The ass seemed to stop for a second then he frowned, then looked around at all the people watching this exchange before looking back at Ravon. "We do have orders. Since the whole team is finally here." He pointly looked at me. I didn't roll my eyes, just standing there looking like I am waiting on orders with the rest of our group. "Follow me."
The ass headed for the shield. I fell into step behind the wizard towards the back of the group. I wasn't surprised when the elves fell in as well. The two newbies from the academy seemed very surprised but they fell in behind the ass staying in front of the wizard. We were out of the shield and moving along the countryside within minutes. Elves and Islee can move significantly faster for significantly longer than our human counterparts. The pace the ass was setting should be grueling even for us to keep up with. Apparently that idea was backfiring.
I had no idea about the three elves other then Ravon but clearly they had better physical conditioning then the islee graduates. Which was to be expected, islee were normally blockier than our elven ken. We tend to have more raw muscle strength, they tend to be lighter, more flexible and faster. An islee will always win if they can hit an elf. An elf wins when they can get islees to miss quite a lot. So not only is the ass an ass he is a stupid ass as well. This assignment should be fun.
The elves suddenly jump up into the trees. I step so that I am hidden in a bush. The wizard bends light around himself and steps out of the animal path we had been using as well. The ass and the other islee were slower but they got undercover before the shadow spawn appeared.
We were very far from any of the places that the shadow had broken through. There shouldn't be any shadow spawn here. My group was silent as the band of ten shadow spawn moved through the trees. I hadn't gotten the specifics on our mission but considering that the battles on the other side of the world were wrapping up and good seemed to clearly had the upper hand. We were probably trying to find the next hero before the shadow did. The world had a habit of getting the hero's to small villages to grow up in small tight knit communities.
My team couldn't risk exposing ourselves by killing even this small group of shadow spawn if we were to have any hope in finding the hero first. Not to mention that the fight might attract the attention of the humans that weren't that far away. If the army was found that could cause problems. I watched as one of the elves tightened their grip on their sword before relaxing it again.
The ass continued on again without saying a word until we got to a human road. It wasn't really worthy of the term road. It was more an animal path that just happened to be big enough for carts and was probably frequented by humans more often than other animals. I could still sense the shadow spawn not that far ahead. They seemed to have gone off to the side. I found out why as the tree line suddenly stopped. The informal trail continued into a brightly lit field but there was no way shadows would willingly move into that brightness.
The ass moved along the tree line and the rest of the group kept up with him. Either these humans have kept a good record about their last war with the shadow or they had a habit of warring with each other. I had a feeling that the cleared forest was for the latter more than the former. I could just see the houses of a small village as we walked only a little faster than human speed around the edge of the town. The pace let the shadow spawn get far ahead of us.
Which is why it surprised me when I suddenly felt a familiar chill. I came to a stop and one of the elves almost walked into me as I crouched down and looked the direction I felt the chill. The forest had started to come back together on this side of the village. I could see the other edge of the forest across the road. There was a boy and man with a very old looking horse pulling an even older looking cart. The boy was tall for this area, he actually looked more like one of the desert people in build but his clothes matched what the man was wearing. The man was looking forward as the horse plodded along the trail but the boy was looking at the tree line that had caught my attention.
There in plain sight was the shadowy mist of a Wraith. It's eyes were focused on the boy. The boy turned to get his father's attention as the wraith broke its gaze to look up at me. Before the boy could get the man to look the creature was gone. The man laughed at the boy scolding him for letting his imagination run away with him. As the horse and cart continued toward the town. The ass had circled around to stand next to me.
He spoke in islee, it didn't carry as far as common could and if it was overheard no one here would know what they were hearing anyway. "Your presence is compromising our mission. Stay here. I will be back before sun down." The ass then moved out into the field. His clothes shifted as he walked. It almost looked like he was caught in a storm of colors for a moment. When it stopped he looked forgettable for the area. Anyone who met him wouldn't think anything of him. Even if strangers weren't that common place around here.
Ravon knelt next to me. She frowned as she watched the islee move down the gentle hill. "Well, if our orders are to stay here we should at least back a bit away from the field. There is too high a chance of getting spotted here." She said this in islee instead of elven. I was slightly impressed that her accent was only horrible, not atrocious.
The wizard rolled his eyes. "Please stick to elven or common. I have only met one person who could speak both understandably. I am still not sure they were a person." The wizard didn't bother to be quiet. He was probably blocking the sound from going more then a few paces past the group anyway but it seemed like a needless risk to me.
Ravon switched back to elven. "Last I checked Des can speak both like she learned them both from her mother, wizard"
"More likely she learned them from her father, her mother was islee."
