I watched the sun rise while Leopold spoke to his men, still amused by the thought that they were supporting me. I had used pride as a weapon against paladins before, but never as a tool. It was fascinating to watch their preparations. Their prayers were more specific than I had ever thought, in so much that they were actual statements, rather than a jumble of sounds disguised as a language for the sole purpose of sparking a connection between the paladin and the Songlines. They still chanted them in a similar way to a wizard, but there were several other intriguing differences.
‘We’re ready,’ said Tatyana, who had approached without me noticing.
‘As am I.’
One of the paladins who was apparently very nimble led the way, ranging ahead of us to pick the best path, marking his way with patterns of stones since none there but me could follow the scent traces he left everywhere like a careless child.
We stopped some time after the sun had passed its zenith and took shelter in a small sinkhole. I settled myself in and sent my scrying construct into the air again. It was even easier this time, or maybe it was just my enthusiasm for the respite it promised from the muzzled hostility of the paladins and the toll the pace was taking on my twisted body.
I soared eastwards, back to where I had seen the Penullin camp and was heartened to see that it was still there, even if most of the soldiers were not. The patrol was easy to track given the way the dead dragged their feet and occasionally voided bodily fluids, and I soon found them. They were perhaps three miles from where we lay, moving in small groups while the herd of the dead followed, the orange flash of the necromancer’s robes clearly visible behind them.
I returned to my body and quickly described what I had seen, which prompted a lively debate about whether it was better to take the camp and wait for their return, or to wait and attack the camp once darkness fell. It was interesting to hear the arguments for each, but the novelty soon wore off.
‘We wait until dark,’ I said.
‘We are skilled in war, wizard. It would be better for you to defer to us on matters of battle,’ said one of the other paladins, a bearded man with a terrific scar on the side of his face.
He’d made no secret about his distaste for me, and while the glares he’d been levelling at me all day were laughable, it had done nothing to improve my general mood.
‘A claim that neither your face nor your recent imprisonment support,’ I said.
‘Watch your tongue, demon.’ The words were a snarl as his face coloured with blood, apart from the scar, which now stood out even more.
‘Or what?’ I said, my voice creeping closer to a growl.
‘Peace, please,’ said Leopold. ‘We have enough enemies already.’
I accepted this with a gracious nod while Scar grunted something noncommittal and possibly insulting. I ignored him and turned to Leopold.
‘As I recall, your little array of cantrips include light spells, yes?’
‘If our faith is true, we can ask Drogah to dispel the darkness around us.’
I suppressed a groan. ‘Of course. And can he do that as soon as you ask him?’
Leopold flashed his square and very white teeth at me. ‘His bounty and mercy know no limits.’
‘As long as you’re not a heretic,’ added Scar. ‘Like demons, heretics neither deserve nor receive any.’
I could smell his aggression, which in turn fed my own anger, but I forced it down once more. ‘If you have nothing constructive to add, perhaps you should go look for a helmet.’
He scrabbled to his feet with a snarl, but Leopold was faster than him and pushed him back before he could do more than puff his chest out.
‘Take a walk,’ he said, and with one last look at me, Scar and two others made their way out of the sinkhole.
‘My apologies,’ said Leopold. ‘He is a good man, but very passionate.’
‘He’s a prick,’ offered Tatyana.
I smiled at that, then set out my plan.
We moved into a position not far from the Penullin camp, but far enough that there was no chance of the returning patrol stumbling across us. The paladins huddled together to pray and do other paladin things, leaving Tatyana and I little to do but try and get some rest, although the hunger gnawing at me left little chance of that.
‘Do you trust them?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘Not even Leopold?’
‘I trust him least of all.’
She rolled over so that she faced me. ‘Then why are you doing this? Why get involved with them at all?’
‘Curiosity. And I have an idea, although you might not like it.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Their magic is different up close. I expected it was more closely aligned with wizardry, but the structure and tone of it is unlike—’
‘I meant your idea.’
‘Oh. They’re going to keep the enemy’s eye from us when we get to the city.’
‘You’re going to use them as a diversion?’
‘That is the word. Yes. A diversion.’
‘You’re going to sacrifice them.’
I shrugged and shuffled into sunlight, enjoying the warmth on my skin. ‘It is their choice,’ I said, closing my eyes. ‘And I am not the one who is lacing every other sentence with hidden compulsions.’
‘What?’
‘Surely you’ve felt it? How reasonable everything Leopold says seems, and how readily the others agree with him?’
‘The Aer Nephus,’ she said, rolling onto her back. ‘The voice of the angels. That complete and utter shit.’
‘So it has a name?’
‘It’s a powerful blessing, a gift.’
I snorted at that. ‘It’s a cheap trick.’
‘God’s teeth, did he use it on me? What if I told him you were a—’
‘He tried, but I warded you against it.’
‘When? How?’
Instead of answering I fed a little power through the link between us, enough to wake the dormant sorcery within her. I was careful to concentrate it on her senses rather than any sort of healing, making the colours and sounds around her twice as potent as anything she was used to.
‘Damn you,’ she said. ‘Don’t do that.’
‘I thought it would be easier to show you.’
‘Keep your damned magic to yourself.’
‘Would you rather have confessed all to Leopold?’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
I opened my eyes again as I sensed the change in her heartbeat. ‘Then what did you mean?’
