by Eric Vall
Some of them were stained darkly along the tips.
“That looks like blood,” I observed as I gestured to the stains. “It seems like someone wasn’t as lucky as we are.”
“This is awful,” Cayla remarked quietly at my back, and her arms trembled around my waist.
“Serlo said the bandits had set booby traps,” I gently reminded the princess. “Good thing it was in the earth. That was probably why I sensed it.”
“What I do not understand is why they set this here and then abandoned it,” Aurora said with a frown.
I rubbed at my chin as I gave it some thought. “Well, Cayla did say the back roads are less traveled. Maybe it wasn’t lucrative enough for the bandits to man this trap.”
“So they just left it here when they decided to take over the towns?” Cayla questioned, and there was a new note of steel in her voice. “They completely abandoned this deadly disaster to maim and kill indiscriminately?”
“Maybe,” I replied as another thought occurred to me, “or maybe it’s like a hunting trap.”
“What do you mean?” Aurora asked as she tilted her head.
“I mean maybe they sent this trap like hunters set snares,” I explained. “The towns are more lucrative like you said, but I bet bandits aren’t ones to pass on free and easy money. Perhaps they leave these traps like this to catch, maim, and incapacitate their victims. Then, they return like scavengers to collect the loot once the people are dead or too injured to fight back.”
“Bastards,” Aurora seethed as she bared her teeth.
Cayla vibrated behind me, and at first, I thought it was from fear, but then she spoke.
“Camus Dred is a dead man,” the princess hissed, and her voice cracked with rage. “I swear this upon my kingdom. I will see this man dead if I have to take his life with my own two hands.”
“As satisfying as that would be,” I replied darkly as I reached down and brushed my revolver, “I plan on pumping the prick with as much lead as I can find.”
The three of us sat there for a silent moment and stared into the pit, dark thoughts of vengeance and bloodshed whirling around our heads.
“What should we do?” Aurora finally asked as the wind picked up and blew dust back into the air.
“Well, as much as I’d like to hang around and personally meet the architects of this fine structure,” I muttered, “we still need to get to Eyton, and I’m not comfortable with the idea of sleeping in the middle of open bandit country tonight.”
“So we continue on?” Cayla questioned, and I could hear a note of disappointment in her voice.
“We continue on,” I echoed with a nod, “but we’ll make quick pit stops along the way.”
“To do what?” Aurora asked as she glanced at me.
In response, I lifted my arm again and summoned up my magic. It rushed forth in a deluge, fueled by my anger, and a moment later, the ground started to rumble beneath our feet. Then, a loud groan filled the air, followed by multiple sharp cracks as rock and dirt rushed into the pit and shattered the stakes into splinters. A minute later, the road was smooth and unblemished before us, like the hole had never been there.
“I can’t in good conscious leave these traps for other people to fall prey to,” I replied as I lowered my arm. “I’ll have my magic scan the road ahead of us for more, and I’ll disarm and fix the ones I can as we continue our journey to Eyton.”
“And once we reach the capital?” Cayla questioned as she leaned forward to see my face. “What then, Mason?”
“Then we meet with your father and start planning our assault,” I replied as I clenched my hands along the handlebars, and my knuckles blanched white. “They might not know it yet, but I’m coming for both Camus Dred and this ‘master.’ And I’m not going to stop until I have both their heads mounted to the front of Bobbie, one on top of the other.”
Chapter 5
In total, we found and disabled more than a dozen booby traps along the back roads as we made our way to Eyton. There were several more pits, a handful of trip wires that triggered either a spear or an arrow, and even a few actual snares, as if we were nothing but easy prey, little more than animals, to these bandits.
With each trap that we disarmed, the anger in my chest grew hotter, like a steadily building wildfire. I could see the flames reflected in Aurora and Cayla’s eyes, too. The half-elf gnashed her teeth and cursed as we filled in pits and unwound ropes. The princess, on the other hand, became quieter and quieter as we went, and I couldn’t help but feel like it was the quiet before the storm.
