by Thomas Green
“To the general plan,” the lieutenant continued, “we head in through the city’s escape tunnel to steal an artifact for the Dreamwalker. By the agent’s report, it is guarded while being hidden within a cell beneath the city. Agent Rik will sneak into the room using a ventilation shaft while Stilts will engage the guards to cause a distraction. Once Rik has the object, we retreat through the escape tunnel, collapsing it behind ourselves.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” everyone responded like a single man.
The lieutenant cleared his throat. “Take the time before Sparks finishes the concoction to rest.”
Stilts… can I choose a different war name? Luna nodded, hit by a strange wave of nostalgia. When she was young, James told her stories she then thought were legends. She always wondered what it would be like to be in an army. It was better than she expected. Especially the people. She was happy with where she was, with whom she was doing it and why. That never happened before, making her realize how much she wanted to be there, in the Navy, in the Order.
“I’m done,” Sparks shouted from the tree and rose to return to them. “Where do I use it, sir?”
With a calm, controlled face, Lieutenant Redeye motioned them to follow him. The Shadowless, Captain Beatrice Hellwind, and six girls from her company joined them before they passed through well-arranged bushes, beyond which lay a cavern-like tunnel with a broken gate at the entrance.
They entered the damp corridor.
Luna leaned to Willem to whisper. “Is it me or are the captain and her girls suspiciously young?”
Captain Hellwind laughed. “We are Sil Haen, so we don’t age the way humans do.”
“Aren’t we fighting the Sil Haen, ma’am?” Luna regretted the question the second the words left her mouth.
The captain shook her head. “There are times when the matrons of the Sil Haen make questionable decisions and, well, this is one of them.”
Luna continued in silence but realized Agent Rik had disappeared without her knowing where or how. They passed a narrow cleft where the lieutenant told Sparks to prepare to use the concoction while the captain left behind two of her girls to guard him.
The cave ended with another broken gate, beyond which lay a crossing of corridors, one carved into stone with cleanness and precision.
Captain Hellwind stepped in first. “We hold the intersection, and you pirates go do your thing.”
“Says the assassin,” Lieutenant Redeye murmured and turned left. They advanced into the other corridor, soon arriving at spiraled stairs where the lieutenant motioned them to stop.
Without needing a command, Chief Bull and Rod approached the stairs. The chief examined its every inch while Rod traced into the air one arcane symbol after another.
Luna stepped to Willem to whisper, this time much more silently. “Chief Bull is looking for mundane traps, but do you have an idea of what Rod’s doing?”
Willem rubbed his chin. “He’s using detection aether, so I guess the same thing but for arcane traps.”
Well over an hour later, they descended the stairs and passed through two more corridors besieged by cells to arrive at a wooden door.
Lieutenant Redeye motioned to Luna. “Give them hell.”
“Aye, sir.” She opened the door and walked into a small room dominated by a robust pillar with a black sphere at its top while four large men sat by the column’s sides. They were tall with shaved heads, their skin covered by tattoos while they wore breastplates matched by gauntlets and boiled leather pants. Each of them had a sword by a belt and a heavy weapon by the side.
The nearest man grabbed his battleaxe and rose as she entered.
Luna formed an awkward smile. “Sorry, but is there a latrine somewhere around? I think I got lost.”
He stared at her with disbelieving eyes. “You bear a Palai symbol on your chest.”
Luna slapped her face. Using the momentary distraction, the man stepped in and buried his axe into Luna’s side, slashing between the plates of her brigandine, sending her flying into the wall.
As her skin re-stretched over the wound and her organs and muscle repaired, Luna leapt from the wall, turned her fingers into vicious claws and lunged at the man. He blocked the right hand, but not her left. Yet before her claws connected with his ribs, second from the men hit Luna with a greatsword, hitting her nape to smash her into the ground. Screaming with pain, Luna rolled to the side to avoid the battleaxe while the remaining two men, one wielding a spear and the last a maul, rose.
