Ehehe… ^_^;; the future chapters might cause danger for my person as things are looking now… gals, guys, please bear with me.

Chapter 10, Back together

Lise stood beside the throne, looking out over her victorious troops. Martin and Alma were there, and of course Duran, Angela and Carlie. The civilians, men and children, that had survived the ninjas' assault were of course there too now, coming from the hideout as soon as the report of victory had reached them.

    Some of the amazons carried bandages in different places, but after a short rest the little girl in Duran's troop had gone through the hastily cleaned hospital wing and spread her healing power over the wounded warriors. She wasn't strong enough to fully heal them all, instead split her blessed gift of magic among the casualties. After that she had fallen asleep of exhaust, but awoken for the victory meeting in the throne room. Lise had slept a couple of hours herself, falling half asleep, half unconscious after Duran and his friends had found her and Hawk to announce their victory.

    Was there nothing that those three couldn't do…? Lise was forever grateful for everything they had done and had offered Duran and friends to stay in the castle and rest for as long as they needed, but the swordsman had declined.

 "We have to get back to Forcena as soon as possible," he had explained, "there's no time to rest. Thanks a lot for the offer, but we have to go down to Palo and catch a ship back to Byzen."

 "But…" she had begun, desperately wanting to help her heroes in some way in return.

 "No need for that, Highness," Duran had smiled, "we might not have found Jinn if you hadn't needed help."

 "Why were you looking for him?" Lise had asked after a moment of hesitating.

 "Because this moron here is possessed by a fairy," Angela tiredly had mocked.

    She was tired after the battling, even now her shoulders were hanging a bit even though she tried to stand up straight.

    Lise thought back on what Duran had told her after the short argument with Angela that had followed her moron remark.

    The Mana sword… that Altena, the magic kingdom, had been waging war against Forcena to get their Mana stone. They wanted to release the power of the magical stones in order to get into the fabled Holyland and acquire the sacred sword.

    Total madness… Lise knew the tales about the stones. They were the containers of the great god-beasts. If the power was released, the beasts would escape their prisons, wouldn't they? Didn't the queen of Altena see that?

    Besides, wasn't it told that the spell to release the stone's magic would kill the caster?

    It was too much, she had to leave it to Duran. Lise knew that she had to focus on her own personal problems.   

    Her eyes ran over the troops again. Valeya was there, looking more like a mummy than an amazon. It had been nearly impossible to get her off the ledge she had landed on, and she had still been unconscious and in bad shape. But after some extra treating from Carlie she was awake. Almost every bone in her was broken, but at least she was alive.

    In the end, since half of the ninjas and their trained monsters had been asleep or at least dozy due to the sleeping flowers, the loss had been entirely on Navarre's side. No more amazon lives had been spilled, and Lise was indescribably relieved about that. No more lost friends…

    Still…

    Bigeau had fled.

 "She just disappeared!" Angela had explained and slammed her cane into the wall of frustration as she and the other two heroes of the day had found Lise and Hawk inside, on the other side of the bridge. 

 "Yup!" Carlie had nodded, "bad lady just floated off an' was gone! Carlie saw it!"

    And she wasn't in the castle anymore, the amazons had turned everything upside down in the search for Bigeau. Nothing.

    Well, it wasn't any real surprise that she had magically left; they already knew that she was a magic user.

    And because of that, Hawk was missing. 

    Lise held back a sigh.

 "I'll go to Palo," he'd said even while Carlie healed his wounds back by the bridge, "if she gave up the castle she might have released some of the ninjas there, I have to see if my friends are alright!"

    She hadn't been able to stop him, not knowing what to say. Lise knew that he was worried, but she'd just gotten through the shock of believing he had died and he rushed off again at once. He did what he had to, again. It hurt, but she couldn't blame him. Anyway, they'd meet up in Palo later on… still she somehow felt uncomfortable.

    The sun was getting ready to sink outside. It had been a quick battle, merely taken a few hours thanks to the trick that had caused the fall of Rolante. That attack had been very quick as well.

    But it wouldn't happen again.

