“On me!” Drake made a “circle up” motion with his hand and looked at Sky. “Show me the door you picked for our escape.”
Sky took off to lead him deeper into the fort, and the sound of boots assured him others were following. He stopped to check on Valentia and Lydia, who now had Nicole on her feet. Nicole’s whole back was soaked in blood, but the arrows were out of her.
She looked pale, but she was walking with their help. Healing gloves could only do so much, and they’d only had moments to work on her. There was also the possibility those arrows had been poisoned, which would require Raylan’s skills back home.
Still, it looked like Nicole was going to make it. They’d taken no casualties, which was the second good news of the day. The first had been the call from Sky on her magic mirror.
As for Gaby, she looked to be having the time of her life. Her face was flushed and her grin was huge. Carl was still pale from tossing so many meteor kabooms. He leaned heavily on Robin as her keen eyes scanned the fort for threats. No one other than Carl had been forced to use their rarities during Drake’s clever plan, though they would have if needed.
“I still can’t believe your rarity is to teleport people,” Sky said softly. “No wonder you were able to escape the assassin in my guest house. I can’t wait to see that trick.”
He grinned at her as they walked. “You won’t have to wait long.”
As they moved into the fort, it didn’t take long for them to start walking past bodies. All looked to be mercenaries similar to those outside, though these wore different armor. Several were drenched in blood, and one looked like he’d had a hole punched straight through him. These must have been the men charged with holding Lady Skybreak hostage.
Drake ignored the carnage. Some part of him suspected these soldiers had been duped into defending this fort against Sky and her people—no sane man would hold a fort against this woman and her overpowered bodyguards—but he hadn’t done this to them, and they’d been part of a group that abducted Lady Skybreak and threatened to torture her to death.
Distant and menacing booms continued to echo through the fort. Drake suspected Lord Proudglade had ordered the mercenary captain to move in and take Sky out if the lord of Gloomwood and his battle maids showed up to extract her. The mercenary captain must suspect that was exactly who he’d let get past him and charge the fort.
That was another reason he’d been glad to add Gaby, Carl, and Robin to his party, and had Sachi sneak in on her own. If Lord Proudglade was working off the intelligence he’d received from watching them through Robby, he’d warned of four humans and a feral... not seven humans. Every little bit of deception helped.
As Sky led them around a corner, a menacing demonic shadow detached itself from a distant wall. Before Drake could raise Magnum, Sky touched his arm. “She’s with us.”
The shadow shimmered closer, red eyes glowing, before it resolved into a tall, slim, dark-skinned woman who was entirely too naked. Drake averted his eyes out of courtesy as soon as he recognized her—Ali—and mentally processed what the rarity dire wraith could do.
Ali came out of her shift naked, sure, just like he almost had with dire rat. But she was basically a demon once her rarity kicked in, and apparently, she could control her change. He definitely wouldn’t want to demon-shifted Ali in a dark room. Or any room.
But wow, would it be nice to get just one vial of her blood.
Out of the corner of his vision, Drake watched Sky pull off her cloak and toss it to Ali. The other woman wrapped it around herself and fell into step beside them.
“None slipped inside,” Ali said. “Your mother awaits us.”
Right! Lady Skybreak, Sky’s mother, was in this fort as well, because Sky had come all this way to “pay her ransom”. Which Sky paid in blood rather than coin, as Lady Skybreak’s abductors should have known. As they passed a set of closed wooden doors, the distant smell of corpses that wafted through suggested a lot more bodies might be piled behind those.
As Ali pushed open another set of double wooden doors, Sky raised an arm to halt him. Drake paused outside as the doors revealed a large dining hall beyond. Inside stood a tall, blond woman wearing an ornate silverweave tunic that rose to her neck and sturdy-looking pants. She was dressed for battle, not supper, and had a sword hanging from her belt.
This noble, Drake knew immediately, was Lady Skybreak.
This was what Sky would look like when she was twenty years older, and she looked good. She was a bit taller than Sky and visibly athletic, with taut muscles. Her blond hair hung in braids similar to her daughters, though it was a bit messy given her recent captivity.
Her face was similar to Sky’s with a slightly longer nose and faint wrinkles at the edges of her eyes. She was an attractive woman, but Drake had yet to meet anyone, male or female, who wasn’t at least marginally attractive. It seemed the Eidolons passed down good genes.
