After the major left to my thoughts, I dismounted, leading the horse to let the mage eventually catch up to . We had to chat if I was to convince him to leave.
Deep into sumr, the path was buzzing with insects, flowers calling to them, leaves being eaten by others. Away from the path, the trees were larger and taller, with much less underbrush. As I walked along, a flash of color caught my breath, and I stopped.
A line of white daisies with yellow centers, just at the edge visibility before the trees were too thick and the forest darkened. Stopping, I took the flowers in, noticing more and more the longer I looked. I was mistaken, the forest grew thick, then opened up. Just beyond the thick pines were tall tiger lilies, their large orange and black petals open. And large and deep purple flowers atop bushy, spiny green thistles. Beyond the thistles, the pink swirls of ginger petals, pointing up to the sky. I wanted to get closer, but then realization and worry hit .
“Lady Sarah, what are you gazing at?” ca the deep timbre of the wizard’s voice from behind. He rode up to where I stood.
“Ah. I think maybe we should keep walking.”
Sliding off the horse, he joined . “Oh! You might be right. That looks like the outer edge of a dryad’s grove. Safe enough for you, I’d imagine.”
I glanced up at him, now worried more about why he’d think that than about the potential dryad, “What do you an?”
A smile ca to his face, “They’re not so interested in young girls.”
I let my breath out in relief, “No, no they aren’t.” Dryads capture only n and keep them as servants. I’d once interrupted one trying to take my protector, Morry, away. Looking like a beautiful human woman, the creature was frightened of and fled. No dryad would be frightened of now, though.
“Perhaps you can ta one of the white horses. They’re particularly fond of young maidens. Have you seen any about? They’re a sure sign.”
I glowered at him, “You an the unicorns.”
“Only if you see them as such. Alas, I no longer do.”
“Alas, hey? Yes, yes, only virgins can see them as they are, with golden spiral horns atop their heads.”
“Are they golden? I’ve only seen them in death, when they’re ivory white. Well,” he slipped his left arm into my right and led us further down the path, away from the grove, “perhaps we can discuss this as we walk away.”
“You’d better an the dryad and not the, uh, maidenhood.”
“We study them, you know, us wizards.”
“Maidens?”
He sighed. “Dryads and unicorns. Their bones are useful in making certain implents.”
“That’s disgusting.” And I knew it all too well. The knife used to carve my back up, to inscribe sigils into it, was partly made from a dryad’s and unicorn’s bones. The person who’d cut into had thought, at the ti, it would allow him to steal the magic of a god. But he couldn’t finish – my big man, Morry, tossed him out the window – and the runes ended up triggering my magic. Releasing it.
“ . . . but they’re very difficult to capture.”
“What’s that? I’m sorry, I missed what you said.”
“Dryads, very hard to capture. On account of their steeds, the unicorns, guarding them. They’re quite fierce and will easily tear apart an armored man.”
“How do wizards capture them then?”
“With difficulty.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Do you capture them, though? Or outright kill them?”
“The secret lies in their tree. The one they steal n off to. It’s, ah, larger on the inside. Like an entrance, a door, to a house. If you could only see the door, you’d think it was quite a small house. Once you open that door, though, its ho inside is very large.”
The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them, “A multidinsional space. Yeah.”
“Oh? You’re familiar with such things, then?”
“A little, I guess. Have you, uhm, been inside a dryad’s tree . . . house?”
“No. That’s what you need to avoid. Their tree is their domain. If you end up inside, all is lost. They keep n, it’s true, but they kill mages, for they know we hunt them.”
“Is that why we’re leaving the area so quickly?” One of the horses we were leading neighed, hopefully just because it wanted to and not because it was calling to the unicorns. No answer ca from the forest in any case.
“I could not protect us against such a being. Not,” he raised his hand, shaking the tal band around it, “with these on.”
“Would they keep you as a man, then?”
“Not a thing I can know.”
“Can their magic penetrate the perseidian iron?” Mine could, when I was a goddess.
“I don’t know that either.”
“Not a lot you do know, hey.”
“I’ve never hunted them, my lady.”
“Oh. I’m sure they appreciate your consideration.” I wondered how to bring up the subject of him and sneaking off. “Do you, uhm, plan on staying with these guys? This army? What passes for their army.”
He scrunched up his face, “Where else would I go?”
“What I ant,” I started again, “what I an is, these guys don’t seem that great at protecting anyone. Not even themselves.”
“So far, we’ve escaped from the other military.”
“And in the doing we lost the majority of our forces. Listen, Talaren,” I patted his arm. “These guys are the worst military I’ve ever seen. And it’s because of you.”
