Together, Alexi and I moved towards the place where we had dragged the wounded and where Luselivupis, Thredret and myself had spent several hours doing what we could to save those injured during the battle. The injuries had been expectedly terrible and several had succumbed no matter how much effort we put into keeping them alive. Their bodies had been added to the pile just outside the walls which had also noticeably shrunk in size during the night as the resident denizens of the swamps took advantage of the sudden food source. Some had been buried in the rough soil or had makeshift cairns made from broken masonry and scavenged stones, but for many of the bandits without family, lovers or close friends who had survived the night they were simply dumped and left for the marshes to claim.
Only five of the bandits remained in the crude tent strung off the side of the central keep. Many of the bandits slept on bedrolls and the odd hammock or two but their leaders had managed to cobble together or claim something resembling bedding. It was these crude beds that were used to assist us in treating the wounded but they were all almost irreparably ruined with blood and flesh.
Looking close to death himself in a combination of old age and exhaustion, Luselivupis gave us a glance as we entered the tent but returned to busily applying bandages and a freshly made poultice to one of the Black Bows. The young bandit on the stretcher looked pale and shivering but what was as a result of the gash across his chest or a previous illness brought on by living within the swamps was almost impossible to discern. I nodded to the aged healer as we moved past, seeing one of the other figures sitting with his back against the only wall made of stone rather than cloth with his eyes closed and hands on his knees.
Whether he sensed our presence or felt our approaching footsteps I was uncertain but the dark skinned Breton opened his bloodshot eyes and looked up at us from where he sat on the floor. Like the rest of us, he too hadn’t slept much the night before but he was also exhausted from his imprisonment and treatment at the hands of the Black Bows instead of hours of fighting we had experienced during the night.
“Sir Desin, Sir Vanevius.” He said softly, knuckling his eyes with a hand that was conspicuously clean in comparison to the grime and blood that covered him to the elbows.
“Good morning Thedret.” I replied, moving over to him and sitting down on one of the spare beds that had been dragged in and ignoring the half congealed bloodstain on it. “Sorry if we woke you.”
Slowly, he shook his head and yawned. “I was merely dozing. What can I do for you?”
“Kaius has a few questions I think.” Alexi said from over my shoulder.
“More like confirmations for a few things, like how you are here for the Shield.”
Like a wave, the exhaustion seemed to flow out of him and his eyes perceptibly hardened at the two of us. “You were not dispatched by the Knights Mentor, were you?”
“No. We’re here on our own volition.”
“I knew that it hadn’t been long enough for the Order to realise that we were missing.” Thedret looked equal parts relieved and despondent but forced a smile onto his face. “It does raise the question just how you all found yourselves here.”
“We’re like you it seems. We’re seeking the Shield.”
Pressing his fingers into his temples, he massaged them gently and I found myself acutely aware of how I too was feeling the strain and the encroaching headache. “No one outside of the Order is supposed to know of this place or that the shield is here. It’s been one of the closest guarded secrets for two centuries.”
I looked at him directly and gave a smile of my own. “Viconia and I have been on the path of the Relics for the past weeks. We have been successful in retrieving the Helm and the Boots, as well as the Cuirass in the old Priory of the Nine.”
At hearing this he immediately gained suspicion and looked at Alexi and I very carefully, seeking for falsehood and becoming satisfied when he found none. “Pelinal’s relics are becoming whole once more. The hour of Umaril’s return truly is at hand.”
“That is what we believe.” Seeing the expression on his face I shook my head and cut him off before he could ask the obvious question. “and no, Pelinal’s heir is not among us as far as we know. We were all hoping to find the Divine Crusader on our journey to recover the Relics.”
“Speak for yourself.” Alexi chuckled at my back. “Who’s to say that it isn’t yours truly?”
“There’s not enough space in the armour for the sheer breadth of your ego, and I thought holy warriors were supposed to be humble?”
“I can be humble.” The amount of sarcasm and the fake pout was obvious and we both grinned at each other briefly while I made a show of rolling my eyes.
Turning back to Thedret, I saw the annoyance on his features at Alexi’s and my banter. It was obvious that we were a far cry from the Knights that he was used to travelling with in his own journeys. “Sir Henrik Fenrahrson died defending this place, and while he was one of the Knights of the Nine he died wearing the Heraldry of the Order of Julianos. I’m guessing that the Shield is still heavily defended here otherwise the Black Bows would have gotten their hands on it ages ago.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Thedret nodded. “This is true. The Fort will not give up its secrets easily.”
“Can you tell us how to retrieve the shield?”
The long silence that fell between us was unmistakeable and I knew that he was thinking over all the times the Bandits had tortured or otherwise interrogated him during his imprisonment and how a new group were asking him for the same thing. he didn’t know us anymore than we knew him and his hesitation was all too apparent.
“I will help you retrieve the Shield.” He said finally, slowly drawing his words out and staring at us intently. “But the Shield will remain in the care of a Knight Mentor until whoever is worthy to wield it is found.”
