Chapter 48

Hydrabridge

The Voidlands North of Maston

Myles pulled himself to his feet, commuting that little bit of extra mana through his body. Not that Myles felt it would do a whole lot of good if Paulo decided to attack them. It was a real possibility that he might too. His goals were clearly not aligned with theirs. For Myles’ part, he hoped that Paulo would leave them alone. At this point, their mission was effectively over. As far as Myles could tell, killing him, Kate, and Silas would serve little purpose at this stage.

Silas who was the only one who hadn’t taken a seat after the desperate climb stepped towards Paulo in a way that Myles found a tad aggressive. “What do you mean you can help us? Why should we place any trust in you?”

Paulo stood in their midst, seemingly unfazed by their sudden reaction. He lifted his hands up, lowering them in a calming gesture. “Look guys. We’re in the same boat here.”

Kate tilted her head to the side. Then responded with dead seriousness. “We’re definitely not in a boat.”

Myles shook his head to himself. Kate had some big holes in her knowledge.

Paulo smiled back gently though the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Figure of speech. I meant we’re both trying to leave Hydrabridge.”

Silas’ eyes narrowed, but he held his tongue, instead shooting a look towards Myles. Myles took that as a signal. Normally, Silas would take the lead when talking with strangers, but he had already set an aggressive tone with Paulo. If they were to get out of this situation, they would need a more tempered approach.

“You’re proposing that we work together to get out of here?”

Paulo shook his head. “Working together implies that you would bring something to the table that would benefit me. I had something closer to a business arrangement in mind.”

Myles felt alarm bells go off in his head. If Paulo wanted a business arrangement, that meant he would expect payment of some kind. Still, with the stormbird core used up, they had lost their best chance to get out of Hydrabridge. When the soldiers or even the other miners found out about what had happened, they would be hunting Myles and his squad. “What are you proposing?”

Paulo laughed. “You seem to think that I’m going to ask you for some nefarious favor, but that’s not the case.”

Myles leaned forward. “What…”

Paulo stretched out his arms and turned towards Kate. “I knocked one of you out and brought you to an enemy as a gift. At the time I thought it might have tipped that foreman’s mind in my favor, but unfortunately, he was driven by too much hate. He didn’t think things through logically.”

Myles hesitated for a second, making sure Paulo was done. “I don’t see what that has to do with the arrangement you’re proposing. I suppose you might owe an apology to Kate…”

“Precisely. I owe an apology to you. I’m a mercenary after all. I can’t very well walk away giving a potential client a bad taste in their mouth. Besides, based on what I saw of your scuffle, I suppose that your teacher is or was once in the same order as myself.”

Myles’ tension was beginning to lift now. His training prevented him from actually lowering his guard, but he was starting to feel a little less like he was about to be murdered. He had heard that Primrose was a big deal. He remembered being told that she had once been known as the white tiger. Out of a sudden impulse of curiosity, Myles almost asked Paulo if he knew Primrose. He stopped himself short though. It looked like Paulo was willing to help them now. Dropping a name would only give Paulo more information.

Paulo took the pause as agreement. “We should leave quickly. Samuel had his people quietly evacuate before he released the enaira. The whole plot will be discovered soon. When that happens, it will make things slightly more complicated.”

The trio soon found themselves climbing after Paulo up the mine shaft. Strangely enough, the climb was actually made easier by the rock that had been shattered by their aether construct. Much of the looser material had fallen into the abyss below, leaving only the stronger rock and metal which stood out in various points, making far-better handholds than they had expected.

Paulo cast an illusion over the entire group for the duration of the climb. This proved a worthwhile tactic as they soon noticed a growing group at the edge of the hole that led into the shaft. The group was a fairly even distribution of miners and soldiers. Regardless of job, they all seemed baffled. Myles realized that their battle had been anything but quiet.

When they pulled themselves out of the mine shaft, finally finding themselves on secure ground, they saw that the crowd had swelled in size. Rolance was pushing his way through the crowd, howling orders at the soldiers to get things under control.

For a moment, Myles was concerned about Rolance noticing them through evoked wind mana. Myles was certain that this would be a time where Rolance would be employing such a technique. When Myles turned towards Paulo to voice his concern though, Paulo just gave him a calming gesture.

By the time they made their way through the crowd, Rolance had already started moving things back towards the status quo. Myles found that both a relief and a little vexing. They had risked their lives to keep the monster, an enaira as Paulo had called it, from wreaking havoc. Now, it seemed that the whole situation would be swept aside in less time than it had taken them to actually fight the beast.

The journey out of Hydrabridge was entirely uneventful. Even though many of the soldiers were on high alert, not one of them was able to notice the group as they walked right past them, out of the mines, and right over the top of the wall. Myles remembered how Rufus had claimed that none of his agents would be able to infiltrate Hydrabridge in such a simple manner. It was another reminder of just how dangerous Paulo was.