"And I am known for my temper when people talk about me like I cannot understand them. What is a white tower witch doing this far out, anyway?" I nod back toward the town. I just sensed a release for magic in the town. It had the tell tale organization that you only get if someone taught you how to organize your magic. In this area only girls were safe magic users. The shadow had tainted the male side of magic here. So only a girl could be trained and to learn they were supposed to go to the tower.
The islee wizard frowned towards the town. His oath would protect his mind for the taint but if anyone not of the army found out he had magic, they would kill him before they asked any questions. "Probably the same thing as us. Our information from the local tower is incomplete at best."
"Is it compromised?"
"Of course. They all are." The towers had been set up to give the grays limited access to the army and to let the grays be trained enough to at least not unintentionally blow up their towns. When they did it intentionally that was on them. "I personally find the border lander man with her more interesting."
A border land was any land that directly touched a hellmouth. A pit that leads to the dark one at the core of the planet. Around the world there were normally three or four hell mouths open at a time. Since the creation of the world there has not been a time when all the hell mouths were all closed. Not even in legend. A new hole opened almost as soon as one was closed. At least they moved around the surface. I could only imagine the ill effects that a permanently opened hellmouth would have on the humans that lived near it. "He is a prince, what is he doing with a white tower witch?"
I shook my head to clear my vision as the man's cloak changed colors. It was a cheap imitation of the cloaks the army wore. So he was probably bonded to the woman. This bond wasn't like the elf bond at all, it was something any wizard could do. This bond helped you know where your charge was and keep the wizard safe. The bond like that could be forced on a person but it wasn't common. The children of the light considered a forced bond worse than rape, as a people we weren't too keen on this type of bond even if it wasn't forced.
The ass had started walking through the town and the border-lander did a double take as the ass walked by. For a moment I wondered if the ass had already blown his cover but the ass had moved on before the border-lander could pinpoint what was off with the world around him. As a border lander there was a chance he knew about the children of the light, but we weren't at the border right now.
"Ex-prince, his kingdom died with his sister. The closest hellmouth to here was only capped, evil is still leaking out of it, and that was about 200 years ago." Harken filled in the missing information about the man. I didn't feel the spell he had used to find that out, shame that would be a nice trick to know.
"I am amazed his country stood for that long that close to a hellmouth." I watched as the man shook his head and then followed the smaller woman into the one inn in town. I hadn't bothered to do more then skim the brief on what was going on in this area. It hadn't been like I had that much time at home anyway. Most of the brief was who was fighting who and local customs. The customs were always outdated, and odds were good that if humans weren't fighting their neighbor directly then they were fighting their neighbor's neighbor. Peace seemed to be beyond their understanding at least maintained for any real length of time. I was learning more about this group just watching from the tree line than that briefing would have been able to tell me.
The village seemed to be getting ready for a spring festival. I didn't have to watch long to find the young people pairing up and talking. The boy amazingly wasn't left alone for his looks. He had two friends and a girl that had caught up with him. They were watching a raven that was behaving strangely. Black birds could be controlled by the shadow, which the border-lander would know best. But he didn't kill the bird, he just said something to the group of boys before going back into the inn.
"Are you listening, Des?" I jumped not having realized that Ravon was talking to me.
"Nope, not even a little bit." I had been watching the boy and the man. The man had finished dropping off barrels and picking up new ones and clearly ready to head back. I thought it was odd that he wanted to travel this close to sundown. Especially with a festival getting ready to start in town. Clearly the boy agreed with me and didn't want to leave but the older man won the argument in the end and they had set out. "But I do agree we should keep an eye on them." Lucky for me I didn't have to be listening to be able to recall what had been said. "I vote for me and an elf plan. I know enough magic to keep us hidden. It will also make the ass happy to reprimand me for going off on my own. So win-win."
"Yeah, I don't see that going over very well." Ravon did not look happy.
"He is the one that left us alone. Since your group is with us still, I would think that would make you his second in command. As backwards as that is. Do you see a better solution? You will only have until the ass gets back."
Apparently referring to the commander in the common was ruffling the feathers of the new graduates. "That is no way to talk about a commander." The kid deflated a bit when I focused my eyes on them.
"When he proves he deserves my respect I will give it to him. My bar for the incompetents the islee are pulling out of the stone work for me might be a little higher than just acquiring a rank."
That inflated the kid again. "You haven't earned it."
Ravon opened her mouth but I raised my hand, "Last I checked islee infighting was outside the jurisdiction of elves." Ravon raised an eyebrow then shrugged before signaling to the other three elves, and walking a bit away.
