**This is the conclusion to Duel**

Jayden’s prediction for the following day proved accurate. The river abruptly turned away from their destination, forcing Jayden to beach the rowboat and then abandon it. It took hours traveling through dense forests before they came across a road, but it was too well traveled for them to use without drawing attention and possibly attacks. They crossed it quickly and continued through the woods until they found a game trail going more or less where they wanted.

“It’s weird how there are so many tiny trails like this,” Dana said. “There can’t be that many poachers and smugglers trying to stay hidden.”

“There are, but they rarely make such paths,” Jayden told her. “Most are made by hunters and loggers. Others are made by men taking the shortest route to their destinations. After all, there aren’t many roads in Meadowland compared with other kingdoms.”

“Why not?”

Jayden formed his black magic sword to hack through plants growing onto the trail. “The king and queen are legally responsible for maintaining only a few roads. The rest are the responsibility of local nobles, who often lack the money and manpower to build and maintain roads in their lands. The lack of proper roads makes life difficult for visiting merchants, back when there were visiting merchants, and slows travel within the kingdom. It makes trails like this a critical if poorly mapped and constructed necessity. Sadly it also adds to our travel time, as this road is not going in a straight line where we want to go.”

Dana smiled at him. “Feel like making your own trail?”

“Tempting, but doing so would leave obvious signs we’d been here.”

“Kind of late to worry about that when so many people saw us on the river.”

Jayden cut through a tree branch blocking the trail. “They saw us only briefly and wouldn’t know where we were going. Most wouldn’t tell the authorities, as love for the king and queen is low and dropping.”

There was a snap ahead of them, and they stopped talking. Jayden got off the trail and waved for Dana to join him. Silence followed until a voice called out, “We both know the other is there. I think we can go our separate ways, no harm done.”

Jayden’s eyes narrowed. “You place a good deal of trust in my good nature.”

“Most folks I meet leave well enough alone. Chances are good you’ll do the same.”

Dana put on her mask. “If they were with the king and queen, they’d run from us or attack. Let’s trust them.”

“They could be dangerous and have nothing to do with the royal couple, but it’s encouraging that they seek peace.” Jayden called out, “Fair warning, if our meeting ends badly, you will regret it more than I will.”

“I don’t doubt it.” The stranger approached slowly. He was young with mud stained clothes and a heavily loaded backpack. Three more men followed him, all four armed with swords they kept sheathed. They looked nervous like they would run if they could, but their backpacks looked too heavy for a swift escape. They were also about the age where they could be conscripted, and might be on the run from pressgangs.

The man in front studied Jayden carefully. “I’ve heard about you. Didn’t think we’d ever meet.”

“You’re a smuggler if ever I’ve seen one,” Jayden said. “What are you carrying?”

The smuggler opened his backpack to show jars filled with brown powder, and the others did the same. “Sweet bark, paid for in advance. I’d just as soon we not fight.”

Jayden stepped aside to let them pass. “Go.”

The smuggler nodded and led his group away. Jayden watched them leave before leading Dana down the trail. He frowned before saying, “Many such men carry what would be legitimate cargo anywhere else, merely trying to avoid being taxed or having their goods seized, but it’s still a bad sign. Smugglers can carry dangerous cargo as easily as not. That the profession has become so common is a serious inditement against the king and queen.”

Dana took off her mask. “That’s why you checked what they had.”

“I’ve destroyed smugglers’ cargos when I found them carrying poison, combat drugs or wyvern eggs. I imagine I’ll do so again before the year is out. It annoys me that I must do the authorities’ jobs for them.”

* * * * *

It took another two days to reach the border with Bascal, a mountainous and heavily wooded region. Dana and Jayden had to avoid large, heavily armed army patrols, and towns fortified with walls and barricades until they looked like small fortresses. For a change Jayden showed the caution the situation deserved. He picked his way through game trails and along streams, moving ever closer to their destination. They finally came upon a wide grassy clearing with a road running through it.

“Almost there,” he promised. “Getting my prize may prove harder than reaching it, but I know of nowhere else I am certain to find Sorcerer Lord spell tablets. It is this or nothing.”

“Then we’ll be sure to be on our best behavior,” she teased him.

