An Adept's Duty: The Scepter of Maris: Book Two

by James R Barnes

  A few quick words sent Anna and Erin back down the alley to circle around and deal with the watcher on their side while he went for the other. Using the shadows, Miles slipped back down the street and crossed over. He moved silently down the back of the building the man had been leaning on, crossing the distance quickly. Though not always as effective as Anna's sleep spell (he still could not figure out how she did it, and made a mental note to have the girl show Alyssa so she could help him figure it out), Miles had his own method of rendering someone unconscious. Air magic, packed in an incredibly dense ball could hit harder than a fist. The real trick was not actually in the magic, but rather in the placement and force of the blow. It was just like hitting someone with a cudgel. You had to hit them just right to knock them out. Air may not be his strongest element, but he could work with it well enough for this.

  Miles had done it enough to be an expert, so there was no surprise or elation when his current target let out a grunt and dropped to the ground. He remained motionless for several minutes, listening for any alarm, and then took the time to use his Sight once more. A figure across the way was on the ground with two other people standing nearby. Since there was no struggle going on, and no shouting, he would assume it was his girls. A silent huff of laughter slipped out when that thought was finished. He was quite certain Erin would cut off something important if she ever heard him refer to her as one of his girls. The smile was still on his face when he reached the two of them, but he was able to dim it down a bit.

  "That is the last of them. We will give it a few more minutes to ensure Captain Stewart and his men have enough time to get into position, and then we move," Miles whispered to his companions. "Once you are into the tunnel, Erin will take the lead. Understood." This last was directed solely at his apprentice.

  A sullen nod was all the answer he got, but he knew she would follow those orders. They all kept an eye out as they waited, but the area was deserted at this time of night. The lookouts and the occasional straggler were all that they had to deal with.

  #

  The brothel interior was dim with a thick cloying haze filling the air, and adding to the gloom. A soft murmur of voices along with other noises he chose to ignore could be heard in the background. Miles (breathing shallowly) slipped through the front rooms without anyone noticing, and made his way down the halls to the back storage room that allowed access to the tunnel. The people in the rooms he passed through were either too high, drunk, or busy to care what he was doing. He did not delay even if that was the case, and reached the door he needed in short order. As he slipped silently into the room he was accosted by the loud snores of a man curled up on the floor by the tunnel entrance. Probably left to guard against intrusion, the man was instead wrapped around a jug of whiskey and deeply asleep. Miles left him there and eased his way into the passage, barring the door behind him.

  The tunnel was unlit, so Miles summoned a small flame to light his way and moved swiftly onward. The chance that anyone was watching from the warehouse access point and would be alerted to his approach no longer mattered. The building above was surrounded and he and Erin could hold the narrow tunnel if need be. Rough pine planks lined the walls on each side and an uneven floor caused him to scuff his feet occasionally even though he was taking care to be quiet. Thick posts were spaced evenly to brace the ceiling of the tunnel, but it was still wide enough that he could walk down the middle and not brush against them. All in all, a well made bolt-hole that someone had obviously spent quite a bit of money on. Too bad it was about to become property of the Crown. Miles did not even bother to hide the grin that thought brought to his face.

  A soft thud ahead brought him to a stop and he extinguished his light with a thought. He waited, breathing evenly and quietly until he saw a soft flickering ahead coalesce silently into a light about waist high. Anna and Erin. Miles recalled his own light and headed their way until he came to the warehouse tunnel entrance. A few moments later he was joined by the two, and he indicated that he wanted them to wait and stay quiet. The hatch that led to the warehouse was not locked, and eased silently open a few inches. While he was glad that the hinges did not squeak, it probably would not have mattered. The raised voices, running over each other as they argued, would have easily drowned out any noise Miles made.

  Luckily, there did not appear to be anyone watching the hatch, so no alarm was raised. Now it was just a matter of waiting until Captain Stewart and his men crashed the party. Miles settled down and listened.

