1219 A.B.

  Sergeant Doornail drilled the talon in the marshalling yard before we were ordered to guard duty in the fields outside the city that day. Elle strained with effort at the weapons drills she was performing, but she couldn’t wipe the sweat out of her eyes until she could get her helmet off. Her arms trembled with the strain of handling the pike she wielded, and Mira struggled in a similar manner beside her. Seeing Captain Safarac approach, Sergeant Doornail snapped to attention and saluted. The talon continued working with the polearms.

  “Sergeant.” Captain Safarac saluted back. “You’ve heard of the goblin raids on our fields these last couple of nights, I assume?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Warleader’s orders. You are to take your talon down river toward Blackrock Enclave to scout out the goblins’ lair. If there aren’t many, save us the trouble of marching there and destroy them yourselves. If there are more than your talon can handle, bring your report back and we’ll send more troops. You’ll receive ten days of provisions from the quartermaster.”

  “Will we be issued bows or crossbows, sir?”

  “You’ll only need sword and board to handle a few goblins.”

  “Some long spears for renders?”

  “You can handle renders without them.”

  “Will we have any of the royal scouts to guide us?”

  “No. They may be needed for more complex missions. This isn’t beyond you, is it, sergeant?” the captain asked.

  “No, sir,” Sergeant Doornail replied, saluting.

  “You leave immediately. Carry on, then,” the captain said as he turned away.

  “Listen up!” Sergeant Doornail shouted. The talon stopped the exercise and stood their pikes upright. “We have scouting duty to find the goblins responsible for raiding our fields. We’re taking ten days of rations. The quartermaster will have them ready. Get your packs from the barracks and your rations and form up in the marshalling yard in thirty minutes. We’ll be equipping with short swords and shields. Now get moving!”

  We did as we were ordered, and quickly. Thirty minutes wasn’t much time to grab our gear and get provisions, and we all knew it. As soon as Bran turned and sprinted off, we all followed suit, barely taking the time to put our pikes back in their racks as we jogged by. As we entered the castle at a jog, we found Bandit waiting outside the keep, almost as if she knew Mira would be leaving. At the time, I only thought this was passingly strange. It was either dumb luck or she was a very smart raccoon. Bandit had become the talon’s mascot over the last year, and everyone knew that Mira and Bandit were just about inseparable. The sergeants didn’t care as long as Bandit stayed out of the way and relieved herself outside the castle somewhere.

  It was around midmorning when we reassembled in the cobbled marshalling yard with Bandit stowed in Mira’s pack. Bran had offered to carry the rest of Mira’s supplies since Bandit took up a large portion of Mira’s backpack, and Bran was strong enough that he could easily handle the extra weight. He was fine as long as he could fit some of Johala Baker’s honey buns in there, which Bran happened to be saving for a special occasion. Coming from a house with older brothers, Bran and I had learned early to never let food out of our sight if we weren’t going to eat it right away, and those honey buns were a real treat.

  Sergeant Doornail gave a quick inspection to make sure everyone was equipped and accounted for, then we marched out the river gate, heading northward on the east side of the river, downstream towards Blackrock Enclave and Mithram. The talon used the road for the rest of the day, and we were constantly on the lookout for the dangers we knew were out there waiting for us. We made it to the next enclave well before dusk and stopped there for the night. There was a large caravan that had reached the enclave just before we did, and they had taken up all the space in the inn. We had to make camp on the hard-packed dirt of their caravansary, but at least we were behind walls. Setting up camp outside the protection of an enclave was usually the last thing a person consciously did.

  The following morning, we packed up our gear and prepared to go. Packing was easier because it was Twoday, so we didn’t need the tents last night and wouldn’t need them until tomorrow’s rain. Sergeant Doornail moved to the head of the talon and cleared his throat.

  “The march this morning will not go along the road, but close to the river after the road diverges from the river,” Sergeant Doornail said.

  I shared a glance with Bran. We’d been on an overland journey before, something most of the others hadn’t ever done, and we both knew that briars grew thickly where there was water at the forest’s edge. I hoped the thickets weren’t too tall. The thorns could get almost two inches long, and they could take your eye out if you weren’t careful.

