In Search of Auria (22 page)

“No, I did as I promised. I only rested
because the carriage left already. Please, release me. I was only
waiting for you.”

“Tell me when it left!” I commanded, pushing
him to the wall.

“It was just a few minutes ago. I followed
it to the main street that leads to Castle Gate, the gate that
leads to Vidana. I had just returned and closed my eyes when you
got here.”

I tossed him a gold coin and left right
away. I passed the mews and turned left unto the main street. The
street divided two lanes with a long rose garden in between. And
the floor was flagged with star shaped tiles, instead of the usual
square ones. It was a very formal design, but I wasn’t there for
the ambrosian attractions. I continued running until I made it to
Castle Gate. This gate was more elaborate in design than the one I
had passed through to enter the city. The stones that formed the
arch were painted purple with royal seals encrusted on them. The
great doors were held together with gilded bolts, and the flags
beneath were smoothly polished.

The doors were open. Outside, on the far end
of the road, I saw the black carriage hauling the cage. It took a
right turn and disappeared behind the foliage. I rushed forward,
carrying my wrapped equipment, but six guards beneath the gate
stopped me.

“Where are you going?” one of the guards
stepped forward.

“I am to take some equipment to Vidana,” I
improvised.

“Where is your permit?”

Crap! I needed a permit here, too? What was
I to do? The carriage was getting farther by the second. And to top
it off, it started to drizzle. It was going to rain soon. I needed
to convince them.

“I was told I could go with the black
carriage that left, but I missed it.”

“Well, then, you missed it,” the guard
laughed in my face.

“But, I need to go,” I replied anxiously,
looking repeatedly over his shoulder.

“You will not pass, period!” He pushed me,
and I fell back to the floor. They all laughed as they returned to
their post. I sat frustrated on the ground, with people passing me
by. I suddenly felt crushed, impotent, defeated. I could not
believe the circumstances. It was the same thing that had happened
at the draw bridge; Auria was within my grasp, and she had gone
yonder. Was this how it was supposed to be? Always close, but never
together? Was this the fate of our lives!

“
No!”
I shouted in my mind. A spark
of anger ignited and boiled my blood. I stood and clenched my
fists, glaring at the guards. This was not how it was going to end.
I was passing through that gate even if I had to fight every
soldier in the city. No one was keeping me away from her!

I gave a great stomp forward and pointed at
the guard, “I
will
pass!”

I looked around and behind me was a knight
mounting a black horse. He was talking to a beautiful maid, trying
to make an impression. As I walked towards the horse, I tossed the
blanket away, fixed the sword on my hip and slung the shield on my
back. I then sprinted and hopped onto the steed, placing my hands
on its rump and sitting behind the knight. He turned at me
bewildered, never expecting such a thing. I pushed him down and
grabbed the reins. The guard that had pushed me saw what I did and
knew what I was about to do.

“Quick, close the gate! Close it!” he yelled
to the others. They positioned themselves behind the doors and
began to push them close. The iron hinges squealed as the doors
turned slowly. The citizens got air of what was happening and
started running away, clearing the area. I sank my heels on the
horse, making it dash with a neigh. The guard ran forward with his
sword, but skipped to side when the horse almost trampled him.

“Hya!” I yelled as the steed rushed on. The
soldiers groaned with effort as the gap shrank. If the poor horse
got stuck between the doors, it would crush its bones and launch me
forward like a catapult. As we drew closer, the soldiers gave one
final shove and slammed the doors shut.

They closed inches behind the horse’s
tail.

“Yes!” I screamed. But, the city guards were
not done yet. At the top of the wall, five archers released their
arrows. I hunched and scuttled the horse with the reins. I heard
the arrows miss right beside us, until I felt a pluck on my back.
I’d been hit! I checked my back and saw an arrow stuck on the
shield. I smiled at my fortune. It was a good thing I had it
on.

I continued down the road and turned right,
where I had seen the carriage turn. At that moment, the rain came.
The downpour instantly made the dirt muddy. Then, without warning,
the horse fell and threw me to a crummy puddle in the middle of the
road. It had stepped into a pothole and lost its balance. The mud
softened the fall and we didn’t get hurt, but as soon as it got up,
the horse turned and dashed away. Now, I was on foot under the
tempest. I resumed as rain and gale slapped my body. It was as if
the wind was coming from all angles.

