AO 4 Ch 39 (Patreon)

Chapter 39

Melida stumbled, only for Finley to catch her and throw her over his shoulder.

“We can’t stop.” He said, the anchor was panting in the freezing air.

The cold was only getting worse the deeper into the mountain range they moved.

“Are you sure your anchor knows his way around these mountains?” Faith huffed, two anchors carrying her on a stretcher they’d made after their flight from the fortress.

“You could have one of your city boys take the lead?” Melida snapped. Her tolerance for anything other than efficiency was completely gone.

The corrupted had opened the gates and was swallowed by the oncoming Garrish army as it poured into the fortress completely unhindered.

Melida had taken the rest of their forces into the mountain range, only for the corrupted to appear a day later, looking fresh and hunting them down.

Brusset had knocked the corrupted off a mountain cliff, but Melida didn’t think it was dead.

Faith was down to six anchors, and the officers they had brought with them had been shredded.

“They would have died on this march anyway.” Finley reminded her for not the first time, seeing her face and knowing what she was thinking.

“Doesn’t mean I should feel good about them dying to a monster. Nor does it absolve me of losing Chillwind.” She grit her teeth. “We need to find a way back to Avente and get to the road leading to the fort.”

“Why?” Finley asked. “Going to Brusset’s people might be best.”

“Arden is currently riding towards a Garrish occupied Fort!” Melida couldn’t put more urgency into her puffing voice. “The boy is going to get himself killed.”

“I thought he was your miracle maker.” Brusset kept up with long strides. “My people might be able to handle the corrupted.”

“They have their tactics for mages and anchors.” Melida said quickly coming around to the idea. She knew it was the better one for their odds, yet her responsibility pulled her to try and make it back to Avente and warn people as soon as possible. Of course, staying alive helped that outcome’s chances considerably. “It’s some sort of strong serpent sphere corrupted. If we can stop it from healing, it’ll die.” At least, that’s what she told herself. Anything else was beyond a nightmare.

The corrupted had been the single most deadly thing she’d ever fought.

It had taken nearly a hundred arrows while getting smacked around by Brusset and soaked up far more of her wraiths than it had any reason to.

Yet the thing bounced back.

She would almost call it immortal, but saying that would be admitting defeat.

“I did not say they could not, just it is not an absolute certainty. Rarely are things certain. I do believe we have a good chance.” He clarified.

“See, the big guy thinks it’ll work. Let’s keep heading that direction. Which way is that?” Finley looked to Brusset.

“Left at this peak. We are off the trails, but there should be one on the other side that crosses the mountains.” He said. “Though, it is still covered in ice and snow this time of year. Even my people rarely try to cross the mountains in this season.”

Melida snorted. “With our magic we can, it just won't be comfortable when I’m healing your frostbite every night.”

“The endless joys of being your anchor.” Finley said dryly.

“Don’t think I enjoy it. You could ask Faith. She lets her robe slip and moans while she does it to distract her anchors.” Melida offered.

“Think you could let your robe slip for me?” Finley asked, a touch of excitement in his tone.

“Hell no, it’s freezing.” Melida laughed. “Maybe if Brusset builds us a nice big fire in a warm place with those mountain man tricks of his.”

“We shouldn’t spend the night in a cave.” Brusset answered seriously. “That thing was hunting at night before. I do not want to fight stuck in a cave.”

Meldia shuddered at the idea. “Then find another way for us to stay warm unless you want me to heal frostbite first thing in the morning too.”

Faith shrieked behind them and Melida twisted in Finley’s arms to see blood spray into the air.

One of Faith’s anchors went flying.

“There goes our plans of even sleeping.” Melida said. “Drop me.” Lightning was already pouring off her arms and as soon as her feet touched the snow she dumped her magic forming serpents of lightning raced away from her arms to chase the figure in the snowy landscape.

The monster took the lightning head on and rushed another anchor, digging its fangs into their neck.

After seeing the corrupted fight a few times, it was clear that this was how it preferred to kill. There was something incredibly lethal about that bite.

It jumped back away with its prey as the anchor quickly died and was deposited on the ground.

Melida found it odd. It wasn’t drinking the blood, but maybe some animal instinct in the serpent part of the corrupted insisted that it bite? Maybe it used death magic through those fangs.

“No, keep running, the chasing is fun.” It spoke.

“Monster!” Faith shrieked.

“No, my name is Colin.” It seemed more composed than last time and put a hand on its chest like it was offended. “I’d prefer you use my name rather than call me a monster. After all, I am an officer of the Garrish Army. Soon you’ll all serve the Garrish Army because with Chillwind taken, the war is over and we’ll deliver a crushing victory within a season.

“Now come here and bend a knee. You can serve me and get marginally better deals than the rest of the mages of your kingdom. Well, not the big guy. I have a bone to pick with him.” His statement completely shifted from his previous ask.

Melida didn’t trust a word out of this thing's mouth.

“Are there more of you, Colin?” Faith asked, taking a step forward and batting her lashes at the monster.

