by Matthew Peed
His large clawed hand managed to rip through one of the slavers, and I suddenly felt I could move. Not passing up this chance I “fell” back off the stage. I grabbed a sheet that covered a box close by and tossed it over my shoulders like a cloak, then ran for the alleys.
Luckily, the dragonkin was still creating quite the scene but was unable to strike his owner. The magic didn’t allow it. I caught the last bit just before I rounded a corner, where a blast of flames left his mouth and started to engulf the stage. Man, they must have had a shitty mage do his slave crest for him to be able to act out this much.
I couldn’t tell if any of the other slaves were able to make a run for it, but that was the least of my concerns. I needed to get out of this town as fast as possible. Thankfully, the town wasn’t that big, as far as towns that I’ve actually seen go. I made my way down the back alleys as much as possible, only cutting across main streets when necessary. I got a few curious glances, but adventurers were known to be even more eccentric.
The back streets ended as I reached the wall that surrounded the town. I looked it over to see if it would be worth the risk to try to climb over it, but I decided that the nearly twenty meters were a little beyond my ability to climb silently. I took a deep breath, then started to follow the wall toward the nearest gate. I tried to keep a steady pace, but to an onlooker, I must have looked quite rushed.
The gate came into view a few minutes later. The streams of people coming in and out were not halted, so the slavers must still have been having problems in the marketplace. I steeled myself, then joined the queue leaving the town. Bearkin were not rare, but we had a bad reputation in certain areas thanks to some of our tribes that wanted to remain “close to nature.” I shook my head at the thought. Give me a stone house with a roof over my head any day.
The line quickly reached my turn. The guard looked me over with hesitation clearly written on his face. Just as he was about to reach forward to grab the cloth tarp draped over me, the man behind me raised his voice.
“Ah! There you are. How could you leave your old friend behind just to get into the forest a little faster,” an old man said gruffly. “I swear, you bearkin!” he continued with a good-natured laugh.
I decided to play along, as the man was clearly trying to help me out, “Sorry, old friend! You know me, a freshly killed deer does so much to soothe the bloodlust.”
The guard, much to his credit, seemed to know exactly what was going on but decided that it wasn’t worth the time or effort. He waved us through. I walked as normally as possible, while the old man looked like he was having the time of his life. When we reached the forest, I came to a stop and turned to him.
“Thank you for your kind act, sir.”
“No problem, young man. I saw the scene at the slave show. You were the only one to slip away nearly unnoticed despite your . . . size. I figured that you would probably be making a run for it, so I headed to the gate to see if I would guess correctly.”
“Why . . . why would you help a slave?” I asked, almost regretting that I couldn’t stop myself.
“Strange, isn’t it? Slavery is rather new to the continent, and I remember when all mortals were free to decide their own fate,” the old man said with a faraway look.
“I don’t know if me escaping really helps. If anyone ever finds out I have a slave crest, then it wouldn’t take a Slave mage more than a few seconds to rebind me,” I said as I tried not to growl.
“True . . .” The old man looked around as if to make sure no one was nearby even though we’d come there for the seclusion in the first place. “I have some good news for you, then. In the valley to the north, all kinds of new things are happening. A little birdy told me that there is a town in the forest next to it that slaves can call home, that is even guarded by a land dragon.”
“Impossible! Who could possibly tame a land dragon?!”
“Hmm, that’s the thing, it’s not tamed but is protecting it willingly.”
The information didn’t sound very credible, but soon I would be living in the forest if I didn’t at least check it out. “Thanks again for the help, old man . . .” I started to say, but when I looked to where the old man stood, there was nothing there. I scratched the back of my head, then shrugged. If I ever saw him again, I would remember him. I stretched, then headed deeper into the forest. A long trip will need some provisions, I thought as I licked my lips.
~~~
Thonaca Kingdom, Jade Sun Port
BOOM!
The sound of an explosion rang out from the docks of Jade Sun Port late in the afternoon. One of the ships anchored there slowly sank as water rushed in through a large hole that appeared in the stern. Unnoticed by anyone watching the scene, a pair of figures slipped out through the water. As the watch restricted anyone from entering the area, they were already long gone.
An hour later
Two people burst from the water along the shore. One was a scrawny man who looked more like skin and bones. He had a metal peg for a replacement leg. Once he reached the shore, he channeled some fire mana into drying himself quickly.
Next to him was a mountain of a man. In fact, he looked more round than tall. If a person saw him, they would most likely assume he was an obese human, but he was, in fact, an orc. A half-orc to be precise. His mother had been . . . taken care of by an orc in the past. She’d survived and decided to raise the child even though it was half monster. That was long in the past, however, and now the half-orc, Chips, was part of the thief duo with Des, the . . . insane Fire mage.
“Chips! We’re rich!” Des said as he jumped on Chips’s back.
“Get . . . off!” Chips said gruffly.
“Alright, alright!” Des grinned as he flipped over Chips’s shoulder and landed in front of him.
