After slipping the note into the General’s room, Mira and Bandit sat still next to a chimney peeking over the crest of the rooftop with a clear view of the front gate of the old keep. The building they were perched on was across the paved marshalling ground from the keep and outside the palace complex. They’d been there waiting in the darkness for two hours already for General Redfield or anyone at all to come out of the gates, but so far there’d been no activity of any kind. From time to time, Mira thought she could see shadows move close by in the pale moonlight, but there was never anything there when she turned to look. Her nerves were on edge, and she was beginning to suspect the worst.

  Bandit yawned. “You got any honey buns?”

  “No,” Mira whispered. “Do you see anything?”

  “Nope. I need to stretch my legs. Maybe I’ll take a look around,” Bandit whispered.

  That was Bandit’s way of saying she was about to do some mischief. Mira heard a slight scuff as Bandit moved away invisibly. Mira was cloaked in invisibility also, so she crept over the roof’s crest and moved forward to the lowest part of the roof, then leaned forward to peer over to the ground below her. The whole courtyard was still clear. Suddenly a shriek owl’s cry sounded from behind Mira. Without even realizing what she was doing, Mira got her feet under her and dove off the edge of the roof. She tucked and flipped, then got her feet under her as she ran straight down the side of the brick building. There was a clattering of claws on roof tiles behind her as she turned to her left and ran sideways across the fronts of two buildings, jumping over the windows as she went.

  Mira saw that she was visible again and cursed. Invisibility was a great spell as long as she didn’t move too quickly or break her concentration. Her fear could be her undoing. Something large ran across the rooftops above her and she could see something move in the shadows ahead of her at the base of the building she was running across. She moved to her left to get a little higher. As she ran, Mira cast her oldest and most trusty concealment spell, one she called Shadowmeld. She could run and fight in the concealment that spell offered, and it was a lot easier for her to maintain. She just needed darkness to blur her movement. Mira blended into a shadowy patch an instant before a tentacle with a sharp spur of bone on the end speared into the bricks between her strides. It tripped her up and she gasped as she fell into a roll across the stone wall of the building. Mira rolled to her feet and ran on, desperately looking for cover. An alley was coming up that should help her.

  Mira saw a shadowy shape on the roof of the building opposite the alley. It suddenly sprouted bat-like wings and sprang into the air at her. It crashed into the building next to her as she suddenly stopped running and rolled to her left, putting her higher on the side of the building. She sprang forward as the thing on the rooftop slashed through the air just behind her head. She reached the alleyway and dove around the corner to come up in a rolling leap forward as she reached the darkness there. She could hear the movement of her shadowy foes above and below her as she ran along the side of the building down the alley. She was coming up on the courtyard behind the buildings on this block and hoped to confuse her foes there with an illusion so she could escape. Her hopes were dashed as she got close and saw the shadows move directly in front of her. There was something clinging to a windowsill directly in front of her in the courtyard. Knowing she couldn’t go up with pursuers already up there, Mira angled her run towards the ground.

  There was a dim flash of light above her followed by something heavy and metallic hitting the rooftop. Mira couldn’t spare a glance, but also couldn’t imagine how this could get worse. Her attention was fixed on a small alley on the opposite side of the little courtyard. If she could get there, her attackers may not be able to fit easily. Mira leapt and hit the ground in a skidding roll, then stumbled to her feet, still moving as fast as she could. Something was right behind her! She dodged to her right and drew her crystalline shortsword in a sweeping arc just in time to bat aside jaws with razor sharp teeth at the end of a long, chitinous appendage of some kind. She heard a booming crash from the rooftop above her and squared off against her closest foe as the others closed in to cut off her escape. Her eyes were wide with panic. Mira was sure this was the end.