Another boom echoed throughout the fort. Those mercenaries were persistent.
Sky glanced at him. “It’s time to go, Lord Gloomwood. If you’re ready.”
Drake nodded. “Lady Skybreak, could you step out here with the rest of us?”
He didn’t think his teleport rarity would work if she was already inside the door she needed to pass through to be teleported. Best to do everything exactly as they’d practiced back at his camp. Lady Skybreak strode to the doors and moved past him.
She didn’t look at her daughter. Sky didn’t look at her. There was obviously some awkward tension there, which had him curious despite the perilous situation.
Was Sky mad at her mother because she gave herself up to save a whole town? Was Sky’s mother mad at Sky because she gave up her whole blood pact to save her mother? That seemed like the type of thing these two might get mad at each other about.
Drake focused on the doorway and convinced himself it would lead to his carriage. Before, it had been easy. He’d felt the connection form almost immediately.
This time, nothing happened. He didn’t feel it. He focused harder, even as the next boom from the battering ram was followed by what sounded like a splintering crack.
“Is there a problem?” Lydia asked warningly.
“No problem,” Drake said with a grimace. “I just need to focus.”
Sky huffed. “Gods, I was afraid this would happen.” She pointed at him. “Stay there.”
He frowned at her in confusion. “What?”
“It’s not you, it’s me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Stay there and use your rarity. Do not move.” Sky then backed away from him, and she continued backing up. Away from the door. Further down the hall. What was she doing?
“Lord?” Lydia reminded him. “They’ll be here soon.”
Drake turned back to the door frame, and this time, the connection with the door frame was immediate. Finally! What had been the problem before? “I’ve got it!”
With his connection to the portal inside his carriage back at his vanguard now confirmed, Drake turned to face everyone gathered in the hall. “Will you come with me?” Drake shouted. “Everyone say yes!”
A chorus of yesses greeted him from the others. Good enough. He stepped through the door that led to his carriage and felt the pulse of his recall spot, though he remained in the fort.
Perfect. He wouldn’t teleport until everyone who’d said yes did so. So far, everything was working just as it had when he’d tested this with his maids and feral before he left his vanguard to come here. Distance didn’t seem to matter.
Drake turned to face those clustered behind him. “Form a line! Lydia goes first. No one walks through this door until I say so, then I need each of you to wait a few heartbeats after the last person goes. You got that?”
Most of them nodded. Another loud crack echoed down the hall from the ram in the process of obliterating the front doors of the fort.
“Lydia? Go through and get everything ready on the other side.”
“Yes, lord.” She walked through the open doorway and vanished.
Gasps from those assembled greeted Drake as he resisted the urge to pump his fist. “Hold!” he called to the others. A stampede through the doorway could be bad.
He mentally gave Lydia ten full seconds to prepare their exit even as more splintering sounds came from the door. His steward needed time to catch her balance after the teleport, stop the carriage if it was moving, open the door, and get out. She’d had enough time.
“Val, Nicole, Sachi, go!”
Sachi sauntered through the doorway and vanished just like Lydia. Nicole and Valentia stumbled through next, together, which Drake allowed because he knew his carriage could hold two people easily. More than that and they could end up teleporting on top of each other. Given what generally happened in videogames when they did that, that was bad.
With his people now teleported successfully, Drake looked to everyone who hadn’t walked through an invisible teleporting door before. “Through the door you will find a carriage! Step immediately out of the open door on the other side! Do not dawdle!”
“Go!” Sky shouted. “Ali, now! Through the door and out the carriage!”
Ali walked through the open doorway and vanished, followed a few heartbeats later by a short, blond-haired woman, then a woman with spiky black hair. He’d get those two straightened out later. As Gaby rushed through and vanished, Drake started feeling dizzy.
That was... seven people? Already three more than Anna could manage.
Carl went through next, followed by Robin. Spots were dancing before Drake’s eyes now, and the room was slowly starting to spin. That was nine. Three left, including himself.
“Mother!” Sky shouted. “Go now!”
Lady Skybreak stepped through the door and vanished. That made ten. Everyone he’d come here to rescue was now safely back with his vanguard on the Noble Road less than a day from Korhaurbauten. The only people he wanted to save in this fort were Sky and himself.
Drake’s heart hammered as his knees trembled. He’d just teleported six more people than Anna could manage, and he wasn’t dead yet. He really had burnished this rarity!
