Fortunately, things got better less than a day after Holstein’s army entered the city. Jackson’s small force had been camped a mile from the city gates, trying to figure out what to do, when scouts indicated that a large force was moving in from the west. It didn’t take long to learn that Baron Eikhorn had mobilized the entire western army and was here in support of King Borstein. The other dukes might be trying to stay out of the battle between the king and Holstein, but not Eikhorn.

  When he found Jackson, he included him in the command tent, and Jackson was more than happy to contribute in any way that he could. After Eikhorn heard the tales of what had happened in Rostock, inflated in Jackson’s opinion a bit by Max, he offered to place Jackson in command of the knights and soldiers that had fought with him at the docks.

  “Sir, if it would be okay, I heard you say that Max, er… Captain Smart is going to be leading a team into the city. I’d like to join them. I mean, I know Captain Aremay is going with him, and maybe they don’t need me, but I am Tier 3 now, and I do know how to sneak and handle myself in a fight. And well, sir, Gianna, or that is Princess Leonor, and Lady Milessa have become close friends of me and Tabor. I don’t think I could live with myself if anything happened to them, and I didn’t do everything in my power to save them.”

  His impassioned plea or simply the realities of his skills must have convinced the general because he consented. Soon, Jackson found himself on a planning mission with three captains who were going to be trying to infiltrate the city through a secret tunnel that went into the sewers. He already knew Max very well and had found Captain Aremay to be more than competent.

  The third captain was a man he only knew by name. Both his father and Tabor had spoken of Captain Raddick. He was the leader of the scouts for the western army and had taught Tabor many things, apparently.

  The general wouldn’t consent to them leaving right away, but insisted on waiting until he had his siege set up. He told them that their odds would improve if the rest of the city was paying attention to something else. Even then, the general worried about sending them in without more magical support.

  That prompted the group to split up the loot they had gotten from killing the froglok. Max took the golem cores, saying that he knew a mage he could sell them to. Sir Schinhofen got a share in the form of the gear from the froglok’s apprentices. It wasn’t as high quality, but it would still sell for a good amount.

  Captain Aremay got the Sword of Skyfire. It was a potent sword, and as he pointed out, the ability to rain fire down from above would go perfectly with his position as a griffon rider. After that it got a bit awkward, as both the captains and the knight insisted that Jackson take the final three pieces. They were really more than he thought he deserved, but in the end he stopped arguing and just accepted his good fortune.

  Epic Ring of Poisonous Health

  Quality: Epic

  Weight: 0.1

  Passive Effect: +300 Health

  Passive Effect: +25 Resistance to Poisons

  Active Effect: 1/moonrise. Amphibian’s Toxic Flare. Range: 30 feet. Target takes 22–42 poison damage and 2 Strength loss per tick for 7 ticks.

  Thanks to his Ring of Duplication, Jackson was now over 1600 health and could use the poison attack twice per moonrise. The next item was equally well designed for Jackson.

  Bladed Knuckle Dusters

  Quality: Epic

  Weight: 1.0 (each)

  Passive Effect: +5 base damage to strikes with the hands.

  Passive Effect: 10% chance of imparting electrical shock for 20–40 damage.

  Active Effect: At will may magically create triangular blades on both ends of the knuckle duster. Changes damage from blunt to piercing.

  They fit perfectly over his gloves as long as his hands were in a fist. He wasn’t sure if he would use them all the time, but they definitely provided him with another option. As good as the first two items were, the final item was the real prize.

  Fungal Tunic of Regrowth

  Quality: Mythic

  Weight: 4.0

  This shirt is made of the grass of the gods woven together with magicyte-infused mushrooms. It provides little in the way of armor but powerfully enhances the metabolic processes of the wearer.

  Passive Effect: Health and Mana Regeneration +15/tick.

  Passive Effect: Stamina and Fury +10 each.

  Passive Effect: Will continue regenerating even if dead, so long as tunic is being worn at the time of death.

