Iron and Magic

He heard quiet footsteps in the hallway. Deidre. The footsteps stopped.

Alex licked his lips. “Deidre likes the forest. She goes off sometimes and doesn’t come back for a while. We heard dire wolves howling, so when it started getting dark and she wasn’t back, Phillip, her dad, asked me to go look for her. I’m better with the woods than he is. I don’t get lost.”

“Does she usually stay out past sunset?” Elara asked.

“No. She always comes back before dinner, but this time she didn’t, so everyone was worried. It took me awhile, but I found her. We were heading back, but…”

He fell silent.

“Take your time,” Elara told him.

“Deidre didn’t want to go back. She kept stopping. I just had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Every step I took toward the village it was like a big hand I couldn’t see was pushing me back. So, I told Deidre to wait and climbed a tree to try and see anything.” He swallowed. “There were soldiers and monsters in the village. Killing everyone. They pulled them out of the houses, and killed them right there on the street, and laid them out like cordwood. Like they weren’t even people. They killed kids. Little kids. They took Maureen’s baby and slit her throat.”

He stopped and looked at them.

It confirmed what they already had known.

“What happened next?” Elara asked.

His voice shook slightly. “I told Deidre to climb the tree and stay there, and then I circled to the north, because the wind was blowing from the south. I had my bow with me.”

“What was the plan?” Hugh asked.

“I wanted to get Courtney out,” he said. “She’s my girlfriend. I was climbing over the wall when a monster saw me. I shot it and it died.”

“Where did you shoot it?” Hugh asked.

“Through the eye,” Alex said.

“He’s a very good marksman,” Elara told him softly.

“It was a lucky shot. As soon as it went down, one of the soldiers blew a horn. They couldn’t see us, but somehow they knew it was dead. So I ran. I didn’t try to go and get Courtney. I just ran. Deidre was waiting for me, and then we ran together. They shot at us through the woods. I got hit twice, and then I don’t remember it that well. I just kept running.”

His voice faded.

“You saved Deidre,” Elara said. “You survived.”

Alex looked at her. “I ran,” he said. “I left Courtney to die.”

“No,” Elara said. “You did everything you could.”

“I ran like a coward.”

He had to fix this or they would lose a steady pair of hands with a bow. The kid didn’t need forgiveness. He needed direction and purpose.

“You’ve got two days,” Hugh said.

The kid’s gaze snapped to him.

“In two days I need you up and moving. Once you’re up, go to the barracks and find Yvonne Faure. She will evaluate your archery skills. If you do well enough, you’ll be given a bow and assigned to the auxiliaries. For every bastard you shoot down, another Courtney will live.”

He turned and walked out. Elara followed him.

Deidre sat on the stone floor in the hallway, her back to the wall, her arms locked around her knees. She looked up at him. “I want a bow.”

Elara crouched by her. “What about your aunt and uncle?”

Deidre shook her head. “I don’t want to go with them. I want to stay here.”

“But they are your family.”

“I don’t know them. I want to stay here. It’s safe here. Can you make them let me stay?”

“We will ask.” Elara sighed. “But they are not here now, so let’s worry about this later.”

“Do I still get a bow?”

“Why do you want one?” Elara asked.

“So I can kill the monsters if they come here.”

“A bow can be arranged,” Hugh said.

“Have you ever shot a bow?” Elara asked.

“No.”

“Don’t worry. Hugh will teach you. But if you decide that the bow isn’t for you, come and see me. I may teach you some things as well.”

“Go downstairs and wait for me,” Hugh said. “We’ll see about getting you a bow.”

The child jumped to her feet and dashed down the hallway. He watched her go. There was something disturbingly familiar about the look in her eyes, like a small feral animal backed into a corner. Rene used to look like that.

“We have no legal standing,” Elara said. “We can’t keep her.”

“We can bargain,” Hugh said.

She eyed him. “Do you actually care, Preceptor?”

“Don’t know the meaning of the word,” he said.

Hugh leaned against the step leading from the upper bailey to the keep and watched Stoyan stab the armor on a wooden mannequin. Or rather he watched Stoyan try. The centurion executed another beautiful slash. The blade glanced off the breastplate. The two Iron Dogs who were Stoyan’s second and third watched him.

Lamar leaned next to Hugh.

“Have you gotten anywhere with the Remaining?” Hugh asked him quietly.

“Nope. Nobody is talking.” Lamar shrugged his wide shoulders. “Everything is great, everyone is friendly and welcoming. The minute we try to ask any leading questions, they clam up.” He shifted on his feet. “You ever get a feeling we stumbled into a cult? Because I do.”

“As long as they keep us fed and clothed, I can deal with a cult.”

Stoyan stabbed the armor, putting all of his weight behind it. The point of the sword penetrated. He leaned forward, examined the nick, and spat.

“What about Elara?” Hugh asked. “Anything on her?”

“No.”

“There are thousands of people in that village. You’re telling me none of them have anything to say about her?”

Lamar shook his head.

Stoyan attacked the armor’s side, aiming at the armpit.

“Look on the bright side,” Lamar said. “They aren’t having much luck figuring out what’s in our barrels either.”

“Did they ask?”

“They did.”

Hugh grinned. Clever girl.

Stoyan moved back, resting his sword on his shoulder, and critically examined the armor.

Bale turned the corner.

“Here comes trouble,” Lamar murmured.

The berserker walked up to the weapons rack and pulled a mace out.

“Perhaps going from the bottom?” one of Stoyan’s people suggested. “An up stroke?”

“Possibly,” Stoyan said.

Bale charged.

The Iron Dogs jumped out of the way. The red-headed berserker smashed the breastplate with the mace, denting it.

“Damn it!” Stoyan barked.

Bale pounded the armor with his mace, denting it with every blow. Clang. Clang. Clang.

Stoyan threw his sword on the ground. “Fine. Just fucking smash it then. Smash everything.”

“How many maces do we have?” Hugh asked.

“Not that many,” Lamar said.

“Get more.”

“Will do.”

The old truck rolled through the gates of the castle, flanked by two Iron Dogs on horseback, the escort Hugh had sent for protection. The water engine spat noise and screeched. The driver got out without shutting it off. A bad sign.

“Go get Hugh,” she told Beth. “Tell him Deidre’s family is here.”

Elara put a smile on her face and walked out to the vehicle. The driver, an average size man with dark blond hair and skin ruddy from the weather waited for the passenger. A woman climbed out of the vehicle, dark-haired, white, thin. The two of them walked toward her, away from the truck’s noise. Both were closer to forty than to thirty. The man wore jeans, a denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and a black-and-white baseball cap. The woman wore a blue T-shirt over a pair of washed-out jeans.

“Hello,” Elara said.

“We’re here for Deidre,” the man said.

Right. No pleasantries, then. “And you are?” Elara asked.

“I’m her mother’s brother,” the man said.