As Lydia joined him and Valentia in their survey of the enemy group, Drake glanced at her and kept his voice to a low whisper. “What are the chances those are good guys?”
Lydia whispered back. “There is a remote possibility they could be Skybreak soldiers or traveling merchants hoping to take shelter in Fort Graystone, but I doubt that.”
“Should have kept a scout in reserve,” Drake said. “Guess it’s up to us then.”
“You wish me to ascertain their identities?”
“Sneakily,” Drake agreed. “We can’t even get a good look at them from here. Let’s see if we can get close enough to at least hear whatever they’re chatting about so amiably.”
“Lydia should go alone,” Valentia said. “You and I will stay here until she returns.”
“That’s a good plan,” Drake agreed. “But it won’t be nearly as fun for me, and I like Lydia alive. So let’s go, battle maids.”
Valentia sighed. “At least, if we all die, I will no longer have to worry about stopping you from taking foolish risks.”
Drake grinned at her. “See? There’s an upside to every plan.” He looked toward the sound of their oncoming enemies. “Now, let’s mosey.”
Drake let Lydia lead the way, and he wasn’t surprised when she led them back the same way Sachi had led them up here. Going back down was a bit more harrowing than climbing up, mainly because he was looking at the distant ground instead of the sky. If he missed a step and fell to his death, Samuel would get the manor a whole lot faster than they planned.
Once they were back on mostly-level ground without broken necks, Lydia set off in the direction they had seen the distant torches. Drake followed closely in her footsteps. He didn’t even hear Valentia behind him. He had to look back to verify she hadn’t simply vanished.
Soon the voices were audible once more. Lydia slowed. Fortunately, a stroke of luck or, more likely, Lydia’s competence with reading and choosing routes across mountain terrain, brought them along a narrow ledge ahead of and above where the folks below were ambling. As Drake flattened himself and wriggled along it, unconcerned voices carried on the wind.
“...no way she’s still there,” one voice said, a young woman. “This is the Asp we’re talking about. She’s probably already burned their flesh off and sauntered away!”
“Not if she couldn’t get close enough to burn them,” another voice said, a young man. “She can’t burn men alive if they’re constantly lobbing arrows at her.”
“I’m telling you, we’re walking to a fort full of gooey dead men,” the first woman said. “This whole trip was a waste from the moment we set out, and it will smell.”
“We get experience either way,” the man said. “So if everyone is dead and they’ve already left, consider this a training mission.”
“And if it isn’t, we face the Asp!” the first woman said. “Which is terrifying!”
“You should both turn back if she truly frightens you,” a second woman said vengefully. “That woman took everything from me. She will pay in blood.”
The man groaned. “Please don’t mention your blood vendetta to the mercenaries. We are trying to present ourselves as professional and experienced bounty hunters.”
“You weren’t there,” the second woman said. “You didn’t see all she did.”
“No, I wasn’t, but that’s no reason to just tell anyone you see you’re out for revenge,” the man said. “Now, we’re getting close, so we should probably...”
The man trailed off. Drake didn’t like that the man trailed off. The steady sound of approaching footsteps had stopped as well. While he saw torchlight below, the torch that was casting it hadn’t yet rounded the narrow bend in the rocks that would bring it in sight.
Lydia nudged him and mouthed four words. “Have we been spotted?”
The answer came when a literal flaming rock came hurtling out of the sky.
Instincts honed by dodging men carrying long steel beams across a busy construction site allowed Drake to roll to one side as Lydia rolled to the other. The rock crashed down between them and shattered into searing, rocky shrapnel. That peppered his raised hand and arm and left some shallow cuts, but did nothing worse.
None of them had said a word and been quiet as the wind, so one of those mercenaries must have a rarity that allowed him to detect nearby danger or nearby enemies. That sucked.
“Did you get them?” the first woman called frantically. “Are they dead?”
An angry grunt followed. “Shut up, Gaby!”
At least the enemy force seemed to be comprised of idiots. Drake urgently motioned for his people to fall back. As they all stayed low and attempted to retreat, another flaming rock hurtled from the sky. That was definitely a rarity, but this time, a small but glittering ball of ice hurtled up to meet it. Valentia really could freeze just about anything.
The two projectiles collided in midair. Rocks and flaming debris scattered like a firecracker above their heads, showering them with pebbles. While that was annoying, it was surprisingly non-fatal. A shadow rushed around the distant cliff edge below.
