Indra’s eyes widened. “Fes?”
“I know. I will do what I can to protect you.”
“I don’t know that you can protect me from one of them.”
When it had been only Carter, he thought that he might be able to keep her safe. When Elizabeth had joined, Fes knew the fire mage had ability, but he wasn’t without talent when it came to opposing fire magic. Adding the golem brought another layer to it.
“I will do what I can.”
Indra looked up at him and nodded.
When the golem appeared, Fes eyed the creature. Outwardly, he looked like a man, but he had blunted features and there was something not quite right about him. Up close, Fes noted a musty odor as well.
“I thought you only wanted the four of us,” Carter said.
Could she recognize the danger in having the golem with them?
It was unlikely that she did. Maybe she realized something was off, but Fes doubted that she was fully aware of the fact that the golem presented danger to them all.
“You have brought another companion to help you, so it is only appropriate that I will bring another for myself.”
Carter stared at Elizabeth before nodding.
“It appears that we have our rides,” she said.
They climbed into their saddles and started away from the city. Fes rode alongside Indra, and Carter stayed near him. Elizabeth and the golem rode behind.
It surprised Fes that the golem would be able to ride on the horse given as heavy as he seemed to be, crushing the stones beneath his feet, but then again, the golem also had surprisingly seemed to have the ability to vary his weight.
“How did you get caught up with her?” Fes asked Carter.
“Does it matter?”
“It does. Especially considering what she’s brought with her.”
“I didn’t think that you would be scared of another man. I thought the great Fezarn was fearless.”
“Fearless might be a bit of a stretch. You don’t even know what that is, do you?”
Carter twisted in her saddle and looked back at Elizabeth and the golem. “All I see is a man who looks as if he could take you in hand-to-hand combat. Then again, that isn’t all that surprising, is it, Fezarn?”
“I think you might be surprised.”
And it troubled Fes. Whatever the fire mage was after involved Indra, which meant that there was something dangerous taking place here, even more so considering what he knew of her magic.
They rode at a rapid pace, heading north. Fes wondered which route they should take—whether they should head all the way around the dragon plains or whether they should veer west. The dragon plains had been the direction that Theole had intended to take, but that direction also might lead to the rebellion.
“Which way do you want us to go?” Fes asked Carter. As she was the one in charge of this mission, he suspected she had something in mind.
“I want us to go the way that will get us there the fastest,” she said.
In that, she and Fes agreed. He didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary with the fire mage or the golem. And he didn’t want Indra to be around either of them any longer than was necessary. Somehow, he had to find a way to sneak off with her. Were it only Carter, it would have been an easier task. He might lose out on the money that he was promised, but he could at least get Indra to safety. With Elizabeth and the golem, he had even less likelihood of being successful.
Which meant they would have to make their way to Toulen.
Even if any of the rebellion appeared, he wouldn’t risk exposing them to the golem. It would be bad enough if they were forced to face the fire mage, though Fes thought that he might be able to counteract her magic enough to slow her.
They camped for the night and Fes remained silent, doing all he could to position himself in such a way that he could sneak off with Indra if he had the opportunity. Unfortunately, one never presented itself. The times that he thought he might have a chance, Carter either stirred or was already awake. He wasn’t certain whether Elizabeth or the golem ever slept.
For his part, Fes slept poorly. When he got up the next day, he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes and then he climbed back into the saddle, joining the others on their journey onward. At least, Indra seemed well rested, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Fes had not slept and thankfully unaware of the fact that she remained in danger. Then again, she might not be unaware.
Several days passed like that.
Each night, Fes was convinced that he would find a way of breaking free, getting Indra and racing off, but he didn’t like the odds of his ability to outrace them. And he still hadn’t seen the golem sleeping.
“I think she planned for this,” he said to Indra one night.
“Planned for what?” Indra asked.
He nodded at Elizabeth. “I think she planned for the fact that we were going to need to ride on our own.” It was the only reason that she would have brought the golem, but why use that as the excuse? Why not simply tell Carter that she intended to bring the golem?
“He makes me uncomfortable.” Indra sat carving a piece of stone, running her finger across the surface, smoothing it into shape. Whatever ability she had allowed her to do it.
“He makes me uncomfortable, too.”
She glanced up at him. “That’s not it. I can feel the energy around him. It’s… cold. There’s something not right about him.”
“Do you recognize what he is?” Fes asked.
“He is a person of power.” She returned to her work, pressing her thumb onto the stone and somehow changing it.
“I’m not even certain he’s a person,” Fes said. “I was told that he is what is called a golem.” He kept his voice low, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that he knew about the golem. He didn’t want Carter to overhear him, and he certainly didn’t want Elizabeth to be aware that he was talking about her creature. “I don’t know much about him other than that he has a connection to stone. I was advised that the only way to stop him would be to generate enough force to shatter stone.”
Indra’s eyes widened, and she reached into her pocket. “A golem?”
Fes looked over. “Have you heard of them?”
