P.S. the Dragon Sleights

by K. G. Wilkie

  To be cautious the outlaws spent the rest of their trip under the canopy of all the prism packs, but it turned out to be unnecessary when no more travelers came past them during the day. The night, however, saw a group of travelers even larger than their own pass them on the road.

  Aeron led his group back onto the same Great Road North again, but this time it wasn’t to chase a missing girl. No, this trip was to hunt down the other rebels he was sure remained. He didn’t like Darien much, of course, but he believed the wizard’s testimony that Domed City was the masterminding force behind the attempted assassination of the king and the storming of the palace. He wouldn’t be fit to rule this treacherous world if he could just let that kind of threat against his family and his kingdom go without a solid fight. The vampires and nyads seemed to agree, or at any rate they had willingly come along on the road yet again without a single complaint. Which in itself had become a rather impressive feat lately.

  “Are we going any further,”Priscilla complained. She seemed to have bounced back from her recent trip through Russia and the Divide between worlds rather well, and had moved on from most of her seriousness and formality to spend a good bit of their time complaining now. It would have flattered Aeron that he was so obviously treated as fondly as the girl treated her own sister, unlike said sister’s lack of affection for him, but at this point it had just worn on him.

  Aeron sighed. “I guess we can call it quits for the night now. It’s close enough to sunset that we won’t be completely wasting our time.You’ll need to be a good child and sit out the way while the rest set up camp though,” he admonished. Aeron slung his pack with all the food gear off his mount and got to work setting up a fire. The rest cared for the horses and set up the sleeping gear.

  Priscilla soundlessly watched for a moment before she had to speak up again. “Why are you getting wood for the fire when we can just join theirs?” The rest of the group looked around in confusion before looking back at her queerly. “What do you mean? There isn’t anyone else here but us,” Jackie said. The little nyad shook her head in disagreement and pointed directly at the Alchemists frozen behind their prism packs, well aware of exactly how unhappy Prince Aeron was likely to be if he knew they were there. Their little prison break had been to help his prisoner escape after all.

  Cillean and Daerick halted and tilted their noses into the air to get some good sniffs. “Well, whataya know. Looks like we’ve got some company that doesn’t want anything to do with us. How unfriendly. What should we do with them, oh great future king,” Cillean asked.

  Aeron dropped his hand, the hand signal to go into battle a clear communication of what he expected. Neither vampire warrior planned to disappoint him. Both sprang into action and landed on the prism packs in a flurry of slashing movement. As the prisms started to fail and the huddled outlaws flickered in and out of view like a cracked LCD screen they scattered and ran. Aeron quickly recognized them and smirked at the sight of them scurrying around as if they were mere ants in the rain before he called off the battle. “There’s no need for that anymore Cillean, it seems we’ve run into the Alchemists,” Aeron said.

  Cillean looked at him, and then back at the person he held by the neck of her shirt as she flailed in an attempt to throw spells at him. “Seems like you’re right, some of these nerds were completely unprepared for battle,” he said. Cillean deposited the woman, gently, on the ground. She just glared at him.

  Jackie stood up a few meters to the side and dusted herself off from her own fight. “It seems so, now that you mention it I see that this is Taiya,” Jackie said. She held out a hand and helped lift the other woman up. “It was nothing personal mind you, we’re all just a little on edge right now and leaning to leap before we look so to speak,” she said. “If we’d known it was you guys this wouldn’t have happened. We still owe you lot for helping us out in Russia,” she said.

  Taiya shook her head at their recklessness in fighting a group they claimed to be on peaceful terms with just because they hadn’t bothered to check. “I’m glad that my outlaws have better manners than a royal party,” she said.

  Both groups discussed the road and decided to set up camp together. It seemed that not only did prince Aeron not hold any ill will against them for their part in a prison break and a runaway attempt before that, but he even still liked and appreciated them for what the support they’d provided a few weeks ago. And if he was so appreciative out of ignorance, well, no one was going to enlighten him and ruin the friendly atmosphere.

  Instead both groups sat together in a camp fire circle and told the traditional stories and songs travelers always shared.

  That night Cillean and Daerick were assigned as lookouts for the camp. Once everyone else had fallen asleep they paced back and forth along the perimeter. Around midnight the distant howl of a wolf caused both vampires to shift into a battle stance. The howl had been far away, but wolves were known to move rapidly. Werewolves, the sworn enemies of their kind, were known for moving even more quickly, and if you heard one’s cry you knew the beast itself was just around the corner and would meet him any minute now. Cillean let out a high pitched screech that those in the camp would likely be unable to hear, challenging the wolves in his own language. If they were the real animals, they would run away in fear from a predator’s call. If they were his enemies, he’d be prepared to fight them without waking up those in the camp who would likely be completely safe from the fight as long as they didn’t stumble into the middle of it. And as for his prince, well, a dragon’s hearing is honed through communication with the wind rushing through their ears in flight, and he could hear both ends of the exchange even better than the vampires themselves.