More than forty paces away. Not that much further though. Drake brought Magnum to his shoulder and aimed down its barrel. He pressed the trigger. His assault crossbow bucked against his shoulder as the bolt whistled away.
The bolt slammed into the rock only a hand’s length from the distant shadow’s head. So close! They cursed and leapt out of sight.
“Crossbow!” the first woman yelled. “It just fired!”
“Which is why you don’t just charge out blindly!” the second woman yelled. “Gods!”
Another flaming rock rocketed into sight, and this time, Drake saw where it was coming from. Someone in the distance was lobbing the damn things up into the air like they were carrying around a trebuchet. If this was like other rarities, he imagined it was tiring them out. They had also just revealed their position. Drake and his maids held the high ground.
This time, the rock was far enough off target Valentia did not bother to intercept it, or perhaps had no ice available to do so. That allowed Drake to close in without being attacked, though the commotion might be loud enough to alert the soldiers at the watch fires.
Before he could finish advancing, a slim female shadow rocketed into view from the ledge that had been out of sight below. She seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, flying, and also already had a bowstring drawn taut. He caught a glimpse of dark flowing hair and a grim smile, and then an icy wall popped up in front of his face.
The arrow hit the wall and sliced straight though, with the tip coming to a stop right before Drake’s nose. A smarter man would have taken that as a cue to not be so reckless, but Drake stepped around it and aimed Magnum instead. As the woman landed gracefully on the ledge and reached to her quiver for another arrow, he fired.
This time his bolt hit home, though it only caught her in the shoulder. Her anguished cry as she tumbled off the ledge tugged at what part of him hadn’t gone full murder machine. He hoped he wasn’t going to go soft whenever he had to kill women. Lydia wouldn’t.
From below, the first woman gasped. “Oh Gods, are you okay?”
They now had the advantage in momentum. Drake was determined to take it. He rose and crouch-walked forward with Magnum, aware he only had two bolts loaded now. He was pleased when both Lydia and Valentia fell into step beside him. They advanced together.
The urge to stop and reload was strong, but that meant he’d have to take his eyes off the ledge. If that long-haired archer leapt up to take a shot again, he wanted to be ready. He was all too aware he was only alive right now because of Valentia’s icy intervention.
“You said he’d just fired!” the second female voice called angrily.
“He did!” the man called.
“But he just shot me!”
“Crossbow reload rarity?”
The first woman called up to them with just the slightest tremor in her voice. “Hey, fellow bounty hunters?” She sounded hopeful. “Team up? We can split the bounty!”
Drake slowed. He didn’t like it when the people he had to kill sounded so young and terrified. Still, these people had attacked them first, and they might have dangerous rarities. He couldn’t risk losing a battle maid to a fatal strike... or die himself.
As they approached the ledge and a possible path downward, Lydia pointed toward a narrow path down. She brushed her hands across her waist and pulled two glowing yellow daggers from her hips. She pointed to a second path and narrowed her eyes.
Pincer attack. Seemed like a good plan. The enemy was probably huddled up in fear.
“You don’t just call a truce with the enemy!” the second woman said. “Now get ready!”
Ahead of him, Valentia hissed. “Silverweave, lord,” she whispered.
Drake ground his teeth. “Can’t freeze ‘em?”
“No. They came prepared to face rarities.”
“Then you’re my shield.”
As Lydia moved down the path she’d indicated, Drake looked for another way down. He could probably get an angle on them once he reached the ledge... assuming he didn’t get a burning rock in the face for his trouble. He’d just have to trust Valentia to handle that.
He’d just reached the ledge when someone gurgled in pain, and then a woman shouted out in triumph. “Got her! I got her!” She shrieked. “Carl!”
Had they hurt Lydia? Drake rushed to the edge and swept Magnum around and down, from the high ground, to find a sight that was less horrifying and more... mildly horrifying.
The dark-haired woman who had turbo jumped earlier had collapsed with her back against the cliff, clutching the bolt buried in her shoulder. Blood pumped past her fingers. A young man who might even be younger than Olivia—Carl— stumbled away from Lydia, clutching his bloody stomach in an attempt to keep his gleaming intestines from sliding out.
And a third woman, Gaby—a tall, slim, blond-haired girl in what looked like patchwork silverweave clothing—stood with both hands out and golden light flaring from her palms. She stood like she was holding back a falling wall, one foot braced with her ankle up.
