In Service of the Light

by Marie Brown

  Chapter 2: Dark Mage

  The next day, Aurora woke cold, and stiff, and achy, but relieved. She stretched in her bedroll and then quickly tucked herself back into the warm spot her sleeping body had made. Meeplar made a sleepy protest and snuggled closer. Fall. . . time for the harvest. What kind of idiot launched a campaign in the fall, anyway? Soon it would be grey, and drippy, and thoroughly unpleasant, and yet some nutter was out there plotting against the local government. Why else start sending in magically altered monsters? Ugh. Winter campaigning was just wrong.

  She rolled out of her blanket, ignoring Meeplar, who protested and burrowed back into the warmth. It was her own special curse to wake up early every morning, no matter how late she stayed up the night before. She'd even learned to appreciate the beauty of early mornings, but gazing at the still lumps of her sleeping companions, she still felt envious.

  But her body refused to sleep in, so might as well get some use out of it. She made her way out into the dawn stillness and to the animal shelter out behind the common house. Not really a barn, the building was more geared towards sheltering the occasional ox when a farmer stopped over on his way to the markets of Caissa. The horses were all loose inside the structure, three standing hip-shot and one curled on the floor. The one on the floor scrambled to its feet when she entered. All whuffled hopefully, shoving their big, soft noses at her. Lydia—Aurora—rubbed noses and shoved faces out of her way with a smile for her long-ago terror of the beasts. They were big and dumb and friendly. Why had she been so afraid of them? Probably because she'd never seen them before, but now, they were familiar old friends. Her horse, with the very original name of Stripe, which came from the black stripe down his spine, rubbed his terminally itchy head on her even as she tried to pick her way through beasts and droppings to reach the hayloft. Stripe was a rich mahogany bay, a really pretty horse, and she liked him a lot. But for now, she gave him a quick scratch, then pushed her way through the herd to the ladder.

  A few minutes later, to the steady sound of munching jaws, Aurora found an apple-picker and cleaned up the messes the beasts had left overnight. Not her favorite job in the world, true, but she knew better than to leave the barn a mess. Anyone using the village's common facilities was of course responsible for their care.

  By the time she got the messes cleaned up and the still-eating horses groomed, the sun hovered well above the horizon, and her Cluster was probably up and moving. Lydia made her way back out of the shelter and returned to the common house to find Larissa up and making tea and roadbiscuits over the fire. Aurora's stomach growled. Plain and simple though they were, she loved roadbiscuits.

  Larissa smiled a greeting, but didn't say anything. Auroroa was fine with that. She was never too certain her voice would work first thing in the morning, anyway. She fetched herself a cup of tea and sat on her bedroll, rubbing the warm lump inside. A sleepy purr rumbled out of the blanket, but no other response.

  The smell of the tea and biscuits roused the others. Kesh rolled out of his bedroll first, looking indecently awake like he always did right after getting up. He munched a quick biscuit, slammed a cup of tea with a series of funny faces as it burned his mouth, then went outside for his morning workout. Marlan got up far more slowly, with her ritual grumblings and stretchings and complaints. She hunched over her roadbiscuits and tea with a morning headache, obvious from the pain crease between her eyes.

  “Good morning, sleepy,” Larissa said to her. “Have you got a plan of action for us yet?”

  “A start of one, anyway,” Marlan replied, rubbing her head. As loremaster, she was in charge of things like strategy and planning, as much as any of them were. “Sleeping on floors is miserable.”

  “Agreed. The tea should help. It always does for me, anyway.”

  “Good for you. Hope it helps a lot, you get to ride out and scout today.” Marlan hunched over her tea.

  “Don't forget, I'm heading off to Vallan,” Aurora put in from her bedroll. “I'm off to visit my former Master and his wife.”

  “Yes, I remember. Will you bring us back something amazing from this baker of yours?”

  “I might. That depends entirely on how nice you are to me.”

  “Ha! In that case, I guess we'll never see a treat at all.”

  Aurora grinned. “Well, fine! If you're going to be that way, I'll just leave now. I'll be back by the end of the day, I hope. See you then.”

  She shook Meeplar out of her bedroll and rolled it up tight, securing its bindings. She picked up her light chain mail shirt and pulled it on, grimacing as once again it managed to pull just one or two of her braided hairs out by the roots. Then she grabbed her saddle bags and headed out, waving to Kesh as she passed him.