Paulo led them all the way to Rufus’ camp, only dropping the illusion that he had spun around them when they were well within eyesight of the sentries.

The very moment the illusion dropped; Myles found half a dozen weapons pointed at him. He looked around, but as expected, Paulo was nowhere to be seen.

Myles was quick to kneel on the ground, throwing his hands into the air. Kate and Silas following him without delay. Myles mused to himself that they were starting to make a habit of being brought into custody by provincial soldiers.

Fortunately for Myles, Silas was back to his role as negotiator. Myles was more than happy to let Silas take over, appeasing the sentries and swiftly getting them an audience with Rufus.

When they approached Rufus’ tent, Myles instantly knew that something had changed. Where before, there had been three people in the tent with little activity, now the whole area was bustling. Messengers streamed in and out of the tent, running to various parts of the camp where soldiers looked to be prepared for action.

Concern peppered Myles, but when they entered the tent, they were quickly dragged off by Rufus without room for a single question. “Follow me.” He had whispered, the urgency in his voice leaving no room for inaction.

A smaller tent had been set up to the side of the main tent. Here, nobody was coming or going. When they walked in, there was only one person to greet them, but they were sitting in the back of the tent, away from the sun that made its way through the tent as they were, it was hard to make out who it was.

“Hey there.” Reah said with a little grin on her face.

“Hey there.” Myles responded, matching the grin with his own. For some reason, it had just hit him that they had accomplished their mission. They had done everything they had been asked to.

Kate rushed forward, pulling up the sleeve on Reah’s sweatshirt. “You’re hurt! What happened?”

Myles glanced at Rufus suspiciously. The minister had tried to kill her when they had first arrived. Had he done something again?

Rufus caught the look from behind his mask. “Not this time. I was fighting with her.”

Myles shivered. He hadn’t even said anything, and the minister had still managed to respond to the exact question that had been on his mind.

It took Myles a moment to realize the implications of what Rufus had said. They had fought someone strong enough to injure Reah. Myles would have been hard pressed to believe it if he hadn’t seen a possible candidate with his own eyes.

“Paulo.” Silas whispered under his breath.

Rufus turned towards him; his interest clearly piqued. “What did you say?”

Silas took care of most of the explanation about what had happened during their mission. Myles and Kate were only asked to clarify certain points that Silas hadn’t been present for. The group also handed over the root samples they had been using to light their way. Reah noticeably flinched away when she caught sight of them.

At the end of the explanation, Rufus seemed to be deep in thought. “You’ve done better than I could have hoped. I’ll have to send you back with my highest commendations.”

Myles took a breath. That should have been all that mattered to him. He would be able to continue studying aether engineering with a good score for the mission. Silas had been right though—at least to a degree—Myles couldn’t just continue to ignore what was happening around him in order to single-mindedly pursue becoming an aether engineer.

This mission had made it clear. The safety of the province and everyone in it were very much dependent on the whims of the powerful. If Myles didn’t make it his business to at least stay on top of things as a soldier should, he and his friends might end up dead from the plot of someone like Paulo.

“The one who hurt Reah was Paulo wasn’t it?” The timing made sense. He and Silas had noticed that Paulo had gone missing sometime during the previous afternoon. Kate had seen him coming back into the depths the next morning. With Paulo’s abilities, he could have easily been the culprit.

Rufus considered the question for a moment. “I think it likely was. The man you described was almost certainly an imperial aurora.”

Silas took over the conversation again. “You can’t be serious! Aren’t they directly affiliated with the Perralin empire? Why would they work against us?”

Rufus sighed. “I know I told you to question everything you’re told, but I didn’t mean it quite so literally. I can’t just give you access to confidential information.”

“Right.” Silas slouched his shoulders in exaggerated disappointment.

Rufus gave another sigh, and a book was suddenly flying through the air towards Silas. “You are far too manipulative for your own good. I won’t give you the answer you want but seeing as how you seem to have been involved with a rather dangerous individual, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to give you the information you need to recognize other threats.”

Silas tucked the book away. Myles gave him a curious look, but a shake of Silas’ head kept him from fulfilling that curiosity.

“Well. I’m busy. Feel free to grab a nap before you head out. You’re welcome to use this tent for the next few hours.” With that, Rufus headed towards the door.

Before he could leave though, Kate put a hand on his shoulder. “You relieved Reah of her duty to the academy when you had her stop following us, right?”

Rufus turned back around, a hint of amusement in his voice. “That is technically true.”

Myles caught Kate’s plan. He leaned forward towards Reah. “Do you want to go back to the academy with us?”

Reah gave him a shy grin that easily reached her eyes. “I would like that.” It was the happiest Myles had seen her.