Episode 9: Dark Sage Episode 11: Sealing, Part 1
This was the last episode I managed to get finished before Camp Nano ended yesterday. I don’t think it went too badly, although maybe the drama at the end isn’t quite as clear as it ought to be. But I made myself cry (briefly) while writing this one! That doesn’t happen often! (so hopefully you cry lots, mwahahaha)
Although all that commentary in the middle… I’m not super sure about it right now. But hey, I can rewrite it later.
Episode 10: The Blizzard
The landscape was white as far as the eye could see, which was not far, as they were in a narrow valley high in the Ilian mountains. They had already been to Edessa, where Fiora and Florina had finally reported to Ilian High Command, and received formal permission to continue flying with the CEC.
Florina had become somewhat distressed after Murgleis had been sealed, worrying over the words Bramimond had said to her. The only place she could really think of to guide them was her home in Pyrene, very close to Edessa, although she said Fiora could lead them there just as well as she could.
But now they were in Pyrene, and Florina and Fiora’s parents, Sara and Keith, welcomed them warmly. Sara was much like Florina but her wavy lavender hair reached to the floor. Keith looked like he had been a soldier once, but he wasn’t any longer; now he was the candlemaker for the village. The group couldn’t all fit in the house, and there was no inn in this village, it was so small, but the neighbours were hospitable, especially when the companions shared what food they had with them.
Sara and Keith greeted Lyn affectionately, and Lyn hugged them both. “They came to stay with us when I was very very small,” she told Ceniro, who vaguely remembered the story. “Florina was born, and she and Sara stayed with the Lorca for many years. That’s how we were such good friends when you met us.”
“It’s nice to meet you finally,” Ceniro said, smiling. “Your daughters are all skilled, wonderful people.”
“All?” Keith asked with a twinkle in his eye.
“Yes, all,” Ceniro said firmly. “Unless there’s a fourth somewhere whom I haven’t met yet…”
“No, you met all of us,” Fiora said. “Farina is well, Mother, Father. She’s adventuring with her… friend. We last saw her in the spring, in Ostia.”
Florina squeaked suddenly, and turned red.
“Ah yes, speaking of Ostia,” Wil said, and grinned – but he looked about ready to bolt for the door.
“What’s this about Ostia?” Keith asked.
Fiora blushed too. “In my last letter… which was a shamefully long time ago, I know… I may have told you about the man I was seeing. Well… he is my husband now. We married in Ostia in the spring,” and she gestured to Kent, who had already shaken hands with them and now bowed rather stiffly.
“And… um…” Florina began.
“I’m hers,” Wil finished, grin still nervously stretched across his face.
Sara and Keith blinked, and then both began to talk at once.
It didn’t take long to explain to both of them, and they both smiled at their new sons-in-law, who both relaxed. They all stayed up talking quite late into the night, even when the fire had burned dim.
The next morning, they gathered in the centre of town to discuss their strategy. Or they were going to, but apparently Klein had said his first word the night before and now all Pent and Louise cared about was getting him to say more. “Can you say ‘papa’?” Louise cooed, balancing him in a standing position on her lap.
“Baba,” said Klein solemnly, wobbling, and Louise grinned.
“Paaa-paaa,” she repeated, stressing the ‘p’ sound.
“Baba,” Klein insisted. “Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma.”
“Mama?” Pent said, pointing at Louise.
“Mama,“ Klein said, and both Pent and Louise nearly exploded.
“Which word did he say first, Lord Pent?” Yens asked.
“Mama,” Pent said. “I think it’s slightly easier to say.”
“You’re not going to start teaching him magic straight away, are you?” Ceniro teased.
Pent chuckled. “I think ‘fimbulvetr’ is a bit out his repertoire for today. Maybe tomorrow.”
Once they could get the ecstatic parents to focus, they agreed that there didn’t seem to be anything in Pyrene that would lead them to Maltet, and Sara and Keith knew nothing of the Legendary Weapons or of dark magic. Which Ceniro had not expected them to, but he wasn’t sure what to do next.
“We might have to wait for Florina to have a brainwave,” Lyn teased, poking her friend, who hid her face. “Oh, don’t worry, Florina, there’s no rush. There’s only one more after this one, and then we’re done and we can go back to wandering normally!”
“Yes, but we don’t know where that one is either,” Florina said fretfully. “And I’m trying, but I can’t think of anything that might be useful…”
“We could always try to find Canas,” Pent suggested. “I recall he is from Ilia, and it’s probably easier to find a living person than an inanimate object. He could help us. Or his mother could help us!”
