Chapter Sixty Six

Face to Face

JANUS

Janus' mind whirled at double speed as they moved through the portal and waited as Tracy immediately pulled open another one that would take them directly to Jade's position in the forest. In what little time he had, he formed a skeleton of a plan.

"Wait." He caught Tracy's wrist.

"What are you doing?" Maui asked.

"In case you didn't notice, we don't have a lot of time." Deirdre said dryly.

"We can't go to Jade directly." Janus insisted. "We need the element of surprise. If we run straight into Magnus and his assassins, we're finished. We don't know what we're up against. We should hide up in the trees and observe. There may be something we can learn before we attack."

"Agreed." Melody nodded. "We'll get the drop on them when the time is right. Strike hard and fast, aim to capture Magnus alive and teleport Jade, Magnus and all of us back to the Coalition camp. The Mage Slayers won't be stupid enough to come after us if we're surrounded by the Coalition."

"Alright." Elsa looked unsure.

Janus let go of Tracy's wrist, and she raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Then, she proceeded with forming a few Crossing Points that stood side by side.

"I hope you guys know what you're talking about." Tracy said. "Coz if you're wrong, we might very well not be walking out of there alive."

Janus gritted his teeth, No one could possibly know what they were walking into. He was flying by the seat of his pants. The more he thought about it, the more it felt like a suicide mission.

What was he doing, being caught up in a war between sorcerers and demons? It hadn't been too long ago when things were so much simpler. Just a job, a client and a bounty to collect. The life of a mercenary was much less complicated. Here, he was quite positively out of his depth. A mere human grappling with things far beyond his control. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. No time to think about that now.

Deirdre and Melody went through the first portal, while Maui and Tracy went through the second. Janus pulled on his mask and hood, and stole a glance at Elsa by his side, her eyes meeting his. No words were uttered, but he squeezed her hand. Together, the two of them went through the final portal.

Again, they were plunged into darkness. Janus and Elsa found themselves perched on a tree branch so thick that it was the width of two of his thighs, well hidden above the clearing. He surveyed his surroundings through his mask, letting his eyes quickly adjust to the dark.

A couple of trees away, Deirdre and Melody were perched on another thick branch that was closer to the ground. They were well concealed though by the numerous branches - or thorns and thistles. And then there were Tracy and Maui who were crouched behind a boulder, hidden safely away from sight.

The forest clearing was as Janus had pictured it to be. A barren ground in the middle of the forest, illuminated by pale moonlight largely obscured by clouds and falling snow. Jade stood in the centre of the clearing, shivering from the cold and waiting, looking around every now and then in anticipation for the arrival of Lord Magnus and the Crimson Order.

We made it in time. Janus let out a silent breath, careful not to move too much on the branch for fear of making a noise. Every small sound of movement, breathing and cracking of branches was multiplied tenfold in the silence, and Janus grimaced as he heard Deirdre shifting on her tree below.

He caught Elsa's eye. Her expression was one of worry, and he could tell that her priority was to ensure the safety of Jade and the others. They'd lost enough friends already. First Will, and then Jordan…Janus reached over slowly and squeezed her hand again. And again, he was reminded of the absurdity of the situation. A mere mortal fighting alongside the most powerful sorcerers against demon-imbued assassins and fanatic cultists. When it really came down to it, what could he really contribute to the fight?

He glanced down at where Melody was perched with Deirdre. As always, she seemed poised and unperturbed on the outside. It was hard to imagine that she didn't have the same thoughts that he did. Apart from her magical powers in the water, she was as much a human as he was. Was she really that confident in her ability to make a difference in the coming fight?

Only he hoped that there wouldn't be a fight - which was just wishful thinking. His fingers gripped the compound bow which he had taken from his doppelgänger as part of his ruse. Swapping his recurve bow for a compound was a good move in this case, as it would give him more speed and work better as a melee weapon. His black tights had armour plating now, along with the gauntlet blades along his forearms that would come in useful in hand to hand combat.

Reaching back slowly, he felt about in the quiver he had swapped with his doppelgänger. His fingers brushed against the black fletchings of his arrows. Half of them were poison tipped, and he felt better equipped now. He was going to need that edge in the coming fight.

