“My husband spent more time in the woods than at home after what happened,” came the voice of Genevieve from behind me. She had walked up while we talked. I glanced up with an expression of mock surprise. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Nephew,” she said simply.
“Your Grace,” I replied. “I hope you can forgive my rudeness the other day.”
She raised a hand as if she were shooing a fly away, “Nonsense, I recall no fault on your part.”
“Thank you,” I told her.
James interrupted, “As I was saying, we searched high and low, but the tracks of so many going in so many directions made it impossible to find them at first.”
“So how did you do it?” I asked.
“If it were a cunning beast you would circle the area more widely, until at last you find where the trail emerges, but these were no animals. They are intelligent, and each one took a separate path, even after traveling miles from where they converged. William and I had to divide my lands into sections and assign men to search each of them. Even so nothing was found, until we reached the foothills,” he answered.
“I might have thought you would start there, rather than in the forests,” I commented.
James sighed, “I had thought it would turn out this way, but I could not leave the forests unexamined. Otherwise we might have left a viper near our bosom while we were searching further afield.”
I had to admit he had a point.
“When we started searching the foothills to the east we lost several men,” he went on. “I had to increase the size of the search parties to groups of five men each. The next day I lost an entire patrol group and I knew we were getting close.”
“They seem pretty bold. Surely they realized that would give away their location,” I pondered aloud.
James snorted, “They’re desperate and they knew we were drawing close. It was only a matter of time. I mobilized all my armsmen at that point. We swept through the hills leaving no stone unturned in that region.”
“When was this?”
“Yesterday,” he said with a smile. “We found their hole. There’s a cave out there, and they’ve gone underground. My men have them bottled up now.”
“What if they have another exit?” I worried the enemy might circle around and attack Lancaster while he was focused on their ‘lair’.
“That thought occurred to me,” he said. “I sent a message to you yesterday, asking for men and assistance.”
I frowned, “I haven’t been home yet, but I’m sure Sir Harold will respond in my stead.”
“I received a reply late last night. He promised to be here before noon with as many men as he thought he could safely muster without endangering the defense of Washbrook and Castle Cameron,” said the duke.
“Then he is on the road as we speak,” I observed. “How soon do you plan to leave?”
“As soon as he arrives.”
I rose abruptly, “Then I have some preparations to make.”
James chuckled grimly, “You always do… heaven protect us. Best hurry, I won’t hold the men up if you haven’t returned by the time he gets here.”
***
Walter looked up as I entered the room where I was keeping him under, ‘house’ arrest. “How are you feeling?” I asked. He looked tired and he had dark circles under his eyes, but somehow I could tell he was starting to recover.
“Now that the fever is gone much better,” he said plainly. “Though I have to admit this necklace makes me feel blind and helpless.” He held up the necklace I had used to block his magesight as well as his power.
I had spoken to the guards as well as those in charge of keeping his wound clean while I was gone and they had informed me regarding his condition already. Yesterday the fever from his wound had broken at last, signaling that he would most likely survive. He was still quite weak though. “Think you can ride?”
He made a face, “It won’t be pleasant, but yes.”
“How do you feel about the shiggreth?”
“As any decent man would feel, they are an abomination and a threat to all of us,” he responded promptly. After a pause he added, “They also scare the living daylights out of me.”
“A reasonable response, though I have to say… most decent men don’t even know they exist,” I sat down next to him so I could see his face more closely as we talked.
He looked at me with anxiety in his face, “You’ve found them haven’t you?”
“James Lancaster has,” I informed him. “We ride from his keep in a few hours to burn them out of their nest.”
“You know they eat magic as easily as men’s souls don’t you?” he said nervously.
“I’ve fought them before,” I told him. “I’d like you to see what happens today, and it is entirely possible I might need your help.”
He gestured at his wounded leg, “I’ve just returned from death’s door. I’m not sure how much help I will be, especially with this.” His hand touched the pendant at his neck.
“My father was friends with your older brother, did you know that?”
He nodded.
“Why didn’t you say anything about it?” I said curiously.
“I’m a prisoner. Anything I say will just make it seem as if I’m trying to curry favor. Besides you never knew your father, so there was no way to verify the claim,” he answered rationally.
I liked his answer. “If I take that necklace off will you give me your word on something?”
He looked at me suspiciously, “Perhaps, it depends upon what it is. More importantly, of what value is my word to you?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, but I trusted what Penny had told me. I also found that the more I talked to Walter the less I hated him. He definitely wasn’t a man given to violence or aggression. If anything he might even be something of a coward, though I had no way to judge that yet. But I got the impression he was at the very least a man of compassion, a man who had been badly used. “Its value will depend upon how you honor it. Betray me and you will never get another chance,” I responded somberly.
“If it conflicts with my need to protect my family I won’t give it. If I give it and discover later that my family is jeopardized by my keeping it, I will break it without a moment’s thought. Is that the sort of honor you would trust?”
