Carid’s hand curled around the hilt of his sword and he hissed, but he made no move yet.  He trusted our escort to do their jobs and it wasn’t like the arrows were going to get through the carriage.  It was built sturdier than that.  It’d take a crossbow bolt at near point-blank range to get through and anyone getting that close would be within Carid’s range as well.  No, his role right now was to stay put and ensure nothing unexpected happened.

The carriage lurched to a halt and I leaned back in my seat, trying not to look out the windows.  Carid was watching the skirmish happening outside intently, but I had no desire to see what was happening myself.  I’d seen enough bloodshed in my lifetime, thankyouverymuch, with my ascension ritual.  At least it wasn’t as noisy as I’d expected.  The arrows that thudded into the side of the carriage were the worst of it, as everything else was off in the trees and over quickly.  The knights made short work of the attackers when they reached them.  The screams were cut off quite abruptly.

I had just opened my mouth to remark to Sir Carid that Count Hidere hadn’t tried all that hard with this ambush when my world went sideways.

Literally sideways.

The carriage teetered for a moment on two wheels and I grasped at the seat, managing to slide to the side of the carriage rather than fall.  Then it toppled over entirely, smashing to the ground with a crash.  I was knocked loose, landed hard on my back, and for a moment I lay there dazed.

Something had hit the carriage.  Something hard enough to knock it over.

Was it magic?

My ears were ringing.  There was an acrid smell filling my nose and mouth.  Fire.  The carriage was on fire.  A hand roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me with them.  I hesitated until I heard Carid’s voice, harshly demanding I follow him, and then I relented and stumbled after the knight as he pulled me from the carriage.

We took shelter behind the wreckage of the overturned carriage.  The front right wheel was on fire and it would quickly spread to engulf the rest of it.  At least I didn’t have my luggage inside.  We’d opted not to take it since this was merely a feint.  A trivial concern at the moment, but I couldn't help but feel a tiny fraction of relief nonetheless.

“Was that magic?” I hissed.

“It was,” he said grimly.

Carid’s sword was drawn and he was watching the trees intently.  There were shouts from the soldiers.  Coordinating among themselves, fanning out to find the attacker.  Whoever it was, they were canny enough to not reveal themselves.  We didn’t have mages - our gods took their place was the prevailing theory - so I didn’t know much about them.  

“Their casting is easy to interrupt,” Carid said in an undertone.  “You can break a spell with a mere shove.  And once a spell breaks, it hits the caster with a backlash that at the minimum is going to knock them out.”

So all his soldiers had to do was find the mage and give them a good push.  No wonder this person was staying out of sight.  I didn’t see a lot of places to hide, though.  The forest had some underbrush, which the archers had concealed themselves in, but the knights were actively out in the forest and there wasn’t enough growth to deter a determined hunter.

“Are they invisible?” I asked.

“Something close to it, most likely.”

He shifted slightly, balancing on his toes.  Ready to spring at the slightest movement.  He wasn’t watching the space ahead of us, either, I realized.  He was only oriented half that way, but that was where his knights were searching.  He glanced subtly around us, watching the side of the forest our backs were to.  Would he be fast enough?  Mages were so dangerous to the average person.  There were so many things in the body they could disrupt to kill someone.  My heart hammered painfully in my chest.

“Okay, enough of this,” a voice said.

And a god stepped out of thin air, standing in the middle of the overturned carriage, ignoring the flames that billowed about her ankles.  Manere clapped her hands together in front of her primly, glancing about.

“I don’t allow magic in my territory,” Manere said disapprovingly.  “It has no place here.”

Someone over my left shoulder screamed.  I whirled about, as did Carid, just in time to see a young woman fall over.  I didn’t recall seeing her before. From the tightness in Carid’s jaw, he hadn’t seen her either.

She didn’t get back up.  She lay there, sprawled awkwardly on the forest ground, unmoving.  Carid got up and walked over to check on her.  I stood and turned to Manere.  Her attention was on the carriage now.  The flames were dwindling under her attention and in a moment, they were out.

“Soooo,” Manere said tentatively, looking up at me, “I ignored what you said about staying in the city.”

“Obviously,” I muttered, making no effort to conceal my frustration.

“Also I killed everyone involved in the attack.  That’s not a problem, is it?”

Yes.  Yes it was.  A big problem.  Sir Carid had intended to take a couple of the would-be assassins alive for questioning.  One of them would surely reveal who had hired them, given a choice between imprisonment and having their mind picked apart by a god.  I let out a slow breath between clenched teeth.  I glanced behind me.  Sir Carid was standing over the mage’s body and from his stance and his lack of further action, I could tell that Manere had done exactly what she said she did.  The mage was dead.

“You’re upset,” Manere said.

Gods could read emotion when it was right in their face, at least.  Still, I thought I had a default level of composure that would have kept that under tighter control.  Although… I was the beloved.  There might be a sensitivity there that I wasn’t aware of.  I hadn’t been doing this job for much over a year and was still learning, after all.

“We needed them alive,” I said tersely.  “That was the whole point of this.”

“I thought you needed an excuse to arrest Hidere.”

“Arrests need evidence.”  I spread my arms around to indicate the carnage around us.  “We can’t tie this to him without that.”

She frowned.

“I could vouch for you.”

“You could… if you hadn’t sunk your reputation along with those ships.”

“Oh.  Yeah.”  She frowned in thought.  “That.”

Sir Carid was returning.  The carriage was beyond mortal repair, but fortunately we had a god that could coerce a new wheel into existence.  Carid, however, dourly informed us that we were unlikely to make it back to the city before nightfall.  He wanted time to look over the bodies for any identifying belongings, as unlikely as it was.  Typically people signing up to be assassins took care to avoid carrying anything that might clue someone off as to their employer.  Not that any of these people that attacked us expected to die.  It’s just sometimes things happen, after all, like a god appearing in their midsts because she couldn’t bear to not keep a close eye on her “beloved”.

“Are you okay with traveling through the night?” Carid asked.

I was about to respond that I took no issue with it, but the god intervened.

“I’ll take her with me!” Manere said brightly.  “I can get her to the city before nightfall.  Come find us when you’re back, okay?”

And she wrapped her arms around my waist and before anyone could protest, teleported me away to her temple.