Chapter 2: The Protected Chapter 4: Ancient Horrors
Chapter 3: The Bandits of Borgo
The next morning, we were high in the mountains. Stark brown peaks rose yet higher above us, unclad by much except moss and the occasional bush.
“The local villagers tell me that Bazba’s Bandits keep their lair nearby,” Seth told me at the last town. “A few of them saw a lad matching the description of our bracelet thief.” This seemed to match the boy to being one of them.
I was shocked at the information that bandits still made their home in Renais, and said as much.
“It wasn’t always like this,” my general told me, regret thick in his voice. “The knights used to protect the citizenry… However, with Renais in ruins and her army tattered, law and order are hard to find.”
I nodded. The Grado army was not most concerned with preserving order. “If nothing changes, Renais will continue on this sad plunge into savagery.”
A dark-lilac haired girl with a bow and quiver stepped hesitantly up to us. “Um… hello? Pardon me for asking… but are you all some sort of mercenary troop?” Her eyes were the same colour as her hair, but they and her nose were red with weeping.
“Is she one whom you spoke with?” I asked Seth quietly. He shook his head. “Why do you ask?” I questioned her. She stepped closer, glancing about nervously.
“Please, you have to help Colm!” she exclaimed, and burst into tears. “I told him it was too dangerous, but he wouldn’t listen to me!”
I put an arm around her thin shoulders. “Calm yourself. Take a deep breath, speak slowly, and please start at the beginning.”
“I’m Neimi,” sniffed the girl, trying to control herself and halt the flow of tears pouring hysterically down her cheeks. “I am from a village named Lark… that used to be near here. It was… attacked recently, and Colm and I were the only ones to escape. I lost my mirror to the bandits… a special treasure from my mother… and Colm swore he’d get it back for me. So, he went to attack Bazba’s Bandits, and I’m so worried…” New tears flowed down her nose and dripped off her chin. I gave her my hankerchief and let her sob into it. “He told me not to follow him… I told him it was too dangerous, but he wouldn’t listen to me… If I lose Colm, too, I…” A fresh storm gathered in her eyes.
“Please don’t cry. We’ll find your friend and see that he’s not harmed.”
“Oh, really? Really and truly?” I nodded. “Oh, thank you! Thank you!!!” She tried to smile through her tears. “I’ll do anything to help!”
“I’m only sad that we weren’t here to protect her friends and neighbours…” I said to myself.
“Neimi, can you show us the way?” Seth asked gently.
“Yes! This way,” said Neimi, pointing, running ahead and beckoning.
On our way, Neimi imparted to us that she had some skill with a bow, and could she please help kill the bandits? I gave my permission and explained who we were and what we were doing.
We arrived at the bandits castle at around eleven o’clock. The gate was locked, but the fortress had more than one patched hole in it. Seth showed me. He rode Altha up to one sloppy job and directed her to rear up and crash her hooves into it. Then he rode away quickly as the wall crumbled under the impact. Most of the stones and boards fell inwards, but some of them fell outwards and rolled down the mountainside. There was now a big enough gap in the wall for all of us to enter.
Once inside, Neimi caught a flash of blue. “Colm!” She ran off, throwing herself on the very same boy who had taken my bracelet. I raised an eyebrow. Then I glanced at Seth and noted he had done the same. He exchanged a like glance with me.
The boy was very bossy, and quite rude to his childhood friend. “I’m like a flash, they don’t even see me. I don’t need a clumsy oaf like you following me around.”
“Y-yes, but… Colm…”
Colm sighed. “I don’t have time to argue this right now. You’ll have to stay with me. Don’t leave my side, or else.”
I looked back at Seth. “Since we’re here, we may as well deal with the bandits,” I said resignedly.
“Hey,” said the blue-haired thief with a grin. “You want some doors opened?” He was so brazen, as if he had completely forgotten that we had ever ‘met’. I shrugged and pointed at a door. He pulled a wire out of his pocket and had it open pretty quickly. Axe-swinging figures piled out onto the swords of Franz, Seth, and I, and Neimi’s arrows.
Rapidly, I orchestrated the destruction of Bazba’s Bandits. Bazba himself offered up a choice insult: “Hope you’ve enjoyed living, ’cause you’re gonna die now!”
I pulled my body back from his horizontal axe stroke and stabbed forward before he could recover. He fell backwards in a dead heap on his throne.
The instant he could, Colm rounded on poor Neimi, who stuttered “C-colm…”
“What now? I could’ve robbed those bandits blind on my own, thank you very much.” He kept a sarcastic scowl on his face.
Neimi sniffed heavily. “I was… worried…”
“H-hold on! I’m sorry! C’mon! Don’t start bawling!”
Neimi sobbed into my hankerchief, which I had given her to keep, something that sounded like “No more… dangerous stuff…”
Colm became more kind and promised he wouldn’t. Then he pulled a little silver mirror out of his pocket and murmured something that ended in: “See what happens when you give me a job? Guaranteed results!” Neimi burst into happy tears.
“Hey! Wh-why are you crying this time? C’mon! Stop! Knock it off! Please, Neimi…” I left, smiling. They really were close, as close as Kyle and Forde, two caveliers who were fighting with my brother. Those two bickered a lot, but liked each other nonetheless.
Outside in the sunshine, I pulled my cloak about my shoulders against the cool mountain wind and leaned against the wall. Seth exited a few minutes later and gave me my bracelet. “Here you are, Princess.”
“Thank you, Seth.” I slipped it on my wrist. “You know… Father gave me this bracelet when I was a child. It has only one match in the world, and my brother wears it.”
“Lady Eirika,” Seth said earnestly, “you must take care never to lose that bracelet. It is the proof that King Fado entrusted the future of Renais to you, his children.”
I frowned at him. “Seth… what is is you’re not telling me?”
He hesitated and looked down. “…I apologize, Your Highness. When the time comes, I will tell you what I know. Until then, I…”
I smiled reassuringly. “I see. If you tell me it must wait, then it can wait. I trust you.”
“The boy Colm and Neimi wish to travel with us,” Seth said abruptly. The two in question stepped out of the hole in the wall and waited, Neimi giving me a pleading look.
“There is no reason why they shouldn’t,” I said after some deliberation.
“We should get moving again,” Colm said. “We’re safe from bandits for now, but I can’t guarantee for how long.” Without a backward glance, he ran down the hillside to where my supply wagon and the rest of my troop awaited our return. Neimi clung to his hand.
“This… this is just the beginning, isn’t it?” I asked, turning to Seth with a sad look. “If we hope to free our homeland, it will take battle after battle…”
My red-haired general nodded, compassion in his brown eyes. “I’m afraid so, Your Highness. The day you and Prince Ephraim win back the freedom and honour of Renais will come. But I fear it lies at the end of a long and treacherous road.”
“I know. I must fight for that day. In the names of all those I could not save, I’ll lead us home. Let us go.”