Lise awoke in a bed, and at first she couldn't remember anything. Then it slowly dawned on her; the mountain, the flower garden, the sleeping flowers…
And where was she now? Seemed to be a pretty dusky room…
She managed to sit up and yawned while rubbing her eyes with her hand.
"Oh, you're awake!"
"What?"
Lise blinked away the remaining sleepiness and saw a blessed familiar face smile at her.
"Alma!" she exclaimed, "you're alive too!"
"Yes I am, dear, I'm alive," the old maid said in a voice thick with happiness and walked closer to hug and get hugged by her returned princess.
"Are there more survivors?" Lise eagerly asked.
"Yes, there's more than we could hope after the attack."
Alma carefully let go, and the two women smiled warmly at each other.
"The spirits have gone through the roof since we found you last evening, dear," the older one said with a honest smile, "we're so glad to have you back safely."
"I can't say how happy I am to see you again…"
Lise suddenly remembered and realized something. Her smile froze.
"Alma," she slowly said, "there was a man from Navarre with me…?"
The old woman's face became like cut in stone.
"Yes, but you don't have to worry about him, dear," she said and turned Lise's soul to ice for a moment before she continued; "we've tied him up and put him under proper guarding."
The princess almost laughed of relief.
"No, no, no!" she said and allowed herself a relieved smile, "you misunderstand, he's on our side!"
"Oh, oh dear!" Alma gasped and put her hand by her lips, "I hope he hasn't woken up yet, then…"
Lise hurriedly got out of bed, finding herself dressed in the tunic she wore beneath her armor. But as the rest of her equipment was waiting for her, properly hanging on a scaffold meant for the matter she didn't have to assemble all pieces of her equipment. Therefore she quickly got into more proper clothing and could hurry through the wide tunnels together with Alma. She returned every smile she got from the many amazons in the hideout, but at the moment Lise felt a little bit stressed about her foreign friend. She could just hope that he hadn't awoken to find himself in custody…
"But please ask Lise, I swear I'm telling you the truth!" came from a distance, the echo throwing the words around.
He had awakened. The princess strained herself to run faster.
"There, dear," Alma puffed, unable to keep up with her princess.
Lise reached a smaller cave entrance where two amazons stood on guard.
"Miss Lise!" the warriors said almost simultaneously and saluted their leader.
"Thank the goddess…" Hawk's voice sighed from the inside of the cave.
"Yeah, he's telling the… huff, truth," Lise gasped, her legs moaning after the sudden and intense run, "let him out, he's on… puff… our side."
"Yes miss."
A moment later Hawk came out of the cave, with a little support from one of the amazons. He was rubbing his right wrist, which was slightly red just as its brother. His way of walking showed that his ankles were a little singeing as well.
"Sorry about that, Hawk," Lise said, embarrassed.
He gave her a wry smile.
"Ah well, I can't help but understand…" he said with a sigh.
"Are you hungry?" Alma kindly asked the thief and princess.
"Can't exactly protest to that," Lise said with a tired smile.
"Well, we haven't got the most fantastic stuff but we do our best."
But as they walked through the tunnels to get to the bigger caves a scouting troop returned. The commander of it felt it important to report to her leader.
"Miss Lise, welcome back in Rolante!" the blond (what a surprise) warrior said and saluted as she met the small group with the princess within.
"And I'm very glad to see you too, Rose," Lise replied with a warm smile, "how's the look of things?"
Rose shook her head with a puzzled look.
"There haven't been any travelers at all coming here ever since the attack," she said, "but now… first you yesterday, and now when we were out on a spy patrol we found three more people in the flower garden."
"What?"
Instead of going to eat, Lise, Hawk and Alma went to see the new visitors. The recent discoveries had been placed in a bed each, inside of one of the bigger caves.
"I make out that he's from Forcena," Hawk said while scratching his head and pointed at the only man of the three, "but I have no idea about the other two…"
"And what would they want here?" Lise wondered, puzzled.
"Guess we'll just have to wait until they wake up," Alma calmly reasoned and shrugged her shoulders.
The princess watched the sleeping three, frowning.
"I think I've seen those two before…" she said and pointed at the guy from Forcena and the young woman with softly purple hair, "not too long ago…"
And the snoring sounded familiar too. But she shrugged that off. Nah… not possible.
"Now that you mention it…" Hawk suddenly said and pointed at the older one of the two females, "I might have seen them too. I think I remember somebody with the same kind of hair as her in the inn at Jad."
As he said that, Lise's memory sparkled.
"That's it!" she said, pointing at the young man, "and that guy came into the cafe one of the first days I was trapped in town."
She frowned again.
