EDIT: this chapter is actually much longer because I decided to indulge in my favourite thing – characters yakking about random things that are important to them! Which is of course important for character development and stuff.

One more to go! Tomorrow! Also Salir has chosen a theme song and new art, run for your lives. D:

(Astebreed on Hard is HARD. : P )

 

Chapter 8: Vortex of Strategy     Chapter 10: The Distant Plains

 

Chapter 9: A Grim Reunion

 

The next day dawned grey and rainy as they broke camp in a hollow of the hills. Ceniro packed up his bedroll and helped Wil and Matthew disassemble the small tent they had shared since Araphen. Digging a hunk of less-than-fresh bread out of his small pack, he began to munch on it.

“So you’re Ceniro the tactician, hmm?” Salir said, popping up beside Ceniro; he yelped and almost dropped his breakfast. “You’re cute! You have a great voice, did you know that? Especially when you’re being all commanding!” Her eyes were bright despite the earliness of the hour, and her smile was wide despite the rainy weather.

“Ah- um- ah-”

She giggled. “And bashful, too! Ooh, who’s the archer with the big smile? I like him. My darling Sain has been introducing me to everyone, but I haven’t met everyone yet! Ooh! That monk with the long blond hair, Lucius, I think his name was, is very beautiful. I bet he gets all the girls!” She giggled again.

“Er, Salir, I, um…”

She winked at him. “I’m just messing with you. Oops, Serra’s coming this way! She doesn’t like me, I think. Something about ‘there can only be one cute girl in camp’? I gotta run, catch you later!”

After breakfast, they journeyed rather slowly through the rain back in a northeasterly direction. Lyn, Kent, Florina, and Rath had gone on ahead; Sain had given Lyn his horse to give them even more speed. Ceniro was not expecting much trouble; Lundgren might think he had driven them away. The tale Salir and Anastasia told of being abducted from their very homes by the marquess’s soldiers was chilling, however, as was the idea of their being used as hostages. Anastasia worried for her husband, wondering if he was all right too. Salir was less worried for her parents, since they were less directly connected to Sain. Sain’s parents… they didn’t know.

Sooner than they had expected, they met Lyn and her three companions returning two days later, when they had almost reached Kathelet Town. She was in high spirits, and gathered them all to tell her news.

“Good news,” she said. “Eliwood has sent messengers to the surrounding cantons, but he assured me they would almost certainly remain neutral in our struggle with Lundgren. We went to Marquess Kathelet directly, of course, and she was reserved but polite. I don’t know if it was Eliwood’s influence or not, but the fact remains that Lundgren will not have reinforcements from anyone – unless he asked for them weeks ago.”

“Of course, Lord Eliwood can’t aid us himself, to be fair by this arrangement,” Kent said.

“But he’s certainly done more than enough, and that should be a great weight from Ceniro’s mind,” Lyn said, smiling at him. “We’ve limited the size of the engagements from here to Castle Caelin. It would be nice to wait for answers, but it would take a couple weeks, and I need to try to save my grandfather from his poisoning if possible…”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Sain cried. “Let’s head back immediately! I swear upon my sword you shall see your grandfather as fast as we can march there!”

“Thanks for the horse,” she said. “You’d better take her back, now, so you can impress your fiancée by charging into battle and all that.”

“It’s like you read my mind, Lady Lyn!” Sain said, grinning.

 

They headed back south as quickly as they could. Ceniro was afraid Lundgren would reinforce the road they had taken before, so they chose a different road, a slightly longer one, but a much less defended one.

They had about regained their previous progress and were taking an afternoon’s break to rest the horses. Lyn had wandered off with Florina, looking ahead this time instead of back, and the wind tugged at her long green hair and the tails of her skirt. Ceniro watched her, fascinated by the way the silken strands carried in the wind.

Matthew wandered up beside him, and Ceniro blinked, distracted – he was juggling five apples at once. It was almost – almost – more interesting than Lyn’s hair. “She’s certainly beautiful,” Matthew said casually.

“Yes, she is,” Ceniro said, managing not to stutter. It was a common opinion Lyn was beautiful, wasn’t it? “And so strong.”

“And brave, and spunky, and generous, and determined, and and and,” Matthew said, affecting a dreamy sigh even as his apples flew through the air in rhythmic patterns. Ceniro blinked at him, blushing hard. “Oh, don’t be so bashful, young man! It’s quite clear to all of us how you feel.”

Ceniro’s eyes opened wide. “All of you?”

