Chapter 4: The Rescue

The sun rose and with it the three weary travellers, James stood up and clicked his back and sighed.

“I’m going to need to get used to this rough travelling.”

“Indeed,” Ella rumbled. Isa was up as well, rubbing her bleary eyes, she sighed and rose, the three then put everything away and had a bite to eat.

Guided by the crystal shining in Isa’s hand, they walked through forest and marsh until they arrived at the abandoned castle of Drakenfells.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this...” said James, channelling Han Solo.

“We can feel it, too,” Isa reassured him.

Ella looked to the ground and planted her sword. “Here lie the remnants of Lord Uhmsberg. He defied the king with a hundred knights and five thousand soldiers. He died besieged. Poor old bastard wanted to pay fewer taxes and ended up eating his shoes’ soles before opening the doors. The king ordered the place destroyed.”

“Why would the mage hide here? It seems like the worst place ever”

“It’s obvious that he wants to be found. It’s a trap. He must know we are tracking him.”

“Quite so,” came a booming voice.

As they spun around to face the source of the challenge, James pulled out an arrow, saying, “Here we go.”

“Indeed, now we start,” the Mage shouted. Around them, energy crackled in the walls, bouncing off them.

The earth itself trembled when the wizard raised up into the air, staff in hand, and landed in the castle’s open entrance. Ella charged him and James nocked an arrow, but it was pointless. The sword bounced off the old man’s robes as if he were made of pure iron, and the arrow was deflected by some unnatural force. Ella realized far too late that this was no common enemy. Being so close to the man, she was easily thrown away. A hundred and thirty kilograms of woman and steel flew as if she were nothing more than a rag doll.

“It won’t be so easy!” shouted the mage with his augmented voice; James heard it louder than an airplane engine.

Isa was furiously changing pages in her books, trying to find a spell useful against such a powerful opponent. Ella got to her feet and reunited with James, trying to shield him. James himself did not knew what to do. He was in shock. How could someone do that? It was just unfair.

Almost rhetorically, James wondered aloud, “How are we going to win this?” Without responding to him, Ella launched herself forward again, only to crash against the arcane power that surrounded the man.

“It is useless!” shouted Isa. “Nothing physical will break his defence”

“A clever woman you have there,” said the wizard. “Let’s see how well you can fight...”

With a motion of his hand, the mage brought forth a horde of undead that surrounded Ella and James. They were too much for them to dispatch quickly; for a while, Isa was alone to fight against the power of the old man.

Isa reached toward the mage with both her hands and lightning came from her fingers, filling the air with the smell of ozone and searing light. Energy danced back and forth and sideways, the streams of electricity focusing into a single spear that managed to damage the wizard’s aura.

“Very good,” spat the powerful man disdainfully, albeit with a sweaty brow. “Now die!”

A miasma of noxious life forms formed around the hands of the mage, and was then cast forward, toward the witch. Isa dodged neatly and avoided the orb of sickness that would have hit her.

James was loosing as many arrows as he could, but the zombies were too numerous. His carcaj would run out and not even a half of them would have fallen. Ella spoke to him “I’m going to keep them focused on me, help Isa kill the mage!”

He ran back into the woods to escape the horde of undead, trusting in Ella’s inhuman skill with sword and shield. James felt bad for leaving his dame behind, but he had to help poor Isa, who was now cornered against the gates of the castle.

James nocked an arrow and pulled from the bow with all his strength, tensing his old longbow to the limit, and released it onto the mage’s uncovered back. Isa’s magic had weakened the arcane force and James’ arrow had finally broken it.

The arrow hit.

It struck the mage and the resounding aftershock hit James hard.

He screamed as he was thrown away like a ragdoll, hitting the ground and rolling.

Just like that it was over, the horde all fell, leaving Ella to stand there and ponder what the hell had happened, while Isa stood breathless, clutching her book against her chest.

“James.”

Ella ran and found him, groaning and grunting.

He looked at her, “Did we do it?”

“Yes,” she nodded as a tear slid down her cheek.

“Then today is a good day to die,” his eyes closed.

Ella grimaced and scooped up his limp body. She lifted him up with ease; his arms dangled and his head lolled as though his neck had no bones.

“Come,” she commanded.

Isa nodded and followed.

“Help me!” was all Ella needed to say. There came a shout, drawing the Dame’s attention. She turned to the source of the sound and saw a massive cage. She frowned, berating herself for not having seen it until now. “Ah,” she realized that the Mage must’ve been hiding it.

