Fall of Feylorn

Part 3

A fortnight later and Aliyumel and I were slipping into a carriage with a brown-haired man named Lilray and his son, Jilray and were heading off to Tilken, a tiny village in the southwest.

I had seen Lilray a few times in my life, at various parties and every now and again whenever my father invited him over for dinner or for consultations. We were distantly related as my mother had been his cousin, making Jilray my cousin as well though we didn't know each other that well.

Jilray, I had been told, had been born unable to speak, about the only sounds he could make were odd strained noises and therefore he was very shy. He could not get others to understand him properly, therefore he had long stopped trying and I had noticed him to be weak-willed and allowing others to simply decide things for him. It was a kind of sad existence, I felt sorry for him honestly, but I did my best to be nice to him and force him to make decisions to him just that little extra boost of confidence, but we rarely saw each other, sheltered as he was.

Aliyumel sat in the corner of the carriage, staring out the window. I knew that he was very used to travel, having spent several holidays going to different cities and countries for trade so this was old hat for him. For me though it was extremely aggravating. I enjoyed running around, finding something to get into or do, sitting for hours on end staring at the floor of the carriage was boring beyond belief.

I didn't even have someone to talk to. Aliyumel and I had already decided against talking socially, Jilray couldn't and Lilray was sitting, snoring heavily in one of the carriages corners. I sighed and stared out the window at the passing trees and listening to the sounds of the wheels passing over the bumpy dirt road.

"Would you stop that?" I heard behind me.

I blinked and turned to Aliyumel. "Stop what? I haven't done anything in the last hour!"

The sun shined on his dark coal colored hair making it look like liquid night. I had noticed that he had become more and more attractive as we he had gotten older and the girls rather liked his stoic, brooding act, not to mention the fact that he had sharp features and fair flawless skin. It somewhat made me jealous, but at the same time I was kind of happy that I didn't have to deal with as many girls fawning over me.

"That sighing! You've done it 5 times in as many minutes. You're driving me crazy," he said.

I frowned. "Well just shoot me down right here! It's not like I've got anything better to do!"

"Hell I don't care if you start jacking off over there just shut the hell up!"

"You're-!" I had started when the carriage stopped abruptly, the horses screamed and a gigantic THOOM sounded from outside.

Lilray jumped from his sleep.

"Whatever in the world is going on?" He shouted as he sat up and stared out the window, but it did him little good as another THOOM sounded and the carriage went up as fire burned around the carriage. It was an explosion! Someone had used magic to start an explosion beneath the carriage.

The carriage flew into the air and the flames licked at the wood of the carriage, it fall apart around us. It fell to the ground on the side. The four of us fall into a heap on the side of the carriage, a groaning heap of people.

"What the hell is happening?!" Aliyumel shouted as he tried to struggle out from beneath me.

"We're being attacked genius!" I said as I looked to see that Lilray was lying unconscious on the ground, blood trickling from his lower lip. I hoped that he was okay, but I had more important things to worry about as we heard the sounds of men shouting.

The door to the side of the carriage was ripped open above us and hands reached out and started to grab at Jilray, Aliyumel, and I. They pulled and dragged us upwards. We bit and scratched at the arms and hands pulling at the arms and shouting, trying to get someone to notice us and help.

Aliyumel had the good sense to send an icy spell to stop our attackers, but it didn't seem to faze them and before long I was being pulled out into the waning light of dusk.

"GET OFF!" I shouted and tried to bite another man, but I soon found myself being throttled about the head and the world went black.