Lighthouses Light Up Angeris Chapter

“It’s been four hours and it’s getting dark quick!” Clovis observed folding his arms over his bare chest. Clovis and Leothrad stood waiting at the stern of the Delkyr Hunter watching the Fortress known as Arnera. The heat from the sun came down on the ships and crew. Many were forced to take off their shirts and vests. Others took off leather cuirasses, jerkins, and chain-mails to keep themselves from enduring the hot sun.

They were outside the shadows of a large cloud that had stretched over the southern portion of Angeris and hovered above the Fort Arnera. Leothrad was certain Ilkabad would be able to reclaim the fort with just forty raiders while they took the towers and single lighthouse through overwhelming force. Somehow it took him longer than he expected. Were the Goblins getting better at fighting or was someone giving them training before rising again? He knew the Goblins lost thousands upon thousands to the Angoths alone in every attempt to invade them. Leothrad never suspected the mermaids had ever turned their backs on the Angoths, Veeks, or Crowsians.

His wet nurse told him stories of where the Goblins really came from. Some old tales say the Goblins are actually spawns of the Makool and elvish folk or ordinary women who were ravaged while bathing in the sun. Other stories tell of some portals to another world that could be found at the edges of the world. Those portals are where these Goblins were coming from. One Angoth explorer came across an island in the southern sea of Mecabraine. There was said to be an endless amount of trees and thorns thick enough to make boats and ships out of them. The unknown Angoth explorer told a Veek scholar of his encounter saying ‘out of the portals came these scaly, rough skinned demons with bugs eyes and nut shaped heads, pouring into the forests of pine, monstrous thorns and giant trees.’ It was a tale every Angoth warrior and mage grew up hearing even those who were not among the warrior caste system heard these stories. The Veeks however say the Irkan clansmen ran into the Goblins first and drove them to the seas, but the monsters came back from another continental island south of Emnas.

Leothrad’s mind pondered over the world these Goblins came from as he watched the corpse of a Goblin float in the water. It was unclothed save for a loincloth that covered its lower half of the body. He turned to Clovis recalled what he said about Ilkabad. “It’s Ilkabad, Clovis he does take is time when he chooses. Yet most of the time he takes less time. This is so unlike Ilkabad. What is keeping him?”

“There must’ve been more Goblins hold up than we anticipated.” Evnar suggested as he joined them from behind. Another corpse floated towards them catching their gaze from the fortress to the corpses floating around their vessels. His gaze was taken away from the corpses to one of his new allies’ ships, that was firing on the fortress. Leothrad suspected treachery immediately until he saw movement on the walls and then turned to see the base of one of the towers. Makool were climbing onto the towers they had just freed from the Goblins.

His first reaction was to warn the warriors on the towers but arrows were already being fired on the Makool before they could even reach the first steps. Leothrad turned to the fort Arnera and saw other Angoth vessels were firing on the walls facing them. Archers fired their arrows at the Makool climbing onto the island fort of Arnera. Every vessel circling the fort fired on the Makool making it appear they were attacking the fort.

What happened next was what Leothrad expected to happen. Makool climbed onto and gathered on the uncovered surface of the stone island. A hundred times he had repelled the Makool forces from these shores and other shores. It appeard this time the Makool and Goblins were forming an alliance together against theirs. Veek Captains and Irkan Chieftains warned them this would happen, but their selected Mages and Crowsian counterparts in the Triangle Brotherhood court refused to acknowledge the combined threats. He watched as two scores of Goblins tried to occupy the landing surface exposing themselves to the archers’ arrows. A volley of arrows rained down on them forcing the others back into the water as Ilkabad and twenty warriors poured out to take out the remaining ones. The Makools stopped coming receiving more than enough from the Angoths.

He turned to Evnar while a single line of Angoth banners rose above the towers and Arnera.

“Evnar, climb to the crow’s nest and see if you can’t spot any patrols headed this way.” Leothrad ordered the future in law who obeyed his orders without question or remarks like his cousin Ilkabad did.

To Leothrad Evnar was like a little brother who kept his distance at times, but still liked being around Leothrad especially when it came to drinking, tavern fights, battle, and voyages. Their voyage was Evnar’s thirteenth voyage. Evnar fought alongside his cousin in every battle they fought in, some times covering each other’s flanks or engaging the enemies in different parts of the battle fields. An early entrance into the warrior class was too much for Evnar’s family to ask for since he was needed at the farm in Lothai.

His youthfulness and prowess in battle went hand in hand as he fought for the Angoths and their Triangle Brotherhood Alliance Council that admired him once he turned seventeen. Other leaders and chieftains saw him as a menace flirting with most of their girls and maidens then getting himself into heaps of trouble with town guards and mages. Most of Evnar’s youth involved making trouble with the laws by vandalizing estates, destroying merchant’s carts, and directing caravans into Ipama held territory by mistake. Leothrad’s family took him in as well as Ilkabad when Evnar’s father threw him out after an estate was lost to a War Lord in Lontas after moving in to the region.

Lontas was always under the threat of invasion from both the Ipama and the Goblins. There were also the frequent invasions by different Makool factions whose leaders led their forces astray on pillaging raids and leaving their flanks exposed. According to the bravest of warriors and Angoth divers those factions ceased fighting each other and banded together against the Angothic kingdom. Even though Leothrad was the Champion of the Angoths he was still occupied with the Cren Order trying to establish a foothold in their side of the unknown world.

Another wave of Makool emerged from the surface and attacked the fortress again. This time it was the fortress alone that was under the assault of the Makool. He watched Ilkabad slip back into the secret entrance as archers from five different vessels launch arrows at the Makool. As the Makool were being dealt with Evnar shouted down at the crew from the crow’s nest.

“I see some patrols are headed this way!”

Leothrad looked up and saw four Angoth patrols rushing towards them as lights emerged along the eastern coasts of the Blade of Angeris. The way was lit despite how dark it would get once they began their journey. However the first agenda was who would be left behind to refill the garrisons at the Fort Arnera and the Guard Towers. Leothrad also had to reorganize his fleet before leaving the area otherwise they would ram into each other if they tried maneuvering now. Arrows rained down on the Makool who continued to come despite the number of loses. Corpses floated around their vessels when the patrols finally caught up to the Delkyr.

Brotherhood patrol vessels were smaller craft. They are much like longboats only with one inner deck and cabin at the stern. It had taken the leading craft to maneuver around the other ships in order to weave its way to Leothrad’s flag ships. Senestra popped into his mind as lights appeared along the eastern coasts of New Angeris. Lighthouses along the shores lit up their brazers as the dark of the night swept over everything in its slow pace.