Wherever Camus Dred was, he had no idea that when we got a hold of him, he was going to wish for a pit filled with stakes.
“How much farther to Eyton?” I asked as we undid yet another snare.
The sun had dipped low during our hours of riding and secret good deeds. By now, the sky was streaked with reds and oranges, and flocks of birds cut across the horizon as they returned to their roosts.
I estimated we had less than an hour of sunlight left.
“We are about twenty miles outside of the capital,” Cayla replied as she tugged the bandits’ snare from around a tree branch. “Normally, I would say we still had half a day’s ride, but with Bobbie…”
The princess trailed off with a shrug, and then she turned back to the rope as she worked to wind it around her arm.
“I think we can make it within the hour,” I mused as I did the math in my head. “Probably just as it gets full dark. Will that be a problem?”
Again, Cayla shrugged. “There is only a single gate around Eyton, and it used to be kept open both day and night. However, in my absence, my father might have imposed a curfew or even barred the gates entirely to keep out Camus Dred. I have no way to be sure what we might face until the city comes into view.”
“Then we had best make haste,” Aurora remarked as she came to stand beside Cayla. “On top of issues we might face at the gates, I also do not think it would be wise for us to travel at night. It leaves us too vulnerable to attack, plus the road itself will be more treacherous, even with Mason’s magic and my enhanced eyesight.”
“Not to mention, we’ll all pretty worn out,” I muttered as I cracked my neck from side to side.
While the journey itself had been less dangerous than our first day in Cedis, Aurora and I had spent a good deal of magic since we left the town of Keld. The Ignis Mage had powered us through the countryside while I had acted as our danger scanner. The tasks themselves required lower levels of energy than say building a giant wall, but after nearly eight hours of consistent output, my body had begun to feel sore, like I had run all this way instead of perched on Bobbie’s seat.
Aurora sighed and rubbed tiredly at her temples. “You are not wrong there. I can get us the rest of the way to Eyton, but once there I will need to eat almost immediately. Something other than sod poodle preferably.”
“My father will most likely insist on a feast,” Cayla said as she finished coiling the length of rope around her arm. “There will be more than enough for us to replenish ourselves.”
“Perfect,” Aurora all but moaned, and then she held her hand out to Cayla. “Here, I’ll take care of that now.”
“Thank you,” the princess replied with a small smile as she passed the rope over to the Ignis Mage.
A moment later, I felt the zap of Aurora’s magic, and then the rope in her hands caught fire. The orange flames quickly devoured the frayed cord until gray ash shifted through the half-elf’s fingers and fluttered to the ground.
I sighed as Aurora dropped her hand. “I wish we didn’t have to burn all this rope. Some of it was still pretty sturdy.”
“We’ve been over this, Mason,” the blue-haired maiden remarked as she clapped her hands together to rid them of soot. “There is no room in our saddlebags, and if we leave it, the bandits will just remake the traps.”
“I know, but still,” I replied, “waste not, want not and all that good stuff. Growing up, I never threw a
nything away unless it completely broke or fell to pieces.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” the half-elf said with a smirk, “the next length of rope you find, you can recycle it as a noose when we finally catch Camus Dred, or the ‘master,’ whichever comes first.”
“I like the sound of that,” I responded with a sharp grin, “though I’m still partial to pumping them both full of lead.”
“Why not both?” Cayla muttered darkly as she perched herself on the back of Bobbie’s seat. “One punishment doesn’t seem enough for the likes of them.”
“You are absolutely right, my lady,” I said as I strode over and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Once we get to Eyton, we’ll make an ordered list of exactly how we want these bastards to pay. How does that sound?”
Cayla looked up at me and smiled, and it wasn’t a pleasant expression. It was as sharp as jagged glass along the edges, and her eyes were as cold and cruel as deep winter back in Chicago.
“That sounds lovely,” the princess whispered, and I suppressed a shudder.