“Yep,” Wil said, leaning on Ceniro’s shoulder on the other side. “At least me and Sain and Matthew.”

“And Kent,” Sain put in, coming up with Kent. “We’ve discussed it a couple times.”

“What are you talking about?” Kent asked, looking from Matthew to Ceniro’s red face and Sain’s face-splitting grin.

Ceniro put his face in his hands. “Nooo, why are you telling me these things?”

Matthew caught one apple in his teeth, tossed the other four to the other four men, and reached up to take a proper bite out of his apple. “Because listen, I’m pretty sure she likes you back.”

Ceniro had almost failed to catch his apple, and at Matthew’s statement, almost dropped it again. “Oh, come on.”

“I do not think any of us except Florina would be able to say for certain, but I do get the sense that she enjoys your company,” Kent said calmly.

“Wait, why are we all watching her?” Wil asked suddenly. “Totally not weird at all, not when they turn around…”

“And Wil over here likes Florina, so he’s got a good view right now too,” Sain said, ruffling the archer’s hair, and it was Wil’s turn to blush and grin.

“Well that’s as obvious as the sun rising in summer,” Matthew said. “The difference is, Wil can take care of his own business, I’m sure. Ceniro needs help.”

“No I don’t!” Ceniro protested. “I need you to not talk about it so loud, she’s going to find out!”

“Oh, don’t worry, she’s fine,” Sain said. “Besides, wouldn’t that be a good thing? Women like to know they’re admired. Now, as the only one among you who has a girlfriend, let me instruct you in the fine art of wooing said women-”

“Sain, shut up,” Kent said. “Ceniro, please don’t worry about it. We know you love her, it’s true. It’s easy to see why. But I suspect the reason Matthew inadvertently assembled us was to let you know that you have our support.”

“And to encourage you,” Matthew put in, tossing away his apple core. “I mean, are you going to even say anything before she fights Lundgren?”

“Ten gold says he doesn’t,” Wil said cheerfully.

Matthew shook his head. “Too easy.” He grew a little more serious. “There is another thing to consider, which is… You’ve done brilliantly to this point, but things change when you get involved with someone – someone who puts themself in danger. Especially when you can’t do anything directly to help. How is that going to work out for you? If there was no other way out, could you send her out to fight to the death?”

“So you’re saying he shouldn’t ask her before she fights Lundgren?” Wil asked under his breath.

Ceniro glanced up at Lyn’s distant figure again. Now she was laughing at something Florina had said, her shoulders shaking, and Serra was coming to join them. “All of you… all of you are my friends. I don’t want to see any of you dead.” He paused. “Before my journey took this turn, I hadn’t really considered what it meant to have friends to put themselves in danger for me, to literally fight for me since I can’t defend myself. In my training, it was just… assumed that such an idea wouldn’t really be an issue. I’ve grown and learned so much since then, and I’m much more confident about going into real battle, but the fear of losing someone hasn’t grown any less.”

He glanced up at Matthew, then turned to look at the others. “Please believe me when I say that I’ll fight my hardest to stay out of a situation where any of you are in danger of dying. I already have enough awful visions without letting any of them become reality.” Another brief image of everyone lying still and blood-soaked on an overcast battlefield rose in front of his eyes, and he shook it away.

“I trust you,” Sain said. “You’ve thought about this, clearly.”

“Well, it’s good to know you don’t consider me expendable,” Matthew said, his question apparently answered, and sauntered away. Sain left after a moment as well, whistling.

Ceniro considered his as-yet uneaten apple, and smiled to himself. Here he was, surrounded by these strong and very competent men, and women too, of course, but… they accepted him. They treated him as an equal, despite his background. It was a feeling he hadn’t had often before, and never so universally as now.

“What is it?” Kent asked quietly.

“I’ve never been in such a welcoming group before,” Ceniro said. “There’s always several people who take an immediate dislike to me for no reason. Here… everyone is genuinely friendly.”

Kent smiled. “It’s true. You must have guessed from seeing my mother, but… I am not high-born either. My father is a farmer. Sain, however, is the son of a knight who is the son of a knight… and he is older than me… but he has never treated me as inferior. And Marquess Caelin is just the same. And Lady Lyndis is the same.”

“And I imagine that anyone wanting to join our group would have to be the same, or they wouldn’t want to,” Wil said. “You were at the Academy in Ostia, right? Any noble’s brat can join that. I can see how your life would be difficult there. You should stick with us!”

