Feel free to try and bring charges against me after the war is over. In the meantime, tell your friends what happened here, because I’ll do the same to any others I find doing such deeds.” He waited until the soldier had left before turning to leave himself, trying not to look at the face of the woman who had been wronged.
In his mind all he could see was his aunt, who had been wronged and then murdered in front of him. It took everything he had to walk away.
“Aren’t you going to help her?” asked Laina.
“I have to finish this battle,” he responded coldly. “Unless the fighting ends soon there will be even more tragedies.”
“We could at least make sure she’s safe.”
Will looked to one side, afraid to meet her eyes, but his gaze fell upon something even worse, the body of a child lying in the gutter. “Stay here and do that. I have to find Sub-Marshal Spry and get this under control.”
Laina’s heart was torn in two directions. “I promised to keep you safe,” she growled.
A squad of soldiers rounded the corner just then, and Will called out to them. “Stop!” Once he had their attention, he interrogated them to find out which way to go in search of the sub-marshal, then he gave them some instruction. “Keep watch on this shop and make sure no one bothers the inhabitants further.” He gave them a brief description of what had occurred, then left.
A minute later, he realized Laina and Darla were still with him, but he didn’t comment. From there it took another quarter of an hour before he found the sub-marshal. Bartholomew Spry stood with several companies just outside the gate leading into the main keep. Messengers were running in and out, giving him reports from various parts of the city as well as updating him on the situation with First Division outside.
Will made his way through the crowded soldiers. “What’s our situation?” he asked without preamble.
The sub-marshal’s face brightened when he saw Will. “There’s still some fierce fighting within the city, but it will be ours. The bridges are down, and First is trying to force those that remain on this side to surrender. They’d be fools not to.”
He nodded. “And here?”
Spry glanced at the keep, then looked back. “The keep is solid. Taking it will be even harder, unless you can convince them to open the gates like you did with the city.”
“How long will it take to stop the fighting in the streets?” asked Will.
The sub-marshal sighed. “There are squads scattered all over. It will take quite a while to find everyone and get them back under control.”
During which time some of them will do who knows what, thought Will grimly. He needed to talk to the Darrowan commander to stop the fighting, and he needed to send runners all over the city to reorganize the scattered elements of Second Division. He could understand why it would take so much time.
But he didn’t want to wait. He needed to be heard.
Laina and Spry looked at him in mild alarm as they felt the turyn in the air begin to shift, drawn by invisible currents toward where Will was standing. Ordinarily, his turyn absorption wasn’t really noticeable, but his ability had slowly grown over the past year and now the sorcerers around him were easily able to see the streamers of turyn flowing into his body.
Will knew what he was doing on an unspoken level, but he would have been hard pressed to find the words to explain it to someone else. After he had taken in as much as he could, he reversed the flow. The gathered energy raced outward in fine threads, winding its way through the air and lacing itself through the turyn that permeated the rest of the city. In an instant, he went from controlling just himself, to controlling the turyn he had gathered, to influencing the magical energy all throughout the city.
It was something he had done on smaller scales while practicing with the student sorcerers before the war, but now Will took it to a much greater level. Opening his lips he began to speak, and the air conducted his voice flawlessly to every part of the city.
“I call truce!” Will gave his first words a volume and deep timbre that demanded attention, shocking all who heard it into stillness, even as it sent a shiver through the foundations of Klendon. His following words were loud and