Oathkeeper (46 page)

Vander is gone,
Bloodmane interrupted.

In the same instant, Amber and Feagus both transmitted images of what had happened in the Hall of Healing. Vander had lain on his stretcher, strapped in as gently and safely as Glinfolgo could manage, his breathing slow, nigh imperceptible when . . . it stopped. His eyes snapped open, wide amber pupils blazing with light and then . . . the sheets and straps collapsed upon an empty frame. Glinfolgo, whose elbows had rested heavily at the injured Aern's side, slid forward and snapped one of the carrying poles as he struggled for balance.

Kholster . . . uh . . . Kholster Rae'en?
called a friendly and familiar mind.
I'm sorry we're running so late. After your father ascended, these knights started chasing us . . . a lot of knights really. We got—well, we had help—only two people, but one of them is a really powerful crystal twist and the other is this dubiously trustworthy human who says he knows you.

Kazan?
Rae'en stopped dead in the road, ignoring the thump as a human behind her tripped as he tried to swerve around and avoid her.

Me and . . . um.

I am here as well, kholster Rae'en,
Eyes of Vengeance sent.
It is my duty to inform you that Kazan is now Second of One Hundred.

Another explosion went off in the distance, but this time Rae'en had no urge at all to glance back at the smoke rising beyond the shield. Up ahead, King Rivvek was calling her name, but she didn't care about him either.

Are you all—?
Rae'en began.

I think I can link us
, Kazan thought. And then Arbokk, M'jynn, and Joose were all there, their tokens alongside those of her current Overwatches.

Bloodmane
, Rae'en thought,
can you?

She tried to come up with the words for what she wanted but could not decide how exactly one asked one's warsuit if it could take over for the present and keep you running where you were supposed to be running and give a shout if something required your attention.

Yes, kholster Rae'en,
Bloodmane answered.
I will take the lead for the moment. You will be notified should anything arise requiring your attention.

Thanks, Bloodmane.
Rae'en thought, then to Kazan:
Are you all okay?

*

Rae'en cursed at the long list of Kazan's injuries. They impressed Kazan, too. He could picture the fight in his head but couldn't reconcile how he'd let himself get cornered as he had. Eye punctured, lower jaw literally ripped loose by a kick from a horse, disemboweled by his final opponent even as he killed the knight in return. When the left arm had come off he couldn't pinpoint. Rae'en assured him the memory would return, and though he didn't know how she knew that, he believed her.

What are they going to do for your jaw?
Rae'en asked.
They did find your jaw, didn't they?

Still looking.

How many knights did you kill?
Rae'en asked.

Kazan wanted to quip back at her, but suddenly there were other Overwatches in his head as if he were present in two different conversations at once. He continued the one with Rae'en, giving her the information she requested, while simultaneously relaying and responding to appropriate requests from the Armored in the field, taking all the guidance Eyes of Vengeance had to offer. He didn't follow all of the warsuit's advice, but with Eyes, he made sure to explain his reasons for not doing so, giving the warsuit a chance to refine, agree, or dispute his calls. Kazan kept waiting for Eyes of Vengeance to ask about Vander, but the warsuit reacted as if it was not at all disturbed to have lost Vander and have a young little biter in his place.

She wants total kills
, Amber told him.
Don't give her a hard time.

I think I know how to talk to Rae'en
, Kazan sent back, closing his good eye to get rid of the overlap created by seeing through the eyes of Eyes of Vengeance via his missing eye. The warsuit, escorted by a small squad, had detoured to an Oathbreaker farm so that he could “
Better deal with your injuries, Kazan,
” whatever that meant.

Kholster Rae'en
, Amber corrected.
She is your kholster, not your childhood playmate to—

She's both
, Kazan snapped.
And we've been out of contact for quite a long time for Aern our age. Rae'en is stressed. She lost her father and then got him back, but not the way she wants.

He became a god!
Feagus thought, pride painting his thoughts.

And she would rather have her father back
, Kazan sent,
here and in charge where she could talk to him and learn from him.

