She turned again.
"UUUURRRSSUULLLAAAA!" Nagendra was roaring from the far side of the valley. Though his robes were burned, he was still grinning that maniacal smile, as if the whole war were a game to him.
Ursa bared her teeth. She took a step toward him, but Khalil grabbed her arm. "We're outnumbered, sister."
True enough, and Khalil clutched his side as if in injury. She did not want to give Nagendra the satisfaction of killing them.
And all around him, the soldiers were changing, morphing into huge wolves in various hues. Growls filled the air. The closest, its fur on end and teeth dripping saliva, leapt toward them.
Ursa and Khalil were already in the air. Nagendra threw explosive charms at them, but he did not dare pursue, and be outnumbered in the air.
~*~
They landed on the ground in a heap. Ursa's many spells were catching up to her, and Khalil had been wounded when the Hji had surprised him while he'd been scouting.
They both spoke at the same time. Simultaneously, the rain increased its fury, and lightning forked above them.
Ursa drew him to the side of the wall, where they could be partially sheltered.
"Are you all right?" She reached for his jerkin.
"I'm fine, I'll check it out after I report to Amadou."
"What did you find?"
"They're making campsites. All around the city."
She huffed. More tricks to siphon off the lived magic of the city. The site itself hadn't been magic, but if they surrounded the city with campsites, Carnate would seem to rest in the middle of Hji land, and therefore Hji magic would increase.
"Go report," she said. "Then have Amadou heal you."
As he pushed back from the wall, Khalil said, "I will. And never come rescue me alone again, you madwoman. Amadou would kill me."
She frowned. The rain had lessened again, and her hair and clothing was sticking to her uncomfortably, and her wound had reopened, but something in his voice had made her wonder. "What do you mean?"
Khalil rolled his eyes. "Don't be thick, sister."
Then he took off for the south gate.
She watched him go with pursed lips, trying again to squash down that feeling, the one that was starting to arise every time she thought of Amadou.
On aching legs, Ursa turned and mounted the wall once more.
~*~
Amadou's blood began pounding the moment Khalil told them of the Hji forces outside the wall. He had not gotten used to it yet, that rush at the call to arms. Khalil directed them where to report, and said he was off to scout the hills.
The others took off, grabbing spell bags and leaping from the windows in various flying forms.
Amadou did not need to be told where to go. He always went to the South gate, the main entrance to the city.
The gate was heavily guarded. Only it was large enough to allow an army to pass through. If the northwest gate fell, they might yet be able to push the Hji back. The other gates were even smaller yet. The south entrance was what the Hji wanted, for that would be a mortal wound to Carnate.
But such was the life of the head sorcerer, he could not go directly to his station.
He took one last look around the empty common room and sighed. Then he left from his balcony like the others.
~*~
General Guenhwyvar Freas had an office in the tower, but she never used it. She was on the move near-constantly, working out of the four major guardhouses.
He tried her at the east guardhouse first. The base was ablaze with activity. Torches pushed back the dark as guards mobilized in the light rain.
He caught her as she stepped from the offices, shielding her eyes with a hand.
He shed his bird form with the added flourish of a screen of smoke. That had been advice from his mentor, Sorcerer Cacta. She had trained him at university, and after he called on her often for advice. When he'd taken the head sorcerer position, she had schooled him on power.
'You have a presence, Ama, despite preferring to keep your nose in a book,' Cacta had said. 'Never forget that it is just as important as all the knowledge in the world.'
The attendants and officers surrounding the general fell back. She did not break pace. "What is it, Sorcerer?"
"I need someone to raid the Sledge."
"The Sledge? That warehouse in the Lower Green?"
"I have reason to believe they are smuggling there—"
General Freas raised an eyebrow at him. "Excellent detecting, Sorcerer."
Amadou soldiered on. "—I may have tipped them off to something. I have to get to Saccharine before they do. A raid would set them back. Then tomorrow I can go to Saccharine."
"You can thank the Hji for the favor they are doing you tonight, Sorcerer. I doubt anyone will be leaving the city right now."
"Be serious, Guen."
They had exited the guardhouse and now stood at the stairs to the High Road. Dozens of guards streamed by in formation, shifting to cat form as they mounted the Road.
General Freas stopped to look at him. "Explain yourself fully, Ama."
"Smugglers in Saccharine have a demon." Amadou produced the wooden tab. "We must get it before it falls into the wrong hands."
She turned the tab over in her hands. "What is this?"
"An identifying key. It means the demon was bound by a temple."
General Freas returned the tab. "I was not joking—the Hji did you a favor. I have no one to spare for a raid. But you'll get an escort to Saccharine as soon as we beat back this attack. We cannot let the Hji get a demon. Marcos!"
A young male guard stepped forward smartly. The general dictated while he took notes, outlining the excursion to Saccharine.
"We'll deal with this in more detail later," she said to Amadou when she was finished.
"Thank you, Guen."
"See you on the wall, Sorcerer."
~*~
The general set off via the High Road. Amadou went another direction, to the Temple of the Great Eye.
