Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept (20 page)

Alexander shifted back to Erik and found a force of nearly
three thousand Rangers separated from the rest of the regiment.

“We can be ready to ride within the hour,” Erik said when Alexander appeared before him.

“Good. Make haste for the ruins of Old Ruatha. Rake and his army are in a hurry to get there. Plan to attack at dawn.”

“Understood,” Erik said.

Chapter 15

Alexander returned to his body and opened his eyes, finding his father and Hanlon standing before him watching him meditate.

He
got up and hugged his father without a word, then turned to Hanlon, offering his hand.

“Isabel is well, but Phane still
has her.”

The Forest Warden
nodded, clenching his jaw. “Thank you.”

“I have Duane mustering a legion of Rangers to send north,”
Duncan said. “He’s planning to ride at dawn. The Sky Knights are running continuous scouting missions and overwatch flights. Unfortunately, most of my forces are still in the east cleaning up the Lancers.”

“Call
the Sky Knights in except for minimal patrols and have them put together an aid flight for Erik’s Rangers. Have the rest prepare for a dawn attack against Rake’s encampment on the northern edge of Old Ruatha. Erik will be coming from the east with three thousand Rangers. How many men can Duane field if he leaves tonight?”

“Five thousand, but he won’t get there until well after dawn.”

“By dawn, he’ll be close enough that Rake won’t use his falling-star spell on them,” Alexander said.

“
I’ll give the order,” Hanlon said, sharing a look with Duncan, then turning on his heel.

After a moment of hesitation,
Duncan said matter-of-factly, “I don’t believe we have enough power to defeat him, Alexander. His attack against Blackstone was—”

“He can’t do that again until tomorrow afternoon. He’ll be dead and cold by then.
”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m going to have Ratagan fly me close to Rake’s camp and drop me off, then I’m going to slip in and kill him—and take that blasted staff away from him.”

“That’s risky
. How many men will you take?”

“
Jataan, Jack, and Anja … I’m going to send Lita with a few Sky Knights to help the Rangers.”

“Wait … Anja, the dragon?”
Duncan asked, acknowledging her for the first time.

“General Valentine, it’s very nice to make your acquaintance,” Anja said
, with a somewhat awkward but sincere curtsy.

It was so out of character that Alexander did a double take.

“What?” she said. “He’s your father.”

Duncan
bowed formally. “It’s an honor to meet you, Anja. Welcome to New Ruatha.”

“Thank you,” she said.

Turning back to Alexander, Duncan gestured around the Wizard’s Den and said, “You could easily fit a platoon of soldiers in here.”

“I was hoping to get
close to Rake without detection. Numbers won’t help me do that.”

Duncan
nodded, but looked less than convinced.

“After Duane leaves, don’t field any more troops. Rake can kill
them if they’re out in the open. But I don’t think he’ll destroy the city if he can help it.”

“Be careful, Son,”
Duncan said.

“I will,”
Alexander said and hugged his father again.

H
e and Duncan and Lita walked out of the Wizard’s Den, leaving Jataan, Jack, and Anja inside. Alexander turned to them and said, “When I open this door, we’ll be inside Old Ruatha.”

“We’ll be ready, Lord Reishi
,” Jataan said.

Alexander scanned the aerie for Ratagan, finding him with Horst, both checking their harnesses.

“Expect Duane just after sunrise,” Duncan said.

“Tell him to come in fighting
.”

***

It was full dark, the first hours of the night, the air was cool but not frigid and the sky was clear. Alexander took a moment to explain his plan to the Sky Knights. Within minutes, he and Lita were mounted up and launching into the sky.

It took the better part of an hour to reach the edge of the city
ruins. Over the open plains, it seemed like the world had flipped. The sky was bright and vivid, while the ground was black as the void.

The
ancient ruins were blanketed in fog, thick and low. Alexander sent his sight forth, scouting for a landing spot close to Rake’s camp but far enough away to avoid detection. As he searched, he noticed that the ruins themselves hinted at dark colors … more unsettling still, it was pervasive, emanating equally from all of the ruined buildings.

With that in mind, he picked a spot, an empty square with only a smattering of stone debris scattered across its surface. Alexander guided Ratagan into a relatively soft landing in
side the fog-shrouded ruin. The wyvern came down and froze in place, vapor swirling away in whirling eddies. The air was thick and seemed to dampen sound, muffling hints of noises in the distance just enough to make Alexander wonder if he was actually hearing anything at all.

He slipped off the wyvern and waved
his thanks to Ratagan. The Sky Knight saluted and launched into the sky. Within the span of three wing beats, he was gone. Alexander opened his Wizard’s Den and retrieved Luminessence.

Jack peered past Jataan into the fog. “
That’s unsettling,” he muttered.

“Stay close, this place actually is cursed,” Alexander said.

“So it’s not haunted then?” Jack said, shrugging innocently at the look Anja gave him.

The fog was cold, penetrating and damp. It wasn’t long before their clothes clung to them like wet blankets. Alexander tried to set a brisk enough pace to stay warm, but he had to stop every so often
to scout ahead with his magic.

Then there were
the sounds in the distance … shrill, high-pitched screams tinged with a hint of panic. They were faint, distant, even through the fog … but they were getting closer.

He tried to
find the source of the noises but found only tainted ruins. No matter how many times he tried to relax, he invariably felt his muscles tense. The place had a way of wearing on his courage. He sent his vision up through the fog, scouting the distance to the enemy line. Not long now. They’d been inside the ruins for nearly an hour and he could see fear even in Jataan’s colors.