He straightened up, “?”
“Well, not you, you, but mages. You guys protected them, not the other way around. They never had anyone to fear, no nation would attack you. So, they don’t know how to be a functional army. They’re more like a glorified police force. Uh, patrol force? Militia? Good for warring brigands but not much else.”
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“I understand what you’re saying and that’s troubling. Have you much experience with militaries? Other than this one, I an.”
An errant stone caught my foot and I stumbled. Annoyingly, he caught , keeping from falling, put his hand on my chest and helped right myself. “Thanks. Thank you. Ok, off you go,” I took his hand off my chest, putting it back down, slipping my arm once again into his. Straightened my dress out with my other hand, trying not to think of it.
“So, uhm, you’ve seen different armies prepare?”
My face was red, blushing from either being caught, as usual, by my own deceptions, or by him, by falling, almost falling. But then I saw, past him and in the forest, white equine legs pacing us, the upper part of the presud unicorn hidden in foliage. “Oh!”
He looked, “What is it?”
“I think maybe you’re right, it is a dryad’s grove! We should perhaps mount up and get out of here.”
“I’ve never heard of them attacking an entire army.”
“If they know anything about this army, they wouldn’t worry in the slightest.” And then I caught a glimpse of its white head and golden spiral horn atop. Trees passed between the beast and us. “Yeah, yup, that’s a unicorn.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Seriously, mages cannot see the horns?”
“Only virgins can-”
“Yes, yes! Only virgins can see them, ok, I got it!”
“I wasn’t aware that your kind took vows of celibacy to hunt my kind.”
“Aren’t you taking this a little too easily? What if they’re following us to get you? They don’t want ! At least, I sure hope they don’t. I don’t think they do. Can we just mount up and ride away?”
“It’s following us to ensure we don’t enter the grove. And making sure we leave. I doubt it’s going to attack.”
“Oh, ok. Then, seeing as how we’re in no hurry, I’m going to go pet it.”
“That would be unwise.”
“I’ll make friends with the unicorn. Then explain, ‘hey, the last mage is here. You want to eat him?’ Be right back.”
He squeezed harder, “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Oh, that’s all you had to say. Alright, I won’t.”
“Thank you.”
“But perhaps we should, you know, take this more seriously and get the hell out of here?”
“And here I was enjoying our stroll together.”
“Oh, it’s gone.” I craned my neck, searching for the animal. But there was no sign of it. Slipping out of his arm, I crouched down, to see through the trees near ground height, in case I could see its white legs. Nope. “The unicorn must have left, at least out of my line of sight. You think we’re past its territory?”
“Possibly. We’ll have to tell the captain to do a headcount, see if anyone’s missing. Though if soone is missing, there’s nothing to be done.”
“Nothing? I stood up, facing the blond-haired man. He was sporting just the touch of a new beard, and it was, oddly, darker than the hair on his head.
“If we could overco the unicorns, we could burn the tree. Or cut it. Use that as a bargaining tool. You see, a dryad’s life is intimately connected to their tree. So argue that their life cos from their tree. Either way, it’s the tree that is their weakness.”
“Ah. That’s where I’ll co to visit you, then, after you’re captured. Now that you’re no longer,” I held up his bracelet this ti, “a mage.”
He didn’t respond, I slipped back into his arm and we walked in silence for a bit and I wondered if I’d just ssed up building rapport with him. How was I to convince him to co with ? Why would anyone leave an army in a world of monsters, to travel with a little girl?
After what felt like a long while, I broke the silence, “Sorry, I didn’t an to hurt your feelings back then. You’re still a mage.”
“Perhaps it was the truth of the matter more than anything, Lady Sarah. I shouldn’t sulk so, not in the presence of a young maiden like yourself.”
“Uh, yeah. Hey,” ti to shoot my shot, or loose my arrow in the local parlance, “I know how to get the irons off you. But we’d have to leave this army to do so.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Are you interested?”
“The only place to take these off is the Temple. You can take there without an army?”
I didn’t know how to tell him that I actually wanted to sneak off to my much more competent army. Then, think about taking him to the temple, whether that would be dangerous or not, and so on. Depending on how strong the Others’ influence over this world was. Knowing I shouldn’t, the lie slipped past my lips, “Yes.”
“I’ve heard you’re skilled at fighting, but surely we’d need more n, soldiers, with us for that. Provisions, horses. It’s a long ways off from here. And, if the other army is after , it would follow us. I’m not sure we could evade them long enough to reach the temple.”
“It depends on how quickly we travel. Just the two of us would make better ti than a group of n, let alone an army.”
