The outpost was no better to look at up close than it was afar.

The wagon stopped about two hundred yards away, which was a lot closer than I thought the driver would allow. Perhaps his own curiosity had gotten the better of him, as no one tried to attack us even as his wagon noisily made its way towards the outpost. By the time it pulled to a stop, I was wondering why we weren’t already up to our necks in bad guys.

If this is an ambush, the ambushers are taking their sweet time springing it. Either they’re holed up in the outpost itself or they aren’t there at all. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not; I had little experience with common bandits. For all of its faults, Ishmar had no bandits, for no one was stupid enough to provoke the wrath of a dragon rider. By now mages would’ve hit us from a safe distance, so if there were mages lying in wait they’d squandered their best chance to take us out without a fight.

As we got close, I got a better sense of the outpost’s layout. On all sides, it had a thirty foot tall wall of gray stone, although the stone bore deep scorch marks now. A thick wooden double gate with a rampart was wide open, with one door having been ripped off its hinges and thrown aside. The other door was riddled with crossbow bolts. Alverd moved cautiously into the gate, his weapon drawn. When he was certain it was clear, he waved us over and we followed him in.

I was the second through, my maul at the ready. My nerves are all on edge. Something isn’t right. Kuro came up behind me, his staff pointed at the two-story building directly on our right after passing under the gate. On our left, a man lay with three crossbow bolts jutting out of his chest. His white robe, now stained red with blood, told me he was a mage. His magic staff lay off to his right snapped in half.

It was when we rounded the building that we saw the source of the smoke. A pyre had been built in the center of the outpost, which had hidden it from our view on approach. A large amount of wooden furniture had been piled at the base of the pyre to serve as kindling, but it was what had been burned that made my stomach turn.

Six bodies lay lashed together with chain in the center of the pyre. They’d been burnt to the point where they were nothing but blackened husks. The embers of the fire were still smoldering, and that was a concern in itself. This couldn’t have happened too long ago. If the fire is dying out whatever happened might have been as recent as last night.

Sheena made a choking sound, her breathing turning shaky as she fought the urge to vomit. Kuro stepped to the left, motioning at one of the other buildings. “We have to make sure this place is empty. There’s four buildings we have to account for. Should we pair off and investigate?”

The last thing I want to do is split our party now, but he has a point. The sooner we determine if it’s safe or not the better. And it’s not like we’ll be alone. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll take Sheena with me and check the west side.”

Kuro nodded. “Okay. Alverd, we should start with this building. It looks like the armory.”

I put my hand on Sheena’s shoulder. She was still trying not to show her discomfort, but her shallow breathing was a clear sign she wasn’t dealing with the situation well. I gently but firmly pulled her away from the pyre. “Hey, that building isn’t going to check itself. Push it out for now. Plenty of time to deal with it later.” I smacked her arm gently, and it snapped her out of it.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. This is a lot to process.” She took one deep breath, then shook her head. “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

The building we were looking at was a one-story longhouse. The roof had caved in, or been blown open, by some force and debris from its construction was strewn everywhere. We had to step over shingles, stone blocks, and wooden slats to get to the entry door. The door was made of thick metal set into the stone wall and was locked. My maul quickly fixed that; when I struck the door the entire wall in which the frame was set gave way.

“Be careful! The entire structure looks ready to collapse as it is.” Sheena protested behind me. The interior of the longhouse looked no better than the exterior. Large amounts of fire damage was readily apparent. The only things I could recognize were the slagged remains of many metal bed frames and more than a few charred corpses. The longhouse had been the dormitory, and these mages had likely been scrambling to answer an alert when whatever had torn off the roof incinerated them.

I have a sneaking suspicion about what did this. But it makes no sense. Dragons don’t live outside Ishmar. Even if this were the work of dragons, who tied those bodies up and burnt them? We were on the wrong side of Algrustos for there to be Ishmarians running around killing people. My people were rampantly isolationist and incredibly averse to subterfuge and espionage.

If there are survivors, we might get answers. But my people aren’t exactly known for leaving survivors. Taking prisoners, maybe. Given the state of this outpost, if Ishmarians were involved, they didn’t intend to leave witnesses. I was still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Ishmarians being so far from their territory, especially given the political turmoil surrounding the coup my siblings had launched. If it were me, I’d call all of our forces back into our lands immediately. As of now, I still don’t know who actually took the throne or if there even is someone sitting in it currently.

I didn’t want to think of the possibility that Eliza was the one who was running the country now. It didn’t seem like it was likely given how wounded she had been at the end of our last battle, but she had the raw ruthlessness necessary to accomplish it. It turned my stomach to imagine what Ishmar would look like under her rule.

