She wasn’t here, thank the gods.
As soon as he thought it, he felt guilty. There would be plenty of people mourning, but now wasn’t the time. Mourning would come after revenge.
Beyond the bodies, Moz found a trail leading to the main keep’s entrance. The heavy door was open and dirty footprints covered the stone floor. He listened for a moment, but the inside of the castle was as quiet as the grave. He debated searching the entire building, but immediately abandoned the idea. Any survivors would’ve left long before now.
Instead, he decided to stick with the tracks. The dirt grew fainter as he followed them, but soon they stopped in front of a door he hadn’t even known existed. A tapestry had been tossed aside and lay on the floor, forgotten. The escape tunnel was pitch black and Moz had neither torch nor lantern. He would’ve preferred to continue tracking, but he needed to collect his horse. The last thing he wanted was to end up on foot again. If there was an exit somewhere it should be easy enough to find.
When he reached the yard, Moz debated a moment before going into the guardhouse and raising the portcullis. Someone would eventually come along and he didn’t want them to have to smash the gate down. The bards were the only things of real value in the school anyway and they were all long gone or dead.
Moz swung up into his saddle and kicked his horse into motion. He made a wide circle, searching constantly for signs. Half an hour later he found them. A battered path through the grass led back to the secret tunnel. Two groups had emerged, one headed southeast with the second right behind them. He hadn’t followed for any time when it became clear that the second group was gone. If that was the Dark Sages, then they had probably returned to their flying ships to track Callie from the air. Following her trail should lead him to them and her both.
Moz snapped the reins and his horse broke into a canter. It was going to be a long night, but he was determined to not stop until he found out where Callie and Ariel had ended up.
An hour after sunset, a bright orange glow appeared on the horizon. It looked like a fire, but there was nothing over that way but forest. Moz had a bad feeling as he rode towards the light.
When he arrived, he found a line of at least fifty people armed with shovels and picks trying to dig a line in the dirt to stop the flames. One young man stood by himself, waving his hands and making the fire move this way and that. Had to be a bard.
Moz rode up to him and shouted, “What happened?”
The young man wiped sweat from his brow, smearing it with soot. He looked up at Moz. “I remember you, you’re Callie’s friend, right?”
Moz nodded. “Have you seen her?”
“We got separated,” the bard said. “Those people that attacked the college firebombed the forest in order to force us out. I don’t know where everyone else ended up. Callie’s last order was for us to meet up at the emergency gathering point in Rend City. I’m headed there as soon as I get this fire under control.”
“Thanks,” Moz said.
How was he supposed to find them now? Callie could have gone in any direction out of that forest.
He frowned. Assuming she planned to meet up with the others, she would’ve gone south towards Rend City. With no better options, Moz turned his horse in that direction.
Maybe somebody had seen a little blond girl with a pair of dragons.
Chapter 21
There’d been so many wars with Carttoom over the years that Rend’s northern border was the most heavily fortified it had ever been. As Callie and her companions approached at midday, she couldn’t help staring. She hadn’t been this far north since the last war. On the Carttoom-facing side of the fortress stood a row of ten massive stone towers, forty feet high and bristling with arrow slits, that acted like freestanding fortresses capable of raining death down on any approaching force. The towers were connected by a thirty-foot wall with a gate that blocked passage from down the road.
On the saddle in front of Callie, Ariel was slumped over the horse’s neck, sound asleep. Summoning that giant dragon must’ve taken a lot out of the girl. The hummingbird dragons had flitted off somewhere a little while ago, probably to hunt.
Callie brushed hair out of Ariel’s face. There was no way around it, the kid had saved their lives. Despite her gratitude for the rescue, it was impossible to deny how terrifying it had been seeing that dragon swoop out of the sky breathing lightning and smashing soldiers around like toys.
She shuddered. When Moz told her no one should have access to Ariel’s power, she hadn’t fully understood why he felt so strongly. It wasn’t just a matter of keeping the girl free, it was also a matter of no one having that sort of power.
The Rend side of the fortress was only protected by a low wall and simple gate. If an enemy got through the towers, it would be too late to do anything about them here. Callie urged her horse to the front of the group as they approached. A young man was on guard duty at the gate. He looked them over but didn’t appear especially concerned. He couldn’t have been a day over eighteen. If there was another war, it was men like him that would be dying on the front lines.
“Can I help you ladies?” the guard asked.
“I need to talk to General Rend. Tell him there’s been an incident at the Bardic College and the headmistress is here in need of sanctuary. I promise you he’ll want to talk to me.”
The guard stared at them and blinked a few times as if expecting everyone to vanish into thin air. “You’re all bards?”
Callie nodded. “You’d better get going, General Rend isn’t going to thank you for keeping him waiting.”
“Yes ma’am, but I can’t just leave my post.”
“Don’t worry,” Callie said. “We’ll keep an eye on it until you get back. No one will get past us.”
The kid was clearly conflicted, but finally said, “Okay.”
He took off running deeper into the camp.
