The Suns Heir: A War of Two Kings

Orianna: The Great Gathering.

"We will make Horden's island within the hour."

Orianna turned away from the ship's rail and was met with her father. He was wearing the same worried expression since they had received the invitation. Word had come with a messenger that chief Horden was hosting a mainlander lord, the greatest lord. Warner Sunbarrow. A descendant of the very Sunbarrow who had forced them all into the sea. Her father had been mistrustful of the invitation, but still, he accepted and so here they were. Sailing to meet with the lord Sunbarrow and all the other raider chiefs. Though they had not come alone. Radyn had brought some two hundred swords with him, he had picked his largest ships and set sail, leaving his wife to rule the island. He had wanted to leave Orianna, but she would not allow it and there was very little Radyn could deny her. Orianna was more than aware that she could persuade her father to do just about anything.

The largest ship had been commissioned not so long ago; her father had crowned it his masterpiece. Reyne's Spear he had dubbed it, for it was long and cut through the sea. It had two large sails, each ordained with the clan's crest. It was crewed by eighty oarsmen. There was only one clan with a bigger ship. The clan Seaswept.

"There it is. Horden's shantytown." Her father spoke up once more, directing her eyesight to the town and dock coming into view. It was rustic, made from poor woods. The town was falling apart. Her eyes then landed on the collection of ships, raider ships. Beside them were the mainlanders. They were pretty, painted and bejewelled. She had never seen a mainlander ship before, it was not often they sailed, especially to them. It was no wonder all the chiefs had gathered. Curiosity was a great thing...

"At least we know he doesn't have a fleet with him." She said turning back to her father. Orianna had been worried they were sailing into a trap. That the island had been taking by a mainlander fleet, and trebuchets would be waiting to fire upon their ships. She could tell the thought had crossed her father's mind too.

"There has never been a gathering of all the chiefs. To think it took a lord of the mainland to make it happen and a Sunbarrow at that." There was envy in her father's tone. He wished he had managed such a feat. The messenger had mentioned putting an end to the raids. It seemed like a fantasy. Raiding was how they survived. The Sunbarrow lord would have to offer an alternative. "Nothing will come of it. There can never be peace." Orianna said with such a surety in his tone. Her father did not seem to agree. His head shook and he sighed a heavy breath. "There can be peace. We just need to be willing to pay the price." He responded. Her father seemed torn, he looked to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. No offer had been made, no discussion. Yet Radyn acted as if he knew what the price, he had spoken of would be. "Will, you, pay their price?" Orianna asked. She already knew the answer. It was written across his face. "If it ensures the prosperity of our people, yes." There was a sombreness in his tone. He had put on his chief face. Gone were the smiles and jokes shared between father, mother and daughter. Chief Radyn had taken over, the man of the people. Orianna both people well, she knew her father Radyn Reyne and she knew her chief.

"You would sacrifice all we have built for peace?" The young Reyne was perplexed. She knew her father took no joy in their war against the mainlanders, not in the way she did. Orianna hated them. But she had never imagined he would rollover. Surrender. It was the first time she found herself questioning him. "For our people to live better lives, to live on land that didn't starve them, in homes that didn't freeze them. For mothers to raise their sons without worry of losing them to battle. I would sacrifice everything. I would relinquish my chiefdom. That is what a leader does, Orianna. They put their people before everything else. Any grievances or personal beliefs, come second. The clan will always come first."

To her, these sounded like words of surrender, of defeat. Not the great chieftain of clan Reyne. She had been mistaken; he was not wearing his chief face. This was a different man entirely. She had thought she knew him. That he wanted vengeance for the travesties committed to their ancestors, she thought he wanted their clan to take back the land that was once theirs, with blood and iron. Not peace and surrender. Despite the onslaught of thoughts running rampant in her mind, she was at a loss for words. She could not believe what her father was saying...

