The fall of skullkeep, p.21
The Fall of Skullkeep, page 21
She pulled the chair out from the table and sat, then began to examine the papers. The one on top was innocuous enough; it looked like a supply manifest, delineating food and equipment for a couple thousand people if she interpreted it correctly. The next document appeared to be a multi-page report on the weaknesses of Tel Mivar, specifically if one wanted to claim the city from inside the walls. The next few documents covered the other province capitals: Tel Roshan, Tel Cothos, and Tel Wygoth. Beneath those, Jennifer found a multi-page timetable that started from the day Tel’s army moved out to lead the forces of the Old Alliance in assaulting Skullkeep.
Not good. Not good at all.
Jennifer looked up to the Wraith where she waited, asking, “Is all this credible? Not just someone’s sick fantasy?”
“It appears credible enough. There’s a map on that desk over there that seems to have the locations of all the staging camps—like this one. The only way to know for certain is to investigate further. Honestly, Milady… we should inform your father.”
Jennifer shook her head. “No. No, we shouldn’t. If there is a credible threat… yes, of course. He needs to know. But we won’t know that until we investigate further. Is it within my authority to draw on your organization’s resources and personnel?”
A small smile quirked the woman’s lips. “Yes. Your father was very clear that—should you care to exercise it—your authority over us is second only to his.”
“Can we pull more people to work with us on investigating these sites without hampering other operations?”
The woman nodded. “It should be possible.”
“Good. If it is within our power and authority to handle this, I’d rather do that without bothering Dad. He has enough going on right now that he doesn’t need this on his mind, too.”
The woman nodded, more like a half bow. “Very well, Milady. I shall request another eleven of us under your name. If the other camps are like this one, fifteen should be more than sufficient.”
Jennifer flipped through the documents again until she found the food and equipment manifest. She tapped it as she shifted her attention to their captive. “What I don’t understand, though, is the attack on the three wagons. If this is a manifest and if it’s accurate, you have all the food and equipment you need, from the looks of it.”
The man grimaced, settling into a scowl. “Giltan is such a damned fool. He spent his whole life as a bandit, and he’d been going on and on about what a sweet score a good caravan is. I thought we had him under control, but he apparently slipped the leash and took a few people with him two days ago. That was not authorized. It should never have happened.”
Jennifer shook her head as she fought the urge to laugh. “You’re not kidding. If Kellea and I hadn’t happened upon those wagons, we never would’ve investigated and found your camp.”
The man’s scowl hardened into a glare. “If I thought for a moment that idiot still lived, I’d beg you to let me kill him. Stupid!”
“Well… in this instance, your bad luck is our good. Yes, it’s unfortunate he attacked those wagons, but if it was going to happen anyway, I’m glad it did at a time and place where we’d discover them.” Jennifer turned to the Wraith. “So, what do we do with him?”
“You have three options… hold him, kill him, or turn him over to the authorities. Turning him over to the authorities might precipitate your father learning of this situation. If you hold him, you have the option of interrogating him at your leisure.”
Jennifer’s mind went back to watching the recording of her father ‘interviewing’ the guy who tried to shoot him back in Graham, and she grinned at the thought of this guy spilling everything he knew.
“Do we have a way of transcribing what he says?”
The Wraith simply nodded. “We have already requested it. I expect it to arrive here by the end of tomorrow.”
“Fair enough. We’ll wait till we have it, then. Make sure he has food and water. I’m tempted to say cut off his pants and the seat and just let him use a chamber pot, rather than risk untying him enough to walk to the latrine.”
The Wraith seemed to appreciate that thought. “You would have fit in well with us, Milady. It shall be done.”
Jennifer stood and headed out of the pavilion. She stopped at the entrance and turned her head just enough to speak over her shoulder. “Don’t injure him too much when you cut off his pants and the chair’s seat.”
When Jennifer left the pavilion, the prisoner looked far more terrified than he had when she entered.
