by Chris Africa
Nita noticed each of them had a wing of the cloak over their heads and shoulders, enough to permit them to spy unseen on the camp below.
"Make no mistake, plenty of women follow him out of fear of magic or loyalty to their husbands," William said. "There is a story about a time when one woman whose husband was a soldier came to Gnarkvetch on her knees. She begged the man to allow her to stay with her husband and to take care of camp chores. Without even looking at her, Gnarkvetch called the husband over in a rage and shouted, 'I thought I told you to get rid of these camp mongrels. Take this one out into the woods and kill it.' "
Nita gasped at the heartlessness, the sheer cruelty. Even a camp dog wouldn't deserve that. "Did he kill his wife?"
William shrugged. "That is where the story typically ends. But there is always speculation he sent her far away. It's what I would have done."
"You would have sent your wife away?" Nita asked with disgust. "Why wouldn't you have backed her up and stood beside her? Even fought with her, for her life? Why stay with a leader who demands that?"
"I mean if I was that soldier and unable to make those choices. I still would not have killed my wife if I could have taken an easier way out. Keep in mind, most of Gnarkvetch's army, including that soldier, see women as inferior and would never defend one. If this man let his wife go, as the rumors say, it was probably the best he could ever manage. He was one of the good ones."
Nita seethed at the thought. Gnarkvetch was worse than a misguided wizard who hated magic. He was a common misogynist. "I need to get closer," she said. "I don't know yet when my magic will fail. We can't fight that way."
"Nita, wait. I have an idea," Cherise said as Nita rose. "Why don't you use your power to float something into camp. Whenever you meet a blocked area, it will just drop to the ground. Right?"
Nita clapped her hands, delighted. "Great idea! Why didn't we think of this before? I'll do it."
"It has to be something inconspicuous, like a leaf," William said.
"Make it something already on the ground at the edge of camp." Andrev popped in beside William. His upper body spilled outside the cloak, but based on their testing of the cloak, he should be invisible to anyone else.
Nita picked out a leaf at the edge of camp and gave it a mental shove, like a gust of air moving it around. There was little wind, so she pushed it along imitating air currents. Whenever a human walked past, she added an extra puff from the air churning around their feet. She swirled it around the feet of a mutt that sat on its haunches and watched with its head tilted. The leaf traveled into the camp, around the cookfire—thank goodness no one noticed the detour—and to a point where Nita couldn't see it.
She scooted back from the edge of the rise and sat up, allowing the cloak to turn her visible again. She recalled each of the leaf's movements, but nothing ever hampered her efforts.
"This makes no sense." The others surrounded her, looking every bit as confused as she felt.
"Ho—what's this?" William pointed at the camp dog which was peeking its head out of some bushes. When they turned their heads, it walked right up to Nita and licked her face. Then it grabbed Chassy's pack and tugged.
"Chassy!" She tried to keep her voice low as she opened her pack and pulled out his clothes. He grabbed them in his mouth and raced back into the bushes to change.
When he returned, back in his human body and clothes, he looked bedraggled. Nita brought him the last of the honey porridge, which he devoured in between grateful smiles.
"Someone should keep watch," William reminded them. "We're so close to camp."
"I'll watch from up there," Cherise said. "I'll drop one of these nuts if I see someone coming."
William eyed the nuts. "Hmm, try to miss our heads."
"But if you make a new plan, count me in!" Then she was up the tree in a flash.
The others huddled around Chassy, as he gave them highlights of his trip, including scaring the men off while he was a giant eagle.
"I wonder what that tooth was from," Nita said.
"I don't know," Chassy said. "Someday I'll return for it. The most important thing is that Gnarkvetch is not in this camp and that's why your leaf trick never failed. His magical suppression unit goes with him everywhere."
"Then where is he?"
"He's gone up the Gorrax Path to meet with the leader of the mountain people. Everyone here in camp fears how it will turn out. Their leader is a woman."
"She also claims to be a goddess, descended from Asa and Erise," William added.
Nita shook her head. "I wonder why a goddess would reject magic?"
