The Rogue Knight (Jace x OC) Book 2

The Rogue Knight: 18

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Was this really the kid who had created a wilderness full of killer skeletons and giant cheesecakes? A semblance of Brady's babysitter had told them he was dead. That the monsters had finally gotten him.
"Was there ever a girl here called Honor?" the Rogue Knight asked.
"Or Nori?" Mira added.
Brady wrinkled his nose. "Nope, the only lady is Zola."
"How old is Zola?" Mira asked.
"She looks like a mommy," Brady said.
"How did you get here?" Mira asked.
"They came to Dreamland and got me," Brady said. "At first I thought they were Blind Ones.
They dressed and acted like Blind Ones. But they didn't kill me. They took me away from Dreamland."
"We were there too," I said. "In Dreamland.
People call it Brady's Wilderness. We met Amanda."
"You saw her?" Brady exclaimed, excited.
"She helped us," I said.
"Is she okay?" Brady asked.
"She's okay," I reassured him.
"I didn't want to leave without her," Brady said.
"The guys who took me wouldn't go back."
"Did they bring you here after Dreamland?" Mira asked.
"Not at first," Brady said. "They told me if I let them, they could make the dream end. I didn't
want those dreams anymore. I gave away my dreaming. I thought I would wake up and be home."
"They made the dreams stop?" Mira asked.
"It worked," Brady said. "My dreams never happen anymore. No giant cookies. No magic toys. But no bad guys either. None of it happens."
"They took his power," Twitch murmured.
"After they took away your dreams, they brought you here?" Mira asked.
"Yes," Brady said. "They can't take me home yet. They said it's too far." Leaning forward, he whispered, "I think maybe they're kidnappers."
"They are," Mira said. "Don't worry. We're here to help you." Mira turned and lowered her voice. "Can somebody distract him?"
Jace went forward, knelt down, and began asking Brady about the picture he was drawing.
Brady responded cheerfully to the attention.
Watching Jace talk to Brady might have been the sweetest thing I have ever seen. The smile on Jace's face as Brady explained the picture was something I wish I could see all the time. It was hard to look away from them as Mira addressed the others.
"That kid had serious power. Back in Sambria, they could have made another Carnag."
"Wouldn't we have heard of it?" Twitch asked.
"It may not have happened that long ago," Joe said. "How long has Brady been here?"
"A few weeks," Oster said. "He could have been
held elsewhere before. I don't know the history."
"They might have more control of the creature this time," Joe speculated. "It may not be rampaging."
"Why bring Brady here?" I asked.
"Whatever they did with his power, it can't reach him in Elloweer," Mira said. "It would only work in Sambria. Maybe they wanted to keep Brady far away."
"They probably took all of his shaping ability," Cole said. "You know, like Carnag tried to do to you, Mira. If Brady volunteered, they could have completely separated him from his power."
"Then why would they need him?" I asked.
"What good is he without any power?"
"I don't know," Mira said. "There must be a reason. We need to learn more about how shapecrafting works."
I heard noisy footsteps on the stairs.
Minimus entered the room, breathing hard.
"We're under attack," the Halfknight announced, panting. "The town offered little resistance. Guardsmen are trying to open the castle gates from both sides."
"Blast!" the Rogue Knight exclaimed. He whirled to Oster. "Do you know the other prisoners up here?"
"There are only a few others," Oster said. "This tower is for unnamed captives. None are known to me."
"Will you help Mira and her friends escape?"
the Rogue Knight asked. "Can you smuggle them away from Edgemont?"
"I know three hidden ways out of the castle,"
Oster said.
"We can help," Skye said. "Sultan and I will cloak us in seemings."
"That would give us a fighting chance," Oster said.
The Rogue Knight laid a hand on the Halfknight's armored shoulder. "Minimus, stay with Mira until we find each other again. Serve her well. Protect her at all costs. Oster, help them escape, then return to me once they are away."
"We have to check the other prisoners," Mira said anxiously. "Just in case."
"Very well," the Rogue Knight said. "Be swift.
We are greatly outnumbered. Our enemies will overrun this castle shortly."
"We'll hurry," Mira promised.
The Rogue Knight drew his sword. "I must join my knights."
He hurried from the room and bounded down the stairs. I suspected that anyone else who tried to run in armor like that would end up in a dented pile at the bottom of the stairway.
