by A L Hardy
Unwilling to part with his knife in the tense moment, Jurod switched it to his offhand and reached for his water skin where it was tied next to his saddlebag. Focusing still took a good amount of concentration for him, but Jurod managed to cast the Cleansing and Chilling spells that Ilays had taught him and took a long draft. As he tied the skin back onto the saddlebags, he sensed someone approaching.
The sound of distant hoof beats echoed down the road from the east. Jurod immediately released his Focus, tied the water skin back where it belonged, and drew another knife.
“Horses approaching!” Jurod called out to the pair in the distance.
Ilays was at his side almost immediately with her bow in hand. Xardan and the red haired barbarian didn’t seem to respond. Ilays drew back her arrow as the hoof beats grew louder. Two horses rounded the bend at a full gallop and Jurod and Ilays got a straight view of the riders and bags they carried. The riders were a Kin and a Penshalt; both riders wore common brown tunics and britches with vivid white cloaks. Their packs and saddlebags were bulging full of various small pouches and glass bottles.
Both riders reined in hard when they saw the archers and horses ahead, even while Ilays and Jurod lowered their bows. The Penshalt shouted forward, “Peace! We bear ya no ill will!”
“And neither do we bear any to you!” Ilays shouted back as she slowly released the tension on her bowstring, but didn’t lower the weapon.
The two riders approached at a slow trot in spite of Ilays’s assurances and Jurod could see that neither was armed and sensed that neither was Focusing.
“Who are you?” Jurod asked.
“We are healers from Emmil’s Watch.” The Kin rider responded, “I am called Gareth, and this is my apprentice Brold.”
The Penshalt bowed low in his saddle at his introduction and drawled in his thick accent, “Are ya aimun bows at ev’r un that rides ‘round the bend?”
“We’re expecting some… unfriendly guests.” Ilays explained.
“And ambushing and killing them is your reaction?” Gareth asked.
“Protecting ourselves is our reaction!” Jurod barked back.
“Calm yourself, Jurod,” a familiar voice chimed from behind him, “They mean no offense. They’re just… devout in their beliefs.”
Jurod nearly jumped from his saddle in excitement and exclaimed loudly, “Father Nikolas! How did you get away?”
Jurod saw Nikolas in the same fighting gear that the barbarian had worn, but with his white hair trimmed short and his own wiry frame. Xardan was next to him with both hands resting on the hilt of his sword.
“I used a few Changing spells,” Nikolas casually replied, “And surprised them with a few tricks that I had up my sleeve.”
“We have to get moving.” Xardan announced, “Now that we have the spell book Justyn and Lewk will be coming after us.”
“Where do we run to?” Jurod asked.
“To Emmil’s Watch if it pleases you,” Gareth answered, “We can give you refuge, but you will have to leave your weapons with our keeper.”
“So we hide the book there?” Jurod asked.
“Hiding the book didn’t work in a monastery of trained fighters, why would it work in a village of pacifist healers?” Nikolas retorted.
“Trained fighters!?” Jurod exclaimed “I thought you were simple healers…”
Chuckling, Nikolas replied “I wish I could have told you sooner my boy, but you chose not to join our order. As it happens, that monastery is home to some of the finest fighters in Khesyc. The pacifist nature is only a guise to allow us to train our skills in private. Did you really believe that you learned to throw those knives as well as you did from men who had no experience using them in the real world? You weren’t taught by men who only threw them at targets their whole lives. I’ll explain more another time Jurod, but for now we need to get moving; and I still don’t think that a village of healers will help us hide that book from Lewk and Justyn.”
“It won’t.” Xardan finished, “But the book has to keep moving and Emmil’s Watch is probably the best place for us to get a little rest. At least if those two catch up to us, they’ll have to be unarmed when they get there. It gives us a certain advantage that we otherwise wouldn’t have. Lead on Watchers.”
Chapter 8
The remaining Fey were unsuccessful in their campaign. Defeated by the Kin - nearly to the point of extinction - the remaining Fey were driven to the Great Dragons to beg mercy.
