Alcingeria Chapter Five: Ignacio

The Scorpions find themselves in a losing battle against Queen Mycta's guards. Can they beat the odds and escape the law along with fifty thousand dollars? If not, what fate will befall them?

Chapter Five Ignacio:

Monday June 21^st 1690

Macalister, Robert, Don and I knew we didn’t stand a chance against the twelve guards.

            “Run!” Robert yelled.

I looked around, and after a fraction of a second, the wreckage of the carriage caught my eye.

            “There!” I yelled, pointing to where the carriage had slammed into the tree.

Lifting my arm sent a jolt of pain up it, I cried out in pain and made a break for the wrecked carriage. Every step was painful, but a flintlock bullet to the back would be even more so. With that in mind, I pushed past the pain and retreated the short distance between me and the rear of the carriage. Don and Macalister were already there.

            “Where’s Robert?” I asked.

Don pointed to Robert, still on horseback, and riding away from the guards.

            “Don’t let him escape!” barked one of the guards.

As soon as the guard said that, six guards rode on horseback after Robert. I knew what Robert was doing, he was leading some of the guards away from us!

            “Go! Go! Escape while you still can!” I heard Robert shout over his shoulder to Don, Macalister and I.

            “Good on you, Rapier!” Cried Don, thrusting a fist in the air.

I heard a gunshot, followed by a cry of pain. Macalister had shot one of the guards!

            “Nice work, Troll!” I exclaimed.

The palace guards were now down for four men, with the other six chasing Robert, this gave us a better chance of survival.

I leaned around the corner, hoping to get a shot in on one of the palace guards, but it hurt too much to lean.

            “I can’t lean around the corner!” I shouted in frustration.

Don’s eye fell of the blood that saturated my shirt.

            “Not to worry, Kid! Troll and I have you covered!” Don exclaimed.

I leaned against the wreck of the carriage. My chest, forehead and arms were hurting badly from the carriage wreck. I saw that Macalister and Don were bleeding, but they only had a few cuts on their arms and foreheads, nothing too serious.

I heard the guards returning fire from the other side of the carriage, and they sounded like they were close. We couldn’t hide behind here much longer! How were we going to get out of this?

            “How many bullets do you have?” Don asked me.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out four bullets, plus the one I had in the flintlock.

            “Five total.” I replied.

            “Six.” Don said after counting his bullets.

            “Three.” Macalister sighed with dismay.

I reached into my pocket again and pulled out my four bullets. I gave two to Don and two to Macalister.

            “Make them count.” I said.

Don and Macalister both grinned.

            “Aye.” Don acknowledged.

The pain in my chest didn’t recede, and the cuts on my forehead and my arms were starting to bleed again. The wounds on my chest from the broken wood of the carriage still leaked blood. I was starting to feel a little light headed, I had lost quite an amount of blood. There was gunfire all around me. I was starting to feel tired. My limbs felt numb and useless, my mind grew foggy. My eyes began an unstoppable descent downwards…

            “Kid! Kid! Wake up!” I heard Don shout.

With a start, my eyes flew open. I found that Don was shaking me awake, we were still behind the carriage, and gunfire was still audible. Fear spread through me as I realized that I had almost passed out.

            “How long was I out?” I asked.

            “A few seconds.” Replied Don.

I sighed with relief.

            “You need a doctor.” Remarked Macalister, who had just ducked back behind the carriage after shooting another guard.

            “I know.” I said.

            “They’re down to three!” Yelled Macalister.

Don peeked upwards to get a shot in on the guards. A gunshot rang out, and I heard a cry of agony. That cry of agony didn’t belong to one of the guards, it came from Don!

Don cried out in agony as the flintlock bullet tore through his shoulder, sending blood flying across the nearby trees and forest floor.

            “Shadow!” Yelled Macalister.

            “Don’t worry about me! Take my bullets!” Wheezed Don, reaching into his pocket and handing Macalister his eight bullets.

            “And take my extra gunpowder.” I said, handing Macalister the flask.

            Macalister took Don’s bullets and my gunpowder.

            “I won’t disappoint The Scorpions!” Macalister declared.

While Macalister peeked up to get a shot on the guards, I focused on keeping Don and myself awake. If we passed out here, there is no telling where we would wake up. In a prison compound, most likely.

            “Shadow, we need to keep talking, we can’t let each other pass out.” I said, my voice wavering.

            “Alright, so how-“

I was cut off by a gunshot, then a scream of agony. My heart sank as I realized whose agonized scream it was is. It belonged to Macalister.

            “Troll!” I yelled.

One of the three remaining guards laughed in triumph.

            “So! The mighty Scorpions have fallen at the hands of Relin’s Royal Guard. I suppose you lot aren’t as cunning as you thought you were.” The guard jeered.

Queen Mycta’s guards were walking around the corner of the carriage wreck. My heart sank further, it felt like it was beating against my spine.

            “You won’t… Take us alive…” Don muttered in defiance.

            “I certainly wouldn’t mind taking you dead.” One of the other guards remarked.

            “I’m sure Queen Mycta won’t mind it if we didn’t take you alive.” Drawled one of the guards.

