“Do you know how to ride?” Captain Tometh asked. He undid a saddle strap a stable hand stepped away from and redid before testing the saddle to see if it was secure. “I remember you riding with the Riker before.”
Another stable hand was hefting a saddle onto a mare, eyeing me for my response to see if he had to go through the effort. I waved off the bleary-eyed boy yet walked past the captain's outstretched hand.
The mare lay down on the hay for me to slip onto her back. Her annoyance at being woken up was mollified slightly by the lack of heavy gear and gentle pets along her long neck. She stood back up as the captain directed the stable hands to wake everyone else up and get the other horses in full gear.
I rode alongside him while he stared at me, particularly my torso.
“Your mana reserves are off; too far forward,” he said. “Crystal in your pocket?”
“Mhm, better than confusing every mage I meet,” I said. “Most don’t notice.”
He nodded. “Excess mana is the simple part. Absence of mana takes more training, so I doubt you’d need to worry about most.”
I bundled up tighter as my mare followed him out of the detached stables of the bastion. It wasn’t as extensive as the palace and didn’t contain the war horses the knights used, but there was plenty of choice.
Morning light was still a ways away, and snow had started to fall again, but there were a few people already starting their days. The captain glanced back when coming to an intersection, and I would offer directions towards the Marchland. “Shouldn’t you wake the entire town up?”
“If I were the commander, I’d consider it. The knights and militia will be ready, but their orders depend on the other captains,” he said. “Proof beyond the words of a stranger would go a long way to persuading them.”
“Who’s the commander? Shouldn’t we bring them with us?”
“There isn’t one. We captains lead by consensus.”
We slowed beneath the signage for the Marchland in, and the captain dismounted to try the doors. They were locked. I slid off the mare’s back and formed a crude lockpick from my bangles, kneeling before the door. The eyes on the back of my head were a distraction that ate at my concentration.
After a few clicks and getting my tools stuck in the crevices of the lock, I pushed down the handle and let the door swing open. The lamps had depleted their oil, so the captain cast a light charm to brighten the lobby.
I pointed out the first of the dragon’s breath barrels. “Keep your light away from that. It’s filled with water, but still…”
“That’s it? I expected something larger.”
“You’ve never seen what a small jar of the stuff can do. It’s also packed in, unlike at the opera house, where it was disguised as fluffed-up pillows.”
I pried the lid off again and showed him the watery mixture inside. Not trusting my mana control with a whole barrel, I got a fork from the nearby table and dug out a small clump. I placed it and the fork back on the table and stepped back, ensuring Tometh was watching.
I pulled the water that soaked the dragon’s breath, and as soon as most of the moisture left, my influence of the mana ignited it. The brief flash of light flung the fork off the table. It clattered to the ground near the captain’s boots. The flame died down as quickly as it exploded into being, leaving behind a black scorch mark as the only evidence it ever existed.
Tometh was scowling. “How… volatile. Show me where the witches escaped.”
I walked him to the cellar and through the underground hall, pointing out where the barrel in the treasure room was. “Through that safe is a ladder shaft; it leads towards a barracks inside the middle ring. I don’t know the combination, so you’ll need to break it.”
I turned to face him, but he wasn’t looking at the safe. The captain had a hand to his chin while he examined me. “What?”
“I am deciding what to do with you.”
“Why's that? I’ve given you more information than you could have ever hoped to find on your own.”
He paced across the exit. “This night has been you admitting to crime after crime. My order made these rules, I enforced these rules, and you broke them.”
I swallowed hard, clasping my hands behind my back to extend my claws. “A harmful precedent, don’t you think? Arresting someone who comes forward with information to stop the deaths of thousands?”
“On the contrary, it tells those that there isn’t a secret escape hatch once you’ve already broken all our most consequential laws. Next time, someone in your position will come to use before things devolve this far. I don’t see any evidence of an attack. Maybe a few buildings collapse, but those can be rebuilt.”
“Come to you with what?” I snarled. “Vague accusations?”
The little shrug of his shoulders annoyed me more than his words. “We have ways of testing if an accusation has merit. We are not so soft—
The ground shook, dislodging dust from the ceiling. I braced and raised my arms above my head in preparation for the ceiling to fall on top of us. The accompanying boom echoed down the street seconds later. I relaxed my shoulders, no longer worried that the barrels inside the inn had detonated.
The captain was looking through the wall towards the capital. “You didn’t say there was more to this plan.”
“I wasn’t told the plan. They found out I wasn’t a witch before I could make it to the tunnel.”
“You didn’t tell me that they knew you were a traitor,” Tometh said, baring his teeth. “They’ve moved up their timetable.”
