by Logan Jacobs
“He could have been suspicious after you poisoned the rest of the guild masters, but I survived because I didn’t show up,” Clodia said. “Maybe when he saw me, that triggered more suspicion or something like that.”
“If he was at all suspicious, then he was smart to leave town,” I said, “but if he really has gone to the military forts out in the wilderness, then… well, then that’s not good.”
“So on a scale of ‘we’ll make it’ to ‘we’re totally fucked,’ where would you say we are right now?” Penny asked.
“I would say that we need more information before I can even say for sure,” I replied, “but if Tevian has gone to the forts, then he might be trying to raise an army to oppose us.”
“And even if that wasn’t his intention,” Ava said, “I’m sure it became his sole mission the moment that he heard about what happened at the start of the festival this morning.”
“And we’re, um, sure that he had a way to hear about that?” Dar asked. “If he already left by then, maybe he just… doesn’t know?”
“It’s Tevian,” I said with a shrug. “I’m positive that he already knows.”
“He is sneaky like that,” Penny said, “so I’m sure he has ways to keep himself informed.”
“Hell, he could have just lied to the commander,” I said. “He might have said that he was going to leave, but then he stuck around long enough to see what happened, and then as soon as the elves drank the poison, he got out of town as fast as he could, so he could go gather an army and then come back with reinforcements.”
“And we definitely think that he knows you’re behind this?” Clodia asked.
“Oh, yeah,” I laughed. “If there’s one thing that I’m sure of, it’s that Tevian suspects me of absolutely everything in the empire that doesn’t go according to his plans.”
“To be fair, he’s usually right about that,” Penny snickered.
“Do you know what these wilderness forts are like, Clodia?” I asked.
“Or, like, anything about them?” Dar added.
“There should be a map of them somewhere in here,” Ava said. “There should be a map of the whole empire, actually, so I’ll look for it, if you’ll help me, Dar.”
“On it,” my halfling friend said as he jumped to his feet.
“I’m afraid I don’t know very much,” Clodia said from her perch on top of the bookshelf, “although I have been to several of them.”
“That’s more than any of the rest of us can say,” I sighed. “Tell me what you remember.”
“Whenever I had to travel between cities as the guild master, I often broke up my journey at these wilderness forts,” the night elf replied. “If I traveled by river, then I wouldn’t usually stop there, but whenever I traveled by land, I did.”
“Found a map,” Dar announced from beside one of the bookshelves.
After the halfling spread it out across the desk in front of me, he and Ava took their seats again and scooted forward, so all five of us could examine it at the same time.
“Well, this is definitely more detailed than the map on the ceiling of the portal chamber,” Penny said.
“I guess that means there are no portals into the wilderness forts,” Dar said.
“We’re lucky, but I don’t think we’re that lucky,” I said. “Alright, tell me what you remember, Clodia.”
The night elf hopped down from the bookshelf and came over to stand behind me so she could look over my shoulder at the map. Her fingers skimmed the paper from one side to the other as she oriented herself, and then she began to trace a route from one city in the empire to another.
There were ten cities in the empire, along with villages scattered here and there that were mostly populated by humans. I knew the location of each city based on the map in the portal room, but I didn’t know what laid in between each city, other than a lot of wilderness and the occasional threat of wild orcs on the loose.
The ten cities were clearly printed on the garrison commander’s map, but there were also five smaller marks on the paper in between several of the cities. The names were written in elvish, but based on their strategic locations, I would have bet anything they were the wilderness forts.
“I think this map is old,” Clodia finally murmured. “I know there are more forts than this.”
Ava immediately returned to the bookshelves and started to look for another map.
“Shit,” I muttered as I stood up to get a better angle. “How many more?”
The night elf traced her fingers across the paper a few more times before she finally dropped her hand back to her side and looked over at me.
“There are only five here,” Clodia said, “but I believe that there is supposed to be one fort in between or outside of every city.”
“So there are five forts that just aren’t shown on the map?” Penny asked.
“Yes, but I can’t remember exactly where they are,” Clodia replied and then tapped her finger on a few forts on the map. “I know I’ve stopped here and here… and I think I stopped here before, but I know I’ve also stopped at a fort close to your own city, but it’s not listed here. Plus several others, of course.”
“So ten forts for the ten cities,” I said. “You know, this map might not actually be as old as we think.”
“Really?” Ava paused her search by the bookshelves to turn toward me. “What makes you say that?”
“If there’s one fort for each city,” I said, “then they have to be a last line of defense, right? And if that’s the case, then their locations are probably pretty closely guarded secrets.”
“So I guess the ones that aren’t on the map are probably the bigger ones,” Ava said, “or at least the ones that are more of a danger to us.”
“Possibly,” I said. “Clodia, what do you remember about them in terms of soldiers? Numbers? Weapons? Anything?”
“I never really gave a shit about things like that,” Clodia sighed, “although I wish I had paid more attention now. I’m honestly not sure, except… well, I just remember that all the forts I visited had a lot of fucking horses.”
