Thank you, Finduilas, for your review, as always I am grateful for your suggestions :-) Well… to everyone else, I do like reviews, you know… So feel free to comment on what I write.
Chapter IV. Training night
The next day, they started for the city early. Amousca rode close to the middle of the group, a little to the side. Waatsuskun, her familiar, was taking a little exercise, flying besides her. The men were restored and completely healed this morning, and the pace was considerably greater.
After a while of riding, Amousca saw Anomen falling back from the front, letting Nogam take his place as the ride leader. As she had guessed, he directed his horse towards her and adjusted his pace to hers. He steered his horse clear from the main of the group and said:
"Might I have a word with you, milady? There is something I need to discuss with you."
She shrugged and had her horse follow his. They stopped by the side of the road and let the Order's company pass them by. They waited until they were out of earshot before they started again. Amousca, with her elven eyes, could see Theophilus turning around from time to time to look at them in the distance behind. No doubt that he would scream scandal if he saw a hint of something that might look suspicious.
"Theophilus is spying on us," Amousca observed, neutral.
"I do not doubt that," Anomen sighed with half a smile. "And Proteor is ogling you behind your back."
Amousca grimaced. "Don't remind me."
"You must know what concerns me," he said. "What was written on that lich's scrolls, my lady?" It was so much easier to call her my lady. He felt himself relaxing as he called her that.
"I-I-It was… It was the Rapture of the Father!"
She shrunk in her saddle. Anomen felt as though he was just hit by a very cold shower. His body covered in cold sweat and the hair on the back of his neck straightened.
"Irenicus' spell?", he asked. He felt stupid the very next second, but he was too surprised to stop himself.
"Yes," she whispered, with a terrorized voice he could understand. "But it was designed to use the souls bound to gemstones instead of souls bound to a living body. The lich wanted a soul and it wanted a powerful soul, because it took a genie."
He wanted to stop his horse and hug her. She needed it. By Helm, he needed it. But there was still Theophilus turning around from time to time.
"Where did it get a copy of the Rapture of the Father?", Anomen asked.
"I don't know. Maybe… maybe Irenicus gave a copy to Bohdi who traided it with the lich… between undead, it must have been possible… but I don't know… I just hope there is no other copy of it on Faerun's face, for all the gods' sakes."
"Coreen will be able to tell."
"And Imoen if she doesn't. But we don't know yet, and a mage skilled enough to cast such a spell is a fearsome opponent, truly."
"I realize that, but nothing can resist us, my love."
Amousca smiled; weakly, but she smiled.
"You are forgetting your role, sir," she said.
The "sir" again. It was something to be called "sir" repeatedly by his elven wife, with very matriarchal ideas of the relation of men to women. Anomen smiled to himself.
"Well, my lady Amousca, no one else can hear but you, and I will not deprive my lips of the pleasure of speaking your name, if they cannot touch you."
The cantrip-disguised Amousca smiled at him, a little more convinced perhaps.
"We will find the other copies, if any exist, my love. Do not worry."
She sighed and nodded, drawing strength from his confidence. They rode together in silence for a while, then they pushed their horses into an easy canter to catch up with the rest of the company.
ooooo
The next day, they rode from dawn to the middle of the afternoon and set camp; they were just a day away from the city, but the commander was not in a mood to exhaust the men and the horses unnecessarily. But it would be unacceptable to keep the men idle for a whole afternoon and night. So, with the help of fellow conspirators – his officers and the freelancer spellcaster – he organized a training lesson instead.
Anomen was aware that it was pushing back their arrival to the city, the return to their responsibilities at the Order and their discovery of the manufacturer of the Rapture of the Father, but the occasion was too good to miss. The men deserved a bit of fun and lightness after such a difficult and successful mission. There was a perfect piece of land to plan such a practice lesson – a patch of dense forest, a putrid marsh and even an old, moss-eaten tower ruin. Besides, it was always good for the boys to crawl through the mud once in a while. The officers usually escaped the mud but ended up playing the villains instead.
The visible excitement and happiness of the squires and knights managed to make Amousca forget the unpleasant knowledge of what spell she carried in her scroll case. She watched the preparations with an amused smile and flicker in the eye. The squires and novice knights were held together near the fire, talking to one another in hushed tones, stealing suspicious glances at her and Nogam, the two villains designed to watch over the victims while their accomplices were building strongholds and setting obstacles through the forest.
