“Hanying? Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. Pardon me. An idea crossed my mind. Tetsu’s father is niece to the city’s high lord. Oh, uh, Tetsu is a friend at the academy. Maybe he can help us speak with him.”
“Nephew,” said Eu-Sook. “‘Niece’ is for a woman.”
“Oh, right.”
“Whatever he is,” I began, “we have to assume that the high lord or someone in his court is aligned with the Advent, so we can’t go to him or anyone else just yet. However, once we hear word of the northern incident, then perhaps we’ll seek out a lord’s aid. Is the high lord a strong warrior?”
“I don’t believe so,” answered Hanying. “He is quite old.”
“Then he might be a better option than speaking with the general. I’d rather not have to speak directly with soldiers I can’t trust.”
“Tetsu will want to hear about the Advent. Can I bring him to you? He is not involved with the unknown work below.”
“If you can bring him without alerting the rest of the academy, then I suppose we can talk for a short while. Still, if I believe you to be followed, I won’t expose my position.”
“Understandable.”
Clarissa continued asking Hanying the infrequent question, but the four of us mostly stayed quiet as we strolled through the town. I noticed our new academy friend liked to rub his hands together every few minutes when he wasn’t involved in a conversation. We were in no great hurry, but Hanying’s legs didn’t seem capable of going slower than a relaxed trot, so our group came within sight of the academy twice as fast as my own mellow speed would have taken us.
“Uh, Mercer,” said Clarissa. “There are soldiers blocking the entrance.”
“How many?”
“Ten? A dozen? There are some by the southern entrance, too.”
“Great. Hanying, are soldiers a common sight at the academy?”
“No, not really.”
“I see one of your riders, Eu-Sook,” said Clarissa. “Sechen, I think. She’s the shortest one, right?”
“Yes, madam.”
We headed for the rider’s spot behind a tree that budded closer to the southern entrance than not. To ensure none of the soldiers grew suspicious of a group of five people mingling within their sights, we retreated several yards deeper into the darkness.
After conversing with her comrade for a moment, Eu-Sook said, “They are General Liang’s men. The general and his private guard came here less than ten minutes before.”
“It looks like word of the nismerdon incident has reached the city,” I said. “The general must be worried enough to seek a direct meeting with the Advent.”
“What do we do?” asked the vampire.
“Prepare. Eu-Sook, have Sechen find everyone spying on the academy and bring them here. Clarissa, go back to the inn and do the same once a couple riders can escort you back. Captain Shao will finally get his chance to talk his mouth off.”
“To who?”
“We’ll start with guardsmen on the street and their commanders. Once we get a few on our side, we’ll head for the town’s hall of lords and call upon Uratama’s nobles to lend us their support. We’ll hopefully have the entire town’s impetus surrounding the academy before morning.”
As Eu-Sook gave the order to Sechen, Hanying asked, “You want to attack the academy? What of the people within?”
“There’s still time to get out a few of your friends. I doubt the soldiers will impede you if you’re part of the academy.”
“And if th-they do?”
“Then come back and wait with us. I’m sorry, but our options are limited if the Advent don’t choose to surrender peacefully.”
“As opposed to surrendering violently,” said Clarissa.
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, Hanying, once you find your nerve, do what a scholar does best and first investigate whether the soldiers will let you through or not. Then go from there.”
Hanying indeed decided to gather his nerve for a while.
A few minutes later had Sechen returning with two more of her comrades, Captain Shao, and two of his men.
“Have you slept at all, captain?” asked Clarissa.
“A few minutes every now and again is all I need when trouble is afoot, young lady. Now, dragon knight, I hope you’ve elected to stop tarrying.”
“I have. I want you to take your men and head for Uratama’s hall of lords, or whatever they call it here. Gather what guardsmen and soldiers you can on your way there. I’ll follow you once I get my group together. Eu-Sook, please have your riders escort Clarissa to the inn.”