"Come on, Brady!" Mira called.
The boy looked up from where he sat with Jace.
"We're leaving?"
"Yes," Mira said.
"A hostage could prove useful," Oster mused.
Mira shot him and angry look. "Seriously? We can't keep him hostage, he's seven. We're freeing him."
"Are you sure?" Skye asked. "Joining us may be a rough road for the little guy."
"He is clearly of high value to our enemies," Sultan said. "And he doesn't belong to them."
"We can't leave him behind," Mira insisted.
"Who knows what they might do to him? He's just a kid!"
"I agree," Sultan replied. "I'll watch out for him."
Holding Jace's hand, Brady followed them out of the room. We started down the stairs, stopping at the next iron door. Oster tried a few keys before he found the right one. The room was empty.
Behind the next iron door they found a man chained to the wall. Blindfolded and gagged, his hair was long and disheveled.
"I know this one," Oster said. "He was an Enforcer and a powerful enchanter. He lost his mind. We don't want dealings with him."
He shut the door and moved on. From a distance, through barred windows, I heard the clash of combat. A man screamed in pain. Other voices shouted orders.
I understood why Mira wanted to check the cells, but the castle was falling. What if we couldn't make it out? I tried my best to ignore the nervousness.
Oster unlocked another door to reveal an empty
room. The next door opened on a swarthy woman seated at a wooden table. When her eyes found me, she glared and snarled. "You?"
"Secha?" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
She brushed hair away from her face. "Where are the Enforcers?"
"You were back in Carthage with Ansel," Mira recalled.
"Aye, missy, until the Enforcers came for us.
Where are they?"
"No Enforcers here," Joe said. "We're in charge for now. You vowed not to follow us."
"Perhaps I did," Secha said. "But I never counted on you ruining us. Some Enforcers caught up with us just a few days after you left. Charming lot. One called the Hunter was ready to kill Ansel for information about Kendal Anderson. Didn't seem interested in the rest of your pack. And Ansel was prepared to die to keep his oath to you. So I intervened. I volunteered to go with them and help them find you."
"Me?" I exclaimed. Then it dawned on me. That's why the Rogue Knight said I was danger. The Hunter was on our trail. But why was he after me?
"Is the Hunter here?" Joe asked in alarm.
"Not right now," Secha said. "Moves around a lot, that one. You've made yourselves quite an enemy. And you spoiled my life."
"Ansel spoiled your life," Cole said. "He should have left us alone."
"I reckon he entertains that thought as he rots in a Carthage dungeon," Secha said darkly. She squinted at Cole. "You've changed a bit. You've a hint of power in you now."
"How long have you been here?" Mira asked.
"Only since yesterday."
"Rings true," Oster said. "Leastways, they brought in a new prisoner last night."
"How did they plan to use you?" Mira asked.
"I know your faces," Secha said. "They wanted help spotting you. I wasn't privy to the full extent of their scheme. This hasn't been pleasant. I'm a prisoner."
"What does the Hunter want with Kendal?" Jace snarled.
Secha sneered. "Like I would know. He seemed pretty angry when Ansel wouldn't tell him though."
"Time is against us," Oster reminded everyone.
"Let's keep checking," Mira decided. "Leave her.
She's not important."
As we backed out of the room, I flicked her off.
"See you never!"
She just glared. Chuckling, Oster closed the door.
"She broke her vow," Joe pointed out. "She could still cause trouble."
"We have bigger problems right now," Mira said, hustling down the stairs.
"This next door is where we put the guards who surrendered." Oster said. "There's just one more."
He tried a couple of keys before opening the final iron door to reveal an older man with messy white hair and weary eyes. He sat on the edge of a simple cot. One leg was missing halfway past his thigh. The other ended just below the knee.
"Mutiny?" the man asked curiously.
"I don't know this man," Oster said.
Mira stepped closer. "Who are you?"
The prisoner leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
"It can't be."
"Excuse me?" Mira said.
"Miracle?" he asked.
"How do you know me?"
"I was a boy when we knew each other," he said.
"I was a bit younger than you. I'm Reginald
Waters."
"Reggie?" she gasped. "Yes, I see it now. What happened to you?"
"I had charge over Honor for years," he said.
