Sionnach (closed)

[heartofcourage]

Fiona turned to watch as Tanya pushed her way through the crowd to stand next to her and Qira. She wasn't surprised that the woman wanted to join the fight personally but she was surprised that she had come all the way just to do so. Especially when she had a small baby at home.

"You are welcome to join however you see fit. I think that I have a few things to remind von Morden of." Fiona said as she glanced over at Qira. "Especially after we left him go the last time."

 

[KieranSoares]

"As long as he's dead or in suffers in prison for the rest of his life after this, that's all I care about." Tanya's gaze was hard and unfeeling as she spoke. "Joachim has endured enough of his threats, and I won't have von Morden threatening my little boy."

Qira nodded to Tanya, knowing that as a wife, a mother, and her Emperor's bodyguard, she'd endured many threats from disgraced, angry nobles already. "We are glad to have you. I know you are a capable stealth fighter, but I would like to put Deidre to good use in this fight. I understand she's begun to learn to speak, but she will still need a guide. Take her and join the Riders, Ezra will brief you and your fellow Berlin Riders."

"Understood." Tanya nodded and stepped away. Soon, Sam gave another signal, and Qira's task force split into two groups as the sun set. Once the dim of twilight set in, Qira sent the first half in to sweep for guards outside the gates to help them get in quietly. After a few minutes, Qira and Conrad led Fiona and their stealth team down toward the side gate. They found several dead mercenaries along the way, but the actual gate guards still had to be dealt with. They seemed unaware of their comrades' deaths, and the dark night limited their view.

The group gathered just out of sight in tall grass and a small stand of trees, and Qira signalled their archers and crossbow wielders forward. "Find a target, careful not to overshoot," he ordered in a whisper, moving down the line of archers. "Hold for my signal."

He stopped toward the end by Fiona, directing her aim toward a nearly-hidden mercenary. Knowing how good a shot she was, he trusted her to be able to kill the man in one shot. Waiting for nearly a full minute til one more mercenary became visible after climbing up the gate threshold, Qira whispered loudly, "Fire!"

The quiet snap of bowstrings was followed by the thud of bodies falling, and they instantly rushed the gate to check their work only to find none had survived. Conrad was the first to climb up to the gatehouse and release the lock for them, and suddenly they had free access to the estate grounds.

"Fiona," Qira murmured as he came to her side. "Take Conrad and half the group, make your way in through the kitchen entrance. The rest of us will cover the other entrances to make sure no one can escape and raise the alarm. I'll rejoin you shortly once the entrances are secure. Go for the master suite first on the second floor. If von Morden isn't there, he's likely hidden in the cellars."

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona placed her crossbow back into place as Qira gave her the orders for their plans. She nodded, a silent acknowledgment of what he was saying. She moved with her half of the group, only pausing to let Conrad take the lead. She pulled him a halt before they moved again, her light blue eyes staring into his with a proper amount of venom and warning. If he betrayed them now, she would kill him. That was the silent threat that she gave him.

 

[KieranSoares]

Conrad nearly stumbled when she grabbed him, but as she glared death at him, his expression didn't grow fearful or nervous. He seemed determined, and he gave her a small nod before continuing forward in silence.

Slowly but surely, they used hedges and trees on the property to cross the distance undetected. When they got into the actual vegetable garden and orchard outside the kitchen, Conrad motioned them all to pause as they saw servants sitting outside the kitchen door, taking a break after cleaning up from dinner. These were not people who needed to die. Conrad motioned three of Kell's agents forward.

"These are just workers, I doubt they're loyal," Conrad whispered to them, knowing they could silently neutralize innocents without too much harm. The three, all werefolk with dark fur, nodded their understanding and crept forward. From their vantage point, the rest of the group watched as each agent simultaneously grabbed a kitchen worker and gagged and bound them, taking a moment to tell them in French that they were not going to be hurt if they cooperated. Managing to keep the men fairly quiet outside some panicked whimpers, the agents dragged them back and hid them in the back of the gardens.

"There'll be more.inside," Conrad told Fiona beside him as others huddled in to listen. "Mostly just the cooks, but the guards will be obvious. They hover over the staff making sure no one slips poison into the food. I'm sure the servants will be glad to be rid of my uncle."

