C&C and MSTs welcome.
Pure Fury
Part 2
by Rarstarr
The suite of rooms put aside for the Lionbane family were, of course,
opulent. They consisted of a main room for the purposes of entertaining
guest, a study complete with a small library and a number of bedrooms,
each with separate bathrooms. A set of French doors lead from the main
room out onto a porch then from there into a small private garden. For
Jun all this was put into perspective by the fact that the entire suite
was larger than Master Yo's house and dojo combined.
Cain immediately headed for the nearest bed chamber, pushing open the
door. "This is the master bedroom, my stuff'll be in here, I suppose
your's will be in one of the others," he told Jun, who nodded in
acknowledgement
"You spend a long time soaking in that bath, you smell rusty," she
returned.
The pair split up, Cain going into his room to strip off his armour, Jun
to find her room. After a few minutes of searching Jun returned to Cain's
door and knocked on it. Cain opened the door and wordlessly handed to her
the bags containing her clothes. Without uttering a sound Jun stalked off
to claim a room.
*****
The palace ballrooms looked like something from a legendary tale. Bright
chandeliers lit the room, bathing the dancers and the orchestra in light.
Couples, decked out in the latest fashions, waltzed around the floor.
Jun and Cain had dressed in what they considered to be their best
clothes. For Cain this meant a black suit with the Lionbane crest
emblazoned on the chest. Jun wore what, for a formal ball, was a
revealing red Salan dress, something Master Yo had made for her sixteenth
birthday. Instead of her usual loose hairstyle she had her hair in two
long braids, one of which was pulled over her shoulder to cascade down
her front. The pair stood apart from the rest of the guests, watching the
dance.
"So what are the two young hunters up to?" a voice boomed from behind
them. They turned to find King Baram standing behind them. "Don't the two
of you dance?"
Cain spread his hands. "No dance partners sir," he explained.
Baram looked a little flustered at the unexpected answer. "What about
each other?" he inquired.
The pair looked at each other, then looked at the King. "Why?" they both
asked in all honesty.
The King looked thoughtful for a second then excused himself, heading for
another part of room. It wasn't long before the first of the young men
came to invite Jun to dance. After one such invitation Jun came stalking
back, fury written across her face.
"That that..." she growled as she approached Cain.
"What happened?"
"That pompous little fop had the gall to feel me up," she seethed.
"What did you do to him?" Cain asked, peering past her to look for the
young man she had been dancing with.
"I told him to move his hand or his arm would bend both ways. He decided
that it wasn't worth the pain," she smiled wicked at him.
Cain rolled his eyes. "At least you the grace to finish the dance with
him, though you've probably scared away your admirers."
"Then at least something good's come out of it. Hey, how come you haven't
had the ladies chasing after you?" she demanded.
Cain shrugged. "Maybe they're not interested in a runt like me. I mean
for most of the women here I barely pass their shoulders." The two
friends laughed, unaware that they were being watched.
Lord Manfred Torret was a weasel of a man, in fact he had often found
other nobles distrusting him simply because of his looks. This had a
tendency to change once they grew to know him, they started distrusting
him for his personality. Unfortunately for the world in general, the
county he called home was rich in gem deposits, leaving Torret a powerful
man.
His ever present bodyguard was a burly man, well armed and armoured. He
was the large type that people often thought of as stupid, people
thinking that had already made a major mistake. Gorrad was anything but
stupid.
"Who is she?" the bodyguard inquired, following his Lord's gaze.
"A pretty little half Salan commoner, she came in with the Lionbane boy,"
Manfred replied, suppressing the urge to wring his hands.
Gorrad appraised the girl. "Looks like a hard women, I'm sure you would
enjoy her. Do you want to acquire her?" he inquired.
"Not yet, I want to know more about her first, she may have powerful
friends. Investigate her, plan carefully, you may need to wait till after
she leaves Lania Tor."
"I know my job," Gorrad told him flatly.
"Then know this, the King has interest in the Lionbane brat, and gave
them a private audience. We don't dare anger him, I can wait for her. "
He grinned evilly at the unsuspecting girl. "Oh yes, I can wait."
*****
A page arrived to fetch Jun and Cain the next morning. He was surprised
to find a man in full armour and a woman practising fighting techniques
in the main room. The King's summons brought them to his personal study,
a room that contained no more than a desk full of papers and a few
chairs.
"So hunters, are you prepared for a mission?" The King's gaze was focused
on Cain. "One that should aid you in your quest, of course."
"Of course your majesty," they both replied together.
"Good, I'm sending you to an abbey near Solles. The abbot there is an old
comrade-in-arms of myself, Yo and Lionbane. I want you to tell him what
you told me. He'll direct you on to another man who should be able to aid
you in finding the airship." He took a deep breath. "I'm also sending
along my daughter to aid you."
