The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

the Shades, the brute held. Kun’s Mystics broke like a wave around her. And she, like a boulder in the surf, held them off until they had to withdraw. Her greatsword came around in a grand sweep. A handful of redcloaks struck the bloody slush, never to rise again.

A curse slipped out of me. I had lost sight of Mag in the press. Hopefully, she would recognize the woman’s power from my descriptions of Trisken. If she could strike at the tattoo I guessed was on the back of her neck, we might bring her down, which would be a grievous blow to the Shades.

And then a raven swooped out of the sky, and I forgot all about Mag and the brute.

The raven plunged straight into the Shades’ midst. No natural bird would have landed there during a battle. And if I needed any more confirmation, it came in a flash of magelight. Soon Kaita was visible among the press, shouting orders to her fellows.

I could not take my eyes from her. My drawing hand had stilled, and no shafts flew from my string. Hallan paused in his firing, looking at me strangely. He reached over and seized my shoulder, shaking it.

“Sergeant!” he cried.

I roused myself from my thoughts. Kaita could wait.

Where was Mag? Still, I could not see her. But there was the brute woman, holding the Shade line firm.

“Everyone!” I cried. “If you are a good enough shot not to hit our allies, loose your arrows at the giant!”

I pointed her out—as if they needed help to spot her—and then drew and fired my arrow. Six more shafts joined mine. Two missed, but that still sent five arrows slamming into her chest, her neck, her arms.

The brute reeled back. The Shades around her buckled in dismay.

Now the Mystics pressed forwards. Three sank blades deep into the brute’s torso. I watched her cough up blood.

My gaze darted back to Kaita. She looked at the brute woman, and she screamed. In anger? In grief? I did not know, for I could not hear.

One ambitious Mystic swung his blade for the brute’s neck. But she was not as grievously wounded as he thought. With a roar, she caught his sword in her hand. It sank into the flesh, but she gritted her teeth and bore it. Then she seized the Mystic around the neck and crushed his face with her forehead. His whole body went limp, and he fell to the ground.

The other redcloaks drew back, nervous. That gave the brute the moment she needed to stand. Even as I watched, her skin began to stitch over the gaping wounds in her body. She drew in ragged breaths and hefted her greatsword again.

But another volley of arrows fell upon the Shades, and more of them dropped to the ground. The brute looked back at her allies, and I saw her hesitate. She did not know if there were more soldiers in these woods, waiting to pounce.

As the muscles in her jaw spasmed and then clenched as hard as iron, she raised her greatsword and pointed it north.

“Retreat!” she cried, and the word shook the very air, though her voice was thick with the blood in her lungs. “North! Retreat!”

I looked to Kaita again. She had taken up the call as well, shoving the Shades around her towards the trees—towards us.

And then I saw Mag.

She and her squadron had begun to fall back, retreating before the Shades as Kun had ordered. But Mag had stopped. She was looking at Kaita, who stood amid the Shades a span away.

Their eyes met across the battlefield.

Both of them stood motionless, gazes locked. Around Kaita, the Shades fled straight towards us, towards the trees that promised safety. Around Mag, her squadron wavered, unsure, not wishing to abandon their sergeant.

“Mag!”

My voice cut through the battle. Mag swiveled to look at me.

But there was Kaita. Mag turned back.

“Mag!” I barked again. Her gaze drew inexorably back to me. “Not yet.”

She heaved a great sigh. And she nodded, turning to her squad. I saw her order the retreat, though I could not hear the words.

“Retreat!” I called out. “West, into the woods!”

My unit looked ready to melt with relief, for the Shades were now only half a span away. They began to head west, but I hesitated a moment more, looking back towards Kaita.

She had not moved. She was looking at Mag, even as Mag’s unit withdrew. And in that moment, it was as if I could hear the silent words in her mind.

Not yet, I had said. And now I heard Kaita promise, But soon.

I turned and followed my squadron. The Shades fled north towards the hills, just as Kun had planned, and we gathered to wait for the rest of our forces to catch up.

“And was she correct?” said Sun.

“Hm?” Albern was studying the streets and barely seemed to have heard Sun’s question.

“Kaita. Was she correct? Was it soon that she and Mag faced each other at last?”

Albern sighed. “Still eager for the end. Well, be assured, it is coming. It was not long at all before it happened.”

“Thank the sky,” said Sun. “Let us hear it, then.”

“Ah-ah,” said Albern. “You shall have to wait a little while. We have arrived.”

He stopped, and Sun groaned as she skidded to a halt beside him. They stood in front of a building that looked like a simple shop but for the thick wooden beam barring the front door.

“This place?” said Sun. “It looks to be closed. You should keep telling the story while we wait for it to open.”

“It is meant to look abandoned,” said Albern, chuckling. “Yet it is very much occupied. Come.”

He led her around the back of the building. In the rear was another, smaller door. Sun had seen this sort of shop before. Behind the door would be a stair leading up to an apartment. Albern knocked in a strange pattern: three times, then a