Immortal Swordslinger 3

by Dante King

  A moment later, Tahlis popped up again, this time in the center of the guards. He knocked one of them out with a blow from the butt of his spear, then raised his hand. The air swirled, and a Sandstorm sprayed from him, scattering the guards. The sand billowed all around, filling the air, and I lost sight of the gate.

  The ground in front of me burst open, and Tahlis sprung out.

  “I thought you’d be here hours ago,” he said. “So slow, Swordslinger. But now that I’ve given us cover, we should get out of here.”

  I didn’t need telling twice. Together with Mahrai, I followed Tahlis through the Sandstorm into the shadows beneath the gateway. The lizardman flung back the bar that kept the gates closed and swung one of them open. We dashed through and headed out along the mountain path while the gate thudded shut behind us.

  We jogged along the path, our way illuminated by the moon and stars. The road was dusty and uneven compared with those in the city, and I had to dodge dozens of potholes, but I was still glad to be beyond the walls.

  “Were those demons back there?” Tahlis asked.

  “Lesser demons,” I said, almost surprised at how casually I’d just spoken about supernatural creatures from hell.

  “Worrying. I’ve tangled with those creatures before, and they’re seriously tough customers.”

  “You’re not exactly soft yourself,” Mahrai said. “Thank you for saving us.”

  “I have to ask: why are you here with us, instead of siding with the demons? Have you chosen the light?”

  Mahrai glanced at me with a smile. “Some kind of light, I guess.”

  I looked back the way we had come. They city was well behind us now, its gates firmly shut against the wilderness and the night. Though the howling of the demons could still be heard, it was growing more distant.

  “We can slow down,” I said as I reduced my pace to a swift walk. “They’re not following us out of the city.”

  “Not yet,” Tahlis said.

  We followed the path up the mountainside. The fortress loomed ahead of us, its windows black gaps amid dark walls, the moonlight catching the curves of domed tower tops.

  At the gates to the fortress, we were met by our side’s guards, a collection of volunteers from among the Pathless. They were wearing pieces of armor that had been dug out of the fortress’ supplies, mostly metal plates linked together with sections of chainmail, and they carried a selection of spears and other polearms.

  The guards waved as we approached, then froze when they spotted Mahrai. Their hands tightened around their weapons, and they watched her from beneath lowered brows. They backed together and raised trembling weapons to block her way.

  “What’s she doing here?” a Pathless guard asked, voice wavering.

  “She’s on our side now,” I said.

  “No,” another Pathless snapped. “She’s one of them. One of the ones who threatened us and imprisoned us.”

  “That was the past. Things have changed.”

  “Not her. I don’t believe it.”

  I glanced at Mahrai. This was going to get tricky.

  “Send someone to fetch Ganyir,” I said. “He’s the lord of this province, so he should decide what happens here.”

  One of the Pathless disappeared into the interior of the fortress. The rest of us stood stiffly outside the gates, watching each other, no one saying a word. Any time Mahrai moved, the Pathless jumped in alarm, as if the stone golem might appear at any moment.

  After a few minutes, Ganyir emerged. He was wearing robes instead of armor, and his hair was flattened on one side. It was the first time I’d seen him without his battle equipment, but he still struck an imposing figure.

  He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then stared at Mahrai. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

  I walked up to Ganyir, taking Mahrai with me. He shifted his feet, ready in case of trouble, but his expression of wary interest didn’t change.

  “Mahrai has agreed to abandon Saruqin and join our side,” I said.

  “And why should we let her?” Ganyir asked. “She was one of his most important lieutenants, keeping innocent people in terror through the threat of her magic.”

  “That terror can work to our advantage now. Saruqin has more than guards and Augmenters; he has demons on his side. They swarmed the city and forced us to flee. Against all that, we’ve got a handful of rebels and the hope that people will rise up to join us. We need all the help we can get.”