Eyes of Vengeance was talking to a terrified old human hired hand in homespun garb when the farmer came in shouting.

You don't know that
, Amber thought,
and I'm Prime at the moment, so . . .

Actually.
Kazan sent a mental challenge, startling Glayne, Feagus, and Amber as their tokens rearranged themselves on one of Kazan's mental maps. He had several now: one for each grouping of Armored Aern. Kholster's old Overwatches were immediately reshuffled and relegated to the same positions they'd held Vander had been Prime.
I'm Second and that means I'm automatically Prime Overwatch unless Rae'en decides otherwise. Sorry you had such a short time of it, but none of you know Rae'en as well as me and my other Overwatches do.

It might not be wise to antagonize them, Kazan,
Eyes of Vengeance spoke in his thoughts.

Bird squirt
, Kazan thought.
Thanks. Sorry. Wait. What?

One of his maps appeared to flash purple behind the others, needing his attention. Not seeing the immediate problem faced by the group of warsuits, he popped into Crimson Smile's point of view and directed the armor to scan back to the southwest.

Smoke rose in the distance. Kazan pulled back, assembling the maps as best he could to guess the location of the fire. In The Parliament of Ages, between South Watch and Silver Leaf City. He sent the information to Amber, Feagus, Glayne, and their warsuits.

I don't have a recent map of the area
, Kazan added,
but is that close to anything important other than the Oathbreaker watchtower and the human city? It feels like one of the Armored knows something about it, but you know them better than me, so you might find it faster.

Never mind,
Eyes of Vengeance thought at him.
They will respect that, too.

Respect what?

Your scope of vision,
Eyes of Vengeance answered. Kazan spared the warsuit a moment, watching as the now subdued farmer was hung by his feet from a branch outside his home.

Whoa! Ask him again before you do that
, Kazan ordered.
Um, please.

You think he will have changed his mind?

Replaying the events in his display triple-time so he could get the gist of them—it wasn't as if he'd been listening to the whole exchange at the time—Kazan laughed. Laughing hurt, but that the pain remained, an ever-present status report, was a pleasure and a wonder.

Will he let you kill his only cow instead of killing him? Uh . . . yeah.

But he said his family would starve . . .
Eyes of Vengeance replied.

Trust me
, Kazan thought.
He'll have become more creative since you gagged him. Why did you gag him?

His cries were disturbing the cow . . .

In the back of his mind, Kazan argued with Kholster's Overwatches, but Eyes of Vengeance was correct. Apparently his way of looking at the river of perception that now flowed through the warsuits was unique enough an approach that they found it impressive.

All I'm doing is applying what kholster Malmung taught us
, Kazan sent to his other set of Overwatches: Arbokk, Joose, and M'jynn.

That and what we worked out on the way up
, Arbokk sent.

Who knew we were so mold-breaking?
Joose asked.

Everyone was hoping your mold was broken
, M'jynn teased.

You are correct
, Eyes of Vengeance interrupted,
he is now quite willing to let us purchase the animal.

Why do you need the cow?
Kazan asked.

You are not used to being Armored, Kazan, by Mraskr, out of Serah.
Eyes of Vengeance told him.
Now it is your turn to trust me.

CHAPTER 33

THE THING

Winter was off its leash for the day, roaming the Broken Plain ahead of schedule. Nothing unusual for a part of the kingdom where, ever since the Sundering, there could be snow in summer or unbearable heat in the midst of winter. Wylant noticed the cold only because she'd asked Clemency to allow it for the moment. The experience of being one of the Armored took adjustment.

Below, in the courtyard of pearlescent bone, she could feel the eyes of soldier and Bone Finder alike. Who knew what they thought of her now. Worse than wondering would have been asking them. They would have told her, she was certain of that, but she didn't want to know. Knowing would have made it all too solid.

“I will never have to fight my king again,” she told the air, and it carried her words away without comment, seeking vulnerable creatures to freeze.