  -----

  Blinking sleepily, I was trying hard to stay awake. I’d been watching the rooftop where Mira hid for the last two hours, and my constant activity and little sleep over the last week had worn me out. Suddenly I was jerked into full awareness as a shriek owl’s cry pierced the night right next to my point of view. At first, I thought it was a joke that Bandit played on me, as if she knew I was watching. Then I saw Mira dive off the edge of the roof fully visible as something on the roof closed the distance to her with great speed. Since I was concentrating on Mira, the point of view changed with her, and I had to zoom out a bit to keep from being disoriented as she ran along the front of the building. This is what I had feared would happen. I added some distance to my view of Mira, and saw there were shadowy shapes moving in the darkness trying to cut off her escape. If they cornered her, the fight would be over in seconds. I thought hard about what I could do to help.

  Mira dodged a strike or two and made it into an alley, but that safety was an illusion. I needed a place to set a portal to enter the fight, preferably one where our foes would not be able to get into the keep. I saw one of the shapeshifters angling for a corner of the roof where it seemed likely that it would pause. I didn’t hesitate. I used the throne to open the left-hand portal horizontally to a place in the air ten feet above the corner of the building. I got up and grabbed my shield and mace as I sprinted the short distance to the portal in the throne room and hurled myself through it, suddenly going straight down at my now arriving foe who was as yet unaware of my descent. I channeled concussive force through my mace and hit it in the center of the torso as hard as I could as I landed. I knew I had to damage the hardened core in the center of its mass to do lasting damage, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it, as I’d never been in a melee since becoming a High Mage. My strike was hard enough that I broke off a two-foot-wide chunk of the corner of the building as I crushed the Xerith. It had four spider legs with claws at the end that it had been scuttling forward on, but those legs couldn’t keep it on the roof as I swung underhanded and knocked it spinning across the courtyard to hit a brick wall.

  I lost my footing in the blood and fell off the roof. I was three stories up and I panicked as I spun through the air. With the aura of magical power granted to me, I did something that I don’t even remember doing, and suddenly my descent was slowed, then stopped. I was flying! Yes! I would have shouted for joy had the danger not been so great. Directly below me Mira struggled to block the attacks of a vicious Xerith that had flexible chitinous arms with jaws at the ends. I conjured a spear made of fire next to me and hurled it straight down through the monster’s core. What was left of the Xerith burst into flame. Mira was shrouded in shadow and quickly backed against the wall of the building I had just fallen off of to try to blend into the shadows there, but all the Xerith knew where she was and were closing in fast.

  Suddenly light as bright as daylight flared into being in the center of the courtyard close to me, exposing Mira’s position. I looked around and saw a Xerith lowering its human arms across the courtyard near ground level. A spellcaster. Great. I was about to target it next when something slammed into me from above and to my right. We both went hurtling, spinning through the air and slammed against a brick wall. The Xerith slashed madly at me with long claws at the ends of its lower legs. With my enhanced strength I swatted it aside with a short, ineffective swing of my mace. It looked a little dazed even though my only thought was to free my arm for a proper swing, which I then delivered to the top of its hate-filled human head. The Xerith went straight down with speed and crashed on the cobblestones, stunned.

  I looked down. Four Xerith were even now hurling themselves at Mira, whose back was against the wall in the corner of a building with nowhere to go. I clumsily flew straight down, angling to land in front of her. I had just hit the ground and set my shield in front of me when the first Xerith hit me hard on its way to Mira. I braced my right foot against the wall next to Mira and forced it back. As the other three Xerith reached us, I hurled out an arc of concussive force strong enough to hurl them across the courtyard and knock out windows in three buildings. Cries of alarm came from within the buildings. The spellcaster that had not engaged in melee yet shook itself a bit and hurled an arc of searing flame at us. Without thinking, I caused a globe of protection from magic to appear around Mira and me. The flames hit the globe and scorched the walls around us but then went out harmlessly. I conjured a spear made of lightning and with a mental command hurled it straight through the center of the spellcaster’s torso and into the building behind it. The spellcaster collapsed with a sparkling hole in its chest, and the bright light it had conjured flickered out, leaving us in barely moonlit darkness.

