Rise of the Shadows Read online

  Rise of the Shadows

  SHADOW BRIGADE BOOK ONE

  Copyright

  Rise of the Shadows© copyright 2019 Robyn Wideman

  Published: Oct 2019

  Publisher: Magicblood Media Corp

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  Author Notes

  1

  Mendris

  The cool sea winds felt good on Mendris’ face as he stood at the bow of the ship. The gentle sting of the air on his skin meant they were making good time, and soon they would arrive in Mara. He’d always enjoyed his time at sea, sailing to distant ports all over the known world to fight in foreign wars. Even in the darkest, most dangerous, storms he’d felt comfortable. Storms were chaos, powerful winds blowing from ever changing angles that could be your friend or foe and change at any second, but if you looked close enough, almost every storm had a rhythm to it; a heartbeat. If you found that beat you could ride out the storm. And for Mendris, battle was just like a storm. He just had to find the rhythm to survive. If he hadn’t been born into the world of shadow warriors, he could’ve been a sailor, or even a pirate. In another lifetime where violence didn’t fill his life, maybe even a simple farmer. But even as his mind contemplated a life without violence his eyes told him another story.

  “What do you see?” Raiya asked as she joined him.

  Mendris glanced sideways at the beautiful young woman. It still caught him off-guard every time he saw her. She looked so much like his last love that it made his heart skip a beat every time she caught his attention. He pointed out to a dark object on the horizon. “We have company.” The sailor in the crow’s nest hadn’t spotted the ship yet, but he didn’t have the magically enhanced vision of a shadow warrior.

  “A ship. I’ll inform the captain,” Raiya said.

  “Tell him it’s pirates and they are hunting us.”

  Raiya frowned. “You’re sure. It could be coincidence.”

  “They’re pointed right at us.” As far as the ship was away from them, the chances of anyone sailing directly towards them was remote, as the captain had taken a path that avoided the main shipping route.

  “I see.” Raiya said before leaving him to let the captain know of the ship.

  The pirate ship was still a long way off and Mendris expected the captain would attempt to evade any attackers as they were a merchant ship. The crew seemed capable, but there were only a dozen men on the ship. There could be any number of pirates on the ship hunting them.

  The captain joined Mendris and took out his spy glass. “Where am I looking?”

  Rogue pointed north.

  The captain peered through his glass. “Damn. You’re right. That’s a pirate ship, and a big one. We don’t normally see them this far south. I don’t think we can out run them, but we can give it a shot. My crew will fight if necessary.”

  “Do your best to outrun them, Captain. How far are we from shore?”

  The captain rubbed his jaw. “We could possibly make shore today, but no way we can get to the port without a little luck. We have to sail north to get to the port.”

  Sailing north meant getting closer to the pirate ship, not a smart tactic when trying to evade the enemy. “Just do your best to get us away. If they are hunting your cargo it won’t matter, but if they are looking for Raiya and I then if you can get us close to shore, perhaps they’ll leave your ship alone.”

  The captain snorted. “Not like pirates to leave a good ship like mine unmolested. Even if they’re hunting you they’ll want my ship. But they aren’t getting it without a fight. We’ll try escape first though.”

  Rogue nodded as the captain returned to the helm. He turned to Raiya. “How many supplies do you have?” If it came to a fight, he and Raiya would be doing much of the heavy lifting and their magic would be critical.

  “I have a couple smoke bombs, enough strength potion for a couple skirmishes and my normal weapons. I packed light. I didn’t think I would have to help fight off a full-fledged assassination attempt in Mora and then fight pirates on the way home. Trouble has a way of finding you, Mendris Fox.”

  Yes, trouble did seem to find him. But there was nothing he could do about that. What he could do is make sure he was ready when trouble got to him. “I’m going below deck.”

  Raiya looked confused. “What is below deck?”

  “My hammock. I’m having a nap.”

  “We’re about to be attacked by pirates and you’re having a nap?”