“I should,” Ceniro said, smiling. “But I’m afraid my feet would wander off again whether I want to or not, sooner or later. But now, I have a question!”

“Shoot,” Wil said.

“More for Kent,” Ceniro said. “I was able to convince you not to call me by any honorifics, but you still call Lyn by them even though she also asked you not to. Even if you’re too understanding to scold anyone else for not doing so, why is that?”

“That is… not because I respect either you or her any less than the other,” Kent said slowly. “But it is my duty to call her by her title, and it is my pleasure to follow my duty. Not because others expect me to, but because I want to fulfil my duty in all things. If she were not my liege-lady, then I could gladly call her by her short name as you do. You can ask Sain, he feels similarly.” He smiled a little. “You should probably be glad that you are not related to a lord, or else I would not give you a choice either, my friend.”

Ceniro chuckled. “I am glad for that.”

“Hey!” Lyn had finally turned and seen them, and was coming over. “Shall we get going again?”

“I think that sounds like an excellent plan, Lady Lyndis,” Kent said, with a half-bow, and went to round up Nils and Salir, who were running around like mad people.

 

The rest of the day passed fairly quietly, or as quiet as it could be with both Serra and Salir in the same company. The next day, however, dawned cold and damp again, and the fog that shrouded everything in grey obscurity did not lift all day.

“This is General Eagler’s estate,” Sain told them in the morning, when the mist should have passed. “It’s often like this…”

“Hang on,” Matthew said. “I hear something… Someone heavily armoured is coming towards us!” A few moments later, Ceniro heard it too – heavy, clanking footsteps on the road ahead.

“Erk, Lucius, be ready,” Ceniro said softly. Sound carried in the fog, and he knew that whoever was approaching had heard their conversation. But the person seemed to be alone, which was good.

A huge, hulking figure appeared ominously out of the fog ahead of them. It was clad in heavy grey armour with the helmet down. “Where is the girl who calls herself Lady Madelyn’s daughter?”

“Lord Wallace!” Sain blurted out; both knights were tense in the shoulders. “I thought you were retired to a farm somewhere! Don’t tell me you’re…”

“Ah, Sain, Kent! Good to see you boys again. Yes, I was, for a while, but I got a little bored, you know. Have you kept up your training?”

“Yes, sir!” Kent said, with a response so quick Ceniro guessed it had been drilled into him ferociously over a great deal of time. “Every day, sir!”

“Is that right? Well, no beating around the bush. Where’s the girl you’re supposed to be escorting?”

“What do you want with her?” Kent demanded, frowning. “She is truly Lady Madelyn’s daughter. You do not believe us oathbreakers? If you intend any harm against her, we shall stand against you!”

“Don’t make me laugh,” said the giant. “I could beat you with both hands tied behind my back. I simply want to ascertain for myself her identity. But if I don’t like what I see, I will end her. I owe Lady Madelyn that much.”

“Enough,” Lyn said, shouldering her way between Kent and Sain’s horses. “I’m right here. But if you attack any of us, you will regret it!”

The giant removed his helmet, revealing a shiny bald head and a pair of twinkling eyes, though they were serious as they observed Lyn. “Such beautiful eyes…”

“I beg your pardon?” Lyn said, still glaring angrily at him.

“I’ve been a knight for thirty years, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that no one with eyes as bright and clear as yours can be a deceiver.” The knight knelt on one knee before her. “Lady Lyndis, if you’ll accept this old fool of a knight, I’d like to join your little company of mercenaries.”

Lyn’s mouth fell open. “I’m sorry, what was your name?”

“My name is Wallace, my lady. Lundgren asked me to take you on, but I’m afraid he miscalculated there. This old bull’s loyalty is to Caelin, not to any usurper!”

Sain’s face had lit up. “Will you really? That is fantastic news!”

“Since Kent and Sain vouch for you, I accept,” Lyn said. “Did you know my mother?”

Wallace rose and nodded. “I did indeed. A generous, graceful woman, and your father was a true and honourable man. I can see both of them in you, and I am glad. Lord Hausen will be truly overjoyed to meet you.”

Lyn smiled. “Thank you. That… that makes me happy.”

“What are we waiting for, then?” Wallace bellowed, and Erk and Nils jumped back. “Let’s march!”

“Er, General, if you could keep your voice down a tad,” Sain said. “We are being hunted here! And if you found us, others can find us too!”

