Heretic Spellblade 2

by K D Robertson

“Don’t worry too much about Alice,” Anna said. When he looked at her, she shrugged in return and gave him a cryptic smile. “You have a war to worry about.”

  “And that’s why I don’t think the negotiations were a complete failure. Torneus admitted in front of the other regents that he was manipulating them, and that he was behind everything,” Nathan said.

  “I wouldn’t call what he said an admission of guilt,” Leopold said.

  “He called everybody in the room a pawn in a chess match, Leopold.”

  A pause. “True,” Leopold said.

  “In the end, there’s likely to be a serious chink in the Regency Council that we can—” Nathan was saying when there was a knock on the door.

  Everybody turned around. Given how important their meeting was, it seemed highly unlikely that they were being interrupted by a servant for anything trivial.

  Sen stepped over and opened the door.

  A pale-faced beastkin knight stepped in, his silken horse tail hanging low. He gulped when he saw who and what he was interrupting. His breastplate clanged with a sharp salute.

  “Bastion, I have something to report,” the beastkin said, eyes unfocused.

  “Relax,” Nathan said. “What’s happened?”

  “We, uh, can’t get through to Fort Taubrum, sir,” the beastkin stuttered.

  The mutterings behind Nathan stopped, resulting in a deathly silence. He gestured for the soldier to continue.

  “The wireless doesn’t work. The captain told Mikael to try the mirror, and it took ages to find, but—” the beastkin began to blather, and Nathan let him get it out of his system.

  “So, you couldn’t get through to Fort Taubrum using any of our magical communication methods?” Nathan confirmed.

  The beastkin blinked. “That’s right, sir. You, uh, don’t seem concerned.”

  “I’m the Bastion. It’s my job to handle situations like this,” Nathan said. “And I don’t think it’s as bad as you fear.”

  The beastkin glanced past Nathan with a quizzical look. Then he looked back at Nathan. Something ran through the soldier’s mind, and color began to return to his face. He snapped off another salute.

  “What are your orders, sir?” he asked, voice certain again.

  Truthfully, Nathan didn’t know. He needed to exude confidence, because doing anything less was a recipe for disaster. Right now, he knew that his officers were doing their best to keep his soldiers busy, but they would be panicking as well.

  As far as his soldiers were concerned, Fort Taubrum had just been taken by the Federation. A fortress that couldn’t be reached by any form of communication was under heavy siege, and given this was winter, there was no way for Nathan to rally heavy reinforcements in time to save it.

  But was that really the case?

  “Sunstorm,” Nathan said.

  “I’ll check the gateway,” she said, rising to her feet and vanishing with a glimmer of her onyx gem.

  “Sir?” the beastkin soldier asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nathan said. The gateway was a secret from most of the soldiers in Gharrick Pass, in order to prevent it from leaking to the Federation. “Have you tried contacting Trantia? Forselle Valley? Or any other positions on the far side of Gharrick Pass?”

  The beastkin furrowed his brow in thought. “Kinda, sir. The captain tried to check with some of the forts and supply posts near Fort Taubrum. No answer, either. He figured…” he trailed off.

  “But not Trantia or anywhere else on this side of the pass?” Nathan asked.

  “No, sir.” After a few moments, the beastkin’s eyes widened. “You think this is some sort of equipment failure? Like what some of the veterans say about the, uh, leyline stuff.”

  “Leyline disruption. It’s more likely than the Federation sweeping in and capturing everything west of Gharrick Pass overnight, without a single message reaching us.” Nathan gave the beastkin a sardonic smile and received a relaxed grin in return.

  “Right. Yeah, that makes sense, sir.” A pause. “So, what now?”

  “Go back to your captain and have him try to contact Trantia and other positions this side of the pass. Sen will take over, so relay anything through her,” Nathan said.

  “Sir,” the beastkin said. He snapped off a salute and ran off down the corridor.

  “Should I go?” Sen asked a moment later.

  Nathan closed the door and shook his head. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to process what he had heard. There wasn’t much, but he already had a hunch as to what was happening.

