After the unrest at breakfast, six of Captain Rebecca’s soldiers quickly surrounded me. She had sent them out of the mess after me, ahead of the more agitated folks. There was talk about dealing with me before I killed them all. “I’m not like that!” I yelled back as the soldiers bodily moved me to the horse lines. The rest of the 303rd enveloped the angry mob, securing them before rushing to the horses. I saw Juan arguing with the commander of the station before moving to join us.

  “We ride now!” Juan hollered. The old man looked ready to chew up anyone who looked at him funny. I did not want to be that sergeant who called me a Mage in front of all those messengers. The entire Allied Army would know I was a Mage within a week. No matter where they were stationed.

  The downpour started again within minutes of leaving the messenger primary station, which made the visibility drop to ten feet in all directions. GB was miserable. I was miserable. The rain also made it difficult to talk, so we all were in our own little worlds.

  It cleared up after fifteen minutes, and I let out a sigh of relief. This was going to be a better day than the previous ones. I knew it. The sky hadn’t cleared up, but it was brighter. I looked over the pass, not quite to the edge of the slope. It was beautiful up here, despite the dampness.

  The captain rode up next to Juan and me. “General, if you approve, I’d like to send out some scouts to look ahead. My gut’s telling me to be cautious. And I’ll be damned if it hasn’t gotten me out of some tough scrapes.”

  “Rebecca, we’ve known each other for how many years? Please, mi amiga, call me by my first name,” he replied.

  “Of course, General. So, scouts?” she asked.

  Juan sighed. “Go ahead. You don’t need my permission to send out scouts.”

  “Thank you, General!” She turned in her saddle and yelled out: “Menendez, Krin, Em, Knockers. Get out there and find some trouble!”

  Four soldiers broke away from the group at a gallop, ranging out ahead. Harper and Jerseil rode up next to me as we rode toward the point where one could look down the slope.

  “What’s going on, Finn?” asked Harper.

  “Captain Rebecca sent some of her people to scout. Kind of sounds like a good practice. Wish we could have done that,” I replied thoughtfully. I watched the scouts go over the edge, and the trick of perspective made them just seem to disappear.

  Rebecca snorted. “I have the soldiers, Mage, which allows me to send them as needed. God knows there could be 20 brask coming up the hill. Knowing they’re there gives us an advantage.”

  Thunder boomed in the sky above us. Which seemed to herald the return of the scouts, riding back as if there were 50 hunger-maddened brask right behind them. There was a flash to the north of us, and the crash of displaced air drowned out whatever Rebecca yelled. The scouts preceded a veritable horde of mercenaries, banners of the Steel Falcons flapping above them.

  “Oh, FUCK!” I yelled as Juan wheeled his horse away from the incoming group.

  “To the old ridge trail!” he boomed, his voice carrying easily as he rode back the way we came, angling toward the south. I chanced a look over my shoulder as I followed him, seeing wave after wave of mercenaries crest the slope and ride after us.

  “Fuck, fuckity fuck!” I cursed as GB’s muscles coiled beneath me before exploding into motion, moving faster than I had seen her manage since we’d run from the Brask. At that moment, I was more grateful for her than I had been back then. The gentle slope made it easier for our horses to run, and I saw groups of four peeling off from us and emptying bags of something behind and to the sides of our column of riders. “What was that?” I yelled to one of them once they’d caught up.

  “Caltrops! Spiky balls of metal that will lame their horses and cause a fucking pileup!” the woman replied with a nasty smile. She rode on, and we closed in on the gap I hadn’t noticed in the rain. It reminded me of an alleyway between two buildings, only it was between two craggy bits of the mountain that looked almost like they had been ripped away from each other.

  Thunder rolled, and the sky pissed on us again as we entered the gap. More caltrops were dropped, and our column shrank as the gap narrowed. Part of me felt bad about the mercenaries’ horses, because they would likely abandon the ones that were lamed. But if we could get away, we had a chance.

  The soldiers of the 303rd set other traps while we continued through the narrow gap. It widened out, and we slowed to walk the horses. The rain had slowed a bit, and the thunder was mostly to the north. The rocky walls were dark with the rain, and water dripped from my hood.

  I caught up with Juan. “Juan, what’s the plan? Will this take us back down so we can cross the chasm?”

  “Not quite, boy. Remember that bridge over the mountain part of the chasm? The bridge of Ankana’Zuul? On the other side of that is a path down the mountains that should take us in the right direction. It’s going to be a hard crossing, though, and a long path to the caverns.”

  “A long path? What do you mean?” I asked.

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  “Finn, the horses can’t cross the bridge. We’ll have to leave them behind,” he replied.

  “Fuck me, Juan. I don’t want to leave GB behind. She’s a good horse. How bad could it be for them?” I demanded.

  “Ever seen a rope bridge? The best ones have a walking area made up of hundreds of ropes woven or twisted together. The Bridge of Ankana’Zuul is woven of thousands. Rope footing is not good for horses, though, as it moves and does not give stable footing. We can hold on to the guide ropes. They can’t,” he replied. I heard a note of sympathy in his voice, one that did nothing to make me feel better.

  I dropped back. The idea of leaving GB behind bothered me. She had carried me through three kingdoms and across a mountain range. She had fought to protect me and had become a friend. Hell, my daily routine involved taking care of her in the mornings and rubbing her down in the evenings. I didn’t like the idea one bit.

