by Kody Boye
“For one,” Carmen said, “there was only a little bit of blood at the scene.”
“And for two,” Stella added, “there’s no point in kidnapping someone unless they want something in exchange.”
“Which would probably be gold.”
“Or something comparable.”
“Which means there most likely are hostages,” Carmen said. “I mean, gosh—has anyone been back to the farmhouse to see if a written statement has been left?”
“No,” Ignatius said. “Look, Carmen. Cabarra’s lead is a good one. And one we can definitely use to our advantage. But until we know for sure that there are people there—and have some kind of substantial, verified proof from an expert spy employed by the king, we’ll just have to wait and—”
Downstairs, the door burst open. A series of footsteps, followed by a shock of red hair, signaled the arrival of the Beneview twins. “Sir,” Adrian gasped, panting, the color all but gone from his face. “We’ve just received a dispatch.”
“From who?” Ignatius frowned, stepping forward and taking hold of the man’s shoulders when he couldn’t respond, as so out of breath he was he could barely stand. “Goddammit Adrian. Tell me what’s going on now before I—”
“Sir,” Anna said, cutting him off before he could finish. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but… it’s probably best if you come and see this for yourself.”
Nobody moved. Nobody blinked. Nobody breathed.
The look on Anna’s face said it all.
Something was wrong.
Chapter 8
The decapitated head was still fresh as it could be. Weeping blood and only just beginning to lose its color, it rested near the northern gate and was guarded by several men who wished to keep its presence as hidden as possible.
“What happened?” Ignatius asked as the five of them approached.
“It was launched over the wall,” one of the guards guarding the head said. “At first we thought it was something falling from the sky, but then we saw the blood and knew something was wrong. We tried to stop the person who threw it, but they were too fast and disappeared down the road.”
“Has anyone gone after them?” Ignatius asked, the growl in his voice deepening as he spun to look at the guards. “By God, why isn’t anyone out there already?”
“Because of this,” someone replied.
Carmen turned.
A single guard held within his hand a bloodied scroll of parchment.
Ignatius reached forward, opened the scroll, and began to read.
Carmen, and the rest of the Watch, waited with bated breath.
Ignatius’ face soured a few short moments later. “It says,” he started, “and I quote, ‘That we, of the Fifth Battalion—and only of the Fifth Battalion—are to deliver fifty golden coins to the abandoned Doroborian Mines within the next three days. Otherwise they will kill every prisoner and dispose of their bodies.’ It’s been signed by a Xaspraine Paddox.” Ignatius raised his head to look at the nearby guards. “Has the king been made aware of this?”
“A message is being dispatched as we speak, sir.”
“Good,” he said, turning to face Carmen, Stella, Anna and Adrian. “Where is Colby?”
“I don’t know,” Adrian said. “Last I saw he was with Carmen.”
“And I don’t know where he is now,” Carmen replied.
“Somebody find him!” the leader of the Fifth Battalion barked. “We need to prepare to leave. Now!”
Adrian and Anna immediately turned and disappeared into the city streets.
“Sir,” Carmen said, drawing forward while trying her hardest not to look at the dead man’s face. “Are you sure the king will be willing to barter that much money with them?”
“I don’t know,” Ignatius replied, reaching up to run a hand through the stubble on his chin. “At this point, time isn’t on our side. We can’t afford to wait any longer than we have to.”
“But if they don’t get their coin—”
“They’ll kill the prisoners. Exactly. Which is why I’m wholly prepared to make a withdrawal from the treasury myself if the king isn’t quick enough to respond.”
“Someone’s coming,” Stella said, raising her hand to point.
Carmen lifted her head just in time to see a courier speeding toward them, his feet seemingly flying through the air as he crossed the considerable distance in great bounds and leaps. He came to a direct halt before the group and extended a piece of parchment to Ignatius. “For the watch,” he said, then withdrew a pouch which crinkled as it shook from his side. “For the ransom requested.”
“The king can’t afford to lose those farms,” Ignatius said as he crumpled the piece of parchment and shoved it into his pants pocket. “And we can’t afford to waste anymore time. Stella, Carmen—suit up. We’re leaving as soon as Anna, Colby and Adrian get back.”
“Yes sir!” Stella said.
Carmen looked back at the head on the ground before turning and starting toward the tower.
Judging by the map, they would have just enough days to reach the cave systems before their time ran out.
Who knew what they would face once they left.
- - -
“What’re we going to do if we’re outnumbered?” Colby asked as they wandered through the darkness, guided only by the sunstones now attached to Ignatius’ halberd.
“We exchange the gold, take the prisoners, and leave,” Ignatius said. “It’s as simple as that.”
“I’m not talking about the exchange,” the man replied. “I’m talking about if we’re walking into a trap.”
We’re not walking into a trap, Carmen thought, but chose not to voice her thoughts and instead tightened her hold on her mount’s reins.
It seemed awfully convenient that she would receive a map from Cabarra at almost the exact same time the head was vaulted into the city limits, but who was she to think of serendipity? She’d been gone for hours—had, with Colby at her side, spent the day perusing the streets and the fantasies within them. That note could’ve been delivered at any time during the day and she’d’ve been none the wiser.
