Aila looked up at the sky. The faint smoke rose from the fire against the battered carriages and the glowing sky that was a mix of colors. The trees swayed in the breeze. It was cold but refreshing, invigorating her mind.
She felt that something was wrong and she looked at Anthony. She didn’t as much see something was wrong but she felt like it was, that kind of second sense that one would have being around someone else for long enough.
“Is there something wrong?” Aila asked.
Anthony slowed his footsteps. “It’s about recovering my memories. I want to have them back, but then, every time I get them back, more times than not, they’re filled with disasters, remembering people only to lose them, seeing battlefields, such loss that it hurts. It feels like it’s tearing me apart on the inside, but there is also something that is keeping me together.” He put his hand on his armor and tapped it. “I don’t know what will happen when I recover my memories.”
Anthony joked around and he looked after other people, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t affected, that he was numb to everything that was happening. It was just he could push it to the side and helped out others instead of falling into that pain.
“Well, if that time comes, I’ll be here to help you,” Aila said.
“Thank you.” Anthony’s voice was just a whisper, but she still heard it as he cleared his nonexistent throat.
“How can you make those noises without a face?”
“Practice, I guess? How can I talk without a tongue or lips? I just have the body—I don’t know how it works!”
“How do you not know how it works?” Aila asked as they continued patrolling.
“Well, do you know all of the functions down to the smallest part of your body?”
“Well, that’s different!”
They argued with each other, feeling all the better for it, thinking on what they had learned that night.
***
Su looked at the people around the fire. He knew all of them; most of them had travelled together for multiple trips. He had come to know their stories, know their families. As he looked around and saw who wasn’t there anymore, his heart twisted.
It was so easy to think that they were just on guard, that they were just away for a few minutes and that they would be back soon. He smiled, thinking of the antics they had got up to, the times that they had joked, sleep deprived from one trading fair, or when they had shared a drink after a long day of work. The times he had seen them showing him pictures of their families, told him the stories of how they got to where they were.
Among traders, many had broken lives, had something that they were looking to escape, something that they were going toward. Or they had simply started trading and loved it. Many joined and many stayed, finding that normal life didn’t suit them anymore.
Su stood and cleared his throat. Everyone looked over to him, curious what he wanted to keep them here for.
“We all came here for different reasons. Some of you were looking to just get passage to the next city. Some of you have been with me and my group for some time, and we have gone to plenty of cities across Selenus. We lost people a few days ago. We were able to return them to Dena and give them rest. We were able to survive as well, but just as we’ve completed their rites, it does not mean that we are saved. What I want to do tonight is to talk—to talk about those we lost, who were they to you, what is weighing on you.”
Su looked at them all. There were different looks on their faces, from anger and fear as they remembered the events. Facing one’s own mortality was never an easy thing.
“I met Carrie years ago, when she was a trader just setting out in the world. She came to my camp all the time, keeping us supplied. She was working as a supply driver so that she could build up the funds that she needed in order to start her own business.
“She stayed a bit longer and she fell for one of the guys in my cohort. He was like an older uncle to me. His name was Dietrick. We were close, and Carrie and I got along well. When we had time off, we would meet up and wander around, the three of us.
“Dietrick was killed in an attack and Carrie wasn’t able to deal with it. She had the money, gave me a way to contact her and she disappeared. I didn’t think that I would see her again. When I was injured, they had me working to move supplies. When I was in a city collecting food to be moved up to the front lines, I ran into her again.
“I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was in a dark place, thinking I was useless with my broken body, unable to fight anymore.” Su rubbed his leg that no longer throbbed in constant pain.
“She walked right into the supply barn. They wouldn’t let her past because she was a civilian, so she yelled my name. ‘Su, you useless goat, get your ass out here!’ I ran out there, all fired up, only to see her there, tapping her foot on the ground. ‘Since you’re a merchant, you might as well do it the right way!’ she yelled, not letting me get a word in edgeways.” Su laughed, even as his eyes were damp. “I thought that I had nothing left. She showed me that there was more in the world to see. I left the military and started to run convoys. She was my first customer. She would never say if she was coming with us to the next place, but every morning before we left, she would be there sitting on her caravan. She was the real boss of the convoy.”
Others smiled and laughed, nodding their heads, knowing her antics well as they all lived through their own memories.
“When I first met Tollem, I didn’t know if he was really going to sell me a real Ilsal timepiece or if he was having me on. After three rounds of negotiations and me having to put my head back on, he joined the caravan and I got a bunch of healing pills. We left and headed out. I was starting to get annoyed, feeling scammed. When I confronted him, he was scared, not for himself but for me. He insisted that I take the pills. I didn’t want to and two days later, I got a case of the shivers. He was there, feeding me the pills and looking after me. He was a trained medic and got busted for selling hooch out of his tent. He had a silver tongue but he was always looking out for people. I had been so confused, I didn’t realize that he was trying to help me and had noticed that I had a bad fever and infection. He was one hell of a character, but he was a good person,” Gus said.