MELODY

Melody's eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of things. It was dark all around with the snow continuing to fall incessantly, and the entire atmosphere gave off a creepy vibe like something from a murder mystery novel. That's not going to happen here, she told herself as she kept one hand on her bow. Did she have enough arrows to get her through whatever was going to happen here? She hoped so.

Below her, Jade was still unaware that the six Warriors had followed her into the forest. And just in time too. The girl had been too quiet as of late. But then again, Melody knew that it was all of their faults. They shouldn't have kept her at arms' length after her betrayal in Korynes. We should've kept her close. She's still grieving, and we pushed her away. Melody cursed at herself for being too focused on the bigger problems at hand to notice that one of their own was hurting.

And now they'd landed themselves in this situation. No one had been with Jade when she'd been given the note - probably by one of the Order's messengers or assassins. And no one had been around to help her stop and consider whether the Order was telling the truth. There was no way that the High Priest would agree to help her resurrect Jordan. But Melody found that she couldn't blame Jade. The girl was desperately grasping at straws.

Deirdre nudged her, and Melody inclined her head towards her. The sorceress gestured at the forest clearing. Melody narrowed her eyes. Something was finally happening. The Order was here.

From the shadows of the forest, figures in brown cloaks emerged into the clearing. First one. And then two. And then there were a dozen or more of them. Fourteen, Melody counted. So what was the strategy here? The letter in Jade's tent had promised that Lord Magnus himself would be at the meet. But which one was he? Melody's forehead creased as she tried to identify the High Priest of the Crimson Order.

To her chagrin, all of them looked identical with their heads lowered, with matching flowing brown cloaks and hoods pulled over their heads to mask their features perfectly. They'd chosen the meeting ground wisely, where they knew that their faces and features would be concealed nicely by the shadows of the forest. Probably a ploy too, Melody decided as she continued her search for the High Priest.

Their leader was dressed the same way as the rest, but had the added feature of a black sheep mask beneath the hood to hide his true identity. It was both unsettling and intimidating, to say the least. Who knew what kind of freak was hiding beneath the mask? In the minds of those not from the Order, anyone could be Lord Magnus. It was a strategically genius move, really, but it was making things difficult right now.

Melody stole a glance above her at the tree where Elsa and Janus were perched on. They too seemed to be having trouble figuring out what to do next. Elsa saw her from the peripheral of her eye, and pivoted cautiously on her feet to meet Melody's gaze.

ELSA

This is a nightmare, Elsa decided. This was the very first time the Warriors were witnessing the existence of the Crimson Order for themselves, and this wasn't what she had in mind. The Order's cultists had appeared together, and all of them looked exactly the same. In truth, she hadn't expected the Order to send so many. She'd pictured the meeting as a cloak and dagger sort of exchange, discreet and quiet. Not a small army of brown cloaks!

She saw Melody down on the tree beneath her looking at her, and Elsa looked back at her. Maybe Melody had an idea of what to do next. Being the tactical expert, she always seemed to know what to do. Elsa's heart sank. Melody looked equally as lost as the rest of them. What now?

Elsa looked down even further to where Maui and Tracy were hiding behind the large boulder on the ground. They too seemed to be waiting for Melody or someone to make the first move. No one appeared to know what to do next. Janus put a hand on her forearm gently, and she had to keep herself from starting. She turned her attention to Janus.

He was crouched right beside her, but his black attire helped him to pretty much blend completely into the shadows, becoming almost invisible. His noise discipline also made it appear as though he wasn't even there, if not for his hand on her arm. Janus motioned to wait and pointed two fingers at his eyes, and then down at the forest clearing. Wait and watch.

Elsa nodded slowly. That would probably be the best thing to do right now. No point jumping straight into the clearing to confront the Order just yet. She performed the same motion to Melody and Deirdre, who in turned passed the silent message to Maui and Tracy on the ground. Satisfied, Elsa turned her attention back to Jade and the brown cloaks who were slowly approaching her position.

Jade seemed unsettled and fidgeted from foot to foot as she stood her ground. Of course it would be daunting. Elsa could only imagine how Jade was feeling. All alone, with no one else to turn to, feeling guilty over betraying her friends. Her only hope being that there was a slim chance that she could have her brother back from the dead, and she'd done a deal with the devil to get it.

