Rachel still seemed confused, but the next moment one of the Wealthwalkers jogged back to us and said everything I had just told her, almost verbatim. Then she jogged back to wave at the hooded figure standing on the ramparts over the gate.
“Huh,” my best friend’s sister said, “so that’s what you were doing every time you made me describe everything an NPC was doing in a campaign, instead of just rolling Sense Motive.”
“Well, y’all made a big deal about staying in character,” I said with a shrug.
Rachel gave me another look that made me feel like she was really impressed with me, but I wasn’t certain I read that right. She was probably one of the few people I misread on a constant basis, so I had learned to be careful over the years.
Which I had done anyway, because she was my best friend’s sister, and I didn’t want to read too much into whatever my best friend’s sister did. At any rate, they were already opening the gates for us, so I turned my attention back to my surroundings.
The first thing I noticed was the crowd of people cheering as we entered. That was a good sign, obviously, but I decided to look closer, comparing these people to the throngs that had greeted us back on Avalon.
None of the cheers seemed forced, as far as I could tell, but the cries did seem to have a desperate hope to them. They knew more danger might come their way any day, but something must have happened to make them willing to face it whenever it came back.
So they hollered at us, and shouted all kinds of praises for the Challenger and Lord of Avalon—and for us as well, even though we hadn’t done anything yet but show up and be affiliated with him.
But I saw some more Wealthwalkers, as well as some fancy, robed people ahead of us, and I judged their grim expressions to mean that we were about to be needed real quick.
The two Wealthwalkers escorting us spoke rapidly, in a language our mindscreens didn’t bother to translate for some reason. The figures ahead of us nodded at their words, and the woman at the front of them stepped forward to address us.
“I greet you, righteous Earthborn, and thank you for coming to our aid. I am Headmaster Yama of the local Testifier college. Wes Malcolm asked us to greet you in his stead.”
“Hello,” I answered, before Rachel could nudge me to. Something about my Traits had made everyone decide I would be the best speaker, even if I wasn’t as familiar with all of this magic stuff as they were. “My name’s Davelon, and this is Rachel, Andre, Himari, and Christina.” I pointed to each of the people with me. “May I ask where Wes Malcolm is?”
“The Lord Challenger has taken it upon himself to deal with the first army of monstrosities coming our way. He asked us to greet you in his stead.”
Great, Wes, I thought to myself, I can’t wait to tell your mom that I couldn’t immediately speak to you, because I couldn’t get here before you got yourself into another surprise death battle, with God knows how many hundreds of murderous freaks.
“That’s alright,” I said out loud instead. “Did he tell you when to expect his return? Or a message describing whether or not he was alright?”
“Indeed,” the woman nodded, “he just recently sent word that he was victorious, and will be returning shortly. But please come this way. You are likely weary from your long journey, and will need refreshment.”
I saw the Wealthwalkers with me exchange glances with the Wealthwalkers already here. Both groups nodded, then the ones standing with me smiled and stepped behind me.
I read that exchange as ‘this isn’t according to plan, are you sure everything’s fine?’ Followed by ‘yes, we were there and we saw everything go down, she’s telling the truth, to okay, we’ll follow them in just in case anything goes wrong.’
That actually wasn’t hard to figure out anymore, because most of the people in this world did one of two things: give us food just for showing up, or follow us around like Secret Service bodyguards.
They led us through the city streets and to a large building nearby. Inside was a well-cushioned dining area, featuring a table covered with trays of fruit, braised meat, and freshly baked bread.
Yep, I decided, being associated with Wes was a lot like being recruited by all those fancy football colleges.
But Wes was my boy, so that just made me proud of him.
And made me determined to not let him down.
We sat down and ate, because there wasn’t much else to do.
As we ate, our hosts described a bit of what had happened here. It lined up a lot with what I had heard other people say Wes had done: show up suddenly, come up with a plan quickly, and then execute before anyone involved realized just what he had managed to get away with. The people had been liberated from their oppressor, had their loved ones returned to them, and, with our arrival, had seen him deliver on providing more Challengers and other warriors, as another group of Wealthwalkers, Gaelguard, and other warriors were going to arrive shortly after we had. So naturally, they had nothing but nice things to say about him.
I could tell with their body language. Their leaders were holding it together, but everyone else was delirious with hope and joy. They were still celebrating everything they had just gained back, and they weren’t even worried about the fact that their enemies were certain to attack their city again.
“So, just so we’re clear,” I said after I finished eating, “Wes has talked to you all about the fact that the rotten Earthborn and their little furry monsters are going to come back here. You all are aware that you’re going to have to fight again?”
“No,” the woman named Yama said, her dark eyes flashing fiercely. “There is no again. We made the mistake of not fighting the first time. Our cowardice, and loss of faith in Avalon’s Challenger, kept us from offering any more than a token resistance. We let the cowards among us gain power, then hand over our city to the false Earthborn, and our loved ones to the Horde Pits.”