She was a talented warrior, a natural born killer. She was the best student the berserkers had seen in years. But all that talent was funneled towards killing. She had little patience for statecraft, politics, or governance. She was the kind of person who only knew how to command loyalty and compliance through fear and force. Even the previous kings and queens of Ishmar had never once had to rule through such means, even to enforce the mage hunts.

The mage hunts were conducted once a month under the old ways. If Eliza were in charge, there’d be one every week, perhaps more. Her insane paranoia and intense hatred of mages made her see enemies everywhere. If she could have her way, the tighter her grip became the more willing she’d to harm innocent people to fight villains that didn’t truly exist. Which might explain the presence of dragons here on the Algrustian border. I don’t know what she intends to do by attacking border outposts on the far side of the country but it can’t be good.

Sheena stumbled over something and the sound brought me back to the here and now. “Sorry,” she said. “I’ll try to pay better attention.”

I snorted. “If you need a minute, take it. We’re not really in a rush. I doubt there are any survivors.” I left out the part about that being a mercy; if Ishmarians had hit this outpost, then anyone left alive would have been tortured heavily before being left to die. Pretty sure Sheena knows that, but she doesn’t need a reminder right now.

There wasn’t anything to disprove my theory in the dormitory after I started searching. The mages had been surprised and then killed swiftly, in line with most Ishmarian military doctrine. “All a mage needs is a staff” was one of the first things an Ishmarian soldier learned about how easy it was for a mage to decimate what would take ten heavily armed and armored men to replicate.

An explosion went off outside, rocking what remained of the dormitory. I staggered but kept my feet. Sheena lost her balance but scrambled upright using her staff to steady herself. “What the hell was that?” I yelled as the dormitory was pelted with a shower of debris and dust. Without waiting for a reply, I ran back to the door and peered out.

The building Kuro and Alverd had chosen to inspect had a giant hole in its second story, the edges still smoking with the force of whatever had inflicted it. Something tumbled out and hit the dirt below in an undignified heap. It rolled over and groaned; it was a man dressed in the white robe of an Algrustian mage. He pushed himself off the ground, then reached for a staff that had fallen nearby.

Our eyes met. He had to be about thirty feet away, an easy distance for me to cover in only a few seconds. His face went white as a sheet. “Oh gods, another one. Leave me alone, Ishmarian scum!” He pressed his hand against the ground and the jewel at the end of his staff flashed with green light.

Instinct took over and I threw myself to the right and out of the doorway just as a sharp stone spike shot out of the ground in front of me. The spike clipped my arm, opening a long but shallow gash across my upper left arm. The familiar feeling of rage simmering beneath the surface bellowed like a caged beast, and I fought to keep it under control.

If this man knows what happened, I have to take him alive. He’ll be in no mood to talk if I smash his skull. Tucking into a roll, I came out the other end back on my feet and broke into a dead sprint towards the man, who yelped and turned to flee. Despite his mousy frame and skinny legs, he took off like a frightened stag and kept running, towards one of the buildings we hadn’t checked yet. I beelined after him, my faster strides allowing me to close the distance easily.

It became clear a few seconds later to both of us that a skinny mage like him had a snowball’s chance in hell of outrunning a berserker in her prime. The mage slapped his hand against his chest, uttered something I couldn’t hear, then swept his arm in a wide arc before his body split into three different copies. Each looked solid and life-like with no discernible difference from one to the other. As soon as the copies appeared, they ran in random directions.

From above and out of the hole in the armory, Kuro’s voice rang out. “Only one of them is solid, Alicia! Figure out which one is the real one quick!” Still running, I leaned down and scooped up a large rock with my left hand. With only a moment to aim, I chucked it as hard as I could at the closest of the three. The rock passed through the mage harmlessly, and the copy ran off to my left and out of sight.

The last two had circled back after seeing me go after one of the decoys and were now headed toward the building. It was a three-story tall stone command post that served as the headquarters for the command staff, and had been damaged extensively by fire and physical impacts. The roof was completely missing and a good chunk of the top floor had gone with it. The door was a reinforced steel slab that was hanging open, and the two mage copies were heading towards it as fast as they could go.

Kind of defeats the purpose of your spell if you’re headed to the only place you can find shelter. Then again, he is panicking. Probably doesn’t have time to think those things through. I bent forward and pumped my arms as I charged after him. I’ll catch up and tackle the first one to try and go through the door.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Then the mages turned around and took up a stance. Both of them held up their staves and began conjuring a magical attack aimed straight at me. Swirling vortexes of blue energy sparked into being in front of them, growing in size as I ran forward. Which of them is real? I’ll sucker punch the real one, but I have to figure out which is which.

