We are now halfway across the mustering area, and I see a few city guards lingering nearby, not quite approaching us, but looking concerned. Garner has already made quite an impression on the locals, and this is pleasing to see.
“Many more troops,” he mutters, looking around at me, “they will be here by noon tomorrow.”
“That’s good news,” I say.
But he grunts and shakes his head. “Enemy troops, Daria. More are coming from the south.”
“Not far now,” says Lugg. My two friends don’t speak to each other a great deal, and when they first met, Garner’s open hostility to orcs was clear to see. But now he just turns his head tiredly towards Lugg, and nods. “Thanks, buddy.”
“Lugg is happy to help a friend.”
It is halting progress. We guide Garner past a heap of broken spears that are lying outside the amphitheater, many of which are missing spear heads. Further evidence of how ill-prepared this city was for the siege, I think to myself. Then, as we reach the entrance to the stadium, a healer from the Elemental Hand Guild emerges, and then another pair. One of the city guards must have gone ahead to alert them. Like the ones I have seen before, all of them have cropped hair and are dressed in close-fitting black clothing, and the two towards the back wear masks across their mouths and noses.
“What happened?” says the foremost of the three.
“Our friend was attacked in yonder tower, on the wall,” I reply, pointing.
“That place is haunted,” says a nearby guard. I glare at him, and then look back at the healer. “It was some kind of undead beast, a ghoul or something. I killed it with a silver blade.” As I speak, I pull out the dart which is still wired to the dismantled silver scissors.
“That is a very bad kind of wound to sustain,” he says, “but our order is pious, and will use all of the favors of the gods to heal your friend.”
“Right,” I say, taking a step back as they start to assist Garner away, and hoping to myself that their medical skills don’t depend entirely on prayer. Lugg also steps away from the tall ranger, and soon Garner is helped away by three acolytes in robes.
“I just hope that we got here soon enough,” I say to Lugg as we watch on from the entrance. “He was starting to fade, there.”
“Right. But he is tough.”
It occurs to me that the mystical bracelet could perhaps be given to Garner, and again work its healing power – though I have no idea whether it would work against this kind of ailment. But before I can suggest it, a tall frog-faced humanoid approaches me, and speaks my name. I stare at him, trying hard to think if I have perhaps seen him (or her?) before.
“Sorry – do I know you?” I say at last.
“I am Ben,” he says. And when I still don’t respond, he adds, in a slightly quieter voice: “From the coven.” His speech is very humanlike despite his amphibious features.
And then I remember…as Coruff told me back at the harbor, Ben is one of her coven members, a sorcerer with ‘powers over light and dark’, as she put it. What exactly does that mean? Perhaps I will now have a chance to find out.
“Well met indeed,” I say, stepping towards him and holding out one hand for a handshake. His skin is pale green with brown hand-sized blotches, and his head overall very large although he is no taller than me, his hands wide and webbed. There are two ridges that run back from his large bulbous eyes and then disappear into the long indigo cloak that he wears. I have only seen a couple others of his species, and I recall Coruff also telling me that Ben is from the Confederacy originally. Perhaps the frog people are more common there.
He doesn’t shake my hand, so I hesitate for a moment and then withdraw it. “Pleased to make your acquaintance at last, Ben,” I say instead. “Can I help you in some way?”
“I saw you with young Garner,” he says, pointing towards the stadium. “How bad is it?”
“Oh,” I say, realising that he must, of course, know Maleki’s son, and must have also deduced that the man is injured. “I hope the healers will see to his wound, but it was the work of a malevolent beast – an undead creature. I am worried.”
He nods his large head. One thing I notice is that he is very still. Besides a single nod, blinking, and moving his mouth to speak, there is no motion in his face or body at all, and this is unnerving. “That is useful to know. I will speak to the other users of magic.” With this, he glances around us, and I am aware that even here, magic users may feel nervous about revealing their identity.
“Do you think anyone will be able to help? In truth, I don’t know how bad Garner is, but I am worried. We have an object…”
“I will send word to Maleki,” he says, interrupting, “and see what can be agreed. Now, come along, please.”
I follow, wondering about his last words, until it occurs to me that as a coven member, Ben must have the same means of communicating with his fellows that I have seen Maleki, Josa and Coruff use.
“Have you heard any more from Josa?” I ask as we move along. “Garner told me that she was also injured.”
“These are difficult times,” he replies.
If Josa was here herself, I can imagine her giving that response a snarky comeback.
Ben leads us past the amphitheater, from where we turn to the west. Before long, we are passing through into the same quarter of the town where I visited Connor Champion’s home this morning. As Zakira said to me at the time, many magic users have their homes there. It appears that the coven are setting up here, too.
It is late morning by the time we get to the house. It looks… unprepossessing. The exterior is larger than the hovel where I spent the night, but not by much. Inside, I come to a single room which is again similar to that abandoned home, but for the greater level of cleanliness. A kobold is busy scrubbing the floors as we arrive, and I see a bucket of soapy water nearby.