"She doesn't reject magic, only humans doing magic. It leads to too many power struggles between men."
"Sounds like Gnarkvetch and these mountain people suit each other well," Nita said. "Are there many mountain people?"
Chassy shrugged. "The soldiers at the camp didn't talk much."
William added. "No one knows. They live throughout the ridges and come together only in times of great trouble. Otherwise, they settle in small villages of a few dozen families. The last time their leader called them together was so long ago those who are living today talk about it like some kind of mysterious legend."
"How do you know so much about the mountain people? Have you been reading too?"
William bit his lip. "They're on my father's trade route. Besides, the resistance has always known about them and sees them as a formidable enemy."
Nita wondered about this goddess/queen, who sounded like her exact opposite. They couldn't help but be enemies under the present circumstances. If Alystra took Gnarkvetch's side, how could they hope to defeat her?
"What should we do now?" Chassy wondered. "Wait for Gnarkvetch to return or go find him?"
In the middle of enemy territory, Nita added silently.
"Let's wait for him to return. Thanks to Chassy's scouting, we know the area as well as we can."
A nut bounced off of Nita's pack, and they all turned to look in the camp's direction.
"For now, we'd better hide." She pulled the cloak around herself and Andrev. Chassy crawled out of his clothes, a camp mutt once more, and William melted into the bush with his hands on his sword.
A pair of guards passed through a short time later, drunk and singing a rather rude tune about a pair of women in a tavern. After that, it was quiet until dark when they all tucked in for a good night's sleep.
39: Chassy
"Come on, it's our big day."
Nita was shaking him by both shoulders. His eyes eased open as the dream faded away, and trees filled his view.
"What day is it?"
"The day we beat Gnarkvetch and deal a crushing blow to his entire anti-magic movement."
"Or die trying," Andrev added rather too cheerfully.
Nita slopped some honeyed porridge into Chassy's bowl and gave him a handful of chestnuts. "Don't be so pessimistic, Andrev. Remember what Mother used to always say, 'Nothing good starts with a bad attitude.' "
"That sounds like something Granny would say too. Well, they weren't fighting wizards. It's easy to say such things when you're an innkeeper's wife or hiding out in a shack in the woods."
"Are you saying Mother didn't know what she was talking about?" Nita turned a scowl on him, and he glared right back at her.
"I'm saying she didn't have the experiences we've had, or she might have been a little more pessimistic."
Chassy wisely kept his mouth focused on eating porridge. Nita finally rolled her eyes and went back to slopping the goop into bowls.
"We could use a little warning before Gnarkvetch arrives," William said. "We want to deliver all the surprises today."
"I've seen no other birds around," Chassy told them. "So we have only our own eyes."
"What about other kinds of animals?" Nita asked as though she had read his thoughts.
"Well, if he's coming from the upper peaks of the mountains, nothing else can see him. Some might hear or smell him but not from so fa
r away," he sighed. "It's okay, I'll do it myself. I'll fly up there and see if he's coming. I'll get back here faster as the bird flies than he will on foot."
William chewed his lip thoughtfully. "While Chassy is watching for Gnarkvetch, I think the rest of us might try to thin the herd down here. Nita, how many people can you hold at one time?"
Nita shrugged. "I've never tried to hold many people at one time. I guess we'll see what happens."
"I'd best be off. It's late enough morning they'll be on the move already," Chassy announced.
While his friends talked about disabling soldiers, Chassy moved behind a tree to transform back into the eagle. Then he extracted himself from the useless clothes, hopped to a clearing where the trees were thinner, and launched into the sky.
At first, he followed a narrow path leading away from the camp toward the mountains. When that disappeared, he continued straight and up. From here, the mountains didn't look quite as large or mysterious. Within an hour, he had found them.
The queen was taller than Gnarkvetch, probably taller than anyone Chassy had ever known. Straight, strawberry blond hair framed a face with thin lips and a narrow, bony nose like Andrev's. She wore Gnarkvetch on her arm like a coveted shawl. She walked surely and swiftly, dragging him along in some places. Her feet knew every crack and stone.
