“After consulting with Magician Eldwin, and a search of the palace, we can confirm that Princess Aricia is no longer here,” he said, voice rough.
Terrwyn’s hands clenched into fists. If she’d been faster, if she’d just gone with her first instinct when she’d seen that bit of movement... She’d had one job, one responsibility above all others, and she’d failed.
“Magician Eldwin has so far been able to track their movements,” the king said, waving at the older man.
Eldwin stepped forward, blue eyes dull and grey stubble heavy on his cheeks. “Due to the unique magic used by the intruder, I was able to follow the trail to where a high-level transport spell was created. Following the signature, I found the terminus.” He stopped, his mouth working; he continued on in a voice that cracked. “They appear to be in the Lonely Tower in the heart of the Wild Lands.”
The chill his words caused was an almost physical presence in the room, every person there paling. The Wild Lands were bad enough, the lawless area at the heart of the continent that no ruler had ever managed to conquer in recorded history. Populated by criminals, monsters and dark magic, it was somewhere no one sane or with other options ever went.
But the Lonely Tower was worse. There were rumours about it, but no one knew the truth of them. It was said a huge treasure lay beneath the Tower which drew many fortune seekers but most of them were never seen again. The few who returned were almost always insane and badly injured.
Terrwyn swallowed hard, one hand dropping to the hilt of her sword which she clutched in a white-knuckled grip. She’d known when Aricia hadn’t turned up in their search that things weren’t going to be easy, but she hadn’t thought they’d be this hard. All around her whispers sprouted up as many of her fellow knights exchanged wide-eyed glances.
She glanced up as the king swept them all with his stare, stilling the murmurs. “We will be sending a group to rescue Aricia. As it will be dangerous, I will not send anyone who is not willing. Are there any among you who would go to save my daughter?”
Terrwyn took a quick sweep of the room, to see how many of her fellows would join her. What she saw had her gritting her teeth hard enough she felt as if they’d break. The other knights mostly looked away, gazes on each other, the ground, anywhere but the king. Some were frozen, eyes wide and their fear written plainly across their faces.
Cowards, she thought as she stepped forward, head held high, meeting the king’s look. “I’ll go. Aricia is my responsibility and I failed to protect her. My duty is clear. I will bring her back or die trying. And,” she said, turning to glare at her fellows, “I’ll go alone if I must.”
Several knights shuffled their feet, avoiding her scrutiny as well. The king only nodded. “Thank you, Sir Terrwyn. Is there anyone else willing to rescue Aricia?”
Terrwyn turned her back to the king, folding her arms over her chest and staring hard at the other knights, hoping to guilt some of the others into joining her. She would do what she had to, but welcomed any help. Especially going somewhere as dangerous as the Wild Lands.
Heartbeats passed then movement drew Terrwyn’s attention. “I’ll go to save the princess,” said the powerfully built man who stepped forward. Broad shouldered with a thick blond mustache and close-cropped hair, he looked like the kind of man who took his duty seriously and would fight well.
She was unfamiliar with the man, but he would be a strong ally, someone who would watch her back. He flicked his eyes to her then looked back at the king. That made her frown. She hoped he wasn’t a traditionalist or things might end up more difficult than they needed to be.
The king bowed his head. “Thank you, Sir Michme. Are there any other volunteers?”
“I—I’ll go,” came a cracking voice from the right. Terrwyn turned to watch the knight step forward. He appeared younger than her and like he hadn’t yet grown into his body, all sharp angles and elbows. His brown hair fell into his face which he shook his head to move. He put Terrwyn in mind of a nervy colt.
She hated to admit it, but he didn’t look like he’d be anywhere near as much help as Sir Michme. Still, he had to have honour and a certain amount of courage to volunteer. They would need all the assistance they could get.
“Thank you, Sir Jeriel.” King Stavros looked again at the other knights. “Will anyone else join them to save my daughter?”
There was a great deal more shifting of weight. No one said anything, but the looks on their faces spoke volumes. Terrwyn hoped they all choked on their guilt. They were knights, sworn to protect others, and here they were refusing to save the princess. As far as she was concerned, chivalry and honour were all but dead.
The king sighed heavily after several minutes passed. “I see. Thank you all for your attention. You may leave. I would like Sir Terrwyn, Sir Michme and Sir Jeriel to remain. We have much to discuss before you set out.”
Terrwyn bowed to the king and glared at the men filing out of the dining hall. The few who met her gaze looked away instantly, but she wanted them to know what she thought. And that if she died, she would come back and haunt every last one of them.
* * *
Terrwyn opened and closed her fists, teeth gritted as she left the dining hall. She’d hoped to get more out of Eldwin, that he’d be able to give them something to track the kidnapper, some kind of magic item that could fly them there, anything. All he’d been able to tell them was that whoever had taken Aricia had used magic he wasn’t familiar with. Even the transport spell had been a different version than he was used to, the mage had said. And his power was only good for defence and weather, which didn’t do them any good.
Which meant it was up to Terrwyn to figure out what to do. She took some cold comfort in the fact she wasn’t alone. She paused at the door and waited for Sir Michme and Sir Jeriel who were just behind her. “May I have a moment of your time?”
