by Zack Finley
I brought the last four guards back with me and handed them off to Lt. Brik. The heir's estate was located northeast of town. The roads into Asme radiated like the spokes of a wheel with the hub being the town. We were coming to town from the northwest. The heir's estate was in the northeast quadrant. We decided to stow the carriages and cut across the fields to target the estate directly and bypass the city center.
The carriage troop prepared the carriages to escape quickly if attacked. This left the main party with 30 king’s guard and three mages to reach the heir.
Lt. Brik set us on a course across the fields, taking full advantage of the terrain to keep us under cover. I was okay leaving the plan in his hands, at least as long as the strategy remained sound.
Only five troopers had basas. Brik sent two out at a time to scout the area ahead of us.
Gera briefed Argon and me about King Rufix's grandson Marko. The king believed Marko and his mother were in the Asme estate when the assassination plot unfolded.
The estate normally had a squad of 12 king’s guard including a mage in residence. This was the main residence of the king's murdered son. The manor house was designed to allow a small force to hold off a much larger attacking army.
The king worried Arbos' betrayal made it likely treachery accomplished what force of arms could not.
As we neared the edge of the estate, Argon cast a mild air magic dispersion spell around the entire troop. It wasn't as good as our normal invisibility spell, but it drew very little from her air magic pool. It should be enough to keep any spies assigned to monitor the manor from detecting the king’s guard, especially as dark as it was.
We took shelter against the wall surrounding the heir's estate. We'd made it across the fields apparently undetected.
As expected, serious wards protected the estate. We still had the queen mother's sigil and hoped it would open the secret escape tunnel and let us slip in. The estate had been King Rufix's summer home during Jenia's and her late brother's childhood. Rufix had deeded the property to his son when his son married. The king told us he had not removed Jenia's sigil from any of his protections and doubted his son had either.
The same mage and builder who built the tunnel we'd used in the Augun keep designed the escape tunnel for the manor.
We messaged Allo we expected to be out of touch for a while, and then alerted Tobron we were going in. We had briefed Brik and Gera not to immediately attempt to enter the manor if we failed but to contact Cleon for further instructions from King Rufix.
We then sprinted to the middle of the wall where we expected to find the secret entrance. Argon used her invisibility spell to shield us from sight. This time the entrance was easy to spot. Jenia's sigil snapped the door open within seconds of our arrival.
◆◆◆
Chapter 27
Even though we were expecting it, the abrupt cut off from our mental ties with the rest of the world was still a surprise when the door closed behind us.
After confirming no one was hiding in the tunnel, Argon conjured an intense light. We moved down the stairs and into the main tunnel. People had definitely been in the tunnel recently. Empty water bottles and food wrappers were an obvious clue.
We took this as a good sign. If they had had enough warning to shelter here, then there was a good chance they were safe.
We had already decided not to open the door to the manor before reconnoitering. I left Argon examining the armory while I cut a hole in the wall and banished a section of stone for our observation room. Being cut off from Argon for even a brief time was disconcerting. She felt the same because it wasn't long before she grabbed my leg and maintained contact until I pulled her into the room to join me.
I kept the space cozy because I didn't want to trigger an alarm.
We used our combat connection to locate and identify those within the manor. I concentrated on those without shields. There were a lot more people in the manor than expected. Nearly all of the cooks, maids, and servants were asleep in the staff quarters in the back part of the manor. I identified two corridors, which we needed to block with stone to keep them from interfering.
About 30 Augun King’s Guards were in the manor, but only 10 were awake. The sleepers were concentrated in two barracks and one of the dining rooms. Three new wall sections would keep them from reinforcing those on duty.
I was relieved to learn that everyone in the manor had been there since the day of the assassination. The mage had received enough of a warning from someone in Augun, she had the manor secured and stashed Marko and his mother, Lany, in the secret tunnel before the main attack.
The attackers must have counted on catching those within the manor by surprise because the assault had been halfhearted and ineffective. The strong wards and protectors' seeming endless supply of enchanted crossbow bolts stymied the two attacking mages. After several hours of stalemate, the attacking force withdrew out of crossbow range. The mages left.
The Augun mage contacted the king’s guard garrison in Asme and directed them in a sneak attack on the attackers. This foray was highly successful. The king’s guard from the Asme garrison reinforced the manor to help protect the king's grandson.
They retrieved all of the weapons and as many enchanted crossbow bolts as they could find on the battlefield. They strewed the bodies of the attackers in the surrounding fields to provide sustenance to the injured plants.
But when Marko and Lany came out of the escape tunnels, Lany fell to her knees and begin to scream uncontrollably. Servants whisked Marko away, and her attendants immediately surrounded Lany.
This was how those in the manor learned they were now protecting either the king or the king's heir. Their mage's attempt to learn more about the fate of the king had so far been unsuccessful. She'd been ordered to remain with the heir in Asme and await rescue.
Since that day, there had been sporadic attempts to attack the manor but nothing serious. On the second day of the lockdown, they lost contact with the rest of the king’s guard in Asme.
