Mindbender (39 page)

They entered the room and the guards shouted for help but the keep was already in such a state of commotion that their alarm went unnoticed. Alexander and Jataan made short work of the startled soldiers as Jack headed up the stairs. When Alexander and Jataan reached the second level, they found two guards dead from Jack’s knife.

They made their way up through the seven circular rooms of the tower. Most of the rooms looked like they’d been converted into workrooms for the wizard that led this contingent of soldiers for Phane. All were empty of soldiers except for the next to the last room from the top, which was manned by six men in armor who were alert and waiting for an attack. When Alexander peeked up the staircase, two men fired crossbows at him. The first bolt struck dead center in his chest. The impact was painful but it didn’t penetrate his armor shirt. The second bolt caught him in the outside of his left shoulder and drove clean through the muscle. He cried out involuntarily in pain as he stepped back from the staircase and out of harm’s way.

Jataan moved to the base of the stairs and stood defiantly. Two more guards loosed their crossbows, but he moved in a blur and avoided the deadly projectiles.

Jack went to Alexander. “This is going to hurt,” he said, looking him in the eye before pulling the bolt through his arm. Alexander withdrew into the place in his mind where the witness lived to avoid passing out from the intense pain. Jack quickly bound the wound and made a makeshift sling to immobilize his arm.

Jataan dodged the remaining two crossbow bolts, then darted up the stairs.

By the time Jack and Alexander made it to the level above, the six guards were scattered about in moaning heaps of human carnage with their lifeblood draining away in pools of red. Jataan stood calmly waiting for Alexander and Jack.

There was a single door leading to the main room where Evelyn was imprisoned. Alexander sent his sight through and saw Princess Evelyn standing in the middle of the room, looking at the door and straining to hear any indication of what was happening beyond it.

When he opened the door, she was still standing in the middle of the room with her fists planted on her hips. She was petite with black hair and her father’s slate-grey eyes. She gave Alexander a look of pure contempt that morphed into a combination of caution and curiosity when she saw the dead soldiers behind him. He scrutinized her colors for a moment. She had an intense aura that was full of life and energy. There was no magic present but her colors were clear and bright. Alexander sensed the self-centeredness of youth. She looked about eighteen years old.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“My name is Alexander. I’m here to rescue you,” he said.

She huffed with exasperation. “Well, it’s about time,” she said as she retrieved her riding boots from beneath the bed and sat down to strap them on. She wore a simple dress and didn’t take the time to change into anything more appropriate. With her boots on, she stripped the blanket off the bed, rolled it up quickly and tied a sash from another dress hanging in the armoire around it so she could sling it across her back.

“All right, I’m ready,” she said impatiently as if she’d been waiting on Alexander. “How many men do you have with you?”

“Two with me and four more outside the keep,” Alexander said.

“That’s it?” she said indignantly. “All I’m worth is seven men?”

Jataan started to say something, but Alexander silenced him with a shake of his head. Jack chuckled at her brashness.

“Do you want to go home or not?” Alexander said with a hard look.

She frowned and huffed again as she motioned for him to lead the way.

They made it to the base of the tower without encountering any resistance, but as they descended the final flight of stairs a squad of ten soldiers came into the room with weapons drawn. The sergeant ordered his men to attack.

Jataan lunged into the advancing enemy.

Jack flickered out of sight.

Alexander waited for the first soldier to reach him before he attacked. His shoulder hurt terribly and it was distracting him from moving more fluidly, so he chose simple attacks that relied on the power of the Thinblade.

As he killed one soldier, another managed to step in and smash into his wounded shoulder with his shield. Jack killed the soldier in the next second but not before Alexander went down hard. The fall coupled with the renewed pain of his wound stunned him for a moment.

One of the enemy soldiers tried to take advantage of his distracted state and stab him in the head with a spear, but Alexander managed to roll to the side and swipe across his ankles with the Thinblade, toppling the man in a screaming heap.

The battle ended as quickly as it had begun. Most of the enemy soldiers sustained deep slashes across vital arteries in their arms and legs from Jataan’s knife. The ones who were not dead yet soon would be.

Evelyn looked at the sudden carnage with shock that slowly transformed into righteous satisfaction. She went to the nearest dying soldier and removed the belt that held his knife and sword and strapped it on over her dress.

Jack helped Alexander to his feet. His shoulder throbbed but he shoved the pain aside and shook the stunned feeling from his head as he sheathed the Thinblade and drew one of Lucky’s shatter vials from his belt pouch. He kicked the double doors open to the large adjoining room in the center of the main building and threw the vial in a high arc that brought it crashing down onto the central table. The orange-red liquid fire splattered across the table and onto the carpet, igniting everything it touched.

Alexander turned to lead the way out when Evelyn stopped and faced him with suspicion.

“Who are you and why do you have my father’s sword?” she demanded.

“I told you, my name is Alexander,” he said. “As for the Thinblade, this one is mine. Now let’s go. We don’t have much time before the enemy comes back to fight the fire.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you until I know you aren’t the enemy,” Evelyn said stubbornly.

Jack interceded. “Princess Evelyn, your brother is waiting for us outside the walls of the keep. Please come with us and all will be explained.”

She looked around at the carnage and the growing glow of fire coming from the other room and nodded grudgingly.

They left the tower and retraced their path to the hole in the outer wall without encountering any more resistance. The bulk of the enemy soldiers were outside the walls of the keep pursuing the rest of Alexander’s companions.

