Dreamer's Throne

“Remind me where you got this information?”

Garrett was currently sitting in Henrick’s office with Ryn and Gorn, being grilled about the report he’d just made on the Swamp Shark’s plan to ambush the upcoming trade.

“I have a source in the Swamp Shark gang, and I was able to confirm by observing the traitor,” Garrett said calmly.

“You mentioned a traitor before. Who is it?”

“If I tell you, are you going to kill him?”

A savage grin stretched across Henrick’s lips as he heard Garrett’s question, and he leaned forward.

“Yes. Slowly.”

Frowning slightly, Garrett shook his head disapprovingly. Holding up his good hand to forestall the outburst about to erupt from Henrick, he spoke softly.

“Might I suggest a more tempered approach? After all, we’re likely to engage in a gang war with the Swamp Sharks, right? If the traitor vanishes, we’re hardly going to be able to convince them we don’t know the war is coming, right? On the other hand, if we know there’s a traitor in our midst, misdirection becomes easy. Spies are, after all, only scary when you don’t know who they are.”

The scary look on Henrick’s face had started to fade while Garrett was talking, and by the time he was done Henrick’s expression was completely blank, making his thoughts unreadable. With dead eyes he looked at Garrett for a moment before shaking his head.

“Fine. Do as you wish. So long as we win, I don’t care how it’s done. But once the Swamp Sharks have been crushed, I reserve the right to filet whoever the spy is and feed him to the leeches in the swamp.”

“Deal,” Garrett said. “If we can reverse this ambush, we’ll be a good bit of the way toward beating them. According to our sources, the Swamp Sharks have close to ninety men, and five Awakened. The Shark twins, Lerk and his brother Warn, are Monster Spark Awakeners, while Ruel, Hollice, and the leader of the Swamp Sharks, Vic, are Weapon Spark Awakeners. They previously had another Awakened, but he’s already been dealt with.”

“You mean outside the warehouses when we swiped the goods?” Gorn asked.

“Indeed. Thankfully, the Swamp Shark gang doesn’t have any Shapers, so we should be able to meet their Awakened head on. Considering they think Obe will be attending the trade, it’s likely the ambush will include the Shark twins, and Ruel. If both you and Gorn counter-ambush them, we should be able to come out on top.”

“Three to three doesn’t sound like good odds,” Henrick said, his eyebrows rising.

“No. It’s not. Which is why I’ll try to get Ruel to split off. Like I said, I’ve managed to infiltrate their gang and I think I can divert Ruel. That would put the fight at two to three, in your favor. So long as the three of you work together, it should happen quickly. An ideal situation would be for both the Shark twins to fall during the ambush, and for Ruel to arrive right after they fall so you can cut him down as well. To that end, I have a few ideas for what we can do.

“The Shark twins are Monster Spark Awakeners whose powers are based around bats. Lerk, the smaller of the two, is a tracker. His sensitivity is going to be the highest, but he’ll also be the easiest to kill. His brother, Warn, uses double daggers and has the ability to absorb vitality with his attacks. Ruel uses a sword and focuses on stabs that are tricky to guard against. Speed is his thing.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” Henrick asked, his forehead creasing.

“My sources are excellent,” Garrett said, shrugging. “According to the plan I put together, the three of you will kill Warn first, followed by his brother, Lark. Finally, if we can, we’ll ambush Ruel when he returns. But in order to do this well, you’ll need to follow my plan to the letter.”

“Fine. What are you thinking?”

“The trade location is in the outer tunnels of the crypts, right?” Garrett asked, looking between Henrick and Gorn and gesturing for them to lean in. “If we do this right, they won’t know what hit them.”

Later that night, after Obe had led the Ghoul’s Tooth gang members who were going to go to help with the trade, Henrick and Gorn called together the rest of the gang and went down into the basement. That was one of the only places Garrett had yet to go in the inn, and he had no idea the gang had created an entrance into the crypt system. The traitor, whose name was Reeve, had gone with Obe at Garrett’s subliminal suggestion, preventing him from being able to alert the Swamp Shark gang about the counter-ambush Henrick and Gorn were setting up.

Once everyone had left, Garrett went back to his room and, with Ryn’s help, climbed into bed. Watching him lay down, Ryn shook her head and gave an exasperated snort.

“Are you seriously going to go to sleep?”

“That’s what I was planning on. What else should I do?” Garrett asked, tilting his head.

“I mean, aren’t you nervous?”

