Kushana's Story
Chapter 14: Castle of Hostile Allies
"It isn't stupid, if nobody sees it."
I ran up to KSki's side. He smiled at me.
"So, did you find what you were looking for in the garden?"
"Umm...kinda." I didn't want to divulge all the
details. I looked around, Knights were cleaning up after the battle. "Care to tell me what's been
going on?"
"That may take awhile. Wanna take a break in the
den first?"
"Hey, I need it!" I groaned quietly. "I'll take
you up on your offer."
When we reached the den, KSki told me about what
happened. Only a few hours before I arrived at the castle, one of the Knight princes decided to
defect to the Scythe. But he got greedy and wanted to take one of the valuable scrolls from the
castle library. He would have escaped with a Scythe party, who would have attacked the castle.
Then the prince would hide while the party retreated. They got the castle guards, but some
Knights were able to corner them. So in a last ditch effort, the prince grabbed a young squire
and used her as a pawn to get out of the castle safely.
That's around where I came in. But, the scroll I
had was what they wanted? Why was it so important?
I looked over the scroll. "What's in this scroll
anyway?" I hadn't read it yet.
KSki gave a smirk. "Your going to die if I told
you."
I gave him an odd look. "What do you mean?"
"You really want to know what it is?"
"Of course," although I wonder why KSki didn't
tell me right away.
"It's just a simple, plain cooking recipe."
My mind tried to find any sort of logic in that
statement. "It's...it's just a recipe?" KSki nodded at me.
"All of this, over a recipe? What recipe is this?
A recipe for the best food in the world? You mean that Scythe would actually attack the castle
and almost kill someone for food?" I was still shocked. I probably would have gone on and on if
KSki didn't stop me.
"Whoa! Chill brother. It wasn't always a recipe!
We knew that someone was going to defect a long time ago. We replaced all the scrolls in the
library with recipes. Relax!"
I thought about that for awhile. "I guess, that
makes sense. You should have let him run away then."
KSki coughed. "We would have, but you decided to
be a hero."
A sense of shame came over me. "Sorry." I said
quietly.
"Sorry? Nah, you saved a fellow Knight, you
shouldn't be sorry for that. Anyway, they were really looking for this." KSki pulled out another
scroll, and showed it to me. It looks exactly like the one I had.
"Okay, what's so important about this one
then?"
"It leads to a legendary treasure."
"Treasure? Let me see that." I liked treasure.
KSki handed me the scroll. I read over it.
'Between where children do play
and where evil does lurk
Is a place of worship, people say
Left in ruins and dirt
Hidden in shadow
With broken hearts abound
Only a few are allow
To get treasure to be found'
"Confusing isn't it?" KSki said. I nodded in
agreement. I didn't really get it either.
KSki sighed quietly. "Well, I gotta go. I have to
talk a few Black Bears."
I knew where he was going. "You mean the alley in
Tantallon. With one Black Bear."
KSki started scratching his head. "Yeah...well...
we just talk...so...um...bye." KSki ran out of the den.
I turned back to the scroll and laid it across
the table.
I started to dissect it piece by piece. 'Where
children do play?' Where do children play? The orphanage? Perhaps. Ah I knew it. The park. A lot
of children played in the Dragon's Playground.
What about 'where evil does lurk'? The could be
any of many places.
I started thinking about ruins I've seen. One
stood out in my mind. I remembered an old church, in between the park and Asvyan's Domain. That
had to be it. It was between the park and the domain, it was pretty ruined. I barely made it out
the first time I saw it. It was really secluded.
I didn't get where 'with broken hearts abound'
fit in. It didn't really matter, I got most of it anyway. It was time to get treasure, I thought.
I walked over the racks and try to pull out my sealed pack from it.
It wouldn't budge an inch. I pulled harder and
harder, it wouldn't move at all. I must have been still locked out the racks.
Then in my head, KSki's voice came out of
nowhere. He was sending me a tell. "You can't get anything from the racks, or buy anything from
the shops. Just safeguards to keep you from fightning. Remember, your still off duty."
He always was one step ahead of me. Was there any
way I could get a decent weapon and armor? Couldn't take, couldn't buy. As I stood there, just
pondering the situation, I heard someone come in from behind.
"Is that you Knight?" a bright, cheery voice said
behind me. I turned to look behind me, to see who said it.
I saw the smiling face of Dblood, staring back at
me. However, her hair was straight down, dripping. Plus, she was soaking wet. It was easily
visible, as she left a puddle wherever she stood.
"Dipping our toes in the river?" I said,
smirking a bit. Dblood ran over to me and gave me a tight hug. I quickly became wet and soggy,
but it felt nice to be hugged by someone.
"You know me too well already." Dblood said,
still smiling. "Where have you been? I haven't seen in awhile! I've missed you."
"Really, you have?"
"Of course! I always care where my dearest Knight
is!" Dblood poked me and walked away.
A thought flashed into my mind. Maybe I could get
Dblood to get my pack for me! It couldn't hurt. Only cost her a few rack points, that was about
it.
"Hey, Dblood?" I asked.