Gnarkvetch stumbled and picked his way carefully. Every few moments, he stepped wrong and nearly plummeted off the edge, saved from certain death by his attachment to the queen. His fur-trimmed, pale blue robes might look impressive in a king's court, but here they stuck to the landscape and swished around his legs inconveniently. His time in the forests and mountains had soiled them, and his hair bunched in a tangled mass at the back like he'd slept on it badly.
Beside the mountain queen, Gnarkvetch seemed a joke of an old man. Chassy reminded himself this 'old man' was a powerful wizard with a large army of his own. He had gained the influence and authority to imprison and kill people without consequence.
Thirteen guards trailed behind, navigating the mountain pass only marginally better than their leader, stumbling in their light armor. The last one in line kept his back to the wall and his arms out flat against the cliff face, as he gradually fell behind his comrades.
Chassy had seen enough. He estimated that at their current pace, it would be another day before they made it back to camp. And he assumed that if they planned to travel magically, they would have done it before now. He turned on his wing and headed back.
40: Nita
Twelve was the number she could hold at one time. At thirteen the holding fell apart.
They stared at her with panicked eyes, a dozen grown men brought almost to tears by temporary paralysis. William, Cherise, and Andrev worked as a team to bind their hands and gag them so Nita could release the magical hold. She had to assume Gnarkvetch could defeat the enchantment without even trying, so they would use conventional binding. They dragged them into the woods, so the camp was mysteriously empty. Unfortunately, there were insufficient herbs remaining to make all of the guards sleep, so they resorted to cloth gags torn from an enormous shirt hanging on a stick near the campfire.
"Where are the rest?" Nita's irritation bled through, but she couldn't help it. She was getting hungry. An eagle circled overhead, dipping and screeching. More men popped out of the bushes, screaming at the apparently attacking bird. But it wasn't an attacker; it was only Chassy, rounding up stragglers.
When they finished, Nita flopped down on the ground, honeyed porridge staring up at her from the bowl in her hands. Without people, the encampment didn't look like much—a handful of tents and a smoldering fire. They had even untacked and loosed the horses, although one loyal boy had opted to stay and now stood munching oats in the middle of the camp. Two dogs circled sadly, looking for their humans.
Nita needed to sleep, so they moved back into the cover of the forest while she napped.
Chassy shook her awake after what seemed like a few minutes. The sun was low, and Gnarkvetch emerged from the trees to peer around the empty camp ahead of him. The lone horse looked up from his munching and meandered over to one of the open-mouthed soldiers flanking the wizard.
"Where did everybody go?" One soldier scratched his head, peering around.
No one could have mistaken the Alystra for anyone other than a queen. She might even be a goddess as she claimed. She was a head taller than everyone else, her hair flowing past her waist. Her skin was ghostly pale, and her eyes looked like flecks of blue sky. She had a fine, wiry frame but not frail. Her hand rested on the hilt of a plain-looking sword Nita assumed was anything but simple.
"It's good I've sent for my own soldiers since yours have deserted you," she declared. She sounded unsurprised, like a woman accustomed to planning for such things.
Gnarkvetch stood beside her, appearing for all the world like an overdressed and confused grandfather. His white hair puffed out around his wrinkled, sagging face. But those eyes! Chassy shuddered to look at them. His rheumy, yellow eyes searched the woods, but if he saw the friends through the trees he gave no indication. His eyes narrowed, and with a sour twist, he growled, "My men are not deserters. Can you not see, woman, there is something wrong here? They have sabotaged us."
Nita cupped her hand and tried to call a shield around them, but nothing happened. Looking sideways at Chassy, she saw his face was drawn into a concentrated grimace and guessed he was having trouble connecting with the animals in the camp.
The contingent that had come down from the mountains with them surrounded Gnarkvetch in a semicircle: thirteen soldiers and three young men in robes, who were undoubtedly wizards.
