Since Helena's plan was to become the new chief she was probably out to kill Reina if she wasn't here. The path of the usurper was a bloody one.
I stored all the ropes in my separate space and removed the club the cloth from the chief's mouth. She took a deep breath but didn't utter a word. Apart from her saliva, the cloth was also soaked in a green, foul liquid. Based on the smell and the chief's silence it was probably soaked in an extract of tonal stillness herbs. She wouldn't regain her voice without taking some miracle brews.
She clambered to her feet, one of the side effects of tonal stillness extracts was the resulting feebleness of the consumer, and stumbled into the direction of the camp. She barely managed to keep her balance a few times and I judged that she would sooner end up falling into a random ditch rather than reaching the camp in her condition.
Her presence would definitely be useful and since I had already antagonized Helena I might as well go all the way. I picked up the chief without minding her weak attempts to struggle out of my arms and ran back to the camp.
I didn't want to waste time going through the chief's tent and went around. Just when I came to the front of the tent I heard Irene yell from one of the tents.
"We are under attack! To your weapons!"
A bang could be heard from the same tent and Helena retreated out of it. Irene came charging after her, spear in hand and furry in her eyes. I noticed an iron shield on Helena's right arm due to the slight magic waves it gave off.
I couldn't be sure but I assumed this to be a unique (grade 3) weapon. One grade above Irene's rare (grade 2) spear.
"Why did you poison Reina?! Do you intend to betray the tribe?"
"Dearest Irene, you may be the strongest warrior in the tribe but you understand nothing of politics. I would never betray the tribe, I am saving the tribe. Diana's narrow views will be the downfall of us! We need to take over the other tribes if we want to survive."
"And to do that you poison Reina?!"
"I can't let her stand in my way. If the shaman decided to make Reina the new chief all my hard work would be wasted so she has to die."
"I will strike you down right where you stand!"
"I doubt that. You may be the strongest warrior Irene but you don't use your mind!"
Irene lunged forward and thrust out her spear. Moments before her spear met Helena's shield Irene shifted her weight, jumped, and changed the direction of her thrust. Based on the angle and proximity it was impossible for Helena to block this.
At least if her weapon had been of a lower grade. The shield moved by itself and dragged Helena's arm along. With a clang, the bone spear impacted on the shield and harmlessly bounced back. Irene took a step back, her eyes filled with confusion at her failed attack.
She didn't remain confused for long and launched a series of quick stabs at Helena. Once again the shield magically blocked them all. The shield's unique ability seemed to be a homing defense. Not a very useful ability. It was only useful to fighters on a slightly superhuman level and the opponent couldn't be much stronger than the user.
Irene, unfortunately, perfectly fulfilled these conditions and was thus completely helpless against Helena. Her inability to get past her opponent's defense was driving Irene mad. She charged at the shield like an enraged bull and stabbed straight at it.
The bone spear had crashed against the shield numerous times and showed clear cracks. Now, with this last impact, the brute force behind the thrust was too much for it and its structural integrity collapsed. Irene had shock written all over her face as the spear shattered. This was the ancestral weapon of the tribe, it shouldn't ever break.
By now many of the tribe's warriors had appeared and formed a circle around Irene and Helena. They only had a rough grasp of what happened but didn't interfere.
"Do you see now? I am destined to become the new chief and lead our tribe to prosperity. Join me, Reina and Diana are already gone and I am the tribe's only future!"
An audacious lie if I ever heard one. Helena's shield was definitely not made by herself or anyone from within the tribe. In conclusion, someone was supporting her from behind the scenes. Whoever that was had access to a higher level of technology and magic.
The one million dollar question now was why would they support the arrogant Helena and not the level-headed Diana?
My guess was that they weren't actually interested in supporting Helena. Instead, they sought to sow discord among the individual tribes to weaken them. If they assisted multiple tribes they could wait until all of them were at their lowest and them sweep in to conquer them all.
Just one thing irked me. Why would someone who could make unique (grade 3) weapons and afford to give them away need to weaken tribes that were clearly unable to put up much resistance? Did the tribes hide some kind of trump card that scared this mysterious manipulator?
Anyways, enough brooding and more stopping Helena. Irene looked like she was seriously considering joining Helena so I gave a cough to get everyone's attention.
"I don't know about Reina but your sister is alive and mostly well. Apart from her voice that you ruined, she is nowhere near dead. Also what's so great about having a unique shield with a crappy ability?"
All the women present snapped their heads around and looked at the chief held in my arms. Despite her weakened body the chief still managed to give Helena a cold glare that made some of the warriors present begin to shiver like they were plunged into a glacial pit.
If the chief had truly been dead it would have been fine for them to simply watch the fight between Helena and Irene. However, since the chief was still alive their actions could very well be viewed as treason.
The warriors surrounding Helena hurriedly raised their bone spears at her. Helena became a little nervous, she seemed to know the shield's limitations and that she couldn't win against more than twenty warriors on her own.
To make things worse, the warriors she had already recruited for her cause were nowhere to be seen. She would have to get out of this by herself.
"Are all of you fools? She has lost her voice and is clearly weakened. What can happen to you if I kill her now? If you take me down you will still be punished for treason."
The warriors halted their steps and exchanged glances with one another. They weren't willing to follow a weakened chief.