“Help me please! I do not want to be in here! Please!” Lady Nanerter wailed loudly holding onto the bars of the cage. One of the guards came over to her holding his torch close to her face to see her features.
“What ya gon’ give me fer it?” He drooled, deciding she was comely enough for the effort.
“Whatever it is possible for a lady to give, just please get me away from this filth.”
The guard glanced around him. The other guards were busy either sleeping or playing cards till their turn for the watch came. Eagerly he got his keys out and undid the door. Lady Nanerter slid out the cage and stood by while he locked it again, then he turned to her and smiled greedily.
“How can I repay you?” Nanerter said sweetly and pushed him gently against the cage once he had sheathed his sword and put his torch on the ground.
“I can think of a few ways.” Raliena said in the man’s ear from behind the bars and grabbed him by the throat, using her power to damage his voice box before he could cry out to his comrades.
Lady Nanerter then stabbed him in the heart with his own sword. The man fell to the ground soundlessly and she tried to push him away from the door, a disgusted look on her face at having to touch him. Then she unlocked the cage and let Raliena and Kassen out.
“That was a perfect aim.” Kassen commented as he took the guard’s sword from his chest and pushed him into the corner of the cage.
“Best healer in Verxia.” Nanerter said smugly then looked at Raliena. “Well until...”
“Until nothing,” Raliena said placing a kind hand on the healer’s shoulder and smiling. “Your gift takes far more skill.”
Nanerter smiled gratefully and Kassen handed her the keys from the dead guard to open the other cages and organise who was to stay and fight and who was to leave.
Kassen signalled to Raliena that he was going to take out the other guards, before they noticed anything suspicious; using the sword he had taken from the guard Nanerter had killed. Raliena nodded and went to help them open the cages.
The plan was to get the gates open for when either the Lagania or Attashar arrived to aid them. Raliena had already explained to them all as much as she could, in the little time they had, about how the Lagania knew about Dergen’s treachery and how her and Kassen had sent a message to Attashar asking for assistance. They just needed to do all that they could to hold out in the Kingdom till help reached them.
The people from Verxia were too dazed and confused about how this had happened that they were, at that moment, willing to accept any reason explaining why. Raliena would explain it to them formally afterwards, if they all survived.
“We need weapons.” Raliena said to Samde who was organising those staying.
“They have already raided the weapons shop and taken all ours with them.” Samde explained. “The barbarians put all the weapons in the cart over by the bakery. They aren’t even using them.” The bakery was only on the other side of the town square and once they had taken out the guards they could simply take it.
“Kassen has been too long,” Raliena explained. “I will go find him; you take the back roads and meet us by the bakery.”
Samde nodded and Raliena left them while they got those unable to fight to the trees, using the alleys between the houses to get them to the hill; no one knew the streets better than its inhabitants.
Raliena used the houses as cover as she made her way to where Lishini’s guards were drinking and gambling to find they were already dead. Kassen must have taken them out already but he was nowhere to be seen, so Raliena decided to head for the bakery. Kassen was intelligent enough to find them.
She only had to run down one side alley, keeping her eyes and ears alert for any sign of Lishini’s men, then across the street into the shadows of the houses. Raliena could hear men’s voices in the distance in the direction of the bakery and carefully crept closer.
It must be Lishini’s men; she stepped over one of them lying dead on the floor with his throat cut and thought Kassen must be near.
Raliena gasped when someone grabbed her arm and turned round with her hand raised ready to attack. Luckily she noticed it was Kassen in the doorway of a house.
“And what were you planning to do with that?” Kassen quietly mocked, looking at the hand Raliena still had raised.
“More than you could do with that.” She hissed back, indicating to the sword he was holding and pulling her arm away.
“Does that mean you don’t want one?” Kassen held out a spare sword to Raliena and she snatched it from him and smiled tolerantly.
Taking out the four men, that were guarding the weapons, was easier than they had expected it to be. Raliena stopped most of them from making any sound and with her and Kassen both being apt swordsmen, it didn’t take long.
Raliena quickly located her sword amongst the piles in a cart placed outside the bakery, which had also been emptied of food, and secured it around her waist, grateful to have it back. It wasn’t long before Samde was joining them and she was heartened to see how many had stayed to win back their Kingdom.