As they crawled out of the keep, the air changed. It became charged and filled with power. Alexander looked up and saw the clouds start to spiral above the keep. Then he saw the colors of magic within them and he knew it was time to go.

They moved quickly but quietly through the night toward the rendezvous point where his friends were waiting. As they got closer, they heard the sounds of battle. They entered the little clearing and saw a platoon of thirty men surrounding Alexander’s friends. Anatoly had positioned his group with their backs to a large boulder and was fending off the enemy as best he could. He was bloody from a gash in his leg and another on his shoulder. Lucky was on one knee behind them, ministering to Conner who was down with a belly wound. Boaberous was cut in several places but still fought with bursts of deadly rage. The enemy surrounding them had barred their escape and was wearing them down with cautious attacks designed more to draw them out and waste their energy than to kill them outright.

Alexander didn’t hesitate. He drew the Thinblade and swept into the enemy from behind in spite of the pain from his wounded shoulder. He killed three before they even knew what was happening.

Jataan knifed four men in the back in rapid succession before the platoon realized they were under attack from behind.

Jack flickered out of sight and found the leader of the enemy soldiers. He cut the man’s throat before he could issue any orders, leaving the rest of the men uncertain and in disarray.

Evelyn, seeing her injured brother, drew her sword and ran a soldier through with a scream of rage and fear.

The sudden onslaught from behind gave Anatoly and Boaberous the opportunity to strike out at the distracted enemy. They drove through the cluster of men before them and felled six with a furious assault. The remaining men turned and tried to run. A few made it into the forest but most died trying to escape the sudden attack.

Evelyn raced to her brother’s side. “Conner, please tell me you’re all right.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

Lucky had stopped the bleeding and bandaged the stab wound in his belly, but Conner was clearly hurting.

Alexander quickly assessed the situation. He could feel the air around him becoming charged with magic. The sky above was darkening with unnatural clouds and the enemy would soon return in greater numbers.

“Can everyone move?” he asked urgently.

“Everyone but Conner,” Lucky said as he stood. He had an angry-looking bruise on his face.

Alexander winced at seeing his old tutor’s injury. Lucky was as gentle as they came, even if his magic was deadly. Seeing him hurt made Alexander’s stomach squirm.

“Anatoly, Boaberous, go find a couple of saplings and make a stretcher,” Alexander said. “We can’t stay here, they’ll be back in force soon and the wizard in that keep is conjuring something.” As if to punctuate his statement, a bolt of lightning shot down from the gathering storm clouds and struck a tree not a hundred feet away with a deafening crack that nearly knocked them all from their feet.

“Chloe, let me know when the enemy gets close,” Alexander said aloud.

She buzzed into a ball of light, emerging from the aether and flew in an orbit around his head once before darting off above the trees to watch for approaching soldiers.

Evelyn gasped, “What was that?” she asked in stunned amazement.

“Not what. Who. That was Chloe. She’s a fairy and she’s my familiar,” Alexander said.

Anatoly and Boaberous returned in short order with two saplings about eight feet long, each stripped of branches. They laid out two blankets one atop the other and then rolled the saplings up from either edge to make a stretcher. Within a few minutes they had secured Conner and were traveling through the forest by the light of night-wisp dust. Alexander didn’t want to give away their position, but he felt it was more important to get some distance from the enemy.

It started to rain, lightly at first, then more heavily until it came in great torrents. The air sizzled with the power of the wizard’s spell. Lightning flickered across the sky and great peals of thunder shook the ground beneath them. A bolt of lightning struck nearby and knocked them to the ground. The concussion was so great that Alexander lay stunned for several long moments as he struggled to regain his senses. Another bolt struck a tree several hundred feet from their position and shattered it into splinters in a terrifying explosion that sent deadly shards of wood flying in every direction.

Alexander realized the wizard was using the light of the night-wisp dust to target their position, so he doused the light and changed direction to evade the deadly lightning being called down from the angry clouds overhead. The strikes came more frequently but not as accurately. Trees exploded in the distance. The rain was making it difficult to move with any speed through the pitch-black forest. Alexander could see the colors of the trees all around and was able to lead his companions along a path that avoided the most difficult terrain, but it was still very slow going.

Through it all they heard shouts in the distance as enemy soldiers followed them through the forest and into the higher reaches of the mountains. As they gained distance from the keep, the severity of the magically conjured storm began to wane and the frequency of the random lightning strikes diminished.

Alexander and his friends were exhausted and soaking wet. Conner was bleeding through his bandages. Yet the enemy could still be heard pursuing them through the night.

Then Alexander heard the shriek of the revenant from above. In spite of the thrill of terror that shot through him, he knew they would be saved by the beast. He withdrew his vial of night-wisp dust again and raised the light high into the air. He heard the revenant shriek again as it moved off toward the pursuing soldiers. Alexander looked around in the forest for some form of shelter but saw nothing suitable. They kept moving, although much more quickly now that they were once again traveling with the aid of light.

In the distance, the revenant shrieked again, followed by the screams of men in the dark. Alexander smiled grimly. Sometimes the best tactic was introducing one enemy to another.

They pressed on for another hour through the night. The rain of the unnatural storm subsided completely as they moved out of the range of the wizard’s power. When they found a small cave formed by three large boulders piled on top of each other, they stopped to rest and heal.

Alexander decided that warmth was more important than revealing their position, so he started gathering wood for a fire.

Anatoly joined him without a word.

Lucky helped Conner sit up and put a pack behind him to rest against.

“Drink this,” he said, holding up a vial of clear-looking liquid.

Evelyn stopped him. “What are you giving my brother?” she demanded.