ICE

94. More Soldiers

"AN ARMY?" Vyses muttered under his breath. A disturbed expression was etched into his facial features. He paced back and forth in front of Ravenna, his arms crossed behind his back. It wasn't nerves that radiated from him in waves, however. It was annoyance. "This is not good, lass. Not good at all."

Ravenna leaned against the wall behind her and watched him. They stood in the study, near the podium that held Tylat's old spell-book. Her arms were folded casually across her chest. "I agree," she told him. "But what did we expect? It was only a matter of time before something like this happened."

Vyses paused. He glanced at her, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. "How exactly would you like to proceed?" he asked.

"What if we created our own army?" she suggested. She held out a glowing hand. A beam of ice flowed from her fingertips, racing toward the floor beneath them. An ice solider appeared in front of them. "We have the soldiers. You can do your usual modifications to their armor. The first few can be used to take over the city. Then we can just continue to make more until the King's army appears at our door."

"I suppose that could work," Vyses said. He examined the ice soldier with cold, calculating eyes. "I will probably need to make more adjustments. I may also send Lyth several towns over. The closer he can get to the capitol, the more accurate information he will get. We need to learn as much as we can about this army, before it reaches us."

Ravenna nodded. "All we need is to outnumber the amount of men that the King sends. If we can do that, we will be able to defeat them fairly easily. Especially with the modifications."

Vyses cleared his throat. All of sudden, Lyth appeared in the doorway, his eyes trained on Vyses. "How can I assist you?" he asked.

"I am going to send you to a town that is closer to the Capitol," Vyses announced. "I want you to find out all that you can about the army that is being sent our way."

Lyth stepped further into the room. "I am ready to leave now."

Satisfied, Vyses smiled and waved a glowing red hand. A crimson colored sphere appeared within his palm. Vyses tossed it to Lyth. "Return the moment you can," he instructed. "We may require your assistance once the King's army arrives."

"Understood," Lyth said.

Ravenna watched curiously as Lyth carefully grasped the magical sphere in both palms. The sphere burst in his hands, like a soap bubble, and red magic flowed down his hands. It covered his forearm, spreading upward toward his shoulders, toward the rest of his body. Within seconds, Lyth was completely covered in a filmy layer of crimson magic.

Then he vanished from sight.

"Do you know where you sent him to?" she asked.

Vyses sighed quietly. "I sent him to a forest that borders two small towns. Both towns are relatively close to the Capitol. He will be able to visit both, and hopefully get good information from at least one of them."

"Ah," she murmured.

She glanced down, at the cauldron that sat in the middle of the room. A spell unknown to her brewed within it. It was a ghastly brown color. She pointed to it and arched an eyebrow. "What is that?"

"This is a spell that I have been working on," he explained. He gestured to the cauldron with a sweeping arm. "I aspire to create a connection between this castle and my old tavern. I quite miss it. Not to mention, there are some valuable magical items that I left behind in my old workshop. It would be beneficial to regain access to it."

"Won't the townsfolk be upset?" she asked. Her gaze remained focused on the bubbling brown spell inside, nerves creeping through her.

Vyses shrugged. "I doubt it. I believe that only the guards actually knew that I was involved in your escape. I don't think that you will be welcomed back with open arms, however."

"It might be too risky," Ravenna said. "What if they think that you are with me? What if they try to pass through and hunt me down?"

Shaking his head, Vyses laughed at her. "No, lass. Calm down. Humans can't pass through this type of portal. No one will be able to get through except you and I."

Ravenna frowned at him. The spell made her nervous, but she decided not to argue with him further. If someone managed to make it through the portal, it would be his problem to deal with. Not hers.

She shifted her gaze toward her ice soldier. "Shall we go ahead and take over this village?" she asked.

Vyses followed her gaze and snapped his fingers. A beam of red light wrapped around her ice soldier. Instantly, the soldier began to morph, its armor becoming more jagged. Ravenna's hands glowed with her ice. She created more and more soldiers. Vyses added his own touch to every single one of them. It wasn't long before the first level of the study was overflowing with modified ice soldiers.

"This should be enough," Ravenna remarked. She didn't remember seeing a whole lot of guards roaming the streets. Most were positioned along the wall or outside the city, guarding its front entrance.

"Alright then," Vyses agreed. He glanced around the room, watching the soldiers carefully.

Ravenna lifted one hand into the air and snapped her fingers. The soldiers immediately turned toward her, their bodies moving in unison. She explained their mission —to kill all the guards that they could find, both inside and outside of the city. All bodies were to be disposed of and all regular citizens should be left unharmed. It was the usual request, nothing new. The soldiers nodded, their heads bobbing up and down in sync.

Vyses snapped his fingers. "You may use this portal to enter the city," he told them. A square of crimson stretched across the length of the wall behind them. Vyses reached out and grabbed Ravenna by the wrist, pulling her gently to the podium.

"Leave no survivors," Ravenna told them, pointing to the magic portal that covered the wall.

The ice soldiers marched through the portal. Once the last soldier made it through, the portal shrunk down toward the ground. It got smaller and smaller until, finally, it disappeared altogether.

"It shouldn't take too long," Vyses said. "Lyth should return by tomorrow morning. He will hopefully be able to give us an estimated time of arrival."

"We can continue to make more soldiers throughout the night," Ravenna said. Her hands continued to glow. "Once Lyth returns, I will go out into the city to see how things are going."

Vyses nodded. "The more soldiers we make, the more likely we are to succeed."