.
We have heard that they escaped, two days ago.
I wanted to return as soon as those words finished coming out of Saerim’s mouth, but I stuck to the schedule. It was nearly Mid-Evening when I hovered outside Dilorè’s room and rapped on the window.
I could not use a returning bird to send the information to the team sooner. Uncle Arken had strictly forbidden using the papers he had given me to communicate intelligence. They had a legitimate risk of being intercepted, and the last thing we needed to do was alert the Berado as to the nature of our mission.
So, I had spent the day suppressing my anxiety to get back to Lisrau Castle Town by letting myself be occasionally observed outside the barrier, on reconnaissance flights, confirming the current location of the ‘mercenaries’– I had learned from Saerim that this is what the Orestanian territorial guards in unmarked uniforms working for the Berado were claiming to be– and looking for their fairy knight.
I did spot her one time, while I was flying closer to the ground using [Vampire Cloak]. She was on the ground, wingless, with her arm in a sling. She and some of the mercenaries were in the middle of fording a marshy section in one of the parts of the Greenwater that extends out beyond the barrier.
It takes a lot to break fairy bones. I did manage it, that time that I walloped Feraen with [Holy Smite], but even when I drilled Lâsin into a mountainside, he had come out of it with only a concussion. I was forced to conclude that this fairy was more at Feraen’s level than at that of Mára or her husband.
Lady Dilorè pulled open the window– it had hinges on the side, to open inward in two halves, with storm shutters that swung out– and I entered the room to find Allia and her daughters waiting for me.
As I shed my gear, the mother commented, “We picked up a few useful details, and confirmed that your girl wasn’t lying about the way being closed ahead, so delaying here wasn’t a waste. We’ll be detouring through Lisrau Mining Town, as she suggested. How’d you do?”
I grinned at her. “Not bad. I picked up an entire tribe of allies, and probably the most critical bit of intelligence we could have asked for, other than our target’s exact location.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Really? You sound quite confident about that.”
“And I fought a fairy knight,” I added.
A strangled coughing fit exploded out her. I looked at Ceria while her mother was stricken and said, “Are Uncle Arken and the rest in the building? I have a lot to talk about, and we might as well have everyone here before I start.”
After I finished catching everyone up, I watched Allia with her arms folded, drumming her fingers on her arm, and Arken holding his chin and pondering.
“So this is information from a prisoner?” Allia asked.
“They got it out of several prisoners, apparently,” I said. “And they had ‘other sources’, but Saerim wouldn’t say what those sources were. It seems that the girls definitely fled into the surrounded tribal region that the Amaga homeland is part of, and the whole surprise attack was because the Berado believe our girls went into the Greenwater.”
She stared at me for a long space, then asked, “How confident are you that the girls are not with the Amaga, like the Berado believe?”
“Not confident at all,” I admitted. “I’m cautious enough to understand the Amaga could be hiding the girls. They would hardly tell the first stranger to come along about it, if they were.”
“Two days is an awfully short lead time to organize a major military operation like that,” Uncle Arken commented. “The claim that they escaped could very well be a lie.”
I nodded. “True, but it seems the attack was hasty and badly organized. It was so sloppy that at the very start, an entire company of Berado warriors stumbled into an Amaga strongpoint and threw the rest of the plan into disarray. That’s how the Amaga got all the prisoners that were interrogated, not to mention a complete set of the attack plans.”
Arken nodded. “That’s not the sort of slipshod execution that one usually would see from a military force that has been conquering its neighbors one after the other. It sounds like somebody panicked.”
A deep frown grew on Allia’s face. “Why would they panic so badly over a couple runaway girls?”
I had already been pondering that question myself. On the face of it, it didn’t make any sense.
I did note, “I was told that one’s prestige as a leader depends in part on the number and quality of one’s wives. And the Berado chieftain really was showing those two off to his underlings and visitors, just like we heard. Both Her Highness and Lady Chiara are seen as extremely high value items. Perhaps it’s just that big of an embarrassment, losing them?”
“Still…” Allia muttered, unconvinced.
Well, I wasn’t convinced either. Helen of Troy was fiction. In the real world, you wouldn’t launch a thousand ships or a thousand troops over a pretty girl or two.
The last place I ever expect anything smart to come from is our hero Ryuu, but he was the one that came up with a very good question. Although I will admit, I didn’t realize it was a good question when he asked it.
“We don’t know why they have them in the first place, right?”
We all turned to look at him, but it was enough of a non-sequitur that nobody answered at first.
Perplexed, I finally asked him, “No, we have a pretty good idea of how they ended up there, don’t we?”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. It’s something Arken said, when we first headed for Arelia. Guards working for some southern lord like Parna almost certainly were the ones who kidnapped the princess, and we know those guards carried her to the Tabad, but we have no idea why they did it. Why would they risk going up against the Royal Knights and King Owen just to turn around and hand her over to a tribal chieftain? And why would they let the chieftain act like she’s his property? What is their goal in the first place?”