  “The Swordslinger is right,” Tahlis said. “Mahrai has some powerful Augmentations, and she’s a skilled fighter. We need to make the most of that. I know that anger is guiding you right now, but we need to think in practicalities.”

  Ganyir stared at Mahrai, his arms crossed across his body, one finger tapping against his arm. At last, he nodded.

  “Fine. She can come in. But she’s your responsibility, Swordslinger.”

  The Pathless stepped well back, weapons still raised, and watched warily as we walked through the gates and into the fortress.

  “The others may still be awake,” Ganyir said. “I left them in the dining hall when I went to rest. We have new considerations now.” He glared at Mahrai, and I assured myself that I would be ready to kill her if she betrayed my trust.

  He headed across the courtyard in the direction of the war room, while I led Mahrai toward the dining hall. There, beneath sturdy stone arches, my traveling companions sat around a well-worn wooden table, talking, laughing, and drinking from clay cups. Plates lay between them, empty of everything except bones, the meat thoroughly stripped. A set of dice lay abandoned in the center of the table. They looked up when we came in, first with smiles, then with frowns as they realized who accompanied me. They pushed their seats away from the table, ready for anything.

  “Guys, as you know, this is Mahrai,” I said. “She’s decided to join our side.”

  “Has she really?” Vesma rolled her eyes. “I wonder why that was.”

  “My reasons are my own,” Mahrai snapped. “Do you want to make an issue out of them?”

  Vesma glared at her. I inched closer to Mahrai, ready to intervene if they started fighting. But Vesma took a deep breath, sat back, and turned her gaze to the tabletop.

  “Not going to make an issue,” she said. “I’m glad you chose the right side.”

  I turned to Mahrai. “Would you give us a minute?”

  The woman nodded before she moved to the hallway outside.

  “I’m not sure this is wise, husband,” Kumi said.

  “I think she was being manipulated to join the cultists,” I explained. “I don’t know what Saruqin had against her, but it was something big. Besides, I’ve let her know what will happen if she shows any signs of treachery.”

  “Oh, yeah? What’s that?” Kegohr asked, genuinely unsure.

  “I’ll kill her.” I placed a hand on the Sundered Heart’s pommel for emphasis.

  “Right.” Kegohr nodded.

  “I figure we do it now and get it over with,” Vesma said.

  Kumi sighed. “My brother Labu was a good man who did evil. Perhaps Mahrai is like him?”

  “Perhaps,” I said. “But we need an edge in the coming battle. And she could provide it. Sometimes, it’s worth allying with an enemy, or giving them a chance to do the right thing.”

  My friends all nodded, but they still seemed unsure. It was clear they would take my lead, though.

  I went to the hallway and brought Mahrai back into the room.

  Kegohr and Kumi, who had risen from their chairs, walked over to shake Mahrai’s hand.

  “Good to have you on the team.” Kegohr beamed. “Any friend of Ethan is good by me.”

  “I’m not sure I’d call us friends.” Mahrai shot me a sardonic smile. “But I hear that’s on offer.”

  “If there’s anything we can do to help, just ask,” Kumi said. “Are you hungry or thirsty?”

  “A drink would be good,” Mahrai answered. “Fighting this one was thirsty work, and then ther
e was being chased by demons.”

  “Demons?” Vesma’s face turned white. “Saruqin has demons?”

  Kumi fetched water and wine while the rest of us sat down. Mahrai explained what had happened during the evening. Soon, all five of us were talking eagerly about how we could tackle the demons and how Mahrai’s powers could best be deployed alongside the rest of our arms. Old enmities were forgotten, for a while at least.

  A Pathless walked in and came to stand beside me.

  “Excuse me, Swordslinger,” he said. “Lord Ganyir would like to see you all in the war room.”

  “You guys should come with,” I said to my friends.

  We followed the messenger down a passage to the war room, where Ganyir sat at the table with Tahlis perched to his right and a map of the city and surrounding area spread out in front of him. He looked up as we came in and nodded in silent greeting. It wasn’t until we were all seated and watching him attentively that he spoke.