Slowly, the others—one by one—started telling their stories. They laughed and they cried, not sure what emotions pulled on them as they were unable to control them.
And they didn’t have to. Su looked around at them. They had all been through it together. They had dealt with the good times and the bad; they were a dysfunctional, highly erratic, unusual collection of people from all walks of life, but they were family. It didn’t matter that they weren’t from the same clan, or that their blood wasn’t the same: they had created their own tribe and forged their path together.
Su looked up at the sky and saw the stars there. The silver jewels hung above, drawing one away from their mortal body and worries.
He closed his eyes, feeling those who had gone ahead of him, those beyond the veil. It was as if he could see them smiling at him, waiting for him on the other side.
Su raised his glass slightly, poured some on the ground and drank the rest.
He felt as if he had been cleaned from the inside out. The darkness that had crept in had been pushed back. It wasn’t totally gone and there was a new scar there, but he felt as if the clouds had parted on a stormy day. With time, the clouds would move away and the sky could clear; he could see that now.
They drank and ate together, breaking down the barriers that had started to form and bringing them back together.
Su excused himself and moved to a quiet corner between carriages. He looked up at the silver stars and the blue moon that hung in the heavens.
He stood like that for some time, organizing his thoughts.
“It doesn’t get easier, but I don’t think any of us would like it to be easier,” Anthony said.
Su didn’t know how long he had been there. He didn’t turn and continued to look to the st
ars and moon. “The pain shows just how much we cared for them,” Su agreed.
They fell into silence before Su turned to face Anthony.
“They said that they were Agents of Chaos. What did they mean?”
“It means that the next great war is coming.” Anthony turned his eyes from the sky above to Su.
“The next great war, like the one that the races all fought together, side by side?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“I thought that it was nothing but an old story, one that those who didn’t want to fight used to try to fight back.” Su accepted what Anthony said. He had fought humans for his entire life, but he had come to trade with them and learned that they were not all bad; it was just that people could be led astray.
“This war has been going on for a long time. It involves all of the people of Dena, for it’s very soul. The Agents of Chaos work to infiltrate our homes, our cities and create chaos, to disrupt us and turn us against one another so that they can devour Dena and exterminate us,” Anthony said.
Su thought on the state of Dena. Two of the most populous races were in a war against each other, although there had been a break in the fighting for the last three years. It is only a matter of time until one side finds a reason to attack the other.
“So this war right now?”
“I’m not sure but I think that the Agents of Chaos are behind it. They might also be behind the reason that there aren’t any more Guardians and only a few people know about us. We’re more of a myth than a reality.” Anthony sounded as if he had more questions left unanswered. “We’re stronger together than apart.” Anthony turned to leave.
“Thank you,” Su said.
Anthony looked back. “I just told you what you needed to hear, what your people needed to hear.”
Anthony’s voice made Su’s heart twist. With his loss so recent, he could tell that he had experienced that same debilitating pain.
Su looked back up at the night sky, rubbing his leg that had been mangled. Stronger together than apart. If they’re the reason that this war has been going on for so long... A chill ran down Su’s spine, thinking of it. There had been times in the past where a peace could have been reached but then something had happened and stopped it from being established. Now they had been at war for so long that it was just a part of Dena.
***
“I meant to ask you earlier, but that bull familiar...” Su started.
“Ah, Bruce?” From Anthony’s left arm, a green bull raised his head, looking out on the world. Instead of the anger that had been in his eyes before, they were clear as he looked at Su.
Su once again felt that bloodline suppression. “How is this possible?” Su asked.
Anthony looked confused and Su quickly covered up what he was thinking.
If someone learned that he had a familiar able to suppress our bloodlines, they might hunt him down. For it to be able to suppress my bloodline, even if we’re not from the same bloodline, it must be a powerful familiar, closely related to the beast kin.
“Does he have intelligence?” Su asked, shocked by the light in the bull’s eyes. His body turned brown slowly, but there were hints of green in his hair and his eyes shone like polished emeralds.
“He’s plenty smart; he just doesn’t speak common. Just communicates in other ways,” Anthony said as Bruce left Anthony’s arm. Bruce walked on the air as he circled around, before he went back into Anthony’s arm.
“He’s your familiar—is he a clan spirit?” Su asked.
“A clan spirit? That sounds familiar. Heh, familiar sounding familiar—that’s a tongue twister!”
Su forced out a laugh as well, not sure what to say. “If I was you, I would be wary about letting others from the beast kin see Bruce.”
“Oh?”
Su paused. If he had just met Anthony, he would have turned him over to the authorities. If he was keeping and controlling a clan spirit, it was a great dishonor if he had enslaved it, but seeing the two of them interact and Anthony’s actions... I couldn’t see him forcing a clan spirit into submission.
