by Dante King
“Is that where we’ll find Saruqin?”
“Probably not. The province is run from the city, so that’s where he’ll need to be.”
I turned this over in my mind. Tahlis’ talk of uniforms and the fortress had sown a seed in my mind, but I wasn’t sure what I was doing with it yet.
“Did any of the army get away?” I asked.
“No,” Tahlis said. “They were committed to their cause, right to the end.”
“So, the people in the fortress and the city won’t know what happened yet?”
“That depends upon who Mahrai talks to and what she says,” Tahlis said.
“Except that Mahrai didn’t stick around for the fight,” I said. “As far as she knows, we were outnumbered and about to be slaughtered.”
“Now, that’s something we can use,” Ganyir said.
The conversation moved on to practicalities of cooking and setting the table. Soon, we had great heaps of food in front of us: stir-fried vegetables, piles of noodles, strips of spiced meat, and bean curd. Ganyir led us in a brief prayer to the Earth Spirit before we set to eating.
It had been one of those days when action kept me from realizing how hungry I was, and it was only as I filled my bowl that I felt the desperate rumbling of my stomach. My mouth watered so hard, I was almost drooling as I got the first of the food into my mouth.
Everyone else clearly felt the same, as the table fell silent for a good five minutes while we plowed through our meals. As people reached for seconds, the frantic pace slowed, and we started talking again. Tahlis told a story about when he’d first joined the Steadfast Horn Guild after living for years alone in the desert. As a teacher, he had been expected to set an example, but he hadn’t known about the manners expected of senior guild members at meals. He’d eaten a special dish intended for the guildmaster, poured savory sauce over his dessert, and shocked the other teachers by throwing a fish ball to get someone’s attention. The staff had been appalled, the students delighted, and it had set the tone for his time in the guild.
The end of the story was accompanied by laughter and smiles. People turned to each other and shared stories about things that had happened to them during training. It became just one more meal with friends.
I got up to fetch a jug of water and used my return as an excuse to reposition myself so that I sat between Ganyir and Tahlis.
“We need to talk plans,” I said quietly, not wanting to disrupt the convivial atmosphere.
Ganyir’s expression was always serious, while Tahlis’s was always flippant, and so, they showed no sign to the room that we weren’t still relaxing with the rest.
“I assume you have something?” Tahlis said. “Or is the mighty Swordslinger going to rely on us mere mortals?”
“I have a plan,” I said. “Let me know if you think it will work.”
“Let’s hear it,” Ganyir said.
“The priests of the Unswerving Shadows will be expecting the army to return with good news. The last they knew, that force was preparing to attack us here in the temple, and it could easily have taken days for them to win. They won’t know that anything is amiss yet.”
“What do you propose, then?” Tahlis asked, serious for once.
“We make the most of that,” I replied. “We have many uniforms of city guardsmen just lying out there on the battlefield. Most will be bloodied or scorched, but I’m sure we can piece together a few items that will make us look the part. We go to the fortress in those uniforms and say that we’re returning with news. That will get us inside the fortress and let us take control of it. That will provide somewhere safe for people from Hyng’ohr City to flee to, people like our initiates who don’t like the current regime but are struggling to find the strength to fight back. By taking the fortress, we’ll not only give them a place to gather, but we’ll also show that it’s possible to defeat the cult. Once people gather around us, we’ll be in a stronger position to retake the city.”
“You have a good grasp of strategy for one so young,” Ganyir said.
Tahlis chuckled. “Clearly ‘Ethan’ is just a foreign word for Swordslinger and master tactician. Definitely not knifeslinger though; look at the mess you made of chopping these vegetables! If our enemies were carrots, we would all be doomed.”
He picked up a slice of vegetable between his chopsticks and marched it between our bowls, making growling noises.
“The Carrot Cult is coming for you!” he declared to laughter from around the table. “Behold the rising of the Eggplant Empire!”
While Kegohr and Drek led an argument over which vegetables would win in a fight, I finished off my meal. There was no need to involve everyone in the planning tonight. A night off from war would be good for all of them.