She sprung to her feet. “Do you have no shame to gang up on a young girl?”
The man with the battleaxe spat onto the ground. “You invade our lands, burn our families in their very beds, and yet have the audacity to speak of shame?”
Her heart sunk. Right. She shrugged, said “sorry,” and charged. She ducked under the man’s swing and slashed at his thigh. He whirled and kicked her in the stomach, sending bile into her mouth and her body into the wall. She swallowed the pain. She spun and darted forward once more. The result was the same, for she could not land a hit while they kept striking her with ease.
With a frustrated roar, Luna bolted back among them. The first man swung at her face. She slid beneath the blade. The second man swept her feet with his greatsword while the third one pinned her down with his spear, piercing her heart.
As Luna shrieked with pain, the door burst open as Lieutenant Redeye blitzed into the room, smashing the spear-wielder away with his shield.
Luna rolled and leapt out through the door, glimpsing Lieutenant Redeye parrying a barrage of strikes as he retreated to the corridor. The men followed but stopped in the empty frame of the door as if hitting an invisible wall.
Luna turned and saw Willem tracing arcane symbols into the air, maintaining the barrier he made.
Lieutenant Redeye motioned into the corridor. “We are done here.” They walked behind Chief Bull up the stairs while the lieutenant half-carried Willem to let him keep up the spell.
Luna panted as she walked, not sure what to think or feel, her heart freezing when she returned to the crossing. The other hallway lay blocked by corpses with Captain Hellwind and her girls cleaning their weapons with a cloth taken from the dead.
Luna stared at the blockade of bodies. Women, children… these aren’t soldiers, but civilians. That means the attack on the city had already started and we are about to seal the only way out. She felt sick with herself. But a single glance at her friends changed her mind. Morality be gone, she was here to make sure her units, especially Daniel and Nancy, survived this war so she could keep being around them. Selfish, she knew, but she didn’t care.
Willem stopped concentrating on the spell, and they all ran into the escape tunnel. After they passed Sparks, the lieutenant gave him the signal, and the narrow cleft collapsed with a thunderous boom.
Outside, they regrouped with the rest of their companies, marching through the torrential rain north into the forests with the burning town behind them, pursued by the stench of scorched corpses.
18
Zerae
Zerae landed Belenus by the eastern barricade of their camp, leapt down and beelined toward Patricia’s tent.
“War leader!” the black-haired girl jumped to her feet the moment she saw her.
Zerae shook her head. “I don’t have that title anymore.”
Patricia smiled. “You are still the war leader to me.”
“I am sorry to ask this, but would you have happened to have rolled more cigars?”
“Of course!” Patricia grabbed a wooden box and presented it to Zerae. She opened it, emptied her pockets from the drenched cigars and replaced them with new ones.
“I will make you tea!” Patricia skittered to the side to start a fire beneath a pot.
Zerae shook her head. “Don’t. I will leave for a mission before the water would boil.” She left and headed toward the tent of Sonja and Tanja. The dark twins sat by its side, sharpening their swords.
Zerae greeted t
hem with a nod. “I’ve got a special mission for you, one of which nobody must know.”
Sonja smiled. “We are yours to command, War Leader.”
Zerae wondered if Sonja knowing of her losing her rank would have changed the answer. Without understanding why she wasn’t sure it would, she spoke. “When Mathilde arrives, she will send a messenger bird to Voidspire. I need you to kill it and burn whatever message it held. This bird and any other she sends within the next week.”
Tanja grinned. “For you, anything.”
Zerae spun to walk to Astril’s tent. Once she failed to find her within, she walked to Leena’s place.
Inside awaited her a scene that made her question her sanity. Leena stood by the central pillar supporting the tent with her ankle attached to it by a shackle on a chain while Astril sat by the side, making a show out of eating a smoked lamb leg.
Zerae blinked, pinched herself and bit her inner cheek. Nothing happened, suggesting this was the reality. She cleared her throat. “What is this about?”