  Mira quickly stepped over and finished off the winged Xerith with a brutal two-handed strike that went straight through it to clack against the cobblestones beneath. There were three more Xerith that were picking themselves up from the base of the buildings they were hurled into. They changed their forms from whatever partially human shape they had to whatever they thought were the most lethal. They sprouted spikes, horns, tentacles with spiked balls, and less pleasant things, then charged together from three different angles. I hit them with just strong enough of a concussive blast to halt their charge when they were only feet from us. Mira sprang forward and ran her shortsword and dagger through the chest of the one on the left. I lunged forward to bash the one in the center with my shield and swung hard at the one on my right with my mace. The magic infusing the mace made it a shattering blow and knocked the Xerith to the ground in an almost shapeless heap. The one in front of me tried to claw my shield aside, but I focused my will and hurled a spear of fire through its chest. It died grasping at its ruined core, trying to fill in the gap in its flesh. I checked the one Mira had attacked and saw it dead on the ground. That left only one, and it was feebly trying to drag itself away. I finished it quickly with a spear made of fire.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Jeron?” Mira asked, breathing heavily, her blades still on guard.

  “Yeah, who else?” I said. “Oh, yeah. You haven’t seen this helm before.” The helm of Mordon, with its spinning and rotating gems surrounding it, was not something a person would forget easily.

  “Um. Thanks,” Mira said, lowering her weapons. She still wouldn’t look me in the eye, and we were both breathing heavily for a moment as we surveyed the area to make sure we were safe. Calls for help were still coming from the buildings around the courtyard, and I could hear boots in the streets nearby.

  “You were betrothed to Lorond Washman,” I said. There it was. My best shot. “Can we talk somewhere safe, please?”

  Mira looked stunned, and not just because of the attempt on her life just now. She weakly nodded with her mouth hanging open a little. So I could ease her mind a little, I hung my bloody mace on my belt and held my gauntleted hand out to her. She put her hand in mine, and I teleported us to the dock next to the Unseen Blade, which I’d viewed many times with the Throne.

  Aware that she considered the ship her home now, I gestured towards the ship. “Should we go inside? I don’t want to intrude.”

  Mira didn’t say anything, which had me a little worried. She turned and walked up the metal gangplank that extended from the Unseen Blade’s deck. I followed, warily watching the T.U.R.D. that was standing guard at the top of the ramp. Briefly I thought she may have countermanded my attunement to the golem, but it stood silently as I passed without attacking me. I finally relaxed as we walked in the cabin door. Mira walked up the stairs to the command room. It was neutral territory, I realized. She collapsed into one of the nice, padded chairs that ringed the windows of the command room and put her head in her hands. I sat about five feet away from her, took off the helm, and waited.

  After thinking for a minute, she looked up. “Lorond Washman?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Do you remember the conversation we had on the Pirate King’s island where you said you were afraid your father would arrange a marriage to the highest bidder?”

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Well, I went to your father a week before New Year’s Day to ask for your hand in marriage. I know we hadn’t discussed it, but I felt like I had to make sure your father didn’t do something we’d both regret, and I had to do it before our service ended. When I got there, he told me he’d already betrothed you to Lorond Washman for a hundred gold royals. I tried to renegotiate but ended up having to promise five hundred royals with the assumption that I could get Lorond to cancel his promissory letter.”

  “I was there, Jeron! I heard the part about you buying me for five hundred royals. Where’d you even get that kind of money? You made me so angry! I had no idea something else was going on.” Mira had her arms crossed over her stomach, halfway hugging herself.

  “You were partially right. I did pay for an arranged marriage to you, but only because I had to. Your father would have betrothed you to someone no matter what. I just wanted that to be me,” I said gently. I was trying my best to deescalate the situation, and speaking calmly was the best way I knew how.

  Mira didn’t say anything. She bowed her head for a minute, then moved closer to me and held her arms open. I drew closer to her and embraced her as gently as I could in my armor.

  “I shouldn’t have thought the worst of you.”

  “And I should’ve included you in what I was doing from the beginning, Mira. I should have tried to explain sooner, too. That fault is mine.”

