Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel          Chapter 10: Father and Son

   Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath

   We marched east along the road quickly all that day. Myrrh could fly, but she was small and could not go fast. I hoped we would catch up to her soon. The horse-mounted scouts were busy; everyone was on edge all that day. We were surrounded by the land of Grado and enemy soldiers could be over every hill.

   We came to the wide region of Hanarka, where rivers spiralled and corkscrewed their way down from the northeastern mountains into the western lakes, which fed more rivers leading to the southern sea… There, we found enemies. A whole army of Grado, with more on the horizon, was lining up between the riverbanks.

   I discussed tactics with Syrene, riding alongside me.

   “The general is distant, but it appears to be Selena Fluorspar,” she said.

   I nodded. I had met Selena once or twice. She had not yet been a general when I met her, only a commander. She was kind, if reserved.

   Rachel pushed up beside us. “I’ve heard of her. It’s said in Rausten she is feared by bandits for her use of Bolting, the lightening spell that strikes from afar without mercy.”

   “Thank you, Rachel. I will use caution against such magic… Anything else, Syrene?” I asked.

   “Vanessa reports there may be bandits in the southeastern mountains, and there are some strange people to the east who do not wear Grado’s uniform…”

   “How strange?”

   “One is a woman, dressed in a short skirt more suited for Jehanna; the others are all big strong men. Perhaps a noblewoman is travelling.”

   “Then we needn’t worry about them just yet. Deussel!”

   “Yes, Lord Ephraim?”

   “Your company will sweep south along the eastern side of the rivers. Remind your men to look out for the travellers and not to hurt them.”

   “Understood.” Deussel waved his axe and a number of knights, including Gilliam, and also Rachel, headed off with a rumble.

   “As for the rest of you, follow me!” I cried, waving my own lance and running down to the west side of the rivers.

   I had not gotten far before a familiar small shape came hurtling out of the air towards me. “Myrrh!” I shouted.

   She staggered to a stop by my side, her fluffy pigtails askew. I reached out and touched her shoulder.

   “Myrrh, thank goodness you’re all right. I was so worried!”

   She bent her head. “I’m sorry, Ephraim… I… I…”

   I knelt. “You lot carry on,” I said in Syrene’s general direction and turned back to Myrrh. “It’s all right now, Myrrh…”

   “It’s because I forced you to bring me with you… I decided I didn’t want to be a burden any longer…” Her crimson eyes were fixed sorrowfully on the ground in front of her, and her hands were clamped tight together. “I truly didn’t want to make you worry, but I guess that’s all that I did… I didn’t even get my dragonstone back…”

   “Is that why you left?” I smiled. “I haven’t forgotten I need to help you find that. You have my word we’ll find it.”

   “No!” she cried, looking up. “General Selena has it! And she’s not a bad person… I spoke to her… and she understood…”

   I stood. “I understand. I’ll speak to General Selena and try to get her to join us. For now, Myrrh, please go to the back. We will have to fight our way to her, I’m afraid.”

   She nodded and bounded away. I allowed myself a brief lingering glance at her childlike form, so like Eirika when we were younger.

   I shook my head. How many sisters did I need?

   I returned to the battle, calling out orders as I fought my way through seemingly never-ending ranks of cavaliers and axemen, with archers and even pegasus knights backing them up. Abrupt lightening bolts creased the sky, and Gilliam for one had a close call on the other side of the field as a tree near him was struck. On our side of the field Moulder was actually hit, and only his innate magic ability saved him from becoming a fried crisp. He took a vulnerary and sat down to rest.

   At the south end of the field, I met again with Deussel. “Sir! I have news.”

   “Oh? What is it?”

   “Those travellers we saw were looking for you. Here is their leader, Xavier…”

   A big man with a tan and worn leather armour stepped up to me. “You’re Prince Ephraim? I’m Xavier, the leader of this band of mercenaries. This is my right hand man, Frank, and this is our dancer, Lara.”

   “And… why are you looking for me?” I asked, bemused. Syrene, behind me, was tense.

