Last Life

I HAD TO MAKE SOME CHANGES to my initial plans. Vaira arrived during the night with a message from Baron Reese, in which he informed me that our main caravan would be arriving slightly later than we had planned.

They had hit an unexpected snag before departing Gondreville. It turned out that many, many more people were interested in moving to my Margraviate than we had initially expected.

There was also another unpleasant surprise for me — as if summoned by a magic wand, a group of mages from the Amber Guild had appeared in Gondreville just before the caravan departed and attached themselves to its baggage train. The commander of the little group informed Baron Reese that he was carrying a very important message for me from Gilbert de Ambrelle, the grandmaster of the Amber Guild. Basically, there would be no getting rid of the bothersome new arrivals.

Oh well, I thought... Just one more reason to set out for Bone Grotto even earlier than I had planned. I felt practically obligated to discover its secrets before the Amber Guild’s rubbernecking spies could insist on coming with me. I knew for a fact that they were coming specifically for that reason — they wanted to sniff out the secret that the Scarlets had discovered on the frontier. The Guild had already secured the Royal monopoly on the trade in Shadow resources, and they wanted to dig their greedy claws into my developing business.

In private, other mages usually referred to the Amber Guild simply as the Royal Guild. Nobody — including me — gave any credence to the idea that the grandmaster was acting on his own initiative. I mean, the King himself had sent me here with a single goal in mind. Namely, to knock the Scarlets out of the Margraviate in order to take over their corner of the market. Besides that, apparently, Carl was also hoping that the Margraviate would become a permanent base for his legions. And that his new Margrave would be completely under his control.

Obviously, neither the King nor the grandmaster had any idea of what was actually going to happen. Neither had any desire to see a self-sufficient, independent me right next to a valuable source of Shadow resources. The only thing I didn’t yet know was what could possibly be across the barrier, beneath the mountains. But I knew that it would be best to keep that information out of their hands.

Baron Reese sent some other news in his message as well. The Sapphire Guild had finally swung into action. Exactly as we had suspected they would. Baron de Bacri’s mountain men, who were serving as the Citadel’s garrison, managed to catch two intruders who were trying to break into the secret treasury. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a chance to talk to them. The strykers put up fierce resistance, and our werewolves had to kill them both.

Sure, it was possible that my announcement about the auction had provoked some other third-party guild into action, but I was pretty sure that the Sapphire Guild was behind this break-in. Baron de Bacri specified that the liquidated spies had been discovered right next to the entrance to the hidden treasury, where his werewolves had set up a trap well in advance.

In the end, I decided pretty soon after Vaira arrived that evening that I would set off for Bone Grotto as soon as possible. I announced as much to my own people, as well as to Jacob the Gray.

Besides Sigurd, Gunnar, Leo von Grimm, the lunari, and the fayret, I took five strykers from the “Savages” with me under the command of Georg von Linz.

After giving her some time to rest, I sent Vaira back to Baron Reese with further instructions, and left Kurt von Hartha with the rest of the “Savages” to garrison Fort de Gris. The seneschal, of course, remained there with them as well. They would be on hand to meet the main caravan when it arrived.

Our force was further complemented by forty Glenns, five shapeshifter scouts, and Chevalier Duval’s entire group.

After spending a few days in careful preparation, we set off, headed for Bone Grotto...

* * *

“Come on!” Jacob snarled through gritted teeth as he once again slammed a curved, knobbly-headed stick down onto the surface of the water with a loud plunking sound. He was trying to summon his waterman business partner. Or at least he was pretending to try... Playing the amateur...

I kept a serious expression on my face as I watched his little charade, but inside, I was smiling.

It had been about ten days since we left Fort de Gris. When we arrived in the Barony of Festa, the few residents who were still living in the villages came out to greet our force with pine boughs in their hands, as was traditional in those parts.

Compared to the destruction I had already seen in the Margraviate, the three villages we passed through looked remarkably intact and well-built. We had a look at the fugitive Baron’s castle, too. It was about a day’s ride from the village under Jacob’s control, and was the sort of defensive fortification that seemed to be typical of this world.

Small, but maintained in good condition. Built on a steep-sided hill that provided an excellent view of the surrounding area. And unlike Fort de Gris, it wasn’t caked with filth. Jacob was obviously the one who had made sure of that. After the Baron left, the headman had practically adopted the castle as his own personal ward. He didn’t let anybody plunder or vandalize it.

Jacob and I inspected the mill-traps together. Unlike the ones I had seen near the border, the ones in this Barony were larger, and in excellent condition.