The next morning, Jennifer exited her tent and found eleven more Wraiths than there had been, and the woman who’d been working closely with Jennifer held up a crystal. Jennifer eyed the crystal in silence for a moment, raising a single eyebrow.
“I take it that’s the recording device?”
The woman angled her head very slightly to the side as if to communicate ‘sort of.’ “It is the crystal that will store the image and sound around it. None of us can use it. I’m told only an arcanist can activate it. Once it has stored images and sounds, however, a simple command word will retrieve them.”
“Well, that’s lovely. I don’t suppose you have the information I need to have it record?”
The woman’s expression mimicked the satisfaction of a cat who didn’t just get the cream but ate the canary, too. “Of course, Milady.”
She withdrew a piece of parchment and handed it to Jennifer. The parchment held written instructions in what she thought was a woman’s hand, but she’d never seen the handwriting of anyone close to her dad to know if it came from one of them.
Regardless, the instructions were fairly straightforward. Simply invoke a composite effect of Illusion and Transmutation to imprint the image and sounds of the crystal’s surroundings. The embedded effects already present in the crystal would handle presenting the recording in the future.
“Huh… seems simple enough. Are we ready to do this?”
The woman’s expression became a grim smile. “Our captive in the pavilion had a bad enough night that I think he’d share what he knows for the promise of a walk. It would be an embarrassing walk, though. His male pride isn’t nearly as impressive as I’m sure he’d like to think it is.”
Jennifer snorted a laugh. “Well, hopefully… I don’t obtain direct evidence of that. I’m happy to take your word for it. All right. Let’s go.”
The woman led Jennifer into the pavilion, and Jennifer had to admit the poor sod looked rather awful. Even if the Wraith hadn’t front-loaded her expectations, there’s no way she could’ve missed the fact he was not in a good place mentally.
“Oh… thank the gods. Please… please… tell me what you want to know. I don’t care. I’ll say whatever you want if you’ll just let me walk to the latrine.” He actually broke down into sobs then. “Last night… last night was horrid. Please… tell me what you want to know.”
While Jennifer didn’t exactly have a deep wellspring of compassion for the guy, she also wasn’t one for gratuitous torture. She touched the woman’s arm and led her back outside the pavilion. Drawing the Wraith close, Jennifer whispered, “You guys didn’t torture him, did you? He seems pretty broken already.”
A smirk fought to escape the woman’s iron self-control. “I wouldn’t call it ‘torture,’ Milady.”
“Well, what would you call it, then? No… never mind. Just tell me what happened.”
“The other woman of our original four came to us from a… well… an abusive background. She has improved significantly since she joined our ranks, but she still rather strongly dislikes the males of the species. After the second time he pissed on her while trying to use the chamber pot, she… well… came rather close to gelding him. Admittedly, he only pissed on her shoes. Still, though… I’m honestly surprised his screams and begging didn’t wake you; they were rather horrific.”
Jennifer shuddered. “I’m kinda sorry I asked. Okay. Let’s get back in there.”
When she stepped back inside the pavilion, the captive’s expression lit up like a child faced with a mountain of presents at Christmas. “Oh, thank the gods. I was afraid you’d left completely. Please… please, you have to save me.”
Jennifer read over the instructions on the parchment again and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she focused her intent. Then, she invoked a composite effect of Illusion and Transmutation, “Zikthaes-Rhyskaal.”
The resonance of her power slammed into the ambient like a pneumatic battering ram striking a weak clay wall. If there had been any fellow wizards present, they would’ve fallen to their knees, gasping at the savage violence of it. The crystal she held began to glow and lifted from her hand to hover in the air directly in front of the captive and over the center of the table.
“Now then… it’s not that I don’t trust you,” Jennifer said as she regarded the captive, “but… well… I don’t trust you. Zaenos.”
The man’s expression blanked and became one of vapid adoration as he gazed lovingly at Jennifer. “Oh, please, Mistress… I only want to please you. Tell me what will please you.”
