Midrealm

by Garrett Robinson

  I shoved through the others, stalking to the head of the table. Greystone watched me approach with a glint in his eye. I loomed over him and he looked back up impishly, the corners of his mouth twitching.

  “What. Happened?” I asked. My voice was liquid steel.

  He waved his hand airily. “A simple thing, really. You remember — ”

  “The least you can do is stand up when you’re talking to me!” I roared, interrupting him.

  Greystone started, looking annoyed, but he pushed his chair back and clambered to his feet. “Very well, then. You remember Sindra Tamper? Nora’s mother? Well, she specializes in several items of arcane significance. And when we arrived here, I was most pleased to discover that she had a portal castor. Small capsule that can summon portals for the purpose of transporting one a great distance. We used one in the Battle of the Circle, you remember?”

  “Yes,” said Tess quietly behind me. I couldn’t answer, because I was too busy holding my hands still.

  Greystone shrugged. “And so, while the executioner was reading the sentence, I simply summoned a portal immediately below the gallows doors. Once he released the doors, I flew through them and here, into the Runehold. Noose still around my neck, you understand, but as I was standing on the ground, it wasn’t too much trouble. Once I closed the portal, it was snipped in two like a string.” He chuckled suddenly. “I only wish I could have seen their faces when they sought to retrieve my corpse.”

  I felt my nostrils flare. “You should have told us the truth. You told us you had it under control. You told us we had to leave.”

  Greystone peered up at me. “Oh? And how was that not the truth? You needed to leave. Immediately. We had achieved our objective, and nothing was to be gained by staying there. If you’d tried to rescue me from the gallows, we all would have been caught and most likely killed. If you had all stayed to watch and see if I was safe, your reactions would have given you away.”

  “You were in my head!” I shouted. “You could have told me about the portal, and then we wouldn’t have spent the last three days thinking you were dead!”

  “Oh, that,” Greystone said with a smirk. “Well, you must forgive an old man a bit of theater.”

  Crack

  I didn’t think, I just hit him. My fist lashed out the same way it had lashed out at Chuck and his goons and other kids and my dad a thousand times over the years. Greystone was flung back into his seat, his head slamming into the back of the chair. He blinked hard, then reached into his mouth. When his fingers came out, they were holding a tooth.

  “Blast,” he muttered. “That hasn’t happened in a century.”

  But I was staring at my hand. The marks on my knuckles were already beginning to form, red and angry. I felt a wave of revulsion sweep over me, and suddenly I saw the face of the guard Samuel had killed before my eyes on the wall. I saw the faces of all the people who we’d seen die in the Battle of the Circle.

  The room began to spin. I turned to the doorway and ran through it, racing through the Runehold’s hallways until I was outside in the afternoon air. I collapsed against the side of the building, clutching my knees and wishing I could cut off my right hand.

  I wanted to be alone, or so I thought. But just like in the forest, she found me.

  “He’s all right,” she said quietly.

  I turned to look at her. My face was twisted, not from crying but from something else. Something close to fear, a cousin to disgust.

  “I didn’t mean to do that,” I pleaded.

  She shook her head. “I know. I’m upset, too.” She hesitated. “And to be fair, he was being a jerk.”

  I shook my head. “No, that’s not an excuse. I — I’ve hit people before. But only when they were trying to do the same to me. I’ve never…never done…”

  “I know, Blade.” I saw a small smile behind the curtain of her hair. “I don’t think you go around punching babies in the face or something.”

  Despite all the terrible I was feeling at the moment, that forced a laugh out of me. “Well, I guess I’d better work a little harder on my rep, then,” I said wryly.

  She giggled. “Maybe.”

  I rested my arms on my knees as I looked at the sun, getting ever closer to the horizon. “I don’t want people to be scared of me, you know,” I told her. “I guess it’s just easier to make people afraid of you than it is to let them think they can hurt you.”

