I never expected my fellow mages to be so hostile. Then again, I didn’t know what to expect, so I guess their treatment of us was pretty standard in retrospect.
It took only an hour, like Captain McFarlane said, to reach the barracks for the Border Guard. As soon as we arrived, a group of guards ran up and pointed their combat staves at us. They also got chains and manacles for us. We each had our feet and hands bound together, and then we were roped together like a bloody chain gang. I didn’t like where this was going.
I guess I’m both surprised and not surprised this is the second time in a short while that I’m being led away in chains. It hadn’t been all that long ago that Alverd and I had been captured by Alicia’s bodyguards. Says a lot about the kind of life I lead.
Alicia put on a brave face, but I could see her stoic expression waver when the mages prodded her to move along. By now, the mages were well aware of her limp, although none of them made any move to accommodate her injury. We’d walked that entire hour with her suppressing any wincing or utterances of pain. Even now she still has her pride. Can’t exactly blame her. Were I in her shoes, I could guarantee that I wouldn’t be able to hold my head high and soldier through it.
The compound itself was a miniature fortress. Walls of stone reached more than fifty feet high with mage guards patrolling the parapets, watching for any infiltrators or scouts. We were ushered through the front gate to what looked like a command post, where we had been fitted with chains. McFarlane took a moment to speak with the man at the post, probably the one in charge of the compound. He waved us all in the direction of what he called “the barracks” and we were subsequently sent in that direction by her and her soldiers.
McFarlane must have caught me staring at the guards, because she came over and threw her arm over my shoulder, sneering at me. “You should be impressed. When your enemy can come swooping down from the sky at any moment, you have to be prepared. There are dozens of forts like this scattered along our border, ready to defend against the barbarians at a moment’s notice.” Pushing her face uncomfortably close to mine, she drew her finger across her throat slowly. “I almost want them to come. Nothing would please me more than to swat some pompous dragon rider right out of the sky.
Her men, and a few of the nearby guards, laughed and raised their staves in a cheer. Alicia looked distraught at their gung-ho attitudes. If this is the mindset of the people, she’s got her work cut out for her, I thought. She’s got to undo centuries of prejudice to pull this off. McFarlane released me and gave me a slap on the back to keep me moving. Alverd, for his part, walked in silence, his face serene.
The mage barracks weren’t anything special. It was a series of buildings and facilities housing about fifty men and women, providing places for them to sleep, store their weapons and armor, train or simply relax on their downtime. We passed a group of mages performing a group exercise, where they were all working together to draw some arcane symbol in the air, probably some more ambush magic to replace the trap that we had fallen prey to earlier.
Alicia paused midstep to watch the mages. McFarlane came over to get her moving again, but before she could strike or push the princess, she spoke. “Do all of you really hate us so much?” The captain looked genuinely taken aback by the question. Her men fell silent, anticipating her response.
The captain folded her arms somberly. “I don’t know if you’ve seen what your Black Scale Legionnaires do in the field, princess, but I’m going to assume you don’t.” She pulled at her collar, yanking it aside. A jagged scar ran down her neck past the collarbone. “They don’t care who gets in their path. Man, woman, child? No difference to them. They’re not soldiers.”She leaned in close to Alicia, her face turning vicious. “They’re animals. Murderers. They’re worse than your berserkers. At least a berserker is so high on their rage they can’t truly be blamed for what they do most of the time. It’s like letting a feral dog off a leash.” Alicia flinched at the mention of berserkers.
“A Legionnaire is fully aware of what they do. And they choose to do it even when they have the chance to think about what it is they’re about to do. So when they slaughter people who can’t fight back, they do it because they want to. Killing a berserker is like putting down a sick animal. Killing a Legionnaire is doing the whole damn bloody world a service.” Another cheer arose from the assembled mages. McFarlane put her arm on Alicia’s shoulder and shoved her, albeit more lightly than her men had, to get her moving again. “I want to say that killing Ishmarians is just my job, princess. I knew what I was going to do when I signed up for this army. But there’s nothing that says you can’t enjoy your job.” She leered at Alicia.