“A few. Most are failures. However, I am the new breed of mages among the Garrish elite. You’re a serpent mage, correct?”

“A quite accomplished one.” Faith stuck her chest out and took a long step forward that exposed her thighs.

Melida jerked her head back, telling the two with her to take a step back.

“I can see that.” Colin licked his lips. “You look absolutely delectable.”

More confidence gathered around Faith as she continued forward to put a delicate hand on Colin. “Oh you have no idea.” She purred. “If you spare me and my anchors we would love to have a conversation about Garrish.”

“Then let me sample the goods.” He pushed her up against a tree and ripped her clothes off.

Melida sent a signal with her eyes to her anchors.

This wasn’t going to end well. Faith’s charms were no match for the animal savagery that corrupted possessed.

Even if Faith charmed him for a few rounds, he’d break her. This thing might be pretending to be human for a moment, it wouldn’t last.

Brusset picked Melida up and kicked off the ground, sending them hurtling through the air.

Colin didn’t even turn around, instead throwing Faith roughly around.

“She’s as good as dead, even if she’s a life mage.” Finley said.

“She just betrayed the country.” Melida snapped. “Bitch can die.”

“I don’t think she saw an option for survival other than that.” Brusset said. “When it comes down to it, most humans will choose the option that ensures their survival best.”

Melida didn’t really hold any anger for the woman’s choice. Instead she wanted to distance herself from the woman before she found her corpse. “Hurry. I’ll keep us as put together as I can. We aren’t stopping until we see a bunch of big dangerous people that might kill me, but at least they might also kill that thing.”

At the very least Faith would buy her time. Who knows what she was thinking, that could have even been it.

Melida doubted she’d ever know.

***

“Letters.” Zuri had a small stack.

I stared at them. “We get letters on the road now?”

“Letters are how all information that is worth having travels.” She unsealed the first and checked the recipient before digging into her pack and pulling out a small pile of old letters. “Melida gave us this one personally. So we know it's hers.”

She laid the old one next to the new one. “When you read someone’s handwriting, the bits that dangle and stick up are the ones that stick out.” She showed me the comparison.

“That one’s not exactly the same.” I pointed to a ‘t’.

“Small deviations happen.” She replied. “The trick is that the slash appears to come from the same direction even if the angle is a little off. Those are the things that build into people’s handwriting that they can’t change.”

“Well if you know the tricks, then how come those forging letters can’t know and then copy the tricks too?” I asked.

“It’s all the pieces put together. Here we have the seal of House Trevis mage medallion. That’s not impossible, but hard to fake. A forger would have to get the seal off a cooling corpse. Then there’s the handwriting. Some things can be copied, but see how hastily this was penned based on the several trailing marks where she didn’t pick the pen up enough. If a forger is faking the handwriting, there tends to be blotchier ink because they are being careful.

“No, natural handwriting is quite distinct. Melida does this thing with the g tails where she rarely picks the pen up enough. Only once she pauses do you see some deviations in those and she tends to tap her pen so you end up with a few speckles of ink to the side of that line.” Zuri pointed to the end of a line that had a deviation. “Perhaps you could fake those.”

I nodded along for the lesson. “Then the contents?”

“You have to get someone’s tone right too. Which is spectacularly difficult if the receiver knows enough about the individual who is writing them. So, tell me does this sound like Melida?” Zuri was testing me.

Taking the letter I read over it quickly and found myself tilting my head. “Why is she so urgent?”

“Hmm?” Zuri frowned. “What do you mean? She just seems excited for you to come to the fort.”

“No. She seems urgent, not excited. Words like ‘haste’ don't really convey excitement.” I pointed to two uses of it. “Also she missed several opportunities for a pun.”

“Perhaps she’s asserting some authority.” Zuri offered. It seemed that she’d already authenticated the letter and this was indeed a test.

Yet, I felt something was off and continued to press. “Then she should have done so when I was first assigned to her. No, this is a touch too formal. She’d normally take this opportunity to make a slight pun.” I pointed to another spot and then read over it a fourth time. “While she’s saying some things with this, all she’s really saying is hurry your ass here.”

Zuri frowned and then pulled out more letters from Melida.

“Do you keep all of them?” I asked.

“All the letters from your commanding officer? Yes.” She looked at me like I was the strange one and started to compare some of the points I had made.

“Huh.” Zuri’s brow furrowed. “She does make those puns.”

“Actually, that’s what the speckles are.” I pointed to one of the letters. “See? She’s trying to come up with a good one on this old letter.” There were speckles by every pun she made in the letters.

They weren’t just her habit of thinking, but when she was trying perhaps a little too hard for humor. After all, it didn’t come naturally to the mage.

Zuri scanned through all the letters again. “This… huh. How’d you pick up on this?”

“Because I was planning on teasing her about trying too hard.” I smiled at Zuri.

“Don’t tease your superior officer.” She deadpanned.

“She expects it.” I argued.

“Then give her a pleasant surprise.” Zuri folded up the letters. “Permission to rush ahead and check the fort? It’s only a day out, but with enough light magic, I could make it in two hours.” It seemed that she had seen enough that she wanted to check on things.

