Legon Ascension (37 page)

Umbra started her ascent. It was steep and the air grew even more frigid as they climbed. They could see city lights in the distance. As they went higher the towns and city lights flickered. Even frozen as he was, Barnin had to admit it was beautiful seeing the world at night from this height. Soon, Umbra leveled off and resumed her rapid forward pace. Another hour later and Barnin didn’t think he would ever feel his body again. Ankle and Heath felt the same, but Umbra was unaffected by the cold. Barnin had a limited mental link with Umbra, but picked up on something uneasy in her mind. “What is it?” he asked.

She was slow to respond. “Something doesn’t look normal to me. I’ve been this far north many times before the Impa took over, but there doesn’t look to be as many towns,” she said.

Barnin looked around, seeing seas of light. “There’s a lot, if you ask me.”

“To the southeast, yes there are. With my eyes I can even see the faint glow of the capital in the distance, but northwest there should be more…” Her tone changed. “We are almost there, get ready,” she said to them, changing the subject.

All of the cold and discomfort vanished as they got ready. Unfastening their straps, they slowly worked their way down Umbra’s back to her tail and waited. Time seemed to stop as they held onto Umbra’s back.

“GO!” she commanded.

Barnin let go, feeling gravity do the rest. Air rushed by him as he fell toward the earth. Buffeted by wind, his cloak flapped violently and the cold wind burned his skin. The black landscape rushed up to meet him. His vision turned black as the crystal’s wards enveloped him, slowing him until he hovered in the air for just a moment and then WHAM, he hit the ground. There was a splash near him, and Heath’s grunt as he thudded to earth.

“Dang it,” Ankle said in a whisper. “Hit a ditch.”

“Shhh,” Barnin said. “Mental.”
 

Ankle’s voice was in his head. “Sorry sir, where you at?”

Barnin clicked his tongue and the others came to him.

“We need to move northeast.” He pointed to his right. “There is a town just over that hill. We need to avoid it if we can. We are two days out from the border. We need to move out.” Heath and Ankle did as they were told. They made their way through the brush and woods in the area, moving toward their objective.

* * * * *

Legon sighed in relief as he read the report that Umbra had made it back to the ship safely, and that the drop had gone as planned. Barnin just had to keep himself alive for a few days, and then he could make his way back to the south. He would meet up with Arkin in Salez, but first Heath would have to relay what they found through Arkin’s vast network of people.
 

Legon walked back into the bedroom, crawling up next to Iselin’s sleeping form. Pulling her in close, he shut his eyes, willing there to be nothing in the world but the two of them. There was no way that he could fall asleep. His last remaining childhood friend was deep in enemy territory, and he wondered if he would have another broken-hearted widow to care for.
 

“They’ll make it out,” Iselin said in a sleepy whisper.

Legon kissed her shoulder. “I hope so love, how did you sleep?”

She rolled over, so they were facing each other. He gave her a long kiss. “I slept fine, but I could use some help waking up…” she said suggestively, molding her body to his.

Legon chuckled a bit. “I suppose I could do that.”

* * * * *

Barnin decided that he liked the south a whole lot better than the North. The two-day journey to the border wasn’t a hard one. They ran into a few people but were passed off as trappers or hunters. There was little in the way of security in the North. But where the northern lands lacked of people, trying to kill them made up for it with cold weather.

“It was cold where you grew up, right sir?” Heath asked.

“Not like this. Salmont had some nasty winters, but it was all snow and we were inside, here…” a gust of blistering cold wind made the point for him. It was spring and he understood that weather wasn’t always peachy in the spring, but the frost at night was a killer.

“I still can’t get over how little people seem to suspect us up here”, Ankle mused.

“Well, why would they?” Heath said. “They aren’t being invaded, and let’s face it, who would be stupid enough to come up here and cause trouble?”
 

“Good point,” Ankle said.

“We aren’t going to cause trouble. We’re going to get information so that later the resistance can cause trouble. If you remember, the south was like this too until tensions rose,” Barnin pointed out.

Ankle laughed softly. “That’s right, things were real shiny back when we first started picking a fight.”