Alicia swiveled her head around to glare at her. “I thought you had a point right up until you said that last part. Frankly, I don’t see any difference between you and a Legionnaire if that’s the way you rationalize things.” All the mages nearby stopped their joint exercise and their mouths fell open. Even Alverd paused, and his expression told me he was preparing to leap to Alicia’s defense if McFarlane tried anything.
His concern was unnecessary. McFarlane scowled, then answered. “Maybe if people like the Legionnaires didn’t exist, soldiers like me wouldn’t be needed to keep them in check, princess.” She shoved Alicia much harder. “The only way you fight a monster is if you get monsters of your own.” The march continued, with a far heavier air hanging over us all. I bit my lip. This was going south fast.
Captain McFarlane brought us to one building that was a bit larger than the rest, and hustled us into a room that was devoid of features, except for a small pedestal with a clear glass ball sitting on top of it. It was a bubble, a magical communication device that allowed conversation over long distances.
She impatiently pushed us over to the glass ball, then waved her hand over it. The ball glowed for a moment, then smoke began swirling inside of it. When the smoke cleared, a man appeared. He was middle-aged with a sharp, angular face, and he was wearing a decadent robe with all the prestige of a noble. He had brownish hair that was flecked with streaks of gray, a short goatee with similar streaks, and very noticeable cheekbones. When the image of the man solidified, it spoke.
“Captain. I trust you have a good reason for using the emergency contact bubble?”
Alicia’s mouth fell open as she stared at the bubble. It was her first time seeing such a device; in Ishmar, her home, magic had been strictly outlawed, so even such a convenient innovation as the bubble was considered taboo. It was just another piece of evidence that supported the theory that Algrustos had the means to stand on equal footing with, maybe even surpass, Ishmar’s military prowess. Poor girl. A lot of firsts for her today. Wish they could be more pleasant.
While Alicia stood marveling at the magnificent device, Captain McFarlane bowed deeply. “Lord Albrecht, I have several… prisoners who wish to be brought before the Witch-Queen. One of them is a princess from Ishmar. They were captured while attempting to illegally cross the border. I don’t know if they’re telling the truth that they wish to simply speak to the Witch-Queen, but I can verify that the girl IS the Eighth Princess.” She reached over, plucked the tiara off Alicia’s head, and held it in front of the bubble. Alicia growled, but could do nothing.
The man called Lord Albrecht conversed with someone outside the glass ball’s sight. After a moment of feverish debate, he addressed McFarlane again. “Captain, I have talked the matter over with the Witch-Queen. She is intrigued by the implications, and wants to meet this princess. You are hereby ordered to bring the princess and her companions before the Witch-Queen as soon as possible. I have a unit near your area. I’ll redirect them to your outpost to aid you in delivering the prisoners to the Ivory Court. Expect them within a day. Until then, guard the prisoners with your lives.”
With that, smoke engulfed the interior of the bubble. McFarlane turned to us, and motioned to the guards still standing behind us. They pulled us out of the room and back outside to the grounds, leading us to another section of the camp. An ominous looking building rose up before us, outfitted with bars over its windows and heavy steel doors. We were ushered into the prison by her soldiers. As the last man entered, he sealed the massive bolt on the door and as it slid into place my heart sank. There’d be no escape that way.
Given the building’s dilapidated appearance, I thought that the cell would be cut-rate, but alas, disappointment seemed to be the special of the day. Bars of magically reinforced, alchemically forged dormicite, the hardest known substance in the world and highly resistant to magic to boot, served to imprison us. This is why it doesn’t pay to be an optimist, I thought to myself. I resigned myself to my fate immediately. Alicia, on the other hand, began slamming her fists against the bars in a rage.
