32. Reclaiming homelands

It didn't take long for the party to travel between The Bitterhead Inn and Craester Castle, but by the time they had reached their destination the sun had reached its highest point. Tired from the trip but brimming with energy for the battle of a lifetime, Amaris turned Golden Child so she could face those who came with her.

"Today is a great day." She declared. "Today is the day when all previous sentiments between Werewolves and Vampires die, for we are no longer two separate identities, but one. Today is the day when we forsake our titles of Werewolves and Vampires and become Acadians!" She turned back to face the castle. "Charge!"

It was as if all of the anger and hate from both races had reached boiling point, and started bubbling over. The entire army moved at once, as of they were one person, one wave, one entity. One nation, Amaris realized as she cantered towards the main gate. The werewolves posted there raise their weapons.

"You have two options." Amaris said clearly. "You can either take the money of traitors and die as one of them, or you can surrender and live, becoming a member of the new Acad."

Ivailo heaved himself up over the wall and secured the climbing rope so that it wouldn't give the others as many problems as it had given him. Climbing this wall had been hard, harder than he had expected.

"Right, Rinomve, you can come up now!" He called down.

"Coming!" Rinomve called back, grabbing hold of the rope and testing it. Finding it secure, the soon to be King of Thoasia scaled the wall with considerably less difficulty than Ivailo had encountered. "Right, Falael, you can come up now." He called down to his best friend. Falael tested the ropes.

It wasn't long before all four of them were on top of the wall.

"Why are there no guards?" Kafei asked, looking around. "It looks deserted."

"That's because it is." Ivailo realized. "Either we fought them both within and outside the city walls, or they abandoned their posts."

"Or both." Rinomve pointed out. "Most of the guards are supposed to be Dark Elves, but there are many Oblivion Kappa in their ranks. The Oblivion Kappa would want to stand with their own, but the Dark Elves have a lot of hate for their Oblivion Kappa peers, so I wouldn't be surprised if they abandoned their posts."

"Let's get down off this wall, before the sun goes down." Falael said, picking up the grapple and placing it on the other side of the wall.

It was as if the soldiers posted at the door never wanted to be hired by the usurpers that had taken the throne of Acad. Either that, or they knew that they weren't going to survive being trampled by the hundreds of angry villagers that was prepared to destroy Craester castle if they were asked to. The guards stepped aside almost instantaneously, allowing Amaris to ride though the now open door, her army following closely behind her.

It didn't take long for them to reach the throne room, Amaris leading the charge. How dare you, she thought as she eyed Lord Wyett, sitting on Ivailo's throne. On her throne. Lords Errol and Arhein flanked the structure, one on either side. Lyra, Radcliffe and Kieran were also present, kneeling, held captive at knifepoint by three werewolves.

"You thought that I would just simply roll over and admit defeat, didn't you?" Amaris asked, pulling Golden Child to a stop at the foot of the dais. "You thought that I was weak."

Ivailo ducked behind a crevice on the wall, as a pair of the blue skinned guards marched by. He breathed a sigh of relief when they passed by, evidently unaware of the intruders presence as they went to join the melee that was happening outside of the castle's gates.

While getting into the city and castle had been easy, moving around the castle had proven to be more difficult than they had anticipated. Numerous guards had not gone and participated in the war beyond the walls of the palace, making it difficult for the quartet to maneuver around the courtyard and remain alive.

"We can't continue working like this." He said, turning back to the group. "We can't continue to duck and hide like this."

"So lets go ahead and do what we planned. All guns blazing." Kafei said, readying her sword. Ivailo raised his eyebrow.

"We are close enough to the castle that it won't take too long for us to cut through the last few guards, and even if backup comes we can make a mad dash to the front of the castle and have a reasonable chance of getting through alive."

"Then lets do it!" Rinomve said, moving out from the crevice. "Let's go get my country back."