“You may have to leave me here!” Sky shouted.
Despite the spinning room, he found the strength to stare at her in shock. “What?”
“It’s my rarity!” she shouted. “Void cancels other rarities if I get too close!”
Doors loudly shattered deeper in the fort. Men roared as footsteps thundered inside.
Drake mentally cursed. Of course Sky hadn’t told him her rarity could cancel other rarities. Once she knew his rarity could teleport everyone she cared about to safety, including her mother, she’d kept it from him even if it meant she might not escape herself.
Such. Heroic. Nonsense. Drake stumbled deeper into the room to put more space between them. “How far?”
“I don’t know!” she said. “You have to go without me!”
“I can’t!” he shouted back. “You already said yes! I literally can’t leave unless you do!”
“What?” she shrieked. “You didn’t tell me that!”
“Well I didn’t know you were going to be a hero about it!”
Men roared as boots pounded. Drake thumped back against the far wall of the dining hall, as far as he could get from the door. “Run through the door now! Try!”
As shouts sounded almost on top of them, Sky darted for the open doorway into the dining hall. Drake’s vision flickered dangerously as the shadows of armed men grew large on the wall beyond. Was this it? This might be it for both of them.
A warm body slammed into him hard enough to drop him into his back on hard wood. He gasped and blinked back spots as the world spun above him, but it was a world that existed inside his armored carriage. Not the inside of Fort Graystone.
He’d done it. He’d teleported home twelve people, three times what Anna could have managed, but she was ten and a third of his body weight. He’d hoped his burnishing of her teleport rarity would be a bit more powerful than this, but twelve wasn’t bad at all.
“Can you see me?” Sky cried above him. “Speak to me!”
Drake smiled up at her. He tried to speak and didn’t quite manage it. Still, he knew his battle maids would be here in moments. Their healing gloves would likely provide enough healing to stabilize him so he didn’t die of blood loss. He was fairly certain. If not, well...
He’d done everything he planned to do.
Though he would have appreciated a little more time to enjoy the feeling of Sky lying on top of him before he blacked out.
Author's Note: Next week, Drake has a complicated dinner and an awkward chat with Sky's mom.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read Ahead on the Patreon
Chat on the Discord
“On me!” Drake made a “circle up” motion with his hand and looked at Sky. “Show me the door you picked for our escape.”
Sky took off to lead him deeper into the fort, and the sound of boots assured him others were following. He stopped to check on Valentia and Lydia, who now had Nicole on her feet. Nicole’s whole back was soaked in blood, but the arrows were out of her.
She looked pale, but she was walking with their help. Healing gloves could only do so much, and they’d only had moments to work on her. There was also the possibility those arrows had been poisoned, which would require Raylan’s skills back home.
Still, it looked like Nicole was going to make it. They’d taken no casualties, which was the second good news of the day. The first had been the call from Sky on her magic mirror.
As for Gaby, she looked to be having the time of her life. Her face was flushed and her grin was huge. Carl was still pale from tossing so many meteor kabooms. He leaned heavily on Robin as her keen eyes scanned the fort for threats. No one other than Carl had been forced to use their rarities during Drake’s clever plan, though they would have if needed.
“I still can’t believe your rarity is to teleport people,” Sky said softly. “No wonder you were able to escape the assassin in my guest house. I can’t wait to see that trick.”
He grinned at her as they walked. “You won’t have to wait long.”
As they moved into the fort, it didn’t take long for them to start walking past bodies. All looked to be mercenaries similar to those outside, though these wore different armor. Several were drenched in blood, and one looked like he’d had a hole punched straight through him. These must have been the men charged with holding Lady Skybreak hostage.
Drake ignored the carnage. Some part of him suspected these soldiers had been duped into defending this fort against Sky and her people—no sane man would hold a fort against this woman and her overpowered bodyguards—but he hadn’t done this to them, and they’d been part of a group that abducted Lady Skybreak and threatened to torture her to death.
Distant and menacing booms continued to echo through the fort. Drake suspected Lord Proudglade had ordered the mercenary captain to move in and take Sky out if the lord of Gloomwood and his battle maids showed up to extract her. The mercenary captain must suspect that was exactly who he’d let get past him and charge the fort.
That was another reason he’d been glad to add Gaby, Carl, and Robin to his party, and had Sachi sneak in on her own. If Lord Proudglade was working off the intelligence he’d received from watching them through Robby, he’d warned of four humans and a feral... not seven humans. Every little bit of deception helped.