As my allies left me and Eu-Sook alone, Hanying asked, “Did I… Did the c-captain just call you… Are you the Alslana dragon knight?”
“Aye.” He retorted with a blank stare. “Hanying, it’s time you go get your friends. I’m not going to stand here waiting once my companions arrive.”
“Oh, um, right…”
He took a few steps forward, looked back at me with the same nonplussed expression, and then started off again. I watched him become a black smudge going up to meet the shinier smudges by the western entrance. It stood there for about half a minute before it crossed through.
“What if the Advent discover his purpose?” asked Eu-Sook.
“It’s his risk. Either way, those in the academy will soon have to make a choice between helping us or helping the Advent. Lives will be lost no matter what… You still have a chance to fly away from here, Eu-Sook. I certainly won’t blame you.”
“The gods will blame me.”
“There are worse things to imagine. Still, if you’re going to stay, will you do me a favor?”
“Sir?”
“If you have to choose between me and yourself, choose yourself. If you have to choose between me and my friends, choose my friends. Can you do that?”
I gazed into her sunless eyes with what I hoped was my best mix of sincerity and severity. She flinched and blinked on seeing my grim manner, but recovered quickly to accept my appeal with two nods.
Not including the garrulous breeze swishing the leaves above us and the cries of a distant infant bouncing off rock and wood, we waited in silence for someone to return. I stayed motionless long enough to notice a clotting patch of clouds moving in, making the night a hue dimmer. My mind started wandering. It wondered what the name of that wailing babe was. Was it a boy or girl? It sounded like a boy to me. Was he hungry? I wondered how much of a chance he had of surviving the next few hours.
Movement to my left brought my nomadic mind back home. Slowing down from their near sprint, Clarissa and the riders returned with the rest of my group, the last rider, and a pair of the captain’s men.
“Where’s Hanying?” asked Clarissa, her chest not at all heaving from the run.
“Inside the academy, and I told him I wasn’t going to wait for him to come out. We need to find out where Uratama’s hall of lords is.”
“Who’s Hanying?” asked Ghevont, now in possession of the staff.
“The student we followed!” answered an annoyed Clarissa. “I said his name like ten times on our way here!”
In the middle of the vampire’s frustrated statement, I waved for Eu-Sook to get ahead of us and told her, “Ask the next person we see for directions to the city’s hall of lords.”
“Are you certain we shouldn’t wait for this Hanying person?” asked Gerard.
“Well, I suppose not everyone has to go with us. Eu-Sook, order two of your riders to stay put and keep an eye on things here. If Hanying comes back out, make sure he doesn’t leave their sights. No matter how innocent Clarissa made him out to be, he might still be part of the Advent.” After Eu-Sook confirmed the order, I said, “Hurry, let’s get a move on.”
They heeded my words.
A few minutes later and we gained a similar set of directions when Eu-Sook spoke with two older men socializing outside a tavern. We followed them to streets devoid of patrols, telling me Captain Shao must have been succeeding at ga
ining their backing. To make sure we received good instructions, I had the head rider ask for more directions from a young woman smoking a pipe outside her home. Talking like she was dreaming, the woman obliged us with guidelines that pretty much matched the previous accounts.
The vampire, of course, spotted the outline of our destination first. Built between the center of town and the sea was the hall of lords. The red structure of timber rose twice as tall as the cluster of two-story buildings near it, though it only displayed two levels of glassless windows. Our jogging slowed when we noticed several dozen armed guards standing aimlessly by the tall doorway.
When we came close, several of the guards strode up to us and the oldest of them asked Eu-Sook something in her language. She reciprocated. The guard’s face, which sported little in the way of eyebrows, looked up and down at my group, then asked something else. In response to her reply, his eyes studied mine. I nodded. He bowed and shouted an order to the others behind him. They made way for my group as the eyebrow-deficient guard took the lead.