“You didn’t believe there was a plan till now,” I said, pointing an accusatory claw at him. “Don’t put this on me. You were more worried about throwing me in a cell.”
He didn’t dignify me with an answer and marched out of the cellar, his coat whipping around behind him. Back on the street, people were out and bundled in whatever they could throw on over their nightwear. The chatter amongst neighbours stopped when the captain walked to his horse. A brave few queried the annoyed knight about what was happening, but he waved them off so as to address them as one.
Mana gathered in his throat as he puffed out his chest and straightened his back. “Citizens, I have reason to believe our home is once again under attack by the same forces we swore to fight against. All mages of age report to your captains. All those with weapons, sharpen them. Those with professions, it is time to do your duty and open your wares for the sake of our city; you will be compensated. Spread the word.”
I nudged my mare to catch up to the captain while stunned civilians stood in their doorways, joined by more household members. A bell tolling in the distance was picked up by others throughout the city, jolting people to rush every which way.
“I don’t have a captain to report to,” I said over the clamour. “So if you’re done trying to arrest me…”
“I’d hardly deign to call you a mage,” he said, side-eyeing me from atop his horse. “I also doubt you’re over sixteen.”
“I am,” I lied. “To both. I’ve also probably killed more ghouls than you.”
“837.”
“I, ah, haven’t been keeping count.”
“Everyone keeps count.”
A door burst open, and a burly fellow shuffled out with a stand full of spears and set it down outside, disappearing into his store to retrieve more.
“Fine. For the crime of blatant disregard for our laws,” he said dispassionately. “I sentence you to conscription for a period of time to be determined at a later date...Go get a weapon 'cause I’m not babysitting you.”
We stopped outside the man’s store, and I slid off the mare's back. I waited to the side as the owner brought out another rack of swords. “What’ll it be?”
“Recurve bow and a glaive?”
He stopped on his way to another rack of weapons and raised an eyebrow. “Picky little thing, aren’t you? I have a short bow and a pole axe. Yes or no?”
“Yes,” I said, looking around at the array of steel and iron around me. I flinched as a long pole with an axehead and spike was thrown my way, catching it before it hit me. “How is this different from a halberd?”
The man gave me a scathing look to say this wasn’t the time and plucked a bow hung behind the counter. He placed it, and a quiver he filled with two dozen arrows on the counter. “Half steel tipped for piercing and half iron for impairment. Need anything else, Captain?”
Tometh was leaning against the door and shook his head. “No, thank you.”
I dug into my knapsack and drew out a random piece of jewellery. “Thanks.”
“The order pays for it all, girly. There's no need for that,” he said, but his eyes didn’t leave the elaborate craftsmanship of gold and jewels.
“Eh, keep it.”
I tied the quiver’s belt around my waist and slung the bow over my shoulder, carrying the pole axe. I joined the captain outside, who was eyeing my knapsack and remounted. The shopkeeper came running out to my horse and handed me a three-fingered leather glove for the hand holding the bow.
“Here, something extra,” he said, nodding to the captain and disappearing back inside.
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“You really are flagrant about disobeying our laws…where did you get the trinket?”
I smiled sweetly. “Can’t we save this till after we find out what that explosion was?”
The captain shook his head but dug the stirrups into his horse's side, encouraging him into a trot. “Keep close, you miscreant. The other captains will have their own questions, but first, you’re right. Let’s see what's happening on the front.”
A group of mages clad in chain mail and red and white overcoats came jogging along our road, spears pointed to the sky while square shields bounced on their back. They skidded to a halt at the intersection once they saw Captain Tometh, saluting in turn. “Sir, Captain Ontera is on leave. We were already kitted when the bells started and made the decision as a unit to head to the defences regardless.”
“Very good. Form up on me for now.”
They organised into two orderly lines of six behind the captain—a team much larger than Drasda’s four or five knights. They gave me weird looks but offered deep nods at the bow slung over my shoulder and the pole axe resting across my lap.
“Valeria,” I said, leaning down to offer a fist to the knight that spoke.
“Knight Rellok, aren’t you a tad young for this?”
“She’s simply my runner,” Captain Tometh said. “The girl won’t be seeing combat.”
Rellok eyed my poleaxe and shrugged. “We’re expecting combat, sir?”
“Always.”
I brought my knapsack to my lap and pulled out the gauntlet, again attracting the captain's scrutiny.
“Where did you get that?”
I slipped my hand into the stiff metal, feeding mana into it. The ambient mana wasn’t nearly enough to feed it or to hide the glare it represented to a mage’s senses. The enchantments activated, and the steel slimmed to the form of my hand and trailed up past my elbow with the now excess metal. “A gift.”
