The balloon sailed overhead and the Company turned to pursue it along with the Companion Cavalry. They rode west out of the grasslands and into the forest. Autolykos and the Horn Knight loosed arrows at the envelope, hoping to hole it. A howl of rage came from the basket. It sounded like the Glass Knight. The Flying Swords shouted down that the pursuers ought to hold their fire, lest they kill the hostage.
As night fell they came to the base of a cliff that divided the forest, which the Flying Swords sailed over. The balloon was losing altitude but Autolykos' pony could gallop no further. The Knights left their mounts with him and scaled the cliff on foot while the Companions galloped north around the obstacle.
The Horn and Seal Knights reached the top of the cliff exhausted and disoriented. A flame in the forest lit the way. They found the balloon caught in the trees, the basket overturned and on fire. The only thing left behind was an oil lamp with a springloaded flint built into the handle. There were no bodies and they found the trail where someone had been dragged away. They cautiously advanced and found the Glass Knight sitting amid the roots of a large tree. He didn't respond to their approach. Auckland stayed back while Shoat advanced to retrieve the King.
Miles, the leader of the mercenaries, made a counteroffer: Auckland and Shoat could surrender and he'd ransom them back along with the King. It was an inglorious end to the encounter but it was well within the bounds of Knightly conduct, and Auckland didn't want the King's former squire to die under his care, so he accepted the offer of quarter.
The mercenaries disarmed the Knights and sat them by the King at the base of the tree. Clowe, the man with the pike, wanted to kill one of them as recompense for Jerr, the kid with the mace who Auckland had apparently killed. Miles vetoed that plan. The Flying Swords had left Braccata behind on their last raid and Clowe hadn't raised any objections to that, and she had been hanged for it. Jerr had died in a fair fight to secure their payday, and now he was upset? Get real. The Company quickly assayed that the Glass Knight was only pretending to be concussed. It was a favorite trick of his.
Paste rolled up with the cavalry. Miles' two surviving henchmen held their weapons on the Knights while he negotiated with the Captain of the Guard. He wanted payment for the King and both Knights and he wouldn't give either of them up until he was paid and not surrounded by armed men. The Knights suggested that the Flying Swords work for the Realm. They needed scouts for the invasion of the North and the balloon would be perfect. Or they could do another aerial assault. If the Glass Mountain couldn't stand against an attack from the air, what chance did anyone have? Miles thought that was all well and good, but he wasn't giving up his only leverage while surrounded by the King's bailiffs.
The King rose, unsteady, and stumbled toward Paste and the cavalry. The Companions approached to assist him and the Glass Knight noted that the two mercenaries holding their weapons on the captive Knights instinctively shifted to defend themselves against the horsemen. He toppled to his knees, which Paste took as a preunderstood signal to surge forward. Auckland dragged Shoat under the roots of the tree to avoid being trampled while the Companions massacred the mercenaries under a flag of truce.
The Glass Knight dusted himself off. One of the Companions donated his cape. The Knights emerged from their hiding place and he explained what happened. The Horn and Seal Knight joined the Companions in the pursuit and together they dispatched the mercenaries in a furious assault. Nobody got captured and nobody broke any oaths or violated social norms. The Knights were not thrilled, especially Shoat. He had held up his end of the bargain, fighting until he was too wounded to stand. Others had negotiated his capture, then made him party to the violation of that agreement. And the Glass Knight he knew wouldn't do that. It was a long time ago, back when he still had all his faculties, but he wouldn't slaughter people who he had just made a deal with. He'd trick them, maybe capture them or send them away without their agreed on pay, but he wouldn't just murder them after they had agreed to stop fighting. Yet more evidence that the Crown was calling the shots.
The Glass Knight asked what the Company was doing on the west side of the realm, when Alexander and his rebellion were in the east. They explained that they were burying the Salt Knight and he immediately relented. You couldn't fuck around with a funeral, by every custom of the realm that took precedence over their current objective.
Paste didn't want to share the trophies from the dead mercenaries, as far as he was concerned the Knights had failed and hadn't earned any treasure. The Glass Knight chastised him for forgetting what just happened. They had killed the sellswords together and they would share the loot. Auckland took the flail and blinding powder. Shoat took Miles' shield, which folded and unfolded like a disc shaped fan.
Autolykos made a hidden camp and took care of the horses. He kindled a fire and was distressed to find snow falling outside the little shelter he made to warm up the animals. It was too early for a cold snap and he was hyperalert to the possibility that the seasons could be disrupted.
That night the Company dreamed of a dungeon cell. They wore a mask for warmth but were distressed that their beard had grown under it. Without their sword they couldn't shave.
The Glass Knight wanted to get home fast, but the Knights were dismounted and the Companions' horses were blown. He accepted that it was going to take a while and the group hiked north around the cliff again. The King babbled to the Knights about preparations for the invasion of the north. And something strange happened the other day. A Knight in a mask with a big sword showed up to kill Ada. He said she was a murderer. He threw the guy in the dungeon without offering him hospitality as a reasonable response to threatening his in-laws.
The Knights told the King that the Flood had been dealt with. The realm wasn't going to drown. The King told them it wouldn't make a difference. First because after the flood came the winter that never ended. Second because the northern Realm already knew about the invasion. It was impossible that they hadn't heard since the general order to evacuate had gone out. They were already planning a counterstroke and if the King abandoned his preparations now the counterblow from the north would slaughter everyone.
