Guards Vestige

by Alexander Adams

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  30th of Sanya, 28th year of the Fourth Age.

  “Oh, by Verhova, that’s awful!” Clara said. She handed the mug back to Kenneth.

  He laughed loudly and slammed the mug onto the bar, sending the contents into the air. “That it is! One mug of this would get a dragon drunk!”

  Claudia smiled at Clara. “He drinks it less for the taste and more for the effect.”

  Daniel laughed as Clara continued to shake her head. “I don’t think I would ever be able to get past the taste long enough for the effect,” she said.

  Daniel, Clara, Kenneth, and Claudia sat in a bar on the north side of Vigil. Through the foggy window by the door, Daniel saw snow falling outside. Tomorrow would be the first official day of winter, which meant tonight was the last day of their second year at Vigil, as well as the night of the Autumn’s End Festival. It had been an eventful two years to say the least. Parts of it he simply wanted to forget ever happened. Thankfully, it had been relatively quiet since his harrowing experience below the city. The underground tunnels had been in use by the Dragon Guard in the earlier years of Vigil but had been abandoned long ago and had indeed been forgotten about entirely. But now they’d been re-charted, with guards patrolling through them at all hours.

  That still did not ease the nightmares that plagued Daniel. After Dalton had left him in the tunnels with the girl, Captain Coe and Claudia had found him. He didn’t actually remember them leading him and the girl out, but he did remember them treating his injuries and questioning him about what he’d seen. As much as he’d wished to forget it all, he was able to tell them everything in detail. Upon further questioning, he’d worked up the courage to ask them what it was, exactly, that he’d seen. To give reason to the horrors.

  They told him that valgrets were not a natural animal, that they were made, and that they weren’t the only things twisted into being by the Disciples. They also told him that Dalton was a high-ranking member of the Disciples, the personal bodyguard and voice of one of the Fingers. He was called a Nail. The idea that Daniel had encountered Dalton and lived was astonishing to him. For a time after, nearly every Dragon Guard he met asked him about the incident, most simply out of concern for him. Nevertheless, having to relive even a single moment of that day was enough to make him sick. He was thankful that at least his friends seemed to know to stay silent about it. Not once did any of them press him to tell the story. They could tell he wanted to forget it all. Slowly, the chatter about the incident faded until it was no longer a relevant topic in Vigil.

  Those tunnels also seemed to be the way that Robert, Robin, and Lace had been able to leave without a trace. An entrance had been found just outside the north wall of the keep in a nearby home. The tunnel had only a few branch-offs, most of which had been caved in, but the main tunnel led to an old cave that was hidden from sight between a large rock outcropping on the beach.

  Clara grabbed her mug of water and downed half of it. “I feel like it’s burning the inside of my throat,” she said.

  Claudia laughed. “It probably is.”

  Kenneth took another swig of the ale. “Well,” he said, “what better way to celebrate Autumn’s End than a mug of Silvum shadow ale? It’s my favorite tradition!”

  Clara shook her head. “Why is it called shadow ale?”

  “It has shadow bloom extract in it,” Claudia answered.

  Daniel looked at Kenneth with a concerned look. “Shadow bloom is poisonous.”

  “Incredibly so!” Kenneth took another draw and laughed.

  Daniel smiled as the warden continued to down the questionable liquid. It had been a long time since any of them had time to relax together. Claudia had been busy teaching the scholars and Daniel had been so engrossed in his own training that he’d hardly had time to see any of his friends outside of brief moments in the barracks or halls of the keep.

  “Daniel, where is everyone else?” Claudia asked as she sipped her own ale, a less-intense choice.

  “Aaron is sparring with Griffon, I think.”

  Claudia sighed. “Those two don’t think of anything else.”

  “Alan said he would meet us here,” Daniel added, “since Zachery was helping Jonathan prepare the dining hall for tonight. So he should be here any time.”

  Kenneth sighed happily. “Ah, the Autumn’s End feast, my favorite tradition.”

