The Border

Chapter Three of "Out of the Mountain" Both envoys are attacked at the border of the warring countries

Sigrid woke up cold, wet, tired and angry. And she had every right to be. She had gotten hardly any sleep the night before and when she stepped out of her tent, she had stepped right into a snow bank that had blown in the night before. Sigrid looked out the carriage window and at the mountains, wrapping her blanket closer around her shoulders, grumbling about the weather. She shot glares at her brothers as they laughed at her; even Neva was trying to keep her smile at bay. Their laughter was interrupted by a shout alerting them that the Asirvenians were within sight.

            Sigrid took a shaky breath, trying to calm herself; she would be meeting the person she was to marry within minutes.  Bear took her hands in his and gave her a reassuring smile, which she unsuccessfully tried to return, but her efforts were stopped by the halting of the carriage. One of the men opened the door and held out his hand to help her out. Sigrid took it with shaking hands, all saliva in her mouth instantly turning into dust, she climbed out.

            Once outside, she turned around to look at their new escorts. Their party was smaller than theirs, including the three princes, which she recognized from the small gold bands around their heads, and ten others, friends of the royal family or guards. The oldest looking prince walked up to them, the others already outside with her.

            “Welcome to Asirven, I am the crown prince Henrick, and these are my brothers, Lukaas and Baylen.” He said, taking her hand and kissing it, his brothers also came up and spoke to her, repeating their brother’s actions, confusing Sigrid, was this how the Asirvenians greeted each other? Sigrid wondered if she was supposed to return the gesture but decided to keep the Wendelian ways and simply bowed her head in return.

            “It is a pleasure to meet you, I am Sigrid, Princess of Wendelen, these are my brothers, Ambrose and Berwyn, and handmaiden, Neva.” She was about to continue when a large shadow flew overhead, causing everyone to look up, only to see a massive shimmering black creature fly over them. It was larger than any animal Sigrid had ever seen, bigger than the cottages many of her people resided in. As the creature banked to the left, she could see a heavily armored person on its back, dressed in silver armor, contrasting to the smoky black of the scaled being that he was riding on.

            Before she could study the sight before her any further, a loud, screeching, roar reached her ears. She doubled over, covering her ears in a futile attempt to block the wretched sound, she looked around, and the others were doing the same. The noise finally ended and Sigrid straightened again, only for a large group of armored men to descend on the group.

            The strangers’ numbers were twice their own. They were all clad in the same silvery armor the snake rider had been in, with black paint cover their faces; they made no sound as they began their attack. Sigrid was dimly aware of her brothers and the Asirvenian princes encircling her and Neva. Berwyn pressed a dagger into her hand and instructed her to use it only when necessary. She glanced over to her servant and friend, who also had a small dagger in her hand, a determined expression covering her face as a large number of the attacking group advanced upon them.

            Sigrid gripped her dagger harder as the clang of swords and other weapons echoed around her. She was currently safe inside the circle but that probably would not last much longer. Sigrid had not spent much time learning the art of war and weaponry, a skill she sorely wished she had spent time on at the moment. Another roar sounded, and Sigrid looked around in fear as the flying serpent set the trees on fire. A soldier broke through the barrier made by the princes of Asirven and Wendela.

 Taking a deep breath and Sigrid faced the man, he made to attack straight on but she was able to deflect it. She saw Neva moving out of the corner of her eye, quickly figuring out her intentions, she moved to distract him. She feinted to the right and stepped back, making the enemy stumble, Neva took her opening and struck. The man fell, a surprised look on his face. She looked down on him, beginning to wonder of his life when Neva made a strangled sound, causing her to look up and around, turning quickly as she saw another attacker moving to strike her from behind. She stepped out of the way and was about to make an attack of her own when she heard a low grumble.

She looked up in horror to see the snake flying towards her, flame beginning to spew; she didn’t have time to move. Sigrid closed her eyes and prepared to die, when she was hit from the side. She smashed into the ground and opened her eyes in shock, only to see the young Asirvenian get burned, his hands covered his face but he was completely aflame. She saw the prince’s two brothers run toward him yelling, her own brothers looked on in shock. The man, Baylen, she thought was screaming, the sounds he was making and the smell of his charred flesh making her vomit.

            The break in their fight allowed the silver men to gain advantage, they quickly grabbed everyone they could, including Berwyn, Ambrose and Henrik, who were too in shock to do anything, and looked around for her, but she was concealed in the bushes, and ran off. Lukaas was too near to Baylen for them to get close, and was killing anyone who even got near, and as they ran away he tackled his younger to the ground, rolling him around to get the flames off, Baylen cried out in agony at the sensation.

            Sigrid climbed out of the bushes, wincing as she tried to walk on her right ankle, and walked as quickly as she could over to the two princes. Baylen was writhing on the ground, gasping for air, his entire body was covered in charred flesh, and she had to force herself not to retch. Lukaas was in tears as he tried to hold on to his brother, Sigrid heard him trying to speak to him.

            “It’s gonna be ok, Bay, it’s going to be alright. I promise. I promise.” The younger of the two was trying to speak back, but could only make a choking noise out of his mouth. Sigrid moved quickly towards the two and shoved Lukaas’ hands out of the way, glaring at him as he tried to grab his brother again, but continued anyway.