Having been perched on the branch for a good five or ten minutes at least, Elsa's leg had gone to sleep and she shifted it to get some feeling back into it. Immediately, she regretted the move. Pins and needles began to make their presence known, creeping up her calf to her thigh and she moved uncomfortably, afraid to betray her position with unwanted rustling of the branches around her.

Instead, she tried her best to ignore the pins and needles crawling up her leg and focused on the clearing. The brown cloaks had formed a loose semi-circle around Jade. This close, their facial features were still concealed by the dark and Elsa found herself exasperated at how good they were at remaining a mystery.

Jade was the first to break the silence, her voice echoing throughout the clearing.

"Where's the High Priest?" Jade called out, her tone a mix of unnerved and indignant. "I was told he'd be here."

"And he is." One of the brown cloaks in the centre rasped. He pulled back his hood slowly to reveal a mask with the face of a black sheep, with greying hair sprouting from the back of his head. Just by the looks of it, he was probably at the end of middle age. "Lord Magnus, at your service."

Elsa stared, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent gasp. So this was the man they'd been chasing all along? There was nothing to distinguish him as the evil cult leader, High Priest of the Crimson Order. She continued to stare. With grey hair and the unnerving black sheep mask obscuring most of his features, there wasn't much for her to go on.

In her mind, she'd always pictured Magnus as a handsome young villain akin to Hans, but now she realised the foolishness of that preconceived notion. This was a man who'd been behind so many terrors over the decades. It only made sense that he was old. But he was so ordinary looking that Elsa was sure she wouldn't recognise him if she'd passed him by in the streets.

And that was the ingenuity of it all. Such a well guarded secret over the decades, but now Magnus was risking it all by putting himself out here in the open, away from the safety of his hideout buried deep beneath Exon. Why?

"You're the High Priest?" Jade looked hesitant. "I-"

"Wasn't expecting this?" Magnus cocked his head, the black sheep mask tilting in a most disconcerting way. "And what were you expecting?"

Jade looked like she wanted to say something, but closed her mouth. She shook her head slightly. "I did what Chancellor Hans asked for. He said you would keep up his end of the bargain."

Magnus sighed. "Ah yes. Brother Hans. So much cunning and potential. Making promises on my behalf."

"I kept up my end of the deal," Jade said angrily. "I sold my friends out and betrayed everything I stood for just to get this meeting. You'd damn well better deliver."

"Or what?" Magnus drawled.

"Or this." Jade's palms faced the sky. Lightning flashed, illuminating the forest in blinding light for a brief second. Instinctively, Elsa remembered that she and the others were all hiding in the trees - excellent conductors of lightning - and flinched. Thunder rumbled above them.

Magnus let out a low, raspy chuckle. "Very good. You're one of the Elemental Sorcerers."

"Yeah." Jade said hostilely, flexing her fingers. "You know what I am, and what I'm capable of."

"Precisely." Magnus said. "I know who you are and now that I'm here in person, I would like to expand the terms of our little agreement."

"No," Jade clenched her fist. "That wasn't the deal. I told Hans what you wanted to know, and now you give me the means to bring my brother back to life. This-" she gestured at him and the others. "This wasn't part of the deal."

"It is now." Magnus said dangerously, and Elsa felt her hair stand on end. Now he sounded more like an evil cult leader who manipulated world events and wars from the shadows. "I'm risking everything by being out here in the open, just to seal this deal with you. No, you will do what I say, or you walk away with nothing. Or-" he paused, and Elsa imagined he was licking dry, cracked lips behind his mask. "-you might not walk away at all."

A long pause, and Jade seemed to consider his words.

Shifting slightly, Elsa turned to look at Janus. He was transfixed by the exchange, and didn't regard her back. Unsettled, she turned back to the scene before her, knowing that they would have to do something soon before Jade agreed to whatever Lord Magnus wanted.

"What more do you want?" Jade growled. "I've given you what you wanted to know and sold my soul."

"No, you haven't sold your soul. Not yet," Magnus smiled. He waved a hand at the brown cloaks surrounding him, the excess of his sleeve flapping with the motion. "You see these saints?"

Jade gave a wary nod. Her eyes darted round, as if afraid one of them would suddenly pounce on her.

"They're called Mage Slayers." Magnus returned his hand to his side. "The saints of the Crimson Order who have made the greatest sacrifice amongst us. Binding their souls to demons to fulfil our Holy Crusade."

