by Justin Sloan
The general grunted and assessed them, squinting one eye as he did. Clearly he wasn’t so certain.
“General, if I may,” Alastar said, stepping forward. Rhona groaned, but he continued, “We believe the people who started this fire are associated with the woman we are after. A self-proclaimed goddess who goes by the name of Lady Mowain. We would like to request that you escort us north and assist us in wiping out her armies so that we may deal with her once and for all.”
The general looked furious. “The day we partner with a paladin and fire mages will be a dire day indeed. What makes you think such a small force as yours has the ability to do as you say?”
“It’s not just us,” Rhona stated. “And to be clear, we were the ones who dealt with Sir Gildon, the High Paladin of the Order of Rodrick. If the Order was in any way your enemy, please disassociate my brother from the idea of them right now.”
Alastar nodded. “Several clans have joined in this war. Namely, Lairds Lokane and Summers,” the general’s eyes narrowed at the mention of these two names, but then Alastar added, “and Leila of Clan Lockmire.”
At this, the general ran a hand across the stubble of his chin. “I don’t suppose you have any proof of your involvement with Lady Leila?”
“Just that she’ll be fighting out there against the same enemy we are.”
“We rode with Gordon,” Rhona added, “and dined with Leila. We slept under their roofs and ate their bread. All you have is our word, but that is all you need in this case.”
The general turned to Walain and they shared a moment, each considering the other. Finally he nodded.
“I believe you, and you’re in luck.” He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “The battle has already begun.”
“General?” Walain asked.
“General Simone has left to investigate, after sightings of a group not far from here were reported. They attacked our scout, actually. Got her with an arrow. We mean to see that they never enter our forest again.”
“And the injured one?” Alastar asked. “Where is she?”
“You won’t be laying your paladin hands on her, if—”
“Sir,” Alastar interrupted. “She can suffer, maybe die if it’s that bad, or she can be healed. Don’t let your pride get in the way of someone else’s health and wellbeing.”
“I…” The general glared, apparently not used to being spoken to like that. “I… How dare you presume—”
“No disrespect meant, General. But I assure you we are on the same side, and further assure you that I have the ability to heal her. Or if not me, Estair can. Either way, if you have an injured member of your party, what would it say of you as a leader to deny her a speedy recovery?”
Walain took a step back, sensing trouble, but the general simply grunted and motioned to his cabin.
“She’s within,” he said. “Not doing too well, though I still doubt you can do anything about that.”
“We’ll just have to take that chance,” Alastar said, brushing past him.
Rhona lingered, giving the general a salute and bow like the one she had seen Walain make, then followed her brother.
“The children will stay here,” the general said behind her, likely to Donnon.
Before Rhona entered the hut, she looked back and said, “My apologies for contradicting you, but they will not. They’re with us.”
Then she was in the hut. Alastar stood between two confused women, the injured one on a table in front of them.
He made a motion with his hands, and they started to glow. Both women stumbled back, confused and scared, but neither tried to interfere. The woman on the table had a nasty gash where the arrow had been removed, but apparently these people didn’t know much about medical care other than removing the arrow. Blood was pooling beneath her and her skin was growing pale.
“Stay with us,” Alastar said, moving his hands in the air just above the wound. As he did, the wound started to glow and mend right before their eyes.
No matter how many times Rhona witnessed this, she was always left very impressed. As the last of the wound healed, the woman took a deep breath and opened her eyes. The blood couldn’t be put back in, so she was still not at her peak, but when she lifted her head to stare in amazement at the healed wound, her finger tracing it with disbelief, there was no doubt that she would be fine.
***
After Alastar and Rhona had entered the tent the General had continued to stare at Donnon, but now his eyes moved to Kia.
While she recognized him as a local man of power, she hadn’t liked his comment about her staying outside one bit. When he looked at her, she narrowed her eyes and stared back.
After several seconds of this she stuck out her jaw, put her hands on her hips, and said, “What makes you so special?”
His eyes went wide and moved back to Donnon, as if wondering if her father would scold her. When nothing happened, the general laughed.
“It’s all about one’s grasp of magic.” He held out a hand and gestured to a bucket of water, then twirled a finger. When he did so the water leaped out, spiraled in the air, and formed an oval face that took on the appearance of Kia.
“Cute trick,” she said. “Can you do useful stuff too?”
He didn’t laugh this time, but let the water fly at her. Acting on instinct, she shot out her hands so that the air around her grew hot and evaporated before touching her.
“And that...is also a cute trick.” The general was clearly fascinated, but trying to keep his cool. “How… How did you do that?”
“Doesn’t matter. Point is, you just said it’s all about one’s ability to use magic. Here I am, a child, but I bet I could out-magic all of you. Does that make me a general? Something higher?”
“Dear, stop showing off,” Donnon demanded, then gave Lannis a scolding look when the boy chuckled.
“You think you’re tough, little girl?” The general stepped forward, towering above her. “You think you have what it takes to fight alongside grown men and women?”
