“Don’t be” Sawyer laughed. “I was worried they were taking advantage of you, not the other way around. You are consenting adults and they are getting some of their own medicine, all I can do is laugh.”
“So she is a consenting adult and I am a deviant?” Claudia asked.
“You ready Bessie?” Sawyer said ignoring her.
The first bolt she threw barely missed him, the second he ducked under and the third was coming so fast that he wasn’t able to get out of the way in time. Sawyer could have put up a shield quickly but then he would have had to reveal that he didn’t need to speak to cast a spell. The spell grazed his stomach as he twisted to the right, it stung but got Sawyer’s adrenaline pumping. The next spell missed him as he sprinted forward and slammed hard into a barrier. Sawyer felt pain shooting up his shoulder but also felt the spell waver as Bessie started pouring power into it. Sawyer started testing it with punches and kicks and thought he was about to get through when Bessie dropped the shield and struck out again, this bolt barely missing his face as he had to fall on his back to avoid it. Sawyer rolled over and was up quickly and was about to touch Bessie when he was caught full in the stomach with a spell.
“That would have ended me” Sawyer replied as he watched the reddening spot on his stomach. “The other one grazed me, no matter the spell I would have survived if it hit me like that. That last one though caught me full on. You ready to go again?”
“Go again?” Bessie said sweating. “You almost broke through my shield and I was pouring everything I had into it. Blocking arrow and blocking blunt trauma are two different things, when you hit it with your shoulder I almost fell down trying to hold you off. At least I know now whenever I have a big armored man coming at me the best defense is a fast and deadly offense.”
“Sometimes it is” Sawyer admitted. “Right now though I want to learn how to fight a mage when I don’t have much magic in me.”
“Well you are going to have to wait” Bessie replied. “That last shot was almost everything I had, it would have been embarrassing losing to a half naked man with no magic or weapon. You best get one of those spell casters to help you out”.
“Is that what everyone is calling them now?” Sawyer asked. “Spell casters?”
“The name fits” Bessie replied. “You really can't call them mages, sure they can do a few spells but that is it. I don’t mean no disrespect by it but if they were mages they could do a lot more.”
“Well I can't practice with them” Sawyer replied. “They normally spend their time practicing in full view of the soldiers to boost morale. I doubt they have anything left for me, although now that you said it, they would be an interesting sparring partners. Most of them have picked up a sword before and now they have magic. I would of course have to limit my spells but this should at least get me through the night when the fighting is over with for the day”.
“Good for you then” Bessie replied. “Normally this is when I would tell you what you are missing out on by letting all this woman go to waste but I am even too tired for that. Goodnight Sarlon.”
~
“What exactly, is that?” Candace said looking at big pile of logs and chains.
“What do you want?” Sawyer asked. “You know what, I don’t have the energy to hate you today. We have finally reached the capital and the evil Sale Queen and her people are all inside. In just a few days or months I will be able to have my revenge. What this pile is going to be, is a huge version of a stick insect with a cage on top of it for five men.”
“But why do you need it?” Candace asked.
“That is my secret” Sawyer replied. “I need a project since I am not going to be throwing myself at that wall surrounding the city.”
“That damn wind mage they have has been causing havoc” Candace said. “None of our arrows can reach him and he gives their archers a lot more range on theirs. He has even fought Tabitha to a standstill hiding behind that big wall of his”.
“Not my problem” Sawyer replied. “I still have other things I need to worry about.”
“You two over here talking?” Claudia asked. “Mr. Grumpy and unforgiving must be in a good mood now that he is at the gates.”
“He is” Candace replied. “Still won't tell me what this hunk of stuff is supposed to be used for. How low will it take you to build this stick insect thing?”
“A little more than a day, once it happens is when things are going to be very interesting” Sawyer replied. “Things will move real quick after that, I think my mission will be complete as well.”
“From a pile of logs and old chains?” Claudia asked. “I thought it was odd you asked Tabitha for anything. In fact the only thing I could ever remember you asking for is the armor that Tabitha won't give back to you.”
“I know her reasoning” Sawyer replied. “It is to make me easier to kill when the time comes.”
“You mean if the time comes” Candace replied.
“Yeah, that” Sawyer replied. “If you don’t mind ladies I am awfully busy right now and even with my magic this is going to take a long time.”
“So we are ladies now?” Claudia asked. “Imagine that, the great Sarlon treating us like human beings. You must be excited to finally see that wife of yours.”
“My wife is dead” Sawyer replied. “She was killed by Sale, I saw it happen.”
“Wait a minute” Claudia said. “If you knew she was dead, then why make the rest of us feel shitty for having to constantly remind you that you and her can never be together.”
“I never wanted to be with her in the first place” Sawyer replied. “I was a poor boy who was found to be strong in magic and she was insanely rich and powerful, what idiot wouldn’t marry her? She was trying to escape a marriage with the son of a powerful noble, she offered to feed me and my family in return for marrying her, so I did. Just because I wasn’t in love though doesn’t mean I don’t respect the sanctity of marriage, and even if I wasn’t married doesn’t mean I am a deviant. I was raised properly and by good people who taught me to respect every woman I come across unless she proves unworthy of my respect or disrespects me. Things both of you have done.”