Nogam was already playing his role; she had dyed his armour, sword, shield and hair black and made his eyes glow slightly green; he stood tall, towering over the sitting squires and looking over them grimly, occasionally snorting with terrifying disdain. He was Dark-knight. The other officers were already disguised; it had been funny to cast the small illusions that gave them this appearance and to enchant their wooden weapons with a slight stunning effect that would make the fights more realistic. But Amousca had not wanted them to know right away who she would be, so she had not masqueraded before going to watch the squires and novices.
Suddenly a lone wolf howl was heard in the forest – hopefully, the squires never knew that the organizers only got a wolf out of their Animal summoning the third time they cast it. It might have ruined their effect a little.
"You may go to your post now, lady Cordis. I will take over here."
"Very well, Dark-knight," she said in her best cold voice before she disappeared in a dimension-door.
"You may stand, take battle formations and ready yourselves. Then the game will begin. Remember, it is a game and none is supposed to be injured. However, do not be lazy, for your officers watch you."
The squires stood and neatly broke into five groups, three fighters front, two archers back, around Dark-knight/Nogam.
"You should not have come to this place," he said, deliberately borrowing the lich's line. He was rewarded with a shiver from some of the cavaliers that had battled the demon. "You insect filth can nothing against the power of my mistress. You will not have what she keeps. She was entrusted it because she is the greatest of her race, and you shall perish before her power."
"We shall see," one of the leaders said, a young paladin; he was usually Nogam's second. "Tell us where she is before we kill you," another threatened, a barely dubbed cavalier, promising, already Guervin's right arm.
"The knowledge will do you no good once you are dead," Dark-knight growled, in his deep voice. Then he gripped his sword, held his shield up, and ran to the battle yelling an appropriate "Die!" – of course "For Torm!" would not be appropriate in this case – as he crashed into his second, bashing him with his tower shield, splattering him to the ground, the air knocked out of him. Dark-knight brought his wooden sword on the other's shoulder and informed him: "You are dead." Then he had to spring his shield up to hold off the wooden swords' blows that came raining down on his head. They should have sent Demonknigt/Proteor in a fray like that with his two handed sword, he thought as he bashed another couple of them down with a blind charge with his shield up. He swiftly killed one with a fake blow to the head with his fake sword – not paying enough attention to the "Hold positions" to even hear it – but before he could set after a third one, he had to charge again not to be literally run over by the twenty-three left.
"Scatter!", he heard the desperate yell as he charged. He just had time to think "oops" when suddenly the compact line of squires in front of him dissolved into a mass of clanking metal in the fading light of sunset. His shield bounced harmlessly off a shoulder, but he was thrown off balance to his right and fell on the grass. The blows had already began to pounce on him even before he hit the floor. He felt some compassion for the men he had hit in the head (lightly, of course) with his fake sword; that stunning cantrip was rather strong.
He must have received like twenty-two hits on his back. It was so numb it felt sore. His ears were ringing. In between the ringing he heard the merciful "Hold" order and gave a silent prayer to Torm. It was the same voice that had told them to scatter. It was Echigam's voice. Good lad, Nogam thought, grateful, lying on his belly, his mouth full of grass.
"I believe it is dead. No use in stunning it to unconsciousness." There were some laughs. Nogam allowed his alter-ego to spit the grass and smile. "Let's see if he carries anything." With Nogam's second down, it was Echigam, Proteor's second, that was taking charge. He bent next to the dark knight and knocked the sword away with his foot.
"Nice shield!", one of the squires exclaimed, looming over the Stomus family shield. "Do you think we can take it?"
"I am afraid, my friend, that it is tainted by the most foul of evils," Echigam answered with exaggerated ceremony. There were some more laughs. Echigam finally fished a note out of the armour of Dark-knight. He read it, then sent it around for the other leaders to see.
"Meet me at the marsh after your patrol. Bring back some corpse to raise if you would be so kind. – Aes'garrick."
So the party minus three closed ranks together and headed for the marsh as the dead rose and spoke of their bad luck for already being out of the fun. That's when Nogam smiled, scary with his eyes glowing still, and told them it maybe wasn't so.
ooooo
The squires advanced carefully through the darkening forest. The sun was set, but there was still light in the sky, although the light did not reach the ground. They were going on a downward slope, with the ground getting progressively more wet and spongy.
Echigam was the one giving the marching orders; Nogam's second had been replaced by another novice knight, an inquisitor. They were advancing together, wary. They reached the edge of the trees facing the marsh together. He ordered a stop and everyone fell into position and examined the surroundings. Nothing was visible yet, but he ordered a True seeing just to be sure there were no illusions.
He ordered them forward and they advanced slowly, their boots sinking to the ankle into the mud and they soon had water just under the knee. Then they saw what they were to face. He did not have to order the halt.
