A Twist Of Fate A Percy Jackson and Eragon Crossover

Leaving Teirm

Percy's Point of View.

The next evening, we left Jeod's house to carry out his plan. Jeod lit an oil lantern and held it up in front of us. "Are we ready?" he asked. We nodded although I wasn't sure if I was. I didn't really like the plan, but it was our only option. We walked through the city until we reached Teirm's eastern gate. Because the gate opened to the harbor, it was closed only four hours each night in order to minimize the disruption to commerce. Despite the time, several men were already moving through the gate.

Jeod got the guards to let us through and Once we were on the wharf and out of earshot of the city wall, Jeod said, "It's a good thing he couldn't read."

We waited until Jeod's men emerged from the gray mist that lay upon the shore.

At first, they weren't too fond of the idea of Birgit helping us, but she cut off what Uthar was going to say as she kicked him in the balls and after that, she held her knife against the second man's throat.

After that, no one else complained about her helping us so Jeod asked, "Did you bring what I wanted?" Each sailor reached inside his vest and divulged a weighted club and several lengths of rope. We headed down the harbor toward the Dragon Wing while trying to avoid someone seeing us. Jeod kept his lantern shuttered the whole time. Near the dock, we hid behind a warehouse and watched the two lights carried by sentries bob around the deck of the ship. "Remember," whispered Jeod, "the most important thing is to keep the alarm from being sounded until we're ready to leave."

"Two men above, two men below, right?" asked Roran.

Uthar replied, "That be the custom."

Birgit distracted the sentries while Roran and Uthar ambushed them while they were distracted. After we captured everyone else who was on board, we removed anything that we wouldn't need to make more space for everyone. When the rest of the villagers came to board the ship, we fired the ballistae at Teirm's waterfront so the soldiers couldn't stop us.

After all the villagers were on board the anchors were raised, everyone we had captured was left on the pier, and the gangway was cut loose, and many men left the ballistae to row instead. I was certain that the lives our escape had taken were weighing heavily on all of us and I just tried not to think about that.

Those weren't the only deaths that were on my mind though, since before we'd left Carvahall I'd had to kill some of the soldiers that I'd fought during the attacks. I'd tried to avoid killing them, but they actually turned out to be pretty good swordsmen and if I hadn't killed them, they might have managed to kill me. Most of the time I'd tried to just injure the soldiers badly enough that they wouldn't be able to continue fighting. Since I'd killed them, they would sometimes cross my mind and I would wonder if I should have tried harder to avoid killing them. I would also think that they probably had family somewhere in Alegasia and that thought bothered me the most.

Once we were away from Teirm I was also wondering if I should tell Jeod that I'm technically a rider even though Ágrios and I don't know a lot about them. If everyone on the ship knew Ágrios wouldn't have to stay out of sight all the time and that would make both of us happier. I also wondered if Jeod might be able to tell us more about the riders and because he helped the Varden he wasn't going to turn us over to the king. I wasn't planning on telling him about my past, or at least not until I get to know him better. All of a sudden, I was torn from my thoughts when I heard, "Ra'zac!"

I realized that the shout came from the crow's nest.

When I looked, sure enough, one of the Ra'zac's dread steeds drifted like a tattered shadow above the edge of the coastline, a Ra'zac on its back. Seeing the two monsters exposed in daylight didn't make them look any better and I heard the winged creature shriek, then the Ra'zac's insectile voice drifted across the water, faint but distinct: "You shall not essscape!"