“Tell me what this camp is. Why are you here? What’s the purpose of all this?”
“Oh, yes, Mistress. I can certainly do that. This is one of several staging camps around Tel. We are preparing to reclaim the Kingdom when the usurper takes the armies of the Old Alliance to assault Skullkeep. Then… when they’re too battered and weakened to matter, they’ll come home to find they’ve been ousted… just as he ousted all of us. It’s beautiful, really.”
Jennifer glanced at the Wraiths surrounding the table, trying to make sense of it. She thought she remembered her dad talking about how the royal family had ruled Tel during the centuries between Bellock Vanlon and Bellos naming him as Archmagister. “So… you and yours are royalists, then?”
“Oh, yes, Mistress… well… I was. Now, I care only for you. Please, Mistress, there must be more I can tell you. Or if you’d only untie me, I can serve you further. Do laundry, wash your feet, care for your horses… I care not, as long as it pleases you.”
“And what was your position in the grand scheme of this?” Jennifer asked.
“I commanded this camp, and I am one tier below those in charge of our mission.”
Jennifer gnawed at the inside of her cheek, not enough to harm tissue, but it was an unconscious habit from her childhood that she’d never fully broken. It tended to surface when she was deep in thought.
She turned to the Wraith who’d become something of her liaison. “Get him pen, ink, and parchment. Free his hands. He will write down the name of everyone he knows who is his level or higher in this conspiracy.”
“Oh, yes, Mistress. I shall happily do so.”
Writing implements quickly arrived, and the captive set to naming his co-conspirators in writing. Soon enough, he’d filled a sheet front and back with names and looked up at her like an expectant puppy waiting on its treat.
Jennifer turned to her Wraith liaison. “Does he hold any further value to us?”
“I don’t believe so, no.”
Jennifer invoked a Word of Tutation, “Rhosed.”
The expression of vapid adoration left the man’s face, and the crystal dimmed and slowly descended to lay on the tabletop.
“What should we do with him?” the Wraith liaison asked. “Before you get too far down one train of thought, you should know that we finally found the people taken from those wagons. There was one family per wagon, and those they didn’t kill in the initial attack died when the idiot brought them back to camp… children, too.”
Jennifer clenched her jaw, and it felt like she might draw blood from her palms with her own fingernails. “He ordered the death of children?”
The Wraith liaison merely nodded.
“I was tempted to offer him mercy.”
“And now?”
Jennifer turned to regard the former leader of the camp. Given his sudden change of expression, she suspected he saw his death in her eyes. “Give him to your man-hater friend. Tell her I said to have fun.”
CHAPTER 23
Later that day, Jennifer returned to the pavilion. The camp leader was nowhere in sight, not that she expected to see him. Not anymore. She went straight to the map of Tel. She knew roughly where she was, because someone had drawn an X through one of the red dots. She tapped each remaining dot as she counted. Twenty-four. Twenty-five with this camp they’d just cleared. That seemed… a little low for taking over a country.
Movement pulled her attention away from the map, and she smiled at seeing the liaison enter the pavilion.
“How many people were at this camp? You said several dozen the other day, but do you have a better count now?”
“Seventy,” the liaison replied as she crossed the intervening distance and stopped at Jennifer’s side. “Why?”
“So… there were twenty-five camps total, and we just cleared this one. That’s something like seventeen hundred people. Isn’t that a little low to take over a country?”
The liaison shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. The average army is only ten to fifteen thousand. I don’t know about the other province capitals, but Tel Mivar’s city guard only numbers around fifteen hundred. If you already had people inside the walls and complete surprise, you could probably capture even a province capital with less than five hundred people, especially if you know the city’s weaknesses.”
Jennifer nodded. She didn’t like that information. That made it all too easy… all too probable… for them to succeed. But wasn’t there something about a garrison her dad told her?
“Hang on… does the city guard include the garrison?”
