Empty Horizon

by A. C. Cobble

  The companions watched the men for several moments.

  Finally, Ben whispered, “Is there something magical you can do?”

  Towaal shook her head. “We’re too close to Eldred. She might sense any disruption I cause.”

  Ben sighed. “There’s no way around these two, and I don’t see any other choices. We can’t wait here all night. Rhys?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” the rogue said.

  “Wait,” hissed Amelie.

  She pointed and Ben saw a group of men coming down the moonlit road. There could have been ten of them, but it was difficult to tell in the dark.

  The watchers perked up but didn’t act alarmed. As the new arrivals drew closer, the watchers stepped out into the center of the street and waved. Both groups met and held a quick discussion.

  Ben’s party slid deeper into the shadows of a nearby alley and crouched against the wall.

  Eventually, the two groups on the road separated, and the ten men marched into town. They jingled as they walked, and broadswords hung at their sides.

  When they passed, Ben whispered, “Sanctuary men. They look just like the ones in Hamruhg.”

  “It doesn’t change what we have to do,” said Amelie. “We still have to get out of this town, and those men are still in our way.”

  “Rhys,” said Ben, “the lady is right. It’s your turn.”

  He looked back, but the rogue wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere in the alley with them.

  “Where did he go!” exclaimed Ben.

  “He was just here, right beside me,” claimed Amelie.

  “Wait,” advised Towaal.

  Her sense of calm gave Ben some relief, but their friend had vanished into thin air.

  Moments passed, and Ben grew more and more anxious. Then, deep in the town, a bell started ringing.

  Ben stood and peeked out of the alley. Down the street, he saw an orange glow. A building was on fire. A town like Akew Woods was made up of mostly wooden structures, a fire could devastate the entire place. All hands would be expected to respond with whatever buckets or blankets they could bring. They’d work together to douse and smother the flames.

  At the edge of town, the pair of soldiers shifted nervously.

  “What are you two doing!” shouted a voice. “There’s a fire. Come on!”

  The men looked at each other and then called back, “We’re on duty. We can’t leave here.”

  “You ain’t the city watch,” growled the first man.

  He was hooded and hunched over, to all appearances, an old man with back problems. A really old man, thought Ben. Older than dirt.

  “If you don’t get moving, I’ll tell the authorities and you boys are gonna get hung. We need every able body we can get. Hurry!”

  Reluctantly, the guards started down the street.

  “Run, you lazy bastards!” screamed Rhys.

  “Okay, okay, old man,” said one of the guards. They broke into a jingling trot, passing Rhys and heading toward the fire.

  As soon as they were by him, Rhys shuffled down the street, waving for Ben and his friends to follow.

  “We’ve got a few moments at best before they realize there isn’t much threat and come back here,” said Rhys.

  “What did you set fire to?” asked Ben, worried his friend sacrificed a great deal of lives for them to escape.

  “Don’t worry,” said Rhys with a grin. “I followed those soldiers and saw where they were bunking. A score more men were in the common room. All Sanctuary. Behind their inn, I found a completely empty stable. Set up for merchant’s horses or oxen, but the soldiers are taking up the entire inn. I set fire to the hay. The stable is away from other structures, and it was made of stone. The hay went up fast, though. Should be a hot enough blaze to keep them busy, but there were enough of them to put out the flames before anything else burns.”

  “Eldred may suspect something,” worried Amelie.

  “It wasn’t a direct attack on her men,” said Rhys. “None of them should be harmed. No reason to think it’s anything other than a simple accident. At the very least, it’s better than leaving the two watchers with their throats slit.”

  Amelie evidently decided she couldn’t argue with that, and she stayed quiet as they raced down the road. They had to make it far enough to disappear into the rocks before the watchers came back. If they were caught running from town, Eldred and her men would be on them before they had a chance to prepare.