I saw it on the ground as time seemed to slow around me. The deep grooves of the mage’s bootprints were etched into the dirt, heavy footfalls left behind by his shoes as he had run away. The one on the right had left a neat trail leading straight to where he was now making his stand. I smirked as I changed course.

Gotcha.

I barreled into the mage full force, hearing him grunt as I bowled him over like a poorly planted fencepost. We smashed into the heavy metal door and I felt the impact even through his body. With all the air pushed out of his lungs, the mage wheezed as he fell to the ground, his eyes blinking and unfocused. I was about to pick him up by his collar when he suddenly lashed out at me with his staff, smacking me across the face with it.

The rage within tore at its cage, but I forced it back down. Your own damn fault for thinking that was enough to incapacitate him. The mage tried to crawl away, still gasping for air. I grabbed his left leg and dragged him out of the doorway. “Come here, you little shit. We’ve got questions for you.” His other leg shot out at me haphazardly in an attempt to hit me in the face. I swatted it aside with my left hand while I kept pulling his other leg.

He aimed his staff at me. “Away with you!” he yelled. A concentrated wind current so strong it felt like I’d been hit by a boulder slammed me in the torso, knocking me off my feet. The mage tried to point his weapon at me. Before he could, his staff was blasted out of his hands by a lance of ice.

It had taken Sheena a moment to catch up, and she was breathing heavily when she came up to me. Sorry, long legs. You actually have to exercise if you want to be a good sprinter. Still panting, she extended her hand to me. I nearly tipped her over when I took hold, but she was able to hoist me back up.

“Goodness. You run too fast,” she wheezed. “Are you alright?” I reached down and snatched up the mage’s staff before he could crawl over to it.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for that.” I glowered at the mage, and he gulped. I towered over him and let a low growl escape my throat, causing him to whimper. “Look, pal. We just want to talk. If we wanted you dead then I would’ve crushed your bones by now.”

The mage turned pale and I realized that I wasn’t exactly coming across as nice and friendly. “Right. Sorry. What I meant to say is, we’re not with the people who took out your outpost. We just want to know what went on here. We can help you.” Behind me, Alverd jogged up, his clanking armor announcing his arrival. Kuro came along soon after, panting and complaining about his lack of stamina.

Alverd put his hand on my shoulder. “May I? Perhaps he might respond better to a lighter approach.” I grunted, but he had a point.

“Fine. It’s not like he would talk to me anyway.” I stepped aside. He knelt down to look the man in the eye. “Look here, stranger. No one is going to hurt you. I’m Alverd. What’s your name?”

The mage hesitated but then he spoke. “Nevin. A-Acolyte Nevin. Second Class.” His eyes flicked over to me. “Are you sure that Ishmarian isn’t going to kill me? They’re all barbarians, you know.” I growled, but Alverd gave me a look and I took a few steps back and away from Nevin. “She’s not like the ones that attacked. Why don’t you tell me what happened, Nevin?”

He propped himself up on his hands, then sighed. “We were closing up the outpost for the night. Locking down the gate, guards were about to rotate for the night shift. We didn’t see or hear anything at first. Not until the gatehouse exploded.” He pointed at the ruined gate we’d passed through upon entry. “The garrison commander was killed instantly. She was in that gatehouse when it…”

Alverd patted the man on his shoulder. “I know it’s not easy to relive it, but we need to know what happened. I promise we won’t leave you out here alone. We’ll take you with us to Standing Stone and you can stay there until you get yourself sorted.” Nevin looked a little more reassured after Alverd’s gesture. Damn. Alverd really is way too good at earning peoples’ trust. How does he do it?

“The first thing I remember after the explosion was the screaming. I was in the dormitory at the time, putting on my gear. I’m on the night shift, so I was just waking up. I got my boots on and suddenly it was the end of the world out there.” He shuddered. “Stumbled outside, and there were dark shapes up in the sky. My comrades were all running around throwing magic into the air, not hitting anything. It was complete chaos.”

“You’re doing great, Nevin. What happened next?” Alverd prompted.

“I ran as fast as I could toward the armory. My equipment was over there. I did have my staff but I didn’t have the rest of my gear. There were other mages being cut down by crossbows. I didn’t even know it was dragons attacking until one flew low and took out the command post.” He waved at the three-story building he had tried to flee toward. “It was big. Bigger than normal for any dragon ridden by an Ishmarian. Covered in black armor, too.”

