True to his word, Cullan returned with Morag a few minutes later and, to Verdan’s surprise, the stern Eternal Warden immediately agreed to help them.

  He’d expected to need to barter with her, especially after she’d helped with the construct horses. Instead, she seemed more interested in the opportunity to work on a new project and quickly got to work reshaping the joints.

  Verdan hadn’t really given much thought to her changes last time, but the efficiency of the constructs was slightly better than he’d expected. After some thought, he’d confirmed it was down to the joints working more naturally and needing less Aether to make it work.

  In some ways, it was probably linked to the visualisation he was using as well. He’d based them on real horses, after all, which weren’t all one solid piece.

  With that in mind, all three of them were watching carefully as Morag showed what she was doing. She seemed quite knowledgeable on the subject, but eventually she’d be leaving.

  Once she did, Verdan would need someone else to do this part, or have the knowledge himself.

  A few hours later, they were well into the evening and a little past the point that Verdan had wanted to stop, but the construct was done.

  Right now, it was simply a humanoid construct with nothing special about it beyond its joints and clearly defined hands. Tomorrow, he’d have Magnus and Dirk carving the Aether-gathering Sigils into it, and then they’d work on the rest.

  Verdan had no idea if it would be ready for when they fought the Cyth, but it was at least partially operational now. Even if they were to fight tomorrow, he was confident that he could make a difference with what they’d made.

  That’s what it came down to in the end, the ability to save lives and make a difference. Verdan wanted a champion of his own, someone who could help hold the line and hold back the most dangerous of the Cyth.

  A Wizard’s greatest weakness was being caught unprepared, and Verdan’s newest creation would help prevent just that.

  With the last joint done, Morag yawned and bid them a goodnight before heading off to get some sleep.

  “Anything else you need from us, Master?” Dirk asked, rubbing one eye while trying to look perky and ready for more.

  “Not tonight,” Verdan said, waving them off. “Go get some sleep. We’ll finish it tomorrow.”

  Nodding and yawning, the two stumbled off into the dark, leaving Verdan to make his way back alone. His thoughts about having a champion circled back to the front of his mind and he frowned slightly.

  The raw capability of the construct would be dependant on the spell he used to create it. The horses were only a minor draw because they were a comparatively minor spell. They would also be broken apart by Cyth Lai in mere moments in a fight.

  If he was going to really build something exceptional, he needed a better spell as well. Something that would lay the foundation for what he wanted to build.

  His mind whirling with potential spells and visualisations, Verdan crawled into his bedroll and let sleep claim him.

  -**-

  The morning saw Verdan casting the basic spell he’d used on the horses to get his newest construct moving. It was far from what he wanted to have for the final version, but it would do for now.

  “It looks fearsome, even without weapons,” Natalia said, eyeing the seven-foot tall stone construct as it strode along beside their wagon.

  “It is,” Verdan said, eyeing the rough features that they’d shaped into the stone. Morag had added key areas of definition to make it seem more human-like and shaped its face to seem almost like a blank mask that it wore. “We’ll be doing more to it, though. Especially once we can work on its equipment.”

  “At least weaponry won’t be a problem,” Natalia said with a chuckle, turning her attention back to the path ahead of them.

  “What do you mean?” Verdan cocked his head to one side slightly, not quite following.

  “Well, it’s the same size as Cullan, right? I assumed that you did that so it could use one of his spare weapons. Or did you have something else in mind?”

  “I actually hadn’t even considered that,” Verdan said, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. He’d been planning a giant stone spear, just like before, but something designed to be a weapon would be far better.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Resolving to talk to Cullan about it at some point, Verdan stretched his back before settling into a comfortable position and starting to meditate.

  They were travelling fast and wouldn’t be stopping for anything short of an emergency, so he might as well get some more work done to prepare himself.

  With the work he’d already managed on the road so far, he’d finished his twentieth spiral and was a third of the way through the next one.

  Dangerous missions like this truly did help focus the mind, and he was making good progress because of it. A few more months and he might have reached the previous peak of his strength.

  Holding on to that encouraging thought, Verdan got to work.

  -**-

  A few hours later, he was jostled free of his meditative state by a worried-looking Natalia.

  “What is it?” Verdan sat up, blinking as he went through the familiar process of shifting his gathering spiral back to the partitioned section of his mind.

  “Look, over there,” Natalia pointed off in the distance, just to one side of where they were heading.

  A plume of smoke was visible above the trees. It was thick and concentrated, making it too big to be campfire or something equally small. Unfortunately, that didn’t leave many good options.

  Unsurprisingly, he could see some of their mounted scouts breaking off from their protective screen of the caravan to go investigate.