    And now she had to properly tell her gratitude to the ones that had fought.

 "Thank you everyone," she finally said with a warm smile, "thanks to all of you, Rolante is free once again…"

    Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on the empty throne, and the smile died. She didn't really want to say it, but it fell out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

 "But it won't bring back father…" she bitterly muttered.

 'Or Eliott,' she thought, 'how am I going to tell them that I have to leave?'

    She dreaded the hastily nearing moment when she'd have to speak out that truth, remembering all the pleading eyes that had begged her to stay in the hideout. 

 "Carlie don't like that Bigeau," the child with the blond locks and peculiar hat piped up, "what if she attacks again?"

 "No, it's nothing to worry about," Eliza said, "we'll reestablished our defenses now, and the sleeping flowers don't work on us anymore since we've all been exposed to them once."

 "Besides, we have our princess back…" someone in the crowd said, her voice filled with unsure hope.

    Everybody looked at Lise again, uncertain, questioning. She clenched her teeth and looked away, unable to use her suddenly dry tongue. Even though she had tried to mentally practice on telling them that she had to leave, now that they looked at her like that again she couldn't.

    But she had to…

    A painful, silent eternity seemed to pass. Then Eliza suddenly spoke again.

 "Lise, you don't have to," she gravely said.

    The princess looked up in grateful surprise.

 "If you have to search for Eliott on your own, we understand," the captain said and smiled with pride and determination, "Lise, leader of the amazon army, would never sit by while Eliott is still in the enemies' hands!"

    She turned to the rest of the amazons and called out:

 "Am I right?"

 "Right!" the armored women and the civilians called back.

    Lise felt as if she could grow wings and fly away of pure relief that they understood what she had to do.

 "Thank you everyone," she smiled, "I promise you that I will find and retrieve Eliott!"

    The amazons' swirling war cry danced around her, tickled her mind and filled her with power.

    Yes!

Kevin opened his eyes with a groan. The sun was shining all too bright, he slowly raised his heavy right arm to shield his face from the sharp rays.

    He felt a little cold, too. And there was a sound of waves…

    It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up with the facts and memories.

 'I… made it?'

    Carefully he removed his arm and managed to sit up. His body was aching a bit, but not more than he could handle.

    The sun seemed to be about to start its journey downwards. Had he slept through the whole day?

    Kevin grunted and tried to stand up. His backpack felt heavier than usual…

    Oh, right.

    With a realizing sigh he took off the pack, opened it and turned it inside out.

    The small sack with coins, the bag of food, his single change of clothes -exactly like the ones he wore now- and Lise's bandage tumbled out. All soaking wet. His bedroll and the backpack itself wasn't in much of a better state either.

    Well, there wasn't much he could do about it now, he had to find out if he was in the right place and go look for Lise and Hawk.

    Quickly he forced as much water as possible out of everything except the food sack. One look inside of that proved his suspicion; the bread had turned into porridge and surrounded the last of the dried meat that had been left. Not exactly invoking appetite. Kevin turned the sack inside out as well and tried to wash out the worst sludge in the ocean. When that didn't work very well he buried the sack so that no smaller animal ever passing by would get stuck in it. Then he repacked his backpack and shook a little to once again get rid of sand on his clothes. After that he hung his package on his back and finally walked up the small passage between the cliffs into the mountain area. At least the sun had mostly dried his clothes, skin and hair, so he wasn't soaking.

    He reached the small town and found that the whole population, at least a lot of people, had assembled outside of the inn, whispering excitedly at each other. Kevin walked closer, puzzled.

 "What happen here?" he asked an old man at by the outer ring of the crowd.

 "All the ninjas suddenly seemed to wake up and acted as if they didn't knew where they were," the man answered with a grin, "then they fled on one of the ships that they came with. Some think that the amazons finally managed to retake Rolante!"

 "This… really Palo?" Kevin said, his exhaust melting away in a few seconds.

    The old man gave him a puzzled look.

 "Yes, why?" he said.

 "Ah, just came here," the half blood said.

    He glanced upwards. Cliffs as far as he could see, but he had seen another path leading up when walking towards the town.