Su trusted his gut and let out a sigh and the tension that had built up within him. “Clan spirits are spirits that look over a clan. When we create our tattoos, we enhance the power that we can draw out from our bloodlines which extend back through our ancestors and the clan spirits. Clan spirits can combine with a beast kin, increasing their power greatly, but it is up to the spirit to choose who they want to combine with as they are tying themselves to the bodies of others. They can guide one’s cultivation and increase their power in battle, training them constantly—a master inside of their head and their body, looking after them constantly.”
Chapter: I Spy
The next morning, they left the campsite behind. They were all closer together, looking like a group once again.
Anthony, Aila, and Tommie rode in the back. They took their time; they were so close now they were only a few days from the city.
Anthony turned his head to the side as he heard something in the distance. “Are we expecting any kind of military around here?”
“What do you mean?” Gus asked.
“Can you hear that?”
Gus turn his head and focused on listening. “Everyone move to the side. Legion coming through!”
They reacted quickly. The carts shifted to the side as everyone looked around and started talking, advancing slower than before.
“Why would the legion be moving?” Anthony asked.
“There is a reserve training camp nearby. There wasn’t supposed to be any military movements. I have my channels to make sure that we don’t run into anything like this. So it must mean something happened...” Gus trailed off before reaching into his pack and pulling out his cloak. “You should put this on. They shouldn’t do anything but they could arrest you and hold you for some time.”
Anthony nodded and put the cloak on, hiding his armor.
“I’m going to head to the front and meet with the riders,” Gus said. His bedar picked up his speed, meeting up with Su before continuing beyond the caravan.
They didn’t have to wait long until they saw the scouts from the army. They were talking with Gus, who was bringing them back toward the caravan.
He waved Su over to meet with them. More scouts riding on their bedars could be seen in the forest on either side of the road, checking out the caravan and looking for threats.
The scouts in the forest continued on. The caravan was brought to a halt with Su’s gesture and they moved farther off the road. He left with a scout, moving toward the approaching army that was hidden by the rolling hills.
“What should we do?” Aila asked Anthony in a low voice.
“We wait. We haven’t done anything wrong and we have papers,” Anthony said.
“Then why are you wearing that cloak?”
“Pretty stylish, no? Think of updating to a desert retro look—just need a scarf and some of those gnome goggles, roguish scars on my armor, a bit sandblasted. Badassery at its finest!”
Aila groaned. It looked as if Anthony was back to his same joke-filled self. She hid a smile. It was good to have him back. It made Dena seem less dark than before.
Su returned with Gus, heading for Aila, Tommie, and Anthony.
“I don’t like this,” Tommie said.
“Come on, Tommie. Stiff upper lip and all of that. This is how you build character,” Anthony said from beneath his cloak.
Su and Gus looked nervous as they led a massive leader from the bull clan over. She had proud black horns that stuck out of the top of her well-cared-for helmet. Her eyes scanned over the people in the convoy, making most of them look away. Her guards moved with her, fanning around her more out of instinct that had been hammered into them after continuous fighting.
Her eyes fell on Anthony as her hand lowered to her blade.
Anthony felt Bruce stir.
“This young upstart is thinking about challenging me? She needs another d
ozen eons and a new spirit!”
“Bruce, don’t create a scene.”
“If she tries something, I’ll act.”
Bruce quieted down. He didn’t leave but remained there, awake on his arm.
***
Commander Tysien was a large Elephant Kin. She surveyed the group before she looked at the man hiding underneath his cloak; he looked up at her and she thought that his eyes were glowing. She tightened her grip on the sword.
Filthy human. Hiding among these people. And the story about the Agents of Chaos—that must be a lie that they used in order to try to get him through Selenus. I’ll get to the bottom of this. Can’t trust a human. Even a child.
Memories she swore that she would never forget appeared in the back of her mind.
“Take off the hood,” she said.
The knight did so, revealing his armored self underneath.
The other guards all looked at him warily, ready to draw their weapons as they circulated their bloodline.
She had fought beside them for a number of years; they moved as one, a group that had gone through life-and-death trials before.
“Papers?” she asked.
“Good morning. Nice day out, isn’t it?” The man pulled out papers and passed them to her.
She nodded at the man and one of her guards moved his bedar closer, taking the papers and moving back to her.
She felt as though the whole caravan was looking at her.
“Commander.” The guard passed her the papers.
She looked them over. They were all correct and they had the seal of the guard captain from Enni.
Being that close to the border, the city guard isn’t going to be some simple-headed fool.
The little girl’s face flashed behind her eyes and she made it appear as if she were reviewing the papers closer.
“All right, I’ll need to check these closer. You and your companions will come with me and my guards back to Skalafell to check your identities and your papers. Convoy Leader Su, you and your people are free to go. Let’s move!” She turned her bedar. He was a scarred older beast but there was a fierce look in his eyes; the other bedar moved back, feeling his power.
Death Knight Box Set Page 18