Bacorium Legacy (42 page)

Luca thought back to the encounter with Dreevius, how he had thrown the man into the mud and watched him die. Indeed, when he had thought of Emila, it angered him. Dreevius had come so close to killing her, and that was something he could not have spared him for. Had Dreevius not done those things to her, Luca likely would not have killed him in such a fashion.

“Regardless of whether this is true or not, I cannot just stand by and leave you be. You've looked so lonely and miserable these past two weeks. It pains me to see it.”

Emila looked away sadly. “But what else can I do...?”

“Balance, Emila,” He said, taking her hand in his own. “If being together is bad for us, then we just have to be careful not to let things get too far. But avoiding each other completely is no good, either. It just causes us pain. So we just have to be aware of what we're doing.”

Emila thought about it for a moment, then a smile graced her lips. “Maybe - just maybe - we could-”

She was cut off by the sound of the bedroom door slamming open. Luca released her hand and rose from the chair, turning to face the source of the disruption. Standing in the doorway was the massive guard Luca had passed earlier, the one Brand had called Devith.

“What are you doing...?!” Emila cried out.

Devith blinked, staring at Luca. “You - you shouldn't be here.”

“Neither should you!” Luca retorted. “Why are you here?”

The guard reached for his hip and drew his sword from its sheath. “I am the princess' escort. You're in the way, so you'll have to die.”

“Emila, run,” Luca whispered to her, drawing his own blade. “Go find Selphie and tell her about this.”

“Be careful,” Emila whispered back.

Devith closed the distance between them, bringing down his large sword with brutal force. Luca parried the blow, but was pushed back onto the bed, with Devith pressing down against him. Emila leaped from the bed on the other side and darted out the room.

“You can try to protect her,” Devith said to Luca with a cruel smile. “You will fail.”

“Why are you doing this?!” Luca demanded.

“My king demanded I bring him the princess.”

Luca broke the parry and rolled to the side, as Devith's sword came down and slashed at the sheets where his head had been mere seconds before. Luca hit the floor and continued to roll, putting as much distance between himself and Devith as he could.

As Luca climbed back to his feet, Devith pulled his sword out of the bed and turned slowly to face him.

“You fool,” Luca laughed.

“What makes you say that?” the guard asked, tilting his helmeted head slightly.

“Marcus asked you to bring him Selphie, but you went to the wrong room!” Luca said. “So he intended to betray us, after all. I should have told her not to trust that man.”

Devith merely chuckled.

Luca now took the offencive. He charged at Devith, aiming to swing
Siora
at a vulnerable spot where his opponent was not armoured.
 

Devith's response was to hurl his sword, blade-first, at Luca like a spear.

He did not have time or strength enough to block it, so he was forced to dodge instead. He ducked in mid charge, Devith's sword flying past him and burying itself in the wall.

“Hmm,” Devith said in his low voice. “The son of Lodin, isn't it? I expected more.”

Luca made to charge the now-weaponless opponent, but before he could take a single step, a strange feeling filled the air.

“What the-”

Luca raised his hand, to cast his light needles at Devith, but the mana simply fizzled out in the open air before he could make the weave.

“Don't worry. I was told not to kill you.”

Devith closed the distance between them with surprising speed. Luca tried to dodge the inevitable attack, but his body was suddenly weak and sluggish, and he was unable to get away in time. An armoured leg struck his chest in a merciless kick. He gave a choked cry, and spat a mouthful of blood out on the floor.

“No...”

Luca felt Devith's hand tightening around his throat. The gauntlet he wore was cold and firm - there was no chance of his breaking free. The guard lifted him up off his feet with his incredible strength.

The last thing Luca saw were Devith's emotionless eyes.

Chapter XIII

Where Strides the Behemoth

Princess Selphie sighed and allowed herself to fall face-first onto her bed in a very unprincessly fashion. It was always such a relief to be behind closed doors, when she no longer needed to carry herself with grace and composure.