“His mother?” asked Fiora curiously. “Why her?”
“Because she is the famous Mountain Hermit,” Louise said, and giggled. “I’ll never forget when Lord Pent learned that he was traveling with the Mountain Hermit’s son. And dear Canas, he was so excited to learn he was traveling with the Mage General! They were brothers in spirit, truly.”
“What!?” Rigel cried. “The Mountain Hermit is still alive? And living out here in Ilia?”
Pent looked at his wife with a ‘see?’ look on his face, and she giggled again. “Perhaps we can visit her while we’re here, even if we don’t ask for her aid in locating Maltet.”
“Ah!” Florina cried, jumping up. Then she realized she had jumped up and threw herself back down again onto her bench, clapping her hands over her mouth.
Wil put an arm around her. “What is it? Did you think of something?”
“Um. Mountain Hermit! Is she from the Mountain of the Ice Dragon? That’s near here! Dragons… It could be a place to start?”
“And you were there once, when you were twelve, and you almost caught your death of a cold in the next week,” Fiora scolded her, but softened it with a smile.
“Yes! Yes!” Florina exclaimed. “I told Ninian about it, and she was born near there too. Oh!” She froze.
“Could she be the daughter of that ice dragon?” Fiora filled in for her.
“Wait, can you say that again?” Renee asked.
“Lady Ninian of Pherae is an ice dragon who is probably the daughter of the good, kind dragon said to have lived here before the Scouring,” Fiora summarized. “But you mustn’t spread that around.”
“Even if anyone believed you,” Yens put in cheerfully.
“O-okay,” Renee said, blinking rapidly.
Pent rose and brushed snow from his cloak. “Well, let’s prepare to be off, then! Florina, where is this mountain exactly?”
“It’s the tallest mountain in Ilia,” Florina said, and pointed.
Pent squinted at it. “I see. That won’t take long to reach.”
They said farewell to Sara and Keith and set off; it wouldn’t take them more than a day or two to reach the mountain. Already it loomed large over them, a towering spike of ice and snow, gleaming blue and black in the sunlight. The next day dawned dark and foreboding, but Fiora and Florina said it wouldn’t storm just yet. They wouldn’t have long to investigate, though, and Ceniro assured both pegasus knights that whenever they said, they would depart immediately. “You’re the experts. I’ve been here… once, and I was just watching Wings do manoeuvres. The weather wasn’t really high on my list of priorities.” Although maybe it should have been… he never knew when he would have to conduct a battle in Ilia.
But for now, he had his two friends to guide him.
They came to the steep mountain and began to climb, Florina guiding them halfway up to a cave carved into the stone, rimed with ice everywhere. It was extremely treacherous, especially for the horses, and all the knights dismounted to lead their horses up on foot.
The cave was very substantial, burrowing back into the mountain, with passages branching off from the side. Pent looked around with great curiosity. “So it’s said a dragon lived here, hmm?”
“Yes,” Florina piped up. “And this kind dragon helped the people of Ilia, who had trouble living in snow year round. But a war broke out between dragons and people… And the kind dragons, not wanting to hurt the humans, went off to a faraway place.”
“Ah,” Pent said, and smiled.
“The tale means Arcadia, doesn’t it?” Erk asked.
“I think it sounds quite reasonable,” Fiora said. “Ah! Who is-”
“Oh, hello!” Canas said, appearing out of one of the side passages. “Pent! Good to see you again! And… the rest of you!” He adjusted his monocle. “Ah yes, Ceniro, and Lady Lyn, and Fiora and Florina and Erk and Wil and Lady Louise, and newcomer! And the rest of you I’m afraid I don’t know.”
Ceniro introduced them, although he was sure Canas wouldn’t remember for a few days, and Canas was mostly interested in Klein, anyway. “Has he shown any promise for magic yet?”
“Mama,” Klein said decidedly.
Pent and Louise laughed. “I haven’t checked,” Pent said. “I do think it’s a bit early. He has the magic toys I made for him, and that will do for now.”
“Ah, yes, capital,” Canas said. “That is a good idea, perhaps I should make some too…”
“Canas!” called a woman’s voice from further back in the cave. “You just said you were going to get more paper, what’s keeping you…”
“Oh, my dear, do come quickly!” Canas called back. “You’ll never guess who it is!”
