by Unknown
“Cooking? That’s a good sign, I hope,” Drake muttered, moving forward cautiously. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”
Cora nodded, taking a moment to look up at Joy and smile, then slowly began making her way forward, with Brianna covering the rear while Stella watched the right. Considering their formation, Joy shrugged and focused on the left, wanting to make sure all of the directions were covered.
The others picked their way through the wreckage of the camp carefully, and as they went, Joy heard Drake mutter, “Looks like most of the tools are already gone. That’s a good sign… but scavengers have been through. That isn’t good.”
Joy opened her mouth, then shut it again, not wanting to upset the man further. She didn’t understand why he liked being so grumpy, but she wasn’t going to aggravate him. A minute later he reached a spot about thirty feet from the door and stopped, studying it for a moment.
“Hey, anyone alive in there?” Drake called out gruffly.
For a moment there wasn’t a response, then Joy heard some shuffling from inside. A woman replied after a few seconds. “Dad? Dad, is that you?”
“Alley?” Drake asked, looking unusually startled for a moment, then scowled as his face grew dark with anger. “What are you doing in there?”
Joy’s mouth opened in shock as part of the barrier was pulled aside, revealing a young woman with the same brown hair and eyes as Drake, though she was much, much younger than he was, and who was wearing stained clothing. Behind her were several other people, including a man with the ears of a wolf.
“I… I was helping guard the seal fragment,” the young woman said, cringing as she added, “It didn’t go well.”
“You told me you were going to Irador with a caravan! I’ve been worried sick, ever since the caravan went missing!” Drake exploded, sheathing his dagger roughly, and gestured around. “You lied to me?”
“Um, Master Drake… I’m sorry to interrupt, but we are in a bit of a situation here,” another man interrupted, and Drake glared at him.
“I can see that,” Drake said, his teeth grinding together for a moment, then he inhaled slowly and let out the breath. “What happened here?”
“We were guarding the seal chamber, and a giant bluebird attacked. It wrecked the watch tower and killed Ilma before we drove it off,” a priest said, poking his head around the corner, then carefully stepped out of the cave, with some others following him. Joy noticed that none of the people she saw had weapons, which prompted a little worry from her. “Unfortunately, that’s when we were attacked again.”
“Skyfishers?” Joy asked in the momentary pause, at which point a couple of the people stopped and stared at her. One of them opened his mouth, then shut it for a moment. Finally he spoke.
“An apis? Not one of the ones we’ve seen around here… but yes, a bunch of very powerful soldiers from Skyfish Valley attacked us,” the man said, grimacing and shaking his head. “We didn’t stand a chance after the other fight. They knocked us all unconscious, tied us up, and left us in the cave. They even stole our weapons and armor, so once we broke free, we barricaded ourselves in. All except for Ren. He decided to try to get to town to warn the Marquess about what happened and get help for us. I hope he’s alright.”
“Ren? Well, if any of you could get out without weapons, it’s him,” Drake said, his scowl easing ever so slightly, though he was still glowering at the woman he’d called Alley. “I’d give him even odds… but hell, that means you failed, didn’t you?”
There were murmurs of agreement, as well as quite a few of the people looking frustrated, embarrassed, or even terrified… and Joy couldn’t help a wince of her own. If Alethus already had the last piece of the seal, that was really bad. So she turned to Brianna, Cora, and Stella.
“What do we do? If he already has the seal thingy, aren’t we in trouble?” Joy asked nervously.
“Maybe, but if we’re fortunate, it’s going to take him some work to get to the place where he can release the monster. That should give time to try to stop him,” Cora said, biting her lip as she hesitated, then spoke again, worriedly this time. “I just don’t know that we can do much of anything, Joy. He’s incredibly powerful in comparison to us, remember? The last time we ran into Alethus, I almost died, and we barely got away.”
“Sure, but we hurt his army, didn’t we?” Joy pointed out hopefully. “I just… we can’t get the ore to the Shadebough Hive if it gets out, right?”
For a moment the others went silent, and Joy could see Cora wince.