Camus Dred and this master should hope I find them first. I might want to make them suffer, but the dark promises in Cayla’s eyes would make even the hardest, toughest, most evil men shit their pants.
“Then let’s race that sunset,” I said as Aurora joined us beside the bike.
“I have always been fond of a good race,” the Ignis Mage remarked, and then she swung her leg over Bobbie’s seat, placed her hand on the ignition port, and started the engine.
“And I have always been fond of winning,” I replied with a broad grin as I slid in behind Aurora and grabbed hold of the handlebars.
Cayla sat down quickly at my back and wrapped her incredibly long limbs around me. “I am fond of remaining in one piece, so please be careful and do not pull any more stunts like the one you performed at the gates of Keld.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” I drawled as I cast a wink over my shoulder.
The princess narrowed her eyes, but before she could retort, I cranked back the throttle, and we sped off into the rapidly approaching twilight.
By some bizarre stroke of luck, we encountered no more booby traps on the last leg of our journey. Perhaps it was because we were so close to the capital now, and by extension the only armed men the king of Cedis had on retainer. I wasn’t sure how many soldiers were in the royal guard, but I guessed that Camus Dred didn’t want to bother tangling with them, not when there were much easier places to target and conquer.
Either way, I welcomed the respite as we raced along the back roads and the sun continued its descent toward the western horizon. As the world slipped into twilight, the warm summer air dropped a few degrees, and I thanked Nemris and all the could-be gods for the blessed cool breeze that whipped at my cheeks and raised goosebumps along my arms. I tipped my head back to look at the sky, and I marveled at the millions of unfamiliar stars and galaxies that greeted me.
In the wake of all the bloodshed and violence of the past few days, it felt good to remind myself that there was so much beauty and mystery in this new world for me to see. I vowed right then and there that I would not let the likes of Abrus, or Camus Dred, or this ‘master’ ruin the fact that I had been gifted an amazing life here, in this glorious realm, with power untold in my veins and a beautiful woman on each arm.
This was my home now, and I planned to fight like hell to protect and save it.
About half an hour later, the small dirt trail we had followed through the country suddenly cut right and merged back with the main road. The terrain was a little more hilly here, not as flat and uniform, and the land fell and rose beneath us gently as we approached the city of Eyton.
The capital itself sat atop a small knoll, and it rose up out of the landscape solemn, smaller than Serin, but still majestic in its own way. I could see the king’s castle rise up from the city’s center, and its spires and towers pierced the bruised purple sky. The rest of Eyton was shielded by a large stone wall, and torches shone along its parapets. To the left of the capital was a wide lake, and the placid water reflected the last of the sun’s dying rays, and it looked like the prairie had been set on fire.
It was a beautiful sight, and a new resolve settled along the stiff line of my spine as I reaffirmed my promise to make Camus Dred and all evil bastards pay for bringing death and suffering to a kingdom as amazing as this.
Cayla clenched her arms tight around me as she gazed upon her home for the first time in months, and I only wished I could see the expression on her face. I settled for squeezing Aurora’s hip as I signaled her to give Bobbie everything she had, and then I gunned the throttle so that we leapt from a steady fifty miles an hour and began to climb toward sixty.
The main road was empty of travelers as we approached Eyton’s gate. Unsurprisingly, given what we had learned from our journey through this kingdom. As Serlo had mentioned back in Keld, people probably only left their homes out of extreme necessity or desperation, and no one would be stupid enough to travel at night.
Well, except for us, and we were different. We were armed to the teeth with metal and magic and eager to shed a little bandit blood.
We reduced our speed when we came within fifty yards of the main gate. From this distance, even in the weak light as the sun slipped completely below the horizon, I could tell the gate was shut and most likely barred tight.
As the roar of Bobbie’s engine quieted to a purr, I heard the distant shouts of the guards atop the wall. My eyes tracked their movements as they ran with torches back and forth across the parapets, and I began to worry that they might shoot first and ask questions later.
