‘No. Leave him there for now. I’ll see to him later. I was just a bit worried he might have been forgotten. We were gone for a long time.’
‘So what happened?’ asked Lady Sophie.
‘After Elena, Immosey and Louisa were taken from the barge at East Inlet, we went across to Warbilla and through the Khynol gap. We managed to join with Prince Kelian and his men, who were also trying to find the girls, so we went south together.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Evan interrupted. ‘Why were the ladies taken in the first place?’
‘From what Lias has told me, the fallen abducted Louisa because she is of the Daoine Maithe,’ Dale explained. ‘Apparently the Guardians and the fallen were once the same race, but they were supposed to be servants or guards or something like that. But some wanted their freedom, and they got it, but they had to sacrifice some of their abilities to keep this freedom. The Daoine Maithe call them fallen, but the fallen call themselves free. So the Guardians were sent to keep an eye on them, to make sure they didn’t interfere too much with the humans. That explains why the Guardians can do all kinds of weird and ridiculous things, and the fallen are not as fast or strong as they might be.’ He stopped as he noticed that both Callian and Lias were looking offended. ‘That’s not exactly what I meant. I’m sorry. That sounded insulting. Both of you can hear my thoughts as easily as you wish, so you know I have only the highest respect for you. Lias is strong enough and fast enough to be more than a little frightening, and Callian’s gifts are remarkable.’
‘It’s true,’ Lias conceded, grinning wickedly. ‘Callian is definitely ridiculous and weird.’
Callian huffed indignantly. ‘You really shouldn’t insult someone you’re too slow to run away from, Lias,’ he said drily.
‘Enough,’ said King’s Marshall Danil, barely hiding a smirk. ‘Continue please Dale.’
‘Callian could probably explain this better, but it’s believed that if a Guardian was to mate with one of the fallen, their child would possess the freedom of the fallen and the power of the Guardians, and the fallen believe such a child would be able to return to the fallen all of their lost abilities. Nandul of Tarl seeks to make this happen. The Guardians know that if he’s successful, the fallen will have the ability to wipe out every human in this land, and the Guardians would be hard pressed to stop them. But Nandul kidnapped Louisa for this very purpose, and he took Elena and Immosey to make sure Louisa didn’t try to escape. So, we snuck into Nyinaku, stole his captives and left as quickly as we could, some of us with Lias and some with Milgorry of Tarl.’
‘I’m surprised you were offered help by anyone in Nyinaku,’ said Lady Sophie.
‘The craziest thing is that Milgorry is Nandul’s son,’ said Dale and General Marnol’s jaw dropped.
‘That really is crazy,’ said Marnol. ‘I wonder what his motive was.’
‘Love,’ said Dale, smiling as he remembered how smitten the warrior was with Louisa.
‘You have got to be joking!’ Marnol exclaimed. ‘What do you mean, ‘love’?’
‘You know. ‘Love!’ Where fallen warrior meets captive Guardian and they fall in love and she finds herself carrying his child,’ said Dale drily.
‘Whoa! I wonder what the other Guardians will think of that!’ Marnol exclaimed, turning questioningly to Callian.
‘I don’t believe Dale has finished explaining what happened in Nyinaku,’ said Callian coldly.
‘Alright,’ said Marnol, looking crestfallen. ‘Continue please, Dale.’
‘There’s not a lot more to tell. When we arrived back here, I thought this mess was Nandul taking revenge for our actions, but Lias doesn’t believe this is the case, and I trust his judgment.’ Dale glanced at Lias as he said this and the warrior raised his eyebrows skeptically. ‘So,’ he continued, ‘I would love to know who is responsible for what happened here.’
‘Dale, we have no idea who they were,’ Baroness Kielie admitted. ‘They were not fallen. I would have known. The fallen killed my husband at East Inlet.’ She gazed at Lias with a mixture of sadness and anger in her expression. Baron Scott had been killed by the fallen in the attack on Dale’s home town of East Inlet, in the same battle where Dale’s parents had been killed.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lias sincerely. ‘The destruction of East Inlet was an atrocity which should never have happened. I wish now that we’d had the sense to stop Nandul before he brought so much pain to so many people.’
Kielie stared at Lias with confusion in her eyes. ‘Were you there, warrior?’ she asked.
