Chapter 3: It’s a Trap! Chapter 5: Fort Rigwald
Chapter 4: A New Journey
After we left the castle of Renvall, I went ahead slightly with Seth. “Please, tell me all that has happened, Seth. All I know is that Renais Castle has fallen. Tell me, has my father escaped?”
Seth bowed his head and I knew the news before he spoke it. “He has not. My deepest sympathies, Prince Ephraim. Princess Eirika and I heard the news when we arrived at Castle Frelia. But I am beginning my tale in the middle.”
“Go ahead, Seth.”
It was a long story. I shook my head when he had finished. “That’s… near incredible. But Forde and Kyle and I – and Orson, until four or five days ago – we’ve been fighting Grado soldiers every day for weeks, until Valter came to capture us and Orson showed his true colours. And it fits exactly with what you say. Each battle they were a bit more interested in my wrist, in my bracelet. And for what? To destroy the Sacred Stone of Renais? To release abominable monsters across the lands… How could they seriously plot such a thing?”
“We… do not know. The cleric Natasha has told us all she knows, but I feel there is much more that she does not, could not know. If we could only speak to your friend Prince Lyon, it might solve much, but that is not possible with current standings and strengths.”
I thought for a minute, and then nodded, agreeing with him. “Do you know how these bracelets unlock our Sacred Stone?”
Seth met my gaze for a moment, then looked away at the horizon. “I… cannot tell you how yet. King Fado instructed me to keep it secret, even from you, until it was needed. Please believe me, I shall tell you everything when it is time.”
“I understand, Seth. But don’t you go dying on us! I need the answer to this riddle sooner or later, and we might find it in the Sacred Stone.”
The older man smiled slightly. “Die? And fail in my duty? Never, my lord.”
Eirika made it plain that her opinion was that we should return to Frelia and tell King Hayden of what we had learned. I agreed with her. Kyle and Forde and I were bone-weary, in truth, and I was unwilling to put Eirika in further danger when she had already risked so much to come and find me. We sent the Frelian pegasus knight Vanessa on ahead to inform the king of our imminent return. I let Seth set up the nightly watches; I figured he knew Eirika’s eclectic company better than I did. We made directly for Castle Frelia and journeyed quickly.
On the ride back home, Eirika and I walked together most of the days, sometimes hand-in-hand. I could see that an immense weight had been lifted from her, but I could also see the fresh grief in the back of her eyes. I, too, felt it. Father was dead, and we had only each other. My sister had grown in the last few weeks; her turquoise hair was long and silky as ever, but there was a new sad and unmovable determination in her big blue eyes, and she had forsaken her usual long dresses in exchange for a short white skirt, a red tunic, long gloves, and long boots, and the yellow armour she had worn when we practiced sparring.
Well, I thought I detected something suspicious going on, too, but I wasn’t going to say anything about that until I was more sure.
We arrived at Castle Frelia within the week, a much shorter time than Eirika had said she spent looking for me. Forde rode on ahead over the last hour to announce our arrival, and when we did turn up, they were more ready than I had expected – there were many bright banners flying, and an honour guard – Hayden was obviously very happy to see us safely back.
Tana met us both in the gate. My sister’s blue-haired best friend was dancing on her toes as she gave us both quick hugs, and then stepped back and tried to behave more princess-like. “I’m so glad to see you both safe!” she gushed. “It’s like a dream come true!” She led us further into the castle. “My own brother is returning from the field soon…” Well, that explained the honour guard a bit better, I thought dryly.
Then came the deep irritating voice that I hadn’t expected to hear for months, behind us. “You talk too much, Tana.”
Tana squealed like a piglet (I’m sorry to say that, but it is the truth!) and tried to hug him as she had hugged the two of us, but Innes, grey eyed, grey haired, in a long pale blue silk coat and with his quiver still dangling from his side, Innes rolled his eyes and held her off with a long hand on her shoulder.
Tana didn’t seem to mind too much. “I’m so happy to see you home well, too!” she cried, with a look that said he was not getting out of the hug later.
Innes gave her a superior look. I hated those looks. “What, you think those Grado slugs could touch me? With my bow, I’ll clean out every last one from here to the capital itself.” Hey, that was my job! With a lance. “Welcome, Ephraim, Eirika.”
“Well met, Innes,” I replied cordially.
Innes studied me coolly. “I heard Renais has fallen. I told you this would happen. Grado attacked because you showed them weakness.” I scowled. Innes was as tactful as ever.
Tana was immediately at our defence. “Innes!” she scolded. “You know they’re lost their father. How can you speak that way to them?”