  “This is so we can more easily see the game trails that the goblins use to get water,” the sergeant continued. “Be on the lookout for the tracks they leave and be especially watchful for dead vines where there shouldn’t be any. Goblins use vines to make their traps. The softer ground near the river makes tracking their prey easier, but it’ll show us signs of their passage, also.”

  We left the enclave and marched along the trade road until it went uphill, away from the river. Then we went a lot more slowly through the briars until lunch time. After eating, we continued for another couple of hours until the render ambushed us. On hindsight, Elle had almost never been as scared as she was in that encounter, and she had a hard time not giving in to panic during that fight. The only thing that kept her from running was the fact that it was Bran that had been attacked.

  The talon moved on. After marching another couple of hours, which made the time around six in the afternoon, the sergeant called a halt. A few rays of sunlight were breaking through the forested gloom here because the river broke up the trees. Oak trees hundreds of feet tall were casting a lot of shade, for which we were thankful, but it made it harder for the sergeant to find traces of the goblins’ presence. Goblins were a very crafty lot, and they knew that their continued survival depended on keeping their presence unnoticed from human settlements. The sergeant’s eyes were fixed on the ground at his feet, and he knelt down for a closer look. We were curious about what caught his attention, and it became obvious that he found tracks on a small game trail leading from the river on the left to the hills on the right.

  “Goblins,” Doornail said. Finally, a sign of our true quarry, the reason we were so far from civilization. “Looks like only a few sets of tracks were laid today. We should find their lair above us in a cave or rock overhang. Goblins hate sunlight, so maybe we can catch them sleeping. It sure as hell won’t be us that gets caught napping. Shields at the ready. Swords out.”

  From there, we followed the faint trail, evaded the traps, and made our way to the cave. That cave. Even now it makes my hands tremble a bit to think about it. As we approached, I could hear murmured words from Elle. She was praying quietly, and she knew He was listening.

  The goblins threw javelins and fled inside, and we cautiously pursued, as was our duty. We heard the sound of many bodies moving both before and behind us, and I, for one, broke out in a sweat. A very deeply voiced, guttural chuckle came from deeper in the tunnel, just out of sight. We knew we were trapped. Mira threw one of her torches down the passage a way and revealed a large mass of goblins filling the tunnel further than the torch illuminated in the single second it took them to stamp out the torch. There must have been a hundred of them, and there was a huge, hulking figure that could only belong to an ogre standing in the center of them. Dozens of goblins now blocked the tunnel to the rear.

  All I could think of was that there was no way we’d be able to fight our way out of this. They were going to swarm us. That one ogre could probably have killed everyone in our talon by himself if we didn’t fight as a unit, and there were dozens and dozens of goblins. I had to do something. But if I did, I could be turned over to the prince for execution when we got back to Stonekeep. I had the ability to get myself out of this, but I’d be leaving most of the others to die. It was a fleeting thought, but I wouldn’t abandon them. No way.

  Our escape was cut off, and the enemy knew it. They paused for a moment to enjoy our fear. At that moment, seeing the evil delight in their eyes, I knew we were doomed, and I despaired. I knew that if I displayed my powers here before all the members of my talon, both I and everyone in my family could be killed, but if I didn’t do something, we would all certainly die here. I shared a glance with Bran. He knew the stakes, and he knew what I was thinking. He nodded, and there was a small flare of light inside his helmet, a manifestation of strength from the sword under the skin of his forehead.

  “Time to die!” the ogre shouted in the common trade tongue. Then it shouted in a guttural language, and the mass of goblins charged.

  In that instant, I knew what I had to do. As my talon members braced for the charge, I focused my will and seized as much power as I could grip. The pain was intense. I held my right arm straight up, my short sword clenched in my gauntleted fist, and unleashed a massive concussive blast in all directions. It radiated from my raised fist in a circle, going over the heads of my comrades, but getting larger as it suddenly ripped through the tunnel. The goblins that were charging us were hit by an arcane blast that had the effect of a massive shield smashing them. Those enemies within twenty feet of me were hurled back up and down the tunnel with bone crushing force. Many died without knowing what hit them.

