James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"I didn't know I was doing it myself," he muttered quietly, looking away from the carnage and trying not to smell the blood, or listen to the Cat sing to him in his mind.

"This was no group of bandits," Faalken said with a grunt. "Not with equipment like this."

"And not with a Wizard leading them," Dolanna agreed.

"This is too much, too fast," Faalken continued in a sober voice. "There was the fire at Watch Hill, and then the attack on Tarrin, and now this. Somebody doesn't want us to get back to Suld real bad."

Tarrin could hear the pounding of horses' hooves, and feel the vibration of it in the pads of his feet, coming from the road under him. "Dolanna, those horses are coming up fast," Tarrin said urgently.

By the time Dolanna had turned to look up the road, the first of them appeared. The man behind the leader was carrying the banner of Torrian and Duke Arren. They were dressed in the blue surcoats that were the uniform of the armored, mounted warriors under Arren's control. They slowed to a stop at the battlefield, and the lead man advanced. "Lady Dolanna, Duke Arren sends these twenty men to be your escorts and guards on your journey," he announced. "I am Captain Daran." He looked around. "I see we didn't ride hard enough," he said in a grating voice. "Are there any wounded?"

"Not among us, captain," Dolanna said warily.

The captain reached under his surcoat and produced a letter. "The Duke asked me to give you this, to prove our identity," he said. "Jarax, take two men and see if the survivors of this are still lurking around. Kardon, take three men and pull these bodies off the road. Let's not litter the King's Highway."

The two men, one slim and wiry and the other massively built, saluted and took men to carry out their orders. Dolanna accepted the letter from the captain, broke the seal, and read it quickly. "These are the Duke's men," she affirmed. "Noboby but Arren would know what is written here. Considering what just happened, captain, we will be very glad to have you along."

Daran looked around professionally. "Quite a rumble," he noted. "Looks like the Were-cat did some serious damage. Good work, Master Kael," he said, bowing in his saddle. "It looks like you saved one of my Duke's favorite people."

"It was nothing," Tarrin said weakly. The smell of the blood was getting to him, and it was getting very hard to control the instincts.

Dolanna looked at him sharply. "Tarrin, there is a stream just at the bend up ahead," she told him. "Take a clean change of clothing and go wash up."

"I think I will," he said gratefully.

After scrubbing the blood and bits of flesh off his paws and getting himself clean and into clean clothes, he rejoined them. The bodies had been pulled off the road and placed in a line in the meadow. The bodies had been carefully searched, nearly stripped, much of their equipment now on the pack horses serving the Duke's men. Dolanna was with Walten and Tiella, talking to them as Faalken helped the captain throw the last body into line with the others. The three men sent to look for the survivors had returned. Tarrin joined Dolanna with the others as she finished telling them about something. Tiella, Tarrin noticed, was a bit pale, but had a determined look on her face. "You alright, Tiella?" he asked.

"I'm alright," she told him. "I almost got pulled off my horse by one of the bandits, but Sir Faalken saved me."

"Not before you put that sling stone in his eye, then kicked him in the face," Faalken chuckled as he rejoined them. "That had to hurt."

"It was supposed to," she said primly.

"I imagine it would," Faalken grinned. "For a trio of farm children, you three are rather nasty fighters."

"It's from working all day, Sir Faalken, and having nothing else to do but shoot things," Walten replied dryly.

"Just Faalken, please," he corrected. "And I think I'd rather have you three farm villagers in a fight over a pack of knights. Are we ready to leave, Dolanna?"

"Yes, we are ready now," she said. "Tarrin, pick up your staff and put the robe back on, and we will be off."

Tarrin rode with Dolanna and Tiella as they got under way, encircled protectively by the Duke's alert men, wrapped in a layer of steel and trained warriors against another attack. Faalken and Jarax were scouting ahead, and the captain had a man riding behind as rear guard. Tarrin had a grim expression on his face as he broached a subject he wanted to continue talking about. "Back there, Dolanna, you said that you didn't think that they were bandits," he said.

"They were not," she said gruffly. "A pack of bandits would not have a Wizard leading them."

"And then Faalken brought up the fire, and, and what happened to me."

"Yes, and I do not think that they were mere coincidence. Not now. Tarrin, someone sent the female Were-cat after you on purpose. The collar that she was wearing was a device that was controlling her. And now the attack on us, after you and Faalken had noticed the Wraith. And before that, the fire that started so mysteriously, and raged out of control faster than even my magic could control it. No, someone is trying to stop us from reaching Suld. Someone with considerable resources at his disposal."

"But why?" he asked. "It makes no sense. We're three villagers being brought to the Tower by a Sorceress and a knight. What possible reason could someone have to try to stop us? We're not worth the effort."

"I know, that is a part of the puzzle," she said thoughtfully, a finger tapping her chin as she thought. "Obviously, these people know something that we do not. Or believe that they do."

"I think-" Tiella said, then she quickly hushed herself.

"Go ahead, child," Dolanna prompted. "Do not think that you cannot speak your mind to me."

"I think that maybe it's not just one person," she said.

Dolanna raised an eyebrow. "An intriguing concept," she said with sincere interest. "Why do you believe so?"

"Well, there was the fire, then what happened to Tarrin, and now this," she said. "And the Wraith, but it didn't attack us. Well, aren't they just a bit too different?" she asked. "Why not try another fire? That almost worked, and they had to know that. Why send that woman after Tarrin, when she could have attacked you ? If they got you, Dolanna, the rest of us would probably just turn around and run home. Then there was this, where they tried to kill all of us, but they used brute force and not magic or a slave, like before. They just don't add up."

"I think that you have a point," Dolanna said. "They may be from the same group, but I think you are right in believing that this was not the work of an individual. This was either a group or several individuals working independently."

"The question is still why," Tarrin maintained.

"That, I cannot answer," Dolanna said, rubbing her delicate jaw.

"So we'd best plan our moves carefully," Tarrin said.

"I have already mapped out our plan of action," she said. "At Marta's Ford, we will take a riverboat to Ultern. That, I hope, will leave behind any spies that are watching us. From Ultern, it is but a bit over three days to Suld. Two days to Jerinhold and one day from there to Suld itself. Plus, the Ultern Road is packed at most all times with caravans and travellers," she added. "The congestion on the road will help to conceal us from sight, and dissuade another such direct attack."

"So the worst of it will be getting to Marta's Ford," Tiella said.

Dolanna nodded. "It is still three days to Marta's Ford, even if we travel hard," she told them. "This is a wide expanse of unsettled territory, where most anything can hide and wait in ambush. I must admit, I am relieved beyond measure that Arren had the foresight to send a guard detachment after us. Daran and his men are highly skilled, and are extremely familiar with this terrain. They will get us to Marta's Ford. That is our main objective at the moment."