The Throne of a Thousand Swords

We Must Flee

Mirild was carrying Josiah in her arms, covered with a blanket. She had verbally expressed her worry about people in the castle hearing the baby making noises, so Josiah was all quiet.

“Great. It looks like he is calm, even with all the fight happening outside." Beata, the midwife, observed.

“It's almost like he understands what we are trying to do here." Mirild pointed out.

Thomas; Mirild's faithful servant was now in the room together with her and the midwife. His job was helping the mother carry all the needed things. Mirild wanted to pack up a big box filled with trinkets she said were essential for 'fighting', whatever the hell she meant by that. In Josiah's view, she didn't look at all like the fighter type. Josiah just assumed she was making stuff up since Thomas was going to be the one carrying it all anyway.

“Got everything there? Let's do this now." Mirild said.

“Shouldn't Beata perform a last check outside just to be sure, madam? Emperor Eneris may order someone to hold us down if he ever finds out you were willing to run away with his son."

'Me!? The son of the emperor…?' Josiah made a surprised face. 'Then this means my mother is…?'

“We already did that. Trust me, we are not going to find anyone on Eneris' part now. They are too busy leading with the storm on the higher stratum of the castle. The secondary floor is going to be the last to think during an event of such caliber."

Mirild nodded her head, on which the midwife, opened the door for her and the servant to pass.

As predicted, the corridor was empty. They could hear a heavy coming from below, near the castle entrance. But the place they were in had been almost entirely evacuated.

Mirild ran to the window to check. The windows were very large, therefore when Mirild got close, even Josiah could see the outside from his height, being held in her arms. The windows were covered in a pink-reddish glass-like skin Josiah had never seen before. It looked like glass from a farther distance but looking closely he could tell it was not… He wondered how did those windows feel to the touch.

They spotted the fight on the front gate through the glass. An agglomerate of about thirty people was holding what seemed to be a fierce fight. Josiah couldn't tell the emperor's soldiers or the enemy apart. There was no uniform or indication. That was being held inside the yard area, but they could hear more people about to come in from the gate.

Josiah also noticed there were a huge lot of weapons lying around, almost three times as much as there were people fighting. Which felt a bit odd. Did that many people perish already? But then where were the bodies…?

Mirild turned to Thomas:

“There is no chance we are using the gate or the closer entrances, we need to find another way. Come, quickly!"

She started running towards the opposite direction of the front gate, carrying Josiah.

Thomas, the servant, followed her carrying the big box, leaving the midwife behind.

The entire corridor was covered in that strange light red window substance, and because of that Josiah could see the panorama of the castle as a whole, both the corridor he was in and the outsides. The castle indeed seemed to be much luxurious and better developed on the central stratum they were referring to. It seemed they were on the valet's part of the building.

'But isn't my mom the wife of the emperor? Why were they assisting my birth in this place?'

Josiah kept trying to revive some of the memories of the current life on his head, but nothing would come to mind.

He quickly learned the world he was in wasn't like the one he was used to, though. From the weird substances of the windows to the balls of light being held at odd stakes used for illumination and other small details he never saw before… There were a lot of things that were completely new.

This didn't seem to be your simple everyday time-travel to the middle-aged era.

They ran to the other side of the castle. The situation was suspiciously quiet there.

“Quick, Thomas!"

“Just a minute, madam." He was struggling to see the way properly having to carry all that stuff.

“We are going to the kitchen. There is a secret passage I was once told."

“A secret passage?"

“Yes. It leads to the farmlands. They say Eneris used to play there when he was a little kid."

Thomas followed Mirild and the baby to the kitchen, in which there was a wall with a lot of barrels stocked up. They were very big, around the size of a small kid.

'Is she going to tell Thomas to take those barrels off?' Josiah thought, 'there doesn't seem to be anything there...'

Mirild started pushing the barrels to the side with her feet. They moved quickly and effortlessly, like they were just small and light.

'Such strength!?' Josiah exclaimed.

“Give me the box, Thomas." She demanded.

The tall man with grizzly hair did as she said. He embraced the huge heavy box and put in on the floor, and then opened it.

Mirild then leaned and caught a trinket with a curious symbol with one of her hands, taking care to maintain Josiah on her arms the whole time.

She pointed the symbol to the wall.

Josiah was expecting some effects with a magical shed of light.

Nothing happened.

'I guess it isn't working, mom…? Maybe dad closed this secret passage long ago so that you couldn't use it?' He thought.

She walked right past the wall like it wasn't there.

'What!?'

Josiah swung his baby head left and right trying to understand what happened but he was already in another place. A few seconds later the servant Thomas popped up behind them from nowhere as well.

The passage was dark and narrow. The walls were made of big stone tiles. The cold sensation inside was very out of place if compared to the weather inside the castle, which suggested they were in a completely different place now.

“Shh!" She did.

They both got quiet, something else could be heard.

'Footsteps?' Josiah thought.

A group of armored soldiers from the enemy army were walking towards Josiah and the two adults, and the passage was one way, so there was no avoiding them.

“Oh no! They found this place! Quick, my weapons!" Mirild said in a frenzy.

Thomas had once again to set the box on the floor to prepare for the urgency. He did the best he could but the soldiers might have heard them because they started running faster.

“Hah hah! I told you! This does indeed lead to the inside of the castle." One of the soldiers, who seemed to be a high ranked official said loudly with pride.

Unlike the regular image of a medieval soldier that Josiah had in mind, there was no space for shields. It seemed the soldiers on that world carried the most weapons they could. They had at least one blade on each hand. But some of them had also more heavy weaponry tied to the armor so that they could retrieve it easily if they ever needed to.

The high ranked official was tall and seemed to be around his mid-50s. His physique was sturdy and it looked even more enhanced when he was wrapped in all that steel. Aside from that, other three soldiers were accompanying him.

'There's no way mom is going to try and fight their way through, right…?' Josiah thought.

“Thomas…" Mirild said in a serious tone, as she started getting near the box."

“Yes, madam?"

“Here. Take care of my son."