   The mercenary captain grinned and held out a letter. “We were hired by Prince Innes a while back while in Carcino. He said to tell you: “I have no need of assistance, Ephraim, but I’m sure you do.””

   “That sounds like Innes,” I snorted, opening the letter. I scanned it briefly. “At the time of writing, he’s going to be meeting with Elder Pablo in a few hours. He has heard Eirika is in the port of Kiris, a couple hours north of where he is…”

   “He has his own mercenaries with him… Gerik’s Mercenaries. Pretty good group,” said Xavier amiably. “I guess that’s why he sent us to join you, prince.”

   I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Innes is such a… regardless, we’re happy to have you fighting along with us.” I turned to the rest of those around us. “Let’s head to talk to Selena!”

   We marched rather slowly up the road towards the island where Selena waited for us, surrounded by dark mage guards.

   “General Selena,” I called out when we got closer.

   “Prince Ephraim,” she responded in her confident alto.

   “General Selena, I know you’ve spoken with Myrrh – and I appreciate your not using her as a hostage, by the way. Please withdraw your troops. There’s no need for us to fight.”

   She smiled a little and shook her head. “Yes, I know. I always knew that the emperor is not in his right mind.”

   “Then why are we fighting!?” I cried helplessly.

   “I am a general of the Empire. His Majesty’s word is law.” Her face hardened.

   I ran a hand through my hair. “This is ridiculous. If you know he’s not himself, why are you still obeying him? Is that truly loyalty!?”

   She nodded rather coldly. “The path I have been given is perhaps foolish, but I am a knight and for me there is no other.”

   “Selena, please!” I cried in desperation. “Surrender! I don’t want to see you die here! It may be a noble death and tragically useless and all but Myrrh will be sad-“

   “Me? Die?” She raised an eyebrow. “Prince Ephraim, you do not understand. I have no intention of dying here. I am going to fulfil my Emperor’s orders, madness though they be.”

   “Do you think you can restore him that way?” I grated. She stiffened but said nothing.

   Deussel, just behind me, stirred. “Selena, Ephraim is a good lad. Come with us and we shall uncover the truth about the emperor, and do our best to save him.”

   She smiled and bowed her head. “General Deussel. I owe you an apology. I called you a traitor without just cause. You have never wavered in your loyalty, not for an instant.”

   I looked back and forth between them, confused. She sounded completely sincere and yet-

   “Yet I have no intention of withdrawing. Let us waste no more words, but fight as we must inevitably.”

   “Old friends must fight, is it?” Deussel said. “I know I’m a stubborn old dog, but you…”

   “Have chosen my path.”

   “I see.” Deussel adjusted his grip on his lance. “I, too, have chosen my path. I’m sorry, Selena.”

   She smiled again, but I could see both of them were holding back pain like a chained hound. How could I end this?

   Then she reached out and fire erupted around me.

   “Aaaagh!” I cried out in pain, shielding my eyes. I heard Deussel shout, and his horse slammed into Selena’s. I staggered out of the fire, glaring with determination. Someone threw a bucket of water from the river nearby over me. Rather anticlimactic-looking, but I appreciated not being on fire.

   The ensuing duel was hard. The bodyguards had been taken care of by our pegasus knights, so it was only Selena. Despite being alone and outnumbered, she did not waver at all. Yes, I knew her power was crazy good. But now I knew her courage and will was strong too.

   Eventually Deussel killed her horse, and she slipped off to fight on foot.

   I don’t wish to dwell on her death, especially since I was the one who killed her.

   As she stood facing me, one hand pressed to her side, she reached out, and I automatically put my hand out. She dropped something into it and fell back. “Now… I can… rest…”

   I looked at the thing. It was a small pebble, seemingly made of dark red glass, with black smoky streaks inside. I nodded. I had a good guess as to what it was.

   I went to find Myrrh, but there was no need. She could see for herself that the battle was over and came hurrying out to find me. When she saw that I was alone, her face fell, and when she saw soldiers bearing away Selena’s body, it fell further.

   The look on her face cut at my heart. She walked up to me, still watching Selena’s bier. “Dame Selena,” she said softly.

