by Morgan Rice
Only a faint rumbling of the ground disturbed Lucas from staring at it, a steady thud that shook the earth beneath him making him look up to Elanora.
“I think we might have made this just in time,” she said. “It’s coming.”
“What is?” Lucas asked.
“The tree.”
A shape came into view, monstrously tall and broad. It had arms, and legs, but Lucas could see at a glance that those arms were branches, and those legs were roots. Its skin was bark that seemed to be the deep red of mahogany, or maybe just blood. There were knot-like eyes staring down at them, and a mouth that was a hole in the trunk.
An inscribed length of paper hung from one of its upper branches, and Lucas knew that this was both the guardian of the way to the spirit stone, and the way itself. There was no way to get around it without abandoning what he’d come for.
He would have to fight.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sebastian rode forward, staying close to Cora and Emeline, and grateful that they finally seemed to be coming to the end of the moorland. They’d made good time, but he had no doubts that the Master of Crows would be searching for them. Wherever they went, it wouldn’t be safe from someone like him forever.
They saw a quartet of people ahead on the road, mounted on horses of their own. Sebastian was about to pull off and ride cross country, but two things stopped him. One was the fact that they would probably have already seen him, and trying to outride people on moorland like this was just asking for a broken leg for his horse. The other was the part where Emeline raised a hand in greeting.
“You know them?” Sebastian asked.
“They’re from Stonehome,” Emeline said. There was a faint bead of sweat on her brow from maintaining the concentration needed to disguise them from the Master of Crows. “They must have gotten out in the confusion.”
Sebastian was grateful for that. He didn’t know how many people had died when the New Army had come down on them, but he was glad that some, at least, had been able to get away.
He and the others rode closer, taking in the people there. The quartet were a mixed group of what looked like former soldiers and warriors of Stonehome. Sebastian was a little surprised to see them working together, but he guessed that survival beat everything else right then.
“Your Majesty, you survived!” one of the soldiers said.
“And the princess is alive as well,” one of the warriors said. Sebastian suspected that he shared Asha’s views on how important she was.
“Who are you?” Sebastian asked.
“I’m Valin,” the warrior said. He gestured to the other warrior. “This is de Lacy, and that’s Edmore and O’Llan.”
The last soldier offered Sebastian a salute.
“We’re heading to Monthys,” Sebastian said. “Would you like to travel with us?”
“Monthys?” Edmore said. “But Monthys has already fallen.”
Sebastian nodded. “We think that the New Army has moved on.”
“I saw Monthys in a vision,” Emeline said. “We will be safe there.”
“Safe? In a place that’s already ruined?” de Lacy demanded. “Didn’t Sophia’s cousins go up there to try to rebuild it?”
“There are defenses,” Cora said. “Emeline saw them too. If we can get them working-”
“If is a lot to stake our lives on,” O’Llan said. “We should go to the Duke of Axshire’s estate. Henry d’Angelica is gathering people together.”
“People with no magic,” Valin said. “They’re no friend to the likes of me. If we all go there, half of us would be killed out of hand.”
“It’s the only safe place,” O’Llan said.
Sebastian got the feeling that they’d been debating this for a while. He shook his head.
“It’s not a place I can go. It’s not a place that I can take my daughter, or my friends, and I doubt that my former wife’s cousin is any friend to me. I’m going to Monthys. If you wish to come with us, we’d be happy to welcome you.”
O’Llan shook his head. “It’s not safe. I’m sorry, but… I’ve given enough.”
“I understand,” Sebastian said. “What about the rest of you?”
“I’m not going to the Duke of Axshire’s estate,” de Lacy said, “but Monthys isn’t safe. Right now, the only safe place is as far away from you as possible. If you hadn’t come to Stonehome, it might still be standing.”
“de Lacy,” Edmore began, “the princess-”
“I don’t care about some prophecy,” the other man insisted. “I care about staying alive!”
Sebastian held up his hand to stop the argument. “I don’t want to force anyone to go with me if they don’t want to,” he said. “We’re going to ride on now, because I don’t know how far behind the New Army will be, and if you want to ride with us, we would welcome the company and the protection. If you don’t, that’s fine, but if you see others looking for somewhere to go, tell them where to find us.”
He looked over to Emeline and Cora, nodding for them to keep going. The three of them heeled their horses forward, and Sebastian saw both Edmore and Valin ride forward with them. The others turned their horses, setting off across the moor in different directions.
“I’d hoped that they would all come,” Cora said.
“It’s better that we have ones who actually want to be here with us,” Sebastian replied.
They rode on, and the moorland started to give way to farms, and then to forest as they turned north. The trees rose high on either side of them, lifting to a level where they seemed to shut out the sun. Sebastian saw hints of movement among the trees, perhaps from deer, or perhaps from people displaced by the fighting. After so many invasions, the kingdom was a shadow of itself now, and any journey would be dangerous.
“We’ll need to find somewhere to stop,” Cora said. “We grabbed what we could as we left, but Violet will need milk, and I wouldn’t want to sleep with a child out on the open ground.”
