Page 107 of Sword & Sacrifice

“Now wait just a damned minute!”

A warm hand settled on the small of Penn’s back, and at the same time the heat of another presence caressed Penn’s mental shield, searching for a weak spot. “It’ll be easier to help him inside,” Alistair murmured near Penn’s ear. “They’ll allow it if you say he’s your guest.”

Thin spider-legs of dread crawled over Penn’s spine. Blurry images flashed through his mind. A green-clad soldier aiming a crossbow at him. A sharp icicle covered in blood. Someone’s head cradled in Penn’s lap.

After Niall and Penn had fought, Alistair stripped the events from Niall’s mind. The memory of your fight would not serve my purposes.

When Penn had woken up in Alistair’s dreamscape, he hadn’t questioned why the mage had suddenly changed tactics, trapping Penn in his own mind. What did you take from me while I was dreaming?

Penn might not remember the events clearly, but a warning still clanged through his mind. He knew with absolute certainty that Niall would attack the guards if Penn didn’t let him through. Maybe I should let them fight. There were enough soldiers to protect the castle, but what about the civilians around them? How many people would become collateral damage? How much havoc could two mages wreak before the soldiers killed them?

Then there was Niall’s barrier. Penn’s hand still stung from where the broken shards of dagger had cut him. What other weapons could it deflect?

That barrier needed to be neutralized before Niall could be killed.

Until Penn found a way to break past it or tear it down, he needed to keep the mage complacent, cooperative. “All right, I’ll see what I can do,” he agreed, and gently guided his horse toward the closed gate.

Last time Penn had returned home, the guards opened the gate the moment they’d spotted Archer, and their general chewed them out for not following protocol. “What if we had been magicians under some glamour?” Now that Penn was accompanied by two glamoured mages, he hoped the guards had taken their scolding to heart.

As they neared, the gate didn’t budge, remaining firmly in place. One guard raised her hand to stall Penn’s approach. She looked him up and down, lips pressed in a thin line. “State your name and business.”

The other guard looked at her like she’d gone blind. “Sanne, it’s Penn.”

“Maybe, or maybe not. I can tell you one thing: that’s not Scout.”

The other guard’s brow furrowed as he looked at the horse, then his hand tightened on his weapon.

“Trust me, I’m no happier about the change in horse than you are, Rowen,” Penn replied. “But for formalities sake, my name is Penn Kaurier and I’m returning from the campaign in Bellacosta with a message from His Majesty King Archer for Dowager Queen Helena.”

Sanne’s lips thinned and her eyes skated between Alistair and Niall. “And these two?”

“Valerian Sommers,” Alistair introduced.

Both of Sanne’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “The mercenary?” Her lips pursed as she scanned him from head to toe. “My dad served with you once …”

“Oh? What was his name?”

“Kurt Welbourn.”

Alistair snapped his fingers. “Yes, I remember him. Led a mission hunting a group of bandits through Lyberna who had kidnapped a nobleman’s son.”

Sanne’s shoulders relaxed. “I made him tell me that story a hundred times as a kid.”

A shiver went up Penn’s spine at how easily Alistair stole Valerian’s place.

Rowen gestured to Niall and asked, “And him?”

Niall looked down his nose at the man, much easier while he was still on horseback. “Reginald Paxton. I am a messenger for Lord Edgar Slater of Causley Estate, who wishes to discuss a border issue.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a scroll, tossing it through the gate’s bars at the guards.

They instinctively backed away from the suspicious scroll. Rowen poked it with his glaive, then raised his shirt over his nose and carefully unsealed it with one gloved hand.

Niall’s jaw ticked and he muttered, “Such unnecessary theatrics.”

Penn wasn’t sure if he was annoyed because they had successfully neutralized a trap or because their vigilance would make it harder to trick them later.

“Sanne, grab the book of seals,” Rowen said.

Niall sighed in exasperation. “Must we go through all this hassle?”