Episode 6: The Unflinching Episode 8: Conscience Flying
Well, I’m pressing on, trying to finish this story by the end of the month. (Looking less and less likely, especially since I took a break two nights ago to play Nazi Zombie Sniper with my bro and co. Also battles are hard with TWO clever people, not just one.) But now Milton’s here! And Renee! Yayness! Now we can kick up the stakes a bit, make this less about “look at all these people you love hanging out!” and more about “omg drama”.
Episode 7: Old School-Fellows
Renee paced the floor in the upper chamber of the tower. “You said you wanted to talk, you jerkface! I thought you meant we’d go down to a pub like in the old days, not drag me all the way out to the Tanquet Pass fortress!”
“So you have been saying the last three days,” the tall armoured man said.
“Where have you even been, the last year? You resigned from Marquess Worde’s service and disappeared!”
“Marquess Worde could offer me nothing. I went back home, to Bern, and then to Khafti on a message from my friend there.” He gestured to the dark-cloaked man standing in the corner of the room. “But I want to know what you know about him.”
“Who?” Renee’s grey-green eyes narrowed as she rounded on him. “Not this again. You could have just asked him yourself, I heard he’s coming to Ostia with Marquess Pherae.”
“He is in Ostia. I saw him before I took you.”
“Then why am I here!?” She added more softly to herself: “And why in Elibe did he not come say hello, the twit?”
“Because I can no longer simply order the villain to tell me what he knows.”
“You mean corner him in the back yard and punch him in the gut until he tells you or passes out,” Renee snorted.
“He has surrounded himself with strong warriors and hides behind his noble friends like the rat that he is. In any case, we can speak freely here. Later I will isolate him and deal with him.”
“That’s not going to work,” Renee said – she couldn’t help it. If she wanted to protect Ceniro properly, she knew she ought to let this man go on underestimating him. On the other hand, if there was any chance this could be resolved before it came to violence, that would be nice. “He’s even better than when we were all students together. Like you said, he has strong and loyal allies. And he has-” She stopped.
“What is it?” he asked curiously.
“Let’s just say it’s impossible to surprise him or sneak up on him, and unless he’s being very stupid, you’ll never isolate him, not even with your wyvern-riding cousin over there.”
“That’s why you’re here.” The man flashed a smile at her that had no amusement in it. “Angry people make mistakes. I’ve gotten him to do it before.”
“When it doesn’t backfire and make him do something even crazier that completely demolishes your plans! And you can’t hurt me. You won’t hurt me.”
“I don’t have to. You’re a decent strategist, Lady Renee, but far too easy to manipulate. I don’t know why Lord Uther hired you.”
Renee’s shoulders shook. “Oh, just give me a lance and I’ll make you eat those words myself! You – you poppycock!”
The man bowed mockingly. “Thank you for your assistance, Lady Renee. You have been most forthcoming.”
“Gnnarrgh!”
Ceniro burst into the great hall of Castle Ostia at a run. “What’s going on? Renee’s been kidnapped?”
“Hear for yourself,” Hector said, gesturing to an Ostian soldier whose face still had a sheen of sweat.
“Lady Renee’s been taken by an armed troop out of the city,” the guard said. “I wasn’t on duty yet when I heard her talking with someone, and it seemed friendly enough, but after she left the castle with that man, they were jumped in an alley by his allies and they stuffed her in a carriage and took her right out of the city!”
“You were following her?” Ceniro asked.
“I’m her friend, and something about that man didn’t sit right with me. But when I saw how many guards he had with them, I came back to raise the alarm. I can’t take on ten people all by myself!”
“You did rightly,” Hector assured him. “We’ll get her back. Do you know where they’re going?”
“I heard her say Tanquet Pass all indignant-like, so maybe there?”
“Right.” Hector’s eyes narrowed, thinking. “Who would steal my tactician?”
“Milton,” Ceniro said. “He’s done this.”
“Who?”
“He… was the senior apprentice of Lord Garlent when I was studying with him. Renee was in my year. We all know each other. Renee was kind to me. Milton… was not.”