After checking out the harvest (which was somewhat meager), I suggested that the old man introduce me to his business partner. On that note, by the way, the old man had yet to tell me how exactly he paid the waterman for his work. I could only hope it was limited to something like sacrificing a chicken, which seemed to be so important to all the first-born. I say “hope” because considering what the waterman was doing, he could certainly have asked for quite a bit more than that in exchange for his help. After spending so much time with Jacob over the preceding two weeks, though, I had come to the conclusion that the old man probably wouldn’t have agreed to anything too outlandish. Mostly, he just kept insisting that he had no idea whether this first-born was helping any other residents of my Margraviate with their mills or not. He was lying, of course.

After my chat with the old man, on which Lorin had eavesdropped from beginning to end, we came to the conclusion that besides the waterman and the headman, there was at least one other link in the chain of production — a link that we were still missing.

Whoever it was, though, it had to be someone gifted, who could negotiate with the river-dwelling first-born. In addition, this person was also probably in charge of sorting through the Shadow resources that fell into the traps. This third party was probably true gifted. And as far as I could tell, it seemed like they were probably still alive. Jacob was obviously hiding them somewhere. And the waterman was almost certainly helping him do it.

Long story short, it didn’t seem like I’d be making their acquaintance any time soon. Standing up to his waist in the river, the old man finally spread his arms wide in a gesture of surrender. Apparently, the waterman didn’t want to answer his call.

My eyes narrowed as I stared out at the smooth surface of the water, where sunbeams were dancing in the subtle, gentle rippling. From time to time, I was switching to true vision, trying to scan the area.

The waterman obviously sensed my presence. But he (or she) didn’t want to make contact. They were nervous — and I could understand why. No problem. There would be time to talk later.

“I come in peace!” I shouted toward the river in the ancient tongue. “Let me know when you’re ready to talk!”

I heard a splash of water on the opposite bank. An answer. I noticed that the sound had come from a stand of gigantic willows, whose flexible branches were swaying in the light evening breeze.

“You can come out of the water now, old man,” I said as I held my hand out to Jacob, who was studying my every move. “Your friend wants to get a look at us first. And apparently that’s going to take a lot of time, which I don’t have.”

When the old man finally stepped out of the water with my help, I leaned in and said:

“Tomorrow’s going to be a hard day. I want to make it to the fort the Scarlets built as fast as I possibly can.”

“I...” The old man was about to say something.

“You don’t need to be there,” I hurriedly assured him. “It’ll be enough to send me with a sensible guide who can show me the way and reassure the locals that I mean no harm.”

After the Scarlets left, a number of so-called “free prospectors” had started squatting in the place. They were basically just local peasants and hunters, who had conceived a desire to trade the calm routine of their former life for something a bit riskier. They would form themselves into groups, then go out and comb the frontier in search of Shadow resources.

Besides the fact that mortality among these guys was always really high, their chosen profession was also categorically illegal. Our arrival at the fort, therefore, was bound to be perceived as a serious threat. They didn’t have much to lose; most likely, they would either flee or (if necessary) try to fight us off.

In the latter case, of course, they wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance. But I didn’t have any interest in seeing them die. Quite the contrary, in fact — I actually had a business proposition for them. I explained all this to Jacob.

“So?” I asked. “Do you have someone who could do that?”

“I do, Your Lordship. Of course I do,” the old man nodded. “Thomas could go with you. He always looks after the village in my absence... To be honest, though, something tells me he’s not going to be able to handle this. So I think I’m going to have to go with you anyway. I’ve known most of those prospectors since they were bare-assed little boys. They should be willing to listen to me.”

“Perfect,” I said. With that, we set off for the village.

To be honest, I had been counting on Jacob from the start. I just really wanted to see how he would behave in the situation and what he would say.

As we left, I spotted a large shadow out of the corner of my eye as it flitted beneath the water about ten steps from where we had just been standing. I was right. An old waterman. Most likely, one that had been living in the area for a very long time. It would be a practically-inexhaustible fountain of useful information.

But no matter, I thought — we’ll have time to talk later. And we’ll find the true gifted middleman, too. They won’t be going anywhere.

* * *

It was four days’ journey from the village, where we had spent a full day, to the foothills where the fort was located. As we drew closer to the frontier with every passing day, the mood in my unit grew more and more tense. The gifted among us could sense the Barrier’s proximity. The deadly, alien anomaly that covered such a huge portion of the continent.

