Air Wall

"This is it?", Katherine asked in a somewhat disbelieving tone. She didn't know what to expect, but it was not this... idyll. Maybe a dark castle or a high tower would be more fitting for the evil sorcerer she had in mind. More fitting at least than this simple town she saw on the mountainside.

Maybe feeling her uneasiness, her horse snorted and turned its head left and right. The other horses seemed affected as well, scratching the earth with their hooves. Something... was wrong here. She just couldn't discern what.

With narrowed eyes, she turned toward Ethan, who'd rode at the forefront the whole time. Catching her gaze, he winked at her with a bright, very bright smile and drove his horse further forward. Her stomach fell.

Somehow, unbelievably so, his horse's head vanished into thin air, soon followed by its rider. It seemed as if the animal strode behind a curtain, yet that curtain turned it invisible - and Ethan as well.

"Hold him!" Katherine screamed and kicked the flanks of her horse. She was too far back, but she still had to try. On her call, the soldiers turned their heads from the scenery, and some who halted beside Ethan reacted - yet it was too late. The last hair of the horse's tail vanished before they could grasp onto it.

"Damn it!" With wrath burning in her belly, Katherine urged her horse to move faster. Regardless of what this strangeness was, if Ethan could pass through, she could as well! And if she caught him, she would not be lenient anymore!

"Milady!"

"Katherine! Stop!"

"Kathy!"

The calls of the soldiers, Nathaniel, and Lady Brandon rang in her ears, yet she was too focused to take note. This smile Ethan cast her before vanishing enraged her, put her on edge, and made her blind and mute to all advice. She had to take him down before he could do whatever his plan was!

Despite the soldiers trying to block her, she reached the place where Ethan vanished and followed him through the 'curtain' - only to pull on the reigns right after. Her horse reared up before it came to an abrupt stop. Katherine's eyes widened at the sight that suddenly appeared before her and her usually pristine mouth unknowingly formed a curse. "SHIT!"

The idyll was no idyll. Where there was only a quiet mountainside before was now an entire army! The rows started about twenty steps away from her and reached all the way to the left mountain's foot, each soldier equipped with a spear and shield or a sword in the rows further back. As Katherine's eyes wandered up the mountain, a chill ran down her spine. In the distance, on natural platforms on the mountain's flank, stood hundreds of archers with their bows in hand. They were prepared to shoot.

An eerie silence filled the stiff air as her gaze met the muddy brown eyes of her cousin. Ethan had turned his horse at the forefront of the army and now faced her. He grinned harmlessly as if he was just on a picnic. "I knew you would follow me, Kitty, dearest. Would you like to join me? I'll make sure that you survive - and even your child. I can't promise about the father though."

Not heeding his words, Katherine glanced back. From this side of the strange curtain, she could see and hear the other side clearly. The faces outside were stressed and anxious as they tried to follow her. Yet, something had changed after she entered the curtain. The soldiers couldn't penetrate it. Their bodies and weapons hit the air and deflected with a sound as if meeting thick glass.

Katherine grit her teeth. Driving her horse back, she touched the invisible barrier and - as she expected - couldn't break it from her side as well. It felt cool to the touch and moved all the time below her fingertips.

"Oh, that's the work of our air mages over there," Ethan boasted without being asked and pointed at a group of small, robed people. "Of course, you don't know about air mages. They are a new mix after all. Ve wouldn't give the formula to just anyone. But since I gained his trust, I naturally know it. And can you guess another one of their fortes? Right, right, communication! They can send speech over long distances, amplify it, and some can even produce it without opening their mouth. Isn't that fascinating?"

While Ethan babbled on, Katherine's face slowly turned cold and composed. Her chin raised high, she gave the image that she was looking down on her cousin. "Why do you offer to shelter me if you can kill us all with these archers alone? You even say you will save my child. That's so unusually sensitive of you. It's almost as if these words aren't coming from you. So, what is all this for? Why don't you just kill us? Or should I ask, for what do you and this... Ve need my cooperation this time around?"

For a moment, Ethan seemed surprised, but then the grin was back on his face. "Kitty, Kitty, you gained some wit after I sent you away! And here I thought that was only this despicable Prince speaking through you when you locked me on that lonely island."

"I'm not the one who lets others speak through me." There was slight annoyance in Katherine's tone, though she gave her best to keep her emotions in check. "What does Ve want?"

Behind her, Katherine heard how the attacks on the invisible wall creased but she kept herself from turning around. She had to keep Ethan talking so that he wouldn't give the sign to attack. The foot soldiers were the least of her concerns, as they would also have to pass through the air barrier first. There, they would be seen, and their attacks could be countered. However, arrows were a different matter. If they passed through the barrier as soon as the mages lowered it, even the most elite soldiers could only set on chance to survive.

Right now, Katherine hoped that her comrades would not break through the barrier because that would signal the start of the battle. A battle that she was not sure they could win, even with the overbearing magic power of her husband. The people in her entourage were outnumbered by one to almost a thousand. But that fact, she remembered while she straightened her back, that fact would not remain the same.

That was right. Opposite to what she made Ethan believe, Katherine was not that surprised by the turn of events. She even knew about air mages before. How? Well, there were now some of Ethan's mages on their side. They might still be children, which was probably why Ethan did not take them seriously, yet it was also typical for children to know and understand much more than the adults thought. And Frey wasn't really a child anymore. He was a full-fledged mage.

"Ve, you ask?", Ethan repeated slowly. "Well, he wants what you gave him before. Though they made you drink a drug to forget, I'm sure you remember. After all, it was a baby dying in your arms. You were always sentimental, so... I'm sure you remember."