“You consistently ask the impossible of me.”

“It’s only impossible until you do it,” she told him.

“Hello!” a cheerful voice called out. Dana froze and Jayden drew his sword. There was a pause before the voice called out, “Come, come, let’s not waste each other’s time, Sorcerer Lord. We both have places to be and things to do.”

“Sounds friendly,” Dana said.

“He does,” Jayden agreed.

“Good chance he’ll try to kill us?”

“Perceptive of you. Mask on and sword out, Dana.”

Jayden led her onto the grassy clearing, where they spotted a large carriage pulled by four horses parked in a shady spot nearby. The carriage had no windows and a single large door held shut by locks and chains. The carriage’s driver was equally odd, a white haired gnome half Dana’s height. He wore obnoxiously bright clothes with feathers around his shoulders, and carried only a thin wood cane.

“Phineas Bargle, at your disservice,” the gnome said. “I thought we’d talk one wizard to another.”

“Charming,” Jayden said as he came to a stop fifty feet from the carriage. “I must admit to being curious. I use potent magic to prevent men from finding me, yet you have done just that.”

Phineas took a pipe from his pocket and tapped tobacco from a pouch into the end. “Your magic is effective. I spent weeks trying to locate you with spells that should have been able to find a specific flea on a horse five hundred miles away. You can imagine my frustration when they didn’t work.”

Jayden’s eyes narrowed. “Yet here you are.”

“When magic didn’t work, I used logic. You were seen assassinating a foreign wizard assigned to General Vander. I was nearby when it happened.”

“It wasn’t an assassination,” Jayden correct the gnome.

Phineas shrugged. “Call it what you will. I don’t judge. I picked up your trail and lost it nearly as fast, but I found people who’d seen you. I could have torn the information from their minds, but they answered me with only the slightest prompting and a few coins for their words. Many of them described you going in the same direction and at some speed.” The gnome snapped his fingers and formed a flame to light his pipe. “Once I knew that, I made logical deductions on where you could be going and followed you.”

“How did you get ahead of us?” Dana asked.

Phineas smirked and tapped his cane on his carriage. The carriage rocked in response, as whatever was inside stirred. “I move faster than you on roads you can’t set foot on without bringing a hundred soldiers down on your heads.”

“That still doesn’t make sense,” Dana said. “We traveled by water for a while.”

“Where men saw you.” Phineas took a deep breath from his pipe and exhaled a smoke ring. “Men here aren’t loyal to the king and his meddlesome queen, but most have little love for you, or are so desperate for coins that they’d sell you out. Why, one time I learned what I needed to know for a jar of strawberry jam.”

Jayden scowled. “The sunken. I should have expected it to betray me.”

“Betrayed?” Phineas asked. “The way he tells it, you bartered for safe transit only. You should have paid for secrecy, too. Anyway, once I had enough information, I narrowed down your possible destinations to three places. This was the leading candidate. It was simple enough to get ahead of you and wait. If you hadn’t come in another day or so I would have tried the other two, but that’s proven unnecessary.”

“I likely know the answer already, but who do you work for?” Jayden asked.

“Now that’s an interesting question, with many possible answers,” the gnome replied. “On paper I work for King Tyros and Queen Amvicta. Is it just me, or is it odd how her name keeps getting attached to his decisions?”

“It’s not just you,” Dana told him.

“Didn’t think so.” The gnome took another breath from his pipe and blew smoke through his nose. “They hired me and assigned me to work with a few other individuals to find and kill you.”

Jayden swept his arms out. “We seem to be alone.”

“I abandoned them a week ago. We’d have ended up killing each other if I hadn’t. Bloody psychopaths. Back to my original topic, we were promised a dukedom for killing you.” Phineas leaned forward. “The same dukedom you ruined.”

“If I’m supposed to feel ashamed, I’m not.”

Phineas waved his pipe in front of him. “Shame? Don’t know the meaning of the word. The manor house is gone along with a largish warehouse, the servants and soldiers ran off, and what little remained was looted. It would cost a fortune just to make it livable. I suppose the land would generate money to do the job, except the last duke earned his fortune through trade. I don’t have his business connections.”

