by Scott Baron
“Garvalis, eh? What in the worlds is at Garvalis? It’s almost entirely empty, from what I’ve heard.”
“It’s nothing you should concern yourself with,” Billian replied, leaning in closer. “But tell me. Did you actually come here seeking revenge for a friend, only to discover it wasn’t me you should be after at all? How delightful!” he laughed. “Oh, that’s just rich. And now you are mine to do with as I please. And I have a lot of things in mind for you.”
Strangely, the smile on the captive woman’s face only grew as he continued his intimidating rant. It was decidedly not the intended effect. In fact, her smile was beginning to feel downright unsettling.
Billian knew she was unarmed. He had stripped her of her only magical weapon himself before she was bound to the chair. And all of her other possessions were strewn on the table well out of her reach even if she weren’t tied up. Yet still she smiled.
Just to be safe, he quickly uttered a binding spell, fastening her arms and legs even more securely to the chair. It may have been unnecessary, but there was something about this one. Something deeply wrong.
What the captain didn’t know was that while she had indeed had her magical devices taken from her, Demelza was still brimming with magic. Visla magic, saved for just such a moment.
With no effort, she snapped both the magical and physical restraints as if they were tissue and rose to her feet.
“How did you––?” the nearest guard began to say. His words ceased moments later as she crushed his throat with a devastating punch.
Bedlam and chaos broke out, the men shouting for more guards as the woman they had terribly underestimated made quick work of them, starting with the one she’d identified as the best fighter of the bunch, judging by how he carried himself.
She quickly disarmed him, literally, then moved through the rest of the men with ease while their comrade screamed about his missing limb. But those screams were silenced by the layers of dampening spells she had been quietly casting over the doorways, creating a soundproof killing jar while her ‘captor’ was busy with his pompous monologuing.
He’d been so busy with his self-aggrandizing bluster that he hadn’t even noticed her doing so. And that cockiness was his, and his men’s, undoing.
It was a ballet of death, wrought by a woman who was in no way the victim they’d thought her to be. And while she moved with power and grace, the men attempting to stop her found their weapons turned against them as they tried first to attack her, then to escape.
At both of those endeavors, they failed miserably.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“That didn’t take terribly long,” Laskar said when Demelza returned to their stolen ship. “Were you able to find the guy?”
She wasn’t carrying the satchel any longer, but her clothing was as pristine as when she left. Then he looked down and noted the tiny spatter of blood on her left boot.
“Uh...”
“Flarus colinsa,” she said, the cleansing spell erasing the last traces of her battle. It seemed one of the dead men still had a bit of the red stuff pumping in him––or out of him, as the case may be––after she had done her final clean up. A tiny splash managed to reach her foot, but no one looks at boots in space.
“So, things got hairy, I take it? I mean, did you have to fight a lot of people?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t call it much of a fight,” she said. “Though, to be fair, one of them did appear to have at least a little bit of training.”
“But you found that Billian guy?”
“Oh, yes. We had some words,” she said.
“I’ve seen what you can do. There were bodies, I take it?” Bud asked with a knowing look. “Are we good? I mean, we’re still tied into the swarm fleet, and if they go on lockdown––”
“Yes, there were bodies, Bud. And no, you do not have to worry about them being discovered. They are about to be disposed of.”
“About to be?”
“Yes,” she said, glancing up in thought as she tapped into the mental countdown she’d been maintaining since she left the captain’s ship and set her spells in action. “The alarm should be sounding right about now, in fact.”
On cue, a magical warning blast flashed through every one of the linked ships like energy rocketing through a ganglion of neurons. In an instant the entire fleet was on high alert.
“What the hell?” Laskar blurted as the ships all began breaking their bonds, separating with great haste and jumping away as soon as they were able.
The poor pilot hadn’t been expecting to be so abruptly thrown into a flight situation, and he all but dove into his seat to activate the Drookonus and keep them from spinning into one of the hundreds of fleeing craft all around them.
“What did you do, Demelza?” Bud asked as he raced to his seat to take the helm from his copilot. “They’re running like a herd of spooked Hookatsa.”
“As intended,” she replied, casually taking a seat of her own.
Hozark, utterly calm through the entire ordeal, simply gave her an appreciative nod. She had performed admirably, and her contract had been completed. And that meant she had obtained the intelligence they were after, no doubt. Information that would be relayed back to Master Corann to then transfer to their client.
A nearby ship’s defensive spells surged and connected with their own, once more shaking the craft violently.
“I’ve got this,” Bud said confidently. “Hang on, I’m pulling us clear.”
He maneuvered the craft through the scattering swarm of ships until they were in a patch of relative calm. It had all happened so fast, it was hard to tell exactly what was happening. Demelza saw the quizzical look on Laskar’s face.
“I noted a flaw in their defensive alert systems while I was making my way to Billian’s ship,” she said.
“I didn’t see anything,” he replied, a bit defensively. He prided himself in not only his piloting skills, but his understanding of magic as well. He was a weak caster, possessing so little of his own magic that neither of the Wampeh would waste their energy drinking from him.