Astril threw her a wicked smile. “Leena got herself chained to the bed in her soul chamber, so I figured doing the same in reality might help her get used to it.”
Zerae slapped her face with her palm. The Astril from the island is gone, replaced by the overgrown kid that has always been there. “Anyway, did you talk to Salazar, Leena?”
“I did. He will meet us in Alexandria within a few days.”
“All right, pack up, girls, we are going there immediately.” Or, better said, we are going there before the Matron can stop me once she returns to the main camp on the ship.
Astril rubbed her chin. “That’s a big city, so we might need siege weapons to go there.”
Zerae couldn’t help herself but laugh. “We leave in ten minutes.” She spun on her heel to return to Belenus. They left within half an hour, watching matron’s ship land at the shore below the camp.
***
As they descended through the clouds, the view of Alexandria opened before them. From the bird-view, the city was a perfect circle made of alabaster walls with a square mountain in the middle, shining like a lone pearl within the steppes.
They landed three miles away from the town to leave their mounts out of the sight of guards and entered the metropolis on foot. Its streets buzzed with life while sun kept scorching all with its gaze. The buildings built from pale limestone offered little solace from the raging sun.
They walked straight to the center, scaling a thousand steps leading to the table-like hill. Within the lush park maintained upon the mountain sat the palace, a giant marble library and a cluster of buildings. The inn they sought was among these buildings.
Zerae led them in, crossing the main hall to reach the garden hidden in the inn’s courtyard. By the door stood two soldiers dressed in brown and green with the symbol of a tree etched on their breastplates.
They understood what was happening without a need for words and one of them sent the message inside. A black-haired woman in the perfectly polished armor of the same colors walked out. She measured them with a cold stare. “I’m Captain Katherine d’Airelle of the royal guard of Xona, and I will need you to leave your weapons here.”
Zerae drew her executioner sword and put it down by the side while Astril dropped her falchions and Leena her staff.
The captain arched an eyebrow. “Do I appear so stupid?”
With a smile, Zerae drew the daggers hidden in her platform boots and the ones from the inner pockets of her coat and placed them down as well while Leena and Astril did the same.
The captain gave them the mom look. “Seriously?”
Zerae shrugged. “I have nothing else.”
“Oh, come on, it’s my favorite!” Astril said as she pulled a dagger from out of her hair and two more from her sleeves.
The captain turned to Leena.
She sighed and withdrew two slender blades from under her dress, four more from her shoes and one from her hair.
The captain shook her head and motioned them inside.
Zerae peered at the pile of weapons they were leaving behind. And I thought I carried an unnecessary amount of weaponry.
They entered the garden where Count Salazar sat by a food-laden mahogany table, enjoying a slab of minced meat. His brown hair was arranged to perfection while his deep green eyes pierced Zerae as she entered. He fit into the garden perfectly, blending into the scenery of plants and trees. He may have been there for the first time in his life, but the place already looked as if it belonged to him.
Zerae bowed when their eyes met. “Greetings, Count Salazar.”
“Please, take a seat,” he motioned them, “Lady Zerae, I presume.”
“Yes. This is Astril, and I believe you have already met Leena.”
Leena and Astril sat down while Astril stared hypnotized a chocolate cake sitting on the table. “That’s a really pretty cake.”
“Astril!” Zerae snapped.
Salazar pushed the cake toward Astril with grace Zerae wished she would once have. “Please, help yourself.”
Zerae tried to hide the shame of what she knew was coming, and Astril grabbed the cake with her hands and devoured it like a starved tiger would eat a wounded sheep.
Salazar wiped his mouth clean and pushed his plate aside as he pierced Zerae with the gaze of his dark green eyes. “So, what can I do for you, War Leader?”
Zerae formed a professional smile. “I hope your highness won’t mind me being straightforward, but I need a favor from Alexander, and I have nothing I am willing to trade him for it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And what do you plan to offer me?”