I squeezed Aurora’s hip again and gently began to apply the brake.
“I think we should walk the rest of the way,” I said as we began to coast to a stop. “Those guards look a little skittish, and the bike is a little loud and scary, especially approaching in the dark. I would very much like not to be shot full of arrows.”
“Good plan,” Aurora remarked as we came to a full stop twenty-five yards away from the wall. Then she removed her hand from the ignition and killed the engine.
In the ensuing silence, I could hear the guards’ voices more clearly, and there was a definite note of panic to their shouts and orders. I winced and turned my head to address Cayla.
“Is there anything we can do to ensure they won’t shoot us?” I asked the princess.
“If we approach calmly with our hands up, we should be fine,” Cayla replied with a slight frown.
“Should be?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Cayla’s frown deepened, and her brow furrowed. “I told you, I do not know how much has changed since I’ve been gone. The closed gate alone is strange to me. But I know most of the men in my father’s retinue, and I know they would not, intentionally, shoot unarmed individuals, especially if two of them were women.”
“Okay,” I said with a sigh, “but that doesn’t mean I’m letting the two of you walk out in front of me. I’ll go first, and if I don’t get shot at, the two of you can join me.”
Cayla pinned me with a deadpan stare, and then she slid off the back of the bike and marched toward the gate without another word.
“Cayla!” I called out in alarm, and then Aurora and I scrambled to follow her. I barely had time to put Bobbie’s kickstand down before I broke out into a jog to catch up with the stubborn princess.
“Do not shoot,” the raven-haired maiden called as she approached the gate with her hands held above her shoulders. “We are unarmed.”
I cringed as I remembered the revolver strapped to my waist, but it was too late to turn back now. Besides, the guards probably wouldn’t recognize it for the weapon it was.
“State your name and business,” a guard shouted down from atop the wall. “The city of Eyton is under curfew.”
Cayla came to a stop directly in front of the gate, and Aurora and I slowly slid up behind her with our arms held high, too. The sun had completely slipped below the
horizon now, and night quickly set in. I couldn’t even see where the guard was calling from, or what he looked like. The only light came from the torches forty feet above our heads, and their weak halo barely reached us on the ground.
“Where is Captain Mayhard?” Cayla called. “I have need to speak with him.”
“And who are you to make such a request?” the guard sneered back.
Cayla turned and looked at Aurora over her shoulder. “Could I have a little light?”
I saw the half-elf nod in my peripherals, and then a great fire leapt to life in her hand. The guards gasped along the wall, but Aurora merely held the flame above our heads as Cayla lifted her chin and fixed a steely eyed stare on every man that stood above us.
“I am Princess Cayla Balmier, daughter of your sovereign, King Davit, Lord of Cedis,” the raven-haired beauty declared in a loud and booming voice, “and I would like to enter my city and speak with my captain of the guard sometime tonight.”
A shiver raced down my spine at the authoritative steel in her tone. I had to admit, it was incredibly hot.
The guard who had previously spoken now sputtered, and then I saw a shadow lean over the parapet as he tried to get a better look at us.
“The princess is on a retreat with Queen Freya,” the guard then called down, but his tone was now dubious and doubtful.
“Are you willing to stake your life on that?” Cayla shot back as she put her hands on her hips. “Or will you open the gate and fetch Captain Mayard like I requested so he can vouch for me?”
The guard didn’t respond for a moment, and in the following silence, the only noise was the wind as it whipped across the plains and my pounding heart.
Finally, the guard cleared his throat.
“Raise the gate,” he shouted, and several men echoed his call before a great grinding filled the air as the wooden door before us began to lift.
I let out a sigh of relief and lowered my arms.
The three of us stood in the circle of Aurora’s flame as the gate steadily lifted higher and higher. Then a squadron of men issued forth from the shadows beneath the gate, and the fire and moonlight glinted off unsheathed swords and burnished armor.