The liaison froze. She slowly turned away from the map on the table to face Jennifer. “Where did you hear about the garrison?”
“Dad told me. At least… I think he did. Something about activation sigils scattered throughout Tel Mivar. Does every province capital have them?”
The liaison took a break, holding her silence as she slowly exhaled, then nodded. “It was a pact offered by the soldiers of the Army of Valthon just after the Godswar ended. When they died, they would move on to their afterlife… but in times of grave threat, they could be called back—reactivated as it were—to defend the province capitals. Each and every one of them offered it willingly.”
“Damn… talk about the ultimate inactive reserve force. Okay, so how do we activate them?”
The liaison shrugged. “No one knows. Obviously, your father does. He activated Tel Mivar’s garrison. Unsettled quite a few people doing it, too. But that’s kind of expected when blue-tinged phantoms start rising out of the ground and taking up positions throughout the city. You could always ask him.”
Jennifer gave her a flat look. “I’m trying to help Dad by not adding to his plate. Besides, I feel like this is something I need to do.”
“Yes… we understand that, but Tel is your father’s responsibility. The Kingdom of Tel as a whole. He deserves to know what’s happening, even if he entrusts you with the responsibility of handling it. Informing him but also telling him you want to resolve the issue shows that you respect his responsibility and authority enough to tell him what’s happening, and telling him you want to handle it for him communicates that you want to help him, too. Far too many people would run straight to him with this and dump it at his feet.”
Jennifer sighed. “Yes… okay… I see your point. I’ll visit Dad. Want to tag along?”
For a split second, the liaison’s non-expression slipped, and Jennifer thought she saw a bit of fear at the thought of meeting her dad. She didn’t say anything, though, and waited in silence.
After a few moments, the liaison shook her head. “I… do not believe my presence would add anything to the discussion.”
Jennifer really wanted to call her on it, but that was a good save at the very least. “Well then, you can help my find my way back, then.”
Without waiting for a response, Jennifer stood and walked outside the pavilion, scanning the ground for what she sought. It took a few minutes… mainly because no one likes to camp on a rock… but she returned to the pavilion holding a small stone just big enough to cover the cup of her hand.
“Dad told me how Lillian and Mariana used a teleport beacon during their diplomatic mission to the northern members of the Old Alliance.” She rummaged through the pavilion until she found what she felt was a suitable implement and set to scratching out runes on the stone’s surface. “Yes… it eventually got them into trouble, but no one can deny the handiness of it.”
As soon as Jennifer felt the runes were ready, she pricked her thumb and swabbed some blood onto the surface of the stone as she invoked a Word of Transmutation, “Rhyskaal.”
They both watched the blood vanish into the stone as the runes became crisper and more defined. Within a couple heartbeats, they began to glow with a soft radiance. Jennifer held the stone for a few moments more, concentrating on it until she felt the power of her intent fade, then held it out to the liaison. The liaison accepted it with just a hint of wariness, and Jennifer fought the urge to smile.
Then, Jennifer frowned. “You know… I feel kinda bad. I’ve been thinking of you as ‘the liaison’ all this time. I’m sorry. I should’ve asked your name when we first met.”
The liaison offered Jennifer a soft smile. “Shara, Milady. Once upon a time, I was a miller’s daughter.”
Jennifer smiled. “Thank you, Shara. Now… well… I should probably visit Dad. Sure you don’t want to tag along?”
“Erm… no. I think my time will be better served here.”
Jennifer didn’t say a word, despite how much she wanted to tease Shara, as she rolled up the map. “Well, I’m going to offer Kellea the same option, though I suspect her answer will be much the same as yours. Keep an eye on her for me, please?”
Shara nodded once. “We shall all lay dead before harm comes to her.”
If these fifteen Wraiths were even half as good as Kiri, it would take some serious harm to get through all of them. She nodded her thanks and left the pavilion, intent on seeking out Kellea.
