“Get down!” Jeha hissed.

Talis dropped flat onto her stomach. Her nails dug into the dirt and she could smell the iron in the air. She knew that it could only mean that someone was attacking their group. She crawled on her front and scoured the area looking for Kloe and Aliope.

“Talis, over here!” Kloe shouted.

Her friend was hiding in a bush just off the trail with Aliope beside her. They both crouched down within the thorns and Talis recognized that they were made using Aliope’s Tatu when she saw the green diamond shaped leaves light up on his right wrist. Talis looked up and saw a large chunk of earth hit a soldier near her. She jumped away from the soldier who took the hit directly to the chest and was knocked flat on his back. Talis’s gaze followed the trajectory of the thrown object and saw a creature that looked to be made of dirt, grass and stone. It stood at least two body lengths tall and bore a haunting grin across its maw.

“Come on!” Aliope barked, motioning Talis toward them.

Talis shook her head. “If we don’t fight with them, we’ll fall the same as them.” As she spoke she summoned a wisp of air in her hand.

Talis brought her left hand on top of her right and clapped them together. A ripple of forceful energy shot toward the creature which was pulling up more of the ground to throw at another soldier. A force of wind hit the creature and it dropped the hunk of earth. The thing looked at her and Talis felt a chill run down her spine as the aberration didn’t seem in the least bit harmed by her blast.

“Stand back!” Jeha ordered as he jumped in front of Talis and fired his crossbow.

The bolt hit, striking the beast in the stomach, but it didn’t seem to care.

“It’s an elemental! The Cantor must be here somewhere.” Jeha scanned the area while listening for the sound of music. The group had just made it to the bridge leading to the village of Spinavo with not a sound until the elemental appeared to block the bridge. A lilting minor melody in a triplet form sang from a woodwind across the breeze and Jeha looked to see a trio of Cantors on the other side of the bridge approaching with their musical instruments.

Jeha recalled the first time he had come across a Cantor in battle. The idea of playing a musical instrument to create magic had seemed ridiculous to him as a child until he first came across a conjurer like the three he saw now. That first conjurer had created an diaphanous pack of wild wolves that attacked his camp and left over a dozen soldiers wounded or dead. He had learned to take Bardcraft seriously then, and wouldn’t make the mistake again.

Jeha pointed to the Cantors on the bridge. “They’re coming from Spinavo! Soldiers, take out the Cantors, Talis, you and your friends distract the elemental”

Talis nodded and looked to Kloe and Aliope. Aliope extinguished his Tatu and the shrubbery around the two disappeared.

“How do we do that exactly?” Shouted to Jeha.

The soldier already had his twin swords drawn and was charging the bridge. “Just do your best!”

On the bridge, one of the Cantors stepped backward, his instrument, Jeha recognized as a flute played the melody he had heard before. The other two bards approached fast, the first held a stringed instrument, a violin to her chin and stroked the bow fiercely against the strings. The melody was modal yet sounded around the same notes as the woodwind casting the spell to keep the elemental in play. Fast notes flew up in an arpeggio then back down on a different chordal structure. Jeha felt a wave of energy push against himself him. He dropped his swords which fell to the wooden planks of the bridge slowly and he confirmed his suspicion, this person was slowing time.

The third Cantor played a melody on an oboe around the arabesque the woodwind played, though with a duple rhythm that seemed to juxtapose the sixteenths. As the third Cantor’s melody rang out Jeha’s heart skipped a beat. A large grey haired wolf that was bigger than the average Tolacin adult appeared and let out a howl. Jeha covered his ears as the sound reverberated in the air. He watched as the beast leapt into action and landed on a pair of soldiers who were holding their heads to block out the sound. The great beast bit into one of the soldiers, tearing the poor man in two. The other struggled to get out from under the massive paw. The wolf dug its claws into the soldier, picking it up off the ground and throwing it over the bridge and into the chasm below.

Behind Jeha, the earth elemental lifted its rocky hand into the air and brought it down hard against Kloe’s light blue shield. The force knocked Kloe back a few steps as she braced against the impact. The second fist hit the shield even harder. Kloe’s concentration broke and the fist slammed hard against her, throwing her backwards where she collided with a tree. The bark shattered and the tree folded in half. Talis and Aliope both looked up in time to have the top half of the tree come crashing down on top of them, pinning them under its weight.

Jeha looked at the wolf then back at his new friends and made a decision. He ran to the tree and tried to lift it off of Talis. “Huuuuuuh!” He grunted under the strain of the act.

