Mercy's Trial

by Sever Bronny

  “You little scamp,” Leera said with a crooked smile. “Their minds are an open book to you, aren’t they? Just be sure to stick to their minds and leave ours alone.”

  “I practice on the Canterrans all the time,” Leland gloated, “and don’t worry, I’m forbidden to use it against anyone else right now, only the enemy. And if I try, she’d find out, so I definitely won’t read your mind or anything like that. It’s a really rare gift, you know, and super fun and challenging. Really challenging. You should try it—”

  “Ning just proved we have zero talent for Telepathy,” Leera replied. “Besides, everyone is tested for it upon entering the academy. Like, no one ever has that gift. No one.”

  “Did you happen to discover what they plan to do with Esha, Leland?” Augum pressed.

  “Yes—teleport her into the heart of Canterra.”

  “When?”

  “From the prince’s thoughts, which are, like, ultra-secret and stuff—or at least he thinks they are—he wants to get her to his father as soon as possible. Right after they’re done here. No one but us knows they have her either. He thought he could hide that tidbit from me. It was so much fun prying it from his mind, kind of like picking—”

  “Leland.”

  “Yes, Secretary Klines?”

  “Where is she being held?”

  Leland and his ghoul fiddled with their hands. “Um … Northspear.”

  The group exchanged anxious looks.

  “The former Lord High Commander’s castle,” Klines murmured, referring to The Grizzly. “Place is a fortress.” Her brows crossed as she looked at Augum. “They took it over shortly after the academy closed itself off from the kingdom and have been using it as a staging ground to penetrate the north.”

  “I’ve never been to Northspear,” Leland mumbled. “Why does everyone think it’s so scary?”

  “Secretary Klines was not jesting when she called it a fortress, Leland,” Jengo replied in an academic voice. “Carved out of solid rock, it is one of four massive ancient strongholds that historically secured our kingdom from the wild lands beyond. Northspear was built by none other than Vilnius Vivictus, a master 20th degree builder from Occulus and Arinthian’s time. It has active enchantment protections long sunk to permanence and will be almost impossible to penetrate.”

  An auburn-haired attendant the trio’s age appeared from around the corridor and halted before her. “Secretary Klines!” he said breathlessly. “A group of Canterrans are demanding to speak with you.” His eyes enlarged when he spotted the trio. “Are these who I think—”

  “Tell them I shall see them in my office momentarily. Then promptly return and—” She nodded at the companions. “—have the belongings our friends here leave behind quietly put into room one thousand ninety-nine.” She raised a stubby finger. “And I’d advise you not to reveal what you saw unless you want the Canterrans to spike your head on our wall.”

  He blanched. “Y-yes, Secretary Klines, right away.” He glanced at the trio with total awe before scurrying off.

  Klines looked at the group. “Take only what you need, leave the rest where you stand. I have traveled that way many times, so I can teleport you a quarter of a league south of the castle. But I’ll have to return immediately. Can you handle this quest on your own?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Augum said, turning to the companions. “Expect combat and cold weather, but prepare for mobility. And take your Group Teleport scrolls with you.”

  “Be right back,” Klines said and stepped into a nearby room. As everyone hurriedly went through their rucksacks to see what they needed, Mr. Goss placed his hands on Leland’s shoulders. “You be careful, Son.”

  “I will, Father.”

  The pair hugged, with the blind boy patting his father’s back.

  Mr. Goss let go of his son to nod at the trio. “Good luck.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Goss,” Augum said.

  Bridget placed a hand on Leland’s shoulder. “We’ll watch over your little warrior, Mr. Goss.”

  Leera looked Leland up and down and scoffed. “Don’t know if you noticed, Bridge, but he ain’t so little anymore.”

  “Darn right,” the ghoul answered on Leland’s behalf. “I’ll be a full-fledged warlock before you know it. Maybe even an Arcaner—”

  “You will take it one step at a time and do exactly as you are told, Son.”

  “Yes, Father,” the ghoul replied meekly, wringing its hands.

  “I mean it.”

  “Yes, Father.”

