A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

“Do you want it rehabilitated?” Trevor asked.

Worto blinked slowly. “Some of it, I do. I am willing to sign a provisional treaty, and I want compensation for sending my soldiers south.”

Trevor nodded. “You will get it. I will return after consulting with the Okoran king. It isn’t polite to send an army across a country without some kind of permission.”

“I don’t need anyone’s permission,” King Worto said.

“Still, we don’t want any distractions along the way, do we?” Trevor said.

The king’s eyes narrowed. Trevor could tell he had gone about as far as he could go with the man.

Worto waved him away. “Pave the way. I will get my revenge against the Maskumites.”

That was what Trevor had wanted to hear. “As I said I’ll be back soon.” He grabbed Lissa’s hand and teleported to Tiralina, the Okoran capital.

“Is Seer Morra Deepen with the king?” Trevor asked at the gate to the king’s palace.

“She is in the palace. The seer doesn’t tell us what she is doing in there.”

“You probably don’t recognize me, but I was here some weeks ago,” Trevor said. “If you could find her…” Trevor shook his head. “Never mind.”

He grabbed Lissa’s wrist and opened a communication with the head seer. Reena had, indeed, handed Vale the new magic ring. “Can you communicate with Morra Deepen? I’m standing at the palace gate and need to speak to the king.”

“You expect me to be at your beck and call?” Lister Vale said.

“Yes. I am Dryden’s Messenger, and I’m doing some messaging.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” The head seer cut off the communication.

A few minutes later, Morra Deepen rushed to the gate. “Come in. I carved out a few minutes with King Bingador.”

Trevor and Lissa had to walk quickly to keep up with the Seer. They arrived in the Okoran monarch’s private apartments. The king was at a huge desk.

“Morra said it was important,” Bingador said impatiently.

Trevor told him the story and explained that King Worto would be spending money to get his army across the western side of his country and that it would be in Okora’s benefit to let the army pass coming and going. The king was initially against the idea, but the Okoran seer used a similar approach to Trevor and explained that Okora could get their revenge on Maskum for meddling in the country’s affairs without sending a single soldier.

With permission granted and a few royal orders signed, Trevor and Lissa teleported into the Jarkanese palace and did much the same thing with a more cooperative head of state, with the condition that the army couldn’t come within ten miles of Argara. The Jarkan king would be happy to provide supplies.

After returning to Bassington, Trevor had letters made to allow the army passage to Jarkan and its return to Brachia. The process took four hours rather than two, but it was complete, and General Henkari began to plan for the addition of a Brachian army of about ten thousand troops within the next three weeks.

Trevor didn’t worry about gathering troops at Maskum’s northern border, but he did worry about what Maskum could bring to a battle.

During all the teleporting, Lissa had insisted that she be the one to accompany Trevor to Khartoo. “It won’t be without hardship,” Trevor said. “We will be scouts.”

Lissa sighed. “We’ve been through that. I will handle whatever comes my way. I was almost a gold, after all.”

Trevor sighed. “Then we will start for the mountains tomorrow morning.”

~

After buying suitable clothes for a rough journey, Lissa and Trevor had just left the town and passed the garrison when General Henkari stopped them.

“I must insist that you take one more person on your trip,” the general said. “This is Potur Lott, a retired scout. He is half Maskumite and half Jarkanese. He knows the mountains well and has been through them to Khartoo plenty of times.”

“He has connections with villages and with smugglers?” Trevor asked.

The general blushed a bit. “There are rumors to that effect. You can prove they are right or not on your journey. He will be worth taking rather than moving about blindly on your own.”

Lissa raised an eyebrow. “A guide, then,” she said. “Trevor, we shouldn’t give up such an opportunity.”

Trevor thought, other than the fact he couldn’t transfer three people, that it might be a good idea to have another capable person along with them who had been to Khartoo before.

They said goodbye to General Henkari and introduced themselves to Potur Lott as they started. The ex-scout brought along a pack animal.

“If we are contemplating posing as smugglers at one point or another, we will need to have something to smuggle. I took the liberty of freeing the garrison of some delicacies that we can sell in Khartoo,” Potur Lott said.

He was a tall, spare man, almost as tall as Trevor, with hair just beginning to gray. The scout looked at Trevor. “You could almost pass for a Maskumite except for your eyes. Those are not the eyes of a southerner, but then I’m what would be considered a half-breed, and you both have to pretend to be as well. Maskum even has some blonde tribes in the mountains.” Potur leaned over and gazed at Lissa’s face. “Your eyes are as northern as his. Maybe we will buy a veil for you. There is nothing we can do for Trevor.” Potur broke into laughter. “What a crazy mission this is! It will be fun.”

“If we don’t get killed,” Trevor said, but his chances were reduced a bit by bringing along Potur Lott.

They continued past the crossroads and then took another road north before exiting out of the military zone. At another crossroads, they turned west toward the mountains.

“We will be heading west until nightfall,” Lott said. “There