The pounding of hooves was loud and made conversation impossible, but she could tell they approved of her measures. No one wanted to walk into another village like the one they just left, not if they could stop it or at least interrupt it.

  If it turned out Liam’s theory was wrong and she was right, then they’d be going on foot from the village anyway.

  Liam’s theory wasn’t wrong. They saw the thick plumes of black smoke rising into the sky from over a mile away as they raced for the village. Far too much smoke to be accounted for by normal fireplace fires near the end of fall. Her heart started to pound in that familiar way, as both the fear of death and the excitement galvanized her.

  She reluctantly pulled up on the reigns. Just charging in would get them killed, they hadn’t come up with a plan for this situation, and she couldn’t use mass fire spells inside of a village without hurting as much as she helped.

  The sound of steel on steel reached them from about a quarter mile away, telling her some of the village’s guards were still alive and fighting.

  She angrily summoned and released her air elemental and earth elemental on a mission, exhausting a quarter of her power on each to ensure success. She couldn’t feel the mage’s location, but they surely could. The only flaw to her plan was she was guessing the mage was average in power at best, which meant even if his shield lasted long enough to cast a magic breaking spell, her spells would be too powerful for even all of his power to break. If he or she was more powerful than average than surely they wouldn’t be assigned to a single platoon.

  Of course, look at her, and she was only leading a squad. But her circumstances were unique, as a hunted princess, and directly sworn to a king. Nor did she think she was too good for the job, on the contrary she was coming to believe she’d get satisfaction in it. Not from the killing, but from ending the deaths and suffering of innocents by removing their lives.

  Kill, to end the killing, and fight for peace. It seemed counterintuitive, but it was valid in her mind. That they were just following orders wasn’t a good enough excuse in her mind, they were as evil as Hadrius was in her mind. Simply because she wouldn’t take the mission of conquering, much less the evil and depraved means the enemy was currently using.

  Simply because they didn’t have the manpower for a straight fight.

  It was inexcusable.

  Another plus was the mage had surely already used magic and very recently, and was likely not even at his full power at the moment, which would just make it harder to defend against two elementals working together to take him down and subdue him.

  She spoke quickly as she dismounted, and they followed suite.

  “I’ll hunt the soldiers, and you watch my flanks and rear. Stay close per our other plans,” she ordered, even as she expanded her shields out fifteen feet in all directions, and then made them just powerful enough to deflect arrows.”

  She led her horse off the road and into the gully, and after tying his reigns to a tree she started to run the last quarter mile on foot. The others were all right on her heels, and she felt a deep certainty in what she was doing, though she knew it would wound her heart and soul, after what she’d seen she had no doubt the price was worth paying.

  Those assholes needed to die.

  She was a little proud of herself, automatically adopting a scout style gait that made her run whisper silent. Though she couldn’t hear Kade and Jonas footfalls at all, she was far quieter than Liam and Anisa, and they all took note of it.

  Anisa asked, “The mage?”

  She replied, “Already taken care of, I hope, but keep your eyes open just in case I underestimated his power.”

  They crossed the last quarter mile in just a minute at a sprint, so she still didn’t have much more than a little over three quarters of her magic as she got started. She saw two soldiers holding swords and torches, and a third with a small barrel of oil heading for the jail, even as the guards inside fought for their village and lives.

  It didn’t look like they’d been there that long. The only buildings burning were the housing which was farthest from the road and the main street which had all the stores, food, and the inn.

  The three men preparing to burn down the jail and guard house were still in the street and not at all close to any buildings. She didn’t hesitate as she telekinetic punched the cask, which burst open and covered the three enemy soldiers with oil, and quickly followed up with a small fireball. She regretted it as soon as they screamed, even if it was poetic justice, she needed to be better than the enemy was, and not use their cruel tactics.

  But it was no less than they deserved.

  She knew it wasn’t about that though, it was about her soul and morals, not what the enemy deserved. She felt guilty, but they didn’t suffer too long, and fell to the ground dead just moments later.

  She turned to the jail where at least twelve enemy soldiers were sieging the building and bottling them up. She realized they’d intended to burn those men to death, and then felt horror at her own actions. She wouldn’t do it again, though her way had been far more merciful and quicker. She’d still use her pyrokinesis when necessary of course, but magic fire killed even quicker, and was far more humane.

  Half the twelve men charged her, and she took out half those before they closed with aqua-kinesis, simply bursting their hearts with a very small amount of magic to control their blood. The last three arrived and her, Anisa, and Liam met them sword to sword. They were common foot soldiers, experienced but far from masters of the sword, and the three of them took down their opponents in just a few moments.

  Kade and Jonas hadn’t been idle either, and in the same time they’d each shot two of the six which had remained at the building, leaving just two uninjured for the moment. It was also a shock to them she thought, because they hesitated, clearly torn between keeping the guards alive in the building bottled up inside, and in dealing with them who’d killed their six comrades in seconds.