  At the time, I didn’t know why it hurt me so much to use magic. The pain could be a piercing one, inflicted anywhere on my body, or it could be a spread out, burning pain, or could even feel like a hundred needles in some random extremity. It was completely unpredictable, always distracting, and was an everlasting, looming deterrent. It couldn’t be allowed to stop me now, though. Too much was at stake.

  Channeling more power, I raised my shield and released a powerful shielding spell that was wide enough to encompass the entire talon. As the closest goblins tried to pick themselves up, the ones behind them kept coming, hurling javelins before them as they charged. Both in front of me and behind, the javelins hit my shielding spell and ricocheted off. Gritting my teeth, I pointed my sword ahead and focused my will. Seizing the power I needed from the source, I summoned elemental fire that swirled around my fist, then hurled a cone of fire down the tunnel towards the massed goblins, incinerating within seconds many that were bearing down on us.

  The goblins that were in the mouth of the tunnel came down in a swarm, leaping over the crushed bodies of the forerunners of their charge, crying out their bloodlust. Though my talon-mates yelled out their battle cries, they were wise enough to hold their ground as we had been taught. Raising their shields, they only did what was relentlessly drilled into them. It was the only thing they could do, as surprised as they were at the magic raging around them.

  Ignoring my brothers in arms, I turned and released the fire on the goblins charging from the outside next, burning through their front ranks, giving them a quick but painful death. I had but a moment to take a breath, which was difficult in the cave right now. Before me, deeper in the tunnel, the main force was still intact, and they hurled their javelins against my shielding spell as they charged again in a frenzy. My talon members shouted in confusion but had their shields ready for the coming attack. I focused my will and seized the power I needed, then hit the goblins with a concussive blast, instantly stopping their charge. Bodies flew backwards down the tunnel in a wave. The smaller force blocking our retreat had started moving forward again, screaming out their bloodlust. They would never give up their attempts to kill and destroy, so I responded in kind. Raising my sword hand over the heads of those defending the rear, I focused my will. Seizing the power as I accepted the agony, I released another cone of fiery death that engulfed their depleted ranks. They cried out as they died, but I did not relent until nothing moved. The way out was now clear.

  “There’s a way out!” Mira shouted.

  “Shield wall! Withdraw back up the tunnel!” Sergeant Doornail shouted. “Slow advance to the surface! One! And Two! And one! And two!”

  Slowly, the talon began moving back up the slope, shields held up in defense, but I didn’t go with them. I held my ground in the tunnel. They passed through my shielding spell, but I didn’t see many goblins moving between the talon and the surface. I faced the main force of the marauders alone. It was then that I heard Bran praying behind me. The goblins hadn’t regrouped in front of me yet, so I spared a glance back. Bran had a slight glow of golden light about him, and he had taken the center of the shield wall, advancing a half step in front of the others. They were going to make it, so long as I could hold the main force off. But it hurt. God, it hurt.

  I could hear the ogre down the tunnel, shouting in his guttural language at his goblin army. It sounded like he still had some fight in him. Well, I would show him his folly. I could see down the tunnel on account of all the burning clothing, and as I advanced deeper, I could see the ogre was about fifty feet ahead rallying his troops. He shouted a word, pointing at me, and they charged. I was ready. I focused my will, took the power I needed, and threw a cone of fire down the tunnel, stronger than any I had summoned before. I paid dearly for it, but in the confines of the passage, the fire consumed many of them instantly, blasting them to ashy cinders. The ogre was badly burned by my last blast and was still struggling to get off his knees. I took more power and threw an arrow of fire directly at its center mass. The fiery arrow hit him in the chest and burned a hole straight through. He looked down stupidly, as if wondering how that foot-wide hole had suddenly appeared, then planted his face in the corridor and died.