  Klines soon returned. “You can borrow this,” she said, handing a spyglass over to Augum. Then everyone linked up hands and she teleported them out of there, appearing with a thwomp in waist-high snow many leagues east of Antioc on a deserted road nestled amidst a forest of snow-encrusted evergreens. The wind blew fiercely and the sky was dark. The storm’s edge had reached this far, and although the blizzard hadn’t, Augum gauged it would come within the hour. The clouds hung heavy and low, obscuring the hulking Northern Peaks.

  “I’ll try to come back for you,” Klines called over the wind. “But if I can’t, I’ll make sure you have temporary clearance to teleport back into the library using your Group Teleport scrolls. Good luck, all of you!” and she teleported off with another thwomp.

  Augum looked over his group and realized they hadn’t given Leland time to prepare. He gave his fur coat to the boy, trading warmth for mobility, then the boy’s ghoul picked Leland up, ready to carry him wherever need be.

  “You going to command or what?” Maxine snapped.

  “Patience,” Leera snapped back at her. “Let him think.”

  “While we freeze? Great—”

  “This is what we’re going to do,” Augum cut in before the pair got rolling. He was more than aware that they were all looking to him for leadership in this critical time. “We’re pairing up. Mary, you’re with Jengo. Brandon, with Bridget. Arthur—” He reluctantly nodded at Leera. “—you cover Leera.”

  Arthur smiled as he stepped beside Leera. Even though Augum loathed to have Arthur drooling all over her, he would continue to trust The Grizzly’s methodology … for now.

  “Naoki, you’re with me. Cry, Maxine—you cover Leland.”

  Maxine scowled but stepped beside Leland and his ghoul. Cry plodded to their other side, eyes half-closed as usual.

  “Haylee and Olaf—I want you in the rear, covering our tracks.”

  “I feel like I’m one of you,” the ghoul whispered to Bridget. “I’m an adventurer.”

  Bridget smiled at Leland. “You are one of us, Little Lee.”

  * * *

  “How the heck are we supposed to get in there?” Brandon whispered.

  The companions lay huddled behind a snowbank amongst a copse of stubby but rugged snow-encrusted spruces, peeking through bowed snow-laden branches and little holes they had punched through the snowbank. Before them was a snowy plain that abutted a canyon. A long stone bridge crossed the canyon, leading to a hulking chunk of a castle.

  Augum recalled reading about Northspear, built to be impregnable. Like a vulture perching atop a tree trunk, the castle, constructed almost two thousand years ago and carved out of solid rock, sat on a wide island pillar at the intersection of two great whitewater rivers that were deadly cold in winter and raged in summer with snowmelt and rain runoff. The castle’s stores were said to be so well stocked that, once the drawbridge was raised, it could withstand a siege for years. Not that an army would want to even attempt to conquer it, for its bridge was a mere twenty feet wide and enchanted with all sorts of traps. The imposing curtain wall, an extension of the cliff facade, protected a monstrous keep that jutted from the center like an obscene thorn. Only the glowing candlelit windows that spiraled up the structure gave the place life. And in the near distance loomed the Northern Peaks where the Kingdom of Ohm began.

  “Perfectly suits The Grizzly though, doesn’t it?” Leera whispered.

  “Gods, you can even hear the roar of
the water from here,” Olaf said. “And that canyon is supposed to be, what, two hundred feet down?”

  “Try five hundred,” Jengo muttered.

  “It’s so scary looking,” Leland’s ghoul moaned.

  Augum, inspired by the castle’s history, stuck out a finger. “See those minarets up there, Leland? In poor visibility like today, they monitor ancient alarms that have been strewn in every direction for leagues. In better visibility, they also watch the valley beyond and the mountains with giant spyglasses. When they spot someone suspicious, warlocks who know every nook and cranny of the valley teleport over to investigate.” At least that’s how it was when the Solian army had been strong. Who knew how the Canterrans were using it, or if they were even capable of unlocking the castle’s full arcane defenses and offenses—though whether they even needed to was another question altogether.

  “Can they see us?” Leland’s ghoul asked.

