Chapter Four: Band of Mercenaries
A bashful girl and her flying horse,
Were flying on a mountain course.
A wandering boy with a hunter's bow,
Who walks wherever he wants to go.
We broke camp early that morning, all of us were restless to be off. After the incident at the temple, I wanted out of Sacae and into civilized lands as soon as possible. Lyn wanted to see her grandfather, and the knights would follow wherever their "Lady Lyndis" went. It was distressingly difficult to remain on equal terms with the girl with those two throwing the title around like When I conjured a compass from my packs, Lyn eyed me like I had suddenly grown antlers and fur.
"What is that?" she asked, perplexed.
"A compass, Lyn. See the little arrow inside the glass here? The direction it points to is always north, no matter which way I hold it." To demonstrate, I turned about, and the compass altered its setting to match north every time.
"Why do you need that?" she asked. "I use the sun to find my way, or the stars. What need have you of something like this?" she pointed at the compass contemptuously.
"I, unlike you, am not a master tracker. The compass lets me do what you do, only I don't have to spend a lifetime on the plains to learn how to use it." I grinned, and she snorted. Kent and Sain wisely stayed out of it, and we all headed west according to the little needle in the glass anyway. As we rode, the flatlands became hills, and the hills became foothills. I asked a map of Kent, and he provided it, pointing out the pass that we were heading towards.
I thought that it was the little spat with the compass that had been keeping Lyn quiet, one never could tell how she would react, nor what mood she would choose next, but it turned out that I was for once not the source of her wrath. As we approached the mountains, she grew more and more agitated, performing camp chores with swift efficiency and as little human contact as possible. By the time we reached the pass, she was not talking at all, and I started to wonder what was wrong. She did not seem to want to talk about it.
"It looks like it'll take us three days to make it through the pass." I told Kent, from the map I was borrowing. He nodded, and I sighed. "Who knows what's up there?" I looked to the young cavalier with the red hair.
"We don't know, Josef." He told me solemnly. "We came to Sacae on a direct course through Bernish territory, we never saw any of the higher mountain passes."
I frowned. "Then why are we taking this pass now? The Wyvernclaws are some of the tallest mountains in Bern. If we don't have to cross them, I wish that we wouldn't." Something tickled in my memory, something that I knew would tell me why we were taking this road, but I could not quite tease it out of my mind. Sain answered me.
"We traveled with the King's blessings last time." He said, handling Thunder deftly as the stallion tried to swerve off in pursuit of some particularly green grass. "The gate guards at the border ripped up our papers and told us not to come back."
I cursed myself. Of course we can't just waltz through Bern! The king's been acting funny for a while now, hasn't he? He levied tariffs on Lycian goods, something that hasn't been done for three hundred years. It only follows that he would prevent Lycians from traveling freely through his lands as well. I can't imagine that Lycia has any meaningful machinations against Bern, so it be problems on the inside that are making the king nervous. Tch, silly princes maneuvering for power. Probably some power play by Duke What'sHisFace against the king.
Lost in my thoughts, I let Peaches follow Windancer up through the pass, which was unguarded on the Sacaen end. As we got further up the mountain though, I found that I needed to work with Peaches to keep the two of us going. The steep incline was wearing on the horses, and if I sat there like so much dead weight, I'd wear her out in no time. That meant moving with her, and that took far too much work for me to be worrying about what the bloody king of Bern was up to. It was none of my business, after all.
We reached a tiny hamlet, seated in the mountain along the trail, but it looked more like a ruin than anything else. Walls were falling down everywhere, the people fled as we rode in, and there was a general feeling of fear in the air that I didn't like.
"This place is a dump." Sain said, eyeing the sad state of the houses with the critical eye of one who has not experienced abject poverty. "Don't these people care to wash? And these walls wouldn't stand up to a boy slinging rocks at them. Why does the marquess of this place not do anything to help them?"
He seemed angrier at the unknown ruler than at the people, which I was glad to see. That meant he at least understood the bond nobleman and peasant had to each other, a bond of mutual servitude rather than of master to slave. I would have thought more on aristocracy, but it was at that moment that Lyn's agitation sprang out of her like a tiger loosed from a cage.