 "Rolante, up there?" he asked.

 "Yeah, there's roads in the mountains but I wouldn't go there yet… hey, wait! Don't go there!"

    Kevin didn't care about the man's call, rushing back into the mountain area.

    His tiredness was completely gone, washed away by the triumph he experienced. He had gotten to the right place; his friends had to be there somewhere, especially if they had liberated Lise's home!

    By a twist of fate he missed Hawk completely. The thief was in Palo, sneaking around with the hope of finding a friend who was still left in town even though it seemed like all the ninjas had fled. If all the people hadn't been standing around there the half blood maybe could have caught a scent of his friend, but in the circumstances it didn't happen. 

    Instead Kevin hurried up the mountain, hoping to find his friends on top of it.

 "Are you sure that you won't stay at least one night, dear?" Alma concernedly said, holding Lise back for a moment just by the gate.

    The princess shook her head and managed a small, encouraging smile.

 "No," she said in a low voice, "it's hard enough to leave as it is. I'm worried that should I stay it would be even more painful to go."

 "I see…"

    Alma reached up and carefully hugged her princess, careful with her armor. Lise hugged her back and then turned to walk out. When she stood beneath the stair leading up to the castle she turned around and waved at all the people standing on top of the wall and in the windows. They waved back, calling out their best wishes.

    Duran, Carlie and Angela were also leaving. For a few yards the four walked together, but by the entrance of the cave Lise stopped and turned at the three heroes.

 "Good luck and thank you for everything," she honestly said, "I'll go ahead on my own now."

 "Carlie ish sure Lise will find her brother!" the little one said with a wide, contagious smile. 

 "Yeah, good luck," Duran nodded.

    Angela said nothing, but smiled a bit. And by the little Lise knew about that young woman, she was aware that such a smile meant a lot.

    The princess nodded, turned around and began running towards the cave. Just before she entered the darkness she stopped and looked back, waving at her brief friends and heroes that still stood in the same spot. They smiled in return.

    Then she entered the cave.

    For some reason she wanted to run, as far away from the castle as possible before she began to miss it again. So she rushed through the cave and over the rope bridge, with her spear waving off the needle birds that tried to get a piece of her.

    Soon she reached the fork in the road; one path to Palo, one to the flower garden. Lise slowed down as she passed the long, partly natural, partly cut out stair in the cliff.

    Why was she really rushing off like this? Where could she go?

    Her feet suddenly felt heavy as iron, and she stopped walking.

    Where was there even the slightest glistening of hope, now that Bigeau had fled? In Navarre?

    Ha, what a joke, she'd need at least twice her army for that…

    Well, Hawk would be down in Palo, and they'd surely think of something.

    Lise sighed and glanced at the road to her left, the one that lead to the garden and the abandoned hideout. And she felt that right then she wanted to be alone for a moment, away from all the happy people in Rolante and Palo who'd surely forgotten all their troubles by the amazons' victory. Nothing wrong with that, but heavy with her own concerns Lise didn't desire to be surrounded by joyful faces. 

    She took the path to the flowers.

    A few minutes later she sat down in the grass behind one of the waterfalls, listening to the wind and the happily pouring water. It was like a curtain of glistening crystals…

    The light of the sun was slowly changing as it began to descend towards the planet's embrace.    

 'I should move on before it gets dark…' Lise lazily thought.

    But when she looked at the sky again she realized that all of the tree moons was close to full, and the fact that there were very few clouds would add to that it wouldn't be a very dark night. Maybe she could stay a little longer… just a little while.

Duran and his ladies hurried down the mountain. About a minute before they reached the long stair above the fork Palo/flower garden a half blood beastman passed by there, catching a faint smell of Lise in the wind and following it.

Lise sighed and stood up. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there in the grass, probably only a handful of minutes. But she couldn't waste time, she had to find Hawk and move on.

    As she walked towards the cave leading out she suddenly heard the screech of an attacking harpy. Was Duran coming here…? Why? She couldn't think of any other trav…

    That loud growl…

    It was as distant as the screech, she could hardly hear it. But it came from the other side of the cave, and it was familiar. Kevin?

