Chapter 89. The Pull of Fate.

Viv rode on the back of a galloping horse, cursing every moment she had spent thinking pony girls were uncool. If she had learned to ride better, she wouldn’t be feeling like a potato bag strapped to a roller coaster right now. At least, she took solace in the fact that Marruk had it even worse.

“Damn. Stupid. Beast! Gah.”

It was cultural. Probably. The pair clung to their saddles on the mad dash to a large dirt road lining the forest that surrounded the farmland. Once there, they turned north at breakneck speed and Viv finally caught a glimpse of their pursuers.

So here on Param, there were people who could rival a sprinting horse. She saw men in civilian clothes racing over the growing cereals on an intercept course. A woman with a pixie cut lifted a shortbow but she hesitated. The fastest runners got close enough that she could see the white of their eyes. They probably wouldn’t be able to sustain that speed indefinitely. The horse had slowed down to turn, but now they were accelerating again.

For a brief moment, the two sides took each other’s measure. Viv knew hired muscle when she saw it. Many of them wore colored shawls, armbands, sometimes even whole dyed shirts, a luxury Kazarans had no way to afford. They formed a colorful, eclectic group of city cutthroats from different bands, eyes shining under the moonlight like a pack of jackals. She inspected them calmly and felt no fear.

Viv let the pursuers know what she would do if they got any closer. There was a certain reluctance in her to kill again, but it would not extend past their attempt to get her. She opened her soul and gave this piece of information to them freely, without artifice.

The air suddenly smelled of ashes and roasted meat.

They faltered.

The men and women froze in their tracks, cowed. Viv spared them one last glance and galloped away.

The Dark Blades guarding her sheathed their throwing knives without comment. The group fell silent. Behind them, the towers of Koltis’ keep disappeared behind the odd trees. They were leaving this strip of farmland behind on their way out. Soon, the forest surrounded them on all sides again, and the visibility decreased, but they didn’t stop. The horses and the dark blades apparently knew where they were going, though Viv was blind as a bat right now. After less than ten minutes, they slowed down dramatically.

“Trap,” a dark blade whispered before Viv could ask what gave. No sooner had he said so that Viv felt mana burst in front of her.

The forest always had a familiar blend of brown mana with a life and black background. A rush of brown warned her of the impending attack before it even launched. Her training and experience took over.

“Nope.”

The shield expanded past the dark blades as they yelled warning. It hit something, which exploded mid-air. Shrapnel snapped against the ground and nearby trunks with loud thuds. Viv spread black mana on the ground to nullify traps, though she felt nothing, and for a good reason. The path in front of them stopped as a wall rose to block their way. Viv felt the locus of power causing the spell somewhat to the left of the road. She didn’t hesitate.

“Purge.”

The thickened version of her simple spell speared through the wall and into the person behind. She heard a gasp. The magic weakened. Her instincts screamed at her of danger in the darkness. She felt projectiles coming at her more accurately than ever before. Two to her left, and back. She sent large shields after them.

“This way!”

The horses barely ever slowed before they changed course, diving into a gap between trees to the left. A branch slapped Viv in the face. She couldn’t see anything. There were noises, and screams. Snaps. She huddled and held to the bridle with all her might.

A net shredded a projectile coming at her from behind until pieces of it clanged uselessly against her roundshield. Another pull of magic warned her of an enemy at their back. She spread black mana in the air. A roar of wind shredded the bushes behind her, showering her in rocks and splinters but failing to harm her. She pointed at the ground behind and channeled change into the earth. Alien columns rose up. A tree toppled, roots displaced by the aggressive movement. Cries of dismay echoed as their pursuers faced the eldritch walls. Viv’s group angled left, back towards the road which they reached a moment later. Viv could see again. She pulled a piece of something from her helmet-covered neck. It was a ball of something cut in two.

“Bolas. They want you alive,” Marruk said. She had another one wrapped around her mace.

“Well, tough luck for them.”

“Hush,” a dark blade said. Viv frowned but didn’t comment. The man was right. They had to keep moving.

For an hour, the horses rode at great speed. They came across many villages, all of them surrounded by wooden palissades. Once, they even scared a patrol of guards who scrambled to get out of the way. Only after the land grew wild again did the dark blades slow down to a slow canter.

“Those were not gangers,” the leader said.

“Oh really?” Marruk retorted, unrolling another bola from her mace. She tossed the thing to the side with anger.