The lunari was especially agitated. It was almost like a different being had slipped in and taken Selina’s place. She had always been so calm and collected, but suddenly it seemed like she was on edge at all times. Ignia, who by contrast was always so restless, said she didn’t even recognize her “sister.”

The lunari couldn’t explain what exactly was happening to her either. She kept saying that she could feel a powerful magical pressure coming from the direction of the Shadow, and that it felt like something big was about to happen any minute.

My golden parasite was also agitated, although it felt like a sort of lazy, reluctant agitation. The beast was full. I had fed it several clots of black energy the day before.

Finally, at about noon on the fourth day of our march, we wound around a hill clustered with a thick stand of trees and began our descent into foothill country.

“Gods...” Leo gasped through a dry throat.

The eyes of my young squire, who had never been to the frontier before, were riveted on a towering mountain range in the distance. In places, the mountains were engulfed in a gargantuan black thundercloud that stretched across the entire horizon and totally obscured the sky above the mountains. It was like a big, coal-black curtain separating our world from another.

For a fleeting moment, I felt like a tiny ant, crawling toward the line where the world ends and gives way to an eternal expanse of nothingness... Possibly, however, this was actually an emotional projection from the lunari, who was traveling inside a cart just a few steps away from me.

Because just a second later, she sent me a very clear warning of imminent danger.

I tapped my heels lightly against Storm’s flanks, giving him the signal to speed up, and steered him toward the wagon with the first-born inside. I had to ask Selina what exactly she had just warned me about. But I didn’t even make it to the wagon.

A sudden jolt... The earth shuddered. Not very powerfully, for the time being, but Storm and the other horses could feel it very keenly. Frightening whinnying and angry curses from riders erupted into the air.

Storm backed up a few steps, but managed to calm down pretty quickly. Yet further proof that he wasn’t the kind of horse to fear something as minor as a light earth tremor.

“What was that?” Somebody behind me asked in a worried tone.

Nobody seemed in any hurry to answer. Another jolt hit us after about twenty steps. We were prepared for it this time, but it was also more violent than the first one.

After that, the jolts started happening more and more frequently. Soon, the ground was shaking. We heard a deep groan, so loud that it drowned out the fearful whinnying of our horses.

I glanced at the rocky hill to my left, and saw that the tall trees at its peak were shaking like ships’ masts during a bad storm. Without wasting a second, I roared out a command:

“Everybody head right! Away from the hill!”

I could hear similar commands ringing out all along the line of our column. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had reacted in time.

Riders and wagons began to rumble off the road and hurry away from the hill as fast as they possibly could. And not a moment too soon, either. A jagged crack suddenly burst out across the surface of the hill, and within seconds cobblestone-sized rocks were raining down from inside the yawning gorge, hammering the road where we had just been standing. A few more seconds’ delay, and that murderous stone hailstorm would have taken out half our unit.

After putting some distance between ourselves and the hill, we stopped. Although actually, several wagons kept moving even after that. Apparently, not all the horses were used to that kind of scare. Riders moved out on either side of these wagons and began herding them back toward the main group.

They quickly overtook one wagon, then another... Before I knew it, they were done. Everyone was back in place. I watched as the carters jumped off their wagons and rushed over to the horses in an attempt to calm them down.

Meanwhile, Chevalier Duval came galloping over to me. I could see anxiety etched into his reddened face, but at the same time there was a certain spark in his eyes — it was the thrill of the hunt.

“It’s a flow!” He said as he pointed toward Shadow Pass.

Everybody who heard him immediately turned their heads to see what he was pointing at. Sure enough... The black veil that sat over part of the mountain range had begun to move. The Barrier was getting closer. And that meant Bone Grotto would soon fall beneath the Shadow...

The golden parasite in my energy system began to squirm once again, like a beast who had been disturbed after a nap. At the same time, I felt a wave of fear and panic well up inside me. It was the lunari. At that point, I knew I would need to calm her down. She would be a permanent distraction if I didn’t.

“It won’t come this far,” Chevalier Duval added confidently. “Once the earthquake stops, we can keep moving. We’re almost to the fort now.”

I nodded in reply to Duval, then turned to Sigurd (who had been following right behind me the whole time) and said:

“That’s what we’ll do, then. Wait for a while, then move on to the fort.”

With a slight bow, Sigurd turned his horse around and galloped off to give the necessary orders. As he did so, I spurred Storm toward my wagon. Once I was right next to it, I hopped inside and asked into the darkness:

“What happened?”

The little curtain that separated my sleeping space from the kitchen area suddenly rippled, and the lunari’s pale little face popped out. There were tears in her eyes. A moment later, Ignia’s anxious-looking face popped out next to Selina’s.

