The Sellswords

Piper heard the elf Thomas say from next to her, "We should go look for him."

"Where?" she asked, looking at him.

"Hey, don't let the princess hear," he said. His lips didn't move though. Piper stared at him. "Go," she heard in her head. "I will follow." Piper was confused but she pushed that aside and jumped of her still horse and drew her sword. Thomas was soon behind her as they proceeded back tracking to find Cedrick. Thomas gave a look to Lennel to stay with the princesses. He nodded.

"How are you doing that?" Piper asked him as they jogged back.

"You- you mean you can't speak?" Thomas asked. "Oh, wait. You're the one who was raised by a clan of humans, right?"

"Uh, yes," Piper said.

Just then, they heard the clang of steel. They both ran to find Cedrick sword to sword with the last standing of what used to be three concious mercenaries. Piper sprinted ahead of Thomas and took the man by surprise. She threw him off balance with a stong upward thrust aganist his sword. He stumbled backwards, and seeing himself out numbered, he turned and ran back down a path.

"Let him go," Cedrick said sweating, a cut slowly bleeding on his shoulder. "He will go back to Smith."

"Come on," Piper said. "You need that bandaged," she referred to his shoulder.

Cedrick mounted his horse again and he and the two elves quickly returned to Lennel and the princesses.

This is ridiculous, how can they already have penetrated the secrecy of our escape? Thomas roared to himself. Piper gave him a look that told him that even if she had not grasped his words, she sensed his mood.

It had been too long since he had been around other elves, he'd have to learn to shield his thoughts again.

Cedrick had ridden ahead to catch up with the main group, and so Thomas judged this the perfect moment to continue the conversation he had almost had with Piper earlier.

He broke the companionable silence they shared as they jogged ran, "I too was raised by humans, but when the king learned I knew so little of my natural heritage he sent me off to an elven community to learn, so that I might better serve him."

"Learn what? How did you speak to me without the princess hearing? And without moving your lips?"

Thomas paused, considering. "I'm no master of elf lore, but if you're to be part of this company it would make sense for you to learn these things. The others, the humans, don't understand and could never learn this, but it comes naturally to most of us."

Ahead of them the horses of the rest of the party came into sight.

Cedrick and the others returned. Lennel saw that he had been injured.

"Satika, tend to Cedrick. Tell me what happened."

"A few of Smith's spies. One got away. Their leader had this letter." Cedrick said, handing it to Lennel. He read it quickly.

"This is good. If they're part of a spy party, then they haven't infiltrated us yet."

"They're still tracking us though," Thomas said.

"There's not many ways to keep that from happening. They're aren't many roads and Smith knows most of our tricks. If he's smart, he'll have a team of killers with each spy group," Lennel said.

"So the one that got away will alert the others and set up an ambush?" Piper said.

"Probably." Lennel said.

"What are we going to do about it?" Cara said.

"We'll hit them first. We locate the killer camp, then we strike them at night. If we scatter their horses and burn their camp they'll be unable to track us for days, even weeks. So much more the case if we kill a good number of them. We'll have to scout them first, but there are only a few likely spots," Lennel said.

With that, Lennel pulled out his maps and began marking likely locations.

Dent:

"Mr. Lennel, sir. These enemy camps do they happen to have a leader by chance? If so, I ask your permission to kill him. I will locate him myself, but I want to kill him too." Dent desperately wanted this. His voice told everyone around him of his Passion for the kill.

"I do not know if they have a leader or not, but the hit would be too dangerous for any one man alone." Lennel attempted to reason with Dent.

"I have asked for permission once and do not intend on asking again. So you tell me where the camp is and I am killing a leader, with permission or not." Dent was no longer stepping out of line, he was running past it.

Dent continued to stand along side lennel until he finally found where the enemy put their camp, and he took off to the east in full sprint.

Cedrick sighed, "I'll chase after, make sure he doesn't kill himself."