"We should attack now, before the queen's soldiers arrive," Nita whispered in Chassy's ear. "We have the advantage of surprise. We can do it."
She spoke with a confidence she didn't feel. Did Cherise even count? She had never seen the girl fight, even after she gained the rapier at the warehouse. They also had to determine how to turn off the magical suppression, or he would have them at a critical disadvantage. But waiting for the queen's own soldiers to arrive would doom them for sure.
Then she had an idea. Reaching into Chassy's pack, Nita tugged out the little pouch she had almost forgotten. She removed the Amulet of Hope and pulled it over her head, not even knowing whether it would work under magical suppression. Wouldn't the gods have accounted for that when they created it?
"We have to try everything." She felt brilliant and stupid. She did not understand how to control the thing, but it was now or never.
Chassy's expression went from shock to amazement.
Before she could have second thoughts, Nita leaped up and rushed out of the bushes. There she stood, alone in the middle of a deserted camp, with an evil wizard and a smirking mountain queen. Her confidence fell away.
"It's the Silver Sorceress!" yelled one soldier. "Attack!"
Gnarkvetch held up his hand to forestall him. A smile played around his wrinkled old lips.
"Well met, sorceress," he called to her. "Are you here to surrender? Prepared to end this foolishness?"
"I'm ready to stop the madness," Nita replied, "but not by surrendering." She talked forcefully, trying to control the quaver in her voice. She raised her rapiers to the ready position. They felt suddenly heavy, after so long out of use. "Queen, this man has murdered innocents. Be sure you choose your affiliation wisely."
"This man is cleansing this world of magic, as the gods intended. I stand by him." Alystra sauntered forward, with her hand on the hilt of her sword. "You are the abomination the gods were trying to prevent."
Out of the corner of her eye, Nita could see her companions gathering around her, and she felt comforted. She reminded herself they had fought bandits and survived the sabotage of friends. She had taken down Lyear with a vase, for goodness' sake. They could do this.
Then Andrev stepped forward. Not the angry, scowling Andrev who wanted to storm away and escape these annoyances. This Andrev was calm. He momenta
rily closed his eyes and breathed. In that breath, she could see his control. This was an Andrev she'd never met before, or at least one who had been in hiding.
"You're wrong, Grandmother," he said. "Nita is exactly who the gods intended her to be."
Nita's head whipped to look at him directly. Did he mean to insult her by calling her a feeble old woman?
Alystra sneered. "Grandmother? This old coot might be your grandfather, but I think I would know if you were my grandson."
"Not if my father and mother had left the clutches of the mountain clans before I was born," Andrev said. "And then my mother gave birth in a place protected by the Spell of Mysteries."
Alystra pulled back as if he had slapped her. Nita looked between them and could see the truth. Andrev was her descendant—a much thinner, bonier male version, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
"If that is your origin, then you are also an abomination," she hissed, "and no family of mine."
Her sword glided from its sheath without a sound, and she held the hilt to her head in a mock salute. The blade was like a sliver of ice but glowed from within as if sown with moondust.
Godsilver.
"The queen who would deny all magic wields a weapon of godsilver?" Nita almost laughed at the irony.
Gnarkvetch's eyes widened, and he stepped back. "Alystra, you cannot!" he shouted. "The suppressors—"
"I have disabled your suppression devices for the moment." Once focused on Nita, her eyes now concentrated on Andrev, narrowing as if sizing him up. "It takes power to defeat power, wizard. You, of all people, should know that. With this sword, I can drain this sorceress's body of godsilver and eliminate this threat to your grand plan. But I can't do it without magic. Isn't that what you want, old man?"
"But how?" Gnarkvetch stared in horror. "How did you disable the suppressors?"
Ignoring him, Alystra, took several casual steps toward Nita—one, two, three steps. And before she could react, the sword sliced through the air, connecting with Nita's arm. Nita cried out, falling to the ground as pain rippled up into her shoulder. It felt as though the queen had hacked it off up to the shoulder. It was only a bruise—no blood—but the area around the injury was clear of silver, like a giant white scar.
