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

“
I like to consider
myself a lover of trees but I don’t think I love them THAT much,” I
said with a laugh. “Maybe it’s a good thing we are staying away
from the forest. I don’t think we have the time to let you show
your love and appreciation to each and every Oak we
pass.”

The guards erupted into laughter and
Crooked Nose gave Eyebrows a playful shove. At the front of the
group, both Lady Sandra and Ser Wilson stopped and turned around to
face the group. Lady Sandra was still sporting the same hard look
as before and Ser Wilson noticed me in the centre of the group and
his jaw tightened.

“
If you are done
giving away our position, maybe we can concentrate on catching a
murderer,” Lady Sandra said.

“
Yes, my Lady,”
Moustache said glumly.

Having finished
scalding us like small children, ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ resumed walking
forward at a quicker pace. The guards already looked burnt out, but
they accelerated to keep pace with Lady Sandra.

I had walked this
area many times in the past and knew that there wasn’t going to be
any sign of life for a while. Between bandits and farmers, most of
the wildlife is either in the forest or deeper in the Archanion
Field. A couple of the guards were watching the countryside
carefully, but with big open farm lands, danger would easy be to
see and prepare for.

“
Sorry I got you in
trouble with ‘Mom’,” I said quietly to Moustache.

He smirked at the nickname. “Don’t
worry about it. It was good to laugh again. There hasn’t been much
joy since Thurlborn Peak.”

“
What happened
there?” I asked.

“
Too much to tell
right now, Mage,” he answered.

“
Please. Call me
Kairu,” I said.

“
I guess we weren’t
all formally introduced,” Moustache said. “I’m Bill, the ‘old, wise
one’ of these guards. That’s Trevor, Jeff and Vincent.” He pointed
to Crooked Nose, Eyebrows and Freckles respectively. “The two quiet
ones are Ronnie, our scout, and Peter, our field medic.”

“
Everyone just calls
me Doc,” Peter said.

“
We are a collection
of the town and palace guards,” Bill continued. “Thurlborn was our
first real battle.”

So you have more
battle experience then everyone here combined,
Cathy pointed out.

A scary thought.

“
What about Ser
Wilson?” I asked.

“
His rank is Knight
Protector,” Bill answered. “He is the personal guard to Lady
Middleton. He has the most experience and fought in skirmishes
against Nesqa before peace was achieved.”

“
What type of
training does Lady San...Middleton have?” I asked.

“
She’s been taking
sword training since she was old enough to hold one. She has also
been trained by some of the best scouts at Thurlborn,” Bill
replied.

“
Explains why your
scout is back here with us and not scouting ahead,” I said,
motioning to Ronnie.

“
I’m still needed for
some stuff, but yeah, she’s determined to be the first one to see
Davenport,” Ronnie said.

“
I’d hate to be that
Mage,” Vincent said. “I’ve fought our Lady in practice. She nearly
took my head off.”

The scenery had begun to make its
subtle change from Balendar to the Archanion Field. The flat farm
lands were replaced by hills and a small increase in trees. We
found an old dirt road the Mages used to travel and continued along
it to a crossroads.

Lady Sandra called
for everyone to stop so she could check the map. Ronnie pointed out
what he thought were Davenport’s tracks heading west. On the map, I
pointed out the south path that would take us close to the centre.
We would connect with the new trade caravan trail between Ghanlar
and Balendar.

“
What’s this symbol?”
Lady Sandra asked, pointing to a little triangle on the
map.

“
Old salvager’s
camp,” I answered. “After word got out about the Tower, people
thought they could find some old valuables. When they realised
there was nothing, they abandoned it. Might make a good camp if
it’s not already occupied.”

“
We’ll see when we
get there,” she replied, rolling up the map and putting it back in
her pocket. “Up front with me, Mage.”

She turned south and I walked beside
her with Ser Wilson on the other side. We walked in silence until
we arrived at the small camp. One look at it and you could tell
something was wrong. A thin trail of smoke rose from the middle of
the camp and bodies were scattered across the ground.

“
To arms, men,” Ser
Wilson said, drawing his giant war hammer.

The guards drew their
swords and readied their shields, but I couldn’t shake an odd
feeling that came over me. I stretched out with my mind and felt an
odd aura surrounding the bodies. The more I tried to study it, the
more confused by it I became.

It is definitely
something sinister...
Cathy trailed
off.
Not demonic though. Unnatural, but
different.

Well, THAT’S helpful.

Let’s see YOU
describe it then,
she replied.

The group started to approach the camp
and I slowly followed them searching with my mind for any life
signs. I didn’t need to search long to get the answer I dreaded.
Whatever happened here ensured there would be no one to tell the
story.

“
Search for
survivors,” Lady Sandra called out.

“
You’re not going to
find any,” I said, dropping my mental search and approaching a
body.

The body was male and scrawny with
patchwork leather armour that suggested raider or bandit. A quick
look at the others around him suggested that bandits were using the
camp as a base of operations. The marks on his neck caught my
attention and upon closer inspection, revealed themselves to be
bite marks.

Wolves?

The teeth marks are
too small,
Cathy answered.

Ripples of magic radiated off the bite
marks. It was the same unnatural corruption that was in the
air.

‘
Corruption’! THAT’S the word I was looking for to describe
it!
Cathy exclaimed.

We definitely shouldn’t be here
then.

“
No survivors, my
Lady,” Bill said approaching Lady Sandra and Ser Wilson.

“
What do you make of
the situation?” she asked.

“
The bite marks
suggest animal attack,” Bill answered. “Ronnie says the tracks look
like fox tracks and that they show themselves heading
north.”