  “Why did it take you so long to come to me, then?” Mira asked me.

  “I took some advice and let you settle down a little bit so you wouldn’t shoot me the second you saw me next,” I said. “I was also making you something, and it took me a while to complete it.”

  “Well, you’d better tell me what it is before I stab you,” Mira said playfully. She wiped a tear away when she thought I wasn’t looking.

  “Of course. I’d planned to give it to you tomorrow when you’d be here reading or something. I was also planning to clean up a bit,” I said. I made a show of taking a sniff of my underarm and making a disgusted face. “I’ll just go get it now and spare you from suffering through any more of my bad personal hygiene.”

  “Thanks for that,” Mira said. She pinched her nose shut and looked away playfully.

  I stood up, and as I reached for the helm, I noticed the blackish blood that was now smeared all over the nice leather seats. It was dripping from my mace and armor. I quickly cast that cleaning spell Mira had inadvertently taught me to clean up all the blood I had tracked in as well as that which was still covering me in patches. I ended up cleaning up a trail of blood spatter going outside to the deck, then to the dock. Once I’d cleaned it all, I teleported to my old room in the Smith house. Bran was sleeping deeply but was startled awake when poofing sound of my arrival and the clanking of my armor suddenly woke him up.

  “What? What’s going on?” Bran asked sleepily, sitting up quickly. “Why are you armed?”

  “Sorry to wake you, Bran. I wanted to tell you that all’s well between Mira and me. The kingdom’s in peril, though. It concerns Xerith in Mithram in the Temple of the Overgod and a plot to usurp the throne. I’ll explain everything later. We’ll have to act quickly tomorrow,” I said.

  Bran was more awake now and rubbed his eyes with both fists. “We’ll be ready. Couldn’t you have told me about this in the morning?”

  “Sorry. I was just making a side trip as I went to the keep. Gotta go.”

  I felt bad about waking Bran up like that as I teleported to the roof of Stonekeep Castle. I walked quickly through the keep to my quarters where I’d stowed Mira’s new chainmail, then set my shield down. A few days ago, I’d bought a nice cotton shirt to go underneath the armor since remembering Elle’s comment about the fact the links could be cold and would probably make little half-circle indentions in her skin without a shirt of some kind to go under it. I picked up both items and retraced my steps to the roof, then I teleported back to the dock. I didn’t see Mira in the windows of the command room as I crossed the gangplank. I opened the door to the cabins and saw that she and Bandit were down the hall in the captain’s quarters with the door open, sitting on the bed.

  “Hey, nice hat, Jeron,” Bandit said, referring to Mordon’s helm.

  “Thanks. I’m glad you’re all right, by the way.” I said.

  “Yeah, yeah. I could tell you looked really hard for me.” Bandit had a half smile, so I knew she was kidding. She pretended to be sad anyway.

  “No one can find you when you don’t want to be found, Bandit. Everyone knows that.”

  “You have a point,” Bandit said. “I see you brought me something! Thanks!” Bandit smiled and held her little arms out to accept my gift.

  “Sure, here you go. You’ll just need to have a tailor take in the waistline a little bit.”

  I hung the cotton shirt over my vambrace, then held up the adamantine chain shirt I made so Mira could see. She smiled as she jumped up from the bed and came over.

  Mira exclaimed. “Oh, it’s beautiful!”

  I handed it to Mira, who held it up to her chest by the shoulders as if sizing it up.

  “It’s adamantine. I made it so that it’ll be almost unnoticeable under civilian clothes. Here’s a shirt that can go under it. Oh, and I enchanted the chainmail to take some of the force out of blows so you don’t have to wear a gambeson.”

  Mira’s eyes watered a little bit. “First the plate armor and now this. Jeron, it’s magnificent.” She moved a little closer. Her voice was soft. “Thank you. For earlier.”

