Blackstone (Book 2)

by Honor Raconteur

  Rune was no longer nervous taking people by path, and they came to the very outer limit of Channel Pass without even a hiccup. Siobhan hopped down off of the cart’s edge and walked around toward the very front. “Alright, everyone, we don’t have a lot of daylight left. I vote we—” her words died as she got her first look at the city.

  Channel Pass…was no more.

  What had been a live, bustling city was now nothing more than a hollow shell. It was devoid of people, animals, sounds, smells, everything—as if the very life had been sucked out of it. Siobhan stumbled to a stop, feeling like some had just punched her hard in the gut. In sheer instinct, she turned her head and called, “WOLF!”

  He sprinted to her, arriving at her side in seconds, and took in the same sight she did. “W-what?!” he spluttered, eyes bulging in their sockets. “We’ve only been gone two weeks! What happened?”

  Ryu Jin Ho came to stand at her other side, eyes grave. “I take it this place does not look right.”

  “This should be a thriving city full of people coming and going,” Siobhan explained hollowly. A part of her mind refused to accept what was in front of her, but her heart twisted in pain, so she knew it had to be real instead of some terrible nightmare. “I’ve never seen a place look like this before.”

  “You came through here two weeks ago?” he asked, confirming before continuing, “Then the signs are clear. We are too late. The war that you feared would come has already started.” Ryu Jin Ho turned and said gravely, “Hyun Woo-zhi, the plans we made are now mostly useless. We must urgently prepare these people for battle.”

  “Yes, I fear you are right.” Hyun Woo let out a long sigh, sounding tired and resigned. “I came to prevent such tragedy but now I must lend you my knowledge to combat it. But that is something we will speak of a little later, I think. Siobhan-jia, what should we do now?”

  Her first instinct was to say I don’t know and to sit there on the ground and mourn. Channel Pass hadn’t been the most welcoming city to her guild, but it was still a place that housed nearly six thousand people. Her sense of humanity screamed at the loss.

  Wolf’s hand came to settle on her shoulder. That feeling of solid warmth grounded her, and she put her hand up to cover his, keeping it there a little longer. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, making herself forget about the terrible scene in front of her. She had to think. The entire safety of this party depended on her ability to rationally think.

  “Grae.”

  Her Pathmaker came around to face her, boots sliding a little on the slick grass. “Yes?”

  “How much daylight do we have left?”

  “About an hour, hour and a half at most. Not enough to get across the bridge with.”

  No, that would take about five hours. “I don’t feel that it’s safe to sit here, so close to this destruction. Too much traffic can get across that bridge even in the dead of night.” This bridge was not like the other bridges, where you had to time your crossing depending on what the tide was doing. It stood on higher ground so it could be crossed at any time. “I think we should take the path back the way we came and camp there instead. If we cross the bridge now, and it’s a dangerous situation on the other side, we won’t have enough daylight to retreat back to here. I’d rather face any potential danger with a full day of daylight at hand. So my real question is, can we leave at daybreak, cross this bridge, and take the other paths to Goldschmidt? Can we make the journey all in one day?”

  Grae pondered this, muttering calculations under his breath at high speed. Slowly, his head nodded. “It’ll be close, but I think we can. We can’t make any stops, at least, nothing more than five minute rest breaks. The soil is rich enough here that I can make do with less sunlight. I’ll need more water from the channel though.”

  “Get it.” To Wolf, she ordered, “Guard him while he goes.”

  Wolf squeezed her shoulder once, a comforting gesture, before detaching himself from her and following Grae to the shoreline.

  Her insides quivered from fear and shock, but she forced her chin up before turning to face the three Saoleord ambassadors. “If Channel Pass has fallen, then anything on the other side of the bridge might well be in the same state. There is no law between cities so if we don’t find refuge in a city, we’ll be at the mercy of whatever is out on the road. I cannot put any of you in that kind of jeopardy. We’ll retreat for the night and try to make Goldschmidt in one shot tomorrow. It won’t be an easy journey, but it’s the only chance we have of arriving safely.”