“Why?” Hector’s eyes narrowed. “Because you were better than him?”
“No, I wasn’t at first. By the end I was, but he’s still quite good. No, because he’s the second son of some duke in Bern and to him I was worth less than the mud on his boots.”
“And how do you know it’s him?”
“I saw him a few days ago, before we took the package up north. And that would be how he got Renee out of the castle without a big alarm. He’d just ask. He considered her his equal, she being the daughter of some Ostian lord, right? So she was friendly with him too. She was always trying to get us to stop fighting.”
Hector shook his head. “An all-too-common story. All right. I still don’t know why he’d kidnap Renee, but it doesn’t matter. He’s abducted my vassal and I can’t stand for that.”
“Why not?” Ceniro asked. “Milton is an arrogant bully, but he’s not a murderer. I don’t know why he would kidnap her rather than just talk to her, but she’s not in any danger.”
Hector’s mouth formed a thin, hard line. “No, she’s my vassal. It doesn’t matter whether or not she’s currently in danger. No one messes with my people. I’m going to rouse the army. You don’t have to come, if you’d rather not give him the satisfaction of rising to what could be bait, but… if he’s good, we might need you. I’ll pay you.”
“You don’t have to pay me, Hector,” Ceniro said quietly. “We’re friends. If you want me to help you get Renee back, I’ll be right there.” He paused and added with a grin: “Of course, if you want the rest of my friends to come along, you’ll probably have to pay us. Though we’ll reduce our rates for you, of course.”
“What, they’re not wildly idealistic freedom fighters?” Hector grinned back. “Get them together, then. It’s three days to Tanquet Pass; if we move fast enough, we can catch them on the way.” He made to stride away, then hesitated and turned back. “Ceniro… you are his equal now, right?”
“I’m sure he’s improved over the last three years, just as I have. But I have the farseer, I have my group, and I have you and your army.” Ceniro smiled tightly. “I think we can handle this.”
They never caught up to Milton’s group, not even Florina and Fiora, who were sent scouting ahead of the group. But once they hiked up the pass to the fortress that guarded the top, the farseer pinged and Ceniro directed the group to slow while he assessed the situation.
The pass was a narrow dirt track through a wide green valley, once perhaps a glacial basin. It was still surrounded by glittering blue-white snowy peaks, but the bottom of the valley was filled with dark pines, green meadows, and tiny, ice-cold streams. At the top was a small fortress, watching where the road tipped over into lands nominally claimed by Etruria but in reality held by no one. He knew the area pretty well, ever since they’d had a field trip to try their skills in a new location. There was a crystalline lake visible to the east, the one that had captured his heart when he’d first seen it, and his first glimpse of pegasus knights wheeling in the sky above it…
Hector had brought maybe two hundred soldiers, hardly his full army, but certainly more than enough to deal with the sixty or so fighters the farseer showed within the fortress. There were maybe twenty more on the forested slopes of the pass, apparently hidden in the forest, although not to him; they would be no trouble to eliminate from the battle, even without killing them.
“The smartest thing for him to do would be to hole up in there,” Ceniro said to Hector and Freya. “We only have two fliers, Florina and Fiora. But sieges are boring…”
“So what will you do?” Hector said, almost vibrating with anticipation.
Ceniro looked up at the distant fortress and began to smile. “I’m going to mess with him.”
“He’s here,” Milton said, looking down from the castle wall. “Those are his pegasus knights. But… what is he doing?”
“What is he doing?” Renee rejoined huffily.
“I thought you said he was good, but this – this is a manoeuvre he made in his very first battle against me. My forward line will have no trouble making it back to the castle.”
“He’s trying to goad you into making a mistake,” the druid said. “Trying to get you to underestimate him.”
Milton snorted. “That won’t happen. But I had hoped Marquess Ostia would not arrive so quickly… Still, I can deal with him.”
“You attack him and he’s not going to be merciful,” Renee told him. “You should just send me out, and then he’ll let you go.”