“That won’t do a damn thing and you know it.” I muttered. I looked at Alverd. He had seated himself on an empty bunk and taken up his meditation again. Despite his armor, I could see his body shifting as he breathed deeply as he calmed himself. Alicia continued to futilely attack the bars. I saw a familiar look in her eyes and shuddered. If Alicia went berserk here in this cell, Alverd and I would effectively be trapped in a cage with someone who could probably rip my arms out of their sockets and then beat me to death with them. It’s never so bad that it can’t somehow get worse. I edged away from her slowly, trying not to gain her attention. I found a corner and shrunk into it as much as I could.
Alicia screamed in frustration, kicked the bars one final time with her good leg, and then hobbled away to sit on the bunk next to Alverd. She crossed her arms and scowled. “You could at least give us some food! Or some medicine for my leg!” A guard seated at his post down at the end of the hall snorted and guffawed at her.
“Keep it down in there, ‘Your Highness’. As much as your screeching amuses me, I need to catch up on my beauty sleep.” The guard returned to his “beauty sleep” and Alicia turned to me. She seized control of my collar.
“This is all your fault, Kuro! These are your people! Do something!” She began shaking me back and forth, and my head lolled uncontrollably. Gibberish tumbled out of my mouth.
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“Look,” I mumbled. “Even if these mages would listen to me, do you really think they’d do anything? Think about this for a moment. You represent everything these people hate. If anything, they’d make our ‘accommodations’ even shabbier. Count your blessings, Princess. We could be in some rat-infested hellhole. Instead, this cell is really not bad. So why don’t you just settle down? We’ll only be here for about a day or so. Then…well, then it’s up to Fate, really.”
Oh, that might have been the wrong thing. Alicia’s eyes narrowed and that dull look appeared in her eyes again. Her grip on my collar tightened and she held up her fist. Her knuckles were white from how tightly they were clenched, and I could hear her fingers grinding against her palms. I gulped. “Alicia! It’s not my fault! Really! There’s nothing I can do! Please don’t kill me! I didn’t do anything! Not in the face! Anywhere but the face!” I threw up my hands to shield myself.
Alverd gently pulled the feisty princess off of me. “Princess, this is no way to act. Please let go of my friend. It is as he says. No one is to blame for what happened.” Alicia grumbled under her breath, then finally let go of me. Alverd continued. “Besides, this is exactly what we wanted. We should be able to reach the Ivory Court faster than we intended. Once we explain everything to the Witch-Queen, everything should be fine.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Alverd was always the diplomatic sort, which was why I saw him as the official “leader” of our little group, despite Alicia’s status as former royalty. If it kept Alicia from beating me senseless, then I was okay with his idealistic tendencies.
Alicia snorted. “I hope you’re right. After this reception I don’t have high hopes. Worst of all, she could see this as a provocation and declare war on Ishmar. There are too many things that could go wrong, Alverd.” Alicia folded her arms across her chest and flopped down on the bunk, staring at my friend with pleading eyes.
I had to admit, she had a point. The Witch-Queen was the big unknown at this point. Granted, the fact that she wanted the three of us delivered intact indicated that she wanted to speak with us at the very least, but that still guaranteed nothing. She could easily dispose of us afterward. Maybe she simply wished to grill us for information before getting rid of us.
Alverd was unfazed. “There’s no point in thinking about what might happen now. Worrying will accomplish nothing. We should instead focus on what we intend to tell the Witch-Queen. That you are an exile seeking a potential alliance in order to regain control of your homeland, in order to seal a more permanent peace between your countries. If we are sincere, and show that we have nothing to hide, then the Witch-Queen will have no reason to suspect us.”
Despite my best efforts, I had to roll my eyes at Alverd’s naiveté. “I’m sure the Witch-Queen will look at us making doe eyes at her and just agree to everything we ask, Alverd.” This whole plan was crazy. It had been crazy the moment these two had thought it up, and it hadn’t gotten any saner since. Again, it was out of my hands, since we were technically still “employed” by Alicia, so all my whining and begging did little to sway him into backing out of the whole mess.
