"Lets go", Angee said as she started forward.
The townspeople were getting up now, and advanced on the small party.
With a thought the three Bards had a shield up, which obviously scared some of the townspeople as they ran away.
The ones that remained engaged the party, but were no match for the expert swordplay from the Bards.
Quite a few were soon on the ground moaning and groaning as the Bards had tried for non lethal injuries where possible.
The man who'd tried to turn them away though, he didn't have such luck, he had some skill with a sword and Allia was forced to stop him with a thrust to the gut, he dropped blood frothing on his lips.
They didn't stop to tend the injured but advanced into the centre of the town. Angee had a feeling they'd forgotten something and Stephanie was the one who found out what that was as she heard a bass roar behind her. The Town watch had been waiting for them to pass before ambushing them from behind.
Stephanie reacted purely on instinct and raised a hand sending a blizzard of ice bolts at the attacking squad, in the face of such an assault all the men quickly had mortal wounds.
Stephanie stomach was expelling it's contents almost immediately. The Bards looked shocked and slightly accusatory, Stephanie got mad. "Well what did you expect me to do, let them ambush us?". They looked abashed at that.
"Sorry, we have no right to judge" Allia offered.
They met little resistance further in town, evidently word must have spread, they did hold a man at sword point to ask where the Bard lived, after getting directions they let him go.
The smoke rising should have told them anyway Angee thought as they rushed into the street, a small mob was shouting and cheering as the house burnt, but as soon as they saw the Bards bearing down on them they ran off.
The house was well ablaze by now and smoke streamed out of the windows.
Angee didn't even wait and let fly a lightning bolt at the door, which burst inwards with a thunderous crash.
The room was almost totally on fire, they had to rush to the back, Angee wasn't sure to check upstairs and the rest of the ground floor when they heard weak moaning from behind a door.
Opening it carefully they entered to find a Bard barely conscious on the floor. Angee and Allia picked her up between her and went back to the main room, the slim path they had entered by was obliterated by fire now.
"We have to find another way out." Bria said with a choked voice, it was getting hard to breathe. "Wait a minute", Stephanie raised a hand and a mass of ice shot from it, you could see the strain on her face, but it was working, there was a lessening of the fire, just enough to rush through.
Out on the street they laid the Bard down and all stood there coughing and getting their breath. Bria knelt down besides the Bard and held her hand over her which glowed with light, after a few moments she stated she would recover.
The Bard opened her eyes and took a few seconds to focus on her surroundings, her cherub shaped face looked appealing with those blonde mousy curls Stephanie thought.
"Hello, my name is Lezza,I am a grey Bard, thanks for the rescue, it had turned a bit ugly in there and I couldn't exactly fight the entire mob outside on my own."
Angee smiled, "that's no problem, you feeling better?".
Lezza coughed as she nodded and broke into a laugh.
"Maybe a few minutes more to give my chest time to recover."
Stephanie noticed the mob was beginning to return and in greater numbers.
"I think we may have a problem."
The Mob looked ugly, but Angee was beginning to get angry.
"Look!" she shouted in magically enhanced tones to the mob,
"I am a white Bard and I have restrained myself from using my full powers but if there's any more nonsense I will show you what I can really do!". They looked uncertain at that, "but she brought the plague to us!" someone shouted.
The rest didn't wait, they rushed toward the party with all manner of knives,swords and household implements.
Lezza was on her feet in double quick time, Stephanie thrust her sword into Lezza's hand, "I don't need it."
The Mob of seventy or so Stephanie could see were slightly stopped from all attacking at once by the narrow street, not that it didn't mean they faced two dozen opponents or more.
The four Bards were hard pressed with trying not to kill, a nicety they couldn't afford at the moment Stephanie mused. She had no such compunction and started frying townspeople one by one with mini fireballs at their faces, they went down, with blood curdling screams in mortal agony, parts of their faces flapping loose.
"If we don't defend ourselves, we're all dead and our mission fails, you cannot afford to let them wear us down, kill them!".
Stephanie was very mad now,and letting fly with fireballs and Ice bolts. There seemed no end to the townspeople though, they were obviously very frightened of this terrible plague and they'd chosen the one visible target, the Bards.
Above the noise of battle Angee shouted to the others, "move back to the end of the street quickly!, I'll throw a shield up."
They ran after a thunderclap stunned the townspeople for a moment, and Angee raised a barrier across the street.
"I can hold this a little while but not forever."
Their opponents had reached the barrier now and were screaming abuse at them. The four Bards and Stephanie were tired and some of them had minor wounds.
Angee looked gravely at all of them, "I've restrained from using the high magic till now, it would be simple to wipe all these people out, but hang it, they are our own people!".
The sound of boots marching interrupted the abuse that was being shouted as a large body of men came down the street,
all in uniform of the King.
The Bards couldn't see all that was happening but they certainly heard it.
"By order of the King you are ordered to cease all violent conduct and return to your homes. This town is now under control of the army."
