Now that the bird was gone, at least as far as Kaz could tell, the terrible pressure of its power ceased pushing at their cores, which quickly settled back into their normal cycles. Out on what was left of the mage college, some kind of uneasy peace seemed to have been reached, and the black-robed figures were sitting in huddled groups, apparently waiting for someone to organize a rescue. No one tried the rope, which was filled with empty black cloth loops and no surviving humans.
Seeing that there was nothing they could really do to help, their small group moved a little ways away, on the other side of the nearby house, then sat down and watched as water continued to flow out of Heishe’s tunnel and into the pit. Everyone was exhausted, and it took a while before anyone spoke.
“So, what in Pellis’ p-,” Raff coughed softly and glanced from Lianhua to the princess. “Pockets happened to you, Jinn?”
Jinn had been sitting beside him, leaning her head against his thickly muscled arm. Now she flinched a little and sat up, also looking toward Reina. The princess gave a small sigh, then nodded, and Jinn began to speak.
“We don’t actually know,” she said. Then her cheeks darkened and she plucked a blade of grass from near her feet. “Well, we do, a bit. My year of service was almost up, and Rei and I… We just wanted to have a little fun. My wedding was scheduled almost as soon as I got home, and Reina had barely even been allowed outside the palace grounds. So we decided to, ah, sneak out.”
Beside her, Lianhua smiled slightly and looked at Yingtao. The other female started to look away, then glanced in turn toward her brother, straightened her shoulders, and smiled back at Lianhua. It was a brilliant smile, and Lianhua’s cheeks glowed almost as brightly as her eyes when she returned it. Their hands crept toward each other in the grass, until Yingtao’s forefingers just touched Lianhua’s.
Kaz shook his head. He didn’t understand everything that was going unsaid - didn’t really want to understand, if he was being honest - but it seemed to him that it would go a lot more smoothly if they would all just use more words. Except Chi Yincang. That male had undoubtedly used up his words for the day. Or perhaps Raff could trade him a few?
“Someone attacked you on the street? Abducted you?” Raff asked, frowning.
Jinn sighed. “No. It went…really well. We went shopping, danced, attended a festival, just generally had fun. Did the things friends do, you know? Everything was fine. In fact, we went out a few times, and no one had a clue.” She grinned, and her resemblance to Raff was suddenly plain to see. “I even entered a knife-throwing contest. And won!”
Raff grinned back, clapping a huge hand against her shoulder so she lurched forward with a soft grunt. “Good job!” he said. “Knew you had it in you. So where’d it go wrong?”
It was Reina who answered, voice soft. “We left a note, just in case someone did figure out what we were doing. We knew it’d mean the end of our adventures, but we didn’t want anyone to worry.” Jinn snorted a little, but let her friend speak.
“One night we pushed our luck too far. We went into the Mercenary District for the competition, and it seemed fine. But then we stayed too late, and found out carriages don’t go into that area after midnight,” Reina said. “We had to walk, and it took hours. Someone must have found our note, because when we got back to the tree we used to climb over the wall, there were men waiting.”
Jinn crossed her arms over her chest protectively. “They may have looked like men, but they weren’t,” she said stubbornly, and Kaz had a feeling this was an argument they’d had many times before.
Reina sighed. “They wore armor, but they were too tall for dwarves, and too short and wide for elves. There are a few other humanoid races in Holiander, but none who could pass so convincingly.”
Raff’s sister looked away, conceding the point, at least for now, and said, “When we saw them, we assumed they were there to take us back to the royal quarters so our parents could chastise us. But instead, they just… attacked. I had my knives, and Reina her magic, so we fought them off, but we couldn’t reach the palace.”
“Over the next week, we tried everything we could think of,” Reina said, picking up the story. “We sent notes to friends and family, hired people to carry messages, tried turning up at Hillcroft manor, even stood at the palace gates and yelled.” She shook her head. “No matter what we did, who we spoke to, the moment we came out of hiding, those soldiers were there.”
Raff leaned forward, frowning. “Soldiers? Not mercs? What kinda armor did they wear? What weapons did they use?”
The two females exchanged glances. “Soldiers, we think?” Jinn said. “There were always at least five, and they worked together like they, I don’t know, really understood each other. The way units of soldiers who practice together constantly do, not like individuals who happen to be doing the same job.”
