The manticore's paws left the ground.

  Sael raised his hand.

  The earth erupted beneath the creature mid-leap, stone and packed dirt flowing upward like water answering a summons. It wrapped around the manticore in overlapping segments, each layer solidifying the instant it touched fur and scale. The sphere formed in less than a heartbeat, perfectly round, perfectly seamless, encasing the beast completely before it had traveled even half the distance to the child.

  The momentum carried the sphere forward, but Sael was already accounting for that. A wall of compressed air materialized in front of the little girl. The earthen prison struck it and stopped, hanging suspended three meters above the ground.

  The girl hadn't moved. She was still frozen, mouth open, not even breathing.

  Sael's attention split across the checkpoint like a net cast wide.

  The crowd was scattering in every direction, pure animal panic overriding thought. In another few seconds that panic would turn into a stampede, and people would die. Trampled, crushed, suffocated in the press of bodies trying to flee through spaces too narrow to accommodate them.

  He could see it forming already. A bottleneck near the gate where too many people were trying to force through at once. A woman had fallen near one of the wagons, and the surge was about to roll over her. A child, separate from the frozen girl, was about to be swept away from his parents in the tide of bodies.

  Sael's will extended outward.

  The woman who'd fallen rose smoothly into the air, lifted by invisible hands that caught her under the arms and pulled her up and over the crowd. She gasped, legs kicking instinctively, but Sael was already setting her down behind the press of bodies, in the clear space near the checkpoint wall.

  The child separated from his parents shot upward as well, rising above the chaos. The parents looked up, eyes wide, but Sael was already bringing the boy to them, depositing him directly into his father's arms.

  Six more people near the bottleneck, the ones most likely to fall and create the cascade that would kill dozens. Sael plucked them from the press and relocated them, spreading them across the checkpoint grounds in positions that would actually help manage the flow.

  A wagon was tipping, its panicked draft horse rearing against the traces. If it went over it would block half the available space and turn the bottleneck into a death trap. Sael caught it, held it steady with a framework of force, and simultaneously calmed the horse with a pulse of soothing magic that dropped its heartrate and cleared the terror-fog from its mind.

  The animal settled, snorting but no longer fighting.

  The crowd was still fleeing, but the deadly pressure points had been neutralized. The flow was chaotic but no longer lethal. People were getting through the gate, spreading out, finding space.

  The guards were shouting, trying to impose order, and now that the immediate catastrophe had been prevented they might actually succeed.

  Sael lowered the suspended sphere containing the manticore, bringing it down gently until it rested on the packed earth. The sphere was made of a thick, frosted-crystal stone. To anyone else, it would have appeared solid and unyielding, but through its pale, opalescent surface Sael could make out the manticore’s form as a blurred, shadowy mass, thrashing and twisting within. The stone muffled the sounds, but he could still hear the scraping of claws, the wet snarling.

  He reinforced the prison with another layer, then another, until the stone was thick enough that even an adult manticore's strength wouldn't crack it.

  The little girl in the yellow dress finally moved. She sucked in a breath, her chest heaving, and started crying, only now processing what had nearly happened to her.

  A woman broke from the crowd and ran to her, scooping her up, clutching her close. The woman was crying too, words tumbling out in a language Sael's magic translated as a mixture of prayers and reassurances and repeated thank-yous directed at no one in particular.

  Sael let his hand drop to his side.

  The entire sequence had taken perhaps five seconds from the moment the manticore had left the ground to now, with the creature imprisoned and the crowd's panic managed into something survivable.

  The guards were regaining control. One of them, an officer judging by the additional markings on his sash, was barking orders that were actually being heard now. Other guards were moving to secure the area around the stone sphere, spears leveled at it even though the creature inside clearly wasn't going anywhere.

  The checkpoint was still chaotic and filled with frightened people and scattered cargo and the lingering smell of panic-sweat, but it was no longer on the edge of disaster.

  Sael stood exactly where he'd been standing when the manticore had leaped. He turned to his companions. "Ilsa, Orion, please assist the elderly. They seem lost and shocked."

  Ilsa nodded once and moved immediately toward an older woman who was standing near an overturned basket, staring at nothing in particular. Orion followed without question, heading for an elderly man who'd sat down heavily on the ground and didn't seem inclined to get back up.

