Four Horsemen: Chapter 12 Part 1 of 2

Chapter 12:

Desari awoke to someone hammering on her room’s door. They’d spent a few hours at the guild hall submitting their report, eating, getting some pay and then heading back to the inn.

Her eyes flicked over the room, calming her breathing and lowering the dagger in her hand.

Mya looked up from the book she was reading, hand on her pistol pointed at the door.

“Who is it?” Desari called out rising from her bed, slipping her feet into her boots. Thankful she’d cleaned her gear and changed clothes before going to bed, moving along the wall to look out the window. The fighting had worn her out, mana and all.

“We’re from the church! Open the door!”

She glanced out of the window at two carriages in the street, carts rode up and down the street.

She turned towards yelling down the street, guards dragged people out to the two barred prisoner transports.

“What for?” Desari drew in her mana. Had someone noticed her threading her spells into her arrows? It would take a caster to recognize the signs and she hadn’t seen one silver adventurer up on the wall.

“The head priest demands your presence to assist in creating potions.”

Desari checked her hairclip, storing her blade and valuables.

“Coming.”

She opened the door an armored guard looked at her, casting a look into the room.

“Everything to your liking?” Desari asked.

“If you could come with us, the head priest is waiting for us.”

“What is this about?”

“We were just told to escort you there.” The man stood taller, resting his hand on his sword. His three companions in the hall mimicking him.

Desari’s eyes already found openings in their stances. Imagining tearing them down. It would be easy.

“Everything alright?” Valter asked from the room opposite, hand on his sword.

“You Valter, the smith?”

The guards turned, Desari controlled herself, it was the perfect opening. Starting a fight here would bring the church down on their heads and fast. There was nowhere for them to go.

“I do some smithing.”

“You know how to rune gear?”

“A little.”

“The church requests your presence, you’ll be paid and protected from the saboteurs within the city that the inquisition are rooting out.”

Desari raised a eyebrow at Valter.

“What do you need us for?”

“Make potions and weapons to help us.” The guard said.

“Where are we going?” She snapped at the guard.

“The Cathedral.”

Desari looked at Valter. He tilted his head to the side. Confident in their ability to get out if they needed to.

And we might find some answers. It was that or they made a run for it now.

The enemy camps had been reformed and they’d called in more reinforcements. Several champions had been spotted in the fields as well.

“Shall we?” Desari stepped out into the middle of the guards, they shuffled around, prepared to enter the room, moving to position around her.

She walked down the corridor, forcing them to catch up. She heard the sound of Mya releasing the hammer on her pistol. She smiled, well at least someone was prepared to enact violence and death to help me.

Three stayed, escorting Valter who slipped his blade into his scabbard. The guards around Desari moved faster than her, surrounding her and guiding her to the carriage.

She stepped up into the carriage, finding Kat and Carl inside.

“What’s going on?” Desari said, closing the door and sitting opposite them.

“They are looking for the best alchemists in the city, they say that there are more of the heretic gods among the walls and they might try to kill us,” Carl said.

“So this is?”

“They’re going to take us somewhere safe where we can work on potions to help with the fighting.”

“Are we under arrest?” Kat asked.

“No, no, we’re under the church’s protection. They’ll take care of us.” Carl patted her shoulder and looked out the window.

Desari offered her a tight smile and looked out another window. She didn’t have the same kind of faith in the church as Carl. They might look pure, but there were too many factors at play. Maybe she was being paranoid, but being paranoid could keep her alive.

And we’re definitely under arrest.

“How did they find out about me?”

“They were asking for alchemists of ability. I mentioned your name,” Carl smiled.

Something ugly rose in her stomach.

“Keep it from your lips.” She growled.

“What, did I do something wrong? Your ability to refine ingredients and create potions is one of the best I’ve ever seen.” He leaned forward.

“Skills that I did not want to have in the hands of people that could take away my freedoms.”

“They just want to protect us from the enemies agents,” Carl soothed.

He was too kind, too good to know the truths of the world. She took her eyes from the soft-hearted idiot and watched the streets go by.

Reins were cracked and the carriage started moving, heading up the hill.

Back to the cathedral we go. She looked over at the walls, unable to see them in the darkness.

“Were you on the walls?” Kat asked.

“Yes,” Desari looked at the young woman. “And unless old Jorai wakes up before morning, the next fight at the walls is going to be the last one.”

She shivered, looking to Carl for reassurance, his face as pale as her own as he avoided her eyes.

***

Desari woke as the carriage came to a halt. The door opened. Carl and Kat exited, Desari followed them. Like what they did with the renovations.

A path had been cleared through the remains of the cathedral, disappearing into the mountain. To the corridors and altars beyond that Desari and the others had woken in.

Prisoners were chained together and dragged off to a barracks next to the cathedral. Adventurers and traders made up the most, with a few citizens of Sorelli.

Priests headed down into the wreckage of the cathedral, out of view.

“This way.” The guards escorted her, Kat and Carl to another building, just shorter than the cathedral, white stone hewn from the mountain itself with the crest of Jorai above its grand doors. Soldiers and priests constantly walked through the doors.

She heard a carriage squeak behind her. She glanced over seeing Valter with a group of mostly men carrying aprons and smithing tools.

He raised his eyebrows. The hells going on? She shrugged and glanced at the opening under the cathedral. No clue, something to do with under there?

“I’ve never been inside the councillors building.” Kat whispered to Carl, twisting her dress in her hands.

“It is a great honour to be inside the heart of our city’s administration.” Carl said, glancing at the guards around them and the barricades that had gone up around the cathedral, lit by torches. He was looking spooked now too.

Desari saw through the low light easily, stifling a yawn under her hand.

Valter and his group were escorted under heavy guard down into the bowels of the cathedral.

The administrator building opened to a large lobby with stairs going up to the second and third floors as the first floor opened up into more offices.

The lead guard that knocked on Desari’s door talked to an administrator who pointed into the building.

“This way.”

He led them through the building, past doors opening and closing, guards and priests filled the rooms. Carl’s frown grew deeper watching it all.

“In here.” The guard opened a door, chatting quieting in the room.

Carl and Kat walked in first. Desari followed them, the room was large to fit all of alchemists inside, it fairly reeked of medicinal ingredients.

They looked at the newcomers, conversation barely lulling at the familiar faces.

Another door opened letting in a priest carrying papers. The room grew quiet at this change.

“Thank you for coming at such a late hour. We have a need for your specialities.” She put the papers down in four piles on a table at the front of the room.

“We are the alchemists of Sorelli and you pull us out of our homes by sword point?”

“Valued Alchemists, it was not our intention to scare you. Sorelli is under threat, the church, our faithful and our people require your help to persevere. These potions here will allow us to do just that. You will be split into four groups to work on these four different potions. We have work rooms set aside for you to work in. We believe the cowardly heretics will attack in the morning and we need to produce as much of these potions as possible to defeat the enemy. Sorelli is relying on all of you.”

That quietened the grumbling, making the alchemists stand taller.

Four potions made in different areas as fast as possible. Dana risked letting mana enter her eyes, reading the ingredients and the method to refine them, committing them to memory.

***