  “I think you’re partly right,” she said. “Except I don’t think it’s easy. I’m not scared of you.”

  I turned. She was sitting right next to me, her arms wrapped around her knees. Our arms were practically touching. Both of her eyes were staring into mine intently, and I could see it was true: she wasn’t afraid of me. Not even a tiny little bit. There wasn’t a hint of fear in the deep pools of her eyes, the soft roundness of her cheeks, the gentle curve of her small, pink lips.

  My heart, midway through calming down from its adrenaline, began to pound in my chest once again.

  “It might not be the smartest thing, not being afraid of me,” I murmured.

  “Didn’t you know?” she asked, and I got to see her smile in extreme detail. “Calvin’s the smart one. I’m the quiet one.”

  I looked at her lips again. My breath got shorter and shorter, and I almost —

  She stood, dusting herself off. Then she turned to hold out a hand to me.

  “I want to walk,” she whispered. “Want to come?”

  I took her soft hand in mine and let her pull me to my feet. I thought we’d go into the Runehold, but we didn’t. We turned and walked into the streets of Linsfell. Greystone could wait. After all, he’d made us wait for a few days. The others could wait, too.

  But some things couldn’t.

  TO BE CONTINUED IN…

  TESS

  THE AIR WAS FILLED WITH the deep smell of rain-sodden earth. I stared out across a land that was bare as far as the eye could see.

  My men and I were sitting down to an early breakfast of hard bread and cold salted meat. The infant shadows cast by the freshly-risen sun stretched long across the ground. For a moment they looked disturbingly like black, twisted fingers reaching for me. I shuddered and made a warding symbol with my right hand.

  The bread was nearly hardtack. I tried to bite off a chunk, but in the chilly morning air it merely hurt my teeth. Grumbling, I poured some water into my travel plate and placed the bread within it, letting it soften as best it could. It was an old trick I’d learned from my grandfather, long after he’d retired from the army himself.

  “Captain Pieter!”

  The hale voice belonged to Jak, my second in command. He approached my fire and snapped to attention. I would have smiled, but I knew Jak wouldn’t appreciate it. Always so proper, Jak. So serious about protocol and discipline. Though he went to extremes, I couldn’t blame him. Many men in the army could use a bit more discipline, in my opinion. I returned Jak’s salute and gestured for him to sit.

  “At ease. What news, Lieutenant?”

  Jak remained standing. Of course. “Sir, our scouts have returned. They report a small band of Shadows, perhaps a hundred strong, five leagues to the west.”

  I poked at my bread. Still not ready. “A league is a name farmers give to distance when they don’t know what else to call it,” I said mildly. “How many miles?”

  Jak balked. “My apologies, Captain. They say twelve miles.”

  I chuckled. “You see the problem. In Linsfell, five leagues would have meant fifteen miles. In Faya, ten.”

  “Of course, Captain,” said Jak with a nod. “Once again, I apologize. Where I come from, a league — ”

  “Oh, stop explaining,” I said. “I’m merely making conversation. Which way are they traveling? Will they cross our path or pass us by?” I flipped the bread roll over, allowing both sides to soak evenly.

  Jak shook his head. “They were encamped when we found them. The scouts ventured a guess that the Shadows are traveling east-southeast
. But that’s just a guess, sir. Two men were left behind so they could report back if the Shadows move again.”

  I nodded. “That was well done. And what do you recommend, Lieutenant?”

  Jak blinked. “I do not presume to give commands, sir. We may either continue west, in which case we might encounter the Shadows. Or we could turn our course to the north and try to cross behind them so as to avoid a fight. But that would add hours to our journey.”

  I nodded again. “So it would. Thank you, Lieutenant.” I released him from my company with a wave.

  Jak would never make an officer. Oh, he would almost certainly attain the rank, but he would make a terrible commander. Life was never as rigid as he was. If he acted as if it were with men under his command, it would almost certainly turn out badly.