“Of course, they do,” I groaned. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Why, what do horses mean?” Dar asked.
“It means fucking cavalry,” I said. “Our troops have been trained to fight in the city and in hand-to-hand combat, but if Tevian raises the alarm and brings in elves on horseback--”
“Then the soldiers are going to need a crash course in how to fight cavalry,” Ava finished for me, “and we don’t have a lot of time left to train them.”
“Do you think our new friend Arlix would know?” Penny asked. “He knew where Tevian went, so maybe he knows the location of the other forts, too?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll be right back. You can keep looking for another map, just in case, but I shouldn’t be long.”
“I hope you don’t think you’re going anywhere alone,” Penny declared.
“I’ll go with him,” Ava said.
“Thank the Ancients somebody has some sense,” Dar muttered. “I know the city is ours, but you can’t just go around without an escort. You’re the king, goddamn it!”
“Thanks for looking out for me, my friend,” I laughed.
I left my shield inside the office but took my sword with me since I could keep it sheathed at my side. As Ava followed along right behind me, I headed back to the courtyard to find Leif and Arlix. I caught up to them just as Leif was about to move the second-in-command elf into one of the jail cells, so I flagged him down in order to talk to the day elf for a minute first.
“Arlix!” I said. “I’ve got another question for you.”
“If I can help prevent any more bloodshed, then please ask,” the day elf replied. “What do you need to know?”
“The location of the wilderness forts,” I said. “All of them, not just the ones that are listed on your commander’s map.”
“I’m so sor
ry, but I can’t help you with that,” Arlix sighed. “Not because I don’t want to, but because I just don’t know. Only the garrison commanders and captains of the guard are allowed to know that information.”
“Then how does Tevian know where they are?” Ava asked.
“He used to be the captain of the guard in the Capital,” I said as soon as I realized the answer, “so he would have found out the locations then.”
“I believe so,” Arlix said. “I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.”
“Thanks all the same,” I said, and then I turned to head back inside the garrison with Ava.
“Okay,” I announced as soon as we were back in the office with the others, “so we might not know where the rest of the wilderness forts are right now, but I think I know how to find out. We just need to talk to a certain captain of the guard.”
“Golierian?” Dar guessed.
“Exactly,” I said with a grin. “I sent him out of town, so we’ll have to track him down first, but he should know the location of all the forts, and he’ll be more than happy to share them with us.”
“Plus, he should know more specifics in terms of the number of soldiers and horses at each location,” Penny said.
“Yes, and that will also be helpful,” I said, “so I’ll have to get Twila to send word to him that I need to speak with him.”
“But what do we do until then?” Clodia asked.
“We need to figure out a way to stop Tevian,” I said, “because otherwise, he’ll just ride from fort to fort and gather all the elves into one big-ass army to come against us.”
“I wish we had some kind of estimate about their numbers,” Ava said. “Anything would help, Clodia.”
“At this point, even a wild guess might be nice,” Penny added.
“I’m not sure,” the night elf said. “Maybe thirty-thousand, if he gathers together all the soldiers from all the forts? Or maybe more? I’m sorry I don’t know more.”
“If it’s even half that number, we could be in serious trouble,” I said. “If Tevian can get that whole force together to come against us, that would be bad enough. But if that entire force is on horseback, or even if only half of them are on horseback, then we really need to work fast.”
“What do we do first?” Clodia asked.
“One, we figure out based on the map and our best guesses which fort Tevian could have made his way to the quickest,” I said, “and we try to route where he might be likely to go next.”
“It will take him a week or more to travel between some of the cities, even on horseback,” Clodia said, “so we should at least have time on our side.”
“It is helpful that we have the portals,” I said with a grin. “We may not know the exact location of all the wilderness forts, but we can move between cities in a matter of seconds, and that’s definitely more than Tevian can do, even with all his magic.”
“We could also try to figure out the easiest locations to cut him off or corner him,” Ava said.
“How do we do that when we don’t even know the locations of all the forts?” Penny asked.
“We know the location of the cities,” the blonde assassin replied. “If we look at the position of mountains and rivers on the map, we could make some guesses, but we can also just look at the cities and figure out which ones he could get to fastest.”
“And once I get Twila to send a message to Golierian,” I said, “I can ask him about the exact locations and what kind of numbers and defenses we’re up against, but until then, we can start training our troops on how to fight against cavalry.”
“Um…” Penny trailed off. “And how exactly do we do that?”
“Archers,” Ava murmured. “Lots and lots of archers.”
“And pike-men,” Clodia said. “Those could be helpful.”
“What are pike-men?” Dar asked.
“Pikes are long-ass spears,” Ava said. “Picture a really long pole with a really long pointy end.”
“Historically, they have been quite effective against cavalry,” Clodia added.
“Okay, so we need pike-men and archers,” Penny said. “How long do you think we have to train everybody before Tevian and the wilderness people come fight us?”
