"Riders on the right bank!" yelled Kaelen, the crew's scout, pointing a trembling finger toward the jagged cliffs.
"Keep rowing!" Silas commanded, his voice cracking. "We cannot stop! If the Flame goes out, the whole kingdom dies with him!"
They had no gold left for upgrades, their hull was compromised, and morale was shattered. But ahead, through the fog, Silas saw the faint, glowing blue marker of a riverside merchant camp. They just had to survive the rapids to reach it. Dreadful River Free Download
Silas gritted his teeth, his mind racing through a brutal calculation. If they stopped to pull him out, the current would push the barge directly into the Spearhead Rocks. If they kept moving, the boy was dead.
Silas didn't need to look. The whistling of primitive arrows already filled the air. Bandits. This stretch of the river was notorious for them. They didn't want the flame; they wanted the supplies, the wood, and the gold Silas used to keep this floating death trap together. "Shields up!" Silas roared. "Brace the hull!" "Riders on the right bank
Behind him on the deck lay the King’s Eternal Flame, a glowing, pulsing artifact contained in a heavy iron cage. It was the only thing that could save the capital from the encroaching frozen blight, and Silas had sworn an oath to deliver it. The problem wasn't the artifact; it was the river itself.
As the arrows finally stopped raining down, a thick silence fell over the gorge, broken only by the roar of approaching rapids. Silas looked down at his map, then up at the darkening sky. Night was falling, and the river's most dangerous inhabitants only hunted in the dark. If the Flame goes out, the whole kingdom dies with him
Kaelen looked at Silas with pure horror, but obeyed. They pulled hard on the heavy oars, fighting the pull of the water as the barge scraped violently against a submerged boulder. The sound of splintering wood echoed through the canyon. Water began to seep through the floorboards.