He turned to look at Fiona directly. "There might be slaves here too, if he has any right now. They sleep chained in a basement under the back parlor, a couple rooms down from the kitchen. Here." He pulled out his small keyring and gave Fiona one larger, but highly detailed key for a lock that was probably hard to pick. "This is for the trapdoor under the rug in the parlor. But I don't have any keys to the padlocks and manacles."

 

[heartofcourage]

"They'll stay until everything is secured." Fiona said as she put the key in a pocket on her trousers. "Enter the kitchens and take care of the guards. We will wait for a signal."

She glanced over at the assassins next to her and gave them a nod, watching as they melted like shadows in the darkness to do as she asked.

 

[KieranSoares]

Giving another key to one of the agents, Conrad waited beside Fiona as the shadowy figures entered the kitchen one by one. There was no audible commotion, save a couple barely-perceptible thuds. Then the door reopened and one Wolf motioned them inward.

"Most of the other servants will have gone home by now," Conrad murmured to Fiona as they moved in, drawing the shorts word he'd been allowed. "Anyone with a weapon is a mercenary or from Zurich and loyal to my uncle."

As they entered the kitchen, the agents had moved a handful of bound and gagged staff against the outer wall to keep watch on them, and a few bodies had been dragged into a corner.

One Fox stood at the kitchen door to the hall, whispering as Fiona came near, "I think they know something's wrong. We just heard a large group come down from the upper floor and head down into the cellars. The stairway down is through a door under the main stairway. The entire hall is full of guards. I don't think we can sneak in now."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Who is my guard?" Fiona asked softly as they glanced towards a wolf that was standing near to her. "He and I will make a commotion. The rest of you follow Conrad to where he believes his uncle's chambers are. If he's not there, give the signal and we will continue to the cellar in case he has bunkered there."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Velen, ma'am," the Wolf identified himself as she spoke up, shadowing her closely.

The Fox leading the rest nodded to Fiona. "We'll leave a few here to catch any who flee. The others will have the place surrounded by now. Be safe, Your Majesty." With that, he motioned the majority of the remaining group to follow him, Conrad ready to lead once Fiona had stirred up a panic and drew attention away.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona slipped into the darkness of the main hall. The air around the manor felt restless. It wasn't a good combination, she thought, as she made her along the wall until they were standing near the staircase. The entire manor was decorated as richly as possible, showing that von Morden had been taking advantage of people for a very long time.

"Burn the draperies." Fiona gave the order to Velen. "I'll take out guards as they come down the stairs."

She unbuckled her crossbow and held it at the ready.

 

[KieranSoares]

Velen nodded, kneeling to pull out a flint and steel and tinderbox. Lighting the tinder plugs, he tossed them to the foot of the hall drapes, and threw one more onto the hall runner for good measure before pulling his own crossbow.

A tense minute went by as the fire spread, til the smell of smoke drew guards toward the upper landing. Seeing the flames, shouts went around and they began racing down to get water. Following Fiona's lead, Velen took aim and each time she shot, he took the next target. Some men simply collapsed while others went tumbling, some even into the fire on the hall rug, as panic ensued.

Seeing comrades fall, some of the more heavily armored men began coming down with shields. A pair even brought a small table down to block the bolts. Seeing where the attack was coming from, the heavily armed mercenaries charged at Fiona and Velen with swords and shields at the ready.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona kept her cool as Velen covered her during the commotion. As guards started to come down the stairs, she switched to her sword. She was going to take revenge on every being in that building that had ever done anything to a were.

"Keep me covered." She said as she stood from the shadows and charged, taking one man down easily with the element of surprise and engaging another as he came to the landing at the bottom of the stairs.

 

[KieranSoares]

Shouts in French and German from up the stairs kicked off a full panic in the manor, sending a few servants fleeing only to be captured, and bringing dozens of mercenaries. Velen kept up a rapid rate of fire, trying to hold the line til their allies charged in. Just as things were looking bad, the main doors burst open and a flood of Northerners came crashing into the fray to keep Fiona and Velen from being cornered. Amid the fight, they heard a series of whistle blasts from the upper floor, from Conrad and his group signalling that they had found von Morden's quarters. A second set signalled that they were unsuccessful- he wasn't there.