  "Enough!" Someone shouted, quieting the others. "My employer is not here. Deal with it. Just because the lot of you are ready to show your faces to each other doesn't mean he has to. All you need to know is that his gold is still incoming."

  "We are risking our very lives. Everyone here is willing to brave this danger for the cause. This meeting is just as much about reassuring each other as it is about planning." The voice of Lord Alistair Atwood was one Miles easily recognized. "If your employer is not willing to take the same risks as the rest of us, how are we to trust that he will be there when he is needed. If he believes he can just hide in the shadows, avoiding exposure until after we are successful, and then reap the same benefits and rewards as the rest of us, he is-"

  "You could never pull this off if it were not for him," said the gruff voice that had shouted them all down. "It's his gold and his resources that have been the backbone of your little secret revolution. He is the one that has people inside the castle, the one that has soldiers in his pockets. When this first started, you spoke of the good of the Kingdom. How the decisions Marten was making, without the council of the noble Houses, were going to bring Glendon to ruin. Lately all any of you talk about is how you are going to divvy up the spoils. Where-"

  "Do not speak as if your understand our motivations, peasant!

  Miles strained to make out as many of the voices as possible, but mentally kept track of the gruff voice working for the mysterious benefactor. That man might be more important than any of the others; even the nobles. Any chance that more details would emerge from his eavesdropping was interrupted by loud crashing and shouts for everyone to stay where they are. Captain Stewart and his men had arrived.

  More shouting and the sounds of steel being bared filled the air, followed by weapons clashing. Apparently most of the men had realized what being caught here meant for them. Miles had discussed this eventuality with Stewart and they had decided that every effort would be put forth to take prisoners, but not at the cost of the soldiers' lives. If the traitors would not yield, then they would be put down. Hopefully some of them could be rendered unconscious.

  Miles warned Erin and Anna to keep an eye out for anyone trying to use the tunnels, and then he slipped into the warehouse to see if he could find Gruff Voice, and take him alive. While standing by at the tunnel hatch, and as he waited for Stewart's attack, Miles had been gathering magical energy in preparation for the raid. He put that energy to good use even as he entered the warehouse, enticing the three visible barrel fires that the traitors had going to burn at an accelerated rate, brightening the warehouse interior. Everyone was too busy fighting to realize that the fires were suddenly blazing much higher, so he did not worry about his use of the Gift here.

  Miles did not have long to study the situation beyond the row of crates in front of him before he was attacked by someone fleeing the soldiers. Lord Havelson, a minor noble with not much more than a title to his name, came rushing at Miles in a wild-eyed panic. Havelson did not even slow down when he saw Miles; he just tried to go around him while taking a sloppy swipe with his sword. If the noble had any real skill, it was must have been offset by his fear, that and the fancy jewel-encrusted weapon he was waving about. Miles easily trapped the blade with the sword breaker in his left hand, and dropped Havelson with a well-placed blow from the cudgel in his right. Thankfully the man stayed down, because right on his heels came two more combatants making for the tunnel exit.

  While Miles was confident of h
is skill in a fight, especially when using magic, he saw no reason to take on odds that were not in his favor if he did not have to. A little Air manipulation had the lead fighter going down, seemingly tripping over his own feet, and the man right behind was so close that he could not avoid the still falling body. Both men thoughtfully landed with their heads well within reach of Miles' baton.

  Just as he stepped over the unconscious bodies, another man rounded the errantly stacked crates that were hiding the tunnel access from the rest of the room. This one was more cautious, and looked like he knew how to handle himself in a fight. He was also carrying an artifact imbued with magic. Miles had shifted to his arcane Sight as soon as he entered the building proper, allowing him to fight with magic as well as mundane weapons. While initially difficult and distracting, Miles had trained continuously until it was second nature, and no longer a hindrance. That most likely saved his life right then.