*
Justyn and Lewk rode hard after the red haired barbarian’s tracks until they came to the small town of Emmil’s Watch. A small palisade surrounded the village with three roads leading into the town and a small river a stone’s throw away. The pair slowed as the two unarmed, white-cloaked sentries stepped into the road.
“Good morning travelers!” one of the sentries greeted, “Welcome to Emmil’s Watch!”
“Thank you, Sir.” Justyn replied, “We are following a large, red haired man that we believe came here last night or this morning. Have you seen him?”
“The only visitors that we have now are the four that arrived earlier today with Gareth and Brold; and none of them are red haired.”
“I see…” Justyn said, “Can you describe them to me?”
“The Knight of the Black Era, his squire, a Lythrain maiden, and an old man.” The second sentry answered.
Lewk edged up alongside Justyn and whispered to him, “Xardan must have found Nikolas.”
“Indeed!” Justyn growled in his irritated snarl.
“How could they have gotten...?” Lewk began.
Justyn held his hand up to silence Lewk and turned back to the sentries, “I need to see Sir Xardan, on urgent business of Faelhart.”
“I will summon someone to take you to him immediately,” the sentry answered, “Just leave your weapons here with us, and our messenger will take you to him.”
“Give us a moment to converse before we go to meet master Xardan,” Lewk said, indicating to Justyn that he wanted to pull back a little way to speak alone.
“Whenever you’re ready to enter, come back and give up your weapons and we’ll allow you in right away,” the first sentry said as he and his companion stood waiting.
“Justyn, why on earth would we hand these men our weapons when we could just kill them and move on to Xardan and his companions now? He wouldn’t be expecting a surprise attack at a village of healers. It would be perfect.”
“You’ve obviously only ever heard the stories of Emmil’s Watch before Lewk,” the humor in Justyn’s voice was immediately apparent. “Believe me when I say that you may be a powerful spell caster, but none in Khesyc can make you lose your wit as quickly as these men. One of the reasons they’re such great healers is because they can put you to sleep in an instant with one of their specialized spells. And I’ve never seen a mage who could counter it as fast as they can cast it. They won’t kill and they won’t truly fight, but they’ll pacify us and make sure we never have entry to the town.”
Justyn turned back to the sentries and began his practiced hand at removing his various straps and scabbards. Before he could finish removing the first of them though, one of the sentries piped in “Hold a moment good sir. We do catalogue all weapons and who left them, but as a way of verifying whose weapons are who’s for those few slip ups that do happen, we ask that you keep your scabbards and only leave the weapons themselves.”
Justyn’s blade flashed from its scabbard and fell to the keepers; various other blades and knives followed the first. Lewk simply pulled a dagger from the folds of his robe and offered the hilt to the nearest sentry.
“Take me to Xardan Ta’Caran.” Justyn ordered.
*
Ilays’s senses rode the wind around Emmil’s Watch and felt the breeze stir her mind in the grasses far below. She felt the consciousness of every bug, bird, and animal brushing against hers. The breeze took another wrap around the city and along the road from Riverguard and back to the heale
r’s village.
It was because of her meditation that it came as no real shock to her when Xardan and Father Nikolas burst into the room.
“Sorry to disturb you, Ilays,” Xardan announced, “But Justyn and Lewk have found us and it’s time for the spell book to start moving again.”
“I know. I sensed them only a few moments ago while my senses rode on the breeze. Sorry to have waited until you got here, but I had already sensed you coming here and knew that nothing would be accomplished by my coming to find you first,” Ilays said as she jumped to her feet and moved to retrieve her cloak and weapons, stopping when she reached her empty scabbards and remembered that the keepers had her blades.
“Jurod and Nikolas will take the spell book and leave for the ruins of Illyria; they can cross the Illyrian river there and wait for us on the other side.” Xardan barked out the orders quickly, “Ilays and I will get rid of Lewk and Justyn and meet up with you two there.”
“No Xardan!” Jurod replied, “I will not be held out of the fight again! I want to help!”
Xardan turned to Jurod with a look of cold impatience. “Jurod,” he explained, “I admit that I have tried to keep you out of harm’s way. However, I have seen that of every squire I have ever taken you are the worst at following simple instructions.
“Accordingly, I have decided that you are the person I trust the most to handle what is possibly the most important task I could ever require of a comrade.”
“Take a book and run?” Jurod mocked.
Xardan’s demeanor became more serious with every word that he spoke, “Yes. I do not know if Justyn and Lewk will kill me today. I need someone that I can trust at my side, and I need someone that I can trust just as much to protect Laglan’s spell book. If Ilays and I do not catch up to you in Illyria within a day of when you arrive there yourself, keep moving. Protect the book at all costs and never let Tennlka get it! Take it beyond Reth to Wilderland if you must!”
“Now go!” Ilays said, “The horses are in the stables, Xardan and I will hold Justyn and Lewk back as long as possible.”
Jurod nodded his understanding and reluctantly followed Nikolas out of the room. Ilays turned to Xardan with purple glazed eyes and summoned a sword of fire into each hand as the shadows in the room took shape into a shadow blade at Xardan’s command.
Ilays followed Xardan out of the small, single story building and onto the side road of the healer’s village. Across the street was the only two-story building in the entire village, which served as the town hall. Ilays followed Xardan through the back door of the town hall and through the meeting rooms and clerks offices to the front door.
Out on the main road, they found their prey. Ilays first felt Lewk’s attempt to secure a Guard spell around her and felt the power of his Focus as he did. Knowing that she didn’t possess the strength to break his Focus, Ilays instead cast a series of fast, light spells to attack Lewk’s mind and distract him. With Lewk distracted trying to defend against her spells, Ilays spun toward him with her flaming swords.
Lewk cast a Traveling spell of Confidence, Anticipation, and Panic and vanished in a bright flash just as Ilays’s flaming weapons cut through the air where he had been standing.
Ilays spun immediately into a horizontal high guard with her right blade and caught the downward slash of an ice sword that Lewk had conjured. The blade spun through stances of its own accord as Lewk cast mental attacks at Ilays that she easily and familiarly disposed of as quickly as he cast them.
Spell after spell assaulted Ilays coming closer and closer each time as Ilays analyzed each spell individually for their source. A fire wave erupted from Ilays and consumed Lewk’s ice blade. Ilays followed the spell with fire darts that shot from her fingers into the window of a nearby healer’s dormitory.
Lewk’s robes were still smoking when his Traveling spell brought him back into the village square, and Ilays wasted no time in continuing her assault. Lewk conjured another blade of ice that he wielded himself, though his skill with the weapon was worse than Jurod’s. Ilays spun easily with Lewk and cast a powerful mental spell to break Lewk’s Focus, followed by a Guard spell thrown quickly into the temporary gap.
Lewk’s blade vanished as his Focus broke, but his spell casting didn’t stop. Lewk shot an evil grin at Ilays and conjured a new blade of black plasma that shone with an eerie green light.
“There are things about magic that not even Lythrain understand!” Lewk roared into the crisp morning air.
“And there are things about mortality that Kin never seem to learn!” Ilays lunged at the former monk, who disappeared in another bright flash. Ilays prepared a dozen Shielding spells against the attacks that didn’t come; Lewk was gone.
*
Xardan and Justyn spun through endless blade forms, clashing Xardan’s shadow blade with Justyn’s ice blade, which Xardan assumed Lewk had conjured for the other soldier.
Xardan pressed a hard, fast assault against Justyn’s guards as he shifted through a complex series of attacks at Justyn’s head. Justyn moved easily with the attacks, meeting each stroke with the appropriate guard.
“You’ve improved.” Xardan noted.
“You haven’t.” Justyn countered.
Xardan spun into a middle guard to block Justyn’s strike, and shifted in the bind to force Justyn to bend over backward, pushing up against Xardan’s downward pressure.
“I don’t need to.” Xardan calmly stated.