  That left Robin standing beside him.

  The young fox's tail swept once, then stilled. His ears were fully upright. "Well," he said. "That was exceptionally handled, sir. Though I must say..." His ears twitched. "I'm quite certain I saw something during the chaos. People moving through the shadows. Not fleeing, but entering. Through the shadows themselves."

  "Yes," Sael said.

  Robin's ears perked forward. "You saw them as well?"

  "I marked them."

  Robin's whiskers twitched in what might have been approval, which was an odd way to do it, given that he could just... talk. "So you can track them if necessary?"

  Exhibit A.

  "If necessary," Sael confirmed. "I can take care of it later."

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Robin's tail stilled again, settling low. "I have a bad feeling about this," he said quietly. "Shadow walking into a kingdom, during a crisis... that level of coordination and expense feels manufactured and rarely accompanies good intentions."

  "No," Sael agreed. "It rarely does."

  "Shouldn't we pursue them now? Before whatever they're planning unfolds?"

  "We have other priorities," Sael said. "We're here to see the Dragon King first. Whatever those infiltrators are planning, we can address it afterward if it requires our attention. The marks won't fade."

  Robin's whiskers twitched. "And if what they're planning happens before 'afterward'?"

  "Then I'll know exactly where they are when it does."

  The fox considered this, then nodded slowly. "I suppose that's reasonable. Though I maintain my bad feeling about this."

  "Noted. Thank you Robin."

  The checkpoint was settling around them. The screaming had stopped. People were finding each other, checking for injuries, beginning the process of recovering from terror. The guards had formed a perimeter around the stone sphere containing the manticore, and more were emerging from the gatehouse to help manage the crowd.

  The mother holding the little girl in yellow was looking at Sael. She said something, her voice thick with emotion and tears still streaming down her face. The translation magic rendered it as thank you, but the original words carried a depth of gratitude that made the simple phrase feel inadequate. She pressed her daughter's face against her shoulder, rocking slightly, and the little girl's sobs were quieting into hiccups.

  Sael inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.

  An officer was approaching now, his expression was... complicated. Behind him, the guard who'd taken Sael's papers earlier was emerging from the gatehouse, document still in hand, moving quickly. His face had gone pale.

  The officer stopped a respectful distance away and performed a short bow, one hand over his heart. When he straightened, his expression had settled into something more professional, though his eyes kept flicking to the stone sphere containing the manticore, then back to Sael.

  "Captain Idrees Vennor," he said. "I am responsible of this entire checkpoint. I want to thank you for your intervention, sir. Without it..." He gestured toward the crowd, which was still recovering but no longer on the verge of catastrophe. "Well. It would have been much worse."

  Sael inclined his head slightly.

  "I must admit," Vennor continued, "I didn't know the merchant association sent mages as their envoys. Much less ones of your... caliber."

  The man was a mage himself. Not a particularly strong one, but competent enough. Sael could feel this mana core.

  Robin's ears twitched, angling toward the captain but with a slight tension that suggested he wasn't following the conversation. Sael reached out with a thread of magic, quick and subtle. "[Altongue]."

  The spell settled over Robin like a second skin. The fox's ears immediately relaxed, comprehension replacing confusion.

  "I wish to see the king," Sael said.

  Vennor's expression shifted slightly. Not quite suspicious, but definitely more guarded. "If I may ask, what for?"

  "An Abyonian mage named Aldric Eryndor arrived here a few days ago," Sael said. "He's a dangerous individual to have within your walls. I've come personally to prevent him from causing harm." He paused. "Hence the papers. I wanted to enter peacefully."

  Vennor's gaze flicked to the other guard, the one who'd taken Sael's documents. The guard's pale face had gained a bit more color, but he still looked like a man who'd just had a very unpleasant revelation.

  "Is there a problem?" Sael asked.

  It seemed simpler to just ask rather than spend time trying to deduce what was making them both look like that.

  Vennor cleared his throat. "There have been many attempts on the king's life in the past few days. More than usual. We're... more alert than we normally would be."

  Sael blinked. "Do you think I've come to kill your king?"

  The two guards looked at each other.

  Then... they burst out laughing?