"Not at first. She has been in my care the last five decades. Until I failed her."
"When?" Mira asked. "How?"
"Not long ago," he said. "Weeks, not months."
"Her star was in the sky," Mira said.
"It appeared the day she was taken from me," Reginald said. "I had a way to contact your mother. I informed her had lost my Honor."
"Is Nori all right?" Mira asked. "Where is she?
We'll help her."
"I'm not sure anyone can help her," Reginald said. "She was seized by men loyal to Trillian."
"The torivor?" Dalton exclaimed, eyes bulging.
"Who?" I asked. Dalton clearly knew enough about this Trillian person to be afraid, but I had
never heard the name.
"The caged demon," Oster said grimly. "The bane of Elloweer. Trillian the torivor."
"His men cut me down," Reginald said. "They left me to die and took her to him. Enforcers were on our trail at the time. They found me and stanched my wounds. Brought me here. Several days later her star went out."
I tried not to stare at Reginald's maimed legs.
The man didn't look frail, but he was definitely old. Perhaps in his younger days he would have won the fight.
Oster crossed to a window. Craning his neck, he leaned against the bars. "The gates are breeched," he reported.
"Come with us," Mira said to Reginald. "The castle is under attack. We have a chance to flee."
"I can weave a tight seeming," Reginald said.
"But changing these stumps into legs is beyond me. Go. Get the word out about your sister."
"Can we carry him?" Mira asked.
"Go!" Reginald demanded. "Leave the door open, and I'll manage. I've failed one princess. I won't risk slowing you. It's not negotiable. Run!"
"Time grows short," Oster warned.
"All right," Mira said. "Thank you, Reggie. Take care."
"I'll leave the doors open at the base of the tower," Oster said. He exited the room and started down the stairs. The others followed.
I focused on descending the stairs a quickly as I
could without tripping. Ahead of me, Sultan raced down two steps at a time, toting Brady over one shoulder.
"Why are we running?" Brady asked, looking up at Cole, who was next to me.
"It's good exercise," Cole told him.
Brady looked doubtful. "I think the bad guys found me."
"We'll be okay," Sultan assured him as they jounced downward. "We'll get away."
We reached the iron door at the base of the tower. A bulky knight stood guard there, holding a large flanged mace. Several broken bodies lay scattered around the hall.
"Which way?" Minimus asked the knight.
He pointed down the hall with two fingers.
From the other direction I heard fighting.
"That will work," Oster said hurriedly. "Follow me."
Unlike the men who rode with the Rogue Knight, Oster did not wear a full suit of armor. He had a long shirt with metal scales, a helmet, and leather guards on his arms and legs. As Oster jogged in the lead, I could tell the armor weighed him down enough to make running a chore.
Minimus trotted beside me and Cole but despite
his complete shell of solid armor, the Halfknight moved as if unburdened.
We raced down the hall, turned a corner, went through a door, then rushed down some steps.
At the bottom we charged along another hall toward an intersection.
Composed of dark stone blocks, the corridors all looked the same to me. I knew we were a few floors above ground level, but otherwise I felt completely disoriented.
As we passed a window, I glimpsed two knights out in the courtyard pressed by attackers on all sides. Bodies had piled up around them. Most of the attackers wore the uniforms of Merriston guardsmen.
Oster turned left at the T, then stopped short and raced the other way. When I reached the intersection, I found we had run into a large group of legionnaires. I sprinted with everything I had as the legionnaires gave chase.
Up ahead, where the hall elbowed, the Rogue Knight ran into view with three other knights.
They charged down the hall past us toward the legionnaires. Glancing back, I saw the legionnaires jostle to a halt. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the four knights filled the hall, weapons drawn, blocking the way.
I followed Oster around the corner and lost sight of them.
"Nice work," Sultan told Skye.
"Won't hold them long," she replied.
Only then did I realize that the Rogue Knight and his three companions had been illusions.
That made more sense. The timing had been unbelievably lucky.
Oster led us down branching hallways, some naron, others wide. While we all ran hard, Twitch hopped and fluttered. We hurried through a dining room with long tables and into a corridor on the far side. Around the next corner we ran into several oncoming guardsmen with crossbows. As the men took aim, a stone wall appeared, blocking them from view. Doubling back, I crouched and weaved as quarrels clacked against the wall beyond me. At least the crossbowmen couldn't see their targets.
