"So," Roric's voice was a low murmur, barely audible over the rumble of the carriage. "Any latent resonating powers I should know about before we have to put on our show?" He offered a grim smile that didn't reach his eyes. In the dim light, he looked less like a criminal and more like a soldier waiting for the battle to begin. Kai just shook his head, the manacles on his wrist clinking softly against Roric's. The lie already felt like a physical weight between them.
Beyond the carriage's grimy window, the world was a blur of wrongness. Trees grew in unfamiliar shapes, and mountains stood on the horizon where Kai's hazy memory insisted there should be empty sky. Every sight and smell—the scent of pine and damp earth—was a fresh assault on a mind that knew only a century of darkness and the stench of a dungeon. The rhythmic clatter of the wheels was a hammer beating out the seconds of a freedom that felt more like a kidnapping.
The carriage lurched to a sudden halt. Through the window, Kai could see a wooden checkpoint gate and a group of wary soldiers. Roric shot him a sharp look and brought a finger to his lips. Not a word.
"Captain Valerius," a guard said, stepping forward and snapping to attention. His tone was respectful but firm. "We received no dispatch about a transport today. May I ask your destination?"
Valerius's voice was calm and authoritative. "A necessary precaution. The Emperor ordered this shipment moved under the cover of morning due to the increased bandit activity. The fewer who know, the safer it is."
The guard leaned slightly, trying to peer past Valerius into the carriage's dark interior. "Must be valuable cargo, sir.'
"You have no idea," Valerius replied, his smile slight and devoid of warmth.
A tense moment passed before the guard nodded and waved them on. "Clear the gate! Let them through!"
As the carriage rolled forward, passing out of the kingdom's territory, the air inside seemed to grow heavier. They were truly on their own now.
After riding several miles beyond the borders of Illyria, the carriage finally shuddered to a stop. From inside, Kai and Roric heard the creak of leather and the heavy thud of Captain Valerius dismounting from the lead horse, followed by the sound of it being detached from the harness.
"Out." The order was calm, yet it brooked no argument.
Roric didn't hesitate. He shoved the door open with his shoulder and jumped down, landing with the practiced ease of a man accustomed to being shoved in and out of transports. "Let's go, partner."
Kai moved more slowly. When he jumped, his disorientation and weakness betrayed him—he misjudged the height and smacked his head sharply against the doorframe, stumbling on the landing.
"Hnh." A soft, derisive chuckle came from Valerius, already mounted on his single horse. "You'll complete the journey on foot. It will help you build character."
"Build character my foot." Roric silently said under his breath.
The knights swiftly attached the chain linking their manacles to the saddles of two other horses.
Without another word, Valerius clicked his tongue. His horse surged forward, and the chain snapped taut, yanking Kai and Roric into a stumbling march behind the procession.
For what felt like hours, they were dragged across rugged terrain, the manacles chafing their wrists raw. Valerius never looked back.
Finally, he raised a fist, halting the procession in a desolate, wind-scoured field dotted with ancient, moss-covered standing stones.
"Here," Valerius announced, dismounting. He pointed to a seemingly random patch of earth between two leaning monoliths. "The archives described this place. The runestone must be here. Find it."
Roric stretched his aching shoulders, putting on his usual show. "Right. Let's get to work, Resonator." He winked at Kai, a quick, private gesture. He began his performance, pacing in a slow circle, his eyes closed in feigned concentration. Kai followed, placing a hand on Roric's shoulder.
"I'm feeling... something," Roric announced dramatically. "A faint pulse. Kai, amplify it. Channel your focus through me."
Kai played his part, squeezing Roric's shoulder. But as he concentrated, a genuine spark of pain flared behind his eyes—a sharp, hot echo of the vision he had in the cell. He stumbled, his grip tightening on Roric.
Roric felt the shift. His eyes snapped open for a fraction of a second, meeting Kai's with surprise. He covered it instantly. "Yes! There! The resonance is clear now! It's buried right here!" He stamped his foot on a spot of unremarkable soil.
Valerius nodded to the knights, who produced shovels and began to dig. Before long, a shovel struck something with a solid clink. One of them knelt and brushed away the dirt, revealing a smooth, dark blue stone, no larger than a child's fist. Intricate, faintly glowing runes were carved into its surface.
As Valerius reached for it, a crossbow bolt thwipped through the air, embedding itself in the ground at his feet.
"I'll be taking that," a rough voice called out. From behind the standing stones, a band of a dozen rough-looking bandits emerged, weapons drawn. Their leader, a scarred man with a rusty axe, grinned. "Looks like we hit the jackpot, boys."
Valerius and his knights drew their swords, but they were outnumbered. The bandit leader's eyes fell on Kai and Roric, chained and unarmed.
"Kill the armored scums. Bring me the chained ones, they look like they will fetch us something good."
In one fluid motion, Captain Valerius hid the runestone in a pouch within his cloak and drew his sword. The blade was unlike any Kai had ever seen—forged from a metal the color of a winter sky, and the moment it cleared the scabbard, the air around it grew bitterly cold. A visible mist of frost crystallized on the steel, and the grass at Valerius's feet wilted, coated in a thin layer of rime.
"Retreat," Valerius's voice was as cold as his blade, "or die by my sword."
The bandits hesitated for only a second before their greed overpowered their fear. They rushed forward with a collective roar.
Kai didn't need to be told twice. A shared look of panic with Roric was all it took; they scrambled in unison, the chain between them pulling taut as they dove behind the nearest large boulder, the sounds of clashing steel and screams erupting behind them.
Peeking around the stone, Kai watched the battle unfold. Valerius moved with lethal grace. He wasn't just a knight; he was a blizzard given form. When a bandit swung a crude axe at him, Valerius met it with his icy blade. There was a sharp crack—not of metal, but of freezing—and the axehead shattered into a dozen frozen pieces. Valerius followed through, his sword tracing a faint blue arc through the air, and a wave of biting cold shot forward, encasing two charging bandits in a shell of instant ice, their faces locked in permanent surprise.
But there were too many. While Valerius was a whirlwind of frost, his two knights were quickly overwhelmed. One fell with a gurgled cry, a spear in his gut. The other was disarmed and beaten to the ground.
The bandit leader, the scarred man, circled the fight, his eyes not on Valerius, but on the boulder where Kai and Roric were hiding. He barked an order, and three bandits broke away from the main fight, advancing toward them.
"Well, partner," Roric whispered, his back pressed against the cold stone, the chain between them pulled tight. "The 'longer leash' just got a lot shorter. Any brilliant resonating ideas?"