  “We understand,” Cha Ji An assured her quietly, expression subdued. “We will be safer at the other end of the path? No one will try to use it to advance northward?”

  “The odds of that are extremely slim. For one, Pathmakers themselves are very rare. I know it doesn’t seem that way because I have two in my guild, but trust me, I’ve had a real fight on my hands keeping both of them. Most guilds were jealous when I had just one. The other thing is, it’s hard to move a large body of people by path.”

  “Yes, Grae-zhi explained this to us,” Hyun Woo stated thoughtfully, eyes narrowed as he calculated. “An army would be near impossible to bring through all at once, he said.”

  “Correct. Even caravans have to be brought in one leg at a time, once they exceed a certain size. If anything has a chance of finding us tonight, it’ll be a smaller party.”

  “A scouting party, I would think,” Hyun Woo agreed. His expression said that he approved of her conclusions. “Still, it’ll be wise to double the watch tonight.”

  “Oh, I plan to,” she assured him grimly. “Tran!”

  Tran’s voice boomed from somewhere out of her line of sight, “Already on it!”

  Good man. “Everyone, let’s get these carts turned around. I want out of here as quickly as possible.”

  ӜӜӜ

  The camp that night was an uneasy one to say the least. The fire was kept small, just enough to cook with, and no one wanted to unpack the carts enough to drag out the tents. Weapons were kept close at hand, people kept their boots on, and little huddles formed where people spoke in uneasy whispers. The dogs went from one group to another, putting noses into their ribs and whining anxiously. They understood their humans were distressed, but not why, and so they paced about looking for danger.

  Siobhan sat in a circle with Hyun Woo, Wolf, Ryu Jin Ho, and Tran, their expressions grim. What food she’d forced down during dinner was threatening to heave itself up again at just the idea of where this conversation would go, but she couldn’t afford to stop up her ears and refuse to think of anything either. With a deep breath to settle her nerves, she asked, “How large of a force would it take to destroy a city of that size?”

  Hyun Woo and Ryu Jin Ho shared a look. “Wolfinsky-gui and Tran-gui told me that a guild was responsible for the protection of a city,” Hyun Woo started. “How large of a force would protect Channel Pass?”

  “Probably no more than three hundred,” Tran supplied. “I think in Channel Pass it was a little more than that, because of the heavy traffic they saw, but it’s somewhere around there.”

  Ryu Jin Ho glanced at his superior again; his face as unreadable as a statue, but eyes betraying worry. “The best way to start a war is to have an army at least twice the size of your opponent.”

  “If you are going to march and lay siege to multiple places, then you want even more than that,” Hyun Woo continued the train of thought with a confirming nod to Ryu Jin Ho. “Because you will have casualties, and will lose men to the battle itself, you must prepare to have enough men to carry you throughout the campaign.”

  “So, more than fifteen thousand?” Wolf asked softly.

  “If they are wise,” Hyun Woo responded, mouth moving in a caricature of a smile. “But these people are not trained in the ways of war, as you are not. It could be a rabble, a mob if you will, that are moving together. Your cities, as well, are not prepared for a force of this size. With surprise on their side, and speed, they can do far
more damage than normally possible.”

  “Surprise. Speed.” Siobhan repeated the words almost mindlessly as her head calculated things, turning over options and weighing out possibilities. “Right now, we have no idea when this attack happened. It could have been last week or two days ago—we also don’t know how far ahead the attacking force has traveled.”

  “It is dangerous to move ahead without information.” Hyun Woo frowned, turning his head slightly to look southward. “I, for one, do not relish the idea of stumbling into that mob.”

  Nor did she. “If we’re quick enough, we might be able to divert a disaster. Ryu Jin Ho-zhi, are you a gambling man?”

  His eyebrows arched in surprise. “I can be. Why?”

  “Are you a fast runner?” she persisted.

  “I can keep up with Man Fei Lei,” he answered slowly, a spark in his eye that suggested he saw where she was heading with these questions. “Does that suffice as an answer?”

