Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept (14 page)

At a certain point,
Phane took her into parts of the tower that she hadn’t seen before. Staircase after staircase took them level by level upward. When she finally reached the flat, square surface of the tower’s top, she stopped to let the cool breeze wash over her sweat-slick skin. Her legs felt a bit wobbly from the exertion. It had been too long since she’d been on the road.

Phane stood, arms crossed, looking at a contraption like nothing she’d ever seen before. It resembled a boat, but above it was a giant balloon made of leather
sewn in a patchwork and sealed with pitch and tar. Several stoves burned on the upper deck of the boat, each with a chimney directing the heat and smoke into the balloon. Stout tethers moored it to the black tower.

A dozen m
en were busy loading supplies, while four more worked aboard the vessel.

“Quite ingenious, I must admit,” Phane said. “Airships like this were used against us in the war. Cedric knew that the Reishi Isle was spelled to detect any form of magical incursion so he invented these vessels to penetrate our defenses and land
infiltrators inside our borders.”

“Are you trying to tell me
that that thing can fly?” Isabel said.

“I am indeed,” Phane said. “I know it doesn’
t look like it, but this is quite a marvel of the mundane. And therein lies its usefulness.

“You see, I have a dilemma. Hector and Drogan are trapped within the mountain where Siavrax created the Goiri. Most of their men have been killed, thanks to my dear cousin, but my demonic informants tell me
that the survivors have secured the bones.

“Now, I can summon a number of creatures capable of flight, but all of them are magical in nature—
thus ill-suited to transport such precious cargo. This solves my problem.”

“Why not just use a wyvern?” Isabel asked, even as her own mind railed against such a suggestive question.

“Because they all work for you,” Phane said. “I tried to capture and tame one, but it wouldn’t be broken. I tried to steal an egg but they are rare and wyverns tend to choose remarkably treacherous places to give birth. My hunters never returned.

“But this,” he said, gesturing toward the airship, “this doesn’t require magic of any kind. It’s perfectly suited to the task.”

Isabel found herself wondering when Alexander would visit next. She had a lot to tell him.

“It
won’t be long now. I will have the final keystone soon, and when I do, we’ll go to the Reishi Isle and end this war.”

He nodded to the men aboard the ship. The captain saluted and started barking orders. The men who had been loading supplies loosed the moorings and the ship began to rise into the sky. It was slow and ponderous, but it flew.

Phane smiled.

Chapter 10

Abigail looked up
into the grey sky when she heard the distant roar. The wyverns napping not too far off stirred. A thrill of anticipation urged her to her feet. Moments later, dozens of wyverns descended through the low clouds, making a pass overhead before circling to land all around their camp.

“We’re going to need more food,” Dalia said.

“I saw a flock of sheep about a league to the south,” Bree said.

“That’ll do.”

Abigail and Magda met Cassandra as she dismounted.

“I see you took my warning to heart,” Magda said.

“The Sin’Rath have long been a concern. It’s time we dealt with them,” Cassandra said. “Lady Abigail, Mage Gamaliel sent these.” She held up a quiver with nine arrows. “The three with white feathers will banish a demon, the three with red feathers will deliver a torrent of fire, and the three with blue feathers will deliver an explosion of magical force.”

Abigail smiled, taking the quiver almost reverently. “Thank you, Cassandra. Come, share our fire. We have much to discuss.”

“If the second Sin’Rath is equal to this Peti you speak of, we face a formidable enemy,” Cassandra said, after listening to Magda and Abigail recount their running battle through the heart of Fellenden.

“Toss in nine wizards we’re not supposed to kill,” Amelia said.

“And a couple of legions of soldiers,” Bree added.

Cassandra nodded to herself.

Abigail looked to Magda who seemed content to give Cassandra the time she needed to think through the situation.

“Perhaps we should make contact with our all
ies before we decide our course,” Cassandra finally offered.

“Alexander said So
fia and her people are a few leagues to the northwest of the Gate encampment,” Abigail said. “It’ll take the better part of a day to get there.”

“It’s late and the wyverns are hungry,” Magda said. “We should use
what light we have left to hunt, then fly south at dawn.”

“Agreed,” Cassandra said.

