Robe

Chapter 13

Mohon flattened his ears, and whimpered. Then he woofed. It was an agreement.

Dresden went to the garden gate and opened it, letting Mohon out. The silver-armored guards moved up to him, but Dresden put his hand out. "My guests, Hepsguard," he said firmly, "so, by the Highest, stay back!" The guards stopped in their tracks.

"Do as Sire Faramay says," General Weylin said. He motioned to the odd-looking mounts that were milling next to the roadside. "We will ride by their side as an honor guard."

Sonic walked with Rusty ahead of her, gently ushering him toward the gate. The teenager plodded along without a word.

"Is he feeling well?" Dresden asked.

"He is feeling well," Sonic replied, knowing it would be some time before she had the vocab to explain what was going on.

The three of them were out of the gate, the mounted Hepsguard forming a wide circle around them. Honor guard my backside, Sonic thought, noting that the General had yet to mount his own horse-thing.

The General, meanwhile, had his eyes set on Dresden. "Sire Faramay, you are best to walk alongside me."

"General, these are my guests. You serve my mother, and therefore you serve me, understood?"

"While you are young, Sire Faramay, I serve your mother by protecting you," the General replied coolly. "Maintain your distance from the outsiders. Walk with me."

Dresden remained firm. "No," he said. "If you like, I will walk with the Custodian. Does that suit you?"

The General shrugged. "I can accept that."

Sonic watched the exchange with some amusement. She was interested to find out why Dresden only mentioned his mother and not his father, the 'Lord Faramay', in the stand-off.

Dresden glanced at Sonic, who nodded. "I will walk with the boy, Dresden," she said. "You will walk with the Custodian."

"I shall," he said, then in a lowered voice, "but I will also remain close to you."

Behind them, the Custodian was fidgeting with the garden gate to latch it shut. Once done, he looked up at the tree with all the leafy eyes, which stirred a little and then settled, as if to say nothing to see here, folks, move right along.

The assumption couldn't have been more wrong.

It was Rusty who caused the next commotion. In hindsight, Sonic figured she should have put him completely under, then dragged his sleeping butt wherever they were headed.

"Tubular horse's heads, man," Rusty muttered beside her, doing a poor imitation of a West-coast American surfie. "Totally tubular." He giggled drunkenly, then raised one hand and formed the age-old gesture of 'hang loose' – fist closed, pinky and thumb sticking out.

The fiery lances were back in the hands of the Hepsguard, leveled and pointed menacingly at Sonic and Rusty. Their horse-things pranced nervously, backing up from the two outsiders they surrounded. The General now had a massive claymore in both hands (summoned, naturally – it was so large Sonic figured he would have needed a separate cart to bring it here), an ornate, gold-hilted piece that looked very sharp and very experienced. He had also cast his helmet to the ground, taking a stance that was decidedly battle-like.

"Ah crap," Sonic muttered. El guardia here thought Rusty had cast a spell.

What happened next was instinctual rather than planned. She flicked out her right hand and took up her own battle-stance, synthing her own melee weapon as she did: a 'one-five', and it appeared as a short black cylinder in her raised hand.