Into Vushaar

by Robert M Kerns

  Now that it was evident they’d be spending time within those trees, Gavin suggested everyone see to the horses.

  The horses cared for, Gavin set up the wards, taking a small stone from the ground to become Garrett’s ward-stone. Sarres returned a short time after dusk, and Gavin could tell the day had been tiring for him.

  Sarres flopped on a log across from where Gavin sat. He withdrew his waterskin from its place on his belt and took a long pull.

  “I tracked the boy’s path to a run-down manor about two leagues south of here,” Sarres said. “Whatever it might have been, that place is now a fortified camp. Oh, sure, they do a pretty good job of acting like a manor under guard because of all the instability, but there isn’t anyone working the fields. And, we’re farther south than we thought we were. I found a hilltop on the southern side of the manor that was tall enough for me to see Thartan in the distance; where we are now is about a day and a half of easy riding from the city.”

  “Did you find any suitable locations for a camp closer to Thartan?” Gavin asked.

  “Not really,” Sarres said, shaking his head. “We’re about an hour past the fringe of the manor’s sentry patrols right now, and they have a lot of men skulking through the countryside between the manor and Thartan. They’re obviously worried about anyone trying to sneak into the manor from the south and west, and they have spread their people so thin on the north and east sides, it’s a perimeter in name only.”

  Gavin turned to where Kiri sat playing with Garrett. “Kiri, do you know of a manor or plantation about a day’s ride north of Thartan? Someplace that would be run-down from lack of care?”

  Kiri’s brow furrowed in thought for several moments before she nodded. “The only place I can think of is the old estate of Thanis Velsharin. He was a petty trader playing at being a merchant prince, and he died of somewhat mysterious circumstances about five years ago…well, seven years ago now. I didn’t realize anyone had bought his place. Why?”

  “Whoever now owns that manor is involved in the children’s abduction,” Gavin said, “and I think that’s where Naida is being held.”

  Kiri looked down at the boy beside her. “Garrett, did you escape from a big house not too far south of us?”

  “Yeah, there were a lot of bad men there. I wanted to get Naida out, but I didn’t know where they were keeping her.”

  Gavin turned to Sarres, saying, “Get parchment and ink. Chart out what you remember of the compound, and we’ll look at it in the morning. I think we all could use sleep.”

  Chapter 14

  It was after nightfall when Gavin felt himself being gently shaken awake. He blinked his eyes to clear away the sleep, and there was just enough light to see a dark form leaning over him.

  “It’s Declan,” the bard whispered. “My associates await us outside the camp.”

  Gavin rose and followed Declan as best he could through the stand of trees. The trees’ canopy was so thick, what would have been an otherwise moon-lit night was a pitch-black hole in the world. Eight people stood beside horses on the outskirts of the camp; there was just enough light for Gavin to see three of them were women. Their matte-black leather armor made them look like nothing so much as three-dimensional shadows.

  All eight bowed deeply at Gavin’s approach, but only the one closest to Gavin spoke.

  “Milord,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, “it is an honor to meet you. My name is Athis, and I serve you as an officer in Thartan’s town guard.”

  He stood just slightly taller than Gavin, but he was lanky and thinner than Gavin. Gavin tried to make out further details, but there simply wasn’t sufficient light.

  “The honor is mine, Athis; I am Gavin Cross. I had planned to send the princess and governor’s nephew back to Thartan, but from what my scout reports, the terrain is fairly well saturated with scouts from the manor. Do you think the nine of you could stealth into the manor house, locate the governor’s niece, and extract her to this camp?”

  Athis turned to his group, and Gavin heard them discussing and debating the matter. After a short time, Athis turned back to face Gavin.

  “Under what rules of engagement would this extraction occur, sir?”

  Gavin took a deep breath before turning to pace a short distance, thinking. His fury had caused the prisoner’s death the previous day, and while he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret the execution, Gavin recognized and admitted that he stood at the top of a very slippery slope. He thought it too easy to fall into bad habits only possible because of his power.