“And when we run into sothing? Like those monsters before. Or a dryad on the prowl?”
“South and west. We head that way, through the Nevarrelund kingdom. If they follow us there, they’d soon encounter a real army.” Mine. And then we’d go after the evil nuns. I smiled at that thought. Though, it’d be nice if I knew exactly why they were here. Perhaps they’d tell before the fighting.
“I’m not sure that’s the wisest course of action. Let’s at least join up with the main body of the army and see what their plans are.”
“We likely won’t be able to escape inside a larger army encampnt.”
“Escape?”
“You know what I an! Sneak off, get away from, leave. You don’t know what their plans are for you. When we first t, you were certain they were going to torture you into submission! Now you’re suddenly friends?”
“If they can’t get these off,” he raised his hands, “they’re not going to torture . But I have been thinking, if I can remove these, and I truly am the sole remaining mage, it might not be so bad to lead these people.”
Shit! My right hand dropped down to my dagger. Maybe I should just finish him off now – murder! – and try to escape. I could rush through the dryad’s grove and that would complicate their chase. Still, I didn’t want to end his life. Maybe he’d be a good ruler. “And what would you do, as leader of these people?”
He looked at , then at the ground, “I honestly don’t know. I bristled under the leadership of Tye. And when I found out where our magic cos from – it’s awful! – I swore never to use it again.”
“Where does your magic co from?”
“I don’t think I could explain it if I tried. Even then, you might not believe .”
“Who cares if I don’t believe you? How could it possibly be so bad?”
“We steal it from otherworldly beings we keep locked up in a, well, in sothing like a dryad’s tree.”
So, he did know what he was talking about. And, oddly, felt pity for us deities? I didn’t really know what to make of him. Nor what to say, except, “That’s good of you, to show such empathy.”
“It’s not only empathy. I have great worry that they will escape. They are terrible beyond imagination. We should not have captured them. In truth, Lady Sarah, Tye bound with these irons not for my refusal to practice magic, nor for my disgust at our magic. No. It was because I told him we needed to bargain with those beings to leave our world in peace and let them go. He would have none of it. Nor would anyone see my point. All the other mages could think of was the power! It corrupted them. And ultimately, led to their deaths.
“But these beings are very, very dangerous and we cannot hold them forever. Especially now that the one goddess has escaped and killed every last mage but myself. I have no doubt she would have killed , too, but for these irons. I worry for what she is up to.”
My hand relaxed atop my dagger, and I brought it over to his arm, placing mine upon his. Ti for truth, as far as I dared take it. “You don’t know how right you are. Those beings are extrely dangerous and, Talaren, they are escaping. I . . . I am not here to kill or capture you, I am here to ask your help in fighting them. Stopping them. The Trap is failing! And we cannot let it fail, or this world will be consud.” I stopped, turned him toward , holding both his hands, and said, “Will you co with ? Please.”
“How do you . . . I don’t understand. How do you know all this?”
Hooves hitting the ground from a galloping horse ca toward us, from ahead on the path and shortly Captain Gyges, panting, said, “Co! Our main forces are just ahead and awaiting you, Lord Talaren. General Arminus and the Laemacian Emperor Searcian are eager to et with you.”
The wizard looked from to the captain, saying, “Captain Gyges, we’re very near a dryad’s grove, this perhaps isn’t the best place to host a military encampnt.”
“A single dryad won’t be a problem as the Laemacian third army has joined our forces. Lady Sarah, he’d also like a word with you. It seems the major has inford him of your knowledge of the enemy army.”
I felt the color draining from my face. I mumbled a weak protest, “But I . . . I told the major no such thing.” Serce! He would recognize . As the head of an enemy state, as the true empress of his empire, and he would likely want to imprison . If not worse. I did, after all, destroy their main army and kill his brother.
Gyges had so answer for whatever I’d said, but I wasn’t listening.
Grabbing hold of Talaren’s hand as he was going to mount, I said, “Co with , now! We cannot join the Laemacian forces!”
“Why ever not? They’re the largest military force in these lands. And besides, our conclave has long worked with them.”
Knees weak, thoughts racing, hand on my sword. A simple matter. Talaren, then Gyges, then ride back through the grove, toward my army, hope the unicorns leave alone, whatever those monsters were, hope the enemy army wasn’t far behind, race back to safety, not sleep until I got there.
Except I needed the mage. If he really could bargain with The Others, I needed him more than ever.
“Lady Sarah?” asked Gyges, sliding his horse closer.
Letting go the mage, I mounted my own horse. And hoped he didn’t see how tense I was and where my sword hand had waited, restless.
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