The group came charging down the stairs, trapping the mercenaries between themselves and their entering allies. Conrad jumped the railing halfway down, landing close to the door to the cellar stairs. Finding it locked, he took out a key, only to find something else was on the other side. He gave the door a powerful kick, but it held.

"They've barred the other side!" He called to the group leaders.

In among the fray came Qira, having guided another group in. "Move," Qira growled to Conrad, pulling a thin, wide metal tool like a flattened lockpick from his belt. He forced the tool between the door and frame and pulled up, lifting whatever bar was there. Then, with two others at his back, they shouldered their way into the small space and sent two mercenaries falling down the stairs after trying to hold the door shut.

"Fiona," Qira called. "Let's go. Everyone else can hold the hall." He also called on several specific agents, some of Kell's best and most loyal.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona squeezed through the narrow opening in the cellar door, followed by Qira and his men shortly. She paused on the steps when she heard yelling from the corridors beyond, holding up a hand to pause the men before they rushed in.

"If I were to guess, there are multiple tunnels down here. Possibly even ones that would lead beyond the walls." Fiona said in a low murmur.

 

[KieranSoares]

"If there are escape tunnels, they're new," Conrad spoke up as he came up beside her with Qira. "If they managed to dig one between now and when my uncle fled here, it's going to be just a rough tunnel. They wouldn't have had time to put in walls or extra supports..."

"Tell Kell to search outside the walls for trapdoors and holes," Qira muttered to another agent, sending him off.

 

[heartofcourage]

There was barely enough room to move in the cellars, so Fiona quickly switched to her dagger. It was better than nothing, but being in the tight passages gave her a bad feeling.

"Which way would they go?" Fiona asked as she looked over to Conrad.

 

[KieranSoares]

"The safe room is to the right, the last door past an iron gate. To the left, there's a gate to the slave quarters that connects to another stairway. The door across the way is to the cellar itself." Conrad crept up to the corner and glanced around carefully, only to jolt back as a veritable volley of bolts flew out and nearly killed him in an instant. Taking a deep, shaky breath, he murmured. "There's at least five with crossbows..."

"Fiona," Qira grunted, pushing past Conrad. He withdrew a small metal sphere from his bandolier along with a flint and steel, and offered it to Fiona. "I'll get them to shoot again. Light this and throw it at them while they reload." Pulling Conrad back from the corner, Qira got into a ready stance to get across the hall to the alcove before the cellar door. "Ready?" he murmured, putting his vambrace-armored arm up beside his face to block any bolts from instant kill shots. "I'll go when you light it."

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona glanced towards Qira as she was handed one of his bombs and she gave him a nod. Once he was ready and she had lit the fuse, she gave him the signal to run. As soon as he went into the hallway, he was met with a volley of bolts, most glancing off his armor harmlessly. The moment he crossed into the other hallway, she turned and threw the sphere, turning back to safety to take cover.

The explosion was deafening. She had just covered her head as the compression from the blast shook everyone and debris from the ceiling rained down upon them.

 

[KieranSoares]

Those closest had minor ringing in their ears for a few seconds, drowning out the screams of the men mortally wounded but still alive. Qira was leaning against the cellar door, gritting his teeth against a bolt that had managed to catch him in the ribs and one in the outer thigh. But thankfully the armor had slowed the bolt in his ribs down so much that it was just bloody, not deadly. The thigh wound was more serious, but Qira snapped the bolt shafts and darted around the corner to lead the charge. The dead and eviscerated men were a nightmare to behold, especially a still-living younger man who no longer had most of one leg and was quickly fading. Qira finished him off out of mercy with a thrown dagger, and surged past the blown-apart gate. Conrad was quick on his heels, sword drawn, and the rest followed with Fiona as Qira and Conrad hit the door at the end of the hall and grabbed it to hold it shut to keep anyone inside from coming out til the rest caught up.

