Chapter Eighteen - Hasty Departure

The route we took to the northwest borough was very simple, just straight up the river. Of course, the part that wasn’t simple was that we had to wait until the rower got out of the boat for something and then we stole his boat. Cameron thought it was hilarious, Sari kept smirking the entire time and Artus… did Artus things. Which mostly meant sleeping. Every now and again, he’d raise his head and growl at somebody we passed by. I couldn’t tell if they knew we had stolen the boat or if they just wanted to stop and stare at the oddly colored, slightly large wolf.

I spent the entire trip looking out at the parts of the city we passed. I saw houses, markets, people who were happy and full of life. I wondered if any of them knew the Empire routinely hired thugs to kill people or kidnapped slaves from another nation. Hell, I wondered just how much they knew about what went on outside the city walls. It wasn’t an outrageously harsh world out there, as I’d managed to make it on my own for so long, but these people probably hadn’t even seen any of that.

I stood up as we came to a stop at a small dock. Another rower was standing there, looking outright pissed. Just before he started to say something, Artus growled at him, stopping him from doing anything. Instead, he simply stood off to the side and let us on our way. Sari leaned over and whispered to Cameron, “Have I ever told you I like your conduit now?”

Artus, being Artus, answered for himself. “I am not here for you to like, maggot.”

“Calm down,” I said, “we’re here to get to wherever the hell Sari’s taking us, let’s just get there.”

“Where are we goin’?” Cameron asked.

“Erik’s place is just a little further,” Sari answered, “we’ll be there before dark.”

I looked up and saw that the sun had already disappeared behind the taller buildings, but everything still looked bright enough. “Is there even a dark in this place?” I asked.

She gave me a smirk over her shoulder. “Just keep following me.”

I sighed and did as she said. Not like there was a whole lot of choice. She knew Myzacile, I didn’t. Hell, I was still amazed by the place, drawn in by the beauty of the Imperial Palace, which looked even more impressive from down here on street level than it had from a distance. No doubt the point, to make people feel inadequate and docile in the presence of such a monument to royalty and power.

I wasn’t entirely certain it wasn’t working on me.

I felt almost naked without my sword, just like I had back at Fork. Everything felt like danger, even though all I saw were children playing and their parents watching them. None of the people around me seemed even slightly intimidating, but that didn’t stop me from feeling as though the entire city was against us. Granted, it kind of was, but even the citizens didn’t know that.

As we moved into the northwest borough, the streets became more cramped, more crowded. There were fewer kids and more adults, as well as a number of Imperial soldiers. Everyone was mixing well, no one seemed out of the ordinary or hostile, except maybe us. But nobody gave us any sideways glances or dirty looks. A few kids asked to pet Artus, and the conduit barely managed to contain his rage and act like a normal dog. Honestly, that was more than a little funny.

As we passed by a coffee shop, I saw someone looking at me. For the briefest of seconds, I could have sworn I was looking at Riley. I almost wanted to stop and talk to the girl, but the second passed and I realized that she looked nothing like Riley, being a bit paler with light red hair. I didn’t know why I’d imagined that.

I almost wondered if Riley, wherever the hell she was in the world, was having the same problem. Most likely, she wasn’t. Kalena had been the one to tell me I held her in some sort of regard, maybe whatever influence her beach had had on me was still there and I was just hallucinating. It probably wasn’t her intention, maybe I’d just gotten some sand in my ear and none of the shit I’d done since then had knocked it loose. I really didn’t know.

“What’s up?” Sari asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing. Just… I thought I saw someone.”

“Oooh, got the hots for some girl out there? You may wanna go to the southwest borough, I’ve heard the girls over there are much easier than most.”

I smacked her shoulder. “Shut it. How long until we get to your friend’s place?”

She stopped at a house that looked absolutely ordinary and uninteresting. There were two steps leading to the front door and a single lantern just to the side of it. “Just a second or two,” she said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

I glared at her. “Well then, why don’t you knock on the door?”

