Marek
Rest. Must rest. He had been running for so long. He was near collapse but could still hear the dogged pursuit. The goblins were still on him. Suddenly there was a hail of arrows. He tripped on a tree root and fell to the ground. The arrows were coming from in front of him? They whished over his head and hit the pursuing goblins.
Marek woke with a start jerking up in bed and drawing the knife that had been hidden in the side of his bed. He only had time to see Tinuviel for a second before she fell off the bed were she had been standing on his legs to wake him up. She rose laughing and said, “arise sir knight and great the new day”
“do not call me sir knight, I’m not a knight yet.”
“You will be tonight.”
“True I had forgotten.”
“You have not. You have been preparing all year.”
“All right Tinuviel but you have no right to order me around. Your not even twelve”
“I have every right. I am a princes you know”she said sticking her nose in the air
“I know you are a princes but you still can’t boss me around”
“Fine I’m leaving”, she stalked out trying, and failing to look regal Marek waited till she was out of sight then burst into laughter.
“I heard that” came echoing down the hall.
Marek thought back to when the elves had saved him from the goblins. There had been a raid on his village by the solders of Zephyr. All of the other people were either dead or taken prisoner. the last Marek had seen was his sister being dragged away by soldiers and his mother laying in pool of blood. His father had been forced to to drag him away to keep him from running out of the woods were they had been hiding from the soldiers. Marek and had been fleeing to a distant village with his father, when one night they had walked right into a goblin ambush Marek's father had been killed by arrows but Marek had escaped by running away into dense under growth. Luckily, a party of elvish archers were patrolling in the wood's nearby and had saved him and brought him to Vanima-Eska where he had been nursed back to health in the elvish palace by Elnareth and had been raised as an elf. Now it was almost time for his knighting ceremony.
Marek was puled out of his revery by an elf, one of the stewards coming in.
“It is time for you to get ready”
After he left Marek rose and dressed over his clothes he put on a green surcoat with gold trim. He turned and threw open the shutters. Outside it was an idyllic day made more so by the beautiful gardens and the buildings with their beautiful tall fluted columns and carved beams. Marek turned pulling himself from the beautiful sight, and after eating the breakfast the steward had left him he went and walked in the woods until noon then he went to the great hall for his knighting ceremony. There he was knighted and given a sword of great power named Valgurtha. After the ceremony there was a great feast with singing and dancing and many a poem. After the singing was over Marek stood and went to his room. He lay savoring the image of Namorel singing before finally drifting of to sleep.
Marek woke is the middle of the night to the sound of battle he jumped out of bed and threw on his travailing cloths, a chain mail shirt, and a long green cloak. Belting on his dagger and the sword Valgurtha, and grabbing his bow, he ran to the stables where horses were being saddled. As Marek swung himself onto a horse the stable master said “forty soldiers on horse back took Tinuviel captive and rode of to the north!” Marek charged out of the stables and after the men.
It was a week later and Marek was sheltering under a pine tree in the poring rain trying to shelter a small fire on which he was cooking the last of the rabbit he had caught. He ate the meat, then wrapped his cloak around him an went to sleep.
After the horse men were out of sight one of the solders had dismounted and lead Tinuviel off to the West toward the castle of king Zephyr. Zephyr hoped to ransom her back to the Elves. Meanwhile the other soldiers galloped on, leading the riderless horses. In this way Marek was following a false trail.
The morning after the heavy rain, Marek caught up with the soldiers. He broke into flat shrub land and saw them. At a touch, his horse broke into a run. As he rode, he strung his bow and nocked an arrow. Marek fired, and one of the horsemen fell the rest wheeled there horses and broke them into a run
As he rode towards them Marek noted that one of the soldiers was missing and that
Tinuviel was not there. Guessing what had happened he wheeled his horse and charge back
into the woods, He soon lost the soldier then walked his horse, looking for any signs of Tinuviel or the soldier he final found the trail of the solder, but it was hard to follow, and he was not sure he was even on the right path until he found a scrap of the cloth from Tinuviel's nightgown caught on a thorn bush. Heartened, he followed the soldier's trail. Two days after he had found the piece of cloth, the soldiers trail joined a large road and lost the soldiers trail completely. A short bit down the road there was a large inn. Hoping for information he rode up to it. He went inside and found the bartender. He bought a drink and throwing cation to the wind he asked
“ did a soldier with a young girl come through?”
