The Outskirts: The Rogue Knight (Jace x OC) BOOK 2

The Rogue Knight: 2

Joe ran over to us, holding an arrow ready against the drawstring. "Mira, get that rider." His bow pointed toward the top of the ravine.
"Flail, attack," Mira ordered. The tangle of balls and chains disengaged from the fallen cat and zoomed up the slope of the ravine. At the top, it paused.
"Flail, attack," Mira repeated, gesturing in the direction the stranger had gone. The flail hovered benignly.
"I'm trying to picture the rider," Mira said. "He moved out of sight before I really saw him. I think I have to see the target. Should I go up the slope?"
"No," Joe said quietly. "It isn't worth the risk. Can't you command the flail to strike whatever is within range up there?"
"It isn't an attack dog," Mira said. "I have to direct it."
Joe nodded. "I hit the rider's horse with an arrow. I'm not sure how much damage it did. We can't let him escape. He could round up reinforcements. I should go after him."
"How'd they make the autocoach run wild?" Twitch asked.
"They must have reshaped it somehow," Jace said.
"But Declan made the coach," Mira murmured. "It would take quite a shaper to hijack a Grand Shaper's work."
"Might have been shapecraft," Cole said. "If shapecrafters can mess with the shaping power itself, who knows what else they can do?"
"They organized Mira's power into Carnag," Twitch said. "Why couldn't they tamper with a semblance."
"Whatever their skills, those were no ordinary soldiers," Joe said. "You just met some Enforcers. And one of them getting away. I can't let that happen. He probably won't go the legion or any regular authorities, but there may be others of his kind in the area."
"We're splitting up?" Jace asked.
"For now, yes," Joe said.
"We follow the road?" Twitch checked.
"It will take you to Carthage, on the border between Sambria and Elloweer," Joe confirmed. "Honor's star has held steady in that direction. If danger forces you to abandon the road, Mira knows how to follow the star."
I glanced at Mira, who had turned her gaze to the sky. To help guard the precious secret that Mira's mother could mark the location of her five daughters, only Mira and Joe knew what Honor's star looked like. If that information ever leaked to the High Shaper, the girls would be doomed.
"Am I just flustered?" Mira asked. "I don't see it."
Joe looked skyward in the same direction she was peering. "Oh, no," he muttered after a tense pause. "You're right. The star is gone."
"What does that mean?" Mira cried.
I felt horrible for her. That star was her one connection to her endangered sister. Mira's panicked eyes studied the section of sky where the star should be. I went over to her and put an arm around her shoulders.
"Could mean lots of things," Joe said, his voice deliberately calm. "Might mean your mom was worried about enemies using the star. Might mean your sister has been rescued."
"What if it means she's . . . ?" Mira whispered, covering her mouth.
"I'm sure that isn't it," Joe said. "We can't let this sink us. I have to track down whoever is slipping away. You go to Carthage. There's a fountain with seven spouts on the Elloweer side. If I don't catch up to you on the road, look for me there every day at noon. Lay low. If I'm more than three days behind you, I'll be either dead or captured." Joe glanced at Cole, Jace, and Twitch. "Take care of the girls. " the boys nodded, and Joe turned and dashed up the hill.
Mira continued to stare at the parch of sky. Following her gaze, I saw many stars. But I knew the one she yearned to see was not among them.
"Don't linger," Joe called down to them as he charged up the slope. "There's no telling who else might be headed this way."
"He's right," Twitch said.
"What about our stuff?" Jace asked, dipping his head toward the crippled autocoach. "At least the money!"
"Good thought," Cole said.
"You three grab what you need," Twitch said. "I'll get Mira out of sight. We'll wait for you up the road. Cole, make sure they don't do anything stupid."
"Oh we will." Jace said.
I folded my arms across my chest. "We don't need a babysitter."
"Yes, you do." Cole grumbled.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of her." Jace said, smirking.
I rolled my eyes. I felt slightly annoyed that Cole felt like he needs to supervise us.
"Whatever," I said. "Let's just get the stuff and go."
Twitch took flight, and Mira used her Jumping Sword to leap halfway up the slope opposite the one Joe had climbed.
"Flail, follow," Mira called, and the weapon obeyed.
I pulled away from Jace and limped over to the autocoach, trying my best not to show that I hurt my ankle.
No longer harnessed to the coach, the walking brick lay motionless on its side, two of its legs broken off at the thigh.
Me, Cole and Jace reached the opening where the door had been and climbed inside. Bertram lay facedown, his body limp.
"Is he dead?" Jace asked.
"Can semblance even die?" I wondered.
Cole crouched and shook the elderly coachman's shoulder. "Are you okay, Bertram?"