            Placing a hand on the young prince’s chest, Sigrid remembered the words of the healing tomes she had spent years studying, the incantations rolling off her tongue as if her own speech. She felt her energy draining as she continued the spell but pushed on, the syllables flowing freely out of her mouth but growing harder to say as she neared the end. Sigrid watched as Baylen’s skin began to heal, the burns fading, and his breathing grew easier. As the enchantment ended, all that was left of what used to be completely charred were blisters and red skin. Sigrid sat back and had to stabilize herself with her arms to keep herself from falling over. She watched with a slight smile as Lukaas threw himself at his brother and into a hug, which Baylen gladly returned. While they did this, she looked around, and was stunned to see several scores of dead men surrounding them. Sigrid’s breathing picked up.

            “We need to move.” She said, breaking the reunion. The two brothers looked up and glanced around, faces falling in shock as they viewed the carnage that surrounded them, pools of blood gathered on some spots of the ground. They nodded and Lukaas got up, giving Baylen a hand. They all hurried out of the clearing and into the foliage, picking up the weapons and equipment of the fallen as they went. Once hidden from sight, they turned to each other.

            “Which way do we go now?” She asked, turning to the two others.

            Lukaas clenched his fists, “Well right now I really want to go get Henrik and our men, but we don’t know exactly where they went. Its best we go back to the capitol, we need the help of our parents.”

            Sigrid bit her lip and nodded; she thought of her brothers and hoped they would be alright. She was worried, what if they killed them? But she knew better, she would not be able to do anything if they just ran off to get them now, she would bide her time, wait to get her revenge. “Alright, which way is back?”

            She watched as Baylen looked up at the sky, taking note of the sun, and then pointed behind them, “That way.”

            They skirted around the opening, and headed south. They all held their weapons tightly to them, anticipating further attack, but all was silent. The only noise to be heard was their own footsteps in the snow, echoing loudly in the stillness of the forest.  As the hours dragged on, Sigrid found it harder and harder to walk, and often found herself stumbling. Baylen too was having difficulties, Lukaas was doing fine but every time he glanced back to check on them he looked guilty. He finally spoke up, “Look, I know you are tire and cold and hungry, but we can’t stop yet,” he bit his lip as he looked back at them as they nodded numbly, too tired and sore to do anything else. Lukaas paused, glancing back again before asking, “Do you really have seven brothers?”

            Sigrid stopped and looked at Lukaas for a moment before bursting into laughter; he looked back at her with a curious look. “What’s so funny?” Sigrid grinned back at him before responding, wiping tears off her face.

            “I’m sorry Lukaas, it just seemed such a simple question, after the rather insane day we’ve had.”

            He smiled back at her, understanding now covering his features. “Yes, it is sort of a ludicrous question now,” he said, blushing. “Although, seeing as things are what they are,” he fumbled for words “you may call me Luke.”

            Sigrid beamed up at him, “Alright, Luke; yes, I do in fact have seven brothers.” She said as the small group began to move forward again. Baylen gave a low whistle.

            “I can’t imagine that, the palace staff can hardly manage the three of us, much less seven.” Luke said.

            Smirking, Sigrid said, “Oh, we got in plenty, of trouble, I assure you.”

            “You’ll have to tell us tales of your adventures, Sigrid,” said Baylen, chuckling.

            “We were a bunch of little terrors, we would often ‘raid’ the kitchens when we were bored; oh, how the cooks hated us!” Sigrid laughed. “Tell me, did you go on many escapades as children?”

            “Who says we don’t have them now?” Lukaas grinned, turning to Baylen, “What did father call us the other day, ‘the brawn, the brain, and the diplomat?’”

            Bay sniggered, “I personally prefer ‘the warrior, the scholar and the ambassador’ but yes that was it.” He said, looking at Sigrid, “You see Luke comes up with the plot, Henrik executes it and I get everyone out of it.” Luke swung his arm over Bay’s shoulder.

            “And he’s very good at it too!”

Bay grinned and elbowed him, “Speak for yourself smarty pants.” Luke laughed and they continued walking. Sigrid smiled at how close the two were, glancing around and noticing for the first time how dark it had gotten. It seemed Luke and Bay had also noticed for Luke spoke, “I think it’s time we stopped.”

            The group slowed down as Luke found a small clearing to settle down for the night in. Bay and Sigrid silently picked up fire wood. Baylen built the fire as his brother and Sigrid looked through the bags they had found. There was a small tent and blankets, as well as some stale bread, it was not much but it would have to do for the time being. Sigrid blushed at the idea of sharing a tent with the two men, but knew that they all had to stay warm or perish of the cold, so she brushed aside her inhibitions. She watched silently as the two built the contraption, and helped carry everything in.

            “I’ll take first watch,” she said before anyone else could volunteer.

            “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Luke interjected as she glowered at him. “I mean, you used a very powerful spell on Bay to keep him alive, you need your rest. You can have the next one; I’ll wake you up in a few hours.” Sigrid frowned but nodded her head in assent, crawling into the tent after Baylen. At first she tried to keep her dignity with distance, but soon became too cold, and curled up to Bay, before falling into a deep sleep.

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