Sir Gregory and Charlie had only ever crossed paths a single time, on the day the hex knights had summoned Charlie to this world by accident. Sir Gregory had been among the high-ranking knights responsible. At the time, Charlie had been nothing more than a normal baby. At least as far as he could remember. It was only after Orb used the Sentience spell on him that his consciousness truly awoke. His first encounter with Gregory was hazy. The memories he formed before Orb’s spell were headache inducing and shoddy at best whenever he tried to recall them. Still, it was pretty impressive Charlie could remember anything from a time when he wasn’t supposed to be making any memories at all. Now, Charlie noticed details that he never would have before.

  Sir Gregory was a large, muscular man, and his armor reflected that. Of all the hex knights that Charlie had encountered so far, Sir Gregory wore the largest armor of all. He was taller than most knights Charlie had run into, and his armor seemingly had swollen in size to accommodate his massive frame. His hair was pitch black and fell to the top of his shoulders. A thick beard covered his face. His eyes were a deep brown that seemed to almost tease a gentle soul beneath all the armor. On his back rested a great sword that could probably cleave Merlin’s wagon in two if its wielder decided to.

  From beside Vetica on the wagon bench, Sir Thespin was the first to react to Sir Gregory’s presence. “Gregory…forgive me, commander, you need not trouble yourself for a matter such as this. Surely you trust Sir Osmond and I to handle a few beasts?”

  Vetica tensed at the name Gregory.

  “Master! Call me Obie!” Obie complained to Thespin. Apparently, he wasn’t a big fan of the name Osmond.

  Sir Gregory smiled. “Of course, Sir Thespin,” he said. “I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.” His eyes scrolled over the horizon where the scalers had fled back into the forest. Then he turned his attention to the wagon itself. He scanned Vetica’s face, and then his eyes finally fixed on Charlie. “Is the baby alright?” he asked.

  Vetica stared at Gregory. She was acting…odd. Normally she’d have no problem playing a role such as this, so what was going on? She seemed almost nervous, and in her silence the moment grew more uncomfortable with each passing moment.

  Sir Gregory raised a brow. “The…baby. Is he alright?” he tried again.

  Orb rolled over in the blanket he shared with Charlie and pushed into Vetica’s leg. She finally stirred. “Oh, yes. The child is fine. Sorry, I’m a little…shook up after what happened. Those beasts chased us for quite a while before this knight saved us,” she said, gesturing to Thespin. Sir Thespin straightened in his seat at the attention from Vetica. It was a smart move, redirecting attention to the knight, who clearly wanted it. In an instant, the awkwardness passed, and Charlie felt a breath of relief. Still, they weren’t through the gates yet.

  Sir Thespin bowed his head slightly to Vetica. “It was nothing. I am glad to be of assistance to one such as yourself…and your family of course!”

  A new man approached from within the fort’s wall. A knight. If Sir Gregory looked almost surprisingly friendly, this man was the opposite. He appeared to be in his thirties, with combed-back slick brown hair and several days’ worth of stubble covering his face. An intimidating sword hung at his waist. He was nowhere near as tall or muscular as Gregory, but the scowl he wore made quite the impression.

  “Talk about resting witch face, he looks like he eats dungeon cores for breakfast,” Orb muttered, just barely peeking out. Luckily, he’d truly mastered the art of looking like a children’s toy ball rather than a dungeon core when he wanted to. The knights wouldn’t suspect him of being what he was. Unfortunately, this new knight did suspect something.

  “Sir Gregory, I came as quickly as I could. Is everything alright?” the newly arrived knight asked.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Orb said.

  Vetica shifted at his words. Charlie swallowed.

  Sir Gregory appeared almost confused. “Ah, Sir Calda, you’re a little late. Thespin took care of everything here already.”

  Sir Calda hurried past to inspect the new arrivals. His eyes locked onto Charlie when he saw him. “No, sir, I’m not talking about the monster. I’m talking about the child.”

  All eyes turned to Charlie in a single moment. Gregory, Calda, Thespin, Obie, Vetica, and the gates guards. That’s how bad things often happen, quick and unexpected like. Today’s bad thing came in the form of Sir Calda.

  “Told you,” Orb said.

  Sir Gregory held a hand out to calm the newcomer. “Easy Calda. That’s Sir Talmot's job. He’s the foremost expert on scarlet searching hexes in Aysela, and he’s on the child’s trail. He’s kept me informed of his progress, and it’s impossible that the child could be here based on where he was last spotted. Besides, I was there when he was summoned, remember? He’d be much older that this by now.”

  Beneath him, Charlie could feel Vetica’s hand slowly slide toward the dagger hidden beneath her dress. That wasn’t good. They could not fight the hex knights. Not like this. Sir Gregory was the second-ranked hex knight in the kingdom. You didn’t make it that far without being extremely powerful. It was something Richard made sure all of them understood before he agreed to let them undertake this mission. No matter what, they could not get into a fight with Gregory. Not to mention all the other knights present.

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  Sir Thespin cleared his throat. “Actually, the reports say the boy hasn’t grown much at all. Still, I do not believe a beautiful woman such as this would travel with the same child Sir Brandt’s obsessing over. It would be more foolish still for the boy to show up at our gates.”

