by Logan Knight
“Just one,” she said. “It runs along the coast.”
“Then that’s where we need to go,” I said. “If we’re lucky we can beat the army to the road. It’s doubtful, though, as Silverwind probably panicked as they were passing. But we might be able to find some stragglers. It’ll give us an idea of what my people will be up against.”
“What will we do after we find them?” Nadia asked.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I said. “How do you feel? We’re going to be moving fast. Do you think you can keep up?”
“I will not stay behind,” she said. “I will keep up. I don’t have any weapons, though.”
“We’ll find you some,” I promised. “We’ll probably end up taking new weapons from the hands of dead soldiers.”
“Perfect,” she said with a sly smile. “My favorite.”
A few minutes later, we were heading east, toward the road. There were a lot of animals moving about, and they all seemed spooked.
“Are there always so many animals?” Nadia whispered.
“No,” Alena said. “Something has them spooked.”
“Probably the army,” I said. “It happens.”
Nadia did a good job keeping up, but it was clear that she was struggling. She’d spent a long time chained to the inside of a magical box, so it was only natural her endurance would’ve suffered.
We slowed our pace enough for her to keep up, though. There was no way I would leave her behind.
As we traveled, Nadia picked berries, mushrooms, and whatever else she could find that was edible. We didn’t have to warn her which were safe to eat, or which might give her hallucinations. She was well-versed in gathering food from the forest.
“Wow,” Alena whispered, “I guess you gave her quite an appetite, huh?”
I stifled a laugh and shrugged. I doubted it was the sex, but the question amused me.
The sun had just come up when Alena raised a hand, bringing us to a halt. Nadia and I crouched low and carefully made our way across the dry ground and pine needles. We joined Alena in a tangle of vines and bushes where she’d concealed herself.
“This is it,” Alena whispered. “The road.”
Beyond the road, which was only about twenty yards from us, the ground began to become sand. The ocean was another hundred yards beyond that. It made me think of home, though the Kingdom of Dahan was too far away for me to see. I had a small farm and friends. My life had been peaceful, growing crops as best I could in the hard, rocky soil. In the winter, most of my village would sit in the longhouse and drink beer, invent stories, and occasionally fight.
During the fall, Men would leave early in the morning in small boats and return with nets full of fish. The women would cook it for us and set aside a portion to smoke for the long winter when the sea would be frozen. We stored the boats on the shore to keep them safe and hauled them back into the water every spring.
It took a measure of effort to bring my attention back to the current situation, though. I had friends who were counting on me at that very moment.
“Looks like we missed them,” Alena said, her voice full of dismay. “Look.”
Countless booted feet and wagons had demolished the dirt road. The top few inches were nothing more than fine dust. It looked like she was right. We had missed the army.
“Let’s head toward the harbor,” I said. “We’ll keep to the forest, far enough away from the road that we aren’t likely to be spotted, but close enough for us to see anyone using it. It won’t be as fast, but we’ll be less likely to be discovered.”
Alena nodded and started moving, leading the way. Nadia and I followed closely.
We stopped a few hours later to rest. The sun was high, and the air had grown hot and humid. It also stank.
“Low tide is always pleasant around here,” Alena teased. “Dawn Break village is ahead. As far as I know, they’re still loyal to the military. It’s probably only because they’re afraid of being sacrificed if they piss off the priest, though.”
“There is no priest to sacrifice them anymore,” Nadia said.
“We know that,” I said, “but I doubt the few guards who escaped ran around telling people. No, as far as they know, the threat is still real. We’re going to have to go around the village.”
We crept through the forest for a little longer before Alena motioned for us to halt. Nadia and I joined her.
“Look at what they’re doing,” Alena whispered.
“I noticed it too,” I replied. “The villagers are hiding inside their homes and businesses. I haven’t seen a single person on the street. Once in a while, I see a face peek from between shutters, but that’s it.”
“Why do they hide?” Nadia asked.
“Because,” I said, “they are afraid of their own army.”
“People aren’t afraid of your army back home?” Alena asked.
“No,” I said. “We’re an army of the people. We’re farmers, craftsmen, and politicians. Wealthy or poor, all serve. Unlike some armies, we don’t leave home unless there’s an emergency. We train according to a cooperative standard, but we get to live our lives. When a Dahani army marches, the citizens greet us in the streets. They throw rose petals in front of us, wish us a safe return, and promise to watch after our possessions and crops while we are gone.”
“Nobody does that here,” Alena said. “The armies round people up for sacrifice once in a while. They burn the homes of anyone the priests suspect of plotting against them. Things like that.”
“Priests?” I asked. “How many are there?”
Alena shrugged. “At least one per army. Probably more.”
I filed that tidbit of information away for later. “Let’s keep going,” I said.
We traveled for another hour before Alena stopped us again.
“I hear it too,” I whispered. “It sounds like horses and a wagon. It’s probably extra supplies. They might’ve broken a wheel during their journey and had to stop to fix it. We’re far enough from Dawnbreak. Let’s ambush them.”
