The Amazon's Pledge

As hard as it was to believe, Kaseya and I were actually able to walk mostly fine the next morning even without the aid of restorative magic. We made even better time than the previous day, actually, though I did have to deactivate my ring after only a few hours. Containing my own libido was difficult enough without hers amplifying it, and we did need to move fairly quickly if we wanted to reach the bandit's stronghold by nightfall. Assuming it was real and not a hoax, anyway.

The map led us more or less in the right direction, and Kaseya's tracking skills filled in the gaps when necessary. We passed the North Road around noon, though we didn't spot any travelers or caravans. The boot prints in the nearby forest were still fresh, however, and based on their number alone I was fairly certain we had found the right trail. A few hours before nightfall, my suspicions were confirmed.

Unfortunately, so were my biggest doubts.

"That's not an outpost," I whispered. "It's a bloody fortress."

Based on the description from the bounty, I had expected a ramshackle wooden fort built into the side of the mountain, not half of a damn castle. End to end, the walls stretched at least a hundred yards, though the size worried me far less than the battlements and the twin watchtowers. Even from here I could see at least nine men on the walls, and for all we knew there could have been fifty more inside the actual keep and courtyard. The only remotely encouraging sign was that the stone was old and crumbling, but it was probably more than sufficient to repel an assault from anything short of heavy siege equipment or powerful magic.

"I thought you said there were dozens of small mining villages along the edge of the mountains here," Kaseya said, leaning down in the grass next to me.

"According to the map, there are," I said. "Their militias wouldn't have a chance in hell against fortifications like this. Then again, a patrol of knights wouldn't have a chance against fortifications like this, either."

I slumped behind the knoll and swore under my breath. I hadn't expected this to be as easy blasting a few thugs and recovering the stolen cargo, but this had devolved from "dangerous" to "suicidal" in record time.

"Based on the tracks we found and the fact that these men haven't attempted to rule any of the villages, I doubt there are more than fifteen or twenty warriors inside," Kaseya said, her eyes narrowing in thought. "You shouldn't be so concerned. If we wait for the cover of night, we should be able to—"

"We could be outnumbered twenty to one for all we know," I interrupted. "I don't care how dark it gets—we're not overcoming those odds."

She frowned. "They are merely brigands. You are

moshalim

, and I am a trained amazon warrior. They will not be able to stand against us."

I sighed and rubbed at my temples. Last night I had found her earnest self-assuredness charming, but it had suddenly become a liability. "Look, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but we have to be realistic. The two of us can't—"

"I am as skilled with a bow as a blade," Kaseya interrupted. "Once I remove the sentry in the eastern tower, your magic can propel me up onto the wall. I can easily eliminate their other spotters and catch the rest in their sleep."

I paused and studied her silhouette as she squinted out towards the fortress. I didn't need to reactivate my ring to know that she wasn't just blustering. She was fully convinced that she could sneak inside the fortress and discreetly murder a few dozen men in their sleep. My mind flashed back to a few years ago when Valuri and I had shared almost the exact same argument about an underground base filled with local gangsters. I was the one who constantly ran the risk of overchanneling the Aether and destroying himself, but apparently fate thought it was a good idea to repeatedly pair me off with beautiful, deadly, suicidally-confident women.

"Getting you up onto the wall would be easy, true," I admitted, "but I'm not just going to let you take on an entire fort full of brigands by yourself."

"It is the only way I can guarantee your safety," Kaseya told me. "If I am overwhelmed, you will still be able to escape."

"Just because you pledged to serve me doesn't make you expendable. If we're going to do this, we'll do it together."

"If that is your wish. But whatever our strategy, you should allow me to bear the brunt of the risk."

I couldn't help but shake my head and grin at the sheer absurdity of the situation. Last night I had been holding her face-down in the dirt while I savagely fucked her ass, and now, barely half a day later, she was perfectly willing to charge into an enemy fortress and die on my behalf. It was ludicrous beyond reason. And yet here we were.

"Before we do anything, we should get a closer look at their numbers and defenses," I said. "We can't risk approaching on foot, but there's a chance I can scry on them from here."

