Chapter 4: Fire in the Castle


An archer ran over a hill.

"Hey, you with that she-devil?" he snarled at the strange travellers, pointing at Lyn, who dispatched the bandit she was facing. The girl in healer's robes screamed and shrieked for her escort, who plugged his ears and grabbed a book out of his belt. His momentary distraction allowed the enemy to peg an arrow in his shoulder. The girl squeaked again. However, the Etrurian mage gestured with his hand, and the archer vanished in a ball of flame.

Lyn ran up. "Why are you fighting these bandits?"

The man considered. "It just happened." He began to go on his way, south.

The girl whirled. "That's not true! You got us in a terrible situation! What are you going to do to get us out?" She had pink hair done up in two ponytails that flipped around like ribbons and large blue eyes set in a heart shaped face. Her nose and mouth were daintily small. She carried an elegant wooden staff, and was dressed in a white, but rather stylish robe with a purple scarf. The man had chin length purple hair, a small chin, and a red cloak that hid his voilet tunic. He came over to the cleric girl and shook her.

"If you'd not been fool enough to raise your voice, this could all have been avoided." He yanked the arrow out of his shoulder with a wince. "My apologies. Don't worry about us."

"But, if you're fighting, we should fight together. Make things faster, right?" said Ceniro, his grey eyes fixed on the girl questioningly. She smiled sweetly. Ceniro turned to the north and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Kent! How's your group?"

"We're all right!" Kent yelled back. "Wil could use some help, though!"

"That's true," said the girl, responding to his earlier question. "Erk! Go and help these people."

"But I... Fine!" began Erk, clearly not at all pleased by his lady's attitude.

"All right. My name's Lyn. This is Ceniro, my tactician. Pleased to meet you."

"OK! I'm Serra. This is my escort, Erk. Be a good boy and go fight now, Erk!" Erk sighed.

"So you're Ceniro, right?" asked the cleric. "Well... You see this contrary mage here with me? I'm his employer." She smirked. "'Master', I suppose you could say. Anyhow, he's hurt. And, if you would let me, Sir Tactician, I was thinking of healing him... for free!" She closed her eyes in smug self-appreciation. Then she looked at Ceniro's face. "Why are you looking at me like that? Praise my generosity!"

"Uh, sure, Serra. That would be a big help," said Ceniro hesitantly. Immediately, Serra raised her staff and a blue ball of light surrounded Erk. He stopped clutching his arm and blood stopped spurting from the wound.

"Huh," said Erk, apparently not much impressed. Ceniro came over next to him, after gesturing the other three to go on ahead. "I'm not sure how I got into this mess. However, I'm ready to help you, though. What should I do?"

Ceniro smiled. "Hopefully our camp is big enough you can escape Serra for a little while, once in a while. Let's head north and see if Lyn's knights are finished yet."

As they ran over the hill, an axeman ran out of the trees with Lyn hot on his tail. Ceniro threw himself to the ground and rolled, and Erk fried him. Florina flew back to them.

"...Um... I flew up high, and there's no one left but the one who we first saw..."

"Thanks, Florina," said Ceniro. "Kent! Sain! Wil!"

"Yeah?" came over the next ridge.

"Wait where you are and let us catch up!"

"Sure!" yelled Wil. He sat down to ease the stitch in his side and the injury in his calf. Their group had taken the worst of the fighting. Serra ran over to him as soon as they were over the ridge.

The last bandit was sitting on a log, polishing his axe, which was a futile exercise as it was rusted beyond all aid. He looked up and snickered at the panting group surrounding him. "You're gonna learn why people fear duh Ganelon bannits!" he slurred. Lyn charged forward, but the brigand was more alert than he appeared. He tripped her, and then raised his axe... but an arrow from Wil snagged his shoulder and he flinched, giving Lyn time to roll to her feet. Serra's staff lit up and helped Lyn.

Lyn nodded gratefully. Next the knights rode through, countering the sweeps of the axe with their swords, and Dorcas waded in, and Erk cast his very useful spell. At last, the drunken idiot rolled over. No one knew who should claim the kill. So, they forgot about it.

"Nice staff," said Lyn admiringly.

"Only those in the service of good can wield them," Serra told her smugly.

"Thanks for helping," said Lyn.

