Death Flag

  Warren was the first to appear, looking only slightly-dazed over the lack of sleep, and he was soon followed by Erin and Shayna. Erin was as somber and composed as she ever was—anything else would have been weird on the typically-stoic girl—but Shayna looked frumpy and half asleep. Given that the two emerged from the same room, it was likely that Erin had woken her up and gotten her moving by use of more than a little bit of force. Her clothes were disheveled, her eyes were still half-closed, and she didn’t say so much as a word as she plopped down in a chair at the table and stared at the food Madison had set out. Alyanna came last, and to her credit, she seemed to be as awake and energetic as ever—likely some trick taught to young ladies who had to look prim and proper at a moment’s notice.

  Together, they all tucked into the warm breakfast, noting that it was likely the last warm meal they would have for a few days. There was no telling what they were going to find beyond the walls, and unless there was some new type of magic that no one had told him about that concealed the light and smoke from a campfire, they weren’t likely to be able to cook anything until they knew that Lord Fox was safely in his homeland. Madison had qualms about eating a big meal before doing a ton of exercise, but given the circumstances, he pushed down as much food as he could possibly stand and then a bit more.

  When they were finished, which took far less time than he had suspected, they packed away the trash into the basket, and Madison wrapped up all the leftover waffles, bacon, and fruit and made them disappear into his magical miniature trunk with the intention of saving them for either a snack or for lunch. Planning ahead was important, and there was no telling how long they were going to have to make their food last if something went wrong. He passed out the bags of camping gear and rations, which everyone promptly stowed away in a similar fashion, and then the small group set out.

  They quickly snuck through the main keep and across the fields, and they were already into the outer walls with Warren leading the way before they ever met a single person. There was a lone man standing guard at the gate, someone Madison didn’t recognize, and he looked to be even more asleep than Shayna. Warren didn’t even have to explain anything or say a word, and the guard opened the gate for them, allowing them to pass out into the fields. By the time the sun started coming up, the group was already making its way up the gravel pathway and the switchbacks that cut back and forth across the valley walls, and they were thankfully hidden from the warmth of the early-morning sunrise as they trekked up the eastern wall.

  Madison took several looks back at the citadel below them, remembering the first and only time he had seen the valley from this perspective. He had been half-dead at the time, beaten and bruised and under the effects of a healing potion that Warren had given him. Ironically, that might have been a telling sign for how his experience at K’yer Utane was going to go. The entire citadel was a literal breeding ground for conflict, intrigue and a training ground for killers and assassins, but looking back on it from high above, it looked almost picturesque and romantic. The peaceful, rolling fields led to high stone walls that fenced in the massive towers and main keep, and Madison was once again struck with how similar it looked to many of the fortresses and castles he had seen in movies and read about in books.

  They crested the lip of the valley before the sun ever climbed into the sky high enough to reach them and plunged under the thick canopy of leaves, guaranteeing that they wouldn’t likely see the sun until they reemerged at some unknown point in the future. Returning to the murky gloom and perpetual twilight definitely brought back memories. It felt like forever ago now, but it hadn’t been but a few weeks’ short time ago that he had been tied to the back of a cart and forced to travel through this land while in the care of a band of slavers. None of those memories were pleasant, and he chalked it up to fate and fortune that he had been able to escape at all. If they had any sense about them, they would have beaten him senseless and left him bound and gagged in the back of the wagon. Due to some strange expectations of complacency, however, they had made the fatal mistake of continuing to trust him. Truth be told, Madison was no more prepared to deal with this world now than he had been then. He had come to terms with the fact that he was a somewhat capable swordsman, but he still knew very little about this world or the dangers it might pose to him other than the fact that he was certain that everyone was out to kill him for one reason or another.

  For the first hour, Warren led them in a northerly direction. He seemed to have a decent sense of where they were and a familiarity with the land that came from having traveled over it so many times. He often steered them around the ditches and ravines, some of which Madison remembered from when he first traveled through the area when running away, before returning them to their previous course, and he sometimes called back with simple comments and directions such as ‘There’s a small stream in that direction’ or ‘Pay attention to this massive tree up ahead, it’s one of the biggest in the region I’ve come across.’ All in all, he played the part of a mostly-silent tour guide that kept them on course.

  Sometime shortly after that, however, it became obvious that Warren was silently steering them around unforeseen obstacles of a completely different nature. Madison followed along tacitly with everyone else for about half an hour before it became so obvious that even he couldn’t avoid asking the question.

  “How many do you think there are?” Madison quietly asked as he broke the silence. He was no tracker, but even he had been able to pick up on the signs that a somewhat sizeable force had moved through the area. The leaves were disturbed in several places, often trampled completely, and he had picked up on the tracks left behind by a wagon at one juncture as well. He couldn’t recall it raining since he had been in K’yer Utane, but he had been unconscious for almost half of the time he was there, and there was nothing guaranteeing that the weather there reflected the weather here—after all, it was protected by a magical barrier to keep people away, and that might work in inclement weather as well. Considering that the forest remained in a perpetual gloom, it wasn’t hard to believe that the soil never truly dried out either.

