EDIT: I figured out how to get the Astebreed OST out of the Steam files and into my iTunes. : ) Still can’t beat the final boss on Normal, though…
It’s much easier to ‘kill your darlings’ when you’ve had 6 years to realize how awful they actually are. : P …Don’t take this advice for children or anything. >.>
Chapter 2: Lyndis’s Legion Chapter 4: Fire in the Castle
Chapter 3: Bandits’ Pride
“There’s an old fortress ahead that should do perfectly,” Wil reported, having returned from scouting ahead with Sain for somewhere to stay the night.
Sain shook his head. “I’m still not too sure about it. It’s a musty old tower. It’s probably horribly drafty and uncomfortable.”
Ceniro hesitated. “We can’t afford to camp out in the open tonight, not in this country.”
“I know,” Sain said, “but surely there is a better place we can go…”
“There isn’t an inn for miles,” Kent told him. “There are few villages, as well, and the people in them likely untrusting of us. A tower sounds defensible. We’ll have to make the best of it, it’s getting dark.”
“It sounds fine,” Lyn said. “No one’s expecting marble halls or anything.” Beside her, Florina nodded.
“At least it’s not cold,” Wil said cheerfully.
Over the next hill, they spotted the tower and made for it. It was a blocky, square thing with an extra outer wall, although the outer wall was crumbling in places. It was clearly uninhabited, and they entered it eagerly. The knights went to check around the outside, while Wil brought wood from an old pile so Lyn could start a fire in the tower’s fireplace. Florina took care of the horses and her pegasus, feeding them and brushing them down.
“So what’s your story?” Lyn asked Wil.
Wil dumped another armful of wood beside her. “Eh, I was an idiot and ran away with my best friend as a kid to ‘see the world’ and ‘make my fortune’. …And then a couple years later, Dan had the nerve to disappear on me in Badon! I, um, I didn’t really have much of an idea what to do next, so I kept going, kept wandering around, kept myself fed by offering my skills as a hunter or helping villagers shoot bandits… I’ve been getting homesick, though, and now’s a good a time as any to head home, right?”
“Sounds a little like Ceniro’s story,” Lyn said.
“Oh really?” Wil said, turning his eager smile on the tactician.
Ceniro backed away, averting his eyes. “Well, I… I guess, sort of? But I don’t have hunting skills like you.”
“That’s pretty cool!” Wil said. “I had no idea that-”
Florina screamed. Lyn, Wil, and Ceniro all started towards her; she had jumped back from Kent’s horse, the one closest to the stairs. A figure stood there in the shadows.
“Ah… pardon me…” said the figure, and a woman slowly limped down the stairs and into the light of the fire, accompanied by a large husky dog. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I-I’m sorry,” Florina said to everyone. “I-I thought… Sorry.”
“It’s all right!” Wil said. “Don’t worry about it.” To Ceniro’s surprise, she smiled a tiny smile.
“What’s happened?” Sain asked urgently as the knights entered. “The perimeter of the tower is clear, but we heard something…”
“Nothing dangerous,” Lyn assured them. “This woman startled Florina, that’s all. Who are you?” she asked the woman gently. “What are you doing here?”
“My name is Natalie. And, er, this is my dog Howard. I’ve been looking for my husband, but… I thought I would rest here for the night. You are travelers?”
“My name is Lyn, and I’m going with my friends to Lycia,” said Lyn.
“Have you seen my husband? He is tall and well-built, and has reddish hair and a slight beard… He was wearing a green shirt when I last saw him, and he probably has his axe… He’s a mercenary, you see, but I’m afraid he’s gotten mixed up with a bad group. His name is Dorcas.”
“I’m afraid I don’t recall anyone of that description,” Lyn said, after a glance at the others to confirm.
“We should set a watch,” Kent said to Ceniro. “We might be attacked in the night, and we must protect Lady Lyn and Miss Natalie.”
“All right, then Wil and Sain will take first watch, you and I will take second watch, and Lyn and Florina will take third watch.”
“Got it!” Wil said, grabbing his bow and heading out to the front of the tower.
“Why would Dorcas get involved in such a bad group?” Lyn asked Natalie, bending to pet the dog. “What a nice dog!”
“Yes, I love dogs. He’s my best friend when Dorcas is away…” Natalie hesitated, looking down. “Well… It’s my leg. I injured it when I was a child, and it never healed properly… but if we had enough money, we could go to Aquleia to have it looked at by a powerful healer. So… he’s been taking jobs that maybe he shouldn’t, trying to get enough… I tell him that it’s all right, that it doesn’t bother me anymore, but he’s determined to help me.” She sighed unhappily.
“That’s too bad,” Lyn said. “I hope you can find him and convince him soon.”