At least Alicia was starting to see reason. I hadn’t expected that from her. Before, she had been all hellbent on meeting the Witch-Queen, but the wind had gone out of those sails pretty quickly. I guess the grim reality has finally sunk in now that we’re imprisoned and looking at execution. I wished she could’ve figured out sooner that this wasn’t a good idea. I was pretty sure at this juncture we were beyond the point of no return.
Alicia grunted, then moved to the bunk I was seated on. “Ugh, fine. I guess there’s nothing we can really do about it. Maybe the Witch-Queen will be as you say. We’d better hope so. Otherwise, all this will have been for nothing.” She started staring at me with a determined glare. I stared back. She glared at me harder; I realized that she wanted to monopolize my bunk for herself. Huh, not a bloody chance in hell. I stared back with malice in my eyes. She responded by raising her curled fist.
Oh, fine. If you want to be so childish about it, then go ahead, I thought. I pushed myself off the bunk and offered it to her. The princess pushed me aside and laid upon it, pulling the thin blanket over herself. I moved over to where Alverd was sitting on the other bunk. He tossed me the blanket from his bunk.
“Here, old friend. There’s some room on the floor over here.” And with that, he turned over on the bunk and went to sleep. I stood, mouth agape, as the fool shamelessly left me to find some spot on the cold hard ground to sleep.
Some friends I have. I was beginning to wonder why I stuck around. Mind you, this was just the irritation talking, but I still felt that my attitude was justified. I mean, this was not my fault. None of this is my fault. Why do I have to sleep on the floor? That was discrimination or something. It was unfair. Eventually I gave up on feeling sorry for myself and found a spot near the cell door; I pulled the blanket tight around me to ward off the cold night air. I’d need my strength for tomorrow.
The next morning, I was roused from sleep by a boot digging into my ribs. The owner, a mean looking man wearing the same kind of armor as Captain McFarlane, dragged me to my feet and barked orders to his men to have the prisoners prepared for transport. I had magic sealing cuffs slapped on my hands as the mages dragged me to a cage on wheels, pulled by horses, in the middle of the barracks. Captain McFarlane, along with the other members of her unit, were standing nearby; the fierce looking woman was having a conversation with the man who had awakened me.
“I want them where everyone can see them at all times. Don’t let them know, but their lives are considered invaluable. Lord Albrecht wants them brought to the Witch-Queen alive and unharmed. I know it’s hard to follow an order commanding us to protect an Ishmarian, but we have no choice in the matter.” The other man spat on the ground and growled something under his breath I couldn’t hear.
McFarlane nodded. “Once we get to the capitol it’s someone else’s problem. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I have… specific orders to carry out. Just do what you have to.” Any attempt to eavesdrop further was interrupted by the arrival of a large carriage, which stopped near where I was standing.
This carriage was unique in its design, however. While it had the same basic chassis as a carriage, it had bars along the sides, allowing several mages to grab on and ride along the side, sparing them from walking. McFarlane’s men jumped up on the sides of the carriage, while the Captain herself rode alongside the driver. I saw the other man board a similar carriage just ahead of the cage, also bristling with mages. I sighed heavily. So much for escape, if it was necessary. I did notice, however, that Captain McFarlane was carrying our weaponry in a small holster next to her seat. There would’ve been no need to keep our weapons if they planned to just kill us, I reasoned. And if it comes down to it and we need to make a break for it, we might have a fighting chance with our gear.
Alverd, Alicia, and I were packed into the cage like circus animals. After that, our little convoy departed the outpost and headed due east at a good speed. We rode for nearly a week and a half, passing fortresses and villages, never entering any of them. When we made camp, the mages made every effort to keep a low profile. We were never let out of our cage, except to relieve ourselves, and even then we were guarded heavily. When we needed to resupply, a small group of our captors was sent to procure food and water from said villages. Alicia nudged Alverd after witnessing one such supply run.