Chips slammed his foot on the ground, then a jut of rock shot out, the end flat. It slammed into Des’s crouch. Des’s eyes crossed as he collapsed to the ground. He groaned as he looked back to Chips. “Don’t . . . forget . . . I’m . . . paying . . . you,” he wheezed out slowly.
Chips snorted as if he didn’t care. But without Des, he’d probably be dead in a ditch somewhere. He reached down and grabbed the back of Des’s tunic, dragging him as he set off for their hideout.
“Ah, thanks . . . buddy,” Des said a little more clearly.
They made it to their hideout a few hours later, which turned out to be a hollowed-out tree deep in the forest. Des jumped over the table, then pulled out a bag, which he dumped out onto the table. Mana stones worth tens of thousands of gold shined up at them. Des’s eyes seemed to shine just as much as they did. Chips walked inside and plopped down on a bench against the wall. He looked at Des, then said, “Food.”
Des snapped out of it. “Of course, buddy! I couldn’t have scored these without you, after all.” Clapping his hands happily, he moved into another section of the hideout, which was basically the kitchen. Orcs had a racial curse of never feeling full, but they couldn’t stand going hungry, as it caused them physical pain. Since Chips was a half-orc, he didn’t have it as bad, but he could get dangerous if he didn’t eat often.
Des pulled free a hunk of deer, then quickly roasted it by channeling some mana into a flame around it. He tossed it to Chips when it was not quite so bloody. Chips pulled off the mask he used to hide his orcish heritage, then sank his teeth deep into the meat. He was almost done with the meat when he felt a surge of mana from the ground. Placing his hand on the ground, he channeled his own mana to see what it was.
A few hundred meters away, he sensed a large party of people who seemed to be heading right in their direction. He stood up, then moved over to the table where Des was playing with the stones while he chanted all the things he would buy once they sold them.
“People coming,” Chips said as he grabbed the bag and put the stones back inside.
“Time to blow this joint!” Des said with a wicked grin. He basically ran around the hideout as he pressed his hand against spots at what
seemed to be random. When he was done, he ran outside with Chips and jumped on his shoulders. “No time for fun, we need to split!”
Chips bent forward, then channeled mana into his legs. He took off in the opposite direction of the people closing in on them. They moved like the wind as they put ever increasing distance between them.
A few minutes later, a massive explosion rang out through the forest. When people came later to investigate, they thought a star had fallen, as the crater was nearly thirty by thirty meters. It became the topic of discussions for the weeks to come. The church, of course, denied that it was anything ominous or divine, just an explosion that happened in the middle of the night.
Chapter 23
Louella
The events of the monster horde felt like a nasty nightmare when I woke the next morning. Of course, the surging energy of my changed body didn’t let me think like that for long. I looked my hand over, my eyes tracing the white lines and blue skin. It all seemed so foreign to me.
Regan had told me that it was likely something from a distant ancestor. The thought that one of my parents was related to a being of such great power still left me reeling a bit. Just the thought of having to contain my cultivating area to the dungeon irritated me slightly. I didn’t mind getting help every now and then. But having to rely on someone for my power? This world didn’t take kindly to weak individuals.
I looked around my office. With the town hall still a wreck, I was working from my manor. There was basically an ocean of papers on the ground. They contained all the information on the deceased that I’d had Cassie bring me. I wanted any messages I wrote to be at least semipersonal. I was just sad to see that so many people had died for my valley.
~~~
Four hours of writing messages to the deprived later, I was finally done. I called for a guard and ordered him to have them sent off with priority. He bowed and left with the sack. I smiled when I saw him carry them with utmost care. Stretching, I got up to head over to check on Ezal.
A few rooms down, I found her reading in her bed. She was still recovering from the massive amount of mana she’d used during the battle. She was harshly scolded afterward. By Regan more than anyone. He even told her all the things that could have happened if she’d been even a little less lucky.
“How is the patient?” I asked, taking a seat next to her bed.
“Bored out of my mind. I feel right as rain,” Ezal said with a grimace.
“Regan told you a week. So, you’re staying in that bed for a week,” I said, hiding my grin behind my hand. It was a good thing she wanted to get to work to make sure the town was running smoothly, but I wanted to make sure she didn’t suffer in the process. If something happened to her child that she came to regret . . . either way, I didn’t want that for my friend.
“I know. Just some idle complaining. Did you finish writing your letters?” she asked, looking at me with worried eyes. She did know me better than probably anyone else, even my own family.
“Yes. Quite a few of them had families. Though, I think I felt worse for the ones who were too young to have a family. I’m not sure whether writing to their parents or their lover is worse,” I said with a sigh.
“Comes with the position, my lady,” Ezal said with a mocking bow from her spot on the bed.
“Next time, I’ll let you do it,” I retorted, smacking her with one of her pillows.
Looking down, she said, “Hopefully, there isn’t a next time.”
The room grew quiet for a long moment before Feuer flew in through a crack in the window. He hovered next to her as if checking on her. I found it strangely cute.
“It appears someone else is worried about you,” I commented.
“He does like to check in on me every hour or so. He likes to fly. So as long as I don’t need him, I’m letting him have free rein.”
