With Leslie beside me, I crack open the window and peek out. There, right out the front of the mansion, are about ten or so guards. The same I’d seen knocking down street stalls this past week.
Leslie and I crouch within a room overlooking the front path of the mansion. We can see all the way down to the gate at the other end of the cobblestone road surrounded on both sides by hedges and grass. Far in the distance, near where the gate should be, I can make out several lights approaching the estate.
“Should we be listening in? Won’t it be better to grab some stuff and run while they are distracted?” Leslie seems far more subdued than usual. That display of strength from who I assume is the head of the Cano family must have shaken her more than I thought.
“It’s better if we hear what they say. We need to know why they arrived right now. Do they know we’re here? Are they here to tell the Cano elder?”
If the uniformed men we’d seen in the city are Henosis soldiers, then that means the Empire — the ones holding a nation of ursu by their necks — are after the áed. Aren’t they fighting a war right now? Should they really have this many people looking for us? For me?
The soldiers are approaching fast, already close enough that I can see their numbers double that of the guards waiting in front of the mansion.
A slam from the entrance doors somewhere to my left announces the arrival of Mr. Cano. He storms up to the guards, who split down the middle to allow him to pass. He stops, facing the approaching soldiers as the man from the foyer, Bain, approaches his side.
“Lieutenant Bernhardi, why do you trespass on my property?” Mr Cano says loudly into the open night air.
A figure at the front of the approaching soldiers raises his hand, and as one, they stop. It’s kind of eerie how synchronised their steps are.
“Wynn Cano, I thank you for being as accommodating to our search as you have. Unfortunately, what we search for has eluded us. I believe now is the time to extend the search to your residence.” The man who steps forward is rather tall for an albanic. Each step he takes with confidence as he walks away from his soldiers and approaches Wynn, the Cano family head.
“What nonsense. I allowed you to strip the woodwork of my city because of the agreement between our nations, but do not think for a second that I am here to bend to your whims. Should you remove the presence of yourself and the soldiers behind you, I shall grace you with ignorance to this slight. Otherwise, I’ll have you and your men slaughtered where they stand.”
Almost as if timed with his words, guards rush in from the gate behind the Henosis soldiers. I don’t have a perfect angle to see, but there are at least fifty guards approaching. Half the Henosis soldiers swivel and hold their guns towards the approaching guards.
Guns aren’t something I’m all too familiar with, but I’ve seen how damaging they can be from a distance. Both sides hold long arm length guns that I once thought were odd shaped cudgels. Tensions rise as the Cano guards surround the Henosis soldiers.
“Is this really how you want to do things? You’ll be making an enemy of the Empire. I’m sure even someone as dull as you can understand that isn’t the smartest idea.” The lieutenant’s gaze turns cold, and he walks towards Wynn until they are a body length apart. He seems completely unfazed that he’s surrounded.
“This is your final warning. Leave.” Wynn has his hand gripping tightly the handle of the blade at his hip, ready to unsheathe in a moment.
The two men glare at each other for a good five seconds before the Henosis lieutenant sighs. He makes a motion with his hand over his shoulder before the world becomes deafening.
My head throbs from the combined sound of twenty guns firing at once. Before the guards can even retaliate to the shots fired from the soldiers, a wall of water rushes around the Henosis, blocking much of the return fire.
Through the distortion of the flowing liquid, I see many of the soldiers rising above to take a shot before dropping back to cover. On the guard’s side, after they take their shot, they are left stranded without cover. After the initial salvo from the guards, they become sitting ducks, unable to return fire while receiving bullet after bullet from the soldiers.
Barely ten seconds pass before all the Cano guards are lying dead or incapacitated on the ground. The wall of water around the Henosis men disperses.
Wynn is staring slack-jawed at the scene around him. He’d swung at the Henosis soldier a few times before he realised what was happening around him. Lieutenant Bernhardi simply brushing each swing aside with ease that reminds me of my sparring sessions with Auntie.
“Wha… how?” Wynn stutters. While he is lost staring at the surrounding dead, Bain steps forward with a bright amber light shining through his sleeves. He throws his arm forward and spears of stone hurtle out of his hand and fly towards the leader of the Henosis.
The man dodges to the side and deflects one from the air with the side of his sword. With speed I’d only ever seen from my elders, he runs at Bain, plunging his sword straight through his chest.
“You bastard. The Zadok Kingdom won’t forgive this.” Wynn flies into a rage, rushing the Lieutenant.
The man smoothly slides out of his swing, putting his leg out to trip Wynn before tugging his sword out of the now dead Bain. Wynn’s sword continues to swing into the ground, launching much of the cobblestone path flying from the impact.
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“You’ve quite the bit of enhancement there. Must have cost you a fortune. Is that where all the money in this city goes? Too bad it’s wasted on you.” The lieutenant dodges another swing and dances behind Wynn. “I’m surprised Zadok even knows about the ritual. If my task wasn’t so important, I’d take you back to Henosis myself. I’ve heard it’s far more efficient to perform the ritual on a living target than the dead. More painful for you, but efficient non the less.”
“Mongrel, you’ll regret this day. The Cano family will tear down everything you know.” Wynn throws himself at the lieutenant.
The loud laugh he receives in return only makes Wynn push more strength into his swing, caring little about form. The wild downward slash is easily redirected and before I know it, blood is everywhere, splattering over even the glass of the window I am peeking through.
Wynn Cano cut his own leg off. Actually, no. It’s more like his leg exploded. The Lieutenant’s skilled redirection let the man mutilate himself. From how they’d fought, it is hard to tell if the lieutenant even has much strength himself. He obviously didn’t need it against Wynn.
