by Ben Wolf
Overhead, Magnus cleared the jump with no problem. Just when Calum thought his grip would falter, Magnus reached down, grabbed his wrist, and hauled him up onto the roof.
“Thanks,” Calum said.
Magnus’s eyes focused on something behind him, down at street-level.
Calum turned back. Down below, the masses of soldiers nocked arrows and drew them back in their bows.
“Get down!” Magnus yelled.
Both he and Calum dropped, and a flurry of arrows zipped through the sky.
Axel.
Calum hollered his name. “Take cover! Arrows!”
Axel spun around for a look, then he rolled behind a brick chimney just in time to avoid at least a dozen arrows that dug into the rooftop where he’d just been standing.
“Draw!” The cry came from below, in the street.
Magnus pulled Calum to his feet and shoved him forward. He shouted, “Axel, move!”
Axel burst from his cover and bolted for the next roof, and Calum and Magnus made the jump as another barrage of arrows plunged into the rooftop behind them.
A pair of soldiers kicked open a rooftop door in front of Axel and swung their weapons at him. He ducked under both attacks and kept going. The soldiers turned to follow him, but by then, Calum and Magnus came up behind them.
Calum bashed one in the back of his helmeted head with his elbow, dropping him immediately. Magnus leveled the other one with a punch that could’ve felled a horse.
The soldier’s head jerked to the side with a sharp crack, and he slumped to the rooftop, but instead of continuing to run, Magnus stopped and scooped the soldier into his arms.
Calum eyed him and started to ask what he was doing, but Magnus yelled, “Keep going!”
Calum caught up to Axel at the edge of one of the rooftops. Below them, the south gate, set into the tall city walls between two watchtowers just like the north and east gates, was shut. A small army of soldiers stood guard down below.
Calum turned back to Magnus, who had just made it onto their roof with the motionless soldier still in his arms. “They’re waiting for us at the south gate, too.”
“Have they realized we are on the roof?”
“No,” Axel replied. “They’re focused on the street.”
“Good. Then we need to—”
An arrow plunged into the base of Magnus’s neck, just above his armor, and he went down.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“No!” Calum yelled. A few more arrows smacked the rooftop around him, all from the two watchtowers on either side of the gate, but Calum didn’t care. He ran to Magnus and dropped to his knees, ignoring the arrows thudding into the roof around him. “Magnus?”
“I’m fine,” he growled. “Just pull it out.”
“Are you su—”
“Pull it out.”
Calum wrapped his fingers around the arrow and yanked it from Magnus’s neck.
Magnus roared, then hissed, and blood burbled out of the wound and trickled down toward Magnus’s breastplate.
Calum recoiled and stared at the bloody arrowhead for a moment, thankful it wasn’t barbed, then he tossed it aside. “Can you move?”
Magnus grunted but stood to his feet. “Hurry—to the edge.”
Calum headed back to the roof’s edge, all the while shielding his head from the sporadic arrows that the soldiers in the watchtower now launched at them. Magnus came up behind him and stood there with the soldier in his arms again.
“You alright?” Axel asked.
“It was not deep. My skin is getting thicker, I think. It will heal quickly,” Magnus said.
Calum wanted to ask about how Magnus could heal so much faster, but now wasn’t the time. Instead, he asked, “What do we do now?”
“We jump.”
“Where? Down to the street?”
Magnus shook his head, and more burgundy blood bubbled out of his arrow wound. “No. Over the gate.”
From their position on the roof, the jump was manageable, at least from a distance standpoint. They had already cleared wider jumps between rooftops—the problem was the long metal spikes that lined the top of the walls and the gate. Calum had noticed them atop the walls when he first entered the city.
“I will go first,” Magnus said.
Axel grabbed his shoulder. “Wait—you’ll skewer yourself if you hit those spikes.”
Magnus smirked. “That is what our friend here is for.”
It made sense to Calum right before Magnus jumped.