As we raced down halls and around corners, walls kept appearing behind us, blending with the actual walls of the castle to obscure our trail. I was out of breath, but I kept running as fast as I could.
"They shot you," Brady said from his position draped over Sultan's shoulder.
I noticed Brady staring at a quarrel buried under
Sultan's unburdened shoulder.
"I've had worse," Sultan replied.
Brady reached a tentative hand toward the protruding projectile.
"No," I warned. "You'll make it worse."
His hand drew back sharply.
We came around another corner, and another fake wall arose behind them.
"We need disguises," Skye panted. "I didn't realize how many soldiers we would encounter."
"Legionnaires?" Sultan asked.
"Anything so we're not instant targets," Skye replied.
"I'll have to let some of the walls drop," Sultan said.
"Just leave the last one up," Skye suggested. "If they don't have the castle memorized, that should be enough to shake them."
I watched as everyone in our group became legionaires. All of us and Minimus appeared much taller. Instead of making Brady a legionnaire, the young boy merged with Sultan's false persona.
"I thought we'd try the dungeon exit," Oster said from the front. "That way is cut off now. We'll have to use the champion's quarters. There will be guards out front."
"We don't have to run from every enemy,"
Minimus said, his high voice incongruent with his full-size seeming. "Let me handle the guards."
"Some of our best guardsmen get posted at the champion's quarters," Oster explained. "Keeping all but the champion out is their duty.
I'd hate to harm them."
"Nonlethal force," Minimus replied. "Got it."
"How can I help?" asked the legionnaire with Dalton's voice.
"Me too." I added.
"If we run into more trouble," Skye said, "I may have to drop some of our disguises to raise defensive seemings. You two can help cover for me."
"Why did you all turn into soldiers?" Brady asked. It was strange hearing his voice without seeing him.
"It's pretend," Cole said. "Like rainbows."
"Rainbows aren't pretend," Brady argued, and I snorted. The kid had sass.
"I mean like how rainbows aren't solid," Cole said, short of breath from all the running. "We're using magic costumes."
"Are we still in Dreamland?" Brady asked.
"Kind of," Cole said. "But not like before. No dinosaurs."
While passing through a doorway, our disguises dropped. "Scrubber," Skye called.
"I'm on it," Sultan said. Our legionnaire seemings promptly returned.
We rushed up some stairs into an anteroom with a large pair of double doors on the far side.
Two guards protected the doors, armed with polearms.
"The old champion is dead," Oster declared.
"The new one has fled. We're under orders to secure these quarters."
"Hold it." one of the guards said, pointing the
blade at the end of his pole at Oster. "These quarters are secure. The doors only open under direct orders from the champion."
"We currently have no champion," Oster said.
"Until that is resolved, nobody enters," the guard insisted.
"Drop my disguise," Oster said. Instantly the seeming vanished.
"Oster?" the guard asked. "What's going on?"
"I'm here under orders," Oster said. "With the Dreadknight gone and the Rogue Knight on the run, Desmond is now master of Edgemont. He wants me here to protect our sensitive documents from Merriston intruders."
"Who are these other folk?" the guard asked.
"We're using seemings." Oster turned and gave a nod.
Some of the seemings disappeared. Four of them changed. They had dropped my seeming, and Minimus now looked like a sickly child. Joe appeared to be a teenage girl. Sultan became an elderly humpbacked woman. I supposed that Brady was the hump.
"These people are in my care," Oster said.
"Women and children. Desmond wants them safe."
The guards glanced at each other. "All right, Oster. Just confirm your identity with today's password."
"Downstream," Oster said.
"And your identity slogan?
"Ignore nothing."
The guards moved aside. Oster waved for the others to go ahead. "Don't admit anyone else besides Desmond," he admonished the guards.
"And don't mention seeing me to anyone but him."
"Understood," the guard said.
Oster came inside and pulled the doors closed, locking them. Unlike every other part of Blackmont Castle that I had seen, the champion's quarters were spacious and beautifully furnished. The bearskins on the ground and mounted trophy heads on the wall suggested that the Dreadknight had been a hunter.
Oster led us through a few handsome rooms to a bedchamber. He went to the large bed made of varnished logs, and started pushing. "A little help?" he asked.
