Sentinels: Forsaken Knight

by B. H. Savage

  Without heavy armor or shields to lug around the combat mages were more agile than Delrich’s warriors, and their skill with magic allowed them to use projectile attacks as well as their swords. Luckily for Anye and the prince she was quite skilled with healing and protective spells, and managed to counteract most of the attackers’ bombardment. The soldiers from her unit utilized a similar strategy as well, but many from both sides had fallen.

  Anye realized that Amador was missing from his post defending the prince after a few minutes had passed. She thought it was possible he had fallen from a stray arrow or had been struck unexpectedly by one of the many magical attacks being thrown at them, but pushed the thought from her mind. She didn’t like him, but she recognized his skill in combat and knew that he wouldn’t go down easily. Still, his absence begged the question of where he was, though.

  Her sword cut through the cloth armor of a third assailant as a large shadow swept over the chaos and caught Anye’s attention. She looked up for a moment to see Amador’s dragon swoop down into the fray with Amador riding on his back. The impact of the dragon’s landing shook the ground and flung several of the attackers backwards. The dragon roared and fire flew out of its gaping jaw like liquid, setting the dark robed attackers ablaze.

  “Amador, where the hell were you!?” Anye shouted at him. “You left His Highness undefended! Do you have any idea what could have happened!?”

  Amador used his lance from his mounted position to sweep one of the attackers off his feet, plunging the tip through the attacker’s chest when they landed on their back. “When the attack started I thought I saw one of the archers that shot at us and went after him. By the time I realized it was a trap you were already surrounded. Calling Oscar was the best way to get back to you and defend His Majesty, Captain!” he yelled back at her.

  Anye deflected one more attack and cut down another attacker before turning to face the prince and lancer again. Most of the attackers had been killed by now, their blood staining her sword and armor. Many of their soldiers had fallen as well. Only a few on each side remained. The bodies of the fallen all lay scattered around. Scorch marks from the combat mages’ attacks and the blood of the slain covered the area. Luckily the prince was unharmed, although visibly shaken. His own sword was drawn and dripping with red liquid, indicating that while Anye had fought off the majority of the mages he had to defend himself at least once.

  “Captain Everdyne, look out!” one of her soldiers shouted from behind her.

  She quickly turned to see one of the last mages was charging towards her. The blade he carried was being held in both of his hands and had been set ablaze. He intended to overpower her and claim his prize before she could react.

  He was fast as well. She barely managed to get her shield in place before the swing from the enemy connected. He hit her with such force that the shield shook itself from her grip and fell to the ground away from her. He came back around for another swing, but this time she was ready. Her blade met with his and deflected it around her. Sparks flew off of the enchanted metal as they slid across each other, threatening to blind her.

  The mage continued his assault on the knight. Each attack he sent her way was met with her own weapon, now starting to glow with heat from repeated contact with the fiery sword. His exhaustion and visible anger were making him careless though, and Anye recognized the weakness quickly. She defended herself, waiting for the right moment to counterattack. It came when he tried a forward thrust with the blade. She easily deflected it to her side with her sword and spun into the attacker, bringing her weapon over her head in masterful display of swordplay and swung horizontally. The blade hissed as the hot metal slid through his flesh, removing his head. The fire surrounding the enemy sword ceased to be, and the attacker’s body slumped to the ground at her feet…

  Anye looked around quickly to assess the situation. It appeared that the enemy she killed was the last one. Only two of her soldiers and one of Amador's were still alive, along with the prince. “Prince Robert, it appears that the enemy-” Before she could finish speaking she was struck in the back of the head with a hard blunt object, the force of which knocked her off her feet and planted her face into the dirt of the road. The object that struck her pushed into her head, keeping her in place.

  “Things never go as planned…do they?” a voice said from above her. “No matter, this could actually work out in my favor.”

  “What?” she mustered from the dirt. The ringing in her ears and the throbbing in her head kept her from being able to focus on what was continuing to happen around her.