Magnus flew through the air with the soldier in his arms, and as he approached the wall, he positioned the soldier’s body under his own. As they landed, the spikes knifed into the soldier’s body, and thanks to the weight of the soldier’s body combined with Magnus’s momentum, the spikes bent away from Calum and Axel.
Magnus rolled off and dropped out of sight behind the wall, seemingly unscathed.
Calum smacked Axel’s breastplate with the back of his hand and backed up to get a running start. He charged full speed, planted his right boot on the edge, and leaped toward the wall. When his feet hit the soldier’s armor, he tucked into a roll and dropped down outside the city walls.
The fall ended with no pain and no jarring impact. When Calum opened his eyes, he lay in Magnus’s arms.
Calum blinked.
“It was a long drop. I figured you would not mind some assistance.”
“Not at all. Thanks.” Calum grinned. It had worked. Now they were just waiting for—
A raucous yell sounded above.
“Excuse me.” Magnus set Calum on his feet and shifted his footing, then Axel tumbled from the wall down into Magnus’s arms.
Axel rubbed his eyes. “What in the—”
“You are welcome.” Magnus set Axel on his feet.
“I’m never doing that again,” Axel said.
“No time to dally now,” Magnus said. “Before long, they will deduce what happened, especially with you screaming like a little girl when you jumped.”
Axel glared at him. “No time to fool around, but you’re making jokes?”
“I could not help myself. In all seriousness, as soon as they get that gate open, we will yet again find ourselves in peril.” Magnus pointed west. “We will head to the southern end of the Snake Mountains and take cover until this trouble subsides.”
“What about Lumen and the Arcanum?” Calum asked.
“This is a temporary precaution. We need to allow this tension to cool down, and then we will head for Trader’s Pass again.”
“How long?” Calum asked. “My dreams are getting more and more urgent.”
“A few days, at most. These things have an ebb and flow to them. They will lose interest soon enough.”
“Alright. Three days, tops.” Calum started west, and the others ran alongside him.
“Any chance they can cut us off from the west gate?” Axel asked.
Magnus shook his head. “No. The only way in or out of the west gate is via Trader’s Pass. Everything around it is mountainous and lined with the same steep cliffs we found along the western edge of the range to the north. They can only chase us if they open the south gate or come at us over the Snake Mountains from the north, which they will not do.”
“Good,” Calum said.
Within minutes, they disappeared into the woods southwest of Kanarah City.
Commander Anigo rubbed his sore chest, now bandaged and on the mend, but by no means restored to full health. A new leather breastplate covered his torso, and a local blacksmith had mended the chain maille shirt underneath as well.
When a soldier by the name of Corporal Jopheth reported a sighting of three fugitives—two young men and a Saurian in bright blue armor—Commander Anigo had to restrain every impulse to go after them, even in his weakened state. Now the corporal had returned with yet another update.
“Captain, we’ve lost sight of them.” Corporal Jopheth pointed to the south gate. “We think they went over the wall. Should we
open the gate to pursue them?”
“No.” Captain Leonid Fulton, the commanding officer of the entirety of the King’s forces in Kanarah City, yawned and waved his hand. “They’re rabble-rousers. Nothing more.”
Commander Anigo resisted the urge to correct him and remind him of the very specific orders he’d received prior to leaving Solace. Instead, he turned to the corporal. “Aren’t the walls lined with spikes?”
Corporal Jopheth nodded. “Yes, they are.”
“How did they manage to get over without getting impaled?”
“What does it matter?” Captain Fulton adjusted his breastplate, made of polished silver instead of black leather, for the umpteenth time.
Ever since the other day when Commander Anigo met him after leaving the infirmary, Captain Fulton continued to shift the breastplate every so often. It just didn’t fit him the way it should.
Probably because he was a fat lush who refused to do his job properly.
But Commander Anigo couldn’t say that to him, either.
“They’re gone,” Captain Fulton said. “They’re of little consequence.”