"Okay, just be careful."

"I will." It didn't take him very long to catch up to him.

"Why are you here?"

"To make sure you don't get yourself killed."

"maybe, maybe not. I'll respect your space and I'll let you have the leader, just don't over do it. I want information."

"What, on Smith? How do you know him?"

"Story for another time. I have to trust you more first, and this may just give us that chance."

Dent:

"Just to let you know Cedrick, if you fall behind you get left behind. Understood? Dent obviously did not like the fact he know had a tail gater slowing him down. "If you interfer in the kill, you will also be killed. finally if our cover is blown, do not hesitate to kill... extras."

With a half smile, Dent placed his hand out to Cedrick for a terms agreement. "By the way, I don't trust you either." To Dent, this would complete the conversation: he hoped another didn't arise.

Cedrick took his hand, "I don't hesitate, and we'll he who gets left behind." He took off at a fast pace with Dent less than a step behind.

Lennel had taken flight to find the nearest attack camp and now he led the group on foot towards the enemy camp. Dent and Cedrick had gone forward to scout the area. The plan was fairly simple: they were to observe the camp for 15 minutes. This would give the group time to catch up and position themselves to attack.

Lennel had given them their instructions, but he didn't know if Dent would follow them.

If he doesn't, he's on his own. Lennel thought. He only hoped that Cedrick would have the good sense to get the heck out of the way if things went wrong. Finally, Lennel signaled the group to stop.

"The enemy is on the other side of this hill. Satika," Lennel called the healer.

"Yes sir?"

"We're going to go forward and attack the camp. I want you and your apprentice to stay behind us with the horses. Engage at range, avoid close quarter contact."

"Yes sir!"

"Your Majesties, I recommend a similar course of action for you and your bodyguard. They're after your head, it is better not to show it."

"Alejandro, Piper, you're with me. We don't know how many of them are there, so be prepared. No war cries, just kill and move on. Is there any questions?" There were none.

"Then good luck. Hand signals from now on." With that, the group started to crawl over the ridge.

The camp had five tents arranged in a circle around a camp fire. One of them on the far side looked more stately. That was probably where the leader was. Cedrick and Dent were probably there.

There were two sentries on either side of the circle and around the campfire were eight men. One guarded the horses in a small meadow, the other looked towards the forest. All of them were within three seconds of their weapons. Lennel took a deep breath. This wouldn't be easy.

Dent:
Dent edged closer and closer to the target tent. His plan was within his broad orders. Well, they were broad to Dent. Cedrick tapped Dent on the shoulder and gave a don't do anything stupid look that Dent ,of course, ignored. Dent drew his short blade and cut the back ground rope of the tent. Him and Cedrick slide silently under the now loose back curtain. Two men slept in the bunks. One well armored and they other in fine robes. Cedrick eased over to the robed figure. Dent held his short blade in assassination form. He rammed the blade through the mans forehead and into his pillow. The targets eyes opened and his breathing ceased. The only sign of movement was a slight twitch of the mans left foot. Cedrick tied blindfolded and shoved a cloth in the others throat. Dent had no idea why.

"It's Smith." Cedrick mouthed

"Who is smith?" Dent mouthed back

Cedrick turned to the back now flapping lightly in the night breeze, and Rolled out of the tent with Smith in custody.

Dent did the next logical thing he could think of, He dove out to meet the guards to let them know how poor a job they were doing. Most were too surprised to see a man in blood drenched white robes come from the leader tent. Dent quickly disposed of the closest one to him with a blade through the chest.

The other guard armed themselves and prepared for a fight.

"I could do this the fun way or the easy way." Dent taunted them

"Put down your weapon!" one barked

"That's not very nice. I am really fond of this blade. Made it myself you know." Dent couldn't resist. "Well may as well let the others have some fun. Everyone meet the guards!" Dent yelled to spark a small clash.

No one came

"Well then, I wonder what I did to them." Dent wondered.