“She does,” Donnon answered for her. “And if you take another step toward my daughter I’ll knock you on your arse, old-school style.”
Kia saw that her father’s hands were in fists and the general’s cheeks were flushed.
Maybe she’d let this go too far.
Holding up her hands, she said, “All I’m trying to say is that in an age of magic, you shouldn’t judge someone by their age. Same goes for gender, race…whatever.”
The general turned back to her, his anger still there for a moment, but then it faded. “You are right, after all.” He licked his lips, glancing back at Donnon, and then started laughing as he clasped his shoulder. “I like you all. Riding to battle with you might make for quite the eventful day.”
“Wait and see,” Donnon replied, rubbing his shoulder but starting to smile.
A shout came from the hut and the general turned to storm in, but instead a woman came running out. There was blood on a tear in her dress, but her skin showed no signs of damage.
“He healed me,” she said, eyes wide and a smile covering her face. “That man. He made a light and then the wound was gone!”
She leaped into the general’s arms, planting a wet kiss on him before finally stopping to look at their guests with a bit of a blush.
“You must be his friends,” she said, then stuck out a hand to introduce herself to each of them. They told her their names, and she introduced herself as Erlean. Kia didn’t need to be an adult to figure out that she was with the general in a romantic sense, and his being overprotective now made more sense.
When Alastar and Rhona emerged with the other two ladies, the general shook his hand and said, “Looks like I owe you an apology, and my gratitude.”
Alastar nodded. “Just doing what I can.”
“Well, now it’s time we do what we can.” The general shouted for the others to gather, then announced, “There’s an evil presence in our woods, and we mean to drive it
out. Some of you will battle the flames, and the others will join me and our new friends here in attacking the bastards who set our home on fire. Prepare to move out!”
The group replied with a cheer, and then went about securing weapons and provisions in case the battle took longer than they hoped it would.
“Don’t let go yet,” the woman said, still holding onto the general.
“She’ll be a bit weak until her blood regenerates,” Alastar noted. “Get some food into her. That should help.”
The general nodded. “A quick bite for us all, and then it’s off to battle.”
Soon they had a small feast laid out on tables people brought from the huts, and everyone ate their fill. No one consumed so much that the march or the fighting would be troublesome, just enough to get them the energy they needed. Meanwhile, Alastar asked for stories about what they had seen here, and learned that they had actually spotted a group of the sorcerers moving through the woods far to the east not long ago.
“Heading north?” Alastar asked.
Erlean, the woman he had healed, leaned forward and nodded. “I was the one who spotted them. We didn’t attack because we didn’t know who they were, and since they were moving fast we assumed they wouldn’t cause us any trouble.”
“No immediate trouble,” Estair interjected. “Though if you had tried to attack, your chances of victory would’ve been small.”
“Excuse me?” The general put down his chunk of bread. “And you will fare so much better because…”
“We’ve already proven ourselves against that force,” Rhona offered. “And we have many more warriors. Half our group is moving up from the south, and the other half are coming by sea to search the shores and then march down from the north.”
“They’re sailing into the northern clans’ lands?” Walain asked, her expression souring. “They are either tough or foolish.”
“Maybe a bit of both,” Alastar replied with a shrug. “Since we were part of the planning group on that, I guess I’ll take some of the blame.”
Kia turned back to her water, considering the stories she had heard of northern clans. They had seen some of them at work in the battle at the Ghostland Ruins, but now the ghost clans rode with the king. With all of the various mages assembled under his banners, along with Laird Summers and Laird Lokane, she couldn’t fathom any force they should worry about.
“What makes them so terrifying,” she asked, “these people of the north?”
The general pounded himself on the chest to help him swallow, then turned her way with a smile. “Nothing but fear of the unknown, I’d say.”
“Meaning?”
Her dad scrunched his face, then said, “Not many people go to the north anymore. Some stories speak of vicious clans only out for themselves, others of monsters. There were some towns on the other side of the mountains where, some say, the effects of the Age of Madness still linger.”
“Doubtful,” Alastar interjected. “The Madness went away. It doesn’t remain.”
Donnon shrugged. “Might not be the same. Maybe the people want everyone else to think that, so they’re left to themselves. The point is, we don’t know.”
A long silence followed as everyone imagined what could be up there that was so terrifying, and finally the general stood.
“General Simone is out there. We must not linger longer than we already have.”
“Agreed,” Alastar said, standing.
The rest followed, eager to get on with the fighting.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kia was certainly grateful for Alastar’s and Estair’s ability to heal and grant extra stamina to others with their magic. Without it, she wasn’t sure she or Lannis would have been able to keep up. As it was, he wore a pained expression on his face and more than once she heard him muttering to himself…something about being an idiot for signing up for this.
The whole group, plus General Tarstan and his team of hand-picked soldiers, pushed through the smoke. Occasionally they paused for Lannis to use his magic to push aside the smoke, or for the water mages to spray water from a nearby river on the surrounding trees and bushes in case the fire spread—which it seemed likely to do.