  Six hundred paces of mad dashing and they made it behind the first rocky outcropping that could hide all four of them. They ducked down, and when they caught their breath, Ben peeked over the lichen covered rock at the town. The alarm bells had died down and the glow from the fire seemed to have disappeared. Lights sparkled in several more windows than they had before, but there didn’t appear to be any pursuit.

  “I think we made it,” he said.

  “Now for the hard part,” responded Towaal.

  * * *

  The first shards of daylight were breaking over the rim of the abandoned quarry when they finally reached it. It was a league outside of town, tucked down under a sharp ridge of rock, and formed like a shallow bowl. Trees lined the rim of the bowl, broken only by the road that led into it. Shattered pieces of equipment and seating sat scattered around the edges, giving it an ominous, abandoned look.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone has been here in a season,” said Amelie.

  Ben nodded. “Perfect.”

  “We should rest in the morning then get to work this afternoon. We’ll get a good night sleep after we’ve prepared and then send out the signal. Within a bell of us showing ourselves, I expect Eldred and her men will be here.”

  They slept fitfully that morning then spent the afternoon preparing as best they were able for Eldred. The dark mage was stronger than them, she had an unknown number of soldiers, and they’d already been unsuccessful facing her. On the surface, it seemed like a suicide mission. Underneath, Ben thought they had a decent chance if they could maintain surprise.

  “We still have time to back out of this,” remarked Rhys. “We’ve slipped by her. We could be in the City in a month. She’d never know what happened.”

  They were sitting around a sheltered fire, hidden behind a pile of debris. It was late summer, and they didn’t need the warmth, but something about the flickering flames gave them all comfort.

  Ben shook his head.

  “We have to deal with her sooner or later,” he said. “Besides, if we can’t defeat Eldred, what are we going to do against the Veil and the demons? This road won’t get any easier.”

  “No,” agreed Rhys. “It won’t.”

  “I hope we’re doing the right thing,” worried Amelie.

  “We’re doing the best we can,” assured Ben. “Regardless of the situation, that’s all you can ever do.”

  “You are doing the right thing,” said Towaal. “It may work. It may not. There are unknowns, but there are always unknowns. Managing that, and still being able to make a decision, is the hallmark of a leader. Even if you don’t want to, you’re stepping into those shoes, Ben. Continue to stand up for what is right, continue to make the correct choices, and people will follow you. That’s what we need, and that’s how we must face these next challenges.”

  “You keep pushing leadership on me,” mumbled Ben, picking up a broken spoke from a long-abandoned wagon wheel. He stirred the fire with it, watching the sun-bleached wood blacken in the flame. “I’m not sure I’m ready.”

  “No one is ever ready,” responded Rhys. “You said it yourself. You do the best you can, and that’s all you can do.”

  “If we don’t survive this tomorrow,” remarked Amelie, “I’m glad I’ve been through it with the three of you. When you collected me in Issen, I never could have imagined this journey. Each step along the way, we tried to do the right thing. I can rest peacefully knowing that.”

  “I’m glad we’ve been on this journey together as well,” replied
Towaal. “It took me a long time, but I finally fought the right fight. Win or lose, that is worth something.”

  “We drank some good ales, didn’t we?” quipped Rhys.

  “I doubt there is anyone who’s had as many good ales as you,” chortled Ben.

  Rhys grinned. “If you’re going to go down, you might as well go down doing what you love.”

  Amelie scooted close to Ben and leaned her head against his shoulder.

  “You may as well take it out,” Towaal said to Rhys.

  He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “We all know you and how you think. You’ve got something stashed away, ready for the right moment. That moment is now.”

  Rhys sighed dramatically, then fished a silver flask out of his cloak.

  “I hope this survived the journey,” he said. “I snitched it from the emperor’s library. It’s his private stash, the best stuff coin can buy. There’s nothing like a cold ale, but this should do.”

  “Let me give it a try,” offered Amelie, straightening up and taking the flask from Rhys.

  She opened the top and sniffed at the liquid inside. Smiling, she turned it up and sipped a mouthful. She passed the flask to Ben, who sampled it as well. The liquor was smooth as silk and slid down his throat with a mellow, smoky heat. He passed it to Towaal.

