Acropolis

Council of Questioning

Judge Danika, Mirza of Acropolis, Borna of Agora, Velibor of Medora, and Doris of Siljeca rode upon the wake of Siljeca's shore. Velibor questioned the burned guards of Jason's tower since it had been three days since Jason retreated. Without Kazimir and Daphne keeping guard over the tower, Jason knew or conjured a way to freedom. Kazimir would not have imprisoned Jason the same way he imprisoned the Alexanders but he felt it quicker to find Acacia if he forced Jason on their journey. Kazimir's envoys, sent by the enchanted firebird, were scheduled to meet the Council of Elders anyway since hearing of Jason's initial request to meet with Danika.

Kazimir, Daphne, the free Alexanders, and the envoys saw the ship in Siljeca before the Council of Elders met them, but what the elders saw first were metallic bodies of soldiers lining the shore. Some were upright. Some formed a fence extruding from the rocks. The guards on shore stood around the bodies like they were one of the fallen ones, or the fallen ones were one of them, somehow still half-living. Danika steered the ship no closer than the rocks could take her, seeing the mass of armored bodies as a railing. Danika waited for one, maybe two living eyes to glance in her direction. Not two, but many dead eyes pierced through the fog and through her like the protruding spears from the shore amidst the bodies and amidst the living guards.

And Marko stood before them.

Kazimir, Daphne, and the Alexanders were spying in the undergrowth not far from where Marko watched the shore before the Council of Elders arrived. Kazimir hunched into a ready crouch.

"What are these strange visitors!" Marko spat. Kazimir was too far in the brush to catch his fury.

Did he mean us or the envoy? Kazimir peeked through the trees and through the fog but no peek was more searing than Marko's reproachful stare.

Kazimir thought, now there are guards living and dead encircling Siljeca? And this strange man has come to arrest me? A ship for fortification? But I must stay; I can't go back!

Almost in answer to Kazimir's silent plea, Daphne appeared from the undergrowth even more reproachful in her gait, look, and height than Marko. The captain had no time to sheath his dagger. Daphne caught him mid-fight.

"And I thought Agora was where you were stationed."

"You are Daphne, aren't you?" he quivered. Her long and steady grip gave him ample time to respond.

"Yes, and I am no more unless this land of sallies can pick itself up." She raised his dagger still in his hand and peeled it out of his grip.

"Other strange visitors have appeared. They are tall, clean-shaven foreigners."

"And I guess that makes me but I'm just as suspecting as you."

Kazimir thought he heard Acacia resound from inside Daphne.

Aboard the ship, the elders anchored a rope around one monolith rock along with regular anchor. Danika hoisted a long plank over the haul for a walkway overarching the line of bodies and spears. The spears poked as far in any direction of shoreline and as far as the eye could see through fog. The elders filed carefully over rocks, weaving easily through the cage of spears.

The elders lined up on the shoreline against the spears making for a far more imposing fortitude.

When Marko returned facing the envoy, Danika announced, "You might know your way around but I don't trust you can give any direction to where Jason is better than he."

Marko replied, "State your business some more and I'd be glad but it can't be good."

Danika marched toward the outcropping of Siljeca but the guards were on the troupe in a flash.