He was desperate to learn what they knew, but they went along the previously-assigned plan, where Captain Wen pretended to recognize their driver. She hailed her, and their driver went to talk to her.
Their driver returned. "They found it," she reported, and described the new plan. They developed a stakeout routine. "And you're to meet Ursa in the open area due west," the guard finished to Amadou.
He rose and set off. Ursa had already exited the area, and so their meeting could look like happenstance. The guard hadn't said much of the magic, and so he and Ursa would need to make a plan for how to best use their skills, in tandem with the guard.
Then, he could turn his attention to delivering the demon to the temple. Last night, En Heduanna had finally responded to his message. In her crisp manner, she'd informed him in no uncertain terms the Temple would take control of the demon: "Your Priestess was born before this Parliament, child, and never found much use for voting. We will be there to meet your carriage."
Who she'd meant by "we" he did not know, but he shuddered a bit. Even the best priestesses lived in a world of their own.
~*~
Amadou settled on the stool and Ursa pushed a glass across the little table between them. The glass, while dirty, held an interesting concoction of tea, liquid sugar, and lemon.
"A specialty of Saccharine, I'm told," she said.
It was a bit of a peace offering, and to her satisfaction he accepted. She gave him the details of what she'd found at the warehouse.
"No news on the owner?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink. Amadou drew back in surprise. "This is delicious."
"I think so too. Should we steal the recipe?"
"Let's just live here, away from our troubles."
She wasn't feeling warmly enough to pat his hand, but she understood the feeling. There was little enough comfort in Carnate.
And here you are fighting with a person you truly love. If only he was less of an ass. At least now she knew they could never be together. If she'd been wondering, which she wasn't saying she had been. But her little nomad was not a negotiable part of the deal, and Amadou had made it clear he wasn't interested in that.
~*~
Amadou's lips pursed at her iciness. You'll finally have to give her up. Can you do that? Do you even know how to stop pining?
But she'd said in no uncertain terms that she loved another, and that was before he'd made a fool of himself. If there was ever hope of her loving him, he'd stamped it out. Again, he cursed the mystery man. The glimmer of hope he'd seen this week was the worst of all. He'd almost thought...and then, nothing had come of it after all.
~*~
After an interminable day of waiting, dusk finally fell. Captain Wen had made the suggestion that they stay and watch the camp at night, to better understand how life went there. But Amadou had quashed the idea. They must take action; the city could not wait and the demon was unstable.
In a camp just east of Saccharine, they made their plan. One half of them would swoop in and steal the demon. The other group would be at the carriage, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Any pursuit from Saccharine would be led away by Amadou and Ursa, who could then transform into birds and easily meet up with the main group.
Saccharine in the evening was quieter than Ursa had hoped. The camp was deadly organized, and large parties had to take place at a far end of camp. That would give them a little cover, but not much. The area around the warehouse was dark and quiet.
The sorcerers waited for the all-clear by the scout. Then she and Amadou crossed the distance to the tent. Amadou undid the charms, and then they slipped inside.
They had a mage-light each, the glow mellow and hopefully not visible outside the tent.
Ursa found the stack of boxes. She set her mage-light down and lifted the first box.
"Let me help—"
She sent Amadou a glare she wasn't sure he caught in the darkness. But his hands faltered, and she swept the next box away.
When they reached the chest, Amadou stooped to examine it.
Ursa looked about the warehouse. "What other terrible things are stored here?"
He grunted. "We have limited time, so I am choosing not to think too much on it."
"I suppose it's unlikely they have a second demon."
"Yes. Though we live in a place of chaos."
The writings were clear. A war zone was chaos, and demons didn't just gather at those places. Their influence was unlike other things. The demon's essence may have orchestrated its way toward Carnate, even though it could not move itself in the usual way. These things held sway in a way they did not understand.
That was why it could not fall into the hands of the king. He may think it was his idea to use the demon, but in reality only temple-folk were safe from its mind control.
