Darkness fell around Elaine as she followed Joshua and Richard out of the city. They stuck with the crowd as they walked across the bridge, taking care not to draw any attention. The guards were already out of sight, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.

  Her side still ached. The bandages still held the wound tight, but every step was like a knife stabbing into her. She wanted nothing better than to collapse to the ground. At least then, she might find some relief. Now was not the time for it. She could rest later. The savod were more important.

  They walked for a long time. Night fully covered the land in its dark blanket when they stopped. The crowd had completely cleared away. After they reached the first fork in the road, only the occasional traveler crossed by where they made camp.

  “Now we just need to wait,” Richard said as he sat down in the grass. “Once Logan is back, we can discuss our plan.”

  “There isn’t that much to it. Is there, master?” Joshua asked as he joined Richard. “We just need to take the…sylvestrian north.”

  “That is more difficult than you think,” Richard said. “You will need supplies, food, gold, and even different clothes to make that trek.”

  “There are also things other than savod to worry about,” Elaine said, suppressing a shudder.

  “You’ve seen some, haven’t you?” Richard asked, leaning forward.

  “Sarpans.” Elaine nodded. “I had just earned my armor when they laid siege to Nethas.”

  “That was when they broke through the walls,” Richard said, clasping his hands together. “That was the first time since it was founded that the walls were broken.”

  “It was horrible.” Elaine bowed her head. “You could hear the screams down every street. The sarpans tore the city guard to shreds. We gathered as many survivors as we could on the Order’s grounds. Our knights were the last defense.”

  “But you won the day in the end,” Joshua said.

  “At a high cost,” Elaine whispered.

  “I remember when I first heard stories of it.” Richard sighed. “It was a sad day.”

  “A sad day.” Elaine’s voice cracked.

  She wasn’t sure where the strength had come from, but she didn’t care. She could not let those words, those petty little words stand. If she had her sword, she would already have drawn it. She had to settle for clenching her fists.

  “Where was the Tower when the walls fell?” Elaine yelled. “Where was your magic when woman and child were slaughtered? Where were you when my sisters were dying? This is why you cannot be trusted! This is why Nathaniel…”

  “Was right?” Richard finished her sentence, unperturbed. “That was something that many of us struggled with, especially those with families in Nethas. In the end, we cannot give our power to war. We can help protect with knowledge, but fighting a war is something we will not do easily.”

  “That’s your answer?” The anger left Elaine like water pouring out of a gourd.

  “That is our answer,” Richard said. “I understand your anger, but the atrocities of magic are too great to bring to war. It is bad enough for the times we need to fight away bandits, or monsters, but on such a grand scale we would become monsters ourselves.”

  Richard brought his arms tight around his chest, as if he was trying to keep out a freezing wind. He shuddered before he could continue.

  “We value our control more than anything else,” Richard said. “That’s why we limit ourselves to the elements. That’s why we won’t interfere in wars between two sapient races.”

  “Sapient?” Elaine asked.

  “Intelligent,” Joshua said. “As intelligent as humans.”

  “That’s a poor excuse,” Elaine whispered, resting back in the grass.

  Elaine couldn’t talk anymore. With the anger gone, the pain and emptiness returned. She fell to her knees and the grass, trying to gain some control. She wanted to cry, but the tears refused to fall.

  “Your Order has its rules,” Richard said. “We have our own. Unless you want to make a game of questioning those rules, then leave them be.”

  Elaine remained silent at that. There were rules in her Order as well. There just weren’t any against protecting her home. She wanted to continue, she wanted to argue. She could not do it. These mages were her companions now. It would have to rest until the journey’s end.

  She didn’t have to like it.

  “You’re not even a knight anymore, are you?” Joshua asked. “What are you without your Order?”

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  “Joshua,” Richard said. “You shouldn’t do this.”

  “Why?” Joshua stood up, throwing his arms out. “She’s ready to condemn us just because we’re mages.”

  Elaine couldn’t think of a response. She wanted to say something as the mages continued to bicker, but no words would come to her lips. She knew why she had said those words, but she couldn’t find a way to justify them to the mages.

  She couldn’t just let it go.

  “That doesn’t excuse it,” Richard said. “Maintain control over your emotions Joshua. Calm down.”

  “I am in control,” Joshua said, a sudden burst of flame flaring across his hands.

  “Shut up,” she said, before bowing her head to Richard. “I apologize for my harsh words. We’re in this together now.”

  “I can understand the anger,” Richard said, smiling. “I don’t always agree with our rules, but they are always in the interest of control.”

  An uneasy silence came after that. The cool night air wrapped close around Elaine as they waited. She could hear the clicks of crickets in the grass and the occasional howl punctuated the night. Above her, the stars winked across the sky and a bright moon shone down.

  Her stomach rumbled as the night dragged on. In their focus on secrecy, they had left without any real supplies. It might have ensured a safer passage, but the hunger that gnawed in her stomach burned with regret.

  The quiet whisper of doubt started as the night dragged on, the thing she feared the most. It opened the way for scarier thoughts. Her sister’s blood covering her hands nudged into her mind. Elaine fought against it. She tried to push it away.

