For the second time in as many days, Ari began assembling an army. This army was not of men, and it certainly wasn’t lacking for potential recruits. It had been raining over the area around Central Dominion through the night, and hundreds of fishers were ambling about aimlessly outside the city itself.
There was a limit to the number Ari could control at once, and he immediately began pushing further than he’d ever dared to before. He started with a dozen fishers, bringing them in close to the tower, but still outside of direct view. He found that it was easiest to have them fall in synchronization with each other while in motion, stepping with legs and tentacles in perfect symmetry with one another.
He added more to his pool, going from thirteen to over a hundred in a matter of seconds. As far as he could tell, there were ten guards surrounding the tower, and perhaps a few more inside of it. Ari wasn’t sure if any number of fishers could free Kerys and his friends in a direct attack without risking their lives, but he could certainly do other things with them.
He spent a minute carefully considering his first move, and then sent one of the fishers forward. He made no attempt to hide its approach. He shifted the monster’s posture upright, onto its back legs, and pulled the tentacles behind him into an approximation of a trailing cloak.
The reaction of the guards was close to what he’d expected. The ones without hostages drew their weapons and formed a tight semi-circle around the tower’s entrance and the newly captured prisoners. One of the men wore a black cape with an insignia on it similar to the shape of Diya’s helm, and he took a hesitant step forward, staring at Ari’s fisher with wary eyes.
“Emperor Diya told us to expect you if it rained, Lord Stoneblood,” said the man. He did a remarkable job of keeping his voice steady, though there was a slight stutter as he said Ari’s name. “He wishes to speak with you directly.”
The man reached into his shirt and drew forth a circular gem the color of amber that was slightly smaller than a man’s fist. He held it out toward Ari’s fisher, and for a moment, it almost seemed as though he was offering it to the monster.
The gem flashed once with light, and the flickering image of a familiar face appeared within its depths. Diya was staring down into something in his hand that captured and transported his reflection, likely another gem. His free hand clutched at the wound Ari had inflicted on his shoulder in their earlier fight, but he was smiling despite the obvious pain he was in.
“Lord Stoneblood,” said Diya. “We’ve come full circle, it seems. I must say, it makes me smile to think that the two of us are currently within shouting distance of each other, but we negotiate now through our pawns, thousands of miles away from our actual location.”
Ari let out a low hiss using the fisher, fighting a sudden, sinking sense of dread.
“The difference is, of course, that I’m more than willing to share my secrets,” said Diya. “What you see now is known as a Messagem, a new invention created by Rachel, my resident enchanter. She’s also the mastermind behind the trick we used on your tower. I can only assume that caught you as off guard as I hoped it would.”
It took all of Ari’s self-control to keep from hurling the fisher forward and attacking the guard holding the gem. It would have amounted to nothing, of course. With the edge of his awareness, Ari reached out, feeling for the locations of the fishers elsewhere and the current extent of the world’s adverse weather. The area around Etheria was, unfortunately, still placid.
“This will, unfortunately, be a rather one-sided conversation, given how limited the conversational ability of the Weatherblight appears to be,” said Diya. “You will agree to my terms, Lord Stoneblood. I’m afraid they will not be as amenable to you as the ones I presented earlier happened to—”
“Re… lease… them.”
Ari did something that he’d considered a few times before, but had never tried until that very moment. Fishers didn’t have anything close to vocal cords, but they could form a few simple noises, hisses, clicks, and purrs. It would have been impossible to say anything with just one, or even a dozen, but with forty or fifty, by overlapping specific sounds, he could slowly form audible words.
The effect was chilling, even from the perspective of the one forming the words. It came from all directions, given how he’d encircled the site of the tower with the fishers. It was a low, evil whisper, as though the rain itself had thrown in on the side of the monsters.
Diya let out a small, somewhat nervous cough. “I stand corrected, but my point still, uh, stands. If you wish to avoid your friends meeting a very untimely fate, you will listen and obey.”
“Re… lease… them.”
It was hard to conceptualize how to form the sounds for new words, so Ari resorted to repeating himself. A new idea had already entered his awareness, and he split his attention away from the conversation with Diya, hoping he could prolong it for a few minutes without having to make his monsters say much more.
He gathered more of the nearby fishers, leaving the ones at the tower where they were and assembling a second squadron. He had close to fifty of them in a loose mob, and he sent them sprinting into the city.
It was raining, so there were few people taking the risk of walking the streets. The rune wagons he’d previously seen in the city were the main patrolling presence. Ari set about flipping them over, tearing the Sai within out, and tossing them aside.
His goal wasn’t to use the newly formed fisher mob to kill, but to sow as much deliberate fear and chaos as he could, hopefully drawing and holding the attention of the city’s guards. He set the group on another rune wagon, this one alert and wary enough to already be attempting to flee. The fishers chased it, not bothering to attempt to flip it over. Ari picked a few buildings at random and split the fishers off, directing them to smash through windows and scare the occupants.
He took a dozen fishers deeper into the restored section of the city. Guards in full plate mail were hurrying out onto the streets, abandoning their usual posts as they headed to investigate the situation he’d engineered. Ari found Diya’s residential arch-tower and set the fishers under his direct control to climbing up to the right window while he split his attention back to the tower.