  “I can’t be sure,” Warren answered almost immediately. “You picked up on it as well?” There was something akin to surprise in his voice, but he didn’t call Madison out directly.

  “You’d have to be blind to miss it,” Madison remarked. “We’ve been moving from east to west so that you can keep a somewhat clear view of what’s in front of us, and it’s obvious they haven’t made any effort to hide the fact that they’re out here.”

  “Mmm . . . Yeah. You’re right, and that’s what has me worried. Slavers generally move through the area fairly quickly on their own. They’re in a hurry to get to market, make their money, and spend it on women and booze. They don’t tend to stay out here too long for fear of the rare slave escaping or someone else coming along and poaching their bounty. These signs . . . Some of the ones I’ve picked up on are recent—as in made in the last day—but some of them go back for a lot longer than that. The soil here really never washes away, so it’s hard to tell sometimes how long the impressions have been there.”

  “So, we don’t know how many are ahead of us, but we know they’re out there,” Madison concluded, summarizing what Warren had left unsaid by way of a roundabout explanation.

  “Basically,” Warren agreed.

  “But they’re heading the same way we are?” Alyanna asked, worry etching across her face. “Does that mean they’re following my father?”

  “Almost certainly,” Warren said. “I’ve been following the trail they left behind more or less since we left. They’re avoiding the major hazards and plunging through the smaller ones, but there’s no indication so far that they’re in any hurry. That’s a good thing. If they felt like they were in danger or were being followed, they’d pick up the pace and push ahead as much as they could.”

  “How much of a lead do they have on us?” Madison asked, carefully picking his way around a particu
larly wet-looking patch of soil. “I don’t think anyone’s told me an exact translation of time between K’yer Utane and the rest of the world, but that’s going to complicate things, right? We only wasted eighteen to twenty hours planning and resting, but they’ve had something closer to two days to travel, right?”

  “What?” Warren asked, his shock now obvious. “How did you come up with that?”

  Madison shrugged. “Paying attention mostly. It’s a bit of a taboo subject, I know, but people still talk, so I listen.” He had taken up a position at the rear of the small group since Warren was in the lead, so he couldn’t tell if the conversation was bothering Erin. The young girl was as quiet now as she had been since waking up and gave no indication that she was affected by the topic of time.

  “Well, you’re not too far off, actually,” Warren said. “It’s actually fairly impressive that you were able to come up with that without anyone telling you. They don’t have quite a two-day lead, but something close to it. We’re going to naturally be moving faster than they will, so I’m not too worried about shortening that rather quickly. I know this land far better than they do, and we’re able to keep a faster pace. At the rate we’re going, I figure that we should overtake them sometime in the middle of their third day.”

  “That soon?” Madison asked. “I guess there aren’t exactly many roads through the area, so that makes sense . . . and being forced to travel around some of the larger ravines instead of through them because of their baggage takes a lot longer as well.”

  “Exactly,” Warren agreed. “We should—” He suddenly stopped walking and cut himself off at the same time, crouching down and inspecting something on the ground. “Wait here,” he ordered, standing up and breaking into a jog and heading off into the trees to their right.

  Madison watched as Warren quickly moved about two hundred feet in that direction and then began making a large circle around them in a counterclockwise movement, using the four of them as the center. He came back to them after returning to the point he started at, and Madison finally understood why Burke had trusted him as a tracker. He was incredibly quick and almost completely silent—so much so, in fact, that Madison hadn’t even heard his footsteps at all despite the fact that he was jogging.

  “Okay, this changes things,” Warren said. He pointed to a group of tracks leading off to the east and then drew a line with his hand, pointing to the north. “The group following split off here. I’d say about half of them went east, and the rest continued on. It’s not that unusual, but the group who stayed on course look like they really picked up the pace after the others branched off. It looks like the cart they were hauling also went east, so the smaller band is going to be moving much more quickly now.”

  “That means we have to step it up as well,” Madison surmised. Their pace thus far hadn’t been leisurely, but it hadn’t been a forced march either.

  “Right again.” Warren nodded his agreement and held out his hand, a small flask of water appearing there from out of his bag. He took a long drink from it and then said, “If you want a drink, take it now. We aren’t going to be stopping for several hours, and you won’t have a chance once we start.”

  Madison silently agreed and noticed that the others took his advice, taking several drinks from their own canteens.

  “Alright. Just concentrate on stepping where I do and pay attention,” Warren advised seriously. “If someone loses focus and twists an ankle because of a misplaced step, it’s going to slow us all down, healing drought or not. Do you understand?”

  Madison nodded along, wondering why Warren was suddenly making such a fuss. The other man had been fairly consistent pointing out major obstacles that could cause a problem for them, so Madison was unsure why it would be any different now. A moment later, however, he realized why. The hairs on his arms stood on end, and he saw a faint green aura surrounded them as Warren cast a spell. The pale green light pulsed slowly and rhythmically, as steady as a man’s breath while he was asleep.