But despite his lack of power, he did seem to have a fair grasp of the castings others placed. But this one he had somehow missed. And it was clearly bothering him.
“You would not have been able to detect it from where you were docked, Laskar,” she said. “That particular spell was tied into their leader’s craft alone.”
“And by boarding that ship, you were able to sense it. And then you were able to exploit it,” Bud said. “Nice one, Mel.”
“Thank you, Uzabud.”
“But what did you do? I mean, look at them!” Laskar said of the score of scattering ships. “There are hundreds of them, all armed, and yet they’re running away.”
Demelza flashed an amused grin. “This is where having one centralized node controlling the actions of the entire swarm proved a weakness,” she said. “While Billian was a capable leader, and his direction was largely responsible for keeping the fleet coherent, his cockiness and overconfidence also provided for a most enticing opportunity.”
The gears turned in Laskar’s mind. “Are you saying you used his own spells against him?”
The main body of ships had broken into their individual components at last and were finally getting the distance needed to run. The whole thing had only taken a minute. Their vessel rocked as another fleeing ship jumped away far too close to their craft.
“It is exactly that,” she said, amused. “They are a formidable adversary, no doubt, but against some foes, they do not wish to have any part of an engagement.”
“What did you do, Demelza?” Bud asked, a hint of amusement sneaking into his voice.
“Why, I merely altered the alarm spell to react as if it had detected a group of magical signatures they did not want any part of. A fleet of Tslavar mercenaries, to be exact. While the swarm could survive an engagement, it would be incredibly costly, and for no good reason. The only logical option would be to jump
away and flee, regrouping at their predetermined rendezvous point for just such instances.”
At that moment, Billian’s command ship, which looked much like the others in the swarm but for its somewhat distinctive markings, burst apart in a huge blast, fallen victim to what appeared to be a massive magical attack.
Frantic, the ships around it began jumping immediately, ignoring the proximity of their fellow craft. A few were terribly damaged in the process, but less than thirty seconds later all of the swarm ships were gone, fled to wherever it was they would regroup. Regroup, and mourn their leader.
“Oh, that was very well done, Demelza,” Hozark said. “A master stroke.”
“What do you mean, well done? Their ship just got blown to hell in all the panic,” Laskar said. “I thought subtlety was the goal.”
“You are correct,” Hozark said. “But realize the true skill with which she carried out her contract. You see, to all of Billian’s comrades, it now appears as if their leader was lost tragically during a surprise attack. It is the perfect cover. And while this was a contracted killing, when whoever it was who had hired Billian gets wind of this incident, they will believe it to have been a tragic incident, the sort of thing that happens to men such as him. All while remaining none the wiser as to the dear captain’s true fate and the information he gave up before his demise.”
“But how did you make it happen? There isn’t really a Tslavar fleet out there, and that was a very real magical attack,” Laskar said.
“That would be me,” Demelza replied.
“You?”
“Yes. Though it was an unfortunately large expenditure of magic on my part, especially after healing the little wounds I received during his pathetic power play.”
“You had that much power saved up inside you? I mean, I know you took Visla Horvath’s magic when you drained him, but to blow up a ship like that would require nearly all of that power.”
“As I said, a particularly significant expenditure of power. But I feel it was worth it to maintain our anonymity and complete the contract in a manner that not only satisfied our employer, but also kept whoever Billian was working for in the dark.”
“So, you’re saying we know what he knew?”
“Yes. I was able to extract the requested location prior to his demise.”
“So, it’s a planet? That’s what this was about?”
“Among other things.”
“But we now know which world this was all about, right?”
“Yes.”
Laskar waited as the silence drew out. “Well?”
“Perhaps I was unclear as to that aspect of this task. You see, that was contracted information and will be reported to Master Corann, who will then relay it to the client. As for us, our work is done.”
“But aren’t you even the slightest bit curious? I mean, we just went through all of that to find and kill the guy. Don’t you want to know what this is all about?”
She turned her calm eyes to Laskar and gazed upon him as one might look at a small child about to throw a tantrum. “I know the world he spoke of already. You can rest easy in the knowledge that there is nothing there.”
“Nothing?”
“No. Not that we know of, at least,” she said, then turned to their pilot. “Bud, would you please set a course for Inskip. I am to meet Master Corann in the capital city.”
“Will do,” he replied, then began the many jumps needed to reach their destination.
Hozark and Demelza rose and walked to one of the storage compartments farther back in the ship. A little privacy among assassins.
“So, you extracted the information.”
“Indeed. The world is Garvalis. But what I said to the others was true. There is nothing there.”
“I know.”
“But there was more.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Billian was careful, but one of his men had looser lips than he and let a detail slip. A very interesting one at that. It seems they were at Garvalis with someone we’ve dealt with. Visla Horvath, in fact.”
Hozark’s slightly cocked eyebrow was all that showed of his surprise, but he was most certainly not expecting that bit of information.
