“I wonder why?” said Svren.
“Most people from his list of names don’t include military types,” said Felicia. “He prefers controlling the money.”
“Control that and you can control most people anyway,” said Isabel.
“Right,” I said. “But Lormevar also mentioned no one can use its enchantment to make people fight directly. Probably why Lucian couldn’t tell us to kill ourselves. He has to do it himself or get other people to order it.”
“But the dagger made people fight,” said Alex.
“It’s a different enchantment, and a weaker one. He would have commanded everyone to kill us if he had the option. Those with any noteworthy prana should also be able to resist the dagger, like we did.”
“Good to know,” said Svren. “Now, shall we get you to a bed or a meal?”
While not exactly feeling as though I got true sleep, I chose the meal. Moreover, the nearer we got to sundown, the less inclined I felt to be removed from my armor for a short stint in a bed.
There was a somewhat looser mood among the Vanguard I ate with in the mess hall. Since their generals did not go into great depth when giving instructions, several Vanguard furtively sought to clarify everything concerning the current situation and how my brother and I were connected to it. Per usual, I left much of the explanation to the others. Those conversation kept the mess hall lively until General Valentine came into the eating area right around the time the sun’s belly began to dip below the horizon.
Given the general’s austere demeanor, I asked, “There’s a problem, isn’t there?”
“Durnmere’s police force have been ordered by Pleulor’s chancellor to ‘apprehend the two murdering ghoul brothers the Vanguard have been withholding from a proper execution,’ as the telegram states. A second telegram goes on to say Pleulor’s military is to become involved in the investigation ‘to a potential Vanguard conspiracy to aid turncoats and ghouls.’ Hmph. We informed the chancellor about the viscount, but that did not seem to matter.”
“Can the vice chancellor do anything?”
“General Noboa is with her. They’re outside speaking with a police captain and his men now. I doubt she can override the chancellor’s order, however. The word of harboring ghouls will get Durnmere in a tizzy. Durnmere’s entire police and local military forces will surround the fort soon if we allow it.”
“And are you planning to allow it?”
“Surrounding us will mean easy access to our ships will be severed. We won’t be able to escape without a fight. Of course, a fight at sea will become likely from there.”
“Sounds like we should leave now before they can mobilize any further. Staying is only inviting a battle against the deceived.”
“We’ve been making preparations to that end. We’ve called back most of our men searching the city for the viscount, and our sailors have been transferring critical supplies to our fastest available ships. We can leave at a moment’s notice if we must.”
“I say we must. With your men no longer searching the city, and now other authorities focusing on us, the viscount is now truly out of our grasp. We must regroup somewhere else and figure out which allies-”
An aural pulse of dreadful corruption got everyone in the room to freeze up. I recognized it as the same aura that pervaded the Wyncour island. Muffled gunfire obliged everyone to rush for the doors. Running toward the thick metal bars of the main gate, we joined additional Vanguard from around the base. Lookouts on top of the wall shouted, “Threshers! Threshers!” I did not have to wait long to find out what they were referring to.
Seven dark blurs twice the size of the largest bears charged into the line of three dozen lawmen and several Vanguard. They attacked with hairy tendrils erupting from anywhere on their bodies. In fact, their entire frames appeared to be comprised of these churning tendrils, some of which whipped out from their backs like extra-long tails that swept the ground to find anything they could attack in their blind spots. I failed to see their heads, but their dry, crackling bellows suggested a throat was hidden somewhere within their mass.
When a tendril found its prey, it would signal other tendrils to reach out and grab whatever body part they could get. Exactly what happened next depended on too many factors to count. One officer was thrown up and slammed into the ground. Another man was so engulfed in the tendrils, they were able to rip a leg off before the rest of the tormented human was tossed aside. Bullets shot indiscriminately into their strange hides did nothing but splatter a little dark purple blood and give the angered targets someone to chase.
With the Vanguard so far spared from a direct attack, General Noboa organized them with the orders, “Pin them down! Find their heads!”
Vanguards able to manipulate earth and water formed tendrils of their own. They aimed them at the nearest thresher, twisting them around their powerful forelimbs. Elements mixed, froze, and hardened, effectively creating a strong net over a fiend. Thus immobilized, bullets could be better lined up to assault a thresher’s head, which apparently did lie in the expected place, only buried behind unmoving tendrils. However, this technique put the casters casting the net in a vulnerable position themselves, and there were presently not many other Vanguard to defend them.
Too low on my own prana to rely on it, I switched to my corruption. With the potential to burn the scrambling lawmen from afar too high, I ran toward the most troublesome thresher in the battle. It stomped a man’s screaming head into silence with its wriggling limb. Its other arm ensnared another man, but before his fate could be determined by his captor, a thrown dragon stone birthed black flame. A grousing howl reacted to the rare magic. That’s all brute force could do as spiraling blackness melted a fatal hole into its torso.
