Chapter 7: The Black Shadow Chapter 9: A Grim Reunion
Chapter 8: Vortex of Strategy
Lucius was in pain. Much pain. He didn’t know where Rath was. His lightening spell had hit the wall and the sword had sliced through his thigh. The monk feigned unconsciousness and hoped the cavalier wouldn’t finish him off. He heard hoofbeats and flinched.
Kent charged into the room, backed up by Nils’ flute. The cavalier stopped waving the sword under Rath’s nose and looked up. Kent’s lance was set, and he was focused. The other cavalier could only save himself by tumbling off his horse, which he did, but Rath’s arrow bit into the back of his neck.
Kent bowed his red head to Rath, and then turned to see Serra give Lucius a hand up from the flagstones.
A very few minutes later, they all met in a tiny room. Lyn was glaring at a blonde, bronzed, bearded man with a large sword. Ceniro nodded. This battle had been the most taxing so far, but Lyn was strong and fast and graceful… She could handle this.
The man seemed distracted.
“Give us Ninian’s ring!” Lyn challenged.
“And swear this oath: to never harm or threaten the children again,” Ceniro put in. It was worth a shot.
“The penalty for failure… is death…” the man intoned, in a hopeless, forsaken tone. Then he crumpled on the floor.
Florina’s gasp was all that could be heard in the dead silence.
“Poison!?” Lyn finally broke it.
Matthew knelt beside the body. With practiced fingers, he searched for and drew a silver ring with an ornate stone from the leader’s pocket.
“Is this it?” he inquired, handing it to Ninian, who stood staring with wide eyes at all the destruction that had been wrought in the last hour.
“Yes…” she answered. “Thank you… Thank you!”
Kent took Lyn and Ceniro aside. “This man was no mere mercenary. They were trained by a well organized group.”
“What would they want with Nils and Ninian?” asked Lyn. Nils looked up but made no answer. Lyn smiled at him.
“Nils, Ninian, everything’s going to be fine. You saw how we won this time? With my sword and Ceniro’s commands, there’s nothing we can’t overcome.”
“Yes, milady!” chorused Nils and Ninian.
“Look, Ceniro!” said Lyn a few days later. “The mountains seem so far away now.”
“We’ve come a looong way,” agreed Ceniro, smiling at her.
“We’re almost there!” cried Sain from up ahead. “Only a day or two more! Keep up!” Lyn and Ceniro laughed as they stretched their legs, Ceniro sitting, Lyn standing and bending over. Then Lyn became thoughtful.
“Only two more days… I hope my grandfather is all right.”
“Cheer up, Lyn!” chirped Florina, half teasingly. “Don’t get down, otherwise we’ll all lose heart.”
“Right, Florina. I must just press onwards.”
“That’s the spirit!”
“If you look over there to the east, milady, that village is Coril. Just as soon as everything is settled with Lord Lundgren, I’d like to visit, with you perhaps…? I’d like you to meet Salir…”
Abruptly, Nils waved his hand for attention. “Danger approaches!”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“I don’t see anything,” said Kent.
“I – I feel it too. Ah! Milady! Don’t move!” Ninian gasped. A ballista bolt zipped through the area in which they were walking and embedded itself in a tree a foot in front of Lyn. Ceniro grabbed her and pulled her back, a little too late.
“What!!!” she gasped in shock.
“They have a ballista,” said Kent.
“He’s getting serious,” commented Sain. “Deploying seige weapons is no mean feat…”
“Saaaaaaiiiiiin!” came a far-away cry. Sain grew rigid and stared with narrowed eyes at the mountainside. There was a distant flash of white, and some more distant cries that Ceniro could not hear distinctly but clearly Sain could make sense of them. His face set with anger, the green knight ran towards his horse.
Kent made a grab for his friend, but Sain broke free with a twist and vaulted onto his charger. He galloped off, plucking his lance from the ground and setting it in rest. Ceniro stared with wide eyes for a single moment, and then started issuing orders.
“Lucius, Erk, Florina, please visit that village, um, Coril. Florina, don’t take off or you’ll be targeted. Everyone else, follow Sain!”
Sain twirled his lance. Nothing would stop him from rescuing Salir. He stabbed a sword-wielding cavalier and charged onward across the field. His lance even slew an axe fighter, though he ran the risk of getting it chopped into pieces. He saw the ballista. It fired again.
Then he saw a small bundle of white. He dismounted and ran, throwing himself on his knees beside the girl’s body. “Salir!” he whispered. She was alive, and unhurt as far as he could tell.
“Sain?” She looked up at him sweetly. “You came! Just when I called!” He untied her hands and gave her a roguish smile that hid all his worries.
“Of course.” He helped her stand, and then suddenly pulled her close. “Oh, Salir, I thought you were… gone…”
“Hey! Sain!” The archer on the ballista was addressing him. “What’re you doing here?”