“I’m sure I won’t,” grumbled the woman, but in a moment she appeared – a green-haired woman in practical red robes rolled up at the sleeves. She stopped and stared at all the mercenaries in the cave. “Canas…?”
Canas was beaming. “May I introduce to you, my good friend from… last year, or whenever… Pent Reglay! Pent, Louise, et al., this is my lovely wife, Nancy.”
Nancy gasped and immediately dropped a curtsey. “Lord Pent! It’s an honour to meet you!”
“And an honour to meet you as well,” Pent said, bowing to her. “I’ve been told you admire my work.”
“Indeed, sir! I’ve read many of your writings, and they’re all so clear and concise, and on such interesting subjects! Oh, I’m very happy. And this must be your famous wife, Lady Louise!”
“That’s me,” Louise said, smiling and curtseying. “I’m very proud of my husband, as you must be proud of yours.”
“Aren’t I just?” Nancy said. “Although the one I’m really proud of is… Hugh! Hugh, where are you? Come here, Mommy has friends for you!” She gave Klein a look. “He might be a little old to play with your boy there, but we’ll see!”
A purple-haired toddler came waddling down to the main part of the cave, pursued by an old woman. “No, you don’t, you imp! It’s dangerous out there! Come have another look at the book.”
“No!” small Hugh cried, waddling faster. “Don’t want to look at bad book! Mummy’s calling me!”
Pent straightened up. “Canas… is that your mother?”
“What? Oh yes, I forgot, you’re rather a fan of hers as well, aren’t you? Mother, there’s someone here you should meet!”
“Humph,” Niime the Mountain Hermit said, giving up on her pursuit of her grandson as he jumped into his mother’s arms. “An Etrurian, by the looks of you, and noble-born, though you’re not wearing the get-up now… and a good idea, too, Etrurian silk is useless for Ilian winters. Tell me, boy, how’s that old rascal Yodel doing?”
Pent blinked, looked as startled as Ceniro had ever seen him. “You know… Bishop Yodel?”
“Know him?” Niime chuckled. “I’ll say I know him. The bastard can be a right charmer when he wants.”
Pent didn’t look like he was going to recover use of his voice any time soon, so Ceniro stepped in. “Bishop Yodel is doing quite well, all things considered. We saw him a couple months ago.” Truth be told, he was a bit taken aback as well, but… old people hadn’t always been old, and even if they were, they could be in love too.
“Good to hear, good to hear. Now, what brings the Mage General-in-exile and his merry band of vagabonds to an Ilian cave at the beginning of winter?”
Pent blinked, coughed, and began. “Canas, you recall last summer, when we had reached that Shrine…”
“Ah, yes, the one Lord Bramimond was residing in, as Lord Eliwood told us. And he unsealed the Legendary Weapons for us, so that we could defeat that power-mad Nergal, yes?”
“Exactly right,” Pent said. “Well, I’m sealing them all again, because I discovered through Lord Athos’s notes that they not only changed the world already, but brought about a calamity known as the Ending Winter. And if they were all gathered in one place again, they could cause the apocalypse.”
“But Lord Bramimond wields Apocalypse,” Canas said, confused.
“An apocalypse, not the tome Apocalypse, boy,” Niime said, and chuffed her son upside the head.
Canas rubbed his head ruefully. “Ah, right, I understand now. So you are looking for Maltet, then. What luck! So was I.”
“Why’s that?” asked Pent.
“I had a similar idea, to guard it against those who might wish to take it and use it. But if you’ve developed a seal, so much the better. Then I can continue research normally afterwards, instead of becoming some strange ‘guardian of the lance’ or something.”
“And if word got around about it, eventually someone would come and try to kill him, and I’m not holding with that,” Nancy said, Hugh on her hip. “May I help – or at least observe – the sealing?”
“Sure, why not?” Pent said. “But we have to find it first. Have you found it?”
“I’m afraid not,” Canas said. “Come, let’s figure it out together! It will be fun!”
“One more person I should introduce to you,” Pent said, “is this young lady here. This is Rigel from Khafti, and she is a shaman of great potential, I’m told.”
“Splendid!” Canas said, beaming.
Niime was not so unreserved. She squinted at Rigel and took a close look in her eyes. “You have very clear, timid eyes, girl. That’s too bad. Ah, well, I suppose you’ll grow into your power in time.”
“Y-y-yes, ma’am,” Rigel stammered, and Renee reached out and touched her arm for support.