  Clara raised an eyebrow. “I thought drinking shadow ale was your favorite tradition,” she said.

  “I’m a complicated man.”

  The last day of autumn was always celebrated across Edaren. Some smaller towns like Sapella’s Crossing held simple, town-wide feasts, while larger cities such as Forge and Dalisia hosted wonderful and grand festivals full of games and entertainment of all kinds. In Vigil, the four main streets were filled with entertainers, dozens of games, and countless stalls selling toys for children, as well as many people selling homemade wares. The Dragon Guard also held a feast in their dining hall every year for their members and the people that worked in the keep, such as the kitchen staff and a few noteworthy citizens.

  Claudia turned in her chair to look at the door across the room. “You and Clara should go out and enjoy the festival,” she said. “There’s a fire tamer just down the street. They are just mesmerizing to watch.”

  Clara beamed at the idea. “Oh! Daniel, let’s go. I always loved watching them in Navia!”

  He looked at the door. “What about Alan? He’s supposed to meet us here, remember?”

  Kenneth waved him off. “Just go,” he said. “When Alan shows up we’ll send him your way.”

  Daniel shrugged and stood. “All right,” he said. “I’ve never seen one before so this should be interesting.”

  Clara led Daniel onto the street and into the chaos that was the festival. Colorful banners and lanterns with colored glass hung from each light post along the streets. There were stalls everywhere with everything he could think of, from food to games to clothing. They walked toward the gate. Already, Daniel was starting to feel claustrophobic. There were too many people. They passed magicians and storytellers making children laugh and musicians filling the air with a medley of dozens of sounds, inspiring people to break into dance. It all blended into one cheerful and upbeat atmosphere.

  Clara sighed as they passed a flute player. “I always wanted to learn how to play,” she said.

  “Why didn’t you?” Daniel said while sidestepping a group of children who were running down the middle of the street.

  “My mother tried to get me into lessons when I was younger, but at the time I didn’t want to do anything she wanted me to,” Clara said. “Now I kind of regret it.”

  “Right, the controlling thing.”

  “Yeah, that.” They moved to the side of the street to avoid the larger crowd. “What about your mother? Have you heard from her or anyone else since you left?”

  “Just after ranger training started, my mother and Connie both wrote me a letter.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Connie? You’ve never told me about her.”

  Daniel felt his face flush slightly. “Uh, yeah, she’s a friend of mine from home. I’ve known her since, well . . . forever.”

  “Oh. Well, lasting friendships are hard to come by, so that’s good to hear.” Clara sounded slightly disappointed.

  Daniel furrowed his brow. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Clara pointed ahead and smiled widely. “Look! There’s the fire tamer!”

  She darted forward and started to push her way through a circle of people. Daniel saw over their heads the occasional whirl of fire. He picked up his pace and caught up with Clara at the front of the circle to watch the show. The fire tamer was a young woman. She had short, white-blonde hair that reflected the light of the fire. Her clothes were bright red and embossed with gold inlay, the design of fire
working its way up her limbs. Each hand was gloved in gold cloth.

  The woman held a long pole with a blazing fire at each end in each hand. She spun them in circles and tossed them in the air with effortless grace before catching them again and continuing to weave trails of light. Behind her, a young man sat beside a few open linen bags just below the small stage, barely visible to the crowd. The girl tossed both poles into the air. At the same moment, the young man reached inside one of the bags and tossed a handful of powder at the two poles. When the powder hit the flames, a bright flash of blue blinded everyone for a moment. When they looked back, the flames kept the ocean tint for several moments before fading slowly back to their true color.

  The woman continued the show for several minutes. Four more times, the boy changed the color of the flames. When the show was finished, everyone clapped and cheered enthusiastically while the woman bowed, a smile crossing her sweat-soaked face.

  Clara clapped by far the most. “Oh, I just love it!” she said. “The way they use the stardrop pollen to change the color of the fire is so beautiful!”