  Those goblins that remained saw their leader fall dead, turned and ran. I knew that even if spared, goblins would never stop their wicked ways, so I firmed my resolve about how I knew this had to be handled. I kept my shielding spell in force as I advanced down the tunnel with a tongue of fire swirling around my right fist for light. The heat, smoke, and lack of fresh air all hurt my lungs, but I tried to hold back the coughing and blink away the sweat and smoke as well as I could. I could hear fighting from the cave entrance and took grim pleasure in the fact that it was the goblins who screamed in pain, while the soldiers shouted only war cries. I advanced deeper into the darkness.

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  The tunnel ended a short way later in a chamber cut out of the rock. There were campfires burning in the center, but there was very little smoke in the chamber. There must be a chimney of some sort in the ceiling. I could see the last remnants of their force grouped up against the far wall. There were no exits from this chamber that I could see. When the goblins saw me, they threw their remaining javelins at me, all of which hit my shield and bounced aside. Briefly I felt bad about killing all these creatures, but then I thought of all the people they’d kidnapped and either eaten or put into slavery. I was sure their victims had begged for mercy and gotten none. With difficulty, I once again focused my will, then blasted them with a cone of fire, and I didn’t let up until I’d scoured their foul presence from the world. It cost me, but soon there was no more movement or sound.

  I coughed in the smoky air and decided that I needed to let this place air out a bit. I ended my shielding spell and began walking out. One of the goblins I stepped over on the way out had a pouch that had some gold coins spilling out on the floor from the pouch’s bottom that had been burned away. Not wanting to waste anything, I sheathed my sword and picked the coins up. I then walked up and out of the smoking tunnel into the much cooler early evening air. The talon was crouched and ready to fight, and there were some fresh goblin corpses arrayed around their circle of shields. I saw no one from my unit was laying on the ground and was very thankful. Pausing, I coughed some of the smoke out briefly, hands on my knees. My comrades just stared.

  “Anything still in there?” Sergeant Doornail asked.

  “Nothing living,” I managed to get out around my coughing.

  “At ease,” Sergeant Doornail ordered.

  “What the hell was that?!” One of them yelled. I think it was Pate. I never liked him much.

  “Is he a flaming Mordonian?!” from another one, as he waved a sword.

  “We should take him to the prince!” yelled Pate.

  Bran turned and faced him, ready to fight. “You want to try it?”

  Pate took a step back.

  “Enough!” Doornail roared into Pate’s face. “Take a minute and gather what little wit you have! You’re alive, aren’t you?! Do you remember why? Ponder that as we secure the site!”

  We knew what that meant. Sergeant pointed two fingers at Pate and someone else, I didn’t see who, and then pointed in one direction outside the cleating. He then sent two more soldiers in the other direction. They just went to the edge of the clearing and far enough into the trees to see into the gloom to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us. They’d be back in a minute or two, during which time I tried to cough the rest of the smoke out of my lungs. I took a drink of water and tried to settle down. In our own way, we each tried to get a grip on ourselves and process what had just happened.

  Sergeant Doornail approached. “Never seen anything like that before, and I’ve seen a lot of bad things,” the sergeant said quietly.

  Bran, Elle and Mira joined me. “Glad you’re all right, brother,” Bran said with a punch to my pauldron. “You saved us all, no question about it.” This last he said much more loudly, so the whole talon couldn’t help but hear.

  “I knew you could fight, but damn,” Mira said with a little awe. “I didn’t know you had that in you.”

  “Are you hurt?” Elle asked.

  “I’m fine. Just need a little fresh air is all,” I said, still coughing a bit.

  Taking their cue from my friends, the others drew closer, many offering their thanks, even though a few didn’t mean it. They knew what I was. A Mordonian Sorcerer. I could sense their conflict. They were bound by law to report me to the prince, but their conscience may have been warring against that. Some were feeling threatened by me suddenly, a common thought when one’s view of another is turned upside down so suddenly. Sergeant Doornail came to my side and gripped my vambrace in the manner of warriors.

  “Son, I don’t know how you did that, but I do know we’d all be dead right now if you hadn’t. We owe you a debt,” Sergeant Doornail said solemnly.

