CHAPTER 36

SMOKE AND MIST

334 AR

Leesha looked back from atop Pestle, seeing her mother holding Olive, receding in the distance. Not for the first time, she wondered if she was making the biggest mistake of her life.

Wonda noted the movement as Leesha shook her head to banish the thought. “All right, mistress?”

“I’m fine,” Leesha said. “Just wasting thoughts on death and failure.”

“Such thoughts are not wasted, mistress,” Micha said. Leesha glanced at the girl, usually so silent it was easy to forget she was there. Even now, she refused to doff her disguise, dressed in common dal’ting robes. She rode sidesaddle behind Kendall, her spears and shield hidden in their baggage.

“What is there to gain, dwelling on failure?” Leesha asked.

“My master taught my sisters and I to visualize our deaths every day in meditation,” Micha said. “Glory on alagai talons, murdered in the night, poisoned by a rival. Thrown from a cliff. Pulled under to drown by a water demon. Every possible death we can imagine.”

“That’s horrid,” Leesha said. “Why would you do such a thing?”

“A Sharum must always be ready to die, mistress,” Micha said. “We keep thoughts of it close to remember to always be prepared, to keep our spirits pure. To know that life is a fleeting gift of Everam, and death comes for us all. Inevera, when the lonely path opens to me, I will walk it without looking back.”

“There is wisdom in what you say,” Leesha chose her words carefully, “but I prefer to visualize success, and strive to make that vision reality.”

Micha bowed. “Of course, mistress. We are your instruments. The blade does not question the carver.”

Leesha blinked. Was that what she had become? A carver of fate? She thought back to her foretellings, and the plans she formed from them. Plans that put thousands of lives in danger for what was never more than a slim chance of success. “Is that all you wish to be? A knife in someone else’s hands?”

“Better the knife than the wood.” Young Pawl rode beside Kendall and Micha on a nimble pony. “Father always said true power came from working in unison as part of something bigger.”

Gared was waiting for them as they rode down from Leesha’s keep to Cutter’s Hollow proper, along with Headmistress Darsy, Captain Gamon, and Inquisitor Hayes.

“Any word from Stela or Franq?” Leesha knew the answer but needed to ask.

“Ent been sign o’ any of the Warded Children in days,” Gared said. “Camp’s deserted.”

Wonda spat. “Knew we couldn’t count on ’em.”

“Don’t need ’em,” Gared said. “Got two hundred lancers, five hundred Cutters, and near ten thousand Hollow Soldiers. Warders and Gatherers, too. Ent nothin’ the demons can throw at us we can’t handle.”

“Aw, Gar,” Wonda said. “Why’d you have to go and say a thing like that?”

Angiers was close to a week’s ride by Messenger, but the Hollow Soldiers were on foot and could only march as fast as the supply trains. They sang Keep the Hearthfire Burning to lock their steps in daylight and guard the camp at night.

But the demons did not attack the first night. Or the second.

“We’re cutting it too close,” Leesha said over dinner after a week on the road. “Waning is just four nights away.”

“Makin’ good time,” Gared said. “Trip’s been quiet. Too quiet, you want honest word. Demons been gatherin’ at the edge of Hollow Country for months, but then we walk off the greatward and they just leave us be?”

“Maybe they weren’t expecting us to advance so aggressively,” Darsy said.

Minds’re selfish, Leesha remembered Arlen saying. Never in a million years occur to them you might risk your own neck for someone else.

“Gar’s got a point, mistress,” Wonda said. “You ever know demons not to attack somethin’ right in front of ’em? On new moon, ay, but they been like this a week.”

“There’s a mimic with them,” Leesha said.

“So what’re they waitin’ for?” Wonda asked.

“Rather be fightin’ than waitin’ for it,” Gared said.

“Well I ent complaining,” Kendall said. “I’ll take waiting over fighting any day.”

“I expect we’ll all have our fill of fighting soon enough.” Leesha sniffed the air, acrid and thick from cookfires for ten thousand men and women.

Darsy noticed it, too. She went to the tent flap, and her eyes widened just as cries of alarm began to ring through the camp. “Night.”

“What is it?” Leesha rushed to the flap, seeing smoke thick in the air, an evil orange glow coming from the woods. “Creator. Gared! They’ve set the woods on fire! Give the order to pull stakes and move before it runs through the camp!”

Gared was out of the tent in moments barking orders, but Leesha knew it would not be enough. They kept underestimating the cunning of corelings. Why waste drones attacking their forces when a handful of flame demons could do the work with smoke and fire?