On a strand of earth in the middle of the marsh stood two Skeleton kings; they were three meters high and each carried a shield and a war hammer sized accordingly. Skeleton kings were great warrior and priests. There were also a few zombies around them.
"Ranged weapons on the king to the left. My squadron will switch to close combat if the zombies reach us."
No offensive spells were allowed, because they could hurt seriously, but defensive spells were welcome. A few of the warrior-priests of Anomen's and Matteo's squadrons began to Chant. The training bolts, arrows and bullets were magically enchanted not to hurt, but to mark their target with a bright yellow spot, slightly glowing in the dark, to indicate if they had hit or not. The first flight of projectiles whistled over the marsh and sunk into the skeleton king's huge shield. Only one bounced harmlessly off the thigh's bone.
The zombies began to shuffle their feet their way, moaning and drooling, while the two skeleton kings covered themselves in defensive magics. The target of their first attack was suddenly surrounded by an Aura of flaming death; the water around his feet hissed and he disappeared into a cloud of steam.
Echigam dispatched the squadrons between the zombie targets; there was no way training bolts were going to get through that defensive magics the kings had. The zombies were suddenly multiplied as one of the skeleton kings finished its incantation. The zombies were closing. The front line switched to hand-to-hand fighting. From a distance, all that could be seen was the chaotic flicker of light on the moving armours. There were the sounds of battle, muffled because of the use of wood instead of steel as weapons. The squires fought frantically, as if their very life hung in the balance; the zombies they were facing were really tough and skilled. The monsters even managed to take down one of the priests before they were overrun by their fierce adversaries, now enraged by the loss of one of their own.
"At the kings!", Theophilus shouted as they were turning to face the others zombies; those were real and stank, but they were a lot easier to dispatch. "We have to close on them, otherwise they'll keep us fighting zombies forever!", he added.
"All on the right! Let the Aura of flaming death die out first!", another said, an inquisitor of Guervin's squadron.
"All on the right!", Echigam approved.
They dashed forward through the water. The skeleton king braced himself and walked forward until he could efficiently hold his assailants off the strand of earth, keeping the upper hand. But the Order's men were many, and they circled him. The king with the aura rushed to his rescue – at least as much as it was able to rush from his three meters height. They were very strong, capable of standing against the combined force of over ten men each.
Each killed three squires before being pulled down to the ground by too many hands to resist. The Order's men were now sixteen. They were mostly novice knights, because the squires had almost all been taken down.
"What now?", Theophilus asked; he was now Nogam's squadron leader, the other fallen.
"Let's breathe and heal our wounds for a while," Echigam decreed. The others were more than glad to comply. Most of them were panting after the long battle and had been stunned by at least one of the devastating blows of the skeleton kings.
"Keep watch," Echigam added.
There was nothing but the sound of panting and feet shuffling through the mud for a while. Then one of the watch yelled and there was the sound of something big falling into the water.
"Battle formations!", Echigam shouted.
The formations were quickly re-established, and everyone could see "Aes'garrick" the Demonknight. His full plate mail was dyed black and red, he had black claws and horns, and his eyes glowed bright red. A "dead" novice knight lay on his back at his feet; Demonknight had his left heel on his chest.
"Oh, you will regret killing two of my favourite pets."
And he brandished his two-handed sword high above his head as he dashed forward. He killed two with just one sweep of his sword before they all crashed into him; this was Theophilus' order and it was brilliant, as the two-handed blade was now far less efficient, the others being too close. Aes'garrick/Proteor still managed to kill two others before he was vanquished – so to speak.
"Let's catch our breath a while longer, but let's keep watch and battle formations," Echigam said. He was seeing their numbers drop quickly, and decided to gather the twelve they were now into two squadrons of six. He and Anomen's second, a warrior-priest, were the highest ranked, so they took command of one of the squadrons.
They were not interrupted this time, and searched their victims after a while. Not finding anything helpful, they searched for trails around and saw one, very well-defined. They warily followed it. It was deep into night now. They reached a small wooded fortress short after.
"Aha, is that all that is left of you?", a deep voice bellowed from over the palisade. The helmet of another Demonknight could be seen just over the edge of wood. "I had thought that fool Aes'garrick a lot weaker. Maybe I shouldn't have plotted his death then." There was a slight note of thoughtfulness in the voice.
"There are more than enough left!", Anomen's second laughed before giving the order to all those carrying blunt weapons to charge the palisade.