At one point,
Alexander thought he saw a face in the fog, silvery and serene, but then it was gone. Not a minute later, the silvery silhouette of a person peeked around the corner of a broken building. She looked straight at Alexander, then ducked back before he could turn and see her—but he had seen her.

She was a ghost.

Alexander’s experience with ghosts was limited, but he knew they could be dangerous if they wanted to be. He stretched out with his sight and gave himself over to the moment.

“Don’t mean to raise an alarm or anyt
hing,” Jack whispered loudly, “but I think I just saw a ghost.”

“Yeah, me too,
” Alexander said.

“Is that what those are?” Anja asked.

The silvery apparition of a beautiful young woman appeared a dozen feet ahead of them, looking almost solid in the fog. Alexander stopped, wondering if he should try to talk to her.

“You’
re a descendant,” she said. “You shall join us.”

She froze,
flickering for a moment in the fog, then vanished.

“Didn’t much like the sound of that,” Jack said.

“Me neither,” Alexander muttered, scanning the fog warily.

Everything got very still for a moment before the world felt like it exploded in a death shriek. Every stone
… every piece of debris … every square inch of Old Ruatha began wailing a forlorn, terrified, panicked howl. It started loud and intense before trailing off into abject hopelessness.

Irrational f
ear flooded into Alexander, followed by recurrent surges of new fear, each seeming to build on the last. He and his friends stood frozen, rooted to the spot. It took every scrap of his will to push past the fear and collect his reason. Even after he’d mastered himself, his hands still trembled.

Before he could even assess the threat, a dozen ghosts floated
up out of the flagstones in a loose circle surrounding them. A quick look told him that his friends were still working through the death shriek. The ghosts seemed to see Alexander and his friends all at once. In that moment, their faces transformed from human to those of the dead, gruesome and decayed.

They attacked as on
e, coming at them from all angles. Alexander braced for the impact of their onslaught but felt none. Several ghosts advanced on him, but they fled into the aether, shrieking in fear when they got close to Luminessence.

The rest swirled between them
, howling and wailing, before settling on the other three. Jack, Jataan, and Anja stood frozen, staring off into the distance while silvery light danced around them. The night went silent and calm.

Alexander shook Jataan, but the General Commander didn’t seem to notice. He opened his Wizard’s Den and dragged
him inside. As he moved to get Anja, he heard a scraping, snarling, mewling noise in the fog—close enough to pose an imminent threat.

After he’d gotten Anja safely inside, he found
Jack huddled on the ground, his face in his hands. Something dark was approaching in the mist. Alexander dragged Jack to safety. A creature howled.

He
unleashed Luminessence, and the ghosts haunting his friends wailed, coming free of their bodies in swirling, formless energy and fleeing into the fog. The thing stalking in the dark barked a few times, then whined and ran away.

Alexander
closed the door and carried each of his friends to a cot. They were alive and breathing steadily but they were not awake, in spite of the fact that their eyes were wide open. He looked at them helplessly, weighing his limited options. He didn’t want to leave them unattended but he had a job to do.

He’d set a battle in motion—Erik and Duane were coming.

“I will stay with them, My Love,” Chloe said, spinning into existence nearby.

“Thank you.”

“Just don’t be too long.”

He
nodded, checking on his friends one last time before taking up Luminessence and drawing the Thinblade. He stepped up to the door and opened it, quickly sending forth his sight to get his bearings. He stepped through and closed the door, then turned toward the enemy camp and started running.

It wasn’t long before the silvery streamers of ghosts came up alongside him. Some seemed like they were playing; others transformed into monsters and rushed at him, only to flee, wailing hysterically
as they neared Luminessence. Alexander kept running.

The creature in the dark howled as if it had just gotten his scent again. It was on the move, its fe
et thumping in rhythmic harmony, felt more through the ground than heard through the fog. Alexander ran faster.

He wanted to give in
to the fear, the wild panic gnawing at his will. Everything around him felt wrong … a creature of darkness hunting him and ghosts trying to haunt him.

He was afraid,
alone in the dark. The enemy line was his only refuge.

H
e had to keep his wits. He was about to do battle, not with ghosts and demons, but with men. After all of the noise the cursed and haunted denizens of Old Ruatha had produced, his plan to enter Rake’s encampment by surprise was no longer viable. He was certain that the men standing guard on the city’s edge were now acutely alert, actively searching the fog for hints of movement.

The creature was close now, snarling and snapping, unseen in the fog. Alexander could hear it gaining on him with each stride. He gauged the distance to the ruined wall marking the edge of the city
—it looked to be just fifty feet away.

The creature
was getting closer with each step.

Light would save him, Alexander was certain of it. Light would also alert the
perimeter sentries of his location. He turned to face the approaching threat with the Thinblade up and at the ready. The fog swirled. Darkness without form or distinction rushed out of the murky air, charging him with terrible speed. Even with his magical sight, he dodged a moment late and was hit, but he managed to deliver a solid strike against the darkness in the bargain.

Alexander
was tossed like a doll through the air, landing in a jumble. The darkness retreated, mewling as it fled. Alexander took a moment to collect himself, regaining his feet and checking both Luminessence and the Thinblade. He hadn’t taken two steps when something big roared … and it was close.

He
ran again, sprinting for the wall with all his strength, pouring everything he had into speed. The creature was right behind him. He could hear it snorting and wheezing with each galloping stride. Fear added a step. The fog thinned, revealing torches in the distance. He raced on but couldn’t help looking back. What he saw made his eyes hurt. A beast with six legs, three to a side, and two heads, one larger than the other, both with the oversized mouth of a dog, lined with razor-sharp teeth. It was black and leathery, devoid of life or color, except for its dead yellow eyes.