Magnus paused, waiting for Jade to ask him what the Holy Crusade was. She didn't, so he continued.

"By now I'm sure Hans told you what it is we do." Magnus went on, unaffected by Jade's disinterest. "Ridding the world of vile sorcery," He inclined his head towards Jade. "And we would love for you to join us."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Jade spat. "Join you and further turn against those who trusted me? Why the hell would I help you?"

"Because," Magnus' voice grew quieter. "I have the power to resurrect your dear brother. Jordan, was his name, yes?"

Jade stiffened, and Elsa knew that she was playing into his hand. The time for their intervention was near.

"Join us and be reborn as a Mage Slayer," Magnus spread his hands, the excess of his sleeves dangling from his arms. "And I'll see to it that you will be reunited with Jordan. He shall forever be by your side, and you will both find peace within the Crimson Order."

"I-" But Jade could continue no further, for Elsa leapt from her tree branch and broke cover. Gingerly, she landed a short distance behind Jade and darted between Jade and the brown cloaks.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jade hissed angrily.

Elsa kept her eyes glued on Lord Magnus as she levered herself to an upright position, and stood her ground.

"You're not taking her." Elsa said, feet planted and hands hovering by her side, ready for things to turn ugly.

Behind her, she heard the quiet thudding of feet as she was joined by the rest of the Warriors who emerged from their cover. They all stood by her and Jade, presenting a unified front to the Order, though still outnumbered.

She fixed Magnus with the full force of her icy gaze, and as much as she tried, she couldn't help the creepy feeling that ran up and down her body. At long last, she was face to face with the man behind everything that had happened in the past two years. The mastermind who'd orchestrated the Empire war and the exile of the sorcerers. The High Priest of the Crimson Order.

"Ah." Lord Magnus drawled, sounding not at all surprised by their entrance. "You are her, are you not? The famous Snow Queen, Pilgrim of the League of Sorcerers. Your dear friend, Brother Hans, he's told me so much about you." He sized her up and down, studying her intently. "I can see why he's so obsessed with you. You are every bit as lovely as I imagined, perhaps more."

Elsa tried not to bristle. "It's over, Magnus." Elsa said steely. "I know everything about the Crimson Order."

"My dear, you know nothing."

"I know that your precious cult has been hunting us for the past millennium, and when I took the League public, you saw your chance to end us once and for all. Fuelling Eleanor's mad ambition to conquer the continent and inciting the bloodiest war this continent has ever seen.

"You manipulated King Uxzas and the Confederation into declaring all sorcerers as dangerous criminals, and sent assassins to take our kind away from Stormtide to be slaughtered. But the game is up. We know everything now, and we're not going to let the Order's reign of terror continue for another millennium. It's over."

"Wrong." Magnus snarled. "You are so wrong. This isn't over until we fulfil our Holy Crusade and purge the world of your disease."

"Your crusade stops here." Melody stepped forward to join Elsa. "You made your first mistake in coming out here into the open. We've been chasing you for the longest time, and you're not getting away from us again."

"And how do you figure?" Magnus spread his hands. "You see these men and women?"

Elsa's eyes swivelled from left to right. All around them were the Mage Slayers, having moved ever so gradually that now they faced inwards, putting the Warriors all in a tight semi-circle. We're cornered.

"Why do you think I brought the Mage Slayers with me?" Magnus asked. "You think I didn't consider the fact that the League would show up? You were thinking of trapping me. But no, quite the opposite, I assure you."

"Stop this, Elsa," Jade hissed, and Elsa turned to face her. "Let me fix this."

"No! I can't let him take you too," Elsa nearly cried in a loud voice, but in the tension of the moment, it escaped her lips as a whisper. "I'm sorry about what happened to Jordan, but you can't sell your soul to Magnus in exchange for your brother. You have to know he won't keep his promise!"

"You shouldn't have followed me." Jade said indignantly. "Get out of here."

"We both know that we can't just walk away from the Order."

"And that's why I'm going with them."

"You can't," Elsa begged, stealing a quick glance at Magnus. "He's going to make you into one of his demon assassins!"

"You think I don't already know that?"

"Please, Jade. Think about this." Elsa felt herself growing desperate. "This-" she motioned at her surroundings, where the rest of the Warriors were facing the Mage Slayers, just waiting for the first move. "-this isn't what Jordan would've wanted."

