The King's Thief

Chapter 15


Kinroc Faergaldan sighed in exasperation. They had watched as the strange toothless man, apparently a regular contact of the Sylva in this ‘neutral’ village, seemed to straighten up and gain confidence. He had wasted no time at all in getting straight down to business.
“You’d be here about them damned horse-bastards, I reckon?”
The Kinroc merely raised an eyebrow in response.
“Every night, they come here; we don’t dare go outside now, for fear of them. They gallop in, looting… raping some too. Burnt down a house on ‘t other side of the village just last night.”
The little man, whose name turned out to be Lorn, had then pointed at the group and said “And you’d be the unit we asked for from Sylvanasher, come to help us out, right?”
“We’re not the ones you’re looking for, Lorn; we’re on a recovery mission from Theria. We don’t have time to stop for your concerns.”
Lorn cackled. “Ah, but you’re here, so you must be the ones! Or else, why would you be here?”

Chapter 12

Beck sat in his room, dark but for the mirror, which glowed faintly. He had spent a useful hour enchanting the metal to receive a visual signal from the brass façade of the Banshee. He had watched with satisfaction as it had traversed the countryside between Theria and Kaliss, travelling in a mainly South-Easterly direction. Their location put them within ten miles of the coast, and he had begun to worry that the Banshee would try to swim the Esterwade, the channel between the island of Rondia and the main continent of Kirone. He had a strong suspicion that the high salinity of that water, which was fed from the Basti Sea, would be fatal to the magicks that supported the Banshee.
However, his fears were averted when it suddenly turned and zeroed in on a source. The image was shaky; the connection was weak, often clouded by static, and the Banshee was moving at incredible speed, moving easily through trees and grass. He sat back for a moment, marvelling at his own success. Suddenly the source of the image was airborne, and then he was looking into the face of his enemy.