The two men stopped. Michme nodded and Jeriel did the same after a quick glance at the older man. Terrwyn inhaled deeply, shoving away the worry and thoughts about the odds they were up against. She was doing this, so it was best to focus on what she could do. “I want to leave at first light tomorrow.”
Unsaid was the fact that Terrwyn would much rather have ridden out immediately, but unprovisioned and unprepared, it wasn’t likely she’d make it far. She needed to be smart about this even if the larger part of her felt every second she waited was a second that brought Aricia closer to death.
“Of course,” Michme replied, his deep voice lending authority to his words. “The king says he’ll have us provisioned by this afternoon. We’ll all need sleep after last night, but we should be ready to ride out before dawn.”
Jeriel shifted his weight from one foot to the other while his eyes darted between the two of them. “Do you know what we’ll be facing in the Wild Lands? All I’ve heard are the stories...”
Terrwyn shrugged. “I’m not aware of any books on the matter, but I had planned to head to the palace library to see what I can find. You heard Eldwin though. All he knows is that there is dark magic there, but not what it does or why it’s there. I’m hoping I’m more of a scholar than he is.”
Michme gave her a brief appraising look before he spoke. “I’ll work with the servants on our provisions and our mounts. We should have an extra horse for supplies as well as whatever our own mounts can carry. I’ll leave you each to sort out your own weapons, armour, clothing and personal items.”
While Terrwyn nodded, Jeriel licked his lips. “I-I guess I’ll plan a route? I can go find a map and look into the fastest way to the W-Wild Lands.”
“Good idea. I would say we should discuss our strategy, but at this point all we know is the man uses a strange magic and can transport himself. He’s still a lone man against the three of us, though, so I’m hoping we shouldn’t have too much trouble if we can find him.” Michme crossed his arms over his
chest as he looked at the other two.
“I’m going to try to find some information about his magic during my research. If I can, that might help us form an idea of how best to deal with him. If not, we should have at least a week of riding to hash things out before we even reach the Wild Lands.” Terrwyn did her best not to let her emotions bleed out on the last few words. Every reminder of how far behind Aricia they were was like another shard of guilt adding sharp-edged ice to her stomach.
“Then we should meet up at dinner to discuss things in case we find out there’s anything else we need. I’ll leave you two to your work.” Michme gave them both a half bow before turning around and heading off.
Jeriel scurried off behind him a moment later without even a goodbye to her. Terrwyn grimaced and hoped it was nerves on his part. She exhaled slowly and did her best to settle her emotions down, knowing she was of no use to anyone if she got worked up. Once she felt calmer, she jogged off towards the palace library, ignoring the burning of her tired eyes. She had precious little time to prepare and anything she could find out about the Wild Lands and the man’s strange magic would be more than they knew now.
* * *
Surrounded by stacks of books that she’d read and abandoned and by the hush that always seemed to suffuse libraries, Terrwyn yawned hard enough she thought her jaw would crack. The scent of old paper, dust and leather wrapped around her. She shifted in the hard wood seat and propped her elbows up on the table in front of her.
Rubbing an eye, Terrwyn focused back on the page in front of her. She tried her best to ignore the feeling of hopelessness that had settled around her shoulders when she’d reached her tenth book without success. She’d found nothing on the Wild Lands so far, just a few passing mentions, almost all of them about people never being seen again after entering or warnings about not going in. She had noticed that there were no mentions of the Wild Lands any earlier than five hundred years ago.
Then again, they didn’t have much recorded history from that time. Mostly legends. Even their own history books weren’t of much use, as she was finding. Her vision a bit blurry around the edges, Terrwyn stared at the words. She’d thought she might be able to find something about the Wild Lands if she looked back five hundred years, but she didn’t have much to go on. She was up to the reign of Queen Tienette, a priestess turned royal when she caught the king’s eye. There were legends that she’d been a powerful mage rather than priestess, but no one knew for sure. They didn’t have much that had survived from her time.
Of course, what most people knew about her was that she’d sealed an incredibly strong monster, one that had laid waste to their country back when it had still been an empire and had stretched far beyond their current borders. And the devastation caused by the monster, Slel, had been the reason they’d had to pull their borders back. But those were only legends and not much use to Terrwyn now.
Grimacing, Terrwyn closed the book and dumped it onto the pile of useless ones. Which was the only pile she had so far. She snagged another one and flipped through it quickly, skimming for any mention of Wild Lands or magic. The only thing that had even been close to being of use had been the book that had mentioned demon summoners and their powers. Aside from killing the summoner, which was incredibly difficult, other options the author had given to defeat a summoner sounded even more impossible.
Using a blessed weapon against them? Finding the demon’s true name to summon it yourself? Fasting along with prayer to a higher power to purify yourself and give yourself a kind of spiritual armour against the demon’s powers?
Terrwyn snorted. She was looking for a magician of some sort, not a demon summoner. Though everything she’d heard about mages said they relied on spells and the man who’d taken Aricia hadn’t appeared to have done a spell. He’d just appeared and disappeared in the darkness. Which she supposed could be a spell, but she had no idea how he’d activated it.
