The latest of When Troubles Follow You Home.

Audio version narrated by David Carroll:

As always, I hope you enjoy the story. For previous parts click here.

The first calls came at dusk.  The pattern of the short chirps signified they were not from an actual bird.  Men at the front were given specific orders to stay silent and still.  With any luck none of them would lose their life today.

Braydon watched the men digging a trench in front of the bridge to town.  It was a common action before a battle, but he didn’t have the heart to tell them it would do no good this time.  This enemy didn’t use traditional weapons.  Still, it calmed their nerves and that wasn’t a bad thing.

He turned back to the trail through the forest.  The real weapons were out there.  Things he had hidden over the last few days.  There were some traps and snares, among other nasty surprises.

He wondered how many were out there this evening.  All the Grand Master’s were dead, that he was sure of.  But none had proven to be the biggest threat.  No, they were all pawns of that damned fool, Zydala.  How many were left now in her manipulative care?

“Sir, they approach.”  The man was pointing off in the distance and he saw the movement as well.  He held a scope to his eye.

The men here started addressing him officially as the one in charge once preparations had begun.  In front of a council meeting, it was hard for him to demand attention being an outsider for so many years.  But out here, he was at home.  Most of his life had been spent with men under his command.  They saw it just as easily as he.

The man approaching to his left interested him first.  If he just kept walking in that direction…  The snap was loud enough to be heard all this distance away, and so was the man’s scream of agony as his leg was cleanly severed in the trap.  The men around him looked uncomfortable.  Luckily, none would have seen such detail without his instrument to make it clearer.

He panned the looking glass over in time to see an old woman scream and run to her fallen companion only to set off a trap of her own.  She fell out of sight and would be as good as dead when she landed on the long spikes three feet below.  So far so good, he thought.

A young woman, no a mere girl, was the third his sight fell upon.  He ran as fast as he could when he saw where the girl was heading.  She was too young to die for her atrocious master.  He felt her intrusions as he ran, but he was no novice at fighting such people.  His mind was much better protected than the average man.

With a heave he jumped over the trap that she was approaching and pushed her hard the other direction.  The girl fell back against a tree and hit her head on one of the branches.  She collapsed in a heap.

A guttural scream filled the air around him and he turned to see Zydala with the boy next to her.  She was looking down at Darren, amused.  Then Braydon felt the wave of fury that came hard from the boy; it was unlike anything he had ever felt before.  Both he and Zydala lost their feet.  The sheer force of the attack shook him to the core.

Alarm forced Braydon to search his mind for a place that he hadn’t tapped in many years.  The power and control that it brought made him tremble.  He hadn’t felt the surge of energy flowing through his body in a long, long time.  A time back when he himself was among the Order, before he had seen the truth of what they were doing.  It felt wonderful.

None-the-less, he’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, people thought it was something evil and it got people into trouble more than any good it did.  With a light step he danced around the delicate parts of his mind tapping them when necessary to give strength to the parts he needed most.  Now he saw the waves of energy coming off his opponents like heat waves now as well.  They, no doubt, could see the same coming from him.

The boy’s eyes widened in shock at the revelation that Braydon too had the power of the Goddess inside him, which meant Zydala didn’t tell them everything.  Confusion wracked Darren’s face as he turned to his mentor.  Perhaps he could use that distrust.  It also supported the thought that she was controlling them with false news of the fall of their Order, and blaming Braydon for that fall.

Unable to find the strength for a full retaliation after the boy’s attack, Braydon felt around the forest for his other traps, one’s he wouldn’t have been able to use without freeing his mind for it, setting them off at his enemies.  Rocks, branches, and other debris assaulted the two remaining Tykaron members.  Zydala screamed for retreat and he heard the boy protest.

“We can’t leave Amery.  I won’t leave her!”

“She is dead, you stupid boy.  This fight is lost.”

“She is not dead, we can-.”  Braydon saw the waves of the attack that knocked the boy off his feet.

She turned to Braydon then and called out, “You do well on your own turf, betrayer.  You have three days or I will bring all my followers.  We will kill everyone in the village and burn your home to the ground.”  With that, Zydala lifted the boy’s limp body and ran off through the forest.  He had no choice but to let them go for now.  Darren’s attack had greatly shaken him.  He’d learned the harm in pushing his mind too hard without having complete control, it wasn’t pretty.

The townspeople killed three of the Order on their own.  Arrows were responsible for all the kills.  They suffered far more losses though, eight good men that died for him today.  Braydon went to the fallen girl and woke her.

“You are too young to die for a lie, girl.  Quiet, just listen.  I don’t want to hear anything from you until we have the chance to talk in private, do you understand?  You should realize that these people, with full justification, could kill you in whatever way they see fit.  I don’t want that any more than you do, believe me, so you must heed my words and keep your mouth shut.”

The girl had no reason to believe him, but she looked trapped—and caught.  Her mouth closed slowly as she looked around, miserable.  Seeing no other option, she nodded as if to say she didn’t trust him but saw no other way.

“Good girl, maybe you’ll live through this.”