As Sky led them around a corner, a menacing demonic shadow detached itself from a distant wall. Before Drake could raise Magnum, Sky touched his arm. “She’s with us.”
The shadow shimmered closer, red eyes glowing, before it resolved into a tall, slim, dark-skinned woman who was entirely too naked. Drake averted his eyes out of courtesy as soon as he recognized her—Ali—and mentally processed what the rarity dire wraith could do.
Ali came out of her shift naked, sure, just like he almost had with dire rat. But she was basically a demon once her rarity kicked in, and apparently, she could control her change. He definitely wouldn’t want to demon-shifted Ali in a dark room. Or any room.
But wow, would it be nice to get just one vial of her blood.
Out of the corner of his vision, Drake watched Sky pull off her cloak and toss it to Ali. The other woman wrapped it around herself and fell into step beside them.
“None slipped inside,” Ali said. “Your mother awaits us.”
Right! Lady Skybreak, Sky’s mother, was in this fort as well, because Sky had come all this way to “pay her ransom”. Which Sky paid in blood rather than coin, as Lady Skybreak’s abductors should have known. As they passed a set of closed wooden doors, the distant smell of corpses that wafted through suggested a lot more bodies might be piled behind those.
As Ali pushed open another set of double wooden doors, Sky raised an arm to halt him. Drake paused outside as the doors revealed a large dining hall beyond. Inside stood a tall, blond woman wearing an ornate silverweave tunic that rose to her neck and sturdy-looking pants. She was dressed for battle, not supper, and had a sword hanging from her belt.
This noble, Drake knew immediately, was Lady Skybreak.
This was what Sky would look like when she was twenty years older, and she looked good. She was a bit taller than Sky and visibly athletic, with taut muscles. Her blond hair hung in braids similar to her daughters, though it was a bit messy given her recent captivity.
Her face was similar to Sky’s with a slightly longer nose and faint wrinkles at the edges of her eyes. She was an attractive woman, but Drake had yet to meet anyone, male or female, who wasn’t at least marginally attractive. It seemed the Eidolons passed down good genes.
Another boom echoed throughout the fort. Those mercenaries were persistent.
Sky glanced at him. “It’s time to go, Lord Gloomwood. If you’re ready.”
Drake nodded. “Lady Skybreak, could you step out here with the rest of us?”
He didn’t think his teleport rarity would work if she was already inside the door she needed to pass through to be teleported. Best to do everything exactly as they’d practiced back at his camp. Lady Skybreak strode to the doors and moved past him.
She didn’t look at her daughter. Sky didn’t look at her. There was obviously some awkward tension there, which had him curious despite the perilous situation.
Was Sky mad at her mother because she gave herself up to save a whole town? Was Sky’s mother mad at Sky because she gave up her whole blood pact to save her mother? That seemed like the type of thing these two might get mad at each other about.
Drake focused on the doorway and convinced himself it would lead to his carriage. Before, it had been easy. He’d felt the connection form almost immediately.
This time, nothing happened. He didn’t feel it. He focused harder, even as the next boom from the battering ram was followed by what sounded like a splintering crack.
“Is there a problem?” Lydia asked warningly.
“No problem,” Drake said with a grimace. “I just need to focus.”
Sky huffed. “Gods, I was afraid this would happen.” She pointed at him. “Stay there.”
He frowned at her in confusion. “What?”
“It’s not you, it’s me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Stay there and use your rarity. Do not move.” Sky then backed away from him, and she continued backing up. Away from the door. Further down the hall. What was she doing?
“Lord?” Lydia reminded him. “They’ll be here soon.”
Drake turned back to the door frame, and this time, the connection with the door frame was immediate. Finally! What had been the problem before? “I’ve got it!”
With his connection to the portal inside his carriage back at his vanguard now confirmed, Drake turned to face everyone gathered in the hall. “Will you come with me?” Drake shouted. “Everyone say yes!”
A chorus of yesses greeted him from the others. Good enough. He stepped through the door that led to his carriage and felt the pulse of his recall spot, though he remained in the fort.
Perfect. He wouldn’t teleport until everyone who’d said yes did so. So far, everything was working just as it had when he’d tested this with his maids and feral before he left his vanguard to come here. Distance didn’t seem to matter.
