Four Horsemen: Chapter 12 Part 1 of 1

Chapter 12:

The bells in the distance distracted the alchemists.

“What was that?” Carl asked.

“I’m not sure.

“Miss, what is going on?” An alchemist asked the female priest.

“The heretics have met our walls.” She said.

“But those bells sound like they’re inside the city?” Desari asked.

“The faithful will stand strong.”

“I just want to check on my family.” An alchemist asked.

The room started to crowd forward, closer to the priest and her guards.

“We have the lord’s work to complete.” She raised her hands.

“WE all believe in Lord Jorai, but we’ve made plenty of alchemical fire,” Desari slipped out bits of the grey and silver putty into the fires under cauldrons and different alchemical equipment.

The room focused on the front of the room.

“All will be fine, our belief in Lord Jorai will be rewarded!” The woman yelled, her face turning red and splotchey white. Alchemists held a high position in society and were used to getting their own way.

“We just want to see outside, we don’t know what time it is another laughed good-naturedly.

“Alchemy fire!” Someone yelled out. Fires sparkled and streamed out smoke, quickly spreading through the room.

Some threw water, others sand and joined the others rushing the doors. One couldn’t tell what would happen smelling in an alchemical reaction gone badly.

“It’s locked!”

Desari touched the wall away from the door, weakening the stone around the hinges.

With a crack and groan, the door fell forward with other alchemists who rushed out of the room.

“Get back here! We have the Lord’s work to do! Guards!” The female priest’s yells turned to coughing in the smoke.

“What do we do now?” Kat asked, looking around wildly Carl looked between groups running in either direction.

Desari held up her hand, spotting a blue smoke leaking under a doorway. Alchemists ran through it, the smoke rose up, a few coughed and spat, falling to the floor.

“Poison,” Desari turned, studying the halls.

“Why would there be poison?”

“Halt!” Guards yelled ahead of the other group, holding onto their blades.

“There is a fire! Watch out poison!”

The guards seemed unaffected, drawing their blades.

“Come on,” Desari ran down the hallway.

“Halt or we’ll use force!”

“We’re alche-“ The man coughed as the sword slashed through his robes, the guards advancing with blades becoming stained red.

Desari turned down a corridor.

The bodies started withering, like old parchment and turning to dust.

Kat let out a scream, Carl dragging her as they ran after Desari.

“Halt!” three guards turned down the corridor.

Desari drew and flicked two blades, slamming home into the men’s throats, the third looked at them as they choked and grabbed at the blades.

Desari pulled her sword from her hairpin storage device.

He threw a hasty slash at her with his sword.

She deflected his sword, turning and slamming her elbow into his forehead. He stumbled backwards, she infused essence into her blade cutting through the back of his armor, through his side and out the front.

He clattered to the floor with his blade. Desari pulled out her daggers and stole his blade. Carl and Kat staying back and watching her.

“Not just an alchemist.” She cleaned the guard’s blood on their clothes, checking the corridor she began running again.

A glance back showed Carl and Kat following her. Well they’re smart at least. She hid her grimace, reaching a set of stone stairs she took them two at a time.

Bells called out, getting closer and closer to the cathedral.

Desari reached the top floor, bursting into a private office, it was empty, she slowly opened the wooden windows, the wind was picking up beyond, heavy like a coming storm.

She peeked through to the cathedral remains beyond, across was the barracks and around it all was the rubble wall. Ballista were grouped together, facing down the roads that led out of the city.

Sorelli’s residents ringed the defences, trying to climb up, being pushed back by the back end of spears. Mothers held up their babes to be taken to safety.

Children were crying, lost or pressed in with the crowd.

A man wearing heavy and complex plate armor stood in the Cathedral ruins talking to a group of guards wearing finer armor than the city guard. Next to him a man wearing grey and white robes nodded.

Carl peeked through the windows too.

“Who is that in the cathedral grounds?”

“Berox and the high priest next to him. Those are the Inquisitor’s fist’s, the most devout fighters that hunt out those that would take any but Jorai into their hearts.”

“You killed them,” Kat said, standing back in the room, looking at Desari in horror.

“I didn’t want to die,” Desari looked back to the cathedral, drinking in details as the church defenders saluted the head priest and Berox and turned for the walls.

Berox and the head priest quickly walked through the ruins and into the cleared out tunnel leading below.

What you doing down there?

Yells turned to screams as ballista fired, the citizens that had blocked their path’s were cut down Inquisitors and their masks, and the Fists yelled at the guards who stopped using the blunt ends of their weapons and used the blades.

The bodies withered, turning to dust and leaving just the bones and clothes behind. Desari focused her vision, circulating essence through her eyes.

Streams of essence flowed up the streets up towards the citadel and down into the tunnel.

“What are they doing with the spring?” Carl focused on the broken water fountain, masked inquisitors pulled out corks and poured barrels into the flowing water.

“What is that?”

“That’s the spring fountain. The waters from the mountain feed into it and then made streams run through the city to give us running water and go out to feed the fields.”

An empty cask was thrown to the side, blue smoke rising from the open hole.

“Poison,” Desari looked down the roads, catching site of the other fountains. “Spread it through the water system it fills the city with death. It will kill the enemy but it will also kill them. Take out the enemy’s army in trade for a city of civilians.”

“How can you weigh up lives like that?” Kat asked.

“Because one must, military strategy is about winning, it is rarely about caring for the how. It will deal them a big blow.”

Those on the rubble were fighting with the guards on top of it, throwing rocks. They’d gained a foothold and were pushing into the area around the citadel.

“Here they come.” Ballista fired and casks of the alchemical fire were hurled into the city by catapult. The attackers and defenders fighting with the city’s residents caught in the middle.

Casks ignited and a tide of waves washed down the hill into the advancing attackers.

“Kill anyone that comes through those doors unless you want to die yourself.” She tossed the guard’s second blade to the side.

“Who are you?” Carl asked.

Desari laughed, hearing the familiar sound of gun shot. She looked at a section of the rubble wall, it exploded inwards, a man wearing armor of shadow and flame stepped forward, his spear ended three men on the ground, flames growing brighter as he clashed with five guards, entering a dance they didn’t know the steps to, walking through them as a woman walked through the dust behind him, black-grey clouds building with each shot, taking down more guards.

Desari drew upon her essence, letting it circiulate through her body, reaching out to her connection, to her bond with the elements. They reached back out, an agreement made long ago, a familiar understanding.

Black and purple armor spread over her, essence thrumming in her veins.

I don’t rightly know.

“Horsemen.” Kat whispered.