“Excellent. How do we get the shield?”
“It would be easier to show than tell you.”
True to his word, Thedret rose to his feet and together the three of us left the makeshift infirmary and made our way into the central keep of the fort. It was a fairly crude but sturdy structure, standing tall enough that the roof was at least two or three metres above the outer parapets but being little more than six or seven metres tall at the highest point. The interior was also a very plain and undecorated space that if not for the collection of rough beddings and personal effects from the Black Bow Commanders scattered about would have been empty. It was built it a square, twenty metres by twenty metres in width and length and looking about as rich as the interior of a Legion fort after the furnishings being looted. Only a handful of statues stood on their pedestals, carved into the likeness of great warriors but still appearing crude and poorly fashioned.
In the far end of the keep’s interior, opposite the only entrance was a collection of stairs that vanished into the murky depths under the fort and it was clear that shortly after reaching the level below the tiny corridor branched off in two directions. Standing at the top of the stairs I had a very uncomfortable feeling as I looked into the darkness.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that wherever that leads, its heavily trapped the entire way.” I said simply, giving Thedret a quick look as he took note of each of the statues in the keep.
“Hundreds of metres of tunnels and passages covering three hectares arranaged into a labyrinth. And yes, you are correct. There are dozens of traps ranging from the usual darts and triggered bolt mechanisms, spear traps and pitfalls and after all this time some of those passages will be flooded.”
“Good thing that we don’t have to go down there then.”
Both Alexi and Tredret looked at me, the first with an expression of puzzlement and the latter with an increasing amount of shock.
“How do you know?”
I shrugged at Alexi. “Viconia and I learned more than just where this place is at the Priory of the Nine. Like that the Shield isn’t in the depths of the fort but within the main keep itself.”
“You are correct Sir Desin.” Thedret said simply, gesturing to the statues. “The Fort was designed to safeguard the Shield but traps and physical defences can been circumvented and destroyed with time. The true defence is that those seeking the shield requires wisdom to find and claim it.”
Gesturing to each of the satutes in turn he looked over them all and smiled sadly. “I was one of fourteen sent from the Order of Julianos to retrieve the Shield. After the attacks on the Church the Grand Masters decreed that the time had come to recover the relics to face Umaril and so they sent us.”
“Us?” Alexi asked.
“Master Georeph, Commander Ametecou, and a dozen of the finest Knights in the Order.”
It didn’t take a vampire’s senses to see the sadness that infected him and I moved a little closer. “So what happened to you all?”
“The Black Bows ambushed us a few days travel north of here. We had heard reports of bandits in the area but we didn’t take heed too much. Is there anywhere in Tamriel that is free of bandits? Master Georeph assured us that there was nothing in the region that could stand against fourteen Knights Mentor and he was partially right at least. The Black Bows waited until we were crossing a portion of the marshes and ambushed us almost enmasse. They didn’t even need to try to kill us, but let the marshes do the work instead.”
Moving from statue to statue I saw the way that he was specifically walking, counting the steps between each one and obviously calculating something in his mind. “Half of us died then and there. Anyaene and Veribertton were knocked into the water and never resurfaced and Paureus got attacked by a shoal of fish attracted by all the blood. He didn’t even make it two meters towards the shore. Any of us who got out of the water were captured, tied up and brought here.”
“The bastards got greedy.” Alexi said and Thedret nodded.
“Originally they planned on ransoming us back to the Order but after they discovered the maps we were carrying they began asking us questions. It didn’t take long before Greagious took a personal interest and they started torturing us. Tutcon was the first to relent and tell them how the shield was here and after that they forgot about ransoming us all.”
I saw how he counted the steps towards the centre of the statues and scuff a mark into the dirt covered floor with a boot. “They killed you one by one to get the others to talk?”
“It didn’t really work for them though. We might have told them that the Shield was here but none of us told them how to retrieve it.” echoing darkly in the shadowed interior, Thedret’s laugh was as bitter as his expression. “They believed that we had come in such numbers to breach the traps and never thought that the Shield was right under their noses the whole time.”
“How’d you survive though?”
“Me?” again he took another measured set of paces from another one of the statues and made another mark with his boot. “I’m a trained healer. When they caught me healing one of the others after one of their interrogations they realised that I was worth more to them all alive than dead. The others… the others didn’t make it though. Greagious hoped that I would see ‘reason’ and tell them more.”
The collection of scuff marks made a rough hexagon seemingly in a random portion of the floor and he stepped backwards from it with a wave of his hands. “Well, this is where the Shield lies.”
“How certain are you?” I asked, moving over and taking note of the position of the marking.
“As certain as I can be.” His voice became cold as he looked over the two of us. “What will you do once you have the Shield?”
Standing with the scuffed stonework at my feet, I couldn’t help but feel trepidation that yet another of the relics were almost in our grasp. “Get out of these damnable marshes first and foremost. After that? There’s still the other relics that need to be found.”