Minimus hustled over to the bed, and together they slid it sideways. Minimus's and Sultan's seemings dissipated. Joe no longer appeared to be a teenage girl. I supposed that mine was gone too.
"The floor beneath the bed is a seeming," Oster said. "Stairs lead down."
"You all go," Minimus said. "I'll pull the bed back into place to make it harder for anyone to chase us. I'll crawl under it and follow you."
"The bed is heavy," Oster warned.
"I felt its weight," Minimus said. "I'm small but mighty, I can handle it."
"Would you like me to take the boy?" Oster asked Sultan
"I have him," Sultan said, his face shiny with perspiration. "We may need your sword up ahead."
"You know I can walk, right?" Brady said.
"I want to make sure we're quick," Sultan explained.
"You're wounded," Joe said. "Give me the boy." Sultan handed Brady to Joe, who slung the boy over his shoulder.
I followed Mira, Jace, Cole, and Twitch through the fake floor.
With each step, the insubstantial floor came higher on my body until my head sank below it.
Dim globes on the wall provided light. At the bottom of the long flight of stairs, I found myself beside Dalton, with Mira, Jace, and Cole up ahead.
"Having fun?" I asked him.
"That was the first time I've ever been shot at," Dalton said. "I feel bad for Sultan. That's gotta hurt."
"Come on," Oster urged.
As I followed, from above and behind, I heard the sound of the bed sliding into place. I kept glancing back until I saw Minimus catch up with the group.
"We should be in the clear now," Oster said.
"Only a couple of the other knights know about this passage, and they have their hands full with the Rogue Knight. Once we're outside the castle, we should make for the lower stables. If we can get you on good horses, I expect you can ride clear of all this. Any idea where you're going?"
"To find Trillian the torivor," Mira said.
I cast a quick glance at Dalton, still curious what he knew about Trillian. Dalton leaned my way and whispered, "He's a caged monster. Sort of like the Ellowine boogeyman."
Oster stopped walking. "Today I've heard some things that weren't meant for my ears," he said.
He held out a hand toward Mira. "I understand you're Miracle Pemberton. And it sounded like Trillian has your sister, Honor. But if Trillian has claimed her, the story ends there. The torivor is imprisoned at the Lost Palace for a reason. He is one of the most powerful beings in the five kingdoms. Maybe the most powerful. Trillian can send servants beyond his borders, but he can't leave. However, if you enter his domain, you'll be at his mercy."
"I appreciate the advice," Mira said. "We're going in that direction, though. The rest we'll figure out on the way."
Oster shook his head and started walking again.
"If you avoid the Lost Palace, that route carries some benefit. Not a lot of people will want to follow you to the northeast. For the sake of my
peace, please give it a lot of thought before approaching the Lost Palace. Talk to some locals. Learn what dangers await you. Consider alternatives."
"I can tell Mira about Trillian," Skye said. "We won't rush into anything."
We continued forward. Oster glanced back at Mira. "Are you really the daughter of the High King? Weren't his daughters killed?"
"He staged our deaths and stole our shaping abilities," Mira explained. "It stopped us from aging."
Oster didn't ask more questions.
I matched Dalton's pace and spoke softly to him. "What's the full story on Trillian?" Dalton sucked in a breath. "Oster covered the basics. I don't know much more, just stuff I've heard at the Silver Lining. People in Elloweer love secrets—they hide behind illusions, they use passwords, they trade rumors. But they don't want to know more about the torivor. They just want him locked away. Based on the little I've heard, this guy is a walking horror movie."
"And we're going right to his door?" I said. "Great."
What were we going to do when we got to Trillian? Couldn't we survive one crisis before racing to another? I felt a distressingly familiar tension as I considered the road ahead.
"I want to walk," Brady complained after a short time.
"We're in a hurry," Joe said.
"I can hurry!" Brady fussed. "I'm not a baby!" Joe set him down. "If you walk slowly, I'll pick you up again," he warned.
Brady scampered ahead until he was right behind Oster.
The floor of the corridor sloped downward.
Damaged masonry and dried mud along portions of the floor hinted that the passage wasn't used very often. Something scuttled in a shadowy corner.
"We made it," Oster said. We had reached a huge door of corroded iron set in a rusty frame.