Autolykos brushed the horses and looked out into the forest. The dusting of snow was thin but hadn't melted like autumn frost typically did by day. A man came out of the woods, carrying a crystal lantern he recognized from his dreams. Two iron hounds chased each other at his feet, playful and wild like normal dogs with none of the lethal focus they had shown pursuing the seer. The woodsman called out to the wanderer, welcoming him to share his fire. The Watcher from the Citadel had a message for the huntsman and his masters. The Seers must cease their interference in the destiny of the realm. Autolykos didn't know what that meant but he'd deliver the message. His elderly sausage dog crawled out of its carrying pouch to investigate the iron hounds. It flopped down on its side by the fire and one of the metal dogs nudged it with its snout.
The Watcher asked Autolykos why he continued serving the Company now that the man he owed his life to was dead. Autolykos didn't know. Then the Watcher left.
The King and his entourage passed an abandoned hunting lodge. The inhabitants had boarded the place up and made preparations to leave the Realm. It was nice to see someone following instructions, though Paste mourned the loss of the best sausages he had ever eaten. The inhabitants of the lodge would swear and curse and insist that every visitor try a dozen different flavors and rank them according to flavor and consistency. Those skills would hopefully serve the sausage makers on their long journey.
The King's procession arrived at Autolykos' camp by nightfall. The mountain man delivered the message, which really pissed off the King. The Seers worked for him and anyone threatening them was an enemy of the realm. He thought about sending the Companions to pursue the Watcher, but decided against it. Sending your soldiers out at night with exhausted horses to chase rumors wasn't a good use of his forces.
The Company was woken that night by a guy riding around outside the camp at night, blowing a trumpet. It was the scribe they saw in the boat. He announced that the Apparatus was complete. The Age of Seers was past, the Age of Reason was at hand. Soon the City would rise over the ruins of the old order. The King woke up and thought the camp was under attack, but the Company explained it was just a myth operating in the area. By this time the scribe had already extinguished his light and rode away, realizing his life was in jeopardy. The King was angry, again. Where were all these enemies of the Seers coming from? He suspected a plot by Alexander the War Knight. He knew exactly how to bait the Glass Knight by threatening the Seers and he wasn't going to fall for it.
The next day they entered the old tournament grounds where the Knights had fought the Red Mail mercenaries. This was where Reme died protecting the Queen, but it was also where the King's sworn companion had died fighting the clockwork warriors of the artificer. The man had built a fighting machine and challenged anyone in the realm who believed they could stand against it. The Tankard Knight destroyed it in single combat but was mortally wounded in the bargain. This place had been so important to the Glass Knight. He had met all his best friends here and this was the first place he watched someone he cared about die. And soon nobody who remembered why it was important would be alive, and it would just be old people stories. Then nothing at all.
Ah, but that was just part of life. He could see the old banners frozen to the trees and imagine them flapping in the breeze. The sound of hooves.
No, that wasn't imaginary. There was a horse approaching. The Brawler Knight Charcabol came out of the woods with a band of soldiers. They wore assorted equipment but all bore her badge: a rose clasped in a merciless fist. She was in high spirits compared to last time and removed her helmet to excitedly tell the Knights that she had spoken to the Tangled Seer. On his advice, she had rallied a warband and they were on their way to destroy the Apparatus. The Glass Knight believed that such a thing was only a myth spread by Alexander to bamboozle the servants of the realm, but the Brawler Knight told him the Apparatus was on the island at the south end of the inlet. The one with the light. The Crown may have changed the King's inclination but for a moment he was back on the balcony staring at it from the palace.
The King told Charcabol to come with him back to the Glass Mountain, where he would outfit a ship and personally accompany her on a quest to the island. It made her happier than anything else ever had.
The Company asked the Glass Knight if the winter that never ended might swallow the northern realm along with his, rendering the entire migration pointless. The King allowed for that possibility, but if he died in a frozen wasteland he wanted to be confident that he had done everything in his power to save his people.
By dusk the procession found themselves on the grasslands a league west of the Glass Mountain. An elderly man approached on horseback and shouted a request for aid to the Company. There was a warband of louts on their way to destroy the Apparatus, he needed their help to protect his life's work. He realized too late that the Company was traveling with the exact louts he feared. He turned his withered steed and fled south toward the coast. The King turned Charcabol and her men at arms loose and made camp for the night.
It was dark when the Brawler Knight returned. She reported that the aged Numerator had made it to the beach, where his companions sold their lives dearly to cover his escape by boat. She had no way of pursuing him but the King told her not to worry about it. He knew where the old guy lived.
By night the Company dreamed of the tower, again. The elderly numerator passed in front of their field of vision, carrying a sheaf of documents. He tripped and the pages spilled across the floor. He beat the metal treadplate with his fist and wept and his scribe helped him stand while behind him the mechanics and calculators carried planks of wood to barricade the tower and protect the Apparatus.
The green Fortress on Mountain banner of Castleview flew over the Glass Mountain, just below the King's own Golden Wolf. He assumed the worst, that Alexander had done to him what he planned to do to the War Knight. Immediately he plotted her rescue. The Companions would launch a diversionary attack against the front gate while he took the Company in through a hidden sally port. Together they'd rescue the Queen, and if they had to kill Alexander to do it then so be it. Paste swore to press the suicidal attack on the front gate with his last breath.
The gate opened and Valenta came out. The King sighed with relief, then swelled with rage. Did she let Alexander into the castle? Did she let the leader of the rebellion into the Seat of Power?
Yes, she fucking did. The King was always telling Valenta she needed to stop adventuring and take governing seriously, and now she was doing exactly that. She was Queen Regent while he got kidnapped and she took that responsibility seriously. Alexander had been the Glass Knights' squire and was practically a member of their family and she would not tolerate her husband's kidnapping plot against the man's wife and children. She invited him into the palace so they could discuss the issue Knight to Knight rather than scheme and backstab each other.
The Glass Knight briefly contemplated ordering his vassals to kill his wife. Then he sighed and went inside.
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