It is a pitiful sight now. Wynn’s sobs and cries are loud, but incoherent. He curls up on himself, holding his now defunct limb.
“There will be no retribution for you, I’m afraid. Your family, as well as the rest of the Zadok Kingdom, are inconsequential. If they call for retaliation, they would be nothing but fools. Your nation is less important than a child that can spit some fire.” With his piece said, the Lieutenant brings his sword down on the sobbing man’s neck.
I snap out of the trance I’ve been locked in, watching them. There is no time to waste. I should have run when I heard the lieutenant say they were going to search the mansion. There’s no way he isn’t looking for me.
I grab Leslie and pull her back out into the hallway. “Find Ash and Kerry. We need to leave now.”
I don’t look back and run into the foyer and sprint up the stairs. The second-floor hallway hides me just as I hear the entrance doors slamming open. On the third door I slam open there is finally someone, a woman looking out to the front yard through a window. She isn’t anyone I know. I close the door and find the next before she can even turn around.
The next door to the back of the house doesn’t have anyone visible, so I move to go to the next room before I spot movement from the corner of my eye. The twins pop out from a large wardrobe, seemingly hiding before they knew it was me running through the hall.
“We need to go now; they are gonna search the house.” I push them out towards the balcony at the back of the room.
Thankfully, they realise the seriousness of the situation and hurry to climb down the side of the building. I follow close behind, tying the hood tight over my head.
The dark clouds in the sky radiate a deep red hue. Light from the Ember moon colours the overcast sky above. The darkness recedes just enough that I can see the garden filtered through red.
Ash and Leslie are already waiting for us at the bottom, so as soon as we touch the ground, we’re off running towards the place we entered. Sneaking might have been a better idea if we weren’t limited by time. The soldiers haven’t reached the back of the premises yet, but I don’t doubt they will surround the place soon enough.
Yet, it won’t be that easy to get away. The sound of a gunshot rings as if it’d been fired right beside me. I don’t know where the bullet lands, but they have to be shooting at us. I throw out a wall of flame to obscure us, I don’t want them to hit the others while they are climbing the fence. Once I made myself known, the shots stop, only to be replaced by shouting.
I keep the wall up while I climb over myself. Only when I drop it do I see the number of soldiers running towards us, not just on the mansion side of the fence, but they are running after us on the city side.
Where do they all come from?
Before I can freeze for more than a moment, Ash already has my hand and is dragging me through the alleys. Without it even needing to be said, the others split up and run in different directions. They throw stones at some of the pursuing soldiers before throwing themselves out of sight. I’m sure they’ll run through the complex maze of alleys and abandoned buildings where the adult albanics have no chance of following.
A minute passes with no soldiers spotting Ash and I. A sigh of relief that I let out comes too early as a heavy crashing reaches our ears. Looking back at where we came from, the same place of the noise, I spot the sudden rushing water knocking through buildings and tearing down weaker walls.
I squeak in fright and jump on the nearest roof I can find. Ash braces against the wall below me and I feel the entire structure wobble as the water passes underneath. I’m so thankful it doesn’t collapse under me.
I look down to see Ash steadying himself in the moving water.
“Uh, what the fuck is going on?”
“Can we find the others first? These aren’t the Cano guards.”
Ash nods and goes to move, but stops when he realises I’m not following.
“Are you coming?”
“Yea, I’m just waiting for the water to drop a bit.” The water is moving downhill and we’re near the top, so I’m hoping it eventually drains away. It takes a good minute for it to happen, but the water dries out.
“Sorry.” I say.
He waves it off and goes to step out into the adjacent alley before pulling back at the last second. Through a gap in the wall, I watch as a soldier runs past, coming within a body length of where our exit is. Shouts and heavy footsteps reach my ears. That minute was enough for them to spread through the streets. And with the water having torn through a bunch of the buildings we could have otherwise escaped through, we are left without many options.
What do we do? There’s no way I can use the crawl spaces we use to get around now. If the flood did not destroy them, they’d be drowning in far too much water for me to move through without hurting myself.
The longer we wait here, the sooner we’ll be found. That lieutenant had already proven himself willing to go to any length to find me, whether it be making an enemy of an entire Kingdom or destroying people’s homes. Assuming the flood was caused by a water mage rather than some incredibly unlucky coincidence.
Ash keeps an ear to the wall, waiting until the sound of footsteps disappears from the alley before leading me out. He leads me through the city with expertise. It is surprising he can find so many paths despite how damaged the buildings have become. He knows exactly which buildings and alleys have the least amount of damage. His memory of the city is incredible.
It takes a while, but we finally reach a safe enough distance by dodging patrols and moving through buildings when we can. The planned meeting point to regroup with the others is only a few blocks away. The damage doesn’t reach this far out, the flood likely crashing through some other part of the city.
The rain stops for the first time in days. I’m not willing to risk dropping my hood, but it is a good omen. Hopefully, the others grabbed enough to fund our escape from Zadok. I trust they are competent enough to have done better than I had, at the very least.
The tension from the night flees my shoulders. It looks like we’re finally in the clear.
I push open the door from the abandoned sewing workshop we pass through, out to the street that leads to our meeting spot.
Suddenly, I’m knocked on my back. My head spins and I look to my side. A man, one of the Henosis soldiers has Ash pinned to the ground with his knee in the boy’s back and his gun held at his head.
What? But we were safe. We’d almost made it back. Why’d they find us now?
I look up at the soldier above me, staring right down the barrel aimed at me.