“She’s right,” Stella said softly. “If Alethus succeeds in releasing the spider, we’ll be lucky to escape with our lives, let alone get the ore to the other hive. Not to mention the devastation it’d wreak.”
“Hellfire,” Brianna cursed, running a hand through her hair angrily, then hissed as her gauntlet caught some hairs. The woman scowled, then nodded grudgingly. “Yeah, I guess we don’t have much of a choice. As long as we aren’t going up directly against Alethus, I think we’ll be alright. We took out one of his captains, even if we had a little help from Abigail, so I’m guessing we’d be able to do well against them.”
Joy nodded vigorously and looked at Cora hopefully, and the elf sighed, covering her eyes with her free hand. It looked like she was thinking, and in the background Joy could hear Drake talking to the people they’d rescued. To her, it sounded like he was planning to escort them out of the Shimmerwood as well, though he did sound rather aggravated about the entire situation.
“This is a terrible idea. I don’t see that we have much of a choice, but it’s still a terrible idea,” Cora said grimly, shaking her head as she lowered her hand. “Yes, I agree that we need to help. But my one condition is that we do everything we can not to die, okay?”
“Okay!” Joy chirped, her spirits rising abruptly, and she grinned broadly. “If the apis help, that would be great!”
“Be as that may, we could use you lot’s help getting ready. If we’re going to get back to Clarion before sundown, we’re going to have to move,” Drake barked at them, his scowl so dark that it reminded Joy of thunderclouds.
She giggled at the thought, and Joy nodded happily as she replied. “Okay, what do you need me to do?”
The man paused, looking a little surprised at her response, but Joy didn’t mind. She wanted to help, after all.
Chapter 32
“Ren? What happened to you?” Captain Wilbert demanded, standing up abruptly as a guard helped the man into the room.
Ren looked like he was in terrible condition, with a gash in one arm from what looked like wolf fangs, he was half-covered by mud, and there were numerous scrapes along his face and neck. Still, his green eyes were bright despite his dirt-caked face, and Wilbert could see the barest hint of his curly red hair under the mess. What Ren was wearing was an entirely different question, as was why he was missing any boots or shoes.
“I’d say that was the most adventurous day of my life, sir,” Ren said, limping over to the nearest chair, while the guard helped him into it, a look of concern on his face. “We’ve got a problem, but I imagine you can tell that much.”
“I’m getting that impression… did the bluebird come back or something? Ilma resurrected back in the city and told us about how she died, but we haven’t had anyone else show up,” Wilbert said, his frown growing deeper as he realized that Ren wasn’t in armor, and was unarmed. That didn’t make any sense at all. “What happened?”
“Lord Alethus hit us as soon as we drove off the damned bird. Knocked all of us out, tied us up, and made off with the fragment,” Ren replied flatly, sending a wave of horror through Wilbert. Before he could process, the man continued. “They stole all of our combat gear, but thank the gods they didn’t have a thief with Pickpocketing, or we might’ve lost our coin for resurrections, too. I volunteered to come back and let you know, plus to get someone to pull the others out. It’s been about a day since he hit our camp, and my trip was… unpleasant. I ran into quicksand try
ing to get away from a pack of ghost wolves, and lost my boots in the process. I swear I found every sharp rock between here and there, and it’s a miracle I didn’t die.”
“Gods above,” Wilbert breathed, his face paling as he considered the consequences, then hissed angrily. “He left you alive to ensure we couldn’t intercept him. Damn him to the hells, he specifically set out to make it impossible to stop him, and even if we do, the damage he’s done… gods above.”
“That’s about what I thought,” Ren replied, nodding slowly as he shifted in his chair. “That said, what about sending a group to rescue the others? We may not have done much good when he ambushed us, but if we can get gear we might be able to do some good against his army.”
“Of course I will,” Wilbert said reflexively, glancing at the window, and his lips pressed together tightly as he saw the angle of the sunlight. “Likely not today, not with how late it is, but we can get a rescue party out first thing in the morning. I don’t want to risk them getting lost in the dark.”