But still…
She shook her head and drew her mount up alongside Ignatius, who merely looked down at the map in his hand as he studied the terrain around them.
“Are you thinking what I was just thinking?” Carmen asked.
“That it’s awfully convenient that you received this map at the time you did?” Ignatius asked. “A little, yes.”
“Do you think Cabara is in league with the bandits?”
“Why would she be?” Ignatius asked. “Do you have reason to suspect she is?”
“No,” Carmen said. “But still… it’s a bit uncomfortable, the sequence of events and all.”
“Let’s just take this up to chance and say that neither event is coordinated. We were likely to have received intelligence within the next day anyway. The fact that it was purposely brought to us only shows that they had a plan in mind.”
“To lead us away from the city?”
Ignatius did not reply.
Though Carmen knew her idea had some merit, it didn’t make sense in the grand scheme of things. If Cabara truly were in league with Xaspraine’s band of bandits, then what point would there be in sending them away from the city? They couldn’t be planning an attack, because the Fifth Battalion had no dealings with defending the perimeter, nor would diverting them from the roads do much good unless they planned to walk directly toward the city, which Carmen found highly unlikely. They’d be shot down before they even got close, so why she was being paranoid she wasn’t sure.
“It just feels odd,” she mumbled to herself. “That’s all.”
“Very odd indeed,” Ignatius replied.”
“Taengwa,” Anna said.
The creatures—who resembled stalactites in figure but whose ears and jagged elbows revealed them to be otherwise—roosted overhead, mimicking the aspects of nature so perfectly that Carmen would not have
noticed them had their sharpshooter not called them out.
The Dwarf raised her rifle and fired.
The creature screeched as it was knocked from its perch on the cavern’s ceiling and to the ground.
“Do you see any more?” Ignatius asked.
“No,” Anna said. “Not yet.”
“Keep an eye out. We’re getting awfully close to their breeding grounds.”
“I know. Don’t worry.”
Carmen craned her head down at the creature as they passed, taking note of its bat-like body and the wicked talons and fangs that armed its person. Though she could see no eyes, as they were likely unneeded in its subterranean existence, she didn’t doubt that it had heard them coming and had anticipated their arrival.
She turned her head up to the rockface above them, then looked out at her side—where, in the distance, she could just make out the fading remnants of the farmlands.
They could’ve watched them for days and they’d’ve never known, she thought with a sigh.
It didn’t matter.
The caves would soon be upon them, and with them the people they were meant to save.
- - -
The quiet was what unsettled Carmen as they began to enter the territory specifically mentioned in the scroll delivered by Cabarra. Deathly silent save for the distant hum of bugs and the bats that pursued them, Carmen scanned the nearby path for any sign of habitation—knowing, without a doubt, that they were already being watched.
“I have that feeling,” Carmen said, drawing her hand along the hilt of her mace.
“We’re being watched,” Ignatius said. “That much is already for certain.”
Though Carmen knew Anna was desperate to lift her blunderbuss from its place in her lap based only on the woman’s twitching fingers, she didn’t. Instead, Anna continued to survey their surroundings—particularly the higher aspects of the ground where they were most likely already being targeted by the men and women who had deemed society too unfit for their own liking. She scrutinized these fixtures—from stalactites, to boulders, to clusters of rock—with great interest, but never for more than a few moments at a time. Her eyes were always wandering—searching the next great threat.
“Hail!” Ignatius cried, cupping his hand over his mouth to amplify his voice. “I am Ignatius Armstrong of the Fifth Battalion, arriving in place of King Oorin the Twenty-Seventh. I have in my possession the ransom you requested for the men and women of the Plainsview homestead. What say you?”
No response came.
Ignatius waited—hand braced to his mouth, eyes scanning the perimeter. He reached down and was just about to take hold of the satchel filled with gold at his side when a shot rang out.
Colby was struck in the head.
“COLBY!” Carmen screamed. “COLBY!”
“GET DOWN!” Ignatius cried, throwing himself from his mount and rolling on the ground until he came to rest behind a crop of rocks.
Carmen didn’t hesitate to jump from her mount and run to Colby’s side, despite the barrage of gunfire that was going off around her. She grabbed his lifeless body and dragged it with her, watching the stream of blood follow through her haze of tears, until she and the rest of the group were situated directly behind the rock Ignatius had taken cover behind.
Anna fired a shot.
Someone cried and fell from the high ledge.
“There’s too many of them!” the sharpshooter cried as their mounts took off into the nearby caves. “I can’t take them all.”
“DO SOMETHING!” Stella cried.
Carmen fingered for Colby’s pulse—desperate to find a heartbeat beneath the sheen of gore covering his neck and collar—but knew it was fruitless even when her hand fell to the flesh. The bullet had entered his forehead, the back of his skull was mostly gone. All that remained was the shocked expression of a man who had not even known he was about to die.
No, Carmen thought, sobbing, bowing her head into the man’s chest as Anna continued to return fire at their assailants. It can’t be happening. Not again.
“His gadgets,” Adrian said at her side.