  “Yes. Our captain knows what he is going. I’ll be of no help in trying to evade the enemy. He’ll use his skills and hope for favorable winds and it will be hours before they catch us, perhaps even a full day. You and I are only in the way until they try and board us. The best thing I can do is make sure I’m ready for that.”

  …

  “It’s time,” said a sailor.

  Mendris opened his eyes. He felt good. Before taking his nap, he’d slathered more healing salve on all his wounded areas, which covered a large part of his body. However, the healing salve Raiya brought with her was much stronger than what Zeke had made back at his cabin in Western Deytar. The flora and fauna from Oshava contained more magical energies and healing properties. Since meeting up with Raiya during the last assassination attempt on Queen Jasmin Grant he’d been healing much faster. He wasn’t a hundred percent healthy, but close enough. In a perfect world he’d have a couple more days healing before trying to fight a ship full of pirates but the world wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot.

  Raiya, who’d followed his lead in taking a pre-battle snooze, stood and stretched before taking up her swords. “I suppose a nap wasn’t the worse idea ever,” she said before heading up the stairs.

  Mendris held back a smile, Raiya was like most warriors, once the enemy was in sight there was a buildup of anticipation and adrenaline. However, battle at sea was different. It built up slower, before blooming into a chaotic full-blown battle. Sitting around for hours watching the enemy approach was taxing, by taking a nap the two of them avoided that build up.

  When he reached the captain, Mendris could see the pirate ship was only a few hundred yards off. The pirate ship was almost twice the size of theirs and the crew three times their number.

  “Sorry,” said the captain. “We almost made it to shore, but they have too much sail, I can’t match their speed. “Another hour and you could’ve escaped.”

  “It’s not your fault Captain,” Mendris said. “Have they fired any arrows yet?”

  “A few to test the range, but we still are out of striking distance.”

  Mendris took a bow from the weapons rack and a full quiver of arrows. “Perhaps not.” On the pirate ship a portion of the crew were still manning the sails while others were lined up on the edge of rail. Mendris ignored the archers and targeted one of the sailors on the far side of the ship whose attention wasn’t on them. He pulled back the bow until it was stretched as much as he could get it. He watched the flags on the pirate ship to get a good guess on how much he needed to adjust his aim for the wind, and then lined up his target. He fired the arrow. It sailed over the pirates on the rail who ducked easily and struck his target in the chest.

  “An excellent shot,” the captain said. “If you can do that forty or fifty more tim
es, we won’t have to lift a finger.”

  “If it were only that easy,” Mendris said as he fired an arrow at the pirate at the helm of the ship. The pirate captain, or first mate, Mendris had no idea which it was, side stepped out of the way of the arrow which landed harmlessly on the deck. “Once they’re closer I’ll be able to pick a few more off, but they’ll all be watching now. But we can make their lives difficult in the meantime. Excuse me for a moment.”

  Mendris went back below deck to the supply room and found the small barrel he was looking for. He picked it up and returned to the deck. Popping the lid open he dipped an arrow into the fluid and then looked over at Raiya. “Would you do the honors?”

  Raiya smiled. “It would be my pleasure.” She then took a small pouch from her belt and emptied some of the powder onto the arrow tip. The fine powder stuck to the oily arrow. She then waited for Mendris to aim his arrow. He gave a small nod and she waved her hand, magically lighting the arrow on fire.

  Mendris fired the arrow, and it struck one of the main sails. The fire started to slowly spread onto the sail.

  “I fear that won’t be much help, they’ll have that put out in a moments time,” the captain said.

  “Just watch,” Raiya said as one of the pirate sailors took a bucket of water and threw it at the small fire.

  When the water hit the sail, the fire didn’t go out, instead it spread even faster.

  Mendris dipped another arrow in the lantern oil and Raiya poured more powder on it.

  “That’s the last of it,” Raiya said as she ignited the second arrow.