Commander Anigo narrowed his eyes. “Captain, they have killed or been party to the killings of dozens of men, including at least ten of the King’s soldiers. They assaulted and robbed one of our outposts in the north, and they—”
“Yes, yes. I’m aware of their crimes.” Captain Fulton yawned again.
Commander Anigo clenched his teeth. “My point is that they’ve ascended far beyond the level of a mere nuisance. I recommend we pursue them.”
“Montrose?”
Corporal Jopheth stepped aside, and a slender lieutenant gave Captain Fulton a slight bow.
“Yes, Captain?” When Montrose looked up, his emotionless gaze met Commander Anigo’s for a moment, then they fixed on Captain Fulton again.
“Are our dinner preparations ready for this evening?”
“Nearly, sir,” Montrose replied.
Preparations? Commander Anigo fumed. He was trying to catch a trio of wanted fugitives known for their violence and cunning, and Captain Fulton was more concerned about his dinner plans for that night.
“Captain, I—”
“That will be all, Commander.” Captain Fulton didn’t even look at him. Instead, he was trying to adjust his breastplate again. “Head back to the barracks and rest your injured chest. Your vagrants are gone, and if they are foolish enough to return, we will swiftly bring them to justice then.”
“With respect, Captain, I’d like to request a contingent of men to accompany me while I search for them outside the city walls.”
“Your request is denied, Commander. Unlike you, I did not manage to get the men assigned to me killed.”
Commander Anigo bristled at that remark. He could hardly be held responsible for the deaths of those men, especially in light of their rampant incompetence. If they’d fought harder and smarter, perhaps they would’ve survived. And perhaps he wouldn’t have to be here now, either.
No, their failure and deaths reinforced what he’d believed about them upon his arrival to the Rock Outpost: Commander Pordone had been a pitiful excuse for a commanding officer. If anyone could be blamed for the demise of those men, it was Commander Pordone and his lax attitude toward enforcing the King’s law.
“Besides, I require my men to remain here in Kanarah City to continue to ensure the safety of our citizens. These brigands you’re pursuing have left the city, and therefore they are no longer our problem.”
Commander Anigo gritted his teeth. “I respectfully disagree. If they were to—”
“You may disagree all you want, as long as you do so in silence,” Captain Fulton said, his voice hard. He struggled to rise to his feet from his chair until Montrose took hold of his arm and pulled him up. “Now I take my leave. Rest and recover, Commander, and when you are well enough to travel, you may return to the north for more men. You surely shall not take any of mine.”
With that, Captain Fulton waddled away. Both Lieutenant Montrose and Corporal Jopheth followed, leaving Commander Anigo standing there, snarling. Captain Fulton’s lack of regard for his own office sickened Commander Anigo. Worse still, the pain in his gut persisted.
Evening came sooner than Lilly expected.
When the new guy showed up with a small sack tied with twine and slipped it through the bars, Lilly eyed him, but she didn’t move.
“Roderick’s orders,” he said. “Your garments are old and soiled. These are new ones.”
It was true. Lilly’s skintight top and bottoms, once pristine and white, bore a myriad of dirt, sludge stains from the sewers, and now, Colm’s blood.
Hardly appealing to a prospective buyer. She shook her head at her own distorted humor.
Lilly’s stomach churned, but she snatched the sack from the new guy’s hand and recoiled into the cell. She untied the twine and spread the sack open on the floor. Sure enough, a clean set of undergarments very much like the ones she wore lay before her.
“There’s more.” The new guy stepped aside and returned with a bucket and a cream-colored bar of soap. “He wants both of you to wash up before the auction tonight, and he said you’re supposed to wash first.” He pointed at Lilly.
The new guy unlocked the cell and slid the bucket and the soap inside, then he locked it again.
Lilly eyed the bucket and the soap then glared at him. “Do you really expect us to just strip down and wash in front of you?”
The new guy’s eyes widened. “Uh—no?”