A few minutes later, Sain popped his head through the door. “Lady Lyn! Those bandits we fought earlier today are back, yelling something about revenge.”
“Prepare for battle,” Ceniro said automatically, and thanked his training that he could muster his voice when he needed to. “They’ll check the tower for certain. Kent, Sain, we’ll do the same thing we did at the shrine. Wil, Florina, Lyn, the east wall has a gap in it and I want you there. We’ll fight defensively today until I’m sure they don’t have any more reinforcements.”
“Oh dear,” Natalie said.
“Don’t worry,” Wil said. “I’ve only been with Lady Lyn since this afternoon, but her tactician is really good. We’ll protect you.” Natalie looked reassured, but Florina did not, probably because she was one of the people who had to actually do the fighting.
“Is there a good view from the top of the tower?” Ceniro asked Natalie as the others prepared themselves. “Normally I like to be on the ground with my fighters but in this case it might be helpful to see all sides…”
“Yes, you can see everything from up there.”
“Why don’t you join me? Nothing should get past our friends, so you’ll be all right up there.”
“I don’t want to slow you down…”
“It’s fine,” he assured her. “You won’t get in my way.”
The view from the top of the tower was pretty good; he could see almost everything in the surrounding fields. Bandits were rushing towards them, making to surround the tower. Ceniro belated wondered if any of the walls could be climbed. The east wall had a gap, but the west wall wasn’t looking in great condition either. With the gate in the south wall, only the north wall was solidly defensible.
He’d figure it out.
Natalie was anxiously watching the bandits run towards them when she gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh Saint Elimine, that’s- Dorcas is down there! Dorcas is with these men! Please, don’t kill him!” Responding to her distress, her dog barked urgently.
“Lyn!” Ceniro shouted down. “Natalie says Dorcas is in the group coming towards you! See if he’ll stop fighting us!”
She called back an affirmative, and a few moments later he could hear her shouting at the enemy lines. After a few more minutes, he saw one of the men with the bandits turn away from the others, joining Lyn and Wil. The other bandits tried to attack him as he changed sides, but he evaded them unscathed, as far as Ceniro could see.
Ceniro’s orders worked out better than even he had expected, and they were eventually able to sally out of the tower to divide and conquer the enemy. With the sky growing too dark to see without torches, the bandits fled into the night, leaving Ceniro’s group alive. Not everyone was free of injury, but when they regrouped in the tower, a few vulneraries and bandages for Dorcas and Sain took care of everything.
“And here’s Ceniro,” Lyn said, bringing the tall, strong, serious-looking man over to him.
Dorcas looked past Ceniro. “Natalie! Natalie, I’m so sorry.” He went and embraced his wife.
“I was so worried… But you’ve left those people, right?”
“Yes, I have. I’m so sorry, Natalie. The… the money’s not worth it, not when they’re the kind of men that they are.”
“Can you explain?” Kent asked.
Dorcas turned to them. “They called themselves the Ganelon Mercenaries, but Ganelon Bandits is a better name for them. They approached me a couple days ago and offered me twice the going rate for a mercenary of my rank. I knew they weren’t the most savoury of characters, but… it’s a lot of money, so I shut my mouth and took it. I… didn’t think they would attempt to sell my own wife into slavery.”
“It rather defeats the purpose of taking the job for your wife’s sake,” Wil mumbled, then put a hand over his mouth.
Dorcas shrugged. “It does. And so, I owe you a great debt. I’ll take Natalie home tonight, and then I’ll come back tomorrow morning.”
“Why is that?” Lyn asked.
“I want to join you,” Dorcas said. “I want to try to repay you for defending my wife… and getting me out of a bad situation.”
Lyn blinked slowly. “Ah… if you like. We won’t say no!”
“I won’t worry for you, if you’re with these people,” Natalie said to Dorcas, petting the head of her dog. “They’re good people.”
Dorcas bowed. “Thank you for having me. I will see you in the morning.” He bent and picked up his wife gently in his arms, and walked out of the tower.
“I hope it’s safe to let them go alone,” Florina said. “Maybe I should go with them…?”
“I don’t think the bandits will come back,” Wil said. “The bad guys around here don’t like fighting at night, it seems. I think they’ll be all right. Did you say I’m on first watch?”
“You and Sain,” Ceniro said. “Come get me in two hours.”
Wil woke him, yawning cavernously, two hours later, and Ceniro went to wake up Kent. He felt pretty groggy, and had to shake himself several times as he took a position where he could watch the eastern gap in the wall. He’d been taught how to set a watch, but he’d never had to do it before, let alone take part in it himself. Traveling alone didn’t have that responsibility.
