Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Crow’s Rock Castle

“Do you think that your friends manage to stay alone?”, Wilbur asked.

“C’mon, Wilbur”, Orik grunted, “The little elf is more than 250 years old, Hektor grew up as a gladiator and Onnen is a demon. I don’t think they will have problems without us”

“And as long as the others are with Jack, he won’t have any problems either”, Safiria added. Laurelinad kept quite. His black horse snorted a few times to chase the ever-present wolves away. The black canines seemed well-fed and appeared to have a craving for human flesh. After all they always followed the heroes since they have splitted. However, the heroes didn’t bothered wondering about them.

After a while, Laurelinad noticed something. A woman of unrecognizable age came running towards them. She flailed her arms wildly and ran right in the middle of the road. Seemingly she was driven by blind panic.

She finally reached the five heroes. In her panic she clinged to Nazgûl’s briddles. The black horse roared out and wanted to rise on his hind legs, but Laurelinad managed to keep him quite.

“Pleeze!”, the woman gasped, “You have to help me people!”

“Slow down”, Safiria said, “And calm down. What’s your problem?”

The vampire’s aura seemed to calm the woman really down. She took a step back and took a deep breath. Then she lifted her head. Laurelinad saw tears that filled her eyes. Her arms were bruised and her feet were bleeding. Apparantly she must have run a while with bare feet. Branches have ripped her clothings.

“I’m zorrie”, she whispered, “But me people are attacked by zoldiers. You have to rescue zem!”

“Your people?” Laurelinad asked. he knew that time was running, but he wanted to know where this woman was from.

“Me family”, the woman gasped, “We are gypzeez and tis baron sent his zoldiers to annihilate us. Zey sait we are bugs. Zey sait we needed to be killed!” Again, tears filled her eyes.

Without saying a word, Laurelinad turned to Safiria.

“Can you smell where the girl is from?”, he asked.

Safiria nodded. “I can smell her people- and blood!”

Alarmed, both of them spurred their steeds and rushed past the gypsy. Mercuria followed them.

“Looks like the three want to help you”, Orik grumbled, “I say we follow them slowly”

As the gypsy looked with troubled eyes at him, the dwarf added: “I am long enough with them. You asked for help and they rushed to help your people”

“Are- are you zure?”, she asked.

“He is”, Wilbur smiled and unmounted his horse, “Come, I let you ride my horse. Looks like you can’t walk anymore”

The gypsy sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Thank you”, she whispered. Wilbur helped her to climb on the horse’s back. Then he let the girl show them the way.

-xxxxx-

“You goddamn pests!”, the captain shouted. One of his soldiers was just striking down an old man. The old man moaned before his body went twitching down.

The soldiers, ruthless and brutal men of De’Mordrey, were ordered to wipe out the gypsies- and they followed their master’s order with joy.

As they stormed the camp, one woman was searching for firewood. As she heard her people scream, she raced back, only to recognize that she couldn’t stand a chance against the armed people. So she ran away to find someone who could help.

“You are a shame for mankind!”, another soldier shouted at an elderly woman. Another soldier kicked a girl and her little brother who were already on the ground. They cryed for their mother and begged the man to stop. However, he didn’t listened. He continued insulting and kicking them.

“Don’t let anyone live!”, the captain shouted. His blade beheaded a nearby gypsy. His limp body fell to the ground and the children began screaming. Apparantly, he was their father.

Suddenly there was the sound of hooves and the crying of horses. With one marvelous leap a large black steed broke through the woods. Its rider was a dark elf. He didn’t had his hands on the briddle, held small blades instead. His horse raced towards the soldiers. The men tried to evade, but one was too slow. The sharp blades on Nazgûl’s harness cut cleanly through his body. His upper body fell with a soft ‘oompf’ to the soil, his lower body collapsed in the opposite direction.

As the steed abruptly rose to his hindlegs, the soldiers were already scattered. Nazgûl slid for a moment across the ground before he turned around.

The men believed that this elf was the only one as suddenly two more steeds broke through the scrubs and bushes. These two carried women on their backs. A pale white-haired one and a beautiful Seraphim. Mercuria’s eyes glowed eerie blue as she stroke down a soldier.

Safiria made Alucard race forewards. His hooves crushed into another soldier. The man gasped and fell to the ground before he was completly crushed by the heavy steed.

The soldiers, now filled with panic, tried to flee, but a man could never outrun a horse.