He swooped into En Heduanna's office through her balcony. The room was wide; the balcony faced the main wall of the temple so En Heduanna could see worshippers enter the temple. On the walls hung tapestries as old as Carnate itself.
En Heduanna herself was not there.
He stopped at her desk, rummaged through his many pockets, and finally selected a blue contact stone. He placed the stone at the center of her clean desk. They would have to talk later. He was needed at the wall.
~*~
He landed at the wall, next to Lieutenant Nimbus. The lieutenant was standing stock-still in the rain, peering out at the Hji army.
Amadou could barely make them out. The rain obscured all. He checked over the far side of the wall.
Facing the city, one of his better ideas could be seen below. The great gate was barred on all sides, and on the outside an additional metal portcullis kept back the Hji attacks. On the city side, Amadou had put up a great netted area. When it was safe, citizens of the city could shore up the defenses of the main gate by adding stones and rubble to the pile. Usually the pieces came from their own destroyed homes, or pieces of the wall that had crumbled under the initial attacks. Every time they added something, the lived magic strengthened, making the main gate almost impenetrable by Hji sorcerers.
He hoped it was driving the wolves mad.
When he turned back, Nimbus was still rooted in place.
"What are you looking at?"
The stocky man, shorted than Amadou by a head, started. "It's just...do you see anything odd about Jephta Lev?"
Jephta Lev was about the only thing he could see clearly through the rain. The sorcerer stood on her usual raised platform. She liked to be over the heads of the soldiers for a clearer view. Tonight she stood there same as any other attack, throwing blast charms at the walls. Down the ramparts, on the other side of the east gatehouse, Isis was catching the blasts and lobbing them back. Amadou couldn't see her, but he could see the sparks of he
r magic.
"I don't think so? Where's Nagendra?"
"He's at the northwest gate with the other Hji contingent. Jephta Lev is moving awkwardly. A little slow. Isis is easily handling her."
"You think she's ill."
"No...my grandmother was an adept in the temple, sir. I mean, Sorcerer. So I know some about magic. I don't think that's Jephta Lev at all."
"What?" Amadou said, alarmed. He leaned recklessly over the wall, as if an extra foot of distance might help him discover if what Nimbus said was true.
After a moment more of watching, he realized Nimbus might be on to something. The woman on the raised stand was not casting magic with Jephta Lev's rigid efficiency. She jumped whenever Isis sent a riposte her way. In fact, she seemed to have to pause between each charm to...pull something out of her pocket?
"She's casting charms off of runes," Amadou said. "She's not a sorcerer. Someone gave her those to look like she's casting her own magic."
Nimbus made a disturbed noise. "Then where's Jephta Lev?"
"They are distracting us from something," Amadou said slowly. "They're attacking south and west...we should go east."
~*~
In ten minutes, Nimbus had prepared a detachment to follow Amadou to the east side of the wall. Isis had learned with glee that she was not attacking a real sorcerer at all, and agreed to keep up the ruse by pretending to fight "Jephta Lev" with all she had.
Amadou and his guard left under cover from the small side gate in the eastern wall. They made it into the cover of trees in cat form, and then Amadou took to the sky again.
Once airborn, the Hji could not hide from him. He saw Jephta Lev leading her own group of soldiers around the rocky hills and valleys.
He and the guard circled the Hji.
On the sergeant's signal, the cats burst out of the underbrush. The Hji soldiers shifted too, becoming huge, snarling wolves.
Amadou did not worry about them. He hit Jephta Lev in the back. She fell to the ground. He cast a binding spell, leaving out the negating part as that would only take more time. Even so, Jephta Lev increased her size, forcing the binds he was trying to clamp together to fall apart.
She whipped the binds back at him and Amadou dove out of the way. Then she whistled to her pack.
The wolves retreated, wriggling away from their captors and into the hills.
"Pursue!" the sergeant ordered, and the cats obeyed on light feet.
Amadou pulled himself to his feet and pursued as well, into the dark and rainy night.
~*~
Ursa awoke when Amadou slumped into the couch beside her. Neither had cleaned up since their return from the wall. Her fingers were still cold.
"You're back," she managed to say.
He heaved a sigh. His neck craned back to rest on the back of the couch, and his eyes were closed. "We found them all, I think."
Khalil had caught up with him outside the walls, informing him of the Hji plan to build encampments. From then on, the rest of the night had been composed of darting through the northern region, battling Hji soldiers and sparring with Jephta Lev. When reinforcements had arrived from Carnate, they had slowly forced the Hji to give up their plan. Maybe. Amadou didn’t know if he could ever truly rest while the wolves lay in wait outside his city.
She sat up; rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Everyone else?"
"Khalil's in the infirmary. Obiad and Isis are asleep. Thisbe's on the wall."
"I should relieve her—"
Without opening his eyes, Amadou put out a hand to stop her. "She just took the post. Obiad will relieve her in a couple hours. Besides, you and I are going somewhere tomorrow."
"We are?"
"Saccharine."
"Oh!" Ursa said. "Thank the tower! We must get to that—!"
Amadou let his hand flop back onto the couch. "You and I will rest."
"Let me make you some tea." Ursa was dead tired as well, but at least she'd gotten some sleep after the Hji had pulled back.