  Stripe was perfectly willing to be singled out from the crowd and saddled. The creature actually enjoyed a good run in the mornings. Back when she'd been so scared of horses, she never would have believed they had enough variation in character and personality that one could be a morning person, but here he was, snorting eagerly and ready to go.

  She let the horse run a bit, but pulled him to a more reasonable pace after less than a mile. He wanted more, as always.

  “You missed your calling in life, Stripe,” she said, rubbing the arched neck under the black mane. “You should have been a racehorse, not stuck with me.”

  Stripe snorted, shaking his head, striking out without missing a stride. He wanted to go.

  “Oh, okay.” Aurora got settled deeper into her seat and warned Meeplar to hold on, then let the frisky horse go again. He rocketed off down the narrow trail like all the demons of perdition were after him. His long legs ate up the trail, blasting them through the forest in no time at all. Aurora pulled him up again before he even started to sweat, amazed to recognize the halfway point between Greentree and Vallan. Hours on foot, minutes by horse. . .

  Stripe settled in to a good, steady trot, happier now. What must it be like to be such a creature, whose entire being focused on eat, run, sleep? Probably a much simpler existence than her own. Aurora sighed, her body moving with the horse's trot without her needing to tell it to. Seeing her family last night had illustrated many changes in herself that she hadn't even noticed as they occurred. Some of those changes were not all that welcome.

  For example, when had she, born into a life of hard work although not poverty, begun seeing herself as better than others? Deserving of special treatment? She'd looked at the home she'd known so long ago and seen something fit only for an ignorant peasant, not a Great Mage such as herself. When had her ego grown so large? She must never forget her humble origins, nor that her father had taught her to work hard for a good life. Nobody was going to hand her anything on a silver platter that she didn't earn.

  Except they did. Because the extraordinary strength of her mage power set her apart, people treated her differently, convinced that she was special. Somehow, they'd convinced her that she was special, too. Now she expected to be treated differently, better, spoiled rotten, as her mother might say. And worse yet, part of her thought she deserved that special treatment.

  Vallan's outer walls loomed into view before Aurora settled her seething thoughts and recriminations. They looked a lot less imposing than she remembered, made of wood instead of Caissa's ever-present marble. The gates stood open for the day and she slowed Stripe to a walk. His hooves clopped loudly on the cobblestones. People stared at the horse, here in this town where horses only came attached to trader's wagons.

  Her memory guided her right to the bakery without hesitation. Aurora looked around, then settled on the fountain for a place to tie Stripe. She checked to see if he was hot, but her very athletic mount was barely even warm, so she felt safe leaving him with all that water.

  Inside the bakery, Aurora was greeted warmly by Nana, who recognized her right away.

  “It's been so long, child! My, how you've grown.”

  Aurora laughed. “Of course I've grown, Nana. It's been eight yea
rs. They wouldn't let me travel until my training was complete.”

  “So that's why you never came back. Let me go get Danno. He'll be pleased to see you, I'm sure.”

  Aurora looked around while she waited. The bakery had not aged as well as Nana, who looked much the same as she had eight years ago. Signs of age and wear were apparent in flaking paint, cracked glass iin one of the display counters, an actual cobweb up in the corner. . .

  Danno was indeed pleased to see her. His appearance shocked her almost as much as her father's age had on first sight. The large, jolly baker had deflated, somehow. He looked smaller in every way, and his eyes had a tired, almost defeated look.

  They chatted for a short while, catching up quickly on the last eight years. Aurora told Danno that she'd received permission to use one of the smaller ovens in the kitchen on restdays if she really wanted to bake something out of his recipe book, and he smiled. But despite being happy to see her former Master and his wife again, Aurora was glad to escape when Danno said he had to get back to work.

  Meeplar rode on her shoulder and made a reassuring croon as Aurora let the door close behind her. It's fine to feel this way, you've grown up, the feeling she sent indicated. Aurora paused by Stripe and rubbed his head for a long moment, trying to settle the inner turmoil she felt. What was she becoming?

  Stripe blew a sympathetic gusty sigh, shoving his head into her chest. Aurora gave it a final rub, then untied him and mounted. She rode out of the courtyard that had once defined her entire world without a backward glance.

  Whatever strange and unpleasant things she'd discovered about herself in this return home, she had a job to do, and she'd better get back to doing it. Stripe's endurance and steady gait ate up the miles back to the village without any need for magical support. Aurora trusted him to keep to the path, while she tried to figure out what she was going to do about the unpleasant trends she'd discovered in her own personality. They reached the village before she resolved anything, and she pushed the inner conflict away to deal with later.