“Darsy, round up as many hora users as you can, and be quick about it.”

The Hollowers stumbled down the road for half the night.

Leesha felt dizzy and her lungs burned, but not from smoke. She and the other hora users depleted much of their supply of demon bone creating firebreaks and wind to keep the worst of the smoke and embers away.

The strain was telling. More than one fainted, and others were forced to stop channeling when the pain became too great. Only Leesha and Darsy managed to keep on, and it was hours before the sun.

Greasy ash smudged everything, weakening wards up and down the line. Leesha passed a ragged squad of Hollow Soldiers, out of step with their company. Some soldiers still sang Keep the Hearthfire Burning, but choked with smoke and ash, it was hard to keep the beat.

Kendall worked Rojer’s fiddle instead, using the hora embedded in the chinrest to amplify the sound a hundredfold. She still wore the headscarf Amanvah had given her, and kept the silk veil pulled over her mouth to filter the smoky air.

“Wind demon!” Wonda raised her bow, loosing an arrow. In an eyeblink she had another nocked and drawn.

Leesha looked up, seeing the flight of demons descending on them. The lead demon banked, dodging Wonda’s first arrow, and her second. The third struck, and the demon veered off, crashing to the ground beside Kendall’s horse.

Raising her hora wand, Leesha drew a powerful wind ward that flared in the air as the other wind demons struck it.

But then Kendall screamed, and Leesha turned to see the wind demon had become a rock, rising before her horse. Before she or Micha could react, the coreling spun and lashed out with its heavy tail, smashing the legs of their horse out from under them. Fiddle and bow fell from Kendall’s grasp as they tumbled to the ground.

The mimic gave a distinctive cry, and from all around demons rushed out of the smoky haze to attack the road. Some of the wards flared, throwing them back, but many were compromised, and demons penetrated the exhausted ranks of the Hollow Soldiers.

The ragged squad nearby rushed in to help Leesha and the others, but she didn’t like their chances against a mimic. “Stay back!” she cried as Gared charged the demon.

The mimic lashed out with an arm that extended to a whipping tentacle, but Gared was ready, hacking the limb free with his machete, never losing speed in his charge. Over his shoulder, Wonda kept firing, heavy wooden arrows thudding into the demon.

The demon struck at Gared, but his armor was strong, deflecting the blow as he got in close and buried his axe in the mimic’s side.

“Mistress, look out!” Pawl pointed over her shoulder.

Leesha was so occupied watching the battle she didn’t notice the squad of soldiers until they were almost upon her, charging with spears pointed at her breast. When she saw their faces, she knew something was wrong. She fumbled with her wand, scattering the men with an impact ward.

Spears and shields clattered away as they fell, their uniforms melting into scaled armor as they grew claws and great sharp teeth.

Mimics. Nearly a dozen of them. How had they gotten so close?

“Mimics on the road!” Darsy lifted her own hora wand. “Protect the countess!” There was no flourish to her warding, the mimic wards tight and blocky, but they were strong, and the demons were held back.

Gared’s personal guard were the first to answer the call. Cutters Leesha had known all her life. Samm Saw and Tomm Wedge, Linder Cutter, Evin and his great wolfhound Shadow. A dozen others, including Quiet Jonn. Hard men in warded armor who had killed corelings by the hundred.

But these were no ordinary corelings. Shadow leapt on one of the mimics, five hundred pounds of tooth and claw, strong as a nightwolf. The demon caught the dog by the head, flinging it to the ground. Shadow yelped and lay still.

Evin and Linder used the distraction to get in close, but the demon’s flesh turned thick and viscous, catching their axes and holding them fast as it slapped Evin away with a horned tentacle and lifted giant Linder like a doll, throwing him at Leesha.

The armored man sailed through the mimic wards and smashed into Pestle’s legs. Leesha heard bones break as she was pitched from the saddle. Darsy screamed as she, too, lost her seat atop Mortar. Demons flowed around Darsy’s wards, but the remaining Cutters met them head-on.

Samm could cut a wood demon’s head off with a few strokes of his great two-handed saw, but it was a slow weapon against a mimic. There was a seam in his armor at the elbow, and the demon’s talons found it, severing the limb as it knocked him across the road. Tom Wedge swung his heavy sledgehammer, but the demon flowed around the weapon, snatching one of his own spikes and thrusting it into the eyeslit of his helmet. His sons screamed and charged the creature.

Leesha Drew power from her wand, recovering her strength as she got to her feet. She reached into a pouch at her waist, scattering warded klats that flashed and sparked, buffeting any demon that drew close to them. She drew impact and mimic wards, keeping the demons off balance, but there were too many of them, and her wand was already depleted.