  “Foolish indeed,” Merlin muttered in the back of the wagon.

  Sir Calda shook his head. He turned to Sir Gregory. “But, Sir—”

  Gregory held up a hand. “I understand you want to prove yourself, Calda. I have no doubt that one day you’ll rise up the ranks and make a name for yourself. But take my advice, we don’t want anything to do with this wild baby chase across all of Aysela. We have our assignments, and we should focus on them. The people inside these walls are depending on us.”

  Sir Calda looked as if he wanted to say more, but he held his tongue.

  “Take some men and go into the forest. I’m placing you in command of the hunting party. Speak with Sir Thespin before you leave. He’ll give you what details he can,” Sir Gregory said.

  Despite Sir Calda’s obvious disagreement, he obeyed. “Sir.” He bowed before hurrying back inside the fort.

  “Man, we sure are lucky this Thespin guy is such a simp,” Orb said, this time only to Charlie.

  “Forgive him; the knights have been working overtime lately preparing for the storm. I’m glad you were able to make it to the fort in time. What town did you come from, if you don’t mind me asking?” Sir Gregory said. “If there are any other stragglers, we’ll want to find them soon.”

  “Actually, we’re…wanderers. My husband, Merle, is a merchant, a talented one, but he has a knack for getting us in trouble. I wanted to stay on Capital Road, but he insisted we should try to trade with some of the forest towns before moving along. That idea almost got us eaten,” Vetica said.

  Charlie smiled. “You’re doing great, Vetica,” he whispered inside her mind. That was a lie worthy of Merlin. Of course, Merlin had been the one to come up with their backstory.

  “They’re only passing through,” Sir Thespin said. “If they don’t stay too long, they should be able to make it out of the forest before the storm arrives.”

  “Storm? What storm?” Vetica asked, perking up.

  Thespin turned toward her, his mouth slightly agape. “Right, I never—”

  “There’s a storm approaching, and unfortunately, leaving before it arrives won’t be possible. We’ve just received word it’s picked up its pace. It’ll be here in just four days. Not the seven we originally anticipated. A single horse and a wagon full of goods can’t possibly beat this storm. Even if you abandoned the wagon and just took the child when the storm was within sight, I doubt there’s a horse alive that could outrun it. It would be better if you remained here,” Sir Gregory said.

  Charlie swallowed. The relaxed, almost too friendly knight had a stern look on his face now. Either he really didn’t want them leaving in a hurry for some reason, or this storm was serious.

  Merlin perked up, holding himself up on the backbench of the wagon. “We’ve traveled through storms before, my good man. So what exactly is it that has strong men like you all riled up? I’ve heard plenty of tales of hex knights, never one of them straining back from bad weather though.”

  Gregory chuckled at that. “Aye, this is more than bad weather. This is a hex storm. A powerful one. We’ve taken precautions to ensure the people’s safety within these walls, and we’ve already evacuated the inhabitants of nearby villages. We’re lucky you stumbled upon us. I couldn’t bear to find out after the fact that we’d failed to get civilians to safety.” He turned to Thespin. “I’m surprised you hadn’t already warned them.”

  Sir Thespin rubbed the back of his head. “Ah yes, I went a little overboard during the fight. One of them was injured. He seems to be doing better, but I thought we should get him to a doctor just in case.” He turned and pointed his head toward Merlin.

  Who was now unconscious again, his arm still wrapped around the bench.

  “Um, I think he just died,” Obie said with a frown.

  Sir Gregory’s jaw parted. “You should’ve led with that!” he turned and barked at the knights on either side of the gate.

  “You, go fetch the doctor, and you go get one of the spare houses prepared as quickly as possible for our guest.”

  “Sir!” the knights said before hurrying off.

  “Sir Thespin, I’ll leave them in your care. And in the future, be more mindful of your magic. Collateral damage is not acceptable, not under my command,” Sir Gregory said.

  Sir Thespin bowed deeply. “From this moment forward, I will protect them with my life. Not a moment shall pass where they aren’t under my or Obie’s careful supervision!”

  “Does that mean we’ll get to play games? That sounds like so much fun!” Obie said excitedly.

  “Great, sounds like sneaking around just got that much harder. Fantastic!” Orb said.

  Thespin shook the reins, and Marvin reluctantly started pulling the wagon forward again despite the unfamiliar driver. As they slowly rolled past Gregory, Charlie noticed the large knight staring at him. Gregory’s eyes lingered as if he were searching Charlie for something. Had he figured it out already? Was Charlie made? Was this some elaborate ambush that would spring as soon as they were trapped within the fort’s walls? No, it didn’t seem like that. There was something there, some emotion written on Gregory’s face that Charlie couldn’t quite place.

  Whatever it was, Charlie didn’t have time to worry about it now. As they entered the fort, and the gate slowly slid down behind them, his thoughts turned toward the plan. Mary was here. Mary was somewhere within these walls, and from this moment forward Charlie had to focus on his only objective while here.

  Find Mary and help her escape.

  As the knights ran ahead of them to fetch a doctor and prepare their living quarters, Charlie looked down at Orb, who was still hidden in their shared blanket.

  Orb half-rolled forward in a nod.

  Operation Hail Mary had begun.