Neverquest – Part 155

Characters: Lucilla, Kim, Roxanne, Queen Isabella, Isaac, Mundo, Michelle, Cara, Fallon
Location: An alley behind the streets of Felwinter
Time: Day 5—Late afternoon

Lucilla’s sword and Roxanne’s axe clashed under the red sun. For a brief moment, they were locked in a stalemate, each pushing against the other as sweat poured from their brows. They had been in combat for at least ten minutes now.

“Hope is a lost cause,” Roxanne growled. “Ever since I met you, I’ve wanted to break you and everything you stand for.”

“The feeling is mutual, Dark Child.”

“Then let’s have our final dance.” Quickly sliding her fingers down the length of the axe handle, Roxanne stepped back and swung for the Paladin’s knees.

Lucilla couldn’t move out of the way in time, so she reached up with her free hand, grabbed one of the spikes in Roxanne’s shoulder plate, and pulled herself forward. The force of Roxanne’s arm kept her ahead of the attack and propelled her around the spike like a pivot, where she ended up back-to-back with the Black Knight.

“You’re lost without the Necro,” Lucilla said. “You can’t beat me in a fair fight.”

“Who said I was going to fight fair?” Howling like a banshee, Roxanne raised her elbows and smashed them into Lucilla’s sides. Two loud cracks rang out and one burst from Lucilla’s lips. Roxanne threw her weight down again and Lucilla’s breastplate caved in from both sides.

Lucilla stumbled back.

“You may be a Woman,” Roxanne said, grabbing Lucilla and throwing her against the wall. “But I can still crush you like a Man.”

Lucilla saw the wall coming and lifted her leg. Her iron sole collided with the bricks and she pushed off, doing a backflip and a twist that landed her in front of Roxanne, glowering.

“And you fight like a Man,” she said.

Roxanne came at her again. Their weapons sparked in the air. Back and forth, following in step like a twisted ballet routine, they fought, metal against metal, soldier against soldier.

Isabella watched them, laughing and clapping, and then moved over a barrel of apples along the side of the alley.

“Hm,” she said, glancing down just as Lucilla was hurled against the bricks again. “I like fruit.”

Roxanne threw such a powerful punch at Lucilla that her whole body was sent spiraling forward. Lucilla ducked just in time. Roxanne’s fist smashed through the wall, causing chunks of mortar and stone to rain down.

“Peasant!” Isabella called out, gesturing to some no-name in the crowd. “Come over here.”

“Me?” came the humble reply.

“Are there any other peasants here?”

Fortunately, the peasant wasn’t as much of a smartass as ninety-five percent of the other Women in Ellewyn and quickly obeyed.

“I am at your service, Princess Isabella,” she said.

Isabella grimaced at the very sight of her. “You dress even worse than my cousin Olivia. You’d never make it as one of my servants.”

“But I am a butcher, Your Hi—”

“Your words bore me.” Isabella yawned and picked up an apple from the barrel. “I wish to consume this fruit.”

The butcher looked at the princess and then at the soft, red apple in her hand. “Do…you want me to chew it for you?”

With a princess like Isabella, it was no wonder ninety-five percent of Ellewyn Women were smartasses.

“I’d sooner polish my own shoes,” Isabella said. Then she stuffed the apple into the butcher’s hands. “No, you ignorant twit—I want to be sure the fruit isn’t poisonous. Or full of worms.”

“Um…of course, Your Highness.”

The butcher tried to ignore the fighting going on behind her, which now consisted of Roxanne spinning Lucilla over her head, and sank her teeth into the apple. It was crunchy, juicy, and maybe a little stale…but certainly not poisonous.

“It’s delicious,” she said, handing the apple back to Isabella.

Isabella held the apple from a distance between her forefinger and thumb, wrinkled her nose, and chucked it at the butcher’s head. “Gross! I’m not eating that after it’s been in your filthy mouth.”

“But Your Highness—”

“Here.” Isabella took another apple from the barrel. “Make sure this one isn’t poisonous.”

The butcher had a welt on her head from where the apple had hit her, so she took this one much more carefully and studied it for a moment.

Meanwhile, Roxanne was jumping up and down on Lucilla’s back.

“Let’s go, peasant,” Isabella hissed, tapping her foot. “Or maybe I should replace you with somebody more capable of eating a piece of fruit.”

Slowly, the butcher bit into the top of the apple, peeling only a small layer of skin away. She chewed delicately, swallowed, and held out her hand out. The apple had hardly been touched.

“It is not poisoned, Your Highness,” she said.

Again, Isabella wrinkled her nose and swatted the tainted fruit away. “Peasant! I told you already—I am not eating something that’s been touched by something as ugly and unclean as you.”

“Perhaps someone else then…”

“No.” Isabella grabbed another apple. “This is your last chance. Test this apple or it’s off with your head!” Then she turned over. “AND FOR THE GODDESS’ SAKE, BLACK KNIGHT, STOP MAKING SO MUCH NOISE!”