“That doesn’t explain while you refused the Queen’s hospitality” Claudia replied. “Eating good food instead of the drivel you asked for does not make you a deviant.”
“The queen herself is a deviant” Sawyer replied. “So are the rest of the nobles, I don’t really think I have to explain myself any further why I believe so. People with a conscious that have hurt others try to makes themselves feel good by being nice, even nicer than they normally are. By coldly rejecting any attempts at buying me or trying to be my friend it makes the wrongdoer see themselves for who they really are. It is the reason that both of you continue to engage me in conversation, I left you alone with your conscious. You are literally your own worst enemy, screaming and cursing at you accomplishes nothing. Ignoring you however, especially when you know the reason why is what keeps you feeling guilty. It doesn’t hurt that some of you on my shit list find me attractive, or that you have all seen me converse with others like they are normal people.”
“You are a great asshole” Candace said angrily. “You just didn’t want to accept an apology to make us feel bad about ourselves. You just hate everyone in Maduro just like the rest of them and we felt even worse, especially after that thing with the Queen.”
“I didn’t want to accept an apology because what you all took part of was unforgivable” Sawyer replied. “The smith Janessa didn’t take part in it and I know she wanted to see it for the art of it all. She wasn’t there to oogle at any of the contestants but to see a genuine competition. She wanted to see actual talent, she wanted to see a body because she thinks it’s neat what hard work does to strengthen a body, as a smith she always respects talent, whether physical or otherwise. Yet she walked away and didn’t see any of it, because she was a friend. I plan on going back to Maduro sometime after this thing is over just to see how sh
e is doing, Madeline is there as well so none of you can't say I don’t forgive sometimes.”
“Well whatever” Candace replied. “I will leave you to your logs and things. You asking for anything must be so shocking Tabitha relaxed her rule and let you be out here alone.”
“Well I don’t see you two with two other mages” Sawyer replied.
“Because we said we were checking on you” Candace replied.
Sawyer watched them leave and looked at the massive logs he had cut from the trees. He would make the finished project walk right up to the wall and climb right over, from his perch atop it he could start casting spells using the defenders energy and get that gate open before anyone could go and get Flynn. He would have to attack in the dead of night and have a few mages with him just in case, Tabitha could get the gate open and just in case Flynn or someone shows up, she could buy him some time to come up with a plan.
Many people came by to look at his creation, with his magic he was able to embed his heavy chains in the wood so his massive insect could walk and climb. Sawyer had to ask General Goodnight to use a few of his carpenters to create a box on top of the big log that would make up the main body of the insect and they did so despite being insanely curious. The General was trying to decide on how to take the city, siege engines were being built so they were realistically two weeks away before they could mount a serious threat to the wall but Sawyer aimed to change all of that as soon as he could.
“You told General Goodnight to get the army ready?” Tabitha said as she found Sawyer sitting inside of the box.
“I also sent for you, Candace and Claudia” Sawyer replied. “There is no moon tonight, just like there wasn’t when I stormed that hill. This is where I do best work, like opening up that gate.”
“And you are going to do it from there?” Tabitha asked.
“I am” Sawyer replied. “Will you join me up here?”
“Maybe I read this wrong” Claudia said as she walked into the clearing Sawyer was in holding a mage light. “When you told me to meet you here when the sun was out of the sky I took it a different way.”
“Well then that makes both of us” Candace said also holding a light. “Whatever you are into Sarlon I am not.”
“We are going to assault that gate” Sawyer replied. “The army is already formed up and ready to go. The reason most of the mages don’t know is because I don’t need them just yet and if I fail Perdomo will still have some magic they can rely on. You all have been curious about this thing for a while, help me out now and whatever misgivings I had about you will be gone. Complete clean slate, you have my word.”
“No” Claudia replied. “You have to forgive my friend Yesenia as well. She has a crush on you and didn’t want to pass up the chance to see you naked, she hid so you wouldn’t get embarrassed she was there and was ready to take that secret to her grave. That and she loves fighting, she wasn’t going to give that up for a guy she just met.”
“Not going to happen” Sawyer replied. “She will live, so will I. You coming or not, it is time for me to go while I don’t feel the wind mage around.”
“What do you mean you don’t feel the wind mage?” Tabitha asked.
“There are many things about me you don’t know, after tonight though I am sure some of them I will have to talk about” Sawyer replied. “Now are you coming or not, I need for you to climb inside with me.”
“Why would we go in there?” Candace asked.
“I’ll take that as three no’s” Sawyer replied. “Well sorry for bothering you all, my time to go is now.”
“It’s not that we don’t want to help you we just want to know what we are getting ourselves into” Tabitha said. “You have been out here working on whatever this thing is and now you want us to climb inside of it in almost total darkness.”
“Like I said, don’t worry about it” Sawyer replied as he concentrated on some of the defenders on the wall along with Tabitha and another mage he felt on the wall.