The townspeople shouted complaints and threats at the officer, but he was taking no notice. "If this street is not cleared of people in five minutes, my soldiers will arrest you, by force if necessary. Sergeant!,
deploy your men!".
At that, the townspeople bolted through houses and side streets.
Angee let down her shield, and the officer walked up to them.
"I am Colonel Ayam, is everyone alright?". Angee stood forward, "thank you Colonel, I may have been forced to kill even more than we unfortunately had too."
Looking over the Colonel's shoulder, the bodies were being checked by soldiers to see if they lived, the shake of heads was all too common.
"Ah, yes, do you require any help?" the Colonel enquired.
Lezza spoke up then, "no thank you Colonel, we can manage." He saluted and turned leaving them alone.
"I know a place we can go that is safe, it's this way", and Lezza hobbled off with the others following behind.
They walked a few streets then cut down a side alley to a nondescript door, Lezza knocked.
Almost immediately an old woman opened it, "Hi Auntie Fern, can we beg shelter of you for a little while?". Auntie Fern smiled, "of course you can child, you and your friends come in."
The interior surprised the three Bards and Stephanie, it was quite lovely and well kept. After some tea, Angee got to the crux of their reason for finding Lezza, "what can you tell us about this plague?".
Thirty One
Angeless was in flight, She'd left the temple as she'd had enough.
The condescending attitude of the Bards made her sick, twice she'd helped them out and twice she'd been burned, 'no good deed goes unpunished' she thought.
With the gold she'd had left she bought a horse, a spavined nag really, she wasn't used to riding much and was well sore from nearly a day in the saddle
It didn't help the saddle she'd bought with the horse was on it's last legs too, one of the stirrups broke just outside the city
and she felt constantly off balance as she rode. Nothing was going to stop her though.
The gusty wind that blew in her face and the constant drizzle made her shiver,but anything was better than going back there.
Mol was in the building where Angeless had been living, there was no sign of her anywhere and her things looked like they'd been searched thoroughly 'not a good sign' she realised.
She'd been all over the city looking for her, and no one had any idea, or wasn't talking.
That left two options, she was dead, which Mol didn't want to think about, or she had left the city.
Mol decided to go back to the temple and see if Jaynne had any word.
As she was nearing the temple a young girl intercepted her.
"Spare a copper, for someone who hasn't eaten".
Mol fished into her pocket pulled out a few copper's, she smiled as she pushed them into the girls hand, but she felt a piece of paper slipped into the palm of her hand.
As nonchalantly as she could she shoved the paper into her pocket. She tried not to hurry back to the temple, but once inside immediately read the note.
Angeless has fled the city with men in pursuit. Lord Werket could wait, she needed to help Angeless.
Of course Illia and Jaynne objected "What about Lord Werket?".
Mol was in no mood to be questioned as to her motives and felt really angry about it.
"Listen!, I know what I am doing, I may be a new Bard, but I feel this is the right thing to do, and nothing you say will make me change my mind."
She flopped down into a chair.
"The only thing I need is to get my mount,some provisions and travelling money."
At the mention of money Jaynne and Illia grew wary.
"Why do you need money?, surely you can catch up to the girl."
In Mol's defence she was rather tired and the two Bards pushed her past the limit of her good manners, she jumped up absolutely furious and gave them a piece of her mind.
It seemed to work though, for there were no more questions.
Hersha had gone for Mol's mount and within the hour she was all set to leave. Illia gave Mol a hug which caught Mol by surprise.
"Take care of yourself and come back to us quickly."
Mol realised Illia had finally accepted who she was, "I will" she whispered in Illia's ear.
She rode out in silence, they didn't wave her off, it could attract the wrong sort of attention, for anyone who looked she was just a servant going somewhere for her mistress.
Angeless was cursing everything under the sun, the saddle had left her barely able to stand after the first day, she did not know where she was going, she'd just ridden out of the nearest gate of the city and was trying to put as much distance between herself and that Goddess cursed city as the old nag would allow.
Her immediate concerns were her food supply, she hadn't taken a large amount with her, and riding so hard had made her ravenous. Being a town bred child she was a bit lost in the countryside, she realised she had no ideas about how to hunt food, or watch out for signs of people in the area she may want to watch out for.
To make matters worse it had begun to rain, and she didn't have a travel cloak, only her normal clothes, which were now soaked to the skin, she took shelter under a large tree feeling very sorry for herself.
Mol didn't know why, but she'd gone out of the gate leading east, there wasn't a lot in that direction, no major towns only the odd hamlet according to Jaynne, and it wasn't logical that Angeless would travel that way, but she had a feeling she couldn't shake to go that way, and she'd begun to realise these feelings were part of her new gifts and needed to be trusted.
Jaynne had provided her with a stout weather proofed cloak she had claimed was better than the one she had, Mol now found this claim to be true, it kept a lot of the rain from soaking her, she was cold,but not freezing.
Mol knew all though Angeless had quite a start on her she could catch her. But it would still be quite a while before she did.
This gave her time to think about everything that had happened, the other bards while being her sisters were different from her being a bronze Bard, the first of her kind there was a distance between the others.