“might have, a lot of soldier come through hear” said the bartender
“were do the soldiers come from?”
“the castle, its a days ride from hear”
“thank you”
Marek finished his drink and went out. He mounted his horse and rode toward the castle. Riding all night he reached it by dawn.
Marek rode out of the woods and gasped as he took in the size of the castle in the valley before him. It consisted of four consecutive rings of giant D shaped walls with all the strait sides connected. The straight side overlooked a shear cliff down to a large salt water bay fed by a huge river. On the curved part the ground rose steadily making the entire city on a gentle slant. The outer three walls were very far from each other and there was a large city contained by them the outer most city was mostly markets, small shops, inns and small houses. The inner city was mostly houses the of lords and rich merchants there was also a huge garrison. The next two walls were the castle proper inside the outer wall of the castle proper there was a smaller Garrison, store rooms and living quarters for the servants. The inner most wall had only a well and a small stable but on the flat side of the D there was a huge keep.
Just looking at it sent a shiver down his spine. At first, he thought it would be impossible to get to through all the gates. But there was solid two-way traffic though the first two. Marek bought a cloak from a merchant outside the gate and making sure it covered his sword he rode through the gate. Riding up the main street and through the second gate was just as easy as the first he came out into a huge market selling everything from spices to shoes as he rode towards the castle proper the crowd thinned out . He was now riding past expansive houses where the lords and rich merchants lived. Riding toward the first gate of the castle proper he saw that the guards were checking everyone who went in for weapons. Riding up to the gate Marek said
“I am a messenger from Darren. I have a message for the king.”
After noting that he had a sword the guards let him pass. He repeated the story at the next gate and it got him through that one too. He gave his horse to a stable boy and a guard escorted him into the Great Hall
In the great hall, Marek bowed low and then moved towards the king.
“My king, I am a messenger from Darren. The Lord of Darren begs you for troops, as he has been besieged by the rogue Lord, Aaron,” said Marek.
“The Lord Aaron dares to attack Darrin. It is less than three days ride from here”growled Zephyr, his voice rising, “Garren!, take 500 horsemen and a thousand foot soldiers to relive the siege then stay there to protect the castle. Soon I'll send more soldiers. Then we can attack the Lord Aaron's castle.”
“It will be done!” the commander said, bowing. He straightened, turned on his heel, and walked out.
“You must stay here until this siege is over,” said Zephyr turning to Marek. “One of my servants will escort you to your room.”
“Thank you, My Lord,” said Marek as he bowed low.
Zephyr motioned to one of the young men next to his throne and he detached himself from the group and motioned for Marek to follow him out of the hall and to his room. As soon as the servant left, Marek snuck out of his room. While no one had told him to not leave, he wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be out of his room. He snuck around until he found the dungeons and was surprised to find that there was no guard. Moving quickly from cell to cell, he was soon forced to admit that Tinuviel was not there. He left and arrived back to his room without incident.
Soon after he was back in his room, a steward came up and informed him that there was to be a feast that tonight. After the steward was gone, Marek prepared himself for the feast then sat down to think what to do next. The steward came again, and informed him it was time to come down. As Marek entered the hall he was hit with a wall of sound, the hall was only three quarters full but it was extremely noisy. It was a large hall with tapestries hanging on the walls
and a huge candle chandelier. There was a large pedestal between the high table and the rest of the hall with no apparent use. Marek took a seat near the pedestal and heard two other men arguing about It's purpose. Just as Marek sat down Zephyr stood up and said in a regal voice
“Let the feast begin.”