  “Anye, I’m surprised you didn’t see this coming, especially with your great intuition,” the voice said. “If I hadn’t convinced the king to send me on this little expedition instead of that self-righteous clown, Sturmwind, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

  Anye started recognizing the voice through the ringing in her ears as she heard the screams of her last remaining men falling to the ground, and then being silenced. “Amador? What…what are you doing?”

  “Oh no, Captain, not me,” Amador said. “I admit, this wasn’t part of the original plan, but pinning the blame on you for the prince's untimely death suits my needs just as well.”

  Anye’s eyes opened wide and she attempted to get to her feet. Her sword was still in her hands, gripped tightly, but the pressure being applied to the back of her skull had her pinned. “Amador, you can’t do this!”

  “Oh, but I can, Captain.”

  Anye heard the thump of Oscar’s massive feet move around her. She realized that the blunt object holding her to the ground was the back end of Amador’s lance, and he was using the dragon’s weight to help to keep her down. “You won’t get away with-AH!” Anye yelped in pain as the dragon’s foot pressed down on her sword arm, forcing her to release the handle of the weapon.

  Amador released the pressure on the woman’s head and slid down from the dragon’s saddle to pick up the blade. The dragon’s weight on her arm put her in such pain that she couldn’t move and watched helplessly as the armored traitor walked over her. “I will get away with this. Not you, Sturmwind, or anyone else can stop what’s happening,” he whispered to her. He laughed at her, sounding as if he’d gone mad, and then kicked the side of her head.

  Stars filled her vision as she began to lose consciousness. The world around her started to go dark, and sound seemed to all but disappear completely. The dragon’s foot lifted, releasing her from its weight, but there was nothing she could do. She was quickly losing consciousness, barely able watch what was happening while blood slowly exited the fresh wound on her head. She could hardly see the prince being held by Amador’s cohort, apparently loyal his treasonous cause, and Amador himself slowly walking towards him with Anye’s sword in his hand.

  She tried to speak, to tell him to stop, but the words wouldn’t come. Before succumbing to her injuries and passing into unconsciousness she saw Amador raise her blade towards the captive prince, and then slowly push it through his heart. The betrayer’s maniacal laughter, mixing with the prince’s agonizing screams, echoed in her head as she lost the strength to keep conscious. It fell to the ground as she finally slipped into darkness.

  Chapter 2

  Lost hope

  The weeks following Prince Robert’s murder while on his mission of peace in Mitus were tumultuous. Only Anye and Amador remained after the assault, showing that Amador didn't even spare those who would aid him. When Anye had woken from her head injury, she found that her sword and shield had been taken from her and her armor had been stripped, having been replaced with prison garb. She tried not to think about what may have happened while she was unconscious.

  She had been told that Mitus’ guards rushed to the scene after a civilian told them they heard the groups fighting. By the time they arrived, Anye was already unconscious, the prince was dead with her sword still plunged through his heart, and only Amador and his dragon remained alive with the point of his lance held at he
r throat. According to their report Anye was a “warmonger” who couldn’t stand the thought of peace coming for both her kingdom and their enemy, and had conspired with a renegade faction of the imperial army to stage the assault and blame Mitus. Such an accusation caused Mitus’ emperor to withdraw from the offer of peace, claiming that if one such as her couldn’t follow the royal family’s orders then there was no reason to believe others would uphold the peace. As a sign of respect and sympathy for the king though, he did return Amador and Anye back to their kingdom so she could be tried, along with the bodies of the prince and the escort party.

  Each attempt she had made to try and convince the guards of her innocence, be them of Mitus or Delrich, ended in failure and usually with their weapons hitting the bars of her cell accompanied by a stern reminder to “shut up”. Anye knew that Amador was lying, plotting something that could only end in disaster for her kingdom at the very least, but nobody was willing to listen to her, not even the soldiers that were under her charge until recently. As much as she wanted to hold hope that someone would believe her, panic was starting to set in. She spent just under a week in the castle’s dungeon before she finally had her first visitor. To her surprise it was her father. She hadn’t thought about his marriage prospect since the day of the attack.

