Vol 1 Chapter 13 (2/2)
“Of course”
“Let’s hope we don’t get in their way” Deedlit let out a sarcastic laugh and easily ran on ahead of Parn Not only was she naturally quick on her feet, she earing lighter armor than Parn’s, so she could more than keep up with him
Even though Parn was encumbered by his heavy armor, there was no way Wood or Slayn could overtake hiave him a serious handicap
“Don’t just take off running like that!” cried Eto, out of breath
“The Holy Knights are fighting!”
“I think we should go find out what’s going on,” said Slayn, panting
Deedlit felt like she could run for hours, but the lead she had on the others had grown, so she waited for thes She had run quite a distance, and she could hear the sounds of the fight much more clearly than before If she squinted, she could just barely see several shadows hway
“That must be it” Deedlit stared at the shadows
Just then, a red light flared up with a boom The sound was as loud as an avalanche Deedlit shrieked and covered her ears, her acute sense of hearing rendering the noise all the more painful
“What’s this noise? And I saw a red light over there!” yelled Parn He had caught up at last He put his hand on Deedlit’s shoulder as she cowered and covered her ears All the while, he gazed down the road, as though not wanting to
“I heard it too” Slayn approached at last “And I saw the light Though it would be more accurate to call it a fire - ical flames”
“Magic? But who cast it? The fighters escorting that carriage, or the knights of Valis?” asked Deedlit in Slayn’s direction, casually covering Parn’s hand on her shoulder with her own
“There’s no way to know All we know is that we didn’t cast it ourselves That fire es The e ready I didn’t see any faces I knew froh it’s possible they were using a disguise And h I don’t knohether that goes for Wagnard of Marmo as well”
“Was it hie?” said Parn, excited
“There were just tonard a woed
“Wait, it see any Parn’s hand
“What? Then on?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions There’s no way to know just from the sound But if you hold on a second, I’ll ask the wind”
“Wind? Sylph, youspell That’s the surest method”
“If you know that kind of useful , instead of trying to ood now,” said Wood with annoyance
“You said it,” Ghireement with Wood’s complaints
“I can’t afford to useand began to chant in the ancient tongue
Slayn softly chanted his spell Far-seeing spells nified the user’s vision several times beyond ould normally be possible for a huics were tricky, requiring ht place Slayn looked up in the air, repeatedly opening and closing his eyes as he adjusted his vision to see down the road
“It’s awful!” blurted out Slayn when at last he could clearly make out the desired location
The scene Slayn looked upon was soround was stained black, and in that blackness lay many, many burnt corpses A white smoke rose fro flesh filled the air
Slayn turned his gaze, looking towards the carriage On the carriage stood a wo orders to the nearbyin one direction and the other, and rapidly gesturing with her hands
That woht Slayn She wore an old kingdom artifact, a circlet, across her brow, and bore a nuers — surely not for decoration Of course, the staff in her right hand was not a sage’s staff, but it was made of fine oak, and there were ancient runes carved into its surface, though Slayn could not tell which
“Well, how it is?” asked Parn
Thinking that if he looked away, it would be difficult to find the spot again, Slayn kept his eyes on the woman as he answered
“It was hts of Valis have been defeated I can see four of the carriage’s guards, and one woe But what terrible power, to destroy the knights of Valis with a single fire spell”
Parn could not believe Slayn’s words “There’s no way,” said Parn in a strangled voice
“But it’s the truth,” was Slayn’s cold reply
Once he had surveyed the situation around the carriage, Slayn focused his attention on the woer than Slayn Of course, any uise her appearance, but her y Even with an illusion, disguising ones’ ht be as young as she appeared In any case, she was a reat and terrible power But Slayn had never heard of such a powerful witch Yet… he had seen her before, and recently
Slayn stared at the sorceress, probing his memory
“I’ve got it!” yelled Slayn when at last he reht now is the one from the portrait in the old house in Alan Between her purple clothing and that circlet, there’s noit Her naht? You were fascinated by that painting”
“…no idea I don’t recall such a picture And I can’t very well confir She’s our eneet away” Ghi his battle axe from his back
“That’s right! They’re working for Marhts were chasing the this out, Parn broke into a run
“What’s the idea, just rushi+ng in carelessly like that? Do you plan to fight theet that they wiped out five holy knights”
“But…” Parn turned his head, preparing a retort But seeing Slayn’s unusually stern expression, he was unable to continue
“If you want to throw your lives away I won’t stop you But dying needlessly is not courage What’s ioals I advise you to hold out for now and wait for your chance”
“And if we can’t find that chance, we’ll just watch them run away?” The reply came not from Parn, but from Ghim He slowly approached Slayn, and his quiet but powerful words e tremble
“Of course not I’ that now is not the time But why are you, of all people, so worked up about this? I find that strange, though not if it was co from such an unexpected source
“I… I have my reasons,” said Ghim in a subdued voice, then he turned and ran down the road Parn gave Slayn an apologetic glance and ran after hi in his wake
“Seeht Let’s follow them slowly, from a distance,” whispered Woodchuck, who had quietly approached from behind, shadow-like His voice sounded to Slayn like the murmurs of his own inner demons
“That- that’s no good!” Slayn took off running without turning back He felt like if he turned, he’d be caught by his own shadow
“I won’t ether so tightly that they turned white, Slayn gripped his staff He threw back the hood that li his face to the su towards the horizon, burned into his eyes, and the heat soaked into his skin Narrowing his eyes against the light, Slayn ignored the heat and ran hard after Parn and the others, trying to catch up
What a bunch of happy fools, thought Wood, starting into a slow run some distance behind them
Whether by good fortune or ill luck, Slayn’s fears were not realized By the tie had vanished
Ghim pleaded for thenore the wreckage without doing soe on foot would be quite difficult
When Slayn argued that their eneave in
Seeht Slayn with resignation He decided then to use ic for destructive purposes He, too, kne to cast fire spells
Parn was speechless as he gazed upon the horrors that reh hiding froht, only her face visible The hands that rested on Parn’s epaulet tre, she ue
The earth had been blackened by fire On that blackened earth lay seven bodies Five of thehts of Valis
Eto had bent down and was checking each of the bodies for signs of life His norer and pity
All the knights of Valis had been burned by the intense fla It must have been a terrible heat Their skin had puffed up, and on touch, bits of blackened skin would pull away, revealing the livid flesh underneath Of course such a sight would plant the seed of anger in Eto’s heart We ment of Pharis on those monsters’ heads! Eto screamed in his heart of hearts
When he touched the body of the last knight and realized it was still warer cooled for a moment When he looked closer, he could see that the man’s chest still rose and fell “This man is still alive!”
