Shadows in the Smoke - 26 - Sore Feet

"The proximity of the Lands of the Dead to our northern regions means that Citizens must be vigilant for infiltration by the undead. Skirmishes along the border are not uncommon, but at the time of writing the Liche Kings have been relatively quiet for over ten years. Long may that continue. Nevertheless, free-willed undead regularly cross into the Republic seeking to feed and spread their curse on the innocent. Some think it is a deliberate tactic by the Liche Kings to sap our resources, others that these creatures have slipped their leash."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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"Come, Citizen, let's get you some food.."

The two soldiers released the man's arms and in a smooth movement Jakob's gloveless hand descended onto the back of his neck.

Hadn't he been wearing gloves before?

There was a flash of movement and a thump. In a blink of an eye the soldiers were tumbling through the air. Jakob had one trembling hand clamped round the man's wrist inches from his head and his other hand… Ester's stomach lurched, his other hand was buried in the man's stomach almost up to the elbow.

With a decisive movement, Jakob jerked his arm back and tore it out of the man, throwing a handful of viscera aside as he did.

Without a sound the man sank to the ground, the faint magic fading from him.

"Saulan." Blood and guts sloughed off Jakob's arm as he stared down at the man whose guts he'd just torn out with his bare hands. "Saig."

The corpse burst into flames and Jakob turned away without another word.

Ester had to give herself a shake before she could stop staring and move from where she'd been standing. Had they just… Jakob hadn't even looked in the slightest bit bothered by what he'd just done. Was this normal for them?

She made herself hurry after Jakob as he strode towards the groaning men who'd been tossed aside.

"Arcanist-Subaltern, what… what was that? You just…" She needed to pull herself together. Yes he'd suddenly killed the man with his bare hands, but she'd been on the verge of burning him to ash herself. But she'd thought the Arcanist had decided he wasn't an enemy. How could he just change his mind like that?

"Mage Mazar," he didn't sound at all perturbed. In fact he sounded slightly smug. "One of the undead, a vampire, trying to infiltrate us. Don't worry, you're safe. It's been dealt with."

Ester glanced back to the burning corpse and did her best to ignore the smell of flesh charring. Couldn't he have made his fire hotter?

"I can see that, but I had thought you had already checked him?"

"Ah, well the way he came running out of the forest was pretty suspicious, wasn't it? Day to day we'd rely on our eyes-"

"But how did he look so alive?" Ester interrupted. He hadn't looked at all undead. "If I hadn't-"

"That's the problem with vampires, they look alive. Mostly, anyway. Normally there's no time to do more than use your eyes, but when someone's already a bit suspicious, all it takes is a touch." So that was what a vampire was. She'd seen through him without touching him, maybe she could help. She opened her mouth to say so, but Jakob kept going. "I suppose that wouldn't work in the Empire, would it, what with the way none of you will touch each other?"

Ester's mouth snapped shut and she pursed her lips, working to keep her voice level. It wasn't like she wanted anyone to touch her anyway. "I see. As it happens, I did notice that-"

"Well, yes." Jakob cut her off again. "Like I said he was pretty suspicious, but it's good that you kept your wits about you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see to my men."

He turned back towards the two soldiers who'd been tossed aside by the vampire, leaving Ester scowling after him. If he'd just listened to her, she could have told him she'd been able to see there was something wrong with the man, the vampire!

She growled quietly to herself, they'd probably just say she was boasting anyway. Idiot Republicans, she just wanted to help!

Maybe she should say something anyway? Ester clutched at her skirts as indecision tore through her. At the Academy they'd have punished her for boasting if she said anything more, or worse, just laughed at her. The Republicans already didn't like her here and she didn't need to prove herself to enemies of the Empire anyway!

This wasn't the Academy though. It was actually important too. The officers were barely speaking to her anyway, except Lindholm, and they couldn't actually punish her.

Ester took a deep breath. Doing the right thing was more important than sulking because some fool of a boy thought he knew more than her.

She forced herself to let go of her skirts and hurried after Jakob. If she could show she was useful she might be able to learn more here too. She'd let him finish tending to his men and then she'd tell him.