“What?” Carmen sobbed.
Adrian pushed her aside and began to rummage through the many satchels and pockets along Colby’s vest, desperately searching for something that they could use to better defend themselves. At last he pulled from within one a cylindrical red stick with a long wick attached at the end of it.
“Dynamite?” Stella asked through the screech of attacking and returning gunfire.
“We have to do something,” Adrian replied, continuing to search through Colby’s pockets until he withdrew what appeared to be a book of matches. He opened the book, struck one, and watched as the phosphorous glowed to life. “Everyone get down. Now.”
Carmen ducked, covered her head with her hands, and waited for the inevitable.
One second passed, then two.
Shouts predicted the coming chaos before an explosion rocked the world.
The ground shook, the air stank of explosives, the cries of dying men filled the world around them.
Anna shot up, fired several times with her blunderbuss, then returned to cover before she peeked back out again.
Carmen raised her head. “Are we… safe?” she asked.
“They’re gone,” Anna said, scanning the perimeter one final time. “Adrian always was a good throw.”
“Colby,” Carmen said, sobbing as she looked down at what remained of the man. “Oh poor Colby.”
“We can’t stay,” Ignatius said. “We have to leave—now.”
“But what about the pigs?” Stella asked.
“And Colby?” Carmen sniffled.
“We can’t do anything about either of them,” Ignatius sighed. “They’re gone.”
Carmen bowed her head, closed her eyes, and sobbed.
Why did this keep happening to her?
Why did the people she care about have to die?
Reaching down, Carmen snaked her hand beneath Colby’s armor and removed the pin from his uniform.
As she brought it to her chest—to the delicate flower of misery above the swell of her breast—a bout of rage consumed her.
They wouldn’t get away with this—not while she was still alive.
- - -
They walked on foot, just the five of them, from the snaking passage that would have once led to the bandits but not only led to a desecrated field of bodies and blood. Numb, emotionally, and unsure whether or not she could conjure a feeling if she even tried, Carmen kept her gaze set dead ahead of her and tried not to think of her friend’s final moments.
He didn’t even know, she thought, sighing, the tears that had once burned at her eyes no longer able to come. It just… happened.
Boom.
Done.
That was it.
Kablam.
One shot was all it had taken to end the life of a brilliant man.
It could’ve been me, she then thought as she looked down at her hands, which were pale as a sheet and devoid of anything save the impressions where she’d balled them into fists. I was right next to him.
Then why hadn’t it been her? Had the shooter aimed too wide? Had he not even aimed for her at all? She was the one who was visibly armed—who, with her mace at her side and the shield upon her back, displayed a warrior’s aptitude. Was that why she’d been spared? Because they’d considered her heavily-armored self too risky of a target?
It doesn’t matter, she thought.
The only thing she could be thankful for was that Colby had died quickly, and, hopefully, without fear in his heart.
“I’m going to kill them,” Carmen mumbled.
“What?” Stella asked, her voice somber as she drew closer. “Did you say something, Carmen?”
“I said, ‘I’m going to kill them.’”
“They’re not going to get away with what they did,” Ignatius said. “To the people or to Colby.”
“This was a diversion,” Carmen
then said. “A setup.”
“But by whom?”
“Cabara.”
“Cabara?” Ignatius frowned. “But why would she want to lead us away from the city? Unless,” the man started, then stopped before he could finish. “They wanted us off the roads.”
“So whomever they wanted to approach the city could do so without running into us.” Carmen stamped her foot and kicked a nearby rock into the distance. “That fucking bitch! I swear. If I ever see her again, I will grab her hair and rip her head off with my own two hands. God motherfucking dammit! FUCK!” she screamed. “FUCK!”
“Carmen,” Anna said, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. Everything’s going to be all right.”
“Everything’s going to be all right?” she laughed, spinning to face the red-headed woman. “What do you mean, everything’s going to be all right? They killed Colby. They’ve done Gods know what with the people they took captive. And us… we’re left to wander the Far Roads on foot while whatever happens in Dorenborough happens.”
“The guards are capable,” Ignatius said. “We shouldn’t worry.”
“It’s not the guards I’m worried about,” Carmen replied. “It’s whomever’s inside to let the people in.”
No one responded.
Rather than continue further, Carmen turned and continued on toward where she knew Dorenborough lay—silently, aggressively, and without pause.
She knew what she had to do.
She would find Cabara.
And kill her.
- - -
The guards at the gate were quick to inform them that they were already too late.
“Too late?” Ignatius asked as he conversed with the guards on the outer wall. “What do you mean we’re too late?”
“They’ve already pulled off their heist,” the guard said. “Xaspraine and his gang slipped into the city and robbed the bank of Dorenborough. There was nothing we could do.”
“What do you mean nothing? Of course you could have done something.”
“Not against a mage we couldn’t.”
Carmen paled. “What?” she asked, stepping forward to speak for the first time since they’d arrived.
“Xaspraine walked into the bank and threatened to set the whole place ablaze if they didn’t hand over the gold,” the guard continued, then grimaced before saying, “He set a teller on fire to prove it.”