At Eto’s yell, the other five adventurers ran to hi him
“If he’s still breathing, Ifor him with my power” As he said this, Eto n
Parn nodded “Give them some room This is Eto’s job”
Deedlit seereed to pull back when Slayn explained, “Eto uses the ic of Pharis”
“Let’s bury the bodies of the dead knights We can’t very well leave them like this”
Ghim nodded silently at Parn’s words and pulled down his battleaxe One side bore a blade, but the other was sharp as well, like a pick He raised the axe in the air, aiht it down He buried the pick in the ground, breaking the earth into smaller chunks Parn picked up a piece of wood and used it to clear the loose dirt out of the way In this ed it
Slayn sat down on the ground, facing away from the road so as not to look at the aftermath of the battle, and staredblankly at the peaceful fields that stretched out before him A few questions swirled in his mind The first concerned the identity of the sorceress, the second, Ghim’s behavior Ghim had definitely stared at the portrait in the old house in Alania Forgetting so he had stared at so intently seemed quite improbable And Ghi was now acting as though this was his personal uard But what reason had he to follow the servants of Marht about it, it was also strange that a subterranean dwarf, who delighted only in the works of his own hands, would leave on a journey in the first place When he first ca It was either the clue to some riddle, or perhaps a map of all of Lodoss
Ghim set out on on this journey with soht it be that he’s scented the trail?
His face frozen in a severe expression, Slayn quietly observed Ghi his axe
The melodic chant of Eto’s spell seerave for each of the fallen knights, with Deedlit’s assistance They placed one corpse in each grave, covered theht’s sword point-first into the ground, to serve as grave-hters who had guarded the carriage As they carried out this grim task, the sun dipped slowly beneath the horizon, and the blue faded from the sky
“Looks like that e didn’t care if her spell killed her own ust
“That’s where you’re wrong I checked the bodies too, and it would seeuess that she worked her hts of Valis Plus, the side of their bodies that was facing the ground isn’t burnt”
“Even if they were already dead, I can’t forgive her using ic on her allies”
“Above all else, ic is not meant to be used in service of destruction But what do we do next?” Slayn asked Parn
“We keep going, of course” Parn said this as though it was a foregone conclusion Next to hirunted his assent
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” asked Slayn in a low voice “You’ve witnessed the power of our enele spell I hate to ask this, but do you really think we can win?”
“I do not,”pained “But we can’t afford to let them do as they please!”
“Even if we beat theive us a reward?” Wood asked Parn in a bored tone “I don’t like working for free”
“The reward comes from your own heart!”
From behind them, they heard Eto’s reply Wood turned to look at Eto He see But his efforts had not been in vain Behind hih with visible difficulty Parn’s face shone with joy
“And there will also be a reward froht quietly
“Will you tell us the reason?” Parn asked the knight
The knight nodded silently, then began to speak
“I aned to Princess Fianna’s escort”
“Princess Fianna! You mean the Crown Princess of Valis?” shouted Parn in surprise Deedlit kept her ued
“The very sahness Princess Fianna is Crown Princess of Valis After the start of the current conflict, the princess desired to visit the front lines and encourage the troops Of course, the king, as well as everyone else in the castle, was opposed froed to slip out of the castle”
“And so you and your companions were sent out as a search party?” asked Deedlit once the knight had stopped for breath
“Exactly It would seem that the princess was aided by a merchant The merchant in question was a shady character, so we followed her We finally caught up with the et the princess back, but the result was the pitiful sight you see before you We defeated soht to pull the princess froe, but a woe words and an inferno exploded around us, knocking us fro, and in that moment of defeat I passed out”
“You were serious about the reward, I hope?” asked Wood, peering at the knight’s face
“Of course If you’re able to recover the princess safe and sound, I can promise there will be a reward You will probably be able to name your price”
“I’ll just have to trust that,” said Wood, and turned to pick up his luggage Looks like I’ve become a fool as well
“I’roup Then he looked up, and with pursed lips, stared down the darkened road in the direction the caravan had taken His eyes blazed with anger, as though he could see the woman who had taken the lives of his companions
The anger that caught flame in Parn’s heart at that unattainable enemy was the same
Deedlit watched theer, which was not his own? Why would he risk his life in such a cause?
Thinking that though she herself would be fine, Parn and the others would have trouble walking in the dark, Deedlit started chanting the words to suht, will-o’-wisp
“Ô shi+ning spirits ell in the light, gather and reveal your for light appeared letting off a direw brighter
Next to her, Slayn created a lows, the party finally left the s off down the road towards Kanon with apprehension