  Mendris fired this arrow into a second sail and they watched as the pirate crew scrambled around to avoid falling bits of the first sail that was now fully on fire.

  “What in the seven hells,” the captain said. “they can’t put out the fire.”

  “They could,” Raiya said. “But they’d have to douse it in flour. Water only makes it hotter. And I doubt they even have enough flour if they knew to use it.”

  “We might get out of this without a fight,” said the captain with renewed enthusiasm. “Look, without those two sails we are starting to pull away.”

  Mendris didn’t share the captain’s enthusiasm. He could see a robed figure coming from below deck. The pirates had a mage.

  As the mage reached the deck, Mendris fired an arrow at him. The mage had started a spell to deal with the burning ship, as the sail fire had now spread to the poles and parts of the deck, and he had to stop his spell to avoid the arrow. The mage stared at Mendris for a moment and then started another spell. Mendris fired another arrow, but the Mage got his spell off and moved before the arrow could hit him. This time the spell wasn’t defensive. A magical ball of fire came sailing through the air and struck the ship. It landed right at the helm and burned incredibly hot. The captain, who’d jumped out of the way yelled. “God damn fire mage. We’re done if we can’t get that fire out.”

  Before Mendris could reply a second magical fireball struck the deck and this time the captain hadn’t been able to avoid the ball. He screamed and jumped overboard to try get out of the fire. Another fireball hit the deck at the base of the mail sail pole.

  The first mate looked at Mendris, his eyes full of panic. “What do we do?”

  “Get your crew off the ship. Drop your row boats and get to shore. Raiya and I’ll keep that bastard mage busy while you get to shore.”

  Raiya ran to the weapons rack and grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows. She started firing arrows at the mage. Not as strong as Mendris she had to use more arc to hit the moving target, but he still had to move. Mendris joined her and fired as many arrows as he could as fast as he could to keep the mage dodging and weaving. The ship crew launched the row boats as quickly as they could and left the burning ship with only Mendris and Raiya on it.

  Mendris emptied the first quiver of arrows and started in on his second. The crew had taken the remaining bow and arrows with them.

  “I’m out,” said Raiya.

  Mendris grabbed a handful of arrows and threw the quiver and the remaining arrows across the deck to Raiya. She’d wisely taken up a spot on the other side of the deck where the mage couldn’t hit them both with one fireball. So far, they’d managed to keep him too busy to fire at them or help the pirate crew with their fires.

  As he ran out of arrows, Mendris yelled to Raiya. “Now.” He then sprinted across the deck and jumped as far as he could over the rail and into the water. He swam as fast he could

  2

  Evlyn

  Evlyn Fox ground the star flower with care. The trick was to get the mixture down to tiny flakes, but not grind it down into a powder.

  Ever since her father Ansgar had decided to train her as a shadow warrior she’d been a dedicated student. She had to be. Her father was a demanding teacher. But ever since he’d started teaching her magic she’d fallen in love with the craft, even if much of what she did was training for battle.

  “Why are you doing it like that?”

  Evlyn flinched as her father spoke. He had a habit of sneaking up on her. She was supposed to be able to notice him any time he came near her, but sometimes she got so wrapped up in her work that she forgot her surroundings, and her father moved like a wraith; silent and deadly. “I’ve modified the mixture.”

  Ansgar frowned as he watched her work. “To what purpose? You would get a better spread if you grind the star flower into a powder.”

  Evlyn smiled. Her father was skeptical of change. He let her play and try to improve on the spells and potions they used, but she had to prove that her methods were effective and consistent. A spell or potion that couldn’t be replicated on the battlefield was of no use to a shadow warrior, and if she was ever to become a member of a Shadow Brigade, she needed to prove herself. “I’ve modified the smoke bombs so that they have a secondary purpose.”

  “Show me.”

