I cracked an eye open as the knight approached my sleeping spot against the wall, sensing the metal and mana. They noticed I was awake, motioned over their shoulder and moved on to the next sleeping victim lying on the couch. I’d insisted on joining the patrol rotation when I was wide awake and was somewhat regretting my commitment now at the break of dawn.
I tried to stretch my arms out of habit and winced, folding them over my chest again after the pain reminded me of the damage. It had turned to a dull ache, and the discolouration had diminished, but I kept the bandages on since they were quite warm and would be a pain to put back on without Jaid around. As one of the few sought-after healers who had studied her craft extensively, she had been called to the besieged gates where she could do more to help.
Breakfast was passed around from a steaming pot. The hard oat porridge was combined with some dried fruit from the rations and fresh fruit from the homeowners. I spent the meal stretching out my back, trying to get a certain section of my spine to crack. The bed had been offered to me, but I was no stranger to sleeping up against a tree and declined. It would have been fine if my back hadn’t gotten used to sleeping on the palace mattresses.
The returning half of the team trickled in after washing up, some taking part in our meal and others falling asleep on the spot. There were still stains of black blood on their clothes and smears on their faces from their night out, but everyone looked healthy.
Knights Tames, Hanover, Chewkls, Killian, Olsa, Sennal and Tometh himself were joining me on the morning’s rotation. The captain had been out with the previous team all night while we slept and was slurping down black tea in the kitchen downstairs to keep himself awake. He didn’t want to leave his team alone, at least on their first outing after their brush with death.
I pulled on my boots, hooked my new short bow over my shoulder and tightened the belt holding up the quiver of arrows. I still wasn’t important enough for the proper ones, but the 2nd was, and it had been filled with the usual steel and iron-tipped. I was discouraged from getting close enough to use it, but a dagger and a sheath to attach to my belt had been supplied.
The horses were already waiting outside on the street, concerned they would encounter the same creatures from yesterday. They were in their chain and padding, but there were still places I could fit my hand in and brush their hide, doing my best to calm the animals. I turned to go back inside to sneak some of the fruit out for them, but Tometh came out with an arm full of apples.
He tipped them into my arms without a word. I leaned to and fro to get them to stay put and floated one or two that fell back on the pile. “Maybe say something next time?”
“They don’t care if they’re bruised,” he said, slicing one in half and feeding it to his horse. He had a new helmet on, without the too-wide smile this time. It looked like more of a steel bucket without any of the previous one’s embellishments, though I could still see the dark rings around his eyes through the narrow eye slit. “How about your bruises, Riker?”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop calling me that.”
“Only if you tell me the story.”
I stayed silent, getting rid of my load of apples through the horses’ bottomless appetite. Tometh’s guesses ranged from a distant cousin and adoption to scarily close to the truth, and I didn’t feel like encouraging his curiosity.
I pulled myself atop Sennal’s horse to prove I could use my arms. However, it took a lot of effort to keep the twinge of pain from becoming a groan that would get me pulled away from the patrol. Tometh crunched on an apple while watching me, juices dripping down his gloved hand, not looking too impressed by my display.
The rest of the team came out, pulling on their livery and attaching their scabbards and quivers. Chewkls dawdled out last, trying to hop and tie up the last lace of her boots before spotting me on Sennal’s horse. “Cap, I like the girl…as a person, really appreciative and all, but do we really got to take her with us?”
From the few looks the other knights gave each other, it was a common complaint.
Tometh lifted his visor to rub his eyes. “Valeria knows more about the creatures—wait, let me finish—I’m not saying she’s better at killing them, Chewkls. She knows more about the variants that reside deeper than we’ve gone. She won’t be swinging swords around us, simply lending us her senses and knowledge.”
“Okay,” Chewkls sighed, not entirely convinced.
Tometh had asked on the way back from the headquarters last night why some of the ghouls appeared to lose control during our retreat through the trenches. I hadn’t wanted to burden or convince him with the full extent of what I knew, so I told him it was a quirk of my mana that messed with the ghouls.
As expected, it wasn’t a good enough explanation for him, but that was the best he was getting out of me. Tometh had already accepted he didn’t understand how my mana worked and my propensity for free casting, so it was easier to bully him into accepting the non-answer. He seemed to have agreed that explaining was too much of a hassle since he also withheld the truth.
