Joran somehow lost his grip and had to roll off the mage before Iregh could capitalize on his loss of balance. Both were on their feet in an instant. Iregh had the misfortune of being right up against the house and Joran took the opportunity to kick him in the shin, making him stumble back so the boy could pin him to the wall, his forearm across Iregh's neck. Joran's other arm came up to ram his dagger into the man's shoulder, but Iregh uttered a spell that stopped the blade just inches away. They both strained, sweat beading on their foreheads. Ky'ara moved to help now that the combatants were still, only to find that sometime during the battle Iregh had blocked her way forward with an invisible wall.
A movement out beyond the closest houses caught her attention and she spared a glance to see what it was. Lauryn was coming towards them. She must've followed Joran. She seemed puzzled as she looked ahead, clearly confused at where he'd gone. Ky'ara gathered a large mass of power and drove it toward the spell hiding them from sight. After two hits the shield shattered, and Lauryn looked startled as they seemed to materialize directly in front of her.
Iregh felt the shift in his power and looked toward her to see what had happened. His eyes slid past her to Lauryn and an expression of shock registered on his face for a moment. The spell holding Joran gave way and before he'd quite registered what had happened, his dagger buried itself in the mage's shoulder. Iregh screamed in pain, and Ky'ara found that her way forward was clear again. She rushed to Joran's side and helped him bind the mage's hands and shove a gag in his mouth. Most mages had to use clearly spoken words to channel their spells, hopefully the piece of cloth would keep him from being able to use magic.
Ky'ara turned to find Lauryn staring at the man with a puzzled expression. She blinked, like she wasn't quite sure what she was seeing, and then her expression twisted into something unreadable.
"It can't be," she whispered.
The restrained mage met her gaze and then looked down as though ashamed. Lauryn seemed to take that as confirmation of her suspicions.
"What are you doing here, after all these years?" she asked, confusion still dominating her features.
"You know him?" Joran asked incredulously. Lauryn nodded, then answered in a low voice, as though speaking it aloud would make it too real.
"He's my father."
Chapter 10: Losing Heart
They made their way slowly through the streets, Joran driving Iregh forward at swordpoint while Lauryn walked beside him, brooding silently.
"You can't just drop something like that on us and not follow it up with more information!" Joran pestered her. "Did you know your dad was the Destroyer's right hand mage?"
She shook her head.
"Did you suspect it at all? I mean, how common can the name Iregh really be? And mages aren't exactly thick on the ground..."
Lauryn rounded on him, fists clenched. "Last time I saw him I was five years old, Joran! When he abandoned me and my mom I didn't know if he'd been killed or just walked out on us. I had no idea he was a mage. After my mom left too, I buried those memories and tried not to think about—"
Iregh jerked to an abrupt halt, turning to look at her with shock. Joran nudged him with the sword, but the man gave him a look of annoyance and stared at Lauryn intently, trying to say something through the gag. Ky'ara met Joran's eyes and then removed the gag, watching the mage warily.
"What happened to Lanya?" he asked the girl. Lauryn glared at him, raising her chin stiffly.
"What gives you the right to know that? You left."
"I left assuming that you'd have your mother to care for you. She would do a better job of parenting than I could anyway..."
Lauryn snorted. "Well she didn't. She went looking for you and never came back. After two weeks without her coming back to get me, our neighbor put me out on the street. I begged for my food and slept curled in a ball behind people's trash for three years of my life because of you!"
Iregh had the grace to look ashamed, but the primary emotion on his face was confusion. "Why would she leave you?" he muttered to himself.
This last comment was too much for Lauryn, and she took the gag from Ky'ara, jamming it back in the man's mouth and tying it firmly in place. Her movements were stiff and jerky. The mage seemed to resign himself to this treatment and allowed himself to be shepherded through the streets, back to where the rebel army had gathered outside the city.
* * * * *
The rebel camp was in chaos. Refugees from the town had been crammed into every possible corner. People scurried to and fro setting up extra sleeping areas, fetching extra supplies, and searching for loved ones separated during the frantic scramble for safety.