Right away, the door was thrown open and standing in the doorway was a young dark skinned kid, no older than seven or eight. He broke into a run and nearly bowled me over as he sprinted past. For a second, I wondered if that kid was the Erik that Sari had mentioned, but instead I was answered when an older woman, obviously the boy’s mother, stepped into the doorway after him.

“Sarika,” the woman said, and a smile crossed her face. “It’s been awhile.”

Sari walked up to the woman and hugged her tightly. “I’m so happy to see you again!” she exclaimed, almost more emotion than I’d ever heard Sari use. “Where’s Erik? I need to see her.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “You know her. Whenever she can work late, she does. I’d be worried about her if I didn’t know her as well as I did.”

Cameron blinked. “I’m confused.”

Sari sighed, realizing I suppose that she hadn’t introduced us to the woman yet. “Sorry.” She stepped aside. “This is Erik’s wife, Bella.”

---

Bella led us inside and had us wait in the living room. It was neatly furnished, a single couch and two armchairs, a fireplace, a coffee table and two end tables. I looked at the pictures on the fireplace mantle, pictures of a happy wedding. Bella in a white dress, the woman I assumed was Erik in a black dress, the kid we’d seen before a couple years younger in a tuxedo that looked too big on him.

There were other pictures as well, of the family at various stages. Erik and Bella looked like an incredibly loving couple. It reminded me of my parents. I could still remember the pictures we had on our walls. Of me, of Circi, of Mom and Dad holding either of us when we were newborns. Made me wish those days were still around.

Bella walked back into the room with a plate of cups filled with tea. “I hope you’re happy with it plain, Sarika, I didn’t have time to make your favorite.” She handed one to each of us, then set a bowl down in front of Artus, who happily lapped it up. “Erik should be home in a little while.”

Sari took a drink. “It’s fine, Bella, we can wait. Anton sure has gotten bigger. How old is he now? Eight?”

Bella shook her head. “Nine. Just turned nine, last fall.”

“God, I can remember when he tiny.”

“He’s tiny now,” I said as I finished off my cup. Sari was glaring at me, but Bella had a bemused smile on her face.

“Just like his father, really,” the older woman said, “except he never grew out of his scrawny phase like Anton will.”

Cameron gulped down some tea. “Um… who’s the father?” the girl asked.

Bella patted her on the knee. “Just some dumbass I regretted hooking up with every day for nine months, until my beautiful baby was born.” She took a sip of tea. “Erik forgave me after that, too. Wonderful woman, my Erik.”

“So what exactly does Erik do?” I asked.

“She’s an Imperial Escort,” Sari answered.

I nearly spit out some tea. “What?!”

She started laughing, almost dropping her own cup. “It’s nothing to be worried about, honest. Erik and I have been friends for years, and she’s helped me out of tight spots way worse than… well, okay, yeah, the Empire wanting me dead just for being a Plains Tribe chieftain really is kind of the worst thing that’s happened to me.”

“No worse than when you tried to send the Emperor a cake made of rocks,” Bella said.

“That was just an April Fools joke.”

“Get back to the part where your friend is an Imperial Escort and how this is going to help,” I said.

“I am. It’ll help because she has my travel pass.” She set her cup down on the coffee table and walked over to the window. “It’s a special pass that gets us access to pretty much the entire city, including the airship depot. When we get that from her, we can get us our ride to Peresten and then it’ll only be a short trip to Endawa so you can meet up with your girlfriend.”

“Riley isn’t my girlfriend.”

“I didn’t even know she had a name, but fine.”

“Wha er ya talkin’ about?” Cameron asked.

“Some girl that a magical beach told us Cres liked. We met her for all of a minute while we were running from Escorts back in Endawa.”

I should have known she’d remember that. Granted, I couldn’t even remember if Sari was there when Kalena pointed that out to me, but for all I knew, she could have mentioned it separately or something. Either way, it didn’t matter. “That’s not the only reason we’re heading out that way,” I said. More for Bella than for Cameron, because Cameron already knew what we were doing. “We’re on the hunt for the white dragon.”