Lias inclined his head sadly. ‘I was there.’ He stared into her sad eyes for a moment and his guilt and grief was tangible. ‘Lady,’ he said and his voice was almost a whisper. ‘My people took your husband, and so my life is yours to take. If you can find peace through my return, I will offer this.’ He ignored the look of disbelief and perplexity coming from Callian. Kielie stared at Lias, and her huge eyes sparkled with tears.
‘No,’ she said softly. ‘That only brings more grief. It’s too late.’ She continued to look at Lias with sadness and confusion. She felt profound anger towards him and yet she felt a strange urge to reach out and touch his face, as even in her resentment her heart felt compassion towards this warrior who had little chance of returning safely to his home and family. Her heart pained with sympathy towards him. She heard his sudden intake of breath and she blanched and dropped her gaze. She stared at the table, embarrassed that he could sense what she felt. She wondered how she could have any compassion towards someone whose people had killed her husband and an intense feeling of guilt surged through her. Lias continued to stare at her with a similar look of uncertainty and unhappiness.
‘What happened here?’ Dale prompted once again.
‘Well, none of us saw it coming, that’s certain,’ said General Marnol. ‘The King and his sister, Princess Elizabeth went with her husband Duke Li, to see him on his way back to Emerald. They never even got as far at the city gates.’ He paused as a soldier with bright red hair appeared in the doorway. ‘Private Leonard. Report please.’
‘Bluey!’ Evan and Alexander exclaimed simultaneously, leaping up and shaking hands with Private Leonard.
‘Good to see you, Bluey!’ Evan added with a grin and the men laughed and slapped each other on the back.
‘Bluey?’ Lady Sophie looked questioningly at Evan.
‘It’s the red hair,’ Evan explained. ‘No-one at Highview wanted to be in Bluey’s training team because the ‘enemy’ could always see his white skin and red hair. Then someone would shout out ‘good to see you Bluey!’ and the game would be up,’ he explained.
‘It’s not my fault I have red hair!’ Private Leonard said indignantly.
Alexander grinned. ‘As I recall, you got hold of some foul smelling black paste and tried to paint yourself black, hair included. The horrible stuff was all over your bed and stank out the entire barracks.’
‘It wasn’t one of my better moments,’ Private Leonard admitted sheepishly.
‘Bring your report Private,’ said General Marnol and Evan and Alexander returned to the table.
‘Sir, everyone who wanted to come has been brought into the keep. I have the men with no families using the barracks and families with women and children are on the third above level,’ he said, referring to the third floor of the keep, well above the motte which ran around the base of the castle. ‘What should we do with the ones who are refusing to come?’
‘They have no choice. Make sure they are aware of this,’ said General Marnol adamantly.
‘Yes sir,’ Private Leonard answered, looking worried.
‘Perhaps they would be willing to come if they were given a little more information,’ Lady Sophie suggested. ‘After all, they aren’t soldiers.’
‘True,’ General Marnol conceded. ‘Alright, make sure they know that there is likely to be disease, with all the dead bodies and not enough soldiers to bury them quickly enough, and remind them that we have no idea whet
her we will be attacked again or not.’
‘I hope that’s enough, sir. Some have been adamant in their decision to stay in their burnt out homes.’
‘Perhaps you just need to remind them that there’s food in the keep?’ Evan suggested.
‘Good plan!’ General Marnol agreed. ‘Continue Private.’
‘I’ve arranged to have all salvageable food and clothing, and anything else useful, brought into the keep and a group of the older children are sorting it for us. Some of the older ladies wanted to look after washing blankets and clothing and there are some young men and women who are willing to hunt to keep our food supplies up.’
‘Who do we have in charge of food supplies and preparation?’ asked General Marnol.
‘Kitchen Master Tolly,’ Private Leonard replied and Dale smiled, relieved to know his friend was alive.
‘And who were the men I saw earlier at the docks?’
‘They were fishermen. I asked them to try to find some boats. We’re going to need a lot more food, at least until we get a decent shipment through, so I thought it might be good if we could get some fish, sir.’
‘Good. Who is organizing the burial of the bodies?’
‘I am sir, with the help of Trainer.’
‘I want you to get someone else to supervise this. I need Trainer Larrence up here.’
‘Yes sir, will there be anything else, sir?’
