Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) (5 page)

“
Handy,” she whispered with her lips to the boy’s ear. “You need to wake up, so we can leave this place.”

Handy’s eyes grew wide and Sari instinctively covered his mouth tightly with her own. She scowled at him and held a finger to her lips that demanded silence if he wished to survive this ordeal. As the situation dawned on Handy’s suddenly waking mind, he nodded his head and Sari pulled her hand away.

“
Can you walk?” she whispered.

Handy nodded and Sari showed him the opening in the rear of the tent. She pressed gently on the hide wall so that she could look out without drawing any attention and seeing no one there stuck her head out to make sure they were alone. She pressed the wall more heavily and signaled Handy to squeeze out. He did so and Sari soon followed suit.

She led him back to the spot where she hid before and felt safe enough to talk if only in whispers.

“
Did they capture anyone else? Dagson?”

“
I am all that is left,” his voice shook as he spoke, “Dagson was killed when I was captured and they dragged me here. They smacked me around a bit and asked some questions about our defenses and troop placements, but soon left me to stew thinking I might reconsider after a while.

“
I thought it foolish at first, but within a few hours they came back with another prisoner.”

The second prisoner was undoubtedly one of the eastern squad. “Go on,” Sari told him.

“
This fellow, he was caught by some other orcs, cause they didn’t know about me. It turns out orcs don’t take more than one prisoner at a time. So they took this other guy and put him up in front of me.

“
Then one of them held a knife to his throat while another orc held one to mine and their commander came out all big and tough with a giant sword strapped to his back and said ‘One of you will answer my questions. Tell me how many human warriors you have, where they are, and anything else that might be of aid to me and mine and you will live. The other one of you will die.’

“
I was so scared,” Handy whimpered, but had the sense to stop from sobbing and attracting unwanted attention, “I didn’t know anything, but I didn’t want to die either. I started blabbing right there, on the spot. I told them we had two thousand men, all seasoned fighters, stationed around the mountains. It was a lie, I know, but, gods help me, I was just trying to save my own skin.”

“
It’s alright,” Sari said soothingly and Handy fell into her arms. He sobbed quietly as she stroked his hair as a mother would a child.

“
They killed him in front of me,” Handy told her, then laughed desperately, “The funny thing is that once that other guy was dead they tied me up and their leader said that once he cleared the mountains of all other humans that I would be set free and I think he meant it.”

Sari did not bother to tell him that that was true. Though considered to be brutal, orcs had a certain moral code and if their commander gave his word that he would allow Handy to live in exchange for his knowledge, then his men would honor that agreement. It would never even occur to them that Handy might be lying about what he knew. The thing that worried Sari the most was that Handy told them that the humans had two thousand men, when the actual number was close to three hundred, and they still intended to go through with their invasion.

Traveling with Handy was proving to be a greater endeavor than Sari had bargained for. Their progress was slow, as they had to stay on the ground since humans lacked the dexterity to bound through the trees, which provided more cover from the orcs in the area. Likewise travel during the day was too risky with so many orcs about forcing them to travel at night and hide during the day. This also made sleep difficult since they were at risk of constant discovery and though they had a few hours head start, orc trackers would be looking for them even now. On her own Sari could have made it back to Everec within a day, but at their current pace it would take four days to reach the city.

A gentle shake woke Sari from her nap. She was greeted by the sun high overhead shining through the forest canopy and a smell of sweat and dirt on the breeze. They were downwind of some orcs.

“
Orcs are coming,” Handy told her when he saw her almond eyes open, echoing her thoughts.

The breeze carrying the orc scent was coming from the southwest, but a quick glance around did not reveal any of them within her line of sight. Sari rose to her feet and began moving northeast. “This way,” she told Handy with a quick look back to make sure that he followed her. The route would take them off course from the main road they were heading for; that would have been the fastest path to Everec, but there was nothing that could be done about that now.

Handy followed as hurriedly and quietly as he could manage, but Sari cringed after every twig snap or leaf crunch that came from behind her, and when Handy did move without making any noise Sari turned back once to compliment him in the hopes of providing him some motivation, but she saw that he was leaving half-boot prints in the softer earth and occasional mud. Instead she told him, “We need to move more swiftly,” and tried to temper her irritation. She had to remind herself that this human was still quite young and that greater skill would come with age.

An arrow flew past Sari’s ear and she ducked to one side instinctively. She grabbed hold of Handy by the front of his pants and yanked him down in an instant. He yelped in surprise as he awkwardly fell on top of the elf, but avoided another arrow that would have buried into his back.

“
It’s time to run,” Sari told him, pushing Handy off of her and rolling into a crouch. She looked behind her and saw a squad of orcs running after them.

“
If you insist, Captain,” Handy answered trying to sound brave.

Handy ran as fast as his feet would take him. Any attempt at subtlety was lost in his mad dash for life as he tried to put distance between himself and his pursuers. For Sari’s part, she slowed her own pace to keep from leaving the young man behind.

A horn blow from one of their pursuers was answered by at least a dozen others coming from all directions including in front of them. In three bounds, she overtook Handy and told him, “Turn back toward them!” Handy’s eyes bugged out in disbelief and his pace only lessoned a little. “It’s our only chance!” She shouted before spinning and charging toward the squad of orcs chasing them.