***

Mage Jalal was waiting for them when the soldier led them into the cave network. The Sky
Knights had landed in a large clearing an hour away from the forested hillock riddled with caves where Sofia and her people were hiding.

He raised his hand in warning as they approached. Twenty soldiers armed with short bows were arrayed in the shadows behind him.

“State your names,” Jalal said.

“Abigail Ruatha.”

“Magda Reishi.”

“Cassandra Reishi.”

He watched them as if looking through them, nodding to himself after each spoke. A few words dispelled the magical ward across the passage.

“Welcome. Our accommodations are not suitable for such
esteemed company, but we must make do with what we have. Please, come with me.” He took a moment to raise the shield again before leading them deeper into the cave network.

Abigail made note of the route they took. Th
ese people were allies, but she’d learned long ago to become familiar with the terrain of any place that might become a battlefield. Jalal leaned heavily on his staff as they walked. He was old and his body was frail, but his eyes were clear and lucid.

He led them into
a large cave and introduced them to Sofia and Evelyn without any hint of formality, then took his seat by the fire as if the walk had tired him.

“Thank you for coming,”
Sofia said. “We are truly desperate. Please, sit.” She gestured to the log stools surrounding the fire.

“When last I heard, Conne
r was well,” Abigail said. “He’d just defeated Zuhl’s army in northern Fellenden. Over the past several months, I’ve come to know your son. He’s a good man. You have reason to be proud.”

“Thank you,”
Sofia whispered. “I miss him. And I worry about him every day.”

Abigail nodded, falling silent for a moment as she looked into the fire.

Then she said, “Tell us what you know of the Sin’Rath.”

So
fia, Evelyn, and Jalal spent the better part of the next hour providing as much information as they had to offer. By far, Mage Jalal had the most to say. He had used his divination magic to learn a great deal about the enemy, though most of the information he provided only served to confirm the difficulty they faced.

“T
he Sin’Rath know we’ll try to spare the lives of the wizards and soldiers surrounding them,” Cassandra said.

“I expected as much,” Magda said. “One of them, on her own and on the run
, was more than Abigail and I could handle. With time to prepare and an army at their disposal, I can only imagine how dangerous they’ll be.”

“So what are we going to do?” Evelyn
asked.

“An open assault would just get our people killed,” Abigail said. “And the Sin’Rath would probably escape anyway.”

Cassandra nodded.

“That leaves a covert attack,” Magda said.

“Such an approach would be risky,” Jalal said. “They’ve placed many wards around their encampment. Most are designed to warn of intruders, but those on the log walls surrounding the king’s council hall and personal chambers are designed to kill.

“What’s more, each corner of the central fortress has a tower manned with several soldiers and a wizard. It may look like a hastily built fortification
, but it’s quite well defended.”

“Perhaps a distraction is in order,” Cassandra said.

Jalal shook his head. “We’ve initiated several probing attacks to gauge their response. In every instance, they increased security for the command fortress while sending soldiers against the threat. I doubt you can draw them out with anything less than a genuine threat to their position, and then you risk Abel and Torin.”

“Can the wards on the command fortress be dispelled?” Abigail asked.

“It’s possible, but risky,” Jalal said, considering her question. “I suspect that the one attempting to dispel the wards would trigger them. Regardless, any attempt would alert the Sin’Rath, I’m certain of that.”

“How many soldiers in the camp?” Abigail asked.

“Two legions,” Jalal said. “Certainly more than we can manage.”

“And nine wizards?”

He nodded sadly.

“Do we know if any of them have been bitten?” Magda asked.

“I believe that two have,” Jalal said. “The Sin’Rath have only sent two wizards forth, always the same two—the rest remain within the command fortress at all times.”

“They seem reluctant to bite the most powerful men under their spell,” Magda said. “I suspect that being bitten interferes with a man’s judgment enough to make them less valuable to the Sin’Rath. W
e’ve had dealings with men who’ve been bitten—they were not rational.”

“That makes sense,” Jalal said. “Such
potent magic would almost have to warp the mind of one under its power.”

“What if we capture the two wizards they let out?” Evelyn asked.

“To what end?” Cassandra said.

“I don’t know, maybe we could draw
the witches out or make them send more wizards to find their friends. At least they would have two fewer wizards.”