‘Yes. Organize for someone to relieve Lieutenant Callum, he’s guarding the tunnel behind the baker’s door, and send him to me please. Then spread the word that all soldiers are to assemble within the keep precisely at sundown. That will be all, Sergeant.’
‘Er, I’m Private Leonard, sir.’
‘I know who you are Sergeant,’ said General Marnol. ‘Ensure you change your uniform vest immediately so everyone else knows.’
‘Thank you, sir!’ Sergeant Leonard exclaimed as he dashed from the room.
‘You’re welcome,’ said General Marnol drily, to the empty doorway.
‘Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of ceremony when a soldier is promoted?’ Lady Sophie asked, staring bemusedly at her husband.
He nodded. ‘When all this is over... Where was I? Ah yes. So the King, Princess and Duke were somewhere between here and the city gates, surrounded by King’s Knights of course, when we heard the alarm bells from the harbor watchtower. Next thing there were three ships in the harbor, but they were our ships! They’d taken our ships! So as you know, our vessels are all armed with massive crossbows fitted to the ship’s bulwarks. And they weren’t just firing arrows. They were shooting out massive flaming bolts, and they sat out in the middle of the harbor and what didn’t sink outright ended up burned down to the water line.’ He leaned forward and rested his head in his hand for a moment. ‘It was terrible. The entire crew of each ship was gone.’ General Marnol stared sadly down as the table, lost in memories. ‘We managed to sink one of the boats.’
‘Really?’ Dale was impressed. ‘How?’
‘The ballistae on the harbor side of the outer curtain wall were able to reach the nearest ship. We decided to send a few of our own flaming bolts back at them, and down it went. Unfortunately we couldn’t even get close to the other two ships. Meanwhile we were being invaded from the southern side of the city. What’s really strange is that no-one saw them coming. One moment everything’s going along as per normal, then suddenly all hell breaks loose and we have a city full of murdering pyromaniacs.’
‘And we have no idea who they are?’ asked Dale. ‘What did they look like? How were they dressed? Did anyone hear them speak?’
‘They were about the same size as humans, but very pale like they’d never been in the sun, white hair and almost colorless eyes,’ Evan answered. ‘I think I was one of the few who actually saw one and lived to tell the tale.’
‘You got that close?’ General Marnol asked incredulously.
Evan nodded grimly. ‘They were quick,’ he said. ‘They managed to kill a lot of people in a short time just because they moved so fast, maybe not as fast as the Guardians, but a lot faster than us.’
‘What else did you notice?’ asked Dale.
‘Well, you asked if we heard them speak. That one’s easy! No. They didn’t speak. They didn’t shout. They didn’t make the slightest sound at any point of the battle. It was kind of eerie actually.’
‘And their clothing? Uniforms?’
‘The one I saw was wearing a kind of brown leather skirt, and I heard that a few were wearing clothing I think they had stolen, probably from people they killed. No shoes, nothing on their heads.’
‘Weapons?’
‘Swords. Nothing else that I saw, apart from using our cross bows on the ships of course,’ said Evan grumpily.
‘And no-one knows where the King, Princess and Duke disappeared to?’
‘No trace of them. The carriage was burned, but there were no bodies. There was one other thing,’ Evan added hesitantly. ‘They seemed to sort of…’ He stopped, wondering if he was about to sound foolish. ‘It was as if they could disappear like leaf tailed geckos. One moment you could see them, and then the next second it was like they melted into the surroundings.’
Dale frowned as his eyes fell on Lias. The warrior was leaning forward in his chair with his palms flat on the table and his lips pressed together in a hard line. He was staring straight at Callian with a look of fear on his face. During the time they had spent escaping from Nyinaku, the warrior had shown calm composure in even the direst situations, but now he appeared anything but calm.
Chapter 5
Fallen Warrior
Louisa sighed gratefully as she knelt in the darkness beside her bed. Peta had collected mounds of straw and made tidy little beds for each person, covering the straw neatly with their own blankets. Araas and Borgulnay were taking the first watch and Timbul and Milgorry were to take the second. Louisa was glad she could sleep. She slid between the blankets and stifled a scream as a pair of arms wrapped around her. Milgorry drew her close to his body and held her tightly.