‘Just forget it, Stratus. Thank you for saving me from Leopold, even if you didn’t bother telling me what you’re doing to me and my body.’
‘You’re very welcome.’
I closed my eyes again and tried to focus on getting my own thoughts in order, and I must have succeeded because when I opened them again the day was a fading band of amber in the west and the paladins were rolling their shoulders and stretching their legs in a way I could never now hope to replicate.
‘You’re awake. Excellent. I was just about to call on you,’ said Leopold. He was all but shining with vitality and, not for the first time, I was tempted to smash him in the teeth. Instead I made a show of dusting the dirt from my tattered cloak as I stood and joined them.
‘I was not sleeping. I was preparing myself for the night’s festivities.’
‘Most excellent. We,’ he gestured to the paladins behind him, ‘are ready. Drogah has heard our prayers and stands with us.’ He clapped a hand to my shoulder. ‘We would ask you to pray with us.’
‘Why?’
‘So that he may grant his blessing upon you.’
‘He would bless a nasty heretic like myself?’
‘Do not joke about such matters, my friend.’
I considered this. I still doubted that their god was anything more than a manifestation of their collective imagination, a communal pool of willpower and intent channelled through their prayers, but it seemed churlish to say so now. Especially when it was that belief and the pride in their cult that would make them such an effective diversion. And, if nothing else, my curiosity had reared its head again.
‘Well then, let us pray,’ I said, and he clapped his hand to me again.
‘You have some strength under those tatters,’ he said as he led me into the circle the paladins had formed. Tatyana was there already, watching me with wide eyes and eyebrows that climbed midway up her forehead as I took my place. Leopold took my left hand, and gestured for me to take that of the man to my right, who nodded and smiled as I folded my fingers around his hand and let my claws rest lightly upon his wrist, as I had with Leopold. At the first hint of betrayal I’d strip both to the bone.
Leopold lifted his face to the sky and began talking in what I assumed was the language of priests. I’d heard snippets of it before, albeit mostly in the form of curses or cries for mercy, but didn’t bother trying to decipher it. It had a pleasing cadence though, and I took a moment to settle a veil of sorcery across my vision, filtering out the harshness of reality until the men and rocks were vague silhouettes against the light of the magical currents that flowed through and around them. Us. All of the paladins were glowing brighter than men should, although I was pleased to see that Tatyana shone brighter still, the sorcery fused to her flesh reflecting and amplifying the energy the paladins were summoning.
I became aware of the power in the moment when I realised I was humming to the sound of Leopold’s voice. It felt like I was standing in the sun on a summer’s day, and by the stars, it actually felt good. The swirl of the Songlines around us had strengthened since I had first looked at it, but it was diffused, more like a mist than the stream I normally experienced it as. Glittering motes of it filled my lungs with every breath, and as I looked at Tatyana, I could see the glittering specks of it in her body too. I took a deeper breath, filling my lungs, and felt the energy inside me surge through my veins.
I felt Leopold squeeze my hand and I returned the gesture, a poor idea on my part given that I was paying more attention to my sorcery than my body. He cried out, and the swirl of the mist slowed and began to disperse.
I dispelled the veil from my vision and released my hold on the other’s hands. Leopold was hunched over, rubbing at the hand I’d squeezed, but before I could do or say anything a crunching, crackling noise filled my head, swiftly followed by a deep ache in my chest that crushed any lingering euphoria from the blessing.
It felt like some invisible hand was crushing my chest, preventing my left lung from expanding. I reached out to steady myself and gratefully accepted a proffered arm, but the paladin who’d offered it was no match for my weight and we both ended up on the ground. The need to breathe was burning through my veins, but before I could even try to make sense of what was happening another hand touched my shoulder and I felt a spark of lightning flash through my body, breaking the paralysis that had gripped my chest. I took several greedy gulps of air and rolled off the unfortunate paladin who had fallen with me. He too was gasping.
I looked up at Tatyana, whose hand still rested on my shoulder.
‘What the Hel was that?’ she asked.
I accepted the hand she offered me with caution as I stood up, but she took it better than the paladin had. I took another deep, steadying breath, and was relieved to feel no trace of the mysterious pain.
‘My body, I mean the enchantment, I believe it’s reacting to external magic,’ I said, more to myself than her. ‘But not to my own.’
I looked across at the paladin I’d fallen on. Three of his brothers had their hands on his chest and I could feel the gathering of their magic as they incanted their prayer of healing.
‘Thank you,’ I called over to him even as I took a step back. He had tried to help, even if he’d failed, and that was something.
It took a bit longer before he and Leopold were well enough to move again, which did nothing to improve relations with them. Fortunately the imminent violence provided a useful distraction, and with the last of the light having drained from the sky it was time to move. We approached the camp with great caution, helped in no small part by having so few men clad in armour. In truth, Tatyana was the most heavily armed of all of them but she moved as nimbly, having tied strips of cloth to what overlapping armour she had, muffling the scrape and jingle that normally accompanied her everywhere.
The paladins split into two groups and moved out to either side of Tatyana and I.
‘You ready?’ she asked.
I called my sorcery to mind and considered the constructs I had prepared. ‘I am if you are.’
‘I have a sudden need for a pee, so I guess I am.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Never mind,’ she said, flashing me a smile as she tugged at a strap. ‘I’m ready.’
‘Then I’ll begin.’