Oster threw back three bolts. "No telling for certain who is on the other side. Ready?" We all became legionnaires.
"That'll do," Oster said, leaning and straining to pull the large door. Minimus lent a hand, and the door groaned open.
From the doorway I saw only darkness. Skye extended a hand, and a dim globe of light drifted into the room, revealing a dirt floor and a bunch of old plows and farming tools.
"Where are we?" Skye asked.
"Smokehouse basement." Oster said. "This door is hidden by a seeming, as is the trapdoor up in the smokehouse."
We filed into the room. It reeked of dust, soot, and old metal. Oster went up a creaky flight of steps, unfastened a bolt, and opened the
trapdoor. "All clear," he said.
We went up into the smokehouse. The place was deserted. I could taste smoked meat in the air. Oster peeked out the front door. "Nobody in sight," he said. "They aren't here to sack the town. They want the Rogue Knight, and he's keeping them busy up at the castle."
Sultan collapsed. Suddenly, half of us were no longer legionnaires, including him. He lay motionless, facedown.
Crouching beside the fallen illusionist, Joe examined the wound under his shoulder. The shaft protruded from near the top of the armpit.
"He's lost a lot of blood," Joe said. "His shirt is soaked. The seeming masked how bad this is." Using a knife, he cut away the material around the quarrel.
Twitch kept his distance. "It must have hit a blood vessel. Hopefully, not the main artery, but he's in bad shape."
"He needs Band-Aids," Brady advised.
"Come here," I said, leading Brady away from Sultan.
"I hate it here," Brady whispered. "People always die."
"We'll try to help him." I said, watching worriedly as Joe leaned close and probed near the wound. Solemn flinched and growled in pain. Propping himself up one am, Sultan looked around the room with wide eyes. "What happened?"
"You passed out," Joe said. "You've lost a lot of blood."
"You had better go," Sultan said. "There's no time for this."
"You'll die if we leave you," Joe said, taking some bandages from a pouch he wore. He packed the bandages around the wound. "I don't want to try to pull the quarrel out yet. I'd break off the shaft, but it's too short and thick to snap easily. Cruel little dart. Try not to jostle it." He tied the bandages in place with twine. "Let's hope the pressure slows the bleeding."
"Thank you," Sultan said.
Joe helped Sultan up. "Come on. We're going to get you to those horses."
"Can you make yourselves legionnaires?" Skye asked me and Dalton.
"Yes," I replied, creating the seeming after a moment's effort. "I can probably do somebody else too."
Dalton put up his seeming and nodded. "Me too."
"Okay, Dalton, you do yourself and Cole.
Kendal, do Jace's." Skye said. "I can cover the others.
"That's eight people!" Dalton exclaimed.
"Seven," Skye said. "I'll hold Brady and make him part of my soldier." She picked him up.
Everybody became legionnaires again.
"You got me?" Jace asked me.
"Looking good," I said.
"I thought I always look good," Jace complained. I just laughed. He did, but there's no way I was admitting it.
"Shall we?" Skye asked.
"Don't hurry too much," Oster advised. "We want to look like a patrol investigating. It's okay that Sultan was injured. We could have been involved in fighting already. The uniforms should convince most to ignore us, except perhaps a legionnaire commander. I didn't see anyone in the immediate area. Follow me."
We exited the smokchouse and made our way past some other buildings, toward a complex of stables adjoining some large corrals.
Blackmont Castle stood behind us on higher ground. The sounds of fighting were muted by the distance.
I resisted the urge to increase my pace. I made a point of looking around at the surrounding structures, as if searching for someone. The illusionary legionnaires looked different from before. With the seemings up and nobody speaking, I found it hard to be sure who everybody else was, except for Jace who kept close to me, the legionnaire helping his wounded comrade, who were Joe and Sultan.
The stables drew gradually nearer. The area
seemed deserted. I figured most people had opted to hide out until the fighting was done.
Once inside the nearest stable, we found two long rows of stalls filled with horses. Skye dropped the legionnaire seemings. Me and Dalton dropped ours as well. Oster trotted to a storage closet and began taking out saddles.
"Everyone who knows how, lend a hand," he said.
I had learned to care for mules back when me and Cole left the slave caravan. I figured saddling a horse couldn't be that different, and I was right.