"What?!" Jun exploded.
The King silenced her with a look. "Sarana is an elementalist, I think
you'll find her useful. Other than that she's going as my
representative."
"We'll need to get more supplies then sir, and probably another horse,"
Cain told him, already resigned to this new turn of fate.
"Sarana will probably take her stallion and I will, of course, resupply
you. You'll leave as soon as you're ready."
*****
Jun coolly regarded the pure white stallion standing proudly amongst
their horses. Unlike the pair she and Cain rode this one wore no bags on
its saddle.
"I wonder what she'll do if we lose the pack horses," she commented
sourly.
Cain shrugged as he checked the packs. "Maybe she can magic something
up," he volunteered. "You ready to go?"
"'Course I am. I looked over my packs while you were checking your
armour, we're just waiting for her ladyship." The last was said
sarcastically.
"Well don't look now, but here she comes."
Jun turned to face the new member of their group. Princess Sarana Edenin
was a woman of grace and beauty, not surprising, considering her
pedigree. Her soft brown hair was braided into a crown around her head,
and she walked towards them with purposeful strides. Cain watched his
friend as she watched the princess' approach, and spotted the first
clouds of a coming storm.
"Come, we have wasted enough time as it is, we leave now!" Sarana told
them imperiously.
"We!" fumed Jun through clenched teeth, her hands tightening into fists.
Sarana mounted her stallion with ease, then turned her gaze on Jun, who
returned it. After a few moments Sarana gave a quite snort and urged her
steed into a walk. Jun swung effortlessly into her saddle and her horse
started forward. Cain, unnoticed, rolled his eyes and sighed. This could
turn into a long journey.
*****
Gorrad cursed quietly at the messengers news. His target had already left
the city, and in the company of the princess what's worse. A night's
inquiries had turned up nothing other than the name Jun Gekijou, which
went nothing since Gekijou would hardly be the name of Lania house.
However she was the companion of a nobles son.
Lionbane was a name he could find out a lot about. Originally the family
had been nothing more than a minor family caring for a minor county in
the south of Lania. However almost thirty years ago the then king,
Baram's father, had knighted the young Lionbane, and given the family
some unusual privileges. Rumour had it that there had been some kind of
conspiracy that Lionbane, Prince Baram, and a couple of others had put a
stop to.
Gorrad picked up the picture. It was of the six supposed heroes. The
young prince stood in the middle, holding aloft some sword. The artist
had added a glow to the sword, Gorrad wondered if that was significant,
or just the artists fancy. Immediately to the prince's left stood a man
in full armour, sword held in a defensive posture. That had to be Sonnre
Lionbane, the boy's father. Both appeared to be in their mid twenties.
The other four in the picture were unknown to the bodyguard. A serene
looking young man with the symbol of Jurris, the healing goddess,
probably a young acolyte. A Salan man, looked older than the others and
carried no weapon. The only woman in the group was dressed in what
appeared to be silken robes, somehow she looked familiar to Gorrad. It
took a few moments before it clicked, she slightly resembled the Queen,
her sister perhaps, which would mean she was a magic user. The last
member of the group was the strangest of the group. He wore a pair of
overalls and a belt full of tools, if he carried a weapon it wasn't
evident.
An interesting group, but it didn't help Gorrad with his current mission.
He dispatched the messenger to start making arrangements for his trip.
This girl wasn't going to escape his clutches.
*****
The small fire bolt shot past Jun and buried itself in wolven's chest
knocking it back. Jun dove forward, a series of slashes appearing on the
falling wolven's underside. Another wolven had bitten onto Cain's
armoured arm, and remained their because it jaws had locked when Cain's
sword had stabbed cleanly through the back of its head. He was currently
using the dead wolven as a club to knock away a third.
As her wolven collapsed to the ground Jun streaked towards the last
wolven attacking Cain. Aborting her attack she rolled to one side as
another flame missile shot through the point she was about to reach. The
bolt struck the wolven, and moments later Cain's sword dispatched it.
Jun rolled to her feet, surveyed the battlefield, then turned on Sarana.
"Watch where you throw those things! You could have killed me!" she
yelled at the princess.
"Perhaps you should look where you run!" Sarana returned.
"Look where I run! LOOK WHERE I RUN!" screamed Jun, her aura flaring
around her. "You overstuffed pampered brat! I oughta ..." She snarled,
then stormed off.
Cain, still trying to pry the dead wolven from his arm, gazed after her.
"Stay here. Scream if you need help," he told her, then ran after his old
friend.
He caught up with Jun a short way from the site of the battle. She was
angrily taking swipes at the vegetation.
