Chapter 9: Holy Maiden          Rekka no Ken: Vol 3: The Tactician and the Black Fang: Chapter 1: Taking Leave

Chapter 10: The Farseer

Pent walked forward and touched the ice that sealed in Eshan. The defeated lord’s eyes were nearly bugged out. Pent’s eyebrow twitched and he turned away.

Yodel bent to pick up the Holy Maiden Staff and touched it to Pent’s shoulder. The staff glowed a little, and Pent’s colour returned and he didn’t cough anymore. Yodel went next to Roger and then Erk.

“I hope you are unharmed, Your Majesty,” Pent said to King Mordred, who was cleaning and sheathing his silver sword.

King Mordred nodded. “I am, and so are my wife and son. We are completely shocked, Reglay, completely and utterly shocked. What could have happened to Lord Eshan?”

“Lust for power,” Pent answered. “I still can’t understand what was going through his head…”

“But if you had not come, we do not think we would be alive now. Eshan would not only have taken over Elimine’s Church, he would have usurped the monarchy.” The door of the throne room came unlocked and several troops of guards poured through. Douglas motioned to them to take the iced-up Eshan away.

Pent bowed. “It is always my duty to serve Etruria.” Continue reading →

Chapter 8: The Cost of an Amethyst     Chapter 10: The Farseer

Chapter 9: Holy Maiden

It was dawn the day after the next when Pent and his company finally reached Aquleia. The day intervening had led them to Deis, where Ocery’s son Roger not only approved his soldiers’ travelling with Pent, but enthusiastically joined them. He was understandably furious at Pent for the death of his father, but the allure of an adventure with possible battlefield action against Lord Eshan excited him even more. Phil, his captain, and Paul, the second in command, had their hands full trying to keep their young lord calm enough to react reasonably to anything. He seemed most unwilling to listen to anything Ceniro said, even after both Phil and Paul told of how well he directed the group. Ceniro shrugged at the two guards after a twenty minute discussion with all three of them.

“It’s all right. Just stick to him like limpets and make sure he doesn’t get swamped. He should be able to take care of himself; just point him in the right direction.”

Phil nodded. “Will do.”

So at evening, they had set up their growing multitude of tents by the road almost two hours ride from Aquleia. Pent had tried to use the contact staff to talk to Douglas, but nothing happened.

The next morning, bright and early, they were entering the white towered city of Aquleia, the centre and jewel of Etruria, and found it in turmoil. The citizens were standing around, buzzing like angry bees; ordinary business was conducted, but an air of tension and excitement pervaded everything.

“Interesting,” Pent commented. “Eshan’s not interested in the common folk, and they’re not certain what to do yet. I suppose we shall see what happens later. Let’s see if we’re stopped heading for the castle.”

They were not stopped along the road to the castle, and indeed when they reached the castle gate, it was devoid of guard except a lone pair of soldiers with Eshan’s livery, who scurried away as soon as the armed group swept up. Continue reading →

Chapter 7: Siege of Castle Wrigley     Chapter 9: Holy Maiden

Chapter 8: The Cost of an Amethyst

Pent and the ten other riders with him arrived at Lesil’s castle a few hours later. It was night, but the moon shone brightly. It was tall and not wide, with no moat but a fearsome gate. Fiora had led them there, watching Lesil’s army ride off from the air. Their horses were as drained as they were themselves, but Pent was adamant that he would rescue his wife that same night.

“Now, I would assume, Ceniro, that most of his army assaulted us. Probably half of the soldiers could be a problem for projectiles… Hm? Oh, I know from the military review a couple months ago. Boring stuff, but you see it comes in handy.”

“What we need to do is keep Lesil in sight,” Ceniro said, sounding more tired than ever as his group trudged along, still hours back. “Find some way for you and the horses to take a rest for maybe an hour, maybe two if we can, while seeing that he’s not… bothering Lady Louise.”

Pent thought furiously. “I could… ask to speak with him. That would work for about five minutes, maybe a little longer, but certainly not a whole hour. He wants to destroy us, doesn’t – wait…”

“What?”

“There’s a light flickering in that window, third story, left of the gate. It must be Louise! No one else would want to signal us, would they?” He raised a determined fist above his head and the light gave a little jump in response and then stopped flashing.

“Well, now we know where she is, and that she’s not being watched for the time being. Go ahead and call on Lesil-“

“Arrows, sir,” George spoke up as the familiar hiss reached their ears. They hastily moved back out of range, all except Pent, who shouted Lesil’s name.

“Lesil! Come out and talk!” Continue reading →

Chapter 6: The Price of Hunger     Chapter 8: The Cost of an Amethyst

Chapter 7: Siege of Castle Wrigley

Louise fretted slightly as she waited for her husband to call at his usual time. She would have paced if it were in her nature, but it was not, and Erk was in the next room over, studying his books, and she didn’t want to disturb him. She had already been for a ride and a session of archery, and she had tried reading, but gave up in exasperation as the pages seemed to carry her husband’s face instead of words.

It had been five days since he had called to say that he had found the stone. Since then, his communications had been brief; saying only that they had fought a pack of bandits, or that they had passed through such-and-such a village… He and his group were making excellent time back to Reglay with all speed. They had gotten back out the mountains and the snow on the second day. And every look he gave her spoke volumes of his concern and love for her. They had been apart too long, and Louise wanted him back dearly even if Lesil had never come to afflict her.

She had received a visit from an old friend, which had cheered her immensely, but the friend had only been able to stay one night before she left for Lycia. Still, she had made the best of it, the two of them exerting themselves happily and with vigour in the kitchen alongside the cook that evening and the next morning.