She rolled over onto her back and closed her eyes. She could fall asleep right then and there, if she let herself, but she had to change. It had taken longer than she'd thought it would to wrap up her business. The king had gone to bed for the night, but his son Halt had stayed with her and helped her set her affairs in order. Marcus had given her as good a guarantee as she was going to get - he had no intention of declaring war against Acaria, at least for the moment. That left only one country - Torachi - in favour of war, and two against it. Unless either Saeticia or Sono were to change their minds, things were stable for now.

The first part of her father's plan was a success. Now came the second part, which was where things got difficult.

For the moment, she needed to get back to T'Saw. Her and her company would leave Serenite in the morning. There was no guarantee that the Allmans would be coming with her, but she likely wouldn't need their help anymore, so close to the Sonoian border.

Everything was good, as long as nothing happened to change Marcus' mind. That was what worried her. The man she had dined with earlier did not match the one from her memories. Age had made Marcus angry and bitter.

Luca had handled things better than she had expected he would. She felt a little guilty for not having more faith in him. He had been put in an unfair position. Marcus had invited them in as guests, and then proceeded to pick a fight with one of her people, even after she had told them that she owed him her life. Had she not been there to ask favours of him, she would have called Marcus out on his treatment of Luca. Still, he handled things well. She had been worried for a while, fearing that Luca would draw his sword on the king of Saeticia.

Ash's reaction had been entirely unexpected. The younger son of Lodin was the strangest member of their company. She knew little about him, and he spoke little. All she knew about him was that he had accidentally killed another student during his time at Allma Temple, and that there was some sort of ugly history between him and Brand. He was so quiet it made her a little uncomfortable, but Luca vouched for him, and he had helped them out considerable in escaping during the attack.

Her head was starting to hurt. She reached up and started to rub her temples. The young princess was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Now wasn't the time to worry about these things. She needed to get to sleep, for the dawn would come early tomorrow, and they still had a way's to go before they reached T'Saw.

She reminded herself that she still needed to change, but the bed was so nice and soft. She'd just close her eyes for a few minutes, she thought. Just a few...

Selphie woke with a start at the sound of someone banging on her door.

She climbed up from the bed, her head hurting, and wondered how long she had been out. Not too long, she reasoned, as the night seemed no darker than when she'd gone to her room.

The knocking at the door was not the polite, measured knocking of someone having come to see her, but a panicked, frantic rapping. Realising this was something urgent, Selphie crossed the room quickly and stopped at the door.

She was in a foreign palace, and something was wrong. It would be foolish to just throw the door open.

“Who is it? What's going on?”

“S-Selphie? Is that you?”

She knew the voice immediately. She unlocked and opened the door to find Emila standing in the hallway, shaking and pale-faced.

“Emila, what happened?” Selphie asked her.

“A guard came to my room and attacked Luca,” Emila told her, her eyes wide and worried. “He told me to come tell you. Luca had to fight back, he had no choice.”

Selphie bit her lip.

Damn it all, she thought. And here she'd thought things were going so well.
“The guard came to your room?”
 

Emila nodded.

“And attacked Luca? So Luca was already there?”

Emila nodded again. “Yes, he came to talk to me.”

“He must have followed him to your room...” Selphie pondered aloud. “Keeping him here after what happened at dinner was a mistake. I should have sent him to stay with Tranom and the Allmans back at the inn...”

“I don't think he was there for Luca,” Emila told her, looking around the hall to make sure nobody else was listening. “He seemed surprised to see him.”

“Then why would he...?” Selphie shook her head. “Never mind that, we'll have time enough to figure this out later. Emila, do you know where Brand's room is?”

She nodded.

“I need you to go there and stay with him. He can protect you if anything else happens, but hopefully I can get this settled before anything does.”

Selphie darted over to the room next to hers and knocked on the door three times in a clear pattern. Then she returned, went past Emila back into her room, and grabbed her swords from off the dresser.

