Chapter 24: A counter-counterattack

This time, Ginevra didn't strike Cael, but merely snorted. Then she reached into a small bag on her belt and produced a clay figurine of a bird. It was about the size of a small apple. Ginevra put it on her open palm and raised it to her lips.

The next part, Cael watched with rapt fascination, taking every part to his memory to the best of his ability.

"<By the ancient pact of magic and nature, I call upon the essence of a crow. May this clay husk become alive and take flight, to carry my words far and wide.>"

Before Cael's eyes, mana poured out of Ginevra's lips in a wide, but tightly controlled stream. It poured into the clay bird, filling with it with life and color. In seconds, instead of a clay figurine, a real-looking crow stood on Ginevra's hand.

It turned its head, looking at Ginevra with a black, beady eye; then threw the same look at Cael.

Ginevra rubbed its head with a finger and brought the bird towards Cael.

"From the look on your face, I gather you hadn't seen a Mystical Messenger before, Cael."

He shook his head. "It's from the Transmogrifications subschool, not Summonings, right? Does it always make a crow, and out of clay? Can you use wood instead, or a different bird?"

Ginevra narrowed her eyes. "Keep talking, and I will hit you again. The Messenger will remember the words you tell him and will relay them to your father. I need you to tell him to come to Rocca Albornoziana if he wants to see you alive and whole. Tell him… his clever war tactics won't work, because I will take Rocca Albornoziana before he would dream to take Lacrimarosa. And after this, I will march straight to Sanremo di Mare. Is that where your brother is? If so, then I will have both his sons."

Rocca Albornoziana… It was the fortress that blocked the most direct passage between Nuvoloso and Oliveira lands. It wasn't a border fortress, but it stood in a well-defensible position, while overseeing a dozen of roads and the passage to Oliveira's orichalcum mines.

Cael swallowed. A trap. This was a trap, even if he didn't know exactly how it worked. But he could sense the lies that dripped from Ginevra's words. The plan of her wasn't entirely untrue, but the biggest part of it was missing from this speech. Like roots of an old tree, which spanned far deeper than one could imagine looking at its branches.

Even if this would earn him another bruise, Cael had to try to find out more.

"Why would you tell Father this? I thought all you could do was to use treachery. Are you afraid to lose in an open fight?"

Ginevra smiled, as if Cael paid her a compliment. "This is what the war books teach us—strike the enemy not where they expect. BE not what they expect. Strength comes not from the power alone, but from the ruthlessness that lets you wield its full extent. You, Cael, are just a naïve boy if you don't understand it."

Her voice grew low and dark when she spoke her next words. "Now. Go on, tell the message—and know that if you mess it up, I will just cut off your ear and tell everything myself."

Cael felt the truth in her words.

'System, I have to ask—would you be able to heal a cut off ear? Or a finger? Or a limb?'

'Yes, Cael, but it would require a sizeable amount of Blood Points. Your current injuries could be healed for 11 BP. You have 18 BP left. Do you want me to proceed?'

'No, thanks. Not yet.'

He glanced once again at impatiently pursing lips Ginevra, then at her crow, then at Ginevra again. Cael gathered his breath.

"Father, I… I have failed you. Ginevra Nuvoloso has captured me." When Ginevra nodded in approval, Cael continued. "I'm now her hostage, but I'm fine. For now, at least. Come to Rocca Albornoziana, before that changes. This is the place she is going to conquer… Before going to Sanremo di Mare."

Ginevra pulled the Mystic Messenger away again. "Did you remember that?" she asked the bird.

To Cael's surprise, it nodded.

"Then fly in…" Ginevra looked at the sun's position, then pointed her hand to the side. "There. Look for a mage named Gianni Oliveira. Give him this message, remember his response, if there's any, then return to me."

"Gianni Oliveira," the Messenger repeated in Ginevra's voice. When she nodded, the bird jumped and took flight.

Ginevra and Cael both watched it until it disappeared amid the forest's spring green foliage. Then they turned towards each other again.

"I don't know what you came up with, but you won't win, Ginevra. Father will see through your trickery," Cael said. "He'll anticipate anything else you can throw at him. Would put more sentries at nights, would always look behind his back. What else you could do? You won't fool him twice!"

"Won't I? You have great respect for Gianni's abilities. But he's just a man." Ginevra smirked mockingly. "A man who hadn't gone to war for years. A man who has his son captive by the enemy. Would his eyes be seeing, or be blind?"

Cael felt the blood draining from his face.

Ginevra's smirk shifted into a snarl. "Yes. But even if he walks into this with his eyes open… I would crush him, anyway. The question was never about whether I'm going to win. It was about how many soldiers I would lose."