  Gavin stopped his walk to reflect on his thoughts. Up until that moment, he hadn’t admitted to himself that he did indeed have a considerable amount of power, both personally and in the world at large. It was a very sobering thought, and it was that realization—more than anything else that had crossed his mind—that decided his course of action. He turned and walked back to the nine people awaiting him.

  “Athis,” Gavin said, “how many people would you need to capture everyone on that manor?”

  Not even the limited light could hide Athis’s surprise from Gavin. “Excuse me, milord, but did you say capture?”

  “Yes, I did. I had thought to make an object lesson of those people by removing them from the face of the earth, but I think it would be a far better statement for their entire group—minus those four Sarres and Declan killed earlier—to be found hogtied in whatever barracks facility they have. Do you have access to sufficient people to make that happen?”

  Athis broke out into a feral grin. “I can send a message to the rest of our people in Thartan. They can head out and secure the scouts between the city and the manor as well as help us with what’s left to do on the manor once they arrive there. I consider the extraction of the niece to be my top priority, but I think we can achieve your secondary objective, sir. With your leave, I’ll send that message and be on our way back to the manor. I’ll send the niece here with the ladies and Declan.”

  Gavin considered the situation with the camp’s wards. He didn’t want the ladies arriving and having to spend whatever was left of the night outside the wards, but Gavin couldn’t take the steps necessary to provide ward-stones. The Word of Power he’d have to use four times would surely wake every wizard in the camp, but an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

  Huh, Gavin thought to himself as he retrieved a small stone from the ground at his feet. I wonder if it would work.

  Gavin pulled his knife and scratched the rune the ward-stones had and then nicked his thumb, swabbing the rune with his blood. He handed the stone to Athis as he said, “Try to walk to that nearest tree behind me. If you feel pressure against your chest, stop, and back up.”

  Athis walked to the tree and back. “Was I supposed to feel something?”

  Gavin smiled, felt like cheering. “Guess not. I’ll make a few more stones to see the girl safely here. Athis, I want everyone involved in this. Leave enough people in Thartan to round up any conspirators there as well.”

  The next morning, Gavin awoke early. When he rolled over in his bedroll, he saw four women—three in worn leather traveling clothes and one youngster just starting adolescence. He assumed the youngster to be Naida, and he smiled at seeing her deep in sleep.

  “How was it?” Gavin said as he sat beside the women, his voice quiet.

  The closest to Gavin made small gesture of nonchalance. “It could have been worse. We had a terrible time getting her out of her cell; it took an oath from us that Garrett was north of the manor with Kiri before she would even allow us near her.”

  Another woman moved closer to Gavin and began to whisper. “Milord, I have received word from Thartan. We were successful. All targets have been gathered in an abandoned warehouse on the fringe of the city with sufficient evidence to prompt the proper questions; matter of fact, it was the same warehouse they used to stage the job and be a safe-house until they could smuggle the children out of the city.”

  “Good,” Gavin said. “Who
can we trust in the city?”

  “In this climate, I wouldn’t trust anyone but the Cavaliers who make up the Governor’s personal guard.”

  Gavin nodded. “Get word to the Cavaliers to investigate the warehouse and manor. While you’re at it, arrange for a meeting with Zentris...something very low key. He won’t want to see anyone right now, but make it something suitably important but very boring, the sort of thing no one would notice. I want to return those children as soon as possible.”

  The afternoon two days later, a trade deputation from the Kingdom of Tel entered the north gate of Thartan. There was such an uproar over various important public officials being found bound in a warehouse that no one bothered to look too closely at the group of ‘diplomats.’

  Gavin couldn’t help but compare Thartan to the city he had already come to think of as home. A faint miasma hung over the city from the street lamps that had burned pitch the night before, and the structures were brick-and-mortar construction. Whereas the structures of Tel Mivar were a testament to the power and majesty of the Art, Thartan existed only through mortal toil. Gavin couldn’t decide which he preferred.