They camped in the cave for the afternoon, and Ceniro for one was interested to explore it. He went with Erk, Wil, Florina, and Lyn, and they wandered around the passages while Erk provided them with light. Florina showed where she had spent the night in the cave, next to an altar-like slab of stone in the back of the cave, explaining that she had come to see the kind dragon, but she never showed up. “Of course, it was foolish to think that she would show up… but I was very young then.”
“And just as brave as you are now, to have gone so far on your own!” Lyn said.
And in the back of one cave, they discovered something very strange. It was a half-decayed, frozen mass of human furnishings. “Did this dragon take human form, as Ninian did?” Erk wondered.
“I guess it’s plausible,” Lyn said. “At least to me, it is. I really wouldn’t know. Ah! What’s this?”
She pushed something over, and they all stared. It was a large painting, one that they’d seen before, or seen a copy of it – in some ruins on the island of Valor, the Dread Isle. Then, Ninian had led them to it, following unexplained feelings and urges in her amnesia.
They hadn’t understood it then. But now…
“That’s the ice dragon,” said Wil finally. “And that’s…”
“Nergal,” Lyn said.
“At least, it looks like him,” Ceniro said cautiously. “It’s a very blurry painting, after all this time in this cave…”
“I think it’s him,” Lyn said firmly. “Which… which would explain what he said as we killed him.”
“I remember,” Ceniro said softly. “He couldn’t remember why he wanted his power. But… if his wife was the ice dragon, and his children were Ninian and Nils… Perhaps all he wanted was to gain the power to bring them home again, to see them one last time. But he was corrupted by the darkness of the magic he used, and Ninian and Nils forgot with time, and all that resulted was tragedy…”
“Not all of it,” Lyn said, and took his hand. He squeezed it. “And you’re very complimentary to the man who spent the better part of the summer trying to kill us and destroy the entire world with dragons.”
Ceniro chuckled. “Maybe I am, but he’s dead now, so I can do that.”
“I wonder… should I tell Ninian?” Florina asked. “Do you think she should know? Or would it only make her unhappy?”
“Well, if she doesn’t already know that her mother was probably this ice dragon, you should tell her that,” Lyn said.
“She knows that, I think… We were talking, that summer, and I told her about when I came here. I didn’t understand everything she said in reply, but I understand now. She asked why I wasn’t afraid of dragons, and she was cheered by the answer I gave her.”
“I wouldn’t tell her,” Wil said. “It would be awkwardness everywhere.”
“But Nils was crying when Nergal died,” Lyn said. “Even if he didn’t know why.”
“Still doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be awkward,” Wil said.
“I think you’re right,” Florina said. “I won’t tell her. Besides, it’s only a guess.”
The scholars rounded them up a few hours later, saying they had an idea where to go next. Obediently, the non-scholars followed them out of the cave, down the mountainside, and around to the other side of the mountain. It was not easy going, and Fiora and Florina were watching the sky anxiously as they came to some more ancient pre-Scouring ruins.
They were not alone. Armed men were prowling it, men in ragged clothes and wielding chipped weapons. But there was also the sound of fighting…
“It’s… It’s the Ninth Wing!” Fiora cried. “I recognize Captain Graylea! Ceniro, we must aid them against these bandits!”
“Of course,” Ceniro said, and called orders. The Ninth was pinned by a semicircle of archers; the first thing he had to do was join forces with them. The bandits were not used to fighting people of their caliber, and gave way pretty easily before them. He kept Nancy, Hugh, and Niime out of the fighting; Louise gave Klein to Nancy to hold. He had no doubt Nancy and Niime could fight well if they had to, but he didn’t wish to trouble them, and neither of them volunteered. But Canas… it had been a while since he worked with Canas, and having two dark magic users on the team was almost decadent.
They managed to join Captain Graylea. “The Ninth Wing, I’m told,” Ceniro greeted her.
“And you would be?” Graylea asked sharply.
“Ceniro. I’m the captain of these mercenaries. We’d like to help drive away these bandits.”
“You’re just in time,” Graylea said grimly. “They showed up not too long ago, dozens and dozens of them. My wing is not enough to drive them out… your assistance is greatly appreciated.”
“My pleasure,” Ceniro said, and gave a few more orders. The majority of the bandits appeared to be in another cave in the mountain, a cave with straight carved walls. It was going to be tough to get in there, but they had to; Pent and Canas said Maltet was likely in there.
They made it to the mouth of the cave, with Andy, Frank, and Kent mopping up the bandits who didn’t flee from the pegasus knights. The archers were mostly gone by now, with George and Louise forcing those who were left to keep their heads down.
