by Jamie Davis
“If you know that, why don’t you have him charged?” Cari asked. “Surely, there are those who wouldn’t support him in treason if they knew.”
“Knowing something and being able to prove it are two different things, lass,” Thad said around a mouthful of food.
Liam nodded. “Plus, the Duke has a lot of the nobility in his pocket because he’s loaned a bunch of them money. If he calls in his loans, he’d bankrupt most of them and they’d be out on the street.”
“You make it sound impossible to fight him,” Cari observed. “I guess you should all surrender now.”
“Now you see why we want you two youngsters to get out while you can,” Liam explained. “We three swore oaths to defend the Empress. We’ll do that until we die, but there’s no reason to drag you two down with us.”
“Maybe it’s not as hopeless as you think. My dad always said there was no such thing as a hopeless situation. One of his favorite stories from his childhood was about a ship captain famous for cheating on an impossible test called the Kobayashi Maru just to prove that theory.”
Chance held Cari’s gaze as if trying to measure her mettle against what he knew of her father. After a moment, he nodded.
“Let them stay if they want.”
“What?” Liam asked. “You know what we’re up against, Chance. How do you expect us to do what needs doing and keep an eye on these two at the same time?”
Chance shrugged and smiled at Cari. “I don’t know. You never know who’ll turn out to be the next hero in a story. Maybe they’ll surprise us. Besides, if they’re not going to leave anyway, they’re better off sticking with us.”
Liam scowled at his friend when he heard the answer. He threw his hands in the air in exasperation, got up, and walked over to the crate to retrieve the last fresh bottle of wine from it.
“So be it. But their lives are on your head, my elven friend. If they die, I expect them to come back and haunt you, not me. I’ll take first watch; you all get some rest. We’ll get moving again in a few hours and head back across the city to the Empress’s Rest just before dawn.”
Cari woke up a few hours later to the gentle nudge of a boot against her hip. She opened her eyes, disoriented by the unfamiliar surroundings and trying to understand why her sheets were so scratchy.
It took her a few seconds to remember where she was. A part of her wanted to wake up at home in her bed, with everything that had occurred being just a strange dream.
When she realized where she was and it wasn’t all a figment of her imagination, she let out a gasp of alarm, sat up, and tried to get her bearings. Her senses poured all the information into her brain at once, from the musty smell of the moldy straw, to the sound of the orc snoring nearby, to the dim lamplight showing the interior of the stable.
A chuckle sounded beside her. Rodrigo smiled at her reaction.
“Forgot where you were for a second, didn’t you? I experienced the same thing when I woke up.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m still a little tired.”
“Welcome to the life of adventure,” Liam said as he peered out the crack in the door of the stable. “Never enough sleep and always pressed to do more with less. Come on, gather your things, we’re going to get on the move. Chance, wake up Thad.”
“Not me, it’s your turn.”
“We could have the girl do it instead if you’d like,” Liam suggested.
“Never mind, I’ll do it. It wouldn’t make sense to go to all that trouble to save her yesterday just to have her die waking a sleeping orc today.”
The tall elf walked over to where Thad still slept on the pile of straw bales he’d arranged last night. After picking up a broken broom handle from the floor, Chance reached out and poked Thad hard on the shoulder once, then danced backward as the burly orc dragoon bolted upright on the stack of hay bales with a dagger in each hand, ready for blood.
“Easy, friend. It’s nearly dawn. Time to move.”
Thad’s tensed shoulders relaxed as soon as he took in the situation and their location. He sheathed his daggers on either hip as he rolled off his makeshift bed to his feet with a smooth grace that contradicted his bulky frame.
He sniffed at the air and looked around. “Any food left?”
“You finished everything last night,” Liam said with a laugh. “Don’t worry, we’re headed to the Empress’s Rest. Arno will fix you up with a breakfast fit for your appetite.”
Thad grumbled something under his breath then turned and grabbed his cloak off the bales of hay. He pulled the black fabric across his shoulders and slid his sword’s scabbard into the loop on his belt to hold it in place.
Cari picked up her sword and dagger where they rested next to her and settled her sword’s belt diagonally across her torso. Her fingers traced the red ribbon supporting the Empress still woven around the brass buckle in the middle of her chest. Strange how such a simple symbol had caught her up in this whole mess.
“Shouldn’t we at least return the tankards to the tavern across the street before we leave?” Cari asked as the group prepared to exit the stable. She’d seen the two crates from last night’s dinner by the door.
“They know where we were staying the night,” Rodrigo said. “The tavern owner said he’d send a scullery boy over for the crates in the morning if we stacked them by the door.”
“You told them where we were staying?” Liam sounded alarmed.
“I had to tell him something about why I was taking enough food and drink for a small army all by myself.”
Chance walked over to the window in the door and peered out into the night while Liam ran to peek out one of the side windows.
“Are we expecting trouble?” Cari asked.
“We’re always expecting trouble,” Liam said, watching Chance as he checked the street outside. “What does your night vision see, Chance?”
