The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (19 page)

“
What do you mean?” I
asked.

“
You can’t fool this
girl,” Natalie answered smugly. “I knows what I sees.”

I chuckled softly. “And what do you
sees?”

“
You know,” Natalie
smiled. “Just be careful and don’t get hurt.” I looked at her
confused and she suppressed a laugh. “I suppose we can talk about
Aaron now to change the subject for you.”

“
There’s no need for
that,” I said. “He already explained and doesn’t hold any ill will
towards you.”

“
It didn’t seem that
way when I left,” Natalie said thoughtfully. “According to him I
was the ‘hot headed wild girl who didn’t belong in his world’. What
story did you get?”

“
More of a ‘you
getting bored and him not wanting to hold you back’ story,” I
answered.

Natalie shook her head. “That silly
boy.”

“
What happened?” I
asked. “Why would he tell you different?”

“
What happened was I
got scared,” Natalie answered. “It felt like I was turning into an
old person. I didn’t picture myself settling down at this point of
my life. I still wanted adventure. I guess he sensed that and knew
the only way I would go is if he told me lies.”

“
Sounds weird,” I
admitted.

“
Relationships are a
strange beast,” she said. “I knew how much he cared for me and...
how much I cared about him. I guess the real question is would I
have left if he had just told the truth. Could I just leave knowing
how much it would hurt him?”

She looked sad and my mind raced for
something suitable to say. “You could always go talk to him after
this. He’s protecting the farm against corrupted animals from
Archanion. The family could use a valiant protector to help him.
War is coming too. They’ll need blade wielding bad girls as well as
archer farm boys when the time comes.”

Natalie smirked. “You make it sound
tempting.”

“
Better than prison,”
I pointed out.

“
That’s true,” she
agreed. She looked into the swamp thoughtfully for a second before
turning back. “Thanks, Demon. I was intending to mock you but
instead you helped me.”

“
Every once in a
while I do something right,” I said.

Cathy came to a stop and bent down to
examine something in the mud.

“
Finally find
something?” Natalie asked.

“
The footprints are
all over the place but most are old,” Cathy explained. “This looks
new and it breaks off the main path to run towards something.” She
stood up and pointed towards a break in the trees. “Both sets of
footprints head into there.”

“
I’ll take it from
here,” Natalie said, taking the lead by stepping through the
mist.

Cathy followed without hesitation and I
stepped carefully through the mud. We hadn’t ventured far when the
sounds of battle rose. Iron met iron and a scream cut through the
air. Cathy took off towards the sound in an instant and Natalie and
I struggled to keep up.

In the distance, two
heavily armoured figures were being pushed back by a large group of
bandits. The bandits blocked our way to them as we approached them
from their rear.

When I was in range, I reached out with
my arm and launched a Pulse. The nearest bandit was thrown forward
into his friends, knocking them to the ground. The group was
alerted to our presence and Cathy lowered her shield and charged
into them. She was unstoppable as bandits ricocheted off her and
fell to the ground. Natalie reached the group and leapt onto the
first bandit foolish enough to swing at her. Cathy, having stopped
in the middle of the group, attacked everything around her with
impossible speed and the happiest smile on her face.

It truly was the scariest sight I had
ever seen.

With the girls doing the heavy damage,
I tried to circle around to check on the knights. The younger one,
I assumed Squire Markus Paul, was still fighting strongly while the
older knight was staying back holding his side. I needed to get the
pressure off of them quickly.

I spread my power into a couple of
nearby trees and took control of them. The trees shifted towards
the bandits as I smashed the branches into the ones closest to the
knights, causing the bandits to back away from them and straight
into the cyclone fury that was Cathy.

A couple of bandits broke from the
group to attack me and I used the trees to pick them up and throw
them out of the marsh. Somewhere it would be raining very surprised
thieves.

The remaining bandits
were struggling to retreat now that the forest and some crazy
people had showed up to ruin their party. I switched control to
different trees to stop the ones that Cathy and Natalie couldn’t
catch. When the last one fell, we moved in towards the knights.
Natalie studied the two as if she recognised them for
somewhere.

“
This is a surprise,”
Ser Scott said. “I wasn’t expecting any travellers to be heading up
this way. You have our thanks.”

“
It was no problem,”
Cathy said. “How are you holding up?”

“
Lady Middleton?” he
asked shocked. “I-I’m fine. What brings you out this
far?”

“
Him,” Cathy
answered, pointing to Markus.

Markus looked
worriedly toward Ser Scott and the old knight just studied Cathy.
“What do you need with him?” Ser Scott asked.

“
Have you not heard
about Thurlborn Peak?” Cathy asked unsure.

Ser Scott nodded. “We
were in Riverside a couple of days ago.”

“
Then you must know
that Markus is the last living heir?” Cathy asked.

Ser Scott looked
genuinely surprised, but Markus stepped forward. “No, what about
Cousin Gregory? Last I heard he was in Malkia.”

“
He rode with Lord
Cook when we retook the castle,” Cathy replied, drawing from the
memories. “Ser Gregory, uh, didn’t make it. It was believed that
you had died when Davenport poisoned the family. How did you end up
here?”

“
We’ve been
undercover for Lord Cook for a season,” Ser Scott answered then
groaned, dropping his sword. “Blast it!”

“
Kairu, can you heal
him?” Cathy asked.

“
Yes, my Lady,” I
answered and stepped towards Ser Scott. “Sword or
arrow?”

“
Sword slash from the
back to the front,” he answered, lifting his arm
tenderly.

The armour had been
cut and the skin was bare and raw. The attacker had got him good.
If we hadn’t intervened when we did, he might not have been able to
survive a prolonged battle. I placed my hand close to the wound and
power flowed between me and the old knight.

