Chapter 72: Hold The Line
The three dragons came down out of the clouds.
They dropped fast at first, then slow and their wings pulling wide to catch the wind.
Below them was an open field. It was big and the grass were moving in waves from the wind the dragons pushed down.
Far on the other side of the field, and past a thin white line drawn straight across the grass, were a group of men in dark blue and red cloaks. They did not move. They were looking at the three dragons landing.
The dragons landed one after the other. Their legs first, then their wings folding in, slow. They walked forward a few steps with their heads low, looking around like they were checking the ground was safe.
Then they went still.
Professor Valerius climbed down first.
Magnus was the next, his boots hitting the grass hard. Then Sael, then Elara, then Daven Power, the three riders who had carried them.
Valerius did not wait. He started walking towards the white line and the rest followed.
They stopped just before the line. So they did not cross it.
Can you hear me, Valerius said through his mind..
I want to know what they are really thinking before this is over." He said to Sael, Elara and Power.
His face was calm as he said it. Beside him, Magnus’s jaw was tight.
The man standing in the middle of the forsaken lords wore a chain of purple gold over his cloak. It was different from the plain cloaks of the others.
"Lord Carrow," Valerius said, and gave him a small nod.
"Professor." Carrow’s voice was flat. "Magnus."
Magnus said nothing yet. His eyes moved down the line of the other forsaken lords, counting them.
"No need to waste the morning on pleasantries," Carrow said. "We both know why we are here."
"We do," Valerius said.
Magnus stepped forward, his eyes back to Carrow. "Carrow. A treaty was signed over a decade ago. You Forsaken Lords stay clear of our borders and the Greywood Basin. So why are your scouts violating the treaty?"
"I can’t get in," Daven Power’s voice sounded through the link. "There’s nothing there. It’s blank. Like there’s nothing behind his eyes."
"Same here, Elara said. Blank. All of them is blank," Sael said too.
"Push past it like the way we did in training," Valerius told them, his face not changing at all.
Carrow pinched the bridge of his nose, slow, like he was bored. " Tell me something, professor. Is it not a unfair that only the people of Valdris get to enjoy the natural resources of the Greywood Basin, while my people rot in the wastes?"
"I did not make that call, Carrow," Valerius replied, his hand dropping slowly to his side. "Our forefathers signed that treaty because it was the only way to ensure survival for both sides. It was what was best."
"Well." Carrow’s mouth moved into something like a smile. "It is time for a resolution."
Wait" Sael’s voice sounded through all their minds at once. This meeting is a set-up. They’re....
She did not finish before Carrow yelled.
"Seize them," Carrow said.
The ground under them suddenly broke open as twenty men on blue and red cloak came out.
The three dragons’ wings were already snapping wide and ready to release fire. But arrows hit them. The arrow were dark with wet mist coming off from the head.
Then another arrow hit three dragons. Then three more hit them and then another three more.
One of the dragon screamed.
The scream rolled across the whole field, high and raw, and the other two dragons screamed back as the poison arrows hit them again and again, until all three were thrashing in ground and they could no longer move.
"NO..." one of the riders was screaming, over and over. "NO, NO..."
Before Valerius or Magnus could do any single magic, the twenty Forsaken came up out of the broken ground and grabbed them.
"Carrow, tell your men to stand down!" Valerius shouted, pinning a soldier with his knee before three more threw themselves onto his back. "Telk them to stand down! We can settle this without spilling blood!"
"Why are you begging this fool, Valerius?" Magnus yelled, his arms pinned by four armored men. He glared at the leader. "If you kill us, Carrow, you better be ready for war! The Forsaken Lords will never survive the wrath of the full Valdris continent!"
Carrow let out a low, mocking laugh. "Oh, I will win, Magnus. Because I’m not going to kill you. You and Valerius are my golden bargaining chips. As for the rest..." He looked at the soldiers holding the rest and flipped his wrist. "Kill them. Leave only Magnus and Valerius."
The soldiers drew their long, jagged blades out.
Valerius pushed against his captors, his veins bulging.
Elara struggled, her fingers gripping the grass as she tried to summon a defensive ward. But a soldier stepped behind her, caught her hair, and drew a blade across her throat in one swift motion.
For a moment, time slowed to a brutal crawl.
Elara’s eyes widened in shock. Then she collapsed forward, her blood soaking into the white boundary line.
Sael stared at the fallen body, her breath catching in her throat, her mind fracturing.
"NOOOOOOO!" Daven Power screamed.
He was close to Elara. His hair suddenly lifted off his head on its own, and his eyes turned deep blue. He stretched his hands out in front of him, fingers spread, and shaking.
"KILL EACH OTHER," his voice said, and it was not like his voice anymore. It echoed over the whole field and into every mind of the forsaken lords.
The outburst of raw emotional magic was too much for him to handle. The moment the words left his lips, Daven’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed into the ground, unconscious.
Sael broke free from her shocked captor and threw herself over Daven’s body, shielding him.
Then the field went wild.
The Forsaken soldiers turned on each other with their swords already in their own hands, cutting and killing each other.