“Should I be nervous?”

“You realize we’re going to be neck deep in trouble if this doesn’t go well, right?”

“Nothing we can do about that though. So why worry about it?” Garrett replied, shrugging and closing his eyes. “If you can’t sleep, practice your letters.”

“Fine, I will.”

Hearing her mutter under her breath as she walked over to her bed, Garrett entered the Dream, appearing on the Dreamer’s Throne. As soon as he could, he activated Observe the Dream, targeting Ruel. The Swamp Shark lieutenant was already deep in the sewers, hurrying along with a large group. In front of him, Garrett could see the soul sparks of the Shark twins, Lerk and Warn. Scanning the rest of the gang members, Garrett let out a sigh of relief.

It looks like there are only three Awakened. If they had brought Hollice, we would have been in trouble.

Watching for a few more seconds, Garrett jumped over to Gorn, who was following close to Henrick, while twenty-five Ghoul’s Tooth gang members walked along behind them. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Garrett switched to Reeve, who was planted in the group with Obe. It had taken some convincing, but he’d managed to convince Henrick and Gorn not to let Obe know he was going to be acting as bait, and one of the reasons Garrett had sent Reeve along was to ensure there were no accidents.

Three different groups all hurried toward the same spot where the supplies had already been hidden. The merchant who was buying the goods wasn’t supposed to arrive for at least an hour, and the Swamp Shark gang was hoping to take advantage of the gap in time to swipe everything. At the same time, the Ghoul’s Tooth gang was counting on the attack happening before the merchant arrived, giving them time enough to clean up the attack and dispose of the bodies before making their sale.

All the way back in the inn, Garrett watched the three groups getting closer together from the Dreamer’s Throne. Without any way to physically impact the fight, he was going to be relying entirely on his voice to manipulate the situation. Time ticked by, and Obe and the others got to the room where the supplies were set up. Obe looked around and ordered a few of the men to go check the nearby tunnels to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary. While he waited for them to return, he had the others check the supplies.

Garrett hadn’t interacted with Obe a whole lot since he’d planted the Dream Seed in Gorn, but he knew the heavy-set man to be tough, detail-oriented, and fiercely loyal. Making a mental note to see if he could settle a Dream Seed on Obe, Garrett switched his view to Ruel, checking his progress. Seeing they were moving a bit slower than he expected, Garrett switched to Gorn and whispered into the air.

“Slow down.”

Next to Henrick, Gorn’s brow furrowed and he stopped for a second, causing Henrick to look at him.

“I… I think we need to slow down.”

“Like you knew there was an enemy Awakened hiding by the warehouses?” Henrick asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Yeah,” Gorn nodded, his face filled with confusion.

“Well, your instinct was spot on last time,” Henrick said after a brief pause. “No reason not to listen this time.”

Seeing them slow down, Garrett smiled to himself and switched his gaze back to Ruel. When the Swamp Sharks had nearly arrived, Garrett took a deep breath and focused himself. Reaching through the connection he had with Ruel, Garrett spoke firmly, in a voice that brooked no argument.

“You need to head to the back entrance to cut off their retreat. If you don’t, Obe will sacrifice his men to get away, ruining all your work.”

Hearing the voice in his head, Ruel blinked in surprise. This time the voice sounded even more strident than before. He had originally intended to just charge in, but once the thought appeared in his mind he couldn’t seem to shake it. Frowning, he called for a stop and checked his map. There was a small offshoot that would take him around to the back of the chamber, cutting off the Ghoul’s Tooth gang’s escape, and the more he looked at it the clearer his internal dialog became. Finally, shaking his head, he looked up and saw Lerk and Warn staring at him.

“I just realized this room has an escape tunnel. I’m going to cut around the back. I’ll take ten men with me. You keep the remaining twenty and when I give the signal, rush in. I’ll blow my whistle. You can respond with yours, and we’ll all attack. It should only take me about ten minutes to get around back, so just hang out for a bit without going in until you hear my whistle. Got it?”

“Yup.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

Patting Warn on the shoulder, Ruel picked out ten men and they hurried down the side tunnel, starting the trek around to the other side to cut off their enemy’s retreat. Pleased with the effect he’d used, Garrett checked his soul spark and nodded. He’d been able to infuse his voice with his soul spark energy, which was the only reason it had affected Ruel at all. Still, the fairly simple task had taken nearly half of his energy.