Milton gave her a smile that was more snarl. “You know as well as I do that that is not true. But I won’t hurt Marquess Ostia. I have no quarrel with him. That peasant I can’t say as much for. We’re outnumbered, but we have the defensible position and childish taunts won’t get me out of it. And that infant never had the patience for sieges.”
“He did always say they were boring,” Renee agreed.
“He only has two fliers, if I see it correctly, and not an abundance of mages, although there are some archers among the Ostian Army. And if somehow the worst comes to the worst, Rovenna is standing by with Elspeth.” He turned to the druid. “Take her inside and find out what she knows. I’ll have to deal with this.”
“Hey! No! I want to watch!” Renee cried, but two soldiers grabbed her and dragged her back inside. The druid followed them.
Ceniro found that Milton’s rear-guard – or whatever they were – were not inclined to stick around and get pulled into battle, but feinted and tried to make sneak attacks from the trees while the main bulk of the army stuck to the road. So they – and Milton – weren’t completely crazy. Ceniro pretended to be concerned about them, sending the army in seemingly uncoordinated moves, all the while sending Caddie, Yens, George, Lyn, and Louise to pick them off as they could.
In truth, he wasn’t really looking forward to getting close to the castle. Milton had always done well in defensible positions, favouring strength and defense over anything else. Ceniro had always preferred speed and accuracy, but cracking the nut of the castle to use that speed and accuracy properly took some doing and he hated the uncertainty of it. And taking care of the Ostians as well… he almost wished it was just his band and Hector’s close companions. Then he could have properly let loose.
Perhaps a dozen of the enemy soldiers made it all the way back to the castle, and the gate closed.
So far, he had not been impressed by the boy’s strategies. Although he had somehow managed to eliminate nearly half the front line, the skittishness of the rest of the army he faced did not bode ill for him. The Ostian Army halted just out of arrowshot of the walls and Marquess Ostia stepped forward, followed closely by Commander Freya. “You! Your name’s Milton, right?”
“I see you’ve been informed about me,” Milton said. “Your strategist is safe enough, but I am not simply going to let her go and submit to your mercy.”
“Why the hell not?” Hector demanded. “I’ve been told you’re an arrogant bully, and I’m starting to believe it.”
Milton drew himself up. “You have been told so by an ignorant, low-born coward and I will defy you while he is here.”
There was a bit of a flurry off to the left, and Milton saw a Sacaean woman lunge out of the line. “Why you-”
“Hold on, Lyn,” said the ignorant, low-born coward standing next to her, and took a step forward himself. “So if I leave, will you let Renee go?”
“You are so naive to think that Lord Hector would let me go freely if I did so?”
“That’s right, I can’t,” Hector said. “You interfered with one of my people, you pay the price.”
“Then we have nothing more to say to each other, Lord Hector. You will not take me easily.”
“Is that so?” Hector said, grinning wolfishly. “I think you might be surprised.”
Milton smiled thinly himself. “I think you might be the one surprised. Archers, ready your bows.”
Ceniro called his orders, fading back into the thick of the army where he would be less likely singled out by a sniper from the walls. The first goal was to get inside the castle, possibly to clear the walls of hostile forces or at least distract them, and make it possible for the rest of the army to get inside. Milton would be on the lookout for Florina and Fiora to try anything, and while Milton wouldn’t have a farseer, he’d also be keeping track of Ceniro’s most powerful allies – which meant Lyn, Pent, Louise, Hector, and Freya about now. “Florina, Fiora, don’t get too close – that’s a lot of archers. I’ll send you in when it’s a little clearer. Lyn, stay with me for now too. Erk, I need you, Matthew, Rigel, Yens, George, and Wil to sneak around the back. Stay in the trees and look for a place where the wall is crumbling-”
“Oh, I got that fixed a few months ago,” Hector said. “There were bandits about that I had to take care of. Sorry.”
“All right,” Ceniro said. “Go around back anyway and I’ll help you find another way in. Pent! Cast a thunder Milton’s way, we want him thinking about us right here!”