  It’s not like there were many other possibilities. And he had experienced this far too many times.

  The issue was that the timing was uncannily good for the Federation to be a coincidence.

  Nathan stared at the lamps. They had flickered earlier, hadn’t they?

  “If this is leyline disruption, shouldn’t we be mobilizing everything in anticipation of an imminent assault?” Anna asked. Her wine glass was firmly on the table, out of reach. The same went for every other glass of alcohol in the room.

  Nobody was drinking anymore. Seraph poured cups of strong black coffee in the corner. Idly, Nathan wondered if Seraph already knew what was happening. She knew the sorts of things that Torneus would pull and was knowledgeable about binding stones and leylines.

  “He doesn’t think this is leyline disruption,” Leopold said darkly.

  “Eh?” Fei squeaked. “But didn’t you say…” Fei trailed off, her face falling as she saw Nathan’s expression and realized she had fallen for the confidence trick he had used on the guard.

  “Leopold’s right. Leyline disruption is impossible,” Nathan said.

  “Why?” Anna pressed.

  Vera chipped in, “Because it happened too fast. It took months for Sen to shut down communication between us last time. The wireless worked perfectly yesterday, but it’s inoperable today? That’s not leyline disruption. Something much bigger happened.”

  Sen’s eyes widened as something clicked in her mind. Her jaw dropped. “No, is this…”

  “Go on. I’ll be impressed if you get this,” Nathan said.

  “It’s a cascade, isn’t it,” Sen whispered. “You’ve explained that leyline disruption produced effects similar to it, and that reverse cascades happen because of it. So, if something big is happening at once to knock out magical communication, that means a huge surge of magic is running down the leylines.”

  Leopold let out a low whistle. “I see why you chose her as the ifrit’s vessel. Assuming that the ifrit didn’t tell her the secret.”

  Sen shot him a dirty look. “He didn’t. Although he did confirm my suspicion once I thought of it.”

  “Yes, this is a cascade,” Nathan explained to the rest of the room. “Somewhere nearby, demonic energy has overflowed from a portal and washed down the leylines. No, maybe not even nearby. For all we know, the cascade could stretch across the entire eastern border of the Empire.”

  “That would be the largest cascade in centuries,” Leopold said. His eyes narrowed.

  “We don’t have any idea where it may have come from.” Nathan tapped his head. “We need to check. While we wait for Sunstorm and the guards to report back, we have another method. I’ll check my binding stones. Leopold, you…” he trailed off.

  Leopold’s eyes had already glazed over. The old man was already in his mental world, checking on his binding stones.

  “Yeah, do that,” Nathan muttered.

  Seraph smirked at Nathan. The rest of the room looked confused.

  Ignoring them, Nathan dove into his binding stones. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for.

  The flow of magic through the leylines around both of his binding stones was like a natural disaster. An avalanche was the most appropriate comparison. Energy roared through the leylines from the north, shredding the delicate balance of magic in the world. Many smaller leylines were completely overwhelmed and had been reduced to noise.

  So
uth of the binding stones, the surge was muted. Fort Taubrum still had fairly significant flows pouring out of it, which suggested it wasn’t stopping the cascade dead. Binding stones to the south and east would feel the effects of the cascade. That meant invasions would be triggered in the Federation.

  But Gharrick Pass was like a sponge. Not a single drop of energy appeared to escape it. The leylines around the binding stone were frizzled and useless from the sheer concentration of energy, but nothing was wrong even a mile or two south of the fortress.

  “This is bad,” Nathan gasped as he returned to reality. “Really, really bad.”

  “Bad does not begin to describe this,” Leopold muttered. He glared at his coffee and reached for his flask. Before he could pour it into his coffee, Seraph grabbed his hand.

  “Perhaps you should remain sober,” Seraph said.

  The old man glared up at her, but her iron grip remained in place. He relented. The flask returned to his hip.