The men screamed, not understanding why their own hands were doing this.
Carrow staggered. His hands went to his head immediately, his fingers pressing hard into his temples, his whole body shaking as something tried to turn his mind against itself.
Sweat ran down his face. He forced words out through his teeth in the old language as he tried to counter Power command.
With each word he said, his back straightened a little more, the shaking in his hands already slowing down, until finally he stood straight again, breathing hard.
He was free.
Seeing Carrow break free from the command, Valerius forced his hands loose, as a web of golden magical threads were spinning from his fingertips to bind Carrow.
But Carrow was faster. He pulled a silver whistle from his cloak, blew a silent note, and vanished in a puff of gray smoke.
He was gone before the sound of the note had even finished.
Then the ground started shaking again as more ground tore open and more men in blue and red cloak were coming out from inside.
Carrow summoned more of the forsaken army before he disappeared.
"Now, is the time to call for out back up" Magnus said, close to Valerius’s ear.
Valerius threw his hand up and sent out a bolt of magic shaped like lightning, white that was cracking through the air as it climbed.
"Hold the line!" Valerius shouted. "Hold until the backup comes! Sael, stay with Power. Do not leave his side until he wakes!"
Just then, from the north, came the sound of wings. Not two, not three. Dozens of them.
Magnus looked up. Something in his face relaxed for the first time since the ground was opened.
"Perfect timing," he said.
The dragons came in low over the trees, wave after wave, wings blotting out the sun in long moving bands.
The first ones dropped down and fire rolled out of their mouths in wide burning lines across the Forsaken men.
.....
Location: Aldenmoor
It was afternoon when Reynold came down the stairs.
Alistair had already left. He had gone to ask around about the Starweaver properties, the ones Reynold found written in his father’s old book.
Gift’s mother was on the couch. The cuts on her arms was closed now. She had something in her hands, a needle and a knitting cloth
She looked up when she heard him coming down. "There is my boy."
Reynold walked over and sat beside her on the couch. Then, he let his head fall onto her lap and stretched his legs out long in front of him, like he was going to sleep right there.
She didn’t stop him. Instead, a small, gentle smile touched her lips as she set her knitting needles aside and started running her rough fingers through his hair, ruffling it in a slow, playful rhythm.
Reynold closed his eyes as he let out a long breath.
He remembered how she used to ruffle his hair while she hummed songs into his ear, and Reynold pretending to be asleep so she would not stop. The memories came back to him.
The front door then opened.
"I checked on the things," Alistair said, coming in, a little out of breath.
"What things?" Gift’s mother asked, looking up.
Reynold was already sitting up and standing. "Just some matters that needs handling." He put a hand on Alistair’s shoulder. "Come, show me."
He turned back at the door. "We’ll be back."
Gift’s mother watched them. "Be careful out there," she said. "Both of you. The city is not what it used to be."
Then they were gone, the door closing behind them.
...
The tavern on Coppergate looked just like Alistair had said. Old dark wood. A carved sign hanging over the door. The smell of roasted meat and pipe smoke was coming out into the street before they even reached it.
"This was ours?" Reynold asked no one. He was looking up at the sign with a stunned expression.
Inside, the place was warm and full with people. Every table was full, servers were moving fast between them with trays in their hands.
A man near the door stepped into their way.
"First time here, my lord? Sit anywhere, we’ll.."
"I’m here for Draymond Vail," Reynold said.
The man’s smile dropped. He looked Reynold up and down, and his voice turned cold. "Upstairs. Follow me."
The second floor was smaller. Some men were there.
Draymond Vail sat near the back window. He was wearing a black coat with gold rings on three fingers and, a plate of food in front of him that he had not touched.
He stood up when he saw Reynold. He still remember Reynold. Well, Reynold look like his father a little.
Draymond arms were spreading out with a big smile on his face.
"Reynold Starweaver," he said, warm like an old friend. "Look at you. So much like your father. Sit, sit..."
Reynold did not sit.
His eyes moved instead across the room. Then Alistair shifted to his side.
"The men at the left corner are the ones in charge of the other properties." Alistair said to Reynold.
Reynold nodded. He did not know any of their faces.
"Every one of you took a piece of what belonged to my family," Reynold said. "And here you all are, sitting in one room. That saves me the trouble of finding you one by one."
A big man at the left table pushed his chair back and stood up with the chair falling backwards.
"Boy," the man said, "Go home and grieve at your parents’ graves. What you’re asking for, I already swallowed years ago. I’m not giving it back."
Reynold looked at him and let out a chuckle.
"Everything in this tavern belongs to the Starweaver family," he said. "Including that chair you just fell. Break it, and you’ll be the one paying for it."
.....
Author’s Note
Mind magic users are of two kinds. The first are the Compellers. They can read your mind and can also compell you to do something against your will.
Their power is tied to their feeling/emotions. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the command, which is why Daven was able to compell the forsaken lords. His emotions were strong seeing Elara who he is very close to at the enclave facility die like that.
The second are the Readers. They can only read your mind but can not compell you. All Readers are taught defensive magic to use in battlefield.