Everyone helped prep horses besides Dalton and Brady, who sat with Sultan. The wounded illusionist rested on the floor with one shoulder against the wall, head bowed. I didn't like the look on his face. He seemed out of it.
Once the horses were ready, everyone mounted up. Skye put Brady in front of her, arms around him protectively. Joe helped Sultan climb onto a horse. The illusionist slouched and had to brace himself with his free hand, but he held the reins and stayed in the saddle. Minimus had selected the smallest horse he could find.
Oster mounted a horse as well. "After you're away, my orders are to return to the Rogue Knight," he said. "His chances of survival aren't great, but while he stands, I'll stand with him.
Ride swiftly."
"I'm not sure Sultan can do this," Joe said. "And
I'm worried about Brady. We don't want to drag him into our trouble."
"I was going to send Sultan away with Brady," Skye said. "That won't work now."
"Someone should take them both," Joe replied.
"Are you up for it?"
"Mira will need my guidance with the torivor," Skye said. "And it seems you have some medical knowhow."
"A little," Joe said. "Okay. Where should I go?" Skye thought for a moment. "Ride due north to the village of Rygel's Forge. Then go northwest to Sutner's Ferry. Stay at the Golden Goose. They're sympathizers. We'll try to find you there. Stay vigilant. Once the Enforcers discover Brady is gone, they'll come looking."
Joe rode over to Skye and took Brady from her.
The boy didn't look pleased but kept his mouth shut.
"I've never ridden a horse before," Dalton said nervously.
"Stay with us," Skye told him. "Hold the reins a little looser. Grip with your legs. Don't fall off." All but Oster became legionnaires.
"I can do my seeming," Dalton said.
"Worry about staying on your horse," Skye replied.
"I can do Cole's and Dalton's as well Jace's," I offered. "I've riden before."
Skye hesitated. "Are you sure you can handle it? That's a lot of seeming to hold, and we need you to ride hard."
I nodded firmly. "I can do it."
Skye nodded and dropped her hold on our seemings. I quickly replaced them. I felt the strain instantly, but I knew I had to keep them up, for everyone's sake.
"Don't gallop away," Oster said. "You'll draw less attention if you take your time. I'll watch from here until you're clear."
Leaving Oster behind, we rode out of the stable and trotted away from the castle. I followed Skye and kept an eye on Dalton, who looked terrified even as a legionnaire. Joe and Sultan veered away from them.
Looking ahead, I saw the road Skye was aiming toward. When I glanced back at Joe, Sultan was on the ground. Joe had dismounted and was trying to help him get up. The big man was unconscious and too heavy for Joe to lift.
"Uh, Skye?" I asked.
"I see them," she said.
Sultan staggered woozily to his feet, and Joe helped drape him over his saddle, feet on one side, head on the other.
Joe mounted up and led Sultan's horse by the reins. Slung over the saddle, Sultan didn't look very lively. I hoped Joe would be able to get him medical attention soon. How good were the doctors in Elloweer? The technology seemed pretty primitive.
We reached the road without difficulty. Soon Joe, Brady, and Sultan had ridden out of view. I ended up beside Mira. She looked worried.
"You all right?" I asked.
"Do you think the Rogue Knight has any chance of escaping?" she asked. "There were so many
legionnaires and guards. I know he's a good fighter, but he can't singlehandedly take on the whole kingdom."
"If anyone has a chance, he does," I said. "He doesn't have to win the battle. He just has to fight his way free."
"Except for taking me, he didn't treat me badly," Mira said. "I hope he makes it."
I nodded, trying to focus more on the seeming, I felt them slipping.
As I trotted up the road, I kept glancing back at Blackmont Castle. I couldn't tell whether the fighting had ended or if me and the others had simply moved too far away to hear it. I kept expecting to see a group of horsemen coming after them. Maybe guardsmen. Maybe legionnaires. Some of the Dreadknight's men perhaps.
I began to feel light headed, and my hold on the seemings was slipping.
"Woah, you okay?" Mira asked, worry etched her face.
"I'm fine." I grunted. "Just need to concentrate."
Jace slowed to our pace. "I got her." He said to Mira. "You go up to Skye and figure out the plan." 
Mira nodded and picked up the pace.
I kept glancing back, worried we were being chased.  But time went on, and nobody came.