Chapter 6
As everyone rose to dart away and hide Heldrin raised his voice, “Oh hohoho, you young people, always so quick to make decisions.” With a wave and a few words he re-lit the fire.
“What are you doing you crazy old coot!” yelled Lox. He was trying to kick more dirt on the small fire but it was having no effect.
“We have no idea who these men might be!” squealed Clarissa while hopping from one foot to the other.
“That is indeed correct Clarissa,” replied Heldrin, “so why should we be afraid this far away from Ramsfeld City?” He turned to Winter then, “draw up your hood, it's cold out after all.”
Winter nodded, pulling the hood of her cloak over her head. “I'll let you do the talking then mage,” she said coolly, “but if anything happens, I'm killing them.” She had no idea if she would be able to make good on that statement, but Heldrin only nodded.
“Of course, now sit,” he said motioning them to relax. “We are only travelers on our way to Tenemin, heading for the school there,” he said in a low voice.
It wasn't long before the group of three men could be heard tromping through the underbrush on their horses. A moment later two lightly clad men emerged from the dark, the small fire illuminating them. They must have tied the horses back a ways, leaving the other man to tend them. Winter blinked, they were rather short, and young to boot. Strange, why are they so young? They each wore the same surcoat showing the same coat of arms however, so they must have been knights, both wore longswords at their sides. Winter thought she'd seen those rose emblems back in Ramsfeld city. Pennants hanging from the palace towers. She shivered looking away and pulled the cloak tighter around herself.
“Ah, welcome sir knights,” beamed Heldrin as the two looked around the campsite. Their gaze seemed to linger on Winter a bit longer than the others, but one of the young men spoke.
“Well met good sir,” he couldn't have been more than fifteen years old, not old enough to be a knight assuredly, but he didn't bother to correct Heldrin either. “We are messengers for His Majesty the King,” he said looking at the old mage, “we have but little time, but were ordered to keep an eye out for someone on the road.” His eyes flashed over to Winter for an instant.
“Ah, I have no idea who His Majesty could be looking for,” Heldrin replied. Lox and Clarissa were staring into the fire, shooting occasional glances at each other and the two knights.
“A girl,” he said, “a little over five feet tall, blue eyes with either dark purple or blond hair.” He was staring at Winter now, trying to see into her deep cowl.
“Interesting, we have not seen anyone of that description sir knight,” replied Heldrin, “we are but humble travelers on our way to Tenemin.” Winter's ears perked up then. Heldrin was mixing Rumic and Tendetric while he spoke. Wait, you can do that? You sneaky old man! Taking a quick peek at the archmage she could see a tiny glow. “And in case you were wondering, our sickly Lindi over there has brown hair.”
“Is that so?” the boy-knight retorted suspiciously.
Winter coughed quietly, better play along and be sickly, she thought, but was startled when she saw her hand, now shriveled and wrinkly.
“At least she did 20 years ago, oh hohoho,” Heldrin laughed. Winter gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to punch the old man. I'll use whatever works, but there is such a thing as going overboard... The old mage had not even changed the color of her hair, but her hands both looked like old parchment stretched over a skeleton. “I'm afraid she's come down with the red cough, you may want to keep your distance sir knights,” he said with a touch of sadness. Winter coughed again.
Both of them paled at mention of the red cough. Some sort of plague no doubt. “I see,” said the other young man, he had been silent for the duration. “Then we will make our leave good master. Come Bryant, we've little time.”
The other boy nodded, and as they made their farewells and disappeared again into the darkness the camp seemed to decompress from the tension. Winter watched as her hands slowly went back to their normal delicate, supple state.
“How did you do that Heldrin?” chirped Clarissa before Winter had a chance to speak.
“Oh, it's an old trick,” he said turning to the small girl. “Remember, the words themselves hold little power, they serve only as a key to unlock one's intentions.” He took a breath, “at the heart of it, Tendetric is merely another language, and there are those out there who's desires and intentions may be so great that they transcend the need of this ancient tongue. Also, there are people who know the words, but lack the intention, or desire needed to enact a spell,” he concluded.
“That explains why I could talk and not have anything happen,” Winter surmised, “if I think back on every time something did happen, it was always when I was wanting something.” Nodding to herself she continued, “even this last time I wanted to know what had Lox in a huff,” she said looking at the brown haired boy.
“Still, that went way better than I expected,” Lox said looking at Heldrin. “I half expected to find a sword coming out of my chest...” He shook his head looking exhausted. “I'll go back out to watch, you all should get some sleep,” the last was obviously for his little sister.