    Kevin?!

 "Kevin!"

    Within the next heartbeat she was by the rope bridge, just in time to see the red skinned half blood make sure that at least one half bird-woman wouldn't sing anymore seductive songs to catch travelers in the mountains.

 "Kevin!" Lise called out again with a honest laugh of joy straight from her heart.

    He threw the lifeless harpy on the ground and hurried to meet the princess. On his lips was wide smile of pure happiness of seeing his friend again, and even his usually sad eyes shone.

 "Hello Lise," he warmly said as both of them still were approaching.  

    Before she had deliberated it Lise had leaped forward and thrown her arms around his neck, laughing of the relief of seeing him safe. He stumbled backwards by surprise and her momentum. The princess' feet touched the ground and she released him, pretty embarrassed that her happiness had taken such a twist of behavior.

 "Sorry about that," she hurriedly said but couldn't help smiling still, "I'm just so glad to see you again." 

    He looked even more like a boy due to his remaining surprise for a moment, but then he pushed it aside and smiled back.

 "Ah, glad to see Lise too," he warmly said, "where is Hawk?" 

 "He's down in Palo to see if any of his friends have come to their senses after Bigeau… Isabella fled."

 "I was in Palo, missed him."

    Kevin snorted and shrugged his shoulders.

 "Bad luck," he said with another smile, "you won?"

 "Yes," Lise nodded, "there were more survivors than we had thought and we got help from three traveling warriors…"

    Her voice trailed off and she looked away, by her memory being attacked by a feeling of utter shame.

 "I'm sorry Kevin," she muttered, "both me and Hawk are."

 "Why?" he said, confused.

 "We shouldn't have left you like that, we both realized it when it was too late."

    She looked back at him. He gravely shook his head.

 "Me not angry," he said, "thought was right too."

    Lise carefully smiled a bit again, relieved.

 "But why are you here now?" she asked, tilting her head a bit.

 "Ah…"

    Kevin crossed his arms with a slight frown.

 "Found clue for Eliott…"

 "What?!"

    She nearly knocked him to the ground, almost violently grabbing his shoulders in her surprise and exploding hope. Once more she took him off guard, but he was a little more prepared for it this time.

 "What did you find?" Lise eagerly asked.

 "Went to Byzen, and…"

    He told her about the slave trader and the "ghost sighting".

 "Felt a smell there, evil," he grunted, "I think it was black magic; smell almost like Deathjester. But not him, he have black eyes, gah. Smell little like Lise too there, me sure boy was Eliott."

 "Oh dear…" Lise muttered and had to lean against the cliff since her head was swirling with new hopes and worries.

    Eliott alive, at least then… but in the hands of somebody wielding black magic?

 "When was that?" she asked, rubbing her forehead in an attempt to calm down.

 "Two nights ago," Kevin said, "me came here with birds, had to swim last bit. Winds troubling, like you said, gah."

 "Swim? Aren't you cold?" Lise said before she remembered that his clothes had felt dry by the touch.

 "Ah, worry again, Lise," Kevin said with a friendly shook of his head, "no, sun dry me when slept."

 "I see."

    Lise thoughtfully looked at the sky. It was growing a softly green tone in the sinking sun.  

 "Black magic…?" she muttered, thinking aloud, "isn't that what Bigeau used?"

 "Bigeau, Isabella?" Kevin said, a bit confused.

 "It seems like Bigeau is her real name," Lise explained and tried to get a grip of herself, "we better go down to Palo and find Hawk so that we can plan together…"

    She fell silent and looked at her friend, hesitating as she realized that she simply was assuming that he was coming without even asking him.

 "If you…?" she timidly said in a low voice.

    Kevin smiled.

 "No leave friends again, it wrong," he said.

    His words made Lise feel as if she could rise from the mountain and soar into the sky.

 "Then let's go, Kevin," she warmly smiled.

 "Yeah."

    The monsters inhabiting the Path to the Heavens had an even harder time ahead than the monsters of the golden road had had…