“My apologies,” Innes added. He began to leave, but called back to me. “Hear me, Ephraim. Our greatest goal is to defeat Grado.” I nodded. I agreed wholeheartedly, even if Innes got on my nerves now and again.
“I’m so sorry,” Tana apologized, taking Eirika’s hand.
“Never mind.” I smiled. “Innes has hated me from time immemorial. It’s nice to see that he, at least, hasn’t changed.”
“You know it’s because of his rivalry with you,” Tana said confidentially. Yes, I knew. “He wants to be the best warrior, the best general, the best king, the best man…” Eirika and Tana whispered for a moment and giggled together. I wondered what was so funny, besides Innes, I mean. I considered her words. There was no doubt that Innes had always competed with me, even about the silliest things, but he was so proud that he could never back down to me, even if it meant he might look foolish for being so stubborn. There was also no doubt that he was very skilled at his own things, which meant I sometimes wondered why he bothered when he could easily outshoot me at archery, though I could throw a javelin and hit a target nine times out of ten and he would only hit it five or six times. I guess I was proud and stubborn as well, which didn’t help our friendly rivalry.
I voiced my thoughts. “I still think that our favourite weapons, lance and bow, are different enough that he doesn’t have to do that.”
Tana looked back at me with her immense ultramarine eyes. “Yes, but we’ve all heard of your exploits against Grado. I think he’s a bit jealous.” I thought about that for a moment. I had heard of Innes’ exploits against Grado as well, and that didn’t mean I was jealous of him. Well, except for the fact that he had been commanding a real army, something I was still too young to do.
“You talk too much, Tana,” Innes returned to us from wherever he had been with long slow strides. “My father would like you to attend a war council now. Would you like to join us?”
Eirika smiled, bowing her head slightly. “We’d be honoured.”
We were ushered into the chief council chamber of Castle Frelia, where grey-haired King Hayden waited, smiling. It was good to see him. When we were younger, he had been like an uncle to Eirika and me. I bowed, and the others, including Seth and Myrrh, who I had asked to be with us, followed suit. “It does my heart good to see you all safely assembled here,” Hayden said, rising and stretching out his hands to us. We all gave half-bows of acknowledgement and sat around the council table.
“Father, if I may give my report first?” Innes said, leaning forward intently towards his father, steepling his fingers. “I have taken the army south to deal with the Grado forces directly. We have driven them back, and in many places they are fleeing.” Military reports always came first. For an instant, I did feel a pang of jealousy – with his greater numbers, Innes had repulsed the Gradonian invasion of Frelia, while I had, what, irritated them, demoralized them, knocked down a few of them, slightly disrupted and distracted them, and captured a nigh-uncapturable castle twice with only two knights. And Eirika’s force, the second time. While my accomplishment was impressive, his was more useful.
Hayden smiled approvingly at his son. “Well done, my son. However, this still leaves us with the riddle. Why does Grado attack?”
I moved a hand forward on the table. Eirika jumped, beside me. “I cannot answer that question, but I think I have something that will help us.” Time to put the cards on the table. “Myrrh, would you tell us your story?”
Myrrh, standing against the wall behind my chair, moved forward beside me and her loose cloak fell off, revealing her beautiful leathery brown wings. Suddenly shy with all the astonished eyes fixing upon her, she retreated back. “Um… Ephraim, you tell them.”
I nodded understandingly. “Very well.” I turned to the others, took a deep breath, and told them what she had told me. “Myrrh lives in Darkling Woods. She is one of the Dragonkin, of the tribe of Manakete.”
“The legend of the Sacred Stones mentions them several times,” said the king, still looking in wonder at the small girl behind me.
I continued my explanation. “One day, they felt a dark power flowing from the south. From Grado…”
Myrrh came back, gathering her courage and placing her little hands on my shoulder timidly, using me as a shield. “Saleh and I… we went to investigate.” Saleh was, apparently, a Sage who was charged by his village to protect Myrrh. “But we became embroiled in a battle, and we were separated… I wandered… Some bandits found me and took away my dragonstone. I was helpless.” She turned her eyed to me. “Then Ephraim saved me.” They had been unawares when I found them, four of them, all with axes, standing around laughing and drinking over a winged child tied up cruelly with ropes. I had cut them all down without mercy and set her free. But there must have been at least one more bandit, for we never found her stone.
I waved in a slightly helpless fashion. “Her story sounded incredible, but seeing her wings, what could I do but believe? I think Myrrh can help us more than we know at this time,” I finished.