Lydia stood frozen paces away from the blond-haired girl, face flat and eyes cold. One dagger was raised while the other looked as if it had just finished a slash. She wasn’t moving. She looked to be, so far as Drake could tell, frozen in place.
The blond woman physically slid back despite the only sign of resistance being the air ahead of her glowing hands. “Carl? Carl! Did she get you?”
“Oh yes.” Carl dropped his knees. “Not good.”
He glanced up at Drake. As he did so, Drake got a clear look at a young olive-skinned face, short curly hair, and wide dark eyes. His target looked like he was still in high school, and the terrified despair in the young man’s eyes kept Drake from taking the kill shot.
From up here, from this close, he could put a bolt through a kneeling man-sized target just as easily as he’d killed Suck. Yet it was obvious that, other than whatever Gaby was doing to freeze Lydia, these three assassins were out of the fight.
He still needed to find out what they were doing out here.
Ice crackled into being beneath the young blond-haired woman’s boots. When some invisible force drove her back, she lost her footing. Lydia stumbled, face still hard as stone. She caught herself and dashed forward with knives raised to make the kill.
“Lydia, stop!” Drake shouted.
Lydia froze a hair’s breadth from slicing the throat of the terrified blond girl who, having now fallen on her ass, had managed nothing but to raise her hands to ward off the knives. Beside him, Valentia cursed softly. “Don’t do this.”
“Surrender now!” Drake called as loud as he dared. “Or you’re all dead!”
Gaby looked up at where Lydia stood paces away, glowing knives raised. Eyes wide as saucers, she stared pleadingly at Drake. “We surrender!”
“Gods.” Carl collapsed onto his side in his own blood. “Ow.”
“I will never surrender,” the dark-haired archer said, still clutching her bleeding shoulder. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Don’t be an idiot!” Gaby pleaded with her. “We can still live through this!”
Valentia was now seething at his side. “This is not the time to be benevolent.”
“I know.” Drake kept Magnum trained on Robin, the only one of them who still looked capable of putting up a fight. “But we still need answers about what’s going on out here, and these folks might have some.”
And as much as this world was changing him, he wasn’t yet ready to slaughter a bunch of high school kids.
As Lydia joined him and Valentia in their survey of the enemy group, Drake glanced at her and kept his voice to a low whisper. “What are the chances those are good guys?”
Lydia whispered back. “There is a remote possibility they could be Skybreak soldiers or traveling merchants hoping to take shelter in Fort Graystone, but I doubt that.”
“Should have kept a scout in reserve,” Drake said. “Guess it’s up to us then.”
“You wish me to ascertain their identities?”
“Sneakily,” Drake agreed. “We can’t even get a good look at them from here. Let’s see if we can get close enough to at least hear whatever they’re chatting about so amiably.”
“Lydia should go alone,” Valentia said. “You and I will stay here until she returns.”
“That’s a good plan,” Drake agreed. “But it won’t be nearly as fun for me, and I like Lydia alive. So let’s go, battle maids.”
Valentia sighed. “At least, if we all die, I will no longer have to worry about stopping you from taking foolish risks.”
Drake grinned at her. “See? There’s an upside to every plan.” He looked toward the sound of their oncoming enemies. “Now, let’s mosey.”
Drake let Lydia lead the way, and he wasn’t surprised when she led them back the same way Sachi had led them up here. Going back down was a bit more harrowing than climbing up, mainly because he was looking at the distant ground instead of the sky. If he missed a step and fell to his death, Samuel would get the manor a whole lot faster than they planned.
Once they were back on mostly-level ground without broken necks, Lydia set off in the direction they had seen the distant torches. Drake followed closely in her footsteps. He didn’t even hear Valentia behind him. He had to look back to verify she hadn’t simply vanished.
Soon the voices were audible once more. Lydia slowed. Fortunately, a stroke of luck or, more likely, Lydia’s competence with reading and choosing routes across mountain terrain, brought them along a narrow ledge ahead of and above where the folks below were ambling. As Drake flattened himself and wriggled along it, unconcerned voices carried on the wind.
“...no way she’s still there,” one voice said, a young woman. “This is the Asp we’re talking about. She’s probably already burned their flesh off and sauntered away!”
“Not if she couldn’t get close enough to burn them,” another voice said, a young man. “She can’t burn men alive if they’re constantly lobbing arrows at her.”