"Last chance!" another guard yelled.

"I thought I got three chances." some of the guard wondered about this for a moment. The one who had apparently taken control of the situation looked to the guard to his left. Dent took the opportunity to stab the man in the gut and wait for him to fall. "Who's next?" Dent called.

Suddenly the others came over the hill swords drawn and willing the battle on. "Guess I win." Dent said and charge with the others.

Hey, do you mind if I join?

Name - Jayne

Age - 20

Race - Human

Appearance - She has long brown hair which she keeps in a plait and quite pale skin. She has a scar in the shape of a cross across the left side of her nose and cheek. Her clothes are simple and are all green or brown because she specialises in spying and assasination.

History - She is a mercinary who was brought nearer to the royal family's tents because of her skills and she has been making sure that there are no holes in the protection around the royal family, so she is effectively testing their safety.

Weapons - Several daggers which she keeps on her person at all times.

**
Jayne crept around the edge of the perimeter. With everyone focussing on attacking the enemy camps they had left the royals almost unguarded. She stood up and sighed. Right now there was no point in trying get past the defences because there weren't any to get past.

She walked over to the side of the tent and sat cross-legged on the floor, waiting for the others to get back. It was odd that she knew about them, but they knew nothing about her.

~SishBee~
x

Cara-

Cara sat silently in a tree. She had snuck up there a few minutes ago carefully disquise herself so it would be hard to spot her. She saw her sister in the tree next to her. Maybe playing hide and seek did help in real life. They had snuck out, she hope Thomas wouldn't be to mad. She spotted the girl sitting in front of their tent and motioned towards her, her sister shrugged and Cara frowned, she hadn't seen her before. She ignored it and looked the battle field. She quickly climbed up higher and pulled out her bow and arrow. She aimed carefully killing a guard. She slowly loaded it again. She closed one eye and looked down the arrow looking towards the next guard. She let the arrow fly and smiled as she saw him fall. She notched the next arrow and waited for another chance to fire it.



**Sorry all I had**

Things were getting out of control.

In times of peace the king had a personal guard of thirty men, at the moment Kaiya and Cara shared Thomas, and both princesses seemed intent on throwing themselves into danger again and again.

He had abandoned the horses as soon as it was clear that the princesses had decided to play at heroes; and followed them toward the fight. AS he ran over the hill, Thomas saw the camp ablaze with firelight, as the guards searched for their attackers.

The young human mercenary, Dent, was crossing blades with a group of guards and seemed to have been poushed onto the defensive. He was probably only still alive because of the element of surprise.

It was perhaps only because he had topped the hill so near their current location that Thomas saw the princesses ensconced oin the trees, completely invisible to the fighters below. The royals were safe for the moment.

Seeing Dent forced back into the tent by the blades of three guards and their other comrades no-where to be seen, Thomas unsheathed his hand-and-a-half sword from his left hip and ran down the hill.

****Im gonna be gone for a while, keep me alive.****

[Jayne]

Jayne had spotted the two princesses up in the trees and shrugged. They were safe and as long as they didn't fall they would remain un harmed.

The guards were too busy fighting to notice that they were being picked off by arrows which seemed to come from nowhere.

She stood up and crept around the tents making sure no one had got too close. She spotted a guard running back up the hill. She pulled a small dagger out of her belt and threw it. It hit him squarely between the shoulders and he fell face down.

Walking over to the body she pulled the dagger out of him and wiped it on the grass before re-sheathing it. She spotted the guard called Thomas running into a tent, sword drawn.

She shrugged and pulled out two long knives as she ran into the tent after him.

Thomas and Dent stood breathing heavily with three guards dead at their feet. They spun round as she entered and went to attack her just as another guard ran in and she stepped back and stabbed him.

"It's alright, I'm with you guys!" She shouted at them as she ran back outside.

~SishBee~
x

i dont know if ive already sadi this but ive got to drop out...im lost..again