Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (3 page)

Shyar could see that many of the locals were relatively free to go about their business under the watchful eye of the occupying forces. Most looked hungry and thin. They passed a few gallows, which had bodies still hanging from the nooses, an object lesson as to the fate of anyone caught acting against the Ale’ald interests. It was one way they were keeping the conquered citizens in line. They made a wide swing around Yermo. Apparently the capital city was still resisting, even if totally surrounded. It was really pointless. Time was on the side of Ale’ald. With no supplies coming in, those resisting were doomed to fall. Their main contribution was to keep a large block of Ale’ald troops occupied while their countrymen organized resistance elsewhere.

Shyar was kept heavily dosed, and she supposed, blocked as well. Without access to the power her ability to sense any blocking was destroyed, so she had to assume the wizards were following through with their stated intentions. They certainly had stayed close to her during the daily travel. Mishim, who’d been quite talkative and almost friendly, now avoided her as much as possible. Draan appeared to have taken charge of the troop since joining the group. Shyar bided her time, taking the best advantage she could each night when she was left to sleep. An opportunity would arise somewhere along the way. It had to.

They passed by the port city of Sisco which had fallen to Ale’ald forces some time ago. Now it supported the flow of soldiers and supplies from Ale’ald into Kimlelm, skirting the mountain ranges and allowing for easy access to the country. Shyar didn’t realize it, but Sisco had been their intended destination from the beginning, since it was closer to the Academy inside Ale’ald than any of the port cities in the country itself.

The enemy troops were thick in this part of the country. As they headed up toward the mountains where the initial battles had been fought months before, they encountered numerous patrols and large numbers of the enemy. Many were crossing over into Kimlelm via the now wide open mountain route along the southern border.

Time was running out when she was offered her opportunity. In a few days they’d be in Ale’ald itself, and then her chances of escape would be almost non-existent. The careful watch that had been put on her during the early days of travel had become less careful as the days and then weeks passed. They had started to assume she was beaten, and the daily routine was making them careless.

They had stopped to set up camp for the night, a bit earlier than was usual. The spot they chose had a wide stream, a large grassy area enclosed by a band of trees, and was on the last of the relative flats before starting the gentle climb up the small hills that led to the passes. Three of the soldiers had been sent to gather firewood, while the remaining three soldiers plus the two male wizards had taken their horses over to the stream to drink. They were for the moment around the edge of the trees and mostly out of sight. That left Shyar alone with the two female wizards. Draan and her associate had unloaded their own horses and had chosen the spot where they would spend the night, and now had Shyar setting up her own bedding. While Draan watched over Shyar, her associate said something and slipped quietly away into the brush in a direction away from the men. That left Shyar alone with Draan for the moment.

This was probably her last chance, Shyar thought, and as she walked near Draan with the blankets from the horse, she pretended to catch her left arm in the sticker brush she was passing.

“
Dragons!” she exclaimed, dropping her load and bringing her left hand up to look as though it had been cut by the brush.

Draan’s eyes turned instinctively toward Shyar’s left hand, and while she was distracted, Shyar used her right hand to pull the short, sharpened stake out from under her blouse where she’d managed to keep it hidden for some time. The point wasn’t that sharp since she’d only had rocks to use to put the point on it, and then only at rare times, but it was sharp enough, especially when pushed forward with the considerable enthusiasm Shyar lent to her attack. Shyar would dearly have liked to know if Draan had her shield in place, but she would know soon enough. She expected that Draan no longer bothered. Shields were a nuisance when they weren’t needed, and most would forego holding them for long periods. If Draan had been conscientious then Shyar’s attack was doomed to failure, but she would be no worse off. These people were afraid to really harm her given the instructions they had received from Cheurt. That gave her a bit of freedom she would otherwise not have had.

The sharpened stake punched through the thin shirt and struck Draan just under the rib cage penetrating a couple of inches into her flesh. As Draan’s eyes suddenly opened wide with pain, a hiss of escaping breath told Shyar she had been right about the lack of a shield. Shyar grabbed the base of the stake with both hands and lifting and shoving at the same time pulled Draan up on her toes so that her entire weight was supported mostly by the tip of the stake. It slid in even deeper into Draan’s chest cavity, the point finding her heart. With a sudden shudder, the tenseness went out of the wizard, and her head fell forward onto her chest. Giving the stake one more heave for good measure, Shyar then tried to pull the stake out, but it was too deeply embedded in the flesh and she didn’t have enough purchase. Letting go of the stake, she allowed the wizard to drop to the ground, and turned without another thought to where their horses had been tied. She grabbed Draan’s shawl for a bit of a disguise, but it was all she had time for. She knew she only had moments before Draan’s associate would return from wherever she’d gone, and one of the men could come back from the stream at any time. She would like to take Draan’s horse as well, but she knew from past experience the horse was well aware of who her rider was, and was feisty around anyone else, so she took her own second rate animal instead. She’d probably have to abandon it once she was in the forest anyway.

It would be getting dark in a little over an hour and a half. If she could only get into the trees, she’d have a chance to stay hidden until the Karonabark wore off and her link to the power returned. Then she could raise her
shield-pair
and be protected. If they came after her with their own standard shields raised, she could track them and either avoid them completely or wait until she could bring them down one at a time. If they came without shields, then they were all dead. It was that simple.

Suddenly, she heard a shout behind her. So much for her being able to slip away unseen. Now that they’d seen her, the trees she’d been making for were too close to provide any safety. She shifted her direction slightly and headed up the hill toward a stand that was farther away. She was good with horses. It was too bad they had stuck her with one that was well past its prime. Maybe she’d enough of a lead to make it to cover, and maybe not. She’d simply have to try. If those following were any of the remaining wizards, then they could bring her down at a distance. Her only advantage would be their reluctance to use any spells that would harm her.

