Page 74 of A Tower of Half-Truths

Forty-Four

If Neldren, Ellice, and Evrard had overheard any noise from Alain’s room the night before, they made no mention of it the following morning.

The second day of travel continued how the previous one left off, the only difference being that Neldren’s fiery temper had cooled to icy indifference.

He remained silent until around midday, when he consulted his map and instructed Evrard to exit the Royal Turnpike and take a back road.

“Are you sure about this?” Mavery asked as they entered a dense forest.

“You want to get to the temple and back in under a week, right?” Neldren said. “This is faster than continuing down the Turnpike. It’s the same route I took last time.”

She gazed out the window, feeling no more reassured.

If not for the dappled sunlight on the forest floor, she would have thought night had already fallen.

The Turnpike had been wide enough to accommodate traffic in both directions.

Here, the way was so narrow, there was barely enough room for the horses to trot two abreast. Instead of well-packed dirt, most of the ground was covered in dead leaves and loose silt.

And instead of following a maintained path, Evrard had to guide the horses around roots and rivulets.

About a mile in, they encountered a felled tree branch blocking the path. With Ellice’s mending magic and Neldren’s muscle, they rolled the branch off the path within seconds. Ellice sauntered back to the coach and wore a smirk as she reclaimed her seat.

“I told you I’d make myself useful,” she said, then leaned out the window. “Are you coming, Nel?”

“Hold on,” he replied. “While we’re stopped, I might as well take a piss.”

Mercifully, he chose to relieve himself behind a tree that wasn’t within Mavery’s peripheral vision—or within earshot of the stagecoach. A moment later, he returned at a jog while buttoning up his trousers.

“Shit,” he said. “We’re about to have company. Highwaymen, from the looks of it, and they’re coming in fast.”

“Highwaymen!?” Evrard cried. There was no window between the coach’s interior and the driver’s seat, so Mavery could only hear his voice. “I’ve heard stories of them, and not good ones. Oh, gods…”

“Damn it, Nel,” Mavery groaned. “I knew this forest was a bad idea.”

“Relax, both of you.” Neldren closed the carriage door as he walked past, then hoisted himself onto the driver’s seat. “You especially, boy. Keep a calm head and let me take the lead. Now, do we have somewhere to stash our valuables?”

“The…the…” Evrard gulped. “The bench closest to us, there’s a compartment beneath it.”

Ellice got on her hands and knees, then pushed on a wooden panel that appeared only decorative. “Found it,” she said. The panel moved aside, revealing a compartment barely large enough to fit all of their packs. Once those were secured, she popped the panel back into place.

“Good,” Neldren said. “And since even the wizard isn’t dressed like a dandy—”

Alain scoffed.

“—let’s hope they’ll assume we don’t have anything worth stealing.

But, seeing as you’re hauling four passengers, I reckon they’ll try to swindle you into paying an outrageous toll.

Unless you’ve got a couple of human-sized compartments hidden back there, I’m afraid it’s too late for the others to run off and hide. ”

Alain’s eyes widened.

“I have an idea,” he said. He grasped Mavery’s hand, closed his eyes, and began to whisper something she couldn’t quite catch. From the chill trickling up her spine, she had her suspicions. Ellice cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Look, I understand wanting to say your prayers,” she said, “but I doubt the gods are going to be much help.”

Mavery leaned close enough to catch bits of the incantation Alain was reciting. It was intimately familiar. She turned to Ellice.

“Take my hand.”

“What?”

“He’s not praying, he’s casting a spell that’s going to turn us invisible, more or less.”

“ ‘More or less’?” Neldren called from out front.

“Trust me on this.”

She extended her hand to Ellice, who skeptically raised a brow before taking it.

As the sound of galloping horses drew closer, Alain, Mavery, and Ellice’s bodies turned incorporeal and glowed with Ethereal light—just as Mavery’s had on that sunny afternoon outside Steelforge Towers.

She could only hope Alain had enough arcana to keep them veiled until the highwaymen finished their business.

“Unbelievable,” Ellice gasped. Her voice was a distant echo. “Can they hear us?”

“No,” Alain said, “but I’ve modified the spell so that we can still hear them.”

“Should you need an anchor, I’m right here.” Mavery intended to squeeze his hand, but as their bodies were completely weightless, she felt nothing. She looked to Ellice again. “Don’t move.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” she muttered.

Evrard continued to breathe shallow, rapid breaths, despite Neldren’s mutterings about the importance of remaining calm. Mavery turned her gaze to the window, where a trio of highwaymen came into view.