Going through the entry revealed a room partly lit by candlesticks on narrow tables pushed against the sides of the one hundred foot wide room. Three small but bright chandeliers hung from the twenty-five foot high ceilings. Two rows of spiraled yellow columns led up to the space at the back of the hall. It was here where eleven large chairs had been placed alongside each other in a semi-circle formation. Three men and one woman sat on various seats in this alignment. A different guard holding up a lance had their back to each column.
Captain Shao conversed with the four lords in his native tongue until he heard a multitude of footfalls behind him. The guard who directed us stopped alongside the captain, announced something, bowed, and turned around to take a spot by a column guard.
The lord farthest to my right, who wore a dark blue robe that covered everything but his fingers and his purple footwear, asked, “Who claims to be the dragon knight of Alslana?” His white hair grew thin, but the voice was clear and commanding.
I stepped up and bowed. “I claim it. My name is Mercer Eberwolf, and as I’m sure Captain Shao has been imparting to you, I come to your lands seeking a treacherous cult known as the Advent. I have been successful.”
The little fat man sitting closest to the center coughed before saying something in Jegeru’s tongue. He sounded like the jolly sort, though he could have been a little drunk. Every word uttered fluttered the loose threads of his light blue robe. I couldn’t tell if the old man’s eyes were open under his sagging wrinkles.
Translating for the crumpled lord, the middle-aged woman in a snugger yellow robe said, “Yes, not two hours ago the high lord was awoken and informed of the distressing news that a colossus of lore was killed by a dragon knight in the north. And now the captain arrives to tell us the dragon knight accuses the Shuren Academy of harboring more villains and their monsters. How can you be sure?”
“Dragon sages in the Dragon Spire Temple crafted a staff my scholar companion now wields. Its vlimphite crystal was given to me by Iterra, a dragon summoned by the sages. This crystal contains ancient nismerdon prana that only reacts to a related aura. It reacted in Furubiro, and now it reacts near your academy.”
“Impossible!” declared the man in the darker blue robe. “Lady Nomura would not allow such an enemy to dwell under her very nose!”
Taking a spot beside me, Odet said, “Pardon me, lords of Uratama. I am Odet Astor, first princess of Alslana and bearer of Mytariss’ shield. I have borne witness to how well the Advent are able to add to their list of allies. They flaunt ancient magic to entice the selfish and fearful to join them. They have worked for years to position themselves within our societies. It has allowed them to murder my mother and begin a war. It allowed them to corrupt valkrean and children alike so they could add to their army. And it most recently allowed them to subjugate an entire village to gratify a single giant’s appetite.
“I no longer question what is possible with them, my lords. Nothing in my heart and soul wishes for our suspicions to be true, but my mind has learned through much heartbreak not to ignore any indications of Advent activity. The consequences to this beautiful city and its generous people are too great if even a single Advent resides here.” She bowed. “Please, as a humble guest in your kingdom and city, I beg you to heed our words.”
After a long second of being able to hear a flea’s dream, the pudgy high lord’s chuckle echoed in the room. His next verbose sounds were translated by the woman.
“High Lord Kagemori apologizes for his laughter, Princess Astor. Eloquence and respect from the young is amusing when one hears it so sparingly.”
The woman peeked over at the youngest lord on the seats. The young man seemed content with the adults handling a situation that threatened his sense of comfort. All I noted from him was the red and gold embroidery of a phoenix sewn on his white robe.
Continuing, the translator said, “The fraught words of a dragon knight and a valkrean princess will not go unheeded. What would you have us do?”
“We request for every available warrior under your command to aid us in resisting our common enemy,” I said. “I warn you not to seek approval from General Liang to command his men. His personal guard was last seen in the academy. We cannot trust his word until this matter is settled. I do not want to instigate a battle until there is a contingent of at least a thousand warriors encircling the academy, so their initial orders should be to secure the area, not breach its walls.”