  The Governor’s office was lined with mahogany paneling, and the upholstery of his furniture was a soft exquisite velvet. The Governor’s desk sat on the left side of the room, and large windows opposite the door stood open, allowing a breeze and light in from the mansion’s courtyard.

  Zentris looked up at the group’s entrance, and upon seeing Gavin, his expression immediately became shrewd. Zentris was a man of middle years, what hair he had left going gray. He was a touch on the short side, and he didn’t seem to have as much of the paunch Gavin had been accustomed to seeing on middle-aged, powerful men. His eyes couldn’t help but reveal the man’s intelligence.

  “You’re no trade ambassador from Tel,” Zentris said as he rose to his feet. “Who are you, and why shouldn’t I call the guards?”

  “Calling the guards would be a very bad thing, Governor,” Gavin said. “Doing so would call attention to a certain someone we’ve taken great pains to make nondescript.”

  “Really,” Zentris said, the tone of his voice making his word a statement. “Who are you hiding?”

  “Me, Uncle Zen,” Kiri said as she stepped around Gavin. Naida walked beside her and held her right hand, and Kiri carried a dozing little Garrett in her arms.

  Zentris blinked his surprise at seeing Kiri alive, but his focus soon shifted to the children with her. All semblance of Thartan’s Governor vanished, replaced by the man who had cared for his brother’s children ever since his brother, sister-in-law, and own son had died at sea. He didn’t so much kneel as fall to his knees and held out his arms. Naida released Kiri’s hand and ran to her uncle. Kiri nudged Garrett, and upon seeing his uncle, the boy squirmed free of Kiri (not that she was trying to keep him) and ran to join his sister.

  For several moments, nothing existed beyond the reach of Zentris’s arms, not even the nine people standing in his office. Gavin watched the man do his dead-level best not to cry, and he realized he was glad only four people had died in the efforts to free and return the children. It was good that such a worthy moment wasn’t tainted by a bloodbath, and he found that those thoughts warmed his heart.

  This is what my power shall stand for in this world, Gavin thought as he watched Zentris and the children, the small victories that mean so much more. It is a far better legacy for Marcus than anything else I could have imagined.

  Zentris pulled Gavin from his thoughts by rising to his feet and sending the children to one side of the room. His examination of Gavin was speculative, and he included Gavin’s fellows in that speculation as well. It was clear he had no idea how Kiri fit into it all.

  “Money seems insufficient for the kindness you’ve rendered my wife and I, stranger.”

  Gavin smiled. “Watching your reception of the children and seeing their reaction to you paid any debt that might have existed, assuming that I’m so crass as to want a reward in the first place.”

  Zentris shook his head in disbelief. “Who are you people?”

  By now, Lillian and the other wizards stood to Gavin’s right, and almost in unison, they withdrew their medallions from inside their tunics. Zentris’s eyes went to each medallion in turn, moving down the line.

  “Roshan...Wygoth...Cothos...Mivar, and...and Kirloth?” Gavin knew the moment Zentris recognized his House’s glyph, for the governor reacted just how Gavin had come to expect from those familiar with the House glyphs: sheer, unadulterated awe laced with both fear and respect.

  Gavin stepped forward and extended his right hand to Zentris. “My name is Gavin Cross, sir.”

  Zentris’s eyes went to Kiri. “We all thought she died, drowned with the rest when the Sprite went down at sea.”

  “I washed ashore on some driftwood,” Kiri said, “where I was found by a group of slavers. I was traded back and forth for two years before Gavin found me.”

  “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’ve survived.” Zentris walked over and sat on the edge of his desk, running his hands back over his head. “My real concern now is all the people who saw her and the children. This grand edifice is more like a seat of government than an actual residence, and you must’ve passed any number of gossiping functionaries who could recognize Kiri at a distance, let alone five feet.”