“Why do you pursue us!?” yelled one of the bandits as they retreated back into the caves. “We didn’t even do anything wrong yet!”
“Your own words give you away!” Graylea called back. “What are you doing here, if not to plan mayhem and murder for your own selfish gain? You bandits are all the same, lazy men who will not turn to an honest living to support yourselves, your families, and your nation!”
“Are you kidding me, this tripe again?” yelled the bandit. He threw down his axe and turned, and Ceniro withheld his forces from attacking. “Look, just because someone can’t make an honest living doesn’t mean we’re lazy! We work hard! We worked hard, too, but in Ilia, even that doesn’t mean anything sometimes!”
“So leave!” Graylea commanded. “Go find work in another country! Or are you too lazy to go there!?”
“Leave our home!? And when you can’t afford to put bread on your table for your family, how are you going to afford to travel to another country? And what do I do there? Send money home? It’ll never make it! Bring my family with me? As if!”
“We’re not all bad!” said another bandit, lurking further back in the cave. “But desperate times call for desperate measures!”
“Including robbing those who have worked hard to support themselves?” Lyn demanded, stepping forward. “Killing those who support themselves? Killing without cause is the height of wickedness!”
“Have you ever starved, lady? Have you ever starved for a month, growing weaker and thinner each day, while you give all that you have to your only child, because your wife is long dead of sickness and your other child is long dead of hunger? Have you done that, and not thought ‘this life isn’t worth living’?”
“No,” Lyn said in a low voice.
“Regardless of your situation, stealing, waylaying, and murder is not permitted,” Graylea said. “You have no sympathy from me. You must be brought to justice.”
“Justice?” said the bandit. “You look at the graves of my wife and son and tell me where is the justice in that!? I was a mercenary. A good one, until I was wounded in the hand and now I can’t hold a sword anymore. And no one wants a mercenary who can’t even hold a sword. I scraped by digging ditches, but there’s only so many ditches to dig, and for every job there’s ten men trying to get it.”
“Save your sob story for the judge,” Graylea ordered, but he went on.
“We don’t kill unless we really have to. I don’t know what bandits are like in other countries, but we’re only trying to get by. We don’t rob people who can’t afford it, and we don’t kill them if they can’t afford it. It’s all we can do.”
Ceniro thought back to the bandits who had accosted him when he first met Lyn, the bandits who’d had no qualms about killing him for having no money, and nodded slowly. If they were telling the truth… and he wasn’t intimately familiar with the Ilian social situation, but they had little reason to lie… then they weren’t wrong. But what could be done for them? If they truly couldn’t find work, how would they live their lives? In any case, he would try not to kill any more of them.
“Not anymore,” said a new voice from in the cave. “We can do anything, now!”
The wind picked up, and snow began to flurry from the sky.
“Uh-oh,” Florina said softly. “We should go…”
They had to get to shelter soon- what was that!?
A bandit emerged from the cave, a big, grizzled man carrying a long white spear with a steel head that glittered like silver, set with sapphire gems. “With this, no one can stand against us!” He raised the spear.
“Get to cover, now!” Ceniro bellowed, and followed action to words. Most of the pegasus knights did as well, but Captain Graylea… “That’s suicide, attacking him alone! Even by my estimation!”
“Then I shall die doing my duty!” Graylea snarled.
The wind picked up, and her pegasus swerved off course, which was probably the only thing that saved her life, at least momentarily – a silver bolt lanced out of the spear and narrowly missed her head. Instead, it tore through her pegasus’s wing, send it plummeting to the ground and tumbling heavily across the landscape. Florina screamed.
“All right,” Ceniro said grimly. “Worst-case scenario. Pent, Erk, we’re going to need a lot of Elfire up here! Canas, Rigel, head around, see if Graylea is alive! Louise, Nancy, Niime, Reglay people, get into the cave on the left now! Florina, Fiora, Ninth Wing, get to ground!” The storm was getting worse by the minute, and already he was losing track of his people. “Lyn- Lyn!”
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Nancy, who handed him Klein. “I told you to go in the cave, so you can keep Hugh safe from this storm!”
“Oh, is that what it was for?” Nancy called over the howling wind. “I sent him with my mother-in-law. I want to stand beside my husband. Tell me what to do.”
“All right, he’s about thirty feet that way!” Ceniro pointed with his free hand, though he was losing feeling in his fingers even through his heavy winter gloves. He had to get inside himself soon, regardless of where everyone else was. And if the storm was caused by that lance…
And he couldn’t see Lyn on the farseer anywhere.
