Damsel in Distress- an excerpt from A Redemption: The Legend of Tscon Lightbringer Book One

Dawn came early the next morning. Tscon had slept very little, owing his wakefulness to Dach's endless snoring. He was actually somewhat grateful for his lack of sleep; the nightmare he'd recently experienced was still fresh in his mind. As the sun rose above the horizon, Dach's snoring finally ceased. They got up, gathered their weapons and made their way down the stairs. Vetse was already waiting on them. As Tscon and his guard reached the bottom floor, Vetse handed them each a few small pieces of dried beef.

"Here's something for breakfast, you can eat on the way. We need to get going."

They walked outside, and started north. The forest was still wet, morning dew covering everything. The sweet smell of summer foliage wafted through the forest, and sunlight came beaming in through the trees. After walking for a while, Vetse asked a few questions that had been on his mind.

"So Tscon, how did you end up this far to the west? You seem like a pretty smart guy, so you must have known what kind of reception you'd get if you were found out here in the empire. So what gives, and don't just make something up, tell us the truth."

Tscon thought about what and how much he should tell his new friends. They both seemed like good people, even Vetse, though he was a bit bossy. Still, he decided to be basic in his information, just staying with the general facts.

"Well, I had to leave after there was an, 'incident' in a small village. I wasn't guilty of a crime or anything, the local sheriff's and magistrates weren't looking for me, but the Order had some questions. Questions I just wasn't ready to answer yet. I'm still not."

Tscon detested lying, and even though what he was telling them was essentially the truth, he was bending that truth quite a bit. The heavy sadness he'd lived with for nearly a decade began to creep back into his mind.

"Running away from your past, ey ?" Vetse interrupted, "Well that's not very monk-like. Heh, what happened, you kill somebody you weren't supposed to?”

Vetse had no idea how much his words were stinging Tscon. The memory of what had happened over ten years ago was coming back to haunt him, not that it had ever really left. But Vetse' questions were bringing the memories back too quickly, and Tscon could feel the sadness and guilt of what had happened begin to cover his heart. The questions were becoming too painful now.

"I can't talk about it," Tscon said. He was looking sad and forlorn now. Vetse began to push the matter further, but when he turned his head to look at Tscon and saw the expression on his face, he decided to let the matter go, for now.

"Well fine, have it your way," Vetse said, "As for me and Dach, we've been friends for a while now, ey Dach?”

Dach gave out a short but enthusiastic "Ya".

"We were both accepted into the warrior’s guild pretty young," Vetse continued, "and I've loved the axe since the first time I laid eyes on it. When I picked this one out, everyone laughed since it was taller than I was. But I didn't care. And I've learned to use it pretty well, huh Dach?”

Dach gave another "Ya".

Vetse looked over at his tall friend, who was a good fifteen feet ahead of them now, and shook his head.

"Anyway, we finished with our training like three years ago. And ever since then we've been waiting to get put on our first assignment. So when we finally get one what do you think it is, why it's a babysitting mission. Take a couple a condemned prisoners on a hopeless mission and make sure they don't run off, and then bring them back if they somehow succeed."

Vetse suddenly realized he may have said too much, and looked back at Tscon. Tscon acted like he hadn't noticed the reference to a 'hopeless' mission, not that it would have made any difference anyway. Tscon already knew the sage's had sent him on a suicide run. They chose him because he might be able to pull it off, and if he didn't they wouldn't lose anything. The fact that both of these warriors would also be killed if he failed probably didn't bother the sages much, if they had given it any thought at all.

Suddenly Dach stopped, and was looking around. Vetse walked up next to him, but most of the forest fauna was obscuring his vision. Tscon suddenly felt like he was being watched. He tried to concentrate, and tune his instincts to the environment around him. Then Tscon leaned his staff forward, and put it right in front of Dach's face. A second later an arrow flew into the staff from somewhere in front of them.

They all three immediately went down, kneeling as low to the ground as they could get. Tscon grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his staff, then he noticed both of the men staring at him. Vetse started to say something, but Tscon shook his head. He looked at Vetse, and tapped his own ear. They heard no sounds at all for several minutes; suddenly a voice came at them from somewhere ahead.