  “Hello, Anye,” the brooding man said in greeting. His tone was less than friendly and his facial features matched.

  “Father,” she replied with a mixture of hope and sorrow in her voice. “I hope you and mother are well.”

  “Your mother has been in a state of depression since word reached the estate,” he answered coldly. “We’ve been harassed by citizens of the kingdom and accused of conspiracy because what you have done!”

  Regardless of everyone's lack of belief in her Anye was shocked. “What I’ve done? Father, I did my duties as a knight to protect his majesty! Amador is the betrayer but nobody will listen!”

  “Your sword was the one found shoved through his chest, you ungrateful child!” her father yelled. “Sir Astley barely survived your little revolt and has been in mourning with the king since you two returned. You should be grateful he decided to spare your wretched life so that the royal family could see their son’s murderer.”

  “Murderer!? Father, why won’t you believe me?” she cried.

  “Humph,” he snorted. “You’re no daughter of mine, you never were! I should have left you in that burning house where I found you.”

  Anye was speechless. Tears poured through her eyes as she fell to her knees against the iron bars of her cell, and watched as her father turned heel and left the dungeon with his escort. Never before had she felt so abandoned and hopeless.

  ______

  Another day passed. Whispers of the king ordering Anye's execution reaching her cell. After her father had left her there to die she had lost any hope she still had of anyone listening to her, simply waiting for the time when the executioner would come for her. A storm outside the castle walls felt somehow appropriate in her dejected state. What had once been a bright future for the aspiring knight captain had turned into a dark, cold, and dishonorable end.

  "Captain, I'm sorry, but we are under strict orders to-"

  "I am both your and his superior officer, soldier. If I give you an order then that order takes precedence over his. Do you understand?"

  Anye looked up towards the dimly torch-lit corridor leading into the dungeons that had become her home, listening to the faint voices of two men near the entrance. The sound of the rain and thunder echoing off of the stone walls made it difficult to hear what they were saying though.

  "I don't care if he's under direct orders from His Majesty...takes his orders from me..."

  Whoever the other individual was, he didn't seem to be friendly with the guards. The conversation actually piqued Anye’s interest enough for her to make her way to her feet and press her face to the bars to try and listen better.

  "...very well, sir, but I can only allow you a few minutes..."

  "Guards, who’s there?" Anye asked the two men standing in front of her cage. She didn't expect an answer, but with nothing left to lose she didn't see the harm in annoying the men any more.

  As she expected one of them turned around and slammed his halberd into the bars, making a very loud clanging sound. "Shut up, you. You'll only speak when spoken to."

  "And as such she shall speak to me now," the voice of Glenn Sturmwind said from the shadow of the corridor. He emerged a moment later dressed in all of his armor, holding his open-face helmet under his arm. The helmet was adorned with two wings that reached behind his head from his temple like two outstretched dragon wings and colored to match the rest of the armor. Only the Knight Captain of the Dragon Knights was given such equipment to identify him in the field.

  "Guardsmen, you may leave your post," Glenn ordered. "I wish to speak to the prisoner...alone."

  "Sir, we're under direct orders from-"

  "Lieutenant Astley, yes I know," Glenn replied quickly without hiding his annoyance. "Have you forgotten my rank, guardsman?"

  "Captain, sir."

  "And does the rank of Captain not hold more weight in its orders than that of Lieutenant?"

  "Yes...no, sir!"

  "Then I fail to see the issue. Leave, that is an order," he told them coldly. "If Sir Astley has a problem with it he can see me in my private chambers."

  Both guards gestured with a salute and quickly exited the dungeon the way Glenn had arrived.

