(Path of the Dragon Mage: Nomad) 38. Respite (Patreon)

Charm and Corvus overflew the district, with Starella sitting quietly behind her cousin. The good news was that some of the guards had organized a defense against the oncoming ratkin.

The bad news was they were overwhelmed by the demons, and most were in a constant, fighting retreat as more and more ratkin poured down the street.

Like Corvus, the guards had concluded that physical barriers were the best defense against the swarm -- at least against the smaller leveled ratkin. Carts were overturned. Furniture piled on top of other debris at choke points along the streets.

The ratkin ran over or squeezed through gaps in some of these, but it stymied the larger levels. Especially when the guards stood behind and thrust spears through the gaps.

The evacuation was continuing, too. There was hardly any civilians insight, and those who were left were being let into the towers.

Corvus and Charm helped where they could. Charm picked her targets wisely and swooped to breathe death over the ratkin. Corvus had dug out his Deadly Bouquet daggers from the bottom of the piled rats before leaving. He held these in reserve. He would need Starella to spread the gas and keep it away from the guards... and he didn't want to trust her more than he had to.

There was no sign of Roan.

Below, he caught a flash of movement on the street. Corvus gripped one of Charm's ridges for balance, leaned over, and looked down. It was Gwen and NightShade.

She waved an arm up at him, and he waved back.

You have received a new message from Gwen.

Towners are almost all in their towers. Horse Folk are to be housed in the Grand Palace. Governor says horses will be put up in his private stables as payment for helping the evacuation. Can we trust that?

Corvus considered for a moment before he sent back: Trust but verify later.

I won't go in until after I find Roan. No one has seen him.

Charm and I will continue looking.

He waited a moment for Gwen to receive and read the message. Then she waved again before she turned NightShade down another side street. The streets were mostly empty at this part of the district and the horse happily trampled any stray ratkin underfoot.

Where was Roan?

He might have evacuated to one of the towers, Charm said, reading his worry.

"Roan? No, he would be out in the thick of it."

Not if CloudStrike needed a rest. Isn't she carrying an egg?

"Charm, you have seen horses give birth. You know they don't come out of--"

"What are you talking about?" Starella asked.

Corvus broke off and glanced over his shoulder back at his cousin. She had been silent, sitting with her lips pinched in a tight line as they overflew the district. Though she had kept her own counsel and not offered any opinions, it was clear something upset her.

Well, the more eyes the better.

"I'm looking for a friend. He should be on horseback. His Horse is a Mountain Heavy -- large and the same color as fog."

Though, he had little hope that Starella would spot something Charm couldn't. Dragon eyes were made to see things from the air.

Starella pursed her lips. "Have your dragon land somewhere up high."

Charm curved her head around. "I don't take orders from you."

Starella's grip tightened on Corvus's waist. Her only indication of fear. Her expression was stern. "I can send some zephyrs out to search, but it will not work if I'm being flung through the air on the back of a beast."

Take a firm hold, Charm privately told Corvus. I'm about to do a barrel roll.

Corvus ignored her. He didn't like Starella's officiousness, but he didn't like the idea of Roan being lost in a city under siege either.

"I thought you said your Talents weren't functioning as they should."

"I can manage a few zephyrs in the open, cousin. Not as many as I used to--or with the strength and precision. I used to lose them from one end of the palace to the other, past stone corridors or under doors if I wished. Now, I can manage these opened air streets."

She was being openhanded, which raised his suspicions. But what choice did he have?

Searching blindly for Roan had a high chance of wasting time. So, with some trepidation, he directed Charm to land on a high, flat-topped building. It was an old structure and the timbers made ominous cracking sounds as the dragon put her weight down on it. But the brickwork held.

Starella dismounted, her starry night egg still clutched in one arm.

Charm snorted at the sight of her and lowered her head until the tip of her snout touched Corvus's shoulder.

You don't trust her, she said, keeping her mind speech between the two of them.

He gave a slight shake of his head and whispered back. "I wish I could. Do you sense anything from her egg?"

No. He sleeps as I once slept. He gives his power willingly to her, as I once did.

A gust of a breeze tickled the hair on the back of his neck. Corvus turned from Charm to see Starella standing on the other side of the roof. Air swirled around her in foggy ribbons. She stretched out an arm and the zephyrs spun around her wrists like tight bracelets.