Dblood was already by the fireplace, trying to
herself off. "What?" she asked.
"Care to grab that pack from the racks for
me?" I pointed towards my sealed pack.
Dblood gave me an odd stare. "How come you can't
get it yourself?"
Guess she didn't know about me being taken off
duty. "Um, I...well, you'll get a suprise if you do it."
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." Dblood
grabbed the pack from the rack and handed it to me. I was a bit shocked that it was so easy for
her, but way too hard for me.
I was happy. I was able to get that treasure. I
took Dblood in my arms and gave her a long kiss. When I let go of her, Dblood was frozen with
shock. "Don't take it so seriously." I said. Then, I ran out of the den and towards the castle
gates, my pack already worn.
By this time, KSki had probably found out about
me getting equipment. He was most likely thinking why someone would get my pack, since only I
could open it. He was smart like that.
What I didn't expect was that he would send every
knight in the castle after me. As I ran through the castle halls, people dove at me, tried to
tackle me, some even drew swords on me. I did my best to evade all of them, but my energy was
quickly fading. I started to think about quitting and just giving up. I mean, all this fuss over
a single treasure?
I needed a brief breather. I ducked into an empty
room. I saw a few knights run past me, unaware that I was hiding. I tried to regain some stamina.
As I sat there, another voice popped into my head.
"Knight! Don't give up." I quickly recognized the
voice. Kushana, yet again. "Just keep moving on."
Was it really her? Or just my mind, trying to
convince me to go on? I didn't have time to think about it. Someone spotted me, so I quickly got
up and went back to running.
I was almost out of the castle. Only a few
pursurers remained, the rest were too tired to continue the chase. The only people left between
me and the castle gates were castle guards. I almost got caught by them, but my evasive movements
were too quick for them. As they tried to recover I ran out of the castle.
I still was on castle grounds though. It still
wasn't safe to rest. I reached the drawbridge and it was already beginning to raise. They were
stopping my only way out. I wouldn't even try to swim the moat. I took a deep breath and ran up
the slanted bridge. It was getting very steep and hard to run up. I reached the very end of it,
and tried my best to jump to the other side. I sailed through the air and had a crash landing on
the ground.
I quickly stood up, but pain made me stagger
backwards, almost falling into the moat. The drawbridge got all the way up. Then, just as quick,
it started going back down. They knew I got past it. I started to run, but I heard some odd
noises from behind me.
The noises sounded like something was coming
towards me. I looked behind me. I saw a horse running full speed at me. But it was on the other
side of the moat. How would get to me?
My answer came soon. As the horse reached the
edge of the moat, he jumped, probably better than I did, across it. He landed right next to me.
And that's when I saw the rider of the horse.
The horse rode in front of me, and the rider
jumped off. She looked experienced. It didn't help that she had a large mace in her hand and a
cleric symbol around her neck. They sent a cleric to stop me? I guess it was the only thing they
could do.
She faced me and spoke. "I am sorry to do this,
but I cannot let you pass."
She did have an advantage, she had a weapon, and
I had none. But I could easily run by her. "I'd like to stay and talk, but I got to be going." I
said to her. I quickly jumped to her left and ran.
She had very good reactions though. As I tried to
run by her, she grabbed me and threw me to the ground.
She put the mace to my head. "I wouldn't try that
again if I were you." She was serious.
I tried to recognize her face. Maybe if I knew
her, I could find some way out of this. I knew I saw it before, but only a few times.
Someone from across the moat was shouting.
"Tigerlily! Just keep him there! We'll get him once this drawbridge down."
I had to do something to try get away. "Listen
...Tigerlily...I really really need to start moving. You see that drawbridge over there? Once it
goes down, I'm more or less dead."
"What do you mean, you'll die if they get you?"
Tigerlily looked a bit confused.
While they probably wouldn't, I had to get out of
here. "I don't know! But I don't want to hang around to find out." I was looking around, maybe I
could find a slight chance of escape.
"I see..." Tigerlily said. She took the mace of
of my head. "Let me ask you this. Why are you doing this anyway? Risking your life?"
I slowly stood up. She seemed to allow it, as she
didn't move as I got up. "Believe me, if I told you, you would think i'm crazy."
"Come on. Try me."
"I'm doing it all for somebody."
"Oh? A single person."
"Yeah...just one person."
Tigerlily smiled at me. Had to admit, she had a
somewhat cute smile. And I guess a cute face too. She started talking. "Eh, I guess that's
plausible. In a sense." Tigerlily began to think. "Tell you what. I say you got out of my grasp
and you do what you have to do. But you come back and tell me all about it. Or I'll come do what
should being doing now."
"You don't have to tell me twice! Thank you very
much, Tigerlily." I quickly ran past her, and kept running. Running through the streets of
Nepeth. They knew I got out. I kept running.
I never knew if I would be welcome in Nepeth
again. Maybe I didn't even need to ask that question. Where would this scroll lead me?
Back to Chapter 13
Forward to Chapter 15
This story this dedicated to Kushana, thanks for giving me the inspiration to write,
even in your absence.
Roland (Knightrc)
Last Updated: October 24, 2000
