The conflict lasted only a few seconds. Summoning my sword, I spurred my horse ahead to the closest rider and leaned out with a horizontal slash that caught him in the back of the neck and killed him instantly. The remaining men had only just begun to turn back towards me when my blade ripped through the chest of the second man with another rising slice. My courser continued down the road, taking me out of melee range of the last guard, so I spun backwards in my saddle and threw my sword at him; it impacted center mass and knocked him to the ground, dead.
I turned my horse around and returned to the scene, stopping him next to the scout with the broken leg. “Hey there, Joss,” I said with a hollow smile, “would you mind telling me where you were going in such a hurry?”
“Fuck you!” he cursed, attempting to drag himself away, though he gave up the effort in short order with a pained yelp.
I clicked my tongue in mocking disappointment as I slid from my saddle and crouched next to him. “Joss, I can fix your leg. Judging by the looks of it, that wound will never fully heal.” I tipped my head slowly to one side. “Unless you let me help you.”
The conflict was clear on his face as he fought between what he knew was right and the overwhelming pain. After a few moments, he looked away and nodded. “Good! We’re getting somewhere,” I exclaimed. “Now Joss, before I do that, I’ll need you to promise me you won’t try to cut my throat or run away as soon as your leg is fixed. You wouldn’t do that, right?” I placed my hand gently on his injured femur, and he flinched and whined at the touch.
“No, I promise! Just make it…” he trailed off, finally giving into the pain with a hard sob. “Make it stop!”
Mana ran down my arm and suffused his leg, and I whistled at the severity of the injury. “Broken femur, fractured hip, severely dislocated, multiple torn ligaments. It’s a good thing I’m here,” I said, not missing the irony. The energy activated at my command, and his wounds began to mend. His face instantly softened as the pain began to recede, and the spell finished a few seconds later.
“How did...what…?” he muttered, looking at his newly healed leg. “No. Primes help me, I don’t care. Anything to be rid of that.” He fell flat on his back and shook his head, eyes closed. “Ask your questions.”
I pointed to the nearly decapitated man a few feet away. “That man told you to get back to the wall. Which wall is that? Atsal? What’s waiting for us there?”
“No, not Atsal. The wall between us and Lybesa: the Mountain Gate.” He continued to rub his leg absentmindedly as he spoke. “We got a bird from the capital four days back. It said you were in a wagon, trying to flee the country through the Gate. We’ve been reinforcing it ever since.”
“Surely your message also told you what happened to Third Company Commander Savitz, right?” I asked. “How many reinforcements will it take before you realize it’s not the quantityof the men, but the qualitythat matters?”
He opened one eye and looked at me curiously. “Well, sure. But it’s not just foot soldiers; they’ve built whole towers just for the archers, they brought in barricades, even a damned ballista.” He closed his eye again and shrugged. “I’m not sure what you did to warrant a ballista, but clearly someone thinks it’s necessary.”
The assessment brought a wicked smile to my face as I pictured Virram giving the orders in a shaking voice. “This has all been very enlightening, Joss. Thank you.”
His eyes snapped open, and he pulled himself up onto his elbows in a sudden jerk. “What happens now? You’re going to let me go, right? I swear I won’t go back to the wall.” His eyes darted nervously between me and his dead compatriots in the road. “I can help you! I know plenty of stuff about the military that you could use. We can be friends! Right?”
“Maybe in another life,” I said with a small sigh. My sword flashed to my hand, and I drove it straight down through his sternum before he had time to react. His body gave a few quick spasms as I withdrew the blade from his chest before falling still. With a quick flourish, I flicked the majority of his blood away, then sheathed the weapon and began to clear the road of bodies.
When the task was completed, I remounted my horse and began the trip back to the wagon. I had kept the area within my Detection throughout my time away and was happy that the Corells had spent it bored and undisturbed. Likewise, I had felt Lia’s mana surrounding me on the trip, and her relief was palpable as I returned unharmed. “That didn’t take long,” she called out cheerfully from her seat on the edge of the wagon when I was within earshot. “Was the scout able to give you anything useful?”
“Yes, he was,” I answered, dismounting my horse with a serious expression on my face. “They know we’re going to the Mountain Gate, and they’re ready for us.”
***
4. THE MOUNTAIN GATE
“I don’t like your plan, Lux,” Marten grumbled.
“Which part, specifically? The part where you stay safe in the wagon, or the part where we all escape to Lybesa?” While it seemed suicidal from an outside perspective, the plan