  It was enough of a distraction that the guards inside pushed hard and streamed out the door, engaging the last two that could still fight.

  They’d taken down fifteen of the twenty-four-man enemy platoon, in just the first minute. She thought the guards had it, but she spent a little more magic with psychic punch to disorient, which made things far more certain.

  “Nine more, where are they?”

  She strained her senses, as did the others, but she didn’t hear any fighting. Then she heard a female scream, not one of death or wounding, but of a different kind that tweaked her instincts. The blood drained from her face and anger filled her as she ran between the jailhouse and tanner’s store into the housing area behind it. They were still in the houses, some burning, while the others looted, and raped their victims.

  Burning, she chastised herself for not acting on that sooner, though she had been busy with those fifteen guards. She cast pyrokinesis on the run, and all the fires came to her hand and swirled around her body, one house at a time, and then she sent it straight up above her in a column of flame where the flames would die without wood or other materials to fuel it.

  She couldn’t remember ever feeling so much anger in her life. She wanted to cut certain things off, and watch as they slowly bled out, but she did the right thing. Each soldier she found engaged in such heinous acts, she killed quickly. Most didn’t even see it coming, too distracted by their current victim, as she used aqua kinesis to burst their hearts.

  They fell dead, instantly and bloodless. None of the soldiers offered any resistance, as they were distracted by their lack of discipline and evil acts.

  A guard asked, “Who are you?”

  He looked grateful, but also officious and slightly suspicious about being saved.

  It was a complication. They hadn’t planned to face any of the groups in villages. There would be no preventing the guard from reporting this, which meant the last four groups would know a hunter team with an ink sorceress was going after them. The only thing they could really do at that point was try to minimize the damage, and downplay her strength. It’d be bad enough if their quarry was forewarned and took steps to counter the threat.

  Worse, her elementals had the mage helpless and restrained just three houses away, if the impressions she was interpreting through the temporary summoning bond were right, anyway. How could they question the mage about the mole with the guard underfoot? Plus, the guard would insist on taking the mage off their hands, per the law, to face judgement and questioning by Xevell’s guards.

  Something she couldn’t allow, but she couldn’t see how to avoid it either.

  The second problem turned out to be the easier of the two, as the obvious answer occurred to her. She sent a mental command to the elementals, and then dismissed them as she ended the spell. Dead mages don’t talk, and they can’t be contacted from superiors with magical communications as they sit in jail waiting for execution. They’d have to question the next mage, to try and determine who the mole was.

  She’d also had the earth elemental bury the corpse, so the local guard would assume the mage ran when his platoon was killed. A necessary deception, though one of circumstance based on assumptions they would make, she wouldn’t actually have to lie out loud.

  Still, she’d take the partial success of their first mission, and though the town had suffered damage it wasn’t nearly as bad as the last one. Scant comfort for their victims here, but a lot better than the alternative. Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she’d believe it.

  She didn’t blame herself though, all the blame went on the enemy where it belonged. She just… wished she could’ve done more, got there sooner, but war was never one-sided. There was always a cost. She didn’t like it, but she had to accept it.

  It had to be enough, that her presence had changed the outcome for this village, and outright saved all the future victims that otherwise would’ve fell to this enemy.

  Kade nodded, “I’m Kade,” he waved around at them all slowly as he introduced them, “This is my hunter team. Liam, Jonas, Anisa, and Lia.”

  Lia instead of Luna, just in case someone recognized her name.

  Jonas interjected, “We’ve been trying to track down the raiders, for the information reward. It was just chance we came upon your village while it was being raided this morning. I don’t suppose you’ll pay out, since technically you found them first?” he asked a bit wistfully.

  It was a total lie of course. They’d never had any intentions of truly claiming rewards. They were already being well-paid by Sebastian, but it fit their cover and the scenario they were stuck in.

  The guard looked startled, then let out humorless laugh, “That’s true enough, but I’ll see what I can do for your timely aid. Things were looking rather grim for the lot of us. Your team has a magic user?”

  Kade replied, “She comes in handy,” she gave him a look that made the guards laugh nervously, then Kade continued, “She’s limited in strength and utility, but she’s wicked with that sword and is powerful enough to tip the odds in our direction.”

  The guard looked her over, then seemingly dismissed her from his mind.

  “Stop by the guardhouse in an hour, and we’ll have something for you.”

  They accepted that, and she felt relief as they left the town to collect their mounts. She didn’t speak at all until they were far enough away from the village to ensure privacy.

  “I had my elementals kill the mage and hide the body, so that’s one less worry. We’ll have to question the next one. The risk would’ve been too high to smuggle him out unseen to try and question him ourselves, and the less the Xevell military knows the better. That was some quick thinking you two.”

  Kade smiled and Jonas nodded in acceptance.

  Liam said, “The enemy will know we hunt them, but they won’t have a clue just how outmatched they are. Still, they may set one of those traps.”

