“Come on, we are cutting things close already. I don’t want to wait for the next train,” the huntmaster said. He looked around the streets near the academy, expecting an ambush from any direction.

“Actually, I think I should lead,” Hugo said. He knew that the riese seers couldn’t detect him, he showed up as dead to their vision. Whatever route he took would be totally unknown to their eyes. Plus, this was his hometown. He knew which direction to go, and which areas to avoid.

“You got lucky, coming here. I don’t know what connection you have to the school, but the fact that no one attacked us in the last few weeks was luck, not skill. Maybe they have given up and they aren’t even trying to kill you anymore,” Huntmaster Ramin said.

“None of that is a good argument for you to lead,” Hugo said and turned left. The route he was taking passed by several shimmer corps stations, so he knew it would be safer.

Ramin clearly wanted to yell at him, but that would blow their cover. They already stood out as one of the few riese in town, he couldn’t afford to draw more attention. He huffed and followed Hugo.

They quickly walked through the city, twisting and turning as they went. Hugo was a bit worried about getting there on time, but he needn’t have worried. Their long riese legs just ate up the ground and they arrived ten minutes early. Hugo stopped in an alleyway near the train station and looked over crowds at the ticket counter and train platform.

It was a bit speciest, but Hugo was suspicious of any riese he saw. The woman and her child sitting on the bench were probably not assassins, but the trio of riese dock workers were very suspicious. They were standing on a corner of the platform and looking at everyone that walked up. A glance to the opposite corner showed another three riese doing the same thing. They were dressed as traders, but it was clear that they were here for him. He pointed out the two groups to Ramin while he thought about what to do.

Hugo looked across the way. There was a small shimmer corps station across the way from the train station, and he headed that way. While he walked he dug into his bag and passed Ramin a badge and whispered his plan. He nodded at Hugo and pushed into the shimmer station.

“Who’s in charge here?” Ramin gruffly said.

The woman manning the counter looked at the huntmaster like a startled goat. She couldn’t even squeak out a response. A tall man walked out from his office in the back and looked up at Ramin. He was still several feet shorter than the huntmaster.

“I am in charge here. Knight Mihai. What seems to be the problem?” he said and placed his hand on the shimmer caster at his hip.

“Knight Mihai. Good to meet a brother in arms. I am Knight Ramin,” He said and flashed his badge. It was generic and didn’t actually have his name written on it, so Ramin quickly tucked the badge away. “I need your help arresting some riese hooligans,” Ramin said and walked the window and pointed, “Those three perps and those three over there are part of a riese gang in Ettel. My knight commander needs all six of them captured. I can take three of them on with the rookie here, but if I do the other three will run. They are all blessed by The Mother, so your casters will work on them. Can you take the fake traders on and we will take the other three?”

Knight Mihai stood there in shock for a moment before saying, “Uh, yeah, we can help out. I will have to run it by my commander but that sounds good.”

“We need to move now. The six of them are getting on the train to Ettel that leaves in five minutes. I need your help now, Knight,” Ramin said.

The man seemed unsure, so Ramin continued, “Listen, we are heading out now. How about you just respond to an ongoing incident? We will stay and talk to your commander afterwards, no worries. I will even help you out with the paperwork and make sure you get the proper credit with upper command.”

That seemed to convince him and the knight motioned to a pair of squires that had been listening in. The three of them followed Hugo and Ramin as they quickly walked towards the train station.

Ramin slowly walked towards the center of the train platform just as the train was arriving. A rush of people exiting the train obscured vision for a moment, but when they cleared, all six of the riese were heading this way.

Hugo’s heart started beating faster. He spared a moment to pat himself on the back for correctly identifying all of the assassins. Then he walked a little faster.

“Stop right there!” a shimmer squire said, his gun out.

The six riese stopped in their tracks. They glanced to the other riese at their sides, unsure. They hadn’t seen the shimmer corpsmen there, and needed a moment to decide how to respond.

They chose violence.

Three dockworkers to the left grabbed weapons they had hidden in their clothing, a club, a pair of knives, and a spiked chain. The three on the right took items from their bags, but they didn’t look like weapons. One had a potted plant, another a bouquet of mushrooms, and the final had a trio of wooden spheres.

The shimmer knight didn’t wait for them to attack, he fired his shimmer caster as soon as they moved. The man with the knives and woman with the club were hit before anyone knew what was going on. Their magic was stripped from their bodies and they fell to the ground, motionless.

The remaining four assassins jumped into action, avoiding the shimmer shots of the two shimmer squires. The riese with the barbed chain whipped it out and caught the knight around his leg and pulled. The knight didn’t let himself get pulled far and shot out a ring of shimmer that made his attacker stop. The potted plant fell to the ground near the squires and exploded with growth. A smart squire shot it and the shimmer halted its growth before it could smother them.

His competence made him a target, and the woman with the wooden spheres sent one flying through the air at him. He ducked out of the way. The sphere curved midair and still struck him in the head, dropping him. The remaining squire shot at her, making her miss her follow up attack.