The manor stopped sending scouts to monitor conditions in Asme after three scouts in a row failed to return.
I was briefing Argon on my findings as I read each of the king’s guard, checking for potential spies. A few weren't above taking bribes, one had a serious gambling problem, and one had a jaded past. None had betrayed their king. All were resolved to hold out to the death to protect his heir.
Their sergeant had decades of fighting experience. His soldiers respected him. Most didn't understand what the mage was up to, but they trusted her. None doubted her bravery under fire.
Argon located Marko and Lany asleep in their quarters. They had high-quality mind shields, but even these were now child's play to Argon. She found nothing to indicate they had any association with the assassins.
The mage was not so easy. She had a lot stronger wards than Jahan. We decided securing her first was our best option. We left the secret tunnel and split up. Argon headed upstairs to seek the mage. I prepared a series of stone wall spells for execution to prevent the sleeping troops and servants from interfering.
The mage's room was above one of the pantries and Argon would evacuate half the oxygen and enter through the floor.
I wanted to avoid having any of those enchanted bolts strike me.
Argon had the mage cuffed and paralyzed without raising any alarm. I placed stone walls in strategic locations within the keep.
We went into combat mode with Argon in tactical command. This allowed her to trigger my spells at the instant she targeted three of the on-duty king’s guard with stuns.
There was still no alarm raised as I silently took down one king’s guard after another.
The last four king’s guards were manning arrow slits in two rooms on the second floor above the main entrance.
I filled the two doorways with stone and waited for them to notice.
"Wake up your mage. I'll go get Lt. Brik. He should be able to help us convince these guards we are t
he good guys."
Argon went to retrieve Olive, the mage, while I 'ported back to the troop. Lt. Brik suggested we bring three men who knew several of the men assigned to either the heir's detachment or to Asme. It sounded good to me and we 'ported back just as Argon freed the mage from paralysis. Argon assured me the mage was no part of any conspiracy to hurt Augun.
Olive began screaming for help. I was glad her magic cuffs kept her from creating more of a problem. Argon had not successfully convinced Olive we were on her side.
I asked Lt. Brik and his men to gather the stunned guards together and collect their weapons before they woke up.
Argon dragged the screaming mage to the front room where Brik planned to bring the guards. We handed her a copy of the king's proclamation and showed her our credentials from King Rufix. She was still not convinced.
Argon encased the mage's feet in stone attached to the floor to keep her from wandering off. We then headed to meet with Marko and his mother.
We picked up Marko first, banishing a section of wall into his room and using our flesh magic to deepen his sleep. I picked him up. We slipped into his mother's room where I placed him on her bed.
We pulled up two chairs next to the bed in what we hoped was a non-threatening stance. Argon reached out to Lany and nudged her awake.
Lany bolted upright and immediately began to scream. This got through even the deep sleep Marko was in. He awoke, ready to defend his mother.
Marko launched at me and began beating me with his fists. Marko was a beefy 16-year-old.
His mother jumped on me like a mama bear protecting her cub. She was trying to claw my eyes out. My wards were holding, but this wasn't working out the way we thought it would.
I appealed to Argon, who seemed to find the whole situation hilarious.
Argon relented and secured the mother in one chair and Marko in the other using a paralysis spell I recognized well.
I poked my head out and told an alarmed Lt. Brik that all was well. He looked doubtful between his screaming mage and our unhappy royals.
I messaged Alba and told her we had the heir who needed to see King Rufix right away. Alba was dozing in the room she kept at the hospital when I called. She said Rufix was probably in better shape tonight than she was. Seeing his grandson alive and unharmed would be a dose of the best medicine available.
We left mother and son paralyzed and pinned to chairs to 'port them to the Klee hospital. We transferred them onto a medical cart and rolled them in to see the king.
The joy on King Rufix's face was incandescent. To be replaced nearly as quickly by horror. "Free them at once," King Rufix demanded as he nearly came out of his bed after us. The mage assigned from the Klee King’s Guard to protect King Rufix began to respond to the king's distress when we freed the two.
When paralyzed Lany was in mid-scream. She saw no reason to change tactics upon release. I wasn't sure she even recognized the king.
But, her son did. After glaring at me, Marko threw himself at his grandfather and began sobbing.
Rufix wrapped his arms around the boy and began rocking to soothe him. He mouthed the words, "Thank you" over the kid's head.
Lany then realized she was free and started to respond to this new threat to her son. Until she recognized King Rufix. Then she seemed to shrink, slumping into her chair, all fight completely gone.
I found her situation to be beyond sad. I couldn't imagine losing my mate. A nudge from Argon reminded me we still had an active situation underway.
We told the king we needed to bring one more person to see him to resolve the situation at the heir's manor without anyone getting hurt. We ‘ported back to the manor.
Argon took the mage with her to see King Rufix. Everyone left in the manor was relieved when the screaming stopped.