Bella caught onto that. “The white dragon? You’re hunting that monster?”

Sari nodded. “He’s killed enough people and ruined enough lives that we decided it was time he suffered for it. That was the direction he was going, last we heard.”

Bella took a long drink, then set her cup down. “You’ll be too late. It was just on the news this morning: The white dragon has moved onto the Plains Nation.”

Sari looked confused. “Okay? Why are we too late?”

“Endawa was one of his last few stops. After that, Sandhog Ridge and some of the smaller border towns. People think he’s tracking someone or something, but no one knows for sure. At least, that was what they said on the radio. I turned it off just before Anton heard any of it. I didn’t want him to worry that his mother would be shipped off to fight that beast.”

For a long time, there was silence. I wanted to rush out to our carriage and just ride on to Endawa alone. I hadn’t even been there a day, but the town didn’t seem like it deserved to be wiped out by the white dragon. And if it had killed everyone, was that why I was dreaming about Riley? Was it because she was already dead?

Finally, I spoke, “Your son will never need to worry about that.” I stepped closer to her. “We’re going to find the white dragon and we’re going to end it. And we’re going to save the Plains Tribe slaves,” I added, for Sari’s benefit. That was our more immediate concern, really. Not that I knew how we were gonna do either, but still.

Bella sighed. “Optimism is a wonderful thing, truly. I don’t have to tell you how horribly foolish it is to believe a bunch of kids are going to save the world.”

Sari sat down and took her hand. “Trust me, we know how stupid we sound, but we’re going to do it.” She motioned to Cameron. “We’ve got a mage on our side, and once I can get back home and unite the Tribes, we’ll have an army.”

“An army still outnumbered by the Empire,” a new voice said. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a woman in full Escort armor standing in the doorway. Her hair was almost orange compared to the dark brown I’d seen in the wedding photos, but it was unmistakable that this was Erik. “But really, an army is an army, so you would have a chance.”

“Erik!” Sari exclaimed as she burst from the couch and hugged the armored woman. “It’s been awhile!”

Erik smiled. “It has, kiddo.”

I reached out to shake hands. “I’m Cres.”

“So I’ve heard.”

I pulled my hand away. “I’m sure…”

“Don’t take it the wrong way, boy. I’m not going to turn you in, even though orders say otherwise. Sarika’s like a daughter to me, and that means you and the mage girl are safe.” She walked over to the couch and sat down beside her wife. “Now, how exactly do you plan on starting this crusade to slay the white dragon and reunite the Plains Nation?”

Cameron asked, “I thought we already got started?”

Sari reassured her, “We did, Cami, don’t worry.” She walked over to Erik and held out her hand. “I need my pass.”

“Alright.”

That seemed to take her by surprise. “Wow, really? That easy?”

“It’s your pass, kid.”

“I know, but I still sort of expected some resistance.”

“Nope.”

“Well then, okay. Um… are you sure you’re okay with us using it to get on board an airship and free the Plains Tribe slaves?”

Erik closed her eyes and took her wife’s hand. “When I joined the Escorts, things were different. It was a much calmer time, before the white dragon came along and started causing the problems it has.” She sighed. “The slaves were never supposed to happen. When we were first told of them, I nearly left the Army right then and there.” She opened her eyes again and looked at Bella. “It was this beautifully intelligent woman who said I should try to do some good from within rather than abandoning my oath as an officer of the Imperial Escorts.” She turned back to Sari. “Now it’s time for someone to do some good from without.”

Sari whistled. “Well, I guess that means you trust me to do the right thing.”

I grabbed her by the shoulder. “She’s trusting us to do the right thing.”

Erik laughed. “If I’m honest, I trust him a little more than you, kiddo.”

Sair sighed. “I guess that makes sense.”

---

Erik led us through the streets to the airship depot close to where she lived. There were five airships all parked in the depot, ready to lift off, or so it seemed. I couldn’t really tell, as the few times I’d seen an airship up close I’d merely seen them up close and hadn’t been inside one. I couldn’t actually tell if there were passengers on any of those airships.