“Well, I doubt anyone in the valley would be stupid enough to try anything with that weapon,” I said. Feuer’s action of protecting Ezal during the battle when she’d collapsed was well known among the adventurers. I’d received many inquiries on how they might acquire one similar to him. “I do hear you have a bit of a fan club.”
“I know,” Ezal said, then glanced toward a corner of the room. Stacks of candy, flowers, and messages were taking up at least a meter of space. “I’ve gotten three messengers just today.”
“Speaking of fan club, where’s tall, dark, and handsome?” I asked, realizing that Bruce hadn’t been guarding the door. He’d barely left her side since he’d arrived at the valley.
“I was getting annoyed, so I asked him to do something constructive. He’s heading up security until I recover,” she answered, turning to look at the hallway.
“That’s a good idea. Never know what might try to get into the valley nowadays,” I said.
If it wasn’t adventurers, who have more brawn than brains, trying to force everyone to do what they said, it was necromancers that wanted to sacrifice me to some demon for mana. I personally wouldn’t have minded a few days of just . . . calm around the valley. Even that was hard to ask for, as Regan usually made it a point to blow something up every few days.
I just took a deep breath. One day at a time. As long as I was still alive, then there was tomorrow. I rubbed my hands over my arms, a dull ache that hadn’t gone away since the battle echoing in what felt like my bones. Channeling a bit of mana, I was able to ignore the ache for the moment.
I noticed Ezal yawn, and I smiled and patted her arm. “I’ll leave you to rest,” I said and got up to leave. There was plenty of work to do, after all.
Chapter 24
Izora
“Bring the cannon around! We have multiple incoming on the port side!” Captain Shido yelled out his order.
The airship shook from a blade of air that bit into the starboard side from a massive six-winged bird. The gnome soldiers rushed to execute the captain’s order. A moment later cannon fire blasted out, and a corpse slammed onto the deck of the airship.
Some of the crew rushed forward and quickly threw the corpse off the ship. I shook my head, then sent my warhammer flying. Using my mana, I controlled it to come around and plow through three monsters. The spell had a low mana cost but required more concentration than I could afford on the battlefield.
The warhammer sailed through the air and landed in my hand. I saw a swarm of bug monsters in the distance. Kneeling, I channeled my mana into the ship, taking control of the ancient weapons that Regan had helped us repair. They were powerful, but due to the rushed repairs, we couldn’t fire them often.
Focusing on the center of the swarm, I released the build-up of energy. A streak of mana fired from the metal rodlike protrusion on the side of the ship. It crossed the distance in a matter of seconds before it struck the center of the swarm. An explosion of mana formed a sphere from the impacted monster and took most of the swarm with it.
“If we can get even one more airship back to working condition, we would truly command the skies,” Captain Shido said from next to me as we watched the display of power.
“Careful, Captain. That is a dangerous road to take. Especially when we weren’t the ones who achieved this ourselves.”
“I understand. Pardon me.” I nodded and turned back to the battle waging on around us. “Princess!” Captain Shido shouted, shoving me to the ground bringing his sword around as a monster bird crashed on the deck.
~~~
I jerked awake for the third night in a row and quickly rubbed my face with my hands. Ever since I’d come to this valley, I’d seemed to keep getting drawn into things that risked my life. I would really need to talk to Regan about sending more troops here. The problem was the diplomatic issues that would cause.
I was already receiving missives about nearby nobles who wanted to meet with me. Sadly, they only ever wanted one thing: airships. Flying magic was hard to use and unsustainable for long periods of time. Airships gave the warring lords a bigger stick to use against each other while making
the gnomes a nice amount of gold in the process.
I shook my head and turned my thoughts to my current issues. Things that I was dreading when they came to my attention. With Regan’s obelisks, even some of the people on my own crew had been found to be traitors. I didn’t have even a beginning of an idea on how to deal with them. For now, I had the two of them in cells with mana-suppressor cuffs. That would at least stop them from causing trouble.
I knew that war was a breeding ground for issues such as this. The enemy offering people deals or incentives to betray their own, but I’d thought the gnomes to be over this. We were the most magical advanced race on the continent. That came with its own benefits. There were things in Jade Wind that some of the land walkers could never imagine.
I decided to put it off for the day. My feelings on the matter were in disarray, and my mother always told me to make decisions about a person’s life while I was calm. It’d been almost six months since I’d last seen her, given her illness, which made it hard for others to approach her.
I would have to ask about her when the reinforcements arrived from Jade Wind. I rolled over in my bed to try to return to sleep. As I finally drifted off, I could tell another dream was already working its way into my mind.
Chapter 25
Regan
Once everyone and everything had been moved through the portal, I went ahead and closed it. With the condition everyone was in, I’d rather not have a necromancer or large-scale monster manage to slip through and wreak havoc on the valley while they were recovering. Not to mention the fact that I currently didn’t have a way to monitor what came through the device.
Considering the other fact that the valley had already been attacked three times, I decided that some more improvements were to be made. If I had to put out every fire, then there would be no end to it. Louella and her band of adventurers had done well in defending the valley. However, if I hadn’t been there to handle one side of the conflict, it would have followed a much different path.