  “We’ve been carefully monitoring for those alarms, which are visible to us using what spell?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “The 11th degree spell Reveal,” Bridget chimed in helpfully, beaming proudly at Augum for playing the part for Leland that Mrs. Stone once played for them—that of mentor.

  “Oh, that’s why we had to step around stuff on the way here,” Leland’s ghoul whispered in an awed voice.

  “That’s right,” Augum went on, “and-d n-now we j-just have t-to find a way in-n.”

  Naoki’s brows softened with concern. “You poor thing, your teeth are chattering! Here, let me warm you.” She removed her fur mitt, spread her fingers, and incanted, “Shynevarmo.” Her hand flared with a gentle glow and she pressed it to Augum’s chest. The snow near him began to melt as he absorbed the precious warmth.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Leera hissed, slapping her hand aside. “You don’t need to touch him to do that.”

  Naoki’s face scrunched with confusion. “But it’s not as effective—”

  “I. Don’t. Care.”

  “K-keeping it n-near works f-fine,” Augum said, craving the return of the warmth, for the ever-increasing wind had leeched it from him. Leera still glared at Naoki, who kept her hand warmly lit near Augum, only for Maxine to reach over and grab Naoki’s wrist and shove it lower.

  “Keep it low or we’ll be spotted,” she snapped. Then she gritted her teeth and returned to watching the keep, mumbling something about Naoki being an inept moron.

  Augum wanted to address her behavior but thought this the wrong time. Instead he pressed Klines’s spyglass to his eye. “Twenty guards atop the wall, at least five of whom are warlocks. All Canterran.”

  “So how do we get in there?” Cry asked. “Can’t exactly walk across that bridge without being spotted as soon as we leave the tree line.”

  Augum shook his head. “No idea.” He searched for weaknesses, but it was like trying to find holes in a mountain.

  “So, uh, anyone else thinking the trek to Semadon suddenly looks appealing?” Olaf said.

  “We’ll think of something,” Bridget replied.

  “While we freeze to death?” Maxine countered.

  “A little faith, please.”

  Maxine flashed her a sarcastic scowl.

  While the others quietly discussed the problem, Augum drew upon his Military Strategy training, recalling the lessons on warlock siege warfare in particular. It was a complicated subject that dealt with specific spells and counterspells, maneuvers and onslaughts, subterfuge and planning. He flipped through ideas as if they were pages in a book, dismissing one after another. Little seemed plausible in this situation as powerful anti-teleportation enchantments, long sunk to permanence, were almost certainly active, preventing a quick escape. Not to mention countless traps and who knew how many alarms. And then there was the problem Cry had raised—the castle had a long view of anyone approaching.

  Changing tack, he swept the bridge with the spyglass, looking for inspiration.

  “You see anything?” Naoki asked.

  “Give him time, would you,” Leera snapped.

  But Augum came up with nothing. “I’m open to ideas,” he eventually said and passed the spyglass to the others, hoping someone would get inspired. As each took a turn, Augum bundled up, cuddled against Leera, and turned the problem over in his mind. He kept quiet as the others lobbed ideas now and then.

  “Guess storming it outright is out of the question,” Arthur said, receiving a derisive snort from Maxine.

  “They have regular patrols,” Olaf noted, gawking with the spyglass. “What if we knocked them out and took their clothes and wandered through the gate?”

  “Best idea yet,” Haylee muttered.

  “The Canterrans likely can’t use the resident protections,” Augum murmured more to himself than anyone else. “And if they haven’t unlocked the castle’s secrets, they can’t—” The idea, suddenly so obvious, struck him like a battering ram. “We have to wait,” he blurted, beckoning for the spyglass, which was promptly handed over to him.

  “Wait?” Leera said. “Wait for what? We can’t wait, we’ll freeze.”

  “I have a question for those of you who took Arcaneology class,” he pressed, studying the road to the castle. “How far away from the castle do you think that anti-teleport boundary extends?”

  “I saw the border of the enchantment all the way back at the road,” Bridget replied. “It’s subtle but could still be seen with Reveal.”

  “Back that far?” Brandon shook his head. “Wow.”