She was well up the hill and approaching the tree line she’d targeted for her escape when she felt the horse stumble. Since there was nothing to have caused the horse to trip, she knew those closing on her were wizards, and they had done something to the animal. She jumped clear as the horse went down, hitting the grassy ground in a roll. She banged her side on a rock, but was able to regain her feet and start a hurried walk toward the trees now painfully close while holding her side with her left hand. She knew that she wasn’t going to make it. Already she could hear the hoofs pounding on the hill behind her. Just as she was about to reach the first of the trees, three men stepped out from behind cover ahead of her, farther up the hill than she’d planned on going before slipping into the stand of trees. Each of them had a rifle and pointed it in her direction. She’d barely had time to realize they were there, when two of the men fired.

Mojol had spent a number of weeks behind the enemy lines. He and three of his men had been cut off some time before, and despite frequent attempts they’d never managed to make their way back to their own troops. Ale’ald simply had too many men in the area. They lived off the land, or off the food they could steal from their enemy. One of his men had been killed, leaving just the three of them. They had become expert at hiding, and had used their talents to bring down a number of wizards, using up all but two of the precious special ammunition. Mojol himself had killed two of the Dragonspawn. After each wizard killed, the enemy had increased their efforts to find the elusive sniper team, but thus far had not managed to bring them in, although there had been a number of close calls.

They had been making another attempt to see if they could find their way home, but had no idea where the front lines were now located, and found themselves on the edge of the hills without a clear way to go forward. Without the concealment provided by the forest, it was far too easy to spot them. They had almost decided to turn west and try and make their way to the mountains and slip through into friendly territory that way. It would be a long trip, but safer than moving out onto the plains.

If Mojol had been smart, he would have slipped back into the trees when he’d seen the woman charging up the hill with a group obviously trying to catch her. Of course, if he’d been smart, he’d have followed his father’s advice and stayed home in the first place. He wondered what his father would think if he knew that Mojol had finally agreed with him on something.

He could tell that the two men closest to the woman were wizards from the clothes they wore. There were two of them, and they had exactly two of the special rounds of ammunition left. He handed one to his best shooter, and loaded the other himself. He’d gotten good at this, and intended to take down one of the men himself. As one they stepped out from cover and sighted on the two wizards coming up the hill. The wizards were so focused on the woman, whom Mojol suddenly realized he’d seen before, that they didn’t see the danger. They were within twenty yards of her when Mojol and his partner fired, the copper-covered bullets slamming into the wizards and killing them instantly.

The sound of the shots captured the attention of the three men and the woman wizard coming up the hill further down the slope having started later than the others. It was also heard by a group of patrol soldiers a bit further up the hill that Mojol had not realized had moved into the area, his attention having been focused on the escaping woman. He signaled her to come his way, but before she could react to the changing situation and follow his instructions, Mojol and his men came under fire from above. More than thirty soldiers fired into the spot occupied by Mojol and his two men. Most of the rounds missed, but two struck Mojol, one in the side of the head, and another in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. His two men fared no better, and by the time the patrolling soldiers arrived, the three were dead.

Shyar had no place to go. More soldiers were coming out of the trees, several from the very spot where she’d intended to slip away. With men above and below her, she had no place to run. While she was trying to decide which way to go, Draan’s assistant came up behind her and clubbed her unconscious.

When Shyar woke, she was tightly bound to a tree back at the camp they’d been setting up when this all started. She was forced to drink more of the liquid and she found something else had been added to the mix, causing her head to become groggy and thick. They had to tie her to the horse for the rest of the trip because she wasn’t really able to hold on alone. It took another two weeks of travel, most of which Shyar couldn’t remember, but they finally delivered her to Cheurt. The trip had cost them a number of wizards, and several men, but it was a hollow victory in Shyar’s mind. She should have been able to get away.

Once she regained her senses when they stopped feeding her the daily doses of drugs, she realized who had tried to rescue her. Prince Mojol had died in the attempt, but she didn’t let her captors know who he’d been. She couldn’t see any way it would be in her or the Kingdom’s interest for them to have that information.

Shyar looked at the cage that held her once again. Whatever was blocking her access to the power, it was related to the construction of the cage itself. So the obvious question became, what could she do to the cage?

Traveling south from Bauto, Asari and Luzoke began to encounter increasing numbers of Angon’s troops on the road as they approached the tiny village of Aberton, the last outpost on the southern border of the country. This wasn’t much of a surprise since they expected the border to be guarded after the unexpected invasion of Kimlelm earlier in the year, but the presence of the soldiers started them discussing the possible difficulties they might have getting across the border. While the greatest concern of the troops would be watching for people coming into the country, Asari was sure they would be concerned with people leaving as well. There was nothing they could show that would convince the soldiers they weren’t spies of some sort, and they would be hard pressed to explain why they wanted to head into an area that was under the control of an enemy force. They were going to need to know how well guarded the road was and where the soldiers were being quartered. That meant asking a few careful questions once they arrived in Aberton.

They had no trouble getting a room in the surprisingly nice
Wandered Inn
on the southern edge of the village. Asari had seen the inn on his previous pass through the town when he’d made this trip alone, and was surprised to find it almost empty. The quality of the inn wasn’t surprising since it was the first nice place travelers would find after a few weeks coming through the mountain passes, but with the roads closed as a result of Ale’ald’s blockade, there were no travelers to take advantage of its comforts. The soldiers were obviously staying elsewhere, so the proprietor was suffering as a result, and was extremely happy to have a couple of paying guests.