The kid thought that I was backing down since I sent away my support. Foolish. "I have no idea how the 'all powerful' are coming up with ranks now but I can promise you it is not the way you would have learned in the academy, kid."
"You still haven't earned it." The kid took a step towards me. He seemed ready for a fight.
"Oh, try saying I haven't ever earned the rank, or even earned a rank higher than that ass." I might not have been awarded the rank of captain, but I most certainly had earned it. There was something going on where they are trying very hard to keep me out of the inner circles of the army. The powers that controlled the army right now were frightened of me and I had to prove myself more than anyone else.
"You aren't better than the commander."
"Right and the commander is not better than you, kid. Under the light we are all equal. Don't let foolish open statements like that inflate your ego. They may be true but they don't really mean anything."
"From where I stand you are just as self centered and self absorbed."
"Why because the ass forgets about you while trying to punish me for something I have no control over? You want to learn something? Don't blink." I didn't pull back on my speed. Normally I only spar at a speed and power that the other person has demonstrated. I get tired of having this conversation over and over and I let my frustration get the better of me this time.
The kid was pinned to the ground with one of my hands around his throat and the other one pinning both his hands to his chest. His eyes were wide as he looked up into my calm face. He was breathing hard, I wasn't breathing at all. "You blinked." The kid had blinked as soon as my hand touched his skin. I doubted the kid had felt the leg that had kicked his feet out from under him.
"N-." The kid blinked a couple more times. I wasn't doing more than touching his skin around his throat; it wasn't going to hurt him at all, but he couldn't wiggle free. The other islee wasn't going to wait while I had what was probably her only friend from the academy pinned. She swung her spear at me with all her strength.
She yelled out as the spear came to a complete halt still feet away from hitting me. "Not that I am not use to fighting more than one person at a time. A challenge is still only a one on one fight. Not that either of you would be anywhere near a challenge. Having barely gotten a heron mark in spears no less." I tightened my magical hold on the heron spear as the girl tried to yank back on it. "If it wasn't for me and who is in power doesn't like me. You would have repeated or been dropped. Neither of you belong out here." The boy opened his mouth for a second but I continued, "Don't play dumb because they let you. You do your service no service by letting them snowball you just because that is what you want to hear."
The boy tried to kick me but he couldn't get the lavage. The girl stopped trying to pull on the spear and was clearly trying to think of something else. Being significantly more demonic than her gave me a little warning. I felt my key warm as she lashed out of demonic energy. I caught the power and directed all of that type of energy down into the ground. That was surprising. The spear slammed into the ground just short of scratching the boy as the energy moved. That got my attention. It also got the wizards attention even though I had curtailed most of the force.
I looked over at the girl but she had fainted. I sighed. Damn children. Looking back down at the boy who was trying to move to see where the girl had fallen, I realized it wasn't me who was waiting on something. I growled at myself but the boy froze. Releasing the boy I stood up. Ravon and the other elves were watching me out of the corner of their eyes while pretending that whatever they were talking about was taking all their attention. The wizard wasn't as smart. "There is no way I am letting you go after you lost control like that."
The wizard didn't mean to take a step back but it is hard not to when I am not suppressing the demon. "I haven't lost control. She did, talk to her. Sorry Ravon but if we are going we should probably get. We only have about two hours of light left."
Ravon shrugged, "Cryon. Just try not to die." The elf that I had touched on accident smiled and nodded. I had a feeling there was some joke I was missing but I didn't ask.
Cryon followed me like a silent shadow as we trailed the road along the trees. It didn't take us every long to catch up to the boy and man we had seen this morning. The boy was clearly still mad about missing what was going on in the village. He wasn't watching the tree line. The man on the other hand seemed more aware than he had been on his way to town. The man seemed to relax a bit when he entered a field that must have been his. There was a small two room house and a barn. The sun wasn't fully set yet but it will be in minutes.
Cryon was close enough that I could touch her if I reached out just a fraction. She clearly was not afraid of me. There was something about the field that was bothering me but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The man and boy didn't seem bothered by anything so I set my worries aside.
The man and boy went inside, ate then turned in for the night. It was full dark outside now. Spawn enjoyed moving in the night they could see better than their prey at night. The light on the table hadn't even been out two minutes before hell found its way to their little house. I put a hand on Cryon to stop her as the shadow spawn moved out into the open. The unnatural animals were not what I was worried about. In the middle of at least ten of the creatures was the red eyes of a wraith. That seemed like overkill for just another hero who hadn't even done anything but be born yet.
Then I heard a sword being pulled free of a scabbard. Fire sprung to life inside the house. Clearly this was not the first time the old man had heard of shadow spawn. I moved out from the tree line staying low. I don't care how good the man thought he was, a human and alone he was no match for a wraith.
