Bacorium Legacy (50 page)

He may not be able to die, but he would certainly wish he could.

Trunda stepped into the river. He would have to hurry and get this done - he still had to get back to town and finish things with the princess, after all.

An arrow buried itself in Trunda's back before he could take another step.

He spun around, gritting his teeth through the pain. Running down the path towards him were six figures, each with weapons drawn. The one who had fired the arrow was the black-haired girl, whose face grew pale when she saw Lodin's son floating in the water.

“Luca!” Emila cried.

She ran past Trunda, tossing aside her bow and wading into the water where Luca was floating face-down in the river. She had no worries about the Acarian attacking her, as the remaining five members of her group - Brand, Wiosna, Ash, Jared, and Princess Selphie - immediately surrounded Trunda.

“Give it up,” the princess said. “You cannot fight all of us.”

Trunda smirked, like he didn't quite believe that, but he raised his hands in surrender anyway.

“Luca!” Emila cried out again, in shock at the state she'd found him in. She pulled his unbroken arm over her shoulder, and was carrying him out of the river as best she could. Trunda looked over to her with disdain.

“Let's get him out of here,” Brand said to the princess.

“Yeah.” Selphie nodded. “Emila, are you alright?”

Emila put on a strong face, though she looked like she was about to break out in tears at any moment. “I can heal him. Get Trunda out of here.”

The Acarian was led away by the others, while Emila and Luca remained beside the river.

Trunda smiled once again, his eyes amused with secret knowledge.

<> <> <>

He felt himself returning to the waking world, carried back by a soft, comforting voice. As he opened his eyes, he saw a dark-haired beauty sitting beside him, her green eyes filled with regrets and unshed tears. She was holding his hand in her own, her thumb tracing circles in his palm. Her words were quiet, so quiet he could not make them out. But he could hear the sound of her voice, even if he could not make out the words they spoke, and it was so beautiful to him that he could have fallen back asleep right there. But he could see she was worried, so he made his lucidity known by sitting up.

“L-Luca...” Emila said slowly, surprised by his sudden awakening. The worry was still there in her eyes, but it was now being replaced by relief.

“I'm okay,” he said to her, wanting to dispel that worry as quickly as he could. His body ached, especially his head and chest. There was a large wet spot on the ground close by, where he seemed to have coughed up a lot of water. But otherwise, he was fine.

She smiled. “I was really worried about you. I-I felt a lot of pain, and I knew something was happening to you, so I woke the others. It looked like we were just in time...”

“What happened?” he asked. His head only hurt more when he tried to remember.

“It was Trunda. He attacked you. He beat you really bad, and it looked like he was trying to drown you.”

Those words jolted his memory. He remembered everything. Trunda breaking his arm, bashing his head against the tree, and pushing him into the river to fall over the waterfall. And with those memories, came the accompanying feelings of guilt.

“I'm sorry,” he said to her. “I'm sorry you had to feel that. It was my fault. I shouldn't have gone off on my own like that...”

“Luca, no...” Emila said softly. She moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around him and embracing him tightly. “It wasn't your fault at all. I-If I hadn't felt that pain, I would never have know you were in trouble. When we got to you, I was so worried. I though that he might have done something to you, something that even the tether could not have saved you from. I didn't know if you could survive drowning or not. I was so afraid, because if you were gone, then our last words would have been that fight at the inn.”

She was so close to him, he could feel her heartbeat. It was racing, much like his own was. He realised something then, something that he had known for a while, but had not seen. Or perhaps he had just been denying it. But he realised just how much this girl had come to mean to him, and how much he had come to rely on her, not just because of the tether, but because of the warmth she brought into his cold life.

He knew that if he didn't push her away - if he didn't stop what was growing between them now before it had the chance to grow into something more - that it would make the time when he had to leave her all the harder.

“I know you can't forgive him,” she said, holding him closely like she was worried he would disappear right then and there. “You have to avenge your father. It was wrong of me to ask you to throw that away. I don't care where you go, I'll go with you. Just please don't leave me. Don't go. Please... Please...”

