Sentria: The Age of Adventure (Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Griffin Prince

Weeks passed and we trained as we waited for Kilgore to attack. An eagerness hung over the village, not one of fear and anxiety, but one of excitement. These mountainmen lived for battle in a way that the southern realm did not. They prayed to Ogor, their god of war every, day for it to come and many wanted to take the fight to them directly, but Princess Ilya and Cragg convinced them otherwise.

Eldwyn spent his days meditating next to our house. He'd spend almost the whole day seated cross-legged with his eyes closed and I had to force him to stop to eat meals. He told me that for this battle he needed to rely on his ice powers which were still developing and that meant he had to concentrate harder. "The sun must be on our side," Eldwyn said, and I let him be.

After breakfast, I'd train with Lucas in the ways of the sword. He took to it quickly considering he had never used one. I gave him the basics that I had learned myself in my younger days: keeping the knee pointed straight when lunging, keeping the elbow relaxed and not tight, keeping the wrist straight, moving slightly back to defend, and aiming to cut through. His form was perfect, though he lacked in power, and when I held back he always knew and demanded that I try harder.

"The Kilgorians won't take it easy on me," Lucas said, holding his sword up. "I must be ready."

I went for walks around the Baynard Mountain town with Princess Ilya where we talked with a freedom we didn't have in Cordath Castle under her father's rule. We were both prisoners there in different ways, but in the Baynard Mountains, we were closer to our true selves. She was lighter and in control and I knew that she had been through an adventure all her own in the year that had gone by. The mountainmen didn't have books there, they only told stories orally. Ilya missed her books dearly, but she had coped with it by coming to understand that she was living out her very  own story.

With her blessing, I had joined their council of Mountainmen appointed to prepare for the Kilgore battle, and I implemented some of my own ideas into their plan. The mountainmen were melee fighters, so they had to be resourceful against the attacks that would be launched at them. We planned on rolling boulders down the mountainside as they approached to damage their numbers at the foot of the mountain. Kilgore would have catapults with iron balls and the hope was to take out as many of those as possible. We only had the mountain itself to defend against such airborne attacks. If an overwhelming number of Kilgorians climbed the mountain, we would retreat into the mountain towns and cut them off as they came through the entrances. We'd use fire to burn them and attack them with our weapons as they came through the limited entrances.

I felt confident in this plan, but I warned them not to underestimate them. They were skilled fighters and they had the ferocity of tactical warfare, not just brutality on their side.

"And what of this wind relic you've brought here?" asked Ledd. "Will his powers be ready by the time Kilgore attacks?"

"Don't worry about Eldwyn," I told him. "He will always be there when you need him."

At night, Eldwyn, Lucas, and I slept alone. I didn't know if it was because of the looming danger or another reason, but there was still a closeness that we shared. I didn't know what would come after all this, but I knew that we would all be together. There was a balance between love and obligation and we had found it. We knew what must be done for the realm of Askeran; Prince Lucas and I had to forge a union, and in my own way, I had come to love him for what he was. Eldwyn held my true heart. He was my first flame, and when I became High King I had every intention of lifting the ban of relics into the southern realms and he and his people would be there with us and we'd live in harmony.

After dinner in the Stone Hall, Cragg took me aside to have a private conversation. He was a man of few words, but I could see that he paid close attention to everything. He wasn't like Ledd who acted first and never thought too hard about matters. He was careful and considerate. Even when Cragg didn't understand something, he reasoned with it before he made his opinion known.

We walked the stony hallways together lit by torches against the wall. He stayed close to me, as if to keep his words from escaping too far. 

"Over one-hundred years ago," said Cragg, "there was once a rebellion in Baynard. Baynard isn't like the other mountains. We stay united, but they were seduced by the dark wizard Roclier who used a staff made of dark magicks. One-hundred rebels left the mountains and journeyed south to reclaim the realms in the name of Baynard, but they were stopped by five knights from Sentria who were out on a hunt in Tanal. The Sentrian leader had a sword and shield that had been blessed by an old relic of the wood, and he and his knights defeated the rebels of Baynard and Roclier. 

"The knight was then called to take Roclier's staff to Baynard, and he and his knights braved the weather and the twisting tunnels to come here. It had been centuries since a foreigner had come here and those in Baynard were much impressed by his efforts. The knight promised that Sentria would not retaliate and he gave us the powerful weapon." Cragg took a deep breath and then continued, "Rawk, the god of the mountains emerged from the mist and honored the Knight Cober to the high mountains in the clouds above, and he created the griffin shield and sword and armor from him and the wizard's staff. Good out of evil. Not for a battle that would happen in their lifetime, but for another..."

I followed Cragg's story but I couldn't believe it. I knew that the sword and shield that Eldwyn and I purchased at that market town in Balgore were Knight Cober's, but I didn't know that he was so well-loved by Baynard and empowered by some divine force. In a way, that Sentrian blade had brought me there. Had it not been for its properties of repelling magicks, I would have been killed many times over.

"My Sentrian sword..." I said, looking down at my sheath then back up at Cragg.

"That was his. That's how I knew for certain that you were the one Rawk spoke of."

We came to a door and when Cragg opened it and an armory was revealed to me. Most of the weapons were crude and brutal, but at the other end of the room hung on a wall was a white helm with a steal-feathered comb and a beak-shaped visor, white armored chestplate, a white shield with two curves at the top that made three sharp points, and a white sword with a winged hilt.

Cragg put his hand on my shoulder. "You are the Griffin Prince."

I stood there staring without closing my eyes. It was the most beautiful armor and weaponry I had ever seen. There was the symbol of the griffin in the middle of the white shield and it all shined so havenly.

"Go to it," said Cragg.

I walked over to it slowly and touched it delicately. I felt power flowing through it like nothing I had ever felt before.

"This is for the battle ahead," said Cragg from over my shoulder.

That night, we had dinner with Princess Ilya in our house and it was lovely. This time, we didn't speak about Kilgore, Cordath, or witches, we just enjoyed each other's company as if we weren't the line of defense against the end of Askeran. It was how I expected commoners spent their days, just...living. In the moment. Not worried about the world-ending trials ahead. But that wasn't my fate. My fate was to take on the pain so that the entire realm didn't have to worry. I wanted them to live out their lives happily and safely, even if I never could.

That night, Eldwyn, Lucas, and I slept together in my bed. This was innocent. We merely held each other silently, keeping each other warm in the cold mountain air. I kept waking up in the middle of the night and looking over at them resting peacefully and I smiled. I would have stayed that way forever if I could have.

The next morning we went about our normal routine; Eldwyn meditated and Prince Lucas had his training. He took on some of the younger mountainmen and he stood his ground, though every time he fell I wanted to jump over the rail that divided us and save him. I knew that he had to do this on his own and I respected him for that. He had come a long way from the boy who never dreamed of leaving his kingdom.

As I was walking about town, inspecting the weaponry of the soldiers who would, and discussing the war, I finally heard it. The horn from the tower bellowed so mightily that it echoed throughout the mountain walls. Everyone looked up at the tower and we all knew. The battle was upon us.

Kilgore was coming.