That made her wonder if Angee felt the same being the only White Bard. Also, the others all had instruments to recharge their powers, Mol didn't, and didn't know why.
As if that train of thought was a sign of something to come a flash of light caught her eye.
In the middle of what looked like a dead field stood a flat stone, and the light had come from there. She had to dismount, as there was a ditch between her and the field.
One thing about a Bards mount was it didn't wander, dropping the reins she scrambled across the ditch and walked warily to the stone.
An old stringed instrument lay there, for all it was old it looked in perfect condition.
Mol picked it up, she'd never shown any musical inclination or talent, but her hands went automatically to the right positions and she played a small tune.
At the same time she felt incredible peace and energy refreshing her, 'I guess this is for me.'
She looked back to the stone and there was a leather case for what she guessed was a mandorin, that convinced her it was hers, as it hadn't been there a moment before. Carefully she put the mandorin in the case and walked back to her mount.
Once mounted and back on her way more questions popped into her head, how did she know how to play?, how often did she have to play?. She began to feel a bit out of her depth, coping had been a bit of a struggle for her, but she'd managed, now, well, it made her wonder what else was going to happen?.
Thirty two
Lezza saw Angee and her friends off with a wave and a smile,
keeping up the pretence had been hard for her while these Bards were here.
Fighting the townspeople had put an incredible strain on her, and what would the others have thought if they had known she'd been cowering in terror when the townspeople attacked her house?. How she held back from crying she didn't know and in a mad dash rushed upstairs to her room, barely closing the doors before bursting into a flood of tears.
Lezza had been under a green sisters care for six months at the temple, thoughts of that brought back the image of what had happened in the south, she'd been a special courier for three years carry despatches to the Temple, nothing really important,but, too sensitive for a normal courier.
She was always careful,but who expects to be ambushed by a gang of men, only interested in one thing?.
They'd caught her unawares, and she didn't have a chance to fight them off.
The terror welled up in her as she relived that horrible experience, being held down while they took turns using her, the memory had caught her now and she wailed into the pillow, the pain, the smell of their rancid breath, she couldn't escape them, it went on and on and on, oh Goddess would it never end?.
She must have passed out, because suddenly it was over, they'd left her for dead, having abused her so badly, but fortunately a farmer returning from market had found her and taken her home where his wife restored her enough for her to seek help at the temple.
But it was the mental problems she had, she had a fear of all men now, and broke out into a sweat when she saw one.
Self doubt in her abilities had manifested and grown, and despite all the Green sister had tried nothing had worked.
They'd finally sent her to another Bard in a town north of the temple, somewhere she could rest in peace and quiet, but only a week after getting there that Bard had gone on a visit to the temple and not returned, either a victim of the plague or held under quarantine.
Whatever the reason was, it was irrelevant, the townspeople acting on rumour and fear had attacked the house and there she was hiding like a rabbit, too scared to move.
Suddenly all that fear overwhelmed her and she bolted downstairs and outside, pausing because she didn't know which way she suddenly thought of her mount, but, it was across
the city, instead she saw a horse tied outside an Inn and untying it quickly jumped on and spurred it towards the town gate, she wasn't bothered where she went,she only knew she had to get away.
Once out of sight of the city she stopped. She'd calmed slightly now and was beginning to think a little bit about what she had done. Going back was not an option, the mood of
the townspeople towards Bards wasn't exactly cordial at the moment. She noticed the Saddlebags and saw they seemed quite full, opening them she found a variety of clothes, a man's, but although they were a little too large for her would serve her needs.
She realised then she'd made another decision, she couldn't go back to the Bards, she was unfit and unworthy to be in their company, taking one last look at her uniform she packed it into the saddlebags, for some strange reason she couldn't bring herself to throw it away.
Mol was surprised, she still hadn't caught up to Angeless, it had been two days now and she knew this was the direction she'd gone, but still no sign of her. The previous day a sense of unease had set in,it was more pronounced now.
This continued for another week, Mol had done some foraging,
her supplies had only lasted five days but she knew what she was doing, her father may have been the baker, but he knew how to hunt and had taught his daughter everything he knew.
Mol was about to stop for something to eat when she spotted a horse up ahead, it was grazing loose and as she rode closer she saw it's rider on the ground, apparently unconscious. This was the middle of nowhere so she was very careful, it looked innocent enough, but appearances could be deceiving.
Dismounting, she scanned the side of the road, the trees could hide people, although she sensed no one.
Originally she'd thought it was a man, but once close enough she could see it was a woman, her blonde hair tied back and in quite a state, caked in mud and ice cold to touch. If Mol didn't do something quickly this woman would die.
Quickly she gathered some wood for a fire, it was damp and she didn't think her tinder box would light it but she had another trick up her sleeve, taking out one of her Kironi daggers she placed it on the wood, which began to smoke as the dagger seared it, within minutes she had a small fire going and was adding wood carefully to it so as not to put it out
A Change For the Light Page 24