   I looked away awkwardly and restrained another sigh. After a long and uncomfortable silence, I turned back to her and handed her the stone. “General Selena gave me a curious stone. It’s your dragonstone, isn’t it, Myrrh?”

   “It is,” she responded. “But I’m saddened by its return. It is reunited with me… and yet… I feel so heavy with remorse…”

   “Myrrh…” I murmured.

   She looked to me suddenly. “Ephraim, can you tell me why this had to happen? Dame Selena was a good person. She was filled with joy when she remembered her emperor. Why did she have to die? Why did we have to fight her?”

   I tensed my shoulders. They were a child’s questions asked by a kindly, ancient, inhuman intelligence with a child’s view, a wounded innocent child, and I could not put them aside like some might with a human child. “I am sorry, Myrrh… I tried my best… If I could have persuaded her to surrender, to lay down her arms, to leave the field, I would have… I had no choice. I know you don’t like it, but she stayed to her path… she was trying to kill me as well.” My excuses sounded feeble in my own ears. I felt like I had betrayed her trust.

   She looked at me more gently then. “I apologize, Ephraim. I was not blaming you. I know you did your best. It’s just… I do grieve for her…”

   I knelt and reached out to her, and she slowly leaned against me, wet and burnt as I was, her eyes dry, her little mouth set unhappily. I patted her head and held her.

   We stayed like that for a few minutes while the activity of the army swirled around us, and then she gave a little sigh and stood up straight.

   “I ventured out of the forest chasing after that dark energy… I hoped that I could counteract its evil force.” She skewered me with one of those vulnerable, honest looks. “Is your cause so different in the end from Selena’s? How many good people must die alongside the wicked?”

   “Myrrh…” I said, my forehead wrinkling. I had no answer for that one either.

   “What can we do to end this war quickly and stop the awful dying?” She reached out and took a hold of my charred cloak.

   “I don’t have any answers for you, Myrrh,” I answered finally. “But I will go to Grado Keep, and see if I find one there. Will you go with me?”

   “Yes,” she answered. “I must stop the darkness. We must find the truth behind the madness.”

   I nodded. I was not yet forgiven, I felt, but I had a chance.

Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel          Chapter 10: Father and Son

Chapter 7: Phantom Ship          Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath

   Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel

   Our ship drew in to the port of Taizel the next day, as planned. All the soldiers and Myrrh were below deck, hidden from view. Syrene and I stood in the door to the cabin, sheltered, watching the sailors rush about. No arrows and fire had rained down on us as we entered the harbour, so I assumed we were not suspected yet.

   “There’s no sign of enemy troops, either,” Syrene said, reflecting my thoughts.

   “Let’s move quickly and prepare to go ashore. The capital is straight down the highway but we’ll be fighting for every step of the way.”

   “Yes, and it will grow fiercer the closer we come,” the pegasus commander said with concern. “My lord, I would like to make a suggestion about troop distribution…”

   “Yes?”

   “The Grado Army outnumbers us by a tremendous amount. We’ve noted this many times. We have ready reservists to protect our supply convoy, but it is no good to defend the supplies if we lose the front. We should bring up all our soldiers to strengthen the van.”

   “No, Syrene, that won’t do. I cannot approve of sending reservists to fight on the front lines, and we cannot abandon our supplies in enemy territory!”

   “Prince Ephraim, we have talented soldiers, but that counts for nothing against those numbers!”

   I looked quickly outside, but no one seemed to have noticed our heated argument. “Syrene, I know you only want to improve our chances of success, but when we are flanked on both sides by hostile armies, maybe towns, too, we will need that convoy. I also know that you make these suggestions to try to keep me from harm… but I have no intention of changing my mind! – Myrrh?”

   The dragon girl had padded up behind me silently, her hands clutched to her chest. She reached out and touched me, and I had jumped and whirled on her.

   “Oh… pardon me…” she stammered, looking rather frightened. “I-I… nothing…” And she fled deep into the ship.

   “Myrrh…!” I called after her, apologetic. I had not detached myself from the discussion with Syrene, and turning the full intensity of my attention on Myrrh had probably not been the best thing to do. I sighed. I hoped she would forgive me.

