Excerpt From The Mad Scholar's Wall—
We followed Areekail onto the cracked ground, and it was as if we had entered another world. A dead world composed of oppressive heat and choking dust.
Within a dozen feet of walking in this new world, smoke rose from the soles of our shoes, and every breath burned in our chests. Then, The High King waved his hand, and the heat vanished as if it was never there.
As he looked around at what he had wrought, his face was one of grief. His eyes were filled with a sorrow so deep that it seemed to hang over his shoulders like a mantle, visibly aging his face.
I had never seen the High King looking so… mortal. As we walked across the scorched plains, heading towards the scared citadel — a building so large that standing at its base would blot out the sun — his appearance continued to change before my eyes, the mantle fully settling into Areekail's flesh.
Looking back into my memory, I know that nothing changed. The reality remained the same. He was as youthful as any man in the prime of life and more beautiful than any human or half-human that appeared before me.
Even though I know nothing actually changed, I still remember his appearance as one of an old man. Decades of a harsh, uncompromising life slammed down on the elf, and a decrepit, hunched figure was now riding the horse.
The humans murmured in surprise, but the elves in our procession only looked upon their High King with guilt and shame in their eyes.
**********
I listened to Celeste give a report to the Knight Commander. Apparently, Vlore's team was sent out as pickets to track the advance of the beastkin. They were hardly in their lookout positions for more than a few hours before they were ambushed.
Their mental link was partially disrupted, so she didn't know what happened to the others, but she reported that she could faintly feel extreme pain and fear while they were trying to regroup and fall back to the Triad. Before anyone got close enough to send a message to her, she was knocked unconscious.
No way that worm Vlore died, I thought, a small smile spreading across my lips. If Celeste was here without him, he wasn't in the cages. So he is either back at the Triad… Or hiding in a hole in the ground. He should feel right at home.
Then Celeste got what she deserved while she sat in a cage and starved for the last few days while they built the… spell circle. Which is nothing.
Forcing the dark thoughts from my mind, I focused on the entertainment of Celeste getting water and some hard bread for meals while I poked at my broken nose.
The pain of prodding my nose must have put some heat into my stare because her eyes flicked to me for a moment. I thought I saw a tightening of her shoulders and a slight flush of embarrassment on her cheeks.
That sight almost made getting a broken nose worth it. Almost.
Though I could have been wrong about the flushing, as my eyes were focused on the bricks she called hands. Those weapons were dangerous.
It wasn't like my nose hadn't been broken before, but with my elven features, the signs of a broken nose were particularly noticeable. My people just can't pull off the old veteran look. I thought in disappointment, thinking of all the old grizzled centurions walking around. There was definitely a look that could only get by combining age and a hard life.
Elves looked basically the same as they aged — the only real change being their hair graying and some notable wrinkles around the eyes, which only added a feeling of graceful elegance — until they shriveled up like a raisin in the last couple of decades of life.
Centuries of aging, all forced into a few years. Really not much to be complaining about, but I won't be a legionary if I don't find something to bitch about.
Focusing back on what Celeste was saying, I listened to her briefly describe arriving at the beastkin fort and joining the other captured scouts, then watching the fish and 1st turma arrive, and finally, my trainees and me.
Then she talked about the spell and what it was supposed to do. Even while she was talking about me, she couldn't stop the compassion — and disgust at what the spell was doing — from leaking into and dripping off her words.
Because it wasn't just me. It was a spell — whatever that entails — perfected by hundreds of test subjects in the past.
Hundreds of Olimpians tortured to death, their souls ripped from mortal flesh.
Unease and outright disbelief at her words were plain to see on the knights. I even felt them probe my mind to verify the statement. All I could do was nod, struggling to contain the memories bubbling.
Then Celeste told them of our escape and the second army sailing and marching down the river, whose vanguard was still chasing us.
"This changes things," the knight aqua said, having taken off her helmet.
After a moment, the Knight Commander spoke, "Not as much as you would think. We still have to do our mission, and now we know more beastkin are coming. And our message never reached Cross."
"What is your mission," Celeste hesitantly asked, "If it's not too much to ask, Sir."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"You all had quite the journey. Almost made it too. Go around the next bend, and the Triad is twenty minutes away." The Molten Man said, not answering the question and looking down the river. "If you listen, you can hear their war drums beating even now. They haven't started their attack, but it will begin soon. While saving a legionary is always a pleasure, we acted only because you and your pursuers posed a risk to our operation. Alerting them to a potential threat from behind before the assault begins could ruin our ambush."
I thought about it briefly before saying, "The boats."
He nodded in acknowledgment of my insight, "Correct, they pose too great of a threat to the Triad. Our aqua knights can detect the barges on the river, but even they can't say how many or where exactly they are. Whatever castings the beastkins are using, we cannot fully pierce it. When the veil drops, we will come from behind, destroy their towers, and slip away."
His eyes flicked to shore, where the other knights were walking to the edge of the forest. Behind them were the bodies of beastkin, and I knew he was considering leaving us on the shore.