The old man stirred and raised his head. "I'm on a holiday with my grandniece and my grandnephews." He gave a small smile. "Nothing to worry about here."
After climbing to reach the floor of the coach, Jace opened a hatch and several items fell. He jumped down and started rummaging. From outside, I heard the faint trickle of the stream.
"You didn't seem like yourself back there," Cole said to Bertram. "You screamed."
The old guy blinked. "I'm no longer a spring chicken. The young must forgive us older gents a little episode from time to time. I've been under the weather. I won't let it ruin our holiday."
Jace dropped down. "We should go," he said, backing out of the coach.
Cole held up a finger to tell him to wait. "Our holiday is in trouble. The coach went wild and crashed. How will we get to Elloweer now? What happened?"
Bertram gave an uncomfortable chuckle. "The coach did what it had to do."
"The coach takes orders from Mira," Cole said. "It doesn't go fast. What happened?"
"It performed as required," Bertram said. "So did I."
"Who gave the order?" Cole asked. "Who changed the autocoach?"
Bertram looked unperturbed. "You youngsters may have to go ahead without me for now. The coach is in poor repair. Might do me some good to rest here for a time. This holiday had worn me out. Every uncle has his limits."
"Uh, okay." I said, walking over to Jace.
"Come on," Jace urged. "I grabbed the money and some food."
"Bye, Bertram," Cole said. "Thanks for the holiday."
Bertram gave a nod. "You're a fine grandnephew."
Cole stepped out of the autocoach.
"Are those tears?" Jace asked.
Cole wiped his eyes and glanced away. "No."
"He isn't real," Jace said. "He's a semblance. He was constructed "
Cole sighed. "That almost makes it worse. He'll just sit there thinking he's supposed to be on vacation with us."
"He's not thinking," Jace said. "He just blabs the kind of stuff Declan taught him to say. Don't be sad for him. Just be sad we lost our ride. Let's go find Mira."
"What about the guys you took out with your rope?" I asked. "Should we check if they're alive?"
"No chance," Jace said. "They tried to kill us. I didn't hold back."
"They had armor." Cole said.
"Armor won't protect you from falling off a cliff. I threw them hard. Joe wasn't worried about them."
"Joe was in a hurry," Cole pointed out.
The relationship between Cole and Jace had been tense since day one. They were constantly arguing and bickering. I couldn't figure out why.
Jace exhaled sharply. "Fine. You take that one." He pointed toward the man closest to them. Jace's rope coiled like a spring, then uncoiled, launching him over to where the farthest of the two fallen riders had been thrown. The rope coiled ahead of him to soften his landing.
Me and Cole went over to the other rider. The front of his helmet and breastplate were badly dented from the impact with the boulder. The figure didn't move. Cole knelt beside him and put his ear by the helmet, listening for breathing.
I saw Jace sneaking up on Cole from behind. He saw me watching, and put a finger to his lips. I couldn't help but smile.
"Die!" Jace said as he grabbed Cole by the shoulders from behind. Cole jumped and turned, startled enough to make me and Jace laugh.
"The other guy is no longer with us," Jace said. "We're wasting time. Let's fly."
Cole pointed his sword, spoke the command, and took off. I raised my sword to follow, praying that I could land without putting weight on my ankle,
when Jace spoke up.
"Wait," he said. "I saw you limping. The landings with that sword will only make your ankle worse."
I shrugged. "I have to. How else am I going to get up there?"
"No, you can use my rope with me." Jace said.
He wrapped an arm around my waist. "Ready?"
"Uh sure." I said, nervous.
He smirked at me. He flicked his wrist and the rope wrapped around a tall tree, and slung us forward. I squealed and wrapped my arms around his neck. If I was being honest, the rope freaked me out. Not because I didn't trust Jace, but I would much rather use my sword. We used the rope and trees to get all the way to Cole, Mira, and Twitch, never once touching the ground.
When we got there, Mira had a big goofy smile on her face, Twitch looked amused, and Cole looked annoyed.
"What?" I asked them.
"Why didn't you use your sword?" Cole said.
"I hurt my ankle and I didn't want to try and land on it."  I responded.
"Mhm. Sure." Cole said.
I rolled my eyes and turned to Jace. "Did you grab any of the stuff the herb women gave us?"
He looked confused. "Yeah, why."
"She packed stuff for injuries, dummy."
"Oh, right." He said, handing me a small box labeled injuries. "She said one of those will heal any minor injury."
I took out what looked like a small, red gummy, and popped it into my mouth. "Woah, I can feel it working already." I put my weight on it, then flexed it a couple of times. "It doesn't hurt at all anymore."
"Good thing you remembered we had those." Mira said.