Kaseya turned to face me. "I did not realize you had mastered such magic."

"I haven't, which is why I don't know if it will actually work," I said. "As a friend of mine used to say, I know a little about a lot of things. Sadly, in the real world that doesn't seem as useful as knowing a lot about a few."

I closed my eyes and stretched out through the Aether. In my mind's eye, I could see the field surrounding us almost like I had become a leaf on the wind, but moving my field of view closer to the fortress proved even more strenuous than I'd anticipated. I felt Kaseya stir next to me, and after a few moments she pressed her forehead against mine.

"I am no sorcerer," she said, "but the

moshalim

on Nol Krovos often find that physical contact aids with their concentration."

"All right," I whispered. It didn't make any sense to me, but I wasn't about to push her away for no reason. The flowery scent of her hair—how did it always smell so damn good?—greeted my nostrils and did actually help me relax.

It took a few more minutes, but I eventually I managed to stretch my senses all the way to fortress. Other than the nine sentries on the battlements, I only sensed a handful more inside the actual keep. They were all haggard and half-starving, and their weapons and armor were clearly scavenged and/or stolen. I made a mental note of the structural weaknesses in the stone and the locations of all their potential light-sources...

"All right," I said, opening my eyes. "There are fewer men than I thought, and they're not equipped particularly well. I'm a little surprised they managed to steal cargo from guild wizards, honestly."

"Do you know if the supplies are still here?"

"If they are, they're probably inside the keep. I can't stretch my senses that far." I paused. "They certainly don't look like they've received any kind of massive payment. I bet they're still waiting for their buyer to show up."

"Then we arrived just in time," Kaseya said.

"Yeah," I murmured. Something about this didn't feel right, and not just because we were so badly outnumbered. If the cargo the mages were delivering was at all valuable—and the five thousand coin bounty suggested it was—then why wouldn't the guild have had more guards defending it? Even a few apprentices and a hired sword or two could have probably held off an ambush from this sorry lot.

Regardless, at this point it didn't really matter. Our odds were a lot better than I'd first thought, and the bottom line was that I needed the coin—or a way to buy my way into the good graces of the Black Mistress. Either way, an opportunity like this might not present itself again for a while.

"All right," I said. "We still have some time. All we need now is a plan."

***

We waited until a few hours after nightfall before we risked creeping closer to the fortress. Without the torch sconces on the battlements we wouldn't have been able to spot the sentries, and even with them my eyes took quite a while to properly adjust. The cloudy sky had all but smothered the moon tonight, which Kaseya considered a good omen. I was reserving judgment until

after

we got through this alive.

"Not that I doubt your training," I whispered as she drew her bow and nocked an arrow, "but I wouldn't trust an elven ranger to make a shot from this distance in this lighting."

"I can see his silhouette," she said. "The air is still and conditions are favorable. I have taken longer shots before."

I sensed the slightest hint of wounded pride in her voice. I had only known her for a few days now, but I could already tell that she was the kind of the woman who took failure as a personal insult. Valuri had been the same way; she had practically thrown a fit every time she'd missed a shot with her crossbow, no matter the range or wind.

Apparently I really did have a weakness for perfectionist women with smoldering hot bodies. Who knew?

"If you miss, the whole fort will be after us," I said, touching Kaseya's arm before she could draw back the bowstring. "And if you don't kill him outright, we'll have the same problem."

She traced a finger down the limb of her bow. "This weapon was enchanted by one of our most powerful

moshalim

. Arrows fired from its string are designed to kill quickly and quietly."

I frowned and studied the weapon. I could feel the Aetheric energy coursing through the wood, though I couldn't discern the exact nature of the enchantment. Artifice was well outside my realm of expertise.

"It's still too risky," I said.

Kaseya cocked a red eyebrow. "You have a different suggestion?"

I pursed my lips and stared at the fort. The reasonable voice in my head was still yelling at me to turn and get out of here, but the impulsive voice—the one I usually listened to—had a better idea.

"I know a technique to enhance my own vision," I said. "Normally it doesn't work on anyone else, but maybe we can exploit this bond of ours somehow."