“Mount up.”
The gate swung open for us, stationed with militia members Sennal had scrounged up—people who couldn’t be trusted to keep their nerves on the more active fronts. They quickly pushed it closed behind us, arguing if the latch was in place as we rode through the narrow boundary between the defensible city and the outskirts.
The infrastructure and layout of the area beyond were a nightmare. Streets switched between gravel, cobblestone, and dirt while winding between the oddly placed structures. Those structures were disjointed and consisted of single-storey, steeply thatched roofs, tall stone watchtowers, and wooden cabins built until they fell apart, revealing the height limit.
Unlike the planned city we left behind, the owners chose the materials, size, and layout, with no common thread among them. Most were not climbable, and even if they were, the rooftops didn’t offer much advantage as a singular scaffold. I’d fall through the thatching or be trapped on the disjoined rooftops rather than be able to use it as an escape.
The ghouls in our way got a spear tip through the face as we rode past without stopping, the arrows and mana too valuable to waste on isolated targets. The commander was at least right that there wasn’t a massive build-up of them, but it was getting scarily close to how the capital streets looked in the morning.
We rode to where the earlier team had finished since the trail of bodies they had left behind ended.
“We stayed together earlier because we didn’t know what to expect, and it was dark out,” Tometh said. “We’ll split into two teams. Chewkls and Sennal with me. Don’t use the usual distress signal; we learnt the hard way it’ll attract these fucks. Stay within a street of each other so we can hear when the other needs help.”
“Sir.” “Yes, sir.”
We separated, still seeing each other through the gaps in the buildings. I bobbed along in front of Sennal, arms folded over my bow, stretching my senses each way to check for people or oddities. “Are we going to clear out the houses? Maybe deactivate the enchantments?”
“This swine wants us to go indoors?” Chewkls muttered, shifting the long blade on her lap.
Tometh looked over his shoulder. “Why do you ask?”
I pointed off to one of the larger structures that stood out. It had a tower that reminded me of the one the palace in Drasda was built around, except this one had a two-storey log house attached to the side. “Something in there is definitely going to attract ghouls.”
Tometh pulled on the reins and turned down the cobblestone street to the entrance. The good news for the owner was that their door was fine; the bad news was that the glass pane surrounding it was in bits and pieces. “That would be the auction house. No surprise that it’s pretty lit up to the old senses.”
“I ain’t going in that maze,” Chewkls said, encouraging her horse to move on. “Can’t be swinging swords or spells around indoors. That there is an assassin’s job.”
Tometh stayed, leaning back and forth to look into the well-lit interior. The lighting enchantments were still empowered, flooding the air with floating orbs. The walls were interlaced with gold and silver to deliver mana to them, making it difficult to tell how many ghouls had gone inside beyond the few we could see.
“Isn’t this the one you were asked to protect?”
“The very same.”
I swung my leg over Sennal’s horse and dropped down to the street, straightening my chainmail and quiver. “I’ll go get them… and turn off the enchantments.”
“Not using spells, I hope,” he said, motioning to my arms. “Give us a shout if it's more than you can handle.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Chewkls halted and turned her horse around. “Cap, really? I’m the last one who wants to go close quarters with these things, but letting her go alone is a little cruel.”
“She’ll be fine. Take the eatery on the corner with Sennal, and I’ll check the house over there. We didn’t clear the buildings during the evening, but we might as well start before they become infested.”
I stepped over the pieces of glass still in their frame and crunched through the rest of the shattered remains. Looking back, the knights had moved on while Tometh stayed to watch with crossed arms. I waved and drained the crystal I’d switched from my worn-out robes to a rough twine necklace.
I floated an arrow into its notch, trying and mostly failing not to let the mana use my arms as a conduit. The action felt foreign without me moving my arms in tandem to help the casting along. So I couldn’t help but nudge my head to drag the steel-tipped arrow from the quiver and slot it into the bow. It was meant to show Tometh I’d be fine, but I could still feel his gaze on the back of my head.
The hallway I stepped into was almost entirely sandy brown, with wooden panel flooring, logs for walls, and wooden beams for support. There had been a significant effort to disrupt the monotony by adding colour to the room with artwork and furnishings, but it did not help much.