"But what are they doing here?" she thought aloud.
"And why did they bring a kid along to such a dangerous place?" Alma concernedly said, watching the smallest person but loudest snorer.
She looked around at her princess and the thief.
"But let's not waste any time," the old woman said, "they won't wake up in an hour or so, and you're hungry. Let's go."
"Give me a quick report of the circumstances," Lise told Eliza while Hawk still was working on finishing a piece of bread.
The captain had returned during the night, and had spent all morning working on getting rid of the blue dye in her hair. Now she was also back in her armor and had her spear again. It suited her much, much better.
"Well, we're a little short of people, but I'm sure that we'll figure something out," Eliza explained, "we've sent out scouting troops but haven't dared to go too close to the castle. These caves are our one and only resort. We don't know if the ninjas in the castle are as zombie-alike as the one in town, so we have been more careful than we wish we had too. Because of our need of care we've been unable to get the slightest grip of their guard posts."
"I see…" Lise said, pursing her mouth.
"Leave it to me."
Hawk rose from his chair with a determined look in his eyes.
"I'll give it a shot."
"It's too dangerous, Hawk," Lise protested.
He looked down at her and smiled.
"Hey, what do you think I learnt in Navarre? To get caught?"
"But…"
"I came here to help, didn't I?" he said, not unfriendly.
Lise met his gaze and knew that she couldn't stop him. It was exactly what he wanted to do, so she couldn't do anything about it.
"Alright then," she gravely said, "but don't get killed."
"Fear not, milady," he grinned and winked with one eye.
Lise stood up and nodded at Eliza.
"Get somebody to show him the way."
"Immediately, Lise," the captain gravely said.
The princess watched her friends leave but stayed in the cave alone for a while.
Even if Hawk managed to spy on the guards it wasn't going to help them much. Rolante had after all always been known as "The castle that never fell", so even if Navarre had managed once it was no guarantee that it was possible to do again.
They really were short on people… of what she had seen at least half the army seemed to have been slaughtered by the ninjas. Not only was it a horrifying tragedy, it didn't speak of victory and revenge either.
Lise sighed and sat down again, suddenly feeling drained of all energy.
She was amazed and eternally happy that there were so many survivors, but so many lives had been lost… her father among them. And Eliott? She could only pray that Isabella was in reach and could be caught.
Eliza came back and stopped in the entrance hole of the cave.
"Hey Lise," she carefully said, "are you sure we can trust the ninja?"
"Thief," the princess corrected a bit tiredly, "and yes."
"Not that I don't trust your word for it," the captain hurriedly assured, "it's just that not everyone is prepared to like a man from Navarre to walk around in our hideout."
"He's a friend, don't worry about it," Lise said and sighed, "without him and Kevin I could still have been in Jad or killed by a bored beastman."
"Kevin?"
The princess sighed again.
"He's a friend who helped both Hawk and me," she bitterly said, "he wanted to come with us here, but we left him in Maia since it's not his problem…"
Eliza watched her leader for a moment before she spoke again.
"You okay?"
"I can't help but feel that we shouldn't have parted, none of us wanted it so… well, it can't be helped!"
She almost jumped from her chair, startling Eliza.
"We have to think of some way of retaking the castle," the warrior princess stated, fully determined and focused, "let's call a meeting and discuss while we wait for Hawk to return."
"Certainly," Eliza said and smiled, happy to have her spirited friend back again, "it'll take a while to assemble everyone, though."
"We'll meet in here," Lise said, "I'll go take a quick look to see if those new guests have awoken yet while you work on the assembly."
"As good as done."
The two women parted, and the princess went down to the cave were the mysterious group of three had been placed. They were still sleeping soundly.
She wondered what they could want, none of them was from Rolante or Palo. Well, since they were still asleep she couldn't get any answers yet.
The man had a very thick hair, she noted now that she watched a little closer. Deeply brown, it spread out over his pillow almost like Kevin's mane…
Lise clenched her teeth. Funny how her mind kept returning to the half blood… she still felt guilty, that was the problem. And she had a bad feeling that it wouldn't get any better.
Nothing to do here since the guests still slept.
She turned to leave, but just as she took the first step she heard a yawn.
The young man had awoken, and sat up in the bed. Between rubbing his eyes with one hand he confusedly looked around.
"Where am I?" he sleepily mumbled.
"Good to see you awake," Lise said and walked a little closer again while trying to smile in a calming way, "you're in the caves of Rolante. Say, what were you and your friends doing here?"
He blinked at her, still working on getting back his sense of sight.
"Oh," he finally said, "I'm Duran, and…"
First he gestured at the child, then the young woman. They still slept.
