Isolde

Chapter 15 - An Old Friend

They stayed together by the ruins of the church for almost an hour, each just holding the other and saying nothing. Their world's crumbling around them. Frelian was about to lose his parents and Isolde racked with guilt for a murder she'd always prayed to forget that had now come back to haunt her all the more sinisterly. No guards came near them. They didn't know if they were hidden from view of simply not deemed enough of a threat to attack. After all they were just sat down.

"What are we going to do?" Isolde asked after a while

"What can we do? My parents will be killed at sundown and there is no Rilia to fight for anymore." he lamented drearily.

Isolde crouched next to him and brought his head up to face hers "Frelian, listen to me." she commanded "You saved me that night in Pretusia, you married Alouette to save your country, you returned to your homeland the minute you heard it was in danger. You still have a Rilia to save, just a different one. It might be too late to save your parents but you can still save your people."

Frelian peered into her eyes. She was right. He wasn't going to change anything by languishing on the sidelines for his own grief. He had to do something. But he needed a cause. "What have I to root for now?" he frowned

"Root for yourself. Fight for yourself, for us." Isolde suggested, surprised by her own choice of words.

"We have no men, no army. No way of fighting."

Frelian was right. Even if they did wish to fight back and had the strength to do so, they didn't have the means. They had left Inovine alone and without any army. They had angered Alouette so couldn't call on her for help and Pretusia was all but ruined. They had no connections in Harenny or anywhere else in the kingdom. They were completely alone. No friends, no allies.

"There must be someone we can call upon"

"There is no-one"

Isolde then came up with an idea "Then we shall use blackmail."

"How? And who?" Frelian asked

"Think about it. The Inovine blackmailed you to bring Alouette to them, why don't we blackmail them back to get them to send their armies here."

"But what would we say." Frelian questioned the plan "We have nothing to bribe them with."

Isolde thought for a second then spoke "Say that the turige attacked the castle looking for Alouette, and that they will attack every nation until they find her. Say that they have armies leaving for Inovine, that they will be under attack. Convince them to send us men to help us stop them at the source. Or to send us Alouette, to keep safe now the turige are heading to Inovine, Callan wouldn't send her alone he'd send her with a regiment to protect her on the journey." Isolde realised she'd possibly said too many ideas. They'd all become jumbled in her head and she hadn't known which was the best one so simply offered them all up.

Frelian looked impressed "I will write to Callan. I shall say all of that. I shall appeal to his conscience and offer to ally with Inovine permanently in exchange for help. That I'll help him fight the turige as soon as I have my crown back." He was already writing, using the wall of the church as a desk. The paper wasn't the crisp clean sheets that royalty usually communicated upon; it was stained and crumpled, but they had no other choice. They just hoped it would help emphasise the urgency if nothing else.

As Frelian finished the letter, Isolde realised a flaw in their plan "How do we get it to Inovine?" she asked

"The nobles here hate the turige, I might be able to convince one of them to take it, claiming it was just merely business. We might also be able to convince some of them to join us in fighting the Turige." Frelian's eyes lit up as he saw his plan fall into view.