The coven members’ powers don’t extend to housework, it appears.
Ben pops his head back out of the door towards the street, looks both ways, and then closes it gently behind us. “Can’t be too careful,” he says. “Katresburg, as you might know, is the heart of the resistance, and has become a haven for our kind of late. However, there are still some who harbor prejudice against users of magic, and unquestioning loyalty to the Empire. Come on.”
He walks past the kobold without a second glance, and pushes open a door in the back wall of the house. He holds this for us and we obligingly trail through, finding ourselves in a short corridor with several framed paintings, two further doors, and a staircase. “We’re downstairs,” he says cryptically, then proceeds down the stairs. These are finely carpeted and lined with banisters which appear to be carved out of pure lapis lazuli. This part of the house is clearly a lot better-appointed than the entrance way.
We hurry down after Ben. The stairs open into a large room which appears to comprise two rooms that have at some point been knocked together, and have a brick-lined double archway connecting them.
Filling most of the centre of the room is a long wooden table, and it’s a real mess, too – there are an assortment of drinks and papers on it, including some maps, as well as some discarded bowls and scraps of food. At the far end I see a familiar figure; a woman with tentacles instead of hair, and a chainmail shirt. She looks up, nods, and waves us over. “At last. So Ben found you.”
“Josa!” I say, in surprise, moving over to sit down beside her, and slinging my backpack down at my feet. “I thought you were badly wounded.”
“Apparently not, or I would have been able to avoid this meeting. Come, sit, Daria. Eat.”
I am served some food, and it is very welcome, for I have now developed quite a hunger. I eat in silence for some time, as the others around me converse.
Then, Josa looks at me. “It is very good that Ben found you so soon, Daria. We are at the point of final preparations.”
“How so?” I ask, briefly glancing at Lugg and then looking back at Josa.
“This could be our las
t day of freedom.” she says. “The Knights of Dawn have an army of a thousand more troops marching this way. They will get here tomorrow, at which point they launch a full assault on the city.”
Chapter 44: Threat to the City
I glance up and down the table from where I am sitting by Josa. The others present are a mixture of species; some certainly look like magic users judging by their robes, staffs and suchlike, but with others, it’s hard to tell. There are many more than could be accounted for by the remaining members of Maleki’s coven, so I can only assume that local mages have gathered here, too.
“By morning… are you sure?” I say.
Ben is now taking the seat opposite me, and he speaks up as he does so. “Josa is correct,” he says. “The city scouts have gained information on the enemy’s movements. They have under two hundred troops outside now, but siege engines arrived today, and near enough another eight hundred or more are on their way, having been released from the barracks at Dathmir.”
There is a muttering.
“Eight hundred,” I exclaim. “Can we manage to defend ourselves, do you think?”
Josa narrows her eyes at me, touching one hand to her lips. “I presume that you have seen the townsfolk on the wall? Well, that should answer your question.”
A reddish-skinned humanoid with short horns – who reminds me a little of van Turk, I realize – mutters, “let’s hope they are tired when they get here.” I also hear complaints about the cruel new law imposed by the Emperor.
“So… what is the plan?” I ask. “I assume that some among you have some powers, things that could help to turn the tide of battle?”
“We sorcerers of Katresburg have no intention of standing on the city wall and making targets of ourselves,” responds a skinny blond-haired man diagonally opposite me, dressed in fine green robes. “We have done our best to help the city at every stage, but getting caught up in a revolution is the last thing we need. The best thing we can do now is to find a way to get out of here.”
Josa looks at me, making a face. “That means the coven too, I’m afraid. We can’t stay here alone. It was discussed and voted on, and the local magic users have carried the day.”
I feel dismayed, betrayed even. “After all the effort to get you all here safely,” I say, “you would just leave again? Surely not! Where would you go? How would you even get out?”
Ben leans forward. “When the soldiers attack, the intention is to escape via a tunnel through the cliffs,” he says.
I look around the table, feeling my anger rising. “But what about the citizens? Ordinary people have been standing on the wall, ready to lay down their lives to protect you.”
“Hell, she’s right,” mutters Josa.
But a slim, dark haired woman speaks up from near the other end of the table. “As soon as the Empire realizes that we have gone,” she says, “they will leave the city alone. The people will be free to live their lives, and to work and farm once more.”
“The Elemental Hand Guild must be able to leave safely, too, remember,” says a voice from further down the table, and I recognize a black-clad member of that group among the gathering.
And another voice says, “Not our problem. The Elemental Hand has a history as Imperial sympathisers. Let them stay and answer for their crimes.”
This prompts some impassioned arguing, and I sit back, thinking hard. It appears that no clear plan has been formed other than to escape the city, and hope that the Empire is lenient in terms of the rebels thereafter. With the red knights Valizor and Barzolk leading the troops at the gate, that seems highly over-optimistic.
I glance around at Josa, and she rolls her eyes. “Yes. The local magic user guilds are a mess. And I was not in favor, believe me.”