Their leader, riding a bay horse, was a Nilandoren man with skin the color of rain-slickened shale.

It was impossible to place his exact age, but his salt-and-pepper beard and thinning hair suggested he was older than Neldren.

Flanking him on a pair of roan horses were a man and a woman who had to be siblings, if not twins; they shared the same shade of chestnut hair and sharp features.

The woman, like their leader, wore a shoulder holster bearing a pistol.

The man had a longbow slung over his back.

“Afternoon, deydan,” Neldren said.

“We’re not in the Motherland, stranger,” the leader said sharply. He stopped his horse beside the driver’s seat. “We’re in my woods, and I’ve never seen either of you before. What’s your business here?”

“Just passing through.”

“With an empty coach?”

“We’re—”

“I’d like to hear it from your partner.” He narrowed his eyes at Evrard. “Tell me, boy, what are you doing here?”

“We’re…we’re passing through, just like he said,” Evrard stammered. “We have a customer to pick up in, er…in Archstone.”

“Do you, now?” The leader leaned forward, resting his hands on the pommel of his saddle.

“You see, ever since I became the toll collector of these woods, I’ve made it my business to know all the stagecoach drivers in this corner of the province.

So, explain to me why, instead of hiring a local, your ‘customer’ would hire a pair of strangers who’re almost a half-day’s journey away. ”

Beside Mavery, Alain’s body reappeared for a split second before turning incorporeal again. Her breath hitched, but none of the highwaymen so much as glanced inside the coach; they were focused solely on Evrard.

Alain’s transparent eyes squeezed shut, and his brow furrowed. The spell had run its course, and he was now prolonging it with his arcana. Mavery recalled the toll this had once taken on his body, though he’d been sleep-deprived after a long day of spell practice.

“I received the job in the mail, I didn’t question it. Er…sir,” Evrard said. Though his voice trembled, he was doing better than Mavery had expected. “How much is the toll? Whatever it is, we’ll pay it and be on our way.”

The highwayman chuckled. “Much as I appreciate your eagerness to cooperate, I can’t let you go that easily.

There’s been a lot of smugglers through my woods as of late, so we’ll need to search your coach.

” He flashed Evrard a wide smile; a patch of sunlight illuminated a gold-capped canine. “A routine inspection, is all.”

The woman brought her horse closer to the carriage. She peered through the window, and her gaze swept past the three Ether-veiled figures without a second glance. Then, her eyes widened.

“Looks like they’ve got a wizard’s staff in here,” she said.

Alain hissed through clenched teeth. His staff wouldn’t fit in the secret compartment, so he’d left it lying on the floor. Evidently, the coach’s dim interior was no match for the highwaywoman’s keen eye.

“That old thing?” Neldren said. “It’s just my walking stick.”

“Then you won’t mind if Kella takes a look,” the leader said.

“By all means,” Neldren replied flatly.

The woman, Kella, slung herself off her horse. She was tall, muscular, with the weathered look of someone who spent most of their life in the sun. She opened the door and reached for the staff. Her fingers came within inches of Ellice’s foot.

She picked up the staff, sniffed it deeply as if she were sampling an oversized cigar. Then, she opened her mouth and licked it, leaving a six-inch trail of saliva on the wood. Alain uttered a sound of abject disgust.

“Genuine ebonwood. Definitely a wizard’s staff,” she said, then peered at the crown. “Hold on, it’s missing one of those magic gems.”

“Gem or no gem, where did someone like you find a wizard’s staff?” the leader demanded. “If you’re a wizard, then I’m the Duchess of Dyerland.”

“Dunno what to tell you, mate, other than you’re making a big stink over a walking stick,” Neldren said with an indifferent shrug in his tone.

“Don’t bullshit me. Where did you stash the gem, and what other stolen goods are you hiding in there?”

“As my partner told you, we’re just passing through.”

The leader’s eyes darkened. “Search the coach. Tear the godsdamned thing apart if you have to.”

Kella tossed Alain’s staff back inside the coach and grabbed the handhold next to the door. As she began to pull herself up, she vanished—along with everything else. The world plunged into darkness as the smell of ash permeated the air.

“Go! Now!” Neldren shouted.

Cloaked in Ether and immersed within Neldren’s summoned shadows, Mavery couldn’t see or feel a thing around her. Reins cracked, wheels rattled. Kella yelped, followed by a heavy thud in the dirt.

“Bast, get the mage!” the leader yelled from somewhere in the distance.