“…is not a joke,” said Diya, through the Messagem. “Agree to my terms, Lord Stoneblood. I know which of these hostages you truly care about. Kerys, isn’t that her name? Her death will not be pretty for you to watch.”
“Pull… ease…” said the fishers. “For…give…”
He was pulling words from thin air, saying whatever he could reasonably expect the fishers to pronounce coherently. It didn’t matter if it made sense. He just needed time, a few more minutes. Time to even the score.
Ari switched his attention back to the window that led to Diya’s study. His true body breathed a sigh of relief as he saw, through the fisher’s eyes, that Xenith was exactly where he’d been hoping she’d be.
She was pacing back and forth, her attention distant, unaware of the threats a few feet away from her. She wore a tight-fitting blue dress, and she looked so very young, though Ari knew that she was close to him in age. Her brown hair and lightly freckled face bore little resemblance to Diya, and he wouldn’t have guessed that she was his daughter without being told.
Ari interlaced the tentacles of the fishers, extending one outward into the open air, high above the city streets below. Using the strength of four of the others, he slammed that one forward, swinging it into the window like a stone launched from a sling.
The glass shattered. Xenith screamed. The fishers took their hostage.
CHAPTER 49
Xenith went silent as Ari’s fishers took hold of her, three of them wrapping her with two tentacles each, binding her at the arms, ankles, and waist. Her eyes danced back and forth, taking in the full number that Ari had sent to capture her, and then blinking out their resignation.
“O…bey…” the fishers attempted to say. It was impossible for him to form real words with only
a dozen, but he hoped that at least the essence of the word would reach her. Ari wouldn’t hurt her unless Diya attempted to hurt Kerys. He might not even have the stomach for it then, but that was a fact he needed to keep to himself.
Xenith was trembling, but she didn’t resist. She kept her eyes open, watching the fishers as they carried her out of the tower through the window and slowly began descending the hundred or so feet to the ground.
She was clearly scared, but there was more to her expression than just that. Her eyes had a gleam of fascination to them that Ari couldn’t help but respect. He made sure the tentacles binding her weren’t cutting off her circulation as the fishers made it to the ground and began sprinting through the city.
Guards seemed to emerge from every door, corner, and intersection to stand in their way. It was as though they’d been content to ignore the threat earlier, or perhaps had been indulging in the fear rather than making a real attempt at pushing through it.
Now, with the daughter of their Emperor in danger, the men and women charged with maintaining order in Central Dominion were rising up and standing tall. It was as commendable as it was annoying.
Ari sent two of his fishers forward to deal with a group of Sai guards headed by a man wearing plate armor and wielding a spear. He jabbed the tip of his weapon forward in a tentative strike. One of the fishers leapt onto his face, while the other stripped the spear from his hands and slammed it through a chink in his armor just above the knee.
The other guards fled, losing face in the wake of imminent defeat. Ari hurried the fishers carrying Xenith forward, briefly shifting his attention to the tower to make sure the hostages were still okay. Diya seemed to be growing impatient. He decided to play his first card to buy some time.
“Xe… nith…” hissed the fishers around the tower.
Ari watched the miniaturized visage of Diya within the Messagem blink, and then shake his head in disbelief.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Diya. “My daughter is safe within the Emperor’s Tower. Your empty threats fall on deaf ears, Lord Stoneblood.”
The fishers began to click and hiss in a pattern that approximated a cold, mocking laugh. As conflicted as Ari felt about the morality of what he was doing, he couldn’t help but indulge in his gloating for a moment. The proud, overconfident Emperor, unwilling to accept the truth.
“Enough!” snapped Diya. “Bring the girl forward! We shall see how Lord Stoneblood and his monsters react to the screams of his beloved.”
Kerys tried to struggle as the guard holding her pulled her forward. Her dress was soaked through with rain, sticking to the contours of her body as though it had been painted on her. The guard had a dagger pressed to her neck, and another man joined him, pulling Kerys’ hand outright and preparing to slice his own blade into one of her fingers.
Ari’s other fishers arrived just before the threat of violence could be realized. One of the guards pointed, and the man carrying the Messagem turned and held it out so Diya could get a view of the new development.
“Xenith…” said Diya. “You… Lord Stoneblood…”
For once, Diya’s composure seemed to break entirely. He clenched his free hand into a fist and leaned it against his forehead, grimacing with rage and despair.
“No,” muttered Diya. “I will not be threatened. You have one hostage, Aristial Stoneblood. I have many. I have your friends, I have the Ravarian children. I have the woman you love! I will not be threatened!”
Was this it? Ari took direct control of the fishers holding Xenith, hating the precipice that Diya had brought them to. Could he really inflict pain on a girl guilty only by association for the sake of saving Kerys and his friends?
“Father!” cried Xenith.
There was more to the word than just the sounds. Xenith was afraid, but there was also an accusation there, as though what hurt her most was Diya’s apparent willingness to risk her life in the name of victory. Ari softened his grip on her with the tentacles, realizing that the requisite pain had already been inflicted, not by his fishers, but by her father.