She leapt to a low-lying tree branch like a wild cat and prepared her bow. Her hand pulled an arrow from her quiver as she sprang to a new tree and avoided an orcish arrow that occupied the space she had been in a moment before. Her feet found another perch as she readied an arrow. Her aim was careful, but fast as she loosed the arrow that landed in the lead orc’s chest.

Pulling a second arrow, her next jump landed her high up in a great oak as she narrowed the distance with the orc squad in a dangerous game that was bringing her ever closer to danger. Her next arrow found a place in another orc’s neck before any of them could get another arrow off.

Sari stepped out of the tree and pulled a third arrow from her quiver before landing on the ground a mere ten feet from the two remaining orcs and let loose her arrow so that it stuck from one of the orc’s eyes. Before he fell Sari already had another strung in her bow and ready to be loosed in the final orc’s face.

She tried to keep herself from panting when she said, “There is no shame in retreating when you know that you are outmatched.”

“
Yes, there is,” the orc rumbled like thunder and pulled an axe free of its sheathe at his back or at least that was his intent until Sari loosed the arrow and killed him.

Sari spun expecting to find Handy not far behind her, but he was nowhere to be seen. She cursed his eyes for not turning around and following as she had instructed. Her plan had been to eliminate the orcs that already found them and double back to avoid the other squads that would be closing in from in front of them, but Handy had ruined that by running blindly in the wrong direction.

The pragmatic voice of her father, Shatala, King of the Red Tree Clan, went through her head. He would have told her to leave the human to his fate. She had done more than enough for him already and if he was foolish enough to ignore her sage wisdom, then it was no fault of hers.

However, Sari could not simply leave him. She had gone through too much already to let him die as a victim of his own stupidity at this point.

The woodland elf moved with the speed and precision that those of the Red Trees were known for. Even amongst other elves, the Red Tree Clan was considered the undisputed masters of the woodland having an oneness with the forest and its creatures that none others in the world could boast.

It only took her a minute to catch up with Handy, but he was not alone as three more orc squads surrounded him so that he had no place to run. Her mind ran through the options trying to find a way to save the scout against so many orcen warriors and she discarded each one out of turn. Handy was held by a dozen orcs and there were more on the way. She could not fight through so many orcs head on and even if she could, they would kill Handy out of turn just to make sure that they didn’t have an enemy at their back.

The only chance Handy would have now would be for Sari to stay hidden and hope for another opportunity to rescue him b
efore he was returned to an orc encampment, but it would seem that the gods were not on Handy’s side as he was forced to his knees. A freakishly large orc with a bastard sword who looked to be in charge of the others unsheathed his weapon and prepared to cleave the young scout’s head from his body.

Without thinking, Sari aimed and loosed another arrow at the giant orc. It pierced his chest, but his sword was already descending on Handy’s neck and shoulders. The arrow took much of the strength out of the orc leader’s swing, but the sword was carried forward by its own momentum and bit deeply into Handy where his neck and shoulder met. Her arrow arrived too late to save him.

Sari only had a moment to feel regret for the young man before the orcs spotted her and charged. She turned and ran wishing to avoid further confrontation. Escaping the orcs would not be too difficult for the elf now that she would no longer have to hold back, but the cost for such expedience was too high.

And somewhere deep inside of Sari a voice counseled her to remain strong. She must steel her resolve for what was to come, because although Handy died alone, he would not have to wait long before many more souls would follow him.

Bertran was recovering in an inn called The Broken Arrow when Sane and Marian arrived to interrogate the assassin. Most of the inn was rented out by the Kenzai prior to their assault on the magicians’ school and it became their base of operations while the battlefield was being cleaned up and they searched for some missing magical device the order was desperate to get their hands on.

However, it was not the assassin that the travelers met when they first entered the inn. It was a much shorter fellow with a big nose and long black beard. Upon seeing the noblewoman enter, the dwarf bowed deeply. “What a pleasant surprise,” he said to Marian, “I had not expected that we would cross paths again so soon and so far from the capital, my lady.”

“
Gilkame Axebeard?” Marian asked in surprise, “What are you doing here?”

The dwarf noticed Sane and said, “No disrespect is intended, my lady, but the reason for my presence here is somewhat… secret. Suffice it to say my business here is in an official capacity.” Again he eyed Sane cautiously, but did not address the man, “May I ask how you came to be in this inn of all places? I did not think Warlord Nightwind had much to do with the southern region.”

“
We are here on the king’s business,” Sane answered before Marian could. The authority in the sorcerer’s voice surprised her. Something had changed within the magician since they left the ruins of his sister’s school. She hoped it was nothing more than a manifestation of his grief and it would dissipate in time, but feared it might be something more. A harsh memory of the torture she experienced at the hands of Mantellus Firekin leapt to the forefront of her mind and she quickly tried to push the thought aside and rejoin the conversation. Whatever else Sane may be he was not a cold-blooded murderer.

“
We need to speak with Bertran. Where is he?” the sorcerer asked in a tone that showed he would accept nothing less than being taken to the assassin at that instant.