“Nothing out there, but I can’t see the whole street from here. I’m not sure what we’re walking into.”
“We’ll have to risk it. You and Thad go first, then the girl and boy. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Cari bristled a little at being called “the girl,” but she didn’t think this was the time to make a point in support of feminism. She readied herself for a fight, just in case their suspicions were right.
It turned out the street was deserted when she stepped outside into the misty early-morning grayness. Thad searched the end of the street in one direction while Chance watched the other.
Liam joined them and pointed in the direction Chance watched. “Take the lead, Chance. Your eyes are better in the dark than ours. Take the shortest route but watch for patrols. It wouldn’t do to have to explain why we’re all up and about during a burglar’s hours.”
Chance nodded and started down the street, followed by Liam then Cari and Rodrigo. Thad came behind, watching over his shoulder for anyone following them.
It was time to return to the Empress’s Rest where Cari’s adventure had begun yesterday.
Chapter 8
The journey through the city to the Empress’s Rest passed without incident for the most part. They did duck into an alley on one occasion and wait in the shadows while a mounted patrol of the Duke’s guard went past.
Cari caught sight of the Duke’s men from her hiding place behind a stack of crates. They seemed tired and not particularly alert. She suspected they’d been out searching the city all night for the ones who’d killed their fellow guardsmen. That meant they’d be angry and ready for a fight if they ran into anyone they thought had played a part in that battle at the dueling grounds.
The thought brought back the memory of her blade sliding so easily into the chest of the guard she’d fought. Raden was his name. She’d killed him. She remembered the surprised look on his face as he slid backward off her blade to the ground, his life fading away with each passing second. It had been so easy when she thrust her blade through his heart.
Were other hearts broken by his death? Did he have a family
or a daughter like herself who’d wonder where her father was and why he hadn’t come home last night? Part of her knew she’d been in a fight for her life, and he would have killed her without hesitation if given the chance. She’d seen the bodies as proof of his intention. That didn’t change the sense of deep, gut-wrenching guilt she suddenly felt over his death. It left a roiling darkness in the pit of her stomach even when she wasn’t thinking about it.
She wondered if her father had killed anyone in his time in Fantasma. Certainly he had, given how he’d apparently risen to become a legendary hero in the eyes of the people here. Her hand fell to her belt pouch where her phone, credit chip, and other connections to her home still sat, useless here in this faraway land.
A sad smile crossed Cari’s face. She’d reached for her phone because she wanted to text her father and ask him how he’d dealt with the guilt of killing people. It made her sad she couldn’t reach out to him at a moment’s notice as she could at home. That sadness quickly faded.
Anger replaced it. Her father had hidden all of this from her, making her find it on her own, forcing her to stumble around this world without knowing the rules. He and her mom were as responsible for Raden’s death at her hands as she was. Cari missed her family even though she usually felt distant and disconnected from them at home. That said, she wasn’t quite ready to forgive them yet.
Her parents had put her through years of therapy, urging her to doubt her own memories. At times, just talking with the therapist had made her feel like she was crazy. Those memories had been so real that, when she was told they were only her imagination, she’d doubted her sanity and her connection to any reality. She struggled to wrap her head around why her parents would have let their daughter endure that hardship, knowing she was right all along.
She had to force down the fresh surge of anger welling up from deep inside her. There was no point in getting angry now. Her parents weren’t here. They had gone away for the weekend, leaving her alone as usual. Cari wondered what they would think when they found her missing, gone without a trace. Would her father come looking for her here in Fantasma? She hoped he would so she could confront him somewhere he wouldn’t be able to brush off her accusations of abuse and neglect when she was younger.
“You look preoccupied by something,” Rodrigo said, interrupting her train of thought.
Cari looked up from staring down at her feet as they walked along. She was so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t even realized they’d started moving again. Liam and Chance had advanced a few yards, and Thad was still well behind them, watching for anyone following them. She and Rodrigo had some privacy for the time being.
“I was just thinking about my family. They’ll be wondering where I am and when I’m coming home. I wish there were a way to contact them and let them know I’m alright.”
“I suppose we could hire a courier or messenger if it was that important to you to reach them.”
“That isn’t really an option. They’re too far away in a — call it a distant land.” Cari had to catch herself before she revealed too much. She wasn’t sure she wanted all the attention her true identity would bring.
“It can’t be so far away,” Rodrigo said. “You made it here after all.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“At least you have a family at home. All I have left is my Uncle Shawn. I don’t know him all that well. He’s been here, commanding a company of the Empress’s personal guards in the Imperial Dragoons since before I was born, but he’d come visit my father from time to time on the farm. He always seemed larger than real life in some ways. My father didn’t see him that way. Dad resented my uncle’s freedom to travel and see the world in the uniform of the Empress’s Dragoons. I guess he just saw a big brother who left the family estates and his responsibilities behind for a life of adventure.”
Cari nodded. Her father had apparently done that when she was little. She could imagine how that would have felt if she’d been old enough to remember any of it.
