Official Reckoning

by Mark Albany

  I opened my mouth and realized that I actually had nothing to say. I had anticipated a lot more resistance to my idea, and the lack of it left me staggering for an actual plan.

  “You didn’t actually go there yourself,” Aliana pointed out. “I’ve never seen astral projection happen before, but from what’s written about it, it’s more of an impulsive action to travel than intentional. Do you know where to find this glade?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “She told me to follow my spirit, whatever that means. There was something that drew me to her through the projection, and she said I just need to follow that.”

  “Very well, then,” Braire cut in. “Where does your gut tell you that you want to go now? Don’t think about it, just pick a direction and point.”

  I did as I was told, raising my arm toward the west, away from the mountains to our backs.

  “We have a direction,” Braire grinned. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be caught out in these woods when night falls.”

  On that, we all agreed, and moved in the direction that I’d pointed. I only hoped that I wasn’t walking us out into the wilderness to get lost.

  17

  “We’re close,” I blurted before I even knew what I was saying.

  Aliana, Braire, and Norel all turned to face me, looking confused. We had spent most of the day walking, I realized when I noticed that the sun was on its downward path toward the horizon. There wasn’t much to see inside the forest, but there were enough openings in the tree canopy for us to track the sun’s location during the bright and sunny day.

  “How can you tell?” Aliana asked, tilting her head. The three followed my lead, but I sensed a bit of frustration through our bond. They trusted me, and until now, that decision had borne little fruit.

  I looked around, trying to understand where my statement came from. I knew we were close, but it took me a moment to realize why. The sound of running water made me look around. We were slightly off course, so I indicated for us to head downhill. The low rumble of a waterfall became more and more distinct as we moved closer.

  I wasn’t sure how the sound of a waterfall could be familiar, and yet here we were, stepping into a location that seemed isolated from the rest of the world. Everything was greener and more vital, somehow. The sound of birds and wildlife in general was a lot more active in the area, too.

  This was the place. That was what I’d recognized. I hadn’t even noticed it consciously in my previous two visits, but it felt so obvious now. There was something about this place that was pleasant, just relaxing.

  I smiled and looked around but kept a hand on my weapon. Sure, I believed most of what Lyth told me, but that didn’t mean I trusted her not to shoot arrows into our backs. I was optimistic, not stupid.

  My feeling was shared by the other three. Aliana had her blades in her hands, as did Braire, who looked like she was experiencing the same kind of relaxation but still felt on edge.

  We approached the waterfall-fed pool. It looked different at night than it did a few hours before sunset, but we were in the right place.

  “We’re here,” I declared and looked around. I wasn’t sure what to expect, considering that I’d never met the woman in the flesh while here. For all I knew, she might’ve been an astral projection as well, and we were both drawn to the same place.

  “You came!” said a voice from behind us. I turned around. I knew that voice, although the other three seemed a little more hostile. Understandably so, since the newcomer had her bow in hand, strung, with an arrow nocked. “You must remind me to stop doubting your abilities.”

  “Stop doubting our abilities,” I said with a cheeky smirk as I stepped closer. The other three suddenly shared the oddest feeling across our bond, one that I couldn’t place. It was something like recognition without actual knowledge of what was being recognized. I turned to them, but they shook their heads.

  It was a matter for another time. They seemed to recognize this elf, but from what I could tell, they couldn’t recall why or from where. Norel recognized her from the inn, of course, but it went deeper than that—something she’d missed in the darkened common room where drinks had flowed.

  “We’re here,” I said and took another step forward, feeling that something needed to be said. “You told me that you couldn’t elaborate on your warning about the Official before because it wasn’t safe. Well, we have the opportunity, now.”

  Lyth nodded and pulled her arrow away from the bow. Both Aliana and Braire appeared to relax at the sight, although their weapons remained out in the open. I suspected that if Lyth wanted us dead, she could have killed at least one of us while we’d been distracted by our surroundings.

