Wil Ogden - The Nightstone

"Maybe later," Pantros said, wondering if maybe he owed his sword some conversation time. He wiped the blade clean with the remnants of his shirt then sheathed it. "Do any of the fallen knights still breathe?"

"They got torn up pretty bad," Sheillene said. "That one laying over there by the archway looks to be in one piece and the two talking to Marc seem mostly fine." Marc and the armored men near him were also walking among the fallen, checking for life.

Pantros went to help the knight on the ground while Sheillene checked for others still alive. A groan coming from the visored helm gave Pantros hope.

"The battle's done," Pantros said, kneeling by the knight. "Can you stand?"

"I think not," the man in the armor said. "My leg's out."

Noticing a small pool of blood seeping from the dented metal plates over the man's thigh, Pantros could see how that would be problematic. It wasn't so much blood that the man's life was in immediate danger, but to be sure, Pantros pulled his knife and cut the leather straps, releasing the leg armor. After cutting through the cloth of the man's pants, Pantros could see blood seeping from a small lesion on a large bruise.

"Your leg's been crushed," he told the knight."It looks like you were hit so hard the blood burst from the far side of your leg."

"That's what happened," A woman's voice said. One of the other knights knelt beside Pantros. Without her helm, Pantros could see that the other knight was actually a woman. She prodded around the crushed leg with her hand.

"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."

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.