"Okay everyone!" Lise called out, holding her spear aloft, "we're going in, and we have to move carefully but fast. They might not all be asleep, and we don't know how well the poison spread into the castle, so the time asleep might be shorter than what is normal. Now, for our dead comrades, for my father the king, for Eliott, for us and for Rolante!"
As Lise's voice call changed into a war cry the troop before her joined in, waving with their spears. The sun almost made the hard, dyed leather of the amazons' armors shine, sparkled in the spear points and Duran's sword.
"Now, let's do it!" Lise shouted and waved at everyone to follow as she ran towards the caves leading to the foundation of the castle.
Her warriors were right behind her, ready for the assault.
But where was Hawk? Lise realized that she hadn't seen him at all since he said that he was going to take a nap.
She brushed the thought away, he was surely around somewhere. Now was not the time, they had to firstly get into the castle.
The gate…
"Get ready to climb in!" she grimly called backwards at her troops that still were coming through the small exit of the cave in couples.
There was no room for a decent rush out of there, Lise stopped on the carved stair up to the barricaded entrance while her friends still were assembling behind her again. It would be impossible to break that thick net of crossed bars without sledgehammers or worse, but there were no guards visible and the amazons had brought grappling hooks in order to take another way.
Alright, now too…
The heavy grid suddenly shook and began to rise. Lise took her spear in both hands and heard the amazons get into defensive position, ready for an attack. Somebody became visible in the open gate.
"Are you coming or not?" the person grinned.
"Hawk!" Lise laughed.
"It's a slumber party in here, but I saw a few moving shadows when I broke in," the thief reported, "all yours, come on ladies!"
He turned and hurried back inside, Lise and her amazons followed.
The throne room seemed to be mostly untouched, a couple of ninjas laid unconscious on the floor. But that was no guarantee that everyone had fallen asleep, that was proven by Hawk's sightings. Some of the ninjas in the castle could have been poisoned once already, during their attack. Plus, the power of the pollen depended on how well Jinn had been able to spread it. Poor spreading had been the only source of survivors in the first attack, which had been lucky back then.
"Spread out in small groups and search through the castle!" Lise ordered and turned to Hawk who had lead the way into the throne room, "where did you see those awake ones?"
"Down that way," the sunburned man grimly said and pointed at the eastern door with one of his daggers, "I'll show you. They weren't many, that much I saw."
Lise turned around at the still incoming amazons. As she got the newcomers attention she pointed at five of them.
"You, follow me and Hawk," she ordered.
"Yes miss!" the chosen ones grimly said and saluted.
With the thief playing the leader again the group left the throne room and hurried into the southeastern corridor where Lise's own room was located, among a couple of more, smaller rooms.
"Three of you, check the rooms, don't split up!" the princess called over her shoulder without slowing down.
"Yes miss!" the three last warriors called and disappeared through one of the doors.
"You're a lady of authority when leading a war, ain't you?" Hawk friendly teased over his shoulder.
Lise gave him a determined smile.
"No one shall pass!"
Three ninjas with empty eyes blocked the corridor's end. They were armed and at least moved more alert than the ones in Palo.
"Step aside, Ran!" Hawk growled at the one who had spoken.
"Traitor," he replied.
"Don't you call me a traitor you blood thirsty desert wolf!"
"And your insults are still worse than your flirting," Ran said, emotionless and staring at nothing, "I'm amazed that Jessica even bothered about you. Not that you'll ever see her again, Hawk…"
Ran spoke no more. With an uncharacteristic roar Hawk leaped forward with his daggers raised.
The ninja probably didn't feel anything since he was obviously hypnotized, and he had no chance to parry the thief's fury. Before his friends had time to take care of the attacker they had three amazons on their hands. It was a quick battle, but one of Lise's warriors received a hard knock in her forehead, followed by several quick cuts on her arms.
Otherwise the loss was only on the ninjas' side.
"Are you alright?" Lise asked the harmed one while Hawk grimly dried his daggers on Ran's shirt.
"I'll be fine," the amazon grunted, sitting down by the wall and holding on to her bleeding arm, "don't worry about me, go ahead. Hurry!"
Lise wished that she had had a bandage, anything at all, for the amazon. But she had nothing. The others would find and help the wounded friend soon enough in any case. There was only one thing to do.
"Take care, then," the princess grimly said and straightened up, "let's go!"
"Good luck, and be careful!" the one they left behind called after the three remaining warriors.