I stood up and joined them, curious at
the mention of foxes.

Aren’t they the ones
that run and hide at any sound?
Cathy
said.

“
What do you think,
Kairu?” Bill asked. “The look on your face since we’ve entered has
me worried.”

“
First time in a
battlefield, Mage?” Lady Sandra smirked.

“
I’ve fought an army
of possessed Mages,” I replied. “Bite marks don’t bother me. The
magic in the area does.”

“
Are you suggesting
Davenport has been through here?” Lady Sandra asked, getting more
interested.

“
No, this is more of
an... unnatural corruption,” I explained. “Something has made the
creatures aggressive and before you ask, it wasn’t a Mage that did
it.”

“
Then what?” Lady
Sandra asked.

I shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

“
Either way we should
get out of here. I don’t like this at all,” Ser Wilson
said.

“
Couldn’t agree with
you more, we...” I stopped. I felt a ripple of magic through the
air and I stopped to scan the area with my mind.

“
What is it, Mage?”
Ser Wilson asked, scanning the area with his eyes.

I could feel the mind
of several small creatures circling our position. Closer
examination showed they were indeed, foxes and the corruption was
strong within them. They stalked towards us at a leisurely pace,
completely surrounding the camp.

“
Kairu?” Bill asked,
getting nervous.

“
They’re back,” I
said calmly. “We’re surrounded.”

Chapter
3

“
Protect our Lady,”
Ser Wilson called out, stepping in front of Lady Sandra.

The guardsmen regrouped and started to
form a circle around the centre of the camp. Their eyes darted back
and forth, looking for any sign of movement. I could feel the small
life forces advancing slowly and scooped up a handful of arrows
from the quiver of a dead bandit.

Here’s hoping that training paid
off.

Don’t over think
it,
Cathy replied.

Magic travelled through my arm into the
arrows. When I was sure I had them all enchanted, I dropped them
and they hovered in front of me. Holding my arm out to focus on the
magic in each arrow, I held them in front of me and waited for the
foxes.

A flash of red caught my attention and
I turned towards it. Whatever it was it had disappeared behind a
tent. Another flash of red in the corner of my eye and another tent
when I turned towards it. Either the foxes were unnaturally quick,
or I was just seeing things.

Could be a little bit
of both,
Cathy suggested.
The corruption...there is something familiar
about it. The closer they get the stronger it becomes.

What do you mean familiar?

“
Incoming!” Bill
called out.

I’ll deal with this,
you take care of the foxes,
Cathy
said.

The sound of
something heavy bouncing off a shield drew my attention, but I
didn’t look towards it. The guardsmen would be fine. I needed to
focus on either finding the leader or any foxes sneaking around
behind everyone. With my focus on the levitating arrows, I couldn’t
stretch out with my mind, but it wasn’t needed as three foxes
stepped into the open, their eyes glowing red and locked onto
me.

They stepped towards me slowly,
ignoring the floating arrows and frothing at the mouth. I have
found that animals can sense either my magic or Cathy and tend to
stay away from me. The foxes’ fearless march towards me meant the
corruption ran deep in their minds, stripping away any instincts
and leaving nothing but base primal urges.

I spread the arrows out to cover a
wider area. The foxes were far enough into the open that they
wouldn’t be able to dodge the arrows, not that they seemed to care.
I pushed out with my magic and sent all the arrows flying towards
them. They realised their mistake too late and failed to dodge out
of the way in time.

I took off my shirt
as my power reached my skin. The flesh stiffened and turned to
hardened scales, giving me a demonic look as the scales covered my
body from the head down. I turned to the guards who were holding
their ground against the remaining foxes. I stretched out with my
mind and locked onto the remaining energy sources. There were only
a couple left and one was lunging at me. I turned around in time to
have it bite down onto my arm.

With the scales as
protection, the bite was nothing more than slight pressure, but my
arm started to tingle as the scales blocked the corruption from
entering my system. The fox jerked its head back and forth, trying
to rip into the scales and I grabbed it by the throat and sent a
jolt of lightning into its body, stopping its little heart. The fox
dropped to the ground and twitched slowly.

“
Spread out!” Ser
Wilson shouted. “Check for more.”

“
There aren’t any
more,” I answered. I grabbed my arm where it was bitten and cast a
Dispel to ensure the corruption wouldn’t spread when my scales
receded.

“
I’m not going to
feel better unless I check,” Ser Wilson said, leaving the group to
walk around the camp.

I noticed the guards staring at my
scales as I scooped up my shirt. It was always the same whenever
someone saw the Harden Skin spell. It was hard not to stare. As
long as they don’t start shouting ‘demon’ and chasing after me,
staring is just fine. My scales smoothed out and I threw on my
shirt again.

“
That’s a neat
trick,” Bill said, breaking the guards’ silence.

“
Up until people want
to kill you because they think you are a demon,” I replied,
rejoining them.

“
What does it do?”
Jeff asked.

“
Protect against
magic mostly. The scales are tough enough to offer some protection
against physical attacks,” I explained.

We have a
problem,
Cathy said. I noticed Doc
checking a bite of his forearm and sweating from the fight.
When the fox bit us, I saw the magical properties
of the corruption. The reason it was familiar to me was because it
is magic from the Spiritual Plane itself.

Have you been gone that long it took
you a while to recognise it?

It’s like trying to
recognise someone while they are faced away from you
underwater,
Cathy explained. The guards
were starting to check out Doc as he struggled to stay on his
feet.
When the fox bit...it was like
seeing the person clearly. ‘Doc’ is infected with the corrupted
Spiritual Plane magic. Non-Magic mortal souls can’t handle
it.