Chapter 35 Move
A half an hour before the indicated time, Isaac and Lenna met the same guard right as they were leaving to head to the docks. The guard repeated exactly the same words as before as he handed off another letter to Isaac. Isaac opened the letter with a scowl before he even read it. Inside the letter was an apology and a notification of the meeting getting pushed back to the morning. Isaac sighed in relief and folded the letter back up. “It appears that this guard is to be the one to escort us to our meeting with his grace.” Isaac told Lenna with obvious relief in his voice. “I was afraid that he was going to postpone again.” He then turned back to the guard and nodded. “Lead the way, guardsman.”
The guard seemed to hesitate as a look of confusion flashed across his face before he mastered it again. He nodded to Isaac with a hint of disbelief. “Right this way then, sir, madam.” He directed them.
“It is Lord and Lady, guardsman.” Lenna corrected him sternly. “Those titles are real.”
The guard’s blank expression faded as an honest fear started to seep into it. “M-my apologies, my Lady, I was unaware. I beg your and his lordship’s forgiveness.” He quickly replied with an incredibly deep bow.
“Understood. Carry on, but do be sure it does not happen again.” Lenna told him.
The guard straightened and bowed once more, though this time with more grace and measure. “As you say, my Lady.” He spoke and turned around again to lead them to the dock. “Please, follow me.” Upon their arrival, they were met by a man waiting in a rowboat that was only barely big enough for three passengers and the rower. The ducal guard stepped onto the boat first and offered his hand to Lenna to help her.
Lenna hesitantly took the guard’s hand and allowed him to help her into the boat. It was clear that he was not ready for her to actually rely on his stabilizing hand, either that or he was not expecting her to weigh two hundred pounds in her armor as most nobles wore magically lightened gear. The guard had to shift to keep from losing his balance and that meant that the boat shifted as Lenna was putting her weight onto it. The boat felt like it was about to go out from under Lenna and take her feet with it when everything was suddenly locked in place. The comforting lack of feeling that came from Isaac’s shadows reminded her of why she only ever trusted him. Others could let her down, but Isaac never would. That didn’t mean that he would always make the best decisions, but it did mean that he would always do exactly what she needed or expected him to do. Lenna righted herself and then gingerly sat down on the seat.
Isaac looked down on the ducal guard that had been staring at the steaming void, that had grabbed onto Lenna and the boat without any forewarning, slack jawed. “I will be sitting next to my wife, guardsman. Move to the front.” He instructed the man directly. The guard jerked free of his stupor and, with practiced ease, moved to sit at the very front of the boat. Isaac used shadows as steps that carried him directly to where he needed to be so he could sit next to Lenna. Once all three of them were seated, the boat was ready to go. Or it would have been if the rower, a middle aged and generously sunkissed man, would have picked his jaw back up off the ground.
As the shadows dispersed into black wisps that rapidly cooked off in the final rays of the sun, the guardsman cleared his throat. “Take us back to the citadel.” He instructed the rower which finally broke the older man out of his daze.
“Right away sir.” The man spoke and began rowing them across the channel. “Uh… um… sir?” The rower spoke as he took them across. Each of his words came out in time with his rowing to preserve his strength and breath.
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“Yes?” The guard replied.
“This isn’t… the guest… boat… sir.” The rower reminded him.
“I am aware.” The ducal guard told him. “I am as surprised as you are.”
“Very good… sir.” The rower responded.
It only took another minute before they were across and the boat was being tied up at the dock at the base of the Sasston Citadel. “Thank you.” Lenna said to Isaac as he helped her out of the boat. The casual standing position shouldn’t have had the leverage to keep him from toppling over while helping her but that meant little to the man who ordered darkness itself to obey.
The wooden dock that they had stepped onto was only a few dozen feet long before it met a stone stairway that rose to an iron door that marked the front entrance. They had noticed a place along the side of the citadel where a crane could lift cargo from a resting vessel to the top of the man-made sapphire mountain. The combination of entrances showed that the front entrance was more of a deathtrap than a grand entryway. Strategically it made sense but diplomatically it was simply threatening.
Isaac, Lenna, and the guard leading them had only gotten to the front entrance when a ripple of mana was felt and the court mage, Alejandro, appeared right in front of them. “Court Magus.” The guard spoke with a slight bow.
“What are they doing here?” Alejandro asked the guard. “Their meeting was postponed until the morning.”
The guard inhaled sharply and looked back over his shoulder to see Isaac’s bored and disdainful glare that was directed at Alejandro. The court mage seemed to have gotten some semblance of sleep as he looked less dead on his feet than the day before but that was not to say that he looked well. “I apologize. It appears that I was misled.” The guard replied to Alejandro.
“Wizard. Take me to your duke. We have been patient enough. We have waited over twenty four hours to meet him without much complaint, and it has come to my attention that he has taken that fact for granted.” Isaac ordered Alejandro. “I will not repeat myself.”
Alejandro paled. “I apologize, Lord Wexler, but there is nothi-” Alejandro’s knees gave out from under him as Isaac became a spring of death. Instead of water flowing out of him and draining onto the ground like a natural spring would, he exuded pure, undiluted, death flames that poured and dripped down him as they burned upside down. The ducal guard stumbled as he turned around to face Isaac while taking a step backwards. There were ten steps up to the door to enter the citadel from where the guard had fallen next to the collapsed Alejandro. To either side of them was a wooden railing and then the cold winter ocean and a smooth cliff face.
Isaac’s gaze narrowed on the men in front of Lenna and himself. “Move them.” Isaac ordered with a simple gesture to the side with his hand. Alejandro and the guard were yanked by their long shadows. Both were shocked into inaction as their shadows literally rose up and grabbed them, before throwing them, with nearly as much strength as the men themselves possessed, into the opposing railings.
Lenna walked forwards as her form lit like a torch on a starless night. As she walked between the guard and Alejandro she glanced towards the guard and spoke a word of warning: “I wouldn’t touch him.” She told him simply. Alejandro would either already know better or try to flee. There was no way that the court mage would attempt to manhandle Isaac so she didn’t feel the need to speak to both of them.
The guard instinctively knew what she meant and why. Isaac’s death flames almost seemed to scream his mortality to the poor guard who had just been trying to do his duty. He tried to stand but was suddenly forced back down onto the ground with a simple command from Isaac: “Down.” Both of the duke’s men were slammed face first onto the stone at the base of the stairs where the wooden dock had ended.
Lenna pulled on the iron door to let them enter the citadel but instead of opening, alarm bells started to ring. “It won’t budge, what is the plan?” Lenna asked Isaac as countless magical formations and iron bars locked down the citadel.
“We wait, again.” Isaac spoke calmly as he dialed back his death flames to a casual burn of half of his mana regeneration rate. He still had more than enough to keep Alejandro and the guard on the ground without killing them while he continued to feed Shamesh. For Isaac, releasing as much power as he was seemed more like unclenching a fist than putting on a show. He was finally able to just let his mana flow freely again. It happened regularly enough but that was one of the reasons he was starting to not like the surface as much as Safeharbor. In Safeharbor, Isaac was free to just let his mana run from time to time without throwing the city into lockdown.
“For how long?” Lenna wondered. “They look like they are ready for war.”
Isaac looked up at the iron door that was reinforced with reality magic, the sparkling sapphire stone that made up the walls of the Sasston Citadel, the iron barred windows, and the dozen men that were aiming their crossbows at them. “Until someone important arrives to let us in, or until nightfall. Once the sun has fully set, all bets are off.”