Yngvild and the Forest of Dreams

Enemies

As the Earl's private secretary walked us out of the audience with the Earl of Beretha I interrogated Jafnadr for her impressions of the meeting.

What did you make of the Earl? I thought.

'For a nobleman he was easy to read. He cares most about his family's position, and his primary objective is restoring them to the throne of Salicia. He'll support anyone that will help with this, and stand against anyone that threatens it.'

'That's what I got too, I didn't think he will help stop the war though.'

'He seemed genuine in not wanting a war, but the threat of war is definitely in his interest, as it keeps others in Salicia doubting the claim of the King of Cottalem.'

'That would explain why he wasn't too keen on talking it down.'

As soon as we were outside the gates of the Earl's house Noren spoke. 'I don't see how we could persuade someone like the Earl. He has a strong power base, feels his family was cheated out of the throne, and is totally convinced that he's right.'

'I agree. Also what I think is implied as our other alternative in these sort of situations seems more dangerous and unhelpful than simply leaving it well alone.'
'There's no way I want to be involved in killing the Earl either. It just won't help.'
'So what do we do then?'
'What we really want is to get to Cottalem so that we can catch up with my mother. So the thing to do is to work on the Earl's suggestion to carry on the persuasion there.'
'You think the Board of Trade will get us through?'
'We'll need to speak to the King's nephew first, but I reckon that if we said that we thought the best way to head it off would be to buy off the King of Cottalem then they might just send us there to do it.'
'Only if there isn't already another resolutions team in there already.'
'Doesn't matter if there is or not. All we need to do is persuade the team here to help us enter Caratis. Then we can break off from that mission and go find my mother.'
'Noren! If we can stop a war then we need to do that.'
'That's not the reason that we came here, Yngvild, and you know it. We've only got involved in this because you saw a chance of getting us through the closed border.'
'I'm sorry, Noren, I care about peace too. A war would inconvenience your mother and sisters as much as anyone else, especially as they seem to winter in this area.'
Noren stopped walking. We were on our way back to the Board of Trade residence a couple of streets back from the port. The street that we were in seemed to empty suddenly around us. My hand flew to the pommel of Jafnadr, as soon as I made contact she spoke to me
Yngvild, it's about to get interesting again. I can sense it.
'So has Noren. Any advice?'
Run as fast as you can, pick an alley on the right and stay in it all the way to the sea front.
'Noren, that alley, follow me.' I broke into a fast run immediately. I had to let Jafnadr go to get a decent speed up, but thought that would be enough to follow his advice until it seemed safe enough to stop.

Shouts came from behind us, and footsteps running in pursuit. Someone cried 'Thief!' and it was taken up from all around. A group gathered in front of us to block our way. They'd heard the cries to stop a thief and seen Noren and I running and made their own conclusions. In most circumstances this would have been exactly the right thing for them to do. However, for us it was completely wrong.

I stopped running ten feet before I got to the group.
'I'm not the thief they're crying after' I said. I could hear Noren coming to a halt right behind me.
'So why's you runnin' then?' asked the front man.
'Someone was threatening to rob us at sword point, so we ran away from him.'
'Did you start the hullaballoo?'
'Not us, must have been someone else that saw the men that tried to rob us.' I willed them to believe us and get out of the way.
'Did you see the ones that did do it?'
'Only very briefly, as soon as I saw they were coming for us I started running right away.'
'Best you keeps goin' then' the men all stood aside so that we could carry on running.

We were almost at the bottom of the alley where it opened onto the main street, when three men with shields and swords drawn stepped in to block it. I whirled to a halt while drawing Jafnadr. Noren drew up beside me.

'This is your only chance, surrender now or we will kill you.' Said Noren.
'Come on then. If you think yer can.' The middle ambusher said.
'Put your weapons down now.' I said.
'You don't frighten us.' Said the man.
'Right then, this is the last time you threaten us.' I said. 'How guilty are these people?'
'I wouldn't have any qualms about them, they're Rojden's men.' Jafnadr replied.
'Noren, we only need one alive for questioning.' I said loudly, hoping it would intimidate the men facing us.  

I thought about how Old Bjorn and Arne had trained us. Usually we'd had shield and spear. You held firm while others shot arrows into the enemy. They'd either run or charge. If they ran then you'd won. If they charged you tried to take it on the shield and stab them with your spear.
We didn't have any arrows, nor shields to take the blows. There were three of them, and the alley was so narrow that they blocked it. 

'You need to get a move on, they're waiting for reinforcements.' Jafnadr said. 'Remember that I can cut through anything.'

'Noren. Remember Arne's advice about the best way to fight?' I hoped Noren would understand that I wanted us to fight two deep. 
'Of course.' Noren stepped back and to the left. 

I slid sideways as fast as I could to be in front of Noren. Then went straight into attack before the men had time to envelope us. 

I could feel Noren leaning over my head and shoulders and sweeping a slashing blow at the enemy's heads. They did the predictable thing of ducking back under their shields. 

I thrust my sword through the middle of the shield of the left-most enemy, and pushed the shield back with my other hand too. He's done.

He fell backwards. Noren cut into the middle enemy and pushed him physically by the shield into the third enemy, pinning them both against the wall. 

I pulled up Jafnadr. 'Drop them or die!'

'Quarter! Quarter!' the closer enemy yelled, his sword hitting the ground point first. There was real fear in his eyes that hadn't been there before we launched ourselves at the shield wall. 

I looked at the other one, he was still struggling to move and had a determined malice on his face. I brought Jafnadr up to his eye-line, blood still dripping off the blade.  'Drop it!'

He froze. Noren lifted his colleague with one hand and threw him over his shoulder. 'I've got the prisoner we wanted, see you at the office.' Noren continued down the alleyway at a jog. 

I gestured to my prisoner to follow. He looked like he was thinking about it. 

Here come his friends, kill him or leave him. said Jafnadr. 

I smashed the Jafnadr's handguard into his face, breaking his nose and covering him with blood. I must have hit him harder than I thought, because he bounced the back of his head off the wall. 

I ran after Noren and his prisoner.