Chapter 31
The night passed so slowly that when the knock came on my door, it startled me. As it opened, I saw the face of Sergeant Amarice and he carried a wrapped container that he thrust at me.
“Here, your dinner.” I took it and drank slowly from the brass-capped container shaped like a funnel, the animal blood absorbing into me with a mild rush of energy that lifted some of the darkness on my soul. He watched me and asked for the container back.
“What time is it?” I asked wondering if Connacher’s order not to speak included others. When the collar did not punish me, I sat up straighter.
“Go back to whatever you were doing,” he said roughly and slammed the door. I stood, walked towards it and placed my hand on the metal-clad panels. I could not sense anyone standing outside yet I knew a guard had been posted. I wandered the room until I grew tired enough to sleep and only then did I seek out the cot. Lying down, I turned my back to the door and let my weariness pull me down into my dark dreams.
In the morning, I was awake before the sergeant slammed his fists on my door. He checked the room as if he expected me not to be there or as if I had somehow magically filled it with something. He checked under the cot and even my person. I stood still and let him search me without complaint nor did I ask why. This incensed him further and he shoved me back until I fell over the cot. I stayed on the floor only looking back at him steadily.
“What? You don’t know about the slaughter?” he snapped.
I shook my head. “No. What happened?”
“Rangers were murdered in their bunks. Throats slit and some were eaten,” he snarled, grabbing me by the throat. “If you had anything to do with it, I’ll kill you myself, wizard or no wizard.”
“I do not eat the flesh of humans or Elassai,” I returned. “And I have not left this room all night.”
“Are there more of your kind out there?” he snapped.
“I do not know,” I said painfully. “As far as I know, I am the only one cursed this way.”
“Cursed?” He seized on my words.
“My story is not mine to tell. You would be better to seek out the Master Connacher.”
“Get up. We leave in ten minutes. You can go without your meal this morn.”
I climbed to my feet and he went to shove me out the door but I grabbed his hand and held it as he struggled to pull free. “I will not fight you, sergeant because the master forbid it but I will not allow you to endanger my mission by damaging me. For that would bring the master’s wrath down upon you.” I swallowed unhappily. “That is not something you want to experience.” I waited for him to cease pulling and when he did, I let go. I waited for him in the hallway. Without a word, he walked off and I stepped behind the guard as we returned to the eyrie where the birds were kept.
Here, there were twenty or more stalls holding the condorlas with another section housing falcons, hawks and kestrels. Some were messenger birds and others hunters of small game. The Rangers were saddling up select mounts and I saw Arianell and her brother working on two close together. The Sergeant pointed to the first animal in line and took the reins from the soldier working.
“Sergeant,” he greeted and Amarice led the bird out to the common yard where he mounted, ordering me to climb on back. Minutes later, we were all aboard and the birds leaped into the air forming a flight wing once we’d reached the thermal layer. I tried to watch the siblings but the moment I twisted to look for them, Amarice barked at me to keep still.
These condorlas were fast; I could watch the miles flow by underneath us and yet did not recognize the area. I did however know the huge mass of blue green ice we were headed towards. We hit the glacier around noon when the sun was highest overhead. I had learned early not to stare directly at the ice as the sun’s rays reflected off the white surface in blinding bright sheets. I saw the birds retract their inner eyelid to cover the sensitive irises and changed their looks to one of a black featureless orb.
After another two hours of boring flight over the vast expanse of snow and ice, we began to spot the refuse of an army on the march. Abandoned tents, equipment and bodies. Bodies of men and a few animals. No sylphs or warbirds but ice thralls and other snow creatures. When we spotted the hovercrafts lined up, I knew we were close and over the next rise, we came upon the whole encampment. Sgt. Amarice circled the bird and put down near the open spot marked with a black ‘X’.
As we landed, soldiers met us and held the birds’ speaking to Amarice before leading the animals off to a makeshift barn built into the ice. He stalked off through a forest of tents and cabins heading for the center where I knew Blackfin had his headquarters. I noticed that the Ranger team did not follow and for that, I was grateful. I wasn’t sure if the Wizard knew Arianell on sight; and I damn sure knew I couldn’t protect her against the Wizard should he recognize her.
The closer I came to the tent, the worse I felt. Not in pain but the anticipation of it. Amarice stopped outside the door and told me to go in. As I ducked through the canvas flap, I triggered warding spells that warred against Connacher’s magics and Blackfin’s. Blackfin’s won and I was able to stand, breathe and wait for him to acknowledge me.
“I heard there was a massacre at the outpost,” the Emperor’s son said sitting at his desk. He was reading a blueprint from one of the lost cities but it was upside down and hard for me to decipher. I remained silent. “I know you didn’t do it. You could not have left the room Amarice put you into and you are not suffering the collar’s torment.”
“No, master. You did it, not I.”
“How do you know?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t know why you did it but I know that you did.”
“The why does not concern you, Tobias. You will leave at dusk for the Gate with the Rangers.”
“Yes, master.”
“Till then, sit yourself in a corner out of the way and rest.” I obeyed him.