The Rest is Riddles

Chapter 23: To Defeat a Sudok

Jane turned to Commander Olesya. "I'm so sorry about what happened in Dalnushka," she said. "And about what happened during my godstest."

Olesya's face relaxed into a grimace. "Your arrest was a mistake," she said. "But you put me in a difficult position, Avtorka. I saw the papers associated with your godstest. Why did you not summon myself or the tsar during your test? Why did you not send the information directly to Dalnushka?"

Jane flinched. The idea had not occurred to her.

"Never mind," Olesya said. "It's past, and the scum responsible for Dalnushka's demise is behind bars, and we have more pressing matters to deal with now. Get somewhere safe. Unless you're up for conjuring magefire with the other battle-mages? There are still eighteen sudok out there. They haven't gotten past the palace defenses yet, but-"

"Our defensive spells are similar to the ones in Dalnushka." Casimir's face was concerned. "Do you think our defenses will fall with the Kanachskiy mages working on it?"

"The defenses won't fall if we keep their mages away from the wall - that should be our top priority."

"We could split our forces, half of us take on the sudok-"

"Excuse me-" said Jane.

"It depends, we've already lost too many mages as it is. If we spread our forces too thin..."

"Please-"

"The group attacking the mages should be the bigger one; the group attacking the sudok can be smaller, the distraction. I don't like the magic of that sorcerer who was fighting with Nikolay. He was extremely skilled and dangerous."

"HEY!" Jane shouted.

They all looked at her with varying degrees of surprise and annoyance.

"I think I know how to defeat the sudok," she said.

One of the battle mages-Jane thought it might have been the man who had transported her to prison-laughed shortly. "Please, little girl," he said. "Leave the battle strategy to us."

"You'd do well to treat your avtorka with more respect," Olesya said sharply, and she waved a hand for silence. "What is it, Jane?"

Jane shot her a grateful look and opened her carry-bag. "These are dragon's egg potions. They may be illegal, I'm not sure-"

"Controllers," said Drazan in awe. "They are highly illegal, actually. Where did you get them?"

"Nikolay had them in his cabinets. I think they can help us. The dragon he took the egg from said the sudok are weak-willed."

"There is no evidence that such potions work on sudok," an older battle-mage scoffed.

"Then again, the potions have been illegal for so long, perhaps our lack of knowledge is not surprising." Casimir shot a reassuring smile at Jane. She smiled back, relieved that at least one person didn't think her idea stupid.

"It's worth a shot." Drazan shrugged. "It's not like anything else we've tried on the beasties has done much good. So what for strategy? Split into groups of eleven? Ten mages to train magefire on the target, with one extra to control the sudok?"

"Twelve," Olesya suggested. "Might want an extra Rider to help get the potion in the sudok's eyes."

"I can test the first potion," Jane offered.

And so, barely ten minutes later, Jane found herself sharing a wyvern with Olesya, a vial of dragon's egg in her lap, her finger bandaged from where she had cut it to supply the necessary blood.