“They don’t wear anything particularly unusual,” Reina added. “Cloaks with normal armor, not too heavy. More leather than metal. But they always have helmets or hoods.” She cupped her hand and slid it down over her face. “You can’t see even an inch of skin, and their eyes are shadowed. They could be anyone.”
“Or anything,” Jinn muttered, then said, “Some used short swords, but the majority fought with knives or crossbows. Lots of crossbows. If we could see three, there were probably another two or three hiding in trees or on rooftops. That’s how they got Reina.”
The princess gingerly touched the spot where she’d been injured, looking surprised when it didn’t hurt too badly. “We’d stopped trying to get messages through after being ambushed half a dozen times, but somehow they always turned up anyway. So we thought if we sent a message saying we would be at one place, and expected that it would be intercepted, then we could turn up at another while they waited for us at the first.”
Jinn nodded. “We sent a letter to Gil saying we were going to try reaching Mom and Da at home again, but instead we tried leaving the city, hoping we could catch you on your way back from Mt. Scarabus. It was the first time we ever tried just going away entirely, but we didn’t even make it to the gate.”
Reina winced, touching her ribs again. She was still wearing the remains of the ragged, blood-stained shirt, and Kaz could see the red, puffy skin through the torn area. He leaned forward, nose twitching as he tried to smell infection beneath the scent of jejing, and the human female pulled away from him. He tilted his head, looking at her flushed cheeks. Was she getting a fever again?
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I… They shot me,” Reina said, her voice squeaking a little. “Always before, they went for Jinn first. She got hurt a few times. It seemed like they were trying to capture me, and we were able to get away because they were reluctant to risk injuring me. But this time, one of them just stood up on a roof and shot me.” She sounded like a puppy who’d eaten duyu when she expected yumao, as if it was the plant’s fault for being poisonous, rather than her own for not knowing the difference.
Jinn bit her lip. “I didn’t know what to do,” she admitted. “We were out of money, almost out of food, Reina was hurt, and we had no idea who to trust. I saw an open sewer grate, and we just…went in. It wasn’t that bad, really, at least as long as we stayed away from certain areas, but no matter what I did, Reina just kept getting worse.”
Both females looked over at Kyla, who was eating some hardtack Raff had had in his storage. Almost everyone had had a little, but the young kobold actually seemed to be enjoying it, as did her fuergar. In fact, Kyla had mostly been ignoring the story in favor of eating, but she looked up when she felt eyes on her.
Jinn gave the young kobold a broad smile. “And then Kyla and Mei found us. Kyla said she knew Raff, and then the incursion happened, and the flood, and we were swept away to the incinerator. But somehow she and the dragon,” Jinn said this last word with a tone of disbelief, her gaze falling on Li, who was napping in Kaz’s lap, “got through and stopped the flames so we could escape. And you know the rest.”
Raff reached up and rubbed his face, groaning softly. “I have a feelin’ there’s a lot you’ve left out, kiddo, but I guess it’s a start. Now,” he looked at Lianhua. “How ‘bout you? Last I heard, you were goin’ to the palace to get Yingtao. Obviously that part went all right, but what happened to attendin’ parties and trying to suss out what happened to Jinn by talkin’ to people?”
Lianhua grimaced, clearly not ready to have everyone’s attention turn to her. Yingtao’s fingers edged closer, one lying gently atop Lianhua’s, while the others slid beneath. It was barely a grasp at all, but Lianhua’s shoulders straightened, and her chin lifted.
“Yingtao and I were safe in the palace when the incursion started. We sent Chi Yincang out to help, hoping to garner some trust and favor from the royal family by assisting in repelling the monsters. We should have been entirely safe in our rooms, especially with guards standing at the door,” Lianhua said, the corners of her eyes crinkling with tired humor.
“A courtier came, claiming he’d been sent to bring us to safety,” she went on. “But he failed to specify where that safety might lie, so I did as anyone might, and insisted we go to the mage college at once.”
Chi Yincang’s eyes narrowed. “Who was it?” he asked.
Lianhua sighed. “He didn’t say, but on the way, we met a woman whom he called Countess Greer. In return, she named him Lord Palmer.”
Kaz noticed that Lianhua was speaking more stiffly than usual. Was that because she was uncomfortable, or because someone of higher rank was listening? Not that the human princess seemed to mind Raff’s much more relaxed manner, or Chi Yincang’s abrupt questions, for that matter.