  She wanted to scream her frustration, but she held it back.

  “What an odd crew we are,” she said. “Mages, a mercenary and a knight; will we really make it?”

  “There are many that would tell you differently,” Richard said. “The savod’s reach is great, and you three are very few. You have hope in secrecy though. What might be impossible for an army might be done with three.”

  Elaine smiled at that.

  “It appears that our final member has arrived,” Richard said, pointing out into the dark.

  Logan stepped out of the shadows, carrying a leather sack in one hand while the other balanced a sheathed sword on his shoulder. He wore a triumphant smile on his face as he sat down in the grass with them.

  “I’m glad you all made it through,” Logan said, setting the bag between them. “I don’t want to have to go back there for a while.”

  “And we are happy you escaped,” Richard said. “I was worried about your sanity for a moment.”

  “I made it through,” Logan said. “There’s a reason I work as a scout for the Crows. I know how to escape capture.”

  “If you had made one mistake, where would we be?” Elaine asked. “We need you, need Talan, to fix the seal, right?”

  “It worked out fine,” Logan said.

  “You don’t always think these things through, do you?” Joshua asked. “I guess we’ll have to start watching out for that.”

  “Someone might need to,” Logan said.

  “So what do you have with you?” Elaine asked.

  “Spoils of a successful chase,” Logan said, opening the bag and passing it to Richard. “Nuts, berries and roots to hold back our hunger for the night.”

  Elaine took a handful when it came to her. The roots were still wet when she nibbled at them. She could taste the breath of the land with each bite. The rumbling in her stomach faded as Logan continued.

  “This is yours.” He handed her his second sword.

  It was light in her hands, almost like her old sword. Yet, she no longer had the strength of Grace to offset the weight. She drew the blade out enough to see the steel. It glowed brightly in the moonlight.

  “Thank you,” Elaine said as she sheathed the sword.

  “I would give thanks to Talan,” Logan said. “Without her, I wouldn’t have found it.”

  “So, what do you plan to do then?” Richard interrupted.

  “I want to make for Grumn Outpost,” Logan said. “We can probably find a caravan to protect that’s heading there. That will give us some coin to buy supplies for the north. My friends might be there as well. Their help wouldn’t hurt.”

  “You want to go straight north?” Richard asked. “That will be dangerous.”

  “No more dangerous than crossing alone on the sides,” Logan said. “The caravans take a lot of mercenaries with them. It’s the perfect place to hide.”

  “How do we get to the outpost?” Elaine asked, trying to remember the map. “I haven’t been beyond Tyra’s borders.”

  “I’ve never been beyond the Five Kingdoms,” Joshua said.

  “Grumn Outpost is nearly in the center of the Moav Plains,” Logan said. “It’s part of the Virin Empire, and is the start of the Golden Road. That’s the only human settlement in the plains besides a few villages.”

  “The problem is that you have to cross the front lines to get there,” Richard said. “That’s miles and miles of sarpan territory.”

  Sarpans. The very thought of them made anger boil to the surface. The reptilian monstrosities were without remorse. They killed anything that didn’t have scales. Their sharp teeth stuck in her mind. She could still feel their hot breath on her face. She could still hear their hiss as they had stalked the streets.

  “Will we have to fight them?” Elaine asked.

  “There’s a risk,” Logan said. “But it will be the same anywhere on the plains.”

  “I do see the merits of it,” Joshua said. “I’m fine with the plan.”

  “If you three really want to walk that path,” Richard said. “I wish you the best of luck.”

  “You’re not coming with us?” Logan asked.

  “No, I’m going to bring this information back to the Tower,” Richard said. “If their reach is as great as I fear, we might need to search our own ranks before we come up with our own plans.”

  “I didn’t expect that,” Logan said, frowning.

  “It shouldn’t change your plans,” Richard said. “We can work on the problems in the kingdoms while you stop the savod.”

  “And you’ll have a plan if we fail,” Logan said.

  Elaine hadn’t thought of that yet. What would happen if they failed? Nelim couldn’t stand up against creatures that were immune to steel. They couldn’t hurt the monsters that magic could barely scratch.

  What would happen to Nethas if a sea of darkness fell upon it? Hope would disappear with the light. Even the walls would fall with a thousand of those monsters clawing at the stone. Elaine shuddered.

  “The Tower doesn’t have the ability to fight savod now,” Richard said. “If you do fail, we need to find a way to fight back.”

  “None of the kingdoms have the ability to fight it either,” Elaine said. “If we do fail, they need to find a way to fight.”

  “We won’t fail,” Logan said. “I’m not ready to die yet.”

  They went to sleep after that, Richard offering to take full watch for the night. Elaine lay in the grass for a long time, watching the stars above. She could not shake out of her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried, she kept returning to the journey ahead.

  Logan’s words were comforting, but only a small solace. Logan truly believed them, but Elaine knew better. They might not succeed. If the savod found them before they reached the seal, they would not even have a chance to win.

  Elaine knew she could not let them fail, no matter the cost.