“I need you to stay here for now,” I whispered to Nadia. “I know you’re a warrior, but we don’t have any weapons for you yet. Also, I think you’re still recovering from being trapped in that box.”
“I understand,” she said. “I can fight with my fists and my feet, but it would not be helpful against an enemy with a sword. I will wait here for you.”
I watched as she selected a thick group of tall bushes, squeezed herself into the center of them, and squatted low. She was nearly invisible.
Alena and I approached the road cautiously. We didn’t want the three soldiers to see us until it was too late for them to do anything about it. The one in the middle held the reigns for the two horses pulling them and the supplies piled high on the back.
Two of the soldiers wore scale male—overlapping plates of metal connected with leather straps. It allowed them to move freely, unlike full plate armor, while still offering nearly the same degree of protection.
The third soldier, however, was dressed differently than the other two. His uniform, instead of being silver and brown, was black. A faint sheen from parts of his uniform revealed that only some of it was made of leather. The rest appeared to be cloth.
The only reason a soldier would dress differently is if he had a different responsibility. He was a specialist of some kind. My first guess was that he was an assassin. He had enough armor to protect him from lucky shots, but not so much that he’d be slowed by it or make too much noise. That one might be trouble.
“That’s a lot of supplies,” Alena whispered. “It sure would be a shame if someone were to, oh, I don’t know, maybe kill the guards and take it all.
“It sure would be,” I agreed. “Let’s kill them and look at what they’ve got. We’ll take what we need, hide some in the woods, and burn the rest. Hopefully, there’s something on there the army needs to cross the ocean. If nothing else, it’ll delay their departure.
“Or at leas
t slow them down as they gather more supplies once they land,” she whispered.
The cart drew closer, but I kept my sword sheathed. I didn’t want the flames to give away my position before we sprung the trap.
I readied my fireball spell, holding the magic phrase in my mind like a bowstring held an arrow. I didn’t like what I was about to do, but there was no other choice. I hoped the horses died quickly. Killing them was the only way to keep the soldiers from escaping.
I unleashed the fireball spell and, for a moment, felt completely exhausted. The magical energy within me dimmed, but I recovered in time to see the foot-wide ball of fire—nearly as bright as the sun—strike the ground in front of the horses. The explosion created a wave of heat that washed over me like a fire through dry grass.
When it was all over a second later, the horses were almost unrecognizable. Their corpses stood for a moment before they fell and broke against the ground, dry bones snapping and splintering as they did.
One guard looked like he’d been leaning forward during the explosion. He screamed and covered his face with both hands. It looked like his gloves and eyebrows had burned away.
The assassin blinked at the remains of the horses and the man screaming in the seat next to him. When I fired an arrow at his head, he withdrew a knife from a collection under his arm and blocked the bolt.
The other soldier jumped from the horse, pulled a shield from his back, and drew a short sword. The way he held himself made it clear he knew what he was doing.
While the man in black began walking to the side—apparently in an attempt to flank me—the soldier spoke.
“You are under arrest!” he bellowed. “You have attacked soldiers of the Xorian Empire! Lay down your weapons and come peacefully. Or don’t, it’s up to you.” The wicked grin on his face made it clear he hoped we would resist. I didn’t want to let him down.
“Be ready,” I whispered to Alena. “The man in the black is going to attack as soon as I move. He’ll probably throw a knife. I’m going for the soldier.”
“No problem,” Alena replied.
I lunged into action and noticed Alena turn to her right to confront the man in black. The soldier crouched behind his shield and waited for me to get close enough to strike. He looked surprised when his sword turned to powder the second he began to swing it. He was even more surprised when my flaming blade passed through his body, turning everything it touched to ash.
I turned to see how Alena was doing and was surprised to find her lying on her back. The assassin was holding her sword to her throat.
“Surrender now, and the pretty lady will live—at least for a while,” he said. “I see you have stolen the priest’s sword. Hopefully, you took it from his body as it slowly cooled in a pool of his own blood?”
“More or less,” I said. “How about you surrender and let the lady up. Or use that sword to cut off your head. I don’t really care which, so I’ll leave the choice to you.”
The assassin laughed. “I will kill her—make no mistake about that.”
“If you do,” I growled, “I’ll kill you anyway. How about you drop the weapon, strip yourself naked, and run into the forest. I’ll even be sporting about it and give you a thirty-second head start.”
Alena turned her head a little toward me and quickly pointed one of her fingers at calf of the leg that was holding her down. I understood what she was asking, and it was a good plan.
I fired an arrow where she’d indicated. The assassin only had a split second to decide whether he wanted to lift his foot to get out of the way of the arrow, stab Alena and receive a debilitating wound, or block it. He chose to lift his foot.
Alena rolled away from him as I charged. For a second it looked like the assassin was going to go after the fleeing woman, but he turned to me instead.
He was fast, and though I thought about turning his weapons to powder, Alena and Nadia would need them later. I didn’t want them to be unarmed.
The assassin countered every attack I made, and we began trading blows, feints, and parries. Every time I slashed at him, he sent my blade wide and countered with a slash of his own.