She dropped her head into her hands and massaged her temples. There had to be something she could find that could help, some words about strange magics and how to deal with them. Anything that mentioned how someone without magic could take on someone who had it would work.
Flipping her current book closed, Terrwyn shoved it away and grabbed another. The first few pages had her slowing as the word mage jumped out at her. The chapter was only a handful of pages long, but it had more information than every other book she’d been through so far. There were three basic types of magic-users, it said. Those who relied on spells, those who had innate power that relied on willpower and imagination, and the last were specialists, people with unique abilities that were often very specific. The first two types relied on personal energy from the user and so extended magic could exhaust them, and even lead to death. The third was more contingent on the power and could be effectively limitless or even more draining than the first two types.
Terrwyn kept reading but the rest of the chapter just detailed famous mages with the author’s guesses as to which type each belonged to and their most notable exploits. The next chapter was famous inventors and the one after that famous musicians. She yawned again and blinked, eyes straining against the fading light.
A glance at the window told her why. The sun was setting, and while Terrwyn would rather continue searching through the books in the hope of finding something useful, she had promised to meet with Michme and Jeriel. She hoped that both of them had fared better than she had. If they hadn’t... Things would be more interesting than she liked.
Chapter Five: On Edge
The sun barely clear of the horizon, its rays adding warmth on their right, they finally rode out of the capital. Terrwyn and Michme rode side by side in the lead while Jeriel trailed behind them with the pack horse, the young knight’s head swivelling this way and that. Terrwyn focused on the road ahead, itching to kick her mare into a canter but knowing better than to do it.
They were already two days behind, and Eldwin didn’t have the power to create a portal for them even if he’d known the spell, so they’d be days if not weeks behind Aricia. Terrwyn’s hands tightened around her reins. Aricia had to still be alive. The man had taken too much care to just kill her as soon as he escaped, and as much as her mind liked to flash images of the princess dead at her, she wouldn’t believe them. She couldn’t.
Terrwyn resettled herself in her saddle, eyeing the way the road stretched out. Only a few people heading towards the city were in front of them, most having already fallen well behind them as they continued past the farmers’ fields that lay to either side of their route.
They’d passed by a small village and the sun had risen to the midpoint of the morning when Jeriel finally broke the silence. “D-do you think we’ll run into much trouble in the Wild Lands?”
Michme and Terrwyn both turned to look at the young knight, then the older knight shrugged.
“I don’t know. I assume it won’t be easy. If it was, more people would have come back from there.” Terrwyn had to swallow as her mouth had gone dry. “Like I told you last night, I wasn’t able to find much. My search after dinner didn’t turn up anything else that was useful. Just a whole lot of warnings about staying out of there, and rumours of monsters and strange magic.”
Jeriel shifted in his saddle, his mount dancing slightly from the tightness of the reins. “But those are just rumours, right? Stories and stuff. They’re not real.”
“Given that I saw a man appear out of nowhere, take Aricia, and cloak himself and her in darkness, I’m not about to dismiss anything.” Terrwyn shook herself to rid herself of the what-ifs that made it so she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t escape the guilt that kept her stomach twisting, but she could keep herself from obsessing over things she couldn’t change. “Nothing I read mentioned that kind of magic, nor has anyone I asked about it heard anything. I think we need to take care when we see any kind of strangeness or odd movement in the dar
k.”
Michme nodded. “The kidnapper must be expecting pursuit, so we should keep an eye open for any attempts to stop or slow us down. Our enemy may know more magic than just the darkness he hid himself in. You said it last night, most magicians know more than one spell. We’ll need to be alert for any sign of spellcasting. I still think one of us distracting our target while the other two go in for the kill is our best option.”
Jeriel paled and glanced around. “Do you think traps against pursuit are likely?”
“No, it’s not likely here. Since his transport spell ended in the Wild Lands, we at least don’t need to worry about it until then. We have days of riding to think of further strategies, and once we can gather information on our enemy, it’ll be easier to figure out a way to beat him. I’m not wasting another day staying somewhere planning, not when Aricia’s in danger.” Terrwyn couldn’t help the faint tremor that ran through her hands on the last word.
Giving her an appraising look, Michme turned his attention back to Jeriel when Terrwyn looked at him. “Magicians are rare, and unless you are one or have studied them, you won’t know how they work. They’re secretive, even good ones like Eldwin. We’re lucky to have any information to work with.”
Terrwyn nodded sharply, wishing she’d researched magic-users before now. It had never occurred to her, not when they had Eldwin at court. The only other mages she’d come across had been the supposed fortune tellers and people selling charms and potions. She wasn’t even sure those people had magic, only that they claimed they did.
“We may be able to find out more once we’re closer to the Wild Lands. People nearby may know about the kind of magic used in the area, and may even know something about our quarry. If we ask everywhere we get a chance, we may learn something. You gave us a good start.”
Terrwyn looked up at the older knight. Michme gave her a friendly nod that she returned, turning his focus back to the road in front of them. Her shoulders relaxed slightly as she followed his example. Sir Michme wasn’t a traditionalist after all, which would make things easier on both of them.
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