“It seems there is a web of intrigue greater than we were previously aware of. We only completed the Horvath contract recently. It is possible that this crew did not even know of his demise.”
“I had thought the same.”
“But then this new question remains. How are all of these pieces connected?”
“I do not know,” Demelza replied. “But at least we have a lead.”
“Yes. But to what, we do not know,” the master assassin replied.
Strange things were afoot. Things that seemed to tie back to Horvath, and possibly even Samara. They were going to have to get to the bottom of them, no doubt. But for the moment, they had a duty to perform.
“You shall make your report to Corann. And while you do, I will take my shimmer ship to Garvalis.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I will join you on Inskip shortly. But for the moment, I think a bit of digging is in order.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hozark had boarded his shimmer ship with the pretense that he had merely been called away to attend to a bit of Ghalian business for the Five.
In a sense it was true, he could rationalize, but nevertheless, it was not pleasant having to lie to Uzabud. The man had been through much with him, and he trusted him as much as a Ghalian could trust anyone outside of the order.
But this operation had to be quiet. Stealthy. Secret. And there was one in their party with a propensity for blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time. In fact, Laskar didn’t seem capable of efficiently lying––or keeping his mouth shut, for that matter––to save his life.
Or, in this case, protect Hozark’s.
It was a risk he was not willing to take.
So, his excuses made, Hozark said his farewells and released his docking spells, drifting away from Uzabud’s larger craft a moment before engaging his jump spell. And just like that, he was gone.
Hozark was still carrying some of the residual power he had stolen from Emmik Rostall not too long ago. Power he had taken just as Demelza had claimed hers from his secret partner, Visla Horvath. What exactly the two had been up to was still a lingering question, and one that would likely be resolved later rather than sooner.
It took a fair number of jumps to reach Garvalis, and even though his Drookonus was more than capable of making the trip many times over, Hozark couldn’t help but notice just how distant the planet really was. A true backwater system at the edge of everything.
And for some reason, it had attracted the attention of some very powerful players.
Hozark engaged his shimmer cloak and approached the world. It seemed like all was quiet, but one could never be too careful. Especially when the Council of Twenty could be in play. Their thirst for power was bound to spill over into outright war one of these days, and woe unto whoever was in their way when that happened.
His first pass seemed to confirm what Demelza had said. There was essentially nothing there. Nothing to speak of, anyway. Just some small settlements populated by the sort of people who liked a quiet life off the grid, far from the interference of others.
But the idyllic scene shifted as he dropped into a lower orbit. Yes, inhabited regions were still sparsely populated, but there were signs of recent construction and expansion in one area in particular. And as he shifted his flight pattern to get a better look, he noticed something else. Something far more ominous lurking above.
A small armada of Tslavar craft.
Not all were mercenary ships, however. Some were supply and transport vessels supporting the larger militarized ones. And a number of craft were of a luxurious design he was unfamiliar with. Power users of some sort, he wagered, but which variety was guesswork.
Regardless, whatever was going on, something was definitely afoot, and it looked like
he was going to have to go deeper into the action than he had originally anticipated. With a contingent like that, he couldn’t just walk in and dig for intel.
He would have to resort to Ghalian ways. He would have to infiltrate.
Shimmer ships were rare, and most did not possess the power to properly camouflage the craft, nor the skills to control the shimmer properly. As a result, most were often mostly visible despite their users’ best efforts.
The Wampeh Ghalian, however, had perfected them many centuries earlier and could not only maintain the cloaking to near perfection, they could also do so in space, a setting where shimmers notoriously failed their users.
For this incursion, however, Hozark would be setting down as close to the main town’s borders as was feasible while maintaining a safe distance to avoid detection. And he would have to do so slowly.
While the ship was invisible to the eye, the shifting of winds around it at speed would still be detectable to an alert lookout if there were any clouds or vapor in the air. After a few minutes of careful study of the terrain, a suitable spot made itself apparent.
It was a small copse of trees, beneath which a thick tangle of brambles had grown. The thorny bushes would not harm his craft, nor would they interfere with his shimmer cloak, but they would prevent unwanted guests from accidentally walking smack into the invisible ship.
He dropped low in the empty clearing that ended just a few meters from the trees, then spun the ship and backed it carefully into place, dropping it down into a low hover so as not to crush the plants below. It was as good a hiding spot as he’d likely find on short notice, and he was actually quite pleased with it.
Hozark then set to work adopting one of his favorite characters for this sort of infiltration. A jovial trader, fond of drink and quick to laugh. Alasnib was his name, and he had a reputation for making friends wherever he went.
Of course, he was also unarmed and harmless, meaning Hozark had to shed all of his weapons and magical accoutrements, even his vespus blade. But that was of little concern.
For one, he was perfectly deadly without his tools and toys. For another, something as rare as a vespus blade would draw much attention. And last and most importantly, an unarmed and inebriated man tended to be underestimated and not seen as a threat.