If he leaned to one side, he could see Kent’s tall figure pacing slowly back and forth across the main entrance. He wondered if it was a breach of protocol or manners or whatever to talk while on watch. His teacher hadn’t told him, and he had never thought to ask.
After about half an hour, he was bored enough that he dared risk it. “Ah… hey, Kent.”
“Hmm? What’s the matter?”
“I was… I was wondering, is it a problem that I can’t fight?”
He saw Kent’s shadow turn in his direction. “No, why?”
“I just… when I was a student, everyone else could fight, and they used themselves in their strategies much better than I could. I can’t…” He took a deep breath and said what was really bothering him. “Don’t you think it’s a bad thing that I can tell you to kill people, and I couldn’t kill anyone?”
Kent was silent for a long moment. “If it’s not what you were trained to do, it’s not your job. It’s our duty to defend Lady Lyndis, and anyone else requiring our aid. That includes you, as a civilian. If our duty involves killing those who threaten you and Lady Lyndis, then so be it. …Sain and I have been trained to fight since we were thirteen. We were exposed to real battle a long time before you, I think. I don’t want to say we’re used to death, but… we have come to terms with it, seeing it, and dealing it. And maybe it will be like that for you. I think you said that you had never actually taken a job as a tactician before?”
“Yes,” Ceniro said. “For a variety of reasons… the opportunity never really came my way until I met Lyn. I’ve done a couple things for villages, helping them defend against raiders and so on in exchange for food, but it was bad for me then, too. The… the practice battles in my training were definitely not the same.”
“Mm.” After another pause, Kent went on. “You are very good at what you do, and I am coming to trust you of my own volition, not just because Lady Lyndis does so. I can assure you we will obey your orders without question, no matter what, so please try not to worry too much about your inexperience or your lack of combat skills.”
So Kent wasn’t worried about any moral issues, which made him feel a bit better. “My teacher told me more than once that doubt kills, and it’s sometimes better to make a mistake with confidence than to be right with doubts. Because a battle is all or nothing, and caution is one thing, and doubt is another.”
“Your teacher was probably right. Who was he?”
“Uh… Lord Garlent, in Ostia?”
“I vaguely know his name, yes. With a teacher like him, why would you find it hard to find a job?”
“Firstly, because I want to travel,” Ceniro said, smiling. “Not many lords require – or think they require – a tactician while traveling, unless they’re going to pick a fight with someone, and I don’t want to work for someone like that. And sitting in a castle for months would be horribly dull for me… Also, because… um… my father is a carpenter.”
“I don’t understand… They want a noble-born tactician?”
“Yes. Everyone else in my class was high-born.”
“Hmm.” Kent thought. “Why work for a lord, however? Surely there are other groups, mercenaries, perhaps, who would love to have an Ostian-trained tactician of your skill. They might not pay as well as a nobleman, but I have a feeling you don’t worry about that too much.”
“Er… Because I didn’t think of that.” Ceniro hung his head. “It was never really talked about in my class; everyone assumed they’d be working for one marquess or another. I… I guess I’m kind of dumb. And you’re right, I don’t worry about money until I run out of food…”
“It’s an idea,” Kent said gently. “Take it as you will…”
“Thanks,” Ceniro said awkwardly, and silence fell between them again.
Dorcas joined them early the next morning, and they set off westward immediately. Lyn thought the bandits might chase after them even now, and hoped they’d be able to cross the border into Lycia before sundown. While Wil chatted with Florina, trying to get her to come out of her shell around him even when he was carrying his bow, Kent and Sain and Lyn discussed the plans for where they were staying the evening.
“I’ve heard the lady who keeps the inn at the crossing is said to be a beauty,” Sain said with a wink and a smile.
Kent sighed. “If your behaviour is as deplorable as ever, we’d best stay elsewhere…”
“Oh, come now, Kent! Good food and flirtation are the two things every man needs!”
“We’re not here for sightseeing,” Kent told him sternly, but Ceniro could see the hint of an exasperated smile hovering in the corner of his mouth. “Lady Lyndis-”
“The inn will be fine,” Lyn said. “It will be nice to sleep in a proper bed and all.”
“Lady Lyndis, you are truly an angel from on high!” Sain cried, kissing her hand. She snatched it away with another eyeroll.
“Don’t make me regret it, Sain.”
“I assure you, there are no regrets to be had when I’m around!”
Even Florina was giggling, and Dorcas cracked a confused smile. Kent shook his head, smearing a hand down his face, but let it slide.
At that moment, five thugs jumped out of the bushes behind them. “We found ’em, Boss!”
“Oh, not them again!” Wil yelled. “Isn’t enough enough already?”