Hopefully he knew where the general was or at least his superior officer did. Now that the guard had left, Callie took a moment to study the area beyond the gate. There was an unusual number of tents and people moving around, people that didn’t look like soldiers. In truth she had seldom seen such a ragged group.
“Looks like Yaz has been successful in freeing more of his people in Carttoom,” Tonia said. The wind master had rejoined them a couple of miles from the battlefield. She narrowly avoided a blast from the enemy’s magic, but the close passage had damaged her connection to the spirts and by the time she got them back under control, the battle had ended.
Callie hated slavery as much as any citizen of Rend, but these were the sorts of acts that could lead to war. If the general had approved it then it wasn’t her place to question his decision. Callie just hoped he knew the risks.
It took over fifteen minutes for the general to finally show up. Judging from the small mustard spot on the side of his face and the scattering of crumbs on his blue uniform, Callie had interrupted his lunch. Hopefully, it hadn’t put him in a bad mood. The guard was with him, but the young man held a good fifteen paces back.
“General,” Callie said. “Been a long time.”
“It has,” the general agreed. “Your message said something about an incident at the college?”
“We were attacked,” Callie said.
The general’s expression hardened. “How is that possible?”
“It’s a long story. I—”
“General!” A soldier came running up, shouting and waving his arms. He was a bit older than the gate guard but not by very much. Callie put him in his midtwenties. His uniform still looked brand new.
“Calm down, man,” the general said. “What’s got you so riled up?”
“There’s more of them coming, sir. They bypassed the Carttoom fortress, but some of the soldiers gave chase. The men at the gate aren’t sure what to do.”
“Your story’s going to have to wait, Callie.”
“Do you mind if I join you?” Callie asked. “Also, my people are tired and h
ungry.”
“Soldier, find these people food and a place to rest. Callie, let’s go.”
Callie dismounted and exchanged a look with Lucy, that was all that was necessary for the teacher to know she was in charge until Callie got back. That detail taken care of, Callie fell in behind General Rend. They hurried toward the front of the camp, her stomach in knots the whole way.
On the battlements above the guardhouse, a pair of archers were keeping watch. “They’re only fifty yards out!” one of the men said.
“Out of the way!” the general bellowed.
Soldiers rushed to open a path. Callie followed in his wake, climbing a set of steps to the battlement so they could see what was happening. Six ragged figures raced towards the Rend side of the border. Behind them, a full squad of ten soldiers armed with swords and shields rushed to catch them. It was a footrace that didn’t look good for the half-starved slaves.
General Rend took it all in at a glance and said, “Don’t just stand there, get the gate open.”
Shouts from below were soon drowned out by the clinking of the portcullis as it raised.
The Carttoom soldiers were quickly closing with the slaves.
The distance separating them shrank faster than the distance between the slaves and the gate.
The slaves were thirty yards out and the soldiers about twenty behind them.
Gods, it was going to be close.
“Spearmen to the gate,” the general yelled. “No Carttoom dog sets foot on this side of the border, understood?”
Shouts of “yes, sir!” were followed by men hustling to get into position.
Callie tensed.
If the Carttoom soldiers attempted to force their way in this could be a major incident. She silently prayed that both sides showed restraint.
The slaves made it through just strides ahead of the soldiers pursuing them. The spearmen closed ranks, presenting a bristling wall of steel and wood to the approaching men. Carttoom’s soldiers stopped and stared, clearly angry and equally clearly not sure what to do about it.
“Those people are slaves and the property of Carttoom,” the commander of the enemy soldiers shouted.
“There are no slaves in the Kingdom of Rend,” the general said. “You can return to your masters and tell them that. Now back away before I drop twenty tons of steel on your heads.”
“You haven’t heard the end of this,” the enemy commander said before marching his troops back the way they’d come.
General Rend shook his head. “That was entirely too close.”
“Have you thought about what’s going to happen if they decide not to stop next time?” Callie asked.
“I have, and my nephew and I are in agreement. Any Carttoom soldier that attempts to force his way across the border will be slain. We’ve made that clear to King Carttoom as well via diplomatic channels. I doubt he’ll start a war over a handful of grubby slaves.”
Callie dearly hoped he was right.
Callie emerged from General Rend’s tent after a grueling, hour-long conversation, exhausted, but with his promise to alert the king to Ariel’s situation. She had no doubt that when the king heard what had happened, he would send an escort to accompany them to the capital. A platoon of soldiers combined with the threat of Ariel’s dragon should be enough to balk even the Dark Sages, no matter how determined they were. She stifled a yawn. At least that was her hope.
The bards had been assigned a tent only a few yards down from the general’s. It was a simple thing of tan canvas, but it had its own stove and was warm and dry. Right now, that was enough to make it paradise to Callie.
When she opened the flap the scent of fresh food rushed out. Her stomach rumbled. How long had it been since she had a proper meal? It felt like ages.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked.
“Pork and beans along with day-old bread,” Tonia said.
Callie’s appetite curdled but she forced herself to take a bowl. On a cot in the corner, Ariel lay curled up under a blanket, sound asleep. Just looking at her, you would never guess she was probably the most powerful person on the planet. She looked so peaceful. It was easy to see why Moz had decided to protect her.
