They only got one extra member to their party, a female hunter who had this monstrous hound. They had probably sent her as a chaperone for the young lady. It wouldn't do to have an engaged young woman venture into the woods by herself with three men.
James and the other two stayed well behind, watching with vigilance the surrounding brush. Every once in a while, James found himself scratching the point on his shoulder where Jason had thumped him.
"I know I was being an ass, but you could have hit me a little more lightly," he grumbled.
Jason scratched the back of his head, a kind of chagrined smile on his face.
"Sorry, mate. I kind of feel strongly about treating women right, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Chivalry and all that. And it had nothing to do with her smile reminding you of the view of a fading sun seen from atop a tower that scrapes the sky?"
"Well...no. Should it have?" Jason asked in confusion.
"And she only smiled after you invited her to the team," Hans added. "Perhaps you're only stating your own observations—"
James turned a fierce glare on the man, although there was some unaccounted heat blooming in his cheeks.
"What—" Jason started, but then his mind seemed to catch up. "Oh?Oh!"
And he started grinning like an idiot. He looked at Hans, who was struggling to contain his laughter in the face of James's glare, then he started to laugh. The moment James turned to him, Hansworth was laughing too.
James palmed his face, then matched forward briskly to leave the two fools with their mirth.
"You three seem to get on well," the huntress commented once he was part of her group.
James only gave her a blank stare, like he couldn't fathom what in the world she was talking about. The other two joined them. He studiously avoided looking in their faces, and even more avidly avoided staring at Crescida Bladhaven.
He gave all his attention instead to Tessa the huntress and her explanations of the surrounding terrain. She was talking about things like broken twigs and scratched barks of trees and how they signified the passage of their quarry.
"That's one big dog you got," James commented.
"Yeah," she said, patting her beast absentmindedly. "He's the best."
"You're the best too," he commented distractedly.
She frowned at him, but he wasn't paying attention. His brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, he stared into the gloom of the ever constricting tree population. He stared at the dog, which was now standing more rigidly than it had been before. He had a bad feeling.
Like they were being hunted, or something of the sort. He started to revolve, facing different directions, looking for the source of this menace. But he couldn't pinpoint it. They were surrounded, and his panic was starting to show on his face.
Hansworth stepped up to his side, hand already on his scabbard. Jason was getting ready to cast. James cut everything off and focused on his hearing. Then he had the whistling.
"Everyone down!" he yelled, diving for the confused huntress and Crescida and forcing them down.
Arrows and throwing knives impacted something in mid air, and then they were raining down harmlessly on their prone bodies. Hansworth was up at once, and James found he could react almost as fast.
He hoped Jason had sense enough to hold back a little. He on the other hand, didn't intend to. He let Hansworth run one way, picked a different direction, and fired off an arrow fitted with a compressed wild fire spell. A shout as that part of the wood exploded.
Jason had sped with magic to a different location and was ploughing through men like a true magic knight. He had elected not to use any strong magic.
James looked at Jason and Hansworth cleaving through men, and a kind of competitive fire burned within him. Maybe he just wanted to kill someone with his own hand for the first time in a while.
It wrenched at his soul as he tapped into his flight divine power, but then he was standing among unsuspecting assassins, his arm wreathed in fire. A dagger in the other hand, and they were screaming, though their screams were short lived.
One of the assassins had been hiding way high up in a tree, perhaps working as some sort of reconnaissance in case things went wrong. Jason cursed, tried to bring up his hand to send a powerful long range spell, but then James was there, forcing Jason to calm.
He lifted his bow, placed the least bit of mana on an arrow, and sent it flying into the void. The man was very far by then, so it was no wonder the first arrow missed. James had shot three in quick succession though, planning for just that eventuality. The third one got him in the thigh, and they watched him tittering from up a tree. James looked at the other two just as they were preparing to go for the kill. They let the injured man limp away.
The huntress was examining one of the bodies, all swathed in green camouflage like soldiers from James's old world. She stared up at the three of them.
"These were assa—"
James finished yet another spell, and the corpses caught on fire, one and all. The huntress yelped and jumped away from the burning flesh.
"You saw nothing," he said in a hard tone.
Empty eyes met hers and Crescida's confused ones. The huntress gulped, the noble woman frowned.
"What is going on here?!" someone shouted, and he wasn't the only one.
Trees had been felled in the battle. That's how fiercely the three of them had fought. This is the kind of thing James had liked to read about. A fantasy fight where even hills could be leveled under the combatants power. All in all, they'd made a kind of clearing where now smoke rose from the burning corpses and people came pouring in from wherever.
"Silence!" the king demanded. "I would hear from those who were present what happened here!"
James was still thinking up an explanation, but someone beat him to it.
"Poachers, your majesty," Crescida Bladhaven lied. "We were minding our own business when they released a surprise volley. Lord Halden and his companions protected us, and then went ahead and took care of the problem. Isn't that right, Tessa?"
"Hmm?! Y-yes..."