“The prize isn’t worth having,” Jayden said.

“Exactly. If I kill you, I’ll be stuck being in charge of ruined property. Would humans take orders from someone half their size? I’d rather not find out. My coworkers were willing to take the chance it would work, or at least provide a steady supply of victims, but I know a bad bet when I see one.”

Puzzled, Dana asked, “Why are you here if you don’t want what they’re paying?”

“I’m getting to that.” Phineas leaned back and tapped his cane on the carriage. Again it rocked as its passenger responded to the tap. “I’ve been in Meadowland for a month, long enough to see the kingdom is going to fail. Whether they win or lose the war doesn’t matter. Victory means trying to hold onto more land than they can control. Losing means decades of rebuilding or worse. It’s bad business, but a clever fellow can profit from disaster.”

Jayden frowned. “If you expect something from me, prepare yourself for disappointment.”

Phineas shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no. I’m going to make you an offer I think you’ll take. You want King Tyros’ invasions to fail and soon. My departure from Meadowland helps that process. One thousand gold coins in cash or treasure and my associate in the carriage and I leave, never to return, and we won’t tell anyone where you are.”

“Will your clan be satisfied with so little?” Jayden asked.

Phineas chuckled and added more tobacco to his pipe. “I parted ways with them long ago. A thousand gold coins will allow me to live a life of debauchery for years to come, reward enough for me.”

“I don’t have that much money,” Jayden told him.

“But you’ve found Sorcerer Lord spell tablets,” Phineas countered. “I doubt you’ve parted company with those. Your escapades have generated quite a bit of interest in shadow magic. Men will pay gold for those in the hopes they can learn their secrets.”

Jayden eyed the gnome with undisguised anger. It didn’t take Dana long to realize why. Jayden was risking much in the hopes of getting more spell tablets, not losing the ones he had. Dana figured he didn’t need the ones he already owned after learning the spells, but to give them to a stranger meant risking evil men might learn how to use them. There was no telling how much damage a wicked man could do if he could make a black whip or giant hand. Jayden would be responsible for the damage.

“No,” Jayden said firmly. “My secrets are mine and mine alone. If others want them, they will have to earn them. We might be able to bargain, Phineas, but my magic isn’t on the table and never will be.”

“I thought you might say that,” Phineas said casually. “Have you heard of Braxton Bix?”

“Braxton the Betrayer?” Jayden asked. “Also called the Burglar and the Butcher.”

“That’s a lot of nicknames,” Dana said.

“All of them well earned,” Jayden told her. “Braxton hasn’t been seen in twenty years, a loss to no one.”

“He hasn’t been seen because I have him.” Phineas took a puff from his pipe. “He’s not the man he used to be. Technically he’s not a man at all. He stole secrets of troll magic used to permanently enhance their people. If you’ve ever wondered why trolls are so strong, that’s why. The fool experimented on himself. It’s delicate magic, not to be handled by the greedy, impatient and inept. Braxton equals an adult troll in strength, endurance and health, but at a cost to him that frightens even me. Dominating what little remained of his mind was child’s play. He follows my orders, generally, and is brutal in battle. My mind spells may not be an equal to your shadow magic, but Braxton tips the scales in my favor.”

“So it’s armed robbery,” Jayden said.

Phineas emptied out his pipe onto the ground. “Call it what you will, but be careful judging your chances against me. I know what you’re capable of, and I’m confident of victory. Lose some of what you have or all of it. Your choice.”

Jayden’s answer was as vengeful as Dana expected. “You claim to know my measure yet make a demand I’d never give in to. Only recently I gave a petty, hateful being what it had no right to, a move that clearly backfired. I showed the sunken mercy by not killing it. I’m out of mercy. You are a pathetic, hateful, greedy excuse for a person, and I will give you nothing except the beating you so clearly deserve. Whatever monster rides inside your carriage, unleash it and you will leave alone and empty handed, or not at all.”

“I see,” Phineas replied.

“I suspect the Inspired have come to Meadowland,” Jayden continued. “I don’t know if you’re part of that arrogant cabal or merely a parasite happy to snatch what you can. Whether you work alone as you claim or are a part of a larger group doesn’t matter. My decision is final.”