  “Forselle Valley and almost every binding stone under my control has been hit. Everything north of Gharrick Pass, and as far east as Aleich. I suspect even Bastion Maylis’s binding stone in Aleich has been hit.” Leopold cursed. “The only possible cause is that the portal in the Spires has suffered a cascade. That has never happened before. They have a trigem Champion. What could possibly cause them to close their portal early?”

  If Nathan was being generous, then a Messenger could.

  Realistically, there was only one option.

  “Torneus,” Nathan and Seraph said at the same time. They looked at each other and grimaced.

  Leopold’s eyes closed. “I had hoped you wouldn’t say that. Nathan, you accused Torneus of working with the Council of Aurelia. That sounded baseless at the time, but this confirms it. Do you know what this means?”

  Oh no.

  “I don’t,” Nathan lied.

  “A cascade of this magnitude could cause untold devastation. If I wasn’t preparing for open war with the Federation, I wouldn’t have the Champions in position to stop so many invasions at once,” Leopold said. “The entire eastern border of the Empire would fall. And with that…” he trailed off, his expression darkening.

  “Aleich,” Nathan said. He knew what came next.

  History was trying absurdly hard to correct itself. Somebody, or something, really hated what Nathan was trying to do.

  “Nathan, you seemed a little too worried earlier,” Seraph said, her gaze pointed.

  “That’s because we have a much bigger problem here.” He grimaced and ran a hand down his face. “Gharrick is soaking up way too much energy from the cascade. That’s not natural, and I know exactly who is responsible.”

  Leopold stared at Nathan.

  “I assume I should rally every soldier in the fortress and surrounding region,” Seraph said.

  “We have other problems as well,” Nathan said.

  “We do?” Leopold asked. “Because I do not like what you just implied.”

  Nathan ignored him. He strode up to the window. Unlike recently, he could see out of it. The walls were lit up. Soldiers shuffled along them at speed. Some were outside the walls, patrolling for enemies that weren’t coming.

  After all, the enemies would appear from inside the keep.

  “We’ve lost all communications. The Federation is on edge, but they’re in the same boat. The cascade is large enough that it’s going to affect their border forts. I’m certain of it, based on what I felt at Fort Taubrum,” Nathan explained.

  “You’re a new Bastion. Reading flows during a cascade is something you’ve never been trained in,” Leopold said.

  “You’re acting surprised about the things he’s somehow experienced in now, Leopold?” Anna asked in disbelief.

  Leopold clammed up and his expression turned stony.

  “Things are tense on the borders. The first thing our soldiers assumed when they couldn’t reach Fort Taubrum was that we had been invaded. What do you think my officers at Fort Taubrum are thinking right now? What about the Federation soldiers along the border who can’t reach anywhere else in the Federation?” Nathan asked. “If they don’t attack first, they risk being attacked in the worst possible situation.”

  The room remained silent, but everybody understood his point.

  “The cascade isn’t only about threatening our fortresses with demons. It’s about knocking out communications long enough for frightened officers to make dumb decisions and kick off the war early. That forces the hand of many of the regents who might not want to be involved.” Nathan sighed. “We need to somehow tell the Federation that we aren’t attacking and calm down our soldiers.”

  “Why would the Federation believe us?” Seraph asked. “I’m persona non grata.”

  Nathan remained silent but looked out the window. There was one person who still had the ability to communicate over long distances with magic right now.

  But she had vanished.

  “Narime,” Seraph said.

  “She could stop this from happening. Without her, the best we can do is rely on Sunstorm’s gem abilities to support Fort Taubrum,” Nathan said.

  It was a terrible plan. But Nathan didn’t have any real options to stop the Federation from launching an assault. Sunstorm returned and confirmed that the gateway was out of commission, which made sense given the sheer amount of demonic energy overwhelming the leylines.

  Winter prevented Nathan from sending many of his soldiers east through the pass. Sunstorm could move swiftly with her gem abilities, and Nathan could control his binding stone from afar, but that was as much as he could do.

  If the Federation invaded en masse, that meant all out war.

