AO 6 Ch 10

"I can't believe we're actually doing Ard's plan," Emlyn groaned, shaking her head as everyone gathered to see me off.

I pointed at Missy and Ditzy. "You two are in charge of making sure those three don't die." Then I pointed to Eva, Aurelia, and Zuri who were staying behind for this plan. 

For this operation, Emlyn had insisted on going, and Maribelle just acted like she was going from the get go. Not that I minded, I felt incredibly safe bringing Maribelle. Whenever something went terribly wrong, Maribelle had my back like no one else. 

"Now, Ard, you have the message?" Eva asked.

"Yep. In the little shadow pouch." I nodded.

"We're not calling it a shadow pouch," Eva shook her head. "We'll work on names when you get back." 

I snapped her a salute, inwardly smiling. "Don't worry. We will all be fine. And thankfully, after that little bit of testing, we confirmed the shadow pouch doesn't seem to attract our big friend." 

Zuri gave me a look. "And stick to the plan. Everything is going to be fine if you stick to the plan." 

"Roger. Stick to the plan until it goes wrong.” I smiled.

“And then stick to plan B or C or whatever iteration you have to fall back to," Zuri reiterated. "Maribelle, Emlyn, we are counting on the two of you. There are enough contingencies. I don't think Ard needs to go off on his own." 

"I still can't believe we're doing Ard's plan, but I can get behind making sure he doesn’t make up another plan in the heat of this," Emlyn shook her head and pinched her brow. 

"All right, enough of this. We should go before Emlyn gets cold feet. Cyam, my boy," I dramatically called him, lifting my arms into the air.

The horse made of darkness rose from my own shadow with a whinny just as dramatic as my own display. 

"He gets it," I smiled at my best boy, pleased that he had understood the impression I was looking to make. "Okay, step one. Cyam, we're going to turn you into a horse of light."

He whipped his head back towards me with a stupid expression.

"Yes, because at the end of the day, we need to go really, really fast." I pointed at him. "We're going to drop the shadows and we're going to switch you to light because then you’ll go faster." 

He was already outside of my shadow where his soul often stayed as I began pumping light magic into the core of his soul, rather than the dark magic we always preferred. He reared up, light blossoming through his dark form in a spiderweb of cracks. As he reared and kicked, the darkness fell off of him as if it were an outer layer cracking and shedding. He let out a defiant neigh as his new light form radiated so brightly that the anchors had to cover their eyes.

However, I stared at his shining body in all its glory. 

He neighed and tossed his head as he began prancing around in his new light form, head held high. 

"Really, Cyam?" Emlyn asked, only for Cyam to stick his tongue out at her and prance even more prominently. 

“This is normal?” Ditzy said to Missy,

“You're going to learn that everyone around Ard is a character.” Missy shook her head and sighed. 

And then something seemed to occur to Cyam as he squeezed his eyes closed. I waited, curious what he would do with the magic.

First, his ears turned into little pairs of wings as they often did when he was about to take flight. But then something different happened this time. A horn of light shot out from his forehead before he struck a pose. 

"Nope. I'm vetoing the horn." I told him.

Cyam slumped, his light dimming. He turned to me and shook his head repeatedly showing me all angles of the horn as if to prove me wrong. 

"Sorry boy. It's a little pretentious," I told him. 

"Cyam, you're a sweet boy," Maribelle rubbed her hand along his cheek. "However, I think Ard is right. The horn is a little much." 

Cyam’s light dimmed and his shoulders slumped, but the horn receded back into his forehead. He paused for a moment before striking another pose, this time radiating brilliant light.

"Yep, okay that works. Let’s go before Ard puts on another ridiculous display.” Emlyn grabbed my waist and pulled the two of us up onto Cyam’s back.

Maribelle jumped up in front of me and wiggled back into me before wrapping my arms around her curves to hold on. 

"Alright, Cyam, now that you're made of light magic, you should be able to go much faster. Let's see how fast you can go!" My voice turned into a scream as we launched forward.

Apparently Cyam had a point to prove. He rocketed off the ground, leaving those behind us in the dust.

Emlyn gripped me tightly, ensuring I didn't lose my seat as Cyam charged forward. I wished we had something to gauge just how fast we were moving, because the world blurred around us.

"Good job, Cyam. Way to show him that he can't just make fun of you." Emlyn coached Cyam.

Cyam went back to preening and tossing his head as he continued to soar through the sky.