   “Sir! Prince Ephraim, Lady Syrene, sir!” Pounding footsteps brought me back to the intensity of the present. A guard in nondescript armour whom I’d posted myself dashed up to us from his station at the gangway. “Enemy soldiers have flooded the docks! It’s a trap! Orders, sir?”

   I hazarded a quick look. There were Grado troops running towards us, all right. Some of them were at the foot of the gangway already.

   I turned back. “All troops prepare to fight!” I bellowed to below decks. Of course, they were ready to fight. I had expected this.

   The cavaliers were ready, and it only took a moment to open the horse loading door… or whatever it’s called… to let them out. With them I led a charge of foot soldiers backed up by archers to keep the enemy busy while we ran up to them.

   We left on the east side of the ship. Deussel led the cavaliers off the west side of the ship, with Rachel among their number in case of emergencies. Syrene and Vanessa shot out of the horse bay and wheeled overhead, dodging flak from enemy magic users.

   Then I saw a sight that chilled my skin. Lurching from around the corner of a building appeared first one, then a pack, of revenants. Over on the left, mauthe doogs sprang out at Deussel. Syrene had to swerve suddenly to avoid a javelin from a gargoyle that had been hiding on the stern of our own ship. Far back, at the top of the harbour, I saw a massive slouching figure that I could not identify.

   “Th-they’re working with Grado!?” I cried. “How can that be?”

   I had to duck, then, from the lance of a human cavalier.

   It was a hard and cautious struggle up the slope of the harbour towards the upper terraces. As we came closer, I saw what the strange figure was. It was a cyclops, a huge ogre with one eye, hefting a huge axe.

   Moulder was there first, guarded by Gilliam and a number of other soldiers. I was close by with my group, but there were a number of enemy soldiers, mostly human, between me and them.

   A young boy who had but seen us and joined us, ignored the human enemies, running around them, and caught up to Moulder just as the priest sent a small blast of white light against the cyclops. The monster blinked and swung its axe carelessly at the group, hitting Gilliam with the flat of it. Gilliam went flying.

   I whistled as I pulled my lance away from a body and stood watching. There were only a few soldiers between us and them, and some ran.

   Gilliam rolled over as he hit the ground and stabbed the cyclops’s paw with his lance. I ran forward to help him up, and Syrene landed beside me in a flurry of white feathers.

   “My lord!” she cried. “Not too close!”

   Her warning was accurate, as the axe whistled past my head. Vanessa, with a shout, tried to distract it by stabbing it in the shoulder, but she barely grazed its tough hide.

   A tiny fireball exploded on the back of the creature’s head. It turned, blinking, and with a roar of rage, came stomping swiftly towards Moulder and the young boy who had cast the fire spell. An equally young lancer stepped up to defend against the cyclops’s charge, and I began to call out an order to rearrange the group, to properly defend against a ridiculously strong axe-wielding foe – which meant, of course, swordsmen – but I was too late. The monster was too close.

   An arrow came arcing up from the crowd and plunged right into the ogre’s eye. It stopped immediately.

   “Now!” I called. “Swordfighters, forward-“

   The creature raised its hand to its face, and fell over, dead. The ground shook.

   When the dust had cleared, Syrene, after a minute of conferring with the unit captains, came to me and saluted. “The enemy has been defeated, sir, and we’re taking care of the wounded now.”

   “Good job, Syrene. We’ll rest in this city tonight. Replenish all the food and weapons, and find a place for us to sleep… Oh, yes, remind every soldier that anyone who breaks the city’s laws will be severely punished. Anything else?”

   “We should prepare some defence in case we are attacked in the night from the east. Fresh enemy troops could be here at any time.”

   “Good point. All right, we’ll post sentries on three rotating watches at all gates and the east wall. Then tomorrow we’ll set out half an hour past dawn. Oh, and please commend those young soldiers who brought down the cyclops. They were very brave.”

   “Yes, sir,” Syrene said crisply, happy, I think, that I had taken some of her advice for once.

   “Dismissed. Don’t forget to rest, yourself.”

   “Thank you, Prince Ephraim.”