“In Toulen, we have stories of creatures of stone. Creatures that are powerful enough that they can withstand the force of an entire army.”
“That sounds like stories I grew up with. Things like dragons and the empire.”
“What stories were those?” Carter said, throwing herself down next to Fes. She glanced at him, looking from Fes to Indra, an annoying smile on her face. “What dragon stories were you told?”
“In my stories, the dragons were powerful creatures that withstood the onslaught of the army,” Fes said. He thought back to the tales that his mother and father used to tell. They were different than the stories he heard when he had gone to the capital. In those, and in his stories, the dragons came across as powerful, but not violent and dangerous. Not the way that the empire depicted them. Given what he had seen of the dragon relics, the power that he had realized was available through using them; he understood that there must’ve been great power with the dragons.
“Those were the kind of stories you heard?” Carter asked. “Mine were about conquest. I would hear stories of how the dragons were finally destroyed. Brought down through the heroics of warriors who risked everything to overthrow them. I imagine you see the dragons as some sort of compassionate creature.”
“I don’t see them as anything other than dragons,” Fes said. He looked over at Indra and noticed that she’d pocketed the totem she worked on.
“No? You’re not sympathetic to the dragons?”
“Why would I be sympathetic to the dragons?” Fes asked.
“I don’t know. Why would you be sympathetic to the dragons?” she asked. “I’ve heard rumors that you are more than sympathetic to the rebellion.”
Fes glared at her. Were those the type of rumors that she intended t
o start now? Fes wasn’t certain that he could survive rumors that placed him at odds with the empire. Not after the way that Azithan had placed him at odds with Elizabeth. He didn’t want to get into a confrontation with them. All he wanted was the chance to make money and be left alone. That was all he ever wanted.
“My job with the rebellion was only that. It was a job. I imagine you have taken plenty of jobs that you wish you hadn’t.” He glared at her, forcing her to meet his gaze. Would she admit her role in what had happened? Doubtful. He didn’t see Carter as remorseful in anything, so he doubted that she would acknowledge the role she had played in destroying an entire merchant family.
“I am a scavenger,” Carter said. “Perhaps a highly paid one now, but still a scavenger.” She flashed a dark smile. “At least I embrace what I am, unlike others. Some like to see themselves as something other than the scavenger that they are.”
“I know what I am.”
Carter watched him for a moment. “Do you? Because it seems to me that you aren’t entirely certain what you are.”
Fes turned away, not willing to be baited into an argument with Carter. She was far too effective at doing that to him.
The rest of the night passed quietly. When they got going in the morning, clouds marred the sky and thunder rumbled distantly. The air carried with it the scent of rain. It was the kind of day where he knew he would be miserable and he knew that he would be forced to suffer through the journey.
As the day dragged on, they would pause, and it seemed as if the storm clouds were no closer.
At one point, Elizabeth pulled something out of her pocket and cupped it in her hands. Heat radiated from her, a sign she used her magic, but Fes couldn’t tell what it was that she did. After a while, the golem rode off, disappearing for hours before rejoining them as they camped for the night. Elizabeth whispered something to the golem, soft enough that Fes couldn’t hear it clearly.
“Where do you think he went?” Carter asked.
“I don’t know,” Fes said. It bothered him in a way that surprised him. Knowing what the golem was, and how powerful it was, he worried why Elizabeth would send it off. What was the golem up to?
Thunder kept him awake most of the night. The rain came after midnight, with the moon well up in the sky, casting a filtered light through the clouds. It was a gentle rain, but it made sleep difficult. He stayed near the fire for warmth, remaining near Indra, jostled awake by both the ongoing thunder and the cold. Indra managed to sleep through it, and Fes was thankful for that. She had been through enough. Let her sleep.
In the morning, the rain persisted. Elizabeth hunched near the fire and steam rose, sizzling. Whatever spell she was working had caused the fire to leap higher and then burn out in a flash.
“Here,” Indra said, coming over to him and offering something.
Fes frowned and took a small figurine from her. “What is it?”
“I made it for you. I thought… I thought it might help.”
He glanced at it, smiling when he realized that it had been designed to resemble him. The face might be harder than his, but it had the same leather jacket and pants, and even his daggers. “I still have the others,” he said, patting his pocket.
“This will protect you better. It’s meant for—”
Indra cut off as Elizabeth stood up and looked back toward the south. She pulled something from her pocket again and breathed on it.
The golem froze in place, and when he regained movement, he went lumbering off into the distance, alone and unmounted.
“What is that about?” Carter asked.
“It is about nothing,” Elizabeth replied.
“Why did he go running off?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“With this job, all of it is of my concern. If you want my cooperation—”
The fire mage pressed her hands together and heat built between them. She squeezed them together until a ball of blue flame burst into being. She angled it toward Carter. “You are taking this job because I have hired you. And now that you have involved this one,” she said, motioning to Fes, “you might be expendable.”