“Where are you going?” Emila asked her.

“Straight to the king,” she declared. “I know Marcus well enough to know that he wouldn't have ordered something like this. This guard was acting on someone else's orders. The best way to deal with this would be to tell Marcus what happened.”

The neighbouring door swung open and Jared stepped out, already dressed and armed. When he spotted Selphie and Emila, he relaxed and lowered his halberd, but he glanced warily around the hall.

“Will you be alright?” Emila asked. “What if it isn't just this one guard? What if they want to kill us all?”

“If that was the case, they would have come after me first,” Selphie assured her with a smile. “Don't worry about us, just go find Brand and stay with him. Don't talk with anyone in the palace, and no matter what, if they attack you, do not fight back. Just run.”

Emila nodded, and after a moment's hesitation, took off down the hall.

Selphie finished putting on her weapon's belt, and looked up to see Jared waiting for her. “What's happened?” he asked her.

“It seems one of the guards went after Luca,” she told him. “I don't know what faction ordered this, but we're going to Marcus to tell him so he can set things straight.”

“Do you think this has anything to do with what the king said at dinner?”

“It might, but something tells me there's more to it than that.”

“Luca's not dead, is he?”

“He and Emila have that magick connection thing, remember? She would know if he was killed.”

“That's right. I'd forgotten.”

“Let's go,” Selphie said, glancing down the hallway. “Be ready, my knight. We don't know what to expect.”

<> <> <>

Emila ran through the halls, past the occasional bewildered servant, on her way to Brand's.

Through the Soul Tether, she could feel that Luca had been knocked unconscious some time ago. He hadn't suffered any mortal injuries, so thankfully that guard hadn't been trying to kill him. Unfortunately, she didn't know where he was. It was harder to sense his location through the Tether when he wasn't conscious.

A few minutes later, she made it to the room Brand was staying in. She knocked a few times and announced her presence, and when there was no reply she turned the handle and was surprised to find the door was not locked. Suddenly she feared the worst, and she pushed the door open and felt around for the light switch.

The lights came on, and Brand was not there.

Have they gone after Brand as well, she wondered?

Emila heard a
tssk
-sound behind her, and her heart skipped a beat. She spun around and took a step back.
 

The guard from before, Devith, was standing in the hallway, with his arms crossed. He had an amused smirk on his face.

“Looking for your other friend?”

Emila backed away slowly, glaring at the man before her. “Why are you doing this?”

“Come now, princess,” Devith said, starting towards her. “Struggling will only make things more difficult.”

“I am no princess,” Emila told him in a voice that did not sound as confident as she'd hoped it would. Devith did not answer, he merely continued to advance at his slow pace.

And then he sprang forward with speed surprising for a man of his size. Emila jumped out of the way, rolling to the side to avoid him. She just barely managed to keep from being grabbed.

Devith rose from his knees and continued to slowly stride towards her, seeming to be more amused by her show of resistance.

“Stop it,” she said. “I'll fight back if you keep this up!”

“Please,” he said with an amused smile. “Fight me.”

He started to charge again, so the unarmed Emila did the only thing she could. She gathered up her mana and wove it into an obstacle between them. A row of icy blocks appeared on the floor before the guard, covered in sharp spikes.

Devith tripped, not expecting the sudden obstacles. He fell forward, driving his upper legs through the icy spikes below him.

Emila grimaced. She hadn't expecting him to actually fall on them...

But that wasn't enough to stop him. He looked up at her with a savage grin, and started to stand, seeming completely unaffected by the razor-sharp blades of ice that had cut into his thighs. And as he rose, Emila saw something really strange - even though her ice magick was manifested physically, Devith had not taken any actual damage from it. Rather than stabbing into his legs, the icy spikes seemed instead to have phased through him. When he pulled out of them, there were no cuts and no blood on him.

Emila backed away from him, circling around the room until she found herself at the doorway.