The road went deeper into the forest and
curved endlessly inside it, until I finally saw the carriage ahead.
It had stopped. The wheels were stuck in the mud. Soldiers were out
trying to heave it out. I stood beside the road, watching. Auria
was inside that covered cage, alone and in the dark. I hardened my
fists until they cracked. This was the stage; this rainy day and
battered road. Auria’s suffering would end here.

I placed the shield on my arm, unsheathed my
sword, and walked. I would not hide and surprise them; I would not
“improvise”. I would only end it.

One of the soldiers stopped pushing and
leaned on the platform to rest. Covering his eyes from the rain, he
noticed me walking towards them. Seeing a man with a sword and
shield, geared up to fight, he instinctively yelled, “Bandits!”

The soldiers picked up their weapons and
circled the caravan. I kept walking patiently, letting them absorb
the rush of the moment. The one that saw me took his pike and
marched on the muddy path to confront me. He pointed the pike and
jabbed at me. Every time I deflected with the shield, keeping a
distance. He then swung the pike to my left, and I dodged back with
a hop. But when he swung back, I stopped the pike with my blade and
pushed it out with the shield. I rapidly spun around and hacked the
man under the ribs. This was all in one swift move. He gave a harsh
gasp and fell. With one less enemy to worry about, I continued my
walk.

The soldiers saw their comrade fall, but
still remained surrounding the caravan. They wondered if I was
alone or not. One of them left the group and came at me. He too had
a sword and shield, but showed me his weak fighting style. He came
running at me with his shield raised, attempting to bash me down. I
raised my own shield and waited for him. What I was about to do
needed perfect timing. And the moment he crashed against me, I
forced my sword down over the rim of his shield. I don’t know where
I stabbed him; the face, the neck, or the chest. But, he instantly
dropped dead. With the second one on the ground, the soldiers
cursed. This time, three of them came at me. One had a halberd, the
other a simple sword; but the third one wielded a greatsword. He
was a tall man with a bushy beard flowing out his helmet. The
greatsword was so long he had to hold it with both his hands. The
three formed a line before me as a flash of lightning lit us from
the side. I raised my shield and prepared my sword.

“Come on!” I yelled.

The halberd wielder and the swordsman
attacked at the same time. I blocked the halberd with my shield and
stopped the slash with the hilt of my sword. Having used both my
arms, the bearded man stepped forward to cut me down the middle.
But, I wasn’t going to let them kill me so easily. I strode forward
and tackled him. He fell on the sludge and I hurried to the left to
get on the clear. Now the closest to me was the halberd wielder,
followed by the bearded one on the ground and the swordsman. Since
they were one after the other, this was my chance to take them out
one by one. I first charged the halberd soldier. He swung his
weapon, but he was not strong enough to keep me at bay. I blocked
his strike and drove my sword through his chest.

The swordsman went at me, running around the
bearded soldier who was struggling to get up on the mud. My sword
got stuck on the halberd wielder’s chest. I yanked the halberd off
his hands, spun around and swung the long weapon to the swordsman’s
head. The halberd’s crescent blade split his helmet open with a
spew of blood. He dropped to the ground and I retrieved my sword.
When I turned, the bearded man was on his feet, charging at me.

He advanced swinging and slashing away
without rest; a plummet from above, a cut from the side, a slice
from the bottom-up. For a big guy, he moved quite swiftly. I only
blocked, dodged and deflected his attempts, for I could not find an
opening to strike. That is, until he had his first bite on fatigue.
He wanted to kill me too quickly, and his movements became lazy and
weak. He realized he wasn’t going to hit me and stepped back to
breath. Now it was my turn to take the offensive.