It took a minute for Jakob to finish with the soldiers, who thankfully didn't look badly hurt. Then he sent a green flare of magic into the air. A few seconds later, orders were shouted out across the column and it started moving again.

Ester waited patiently until they were on their way before edging close to Jakob. He was looking intently past the soldiers and into the trees, which made her hesitate, but he could look and talk at the same time. Anyway, all the soldiers were still very much watching for any attacks.

"Arcanist-Subaltern," she made herself keep her voice steady, "I wanted to talk to you."

"Yes, Mage Mazar?" He sounded distracted and didn't look away from the trees.

"I wanted to speak more about the… vampire." She hesitated over the word.

"I'm sure it was frightening," he sighed and to Ester's annoyance his voice actually softened slightly. "But don't worry. You won't be used to seeing things like this, but while they're a pain in the ass, we have ways of finding them. That's why I clapped my hand on its neck. If it had been human it'd have been a comforting gesture, but that skin to skin contact let me know the truth." He stretched up onto his tiptoes for a moment as he focused on something outside the column of soldiers and then sunk back down to his heels. "So you see, nothing to worry about."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Ester bit down on her irritation. He was trying to be nice to her, not to be rude. She needed to remember that they thought she had never had to fight the way they had. The image of Jakob with his arm buried in the vampire's guts flashed through her mind. Maybe they were even right.

"Thank you, Arcanist Subaltern. However, I was not worried." There didn't seem to be any point in trying to tell him she'd seen worse than an undead imitating a human. "I wanted to speak about the measures to detect the infiltrator."

"Mmm. It used to be harder, with the more sophisticated ones anyway. Some of them are pretty obvious, all they need is a glance from an Arcanist. If you don't spot them then the only way to work out they're there is when they start biting people."

"Biting people?!" Despite herself, Ester couldn't quite keep the horror out of her voice. "I thought they were infiltrators."

"That they are, but they live off blood. They're not like some undead, they don't need to kill their victims, but they feed off them. So, you need to look out for people looking pale and feeling weak with puncture marks from their fangs."

"Surely they know they have been bitten though?"

"Nope." Jakob shrugged far too nonchalantly. "It's something in the vampires' teeth, when they bite you, you just forget about it. Unless they turn you, anyway."

"Turn you?!" How could he be so casual about something like that. Surely he didn't mean…

"You know, make you into one of them. Don't worry, they normally only do it to the Talented, all they get from people without the Talent is walkers." He glanced sideways at Ester and winced. "Well, alright, I can see why you might worry about that. It takes a while though and they need to overpower their victim. Not that that's likely with a bit of battle magic. It would be a foolish vampire that would try to overpower one of us Arcanists." He shot her a grin which faded as quickly as it had come. "Perhaps try not to be alone with anyone you don't know. Anyway, never fear, we're much better at spotting them these days, none of them will get the chance to catch you unawares."

Ester gave herself a shake and did her best to banish the idea of someone sneaking up on her and biting her from her head. "That was what I wanted to talk to you about! I could see the necromantic magic on the vampire. I can look after myself!" She forced herself not to scowl at his sceptical look, "but I thought it might be useful for you to know. I have always been good at seeing magic." She resisted the urge to look down in embarrassment at making such a bald statement about her abilities.

"You did?" Jakob blinked. "Why didn't you kill it?"

"I was about to, but he was dressed in a Republican uniform and you were speaking to him as if he was one of your fellows"

"It, not him. It stopped being human when it was raised from the dead."

Ester ignored his interruption. "I had never seen a vampire before, so I thought you might have known something I did not."

"Hesitating will get you killed out here, this is why we shouldn't-"

"So I should just lash out? Think about how you would have reacted if I had killed a Republican soldier!"

"Don't be ridiculous…" Jakob trailed off and sighed. "You know what, fair enough. You make a fair point. I apologise." He thought for a second. "You were better than any of us at the dice game even when you weren't really playing. I'll let the senior officers know, you might actually be useful." It was nice that he didn't sound annoyed about the dice anymore, but he didn't have to sound so surprised at the idea that she might be useful.

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It took a few more hard hours of walking for the column to reach Fort Statvinger. By the time they got there, Ester had more than had enough. Her feet hurt. She was hungry. She'd even given up on trying to keep her feet dry and was just settling for warm and not too filthy.