  Mira hugged me tightly, not that I could feel it in all the armor I was wearing, but the thought was there. I really wished I’d taken time to take the armor off. I couldn’t even properly feel her through these gauntlets. Sure, I probably would have rendered her unconscious from the smell, but I still regarded it as a missed opportunity to be closer to her. She abruptly ceased the hug and pushed on my pauldron, partially turning me.

  “Turn around. I have to try it on.”

  I dutifully turned around and stayed that way as I saw her vest, then her blouse hit the bed out of the corner of my eye. I thought about protesting that we were married already, and I shouldn’t have to turn around, but then I realized what a boneheaded move that would be. I felt her take the shirt from my arm, and heard the chainmail tinkle a little bit as she slid it over her head. To make myself at least a little more comfortable, I took Mordon’s helm off and set it on the bunk without turning my head. I tried to rake my fingers through my hair, but it was a lost cause with the gauntlets on.

  “Huh! How’d you get this to fit so well?” Mira asked. I turned around as she ran her hands across the links up and down a time or two. It really did fit well. It was just a little bit loose, which was a good thing. She had a really nice figure, and I had a memory of her in the forest pool run through my mind.

  “I had to beg for Elle’s help,” I said, my voice breaking a little bit. Was it getting hot in there? “In fact, I promised to make her a shirt like this one, too.”

  “Thank you, Jeron. It’s very well made.”

  That was the understatement of the year. No one I’d heard of had armor like this. I kept my thoughts on that matter to myself. Pride would probably ruin the moment.

  “Thanks. It was the magic. You know, I was half thinking that this was the only way I could get you to wear a ring. Now you have a thousand of them,” I said with a forced laugh. I was only half joking, and I think she knew it. I could kick myself. Only I could avoid one pitfall but still fall into another. It was an insecure, passive aggressive thing to say, and I should have kept my big mouth shut.

  “You’re lucky to still be breathing, idiot. Don’t push it,” Mira said with a little laugh. She paused for a moment and looked me in the eye. Her smile melted away. “Jeron, I won’t accept that sham of a wedding. We’re not married, no matter what that paper says.”

  Bowing my head, I took a moment to think about what I had to say. “I understand. I told your father that we’d get married sometime later. I knew it may never have happened anyway, but at least the promissory letter would’ve kept you safe from pigs like Lorond Washman. I think your dad showed up with the magistrate just to ruin what we have. He probably still doesn’t forgive you for abandoning your indenture and thumbing your nose at him. Either way, I want you to know that I don’t consider you bound to me yet either, and if you want to live your life without me, I’ll make a way for that to happen. I just want you to be happy.”

  Though I said these words, I didn’t really believe all of them to be completely true. What I really wanted was for Mira to be happy with a life with me, and I knew she’d never be forced into anything. She was far too independent for that, so I told her what I thought she wanted to hear. Mentally, I cursed myself for my weakness.

  When I was gauging Mira’s reaction, I could detect a small amount of disappointment. It was hard to quantify, but it was like a candle just went out. She lost respect for me. Looking back on it, I think that she wanted things her way, but on some level, she also wanted me to step up and take charge. She wanted me to assert myself, but instead, I bowed to her will and said something that made me more submissive. Weaker. There was something in her that didn’t like that, and in her mind and in that instant, the possibility of us ever getting married was gone.

  Mira stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my neck, which made her armor screech a little bit against mine. She gave me a quick kiss on the lips. My heart raced, but I could tell that it wasn’t a very heartfelt gesture.

  “I’m still here, you know,” Bandit said testily from where she lounged on a pillow.

  Mira pulled away from me and cleared her throat. “You look like you need rest,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’m not at my best. I’d better be going. I asked Bran to be ready with Elle in the morning. You may need a teensy bit of help, and both of them want to be with us if any action is needed against the Xerith here,” I said as I picked up the helm.

  “Well, tonight showed me that I can’t do it myself like I thought I could. We’ll talk it over in the morning.” Mira pushed me towards the door. “Good night.”

  “Night, Mira.”

  That encounter went a lot better than I thought it would, but the whole situation left me unsettled. Discontented.

  At least I was still breathing.