Part 2
“How goes it?” I asked Gerik, who crouched at the door of the tower while I knelt on the top of the tower.
The mercenary captain peeked through the arrow slit next to him. “I’m good, thanks for asking, Highness. Still lots of baddies out there, though.”
I stood up and surveyed the hilly plain. “They’ve drawn off a little. I think we have time for a breather. Come up and look around.”
“Ewan, stay in hiding,” Tethys warned her brother as she followed Gerik up to the top of the tower.
We had been ambushed by Carcino soldiers right when we were in the middle of the country. Brin had taken a lance in the leg, and had dropped back even though she was able to partly heal the wound with a vulnerary. They wouldn’t kill her; the mercenaries’ guild laws prevented that. But the treacherous bastards had no reason to attack me, and since I hadn’t stopped for news since I left Frelia, I had no idea why they thought they had reason to. Could it be that Grado guessed at my mission and had corrupted them with coin?
In any case, we were wildly outnumbered and though we made it to the relative safety of a small abandoned tower in the middle of this plain, it was only a matter of time before we were overrun. I would have failed almost before I had begun.
I couldn’t let that happen. Continue reading