  By the third day, none of the battle mages had been able to find a way to crack the magical shield that covered the hidden entrance. For the most part, they were completely unwilling to try for fear of alerting whoever had set the spell. There was a certain unspoken fear that Gunidar the royal mage had betrayed the king and switched sides.

  Fortunately, a solution presented itself just about an hour after dawn on the third day. Sprinting into the camp at the speed of a race car was Jackson’s sister. Her arrival was so sudden and her speed so terrifying to the guards that but for her magical shield, which she had maintained due to the stress that the air and of course bugs caused to her body at the speeds she was moving at, she would have been skewered by some nervous soldiers.

  Jackson saw her and immediately leapt to her side with all the speed he could muster. He might not be able to move as quickly as she had been, but he was no slouch himself. “Stand down, everyone, this is my sister, Lady Nelson.”

  More than one guard averted their eyes, trying not to raise the ire of a noble whom they had almost harmed or worse. Just as many, though, stared at the exotic beauty before them. She was of an age that the young soldiers couldn’t help themselves, and her half-elf nature only made her more alluring.

  The siblings exchanged news. Both were genuinely glad to see the other and to tell what had been going on in their corner of the world. At some point they both realized that they were being far too nice to one another, and Mira started teasing Jackson about how she was Tier 4. This, of course, only made him want to brag, and several of the soldiers were all too happy to recount the tale of how he had single-handedly stopped an invasion fleet from Faelora. The story seemed to keep growing with each retelling.

  In the end, they both were still smiling when Jackson took her to meet Baron Eikhorn. Mira was shocked to find out that her parents were not there yet. Steffen simply said, “I wouldn’t worry too much. That ancient magic can be a bit unpredictable, but I’ve never met anyone more capable than your father. Between him and your mother, I’m sure they will be just fine.”

  After meeting Steffen again, the siblings along with the rest of what was supposed to be Jackson’s infiltration team left. They made some small talk, and he introduced his sister to each of them. Eventually, though, Jackson came up with an idea.

  “While we are waiting for Mom and Dad, maybe Mira could help the infiltration team,” Jackson said.

  “How so?”

  “There is an entrance to the city. It goes through the sewers but isn’t that bad. The problem is that there is a magical barrier blocking it, and none of the battle casters here have been able to get past it.”

  Mira grinned. “Well, it just so happens that unraveling spells is my specialty.”

  “Unraveling spells? Isn’t that suicidal?” Captain Aremay asked.

  Max just laughed, and Jackson said, “If my sister says she can do it, she can. She isn’t a liar. Well, at least not about important stuff. Sneaking out to parties and so on, well, that’s another matter. She is a little boy crazy, after all.”

  Mira just glared at him, and the three military captains all knew better than to get involved in this skirmish. “You’d better be careful that you don’t end up turned into a toad. You never know, I might be able to do that sort of thing now that I’m Tier 4.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, why don’t you. Not all of us got to start off leveling right away.”

  “Just so long as you know you will always be my little brother,” Mira said, smirking as she placed an emphasis on the word little.

  It was obvious that all three captains wanted to ask about reaching Tier 4, but Jackson didn’t want to get bogged down. He was genuinely worried about Gianna, oh, and of course Milessa. They were both his friends, after all. “I’m gonna ask General Eikhorn if we can leave now that Mira will break the barrier for us.”

  He ran off without further question. By the time he got back to the team with permission, it was after lunch, and they were looking at the barrier. Everyone was watching Mira intently as she stood there with her eyes closed, making odd weaving motions with her hands. A few minutes after Jackson got back, she opened her eyes and said, “Wow, that is an ancient spell. It must have been in place here for hundreds of years.”

  “Does that mean you can’t get around it?” Jackson asked.

  “Nah, I already did. It just took longer than I expected. Besides, I didn’t want to trip any of the alarms. So as far as I can tell, they won’t know we are coming.”