“We could impersonate them,” Magda said. “Infiltrate the command fortress under the guise of their two men returning.”

Cassandra nodded, seeming to consider the suggestion.

“You mean you can make yourself look like them?” Evelyn asked.

“It would take some preparation and the presence of the men to be impersonated, but yes, we could.”

“Once inside, then what?” Jalal asked. “You’d face two Sin’Rath and seven wizards including Mage Lenox, not to mention an endless supply of soldiers.”

“Attack by surprise would give us the best chance of success,” Magda said.

“I agree, but it’s unlikely that you’d be able to kill both of the Sin’Rath at the same time. Killing one would surely alert the other, and then you’d be trapped and surrounded by more than you could manage.”

Abigail listened as the discussion continued into the night. Jalal had given the situation a great deal of thought. Unfortunately, so had the Sin’Rath. They’d made preparations for their security that seemed to take into account every possible means of assault or infiltration.

One
by one, every reasonable plan of attack was suggested and rejected. Abigail decided that a more desperate approach would be necessary. With her new perspective, she started to consider her options and then formulated a strategy. Only after the fire began to dim and silence fell in the cavern did she offer her plan of attack.

“That’s insane!” Evelyn said, after Abigail finished talking.

“It would give us a good chance of surprise,” Magda said.

Cassandra nodded, looking intently into the fire.

“Your plan is bold yet risky,” Jalal said.

“Can you
draw us a map of the command fortress?” Abigail asked.

“Certainly,
” Jalal said.

Chapter
11

The rain had stopped but the air was cold and damp. It was dark, clouds the color of soot hanging low in the sky, obscuring any hint of light from the stars or moon. Abigail and Magda rode behind Amelia on her wyvern. Two dozen Sky Knights spread out behind them flying in formation just below the clouds. A well-ordered, heavily fortified Ithilian military encampment slid into view thousands of feet below. Clearly marked streets described a grid of light in an otherwise indistinguishable void.

Abigail and Magda leaned
over the wyvern a little to gain a better view as the wing of Sky Knights made their first pass, each seeing for themselves the lay of the land and picking out their objectives. Silent and nearly invisible against the ashen sky, the wyverns floated well past the encampment and banked for the attack run.

Abigail felt her pulse quicken. She checked the Thinblade, then her bow and two quivers of arrows, all carefully tied to ensure they wouldn’t come loose
during the flight. The formation split in half, a dozen wyverns lining up, one behind the next with Amelia in the lead and Cassandra right behind her, while the rest formed a V and broke off, flying in a wide circle around the outside of the camp walls.

Magda pulled her locking bolts loose and turned in
the saddle. Abigail saw a hint of fear in her eyes behind iron resolve and was grateful for it because her stomach was roiling at the thought of what they were about to do. She pulled her locking bolts loose and took Magda’s wrist; the triumvir firmly grasped her wrist in turn.

They watched their target come into view thousands of feet below. Amelia looked back and nodded. Abigail swallowed hard and nodded back. At just the moment when they were directly above the command fortress, Amelia reined i
n her wyvern, his wings flaring, coming to a momentary stop in midair.

As one, Abigail and Magda slipped off the side of the wyvern and into the sky.
The cold wind tore at Abigail’s face, stinging her eyes and sucking the breath out of her lungs. She held on to Magda’s wrist for dear life, struggling to breathe as the wind screamed by, drowning out nearly every other sensation with the sheer ferocity of its roar. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d always questioned the sanity of her plan. Objectively, she knew it could work, but now, in the midst of it, every instinct she had screamed out that she was about to die.

The ground approached at an alarming rate of speed, buildings becoming distinct beneath her, then elements of those buildings
coming into view under the dim lighting of the lanterns carried by the sentries atop the walls and towers.

The world rushed up at her
, the roof of a building inside the command fortress hurtling toward her. Only seconds remained and still it came closer. She looked to Magda with rising terror. Then they slowed so quickly that Abigail felt a bit lightheaded and they landed on the rooftop as easily as stepping off a stair.

Both crouched, scanning the
wall for any hint of detection, regaining their composure after the intensity of free fall.

It had worked … so far. Abigail felt like laughing, even though she could hardly catch her breath and her heart was pounding
in her throat.