The constant jolting from the ground had almost faded away by that point, but the wagon was still shaking. I had to grab onto the sideboards with both hands.

“This...” Selina murmured. “This...”

I could still sense the first-born’s fear, although she seemed to be gradually recovering her composure.

“Did you feel the flow?” I asked, already having guessed what had happened to my first-born.

“Yes,” she replied. “It was really scary... Not alive, not dead... Just soulless and all-consuming...”

The lunari jumped out from behind the curtain, sprang over to me, and wrapped her little arms around my leg.

I patted her reassuringly on the head and asked:

“Did you hear what Duval said?”

“Yes,” she replied. “He’s right. The Barrier won’t make it this far. I can feel it — it’s already stopping... Sorry... I don’t — “

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I interrupted her gently. “You can’t even imagine how happy I am to have your skills at our disposal right now. The flow won’t be able to catch us unawares. If you sense anything else, let me know right away.”

* * *

“Empty!” The lean, muscular werewolf in command of our quintet of shapeshifters announced as they returned from the fort. “Scents tell me the last humans left about a week ago. Tracks lead northwest.”

I turned around, and my eyes met Jacob’s.

“Do you think they went to work, or did they get a warning from the village?”

“No idea, Your Lordship,” the old man shrugged.

“Doesn’t look like they fled,” the werewolf pointed out. “They left a lot of stuff. Firewood. Some provisions. It looks like they probably went out to work.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “Time will tell, I guess...”

It seemed that Chevalier Duval and the lunari had been right. The Shadow eventually stopped, and about half an hour after that the earthquakes subsided as well. As it turned out, earthquakes were a pretty common occurrence just before a flow. Duval wasn’t kidding when he stated (as he often did) that Shadow Pass would sometimes warn people when danger was coming.

The flow also worsened the headaches that most members of our unit were already suffering from. This was just one more burden that people had to bear whenever they were near the frontier. True, we had a pretty handy solution for this particular problem. We had found several chests full of special potions back in the Sapphire Citadel. It was a mixture analogous to the Tears of Light that the Amber Guild distributed to its people at their frontier posts. The medicine was specially designed to combat headaches, along with a variety of other unpleasant side effects.

Every soldier in our unit was carrying two vials of this medicine, except it was a version I had put together myself using golden mana.

The fort, which the Scarlets had built about a day’s journey from Bone Grotto, was actually quite a pleasant surprise. It was made entirely out of wood, but it had obviously been built by people who were intending to stay there for extended periods. I even noticed a few places where they had started to dig trenches outside the foundation. Small mountains of rock stacked here and there served as clear proof that the Gray Reaper had intended to keep building, using more long-lasting materials.

The fort was surrounded by a tall stockade. There were emplacements for archers, complete with protective awnings. Four tall towers, one at each corner. Strong gates and a moat, which was itself surrounded by sharpened stakes around the entire perimeter.

The fort was surprisingly spacious inside. There were awnings next to the walls for animals. And on the grounds of the fort itself, there was a long warehouse, a well, a smithy, a barracks, and a massive structure in the center of it all about as tall as the watchtowers, with its own arrow slits and an observation deck at the top. This keep had been built with big, thick beams, and I knew that it had probably been the Gray Reaper’s residence for most of the previous year.

We spent the next two days making ourselves at home and setting up shop. Nobody disturbed us at all during that time. Sadly, however, the calm didn’t last long. Just before sunset on the third day, a sentry on the western tower raised the alarm.

“Several riders coming this way!” The sharp-eyed Glenn shouted as he pointed to the northwest. “Three! Their horses are tired! They’re making for the fort!”

“Open the gates!” Georg von Linz’s bass voice boomed out a reply.

Slowly, one of the heavy doors began to swing inward. A little while later, three riders came barreling through the opening and into the fort. Sure enough, the horses beneath them seemed to be on their very last breath. Their bodies started shuddering as soon as they stopped. All three of them were frothy with sweat. Foaming at the mouth.

And their riders didn’t look any better, either. All of them were soaked with blood. The first two were still moving at least a little bit, but the third was clearly unconscious. The only thing keeping him in the saddle were some tight ropes around his legs and waist. My people rushed forward to help them.

The first rider kept tearing himself out of my people’s hands. His eyes were bulging crazily as he tried in vain to tell us something. A few seconds later, he finally caught his breath enough to let out a hoarse scream:

“Close the gates! The scroggs are right behind us!”