   If I had turned my head to the left just slightly, I would have seen Myrrh, cloaked and hooded, staring up at me…

   The next morning, Syrene came early to see me in my room in the inn. I had just woken and was in the middle of my second piece of toast when she knocked and entered hastily.

   I ran a hand through my bed-mussed hair. “Something important?”

   “It’s… Myrrh,” she said, uncertain how to call the girl, I think. Myrrh never talked to anyone very much; she was shy of strangers, and we had been in a whole camp-full of them. “She’s been missing since sometime last night. There are no signs of a struggle, and it seems she left of her own accord.”

   I dropped my toast with my mouth full. I tried to talk and ended up choking and coughing instead.

   “My lord!?” Syrene quickly poured me a glass of water. I nodded and sipped it.

   “Where did she go? Didn’t anyone see her?”

   “No, no one at all. The gates were shut all night…”

   “She can fly,” I said heavily, running a hand over my eyes. “Oh, Myrrh, what are you up to? Prepare to head out. We’re heading east.”

   “Prince Ephraim…”

   “Not just looking for her. We’ll find her on the way to the capital.”

   Syrene frowned slowly. “And if we do not find her?”

   I glared back at her. “I’ll keep looking for her. She is my responsibility. She’s alone without her dragonstone, and she doesn’t know either the land or the people. Did you hear how I found her?”

   Syrene nodded slowly. “Prince Ephraim, I will not stop you in any way. I only want to warn you of dangers…”

Chapter 7: Phantom Ship          Chapter 9: Fluorspar’s Oath

Chapter 6: Turning Traitor         Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel

   Chapter 7: Phantom Ship

   A few hours, we were in the middle of the great Western Bay of Grado, also known as the Falisean Sea. It was getting close to sunset; we would dock in the port of Taizel close to noon on the next morning.

   I was looking for Myrrh; she had been hard to find the last few days. I wondered if she’d been avoiding me, or if I was not paying enough attention to her. I resolved that I would hang out with her for the rest of this voyage, assuming Syrene had nothing important to say.

   At last, I caught up with the small indigo-haired girl near the bow, gazing far across the waves as if she would never grow tired of the ceaseless swells. There were clouds and fog ahead, shrouding the far-distant shore which would have just been visible otherwise, making it look like the ocean went on forever.

   “First time on the ocean, Myrrh?” I asked quietly, leaning on the rail beside her.

   She looked at me quickly, surprised, I think. “Yes… It’s so blue, so vast.”

   “It certainly is,” I replied cheerfully. “It’s my first time on a ship, too. It’s hard to appreciate just how big the sea is from land.”

   “I would never have guessed,” she answered, shyly. “You seem so calm…”

   I shrugged. “If I’m to properly lead us, I have to be somewhat stoic. You know?”

   She slumped over the rail and I wondered if it was something I said. “Ephraim…”

   I leaned towards her, wondering what she was going to say next. She had definitely been reclusive since we had set out with the army. ‘She must be lonely,’ I thought. We had been pretty close back when it was just me and my knights; I had chatted with her and encouraged her, and she had been hopeful and sweet as the child she appeared to be, even though I knew she was much older.

   “Prince Ephraim!” Drat. It was Syrene.

   “Yes?” I called back, patting Myrrh’s shoulder to let her know she was not forgotten. “Forgive me, Myrrh. We’ll have to continue this in a minute.”

   “All right,” she whispered, nodding at me and walking away towards the middle of the ship. The sailors were still giving her strange looks, but none took much notice of her.

   “There’s a ship following us,” said Syrene, walking up to me looking very serious, the wind whipping her long green hair. “It’s right on the edge of the fog where we can’t get a good look at it… We can’t tell if it’s Grado or not. Shall we ready the troops?”

   I looked around. We were surrounded by thick fog; I had been so intent on Myrrh and reflecting that I hadn’t noticed we’d sailed into it already. Behind us, barely visible, was a formless shadow.

   “Yes… yes, arm all infantry. Tell the cavaliers to fight on foot. How about you and your sister? Would you like to fly? Can the pegasi be gotten out?”