Carter’s eyes widened. “If you attack, you will see that my—”
Elizabeth smiled widely. “I will see what? The men that you have following us? They will do nothing.”
Fes frowned. Was that why the golem was disappearing? Was he going off and attacking Carter’s troops? He had a hard time feeling bad about that, but at the same time, having Carter’s enforcements kept them safe. He didn’t like the idea of the fire mage slaughtering them and leaving them with only herself and the golem to deal with.
Elizabeth took another step toward Carter and the fireball began to rotate. It twisted between her hands and steam flowed off of it.
Fes unsheathed one of his daggers and slashed through the fireball.
Elizabeth turned toward him with a start. “What are you—”
Fes shook his head. “That’s not how jobs work. You don’t attack the person you hire. If you think to do that, then you will find that you have me to contend with.”
Elizabeth glared at him. “You should not have come, Deshazl.”
Fes tensed.
“Yes. I know what you are. You made a mistake revealing yourself in Vayan. I know it even if you do not.”
Fes leaned forward. “If you know what I am, then you know what I am capable of doing. Know that I do not fear you.”
“But you should.”
“The same way I feared Reina?”
The fire mage’s eyes widened.
“Ask Carter how that turned out for her. Why else do you think she wanted me to come on this journey?
He waited, but Elizabeth took a step back, lowering her hands. Too late, he realized that it had been a mistake to challenge her, but he didn’t think that he had much of a choice. Besides, challenging her might have a benefit. It might somehow convince Carter to side with him.
As they waited for the golem to return, Carter looked over at him. “You killed Reina?”
“She needed to die.”
“I can’t believe that she let you kill her. I thought she was more skilled than that.”
Fes shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Reina was incredibly gifted,” Elizabeth said. “If this one managed to kill her, then it is time that he is removed from this party.”
She spun toward him.
When she did, she held her palms out. Two spheres rested on them. The colors swirling through them told Fes that they were dragon pearls. How many did she have?
Heat built from the spheres and she pressed it toward Fes.
In a quick movement, he unsheathed his daggers and sliced at the air. The spell she’d created was powerful and difficult for him to counter—difficult enough that he didn’t know whether he would succeed.
“Deshazl. Do you know what the stories say of the Deshazl? Do you know what sort of prowess they are rumored to possess?”
“If you want to see my prowess, you have only to ask,” Fes said. He dragged the daggers across the spell. They parted the magic, energy practically sizzling along the blades. He tried not to think about why that was.
The fire mage brought her hands together and the pearls began to hover.
Heat burned off them, power radiating from them.
It was nothing like he had experienced with Reina. This was a spell that was targeted at him, and she seemed determined to destroy him. Fes was forced to slash at the air, pushing back the spell she used. It seemed almost as if it attempted to constrict him, squeezing him.
His hands were forced to his sides, and he couldn’t move the daggers. Elizabeth stalked toward him and plucked one of the dragon pearls from her palm and set it on the ground next to him. She took the other and set it on his other side. Power pressed inward on him.
“Reina made a mistake. She was not prepared for one of the Deshazl, but when you revealed yourself, I made a point of understanding just what is need
ed. Azithan is nothing if not predictable.” She leaned toward him. She stayed away from his face, but put her mouth close to his ear and whispered, “I will take this girl to Toulen and will learn the secrets of their magic. And then the empire will destroy them too.”
She stepped back. “It is time for us to go.”
Carter looked at Fes, studying him for a long moment. “We’re leaving him?”
“To die.”
“You can’t,” Indra said. “You can’t do that to Fes. You can’t—”
Elizabeth twisted her hand and a streak of flame shot toward Indra, connecting with her cheek. She was thrown back and her eyes fluttered closed.
Fes wanted to go to her, but he couldn’t. He wanted to help, but he was restrained, held in place and unable to move. And the sense of heat continued to build on him. If he couldn’t get his arms up, couldn’t get the daggers to cut through the spell, he could feel how the magic would burn through him.
Carter grabbed Indra and threw her over the saddle of one of the horses.
“You made a mistake bringing him with us,” the fire mage said. “Pray that is the last mistake you make.”
With that, they started off, continuing north.
As they rode away, Fes could feel the heat building, squeezing upon him. How long did he have? How long would it be before he burned up and died here in a place where he should not have ever been? And how long would it be before something happened to Indra? He had failed her, and he had failed the promise that he had made to her father.
Chapter Eight
Somehow, Fes managed to withstand the heat from the dragon pearls throughout the afternoon, including when something rumbled past him. It wasn’t until it was well past him that he realized that it was the golem. The creature was running, lumbering across the ground, and paid him little mind.
It wouldn’t be long before the golem rejoined the others. He didn’t worry so much about Carter, but he did worry about what would happen to Indra. She had recognized the danger of the golem. Why would she know of such dangers? That bothered him as she deserved better. She deserved a chance to sit with her family, carving her totems, and she deserved to not have to worry about attackers. So much horror had come to Indra since coming to the empire.
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