Drake turned to face those clustered behind him. “Form a line! Lydia goes first. No one walks through this door until I say so, then I need each of you to wait a few heartbeats after the last person goes. You got that?”
Most of them nodded. Another loud crack echoed down the hall from the ram in the process of obliterating the front doors of the fort.
“Lydia? Go through and get everything ready on the other side.”
“Yes, lord.” She walked through the open doorway and vanished.
Gasps from those assembled greeted Drake as he resisted the urge to pump his fist. “Hold!” he called to the others. A stampede through the doorway could be bad.
He mentally gave Lydia ten full seconds to prepare their exit even as more splintering sounds came from the door. His steward needed time to catch her balance after the teleport, stop the carriage if it was moving, open the door, and get out. She’d had enough time.
“Val, Nicole, Sachi, go!”
Sachi sauntered through the doorway and vanished just like Lydia. Nicole and Valentia stumbled through next, together, which Drake allowed because he knew his carriage could hold two people easily. More than that and they could end up teleporting on top of each other. Given what generally happened in videogames when they did that, that was bad.
With his people now teleported successfully, Drake looked to everyone who hadn’t walked through an invisible teleporting door before. “Through the door you will find a carriage! Step immediately out of the open door on the other side! Do not dawdle!”
“Go!” Sky shouted. “Ali, now! Through the door and out the carriage!”
Ali walked through the open doorway and vanished, followed a few heartbeats later by a short, blond-haired woman, then a woman with spiky black hair. He’d get those two straightened out later. As Gaby rushed through and vanished, Drake started feeling dizzy.
That was... seven people? Already three more than Anna could manage.
Carl went through next, followed by Robin. Spots were dancing before Drake’s eyes now, and the room was slowly starting to spin. That was nine. Three left, including himself.
“Mother!” Sky shouted. “Go now!”
Lady Skybreak stepped through the door and vanished. That made ten. Everyone he’d come here to rescue was now safely back with his vanguard on the Noble Road less than a day from Korhaurbauten. The only people he wanted to save in this fort were Sky and himself.
Drake’s heart hammered as his knees trembled. He’d just teleported six more people than Anna could manage, and he wasn’t dead yet. He really had burnished this rarity!
“You may have to leave me here!” Sky shouted.
Despite the spinning room, he found the strength to stare at her in shock. “What?”
“It’s my rarity!” she shouted. “Void cancels other rarities if I get too close!”
Doors loudly shattered deeper in the fort. Men roared as footsteps thundered inside.
Drake mentally cursed. Of course Sky hadn’t told him her rarity could cancel other rarities. Once she knew his rarity could teleport everyone she cared about to safety, including her mother, she’d kept it from him even if it meant she might not escape herself.
Such. Heroic. Nonsense. Drake stumbled deeper into the room to put more space between them. “How far?”
“I don’t know!” she said. “You have to go without me!”
“I can’t!” he shouted back. “You already said yes! I literally can’t leave unless you do!”
“What?” she shrieked. “You didn’t tell me that!”
“Well I didn’t know you were going to be a hero about it!”
Men roared as boots pounded. Drake thumped back against the far wall of the dining hall, as far as he could get from the door. “Run through the door now! Try!”
As shouts sounded almost on top of them, Sky darted for the open doorway into the dining hall. Drake’s vision flickered dangerously as the shadows of armed men grew large on the wall beyond. Was this it? This might be it for both of them.
A warm body slammed into him hard enough to drop him into his back on hard wood. He gasped and blinked back spots as the world spun above him, but it was a world that existed inside his armored carriage. Not the inside of Fort Graystone.
He’d done it. He’d teleported home twelve people, three times what Anna could have managed, but she was ten and a third of his body weight. He’d hoped his burnishing of her teleport rarity would be a bit more powerful than this, but twelve wasn’t bad at all.
“Can you see me?” Sky cried above him. “Speak to me!”
Drake smiled up at her. He tried to speak and didn’t quite manage it. Still, he knew his battle maids would be here in moments. Their healing gloves would likely provide enough healing to stabilize him so he didn’t die of blood loss. He was fairly certain. If not, well...
He’d done everything he planned to do.
Though he would have appreciated a little more time to enjoy the feeling of Sky lying on top of him before he blacked out.
Author's Note: Next week, Drake has a complicated dinner and an awkward chat with Sky's mom.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read Ahead on the Patreon
Chat on the Discord
