RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred ay-Nine - Say Hello to My Little Friends

  “Who are your friends?” Amaryllis asked. She was eyeing the three new figures a step behind Francisd his two buddies.

  The human walked with a bit of a hunch, hands in his pockets. The sylph to his left had his head up high, as if daring ao look down on him, and the other sylph was gng all over the pce, as if he was expeg something to jump out from the shadows at any moment.

  “Hello, dy Amaryllis,” Francisco said with dripping meanness in his tone. “It seems that you really have fotten every st aspect of de and behaviour. Did no one ever teach you to greet people when you meet them?”

  “People, yes,” Amaryllis. “So will you ahe question?”

  The harpy’s face redde the cheeks and his feathers puffed out, just a little, before he gathered himself. “These three new friends of mine are some very kind fellows I met at a tavern. They heard of my plight, having to fight someone of your repute, and bravely decided to step up so that I might avoid soiling my feathers in your presence.”

  “You mean to say that you were too cowardly to fight me and my friends head on, so you hired three meraries to fight in your pce?” Amaryllis asked.

  I gnced back at Caprid Augustus. “ he do that?” I whispered.

  Augustus Spood bowed his head. “If the gentleman, ah, wishes to have someone fight in his stead, then he eleeoo do so. It isirely unon. It’s more often than not used by a dy of the court who doesn’t have skills as a fighter. She might employ a champion to fight iead. On occasion an older noble, past their prime, might also elect a champion. Usually these would be a member of their family, but there are no ws against merely hiring an outsider.”

  “But a young fighter designating a champion in their stead is seen as cowardice,” Caprica said. “Or at least as very distasteful.”

  Augustus stepped up, pg himself between Amaryllis and Francisco. “Greetings everyone,” he said with practiced geniality. “My name is Augustus, I’ll be the person in charge of today’s duel. Lord Hawk, from what I overheard, you will be having these three gentlemen fighting in your stead?”

  “Yes, yes I will,” Francisco said. “What about you, Amaryllis, will you be fighting yourself? You always did like t and strut with your chest puffed out. Or maybe you’ll send someone else in? That little sylph girl behind you, maybe?” he chuckled, and his friends joined in.

  I followed his gaze and saw that Gabrielle was blinking back at him, pletely fused.

  Augustus cleared his throat. He was still smiling, but there was a vein visible along the line of his neck. “Lord Hawk, I believe I speak for every sylph when I say that if you could avoid involving her royal highness in your affairs, it would be appreciated.”

  “Ah,” Francisco said. I thiiced all the guards nearby, many of whom were giving him looks and decided to backpedal. “A pleasure to meet you, yhness, please five my earlier impertihe presence of this barbarian brings out the worst in me.”

  “Um,” Gabrielle hesitated before dropping into a quick, shallow curtsy. “It’s fine? I wasn’t really paying you much attention. I’m really just here to see my sister’s friends fight.”

  “Your sister’s friends?” Franused. “Ah, perhaps after our bout I will remaio observe that fight.”

  “But.. but that’s the fight you were supposed to be in?” Gabrielle asked.

  I eyed Gabrielle. She sounded i. A bit too i.

  “Right, big sister Caprica?” Gabrielle asked. She bli Caprica with big, wet eyes, and I could imagine her lower lip trembling even if it wasn’t.

  Gabrielle was a very tricky little sister, it seemed.

  “That’s right, Gabi,” Caprica said. “We’re here to watch Lady Amaryllis, Lady Bristlee, and Captain Bunch put up a good fight.”

  “On that note,” Augustus said. “Lady Amaryllis, did you io fight yourself?”

  “We have some royal guardsmen here who I am certain would be hoo be your champions,” Caprica added. “We even have a padin or two. Some are in their fourth tier.”

  Francisco was looking a bit pale.

  “I appreciate the gesture,” Amaryllis said. “But I am no coward. I io win based on my ows. As for my panions, they decide for themselves. Besides, if we use the sylph military to win this battle, then a the summit could turn around and accuse us of being supported directly by Sylphfree. It would discredit us.”

  I gnced over to the three guys we’d have to fight.

  Jacob Hayer, Bdesinger, level 15

  That was the sylph who had been looking all over the pce earlier. Now his attention was mostly split between staring at the back of Francisco’s head and the two princesses.

  Malter Roggen, Frozen Batterer, level 14

  That was the human. He was staring past everyone, looking like he was entirely bored with everything.

  o him, the st of the sylph meraries looked pretty darned flicted. I had the impression he just didn’t want to be there anymore, but he didn’t have a choice about it.

  Flein Bog, Hardened, level 16

  All three were a few levels above my friends and I, and that was just what I could see from their primary csses. It ossible that all three had a sed css that was at max level. I’d have to see if Amaryllis could tell me more about them.

  I snapped my attention ba the versation as Augustus called someone over from the sides, a young aide who moved over to the meraries and started to guide them away. Meanwhile, Augustus turowards my friends and I. “Please, allow me to escort you to the preparation area.”

  I waved Caprid Gabrielle good-bye, the younger of the two giving us a quick wave iurn as she called out, “Good luck!”