But not even the sound of Lucilla’s armor breaking under Roxanne’s boot could outdo Isabella’s voice. It was enough to make the whole crowd go deaf.

“Sorry, milady,” Roxanne said, in the midst of twisting Lucilla’s leg over her head.

“That’s better.” Isabella turned to the butcher. And even though the butcher was quite a bit taller than her, like most Women, it still seemed like Isabella was looking down at her. “Now, my apple or your life, peasant.”

“O…kay…” said the butcher. This time, she took the apple, bit off the biggest chunk she could, and threw the core to the ground.

“Pick that up!” Isabella screamed.

But the butcher was on the ground next to the apple, faking her own death.

“Poison!” she cried. “It was poisoned, Your Highness!” She clutched her stomach and closed her eyes, hoping the princess would believe her act. “Oh, the horror! The horror!” Falling onto her side, she twitched once more and then stopped moving. “…Now, I am dead.”

The crowd was hushed. Then, with her lips quivering, Isabella finally broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.

“The goddess has punished you for your incompetence,” she said. “Silly peasant, now you can only eat dirt! Maybe you can learn how to do that right as you rot beneath my feet.” Then she laughed some more.

The butcher opened one eye, peeked up at her, and shook her head.

In Ellewyn, people had learned to sacrifice their self-respect for their safety.

When she was done laughing—but still smiling—Isabella hopped onto the barrel, put one leg over the other, and waved her hand at Roxanne. “You may continue your mindless brawl now.”

The Black Knight bowed her head. “Thank you, milady.” Then she drove her elbow into the back of Lucilla’s throat and flipped her over. The Paladin’s face was masked with blood.

“You’re not looking so well, hot stuff,” Roxanne said, leaning closer. “Mind if I have a drink?”

“No! Enough of this. It’s over, Roxanne!”

“Hm. I recognize that squeaky voice.” Roxanne twisted her head around and there was Kim, standing by the wall, her bow nocked, and a sharpened arrow aimed straight for the space between Roxanne’s eyes.

Isabella was steaming. “What idiot let her in my courtroom without disarming her first?” She threw an apple at Kim, but it fell short. Then she chucked an apple at Lucilla. “I bet it was you, Lucy.”

Roxanne sneered at Kim. “What are you going to do? Are you going to shoot me?”

Kim said nothing, so Roxanne stepped off Lucilla and slowly edged closer to her.

“You can’t even hold your bow straight, you little geek,” she said. “I intimidate you. I always have.”

“If Siarra can stand up to you, so can I.”

“Siarra is afraid of me, too.”

“No, she’s not.” Kim pulled back the string on her bow. “And she’s right. It’s time to go home.”

“According to my watch, it’s time for you to die.”

Kim released her finger. The arrow whizzed through the air and passed straight through the hole created between Roxanne’s chest and her left arm.

“Ha!” Roxanne said. “You’re blind without those glasses of yours.”

But the crowd was in such awe that Roxanne had to turn around to see what they were all gasping about. Somehow, Kim had managed to land her arrow into the side of the apple that was now resting on Lucilla’s head—some forty yards away.

Kim reached into her quiver and pulled out another arrow. “This next one will hit its target, too, Roxanne. I’m not playing around.”

Roxanne scowled. “I’ll break you, Kim. I’ll break you.”

“You’ll have to break two of us!”

“Who said that?” Roxanne looked around. “…I am so sick of people showing up just as I’m about to do something awesome.” She scanned the crowd. Nobody was stepping forward. “Come on! I dare you to speak again. I’ll kill you all!”

“You couldn’t kill a fly if it was on the ground with no wings.”

“Who said that!?”

“Down here!”

All eyes fell to the ground. Standing before the barrel of apples, in all his muscle-filled glory, was the one, the only, the indisputable Isaac.

And behind him was Mundo, trying desperately to pull him back. But Isaac easily subdued him with a few quick jabs to the head and rolled him behind the barrel.

“A Man?” Roxanne laughed. It was the first time she had smiled in a long time.

The crowd roared with laughter—all except for Isabella, who shrieked at the sight of a Man so close to her, and quickly pulled her legs into the barrel.

“That’s right,” Isaac said, pulling out his axe, which was barely the size of a toothpick. “I’m a Man. And I’m standing by my Wo-man.”

“That is pretty gross how we have such similar pronunciations between our races,” someone in the crowd whispered.

“Shut up!” Isabella snapped. “Shut up, all of you, and get this hideous creature away from me before I catch some kind of black plague.”

“Black?” Isaac echoed. “Why does it always have to be ‘black’ with you people?”

“Eww! Get away from me.”

Kim lowered her bow. “Oh, Isaac…” She threw her arms down at her side and ran towards him. “You came for me!”

