Revenge

Chapter 26: Friends

Never did I think I'd ever be considered royalty.. And even now with my newfound knowledge, I still don't consider myself royalty. I was going through something that can only be described as a thirst for my friends, power, and vengeance.

Richard made a deal with me, I could take my revenge against Jarl Thorald in the upcoming battle, or leave and find my friends. I had promised Aesa I'd meet her with Tanner... I had to go find them... but I had to take my revenge. I finally found the answer to my dilemma, and left camp on reasonably good terms with Lord Richard. He let me take the armor and swords I had gotten from his armory, and a warhorse.

I rode hard north, hoping to find them on the path. I was lucky, and didn't encounter much on the road. Eventually, I found signs of them on the path, and caught up to them. I surprised them in the night.

"I'm back!" I shouted, a couple yards away.

"Hmm fast work then." Harrison commented

"What's that!? Your 4th time in prison!? So? What did you do?" Aesa asked.

"I'll tell you when we set up camp for the night..."

Everyone kept asking me questions, and I answered a couple of them, except for lord Richard's secrets. For the most part, everyone was up to date by the time we finally set up camp. I nudged Aesa, and we went somewhere private.

"Well, Richard said he knew something about my past..."

"And?" Aesa said impatiently.

"Apparently.. He's my father."

Aesa's expression turned to that of impatient and hungry to shocked and almost excited.

"Also... You're my sister."

I could tell she put all the pieces together like I did, but she didn't know Richard.

"I need to meet him." She said calmly.

"There's a bit more..."

"Yes?"

"We are both illegitimate heirs to the throne of Abigorn, our mother is the queen."

She went through the exact same shock I had... she even was crying too.

"Richard hid us... and Jarl Thorald sent raiders to burn down my village... I'm asking you, will you help me take my Revenge?"

"Of course, Brother." She commented with a newfound power and connection.

We kept our secret throughout the rest of our journey. We had decided even though we had all escaped, we should visit Tanner. Also, we didn't really have a plan in the first place.

I could sense the slight suspicion of the rest of the group, they didn't understand why I spared Richard, and I hated lying to them. Aesa and I decided we needed as much help as we could get, so we chose to tell them when we got to Tanner.

Weeks on the road, and we made it to Tanner. His old farmhouse looked bigger than Aesa and I had remembered, and Tanner was overjoyed to see us, especially my new armor which most likely cost more than his entire farm. He had new farmhands and helpers, he was doing quite well without us.

"Ah! Arnvir! Aesa! You're back!" Tanner said elated to see us.

We both ran up and hugged him, and he had us set our equipment in a shed. Tanner rented out part of his sizeable barnhouse to travellers, but he said it was full tonight, so we were all going to sleep in the shed. Once all the introductions and stories were told, everything finally felt normal. Tanner went to talk to the traveller, and the 4 of us were down in the main room talking to one of the farmhands.

"Do you know who the traveller is?" I inquired.

"No, he's pretty mysterious. All I can tell you is he wears a brown cloak."

My facial expression turned to horror, and I got up and ran upstairs with my swords. By the time I got there, Tanner was on the floor, dead. Blood was coming out of his neck, his neck neatly sliced. Standing over him, Harold. I charged him, and slashed his leg and arm with both of my swords, and I blocked his strikes. I charged him and shoved him to the ground, and shoved my sword through his empty, left hand. He managed to kick me off of him, and he got up. I used the tips from Richard to feint him, and get a good strike on his back with my new footwork skills. He charged me and stabbed me in the gut, I shoved him off of me, and slashed his chest twice. I blocked his swings, and kept up a good defense; he was bleeding out and tiring. I charged him and shoved him out the window, then jumped down myself, landing on top of him and shoving my swords straight through his chest. I withdrew my swords, then, for good measure, embedded one through his jaw. Aesa was at the window I had jumped out of, looking down.

"What the hell happened!?!"

It took quite a lot of explantation, but after awhile, my group and the farmhands came to an understanding. Once my adrenaline wore off, I started crying. Tanner was dead, just like Ulfar.