  I sighed and turned my thoughts to the Shadows. It was unusual to find them this far east, though certainly not unheard of. And sightings were growing more and more frequent every month. It made me uneasy, no matter how many times I tried to dismiss it as insignificant.

  We were two hundreds of horse, and they were a hundred of foot. We could roll through them like a scythe through wheat. But a scythe could be chipped. Men would fall in the fight. And the Shadows were dozens of miles from anything resembling civilization, even a farmhouse.

  We would leave them be. None of my men’s lives were worth the hours we would lose, not for this mission. We were here to search out a lost patrol, not to make war.

  A caravan had gone missing in the Westerly mountains a month ago. That was well beyond the borders of Athorn, and so it had taken much time for word of it to reach the King. Once it had, he had sent out a patrol to recover the truth of the matter. They had not returned or sent word after two weeks and so, concerned, Nestor had sent us. Had sent me. A captain past his prime, and a company who had not seen action in years. It was the perfect assignment for soldiers such as us in times of relative peace: very specific, time consuming and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

  I pulled the now-soggy bread from the water and munched it slowly, trying not to grimace from the unappetizing texture. A hard swallow and it was gone. I took two swallows from my waterskin to wash it down, then stood to search out Jak.

  He was outside his tent, enjoying a similar meal of water and soaked bread. He leapt to his feet as soon as I approached, snapping off another salute. This time I didn’t bother to return it.

  “Finish your meal and muster the men,” I said. “We ride before the sun has finished clearing the mountain’s peak.”

  Ten minutes later the air was filled with the sound of shouting, hooves pounding the earth, and the creak of leather saddles as my company mounted up. Jak was everywhere, shouting orders and generally making a nuisance of himself. I saw the resigned head-shakes and heard the good-natured grumbling from my soldiers. It was the same every time we were assigned a new officer. They’d smooth out. Who knew but that they might smooth Jak out, too.

  Our new course would drive us from the road, but we were in miles of flatlands. There would be no terrain to halt or even slow our progress. In fact, I was quite looking forward to it. It had been far too long since I had seen true wilderness. Far too long a time spent performing endless drills, endless ceremonies, and endless days watching my better years spin away into the past.

  It was after another three hours’ hard riding that we spied two horsemen on the horizon. I called the company to a halt, and the sound was filled with the hiss of swords being drawn. But as they drew closer, I recognized two more men in the armor of Athorn.

  “Hold weapons!” I shouted. Jak repeated the call, his clarion voice ringing out all along the line. The men approached. I knew their faces, though not well. Scouts.

  “My Captain!” called one of them as soon as he arrived. “The Shadows we found were joined by more, and they have diverted course! They’re heading northeast now. By our reckoning, they’ll run straight into us near noon-time.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Your first report said they were traveling east-southeast. Explain yourself.”

  The man paled slightly. “I apologize, sir. It seemed that way from the tracks. But they were encamped. We could not be sure.”

  “You should have taken the time to be certain,” snapped Jak beside me.

  The man’s face grew another two shades whiter. “My apologies. It won’t happen again.”

  I turned to Jak. “We’ll ride northwest. It should take us far enough from their path to avoid them.”

  “Might we not meet them on the field, sir?” asked Jak. His voice was careful, but I saw excitement in his eyes. “We should be able to run them down with little trouble.”

  “Little trouble is too much,” I said sternly. “We are not here to fight, we are here for information. I will not throw even a single life away in a needless skirmish with a force that is no threat to anyone.”

  Jak swallowed hard. “Of course, Captain.” He turned to give the orders.

  We veered right yet again, heading a course that was almost due north. It was not such a long delay, actually. The road we had been following would have curved to the North eventually. We were still losing time, but not enough to matter. Or so I hoped.

  The sun was halfway toward the horizon when I heard the first horn.

  It was a long, hard blast, away off to the right side of our column. It seemed to emanate from behind the hills to the east of us.

  “Hold!” I called, reining my own mount to a stop. The men slowed behind me, forming into ranks as we faced the hills.