“No, babe.” Isaac held out his hand, but his face and axe were towards the Black Knight. “I came for her.” He then wrapped all ten fingers around the handle of his axe and squeezed them as if he were wringing out a sponge. Or somebody’s neck. “Roxanne, you bitch—you need to learn some respect. And I’m just the teacher for you.”

Isabella flung an apple down at him. “Go away.”

But Isaac easily sliced it in half while it was still falling. “Come on, Roxanne. Let’s see you take on two of us at once.”

Roxanne chuckled as Isaac and Kim stood side-by-side, lovers in arms, with their weapons raised.

“Please,” she said. “The two of you are hardly a challenge.”

It was about this time that Cara, having alerted the look-out patrol of Kim’s escape from trial, finally found the alleyway and hurried through the crowd. She was pushed around a little, but the seal of her royal armor quickly cleared a path for her.

When she got to the front, though, she froze. At least four Paladins—including Lucilla—were down and Roxanne had broken out of her chains.

She turned to Isabella. “Your Highness, what happened here?”

Fallon soon appeared behind her. She was equally in shock.

“Oh, Carly, you’re just in time,” Isabella said. “Your captain recently got a demotion, so I guess you’re in charge now.” She took a bite of an apple and moist juice dribbled from her lips. “Well, I’m in charge, but I guess you can carry Lucy away and lock her in the dungeon or something. Her face is more disgusting than usual.”

Cara fell to her knees before her captain. She reached out with one finger and touched the blood that was streamed across Lucilla’s face. It was still wet. Then she reached out, with both hands this time, and pulled Lucilla into her lap.

“Captain,” she cried. “Captain, what did they do to you!?”

Lucilla, breathing slowly, looked up at her, but she didn’t—or couldn’t—speak.

“She needs a Cleric!” Cara looked up with fear in her eyes and blood in her hair. “Please, we have to get her some help.”

Isabella ignored her. She was enjoying the new fight that was about to break out.

Panicking, Cara began stripping away Lucilla’s armor, starting with her breastplate, so she could breathe easier.

“I’ll get you help, captain,” she panted. “I’ll find you a Cleric. You’ll see. You’ll be okay.”

Lucilla’s eyes began to lose focus.

“No! Stay with me, captain. Talk to me.” Cara was in tears now and nobody around her seemed to care. “Tell me who did this to you.”

“…Black…” Lucilla coughed. Blood had entered her lungs. “Black…Knight…”

Cara seized the hilt of her sword, but her fingers were trembling. It took her two attempts to even pull the blade from its sheathe.

“I’ll take her in, captain,” she said. “I’ll take her in and kill her.”

No, Cara. You can’t beat her, Cara. She’s too strong for you, Cara. Those were all things Lucilla wanted to scream, but the words refused to come out.

How was Cara to know how futile it was to face off against the Black Knight? She’d be killed. One blow from Roxanne’s axe would split her body in two.

Lucilla reached for her hand, but Cara had already leveled her sword. She was going to lunge at the Black Knight from behind.

Gathering every ounce of strength that hadn’t been drained from her body, Lucilla pushed off on her elbows and grabbed Cara’s ankle.

It was the last thing Cara expected. She tripped, did a faceplant into the ground, and Lucilla wrestled for her sword.

“Lucy!” Isabella cried. The sudden struggle had caught her attention. “Paladins, stop her! She’s hurting Carly.”

The remaining Paladins tackled Lucilla, but it was probably overkill. Lucilla didn’t have the power to fight back. She landed on her side, still bleeding, and the Paladins forced her arms behind her back. There, they bound her wrists with rope, cutting deeply into the wounds that were already there.

But Lucilla had already lost all feeling in her arms.

“Are you okay?” Fallon asked, kneeling before Cara.

Cara sat up, but blood was gushing from her nose. She was so confused that she barely saw the Paladins drag Lucilla over to the wall and throw her against like it like a sack of garbage.

“That will earn you another demotion, Lucy,” Isabella spat. “Attacking a fellow Paladin… If you don’t die now, I’ll make sure my mother hangs you.”

Fallon touched Cara’s shoulder. “I’ll get you and your captain the best Cleric I know. Just wait here.”

Cara nodded numbly as Fallon stepped past her. Her eyes ended up on her hands, which were mopped with blood and her fingers were still shaking.

Meanwhile, Kim and Isaac were still looking up at Roxanne.

“So this is it…” Kim said. “You really won’t listen to common sense, Roxanne.”

Roxanne’s face was blank.

“We still won’t stand down.”

“…You will lose.”

“Try us, bitch,” Isaac said. “I’ve always looked forward to the day I get to kick your huge emo ass.”

Kim planted her feet on either side of him and readied her bow. She had a perfect sight on Roxanne. “You will find our love a little harder to break then mere bones.”

“…We all have a breaking point,” the Black Knight said. “Tell me, lovers—are you prepared to see yours?”

But they stood their ground against her. And as the sun began to set, the sky was about to become a much darker shade of red.