When the meal was over and the dishes done, I returned to the cell where I’d slept two nights before. I placed my weapons in the corner, cast off my clothes, collapsed exhausted into the small bed, and pulled the sheets up over me.
Soon, I was lost in dreams. I found myself standing on a sun-drenched balcony looking out over a perfect blue sea beyond the desert. I was wearing loose silk pants, and the sunlight warmed my bare chest. I took a deep breath and smiled contentedly.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” said the low, murmuring voice of Yono, the spirit of the Depthless Dream Trident.
I turned and saw her standing in the doorway. It was the first time she had shown her physical form to me. She was breathtaking, a perfect pale-skinned figure clad only in a white and blue silk shift that was split down to the navel at her front and up to her hips at the sides. Long, black hair ran down her shoulders almost to her waist. She looked at me with deep, liquid aquamarine eyes and licked her coral lips.
She walked slowly toward me, hips swaying. The silk was so thin that I could make out the silhouette of her legs, the curve of her breasts, and the dark disks of her nipples.
“I’ve enjoyed feeling your hands around me,” she said in a voice that made me stiffen in excitement. “I wanted to feel that again.”
She reached behind her neck and untied the back of her shift. It fell to the floor, revealing her naked glory, glowing in the warmth of the sunlight. Then, she put a hand behind my head and drew me into a kiss.
My skin flushed, and my heart raced at the touch of her, at the feel of our tongues darting around each other and our bodies pressed together. I ran my hands down her sides and up her back, and she moaned in delight.
Yono’s hands wove around my chest, down my back, and pulled me in close. Slender fingers unfastened my pants before letting them drop to the floor. She took hold of me, gently but firmly, and I gasped at the pleasure of her touch.
“You wrap your hands around the shaft of my weapon every day,” she said. “It seemed only fair to return the favor.”
Her hand slid up and down, setting my nerves tingling. I brought my own hands around, cupped her breasts, and then slid on down across her smooth belly and to the wetness between her legs. We kissed, deeply and passionately, our bodies stirring as our spirits soared.
Yono turned and sat herself on the edge of the balcony, her perfect ass resting on the marble rail. She drew me near, and I put my arms around her, steadying her above the precipitous drop, gazing at the beauty of this sexy sea spirit against the background of the ocean that was her own. She wrapped her legs around mine and pulled me close. We both gasped, and she shuddered in excitement as I slid inside her.
We moved against each other, slow and steady at first, like waves rolling up a beach on a summer day. As our pleasure grew, I kissed her on the lips, on the neck, and down across her breasts. She leaned back, her hair flying out in the breeze, her back arching, as her body joined with mine. The sunlight shone across her curves.
She drew me in tighter, harder. I took the pertness of her ass in my hands and pulled her against me. Our pace quickened, rising like the sea in a storm. Our waves of pleasure mounted, and her cries of wild delight soared across the sea as we crashed into
each other again and again and again until I could barely hold my excitement in anymore.
Yono, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide with delight, wrapped her arms around me and pulled herself close. Her skin slid across mine and her breasts pressed against my chest as she clasped me close, kissing my shoulders and neck even as she gasped for breath.
At last, the touch of her beauty overcame me. I gave one last, glorious shudder, and lost myself in pleasure.
Chapter Fifteen
We gathered in the temple’s main chapel. The ancient gods of the Gonki Valley looked down upon us from their pedestals with cold, impassive eyes. I felt as though I was being judged for my part in what had happened so far in the valley and what was still to come. It seemed clear that these gods had assessed every one of us and found us wanting.
This was our chance to redeem ourselves, in our own eyes as well as theirs. For me, it meant making up for the losses we had suffered and becoming stronger so that no one who fought alongside me would die again. For Tahlis, it meant retaking control of his guild, reasserting his dominance over followers whom he had not been able to control before. But for Ganyir it meant so much more.