  Uneasiness built in her as they approached the village. Meeplar felt it too, fidgeting and muttering to herself on her pillion pad. Something gnawed at the edges of her consciousness, something just not right. . .

  They reached the common house and Aurora darted inside, leaving Stripe at the hitching rail, still saddled and ready to go. Two of her Cluster looked up from inspecting their mail, startled by her abrupt entrance.

  “Where's Larissa?” she demanded, the feeling intensifying when she said the name. Meeplar chittered.

  “I sent her out to scout,” Marlan replied, shoving her unruly hair out of her way. “Why? Is something wrong?”

  “Can't you feel it? She needs us. Come on, let's go!”

  Kesh set his mail shirt down and climbed to his feet. “Whatever you say, mage-lady. She went out shortly after you did, and probably should have been back by now. I'll go get the horses.”

  “Hurry,” Aurora said, then started bundling up the two still unrolled bedrolls. “I don't think we have much time.”

  “I wonder what happened,” Marlan said, twisting her hair into a knot and pinning it up. Springy curls popped loose at random. “And I wish we could feel these things.”

  “So do I,” Aurora grunted, tightening a strap. “Then you'd be moving faster.”

  Marlan gathered up the tools they'd been using and tucked them away into a saddle bag, then slithered into her mail shirt. She hauled both her and Kesh's saddlebags out to the front porch then went to help with the horses. Aurora followed, bedrolls in hand, and secured them to the saddles. The remaining two horses, Jaren and Dunny Boy, snorted and danced, picking up on her unease.

  They all mounted quickly. Aurora took a moment to concentrate, then cast out a tracer. The bright yellow ball of energy hovered for a moment, spinning, then darted off into the surrounding trees. The Cluster followed.

  The tracer led them through the forest once again, although it didn't bother to stick to any path. Fortunately, the forest floor was open, rather than dense with ferns like some forests. Aurora wondered about that with one corner of her brain as the horses wove their ways, once again magically supported by herself and Meeplar, through the trees. She'd heard the term “old growth” applied to the forest before, although never known what it meant. But according to the history books she'd studied at the Hall, no forest in the countryside surrounding Caissa and especially Eirian counted as old, because the ancient stands of sacred trees had been eradicated only a few hundred years ago. Whatever. . . for now, she needed to worry about following the tracer and finding Larissa.

  They travelled in a fairly straight line to the northwest, and Aurora racked her brain to figure out what could possibly be dangerous in this direction. There was nothing out here, only an old ruin. Maybe that was where they were going?

  And then they reached their destination. The tracer stopped dead and hovered in front of a tumbled ruin of a shack. Then Larissa herself appeared in what was left of the doorway, beckoning them urgently closer.

  “I knew you people would come. Drat. Now we're all trapped. Quick, you've got to get the horses in here, keep them quiet and under cover.”

  “What's the situation?” Marlan said, even as she dismounted and led her reluctant horse into the patently unsafe structure.

  “Everybody inside, then I'll tell you.”

  Persuading four horses to share the ramshackle shelter was a bit of a chore, to say the least. At last, though, they all huddled inside, with more of Aurora's magic to keep them calm and quiet. Then Larissa finally told them why she didn't want them there.

  “I started out asking questions in the village,” she said, rubbing a horse's nose in the close quarters. “People have heard rumors there about strange activity at the old castle. Lights, people where they shouldn't be, that kind of thing. So I came to check it out and found out there's something magical going on here. There's some kind of barrier. Once I crossed it, I couldn't go back. If I go forward, I run into a thick mist, and like I said, I can't go backward. And now you're all here too, so we're all stuck. And there are. . . things out there. I don't know what they are, but they come by and make truly awful noises.”

  “Sounds like there's work for me,” Aurora said. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Well, the mist stinks,” Larissa said, making a face.

  “Thanks. Very helpful. Now, if you all will keep the horses from stepping on me, I'll be over by the door.”

  Aurora sat by the door and gathered Meeplar into her lap. “Sounds like there's trouble out there, Meep,” she said quietly, as they got settled. Meeplar chirped a reply. Aurora leaned back against the ramshackle wall, feeling gingerly behind her to make sure nothing sharp would stab her in the back, and set up a personal shield to protect them while she felt out whatever magics were in the area.

  She and Meeplar emerged from the shield over an hour later, Aurora groaning and rubbing at her back and legs. Sitting on the floor hadn't done her any favors.

