David Wells - Linkershim

Yasim motioned for silence as they approached the gate guard. After a whispered conversation, the guard slowly and quietly opened the gate just enough for Alexander and Yasim to slip out. A quarter moon, low in the sky, provided scant illumination. Alexander moved slowly toward Nero’s position, while watching Yasim closely.

The Royal Assassin seemed distracted until Nero stepped out from behind a boulder thirty feet away.

“So now what, Pretender? You may have fooled these idiots, but I know better.”

Alexander drew his sword.

“Oh, would that I could kill you now, but Master would be most displeased … him on the other hand …” Nero vanished, reappearing twenty feet closer, long black knife drawn.

“Back to back,” Alexander shouted to Yasim. The assassin obeyed, dagger in hand.

Alexander stretched out with his mind into the coming seconds, spinning at the last possible moment, pushing Yasim aside and thrusting into Nero’s head. His blade fell on Nero’s helmet, glancing aside, knocking Nero back but doing little damage. The wraithkin vanished again.

Yasim seemed to disappear into the shadows even as Alexander heard him scramble to his feet. Alexander spun, slicing at neck height and catching Nero with just the last inch of steel across his throat the moment he materialized. His eyes went wide and he vanished again, this time twenty feet away. When he materialized again, he was running toward the west.

Yasim seemed to step out of the shadows. “You saved me,” he said.

“Or I used you as bait,” Alexander said, “it all depends on your perspective.”

Yasim cocked his head, regarding Alexander intently, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “Your gambit nearly worked. A bold attempt.”

Alexander wiped the blood from the slightly blunted tip of his sword and nodded to himself. “Nearly.”

Sounds of rhone in the distance filtered through the night.

“The Lord Protector has become aware of your absence,” Yasim said.

A few minutes later, they were quickly surrounded by Lancers.

The Lord Protector pushed into the circle and confronted Alexander. “Explain yourself!” he demanded.

Alexander regarded him coolly for several moments. “Lord Protector, I would be happy to brief you on the failings of your security, but not here. Give me a steed.”

The Lord Protector took a deep breath and let it out slowly before snapping at the nearest Lancer to surrender his mount.

They returned to the keep where Alexander recounted the fight with Nero. After Yasim supported his account, Alexander left without a word and went back to his tent, wondering where Nero had gone and when he was going to show up again.

The next morning brought rain and a decidedly different kind of treatment from the Lancers and even the more elite members of his escort. Alexander surmised that an account of the fight with Nero had filtered through the barracks, because most of the junior Lancers wouldn’t look him in the eye when he passed. They were afraid.

Once they were on the road again, the day passed without incident. Very few were foolish enough to attack a unit of Lancers out in the open.

The second night brought them to another fortification: ten-foot log walls with a well-spiked berm before it and a shallow moat filled with oil-soaked hay ten feet in front of that. Twenty-foot towers rose from each corner and the whole courtyard was a common space shared by livestock and people alike. It stunk.

Alexander took his meal to his tent, quietly drawing a magic circle after he’d finished eating. He slipped into the firmament moments later and appeared before Jataan, Lita, Anja, and Jack, who were all sitting around a small fire in the forest.

“Lord Reishi,” Jataan said, standing.

“We’re two days from the big meadow,” Alexander said. “Here’s my plan …”

The last leg of their journey across the plains brought them to the slaver camp at the edge of the western province where Alexander had been brought after he was captured in the forest. The place had been largely transformed into a well-fortified forward operating base for the Lancers working to put down the local resistance.

Despite their rhone steeds and force lances, or perhaps because of them, they were having very little success against the people who’d chosen to stay and fight for their homes. Alexander could see poor morale in the Lancers’ colors everywhere he looked.

Commander Udane led Alexander and his escort across a muddy courtyard and into a wooden building, which had been hastily made from rough-cut lumber but looked sturdy enough. They went upstairs to the war room, a conference area with maps and rosters pinned to the walls and littering the large, central table.

Udane unrolled a map in the middle of the table, setting weights on each corner to keep it from rolling back up. He pointed at a mark and said, “We’re here.”

Alexander pointed to the big meadow and said, “We need to go here.”

Kagosi and Yasim shared a quick glance.

“A day’s travel through dangerous territory,” Udane said. “I don’t recommend it.”

“Your recommendation isn’t required, Commander,” Alexander said, “but your assistance is. I will expect an escort capable of meeting any challenge we might find along the way. Have the men ready to leave in the morning. Where are my chambers?”

Udane looked to the Lord Protector before nodding curtly to Alexander. “If you’ll follow me, Lord Reishi, I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Once there, Alexander dismissed Udane with a gesture and bolted the door, scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary. The closer they got to the Stone, the thinner the veil of lies wore. His escort team had never been able to hide their colors, but even their forced deference was beginning to erode. Alexander rubbed his neck where the collar had chafed him.

Moments after he lay down for the night, an alarm horn blew. When he opened his door, he found Yasim standing there.

“What’s happening?”

“An unknown force approaches.”

Alexander headed for the battlements, trailing Yasim behind him.

He found the Lord Protector on the northeastern tower. He was in the midst of casting a spell. Alexander looked out into the night, seeing a dozen men hiding in the shadows near the walls.

Shards of reddish force began appearing over the Lord Protector’s head; each held its initial position for the count of a heartbeat before darting off into the night toward the men probing the camp’s defenses. At first, a shard appeared every second or so, then two, then five, then ten at a time, all streaking toward the target area, ripping into anyone caught in the open. The barrage lasted for nearly a minute, sending hundreds of deadly magical blades at the enemy, tearing into the ground and stones, littering the area with mutilated corpses. Alexander saw two men flee into the night after the terrifying spell had run its course.

He’d wondered about the Lord Protector’s calling. A force mage was formidable … Alexander regarded him with renewed caution.

“Do we know who they were?”

“Not yet, Lord Reishi,” Kagosi said. “Our men will investigate their remains and report.”

“Well done,” Alexander said, walking away before he had a chance to respond. He suspected either Tyr or Grant was behind the probing attack and decided that it didn’t matter much, considering how forcefully the Lord Protector had repelled their advance. Another frontal assault was highly unlikely.

The warning horn blew again just before dawn. Again, Alexander found the Lord Protector on the northeastern tower.

“Report,” Alexander said.

“We estimate a force of five hundred skirting our position and entering the forest on foot.”