The Once and Future Princess

Chapter Three

Shay crouched alongside Armaelie as they both skinned the carcass. It had been a sizable deer with a good pelt and lots of meat on its bones. Jonah had gone off at orders from the older man to find more branches to make a sort of drying rack to hang the deer skins. Soon enough the three had the deer roughly cut into reasonable sizes for the spit above the fire, with slabs left over for future use, one of which Shay had deboned and cut up in chunks explaining that it was acceptable for a stew.

With that done the assembly sat on the stones around the fire and exchanged greetings with those already present. The deer, having been properly seasoned by Bri'nna, presently spun slowly to roasted perfection above the content flames. The air teemed with silent apprehension as they all turned to Ma'agda.

Time sped up in a flux of activity. The sounds of the wood began to go on as if they had never ceased. Ma'agda swiftly opened her eyes to the full.

"Lazarus has faced mutiny." The girl stated; the Alliance leaders' name as slime on her tongue.

"Azul convinced eight members of your innocence," Ma'agda turned to look at Sha'ara. Eyes lit up and an exultant grin spread like fire across her face.

Her heart gave an enthusiastic thump-thump-thump at this news, but knew there must be more. Her hand gestured for Ma'agda to continue.

"They fought. Unsurprisingly, they won. But Lazarus, the foul son of a serpent that he is," she spat, "had other tricks up his sleeve; he overcame the weaker members with dark magic and wiped them out."

Sha'ara took in what her friend spoke. "So what is the state of the Alliance now, and where is Azul; is he alright?"

Ma'agda took a deep breath, "Lazarus has with him only two of the original members." She gasped suddenly. "Also, they no longer have the Horn! It has been lost, or at least if someone has it, it isn't with the Alliance."

Bri'nna spoke up. "You forgot to mention Azul; where is he? Also, is there anything else you saw that we should know, or may be helpful?"

"Oh, yes...you see the reason I know what happened is because Azul is writing a letter. I'm not sure if he means to send it or...well he may have thought Sha'ara would see it in a vision. He did know about that, correct?"

Sha'ara nodded.

"Where are they now? The remaining members and Lazarus, I mean?" Ta'asha chimed in, her grey eyes sparkling from the flames.

"I can't tell where they are now, but he writes that they were a few miles north of the border between Sha'anae Doas and Bri'issa when Lazarus regrouped with the two remaining members." Ma'agda breathed in. "Azul goes on to mention that he has banded together the remaining mutineers into a resistance of some sort; there are five of them plus Azul. After having seen Lazarus dispatch four members with nary a thought they realized he was more than what he appeared to be, and that his Alliance was not in fact what he purported it to be."

The girl went on to relay news about the resistance; they had been following Lazarus for two days. They had looped back to the scene of the battle: apparently Lazarus wanted to find the Horn, but he would not find it Azul explained, because he had swiped it in the melee of the battle and kept it on his person under lock and key. At this news everyone sighed a cleansing, strengthening breathe. Ma'agda went on to explain that in the letter, Azul says that they are currently approximately thirty or so miles from the border and incidentally, Lyra Agua.

"This is good news!" Exclaimed Ta'asha, springy dark brown curls released themselves from their knot as she took a bite of her venison. "It means we can make it to the Shia'din before he even gets halfway. And now that there are only three of them...well we can easily deal with them. Only Lazarus may present a challenge as he is reasonably strong and has Dark on his side. We have Light, truth, and Yah'a'weh on our side! And some very powerful Shia'din as well."