by Anna Eluvae
Gallieae looked at the illustrati around him. He was right that they were young, but it was more than that. They carried themselves differently. They spoke of their kingdom with a zealotry that Gallieae did not remember from his own youth. He'd noticed the changes that had been happening, but had dismissed his observations as being part of the way that old eyes looked at the young. It was more than simple that though. Many of the old faces had disappeared entirely, but he couldn't recall the elaborate funerals or going away parties that illustrati demanded. Gallieae hadn't been paying enough attention to the world around him.
The Iron King would have answers, he was sure of it. The trip to Castle Launtine would provide some insights, one way or another, even if it was only by way of a polite rejection.
He was three miles away when he heard the thunderclap of an explosion.
* * *
Dravus's first strike hit the soldier's armor. Dravus was mildly surprised that there was no parry to it; he had grown accustomed to sparring with Nemm and Lexari, who could easily turn away almost any attack. A pike wasn't a parrying weapon, but Dravus had never really trained against it. He pulled back and swung his sword again, looking briefly into the soldier's wide eyes. This blow hit the man's neck with Dravus's full strength behind it, cutting halfway through before striking bone. The man toppled to the side, taking Dravus's sword of shadow with him. Dravus summoned a fresh one into his hand. When he turned to look for the next man, he saw that Nemm was killing the last of the guards. Not all were dead — some were on the ground, bleeding or crying out in pain — but they had been taken out.
Dravus saw the spray of dirt near his feet at the same moment he heard the gunshot. It had come from above, courtesy of a musket. The top of the gate had a handful of cannons, but the soldiers up there all had their muskets out. One of them took aim at Nemm, sighting his musket down at her and lighting the fuse. He was knocked backward as a spear of light stabbed through his chest; Lexari landed on top of the gate just afterward, fully clad in his armor of light from head to toe, covering his face and hands as well, so that no part of the man could be seen or struck.
"Come on," said Nemm. "They didn't have time to lock everything up." She opened a door in the side of the gate, separate from the large portcullis that was meant for teams of horses. The door was iron, thick enough to take cannon fire, but it hadn't been locked. Nemm was moving down the path by the time Dravus started after her. She didn't look back towards him, nor did she glance at Lexari when he landed beside her.
They moved up the hill together, moving quickly. Every second that passed was another second for their enemy to regroup. Some number of them had surely died when the powder store exploded, but the castle itself had a thick iron frame. While there were now chunks of stone scattered on the ground, Dravus could see that the castle was still standing, at least when the smoke drifted away enough for him to see it. The day was eerily silent; Dravus had expected a flood of men to come rushing down from the castle to fight them, but beyond a few shouts he'd heard near the beginning and the screams of the men they'd killed at the gate, there was nothing.
Dravus wanted to run away. Killing that soldier had made him feel sick, a sensation only increased by the knowledge that he would have to do it again before the day was out. He'd watched Nemm and Lexari work together to kill from a distance, murdering men they only assumed were responsible for the assassinations. Attacking Castle Launtine smacked of story logic. Yet here Dravus was, trailing just behind as they rushed up the switchback path. If they arrived at the castle and found it empty, or filled only with functionaries and bureaucrats, what would they do then? Or worse, if the Iron King was not truly dead but only insensate, and every action they'd seen had been taken on his behalf? Dravus felt certain that no matter what they found, justice via bloodshed was what would follow.
Lexari strode forward with his spear in hand. He had a commanding presence that was only heightened by the blood on his armor. When Dravus watched him, all the objections began to wash away; how could a man with chin held so high and back kept so straight be anything but right? Then Dravus would remember the moments of petulance and childishness. He remembered what Nemm had said, about Lexari having her do the dirty work so he wouldn't have to feel the taint of it. It felt as though the glory of the man should fade, as though, once the flaws of his character had been revealed, there should be something in his appearance that belied the undercurrent. Yet there was not. Lexari was firm and tall, the very picture of a hero.
* * *
The winding path up to Castle Launtine stopped at a large courtyard. Nemm had been to the castle a number of times before, and the courtyard had always been one of her favorite places. It was filled with a variety of plants from around the Iron Kingdom, artfully arranged so that a person could take a walking tour through the botany of the kingdom. Castle Launtine lay at the heart of the Iron Kingdom. While it had once been a purely defensive structure, the Iron King's rule had seen it transformed into an enormous home, both a symbol of his everlasting power and the diplomatic heart of the country, ministries aside. The thick oak doors of the castle were normally opened wide, the better to take shipments of iron which the king produced on a daily basis while holding meetings or dictating to his assistants. The major defensive features of the castle faced downhill, the expected angle of attack. While the central doors from the courtyard could be barred, the castle still had its windows. That was how Nemm planned to get in.
When she rounded the final corner though, the castle doors were standing wide open. Her first instinct told her that this was a blatant trap, but then she saw the people. They were bleeding and hobbling out the front doors, or laying down in the manicured grass. It had only been a handful of minutes since the powder store had exploded, but in that time the courtyard had started to be turned into a makeshift triage center. Nemm had expected soldiers ready and waiting, illustrati armed and armored to the teeth with any number of domains, but there was nothing.