  “I believe we still have one other topic,” Leopold said. “You implied earlier that a Messenger was invading Gharrick Pass.”

  Nathan’s Champions remained silent, as they already knew this. But Anna and Vera stared at Nathan in shock.

  Before he could respond, the door slammed open.

  “Nathan, what’s going on? There’re guards everywhere, and I can’t reach Grandpa,” Alice shouted.

  Behind her followed another young woman with long curly brown hair and a bust size that Nathan wasn’t about to forget.

  Princess Charlotte had finally shown herself at the darkest hour.

  Chapter 17

  Narime

  The beastkin maids had only finished laying out dinner when the pulse of magic ran through Narime. Blinding light flooded the room for a moment as wisps panicked. They dimmed a moment later but rested against the bottom of their blown glass lamps.

  Duke Terrius clicked his tongue and scratched his balding head. “As much as I like the old style of lamp, wisps are far too unreliable. I wonder what set them off?” He raised his ceramic sake cup to his mouth and looked at his guest. “Narime? Is something wrong?”

  Lost in focus, Narime didn’t answer at first. Her tails weaved a slow but complex pattern behind her. She wore an elegant kimono of blue and gold that her mother had gifted her when she grew her fourth tail and officially became an adult. Her hair was done up with hairpins the length of her forearms, each crafted from gold and glittering with non-magical sapphires to match her Champion gems.

  “Narime?” Terrius repeated. He lowered his sake cup, then gestured for the servants to leave him.

  The horse beastkin maids bowed and left. The room was magically warded with aural barriers to prevent eavesdropping. Grimacing, Terrius bit into a piece of grilled cod.

  Ostensibly, they were eating a seafood platter styled after those served in the Kurai Peninsula. But only Narime’s half had any raw fish, and there was precious little of it. The Federation were wary of raw fish, given how easy it was to become ill from a poorly stored or prepared one.

  In a country as cutthroat as this, Narime didn’t blame anybody for being suspicious of the origins of their food. She rarely ate raw fish anywhere on Doumahr. Even Duke Terrius had precious few suppliers that he trusted, and he lacked any preferenc
e for it. He served it purely for Narime.

  “Something has gone horribly wrong,” Narime said when she returned to her senses.

  Terrius froze, a piece of fish halfway to his mouth. He lowered it to his plate and cleansed his palate with some water. “Define ‘horribly wrong,’ please.”

  “A cascade has triggered somewhere to the north. I can’t sense exactly where but it’s… enormous. I haven’t felt anything like it since…” she trailed off as memories overwhelmed her.

  Faces of friends and family that she could never see again entered her mind and left it almost as quickly.

  “I understand,” Terrius said, a sad smile on his face as he looked away. “Are we in danger?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on how close your portal was to an invasion,” Narime said.

  “I have the wireless. Let’s—”

  Narime shook her head. “It won’t work. This cascade is massive. Communications will be out from Aleich to Tartus.”

  Tartus was Torneus’s home city and the capital of his province. It sat roughly halfway between the Houkeem Desert and the Gharrick Mountains.

  “That far?” Terrius’s mouth gaped for several seconds. “How can a cascade be that massive? When we close portals in Houkeem, or even here, they only stretch a binding stone or two. There are at least six binding stones between Tartus and Aleich. More, even.”

  “Which makes this suspicious,” Narime said. She rose to her feet.

  Terrius stared up at her in confusion. “We’re talking about a cascade. Nobody can force the demons to invade, Narime.”

  “That’s what I thought a month ago, but then I met Nathan and learned otherwise.” She began to walk toward the door.

  “Wait, damn you,” Terrius said. He scrambled to his feet and followed her outside.

  The beastkin maids didn’t block Narime’s path, but she waited for Terrius regardless. She owed him, and he had been nothing but friendly toward her. Even if she didn’t know where he stood regarding the coming conflict.

  “Don’t just rush off. If this is a cascade, then we need to plan for it.” Terrius scowled. “I’ll get dressed, then you can take me to my castle. I can check with my Champions.”