  “You owe me nothing,” I said as I released his arm. “Though I’d appreciate it if the official story was something along the lines of a coordinated military strike. You know, standard fighting against maybe twenty or thirty goblins.”

  Sergeant Doornail nodded, and it seemed the others respected him enough to take their direction from him. There were grim nods from all, even if some of them shuffled their feet and looked away. Maybe they’d see I was no threat with time. Trying to address the issue right then wasn’t the right move, though. Even I knew that, and I was far from wise.

  “There’s something else to consider.” I held up the gold coins I found. “This was on one of the goblins. They’re all coins minted in Mithram, the same we use in Stonekeep.”

  “Were the goblins raiding enclaves?” Bran asked.

  “No, not that anyone told me about,” Sergeant Doornail replied, stroking his chin. “And we all saw that the closest enclave to here was completely untouched.”

  “It’s like they were hiding. There must be a traitor in Stonekeep,” Mira said. She was always quick to see skullduggery.

  “Who would work with ogres and goblins?” Elle asked.

  “Kromwell would,” Mira said. “He was a lot like a goblin himself.”

  “Got that right. I always wondered what happened to that gutter slug after the fight where his snake of a father got his comeuppance,” Bran said. He looked thoughtful. “Even in death, maybe Lord Surekeel still has some allies.”

  “Maybe there’s someone we don’t know about. I didn’t see Kromwell’s group leave, but there’s no way they could’ve hidden themselves in the city all this time,” Mira said. “I never saw any of them again after that night. I checked each of their houses, and they all left in a hurry. Raynold had enough time to take his books with him, too. They must have found a way out of the city.”

  “How would a traitor get ogres to help them, though?” Bran asked.

  “Some of Sivash Surekeel’s drugs came from Fellton,” Mira said. “King Karnas of Fellton has used ogre mercenaries before in his wars with other city states. Maybe Kromwell fled to Fellton and secured an ally there,” Mira mused as she fingered the tip of a dagger. “I’d love to find the bastard and ask him a pointed question or two.”

  We were standing around, thinking when someone spoke up. “There’s probably a lot more gold in that cavern.”

  “Well, we can’t let it all just sit there, now, can we?” Sergeant Doornail said.

  “That would be criminal, it would,” came a reply from the back.

  The sergeant thought for a moment. “All right, then. You know the stroks will show up any minute now to claim the dead. We’ll take twenty or so corpses and put them at the tree line. Spread them out so the stroks don’t fight amongst each other. If any are hungry, they’re more likely to attack us. We’ll loot each corpse, drag it a few feet away from the others to keep the coins from going to the burn pile, then pile the corpses as far from the trunks of the trees as possible to burn in the morning. There should be plenty out here to keep them gorging themselves all night long. We’ll make camp somewhere in the tunnel for the night.”

  “The goblins camped in a larger chamber deeper in the tunnel, and they had fires, so there must be some sort of shaft for the smoke to clear out,” I said.

  “Excellent,” Sergeant Doornail said. “Loot these corpses outside, and let’s make camp in there. We’ll need a couple more torches. We only have about an hour of daylight left. Let’s move it!”

  The talon snapped to their tasks, and in short order we had the corpses piled up outside and the money in a sack in the cave. The smell of the cave was awful even without factoring in the stench of burned goblins. It reeked of spoiled meat and feces. Goblins are filthy creatures, and they must have eaten filthy things. The smell didn’t get better when they burned, either. We didn’t have any lamp oil or anything very flammable, so I had to set the pile alight and make sure it stayed lit without burning down the forest. Tomorrow was Threeday, so the rain would put out anything burning in the early morning hours.

  The first stroks showed up about ten minutes later, as expected. We had to spare two men to guard against them while the rest worked, so being on the strok lookout detail became Mira and Elle’s duty. Those stroks looked like black vultures, but much bigger, being around six feet tall with a twenty-foot wingspan. They were foul tempered, quarrelsome things, and each one could kill a man very easily with their sharp beaks. There were only four of them on the ground right now, but that would change.