“I’m telling you, we’re walking to a fort full of gooey dead men,” the first woman said. “This whole trip was a waste from the moment we set out, and it will smell.”
“We get experience either way,” the man said. “So if everyone is dead and they’ve already left, consider this a training mission.”
“And if it isn’t, we face the Asp!” the first woman said. “Which is terrifying!”
“You should both turn back if she truly frightens you,” a second woman said vengefully. “That woman took everything from me. She will pay in blood.”
The man groaned. “Please don’t mention your blood vendetta to the mercenaries. We are trying to present ourselves as professional and experienced bounty hunters.”
“You weren’t there,” the second woman said. “You didn’t see all she did.”
“No, I wasn’t, but that’s no reason to just tell anyone you see you’re out for revenge,” the man said. “Now, we’re getting close, so we should probably...”
The man trailed off. Drake didn’t like that the man trailed off. The steady sound of approaching footsteps had stopped as well. While he saw torchlight below, the torch that was casting it hadn’t yet rounded the narrow bend in the rocks that would bring it in sight.
Lydia nudged him and mouthed four words. “Have we been spotted?”
The answer came when a literal flaming rock came hurtling out of the sky.
Instincts honed by dodging men carrying long steel beams across a busy construction site allowed Drake to roll to one side as Lydia rolled to the other. The rock crashed down between them and shattered into searing, rocky shrapnel. That peppered his raised hand and arm and left some shallow cuts, but did nothing worse.
None of them had said a word and been quiet as the wind, so one of those mercenaries must have a rarity that allowed him to detect nearby danger or nearby enemies. That sucked.
“Did you get them?” the first woman called frantically. “Are they dead?”
An angry grunt followed. “Shut up, Gaby!”
At least the enemy force seemed to be comprised of idiots. Drake urgently motioned for his people to fall back. As they all stayed low and attempted to retreat, another flaming rock hurtled from the sky. That was definitely a rarity, but this time, a small but glittering ball of ice hurtled up to meet it. Valentia really could freeze just about anything.
The two projectiles collided in midair. Rocks and flaming debris scattered like a firecracker above their heads, showering them with pebbles. While that was annoying, it was surprisingly non-fatal. A shadow rushed around the distant cliff edge below.
More than forty paces away. Not that much further though. Drake brought Magnum to his shoulder and aimed down its barrel. He pressed the trigger. His assault crossbow bucked against his shoulder as the bolt whistled away.
The bolt slammed into the rock only a hand’s length from the distant shadow’s head. So close! They cursed and leapt out of sight.
“Crossbow!” the first woman yelled. “It just fired!”
“Which is why you don’t just charge out blindly!” the second woman yelled. “Gods!”
Another flaming rock rocketed into sight, and this time, Drake saw where it was coming from. Someone in the distance was lobbing the damn things up into the air like they were carrying around a trebuchet. If this was like other rarities, he imagined it was tiring them out. They had also just revealed their position. Drake and his maids held the high ground.
This time, the rock was far enough off target Valentia did not bother to intercept it, or perhaps had no ice available to do so. That allowed Drake to close in without being attacked, though the commotion might be loud enough to alert the soldiers at the watch fires.
Before he could finish advancing, a slim female shadow rocketed into view from the ledge that had been out of sight below. She seemed to be, for all intents and purposes, flying, and also already had a bowstring drawn taut. He caught a glimpse of dark flowing hair and a grim smile, and then an icy wall popped up in front of his face.
The arrow hit the wall and sliced straight though, with the tip coming to a stop right before Drake’s nose. A smarter man would have taken that as a cue to not be so reckless, but Drake stepped around it and aimed Magnum instead. As the woman landed gracefully on the ledge and reached to her quiver for another arrow, he fired.
This time his bolt hit home, though it only caught her in the shoulder. Her anguished cry as she tumbled off the ledge tugged at what part of him hadn’t gone full murder machine. He hoped he wasn’t going to go soft whenever he had to kill women. Lydia wouldn’t.
From below, the first woman gasped. “Oh Gods, are you okay?”
They now had the advantage in momentum. Drake was determined to take it. He rose and crouch-walked forward with Magnum, aware he only had two bolts loaded now. He was pleased when both Lydia and Valentia fell into step beside him. They advanced together.
The urge to stop and reload was strong, but that meant he’d have to take his eyes off the ledge. If that long-haired archer leapt up to take a shot again, he wanted to be ready. He was all too aware he was only alive right now because of Valentia’s icy intervention.