  Miles could tell that without the Sight, his eyes would want to slide right past the man in front of him. It did not make the man invisible, it just made anyone looking ignore him as he slipped past. The man appeared to know exactly what the amulet did, because instead of readying to fight Miles, he stepped to the side and started to go around. It also appeared as if the man had never faced anyone with the Gift before, because the surprise on his face was obvious when Miles moved to block his path. The traitor was skilled; Miles had to give him that, because even with the surprise he managed to get his weapon up in time to block Miles' cudgel, though just barely. The traitor tried to step back, confusion plain on his face, but Miles pressed forward, not wanting to give the man time to fully recover. After trading a few blows, and Miles taking a solid punch to the ribs, the man lunged and the attack came close enough to get Miles to back off. His opponent took the respite and backed up to give himself room. Both of them stepped forward at the same time, but Miles suddenly felt a solid weight hit him in the back of the legs when another man came diving across the row of crates and scrambled for the exit.

  Gruff Voice took the opportunity to press Miles, so he let the other man go, trusting Erin to deal with him, and fighting from his knees to keep Gruff at bay. Blocking the sword swipe coming from his right, Miles shoved up to his feet, and pushed a wave of Air at his opponent. Gruff Voice stumbled back until he tripped over the unconscious men behind him. Miles did not hesitate, leaping forward to pin the man's sword arm under his boot, and drawing back to strike hard enough to knock the man out. Even before he started his swing down the man slumped, eyes closed, head flopped over to the side, seemingly out cold.

  Miles was trying to figure out if he was faking when he heard Anna speak.

  "He's asleep."

  Miles blinked, looked at her, and looked back at Gruff.

  "Oh... Thanks." He looked around and saw Erin standing between the girl and the waist high row of crates separating them from the rest of the warehouse. "Right. Help me tie them up," he said, and pointed to the men around him.

  He looked back at Erin and saw what might have been a half impressed look on her face as she took in the unconscious bodies at his feet.

  "It looks like they are finishing up. Do you need help, or should I go assist them?"

  "Help us. I am fairly certain none of these fellows will be waking up before we are done, but why take chances."

  She just nodded and moved to assist Anna in rolling one of the men over.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Trouble

  If he could forget about the impending invasion, the fact they were weeks from home, and that they were out in the freezing weather, James might actually be enjoying himself. Of course, he usually felt some level of contentment when in the presence of the woman now walking at his side. Malina was in the middle of telling him about training with her father on tracking in the snow a week after her sixth birthday, and he was more than happy to just listen to her talk. They had left the small village almost half an hour before, and were making their way back to camp with two full packs. One of which had a two week supply of coffee that he had to pay way too much for. Thankfully, it was not his money; Malina did not even bat an eye at the cost, and he wondered once more just how lucrative her and Meric's horse breeding farm was. James hoped that Brody appreciated the fact that it took the most time and effort to procure. He had to talk to almost the entire population of the village to obtain it all.

  Since he was watching Malina's face so closely at that moment, he saw her twitch as the echo of a bird call died out. Guessing that this was some signal from one of her fellow Rennickans, he tried not to show any change in his behavior and waited to follow her lead. It took him a few moments to realize that they had actually increased their pace, and were now headed for what looked like another small ridge, this time leading to a shallow gully. Malina's voice had never changed from the warm, affectionate tone she usually only used with him and her family (as she called Meric, Brody and Silas), but her eyes had lost their softness and began to track everything around them.

  Just after they had turned down into the gully, Malina pointed him ahead and to the left and then she started running. Instead of joining him, she angled off to the right. Before he could begin to wonder, Meric appeared out of thin air, or so it seemed to him, and had Malina's bow and quiver outstretched for her as she ran past him and disappeared into the forest. Still slightly confused, James looked back to Meric. The man held up two fingers and pointed back up the shallow ravine and then motioned for James to circle back to some cover across from where Meric now stood.