"… Carlie and Angela. You're an amazon, right?"
"Yes, my name's Lise," she told him, and since he showed no signs of being an enemy of any sort she dared to continue, "we're planning on retaking the castle from here."
His reaction startled her. Duran darted out of his bed, the simple shirt and pants he wore somehow seeming to turn into a wargod's clothing by his sheer enthusiasm.
"Let us help you!" he more called out than said.
"Just a few more minutes…" the woman named Angela grumbled, halfway awake.
Lise stared at Duran for a second. A complete stranger wanting to help her in the war of her people…? Not again!
The memory of Kevin burnt her mind.
'Only wishing all well but it's impossible, I didn't want it to end like it did but please understand!'
She shook her head.
"No," she said and tried to hide her bitterness, "it's not your battle. Please leave when your friends have awoken."
Before Duran had time to protest she turned around and hurried out, running to come in time for the meeting. Or running from the guilt she felt.
She came to the room where the meeting was to be held only to be greeted by familiar faces smiling at her. It warmed her troubled mind and she could smile a little again.
"It's wonderful to see you back again, miss," Martin, one of her father's most trusted advisors, smiled.
Lise was about to return the warm greeting when he began to cough. So instead of saying hi she found herself hitting his back carefully.
"Hey, take it easy!" she kindly demanded, vary of his age.
"Oh, I'm alright," he assured her.
The princess examined his face for a moment before she nodded. He might be a bit old and no warrior, but he was as determined to find a solution as the rest of them.
"So, any ideas?" she asked the room at large, "we obviously haven't got enough people for a direct assault."
There was a silence for a moment.
"Well," Martin finally said, seemingly just to fill the concerned lack of speaking, "I'm no tactician…"
Lise almost smiled at the remark. No, Martin had been the trading advisor, it was needless to say that he wasn't a man of tactics other than the ones of the art of supply and demand…
He suddenly lit up a little.
"Wait," he thoughtfully said, "we could ask the sage, Don Perigon."
Did I miss something?
"Don who?" Lise blankly said.
"He's a tactical expert," Martin explained.
"So where can we find him?" the princess eagerly asked.
Martin's aura of excited hope dropped, and he frowned.
"That's the tricky part," he concernedly said, "he's a corobokkle, and they don't like humans."
"Then I'll just have to go and find a way…" the princess began.
"Miss Lise!" one of the amazons interrupted, pleading, "your return has brought us new hopes, please don't leave us so soon!"
The leader of the army looked around and only saw faces and eyes silently begging her to stay. But… who'd go instead? Hawk wouldn't go anywhere now that he finally was this close to his goal, she knew that… and she wouldn't dare to send out any of the friends she had left to…
"Hey, we'll go!"
The voice startled her, and she looked up to see Duran. He had gotten into a half plate armor and wore a visor which hardly could keep his wild hair under control. A sword hung by his belt, and behind him was his two companions. Angela looked a bit sour, her arms crossed as she glared at Duran's back with seemingly unprovoked derision. Meanwhile Carlie smiled happily at anyone willing to look at her, thus causing the looker to helplessly smile back.
"We came here because we need to find Jinn," the young man from Forcena said in a voice that would hear no protests, "so it is our battle too."
Lise watched him for a moment, her mind twisting.
'He really wants to, even though he isn't from here and we hardly know each other…' she thought.
It cut like a red hot dagger in her soul.
'Kevin…'
It had not been the right thing to do.
Finally she could admit it to herself. In a way it helped a little.
"Well, if you insist…" she finally managed to say and rubbed her cheeks with her fingers to hide the storm of regret inside of her, "thank you so much…"
She had to turn away to hide it.
"No problem, Your Highness," Duran said on the other side of the room.
Lise couldn't reply, she was afraid that she'd break down as the tension she had pressed down began to loosen by her sudden lack of denial.
'I should have allowed him to insist… he wanted to help, and I should have accepted it! All three of us wanted it to be! How could I be so stupid…'
But she had only wanted the best to occur… and she had looked in the wrong direction. He had lost his dearest friend just recently and still felt the pain from that, and what had she and Hawk done? Left him all alone again!
'I'm so sorry, Kevin…'
"So how and where do we find this Don Perigon?" she heard Duran ask.
"He lives in the Corobokkle forest, which is to the east of the Rabite forest near Jad," Martin explained, "but you'll need to disguise yourselves as corobokkles in order to make him talk to you. And I've heard that there's a magical item somewhere that will make that possible… if I only could remember the name…"
"The chibikko hammer," Alma said, "I think some collector in Byzen at least used to have it some time ago."