“You said he’d just fired!” the second female voice called angrily.
“He did!” the man called.
“But he just shot me!”
“Crossbow reload rarity?”
The first woman called up to them with just the slightest tremor in her voice. “Hey, fellow bounty hunters?” She sounded hopeful. “Team up? We can split the bounty!”
Drake slowed. He didn’t like it when the people he had to kill sounded so young and terrified. Still, these people had attacked them first, and they might have dangerous rarities. He couldn’t risk losing a battle maid to a fatal strike... or die himself.
As they approached the ledge and a possible path downward, Lydia pointed toward a narrow path down. She brushed her hands across her waist and pulled two glowing yellow daggers from her hips. She pointed to a second path and narrowed her eyes.
Pincer attack. Seemed like a good plan. The enemy was probably huddled up in fear.
“You don’t just call a truce with the enemy!” the second woman said. “Now get ready!”
Ahead of him, Valentia hissed. “Silverweave, lord,” she whispered.
Drake ground his teeth. “Can’t freeze ‘em?”
“No. They came prepared to face rarities.”
“Then you’re my shield.”
As Lydia moved down the path she’d indicated, Drake looked for another way down. He could probably get an angle on them once he reached the ledge... assuming he didn’t get a burning rock in the face for his trouble. He’d just have to trust Valentia to handle that.
He’d just reached the ledge when someone gurgled in pain, and then a woman shouted out in triumph. “Got her! I got her!” She shrieked. “Carl!”
Had they hurt Lydia? Drake rushed to the edge and swept Magnum around and down, from the high ground, to find a sight that was less horrifying and more... mildly horrifying.
The dark-haired woman who had turbo jumped earlier had collapsed with her back against the cliff, clutching the bolt buried in her shoulder. Blood pumped past her fingers. A young man who might even be younger than Olivia—Carl— stumbled away from Lydia, clutching his bloody stomach in an attempt to keep his gleaming intestines from sliding out.
And a third woman, Gaby—a tall, slim, blond-haired girl in what looked like patchwork silverweave clothing—stood with both hands out and golden light flaring from her palms. She stood like she was holding back a falling wall, one foot braced with her ankle up.
Lydia stood frozen paces away from the blond-haired girl, face flat and eyes cold. One dagger was raised while the other looked as if it had just finished a slash. She wasn’t moving. She looked to be, so far as Drake could tell, frozen in place.
The blond woman physically slid back despite the only sign of resistance being the air ahead of her glowing hands. “Carl? Carl! Did she get you?”
“Oh yes.” Carl dropped his knees. “Not good.”
He glanced up at Drake. As he did so, Drake got a clear look at a young olive-skinned face, short curly hair, and wide dark eyes. His target looked like he was still in high school, and the terrified despair in the young man’s eyes kept Drake from taking the kill shot.
From up here, from this close, he could put a bolt through a kneeling man-sized target just as easily as he’d killed Suck. Yet it was obvious that, other than whatever Gaby was doing to freeze Lydia, these three assassins were out of the fight.
He still needed to find out what they were doing out here.
Ice crackled into being beneath the young blond-haired woman’s boots. When some invisible force drove her back, she lost her footing. Lydia stumbled, face still hard as stone. She caught herself and dashed forward with knives raised to make the kill.
“Lydia, stop!” Drake shouted.
Lydia froze a hair’s breadth from slicing the throat of the terrified blond girl who, having now fallen on her ass, had managed nothing but to raise her hands to ward off the knives. Beside him, Valentia cursed softly. “Don’t do this.”
“Surrender now!” Drake called as loud as he dared. “Or you’re all dead!”
Gaby looked up at where Lydia stood paces away, glowing knives raised. Eyes wide as saucers, she stared pleadingly at Drake. “We surrender!”
“Gods.” Carl collapsed onto his side in his own blood. “Ow.”
“I will never surrender,” the dark-haired archer said, still clutching her bleeding shoulder. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Don’t be an idiot!” Gaby pleaded with her. “We can still live through this!”
Valentia was now seething at his side. “This is not the time to be benevolent.”
“I know.” Drake kept Magnum trained on Robin, the only one of them who still looked capable of putting up a fight. “But we still need answers about what’s going on out here, and these folks might have some.”
And as much as this world was changing him, he wasn’t yet ready to slaughter a bunch of high school kids.