  “Have any of you participated in this sort of duel before?” Augustus asked as we headed down a corridor, then through a side-door and down a flight of stairs. The decorations stopped at the door, and everything became a lot more funal and austere.

  He gnced bad took in our shaking heads.

  “Well the me expin the basics. In order to keep things somewhat fair the fights--all one-on-one petitions of prowess--will be chosen based on drawn lots. The fight will start when the arena glows red. The moment the arena glows red again, you must stop.”

  “Glows red?” Awen asked.

  He nodded. “You’ll uand when you see it. The referee will demonstrate iher case. There are entments that light up if anyone in their viity is gravely injured, knocked unscious, or otherwise incapacitated. The referee should be treated as a god of their domain. What they say is sacrosand should not be defied.”

  “Ah, alright,” I said. This was starting to sound pretty serious.

  “The ons you pick must be chosen from our armoury. These will be ented to make them nohal. That does not mean that they ot cause harm, only that they will blunt any great impact, and will not pierce or cut into flesh the way a normal on would,” Augustus said.

  The stairs ended, aarted down a long corridor that e a sharp angle. Augustus poio a door to our left before he ope. He didn’t step in though. “This is the waiting room. You see the arena through that gss there. There are barriers io prevent magics from harming the room, and the rest of the arena as well.”

  “The ons are all ented not to hurt people, right? What about magic?” I asked. I didn’t really have mu terms of offensive magic, but Awen had her gss magid Amaryllis had electricity and puppeteering and probably a few ical tricks hidden away in her sleeves too.

  Augustus sighed. “Unfortunately, stopping someone from using magi’t as simple as blunting a on. We ask that anyone fighting a duel keep in mind that there’s no honour in killing an oppo in this arena. If we see that a mage is going too far, there are entments ihat disrupt the flow of mana. We leave those off until they are absolutely hough.”

  “Alright,” I said.

  Augustus nodded. “The referee will go over the rules again before the duel starts, don’t worry.”

  “Thanks, Mister Augustus,” Awen said. “You’re very kind.”

  “Merely doing my job, Lady Bristlee,” he said. We tinued down the corridor, around the bend, and stopped before a door that was closed. It had a small light bulb-like thing above it that was currently off. Reag up, Augustus flicked a switext to the door and the light started to glow a magical blueish hue. “And this is the armoury. Take whatever you here are pieces of armour at the back as well. I will be waiting out here for your return.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  The room was well lit, a few hanging nterns casting an e-yellow glow across rows of racks and shelves den with hundreds of ons. The room over, past an archway in the room we were in, had armour on dummies and on more shelves. Enough to equip three dozen warriors and then some.

  “Whoa,” I said as I reached over and picked up a swer than I was. Or I tried to. It was way, way too heavy.

  At least the edges on it weren’t sharpened. I couldn’t imagihat helping too much if someoook a swing at me with it, though.

  “Alright,” Amaryllis said. “We... doly have an advantageous situation here. Three oppos with abilities we only guess at, all above our levels, and on an even pying field.”

  “It’s going to be a tough fight,” I said. “But we’ll do our best, right?”

  “Awa, we don’t o do our best,” Awen said. “We o win. This is important, Broccoli. We need, um, strategy more than we need optimism, I think.”

  “ht.”

  Awen turo Amaryllis. “What’s our strategy?”

  Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “Of course. With great intelligenes great responsibility.” I chose not to ent. “Let’s see. The Frozen Batterer is likely an ice mage. His armour was lighter than most front-line batant sorts. If I’m against him, I’ll try to overwhelm him. Ice magids to be slow to act. Awen... I’m afraid you’re not in the best position in any fight here.”

  “I need equipment, and time,” Awen said. “I’m not really much of a fighter at all, really.”

  “Yreat,” I said.

  She shook her head. “I’m a meic first. It’s okay not to be good at fighting, I think. You don’t o worry about me though, I have a few tricks that might work.” She reached over to one of the racks, then pulled a heavy shield from it.

  “Right,” Amaryllis said. “The Bdesinger is a somewhat on sylph css. High mobility, focused on swords. He’s going to be fast, and he’s going to have a lot of tricks. Keep your distand pelt him with magic. Broccoli, I’m sure you could mao keep away and fling some fire at him.”

  “Uh, alright,” I said.

  “The st is a mystery, and the highest levelled oppo we have to face. I’d guess he’s more of a defensive expert, but I ’t say for certain. Just... try to hit hard.”

  Amaryllis gnced around, then o herself before moving to a wall-mounted rack covered in knives and daggers and other short pointy things.

  I looked around myself. There were so many ons, but I didn’t have a knack for any of them. I slid over to the side, and gri a wall covered is. I swept ht off the topmost rack. A big gdiator’s helmet, with a metal lion’s fa the front, and it had a furry ruff oop and back, with a few holes that my ears could poke through.

  That didn’t leave me with any ons though.

  That was, until I spotted something in the er. “Perfect!”

  “What’s perf-- oh please, Broccoli, no.”

  “Broccoli yes!” I said.

  When we left the room, all kitted out, Augustus was waiting for us, as promised. He stared at the on I had slung over a shoulder, and the dustpan I held in my other hand. “Captain, is that our broom?”

  ***

  RavensDagger

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