by Jon Kiln
He got ahead of the bandit army by following the path he knew from their approach. Down the stairs and along the back wall, Nisero saw Arianne’s legs as she scrambled over the top of the pile of rubble and squeezed out the back entrance.
Nisero jumped onto the window sill and leapt out ahead of her.
She tumbled down the debris and rose slowly.
“Arianne, we must go.”
She stood facing him and backed away.
“I am lieutenant Nisero of the Elite Guard of the king. I serve your father and we must go now, if you are to live.”
“My father should be behind me.”
“We help him by not being captured. If we get away, he can find us once he is able.”
“Where?” She looked around.
Nisero heard them inside. “This way.”
He took her arm and she allowed it. They ran toward the back wall and around the corner. The ground crumbled under her feet, but Nisero pulled her closer to the wall and to him. He remembered the bandits had talked about setting guards behind the castle, but apparently had not done so in the few minutes before the violence broke out.
“We will be trapped out here,” she said.
“This is the way your father brought us into the castle.”
Nisero reached the end and climbed down to the narrow ledge. He held up his arms and she accepted his hands as she climbed down with him.
Men ran out behind the castle. Two tumbled over the side and fell toward the deadly sea below.
Nisero held Arianne and led her around, away from the castle. They reached the first leap and the gap seemed farther than he remembered. Nisero let go of her and jumped. He stumbled, but held the wall. When he looked back, he saw the bandits following along the ledge. Nisero held out his hands and she jumped. He steadied her on the landing, but she did better than he had.
They continued along more quickly.
Nisero looked back to see archers on the remains of the wall, firing arrows across the expanse at them. The bolts fell well short, but he led them more quickly ahead.
“How will my father follow us, Nisero?”
The lieutenant kept his eyes on the ledge ahead of them, without focusing on the drop to the swill of poisoned water and dead trees. He made sure he had a solid grip on her arm as well.
“Nisero?”
He took a deep breath. “You know your father. He will find a way.”
Nisero mostly believed what he said to be true, but he wasn’t certain Berengar was coming out again. He wasn’t positive why the captain had gone up alone. Clearly, he had freed his daughter and had created enough of a distraction to get her to the stairs. He had no way of knowing Nisero would be in a position to help from there. The bandits almost had them both as they likely had Berengar now, were he even still alive. Solag wanted him alive.
They reached the next break. It had been an easier jump going across than going back. Nisero released Arianne and leapt. He scrambled and held on. He backed up and held out his hands for her.
She looked down and back at him. “I can’t make that.”
“You can. I’ll catch you like before.”
She looked back over her shoulder. “I’m going back for my father.”
“You can’t. The bandits are following on the ledge. They’ll either knock you off trying to seize you, or they will take you back captive.”
“I have to try. If they take me back, I will be with my father and we can escape together.”
Nisero knelt down and shook his head as he held out his arms. “Arianne, no. They want to use your pain to torture him. If they have you both, they will do the worst things to you while they make him watch.”
Her eyes went wide and she shook her head. “No. She fed me and kept me well while we waited.”
Nisero wasn’t sure who she was talking about. Maybe some maid who served the bandits and tended Arianne while she was in the cage. “So your father could watch. Remember what they did to your brother and mother.”
Arianne choked and covered her face. She wavered on her feet, and Nisero was worried that she would fall.
“As long as you are alive, they will search to find you, just like they searched for your father while they held you in wait. They want to torture you both together. That is Solag’s evil plan. If your father was captured, we keep him safe by staying free. We’ll get help and go back to save him before it is too late.”
Nisero felt certain he was lying now.
Arianne swallowed and uncovered her face. “He was free and fighting when I left. I thought he was behind me. Maybe he is free and is still coming.”
“I would not doubt it,” Nisero said. “He probably flees another way and will come around when he is able. We have safe places to hide, and he will look for us there. That is our smartest play, but we must keep moving to stay ahead of them.”
Nisero thought about the cave with the rats and the village of gray skinned cannibals. He shivered and shook his head, hoping that Arianne did not notice.
“Promise me, Nisero, that we will do all we can to see that he is free. I lost a mother, a brother, cousins, friends, my entire village, my home, and everything I’ve ever known to them. I will not lose my father too. I would rather die than allow it.”
“As would I,” Nisero said.
“Swear upon the gods. Swear it to the king.”
Nisero felt cold inside. “I swear it.”
Arianne leapt and he caught her. He turned and led her along the ledge.
They reached the end of the strange lake. Nisero saw next to the petrified crane that a large boar had wandered in and was trapped. Whatever fight it had in it was now gone, and the crystals coated its fur and tusks.
Nisero looked away and led them down the slope until their feet crunched on the slush. He took a deep breath and smelled the fumes again.
“We need to keep moving,” he said.
Nisero led her back away from the shore and off the crunch of the strange salts. He scraped his boots on the jagged rocks and they made the jumps across the dark cracks of the low lands.
