Valiant

Chapter 18: Fellowship

After a quick walk back to the bar, my stomach clenches itself into a tight ball of hunger. So, after changing out of my soiled tunic and trousers and washing my face, I fly down the stairs to the kitchen. On my way down, I pass a few men drowning sorrow in a corner of the bar, wrapped in woolen blankets. Orik with his vast belly and red face is with them, consoling them.

"Shh Shh Shh," Orik holds the crying woman against his barrel chest with surprising gentleness. It is this amusing image that gives me pause, and I lurk behind a table to eavesdrop, rubbing at an invisible spot on the polished wood.

"Those DAMNED WILDLINGS!" The man sitting next to Orik yowls in anguish. The other man bolts his cup down and mutters something inaudible to Orik, to which he says, "No, Lumere. You can stay for  a while. We have bread and quarter." The girl sobs inconsolably, in a very girlish manner into Orik, hair a wreath around her face.

Thoroughly interested now, I move along the table, scrubbing the spotless surface aimlessly to put myself into closer range. I open my ears in the way I was trained to, Letting the clamor of the daytime flow in one ear and out the other, and pouring all my focus into their conversation.

"We were ambushed on the Grey Road. The barbarians were mounted, with blades of proper steel and a brute ferocity behind them, and clad in leather that repelled even Tesha's arrows. Their captain was wielding a strange spear with the head as black as smoke, with a bite as cold as winter. It spread frost like fire across whatever it struck, be it sword or flesh or armor. We escaped, thank the gods, but the cart broke down and they slew our mounts and men. David died of his wounds,the Fellowship is dead, and we have nothing but our hides. Orik, I don't know what to do!"

I gasp, rather audibly, and run over to the men, fearing to recognize their faces.

"No," I choke out as I see the famed men of the Fellowship of the Lion.

"Rumere! Lumere! And this is Tesha!" I look them over, first in excitement, and then in horror. The Fellowship of the Lion is a band forged from freeriders and swordwives, to guard the Vale against the barbarians from over the Hoarfrost Mountains.

"WHAT THE BLOO'Y 'ELL ARE YOU DOING !" Orik roars with fury at me, shooing me with a great, sweaty palm. "SCAMPER OFF, YAH WEE BASTARD!" Realizing my error, I make a dash for the kitchen door, but I stay behind the door to catch bits and pieces of the conversation.

"This cannot be," I assure myself, fright thumping in my stomach.

Tesha is David's wife, the mighty Eagle-eye archer who can put an arrow through the eyeslit of a helm at a thousand paces. Not this weeping woman in Orik's arms!

Rumere and Lumere are the famous Storm-born twins, who fought the Battle of Long Ridge, outnumbered two hundred to one, and slew the Serpentine Lords of the East. Not these haggard old men covered in cloth and grey hair!

David is the leader of the Fellowship, famed for his ferocity in battle and coolness at court, along with his greathelm in the shape of a lion's head. Once he dueled forty men at once with his eyes closed and defeated them. He could not die of wounds!

"It is too dangerous to stay here anymore. The Fellowship is dead, and we have nothing but our hides," Rumere says, with his eyes glazed in shame.

"The hoard we saw was a scouting party, no more than twenty, and they ripped all one hundred of our men to shreds. These are not the barbarian tribes we know, Orik. They're something greater."

"We must tell King Maximus. He needs to rally his Vale army for battle in haste, or there will soon be no Vale to defend," Lumere speaks up, followed by bits that I can't quite make out. Thank the gods for Orik's loud voice, I say for the first time ever, as he bursts out, "FOUR THOUSN' WARRIORS? GODS 'ELP US!" followed by interspersed shushing.