“We do know that Grado seems to be trying to destroy the Sacred Stones,” Eirika spoke up softly on the other side of Myrrh. “They have attacked my brother and myself several times, trying to obtain the key to Renais’s Stone.”
“Why would they be doing that?” Innes demanded, one eyebrow raised.
“The stories say that the Stones are all that protect us from evil!” Tana cried. “Just because it’s a story doesn’t mean it’s not true!” she hissed to Innes.
King Hayden raised a hand, stilling us. “The Stone of Frelia is well defended.”
Abruptly, someone hammered urgently on the door. Seth rose and opened it. “Yes?” Hayden asked the panting soldier in the door. “What is so important that you must interrupt a private council?”
“The Sacred Stone… It’s been destroyed!” gasped the soldier, saluting tremblingly. “Caellach Tiger Eye and Selena Fluorspar attacked the Tower of Valni. We were wiped out.”
“The Sacred Stone… How could this happen…” Hayden’s shock and despair was plain to see, until he hid his face with a hand. “How could I have done this? We are in dark times once again.” Seth closed the door behind the soldier and returned to his place at the table.
“Father…” Innes spoke up softly. “Selena Fluorspar… One of the Imperial Three… They’re really serious about this.”
“But even so, we cannot sit here in grief. We must warn the remaining nations that house the Sacred Stones,” Hayden declared, his resolve returned.“If Vigarde seeks to destroy the Stones, they too are in grave danger. We must contact Jehanna and Rausten. We must unite against our common foe.”
“It’s rather unbelievable, Father,” Tana, the great defender of the Sacred Stones mythos, objected.
“I will go.”
I whipped my head around.
“Innes?” Hayden was startled too.
“I will go to Jehanna,” Innes spoke determinedly, proudly. “A visit from the Prince of Frelia is not something they can easily ignore. I will forge an alliance with the queen. You must stay here and guide the country, Father. I cannot let you leave in such a time of crisis. I must be the one to go.”
“And I will go to Rausten,” Eirika said, following Innes’ lead without so much as a second thought.
I exploded. “What? Eirika, you know I can’t let you go into such danger!”
Eirika reached in front of Myrrh and took my hand in hers. “Rest easy, dear brother,” she said in her calm, soothing voice. “I will go by ship across the North Sea. There will be no danger.” I glanced at Seth and let the corner of my mouth quirk downwards facetiously.
And I looked down in resignation and apprehension. “…I understand.” And my mind was made up. “…I will head southeast.”
“What?” was the general chorus.
Hayden was perhaps the most incredulous. “Attack Grado? From here?”
I nodded firmly. “We must stop Grado. If we can take her capital, the war will be over. And you’ve already divided up the countries to warn between you, so what’s left for me?” I grinned a little at Eirika.
“You could go with me, Brother,” she invited softly. She squeezed my hand, and I squeezed hers in thanks and shook my head, smiling.
“And once you reach the capital,” said King Hayden, “Vigarde’s generals will be waiting for you.”
“If they oppose us, we will fight!” I cried. Maybe a little too excitedly.
King Hayden smiled faintly. “You have your father’s foolhardy courage, don’t you? If you are determined to go, Ephraim… I will place you in charge of the army.” I could feel Innes’ eyes on the back of my head and ignored him. I guess I had upstaged him, taking ‘his’ army. We had switched places abruptly.
“Very well,” continued the king. “I entrust all of our hope to you three. If any of you fall, Grado will gain the upper hand.”
“Where I command, there are no mistakes,” Innes said with a touch of his hidden arrogance.
Eirika’s words touched me. “I will not fail, I know it! And I have made a vow: to fight as my brother does until our land is free. Until the continent is at peace.”
“I too will not fail,” I said resolutely.
“So be it,” said King Hayden rather grimly. We rose, bowed, and left.
Outside the council chamber, when the others had split up to prepare for the journeys ahead, Eirika stopped me. “Farewell, Brother.”
“To be perfectly honest, I still do not want you to go,” I said softly, taking her hands in mine. It felt like we still had not spent much time together. “I would much rather you wait here for me.”
She smiled bravely. “There will be no danger. Mine is the easiest task. I’m far more worried about you. Attacking Grado directly? I am afraid for you, Ephraim.”
“What’s this now? Have you lost your faith in me?”
Her smile broadened as she dropped my hands and spread them. She spoke with certainty. “No, of course not. I know your true strength, Ephraim. No one can defeat you.”