  They moved into the tunnel then. Jackson had wanted to go first, but the captains wouldn’t hear of it. He was a nobleman’s son and in their minds still a child even if he was close to adulthood. Captain Raddick ended up taking point, as he was the one with the most expertise as a scout.

  The tunnel extended quite a ways and had clearly been maintained over the years. Max commented that it was probably a secret escape route for the royal family. Before long though, it emptied into the sewers. They were just as Jackson had remembered. Stinky, but far cleaner than he would have expected for something like this.

  “Is it strange that they don’t have any guards down here? My esoteric sense doesn’t even pick up any life-forms down here, not even any fiends,” Jackson asked.

  Max replied, “Not really. Not if they didn’t know about the tunnel. The absence of fiends worries me based upon what you described before. I had expected to run into some, and I worry that they may have been let loose on the city.”

  “Even more reason for us to move faster, then,” Captain Aremay said.

  Max activated Forced March, and the group immediately was able to move much faster. Mira and Jackson kept checking with each other about esoteric senses, but neither could find any signs of life. Mira did comment that there were some strange spells woven into the walls of the sewer but that they didn’t seem to be a trap of any sort, more like something to interfere with Divination Magic. As interested as she was, even she didn’t propose stopping.

  Jackson found the way to the original ladder that they had climbed down. The one that Little Will had shown them. He hoped it would be a safe place to exit, as it was sorta in the bad part of town. Once they reached it, they could hear voices overhead, and Raddick motioned for everyone to be quiet.

  “Do you think she knows what she is doing?” man one asked.

  “I have no idea, mate. I just know that the soldiers are all either locked up or ignoring what is happening. She and her friend are the only ones who have fought and killed any of the monsters. They even saved my granny last night,” man two replied.

  Jackson thought the second voice sounded vaguely familiar but couldn’t be sure.

  The first voice spoke again. “So the thieves guild is officially throwing in with a noble. Strange times these be. And a woman, or more of a girl, really. Gotta be a first.”

  “Strange times make for strange bedfellows, but the red princess seems competent enough. Besides, you can’t tell me that you would mind being bedfellows with her or that other one. Either way though, fer now the guild be taking orders from her. Gotta have a city left if we wants to be able to do any thievin’,” man two said.

  That was enough for Jackson; he steamed. The red princess could only be Gianna, and if she was somehow out in the city, fighting for the people, then she was going to need his help. She hadn’t even hit Tier 2 yet. And then to hear those men talking so rudely about her, well, it just made his blood boil.

  Jackson pushed past Raddick and climbed up the ladder. When he reached the top of it, he first whispered the words of Stone Fist and then focused all his strength into a punch that knocked the trapdoor wide open even with the box that had been sitting on it. He sprang up out of the space to allow the others to come up but found what he had been expecting.

  There were two men, both dirty and in ratty clothes. One he recognized as Little Will. The captains scrambled up after Jackson, who was already laying into Will about what he was doing here.

  “This is just me hideout. I’m waiting for orders from that lady you was with last time. Didn’t know she was a princess. That make you some kinda prince?” Will asked.

  “A baron’s son, but that doesn’t matter. Right now you are gonna answer my questions, or you won’t like what happens. If you thought I was rough on you last time, you should just see what these guys are gonna do to you.”

  Will apparently wasn’t listening to Jackson anymore because his eyes had gone past him as he said, “Wow, now who is this lovely creature? You brought us an elven princess this time?”

  “Eww… that’s my sister, and I’d worry about her more than all of the rest of us put together. She’ll turn you into a toad.”

  The discussion took many turns, as Will was always wanting to ask something instead of just answering the questions, but they finally got a picture of what was going on inside Konig. Apparently Holstein and his guards had turned a blind eye to the fact that fiends were roaming the streets and bringing victims to an abandoned warehouse. The rumor was that they were sacrificing them in some bizarre ritual.

