Chapter 17 Judge Ghis
They burst into the cell block to find no fewer than twenty doors.
"So which one's Amalia in?" Said Vaan, breaking the silence.
"My guess would be that one." Vossler pointed to a particularly heavy duty door. Vaan
raised an eyebrow.
"You really need that much to keep her in?" He asked. Basch laughed.
"Me and Vossler know her pretty well, and yes this is the minimum." The group stepped up
to the console and stared blankly at the controls.
"Anyone know how to open one of these things?" Balthier asked casually. Fran shoved
him aside and began frantically pressing various buttons. Nothing happened. The vierra's ears
twitched, she tried again. Again nothing. She leant back from the console thinking, then grabbed
Balthier's gun off his back and shot a hole in the machine. It gave a groan, a few crackles and the
door hissed open. Amalia sat in the corner of the cell, eyes wide.
"Did you at any point consider that shooting the door lock would be a bad thing?" She questioned,
Fran shrugged.
"You shouldn't complain, it worked didn't it?" She didn't reply, instead dusting herself down and walking
out of the cell.
"You are unharmed then?" Vossler growled urgently, the princess nodded.
"Yes, I'll be fine." Her reasuring face quickly turned to hatred when Basch walked into view. For a moment
no-one spoke, suffocating underneath the tense atmosphere. Finally Vaan could take no more.
"Come on!" He yelled. "Penelo's still out there."
"I think for once we should listen to him." Balthier drawled from the corner. "I don't think company is too far behind us."
As they entered the corridoors outside the cell block the princess noticed the wreckage from the battle.
"Wait a moment." She called kneeling down beside a body. Vossler nodded.
"Not long though." He reminded her, she waved him away as she relieved the corpse of his sword. With one motion
she cut her dress at the knee to form a skirt, whilst tearing off the arms she turned to see the bemused faces of her
companions.
"What?" She said incredulously. "I've been wearing this thing for nearly a week now and it's been driving me insane.
Besides." She said inspecting the weapons of the fallen soldiers. "How did you expect me to fight in that thing?"
Vaan was impatient.
"Listen Amalia, we really don't have time to choose the best sword." She glowered at him.
"I think we've established by now that my name is not Amalia." She swung a gladius through the air.
"Then what should I call you?" Vaan sighed, exasperated. She stood still, thinking for a minute.
"You are Dalmascan are you not?" He nodded. "Then I suppose it would be appropriate to call me highness or majesty."
She finished with an air of satisfaction. Vaan groaned. This was not going to be easy. Finally selecting her
weapons the princess rejoined the group.
"Come on then." Vossler barked, "Let's find a ship so we can get out of here."
"Any idea which way back to the hanger?" Balthier shouted as they ran down the corridoor. "Every
hallway in this ship looks the same." Vossler didn't answer but Fran came to the rescue.
"Turn right at this intersection, go into the large armoury chamber, down the stairs, out the bow entrance,through
the outer walls and follow that route round until you reach the hanger" For a few seconds no-one spoke.
"How on earth did I ever manage without you?" Balthier grinned, his companion smiled back.
"How indeed?"
As soon as the alarms went off Larsa knew what was going on, as soon as he heard the prisoners
were on board he knew this would happen. He should know, he fought with them in the mines, if they escaped,
his charge would be questioned. If they were caught, his charge would be killed as a suspect. Either way he had
to get Penelo out of here. They were running along a corridoor making for the hanger. In either case the best way to
get Penelo off the ship was by skiff whether or not the rag tag group made it.
"Where are you taking me?" Penelo demanded, stumbling in her dress.
"To the hanger," He called back. "I've got to get you off the ship."
"Why?"
"Because if I don't the prisoner escape will be traced back to you. If that happens I won't be able to protect
you from Ghis." Penelo stopped, looking unsure. Larsa groaned, now wasn't the time for this.
"Listen, I swore on house Solidor I would keep you safe from harm. Ghis doesn't know your on the ship
so you must get away now!" He held out his hand to her, she hesitantly reached out her own hand and
clasped it in her own. Larsa grinned and dragged her on round the corner, right into a giant suit of armour.
Vossler was caught unawares when the young lord came rocketing round the corner and collided with his breastplate.
Unsure of what to do in this situation the knight just stood there and watched the young boy peel himself off
the armour and rub his nose. Then a second figure rounded the corner, Vossler raised his weapon but Vaan ran past him.
"Vaan!" Cried Penelo and wrapped her arms so tight around him he started to suffocate.
"Penelo, it's okay, I'm okay." He wheezed as he tried to pry himself from her embrace much to the amusement of the
rest of the group. Larsa whispered to Vossler.
"Can you promise me you'll get her off the ship?" Vossler nodded. "Then my buisness here is done." He strode over
to Penelo, still attatched to Vaan, and handed her a little bottle. "For you." He said simply, and ran off down the corridoor.
"I think he left at a good time." Balthier pointed out as the unit of soldiers rounded the corner. Basch strode to
the front of the group.
"Lady Ashe, We shall cut you a path." He said, Ashe approached from behind.
"Firstly, if you ever call me that again I'll have you killed, second I will not place my trust in the sword of a traitor."
"Yet trust him we must." Vossler growled. Vaan looked quizically at Basch.
"Ashe?" He said. The knight looked uncomfortable.
"It's short for Ashelia, I used to call her that."