The captain took a deep breath and opened his mouth to give me another tirade on his rules. Instead, he let out a deep sigh. “Hand it over after this is done. It belongs to the order.”
I pursed my lips but didn’t offer a rebuttal. I didn’t offer an agreement either.
The bow was different from what I was used to, with the arrow notch on the opposite side as a recurve. I slung it off my shoulder and tested pulling the string back with the metallic fingertips of the gauntlet, finding the action easy enough.
More and more disjoined units and individuals leaving their homes in mismatched armour and weaponry joined the growing group amassing behind the captain. As one of the few captains mounted high for everyone to see, they chose him to congregate around.
We passed the threshold of the settlement through the open iron gates. Orbs of light floated over the old, overgrown battlements and trenches between us and the gatehouse. They illuminated the smoke plume rising from the entrance to the capital, where the iron gate that had once been attached to the gatehouse lay on the ground.
Our horses stepped over marble rubble flung across the two hundred paces from the blocks that had once blocked the majority of the entrance. The fifty-so fighters behind us fanned out towards the trebuchets or to watch towers if they had a bow, and those left remained idle at the side of the narrow pathway.
I followed after the captain on his way to the gatehouse, still followed by Rollok and his group.
Fifty paces from the smouldering rubble was a knight sitting on the ground, holding his head as blood dripped from his ears. Naimeen, the mage from Petrick’s group, was kneeling beside him, healing a deep gash in his arm.
“What happened here?” Tometh asked, but the knight didn’t acknowledge him.
“He can’t hear,” Petrick said, off to the side. “He fell out of the ladder route; we dragged him over here.”
“What were you doing here?” he asked, a hint of accusation.
“We were due to go in next after Tellar’s team,” Patrick said, joining the rest of his team in giving me a weird look. “We were over here when the gatehouse erupted and were showered in marble.”
The captain got down off his horse and held out the reins to one of the men with Rollok. “The other captains should be gathered in the Map Room or on their way here if they have any sense. Inform any you find of the situation, and make sure the bells continue to ring. Rollok, take the rest of the unit and try to get that gate back on its hinges.”
“Yes, sir.” The knight took the reins and stepped up to the saddle, quickly turning around and flicking the reins to gallop back to the city. Rollok and the remaining dozen marched on, sticking their spears in the ground to free up their hands for the heavy gate lying on its side.
“You know about this?” he asked me quietly, drawing everyone's attention to us.
I leaned down from my mare to get closer to his ear and whispered. “No? Somewhat? The witches tried to recruit this group, but I chased them away, so I think they got to this Teller person’s team.”
“The what?” “They wouldn’t.” The mage and Nickolas turned to me, having better ears and possibly an eavesdropping spell.
“Not a word of this to anyone,” he said. “Continue.”
I straightened, no longer whispering. “The witches at the inn wanted this group to go into the capital and retrieve something. I cautioned them off taking the job, but I didn’t know this was also involved.”
“Teller is as slimy as they come, but he wouldn’t do this,” Petrick said.
“They were carrying a lot of kit,” Dyana said. “Like they weren’t just going on an expedition.”
“I’m going to need a twenty-page report with every single little detail from you after this mess is over,” Tometh said to me with a pointed finger.
He marched off to Rollok, who was trying to get the team to balance the gate on the blown hinges.
Nicholas stepped towards me, still able to look down at me despite having the mare elevating me. “Thanks for warning us off that job.”
“Oh,” I said, not expecting the apology from his stern face. “No problem. I was doing it mostly to make things easier for myself.”
“You work for the rems then?” Dyana asked.
“Ah, it seems that way at the moment,” I said. “But I live in Drasda.”
“Has the inn already been raided?” Dyana asked. “Are they really behind this? Witches just living amongst us like that?”
My mare’s ears twitched, and her head swung towards where the captain and knights were. I was about to write it off as the annoying metallic sound when I noticed Nickolas also starring in that direction. “What is it?”
“Hmm, it feels like when my whole family and I go on a hunt together.”
“A stampede?” I asked, already worried about the obvious next step after destroying the defences.
Nickolas and the rest of his team looked at me like I spat on them. “That word is for animals.”
I ignored him and drew mana into my throat to amplify my voice. “Tometh!”
He looked over, annoyed I wasn’t using his rank or that I was talking to him at all.
“Stampede! Get away from the gate!”
The pebbles along the dirt path began to vibrate, and a soldier atop the wall shouted down something indiscernible.
The centaur gave me another dirty look.
“What? I can’t use that word for ghouls either?”
