by Randi Darren
Leila frowned, her hands pressing together as she thought on it.
“M-maybe. Most definitely one. The second one… fifty-fifty,” said the warlock.
“And if I charged you up and gave you time to really build the spell? Like, say… thirty minutes while we take care of their supplies?”
Leila let out a pent-up breath and shrugged her shoulders.
“Maybe? Seventy-thirty if I build it up afterward. Dragons are tough. There’s a reason most people avoid them,” she said.
Vince nodded and looked to the tents.
“If I powered you up, left you here with Ramona, and let you build it up, would that work?”
“Yes. It’d work. I take it Ramona would be my exit before anyone could act?” Leila asked.
“That’d be the plan. I’d really rather this go down with you taking both of their lives in such a way that no one even notices, and us getting out unseen.”
Ramona snorted at that and reached up to one of her horns. “You’re not asking for much.”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could do it,” Vince said. Then he wrapped an arm around Leila and pulled her into his lap.
Before she could argue, he opened himself up to his grove and dumped everything into the Gnome as fast as possible.
As fast as possible.
She can handle it. Sam can’t. Or the Elves.
Leila went limp against him, her eyes wide and unseeing. Occasionally twitching.
“Red thinks you do that just to torture her.”
“Maybe a little,” Vince admitted.
“Red knows it is so. If it was not, you’d do more than just hold her.”
Ramona thought on that, then nodded. “I agree with Red.”
Having opened it to maximum flow, Vince emptied his entire grove reserve in little under five minutes.
As quick as it’d started, the grove cut him off.
“Ramona, she’s yours. Get her set up for a quick take-off. Keep low, head out east, then loop back north. Meet up at the outpost,” Vince said, holding out the dazed and confused Leila.
“No,” Ramona said, crossing her arms over her chest. “We’ll wait till she comes out of it; then you can tell her goodbye properly.”
Vince growled but pulled Leila back into his lap and waited.
“Red agrees with Ramona. You must do things correctly,” Red said, nodding.
Red and Ramona looked at each other, then smiled in sync and looked back to Vince.
Grumbling, Vince said nothing to them and watched Leila closely for signs of her coming to.
Her large, purple, glittering eyes were glassy. Slowly, though, he could see the pupils incrementally start to contract back to normal.
Vince wasn’t sure how much time actually passed, but it felt like it took longer for Leila to “wake up” than it had to fill her up.
And when she did start to move—and blink, and not be a rock—she was still clearly out of it.
“Vince,” she said, blinking several times.
“I’m right here,” he said, peering into her eyes.
Her hands came up, grabbed him by the sides of the head, and pulled him down. She kissed him firmly and roughly.
Several seconds passed before she released him, melting back into his lap.
“I did it,” she said, staring through him.
“Yeah, you did it,” Vince said, trying hard to pretend that hadn’t just happened. “I’m going to hand you off to Ramona now so you can start preparing your soul stealer spell for those Dragons, ok?”
“Ok, Vince,” Leila said dreamily.
Handing the Gnome off to Ramona, Vince looked to the Dragonnewt.
“Give me—” Vince paused to look up at the moon, directly overhead. It’d set before sunrise. “Moon-set. Then hit them with the spell. Got it?”
“Yes,” Ramona said, cradling the woozy Leila.
Vince turned on his heel and slunk off in the direction of the supply depot.
“Red thinks you’re being cruel to Leila.”
“I told her I’d take her as my wife when the time was right,” Vince said, getting straight to the heart of the matter.
“Oh. Oh, that is… Red… Red understands. Good.”
“It happened right after my discussion with you, when I said I’d take you as a wife.”
Red smashed her hip into him and rubbed her head fiercely under his chin.
She was actually purring loudly. Her hands dug into him, practically pulling him down to the grass.
“Red, stop. We don’t have time right now,” Vince said, holding her hands with his own.
“Red is happy.”
“I’m glad. But we have a mission, ok?”
“Red is very happy,” said the Beastkin, ignoring him. Her face turned to the side and she started to rub it into his neck.
“Red, please. We need to get moving.”
“Red is so very happy though.”
“I’m glad, but we need to go. I’ll give you a super-good scritch-scratch and a meal if you get moving now.”
“Red understands.”
Freeing him, Red set off at a distance-eating lope. Her tail swished behind her wildly as she went.
For a member of a cat species, she really didn’t look like one.
Far more like a fox.
She didn’t stop until they reached the massive depot that’d been brought up for this army.
Massive was the only word that came to mind for Vince. Even that didn’t quite feel accurate. This was more than enough supplies to last a very long time. Even for a force of the size brought up by the Tri-lliance.
“I don’t even know how we can go about this,” Vince muttered, looking out across the layout.
Red shook her head, clearly annoyed.
“Red wishes for Ratkin. They are very good at this.”
“Yeah… but we don’t have that luxury. Let’s just see if we can’t make this look like an accident.