Alex dashed to flank the left side of the battle. His shadow grew. He yelled something to the thresher nearest him. It leapt toward him, but Alex leapt backward to avoid its drubbing arms. He probably could have evaded the incoming tendrils if he wanted to, but he didn’t want to. The instant a scouting tendril wrapped around his left arm, the hulking beast halted all movement, though it groaned terribly.
To anyone who heard him, Alex exclaimed, “Kill the fucking thing!”
An enemy besieged by properly aimed guns plopped on to the ground within seconds. Another raging thresher fell for Alex’s ruse.
By joining magic, guns, and expertise together, bringing down all the monsters proved an inevitability. Sensing either an escaping or suppressed corrupted aura, I told the generals I was going after it.
As I made my way out the carnage around me, one of the lawmen said, “Wait right there! No one is going anywhere!”
I looked back to see a revolver pointed at me. Following their comrade’s example, the surviving lawmen pointed their guns at random Vanguard, which prompted the obvious response from them. Now I realized the true purpose of the fiend attack.
General Valentine walked up to the lawman pointing his weapon at me and said, “Lower your godsdamn gun! Our enemy is still out there! These threshers just didn’t come out of nowhere!”
“Of course they didn’t come from nowhere! They just coincidentally show up when we’re investigating ghouls among your ranks!”
“We already told you about the viscount.”
“Pleulor will start its own investigation.”
“Gods, not another one,” said Alex.
A group of fifteen or so krewen sprinted out from the city, some wearing Vanguard uniforms. Another group of lawmen also overheard the battle and closed the distance to us. On becoming aware of the impasse, they all slowed down and rose their weapons as well.
“If you’re going to shoot us, captain,” began General Noboa, “you better make damn sure you have the advantage in guns and magic.” The police captain reviewed his unfavorable situation with a turn of his head. “We’re going back within the fort. Mister Eberwolf, abandon your chase for now. It’ll cause too much trouble.”
Including myself and Alex, the Vangu
ard gradually retreated behind the fort’s walls. Earth casters then rose a stone wall behind the metal bars to block outside sights and bullets from reaching us.
“That corrupted aura is the same one I sensed back in the Wyncour island,” I told the generals. “The viscount is allied with a hallion.”
“A hallion inside a city?” said Svren. “How?”
“We know the viscount knows a summoning spell. Or maybe the hallion itself knows a few tricks.”
“Worrisome,” said General Valentine, “but, and I never thought I would say this, the hallion is not our primary concern. However it arrived, it succeeded in sowing further suspicion. We must leave or be forever under the thumb of people we can no longer trust.”
“Speaking of suspicion,” said the equal ranking leader. “Not all these krewen are Vanguard. Who are they, head ranger?”
“Krewen are always one,” answered Reet. “They heard about the dragon knight’s plight and the plight of our comrades, and so they are here to assist us.”
“And I wonder who they heard it from.”
“There are more.”
“We aren’t letting more in. We have to escape to our ships.”
“The ‘more’ I speak of are on a ship. I recommend we take it. We have a better chance of slipping away unnoticed on a civilian vessel rather than be so easily targeted on a Vanguard warship.”
“Even if I agreed to that, it will be difficult enough getting to our own ships, much less go all the way to civilian side of the harbor.”
“We can take the underground passages.”
“The city have been informed of those long ago,” said General Valentine. “They’ll be waiting for us at the exits.”
“They do not know of the new passage the krewen have constructed.”
“What?”
“My predecessors have expanded on a passage for our own confidential use. We have kept it secret in the event war breaks out between humans and krewen. It leads near the civilian docks. Those under my command will now use it to escape.” Turning to me, she continued with, “And I extend an invitation to the dragon knight and any of my Vanguard comrades who wish to use it.”
The invitation got most in the assemblage to stare at me. Speaking my mind, I said, “I like the idea of not having Pleulor warships chasing us. And going by how fast messages travel here, those warships could end up coming from well beyond Pleulor’s shores in a couple days. I’d rather not face those odds.”
“I don’t like the odds of a civilian ship against a single warship if we’re spotted,” said General Noboa.
“Two or three warships shouldn’t present a great challenge to a dragon who can swim under them and do whatever damage he wants. And even if we can escape Pleulor’s reach, where can Vanguard ships moor if much of Grenhath becomes an enemy?”
“Nev Setor is our best defended island fortress. Any Vanguard beset by the viscount’s conspiracy will converge there.”
“Will you take us to the same place?” I asked Reet.
“No, we will find greater support in krewen territory. The rest of the Vanguard should seek refuge there as well.”
“Openly defecting will only get those not already on the viscount’s side to conclude we truly are traitors. Stopping the viscount won’t matter at that point. The Vanguard will be finished.”
“Reforming the Vanguard can be done,” I said. “Or if we can stop the viscount and get our hands on enough vlimphite, the Vanguard as you know it may no longer need to be around for much longer. Besides, I like having my options open, and heading for the other half of a continent sounds better than limiting myself to a single island.”
“A continent that can be as full of enemies as allies.”
“If there’s that many enemies against us, then it won’t matter where we run to… I’ll give you some time to make up your minds, but for now, Reet, show me where we can get to the passage.”