“
You’re the one that
made the trees come to life,” Markus said to me.

“
Figured it would be
the most effective against a bigger group,” I replied. “Throw them
off balance and lower morale.”

“
Very effective
strategy,” Markus said, impressed. “You don’t look like a fighter
though.”

“
Don’t let the lost
tourist look fool you,” I said, finishing with Ser Scott and
handing him his sword. “I’ve seen more battles than I care to
remember.”

Markus turned to the
old knight. “How are you doing, Ser Scott?”

Ser Scott chuckled. “The Mage is good.
Just a little stiff now.”

“
Please continue now,
Ser Scott,” Cathy said. “You were undercover?”

“
Yes, my Lady,” he
answered. “After the death of Mongoose there was a power struggle
amongst the local gangs in Malkia. Diamondback Joe won the battle
and The Rattlers started wreaking havoc across the land. Lord Cook
asked for me to visit him to work on a plan. Young Markus had been
my squire for many cycles and joined me.

“
Lord Cook’s plan was
simple. Disguise ourselves as travelling merchants or local thugs
and disrupt Diamondback Joe’s operations as much as possible. Our
mission was to be kept secret, only he and the king knew in case
Joe had informants. We built our fake identities and soon Joe’s
operation was hurting enough for the Malkia guards to attack
Carendath Mine. He escaped and we went after him. Chased him all
over Balendar until we found out he had moved up here. There would
be no escaping for him this time and he knows it.”

“
Hence sending an
army after you,” Natalie said.

Markus chuckled. “I’d hardly call
thirty bandits an army but we are glad you showed up.”

“
You look familiar,”
Ser Scott said, studying her. “Have we met?”

Natalie didn’t answer and Markus
studied her too. “You wouldn’t happen to have a brother named
Nathan, would you?”

“
Yes, actually, I
do,” Natalie answered.

“
You can see it in
the eyes,” Markus told Ser Scott before turning back to Natalie.
“And what’s your name, miss?”

“
Emily,” Natalie
answered without hesitation.

I suppressed my smile as they bought
it. Natalie was right. People only saw what they wanted to see.

“
Well next time you
see him, tell him thanks for the tip about Carendath Mine,” Ser
Scott said.

“
Will do,” Natalie
smiled.

“
What’s our next
move?” Cathy asked. “We need to get Markus back to the capital
before the Yellow Jackets find him, but I get the feeling you two
aren’t in a hurry to leave until you’ve completed your
mission.”

“
That is correct, my
Lady,” Ser Scott said. “Silvermist Marsh needs to be cleared out
for when things get back to normal. If we leave here now, by the
time we return, Diamondback Joe will have become too powerful to
take down. We have already weakened him severely here. We must
finish the job.”

“
How many more
members do The Rattlers have?” Cathy asked.

“
My guess?” Markus
said. “Forty. He will have retreated back to his main camp by now
and fortified it, waiting to see if we survived.”

“
With the addition of
you, my Lady, your Mage friend and the...?” Ser Scott
started.

“
Expert,” Cathy
finished.

“
Expert,” Ser Scott
continued, “we should be able to take the camp tonight.”

“
It’s only eight
bandits each,” Markus said. “If my eyes serve me correct, you had
taken down ten within the first minute of our last fight, my
Lady.”

“
Well, I didn’t want
to brag,” Cathy said happily.

“
I’m not good in an
open fight,” Natalie said. “I’m going to have to say no to this
one.”

“
Neither am I, so
stick to what you do best,” I said to her. “Let the armoured
fighters charge in head first. You and I can go up ahead and sneak
into the camp to disable defences.”

“
Good thinking,” Ser
Scott said.

Cathy picked up a sword from a dead
bandit and tossed it towards me. “Better have this in case you
screw something up again. I won’t be there to save your butt.”

“
As always, your
confidence in me is inspiring,” I said deadpan.

Chapter
17

Natalie tied her head wrap and I pulled
up my bandana to cover my nose and mouth. I had found the least
damaged and blood soaked armour I could on the battlefield and
suited up for this mission. Natalie and I were going to use our
skills to infiltrate and blend in with the bandits. The others
would attack as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

We had to move quickly.

The camp was circled in by a wooden
wall but lacked gates in the openings. This was either to ensure a
quicker retreat should the place fall under attack, or they didn’t
have enough time to build them. Either way, both openings were
guarded by watchtowers and heavily armed bandits.

There were six
watchtowers surrounding the camp. These were simple wooden
structures topped with leaves to block the sun and keep the archers
cool. They would burn very easily with a well-placed
Fireball.

Our scouting revealed no other special
defences of any kind. Diamondback Joe was going for brute strength
in his war against the two knights. This made Natalie’s job of
disabling stuff pointless. I suggested to her to find either Joe or
his top lieutenants and assassinate them after the battle starts.
She saw it as a better option than joining the main battle and
agreed.

I stretched out with
my mind to plant the Illusion spell that would make us invisible.
As I searched the closest watchtowers I noticed that there were two
guards in each. This made the Illusion spell a little more
difficult to maintain but would be beneficial in the upcoming
battle. Eliminating the watchtowers would bring the bandits down by
twelve men. If Markus’ guess of forty was accurate, that’s a lot of
troops to lose in the first minute of battle.

I took a deep breath
and focused on the spell. Closing my eyes to focus better, I boldly
walked out of the forest towards the camp wall with Natalie as my
guide. We were going to stay as far away from the openings as
possible until we reached the wall. Still, I moved quicker than I
normally would in hopes of saving time and nearly tripped over a
rock. I held my breath and refocused on the spell.

“
I thought you were
watching out for me,” I whispered to Natalie.