A gold-trimmed red carpet created a pathway across the flooring between various display cases in the hall, leading to a bashed-in side door that matched the tower's location outside. It continued the whole way across and split between twin staircases that met in the middle to form a landing at the far end.
I stayed low and wove between the display cases, the glass distorting the hall behind. The carpet dampened my footsteps while a trickle of mana kept the reek I’d accumulated over the last few days contained to just my poor nose. I resisted staring at the various items contained within, from weaponry and tools to antiques and clothing.
The first ghoul we had seen was in the middle of the showroom, scratching at a glass case, trying to reach the enchanted shield within. I slowed my breathing and let the arrow settle. A second gnawed on the corner of a case further back, facing away from me.
My eyes darted about as I crept closer, studying the different enchantments and mana flow in the walls and ceiling, thinking they were other ghouls. It was the perfect place for them to hide.
I slowly straightened from behind a case a row away while drawing back the steel arrow, chosen for its piercing over the damage the broad iron head could do. Besides a cramp in the muscle, my arms worked fine, and I pushed the pain to the back of my mind. Still, I didn’t want to hold my draw longer than needed.
The arrow soared across the short distance, thwacking into its target. The only other disturbance was the faint twang of the string and the thin body dropping to the carpet.
Another arrow slotted into its place. The second ghoul had time to look up, a trail of drool still connecting it to the glass case before a steel point pierced its face. I crouched back down and moved to the bodies. One of the arrowheads had made it out the other end of the skull, and I loosened the wood around it to take back with me. Black bile stuck to my bandaged fingers, but I brushed most of it off on the red carpet.
I was no better than a ghoul as I stayed to gawk at the ring inside the display case. Shallow engravings of gold ran around the carved band of mana crystal, a healing spell swirling within. I traced my bandaged finger over a deep keyhole that operated the protective enchantment over the case and glanced back towards the door.
Tometh was still watching me. I raised a hand to show I was okay to continue. He hesitated for a moment before nodding and riding off to his target.
The enchantment wasn’t exposed for me to manipulate. If it was, the surge in mana needed to melt the circuit wasn’t a good idea. It wasn’t worth it, so I moved on.
I picked off another ghoul scratching at the walls, stabbing it in the neck with an arrow, and yanking it back out to use on its friend under the staircase. They must have come from the capital's outer district, or the mana was too tantalising a prospect for them in this new barren landscape because they should have noticed me. The last had barely glimpsed the death a few steps away.
Were they getting weaker outside the capital limits? Or was I too used to the senses of those in the interior? I hadn’t spent much time with these types other than my first encounter, so I pushed the thought away before the next one caught me off guard.
I approached the body under the stairs to see if I could salvage the arrow tip. Instead, I found a passage underground guarded by an iron gate. It was intact, and the handle didn’t budge, so I proceeded up the twin staircase, where muddy feet and handprints covered the carpet more thoroughly than the rest of its length.
I walked up backwards half the time, scanning the showroom below for anything I’d missed. Poking my head over the last of the stairs, I half drew my bow while studying how the footprints scattered along the short passageway beyond. All seven doors were open, three on each side and an office at the head with at least two ghouls clawing at the desk within.
The first room, with a large oval table surrounded by toppled chairs, looked clear. I let go of the bowstring to close the door so that nothing could surprise me as I went to the next. The one across was a lavatory with multiple stalls containing cleaning and water-producing enchantments for the toilets. There was a ghoul in the last stall going by the scratching sounds, but I wanted to check each before killing it.
I nudged the first stall door with the arrow tip, swinging my aim around the small space. It was empty, and I stepped over to the next door. The hinges creaked as the first door slowly swung back. I froze and stared to the side, horrified by the silence in the lavatory.
The ghoul tried to race out of the stall, yet the door only opened one way and slammed against the frame, trapping it inside.
However, the loud bang of the door had all the others scrambling towards us.
I retreated further inside, putting my back to the wall and the trapped ghoul to my side, hoping it didn’t suddenly figure out how handles worked. My elbow jutted out, barely having room to pull the bowstring back. I held it in place, my arm shaking as the ghouls took forever to figure out where the racket was coming from.
The frontrunner skidded into the room, bashing into the doorframe and got its head pinned into it. The body slumped but was held up by the arrowhead stuck in the wood. Until the second snapped the shaft, and both went to the ground. The third, with a head of stringy grey hair, leapt over with a snarl.