Echigam dispatched the remaining novices between range-weapons and palisade-go-rounding. Quite surprisingly, there was not much the Demonknight could do from up high in his fortress, because a magical projectile was always carefully aimed at its helmet if his head ever came into view. So there were surprisingly low casualties on the Order's side. In fact, no one died before Echigam's squadron reached the other side of the palisade and were faced with the Demonknight's wooden halberd.
"Fend it off for now!", Echigam said. The palisade was about to gave way to the attacks from the others. The Demonknight understood and started to charge forward.
"Charge!", Echigam bellowed, taking his sword up and running. He was barely able to deflect the halberd away from his head as he crashed into the palisade on the right, pushed by the other squires following close together behind him. The others were coming through a hole they had managed to do through the wooden wall. In the three seconds before the Demonknight was effectively crushed between the knights, he managed to fake-slice in half three of them. Then they were all against him, keeping his halberd stuck against his body. And he was killed.
Guervin sighed as he let himself sink to the ground. There were nine left to face Amousca; maybe they would have been better off facing them all together. There might have been more casualties.
ooooo
The nine novice knights found a strange glass sphere in the Demonknight's armour; it was filled with liquid where a needle floated, one of its sides glowing red and pointing in a direction. Each time they would turn the sphere, the needle would always turn to point into the same direction.
After some rest they followed it. It was not long before they reached a clearing in the middle of the forest. The moon was high and bright by then, lighting the area. The ground was devastated, turned upside down as though it had been ripped apart by giant claws. There was no more green visible in all the clearing, even if the trees around it seemed unscathed. There were ruins of stone at the back of the clearing; there was only half a tower left, with the gap in the wall facing them. The stone-covered floor could be seen, as well as a stone throne and a large black and red silky curtain behind it.
On the throne sat a fallen planetar. Her orange skin almost flared with fire; her blue hair was standing around her head like the spikes of a crown or an aura, and her eyes were sending a beam of fire across the clearing. Her blue wings were spread on each side of her, magnificent and royal.
"Men, we're dead," one of the inquisitor said; inquisitors were walking bestiaries.
"Knock it, Hugh," Echigam replied thickly. "Sir Anomen would not put us into a fight we cannot win."
"You're not supposed to resort to that to encourage your team-mates," a disembodied voice reminded.
"Sir!", Echigam stammered, looking around. "I'm sorry I… I…"
"It's alright, sir Echigam. I'm breaking the rules too, am I not?", the voice added, laughing. Echigam smiled and ordered his party to go forward.
The two groups walked carefully forward, wary not to trip on the uneven ground. It was not until they were half-way through the clearing that the fallen planetar rose from her seat. She was royal in her moves and Echigam had to suppress the urge to stop before he could press his comrades forward.
"Oh, most holy fighters of light," she said with mock disdain. "How arrogant of you to come for my hoard. And you have the presumption of stating your noble intents when you are so obviously driven by your lust for gold?"
"We have stated nothing yet," Echigam said loud. Then he murmured, just loud enough to be heard by those around him. "Don't listen. Keep formations. Summons, all you've got."
The priests stopped to cast, and got out of line as the others continued to near the fallen planetar. She was beautiful, there was no doubt about that. She was also terrible, and floating off the ground without even beating her wings.
She started to laugh when she saw the wolves and skeletons that were summoned by the priests. "Oh, really, you think you will hold me back with those?"
In no time there was a Mordenkainen's sword springing to life by her side. She sent it to battle the summoned creatures and started another summoning spell.
"Charge!" The novice knights ran forwards with a furious cry at Echigam's command. The priests started forward and other summonings. Mordenkainen's sword was already making short work of their beasts.
She was casting way too fast. Her Monster summoning was already done, and she was covered in Stoneskins even before they reached her. The first two blades exploded the first skin of stone as she finished to read the scroll to her Protection against normal weapons. They could not override her and pin her to the ground as they had with the others because she was floating off the ground.
The Mordenkainen's sword suddenly morphed into a wooden, stunning version of itself and started to dash at the knights. Of course, they could do nothing against it and Echigam dispatched a few to have it run in circles after them.
The knights kept hitting helplessly against her Protection and Stoneskin. She was casting again.
"Scatter!", Theophilus screamed, recognizing what spell she was casting – inquisitors could do that.
Everyone obeyed without question and suddenly a Web exploded near her blade. It caught four out of the nine knights, but not the blade. The other knights rushed out of the area of effect, the last one barely extirpating his hand out of the spider web, and rushed to attack her again, as her blade was cutting down to seize all of the webbed knights. This included Theophilus, unfortunately, who did not have the time to run far away enough.