Hawk was still in the lead, his daggers ready in his hands.
His reaction at Ran's words had startled Lise, she hadn't thought that the thief could go berserk like that. Jessica's fate obviously weighed heavy on his shoulders.
They rushed up a stair… Hawk stopped dead in his tracks, almost causing Lise and the other amazon to run into him.
"What?" Lise hissed.
"Monsters!" the thief snarled, "she's got bloody trained monsters!"
Lise looked ahead and saw a dark sword on its rise from the floor, all by itself.
"What is Isabella?!" she snarled.
"I was starting to wonder that myself," Hawk replied, "you try to knock the spook while I distract it, alright?"
"Allow me," the amazon grimly said and stepped forward.
Hawk nodded at her and ran at the sword. It moved rather clumsily, but the sharpness was obvious. When the thief easily jumped aside the living weapon buried itself in the wall. While still rocking back and forth to get loose the remaining amazon hit its hilt so hard with her spear that sparkles flew around. A crack appeared on the blade and it fell into pieces, leaving a hole in the tapestry and stone behind that.
"Not very good raw materials in these living weapons, eh?" the amazon smirked.
"I rate it ten battle points for you," Hawk grinned, "what's your name, by the way?"
The female warrior looked a little surprised.
"Valeya, why?" she said.
Not until then Lise realized that she hadn't thought about her warrior's face. The heat of battle… but she still felt a bit embarrassed of her own thoughtlessness. Ah yes, Valeya… she had a younger sister who had also survived Navarre's attack, to both the siblings and their living friends' great joy.
"I just don't like not knowing what my allies names are," the thief said with his wry smile, "shall we?"
And so they hurried on.
"He really is an awful flirt," Valeya whispered to Lise with a low laugh.
The princess had to smile back. Luckily Hawk didn't overhear them, busy with rushing forwards.
As they soon realized that the living swords and armed shadows lurking here and there were rather slow, the group of three began to outrun them instead of wasting time battling. They were after all on the hunt for whoever Ran and his friends had tried to protect.
"How big is this castle?" Hawk wondered fifteen minutes after the first sword assault.
"Big," Lise sighed, "but there's not very many places to hide ahead…"
Two more ninjas blocked another stair going up.
"Look, you're not going to leave without really bad holes in your clothes if you don't step aside," Valeya stated with a smirk.
"You shall not disturb lady Bigeau," the right one chanted in a lifeless voice.
"Who?" Lise, Hawk and Valeya blankly asked.
"Lady Bigeau, leader of Navarre," the left ninja lazily said.
"Isabella?" Hawk growled, irritated.
"That was merely a decoy," the right one said, "not that it matters. You shall not pass." (Forgive me, Tolkien! author's note)
The three invaders exchanged glances and charged. One minute later they were upstairs. Fresh air came from an open door down the short corridor.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Hawk suddenly said as they got closer to the exit, "let me go ahead a bit…"
"Tch, and when are we getting to be heroes?" Valeya snorted with a smile, "you opened the door for us, so let me and the princess do the dirty work for a change."
"I think she's right," Lise said after pondering it for a moment, "you shouldn't have all the fun."
He looked at her with surprise, especially as she got a moment's inspiration from Jinn and winked with one eye at him. But then he smiled and nodded.
"Okay, you're the boss," he said, "just be careful."
They both smiled at him and sneaked out of the door, carefully. Their feet and armors didn't make the slightest sound.
'Heh,' Hawk thought as they disappeared from his sight, 'I could as well just have followed. They did it only to tease me!'
He snorted, but smiled to himself.
Then suddenly he heard a voice from behind.
"Hey! Aren't you from Navarre?!"
Hawk spun around, cursing himself for being so absentminded that he had missed the footsteps. He cursed himself even more as he saw the three warriors who had gone to see Don Perigon. Hawk hadn't had a chance to meet them while either of them were awake, so they couldn't know which side he was on. And they were glaring dangerously at him, weapons drawn. A sword was known for being very painful, that staff didn't look too soft and even though that little thing only was a child, it was a child with a real twin morningstar. And Hawk was, once again, painfully aware of his obvious Navarre-look.
"Wait, listen!" he shouted, "I used to be with them, but now they're after me!"
He realized that he was repeating exactly the same words that had made Lise lower her weapon when they first met in Jad. As it didn't work as well this time he hastily added more facts:
"A woman named Isabella is responsible for everything, I'm here to stop her!"