"No marquess rules here." She said, teeth clenched. "There are too many bandits for a petty nobleman to do any good here."
Sain opened his mouth to protest that slight against the Lycians lords, but thought better of it when she glared hardly at him.
"What sort of bandits?" I asked, and cursed myself again for letting my tongue loose. Lyn turned all of her formidable wrath to face me then, and I wondered at the hatred that shone in her eyes. I knew that look, I'd seen it as she stepped back from the bandit's body back at her tent in the plains.
"The Taliver." She said, her words cold and bitter. "They're the ones that killed my clan. It only took one night for them to slaughter us all. There were only ten left, including me. The Taliver are beasts, every one of them." She went silent for a few moments before adding, "I can never forgive them."
I started to say something, but a shrill scream pierced the air, and Lyn's attention was diverted to a group of people just down the road. We made our way carefully up, and came in just in time to catch a bit of the conversation.
"'Ey girlie, ye'd besht be comin' with us. Girlsh dinna jes' land on us without payin' the duesh."
"But I told you I was sorry! I mean it!"
"Hey Lommy, whatcha thinkin' we can get fer the bird horsey?"
"No! Do what you want with me, but don't hurt her!"
I shook my head sadly. The men were very obviously drunk, and the poor girl must have done something to agitate them, and if they were drunk enough to think she was riding a pegasus…
"Florina!" Lyn shouted, startling the men, who let the girl drop to the ground. As we got closer, I realized that the men weren't drunk, they were just very, very stupid, and that the girl really was riding a pegasus. I groaned as the bandits' expressions shifted from shock to understanding, then to grins of intended mischief.
"Well, what've we got 'ere…" the bandit started, but Lyn just rode past him, pulled Florina up into the saddle and slapped the girl's pegasus on the flank to get him moving.
"Spare us." I told him, and he looked at me in much the same way Lyn had when I'd shown her the compass. I mustered every ounce of pomposity that I could draw up from the dregs of my personality. "What did the girl do to you that you intend to take…liberties you are not entitled to?"
The bandit gawked a few more moments, but his eyes eventually cleared and he shut his flapping jaw. "She landed on me, she 'as ter pay the price!"
His horrible accent made me cringe, but I tried to get past that to see how I could end this peacefully.
"You don't appear to be injured." Lyn said, hugging the girl close. I could tell that the two of them had been friends, the girl was almost as excitable as Sain's horse, she would never have let a stranger yank her up into the saddle by arm like that. "She's obviously sorry, move on and leave us in peace."
I shook my head, I knew where this was leading.
"Shut yer trap, ye stupid whore." Quipped the bandit, and he leered. "The girl comes with us, if we have to hack up the lot of ya." He half-led, half-dragged his companion back behind the dubious protection of a decrepit wall and shouted, "Come on boys, let's get 'em! Don't lay a finger on the women, but the men are fair game!"
I sighed, and bandits popped out from every nook and cranny I could see, and some that I could not. Fortunately, they did not seem to be too concerned with getting us in a timely manner, and the little corner of town we were in made it so that only two bandits, one coming through the hills beside a nearby hut, and one through the gap in the walls, would be able to come at us at once. I gathered the group plus Florina and laid out my plan. "Kent, Sain, you take the way through the walls that we used to get here. You've both got swords, use them against the axes and pray they haven't found a bow recently. Here." I tossed a bag of vulnerary to Kent. "Use it if one of you is wounded. I'd like to give you both one, but I don't have enough, so you'll have to share." They nodded, freed their swords from their scabbards, and head off in the direction I had indicated. Lyn frowned at me and slipped out of her saddle, bringing Florina with her. "And what should I do, oh wise tactician?"
She was sarcastic, but the appearance of what seemed to be an old friend was apparently tempering her hatred for the bandits, and that meant she was not in total blood path fury.
"You, my dear, will check out that house to see if anyone is there. And before you argue, there might be someone there who can help us. I'll come with you."
Florina, who was a tiny girl with long, wavy lavender hair, tugged on Lyn's shirt sleeve. "Who's that, Lyn?" she asked. Lyn started, she had obviously forgotten that the girl and I had never met.
