AO 7 Ch 24

Chapter 24

I ate the food provided, a giant smile plastered on my face, not uttering a word as I resisted saying anything bad about what I was eating. But inside, I was cringing.

Bitter was an understatement. Lord Valken said they raised rats entirely on this plant. That was sadistic torture. Still, I pushed down my tears and ate through the meal provided. 

But every time I was nearing the end, a villager came over to give me a bigger portion of their ‘less bitter’ gadava bread. Why they would soil flour with this heinous grass was beyond me.

"Oh no, no, you don't have to give me so much," I tried to politely refuse. 

"Oh, he's loving every second of this. Give him two servings," Emlyn said, her eyes gleaming with the satisfaction of paying me back for some past transgression. In this moment, I truly regretted anything I'd done to Emlyn, though I'm certain it was entirely worth it at the time. 

"Well, we are proud of how well we've cultivated the bitter out," one of the farmers grinned. 

"It is an acquired taste," Eva smirked, seeming far less bothered with the meal than me.

However, I had definitely noticed that my anchors had only eaten a few spoonfuls before drowning the flavor in wine. Too many eyes were on me for that. For once, I regretted being the center of attention.

Ah, who was I kidding?

"Well, that's great news. Your efforts are an honor to the kingdom," Lord Valken continued to encourage them. It seemed as if everyone was against me. "It's only fitting that you give the prince here an opportunity to appreciate your fine efforts." 

"Yes, yes," I said, struggling to keep the smile on my face, though I cast a small glare at Uncle Valken for calling me a prince. Technically he was correct, which was at times the best and at times the worst kind of correct. 

"Yes, well, perhaps you'll have more achievements in the future. Are you heading back for the funeral?" One of the villagers asked eager for news.

"That seems to be the case," I said swatting at a bug on my leg. It was nice to be outdoors, however, until they'd gotten the torches up and burning. I'd nearly been eaten alive by the mosquitoes coming from the bog.

And it was those torches that began to waver as the chill wind blew through the celebration, accompanied by the clank of armor and the clop of hooves. Everyone in the community had gathered around, so no one had had warning when knights in Zenovian green and purple began walking down the street.

Horses pranced with knights astride their backs, eyes gleaming out between their visors as they took us all in. 

The farmers scrambled to their feet. "Lords," they said quickly, falling to their knees at the oncoming procession of knights.

In fairness they were quite intimidating, the light of the fire gleamed back an ominous red and orange.

"Who's this?" I hooked a finger over at the knights, asking the keeling lady behind me.

"The lord of the region, Count Delmire, or at least that's the only person that would command these knights." She whispered, her head down and shivering. It wasn’t cold.

I smiled and stood ready to confront them, only for the horses to begin fanning out around us.

"Princess Eva, we welcome your return," someone boomed in the distance. "It is our great honor to escort you to the royal palace." A man stood atop his horse, clearly very proud of himself, and his overly loud voice. But to be fair, it was impressively loud.

Some of the farmers began speaking in confusion, their gazes sweeping over the ladies accompanying me because they had pegged me as the royal, not any of the ladies with me. Several eyes fell on Bad Kitty, Ditzy, and Missy. Only a few glanced suspiciously at Eva, perhaps because Lord Valken remained so close to her side.

However, the bulk looked at me like I had cheated them out of their bitter bread.

Eva cleared her throat and sat up straight. "I thank you for your escort, but that will not be necessary.”

I frowned slightly at that and paid more attention to the knights, beyond the ominous lighting and found small ticks that began to bother me. Their horses were more restless than a trained steed should be.

No, I had seen this several times before a battle where the horses were picking up on the nerves of their riders.

“We are under strict orders to assist your swift passage through the kingdom so that you may make it in time for the funeral." He replied politely, but I felt there was more to it.

I glanced down at the reeds that had been forced onto my plate then up to the shaking farmers. If we wanted swift passage, we could make this a little quicker and take the knights with us. "I just need one of you knights to be the point person," I said, standing up.

The knights seemed confused. 

"No takers? Ah, that's alright. We'll just take all of you." I shrugged, having expected a moment of silence.

“Cyam, my steed!” I called as he jumped from my shadow and whinnied in excitement, no doubt knowing exactly where I was going with my words.

His sudden appearance caused the knights' horses to startle and stamp their feet nervously. They should be nervous, Cyam was about to show them what a real horse could do.