To his relief the three lowered their weapons, but very slowly. And especially the swordsman -what was his name again, Duran? Yeah, that's it- still glared suspiciously at the thief. Hawk couldn't hold back a sigh.
"Thanks," he said, "I'm telling you, the real Navarre thief's guild wouldn't ever kill anyone."
"No?" Duran suspiciously said.
'Guess Lise never had any time to tell them about the traitor…' Hawk tiredly thought.
"Isabella, or 'Bigeau' as she calls herself now," he corrected himself by remembering the ninja's words, "she cast a spell on everyone and was responsible for my friend Eagle's death."
They lowered their weapons a bit more, straightening up and listening to him. Hawk took the chance to give them some more vital information he would like them to have, just in case.
"She also put a curse on Eagle's sister Jessica," he told the three, "if Bigeau dies, Jessica dies as well. So… if you should meet Bigeau, please don't kill her. Try to capture her instead. I know it might sound selfish but…"
His voice trailed of, he didn't know what else he could tell them. Just hope that the small group would believe him and care enough.
"Okay, got it," Duran finally said to his relief, "we'll be careful."
"I appreciate it!" Hawk said with a wide, grateful smile, "I'll go ahead now, so see you."
He turned and hurried off, not feeling secure enough among those warmongers to stay longer than necessary. But the main reason that he ran off like that was that a little alarm bell in the back off his head was starting to yell about Lise and Valeya being gone for far too long.
The outside was a balcony with a stair; he had no choice but to follow it. As he looked up he saw that there seemed to be just as much castle left as he had gone through already. With a groan he followed the next floor of the balcony and entered the next phase of the building through another opening in the wall.
Wohoo, more stairs… and sounds of battle coming from above them…!
Hawk almost flew up the steps and buried his daggers in the crack between helmet and armor of a shadowy knight without asking. It fell to pieces.
"Thanks!" Lise grinned as she without greater problems fended off another sword, "sorry we didn't come back, we got a little carried along. These here were planning an ambush!"
Valeya nailed another knight, thus ending the fight.
"I told you I was worried," Hawk said with a wry smile, "no hard feelings. Your heroes of the sacred corobokkle almost killed me from behind, though."
"Oh, sorry," Lise said and concernedly frowned, "I never introduced you… I'm glad you're alright."
'Really, you are?' Hawk thought in pleasant surprise.
"No problem," he said aloud with another smile while they began their quest of running through the remains of the castle again, "I got out of it in one piece, see?"
Lise smiled a little.
They kept hurrying through the halls, easily taking out or preferably outrunning the monsters trying to stop them.
"The northwestern tower is ahead!" Valeya concluded as they got closer to another exit -Hawk had lost track long ago-, "there's nowhere else left where survivors can have fled!"
"Come on!" Lise shouted.
As he came outside again, the first thing Hawk saw was the three shadows calmly walking over the bridge connecting the main castle with the tower ahead. Two men and a woman. And the thief would recognize them anywhere.
"Isabella, Bigeau!" he shouted in rage, "whatever you call yourself, hold it right there!"
Much to his surprise, she did. And so did Bill and Ben.
There had been much joking about the two brothers back in Navarre, and they had lead the jokes themselves most of the time. They were twins, not even their parents could tell which was the one or the other.
And they were also vicious fighters, Hawk had never been able to win a training fight even when facing just one of them. He wasn't sure about the odds now.
The brothers' eyes were as empty as all the other ninjas' had been. Still, they could be dangerous.
"Well, well," Bigeau smirked, "if it isn't the loverboy himself. Jessica's heart will be broken when she hears about you going out with not just one but two other ladies. Shame on you."
If Bill and Ben hadn't been shielding her then Hawk had charged at the woman, in his rage forgetting about the curse for a moment. Jessica's tear-filled eyes, burning with distrust, Eagle's bloodied chest, last breath, coughing… all because of that Bigeau!
Lise stepped forward, her eyes gleaming with rage and her spear in both hands.
"In the name of my kingdom I shall avenge all the deaths you have caused, hag!" she growled.
Bigeau raised an eyebrow.
"My, are you the escaped princess Lise, then?" she asked, with a little more interest.
There was no reply except for a low growl from Lise's lips.
"Splendid!" the woman in blue and pink robes sneered, "the Dark Prince will enjoy another gift… Bill, Ben, kill the other two and wrap up the princess for me."
