GODSWAR: The Mask of Ares, Chapter 10

Well, they'd been rescued unexpectedly....

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Chapter 10.

Quester's perceptions were, he knew, faster than any ordinary human's. Even so, he had not truly been able to follow Lady Vantage's lethal sprint across the clearing; it had been but a confusion of swings and impacts and spraying blood, with the woman herself following a deadly geometry that took her past each of the eight assailants in the time it took to draw a breath.

Their rescuer straightened after a moment, lifted her axe, and approached. "Hold still, all of you."

The axe came down and severed the bonds holding the three of them together; in an instant, the weapon vanished, and Lady Vantage took out a dagger and began cutting them free.

Urelle immediately flung her arms around her aunt, silently trembling for long moments as Victoria stroked her hair. "A little different from one's fancies, isn't it?" she said quietly.

Urelle's scent was filled with a mixture of fear, relief, excitement, and confusion. She pulled back enough to look up. "We … were ambushed," she said. "This wasn't one group, it was two." She shook her head. "And … no and yes. I mean, it was different, terrifying. But … I'm not sorry I came." Her face fell. "Just sorry we had to be rescued."

The tang of confusion became stronger. "But Auntie, how did you find us?"

"That group that was following you," Victoria answered, "was interested in fast pursuit, not in hiding their passage. I may be a bit out of practice, but theirs wasn't a terribly hard track to read." She looked at the other two. "Ingram? Quester? Are you both all right?"

"I … think so, Lady Vantage," Ingram said. "Headache from whatever they used to render us unconscious, but it's not like we haven't gone through that before." He grinned at Quester. "At least we weren't hanging up in shackles this time."

Quester buzzed his own amusement. "Yes, this was at the least a somewhat more comfortable imprisonment."

"I couldn't overhear most of their conversation," Victoria said, "but it sounded like they were going to take all of you. I had thought, young man, they were after you alone."

The sharp tang of guilt and confusion rose from his friend. "That's what I thought, too. They were Aegeian, too. Same accent I grew up with, no mistaking it. But their instructions apparently said they were after a female, not a male, target."

"So I heard. Tell me the whole story, then."

"Very well," Quester said. "I can also repeat their debate essentially verbatim. But be warned, we cannot linger long. One part of their discussion made it clear that there are other groups searching for … well, whatever or whoever their target is."

"Yeah, they mentioned 'all the others,' which implies … well, not just one or two, anyway," Ingram said.

Urelle had straightened herself, then walked resolutely over towards the bodies. Quester saw Victoria start an abortive gesture; the scent of worry, sadness, and pride overlay her movements.

Not to his surprise, Urelle had the smell of someone fighting very hard to keep her body from embarrassing her. But then, slowly, that odor faded, to be replaced by a calmer, meditative smell like the Great Road after a brief thunderstorm. Flickers of light danced around the girl's fingers, and two golden Coins floated up from the bodies. "I need these," she said.

"Their tracking Coins? What for?" Ingram asked.

"If I can get any kind of feel for the kind of enchantment on them, I can probably figure out how to negate it. Won't be quick, though, so you're right, we have to get moving."

"No point in leaving anything for our pursuers," Victoria said. "Everyone, search two of these bodies and take whatever seems valuable, dangerous, or interesting. We may learn more about them and their goals from whatever we find. Then we move."

"'We?'" repeated Urelle cautiously. "Aunt Victoria, I … well, I thought you…"

"…would be dragging you back home?" She gave a sad smile as she bent over the body of the unarmed warrior. "An Adventurer learns to have a sense of … well, the direction of fate, I suppose one could call it. I could certainly make you come back with me, but tell me, Urelle: do you feel that you have finished your work here?"

The black-haired girl looked up, her stormcloud-gray eyes surprised and, after a moment, worried. She paused, there amidst the carnage, and Quester could sense that calmness rise, peace and clean thought overriding the smell of blood and death.

She shook her head. "I still feel I need to be here. Not just because I want to help. I can't explain it, but –"

"No need, child. We – the Vantages – were Eyes of the Watchland in Evanwyl for a reason, and that sense is part of it. Not all of us have it … but enough. So yes. We. Unless you have an objection?" She looked sharply at Quester and Ingram.

"After you saved us from humiliation and likely worse, how could I object? Save to say I do not want to be the cause of more difficulty to you and yours," Ingram said.

"Auntie! You were working with Toron, and what about Kyri—"

"Taken care of. I'll explain later. Let us finish this most unpleasant task and begin moving before we talk more."

Urelle shuddered. "Shouldn't we … well, do something first? A prayer? We don't want revenants or—"

Victoria struck her forehead in chagrin. "What's wrong with me?"

"If you might allow me, Lady Vantage," Quester said, "These eight were taking someone you clearly think of as your own daughter. That might explain it."

Quester caught the cinnamon-and-pepper of shocked surprise, followed almost immediately by amusement and tenderness. "Why … yes, of course." She smiled down at Urelle, shaking her head in chagrin. "And now I distinctly remember myself saying they would release 'my child.'"

"Auntie!" Urelle gave her a huge hug.

Smiling, Ingram said, "Well, that aside, she was right. I'll say a quick prayer for them to Ares and Athena; they're caught in the Cycle as much as the rest of us, so it's my job to pay them their respects."

Ingram went to each body, sketching symbols in the air and murmuring prayers in a language Quester did not know. If he had wanted to intrude, of course, he could have lifted the meaning from the boy's mind, given that they were linked, but that would be intolerably rude; their link allowed them to speak at will, but Ingram – like most without the Nest's gift – did not like uninvited contact. Quester could make out the symbols of the Shield and Spear, of Sword and Chariot, as would be expected.

