Binary

Chapter Six: New Orders

"Her skeleton crew of soldiers aren't the protection she believes them to be. They've been carefully vetted. They're the kind of soldiers that would look the other way for the right amount of coin, or if their commanding officer ordered them to. She doesn't realize it yet, but the only people loyal to her in that entire fortress are whatever servants or waiters she didn't send away."

That samurai looked pensively up at Summit Castle.

"That's not an excuse to off her, or upset her," Grenda said quickly, "don't forget if we want this trip to as smoothly as possible, we need her-"

"Relax," said Tatsu, "I won't jeopardize the mission for my personal feelings."

"Of course not, you're the samurai, after all."

They were quiet for a moment as the last of the Stromian soldiers marched under the portcullis. The two women began walking towards the large iron gate themselves.

"Any idea what the next part of the plan is?" asked Tatsu.

"Well," said Grenda, clearing her throat and looking away, "the Stromian soldiers will be split into two armies, one that goes North to the Starling Keep, disguised as servants to assassinate the Starling King."

"Of course, of course," said Tatsu, "everyone in the Hatred knows about that part, even Lady Argus knows about that! I'm talking about the other half of the army, the one that will need to be taken further west, into the jungles to assault the Way!"

Grenda looked around nervously.

"Please, keep your voice down..."

"Right, sorry," said Tatsu, "I'm just so tired of having to sneak and hide in the shadows. I was a general once, I fought my enemies head-on, with honor. To know that soon we'll engage in honest combat is such a relief to me. When we first discovered the location of the Way at the end of the last conflict, I understood that we had to wait and prepare, the passage had already closed, but I didn't enjoy delaying. I wanted to seize the gate right then."

"You're certainly enthusiastic," muttered Grenda, shifting from foot to foot, "and of course, everyone knows you're the backbone of the Hatred's combat ability..."

"Now you're just flattering me," laughed Tatsu.

"But..." Grenda continued hesitantly, "our leader has given orders that you're to go with the servants to the Keep of Starlust instead."

Tatsu stopped walking and stared at Grenda.

"What...?"

"It's not a question of combat ability I'm sure," said Grenda, "in fact, he let me know that was exactly why he wanted you to join the assassination..."

The pale sandstone beneath their feet suddenly fell into darkness and Grenda looked up and saw a massive dark cloud was blotting out the light from the Rings. She had only rarely seen such thick clouds over this part of the Desert Zone, and certainly never clouds that had moved with such ferocity as these. They looked like churning, rolling, thunderheads.

"I see," said Tatsu, her gaze fixed on some far-off point in the distance. She marched off from Grenda, towards the castle. The small army she had brought didn't make a sound as she passed, didn't move a muscle. They just stood in perfect formation, and they certainly didn't look up at the sky.

***

Prognis paused at the street corner. The city of Lake's Edge was much bigger than the little villages she had spent most of her life in while traveling with the lumber camp. The buildings were rough stacked stones or logs. They were grand and sprawling things, and as she looked around at the mostly empty city street, she felt a bit like a field mouse waiting for an owl to swoop and carry her away.