With long practice, Corvus shoved his jealousy down. He was no longer the magicless prince. Now he had his own power. Best to see how that little skirmish had helped.

He accessed his pending notifications.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have reached level 17!

Your mana has increased by 50

Your health has increased by 50

You have 2 attribute points

XP to next level: 1665/1800

He was within striking distance of level 20. Level ten had come with some interesting benefits. What would 20 do?

Charm, who had been watching this from his own eyes made a happy noise.

You and I have grown much stronger, and the battles have just begun.

"People are dying," he said.

She half-extended a wing in a shrug. "And you will stop it. Meanwhile, we will both use this opportunity to grow and improve."

He shook his head. As pleased as he was about finally leveling up after the frustration of being so stagnant before... this opportunity wasn't worth it.

That reminded him. He was no longer a Witch Doctor. His new class was Witch Professor. What were his next steps along the Path?

Corvus pulled up the Path tree and stared.

Draconic Diplomat

Runic Elementalist

Runic Weapon Smith

All were interesting in their own ways, but one stood head and shoulders above the rest.

"Charm, does this mean what I think it means?" He stared hungrily at the Runic Elementalist class.

Were the powers that Starella and the other nobles finally within his reach? Did their power over the elements have a runic base to them?

No. Their Talents manifested in childhood, spontaneously, and developed as they grew. But how? Noe one had ever properly explained. Corvus was simply told that it came from royal blood.

Charm didn't have an answer for him, though she was pleased that he was so excited.

"Maybe if you work hard and kill all the ratkin, you'll reach that step much faster."

"I have a feeling it has to do with the books I found." Remembering, he patted his jacket and withdrew the slim black journal he'd found in the desk. “And this."

Closing the Path messages, he turned back to his cousin. Starella stood stock still, eyes half shut. She had sent out the majority of the winds to scour the streets in search, though wisps of it blew strands of her hair and the sleeves of her shirt.

Suddenly, she gasped.

"What is it?" he asked, stepping to her. "Is it Roan?"

She shook her head, looking both irritated and disturbed. "No, it's not a horse and his rider. Some commoners have barricaded themselves in their homes. They're safe for now, but they're surrounded by the demon scourge. It's only a matter of time before they chew through." She shook her head. "There are children with them -- they never should have tried to hold out alone. They should have trusted their nobles to take care of them."

"I--" he began and stopped. He had said a version of this many times to Gwen and Roan. Nobles were supposed to protect and care for their citizens. They were supposed to be the best of society. That was why they were charged with caring for the peasantry.

Hearing that from Starella's lips made it sound foolish. Childlike.

It took a few seconds for him to organize his thoughts and experiences over the last two years -- it all battered against what he had been raised to believe.

"Remember that not all nobles were eager to open their Towers to help."

"Well, they did their duty at the end, and woe to those people who didn't take advantage of it," she sniffed.

Corvus was annoyed, but now was not the time for this argument. "What else do you see?"

"More ratkin are pouring in the city from two points. That tunnel you stopped up must be holding."

Charm shifted from foot to foot. He sensed her urge to go out and fight them. If they could somehow plug up the other tunnels, then all they would have to do was deal with the ratkin who were already in the city... at least until they found another way in.

He set that aside for the moment. "What of my friend?"

"Surely, the safety of the city is more important than one horse boy," Starella said, but it was only a dig at him. She half shut her eyes again to commune with the elements in a way he never could.

... Unless he was right about that next step.

The wait, while Starella searched, was an agony. The only could it did was that it allowed both he and Charm the time for their mana to tick back up to full.

Charm flew off to snatch a meal of sheep left loose in the streets, either abandoned or their owners dead.

After Charm returned with her chops bloody and a satisfied look on her face, Starella stirred.

"Found them!" She snapped her fingers at Corvus. "Quill. Paper. Hurry!"

Thankfully, he had both quill and paper in his pockets for drawing out runes. Starella snatched them out of his hands and began to draw out a simple map. Her penmanship, he noted with irritation, was much finer than his own.

"He's here---in this ally between these two buildings, with a third making a triangle. I can't see far inside, it's all blocked with stone. But  the ratkin are all around, chewing their way in."