Naked Empire

Verna pulled her horse around and put a foot into the stirrup. Why would the Imperial Order think they could get a wagon through, especially at night? Certainly, they weren't foolish enough to think it wouldn't be seen in the dark. She paused and looked at the soldier hurrying away.

"Wait." He stopped and turned. "I changed my mind. I'll go with you."

It was foolish to use the rocks they had ready overhead; they might need them if a full-scale attack suddenly charged up this pass. It was silly to waste such a defense.

She followed the man up the trail to the lookout point where his company waited. The men were all watching through the trees. The road out ahead and below them looked silver in the light of the rising moon.

Verna inhaled the fragrance of balsam firs as she watched the wagon making its way up the silvery road, being pulled by a single, plodding horse. Tense archers waited at the ready. They had a shielded lantern standing by to light fire arrows in order to set the wagon ablaze.

Verna didn't see anyone in the wagon. An empty wagon seemed pretty suspicious. She recalled the strange message from Ann, warning her to let an empty wagon through.

But they had already done that. Verna recalled that the girl with the message from Jagang had come in by this route and method. Verna's heart pounded in worry at the thought of what new message Jagang might be sending, now.

Perhaps it was Zedd's and Adie's heads.

"Hold," she called to the archers. "Let it through, but stand at the ready in case it's a trick."

Verna made her way down the narrow path between the trees. She stood behind a screen of spruce, watching. When the wagon was close enough, she opened a small gap in the weave of the vast shield she and the Sisters had spun across the pass. The pattern of magic was barbed with every nasty sort of magic they could conjure. This pass was small enough that the shields alone could hold it, and if the enemy did come, it was too small for any numbers to come all at once. Even without the formidable shield, the pass was relatively easy to hold.

When the wagon passed through the shield, Verna closed the hole. When it rolled close enough, one of the men ran out of the trees and look control of the horse. As the wagon drew to a halt, dozens of archers behind him and on the other side, behind Verna, drew their weapons. Verna had spun a web of magic and she was prepared to unleash it at the slightest provocation.

The tarp in the bed of the wagon eased back. A little girl sat up. It was the child who had brought the message the last time. Her face lit up at seeing Verna, someone she recognized.

Verna's heart skipped a beat at the thought of what the message might be, this time.

"I brought some friends," the girl said.

People lying in the back of the wagon pulled the tarp aside and started sitting up. They looked like parents with their frightened children.

Verna blinked in shock when she saw some of the people help Adie up.

The sorceress looked to be exhausted. Her black and gray hair was no longer parted neatly in the middle, but was in as much disarray as Zedd's usually was.

Verna rushed over, leaning in to help the woman. "Adie! Oh, Adie, am I ever glad to see you!"

The old sorceress smiled. "I be awfully happy to see you, too, Verna."

Verna's gaze swept over the people in the wagon, her heart still pounding with apprehension. "Where's Zedd?"

"He escaped as well."

Verna closed her eyes with a silent prayer of gratitude.

Her eyes popped open. "If he escaped, then where is he?"

"He be on his way back to the Keep, in Aydindril," Adie said in her raspy voice. "The enemy has captured it."

"We heard."

"That old man intends to have his Keep back."

"Knowing Zedd, I feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way."

"Rikka be with him."

"Rikka! What was she doing over there? I ordered her not to do that!"

Verna realized how that must have sounded. "We thought it would be pointless, that she wouldn't have a chance and we would just lose her for nothing."

"Rikka be Mord-Sith. She has a mind of her own."

Verna shook her head. "Well, even though she wasn't supposed to do that, now that I see you again and know Zedd has escaped as well, I'm glad that that obstinate woman didn't listen to me."

"Captain Zimmer be on his way back as well."

"Captain Zimmer!"

"Yes, he and some of his men decided to come to rescue us as well. They be coming back the way they travel, unseen in the night." Adie gestured to the surrounding trees. "They be up around us, protecting the wagon on our way in. The captain feared that some of the enemy might stop the wagon and capture us all over again. He wanted to make sure we be safe."