‘When all this is over, we should hold a marriage ceremony,’ he said quietly.
‘But that’s a human custom,’ Louisa objected. ‘Neither of us is human.’
‘That is true, and I suppose so far we done things in the order the Guardians require of their people.’
‘Which is?’
‘If Guardians fall in love they may bond. Only then are they permitted to declare themselves as married partners, because bonding is marriage. Once they bond they are inseparably bound for eternity. And it’s a physical tie. It cannot be undone or broken.’
‘I like the sound of that,’ Louisa murmured, snuggling against Milgorry’s chest. ‘Do the same rules apply to the free?’
‘No. They once did, but this was taken from us. I imagine we could bond with a human, as is now required of us, but...well, you know how my people feel about humans.’
‘But we are bonded,’ Louisa said confidently. ‘That night on the Ice coast…I know you felt it too Mil.’
‘Yes,’ Milgorry confirmed. ‘Perhaps this happened because you are a Guardian. Whatever the reason, we are bonded forever.’
She sighed as comfort and love filled her heart. When she woke he was not beside her. He was standing slightly back from the window wearing trousers and boots and he was armed. He had left his shirt on the end of the bed for Louisa’s use. He frowned as he peered into the darkness. Louisa pulled the shirt over her head and dressed in her borrowed trousers before joining him. Without looking away from the window he reached out and held her hand. They stood together in silence.
‘Something’s not right,’ he muttered. ‘No birds!’
‘What about birds?’ said Louisa, feeling confused.
‘I can’t hear any. It’s almost dawn. The kookaburras should be laughing by now,’ he said uneasily as Timbul appeared beside them.
‘Araas and Borg will be here shortly. It’s our watch,’ said Timbul.
&n
bsp; ‘Something’s wrong,’ Milgorry replied.
‘Should we wake everyone? Do you think we should get them away from here?’
‘Not yet. I’m going outside for a look around.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ said Timbul, but Milgorry shook his head.
‘No. If something happens you’ll be needed here. I won’t be long.’ Milgorry slid through the window and melted into the darkness. Louisa didn’t say anything as she watched him go. He saw no-one as he slipped into the bushes beside the farmer’s barn. The barn was built with a peaked roof supported by beams which led down to three-quarter walls, allowing a gap at the top for air circulation. Milgorry leaned up against the wall, listening intently, and then he turned and caught hold of the top of the wall and pulled himself up. There was no-one inside, and no animals, so he lowered himself to the ground. With remarkable stealth, he made his way around the perimeter of the house yard, keeping as invisible as he possibly could whilst taking in every detail of his surroundings until he was back at the barn. He had seen no-one, but he did not for an instant believe there was no-one hiding in the darkness. He slipped back towards the window and then changed his mind and made for the front door. Louisa nearly leapt through the ceiling in fright when Milgorry knocked loudly. She rushed to the door and opened it and Milgorry walked casually inside as if deliberately calling attention to his presence.
‘What’s happening?’ she whispered in alarm. He closed the door firmly and then held his finger to his lips and beckoned for her to follow him. He darted back into the room in which they had been sleeping and handed his sword to Louisa, then he climbed partway through the window. ‘Give me a leg up,’ he said quietly, adjusting his bow and quiver so they would not hinder his climb. Louisa grabbed his foot and pushed him upwards. He caught the edge of the roof and disappeared from sight.
He lay flat against the roof, hoping no-one had seen him, and then he rolled onto his chest and stared around. All was still. For ten minutes he lay listening and staring downwards and around into the trees. His gaze was caught by a momentary flick of light, like someone striking steel against flint. He crawled across the roof, keeping as low as possible, and peered down towards the corner of the house. A dark shape slid from beneath the house and moved towards the forest. Without hesitation he rolled into a crouch and nocked an arrow. The sound of the bow seemed unnaturally loud in the darkness, as did the thud of the man’s body as it hit the ground. Only the creaking of the roof saved Milgorry as a second person slid down the thatch towards him, holding a very large and wicked looking knife. The man’s face registered disbelief as Milgorry appeared to be preparing to launch his body backwards from the roof, whilst drawing his knife. At the last second Milgorry’s arm shot out and he grabbed the man’s knife arm by the wrist and dragged him over the edge as he fell.
The Fallen (Book 1) Page 51