“We didn’t pick a fight,” Heath said, annoyed.

“Yeah yeah, but I wish we had picked it,” Ankle retorted.

“Don’t worry, we’ll finish it, now look alive,” Barnin said.
 

They were cresting a small hill. The scent of the smoke from many fires filled the air. Barnin got down on his belly, popping his head over to view what lay below them. Taking out his seeing-eye glass, he looked down at what was thought to be a town, but was actually more of a depot.

“That’s why we can’t find the name of a town, and we just have a project name of Mors to work with,” he said.

Heath and Ankle had glasses of their own. Ankle spoke, “No fixed buildings. How much you wanna bet they move this thing every few months?”

“You want me to call it in sir?” Heath asked, but Barnin told him not to.
 

He was taking in the large grouping of burlap tents. There were just as many Iumenta as there were humans, well free humans. It was obvious who was in the care. They were in long strings of chains that linked them by their necks. They looked cold and tired. A group was at the far north of the camp with another group of Iumenta. They looked as though they were about to leave.
 

“Hey, look up there,” Barnin said pointing. “There are no human guards going with them.” They watched as the group moved out and up the base to the mountains. They were at the base of a large range that was similar to the Cornis Mountains, though not as hostile. “They know these mountains, but rough terrain isn’t new to us. Let’s stay above them and keep out of sight. They don’t look to have any camping gear, so they can’t be going far.”
 

“Right sir, I’ll take point,” Ankle said, moving off.

They kept on the group for most of the day. It was hard not to try and kill the Iumenta. They moved the people quickly, not letting them stop for food, water or even to relieve themselves. If someone fell, the rest of the group was forced to drag them until an Iumenta noticed. One woman fell a few times, her hands bloody from where she had cut herself. She looked to be nineteen or so, with short brown hair and disheveled clothes. An Iumenta walked up to her the third time she dropped. As she struggled to stand, he pulled out a fenrra and cut off her head. Her body fell, and the chain connecting her to the rest of the group slackened, no longer dragging her along. None of the people made a sound as they stepped over her body. Obviously this wasn’t the first time they had seen such a thing.

Heath grabbed Ankle. “Let me go,” Ankle said angrily.

Barnin turned. “Shhh, shut up, what are you doing?”
 

Ankle’s face was red. “Sir, it’s a death march. We can’t just…”
 

“Can’t what? You want to go and get killed? Who will that save?” he said. “Look, this is what we do. We find out what’s going on and we leave as fast as we can, then we call it in.” He put his hand on Ankle’s shoulder. “We’ll come back, and when we do we’ll kill them all, ok?”
 

Ankle looked down. “Sorry sir, it’s just, it’s just not what I’m here for, ya know. I signed on to save people, not watch them die.” He sat down hard. “I know why we are here. I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again.”
 

Barnin slugged Ankle in the shoulder. He looked up, confused. “Why did ya…”

“Don’t do it again, but don’t apologize. Never apologize for wanting to help people.”
 

They didn’t talk for the rest of the afternoon. As dusk approached, they saw a valley. As they came up to it, still high in the mountains, Barnin’s mouth dropped open as he took in the sea of buildings below.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mors

“Sometimes even the best of men need motivation to act, and other times acting is needed for motivation.”

-Atavus Imperata House Evindass, Secunum Renovatie

Barnin took in the large camp, city or whatever it was laid out in the valley below them. There were trails of smoke curling up in the air, turning the setting sun red. The group they had been following was approaching a tall wired fence and gate. Barnin used the seeing glass and looked at those entering.
 

“The gate looks fortified, but not heavily guarded. Hmmm, I wonder why that is,” Barnin wondered aloud.

Ankle was on his right looking the place over. “Something seems odd about the way it’s laid out and built, ya know what I mean?”

Heath spoke up. “Yeah, it’s like a prison camp, but then other parts of it look like a military base.”

Barnin interjected, pointing to a clump of buildings. “And other parts look almost like the school in Salez and Bailaya.” He thought more. “What if it’s all of those things? The Elves thought this was some kind of training center, right, so what if that’s what all this is? Maybe you come in a slave and come out brainwashed and trained.”