I thought of Cyhan and his unbending oaths. If I had not known him I might have had a different answer, but now I had a wiser view on the matter. “It sounds exactly like the sort of honor I would trust. Help me with this Walter, and if it is possible I will do all I can to help recover your family safely.”
He sighed, “Fine. Tell me what you want me to swear to.”
“Swear you will not seek to escape or use your power to oppose me. Swear you will follow my orders, except and until they endanger your family. Swear that, and I will remove the necklace.”
Walter watched me carefully as I spoke and when I finished he answered, “I so swear.” A moment later he added, “I see why the king fears you now.”
“What do you mean?”
“If he had been like you he would never have taken my family hostage, nor would he have needed to do so,” he explained.
“You don’t know me Walter,” I replied.
He laughed, “On the contrary I was watching your every move for almost two months. I think I know you fairly well. Your people trust you and your armsmen would walk through fire if you asked them to do so.”
His praise was honest but it made me uncomfortable. And what about my wife? I thought to myself. The last part of the fairy tale should have been that my wife was the most beautiful woman in the land and that every man was jealous of our happiness. I swallowed as a bitter knot rose in my throat.
I ignored his comments and reached over to gently grasp the necklace. With hardly any effort I picked out its voice and in an instant it became a part of me. I pulled it apart as though it were made of soft cheese instead of metal. Once I had it off I put the ends back toget
her and watched the silver chain reform as if it had never parted.
Walter watched with keen interest, “How are you doing that? I can’t sense any power being used at all.”
“I just listen,” I said patiently.
He snorted, “If my wife were here she would say that rules me out as far as being able to do whatever it is you just did.”
I laughed politely, but thinking about his wife didn’t make me feel any better. Glancing down at the necklace I decided I had better remove the iron sphere just to be safe. The last thing I wanted was an accidental explosion. Repeating my action of a moment ago I separated the iron ball from the silver clasp.
Now that his magesight was restored Walter could sense the power stored within it. “That’s what you had set in case I broke the necklace? I doubt there would have been anything left of me. How did you manage to store so much energy in there?”
“That’s a conversation for another day,” I told him, not wanting to get into the details of how I had rediscovered the art of enchanting. “I’d better get rid of this.” I had a chest full of similar explosive iron balls, tucked away, and the pouch at my belt allowed me to safely store and access them without actually carrying them around with me, but I wanted to make one further point while I had Walter’s full attention.
With a word I formed a shield around the iron ball and then I redoubled it. Once I felt sure it was strong enough I pulled the glass ball that matched it from my purse and swiftly broke it with a second word. The iron ball exploded silently.
The force of the explosion in my hand was incredible and it came very near to exceeding my ability to contain it in the fist-sized shield I held around it. I was careful to keep my face calm and my features smooth the entire time, but I needn’t have worried. Walter’s attention was entirely focused upon the roiling sphere of light and flame I held before me. He had leapt back several feet and erected his own shields reflexively. “Sweet Lady protect us!” he yelled and I worried he might hurt himself further trying to move so quickly on his injured leg.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” I lied. I had definitely meant to startle him. I walked nonchalantly over to the window and then carefully created a small opening on one side of the shield I had around the tightly compressed ball of pure energy and iron fragments. The force vented violently into the air beside the castle and if I hadn’t already braced myself the reactionary force might have thrown me back into the room. As it was, I hoped my demonstration had made the desired impression on Walter.
He didn’t say anything else, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. I hoped he had gotten my message, which if I had put it into words would have been something like this: don’t even think of crossing me, because if I decide I need to do something about you it won’t be any more difficult than it would be for an ordinary person to swat a fly. Of course the other possibility was that I had just convinced him I was a few cards shy of a full deck. Either way it would serve the same purpose.
Chapter 34
It was late afternoon when we finally rode into the foothills in the eastern part of James’s lands. In the distance the Elentir Mountains could be seen rising up on the horizon. Supposedly those mountains had been created long ago, by the first wizard to bear the name Illeniel. What no one really knew was why he had done it. Most people discounted the story as a fairy tale these days, but after my experience nearly destroying Lothion I had come to give the story greater credence.
Walter and I had used the teleportation circles to reach Lancaster quickly and borrowed horses from the duke’s stable. Sir Harold had showed up shortly after we arrived, leading a force of some five hundred of my armsmen. Seeing them mustered so quickly and efficiently made me even more aware of how much the war had changed my estate.
It wasn’t without irony that I realized I now had more soldiers than my liege, the Duke of Lancaster. Luckily we were friends; otherwise there might have been an issue with that.
I watched Walter carefully, it had taken us a four hour ride to reach the area that James said contained the cave where the shiggreth were hiding, and he looked weary. “How is your leg holding up?” I asked him.
He gave me a smile that only underscored the dark circles under his eyes. “It hurts like hell,” he answered honestly.
“We’ll be camping here tonight so you’ll be able to rest it before we press into the caves tomorrow,” I told him.