The tree rolled off Talis enough for her to scramble out of the way, though Aliope was still trapped and looked to be unconscious. The ground shook as the elemental approached. The beast didn’t speak a word, which made it all the more ominous to Jeha. He rolled out of the way as a massive fist came slamming down. The ground around where Jeha was just a moment ago shattered as blocks of dirt and stone kicked up in all directions. A rock hit Jeha hard in the side and he fell to the ground. The elemental approached and held out another fist when the air slammed hard against the creature from the side.

The elemental fell to the ground after being hit by Talis’s attack. She ran to Jeha and extended her hand. “I’ve got you.” She said.

Jeha grabbed her hand and got back on his feet. He looked for Kloe but couldn’t find her under the felled tree. He found Aliope and gestured for Talis to follow.

“Help me get him up!” Jeha beckoned.

“You help your men, I can handle this thing.” Talis responded.

Jeha looked to see the rest of his soldiers, only a half dozen still stood, each fighting the great wolf.

“Switch me, I can take rocky here.” Jeha ordered.

“You can barely make a dent in this thing, let me handle it.” Talis grunted as she tried to lift the tree off of Aliope.

She managed to get the tree off the ground, but Aliope wasn’t moving. Jeha ran to the large man and pulled him out from under the massive trunk.

“I can’t!” Jeha confessed. “Please, I need your help. Focus on the Cantors on the bridge, if you can stop them then both of these things will disappear.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Trust me!” Jeha pleaded.

Talis looked him over and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t, I have to help my people.”

Jeha grunted and dropped the tree. He looked back over and saw the wolf bite into another of his soldiers. The woman screamed in pain as her life slipped away from her. He ran toward the wolf and skirted around it, avoiding a massive paw that swiped at him. Jeha could feel the time distortion coming from the bridge as he reached for his swords. He was able to grab them with great concentration and ran from the Cantors back to the wolf.

“Aah!” Jeha shouted as he leapt into the air driving the swords into the beast’s side. The creature howled with pain and whipped itself around violently trying to get Jeha off of itself. Jeha used his swords to pull himself up by taking one out of the beast and stabbing into another part of the creature on his way to the face of the wolf.

A ways off, the elemental was back on its feet against a lone Talis who pushed against it with a forceful shield of air as she tried to protect Aliope from getting hit. The creature threw fist after fist against the shield and Talis cried out under the pressure of each blow. Jeha continued climbing until he reached the wolf’s face and stabbed a sword into its eye. The wolf swung itself around and whipped Jeha off leaving the sword planted into the face of the creature.

Jeha landed hard on the ground, his other sword clattering to the ground out of reach. As he lay on his back, the wind knocked out of him, he spotted the princess. Her face full of terror as the wolf howled and stalked silently toward Jeha. He turned and saw Talis’s wind shield fail as she was struck hard by the elemental and she fell to the ground next to Aliope. His soldiers had fallen, his companions had fallen, his weapons too far to reach. The wolf stalked closer and bore its fangs, then suddenly it disappeared.

Jeha blinked away the spots from his eyes and pulled himself to a sitting position. The three Cantors approached lowering their instruments. As they did, the elemental crumbled to the earth. The cantor holding the flute approached and kneeled down in front of Jeha.

“I accept the terms of your surrender, Tolacin.” The man said in the heavily accented voice of a Verlass.

“Who says that I surrender?” Jeha spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

The Verlass laughed cockily. “I’m not going to kill you. The queen has foreseen your coming. You are expected elsewhere, you and your companions.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You won’t.” The man said resolutely. “It is seen.”

Talis awoke with a shooting pain in her right arm. She looked around and saw that she appeared to be in a cage alongside Kloe who was still asleep. A large cut ran across the top of her head while blood was stained along the right side of her face from the wound. Her arm was difficult to rotate, and when she tried the pain returned. She needed a healer. She needed her friends. The sound of a musical instrument being played filled the air. It was reminiscent of the plucked strings they had heard when Aliope thought he saw his father.

Talis shook her friend. “Kloe. Kloe wake up.”

Kloe stirred and bolted upright, immediately created a glowing blue shield around herself and Talis. “What? What happened?”

“Extinguish, Kloe, that’s not going to help us right now.” Talis demanded.

“Where are we? What happened to that rock thing?” Kloe asked as the shield disappeared.

“We’re in some sort of cage. Can you see the others?” Talis looked around, grasping at the bars in an effort to peer through the slats.