"Your spells will hold," he said. "Provided it isn't smashed apart. I'll feel better once the Temple has their hands on it."
"As will we all," she replied. "Let's go."
They each took ahold of the rings on either side of the chest. They creaked after long disuse. Luckily, the chest was light. In fact, Ursa could only feel the heft of the wooden chest. Almost as if the thing were empty. She wouldn't be fooled though.
At the tent flap, a whistle halted them.
Voices rose outside the tent. Amadou and Ursa shared a quick glance. They let the guard handle it, waiting with bated breath.
"Move along, then, move along." Firenze was disguised as a warehouse guard, a plan that would work if—
"Move along? It's my tent. Who did you say you were?"
Firenze blustered.
"Go," said a voice outside where Amadou and Ursa waited. Then the tent was ripped up, revealing Captain Wen. "Now!" she commanded.
Amadou and Ursa ducked under the cloth, dragging the chest.
"Go, go," Wen urged.
Ursa and Amadou charged forward, flanked by three guards. The commotion behind them grew.
One guard cleared the way as the path shrank around them. Ursa and Amadou were forced to walk in a row, the chest awkward between them.
Even with the cover of darkness, there was no disguising their suspicions behavior. As the word spread through Saccharine, their guard shoved back onlookers who went to prevent them from moving forward.
Finally, they burst from the tent-village to open ground.
"Run!" a guard yelled. Ursa and Amadou took off, sprinting as quickly as possible. Their three guards pushed off any pursuers.
Captain Wen and the remaining guards appeared behind them, making short work of anyone in their path. They reached the carriage at a run, loading the chest quickly.
Now, it's our turn.
"Go, we will lead them off!"
The guard obeyed with precision. In moments the carriage was thundering into the distance.
"They'll rally their mercs and other fighters," Amadou said to her in the breath between the carriage leaving and the people of Saccharine appearing over the low rise.
"Plan number two, then?" she asked.
At his nod, they split into two directions.
~*~
Amadou followed the guards at a run. He slid off to the side of the road, then cast a softening enchantment. It settled over the air. The dust that had been driven up by the passage of the carriage dispersed. Speaking another djinn word of power, he wove another spell through it, a powerful one that threaded darkness across the space, so that if anyone looked this way, the horizon would appear to stretch on, empty.
If anyone passed by, the air would have a strange heavy quality, as if before a storm.
But he felt confident no one would go this way. Along the far path, a plume of dust roiled out nowhere: Ursa, creating the illusion of a passage of a carriage.
Figures appeared over the horizon. Amadou flattened himself to the earth. But no one looked his way. A cry was raised, and the figures followed Ursa's dust trail.
Silence settled once the pursuers passed away. He waited. His lea
ther fittings irritated him; he preferred his loose robes.
When he deemed it time, he shifted into jackal form, and ran through the night in the direction of Ursa's trail.
~*~
Creating a dust storm was no problem. Making something look like a carriage had gone down a particular road was something else. Ursa reached far back in her memory to her lessons on shaping and forming, and on how to keep a light hand. Her dust cloud was larger than anything a carriage would have kicked up, but she needed the Saccharine people to notice it immediately.
The other difficulty was the simulacrum of a carriage. She crafted the suggestion of a carriage and horse, though it would always be just out of view for their pursuers. Making something from nothing was the hardest form of magic. What their djinn ancestors could have done in the blink of an eye took all her concentration. Even then, it was not a believable carriage if you looked closely.
Ursa chose the form of a wheeling owl. She fluttered about the night sky, not looking at all like something intently following a pursuit.
The Saccharine pursuers trailed her dust cloud for some time, but eventually they realized they would not catch up. The group stopped in the road, talked for a time, and then turned back.
Her dust cloud slowly dissipated in the distance.
Ursa landed on the branch of a gnarled tree, and waited until she saw the slinking form of a jackal approach.