  “They didn’t see the Crown Princess carrying your niece and nephew, Zentris,” Gavin said.

  “Oh, what did they see?”

  Gavin turned and gestured for Lillian to speak. He could’ve answered that question himself, but Lillian still wasn’t comfortable with the knowledge that she was destined to walk the halls and corridors of power. He thought it would do her some good to get a little practice dealing with a foreign dignitary, even if the interaction took place under somewhat unorthodox circumstances.

  “They saw an unremarkable and most unappreciated secretary weighed down with the papers and documents any trade deputation simply must have, sir,” Lillian said. “I didn’t think it would work myself, but Gavin really outdid himself with the illusion he wove around Kiri and the children.”

  “And everyone believed what they saw? No one saw past the illusion?”

  Mariana stepped forward to speak at that point. “Sir, I serve Tel as a Battle-mage, and part of my training has been how to protect those individuals who need it...what to watch for among a crowd, how people try to hide reactions, that sort of thing. No one we passed gave any reaction that Kiri even existed, let alone taking enough time to examine the illusion for any flaws it might have had. Her identity is safe.”

  “I see. Well, under the circumstances, a banquet honoring the intrepid heroes hardly seems the proper course of action, but I don’t like it. You should be recognized for what you’ve done.”

  Gavin waved away the concern. “If you would reward us, blame the children’s return on the brave and loyal Cavaliers. Isn’t it obvious? Those poor souls they apprehended in the warehouse across town gave all manner of testimony on their nefarious scheme.”

  Zentris shook his head once more before resuming his gaze at Gavin. “You are an odd one, Gavin Cross; there’s no denying that. My assistant was quite flustered at the mysterious appointment that simply appeared on my schedule this morning, and those thirty-odd people didn’t tie themselves up.”

  “Don’t ask too many questions, Zentris,” Gavin said, responding to the man’s shrewd gaze with an enigmatic smile. “Accept matters for what they are: an astounding windfall for Muran loyalists.”

  Chapter 15

  Eight days after leaving Thartan, they camped on the western shore of a small lake. A castle stood on a hill overlooking the eastern shores of the lake, and even at their present distance, it was clear the castle was little more than ancient ruins. While Gavin set about establishing the wards for the camp, Declan and Sarres sought their meal that evening.

  Later that night, they were sitting around the fire, singing to the accompaniment of
Declan’s lute when a massive Evocation resonance erupted somewhere nearby.

  “Gavin,” Lillian said, “what was that?”

  “A powerful wizard just invoked an Evocation effect,” Gavin said, turning toward the ruins off in the distance as he continued, “and it came from there.”

  Declan walked over to stand beside Gavin. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly fond of leaving an unknown wizard of apparent power so close to us while we sleep. How about we investigate it?”

  Gavin stared off toward the ruins in the distance, thinking through the situation. He didn’t like either option, really. Still, they were already vulnerable. Establishing the camp’s wards created a subtle but noticeable Tutation effect where there hadn’t been one before, which meant they were a bonfire on a dark night to anyone capable of feeling the ebb and flow of the Art.

  “I’m leaning in favor of Declan’s thoughts unless anyone else wants to talk me out of it.”

  Rather than speak, the elves walked over and began donning their armor. Mariana went over to her things and removed her light armor and Battle-mage vestments and began donning those as well. Declan saw the others’ actions and changed into his matte-black leather armor.

  The curtain wall was a crumbling, shattered ruin that stood in ragged sections around the promontory upon which the keep had been built. No sign of the portcullis or gate remained in the gatehouse, and even the gatehouse itself was superfluous, as the curtain wall had collapsed for thirty feet on either side of it. Script Gavin didn’t even recognize was chiseled into the arch of the gatehouse’s entrance.

  Kiri was riding beside Gavin, and she stopped and examined the script. She was silent for several moments, her expression thoughtful, until her eyes widened.