Taking a deep breath, I reached out to the Aether and tried to remember exactly how to weave this particular spell. It took a few minutes, but eventually my eyes sharpened to the point where I could see through the darkness almost as well as if it were broad daylight. The tower sentry, once an amorphous shadow, was now clearly a man leaning back against the battlements and struggling to ward off sleep.

"I can see him," Kaseya said, her own eyes narrowing in concentration. "It is...remarkable."

"Then this is all you, sweetheart," I said, releasing her arm. "Go ahead and show me what you can do."

She drew back the bowstring and took aim. Considering what was at stake, I should have been completely silent and focused on her target. But because I was pathetic and apparently insatiable, my eyes drifted down to her bare thighs as she braced herself on a knee. I couldn't help but imagine her naked, thong-less quim beneath the leather straps of her skirt. If we got out of this in one piece, I promised myself that I was going to have an enormous amount of fun destroying that tight little ass of hers again tonight...

Kaseya turned and lowered her bow. "Shall I relieve you again before we continue?"

"What? No." I sighed and rubbed at my forehead. "Sorry, I'm not trying to distract you. It's just...you know."

I was reasonably sure I saw her smirk before she drew the bowstring again, but she turned away before I could be sure. I took a deep breath and forced my mind to stay clear. I really hated being a man sometimes. Not often, admittedly, and not for long. But still...

The sudden

twang

of her bowstring refocused my attention. Her arrow arched through the night sky, its silver fletching glinting in the moonlight for a mere fraction of a second before it pierced the sentry's neck. He died instantly and soundlessly thanks to the magic in her bow, though Kaseya still held up her hand and paused for a moment just in case anyone inside had noticed the shot. When we didn't hear anything for half a minute, she pointed towards the wall.

I nodded and dashed along beside her, trying to keep as low and quiet as I could. As impressed as I was with her shot, I was even more astonished by the abrupt shift in her mood and demeanor. Just like when we had been attacked off the docks, she had transitioned from obsequious servant to hardened warrior in the blink of an eye. Yet again I was reminded of Valuri, and yet again my stomach clenched when I thought about how I'd abandoned her...

Biting down on my lip hard enough to draw blood, I glanced up to the edge of the beleaguered battlements once we reached the fortress's edge. Kaseya looked at me expectantly, and I nodded as I reached out to the Aether and cradled her body in an invisible fist of magical force. Taking another deep breath to aim and focus, I hurled her up onto the wall and held her in place until she confirmed her safety through our link.

Now just make sure you don't fuck up and throw yourself all the way over the wall and into the courtyard.

Wincing at the memory of my last few failed attempts to fly, I repeated the same technique and launched myself up straight into the air. My aim wasn't perfect—I almost crashed into the crenellations by being overcautious with my arc—but I managed to tumble when I hit the top of the battlements and roll safely into position.

Kaseya, for her part, leapt into action the moment she knew I was safe. Dashing towards the watchtower, she quickly checked the corpse inside before she scrambled to the door and lined up a shot at the other tower sentry. He was dead a full ten seconds before I caught up to her, but she wasn't done: when one of the bandits from the courtyard unexpectedly ascended the steps towards the tower, she nocked another arrow and silently eliminated him as well.

Three shots, three horrifyingly accurate kills. Forget taking bounties—she could just join the Duskwatch Rangers and get promoted to captain in a few weeks. We could probably live comfortably off her salary. I could just sit at home reading all day, waiting patiently for her to shift to end so I could tie her up and fuck her until morning...

"Are you ready?" Kaseya whispered.

"Yeah," I rasped, reaching out to the Aether again. If the stench of blood and death couldn't pull my mind out of the sewer, then maybe I really was hopeless.

I followed closely behind her as she crept towards the closest staircase, bow still in hand. Most of the bandits were still sleeping on the bedrolls in the courtyard, blissfully unaware of our presence. Killing them would be easy enough; I could conjure a fireball and vaporize most of them before they had a chance to react. But I wasn't here to murder a bunch of starving bandits, even the ones that deserved it. I might have been a terrible person—my recent behavior with my accidental amazon slave seemed to corroborate this theory pretty strongly—but I still liked to believe I was a few shades better than a murderous psychopath. For now, at least.