The Santaruz churl had moved back out of the front lines, hiding behind the soldiers with actual armour instead of the Sacaean get-up he was parading around in. For some reason he wasn’t shouting out orders, although he did do some pointing, but the army began to advance on the castle anyway, shields high against arrows.
Another basic manoeuvre. But Renee had warned him that Ceniro had improved, and considering he had been unreasonably good before, nothing he was seeing would be what it was on the surface.
A bolt of anima lightning blasted him, sending immense energy coursing through him – or it would have, if he hadn’t had the foresight to use magic-mitigating Holy Water on his armour before the battle. He barely moved in response, brushing it off casually. Ceniro would have to try harder than that to take him out. In most of their battles, he hadn’t even come close to it.
He stared down at the spot where the boy stood beside Lord Hector, round face as youthful and gormless as it had ever been, and caught the flash of silver. He had something in his hands, something clearly magical. Was that what Renee had been talking about? Was that how he spoke to his forces without shouting across the battlefield?
It didn’t matter much. Milton could give his own orders without shouting, and if Ceniro’s tactics were not what they seemed, neither were his own. Not that he needed to make any overt moves yet. He had the defensible position. The ball was in Ceniro’s court to force his hand. He might not ultimately win this one, but winning wasn’t his objective. He’d get what he needed out of Renee and depart when he needed to.
And if he managed to snag Ceniro on the way out, so much the better.
“You’re being extra-cautious today,” Hector commented, sent forward with Freya, Oswin, and a number of other heavily armoured knights to draw fire away from Pent, who was now throwing all he had at the gates. Ceniro didn’t think they’d be able to take these gates down very quickly, even with Pent’s power, unlike the castle he had captured long ago in Caelin that had fallen to only Erk’s fireballs, back when Erk was still a novice. But it was worth a shot and bought time for his other team. “I know you said he’s good, but he’s really that good?”
Ceniro controlled a sigh of exasperation. “The last time we fought was still in training more than three years ago. I won, but not all my soldiers made it out ‘alive’. He does have the advantage here, even though we have the numbers. I’m not fond of the situation.”
He frowned at the armoured figure on the distant walls, and the archers that stood on either side of him. “And on top of that, I have to keep a balance in my strategy between being simple enough to persuade him to underestimate me, while being challenging enough for him not to suspect any traps… and throwing in enough references to unsettle him. And he’s going to be doing exactly the same thing.”
He glanced down at the farseer and his eyes widened. “Erk! Don’t take another step!”
“Whoa, what!?”
“There’s a minefield back there. You remember how we took down Limstella? Milton’s got a bunch of those around the back of the castle. I only saw them when you got closer.”
“So what do we do?” Wil asked tightly. “I don’t see anything and now I’m scared to step anywhere.”
“There aren’t any behind you,” Ceniro reassured him. “Just don’t go forward.”
“I could use dark magic to set them off before we cross this area,” Rigel said, though her voice was frightened still.
“Neat idea, but setting them off would probably not be a good idea, even if you’re not standing on them. Milton will know you’re coming…”
“If I might, I know how to disarm these,” Matthew spoke up. “Lord Hector made me study them after he found out you left one in your pocket for two months, so I’m reasonably certain I can do it safely. It’s locating them that’s the hard part…”
“True,” Ceniro said. “And then we can use them to blow a hole in the castle wall.” He glanced at Hector. “Is that okay?”
“Sounds great!” Hector said enthusiastically. “I wanna see that.”
“You’ll just have to get it fixed again, and it’ll be expensive…”
“Do it.”
Ceniro shrugged. “All right. Should be two feet in front of Erk and slightly to the right. Then, there’s one by the oak nearer to the wall. There’s about five more beyond that, but that should do for a start.”
“Indeed,” Matthew said drily. “All right, folks, sit tight, I’ll have this done soon.”
“So, to go back to what we were talking about earlier,” Hector said, batting an arrow aside with the Wolf Beil, “do all tacticians play mind games like that?”