“Fire ruins supplies nicely. Take a look and see if they have anything that’d go up quick and nasty. With any luck, it’ll spread all on its own.”
“Kerosene?” Red asked, indicating deeper into the supply yard.
“They have oil? They actually put an oil dump in their supply dump?”
Red nodded her head. “Red can smell it. Hard to miss.”
“That’d work… lead on.”
A minute later and Vince was standing in front of a low mountain of casks.
“This is just stupid,” he murmured, looking at the stack. “Arrogance, or a fool of a supply master. I’m not sure which. I’ll take whatever grace has given me, though.
“Now, how do we go about lighting it so it looks like it could be accidental?”
Looking around, Vince couldn’t see anything that could start a fire.
In fact, now that he was looking, everything around the casks was a flame retardant.
Brick, stone, ore, rock, soil, weapons, metal.
Everything around it was fairly unlikely to burn.
It still didn’t make any sense, but it didn’t seem as insane anymore.
“Whatever, it’ll have to do. We’ll just have to hope the flame jumps,” Vince muttered, shaking his head. “Still don’t have an ignition source though.”
Looking over to Red, he found her dragging what looked like a guard by the ankle with one hand. In her other hand was a burning torch.
“Silly guard was walking around with this. Was blinded by his own light, didn’t see Red until she was on him.
“Red clubbed him in the back of the head. Maybe it’ll look like an accident.
“Doesn’t matter. Red is tired of this and wants to be fed and scratched. Time to run,” Red said, then flung the torch into the kerosene mountain.
The obscene amount of strength she put into the throw made the torch flicker and whine as it spun through the air.
With a dull crack, the barrel it hit split open and the liquid began spilling out rapidly all over.
Kerosene had an unmistakable smell, and it was overwhelming now.
Vince looked to Red, who gave him a bright, feral smile—right at the same time as everything started to catch fire, giving her a glowing orange silhouette.
“Run!” Red said to him, her smile growing wider.
Vince turned and sprinted back out the way they’d come.
Behind them, the entire mound of kerosene was going up in a blaze, the likes of which Vince doubted he’d ever see again.
The light it put out only grew brighter and brighter, everything around them becoming visible as if it were day.
Red laughed the entire time they ran.
Vince suddenly detoured to one side, heading back towards the tent with the Dragons.
If we can wait there, and Leila gets this done right… we might be able to raid the tent for anything of use.
Letters, maps, orders—any of that would be helpful to Petra, I bet.
Vince was willing to take anything he could put his hands to.
Red had steered herself back to his side, looking at him curiously.
“I want to see if the Dragons have anything in their tent we can use.”
Red bobbed her head, then looked back at the fire with a huge grin on her face.
Vince took one look back.
The fire was gigantic now. He could even feel the heat radiating out from this distance.
Holy shit.
***
Cuddled up next to a tree stump, Vince watched the tent.
For the life of him, he couldn’t tell if Leila had already acted or not.
Everyone around was rushing towards the fire to help how they could. But no one disturbed the Dragon tent.
In fact, every single person made a deliberately wide path around it.
Avoiding it outright. As if they wanted nothing to do with it on any level.
“This is weird,” Red said, eying the tent. “They treat it with fear. Red doesn’t understand.”
“Not every leader leads through loyalty and love. Some do it with fear and hate.
“The way they won’t even come to the tent to tell them the entire supply depot is on fire makes me wonder if they often kill the messenger,” Vince said.
Getting up, Vince jogged over to the tent. Slipping around the side of it, he eased up to the entrance and peered inside.
It was filled with furniture. Expensive furniture.
Slumped together on the bed was a man atop a woman. Both were nude, and both looked very dead.
At least Vince thought so, considering that the man was bleeding from the mouth as if he had thrown up blood all over the face of the woman.
Moving inside the tent, Vince flicked the flaps shut and immediately went to the closest desk.
He began tearing through it, grabbing and reading anything and everything he could find.
Then realized he’d have no way of sorting out what was good and what was bad without spending way too much time here.
Picking up as much as he could, he began stuffing it into his armor and clothes.
Wasn’t I just complaining that I’d rather take a courier job? Well, here we go.
Opening the desk drawers, he didn’t find anything else.
“Shit. Alright. I guess time’s up,” Vince said to no one.
“People coming—quick, under,” Red whispered urgently, holding up the base of the tent from the outside.
It looked like it’d be high enough for him to roll out, but not much more.
Pressing his arms in tight, Vince tucked himself in and went sideways out under the tent wall.
Red let it snap into place and then they both fell still and silent. Listening.
“My lord and lady. We… we had an accident,” said a voice.
“I’m truly sorry. Please forgive me for not reporting this earlier. I didn’t wish to trouble you while… while you were… while you were busy. And not without an answer or a solution to the problem.”
There was a pause now. As if the soldier was waiting for a response that he feared and also expected.
“My lord? My lady?” asked the soldier, his tone changing. “Are you awake?”
