Veil of Shadows

Chapter 64. Truth and Intent

"Put the armor on that thing. And hurry!" One of the Generals snapped, ascending the stairs to the newly built aerie. "Shadow needs reinforcements!"

Perfidus stayed perfectly still while his handlers spoke softly and quietly, reassuring him that they weren't going to hurt him, asking if it would be alright to put the armor on him, if it was uncomfortable, and other things. Every once and a while, he'd look into their eyes just to see the intent behind their statements.

Truth and intent were both fickle things. They could be repeating a lie they were told, and since they believed it to be truth, they'd be none the wiser. They could be incredibly good people being manipulated by incredibly bad people, and Perfidus himself would be none the wiser.

Since the day that Shadow had walked in on the wyvern being whipped, his handlers had been replaced with friendly people who'd never once taken any sort of weapon to him and always spoke to him as if they knew he was an ancient and powerful force. That, he knew, was true.

The lashes across his eye and along the length of his body had been professionally tended to, and were little more than faint lines.

Perfidus didn't quite understand why the former Ender Prince was supposed to be an enemy. He could feel the lighter part in his armor, and was intelligent enough to understand that it was left there purposely. He'd heard Shadow and the blacksmith talking about it.

Long before anyone had come and told Perfidus that he was supposed to provide cover for the remainder of Shadow's army as it marched to the castle, the blacksmith had given him an assignment. He would get to the castle as quickly as possible, regardless of whether or not he left the rest of the rebel army behind.

When he arrived, he would be met with people who would know what to do. They would complete the final part of his assignment. He would leave when they told him to leave, and not a moment sooner.

The pulsing energy that radiated from the concealed thing within the lighter part of the armor distracted him. It was more than enough that the rebels were made up of hybrids and magic users and sorcerers of all types - humans, too. As long as they were on his side, Shadow didn't particularly care what they were.

And yet everyone expected him to. Perfidus was not blind. He had seen the man Shadow called Caken meeting with the blacksmith, had seen how tense and cruel Shadow was whenever Caken was near.

From there, Caken's obvious role as a spy was not hard to decipher. Shadow was throwing off his reports, without making it obvious that he knew. Caken had started a game, and Shadow was meeting him move for move.

How long would it be before the board was overturned, and the pieces lost?

The one thing Perfidus didn't know, however, was what role he was to play. For now, he would let them strap armor on him. For now, he would follow their commands. He would hide his time, pretend to be a dog leashed to its master. Roar and purr and whatever else it took to hide his true capabilities from them.

After all, he was a wyvern, and wyverns did not have masters.

~

Less than half an hour passed before King Notch's scouts crossed over the ridge. They didn't bother masking their movements or their voices - not expecting anyone to be alive or capable of overpowering them. So imagine their surprise when they were met with an entire camp's worth of rebels who were very not dead.

Red refused an escort. "If you people want me to do this, then at least treat me like an ally for the thirty seconds in which I actually help you."

So now the five scouts stood, glancing uneasily back at Midnight, who stood a little ways behind them with her arms crossed, pinning each of them with a glare. Her glowing white eyes were enough to persuade them not to bolt for it. If they did, they'd be dead in seconds.

"Alright, let's do this. Anything in particular you want me to knock into their brains?" Red said, way too cheerfully for what she was about to do, striding up to the scouts.

"Memory of a destroyed camp. Dead bodies - particularly a few of the Hero Squad's. We want them to think that we were caught entirely off guard." Midnight advised.

Red cracked her knuckles, and her red eyes glowed brighter. "One at a time, then. Also, you might want to step back so I don't accidentally get into your head. Mind invading is a bit of an unpredictable process."

Wolf understood now why Ranger hadn't wanted to be anywhere near it. If there was even the slightest possibility that Red would get back in her head, she didn't want to take that chance.

And then Red vanished entirely.

The first scout's eyes began to glow the same red hue, indicating that he was under her control now. He stood stiff and unmoving as a board, gaze fixed straight ahead. Waiting.

Blaze tried to imagine what it was like to be the scout right now. His ability to move, his ability to think and speak, to make his own choices, had been suddenly and jarringly torn from him. He wasn't like Ranger - he didn't have years of experience fighting a mental battle under his belt. He was vulnerable.

After a few seconds, he twitched, then collapsed, unconscious. Just before he hit the ground, Red reappeared. "When he wakes up, he'll have the memories I put in his mind. He'll know to go back to the castle. So will all the others."

When nobody answered, Red moved onto the next scout. The same thing happened, except the twitch was less violent, as if the mind invader was still getting the hang of knocking someone out without actually harming them. She reappeared, and wasted no time moving on to the third. And the fourth. By the fifth, the final twitch was barely noticeable.

When she reappeared for the last time, Red said "Put them just over the ridge. If they wake up and see the camp whole and undestroyed, it'll cancel out the memories I put in."

Wordlessly, they followed her advice. Midnight did some magic of her own to wake them up so that they wouldn't risk one of Notch's Knights seeing the five unconscious scouts and sounding the alarm. The plan worked fairly well - the scouts woke, albeit a bit confused, then after a while made their way back to King Notch's castle to report what they'd seen.

"That will buy you time." Red drawled. "They will not leave this camp alone. They will send more people. Start hoping that Shadow's reinforcements get here before that happens."