  “Now that we have Mahrai and her golem on our side, I know exactly where to strike to hit the Unswerving Shadows and break their hold over my people.” He pointed to the place on the map where the road from the fortress reached the city walls. “We will strike directly at the pathway gate. It isn’t as large or as strong as the main city gate, and so will be easier to break. We will use Mahrai’s golem to punch through it and provide a gap in the city’s defenses.”

  “If it means paying for my past sins, I’ll do it,” Mahrai said. “But I follow only the orders of the Swordslinger.”

  “You’ve joined us, so you’ll do as you’re told.” Ganyir picked up a sheet of paper and ran his eyes down a list. “Unless you want to go back to Saruqin.”

  Mahrai’s hand tightened around the arm of her chair, but she didn’t come back with the angry retort I had expected. There really was more to her than the shows of bravado I’d seen in the field.

  “We strike first thing tomorrow morning,” Ganyir said. “We have something close to a fully equipped army, and I am determined to make the most of it. There are many among the Pathless who have chosen to take up arms beside us. There are the initiates from the Steadfast Horn Guild, who are growing in strength and confidence under Ethan and Tahlis’ tutelage. And there are yourselves, a skilled and powerful group of Augmenters to take on Saruqin and the cult priests. Between us, we will not only gain a foothold, but we will drive them out of the city. We will take what has been stolen and broken. We will liberate it, repair it, renew it. We will bring the Gonki Valley back to the glory it once knew.”

  There was a pregnant silence in the war room. I couldn’t help feeling somewhat proud of the lord. Gone was the depressed and apathetic man I’d met days ago.

  “We’ll crush them,” Mahrai said, breaking the silence.

  Then, we set to talking about the details, looking at the map of the city and deciding who would best be fielded where. Mahrai knew where troops were positioned within the city, where the priests went and when, and that gave us an advantage. There was no guarantee that they would stick to those routines now that she was gone, but by striking quickly, we could take our opportunity before they had much time to act.

  Within an hour, we were done. The bright camaraderie of the dining hall was gone, but in its place was something solid and determined, the seven of us united in our resolve to take back Hyng’ohr.

  “Go rest,” Ganyir said. “Tomorrow, we march to war.”

  I said goodnight to my friends and turned to look for Mahrai. She was disappearing through a small doorway in the back of the room. I followed and found myself in a narrow spiral staircase.

  I walked up the stairs that wound around and around for several floors. Although doorways opened off into other spaces, including corridors lined with bedrooms, the sound of Mahrai’s footsteps told me that she was heading still further up. By the time those footsteps stopped, I was near the zenith of the fortress’ tallest tower.

  I emerged from the top of the stairwell into a round room. In the center, a telescope on an elaborate platform pointed up at a domed ceiling made of panels that could be slid aside with a system of pulleys. To one side was a desk holding a pile of dusty papers. Next to that, books, scrolls, and scraps of paper littered a set of shelves. At the far side of the room, beside the doorway to a balcony, was a long, wide couch, piled with blankets and cushions. Whoever had once spent their hours studying the stars here, it seemed that they hadn’t been good at making the time to get away and sleep in a proper bed.

  The door swung shut behind me with a thud. I walked around the telescope to the doorway and found Mahrai on the balcony, a smaller telescope in her hands, staring not at the heavens but at Hyng’ohr City. I wondered for a moment how she’d known where to find this place, but then this was a previously enemy-occupied fortress, so she’d probably been here dozens of times before.

  “Look,” she said as she handed me the telescope. “You can see where you destroyed my golem. The lava is still glowing in the square.”

  She wrapped her hands around mine and guided me until the telescope was pointing in the right direction. She was absolutely right; the courtyard was still alight with the energy from our confrontation, glowing blobs scattered amid dark stone. Beyond a patch of dried earth that might once have been grass, I saw a grand building looking out across the square. Servants and soldiers were running in and out of its wide iron gates.