◆◆◆
Chapter 28
I helped Lt. Brik prepare for her return. The Augun King’s Guard who had been sleeping in the barracks and dining room was now awake and trying to smash holes in the walls to escape. The servants were milling around. Several were gathering the courage to go to Asme for help.
We needed to get control of this fast or more of the good guys would get hurt.
The king, with help from Lany and Marko, finally convinced Olive, the stubborn Augun mage, that this was a legitimate rescue. She and Argon were coming back to calm down her men.
The respect the Augun King’s Guard protecting the heir had for Olive, their feisty mage, allowed her to calm the situation within minutes of her return. We first released and then rearmed the 10 men on duty. Lt. Brik had gathered them all in the front room.
Olive and I then proceeded through the manor releasing her men and the servants.
I sensed the servants were still a little skeptical, especially Lany's attendants. They would remain watchful, but since we clearly had the support of all the king’s guard, they were willing to go along.
I briefed Lt. Valso on our progress via com-card. With the heir safe, we now had a large force we could use to rid Asme of raiders. Valso ordered Lt. Brik to take command of the entire force and ordered him to free Asme from marauders. Brik was then to garrison Asme to maintain the peace.
Argon and I 'ported Brik back to join his waiting king’s guard. This group would then meet up with his carriage troop and enter the city in his carriages. Argon set up a logistics loop shared between the four mages, which should let us reinforce wherever the fighting was hardest.
Lt. Brik reluctantly decided to split his group. I endorsed his proposal. We were both concerned the marauders would just slip away to cause more problems elsewhere.
We needed to punish and eliminate them as a future threat. Argon and I accompanied Brik because his troop was the bait.
Brik sent two of his basas scouts to support the manor detachment and we hot-footed it back to the carriages.
While it seemed like days since we left the carriages, it had only been a few hours. They were still where we left them. Argon and I rode in the lead carriage monitoring those along the highway. We assigned Gera to the last carriage.
The manor detachment, including Olive, was moving stealthily toward the city center from the northeast.
Our troop made no effort to maintain noise discipline. Our job was to move slowly toward the city center and wiggle like bait. Brik asked the guard to behave in the least professional way possible, as long as their armor was secure and their weapons were within ready reach.
The men scrounged up lanterns from somewhere and placed them high so they would spotlight our arrival. We hid half our number inside the carriages, to make us seem even more vulnerable.
Someone had a supply of liquor bottles they tossed out of the carriages from time to time. I thought the bottles were a nice touch, but Argon thought it unlikely our opponents would notice.
I figured anything that helped keep up your morale while waiting for the hammer to drop was a good thing.
We had gone less than a mile when we started getting attention. Argon identified scouts from three separate marauder groups pacing our caravan.
Their main worry was whether there would be enough loot to make it worthwhile for three groups to attack us. They concluded the bounty on members of the king’s guard would pay better than the rest of the crap yet to be looted around Asme.
They were tired of the minor loot found in the countryside and couldn't wait for the assault on Augun. They all agreed that was the real prize.
The three raider scouts split up to fetch their bands.
They were taking the bait. I sent a map of the area and the approximate location of the three bands and the expected ambush site to the other mages.
Argon penciled in the last known destinations of the two remaining marauder bands not joining our ambush party. If the intel was good and the manor detachment moved quickly, they should catch up with at least one tonight.
Each of the bands had about 20 raiders, in it. They had already enslaved hundreds, currently under guard at
their base camps. We knew we would have to mount the second round of attacks to free the slaves before the marauders decided to massacre them.
Lt. Brik endorsed the plan but worried about whether we could rescue the slaves in time. We needed to be able to get to the camps before word of us wiping out any of the bands reached them.
We advised everyone that we needed to capture, not kill, the leaders. We not only needed to find out details about where the slaves were being kept but needed to tell whether they had information about the bigger plot. We promised that once we were done with them, Brik’s men could execute them publicly if desired.
This intel changed the battle objective. The five groups of marauders were very mobile, and Brik’s forces were not. Capturing the attackers’ basas became a priority. Once we destroyed the three marauder groups gathering to attack the carriages, Brik and his crew would have to ride hard to intercept the last two groups.
This added a layer of complexity to the battle plan.
I also decided we needed to redeploy our assets.
It took a bit of persuasion, but within minutes one of our scouts and Gera were riding two of our last basas hard for the closest marauder camp. We needed teleport locations for as many camps as quickly as possible. Once Gera and his scout located the first camp Gera would send us a teleport location. He and the scout would then ride toward the next. This was the only way to minimize innocent loss of life.
Once we wrecked the ambush, Argon and I would teleport to each of the camps. We would assess a camp, then eliminate the guards. We'd then move to the next camp until we freed them all.
My main worry was the camps might have some unexpected mage support. I didn't think it was likely or they would have already learned about the collapse of the insurrection in Augun. Unfortunately, many pirates and slavers recruited mages to help them. Any mage support these raiders had might not be part of the assassination plot, but they could still be nasty.
Logistically it would be better for Argon and me to split up to cover more camps more quickly, but I just wasn't ready for that. Neither was Argon.