The entire group moved in and heavily-armored Invernessian Axemen, who'd now caught up with the group, moved to the front. The door was thrown open and the warriors barreled in to create a shield wall just in time for a hail of bolts to rain upon them. It was absolute chaos as the shields took the brunt of the attack, and were then dropped so the lightning-fast assassins could kill the ten or so mercenaries.

"It's a trap!" Conrad suddenly bellowed as he grabbed at Qira and threw them both outside the room. No one else knew this place, and so Conrad was the only one who'd noticed what was out of place. It was a wooden beam that stood in the center of the room, and at the moment the assassins attacked, one mercenary with a huge maul hammer struck the beam, and as it easily gave way, so did the entire ceiling.

Ten agents and five Axemen and any surviving mercenaries were suddenly crushed and buried under the rubble of a crumbling floor above, clearly a part of the kitchen, and three fell through with it all. One was struck with a huge stone and killed as he fell, but the other two were knocked unconscious and partially buired.

"Shit..." Conrad whispered, half-sitting up on the floor next to Qira as everyone went silent. He let out a yelp as Qira grabbed him, digging his nails into the young man's arms and slamming him against the wall. Qira was silent, staring cold death at Conrad for a few seconds as the man shivered in shock and fear.

"You..." Qira panted. "Did you set us up?"

"N-No sir!"

"Where is von Morden?"

"He should've been here, I don't know..."

Qira dropped Conrad to his feet and turned toward the rest. "Spread out, search everything! He can't get out anymore, if he's really here." He glanced back to Conrad. "You'd better hope he is, boy."

Conrad's brows furrowed in worry, and he quickly shoved past to join the search while others began digging in the rubble to see if anyone survived. Qira stopped beside Fiona for a moment, a hand on her shoulder. "... We heard nothing of him leaving. He wouldn't allow carts to come in to deliver things, for fear of assassins hiding in them. So he couldn't have hidden in one to get out. We've been watching this place for months... he was definitely here this morning..."

 

[heartofcourage]

"A coward like this doesn't simply leave without a trace," Fiona murmured as she stared at the carnage surrounding them with a neutral expression on her face. "He's still here. I would bet my life on it."

She moved past Qira to reenter the great hall. The flames had been almost extinguished as more of Kell's men rushed past her to get to the cellar to help the others. She calmly walked through the smoke and soot as she came to the great window in the room, looking up at the sky as the dragons patrolled. She closed her eyes and felt for them, calling to them to gain the intel that she needed. She saw nothing. There were no wagons that had been seen, no suspicions beyond a curiosity over the commotion beneath them. That meant the bastard was still there.

Moving to the staircase, she quietly climbed to the second floor. Removing her dagger, she stalked the hallway, listening to quietly to see if there had been something that had been missed.

 

[KieranSoares]

Only a couple soldiers were still on the second floor, keeping watch on the staircase while others watched the windows from outside. As Fiona passed, the two nodded to her, but remained quiet as they could see she was on the hunt. And Qira was close on her heels, having sent Velen to report to Kell.

All the upstairs doors were open, some broken down, and some led to bedrooms while others led to a couple offices, a parlor, a private small dinging room, and a master bedroom with adjoining chambers. As Fiona went along, the noise from below and outside having died down a bit, she heard a sharp metallic click, like steel pieces hitting each other but muffled by wood. Qira stopped in his tracks, eyes on the door to one of the offices, and he motioned Fiona toward it.

Inside was clearly not von Morden's office. It seemed to belong to an assistant or accountant, with a number of ledgers, scales, an abacus, and stacks of coins lined up on the desk. But most noticeable was a dead Northern agent, collapsed against the side of the desk and almost shoved awkwardly between it and a large standing cabinet, like he'd been purposely moved out of the way.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona stood in the doorway, looking at the cabinet with a sense of knowing. Someone was in that small space, hiding like a coward. She glanced over her shoulder at Qira as she silently moved to the side and gave him a nod. She reached out for the handle of the cabinet, fingers curling over the metal as she silently gave him a count. Then she jerked it open with force.

