“Driver, eyes on the island. If that beast touches stone again, you will take the ambassador and her aide south. Do not stop until you are behind a fortified wall,” Celeste ordered. “Tresson guard, you are not mine to command, but I would advise you to join them. Alliance guards, remain.”
Step by creaking step, the monster rumbled forward, and the bridge refused to fail. Flames licked at its armored limbs, but it paid them no mind. Behind it the mob of waiting creations clambered onto the bridge. Many fell through widening holes in the burning surface. Ivy stood with feet set wide, balanced on her toes and ready to spring. The Tresson guards put fresh arrows to their strings and stood ready, each Alliance swordsman doing the same.
The final rocking shift of the beast’s weight made ready to bring it to land when one of the main supports split, sending out a cloud of orange embers and causing the bridge to roll to the side. Nameless abominations pitched into the sea, and the behemoth that was leading the charge scrabbled and scraped at the land. In its thrashing, it demolished one of the surviving support struts and sent the remainder of the bridge plunging into the water. Without any rear footing, the crab creature’s own weight dragged it backward until it dropped from sight, crashing along the rocks and splashing into the water.
The sense of relief as the final shreds of the bridge fell away was palpable. The soldiers eased, eyes still locked on the remaining threats but bodies no longer tensed. Ivy settled down again and looked to the surviving horde and the fort beyond. Without a route to the mainland, some of the leading edge hurled itself into the water rather than give up its forward charge. Others attempted to stop but failed, either due to their own momentum or the pressing bodies of the beasts behind. When the limited minds of the beasts finally came to terms with the blocked path, they simply stood, restless but without direction or ambition. They lacked the knowledge to cope with such an obstacle, and therefore could do nothing more than await instruction.
“What did you see in that place?” Celeste asked, turning to Ivy.
“Lots of stuff with fins and scales, so some of these things might survive a trip to the shore… though I don’t suppose they’ll be able to scale the cliffs very easily,” Ivy said.
“You heard her. Eyes open, all of you,” Celeste said, addressing the guards. “You, head south. I care not what route you take, but be sure to pass through two towns and warn them to have lookouts and armed men ready in the event some of these creatures reach them. Tell each of the towns to send runners of their own with similar warnings to their neighbors. You, head east, same orders. After that, return to your garrison. We will replace you from the local guards at our next stop. So ordered.” The men rode off. “You, meet the rest of the delegation and warn them to be on high guard. Then remain with them until we meet you.” The guard nodded and obeyed. Celeste turned back to Ivy. “What else did you see?”
“There was a woman, and a thing. Different from the D’Karon beasts. It was more… affectionate, I suppose. It certainly seemed more natural than the sort of things Demont dreamed up.”
“Was this woman D’Karon?”
“No… no, she was human, I’m certain of that… at least, she was human. There was something off about her scent. She’s… a mix of different scents. I think she’s a little like the beast. Made of bits and pieces of other things. Whatever she was, she knew all about the D’Karon’s works. I don’t know much about magic, but it felt like she was doing the same things they were. I think she might have worshiped them. She recognized me as one of Demont’s creations, and she seemed thrilled to have the chance to meet me because of that. It wasn’t until she found out Ether had destroyed the creatures in the first place that she finally woke them and sent them on their way.”
“And you are certain she isn’t one of the D’Karon?”
“Positive. Not just because she was human but because she was… kind. She called her beast Mott, treated it like a pet. The D’Karon always seemed cold and distant. Demont used to treat his creations like tools. This woman, Turiel was her name, she spoke with passion, and when I nearly lost my composure, she comforted me. But… but she said she brought them here. She is the one who summoned the D’Karon in the first place. And she said if we truly cast them away, then she would find a way to bring them back.”
“Then she must be stopped.”
“Yes… yes, I know,” Ivy said. There was a sadness, even an uncertainty, in her tone.
“You seem reluctant.”
“Mr. Celeste, I don’t know how to explain it, but… I really don’t think she understands what she did was wrong. She didn’t seem fully convinced there had been a war. When I told her we’d banished or defeated each of the generals, she said something about needing to learn things from them. She had a reason for bringing them here, but I really don’t think she understands how bad the D’Karon were.”
“Regardless, they can’t be allowed to return. She must be stopped.”
Ivy nodded. “But we’ll need help. She’s a wizard, and a powerful one. I couldn’t so much as lay a finger on her before she threw up some sort of web to protect her. We need Myranda and Deacon up here, or at least Ether. Someone with magic.”
“Myranda and Deacon are in Tressor. Even with the dragon I do not believe they could reach us quickly enough to be of aid. How would we summon Ether?”
“I don’t know… She should have answered the same call we did. Where is that pad? I’ll try again,” Ivy said.
She and Celeste paced back toward the carriage. Seated on the floor of the carriage with her feet dangling toward the ground was Ambassador Krettis. The woman was trembling. The cold and damp may have been to blame, but judging by her face, that was the least of the causes. She was shaken to her core, looking for the life of her as if she’d done battle with those monstrosities herself, despite having been relatively safe in the carriage through the worst of it. Marraata was outside, pouring the ambassador a brandy to steady her nerves. The bottle was nearly empty, suggesting this was hardly the first drink she’d had since they’d reached the shore.