  We made our camp for the night in the large chamber. I must have been right about there being some sort of chimney in the darkness where the goblins had set their campfires, because the air had cleared out in there remarkably quickly. The sergeant set the usual watch order for the night, then we settled down.

  -----

  Despite some shifty looks from a couple of the guys, it seemed to me that everyone was a lot more relaxed than they were yesterday, and despite having the camp in the reeking cave, everyone seemed to have fallen back into the mannerisms they had before the revelation of my true self. My talon mates must have thought about whether or not they should report me to the prince or king, also. They knew whatever punishment would fall on me would likely be shared by my immediate family and possibly even associates. That meant Bran, Elle, and Mira could share in my fate, and the others liked Bran a lot and looked up to him, and they felt guilty for even considering it. I could see everyone was more guarded when I was near, but at least they weren’t openly hostile. For my part, I tried to mind my manners and keep from making sudden or threatening moves.

  When those not on the last shift of guard duty awoke in the morning, we had a hasty breakfast and armed ourselves. Sergeant Doornail stood up to address us.

  “There were a little over two hundred goblins here plus the ogre. Each one of them had exactly ten gold coins, oddly enough, and the ogre had a hundred. That means there’s a total of two thousand, two hundred gold royals that are now in our possession by right of conquest. That’s two hundred royals each, boys!” Sergeant Doornail said with enthusiasm.

  There was a chorus of cheers at that. Two hundred royals amounted to a bunch of money. There were a lot of people who struggled to make a royal a day at honest work, and to have that kind of windfall land in our laps was a huge boost to morale, to say the least.

  “I saw the longing looks towards the little piles over there at breakfast,” the sergeant continued. “I’ll also have you know that Jeron wouldn’t take any extra gold for himself, even though he did all the work. You all owe him a drink when we get back.” I could sense that not everyone felt quite that way, but I appreciated his effort to protect me. “We’re done here. Let’s pack it up and assemble at the entry to the chamber. Hop to it!”

  We each picked a pile of money and put that in our packs first, since it would be heaviest. Even though we knew we would be marching in the rain, and we were going out into a clearing where literally everything with claws for miles around would be waiting for us, I thought everyone was in good spirits. We broke camp quickly.

  “Talon seven, assemble!” Sergeant Doornail commanded.

  We formed our two by five marching order with the sergeant in the lead and readied ourselves for an order to form a circle or shield wall should the situation call for it.

  “And march! One, two, one, two,” the sergeant called out.

  The tunnel was clear, of course. We were watching for danger in the tunnel all night. When we got to the clearing outside, there were ten stroks on the ground with many more in the trees, and they had just about finished off the goblins we set out for them. They eyed us with hostility, hissing menacingly, but their bellies were full, and they left us alone. The ones in the trees were already sated. We marched through the rain back to the enclave and made it there in a few hours.

  We spent the night indoors this time in one of the larger common rooms where the twelve of us could comfortably fit. When we were all relaxing after dinner, Bandit actually let me pet her a little bit. She had never let me do that before. Maybe it was because I never tried, though. Raccoons were able to deliver a vicious bite when they wanted to, and up until now I had never had an animal act in a friendly way towards me. I’d still rather have been wearing gauntlets when petting her, just in case. Mira thought it was cute, though. She giggled when Bandit rolled over in my lap and let me rub her belly. Bandit never made a sound unless attacking or being attacked, but she wore an uncannily human looking smile. It was a good moment.

  Some of the guys tried to buy me another pint of ale, but I was still sipping on my first one, and I didn’t want to get drunk while still on duty. They understood when I thanked them and gently refused. The others were noticeably friendlier towards me and Bran now, though. I think they resented our prior training and our nice armor before, but now they could see Bran and me more clearly.