Quester did, for a moment, sense … a distant presence or presences, as though a faraway mind had focused for a moment on this place, these people. He noticed, also, Urelle looking oddly at Ingram, and for an instant he thought he saw a faint glow about the boy's fingers. If so, it was but the briefest of moments, gone in the instant he thought it was perceived.

When Ingram finished, there was an undefinable difference in the clearing – a sense of quiet rather than disturbance. "There. Now the bodies are … just that. Their spirits have gone on," Ingram said, with the odd assurance that sometimes made him seem much older than he was. "If we were home, there would still be a burial or a pyre, but here … we do what we must, and leave."

It did not take long to strip the corpses of anything of interest – weapons, jewelry, any papers, other accoutrements. Even Ingram seemed reluctant to strip the bodies, but Victoria made sure it was done. "While I'm not going so far as to search the more uncomfortable areas," she said calmly, "you would be amazed as to what can be hidden beneath clothing."

"Which way should we go?" Victoria asked, once everyone was finished. "This is, after all, your adventure to start with, Ingram."

"We were headed south. This other group must have come from there. I figure that means there's at least a fair chance none of the others are due south, or they'd have run into each other. So, let's keep going south."

"Agreed. Lead the way, I'll follow," Victoria said. "I know some tricks for obliterating tracks. If we can keep that up for even a few hundred yards, it will make us that much harder to follow, especially once Urelle gets a chance to negate that spell." She gestured. "And you, Quester, stay near me and give me the whole story."

By the time he had finished telling everything there was to tell, Victoria had finished her efforts and was walking alongside him, her scent intense with thought.

"You were right, Ingram. It is a pretty mystery, though, as to why they would not be after you, but instead after, apparently, Urelle."

"Or myself," Quester said.

"You?" Ingram said, startled.

"Our captors were quite wise in that; while for various reasons it is appropriate for most purposes that I am referred to as male, in physical construction I am in fact female, as are most of the Iriiistiik. The ratio is somewhere around five hundred to one, although only the Mother produces children, usually with the assistance of one or more Brood-Kings."

"More than two years with you, and this is something I don't know?"

Quester gave the bob and scent that he knew his friend would interpret as a smile. "For me, it was not important or relevant, and the Queen Mother had told me that I was to think of myself as male for most purposes." He paused, feeling surprise. "Which is something I of course did not previously question – you do not question the Mother – but now I wonder if there was more reason behind it than I know."

"All right," Ingram said after a moment. "That … complicates matters. After my recall message, it was natural to assume the pursuers were after me; the message tells me I will be in danger. But if not … maybe I got lucky. Maybe the real targets were the people with me, and what my people wanted was for me to be able to find the targets." He looked at Urelle and Quester. "You. One or, I suppose just possibly, both of you."

"Why in the world would someone in Aegia want to capture me?" Urelle demanded, and Victoria's expression echoed the surprise. "I've spent my life in Evanwyl, until we came here, and I've never done anything to draw attention to myself." She looked at Quester. "You and Ingram, at least, have been out there Adventuring. Stands to reason you must have gotten in someone's way."

"Indeed," Quester said, thinking carefully about their past adventures. "And I can certainly think of a number of people and even organizations that might remember us with great hostility. However … none, that I can think of, have any connection with Aegeia, and none that would not have placed Ingram at least as high on their priorities."

"Perhaps we are looking too closely into the past," Victoria said. "If I recall some of our conversations, yours is not the only nest of the Iriistiik recently destroyed."

He froze, then glanced down at Ingram. "The Sorter, at the Guild."

"Yeah." Ingram bit his lip thoughtfully. "Three, at least. Yours and two that the Sorter knew of. And I don't think there's that many Iriiistiik Nests, are there?"

"I do not know the number, but it would not be overly large, no," Quester answered, feeling an unpleasant, shivery sensation, as though he had entered a brood-chamber to find the eggs all dead and rotting. "Do you think this is related?"

"Maybe not … but given the circumstances, I have to at least think about it. Someone or something who wants your people dead, and might work with Ares or one of his subordinates?" Ingram frowned, then shook his head violently. "But no! That makes no sense! The Cycle's focused on Aegeia. The war isn't to be taken to the outside world; it's purely limited to the lands within Wisdom's Fortress. If there was a Nest inside the mountain range, well, maybe it would become of importance, but outside?"

Quester had been thinking back over the entire story, and now another fact finally crystallized. "I think we are still missing crucial facts," he said slowly. "You recall the dialogue of our captors, about the behavior of their tracing-Coins?"

"Yes. What've you thought of?" Ingram asked.

"Apparently they were reliable until very recently. The first group said it became unreliable on the road to the estate; the second, apparently, hadn't noticed anything until they were asked to check after our capture. At that point it was erratic, pointing mostly towards us, but occasionally swinging ninety degrees, generally northward. That is … most suggestive, taken altogether."

He saw the others frowning, smelled thought and confusion. "Do you not see? The only thing that changed so recently is that Lady Vantage left the estate, leaving us behind. So—"

"By the Balance, yes, of course," Victoria breathed. "I would have been behind the first group, even as they approached the estate. And when you were held here—"

"—you were approaching from the north!" Urelle finished. "Auntie… Auntie, I think it's us."

"It would seem so," Ingram said, and the small face was graven in lines of worry that made it look years older. "The real question then is … why?"

And for that, Quester had no answers.