Xardan stepped back from the bind and let Justyn regain his footing before they launched into another series of blows. Xardan spun around Justyn and smashed the pommel of his blade into the back of Justyn’s head.
“Move your feet more.” Xardan advised, “Don’t let me force you around so easily.”
Justyn glared in defiance as he rose and planted his feet firmly into the ground. Xardan grinned back at the other soldier and initiated another series of attacks that left him behind the stubborn Captain. Xardan arched his blade in a horizontal slash at Justyn’s exposed back, but the soldier rolled forward and away from the strike.
“How you became a High Captain with such poor blade work is far beyond my comprehension.” Xardan announced.
Justyn angrily lunged forward. Xardan parried him aside and shoved him down toward the dirt. Justyn fell downward and his shadow rose upward, colliding hard and throwing the soldier back several yards.
Justyn rose to his feet again, rage evident on his face. Not caring where his sword had gone, Justyn charged forward and grappled the Shadow Knight to the ground. Xardan accepted his grapple and used Justyn’s momentum to spin above his oppressor.
Xardan punched Justyn’s face until he heard the distinct crack of bones breaking before he rose from the street. Xardan stepped back several paces in the bright morning light and let Justyn rise, only to charge forward and grapple him into the window of the nearby healer’s academy. The pair landed in a dark room amid broken wood and glass; Xardan smiled in success.
“You’re in my arena now.” Xardan stated.
Shadows bent to Xardan’s command and lifted Justyn a foot off the ground. Xardan moved forward confidently, locking eye contact with Justyn as he hung at the Knight’s mercy.
A bright light flashed between Xardan and Justyn and the Knight barely called a Shadow Shield up to block the black and green demon fire that Lewk threw at him. Shadow Lightning shot out of Xardan’s hand and blasted the traitor back into the Captain.
“Now we have a challenge.” Xardan mocked, summoning a new shadow blade into his hand.
Lewk’s Demonic Magic released Justyn’s bonds and the monk summoned a plasma blade for the soldier. Xardan shifted back into a defensive high guard as the pair moved to flank the Knight. Silence ruled in the academy for half of a second when Lewk and Justyn stopped and stood directly opposite each other around Xardan.
Lewk’s magic moved first as the monk called twin balls of demon fire that Xardan turned to match with Shadow Shields. Justyn charged at Xardan’s ba
ck and the Knight barely turned to parry the soldier’s stroke before it landed.
Xardan rolled as another pair of demon fireballs rushed past and rose into a middle guard to catch Justyn’s next strike. Xardan caught another of Justyn’s attacks with a high guard, grabbed Justyn’s tunic, and spun the soldier to protect himself from Lewk’s next fireball.
Xardan tossed the now flaming soldier aside and charged at the monk. Shadow Shields stopped Lewk’s fireballs as the Knight closed his distance. Dozens of small, bright orbs of light erupted around Xardan and removed all of the shadows from the room.
“Not so powerful when there are no shadows, master Knight?” Lewk asked.
Justyn’s flames hissed in complaint as Lewk’s magic extinguished them. Lewk approached the fallen soldier and examined his burns and broken face. Placing a gentle hand on either of Justyn’s cheeks, Lewk cast the healing spells that restored Justyn’s face and skin.
“Creating more light doesn’t make me powerless, Lewk.” Xardan answered.
“No it does not.” Lewk agreed as he and Justyn rose and turned to face the Knight, “But it does leave you without your power.”
Lewk conjured another demonic sword in front of Justyn that he greedily snatched out of the air. Justyn lunged forward as a crash sounded from the nearest window. Ilays rushed forward, parried Justyn’s lunge, and slashed the soldier across his left arm.
Xardan reacted immediately to the confusion and grappled Lewk to the ground. Every ball of light vanished when the monk’s head hit the floor.
Ilays pressed hard, fast attacks against Justyn’s guard and forced the soldier back toward where Xardan had Lewk grappled to the ground. A blast of air flung Xardan off of Lewk and back several feet before the Knight regained his footing. Lewk rose and looked to Ilays and Justyn, then back to Xardan. Defeat was evident in his eyes.