Off in the little village not far from the mesa upon which Fort Sunder stood, a handful of village children gazed up at the Fort and told tales of what might go on behind those walls. From her place upon the battlements, Wylant wondered if any but the sharpest-eyed among them would notice she was not one of the Aern.

You may find out soon enough
, Wylant thought, eyes squinting against the wind as it changed direction erratically.

“Hard to hunt in this kind of weather,” she imagined Kholster saying, “have to guess which direction is going to be upwind or down from your prey and for how long.”

Helmet off and cradled under one arm, Wylant watched the path from Port Ammond, wondering how long until the refugees began to arrive and how far behind or ahead of them the Zaur force would arrive. Vax slid out of her sheath, slithering up to coil and perch on Wylant's shoulder. This was not how she had hoped to watch the suns set with her son the times she had imagined it over the years, but her eyes watered all the same.

Do we want to tell them?
Clemency asked.

“Tell who what?” Wylant asked.

Kazan, the new Second of One Hundred, is attempting to determine the source of a fire
, Vax thought,
in The Parliament of Ages to the southeast of Fort Sunder between South Watch and Silverleaf.

Based on what I've seen the times you've flown back and forth in the last thirteen years
, Vax thought,
and when you encountered him when you went to approve the Vael representative to the final Grand Conjunction, Clem and I think it is near the Root Tree Tranduvallu.

Wylant took a deep breath, opening her mouth to curse, and sneezed. While her mind processed the Zaur scent in her nostrils, Vax was already moving along her arm. Dropping low, sweeping her leg out and trusting Clemency to keep her from tumbling off the wall, Wylant grunted as her calf struck a meaty reptilian limb. Wielding a dagger-shaped Vax, she struck at the unseen creature, blade cutting deep, the edge scraping bone.

There are two,
Clemency shouted in her head.
Permission to mark your vision, ma'am?

Do it
, Vax ordered before Wylant could respond.

Wondering where she'd dropped Clemency's helm when she spun, Wylant chuffed to find the helmet still attached to the side of her armor. Wylant sneezed twice more in rapid succession, then her vision blurred as she fought to keep her eyes open despite the sneezing. Two Sri'Zaur shaded into view before her eyes, like smoke filling a shaped glass but rimmed with firelight as if the glass were still hot and being blown.

I'll mark them as I see them, then.

No time to wonder why her allergies were back or whether she'd always had them and it was now only the divinely enhanced aspect of them that was gone, she snapped on her helm as Clemency and Vax more than Wylant parried a stab from one of her Sri'Zaur assailants.

Hey
, Vax shouted in her head,
I think I've felt that metal before! Parry another one with me, Mom. See if you can get into a clinch with it and—

“Why don't I just kill them and you can examine the weapons after, eh?” Wylant coughed.

With Clemency's helmet securely in place it was easier to breathe, which seemed counterintuitive. Wylant had always found full helms stifling. Even if they were well ventilated, there was always that moment when she found herself gasping for breath and wanting to tear the thing off her head.

One of the two assassins leapt and so did Wylant. Grasping at her magic, she took flight just long enough to dodge and pivot, her feet shooting past the edge of the battlements over empty space, then back onto solid ground. Her would-be killer found its balance quickly, readying for another strike. Its partner gawped for the briefest of moments but more than long enough for Wylant to sling Vax out from dagger (his excess metal coiled around her forearm) to a long sword, cleaving the beast's head in twain: bisected a half inch above its jaw.

Nice shot, Mother!
Vax laughed.
I don't think we've ever inflicted that deathblow before.

“Have you sent the alarm to the other warsuits, Clemency?” Wylant asked.

No, ma'am,
Clemency answered,
but I am certain they are aware.
The crossbow bolt suddenly jutting out of the back of the second Sri'Zaur's neck confirmed that readily enough.
They don't know what to think of us.

“It doesn't matter what they think.” Wylant smiled then sneezed inside her helm. “And yes, tell this Kazan whatever he wants to know about your theories.” She sneezed again, breath coming in a series of tight wheezes. “And please, help me find some
jallek
root?”