Fortress Draconis (14 page)

A vylaen, its heart pinned to its spine by a black-fletched arrow, staggered from an alley and toppled in the dust. The green fire of aborted Aurolani magick trickled from its paws. In the fire’s light she saw the gleam of feral eyes hidden deeper in the alley. Yanking Valor’s reins to the left, she spurred him forward into the gibberers rushing to attack. She drew her saber with the ring of steel on scabbard, then slashed down.

A cloven-skulled gibberer dropped to the dirt. Valor’s charge battered another back, then Alyx shattered the arm a third gibberer had raised to ward off a blow. It howled, and the return cut that stroked its throat ended that protest in a froth of red bubbles.

Alyx looked up as a gibberer’s silhouette rose on a rooftop. The moon’s light glinted coldly from a longknife’s edge. The creature gathered itself to leap down on her. She brought her sword up and stabbed toward the creature, knowing she’d impale the gibberer even as it knocked her from the saddle.At least, if he is dead when we land, it’s one problem solved.

Before the gibberer could leap, however, a screech sounded and a winged figure swept through the air. The braided rope loop she carried settled around the gibberer’s throat and jerked him backward off the roof edge. With a powerful beat of wings, the Gyrkyme struck for the sky, letting the noose tighten, then dragged the strangling gibberer from Alyx’s sight.

Other riders plunged forward, driving the gibberers back into the alley or along the road. Some of the Aurolani beasts managed to cut and dodge, prolonging their lives, while others who relied on speed to escape quickly writhed at the end of sharp lances. Alyx’s troops offered the gibberers no more mercy or quarter than the Aurolani had offered the elves of Vorquellyn or the people of Okrannel. They hunted them down and slew them ruthlessly, not out of any sense of vengeance, but with the righteous fury of a people defending their kind against predation.

Alyx reined Valor around and trotted him back toward the city square. The Gyrkyme landed in the center of the grassy patch, furling brown wings. Her folded wings towered above her head. Brown spots dappled the ivory down that covered her body from toes to crown. Darker down did surround her large amber eyes, trailing down into her cheeks as might tears. Save for a brown loincloth and a brown leather halter, the winged woman remained naked.

Alyx smiled at her. “How many left in the town, Peri?”

The Gyrkyme shook her head once, sharply. “Runners, scattered. The Red Caps are after them and securing the town. Most are east and Green Company has them. A few frostclaws, too, but dying fast. Blue is coming around from the south to cut off their retreat.”

“Good. Fly back to White Company and bring them in.”

“As you wish, Highness.” Peri spread her wings preparatory to launching herself skyward.

“Wait.” Alyx smiled and held up a hand. “Thank you for saving me, sister.”

Peri winked. “Family tradition, Alyx. Be back fast with the Whites.”

The Gyrkyme vanished into the night sky and Alyx turned her attention to the inn. She nodded to a warrior in her bodyguard company. He rode to the door, dismounted, and pounded his fist on the door. “In the name of the Gold Wolf, open this door!”

A few screams and panicked shouts made it out through shuttered windows. A strong male voice broke through the din. “Leave us alone. We have nothing for you.”

Returning her saber to its scabbard, Alyx nudged her horse forward a few steps. “Listen to me, and do so very carefully. My troops have run the gibberers off. We own your town, but I will ransom it back to you. For every heartbeat you delay in emerging, the price goes higher.”

The thunder of a horseman’s approach overrode the discussion raging inside. Agitare, with a red strip of cloth flying from the spike atop his helm, reined his horse to a stop before her. He leaped from the saddle and dropped to one knee, crossing his arms, with fists jammed against opposite shoulders.

“Highness, I cannot express my mortification—”

Alyx slapped her gloved hand against her right thigh, bringing the soldier’s head up. “Why are you wasting time to apologize for not having secured the town when the town is yet to be secured?”

“I didn’t think—”

“You didn’t, not at all.” She pointed at his horse. “Get back in that saddle. I want you to report, truthfully, that you have checked every home and building for gibberers, and I want it reported before the moon slips into the Sailing Ship. Go!”