  Giving his friend a nod to indicate he understood, James moved to a spot giving him a full view of the gully, but with enough brush to keep him from being seen unless they knew to look in his direction. Meric moved to the center of the ravine and waited, arrow nocked and ready to draw. Having seen how fast he could draw, aim and loose, James knew that whoever they were ambushing would have to crest the ridge with an arrow already drawn and have an idea where to shoot, or they were as good as caught. The wait was not long, and the men that entered the gully were obviously not expecting to find anyone there. The two men actually made it several yards down into the ravine before seeing anything amiss. Both of the men were arguing in harsh whispers that carried easily and rushing ahead without paying too much attention to their surroundings. Royal Scouts, they were not.

  When he realized the men did not have any ranged weapons to speak of, James stood and moved out to join Meric. It was when he was halfway to his friend that the men finally noticed them. One of them was shocked into stillness. The other was startled into a flight response like a frightened animal. The man's reaction was so quick that James felt certain that it was an ingrained behavior. This man must do a lot of running away. However, two shocks in quick succession appeared to be enough to overcome the reflex. The runner seized up immediately when his pathway up and out of the gully was cut off by Silas and Malina. Whether it was her drawn bow or Silas' twin swords that did the trick, James was sure he would never know.

  As James and his three companions 'closed the net' both men backed up until they bumped into each other, causing the runner to almost come out of his skin. It took some serious willpower not to laugh.

  "Gentlemen... care to explain why you were stalking our friends?" Silas' cold tones made the weather seem almost balmy in comparison.

  Sputtering was the only answer for the next few moments, and after a sharp tug to the bindings Meric had just finished securing even that stopped. The two prisoners did not seem to know where to look, though that soon became less of a strain on them as Malina and Meric turned and ghosted off into the woods in separate directions. Runner kept watching the spot Malina had disappeared, jaw dropped and eyes wide. His companion was keenly watching the tip of Silas' closest sword as it weaved lazily in the air.

  Silas threw James a quick grin, sheathed his weapons and moved behind the two bound men. The men looked like they were about to turn with him, but James stepped up, drawing their focus.

&
nbsp; "Well, are you going to answer? He gets irritated when people ignore him."

  Silas punctuated James' statement with a poke to each man's back making Runner squeak.

  "No stalkin' goin' on here. We was just headin' outta town, an' happened to be goin' the same way. That's all. Ain't no crime in that. We go this way all the time. You know people can walk aroun' in 'ese woods all they want. We're free men, not doin' nothin' but mindin' our own business. If we want to take a stroll-" The man cut off at James' raised hand. Runner's friend was henceforth to be known as Talker.

  "And where are you headed to, going in this direction? There is nothing out this way." James preempted Talker by holding his hand up again and then pointing at Runner. "I will hear from you this time."

  "Me?" The man's voice squeaked so badly that it was almost inaudible.

  At James' nod the man tried again.

  "It's like he said... just walkin'." Runner's squeak was slightly more intelligible this time.

  After waiting for a few seconds to see if the man would elaborate, James spoke to them again.

  "You really should be trying harder to give us a good reason to let you go." Another poke from Silas, this time with a sharp dagger.

  "We weren't tryin' to rob you. Just wanted to see who you were. That's all..." Talker tried to elbow his partner to shut him up until Silas discouraged him.

  "And maybe see how easy it would be to cut our throats in our sleep?"

  "No! We would never-" began Talker, overpowering the much quieter "Never!" from Runner.

  James' raised hand once again halted them.

  "Alright. Today is your lucky day, gentlemen. You are going to get a second chance. Do not waste it. We will turn you loose, and send you on your way, provided that you promise to give this lifestyle up." James almost cracked up at the look of disbelief on Silas' face. "You will head back to wherever you are from and try to turn your life around. I happen to have a friend in the military, and I will be sending him a message about you two. I expect he will have some men out to this area in short order. Any more banditry will be punished swiftly. Understand?"