  The call that came back was reassuring though, and he responded as a friend. They had responded with their pack leader’s name, and Cillean knew the man well. Moments later the pack stood at the edge of camp. Quickly realizing that the others were sleeping they whispered their greetings to both vampire friends. It turned out the pack was heading on The Great Road North as well, though they were bucking the trend and going South towards the palace instead.

  Curiosity aroused, Aeron peeked his head out of his tent. He’d known that in the last century some of the vampires had made truces with some of the werewolf packs. Still, it was one thing to hear of truces, and another to see with his own eyes previously sworn enemies hugging with each other.

  “In the morning, we might be able to walk with you. It’s only a few hour’s trip to go the rest of the way for either of us. At the snail’s pace our own party has been going on this trip we’d be able to run down there with you and have a bit of fun and then come running back to join the rest of the group before they break for lunch,” Cillean said. Aeron cut into the conversation, murmering his agreement with the plan, before he went back to his bedroll.

  In the morning Priscilla was especially grumpy to hear that Cillean would be leaving, but eventually she was convinced to get ready for another day’s travel as usual. Aeron and his group, as well as the Alchemists, set out to go North. Both Aeron and the new Alchemist Darien made sure to carefully keep their mounts as far away from each other as was possible, but the group still managed to have fun chatting with each other and their reunited friends.

  The werewolves and vampires had a good time moving South as well. Though they enjoyed it differently.The vampires and wolves raced each other and played tricks on their friends and enjoyed it all immensely. Darien tussled with a particularly young wolf to show the girl how to toss him over her shoulder when he stumbled and ended up tossing himself. The solid dirt and debris found all along the forested road had given way to a putty that slipped through his grip. He and the rest of the group froze and looked up at the clearing that stretched before them for miles. Normally they’d have another hour to go before their breakneck speed brought them in view of the palace, but it stood there directly in front of them. Shrunken in perspective by the great distance it stood away.

  “The f
orest is gone,” Daerick said. Usually the vampire avoided speaking in general, and especially saying things that were so obvious. But it was so shocking he’d still broken his habit of silence. The sickly greige putty was all that was left of a forest dissolved by some magical means.

  Even with their keen vision neither species could clearly make out what was happening at the still distant palace, but the constant movement and booming sounds betrayed the presence of an army up ahead moving ever closer to the palace walls. The group’s leaders conferred, and the consensus was that they’d be better off sending the vampires back to retrieve the prince for battle while the werewolves sprang into the foray to defend the palace.

  Daerick and Cillean ran faster than they had needed to in centuries before they came across the group continuing North. “Aeron, this is serious. You need to go back now,” Cillean said.

  Aeron pulled on the reigns immediately, ignoring his horse’s protests, and ordered the creature to run without him. The prince himself jumped off the creature and let his wings burst forth. “What’s going on,” Aeron said. He grasped both his swords in either hand.

  “There’s an army,” he said. Cillean scooped up young Priscilla in his arms despite her protests to be let down. “It’s heading for the palace,” Cillean said.

  Aeron’s eyes spit fire and he quickly shifted into his full dragon form. Before he’d finished he sprang into the skies and headed South. The rest of the group raced behind him, their usual meandering pace forgotten in light of the emergency.

  Cillean raced to the side to the nearest safe-house of his people and dropped Priscilla off their before he turned around and raced back down South. He couldn’t risk having the girl there in the battlefield ahead of him. The war ahead of them all.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Trojan Horse

  The werewolves clashed with the invading army. Furry shoulders flexed as muscles bunched up. Jaws snapped and held on when the enemy desperately threw spells to cause pain and discomfort from the vice grip. Blood seeped from torn skin. But there were only a few dozen wolves in the pack facing off against hundreds of wizards. Soon one of the younger wolves relaxed his jaw as a spell was cast to cause sores all along his mouth and body. As the sores faded away, the wizard who had cast it stomped on one of the pup’s ribs. An older wolf tried to hang on with her claws when the same trick led her to relax her bite, but the shift gave the wizard she was fighting an opening to fling her away.

  Though most of the wolves were still in the battle, just a few casualties hurt their effectiveness greatly. Every time a wolf dropped, a hundred wizards marched forward around and on top of them.

  After a third injured wolf the tide changed. Just when the wolves were flagging a scarlet dragon dropped out of the sky and burned dozens of wizards in one go. Many of them had prepared themselves with fire shielding spells before the battle, but plenty hadn’t. They dropped like flies.

  Behind him came an ever louder war cry from the trees. Those left of Aeron’s crew had arrived, and with them came the Alchemists eager to fight their oppressors. The newcomers engaged in battle hardly winded from the journey, and the sight of them invigorated the wolves once again.

  Vines and briers sprang from the forth as Jackie used her nymph powers to turn nature against the enemy. Daerick used his super human speed to move between the wizards in a blur and take sips from his targets. The wizards had magic, but a magical human is still a tasty meal to any vampire, and the blood loss brought them to their knees and their fellows to scatter to avoid sharing in the demeaning plight.