Phineas put his pipe into a coat pocket. “I hadn’t heard the Inspired were here. It’s another reason to leave, but I won’t leave poor. Pity you weren’t more reasonable.”
Phineas raised his cane, and screamed in terror as a javelin missed his head and sank deep into the top of his carriage.

“Traitor!”

The shout echoed across the clearing, startling Phineas as much as it did Dana and Jayden. The trio that came from the woods to the north must cause nightmares among any who saw them. The first was a wild eyed man wearing leather armor with blue spiraling marks running down the arms and legs. He carried another javelin and a longsword. The second was wrapped head to toe in badly stitched together black leather and carried a sickle that glowed red. The last person was wrapped in dirty silk, and Dana saw things moving inside of it.

“Your associate?” Jayden asked as he cast a spell to form his black magic sword.

“Loosely speaking, yes,” Phineas admitted. “Immortal has died hundreds of times and keeps coming back, Ghost Hunter is as brutal as he looks, and Web, well, less said the better.”

“You thought to kill the Sorcerer Lord alone and leave us out of the reward,” Immortal snarled as he prepared to throw another javelin. The blue markings on his leather armor kept moving, sometimes spelling hateful words before changing again. The man practically exuded rage, spitting as he yelled, “Filthy, stinking, stunted gnome, I’ll skin you!”

Phineas raised his cane. “Gentlemen, I found our target and kept him here for you.”

Ghost Hunter raised his sickle. “Save your lies for someone who believes them.”

Web was even more disgusting as it came close enough to see clearly. Its entire body was made up of spiders crawling around inside of web spun to look like a man. A large red eye slid around inside it, pushing spiders aside or running over them and crushing them. “Found, kill, eat.”

“How did they find us?” Dana asked Jayden.

“No idea,” he admitted.

“I spent days outside my body looking for you when you left in the night,” Ghost Hunter told Phineas. His uniform was made of scraps of leather sewn together with coarse thread, and had no holes for his eyes, nose or mouth. Here and there bits of leather stuck out from his body and gave him a careless, disheveled look. “No one cheats me and lives.”

“No one who spends time near you lives for long,” Phineas countered.

Jayden glanced at Phineas as their enemies approached. “If they live, they’ll report your treachery to the king and queen. Work with us and that won’t happen.”

“I’m on no one’s side but my own,” Phineas told him, and rapped his cane against the the door to his carriage. Locks snapped open, chains fell loose, and the door opened to release a revolting mockery of a man eight feet tall with bulging muscles, clawed hands, a head that was mostly mouth and wearing nothing except a loincloth. He reeked of body odor and rotting meat, and had long yellowed fangs in place of teeth. Caked in mud and covered in scars, the brute stepped out of the carriage.

Phineas waved his cane across the clearing. “Kill them all.”

For a few precious seconds Dana thought she and Jayden wouldn’t have to do anything except watch. The brute galloped across the grassy clearing on his hands and feet before leaping at Immortal. The two fought like mad dogs, snarling and shouting, but Ghost Hunter and Web ignored their ally’s peril. Web came for Dana, its limbs moving unnaturally and hissing, “Enemy, victim, food!”

“That one’s yours,” Dana told Jayden.

He stepped in front of her. “Agreed.”

“Then the girl’s head is mine!” Ghost Hunter yelled as he charged Dana. She had no idea how he could see when his uniform had no eye slits, but the lack didn’t bother him as he lashed out with his sickle. Dana blocked it with Chain Cutter, but didn’t cut through the sickle. The two met with a shower of sparks and enough force to shake her arm. Ghost Hunter swung again, this time aiming low at her knees. Dana blocked him again.

“Die, you miserable cow!” Ghost Hunter yelled at her.

“That’s just rude!” Dana wasn’t impressed with her opponent. He was strong and fast, but far from the strongest or fastest she’d fought, and his fighting style was sloppy. She’d been studying under Jayden for half a year and was a match for Ghost Hunter.

Ghost Hunter aimed for her head with his next attack and she ducked under his sickle. She swung upwards trying to hit his weapon and knock it out of his hands. Her aim was too good, or Ghost Hunter was more incompetent than she’d though, and Chain Cutter sliced off his right hand.