Jace gestured toward the side of the road. "What's that supposed to be?"
I turned to see a misshapen brown lump the height of my waist rocking back and forth on two uneven legs. Perhaps sensing the attention, the ungainly object hobbled toward them.
"Mira tried to shape something for us to ride to Carthage." Twitch explained.
Jace exploded into laughter. "That? It looks like a walking mud ball."
I tried not to laugh, but I couldn't hold it in. The description was pretty accurate.
"I was rushed," Mira said, flustered. "Making semblances is very hard. Even the best shapers take their time when simulating life."
"So why try?" Jace asked.
Mira shrugged. "I saw what my power can do when we fought Carnag. Remember how big it was? How well it simulated me and my father? That power is inside of me now. I just have to learn to use it. I know I'm capable of big feats of shaping. I thought maybe if I harnessed my desperation, I could shape something useful."
The mud ball toddled over to Jace, then bumped into his leg and tipped over. The undersized semblance started to sway gently and made a garbled, squishy sound.
"Is it trying to speak?" Jace asked. "You know, it looks a little like Twitch. Was he your model?"
"Stop it," I said, swatting Jace on the shoulder.
"Wait. Can I try to shape something? Durny said I had potential."
"Go for it." Mira said.
"Okay, but, uh, how?"
"Picture something you want to make. Make sure you picture all the details and features clearly. Then shoved it out of your mind." She said.
"What should I try and make?" I asked them.
"Make a horse." Cole said. "If it works, we can ride them."
"Uh, okay." I picture a grey stallion, with black hooves and a grey mane. I picture it standing in front of us, and shoved all my energy into it.
"Well, that's good for your first try." Mira said as the boys burst out laughing.
Standing in front of us was a grey blob, about two feet tall. It had no features, and was covered in shaggy grey fur. It had five legs, instead of four, and one big eye on the side of its misshapen body.
"That thing looks like a rock with legs." Jace said.
"Oh shut up," all of a sudden I felt really dizzy, and staggered to the side.
Jace caught me, looking concerned. "Woah, you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. That just took at lot out of me."
Mira nodded. "Im still a little dizzy from when I made mine too. It requires a lot of energy."
"You realize we have a long way to go," Cole reminded us.
"I was trying to make it easier for all of us," Mira said. They watched the misshapen little semblances they stumbled around, bumping into each other.
Mira gave a little laugh. "It was supposed to be bigger."
"Are you telling it to move?" Cole wondered.
"I designed it to follow us when we weren't riding it," Mira explained. "I think it understands that part. It was supposed to have four legs. And it was supposed to obey instructions from me, but it seems mostly oblivious."
"Can you shape it more?" Cole asked. "Improve it?"
Mira shook her head. "I'm wiped out."
Cole turned to me. "What about you?"
I just shook my head, and winced when the world started to spin. I took a step and staggered to the side. Jace immediately put an arm around my waist for support, and I gratefully leaned against him, breathing in his comforting minty vanilla smell.
"Can either of you unshape it?" Jace inquired. "People might find it"
"Probably, but it would drain me too much. Were already going to have a hard time keeping up with you guys. We probably shouldn't have tried to make a semblance all at once. Carnag did it, so I thought maybe I could too. Projects like this are normally done step-by-step, a little at a time."
My semblance stood up and waddled toward me. It was kind of creepy.
"What's it made of?" Jace asked.
"Mine looks like dirt, but feels more like cork," Mira said. "It's tougher than it feels, but again, not quite what I was after."
"I don't want to know what I did to mine." I said, and we all laughed again.
Jace pushed my semblance over. Crouching, he ran he his hand along it, rocking it gently.
"You guys go on ahead. In catch up after I ditch these things."
"What are you going to do?" Cole asked.
"Stash it in the woods far from the road," Jace said, "they aren't light, but with my rope I can handle it."
"Isn't that kind of mean?" Cole asked.
Jace gave a frustrated sigh. "It's a walking hunk of cork Cole! The girls made them out of rubble. It doesn't have feelings. But Mira's might try to walk toward us, which would be a big favor to anybody who wants to track us down."
"Okay," Cole said. "Makes sense."
"Get going," Jace said. "People might be after us. We don't want to waste our head start."
"Are you okay to travel?" Cole asked us.
Mira wiped a hand across her forehead. "We have to be. No other choice." I nodded as she continued. "I just wish the star was still there."
"It'll be all right," Cole said.
"You guys go first," Twitch suggested. "We'll keep an eye on you from behind."
Mira drew her Jumping Sword, aimed it down the road, and called, "Away." The Shaper's Flail followed. I followed after her. I heard her repeat the command when she landed, leaping forward.