The significance of the moment showed in the lord’s every movement. He paced slowly at the front of the temple, his head bowed in resignation as much as prayer. His steps were methodical, his movements slow, as if weighed down by a great burden that threatened to overbalance him if he made one false move. His gaze was cast constantly down, watching the worn stone beneath his feet. His gauntleted hands were clasped together.
“Here, my Lord.” Tahlis handed Ganyir the largest of the robes we’d taken from the defeated army. It had been made for one of the larger members of the Steadfast Horn Guild, making it just large enough to fit over not just Ganyir’s bulky frame but the armor he now wore at all times. It would be a tighter fit than the robes were meant for, but as long as no one looked too closely, and as long as he kept his hood up, the Lord of the Gonki should be able to pass as just one more Augmenter.
The rest of us were also putting on robes. We’d had to pick through the ones we’d captured, abandoning the most bloodstained or the ones scorched by fire techniques. Drek had tried washing some of them, but Tahlis didn’t have good soap or laundry tubs in his temple, and the blood was thoroughly soaked in. In the end, the dwarf had reluctantly given up on his task and accepted a set of robes too long for him with a few blood spatters on the back, small enough that they should go unnoticed until we got up close.
The distinctive sound of a whetstone running over steel rang out through the temple as Onvar and Vesma sharpened their blades. Elorinelle checked the fletchings of her arrows and the fastenings of their heads, then looked down each one in turn to make sure that the shaft hadn’t warped. Kegohr’s mace didn’t need much tending to, so he instead practiced martial arts, turning theoretical strikes into muscle memory.
There was no point in me tending to my weapons. The magical power of the Sundered Heart Sword and the Depthless Dream Trident meant that they kept themselves. Both were wickedly sharp and ready for a fight. My spirit weapons were as much companions as they were tools. The memory of Yono’s visit from the night before lingered, but it almost seemed like a dream. She wasn’t present in the morning, and she merely sighed when I tried to talk to her within the trident.
“Of all of us, I didn’t expect to see the Swordslinger sitting idle,” Tahlis said with an exaggerated shake of his head. “Shocking behavior from our fearless leader.”
“I’m ready,” I said.
“Really? Then what do you call this?”
Tahlis prodded my chest. I looked down, expecting to see something wrong with my robes. Instead, I got the flash of his yellow scaled hand rising up to slap me.
“Ha! Got you!” Tahlis said. “If you were really ready, you wouldn’t get caught off-guard by a poor old lizard man.”
“And if you had any dignity, you wouldn’t be trying cheap tricks like that.”
“Dignity is overrated. It doesn’t help you win.”
Tahlis walked past me along the line of initiates and allies. I sent a sliver of Frozen Armor running down my leg, through my feet, and along the stone floor. The lizardman didn’t see it coming, and he slipped before promptly falling on his ass.
I walked over to him and helped him up. “Good thing you don’t have any dignity, because you’d have lost it all by tripping over your own feet.”
“My own feet!” Tahlis looked exasperated before he looked at the melting ice at his feet. “My, my, you are a devious one, Swordslinger.”
I shrugged. “And you’re a cooky one.” I smiled at him as he whirled around in a huff and went to examine the initiates.
“Very good, Elorinelle,” he said as he sniffed the air in front of her. “You’re almost ugly enough to be an Unswerving Shadows guard.”
“Thank you, Master,” she said. “I think.”
“And what’s this?” He stopped in front of Onvar. “You’ve got the belt backward!”
“You’re obviously blind, Master, because my belt is the right way around.” Onvar looked up from his sword. “You’ll have to do better than that to find a mistake I’ve made.”
“That’s the problem. You’re just too meticulous. It’s not fair on our opponents.”
“Fairness is overrated. It doesn’t help you win.”
“Someone is learning!” Tahlis slapped Onvar on the shoulder and carried on his way.
A mixture of sharp clacks and soft footsteps came down the stairs. Zedal emerged, one hand holding a crutch that Elorinelle had carved for her, the other carrying a sword. She was wearing one of the looted uniforms.
