The Evion

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

“Gahr!” They bellowed as they poured into the feasting hall. From the broken window, from the front entrance, from the servants doors, from all sides they spilled, shouting and overturning tables.

            Shots were fired into the air, servants scattered, court women shrieked and fled, and all the knights pulled their swords from their scabbards, bellowing curses at the marauding party.

            “A pox upon you and all your kind, vermin!” Sir Dureant shouted. He was standing on a table, clashing swords with two other pirates. He slashed his great sword about with such strength and technique the other two pirates were quickly swatted from the table and fell on their backsides.

            “Back to your sties, you filthy mongrels!” The golden knight shouted, jumping into a fray of some five other pirates. His sword dove before the blades of the others so swiftly that the pirates nearly dropped their scimitars in bewilderment.

            Jesse and Charlie backed away from the fight only to find themselves in the center of the feasting hall, surrounded on all sides by battling factions.

            To their right, the blue knight, Sir Cortisan, was picking up pirates with his bare hands and hurling them across the room. To their left, the green knight, whose name they had not discovered yet, was fighting with his sheath still on the sword, taking careful aim at his opponents to strike them sharply on the knuckles. Swords were clanging to the ground and the pirates gave out such yelps of pain as they cradled their hands, it looked as if they were about to cry. Behind the twins, was the silver knight, Sir Gillian the Gallant. He looked over at Sir Dureant, who was still upon a table, and Sir Gillian, thinking it a noble way to fight, attempted to jump onto a table also. Due to the weight of his armor, he could not jump as high as he intended, and his shins collided with the table’s edge, collapsing the entire thing to the ground. Sir Gillian stumbled to his feet and swung his sword at the three pirates before him. They jumped out of the way with ease, laughing at the knight’s slowness.

            One pirate was so rude that he began making comments about Sir Gillian’s mother. Sir Gillian became so heated at this that he held his sword aloft with both hands above his head, and gave a loud war cry as he charged forward.

            “Look! What be that distraction?” Called the pirate, pointing behind Sir Gillian. The silver knight stopped his charge, looking confused, and turned to follow the pirate’s eyes. As he turned around, he stood face to face with the two other pirates who had circled round him. They smiled and at him and gave him a hefty shove. The first pirate had gotten on his hands and knees just behind Sir Gillian, acting like a table top, and when the knight stumbled backwards from the shove, he toppled right over the first pirate and clattered to the floor with a sound like clanging pots. The three pirates erupted into laughter. Before the twins.

            Sir Dureant the Noble was now fighting two groups of pirates on either side of him. On one side, he parried blows with his sword and was sweeping pirate feet out from their owners in such a way that they all toppled on top of each other. With the other hand he was wielding a chair like a lion tamer, delivering sharp jabs to pirates’ ribs so they found themselves out of breath in the middle of shouting some insult.

            With power and precision, Sir Dureant slipped his sword through the handle of a nearby mug, drawing it to him as it slid along the blade. He blocked a few strikes with the chair as he tilted the mug towards him and drained the last few swigs from it. He smacked his lips and gave a sigh of satisfaction, parrying attempts to slice him the entire time as if he were bored. He flung his sword, sending the mug colliding with a pirate’s head, then he stabbed the blade through the sleeve of one, embedding the sword into a nearby table top, pinning the pirate to the furniture.