The soldier nodded, then pulled himself into the saddle and rode off. One of her bodyguard unit, a white-bearded warrior with a strip of gold cloth hanging limp from his helm, chuckled all but imperceptibly. Alyx’s violet eyes narrowed and he blanched.

“Permission to aid Captain Agitare in his assignment, General?”

She considered his request for a moment.At least Ebrius has learned that calling me Highness is not a way to deflect my anger. “No, Ebrius, you will see to that which your position demands. The stable. An arrow from the loft killed a vylaen set to attack me. Seek the archer who kept me alive. Get going.”

As Ebrius trotted his horse off, the click of a bolt being shot back sounded from the tavern and the door opened. A man emerged and the door shut after him immediately. He pressed his hands back against the door, then brought them forward, empty. He took a step toward her, then dropped to a knee, bowing his head. “I am Quintus.”

“And I am the Gold Wolf. You know of me?”

“Yes, we have heard tales.”

“And you fear me?”

“No, because the stories …”

Alyx put an edge into her voice. “Do not lie to me, Quintus. Your fear stains your words. I prefer honest fear to lies wrapped in false courage.”

“Yes, we fear you.” The man’s shoulders slumped a little with the admission. “How may I serve you?”

“Attend me, Quintus, walk with me. We go to your stables.” She guided Valor around the tavern and Quintus quickly caught up with her. He glanced up as he paced beside her right leg. In his eyes she caught a wariness, as if he expected her to lash out at him with boot or reins.

The tableau around the stable stopped both of them short. A half-dozen or more gibberers lay in a heap. Black-fletched arrows had stolen each of their lives. Alyx measured the distance from the loft to the targets and figured that while the range was short, shooting at night with the sort of accuracy displayed was no easy feat.Especially the long shot.

She dismounted and tossed Valor’s reins to Quintus. Three long strides took her to a vylaen that had an arrow in one shoulder and a curious, star-shaped metal weapon buried in the other. The dark foam on the creature’s lips suggested it had been poisoned.

Ebrius emerged from the stable with sword drawn. “More in here, General, many more. The gibberers lost a third of their strength here.”

She nodded. “How many helped the archer?”

Ebrius squatted and studied tracks. “At least two. I have three sets of tracks overlaid on the gibberers’ tracks. One is very big, one large as men go, and the third is a boy.” He pointed off on a line toward the gibberer that had Peri’s spear run through it. “The boy ran along that way. Looks as if Perrine saved him.”

And perhaps he returned the favor.Alyx glanced from the vylaen to the spear, then looked at the tracks left by the vylaen’s last steps. She could tell the beast had been looking toward the gibberer who had been speared, then turned away. In her mind’s eye she could easily see the little beast following Peri’s swoop, tracking her, so it could loose a spell that would kill her. The vylaen’s paws showed signs of charring, from a spell gathered but not cast, which fixed the sequence of events firmly in her mind.

She thought for a moment, then nodded. “Ebrius, when the Whites get here, I want all of this recorded. Measure it, angles, everything. There’s an odd weapon here and it’s been poisoned. Save it, anything like it, and the arrows. I want our best archers to re-create the shot to the square, a hundred trials, on a target the size of a vylaen.”

“At once, Gold Wolf.”

Alyx turned to Quintus. “Who did you have in the stable?”

The man hesitated, his eyes growing wide for a moment. “Travelers. They came through before, a week ago, and back again tonight. We had no room for them in the inn, so we sent them to the stables. A man and his nephew. And a Vork, a big one, with white hair in a stripe.”

“Names?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know them, didn’t talk much to them.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Pity, because one of them either tried to kill me, or saved my life. Knowledge of who they are would be ransom enough for this place.”

“Stellin, my lady.”

“One of them was named Stellin?”

“No, my lady, this place is called Stellin.” Quintus held his hands up. “I do not know them, but they left a girl here. I can get her. She would know them.”

“Go. Do it. Now.”

He made to hand her the reins, then dropped them as if they were vipers when she waved him away. She crouched by the vylaen and frowned. She had been following the Aurolani raiders for over a week. They had largely managed to elude her, but her trackers read the signs of disparate bands coming together. She knew their raids would have scant military impact on the area, but razing crofts, slaughtering travelers, and, in a large enough group, sacking a town would inject a serious amount of concern into the populace.