“A peaceful night sleeping on the ground should do wonders for it,” he replied sarcastically. Despite his tone I didn’t get the feeling he was really complaining, it was just his way of making conversation.
James and Harold had been discussing the camping plans during the march (most of the soldiers were afoot). As soon as we arrived James sent a detail to relieve the men guarding the cave entrance, while the main body was put to work preparing our field camp. A large area was cleared of the stones and small brush that were ubiquitous here and tents were erected. Latrines were dug and a picket line established around the camp.
All told we had a combined force of some seven hundred men camped there. A group of fifty men were on guard duty at the cave entrance and another hundred were kept active maintaining the pickets around the camp. Although that might sound excessive none of us wanted to have a rude surprise during the night and the shiggreth’s particular abilities made them difficult to guard against.
Even with those precautions, I doubted many of us would sleep soundly that night.
***
Despite my fears I slept hard and I might have had an excellent night’s sleep, if it hadn’t been for someone kicking me in my bedroll. “What the hell do you want?!” I said, sitting up angrily.
A young soldier was staring down at me, “My Lord, the shiggreth have surrounded us. We are under attack!” His voice was shrill and on the verge of panic.
I bolted up and nearly fell as my feet tangled in the blankets. The soldier was quick though and caught me before I fell. “Thank you,” I told him hastily. “Where is Sir Harold?”
“On the eastern side of the camp, the enemy are strongest there, but they have already flanked us on both sides and some have gotten past the lines,” he answered.
I cursed silently and stumbled out of the tent, hoping to get a better picture of the camp. All I saw was a madness of chaos and torches. Despite our lanterns and torchlights it was difficult to see more than fifty feet in any direction. Men were running back and forth as messages were relayed and some simply panicked. More than anything we needed light.
I closed my eyes and used my magesight to assess the condition of the camp. I could easily locate our soldiers but the shiggreth were harder, still I had learned to spot them as pockets of ‘emptiness’. What I found wasn’t encouraging. The eastern line was still strong, largely because that was where Harold was, roving up and down the line. I could see that considerable fighting had already occurred there but he was having moderate success maintaining order.
The western side of our camp was a mess and it was clear that although there were fewer of the undead on that side they would soon overrun the defenders there. First things first, I reminded myself. “Lyet bradek searus ni pyrren!” I shouted holding my staff out and pointing it at the sky. A blinding streak of white gold shot upward and then formed a great yellow white ball of blazing light several hundred yards above the ground. The overall effect was as if the sun had just come out. Everything was now illuminated by a harsh yellow light.
A cheer went up across the camp for the men knew I was awake now. Looking around I saw Walter standing beside me. “Where did you learn that spell?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
I frowned, “I just made it up.” I started walking toward the western side of the camp. “Follow me, they need help.”
A minute later I had reached the chaos that might be described as our western defensive line. The light did little to allay my fears for beyond the immediate fighting I could see hundreds more pressing forward and
all around me men were being dragged down by creatures that stole their strength even as they struggled.
Even as I stood there the men standing in front of me collapsed and five of the undead ran toward me, yet before I could react lightning flashed past my head, branching and forking as it reached out to strike the creatures. Unfortunately the lightning flickered and vanished the moment it reached the shiggreth as their innate ability absorbed the magic powering it.
“They really do eat magic,” Walter said behind me.
“That they do,” I agreed. It was a lesson Penny and I had learned together one night a year ago, nearly at the cost of our own lives. “You have to use a rune channel,” I added lifting my staff to point it at the oncoming creatures. “Pyrren ni tragen thylen!”
A blazing cone of fire shot forth from the end and consumed the bodies of the undead nearest us. The flames were so intense that everything they touched was reduced to ash within seconds. Unfortunately more kept coming and I couldn’t put the staff down long enough to do what I needed to do. “Here!” I said shoving it into Walter’s hands during a brief lull. “You keep ‘em off of me for a few minutes. I need to do something.”
“I don’t know how to use this!” he said anxiously. I could see panic in his eyes.
More of them were running toward us, within seconds we would be overrun and slain if he didn’t learn quickly. Standing next to him I reached down with one hand and lifted the end of the staff until it was leveled at the monsters coming for us. I had seen too many battles to panic now. “Alright Walter, just do what I tell you. You can use whatever spell you like, just imagine it flowing through your hands and down the length of the staff, as though it were a pipe, directing your power,” I kept my voice calm and steady.
“Any spell?” he said uncertainly.
“Any spell,” I replied. “You need to choose quickly though, they’re almost to us.”
He hesitated and for a moment I thought he was going to freeze, but at the last possible second he came unstuck and his lips began moving. Lightning flared from the end of the staff and struck the oncoming monsters. It branched and forked and before it died more than ten of the shiggreth were lying on the ground, little more than smoking piles of burnt flesh. Walter took a step forward and I could see a look of excitement had replaced his fear.