  Sael looked at Robin and the fox looked back at him. He raised his eyebrows slightly in a silent question. Did I say something funny?

  Robin's shoulders moved up and down in an equally silent response. I have no idea, sir.

  He probably didn't say 'sir' nonverbally—that would have been difficult to convey with a shrug—but Sael had the distinct impression Robin would have included it if he could.

  The laughter was starting to die down, though Vennor was still grinning in a way that suggested he was fighting to keep it under control. He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. "I apologize, sir. That was unprofessional of me."

  "It's fine," Sael said. "Though I'm not certain what was amusing about the question."

  "Well," Vennor said, and his grin was still there, tucked into the corner of his mouth. "The thing is, we let most of the assassins in. Intentionally."

  Sael stared at him.

  "It's per the king's request," Vennor continued, as if this was a perfectly reasonable thing to say. "He deals with them himself. Has been for years now. It's become something of a... routine, I suppose you could call it."

  The other guard had recovered enough to nod in agreement. "We wouldn't mind if one succeeded for once, to be honest," he muttered, then seemed to realize what he'd said and straightened quickly. "Not that we wish His Majesty harm, of course. Just that it would make our jobs and lives significantly easier."

  Vennor shot him a look that was half reprimand, half agreement, then turned back to Sael. "I was actually thinking the merchant association might have sent you, believing a powerful mage could accomplish what the others haven't. But I'll tell you what I usually tell the ones who come with that intent." He leaned forward slightly, his expression growing more serious. "Don't waste your life on it."

  Sael processed this information. This was not what he'd expected.

  Then another thought occurred to him, sharper and more immediate than his surprise at the Dragon King's apparent eccentricity.

  The shadow walkers from earlier.

  "I assume you're aware of the people using shadow magic who took advantage of the chaos to enter the walls?" Sael asked. "I suspect they may have been behind the manticore's escape."

  Vennor shook his head. "No. Not at all. Though some of them, the ones who want to kill the king, do enter that way at times. Their fates are all the same, though. We hear about them soon enough."

  "I see."

  What a strange kingdom.

  "The Abyonian I mentioned," Sael said. "Aldric Eryndor. Has he come through here?"

  "Ah," Vennor said. "That."

  The way he said it suggested he had thoughts about 'that.'

  "There was indeed an Abyonian man who came," Vennor continued. "Though I didn't see him myself. He entered through the northern checkpoint. But I heard about it afterward. He asked for an audience with the king and was brought to the palace."

  Sael waited.

  "Apparently he tried to propose something to His Majesty. The details, I'm not quite sure about. Palace business doesn't always reach us out here in complete form."

  "And this proposal," Sael said. "Did your king accept it?"

  "No." Vennor's expression shifted, something between amusement and discomfort. "His Majesty felt offended, apparently. There was a fight. I remember the tremors even from here." He gestured vaguely toward the direction of the palace, somewhere beyond the checkpoint walls. "The Abyonian was defeated and put in prison for insulting the king. That's all I know."

  Sael considered this.

  So that was why Aldric hadn't moved.

  "How do I access the prisons?" Sael asked.

  Vennor's eyebrows rose slightly. "They're beneath the palace. You'd need the king's authorization. Or at least the authorization of someone high enough in the palace hierarchy to grant entry to the lower levels. It's not the sort of place visitors typically request to see."

  "Very well. How do I request an audience with the king?"

  "Well," Vennor said, "since you came as an important envoy of the merchant association, you could get one as soon as possible. Which would be tomorrow. The time for hearings has passed for today."

  "It cannot wait," Sael said. "I need to see him now. Is the king currently in the palace?"

  He needed to verify whether the Dragon King had been Corrupted or not. Aldric had approached him, proposed something, been rejected and imprisoned for it. But that didn't mean the encounter had been entirely without effect.

  Vennor exchanged a glance with the other guard. "An emergency meeting could surely be arranged in a few hours, given the importance of the person requesting it and the... circumstances." He gestured toward the stone sphere containing the manticore, which was still sitting in the middle of the checkpoint like a monument to Sael's intervention.

  "Good," Sael said. "How do I arrange it?"

  "Please follow me," Vennor said.

  And Patreon's at 12 chapters ahead now!