“Let them come!” Wallace said jovially. “I’ll take them all on myself! I trained half of them!” He sobered slightly. “Which is regrettable. But a knight must sometimes choose between his heart and his orders.”

“Is General Eagler against us?” Kent asked. “Will his lands be barred against us?”

“Probably,” Wallace said. “There’s only one way to find out!”

“Before we go on,” Lyn said, “we should introduce our tactician to you.”

“A tactician! Very wise of you. Hmm, but there are so many shrimps here! Which one is it, my lady?”

“Here he is,” Lyn said. “Ceniro of Santaruz. He may not be a fighter, but he has a brilliant mind and has led us safely this far.”

Ceniro swallowed, confronted suddenly by two metres and several hundred pounds of man and steel staring intently at him.

“Ceniro of Santaruz, hmm? I’ll have to see what you can do. Go ahead and order me around as you like!” He laughed uproariously.

“He hasn’t changed at all,” Kent said, almost laughing to himself.

“Let’s continue, then,” Lyn said. “We’ll introduce everyone else to you as we march.”

A few minutes later, Rath appeared beside Ceniro. “Bandits are nearby.”

“You’re sure?” Ceniro said, not doubting Rath, just wanting to make sure it wasn’t soldiers.

Rath nodded. “They look considerably less-well equipped than the soldiers we faced before. There is a large group to the north, among the hills, about twenty-five; mostly axemen and archers.”

“Could be an issue,” Ceniro mumbled. “They might not see well enough to shoot well, but we won’t necessarily see them in time to dodge either, and we have so many non-combatants. How long until they’re upon us?”

“About five minutes.”

“Right. I think Lord Wallace will get his chance to shine right away…”

For some reason, Lyn insisted on staying close to Ceniro when he wasn’t directing her to attack axemen. Not that he minded her being near him, although he was still in danger of getting distracted in watching her fight. She was so fluid, dancing a dance without rhythm, her hair swirling after her, her blue eyes flashing with determination.

“I’m glad this is almost over,” he admitted to her when there was a lull in the fighting.

“Oh? Too much excitement for you?” she teased him.

“A little bit, yes. I’d like to know that you’re not being hunted by someone who is supposed to be your own family…”

“Yes, that part is annoying, although I’m more worried about my grandfather’s safety than my own. But you’ve seen how much stronger we’ve all gotten since met in Sacae, right? I’m so glad I came with you on your journey.”

“I-I’m glad we met too,” he stammered. “And we’ll get through the last obstacles t-together.”

“With my sword and your orders, there’s nothing that can stand before us!” Lyn said, smiling, and he reflexively smiled back, which made her smile more.

 

The noise of the fight with the highwaymen had carried; there was no getting around it. Still, Ceniro was rather disappointed when the next bend in the road brought the sight of a barricade across the road, with about forty soldiers bearing every sort of weapon, though mostly lances, and at their head, a dignified-looking older knight in ornate armour.

“General Eagler!” Wallace exclaimed.

“General!” Sain cried.

“And here you are,” the knight said calmly. “I was wondering when you would arrive. I am sorry it has come to this; I never thought the three of you would turn traitor.”

“Who has turned traitor?” Sain said, pointing his lance at Eagler. “Kent and I are following the orders of our liege-lord Marquess Hausen, not his pernicious brother Lundgren!”

“General Eagler, we’ve worked so hard to bring Lady Lyndis safely to Caelin-” Kent began.

Eagler’s horse pawed the ground as he snorted. “And yet you have no proof of the girl’s identity, do you?”

Kent frowned unhappily. “Well, no, but-”

“Just look at the girl!” Wallace said, gesturing to Lyn, who stood tall and looked wary, a hand on her sword. “Can’t you tell she’s Lady Madelyn and Lord Hassar’s daughter?”

“Looks mean nothing,” Eagler said. “I name you traitors all. Prepare yourselves!” The soldiers in the roadblock readied their weapons, and the members of Lyn’s group did likewise.

Wallace shook his head sadly. “Eagler… It’s Nanette, isn’t it? Lundgren has her, doesn’t he?”

“It is irrelevant,” the general said gruffly.

“It is not irrelevant!” Wallace cried. “Come with us, Eagler! We have a first-class tactician here! He’ll save your daughter!”

Eagler closed the faceplate of his helmet. “It cannot be done. But I would sooner die without honour than risk her life. This discussion is over!” The footsoldiers began to advance as Eagler set his lance and spurred his horse to a gallop, straight at them.