"What's wrong Jun?" Cain asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. "You
looked almost ready to kill her back there."
Jun gripped her halberd tightly. "I don't know, she just makes me so
MAD!" Jun struck the ground with the pole arm. A line of pure red fire
shot from the impact point to strike a tree in front of her. The tree
shattered with an explosive detonation, leaving the bewildered pair to
stare in disbelief at the ruins of the plant.
"Think you could remember how to do that again?" Cain inquired in a quiet
tone after a few moments of silence.
"Not sure," Jun admitted. "But I'm gonna work on it."
*****
Port Solles was one of the major ports that connected the Kingdom of
Lania to the Empire of Salan. When Lanian ships first made contact with
Salan the church had started sending missionaries east to convert the
"heathen foreigners." It was the overzealous nature of these missionaries
that had started the first war between the two peoples. Before the war
started, returning missionaries were expected to immediately report to a
high-level clergy man, but the archbishop didn't want to wait for a weary
missionary to travel all the way to Lania Tor, so he ordered the Solles
abbey built and an abbot from each of the gods placed there.
However after the war the church had lost much of its old power and the
king ordered all missionaries withdrawn from Salan. The Solles abbey
became a somewhat unnecessary expense to the church, but it didn't want
to leave the grand building empty. Now Solles abbey was a place of
training for the acolytes, ruled by the man they had come to see, only
apparently too late.
"What is it with our timing?!" Jun demanded as they sat on the hill top
looking down at the abbey. Even from this distance they could see bodies
lying in the abbey's grounds.
"Let's move, there may be survivors." Cain kicked his horse into a run.
The abbey gates had received much the same treatment as the gates of
Lionbane castle, they had been blasted out of existence from outside.
Once past the gates the adventurers found a large garden full of
vegetables. A number of bodies lay about the garden, tools lying at their
side, arrows pointing into the sky.
"Arrows? Why use arrows here and energy weapons at Lionbane?" Cain asked.
"For that matter why didn't they use the energy weapons on us at Yo's?"
"They probably underestimated you," Sarana replied. "Probably their
weapons use some form of ammo, but I doubt that is the reasoning here."
Jun dismounted as the princess talked, and started examining one of the
bodies. "Jun, I doubt you'll find any money on these monks."
Jun shook her head. "A body can tell you more than just the fact its
dead. There's a lot you can tell from here."
Cain and Sarana looked around the grounds.
"Like what?" Sarana demanded.
"They were dead before the gates were destroyed, killed by multiple
attackers from different parts of the wall. The attackers had surprise,"
Cain volunteered.
Jun nodded. "Right, good to see you paid attention to Master Yo after
all."
Sarana continued to look around for a few seconds, before becoming fed
up. "Okay, explain it to me then, since your such geniuses."
"The bodies are facing in various different directions, if they'd known
they were being attacked they would either be facing their attackers or
running away. If the gate had been destroyed you get pretty much the same
thing, plus the bodies near the gate are covered in wood chips. We can
tell there were many attackers by examining the way the bodies fell and
the way the arrows were pointing," Cain explained while Jun started
tugging at the arrow embedded in the body.
"So who would come in, kill everyone, then go outside and blast in the
gates? Or was it two groups?" Sarana inquired.
Jun fell back as the arrow came free of the body. She wiped the blood off
the tip onto the corpses robes, then held it up to inspect it. After a
few seconds she flipped it and bushed her fingers through the feathers.
"I recognise the fletching, it's a Pandora bird."
Cain whistled softly. "Expensive in most parts of the world. Can't be too
many people who'd be using them in this volume."
Sarana put her hands on her hips. "How do know all this?"
"We are born and bred warriors. Our teacher was a man who knew enough of
the world to teach us more than just to kill," Cain informed her while
Jun went back to surveying the area.
"We'd better see if we can find the abbot, or his body," Jun said.
The trio searched the echoing halls of the abbey, finding no sign of a
man fitting the description of the abbot. It was in the abbot's office
that they found a clue to what had happened.
"'We have your precious abbot. Return to us the Dragon's Fang. The
Imperial Army of Victory,'" Jun read from the note.
"The Imperial Army of Victory?" Sarana echoed inquisitively.
Jun shrugged. "It doesn't translate very well. I think we head into
Solles. There's nothing more here."
*****
In a clearing far from the abbey of Solles a pair of figures watched the
images of the three in a pool of water.
"Who are they, Silver One?" one of the watchers inquired.
"They prepare to walk the paths," the other replied.
"They do not yet number enough," the first stated.
"Others will join them, for purposes of their own. In the end they will
be the correct number, the spirits have decreed it."
-----
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz