“So, politics then,” Jack said.
“Right up until one of us has the chance to strike, then it’s back to war. We’re leaving tomorrow morning to recover the Stone. I expect my escort will be highly dangerous.”
“I’ll leave at once,” Jack said, gathering his notebook and quill.
“Chloe will find you when we get close,” Alexander said, vanishing from his room and reappearing a moment later in the middle of the road leading from the western province to Mithel Dour. Jataan, Anja, and Lita reined in the giant Rhone steeds each was riding, stopping a few feet before him.
“Lord Reishi,” Jataan said, nodding deferentially.
“I got help,” Anja said.
“I see that,” Alexander said. “I also see that you managed to become a girl again.”
“I got help with that, too,” she said with an impudent shrug. “You didn’t really think I was going to leave you there, did you?”
“You’d be safer if you’d gone home.”
“I know.”
“Commander, Jack is coming to you and I won’t be far behind him. Hold here until he arrives. He knows where you’ll be going. Marshal what forces you can but stay out of sight until you hear from me.”
“Understood, Lord Reishi.”
“No, it’s not,” Anja said. “Why aren’t we coming to get you?”
“Politics,” Alexander said, fading out of sight and returning to his body.
He slept like the dead, waking with a thousand questions swirling in his mind. A few moments after he woke, servants descended on him, sweeping him up and whisking him smoothly through a hasty morning routine that ultimately deposited him on the battlements of the palace with a small group of very dangerous men all standing behind the Babachenko.
“I’m afraid I have some troubling news to report,” the Babachenko said. “Titus Grant has escaped our custody, along with his wife. The High Overseer is handling the matter himself, so I expect a quick resolution.”
“I see,” Alexander said, looking off the battlement into the distance for several moments. When the Babachenko started to fidget, Alexander nodded to himself.
“Perhaps this is an opportunity. Grant has his own agenda, to be sure, but he also has a well-funded organization. If we knew what he was planning, maybe we could mislead him into serving our interests.”
“An excellent suggestion, Lord Reishi. I’ll make the arrangements,” the Babachenko said.
Alexander stepped up close. The Babachenko tensed almost imperceptibly, another faint shimmer of fear lighting up his colors.
“Making your enemy do your bidding is the sweetest part of power, don’t you think?” he whispered, stepping past him to survey the men assembled as his escort.
“Perhaps introductions are in order,” he said, casually.
“Of course, Lord Reishi,” the Babachenko said, spinning quickly and stepping up on his right. “Your party is comprised of our very best: Lord Protector Kagosi, Royal Assassin Yasim, and Chief Overseers Bahar and Jago. A dozen Lancers will accompany you as well.”
The Babachenko’s colors may have been less than useful lately, but these men couldn’t hide their essential nature. The Babachenko would describe them as nobles, but their colors were anything but.
“Excellent, I trust that you gentlemen understand what’s at stake,” Alexander said. “We must not fail and we must not delay. Lord Protector, take me to my steed.”
The big battle-scarred Acuna mage nodded slowly. “By your command, Lord Reishi.”
Alexander ignored the rest of the party as if they were beneath him, even though he knew that all four of these men were deadly in the extreme. The Lancers waiting for them at the base of the cliff had two rhone for each man and they’d also sent word ahead to Lancer outposts along the way to have fresh steeds ready. It wasn’t long before they were out on the open road riding toward the western province with all possible haste.
Alexander would have preferred a horse, but no aspiring emperor of the world would choose an inferior steed, even if it would have been faster. While they rode, he mused about how cumbersome it was to live in a web of lies.
The rhone were powerful but lacked the endurance of horses, so the party had to stop to switch steeds frequently, arriving at a small Lancer outpost just before dark. It was little more than a stone wall surrounding a courtyard and a tower, but it housed a platoon of Lancers and plenty of spare rhone.
Alexander pretended to inspect the fortifications, the Lord Protector trailing behind him everywhere he went. He wound up on top of the tower with a very nervous watchman. Alexander looked out into the night, picking out the black, inky colors of Vasili Nero hiding in the shadows not far from camp. Farther out, just at the edge of his all around sight, were the telltale smudges of color that represented two groups of men camped at a good distance from each other, each following Alexander and his escort.
“Lord Protector Kagosi, I trust you’re aware that we’re being followed,” Alexander said without turning.
He hesitated, uncertainty and guile swirling in his colors. “Yes, Lord Reishi. The Babachenko sent a reserve force to trail us.”
“A wise precaution, but that doesn’t account for the second party,” Alexander said.
Kagosi seemed genuinely surprised. “I was not aware of a second party. Are you certain?” he asked, stepping up next to Alexander and peering into the night.
Alexander pointed in the direction of the enemy encampment. “Half a league.”
“I’ll send scouts at once,” Kagosi said, turning on his heel and marching down the tower stairs. A few minutes later, two teams of three Lancers each thundered into the night.
“About as subtle as a battering ram,” Alexander thought to Chloe.
“Who do you think the other group is?”
“Probably Tyr … could be Grant; it’s hard to say.”
Kagosi returned to the tower, taking his place watching Alexander under the pretext of guarding him.
“Our following force has been ordered to engage the enemy and route them.”
“Excellent,” Alexander said, heading down the tower to his tent. He noted the four men standing guard, as well as Royal Assassin Yasim, who was sitting in a chair beside the entrance. Yasim stood, nodding almost imperceptibly. Alexander ignored them all and went to bed.
He woke in the night and slipped out of his tent, tapping Yasim on the shoulder, drawing his attention with a start. Alexander held a finger across his lips. Yasim nodded.
“Nero is just outside the camp,” Alexander whispered. “I’m going to kill him, and I want you to come with me.”
Yasim did an admirable job of schooling his expression, but his colors were another matter: fear, uncertainty, confused loyalties. After a brief internal struggle, he nodded once, then spoke with the guards, instructing them to hold their position as if Alexander was still in the tent.
Yasim motioned for silence as they approached the gate guard. After a whispered conversation, the guard slowly and quietly opened the gate just enough for Alexander and Yasim to slip out. A quarter moon, low in the sky, provided scant illumination. Alexander moved slowly toward Nero’s position, while watching Yasim closely.
The Royal Assassin seemed distracted until Nero stepped out from behind a boulder thirty feet away.
“So now what, Pretender? You may have fooled these idiots, but I know better.”
Alexander drew his sword.
“Oh, would that I could kill you now, but Master would be most displeased … him on the other hand …” Nero vanished, reappearing twenty feet closer, long black knife drawn.
“Back to back,” Alexander shouted to Yasim. The assassin obeyed, dagger in hand.
Alexander stretched out with his mind into the coming seconds, spinning at the last possible moment, pushing Yasim aside and thrusting into Nero’s head. His blade fell on Nero’s helmet, glancing aside, knocking Nero back but doing little damage. The wraithkin vanished again.
&nbs
p; Yasim seemed to disappear into the shadows even as Alexander heard him scramble to his feet. Alexander spun, slicing at neck height and catching Nero with just the last inch of steel across his throat the moment he materialized. His eyes went wide and he vanished again, this time twenty feet away. When he materialized again, he was running toward the west.
Yasim seemed to step out of the shadows. “You saved me,” he said.
“Or I used you as bait,” Alexander said, “it all depends on your perspective.”
Yasim cocked his head, regarding Alexander intently, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “Your gambit nearly worked. A bold attempt.”
Alexander wiped the blood from the slightly blunted tip of his sword and nodded to himself. “Nearly.”
Sounds of rhone in the distance filtered through the night.
“The Lord Protector has become aware of your absence,” Yasim said.
A few minutes later, they were quickly surrounded by Lancers.
The Lord Protector pushed into the circle and confronted Alexander. “Explain yourself!” he demanded.
Alexander regarded him coolly for several moments. “Lord Protector, I would be happy to brief you on the failings of your security, but not here. Give me a steed.”
The Lord Protector took a deep breath and let it out slowly before snapping at the nearest Lancer to surrender his mount.
They returned to the keep where Alexander recounted the fight with Nero. After Yasim supported his account, Alexander left without a word and went back to his tent, wondering where Nero had gone and when he was going to show up again.
The next morning brought rain and a decidedly different kind of treatment from the Lancers and even the more elite members of his escort. Alexander surmised that an account of the fight with Nero had filtered through the barracks, because most of the junior Lancers wouldn’t look him in the eye when he passed. They were afraid.
Once they were on the road again, the day passed without incident. Very few were foolish enough to attack a unit of Lancers out in the open.
The second night brought them to another fortification: ten-foot log walls with a well-spiked berm before it and a shallow moat filled with oil-soaked hay ten feet in front of that. Twenty-foot towers rose from each corner and the whole courtyard was a common space shared by livestock and people alike. It stunk.
Alexander took his meal to his tent, quietly drawing a magic circle after he’d finished eating. He slipped into the firmament moments later and appeared before Jataan, Lita, Anja, and Jack, who were all sitting around a small fire in the forest.
“Lord Reishi,” Jataan said, standing.
“We’re two days from the big meadow,” Alexander said. “Here’s my plan …”
Chapter 27
The last leg of their journey across the plains brought them to the slaver camp at the edge of the western province where Alexander had been brought after he was captured in the forest. The place had been largely transformed into a well-fortified forward operating base for the Lancers working to put down the local resistance.
Despite their rhone steeds and force lances, or perhaps because of them, they were having very little success against the people who’d chosen to stay and fight for their homes. Alexander could see poor morale in the Lancers’ colors everywhere he looked.
Commander Udane led Alexander and his escort across a muddy courtyard and into a wooden building, which had been hastily made from rough-cut lumber but looked sturdy enough. They went upstairs to the war room, a conference area with maps and rosters pinned to the walls and littering the large, central table.
Udane unrolled a map in the middle of the table, setting weights on each corner to keep it from rolling back up. He pointed at a mark and said, “We’re here.”
Alexander pointed to the big meadow and said, “We need to go here.”
Kagosi and Yasim shared a quick glance.
“A day’s travel through dangerous territory,” Udane said. “I don’t recommend it.”