She exchanged looks with Isa and the two walked over. The princess was wearing a floor-length pastel blue dress. Her long hair which would normally be perfectly groomed was now all frizzled after being held captive. Ella noticed the ring she wore had the family crest on it.

Ella noted the ring and the princess’s eye colour were identical to Lord Edelstein’s. It confirmed what she assumed: this is actually the girl they were looking for. Her dress was all dirty and even torn in some places. Physically, it appeared she was in no shape for journeying; they needed to get her some comfortable rest, travelling clothes, and a bath.

Ella gently placed James down on the ground. As she released his head, she noted that his eyes were still closed and he was barely breathing.

She checked the lock on the cage.

“Stand back.”

The princess got the memo and moved as far back as she could go. Ella pulled out her sword but did not swing at the lock. She surprised Isa by walking over and put a length of the blade between the lock’s bar and the cage. Then she used the sword’s hilt as a lever and pulled upon it with all her strength and using her weight as well. It would have been punishing for any common blade and probably foolhardy in that case, but the spell-forged blade was adamant. The lock broke open and Ella swung the door open while detaching the sword.

Ever properly trained in the courtesies, the rescued damsel said simply, “Thank you, my lady.”

Ella nodded and sheathed the weapon.

“What’s wrong with him?” the princess pointed at James.

“He is badly injured.”

“Oh! I know someone who may help! I was actually heading there,” she explained. “The Mage captured me on the way and was using me to blackmail my father.”

“Indeed, it is why we came.”

“I am impressed. I just never thought.”

“That your hero could be a woman?”

The princess shrugged “Come pick him up. It’s actually not too far from here.”

She showed them the route; despite riding as quickly as was safe, it took half an hour to get there with Ella constantly casting glances at James’ limp body. They arrived at the house; it was well hidden and out of sight of any travelled paths or roads. It took little more than a cursory inspection to see that the old house was in dire need of repair. The dingy brick walls were streaked with drippage from the leaky tin gutter that ran along the roof. The massive shutters, thrown back from the windows, were rotting away, pock-marked with perfectly equidistant holes...

“It does not look like much.”

“It’s meant to look that way,” the Princess stated. “It looks decrepit so as to not draw attention to it. She’s hiding in plain sight.”

“Impressive.”

“She knows how to hide” The princess said smugly.

The Princess banged on the door and it wrenched open an older woman looked out and paused at the odd sight. Her eyes went to Isa who flushed and held her book against her impressive chest before taking in the princess.

“How are you, my dear?” the mystic asked, hugging her.

“It’s been a long horrible week,” she answered.

“Oh?”

She sighed “Right now, healer we have a patient.”

Her eyes took in the young man.

“Who is he to you?”

“One of my saviours.”

“One of?”

“Let me tell you a story while you work.”

“Yes,” she nodded and guided them inside.

‘Aha. Not a mystic. A healer,’ Ella adjusted her thinking. The woman was mature, for sure. Ella surmised that she might only be in her late 30’s, maybe early 40’s. She had a slender body with long brown hair and brooding dark eyes. The healer flicked those eyes at the table and Ella responded by placing her squire down on it. For someone with such great strength, she could be gentle when she wanted.

Ella was sad but had hope. She watched her new acquaintance browse through her shelves searching for something.

“My lady clad in iron, I need your height. That jar over there. Bring it to me.”

Ella obeyed without thinking. The kind woman received it thankfully and spread the fragrant contents of the glass vase onto her hands and heated it with her breath. With haste the healer put her balsamed hands inside James’ shirt sensing his broken body.

“He is badly injured, but not at death’s door, I suspect the hit was a shock to his system, knocking him out.” the group breathed a sigh of relief.

“Has he broken anything?”

“Nothing that I can tell, the force of the blast hit him hard, he was lucky he was wearing that armour you bought him.” She looked at Ella, “Had he been without it, this would be a very different conversation.”

“Indeed.”

“I will heal him as best as I can, the rest will take time,” she said.

Twelve hours later, James groaned and blinked, his vision blurry for a moment as he shifted and went to move.

“Did anyone get the number of that bus,” he muttered.

He sat up to find four women around him.

James paused and looked at them all.

“Uh ladies?”

Ella hugged him, fiercely, and let go embarrassed.

“We are glad you are back.”

“How long was I out?”

“Twelve hours, it is night time.”

He blinked and nodded, “That hurt.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Drink this,” the older woman said, handing him a glass of something foul smelling, he looked at Ella and she nodded.

“She is a friend to us.”

James made a face but downed it.