After a few more scraps, the party stumbled and limped into the hanger.
"Right then." Barked Vossler. "Let's find us a ship."
"That would be my area of expertise I believe." Balthier noted.
"Vaan? What's wrong?" Penelo's voice somehow carried over the other and drew their attention. Vaan had not taken
his eyes of the center of the hanger since they had entered. In that spot, in full golden armour, weapons at his side,
stood Judge Magister Ghis. His bare face bore an unmistakable look of triumph.
"Such a great shame." He called out, his voice echoing through the hanger. "I must confess, I believed you to be the
one to restore peace to Dalmasca." He smiled as he drew the dusk shard from a pouch. "No matter, we have the proof
of your royal lineage. A maid of passing resemblance will serve our purposes now." He stopped, 30 feet from them.
"As for you my dear." He said, his voice dripping with malice. "The Empire requires you no more." Fran stiffened.
"Get down!" she shrieked but too late, Ghis drew back his hand and roared.
"Cytos!" At his command a blast of wind suddenly rocked the hanger, Vaan could see it all around him, whirling like a tornado.
Then the pain came. Horrified he realised the wind was solidified in places and was lacerating his exposed skin. Penelo screamed
as she raised her arms to defend herself. And the winds died, all was still. Vaan looked bewildered at his friend just
in time to see the last of the wind dissapear into the little bottle Larsa had given her.
"The nethicite." Balthier said darkly. Ghis seemed slightly taken aback by this but he soon recovered. Drawing his
sword and a curious looking golden fan.
"Your majesty does not dissapoint." He spat. "Ever quick to spurn an honourable surrender as was your father."
Ashe's entire body stiffened.
"You know nothing of my father." She hissed.
Basch was first into the fray, charging the judge head on with an overhead slash but the golden sword flicked up at the last
second catching the blade, undetered Basch performed a long list of complicated forms, slashing, diving, thrusting, blocking but
everywhere his sword went the judge's seemed to follow him. At the end of his final form Basch stared into the eyes of his opponent
with dismay, never had any man survived such an assault, save one. Now it as Ghis's turn to attack, and attack he did with wild
sweeping attacks remarkable for his advancing years but Basch was holding his ground. It seemed as though he would at least be
even, but then in a brief opening created by the sword, the fan flicked up. The group could only watch as Basch fell to the floor, blood
pouring from a gaping wound across his chest. So that was how it worked. The judge would create openings with his sword, then
use the fan to tear through armour, skin, flesh and bone easier than rice paper. However before the killing blow
could be struck, Vaan raced to the side of his fallen master making a wild swing at his unprotected head, the judge blocked
without second thought. Vaan tried to overpower him but his strength was astonishing. He stayed rooted to the spot as though
bolted there. At least one good thing came of it, while Vaan distracted their opponent, Fran managed to drag Basch out of harms way
and was at the moment healing him. Ghis broke away and came back at Vaan with a flurry of slashes, forcing him to loose ground. Vaan
watched helplessly as with a final blow, Ghis smashed his shield to pieces. Vaan yelped as he fell to the floor, a splinter of the shield imbeded
in his arm. As Ghis prepared his fan he was cut off by the enormous sword of Vossler, and a second later Fran joined the fight,
sending blasts of flame at the judge which he was having trouble deflecting while fighting Vossler. As Vaan knealt up, Penelo ran to him.
"Are you O.K.?" She asked urgently. Vaan looked at the huge splinter in his arm.
"I've been better." He said reasuringly. Meanwhile the combination of Fran and Vossler was actually forcing the judge back and Now
Balthier had finally got his gun supporting them he was loosing ground every second. Then he stepped back and swung his fan at them.
"Cytos!" He roared, before any of them could react, the same wind that had battered them before was blasted into their faces. All three of them were knocked off their feet and slid across the floor next to Vaan with deep gashes in their skin. Basch was mortally wounded, Vaan was
defeated, and the others were down for the count. Ghis donned his helmet again starring back at the defeated group with those cold metalic eyes.
"Well then." He said, "If it's time for excecutions, I may as well start with the least important to the most important." He pointed his sword
directly towards Vaan and began to advance.
"Princess, get out of here." Vossler choked. "Take a ship and just go." When no answer came he turned around to see that Ashe was nowhere to be found.
"No!" Shrieked Penelo as Ghis stood over Vaan, sword raised. As the sword came down, a curious sensation came over her, eminating from the bottle in her hand. A burning sensation pouring from the bottle, it was hurting to hold in, she needed to release it. She swung her unarmed fist
into Ghis's helmet, for a few seconds nothing happened, then from her hand blossomed an enormous blast of fire forcing the unexpecting judge backwards to escape it. He glowered behind his visor. This had taken long enough and now two of them could use magick, he had to finish this now. And he would have done, if a skiff like ship hadn't roared out of it's dock and flown overhead, one of it's fins colliding rather nastily with his head. And as he was staggering around, dazed from the impact, Vossler's sword came out of nowhere. There was a great crash as Judge Ghis was thrown against a pillar, and he slid down to the floor out cold. His ruined helmet clattered to the floor beside him, were it not for it's protection he would have lost his head. But everone was far more interested in the skiff that had just crashed into the deck. They were certainly surprised when the pilot came into view,
"Well come on then!" Snapped Ashe from the cockpit."