At times they would take a break and recuperate, since magic had the tendency to drain its user. Alastar and Estair were forced to be smart and pace their use of it.
When they paused at a water hole half the water mages went to work, maneuvering their hands so that the water rose like floating snakes that twisted through the trees. Kia sat next to Lannis, away from the others.
“You sure you’re up for this?” she asked.
He scrunched his nose, but nodded.
“You don’t look sure,” she replied with a laugh.
“I’ve just been wondering what I can do when we get there. You have crazy-amazing fire magic, but me?” He scoffed, staring down at his hands as he rubbed them together. “I have Stormy.”
“We have each other, first of all.” She looked around at the others, watching for a moment as a mage struggled with the water spell. “I think that’s what it’s all about, right? Us being there, working together. So what if we’re kids? We’re kids who kick arse, and we don’t give up.” She turned to him, staring for a moment. “Right, Lannis? We don’t give up.”
He broke into a smile and nodded again.
“Your wind magic has come in pretty handy so far,” she pointed out. “It’s not like you’ve been useless. So you can’t burn a sorcerer alive—so what? You know how many nightmares I have after something like that?”
“Damn, I didn’t even think of it.”
She shook her head. “I mean, I’m tough, but I’m not that tough. Any kid who is—or adult for that matter—I’d say they’re lying or seriously messed up in the head.”
Lannis laughed. “Good. I was starting to worry.”
“You have the dreams too?”
“Every night. I see those sorcerers, remember the way they died. It’s horrible.”
“Best if you can forget they are men and women.”
“Can you?” He turned so he was full-on facing her.
She shook her head.
“I didn’t think so.” He stood, stretching his back and rotating his shoulders. “Don’t worry about me, I’m just…not as used to all this as you are.”
“Me?” She scoffed. “I have about as much experience as you. I mean, I did fight Master Irdin when he kidnapped me, but other than that…”
“And you’re not worried?”
That was a tough question, one she wasn’t sure she knew how to answer. “My dad’s here, and he always looks out for me. But even if he wasn’t, I don’t know… After that whole experience back there—I mean, I kicked some major arse, right?”
He laughed. “You did.”
“I think it gave me a huge confidence boost. It’s like, I feel I could take on the world if I wanted to. Stopping this goddess?” She rolled her eyes. “Piece of cake.”
“Oh, don’t say that.”
“What?”
“Cake. You’re killing me right now. I thought your magic was fire. Turns out it’s killing your friends by using words like ‘cake’ in a phrase.”
“Hey,” she replied with a laugh, “you want cake? Let’s take down this crazy lady, and then I promise to make you the biggest cake you’ve ever had in your life.”
“Seriously? With strawberries? I love strawberries on my cake.”
“Deal.” She reached out a hand and they shook on it. Good timing, too, because the group was starting to move out again.
The journey took them farther along until they could see the edge of the woods, and that was where they found the other general. She hobbled toward them, a tall woman with broad shoulders and gray hair that didn’t quite match the youth of her face. She was dragging something behind her, moving across the field in a daze.
“Stay here,” General Tarstan said, then chose two of his soldiers to go with him and check on her.
Kia squi
nted, and then saw what the woman was dragging. A head attached to a torso—nothing else.
She quickly turned away, pulling Lannis with her.
“What?” he asked. “What is it?”
Donnon was there a moment later, shielding them. They might have seen worse, but that didn’t mean Kia wanted to see any more of it.
“She’s lost her mind,” Donnon whispered as Rhona came up next to them.
“We don’t know that,” Rhona countered, giving Lannis and Kia a protective glance. “You two…good?”
Lannis nodded and Kia gave her a grunt she meant as an affirmative.
They heard shouting, and they all turned in time to see General Simone push the other general away before taking three big steps and heaving the head and torso away from herself as hard as she could.
With a thud, it connected. At first nobody saw what it had connected with—or nobody but the general, Kia suspected. Then all hell broke loose as a man screamed and a group of soldiers revealed themselves, one with the torso in his hands, unable to process what had just happened.
Still in shock themselves but using the moment of surprise to their advantage, the water mages ran forward, weapons in hand, and began cutting down the enemy soldiers.
When Kia saw a sorcerer with the opposing side moving his hands to conjure a spell she stepped forward, ready to do her thing. Rhona put a hand on her arm and said, “Let me,” and then she was gone in a flash of shadows, appearing a moment later behind the sorcerer.
He must have realized she was there, because he stopped conjuring and slowly turned. Before he could turn all the way Rhona had thrust her hands forward, summoning shadow claws to dig deeply into him. When she pulled her hands away, the shadows vanished and left him to collapse to the forest floor. A small flame sputtered from his hand, caught his sleeve on fire, and consumed his dying form.
The rest of the fighting was over before the flame roared too high, and General Tarstan took the time to conjure water from the air, enough to put out the burning corpse.
Everyone froze, waiting for General Simone to say something. She stood there staring at the dead and spat on one before collapsing to her knees.