Dana jumped back in horror. “Oh my God! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! You’re, you’re bleeding sawdust?”

Dry sawdust poured from the wound, and Ghost Hunter’s right arm sagged and fell limp at his side like an empty shirt sleeve. Shock froze Dana for a second as Ghost Hunter snatched up his weapon with his left hand. Immortal, still fighting the brute, yelled to Ghost Hunter, “Walk it off, kid!”

“I did not see that coming,” Dana admitted.

“It didn’t hurt,” Ghost Hunter snarled. “It will hurt when I do the same to you.”

Their duel ended when Web ran between them, screaming, “Flee, escape, survive!”

Jayden followed the nightmarish monster with his shield of spinning black blades and magic sword. Web had four deep gashes in its back and arms, and live spiders spilled out of them. It tried to reach the forest and the cover the trees would provide. Jayden struck Web across the right heel with his sword, and when the monster fell he ran through it with the spinning blades. His shield of blades ended, but not before shredding Wed. Bits of webbing and spiders flew through the air like confetti. Jayden stomped on the creature’s large red eye when it landed on the ground. He looked at Ghost Hunter and announced, “Next.”

“You think this is a game?” Ghost Hunter yelled. “You think this is funny?”

“Moderately amusing. I’m curious what will happen if you suffer a head wound. You’ll be empty headed in every sense of the word.”

Ghost Hunter howled in outrage, a cry cut short when Immortal flew through the air to hit him in the back, sending them both tumbling to the ground. The brute lumbered after them and casually took a swipe at Jayden. Jayden tried to run but was a second too slow, and he was knocked alongside his two enemies. The brute seized Immortal by the heels before the man could get up and swung him into the ground. Dana tried to help Jayden up, but Ghost Hunter got between them.

“Die, you stinking wench!” Ghost Hunter clearly wasn’t ambidextrous, because his swings were even wilder and easier to block than before. He tried to kick her and even made an attempt to headbutt her, missing both times. “You think you’re better than me! You’re trying to make me look stupid! Die!”

“Shut up!” she yelled back. Ghost Hunter made a powerful overhead swing and she stepped out of the way. The swing left his sickle near the ground for a second, too far down to block her attacks. Dana didn’t want to hurt Ghost Hunter any more than she already had, but he wasn’t stopping. She slashed Chain Cutter across his chest, slicing through his leather clothes and spilling gallons of sawdust. He struggled to lift his sickle before she brought her sword back the other way to cut off his left arm at the elbow. Sawdust flew from the wounds as Ghost Hunter fell over.

Then he got up, no longer a menacing figure in black, but a translucent ghost, a boy a year or two younger than Dana. For a second she felt pity for him. Was this who he really was, a spirit occupying a fake body? Her pity vanished when the ghost looked at her with such loathing she stepped back. His lips formed the words, “I’ll get you,” before he vanished.

“Dana, a little help,” Jayden called.

She turned away from Ghost Hunter’s remains to see Jayden and Immortal trying to stop the brute. The lumbering monster moved faster than she would have expected, and suffered only cuts from what should have been killing blows. Jayden’s enhanced speed from his magic sword helped him land a shallow blow before the brute seized Immortal with both hands and crushed him. Dana screamed as Immortal crumbled to dust and a glowing orb burst from his remains. The light shot into the sky until it was lost to sight.

“Pity he won’t stay dead,” Phineas said from on top of his carriage.

Dana ignored the brute and charged the gnome instead. The brute howled and ran after her. She raced up to the carriage and hacked off its back left wheel with Chain Cutter. The wagon nearly tipped over and Phineas was thrown screaming to the ground. Dana stood over him with her sword raised.

“Call him off!”

“I can’t,” the gnome said. “He won’t stop fighting while enemies stand.”

The brute caught up with her and landed a blow strong enough to send her flying ten feet. She cried out in pain when she landed, a cry nearly as great as the brute’s when a giant black hand rammed into him and threw him into the damaged carriage. The carriage tipped over and the horses panicked as they were pulled down with it.

