Fan Fiction ❯ Family Inheritance: The Sapphire Blade ❯ Chapter 5

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The next day, Kilik seemed to have no idea about the conversation his brother and Brin had, or the new relationship. Aiden and Brin didn’t feel like telling him either, they acted like nothing was new. But they were sure Kilik would figure out at some point, they weren’t trying to hide it from him, they just didn’t feel like talking about it at this point.
Finally, after two weeks, the trio was finally free from the forest. They walked across a short field that led them to South City. It was, of course, way bigger than Barrleton Town. Most of the houses and buildings were a few floors bigger. And the biggest of all the buildings was the castle that rose high above the city, making it visible for miles.
They barely took five steps before they were cut off by four soldiers, two of them carrying long sharp pikes, the other two had katana swords resting in sheaths strapped to their waists. “Travelers, are you?” The head pike wielding soldier asked.
“Yeah,” Aiden replied, “We’ve come to visit.”
“Hand over your weapons.”
“Why?”
“Civilians are not allowed weapons.”
“Is that so it’s easier for you to push them around?”
“It’s so no one starts any trouble.” The soldier said irritated.
“We won’t start any trouble.” Aiden lied.
“Be that as it may, we’re still required to take your weapons.”
“Sorry, but I don’t give my sword away to anyone.”
“If you don’t give up your weapons, then we will have to use force.”
“Go ahead and try.” Aiden provoked. He knew the soldier would have no problem with using force, but Aiden still wasn’t planning to kill, only to wound. And he felt he needed a warm up for the upcoming battle.
“Why you little--” One of the katana wielding soldiers started as he drew his sword and whipped it at Aiden. Whether it was meant to kill or not, it didn’t matter, Aiden had the Sapphire Blade out within a second to defend himself. The next few events happened in quick succession, Kilik had an arrow aimed at one of the pike wielding soldiers as Brin drew her dagger, and the head pike soldier was moving to attack Aiden.
People in the streets stopped whatever they were doing to watch the ensuing street brawl. Aiden blocked the pike aimed at him as he swiftly moved to block the same katana that struck at him before. He was fighting both the pike and katana soldiers, something that would definitely test his skill. As he ducked under the pike, he shifted his blade to block the katana that was aiming for his feet, and he quickly parried it to bring himself back up and kick the pike wielder out of the way.
Aiden swung his blade at the katana soldier a few times, each time being blocked. He didn’t see the pike wielder sneaking up from behind until it was almost too late, just barely being able to duck under the pike and block another katana attack. And he put all his strength into swinging his sword and ripping through the katana soldier’s skin, just as an arrow shot from his side that pierced into the attacking pike soldier, stopping him in his tracks.
Both of the soldiers fell to the ground simultaneously. Aiden looked around and saw the other two soldiers also on the ground, but all of them were still alive. Aiden slid his sword back into its sheath, then kneeled down and ripped the arrow from the pike soldier’s chest, as the man gave a gasp of pain, he turned to Kilik and Brin, “Check on the others.” He picked up the pike that was laying on the ground next the fallen soldier and threw it out of reach. “So tell me, why do you work for Kale?”
The soldier had a confused look on his face, but answered the question nonetheless, “Because I’m forced too.”
“So you didn’t have a choice?” The soldier shook his head, “Would you prefer the old Overseer to return to power?”
“Definitely.” He coughed before continuing, “But the chances of that happening aren’t good.”
“Tell me what it’s like with Kale as the South Lord.”
“Constant fear.” The soldier said simply, “You never know what he’ll do, we have to follow his every command, and if we don’t he kills us. Sometimes he kills someone for some stupid reason, like just looking at him. We think he just finds pleasure in it.”
“Then he deserves to die.” Aiden said more to himself than the soldier.
“Of course he does. But no one is strong enough to defeat him.”
“Maybe there hasn’t been, but there is now.” Aiden stood up and offered a hand to the soldier.
“Who?” The soldier asked as he took Aiden’s hand and was hoisted up to his feet.
“Don’t worry about that, just expect the old Overseer to return soon.” Aiden walked over to Kilik and Brin, who had the other soldiers disarmed and on their feet as well. “Sorry about hurting you guys, but you are the ones who attacked me first. You should all go and get healed, but do not tell Kale about us.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” One of the soldiers said, “If we told him that we were beaten by three kids he’d kill us… literally.”
“Yeah,” Another said, “It’s better if he doesn’t know, and we have a better chance of keeping our lives.”
“Good, then go.” Aiden said. Many of the people started to go back to their own business, it wouldn’t be good if any of them went to tell Kale about the situation. Aiden could only hope that everyone wanted Kale out of power as much as the soldiers. He didn’t see why not, Kale obviously wasn’t a nice Lord, Aiden was surprised that there were even people walking the streets now instead of hiding somewhere.