“I don’t know sir, it seems like a bit of a stretch if you ask me,” Heath said.
 

Well, that was why they were here, wasn’t it? Barnin decided that the best plan was to spend a day watching and then if they thought they could they would enter the camp, but he needed more information before walking into death.

“Heath, can you tell anything about this place? Any magic?”
 

Heath agreed, shutting his eyes. Barnin watched his face, calm as he used his abilities to look around. He wasn’t surprised to see it darken. He figured the place was pretty fortified. After an hour, or what felt like it, Heath’s eyes opened, looking confused.

“What is it?” Ankle asked.

“That’s just it, nothing. There isn’t much in the way of defense, if anything at all. The only place I am seeing any magic is in the center of camp,” he said, pointing to a group of stone buildings that were by far the nicest in the camp. “I would guess by the way those buildings look that’s where the Iumenta live, but the rest of the camp has nothing. In fact, I can’t even find other magic users, or at least any trace of them…”

Barnin was instantly worried. “How much can be hidden from you?”
 

Heath shook his head. “I wouldn’t think much by this point. I’ve had practice at finding wards and other magic users, but I’m not seeing anything.”

Barnin took his time. “Right, I don’t like it. We will rest here for the night and then tomorrow figure out what to do. We can’t stay unnoticed for more than a few days at the max, so we need to find out what we can in the next two days, and then get out.”

* * * * *

Ankle huddled against a rock, trying to keep out of the wind. The air was freezing as the sun set, but it could have been that he just wasn’t acclimated to colder areas. Heath set a detection ward so there was no need to keep a watch, but Ankle couldn’t sleep. His mind kept replaying the scene of that woman getting killed over and over again in his head. He’d signed on as soon as he was old enough to join the military, two years was expected of every young man in the Cona Republic, but he signed on before he was required to. He thought he’d be a hero, but it didn’t feel that way.
 

He thought about what it must have been like growing up in the Cona Empire, thought about the constant threat of being made a slave. Before today he’d always thought that those in the Republic lived in fear, but now he wasn’t sure.
 

He peaked over one of the big jagged rocks they were hiding behind. The camp was still in full swing, the lights from the many fires burning bright in the night. At night it was easier to see the layout of the camp. The lights from windows and streets showed that the buildings were in a spiral that moved inward. It was an odd way to design a town, and Ankle wondered if it had a purpose.
 

By the time the sky was lighting before dawn, they were moving. Today was simple: figure out if there is a routine that was obvious, and also try and figure out the lay of the land. If possible, they would try and enter the camp that evening or the next day, but that was a big if. They had separated and Ankle was next to the east entrance of the camp when dawn broke. Hiding, he scanned the horizon with his seeing glass.
 

There was movement by the entrance. He peered at a well-organized formation of figures. They were small, and he needed his seeing glass. He squinted in the eyepiece, trying to figure out what he was seeing.
There’s no way,
he thought, looking again. “What is going on here…”

* * * * *

Barnin watched what he thought was a training yard. In it was a group of men. He thought they were part of the group. They’d followed the day before, but he wasn’t positive. They were in a group, listing to an Iumenta talk. He wasn’t sure what was being said, but the men in the group were looking at each other.
 

The Iumenta waved his arm and the group of men seemed to be having a hard time. They looked agitated, a few moving off to the walls of the training area. The Iumenta looked to be yelling now, and more Iumenta came into the training area with whips. Barnin couldn’t tell what was going on. The group of men was moving to the side of the training area, but he couldn’t tell why they were moving. Without warning, one of the figures with a whip pulled out a sword and killed one of the men. Everyone ran to the edges.
 

He looked at the people on the edges. They were eyeing a group of Iumenta that were bringing in weapons, and piling them in the center of the space. People were looking at each other again and the speaker was back. Pointing at the body in the center of the training field, he said something. To Barnin’s amazement, almost everyone ran to the center and grabbed one of the many swords, spears and balaclavas in the center. Still, what was going on didn’t register until the men started killing each other.