Fall of the Stars Book 2: Victory's Wing

Edwin Colter I

Edwin lost count of how long he had been outside of Mewood, taunting the guards, threatening them every now and then, and finding other ways to quell his painful boredom. That morning he stood at the gate, which had been closed and barred, scraping his sword against the wood. The scratchy noise was the only thing to be heard on the other side of the wall. Inside, the usual affairs were going on, Edwin thought, but at the same time they hadn't received any food in so long that the noise could have been them complaining about hunger. Outside, Edwin's men were all but silent. Most of them were peasants from Coletown, rescued from their bleak existences by a chance for glory and riches in war. Unfortunately, those dreams turned out to be an extended camping trip. They had captured a trade wagon bringing in wine to the city and had been drinking it for the past few days, vomiting and passing out wherever they were.

Regretting accepting the task from his kingly older brother, Edwin retreated back to his tent. The only upside to the farcical siege was Amy, a simple village girl that had been trailing them since they left Cole Castle. She was unable to speak intelligible words and often showed no more sensibility than a child, but she knew how to use her body well. He forbade any of the other men from seeing her, which angered them, but he could not care less about however they felt.

As he delved into her essence, for some reason his mind lingered to his other older brother, Keth. Keth was a hard, no-nonsense bore. While he was alive he and Edwin never got along with each other, but even so Edwin bawled when he was told of his brother's fate. He left the castle one day after word of his wife's death. Days later they received word that he issued a challenge to Rick Starfront after besieging one of his vassal's strongholds. Then the next day he was dead, killed by Rick Starfront's bastard son who was only but a child at the time.

Engulfed by sudden sorrow, Edwin detached from Amy. He looked down at her and hung his head in shame. "I am a sorry man... To call you after my own brother's dead wife..." The simple girl could not speak, so Edwin had given her a name. It was the only time that it ever crossed Edwin's mind that it was the same name as his brother's beloved. Silently, Edwin lifted his breeches and left the tent.

The air in the wood wrapped around his body, gripping him and dragging him back to his senses. It is about time I got rid of her, he thought, pulling his sword from the tree by his tent. The blade was beautiful. It was the same sword his brother had used to face Rick Starfront's bastard. Edwin sighed and pulled his tent open.

As his hands pulled the tent open, Edwin heard a loud explosion ring in the distance. He looked up to see over the walls of Mewood, but he saw nothing. Still topless, he left the tent and walked further toward the gate. If he took another step, he would have died.

From his left side, a dark, round object the size of a man's head flew past him faster than anything he had ever seen in his life. He froze in his tracks, turning his head to a rising cloud of smoke coming from the other end of the camp. Snapping out of his confusion, Edwin ran toward the smoke, but then another round of explosions rang out behind him. That time, there were more lead balls flying about, knocking the trees apart and decimating the tents around his. He tried to find his tent where his armor was, but all of them around him were in pieces.

"What the bloody fuck is going on?" Edwin roared. His men, too, were shouting but for different reasons. The stench of death quickly permeated the air.

Another round of explosions rang off, and in every direction he looked he saw smoke creeping into the sky. Through the smoke and trees, the only thing Edwin could see were his men running with no weapons in their hands, some of them being ripped to pieces by the round balls of death flying through them. He wanted to curse them for being cowards, but he was in no position to do so. He was half naked, armed only with his sword, in a vastness of smoke, lead, and falling trees. He should have been running, too. His horse was gone, and the only paths he saw were covered in smoke.

After another barrage of explosions, the thunderous noise was replaced by the sound of footsteps. Edwin was naked from the waist up and unable to defend himself, but he would not go down like a coward. The first men he ran into were two Erians, and with them one of his men. The man pointed at Edwin, the Erian's dagger right to his throat. Before they could respond, Edwin ran his sword into the man's neck, piercing both the man and the Erian. He ran up to kill the other one, but someone grabbed him from behind and wrestled him onto the ground. His hand was stomped on, ejecting the sword from him.

"Damn you all!" he shouted. Looking up, he saw that all of the people surrounding him were either Erian or Altarine. Mercenaries. He wanted to spit in all of their faces so badly.

Edwin's hands were tied and then they wrapped his body around a tree with a thick chain. The chains bit into Edwin's stomach and cut him whenever he tried to move. Looking around him, Edwin only saw the yellow and red hair of the mercenaries around him. Their leader had to be about somewhere. Erians were too far away destroying each other to care about the affairs of the north, and the Altarine never intervened in fights that didn't concern them, so it had to be the work of Lord Wilt. The only way they could have come was through the mountains unless they went up the river guarded by Sapsaddle. But there were supposed to be men blocking all traffic from that river. How did they get past them?

Edwin was about to ask who their leader was when everyone fell silent. The Erians and Altarine stepped aside to let a woman through, a woman wearing a full suit of armor. She had darker skin and red hair like an Altarine, but her eyes were green as a Starfront's. Next to her was a tall Gendrean with a bronze crown sitting crookedly on his head. They both walked up to a wagon that contained the Erian he ran his sword through. The Gendrean broke down onto his knees, his face buried into the man's chest. Another Erian came and knelt with him, audibly sobbing. The woman walked toward Edwin with a knife in her hand.

"Kill me and be done with it, woman," Edwin said.

The woman was smiling at him, sweet as if she was trying to seduce him. "You will not die. But you will not live. You have committed a grave sin, and you will pay for it."

"Who are you?"

"Catherine," she said, bowing. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Edwin Colter."

"...Oh." Edwin never heard of this woman before. Her face did not look familiar, and she did not speak like a foreigner. He was baffled as to what her identity could be.

"Fredo, come here," she said. An Altarine man with hair curly and red like hers knelt in front of her. "My holy warrior. Like I have said, God has given you and your nine brothers in faith life and fortune. Look to your prince and see the state he is in." She pointed at the Gendrean crying besides the Erian. "His companion refused to heed my warning, so God blew his life's lamp long before his time. You are a godly man, eternally in His favor, so it is to you I give this task."

She clapped her hands and an Erian boy came up to her with some sort of jug. The boy was young, probably no older than Rick Starfront's bastard was when he killed Keth. The boy, struggling with the jug, approached Edwin, put down the jug, and made a star shaped sign on his chest with his fingers.

"An Erian that worships the Star?" Edwin had to laugh. "I must be dead already."

Without any sort of warning, the boy doused Edwin with the contents of the jug. Screaming, some of the fluid went in his mouth and Edwin immediately knew it to be oil. He shook his head to get the oil off of his face and clear his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the Altarine man pointing an arrow at him. The tip of the arrow was aflame.

"No, wait..." Edwin struggled against the chains, slicing himself to pieces. "Unchain me and kill me like a man! Please!"

The man released the arrow, aimed directly for his heart.