  Mira was different, too. She was always friendly towards me, but now she was also warm. I could tell she wanted to be around me more now. She was a very independent young woman, so I was warm back to her without trying to impress her or being flirtatious at all. She would have seen right through that. I realized that I liked her attention more than I thought I would, too. She normally kept herself in very plain clothes, and with her brown eyes and brown shoulder length hair, she should look very plain. Somehow, she didn’t look plain to me anymore. She was extraordinary in a way that someone on the outside wouldn’t know about. I was considering all that I knew about her and realized I was staring into her eyes. She was staring too, though, and we seemed to snap out of it at the same awkward moment. The moment passed, and we spent the rest of our time talking about who we thought could have worked with Kromwell to set us up with the goblins, if it even was Kromwell. Ultimately, we didn’t know who it could be or how to find out. We just knew we would have to keep our eyes open. We had the feeling they weren’t done with us yet.

  I went to my bedroll that night with a belly full of good food and a head full of questions. Who besides Kromwell would want to kill us? What allies did they have in Stonekeep? How would they strike next? Then I wondered what it would be like to kiss Mira. Wait a minute. Where’d that come from? Did she learn some sort of charming spell or something? I didn’t feel enchanted. I could feel an enchantment on Mira’s person, as I could for the past few years. I always wondered what it was but didn’t want to be rude and ask. I thought it may be her braided cloth necklace, as that was the only thing I could halfway see that was on her person constantly, but unless she was in a sharing mood, I’d never know. Sleep only slowly came to me as I considered things.

  -----

  Even in an area of the wilds where the smell of goblins had driven away most of the wildlife, Aldon was still a very dangerous place. There were things out here that hunted goblins and even ogres, and those were things to watch out for. Mira’s head swiveled towards a tiny whisper of a sound from a clump of bushes in the gloom. It was the only warning we had before something burst out of it and charged us. It looked like a bear with quills sticking out of it in all directions. I knew that those quills had a toxin on them that caused paralysis, and the beast itself was strong enough to kill a man without the quills. Oddly enough, we called them quillbears. I know, it was a simple name for something so dangerous, but it doesn’t take a grand name to convey the nature of a thing. Quillbears were big trouble.

  “Shields! Circle!” shouted Sergeant Doornail.

  We brought our shields up and formed a circle as the quillbear started spinning weirdly as it ran and made a powerful flicking motion with its spiked tail. Several of its larger spines flew off at us and pinged off of our shields and armor. Though its attack was foiled, it roared and charged the rest of the way in. It crashed directly into Sergeant Doornail, knocking him backwards into the circle, and giving Bran and me a glancing blow to our sides as it passed, nearly bowling us over. The sergeant landed on his backside with the quillbear’s paws planted on his cuirass. The quillbear shook itself like a dog, throwing spines in all directions. We had remembered our training and had shifted our shields to face the inside of the circle by then, so we were unaffected by the attack. Since we had it surrounded, we all took turns thrusting with our shortswords at its rear and flanks as it flailed about itself with its powerful claws. It didn’t know who to attack, so its confusion was our greatest defense.

  It fought like a demon, but we brought it down eventually. We used our shields to roll it off the road where it would be of no further harm, then checked ourselves for quills. Since no one was harmed beyond a few bruises, we resumed our march back to Stonekeep as if nothing had happened.

  We made it back to Stonekeep without further trouble. Sergeant Doornail dismissed us to the barracks as he made his report and life returned to normal. Mira was especially vigilant of behavioral clues, but nothing seemed amiss with the way anyone was acting, so we had nothing to investigate.

  Despite promises from my talonmates that they’d keep my identity as a Mordonian sorcerer secret, I was unable to fully relax the way I used to before they knew. I mean, they didn’t have the opportunity to report me to anyone while we were still on patrol, but now that we were back, any one of them could change their minds at any time. They could have been placating me in the wilds and could rely on the prince’s protection once they reported me, after all. I guess I sort of withdrew from people at that time, becoming even more reserved than usual. My neck and shoulders were always tight, and I had the beginnings of a headache starting at the back of my skull most of the time. Elle noticed and kept a close eye on me. Bran tried to keep the banter light and fun, helping me in his way. I just wished I could get rid of the feeling that a hidden doom was hovering over my head.