The Touch of Astoroth

Epilogue

One month later . . .

From the walls of Tiphin fort, Coyra stared out over the lands of Lanternalia. After living here for almost four weeks, she had to admit, she was beginning to like it. The lady of the fort, Mistress Tiphin, had told her and her friends that they could stay as long as they wanted, as long as they kept to themselves. The fort was so large that they rarely saw their host, but none of them cared.

The first night they had arrived, they had told the woman their whole story, leaving out the murdering parts, and she had been thrilled at the thought that the war might soon be over; according to her, her own son had fled to Izmeel to fight, and she was desperately worried about him.

Over the first few days, the four of them had been bombarded by questions from the servants, who wanted to hear the whole story for themselves, but once they were satisfied, they began avoiding the foursome also.

It would have been lonely, except that they were all there together, and they kept themselves fairly busy.

At first, Coyra had felt absolutely useless, until she realized that the only thing keeping them from training like at the academy was that there were no masters to shout at them to get going. Once she pointed this out to Fyn and Lem, they agreed to keep practicing with her, starting early in the morning, with everything from wrestling to knife fighting; the fort had a wide selection of training weapons.

Slay said that he would give them some tips on thievery, but it soon became apparent that he didn't know anything more about stalking than they did. After that, he had joined their morning routine.

They were allowed to leave the fort any time they liked, and a few days ago, they had taken their ponies all the way to the snow-capped mountains that could just be seen in the distance. Once there, they scaled the rocky slopes, and staged a battle among the cliffs, hollering loud enough for people miles around to here. Predictably, Coyra had won, but it had been an exhilarating fight. Part of living at a secret school meant that, even in the hidden valley, all noise was kept at a minimum.

Now Coyra stared out at the snow dusted peaks and thought of home. As much as she liked living here, she missed Izmeel, with its rounded hills, and quiet slopes. She missed the coniferous trees, which seemed not to exist here, and most of all, she missed having a purpose.

Slay said that there were plenty of jobs that she could get that required her skill set, but none of them applied here, and she didn't want a job in Lanternalia.

I want to go home.

There was a clatter behind her, and she turned. Her friends had joined her on the wall.

Coyra beckoned them over, then turned back to staring at the mountains.

"There's been another message," said Lem, nudging Coyra as he went to stand beside her.

The messages had begun trickling in, about a two weeks after they had arrived. Most were on their way to the capitol city of Lanternalia, and only stopped for rest at fort Tiphin, but they gave the lady their news. Though neither Coyra nor her friends had managed to hear the messenger in person, they had got the gist of it.

Kermerranian soldiers were deserting in droves. Most came to Lanternalia, seeking protection, a few stayed in Kermerran, hiding out, and hoping not to be discovered. A few even fled into Izmeel.

"What did it say?" Coyra asked him.

"Oh, same as ever," Fyn answered, walking over to stand at Coyra's other side, "Zarkamal's army is shrinking, soldiers are deserting. Nakumnay's still got a tight band of followers, but the Kermerranian war effort's wearing thin. They can't cover all their fronts. It'll be over for them soon."

Slay leaned his elbows on the wall, resting his chin on his hands, "It'd be nice to get back to Izmeel." Coyra could tell from his face that he was as homesick as she was.

Soon, she thought, we'll go home soon.