I parried his attack and retaliated. We began to circle each other, a slow dance of death, accompanied by the singing of clashing swords.
Alena threw a rock at the assassin, but he ducked, never missing a beat in our battle. As the seconds passed, the grin on the man’s face stretched wider, and he began improvising, throwing in moves I’d never seen before.
It was a fighting style I was unfamiliar with, but I adapted quickly and even began using a few of the moves myself. His smile faded a bit.
I broke the routine, dodging a slash rather than parrying it, then whipped my flaming sword around and aimed for his wrist. He dropped his sword and snatched his hand away before my blade could cut him.
Without missing a beat, the assassin drew two daggers and began slashing and stabbing so fast I had to start walking backward to avoid injury. Even though his blades were far shorter than mine, I was having trouble defending myself. There was no way for me to slow the pace or retaliate, and I couldn’t spare the concentration to cast a spell. It was time to fight dirty.
I got my opportunity a second later when I noticed a pattern in the stabs and slashes. I stomped on the assassin’s foot. He cried out and tried to step away but began to stumble instead.
I caught him on the chin with my elbow, which twisted his head around, and I finished him by removing the top of his head, just below his nose. He fell to the ground with smoke rising from his bloodless wound.
I returned to the cart and finished off the suffering guard a moment later.
“Are you okay?” I asked Alena, who was crouching over the remains of the assassin.
“Yes,” she said absently. “That guy was fast. I’m sorry. Also, look at this.”
She held an amulet in her hand, and I could feel the magic radiating from it even though I was still five yards away.
14
I stood in the middle of the dusty dirt road among the bodies of two enemy soldiers and a mostly-headless assassin staring at something I hadn’t expected.
Alena handed me the golden amulet, and I turned it over in my hand, studying its shape and the magic I felt emanating from it.
“It looks like a jester’s hat,” Alena said. “Doesn’t it?”
“It does,” I agreed, “but I’m not sure what it means.”
“Maybe it means the army is going to be hilarious?” she asked with a small smile to let me know she was joking.
Even though I felt the gravity of the situation like a sack of sand on my chest, I found myself smiling back. I appreciated her humor.
“I doubt it,” I said, “but that’s not a terrible guess. The last amulet had looked like a bat. It was a reference to who was in the box. I don’t know if what it looks like matters, or if the creator only did it to add some style. It is a clue, though.”
Nadia joined us a moment later and walked to the assassin’s body. She picked up the separated part of the man’s head and studied it closely.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
“He fought as I fight,” she said slowly. “But he is not of my people. He is not of the Noratari. I believe someone has stolen our techniques and our ways. It is flattering, but it is also disturbing.”
“Why does it bother you?” Alena asked.
“Because it appears that only assassins have been taught the ways of my people,” she said. “I have seen no other soldiers fight the way we do. Only this one. The Noratari were never assassins. We fought only to protect ourselves. We were neutral to the ways of the others and only wanted to be left alone. We held no alliances, and the only reason we entered the war against the Xorians was to protect ourselves from invasion. We fought because we had no other choice. My people died because they had to fight.”
After dropping the partial skull, she stood and studied the rest of the body. “I will take this man’s blades and clothi
ng,” Nadia continued. “He is no longer in need of them. These will suit me well, as they are designed for my style of fighting.”
As she knelt and began unbuckling the man’s uniform, she turned a quizzical eye toward me. “You did not tell me you were a war mage,” she said.
“A what?” I asked.
“A war mage,” she repeated. “A mage who is as powerful with a sword as he is with magic. A mage who can destroy with spells or his hands. Your kind has always been rare. There are always warriors. There were always mages. One who can do both is uncommon. I did not realize I was sleeping with a war mage.” She followed her statement with a seductive smile.
“I like the sound of that,” Alena said as she beamed at me. “War mage. And here I thought you were just a badass. Now I get to brag that I’m sleeping with a war mage, too.”
Both women laughed as Alena joined Nadia and helped her remove the dead assassin’s gear.
“We should take their amulets,” Alena suggested. “At least dig a hole and bury them somewhere in the woods. That way, the army can’t use them. It might be a little thing, but it might help.”
“No,” I said, “we can’t. Eventually, someone will discover their bodies. When they do, they’ll conduct an inventory to see what they can recover. If they don’t find the amulets, they may delay their plans for a day or two at the most. Within that time, they might find us. They’ve already proven they care more for the amulets than they care for their dead. Right now, even if they know we exist, we aren’t that big of a threat to them. The army needs to believe their secret is still intact. We need them ignorant and confident.”
The women nodded thoughtfully for a moment before returning to their task.
“I’ll start going through the supplies on the cart,” I said. “I’ll separate the stuff we can use. Then I’ll throw the bodies onto the wagon, and we’ll burn it all. When other soldiers are sent to find out what happened to them, they’ll find the amulets among the remains. There won’t be enough left to let them know whether or not we took anything else, I’m guessing. And, I don’t even think they would care. I think they’ll believe their secret is still safe.”