  It did indeed. Fei could almost keep up with Tran, if it was a short sprint. Of course, no one could keep up with the Teheranian over distance, but she wasn’t about to ask the impossible. “Then here’s my thought. We need to send warning and expert help ahead of us, and we need to do it in two different directions. If we put together a group of three people, they can travel much faster, and hopefully get ahead of the army to warn the next city. I’ve got two Pathmakers—it’s time to put that to use.”

  Hyun Woo nodded. “Yes, I agree, a warning party must be sent. But you said two different directions?”

  “Goldschmidt, obviously,” she confirmed for him. “As they are on a direct path from here. But the richest city in Robarge is Winziane. You said this is a rabble earlier. I think you’re right. I think they’ve come to loot Robarge. If that’s true, then the best prize for them would be Winziane. I can’t imagine them leaving that city alone.”

  “Wait,” Hyun Woo raised a hand, halting her from saying anything further. “You say they have come to loot Robarge. But this city, Channel Pass, is it not on Orin’s soil?”

  “Technically, that is true,” she allowed. “But Channel Pass is almost a Robargean city in many respects. It saw more trade than any other place in Orin because of where it sat. It would be a rich prize to a pillager.”

  “And so, it too fell victim?” Ryu Jin Ho looked disturbed by this. “It is a ruthless enemy we face, one without conscience.”

  “Which makes this situation that more worrisome. I can see why you think they’d go for Winziane, as it’s not much further south from Goldschmidt either,” Wolf said slowly, eyebrows beetled together as he thought. “But I’m not sure they’d go directly for it, Siobhan.”

  She cocked her head at him, surprised. “Really? Then where?”

  “Converse.” He looked at Hyun Woo as he said this. “Because if they can claim Converse, they control trade for Robarge.”

  “Strategically speaking, this is sound,” Hyun Woo agreed with a proud nod toward his pupil. “It also limits where people can retreat to or get aid from. Controlling the Grey Bridges would be my first priority, if I were in charge of this campaign.”

  Ryu Jin Ho rubbed his hands together in slow circles, deep in thought. “And yet, the men that are in charge of this rabble army are not trained as you and I, Hyun Woo-zhi. Siobhan-jia has a valid point. They might very well strike further south if looting is their goal.”

  “If nothing else, we can get help from there,” Siobhan added persuasively. “The guildmaster there is one of the main three that formed the trade agreement. He wields significant power in the world. I think he needs to know what’s going on.”

  Hyun Woo gave an acknowledging grunt. “Then you are right, we must send messengers to him.”

  “It’s also safer to go that direction for us once we cross the bridge.” Siobhan dredged up her mouth in a manner that might charitably be called a smile. “Staying near the border of Robarge is too risky right now. I want to take people to a place I know is protected until my scouting party comes back and reports that Goldschmidt is safe to return to.”

  She received no arguments from the group.

  Hyun Woo turned and said, “Ryu Jin Ho, you are faster on your feet than I, so I think you should go ahead with the Pathmaker. But just those two will be dangerous, I think.”

  “I’m not sending just those two,” Siobhan negated. “I need to send the Pathmaker that is an expert at hand-to-hand combat, so Rune needs to go. But Rune’s too new to Robarge, he won’t know who to talk to in each city, so someone else should go with him. Tran, Wolf, who wants to go? Who wants to stay?”

  Her two enforcers eyed each other. Siobhan knew very well that Wolf would not want to leave her side during such a dangerous time, but Tran was just as protective of the guild, and wouldn’t be easily persuaded to separate from them.

  With a devious smile, Tran said, “I had to go ahead last time as a scout. It’s your turn.”

  Wolf scowled at him.

  Siobhan rolled her eyes. Seriously? They were keeping score on things like that? “Fine. Ryu Jin Ho-zhi, Wolf, and Rune will go.”

  With a slight clearing of the throat, Tran offered, “I think Markl should go with them.”

  Her two Saoleords looked confused by this, but Siobhan saw sense in the suggestion as soon as he made it. “Of course. Thanks, Tran, I’m not thinking clearly.” Raising up to her knees, she called across the fire, “Markl!”

  Hyun Woo leaned in closer to Wolf and whispered, “Why Markl-gui?”