“Why not just pass through the villages? We don’t even turn off the road. I don’t understand.”
Alverd watched as the mages packed a crate of preserved salted meat into the back of one of their carriages. “They probably don’t want us to draw attention. A heavy escort like this is sure to turn heads.” I piped up from the corner. “Maybe they think the villagers might try to harm you, princess. I overhead-”
“You overheard what?” The sudden appearance of McFarlane next to the cage made me jump and I hit my head against the top of the cage. As I nursed the bump on my head, the surly captain crossed her arms. “That I’m to bring you to the Ivory Court unharmed?” I nodded, biting back a curse. The captain shrugged without uncrossing her arms. “Believe it or not, there are people out there with even less restraint and tolerance than me. If they saw an Ishmarian, they’d likely take matters into their own hands. I’d prefer that not to happen.”
Alicia scoffed. “Why not? Afraid they’d prove no better than the barbarians they hate so much?” McFarlane scowled, then turned away. As she hauled herself back onto her carriage, she called back to us.
“Better watch that mouth of yours, princess. I don’t have to harm you to get you to shut up.” The cage lurched as our convoy got underway again, and Alicia sulked in the corner.
Finally, after two and a half weeks of suffering, the capital city of Algrustos, Ethenia, appeared on the horizon. I almost wept for joy. Even if the Witch-Queen executed me, it would mean a sweet release from the torment I had endured for the past month. No doubt about it, I was about to accept my fate no matter how the cards played out.
Captain McFarlane dropped off of the carriage she was riding and began walking alongside our cage. “You see that, kids? That’s the end of the line. Once we get there, the Witch-Queen decides what to do with you. I hope she decides you can’t be trusted. Executions are always good for morale, you know. And given what’s going on nowadays, we need morale to be as high as it can be.” She smirked. “Bloody lizard people can kill each other all they like, as far as I’m concerned, because the goddess knows they’re doing a bang up job of it.” She spat on the ground contemptuously.
“You watch your tongue, spellslinger! Even if that’s true, nobody deserves to have their own countrymen out for their blood.” Alicia shook the bars impotently. “It’s easy for you to say such things when you’re safe on the other side of these bars, coward!” She growled menacingly.
McFarlane’s face lit up in a tiger-like smile. “Perhaps, lizard princess. But circumstances dictate otherwise, so why don’t you just sit tight and-“ Suddenly, she broke off, her head jerked to the side. She cocked it sideways, her ear lifted up, to the east. The other mages in the convoy were doing the same. All the horses lurched to a halt. It was then that I noticed that an eerie silence had descended on us. On either side of the paved dirt road, the tall grass was the only thing moving, swaying back and forth slightly in the breeze.
Without warning, a booming sound rang out. A mere second later, a massive explosion annihilated the carriage ahead of us, blowing it to pieces and sending the horses panicking. A lance of magical energy had slammed into the front of the carriage from the side of the road, obliterating the driver and the entire front end of the vehicle, destroying the horses’ reins and scattering the other mages who had been riding it. They were strewn about by the force of the explosion, dazed but otherwise alright.
In the space of a second, attackers appeared all around us. From the tall grass, they rose up. Men and women in strange robes, bearing unusual helms that covered their faces. The helms were misshapen and twisted, probably intentionally, to appear disturbed and unnerving. Their robes were red like blood, but covered with wreaths of greenery, which had probably allowed them to hide in the grass. Each carried a long staff, similar to the kind wielded by McFarlane’s troops. They circled us like sharks, just out of reach, waiting, waiting, waiting…
And then one stood up. Her helm was adorned with what looked like rivers of blood cascading from its eye sockets. She raised her staff above her head, and her cohorts shrieked out ululating cries, like ravenous beasts awaiting the slaughter. Over the din, I heard her cry out: “Take them! But spare the dragon princess! We need her alive!”
And then they were upon us.