It took a while for them to get to the castle. They had to take less conspicuous routes, like alleyways, so they wouldn’t have any more trouble with soldiers. And they eventually came upon the street that ended at the castle. There was a wide stair case that led up to the castle entrance, and two pike wielding soldiers were guarding the door on either side.
They weren’t going to march up to the door with their weapons and expect to get past the guards, even though that’s how Aiden would have normally done it. This time, he planned on being a little more stealthy. They hid behind one of the houses at the end of the street as Aiden told Kilik the plan.
“Wait till I give the signal, then shoot the right guard, but don’t kill him. And I’ll take care of the rest.” Aiden finished.
“Alright.” Kilik replied.
“And Brin, just stay with Kilik for now.”
“No problem.” Brin said. Aiden left the two behind the house and crossed the street to hide behind another house. Luckily there were still a lot of people on the street, so the guards wouldn’t have noticed him easily, even though he was carrying a weapon.
Aiden positioned himself, then gave the signal. An arrow shot from Kilik’s bow and pierced into the right guard’s chest. He dropped his pike and fell to his knees, ripping the arrow out as the other guard hurried to check on him. At that instant, Aiden was already running at full speed up the stairs, gave one last leap and a slash of his sword that sliced into the second guard’s back.
Both guards were still alive and conscious, so Aiden quickly struck the same guard in the back of the neck with the bottom of his sword hilt. Then swiftly kicked the kneeling guard in the same place, knocking both of them out.
Kilik was running up the stairs with Brin following close behind, both of them had their weapons out and ready. They looked around to see that they drew attention to themselves once again from the gawking citizens on the street. Aiden grinned and waved once before entering the castle, Brin and Kilik on his heels.
They found themselves in a corridor made entirely of stone, and they set off at a run. The corridor led to a big circular room. There were two tall wooden doors to the left and straight ahead. On the right, there was a staircase inclosed by walls.
“Where do you think Kale will be?” Kilik asked.
“Probably at the top.” Aiden said, “Let’s go.” He headed toward the stairs and began to climb. Brin followed behind Aiden, and Kilik followed behind Brin, forming a line. It was apparent that the stairs went up in a circular motion along with the castle tower. So they continued to walk up the stairs, until they arrived at the last landing at the top of the castle tower.
A large double wooden door separated them from their enemy. Aiden enhaled and steeled himself before pushing the doors open and walking through. The other two seemed to hesitate before following.
Inside was an enormous throne room. It was all completely made of stone, like the rest of the castle, but it had red drapes hanging from the walls all around the room. There was a throne on a raised dais, obviously the Overseer’s throne, but it’s recently belonged to the new Lord. The last thing to point out about the room was the single window it had, and looking out of that window was a man.
The man was taller than Aiden, at least three feet. He had hair that almost reached his shoulders, and a white jagged stripe that ran down the middle of his reddish hair. The man also wore a black cape, and those were the only features that the trio could see from where they stood -- until the man turned around. They saw he had evil looking eyes, red color surrounding snake-like slits for pupils. He also wore a dark brown tunic and gloves, and black pants and boots.
“You must be the one who’s been causing trouble.” The man said, he surprisingly had a smooth, calm voice.
“Maybe,” Aiden replied, “And you must be Kale, you‘re younger than I expected.”
“Such arrogance,” Kale began, “Everyone addresses me as ‘Lord,’ and that includes you.”
“That’s too bad for you, I have a habit of not always obeying orders. Esspecially the ones given to me by someone who I plan to kill.”
Kale gave Aiden an incredulous look at first, then laughed to himself. “You must not be from around here. Alright, if you think you’re so strong...” He trailed off as he walked over to his throne. He reached behind the large chair and pulled out a sword, the blade alone looked like it was just a couple feet smaller than Aiden. It had a curve at the end, and a bladed hook was concaved from the top. Kale walked away from the throne and stood relaxed with his sword pointing toward the ground. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Aiden withdrew his sword, the Sapphire Blade gleaming as he twirled it around once in his hand before taking the same position as Kale. However, Aiden wasn’t as relaxed, he had to try hard to appear as though he was perfectly calm, and he felt he was doing a good job. But he still felt fear, the man he was now glaring at was intimidating. Aiden was going to fight though, And I’ll win too.
“But first--” Kale said as he waved his hand, four black poles descended from the cieling and surrounded Brin and Kilik in a rectangular motion, and a black mixed with red force field erupted from the poles and enclosed the two teens. They were now separated from Aiden, and they couldn’t do anything to help. “This is just between you and me, those two can just watch.”
“Fine, I don’t need help to defeat you.” Aiden said in a fake brave voice, he actually would have preferred to have help.
“Enjoy your last minutes on this planet while it lasts.” Kale scorned.
Aiden said nothing in return. He held his sword with both hands as he raised it and charged into the fray.