It was one thing to send messages to an Awakened who carried a two or three flower Dream Seed, but it was entirely another to give them a command. The power of his voice had been directly resisted by the power of Ruel’s soul spark, and it was only after he’d used up half his energy that he’d managed to get through Ruel’s passive defense. The entire operation hinged on Garrett’s ability to influence an Awakened, and he’d nearly fallen out of the gate. While he’d come prepared with a backup plan, it would have been much riskier. Thankfully, non-Awakened didn’t have that same sort of defense, so the next step of the ambush was easy.

Waiting for three minutes to pass, Garrett moved his view to Reeve, once again summoning his soul spark’s energy and infusing it into his voice.

“The Swamp Sharks are going to kill you. The only way to survive is to let Obe know there’s an ambush. Yell ‘ambush’!”

A faint glimmer in Reeve’s eyes revealed a five-petaled flower as he suddenly stiffened. Fear seemed to take over his body, causing him to shake as the rest of the group looked at him.

“Something the matter?” Obe asked, his eyes narrowing and his hand reaching for his axe.

“Ambush!” Reeve suddenly yelled, his finger pointing at the doorway. “The Swamp Sharks are going to ambush us! We need to flee!”

The yell rang loudly in the crypt, echoing through the open door and into the hallways beyond. Only a hundred feet away, Lerk and Warn stared at each other in shock, their faces dyed with disbelief. Unsure what to do, they hesitated for just a second when they heard that voice scream out again.

“Retreat!”

Without a word, both brothers came to the same decision and sprinted toward the crypt, their men charging in after them. No longer trying to be quiet, they yelled their battle cries, and as soon as Garret heard them through Reeve, he swapped to Gorn and gave a command.

“Attack!”

Spurred to action by the shout in his head, Gorn instinctively started running forward, Henrick and the others following close behind. As soon as they began to run they pulled strips of cloth from the belts strapped around their legs, releasing the bells they’d tied up. Dense ringing filled the tunnels as they charged toward the ambush, moving as fast as they could. In the crypt, Obe swore viciously and pulled out his axe. With his left hand he grabbed his curved dagger and strode to the front of the group.

All his men had taken out their weapons, Reeve included, and surrounded the goods. They could hear the enemy coming, as well as a ringing sound that echoed through the halls. A moment later the Swamp Sharks burst through the doorway and Obe’s axe cleaved one of the enemy gang members into two pieces. With a fierce yell, he ordered his men forward, hoping to trap the enemy in the narrow doorway.

Unfortunately, Warn was too nimble and managed to dodge past him, flying nearly perpendicular to the ground as he jumped over a heavy slash that took a leg from another gang member. Rolling on the stone floor, Warn sprang up, his daggers crossing behind him to block a heavy stab from the short dagger Obe was wielding. Normally his brother already would have attacked, but to Warn’s horror Lerk was looking around, completely disoriented, his face screwed up like he was in pain.

Though they were off to a bad start, losing both the element of surprise and getting blocked in the hall, the Swamp Sharks had the advantage of numbers and were able to bully their way into the crypt at the cost of a few of their men. A fierce fight started as the Ghoul’s Tooth gang members backed up against the supplies, forming two small groups of three. Reeve, egged on by a voice echoing in his head, fought particularly viciously, trading wounds with the Swamp Sharks so long as his blows could cut them down.

Obe, who found himself evenly matched against Warn, kept glancing over at Lerk, but the tracker’s face was twisted in pain as the ringing sound grew louder and louder, brought closer and closer by Henrick and Gorn with their men. The clashing of weapons was already loud, but with the bells added to it the sound in the room was nearly deafening, and Lerk’s incredibly sensitive hearing simply couldn’t handle it.

Seeing one of the Ghoul’s Tooth gang members get pulled down, Reeve let out a roar and charged forward, his sword swinging wildly as he cut at the enemy. Driving them back, he grabbed his fellow gang member and pulled him back to the group, all the while slashing at any enemy who got close. Seeing that the man he’d grabbed was bleeding from a wound in his neck, he yelled for the others to cover him and crouched down, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

Catching sight of what was going on, Obe kicked out, catching Warn by surprise and sending him stumbling back. Sensing an opportunity, Obe launched himself forward and hacked down with his axe, intending to split Warn in half, but the tricky dual dagger fighter sprang to the side, ducking past Obe’s dagger and stabbing toward Obe’s liver. Before his dagger could land, a silky sound cut through the air and Henrick’s cleaver separated Warn’s arm from his body.