Numbly, as she and Karn tried to walk around broken bodies, Sara closed her eyes for a second to reorient herself and then focused on where she needed to be. Which wasn’t here. Even if she wanted to help, she couldn’t. She had no medical skills and would only get in the way if she tried to move those that were still alive, as she had no clue where to take them next.
So to get her head back into her actual duties, Sara asked, “Where’s Captain Barthis?”
Karn jerked a thumb in the opposite direction, his gaze unable to break away from a man whose rib cage had been twisted inside out. To be fair, Sara could barely look away either. The soldier’s bones hadn’t been broken—no, that would have been too kind. Instead, some sick mage had decided to warp the bones so they had regrown and punctured his skin from within. He was screaming in pain as the healers did the only thing they could. They had started to cut away the skin around his regrown ribs in order to tend to the bone without impediment.
And it was a slow process.
Shuddering, Sara grabbed Karn and said in a low voice, “Let’s go.”
They went.
But sobs of pain followed them everywhere, and Sara had the sad feeling that as long as she was serving the empire on the battlefield, she would never be rid of the despair that seemed to permeate this atmosphere. There was always pain. There was always sorrow. It never seemed to end.
Swallowing harshly, she tried to focus on the task at hand—finding Captain Barthis. She and Karn first went to the warfront, where she had seen him last. But he wasn’t there—just more wounded, although this area was now mostly clear—and…the canyon.
Solemnly, Sara walked to its edge.
There was no barrier preventing them from walking over to its view from the side. No roped-off ledge. Just emptiness.
She stood so close to the eternity that it represented that little bits of earth and rock crumbled and fell off from beneath her toes. Then a strong wind came up off the canyon. Sara had no idea where it was coming from, but it smelled like salt and wetness. She turned up her nose and let her face float in its calmness, eventually raising her arms until they extended straight out at her sides and she was leaning into the wind.
It could have been luck or just weather patterns, but as she leaned over that edge and the wind pushed back with a strong gust, she floated briefly on nothing. And as she floated, she heard a laugh. A deep, bellowing boom. One that reminded her of a certain weather warden.
As the wind tickled her face and she stepped back from the precipice, Sara felt a calmness enter her. “Gone yesterday, but maybe not today. Maybe they’re still with us all.”
She looked back over her shoulder to see Karn waiting patiently a few feet away, watching her but not interfering. As she turned away from the canyon of lost souls and walked up to him, she saw he was chewing a bit of straw in his mouth.
He threw away the blade as soon as she reached him and stood up from his slouch to say, “Another interesting way to start the day?”
She gave him a dark smile. “You know I always like to keep you on your toes.”
He laughed. “That you do.”
“So what did you find out?”
A look of surprise crossed his face. “Who said I found out anything?”
She gave him a roll of her eyes. “You wouldn’t be standing here so smugly if you hadn’t.”
He shrugged and then put his hands in his pockets. Pockets that she didn’t have, she noted as she eyed his clothing sourly. But there was nothing to do for it now. Like everything else that had been blown up in the bombardment, the imperial armed forces were low on healing supplies, rations, and laundry. She would have to make do.
Karn said, “He’s in his command tent.”
“The one that got blown to bits?” Sara asked.
Karn raised a lazy finger and pointed off in the distance. To call him lazy was wrong, especially after all she’d seen him do in the heat of battle. He just reserved his power and bursts of energy for when it was most needed, like a big cat loitering in a nice patch of sun.
When she actually looked at what he was pointing to, she saw that he was directing her gaze to a part of the canyon ledge that actually rose in a peak. Squinting, Sara saw that there was more to the peak than first seemed. The sun glinted off the air in that area in strange ways. The light almost rippled when she stared directly at it.
Cocking her head to the side, Sara said, “Another sight-and-sound shield?”
Karn gave a satisfied grin. “He’s using the Kades’ own technology against them.”
Sara was about to ask how, but instead said, “There?”
She had to wonder what Barthis could possibly get out of perching on the edge of a precipice, but perhaps, like her, he liked the air of danger about it.
As if reading her mind, Karn replied, “It’s not as dangerous as it looks. Besides, the going thought was—we could move camp entirely before we’re ready and loose half of the survivors to the perils of the road or portaling under duress—take your pick—or we could set up a temporary command somewhere they’d never look and proceed from there.”
“I’m listening,” Sara said.
Karn snorted. “Let’s walk and talk. It’s going to take forever and a day to get to that tent. It’s not only half a mile up that cliffside, but warded so heavily that it’ll be like walking through pea soup just to drag ourselves through the magic.”
Sara followed him as he continued, “Like I said, the tent is warded from normal eyes and ears, which is why I didn’t spot it until someone with enough clearance told me where they moved it to. And apparently they think the Kades aren’t likely to bombard this same area again, seeing as they wiped out all of us the last time—so it’s perfect.”
When he finished, he motioned for emphasis at the canyon they were walking alongside.
Sara pursed her lips and said nothing. It wasn’t that she thought the plan to shield the new command tent and whatever leadership left alive was a faulty one. She was just superstitious enough that she wouldn’t want to spend day in and day out standing on top of a mass grave. But that was just her thinking. You never knew what the gods had planned.
As soon as they got within spitting distance of the new command tent’s wards, she felt it. “Pea soup” would be a kindness. The protective magic surrounding Barthis hit her in waves that would have doubled over a lesser mage. Like Karn. And it only increased the further up she went.
Gritting her teeth when she was halfway there, Sara looked back to find Karn on his knees, sweat pouring down his face and eyes bloodshot from the effort.
