When the Arkine army moves, we move too, jolting, rolling into each other, even when seated. I am hungry and thirsty, as are we all. And life in a cage is a misery to a child of streets and rooftops like me. Only the paladin seems to be in good spirits. The inferni, on the other hand, is angry in a deep and unshakeable fashion and when Aarax accidentally falls across him, no apology will do.
‘A curse on you,’ says Amaris, showing his fangs like a fierce dog, ‘and on your parents, your grandparents, their parents, and all your dynasty back to the first human.’
‘Goodness. Such venom over a minor – and unavoidable – inconvenience. Adversity really brings out your insufferable side.’ Lady Horsta is standing, one hand holding the bars, the other shading her brow from the light and staring out at the marching Arkine soldiers close by. She doesn’t bother to look at the inferni.
Amaris, on the other hand, is glaring at the paladin through long strands of his bedraggled white hair. ‘The worst type of human is the one who accuses others of exactly that failing which is the largest flaw in their own character. There is no more insufferable person in the Twenty-Five Kingdoms than you. That you behave with such good cheer in these bitter circumstances makes me feel like smashing your face against those bars to teach you how firm they are.’
‘You need to be patient, my former friend. The army that surrounds us will be defeated by my comrades and we will be released.’
‘Do you think so?’ asks Belle. Poor Belle, dusty and tired. Pale under the unshaded sun.
‘I know it. We saw off the Jomskar Vikings and we’ll see off these soldiers too. They’ve no siege engines. Not even ladders. The walls of Callondum are tall and strong. The Arkine army has no other option than to try to starve the citizens into surrender. They will fail and it will be them who suffer in the end.’
‘And yet their general didn’t strike me as a fool,’ observes Lisandra from where she has wedged herself into a corner at the front, in a hopeless effort to reduce the impact of the cart’s uneven motion.
‘I have no faith in Trolland,’ says the inferni, ‘and though you talk of patience, you cannot know what will be our fate even if the Arkine army is defeated. They might choose to kill us before they retreat. We should take matters into our own hands if we can. You there, rogue, you escaped the barn. Can you escape this cage?’
He is looking at me with his grim, red eyes.
I don’t know what to say. The truth is that given another day or so, I probably can.
The longer I delay my answer, the more interested everyone becomes. Soon, all faces are turned towards me. They yearn for hope.
‘Well?’ demands the assassin.
‘I might be able to escape,’ I admit in a low voice, though there is some much noise from the soldiers and horses tramping across the grassland that it is impossible for our jailer or driver at the front to hear anything less than a shout, ‘at a later date.’
‘After dark?’
I shrug.
Belle smiles at me. ‘Crow, you are the star that guides lost sailors.’
Behind iron bars as I am, I should be miserable. Yet the admiration and confidence in Belle’s eyes fills me with determination. I am Crow, the fine fellow. I will save my friends and rescue my city. More than this, I realise with the sun in my heart that I would rather be in a prison with Belle than free to roam streets from which she has been prohibited by her mother.
‘Just as well I didn’t hang you!’ says the paladin cheerfully.
The inferni scowls at his companion. ‘We should have hung them all, while we could. Then we wouldn’t have had to meet with the Arkines. Nor would our rooms have been robbed.’ His scarlet eyes turn to me with baleful anger. What can I say? The inferni’s assumption that I was responsible for those thefts is entirely correct. The items I procured that night were in the cart whose contents were taken by the cavalry troop, so even if I wanted to – I didn’t – I could not return them. Insofar as a crow can look innocent, which is not very much, I try my best.
‘What happened?’ asks Gerard, a touch mockingly, ‘how come you two are prisoners?’
Lady Horsta turns away from the bars to look at him steadily before answering. A breeze across her short, light hair seems to be teasing it with affection, causing her stare to lose any power of intimidation. ‘We failed to catch you in Callondum, so decided to alert the border guards at Sartas and the Arkine Empire. Having no idea the emperor was planning to invade Trolland, we asked for a meeting with the Arkines to obtain their assistance in capturing you if you tried to cross one of the bridges over the River Evrotes. Instead of honouring the code of conduct for emissaries, Count Bassilos arranged a parley, only to betray us and put us in this cage.’
‘And now you are dependent on us to get you out. How’s that feel?’ Gerard is definitely mocking them. To what purpose I cannot tell. Perhaps it is simply his nature. And while I would not put such scorn in my voice, I too am glad they are suffering as we suffered at their hands.
‘Unpleasant to be sure,’ says the paladin.
‘Do you provoke me?’ snarls the inferni. ‘Continue in that manner and see what happens.’ Amaris adjusts his legs; he is ready to spring up.
Blood and fangs. I am suddenly alarmed. In the confines of this cage, a violent inferni assassin is a severe danger. If he chose to do so, Amaris would be able to kill us all before the Arkine guards prevented it. Belle and I were useless without our weapons or ability to manoeuvre; did Lisandra have any spells? Or had her confinement for over a day exhausted them? Aarax at least could heal Gerard. Gerard’s life tap would give him a chance, if he still retained it. The inferni is in such a terrible temper that I feel the presence of death at my shoulder.