As the boy came running from the house towards the sheep pin, I figured out what it was that had bothered me about the farm. There were plenty of places for animals but I hadn't heard any of them. The man fell back into the house as the boy sprinted for the barn where the horse was. The boy paused for a moment looking back at the old man in the house before the man shouted for him to run. With a shout of his own the boy was riding back towards town as fast as the old mare would carry him. Well that is one gone.
Cryon was watching me for orders. The boy was our target but he was heading towards the rest of our group. These shadows will pursue him as soon as they kill the man. I pulled out one reaping blade and ran close to the ground trying to stay out of the old man's view. It wasn't too hard the man was in the house trying to fight the spawn one at a time, which really was a good strategy.
A couple of the spawn had broken off to chase the boy. They weren't fast enough. The wraith seemed to smile at me as the two spawn fell to the ground. Cryon killed two more spawn while the wraith took up my attention. This one was better with his sword then the last three I had fought. It had me wondering if it was under the direct control of another magic user. I heard and felt two more spawn fall. I didn't dare look around with how this wraith was pushing me.
Then the wraith did something that made no sense. It just vanished. I didn't get the chance to disperse it, it just left. It shocked me enough that I just stared at the space where the thing had been for a few moments.
The panting of a human drew my attention back. Fuck! I spun looking back at the man. He was wounded but he would live. As long as the wraith didn't come back anyway. He was in a ready position with the sword tip pointed at me. He didn't seem ready to attack me. His eyes jumped to Cryon as she finished off the last spawn. The tip of the sword moved just enough for me to see the length of the blade. A heron stood out along the blade. Well from how the man was standing I was willing to bet he had earned that weapon at one point.
"He isn't safe yet."
"No shit. Doesn't mean I am going to let you use him either." The man's accent wasn't right for this region but it wasn't so foreign.
"I don't want to use him."
"That doesn't mean you won't."
I smiled at the man. He had clearly had a hard life already. "You deal with too many truth tellers I see. I won't stop him from making his own choices, even when I think they are the wrong ones. The shadow won't give you such a good deal."
The man sighed and put away his sword. "Not that you have to deal with me at all. What are you going to do now?"
"To you?" I looked over at Cryon while we talked but the man was skilled enough not to fall for that look over there trick. "Nothing, that blade marks you as one of ours. Which means I don't have to tell you we don't exist." The man seemed surprised but he nodded.
The humans used heron's to mark master swordsmen. Most of the blades were forged for the person who had earned them and they were just marked with a heron. There are a few real heron blades that belong to the army but where lost or given to greys that had helped the army in one way or another. The man had somehow come across one of those blades, and from how he had been fighting the spawn he deserved the weapon. The man sheathed the sword and looked toward the town. "I hate walking in the dark." That was a bold statement, the man was lucky to be standing with that wound he wasn't going to be walking anywhere.
I smiled, "Go ahead and rest, I think the boy will check on you before he heads out." The man nodded and went back inside and I took off towards the town. Cryon fell into step behind me. I was amazed by how well she could keep up. We passed the boy on his horse on the road, nothing was following him so I didn't slow to check on him. I slowed as we got near where we had left the rest of our team. They weren't there which wasn't surprising since it looked like there was a fire burning in town. I knelt down to get a read on what was going on below as Cryon came up behind me.
The tower witch had made quick work of most of the spawn. Her border-man was watching her back as she took apart another of the creatures. Clearly the Wraith had not been expecting a tower witch or it would have made sure to take her by surprise. The spawn had clearly had specific targets in the town. It looked like they had been after the two friends of the farm boy. I guess the shadow didn't know who it needed to go after this time. I looked up as Cryon leaned against the tree next to me. "That is clearly in hand."
"Yes, but doesn't this seem like overkill to you?"
"Considering that no one died, it wasn't enough. Yes it does seem a little odd that they sent so many already, though. It also doesn't seem like they know who their target is this time either."
I turned back to the town just in time to see a spear flying at my face. It surprised me enough that Cryon reacted faster. Her blade turned the weapon enough that I didn't lose my head. I blinked as I watched the spear get redirected just to the left of my head. I felt the wind move my hair and felt like I could have counted the lines in the wood gains before it finished nicking my ear as it passed by. I rolled to my right and came up in a ready position. Cryon was between me and the ass. Which might have been the only thing that saved his life. That and that he was now trying to fight off Ravon barehanded. I closed my eyes for a second and breathed out slowly. I normally avoided doing any magic where others could see but if the humans noticed this fight we would have more trouble than we already do.