“I’m ready,” she announced. “What about the rest of you?”
I looked at Tahlis, who frowned, then brightened.
“Just the initiate I was looking for,” he said. “I have a very important job for you, guarding the temple while we are away.”
Zedal glared at him. “Don’t give me that bullshit,” she hissed. “The temple doesn’t need guarding. Either we win and take the fortress or we lose and die. Either way, there’s no point keeping this place safe.”
“Fine. You can’t come because you still need to recover. Happy now?”
“I’ve got this.” She waggled the crutch. “And this.” She held up the sword. “I can fight, and you need every warrior you can get.”
I stepped forward to join the conversation. “I get that you’re frustrated. I would be too. But you can’t come for two good reasons. First, like Tahlis says, you need to recover. Even if we win today, it will take years to replant the valley and rebuild the guild. Once you’ve had time to regain your strength and properly learn to fight as you now are, you’ll be a huge asset. But you’re too weak now, and we would be throwing away huge potential for little benefit.”
Zedal frowned at me, but it was clear I was getting through.
“Second, it’s a matter of speed,” I continued. “We need to get into the fortress before the cult realizes that they’ve lost their army. If you come with us right now, it will take twice as long to cross the valley, and we might miss our chance. Eat, rest, recover, even start training to fight on that crutch. There are better ways for you to spend today than coming with us.”
Zedal sank onto the bottom stair, her remaining leg stretched out in front of her. She glared at the stump. “Fine,” she muttered. “Just don’t get yourselves killed.”
Soon after, we headed out of the temple and down the mountain stairs to the valley below. Ganyir and I led the way, followed by Kegohr and Tahlis, then the initiates. Vesma and Kumi brought up the rear. Everybody had a small pack of supplies and their weapons. Everything else was left behind. We couldn’t waste effort on anything that wasn’t vital to our mission.
As we walked, Ganyir told me more about the fortress we were heading for.
“That place dates back to the early days of the Gonki,” he said. “Before we became a force to make the world tremb
le. In those days, our valley sometimes came under attack, and there had been terrible losses when Hyng’ohr fell to barbarians. Great storms were also common in the valley, storms that could tear apart ordinary houses.
“The fortress was constructed as a defense against both of those threats. The walls were built sturdy so that the people of the valley could retreat behind them and be safe both from the weapons of the enemy and from the wild winds of nature. They withstood the battering of siege engines and of tornadoes, while our ancestors sat safely inside.
“When we became more powerful, its use started to change. It wasn’t needed as a shelter any more. Instead, it became a barracks, a prison, even a bastion for the valley’s less popular rulers. Whoever holds it holds power in the valley.”
“Then won’t the Cult of Unswerving Shadows have based themselves there?” I asked. “They can always travel into Hyng’ohr when they need to.”
“As I said before, the valley is controlled from the fortress, but it is more easily managed from the city. And besides, the fortress is cramped and uncomfortable by comparison with the City Palace. I would bet much of my life’s blood that Saruqin and his favorites are living in luxury rather than bunkering down in the side of a mountain.”
From the bottom of the mountain stairs, we headed off-road to travel directly toward the fortress. Given the barren nature of the valley, there was little to block our way—no crops we might have trampled or fenced enclosures to keep in animals. Our route was almost a straight line, with only brief detours to circumvent rocky outcrops or patches of particularly treacherous and shifting sand. The biggest obstacle was the dried-up river bed, and we were well used to crossing that by now.
By the middle of the day, we were approaching the fortress up a dusty and rock-lined road. It was a colossal stone building fixed into the mountainside above Hyng’ohr City. Parts of it seemed to have been carved directly from the raw, yellow-gray rock, while others were built from carefully cut stone. High walls were dotted with cylindrical, dome-topped towers. Crenelated battlements ran around the bases of those domes and along the tops of the walls, providing protection for anyone defending the fortress. Narrow arched windows looked down from the walls, offering more vantage points to shoot from or to drop rocks on anyone who tried to storm the place.