Ceniro didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes, definitely, even if they don’t realize it. And especially when we know each other.”
“Damn.”
“No wonder you didn’t mind running around hearing everyone’s problems in camp,” Fiora said, also listening in.
“No, that’s just me. I know of some tacticians who don’t know the names of any of the soldiers under their command. I didn’t want to be like that.”
“And that’s why you’re so obsessed with your perfect survival record,” Lyn said.
“Yes, indeed, among other reasons. Matthew, you about done?”
“Yep. Where do you want this? Anywhere on the wall?”
“Yes. Go ahead. Rigel, set it off when everyone’s at a safe distance. Cover your ears!”
The mines hadn’t gone off. He could have sworn Ceniro would try to send a group behind the castle to look for an alternate way in. After all, without siege equipment, the most they could do was throw Elfires at the gate with that undeniably powerful Sage. He had been trying to get his archers to bring the Sage down, but the woman beside him was firing back with terrifying accuracy – he himself had been forced to dodge once or twice – and a rather small but stocky man with an axe was shielding him, and if that man was so much as scratched with an arrow, there was a pink-haired cleric behind them all ready to heal.
Still, the mines hadn’t gone off, and that seemed odd…
An explosion rocked the castle, shook the very stones he stood on. Finally, they had gone off… but the castle shouldn’t shake like that, even with the proximity of the mines to the wall…
He turned to see a giant smoke cloud obscuring the eastern wall, and as it cleared, five lithe figures sneaking through a large gap in the stones, one of them already throwing fireballs everywhere. They had somehow stolen the mines and used them to destroy part of the castle.
That… was unexpected. Clever, even. But, he could adapt to this. And in fact, let Ceniro’s – Marquess Ostia’s army dare to enter. Ceniro would have to commit. He might finally lose some of his forces. He might even lose friends. From what he heard, he had been basically unchallenged ever since he began wandering like a vagabond across the continent. Losing a friend or two would shatter that fragile psyche, make him finally realize that he was dealing with forces that were too big for him. Forces that only a man raised to war could truly deal with.
“Now it gets interesting,” he said to himself, and went down to face the five – a small boy wielding fire and lightning, another boy with a bow, two older men with sword and lance, and a mere girl – probably the healer. Half the archers turned from the forces outside to focus on the group inside. They would be wiped out.
“Now it gets complicated,” Ceniro said. Milton had left the wall, and he could see on the farseer that he was moving to engage Yens. “Watch out for the archers! Yens, be careful there. He’s as good at swords and lances as he is at tactics. Matthew, get the gate open for us! Wil, cover him!” Six against sixty was insanity, even for him. But now Milton wasn’t watching the front, which meant – “Lyn, get around the back with those twenty soldiers! Hug the wall, don’t go near the remaining mines. Serra, hit the archers on the wall! Keep them off Rigel!”
“The gate’s stuck,” Matthew panted, straining at something. “You might have damaged it too much…”
“Pent, blow that open now! Erk, also target the gate! Rigel, keep Milton back from the rest of you! Freya, Frank, Andy, Kent, Sain, get ready to charge to the rescue. Florina, Fiora, come in from the north and buzz the walls!”
Pent cast, blue lights and runes flickering around him, and the gate erupted in a blaze of light. It seemed that jarred loose whatever was broken, and the burning remains of it shot up into the gatehouse. Matthew grunted as he fell back on his butt. At last Ceniro could send in the cavalry, and Hector led the charge of the rest of the army. Milton was swept away from Yens and George by Freya’s charge and was retreating to the narrow steps up the side of the keep. But the cavalry had to lose their momentum in the narrow yard, especially with so many allies present, and he struck back at her with his lance, stabbing her in the side under the armour and knocking her from her horse.
“Freya!” Hector shouted, and threw himself at the stairs after Milton as Erk hurried to Freya’s side. Ceniro didn’t bother to tell Hector to be careful. He’d given enough warnings about Milton’s skill, and Hector was good enough Ceniro trusted he could hold his own. Sain and Frank had dismounted and were coming after him, although the stairs were narrow enough that wouldn’t help Hector much.