I attacked relentlessly. He kept his sword
close to his body, repelling every blow of my blade. But, the
exhaustion of handling such a heavy weapon fell upon him. When his
stamina finally dropped, I swung my sword to his left arm and cut
him. The steel sank into his skin. As he flinched, I raised a kick
to his stomach. He bent his body with a scoff. I then forced an
upward slash that caught him on the top of his helmet. He fell back
to the mud; the greatsword escaping his hands and the helmet flying
off his head. He wanted to keep fighting, but once he felt the tip
of my blade on his throat, he stopped. He looked at me with pale
fear in his eyes, the muscles of his face strained. As I prepared
to give the final blow, the man lowered his head on a pillow of
sludge and closed his eyes, ready to embrace his death.

At that moment, I froze. The soldiers
surrounding the convoy broke formation and headed toward me. But,
it was not because of them that I remained still. It was what I saw
beyond them that gave me a shudder from top to bottom. I saw
fingers emerging from the bottom of the cage’s bars, slightly
lifting the black tarp. It was Auria.

I slowly lowered my head, the bearded man
still at my mercy. I removed my blade from his throat and he
rolled away.

“I don’t want you,” I said. “I don’t want
any of you! I want Auriaaa!”

Suddenly, the heavy rain slowly came to a
stop. The sound of the water against the trees halted as dark
clouds hovered still in the sky. All was in silence, until I heard
someone clapping. It was a muffled clap, and I realized it was
coming from within the carriage. Its side door opened and out came
a knight. He wore silver armor; breastplate, gardbraces, vambraces,
cuisses and greaves. He also wore pauldrons wrapped with a red cape
that draped to his back. But, holding between his hand and hip was
his helmet. It had two rows of back-curved horns; two sprouting
from the temples, two over the ears, and two above the nape. As he
walked by the carriage, he passed his left hand over his short
blonde hair and said, “Bravo, warrior, bravo.”

My eyes did not look at him, but at the
helmet itself. It was as I remembered it from Somber Petalia, and
as Bri described.

“You’re Vallias,” I stated.

“You know me? Well, I am flattered. But, let
me introduce myself properly,” he bowed like a gentleman, “My name
is Angelus Vallias of Horne. Now tell me, who are you?”

I didn’t feel like replying with the
formalities. I just said my name, “Erik Belrose.”

“Belrose, eh?” he put his hand on his chin
in though, “I don’t recognize your name, but your face seems
familiar. Have we met before?”

He didn’t recognize me, which was a good
thing. If he remembered who I was and what I did at the village of
Tally, a burst of anger might make things difficult for me. I
quickly changed the subject to the matter at hand.

“Give me Auria!”

“Auria? What the hell is that?”

“She’s in the cage!” I pointed with my
sword. He looked back and realized what I was talking about.

“Oh, the fairy?
It
has a name? That’s
an interesting fact to know; none that I care for.”

“You bastard,” I scowled, “What do you want
with her? Why did you take her?”

“Well, frankly, that’s none of your putrid
business,” he smirked as he gave me a stern glare. “But, since you
know it by a first name basis, I assume you two are friends. Maybe
even more… haha!”

The skin on my face started to tighten with
irritation. I wanted to break him in two.

“A fairy and a man; a foolish man! What a
combination. Oh, I know why you’re here; you missed her, like a cub
misses her mommy. Bwahaha!”

My muscles were filled with fire. How dare
he talk to me like that? To us? In that instant, just before I
exploded, Vallias stopped his laughter and took a pensive gaze at
me. Then, his eyes widened as he finally recognized me.

“Wait, I do know you. Right now you have the
same angered face you had on that day; the day you took down
Sebastien and crippled our advancement at Somber Petalia. Men,
before you stands a miaflorian!”

All the soldiers raised their weapons
against me and formed a protective line in front of Vallias. I then
heard some noise coming from behind. It became louder as I realized
it was the stomping of horses and men on the soaked earth. From
around the curve of the road, five horsemen and twenty foot
soldiers appeared. They were the soldiers from Ambros. They quickly
reached us and surrounded me. How would I get out of this one? I
readied my shield and positioned my sword beside me.

“Belrose,” Vallias pointed at me as he
walked through the rows of soldiers, “that day when you stopped our
advancement, you gave me a grand headache I could not get rid of.
It was an itch that revolted the depths of my mind. But, conquering
your land of Somber Petalia was not my first priority; my main
objective was The Forest of Agony.”