“Then could you please give us some privacy?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Sorry.”
As the new guy headed toward the cellblock door, Lilly stared at her reflection in the bucket. Yes, she wanted more than anything to scraped the grime off of her skin, but the idea that doing so would fetch a higher price sickened her.
Still, she needed to do it. Once the new guy shut the cellblock door behind him, she peeled her soiled undergarments off and started to wash. She couldn’t do anything about the other prisoners in the cells, but at least she’d managed to keep Roderick’s new puppy from staring at her while she did it.
An hour after Lilly finished scrubbing the blood and grime from her body and re-clothed herself in the new undergarments, the new guy returned and peered at her and Sharion through the bars. “You ready yet?”
What did he expect her to say? Lilly wanted to bash his head in. Instead, she just sighed.
The new guy swallowed. “I mean—are you dressed?”
“You’ve got eyes, don’t you?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“I’m ready.”
“Alright.” The new guy stepped into full view and inserted his key into the lock.
Lilly eyed Sharion, but she didn’t give any indication that she intended to reveal Colm’s parting gifts. Perhaps she’d realized that Lilly was her only hope of escaping this place.
The new guy produced a burgundy gown and held it out for Lilly to take. “Here. This is for you. Roderick’s orders.”
She took it and rubbed the burgundy fabric between her fingers, then cursed to herself. Not aerosilk. Roderick knew better than to give a Windgale something made of aerosilk, or even an aerosilk blend.
And to top it off, burgundy really wasn’t her color.
“Why?” she asked.
“He said he wants you to look your best for tonight.”
“I couldn’t care less what Roderick wants.”
The new guy gawked at her. “What? But—”
“Where’s my fancy dress?” Sharion folded her arms and glared at the new guy.
“I—I don’t—”
Sharion spat on the floor in front of him.
His brow furrowed and he pointed at Lilly. “Just put it on, alright? We’ve got a schedule to keep.”
As the new guy left the cellblock, Lilly traced her finger along the dress’s black lace neckline. She’d never wear anything like it if she had the choice, but it beat staying
in just her undergarments. She pulled it over her head and adjusted it on her body.
It fit well, but she hated it just the same, mostly because of what it represented.
Something tugged at her back. She turned and—
“Hold still,” Sharion grunted.
Lilly went rigid. “What are you doing?”
“The back of this dress won’t tie itself.” Sharion pushed Lilly’s cheek and faced her forward. “I said to hold still.”
Lilly smirked, and she relaxed as Sharion did her work.
By that night, Magnus’s accelerated healing had already sealed and begun to repair the arrow wound in his neck. Calum marveled at the sight and wished he had that same ability. In the kind of life he and Axel were now living, quick healing like that would change everything for them.
In the end, it only amounted to wishful thinking. That healing remained exclusive to Saurians, so Calum would just have to be cautious.
And speaking of cautious, when they made camp deep in the wilderness that night, they tied the moneybag shut and kept it near whoever was designated to stand watch. They’d cleared a decent amount of coin from Garon’s shop, but they still only had limited supplies and no food to speak of. With little else to do, they went to sleep early.
Calum took the last shift again, and again, about two hours before sunrise he heard noises and thought he saw movement in the shadows.
This time, he was ready, though.
He gripped his sword in his right hand and listened, always with his left hand on the bag.
Something snapped to his left, just like the last time he’d let the bag get stolen. But he wouldn’t get fooled twice. Instead of looking toward the sound, he stared right at the bag of gold coins. It couldn’t get stolen if he kept his eyes on it, right?
A low growl sounded from the opposite side of the campfire. Calum glanced in that direction, but he didn’t remove his hand from the pouch.
Perhaps he should rouse Magnus or Axel? Or both of them?
No. He needed to stick to the plan.
The growl stopped. Calum tightened his grip on his sword and stared over the campfire. If the Wolf attacked, he’d kill it, no question, and then that would solve the thief problem for good.