 

[KieranSoares]

The instant the cabinet opened, there was a flash of black powder and a sudden force hit Fiona in the hip just under her waist, like a hot, blunt dagger digging in til it hit bone and lodged there. Qira surged beside her, grabbing the attacker and throwing him out, practically across the room along with a strange object that was smoking from the end of a crude barrel like a tiny cannon, the design clearly Chinese and made with a beautiful red wood stock. Qira kicked the object away, and his gaze darted between Fiona and the now-revealed Micha von Morden lying on his side, grasping his arm and groaning in pain from a broken wrist and hard bang to the head.

"Medic!" Qira roared, grabbing von Morden's arms and tying them behind his back despite cries of pain and protest, before he darted back to Fiona's side and took out a kerchief to help put pressure over the wound that was bleeding profusely.

 

[heartofcourage]

Pain like she had never experienced before bloomed in her hip as the sudden explosion threw her to the ground. She barely knew what had happened before she was pushing herself up onto her good side and looking down at the wound that was bleeding profusely in her hip.

"Fuck," She said through gritted teeth as von Morden was thrown to the ground and Qira took away his weapon.

She was panting as she pulled out her own kerchief and pressed it against the bleeding, biting back a howl of hot pain. She did the same a few moments later when Qira was beside her, doing the same until everything went slightly hazy with the pain.

"Take care of him. Don't let him get away again." Fiona said through gritted teeth. "I mean it, Qira."

 

[KieranSoares]

"He's not going anywhere," Qira muttered, glancing toward the dazed man who was barely moving at the moment. Pulling Fiona in to lean against him, Qira kept the pressure on the wound as running boots came down the hall and two medics and three Axemen burst in. The two younger Wolves came to Fiona's side and took over for Qira, while the Axemen pinned down and chained von Morden within an inch of his life. He'd be kept alive to face sentencing, and instead of merciful death, most wanted him to live in hunger and squalor in prison for the rest of his days.

"Ich hoffe du verlierst das bein, füchsin hure," the disgraced Archduke grunted drunkly though a clear concussion, only to be kicked sharply in the ribs and dragged out by the Axemen.

"We need to get that shot out and get this wound clean right away, or we risk gangreen and sepsis," one of the medics muttered. Between the two wolves and the third Axemen, they lifted Fiona between them on the torn-off cabinet door like a stretcher, Qira limping after them.

They quickly moved Fiona to one of the empty, clean bedrooms, laying her on a pile of clean sheets and stripping away the armor on her leg. The wound was awful, the shot having been a metal ball half an inch wide. The medics sent the Axeman off to get more supplies along with others who arrived, and Qira settled in a chair in the corner to keep watch and await treatment himself for lesser, but still bad wounds.

"Your Majesty," the auburn-furred Wolf murmured as they got a tourniquet around her upper thigh and cut away her pantleg. He pulled out a small metal box filled with strong-smelling vials of familiar liquid- a painkilling concoction created by Alex for just such emergency situations. "I'm going to need you to drink this. You'll only be under an hour or so with a small dose, but trust me when I say you don't want to be awake for this." He held out one of the smaller vials for her, and his waterskin.

 

[heartofcourage]

The pain was nearly blindly, but Fiona still heard von Morden's insult leveled in her direction. As Qira pulled her against his side to put more pressure on her wound, she stared at the Archduke as he was taken care of by the Axemen.

"Du wirst niemals die Befriedigung haben, du Feigling." She called after him as he was dragged again. "Alles, was du besitzt, gehört mir."

As the medics arrived to care for her wound, she felt lightheaded. It was the loss of blood and pain. She was in poor shape after having been fired upon by the new weapon. Whatever it was reminded her of the stories that Brogan and his brothers told them of cannon fire from previous wars. Only this was much, much smaller, and more precise.

As she was carried from the room to another room, she tried her best to focus on what the healer was telling her. If they didn't put her under and if they didn't act fast, she would lose the leg or worse. Glancing over at Qira as he sat in a chair to receive attention for himself, Fiona pulled her riding whistle from around her neck and tossed it to him.

"Call Sam and Schaller in. I need Sam here and I need Schaller keeping guard." She said as she turned back towards the healer and took the vial. "We keep the leg no matter what. I'm not about to let the bastard think he's won anything."

With that, she took the medicine and then a healthy drink of water before she settled back to let everything grow hazy and dark.