~*~
Amadou made sure their pursuers returned to Saccharine and had no other plans for the evening. By the time he found Ursa out on the plains, it was deep into the night.
"They're back," he said as he transformed into a human once more. He settled against the tree and wrestled with the belt and vest that were so constricting to him.
"Are you tired? We should meet the others."
Amadou successfully removed his vest. He shook out his sweat-soaked shirt.
"Yes, I'm tired, I ran this course three times to make sure everything went smoothly. Did you have to lead them so far away?"
"Yes," Ursa said with mild irritation. "I didn't want them to spot the real carriage from afar.”
"I wove a scree," he reminded her. A look from her told him exactly what she thought of that.
"Can we go?"
He folded his arms. "I'm quite comfortable here." Amadou wriggled in against the ground. "In fact, the others won't need us for a while and it's easy enough to catch up. I think I'll relax here."
"Fine by me!" Ursa harrumphed, and sat on the hard ground. "You are head sorcerer, after all. Everyone telling you how wonderful you are, how down to earth, so talented for such a young man. I'll tell them as your best friend I know exactly how you are."
Amadou squinched up his face and mimicked her voice. "'I know exactly how you are.' How, exactly?"
"Your intelligence is a shield you hide behind. You think you're calm and measured but you're really just not brave."
He hadn't been expecting that. There was a danger in fighting with your closest friend; they knew far too much about you. But the fact was, he knew the same about her.
"And you? Hard to believe you're about to be a mother. No one has ever accused you of being too mature!"
Ursa's jaw dropped. "Just because I know how to have a good time—!"
"Khalil's ten years younger and even he can show up to a meeting on time."
"I like to sleep in, you stuffy bookworm! It never seemed to be a problem for you, you were happy to spend day after day in my workroom, complaining about Hestia."
Something glimmered in her eyes. Amadou had the distinct suspicion that she knew. She knew he'd been...enamored of her. And she'd leaned into it before casting him aside.
"Who's the father of that baby?"
In the dim light of the moon, he watched Ursa's face flush. She ripped up a handful of grass and flung it at him.
He threw up a hand to block it. In that moment, she cast a spell, uprooting a bushel of grasses and dumping them on him.
Amadou snatched up all the grass and cast it right back at her, bowling her to the ground.
"Be careful, I'm pregnant!"
Amadou staggered to his feet, brushing grass out of his long hair.
"There's a shield charm on you, same as always," he said without remorse, and showered more grass on her.
The ground beneath him erupted, and Amadou toppled over as she roiled the dirt around so he could not keep his footing.
"Jerk!" Ursa stood over him. Grass stuck out of her plait and in the collar of the shift she wore to blend in at Saccharine.
She looked crazed, like a witch from a tale. Amadou burst into laughter.
Pink-faced, Ursa dropped the bundle of grass onto him.
"Damn you, Ama."
Still laughing, Amadou got to his feet. Damn you, for all the suffering I've been through. I've tried not to love you but I keep sliding back into it.
"Listen—"
"Who goes there?" a voice shouted through the night.
~*~
"Do not move."
Ursa stilled. Amadou shot to his feet. He was ready for action but it was too late. From all sides, soldiers of the Hji army surrounded them.
"Great Eye," Amadou cursed under his breath.
One of them stepped forward, a captain by rank. Her saber was unsheathed. "Who are you?"
Amadou hesitated. Ursa looked at his blank face, and stepped forward. "My husband and I are on our way to Saccharine, ma'am. We hear there's work to be found there."
Ursa put her arm through Amadou's, and then cradled her belly significantly.
"It's ‘Captain’," the woman corrected. She appeared unmoved by the display, but she'd lowered her weapon. "And you have trespassed on Hji territory."
"We're sorry," Ursa said, wondering if it would be as simple as that. "We lost the road in the dark."
One soldier growled something in the Hji language. It sounded like the Carnate language but heavily accented. But there was little doubt he wasn't on their side.
