Grave Mistake

Among the fleeing servants, Ethyn left the throne room, ready to defend them if necessary.

However, it seemed a battle had already occurred in the hall, with Kaarel's men being on the losing end. Men were lying on the ground, but from what the knight could see, most of them seemed to be unconscious but not dead. 

"Tie up the ones that are alive," he ordered a few of the servants. While some ignored him in their panic, a few nodded and slowed to complete the task. 

Coming to the other end of the outer court, Ethyn could hear clashing metal. His heart raced as his feet quickened their pace. The sounds were coming from outside. 

On the lawn of the keep, a second battle raged. Skirmishes littered the grass as soldiers fought haphazardly. It was a mess. 

It seemed that both sides knew that two groups were at work, but the men of Birle only knew who was on their side when one of the enemy soldiers attacked. As there were at least three Lakilians for every soldier of Birle on the lawn, there were far too many targets which could pounce at any moment. 

Because both sides were in the same uniform, it made it hard for either side to form a cohesive group. Some of the fighting was possibly friendly fire. Birle soldiers accidentally killing their comrades? The thought made Ethyn's stomach churn. 

"Men of Birle, tear your sleeve!" Ethyn yelled. He had taken the idea from what he had seen in the throne room. Since there was no time to tie material to their arms, it would be easier to remove a little from their shoulders instead. 

"For Birle!" Those closest to him complied in between clashes with their enemy. 

Continuing forward, Ethyn repeated the order to anyone close enough to listen. No one seemed eager to engage him even after he announced his allegiance to King Rhodri.

It was as if there was an invisible bubble around him which made people wary. The lack of resistance was odd, but the redheaded knight was not going to argue his good fortune. 

As he got a better look at the inner curtain. Ethyn found that the gate was still shut. men from the outer wall were out there, hopefully to be joined soon by the forces from the fort in Burke. Not that any of them could do any good if they couldn't enter the palace. 

The knight noticed in dismay that many bodies lay across where the winch to open the gate stood. He could only assume they were men of Birle who had lost their lives trying to let help in from the outside.

A particularly large soldier of Lakyle--who was more giant than man by the looks of him-- was striking down anyone who came near enough to lay his hands on the wheel to raise the inner portcullis. 

Ethyn would have to deal with that issue presently, but first he needed to spot the princess if he could. Unless someone else had sounded the horn, she would have to be out here somewhere. Had she somehow made it to the outer curtain safely? 

'There!' Ethyn's heart skipped a beat.

At the top of the wall, a fiery pyre was burning brightly. Although it was not being fed, the force of the flames was still enough for Ethyn to feel it from the ground. 

In front of the ball of light, a small figure was standing like a beacon to the soldiers. 

"Watch out! Don't let him get behind you!" The princess cheered and shouted at the top of her lungs. While some of it was lost to the battle below, a few timely warnings had helped out the men on her side.

"That man is not one of Birle's." She pointed as she spoke to the man beside her, who nodded. 

At her other side, an archer lay in wait, hoping to get a shot at any of the enemy he could identify. At her signal just now, he let loose an arrow. It lodged in the chest of one of the enemy with a sickening thud.

Their teamwork wasn't making a huge dent in the numbers of the soldiers of Lakyle, but it was certainly hurting their morale. The invaders kept having to look ever upward to see if death was swiftly flying their way. 

Some of the men of Lakyle alighted the stairs to stop the archer and his beautiful accomplice. With swords swinging, they attempted to do the one thing that Kaarel had hesitated to try: take the wall. 

There was an excellent reason for Kaarel's reticence. The narrow stairs and steep incline made it a very defensible position. This was a fact the men of Lakyle were discovering one after the other as they fell to their doom. 

It was a small comfort to see the men at the top of the wall hold their ground. However, the sheer volume of people pushing up the stairs meant that sooner or later, one of them would succeed. Ethyn could not let that happen. 

Rose needed to be protected at all costs. 

As if reading his thoughts, the princess locked her blue eyes with the man's green ones.

"Ethyn!" The knight was able to read her lips with her mumbled cry. 

Silent words passed between them. 

"Behind you!" Rose squealed as she motioned feverishly.

Ethyn barely came back to himself in time to stop a cowardly soldier trying to stab him from behind. Instead of giving Ethyn a point, he received one in his stomach instead.

"Get open the gate! We need help!" The princess screamed.

Whatever the knight had been planning before, the royal directive now took precedence. If Ethyn hurried, he should be able to get the gate open and still make it to Rose in time. 

As long as he didn't die trying. 

Pushing through the crowd, Ethyn made it to the bodies littered around the wench. The hulking mass blocking access was close to twice the redheaded knight's weight. He had no idea people even came that big. He was uniformless, which probably meant he had been snuck in some other way. 

Instead of a sword, the enemy held a huge mace which a normal man would not be able to lift, no less wield. Under the cover of the wall, he was free from the marksmanship of any archer on the walkway above. 

That only left the option of a direct attack. Thus far, those attacks had yielded disastrous results. 

On the other side of the portcullis, soldiers from the outer curtain were clamoring to get in. 

"What is happening?" one of them called to Ethyn. 

"Lakyle has attempted a coup." The knight eyed the mechanics of the structure to make sure he knew how it worked. The braid of chains attached to the wench would ratchet upwards and hold in place. All he needed to do was push the wheel enough to get the chains overhead moving. 

"Let us in!" Another man reached through the latticework.

His arm was nearly sheared off as the mace came swinging at the cry for help. 

The giant man growled. "You'll get in here over my dead body!" 

"Challenge accepted," Ethyn raised his sword and widened his stance. 

The mace came swinging at him with such force that the knight barely had time to dart out of the way. The ball hit the ground, making a divot deeper than a wash basin. 

But the ball never stopped moving. It immediately lifted and made another swipe at the knight's unhelmeted head. 

That was when Ethyn realized: he had made a grave mistake.