Ramin and Hugo didn’t join the fight, they ignored both sides and ran for the train. Ramin drew a wooden dagger and sent it whistling through the air behind himself. A dozen wooden knives appeared and stabbed at the trio of merchant riese. Two of them avoided the knives, but the woman in the middle caught a knife on her mushrooms. They had been slowly expanding and the knife made them burst into a cloud of spores. She cursed and dropped them, racing away.

The cloud must have been poisonous. It caught two reise and squire in its radius and dropped them to the ground, coughing violently. The mushroom lady ran around the slowly expanding cloud towards Hugo. He was just boarding the train and reached into his pocket to deal with her.

Suddenly, Hugo was yanked off his feet. The riese with the barbed chain had won his fight with the knight and caught up with them. The chain around his feet had yanked him back so fast that Hugo smacked his head on the platform and was dazed for a moment. Ramin leaped over his prone body and attacked the chain riese. The huntmaster quickly dealt with the man, his knives piercing into the man’s heart and throat.

From where he was laying on the ground, Hugo finished pulling out the object from his pocket. It was a runed cube Mia had made for him. He activated it and threw it at the mushroom riese that had been sneaking up on Ramin. The cube manifested a cube of purple slime, trapping her inside. She flailed around, but her blessed strength only shot her deeper into the cube and lost her grip on the ground. Hugo smiled. He would have to have Mia teach him that one.

The conductor had left the train and stared at the downed combatants. Ramin dug out his fake badge and said, “Get the train moving. That’s an order.”

The human saluted and hurried back onto the train. Hugo congratulated himself again for fabricating the badge. Soon enough they were speeding along towards Ettel. Ramin helped Hugo to the back of their train car. Hugo’s face had been cut up in the fall, and that made him more angry than any other aspect of the attack. Mia and Lenna had helped him out with his makeup and now he would have to do it over again. He dug out his supplies and cleaned himself up. His health points meant that his face was clear after ten minutes, but he had to start from scratch with the makeup.

Once they got to the city, Hugo was mostly presentable. He had changed into his formal dress and was wearing passable makeup. They had decided that it would be safer to do this part of the journey as a royal. That way if they were attacked along the way, regular citizens would come to his defense. The two of them kept a watch out as they speed walked through the city.

Hugo was almost shocked when they arrived at The Mother tree pond. No one had accosted him. His enemies must have been counting on the ambush in Reval to work. The nox guarding the pond made Ramin stay outside, but he wasn’t worried. He assured Hugo that no one would try anything in sight of The Mother.

After the stressful raft ride over the deadly water, Hugo prayed to The Mother and took his place. He was one of the first ones here, the challenge wouldn’t start for another two hours. He quickly grew bored, but didn’t engage anyone in conversation. He was too nervous for polite prattle. They were so close to completing the challenge. He just wanted this over with.

Eventually more and more riese arrived. Several of them seemed surprised to see him already there. Maybe there had been an ambush planned, but he had avoided it by being there so early. An hour before the scheduled time, his mother and father walked in. They prayed to The Mother and walked into the clearing. His mother had a long robe on and she stopped in shock when she saw him standing there. His father had the opposite reaction. He ran forward and scooped her up in a massive hug.

“I thought you were dead. They did a reading and ... Oh my darling Lina, I am so happy you are alive. I am never letting you out of my sight again,” Darius said.

Hugo giggled as his father swung him around in a circle. “Didn’t you get any of my letters?”

His father set him down and he said, “Yes I did. But Amir did a reading yesterday, just to make sure you would show up on time for the challenge. He said you were dead.” He turned to stare at his brother with an angry expression.

Amir held up his hands and said, “I am just surprised as you are. I have never been happier to be wrong.”

“We will discuss this later. For now, we need to focus on Shirin’s challenge,” Darius said.

Shirin got over her shock and walked forward to say, “I am glad you are alive, my daughter.”

That seemed to be the end of the conversation though, she immediately turned to her husband and dropped her robe. She was almost naked underneath. Tight panties were the only thing covering her now. There were the same green lines painted on her skin, but her breasts were bare. Hugo blushed as a strange mix of conflicting emotions flowed through him.

Hugo averted his eyes to the weapon she was carrying. It was a mix between a heavy gauntlet and a mace. It didn’t look terribly practical to Hugo, he would be scared of scratching himself with the points coming from the rounded head. It was the weapon that their family paid so much for, so it must be magical in some way. They were counting on it being enough to overwhelm her sister.

Speaking of which, Ariana walked into the clearing then, carrying a strange spear. It looked like it was made of lightning. Hugo could hear it buzzing as she took her place with the rest of the Juniper family.

“The stormbringer?” Shirin hissed, “How did she afford that?”

That didn’t sound good. Hugo had no idea what the spear did, but it sounded like they hadn’t been expecting her sister to have it. This fight might not be as easy as Hugo had hoped.