   “Absolutely, my lord,” Syrene answered, already turning away to shout orders.

   The ship following us, I suppose, realized we’d seen it, or that the fog was thick enough for their purposes… because with an unearthly howl of battle came plunging down on us through the mist.

   I took one look at it and looked frantically around for Myrrh. She was frozen by the mainmast, staring in horror at the rotted wood, the tattered sails, the way it practically boiled with gargoyles and giant eyeballs and skeletons.

   “Myrrh!!” I shouted, racing off the foredeck towards her. She whirled at my call. “Myrrh, get below, quick! We’ll deal with this. Go!”

   With a frightened nod, she fled, neatly dodging around Vanessa’s pegasus awkwardly ascending onto the deck following its mistress. I hastily looked around for my lance, turned, and found Gilliam there, holding it for me. I gave him a grim nod as I took it.

   The monster ship closed fast onto our left side, and boarding ramps were being made ready. Syrene and Vanessa picked off a few far-ranging gargoyles, but the main group were just waiting for us. I clutched my lance tightly in anticipation.

   “Protect the sailors!” I barked one last order as the ramps fell and skeletons began pouring across. “Push them back, board their ship, and seize the blasted thing!”

   I matched action to words, in the forefront of one thrust of skeletons. I heard the twangs and pings of bows behind me, and gargoyles yowled above me. I had to keep looking to see if they were going to fall on me.

   Over at the other ramp, Gilliam and Deussel, fighting together, were a huge barrier, with Moulder behind him, making small flashes of light as he began using his brand new Light spellbook. The creatures flinched back from the pair. Overhead, Vanessa was being chased by about five gargoyles; Syrene stabbed one and archers took out two more, and then Vanessa dodged around a sail and decapitated one.

   I carefully made my way onto the rickety ramp, smashing through damp bones with my lance haft. A pair of swordsmen followed me; one of them was a cavalier whose name I had forgotten, and the other was a tall strapping fellow. “Stay with me,” I called to them as I reached the end of the ramp, only to be surrounded by skeletons and eyeballs.

   Another ship came streaking out of the mist beyond the monster ship, white sails tearing through the fog. “Reinforcements!?” I exclaimed, anxiously.

   But no. The monsters turned, and with a screech of joy, fell upon the unfortunate newcomer, swarming it.

   Swarming it until a blast of light erupted amidships and sent a half dozen eyeballs plopping into the sea. After the blast – I took a gouge on my leg while defending as my eyes cleared – a shrill but joyful laugh, a woman’s laugh, echoed across the water.

   “With me!” I called again to my two bodyguards, and the forces lined up behind them, as I whirled, slammed, and jabbed my way across the deck, hoping to meet the newcomers.

   They came to meet me, a light-green-haired woman in white with a staff and a spellbook, and a massive warrior in green with orange hair and a huge axe, and others who were rather frightened looking sailor-guards. We met and the battle retreated from around us. I could see Deussel’s group still fighting on the rear deck of the monster ship; I would go and help him in a moment.

   “You are…” I said to the woman, who seemed to be in charge.

   “Fear not,” said she, smiling sweetly, “for your rescue is at hand! I am the fair Rachel. You have heard of me, perhaps?”

   I frowned. “I’m afraid not…”

   She actually turned pale and looked to be on the verge of swooning. “Alas…”

   “Is something wrong?” I asked, blinking. Women were weird.

   “No… I just feel like crawling into a hole and weeping…”

   “What? No! This is no time for crying.” Now I was really confused. “I know you’ve noticed but we’re under attack and we could use your help.”

   She brightened up right away. “Oh! Well, in that case I can educate you. Now! Watch my graceful actions closely!”

   I nodded, but I didn’t have much time to look as Syrene’s pegasus landed heavily next to us, her wing torn by a lance and Syrene herself bleeding badly. She nearly fell off, and the swordsman steadied her.

   “Hold on!” I told her. “I’ll get Father Moulder.” I was off into the thick of it before I realized that the woman, Rachel, was calling me back indignantly.

  “Now watch me! I can help here too!” she cried. She raised her staff, and Syrene’s bleeding stopped.