Eagler had clearly set up his strategy ahead of time, and was now letting it play out as he had planned with a minimum of interference or adjustment. Ceniro knew the advantages and disadvantages of such a decision, but he preferred to think with the situation, especially since he was not participating in the actual combat and so had the attention for such things. Eagler’s soldiers spread out and as Lyn’s group parted before Eagler, his soldiers began to attempt to flank them.

Ceniro sent Lyn and Wallace to face Eagler and except for the non-combatants, directed the rest of the group to hold back the soldiers, a feat easier said than done with how badly they were outnumbered. The only solution was to be more mobile than the footsoldiers and to use Lucius and Erk’s magic and Wil and Rath’s arrows to direct the soldiers where Ceniro wanted them to go. Dorcas and Matthew were actually the most vulnerable, besides Florina to the enemy archers; Ceniro took a chance and sent her to circle around and attack the archers from the rear through the fog. With a protective spell from Serra in place, she obeyed, while the other soldiers constantly found their paths blocked by fire or a knight’s lance.

Even though the air was cool, he found himself sweating. He’d faced worse, he told himself, both in training and now in real life. But there were so many lethal weapons pointed at his friends… He had to stay calm, avoid giving orders too fast to be intelligible. His eyes darted around the battlefield, from Matthew taking advantage of a distraction caused by Dorcas to take down two soldiers from behind, to where Lucius had just blasted a soldier with light and Kent rode through the afterglow to attack an axeman with his sword. Florina had managed to take down three of the archers, although the fourth eluded her, and she was now engaging in hit-and-run tactics on the forward soldiers.

Lyn and Wallace were still facing Eagler; Ceniro hoped that he would see reason through combat, although his hope was faint after hearing that Eagler’s daughter was a hostage. Wallace had taken Eagler’s charge and turned it aside, and Lyn was taking advantage of the change in momentum to launch her own attack. But Ceniro couldn’t do more than glance at them and trust Lyn and Wallace; the other battle was taking too much of his attention.

Florina shrieked, and Lyn flinched; Ceniro looked up to see she had been struck by the last archer and had fallen from her pegasus, tumbling through the air. Before Ceniro could stop him and send in Dorcas instead, Wil had launched himself forward, eyes fixed on the falling girl, arms outstretched – and in danger of being attacked by a large man with an axe. Ceniro shouted to Rath and Nils, and the large man fell backwards, an arrow in his eye, just as Wil clumsily caught Florina and was flattened by the force of her fall. Serra rushed forward, heedless of danger herself, to heal the arrow wound in Florina’s side; it looked deep, and Florina was unconscious and white as paper.

Even as Florina’s bleeding ceased and Wil sat up, rubbing his tailbone, another cry of pain rang out over the battlefield. Everyone turned to see General Eagler, now dismounted and fighting Wallace sword-to-sword, fall, slashed across the gut.

Wallace immediately knelt, pulling the helmet from Eagler’s head. “Eagler!” Kent and Sain rushed over, dismounting and running with Lyn to Eagler’s side.

“Go… quickly,” the fallen general gasped. “The marquess… knows nothing… of any of this. There’s no illness… only… poison. Please… for Caelin’s sake… and Nanette’s… Lady Lyndis…”

Lyn clasped his hand. “I promise you, we will save her.”

Eagler was silent and still.

The soldiers looked at them, and at each other, and surrendered.

 

A short while later, as Wallace directed the Caelin solders to take Eagler’s body to his estate for burial, Lyn went to Kent and Sain. “What sort of man was he?”

“He was our first teacher, before we trained with General Wallace,” Sain said.

“A just man, honourable, but compassionate,” Kent said. “A fine captain, and a good teacher. I… wish we could have saved him.”

“He would have fought to the death, no matter what we did or said,” Sain said. “He always was stubborn to a fault, too, remember. But… I’ll miss him.”

Wallace approached them. “Eagler was a good man. A brave comrade in battle, a faithful friend, and a true knight. He did what his honour demanded.”

Lyn was silent a long moment, looking up the road, where the mist was just beginning to thin out as it climbed out of the valley. “May Lundgren never rest peacefully in the embrace of Mother Earth!” she burst out, her hands clenched and chest heaving. “I will stop that man from despoiling this land and her people! Ceniro!”

“L-Lyn!”

“We’re going to bring his wicked dreams down around his head tomorrow, I swear it! Let’s go!”

 

Chapter 8: Vortex of Strategy     Chapter 10: The Distant Plains