“Fair point,” I said, but the woman continued.
“It should not have been,” she said fervently. “You must understand, young Challenger. Our worlds owe centuries of prosperity to the heroes of Avalon, and the Steward that has always sent them. They have a perfect record in delivering us from impossible danger and turning our tribulations into more wealth. Yet when the Steward came to our leaders and Icons asking for aid, we panicked. All of our own troubles suddenly magnified in our own eyes, and we gave her nothing. Then we received word that her latest champion had been permanently slain, and that she herself had been driven from Avalon, and we panicked further. When we began to hear of the other worlds falling one by one, the cowards among us seized power by any means they could, and sealed our own fate.
“Or so we thought,” she added, the old woman’s eyes flashing again. “A few days ago, the one said to have been slain for good came to us, under the cover of night. We saw that he had broken free of his captivity, and in absence of those who should have come to his aid, other captives and legends from the past itself had taken up our mantle and joined his retinue. I am a Testifier, Challenger Davelon. It is my duty to discover, preserve, and even defend history. I failed to do so once before, and so cowards and tyrants ensured that only the worst parts of history were allowed to repeat. But my people and I will not make that mistake a second time. When trouble returns with all its monsters and armies, we will choose our faith in what we have seen happen in the past, over our fear of what terrors the future might bring.”
Her confidence was both impressive and reassuring.
It didn’t change the fact that Wes had seemed a little concerned in his last message, but at least I could tell her people weren’t being unreasonable in their hope.
“Davelon, Rachel,” a voice whispered to me, “can you hear me?”
It sounded like that little pink fairy-girl that flew around with Wes, but when I looked around I couldn’t see her.
“Sorry, stupid question,” the voice said next, “I can tell when you receive my message, and you can’t reply, because you don’t have an
y fairies with you. Totally need to fix that. Now where was I? Oh! Right! Everyone is fine, we killed all the bad guys, and we’ll be back in thirty minutes or so. Also, we super need to talk to you guys, so um, get ready for more planning.”
Then the message ended, and Rachel gave me a confused look.
“Why did she say to get ready for more planning?” the red-headed girl whispered to me. “We already knew there was going to be more planning as soon as we came here.”
“Just roll with it,” I whispered back.
I had given up trying to understand all the little winged people floating around. They did things that didn’t always make sense, were cheerful at odd times, and every now and then one would fly up to me and just, out of nowhere, ask me a question that made me extremely uncomfortable—especially if it was about Wes and the fairy named Breena.
It had gotten a little better. Before, a lot of the female fairies had followed me around the really awkward way that a lot of middle school girls did before I figured out how to avoid them. I had complained to that Guineve lady about it, and she just laughed and started explaining something about fairy biology that I was way too creeped out to really listen to.
But when I mentioned the same thing to Rachel, she said she knew a way to fix it, and not to worry about it, and it stopped the next day. Well, sort of. Now whenever she and I went anywhere, one of them would occasionally wink at her.
Every time I tried to figure that out, I reminded myself that she was my best friend’s sister, and chose not to read too much into it.
Also, I decided to give up on understanding the little people altogether, and then my life got so much easier.
More commotion sounded from outside, and I realized Wes had probably arrived at the city.
“Oh yeah, we’re here now!” the cheerful voice whispered to me. “Sorry! Just wanted to give you a heads up!”
I had gathered as much, but since Breena couldn’t hear me anyway, I didn’t say anything.
“I know!” the fairy piped defensively, but it sounded like she was talking to someone else. “I’m just trying to leave a good impression on your friends, because Stell wants us all to make up for that time your mother walked in on her making that Earthborn prison cigarette comparison! I mean, forget I said anything! You don’t know anything about that! And yes, of course I made sure I ended the spell, I wouldn’t make an embarrassing mistake like tha—eep!”
Her words cut off immediately.
Ten minutes later, we were greeted by the sight of my tired, slightly cranky best friend, and his slowly growing entourage.
One of which was a tiny, sheepish-looking, pink-haired woman, who, when Wes wasn’t looking at her, began furiously mouthing the same phrases to me, over and over.
You heard nothing-please say you heard nothing-I totally need you to tell Wes you’ve heard nothing.
I gave her the faintest of nods, and she sighed loudly in relief.
My best friend turned to look at her, but she gave him a perfectly innocent stare, so he just made a sigh of his own and turned back to me.
“Hey Sis,” he said first, “Hey Davelon. Hey Christina, Andre, and Himari. Thanks for coming.”
“Um, we weren’t exactly going to stay at your magical mansion and ignore you,” Christina spoke up.
“Yeah, man,” Andre said next, “that would have broken like every friendship rule in like every portal fantasy ever. You should have better standards for us, mano.”
Himari rolled her eyes at him again, but the sentiment was the same all around.
“I know,” Wes said as he sat down and a bunch of happy serving women brought him and his people more food. “It’s just that I appreciate you guys taking the risk.” He looked around, waiting until all the servers had left, and no one else was in the room but us, his people, and Headmaster Yama.
