Legends of Arkn

Ch 2 - The Catalyst

Phan reined in his horse beside the General. They stood on a hill overlooking the harbor at Sandline, the southernmost port in the lands formerly called the Kingdom of Arkn Kiilpn. Fires raged in the harbor; dozens of the troop transports they had arrived on burned down to the water line. A thin convoy of intact ships were already out of the harbor, headed north across the Straits of the New Divide. Phan looked back over his shoulder. A massive column of smoke rose high into the sky, the remnants of the battle at the Wall. He shuddered at what that meant for Duke Markus and the rest of the men who had stayed to fight the rear action.

"Ash to ash, dust to dust," the General muttered as he surveyed the damage to the fleet.

Phan said nothing, he eyes searching the inferno for any signs of an intact vessel.

"General!" shouted a man riding up on a horse. A dozen mounted soldiers followed him. It was Duke Robert of Bourdon. He reined in and saluted the General, who nodded and returned the gesture. "There are a few cutters hidden in the cove to the north of the harbor, my personal ships. We can use those to ferry you across the straights."

"Many thanks, your Grace," said the General. He turned his mount to follow Robert and shouted over shoulder to Phan, "You have some place better to be?"

Phan didn't respond, desperately searching for any signs of his mercenary company. But the only movement in the harbor were the flickers of flame and the billowing of smoke. A light rain began to fall as storm clouds he hadn't noticed coasted overheads. The rain dripped acidic questions around Phan.

Why did they leave me? Why did they run? Most important of all; Now what?

"What's your name soldier?" the General asked.

"Phan."

"Look, Phan, I've fought wars my entire life. Sometimes you get stabbed in the back and sometimes you get left in the dust. This is the world we live in. Now you can wait here for the Wastelanders or you can come with us."

"And go where?" Phan asked.

"To find that miserable son of a bitch Daze and find out why we were betrayed. We need to rally the forces of Arkn if we are going to repel that army. That's no easy task and I need good soldiers to help me. And I'm going to need someone who can get me inside Handhigh Holdfast. I think that someone is you."

Phan nodded. Not that he had a better option. But this was the General, the General. Phan was a man who lived day to day, contract to contract. So why not follow the General, who had pulled him out of the butchery on the Wall?

"Alright, I'll join you, at least as far as Handhigh," he said.

"Excellent," said the General. "You and I will have to become the catalyst to this endeavor, that through our trials we can hope to save Arkn Kiilpn."

The ride to the ships was a short one. The Duke hadn't overstated the location of the cove. They boarded the ships with little trouble. The biggest problem was that they didn't have enough men to work all three ships. To his sadness, Duke Robert ordered the third ship, the Requiem, to be burned. The other two ships, the Radiance and the Messenger, sailed out of the cove as the forward elements of the Wastelander army arrived to watch their quarry escaping.

Duke Robert waved from his position on the deck of the Radiance as it turned east. The General, along with Phan and a handful of soldiers, headed north by west toward Heavy Harbor aboard the Messenger.

"The Duke sails east, but Bourdon lies to the north," Phan said, his voice hesitant, as they watched the Radiance shrink against the horizon.

"The Duke goes to seek our allies in the east," replied the General. "We will need them in the coming war. We'll send messages north once we reach the mainland. Robert's Gunmaster presides over Bourdon in his stead. He'll ready the Bourdon forces for war."

They sailed for four days. The storm that had sprinkled rain on them as they rode to the ship slammed them with gale-force winds and Phan wondered during that first day if they'd even make it across the Straits. They emerged from the squall at dawn of the second day and had smooth sailing for the rest of the trip.

The ocean breeze was a refreshing respite from the gritty heat Phan had lived in for the past month preparing for the invasion. Padded up the stairs to the bridge of the ship, his bare feet slapping with each step in the damp planks. His boots were safely stashed near his bunk; the salt water could warp them and most of the time on a ship you were better off in bare feet anyway.

The General stood behind the ship's navigators oiling his sword as he shifted his weight from side to side absentmindedly to compensate for the ships listing. Phan approached, standing beside the General. The blade was beautiful, at once a fearsome weapon of war and an incredible work of art. Strange symbols near the guard caught Phan's eyes.

"What does it say, General?" he asked.

"Skin to bone, steel to rust," the General said without stopping his work. "All men die and all weapons become relics. Mortality is something we all live with, accepting it is what frees you as a soldier. At least, it freed me."

"Fear of death keeps me alive," Phan said. "My profession keeps me free."

"It may be we have different measures of life and freedom," the General replied with a small grin. He looked up and pointed ahead. "It appears we beat the tide. The largest port city in Arkn and our next stop. Heavy Harbor."