He wondered how far they should go before climbing up to one of the proper trails. Solag’s men were combing the mountains searching. The ones behind knew Nisero was leading Arianne this way, and the lowlands between mountains had proved very slow going even when a seasoned warrior had been his travel companion.
Escape was far from guaranteed no matter what choice they made. Nisero was far from allies in every direction.
He had sworn an oath to Berengar’s daughter that he was not at all certain that he could keep. The captain would want Nisero to take her back to the kingdom, to the abandonment of all else. Of this, the lieutenant was entirely certain. That was very far over the most hostile of terrains and hostile of peoples. He did not see a clear path to completing that quest, either.
Nisero came to realize that for all his determination and loyal love of Berengar, that he had never expected to have Arianne’s life in his hands. He couldn’t picture how he thought the quest would end, if they were still alive once it was through, but he apparently had no real vision of success and what to do to keep it now that she was his charge.
He felt a wave of shame as he realized the doubt he had in his captain, who had apparently sacrificed himself to save his daughter, and Nisero, too. He had doubted Berengar, who had ultimately put his full and final faith in Nisero to see Arianne to safety.
“How far must we travel?” she asked.
Nisero cleared his throat as he looked up the Blue Mountains on both sides. “The kingdom is far. It is a great journey under the best of conditions.”
She stopped walking and crossed her arms. “You lied to me.”
Nisero stopped and turned to face her. “What are you talking about?”
“You swore an oath to the gods and your king that you had no intention of keeping.”
“What are you saying? I’m doing all that I can.”
“You would drag me back to the k
ingdom without ever looking for my father. Admit it.”
Nisero shook his head. “I love your father more than my life. He and I were in your village and saw what happened. We pursued the bandits through every evil trap Solag set to take our lives. I went with him into that castle and every other danger to save you. I would die a thousand deaths in this forsaken land or any other unholy battlefield to save him and you. That I swear.”
Arianne looked away. “Why did you say the kingdom is far, instead of the hiding place you told me we were going to, to meet my father?”
“I misunderstood your meaning.” Nisero half grimaced. “My mind was elsewhere. Planning ahead. I was thinking of the next steps and misspoke. We have been cold, beaten, and without food. I am poorly rested and weary to my bones. I apologize for making you doubt your father was a priority for me. I’m just trying to move us to safety for now, so that we have options. That is all.”
“You look worse than he did,” she said.
“I’m a slower learner.”
“I need to rest.”
Nisero nodded. “Let’s keep going until we find a little cover.”
They continued onward and Nisero spotted a ledge down in one of the cracks in the rocks. He suspected the bandits would be looking up, if they made their way this far. It was probably their best option. He wondered if he had passed the spring Berengar had found.
Nisero climbed down and helped her down with him. He guided her around the curve in the rock so they were hidden from view from above.
He sat down next to her and closed his eyes. Exhaustion washed over him and he felt himself drifting toward sleep.
Arianne spoke and Nisero’s eyes snapped back open. “I don’t even really know my father.”
Nisero blinked. “Sorry, now. What’s that?”
“He has always been away at war,” she said, “with the likes of you. I have few real memories of him. I barely recognized him when he leapt to the chain and slid down to free me from the cage. I awoke to his voice and had been dreaming that he was rescuing me when I spoke to him. I almost asked him who he was.”
“You were weary and afraid,” Nisero said. “You know your father, Arianne.”
“He is almost a stranger to me, and now he is all I have left.”
She covered her face and bowed her head. Nisero put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest.
“You know each other well enough to be ready to sacrifice all, to see that the other was saved. There is no greater love in the world than that.”
“How is that different from what Solag has done?”
Nisero swallowed and shook his head as she cried into her hands and his tunic. He did not fully understand her meaning, but he endeavored to answer anyway. “What Solag did is the opposite of love. There is a world of difference between taking a life out of hatred and vengeance, and giving it willingly that another might live.”
“So you know what my father did to Solag’s family?”
“I don’t know what that bandit monster told you.” Nisero spoke through gritted teeth. “But taking life on the battlefield to defend life is not the same thing as murdering innocents and burning them alive in villages. I’ve seen what Solag did, and I have heard the terror and evil he spreads across multiple lands. He must fall the same as his father fell, and the same as anyone that would put on the horned crown of evil after him.”
Arianne pulled away from Nisero and turned aside. “Solag is a daughter like me, and not a son.”
Nisero stared. “What?”
“My father killed Zulag and Zulag’s son, Solag, on the same day in the same battle.”
“Solag is dead? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know what Zulag’s daughter, Solag’s sister, was once called, but she goes by Solag, Son of Zulag now. The bandits believe she is the spiritual embodiment of Zulag and Solag in one. She is the king and the heir to them. They worship and fear her as a god.”
Nisero rubbed at his eyes, tiredly. He thought about the tapestry, hanging above the hearth in the cottage of the bandit parents of the boys they had spared. “Solag is the daughter of Zulag, worshiped as a god? There is nothing more dangerous than those that believe they are on the side of the righteous.”