  “It’s done,” Warren said ambiguously without explaining what ‘it’ was. “Remember: Pay attention and keep up.” Then, without waiting for an answer, he turned and started jogging away at a slow pace. It was a good thing, because it took a moment for everyone to react and follow him. They were apparently as shocked and confused as Madison, but it quickly became apparent what the magic did.

  Slowly, Warren built up speed until they were all moving at an outlandish pace. He never seemed to move faster than a leisurely jog, his movements always slow and precise, but Madison knew that they were moving much faster. The trees around them moved by as if they were sprinting at a breakneck speed, but he didn’t feel any of the usual effort that came with it. In fact, after keeping up the strange pace for about an hour, he realized that he barely felt any exertion at all. Jogging at even a slow pace for an hour would have taken its toll on him even on a good day, but this was barely more taxing than taking a casual stroll through a park back home.

  Time seemed to meld together after that as Madison focused on placing his feet in exactly the same position as Erin. The younger girl had a much smaller stride that he did, but that didn’t seem to bother him much. In fact, it actually gave him a little extra time to time his steps and choose them perfectly. He understood now why Warren had expressed such concern before casting the magic: the woods were filled with gnarled roots that stuck up from the ground, shallow ditches, rocks, and limbs, and moving as they were, it wouldn’t have taken much to twist or sprain an ankle. So, Madison stopped worrying about where they were and how long they had been traveling and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. He had to trust that Warren would let him know if something important came up.

  Hours later, that situation finally came. Warren began slowing down until he was moving at a little more than a brisk walk and then came to a complete halt. Everyone automatically reached for their canteens and took small sips. Despite their hours of travel, Madison noticed that no one was really out of breath or ready to take a break, and he suspected that the reach for water was as much out of habit as it was any real immediate thirst.

  “That’s quite the little spell you have there, Warren,” Madison remarked after taking a mouthful of water.

  “Yeah,” Alyanna agreed. “It was a bit weird at first, but I could really get used to traveling like that.”

  Warren turned slightly red at the compliments but took them in stride otherwise. “I spent most of my time studying in the rogue school, and that’s one of the skills you pick up there. Come to think of it, Burke was the one who suggested that I learn it a while ago.”

  “How many people can you extend that aura to?” Madison asked curiously. He could already see the tactical advantage in using it. A single group could cover an impossible amount of ground in a day if they used that spell, and a single scout could likely cover even more since he wouldn’t have to worry about the people behind him keeping up. Logistically, it was a godsend. It might make the difference between someone returning with information in time ahead of a battle or reaching someone with aid before a bad situation turned worse. Madison’s brain was alight with questions and possible uses as he planned ahead.

  “Not too many, I’m afraid,” Warren answered, scratching at the back of his head. “Honestly, it’s a bit taxing on me to keep it up for all five of us as I am now. If I was able to study it a bit more, I think I could extend it to a larger group. I might be able to keep it up on a larger group for a short while as well, but I’m not too sure about what size. I don’t know what my actual limit is, but I don’t think it would be too large.”

  “So, you’d be better off breaking people down into smaller groups and coordinating them that way than attempting to rely on it to move any large number of people,” Madison concluded. “Could you use it on wagons or carts? Or animals? Or does it only affect people?”

  Warren looked at him strangely, and Shayna and Erin joined him. Alyanna, however, seemed to know exactly where Madison was
going with it all. She nodded along with his questions and then proposed two of her own. “Can you keep it up indefinitely if it’s just a small group? And do we ever actually get tired? I feel as if I’ve been walking all day, but I could probably keep going all night at this rate if we had to.”

  Warren shrugged. “To be honest? I don’t actually know. I’ve never had the opportunity to try it on anything but people, and I’ve never even tried it on this many before now. I’ve only ever used it while I was out scouting by myself, so the opportunity never came up. Why do I get the feeling you guys are planning something? You’re looking at me like you just found a new toy.”

  Madison shrugged in turn. “Not really planning anything, per se, but I think it’s important to know what tools we have on hand in case we need to make use of them. I think it might be about time that we sit down and have a serious discussion about what everyone’s capable of.”

  “I agree,” Shayna added. “And I would be happy to let you know how I plan to take care of you if the situation comes up.”

  Erin reached up and flicked her sister in the back of the head.

  “Ow!” Shayna squealed, rubbing at the spot. “What was that for?”

  Erin didn’t answer, but Madison was certain that she was grinning to herself, and her slightly-self-satisfied smile seemed to suggest everything that Shayna needed to know.

  “Anyway,” Warren said. “I stopped because I thought I should let you know that we’ve been crossing over dozens of tracks throughout the day. They’re just as sporadic as the ones we saw earlier, and it’s really hard to tell how many people have moved through the area. From what I can see, they’ve been making movements through here for a while, and they’re doing it in quite the numbers. This isn’t just the usual, random bands of slavers. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that they were up to something. The trails we’ve crossed over lead off in every direction. It’s like they’re meticulously covering as much ground as possible without ever getting anywhere.”