Binary

Chapter Ten: The Castle of Glass

One of the two soldiers standing guard visibly jumped in surprise when Xora called out to them. The other one hid it better, but he clearly hadn't noticed her either. Once they got over their shock at how easily she had escaped their notice, they threw up their salutes. She shook her head at their incompetence. They were supposed to be standing guard over the ruins of Edgestone. It wasn't even that dark tonight.

"Hail, Gunmaiden!" they said.

When she had first heard that, it had given her butterflies. Now it filled her with apprehension. When they had said it earlier this afternoon it had been a simple misunderstanding. Not a lie.

Across Xora's back was a piece of wood that was wrapped in some leather she had found in the saddle kit of her horse. She had carved a bit to make it look like a rifle in its holster. It wouldn't fool any real Gunner, but Xora was positive these country bumpkins wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"I've been on the hunt, and tonight I've located my target," said Xora, her voice a bit stiff, "I require the cooperation of your battalion. Please take me to your commanding officer."

They stared at her for a moment, and she didn't need to be able to see electricity to tell that they were blatantly dumbstruck. One of them finally nodded and asked her to follow him back to the main camp. She was glad he couldn't see her hands were trembling under her cloak.

Willfully impersonating a Gunner was a serious offense, punishable by death for a commoner. She didn't know what the punishment was for a Skystorm. As far as she knew no Skystorm had ever impersonated a Gunner. Of course, Xora thought to herself, that didn't mean it had never happened, just that no one ever talked about it.

The soldiers' camp was quiet, everyone had gone to sleep except for those keeping watch. It was situated in the middle of a large field just outside of where the town had been.

Xora waited patiently outside of the large tent in the middle of the pavilion as one of the soldiers went in to wake the StarKnight that Xora had spoken to earlier. The one in charge of investigating Edgestone's demise.

When the woman stepped out of the tent, looking grim but slightly groggy from being woken up, she saluted. Xora nodded in acknowledgment, before looking her up and down. She was wearing a loose nightgown, but Xora could see the outline of a dagger strapped against her thigh.

"I'm afraid I wasn't entirely honest with you when I first arrived," Xora said.

"What do you mean?" the StarKnight stiffened.

Xora cleared her throat.

"I wasn't out here tracking a criminal from Estraya, I came out here to help with the bandit problem."

"Our bandit problem?" exclaimed the knight in surprise, "you want to help us search for the thieves who've been plaguing this region...?"

"I've already found them," Xora said shortly, "but, there's a lot more of them than I thought there would be. So I've come to enlist the services of you and your battalion."

Xora watched the knight struggle to process this information.

"You... already found them? How?! We've been out here for weeks!"

Xora worked her mouth blanky for a minute, trying to think of something to say. She realized she probably should have expected further questions, but she hadn't thought about it until now.

"I had an informant," she stuttered after a second, "who... is now trapped in the enemy camp. That's why I need you and your soldiers. So we can go and rescue him."

"Right now?"

"Yes. We need to go right now."

The knight stared at her in confusion for another minute, but Xora could see the inside of her head flashing wildly. She hoped it wasn't suspicion.