I wagged a finger at both of them, having regained my bearings now that we weren’t taking off faster than a cannon ball. "You two do not get to team up."

Cyam made an incredulous noise.

"Yeah, it's right there in the contract, the whole contract that says, 'You live in my soul.'" I emphasized the last word.

Cyam shook his head and snorted.

"Uh-uh, that's how this works. You live in my soul. You follow my rules." I frowned, not pleased at this new independence.

Cyam somehow managed to stomp midair, throwing a tantrum while flying faster than any creature I had ever seen. 

"Oh, let him have his fun, Ard. You were being a little mean. All he wanted was a horn, and you took it away.” Emlyn said.

“But it looked ridiculous.” I defended myself.

“Right, because that's never stopped you before." Emlyn gave me the look.

“I have no idea what you're talking about, Princess Mudpie.” I went to my common defense.

“You can't get away from me right now. And you want to start that?" She chuckled, a touch of evil creeping into it.

"Why not? At least we only have Maribelle and Cyam as witnesses. And you can't even throw objects at me because you have to keep me from falling off.” I sat up straighter, tasting victory in this argument.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Ard. What if I did something far worse than hit you. I could stop laughing at your jokes." She answered.

I gasped, turning around in the seat to face her and narrowing my eyes. "You wouldn't." 

"I absolutely would." Emlyn crossed her arms, and I'd seen that look a thousand times. She was stubborn enough to force the issue.

“If that’s even possible. I am pretty irresistibly funny.” I continued to watch her carefully. “But perhaps it doesn’t need to come to that. I suppose I could retire the name Princess Mudpie for now.”

She wagged a finger at me. "Not a cute nickname then. Not a cute nickname now." 

I clicked my tongue. "Fine. I probably should focus on Cyam a bit more anyway. 

Cyam's pace had been a blistering speed, 

As we approached the edge of the Badlands and Garrish proper, I could immediately see that the situation was worse than I had anticipated. We were further north than where we had entered the Badlands, but that didn't matter. From our vantage point up in the sky, another two villages could be seen.

Although in their current state, calling them a village was not quite proper. There were two large blackened patches of ruins that I assumed once were villages. 

Meanwhile, the brush had been cleared away, and small shabby watchtowers had been set up every few miles. Even as I approached, horns rang out from the watchtowers and rippled down the line, creating an odd effect as each of the horns took a different amount of time to reach me. 

"Well, shit," Emlyn stated. "I mean, I expected them to maybe put a patrol or two out for us, but this is absurd." 

I grunted in agreement. "There's absolutely no reason for this." My tone was heavy, not simply for what they were trying to do to me, but because I could easily imagine what had happened to those towns that were currently not much more than charred messes in the distance.

The people who’d been living there weren’t much different than those that I’d grown up with.

Emlyn’s hand squeezed my shoulder. "Ard, I need to remind you that this is not your fault. What they did here is their own awful act against their own countrymen. They are the ones who are monsters, not you." 

I cleared my throat and looked away from the carnage, lifting my gaze to the distance. "Of course I know that. It's just simply a shame that they did this to people.”

“The callous act against all of these human lives is worse than monsters. I don't think even manticores are this cruel." Maribelle stated.

"We already know the king is a monster, Maribelle," I said, taking a deep breath. "That's why we're working to stop him." 

She squeezed my thigh before wrapping my hands around her waist and holding them tight. "Sir, if this bothers you, then we should take the anger back out on King Martin and those that support him." 

I grunted in agreement. The bugle horn calls were fading quickly behind us as we zipped through the sky. Up ahead was the city that we were targeting, a little further south than we had guessed, based on the map. But maps were not always accurate.

Before we even got to the city, several dots shot into the air. Without even being able to see what they were, I knew this was what King Martin had prepared for me. They would not have set up all those guideposts without a plan for what to do when I was spotted.

"Eyes open, you two. We're finding the first caravan we can and we're going to ransack it." 

Rather than heading straight for the city, I veered off to the left. One benefit about heading straight for the city was that it had so much traffic. There were always carriages coming and going. All we needed to do was to find one with the King Martin seal, or that of the military.

I wouldn't be picky. But I was not going to steal from the townspeople who had already lost so much.

"There," Maribelle pointed to a row of four carts being pulled along.

Cyam didn't need me to say anything else and followed Maribelle's finger, shooting down and cutting the caravan off.

But just before he did, Emlyn launched herself from his back. Sword arcing with lightning, she cut off the head of the driver before rushing along the carriage tops with her sword trailed behind her.