“Plans have had to change,” he explained quietly.
Breena and the other fairy looked up and quickly traced some circles in the air while muttering. A few seconds later, I noticed that all of the noises in the room seemed just a little muted. Wes leaned forward as he spoke.
“As you all know, we took this town a few days ago from Warren Rhodes’ dirtbag enforcers. Immediately afterward, we destroyed their Horde Pit. That last bit didn’t exactly go according to plan,” he added with a grimace. “Not only were they expecting us, they performed a bunch of tactics we hadn’t realized they were capable of, and expended way more resources than we expected them to have down there.” Wes shook his head. “I had never even seen a Hordebeast in plate armor, and they wound up being even more of a pain than their final surprise.”
“What was their surprise?” his sister—the red-headed one; Val was just stuffing her face with bread at the moment—asked.
“They sent a duplicate of the Dark Icon that had tried to kill me way back on Avalon,” Wes said flatly.
“Buuuuut if it was a duplicate,” Rachel began dubiously, “then that meant they attacked you with something you were already able to kill like twenty levels ago.”
“I know,” Wes said irritably, “and yeah, he was a speed bump compared to the armored Spawn guarding the Pit. But he had tracking and sensing powers, so now the Horde has a better handle on my location and my base abilities.”
“Wouldn’t they already have that?” Christina asked, looking as confused as the rest of us. “I mean, I thought we were all already counting on that.”
“Not quite,” Wes answered her. “I try not to reveal all of my tricks in any one fight, but yes, they should have a general idea of my power. But when I scanned Raw-Maw, I realized that he had been able to get a much clearer picture of my abilities—and that the Horde now had a much better idea of which resources to bring to bear.” He looked at Headmaster Yama, and the woman began speaking.
“The Testifiers we have been in contact with are all reporting better and more heavily equipped Hordebeasts patrolling their cities. Furthermore, large concentrations of Hordebeasts have been seen exiting the Horde Pits. In many instances, these numbers equal or surpass the number of monsters already occupying the territory containing the Pit. As far as my colleagues can tell, the amount of Hordebeasts infesting our world has doubled overnight. Even concerning the Horde, that instance is a first.”
“And this isn’t including the armies we’ve already seen arriving through the Pathways,” Wes added. “We were already dealing with several large armies on our way here. Our original plan revolved around countering them and the elite Horde and Malus agents accompanying them. Now though, we have additional armies sprouting from every Horde Pit in every region heading in our direction. And since they’re entirely made from Horde, they won’t have any Malus agents trying to guide their collateral damage. They’ll come straight for me, and they’ll tear apart anyone who gets in their way—or make more Horde Pits in the process.”
“Didn’t someone say that the Horde can’t make more of their own Pits?” Christina asked hesitantly. I didn’t blame her. The furry monsters were so flat-out disgusting that it made learning anything about them unpleasant, which meant that it was easier to misunderstand them.
“The first Horde Pit in any region has to be made by a non-Horde,” Headmaster Yama clarified sadly. “We never learned exactly why, but we believed it had something to do with the way the Pits interact with the worlds they pollute. But once the first Pit has been transplanted, and fed enough, it can slowly begin to make more Pits.”
“Why would anyone want to spread those nasty things?” the blonde cheerleader asked with a wrinkled nose.
I didn’t blame her. We hadn’t seen one in person yet, but everything we learned about them made my stomach queasy.
“Most beings don’t,” the Headmaster affirmed, “but the Pits’ chosen champions have much to gain from evolving their Pits. That was perhaps yet another reason why the false Earthborn were able to sweep over our worlds. They managed to spread Horde Pits quickly, allowing for entire armies of the beasts to sprout up
before we had even the faintest inkling of their presence.”
“And now, according to all sources,” Wes added, glancing at both Breena and the headmaster, “the Pits are producing Horde even faster than ever before, except perhaps when they conquered the Lost Deeps.”
“How bad of a thing is this?” Rachel asked, looking pensive. “You don’t seem like you think this is unwinnable.”
“Of course I don’t,” Wes snorted, “but what I’m really concerned with is whether or not the rest of the worlds still offering any kind of resistance are suddenly having to deal with this, too. Because if they are, then things just got much, much worse at the macro level.”
“If they could have just zerged everywhere at once, wouldn’t they have already done so like ages ago?” Andre asked, squinting in confusion.
“There’s a lot that our enemies do that doesn’t make much tactical sense to us,” Wes replied, sounding exasperated. “In fact, I had a lot of arguments with them, back before I realized just how consistently viable violence is as a solution for them. But the Horde have their own motives and goals, and I don’t think any of the assholes on Earth fully understand them either. My suspicion is that they don’t trust each other a lot, even with the Horde’s tendency to submit to powerful individuals. I think they hate me so much, over whatever exactly happened back in our first meeting, that their goals have altered to where actually killing me is more important than conquering everyone else.”
Knives in the Night Page 22
