The Foolhardies 111 Rivals

We had twenty minutes to prepare for their arrival. In that time, I had Ashley's entire s.h.i.+eld squad line up in two neat rows on each side of our iron double front doors like an honor guard awaiting guests.

Of course, we made sure their brand new bronze s.h.i.+elds and electrum-grade chain mails underneath their midnight blue Foolhardies tabard were spick and span, s.h.i.+ning brilliantly under Idunn's light.

Luca's Ravagers lined up in ordered rows on the grounds east of the steps leading up to the entryway. Azuma's Immortals were lined up on the west.

I had Thom's Hazy Moon man the twelve-foot tall broken walls. At least the ones that still had solid footing.

Twenty of the new kobold unit—the ones I hadn't sent out with Thor to acquire intel around the Westmarch—manned the tower's battlements alongside Qwipps' Talons.

I stood by the doors while flanked by Varda on my left and Xanthor on my right.

"What if they want to fight, Commander?" Varda asked worriedly. "We've only just begun renovations… I'd hate to think what that would do to our coffers if a fight broke out."

I glanced down at my Quartermaster and saw the bead of sweat dribbling down her forehead. Her pretty face twisted in a worried look that didn't suit her usual happy-go-lucky att.i.tude.  

"It'll be fine," I said, patting her on her broad shoulder. "I'll ask them to not hit the scaffolding."

"They better not," Varda grumbled. "Even temporary scaffoldings cost Leprechauns."

I smirked at Varda while thinking I might need to get her some help. This nameless tower was in need of a Seneschal at least.

It wasn't more than five minutes later, when I gazed out past the makes.h.i.+ft tents we'd made for the soldiers' temporary barracks, that I saw several dozen riders approaching.  

They must have been at least a two-hundred cavalry with another three hundred on foot following far behind them. The riders all wore a similar padded doublet like the one Azuma wore. Only, theirs were a lighter shade of blue than ours. It was weird as bright azure wasn't usually standard for any standing army serving under the Trickster Pavilion.

Above them rose the Trickster's banners along with a second banner I didn't recognize. On its azure field, two sapphire fairy wings shaped like double-sided blades gleamed like they'd been made with lines of glitter. Although it was similar enough in design to Great General Lavinia Folkor's Fairy Flag that I a.s.sumed this unit was working for her.

"Sheesh, these guys are making my guys nervous… their formation's a mess," Xanthor observed.

To the right of this new army was Xanthor's Dash Riders, and compared to the uniformity of the group they trailed behind, Xanthor's guys really did look like a rabble of amateurs.

"Remind me to push more formation training for your squad," I said to him.

He whinnied like a horse. "So~~o embarra.s.sing…"

The swifthart rider at the head of the unit suddenly dashed forward, forcing the soldiers around the fairy to rush in after it. This small group of soldiers made quick work navigating our meager wooden barricades and broken walls, and not until they'd arrived right at the tower steps and between our row of s.h.i.+elds did the lead rider stop.

"Water," she said in a lyrical voice that reminded me too much of Qwipps. However, the fairy looking up at me with such pretty eyes—the left one red and the right one violet—looked nothing like Qwipps. Here was someone of beauty and authority to rival even Aura.

Her command seemed to drill into my brain, pus.h.i.+ng me to move before I even noticed that I'd walked down the steps with my canteen in hand.

I reached up my hand and offered the canteen to her while she sat on her pale green swifthart smiling down at me in that flirty way pretty girls often did.

She had an angular face with long bushy eyebrows, high cheekbones, a long straight nose, and heart-shaped lips that oozed s.e.x appeal. Her hair was long, dark, and plaited. A wreath of flowers rested on her head.

A pale long-fingered hand took the canteen from me, and as she placed it on her lips and drank her fill, I couldn't help feeling that every movement she'd made was meant to stimulate something inside me.

When she was done drinking, she tossed me back my canteen and said, "I expect your hospitality."

She smiled at me, showing off perfect white teeth.

"You have it," I answered, almost half in a daze.

Jensen led her and her entourage to our makes.h.i.+ft stables, and only then did I feel the fog lift from my mind. But maybe it had something to do with Luca appearing at my side to smack me hard on the shoulder.

"Get a grip, Dean," he said, shaking his head.

"Wh-what was that for?" I asked, defensively.

"You were drooling," Luca said, rolling his eyes. "When are you going to stop letting fem-fairies glamour you so easily?"

"I wasn't glamoured," I answered hotly.

