Chapter 14
Elias Solwyn had never been more scared in his entire life. He hadn’t thought that his grandfather would actually do something like this. Call out his bluff. Actually send him to the frontlines.
He wanted to back home almost immediately, and he had been contemplating how to do that.
Wilted Hamlet was hundreds of miles away from Umbrveyl, from the hill station.
Traveling without magic would take days.
Traveling with magic…Elias Solwyn could admit to himself that he was not as adept of a mage as he led others to believe.
He didn’t know how to teleport or fly. He hadn’t even gotten the hang of using brooms and other means of travel.
The chances of him coming across a griffin or a flying mount were slim to none, and the chances of him figuring out how to ride such a mount were zero.
He was trapped here, with his dimwitted friend and Clive Bane, a man he could not stand. Not to mention the other two undesirables in his company.
Standing in this desolation, he could not help but think about yesterday, about how he’d killed Freya.
He had killed her by accident, meaning to kill Lesya.
No one would’ve mourned Lesya’s death, and it would have been so satisfying, getting to exact his revenge on the person who had gotten him expelled from his kingdom.
Umbrveyl had been exactly that. He was the crownless king, doing what he willed, walking about like he owned the place.
It was powerful. He hadn’t had to exert himself in his studies; his grandfather made sure that he passed all his exams and moved onto the next year.
He hadn’t ever faced any friction with other students, not even the Balthazar ones. They feared him. Except this bitch.
He’d regain his power. He’d do something. All he needed to do was get out of here first. The only way he could do that was by getting that homing beacon and using it. Even though Elias didn’t know how to work the mechanics of the beacon, he knew that it was his only shot.
It was three in the afternoon, and the blistering heat outside had forced Clive Bane, Theo, and himself to seek shelter in the ruins of a wine shop.
The basement of the wine shop was far cooler and more provided them security from the Deathless making the rounds in the Hamlet.
Clive had insisted they rest here for some time.
The two of them were asleep, Theo with a half-drunk bottle resting on his stomach, and Clive with his back against a shelf, his channeling device close by.
Elias hadn’t exactly cast any spell on either of them.
He’d just waited. Clive had taken out some food from his supplies, and they’d eaten together.
The combination of the coolness of the basement, the wine they’d drunk after their lunch of bread, cheese, fruit, and jerky, and the tiredness from walking on their feet all day and all afternoon had caused them to sleep.
Elias hadn’t drunk any wine. He hadn’t even filled up on food. He just needed to go back. Once he was back within the safe confines of his house, he could have one of the maids bring him some warm food instead of this hardtack bread and tasteless cheese.
So he snuck out ever so silently, concealing himself with a very rudimentary camouflage spell that would break if someone were to look at him too closely. He skirted along the edge of the city and raced toward the cliff base where Clive had wedged the beacon.
The journey took him twenty minutes, and by its end, his body was drenched in sweat, and he felt a heatstroke oncoming. Barren of all trees and shade and near the desert, this city was blistering. No matter, thought he, for he’d be back in the cool hilltops soon enough.
He pulled the beacon free from the cliff wall and tried to use it, but to no avail. No matter how much he tried to activate it, the damned thing didn’t work.
His heart sank, and he walked away from the wall, holding the city in view from this lower vantage point. In the distance, to the left, behind the rubble of buildings, he spotted familiar outlines. Lesya and Cassian, and standing some distant apart, Freya.
It seemed like Lesya and Cassian were hurling spells at each other.
“Fuckers are training even here,” Elias whispered hotly. He stood there, fiddling with the beacon, looking at Lesya and Cassian from afar. His thumb found the notches and grooves in the beacon. He thumbed them aimlessly. The beacon started to hum.
Before the beacon activated, before it brought him back to the manor in the Golgoran hills, Elias saw Cassian break off from Lesya and head up to meet a group of patrolling Deathless.
And then the beacon activated, teleporting him back to the manor.
“No, no, no, fucking no way,” Elias groaned, and then thumbed the notches on the beacon again frantically. There was no way he’d seen what he’d just seen. He’d known it all along that Cassian and Lesya were in league with the Grath Nomad. He needed to get back. He needed to catch them in the act.
Now that he could activate the beacon at will, maybe he didn’t need to be scared shitless anymore. He thumbed the notched circle again, pushing it. It brought him back to the cliff.