“No, they were bounty hunters. Emlyg the Undying’s crew,” the man continued with dripping annoyance. “They are pretty known around those parts. Professionals with a witch pair, brother and sister. A brown and a grey, respectively.”

“Just the sister then,” Viv replied. The dark blade stared at her with widened eyes.

“You killed one?”

“Unless they can endure a fist-wide hole in their bodies, they are at least disabled.”

The leader hummed under his breath, but he was clearly not happy.

“They might be less willing to take you intact, then.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to peacefully surrender to a faction whose prince I publicly executed.”

“I do not do politics. My goal is to see you out alive and well. Emlyg the Undying is known for his extremely high endurance. Some say it is in the fifth or even sixth tier. He never gives up. He doesn’t even need to sleep anymore.”

“Let’s keep going then.”

Viv looked up, but didn’t see Arthur. They kept going at a good pace on the same road as it moved through light forests and isolated hamlets. They only slowed at dawn, when Viv faced an unpleasant view.

The next village had been large at some point. It had sat on a recess near a pond. A single cabin overlooked the placid waters with a lone canoe half-sunk near the shore. Now, the palissade looked like the teeth of an old hag, whatever was left of it. Burnt husks rotted away behind the crumbling defenses, with many suspicious dark spots staining the ground and logs. Someone had written ‘Fate of the Rebels’ in large letters on the cracked gates using an undetermined ink. Ropes still hung from some of the trees. The silence was deafening. Not even insects buzzed. Dark mana was thick and cloying there, reminding Viv of the edge of the Deadlands, but its presence felt new and raw. It permeated whatever little life there still was and smelled like worms and flies.

“Ristin. Royalists got to them last autumn,” the leader explained. “We don’t have time to —”

//Contact.

Before anyone could react, one of the blades collapsed forward in his saddle, gurgling. A feathered shaft emerged from his neck.

“Go! GO!”

Viv didn’t have to be asked twice. The issue with danger sense was that it didn’t extend to her allies. She couldn’t protect anyone but herself.

“How the fuck?” Viv mumbled.

“He must have followed us,” Marruk said. “It came from the trees.”

“What, on foot?”

“Yeah. People with high endurance can do that.”

Viv realized that she was dealing with a persistence hunter. He would probably just wait until they were exhausted to go in for the kill.

“Shouldn’t we track him instead?” she asked.

“We don’t have time. His men must be following behind!” The leader answered.

Dammit.

“Solfis, can you track him?”

//Yes.

//However, I suggest waiting until we inevitably make camp to do so.

//Otherwise, the energy expenditure to rejoin you would be too high.

Viv wanted to say that people were dying, but those were banker assassins and so not really her problem. The golem would probably see them as expendable as well.

They kept going until noon, but by then it was clear that the horses wouldn’t last much longer.

“There is an inn a little farther. We can rest for a few hours,” the leader finally said.

“We can?” Viv asked with some doubt.

“Remember, those are royalists who asked for your head. We are in separatist territory.”

“Whatever you say.”

//The tracker will avoid enclosed space.

//But we will be ambushed on our way out.

“The horses need a break,” the dark blade said in a tone that brooked no compromise.

Viv realized that the man had just lost a subordinate and was probably also more experienced than her in tracking, so she decided to cut him some slack. Marruk didn’t share this opinion though.

“One word from you and we split from those assholes.”

“Let’s see how things turn out. We don’t know enough,” Viv replied.

The possibility that they might backstab her crossed her mind. It could be that Zan wanted her killed quietly by the roadside rather than in the city with all the consequences it entailed. Thankfully, she had Solfis. If it ever happened, they would try to poison her. Better check that poison ring she got and see if it was any good.

The road widened onto an artificial clearing made by extremely determined loggers and she got a first glimpse of the ‘inn’. It should have been obvious that anything remote and isolated would be fortified to the wazoo. Their haven-to-be was a grey stone castle with crenelated high walls and a tower that matched Fort Sky in sheer height. She could spot a courtyard beyond a half-open door two handspans thick. There were axe marks on its surface. A grumpy old man with a longbow glared at them as they approached and spat to the side, which Viv found very rude.

“What do you lot want?”

“Shelter and breakfast.”

“You ain’t there to kill a man, by any chance? I know what those uniforms mean, ‘dark blades’.”

“Shelter and breakfast. That’s it.”

“See that it stays true or I’ll shove steel up your arse, see if I don’t.”