“Ah… I’ll… trouble you in the morning. They can’t hear me…” the soldier said, and Vince heard the sound of boots trudging through the grass.
Looking off toward where the blaze had been going on, Vince frowned. The entire conflagration had been put out as if it had never been.
Then he shook his head in a sudden realization.
Magic. We’ll need the Ratkin for a proper sabotage of their supplies. Let’s hope they get here soon.
Vince checked his surroundings and Red, then snuck away into the night.
***
Yaris was sorting through all the paperwork Vince had brought in. Reading through each one and then setting them into piles on the desk in front of her.
“The vast majority of these are simple reports on Yosemite, the roads, and what the patrols have encountered so far,” she said, sniffing delicately. “And a few strange notes from what seems like another female dragon to a male. Though the wording seems to hint towards an affair, rather than a couple.”
Vince sighed and rubbed his hands across his face.
“In other words, I brought you a whole lot of junk mail,” he said.
“Yes dear, you did. But that’s alright. It’s intelligence they no longer have. Though it gives us nothing, it denies them a resource they had up until last night,” Yaris said, giving him a smile. “So while it isn’t a critical success, it’s still a success.”
“Thanks for that. Have we heard anything from the Ratkin?”
“Nothing yet. I imagine they’re moving with all due haste. They’re not exactly suited for large migrations, you realize.”
Vince got up and went for the door. “Going for a walk.”
Yaris made a humming noise as she continued to sort through all the paperwork he’d brought.
Stepping outside, Vince immediately turned towards the border and walked in that direction.
Sam fluttered over to him and landed on his shoulder.
“There’s movement out there,” she said.
“There is?”
“Yes. We can’t see what it is yet, but there’s movement.
“Leila and Ramona went up to take a look a little bit ago. I imagine they’ll be back soon.”
“Great. With any luck, they’re leaving now that those two Dragons are ghosted.”
Sam shrugged her shoulders, one arm wrapping around Vince’s head.
Reaching up, he grabbed her by the thighs and immediately started to empty magic into her. Though he did it much slower this time.
There was no telling what was going on, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to charge her up if he had it.
“You do it on purpose,” Sam said, her voice a little breathless. “Trying to make me bigger.”
“I sure am. Problem with that?”
“None, actually. Just… just give a girl a warning.”
“No fun in that.”
Sam slumped over onto Vince’s head, her breathing becoming deep and slow.
“At least you’re not flooding me this time. I can almost keep my head above water.”
Vince rolled his vision from one side of the border to the other.
He couldn’t see a thing. Everything looked the same as far as he could tell.
Ramona landed with a thump, Leila peering at him from over the Dragonnewt’s shoulder.
“They’re coming! The entire army is heading this way. They left everything behind and they’re already across the border. They’ll be here swiftly. We need to pull back as quickly as possible and reorganize. There’s nothing we can do here,” Ramona said.
Vince felt his stomach fall out from underneath him and his skin prickle with a cold sweat.
“Damn.” Vince pressed a hand to his temple, as if he could somehow knock the memory loose and pretend it had never happened.
>
“Alright. Let’s get everyone moving. I’ll get Yaris and Mouth onto the Gryphon. Red, you stay with Ramona and Leila and get the message spread on your way out.
“Sam, I need you to get to Petra and tell her what’s going on. She’ll need to know so she can plan accordingly.”
Sam blasted off from his shoulder without a word and vanished from sight.
Shaking his head, Vince went about his business to help pack everything up as quickly as they could.
War was coming to Yosemite.
May the heavens above give us guidance and protection in these times. And if they can’t… then the hell with them.
Chapter 6
The entire affair was a constant rolling retreat. From one end of the Yosemite border to the other, all the outposts, forts, and defenses were abandoned outright.
It’d taken a number of days, and Ramona had gone up several times each day to check the enemy position, but Vince and everyone else had remained just ahead of the enemy.
All the soldiers of Yosemite had long since pulled out.
Every single one of them was under standing orders to fall back and regroup with the main army under Petra.
Vince, Red, Ramona, Leila, Mouth, and Yaris had all rolled into the camp not more than a minute ago.
All around them was the standard camp deployment Vince had seen a few times before, when Yosemite’s armies had gone on the march.
So far, no one had noticed him. Vince looked like any other of the soldiers running into camp.
It didn’t hurt that Vince had stolen a helmet and pulled it down over his head.
Anonymity at its finest.
Vince was rather pleased with himself. When he’d tried to do the same in Yosemite, he’d been approached almost immediately by a guard to get checked.
Helmets and cloaks that covered one’s face simply weren’t allowed in the city.
Moving through soldiers who were preparing tents and depots, Vince had to admire his people.
This fallback point was the last defensive line for Vegas. A tall stone wall had been built firm and solid. A second border, as they’d called it at the time.
The bet had been that the Tri-lliance would eventually come calling. This was a much easier point to defend, being so much closer to Vegas.