“Hooh, so you can act like an older brother from time to time,” Winter said putting a wry smile on her face.
“Don't let him fool you Winter,” Clarissa piped in, “he probably just wants to watch you sleep, like the creepy brother he is.”
“Yeah yeah, I spent one night worried about her, what of it?” he retorted.
“When was this?” Winter asked.
“When he brought you home,” Clarissa said, “that first night he refused to leave your bed, even when the sun started coming up. I had to chase him out eventually because he was being so creepy!”
“I...didn't know that,” said Winter. Her cheeks were feeling warm again, maybe Heldrin's spell was having after effects. She drew her cloak around her and looked away from the two siblings.
“Well, I wouldn't expect a kid to understand anyway,” he said starting to walk off. “Good night!” After a bit he was gone, back to his lookout.
“Hmm, for once I agree with the lout,” sighed Heldrin as he stretched his old wiry body out onto his bedroll. Where had he gotten a bedroll anyway? She had wondered the same thing every night of this trip.
As for herself she laid out one of the blankets Lox had been carrying around since they had left. She initially thought it was because of Clarissa that he was carrying everything, but once she tried to take some of it for him he had refused, to the point where it would have become a fight if Winter had pressed the issue. At any rate it had been a nice gesture. Perhaps it was because of the exhaustion of travel, or the loosening of the tension those knight messengers had caused, but whatever it was Winter felt absolutely drained. She would only get a couple of hours before Lox came to wake her up for her turn at the watch, but that didn't matter as she drifted off into sleep.
-*-
The next morning they broke camp after a light breakfast of hard bread and left over karn. Today would be the day they would arrive at Martin's Mill, and everyone was looking forward to being in a town again. As the sun was starting to show over the horizon in the distance, Winter gathered her cloak around her in the morning chill. Birds were singing in the trees, welcoming the dawn as the small group began walking down the dirt road once more.
“We should arrive there around midday,” said Heldrin as he walked behind her. Peering over her shoulder at the old mage she nodded her understanding. This body was not good with mornings, at least not ones where she didn't get a full night's rest.
“Thank you for last night Heldrin,” she said yawning, “it could have gone a lot worse than it did.” Indeed, now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure what would have happened if they'd decided to try and hide from those knight messengers. “By the way, didn't they seem kind of young for knights?”
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“Well, usually they aren't actually knights,” began Lox, “but messengers on horseback are usually pretty young since they weigh a lot less. It's easier on the horses and they can move a lot faster,” he said flashing Winter a quick smile.
“How do you know all that?” she asked stifling another yawn. Walking seemed to help wake her up, but she was still rather bleary-eyed.
“Lox used to be a messenger,” piped in another bleary-eyed girl. Clarissa continued, “he was until they said he got too big anyways.”
“It was pretty good money too,” he said with a tinge of regret. “After that I started to take on odd jobs.” He was obviously trying to not look at his sister walking beside him.
“What kind of jobs?” Winter asked. Clarissa's face darkened.
“Ah...lets just call it a, valuable items acquisition service,” he replied sheepishly.
“He's a thief!” scowled the petite girl next to him, “Winter, please don't get involved with my brother! I try to keep him in line but he just never listens!” Her face was starting to get red with frustration.
“A thief eh?” Winter was intrigued, “isn't that quite dangerous? I can see why you were in jail with me now.” Looking at the boy's messy brown hair, his mischievous green eyes, it started to make more and more sense. It reminded her of some of the games she used to play back in her old world. Suddenly she had an epiphany, “Oh!” Everyone jumped looking at her in surprise, “This is kind of a messed up party, a thief, a mage, and an assassin. Clarissa, we're going to need you to put on some heavy armor and tank for us, we might die without a tank!” She was getting carried away, but laughed anyway.
Clarissa turned to Lox ignoring Winter, “remember how nice she was when she could barely talk?”
“Yeah, I'm starting to think we made a big mistake,” he replied looking tired. “And what's this about an assassin?” he said glancing back at Winter. “Maybe a whack on the head will clear things up.”
“Hehe, try it and see what happens boy,” she replied chuckling.
“You with that boy thing again,” he said shaking his head, “how old do you think I am, shorty”
“S-shorty!” Winter stammered, “who are you calling-”
“If you two wouldn't mind stopping your flirting for just a moment,” Heldrin broke in dryly, “there appears to be something amiss ahead of us.” Winter was unable to process the last part of what the old mage had said, as she was busy trying to disappear in embarrassment. It was Lox who responded first.
“Smoke,” Lox said, “and lots of it too.”