"Ahh, hello. Sorry about that. Didn't see you there. Don't worry it's ok, you can come out. We're the Destry boys, no doubt you've heard of us. This is kind of our part of the woods, and we don't usually suffer any trespassers. But, since I'm sure you didn't mean to come on to our land uninvited, we'll just take a small toll from you and let you be on your way."

They hadn't heard of the Destry boys, but Tscon assumed they must be the bandits the innkeeper had spoken of. Tscon leaned over close to Vetse, and whispered in his ear.

"I can hear them moving around; they're trying to surround us. All of them are armed with bows. But they're not sure where we are or they would have killed us by now. I'll crawl forward a bit, and stand up to distract them. Then you and Dach find the guys on either side of us and take them out."

Vetse started to object, probably to remind Tscon that he was the leader of this little expedition. But when he saw the look in Tscon's eye, he held his tongue and just nodded. Tscon leaned his head down, and started forward on his belly. He noticed Vetse looking in Dach's direction and making some strange hand gestures.

Tscon crept forward for at least twenty yards. Then he heard a faint sound of shuffling footsteps. He guessed the bandits were no more than ten or fifteen feet ahead of him now, and that it was time to make his appearance. He gripped his staff tight and stood straight up.

Just as he'd guessed, as soon as his head popped out from between the dense forest plants, arrows came whizzing at him from all directions. He looked forward, to see the startled looks on the two men's faces that were standing in front of him. Tscon never turned his body, or his head. He twirled his staff around him to deflect or catch every single arrow that came his way. After the first volley of arrows came flying in, Tscon heard two loud shouts and the sounds of heavy leather boots charging through the forest. Anguished cries soon followed, but Tscon's gaze never left the two men standing in front of him. One of them, a tall skinny man, was looking right and left, behind Tscon, trying desperately to see what was happening. The other one was returning Tscon's gaze. He was a head shorter than the other man, with an unkempt beard, and a small, evil grin could be seen on his face. Suddenly the crashing and shouting behind Tscon died down, and the two men in front of him suddenly turned and ran back into the forest. Tscon heard hurried footsteps from behind him, and then Vetse' voice.

"Come on hurry up, they're just ahead of us, we can still catch up to them."

He started to run ahead, but Tscon put his staff in front of Vetse, holding him back. Vetse turned around; looking annoyed and started to say something, when Tscon cut him off.

"Suppose you lived in these woods, robbing people, and in between thievery you had a long time to yourself out here. Would you just lie on the ground, looking at the trees, or would you set about making this a safe place for yourself, by putting up all manner of traps and devices, just in case your men were defeated in battle."

Vetse started to respond sarcastically to that, and then stopped. He looked around a minute, then back at Tscon.

"Ok your right, now what?”

"We go carefully forward," Tscon said, "following their footprints. They were in a hurry so they didn't have time to cover their tracks. We shouldn't have to be rangers to see which way they went. And offhand, I'd say if anyone knows where an old keep in these woods is, it'd be them."

Vetse seemed pleased with this little bit of wisdom, and nodded his head in agreement. He looked up at Dach, and then leaned his head forward.

"Keep an eye out for those bandits, big guy. I'll be checking the forest floor for, traps and devices. Tscon, you keep us on the right trail."

Tscon had no problem seeing which way the bandits had gone, simply following the trail of mashed plants and broken branches. It wasn't long before they found one of the bandits traps, a kind of snare connected to a nearby tree. The line of the snare was made out of some kind of vine with nasty looking thorns on it, certain to dig into the ankle or leg of whatever unfortunate victim happened to walk into it. They shook their heads at the apparent cruelty of these forest brigands, and continued creeping slowly forward. After passing safely through a few more equally devious traps, Tscon stopped and knelt low to the ground. Vetse and Dach followed. He tapped his ear again, and they all listened. At first, they didn't hear anything, and then the sound of a shifting foot, close by, came to them. Tscon judged the bandits couldn't be more than a few feet ahead of them. He turned back to his companions, made a fist and then opened it quickly. The men looked at each other, then back at Tscon, and knew what he meant.