Sebastian didn’t like that idea either, and there was no way that they would be able to make it to Monthys in one day’s ride. They couldn’t stop yet though. They needed to put enough distance between them and the New Army that they wouldn’t be found just by pure, random chance.
“We need to keep going, for a while, at least,” Sebastian said. “We’ll try to find a place to stop when we can.”
“All right,” Cora said, still holding Violet close.
They continued to ride, and Sebastian continued to see flickers of movement in the trees. They seemed to keep pace with the horses, and then he heard the howl from the side of the road.
“Wolves!” he called out.
“I thought wolves didn’t attack groups of people?” Cora called back.
“Maybe not in peace,” Sebastian said, “but with armies marching through to take all the food? With bodies on the ground to teach them the taste?”
He urged his horse forward, and it barely needed any encouragement. Apparently, the scent of the wolves was all it needed to spur it into a run. All of them rode together, sticking tight in a group. Sebastian drew his sword, hoping that he wouldn’t need it, but knowing that the wolves wouldn’t give up easily.
He saw one dart in towards Cora and Emeline’s horse, and he moved to meet it, slashing down with his blade and hearing it whimper as it didn’t quite dart away in time. Another came at the other side, and this time it was Cora who struck out, holding Violet in one arm and her sword in the other, while Emeline held her in place.
Edmore and Vallin moved to try to intercept the next wolves as they came, but the creatures didn’t stop. They darted in and back, harrying the horses, snapping at their legs. One gouged lines of blood down the hindquarters of Vallin’s horse, while another nipped at Sebastian’s boot, sending pain through him before he could hack down with his sword.
“They’re trying to tire us!” Sebastian said. “Vallin, Emeline, can you do anything to drive them off?”
“Not without droppi
ng the protections I’ve put in place!” Emeline called back.
“My magic can call sounds,” Vallin said. He flung a shout at one of the wolves, loud enough that it reared back. “Beyond that, there’s not much I can do. We need to keep riding.”
Sebastian wasn’t sure about that, though. “If we keep riding, they’ll just run us until we collapse. We need to fight. There, a clearing.”
He led the way, and they circled their four horses in the middle of a clearing where fallen trees stood. Sebastian and the others leapt down from them, moving to stand on the fallen trunks, weapons ready.
The wolves came from the trees, lunging at them in a pack.
Sebastian leapt to meet them, cutting two handed with his sword, hacking at the wolves to either side. He saw Emeline holding onto Violet while Cora struck out, wounding another wolf. Vallin and Edmore had pistols, and they fired them at the first wolves to come.
They must have been hungry though, because they kept coming. One snapped at Sebastian’s arm, and he pulled back from it, then cut down to take its head off. Another was there to take its place, bigger than the rest, and before Sebastian could strike again, it was on him, knocking him from his feet, its mouth opening wide while Sebastian shoved his forearm into its neck, trying to hold it at bay.
Cora was there then, stabbing it from the side, and Sebastian managed to sit up, shoving it off him. The creature rounded on him again, and Sebastian hacked it down.
“Thanks,” Sebastian shouted to her, and looked around for more wolves, but by then, the pack was running back into the trees. It seemed that, even starving, they didn’t want to lose too many of their number. Or maybe enough had died now to feed them. Given some of the things his fellow humans were managing to do to one another, he couldn’t complain about that.
“We should get out of here,” he said, moving back to his horse. “Is Violet all right?”
“She’s fine,” Cora said, picking her up from the spot where she’d put her. “Not even crying. She’s such a good little girl.”
They started riding again, heading north. Their horses weren’t moving as quickly now, Vallin’s limping on the leg where it had been bitten. Sebastian had hoped that they might be able to ride for another few hours before they stopped, but he knew that if they tried that, the horses wouldn’t live through it. Then they would be left walking through the kingdom, stumbling about in the dark at the mercy of whoever came.
They came out of the forest, with plains and small patches of wood ahead, the road cutting through them, down across a series of streams. Ahead, miles distant, Sebastian thought that he could see an inn, but that wasn’t the relief that he’d thought it might be. It certainly didn’t look like the sort of place that he might stop given the choice. Even from a distance, the walls stones around it looked dirty, the walls dilapidated wood that seemed half-rotten. Worse, in the forest like this, the kind of people who would be inn were as likely to be thieves or murderers as simple foresters.
“We have to stop,” Sebastian said.
“This doesn’t look like a good place,” Cora said.
“It won’t be,” Emeline assured her. “But it’s better than being out in the open.”
That was the problem. As bad as the inn looked, as bad as the people in it might be, it was still better than a land full of wolves that they had no chance of riding out of before dark. Sebastian might have been willing to risk it if it had been just him, or him and the others. With Violet there, though, they had to go inside.
Sebastian just hoped that it wouldn’t be even more dangerous than the forest as he started the long ride down towards the place.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sophia pushed the boat as hard as its sails could take, then harder. She forced it forward until the coast of her kingdom came into sight, and then continued until a small fishing port appeared. She stood there with Sienne by her side, holding the fire stone in her hand, letting the power flow through it to push the warm winds of the desert into the sails.
