The small army moved out and the score of soldiers along with the young guard and wizard remained. They took in the cover of forest and moved towards the ancestral siwayan mountains. The wizard gave the signal to stop after a brisk walk.
The young guard came hopping and said to the wizard in a friendly tone,"I have been meaning to talk and prepare some sort of plans beforehand". The wizard smiled and shook his hand firmly introducing himself . Riley said ," mountains are at least 7 miles north from here and then we have to travel 10 miles east. Considering we can move at 20 aevus a mile we will need to constantly move until dusk. It will provide us with needed time to rescue the princess. The outpost is 8 miles from there . We have enough time on our hands, I pray the princess does too". The wizard looks at the map carefully and asks the guard ,"what if we cut straight from here to the location of deadtomb. We can save time and energy. It will also increase the possibility of success , you know , in case they depart early or try to...er.... hurt her. " Riley asks in confusion ," how will we know where exactly the tomb is? We will have to sweep the whole forest after we reach a certain point, i.e. if you can guide us straight to the point where the location is present". Royce replies,"Don't worry we just need to follow the general direction. The tomb is said to be surrounded by a mysterious spell straying anyone away from it. If such a spell exists then mana would be flowing over a large area around it in order for it to work. I can heighten my senses to detect mana from a respectable distance . Such a large area won't go unnoticed". Riley says with a troubled look," if ,is a big word to rely on right now, but who will believe me in the capital if I said that we pursued the legendary assassin to the tomb of past and saved the princess from the the jaws of death itself". This brings an echo of laughter from the men looking at him with pitied expressions. He turns to face them and says to them loudly" but we are the soldiers of the glorious capital of this kingdom and we will, rain our wrath whether the demons or even if the gods stand between us and our mission to save the princess".Everyone instantly roared in unison. The soldiers were now booming with a wave of energy that was lost after the battle on the road. Their morale had suffered since they were not able to protect the king and the princess while many of them still fell in battle. Riley was clearly a great leader and strategist.His last mission of pursuing archers went well too. Going straight towards their required location the guard and wizard often talked and became good on terms with each other. The wizard got to know that riley's father was very close to the royal family .His grandfather served under the previous king,( darian's father or the present king's father) and climbed up the ranks to become his personal royal bodyguard. His dad was a senior pupil of the swordmaster who taught the present king and hence they both became sworn brothers since their childhoods. The seats were passed down to them eventually. Riley also told the wizard that he was educated in history,war strategies and the ways of combat. He was a decent fighter with versatile weapon skill but was fearsome with the spear.After a couple of hours they stopped by a stream to recover some endurance and to have a brief meal to restore some energy. They shared whatever they had . Royce told riley that he came from a different place very far away and reached these lands by magic. Riley was curious about what the wizard wanted so he asked him directly," What is your motive royce, I mean that in a good sense like why do you want to risk your life for people who you barely know?"
Royce replied with a spark in his eyes," because I like it. I would even help a foe if it were for a noble purpose. Cutting to the chase, I have powers and I want to use it to save the good in this world.You know ,help people who don't have anyone else to help them. Redefine the values of life. Be the light".
But the most important thing, to keep a promise to a close one. When the wizard looks up to the guard , he sees him smiling broadly," to be honest royce, I was pretty concerned because of your presence. But now my doubts have totally faded." royce asks in confusion ,"what did you think before?"
He replies sheepishly," well as a captain of guard I have to account in all possibilities. I was thinking that you might as well be an assassin. This is what they do, show that they are trustworthy to get under your guard. When you let down your walls for even a second they hop in , make the kill either feigning innocence and blaming it on someone else or fleeing away .If someone can hire the legendary assassin then hiring another powerful wizard would not be impossible for them." Rather than being angry this made the wizard go speechless as he was really amazed by the intelligence factor of the young guard. The wizard tried to get up to embrace the guard but fell down in the attempt. As he fell down he realized that he was still quite injured from his previous skirmishes. He was already compressing his pain while they walked in the previous hour . Little did he know that compressing gave you time but would make things worse thereafter. Riley and the other soldiers helped him to sit in a leaning position on a nearby stump. Riley starts to look for obvious wounds but only ends with the scar on the right side of royces' forehead which had already stopped bleeding. He asked the wizard about the problem. Royce says," its the ribs , my armour was still taking effect when the barbarian struck after getting out from the bolts I hit him with. I was not expecting that and let my guard down. You were not there but it was a close fight. He got me pretty bad.I had suppressed the pain but it surfaced again. Its unbearable now." Riley asks with a tensed look," we can't do this without you, get the hell up. Do some healing I saw you doing earlier on that ruffian." The wizard was low on mana since whatever he had left he used it while the walk to sense for any dangers that might had been lurking. There was a possibility that if zeal thought that they would make past the barbarian wave then he definitely must have set up traps or an ambush. His tag was not just a name.....The wizard looked at the last kerylium rod and thought hard : what now?