"This is Josef. He's a good man, Florina, you can trust him."
The girl bowed so low I thought she'd bang her head into the ground, and trembled as she said, "N-Nice to meet you, J-Josef."
"Likewise." I said dryly.
"Um…what should I do?" she asked me. She was quicker than she looked, she'd figured out that I was the tactician from listening to the orders I gave to the cavaliers.
"Florina…" Lyn said, but I glared at her.
"Get going, Lyn." I snapped, and she went, looking back at Florina worriedly. I turned my attention to the girl. Her pegasus was glaring at me over her shoulder, but I just stared back at him until he averted startlingly violet eyes. "Now, Florina. You want to take my orders like the rest of the group?" She nodded. "Very well then. You can ride that flying horse of yours, I assume?"
The "flying horse" bristled at being called thus, but Florina just laid a hand on his (he had to be a stallion with that temper) nose and stroked it absently. "I can use a lance." She said, and she loosed one from the holster her pegasus wore. It was a small, slim lance, nearly a spear, and one I was used to seeing the pegasus riders of Ilia carry. I nodded.
"Good. I want you to fly over the house Lyn's going to and take out the swordsman behind it."
I knew there was a swordsman there because he was glaring through a hole in the wall rather frighteningly. Florina looked like I had bitten her, but mounted her pegasus in favor of having any more words with me and flew directly over the wall. I heard the swordsman laugh heartily as she attacked him, but his laughter turned to angry cries soon enough. Apparently, she was as well trained as any Ilian merc. Kent and Sain appeared to be doing fine, though luck was out for them, and they ran into an archer. When I had determined that they'd be all right, I followed Lyn over to the small house, where she stood talking with a tall youth who was nearly as non-descript as Kent was, though he had brown hair. He carried a short bow, and a quiver was slung over his back. Lyn seemed to be negotiating something with him. She turned away, but he reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Wait, let me go with you." He implored, and his eyes flicked toward me for a moment. "I was the best hunter back in my village, I know how to use this thing." He held up his bow, which looked more than a little worse for wear, but still serviceable. Lyn opened her mouth, but I leaped in before she could tell him off.
"We'd appreciate the help. What's your name?"
"Wil." He replied.
"Well Wil, I want you to go help Florina over there." And I pointed at the wall, to where the girl was harassing the man with the sword, but not doing enough damage to bring him down. Surprisingly, the boy just nodded and took off in the direction I had indicated. These people never ceased to amaze me. Kent and Sain could be as stubborn as teenagers outside of battle, but when they drew swords, they listened to me without fail. Even Lyn was willing to bow to my judgment in the field. I shook myself and reached down to touch her on the arm lightly. "Lyn, go help the knights. Florina will be fine, especially with an archer to back her up."
"I don't trust him." She told me.
"You don't trust anyone. Now get your sassy rear moving before I find something boring for you to do."
She grumbled, but set off swiftly for the cavaliers. I turned to make sure that Wil and Florina really were all right, and caught sight of them finishing the man off with nearly simultaneous attacks. The next bandit held an axe, but Wil stuffed him so full of arrows that he went down with one hit from Florina's lance. Satisfied, I followed Lyn on Peaches.
Things were messy, very messy. Kent and Sain still had their swords out, but the fight was complicated by the fact that there was a mixture of axes, swords, and bows outside of the walls, this was no ordinary bandit horde. I rode up behind them, hoping I wouldn't catch a stray arrow, and shouted out some advice. "Sain, draw your lance! Lyn, you cover him, and Kent, you flank him on the other side with your sword!"
They didn't acknowledge me, but that was probably because they were all locked in combat. At any rate, they followed my advice, and I was pleased to see that it worked quite well. With Sain in the middle to deal with any swordsmen, the three of them were unstoppable. Once outside of the walls, we maneuvered around so that Lyn could use the trees to her advantage. She was a great deal better at hiding among them than the one bandit had been when we'd fought outside of Bulgar. One particularly stupid bandit ran past her, and got Mani Katti in the belly for his trouble.
