'Meredith, stop,' the man on the ground said. 'That hurts.'
'The bone's intact, David,' she said to the knight on the ground. 'You can probably walk with only severe pain. Not that you'd want to.' She held her hand towards Pantros. 'Lend me that knife, if you would.
Pantros flipped the knife in his hand and passed the handle to Meredith. She cut David's pants into strips and then tied them around the man's leg as a bandage.
'The others are all dead,' Another knight said as he walked up with Sheillene and Marc at his side. The knight seemed to be a man about Tara’s age.
'I didn't think any had made it, your highness,' Meredith said.
'Highness?' Pantros asked.
Sheillene motioned at the knight standing beside her. 'Pantros, this is His Highness, Estephan, Prince of Relarch.' She then introduced Pantros to the prince.'Prince Estephan, this is Pantros Phyreshade of Ignea.'
'Ah, Your Majesty,' The prince said, then bowed to Pantros.
Pantros was unsure why a prince was bowing to him. He stood and looked around at his friends' faces for a clue as to what was happening. 'I'm a little confused,' he said.
Prince Estephan asked, 'Are you not the same Pantros Phyreshade known as the King of Thieves?'
'Umm,' Pantros said.
'He is,' Sheillene said, looking away from Pantros. 'He just might not know it. I don't tell the stories about him in Ignea and as far as I know, I'm one of a very few bards who travel between Ignea and the rest of the world.'
'You tell stories about me?' Pantros asked.
'I'm not the only one,' Sheillene said. 'Other bards tell my stories about you too. That story about Grey Ed is pretty popular in Fork and some other towns around Relarch, not to mention Everton. It's not like I ever expected you to leave Ignea.'
'I don't mean to be rude but should we bury the dead?' Marc asked. His shirt was also torn and he had four parallel shallow cuts across his chest.
'We will,' Estephan said. 'First, let's take David inside the tower. Today's stew might still be warm, if you're stomach will take food. You're welcome to join us for the evening meal.'
'I doubt I can eat,' Pantros said. 'I'm not sure my stomach will hold whatever is in there now. Fighting like this and all the death are new experiences for me and not ones I'd like to get used to.'
'It kind of made me feel more alive,' Marc said. 'Well, not kind of, definitely made me feel like this is what I was meant to do with my life.'
'Again, you're sure you're not part ogre?' Sheillene asked.
A quiet somber mood stayed with them for the remainder of the evening as they buried nine knights. After a brief ceremony, Meredith began chiseling the knights' names into the stone of the archway, starting with each knights' initials while the other gathered the troll bodies into a pile. Their bodies were too big to bury or move far. As they retired to the tower, Estephan set the pile of trolls aflame.
Inside the tower, there were racks of weapons lining the walls and dried strips of meat hanging from the ceiling. Most of the stone construction of the tower was hidden behind animal hides, mostly deer, hanging along the walls. The only visible stone was a stairway leading up. Several benches and tables sat around the room. David sat on a bench by a fireplace along the outside wall.
'I've had the duties here for nine seasons over the past ten years,' Estephan said. 'I've never actually had someone pass through here travelling to or from Ignea. No one at all has come through here for as long as I can remember. The Knights of Relarch defend the borders at this tower, but until the last couple weeks, a season of duty here has been little more than an extending deer hunting trip.'
'I’ve passed through a couple times, though not in the past decade, and the knights here seemed as shocked as you. This time we need the direct route of the highway to save time. I usually take a much more northerly route,' Sheillene said. 'The farther I can get from the forest to the east, the better.'
'The Wylde Woodlands are a strange place,' Estephan said. 'I've only heard tales. I've never been farther east then the archway. I know no one who's been into the forest and returned.'
'And I've never heard a tale of anyone doing so either,' Sheillene said. 'But our travels are westward, to Vehlos. The Wylde Woodlands don't really concern us.'
'Fork is ten days walk from here,' Estephan said. 'But in three days we will be relieved. A carriage will arrive with twelve knights to assume guard here. We will be returning to Fork. The carriage ride will take three days. We sleep in the carriage and stop only long enough to change horses twice a day. If you are pressed for time, you're next three days would be best spent resting here with us, as odd as that seems. You can share our carriage as far as Fork.'
'We'll consider the offer,' Pantros said. 'Tonight it's late and we've all had a hard day. May we sleep in here or should we set up a camp outside?'
Meredith gestured towards the ceiling. 'We have a dozen hammocks strung across the tower in the rooms above this one. We've never really assigned them, we just pick one each night to sleep in. Nine will sadly be empty tonight if you don't choose to fill them. None would object if you did.'
CHAPTER 10: PANTROS
Far to the north, snowcapped mountains blended with the clouds. To the east, the tops of the trees of the Wylde Woodlands extended to the horizon. Pantros could see the road they'd taken skirting the northern edge of that forest. A stone mesa to the south left a valley to the west, where the highway could be seen to meander into the Kingdom of Relarch. Plumes of pale smoke marked the presence of villages along the road.
He'd spent the whole first day atop the tower, watching such a huge world produce absolutely no change. Almost a hundred feet below, he could see Meredith carving her comrades names into the Archway. Before the trolls, there had been only two names carved in the archway. According to the prince, the outpost had been there for a thousand years.
Sheillene was kicking around the ashes left over from the trolls. They'd carried crude pouches, but she'd warned against looking inside. The things trolls collected would turn even a seasoned hunter's stomach. After a good burning all that would remain would be metal and Trolls occasionally found pretty, shiny, coins.
The prince stood in the center of the Archway; he held a large sword before him, the point resting on a piece of wood on the ground. Earlier, it had been Marc standing there, while the prince slept. Norda sat on a stool by the tower door and Pantros hadn't seen his sister or Thomas emerge from the tower since their arrival.
The hourglass by his feet was almost drained. Pantros flipped it and yelled, 'All Clear.'
Sheillene waved to him. She held something in her hand and was gesturing towards Pantros with it. Sheillene ran over to the tower door and yelled something inside. She then sat beside Norda, showing him the object in her hand.
A few moments later, the trapdoor opened and Thomas stepped out and stood beside Pantros. 'Sheillene found something you'll want to see. I'll take over this post for a while.'
'Once per hour, let them know that nothing's happening, that it's 'All Clear',' Pantros said. He then descended the ladder below the trapdoor. When the ladder became stairs halfway to the bottom, Pantros ran down and out the door. Everyone had gathered around where Sheillene sat beside Sir Norda.
'Look here,' Sheillene said, holding a square flat stone in her hand.
'Onyx?' Pantros asked, recognizing the black glasslike sheen. The stone large, cut into a square with faceted edges. It fit into the palm of his hand. When he held it there, another, more familiar gemstone appeared in the air a few inches above it.
'Illusion Magic?' Estephan asked. When Sheillene nodded he said. 'What use is a stone that shows the image of another? The gem in the image is interesting, I suppose. It does have an appealing glow to it.'
'You don't know what that is?' Pantros asked.
'It's a dark ruby, probably enchanted to glow,' Estephan said.
'The stone in that image is the Key to the gates of Hell,' Pantros said. 'And it means that it was no accident that the trolls decided to attack the other day. They were sent by someone to find that stone.'