"Yes lady Bigeau," the brothers lazily said.
"Hey, wait!" Hawk shouted as Bigeau turned around and went over to the tower.
She just smirked, opened the small portal and entered. The door closed behind her.
Bill and Ben raised their daggers.
"Snap out of it!" Hawk called out to them, "wake up, you're being controlled!"
But he knew it was fruitless. Still he had to try.
"You'll die here, traitor," the left one said -was that Ben?-, "we have our orders."
Suddenly he was behind Hawk and his friends instead of ahead. Valeya spun around with a hiss, rising her spear for defense.
"How did he do that?" Lise hissed.
"They're much worse than the others," Hawk warned in a slightly hoarse voice, "we have to be careful…"
He made the mistake to glance over the low railing of the bridge. The cliffs were pretty far down…
Bill (?) slowly moved his feet, getting into battle position. Hawk didn't have to look backwards to know that Ben did the same. The thief licked his dry lips.
"Not to sound like a baby," he harshly whispered, "but suddenly I wish more than ever that Kevin was here…"
"Funny," Lise whispered back with a tense glance at Ben, "I was thinking the same…"
The brothers charged.
There wasn't enough room on the bridge to fight them back. Lise's soul exploded with shock and horror as she heard Valeya scream, a scream that seemed to last forever until it was suddenly cut.
"No!!" both the princess and thief screamed in terror and rage.
Then Hawk hissed in pain, clutching at his right side as one of the ninjas seemed to just bolt past, riding the wind passing by the bridge.
"Lise, look out!" he groaned in despair.
But the hilt of a dagger forcefully hit her stomach, she couldn't breathe, the world was spinning, she heard Hawk snarl a curse and then his voice turned into a scream so much alike Valeya's… a fist hit the back of Lise's head, and she almost fell into unconsciousness. But not to the fullest. She was still vaguely aware of that gloved hands grabbed her arms and lifted her from the ground.
'Forgive me… father, Hawk, Valeya, Eliott…' her weak mind exhaustedly slurred, 'I… I failed you…'
"Stop!"
A young man's voice cut through her pain. For a moment her burning soul desperately wanted to believe that it was Hawk, alive… or Kevin…
But it wasn't, and she knew it.
The one holding her arms dropped her, and she limblessly fell to the stone floor again.
"More intruders," one ninja said.
"Warn lady Bigeau," the other said.
Steps left, others closed in. Lise fought her eyes open when somebody carefully shook her shoulder. Duran, Carlie and Angela.
The princess managed to point at the tower.
"The commander is in there…" she weakly whispered, slurring, "hurry, don't mind me…"
"Don't move," Duran grimly said, "we'll take care of her."
You take care of it… you again.
"I'm not causing you anything but trouble, ain't I…?" Lise bitterly slurred, "I'm sorry…"
The swordsman shook his head with a kind smile as he straightened up, and for once even Angela seemed to agree with him. They left the dizzy princess and hurried into the tower.
Lise tried to get up after a few second, hearing distant sound of a violent battle from the small part of the castle. But she could hardly move.
Hawk, Valeya… not only her father and so many others… now those two as well…
Tears almost filled Lise's eyes, even though she tried to fight it. The loss was too great, she couldn't take it anymore…
There was a sound. Like a dagger forcefully hitting the crack between two bricks of a stone wall. And a groan.
Lise tried to look around, blinking the tears away from their half existence.
"Ha… Hawk!?" she whispered with a broken voice.
"That's me."
With a loud groan he more or less crashed over the low railing, falling into a heap beside her before working himself out and sitting up. His shirt was cut and dark with blood, but it didn't seem as bad as Lise had thought it to be.
"You okay?" he asked, reaching out to help her get up.
"Yeah, Duran and the others came… ouff…" Lise muttered as she tried to get onto her knees, "I was sure that you was dead…"
"I fell, but I got a grip of the cliff," he told her with a sigh of relief, "and it seems like Valeya landed through a spruce on a ledge, I believe she'll be alright too."
He looked at the tower.
"Sounds like there'll be three other heroes today," he said with one of those wry smiles again.
"Wish we could help…" Lise muttered and groaned as she and Hawk tried to stand up, "but not in this shape, right?"
"Probably not. Come on, lets go inside while we wait, this place doesn't feel too safe."
Together they managed to stumble back into the main castle, waiting for the winners of the battle or the amazon army to find the way to them. Whatever came first…