Sonic was uncomfortable. She saw Custodian approaching the front door in a hurry, and pulled the hypno-compliant Rusty behind her, placing him between Dresden and herself. There was something off about the large man, as if he were trying to regain his composure. What had he been doing?
The Custodian looked at the entourage by the garden gate. "Welcome, General Weylin," he called out to the gold-armored man.
"Custodian Aris, well met," General Weylin called back. "Thank you for letting us know of the outsiders."
The Custodian waved his hands dismissively. "And thank you for coming, General. There's really nothing to worry about, your men can dispense with their lances."
The General took a moment to consider this. Then he motioned to his guards, and the blue-fire-tipped spears vanished from their hands.
Not bad, Sonic thought as she saw this. These guys must have a veritable 'magical armory' tucked away. Not bad at all.
"Custodian, there was no need for the Hepsguard," Dresden said.
The Custodian shrugged. "Son of Faramay, the Hepsguard are just a precaution." He smiled. "Besides, you did want to show her things, didn't you? She will see Hep Duatab itself, no less."
"As a prisoner?"
The Custodian laughed. "As your guest, of course! Come, let us go. I'm certain your father is waiting to meet this young lady."
Sonic watched the exchange between Dresden and the Custodian with unease. "And the boy," she said to the Custodian.
"Of course, the boy too!" the Custodian said, still smiling. He hadn't moved toward the gate, and Sonic knew why. Custody at the front, Custodian at the back, she thought. It was almost poetic.
She looked at Dresden. "Dresden, escort your guests to your father." Then she pointed at Rusty's entirely exposed, totally unshod feet. "But the boy need..."
Dresden followed her hand. Then he glared at the Custodian. "Aris, the outsider has no shoes," he said coldly. "We would do him a courtesy of at least keeping his feet unharmed."
The Custodian's smile faltered a little. "But of course, Sire Faramay!" he replied, and ducked back into the abode. He came out a moment later with a pair of sandals in his hands. "These should fit, and we can go at once!" he continued, holding the footwear out gingerly to Sonic, who took them. The Custodian made absolutely certain to avoid skin contact with the powerful young witch.
Sonic dropped to one knee. "I'll put these on you, Rusty," she said. "You'd probably fall over if you tried to do it yourself."
"Okay," Rusty said dreamily. His eyes drifted around the strange garden. "Where am I?"
Sonic quickly tied the first sandal on, then the second, then stood up. "You're with me," she said, looking him right in the eye once more.
"That's good," Rusty said. He really did feel quite strange at the moment. But that was alright. "I'm Rusty," he continued, and Sonic rolled her eyes.
Dresden watched the two, then returned his attention to the General. "You will allow them to walk freely, with me. No bindings. No spells. Are we clear?"
"Very well, Sire Faramay, as you say," the General replied. "Guests of the realm are all treated with dignity."
Dresden did not appear to pick up on the General's barely-suppressed sarcasm, but Sonic marked it. In the meantime, Dresden roughed up Mohon's head. "You stay with me next time," he whispered to the katarn.
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.
"Bind them!" the General said, striding forward, sword raised and eyes blazing.
A thin rod shot out of the handle of Sonic's one-five, the end of which was a small circle like a pulley-wheel. There were two thin, faintly glowing lines that traced from this part of the device down the sides of the rod to the top of the grip. The weapon had no cross-guard, and the sound it had made was a short, sharp whiiirp, like a thin high-wire being blown in a stiff breeze.
The Custodian started toward the group, raising both arms up in the air. "General Weylin, no! The boy does not speak our tongue! You are making a mistake!"
"Darn straight," Sonic said, in the language that only Rusty understood. "Sucks to be you."
She moved deftly, with a speed that was near-impossible for any of them to catch. The one-five whickered through the air as she moved between the General and the Hepsguard, one after the other. Dresden would later say it was like trying to follow a lightning bolt as it came out of the sky.
All of their weapons, all seven lances and the large claymore wielded by the General, clattered to the ground, sliced into small pieces, the blue flame at the ends of the spears sputtering out haphazardly on the surface of the road. Mohon barked rapidly and moved backward to Dresden at the gate, wild-eyed and panicked.
Sonic was back where she started, calmly standing next to Rusty, the one-five retracted. She did not de-synthesize the hilt, though, just in case.