That broke Winter out of her stupor. Looking ahead, just above the trees there were plumes of smoke rising. At first they looked like normal clouds, but as she studied them it became obvious that they were, in fact caused by something burning. A lot of something.
“Those knight messengers from last night went this way right?” said Clarissa in a small voice. “Doesn't that mean there could be a battle up ahead?” She looked up at the three adults who hadn't put two and two together yet.
“Clarissa,” said Winter.
“Yes Winter?” she replied.
“You might be too smart to be a tank,” she said looking off into the distance.
-*-
“Look at them run like ants!” Eban Newell was laughing so hard it hurt his sides. “Mirianna you've outdone yourself this time!” All around the small knoll the two siblings were on flames rose up from the fields of wheat, the heat waves lashing at everything around them. Eban's protection spell kept them from harm however, as they watched the chaos unfold.
“Of course,” the blue eyed girl in her teens replied laughing like her brother. “I told you my strategies were unbeatable didn't I?” They wore matching attire. Eban had on a fur lined cloak with a silver chain holding it together. The cloak itself draped over his fine blue silk coat, with fine white lace just peaking out of the cuffs. His sister, Mirianna Newell wore much the same, a fur lined cloak with the same clasp, but her high necked coat was a deep red. A short skirt lined with lace with calf high boots completed her ensemble. Twin blond buns on the back of her head just below her ears only topped off her look.
“Still, to think that we'd beat them so easily,” Eban laughed shaking his shaggy, also blond head. The scene before them was a horror. Horses and men screamed in agony as the flames ran like wildfire, consuming everything in their path. The young lord's forces hadn't even needed to exit the town for the ambush. He knew a few of them would grumble about it later, except the older experienced soldiers. No, they would be fine. He would have to be careful tonight so that he wouldn't have a hangover tomorrow most likely, as they would be buying him drinks all night long after a victory like this. Of course he'd have to buy the mage company drinks himself, it was a vicious cycle.
Suddenly he heard noise coming from his left. Looking over he saw more cavalry emerging from a small copse of trees, heading toward the Mill. “I guess you were right Mirianna, this might end up being a long day after all,” he said descending the knoll. “Let's go!” With that the duo made their way back into the town towards their second position.
It wasn't long before the group of around 200 cavalry slammed into their pikemen at full speed. This was also part of Mirianna's plan. The pikemen slowly made their way back into the buildings of the town. Cavalry's greatest strength was it's mobility, and though it was always nasty fighting inside a town, it would be much easier to draw them in and cut off the one advantage they had over Eban's foot soldiers.
As soon as the pike had drawn the cavalry inside the town, Eban's reserves rushed out from behind the houses and shops they had been hiding in, the perfect ambush. Knights were still knights however, and it wasn't long before the battle became heated. Eban and Mirianna made their way to the roof of a shop so they could overlook the field.
“Too bad we exhausted the mages,” said Eban in thought.
“That's why we have the arbalests up here with us,” his sister replied. Raising her voice she shouted, “pick your targets men, fire at will!” With that, a dozen men perched six each on roofs across from each other started their grim work. Each man was a veteran, which was why there were only twelve picked for this task, as it took superb aim to fire into such a melee with accuracy. “Shouldn't be long before they surrender,” she stated indifferently. Already most of the knights had been unhorsed, she had given specific instructions to attack the mounts, though Eban had seen a deep sadness in her eyes as she suggested it. Still, it was simple fact that without their horses, the knights would be at a huge disadvantage.
“Quarter!” shouts began to rise out of the battlefield as knights began to raise their arms in surrender. There were only a few less than a hundred remaining, and their morale had been destroyed watching half of their forces burn alive, it really was no surprise.
Eban raised his voice then, “Quarter is granted!” he shouted, “Men, take their arms, armor, and any other useful items!” He gave instructions, telling his men how to deal with their new prisoners. “Any of you knights who wish so serve Her Highness Princess Ainsfeld may join us,” he said then, “you need not throw aside your vows to protect our fair Kingdom of Ramsfeld, but fulfill them now as true knights of Princess Ainsfeld!” He knew his sister was rolling her eyes behind him, but this was needed, they needed men from wherever they could find them.
“I know you are loyal men,” he continued, “serve Her Royal Highness with me, and you shall prove it. Swear an oath now to never take up weapons of war again, or to serve the princess,” he said as silence emanated from the street below him, “those are the terms!” Turning away the brash twenty year old Lord and his sixteen year old genius of a sister Mirianna made their way back inside the building they were on top of. His men could handle the rest.