But now she was in her room in Castle Wrigley with Erk studying, and the servants busy, and Yens and his fellow guards, though helpful, respectful, and polite, rather intimidating as well. All except for Yens, who could talk a mile a minute when he got going, and his charming and humble humour helped her through a few dark hours; his memories of past quests or his stories of his wife and children were very engaging – for a short while. Yet she couldn’t help but feel as if something were hanging over her, ominously, in a way that had not been there when Pent first left on his quest. So all she could do was twist her hair and wriggle her toes in impatience, noble bearing be dratted. Continue reading →

Chapter 5: Secrets in the Storm     Chapter 7: Siege of Castle Wrigley

Chapter 6: The Price of Hunger

The other tunnel, in the caves under the mountain Pent and company had fled to during the snowstorm, was a lot wetter and rougher. They came across a small trickle of water disappearing into a crack in the floor, and followed it back into the darkness.

It led into a warren of tunnels, all leading into each other and absolutely confusing.

“Wait,” Caddie said suddenly. “What’s that noise?”

It was faint, somewhere in the back of the maze. It sounded like distant sobbing.

“Who’s there?” Pent called.

There was no answer.

“Let’s continue. We’ll see if we find anything.”

“Right, and let’s split up into three groups. George, Cavven, Lence, head left. Andy, Frank, Pent, stay centre. Caddie, Albert, Priscilla, Fiora, go right.” Ceniro himself followed Pent, keeping a close eye on his farseer.

They wound their way through the caves slowly, finding nothing at first. The sobbing grew louder for the men and women who had gone down the right-hand path, and they told Ceniro about it.

“Let me know if you find anyone, all right?”

“Right, we- ah!” Fiora broke off in the middle of her sentence with a cry of concern.

“What is it?”

“We found someone in a corner… a young man, blue hair, blue armour, horse. He’s huddled up in the dark, crying to himself. Priscilla is going to talk to him.”

“We’ll come as fast as we can. Stay there.” Continue reading →

Chapter 4: Sly Tongues Aplenty     Chapter 6: The Price of Hunger

Chapter 5: Secrets in the Storm

Pent sighed as he reviewed the latest news from Douglas the previous night in camp that morning, somewhere in the mountains. The clouds were thick overhead and the air was cool and moist. “Well, that’s not the best of news. Unless Rhost finds us, in which case we’ll be happy to have him along. And it’s important to know that Lorad is abroad as well.”

“At least he’ll stop bothering the girl General Douglas is taking care of,” Priscilla said hopefully in her soft voice. She was swathed in a heavier cloak than usual.

Pent smiled. “Yes, that’s true. Well! Let’s get going, shall we? We have a lot of ground to cover today. We’re going to search the next dozen mountains before dark!”

They searched three small mountains, the foot soldiers for caves, the magic users for traces of magic, and Fiora just for anything that looked odd, when they noticed something odd. But it wasn’t the landscape around them.

Fiora fluttered down near Pent and Caddie. “We’re being followed, sir.”

Pent looked up. “Are we? I thought they were other hunters of magic. Why do you think they’re following us?”

“Some of them have this insignia on their tunics or armour,” Fiora said, drawing it on the cliff with a finger.

Pent raised an eyebrow. “Duke Ocery, huh. That doesn’t change anything. Well. Perhaps it does. Ceniro!”

“Yes?” answered his tactician, appearing around a bend in the path beneath a large pine.

“If our people run into a soldier, we need to conceal ourselves or knock them out. They’re from our present rivals.”

“I understand.” Ceniro got out his farseer and spoke into it. Continue reading →

Chapter 3: Twisted Paths     Chapter 5: Secrets in the Storm

Chapter 4: Sly Tongues Aplenty

Pent’s company continued winding its way through the mountains between Etruria and Lycia, fighting off the occasional bandit attack. They hadn’t seen any soldiers since they had fought Lord Blier. Ceniro found the farseer extraordinarily useful and would hardly put it down, although he nearly learned the hard way not to rely on it wholly as a substitute for eyes when he himself was attacked by a bandit whom he had thought further away than he was. Other than that slight slip, his tasks were much easier and even more successful than they had been, though he attributed that in part to the fact that bandits were disorganized and stupid.

When Pent spoke to Castle Wrigley, Erk and Louise both told him they were fine. Erk was nearly finished reading his “General Compositional Theory of Anima Magic: Volume 3”, and was incorporating what he had learned into his Fire spell, and was looking forward to the discussion of Thunder in Volume 4. Louise did not say too much, but did show him a lopsided brown rabbit she had embroidered on a pillow.

Douglas was still in contact, though barely – the magic of the staff was wearing thin. He had disturbing news.

“I think there is another spider in this web, Pent. I don’t know who for certain, yet, but several people have been acting strangely.”

“Not on orders from Blier, Arcard, or Ocery?”

“No. Blier is gone, of course, but Arcard has been staying out of it and the signs are too subtle for Ocery. Aldash, though, has been sneaking around. My people have spotted him apparently making deals with Lord Eshan.”

“Eshan!?” Pent cried. “That’s very disconcerting.”

“He’s also been talking to Lesil, though that may be unconnected with this affair. Lesil does have business in Faria at present, the county next door to Reglay, where Aldash has relatives.”

Pent sighed. “The question – does this plot reach further than it appears on the surface, or are we dragging too many names into the mix?”

Douglas nodded. “I would personally suspect that we have not found out half of what is going on.” Continue reading →