“Have you talked to your uncle much since you came to the city?”
“Only once before yesterday when I went to him about your duel. He told me the first time to go back home and rebuild the farm, to find a wife and settle down far away from what he called the mess of the Empire.”
“You decided to stay anyway. Why?”
“I put that life behind me. I’ve heard the rumors about who’s behind the raiders hitting the coast. If the dragoons are standing against the Duke of Charon and his attempts to usurp the Crystal Throne, then I’m with them in that quest. If my uncle won’t let me officially join the dragoons, then I’ll find an option allowing me to help in another way, like when I fetched help for you.”
“Thank you for that, by the way,” Cari said. “I don’t know how I would have gotten myself out of there if you hadn’t fetched Liam and the others.”
“I’m glad I was able to find them in time. Uncle Shawn wasn’t sure where the three of them were, and I had to do some quick searching of the pubs and taverns.”
“They do seem a bit rough around the edges to be royal bodyguards. I wouldn’t have guessed that was their job from looking at them.”
Rodrigo snorted a laugh. “I got the sense, from the way my uncle talked about these three, they were both the best and worst of his men. I think it is what makes the dragoons so effective. They take their job and oaths seriously and not the pomp and circumstance of the position. It’s what makes them so annoying to the other nobles. They don’t care about rank and privilege. All that matters is the protection of the Empress. It is said they’ve been like that since all the way back when Prince Hal transformed them from a simple household guard to the unorthodox unit they are today.”
Cari shrugged off the reference to her father again. He seemed to come up in conversations a lot. It irked her. She decided to change the subject.
“Where I come from, we don’t have Empresses or nobility.”
“How strange,” Rodrigo said. “How in the world does anything get done? Who rules over your land?”
“We elect ordinary citizens to gather together and govern us. One of these elected citizens is called the President. They act as our central leader. The President works together with the other elected officials to create and pass laws.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine anything useful gets accomplished.”
“Sometimes, you’re right, but for the most part, it works.”
They ceased their conversation as, ahead of them, Liam and Chance stopped at the corner and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. Cari and Rodrigo joined them, followed a few seconds later by Thad.
“No one is following us,” the orc reported.
“Good,” Liam said. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “The inn is around this corner. Chance had a look around, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone watching the entrance, so we should be able to get in without any trouble. The early-morning market vendors are already setting up their stalls, so there are a few people in the street already.”
Chance nodded and continued the plan. “I’ll go first and pass by the inn just to be sure there isn’t a trap set up for us. Then Liam and I will find places to watch from across the street while Cari and Rodrigo head inside. The three of us will join you once the coast is clear.”
Cari didn’t see anything wrong with the plan, and apparently, neither did Rodrigo. They both agreed, and Chance vanished around the corner, followed ten seconds later by Liam. Cari moved up to the corner of the stone building and peeked around the side to watch Liam walking along the street, staying to one side. Liam moved to the far side of the small square and stopped just past the inn’s entrance. He looked left and then right before meeting Cari’s eyes and nodding once.
“Let’s go.”
Cari stepped out and Rodrigo followed right behind her. They walked across the street and through the door to the Empress’s Rest without incident. They’d made it,
and she released a deep sigh of relief as they entered the deserted common room.
It took a moment for Cari’s eyes to adjust. There was a fire burning in the fireplace, and she heard voices coming from behind the bar in the direction of the kitchen. The staff was up and getting the morning meal together for the inn’s guests.
“About time you showed up, Rod.”
Cari tensed at the sudden realization there was someone else here. Then a man stepped from the shadows on the far side of the room. He smoked a pipe, the gray haze from the bowl obscuring his face as he puffed away after speaking. He paused and pointed at her with the pipe’s stem.
“Is this your friend who got into trouble with the Duke’s thugs? I didn’t chalk you up as one to get caught up in trouble just because a pretty girl is involved. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Uncle Shawn, this is Cari, and I didn’t get caught up in anything. The Duke’s men accosted her. It was they who forced her to defend herself.”
“That may be what you saw happen, but that’s not what the Duke said in the Privy Council last night. He said his men were set upon by common thieves feigning support for the Empress as an excuse to rob them. Luckily, no one got a good description of any of you. I managed to point out that any brigand could have dressed up in dragoon colors and started the fight.”
Rodrigo’s uncle looked past them at the door to the street.
“Where’re the rest of them? I assume, based on the Duke’s account of the fight, you found the three idiots I sent you out to find?”
“We’re right behind you, Cap’n,” Liam said.
Liam, Chance, and Thad stepped out of the inn’s rear hallway into the common room.
It startled both Rodrigo and Cari, but the captain just smiled.
“I hope you made sure no one was watching the inn?”
“No one is watching the inn, at least, not anymore,” Thad said, sporting a vicious grin.
Captain Shawn pointed at a long table with benches on either side. “Good. Sit down. I told Arno to bring out breakfast as soon as it was ready. He knows I’m expecting friends.”