Cassandra flashed into view like a blur
, then slowed to land quietly between two buildings not far away. A few moments later, another witch dropped out of the dark sky into the heart of the command fortress, landing silently and unseen on a nearby rooftop. In scarcely more than a minute, a dozen witches had infiltrated the enemy position without detection.

Abigail oriented herself, aligning her mental map w
ith the actual fortress layout, picking out the location where they were to meet their team. Magda nodded as she pointed, both of them carefully sliding toward the edge of the building on the shallowly pitched roof. They had landed on a two-story barracks building. Abigail hoped they hadn’t woken any of the soldiers sleeping within.

They peered over the edge, then
sat down and dangled their feet for a moment before holding hands and slipping off into the alley running alongside the building, Magda’s spell slowing their descent and silencing their landing.

Abigail
untied her weapons and unslung her bow, nodding for Magda to lead the way. They slipped through the shadows in the narrow spaces between the closely constructed buildings until they reached the appointed meeting place. Bree and Kat were already there, Cassandra and Dalia arrived a few seconds later.

Abigail listened for any hint of an alarm, but the camp was quie
t, the soldiers apparently unaware of their presence. They moved toward the central building where Jalal believed Abel and Torin would be found with the Sin’Rath. While the outer wall was well guarded and warded by magic, the interior of the command fortress wasn’t patrolled. The dirt roads and paths between buildings were entirely empty at this hour of the night.

When t
hey reached the back wall of the main building, Magda placed her hand on the logs and whispered under her breath. She nodded. Abigail drew the Thinblade and made three careful cuts, then waited for Magda to cast a spell before making the top cut. A wide square section of wall broke free and Magda gently and quietly lifted it out and leaned it against the wall with the aid of her magic.

Abigail peeked into a dimly lit corridor fashioned fro
m rough-cut timber. Except for the five doors along the opposite wall, it was empty, but her heart still beat faster as she stepped inside. Jalal had provided an accurate map of the command fortress but his sight didn’t extend to the particulars of each building’s layout. Looking up and down the corridor, she chose a direction, pointing down the hall when Magda stepped through. So far, her plan had worked brilliantly … but they had yet to make contact with the enemy.

Cassandra was the last one in, carefully pulling the section of wall in behind her, holding it with one hand as if it weighed only a few ounces. Bree and Kat lashed it into place with several leather straps and Cassandra gently withdrew her magic, letting the straps
hold it. The breach in the wall wouldn’t stand close scrutiny, but it was difficult to notice in the dim light.

Magda
crept up to the nearest door, placing her hand on the wood, closing her eyes and whispering the words of her spell. Cassandra moved to the side of the door while Kat took up a position with her back to the wall directly opposite the door. Magda’s eyes opened and she held up two fingers. Cassandra and Kat nodded. Magda placed her hand on the door again and began casting another spell, this one more involved. When she nodded, Cassandra and Kat pushed through the door as if it had become less than solid.

Abigail strained to hear any
sounds of commotion beyond the door, but all was quiet. Not long after they had entered the room, the door opened and they slipped back into the hall, silently closing the door behind them.

“Servants,” Cassandra whispered. “They won’t wake for hours.”

Room by room they repeated the process, entering each servants’ room silently with the aid of magic, then spelling the servants, all men, to ensure they would sleep soundly regardless of any commotion. It took time, but it also reduced the likelihood of an alarm being raised.

One end of the hall
way ended in a door leading to the alley outside. Abigail checked the lock and bar on the door, signaling to Magda that it was secure before they went to the other end of the hall and cautiously rounded the corner. Two doors remained, the first a storeroom, the second the kitchen, which was cold and quiet when they slipped inside.

Two
more doors led out of the kitchen, one leading to the storeroom, the other opening into the main dining hall. A trapdoor along one wall led to a cellar below.

“Abel’s quarters are probably upstairs,” Abigail whispered.

Magda opened the door to the dining hall just a crack, then closed it quietly, holding up one finger and pointing toward the back of the room.

“Wizard?” Cassandra whispered almost inaudibly.

Magda shook her head, providing instructions to Cassandra and Kat with hand signals. Magda and Cassandra started casting spells while Kat moved to the door, watching and waiting until just the right moment to pull it open.

