by Andrew Rowe
The line of questioning had produced some interesting results among the obvious deflections – Rialla most likely had sorcery skills he hadn’t seen yet, and water was one of the dominions she practiced. He had seen her utilize the Dominion of Ice once, but skill with one did not necessarily imply the other. More interestingly, he recalled rumors that Rialla’s eye colors had changed between her arrival in Orlyn and her departure – indicating that perhaps her dominion bond had been altered somehow.
Her answers were fluid, nearly automatic, indicating either a layer of truth or a degree of practice at telling them. Determining which was the case could provide more amusement than any number of alchemical experiments.
He probably could have asked her some of these questions directly, but that would have spoiled the fun.
Rialla uncapped one of the bottles and closed her eyes to concentrate. Nakane, looking bored, seated herself nearby and folded her arms.
“Shouldn’t one of you be watching my mother? Even if she’s sleeping, someone should be nearby. In fact, she’s probably most vulnerable while she’s asleep.”
Jonan shrugged. “We keep a guard rotation on the room. Given the hour, it’s probably Dominic at the moment.”
Nakane shifted in her chair. “Yes, we’ve all seen how helpful the house guards are at stopping assassins.”
Jonan finished mixing his latest concoction, setting the flask down on the table while he poured a vial of poison into the nearby bowl. “In fairness, m’lady, it doesn’t take a sorcerer to see an intruder and raise the alarm. The assassin’s methodology could indicate a desire to avoid a direct confrontation. Either that, or the method of the killing was a signature, or in some way symbolic. In any of those cases, I suspect the mere presence of a guard would be a significant deterrent.”
“Assuming the same assassin strikes twice. Given that we’re obviously prepared now, it would seem more advantageous for whoever hired the assassin to send someone different for any subsequent attacks.”
Jonan nodded, barely paying attention to the conversation. He poured a bit of the liquid from the flask into the bowl, watching it mix with the poison within. The resulting mixture was an inert red-orange fluid. “Hrm. This might have some potential.”
He stoppered the flask and covered the bowl with a lid. “I’ll check what state the mixture settles into in the morning.”
“Good. If you’re done here, you can go watch for intruders.”
Jonan sighed, moving to the sink and pouring a flask of water over his hands to rinse them again. He didn’t think he had spilled anything this time, but it was always better to be safe. “I suppose so. As long as you keep Vorianna with you.”
“I assure you I am quite capable of defending myself, but if you insist, I will humor your request.”
Jonan dried his hands on another towel, glancing at Rialla. She was still focusing on the vial, wearing a grimace. “Good night to you both then.”
The sight sorcerer slumped his shoulders, shambling out of the chamber. Once he was out of sight, he straightened his back, shaking his head.
Finally, free from observation. It’s time to get to work.
***
With most of the household sleeping, Jonan was free to wander the grounds outside without disruption. At least four guards would still be awake within the manor, in addition to Rialla, so he felt comfortable that the people within were relatively well defended.
The outside of the manor, however, was unguarded – and made them potentially vulnerable. In his time spent protecting the Theas family, Jonan had formulated a dozen plans for how attackers could bypass the guards and assassinate the victims within – and thus far his countermeasures only provided protection from a handful of those plans.
Tonight, he was setting up one more of his contingencies. Not a defense, exactly, but a foundation for a counter assault.
Invisible to the eye, Jonan walked a meandering path around the house. Near each entrance, he opened one of his pouches and poured a few ounces of glittering dust onto the road. A few flecks of his powder from the last time he had gone through this process were still visible, but he repeated the procedure every few days to ensure a useful amount of the dust remained in each location.
The powdered glass was taken directly from one of his mirrors, and thus already imbued with the Dominion of Sight. While the fragments were too small for him to use as viewing devices like the mirrors themselves, the dominion auras were still connected to the original mirror – and that connection could be tracked.
Anyone walking into the house through one of these entrances would come in contact with the dust, most likely picking up a few pieces on their boots. Jonan didn’t have any spells prepared to track the dust, but he knew that Lydia could do so if she had access to the mirrors. In a worst case, he could seek out another knowledge sorcerer to perform a similar spell, or even attempt to research a more powerful variant of his remote viewing spell that would enable him to see through the glass dust.
The plan was far from perfect – an assassin could bypass the main doors, or the dust might not cling to the attacker’s boots in the way he hoped – but it was one plan of many. The main benefits of being in a defensive position were that he had an intimate knowledge of the location and plenty of time to lay plans.
After covering the entrances, Jonan moved to the most likely discrete entry point for would-be attackers – the garden’s hedge maze. It was a glaring vulnerability, given that the maze had an exit near the very edges of the Theas’ property.
Even knowing that, Jonan was more than a little surprised when he noticed the figures moving within the maze.
Are those people, or am I just halluc- nope, definitely people. Real people, coming my direction.
He began backpedaling immediately. Of all the intricate plans that he had made, of all the contingencies he had laid traps for, running directly into a group of heavily armed intruders had not been among them.
Shit. Shit.