  Ordinarily, he’d be worried that losing any of their screen would be incredibly dangerous, but he doubted this was a Cyth ambush. It wasn’t their style.

  Even as he dismissed the potential threat, Verdan realised that he was forgetting about the Brotherhood. They were no doubt active in the area, and while he didn’t consider it likely that they would the alliance directly, some sabotage would be more in line with what he’d seen so far.

  Instead of going back to his meditation, Verdan waited and kept a vigilant watch on their surroundings until the scouts returned.

  The Pathfinder conferred with the returned riders before the scouts returned to their positions and things returned to normal.

  Satisfied that whatever had happened hadn’t been an immediate threat, Verdan returned to his meditation.

  Natalia’s gasp of shock drew him back out of his work some time later, and he realised that they had drawn level with the smoke, which had faded down to only a slight plume.

  Following Natalia’s gaze, Verdan saw that the trees lining the road had been cut back to give space for a small settlement. It had been little more than an inn with some outbuildings and a stables, or at least, that was his best guess.

  The burnt ruins of the buildings were still smouldering from whatever had happened, but the smoke they’d seen had been from a pyre built at the edge of the cleared space.

  A dozen survivors were waiting by the side of the road, carrying everything they had left on their backs. None of them had escaped without injury, but two of them looked to be on their last legs.

  “I’ll get my potions,” Natalia said, passing the reins to Verdan as she slipped into the rear of the wagon. Returning a few moments later, she passed a small satchel to him. “Don’t use your magic unless you have to. Rely on my potions to do the work.”

  “Understood,” Verdan said with a nod, grabbing his staff and dropping down from the wagon to head over to the waiting survivors.

  Silver and Galstar were already on the way as well, the Commander giving Verdan a nod and a subtle gesture as he moved to speak to the leader of the group.

  Understanding the Commander’s intent, Verdan went to the worst of the wounded first, pulling out a pair of viscous potions. These were some of Natalia’s recent work, and while they weren’t as palatable as what she made with her lab, they were just as strong.

  “Here, drink these,” Verdan said, passing each of them a vial. “I’m Verdan.”

  Now that he was up close, Verdan could see that both of the survivors with the worst injuries were two men in their late thirties. Oddly, they both seemed to lack some of the shock in the eyes of the others.

  “Thank you,” the closer of the men said, uncorking the potion and knocking it back in a practiced motion. “I’m Alden, this is my brother, Neld. Gods bless you for your aid, Verdan.”

  Alden and Neld were both dark-haired men with a clear Kranjir heritage and were wearing mismatched clothing.

  “I’m glad we could help,” Verdan said, passing the satchel to one of the other survivors with instructions to deal out the potions. “What happened here?”

  “Damn Cyth is what happened,” Neld said in a gravelly voice, grimacing with distaste as he spoke. “Gods-cursed things followed us all the way out here.”

  “Followed you?” Verdan said, glancing between them questioningly.

  “We used to live in Ramoria,” Alden said, giving his brother a quelling look. “There were rumours of Cyth up there, and once we realised they were real, we left. What we saw here was beyond that, though. I’ve never seen so many monsters in one place.”

  “How did you survive?”

  “Sheer luck,” Alden said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Only a small group broke off from the main group, but they were enough to slaughter everyone. A fire broke out as they were finishing people off and that gave us enough cover to get the last few out the back and run. For whatever reason, they didn’t chase us past the treeline.”

  “They didn’t want to slow down,” Verdan said, his last hope of catching the Cyth on the road slowly withering. It seemed the leader of the Host knew it was being chased, or at least it knew that time was limited.

  “The riders told us to gather here and that you’d give food and water,” Alden said, bringing Verdan’s attention back to him. “But is it true that you’re hunting them down?”

  “We are. We know where they’re going and we’ll do our best to stop them before they get there.”

  “In that case, we’d like to come with you,” Alden said firmly, already looking healthier as the potion did its work. “We used our spears to brace the doors of the inn and hold the Cyth back, but if you’ve got weapons, we’ll use them. We’ve had training and know how to fight.”

  Verdan considered them both for a moment before nodding and pointing over to where Nikau and the rest of his guards were marching. “Captain Nikau is over there. Head to him and explain the situation, give my name. I’ll bring you along as part of my people, which will mean weapons and armour for you both, as well as food and shelter on the way. I can’t promise much more than that, though.”

  “That’s all we need,” Alden said, getting to his feet and holding a hand out to Verdan for a firm handshake. “We just want to help. We owe everyone that much.”

  Verdan nodded, though his instincts were telling him that there was something more to this than they were saying.