Alliance in the Ice - The Guardians of Noindaith

Copper Heights - Soldier Paul

The wind had died down a little and the sun had dispelled the mist over the valley. Now the snow glistened in the cold light.

Lars was still crouching there. "What do we do now? The guards won't help us any more and probably won't be able to."

He had calmed down in the meantime and we had been sitting next to him in silence for quite a while.

I nodded. "Now we can only watch to see who destroys the Copper Heights first, the demon or the war."

"Without the war, we wouldn't have the problem with the demon, would we, Kaya?" The newcomer grinned wryly.

Kaya nodded. "Yes, that's true."

She hadn't spoken much since the escape. It must have gnawed at her that she had betrayed the guards and followed us instead. She kept her distance from me, and I let her keep her distance so as not to press her. She seemed to need time to process what had happened.

Lars chewed on his lower lip. "So, maybe we shouldn't think about how to destroy the demon, but how to end the war."

"We would need a larger army for that," I pointed out. "We're all weakened and have been fighting a war of position for a long time."

"So all we can do is make sure we lose as quickly as possible." The newcomer tapped his heel excitedly.

I shook my head vigorously. "Betray our own people? That's out of the question!"

Even though we had committed desertion, I felt connected to our soldiers, to my people. And in the event of defeat, my family would be defenceless against the enemy.

Lars scratched his chin. Then he dug a newspaper out of his shoulder bag and tapped it, making the paper rustle. "I took this from Camp Eisensturm. It was lying around on the ground there. Look for yourself, it says big on the front page that the Eastern king wants to meet with our king to negotiate the terms of a truce."

"The Ostians have the upper hand. They will dictate peace to us. Our king won't like that," replied the newcomer.

I shook my head. "They can't dictate anything anymore. Both sides are facing ruin."

Lars stood up resolutely. "Then there's only one thing left for us to do."

"Kill our king? So that the war is over quickly?" asked the newcomer.

"No, not ours. The eastern one." Lars bit his lip.

I swallowed hard. That was strong stuff. Killing a king who had come to negotiate peace - would I ever be able to reconcile that with my conscience? But what else could we do? Nothing, I realized, thinking of the family. And once again a part of me died, as with every enemy soldier I had on my conscience.

In the evening, the sky closed in and the first raindrops fell. We sought shelter in a cave and sat down on the sandy ground. The water dripped in small rivulets from the rock and the icicles that had formed everywhere, proof that the temperatures here were changing rapidly. Outside, the rain fell in threads and I could only see a few meters away.

Lars turned the buttons on his radio to pick up radio messages. Miraculously, it had survived all the strain so far. He adjusted the antenna and searched for active channels with the frequency control. He now received a clear signal, which he noted down on his pad. Hmhm, he kept repeating, and he seemed highly concentrated. When the radio message had already ended, Lars was still scribbling on his pad, connecting individual dots with lines and trying to recognize patterns.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed an eternity later, his ears bright red with excitement.

The newcomer and I looked at him curiously.

"The code confirms what we already know. On Independence Day, the entourages of the kings are expected at Fortress Falkenstein in the state of Lichtenfels!" Lars beamed triumphantly.

"That sounds plausible," I said. "Lichtenfels is a small, neutral enclosure in the middle of the front in the Copper Heights. I assume the meeting will take place in Vaduz Castle. We need to get in there somehow and position ourselves so that we can target the Eastern King."

"How are we supposed to do that? The king will come with a large contingent and his men will know how to protect him! How are we supposed to get into the fortress anyway?" the newcomer exclaimed. "Besides, the meeting will take place in six days!"

Weber's face was sunken. He was still inexperienced, and even though he had freed us like a hero, he was visibly burdened by the fact that we had become traitors.

I turned to Kaya. "Maybe we can't do it alone, but with Kaya's help, it should work. Just like Annuk helped us at Camp Iron Storm. What do you think, couldn't you use your magic?"

Kaya nodded slowly, as if she needed to think. "Yes, certainly. I can try to manipulate the king's companions."

I smiled at her and she smiled back cautiously. I could see that she wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation and I could hardly blame her.

We didn't get any closer that night. The planning of the assassination attempt on the Eastern king was too much on my mind, and the psychological strain was also written all over Kaya's face. An attack on a king. I wouldn't have thought us capable of that until recently.