“You won’t get away that easy!” one of the bandits shouted back. “Everyone will think we’ve gone soft!”
“So what!” Lyn screamed at them. “No one cares! Get in our way, and you’ll die!”
“Cheeky little brat… We’ll kill you all, even your women!” But they thought better of attacking straight away with no back-up, and retreated back into the woods.
“Let’s finish this!” Lyn cried to Ceniro. “They’ve attacked us three times. This time we’ll leave none to carry on!”
“No survivors?” Ceniro asked. He could do it, just… was it all right?
“No survivors,” Lyn said, and the haunted look in her eyes convinced him.
The road was heavily wooded in this area, and there was a pond to the southeast. “Wil, set up here and we’ll bring you targets. Florina, I want you to lure those swordsmen back up here and take them out in conjunction with Wil. Kent, ride on her north flank and take out any archers you find. Sain, same on the south. Axemen are not so important yet; leave that to Lyn and Dorcas. Just keep Florina safe. Lyn, Dorcas, we’re going hunting for the leader.”
“I doubt Ganelon himself will take the field, even for a ‘slight’ as grievous as this,” Dorcas said. “But we might get his second-in-command, Bug.”
“’Bug’? Really?” Lyn asked.
“Afraid so.”
“Whatever his name, I’m sure he can’t stand up to both of you at the same time,” Ceniro said. “Axemen on the right! Dorcas, charge, Lyn, flank them! I’ll pick up the slack!” Three axemen were running at them. Dorcas charged back at them with a roar, and Lyn sprinted to get around them. Two axemen turned to follow her, and Ceniro ran forward, attempting to bonk one in the head with his staff, but the man heard him coming and swung around. Ceniro almost fell on his back in halting his forward momentum before he was decapitated or got his staff chopped in half or knocked from his hands. The man grinned and swung again, and Ceniro went skipping backwards, panting with exertion and fright.
And then he heard a woman’s scream, but it wasn’t Florina, and it definitely wasn’t Lyn… Ceniro instinctively turned to look, almost missing the next stroke of the axe. He flung up his staff at the last moment with both hands, and the sturdy stick snapped in two and the tip of the axe grazed his knee. He cried out and fell to his hands and knees. The bandit laughed in triumph and raised his axe; Ceniro heard Lyn cry out his name…
Something whooshed over his head and the bandit’s head burst into flame. He screamed and clawed at his face before falling over, dead.
Ceniro swallowed hard, almost forgetting that his knee was gushing blood. Who or what had done that?
He looked around and saw a young man, little more than a boy, with violet hair, an open book, and an upraised hand facing in his direction. His tunic was stained with fresh blood on the shoulder, but he seemed to be somehow unharmed. Behind him hovered a fidgeting young woman with candy-pink pigtails, a white robe, and a cleric’s staff. “Ah, thank you!” Ceniro called, clutching his knee.
“No problem,” said the boy, his face completely impassive.
“There is a problem!” cried the woman, and it was her voice Ceniro had heard screaming before. “These thugs thought we were with you! How are you going to get us out of this mess?”
Lyn ran over. “Oh, Ceniro, you’re all right! Thank you, mage, for saving his life. I don’t know what we’d have done without him.”
“We have to keep pressing on,” Ceniro said, gritting his teeth. “Speed is of the essence…”
“We have enough time to talk this over,” Lyn said firmly. “Miss, are you a cleric? Could you please heal Ceniro?”
“Oh, all right,” the woman said. “In my boundless generosity, I will aid you.” She closed her eyes with a smug smile, twirled her staff, and a blue glow healed Ceniro’s wound.
Mindful now of his manners, Ceniro clambered to his feet and bowed. “Thank you very much. We’ll repay you as soon as we’re done here. What are your names?”
“I’m Serra, a cleric of Ostia, and this is my escort, Erk. Say hello, Erk!”
“Hello,” Erk said without enthusiasm. “Since they’re attacking us anyway, shall we join forces and get this over with twice as quickly?”
“That sounds wonderful,” Lyn said. “I’m Lyn, and this is our tactician, Ceniro. Just do as he suggests and he’ll get us through this.”
Ceniro had been thinking rapidly. “You keep moving up the road, I’m going to check on Wil and the others.” But even as he said it, Florina landed beside them.
“W-we, um, killed the bandits you said to kill, um, and the rest are all farther back,” she said to Ceniro, looking at her gloved hands. “Th-the others are coming.”
“Great,” Ceniro said. “Let’s go! What kind of forces are we facing?”
“Over th-that hill, there’s six axemen and four swordsmen. One of the axemen is really big…”
“That’s probably the man I was telling you about,” Dorcas said.
“All right. Here’s how we’ll do it…”