Hector had almost chased Milton to the top of the stairs when Milton shouted for someone and a druid appeared out of the keep above. Hector’s eyes widened and he braced himself as a spell began to form around him.
“Serra!” Ceniro called; her light magic would be the best counter to the dark magic, and she began to run from the other side of the courtyard from where she had been helping Oswin with a sword wound. But both Milton and the druid were pulling back, leaving Hector pale and leaning on the wall from the effects of the spell. “Leave him, let’s secure the rest of the courtyard!”
Hector jumped from the wall, hardly heeding Serra’s healing spell on him. “Freya! Are you all right!?”
His commander was standing, healed by Erk’s staff, looking a little more frazzled than usual. “I’m fine, Lord Hector. You didn’t need to challenge him yourself.”
“I was… worried,” Hector muttered, not meeting her eyes.
“I think we have this under control,” Ceniro said. “Kent, Oswin, move into the keep, there are still soldiers who haven’t surrendered in there! That wyvern rider’s still around somewhere!”
Ceniro’s forces were overrunning his own. “Did you find out what we needed?” he asked Vellith sharply as they ducked back under the arch and up the stairs to the rooftop.
“Some. Not enough. She doesn’t know what he was doing with Lord Eliwood.”
“Then we need to get out of here. Perhaps we can still nab him on the way. We’ll have to watch out for that blonde sniper. Rovenna?”
“Right here, my lord.”
Milton swung astride the wyvern she held for him, while she and Vellith shared her own. “Watch for the pegasus knights. They were still active around the south end of the castle last I saw, but it’s not a big castle.”
“Right behind you, my lord.”
Massive scaly wings snapped open on either side of him and heaved.
“He’s mounted a wyvern,” Ceniro said, still standing outside the gate. “Taking off from the north side of the castle with the wyvern rider. Florina, Fiora, chase them, take them down if possible. Andy, Frank, find Renee!”
He stared in disbelief at the farseer, then glanced at the sky. “What is he doing!?” A green-winged shape was rushing at him.
Louise shoved him to the ground bodily, just in time – an immense gust of air and a whooshing sound told him that he had escaped being run over by the narrowest of margins. He had an intense impression of massive claws, and then the wyvern was gone again, picking up altitude to clear the trees behind him and the mountains behind that. “Louise?”
A grunt from Louise, a twang, a sigh. “I nicked the wyvern’s leg, but I’m afraid he got away.”
Lyn helped Ceniro pick himself up again. “He knew he had too few people here to face Hector, but he stuck out this long anyway. Why?”
“Maybe Renee can tell us,” Lyn said. “Have they found her yet?”
“I-I found someone,” Rigel said, and Ceniro checked the farseer. It did look like Renee. “H-hello, my name is Rigel, and I’m with, um, Ceniro, I guess…”
“It’s about time!” Renee answered, sounding irritated, but then she softened her voice. “I’m sorry, Miss Rigel. I’m Renee. It’s very nice to meet you, and I’m grateful that you came looking for me. …Now take me to that idiot so I can give him a piece of my mind!”
Ceniro sighed and chuckled. “I’m in for it now. Lyn, can I hide behind you?”
“Nope, you take your beating like a man,” Lyn said cheerfully. “Whatever she’s mad at you for, you probably deserve it.”
“You are the most supportive of girlfriends,” Ceniro said, and Hector barked a laugh.
“Of course she is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lyn retorted, but she and Hector were both grinning.
Ceniro shook his head and went off to meet Renee.
They met in the courtyard of the small castle, and the first thing she did after she marched up to him was punch him in the chest. Again.
“I know, I know,” Ceniro wheezed, feeling the bruised spot. “I didn’t come back last year.”