Tscon held up three fingers, then let one drop, then another. When the last finger dropped, Tscon rose quickly and let his staff fly like a javelin. Vetse and Dach leaped from their hiding places with fierce battle cries.

The bandits were taken completely by surprise. There were four of them, and when Tscon and the others leaped up, the men just stood there. Not that they had much time to react anyway. Tscon’s staff struck one full in the face before he had even risen all the way to his feet. Vetse jumped much farther than anyone seeing him would have thought such a small person could. In one leap and one step he closed the distance to the bandit nearest him and buried his axe right in the man's chest. Dach had gotten to the brigand nearest him even faster, his greatsword within easy reach of the man's neck. When their opponents had fallen, they looked around, but the fourth man seemed to have vanished.

Tscon picked up his staff, and looked around. It seemed they had found the old keep. What had obviously once been a good sized castle stood before them. It was so overgrown with trees and vines that it almost looked as if it had grown out of the forest with the rest of the plants. Many of the blocks that must have once made up the front of the keep had fallen off and were lying in various places all around them. Huge holes in the walls allowed the men to see inside the front rooms, although nothing could be seen in them save more forest debris, vines and small trees.

Although the castle had obviously at one time been large, most of it had crumbled apart, leaving huge stones scattered all over the area. Even so, there still seemed to be a large part of the old structure that was still partially intact. A large hole had formed somehow in the castle's wall just ahead of them, possibly from some kind of attack, ages ago.

They cautiously approached this opening, looking all around the room they were about to enter before stepping into it. The room itself was bare, save for the dried leaves and twigs that littered the floor. Finding nothing, they continued on through the castle, carefully checking each room they entered for traps, or loose blocks, any hazard that might bar their way. They found no traps, perhaps the bandits never anticipated anyone getting this far in. It took them over an hour to look through all the rooms, but they found no bandits, and no treasure. They had found a staircase to what was once the second floor, but that part of the keep had fallen down, probably centuries earlier. After they had covered what they thought was the entire level, Vetse suddenly stopped and looked at Tscon with a doubtful eye. He wiped some sweat from his brow, looked around, and back at Tscon again.

"Well, I haven't seen any treasure yet, have you? I'm starting to think that maybe we've been hoodwinked by some sneaky villagers into getting rid of their bandit problem for them. What do you think?”

Tscon had to admit the same thought had begun to creep its way into his mind as well, but the girl at the inn, Donan, had seemed so sincere. Tscon was looking all around, trying to find anything that might seem unordinary or out of place. He was about to give up when he thought he may have just found what he was looking for. He walked over to what must have once been a wall sconce. It still had an old, rotten piece of wood in it. The wall it was bolted on seemed just as old as the other walls around it, but where the torch holder was, the stone seemed to be scratched, in an odd shaped pattern. As Tscon was studying the piece, he heard Vetse and Dach walk up behind him.

"Find something?" he heard Vetse say.

"I think so," Tscon replied, "Look at the stone here."

Vetse noticed it too, and began to knock on the wall with the head of his axe. Tscon reached up and turned the wall sconce on its side. A grinding sound suddenly came from a nearby room. The men all looked at one another, and slowly began to walk toward the sound, their weapons ready.

They made their way slowly into the next room, and looked at their new discovery. The stone floor had moved aside in the middle of the room, revealing a small stone stairway. It was dark underneath the floor, and they could not see where the stairs ended. Vetse stood up and began looking around for a piece of wood they could light as a torch.

Suddenly they heard a voice cry out in pain, and the sound of swords clashing. Tscon leaped down the hole, counting on his instincts to keep him safe. The floor was just a few feet down, and Tscon had to bend over to make his way toward the sounds of battle. As he went he heard another cry of anguish, and then the sound of swordplay stopped. Tscon could see a flickering light up ahead in the small tunnel, and he carefully made his way toward it. No sound was coming from the room now, but he could see the shadow of at least one person moving around. He approached the doorway to the room, and slowly peeked inside. On the ground, he saw two men, unmoving, with blood pooling up underneath them. Standing over them, wiping the blood off of the sword in her hand with a dirty rag, was a tall, dark haired woman.