  But if giving the mare up was the only option at this point, then I’d no choice but to live with it. I scratched her mane in a way she liked while I thought. It was still damp, and I’m sure I smelled of wet horse. The rain was still coming down lightly, making the air thick with moisture. I let out a relieved sigh when Juan called for a rest stop. Stiffly, I dismounted and checked the mare’s legs. Harper had explained that horses could get shin splints and other injuries from riding over rough terrain. The last thing I wanted was for her to be in pain or to get an infection. GB chewed on the hood of my poncho while I checked her front legs, though she let go when I chided her. All four of her legs and hooves seemed fine to me.

  My check didn’t take long, and I straightened up, patting GB on the shoulder. Though I was used to being in the saddle for days on end, that gallop had been hard on both of us. While stretching, I noticed Harper talking with the bubbly captain of the 303rd Chinchillas and Juan before taking off back the way we’d come. I walked over to Juan and Rebecca. “What’s Harper up to?”

  Rebecca gave me the side-eye, still not sure about my place in the command structure. Juan, on the other hand, had no trouble explaining. “We sent her back to check on the progress of the Steel Falcons. I’d like to rest the horses as long as possible before moving on, so we need to know how much time we’ll have.”

  “You don’t think they’ll stop for a while themselves? I mean, come on. If they lame all their horses chasing us, we can travel easily for most of the way.”

  Juan looked at me, baffled for a moment, before smiling. “I forgot for a moment that you aren’t the martial type. They’ll have to clear the area of caltrops before moving the horses through. There are a few ways to do this that take care of most of them—rolling logs, lodestones, summons, to name a few.”

  “And they’ll have to deal with the IEDs and other traps we left for them while doing that,” added Rebecca. “A lot of those bastards are going to die, but it ain’t going to be enough. The best we can do is whittle them down while slowing their progress. It’s still going to be a grade-A shitshow when they get through.”

  “So what can I do to help?” I asked. “I hate that it’s me they’re after, and I need to do something.”

  Rebecca grinned, reached up, and patted me on the shoulder. “Mage, you’re the maguffin. Our goal is to keep you out of the enemy’s hands. You are the only Mage on this planet right now, and everyone wants you. You should feel special. Just let us do our job. We’re certified fucking professionals on two worlds! So don’t worry your pretty little head about it and let your aunt Rebecca take care of everything,” she said before turning and walking away.

  “Goddamn it, Juan, how do you find these people?” I asked, exasperated.

  I’d just settled in for a quick nap against one of the sheer cliff faces of the canyon while GB grazed nearby. Heavy footsteps approached me, and I glanced up at the tall, blue-skinned sergeant who had outed me as a Mage in the mess hall.

  “Yo, Mage! Mind if I join you?” the big man asked me. He then squatted down on his heels and held out his hand. “Everyone calls me Twinkle Toes.”

  “How the heck did you get a name like that?” I asked as I shook his hand.

  He smirked. “Now that is a story. Make you a deal: if you don’t mind answering some of my questions, I’ll tell you. Deal?”

  “Sure, I’m down,” I replied, grinning. “I would have anyways, but your name is so out there. I’d love to hear how you got it.”

  He sat down properly, not even checking to see if it was wet. “I just had a few questions about back home. It’s been years since I came here, and there are just some things that I have been jonesing for ever since.”

  “Let me guess, sports? The Super Bowl?” I asked.

  He shook his head and looked up at the clouds, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiled. “Nah, I might ask you about that later. I just wanted to hear about the movies. Loved going to watch the latest flick on the big screen every time I was stateside.”

  “Don’t know what to tell you,” I replied, shrugging. “I haven’t gone to the movies since I was fourteen years old. Most movies I watch at home.”

  “So wait. You are telling me you don’t have to go to a movie theater anymore?” Sergeant Twinkle Toes asked, scratching his prodigious beard with a frown. The dang thing had braids and distinctive beads woven through it.

  “Yeah, you can just stream them on your TV or phone. The pandemic also made it hard for a lot of movie theaters to stay open,” I replied.

  “What the ever-living fuck are you talking about? Pandemic?” he asked, shock and disbelief warring on his face.

  “Yeah, most governments didn’t handle their shit, and even if they had, it didn’t matter at first because it was a novel disease. It was worse in the US because there was misinformation and conspiracy theories being pushed big time. Over four million people died, and that was the ones that were counted. No one wants to talk about the fact that the data on casualties are flawed. It became totally politicized, and then it was glossed over. The fascist takeover wiped out all the relevant information.”

  “The U S of Fucking A is a fascist country now? Damn. I thought we beat the Nazis,” he muttered with disgust.

  “Yeah, it got pretty bad but only lasted one term. During the midterms, Americans flooded the polls and voted all the fascists and weak politicians out. The people voted out the rest of the party—which basically fell apart—except for those who resigned in disgust. We now have five big parties.”

  “Wow, man. That’s just… well, I don’t fucking know. That’s so, like, 1984,” the sergeant said. He ran his hand over his bald pate, wiping off the raindrops.

  I raised an eyebrow. “So, are we good? Are you going to tell me why you are called ‘Twinkle Toes’?”

  “Hmm, yes,” he said, still disturbed by what I told him. After a moment he laughed and took a drink from his canteen. “Well, it had to do with this engagement in Venezuela. I had slept with this widow in a village we had liberated and—”

  Harper interrupted us by galloping into our temporary camp. “They have a Summoner! We’ve got maybe twenty minutes!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. She headed toward where Juan was chatting with the captain on the other side of the canyon.

  “Mount up in five!” bellowed Captain Rebecca before Harper had reached her.