“I don’t think we should plan to have more than two weeks,” I said. “We might have a month if we’re lucky since it’ll take Tevian some time to go from one fort to another, but if we don’t want to be caught with our pants down around our ankles, then I’d say let’s try to be prepared for a fight against cavalry in two weeks time.”
“It’s a good thing we have the portals,” Dar said and gave a little whistle. “Otherwise, we’d be fucked.”
“Psh, you can say that again,” Penny groaned.
“Today has been a great day,” I said, “but we definitely still have a lot of work to do.”
“No one said it would be easy to bring down an empire,” Ava said, “or to build a new one in its place.”
A knock suddenly sounded at the door, so Clodia stood up to answer it. It was only Leif, but the massive gladiator looked irritated and just a little bit sad.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the big man sighed. “We caught a priest who was trying to escape from the temple, and I thought you would want to know.”
“Have you broken into the temple?” I demanded.
“No, it’s locked up tight,” Leif replied, “but we caught this elven priest just as he lowered himself out the back window to try to make a run for it.”
“We might have to take care of the temple sooner than I thought,” I growled. “I thought they might all have the good sense to stay locked in, but I can’t have them trying to escape. Their magic is too unpredictable.”
“I did have a few of the men try to break down the temple doors,” Leif said, “but it’s like they’re… I don’t know… they’re reinforced with something that we can’t break through.”
“No doubt, the priestesses and priests have reinforced the doors with magic,” Clodia said. “Something to keep everyone else out until they come up with a plan.”
“How long can they hold a spell like that?” Penny asked. “Will it wear off eventually, or can they do that, uh… forever?”
“It will wear off eventually,” Clodia replied, “especially if they start to get hungry and tired. They may try to keep reinforcing the magic, but at some point, they will exhaust themselves to the point that the magic will wear off, and the doors will just be normal doors again.”
“Then we’ll just keep trying the doors every so often,” I said, “but I want to post some of the Elite outside the temple to keep an eye on it until then. I don’t want anyone inside to get the brilliant idea to try to use their magic against us.”
“Perhaps I can be of help,” Clodia said. “They may be able to use their magic to keep us out, but I can also use magic to help keep them in.”
“Shit, really?” Dar asked. “That’s fucking handy.”
“It will not last forever,” the night elf said, “but it should buy you some time.”
“Then let’s take a quick walk down to the temple, so I can see it for myself,” I said. “Then I’ll go through the portal to the Capital so I can tell Twila to send word to Golierian, and so I can check on things for myself back home.”
“And then we’ll start to plan and train for an attack from the soldiers at the wilderness forts?” Ava asked.
“That’s the plan,” I said, and then I turned back to Leif. “So where’s this priest?”
“Right outside in the courtyard,” the gladiator replied. “I haven’t put him into a cell yet, since I wasn’t sure what you would want to do with him.”
“He didn’t try to use magic against you?” I asked.
“No, he did,” Leif said. “He killed one of the Elite while they were trying to capture him, but the other soldiers managed to bind the priest’s hands behind his back before he could hurt anyone else.”
“He’ll fucking pay for that,” I swore. “Le
if, you stay here and continue your work with the prisoners. Everyone else, come with me.”
“Um, where are we going?” Penny asked. “Leif said they brought the priest here, right?”
“They did, but we’re going to take him right back to the temple where he came from,” I said.
“And, uh, why exactly would we do that?” Dar asked.
“Oh, that’s easy,” I said. “It’s so every other member of their damn priesthood can watch.”
“Watch what?” Leif asked.
“His goddamn execution,” I growled.
Chapter 5
I immediately marched right out into the courtyard with my five friends behind me. I felt a white-hot anger rise up inside my throat, and I knew that it would take all of my self-control not to swipe the priest’s head off the moment that I saw him.
It was one thing to lose a soldier during battle, but it was a completely different matter for a soldier to die from some asshole’s cowardice. This priest had clearly been too terrified to fight during the actual battle that morning, so instead, he had tucked himself away, waited until everything seemed clear, and then tried to run away.
And when he’d gotten caught, he had lashed out like the spineless bastard that he was.
But as much as I wanted to kill him on sight, I forced myself to take a deep breath as I entered the courtyard, so that I would be able to keep my hand steady for a few more minutes. Of course, this asshole would die, but I wanted to ask him a few questions first, and just as importantly, I also wanted all his little friends in the priesthood to see his fate.
The priest stood in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by four Elite soldiers. He was a day elf, but his skin looked like he had never actually seen the light of day. It was a sickly shade of white that matched his white-blond hair, and his blue eyes were so pale that they damn near looked see-through. His arms were bound so tightly behind his back that he couldn’t inflate his chest all the way, so his breaths came shallow and ragged… of course, that could also have just been from the fact that he couldn’t stop sniveling.
“I’ll take it from here,” I told Leif and then glanced at the closest row of Elite soldiers. “I need twelve men to come with me.”