The head ranger led me to the Vanguard barracks. Wanting to know where this secret passage lied, the generals followed the krewen as well. The krewen side of the barracks was a large room full of hanging hammocks. Reet strode toward a wall of wide lockers. At the corner locker, she twisted the wheel of a lock four times in order to unlatch it.
Next, she tossed aside various clothing so she could reach the locker’s ceiling and make something snap, which got the back metal wall to rattle. Not concerned about alarming anyone, Reet let the back metal wall fall on to the ground with a loud clang. After poking her head and arms inside the newly exposed entrance, a soft electric light came on from within, revealing a plunging stairway when Reet backed away.
“Shall we go?” Reet asked me.
I turned to the generals, who had been quietly chatting in muted tones with each other the whole time. “Well?”
Getting out a sigh, General Noboa said, “It will be difficult not to attract attention once we set sail. If you wish to go with the head ranger, then you may do so with General Valentine and several other Vanguard by your side. However, I want to get at least two of our ships out to sea. You say your dragon can incapacitate ships from beneath the waves?”
“From what I gather, your metal ships can be targeted from below rather easily. A blast of dragon fire on their propeller things should immobilize them without having to drown or burn anyone.”
“Then, before you leave, I request you go out and disable as many warships as you can. They won’t fire on us when so many civilian craft are around, but that will change in the open ocean.”
“But if they can’t follow you, an open sea battle can never start. All right, I can do that. I only need to know which ships to target.”
“Any with big guns on their top decks. We might be tracked by other vessels, but those we can handle on our own.”
“Time to get going, then.”
I sprinted back outside. Once the generals helped get several Vanguard cleared out, I summoned Aranath using my corrupted self. Taking in the mythic sight, all the krewen kneeled and made circles on their chests with their fists. After explaining our objective, the dragon, grumbling at the prospect of diving into cold water, lifted off the ground.
How quickly the world’s troubles shrank once in the sky. Durnmere and its harbor may as well have been a bizarre landscape painted by an eccentric seer. It was difficult not to imagine myself flying away from this mess altogether, even knowing another mess would be waiting somewhere else. Of course, maybe a mess somewhere else would at least have a sword I could actually use.
Many of the ships far below still barely gleamed in the dying light. It did not take long to spot those long barrels among four of the brighter gleams steadily making their way across the glassy water. One pair of them headed southwest while the other two drifted farther west. Not giving anyone the chance to aim for the unidentified beast, I directed Aranath to take a steep dive near the southern pair first. I laid almost flat on my stomach so the impact of the ice-cold water didn’t slam against so much of my body.
The shock of the freezing water, saltiness, and undulating distortion from swimming so swiftly made it impossible to see with any clarity. I could perceive a flash of light from Aranath’s fire breath, but the exhaling burst also created an expanding bubble cloud. At least the froth felt warm when going through it. Seconds succeeding a second frothing cloud, Aranath and I catapulted from the sea to prepare for our next bone-chilling dip.
I heard a few gunshots as we climbed the sky, but even assuming good aim, I trusted our dragon armor to deflect bullets from such an ever increasing distance. And while a bullet going through the membrane of his wings might sting, I expected it would take several lucky shots for actual damage to adversely impact his ability to fly. All the same, that didn’t mean I needed him to expose himself too long near the ships. Speed, distance, and angle made the dragon too challenging a target for anyone on the second pair of ships to hit. Conversely, their spinning propellers proved well within reach for us.
On finding no other warsh
ips after another circling pass of the harbor, we headed back for the fort. Before landing, I noticed the Vanguard had raised an earthen wall to provide a defended path for them to get to their ships. And they needed it, for the police force was getting reinforced by added squads of armed men.
General Valentine waited for me outside with the head ranger and my familiar allies, including Bregman. Those wearing attire which marked them as Vanguard had put on nondescript winter wear over them such as coats or mantles.
The general asked me, “Any trouble?”
“Besides the freezing water making my dick disappear for a minute? No. We found and crippled four warships.”
“Good. Time for us to go. There won’t be any Vanguard defending the gates soon.”
We rushed into the krewen barracks. One by one everyone slipped into the tight passageway behind the locker. The nearly vertical stairs only went down ten feet before flattening out into a hallway marginally wider than a broad man’s shoulders. Most of us needed to duck the lightbulbs dangling on the ceiling every fifteen or so yards. We were not deep underground. It was easy to hear and feel the rolling of metal wheels below their heavy carriages, their vibrations sometimes clattering the unseen tubing that carried water and waste under the city. The whole thing smelled of mildew.
“Where exactly does this lead?” the general asked Reet.
“The basement of a krewen capitalist. If krewen always support his business, then krewen always have access to secret tunnel.”
A zigzagging section of the passage transitioned into a straight path thirty yards long. Fifty feet from the end of the tunnel, our heads gained room in the form of a shaft. A short wait in line eventually ended with me using metal bars to climb out into a clean, organized basement. The floor above was a fairly ambiguous shop filled with goods for krewen. Reet stood by the door leading outside.
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