"Protection's down!", one of the knights suddenly exclaimed, his wooden halberd dissipating one of the stoneskins.
"Keep hitting!", Echigam bellowed furiously. He brought his own weapon crashing down on the planetar's wing, the only thing within his reach.
She summoned another score of monsters before the last Stoneskin was out. One of the cavaliers left the fray around the planetar and went to distract them as Echigam ordered him. Then they began to hit her and hit her again, so many times it was defying the imagination, but then another series of Stoneskins went up and she started another spell.
When it was done, despair washed over them. She was healed. They had forgotten about the healing capacities of the planetars… But then her blade came unsummoned, and Echigam found his second wind.
"She's out of summons! Fight!"
This refocused the hesitant novices and they started to fight again with renewed fury, cutting through her Stoneskins quickly. She webbed them again, no inquisitor left to warn them this time.
They were all caught in the spider web. They all struggled with the strength of despair to get free of the web. But then she slowly, nonchalantly, flew forward and stroke down one, then another. Just before she reached the third one, the novice, a warrior-priest, managed to free himself and hit her across the chest, her last Stoneskin gone. He cried in relief and started to fend and parry and go forward, hoping to be too fast for the web to catch him. Then Echigam freed himself too, and joined his colleague in his frenetic battle.
They had not seen her move of retreat that would make her go just besides the last novice, still entangled. In one quick move she hit him with her sword and he died. The two remaining novices started forward even faster. Esox, the warrior-priest, brought his mace crashing down on her chest. Echigam cut a wing in half with his two-handed sword. She sent Esox flying backward with a blow of her fist in his chest. Echigam aimed for her neck, her extended arm showing him a perfect overture, and precisely brought down his sword between her head and her wing, straight on the side of her neck.
She let out a grunt of pain and fell to the ground, apparently choking, both hands to her neck. Cordis's illusion was shattering, appearing and disappearing in different parts of her body, as was the invisibility hiding Anomen and the other officers.
Anomen could be seen kneeling on the ground besides her, as the invisibility was showing and hiding him in a swirling of colors. He started to chant and his deep voice lifted in the night. It was only a minor healing spell and suddenly she started to take huge, loud gasps of air.
"Oh, thank you!", she exclaimed, a hand on her chest, still sitting, trying to catch back her breath. Her illusions steadied themselves, and suddenly she looked like the fallen planetar again.
"My apologies, milady," Echigam said, still in shock. "I… I was caught up in the fight and I didn't think I would hurt you…"
"It's alright, sir Echigam," she said with a smile. "Besides, I don't think your friend will forgive me for punching him like that wearing the Girdle of frost giant strength."
Esox was also sitting on the ground, while the dead were rising or becoming visible once again. He wasn't saying a word, but they could all see the trouble he had to breathe. Again Anomen walked to him and healed him. The look of relief on his face was plain to see.
There was a pause.
"Well, is no one curious about that hoard at all?", Anomen said.
The squires and novices stared at each other in puzzlement. Then the fallen planetar, who had not surrendered her illusion just yet, gracefully floated to the red and black curtain behind her stone throne. And she let the curtain fall. There was a beautiful long sword behind it, standing magically on its tip. The fallen planetar grasped its hilt and lifted it.
"This is Adjatha, the Drinker. It is a most powerful sword, and it is for the winner of today's tournaments."
There was a silence.
"Well, that scattering order in the beginning stopped me efficiently," Nogam/Dark-knight said with a smile. Echigam blushed.
"That scattering order just before my Web was also highly disabling," Amousca/Cordis/Fallen planetar said with a smile. Theophilus blushed.
"This charge order on me is what stopped me," Guervin/Demonknight said. Echigam blushed deeper.
"Although, it was Theophilus' idea to attack immediately the skeleton kings," Matteo/Skeleton king added. Theophilus blushed deeper.
"And they both showed great skill in their fights," Proteor/Aes'garrick compromised.
"But, it was Echigam that dealt the final blow. And he was in charge, giving very insightful orders all along," Anomen/Skeleton king decided. "Therefore, he is the winner of today's training lesson, and wins the fallen planetar's hoard."
There were joyous cries of victory as Echigam made a step forward and bowed in front of the lady, before standing up at her command. Then she presented him with the hilt of the sword and he took it, thanked her and thanked his commanding officer, Anomen.
Theophilus stared in jealousy for a second. Then Esox walked to him and nudged him with his shoulder.
"Come on, at least they haven't forgotten you," he joked with a good-natured smile.
Theophilus laughed, nudged back, and applauded and yelled with the others.