A mimic spotted a gap in the silver wards hanging in the air, growing wings that beat two powerful strokes, taking it over the protection to drop on Leesha from above.

She fell back but could not bring her wand to bear in time. The demon would have had her, but there was a dissonant cry, and a great mattock swatted the mimic aside. Leesha watched numbly as Quiet Jonn charged past, driving his mattock home again and again.

The mimic squealed, form losing cohesion, but then it snaked a tentacle around the giant man and yanked him from his feet. Leesha hit the demon with a mimic ward, but two others spotted the gap and were already above her.

Kendall and Micha appeared, fiddle and song as one. Micha’s fingers were at her throat, manipulating the wards of her choker to amplify her voice to match the power of Kendall’s playing.

The demons scattered briefly, but they were wise to the trick, taking earless forms that could withstand the brunt of the music’s power.

Leesha cast about for Wonda, but the girl was working in tandem with Gared, her attention fixed on the mimic demon. Both she and Gared had lost their weapons, Wonda punching with knuckles painted with blackstem wards and Gared with his heavy warded gauntlets. When the demon struck at one, the other charged in. Leesha warded their armor personally, and the creature’s blows could find no purchase. Slowly, impossibly, they were pummeling the coreling to death.

Not that it would save her, as three mimics rushed Leesha, sweeping talons to tear up the road, hitting her with great clumps of packed dirt and choking soil. She was not injured but, momentarily blinded, she couldn’t get her wand up in time as a tentacle wrapped around her. Immediately the demon grew wings and gave a great beat, attempting to carry her away.

There was a blur of mist, and something struck the demon, knocking it from the sky. The tentacle holding her turned white, and a warded fist shattered it.

“Ay, sorry we’re late.” Stela yanked the still-twitching tentacle from around Leesha and cast it aside. The demon attempted to regroup, but again there was a misting and Brother Franq appeared, smashing into the mimic and knocking it back. He drew a ward in the air, and lightning shocked through the creature.

All around, her Warded Children appeared. Callen Cutter. Keet Inn. Jarit and her Sharum. The mimics were unprepared for the new assault and attempted to flee, but the Children gave them no avenue to escape, encircling the demons with mimic wards as they moved in for the kill.

Stela offered a hand and Leesha took it, letting the girl pull her to her feet. “Hung back like you said, but it looked like you were in trouble.”

“You did the right thing, dear,” Leesha said. “This was precisely why I asked you to follow us.”

“Didn’t get the flamers until after they started the fire. Sorry about that.”

“You kept it from getting worse,” Leesha said. “Thank you.”

All along the road, the Hollowers were regaining the upper hand. Exhausted soldiers had night strength now from killing demons, and without the mimics, the other demons fell into disarray and were scattered.

Scouts found them the next morning.

“Farmer’s Stump is gone,” Gared said. “Looks like some of the folk got out, but the town’s destroyed. Demons are massing at the Angiers River. We won’t make it through easy, or quick. They destroyed the bridge. We’ll need to find a crossing, and they’ll be waitin’ come sunset.”

“Keep moving,” Leesha said. “Let them see you coming.”

Gared looked at her. “No rippin’ way. I’m goin’ with ya.”

“We already discussed this,” Leesha said.

Gared shook his head. “You discussed it. I din’t say spit.”

“I am not asking, General,” Leesha said. “It’s an order.”

“Don’t care about that.” Gared balled his giant fist. “I took orders and left ya in Angiers and now Rojer’s dead. Give all the orders ya want, I’ll be corespawned before I let ya march into a nest of mind demons without my axe at yur back.”

Leesha felt her throat tighten at the heartfelt words. For as long as she could remember, Gared Cutter had always been there to protect her. For all that he vexed her, the world felt a little safer when he was near.

But now was not the time for it. “You’re not cut out for this one, Gared. Favah and I cast on this. Any men, and the mission will fail.”

“Yur takin’ Pawl!” Gared cried.

“He’s just a boy,” Leesha said, “and the one with contacts in the resistance. We need him to sneak us in, but a seven-foot-tall Cutter in wooden armor is going to be noticed. I need you here, leading the attack. I’m counting on you to smash in the gates before I get myself into too much trouble.”

Wonda put a hand on Gared’s shoulder. “Ent nothin’ gonna happen to Mistress Leesha while I’m around, Gar.”

Leesha could hear Gared’s teeth grind. “Better not, or there’ll be the Core to pay.”