Her clothes seemed ragged, but intact. She was six feet tall, slender build, and her long, black hair was curly. Her build was lithe, but powerful, and the way she held the sword in her hand suggested that it was not the first time she'd grasped such an instrument. After she was done cleaning her blade, she looked around the room, as if searching for something. Obviously not finding it, she started to walk toward the doorway, which Tscon was standing in now. When she saw him, she did not seem the least bit startled. She stopped, regarded him coolly for just a moment, and then spoke.

"Well, you’re not carrying a sword, is that stick supposed to be your weapon? I've seen rusty daggers that were scarier than that. Look I've got to get back to the village, so either get out of my way or get ready to die."

Tscon didn't move, taking in the strange beauty of this bawdy woman.

"You must be Naeid."

She was obviously taken aback by this, and she took another look at this stranger in front of her.

"How do you know my name? Speak quickly, I don't like it when people know my name and I don't know theirs."

Tscon was beginning to smile now, as he had finally unnerved this woman, who seemingly had nerves of steel. He was about to answer her when he heard booted footsteps approaching them. Naeid must have heard them too, as her hand gripped her sword tighter. Tscon spoke up quickly at that point to calm her.

"My name is Tscon, and this is Vetse." He nodded toward Vetse, who had just come running up behind him.

Vetse looked down at the dead bandits, then up at Naeid, standing over them, her sword in hand. He smiled brightly, both at what she had apparently done, and at her good looks. After looking at her for a few seconds more, he spoke.

"Heh, did you take these guys out by yourself. We were way back there when we heard the fighting. Nice work, what did you say your name was again?”

"It's Naeid, little man, don't ask me again." She turned her gaze to look back at Tscon, "And you still haven't told me how you knew my name."

"We were sent by your friend Donan, to rescue you. She said you had been kidnapped by some bandits and she was afraid for your life."

Tscon suddenly realized he had just let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. He could feel Vetse' gaze turn slowly up to face him.

"What? You mean that old man lied to us so we could rescue some girl? Who clearly doesn't even need rescuing? Wait a minute, did you know about this? "

Tscon hesitated for a moment, knowing the effect an honest answer was going to have on Vetse. But he decided to tell him the truth.

"Yes, I did. But I didn't actually lie about it. I told you there was a treasure in here, and if a person being held captive isn't a treasure to you, then I don't know what to say."

Vetse was clearly getting angrier by the second, and for a moment all he could do was stand there and fume. After a minute, he looked over at Naeid, then up at Tscon.

"When we get back to the village there's gonna be hell to pay for you.”

With that Vetse stomped off back down the corridor, and soon after Tscon could hear his booted feet walking up the staircase. After he left, Tscon took a step back and motioned down the corridor.

"We should probably get going; your friends and family are going to want to know you’re ok."

"What's with that little guy?" Naeid asked, apparently ignoring what Tscon had just said.

"O nothing, he apparently just misunderstood something I had told him earlier. It's no big deal. Shall we go?”

Again, Naeid acted as if Tscon weren't even speaking to her,

"He sounded like he was looking for treasure, and I guess I didn't fit the bill. Here, maybe this will make him happy."

Naeid bent down and pulled a necklace off one of the bandits, the very same one Tscon had looked eye to evil eye with earlier. It was made out of gold, and it had a perfectly round jewel inlaid into a gold setting. Tscon looked it over, and smiled. Naeid handed it to him.

"There wouldn't happen to be another one of these would there, because there are two of those guys up there, actually."

Naeid gave Tscon an annoyed glance, then walked over to a chest that Tscon hadn't noticed before. She opened the top and began rummaging through it. It apparently held some moldy old clothes, but Naeid soon stood up with something shiny in her hand. It was a sword hilt, made out of solid silver. It glowed as if it had just been polished. Tscon could see it had a huge gem attached to the base of the hilt. He suddenly wondered if this were part of some magical sword that had been disassembled. Naeid tossed it to him and asked, "Can we go now?”

As they emerged from the secret door in the floor, Tscon looked around and saw that neither Vetse nor Dach were around. He called their names, but got no answer. After a minute, he turned to Naeid,

"They've probably already gone back to the village. Don't worry I'll straighten everything out with them when we get back."

"I'm not worried." she replied. "Why, do I look worried?”

Indeed, she did not.