We worked our way toward the ruins in the northeast, with Wil and Florina sweeping in from another entrance at the northwest to clean up the two mercenaries that were working with the bandits. When we met up, Florina presented me with a large bag of gold, saying that she'd been given it by some of the townspeople. I handed it straight back to her.
"I want you to take this, and go by something heavier than that twig you're using." I told her, and she winced, trying to hide her spear behind her. "There's an armory to the southeast, you'll be able to catch up if you ride fast. Go!"
She went, and I turned my attention to the north. Wil fell in with us as easily as though he'd been fighting with us for months, finishing off any of the bandits that the knights and Lyn couldn't get in one shot. The boy really was an amazing shot, firing directly into melee without fear of hitting any of the others. That short bow of his did not have much range, but it was accurate, and he could easily adjust it to work with a mounted cavalier or a swordsman on foot, which was useful when Lyn kept dodging between the two knights. She ruined any shot I might have made, but Wil just took her into account smoothly, and adjusted neatly to the vacillating heights of his allies.
He's good. I thought, and he was. I found it a little difficult to believe that he'd gotten this sort of training in whatever backwater village he came from, but it was not really my part to care about that sort of thing. It was enough that he had the skills. Finally, when all of the bandits were either dead or incapacitated, we surrounded the ringleader (who was hiding behind the ruins feebly). To my surprise, Lyn sheathed her sword as we approached. Kent and Sain did likewise. Gratefully, I noticed that Wil kept an arrow nocked, he at least seemed to have some sense of self-preservation. Florina came flying in from the rear, a newer, more substantial lance at hand. I smiled approval at her, and she grinned shyly back at me. We came to a halt at some distance from the bandit, but Lyn stepped ahead of us and raised her voice.
"You there! Are you a Taliver?" she said the word like it was so much garbage in her mouth, spitting it out before it could linger on her tongue. The bandit looked incensed.
"A'course not, ya ninny! Them Taliver's dogs, every las' one of 'em. We at least got some decency, won't kill women." He pondered that for a moment, sliding a fat finger along his axe's blade. "After all, why kill what ya can sell later?"
Lyn growled, but some of the anger receded from her voice. "If you are not Taliver, there's no need for you to die here today. Accept Florina's apology and get out of my sight, and we'll let you live. It's better than what your lackeys got, better than you deserve."
Her voice was chill, but the bandit did not seem to notice. "I'll have none o' yer apologies, missie! Draw your swords!"
He roared and raised his axe high into the air, and Lyn drew the Mani Katti, then braced herself for a heavy blow.
"Lyn, get out of the way!" I shouted to her, but she did not listen. Kent and Sain fumbled at their sword sheathes, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. The bandit's axe came down…and an arrow blossomed in his chest, stopping him in mid-run. I whipped around on Peaches, and saw Wil fitting another arrow to his bow even as the bandit struggled to pull the last one out. Lyn slashed the man neatly across the chest twice, and as he tried to lift his axe for a last attack, Wil fired an arrow that embedded itself in his neck. The bandit went down, his huge axe clattering to the ground. Kent, Sain, and Lyn turned to look at me expectantly, and I face-faulted.
"Yes?"
"What, no witty comments?" Kent asked wryly.
"Shut up."
And we all had a good laugh. Wary of more bandits, I cautioned against an impromptu wine party, and we moved on. I paid little attention to the others, I was thinking about the battle, what had gone right and what had gone wrong, until Sain's loud voice rang out.
"Dear Florina, I have a most brilliant idea! With Wil here, we're a fine group of mercenaries, and freelance to boot!"
"Wait, did you just include me?"
"You must travel with us!"
I groaned softly under my breath. Just what I needed. A high-strung baby and her flying horse.
"Eek! Don't get so close!"
"So beautiful and yet so modest!"
"Do you mind if I join up?" Wil asked me. "Lyn doesn't seem to have a problem with it."
I sighed. "It's not like I have a choice in the matter. At least you're sane."
"I'm not Sain, I'm Wil."
It's going to be a loooooong trip to Caelin.
Author's Note: Ugh, bad chapter. Sorry about this one, I hope the next will be better.