The Lady in Armour

Chapter 14 - RACE FOR AWTER

CHAPTER 14             -               RACE FOR AWTER

“Why is he here?”

Travis clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly. His brother had been pestering him since he found out that Jo was coming with them. He had told him before that he did not know the reason why but Liam wouldn’t believe him and even called him a liar. And for some reason, the way he said that to him made him feel awful.

It was like he really meant it. It felt like he was saying it not because he was frustrated that he can’t answer his question about Jo but because he believed that he really was a liar. 

“For the hundredth time Liam,” he said through gritted teeth. “I do not know. Though I am not surprised at all that he’s here, I still have no idea how he convinced Maki into coming with us. Why don’t you ask Maki and stop pestering me anyway?”

“He won’t tell me!” he hissed. “Maybe Jo blackmailed him or told him lies just to be with us tonight. I could understand Hanna being here because she has the fire dragon but someone like him? He’ll mess up the plan.”

“Guess what?” Jo cut in, making Liam and Travis gasped in surprise. “I do not even know what the plan is. So tell me now prince charming, how am I supposed to mess up the plan you made with the others if I do even know what it is in the first place?”

Travis laughed at Liam’s outraged face and Jo’s satisfied look.

“Why are you even here?” he asked in a slightly raised voice.

“To infuriate you more,” she said with a wink. “To watch you get knocked down by the enemy and to make you watch me defeat the enemy who knocked you down.”

“You –” Liam started but he was cut off.

“Will the two of you shut up?” Maki took Jo’s right arm and pulled her up once the passing knights were gone. “You have lots of explaining to do to me. Why on earth are you wearing an armour? This isn’t what you said to me last night before we left the castle.”

“I brought my other clothes,” she explained. “Besides, I like this black armour I am wearing. It is lighter compared to your armours. It allows me to move with ease.”

“Where did you get that armour?” He scanned her from head to foot. “I don’t think I’ve seen an armour like that before.”

Everyone’s eyes turned on Jo’s black armour. There was no gorget that was used to protect the throat but there was a pauldron on each of her shoulder that reached her upper arm and a breastplate that bore a snakelike dragon with a pair of small wings at the center. She was also wearing a tasset that was made of thin overlapping metal strips that formed a skirt. Behind that skirt, she was wearing one of her black pants that reached up to her knees and a pair of brown sandals to protect her feet.

Too many parts of typical armour were missing yet she felt complete.    

“I – I inherited it,” she lied.

The truth was it was the armour she made out of Fier’s flames. Fier told him how to do it and even how to conjure her own weapon. Since she’d been using katana in her every fight, it was what she had chosen. Two katana with red long handles and blade length up to twenty-seven inches was what she conjured. She made it simple; moderately curved blade with an upward cutting edge and a hilt shaped like Fier’s bat-like wings.     

“Get changed,” Maki said with finality. “The bell will ring any minute now and I need everyone to be ready including you.”

“Hanna, come with me.” Jo cursed silently, picked up her bag and went to the other room without arguing. “I forgot how to put them on.”