  She was thinking along the same lines, and it wouldn’t be so easy if two mages put together traps for her to trip over. It was more than obvious her in the middle of the night plan while the mage was asleep had worked.

  They also had to wait for Sebastian’s contact later that morning. They honestly had no idea where the other four groups were operating, or where to go next. Their horses would also be exhausted for at least several hours after the hour long run that morning, so they couldn’t move until after lunch for several reasons.

  So, they got their horses and headed for the inn. She expected Sebastian to contact her before noon, and to give her a target village where they could start the process over for the second of the five enemy raiding platoons. One down, four to go, and she imagined the first one was going to be the easiest.

  She imagined they were split up around central Xevell, but it’d be much easier waiting for Sebastian’s information from the queen, than it would to track them all down on their own. They also couldn’t be more than a day apart, otherwise setting up those traps where two of the platoons worked together wouldn’t be feasible.

  They killed the time by eating a fuller late breakfast and refreshing their provisions. Mostly the water, and some oats for the horses, since so far they’d managed to avoid touching their on the go rations in favor of warm meals. They stopped by the jail as well, to pick up their reward payment. They also spent some time sparring in the small field behind the inn, and lastly chatting in the common room about absolutely nothing important.

  Although that didn’t mean not amusing. They spent some time reminiscing about funny and ridiculous situations back when they served together in the empire, which also had the benefit of cementing their backstory as the few people in the common room listened. Except clearly, she was the only one that wasn’t there, but she acted like she was and let them do most of the talking. It was even a little fun, Kade could spin quite a tale, and Jonas’s understated humor balanced out the slightly hyper edge of Kade’s.

  The sensation of Sebastian’s presence in her mind late that morning was rather sudden and a little startling. She couldn’t see him, but it felt like he was in the room with them.

  Sebastian said, “Hi, Luna. Just concentrate on sending the words you want to send.”

  Luna focused her thoughts and gave a quick overview of what had happened the last forty-eight hours. She also explained why their secondary objective had to be abandoned and the fact their surprise on the enemy was already over. There was no doubt the enemy would eventually get word they were being hunted.

  Sebastian replied, “That will make your task harder, but you definitely did the right thing saving that village. It was also wise to just end the mage, you’ll have four more chances to question one for the mole’s identity. The important thing is ending the raids, and no one could’ve done better. I suspect things will quiet down after that, for winter. Come spring is when the true war will start. Hadrius is training a large number of men and women right now. Jacinta and I have no choice but to aggressively recruit to match those numbers.”

  She scowled. He wasn’t wrong, but that would put a huge strain on food production and getting enough planted for the summer harvest. She had the feeling famine was a real possibility, along with the coming war. At least, for six of the seven kingdoms, Allesandro wasn’t under threat of war. At the moment anyway. Doryn and Pirean were already facing major food shortages, and she imagined her uncle, Sigurd, and Ricola were building up for war as well, which would only exacerbate that situation.

  Sebastian said, “The next village you need to track from is Waymeet. They were raided the night before last, and it’s about fifteen leagues to the northwest, mostly north.”

  Her first impression was it’d be two days before they could really do anything with it. Thirty miles would eat up most of a day, if not a full day’s ride, and they only had half a day left until nightfall. Then it occurred to her she didn’t have to be personally in Waymeet. She’d sent her elemental to several villages last night to gain an understanding of the vague feeling of distance she got from her elementals.

  There was no reason they couldn’t ride more than halfway there, stop at another village for the night, and then send her elemental to Waymeet and start tracking from there. They’d be within a few hours of the village, and for all she knew the enemy would be even closer than that, or further away was a possibility as well. But the point still stood. By this time tomorrow, they could be running down or even fighting the second group.

  “Got it.”

  There was a slightly awkward pause as the meeting had run its course, and then he said farewell and ended the spelled connection.

  She pulled a map out of her pack and studied it for a moment. There was a village ten leagues north that they could reach if they rode out now, and after finding the enemy’s location in the middle of the night she’d have an idea how far and long they’d have to travel the next day. She put the map of Xevell away silently. There was no point letting anyone in the village know what their plans were, or the enemy may just find out what group they were going after next.

  She didn’t want to make it easy for them to set a trap, after all. That was their one advantage. The enemy wouldn’t know where to set up the trap, or which of the four groups they’d go after next, since they weren’t Xevell military the enemy wouldn’t have access to their plans or movements.

  “Let’s pack and head out,” she said out loud.

  The five of them got up and headed upstairs. If they were curious about where they were going, the four of them were too smart to ask before they’d gotten some distance from the village.

  It didn’t take long to get their packs ready and head down to the stables.

  Chapter Seven

  Mage Colonel Larius of Cynia scowled as he failed to reach one of his raiding platoons again. Something had happened to them. He wasn’t a field officer. He was in intelligence, and in truth the only one save the king and Court Wizard Adamus that knew the identity of the mole. It was a prudent step for operational security, just in case one of the mages assigned to the five raiding platoons was compromised and questioned.