He could not answer, because that was the one thing he could not promise her. So he remained silent, while she held him close and wept into his shoulder.

Emila could not see that he shed tears of his own.

Chapter XVI

Broken Vows

The night was still young when Emila and Luca returned to Reven. Despite the late hour, however, the town was well awake from the chaos caused by Trunda's attack. The town guard had been gathered, and they had placed Trunda in chains and locked him up in the small dungeons under the guard's barracks. In such a small town, it was the best they could do, but they were smart enough to not take chances with such a dangerous man. A fast messenger raven had been sent off to T'Saw with news of his capture, but in the meantime it seemed they were going to be keeping him there.

Many villagers were awake and asking about the commotion. The guards were doing their best to send them away as Emila and Luca approached. They spotted Jared standing with his arms crossed by the entrance to the barracks, a sour expression on his face.

“Where is Selphie?” Emila asked him once they were able to get past the guards.

“Inside,” Jared grunted with a tilt of his head. “She wanted to talk to him. She made me wait out here.”

“Is she alone?” Luca asked, surprised.

Jared nodded, not looking particularly pleased at being reminded of that. “She insisted on it.”

Emila frowned. Luca knew why she was worried. He knew better than anyone.

“Where are the others, then?”

“Brand and Ash are back at the inn,” Jared said. “Wiosna is - somewhere.”

Luca looked around, wondering where Wiosna could have possibly gone. He didn't see the familiar bespectacled girl anywhere close by.

“You did a good job patching him up,” Jared said to Emila. “The Acarian did a number on him.”

For Jared, that was as close to admitting he was worried as he was going to get. The guard seemed a little more open lately. Perhaps he was finally starting to trust them.

Emila smiled politely at Jared's compliment, but the worry was still there in her eyes. She glanced at Luca for a second, quickly looking away when she saw that he had noticed.

“Begone! Nothing to see here!” A grizzled looking guard had appeared, looking tired and more than a little irritated. It would seem he had been woken from his home by the news of Trunda's capture. He shooed away the spectators, who scattered quickly at his frightening shouts. This man, apparently the captain of the town's guard, approached the other guards and started asking questions.

“You two should get back to the inn,” Jared told them. “You need your sleep. These men have the situation under control.”

Emila shook her head. “We'll wait for Selphie to be done. Then we can all go back together.”

Jared considered for a moment, then shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

The grizzly captain then came over to them. “I hear you lot are the ones who caught this man.”

“We're Princess Selphie's escort,” Jared told him. “We're on our way back to T'Saw.”

“So he followed you here, then?”

“So it would seem.” Jared didn't seem to like this guy, which was the most shocking twist of all. “This man is one of Zinoro's personal acolytes. He was at Serenite, conspiring with King Marcus' younger son against the throne.”

“Royal business,” the captain spat. “I keep my nose out of that. We all do around here. You brought this guy here, so you can be the ones to take him back.”

“But the letter you sent...” Emila started to say, but the captain cut her off.

“You said you're on your way to T'Saw. Well this man belongs in the T'Saw dungeons, and not here in our small town. The last thing we need is for Zinoro to send a hundred of his men here because we're holding his acolyte. Take him with you when you go.”

“You cannot make such demands of the princess,” Jared all but growled at the captain. “As Sonoian citizens, it is your duty to hold this war prisoner until soldiers from T'Saw come for him.”

“Sonoian citizens, huh?” the captain said, his unshaven face scowling. “It's easy to make demands of us, isn't it? But where were you when the Acarians came here six months ago and slaughtered our people? We were one of the villages in Zinoro's attacks. We sent letters to the capital, begging for aid. We got nothing from you. All we had to defend us against further attacks is the twelve men who work here as the guards, including myself.”

The captain took the cloth of his trousers and pulled up, exposing his ankle and lower knee. Instead of flesh, he had an iron prosthetic from the knee down.