"Don't worry, Cyam's a good boy," I reassured them, scratching under his chin. "In fact, he might be the best boy." 

Cyam tossed his head proudly.

"Alright, it's a lot of them. Do you think we can manage this?" I asked him to the obvious confusion of everyone but my ladies. They were quickly gathering together.

Cyam tossed his head again, huffing in exasperation as if I’d insulted him by even asking the question.

I hadn't been using my magic much at all. In fact, I had mostly been pouring more of my magic from my spheres into the Ardenium Palace, like a giant warehouse I was stocking for the winter. Now was the time to tap into that power.

Dark magic flowed freely into Cyam, tendrils extending out. Inky black splotches began to hide the stars above and swallow the torchlight around our celebration. Dark magic stretched to the sky as Cyam was clearly showing off.

Magic snaked around the horses and knights as Cyam went to pick them all up. Though, this was all my magic.

At this point, the horses were thoroughly spooked, but Cyam was gentle with them, especially a particular mare that he brought close and tried to nuzzle, only to be disappointed when she continued flailing. 

"Alright, thanks for the meal," I said. "I hate to eat and run, but it seems like we've been summoned. Onward, Cyam!" 

I pointed off into the distance, and Cyam launched himself into the air, dragging the knights with us as if his tail split into dozens of tendrils and held them in the sky above. A carriage made of shadow spilled out behind him. I quickly collected my ladies and pulled each of them into the carriage for a far more comfortable ride than the knights were currently enjoying. 

The knights looked at Cyam, and Cyam looked at me as I settled in on the plush cushions.

"And the knights?" Zuri pointed, tilting her head.

"Yep! Genius, right? If we come by any city or any mages that get concerned, we just hold the knight out, tell the knight very politely to work out our passage, and then we continue on. I'm sure they'll be almost as effective as a mage medallion is in Avente." I nodded to myself.

“Ard.” Emlyn rubbed her temples. "You do realize it will look like they are being coerced."

"Huh?" I said, frowning and glancing at the knights.

They were currently being carried by Cyam's tendrils as he flew through the air at incredible speed. Not only the riders, but several of the horses had passed out from the rough handling.

"Oh, wow. They really should have been made of sterner stuff if they wanted to be knights.” I cringed on their behalf. “I guess I’ll heal them after.”

“Somehow I doubt knight training screens for being carried away by a demigod mage." Emlyn replied.

"Demigod? I like the sound of that." I perked up, forgetting the bitter reed taste that wouldn’t leave my mouth entirely.

"Of course, that's the only part you heard." Emlyn turned back to Zuri. "Best we just move on. Once Ard is set in his ways, it's a fat chance that we change his mind.”

Zuri thought for a moment. “In all honesty, with Ard's magic as it is, I would recommend he just blow through any and all checkpoints just to get to the end. Then we can sort everything out in one go, hopefully."

I smiled at everyone. "See? Fantastic plan, and it doesn't even sound like it's going to take much to pull off at all. Really we should have done this from the beginning. Subterfuge is never really my specialty."

"Yes, I don't know why any of us expected that we'd be able to keep a lid on you for long at all." Emlyn deadpanned.

Zuri cleared her throat. "Someone may have anticipated this."

"If you anticipated it to this degree, you didn't fight hard enough," Emlyn countered and, as usual, was never at fault.

"Quit arguing," Aurelia pinched her nose. "What's done is done. We are simply the anchors for our mage, and our job is to protect him as he does what he sees fit. Though I would ask…”, Aurelia turned to me. “That you don't make it too difficult."

"Never the plan," I grinned and turned back to Eva. "Look, we get to cut off some travel time. Joy."

Eva glanced back behind us at all of the knights trailing on tendrils. "I don't suppose you could bring one of those in here? You know, so I could talk them into not being too terrified?"

"That's not a bad idea." I tugged on one of the tendrils, reeling it in. I had chosen correctly because I had taken the mare that Cyam had taken a liking to, as well as the rider atop them. Cyam giddily expressed his excitement, neighing and tossing his head, as if trying to communicate that he'd take good care of her as he pulled the horse up to him.

Emlyn had plucked the rider off like she was a child and put her down in the carriage. She had the more ornate set of armor, so I assumed she was in charge.

The rider groaned as she settled her motion sickness. "I think I'm going to be sick."