“There.” Kloe pointed at a second cage where Aliope was slumped over with the princess and her companion, Florin beside him. “Princess, are you alright?”

Lina nodded. Her arms were folded across her legs as she sat. Florin lay in a fetal position on the ground of the cell. “We’re fine. Your friend has been snoring, though.”

“Where are Jeha and the others? Did you see them?” Talis asked.

“Jeha is with the Verlass at the head of the caravan. The others… I don’t think they made it.”

Talis sighed and reached a hand through the bars. She knew that she couldn’t reach the other cell, but felt the gesture was important for what she wanted to do. She burned her Inspire Tatu a dark red across her face. She stretched out with her power toward Aliope and the larger man stirred.

“Someone stop that music already, it’s giving me a headache.” Aliope announced.

“If they stop playing, then there will be no wards to protect us.” Florin chimed in.

“Wards?” Kloe asked.

The princess looked up. “The Verlass have many different songs that are used as spells. Look.” Lina pointed outside the cell where Talis noticed a faint glimmer that surrounded the caravan. Up ahead, there were four horses, two of which were pulling the cart where the two cages sat side by side.

“It looks like a shield of some sort.” Kloe states. “But different than ours.”

“Can you all do magic too?” Talis asked Lina.

The young girl shook her head. “Only the Verlass can, that’s what makes them so powerful.”

Aliope sat up and rubbed his temples. He took a band of braided grass and pulled his hair up and out of his face before speaking. “Where are we going?”

“No idea.” Talis answered, then a thought came to her mind. “Hansu! Did anyone see him before we got taken?”

“I’m sorry, I think he was taken down by the elemental.” Lina answered hesitantly.

Talis reached out with her Inspire Tatu in an effort to see if the connection to her animal companion was still there, but came up blank. “Those malan, they killed him, and for what?”

Talis scooted to the front of her cage and rattled the bars. “Hey! What was all this for? Huh? Answer me!”

Jeha looked back and made eye contact with her. “Talis, please, don’t.”

“Why should I listen to you, eh?” Talis snapped. “This is your fault, and yet you get to ride on a horse while the rest of us are in cages?”

“It was necessary to keep safety.” The voice that spoke had a low timbre and rasp, like a man who spent his life only speaking when necessary.

“Who’s your new friend, Jeha?” Talis chided.

“I said enough, Talis.” Jeha groaned.

“Who are you, then, eh? I should at least know the name of my captor.” Talis snarled at the man.

The Cantor wore a brown robe with the hood pulled over his head, as he turned to Talis he took off the hood revealing medium length red hair and a beard to match with grey at his temples. His eyes were an emerald green and his eyes were dark as though he missed too many nights of sleep. He spoke, “I am Reynar, head of the conjurers of New Fortstad.”

“New Fortstad? What happened to old Fortstad?” Aliope asked with half a chuckle.

“Ask his people.” Reynar indicated Jeha.

“You don’t question orders. Especially when they’re given from the council.” Jeha stated plainly.

“Spoken like a mindless soldier.” Kloe grunted.

Jeha glared. “If any of you had followed my orders we wouldn’t have been in this mess to begin with.”

“Hey!” Kloe snapped. “You don’t get to give orders, we’re not your soldiers.”

“No, my soldiers are all dead by the bridge because you couldn’t play to your strengths.” Jeha retorted.

Talis burned her Tatu and sent a mental blast at both of them, calming their emotions. “That’s enough! Jeha, Kloe is right, you don’t get to give orders to us.”

Jeha fought against the emotional suppression and blurted out, “Then at the very least listen to me, trust me to do the right thing. Maybe then we could have saved all those people.”

The conjurer laughed. “You and your petty squabbles. None of it matters. The queen has foretold of your coming. It is seen, it cannot be unseen.”

“What’s he talking about?” Aliope asked.

“The queen is a diviner, the whole royal family is.” Jeha stated. “They kidnap and claim any other diviners and ‘adopt’ them into the royal family.”

“You blaspheme what you do not understand.” Reynar replied.

“Then enlighten me.” Jeha said.

“It is not for me to speak of this. You will learn soon enough. We are but an hour from New Fortstad. So long as our protection spell holds up we will arrive with no trouble.”

“Yeah, how are you doing that exactly?” Aliope asked cautiously.

“Ah the man in the forest.” Reynar smirked. “You tried to fight against our enchanter. Tell me, what did you see exactly when the music struck you?”

Aliope grasped the bars of his cage and shook them. “I don’t have to tell you a malan thing, lapo.”

“Thus the cages, master Jeha.” The Verlass smiled and pulled back up his hood.