Alverd’s face took on a dark grimace, and I could tell he was already suspecting what I knew for fact. “Can you tell me about the Ishmarians that attacked? Did you see any of them?”

“Yes. One cuffed me over the head when I got to the armory. I think he was lying in wait for anyone who was trying to arm up to fight back. I don’t remember much but I do remember managing to kill him.” Nevin’s hands were shaking, and his breathing became shallow. He sounds like me after I killed for the first time. I felt sympathy for him. Mages get scared too. Kuro taught me that. Poor guy.

Nevin reached into his pocket and held something out to us. “I got this off of him. After I killed him, I crawled over to the concealed hatch in the floor in the armory and sealed myself in the basement. I hid there for the entire day. I only came up about an hour ago to look for food and survivors. I’m such a coward.” After I took what he had offered, he shrank into himself, pulling his knees towards his chest.

I looked at what I held in my hand. It was a soldier’s insignia, a small trinket of wrought steel. It was shaped like an upright dragon’s head, entirely black, with glittering hexagonal scales dotting the entirety of its neck. I winced. The insignia of the Black Scale Legionnaires. Of all the maniacs that could’ve been running around outside our borders, it had to be them.

Along with the berserkers, the Legion was the most notorious group of soldiers in Ishmar, reviled across Selarune for their brutality and mercilessness. Although many Ishmarians saw them as patriots, I knew better. They were responsible for carrying out the infamous mage hunts, tearing children away from their families to be executed if they showed any signs of magical aptitude. The Legion was composed of Ishmar’s most seasoned soldiers, often veterans of the endless border skirmishes with Algrustos, and were used as shock troops thanks to their ability to deploy alongside and coordinate with dragon riders.

I can see a platoon of Legionnaires operating near the border, but we’re on the far side of Algrustos. I can’t imagine how they could’ve made it all the way here without alerting anyone. Anyone with eyes could see a dragon in the sky a mile away, let alone the number deployed in a typical group. A standard Legion platoon has forty foot soldiers, ten of which can perform battlefield triage, and ten more with accompanying dragons. There’s no way such a large group could operate so deep in enemy territory without backup or supplies.

A tap on my shoulder shook me out of my thoughts. Sheena had come over to me while Alverd continued talking with Nevin. She saw the insignia in my hand and her face twisted into a snarl. “Is that what I think it is?” I nodded without saying anything. “What would those butchers be doing so far away from Ishmar?” She wondered aloud.

“More importantly, why hit a border outpost?” I gazed at the destruction all around us. “No faster way to draw attention than to cause this kind of destruction at a border crossing where anyone could find it and then pass along the information. Whoever did this wanted someone to find it. There’s a lot of disturbing explanations for that, none of them good.”

The idea of a rogue commander slaughtering their way across undefended Algrustian territory was bad enough. But if that commander was operating under orders, it meant that only someone who understood the value that terror and senseless butchery had on innocent people had ordered them to do so. My thoughts drifted back to my sister Eliza, my last memory of her covered in blood and smiling like the Reaper himself.

Kuro came over and inserted himself into our conversation. “Looks like the coast is clear then. Nevin says he didn’t find any food in the larder, so the Legionnaires probably hit this place to resupply.”

I blinked. “You knew it was them?”

He scowled. “I’ve seen their handiwork. Hard to forget. Nevin’s hurt. Can you look at his wounds, Sheena?”

She nodded, then went to tend to Nevin, though not before shooting me a look. She definitely wanted to talk more later. Kuro watched her leave, then looked at me. “I'll let the caravan know we can pass through. Given what we know, it might be safer to push on through the night to Standing Stone. I’d feel a lot safer in a fortress city than a destroyed outpost.”

“How much farther is Standing Stone?” I asked. Kuro scratched his chin.

“If we move at our current pace, we might make it there in two more days. More importantly, there’s a forest near here. We can hide the wagons in the foliage to avoid anyone looking from above.” He watched Sheena kneel in front of Nevin and place her palm gently against the side of his face to calm him. He was still rocking in place, his eyes wide.

“Alicia, be real with me. Do you think there are Legionnaires out looking for us?” I snorted.

“No way. Eliza’s petty, but she’s not that petty. She has a lot more to worry about than us, like however many siblings she still has aiming for her neck. Not to say anything of the fact that if she is the new Queen of Dragontamers, she has a country to run that’s probably already tearing itself apart.”

