Tag Archives: Tana

Frelia’s Finest: Part 3 (rewrite)

Part 1 this way

Part 2 this way

Part 3

Joshua was Prince of Jehanna.

Well. I hadn’t seen that one coming. It was almost a bigger shock than Eirika rejecting me. Actually, Joshua was having far worse a day than I was, because he was no sooner revealed to us as Prince than he became King as well, for his mother Ismaire died in his arms.

I formally gave him the letter from my father, and then someone set the hall on fire.

The first we knew of it was a soldier came rushing up to all us royals. “Sire! Sire! Fires have broken out all through the hall!”

“What!?” cried the new King. This was too much for him. His mentor betraying him, his mother dying – he needed someone to help him out.

“Someone soaked the wall hangings in oil and set fire to them! It’s a deathtrap!”

“We must get out!” I called, turning towards Tana and her winged horse.

“Mother… no… I will return…” Joshua cried. Seth was already pulling him onto his horse. Where was Eirika? Oh, with L’Arachel. She was all right. Continue reading →

Frelia’s Finest: Part 2 (rewrite)

Part 1 this way

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 →

Frelia’s Finest: Part 1 (rewrite)

Part 1

An arrow zipped past my shoulder as I ducked behind the wall of Castle Mulan. Nocking another arrow to my own string, I stood up and sent feathery death down on the peon who had dared attack me.

“How goes it?” I called to my general, Kalvin.

“Not good,” he called back. “Captain Misha’s unit is under heavy mage-fire. I’ve redirected our healers to that area.”

“Mage fire?” I looked around at the gates beside me. The enemy’s battering rams were getting closer, but our own mages were blasting at them, and our cavalry was ready in the courtyard. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, Prince Innes!”

I nodded and, crouching, walked swiftly over to the other side of the castle where our pegasus knights were fending off a storm of fireballs and lightening bolts. Pegasus were naturally resistant to magic attacks, but we only had one squad, and there were too many mages for them to deal with. We’d already lost four, a third of them.

I was not resistant to magic, but I was agile and my arrows struck faster than the knights. I revealed myself and pegged three mages in the space of a breath, drawing new arrows from my quiver in the blink of an eye. Then I had to throw myself down and roll as they became aware of the new threat and aimed several eye-searing spells in my general direction. Continue reading →