  Evlyn bit her lip and looked nervously at her father. This was a new modification and she wasn’t sure how he’d react. But once he requested a demonstration there was no turning back. He was very strict when it came to magic. “You might want to step back.”

  “Is it poisonous?”

  She shook her head. “Not exactly.”

  Ansgar stood his ground. “Then proceed.”

  Evlyn reached into her pouch and grabbed a bomb. The smoke bombs were a classic tool of shadow warriors. A mixture of ground star flower and parlucian covered in a thin hardened plaster. She took a deep breath and thought, here goes nothing. She threw the egg sized bomb to the ground. The plaster broke and the mixture inside started to react. A cloud of smoke filled the air. However, unlike traditional smoke bombs, Evlyn had added a third substance, gartan juice. The gartan juice on its own was harmless, much like either of the star flower or parlucian, but when you combined star flower and gartan juice the smell was absolutely vile, like rotten eggs, only significantly stronger. Holding her breath, Evlyn watched her father as the stinky smoke bomb worked its magic.

  To his credit, Ansgar didn’t retch. Something she’d done several times during her experiments to get the mixture right, but his eyes were watering and after a few seconds he moved back. Once he moved back, Evlyn was free to follow him. As they cleared the smoke she finally exhaled. The stench was horrendous, but not nearly as debilitating as it was if one directly inhaled the fumes.

  “That is the most revolting smell I’ve ever encountered,” Ansgar said. “But I can see how that can be an effective modification. It would be hard for an enemy to find you in the smoke if they’re puking their guts out.”

  Her eyes watering, Evlyn grinned. “That was my thought as well.”

  “An intriguing mixture. Make sure you test it thoroughly.” Ansgar’s brow furrowed, a sign he was deep in thought. “I still don’t see why you use flakes of star flower instead of powder.”

  “That’s because of the gartan juice. If I mix it with ground star flower it tends to clump together, but flakes absorb the juice so whe
n it hits the ground the parlucian reacts with both the star flower and the gartan. Stinky smoke.”

  Ansgar nodded. “I see. An impressive mixture, daughter of mine. Just remember that a mixture like this will be effective in certain situations while a detriment in others.”

  Evlyn nodded. “Understood. I was thinking carrying one or two of the stinky bombs along with the normal smoke bombs would be prudent.”

  Taking another look at her workstation, Ansgar seemed like he wanted to say something else, something not in regards to her creation but then he shook his head in the slightest moment as if convincing himself not to. “Grab your swords, daughter.”

  Evlyn was curious to what was on her father’s mind. He wasn’t the most communicative of men when it came to discussing anything beyond the art of becoming a shadow warrior. But there were times when he looked like he wanted to say something more. Was it that she was a woman? Or did it have to do with her older brothers who were all dead or presumed dead? Evlyn was the youngest of four, but two of her brothers died during the king’s raids and the last had been gone for years. It was a common story among their people. The Shadow Brigades were legendary warriors and kingdoms from around the world would hire its members. It was what kept their ranks strong and battle tested even in times of peace in their homeland. It was also their downfall. So many of the members of Shadow Brigades lived and died overseas that when their home, the Paulan Province of Oshva, was attacked by King Dehalle’s troops they were defeated. Many, like her older brother Hubard, died fighting off the troops while the rest fled into the Dark Forest where they now lived in hiding, training and waiting for members of the Shadow Brigade to return home and pick up the cause of freeing their lands. However, it was a plan that would take years to work, if there were even enough warriors left. For now, they focused on staying alive and training.

  3

  Ryo

  Crouched at the base of a thick corca tree, Ryo Thera notched his arrow and took aim at his target. He took in a deep breath and then slowly exhaled as he lined up his show. He released his arrow and it flew true. Not waiting to see if his shot hit the target, he rapidly fired another arrow at his second target, and then he did it a third time. The third shot was the trickiest, as his prey was frightened and fleeing, but he’d guessed right about how his prey would react and he’d led the shot enough that it scored a kill.