"Is that why you've gotten a bit bloody, lord Halden?" the king asked.
"Huh?" James asked before inspecting himself.
He was still holding his bloody dagger in one hand, but what the king called a bit bloody. He felt sick having that much blood on him. And it wasn't only because of the distinctive smell.
"Well, yes, I think?" he replied.
"No injuries on you? Good, good. Was it you who decided to burn the bodies thus?"
"Yes."
"Although," prince Mikhail started, flipping a small throwing knife in his hand. "These weapons do seem slightly more high end than would a group of poachers possess."
Crescida shrugged. "Who else could they have been?"
"Your majesty, I must apologise. I have to leave the hunt prematurely," James declared.
"Yes, yes. Please go and rest."
The rest of his party followed without prompting.
"Mr Kon!" a young man James didn't know yelled. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I apologise, my lord Ken, but I would borrow your man for a while. You don't mind, do you," James smiled at him.
"Of course I mind. My father would—"
"I'll write your father tonight. Don't even worry about it."
"You're not my liege!"
There was a chorus of gasps in the clearing, although the king looked not even the least bit concerned. The man looked like he was enjoying this.
James shrugged. "I want the man, and I will take him. Whether you recognise my Duchy or not has nothing to do with it."
"You'd start a war, because he chose to serve us after you invited him to your home!"
Why had he decided to go there? This had nothing to do with that. In any case, James was feeling iffy just now. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary arguing some stupid point.
"And yet, he isn't objecting to coming with me, is he? He does have a right to his freedom, no? After all, you only brought him here to help him get to the academy, not to be your servant."
"You come from my baroney," the boy growled at Jason. "Your family—"
Jason shrugged. "Aren't under your thumb anymore."
"What?!" both James and the young man exclaimed at the same time.
"They are in Halden city, of course, serving the more worthy liege."
James let his smile slide back into place.
"And there you have it, Ken. Though I have to say, using your power the way you just did," he shook his head. "Its kind of...unnoble, don't you think?"
They left the boy red and sputtering, and the centre of the whole party's attention. James didn't want to waste so much as a second, but he had to speak with Crescida and Tessa.
"Lady Bladhaven. Thank you for your help back there," he said with a pained smile.
"It's no problem. You did save our lives after all."
He kept looking at her expectantly though. She turned away, her face turning slightly red.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like what?"
"It's so intense."
"You hate being the center of attention?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"Al right. What do you want?"
"Want?"
"For your help? Come on. You obviously want some kind of favour in return."
She stared him full in the face, a frown marring her pale features.
"You won't believe me if I say I just wanted to help?"
"Why would you just want to help?"
She sighed. "You don't trust people, do you, lord Halden?"
James shrugged. "I don't really have any reason to trust you, do I?"
"True enough. Then I shall ask of you a favour, one day."
"Wait, lady Bladhaven," the huntress said. "Let me come with you. As a personal servant or something."
"You don't want to continue hunting?"
"It's, that thing where I agreed with you. Prince Mikhail, he..." she seemed unable to continue but James got it. So it seemed, did Crescida Bladhaven.
James watched them for a while, but then he and the boys were moving.
"You're not taking your horses," Tessa asked.
"No need," James waved off the comment.
They entered the forest, watched to ensure no one was around, and then they were invisible and flying. The guards didn't know when the lord came back into the house.
He wanted a drink. He wanted a drink so bad, but he also found the idea of drinking before all the work he was supposed to do repulsive. He hadn't even been there five minutes before the claws were there. And then Mary was there too.
"Has she said anything?" he asked.
"No, young master. What happened?"
The two children shuffled in just then, and they gasped in shock at the bloody look. James winced.
"A little run in with your friends, nothing much?"
He could see Mary's jaw hardening. But he was sure he was angrier than her.
"Mary. Make sure that woman croaks tonight. But before that, I put a trace on one of them. I'll have you do some reccoinasance before continuing your... investigation."
"Yes. Will you be going with, me, young master?"
"No. I'll have you go with these two," he pointed to Jonas and Jason. "Jonas will track the trace, and this one will protect you if you need it."
There was no need to reveal her alter ego just yet. It wouldn't hurt for her to appear meek and dispassionate, only to doff her black body suit and tutn into nothing more than a shadow of death.
"And what will you be doing?" Talia asked.
"Nothing that concerns you yet. Hansworth, you should rest. You too when you return, Jason, we have work to do later."
If he was right. This was the very day the fat merchant Zain was supposed to deliver his goods. It was time to prepare the stage for battle.
But if he was going to battle, then he needed just a bit more protection than he was currently getting. Besides, even using his flight power now left him drained. He had to find a way to fix his witch's factor, and a way to protect himself.
And he already had the perfect solution to both problems. There was the problem of the black phantom, the one which had protected him yet again today.
He sighed as he turned invisible once again. Mary might have exhaled in shock, but James had no problem showing his allies all his cards. Then he was flying over the capital, his soul heavy.