It was all giving Calistra a headache...of course, the sleepless night and hot summer sun didn’t help either. Geri had finally obeyed her orders to go lie down but he'd complained the medical tent was crowded and stifling, so he had lain down in the shade cast by her tent and promptly went to sleep. Now she struggled with deciding which was worse—letting an injured man sleep on the hard, lumpy ground, or waking him up to make him move to a more suitable location. In the end she left him where he was. All the more suitable locations were already taken anyways...and besides, she liked having him close.
Since she didn't have the energy to cool her tent with magic, Calistra pulled the flap completely open and secured it, then rolled up the canvas covering the sides a few feet to create as much natural airflow as possible. It wasn't quite as private, but at least she could breathe.
"Your Ladyship!"
She looked up as a scout ran towards the tent at full tilt, heedless of the people who scrambled to get out of his way. He made it to the tent and stopped, hands on his knees while he caught his breath.
"What is it?" she asked in alarm.
He straightened and handed her a folded scrap of parchment, saluting after she took it. Her curiosity piqued, she opened it to reveal Joran's untidy scrawl. "I have a really unexpected gift for you here?" she read. The scout looked startled. She pinned him with a look, and he fidgeted.
"Er, your brother said it was urgent. I'm sorry, I should have verified its contents before bothering you."
Calistra sighed, dismissing him with a wave of her hand and tossing the scrap of paper onto her desk. She needed to talk to Joran about wasting the organization's resources, especially in the middle of an extended campaign. The scout bowed and started to walk away. Calistra turned back to her tent and frowned, taking a step away again. Joran had retraced a few letters to make them slightly more bold than the rest. From up close they hardly seemed different, but from a bit further back they stood out: I...r...e...g...h.
"Wait!" Calistra called. The scout turned back. "Where was my brother when he sent this?"
"Just outside the basecamp at the village."
"Was he alone?"
"He was...but I believe Ky'ara and another girl were waiting for him a little ways off."
"It was just the three of them?" Calistra verified.
"Now that you mention it...they had an injured man with them, likely just one of the villagers. I assumed they were taking him to the medical tent."
"Thank you," Calistra said brusquely. Joran had a gift for her, a man he'd captured....Iregh. She almost couldn't believe it. Had she somehow misinterpreted his message? No, nothing else made sense. Maybe Joran was growing up after all. His code may have been a bit more dramatic than it needed to be, but he'd had the sense to keep Iregh's capture quiet. Who knew whether the Destroyer had managed to seed the refugees with spies or not, but it was better to be safe than sorry. With so many unknowns scurrying around nearby, she wanted to play things close to the vest.
“Have my horse saddled. I’ll be riding with you to the village as soon as I leave someone in charge here,” she told the scout.
He saluted in acknowledgement and headed to the stables. Calistra looked over at the still-sleeping Geri. She groaned, should she bring him? He definitely wasn't well enough to ride, but what if he woke up and she was
gone?
"Calistra?" Jenie's voice interrupted her deliberations.
"Hmm?" Calistra said, looking up to find the woman looking at her with an amused smile on her face.
"I came to have you sign off on requisitioning more food from the supply wagon. We're going to need more than our usual daily allotment to feed all these people."
Calistra frowned. Feeding everyone was going to drain most of their stores. The troll attack had destroyed a good chunk of their foodstuffs and they'd been relying on what they'd brought over in the final shipment from the move. The towns they'd recently taken over were due to send a new shipment in a couple days, but since this was the first time they'd be doing so at the new camp, Calistra couldn't rely on it being on time or complete. It was a bit of a gamble, feeding all the villagers from an unpledged settlement…
"We need to feed them, Calistra. They lost their homes, and most of them already went without breakfast," Jenie said sternly.
Calistra relented and signed the scrap of paper. She didn't have time for these kinds of decisions right now. In a flash of inspiration, she grabbed a square of unused paper and scribbled a note on it, signing it and sealing it with a whisper of magic.