Magda sent a sphere
that looked like a mirage toward the suddenly surprised man. It hit him less than a second later and he screamed, tipping his head back and raising the alarm … but nothing happened. No sound came forth. Even a moment later when Cassandra’s spell hit him and he fell unconscious, there was no sound when he hit the floor. Kat and Bree hurriedly carried him into the kitchen and laid him carefully along the wall behind a preparation table.

Through the dining
room they came to the main room, a large, rustic hall with a hearth on the near wall and several comfortable-looking pieces of furniture surrounding a low table in the center. A staircase occupied the far wall. They crept across the room to the base of the stairs and found them dimly lit by a single lamp hanging from a hook at the top.

Magda led the way, testing each step for any hint of noise before committing
her weight. Three steps from the top, the stair pulsed with purple light the moment she touched it. A long wailing shriek filled the house, rousing all of the occupants.

The alarm had been raised.

This was the moment that Abigail had been waiting for and dreading, the moment her plan would stand or fall. Things would happen quickly. The remaining eight witches who had infiltrated the command fortress would attack the wizards on the towers while the witches still in the air would begin their attack runs, columns of three each targeting a tower. Each wizard would face five witches. Each would be hit with spells designed to silence, restrain, and subdue. The goal was to render them harmless and then carry them away from the encampment in the talons of the wyverns, to be delivered, safely if possible, to Mage Jalal, who was waiting with a series of magic circles spelled to contain his friends’ magic while the effects of the witches’ charms wore off.

At the same time, three groups of soldiers would launch diversionary attacks against the encampment to distract the soldiers from the commotion at the command fortress and draw
them away from the real battle.

All of the events unfolding in the distance vanished
into the background of Abigail’s mind as Magda surged forward, muttering the words of her shield spell along with the rest of the witches. Cassandra and Magda stood shoulder to shoulder at the top of the stairs waiting for their adversaries to present themselves in the long hall that ran the length of the house, ending in a door to the balcony. Bree and Kat took positions behind them, while Abigail peered around the corner from the staircase and Dalia guarded against attack from the first floor.

A wizard emerged from the single door
in the middle of the hallway, holding a swirling ball of blue-black energy between his hands. He released it at Magda and Cassandra the moment he saw them. It accelerated toward them with crackling arcs of electrical energy reaching out to the walls, leaving charred black scars on the wood in erratic patterns. When it hit their shields, the energy of it spread out over the surface of their magical protective bubbles, draining the power from them and dispelling them in a matter of seconds, leaving the two triumvirs defenseless against the next wizard who came forth.

Fortunately, h
is spell wasn’t quite ready. Cassandra hurled a force-push at him, which only succeeded in shoving him back a few feet as the magic fell harmlessly against his shield. Kat and Bree each placed a hand on Magda’s shoulder, whispering the words of a joining spell to lend their magic to her as she raised a shield across the hallway. A moment later, lightning arced forth from the second wizard’s hand, striking the shield and testing its strength for several seconds before extinguishing, plunging the hall back into shadow.

Magda released her shield and placed her hand on Cassandra’s
shoulder, feeding her with power. Cassandra opted for quickness, throwing another force-push, but this time it was powered by four witches. Magical energy swept down the hall, crashing into the shields of both wizards. While the force wasn’t enough to break their shields, it was enough to throw them both the length of the hallway and into the door at the end.

A thir
d wizard stepped into the hallway and cast a force-push at them, blowing Magda and Cassandra into Bree and Kat, knocking them all to the ground. The first two wizards were back on their feet, while a fourth stepped into the hall, wearing a suit of armor made entirely of magical force, and wielding a sword of the same blue crackling energy.

Magda
cast a shield wall again, barring the passage just ten feet away while Cassandra, Bree, and Kat lent her their magic to bolster the defense. The first two wizards each cast a blue orb into the shield, causing it to flare and then dim. Magda seemed to struggle to keep her spell from failing. The third and fourth wizards waited, one a few feet back, the one in magical force armor right next to the shield wall.

Things had gone from bad to worse.

Shouts of alarm began to rise outside. The front door to the house crashed open.

“Soldiers!” Dalia
shouted.