“Ceniro!” Louise called. “The cave we’re in – it connects to the cave the bandits are in! You can use that, right?”
“Yes! Everyone, head for the cave!” He yelled into the storm, hoping that some of those he couldn’t see anymore – Lyn, Pent, Erk, Frank, and Wil – would hear and follow it.
Lyn had been in storms before, in Sacae, right? She would be all right. He trudged through the blinding snow, alone, in the direction he had sent Louise earlier. Canas, Nancy, and Rigel should be ahead of him, too.
He made it to a cliff wall and followed it left until he found a crack in the stone and dove in gratefully.
There were Louise, Niime, Hugh, George, Caddie, Yens, Andy, Renee, Kent, Fiora, Florina, and most of the Ninth Wing. “The others didn’t get in, yet?” he asked, panting. Louise came to take Klein from him, rocking him as he snuffled.
Florina looked at him with wide eyes. “N-no. Wil isn’t here yet…”
He went to the mouth of the cave, but there was nothing to see. He turned back away. “Louise, you said there was another entrance into the bandits’ portion of the cave? Perhaps we can sneak up on that leader. That’s all we need, is to stop him. Then perhaps the storm will stop.”
“I doubt it will, boy, but you are correct in that you must kill that man to get the lance away from him,” Niime said.
Hugh began to sniffle. “What’s going on?”
Louise knelt in front of him. “It’s all right, we’re safe out of the cold now. You just stay here and wait for your mother and father, all right? I’ll be with you until they get back.”
“Okay,” Hugh said, wiping his tears with a tiny fist and messing up his own purple hair. He looked a lot like his father already, Ceniro thought randomly, and then turned to the task at hand.
“All right. It looks like that opening over there will give us access to the bandits’ cave. I don’t really wish to kill them anymore, after that eloquent speech, but we can still defeat them, and we will have to kill the leader. Kent, Fiora, that’s going to be your job. I’m not sure how to deal with that… lightning bolt yet, so don’t go running off to attack him without my say-so.”
“We do what we did with Count Dymal’s men?” Yens asked, taking a tighter hold on his lance.
“I think that will be best, yes,” Ceniro said. “I don’t know if they’ll thank us for it; maybe they’d rather die than be injured, or taken prisoner, but I’d rather give them the choice if possible.”
“Understood,” Andy said seriously.
“What is it?” Ceniro asked.
Andy looked at the floor. “There was a time… after we left our lord in Bern… when my brother and I might have been considered bandits a lot like these men. If they’re anything like us, they’ll welcome a second – or third, or whatever – chance to make a new life.”
“I hope so,” Ceniro said.
One of the pegasus knights stepped forward. “In the absence of our commander, Captain Graylea, we will follow your commands, sir.”
“Thank you,” Ceniro said, smiling slightly. He did like working with pegasus knights. “Get ready to move. Caddie, George, you’re leading the charge. Go!”
Ceniro was going to stay with Niime and Hugh and Klein, whom Louise had left with Niime, but the old woman looked at him unexpectedly softly. “Go on, young man. I know you want to be with your friends.”
“Well, yes, but-”
“I am well capable of taking care of myself,” Niime said with a crooked smile. “I’m not called the Mountain Hermit because I sit on my butt all day meditating! I know how to apply elder magic to combat quite well, thank you. You go out there and win this battle. Nothing will happen to my grandson, you can count on that.”
“Thank you,” Ceniro said gratefully, and hurried after Renee.
They burst into the bandits’ cave and found it a wide, sparkling cavern lined with pillars. The leader of the bandits was coming back in, completely covered in snow until he looked like a yeti.
Ceniro grimaced. As far as he could tell, there was no way to block against that silver bolt. And getting hit by the lance itself would probably be worse. “George, Louise, I need you to get his attention! Do not get hit by the bolts! Fiora, make your way around the perimeter behind the pillars, dodge everything else, hit him in the back! Kent, go with her, but be careful – both of you are fast, but you move in predictable paths.”
“Understood,” Fiora said.
If Lyn were here, he’d send her up. But she wasn’t. If Pent were there, or Erk…
Work with what you have, he told himself sternly, another of Garlent’s frequent advices.
George screamed, and Ceniro turned to see he’d been hit by one of the bolts in the leg. “Yens, cover him! Florina, get him a vulnerary!” A vulnerary wouldn’t do much, but he’d been relying on his magic users’ healing staves so much that he didn’t think it was necessary to get the more expensive elixers. Perhaps he should rethink that.
