by Scott Connor
‘Decker and ten men are riding into the settlement. We aren’t going to be able to slip away through the gates for a while now.’
‘Let’s hope he hasn’t captured Kenton.’
‘I can’t see anyone with him who looks like a prisoner.’ Jeff pattered over to the grille and peered in. ‘How will that help?’
‘If he didn’t find him, he’ll think we got away, too, and won’t see no reason to look out for us hiding right under his nose.’
Nathan prodded forward, but his foot didn’t scrape across grit this time and he toppled. He threw out his hands as he fell forward, his foot eventually landing on a solid surface, but by then he was on his knees and nursing a numb ankle.
‘Don’t make so much noise,’ Jeff said. ‘Decker’s coming in through the gates.’
Nathan sat and rubbed his ankle. ‘I’m trying not to. There are some steps in here and I just tried to throw myself down them.’
‘Then throw yourself down them quickly, and quietly.’
Nathan felt around him, finding the step below him and the one below that. The breeze on his face was rising, giving him the impression this gap between the walls carried on downwards for a while, perhaps to the mayor’s office.
That meant he wouldn’t have enough time to explore the whole space now. With a resigned sigh, he stood up and turned, seeing the outline of Jeff’s face peering at him through the grille.
‘I’m coming out,’ he said. ‘I reckon this space is huge.’
‘All right,’ Jeff said. ‘If we can find somewhere to hide, we’ll try again after Decker’s gone to sleep.’
‘I’m glad you’re getting curious now.’ Nathan looked around. ‘What about hiding in here?’
Jeff joined him in peering around then shivered.
‘I’ve been a prisoner once before today and I didn’t enjoy it. I’m not volunteering to hide in there.’
The faint image of Jeff’s frowning face came into view as the light-level rose.
‘Agreed,’ Nathan said.
Jeff glanced over his shoulder, wincing.
‘That moon is choosing the wrong moment to come out and I can hear Decker.’ He backed away from the grille, then returned. ‘He’s outside the jailhouse now and he could come up here. Get out.’
Nathan nodded, but he noted in the stronger light what he could see of the space for future reference.
It was two paces wide and empty and the steps he was sitting on led down for twenty steps to a level that he judged to be ten feet higher than the mayor’s office. Then the steps did an abrupt left turn and disappeared from view.
As he backed away to the grille, the moon again slipped behind cloud. Jeff stood back to give him enough room to climb out, and as he slipped a leg through the grille, Nathan heard men talking, the sounds coming from the base of the tower.
Jeff moved towards the door as the moon again flitted out from behind the clouds. Jeff winced, while Nathan flinched.
A man was standing at the bottom of the steps, looking up at him. He was thin and his clothes and face were dirt-streaked. His sunken eyes and bowed back told Nathan that this man wasn’t one of Decker’s men.
‘What are you doing here?’ Nathan blurted out, hearing his lame question echo back at him from the walls.
The man raised his callused hands, perhaps in a warding-off gesture. Then he darted away to disappear from view, his receding footfalls pattering away down more steps, the darkness closing in at the same time and almost making Nathan believe his sighting had been of an apparition.
‘I’m waiting until I’m sure the moon won’t come out again,’ Jeff said from the door. ‘Then we can get out of here.’
‘I wasn’t speaking to you,’ Nathan said, raising his other leg to climb out through the grille. He slipped the grille back down into place, hearing the lock click. ‘Someone was down there, but I scared him and he ran off. I reckon he’s Decker’s prisoner.’
Jeff raised a surprised eyebrow and then opened the door.
‘I’ve heard that tone in your voice several times today. Does that mean you want to come back later and free him?’
Nathan considered, as from down below he heard voices closing and footsteps clattering through the tunnel.
‘I hope so,’ he said, raising his voice as much as he dared in the hope that the prisoner would hear him.
Jeff nodded. Then they slipped through the door and headed down on to the roof.
The moon was behind cloud, but in the parade-ground a glow illuminated the stables as the returned people held up brands. By that light Nathan saw several men lead horses into the stables, and the footfalls of at least two men headed up the steps to the tower.
Then their voices carried up to Nathan.
‘I’m telling you. I saw two men heading this way.’
‘Just two?’ Decker asked.
‘Yeah. They came out the stables and went across to the tower. I’m guessing Kenton got away.’
As they didn’t have the time to head down the steps, Nathan searched for a hiding-place. The roof had several blocks behind which they could hide, but not for long if Decker searched thoroughly.
Aside from the tower, the only other potential hiding-place was the storeroom, and there was nowhere to hide in there. Beyond the storeroom, the wall led away on its circuit of the plaza until at its far end it joined the wall to the main fort.
Nathan patted Jeff’s arm, then hurried past the storeroom to the wall. Without discussion Jeff followed him.
Nathan ran as fast as he dared in the poor light, with Jeff at his heels. Over the pattering of his feet, he couldn’t hear whether Decker was still talking.
With every pace he expected Decker to emerge on to the roof and shout at them to stop, but he reached the main wall without challenge.
The wall had a protective barrier behind which the fort defenders would have once stood. This barrier was five feet high in parts, but had crumbled away for long stretches.
As Jeff reached the wall, he heard voices again. Then a glow spread out along the roof before the steps, the forms and elongated shadows of three men emerging.
They were fifty paces from the tower, but as the glow from the brands didn’t reach them, they hunkered down before the barrier and faced the tower.
Decker emerged on to the roof, followed by two other men. They lined up, peering around.