It greedily sucked in far more mana than the others, using it to close the distance quicker than I could notch another arrow. It clawed at the basins and stalls to pull itself towards me, jaw unhinged to show off irregular rows of jagged teeth.
I gave up shooting it. I leapt out of the way, bashing my shoulder into the stall door, throwing the trapped ghoul leaning into it against the far wall. My back slammed the door shut in the face of the stronger foe. It pushed against me, the door pushing in before my weight banged it shut again. The ghoul thrown off the door was in a tangle of limbs, stuck between the wall and the toilet.
I couldn’t draw my bow while pushing against the screeching creature trying to break in, so we stared at each other. Me with an iron arrow in my hand and it with malice and hunger. My feet slipped across the wet floor, my footing more precarious with each slam against the door.
Between one bash and the next, I pushed off the door and squeezed into the corner.
The door slammed into my arms as the ghoul stumbled inside.
After lodging the iron broadhead into the back of its neck, I kicked it into the same entanglement of limbs and ran out, pulling the door closed behind me. I spun to face another ghoul charging at me and held it under the jaw as it pushed me back into the wall. The stall door slammed into its frame beside me, looking less sturdy than before.
I hummed into the mind of the one struggling to find a gap in my chain. Its claws found my cheek as the stun took effect. It didn’t wake up the soul inside the same way talking or screaming did, but the effect was short-lived.
However, it was long enough to put a dagger through its neck. Shoving the blade through the thick skin was easier than the arrows, and the thing gurgled on its blood, its natural healing trying to compete with the foreign object in its throat.
The stall door slammed again; a hinge screeched loose.
I notched an iron tip, floating three more steel up to the side of my bow. I timed for the next slam, the bottom hinge flying off the door, and kicked. Yis had taught me how to lean into it without losing my footing, and I was rewarded with the stronger ghoul tumbling back into the other before the door ricocheted closed.
On its last hinge, and the momentum from the kick still there, the door reverberated open again. I loosed the iron arrow through the gap before it swung back. The next arrow floated into place, and the door creaked open once more. The irate creature was pulling itself from the heap, an arrow embedded in its chest.
I hit it again and a third time.
The door stopped half closed, and I slowly pushed it open with my knuckles holding the bow. The stronger one was still, but the weaker was alive, struggling beneath the dead weight. When it wriggled its head out from under, I shot it in the face.
I breathed deeply, listening for more. Something was dripping, and the wood creaked under the rising sun, yet there were no growls or footsteps. I fixed the chain hood that had fallen loose and pulled up another arrow, my arms growing tired from the basic magic I used to float them.
Or who knows, it could be from the stabbing, drawstring, or being hit by lavatory doors.
I checked that the rest of the rooms were clear and closed the doors, locking them from the outside if I could. The office lock was iron and only worked with a key. Rather than leaving it like that, I went to check what was in there that attracted the creatures.
Inside a previously locked drawer, I found a mana crystal stick with a patterned gold tip brimming with mana. The wood around it had been much less secure. I drained and pocketed it before leaving as a favour to the owner, feeling a strange sensation of scorn from the mana inside. I didn't have time to dwell since when I went back out to the landing I found that another pack had found its way into the showroom through the broken glass.
My first shot spooked them all, but none made it up the stairs. The last tumbled backwards down the stairs from the top, and I stepped down to finish them off before heading towards the last area, the stone tower. I touched the mana crystal in my pocket as I walked along the carpet, eyeing the display cases with a matching hole.
Clearly, it was a key of sorts, and I desperately wanted to find out if it still worked. I resisted the urge to toy with the strange items up for auction, no matter how tempting the mask covered in carvings of different creatures begged to be played with.
The stone tower had the same layout as the one in Tamil: a hollow tower with a spiral staircase climbing up the wall. I leaned back to look towards the landing above, sensing but not seeing the ghoul. I kept my back to the wall, and my bow aimed towards it as I shuffled up, growing more confident that it was a variant.
Halfway up, after continually glancing down to ensure I didn’t trip, a piercing scream jolted me from my concentration, and my foot missed the next step. The outcry persisted, carried through the arrow slit in the tower, and I turned towards it out of instinct.
I knew I had made a mistake before I heard the deep growl from above. I swung back around, bow aimed at the creature leaping towards me from the landing.