Phineas swore bitterly as he got up. Dana winced as she staggered to her feet and went after the gnome. She didn’t know what spells he could cast, and had no desire to learn. The gnome saw her coming, and he uttered strange words as he pointed his cane at her.
Dana cried out in surprise as the world spun around her. She couldn’t tell which way was up and staggered like a drunk before falling to her knees. Phineas chuckled and say, “I’d heard you were dangerous. How disappointing.”

“Shouldn’t have done that,” Dana said as she shook her head.

“Pray tell, why not?”

“No one hurts my friends!” Jayden yelled. He sent his magic hand hurling into the brute, knocking him onto Phineas. The gnome screamed and tried to get out from beneath his monstrous slave. “No one!”

Dana’s senses returned to normal, and she got up. “That’s why.”

The brute got up and lunged at Jayden, only for the giant magic hand to swing down from above onto the brute, sending him to the ground again. Jayden and Dana both charged and struck before their foe could rise. Magic swords struck with terrifying results. The brute made one last effort to stand before falling to his knees, and then to the ground.

Phineas scrambled to his feet and pointed his cane at Jayden. He uttered the same words as before, but the Sorcerer Lord stood firm. Phineas gasped. “No.”

“It seems my mind cloud is sufficient defense against your attempts to influence me,” he snarled at the gnome. “Without your protector you’re no threat to us, and shortly you’ll be a threat to no one. I gave you fair warning, gnome. You’ve only yourself to blame for what comes next.”

A look of horror crossed Phineas’ face as he backed up to his carriage. Dana wasn’t sure if she should stop Jayden when the gnome had tried to kill them, and may have killed others with his pet monster. The matter was taken out of her hands when Phineas cast another spell. To their amazement the brute stood up, his movements jerky as he stumbled after Dana and Jayden. Dana drove Chain Cutter into the brute from one side and Jayden attacked from the other. Their swords left terrible wounds as the brute staggered like a badly handled puppet. The brute tried to club them with his massive forearms, but was so clumsy they had no trouble dodging him.

They struck again, finally dropping the brute before turning to Phineas. The gnome had used his distraction to cut loose one of his horses from its harness. The frightened animal struggled to its feet with the gnome holding onto its mane, and it galloped away. Jayden sent his giant magic hand after the gnome, but the horse ran faster than the hand could fly, and Phineas escaped into the woods.

“No!” Jayden ran a few steps after them before realizing the effort was fruitless. Snarling mad, he hacked the damaged carriage apart. Noise from the battle brought a pair of Meadowland spearmen to investigate. They stared at Jayden as he chopped the carriage in half, then turned his menacing gaze on them. Both men ran for their lives.

His fury spent, Jayden returned to Dana. She stared at their fallen foes. The brute was dead, his misshapen body horribly damaged. Immortal was a pile of ashes. Ghost Hunter’s spirit was gone, his false body reduced to tattered black leather and piles of sawdust. There was even less left of Web.

“Was that necromancy when the body got back up?” Dana asked hesitantly.

Jayden looked at the fallen brute. “No. I’ve heard of this spell before. Bodies die in stages. Phineas used his magic to control what little of the brute remained alive. The spell could have kept his body moving for a few minutes until even that was impossible.”

“How many,” Dana began, but found it hard to go on. She took a deep breath and asked, “How many more monsters like this did the king and queen bring into Meadowland? Cimmox the necromancer, Victory’s Edge, these, these things? How many more are in the kingdom?”

Jayden sheathed his magic sword and picked up Ghost Hunter’s magic sickle. “I don’t know. Cimmox claimed the royal couple weren’t discriminating when they sought help for their war. There could be dozens like these villains here or on their way.”

“That spider thing wanted to eat us! What will happen to people living here with monsters like that on the loose? People could get hurt, killed!”

Jayden struggled to rein in his anger. “The risk to Meadowland’s people is staggering.”

Feeling lost and scared, she asked, “How do we save them?

“We seek help from any who will give it.” Jayden bent down to comfort the horses Phineas had left behind. All three were terrified from the battle, and their fear only slowly ebbed. “If nothing else we now have proper mounts and no need to relinquish them. Come, Dana, let us see if King Rascan is willing to bargain with us.”