“Ambassador? Are you all right?” Ivy asked.
“I… I do not know what to say to you, Ambassador Ivy…” Krettis said. “What happened here… I do not know what to think…”
“I’d warned you it would be dangerous, Ambassador.”
“If… if you were hoping to convince us that you were harmless, that you were no threat to us militarily, this was not the way. If you were hoping to illustrate that you were not in league with these D’Karon of yours… you make a strong display of their threat but… you could have been killed. I could have been killed.”
“Again, Ambassador Krettis, I warned you it would be dangerous,” Ivy repeated, irritation beginning to edge out sympathy in her voice.
“If I had been killed, war would have been certain. I cannot… I cannot imagine why someone would arrange something like this…”
Ivy clenched her teeth. “That’s because I didn’t arrange it, Ambassador. I didn’t even want you to come. But now that you have, now that you’ve seen this, I hope you can at least appreciate the truth of what we’ve been saying. The D’Karon and their creations are a threat to us all. They are the enemy. And as much anger as your land and mine might feel for one another, if there is even a chance that the D’Karon might return, then we must be united against them, because if not, they will turn us against one another again and smile from the shadows as we do their work for them.”
“I truly do not know what to believe,” Krettis said, shaking her head. She downed her brandy and handed the glass back to her aide to be refilled. “I will tell you this, however, Ambassador. There are two things for certain.” She took the now brimming glass. “The first is that your people are quite skilled at crafting a brandy.” She drained the glass again and handed it back. “The second is that I have no desire to ever see anything of those beasts again. Let us move, quickly.”
Ivy looked to the fort in the distance and the dregs
of the unleashed creatures that stood aimless before the ruined bridge.
“You take the ambassador somewhere safe, Mr. Celeste. Continue the tour, if you think you can. I’ll stay here.”
“I can’t allow you to remain here alone,” he said.
“Someone’s got to keep an eye on this place, and on that woman inside.”
He turned to the carriage.
“Ambassador Krettis, would you prefer the remainder of this diplomatic tour be postponed until the crisis at hand can be properly dealt with?” he asked.
“What I would prefer is to find a warm place to think, ideally one unmolested by abominations of ‘D’Karon’ design,” she said.
“Would you feel at all slighted or disrespected if the ambassador were to briefly set her role aside?”
“Having seen the nature of those creatures and the lengths you would go to eliminate them, I believe it best for all involved if you remain in proximity to this threat.”
“Very well. Driver, take Ambassador Krettis back to the delegation, see that she is made comfortable, and pending her further decision, either see to it that she is returned to the border or see that one of the lesser members of the delegation continue the tour. I shall remain here with Guardian Ivy.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Ivy said.
“I have agreed to act as your adviser. This is a matter as worthy of my advice as any, should you need it,” he said. He turned back to the carriage and its escort. All Alliance soldiers had been dispatched, so Celeste addressed the Tresson guards. “You art not mine to command, but if you are willing, two of you leave your horses and equipment for us and accompany the ambassador and her aide within the carriage as her personal guard.”
“Do it,” Krettis ordered her men.
“Many thanks. Driver, move out. Send three freshly rested men on horseback to this location as soon as they are available and Ambassador Krettis is safely in town.”
All did as ordered, and Ivy transferred her things to the back of a loaned horse. In minutes, Ivy and Celeste were alone, eyes set on the fort. Ivy pulled up the hood of her overcloak, folding down her ears to pull it tight against the wind. She looked at Celeste.
“I’m surprised you didn’t have some of the men stay behind,” she said.
“Again, the remaining men were not mine to command, and I very much doubt a handful of soldiers will make for much more than fodder should that woman or her army reach the shore,” he said.
“Aren’t you worried what might happen to you?”
“You are a Guardian of the Realm. My daughter trusts you with her life, and our land trusts you with its defense. My concern is not what will become of me, but what value I can be to you in the meantime,” he said.
Ivy smiled. “Myranda is lucky to have a father like you.”
“Myranda hardly had me as a father at all. I left her to face an unforgiving world alone because I believed it was the best thing I could do for her.”
“You did the right thing,” Ivy said. “I think deep down you knew she’d be strong enough to find her own way.” She reached out and gripped his hand. “But thank you for staying with me through this. I’m not as strong as Myranda sometimes.”
“You’re stronger than you think.”
She looked back to the fort.
“I hope you’re right. I really do.”
#
Amid the crackling, nourishing flames of the fireplace in her room, Ether was thoroughly lost in thought. The recent encounter with that woman, Celia, had a greater effect on her than she would have anticipated, and certainly greater than she could explain. Her capacity to continue in the face of losses that must, at least to her, have seemed similar to Ether’s own was a source of endless fascination. Naturally the reality of the situation was that Celia’s loss paled in comparison to Ether’s. The woman and those loved ones she had outlived were mortal, and therefore they’d lost no more than a handful of years together, whereas a timeless being such as she had lost eternity. Regardless, to the small and limited mind of the woman, a few years must have seemed like an eternity, and yet she pressed on in spite of it all. The woman had achieved peace and acceptance where Ether could find none. Mortals. A strength unique to mortals… it was absurd.
