The Crescent Hour ✓

Chapter 28. Gambits

Clara slinked through the throng of people. She couldn’t see much of the convoy because of her short height. When she found an abandoned crate in an alley, she took it and used it to hoist herself up.

A group of firis cantered along the boulevard, their horned heads tossed high, tails streaming in the wind. Then came a prowl of oversized jaguars flying in the air, guarding the convoy on either side, drizzled in the honey-gold light of the sinking sun. Fiery and copper red, they opened their mouths to give silent roars. They looked like spectres from a fading dream.

“A hologram?” Clara whispered.

The Vanguard’s magic,  the thought came to her mind.

The crowd chanted and clapped. Clara saw the floating lanterns whirling around the jaguars, each shining a different color. Mecha trailed their pattern and for a moment, Clara felt envious of it.

Huge animals followed the firis. She could feel the tremor beneath her boots.

The creatures were twenty feet high with bent horns between their eyes. Their brown skins were tough and wrinkled, their mouths curved like the beaks of ragars. They had frills around their necks, with six long spikes.

Clara gaped at them. “Rhinos?”

They couldn’t be rhinos but the resemblance was noticeable. She counted the creatures and found them to be twenty in total. Between their powerful shoulders sat warriors in silver armor. All were armed with bows and arrows, spears, swords, maces and even firearms. All except one and he sat alone in the center of the troop, riding one of the strange creatures.

“It’s him! It’s Coran!” a man said.

“Look at him. So brave and handsome!” a woman cried out.

“Coran! Coran! Coran!” the crowd shouted in unison.

The Vanguard of Kaaf wore a suit of black armour, white hair falling down the helmet on his head. It brushed his shoulders. Clara could spot no weapons on his body but knew better than to be deceived. He wasn’t unarmed, no, for when he turned his head in her direction she felt a surge of energy speed towards her.

She could see it in her mind. His magic. Copper red and powerful, it churned like a cyclone sweeping everything in its path. Concentrating, Clara drew her own power and created a round shield around herself. She pushed it outwards, letting the white helices of light coil around the waves of red energy, neither harming nor receding.

Clara realized he wasn’t trying to overwhelm her. He was merely prodding her magic as though to send a greeting between mages. When the red waves retreated, Coran looked away but not before she saw the twinkle in his red eyes.

She exhaled a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

“Oh, he looked at me!” a woman shrieked.

Clara glanced over her shoulder. The woman swooned on the ground, hands clutching at her heart. Her friend brandished a paper fan and whipped it over her face. Clara rolled her eyes. She turned to watch the Vanguard until the convoy disappeared around the corner.

“Bless the Bloodseeker!”

The man who had spoken the words was a Mirian. She squeezed through a group of merchants to reach him. He was bare-chested with gold bangles around his hands and earrings on his ears.

“What does Bloodseeker mean?” Clara asked him.

“When Coran marks his enemies, he will hunt them down until they are destroyed. No one can escape from him.” The man sneered. “Not even the devil himself!”