He shook his head but unstrapped the bow from his back, thrice the size of my short bow, and notched an arrow from his quiver. Naimeen got under the wounded knight's arm and helped him walk towards the city gate. Tometh was getting the team to set the gate back down when the first ghoul stumbled over the rubble of the marble blocks.
Tometh launched a mana bolt towards the creature, but it fizzled out while passing between the iron bars. The ghoul hit the gate, reaching through the bars towards the closest knight. They let go and stumbled back as more climbed the mound of rubble, ramming into the gate.
The knights that were still holding on let go at different points to run. Those last to let go were too late to leave. The heavy gate fell and slammed them to the ground.
The mass of ghouls trampled the trapped knights into the dirt, some stopping to attack them. Their screams echoed into the night as their spells flashed amongst the mass atop them.
A few knights grabbed their spears from the ground and brought forth their shields, but others kept on running. Tometh stood behind a line of seven knights, including Rollok, brandishing their spears at ghouls. They could barely spread along the path as the creatures rushed them, uncaring for the pointed metal.
Nickolas was already running, drawing his bow back. I dropped my knapsack and threw my poleaxe down, urging my horse after him, taking an arrow from my quiver. The rest of the team brought up the rear. More shouts came from behind us, from the watchtowers and milling forces.
Petrick shouted for reinforcements to gather around him.
My arrow needed magical assistance to stay rested on my gloved fingers. The recurve bow had it rested on the opposite side, but it wasn’t so different to cause major issues. Nickolas crossed the distance quicker than my mare and launched a bolt over the heads of the knights, skewering a line of ghouls together.
My arrow sailed higher since I was scared to hit the troops ahead. I nudged it in the air using my faint grasp of the wood, steel and air around it. It landed in the growing sea of ghouls, piercing the neck of one.
Tometh shouted for the battle line to stand firm as another of Nikolas’ arrows skewered more. The screams from those trapped had long stopped. The ghouls were spreading out to the side and getting in close, past the point where spears were useful. They gripped the overlapping shields, trying to get past or rip them from the knights’ hands.
A ball of mana spun above Tometh’s palm before he flung the spell into the gatehouse. A torrent of churning fire sprung up from its landing to engulf the ghouls. Petrick caught up to us and added his shield to the wall while Dyana stabbed through a gap behind him. More knights and non-mage soldiers added their polearms and shields to the growing wall.
Another of my arrows found its mark, but the one less ghoul didn’t feel like I was making an impact.
The fire died down, yet the spears, arrows and spells were able to cull the pressing hoard enough for the knights to take an orderly step back and reorganise.
A weak volley of arrows went overhead, mostly striking the wall and ground.
“Conserve your mana,” Tometh shouted as spells arched overhead to splash against the gatehouse with little effect. The variety of spell effects cancelled each other out as dirt and water smothered fire, and water made the lightning more deadly for us. A few came too close for comfort.
“Notch!” A newly arrived captain near the line of archers shouted. “Hold!”
All that remained of the fire spell was embers and smoke from charred remains. The following ghouls didn’t care as they clambered over the bodies. “Draw!”
“Loose!”
A more concentrated volley thinned the stampede before they rammed into the forest of spears. Some ghouls spread out into the pits and rows of stakes that circled the entrance around the path, climbing out and pushing past the spikes.
“One step back!” Tometh commanded. “Thrust!”
The entire group took a step back before spears were thrust into the fray. Unlike people fearing debilitating pain and death, the ghouls fearlessly dove past the spikes or pushed themselves along the spears driven through their bodies. The shield wall buckled in places, and calls for support were shouted.
A shield was ripped away, and a knight went with it. Their neighbour tried to help, but he was dragged into the mass, wailing from within. Another shield took their place. I tried to attack those who took him mentally so he could be retrieved, but I was scared of collapsing if I reached out to the entire hoard.
Those stunned and awoken by my voice were pushed over and replaced while blood dripped from my nose for the effort.
The screaming stopped, and I wiped away the blood on the back of my hand. My next arrow went high, and my vision blurred from reaching out to too many ghouls. Their screams replaced those of the knight, and crowded my mind.
My arrows weren’t helping, and there was no space for my blades. I wanted to make the space ahead a muddy mess for the ghouls, but I felt that the decision to change the battlefield so drastically was above me. These ghouls were the weakest and sapped for strength outside the walls that concentrated mana onto them, but I feared the inner variants were not far behind.
And they would charge right through the gathered troops.
I loosed another arrow and turned my mare to gallop back to the city. There were three barrels back at the inn that could change the landscape with more force than water and dirt. The approaching men and women in now orderly battle lines made a gap down the middle for me to ride through. They stared straight ahead at the scrappy battle being fought and the ghouls beginning to flank through the defences, worry in their eyes.