"Here. You're in charge of supplies now: inventory, requisitioning, and determining shipment schedules from the towns."
Jenie looked startled, "Are you sure? I already have enough responsibility coordinating everything..."
"I'm sure. Think of it as a time saver...now you don't have to come running to me for signatures...Also, you're in charge of the camp till I get back." Calistra called a guard over to witness the change in authority, and sent him with Jenie to the storage wagon to explain the change to them.
Finally, after assigning one of her guards to keep her command tent secure and telling him to let Geri know she'd be back later, she was ready to leave. The bureaucracy involved in leading the rebellion sometimes frustrated her, but the idea of letting anyone else make all the decisions was downright terrifying. She might not make the right call every single time, but she certainly tried to. No one else she knew could see all the angles and make the hard call when it was required. But none of that mattered right now. Right now, she had a prisoner to visit.
* * * * *
When Calistra arrived at the village, she surveyed the way her soldiers had set up their command center with satisfaction. They had kept it organized, efficient, and not intruded on the town's space, exactly as she'd trained them to.
The scout led her to the medical tent, and she thanked him and sent him on his way before ducking inside. Lauryn saw her come in and came over to greet her. "So, you got Joran's message?"
Calistra nodded. "Although it took me a minute to decipher it," she admitted ruefully.
Lauryn didn't smile like she'd expected, and only now did Calistra realize that her eyes were red-rimmed, like she'd been crying. "Are you alright?”
"Not really, but it's nothing I can't deal with," Lauryn said stiffly, "Joran and Ky'ara are over in the commander’s tent. They brought the prisoner to the captain after we bandaged his shoulder."
Calistra nodded and followed her directions to the other tent. Joran looked up as she entered. "Finally! Light, what took you so long?"
Calistra raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm busy. And maybe if you'd included more information I would have come sooner. Why didn't you use our regular code?"
"The captains know that code too, and I didn't want it getting intercepted by mistake,” Joran said blithely.
"And it was just too much fun coming up with a snarky way to tell you," Ky'ara said dryly.
Calistra snorted in agreement, while Joran glared at Ky'ara good-naturedly.
"The prisoner is restrained and under guard, what do you want done with him, Ma'am?" Captain Mathan asked, watching their exchange with a slight frown on his face. He probably took offense to Joran’s insinuation that the captains weren’t always informed of things right away. "I can arrange for transport to the camp if you like.”
"Thank you, Mathan, I'd like to question him first, I think. Our own camp is decidedly less secure at the moment; it may be more prudent to keep him here.”
The captain nodded, then saluted and left to attend to other duties. Joran briefly related the story of Iregh's capture to Calistra. She took the revelation that Iregh was Lauryn’s father in stride, though she resolved to keep a closer eye on the girl. Then Joran waved her into the back section of the tent where the enemy mage was sitting calmly on the floor, his hands bound behind his back and a gag tied around his face. This was the man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, potentially including her own parents though she didn’t know that for sure. He didn’t seem dangerous. Then again, neither did she at first glance.
Calistra murmured a brief spell. The walls of the tent stiffened, growing tougher than steel, and the door-flap fused to the walls on either side. Iregh watched with mild interest, his demeanor remarkably calm for a prisoner. Part of her wished he’d offer some resistance...she quashed that thought. Revenge was a dangerous road to travel, and she had bigger responsibilities here.
"Do you know how to cast a magic prevention spell?" Calistra asked Ky'ara. The girl shook her head. "Well then watch closely...it could come in handy someday. At the very least, if I get too tired to maintain it today you can take over for me."
She concentrated, then spoke a carefully memorized string of words and focused it on the man in front of her. He squinted a bit and then made a face like something had stung him. When she was satisfied that he wouldn't be able to use magic to escape, Calistra removed the mage's gag.