She couldn't quite decide whether she should be impressed by the fort or not. It didn't look like much. A low wall stretched around a gently rising hill. It was long, there was no question about that, but she'd seen small towns with a higher wall on her way to Vass Karan. She could feel wards around the walls, but only relatively weak ones. Closer to what a wealthy nobleborn might have than what she'd imagined would be needed for an important fort.

What was more interesting was what she saw as they passed through the gates. Rather than buildings and more rows of walls, the soldiers simply marched straight into the hill itself. The Republicans had tunneled straight through it, digging a huge passage deep into the ground. It was nothing like the Wasteways, or even the Marcni Vaults. It hardly even felt claustrophobic with ten men abreast easily fitting down it. They must have used magic to excavate so much material in any reasonable time. Unless the fort had been there for decades. Ester frowned at her own ignorance. Perhaps she could ask someone once they'd settled in.

As they made their way down the giant corridor, their progress slowed. Passages branched off at regular intervals and the corridor was dotted with iron doors, some of them imbued with Schemas. The whole place must be a warren of tunnels and chambers.

Ester found herself standing around, looking at the bare, stone walls as orders were shouted and officers led their troops away. She hoped it was to find food and a bed, for their sakes. She wouldn't mind that for herself either. Her feet hurt and she was as hungry as she'd ever been. No one starved in Trevayn; her parents had always had just about enough food for her and her siblings and once she'd been admitted to the Academy there'd been plenty.

As soldiers marched away down side corridors, she gradually edged closer to the remaining Republicans, until it seemed like it was just a gaggle of the 13th's senior officers, talking to Republicans she didn't recognise. Presumably officers from the fort.

Had they forgotten her? Ester edged closer to try to hear what they were talking about. It might be relevant to the war if nothing else.

"… there is no time to waste. While you were able to fight your way through, we are in practice surrounded." The oldest of the Republicans from the fort spoke urgently. "The situation grows worse by the minute. Please, Arcanist-Colonel Lindholm, come to my briefing room and we can discuss the situation there."

"Surrounded? Yes, I am very keen to hear what you have to say. My staff will accompany me, Commander Sundt." Lindholm surrounded thoroughly displeased.

What did he mean surrounded? How had they managed to reach the fort if that was the case? Was he in charge here? Should she introduce herself?

"Thank you. Follow me." The commander turned away and started off at a quick pace, followed by the rest of the Republicans.

Ester hesitated and then hurried after them. She wasn't just going to stand there on her own in the middle of a Republican fort. If she wasn't going to be fed, then she'd just have to try to learn instead.

They didn't even seem to notice her following them as they headed off, turning down a side corridor and striding up to a door with two armed guards outside it.

The Republican officers filed straight past the guards. Ester was about to follow the officers, when she found their hand cannons pointed straight at her face, the knives on the end of them feeling far too close.

"Stop!" The guard's shout brought the officers ahead of her to a sudden halt. "Get down on your knees! Now!"

Ester froze, a spell on her lips. The mouths of the hand cannons suddenly looked much bigger when she was looking straight down them. She flicked her eyes from them to the Republican officers and back. She was a guest here! She wasn't going to get on her knees for any Republican! Slowly, carefully she started to focus her magic.

"An infiltrator, working for the liches!" That was the fort's commander.

"No!" Diplomacy vanished under Ester's fury. They'd been rude to her, she was hungry and now he was accusing her of being some kind of vampire! "How dare you! I am here as a guest!"

The commander pushed straight through the other officers. Ester absently noted that he managed to avoid shoving Lindholm.

"A guest? You're not in uniform. You don't even look Itrian! If she moves, shoot her! If she tries to cast, shoot her!" He whirled to face Lindholm. "Did you bring her in with you?"

Ester's lips thinned as fury rose in her. Who did he think he was?! Her feet hurt, she was hungry and now she was being threatened by some Republican functionary. She was a Chartered Mage, not an abused Citizen who had to put up with that!

"You have no right!" She took a furious step forward. "I will not be-"

In front of her, one soldier blanched and took a step back. The other's finger tightened on the trigger of his weapon.

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