As she stared at him in disappointment he turned away, and then let out a mighty roar to the oarsmen. As if they were one the rowers slowed the ship and then pulled the oars back inside the hull.

Wood scraped against wood, as the ship thudded against the dock, and men leapt to their feet to drop anchor and secure the ropes.

"Orianna, come." Her father beckoned her as he stepped onto the dock. She was still frozen in place, as if she was still staring at him, but had moved...

Never had Orianna seen so many banners and tapestries. They blew over ships, and beside tents. Every clan was here. The Archer and Tallman clans who shared an island, clan Wargrave and their allies the Helclaw's had travelled together, she could see the Blackbird's sigil blowing in the wind beside clan Caliban's. So many colours, yellows and blues, reds and greens. Her eyes met with a flag; a raven covered in red blood. There was no mistaking it, clan Bloodraven, it rested beside clan Harpayne's mess of a banner, a severed hand with missing fingers. The Mallory's were closest to the keep if it could be called that. They had been long-standing allies with clan Horden.

Seeing how many they numbered with the clans together. Orianna was shocked. Raiding parties were often no more than fifty to a hundred men in one place. They would spread out, cover more villages. To see them all in one place, was magnificent.

Each chief had been had paranoid as her father. They had brought a hundred, or more men. All armed to the teeth...

She was on her guard, her hand ready to draw her blade. Despite her amazement at the gathering, Orianna was no fool. These men were bloodthirsty, and could seldom get along during a gathering of two or three clans. She wondered how long it would be before they began to tear and claw at each other.

As they entered the keep, they were met with the chiefs of each clan. All of them wearing eager expressions, and some pairing those with visible confusion. At the head table, there were three men. In the centre was the chief Endrew Horden, of that there no doubt. To his right was the Mallory clan's chief. To the left was the lord Sunbarrow, decked in silks and golden jewels.

When everyone was seated the lord stood, there was a pomposity in everything he did. The way he stood, the way he talked. Orianna could smell his perfumes from where she was seated. She could scarcely believe that this man's family had once been like hers. A clan, living simply...

"Great chiefs, I thank you all for coming." Lord Sunbarrow spoke with such confidence as he addressed the chiefs as if his smug grin could erase centuries of bloodshed... "We are here to discuss peace. To find a way in which you can come to the mainland, and join us. As you should have centuries ago."

The room burst out into anger; chiefs rose to speak to him all at once. Each of them making requests and demands. Orianna couldn't help but chuckle at their diplomacy tactics.

"Enough!" Orianna covered her ears as a voice thundered beside her. Her father had stood and walked to the centre of the room. "We are all here. We all have questions; nobody expects these questions to be answered in a day. We will let lord Sunbarrow speak his peace; every man will speak their questions. Then you will all leave, discuss with your advisers. Once that is done, we will reconvene." He then looked to his daughter. "Go to the camp, see to the men." Her brow quivered in response. She frowned in protest, but she was met with a stern look. There was no fighting her father when he dawned that look. She nodded, catching lord Sunbarrow's thanks as the door closed behind her.

Orianna knew why she had been kicked out, she had opposed the peace, the peace her father so desperately wanted for their people. He was punishing her, she had been banished to the camp, left to wonder what offers would be made. One thing she did know, was that whatever was said, whatever offer the lord would make would favour the mainland. They were winning the war if it could even be called that...

For centuries the raiding clans had been swatted back to their islands and the mainlanders had gone about their lives. Anything the clans took, was grown back or remade.

It was only evergoing to end one way, her father had said it many times. Either the clans wouldkill each other or the mainlanders would grow tired of the skirmishes and go onthe offensive. It only took one man to make such a decision for them, one king.Though as Orianna looked out onto the field of tents and the dock filled withships she knew there was another possibility. The clans could band together,together they would have a force that could take any town, a horde that couldswarm across the land. Though that possibility was more of a fictionaliseddream of a naïve girl. The chiefs would never come together and if they did,without a singular leader it would all fall apart...