"General Weylin, I mean no harm," she said to the stunned soldier, who still had his hands up holding what was left of his broadsword – the split halves of his hilt. The sword's blade had been cloven in four, the pieces scattered on the grass.
Then she looked the man right in the eye. "But do that again and I'll cut up more than your sword, maje."
Of course, the General wouldn't understand what she said, but her tone was unambiguously clear. The General lowered his hands, still clasping the two parts of his claymore's handle.
"General! General!" The Custodian came into the circle of guards, waving both hands in front of him as if he were trying to swim through the air. "Please, stand down! They are willing guests, you fool!"
"That one tried to cast a spell!" the General said, pointing. "And the girl! She – "
" – will destroy you without so much as a twitch of her eyelids, General," the Custodian said coldly. "I recognize her power! Will you?"
The General let his hand drop. "You must keep a sharp eye on the young witch, Custodian!"
The Custodian looked at Sonic – there was no mistaking the genuine fear in his eyes – then back at the General. "Did you expect me not to? You think I'm unaware of her capability?"
"You could have warned us," the General said. It was almost a sulk. He looked at the dismounted Hepsguard, several of whom were gathering the remnants of their lances. "Mount up, for the sake of the Highest!" he said. Gone was the confidence of command he had evinced earlier. "Maintain a guard, and let's move out!" he continued, picking up the pieces of his former weapon. Then he retrieved his helmet and walked over to his own horse-thing, climbing onto it gingerly.
The Custodian looked at Sonic cautiously. "Young lady, you really should not have done that."
"The General really should not have done that," Sonic said, de-synthing the one-five handle as she spoke. "The outsider boy did not tried to cast a spell, Custodian Aris. The boy and I mean no harm."
"Understood, but you have made the General look foolish in front of his men. I assume you want to be friends with the Hepsfolk? These soldiers are not bad people. They are of the Light, young lady."
Sonic smiled at him, and cocked her head to one side. "Are you of the 'Light', Custodian?" she asked.
By the Highest... The Custodian felt a chill down his spine. He could not lose composure now! "But of course!" he said, returning the smile forcefully. It was a large smile, what Sonic would later describe as being 'ten-megawatt-plus', all charm and all nice, all sugar and all spice. The smile and the words accompanying it were a lie so thin she could have poked through it with a finger.
Sonic returned the enthusiasm anyhow, feigning relief. "You are of the Light, Custodian," she said, but thought, Problem number one identified: el Custodian is so full of it his ears are turning brown. Problem number two is obvious, then: Why?
The Custodian gestured to the road ahead of them. "We should go meet the Lord of the Hep, young outsider," he said. "You are free to do as you will, but surely even outsiders such as yourselves have a mind to be courteous to your hosts?"
"I have a mind to be courteous, Custodian Aris," Sonic said. What she wanted to add was: so far, discourtesy has come from everyone else, but didn't have the vocabulary yet. It would come, she knew. All that was needed was a babbling crowd, speaking words and thinking thoughts that she could pluck without intrusion, and what better way to draw a crowd than the arrival of 'outsiders'?
"We should go," she continued. Yep, she wanted that crowd. Like, now.
There was a tap on her shoulder. Dresden was looking at her with radiant admiration. "Sonic, how did you do that?" he asked, mouth ajar. "You just – you just moved like a – like a... And your rapier! Cut through all their weapons like – like – "
Sonic sighed. If Dresden didn't finish his sentences, she would be poorer for it. "We should go," she repeated, then took Rusty by the arm. Fortunately, the young Australian was too hypno'd to ask questions.
"'The King says'," she said to Dresden. "I'll point, you say."
"Huh?" Dresden said, still awestruck.
"You had a game when you were a child," Sonic said. "'The King says'. I'll point, and you say."
"Of course," Dresden said, recovering. "Let's keep playing the game."
The Hepsguard once more surrounded the three of them, but there were no weapons out. The remnants of their lances were being carried by the guards at the rear, leaving Sonic to wonder why the broken armaments weren't de-summoned.
Maybe they can't be de-summoned, she mused. Perhaps there are 'rules' around here, then. First rule: warranty void if weapon is broken.
She laughed. Yep, that was probably it.
"Sonic, why do you laugh so?" Dresden asked. This girl was genuinely puzzling.
But Sonic just shook her head. Instead, she pointed at one of the horse-things the Hepsguard were riding, and asked, "What is that?"