What struck her as curious was that three warriors had killed close to a dozen and a half of the Aurolani raiders, but had not remained in town to recover the person they’d left behind, nor to speak with her.The men who could kill this many would not fear me the way Quintus does. Outlaws would have gladly joined her band. Their running meant they wanted to remain undiscovered, but their having fought the Aurolani suggested their reasons for remaining covert did not include their being in Chytrine’s employ.

Quintus’ breathless return with a girl interrupted her thoughts. “This is the one.”

The raven-haired girl bowed her head. “Sephi, mistress, I am Sephi.”

Alyx slowly stood and looked down at the girl. “And I am the Gold Wolf. You came into Stellin with the people in the stable. Who were they?”

The girl’s body shook with a tremendous sob, then she dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands. “It was horrible, mistress.”

“Tell me, child.” Alyx did not soften her voice, but lowered the volume a touch. “What do you know of them?”

“My uncle and I met them here, a week back. They left the town before we did, saying they were going into the mountains. We left in the company of hunters the next day. These three, they accosted us. They killed my uncle and the hunters, and took me.” Again she sobbed, and let a silent cry of anguish finish as a pitiful wail. “They were going to keep me for their pleasure, or sell me, they said, but the gibberers drove them back here. I could tell no one. They said they would kill me, but I know you will protect me.”

“Indeed, child, I shall.” Alyx looked past Sephi, along the alley that ran behind the tavern. There Peri landed noiselessly. Beyond her were three riders who remained in shadows.

Alyx turned to Quintus. “My people are securing the town. Your people will return to their homes and will billet my men. We will leave tomorrow, and we will take Sephi with us. Go, make the arrangements, keep an accounting of what we owe our hosts. House Sephi here at the inn. This is where I shall stay as well.”

Quintus blinked at her. “You want us to present you a bill for your stay here?”

“I don’t like saying things more than once, Quintus. A

second time I may not say the same thing, understand?“ Alyx frowned at him. ”The stable and this area is to be off-limits to everyone until we are done here. And take the girl with you. Go!“

Sephi bent forward and kissed Alyx’s boots, then Quintus dragged her roughly from the ground. “Come, girl, you’ll not be making her repeat herself.”

Once they had vanished around the corner to the tavern, Alyx walked over to where Peri waited before the riders. She smiled at the Gyrkyme. “That was a clean kill with the spear.”

Peri blinked her eyes slowly. “The gibberkin was distracted.” She raised her left hand, which came naturally with three fingers and a thumb. The talons on the thumb and forefinger had been clipped back short, but the other two hooked nastily. “It was going to come back for the vy-laen, but found other prey.”

“I think the distraction got your vylaen for you.” Alyx stopped, then clasped her hands at the small of her back. “The town is close to secure. We can show you what we did later. By dawn we should have the battle fully reconstructed.”

The smallest of the riders, a little man with a face so wrinkled it looked like a portrait painted on wadded canvas, smiled. “I have already communicated a message of victory to Yslin.” He held up a small, rectangular slate as long as his forearm and half as wide. “There is no reply yet on thearcanslata, but the message was only just sent.”

She nodded. “We did win, but we had help. A trio. A girl who rode with them would have me believe they are cutthroats and rapists, but that does not seem consistent with what they did defending the stable. We will conduct interviews, see how much we can learn of them, and have a full report as soon as possible. It would be advisable to have others watch for them.”

The third rider, a slender man, leaned forward in the saddle, resting his crossed forearms on his horse’s neck.

f

“You need not be so grim, Highness. What we have seen in the week we’ve spent with you is beyond our expectation. You did well here; you won. The Jeranese general Adrogans will find himself a new rival when it comes to leading the fight to liberate Okrannel. You should take pride in this.”

“With all due respect, my lord, I certainly would not count myself as a rival to Adrogans and I won’t take pride until I know all the details. We missed a group that could have done serious harm, and I need to know how and why that happened. The trio in the stable got out of Stellin, likely slipping past Blue Company as it moved east to cut off the gibberers. Had those three not destroyed as many of the enemy as they did, well, how would we have fared? There are too many unanswered questions for me to be pleased or proud yet.”