Weapons were handed out to people from the cart as they arrived while Kassen and Raliena spoke to General Samde about their next move.
“There are not enough people here to defeat Lishini’s men.” Kassen said quietly, he kept glancing around for any sign trouble. “We need a distraction while we open the gates and disable them from the inside.”
“A fire is the best way to scatter them and if we set off several in their camp, they will have no time to group up before they realise what we have done.” Samde said. Raliena was impressed with his reasoning, perhaps it was because he had not been prepared that Lishini had taken the castle so easily.
They all agreed and spilt the gathering into five smaller groups. Kassen and Samde decided on who would lead the groups as they planned to take those who were the most able swordsmen into the castle with them.
Raliena paid little attention, her priority was Dergen but she could not get to him without going through the camp and getting into the castle. Disabling the gates would leave him vulnerable and she hoped this would be enough to flush him out of hiding.
Once everyone was briefed, they set off in their groups. Raliena and Kassen’s group took the centre, following the tree line with the left attacking brigades till it was time to split up. There were very little guards to take out along the way which was unusual but they put it down to Lishini’s arrogance when it came to invading.
Once they were close enough to see the first line of tents of the camp, their group paused and waited a while for the others to reach their positions and give the signal, which was to set one of the tents on fire. Once at least three fires were set, they would advance towards the wall of the castle and work their way along to the small access door in the side that was sure to be heavily guarded.
They waited a long time and all were beginning to feel uneasy.
“Something is wrong. They should be there by now.” Kassen muttered.
Raliena listened carefully through the silence using her heightened senses. Dergen had to be nearby as she could feel her powers becoming stronger the closer she got to the castle.
The silence broke and she could hear cries and yells in the distance from the outskirts of the camp.
“They knew we were coming.” Raliena said. She picked herself from the floor and ran down the centre of the path towards the camp.
Raliena heard Kassen swear loudly and get up to follow her. She reached the first tent and used her sword to open the flap. It was empty.
She looked around her and spotted a fire in the distance ahead, where most of the commotion was coming from. She ran towards it as fast as she could, Kassen and the rest of their group behind her, thoughts of opening the gate abandoned.
They all jolted to a stop when they saw their fighters ahea
d of them. They parted the crowd to get to the front and saw that they were facing off against a large barrier of Lishini’s men. The gap between them was only a few metres. A tent to the right of them had been set on fire. Someone had managed to set off the signal.
“I am pleased to see you are up to your old tricks again, Raliena.”
Raliena froze at the sound of Dergen’s voice, her jaw set and determined as she watched Lishini’s lines of men part to let Dergen and Lord Lishini through. They both studied the line of town’s people, all brandishing weapons beyond their knowledge of use, before their gaze came to rest on Raliena stood in the centre of them, also ready with a sword in her hands.
“This is the gal?” Lishini asked Dergen in his thick accent, an unimpressed look on his face.
“She is more than just a girl.” Dergen barked back and kept his eyes on Raliena.
Dergen pulled a man out from behind him. He was the same guard that had tried to touch Raliena when she and Kassen were captured. Dergen held up the man’s arm and dropped it again.
“Impressive bite marks.” He smiled almost proudly at her.
“I could show you how it is done if you like.” She growled back at him stepping forward.
“My dear I would not get that close.” Dergen replied. “Not yet.”
“And what makes you think I need you that close?” Raliena threatened and flexed her fingers that had been curled into a fist.
“It would not be possible unless you were...”
“Pledged?” Raliena finished and raised an eyebrow knowingly at him.
Dergen’s arrogant expression changed violently.
“You couldn’t be.” He said through gritted teeth, trying to contain his overwhelming fury. “I would know."
“I am not yours!” Raliena yelled with just as much malice. “Perhaps you need me to show you?”
“With that small army?” Lishini scoffed, interrupting the exchange.
“No...” All eyes turned to where the voice that had spoken had come from, and parted to see people coming through the trees towards the standoff, all heavily armed and wearing white uniforms.
“With this army.” Yaline stepped forward and held her sword out before her.
“Lagania...” Dergen muttered, hatred lacing the word.
Raliena turned back to Dergen and Lishini but Kassen spoke for her.
“Do you yield?” He asked; a hidden meaning behind the question.
“We shall see.” Dergen replied, his face still grimly set as he strolled back towards the castle with Lishini.