Nemm scanned the faces, unwilling to move forward. They were spotted quickly, but the reaction wasn't what she had expected either; no one was running away or screaming, they were only standing and watching. More people were coming from inside the castle as she watched.
"They weren't ready for us," said Dravus. He kept his voice low. "They're not combatants."
Nemm felt sickness rising up in her. They had blown the gunpowder store thinking that they might be able to kill a good number of people within the castle. It had all the gunpowder that the castle needed to fill dozens of cannons over a lengthy siege. If they had done nothing more than kill civilians, or soldiers who had done nothing wrong aside from choosing a safe posting …
When the first illustrati leaped down from the battlements to land in the courtyard, Nemm breathed a sigh of relief. She was armored in glass from head to toe, but didn't move in it anywhere near as smoothly as Nemm did. To Nemm, the glass could cling like silk, molding itself to her skin when it didn't need to be hard. This other woman had clearly spent time crafting her pieces of armor, quite inexpertly. Other illustrati followed behind her, taking the thirty foot drop with ease. When six had dropped down, Nemm thought perhaps it would be a difficult battle. When another four followed, the odds looked a little more bleak.
There were limits on how powerful the conspiracy could possibly be. The number of illustrati within the Iron Kingdom was finite. Up until yesterday, they'd been operating in secrecy, keeping both the masses and the illustrati unaware of their existence. If they were culling from within the Iron Kingdom, how many illustrati could they really have robbed of their power in the last year? Dozens, easily, but only from among the lower ranks. Taking one of the true legends, rather than the village champions, would have caused a stir.
When another six illustrati came through the thick double doors that led into the castle, Nemm smiled. Sixteen against three was even worse odds than before, but her nightmare from last night had been that she would be facing down a single man
with ten times her strength and access to every domain. She'd been spared that, at least, if they were dividing power among so many people.
Beside her, Wenaru began to take off his shirt. It was unusual for him to follow so closely into battle, where he would be a liability more than an asset. He revealed hard, bulging muscles that Nemm could sometimes forget belonged to the small, unassuming man. He had small red welts just beneath his collar bone that Nemm had never seen before. When his shirt fell to the ground, Nemm saw long red ropes fall into his hands. They were lengths of raw muscle, with no skin covering them. They attached at his wrist, protruding from a cut in the skin. In form they reminded Nemm vaguely of tentacles or tongues. The sight was sickening, but it meant that after such a long time, Wenaru meant to fight.
"We need to attack now, before they can get into formation," said Nemm. The people in the courtyard were still standing around, mostly looking shocked or confused. Lexari gave a brief nod, which was all that Nemm needed in order to start moving forward.
"Hold!" shouted one of the illustrati. He was wrapped in copper armor, more functional than aesthetically pleasing. "You come to attack us without any attempt at parlay?"
"You lost the right to speak with us the first time you attacked," said Nemm. She didn't slow down. "The second attempt ensured that you would be hunted down, and the third —" she broke into a sprint "— ensured you'd die slowly!" The words rolled of her tongue easily. Her glass helm slammed down into place, covering the last inch of her body. Nemm leapt through the air, singling out a man with no faceplate. He tried to turn and move, but she hadn't focused on him until the last moment. He reached up with bare hands, likely an illustrati of one of the bodily domains trying to find purchase. He wasn't quick enough to block the blow, only to knock it off course. Nemm dagger slashed his face, cutting through one eye across his nose. He screamed and lost focus, which was enough to leave his face undefended for the second attack. Nemm was hit hard in her back, shattering the large piece of glass there before she could confirm the kill.
She flipped over and lashed out with a lazy swing; the illustrati had converged on her, almost half of them coming to the defense of the man she'd just killed. The one who'd hit her so hard was a large man with a great maul. Nemm did her best to repair the cracks while preparing to roll out of the way of his strike, only to find her arms and legs had been grabbed. She kicked and cursed, growing out shards to slice uselessly at gauntlets. Her back was in agony from the hit. The large man swung his maul up into the air, ready to bring it down for another hit, but before he could, a spear of light erupted from the front of his chest.
Lexari had left his face exposed, which allowed Nemm to see the same calm dispassion that the Sunhawk normally carried into battle. He had a spear in either hand; he spun them around lazily before darting forward to drive the people holding Nemm back. Nemm scrambled to her feet, feeling a sharp pain in her back, but she could still move. The illustrati they were fighting weren't rank amateurs, but they weren't at the peak of standing, nor were they confident, trained fighters. There were simply more of them. As the moments passed and the pain in Nemm's back began to grow, the illustrati spread out around them. Her attempts at intimidation and the murder of two of their compatriots hadn't broken them, but it was only a matter of time. The fight would be won long before they'd dropped down to even odds.