  “Lieutenant Jak, send two men up that hill and find the blower of that horn,” I ordered. Jak turned to make it happen.

  In a moment, the two scouts from earlier went racing up the hill as fast as their mounts would carry them. I turned to Jak. “Punishment for a false report?” I asked.

  His half smile was my answer.

  We watched the men climb higher and higher, the gentle slope providing little resistance to their progress. They slowed as they neared the top, not wanting to suddenly and unexpectedly expose themselves upon the crest of the hill. A smart decision. They were well-trained.

  That’s when the Shadows appeared.

  First one, then a dozen, then a hundred. Then more. Over the top of the hill they came, more and more and more of them. At their head was a banner the likes of which I had never seen. It was tall and black, and drawn upon it in yellow was a half moon dripping blood.

  There were many. Too many. Near to a thousand.

  Chaos take me, I thought. How did they come out of the mountains with no word of it reaching Athorn?

  But I kept my thoughts to myself. “Order those men to fall back!” I roared at Jak. “Retreat! We make for the forest!”

  The forest of Sheepgut lay to our west. It was a dense forest, but not too dense to ride through. We could lose ourselves in there, I hoped. Better to take the chance than to face these monsters on the open field. I did not like our odds if they caught us.

  A quick blast of the horn brought our two scouts scrambling down the hill toward us. The Shadows had paused, notching and loosing arrows after them. I felt my stomach twist as one of the horses stumbled and fell, the rider tumbling beneath it and then laying still. The other man ran for his life.

  “To me!” I cried. “Away west!” I spurred my horse, and Jak repeated the command before racing to catch up with me.

  “How did we miss a force so large?” I shouted above the thunder of hooves.

  “I do not know, Captain,” he called back. “They should have been spotted.”

  Should have been, I thought. Kingdoms could be built on all that should have been.

  The forest grew closer, the Shadows falling farther and farther behind. We were fortunate they had no mounts. The forces of Chaos rarely did, but when they did their cavalry outmatched ours three to one.

  Within minutes we were concealed within the trunks of the Sheepgut forest. I let our retreat continue for ten minutes before calling
it to a halt, mustering the men into a loose formation under the boughs of oak and elm around us.

  “Report,” I said. “Were any lost beside the scout?”

  Jak called out, and his sergeants answered him. “No, sir,” he replied. “All accounted for save the one who fell.”

  “Thank Destiny,” I muttered.

  “Sirs!”

  The sudden call made me wheel as a fore-rider approached. My heart stopped at the thought of another force approaching from ahead, concealed in the forest. “What is it?” I demanded.

  “No danger, sir. But there is a clearing. A little ways in. You should see it.”

  I looked at Jak. He looked back at me blankly and shrugged.

  “Post a guard at the edge of the forest,” I told him. “Tell them to stay hidden and silent. They will return to warn us if the Shadows approach any closer.” He nodded and disappeared.

  I followed the fore-rider through the trees to a clearing. At its edge my horse pulled up short, whinnying in fear.

  I immediately saw why. Bodies were strewn across the clearing. Blood was everywhere. The red sunlight pouring through the eaves illuminated the contorted, twisted shapes of two wagons, their cargo spilled on the grass and untouched. A flag flew from one of them: a brown hawk on a white background. The flag of Athorn.

  “The caravan,” I murmured.

  “That’s what I guessed, sir,” said the rider. “But I thought you should judge for yourself.”

  I nodded silently and swung myself from the saddle. I tied my horse to a low oak branch and stepped into the clearing.

  The carnage was savage and extraordinarily thorough. These people had not simply been killed. They had been slaughtered like animals at the butcher.

  More troubling than the bodies, though, were the suits of armor. They weren’t as numerous as the people, but there were at least a dozen of them scattered throughout the clearing.

  The man saw me looking at them. “Don’t know what those are, sir. It’s no make like I’ve ever seen.”