None of them would survive the day.

After a short time, the small group of soldiers was completly annihilated. The three heroes collected to look for the wounded gypsies.

Mercuria casted a powerful collumn of light that destroyed the soldier’s remains.

Just then Orik, Wilbur and the woman came along the path.

“You- you did it!”, the woman cryed. She slid off the horseback and stumbled towards the children.

“Mommy! Mommy!”, the two kids sniffed. They hugged their mom. “Mommy!”, the girl sobbed, “They killed daddy!”

Their mother just sniffed and whispered “I know”

Laurelinad sighed and Safiria looked slightly uncomfortable.

“You have saved us”, the elderly woman said as she approached them, “I’m glad my daughter Drusa met you. We can’t give you much, but...”

However, Laurelinad rose his hand. “Keep your treasures. We are not interested”, he said. He turned to his teammates and said: “We still have to go to Crow’s Rock Castle”

The heroes nodded, told the gypsies to be careful and made their way back to the main street. The old woman just waved after them and shouted: “My family will never forget you. We will be forever in your dept!”

-xxxxx-

Later, the guards of one of the two main gates of the outer wall of Crow’s Rock Castle noticed five riders approaching. However, none of them realized the crusted blood that was splattered on the horse’s fur or on their harnesses.

“Halt! Who goes there?”, one of the guards asked.

“Wilbur, Royal Spy of Prince Valor”, Wilbur answered, “I have an urgent message for Baron De’Mordrey”

“And the others?”, the guard replied.

“My companions and saviours”

The guard turned to his collegues and talked to them. After that he told the five to enter. However, they wanted them to let their horses outside of the castle. With some resistance, the five tied their steeds to a nearby tree. However, they told the guards to take care of them. Safiria bared her teeth to show them what would happen if they wouldn’t.

The heroes walked through the gate and were confronted with the inside of Crow’s Rock Castle.

“Hm”, Safiria snarled, “Do you smell this ‘lovely’ aroma of urine mixed with blood and vomitt?”

“I guess Meg and Jack would faint if they were here”, Laurelinad growled, “Here’s absolutley no green and the whole town looks unhygienic”

“Give me a few dwarves and I’ll change this whole city!”, Orik grunted.

“I think we shouldn’t stay too long here”, Mercuria said, “Let’s just get Wilbur to De’Mordrey and get out of this city”

“I think here are many people who need your help”,Wilbur muttered.

The heroes went quite for a moment, then Orik said: “I think, Mercuria and Wilbur go to De’Mordrey and we go and look for some tasks”

“Sounds fair to me”

“Ok, then let’s get going”

-xxxxx-

Orik moaned. A noble asked him to escort his fiancè back into the city since he was too afraid to do it himself. Orik found the woman and brought her back. However, she then decided to dump her friend and look for someone else. Orik grinned to himself as the woman told this to the man.

Now, he was unsecure what to do.

As he was wandering aimlessly through the streets, he soon reached a fenced area with two gallows in it. A judge was standing there. As he noticed Orik, he shouted: “Dwarf! I want you to go to my home and get the verdict. We have an excecution today, but the law wants that I read out the verdict! You go and get it and I give you gold”

“You could have simply asked me and said ‘please’!”, Orik snapped. The judge glared at him, but said nothing. Orik took off.

-xxxxx-

Safiria’s way led her to the slums of the castle. The smell of urea, slurry, vomitt and blood was overhelming, but Safiria was trained in breathing through her mouth. However, her wolf snorted and whined. He couldn’t stand the stench.

“It’s ok, Suko, I’ll make fast so we get out of here quick enough”, Safiria whispered. Her wolf answered with a long soft yelping.

Safiria walked along the muddy green little creek that seperated the slums from the rest of Crow’s Rock Castle. Three bridges connected both parts and at one stood an woman. She looked older than she really was.

“Please!”, she begged the bridge guard, “Let me go to the other side. I need medical plants that only grow on the other side!”

“I have clear orders!”, the soldier shouted, “No scum is allowed to get to the other side! We don’t want that part becoming filthy”

“Then you are a little bit too late”, Safiria interrupted. The soldier noticed that she was a noble foreigner, so he kept his voice low.

“We have orders”, he said.

“I’m not interested in your laws. I’m from Vilya’s realm”, Safiria growled, “What is the problem?”