  Of course, Will didn’t know what any of it really meant. He just knew that people from the streets that he worked were being taken. The thieves guild wasn’t exactly a protector of the slums, but they were at least possessive of them.

  The only good news they got was that Gianna and Milessa had escaped the duke’s guards and were hiding out on the streets, using Milessa’s illusion magic. Once they learned about the fiends, they rose up and started saving people. They didn’t have the power to attack the warehouse directly, but at least they were intercepting as many of those being taken there as possible.

  The one piece of good news that they received was that Will was expecting Gianna to come to this building for supplies. They typically brought the citizens they rescued here for Will and his people to find housing for. In turn they would pick up food and other sundries here. The stores in town were all boarded up as the merchants tried to weather the transition in government.

  Captain Aremay was insistent that Will tell him exactly when the princess would arrive, but Will simply shrugged and said, “I be taking orders from her, not the other way around.”

  Max finally convinced them all to sit down and rest. They ate some rations and took turns napping. It was almost dark when they heard movement. Jackson was the first to his feet and rushed into the back room and found a smiling Gianna holding a young girl and directing other people to wait along the back wall. Milessa was beside her but had her back turned to them. Jackson couldn’t help but be struck by how natural she looked directing the people around her, yet clearly displaying her concern for them.

  When she noticed him, she set the girl she was holding down and ran across the room towards him. By the time she reached him, the others on the team were in the room, and they got to see Gianna jump onto Jackson. He was easily strong enough to catch her but wasn’t quite sure how to react. Reflex ended up taking over, and he caught her in his arms.

  She kissed his cheeks, which started to turn bright red, and exclaimed, “You came for me. I just knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”

  Jackson didn’t know what to say, and behind him, he heard his sister laughing so hard he was shocked she wasn’t rolling around on the floor. Meanwhile, he heard a stern coughing from Captain Aremay. Gianna must have noticed him too because she said, “Arey, it’s so good to see you.” Even as she spoke, she wrapped her arms around Jackson’s neck and made no move to get down from his arms.

  “I am pleased to see that you are alive, my princess, but this is entirely inappropriate,” Aremay said.

  Jackson had a panicked look on his face, and his eyes darted from Mira to Max and finally to Aremay, begging for help. Finally, though, after placing another warm kiss on his cheek, Gianna hopped down.

  Milessa moved over and said, “Oh, I’m so glad that you are here. Now you can help me get her out of the city. She won’t listen to me.”

  Gianna snapped, “That’s because of what is going on here. We can’t turn our backs on these people. I won’t allow it.”

  “You will come with me, Your Highness. Your father has ordered me to get you out of Konig safely. We need to leave now.”

  “I most certainly will not leave. I am your princess and will not be spoken to in that manner.”

  Jackson’s eyes got wide as he heard her say that. He didn’t think he had ever heard her sound quite that imperious before.

  “You are not only my princess, whom I serve, but also the closest thing to a daughter that I have. I love you dearly, but I must obey your father, and he wants me to get you out of the city,” Aremay replied.

  “Well, Jackson is going to help me, so you can either leave, or you can help us. Of course, if I don’t make it out safely and you left, then I bet that will be a fun conversation with Daddy,” Gianna said as she stomped her foot.

  “Uhh… I didn’t say anything like that,” Jackson stuttered out. He only heard Mira’s laughter get louder at that point.

  Gianna pouted. “But you will, won’t you? You wanna help me save the people. If all of you help, maybe we can destroy their altar. Captain Aremay might be no fun, but he is really quite strong, if you didn’t know, and I know of Captain Smart by reputation. He is rumored to be the strongest fighter in Albia. Well, except for maybe you. Having seen you fight, Jackson, I’m sure you are the strongest.”

  The princess looked at the others and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are, but your uniform implies that you are a scout captain, and you look like you are from outside the capital. You wouldn’t happen to be Captain Riddick, would you?”