"I don't like tea," Amadou mumbled.
Ursa pushed her tangle of hair back from her face. It had dried now, and puffed out in a ludicrous fashion.
"What are you talking about? Every day you make yourself tea and then bring me some."
"Every day I make you tea," he corrected. A smirk quirked the corner of his mouth. "Spoiled, that's what you are."
He hadn't opened his eyes yet, so she could stare at him bald-faced. She almost asked it outright just then: "Are you in love with me?"
But she choked at the thought of hearing him say no, or worse, that he had been until she'd gotten pregnant.
She moved closer to him, causing his eyes to flicker open. Surely this was the very worst of all her seductions, after a battle in the rain, with no sleep, barely dry, wounded, pregnant, and in the open common room where anyone could walk in.
"Go to sleep, Ursula."
Again, she almost said: "Only if you come with me." That one rolled off the tongue easier than any talk of love ever would.
Instead, she curled an arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I was worried about you," said Ursa.
"Oh," Amadou replied. He said it warmly, as though he'd been surprised by something pleasant.
She smiled broadly, her face downturned. She raised it, took his face in her hand, and kissed his cheek.
"Well, goodnight Ama."
"Goodnight," he said as she disentangled herself from him and walked to her rooms.
~*~
"The king is furious."
Sighing, Amadou slumped into one of Prime Minister Letteres' chairs. Her office was quite nice, he always had to admit. The main rooms were plain beige, but hers was of calming blues.
He'd hoped the news of the demon in Saccharine would escape the notice of the government, but that had been wishful thinking. He could hardly organize an escort of guards and proper preparation from the Temple without going through the proper channels.
He and Hestia often had their differences, but the royal family was the biggest problem between them. The previous monarch had created the parliament, and now the current king felt himself to be more and more of a figurehead, causing him to throw his weight around at all the wrong times. Amadou kept this opinion to himself.
"He is demanding we keep the demon, instead of delivering it to the Temple."
Hestia had set out a platter of light breads and honey, which Amadou was eating like a wild animal. He'd slept most of the day and awoken to the prime minister's summons. He could feel the battle in his bones. Hestia too looked worn. She had probably been awake most of the night as well, awaiting news and liaising with General Freas, the royal family, and the Temple.
Amadou frowned. "Why would we keep a demon."
Hestia took a steadying breath. "To use against the Hji."
Amadou set down the piece of bread he'd been eating. He rose, and brushed off his robes. Then he walked directly out of Hestia's office.
~*~
As usual when he had a meeting with Hestia, Amadou came to her rooms in a bad temper.
Ursa couldn't help but smile. Locks of hair fell across his face. He looked disheveled in a rakish way; a man too tired and too burdened with important matters to care for his looks.
"Would you like to come for a walk?"
She grimaced. Her bones ached after the battle. Still, if she remained at her desk she would only stiffen and creak.
Too tired to bother with the stairs, they leaped from her window and dropped into the garden that encircled the tower.
She took his arm and they started along the gravel path. The garden was made for wandering, with larger paths of stone crisscrossed with smaller gravel tracks. The topiary and decorations changed along the way. Hedges rose and fell, though none blocked the view of the city. In peacetime, this garden was often full, but now they were joined by only a few other scattered figures. They watched the sun set behind the distant walls of the city.
Amadou sighed
heavily and explained what had happened. Ursa, too stunned to comment, let him go on without interruption.
"I should not have walked out like that. I was shocked, and too tired from last night, to say the right thing. I'm afraid of the options. I'm afraid the king will force our hand...or that we'll be forced to ally with the Temple against him."
She had no great love for En Heduanna. But to sway the king, they would need the high priestess.
The alternative was too devastating to imagine. She did not have to imagine it. She had seen one of the Xtil hive cities collapsed in on itself after they had tried to use a demon against their enemies. It had worked, Ursa thought ruefully. The war had ended one way or another.
"We must do everything in our power to stop them. If they won't see how cruel and inhuman it is to use a demon against someone, at least we can tell them that Carnate will be lost in the process."
He looked down at her and smiled. "I'm glad you agree. I worried—well, I see why they want to turn to that. But it is desperate and foolhardy. We cannot go to Saccharine until this is resolved."
“I’ll plan on taking another shift at the wall then. Don’t worry. The smugglers can’t be better organized than us.”
She smiled back at him, and they shared a long look before turning back to the path.
Stop grinning, you ninny! But she couldn't, even as they continued their walk in silence. A sense of excitement about the future was spreading through her unstoppably. If they could finally push back the Hji... if her baby was born into a peaceful, stable world, if Ama...
~*~
Amadou knew he'd have to go back and talk to Hestia. He'd never liked people who used their power that way. Yes, he was one of the few people in the city who could walk out on the prime minister, but it wasn't a good look. He blamed it on the battle.
Ursa's body bumped into his as they walked. But for the aches in his body, he could almost pretend they were on a benign stroll. Her fingers curled around his forearm in a way that gave him an entirely different ache. He was certain something had changed between them, but he had no idea when it had happened. Was it when they'd stood in the rain? Or had something changed for her earlier?
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