“Future cooperation. I can promise a set amount of missions we will do for you after this war ends.”
He frowned. “To use my secret mistress to blackmail me is a rather risky move, so I wonder why you aren’t dealing with Alexander directly.”
“Alexandria has been at war with Mar Gorash for as long as anyone remembers. There is no prize for which we are willing to get dragged into it, doubly so since their territory borders ours.”
“A wise decision.” Salazar nodded. “Fifty missions.”
Zerae was happy her mouth was empty, for she would have spat out the contents otherwise. “That’s outrageous! Five missions and you are getting more than what it’s worth.”
Salazar laughed. “Five missions would be so trivially little they wouldn’t warrant the effort of coming here. Nevertheless, I’m not in the mood for haggling, for odds are your civilization will be wiped out by the Order before you can repay me anything.”
Zerae did her best to keep her face neutral. “While I cannot deny that possibility, I have taken precautions against such an outcome.”
Salazar’s expression twisted into a smug smile. “That sounds like you have a way to communicate with the Palai Order. Let me guess, the Dreamwalker meets you through Limbo, doesn’t he?”
He got me. The insane demand was designed to throw Zerae off, which it did. Perfectly. “Yes.”
Salazar took a satisfied sip from his glass of white wine. “To the powerful, money has limited relevance, and counter-services are hard to manage and depend on, so we deal in favors instead. They come in four sizes, small, medium, large and ultimate while their names should be self-explanatory.
“I shall take sixteen large favors from you, Zerae Hellwind, but I will exchange one of your large favors for each small favor you can get me from the Dreamwalker. If you can obtain more out of him, I will trade at better ratios where a single large favor from him would erase your entire debt.”
Zerae’s eyes widened. “One small for one large? Are we worth that little?”
“Favors from the Dreamwalker are priceless, for there is much no one else can accomplish.”
“Suppose I accept, what am I getting?”
Salazar stretched his neck. “I will handle Alexander for you. Mark me an area on the map, and you will face no obstruction from him, or his men, not now and not until
our deal is done.”
Zerae knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, but the time the count would spend answering was the time she could use to think. “Give me an example of each size of favors, so I aim correctly.”
“Small favor would be me sending a ship to pick up someone stranded on an island. The medium favor would be me sending a small army to handle a bandit outpost or something similar. The large favor would be me conquering a minor city for you or arranging something with a political rival. Ultimate favor, well, that would be me stepping down from all my positions and spending the rest of my days as a monk, for example.”
Zerae wheezed. “Sixteen large favors. You sure aren’t selling your large favor cheap.”
He shrugged. “If you can get me a large favor from Lucas, it’s one for one.”
Zerae squinted. “I never told you his name.”
Salazar smiled. “There is only one man worthy of the being called the Dreamwalker.”
“Why don’t you get the favors directly from him?”
“Because he doesn’t give them.”
In other words, Zerae was utterly worthless to him, but her access to the Dreamwalker wasn’t. It was refreshing to be explained her standing in the continent’s politics. “I accept your offer, Count Salazar.”
They finalized the details and, a few hours later, Zerae, Astril, and Leena were back by on their mounts. Before they left for the Chimera Chasm, Zerae took Leena to the side, hiding from Astril who held herself by the hurting belly while leaning onto the lizard-eagle hybrid that was her mount.
Zerae drew a cigar and let Leena put it ablaze with her grey flame. “How was the Dreamwalker?”
Leena’s cheeks flared up. “A total asshole!”
“Why did he chain you to the bed?”
Leena turned red. “No reason.”
“You overdid it, didn’t you?”
Leena scratched the back of her head. “Perhaps a tiny bit.”
Zerae’s face hardened to stone. “If we weren’t short on time, I would have spent the next week punishing you. No matter what you think, you are precious to both Astril and me, and we will not tolerate you being reckless with your own life. Understand?”