“Your recommendation isn’t required, Commander,” Alexander said, “but your assistance is. I will expect an escort capable of meeting any challenge we might find along the way. Have the men ready to leave in the morning. Where are my chambers?”
Udane looked to the Lord Protector before nodding curtly to Alexander. “If you’ll follow me, Lord Reishi, I’ll show you to your quarters.”
Once there, Alexander dismissed Udane with a gesture and bolted the door, scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary. The closer they got to the Stone, the thinner the veil of lies wore. His escort team had never been able to hide their colors, but even their forced deference was beginning to erode. Alexander rubbed his neck where the collar had chafed him.
Moments after he lay down for the night, an alarm horn blew. When he opened his door, he found Yasim standing there.
“What’s happening?”
“An unknown force approaches.”
Alexander headed for the battlements, trailing Yasim behind him.
He found the Lord Protector on the northeastern tower. He was in the midst of casting a spell. Alexander looked out into the night, seeing a dozen men hiding in the shadows near the walls.
Shards of reddish force began appearing over the Lord Protector’s head; each held its initial position for the count of a heartbeat before darting off into the night toward the men probing the camp’s defenses. At first, a shard appeared every second or so, then two, then five, then ten at a time, all streaking toward the target area, ripping into anyone caught in the open. The barrage lasted for nearly a minute, sending hundreds of deadly magical blades at the enemy, tearing into the ground and stones, littering the area with mutilated corpses. Alexander saw two men flee into the night after the terrifying spell had run its course.
He’d wondered about the Lord Protector’s calling. A force mage was formidable … Alexander regarded him with renewed caution.
“Do we know who they were?”
“Not yet, Lord Reishi,” Kagosi said. “Our men will investigate their remains and report.”
“Well done,” Alexander said, walking away before he had a chance to respond. He suspected either Tyr or Grant was behind the probing attack and decided that it didn’t matter much, considering how forcefully the Lord Protector had repelled their advance. Another frontal assault was highly unlikely.
The warning horn blew again just before dawn. Again, Alexander found the Lord Protector on the northeastern tower.
“Report,” Alexander said.
“We estimate a force of five hundred skirting our position and entering the forest on foot.”
“Any idea who they are?”
“Brigands and bandits,” Kagosi said. “The ones I killed last night were known associates of Nightshade.”
“Interesting,” Alexander said.
They set out at first light with the bulk of Udane’s forces riding escort, two hundred Lancers, leaving a minimal guard force in the base camp. Kagosi and Yasim were becoming more anxious by the hour, but Alexander was getting calmer and more centered. The time for battle would arrive soon enough.
The Lancers seemed nervous as they wound through the forest on well-worn trails that, nevertheless, confined and constricted their ability to move and charge.
Alexander pulled up next to Udane. “Doesn’t seem like the best terrain for Lancers to operate in,” he said, off-handedly.
“It’s not,” Udane said. “If it were up to me, we’d burn the entire forest to the ground. See how well the resistance does against us out in the open.”
“You could change your tactics,” Alexander said.
“What do you mean?” Udane asked.
“Wear lighter armor, go in on foot, and learn to use a bow,” Alexander said.
“We’re Lancers,” Udane said, spurring his rhone ahead.
They reached the meadow just after sundown, setting up camp in the rapidly encroaching darkness.
“We should discuss our plans f
or tomorrow,” the Lord Protector said.
“It’s simple enough,” Alexander said. “We go search around the forest until I find the place where I hid the Sovereign Stone.”
“Commander Udane has expressed serious security concerns,” Kagosi said. “Perhaps it would be best to send Lancers to retrieve the Stone, so that your safety will not be compromised.”
“I’ll have a hard enough time finding the spot myself … there’s no way your men would be able to find it without me. I have to go myself.”
“As you wish, Lord Reishi,” Kagosi said.
That evening, Alexander noticed that the security force around his tent had doubled. Now that they were getting close, the Andalians were getting nervous. Yasim nodded ever so slightly to Alexander when he entered his tent.
“Are you ready, Little One?”
“Yes, My Love.”
“Jack should be waiting for you.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
Alexander linked his mind with Chloe, watching through her eyes as she flitted through the aether, passing right through the trees of the forest. She flew with unerring precision, following a straight path between Alexander and the Sovereign Stone, and found Jack at the prearranged spot, covering a broken and rotting tree stump with his body and hidden by his magical cloak.
“Whoa!” Jack whispered when Chloe materialized inside the tree trunk, bringing the Sovereign Stone and Alexander’s pouch with her in a dazzling flash of light. “You certainly know how to make an entrance, My Lady.”
“Be careful, Jack,” she said. “Everyone in the world is looking for this.”
“Tell Alexander that everything’s in place,” Jack said, slipping the Sovereign Stone into the pouch and securing the pouch to a lanyard he wore under his armor.
“I will,” Chloe said, flying up and kissing him on the cheek. “For luck,” she said before vanishing in a ball of light. Jack adjusted his cloak and started moving through the forest.
Alexander gently disentangled his mind from Chloe’s and lay back on his bed. Much would be decided in the coming hours, but for now all he could do was wait.
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