  “Hey now,” complained Rhys.

  “Don’t worry,” assured the mage. “We’ll save a little for you.”

  When Rhys lowered the flask, he eyed it appreciatively.

  “We may have to write O’ecca and figure out where they get this stuff,” remarked the rogue.

  He passed the flask back around the circle.

  Amelie snuggled up to Ben again, and he leaned back on his elbows, glancing at the twinkling stars in the sky.

  “The further away from civilization, the brighter the stars,” claimed Rhys.

  “Really?” asked Ben.

  “It’s true,” acknowledged Towaal. “The ambient light from cities drowns out the light from the sky. In the right circumstances, even the smallest lights shine brightly.”

  “That’s poetic,” murmured Rhys.

  “It’s physics,” Towaal informed him.

  They quieted down and slowly finished the emperor’s liquor. A beautiful evening, fine drink, good friends, and a pretty girl sitting beside him. Despite the looming threat of the next day, Ben had never been so content in his life.

  On the ground next to them, the rogue’s longsword sat in its battered leather sheath. A soft white glow emanated from where the mage-wrought steel poked out. Inside, the runes were pulsing brightly, absorbing the energy from the friends.

  16

  Dark Magic

  A subtle vibration thrummed in Ben’s head.

  “I’m here,” said a familiar voice.

  “We’ve made it past Akew Woods,” responded Amelie. “The Sanctuary’s men were in the city, but we slipped by with no problems. We’ll camp in an abandoned quarry outside of town for a few days, then we’ll leave for the City.”

  “Be careful,” replied Jasper, speaking directly into their thoughts.

  The four companions were seated in a tight circle, everyone with a finger on the thought meld. They were calling out, loudly and clearly, where their location was. Hopefully, they were giving Eldred the opportunity to sense them or even overhear the conversation.

  Amelie left the line of communication open for several more moments and then shut it off.

  “Time to get ready,” she declared.

  They stood and started moving into position. They figured they’d have close to a bell before anyone came, but there was no reason to tarry. Eldred could be closer than expected, or she may have men patrolling the roads who could arrive sooner.

  The sun was high above them, shining down bright and warm. As Ben scrambled into position, he started to sweat. Nerves and the heat had his heart pumping furiously. He piled wet pieces of wood onto their fire and stoked it, building the flames and sending a column of thick grey smoke into the sky. He hoped they had enough fuel to keep it going until Eldred’s forces drew close.

  He glanced once last time at their supplies scattered around the fire and adjusted one of the bedrolls, rumpling it so it looked slept in and natural. Then, he wiggled under a pile of debris, burrowing into the weathered wood and faded fabric they’d scavenged.

  Around the quarry, his friends were hiding in similar piles they’d arranged. All of them were trying to stay calm. It was critical they maintain stasis. They expected Eldred to immediately attempt some sort of attack on the area. If they could harden their wills enough to survive it, they had a chance.

  The fire burned, and their supplies lay staged in an obvious camp. With any luck, Eldred would head straight to it to investigate. They needed her close.

  Ben lay still and silent. He felt beads of sweat dripping down his forehead and back. After a quarter bell, he started to cramp from the awkward position he was in. Slowly, so as not to disturb the debris he was under, he shifted. He couldn’t risk jumping up with a limp when the action started.

  The sun hung above them, pounding them with late summer intensity. It wasn’t as hot as the desert, Ben told himself, but at least then they’d been able to walk around and catch a breeze. Buried and hiding, he couldn’t risk the movement.

  He glanced about the seemingly empty bowl of rock and marked the piles of debris his friends were hiding under. They hoped Eldred’s men would walk down the road and straight into their trap, but it was foolish to assume they wouldn’t be tactically minded enough to send men to surround the area. If anyone came from behind and spotted them, they’d have no chance. So, they hid, buried deep.