   I bowed to her. “Thank you. You may have saved her life. Now we must join up with Deussel and Gilliam and Father Moulder! Follow me!”

   A sailor near me took a hit from a dark magic spell and crumpled, his face pale and covered in sweat, his mouth hanging slack. While Rachel healed him, I stabbed the eyeball viciously, accidentally covering myself in guck.

   “Ah…” I shook my head to get my now-disgusting green hair out of my eyes and continued.

   I drove a wedge through the remaining forces and met up with Gilliam. “Sir.”

   “Good fighting, Gilliam.”

   Deussel suddenly pointed. “Prince Ephraim! Over there!”

   A hulking shape drifted over the rail and slammed into a group of weaker soldiers, scattering them. I flinched from the piercing screams – at least two of the soldiers were women – and darted forward through the press.

   Several bodies lay still around the monster gargoyle. “Healers!!” I shouted,  bringing up my lance to block its next attack. I was dimly aware that others were dragging the injured away, to give me room to manoeuvre.

   It lunged in a flurry to my left. “Oh, no you don’t,” I growled at it, sidestepping in front of it. I was barely in time, and barely strong enough to hold him back. I felt like the goalie of some sport, making a save… That ridiculous comparison flitted through my head and out again in an instant.

   The monster kept trying to get past me, to where the healers and weaker, slower soldiers were, I assumed. “Hey,” I said, jerking my thumb at my chest, “don’t even think about it. You’re not going to touch ‘em. You’re fighting ME!”

   “And me!” cried Gilliam, stomping up beside me. I nodded in acknowledgement.

   “And me, of course,” said Deussel, on my other side. And I heard many more cheers from behind me, and some over-enthusiastic archers fired arrows inaccurately at the monster.

   It bellowed and came at me; the two warriors beside me fanned out to block the others. The archers kept shooting – the gargoyle kept dodging – and Vanessa and Syrene, now healed, hovered circled behind it, blocking its escape. I parried and blocked with all my strength. “I’m going to feel this tomorrow,” I grunted.

   “Keep it up, Prince Ephraim!” Deussel egged me on.

   I smiled fiercely and stabbed, then froze in surprise.

   It fell back first, Reginleif my lance deeply embedded in its chest.

   The world blurred and overturned  on me, except for the cold steel in my gut between my belt and my armour…

   “Prince Ephraim! Prince Ephraim!!” Women were calling me.

   “Ungh… Eirika…” I offered, flailing, seeing blackness.

   “He’s awake!” cried a man in relief, and something thin and tenacious latched onto my left arm.

   “Mmg… where?” I blinked and opened my eyes. Hovering over me were Syrene, Deussel, Moulder, and behind them were Vanessa and the woman Rachel. Clinging to my arm, her eyes squeezed shut, was Myrrh. “Oh! Hello. Did I win?”

   “It was still twitching when we brought you below, so I stabbed it a few times,” said Deussel. “With my axe. It won’t move again.”

   “Fabulous,” I said, lying back again. “Hello, Myrrh. I’m sorry to worry you.” She shook her head vigorously.

   “Well!” I said, sitting up, “I guess I’d better help deal with the aftermath. How many injured?”

   “None,” said Moulder. “The healers have dealt with them all, and we owe much thanks to Lady Rachel here.”

   Rachel bowed with a pleased smile.

   I got up. “Yes, thank you, Miss Rachel. May I ask what you were doing here in the first place?”

   Her eyes brightened with glee. “Do not be startled by what I say. I am a Lady of Rausten, Theocracy of the righteous! I am on a never-ending quest to destroy all evil. Lady Syrene told me of your quest to defeat the Grado Empire. I must come with you.”

   I stood up and spluttered. “Wh-what? Are you crazy? We’re facing vast numbers and our odds of success are embarrassingly small!”

   “I have faith,” she said simply.

   I sighed. “Well, we will be very happy to have you with us. I just wanted to be sure.”

   “Of course,” she said.

   I turned to Syrene. “What else has happened?”

Chapter 6: Turning Traitor          Chapter 8: Landing at Taizel