Sawyer made his construct stand which made Candace scream, being this close to it made it more maneuverable than Sawyer would have thought as his construct went stomping through the forest. Sawyer could hear Tabitha or someone else telling him to wait, he was already moving and didn’t see a point in the conversation they would want to have. Sawyer had a shield up in front of his box as he came within arrow range, right now the Perdomo army had lit torches in an effort to see what was attacking. The defenders stood by dumbly at first then tried attacking, the arrows thudded into the golem and did no damage as it continued walking. The mage on the wall sent some strong bolts, since they were both using the mages power though he didn’t have much to stop Sawyer as he started climbing over the wall. Shouts were heard and Sawyer trampled a few of the defenders as he climbed over the wall, he really didn’t need to break it down but instead used his magic. He thinned out the wood in the door and made the excess make the other parts of the wall thicker, it left a weak point that Sawyer’s golem easily kicked down then ran through as arrows and swords started trying to chop into it. Sawyer cast mage light and put as much power as he dared into it, it was only for a few seconds he held it but it was enough to let General Goonight know he was successful in taking down the door.
Sawyer could hear the scream of the charging men as he turned his golem around and stomped towards the Sale Palace, leeching energy off of anyone in his vicinity, by the time he reached there he had two statutes that once stood in one of the city squares following him. A powerful wind spell hit him, the construct tilted heavily to one side and would have toppled over if Sawyer didn’t lower it, Sawyer soon felt where his enemy was and tried to latch on to him. Something was stopping him from fully draining the mage, in fact Sawyer could only half feel him as the wind got harder. Sawyer put a powerful shield directly in front of where he thought the mage was and was shocked as the shield was quickly blown away but so was his enemy. Sawyer could feel him good now and used his power to create a golem out of pure magical energy, it was the most power intensive spell he knew and sent it after Flynn who was on the move. The magic energy golem winked quickly out of existence which shocked Sawyer, it was destroyed. Sawyer got off his construct and sent it on a collision course for the palace gates, many men started hacking at it through the steel gates then someone got the idea to pepper it with flaming arrows. Sawyer could no longer feel Flynn clearly as the wind started picking back up and knocking the golem down. Sawyer cast his steam spell and watched it roll into the gate then over the men there. They screamed out loudly as they were cooked alive and Sawyer made a hole in the gate just big enough for one of his smaller statute golems to go through.
The statue golem killed men and Sawyer reanimated them, soon he was inside the gate and found the controls to move the gate out of his way. Sawyer looked back as a bolt of energy smashed into his statue golem and blew it to pieces, seconds later the other one died followed by his undead golems. Sawyer could sort of feel where Flynn was at but stayed hidden as he could see the first of the Perdomo army riding hard his way. Sawyer sent his stick insect to fight wherever Flynn was, when powerful spells started blasting it to pieces Sawyer made his move and began running. Flynn was in a guard tower and that is where Sawyer would meet him at, the door to the tower was open and Sawyer sent a cloud of steam upstairs in front of him. Sawyer was at the top when the steam came back towards him and had to dissipate it, Sawyer reached out for Flynn again and found out he could latch on to him easily now. Sawyer cast mage shield until he was sure Flynn was low enough on magic he wouldn’t be able to kill him, Sawyer reached the top of the tower and made eye contact with Flynn who fell through some kind of trap door. Sawyer ran up to where he fell and paused, there was a weird partial wall made out of some kind of metal. Sawyer attempted to thin it out but the metal rejected every intrusion, Sawyer looked closely at it and laughed as he had recognized this metal, it was lead.
Lead was extremely heavy and apparently resistant to magic, Sawyer didn’t know h
ow and was surprised he didn’t know about this weakness before. Sawyer inspected it closely and figured they must have done something to it when he noticed this metal appeared worn, maybe it was an artifact from before Mast was split and magical knowledge destroyed. Sawyer looked down at the trap door and could see some kind of pole was there for besieged guards to escape quickly, Sawyer wasn’t stupid enough to take it and instead took the stairs back out. Sawyer could hear Duke Velarde leading a charge, his people were all over the palace grounds and attacking the palace itself. Sawyer went to join the fight when someone grabbed his arm, it was Tabitha.
“We need to talk” Tabitha said.
“Later” Sawyer said. “We are in a middle of a fight and I don’t have time for you right now. I gave you the chance to help and you didn’t, now remove your arm from me or I will do it for you.”
“We will talk” Tabitha said as she let him go. “I want every last secret you have been hiding.”
Sawyer turned from her and ran towards the palace as mage lights started appearing around it and a white flag was illuminated outside of one of the windows. Sawyer thought it was pointless for them to surrender, he was going to kill all of them anyway and figured they would have wanted to go down fighting. Sawyer walked into the palace with Tabitha right beside him, General Goodnight had caught up on his horse along with Duke Treadwell and Claudia. Inside the palace was bright and men stood with their hands up and their weapons on the floor as Sawyer made his way to the throne room.
EPILOUGUE
“They are alive Sawyer, I swear it!” Regent Jales said holding his hands up. “Your father wasn’t killed, only injured”.
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