched perfectly to each other and neither giving anything to the other. “Forget it, Idris.” Oberon yelled as he blocked another attack from him.

  “No.” He raised his rapier; he would not let this man win. He aimed for his chin with a hard over hand blow. He was ready to strike and then he realized that he had made the biggest mistake of his life.

  Oberon’s blade caught him in his side and cut him. The cut wasn’t deep but it was enough to take his feet from under him as he fell in pain dropping his rapier and holding his side.

  Oberon walked in front of him looking at his blade. “You know; your immortality is something to be proud of. You know what blade this is, don’t you?” He asked, pointing the tip at his face.

  Idris didn’t answer him. His side was burning like a thousand hot embers being jammed into his skin. The pain was so much that he collapsed to the floor.

  “You do know. Well you know that the blade is poison to you, even your immortality cannot hide from it. I’m sure you feel it burning through your veins,” Oberon said laughing at his fall.

  “So weak, just like your friend.” He said as he sat on the floor in front of Idris.

  Idris was in pain. He no longer had the strength to fight. He looked to his left and he saw her. Lady Mariella still tied to the bed, tears covering her flushed face, her eyes gone into deep sockets in her face. “End it now,” he said, looking back to Oberon.

  “Not just yet,” he swiped the blade across Idris’ face causing a small cut. Once again the pain of hot embers started going through his body. He knew he was defeated and this would be a slow death, a slow painful death looking into the face of this…Shadow.

  Oberon’s face had changed. His entire skin was now gray, all features black and bleak, his eyes glowed orange as the sun. Idris looked into the face of evil, evil he hadn’t seen in eight hundred years, the Shadow Beings had returned.