I laughed. “Hearing you say that fills me with confidence. I think I know my own limitations. I won’t overextend myself.” I thought about the task I had taken, my resources, my ultimate goal, my sister’s love, and nodded. “I can’t die and leave you all on your own, can I? Let us both survive to be reunited. Give me your word, Eirika.” I held out my hand.
She shook it. “You have it, Brother.”
I walked quickly to the stables, where I knew I would find my knights.
“Kyle! Forde!” I called as I entered. I was lucky. They were the only ones there.
“Yes, Prince Ephraim?” Kyle replied as they both saluted.
“Look, I don’t need you loafing around here,” I said without preamble. “Go keep Eirika safe.”
Forde leaned forward, frowning. “Are you okay, my lord? You’re going up against all of Grado, and you choose to send away your two most trusted comrades?”
I grinned at him. “No, Forde, I did not get hit in the head. Recently.” That elicited a faint chuckle from both of them. “I am going up against all of Grado, yes, but I’m not concerned for my own safety. I will have the whole Frelian army, and I know a few of their commanders personally. What’s more important is Eirika. It’s because you’re my most trusted men that I need you to help Seth keep her safe. That’s an order, now.”
Kyle nodded his head. “I understand, Prince Ephraim. We shall do our best.”
Forde looked a little unhappy, but he nodded too. Then he brightened. “At least I can keep an eye on my little brother while I’m at it. Not that I’ll need to.”
I clapped them on the shoulders. “That’s the spirit. Well, get going! You don’t want to be left behind!”
“We’ll see you upon your return, my lord!” they called to me, and left with their horses.
A few minutes later, I was strolling through the castle towards the Frelian barracks, hoping to meet some of those commanders that I knew. Again, I was in luck.
“Prince Ephraim?”
I looked around, and saw a pegasus knight striding quickly toward me. Her long hair was grass-green and her eyes, when she came closer, were the same. She wore a dark, form-fitting short dress and leggings, and white armour and long white boots. Her hair was kept back from her face with a brown headband. “Commander Syrene?”
She bowed and saluted. “I am Commander Syrene, Prince Ephraim. I understand you are to lead the army from now on.”
“That’s correct,” I told her. “Remind me what you are in charge of?”
“I am personal commander of the Third Battalion of the Royal Frelian Pegasus Knights. I am also, in part, the general of the entire Frelian Army, although I usually share those duties with Generals Erios and Kalvin. General Erios, however, is currently stationed here in the capital, and General Kalvin has been badly injured in action and will probably not be able to fight for the rest of the war, despite our healers’ efforts. Therefore, I am currently acting-general of the Frelian Army as it now stands in the field. The army itself is at this moment is spread across the southern border, concentrated on the town of Oderba.”
I nodded, processing that information. It was good. I could begin my drive to the capital immed- what?
“Lord Ephraim!” came a call behind me. Three people, one of them heavily armoured, were hurrying toward me.
“What? Sir Gilliam? Father Moulder? Uh, sorry, I forget your name…”
“I am Vanessa, milord,” the green-haired girl replied, bowing and saluting just like Syrene had. She looked similar enough to Syrene that I supposed they could be sisters, although Vanessa’s hair was much shorter, in two braids, and she wore a short orange dress.
Father Moulder, whom I had often met before, stepped forward. He was a broad, sturdy man, dressed in plain brown robes. His brown moustache quivered. “Princess Eirika accepts the loan of Sirs Kyle and Forde and has sent us here to join the Frelian army.”
I brought my palm up to my forehead. “Eirika!”
Gilliam, the spiky-black-haired knight with the heavy green armour, spoke in her defense. “She was most earnest in her desire that we accompany you, milord. We could not help but be touched by her plea.”
I sighed and grumbled under my breath. I knew it was no good arguing with Eirika. When she got an idea in her head, it was impossible to change her mind. I gave the three soldiers a smile. “Well, I am touched by your readiness to assist in what saner heads have called a suicide mission. Welcome aboard.”
They saluted again. “We won’t let you down, sir!”
“Well,” Syrene said, “I shall make our preparations for leaving. We shall depart within the hour.”
I clapped my hands together. “Excellent.” I was slightly disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to stay a night at Castle Frelia, but I knew we needed haste more than anything else. Catch Grado off-guard and keep momentum, and we would penetrate to the heart of the Empire before Emperor Vigarde was aware of our approach.
We crossed the courtyard, heading for the armories, and I caught a glimpse of Innes exiting a different building, with three or four people – mercenaries, from the look of it – and heading for the gate. So he was off already. I gave him a wave and a nod, and he returned it gravely.