Cursing her own idiocy, Sara walked the ten feet back to him and hauled him up by his shoulder. He was bigger than her. She was stronger.
When she had Karn standing, she yelled in his ear, “Go back!”
“No way,” he insisted while sweating like a stuck pig. “I’m going with you.”
“That was an order,” she snapped as she pushed at his chest none too gently. At any other time, she would have been more willing to let him have his pride and struggle forth, but the pounding from the magic that kept coming at them was irritating the hell out of her, and besides, Karn was already bleeding from his ears.
Sara dipped her fingers in his eardrums with lightning quickness before he could jerk away and brought her scarlet fingertips to his face.
He jerked back with pale lips as he tried to keep going through the pain.
“You see this!” she shouted at him. “This is yours. This magic is affecting you too much, Karn. I don’t need you dead from friendly casting. Go. Back.”
He stumbled under the pain and then looked at her with furious eyes. For a moment, she thought he was going to refuse her order again, but then he started bleeding from his nose. As he wiped away the smear with his fingers, his outlook seemed to change. He realized just how much danger he was in.
“All right. I’ll go! But I’m waiting for you out front.”
Sara nodded. She’d take it. Then she watched as he slowly turned around and made his way back down the cliffside, the magic pushing him farther and farther away with every reluctant step.
Taking a deep breath and knowing she had to continue on, Sara turned around, ducked her head down like a bull ready to ram a door, and walked.
By the time she reached the very top of the cliff, from where the magic emanated, she was on her hands and knees crawling. She could see the boots of the official guards of the Mercenary’s Guild steps away. That there were more of them than normal was the only thing she could discern in her pain-filled haze.
Shaking her head, Sara forced herself to focus on the details of their shiny boots as much as she could. It was the only thing keeping her from succumbing to the pain and passing out. She needed to keep going. One hand in front of the other. Then a knee. Then another hand. Until the cycle repeated itself and she was closer to her goal.
As she thought about their boots, she realized that before this last major attack, the captains had strutted around camp with one or two official guards on their heels at most, sometimes none at all. She had even understood why. The leadership of the mercenaries liked to think they could defeat any oncoming foe. And they could, for the most part. They hadn’t risen to the head of a guild known for brutal fighters for no reason. But now it was different. Now it wasn’t about their individual skills; it was about protecting the few leaders they had left. So instead of the two she would have normally expected guarding Barthis, she saw no less than eight pairs of boots on the ground just a few steps ahead of her. But they couldn’t help her. They wouldn’t leave their posts, and she wasn’t sure if she’d accept their assistance even if she could.
Like Karn, she had her pride. And she would get there without their help. She’d made it this far, after all.
“Two more steps,” she told herself through gritted teeth. And she pulled herself up then. Alone. Unaided. Exhausted.
Ignoring the guards who were most certainly staring down at her curled up on the ground like a twitching bug, Sara just concentrated on breathing deeply.
As each breath went out, so did the pain.
As she took in new breath, little bits of her muscles relaxed and she could unclench certain parts of her body.
First her fingers. Then her toes. And then, like a flower with new petals, she unfurled until she was no longer hunched around her stomach. Moving as she felt her muscles relax, Sara let whatever seemed natural guide her movements.
When she had finally wiped away the moisture that was impeding her gaze, she saw an irate secretary looming over her with pad and quill in hand.
Sara held up an accusing finger as she said, “That is one hell of a front door.”
Muffled laughs were the only sign that the guards at said front door had even heard what she said.
The secretary, however, was not amused. “The captain will see you now.”
Sara grumbled, not quite ready to get up from her resting place as of yet. “I don’t have an appointment.”
“Nevertheless, he is expecting you,” the secretary said as he prepared to turn away from her.
Sara lashed out and grabbed his trailing robe near her head. She may have been flat on her back like a newborn baby, but she wasn’t helpless, nor was she any less deadly than before.
Seeing the seriousness of her expression, the secretary looked down at her tense grip on his robe but didn’t complain.
“Yes?” he asked in a slightly friendlier voice.
Serious as she could be, Sara asked, “Why?”
“Why what?” the secretary asked with a hint of irritation. He tugged on his robe impatiently, but she didn’t release him from her grip. Now that she had him, she had no reason to let him go until he answered her question. But she could at least make it easier on him by elaborating.
So Sara said quietly, “Why make it this hard for your own soldiers to get to you?”
The secretary sniffed but knelt down until he was almost at her height.
“If it was this hard for you to get to him, how hard do you think it’ll be for a Kade to get through a defensive perimeter this strong?”
Sara waited for a moment as she thought it over.
Then she flipped over into a crouch so fast that it was seconds before the secretary even realized what she’d done. She was nose to nose with him before his instincts kicked in and he flung himself back toward the relative safety of the surrounding guards.
Unfortunately for him, he tripped over his own robes, the ones she’d released, and landed in a ruffle of cloth and limbs.
Sara didn’t laugh. Instead, she stood up to her full height slowly, and the sun behind her cast a shadow on the secretary lying below her.
Then she said, “Knowing them? Not long at all.”
The secretary stared up in confusion at the female fighter who no longer quivered on the floor below him. Instead, she stood tall and proud, like a warrior ready to mount an attack. Swords on her back. Knives on her wrists. Confidence on her face.
Not wasting a second more, Sara walked over the secretary, whose expression had changed to one of healthy respect, and entered the tent of Captain Barthis.
She left behind guards who stood at attention in impressed silence and a man who had no idea what had just gone wrong.