“So what’s the plan?” Lucy asked.
“For now, we wait. It shouldn’t take more than a week for reinforcements to arrive from the capital. When they get here, we can make the journey safely.” Callie was pleased with how optimistic she sounded. Hopefully the others would believe it as well.
“Did you tell him what Ariel could do?” Lucy asked.
Callie swallowed a mouthful of beans that needed salt and brown sugar but otherwise didn’t taste too bad. “No choice. Only the truth would get them to act as quickly as we need them to.”
The sound of soft singing reached the tent and Callie felt the stress drain out of her. She looked at Lucy and raised an eyebrow.
“The refugees’ nervousness was giving Amanda a stomachache,” Lucy said. “She thought as long as we were here, she might as well make herself useful.”
Callie nodded and focused on her meal. When she was finished, she should probably go check on any injured. If these people were going to be citizens of Rend, it wouldn’t hurt to earn some goodwill. Not to mention that helping them was just the right thing to do.
Chapter 22
Shade walked ahead of Rondo through the high grass towards the nearest village. The boss had made it clear that he wanted them to find Ariel but under no circumstances to attempt to capture her. Domina was busy putting her lab back together so she could brew up some kind of poison to knock the girl out. Their hope was that if she was unconscious, she couldn’t call another dragon.
That was fine with Shade. While hardly one to back away from a challenge, his daggers would be about as useful as toothpicks in a fight with the monster that attacked them. He’d seen dragons over the years, of course, usually flying overhead on their way somewhere he wasn’t. This was the first time he’d seen one up close, seen what it could do. The one that attacked them wasn’t even an especially big specimen. He shuddered to think what an even bigger dragon might manage.
Beside him, Rondo was muttering to himself. Shade glanced over at his companion’s pale face and shaking hands. “You okay?” Shade asked.
“What do you figure the odds are of a man encountering the same dragon twice and surviving both times?”
“I’m guessing not very good. With your luck maybe you should buy a gold mine.”
“That’s not funny. You know my family owns a mine, right?”
“No, I don’t know a thing about your family.” Shade refrained from adding that he didn’t especially care either.
“You don’t think the dragon will be there when we catch up to them, do you?” Rondo’s voice trembled when he asked.
“I don’t know but I doubt it,” Shade said. “From what you’ve said and what I’ve seen, it seems like the kid only calls a dragon when she knows she’s in danger. As long as she doesn’t see us, we should be fine.”
Rondo didn’t look the least bit reassured, not that Shade blamed him. For all they knew, the dragon had landed beside the girl and was sleeping with its tail wrapped around her. Not that that seemed overly likely but then again you never knew.
The hike to the village took most of the day. It wasn’t an especially big place. Mostly one-story buildings, a handful of businesses, all very ordinary. Unless you counted the people running in and out of houses. Often, they emerged with hammers and chisels or heavy daggers. The villagers took their tools and turned toward the forest, marching as quick as they could.
Shade grabbed a passing man and asked, “What’s going on?”
“Two ships fell out of the sky,” the man said, seeming hardly able to believe the words that just passed his lips. “Rumor is their hulls are studded with gems. It’s like something out of a bedtime story.”
Shade let the man go and shared a look with Rondo. The boss wasn’t going to be happy when he found out
people were looting his ships. Not that there was anything Shade could do about it short of killing everyone.
“It’s getting late,” Rondo said. “Do we get the horses now or find a room and set out in the morning?”
“Morning,” Shade said. “I can’t very well track them in the dark. Besides, judging from the direction they were riding, I’ve got a pretty good idea where they’re headed.”
“Where?” Rondo asked.
“The border.” Shade scratched his cheek and his finger came away bloody. That little scratch must have started bleeding again. “It’s the only fortification of any size in the area. The bards are connected to the Rend government, so they can count on support from the military. If they’re smart, and I’ve seen nothing to indicate that they’re not, that’s right where they’ll head.”
Shade and Rondo set out for the largest building in the village, the only one with two stories. It had to be the inn, though you’d think they’d have a sign or something. With all the villagers headed for the forest, they should have the place mostly to themselves.
“If they’re in a fortress surrounded by soldiers,” Rondo said, “how exactly are we going to get the kid out?”
Shade shrugged as they mounted the steps. “I don’t know. Until we get a look at the layout, it’s impossible to make plans. But don’t worry, one way or another we’ll get her. Assuming we don’t get eaten by a dragon first.”
Rondo blanched and Shade grinned even though he was only half jesting.
Two days of hard riding and listening to Rondo complain practically nonstop finally brought Shade within sight of the border. The massive stone fortification stretched for hundreds of yards east to west. It was one of the largest military compounds in the kingdom. Not surprising since it guarded the best crossing point along the entire border.
They left the horses behind a low hill and walked around for a closer look. The area inside the fort was crawling with people, most of whom didn’t look like soldiers. Shade frowned and scratched his chin. Getting in would be easy enough, the wall on this side was a joke. The trick would be getting the kid out with all those people around. Someone was bound to notice him lugging a little blond girl over his shoulder.
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