“We need to take on the knights directly,” I say loudly, standing and banging my fists down on the wooden table to get their attention. “Listen to me, please. I don’t think you should give up so quickly.”
“And who are you?” says a voice from further down my own side of the table, a dark haired male human sorcerer with a white silk scarf wrapped around his shoulders and neck.
At this Josa stands up beside me, putting an arm on my shoulder. “This is the woman who killed Skizol, one of the Knights of Dawn.”
Now I have their attention, and Josa sits back down as I continue:
“This revolution isn’t just about magic, and it isn’t just about the Varians and Katresburg, either,” I say loudly. “It is about freedom. It is about the struggle for your right to be who you are – spellcasters, users of magic, or any other path. The Empire has only tolerated the healers’ guild because they helped with its war effort. Soon, none will be welcome, and all will be forced to submit or else hunted down, just as happened to the monitors.”
A few heads are nodding, but the blond man opposite shouts out again: “You’re wrong, girl. We are only at risk if we side against the Empire. It’s essential that we leave this city and avoid getting caught up in this criminality.”
Again, there are a few nods.
I decide to move closer to him, rounding the top of the table and coming to stand at the shoulder of the dissenting speaker. I put one hand on the shaft of my morning star, hoping to remind him that I am someone who stands up to threats and bullies.
“Listen to me, all of you. I know you fear getting caught up in the rebellion. And you are right to think that the politics of rebellion are not just about making users of magic safe. But believe me, there will be no safe place for you to hide if the Emperor gets his way.”
Increase in skill level: Intimidation level 15 (Spirit +2)
I see the froglike spellcaster Ben nod at my words, and feel encouraged to continue.
“I recently spoke to a powerful knight who was once a close personal friend of Emperor Arthric. This knight has assured me of two things – firstly, that this revolution is the last chance of defeating the Empire and bringing balance back to the world. For very soon, Arthric will begin mandatory conscription into the army for all youths. Secondly, the Emperor wants all users of magic to be killed. All of you. Only his own personal spellcasters, the followers of Fanatos, will be permitted to continue.”
There is some muttering, and I give them a moment to digest my words.
“He wants to control all magic in order to control all of the realm,” says Josa, speaking up to support me, and I nod, hammering my hands down on the wooden table again; the resulting bang is even louder than I had expected, and several of the gathering jump in their seats.
“The Emperor,” I repeat, “wants to decide who can use magic and who cannot. And the reason is that he craves absolute power. Some of us witnessed the beginnings of it in the Islands of Dubasa. He has the troops, and will soon have an unstoppable army, tearing children away from their families in order to build it. He has the Empire. And next, he wants to control the whole world.”
I stand back, pacing down the backs of the others at the table. “I am sorry,” I say, shaking my head, “but there can be no doubt. The Emperor and his Knights of Dawn are evil. They want you dead, and they want total control of the realm at large. They will kill anyone who presents a risk to that plan, and that means that there is nowhere for you to hide. The time has come to take a stand.”
I have now reached my original seat beside Josa once again, and I step into the space without sitting down. There is a muttering now among the assembled. I can tell that they are close to coming around. But besides the gravity of what I have said, what is the urgency? I realize that there is one more puzzle piece that I must put into place.
“The Knights of Dawn, you see,” I say, leaning forward, “have a plan. They aim to resurrect the ancient Varian king, Zoltan the Third. Yes. The legendary dark lord and Emperor. If they have this unstoppable warrior, undead and un-killable, leading their armies, then there really will be no stopping them. That is much more of a threat to Katresburg than two hundred soldiers at the gates, or even a thousand. We must stop the Kn
ights of Dawn before that can happen.”
“That means we need to stand and fight. We need to do it here, and we need to do it now. There will be no second chances for you or for anything that you care about.”
With this, I sit. I know I must have done something right, for I see another social-related enhancement:
Increase in skill level: Persuasion level 15 (Spirit +2)
Slowly, several at the table begin to clap, Lugg and Ben among them. Josa leans closer to me. “Well done. I was kind of hoping you might say something like that. Now – I believe that the two of us have something to deliver to a certain knight?”
* * *
My own speech must have had an effect on me, for I am feeling fired up as Lugg and I leave and make our way back to the stairs with Josa. The idea of persecution of all magic users as witches, and of conscripting youths into the Imperial Army for a never-ending bloodbath of a war – well, these things are all too real. They are not what games should be made of.
The Emperor must be stopped.
“It appears that van Turk has made it to Lorn,” Josa says to me as we ascend. She is once again leaning on the quarterstaff that she had when we left Lorn, and I wonder if it has some magical properties.
“Oh – that’s great. You must be relieved. Except…”
“Except he is there and I am here? Yes. It’s frustrating. But as you so eloquently said downstairs, this is the time to fight.”
Asking Lugg to wait in the short hallway with the pictures, Josa directs me through one of the side doors.
“The warrior you mentioned, the ancient enemy,” she begins, closing the door behind her.
“Uh huh?”
The Call of the Coven: A LitRPG novel (Shadow Kingdoms Book 2) Page 30