“Guardian Ether! Guardian Ether!” cried a voice amid urgent thumping.
The call of her name was iterated several times more before the shapeshifter reluctantly pulled herself from the flames and resumed her human form. She pulled open the door to find herself face to face with one of the younger and more skittish members of the diplomatic envoy, a page named Stefan.
“What is it?” she demanded.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” he said, though his tone and posture suggested a more accurate claim would have been that he was terrified to disturb her. “But one of—oh my!”
He averted his eyes.
“What is this nonsense?”
“You aren’t decent,” he said, stricken with shame and embarrassment.
Ether glanced down. Indeed she had resumed her human form without the pointless coverings they seemed so devoted to draping around themselves and stood before him completely bare. She quickly remedied the oversight. Her brief nudity was of little concern to her, but the fact she’d made such an error revealed a worrying degree of distraction.
“Deliver your message,” she ordered.
He reluctantly looked back in her direction, his face beet red.
“One of the bags was moving and making a noise. It had been doing it for quite a while, and we thought it must have been mouse! We aren’t allowed to open the bags of those in the delegation, but one of the other ambassadors…”
“Is there an end to this, boy?” she asked.
“This was making a noise, and when we found it, it opened and started writing!” he said, offering up Deacon’s pad.
Ether took it from him and wearily looked over the pages. Quite a few additional notes had been exchanged since Myranda’s initial warning. Now there was an account of Ivy’s encounter, and one from someone signing his correspondence “CL” that described a destructive event in the capital. The word “D’Karon” was scattered across the pages.
“This is not possible. If there had been D’Karon activity, I would have known,” Ether said.
“Ah!” Stefan covered his ears.
“What are you doing now?” she growled.
“I am not to hear such matters, Guardian!” he said.
“I shall set this to rest right now,” Ether said.
She focused her mind briefly on the task of sensing the unmistakable influence of the D’Karon and their magic. Within moments, her expression hardened. Though it was not the piercing, sour sensation she normally associated with their works, there was undeniably something similar. Scattered across the north and south, like drops of blood on a field of white snow, were the lingering traces of poorly cast D’Karon spells. Worse, she could feel them grow more refined with each casting. In time, these imitations would be as keen an affront to nature as the works of the D’Karon themselves.
There could be a disciple of the D’Karon, a wizard quickly learning their ways… and Ether had missed it. Worse, even alerted of the attack, she was having difficulty resolving where precisely the portals had come and gone.
“Why would they not have contacted me directly?” she seethed. “Why would Myranda and Deacon rely upon this ridiculous toy rather than seek me out with their own minds?”
“I’m sure someone else would be better suited to answer that question, Guardian. I’ll fetch someone directly!”
“Is there some problem?” asked a voice from the end of the hall.
Ether turned to find Ambassador Maka standing at his door. Stefan turned and offered a deferential bow.
“Ambassador Maka. My apologies for disturbing you,” he said, stricken with anxiety.
Maka raised his hands and lowered his head. “There is no cause for apology, my good man. I am an early riser of my own
choice. I have been awake for some time. Is this a matter with which I may be of assistance?”
“I have received some news through a means I was not expecting, and I was musing over the exceedingly poor judgment that could have convinced my fellow Chosen from contacting me properly,” Ether explained.
“Would this be Guardian Ivy, Guardian Myn, or Guardian Myranda, Ambassador Ether?”
“This matter would have been communicated by Myranda or her chosen mate.”
“A matter of magic, then?”
“Yes.”
“I believe they are in my homeland, and it is my understanding that our military would request they perform no far-reaching works of magic as a matter of courtesy and privacy.”
“Yes,” Ether said, impatience in her tone. “They would continue to obey so minor an agreement despite the consequences…” She turned to Maka. “Ambassador Maka, this matter is likely one beneath me, but it deals with a subject of such grave importance that its mere implication is enough to warrant my attention.”
“I understand, of course. There are claims that you can, at your pleasure, duplicate yourself. Will you be doing so, to continue in your present capacity while addressing the second matter?”
“I prefer not to split my attentions unnecessarily. Recent revelations have made depth of focus a matter of careful consideration, it seems.”
“Ah, a shame. I was intrigued by how such a thing might be achieved. No matter. Will the tour continue in your absence?”
“I am certain the others will make for more agreeable and conventional hosts.”
“Perhaps more conventional, Ambassador, but I have found your hospitality most agreeable. Will you be returning?”
“I have committed to the whole of this tour. I intend to honor that commitment as soon as this matter is dealt with.”
“Excellent. I have enjoyed our talks, and I look forward to continuing them.”
The D'Karon Apprentice Page 25