  “Markl is the son of a very large guild in Robarge,” Wolf answered in the same confidential tone. “He carries great influence with the major guilds. He’s also very good at speaking. He can charm his way into places that we sometimes are barred from.”

  And both of those reasons were why she should have thought of sending him earlier.

  Markl rose from where he sat next to Sylvie and came around the fire, kneeling next to her. “Yes?”

  “We have a plan to send ahead messengers to the next city before they can get attacked,” Siobhan quickly explained. “I also need to send at least two people ahead that can help them prepare. Rune, Wolf and Ryu Jin Ho-zhi are going. We think you should go as well.”

  Markl studied her expression for a long moment, clearly having heard her and agreeing with her point, but torn anyway. Then he gave a long glance over his shoulder to where Sylvie was sitting, and Siobhan abruptly understood why he hesitated.

  Tran knew it as well, as he reached around Siobhan’s shoulders to lay a comforting hand on the man’s shoulder. “She’ll not see harm while I breathe, man. You know that.”

  “I know,” Markl assured him, heaving out a resigned sigh. He forced a smile onto his face that looked beyond strained. “I know, Tran. I’m trusting you with her. Alright, Siobhan, I think you’re right. I think I need to go. When do we leave?”

  “First light.”

  Wolf hated very few things in the world, but being away from Siobhan while danger loomed made the top of the list. The knowledge that he would be scouting the path ahead of her, at least part of the way, was only partially comforting.

  While they waited for the sun to gain strength that morning, he met with every fighter and made sure that they were clear on what to do if danger did find them. Every enforcer had specific people to defend if it came to that. Wolf just prayed that they wouldn’t run into trouble getting across the bridge. That was the most dangerous part for today’s journey. Once on the path, nothing could strike at them or follow them. But there were no such guarantees on the bridge.

  Their two Pathmakers stood shoulder to shoulder, eyes trained on the morning sun as it climbed over the horizon. He could tell when they abruptly turned, heading toward different carts, that it was time to leave.

  It wouldn’t be any faster separating for this first leg, so they went by path back toward Channel Pass, only this time they were more prepared to see the desolate city. Wolf eyed it sideways as he climbed off the cart. The place looked even mo
re eerie this morning than it had yesterday. The morning fog, still lingering in the air, probably had something to do with that. The place felt moist and cool, the lighting dim, giving the city a haunted air about it. If a ghost had popped out from behind a wall and said “boo!” he wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow.

  Turning, he offered Siobhan a hand down, which she took with one of those fleeting smiles of hers. He’d been seeing a lot of those the past two days. For a woman that usually smiled brightly no matter the circumstance, it hurt seeing her expression strained and grim.

  He stole a moment and hugged her tight to him, bending his head enough to put his mouth near her ear. “Mind yourself.”

  She hugged him around the waist just as tightly, nodding against his chest. “I will. You be careful too. I’m more worried about your group than mine.”

  Wolf snorted. “I pity the fools that cross us.”

  Siobhan relaxed enough to giggle softly. “It’s true, you’re a dangerous lot. Even Markl, with the mood he’s in.”

  Their resident scholar’s temperament had grown increasingly black over the course of the night as the realization set in just how dangerous things had gotten, and how far from Sylvie’s side he’d have to be. Normally he was mild mannered even in the worst circumstances, but Wolf judged that by this point, Markl would just as soon punch someone than look at them.

  Taking a step back from him, she looked up, snaring his eyes. “Erik Wolfinsky.”

  His attention abruptly sharpened. “What.”

  “Do not fall. No matter what happens on the road, do not fall.”

  His throat tightened as tears threatened. He cleared it and managed a gruff, “Aye.”

  She grabbed him once more, the embrace hard and fierce, then pulled away. “Good. Go.”

  His heart rebelled on obeying that command. The only thing that gave him the strength to turn around was that he trusted her judgement, and he trusted Tran and Fei to keep the rest of the guild safe. If not for that bone-deep surety in them, he would not have been able to force his feet to move. But he did, turning resolutely toward the road.