Servants carrying platters came from a large door on one side. Course after course came out until finally the main course arrived. It was huge wild bore, but behind the servants came four guards carrying a large cage and inside was Tinuviel! All thoughts of restraint and planing left Marek's mind and with a growl, he leaped at the cage. Drawing Valgurtha, he swung with all his strength and severed the heavy padlock. Tinuviel jumped from the cage as everyone shrank back from Marek who seamed to grow. His wrath was terrible. Grabbing Tinuviel arm he ran, out the door without anyone even trying to stop him. Marek grabbed his bow from where he had hid it on entering, and they took off.
They were running, charging down one corridor and another some times back tracking when they hit dead ends. Finally Marek heard the inevitable alarm bells ringing. Soldiers were suddenly running and yelling. Charging down another corridor Marek saw a a small door shod in iron. Grabbing Tinuviel Marek charged towards the posturn gate, using his boot to shove the draw-bar away he dropped the two feet to the ground an they started running towards the gate.
A cart was just about to go out through the gate Marek ran up and threw Tinuviel into the cart he jumped into the drivers seat and knocking out the driver, whipped the horses into motion and out through the gate. Just as the tail end of the cart rocketed through, the portcullis slammed down smashing off the back of the cart but it also locked the soldiers in until they could lift the portcullis.
As the cart barreled towards the next gate arrows came hissing down from both walls one nicked the near horse's flank. The horses charged out of control, swerving toward a ramp for bringing catapults up onto the parapet. With no way to stop the horses they hurtled up the ramp and bolted along the wall-top the cart was not so lucky, it skidded out as it tried to make the sharp corner with a tremendous crash hit the parapet. Marek and Tinuviel were thrown out and over the cliff side of the wall. Tinuviel screamed as she fell but Marek was strangely calm. But he still let out a yell as giant talons sank into his cloak pulling him up sharp and jerking the breath out of him he heard Tinuviel scream stop short as one of the enormous eagles brought her fall up sharply. Marek looked down and saw by the way she hung that she must have passed out. The eagles flew toward a small boat, beautifully built, as they swooped in Marek saw that it was empty. the eagles set them down lightly on the deck Marek landed on his feat but Tinuviel crumpled to the deck the eagle that had been carrying Marek hovered, his great wings making the air thrum, Marek saw that it was the wind lord, chief of the great eagles. He said in a voice like the howling wind “the lord Elnareth sent me in search of you. elvish patrols are everywhere once you reach shore make for vanima-eska, I'm sure you will meet a patrol” with that he flew into the evening sky.
Knowing that he had to sail the ship on his own, Marek lashed the tiller straight. Then he ran forward and pulled up the anchor. Running back, he hauled up the triangular main sail and threw over the tiller. As they moved off, picking up speed, Marek looked to the pursuit and saw that hundreds of ships full of soldiers had been launched from the harbor and were much closer than he expected. They had been slowly closing in and were now almost in range with their ballistas. He could see men on deck loading these giant crossbow with spears, wrapped in oiled cloth, ready to be lit on fire. He turned to Tinuviel and piked here up and put here in the small cabin where she could not be hit by ballista fire.
As his ship started to pick up speed he pulled away from the pursuit. He risked a glance up and saw the eagles, now just specks, winging towards vanima-eska. They sailed on continuing to pull away from the pursuing ships. Once night fell he turned the ship to shore hopping to reach the shore without notice. He turned into a small harbor that he'd noticed earlier. Beaching the boat in the bay they climbed over the side and moved into the woods.
They walked quickly through the woods trying to stay silent as Marek covered their trail behind them. Soon they heard hoof-beats in the distance. They quickly climbed a tall tree as high as they could and hoped that they had covered their tracks well enough that the soldiers would just ride underneath. As the soldiers broke through the trees Marek strung his bow and nocked an arrow. They charged under the tree that they were hiding but didn't notice them.