“Can’t blame you there,” Ren admitted, letting out a deep breath. “I swear, I nearly got lost after the wolves, and that was a bad few minutes. I… don’t know that I’m going to be able to go back in there for a while.”
“Nearly dying can do that to you,” Wilbert said, pushing his fear to the back of his mind for the moment and instead focusing on the man in front of him. “How about you visit the healers, then get cleaned up? You need some time to recover, and I suspect that will leave you feeling like a new man.”
“You’re probably right,” Ren admitted, starting to climb to his feet, and the guard helped him up.
Wilbert looked at the guard and said, “Please make sure he makes it to the priests and doesn’t drown? A hot meal and getting him to a bed wouldn’t be amiss, either.”
“I’ll make sure he gets what he needs, sir,” the guard replied, his face solemn as he nodded to Wilbert, then helped Ren to the door, leaving tracks of drying mud behind them. Wilbert didn’t mind the dirt, though, not with everything else he’d learned.
“Gods damn it,” Wilbert muttered at last, shaking his head slowly. He opened his mouth to continue, but he just didn’t have the words, not with fear slowly coursing its way through him.
He’d thought that their best option was to keep Alethus away from the last piece of the seal, but now… now that was a vain hope. Part of him wanted to curse loudly, or smash the desk, but he resisted the urge. It wouldn’t do any good.
Instead, Wilbert pulled out an ink pen and piece of paper, jotting a quick note to Silverhoof, and another to the Marquess, who was out inspecting her own soldiers. They needed to hear about this as soon as possible, no matter how bad the news was.
Sealing the letters, Wilbert rang the bell on his desk, and after a moment one of his guards opened the door, speaking calmly. “Captain?”
“I have two letters here, for the Marquess and Silverhoof,” Wilbert said, looking at the woman in the eyes. “They need to be delivered as quickly as possible. This is urgent.”
The woman’s eyes widened and she straightened, saluting in response. “I’ll see them delivered immediately, sir! Will there be anything else?”
“No. Just… be ready to mobilize. Unless I’m very mistaken, we’ll be leaving tomorrow,” Wilbert said, and the woman visibly swallowed.
“As you say, sir,” the guard said quietly, taking a couple of steps forward to take the letters.
Wilbert said nothing more, simply watching her go… and once the door had shut he rested his head on his hands, his elbows braced against the desk.
“Gods, give us the strength to defeat them,” Wilbert whispered, trying to fight the despair trying to overwhelm him.
“It isn’t going to be hard to predict his approach at this point. Lord Alethus isn’t even trying to hide, and he doesn’t need to,” Marquess Clarion said, trailing a finger along the map, drawing a line that passed between Clarion and the Shimmerwood, leading toward the shrine to Clarion’s north, which was next to what looked like a gigantic rock formation. “He’s heading straight for the shrine, and he’s got more than enough soldiers to overwhelm us in the field.”
“Is there anywhere we can hit him along the way that’d be advantageous to us?” Silverhoof asked, tugging on his beard as he looked at the map. “Not that I’m seeing any, I’m just wondering if there’s something we missed.”
“Not really,” Wilbert replied unhappily. “If we’d realized he was near Broken Horse, we might have been able to pin his army against the gorge and kept him from taking advantage of his numbers, but he started moving first. There’s lots of broken terrain around Clarion, which is very disadvantageous for knights.”
“Agreed. With him heading straight for the shrine, we have two options to intercept him and not hamstring ourselves, and the only way we’d use the second is if he veers west of Clarion,” the marquess said, shaking her head slowly. “Either we block the path between Clarion and the Shimmerwood, using them to cover our flanks, or we fight him in the Sordan Flats. Of the two, I’d prefer the east, since at least he’d have obstacles on both flanks.”
“Um…” Silverhoof paused, examining the map before nodding grimly, letting go of his beard as he did. “You’re right, those are the best options I can see. What I’d give for a company of centaur archers… we’d be able to winnow him down a little first.”
“If we had them, I’d give you free rein to harass them as much as you wanted,” Wilbert assured the centaur, then paused as Silverhoof frowned at him, and asked, “What did I say?”
