"We're all going to die!" How only a few weeks can change the nature of a young prince from confident foolish child to doomed foot soldier. Well a few weeks and an ambush attack by some Red Hand magic users and their creepy beast creatures. I knew this was going to happen, not just because I think of myself as doomed to always be in trouble, but also because I had it leak we were transporting weapons to the enemy and I knew the Red Hand could not pass it up. What I did not expect was the weird creature enslavement, nor did I not expect that the back up I'd arranged for by the rebels would not show up either (of course because there is nothing quite like a perfectly laid plan going to absolute shit immediately, and this plan wasn't even that perfectly arranged!)
So there I was next to the Prince's dead horse (naturally its why I wasn't riding) Prince Davan was pinned underneath it being an optimist, the guards I'd hired were all dead or ran off (well it wasn't like I hired quality to begin with, I hadn't even paid them!) and we were mired in some bog a couple miles north of the divide (so not anywhere near a place for Ronerawth to come support us). I had my pistol out and I had killed a couple of the creatures through the haze of battle, but I really couldn't see anything between the horse, the prince's flailing and the dirty bog we were mired in.
"You're such an optimist prince Davan, they'll probably capture us and torture us." I saw something move between some weeds and fired at it, the wet smack of bullet on flesh brought a smile to my face.
"They wouldn't torture royalty would they?"
"Yeah, they don't really like you guys up here," I could have sugar coated the truth, but he wouldn't learn if he wasn't in danger, and I also couldn't have what I needed if the Prince just thought things were peachy in the lands of the Red Hand.
"Just kill me Trezlan, I don't want to be tortured." As great as that idea sounded (and let me tell you I thought really long and hard about it) it would have also killed any hope I sought to gain from the royals.
"Oh we'll get out of this you big baby, just hold on, or in your case uhh pretend your dead, so stop talking." I had hoped the rebels would be here (well I'd hoped they'd have been there shortly after we got attacked, I told them to shadow us, but apparently those directions were lost in translation or something), but it was starting to look like the crotchety old necromancer was about to have to become a crotchety young one again (I needed to take a life anyway because I hate getting old, and I hate even more the thought of dying of old age). I was also tired of being knee deep in mud waiting for rescuers that weren't coming. The bog here worked to my favor, I heated the water up with a quick burst of fire and we the air immediately got hot, stinky, and unbearable. Which while sucks, also made it difficult to see me (and by extention my enemies, but honestly I'm better at killing people when they do not see me coming).
I stalked the swamp, appearing from the mist to slice or shoot an enemy and then slipping back into it. I heard the Red Hand people calling out in fear as their creatures and themselves were cut down (it was quite the feeling to have my enemies crying in fear at me as a person, normally its me). When I did kill the men behind the creatures I found they were little more than boys, probably pressed into service because of their magical ability, which sucked for them but again I didn't like dying. The last boy ran, I could see his outline as he made his way out of the swamp and shot him through the knee. He collapsed and started screaming and randomly throwing bolts of what looked like green ice at me. With a wave of my hand his life was over and I was young again. I had been right about them being pressed into service, though this group specifically seemed to be under trained compared to others (clue number one something else was up here) and hadn't really been counted on for sucess. Also no sooner had I dealt with the last Red Hand jerk than the rebels showed up all prim and proper wearing some weird uniforms (I hadn't ever seen their uniforms before, but these powder blue monstrosities were awful in ways I could not really explain, though they were the real uniforms, proving we should have been supplying them with clothes and fashion experts and not just guns, something I'd later express to Toneron, but he didn't see the point).
"Where is Kruze this is unacceptable!" I was furious they had been delayed in showing up, and was even madder that they seemed completely oblivious to my plan. Prince Davan was hurt, but he'd live (with a limp though). They helped get him out from under his horse and we were on our way. If I had known then I was just walking into another trap, I'd have turned around right away. But because I didn't know/didn't turn around another trap is exactly what we walked into!
No comments:
Post a Comment