Lightning crackling off it and ripping open the roofs. She shouted as she shattered the first, then swung her sword, carrying lightning forward to figures that were jumping out of the second wagon.

Her magic sent them sprawling onto the ground before she sliced the top off the third carriage.

I smiled as we hit the jackpot when the crates and grain sacks were revealed.

Cyam knew the plan and rushed forward. Even as I jumped off, his form of light slammed into the side, shattering the wood and sending splinters flinging everywhere into the air. I was busy making a patch of dark soul magic big enough to start stuffing crates through it, using my fingers as if trying to find the drawstring and tease it open wider.

As soon as the space was big enough, Maribelle lifted up crates of food, ripping open the tops to check their contents before she hurled them through the portal with a single hand.

It was impressive and terrifying to watch her manhandle crates that would take two men to lift. Then again, I reminded myself how obsessed she was with my safety. The strength she built was likely focused on protecting me.

"Quickly now," Emlyn warned from atop the carriage as more soldiers spilled out from the column behind them.

There must have been a mage among them, because ice shot through the air. Maribelle jumped up, catching the attack with her bluesteel knives and flung it away from me before landing with a twirling grace and immediately resuming hurling boxes of foodstuff through my portal.

"Just another minute, Em." I told my anchor.

Emlyn was fighting with sweeping arcs of lightning before she stomped and sent a row of earthen spikes with her feet. Ultimately she was just making a mess and keeping them away from our quick ransacking.

I decided to help her, creating walls of earth that I then pushed away from us in every direction, shoving the Garrish soldiers back.

This group was not as skilled as I had feared. King Martin had sacrificed so many of his anchors and mages for his own personal ambitions, that fewer were left to defend things as critical as supply caravans.

The three of us were easily able to cleave through a swath of soldiers while the one mage hid in the back. Soldiers threw themselves at Emlyn with the hopes of exhausting her magic stores, which was a typical strategy. But they did not know that her magic stores were far from that of a typical anchor.

People in the back were even shouting that she was nearly out of magic, which was clearly not true. Magic poured off Emlyn like she was showering in it.

My wolf sphere was wide open, and she was guzzling magic from my soul throughout our connection. Even when someone managed to slip through and strike her with an arrow or a spear, it bounced off her kingdom blues that had an earthen sheen. Our connection allowed her to do the highly unusual act of using two magics at once.

Typically, it caused conflict within an anchor to be storing two magics at once, but that was because of conflict they would have to withstand within their bodies. Emlyn had no such compunctions, simply taking a trickle of life magic as well to heal any internal injuries she was given while she let both earth and lightning flow through her.

Maribelle finished throwing what she needed inside, and it was time for the next step of our plan.

“All right, back on Cyam," I shouted to both of them as I swung up onto his back. 

Maribelle quickly settled into my lap, and a moment later Emlyn landed with a flash of thunder. She stood on Cyam's haunches only for the horse to shoot straight up.

With the force, Emlyn dropped in a split on his back, landing hard before wrapping her hands around my waist to hang on. “That hurt more than I expected, what's the rush?" She asked, startled as her magic crackled to an end. She made sure she was well seated on his back.

"Be grateful you don’t have balls, I nearly fainted watching that. Also, that's the rush," I pointed out, only for Emlyn to see that the pursuers who had launched themselves from the city were nearly upon us. The only reason it had taken them this long was that they had fanned out to try and encircle us. 

"Shit, they're fast. Are you sure this was a good idea?" Emlyn asked.

"Of course not," I laughed. "It was a terrible idea. Tricked you." I stuck my tongue out. "No, Emlyn. Of course it was a great idea. Besides, this is where the fun part starts. Right, Cyam?" 

I squeezed with my legs and he didn't disappoint us.

Once again, we were hurtling through the sky. Rather than trying to escape the gap in the encirclement that would lead us closer to the city, we went straight for the closest point towards the Badlands. 

I would have to break us through. Holding my hands out, swirling shapes made shields of light fanned out in front of me.

As we got closer, I could see the mage that I was going to have to break through. He was an old, weathered man with vacant eyes. This wasn’t the first of King Martin's so-called chancellors that we’d encountered and I could recognize another. The chancellors had an embedded fragment of King Martin’s soul in their bodies and were controlled like dolls. Which unfortunately meant that they all had access to a shared pool of potent magic. 

Given that, it was no surprise when fire launched from the figure like a giant flaming wyrm exploding from its cave.