Warlord's Ward

Reinforcements

Two Days Earlier

Magus knew it was late but he needed to break away from Vanna Rae and her vicious mates.

And Hawk was acting particularly strange tonight.

Up to something. Magus knew. But at this point he knew he'd simply have to follow along with whatever foolhardy plan the mage Commander had concocted.

Magus was using a bit of crow's blood and a feather the sentinel had offered him to scribble one line on a bit of parchment before rolling it up. He tucked it into the scaled foot of the large red bird. He leaned close to murmur to it.

It bobbed it's head in understanding. Before taking off. Huge red wings swooping as they carried it high into the sky.

It took several hours for the bird to cross over the tree-tops in the dead of night. Escaping the hungry talons of several night birds to wind toward the twisted tower atop a dead mountain. Finally reaching it, it had to evade the raging wall of flames surrounding it, to coast over the narrow bailey. It gave a high squeal and one window in the tower bloomed with orange firelight as the man in that isolated chamber woke.

The sentinel bird barely slowed as it twisted and released the bit of parchment.

The tall thin shadow in the wind reached out and snatched that fragment of paper from the air. Unraveling it and reading the three words scribbled in red across it.

King Detry's Castle.

It said nothing else.

It didn't have to.

It was a location and he'd been waiting for that for a long, long, time.

***

Now

"Come on." Killian whispered to her. Tucking her under his arm. He scrambled out of his armored tunic and dropped it over her head.

Her bare legs stuck out beneath it but she was too angry to be ashamed.

Killian caught me around the waist and guided us both out the front door. We prepared to deal with the next onslaught of attackers. Knowing there'd be more knights out there and possibly the mages to contend with.

Tanya was close behind us. Knowing that she could get many of the mages in the Training Gardens to listen to her.

"Don't fire!" She lifted a hand, lifting a magic shield but to her shock, and ours, no one was coming at us.

The mages were lined up amidst the trees and had streamers of magic blocking the bailey in both directions to keep King Detry's knights from getting to us. We had a straight path to the treeline.

A clear escape.

But Killian wasn't moving. Nor was BailaLae, who was leaning heavily on his shoulder. Both stared ahead in shock.

Only then did I look straight down the center of the mages posed in opposite directions. One man faced us. And he was the tallest man I'd ever seen. A slim giant. He towered over everyone else with sleek gold hair brushing back from his face and brilliant blue eyes glittering from beneath a gold-trimmed black eye mask. Looking like something, someone might wear to a ball. But most interesting of all was the unbelievably huge grin crossing his face. Turning it from what could've been enigmatic and somber to magnetic.

"I've been waiting for you, two."

"Aviari!" BailaLae launched from Killian's arms to rush across the clearing. Tossing herself against her brother in a big hug.