“Sick,” he said, stowing the beacon in his pants and heading off after Lesya and Cassian from afar.
Now he’d return to his grandfather with these two betrayers. He’d return victorious.
* * *
“Where the fuck were you?!” Clive Bane snapped at Elias as he climbed down the stairs.
“Doing your job, asshole,” Elias said boldly, staring at Clive without blinking. “I’ve been saying it since day one and no one believes me. That cunt’s working with the Nomad. I just saw them going with the Deathless.”
“You goddamn idiot,” Clive said, getting up hurriedly. “They’ve likely gotten themselves captured. Were there red flares?”
“No. I’m telling you. Cassian and Lesya are Balthazars. They’re probably going to kill Freya.”
Theo climbed up the stairs frantically.
“Wait!” Clive said, running after Theo.
“Oh, let that troglodyte go,” Elias said. “He’ll distract some of them.”
“That’s not how we do this,” Clive said, pulling on Theo by way of a spell. “Calm down, man. We’ll get them out of there.”
“I’ve got to save her!” Theo said, his face red, tears running down his face. “You don’t get it.”
“I get it. And we will save her. I can promise you that. But first we need cooler heads to prevail. A strategy. We need to think of a plan.”
“What’s there to plan? We sneak to where they’re all holed up. Catch them with the element of surprise, get Freya, and then use this,” Elias said, holding up the beacon.
“You retrieved it?” Clive asked, his voice growing lower till it was a growl.
“And learned how to use it,” Elias said. “I’ll hold onto it for now. Are we going to rescue Freya or what?!”
Clive Bane nodded.
The three of them headed into the town, no longer trailing along the outskirts. They headed toward the excavation site, using the broken buildings as cover, avoiding the Deathless patrols.
At the center of the town was the large crater. Now that they were closer to it, they could see stairs running down along the wall of it. Proper scaffolding, lamps, and workers with hardhats going down and coming up.
“Look,” Elias said, a wild energy in his voice.
He was pointing at the town hall across the square.
A vast building that was still standing.
Or, more specifically, as if it was restored recently.
Its windows and columns, walls and stairs, were all whole, while the rest of the buildings in the vicinity were razed to the ground. “That’s where they are, most likely.”
“So we wait,” Clive said. “Don’t do anything before consulting me.”
Elias ignored this. They were holed up in what was once a school. There was a blackboard, half-shattered, on the wall behind them. Desks and chairs with dust and rubble on them. Charts of letters and colors and fruits and vegetables fallen off the walls and lying graying on the floor.
If he was going to get inside the town hall, he needed a distraction. Clive was never going to play ball, but there was Theo. Good old Theo, who’d do anything Elias would ask of him, especially if it meant saving Freya.
“I’m going to need you to create a diversion,” Elias whispered in Theo’s ear. “You got those bombs?”
Theo nodded.
“When the time comes, you’ll head toward the north of the town and set off the bombs. That’ll make the Deathless come out of the town hall building. It’ll create a window for me to get inside, get Freya, and come out. Then we’ll head back and report to the headmaster.”
“Why don’t you detonate the bombs?” Theo asked. “That way I can rescue Freya.”
“I’ll rescue her,” Elias hissed. “And if there’s a chance that the Grath Nomad is there, I’ll probably kill him. It’s in the prophecy, after all.”
“Does the prophecy talk about me?” Theo asked, his voice unsure.
“Sure it does,” Elias said, smiling at Theo. “The promised champion of Sol will be accompanied by the radiant Sol-Knight who will lead the charge upon the worshippers of Death. He shall unleash upon them flame and fury singlehandedly.”
Theo’s eyes widened in awe. “Yes,” he whispered. “Yes.”
“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Clive asked without turning toward them. He was looking at the entrance of the town hall, counting the Deathless coming in and going out. There were hundreds of them, all wearing their uniform of dark robes and masks.
“Doing the right thing,” Elias said, creeping up behind Clive with a rock in his hand. He struck Clive across the back of the head with great force, knocking him out.
Once Clive fell limp to the ground, Elias kicked him across the face.
“That’s for humiliating me yesterday, you cunt,” Elias said, his eyes shaking wildly. He could feel the Sol-Father’s presence inside him, driving him to do great things. Oh yes. Great things bathed in the splendor of the sun. He no longer felt afraid. He would do the right thing.
He’d make Lesya pay. Come what may.
* * *