"You're welcome," said Serra. "Let's go, Erk."

Sain followed them, and the last words Ceniro heard him say were: "Hello, there! Are you a butterfly, or a wildflower?" There was a bit of talking, a laugh from Serra, a moan from Erk, and then Sain came back.

"Hey, I convinced them to come along. Can they?"

"Sure," said Lyn. "They will be a terrific help."

Sain grinned at Kent. "And you said being an idiot was unconstructive."



Lyndis' Legion showed up at Araphen the day after taking on Erk and Serra. Kent rode on ahead, taking Ceniro with him. Lyn was talking with Sain.

"This is Araphen, milady," said Sain. "It's the second largest city in Lycia, after Ostia."

"It does seem terribly busy," said Lyn. "It's even bigger than Bulgar." The streets were filled with chattering people, and vendors and merchants had stalls everywhere, crammed between the wood-frame buildings. The streets underfoot were cobbled and surprisingly clean. Ahead, a large grey castle sat snugly on top of a hill at the centre of the town with brightly coloured flags flying - of Araphen and Lycia.

"Bulgar, I think, is about the same size as Laus and Caelin. Most of the others are smaller, and more or less prosperous. Some of the better ones to visit would be Santaruz, Pherae, Thria, and Kathelet." Thus Sain disproved rumours of being inattentive in geography class.

"I see. And where did Kent and Ceniro go again?"

"I think he went ahead to the castle; he mumbled something about food and soldiers and took off - Kent I mean. Hey, here he comes now!" Kent's brown horse was trotting unhurriedly, unmindful of the extra rider. Ceniro clung to Kent.

"Wish I'd learned to ride a horse," he muttered, eyes wide with excitement. "This is fun!"

"Milady Lyndis!" cried Kent, dismounting. "Let's go to the castle. The marquess has agreed to help us."

"We get a huge escort," grumbled the tactician. For some reason that displeased him.

"What's the matter with that?" asked Erk in surprise. He instantly regretted reminding people of his existance.

"You're an escort, Erk! We don't need one, we've got Erk!" Serra.

"That's not the problem," said Ceniro. "My problem is that with professional soldiers, they are well trained, but that's about it. They're lance overload, and if they're armour knights, they're slow as well. If we run into more bandits, we're in trouble. I'm going to have trouble finding out who's good and who's average, and I hate to admit it, but it's boring to work with and I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of blank-faced robots. They don't respect my judgement, either..."

Kent blinked in surprise. "You might have said something."

Ceniro smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to refuse, because, for all their drawbacks, they'll be a enormous weight off my mind. I won't have to worry about my elite missing sleep for guard duty." Everyone laughed. "No, seriously, they will make the way safer. Our group will be larger, and thus more formidable. No one will attack us, certainly not bandits who are allergic to official troops, and Lord Lundgren will have second thoughts about assaulting us with more regular troops as we get closer to Caelin."

"I don't know about that," Wil reminded him. "Doesn't sound like he'll care, from what you've told me about him."

"We'll worry about him when the time comes," said Kent decisively. He turned to Lyn. "I am truly sorry for all the hardships you've faced."

"Don't worry about it," said Lyn. "You're so capable, Kent."

"Kent!?" exclaimed Sain in mock indignation.

"Oh, yes, and you too, Sain," said Lyn soothingly. Sain grinned. "Well, let's go to the castle and see the marquess."

"You can't!" screamed a little boy, running past in a panic. "It's on fire!"

"Fire!" repeated Wil.

"Fire," said Erk. Happily, his Fire book was tucked in the back of his belt.

"Hey!" yelled a street vendor, pointing at several armed men; Ceniro's head whipped around. "What are those men doing? Wait..." The citizens around the small party suddenly screamed and fled the streets. Lyn's group stood their ground nervously, readying their weapons. A young man in a red cloak nipped around the corner quickly.

A man with a twisted lip, seemingly the leader of the small band of disreputables, gave Lyn an ugly look. "You're Lyndis, huh? Prepare yourself!"

"Lyn!" exclaimed Ceniro. The assassin lunged with a long, wicked knife. Lyn gasped and brought up her sword - too slowly. Time froze.


Chapter 3: Bandits' Pride    Contents    Chapter 5: New Friends