Jinn’s eyes narrowed. “Palmer is one of Prince Philip’s cronies. The countess is…” She shook her head, uncertain.
“She’s Father’s first cousin once removed,” Reina said. “I’ve only met her twice, because she spends most of her time rusticating.” She saw Kaz and Kyla’s confusion and explained. “She always claims to be in poor health, so she comes into Cliffcross once every few years to shop and tell everyone how terrible she feels, then returns to her country estate. I have no idea why she’d be here now.”
Lianhua frowned. “She said something about being in the country when we passed through last month. But she didn’t look ill. Of course, it would be hard to tell beneath all the makeup and the heavy clothes everyone has taken to wearing.”
Raff shrugged. “Maybe she’s feelin’ better. Maybe she’s here for the tournament.”
Reina shook her head. “I do remember that. Earl Greer comes every year and stays in the palace. Alone. He says blood makes Countess Greer feel faint.”
Yingtao lifted a single brow. “Not this lady,” she said firmly. “I believe she would have been quite comfortable seeing our blood.”
Lianhua nodded. “There was a portal in the garden outside. It, ah,” she glanced at Jinn and Reina, “well, Lord Palmer and the Countess claimed it was powered during emergencies. Yingtao signaled that there were other assailants approaching, so we were forced to do the one thing they weren’t expecting. We ran through the portal, but just before we did, we used a skill which allowed us to hide for a very brief period. There were several mages waiting for us on the other side, but they weren’t ready yet, and of course they couldn’t see us. We ran around them and onto the grounds of the mage school.”
She smiled apologetically at Chi Yincang. “I hoped the talisman you used to track me to the mosui city was still working, so we simply found a relatively safe place and hid. I will say someone was very eager to find us. I think the only reason we made it is because most of the strongest mages were fighting the incursion and then calling the rain. Every other mage was certainly searching for us.”
The corner of Chi Yincang’s mouth twitched, and he lifted the talisman from within his robes. “Your grandfather felt it was best to take no chances.”
“Oh, I know,” Lianhua said dryly, turning her hand to grip Yingtao’s fingers.
Raff shook his head, ignoring the byplay. “So, here we are.”
Everyone turned to look at him, and he coughed uncomfortably. “I mean, what do we do now? We got everybody back together, nobody’s dead, but we also don’t know who or what we’re up against. How are they findin’ the girls, and how can we get ‘em home safely? Obviously the palace itself isn’t safe, if at least some of the nobles are in on it, though this Countess sounds like a pretty big stretch as a conspirator.”
“Maybe she wasn’t the real countess?” Lianhua asked. “Looking back, I’m certain they were in on it together, and of the two of them, she was certainly the calmer one. Like she’d attempted to capture or kill people in a garden during an incursion many times before.”
“That’s definitely not the Countess Greer I remember,” Reina said. “She was…fluffy. Her hair, her clothes, even these little fluttering motions she’d make with her hands.” She waved her own fingers in the air, wrist limp.
“So if Lianhua’s right, then whoever she was, she’s an expert impersonator,” Raff said. “I expect if she’d been after Reina - uh, her highness, here - she’d have acted just like the real countess, right up until the end. Since Lianhua and Yingtao never met the woman, she didn’t bother.”
Yingtao looked thoughtful. “While I sensed more than saw the people closing in on us, I could tell they were wearing helmets of some kind, and their outlines were right for light armor.”
“So maybe we’re dealing with one large, well-organized group?” Lianhua said. “And they’ve infiltrated both the government and the mages. Or at least someone with the power to command the mages.”
“Fabian,” Reina whispered, her eyes shining. When everyone looked at her, she said, “The mage. The one he killed.” She glanced at Chi Yincang, who looked back, impassive. “He was my cousin. When our parents realized we both had mana, we had lessons together. Of course, I couldn’t go to the mage college, so I haven’t seen him in two or three years, but…we were friends. He never would have betrayed me.”
She looked around for reassurance, and for some reason, her eyes met Kaz’s. He had nothing to add to the conversation, and his proximity seemed to make her uncomfortable, so he’d shifted toward the back of the group. Now the female’s blue eyes seemed to plead with him, so he gave her an awkward smile, though his ears would have been flat against his head if he’d had proper ones.
a voice said into their minds, and they all whipped around, staring at the tiny black snake that had just crawled over the edge of the pit by which they sat.