Think fast, Kandis, I told myself, but that really wasn’t my strong point.

  If I let Captain Guertin charge into the back of the sleeper agents, it would be a massacre. Guertin thought it would be a massacre of the agents, but I wasn’t so sure. I had visions of the firebombs getting past the shields and setting the entire squadron alight.

  That didn’t matter, though, because I didn’t want a massacre of either side. The sleeper agents had been mind-controlled by the Countess somehow. They were victims, and while I might be able to justify clubbing them into unconsciousness, I couldn’t allow them to be horrifically scarred by their own firebombs.

  And if it were to go down that way, it would happen under the eyes of the soldiers in the gatehouse. They’d see my forces cutting—okay, clubbing—down ordinary Talnier citizens before burning them to death. There was no way I’d ever get them on my side after that.

  Could I put an illusion between them and their goal? How would they respond? They did seem still capable of reasoning, so if I just made a wall appear they might well figure it was an illusion and walk through it. Something believable, like the gate closing might work, but if I kept to realistic speeds, they might just run through before it closed.

  If I’d brought the paralysis potions… I thought, but that had been a non-starter. Both Koenig and Guertin had been appalled at the potential they held for self-inflicted accidents. They’d made me promise not to bring the stuff anywhere near their operation.

  What about a real wall? I had [Earth Magic] and it didn’t matter if they set that on fire. Splashback was a real concern, but at least they’d be self-inflicted injuries. Suicide, not brutality.

  I’d need to be closer though, my range on [Earth Magic] wasn’t want I’d want it to be. I took off running for the crowd.

  “Ma’am!” Guertin’s shocked exclamation came from behind me but I was already out of his reach. Then, “Ma’am!” again, louder and more dismayed. “Follow her!” was the next thing he said, but I had other things on my mind.

  I didn’t need to do this myself, there were other earth mages in amongst the adventurers. Somewhere.

  “Earth Mages!” I yelled. “Get a barrier between the crowd and the gate!”

  It was at times like these that I missed not having [Leadership]. There was a great deal of overlap between the social skills, but yelling at people with no time for explanations and expecting they would obey, that was all [Leadership].

  That being said, [Leadership] wasn’t particularly effective on adventurers. A surprising number of high-ranking people had complained to me that adventurers were the most fractious, contrarian and obstreperous people that existed. They were wrong, but only because beast-kin existed.

  For that reason, the frankly nonsensical nature of my order might have helped my chances of getting it obeyed. Put a wall in front of the gate we’re about to assault? Sounds good! And a few people did start moving in the direction of the gate. Not with any sense of urgency, but they were closer than I was. It was anyone’s guess who’d get in range first, but who cared? We could always stack wall spells on top of each other.

  That just left the firebombs—if there were some fire mages, or—

  “Janie!” I yelled, looking for her. She had been in Koenig’s group, not actually helping smooth things over, but not actively making the conflicts worse. Probably. At least as far as I’d seen.

  Finding her looking at me, I pointed at the gate. “Stop the fires!’

  Another nonsensical request—there was no fire where I was pointing. Janie had never let a lack of sense get in her way, however. She nodded, and I knew that I could trust her to handle it.

  By now, I was just about in range, so I started casting. I could see mana reaching out from the other mages as well. I tried to stay out of their way, focussing on raising my own section of wall.

  “No!” one of the sleepers ahead of me cried. “Blocked!”

  “He did it!” another one shouted, pointing at one of the other earth mages, someone who had to chant and gesture for his spells. “You’re the enemy!” the other sleeper shouted and threw his potion.

  The earth mage looked shocked and failed to move in time, but one of his companions got a shield in the way in time. The potion splashed across the shield, the liquid bursting into flame and then… was snuffed out like a birthday candle.

  “Hey!” Janie said. “Did someone start a fire party without me?”

  Everyone stared at her. Her red leather armour naturally drew the eye, but I think most people were wondering what a fire party was.

  There were a few who already knew. The sleepers, though, didn’t seem to care.

  “Enemy!”

  “She’s the enemy!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Burn her!”

  They started throwing potions. Janie didn’t wait for them to land this time. Instead, she threw up a wall of fire between her and the sleepers. Either the heat shattered the bottles, or it ignited the liquid inside because each thrown potion burst into flame as it passed through the wall.

  Unconstrained, unfettered flames from a dozen potions merged into a massive fireball. I could feel the heat as it churned and roiled, and for a second I thought it was going to explode a second time, sending burning liquid in all directions.

  But Janie had it handled. As the other adventurers staggered away from the broiling heat, she stood with her hand outstretched towards the ball of plasma. Then it started to shrink. A few late-thrown potions got added to the inferno, but they didn’t make a difference to her control. The fireball shrank, going from golden to bright blue. The heat didn’t diminish, but it didn’t seem to bother Janie.

  My cloak shattered. I blinked in surprise.

  “Get behind me, you f—Ma’am!” Guertin yelled, dashing up to me and holding up his shield. “Fire from the gatetower!” he yelled, filling me in on what was going on, with perhaps more volume than was strictly necessary.

  I guess it had been too much to expect the soldiers in the tower to do nothing while we milled around. Another arrow thudded into Guertin’s shield and I could see more falling around the adventurers. None of them were hitting, though, which told me that Guertin’s reaction was a tad overblown.