Kent was capably guarding his wife from all those who dared attack her from the ground, and the leader didn’t seem to realize that they were coming up on him. He must have heard Kent’s horse, but he turned at the last moment to see Fiora bearing down on him – the lance swung around – Fiora screamed a war-cry as she stabbed and recoiled in her usual attack pattern-
The bandit leader gurgled and fell, the lance falling from his hand. Kent arrived a moment later and planted his horse over the body, preventing any of the other bandits from coming close.
Ceniro hopped up on a pile of fallen masonry. “Surrender! Your leader is slain, and I and my companions are more than capable of wiping you all out – but we don’t want to!”
The bandit who had spoken at the cave mouth came up to him. “You… you really mean it.”
“I do,” Ceniro said, though he was still holding his katana and the bandit was still holding his axe and both of them were tense as if ready to move. If the bandit really wanted to kill him, he wasn’t sure he could block in time, not with the farseer in his other hand.
The bandit put down his axe. “No one from Ilia would do that for us. I surrender to you.”
Kent took Maltet and followed Ceniro to the back of the cave, a twisty maze of narrow passages, until they came to a small chamber with a weapon stand in the middle of it.
“Well, this is where it goes, I guess,” Ceniro said, and Kent put it there.
They looked at each other. “And now we wait, I suppose,” Kent said.
“Yes,” Ceniro said heavily. “The storm shows no sign of stopping. I still can’t see outside the cave at all, either with my eyes or with the farseer- Do you hear that?”
It sounded like distant thunder.
Lyn huddled next to Pent, Erk, Frank, and Wil in the crevice they had found in one of the buildings. “This isn’t going to work,” she called over the raging storm. “We’re going to freeze to death.”
Across from her, Canas, Nancy, and Rigel nodded. “You’re right, but the wind’s strong enough to blow anyone off their feet right now. We can’t get to a better place. We just have to not freeze, which, considering three of us are anima mages, won’t be a problem. Much.”
“Absolutely right, dear,” Canas said. He had lost his monocle. “I hope Ceniro can defeat that man without our help. He’s really grown since last year, hasn’t he, Pent?”
“Very much,” Pent said. “If anyone can do it, he can.”
“I’m worried that someone actually managed to get to it before us,” Wil said. “
“I’m worried about Captain Graylea,” Frank said. “But like you said, I don’t think even my horse can stand this wind…”
“There’s nothing we can do for her,” Nancy said. “She would say the same.”
“You know her?” Lyn asked.
“Not at all, but based on how she spoke earlier… she’s proud, and devoted to her duty. She understands the harshness of Ilia. She would rather we continue on than come back for her.”
“Yes, it’s lucky that Rigel and Canas managed to join up with us at all,” Lyn agreed. “But Ceniro will come back for us.”
“He’s a good man, then,” Nancy said, smiling. “I heard a bit about him from this reliable source here.” She elbowed her husband. “I’m glad he was taking care of you on the big secret quest you had last summer.”
Erk looked up. “It’s not letting up. In fact, it’s getting worse- What’s that sound?”
Canas looked up sharply. “It’s the ice on the mountain. It’s giving way.”
“That’s not good,” Pent said, equally sharply. “Will it come down on us?”
“I don’t know,” Canas said. “I couldn’t say for certain, but we’re probably in very great danger. The caves, especially… they’ll probably be completely buried. Which would seal off that lance quite well, really. Except…”
“No!” Lyn cried, almost starting to her feet.
Wil put a hand out. “It’s okay, we can blow the ice up after the storm dies down. We have all the magic with us, after all.”
“I don’t think so,” Canas said slowly. “When an avalanche comes down in these mountains, it comes down. And with this storm… It might be days before we’re able to break them out, and by then they might…”
Nancy looked at him. “Canas.”
“Yes, dear.”
They stood together.
“Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing?” Pent exclaimed, standing too, almost getting knocked off his feet instantly by the wind. “The two of you alone – that’s madness!”
Canas smiled. “Ceniro needs the rest of you. We’ll be fine.”
“Erk and I can help, we have Fimbulvetr or Elfire, whichever you need,” Pent pleaded.
“I can help too!” Rigel said. “I only have Luna, but I’ll do whatever I can!”
Nancy shook her head. “No, no, you stay here and out of trouble.”
“They’re not Hugh, dear,” Canas said.