  “It’s complicated,” the turquoise-haired elf said with a sigh. “I’m not sure how to explain it.”

  “Try,” Braire growled at her while stepping up to stand next to me. “Or, alternatively, you can start by telling us who the hell you are.”

  I looked at her, approving of her tone, even if it was a little surprising. Most of the elves that I’d seen them interact with until now were greeted pleasantly and respectfully. There was tension in the air, here, and the reasons were lost on me.

  “My name is Kaelyfth,” she explained, unmoved by Braire’s suddenly-aggressive stance. “My friends call me Lyth. The reason you can’t trust the Official is because she is under Abarat’s thumb.”

  “How?” Aliana asked. “And why? Why would an Official who feels the way she does about elves work for someone as notoriously against humans as Abarat?”

  “Like I told you,” Lyth said, suddenly looking around, “it’s complicated. Were you followed here?”

  “I don’t see how,” Norel replied, although she too looked and felt uneasy about standing out in the open like this. Their nervousness started to tell on me as well, and I looked into the trees. I caught a glint of sunlight on steel and drew my sword.

  The Lancers moved out from the forest in droves. They came from the opposite direction that we had, indicating that it hadn’t been us they followed.

  I looked back at Lyth, who was already backing away into the woods. “Look for me!” she called over her shoulder before she disappeared in the underbrush.

  The air was suddenly alive with arrows. Norel raised her hands and formed a shield to defend us. It was a little too late. An arrow scored a shallow wound across my thigh. Aliana cursed as one caught her in the arm. Norel dropped back a few paces. A wooden shaft jutted from her chest. It didn’t look too deep, but it was still painful.

  “No!” I screamed and rushed forward as I pushed as much power as I could gather into my sword. I launched it in a wide swipe through the men who had been foolish enough to come too close. Their runed armor protected them from the magical strike, but those unlucky enough to be closest experienced the power cutting right through their armor and deep into their bodies. Three of them fell, trying to staunch the gaping wounds that suddenly appeared in their chests. A few more were pushed backward, black scorch marks appearing on their armor.

  Braire was attacked from behind but not killed. These men appeared to have orders to capture rather than kill as they quickly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her down. One fell back, screaming in pain as the beastmistress sank her blade into his eye. She wasn’t able to reach the stones in her pouch that would summon her furry and scaly friends. She fought, but as I made my way toward her, the Lancers restrained her hands, fitted over her mouth and dragged her away. Norel received similar treatment: captured, not killed.

  Those who tried to take Aliana, though, discovered that the djinn was a good deal more difficult to handle. She carved through the ranks of Lancers. Her knives flashed and blood flew as she cut them in the gaps that were undefended by their magic.

  I cut a similar pattern, forgoing magic with the blade except for quicker, more strategic strikes as I used the razor-sharp weapon to slash and stab a handful of the Lancers until Aliana and I stood back-to-back.

  I counted about fiftee
n Lancers killed in the fighting so far, and there were at least fifty more. Archers lined up on the edges of the clearing as the rest of the men encircled us, shields raised, weapons poised and ready to attack. They paused. I sucked in a deep breath and wondered if this was some kind of last stand situation.

  “Lay down your weapons!” a commander called from his position at the back of the ranks, where he sat astride a horse. “You are to be taken captive, but if you resist, you shall die.”

  My eyes were drawn to Braire and Norel, who were on the ground next to the commander’s horse, bound and gagged. I looked around at Aliana. There was a hint of dread in her eyes. I knew she would fight if I did, standing by me to the last. Chances were, we wouldn’t be able to kill this many, but we could punch one hell of a hole.

  The downside, of course, was that Braire and Norel would either be killed immediately or taken to whoever ordered our capture. I wouldn’t be able to live with that kind of decision.