  When the echoes of the armor bouncing had silenced Glenn let out a sigh and looked towards Anye with a small smile. It quickly vanished when he saw the pitiful state of his close friend. "Anye, are you alright?"

  "Nice to see you," she replied with an attitude. "Finally taken the time out of your busy schedule to visit me?"

  "Anye, you must listen to me," Glenn told her as he gripped her bars.

  She could see the look of distress in his face and dropped the visage of anger. Something had to be very wrong in the castle for Glenn to be so visibly worried about something. "What? Has Amador done something? You believe me?"

  "Of course I believe you," Glenn told her. "But there's nothing I can do. Amador is in the king's ear now. He won't listen to a word I say. He's already threatened to strip me of my rank and throw me in here with you for sympathizing with you on more than one occasion."

  "That's why you haven't been here," she said. "Glenn, are the rumors true? Am I to be executed, even without a trial?"

  Glenn took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head before answering. "I'm afraid His Majesty has been...different, since your return from Mitus. I don't know what it is but he wouldn't be like this if he, and Her Grace, were simply in mourning. Amador has done something to affect him, but without proof I can't do anything about it, rank or not."

  "Is that why you've come, then? To say goodbye?" she asked sadly.

  "No," he told her. "I'm here to get you out."

  Anye stepped back in shock as Glenn lifted a key out of a pocket underneath his armor and opened the door to her cell. Her eyes swelled with tears as she could not contain her emotions. She immediately broke down and ran out to hug him. She hit him hard enough to knock the air out of him.

  "Come on, we don't have much time," Glenn explained. "The guards are sure to have reported my actions to Amador by now. We need to get you out of here."

  Anye backed away and dusted herself off. "But how? All of the corridors are patrolled, and if the king is going as mad as you say he'll have doubled the patrols."

  "He already has, but there's another way. Come on," Glenn told her. He took her hand and a torch off the wall. "There are other passages throughout this castle that aren't patrolled. You just need to know where they are to use them."

  The pair ran through the halls of the dungeon, ignoring the foul smell and moaning life-long prisoners that dwelled there. The darkness would have engulfed them had Glenn not taken the torch from the wall to light their way. Eventually they reach
ed a dead end. The only thing around them that Anye didn't recognize was a large statue of a dragon against the wall resting on top of a stone altar.

  "Glenn, this is a dead end," she said to him as she frantically looked for a door. It took her a second before she noticed Glenn wasn't looking around, but rather kneeling in front of the statue. "What are you doing?"

  "Paying my respects," he explained as he got back to his feet. "The door is here, known only to very select few. Watch."

  Glenn gripped his lance from the sling across his shoulders and rested the tip at a circular point on the statue's chest. With a heave, he pushed the lance forward and the circle on the statue gave way, acting like a keyhole for the weapon. He turned it clockwise until the sound of a click echoed from behind the walls.

  Anye heard hidden weights slide against the stone within the walls as a panel on the floor in front of the statue slid away, revealing a staircase covered in dust and cobwebs. "Glenn, where does this lead?" she asked.

  "To the cave beneath the eastern wall," he told her. "There is a horse, clothing, and...a weapon waiting for you there. You must take them and go."

  She looked at him questioningly. "You're not coming with me?"

  "I can't," he said. "I need to stay and find out what Amador is up to."

  "I need to help!" she told him. "Amador framed me, I need to-"

  "You'll be killed on sight, Anye. You need to leave!"

  Anye stared at him. Her emotions stirred around; fury, sadness, understanding. She knew why he told her she needed to leave and she understood that if she didn't she would be killed without a second thought, but leaving her closest friend to fight this battle without her didn't sit well in her mind.

  "I'll come find you when I learn something, Anye. Trust me," he pleaded with her. "And don't worry about the guards. I'll tell them you jimmied the lock and overpowered me before running into the darkness. By the time I thought I'd caught up with you, you had somehow disappeared."