I returned his gaze. “Besides, she’s the type that would rather savor the act of hunting us down herself. You know that more than anyone.” Kuro whimpered, and I realized I had probably said too much. “You too, you know. After what you put her through, you’ve got just as big a target on your back as the one on mine.” As Sheena and Alverd gently lifted Nevin back to his feet, I felt a shiver go down my spine.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

A few hours later, the caravan was safely hidden beneath the treetops of a sprawling wood. The caravanners had decided against building a campfire and were doling out dried meats and fruit to tide us over.

Sheena came to where I was setting up my bedroll, not far from the wagon we had hitched a ride on. She sat down next to me and let out a deep sigh. “Nothing makes sense anymore. One minute you have a life that you hate, then you have nothing but freedom but you don’t know what to do with it. It’s all so overwhelming.” She looked very vulnerable, nothing like the happy-go-lucky, irresponsible woman I’d first met when I arrived in Ethenia.

I crossed my legs, propping up my maul on the ground and leaning on the haft. “I hear that. You go your whole life thinking everything's meant to work a certain way, then somebody throws it in a barrel and kicks it down a hillside. A few months ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be in Algrustos talking to the Witch-Queen herself. Uh, former Witch-Queen.”

She gave me a small, tired smile. “And I wouldn’t have imagined speaking to a princess of Ishmar. One who could potentially use magic, as well.” My eyes opened in shock. “You knew about that?” She waved her hand dismissively. “Of course I did. I knew since you first told me you used the nullification runes. Without magical aptitude, they’re just metal blocks carved with fancy symbols.”

Remembering the conversation I’d had recently with Kuro, I saw an opportunity to get some answers. “Kuro said that I might have mage ancestors. I’ll tell you the details later, but there was some evidence that at one point we were ruled by a powerful sorceress.” Sheena’s jaw practically dropped. “You’re kidding. That flies in the face of everything that is known about your country.” I nodded. “I know. Maybe you should ask Kuro about it when you can. He saw a mural in an old ruined fortress depicting the Ishmarian people bowing before a woman in crimson robe. He also said that the mural was written in Ishratan, if that helps.”

Sheena practically keeled over in surprise. “Ishratan? You understand that’s a dead language? No one knows how it was spoken, let alone how to recreate its writing. The people who could all died during the War of the Five Kings. I’m afraid you’re mistaken if you think those were Ishmarians in the mural. They had to be Ishratan.”

A shiver ran up the back of my neck, and Albrecht’s journal weighed heavily in my pack. Dead language? So no one knows how to speak or write it anymore? Then how did Albrecht know about it? “Would anyone know how to go about translating it?” She shook her head. “As far as I know, the last people who knew the language perished during the War of the Five Kings. Ishrati was one of the nations that was destroyed during the War, and the first if I recall correctly.”

There’s that war again. Kuro’s mentioned it before. “They don’t teach us anything about the War of the Five Kings in Ishmar. Would you mind telling me about it sometime?” Sheena nodded. “Sure. Maybe when we get to Standing Stone. I’m not surprised Ishmarians don’t know anything about the War. The common Ishmarian would probably think the idea that mages once ruled Selarune is ridiculous, although they’d be eager to believe that mages were responsible for almost destroying it.”

The heavy subject killed the conversation instantly. We sat in awkward silence for a minute as the caravanners went about their night watch. “Well, now isn’t really the best time. We can pick this conversation up later.” She nodded again, without a word. As we were standing up, I thought about what had happened earlier. “Hey, Sheena? About what happened on the cart… “

She chuckled awkwardly. “What can I say? I saw a chance and I took it. Can you blame me?” I scowled. “Strange as it is for me to admit, I sort of get it. But maybe we ought to set things straight about it.”

Sheena leaned back, propping herself on her palms. “What’s there to talk about? He is a man, we are women, we all want what we want. I don’t see how it has to get in the way of us being friends, or trying to become friends, if that’s what you’re getting at.” I blinked in surprise. “I don’t understand how we could be trying to get the better of each other and still try to be friendly, is all.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I don’t know, I believe a little friendly rivalry might be good. We both seem the type to appreciate a competition.” She gave me a sly grin. “If your concern is that I might not be in my right mind or anything, I can wait until we get to the capitol. Plenty of time to process and then we can have it out for real.”

It kind of irritates me how flippant she is about the idea of romance, but at the same time she did hit the nail on the head. All’s fair in love and war. “Well, alright then. We wait until we reach Blossom City, then we’re off to the races.” I offered her my hand. She gave me a familiar crooked smile and took my hand, shaking it.

“May the best royal win.”