  Daniel laughed. “It was beautiful,” he said. “Never knew the pollen could do that.”

  They were about to leave when Alan came out of the crowd and nearly bumped into them. He crossed his arms and glared. “There you are!” he said. “I was worried I would have to walk around by myself. Why didn’t you wait at the bar for me?”

  Daniel smiled. “Sorry,” he said. “Clara wanted to see the fire tamer.”

  “You wanted to see it too!” Clara said.

  Daniel was about to reply when he was cut off by a loud and long tone from a war horn. All around them, performers stopped their acts. The music was cut short and every conversation ceased. The whole city held its breath. After a moment’s pause, the tone sounded a second time. Daniel felt his heart drop. Not a sound was made. At first he wasn’t sure what he should do. It seemed so out of place and he was hopeful that it was a mistake, that maybe what they thought was a horn was something else entirely. No one moved. No one dared even consider the worst as they all waited in petrified silence for nearly a minute. It was common knowledge what the signal meant. They all hoped it was a mistake.

  Then across the city he saw a slight glow over the horizon, then another, followed by several more. Each steadily grew brighter until a fireball crested the wall and landed in the south side of the city with an echoing crash as it no doubt rolled and crashed through buildings and any other structure in its path, crushing countless people along the way.

  A trebuchet or a catapult. He wasn’t sure which had launched the fireball. It didn’t matter. Moments after it struck the ground, a massive explosion echoed across the city, followed by a plume of fire and debris as a wave of force rolled out from the source. A second fireball hit the ground and it followed suit, shaking the ground and causing buildings to collapse in clouds of dust as it exploded. The crowd looked on in stunned silence for several moments, but that quickly changed. Like a wave spreading outward from the south of the city, screams filled the air.

  Suddenly it didn’t matter what Daniel thought he should do. The crowd decided for him. All around him, people started to run in the opposite direction of the chaos. In their rush, no one stopped to consider those around them. They shoved others out of the way and to the ground. Many had no chance to rise again as they were trampled under the panicked crowd. Daniel and the others were shoved aside and nearly thrown to the ground themselves, but Daniel managed to grip Clara and Alan by the wrists and forced his way sideways through the crowd and into an alley to get them out of harm’s way.

  Alan’s voice shook as he spoke: “What’s going on?”

  Daniel didn’t answer as he racked his brain trying to decide how they were going to get to the keep. They didn’t have their weapons or their armor. In times like this, they were supposed to head for the keep to prepare the defenses. For a moment he almost laughed to himself. He’d never imagined that arming to prepare to defend a city would be at the forefront of his mind, but here they were. The two long draws of the war horn was the warning of an attack. It sounded so out of place after the years of peace that no one knew how to react. There hadn’t been a war in Edaren for hundreds of years.

  Clara answered Alan with a reassuring tone, despite the tremor it held: “I don’t know, but we’ll get to the keep and we’ll be just fine.”

  Explosions still echoed out from the south. Daniel saw an ever-growing glow as the city started to burn. The south. That meant this was an attack from the sea, which meant they were most likely being struck by ship-mounted trebuchets, which thankfully indicated they were relatively safe as long as they stayed on the northern side of the city. The range of the siege weapons would be limited due to the height of the cliff and wall. They had to get to the keep as quickly as possible. They had to get their gear. The problem was that every citizen was heading away from the flames, clogging the streets.

  He turned and looked at the alley extending behind them. “We’ll have to go through the alleys.”

  Alan looked at the way they had come. “Wouldn’t the main street be faster?”

  “Not with all those people.”

  Clara had her hand over her mouth as she looked at the steadily brightening glow of fire, her voice barely audible over the cries of the city: “This can’t be happening.”

  Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder and started to lead them through the winding alleys toward the keep. All around them, he heard people screaming and the occasional explosion of fireballs that had been launched into the city. The alleys were empty of people, though it was still taking them far longer than Daniel would have liked under the circumstances. They rounded a corner and entered an annex that diverged into four different paths. He was about to run right through to the other side when a door leading to one of the buildings ahead burst open. He didn’t know why he skidded to a stop and pulled the others into one of the alleys and out of sight. Maybe it was the fact it had opened so suddenly or it was just his reflexes. Maybe it was the sudden and terrible feeling he had the moment he saw it open and he hid out of pure fear. Something told him that if whoever was coming out of that door saw them, it would not end well. Clara was about to speak but he motioned for her to be quiet. The fear that crossed his face made her push herself harder against the wall in hopes of staying hidden. He leaned out just enough to get a look around the corner and saw that his fear was justified. Seven figures robed in white. Disciples of the Left Hand. He recognized the robes instantly. The plain design and the hand print and runes on their hearts were unmistakable.

  While the Disciples stood in the alley, Daniel felt his pulse quicken. All sound around him was drowned out save for his own heart beating in his ears. The Disciples were waiting for something to come through the door. Time seemed to slow down as the first clawed hand crossed the threshold. Then the first figure was out, followed by a second, third, and fourth. Valgrets, five of them, hulking and covered in that familiar matted fur and sickly grey skin. Daniel moved back around the corner and got as close to the wall as he could. His heart was beating so loudly in his ears that he felt it was a miracle they weren’t already discovered.

  Alan, sandwiched between him and Clara, took a breath to speak. Even though Daniel knew it was only going to be a whisper, he covered Alan’s mouth with his hand. Clara leaned forward slightly to see Daniel’s expression. The color drained from her face when she saw how terrified he truly was. A voice from the alley caught his attention and he strained to listen.

  It was a woman. Her tone was smooth. The sound sent chills down his spine.

  “Are the Numen ready?”

  “They’re waiting in Highwood Forest,” a girl answered. Her voice sounded familiar but Daniel couldn’t place it. “When the signal is given they’ll come.”

  “Good,” the woman said. “Take your hounds and push the citizens toward the gates. Eliminate an
y Dragon Guard in your path. Your sister shall do the same from the east.”

  The girl sounded distant and sad, like she wasn’t quite there. “Yes, mother.”

  Daniel heard the valgrets take off at a run, their claws scraping against the stone as they went until the noise faded to nothing.

  When they were gone another person spoke, a man with a hoarse tone. Daniel recognized it immediately: The man from the tunnels, the one whose eyes went black. “Are you sure she can handle this, mistress?”

  The woman laughed coldly. “I have no doubts that she can kill anything that tries to stop her.”

  “I don’t doubt her abilities, mistress. It is her willingness to use them.”

  Her tone took a darker turn while still keeping its calmness. “You forget your place, Dalton.”

  “Of course. I apologize.”

  She was quiet for a moment, as if listening to the sounds of the city fall apart. “Come,” she said. “Let us advise Gotef on his next course of action.”

  Daniel wanted to move but his limbs felt like they were made of iron. He heard the door close and waited for several minutes, too afraid to risk moving. Finally, he forced his body to obey him and rose. Clara and Alan followed his lead. When they were on their feet, they moved down the alley, away from the annex. When Daniel was sure they were far enough away that they wouldn’t be heard if any Disciples were left behind, he nodded to Clara and Alan. The three of them started to run.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  30th of Sanya, 28th year of the Fourth Age.

  Aaron made his way up the steps of the guard tower on the south side of the keep wall. He wore his warden armor and had an orange-etched kite shield strapped to his arm. Thankfully, nothing else had happened after the barrage of fire aimed at the city’s south side started. He had been in the courtyard with Griffon when the first of the fireballs struck the city, but the Dragon Guards in the keep had responded the moment the second tone sounded from the horn. The organization had been fast and rather astounding to Aaron. Rangers had started combing the south of the city to bring whatever wounded they could to the keep for medical attention by the scholars, while the wardens gathered the city watch to begin preparing the outer walls for the inevitable attack.