Diya gritted his teeth. He leaned his head from side to side, as though trying to clamp his head down on a decision that his heart had already made.
“…Release them,” said Diya.
The guards hesitated.
“Release the prisoners!” screamed Diya. “Now!”
Hands and weapons drew back from Kerys, Amber, and Durrien, and they immediately hurried back into the tower. Ari felt a momentary flash of concern that some of the others might have been taken out of the tower before he began observing it with the fishers, but that fear disappeared as the tower flashed with light and teleported away. They wouldn’t have left anyone behind, especially not one of the children.
“Lord Stoneblood?” asked Diya. “Are you a man of honor? Will you do the same?”
Ari realized he was still holding Xenith. He immediately released the fishers’ hold on her, and sent them scattering, not wanting to act in bad faith by leaving them nearby once he’d released his control.
“Well played,” said Diya, through the Messagem. “I stand defeated. For now.”
Ari slowly let out his breath, pulling back from the fishers and the tension and the storm. He blinked his eyes, feeling the back of the head of his true body resting on a pillow made from Eva’s soft, warm thighs.
“Aristial,” she whispered. “You should rest. The tower is back. Everyone is fine.”
He felt her hand caressing his forehead, and grinned up at her.
“I actually did it, didn’t I?” he said, or tried to. His tongue tasted of copper and had a painful gash bitten into it that he’d have to account for when speaking for the near future. Eva reached to the side of his bedroll and brought a clay bowl filled with water to his lips.
“It is as I said,” whispered Eva. “Your state while under the influence of that potion is rather disconcerting to watch. I had to hold you away from the walls while you were seizing.”
“That’s so sweet,” muttered Ari. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”
She really was. Her silver-blue hair had been tied up into a small ponytail, but strands had fallen loose to frame the edges of her pale, slender face. She had a small smile on her face, and she took the clumsy hand he reached up to cup her cheek into her own.
“Rest, Aristial,” she said. “Have another sip of this.”
She brought the bowl to his lips again, and Ari drank deeply. It tasted off, and he didn’t think it was only because of his tongue.
“This… isn’t water,” he said, more than asked.
“I mixed in some of Durrien’s plum brandy,” she said. “It will help you sleep.”
Ari tried to shake his head. “Diya and the Sai. They… could come back.”
“They will not come back,” said Eva.
“How can you be sure of that?” Ari tried to sit up and received an example of his own current weakness.
“Because it is raining outside,” said Eva. “The Sai are scared of you, Aristial. As they should be.”
Her words, spoken in a different tone, might have sounded like a condemnation. Eva was smiling, however, and her voice was brimming with love and pride. She brushed her fingers across his forehead. Ari wished he could bottle her smile and save it for… a time when he could finish thoughts.
He took her advice and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 50
Ari wasn’t sure what time it was, given the lack of windows in the underchambers of Etheria. He was asleep on his bedroll, naked, and he wasn’t alone. Three facts which were more than enough to decide his course of action.
He recognized Kerys more by the form of her body than what he could see under the dim ward light. He was spooning with her, and though she wasn’t quite as naked as he was, she was only in her underwear. He let his hands slide around to the front of her body and slowly began grinding into her as his hands cupped her generous breasts.
“Ari,” she whispered.
“Are you awake?”
Part of him, a rather hard part of him, wanted to say nothing and see just how far she’d let him thrust forward with the moment. Kerys rolled over before he could, however, smiling at him under the blanket and seeming unconcerned by his nakedness and arousal.
“I’m awake,” he said. “In more ways than one.”
“I noticed, and that’s about the cheesiest joke you’ve ever made,” said Kerys.
“If that’s the case, just wait until you hear my next—”
She cut him off with a kiss, and then they were rolling together, rubbing against each other, hands gliding across bare skin and through soft hair. When had Kerys ever kissed him first, before? Ari couldn’t take it as anything other than a sign, a sign of a destination he’d finally reached. He slid his hand into her panties, and blinked in disbelief as he felt Kerys start to wiggle out of them.
“Careful, Kerys,” he whispered. “I might start to get ideas if you keep going.”
Kerys finished taking off her panties and very deliberately placed them next to his bedroll.
“I was thinking about so much during the battle,” she said. “I know how silly this is, but my mind kept coming back to your promise about the bracelet…”
Her voice was sweet and sincere, and it made a strange contrast to the soft, dirty movements of her hand as she found and began to stroke his cock.
“But then,” whispered Kerys, “I realized you’d already given me something better.”
She lifted her copper hand, which wasn’t the one she was currently caressing him with. Ari let his fingers intertwine with hers, feeling the silk of the glove and the unyielding metal underneath it.
“Kerys,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
She nodded, blinking back tears. Ari kissed her and pulled her into a tight embrace, shifting her so she was straddling him without even considering what he was doing. He sat up and pulled her against him. They kissed, and Ari felt the tip of his erection enter her, followed shortly after by the rest of his shaft.
Reborn Raiders (The Weatherblight Saga Book 4) Page 31