‘Let’s be calm and reasonable.’ Staggering somewhat as the cart lurches, Lady Horsta moves to the inferni and puts a hand on his shoulder. ‘These are our allies in adversity.’ She looks over at Lisandra. ‘We should reach an accord. Amaris here will agree not to savagely tear the throats out of you all and in return, your rogue will get us all out.’
‘Lovely,’ says Lisandra with a laugh.
‘And what then?’ asks Belle.
Both paladin and inferni look at her.
‘Suppose Crow gets that door open and we manage to escape. Do we split up? Or work together to get clear of this army. Will you continue to hunt us? Do we fight each other if we meet again?’
Lady Horsta has light blue eyes that are currently thoughtful. ‘It seemed to me that you were about to suggest something else. Something interesting.’
‘What?’
‘Why not stay together as a group: rogue, sorceress, druid, paladin, assassin and…?’ A glance at Gerard.
‘Shadowknight,’ he says. She laughs.
‘Shadowknight. Perfect. And you?’ Now the paladin looks at Belle.
‘Shadow dancer.’ A blink of those now surprised eyes. ‘That’s an unusual class.
Looking eager now, Lady Horsta continues, ‘We could travel together and get those dragon’s teeth with much more chance of success than journeying apart.’
Everyone, to judge by the silence, is as surprised by this proposal as I.
Intuitivecrow says yes. Says of course we cannot trust these two, the paladin even less than the assassin. Yet what she offers is powerful fighting strength, which we are sure to need for some of the challenges ahead. They won’t all be solved by wits.
‘What do you think, my brother-in-arms?’ Lithe, as she balances against the lurches of the cart, the paladin is looking down at the assassin.
‘I agree to it.’
‘Over to your group then.’
‘We will never ally with you,’ says Belle. ‘You’re unscrupulous. You’ll kill us when you get the chance.’
‘I will swear an oath of security that I cannot break without ceasing to be a paladin. You just have to not give Amaris the opportunity to slay you all and we’ll be fine.’
‘I think it’s a good idea,’ says Lisandra, causing Belle to turn sharply towards the sorceress. ‘What do you think Crow. You are good at understanding people. Can we believe they will honour their oaths?’
‘Believe? No. But even so. If Lord Scanthax were witness to this scene, I think he would urge us to form a team. The Epico Draco Missio is nearly impossible to complete; with all seven of us it becomes a possible feat. We must get the dragon army in time to save our homes; a reckoning between our groups till the end we can postpone.’
I watch Belle’s eyes narrow. Does she understand my thinking? At the moment, the fact that the paladin and assassin are higher level than us gives them great advantage in any fight between our groups. But with the EXP gains of all the dragon tooth quests, we will level up to close to them and then our five will outweigh their two. More, there is my secret. Belle does know this, but I am confident that by the time we come to blows with the paladin and the inferni, as we must, my skills will have advanced sufficiently to more than match theirs.
‘Aarax?’ Lisandra looks to our druid, who turns to Lady Horsta.
‘You might be a paladin but you are not a nice person. Despite this, it makes sense to group with you.’
‘Gerard?’
‘Why not?’
‘All right then,’ Belle gets up from the floor of the cage. ‘What oath are you going to take?’
‘Whatever you want.’
‘Is there a typical oath of security for this kind of agreement?’
‘There are plenty of precedents.’
‘Tell us one.’
‘Really? It’s rather tedious.’
‘Go ahead. It’s not as if we have other matters to attend to.’
The paladin shrugs. ‘All right. The typical oath goes, In the name of my god, Daspartar, Lord of Thunder, I, Eloise Horsta, Lady of blah, blah, blah, in the presence of blah, blah, blah, swear that I will always be a faithful comrade to thee, whatever your name is, and to thy companions in all things in which a paladin is required to be faithful to the person who accepts this oath, and I will defend thee, shadow dancer, and all thy companions, against all malefactors and enemies.
‘And if I do not observe to thee or to thy companions faith and loyalty and should fail in deed or spirit, may Daspartar strip me of the class of paladin and expel me from His faith, no longer able to obtain spells or His blessing in any form.’
‘That sounds ideal, my name is Belle. Go ahead and swear to me.’
Lady Horsta looks a little rueful but smiles at us all the same. ‘Very well, only I shall add this too, that the oath will last until you or your companions have twenty of the twenty-four dragon’s teeth. Is that acceptable?’
‘It is.’
Kneeling, one hand on a cage bar to steady herself, the other offered to Belle, who takes it in one of hers, the paladin swears the oath with such sincerity that I believe her.
‘There,’ she says when done. ‘Now it’s over to you rogue. Get us out of this cage and journeying onwards in our quest.’