Ascendants of Ancients Sovereign - By Phillip Jones Page 0,169

she needed: a vial of water, poison, sand, cloth, steel that had been ground to a fine powder, straw, sulfur, four different types of dragon scales, and various other creatures’ body parts. She had a vial of explosive powder and three types of oil—one used only for cooking.

By the moment they were finished, Shalee had multiplied the woman’s inventory and did not have to pay for any of it. It was a successful day of shopping. The duo was ecstatic as they headed out of town to try a few new commands.

Later that Night

South of City View

Mieonus arrived behind a tavern that was a fair trek south of City View. The cliffs nearby had been the point of entry for the army of Brandor 75 seasons ago when they attacked the Barbarian Kingdom. On that Peak, neither the city nor the tavern existed.

Now, fellow soul ... allow me to give you a bit of Southern Grayham history. Seven hundred thirty-two seasons ago, the King of Brandor, Jahronus Brandor, sailed his fleet up to the base of the cliffs southeast of the city of City View to unload 200 of his finest soldiers.

To invade the Barbarian Kingdom, these men first had to scale the rocky walls of the cliffs and carry with them long, heavy, thick ropes. Once at the top, the signal was given and the King of Brandor’s plan was under way.

It was the king’s objective to secure iron chains to the top of the cliffs so that wooden planks could be attached to the chains. This would enable the rest of his 10,000 men to ascend these makeshift ladders without casualty.

To accomplish this task, the army used a special catapult that had been attached between two of the king’s largest ships. The catapult was used to throw a massive, iron ball to the top of the cliffs.

With the ball safely on the ground at the top, the 200 men who had ascended wove their ropes together to keep them from snapping apart. With this accomplished, they wrapped this larger rope around the backside of a number of trees to serve as a series of pulleys. The men secured one end of the rope to the ball and then dropped the other to the ships below.

Large, iron chains were secured to the opposing end, then the ball was pushed over the side of the cliff to lift the chains skyward.

Due to the depth of the ocean, the army had to devise a way to sever the rope before the iron ball pulled the chains up, around the trees and then back into the ocean. To do this, they created a series of bladed harpoons. The men fired over 40 shots in the direction of this reinforced rope. Once severed, it was the job of the 200 men at the top of the cliffs to ensure the chains did not fall in the opposite direction.

These men threw their weight on the chains and drove iron bars between the links. The operation would have failed except for the cuts the chains made into the trees. The cuts stopped the progression of the chains long enough for the men to secure it. The army began their ascent, and their invasion of the Kingdom of Bloodvain was underway, but not in the way it was originally planned. But that is a whole other story that I shall have to tell you some Peak.

Anyway, much later, a tavern was built on top of the cliffs, and because of Brandor’s invasion, the tavern was given the name—The Iron Chains.

Mieonus had been assigned the task of initiating the assassination of the King of Brandor’s son, Aaron Brandor, and the General Absolute, Justin Graywind. The goddess knew there was a relentless killer named Dawson Drake inside the tavern. Double D was known for skillfully killing his victims, and he was considered the deadliest assassin on Grayham.

Double D had not used his real name since the age of 14 seasons. His father, a drunken piece of garesh, beat his mother on a regular basis. She loved Double D with all her heart, but she could not defend herself against her husband’s abuse.

After another long night of relentless beating, Double D leaned over and picked his mother off the floor after his father left, slamming the door behind him. Half unconscious, Marlena blurted out in a blood-spurting, raspy voice, “I would give my last Helmep if someone would kill that husband of mine.”

Being a good son, Double D attended