I grinned. “Lock the door and put away your precious letters so we don’t get them dirty while I make sure you have all the magic you need.”

Zuri shot me a sly grin and locked the door before slipping back into my lap.

***

Zuri panted as she landed on a tree branch and used the shade to hide herself. She pulled her spyglass from her belt and stretched it out.

It had been a hard run and she measured out a little less than half of her magic for the trip out here.

Putting the spyglass to her eye, she fiddled with the telescope action until it was giving her the clearest vision.

“Avente Uniforms on the wall. Marching in groups of two.” She muttered to herself. Garrish preferred the smallest unit of three.

She moved the spyglass around the fort, trying to get a view on Melida or Faith. Those two mages would be a clear sign that everything was fine.

Faith was the number two for the fort, a somewhat infamous mage for the number of anchors she kept. She practically had a whole stable.

Two handsome men in Kingdom blues with bluesteel swords at their hips walked the wall. Probably Faith’s.

Ard’s words had just made her paranoid. Melida had just gotten tired of making puns likely. Or there was something more pressing at the moment and she didn’t take the time for them.

Two patrols on the wall met and slapped a salute.

Zuri’s blood ran cold. That wasn’t Avente’s salute, but Garrish’s.

No, what she was seeing had to be impossible.

Yet her paranoia spiked and she continued her vigilance in the tree, looking for more pieces that were wrong.

The problems compounded the longer she looked.

Some of the people were clearly Avente soldiers. Though, one took off his shirt in the yard to show off dozens of scars covering his entire body.

The only thing she’d seen like that were… mage-forged.

Avente soldiers that had been turned into mage-forged? No, Melida wouldn’t do such a thing.

The more she looked, the more hollow their eyes seemed from this distance. Were they all mage-forged?

How? Just how the hell could this number of Avente soldiers be transformed into mage-forged and be patrolling Chillwind Fortress without someone telling her?

The idea of this many soldiers going missing and transformed into mage-forged was impossible. Someone in the house would have warned her, especially if they were anywhere near her posting.

Ard had to know, and they had to stop the supply caravan.

Most importantly, her grandfather needed to understand what she’d seen. This was information that needed to be spread as soon as possible in the event something happened to her.

Zuri left her hiding spot, careful not to disturb the tree too much and give her position away. As soon as she hit the ground she sped off with the full power of the light magic that remained in her.

She shuddered to think what would have happened if they hadn’t scouted that carefully first… if Ard hadn’t noticed a missing pun.

He was never going to let her forget his find.

Yet, despite an eternal method of teasing entering his repertoire, Zuri found herself smiling.

She’d get this report off to her grandfather and stop the supply train a half a day from the fort.

Technically, all they probably needed to do was get Maribelle a few bodies to run into the fort using her new abilities.

Zuri was impressed with Maribelle’s recounting of her attack on the palace. Ard had no idea what kind of weapon he’d made.

With a dozen corpses and a good hiding spot, he could send her in every day and within a few weeks destroy one of the greatest Houses in the continent.

If she could take out a mage or two with each body, even if it meant destroying it in the process, then nothing could really stand up to his assault.

It was everything that Garrish had hoped to turn their mage-forged into. Only Ard had managed to do it better. Zuri wasn’t even sure she was capable of fighting as tooth and nail as Maribelle.

Goddess help them if Ard ever lost his senses and told Maribelle to destroy the world.

And Maribelle wasn’t Ard’s only weapon. Emlyn wasn’t going to be far behind Maribelle and become something stronger. Zuri felt she’d been part of the group, but not as close as those two. When everything calmed down, she was going to take Ard aside and have some time, just the two of them.

Yes, that would be nice.

In what felt like no time at all, she landed back by the supply train that was heading towards the fort.

“Ard, we need to stop. Right now. You were right. Something is wrong.” Zuri shouted.

Her goofy love stuck his handsome face out the wagon, his hair pulled back into a small ponytail since he hadn’t cut it recently.

“Really? I was right? I mean, of course I was.” He had a smile that was supposed to be smug, but she just found it endearing.

“Unfortunately.” She sighed and shook her head, giving him the reactions he wanted. “It’s complicated, but something is very wrong. Let’s get everything stopped and then discuss what we are going to do next.”

Ard took her report seriously and nodded before turning back and saying something that sent Emlyn and Maribelle shooting off. “We’ll get it stopped; hop in and tell me everything you saw.”

Zuri jumped and caught the still rolling carriage to swing herself into the door. “Let me start from what I saw and then move onto the conclusions. Wait, let me get a pen and paper. I’ll write this for my grandfather at the same time.” She dug through her pack with practiced motions to remove the sealed ink well, a reliable quill and their parchment.

“I just want to know what happened to Melida.” Ard gazed out the window towards the fort as everything in the supply train slowed down.

Zuri had a sinking feeling in her gut. She’d focused on the fort, but Ard’s words made her realize whatever state they found Melida in, she was unlikely to be well.