"Uh, yeah… you were," he replied, shaking his head again.

I smacked Luca on the shoulder. "Was not."

He smacked me back on my shoulder. "Was too!"

We smacked each other a few more times before Varda came down and told us we were causing a scene with the new arrivals.

I glanced over to the stables and the pixie commander of this new group. She was looking back at me with a smirk on her face.

"Geez… if she's my rival then I'm way out of my league," I sighed.

"She's five-Hundred Man Commander, Verania Folkor, niece of Great General Lavinia Folkor," Darah revealed. "I hear she's quite the vixen, Commander, so better watch out."

While her forces settled in and pitched tents on the grounds closer to the t.i.tania, the pixie commander and her entourage opted to stretch their legs inside the tower's entryway.

I asked Luca to guide them in to see if he'd get charmed by her too. As they walked up the steps, I saw the hop in his step and the redness in his cheeks and felt a satisfying feeling settle in my stomach.

Ha! As if you weren't charmed too. Wait until Pike sees you like that, Luca, I thought happily.

"Heads up, Commander" Varda announced, pointing one of her stubby fingers eastward. "Here comes the next group."

Although they were about equal in size, the second unit to arrive wasn't nearly as flashy as the first. They'd strolled into the ground leisurely while Edo's b.a.s.t.a.r.ds walked alongside them as their escorts.

The leader, a tall, lean young man with messy, sandy-brown hair had gotten off his mount and led it by the straps while he walked alongside Edo, chatting merrily as he did.

Edo didn't look like he was answering the man with anything more than a grunt, but he didn't seem annoyed by the new arrival, not like he usually was with me.

Once they were close enough, the young man glanced over in my direction and raised his hand in greeting.

Instinctively, I raised my hand as well.

Smiling, he left his brown swifthart with Edo and took the grounds two steps at a time until we were face to face. Then he wiped his left hand on his elven-designed leather vest and offered it to me.

I shook it, immediately thinking he wasn't so bad.

"No need for us not to be friends," he said happily. "We shed the same blood on the same war after all."

"We have?" I asked, uncertainly.

I looked up at the smiling face—possibly the one bad thing about him, being tall and all—and saw the piercing green eyes appraising me just as I was appraising him.

He had a handsome rugged face with a small pointy nose and a light fringe covering his square jaw, which at first didn't make sense to me, as his knife ears were a clear sign he was an elf. But elves can't grow beards which led me to the obvious fact that I was staring at a half-elf.

The half-elf introduced himself as, "Albert Sheridan, Five-Hundred Man Commander of the Millennium Hawks. But you can call me Al."

We shook hands.

"Millennium Hawks… the name sounds familiar…" I said.

"You might have heard of our independent unit from General Thors," Albert said. "We used to work for him."

A light bulb turned on in my head. "Ah, you're the hundred-man commander that took out the Magesong's spell cannons."

"A meager accomplishment compared to yours." Albert's eyes trailed over to Azuma who was yawning in front of his troops. "Still, my Hawks will overshadow your Foolhardies in the next war."

I raised an eyebrow. "The next war?"

Albert chuckled. "Isn't that why we're all in the west now?"

"All of us?" I asked. "There are more of us?"

"Verania's already here right? She's a fire cracker, that one." He nodded toward the tower's entry way. "There are a few others, but the one you really have to watch out for is that pompous git, Dain Hammerhand."

"Dain… Hammerhand?" I repeated. "Never heard of him."

"Genius scion of House Hammerhand, the biggest of the dwarven houses under the Trickster Pavilion, Commander," Varda piped in.

"Genius is right," Albert chuckled. Then he patted me on the arm. "But you and I can take him. Show these purebloods what sc.r.a.ppers from Mudgard can do, yeah?"

Albert started walking up the steps like he wasn't the guest, and I hurried to follow him so as not to look like I wasn't in charge.

"You're from Mudgard?" I clarified.

He nodded.

"Born here but raised over there. Brooklyn," he answered a.s.suredly.

"Cool," I replied.

We'd reached the open doors.

"Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" he asked wryly.

I chuckled. As if I had a choice. So I raised a hand in welcome.

"Welcome to Hoodwink Tower," I said, the name coming to me at that exact moment like it had been waiting for me to say it all along.

"Cool name," Albert said right before stepping over the threshold.

I was about to follow him in when a winged shadow blocked the light of Idunn momentarily, forcing me to look up. A wide smile appeared on my face afterward. I may be out of my league here with these two new guests but at least Aura was back to help me through it.