Nancy wrinkled her forehead. “Oh, Hugh…”
Canas turned to Pent. “Take care of Hugh for us, okay?”
“No!” Pent cried, shaking his head. “You’re going to take care of Hugh.”
Canas smiled, looking a bit strained around the eyes. “I know how Ceniro is about saving everyone. But if we don’t go out there, he won’t be able to save himself and the people with him. We’ll do this for him, so that you can save the world again.”
The ice cracked and rumbled ominously again. Rigel caught her breath.
Lyn stepped forward and hugged both of them. “I can see you’re going to be as stubborn as me, so… I won’t try to stop you. But… it’s been an honour knowing you both, and Mother Earth protect you.”
“Thank you, Lady Lyn,” Canas said. “Tell Ceniro not to fret over us, all right? And say goodbye to my mother and son for us.”
“Thank you for your kind words,” Nancy said. “Tell Hugh that we love him very much.”
“Canas…” Pent said, and shook both their hands.
The druid and the sage looked at each other and walked out into the storm hand in hand.
Ceniro stood at the entrance to the cave, trying to see out into the still-swirling storm. It was still impossible, and the mountain had been creaking and groaning for twenty minutes now. Were any of his friends still alive out there? Should he be bracing himself for loss?
Someone plucked at his pants leg, and he looked down to see a small pale face peering up at him from under purple hair. “Where’s Mummy? Where’s Daddy?”
“I don’t know,” he said, then considered that was really not the best thing to say to a small child who looked like he was going to burst into tears. He knelt down beside him. “I don’t know, Hugh, but they’re both really good at what they do, so I bet they’re all right, okay? They’ll come back as soon as the storm goes away, I know it.”
Hugh sniffled. “Okay. Do you have a cookie?”
“I’m afraid not,” Ceniro said. “But you can ask Andy for a cookie. He has the food.”
“Okay,” Hugh said again, and trundled off.
The pegasus knights had taken the remainder of the bandits prisoner and were keeping them quiet in a corner of the cave, so he didn’t have to worry about that.
Louise came up behind him, nursing Klein. “They’ll be all right, Ceniro.”
He looked up at her unhappily, not bothering to hide his worry from her. “How do you know?”
“Because Lord Pent has braved many dangers, and always returned to me,” Louise said simply. “And Lady Lyn is the same for you. Your love will hold you together.”
“You’re right,” Ceniro said, turning back to the snow. “I don’t believe it right now, but you’re right.”
“I must admit, the waiting is hard,” Louise said with a sigh. “But be patient. I know you are good at being patient.”
“Not sometimes,” Ceniro said ruefully. “This might be one of those times.”
“I know, dear.”
The mountain shook, and there was a roar of falling… everything, really, ice, snow, stones, coming down almost right on top of them… but there was some kind of flash, a burst of rainbow colours and a burst of blackness, and somehow, miraculously, the entrance to the cave was still there even when everything had grown still again.
Slowly, the wind began to die.
The farseer was still glitching out when Ceniro first caught sight of figures through the thinning snow and growing darkness. “Lyn!”
He ran from the cave, and she ran to him, and they threw their arms around each other, almost knocking each other over with the force of their embrace.
“I was so worried for you,” she said softly.
“Me!? I was so worried for you! Pent! Wil! Erk, Frank, Rigel, you’re okay!” He looked around. “You didn’t find Captain Graylea? Where’s Canas and Nancy?”
There was a pause long enough to turn his stomach to ice.
“They went to save you,” Lyn said. “We couldn’t find Captain Graylea, but Canas and Nancy went to stop the avalanche and the storm.”
“What?”
“It’s true,” Pent said. “What they did… I’ve never seen anything like it. But it worked.” He pointed, and Ceniro saw with awe and horror that there was a massive pile of fused, blackened ice and stone over to the right; it covered half the valley, sweeping away from the ruins. It had missed the cave mouth and the outside ruins by meters.
“And… they…”
“I think they’re dead,” Pent said softly, his own face showing his grief. “They asked to be remembered to you, and to Niime, and to Hugh.”
“But – they-”
“They know how much you want to save everyone,” Lyn said, holding him tighter. “So they took it upon themselves to do it, because otherwise you and everyone in the cave were going to die. They wouldn’t let us come help, either, because you need us.”
“But…” His voice broke.
“Where’s Mummy and Daddy?” asked a small voice, and now his heart broke too. He turned away from Hugh, because he couldn’t hide the tears streaming down his face.