Mari felt a light tug on the line and began walking. Or trying to walk. She could see nothing before her. The water held her back, the mud refused to release her feet without a prolonged, slow pull at each step to break the suction, and branches, trees, stumps, and numerous other objects blocked her every move. Insects were beginning to swarm around her and the others, invisible in the night but filling her ears with high-pitched buzzing and threatening to alight on any patch of bare skin.
Edinton had been stressful. This… this was a nightmare.
Chapter Fifteen
Mari had no idea how much time passed as she and the others struggled through the swamp. She grew worried about whether they would make it to the edge of the warlord’s camp before dawn. But the mud gradually became less gooey and less deep, the water shallower. The insects did not let up, but the salve the locals had provided seemed to be effective enough to keep their torment within endurable limits. The obstructions in their path thinned out.
It took a little while to realize that she was walking on nearly solid ground amidst trees which grew fairly straight, few bushes or other undergrowth blocking their progress.
Alain stopped abruptly so that Mari bumped into him and the Mechanics behind her bumped into her. “Wait,” he murmured in the barest whisper, then Mari felt the rope she held grow slack. He had let go.
Having no choice, Mari stood still, trying to see into darkness so thick that she wondered if it was solidifying just beyond her reach.
“I am back,” Alain said. “There was a sentry ahead.”
“Was?”
“He will not trouble us.”
Mari inhaled slowly. She knew what had happened. Alain had used a concealment spell, if one was required on a night like this, to get close to the sentry and kill without warning. Because she had given orders to carry out this attack. Mari remembered the screams last night and tightened her resolve to see this through.
They reached another natural barrier, brush on the ground and vines dangling from the trees, picking their way through with the best care they could and still setting off what sounded to Mari like a bedlam of noise. But those sentries who would have heard and called warnings to Raul’s camp were already dead from the blows of Mage blades.
After the pitch blackness of the woods, the starlit night beyond seemed almost bright for a moment before it became obvious how little could still be seen. Mari ensured the Mechanics with her were all out of the woods. “Everyone spread out. Stay right at the edge of the woods, keep low and keep quiet. Bev? Go down the line until you meet up with Calu and tell him to bend the line outside the woods so we block all the paths of retreat from Raul’s camp.”
Mari’s stomach felt as if it had tied itself into a knot so tight even the sailors on the Gray Lady wouldn’t have been able to untangle it.
Bev came back. “Everybody is out of the woods, all Mechanics within sight of each other, and the Mages right behind them. The line is bent where Calu is, extended out of the woods to the east.”
“All right. Good. We’re going to advance slowly. Ten paces at a time. I’ll pass word down before anybody walks. Got it?”
“Got it.” Bev ran down the line, passing the word.
Mari stood in a crouch, holding her rifle, trying to control her breathing. “Ten paces. Pass it down.”
She took the ten steps with care, watching ahead. Raul’s encampment wasn’t in sight yet, so Mari ordered another ten paces.
A low ridge loomed just ahead. Mari told the Mechanic next to her to wait, then moved in a crouch to look over it. Directly in front of her, about two hundred lances away, was a large open area. As Calu had described, tents were set up helter-skelter except for a spot near the center of the camp, where a large tent sat by itself. The fires outside the tents had subsided to beds of glowing coals, giving little light. Mari checked the time. The attack was supposed to start at dawn, when there would be enough light for the Mechanics to see their targets.
Alain moved up beside her. “The Dark Mage is moving.”
“Where?” Mari fought down an urge to curse at the unwelcome development.
“There.” Alain pointed, and Mari spotted a figure next to one of the tents.
Mage Tana spoke in a whisper just loud enough to carry. “I sense a Dark Mage at work.”
“So do I,” Alain agreed. “He is preparing a spell. A powerful one.”
“A dragon?” Mari hissed. She had thought she was worried before, but if a dragon appeared—-
“I do not think so,” Alain said.
“Not a dragon,” Tana said. “Another spell creature.”
Mari pulled out her far-seers to try to get a better look at the Dark Mage, then flinched as they became superfluous. A large, hulking shape had appeared in front of the Dark Mage. It was at least half again as tall as the Dark Mage and much broader, a being whose crude lines suggested a half-formed imitation of a human being.
“A troll,” Alain said.
Mari stared, remembering the troll that had attacked them in Palandur and taken a good portion of an Imperial legion to destroy. “We’re supposed to wait until dawn to attack, but that thing just forced a change in our plans. Alain, is there any way to stop that troll?”
“Do enough damage and it will cease.”
“I’m looking for other options!” Mari said. “The Dark Mage and the troll are just standing there looking at each other. What’s happening?”
“The Dark Mage is instructing the troll on what it should do. If the task is complicated, the instructing will take some time. Trolls are not very bright,” Alain added.
Mari inhaled sharply as an idea came to her. She didn’t like the idea, but she liked the alternatives much less. “What if something happened to the Dark Mage before he finished giving directions to the troll?”
“It would simply attack the first thing it saw,” Alain said, looking to Mage Tana for confirmation. She nodded in agreement.
“And it’s in the middle of Raul’s camp.” Mari looked back. “Alli? I need Mechanic Alli up here as fast as possible.”
Only a few moments later Alli ran up to Mari and dropped down beside her. “What’s the job?”
“See that troll? It’s not the target. The guy talking to the troll is a Dark Mage. He… he needs to be killed. Fast.”
“No problem.” Alli eased her rifle into position, resting it on the ground and aiming carefully.
Mari looked back again. “Pass the word down the line that we’re going to have to change the plan and attack earlier. There will be one shot, maybe two, from here. Everyone is to advance to the edge of this ridge when they hear the shots, but wait to open fire until they hear me call the order.”
Several long moments passed, while Mari felt increasing fear that the Dark Mage would finish and dart away. She wanted to hiss orders to Alli to go ahead and shoot already, but she knew that distracting Alli would be a mistake.
The crash of Alli’s shot sounded cataclysmic in the silence of the night, startling Mari so much that she almost dropped her own rifle.
The Dark Mage turned his head to look toward the sound, but suddenly jerked sideways, staggering.
Alli had levered in another round and now fired quickly a second time.
This time the Dark Mage jolted backwards as if he had been punched, falling to the ground and lying still.
The echoes of the shots faded into the night as the troll stood staring down mutely at the figure of the Dark Mage.
Aroused by the sound of Alli’s shots, the warlord’s soldiers started running out of their tents with weapons at hand, hastily buckling on whatever armor each one owned. Some skidded to frantic stops at the sight of the troll, while others who were scanning the woods for threats didn’t yet seem aware of the hulking figure nearby.