With that, he raised his flintlock to Don.

            “Don’t burden me with your last words, Scorpion.” The guard said with venom in his voice.

I had to admire Don’s courage. He stared death right in the eye and didn’t weep, he was going to face his demise without giving his executioner the chance to enjoy taking his live.

I saw the guard’s finger tense on the trigger. My mind was getting very foggy now. My limbs still felt numb, and I couldn’t stand up. I remained leaning against the carriage wreck. I knew that I would meet my demise shortly after Don met his. Sadness invaded my foggy thoughts.

            “Stop!” Yelled an unfamiliar voice.

The voice belonged to a man. Whoever this man was, he was my new best friend.

I saw the three guards in front of us stopped. Who could this man be? I heard light, quick footsteps approaching our direction.

            “Stop this at once.” The man demanded.

I heard the palace guards laugh.

            “Oh, and what makes you think you can-“ the guard stopped talking as he turned to face the man who had spoken out.

            “You! You’re one of them!” The guard exclaimed.

            “Oh, so you’re familiar with what I am? That means you know what’s good for you. Leave now and I won’t harm any of you.” The strange man said.

I saw the guards look to each other.

            “Yes, we’re very familiar with what you are.” The guard who had his flintlock aimed at Don said with a shaky voice.

Confusion washed through my cloudy mind. What was going on? This man was intimidating Queen Mycta’s palace guards, and they weren’t shooting him for interfering with an arrest. What did that guard mean when he said ‘you’re one of them’?

            “If you so much as set foot in Relin, I’ll personally have you handed over to Queen Mycta. She has a bounty on the heads of your kind.” The guard practically spat the last word out.

What did the guard mean by ‘kind’? What was going on?

With that, the three remaining palace guards mounted and rode away on their horses.

Relief spread through me. Who was this man? How could he intimidate Queen Mycta’s guards like that? What did the guard mean when he said that Queen Mycta has a bounty on the heads of this man’s ‘kind’? Why had this helped us? So many questions filled my mind. I heard the man walking over to me. He arrived at my spot by the carriage wreck and he grabbed my shoulders. He then laid me down on my back. I saw the overcast sky through the canopy, the clouds and the forest canopy blocked out a lot of sunlight, making it dark and gloomy.

From here, I had a good look at this man. He was around 5’10”. He wore a pitch black cloak that had a hood. A few strands of black hair fell from inside his hood. His lips were a pale pink color, he had pale, almost pure white skin. Was he sick? He looked to be around seventeen. I couldn’t get a good look at his eye color because the hood that he wore obscured the upper half of his face.

            “I need to get you to a doctor.” The man said.

It had just struck me now how soft his voice was. It had almost a calming effect on my mind.

I was about to pass out. Now that the tension with the guards was over and Macalister, Don and I were safe, I was going to pass out. I could feel my mind going foggy and my eyelids drooping. One last sentence escaped my lips.

            “What’s your name?” I asked the man.

            “Ignacio.” Came his reply. (Pronounced ee-g-nah-see-oh)

His voice had the faintest hint of an accent that I didn’t know.

That’s when everything went dark.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!

Reviews

[KeithKVH]

You had me a bit scared when you just said the agonized cry was Macalister and didn't really explain what happened. I assume by the bit at the end he'll survive but I was sitting here thinking he died lol.

I also was thinking at the time that the shoulder wound shouldn't stop Don from shooting with his good side arm, but then I remembered he couldn't very well reload the single shot flintlock with one arm, good call on that.

Lastly, I have to say the introduction of Scarlet is something that was most unexpected even though at the beginning of reading this I was wondering if there would be vampires as well. I don't know that she is one yet, but there's that description of her and it does seem to be your niche. Interested to see how this will develop.

Grammar and spelling looks fine, except this bit here:

He stared dead right in the eye and did not weep, he was going to face his demise without giving his executioner the chance to enjoy taking his live.
He stared death right in the eye and did not weep, he was going to face his demise without giving his executioner the chance to enjoy taking his life.
Just a couple typos, considering these chapters seemed like they showed up fast, I assume more late night? xD

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the review! And yes, I was working late at night again! It is supposed to be death, I will fix that. The next chapter is very good so far! You will be surprised with what happens next!

[Cool Girl]

Ahh!!! Cliffhanger at the end! That was amazing! Cliffhangers are epic;)

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the review!

[Cool Girl]

You are so totally welcome!

[Laura Lynn]

I see that the action makes perfect sense here, but it could perhaps be said that the emphasis does not seem to be attention to the sound of the language or words strung together, (though if it were/is meant to be spoken slowly it doesn't matter since the language can sound any way there being so many ways to pronounce something...)

[Laura Lynn]

in this review, I am asking myself these questions realizing that my looking at this may not be helpful to you as the author (so I apologize to that) is it meant to be a screenplay are screenplays different, obviously there is a difference in the emphasis of dialogue in those, you know, when there is so much cinematography going on in those what do they really need anyway? ...I should read this aloud to my son, but I'm unsure if I should read to him about gunshots or fighting,