  Bridget studied Augum. “You’re suggesting only sanctioned warlocks can get in. Why?”

  Augum smiled at her.

  Bridget smiled back. “That’s brilliant.”

  Leera elbowed them both. “I hate it when you two do this. What have you cooked up this time?”

  “The Canterrans don’t have full access to the castle,” Bridget explained, “because The Grizzly hasn’t granted it to them. Meaning they have to walk all the way past the anti-teleport boundary to—”

  “—teleport anyone out of there,” Leera finished, grinning broadly.

  “Which means that in order for them to transport Esha,” Haylee went on, “they have to leave the castle. That is a brilliant deduction.”

  His friends proudly nodded at Augum in agreement.

  “Which is why we wait,” Augum said.

  “A classic move,” Olaf said. “And this is the perfect weather for it too. A blizzard’s on the way.”

  “Then let’s form a plan while we wait for the enemy transport to show,” Augum said. “Oh, and in the meantime, I need to warm up.” He raised a brow at Leera, leaned closer, and whispered, “Mind if I sneak in there, Jones?”

  She tried not to smile too broadly as she cuddled him closer. And as the group strategized a plan, Naoki kept her glowing hand near Augum, though she pointedly refused to look at the pair of them.

  The Attempt

  They came up with a solid plan, with Augum hammering out the core strategic points and combat tactics, aided slightly by Maxine, who had some astute—if harshly delivered—points to add. Throughout, each person gave Augum their coat for a time, except for Leland of course, who wasn’t allowed to give up Augum’s coat. Augum tasked Naoki, the only fire warlock, with keeping the unfortunate soul without a coat warm.

  An hour passed, then two. The winds steadily increased, kicking up snowdrift and forcing them to huddle together like a pack of dogs. Augum began to worry that Esha had already been vacated out through some unknown means. Compounding the problem was the blizzard, which rolled in like a runaway ox cart, with its biting snow and shiver-inducing wind. The visibility dropped to only a few feet, and Leera cursed as her spectacles kept getting covered with snow, eventually folding them up and stuffing them in a pocket. But Augum’s misfortune was greater, for it happened to be his turn to go without a coat.

  “I can hear them!” the ghoul, which had been sheltering Leland, blurted.

  Augum strained his ears but
heard only the howling wind.

  “I can’t hear anything,” Naoki said. “Are you sure?”

  “I can hear their thoughts. They’re coming.” The ghoul pointed into the blizzard. “They’re stepping off the bridge now.”

  “Do they have Esha?” Bridget pressed.

  “I … I don’t know. I’m out of range, and there’s way too many of them for that kind of clarity. Their thoughts are a jumble of whispers, and it’s much tougher because I can’t see them.”

  “That has to be them,” Augum said above the roaring wind. Heck, it better be them. Using the blizzard as cover was a clever tactic but also revealed their hand, for it meant that they did not indeed have access to the castle’s true arcanery. If they had, they would have teleported out of there long ago.

  “Cast Object Track on each other,” Augum commanded, and spread his hands over Leera’s coat, incanting, “Vestigio itemo discovaro.”

  “In case we get lost,” Cry said with an appreciative nod. “Smart.”

  They began enchanting each other’s clothing, with Augum also enchanting Bridget and Naoki, while Bridget and Leera each cast the spell on Leland, Augum and their protectors. At 8th degree, Augum could enchant up to four objects. But the more objects one enchanted the harder it was to find each one, so it was best to keep it simple. It was one of those spells that improved with practice. Unfortunately for Augum, he rarely practiced enchanting more than a couple objects at a time, and so he kept it to three castings, which already pushed his boundary.

  “If you get lost, hunker down where you are,” he said. “Don’t make things worse by wandering off to who knows where. Olaf, Haylee—we’re in blizzard conditions, so do what you can to help us out.”

  Dishearteningly, the pair of 6th degree ice warlocks traded skeptical looks.

  Augum turned his attention to Jengo. “Hit us.”

  Jengo nodded and cast both his support simuls—Ally of the Dragon and Stamina of the Dragon—though excluded Leland.

  “They’re going for the road,” Leland’s ghoul reported.