  “So what's going on out there?” Marlan asked, noticing her movement. “What in the name of all that's holy are those blasted groaners?”

  “We've got a problem, crew,” Aurora replied, making a face as she stretched. “The barrier? It was very well made, and will hold against anything I can do to try to break it. I think the enemy killed someone to raise it. And the groaners, as you called them, are demons. They're a group that is very dumb, but that's the only good news. In addition to being stupid, they are very strong, and incredibly tenacious. They also have poisonous bites, so stay far away from their mouths if you can. We're going to have to find the mage that did all this and kill him. That's the only way to dispell the barrier.”

  “That's it? Find and kill mage?” Larissa shook her head. “So simple. Why didn't I think of that?”

  “Knock it off, Larissa,” Marlan said. “Sarcasm won't help us now, and if Aurora's right, this fellow wouldn't make it to a fair trial in ne
arly any jurisdiction. You know what people do to mages who kill for power.”

  Kesh rubbed the hilt of his sword from his position on the other side of the group. “Lead me to him. My blade is blessed, and ready to take on a life-stealer.”

  “This will require all of us, I'm sure. Whoever it is out there is very powerful. I doubt he'll just walk up to us and announce himself. And I can't do much until we get through the demon-mist. About the best I can do to help is cast confusion over us and the horses, so anyone looking at us won't be able to tell exactly where we are. I'm pretty useless until we get to the mage himself.”

  “Why is that?” Marlan asked.

  “Because the demons are corporeal here. They have intensely strong, impervious to magic, physical bodies. Our enemy is no fool.”

  Marlan groaned. “Wonderful. Very well, then, here's what we do. Aurora, get busy doing whatever you need to do magically. Kesh, you and that demon-slaying blade of yours go first. Larissa and I ride rear, same as always. Once we're through the mist and demons, we find a secure location and scout the castle from there. Got it?”

  Marlan and Kesh nodded. Aurora was already muttering to herself, a faint glow emanating from her hands and Meeplar's fur. This continued while the others sorted out the horses and got ready to leave the dubious safety of their shelter, then she said one sharp word, hands outstretched and eyes closed, and a wave of rippling energy shot out to cover the entire group. Then she said another word and made a tossing upward motion, and a globe of light floated over her head.

  “Okay, I've done what I can. Let's go now.”

  Aurora took the reins of her horse and everybody moved single file out the door. She concentrated for a moment and lifted the calming spell from the horses. All of them immediately snorted and tossed their heads, looking around wild-eyed.

  “Hurry now, those demons have good ears!” With that, Aurora swung up into her saddle and surveyed the surroundings warily. So far nothing, just utterly normal looking countryside, but she could feel the sense of wrongness where the mist began.

  “Move out, Cluster,” Marlan said, and the others mounted swiftly and all set out at a slow jog, shaking themselves into normal travelling order without thought as they moved: Larissa first, as scout, Kesh and his sword behind and to one side of her, Aurora behind him to the other side, and Marlan last of all. Everyone except Aurora had a weapon ready. Aurora sent the light globe, pallid and weak in the normal daylight, out to the front of the formation, where it would do the most good once the mist closed around them. She kept a defensive power blast at the ready, but for all her vast capabilities, she was nearly helpless against fully corporeal demons, with all their magic translated into physical capabilities.

  The mist closed about them soon enough, smelling of rot and decay. Their first demon followed soon after. Kesh kicked his horse forward and attacked it with a yell, swinging his sword in a vicious overhand arc aimed at slicing through the short ugly thing's head. It never connected.

  But Aurora's spell worked well, and the demon couldn't seem to get a good look at Kesh. It fought hard, but had no real chance against an enemy it couldn't quite find. Kesh sliced its head off, his preferred method of demon-slaying, and let loose a yell of triumph.

  “Quiet!” Aurora hissed. “Do you want to attract more?”

  Kesh laughed. “Bring 'em on. I've got the sword and the ability to deal with them. Why not? They're not so tough.”

  By the time they'd won free of the mist, however, Kesh wasn't so confident and amused.

  “Sorry I laughed at you, Aurora,” he said, wiping sweat from his face. He scrubbed futilely at gooey brown blood on his sword and grimaced, dropping the rag on the ground. “Those bastards were nasty. Nobody got bit, though, right?”

  Heads shook all around. Larissa scanned the now-visible countryside, looking for anywhere defensible.