"Well, it's as good as nothing," Duran grinned, "don't worry about a thing, we'll take care of it! Come on you two!"
"Don't you give me orders, peasant!" a young woman's voice snarled, Lise guessed that it was Angela.
Three pairs of feet hurried out, accompanied with a cute little tingling sound which's source the princess hadn't the nerve to bother about. Soon the sounds disappeared in the depths of the tunnels.
"Wow, I've never seen such hot shots before…" an amazon muttered after a few seconds.
"Where you looking at the girl, Martin?" Alma demanded.
"Uh, who?" the old man said, Lise could almost feel his blush grow.
She forced herself to turn around and act natural. Hopefully they wouldn't think too much about her actions in their joy of getting help.
"So, all we can do now is to wait for them to return," she declared, "let's find some use of ourselves in the meantime. It'll surely take them a week or so to return…"
"Ah," Martin interrupted with a peculiar smile, "if they're mad enough to be that helpful they're probably mad enough to let good ol' Merci help them get going."
"What?" Lise blankly said.
Universal rule of the day: Timing is everything.
There was a distant sound similar to a rock tumbling down a cliff.
"They did it," Eliza stated with a grin.
"What is going on?" Lise asked.
"You know Merci, right?" Martin said with a slightly tired smile.
Good warrior, but a little bit eccentric and wild about her foreign cousin's inventions… whatever his name was again.
"Yeah?" the princess said.
"Well her cousin is working on a canon to use for travel," Martin said and shook his head, "Merci has kept one of the prototypes for a while, and she started to set it up the other day saying that it could come to use some time. Guess it's just luck that those people were here and dumb enough to try it that far."
"But what if they die?!" Lise pointed out.
"Merci tried it herself down to the beach," Alma said and rolled her eyes at the thought, "she managed fine and the sound is so similar to a small earth roll that nobody will notice. I wouldn't worry about it."
The world has gone mad… not exactly hot news. Lise hadn't the nerve to argue at the moment in any case.
"I just hope they'll be alright," she said, "now lets see what we can do while we wait."
When left alone Lise heavily sat down on a chair and leaned her cheeks in her hands, staring at nothing.
She had no idea how long time that passed, she just couldn't bring herself to move. The recent days' sudden excitement and the raging guilt she had battled all the time was getting a bad grip of the young princess, and she suddenly felt exhausted beyond her borders.
But after an eternity of twisting thoughts of which she could remember none, Hawk came back. He entered the cave and looked like he was about to say something, but one look at his friend's tired expression stopped him. Instead he sat down on the other side of the table, watching the wood and allowed her the choice of speaking or not.
A few moments passed by before the princess could let the burning realization out.
"We made the greatest mistake of our lives leaving him behind, didn't we?" she whispered, hardly even hearing herself.
Hawk didn't answer at first. And when he did she more read the reply on his lips than heard him.
"Yeah."
She sighed and straightened up.
"It's too late now anyway."
"I'm afraid so," Hawk sadly nodded.
Lise tried to get a grip of herself.
"Those three strangers insisted on helping us," she muttered, staring at her hands on the table, "they went to get advice from some corobokkle near Jad, can just hope that they live through the flight back to Byzel, find some ancient artifact, survive the beastmen and find the right place. This is madness…"
"I heard about the canon…" Hawk lazily said.
He straightened up too. Suddenly his hand was upon Lise's and she looked up with slight surprise.
"It's going to be alright," the thief grimly said.
Did he know that those words were exactly what she had wished somebody would say? Lise tried to smile to return the favor, turning her right hand to grasp his. He seemed a little surprised as well when she did so, but carefully smiled.
Hawk's hand was about her size, his fingers long and fine. Not like Kevin's big, strong hand. But the two young men hadn't much else in common than that they were her friends and warriors on the run from their own people.
Kevin again… she couldn't escape it, though she felt better knowing that Hawk understood.
She realized that the setting maybe was growing a little more personal than planned. It wasn't her intention, and she was sure that it wasn't Hawk's either, he had Jessica… but they were holding hands, sitting all alone.
"So, did you discover anything out there?" Lise said to smooth the whole thing.
Hawk shrugged his shoulders, but the movement didn't reach his hand. He didn't seem to mind their touch.
"Not much," he said, "I dared to go much closer than your troops had, and I think they were wise to stay away. Well, I didn't see that much despite that. They have a few guards out on the watch on the walls, so I couldn't exactly climb in, at least not in broad daylight."
"I don't think you should try to get in yet either," Lise pointed out, frowning.
He smiled, in that wry way of his.
"Certainly not, milady, I hold on to my life."
She had to smile back at him at that.