"Give us weapons, and we won't slow you down, Brackus." Said a weak but confident voice. Looking over, I saw Markus sitting up on his elbows, his eyes sunken but burning with conviction.
"Never thought you would, Markus." Said the knight with a fierce smile. "I was just… putting together a new plan. The Legion never leaves a man behind."
"Yeah," Markus said in a wry voice, slightly smiling back, "but sometimes a man chooses to remain behind."
Brackus's smile turned more into a showing of teeth, "The Legion can't help what individuals choose."
**********
Kanieta stood with her two attendants in the shadows of a tree, watching Green and the others on the raft interact with two knights.
The rest of the knights were on shore, gathering gear from the dead Crescent Moon Faction wolves and forming up into four-man squads. A couple of knights took the equipment out to the raft, then the nailed-together logs zipped off down the river at several times the speed as before.
At the same time, some of the two dozen knights disappeared into the forest before turning towards the fortress, while the others moved along the shoreline, pacing the raft.
As the knights moved away, the bodies of the dead sank into the ground, the grass and leaf-coved soil peeling back and closing back up like it had never been disturbed.
Seconds passed into minutes, and still, Kanieta did not let her cousin or guard speak. Any time they even so much as moved, a whip of shadow would lash at their necks.
And if they let out a whimper of pain, a second whip would strike them. They were too confident in her — and their own — powers.
Kanieta saw the strength of the Olimpians, and while in many ways their magic was greater, it did not mean the Olimpians didn't have just as many benefits of their own.
She would not underestimate the Olimpians.
Minutes passed, and eventually, she felt her cousin jump in surprise to the right. Looking left slowly, Kanieta saw a man already chest high, rising from the ground.
There was no sound to signify the man's appearance from one second to the next. Once entirely out of the ground, the crouched man gave a long look around the nighttime forest before stalking off downstream without leaving a spot to mark their passage. Kanieta got the feeling from watching the knight that he was not entirely relying on his eyes to search for enemies.
And she would be disappointed if the knight was.
Even when she could not see the legion knight, she waited.
Finally deciding it was time, Kanieta pulled the shadows back like the leaves of a flower, slowly breaking her spell and dropping them a half inch to the ground.
A tree that you could not even see its trunk a moment ago — due to the particularly dark shadows cast by the low-hanging boughs — suddenly birthed three kin.
Without checking to see if the other two were following, she took off towards the river at the fastest pace she thought Hurring could manage. Bears were not known for their speed, after all.
"Keep up or swim," Kanieta said over her shoulder with an amused tone.
Leaping over the water, she formed a disk of shadow under her foot before leaping again, leaving behind the disk for those who followed.
Shadows were not meant to be solid or even permanent. What shadow outside of a cave was ever constant? And even there, bring light into the darkness, and the shadows dance.
While there was truth to the statement that a mage is only limited by how much mana they can gather and their beliefs and imagination, unless you were completely insane, there were some undeniable truths to the world.
A truth like shadows not being solid. And while Kanieta could make shadows solid, to a certain extent, it costs significantly more mana. And that costs increased the longer she wanted the spell to stay stable.
There were also two other people jumping on the shadow disks, causing her to infuse more mana into the spell.
With every leap she took, Kanieta rapidly burned through her mana, causing sweat to appear on her forehead and her breathing to pick up.
Nearing the shore, a smile twitched at her lips. While Kanieta would make it across the river without getting wet, the two behind her could not be so certain.
Nareta, sticking to the tips of her tails, probably knew this. Wouldn't be the first time I dropped her into the water on… accident. Amusement rolled off her at the thought.
As Kanieta gracefully landed on the shore, panting slightly at the mana she expended, she turned in time to see Nareta leap into the air and use a small blast of fire to throw herself over the last shadow disk. Clever girl.
Kanieta smirked at her cousin, who returned the look. She then turned to watch in amusement as Hurring's foot sunk into the soft disk, causing his footing to fumble and his jump to become a fall into the water.
Not giving the large kin time to climb out of the water, Kanieta ran off into the forest on the northern side of the river.
It wasn't long before a suspiciously straight-faced Nareta and scowling Hurring caught up. Using most of her mana in that rush had taken more out of Kanieta than she thought.
The three shadowy forms flickered through the forest, picking up the pace when Kanieta's mana recharged.
Within ten minutes, they had skirted around a few scouts and patrols and appeared at the edge of the forest, looking at the distant walls and warband formed outside the walls.
"Hurring," Kanieta said, "pretend to be a scout and report to the Redtail Chieftains. Tell them to focus on the walls and let the Crescent Moon Faction assault the bridge. Tell them not to push too hard; we don't want that many casualties before we take the fortress."
"If they ask, where will you be, Chieftain?" Hurring asked, fully turning to look at her.
A secretive smile spread over Kanieta's lips, "With the mages, of course."
"As you command.” Hurring slowly said as he turned, “…Your tails look particularly… fiery this night, Chieftain."
A pealing laugh sounded at his words, and Kanieta's eyes widened in horror. Whirled around, she frantically smacked at the tip of her smoldering tail.