“Kiernan!” Sain drew his sword and charged for him. “You traitor! Helping an usurper to the throne, attacking Kent and me and Lady Lyndis, you snake! What are you thinking?”
Kiernan shrugged. “I thought you were dead. That’s the first thing. Second is that I was told to do this, and I got paid lots too. I won’t hit Kent, you betcha. But what about that guy with the green cloak? Or how ’bout that girl with the slinky dress and the long black hair?”
Sain choked with anger. “Why, you… That’s Ceniro in the cloak and Lady Lyndis with the dark green hair!” He sheathed his sword and tackled his acquaintance, knocking him off the ballista. Salir watched her knight wrestle the archer into the mud and come up with his enemy wrapped in a rope.
“Oh, Sain! There’s another archer!” she commented, seeing Wil’s brown head above a bush. Sain tied Kiernan to a tree and grinned.
“That’s Wil. Hey, Wil! You’ll love using this thing! You can ask this… uh… friend of mine how it works.”
“Hot!” Wil jumped into the chair. “Hmm…”
“Salir,” continued Sain, “tell Kent I’m all right, then… you should go with our ‘civilian auxiliary’ consisting of Nils and Ninian and Serra. Serra has the pink hair. Plus, if the guy with the green cloak and the brown hair tells you to do something, do it because he’s smart.”
The brown haired girl grinned and gave him a quick kiss. “Will do. See you, Sain!”
“Sain? Sain, where are you?” Kent was calling. Sain mounted hurriedly and rode off quickly as Salir ran in the other direction.
Wil looked at Kiernan. “Uh, how do you fire? And why were you keeping Sain’s girl prisoner?”
“You fire with the big lever, you dolt. Turn the cranks to set the string. She was supposed to be bait, I think. I dunno. Some bandits sold her to Commander Yugi, and, um, he found out who she was and told me to sit here and get your attention with her so you’d let your guard down. I guess it didn’t work as well as he thought it would. For dumb questions, why do you wear teal green? It’s ugly.”
Wil arched an eyebrow. “Because I like it.” A deep twang resonated in his bones and a bolt tore through a distant soldier’s armour. Florina soared over the mountain that was to his back and landed near him.
“Wil,” she said in her little voice, “Ceniro wants you to shoot anybody coming out of the fortresses to the southwest.” She took off again to get away from the ballista rapidly.
Ceniro jogged along in Sain’s wake, taking his group with him. Lucius and Erk would have no trouble, unless the ballista shot at them. Happily, the fellow mounted on it seemed to be taking a break; nothing happened in that direction.
Until another bolt whizzed past his head, just in front of Lyn. She skidded to a stop, but Serra ran into her and knocked her down.
“Come on! Keep going!” Ceniro called, catching Lyn and helping her up. He wondered where Sain was. A wounded cavalier tried to stop Kent, but was knocked down. As the red knight turned to see how far behind his friends were, Ceniro saw the look of pain on his face. Not physical pain, the tactician decided, but pain at fighting people he knew.
Wil and Dorcas passed Ceniro as he slowed down. Kent sped up. “Sain? Sain, where are you?” he called. Sain came riding around.
“Here I am,” he said calmly. “Oh, Kent, I had to punch Kiernan. I hope you don’t mind.”
Ceniro, giving Florina orders for Wil, heard Kent’s reply faintly. “Sain! Have you forgotten your honour? You’re a knight!”
“Uh-huh, so he got under my skin. What do you want me to do now?” Sain asked Ceniro.
“Let’s take the bridge,” suggested the strategist. A girl he didn’t know, with chin-length brown hair and brown eyes, in a rather dirty white dress, was walking with Nils, Ninian, and Serra now.
Kent and Sain galloped forward. Wil’s second to last bolt whizzed over and transfixed a soldier. Florina, too, sailed ahead and attacked a soldier. Ceniro ran quickly behind the horses.
“Lyn, Dorcas, Rath…”
“Here we are!” came a shout from behind. Erk and Lucius came running up. Serra ran with her staff to help Erk, who was pale and faint-looking from the effects of an enemy monk’s spell.
“… Erk, Lucius, attack the soldiers in front of that fortress.” There were many of them, and there were probably more inside the fortress, but there were no more enemy magic users, so the advantage was for Lyn’s group. Another bolt from Wil snagged the shoulder armour of the knight standing in the gate of the fortress, clearly determined not to let them in. Lyn finished her opponent, and with her allies ranged behind her, attacked the knight, leaning back on one foot and sighting along the blade. Then, she apparently vanished.
Everyone blinked, or, in Serra’s case, gasped.
Lyn reappeared an inch in front of the knight and stabbed the Mani Katti deep. The group heard a moan of “Lord Lundgren,” and then the knight collapsed, dead.
“Yes!” hissed Ceniro triumphantly, very, very quietly.
Wil jogged over the bridge. “How’s it going?” he asked cheerfully. “I just left that guy there. He doesn’t like the colour of my shirt.”
Sain grinned. “Good job, Wil.”