  “Where the hell are we supposed to plan the next attack?” she muttered, glaring at the featureless plain. The mist was visible as a ring, enclosing them, with a ruined castle at its center. “No cover. No cover at all. No people visible, true, but still. . . no cover. Now what?”

  “Now we ride on the castle,” Marlan said, face pale. She'd had a few close calls with demons that slipped past Kesh and Larissa's guard. “I can see no other alternative. Can you?”

  “Not really. We should do what we're supposed to, lair up somewhere until I can scout out the advantages and disadvantages, but that's obviously not going to work. I guess the books don't cover every situation, just like they told us.”

  Aurora grimaced. This was only their second mission as a full Cluster. How could they be expected to handle something this difficult? She stomped on the whiny self-pity in the thought and doused the light-globe. She kept the distortion field, though. Although it made everyone else's stomach uneasy to look at each other, shifting around as they were, it was about all she could do to help until the enemy mage showed himself.

  “Off we go, then," Kesh said. "Our goal is to get Aurora inside and to the mage, so she can kill him and get us the blazes out of here.”

  The Cluster closed up and rode in tight formation without even discussing it. They'd found that their normal spread-out mode of travel was very vulnerable to demon attack, another thing no one had mentioned in lessons. Nothing happened as they crossed the open land, except a mounting feeling of being watched.

  “This is too easy,” Marlan complained, looking at the unguarded, uncovered opening into the castle. “We're heading right into a trap. But what else can we do?”

  “At least we know it's a trap,” Kesh shrugged, then rode through the open gate. Immediately, his horse rocked back on its heels and screamed. The others kicked their mounts and rushed to his aid, causing a minor traffic jam in the doorway.

  Swirling chaos met them on the other side. Ghosts, Aurora thought, and plunged into the fray, finally able to do something useful. Ghosts bound to a purpose were nowhere near as impervious to magic as demons made real. She started firing energy balls, flashy bursts of energy drawn from her surroundings and boosted by Meeplar. The ghosts burst with satisfying pops when she hit them, but they were incredibly hard to target. They moved constantly, shifting in and out of visibility, and scared the horses into near-panic. Aurora freed a corner of her attention to re-cast the horse calming spell. It didn't work fully, because the panic had a pretty solid grip on them, but at least they stopped plunging and shrieking.

  Under cover of the ghost attack came the humans. Aurora's first clue that humans were involved came when a boar spear whizzed past her face, narrowly missing her head thanks to a quick, jerky movement from her horse.

  “Ware attackers!” Kesh shouted, spinning his horse in a tight circle, looking for targets. Marlan, calmer than the rest of them, fitted an arrow to her bowstring and started shooting. Aurora trusted her Cluster to keep her safe and concentrated on blowing ghosts back into their proper dimension.

  Then all the horses were running. Aurora urged hers after the others, wondering what was going on. She found out when Kesh shouted and pointed at a half fallen wall. They all ducked behind it, horses and humans alike.

  “I think we're good for the moment,” Kesh said, panting. He dismounted and tossed his reins to Aurora without looking. He peered around the wall cautiously. “I see three—no, four dead out there. Somehow, I thought there were more of them attacking than that. Must have been the ghosts. I see a door diagonal across the courtyard from us. It must lead into the inner castle. That's where we need to go.”

  “Anybody else think this assault is insane without proper scouting?” Larissa asked.

  “Yes, but what choice do we have? You saw this situation doesn't follow the rules. We can't go by the book this time.” Marlan ran a hand over her face, wiping away sweat. “Let's leave the horses here. Aurora? Can you spellbind them?”

  “Of course.” Aurora pulled some ambient energy out of the rocks and used it to convince the horses they were t
ied. “Done. Let's go find this mage.”

  They all dismounted and moved quickly across the courtyard, feeling horribly exposed. Nothing happened. They moved into the castle itself, noting signs of fresh construction where people had begun shoring up the old ruin.

  Then they spent a very, very long time wandering through an illusory maze.

  Aurora seethed with frustration. She knew some of the maze was illusion, but it wasn't all illusion, and once again this spell had been cast using death to power it. Her attempts to counter it or dispell it slid off like rain on a stained glass window, not just ineffective, but ludicrously so. In fact, she suspected the spell was sucking in the energy she expended and using it to strengthen itself. Someone really needed to discover a way for mages of the Light to counter the power raised by blood and death. This was getting ridiculous.

  What saved them and released them from the maze was a fortuitous accident. Kesh, frustrated, struck a stone wall with the hilt of his sword. A rock flew out, knocked free by the force of the blow, and the entire wall crumbled, showing a wide open hall beyond.