“Why? Not?” Renee demanded. “You are the most selfish and thoughtless of people, you know, and I don’t even know why I care, you idiot…”
He grabbed her hand – she seemed to be getting a bit too upset. “Renee, I’m really sorry. I actually went straight back to Sacae with Lyn. I completely forgot, and by the time I remembered, it was awkward…”
Renee pouted. “Well, better late than never, they say, but send a stupid letter, next time!”
“I am going to be writing so many letters this year,” he muttered to himself. “So why was Milton here? Why did he kidnap you?”
Renee inhaled furiously and stamped her foot. “It’s all about you again with that man, as usual. He wants to know what you know about something? He’s looking for something… something important, powerful, with his druid friend and his wyvern-rider cousin, and it’s something that you know about, and it’s something connected to Lord Eliwood.”
Ceniro traded a glance with Hector, Lyn, and Pent. “He knows.”
“About the thing?” Pent said. “It sounds like it. But he won’t find Eliwood’s. Not the way I sealed it. I doubt it will be able to be found until the whole elder ripple thing blows over.”
Renee frowned. “You’re talking in riddles on purpose, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid so,” Pent said cheerfully. “Never know who’s listening who shouldn’t be.”
“Did you find out anything else?” Hector asked. “Maybe where he’s been looking?”
“I think he was in northern Ostia a few weeks ago, but he didn’t find anything. I think he’s going back to Bern next.”
“Who’s his druid friend?”
“Someone named Vellith, from Khafti…” Renee said, and Rigel gasped.
“Vellith – ooh, that jerk! The head of my chapter told him to stay home because it was my mission!”
“You’re also from Khafti?” Renee asked.
“I am. He’s my older brother. If he steals another thesis from me, I will kick his butt!”
Ceniro laughed and turned it into a cough. “Well, good to know, we can use that against him. Does he know you’re with me?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, though.”
“I don’t think there was much else,” Renee said. “I couldn’t tell them much. I couldn’t help telling him a lot about you – I was trying to get him to give up without fighting, but it didn’t really work. I didn’t think it would, but I wanted to try… And I think he knows about your farseer tool now.”
“All right,” Ceniro said. “Then he knows I’m just a little bit more dangerous. Perhaps he’ll try to make his own.”
“Well,” Hector said, “this is all very well and good, but I’m famished. It’s time to start heading back.”
“What about the… hole in the wall?” Ceniro asked.
Hector looked at it and grinned, running a hand through his short blue hair. “It’s pretty awesome. Makes it a bit less effective as a castle, however. Maybe I’ll send Matthew out to pick up all the unused mines, and figure out where I’m going to get the funds to fix it this time. That hole’s quite a bit bigger than the little crack that we had before.”
“Sorry,” Ceniro said.
“No apologizing! That was a pretty great explosion. You must have been able to see the dust from clear over the mountains!” Hector turned back around and frowned at the grey-haired woman. “And while I’m at it… Renee, you’ve been complaining about not being able to keep track of Ceniro. Well, I’m going to grant one of your wishes. You’re going to go along with him and help him on his quest.”
Renee started. “What? My lord.”
“Okay,” Ceniro said. “I can use her help.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Renee said. “Why?”
“Why not?” Hector said. “You want to keep an eye on him, he could use your help, you can report back to me on occasion – in coded language, please. Matthew will help you with that. Ceniro, I’d send Matthew himself, but I kind of need him in Ostia right now. Can’t do without him.”
“I’m flattered, my lord,” Matthew said, only a little drily. “You only threaten to kill me once a week these days, instead of every day.”
“But the garrison-”
“Freya’s got everything under control. If one of the lords starts getting uppity, I might recall you, assuming Ceniro’s group can even be found, but we’ll muddle through somehow.”
Renee shook her head ruefully, forehead wrinkling. “Well, all right. I bow to your wishes, my lord. And… thank you.”
“That’s all right.”
“No… thank you for coming to get me. It’s very kind of you, Lord Hector.”
“Hey, no one messes with my people. Right, Oswin, Freya?”
“Exactly right, sir,” Oswin said, saluting. Freya nodded.