Talis held out a hand and touched Aliope’s arm. She considered using her Tatu to soothe him, but thought better of it. “Hey, it’s alright. We’re Netsu, we survive.”

Aliope softened at her touch and she could feel the warmth coming from his skin. They sat that way for a long time, her hand atop of his until Aliope broke from the position and rested his back against the bars. The gentle playing of the guitar was soothing. The melody was played high on the neck and reminded Talis of a lullaby. She hummed along as the melody repeated and became familiar.

“Stop.” Jeha barked. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” Talis sat up and looked at him.

“Don’t add to the music. We don’t do that.” Jeha added.

“We? I’m not part of your we, Jeha. I like this song. Reminds me of one my father used to sing to me.”

“The Tolacin don’t do music.” Jeha grunted.

“Then the Tolacin are missing out on a fundamental part of life. Music is everywhere. It’s on the wind, the waves of the ocean as they beat against the sands. Even in the flow of the lava from the volcano.”

“What’s a volcano?” Asked Florin.

Aliope perked up. “It’s a mountain that erupts great burning liquid. It can be dangerous, even if you just inhale too close to it. Yet the soil where a volcano runs can be the most pure and best for growing fruits and vegetables.”

“We don’t have volcanos, and we don’t do music.” Jeha posited. “Music is magic and magic is evil.”

Talis held her hand out of her cell, she could just barely touch the glowing field that surrounded the party. “What does this ward do, mithia conjurer?”

“Mithia?” Reynar questioned.

“It’s a man of power or respect.” Kloe offered.

“I see.” The Verlass said. “The ward is an enchantment. The air becomes alive with protective energy. None can penetrate the barrier while our enchanter keeps her concentration.”

“You mean something like this?” As Kloe spoke, she summoned a shield from her Tatu. The size of it enclosed herself and Talis, but it continued to expand. The glowing blue shield expanded larger and larger as it pressed against the bars which groaned under the pressure letting out a loud scraping noise that made the horses whinny loudly in response. Jeha was thrown backward and landed in the cart beside the growing shield. Reynar didn’t have time to think as his horse threw him backward and he landed on the ground. The Verlass rolled on the ground just in time to avoid the rolling wheels of the cart. The guitarist stopped playing and the ward dissolved instantly.

The top of the cage was made of wood rather than the metal of the bars and exploded under the pressure sending splinters flying. A large piece lodged into the side of the third Cantor. The man cried out in pain and fell off his horse. The cart rolled over the fallen Verlass with a loud thump.

“Let’s go!” Kloe beckoned as summoned her spear and broke the top of the second cage. Aliope sprang to his feet and picked up Florin, handing the boy to Talis who put him down beside Jeha.

Reynar scrambled to hold on to the cart as it continued on its way past him, but couldn’t keep his hold as he fell face first into the muddy road. Talis reached out with her Tatu and calmed the horses as she jumped onto the horse where the guitarist sat and kicked the guitarist who fell onto the road. The woman twisted at the last moment and managed not to crush her instrument. The woman scrambled to her feet and began strumming a series of fast chords played in a minor key. Talis felt control of the horse waning as she pressed harder against the beast with her Tatu. Talis managed to maintain control as they sped away from the three Verlass.

Talis looked behind and let out a loud whoop as she saw that they had gotten away. Jeha climbed up beside her and took the reins.

“What are you doing?!” He shouted at her as he took the reins of the second horse.

“Getting away, what was your plan?” Talis retorted.

“Certainly wasn’t this.” Jeha’s voice was full of fear.

Kloe grasped Jeha with her strong hand around his shoulder. “Better than just letting us get caught.”

The horses let out a loud whinny and Talis tried to tighten her grasp on the reigns. All four of the animals reared up and landed back on their legs with a loud series of thumps letting up a cloud of dust around the front of the carriage. When the dust settled a figure walked in the middle of the road toward Talis and the rest.

Jeha gasped. “It’s her.”

The woman wore a white dress with gold trim that dragged on the dirt road as she walked. Her blonde hair was long and straight, upon it sat a golden tiara. The woman was fair of skin and upon her face was fixed a stern expression. As she approached she stretched out her arms toward the group. Talis flared her Tatu of Air in preparation.

The stranger opened her mouth and her voice sounded as though it were floating on the air. “Aria. Welcome home.”

Talis looked about trying to understand the woman’s words when she caught eyes with Lina. The princess stood up in the back of the carriage, her eyes wide.

“Mom?” She said.