  “Janie, can you give us some suppression?” I called out.

  “Sure!” she replied and launched a massive fireball at the tower. It splashed… relatively harmlessly against the stone wall. It left scorch marks on about half of one side, and I’m sure it instilled a strong urge in the occupants not to go near those arrow slits.

  “Don’t be such a mother-hen,” I told Guertin, who was still trying to keep me behind his shield. “I’m wearing armour.”

  He reluctantly stood back, giving me about a foot of space.

  “Your armour disintegrated,” he said accusingly. “After one attack!”

  “That was just an illusion,” I said. I made another cloak, thinner this time. With all the fires going up, it was significantly warmer than the evening had started.

  My real armour, underneath the cloak, was probably better than what he was wearing. Latorran’s loved their steel, and some of them—Guertin, for one—looked down on leather, but I was wearing monster hide, and it was enchanted to boot.

  “Just have your men round up the firebugs,” I ordered. “If the soldiers have started responding, it’s time to get this operation underway.”

  The sleeper agents were standing in one place, looking around as if they didn’t know what to do. That might be the case.

  She didn’t expect them to live this long, so the programming ran out, I thought bitterly. It was going to take three priestesses a long time to cleanse the entire town, but it was going to have to be done.

  That was a thought for later, though. Right now, I had an operation to start.

  [Illusory Terrain]

  My large-scale spell sacrificed verisimilitude for the area it covered. The town square wasn’t that large an area, so I doubted that any of the soldiers could see through it.

  A strange and mysterious mist came into being over our heads, blocking the view of anyone who happened to be in a tower. Shadowy shapes moved through it, just as an added distraction. They bore no relation to how we were moving underneath, it just looked like they did.

  Protected from observation, we could form up for the assault.

  “Remember,” Koenig bellowed at his people. “This is a Council operation and they want live prisoners! Half of these folks are being lied to, the other half get to go and face the King’s justice!”

  I could have done something to prevent him from being heard by the soldiers, but there was a chance that knowing we were taking prisoners would save a life. That chance was worth a little operational leakage. The main plan had been hashed out before we arrived.

  We were coming from the inside, so the portcullis did nothing to stop us. They could drop it if they wanted, but all it would do is cut off bystanders from Trader Town. The inner doors looked sturdy enough, but we had [Earth Magic]. A team of two mages didn’t just open the doors, they made an opening twice as large.

  The adventurers poured in. Koenig, hanging at the back with me, gave me an apologetic look.

  “They’ll put it back when we’re finished,” he promised. Then he hefted his maul and joined the crowd.

  “Please don’t join the assault, ma’am,” Captain Guertin pleaded.

  “I would never,” I promised him. “Cloridan and I are just going to stay back here, where it’s safe. In this… shadow.”

  I swear, the captain’s aggrieved protest made it all the way into the shadow realm.

  We came out near the top floor. I tried for an empty storeroom, but I only managed one of those things.

  “Gah! Who’s there?” someone shouted in the darkness.

  “Isn’t that my line?” I grumbled, even as I cast [Light] silently. I made it bright, for maximum discomfort for anyone who had been sitting in a dark room.

  The harsh lighting revealed that I had managed to pick a storage room. It was just occupied by…

  “Aren’t you the Watch Sergeant?” I asked, looking at his insignia.

  “Ahhhh! Help! It’s the witch!” the man called out at the top of his voice.

  I frowned. “That’s just hurtful,” I said. Then I cast [Improved Blind].

  “Cloridan, can you…” I gestured. “We’re here for leadership, and he qualifies.”

  “…Yeah,” Cloridan said, stepping behind the stumbling man and grabbing his wrists. “But he did raise the alarm, so we are going to get—”

  As if on cue, the door started rattling. I stared at the sergeant.

  “You locked yourself in a dark room…” I started to say, but there was no point. He couldn’t even hear me. I would have asked Cloridan to search him for the keys, but the rattling had progressed to thumping. We probably wouldn’t need them.

  “I should get out of here with him,” I said. I cast [Enshroud] on the man so I could take him through the shadows. “Staying or going?”

  “Staying,” Cloridan said, holding up the invisibility amulet. “It should make for a terrifying locked room mystery.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, that’s what I’m here for.” I grabbed the sergeant. Cloridan had only secured his arms with rope, but it was only going to be a short trip.

  Captain Guertin jerked in surprise when I stepped out of the shadow but went right back to lecturing me.

  “Ma’am, we can’t protect you when you go off like that—”

  “Hold that thought,” I said. “I got us a prisoner that needs taking care of.”

  “Captain, you’ve got to listen to me!” the man babbled. Unfortunately, my [Improved Blind] spell had been cancelled by the shadow trip. “This woman, she’s got you fooled!”

  Captain Guertin scowled. “Take this fool away!” he snapped. Then he turned his glare back to me.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “I’m helping!”

  Characters!

  Captain Guertin - Why hire a guy, if you’re not going to let him do crowd control?

  Martin Koenig - Guild Master, man-mountain.

  Janie Baker - Good in a pinch. Better in a fire party.

  Wilfred Heller: That guy.