The figures were moving slowly, keeping their heads relatively low – an unnecessary precaution, given that the hedge maze’s walls were taller than any of them. Dark garb concealed the details of their bodies, but even with masks covering the top halves of their faces Jonan could see one key detail – bright eyes lacking sclera.
Every intruder he could see was Rethri, and there were a lot of them.
As Jonan backed out of the maze, he took careful steps to avoid making any sound. His sight sorcery provided no defense against the other senses, and given the heightened state of alertness the intruders were certain to be in, he knew the slightest disruption could call their attention.
Shit. Focus. What can I do that’s useful?
I have a knife, some dust, and enough talent with flame sorcery to light dry parchment.
The assassins have, hrm, something like at least eight swords that I can see, a couple axes, at least two repeating crossbows, and a simply ludicrous number of throwing daggers.
Even Taelien wouldn’t push these odds. I’m out of here.
As he backed his way out of the hedge maze, Jonan had the presence of mind to empty out most of the remaining glass dust right at the exit to the path. He briefly considered lighting the hedge maze on fire, knowing that the flames could either spook the attackers or alert the guards, but the tactic would also rob him of the element of surprise.
He still had uses for that.
As soon as he had finished dusting the path, Jonan took off at a rapid walk, avoiding anything on the path that could cause noise. At his best guess, it would be about two minutes before the intruders made it out of the hedge maze. After that, he had no idea which entrance they planned to take, which would cost him any advantage he currently had.
He slipped inside the building and ran for the alchemy chamber.
Rialla was already drawing her sword when he burst into the room.
“Show yourself,” she commanded, an aura of frost manifesting around her left hand.
&nbs
p; “Oh, just me, terribly sorry.” Jonan reappeared, scratching at the back of his head. “I need you.”
Rialla quirked an eyebrow quizzically, pointing a finger at her chest.
He sighed, glancing from side to side. Nakane was no longer in the room – it was just Rialla present. “Yes, you.”
A playful smirk crossed her face. “What sort of absurd antics could you need me for at this hour?”
“No playing right now, Rialla – we’ve got assassins.”
Rialla’s indigo eyes narrowed into slits. “Assassins. Right. Where?”
“In the hedge maze. Is Aladir nearby?”
She shook her head. “He headed back to the Citadel just after Nakane went to bed. We might catch him if –”
“No time. Let’s move.”
She nodded, moving to his side. “What’s the plan?”
“Follow me for now. There is no plan.”
“Really? You? No plan?”
“I’ll come up with something. Come on!”
The pair rushed up the stairs.
Fade from sight.
He concealed the pair of them from sight, excluding each other from the effect. It wasn’t a spell he used on multiple people simultaneously on a regular basis, but he had some practice, including one particularly awkward incident involving Taelien and a bank.
By the time they made it up the stairs and to the house’s entrance, Jonan estimated the intruding force would be outside the maze – and he had his plan.
“Stay close. We’re going to try to startle them into fleeing, but we need a captive for interrogation. That part is your job – both the capturing and the interrogating. Can you freeze someone in ice?”
“Yeah, but not if you want them to live through it.”
Well, that’s a little disturbing.
“Just freeze one of their legs or something, then. I’ll try to take care of the rest. Be prepared to improvise.”
Rialla nodded seriously, her fist clenched tightly around the hilt of her sword.
She’s nervous, he realized. I didn’t think other people got nervous with this stuff.
He almost laughed. Instead, he opened the door and stepped back out into the night.
A pair of men in black garb were right outside the door, reaching for weapons.
Jonan improvised.
“Who dares invade my home?”
His attempt at an “ancient and powerful sorcerer” voice was pretty impressive, by his own estimation.
The more important part, however, was the brilliant light that blasted out from the open doorway.
He was careful to carve the light to avoid affecting Rialla, who was already moving to form a cage of frost around one of the two figures.
Jonan raised a hand, pointing it at the blinded-but-unhindered second assassin, and whispered into the air.
“Eru elan lav kor taris.”
The shockwave slammed into both of the would-be assassins, slamming the first into the bars of his newly-forged cage and tossing the second airborne and a dozen yards backward.
That…worked better than expected.
Rialla turned her head toward him, her eyes wide with shock.
Oh, probably should have warned her about that.
“Will explain later,” he whispered. “Cage him while he’s down.”
Rialla shook off her reaction and rushed outside, calling icicles to form in the air and pierce downward around the fallen assassin as he struggled to move. As he attempted to roll to the side, she closed the distance and kicked him in the ribs, pressing her sword to his throat.
“Don’t move and you won’t be hurt,” she said aloud.
A crossbow bolt arced through the air toward the sound of her voice.
Rialla reacted instantly, a shield of ice appearing in the air at her side, deflecting the projectile. Shaking her head, she withdrew her blade and finished forming her second cage, stalking toward the trajectory from which the projectile had emerged.
Jonan began to follow Rialla, but his movements were unexpectedly sluggish. He tripped at the slight elevation change as he stepped outdoors, slamming his right knee into the ground.
