Stories of Giladriis: The Paladin's Squire

Part Five

The group got to the village of Still Branch close to midnight. Their horses were exhausted and were in dire need of rest. Then again, so were the travelers themselves. Cianna showed them to the village's before she left to meet with the village leaders. Gunder was out the moment his body hit the comfortable bed. Olsyn was not far behind him, though he did manage to bathe first. Razeem was not able to sleep that night.

    Razeem made his way out of the room down to the tavern on the first floor of the inn. He slowly drank on two glasses of dark brown ale but stopped after the second glass. He had never been a big drinker and he could not remember a time when he had ever been drunk. He was used to the smell when Gunder would smoke his pipe, but the odor was overpowering when more than ten people were constantly smoking within feet of him. He made his way outside and looked up into the star filled sky in silence.

    "Can't sleep?" Cianna's voice came softly from a few feet to his right. She smiled as she stepped out of the shadows and into the star light. She was wearing more casual clothing this time and her hair was pulled up into a bun. She looked even more attractive than she had before.

    Razeem had been startled by her, but not enough to make it noticeable. He stared at her for a second before lightly shaking his head and responding. "No, not even a little bit," he smiled but then sighed a few seconds later, "Warlord Fithris killed the paladin who was teaching me. I vowed to avenge Kabel Windrift if I ever had the chance to again. Now that the forest elves will be gathering something to counter this invasion force, I doubt I'll ever have that chance." He shrugged as he took a couple steps towards Cianna. "I wasn't even sure if he was really still alive or not."

    Cianna gave another small smile as she looked up at the stars. "The village elders are copying the information off the letter and marking multiple maps with the location of the army. They are sending tons of messengers first thing in the morning to the major cities so that they can come up with a plan."

    Razeem almost leaned back in surprise. "Your people seem to be awfully calm about an invasion force coming for them from the Empire of Mythos. I would have thought they would be making this a high enough priority to send messengers out now."

    "We are still close to the northern border, and the invasion force is gathering nearly a hundred miles south of our southern border. Most of the village elders aren't concerned about it ever reaching us, even if it had come by surprise."

    "They will plan for an army to try and stop them before they reach Fleurydia," Razeem turned to face her, his face turning rather serious, "they will be ready to counter any large force sent after them." He was silent for a minute or two while he thought. "What we need is small group that will be hard to see coming from miles away."

    Cianna lifted one eye brow as she stared the paladin down. "We?" Her mouth twitched into another smile.

    Razeem nodded before he continued. "Yes, my group is involved in this now. It would shame the paladin order if I were to walk away from a threat made against Giladriis by Mythos. Fighting the Mythosians is exactly what I was trained to do, it is my purpose. I want to talk to your elders sometime in the next few days, if they have the time for it. I have an idea I'd like to share with them."

    "I assume your idea involves leading the charge against the invasion force?" Cianna questioned with a chuckle.

    He smirked as his eyes met hers. "Actually, you assume wrong."

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    The next morning the elders called for Razeem. The meeting room consisted of five chairs filled elves that were dressed in various colored robes. Some of them looked as if they might have known a thing or two about magic, while others looked like they were retired warriors with slowly fading scars. Besides the chair that Razeem stood behind there were only three other chairs, all of which were empty.