I nearly reached for where my sword would be when a dragon landed close to the depot. After realizing I didn’t have my sword (something I seemed to like forgetting), I also saw that the dragon had what appeared to be a passenger cart on its back. It was a big enough dragon that I figured at least twenty people could ride on it.

“Yet another disgusting thing we do,” Erik said, “enslaving dragons to serve as glorified transports.”

Cameron asked, “Aren’t dragons dangerous anyway?”

Erik shook her head. “Not all of them. An old acquaintance of mine named Irvine spends his time helping those that aren’t.” She smiled faintly. “One of my former lovers, a woman named Briana, is a dragon hiding in human form. I don’t see her much anymore, but she’s got a family of her own now.”

“Can dragons and humans… um…”

Sari covered Cameron’s ears before Erik could ask. “She’s still not old enough for that kind of stuff,” Sari said. “Let’s just focus on how we’re going to do what we’re about to do.”

I asked, “What are we about to do?”

Erik held up a hand to signal us to stop. She then made us huddle close together. “You want to free some slaves, your job is simple: The airship Pride & Joy is being loaded up right now for dignitaries from a number of various small cities after this morning's white dragon attack. The Emperor is calling people here to assure them that everything is well in hand. I’ve managed to get two of you on as Escorts.”

Sari and I looked at each other, then both asked, “Two of us?”

Erik nodded. “Yes. You,” she pointed at me, “and the mage.”

Sari looked an odd mixture of confused and enraged. “And what am I going as?”

Erik smirked. “You wanna get your slaves ready to escape, High Chieftain? What better way than to be in the room with them?”

Cameron started to laugh, and I couldn’t deny that I wanted to as well. Sari’s mixed look changed into one that was nothing but rage, but she kept quiet. Erik just looked amused. “How, uh, how are we gonna pass Cameron off as an Escort?” I asked.

“The Empire’s not above child soldiers,” Erik answered, “and there are plenty of them in the Escorts. I’ve had to train more than a few.”

“But I dunno how ta fight,” Cameron said.

Erik shook her head. “It’s no big deal. There’s not going to be any fighting on this trip, it’s just to pick up some people already willing to come along anyway. The slaves are just there to entice the dignitaries into agreeing to certain things the Emperor wouldn’t be able to get done otherwise and the Escorts are just to keep everything in order.” She motioned for us to keep moving. “Time to get on with this.”

---

Despite how bulky it looked, Escort armor didn’t seem to weight really anything. Erik had mentioned that it was forged in some sort of magic potion, so I assumed that was how it worked. It made me wonder how tough it actually was. No doubt the potion was meant to keep the armor strong but light so that Escorts had the best of both worlds. Luckily, Erik was able to get our weapons from the guard station at the entrance gate, so I had my sword back.

Cameron walked into the room in her armor, looking very out of place. “How come I gotta… why we gotta wear this crap?” she asked.

I smirked. “We won’t be wearin’ it long. We’ll get in there, save the slaves, take control of the airship and get on the way to the Plains Tribe where we can get our army against the white dragon.”

She didn’t seem reassured, and to be quite honest, I didn’t exactly feel that way myself. This whole thing seemed to be getting bigger and bigger by the day when all it started out as was killing the white dragon. Now we were infiltrating airships in disguises and rescuing slaves to help later build an army and reunite a nation that seemed to prefer being split. Hell, things weren’t just getting bigger, but weirder.

But it was what we needed to do. Killing the white dragon meant we needed an army, getting an army meant reuniting the Plains Tribes, reuniting the Plains Tribes meant freeing their people. That I thought this would remain the simple task of following that monster and killing it was probably the most naive thing I’d ever believed. I’d stop and chide myself for it if not for how much we still had ahead of us.

“At least you guys are wearing armor,” Sari said as she walked into the room, wearing… well, barely anything. A bikini would cover up more than what she had on, which was a thin strip across her chest and a g-string. Her hair was loose, flowing almost to her waist. I don’t think I’d ever noticed her hair was that damned long. Maybe she kept it tied specially or something. “And you don’t need to be in a room with a horny diplomat.”