  “What is that building?” I asked.

  “That’s the palace,” Mahrai replied. “It’s where Saruqin and his lieutenants are based. If we’re going to take them out, then that’s our target.”

  Her voice wavered, and I felt the trembling of her hand as I gave her back the telescope.

  “Are you doing okay?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Not having second thoughts about changing sides?”

  “Absolutely not. Those people used me to hurt others. Now, I’m going to make them hurt.”

  She leaned into the room and tossed the telescope down on the sofa, then turned to face me again.

  “Go ahead and ask,” she said. “I know you want to.”

  “All right. How did you end up working with those guys in the first place?”

  “It’s a long story. Starts back when I was just a kid. My family was killed in Emperor Talekon’s wars—mother, father, both my older brothers. I was left all alone. For the first few years, I roamed from place to place as a beggar, often looking for attention from the guilds. I had some Augmenting talent, but without attention and someone to nurture it, it never grew. I didn’t have what it took to get into a guild properly, and there was no one else to take me in.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself as if cold, though a warm wind was blowing. I reached for her, but she stepped back off the balcony and into the observatory, where she began pacing slowly around the grand telescope.

  “While I wandered, I heard things about those who had served the Emperor and where their paths had taken them. In particular, I heard that some of his top generals had followed the Path of Peace after the war. Ironic, right? Their violence had left my family dead, and now, they got to step away and leave the blood behind. It was clear that there was no justice in the world, just what we could take. I didn’t want to see the world like that, but what other choice did I have?”

  I laid a hand on her shoulder. “That sounds rough.”

  She reached up to squeeze that hand, then turned toward me. She didn’t look me in the eye but instead stared straight ahead at my chest. Her hand ran down the front of my robe, across silk dusty from travel and combat.

  “Eventually, I met members of the Cult of Unswerving Shadows,” she continued. “Given our shared disgust at the Path of Peace, it was easy enough for them to recruit me and to set me on the Straight Path. There were parts of it that never sat well with me, but it opposed the Path of Peace, and in my youthful fury, that was all that mattered. With their help, I tapped into my Augmenting talents and discovered that I had more pow
er than anyone had ever guessed. I learned the Summon Golem technique and found that by using it, I could make others fear me, just as I had always lived in fear. Now, the world would be mine.

  “I became the cult’s enforcer. They tolerated just enough of my dissent to keep me on their side. I learned to obey and to accept, because they were the people who had accepted me, and because they offered my best chance to avenge my losses.”

  “You have other people who accept you now.” I tilted her chin up so that she looked me in the eye. “You know that, right?”

  “My entire life has taught me one lesson: that you should try to own power and use it to inspire fear. I don’t know how to make friends.”

  “You’ll learn.”

  She knocked my hand away and stepped back. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, her voice heavy with suspicion. “Why did you spare me instead of killing me in the courtyard?”

  “A gut feeling. I sensed that there was more to you than another cruel killer like the others of the Unswerving Shadows. I’m glad I did it and that you took the choice while it was there.”

  “No one had offered me a way back onto the Wandering Path before. But it’s easy for someone like you to talk about that choice. You don’t have to rely on a golem you can only make once a day to create the fear that keeps you alive.”

  “You don’t have to rely on that. There’s so much more to you.” I laughed. “Besides, I defeated it every time it showed up. You can hardly rely on something like that.”

  “You’re right.” She frowned and stared down. “I have nothing more to offer.”

  “You could expand your repertoire. My team are learning new tricks every day, new ways to use our powers. Even with just one element, you can do all sorts of things.”

  She stroked her chin thoughtfully, then stepped in close to me.

  “What will you and your team do if we win this fight tomorrow?” she asked.

  I looked at her long and hard, this fierce woman with her piercing eyes, her slender curves, and her bright shock of hair.

  “Guess we’ll get back on the road,” I said. “Go back to finding other places to help and other people to free. Y’know, more cultists to kill.”