“My queen,” High Merchant N’ka said, “perhaps you could let us guide the vessel into port? With this much wind, I fear we may beach ourselves.”
Sophia had to fight to bring the power back under control, forcing it down into herself and putting the stone she held away. It was hard to control the impulses from the stone, and using it felt exhausting, as though the power that flowed through her when using it threatened to scour her empty from the inside.
“It’s all yours,” she told him.
She waited while, around her, sailors worked hard to bring the ship to land. The others with her started to collect their things, although in truth, those with her hadn’t brought that much along with them on their journey. Aia and the others of the twelve had their armor and their weapons, but only small packs of belongings to go with them. Lani appeared to have little more than the clothes that she stood up in. Sienne stood by her, pressing up against her hand.
The ship pushed up against the docks of the fishing village, and High Merchant N’ka’s men moved to tie it in place.
“High Merchant, come with us,” Sophia said.
“Your majesty?”
“Would you rather stay with the ship? A man like you, who can negotiate and trade, might be very useful. Or you could return to Morgassa.”
That was probably a little cruel. They both knew that he wouldn’t be able to go back until he knew for sure how the events following King Akar’s death had turned out.
“Look at it this way,” Sophia said. “If you come with us, you’ll be in the perfect position to make trades that no one ever could.”
She heard High Merchant N’ka sigh. “Very well. I will join you, although I doubt that I brought enough bearers for all my things as well as your palanquin.”
“We’ll walk,” Sophia assured him, which seemed to leave the merchant in shock. Apparently, he wasn’t entirely used to such strange ideas as rulers who walked.
Their group headed down into the fishing village, and people stared at them as they passed. Sophia imagined that the stares had a lot to do with the presence of so many golden armored warriors, but she suspected that at least a few of the people there had guessed who she was, too.
Almost as soon as she set foot on the soil of her kingdom, Sophia felt the power there. She felt it the way she might feel a familiar touch, knowing that this place was a part of her, and was hers, all at once. She settled down into that feeling, and in a moment, she could feel every hill and blade of grass in the kingdom. She could feel the burnt and damaged ground of Ashton, could feel the soil of Stonehome, soaked deep with blood.
She could feel the presence of the Master of Crows’ army, like a stain upon her land.
“We have to hurry,” she said.
She turned to leave, but a young girl ran up to her. “You’re the queen aren’t you? You’re Queen Sophia?”
“That’s right,” Sophia agreed.
“My daddy told me that you can fight anyone, and you beat the Dowager single handed,” the girl said.
“My sister is a lot better than I am at fighting,” Sophia said with a smile.
The girl’s expression didn’t match it. “Oh.”
“What is it?” Sophia asked. “Why were you hoping that I could fight that well?”
As gently as a feather, she reached into the girl’s thoughts and found a barrier there.
“You’re from Stonehome, aren’t you?” Sophia said.
The girl nodded, and then let Sophia into her mind.
She saw Stonehome. She saw soldiers there, who swept through it even while the girl’s parents told her to run. Searching for something and someone. A baby, the girl knew. A princess. Sophia felt her heart tighten at that thought. She saw the girl’s father being cut down, her mother running in a different direction, trying to draw them off. Villagers ran in the girl’s memories, and Sophia was grateful that the girl was too young to really understand all of the things she saw.
She saw Sebastian and
Violet engulfed in mist, while at the same time dozens of soldiers closed in.
“No,” Sophia said, feeling her breath catch.
“I don’t know where everyone went,” the girl said. “We had to walk, and walk, and then they told me to run again. There were men coming; I could see them.”
Sophia held back tears with an effort. She knew what it was like to be forced to run when she was just a girl. She knew what it meant when adults told you to run on alone because there were men coming.
She reached out, using her connection to her kingdom to feel for what was happening. She could see a battle building now, to the north, where there were people who seemed to have powers, and others who were clearly Ishjemme soldiers, and some who were just ordinary looking people. There were perhaps a hundred of them, with their backs to a low turf wall so that they couldn’t be surrounded easily.
Against them there were arrayed more members of the New Army than she could count at first glance. Even so, she didn’t hesitate.
“We’re going north,” she declared. “And we need to hurry. Lani, will you help to look after Revi here?”
“Whatever you command,” the translator said.
Sophia shook her head. “No, Lani. Whatever you wish.”
Lani paused for a moment, as if taking that in, then nodded. “Yes, I will see that she is safe. But do not ask us to stay behind. We go where you go.”
Sophia wasn’t sure if any of them would be truly safe anywhere, but even so, if there had been more time, she would have argued against them coming to a battle. Right now though, there was no time, so Sophia simply waved the twelve warriors forward.
“We have to hurry,” she said. “There are people who need our help.”
“Yes, my queen,” Aia said, and the others fell into step with her as they started forward.
One of the villagers brought Sophia a horse, but the others walked and ran, hurrying at her side as they headed north. They moved quickly, using the roads even though it meant that they were in the open, and soon, Sophia could hear the sounds of battle from nearby. She heeled her horse forward, Sienne running at her side, and the twelve golden armored figures ran with her.