  Despite his pounding heart, Ben felt himself getting drowsy in the midday heat. It’d been over a bell, he was sure of it. No reason Eldred and her men shouldn’t be there yet. Maybe Eldred wasn’t really in Akew Woods. Maybe she couldn’t really track them. Had she trailed them to Hamruhg, or had she just gotten lucky? Were those really her men in Akew Woods? He was growing less sure.

  Ben waited. He estimated another bell had gone by. He thought about coming out and conferring with his friends. They were wasting time if the mage couldn’t locate them through the thought meld. Maybe Amelie should try it again and ensure Eldred would have their location. Maybe they should just leave for the City now and try to catch Milo. Ben needed to talk to his friends.

  He glanced around the quarry at the other debris piles. No one was moving. He thought about calling out. Anyone from the road would have difficulty hearing him if he pitched it right. None of his friends were stirring, though, so he stayed still. Another bell passed.

  It was madness, decided Ben. Their plan had no chance of working to begin with. The idea Eldred could track them through the thought meld was based on Jasper’s assumptions and guesses. The ancient mage hadn’t been sure it would work, had he? Ben tried to remember what exactly the man had told them. He was struggling to remain still and in hiding.

  Suddenly, an unexpected, jagged shard of pain ripped through his body.

  It felt like a big man was slowly sawing him in half with a rusty lumber saw. Every muscle clenched uncontrollably. Only the vicious spasm that rocked his chest kept him from screaming. He quivered, imagining each tooth of a saw as it ground through the fibers of his muscles and into bone.

  He closed his eyes, struggling to fight through the pain and to breathe. With stupendous effort, he forced his jaw open and was able to suck in a quick breath. The fresh air gave him hope, and with hope, he began to reassert his will. He focused on his breathing first, taking another ragged breath, feeling the air fill his lungs, then letting it out. From his chest, and back, he concentrated on stasis. They weren’t being torn apart. It just felt like it. It was psychological. It was imposed on his mind, and he could fight it. Bit by bit, he hardened his will and extended it through his body, pushing the sensation of terrific pain down to his extremities, then out.

  He started to push fur
ther then paused. Somewhere, Eldred was directing the attack. Given he was able to fight it off, he guessed she didn’t know where they were and was simply directing her will at the entire area. He concentrated on himself and let her will flow freely around him. She could do her worst to the broken wood and rocks nearby. Let her exhaust her power on nothing.

  As the moments passed, Ben found it easier to maintain stasis. Either the strength of the attack was dissipating, or he was getting better holding it off with practice. He stayed alert, though, in case the dark mage modified her assault. He was fully awake and focused now. He wouldn’t be caught off-guard again.

  Half a bell passed and nothing else happened. Ben could still feel the tension of Eldred’s will pulsing around him, occasionally spiking then receding. He suspected she was exerting her will in sweeping waves, lashing back and forth across the area. No one entered the quarry, though. There was no sign of the mage or her men.

  Ben waited patiently, assured that what they planned was starting to work. Eldred was there, and they had an opportunity to draw her into the trap. None of his friends had cried out and given themselves away. If they’d been able to harden their will like he had, they would be ready for what came next.

  Finally, he saw a soldier appear on the road into the quarry. Tentatively, the man stepped into the rock bowl, edging one foot out first then following with the rest of his body.

  Nothing happened.

  The soldier took another score of steps forward, turned, and waved to someone back in the woods. Ten more soldiers appeared and walked out to join the first. They fanned out and started scouting the quarry, looking for traps, Ben guessed.

  They kicked aside scattered bits of iron scrap and broken chunks of wood. Slowly, the men circled the camp and made their way closer. By now, the fire had died down to smoldering embers, but the rest of the camp was still intact. The men didn’t touch anything. They just looked.

  After a quarter bell of investigation, they waved again toward the woods, and more men streamed into the quarry. Ben swallowed uncomfortably. There were at least forty soldiers in the rock bowl now. Even without Eldred, it was a formidable force.