Once we reached the ground floor and confirmed that no one was awake, we sneaked across the dirt courtyard all the way to the door of the inner keep. While Kaseya pressed her ear against the dilapidated wooden door, I reached out through the Aether to see if I could sense anyone nearby on the other side. I was only a dabbler with clairvoyant magic, just like with most channeling techniques, but I was reasonably confident in my ability to detect the presence of any magical items within a few dozen yards.

Which was precisely why the hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle when I sensed a person instead.

Kaseya squatted down next to me and frowned when our bond relayed my growing anxiety. "I do not hear any additional sentries. What's wrong?"

"I can sense an Aetheric echo in there," I told her. "But it's from a person, not the supplies."

She creased her head in concentration. "Yes...I can sense it too. A prisoner? Perhaps one of the guild members who was escorting the caravan?"

"Maybe, but if so we shouldn't sense anything. Wizards don't produce an Aetheric echo like sorcerers do."

"Perhaps one of the bandits is a rogue

moshalim

."

"Let's hope not," I said, hissing softly between my teeth. "All right, we'll stick to the plan and have a look around. We'll head inside and—"

The door to the keep suddenly burst open mid-word, slamming into Kaseya and knocking her into me. We tumbled together in an awkward ball of arms and legs before she somehow managed to vault off me and unsheathe her sword. I recovered my balance just in time to watch her charge the thoroughly shocked bandit and skewer her blade straight through his gut.

He did not die silently. His gurgling shriek echoed off the walls of the fortress, and we were suddenly out of time.

"Oh, shit."

To their credit, the bandits sleeping in the courtyard were awake and armed in a matter of seconds, and the sound of frantic, booted footfalls rumbled from inside the keep as more men rushed out to see what the hell had just happened. Kaseya, as unflappable as ever, grabbed her shield off her back and braced herself for their charge.

"Keep them at bay while I hold the door!" she shouted.

I swore under my breath as I sheathed myself in a glowing mantle of protective magic. I only had a few more seconds before I got swarmed, not nearly enough to muster enough power for a full-on assault. So instead, I improvised.

Extending both my hands, I blasted the ground in front of me with a gout of green magical fire until I had created a semi-circular wall around us. Most of the bandits dove away, terrified at the sight of magic, and between the rising smoke and the crackling flames we had decent cover for if and when they invariably overcame their fear.

Behind me, Kaseya had already clashed with a pair of bandits, scything down one and bashing the other with her shield. A third charged at her from the doorway, an enormous axe clutched in both his oversized hands. He swung across his body like he was chopping down a tree, but Kaseya expertly caught the wild attack with her shield, deflecting the axe rather than attempting to stop it head-on. The bandit careened off balance, allowing her to lunge inside his guard and thrust her sword through his chest.

I was just about to blast the battlements and scare off the survivors when an arrow whistled through the flaming wall and struck Kaseya in the shoulder. I froze in place, mortified, and time seemed to slow around me as she crumpled to a knee. A second shot followed the first, glancing harmlessly off my spell armor, but at that point I was barely even paying attention. The instant I saw blood hemorrhaging down her back, I screamed and unleashed my full power.

The Aether coursed through me like lightning through metal. I whirled about to face the other bandits, my entire body immolated in green, sorcerous flame. I hurled a fireball from each hand, detonating one on either side of the courtyard. The explosions were so loud they made my ears pop, and the force of the blasts hurled stone and flaming debris in every direction. By the time the ash settled and the air went still, there was virtually nothing left besides black heaps of smoldering bone.

I dove down next to Kaseya and clutched at her wound. She seemed completely oblivious to the pain. She was just staring wide-eyed at the destruction I'd wrought.

"

Moshalim...

" she murmured.

"Just hold still," I said, numbing her shoulder as best I could before I yanked the arrow free. She winced but didn't cry out, and I channeled a burst of restorative energy into her wound. Her skin sealed shut after a few seconds, and as far as I could tell there wasn't any lingering damage.

"Such power, such devastation..." Kaseya murmured as if she were in some kind of trance. "This is why the Senosi fear you."