She ripped her helmet off, only to toss it to the side and try to throw up in the middle of the carriage.

I promptly made a hole, rather than letting her vomit land on the inside. I looked down, hoping no poor soul happened to be in the direct path of that incoming projectile.

However, now the knight was staring down into the hole and bracing herself against it.

“Fine.” I placed a hand on the knight, pumping life magic into her. It seemed to help her regain her bearings much faster. 

"Who are you?" she asked, squinting at me and my group. 

"Arden, pleasure to meet you," I replied, extending a hand. When she didn't take it, I added, "Husband to Princess Eva. Also, a four sphere mage, but that's a minor part of who I am, really." 

The knight squinted at me. "There's only one four sphere mage, idiot. You should pick something that's even plausible for you to be." 

I couldn't help it; I grinned like a loon at the woman before holding up my hand. Light and dark swirled around one finger, ice and fire another, life and death a third, and then finally lightning and stone. "See?" I said with a massive grin as I wiggled my fingers.

The knight looked like she was about to pass out again, so I reached out to steady her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't pass out, please. When we get to the city and unfortunately set off a few alarms, I would really appreciate it if I could put you out in front of us to help solve their concerns." 

The woman knelt, her head touching the ground. "Of course, lord." 

I grinned and turned back to my group. “Look at that. See the respect I get? You should all take notes.”' 

"Point of advice," Emlyn was already crouching down next to the woman. "Just call him Arden, so he doesn't get too much of an inflated ego. It would really make all of our lives much simpler." 

The knight was looking up at me with a horror-stricken expression, unsure what to do and as if making the wrong decision would cost her her life.

"Don't look at me. She's the one who asked something of you." I pointed back at Emlyn.

"Yes, Arden," she stuttered over my name, but I supposed it was good enough. 

"Anyway," I said, plopping down. "Pleasure to meet you. Arden Aldis, four sphere mage." 

The knight had enough sense to dip her head. "Of course, Lord Aldis. Welcome to Zenovia." 

"Thanks for the warm welcome. Sorry I didn't send word we were coming. We were on the southern part of Avente when several assassins went after my dear wife," I motioned passionately to Eva, only for the knight's face to grow incredibly pale. 

"I'm certain that was a mistake." She replied.

"Oh, I hope so. But regardless, it's only right that she attend the funeral. And I’ll get the chance to poke around and make sure everyone understands the mistake that has been made. Don't you think?" I smiled at the knight, whose head was bobbing rapidly in agreement. 

"Yes, of course. We of Zenovia gladly welcome you to our kingdom and wish nothing but the best for your trip." She affirmed. “The war is over and we have no desire to start another.”

"Wonderful," I clapped my hands together. "It seems like we're going to enjoy this far more than I expected. Eva, your people are just so hospitable."

In hindsight, coming here and causing trouble was going to tie up the one kingdom who was in the best position after the war. I should get my mother to compensate me for my help later.

Eva shook her head. "People are hospitable when you're being so intimidating, Ard. Do remember that I like my people and don't want to see anything bad happen to them due to any misunderstandings." 

I smiled, knowing that I was already destined to play a bit of a villain during this trip, which would only give Eva more opportunities to appear magnanimous and supportive of her people.

"Well, Knight, I suppose I should be a little more gentle. Sit, eat. We'll be there soon, and I promise to put you down far more gently.” I told her, waving my hand in my best imitation of a dismissive noble.

“Thank you, Lord." She dropped her head low again, and I smiled at the rest of my party. It was clear that our chat had worked out fairly well. 

And while it had been perhaps a little sudden for the Knight, we were going to get ourselves someone to vouch for our entry, and so we could enter with as much speed as we needed. And now I would likely eat less bitter food. All in all, I felt quite proud at how my plan was going to turn out. 

"Perhaps we should discuss what we're going to do next before Ard gets it in his head to make up another plan on the fly," Zuri said, looking at the other ladies in the carriage. 

"That would probably be for the best," Eva quickly agreed, and I felt utterly betrayed.

My ideas worked out in the end and, at least mostly, as planned. Occasionally there were aspects outside of my control, but luckily I could adapt on my feet. Really, they should be excited that I was so multitalented and creative. 

I just hoped that walking into the palace with Eva wasn't going to get too complicated. I had a feeling the royals might take offence to me rearranging their castle in a moment of inspiration.