I had considered these questions myself, when I first heard what had happened. It really was a strange move on Parna’s part. I had filed it under ‘things we can figure out once we get Amelia back’ and I didn’t think about it after that, since I had to focus on the more important job of getting her back.
As nobody had responded, Ryuu continued in the silence, “We can’t figure out why they would panic over losing the girls if we don’t know the reason they have them, right?”
Uncle Arken pursed his lips and considered his answer for a bit before observing, “Although there are a few logical holes in your argument, you are generally right. You aren’t really correct to declare that we can’t figure it out, but it is more difficult to understand the chieftain’s motivations as long as we don’t know Parna’s plan.”
“Assuming it was Parna’s plan,” Allia countered. “Those so-called mercenaries are ostensibly working for the Berado chieftain. He could be the one who sent them on a raiding mission.”
“To kidnap the highest ranked woman in Orestania?” I retorted.
Arken nodded. “Yes, exactly. They might follow his orders normally, but surely they wouldn’t accept such an extreme order without the approval of the southern lords. No, this order came down from their real employer.”
Allia looked from Arken to me, then finally nodded.
“Well isn’t that the answer then?” Ceria asked. “The reason the lords took the princess isn’t what matters to the Berado. What matters is that they are in big trouble with their allies if they lose her, right?”
Bruna nodded. “Right. He’s getting all this help from them for some reason, but he could lose it if he screws up badly enough.”
Their mother looked at her two daughters, then looked at Arken. “And the fact that he panicked and rushed a badly organized raid on the Amaga supports that theory, doesn’t it? Losing them puts him in trouble with Parna.”
He nodded agreement.
I mused, “It also may explain why that fairy knight and those Orestanian guards were there.”
Allia’s brow gathered in puzzlement. “Why wouldn’t they be there?”
“They were a big surprise to the Amaga,” I told her. “Previously, the Berado have only used them as occupation forces for the territory they’ve already conquered. They haven’t been able to use them to make new conquests. Which suggests their real purpose is to guard the interests of their lords in the occupied areas, rather than to help the Berado expand. But they moved to make an attempt of their own once the Berado warriors got into trouble. I think that means losing Amelia and Chiara damages their interests, too.”
We kicked ideas around for a while after that, but ultimately, we didn’t come up with any better theories.
“So what are your plans?” I asked Allia.
“We found a caravan job heading into Berado territory,” she said with a grin. “Military supplies, believe it or not. We’ve already paid the teamsters and released them, so our wagon is headed back to Dausindiu tomorrow. The caravan leaves for Lisrau Mining Town in the morning. They’ll head into Berado territory from there.”
Caravan guard is a common job for adventurers, since they can get paid to go where they’re going, rather than paying a fare. The choice to hire our own wagon had been because the few available caravan jobs to Lisrau were taken.
But I was a little surprised that they were leaving in the morning. “They’re departing on Restday?”
Allia shook her head. “It’s not Restday to the Benemites. They call it ‘Seventhday’ here. They worship on the lunar days instead.”
Benemism is the religion in this region, the one with its main temple in Dausindiu. And lunar days are the days when the lunar quarters occur. So, the first day of the week, instead of the last.
Ceria grinned, “Mom says she and Dad used to argue over which day to make their day off.”
To my puzzled look, Allia explained, “My husband grew up in the Dragonsbacks.”
Caravans can’t afford to hire fairies or half-fairies. When we hired on while I was part of the Hero’s Party, I would disguise myself as a human by wearing a cloak over my armor. But I couldn’t really imagine proud Lady Dilorè doing that.
“Dilorè isn’t part of that deal, I assume,” I stated.
Allia pressed her lips together, and I realized I had just walked into an ongoing argument. Before she could respond, I segued into telling her my own plans.
I nodded. “Good. I want her to help me instead.”
Allia’s eyes narrowed. “With what?”
“That fairy knight will soon find a healer for her arm and get back into the game. We need the Amaga to keep the Berado tied up, to keep them off your back, so Dilorè and I are going to help them.”
Ceria protested, “You’re not going to stay with us?”
“I will shuttle back and forth between you guys and them. Dilorè isn’t as stealthy, so she will stay and assist the Amaga.”
“Your Highness!” Dilorè protested, and her objection was obviously going to be about her staying at my side to guard me, so I immediately held up a finger to stop her.
“We’ve already had this conversation, My Lady. They have fairies on their side, and your stealth just doesn’t work against fairy eyes. But once you arrive, it will be fine if they can see you. I want them to see a fairy on the Amaga side.”