Arianne sighed. “Isn’t that usually both sides in most conflicts?”
Nisero opened his mouth to protest, but a shadow passed by his feet. He glanced up and saw dark figures moving by the opening overhead. They were looking up.
“What?” Arianne said.
Nisero touched her lips with his outstretched finger. He put his hand gently on her shoulder and pushed her back against the wall next to him.
The voices above spoke in the broken language Nisero had heard closer to the border.
One voice said in words Nisero understood, “They had to come this way.”
Another answered. “I see something ahead. Stay sharp.”
Silence followed their passing. After a moment, Nisero heard metal on metal and shouting. He and Arianne exchanged a look. He stared back at the opening above. The battle continued and became louder.
Nisero started to climb. Arianne grabbed his cloak, eyes wide. He held up his hand and she let go. Nisero climbed slowly to steal a look. He considered that enemies of the bandits might be friends, but not for certain.
Chapter 16: Even Darker Reaches
Berengar sheathed his sword that he might increase his speed. He could hear the bandits in the passages behind him, but there was activity in the reaches ahead. He heard voices switch from the language of the kingdom to the native tribal tongues. He suspected this was a tactic to prevent him from hearing their strategy for cutting him off in the dark passages of the castle.
He got the impression that they might be almost as confused as he was by the twists and turns. They obviously had no intention of chasing him through the castle. Instead, they were trying to force him into their midst again.
Berengar emerged in a wider hall. Windows let in light through broken glass high above him—too high to climb out. He expected that they were surrounding the grounds at this point, either chasing his daughter and Nisero, or trying to prevent him from slipping through.
He cut to the left to a stretch of stairs leading downward. He could not judge through the high, narrow windows, but he guessed he was at the back wall again. The castle could not go on forever, unless some ancient curse had made it larger on the inside than the outside. Berengar believed strongly in the limitless, evil depths of the human spirit, but the castles that men built surely had limits.
If he could follow the exterior wall and travel down to the ground floor, he would find a way out eventually. Surrounded by bandits or not, he could not stay inside forever.
After three steps down, he heard voices and boots approaching from that direction. He turned and ran back the other way. He needed to hide a bit longer.
Berengar saw motion up his original passage as the first party of pursuers closed the distance during his hesitation. The captain fled up the hall, leading along the back wall in the only unoccupied direction.
He knew this blind run had to end with him trapped between them, if he did not find a way to choose his own path instead of just fleeing from theirs. He did not seem to have that option at the moment, so he ran.
Berengar looked into each empty chamber opposite the exterior wall. Furniture was stripped out of each one, leaving empty cells with no proper hiding places.
The captain passed a window that was low enough for him to look out. He seized the crisscrossed bars and jerked them back and forth. They groaned against their bolts around the stone frame, but had no give and would not budge beyond the slight flex in the metal itself.
From the look, Berengar appeared to be three or four levels up. Through the shattered glass beyond the bars, he saw bandits milling about the back grounds. They looked toward the break in the back wall and showed no sense of urgency. Berengar hoped beyond hope that that meant there had been a successful escap
e. If it turned out to be the only one of the day, he could accept those results, even if the insane bandit queen girl-child of Zulag would not allow him to live much longer. Berengar was willing to count that a victory. He just hoped that Nisero would see the quest through, and not allow his own loyalty, or his daughter’s insistence, to turn him back for a rescue.
Berengar felt a deep, pulling fear at the thought that they might let their desire to rescue him cloud their judgment. It was not lost on the captain that he had done the same in order to free his daughter. He also knew that were their situations reversed, he would likely come back for Nisero.
The steps approached from the passage behind him. Berengar abandoned the bars and window. He ran through the passage.
He spied a broken door ahead and a dark set of stairs. He was not sure where they led nor if they were a dead end, but he suspected that remaining in the better lit passages was serving the bandit forces more than himself at this point.
Berengar took the steps at a full run and held the wall to maintain his balance. The walls were damp and grew slimy as he descended deeper. His own breathing echoed off the walls and almost sounded like another being in the darkness with him.
His feet went out from under him and he slid on the slick steps down a few sharp edges on his back. He raised his head to avoid striking the back of his skull as he fell. Berengar turned to the side to halt his bumpy fall. Pain welled in his hip and he took a breath to let it pass.
If he had still been holding his sword, he would have probably fallen on it in his awkward spill.
Berengar clamored to his feet and limped the rest of the way down the stairs. He followed the wet brick through the darkness with the sounds of his feet, his harsh breathing, and the voices of his pursuers confusing his senses. He felt his balance twist in the dark as he held onto the wall, and he wondered if he might have hit his head after all.
He lost the wall in a curve and wandered out into the open, his hands held out in front of him. He expected to drop over an unseen edge, either into an icy well filled with the skeletons of the dead king’s warriors, or onto jagged rocks meant to end fools like himself.