  More and more of the wizards were taken down. The enemy forces were unswayed and marched forward with an eye behind to cast their spells. A mere hundred were left at the perimeter of the palace’s perimeter shield. The fires of the spell flared outward, singing those at the front, but it let the wizards through the defenses. Aeron bunched his shoulders and bound forward like a cat, only to be knocked down by the defenses meant to keep the enemy out and royal blood safely inside. He roared at it, but the perimeter spell held firm.

  The others shared their trepidations together. Clearly someone had contaminated the spell.The spellmages held their hands up in a demand for the spell to reveal its nature to them. The magic was something they weren’t familiar with: it wasn’t the worker of a spellhacker, at least none of the spellhackers in the Alchemist group knew of, and all the known techmages were part of their crew. It wasn’t any spell familiar to the vampires, or the dragon, or nymphs. Even the wizard in the group was stumped, though granted Darien was always admittedly a terrible wizard trainee and he had left his magic schooling behind two years ago.

  The spell could only be the work of the fey, or some new enemy.

  Aeron didn’t care about the whos or whys and roared open a portal to take them all inside. The allies collided with the last of the fighters like a wave breaking on a rocky point, and the wave won. The enemy forces were shocked that they had managed to get through their ace in the hole and scattered before Aeron’s claws.

  Once the last one was dispatched, Aeron melted back into human form and size. He snapped his fingers and Kraelek popped into the space. “I need someone to be on cleanup here. And once you’ve gotten the appropriate people to lock this trash up,” he jabbed his thumb toward the moaning bodies on the ground, “I want you to send an official notice to all the leaders that there will be another meeting held at the palace immediately. It seems someone has sabotaged our security, and I won’t allow that,” he said. Kraelek hurried to scribble out notes as his monarch spoke. Aeron turned to the two vampires. “I’d like it if you both could assist him in this. He might need some help. I’m certain he wouldn’t take this opportunity to go turncoat back to support these rebels when my temper has been stoked to peak levels and I’d be likely to flambe him if he even just acted suspicious right now,” Aeron said. The vampires both bowed and walked away with the suddenly pallid wizard in between them.

  Jackie drew her eyebrows together in clear disapproval. “What? I picked him up from the trials a few days ago,” Aeron explained. “I think Kraelek will work out well so I rescued him from official punishment for his involvement because I thought he was just a wimpy pawn. I’m not going to trust him until he proves his loyalty and things calm down for a bit though, it’s too soon to trust the guy,” Aeron said. His choice to defend himself to one of his least enthusiastic followers was maybe an exercise in futility, but then Jackie was the only person in his inner crew that was most likely to scold him for treating his workers poorly. She had the same employment benefits that made his other retainers avid fans of his leadership, but then she mostly just resented having to follow any employer at all for the sake of her family circumstances. Jackie surprised them both though by patting his shoulder and mumbling that he’d made the right decision.

  The Alchemists had gathered in their own huddle after the rush of battle had died down to talk among themselves and debate how the perimeter spell could have been not only breached, but reconstructed to let in enemies and keep out those who belonged within. Aeron went to them next and asked for their thoughts.

  Taiya tapped her fingers on her crossed elbows. “It sounds like we aren’t certain who did it. But we know it had to have been a Trojan,” she said. Aeron lifted his eyebrows in question. “It’s an old human tale from before the divide. It means someone from the inside had to have done it,” Taiya said. She looked to each face in her group nod at her one by one. Taiya sighed. “And it looks like this person on the inside can’t have been a wizard, witch, dragon, vampire, shifter, or any of the other likely suspects. It would have been someone from a more obscure group, like a fey. Or a daemon. And they would have had to have been someone the perimeter spell, well, trusted I guess is a good way to say it,” Taiya said. “Do you know anyone like that,” she asked.

  Aeron grimaced. “I know exactly two people who fit the bill, and I don’t like the thought of it being either of them,” he said. Then he cracked his knuckles a
nd opened a portal. “Looks like it’s time to interrogate the two people who hate me most,” Aeron said as he walked through.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Lockdown

  Aeron strode Into the throne room. Little drips and drabs of fluids of some kind soaked the him of his tunic, but he ignored it and the Queens shocked gasp at the site. “So, here we are. Once again the palace has been invaded. And this time we were supposed to be on lockdown so this sort of thing would be impossible!” He looked at yummy and Richard with a little scowling he said that. “And yet despite what are supposed to be our best efforts the wizards were mere seconds away from storming in two the Royal chambers,” he said.

  Amey was unperturbed and clicked at the trim on her sleeve so it would lay correctly. “Yes, yes, it wasn’t supposed to happen. And it didn’t. They didn’t get in, no one died, the it. I don’t see why were having a meeting about this,” she continued.

  “Really mother? You don’t get why my brother is concerned about yet another invasion? Really now,” Richard said. “This is in a joke. For once, I agree with them. This is serious business. I don’t quite see why you’re so blasé about this,” he said. He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes but was too concerned at the near disaster to do the usual response to the strange things his mother sometimes said.

  “Well I can see it might be concerning to some. It was a problem, we’ll fix it, and now it’s time to move on. It’s not a big deal,” Ami said.