“Free rein, really?” Silverhoof demanded, crossing his arms in front of him.
For a moment Wilbert didn’t understand what Silverhoof meant, but the marquess’s glare jarred his mind into motion, and his eyes went wide.
“Oh. Oh! I’m sorry, Guildmaster, I didn’t mean to offend,” Wilbert apologized quickly, flushing. Comparing centaurs to horses was a sure way to anger them. “I’m just too used to dealing with knights.”
For a few seconds Silverhoof glared at him more, then the Guildmaster nodded, speaking grudgingly. “Apology accepted. However, even if we can’t do that, perhaps some of my adventurers hiding in the edge of the Shimmerwood would be a good idea? We could ambush their flank, even if it is a bit risky.”
“It is, but it might not be a bad idea. If we get apis reinforcements, then maybe—” Marquess Clarion began, but her mouth snapped shut as a knock sounded on the door, and the woman pulled away from the table turning to glare at the door and ask, “What is it?”
“My apologies, milady, but word has come from the gates that the adventurers have returned from the Shimmerwood. They’re also accompanied by the survivors of the encampment,” a man replied, his voice somewhat muffled by the thick door.
The marquess’s eyebrows rose as she looked at Wilbert and Silverhoof, then she smiled slightly. “Well, at least something useful came of them going into the forest. Hopefully they also convinced the apis as well.”
“Possibly, but we shouldn’t count on it,” Wilbert said, a tiny bit of relief coursing through him, along with hope that he tried to tamp down. Instead he asked, “Shall we ask them here to check?”
“Certainly,” the marquess agreed, stepping over to the door and opening it. On the other side was a messenger, one with a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. Wilbert imagined that was from running the message from the gates. The man stood at attention at the sight of them, and Marquess Clarion cleared her throat.
“Please send a request for the adventurers to join us here as soon as they are able. We wish to know what the results of their journey were,” she said, her tone severe, and the man saluted, bowing deeply.
“I will go at once, milady!” the man replied, and turned to dash off.
Closing the door, the marquess turned back to them, continuing. “Now, then, if we have apis reinforcements, having a front in the Shimmerwood makes sense, but I’m not sure if it would be the best use of our reso
urces. How about…”
Cora glanced at Joy in exasperation as the apis pouted, and she demanded, “Really, what’s so bad about coming to report in, Joy? They need to know what we found out.”
“I wanted to read my book, so I could give more advice to the queen if we visited again,” Joy replied unhappily, her antennae drooping. “We just got back, and the moon isn’t out tonight! That’s when it’s time for a working apis to relax.”
Glancing at a window, Cora had to admit that Joy was right about the time. The sun had sunk beyond the horizon, and even the colors of the sunset were fading. It was late, and Cora’s muscles were aching slightly from the day of travel. At least they’d managed to get everyone to the city with only two ambushes by monsters. The second one had left several injuries across the group, but between Stella and the priest they’d rescued, they’d managed to deal with those. Cora was just happy the lack of equipment hadn’t left the spellcasters among the guards completely helpless.
“Joy, you’re silly,” Brianna said fondly, shaking her head. “You just have the oddest ideas of when to rest. Most people rest when they’re tired.”
Joy stuck her tongue out in response, which prompted Cora to laugh and scold her. “Joy, don’t do that! It’s a bad habit to get into, and I don’t want you to be rude to the marquess.”
The guard leading them was having trouble keeping an impassive expression as well, Cora noticed wryly. Not that she was surprised. Joy’s antics were certainly improving her mood, even under the terrible circumstances.
“Okay,” Joy said, sulking for just a moment more, then snapped back to her usual enthusiasm as she added, “Hopefully this doesn’t take long! I really want to read a little more, there’s so much to learn!”
“We’ll see. Just be patient,” Stella advised kindly, and Joy nodded.
That was when they reached a door with a pair of armored guards, and Cora could just barely hear the rumble of Silverhoof’s voice through it. That relaxed her a little, since at least he could be relied on to keep the nobility from trying to order them around much.