  Aliana visibly relaxed as she noted that I’d decided. Instead of dropping her weapons, she flicked her wrists and stashed her knives where no hands could touch them as she raised her hands in surrender. I had no such way to hide my blade, so I was forced to drop it. I held my hands up as well.

  The Lancers rushed forward and for a moment, I wondered if they weren’t just going to kill us anyway. They grabbed us and quickly wrapped us in ropes that I assumed had some sort of anti-magic properties, although I wasn’t sure if that was possible. Maybe not, then. The gag did, though; I saw the runes carved into the steel plate they fitted in my mouth.

  This wasn’t going to be a pleasant trip, I realized as they roughly pushed me toward where the commander waited for us. I expected to see a smug look of victory in the man’s eyes, but as he snapped for the men to form up and head back to the town, I thought I saw a glimmer of fear. Not for us, naturally, but because something other than his loyalty to the Emperor drove him through this.

  Which was interesting, I supposed, as I was pushed to march next to Aliana, Norel, and Braire.

  18

  We’d spent most of the day hiking through the woods. That, followed by a fight and a few more hours of forced marching back the way we’d come, had a way of telling on a body. I hadn’t used that much power during the fight, but my body showed signs of exhaustion with every step. There was a hint of it in the others as well. Norel was still wounded, although the Lancers had removed the bodkin arrow and bandaged her wound. I thought the effort was odd, especially since Norel could have healed herself more effectively.

  Then again, these Lancers probably didn’t trust us to only use magic to heal. All things considered, I had to concede that it was a smart move. I had already thought up two or three dozen ways to kill every single Lancer around us along with a couple of creative ways to handle the commander. Despite the fact that his reluctance for his actions became clearer with every mile that we marched, his constant calls for us to move faster made me hate him, irrational or no.

  As the sun disappeared in the west, we came into view of the town that we’d so narrowly escaped only the day before. Somehow, it felt longer. We picked up the pace, then. It was almost beyond what even the Lancers on foot could perform, much less the four of us, bound and exhausted as we were.

  My whole body ached as they pulled us the last few steps into the walled town. The place was all but deserted. All the guards had been replaced by Lancers, who watched us closely. People moved through the streets, but they were exclusively human. The elves were suspiciously absent, and the humans we passed quickly averted their gazes. Fear was in the air, I mused as the Lancers dragged us in front of the mayor’s manse.

  The doors were pushed open from the inside, revealing a pair of Lancers in full armor doing the work as Faye stepped out. She was dressed in the Emperor’s colors, with her long, blonde hair left to drift down unencumbered over her shoulders. She looked almost surprised to see us as she turned to the commander, who hurriedly dismounted.

  “They were where you said they would be, ma’am,” he said and quickly pushed his fist against his breastplate with a clack. “We suffered casualties.”

  “The casualties do not concern me, commander,” Faye said. Her voice sounded annoyingly distant and her eyes seemed unable to focus as she faced us. “Only results. Rest yourself and your men, but I want you back out hunting the monsters before sunrise tomorrow. Dismissed.”

  The man clearly had misgivings but lacked the courage to voice them. He bowed stiffly at the waist, his hand still pressed against his chest as he about faced and marched away. A couple of the Lancers who brought us here joined him. The rest remained where they were, watching us.

  “Abarat has ordered that you four be kept alive for the moment,” Faye said to the four of us. “You will be securely contained until his arrival. Take them to the dungeons.”

  A hand pulled me around and then pushed me toward some buildings near the back of the small town, away from the gates. I saw Norel shake her head furiously. I couldn’t tell what she was trying to do until she finally managed to free herself from her gag.

  “How long have you been under his thumb, Faye?” Norel called back to the woman as she turned to reenter the building behind her. “I would have thought that someone as powerful as you would be able to resist his influence, but you bent to his will like a…”

  She was cut off when one of the Lancers hammered a fist into her jaw. Not hard enough to cut, but enough to silence her until the gag was put in place again.