Dravus had entered the fray only belatedly; he was fighting two illustrati of his own and doing a poor job of it. Nemm rushed to defend him, but there was a small moment of hesitation. Dravus wasn't telling her the full truth of what had happened at Hartwain's. She'd felt it when she'd seen him leave her manor. She'd felt it even more strongly when they'd met back up afterward. She had become sure it when he'd waited until quite late to share vital information. Something was off about Dravus, enough that she'd been keeping her eye on him for quite some time. She went to go save his life all the same.
* * *
Dravus held his sword in front him, trying to keep his eyes on the two illustrati coming towards him. They split off from each other, moving to flank him. Lexari rushed passed, going to Nemm's aid, but that left Dravus alone. His sword wavered in front of him, switching back and forth between the two men. Dravus tried to remember all the rules that Nemm had drilled into him over the weeks, knowing that it probably wasn't going to be enough. The smart thing to do would be to run away. Dravus held a defensive stance instead, hoping that he would be equal to these opponents. Their domains weren't obvious; both wore full plate armor and held long swords, but they had none of the markings of their domain that Dravus had come to expect from illustrati. None of the useful materials then, probably not the metallic domains, and keeping in mind that each of them might have more than one —
The one on the left attacked with a long, sweeping strike that Dravus easily dodged. The other came in low, swinging for Dravus's feet. He took the blow on his armor, feeling the sting of it. Dravus backed up, trying to keep the two men from flanking him completely. He pulled the shadows around him, plunging himself into total darkness, but from the movements of the two men, this wasn't enough to give them pause. Both their heads seemed to track where Dravus moved, at least so far as he could see from the way the shadows moved. Dravus dropped the shadows back down soon after, hoping that Nemm or Lexari would see.
Dravus had made his armor as strong as possible and wrapped it around himself so that it was sealed against the prying hands of someone using the bodily domains. He'd done training exercises with Nemm that would help him to survive without air for a few breaths, but he had little confidence in his ability to fight while doing that. He kept backing up as the illustrati approached him. Both moved forward again, attacking at once. Dravus parried one attack, which brought electric blue sparks from the sword, but the other attack slipped through, striking him in the armor. Nemm had once said that most battles between armored enemies came down to who wore down more quickly rather than hard strikes. If that were true, fighting against two men would doom Dravus to a slow death.
Both men attacked again; they'd managed to flank him, which left him waving his sword around trying to defend against both of them and taking strong hits to his armor. The armor made it hurt less than it might have, but it was hardly an absolute defense. Each strike brought pain with it, enough that he knew he'd be bruised all over if he survived the day.
The one to Dravus's right was kicked aside by a blur of sharp glass. Dravus turned his attention to the other, who had fully electrified his sword. Dravus had been warned that a solid strike of lightning could cause muscles to spasm and tense, but he'd felt no effects from it thus far. Shadow seemed to stop the effect entirely.
Nemm came to Dravus's side. Her daggers were dripping with blood. She hissed slightly, then moved forward, taking a blow that shattered the glass of her bracer before quickly reforming. The man's full helm had small holes to allow him to breathe. Nemm slammed her dagger against it, then held her hand there as he tried to push her off. Dravus moved forward and grabbed the man's sword hand, twisting it around and pinning it behind the man's back. Nemm stepped away after only a few seconds, satisfied with her work. She swept the illustrati's leg from beneath him, with the dagger still stuck in his helm. Dravus watched for a moment. The illustrati hadn't been killed; he was struggling, trying to free himself from the helm, but glass had fused shut the hinges and clasps that would let him escape.
"He won't last long," said Nemm. She turned toward where Lexari was fighting a desperate battle against six men and women. Nemm started forward, then stopped short. Wenaru was on the move and she seemed intent on watching him.
The ropes in Wenaru's hands were flesh. He swung one above his head, letting several yards of red muscle extend to their fullest. When he reached the melee, he slipped the tentacle forward. It struck one of the illustrati on the back; he fell down instantly, dropping his weapon. The second man went down as quickly as the first. The third ducked beneath the length of muscle, slicing it with his sword,
but he was struck in the helm by something pink and fleshy that had come from Wenaru's chest. Dravus watched in shock. Wenaru was famous enough not to be limited in the same way that other illustrati of flesh were. He didn't need to touch anyone skin to skin, he could reach straight past their armor. Wenaru had added onto the range his physical touch allowed.
The fight was over. Dravus stripped the shadows back from around his face. He breathed in air that tasted too much of metal in long, ragged gasps. Nemm was doing much the same, but she was using her energy to move forward, to where Lexari stood with his hand on Wenaru's shoulder. He was smiling at the doctor, speaking soft words of encouragement.
"We need to keep moving," she said. "I count eleven bodies, that means five in retreat."
"It might have been prudent to parlay," said Lexari.
"And waste the element of surprise? And lose the element of terror as well?" asked Nemm. She shook her head. "I have no regrets."
"There is more to do here," said Lexari. "Artifacts to find and leaders to question." He turned to Nemm. "Try not to kill the last person who knows what we wanted to find out. The man who wore copper had the domain of fire as well as his metal. We're close to them. They have the much-vaunted ability they're said to have."