Viv and the others had to dismount to get through. The courtyard was clean and well-maintained by a young man with fearful eyes. There were horses in the stable, Viv noticed, though she didn’t know how to take it. No guards that she could see. Perhaps the travelers were meant to defend the place themselves.

The blade leader threw an iron talent at the boy and, with a last gaze cast out, walked in the main building which was at the base of the tower. Viv walked in the narrow door and almost bumped into his back. Marruk was right behind her.

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Viv let her eyes adjust to the semi-darkness and witnessed a rather tense situation. Inside, there was a common room with a bar at the back that was exactly what she would have expected from a fantasy movie right down to the wooden mugs. A hairy man with a face like he ran into walls for fun stood, frozen in the middle of applying sauce on something out of sight. The three surviving blades had fanned out on the straw-covered ground, dominating a room filled with a team of men and women in gambeson and chainmail who were looking back with obvious concern. They seemed Enorian to Viv, so locals. She wondered what was wrong and got her answer immediately.

The leader of the group was an old woman with braided gray hair and an impressive quarterstaff on her back. She had her hand on the round table in front of her, where a map was deployed with a couple of pins. A reward poster lay on the side. It showed Viv’s likeness to a breathtaking level of precision. Someone had drawn her face at a three quarters angle, grim and a little tired. Although the portrait was in black and white, there was no mistaking her, and the tavern’s current occupants made it clear they knew who she was. Brown, bloodshot eyes traveled from one blade to another. They avoided her with comical intensity. They were like kids caught in the middle of some mischief and just as smooth. The fiercest warriors among them licked their lips and made for their weapons. It was kind of entertaining. Or it would have been, but Viv was tired and she had no time for that sort of shit.

“None of that now,” she said, and the bounty hunters froze. A moment later, Marruk stepped in, huge flanged mace on display.

She felt red mana focusing on one of the men, a solid fighter with a thin blade. She let the draconic intimidation flow and he stopped. No one moved.

“Let’s get the obvious out of the way. You know who I am. I know what you do. Try anything, and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

“Stand down, everyone,” the older woman said in a soft voice. “What do you propose, witch Bibiane?”

It was amazing how quickly she could think, these days.

“We will swap our horses for yours,” she said before turning to the dark blade leader for confirmation. The man nodded.

“Theirs are mountain breeds. Fresh. More stamina. Almost the same price.”

“I’m not leaving Thunder to some two-bits shaman,” a man spat behind.

“Jay. Shut up,” the old woman said. Her subordinate relented.

“You will also swear that you forfeit the bounty,” Viv finished. She could ask more but desperate people tended to do stupid things. Desperate, angry people were even worse.

“On Enttiku,” the blade leader added.

The old woman licked her lips but she nodded soon after.

“You serious, boss?” the red caster asked. It was more bravado than anything, Viv thought. He was just saving face.

“Yeah. Bad luck to come upon them here, is all. And that’s a third step war caster, in case that wasn’t obvious, you dimwits. Fine. We’ll swear.”

“I’m not swearing anything!” The man about to lose his horse said. He stood up. Viv saw him grab a spear and lashed out. A thin line of destructive mana speared forward. The rebellious one jumped in fright but nothing happened, except that his weapon fell in two separate pieces.

“Next time it’s your throat,” Viv commented laconically. She hadn’t moved.

“But Thunder…”

“Maybe we can reach an arrangement…” the blade leader said.

Viv sighed and pulled the intimidating aura back.

“I’ll let you handle the details. I’ll be outside, I need a moment.”

“You should find a room and sleep for an hour or two, then we will keep going. Emlyg will be after us but if we can lose his team, we will stand a better chance of handling him while he’s alone.”

“Yeah yeah.”

Viv walked out with an overprotective Marruk around, then had her carry Solfis to a bedroom with a tiny window and Spartan furniture. The blades were being stupid. If they were stopping now then Emlyg would be around to make sure they stayed put. Now was the perfect time to find and kill him. Suspicion filled her heart. The blades could not be trusted.

//Your Grace?

“Can you assess the quality of a poison ring from its engraving?”

//Yes, Your Grace.

//And from the material.

//I can also monitor your health if I am close enough.

//Although, it is not entirely reliable.

//And would not function with fast-acting poisons.

“What about this one?”

She removed her skinsuit to reveal a finger, which took time and forced her to bare a shoulder.