“If a battle does begin,” added Odet, “then there should be a plan to evacuate the city. If we cannot defeat the Advent, then any living being in their path will only serve to strengthen their giants. I recommend guiding residents to the northwest, so as far opposite the academy as possible. It’s likely the Advent will cast a powerful ward around sections of the city, if not the city itself. If they do, physical attacks should be avoided at all costs. Only long-range attacks on a focused area should be attempted.”
“We’ll be sure to repeat the information to the messengers,” said the woman, using a hand to brush back loose strands of her short black hair. “As you can see, not all lords on this council could be reached on such short notice. As soon as they are stirred we can gain their vote to overrule any general’s command over our guardsmen if it comes to that.”
“I still find it incredible that a mere cult could sway both the headmistress and a general,” said the man in the dark blue cloak. “Indeed, I wonder what the con-”
“Just say it, Ghevont!” Clarissa blurted out.
Along with everyone else in the room, I turned to look at the speaker and the person she named.
The scholar said, “Ah, excuse me, but I didn’t want to be impolite.” He pointed at the staff’s crystal. “It’s awoken.”
Chapter Five
A garish red glow and thick white smoke swelled above the city’s southeastern rooftops as my companions and an assembly of fifty-something guardsmen headed in that direction. The whole group stopped about a minute away from the academy when Ghevont came to a halt.
“What is it, scholar?” asked Gerard.
Ghevont waved his staff in every direction. He faced his original bearing when he said, “Hmm, the nismerdon aura appears to be on the move… and it’s splitting into more auras.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re still farther ahead.”
So we ran for another two thousand feet before coming upon the grove of palm trees. I worried they might burn along with the institution if a stray ember nibbled on a leaf. A combined eighty or so students stood near the lowest steps of the western and southern exits as several more descended them. They watched with mouths agape as an unnaturally powerful inferno engulfed every building within the walls. Someone somewhere kept banging on a bell to warn the neighborhood of the menace, but that sound was nearly drowned out by the crackling grumble of the chortling flames.
Eu-Sook’s riders came up to us. The one with a white cloth over her no
se and mouth—a Yawen something—explained that the blaze started soon after the general and his guard marched away from the academy grounds. The fire then spread so quickly that the normally capable students were forced to flee rather than battle the already rampant danger.
“Do you feel that, Ghevont?” asked Odet.
“The nismerdon magic? I still sense it. At least three different auras are moving farther from the academy.”
“No, not that. The ground is trembling, is it not?”
Like everyone else who overheard the princess’ claim, I became motionless and focused on “hearing” through my feet. Nothing came to me in the first couple of seconds, but that changed once a vibrating drumbeat bounced off the soles of my boots. Another beat reached me at the same time Clarissa asked, “Is it the fire?”
“No,” said Ghevont, whose eyelids were closed in concentration. “Odet is correct. This differs from a consistent grumble. It’s coming in pulses.”
“And it has to be coming from below us,” said Gerard.
“The giants!” said Odet. “Ghevont, you said the nismerdon auras are moving away from the academy, right? Then where are they?”
“They’re tunneling under the city!” said Clarissa.
To Captain Shao, Odet ordered, “Gather every earth specialist who can detect the tremors. We must track them and prepare for a possible emergence. Do not try to impede their progress. If they wish to escape the city, let them. If they do emerge, it will likely be at the center of Uratama or near the city gates. Either way, invite as many warriors as possible to support the earth specialists.”
As the captain obeyed the princess, the vampire pointed at the group of students and asked, “Do you think we can get their help?”
“Depends if the headmistress is with them,” answered Gerard.
“Let’s find out,” I said, beginning a sprint.
Most of the students and scholars took no notice of the crowd of guardsmen until a few nearest the western entry caught sight of my group running up to them. Most of the academics had obviously been freshly awoken, since simple nightclothes and bare feet were on prominent display. The few that wore something more substantial donned attire analogous to Hanying’s black and red caster’s outfit.
The Dragon Knight and the Light Page 5