“Those damn Acarians were brutal,” he muttered. “They showed up out of nowhere - one minute things were fine, and the next screams filled the air. They cared nothing for a human's life, not ours and not their own. They killed anyone they could get their hands on - man, woman, child - it made no difference to them. I lost my leg, but I was able to keep fighting. My wife and son were not. They were slaughtered along with many others - at least a third of our people. The Acarians were monsters. They didn't do this for gold or weapons or resources. They just did it to kill. It was - inhuman.”

The captain's face had grown pale. Luca knew what he meant. The Acarians - he himself had doubts about whether there really were human beings under there, or if Zinoro had somehow used dark magick to turn them into mindless servants.

“We don't want that man here, and we don't want you here.” The captain pulled his trouser leg back down and glared at them. “I want you all gone by the morning.”

The captain walked past them and entered the guard station, completely ignoring Selphie's insistence that she be left alone. Jared watch him go, looking like he was about to go murder the man.

“How
dare
he...?! He has no right to make demands of the princess like that!”
 

Emila frowned sympathetically. “He's just doing what he thinks is best for his people. He has a point. The Acarians might come here to rescue Trunda if we just leave him here.”

“We cannot take him with us, though...” Jared muttered. “We cannot take the risk.”

At that moment, Wiosna emerged from somewhere, appearing as out of the shadows of the night. Her face was flushed, and she was breathing heavily, but otherwise she appeared to be fine.

“Where were you?” Luca asked her.

“N-nowhere!” Wiosna exclaimed. “Just - taking care of something, that's all.”

“Okay, relax,” Luca said. “You're certainly jumpy.”

“Just tired,” she sighed.

“Is Selphie almost done in there?” Emila asked. “I think at this point we all need some sleep.”

Jared looked over to the door with a scowl. “With the captain having gone in...”

As though on cue, Selphie pushed the door open, looking angrier than Luca had ever seen her.

“The nerve! Who does he think he is? Were we in the capital, talking to me that way would have
him
in the dungeons...!”
 

Jared did not go to comfort her like he usually did. He actually moved aside, giving her some space. Selphie stepped out of the guard station, turning to Luca.

“I'm glad to see you're alright,” she said, after taking a deep breath to calm herself. “I was worried. I guess I let that get to my head, as I wanted to interrogate him by myself.”

“Did he tell you anything?” Luca asked.

“Not a thing,” Selphie said sadly. “He was as silent as a statue the entire time. He only spoke once - he said he wouldn't mind speaking with you, if you survived.”

“He wants to talk to me?”

“Indeed,” Selphie said patiently. “I don't know if he was serious about it. I think he might have been taunting me, but - I guess it's up to you if you want to go in there or not.”

“Yeah,” Luca decided. “I have a few things I want to say to him.”

Emila didn't seem to like that. She was biting her lip, which meant there was something she wanted to say, but was too nervous or uncomfortable to bring herself to.

“Go on back to the inn,” Luca told her, placing his hand on her shoulder. “I'll be right back.”

“Alright...” Emila gave in. “Just be careful. Don't let him get in your head with his mind games.”

What an odd thing to say. Emila herself must have been bothered by something Trunda had said to her back in Serenite. Luca would have to ask her about it later.

The others gave him reassuring nods, and Luca stepped inside the guard station, closing the door behind him. As he walked in, the captain was seated at a table. He looked up when he heard Luca's footsteps.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked. “I thought I told you all to get out of here.”

“The Acarian tried to kill me tonight,” Luca told him. “I want him to see that he failed, and there's some other things he should know about me.”

The captain studied him for a second, considering. After a moment, he nodded. “Very well. Just don't be a fool and try anything. He's a lot bigger than you, and the doors are locked anyway. You would just be letting him free. Say whatever you want, but let him rot in there.”

Luca nodded, and continued on, going down the steps that led to the small dungeon. There were only three cells in it, though they were made of the same iron as any other, and they had the mana-blocking circles that any cell needed. Even a man like Trunda could not escape from a cell like that.