Sara didn’t think the emotion on his face was because of her. And there was only one other female in her group.
Clasping Amadeus eagerly on the shoulder, Simon said, “I knew it was the right decision to send your men after the prisoner.”
“Actually, sir, we never made it out of the forest,” said the commander stiffly. “We came across these three straggling through the trees like lost lambs.”
Sara bristled at the description and Ezekiel edged his way around to stand at her shoulder.
“Are you ready to start the counterattack?” Ezekiel asked the captain of the Corcoran mercenaries eagerly.
The man gave Ezekiel a disinterested look. “Counterattack?”
He exchanged an amused look with Amadeus.
Sara couldn’t hold her temper any longer; they were treating this like a game.
“Men are dying out there. Your men,” Sara said. “We need to strike back against the Kade mages.”
“And we will,” said Simon. “But not now. The plan doesn’t involve preemptory strikes.”
“Preemptory strikes?” Sara fazed. “What are you talking about? You need to save your men while you still can.”
Commander Amadeus snarled, “We don’t take orders from grunts like you. We have the situation in hand.”
“Have it in hand?” Sara snarled back. “Is that what you call a battlefield red with the blood of your men and only them?”
“My men are right here,” said Amadeus coldly.
Sara tried to object again.
Simon held up a hand for silence. “It’s all right, Amadeus. Perhaps I should explain a little.”
“I have done what I came here to do,” said Simon, turning to Sara. “The sun mage will be the key to killing all of the Kade mages one-by-one. I won’t risk that by setting off a useless counter-strike that would leave us defenseless and likely let her escape.”
Sara swallowed harshly. “You’ve done all you came here to do?”
She was nearly shaking in anger.
“How dare you?” spluttered Ezekiel beside her. “You’ll let your troops fall to save your own hide?”
“At the orders of the empress, I would sacrifice my own child for the greater good,” said their captain.
Then it all came together in Sara’s mind as flashes of what he had said ventured through her thoughts. Orders of the empress… Done what I came to do… The sun mage is key.
She stared at the captain in revulsion. “You knew this would happen all along.”
He turned to her with calm eyes. “We made precautions in case the Kade mages decided to take out our forces in the first skirmish and recapture the prisoner before we could arrive at the battlefield at a normal pace.”
Ezekiel snorted. “Yeah, like that went so well. You left her behind. Sara brought your precious prisoner to you.”
The captain turned to her with a measured look. “Did you, now?”
Sara said nothing. Revulsion still in her eyes. She was half-tempted to take Nissa and Ezekiel and flee. Flee to where, she didn’t know. But serving under a man who abandoned his leadership to take charge of one prisoner, no matter who the orders came from, didn’t sit well with her.
“Yes, she did,” admitted Commander Amadeus.
“Well,” said the captain, “we can’t let that go unnoticed.”
Sara said, “Don’t trouble yourself over it, really.”
“No, I honor the traditions of the mercenary guild.”
Yeah, except I don’t think leaving your men behind was one of those honored traditions, she thought viciously.
The captain continued, oblivious to her thoughts, “You’ve now been promoted to Mercenary of the first division of the Corcoran guard.”
He said it as if she should take pride in that.
Ezekiel beat her to the punch. “I hate to break it to you, but thanks to your impressive leadership, all your other divisions are dead.”
Captain Simon snarled, “One more word out of you, Mercenary, and I’ll have you left here.”
Ezekiel piped down.
“No, you won’t,” said Sara staunchly. “Every mercenary of the first and second divisions has an archer assigned to them. Ezekiel is mine.”
Simon gave her a fairly amused look. “As you like.”
He turned to Ezekiel. “Ensign Crane, you are now designated to the first division as well. And for the record…the Corcoran guard is much more than the first, third, and fourth divisions.”
Simon had just listed the division of troops that they had rode from the capital city of Sandrin—over five hundred men and women strong. Sara had wondered why the divisions were labeled so haphazardly. Now she guessed she’d have her answer.
“The might of the Corcoran guard has ten divisions. Each with over two hundred mercenaries in their ranks,” said Simon as he backed away suddenly and addressed the men who gathered in the clearing. As they emerged from the shadows to stand around the broad ring free-standing in the clearing and the fiery smoke of a field burning a few miles away drifted above, Sara counted over thirty individuals until she lost track.
“Only sixty-two number among the first division,” Simon barked with his hands behind him and his feet spread. He began to walk around the center of the tight circle formed by the individuals of the first division. A loud cheer met his pronouncement.
“But still we lost the four hundred and fifty brave souls of the third and fourth divisions tonight. They didn’t sacrifice themselves for naught,” Simon continued.
They didn’t sacrifice themselves for anything, thought Sara. They were led like lambs to the slaughter by a leader who didn’t care.
“We will move forward, we will strike in heart of the darkness, and we will end the Kades for good!” shouted Barthis. “For our land, for our empress, for Algardis!”
His sentenced ended on the roar of dozens of men.
Before her Sara saw a leader with the charisma of dozens but the heart of a snake. Calculating, cold, and deadly. Simon dropped his raised fist and walked over to their sun mage.
“Nissa Sardonien, sun mage and member of the Kade mages, are you ready to complete your destiny?”
Nissa raised her head proudly. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t turn away.
“Am I ready to die so that your imperial courts can continue to drain these lands of resources and magic until Algardis is nothing but a husk, to the shame of our founding emperor and the true intention of the bond between mage and land?” she asked. “No, I am not. But seeing as I have no choice, proceed.”
With every word, anger grew on the captain’s face. When she invoked the sacred title of the first emperor, he hauled back a hand and slapped her so hard that she fell into Sara’s side. Sara helped her to stand while staring at the captain coldly.
Sara didn’t resist when the captain grabbed the rope restraining Nissa’s hand and tugged her into the center of the circle with him. Although she wanted to. By the gods, the man was a vile individual.
With a sharp push, he held up Nissa’s hands while wrenching her arrow-shot shoulder in the process. She was unable to hold back a cry. He didn’t care.
“This woman is our key! She will be the downfall of her maniacal compatriots,” he said.
The men and women cheered.
Finished, Barthis turned to another mage standing to the side with a satisfied grin. “Open the portal way.”
The man stepped toward the large circle and set to work.
Tearing her eyes away from the sight of Nissa on the ground nursing her shoulder, Sara said to Ezekiel, “What is that?”
“It’s a portal way—a gate of passage that can transport us anywhere in the empire.”
Sara stared at him. “Anywhere like to the edge of a battlefield at least four weeks’ hard riding from here?”
He nodded with a gulp.
“Are you ready?” she said.
“Do I have a choice?” he said, straightening his shoulders.
Sara shook
her head and they both turned to watch as the portal way glowed with a brilliant light. The same light they’d seen before.
As Sara watched, she knew. It was time to face the true battlefield—the battlefield of Aranos in the heart of Kade territory.
Find out what happens next by starting Blades Of Illusion: Crown Service #2 today.
Afterword
TERAH EDUN IS A NEW York Times and USA Today bestselling author of epic and urban fantasy. Her first series is called Courtlight. She is a young adult fantasy writer that writes the stories that she always loved to read as a young girl.
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