Resh. His head was swimming as he pushed himself to his feet. Gods, that spell took more out of me than I expected. Should have expected that motion sorcery would slow me down. This was probably a bad time to show off a new trick.
Still, the alternative had been lighting the man on fire, which would have – by his estimation – been worse.
The first pair of assassins looked secure in their cages, although the one who had been blasted backward was still struggling to free himself. Jonan admired his tenacity, if not his wisdom.
Rialla had already encircled a pair of crossbowmen in icy prisons by the time Jonan caught up to her.
“Where are your friends?” Rialla demanded. “How many of you are there?”
The caged attackers did not respond, save to drop their frozen crossbows and reach for other weapons. Rialla responded patiently, deflecting a pair of thrown daggers with her icy shield before walking closer to Jonan and whispering.
“I can’t use my other dominion effectively if they can’t see me.”
Jonan nodded in understanding. Rialla’s primary dominion was deception, which allowed her to force enemies into specific courses of action – but he had never seen her use it through any means other than eye contact.
“Can you maintain these cages for a while?”
She nodded.
“Follow me.”
He led her closer to the walls, his limbs feeling agonizingly heavy. He kept his eyes open for more of the intruders as he moved, but found none. “Dropping our invisibility is too much of a risk. We can interrogate them later.”
“If you’d let me control one of them, I could probably find the others.”
Jonan frowned. “What if they can only see your eyes?”
“Probably good enough.”
“Right.”
He waved his hand, which was unnecessary, but the familiar motion made the spell feel more palpable. “Okay, your eyes should be visible. Grab one of the ones near the door, since they don’t have ranged weapons.”
“Yup.”
Jonan staggered to the doorway. With multiple enemies already captured and others missing, maintaining silence was no longer his highest priority.
“We’ve got intruders!” He shouted as loud as he could, hoping the noise would reach the guards inside. It would alert any nearby assassins to his location, but he swiftly stepped around the door, hoping to avoid any attacks from assassins with similar concealment to his own.
And that evasive step triggered an idea.
Jonan tapped the center of his forehead with a single finger, activating a spell to see other invisible figures. No new assailants appeared – which was good – but he maintained the spell regardless.
My eyes are going to hate me for this later.
He tapped the right side of his head as well, adjusting his glasses as the night brightened around him. His dark-seeing spell extracted a significant toll on his vision, but every advantage was useful.
“They’re around back,” Rialla explained in a whisper as she approached him.
Jonan frowned – he hadn’t heard her speaking to the man in the cage at all. Was she just whispering quietly, or was she speaking directly into his mind? Thought sorcery, maybe?
Thought sorcery was a deep dominion – a more advanced form of sorcery than deception. While a deception sorcerer could force a victim to speak the truth or subtly shift someone’s mood, a powerful thought sorcerer could control an enemy’s mind entirely.
It was, in Jonan’s mind, one of the most terrifying fates imaginable.
Jonan plodded along behind Rialla, his legs aching more with each step. As they rounded one of the sides of the building, he caught the glowing outline of more people concealed in the nearby bushes. It took him a moment to realize why they were glowing.
Sight sorcery.
; And if I can see them, there’s a chance that –
Jonan slammed into Rialla’s back just in time to knock her out of the path of the first crossbow bolt.
The second hit him in the left arm.
Rialla stumbled forward while Jonan fell back, grabbing instinctively at his wound as he landed. The bolt was sticking all the way through his bicep, the point protruding through the opposite end from where it had entered. Blood seeped from both the entrance and exit wounds.
“Fuck!”
His fingers brushed against the wound, triggering a second surge of pain. He shuddered on the ground, unable to act.
“I can’t see them!”
Rialla’s voice reached him, momentarily breaking through the agony. He focused his vision on her, and then formed a thought – let her see.
The sorceress’ eyes narrowed, javelins of ice forming in the air and soaring out toward the bowmen. The glowing bowmen scrambled backward, but the barrage of icy projectiles continued, shards of ice piercing their limbs.
“Shit, Rialla, stop. Fuck, this hurts.”
Jonan wasn’t feeling particularly articulate, but he managed to push himself into a seated position just as two more figures rounded the corner.
Nakane, along with one of the house guards.
Rialla immediately stepped closer to Nakane, forming a wall of ice between her and their attackers.
Nakane glanced directly at Rialla and tilted her head to the side. “You seem to be a woman of many hidden talents, Miss Vorianna.”
Lady Theas turned her head toward Jonan, bringing her hand up to her mouth. “You’re…bleeding.”
Jonan blinked. “Did I lose my invisibility at some point?”
“I can see you just fine, Master Kestrian. And your arm appears to need some attention.” With her initial surprise vanquished, Nakane knelt at Jonan’s side. “Miss Vorianna, if you’d be kind enough to provide us with cover?”
Rialla nodded. “Got it. Maer, step a little closer, would you?”
The house guard nodded, raising his shield. “Right, thank you miss.”
The icy wall shifted and extended, wrapping around to make a half-circular barrier that met with the main wall of the manor. Aside from the sky, there were no further avenues for the attackers to reach them as long as the wall held.