Chapter 21: War.
Nausada crashed into a roof.
It was unexpectedly soft, and then it collapsed, which was also unexpected, and she hit her head, hard. She realised that she had landed on one of the market stalls on the main street, and the strong poles holding it up had broken. She glanced around herself, confused, lying in the ruins of the stall. She saw the men looking down from the top of the castle, and she realised that she had to get away from there and out of Belatona before the horsemen entered the city.
Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed her from behind, and she cried out in shock, slashing out blindly with the dagger. The arm let go and grabbed her wrist, blocking the knife, and Nausada heard a familiar voice.
"Your Majesty, if you stop trying to stab me, I may feel more inclined to get you up. Now, trying to stab me in the heart with that knife, while it may burn whatever it stabs, is not a good idea, as I'm helping you. That would be the sort of thing a fool would do. Also, if you hurt me with that, I might use a special little dagger of my own." Nausada looked up, to see a woman with a sunset coloured dagger, curly brown hair and a grin on her face.
"You!" Nausada exclaimed, shocked. A large cat padded around the woman's legs as she replied.
"Oh, please, call me Angela. It is my name, you know." Angela grinned and sheathed her dagger, her eyes flashing around as she looked around the group of people who had gathered round. "Well? Get out of our way!" she said, pulling Nausada up again, and the crowd parted as Angela walked Nausada through, Solembum following behind.
"We have to get out of the city, we're under attack from Orrin's troops. They're probably inside by now," Nausada said, stumbling along after her. Nausada's head was aching from where she had landed on it, after the stall had collapsed, and she was taking a while to regain her balance. Angela turned a corner, hurrying towards the walls.
"I know, and I was hoping to do what I came here for before all this started again, but I suppose it can't be helped. Ah well, maybe after another five years of searching, right?" Angela veered away from the sounds of screaming coming from up ahead. The soldiers had entered the city. Angela passed Solembum, who was now in his human form, his black dagger and put her hand on the hilt of a sword that was on her belt.
"And what are you here for? What were you searching for?" Nausada asked, walking faster to avoid falling behind as Angela increased her speed. More and more people were beginning to realise that something was wrong, and they began to move in the direction of the keep. Angela, Solembum and Nausada were the only ones heading towards the walls.
"A rather interesting crystal that was tricked off me by a man who owns a donkey with a bald patch shaped like a rooster's head. I tracked him down, I was about to get him, and then you nearly landed on my head and he bolted." She glanced back at Nausada, smiling. "Thank you so much, Nausada. In one second, you turned five years of hard work into so many attempts at killing a Nidhwal with a twig, that is, when you don't know that all you need to do is stick a splinter into a certain point on its neck, severing it's nerves and making it lose all control of its tail, sink into the sea and drown. It's actually quite easy, if you can swim like a fish, breathe underwater, and you avoid the teeth and tail lashing out at you all the time." Nausada continued following, bewildered, as the herbalist flashed her another grin and continued. Angela never made any sense. She didn't even know what a Nidhwal was.
They reached a corner leading to the outer wall, and Nausada glanced back at where they had come from, seeing that all the people had left the area, and then she saw several hundred horsemen thunder past, heading for the keep and the people of the city. As they rode past, five horsemen detached themselves from the rest, turning to face the three people in the road. They waved their swords and charged, one heading for Solembum, and two each for Angela and Nausada, who stood still, waiting for the assault. Solembum leapt forwards, in his human form but in a manner very like a cat, and landed on the head of the charging horse. The man yelled, swinging his sword at the werecat, but Solembum deflected it down and the man recoiled, trying not to kill his horse, but falling off in the process. Solembum jumped down and stabbed him in the back.
One of the men charging at Nausada just swung his sword down at her head, his shield to the side. She blocked the blow with her dagger, denting it even further, and stepped forward, stabbing into the man's stomach with the dagger from the crown. The man screamed in pain as his stomach practically dissolved, and Nausada whirled around, blocking another blow, whereupon the dagger, already dented, snapped. Nausada gasped as the man's sword continued towards her neck, and the man gasped as a black dagger emerged from his neck. He fell, and Nausada looked at Angela.
One of the soldiers she had been facing had a strange dart coming out of his neck, and the other was on foot. He sliced at the witch, but she drew a sword and held it still and steady. The other blade split in two on contact, Angela snapped her arm forwards and let go, and the glimmering sword slammed straight into the man's chest plate and through the whole of his chest, only stopping when the crossguard slammed into what remained of the man's torso. Seeing that Nausada had broken a dagger, she reached into her clothing and pulled out the sunset-coloured dagger again. She threw it to Nausada, who caught it.
"Keep it safe, it's the most deadly dagger in the world." With that cryptic and puzzling statement, for Nausada could see nothing special about the dagger, Angela grabbed and mounted one of the horses and the cloak of one of the soldiers, signalling Nausada to do the same. She gave one last word of advice.
"Don't use it near your friends, or you may get a different result to the one you hope for. And give it back when we're out of here. I wouldn't want to lose another thing I worked hard and long for because of you." She spurred on the horse, Nausada and a rather large cat following.
How will we get out, even disguised? They're bound to be alert. I suppose we'll just have to hope the gate is open and ride as fast as possible...
Nausada and Angela rounded a corner slowly, trying to see as much as they could before being seen. Over a thousand men were entering the city, spreading out in all directions. Nausada and Angela exchanged a glance. The men were foot soldiers, so as "cavalry" they were of higher rank.
Or at least they were higher up. That had to count for something.
They trotted forwards, and the lines of infantry parted as the horses advanced. Solembum had jumped up behind Angela and hidden under her cloak. It looked strange, but no-one challenged her. They rode towards the gate, looking around at the cavalry that had been standing next to the gate all that time. They were nearing the end of that group of men, but suddenly, there was a shout behind them.
"Hey where are you two going? Who are you?" A cavalryman, who looked like a captain, was looking at them suspiciously.
"Make way, make way!" Nausada said to the men around them, spurring the horse forwards. She was nearly at the gate. Most of them separated, but one grabbed her cloak, pulling her hood down, revealing her crown, which, she realised, must have looked pretty strange under the hood.
The man who had grabbed the cloak yelled in shock as he saw the Crown. "It's the bleeding Queen! Get her!" She swore and kicked the horse, stabbing the man in the chin with the sunset dagger just for revenge.
He exploded, blasting the last line of men to the ground. The horse stumbled, but it's back had been to the man when he blew up, and it stumbled but didn't fall. Angela had already broken free of the soldiers and was galloping out of the gate, veering towards Leona Lake, towards Dras'Leona, the nearest friendly town. Nausada followed, heading north. She looked back to see the foot soldiers trying to chase them, getting in the way of the cavalry, who were also chasing. They had pulled out a lead by the time many of the horsemen had extricated themselves from the fray, and Nausada grinned as she saw the confusion of the Surdans. However, her grin turned to a look of despair and sadness as she saw what was going on at the castle, and in fact all around the city.
The flags of her Empire were coming down, and they were being replaced by a different flag, one that was already flying on the tallest tower of the Keep.
The flag of the monarchy of Surda.