“Well, this scum here...”, the soldier began. However, he was interrupted by Safiria.

“I haven’t asked you!”, she hissed, “I asked the lady here!” She turned to the woman and asked again, this time more politly.

“My daughter is very sick”, the woman said, “And I need the medical plants that grow at the other side to cure her”

“And you aren’t allowed to get to the other side?”

“Not anymore. A few years ago we were still allowed, but that’s over now”

Safiria thought for a moment, then she asked the woman: “Where does the plant grow?”

“Do you see the second ring that protects the keep?”

“The large wall on the hill? Of course”

“There are watchtowers in front of the wall, and there grows the plant. It has little white dots on the leaves and golden blossoms. Would you go and get it?”

“I will sent my wolf”, Safiria said, “You go back to your daughter. Suko will get the plant and bring it to you”

“You sure?”, the woman asked confused, “I mean he’s just an- animal”

“I know, but he is more intelligent than most of the guards around here”, she turned to her wolf, ignoring the soldier’s protests. “You understood?”

Suko howled in answer and ran away.

“Good. You go now back to your house. Your daughter needs you”, Safiria ordered. The woman nodded and went away. Safiria walked on.

-xxxxx-

“Sounds easy to me”, Laurelinad grinned, “Sneak into the second ring, hit the food gong to distract the people and exchange the documents”

“Don’t be too cocky”, Laurelinad’s client warned him, “De’Mordrey’s men are dangerous”

“And are dumber than a slice of bread”, the drow answered, “I won’t fail”

He took the fake documents and walked towards the wall. The guards there didn’t wanted to let him enter, so the drow simply walked to the left and walked along the wall. He reached a watchtower and noticed Safiria’s blood wolf biting off plants. He waved his tail happily as he noticed the drow standing there. Laurelinad crawled his fur and began climbing the wall. Skilfully he clinged to every gap in the wall and soon he reached the wall’s crest. He waited for a moment before he gracefully jumped down. Knowing fully that no-one noticed him, he swiftly moved along the wall, using every shadow and every possible object to hide.

He reached the gong and hit it, before quickly sneaking back.

From a safe place he watched the soldiers gathering to eat. Then he zipped over to the captain’s table, grabbed the documents and put the fake ones instead on it. Before the people returned, the drow was already back on the wall’s crest. Suko was already gone and Laurelinad decided that it was too dangerous to stay there. So he jumped down and returned to his client.

-xxxxx-

Orik found the judge’s house and he also found the verdict. However, he wondered that there wasn’t even a little note about the excecution in it.

Confused he walked back to the gallows and handed the judge the verdict, telling him that there wasn’t anything written about hanging the suspect.

However, the judge simply said that he had forgotten to put it in. With a wink he told the nearby soldiers to chase the dwarf away. Perfectly knowing that any violent actions would endanger Wilbur’s mission, Orik kept quite.

As he walked away, he mumbled: “De’Mordreyan rights, but what about justice?”

-xxxxx-

Safiria just returned to another client who asked her to kill a violent captain. He was a real pig and allowed his men to violate every single of the persons who lived in the slums.

Because of that he was only known as ‘Captain Pigface’ (I do not know whether he is really called like that in the game. I only played it in German)

Safiria found him, killed him and beheaded him. She brought the head back to the client.

The client was absolutley suprised and gave the Vampire a staff. A mage’s staff as she explained.

Later on, Safiria met her wolf again. His fur was completly tousled, telling the Vampire that he had done his quest and was rewarded with lots and lots of praise and appreciations. An amulett was around his neck, seemingly the ‘real’ reward.

-xxxxx-

Mercuria and Wilbur passed the soldiers Laurelinad would steal from later on. The two walked along a cobblestone path until they reached the stables.

“Mercuria”, Wilbur said, “I need to go to De’Mordrey alone. So would you please wait here for me?”

Mercuria ruffled her nose, but said nothing. Wilbur walked off.

However, after a few minutes she noticed a secret path that was behind the stables. Her enhnaced hearing allowed her to notice children’s crying that echoed from the path’s end.

Without faltering, Mercuria jumped over the gate that should prevent any intruders to come forth and ran along the narrow path.

The crying and screaming became louder until the Seraphim stood in front of a big gaping hole that was driven into the cliff.

Somewhere down there, Mercuria knew, were children and women. And they were afraid.

So she walked into the darkness, unknowing what would await her.