Erik walked in and patted her on the shoulder. “At least you’ll be hijacking the airship before too long.”

“Not the point.”

“It could be worse,” I said, “they could want male prostitutes.”

“I would honestly be more amused if they did.” Sari sighed. “Let’s get this show on the road, I guess.”

Erik nodded. “Agreed. I’ll escort the three of you onto the airship, your…” she looked at Artus, who was sitting there just staring ahead at everything, “dog? Will be crated in the cargo hold. Once you’re on board and in the air, the rest will be up to you. I’ll be down here in Myzacile, having dinner with my wife and son, and you’ll be accomplishing your objective before nightfall tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

She nodded again. “The Empire needs this, someone to make the Emperor see the error of his ways and strive to better everything. It only pains me that it’s taken so long for it to happen.”

“The Empire and the Plains Tribe,” Sari clarified.

“Yes.”

“Well, we’re ready,” I said, “let’s get going.”

“I literally just said that,” Sari pouted.

---

We followed Erik through the depot to the Pride & Joy, where several more Escorts were busy ferrying the slaves inside. Nobody seemed to notice us or care that we were there, which was the point. Presumably, Erik had managed to add us to the troop compliment, most likely under assumed names.

I looked up at a walkway overlooking the boarding area. Two men stood there, watching everything. One of them I recognized as Emperor. He looked significantly older than he truly was, being somewhere around his late thirties but looking more like his early seventies. I assumed it had something to do with ruling an Empire, but… there was something else that just seemed unnaturally wrong about how he looked. Other than his age, he was dressed much as he always was in the newspapers, wearing a long yellow robe over top of a dark gray coat and pants. I saw a sword on his hip and he clutched at a cane he was using for support.

The other man wore a white suit and appeared to be in his late forties. His hair was dark brown, though a streak of silver ran through it on one side, just above his ear. He didn’t carry any weapons, but I could see a ring on his right hand that had some sort of gem in it. I couldn’t tell what it was from this distance, and the only reason I even noticed it was because he kept playing with it. Everything added up to a man who looked very comfortable with everything around him, more so than even the Emperor.

I honestly couldn’t tell which one of them unsettled me more.

“Who’s that?” I asked Erik as I gestured to the man in white.

“The only name anyone knows is Garland. He’s the Emperor’s mage, some say his right hand. All anybody can agree on is that he puts everybody on edge just being there.”

That didn’t surprise me. “Why are they here?”

“They like to do that, usually picking one ship each day to watch over. Some say it’s a good omen, others say it just causes bad luck.” She nudged me with her elbow. “You better hope it’s the former.”

I smirked. “I don’t trust omens.”

The four of us (sans Artus, who was already crated up and being loaded into the cargo hold) finally made it to the entry ramp. Cameron and I were instructed by the ranking officer to head for the sleeping quarters while Erik took Sari to where the rest of the slaves were kept. I breathed a slight sigh of relief.

This part had gone off without a hitch, at least. The hard part was next.

One of the Escorts bumped into Cameron, who had been standing next to me. "Watch it, ya portly buggah!" she almost shrieked. He turned around and glared at her through the helmet eyeholes. "Um… sorry?"

I grabbed her and patted her on the shoulder to keep her calm. "Sorry, sir. My sister's just…"

He knelt down and… growled? When he spoke, I knew exactly what was going on. "She is giving herself away to the enemy!" Artus said, quiet enough that Cameron and I were the only ones who could hear him.

Cameron's eyes lit up. "Artus! Where'd ya come from?"

I asked, "Where'd you get that armor?"

He stood straight. "Need-to-know basis, soldier. Just know that we will execute this mission successfully, and we will make it to the Plains Nation."

I blinked for a second, then asked, "Okay, but, really, where'd you get it and how does it fit you?"

In response, he burped. After clearing his throat, he said, "Tight around the crotch."

All I could do was stare. Somewhere else in the room, someone shouted, "You're excused!"