Iregh worked his jaw for a moment, looking mildly irritated. "That was hardly necessary, you know. I'm perfectly happy to cooperate."
Joran snorted. "Yeah, right. A few hours ago you seemed ‘perfectly happy’ to slam Ky'ara into a wall."
“Yes, well, I did have orders to follow.”
“Il’esandra’s?” Ky’ara asked.
Iregh looked mildly surprised. “So you’ve figured it out, have you?”
“We know she is the Destroyer, if that is what you mean,” Ky’ara replied.
Calistra cleared her throat. “You may have captured him, but I would like to ask some questions first, if you please.”
Iregh cocked his head to the side. “You know, we knew the leader of the rebellion was young, but no one ever said how pretty you are.”
“Don’t get creepy,” Joran snapped, “Or do I need to bring Lauryn in here to keep you civil?”
“I think you would be punishing her more than you would me,” the mage said blithely, though Calistra thought she heard just a touch of regret in his voice. Interesting.
“You said you are willing to cooperate,” Calistra asked, “Why? Because of Lauryn?”
“Hardly,” Iregh replied, “I barely know the girl.”
"That's because you abandoned her," Joran said through gritted teeth.
Iregh sighed, leaning back on his hands as best as he could with them tied behind him. "She was better off without me, I assure you. I was never cut out to be a father. When Il’esandra offered me a way to study and use magic beyond mere healing—which I've never had a talent for, I must say—I took the opportunity and went to work for her. But she's hardly holding up her end of the bargain now. At least with you I can possibly study some interesting magic, and I'm not being sent to perform menial errands all the time."
"You expect me to believe that you've spent the better part of twelve years doing Il’esandra’s bidding and it's just starting to wear on you now?" Calistra said.
"Working for the Destroyer not as glamorous as it used to be?" Joran taunted.
"Not without Keerason. Without him, I get left with all the—" Iregh started to reply, seeming remarkably unfazed by their sarcasm.
"Wait, back up a moment. What happened to Keerason?" Joran asked.
Iregh gave him a curious look. "Why does it matter to you?"
"Answer the question," Calistra
barked, feeling years of repressed emotions working their way to the surface.
"He's dead. Killed himself to bring back that worthless necromancer for our master." Iregh stated simply.
* * * * *
Sukylar swept his swords to either side, deflecting blows from two different soldiers and sending them stumbling backwards. He followed up with a quick slash to each of their throats as he moved past, leaving a spreading pool of blood on the cobblestones behind him. His blades found another mark, and then another, flashing in the sunlight as they whirled around his head and out in front of him. These soldiers weren’t any harder to kill than others he’d fought, but they were impossible to stop without killing them. There was no middle ground here. The men who advance on him showed no fear, no reaction to the deaths of their companions.
One of the soldiers grunted and swung his sword at Sukylar’s neck. He ducked under the blow and spun sideways, slicing the soldier across the stomach with one sword and shearing through his face with the other. Lunging upwards again, his foot slipped out from under him and he crashed down on one knee, feeling white hot pain lance up through his leg. Something whistled past his cheek, and Sukylar looked up just as a soldier toppled over in front of him, a quarrel buried in his neck. Norika offered him a hand, hauling him back to his feet with strength the belied her small stature. He tested his leg and found he could walk on it, though his knee twinged with every movement. Norika calmly reloaded and shot another soldier while Sukylar gauged his injury.
“You done yet?” she asked, teeth gritted as she nocked another bolt and surveyed their surroundings.
“Why? You got somewhere else to be?” Sukylar asked, raising an eyebrow and looking sideways at her.
“You mean other than here saving your skin?” she taunted, shooting another soldier and then stooping to grab a fallen spear and hurling it at him when her shot missed his throat and caught him in the shoulder instead.
Sukylar reached out to steady her as the action made her overbalance and tumble into him. She glanced upward, meeting his gaze with eyes still wide with surprise. The moment only lasted an instant, but seeing her look so...vulnerable, raised a slew of emotions he wasn’t prepared for.
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