Valiant (*On Hold*)

6 Princess - Tyne

"I swear, Lord, Etel Albo is back in Mardenall."

I stared at the man in front of me, kneeling on the ground with my man, Calder's blade at his throat. He raised his neck to avoid the dagger and looked me in the eyes in pleading. I narrowed mine for scrutiny. He was thin, just a boy by the looks of it, perhaps a slave they had tossed into armor. He was trembling in fear, his leather armor worn and poked through from men who had likely died in it before it had been issued to him.

"I'm not a Lord," I told him, turning away and walking to the window facing the sea. I felt the breeze blowing my hair off of my shoulders and breathed in the scent of the salt air. I had never dreamed I would return here, to the country of my birth, to Vyndoli. But two years ago, the farm that had just become my own was burned to the ground with Vili inside. I did not know what to do then. So I did the only thing I've ever known. I boarded a ship. With vengeance in my heart. And it brought me here, back to my people.

"You- you are Tyne of Vyndoli," the man said and I turned to look at him, trying in vain to hide my surprise. "You are the slayer of Rirdans. The Vyndoli people, those of us who remain, they are calling you The Great Justice."

"You are Vyndolish?"

"I am, Lord. Or, I was. Before."

"I am not a Lord."

He bowed his head at the tone of my voice. "Yes, L- Sir."

"Let him up, Calder," I commanded and my man did as I told him.

Edison Calder was among my most loyal men. I had found him in the city of Rodella when I had encountered a Rirdan trying to have his way with a maiden in an alley and Calder and I had both come to her rescue. He was a drifter as well, a man run away from the corruption of the remaining Vyndolian army. He was a warrior, a strong fighter. We were friends in an instant. And he had since followed me on my journeys through my former homeland, righting the wrongs that Vili had spoken of, that I had seen. Now, I walked toward the boy on his knees and knelt to face him.

"How do you know that Etel Albo is back in Mardenall?"

"I overheard it, "he answered, simply. "They were speaking of it, some of the commanders. They said he had regained the fortress, that it was gifted to him in recognition of years of service in Vyndoli by the King of Rirdanta."

"Why Mardenall?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it means something to him?"

I stood and turned away from the boy, thinking about what he had told me.

"Does it mean something to you, Tyne?" another man asked. I turned to see Hawk standing with his hand on the hilt of his sword as always. His eyebrows lifted as our gazes met.

I could not deny that there were days in which Grayson Hawthorne, the man we called Hawk, seemed to know my mind better than I. We had met during a jailbreak. One of the Rirdans' leaders had imprisoned a group of men in the dungeons of his keep. I had freed them. Hawk had been a prisoner but he turned into a leader when the escape began. He had stuck by my side since.

"It was my home," I told him and watched as he and Calder exchanged a glance. "It was where they took me after they burned my farm and slaughtered my family. Where he sold me into slavery."

"Etel Albo," Calder spoke. I nodded.

"Let him go," I said then, striding across the room for the door. "If he runs, he is no longer our problem. If he returns to the Rirdans, let him tell Etel Albo that I am coming for him."

I pushed open the door to the inn and exited into the bustle of the marketplace on this bright afternoon. Squinting into the sun after my morning spent indoors, I made for the tavern in which I knew the majority of my men resided. Hawk and Calder would deal with the boy. I needed to find the final of my loyal trio and give him the orders I had decided upon.