  “Good job, Kesh!” Marlan congratulated. “Guess that temper of yours is good for something after all. Come on, let's go.”

  They broke free of the maze with massive relief, tired, dirty, and frustrated. Aurora felt a blister inside her boot where her sock had slipped down and she couldn't get at it to pull it back up. Larissa took the lead, moving cautiously but rapidly through the open space, followed closely by the others. They ran into a few pockets of human fighters, nothing they couldn't handle, but nothing else.

  And then all of them stopped dead in their tracks.

  “What are you people doing here?” asked a voice, a familiar voice.

  “Janx?” Marlan gasped, the first to identify that familiar face.

  “In the flesh,” he said, and bowed.

  Aurora got her shock under control. She knew Janx. She'd met him early on in her stay at the Hall, the first person she'd seen other than herself with a familiar. Then she noticed something missing. “Where's Hilo?”

  “Oh, I remember you,” Janx said, and his face twisted with pain. “You've still got your familiar. The Circle hasn't killed her yet.”

  “What?” Aurora wasn't the only one to cry out in disbelief. Meeplar felt her distress and pressed close to her ankles.

  “You heard me. That's why all of you should just walk away from them right now, come join me. They're a bunch of lying, power-mad hypocrites, and you'd be far better off breaking with the Circle now, before they destroy your lives.”

  “Janx, what in blazes are you talking about?” Kesh asked.

  “It's like this, folks. The Circle exists solely to maintain control and power in this region. They tell you all you're in the service of the Light, right, but what you really serve is them. And sometimes they send you into an impossible situation, just because it's a politically important maneuver. They got my entire Cluster killed. Worse yet, they got my familiar, my lovely little Hilo, killed, and they didn't even apologize.” Janx's voice rose to a shriek, then he visibly calmed himself. “So I broke away. I'm in the real world now, with a real job, and I serve myself and my king. You should walk away from the Circle, join up with me, and help set my king on his rightful throne.”

  “Janx, are you insane? You cast all those spells? You've been messing with death magic? And you've left the Circle?”

  “So will you, when they kill Meeplar.”

  “You are insane,” Larissa stated. “The Circle isn't what you said. If they sent you into a dangerous situation, it's no more than they do to the rest of us, and you know it.”

  “Is that your answer, then? All of you?” The red-haired mage pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning on. Aurora felt him gather his strength and hastily threw a shield around her Cluster.

  In response, the Cluster closed up together, Kesh and Aurora in front. “You're mad. We're not,” Kesh said, shaking his head sadly, but flexing his sword arm. “Let's take care of this, then.”

  Janx attacked with magic, of course. Aurora shut off her conscious mind and settled into the focused state she needed to fight a mage-duel. Meeplar helped, boosting her power and feeding her ambient energy. She had no idea how long the fight lasted. All she knew was sometimes she felt sure she was losing, and sometimes she felt sure she was winning, and Meeplar gave her a slight but definite edge even against magic tainted with death.

  Then, so abruptly Aurora blasted the wall with a fireball she couldn't stop, the fight ended.

  “What happened?” she said, blinking against the dazzle of her own spells and rubbing at her ringing ears.

  “I got him,” Kesh said grimly. “You had him distracted enough I got in beside and stuck him. Can we get out of here now?”

  “No reason why not,” Aurora said, shaking her head to try to clear it. “The spells he cast are broken now. Not even death magic survives the death of its caster.”

  “I think we should look around,” Marlan said, emerging from where she and Larissa had gone to ground behind a pile of rubble. “See if we can find this so-called king of his. I imagine the Rangers might be interested in that.”

  “More than likely,” Aurora said vaguely, gathering Meeplar into her arms. Now that the danger was over for the moment, her head hurt, and she was so tired she just wanted to fall down and sleep on the floor. “But can we survive any more conflict? I feel like I'm done for now.”

  “Maybe not,” Marlan agreed, looking at Kesh and Aurora. “You two, sit down and rest. Now. Larissa, out you go. Make a quick circuit of the castle, find out what you can, and get back here on the double. I'm going to go go check the horses. And remember, don't let anyone see you!”

  Aurora didn't argue, just found a semi-protected spot and collapsed. Meeplar let out a wilted sounding mrrp and joined her. Kesh chose to stay standing, doing some slow stretches and keeping a sharp eye out for more trouble. Larissa and Marlan departed on their assigned tasks.