  “Get them out of here, now!” Faye screamed, looking uncontrolled for a moment before the emotions slipped from her face and she walked back into the mayor’s building.

  Something hot rose inside me when I saw the strike. Afraid or not, a man didn’t put a hand on a defenseless woman like that and not expect to be the first one gutted and torn to shreds. Aliana and Braire felt the same way.

  The Lancers pushed and dragged us toward the building that was apparently the dungeon. Once inside, they shoved us into individual cells that formed a group, still bound and gagged. The cell doors closed and locked behind us.

  I used Norel’s trick to rid my mouth of the gag during the first few minutes of our incarceration and spit the steely taste out of my mouth before I crawled over to the cell on my left where they’d tossed Norel.

  “Norel?” I asked. She turned over to look at me, already lacking her own gag. “Are you all right? I swear to the gods, I will tear that man a new asshole when I get my hands on him.”

  Norel grinned. “Don’t think that I don’t appreciate it, although I would prefer the first try at him. More interesting, I think, is that Faye has been brainwashed by Abarat. I’ve seen him do it before, and I know what to look for. If one of the Emperor’s Officials is affected, we have to assume that the man himself is at risk.”

  “I think the more interesting thing to note is that the Lancers don’t appear to be under Abarat’s influence,” Aliana said as she pushed herself against the bars in the cell to my right. “They were afraid of her, not brainwashed.”

  “Makes me wonder if we wouldn’t be able to get them to surrender should we somehow manage to kill Faye first,” Braire pointed out, already making herself comfortable in the cell across from Aliana’s. “And believe me, she’s the one I’ll kill first when the time comes.”

  They all ignored the fact that we had to get out of these cells before any killing could happen. I didn’t doubt that we would eventually find a way, but we probably shouldn’t plan too far ahead.

  “We should get some rest,” I said softly. I pushed myself up against the wall in the back of my cell and leaned my head back. Find a way out, and then plan who to murder first. Norel had first claim on the man who struck her, which left me with a whole fortress of easily over a hundred Lancers to kill instead.

  It would be difficult to choose. Maybe the commander for me.

  19

  Of all the times to have a case of insomnia, this was one of—if not the—th
e worst. I was exhausted, but with my mind racing as it was and the uncomfortable feeling of ropes digging tightly into my wrists, it was difficult to sleep. As I looked around at the other three cells, I realized that Norel and Braire were either deep in their own dreams, or capable of pretending that was the case.

  There was usually something to do when I felt this way, but the fact that we had been locked in separate cells meant that unfortunately, it would not be an option tonight.

  I moved and softly growled as the ropes dug into my flesh. They would leave a mark, that much was clear, but I couldn’t worry about that at the moment.

  Aliana turned her head and smiled when she saw me working my way closer to her.

  “Well, this turned out rather shitty, didn’t it?” she asked once I was close enough to hear her soft whisper.

  “That’s something of an understatement,” I replied as I leaned closer to the bars of the cell. They were placed too close together for anything larger than our fingers to slip through.

  She smiled again as she twisted to face me.

  “I mean, we spent so much time worrying about Cyron, and his effects on the Empire,” I continued when she didn’t reply. “And sure, what he did was a lot more obvious, lacking in anything like subtlety. He didn’t think he needed to be careful. And yet, despite everything, Abarat is so much more dangerous.”

  “Considering his ability to manipulate minds and bend them to his will, sometimes without the victim even understanding what is happening, I have to agree with you,” Aliana whispered from where she leaned against the bars. “His power is considerable, of course, and his abilities on the battlefield were second to almost none, but what made him the most dangerous was his ability to twist people around to his way of seeing the world. It was how Cyron, Braire, Norel, and I ended up joining him when he attempted that spell. When he spoke, it was almost like he cast a spell on your mind, and it was impossible to resist. I can’t explain it, even now. It was… Everything he said, no matter how horrifying and terrible it was, just seemed to make sense.”