The captain listened to him, then turned back to them. "Where are your bags?"
Ursa and Amadou shared a look. "Oh well, we—"
The captain stopped listening. "Round them up."
Ursa caught Amadou's eyes as the Hji soldiers wrapped her wrists in rope. He gave a slight twitch of his head. She pursed her lips. He was right. Fighting their way out now was too risky. They would need to take the group by surprise. That would mean a little patience.
By the look of the soldiers, they were a scouting party. No one wore full battle armor. Instead, they were clothed in tans that matched the plain. Comfortable footwear replaced polished boots. Bows and arrows made up the largest portion of weaponry.
No doubt though, they had charms enough to hold her and Ama, if they cared to deploy them.
"They aren't protesting much," said a soldier. "And no campfire."
"I swear this one looks familiar," the captain noted of Amadou.
He tried to look blankly innocent, but Ursa wasn't sure anyone was convinced. At best, they could pretend to be lowlifes of some sort, but she did not feel like running afoul of the notoriously efficient Hji legal system. And if Nagendra or Jephta Lev were nearby, they were in trouble. Ursa stopped concerning herself with a better cover story, and prepared herself for a fight if necessary.
At least when they turned to follow the soldiers back to camp, it was in the opposite direction of the carriage and its cargo. They had enough to worry about.
She wished she and Amadou spoke another common language, but the djinn tongue of the sorcerers would hardly help in this scenario. They trudged back to the Hji camp, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.
~*~
They walked for over an hour before lights appeared on the horizon. Upon arrival to the Hji camp, Amadou's head came up with curiosity. He'd never been in a Hji military camp. This was a village compared to the veritable city that had been outside Carnate for a year, but it was still a microcosm of Hji culture.
&n
bsp; The fires were laid out in ceremonial formation. The famous tents of the Hji were set up in prim concentric circles, like the spokes of a wheel. Smaller tents for common soldiers made up the far edges. Four or five larger tents made up the center. They were raised on wooden platforms, and if the rumors were true, fully furnished on the inside, even in the midst of a campaign.
The camp did not bustle in the way he would've expected. He guessed it was more of a way station, or jumping-off point for scouting groups so they did not always have to rejoin the main body when they needed supplies or healers. Not only that, it was quite late at night now, so a skeleton crew kept lookout.
He leaned over to examine a ceremonial fire as he passed. Something curious burned in the center.
A hand on his shirtsleeve pulled him back. Ursula widened her eyes at him.
Right. A common person would not have such interest in magic fires.
By the time they reached the center of the tent-wheel, most of their group had split off. By their sighs of relief, Amadou guessed they hadn't had creature comforts in a while.
Their guard brought them to one of the larger tents in the center of the wheel. Another Hji pulled back the tent flap for them.
"What's this?"
"Found these two wandering around in the dark a little too close to camp."
"We were on our way to Saccharine!" Ursa protested.
The Hji ignored her.
The tent encapsulated five freestanding iron-barred cells, arranged in a semi-circle. The soldiers handed Ursa into one and Amadou into another. Luckily, they also released them from the rope bounds. Amadou took this as a good sign. No one was sending for Nagendra or Jephta Lev, at least not yet.
Their doors clanged shut. Most of the soldiers filed out. Only one was left behind, and she settled on a canvas seat and promptly slumped into a doze.
He gave Ursa a bemused look through the bars, and she folded her arms.
Fair enough. It was he who hadn't wanted to move from the plain, leading to this situation. And yesterday he'd insulted her baby.
Telling her how beautiful she looked probably wouldn't help her mood, though that's what he wanted to do. He was too exhausted to keep hiding his feelings. He'd been pining for too long. He'd been putting his feelings on her for too long. It was time to tell her, and have her reject him outright. Only then would he finally be able to put it behind him, and just be friends with her. Be friends with her baby, too. He wanted to meet this little nomad.
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