Jade's expression was incredibly clouded.

"Jade!" Elsa gripped her arm. "Please. We've lost enough. We can't lose you too."

"I'm sorry. I don't have any other choice." A tear escaped Jade's eye. "I have nothing left. This is my only chance to get Jordan back. My last chance." She jerked her arm away from Elsa's grip and blinked back more tears. "Now get out of my way, or I swear to God, I will fight you."

Elsa stiffened. "Please."

"Nothing will stand between me and Jordan's return." Jade hissed. "Not even you." She pushed past Elsa and walked towards Lord Magnus.

"Excellent choice, my dear." Magnus extended a hand to her. "You are one step closer to seeing your brother again."

It was a betrayal all over again. Elsa remembered the first time Tracy had been seduced by black magic and had joined Kane briefly before turning back to the light. And then herself, when she'd been blackmailed into joining Ingrid in her mission to locating the secret prison of the Eternal King. And now, it was Jade who had gone renegade, courtesy of Lord Magnus and his manipulative ways.

"You monster," Elsa glared at the High Priest. "Let her go."

"I'm not forcing her to do anything against her will." Magnus spread his hands again in a religious-like manner. "She's seen the light." He turned his gaze to Elsa. "But there is no redemption for the rest of you heathens. You made a mistake in coming here."

"And how's that?" Melody asked. At Elsa's side, she was gripping her bow tightly.

"None of you are leaving this place alive." Magnus said.

"Gotta say, that's a little anti-climatic." Tracy called out, facing two of the Mage Slayers right in front of her. "After all this secret shadowy cult nonsense, I expected a grander end."

"I'm pragmatic, if nothing else." Magnus confessed. "I do not possess that sense of flair and showmanship like your friend Hans. He'd have wanted to end you all on a grand stage in front of the entire capital. But me? I don't have time for such theatrics. The Mage Slayers will ensure your swift end, and we will continue our crusade to wipe out the rest of your precious sorcerers."

"That won't be as easy as you think." Elsa retorted, levelling Magnus' gaze. "The League will stand and fight, and we have the Coalition on our side."

"And we will dispose of them all," Magnus said casually. "No one will see us and leave the war alive." He took a step towards Elsa, and she stood her ground, cold particles beginning to form on her hands. "I must say, you've lived up to your reputation. Beautiful, brave and a true leader to your sorcerers. In another life perhaps, you could have been the greatest Mage Slayers to have ever lived, working with me to fulfil our Holy Crusade. But unfortunately, your storied career ends here."

A dagger whipped end on end towards Magnus and almost sunk itself into his forehead, but it was stopped in midair, just inches away. The dagger hovered for a second, and dropped away with all momentum lost.

Elsa spun to see where it'd come from. Janus had thrown it, hoping to end the nightmare once and for all. Take out the leader and the rest will scatter. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked.

"Kill them!" Magnus shouted scratchily, pulling Jade away with him. "Kill them all!"

Damn it. Elsa willed the cold to work for her. The ice gushed from her hands, forming a solid block that would hit Magnus in the back and send him flying. Instead, a piercing sound wave hit the ice from the right, the sonic scream shattering it into a thousand different fragments and sending it flying in all directions.

Crouching, Elsa jammed her fingers into her ears in shock. What was that? She whirled to the right to see one of the Mage Slayers, a woman with dark gothic makeup whose features were now slightly visible in the weak moonlight. The woman gave her a nasty grin, and lunged at her.

Elsa leapt aside and shot another quick blast of ice, hoping to stumble the assassin. To her chagrin, the Mage Slayer opened her mouth and shattered her attack with another deafening sonic scream. Ice flew in every direction, and Elsa shielded her face with her arm. The assassin buried her shoulder into Elsa's chest and dragged her to the ground. Elsa hit the ground back first, and before she could mount any defence, her breath was rudely knocked out of her as the assassin planted a forearm against her collar. This was going to be way tougher than she thought.

Author's Commentary:

At long last, we're at the climax. The past sixty plus chapters, we've been building towards this. A massive face-off with the Mage Slayers, where the Warriors hope to end the threat of the Crimson Order once and for all. The battle that ensues will be unlike anything ever written before in the history of fantasy.