They considered the tower, then the roof and walls until Nathan and Jeff were in their direct line of sight, but they continued turning until they’d completed a circle.
Nathan breathed a sigh of relief that they had been lucky. Standing before the dark barrier, they would remain lost in the shadows – provided they didn’t make any sudden movements and provided the moon didn’t emerge from behind clouds again.
‘You, check the watchtower,’ Decker said, gesticulating at one of his men. ‘You, check the storeroom.’
The men disappeared from view while Decker paced round on the spot.
Nathan kept still, willing the men to complete their searches quickly, and his hopes were fulfilled when the first man emerged from the tower, shaking his head.
A minute passed before the second man returned. Then all three men paced across the roof, looking behind each block and even peering down into the plaza and then the parade-ground.
Several minutes passed and their actions became more agitated, with Decker throwing his hands high before he questioned one of the men again as to what he’d seen. Then they huddled and, with a few murmured comments, they turned to go back down the steps.
Far beyond these men, Nathan had a slim view of the settlement outside the gates and he saw the buildings glow, that light passing on to the gates and the fort wall. He looked up as the first sliver of the moon emerged from behind cloud, the light-level increasing by the moment.
He willed Decker to head back down the steps before the moon appeared fully. Beside him Jeff grunted his own low encouragement.
The first man headed down the s
teps, the second man filing in behind. Decker followed them, his form disappearing down into the roof.
His body disappeared up to his knees with his first step, then two more steps hid him up to the waist until eventually his shoulders and head disappeared from view.
Then the moon emerged, bathing the fort in strong light.
Nathan turned to Jeff to utter his relief, seeing his friend now in full view, but Jeff was still staring at the tower and his mouth had fallen open.
Nathan followed the direction of his gaze and saw that Decker had backtracked a step and that his head was now poking out of the wall. He was looking directly at them.
‘Guards!’ he shouted. ‘They’re over there.’
Even before the moon had slipped back behind the clouds, they were on their feet and running. They no longer tried to hide as they put as much distance as they could between themselves and Decker.
The wall led all the way around the fort until it reached the gates. They ran as fast as they could, their only hope to reach the gates, to get to ground level, and then to find somewhere to hide.
Even that slim hope disappeared when Decker shouted orders down to the men in the stables and by the time they reached the first corner, a line of men was climbing up a ladder beside the gates.
They skidded to a halt and looked around, searching for another way down to ground level. Nathan couldn’t see one.
Decker and his guards had now reached the fort wall and the men from the stables had climbed on to the wall beside the gate and were running towards them.
Nathan edged to the side of the wall and peered down into the parade-ground. The flat roofs of the buildings around the area were below; beyond them there was a substantial drop to the ground.
Worse, in response to the commotion Decker had raised, many people had emerged with brands and the parade-ground was well-lit. Many of those people were pointing up at them.
Nathan turned to see that Jeff was peering over the wall at the land outside the fort.
The drop to the ground was more than thirty feet and Nathan had dismissed that as a valid method of escape. He reckoned that being captured in a few seconds in one piece was preferable to being free for a few minutes but having two broken legs, but Jeff beckoned him to come to the wall.
Nathan joined him and peered over the edge. The ground wasn’t visible in the inky darkness below.
‘We can’t jump,’ Nathan said.
‘We can. I can see the ground.’ Jeff pointed down into the darkness. ‘The wind’s pushed dirt up the wall. That’ll cushion our fall.’
Nathan peered down, searching for the soft landing that Jeff could see, but saw only the darkness and fluttering after-images of the moon.
‘I can’t see nothing down there.’
‘My hearing is better than yours and my eyesight is better than yours. Trust me.’ Jeff stared at the skeptical Nathan, then shrugged. ‘Then look at it this way – I’ve backed all your hunches. I reckon it’s time you backed one of mine.’
Nathan glanced along the wall. Decker and a trailing line of men were twenty yards away and the group from the gates was slightly further away.
‘All right,’ he said, climbing on to the barrier. Jeff joined him and they stood swaying before they both looked down. Nathan still couldn’t see anything below but darkness. ‘But you ought to remember that every hunch I’ve had so far has led to disaster.’
Jeff winced. ‘You just had to remind me of that now.’
They crouched down and rocked back and forth on their heels, building up the courage to leap as the pounding feet of the approaching men closed. Decker shouted a warning for them to give themselves up.
Jeff delivered an echoing cry of bravado and defiance, then jumped.
A moment later, Nathan followed him into the darkness.
Chapter Seven
‘Where did they go?’
‘I can’t see nothing in the dark,’ Decker said. ‘Bring that brand here.’
Footfalls padded along the top of the wall.
At the base of the wall, Nathan and Jeff stood still. Jeff’s hunch had proved to be correct. Dirt had collected, then arced up the side of the fort, giving them a soft landing in which their legs drove down into the dirt up to their knees.
They’d had only seconds before Decker peered over the wall and they’d had no time to do anything but stand where they’d landed. As soon as the light Decker had requested arrived, he’d see them, and moving would probably have the same effect.
In the poor light Nathan saw Jeff press himself against the wall, seeking the best cover he could find.
Nathan joined him, as the light-level above him grew. Then Decker cried out.
‘There they are!’
Nathan winced and looked up, but he couldn’t see anyone looking down at them.
‘Where?’ someone else asked.
‘Over there. They’re making a run for those rocks. Get out there and head them off.’
Footfalls pounded away along the wall, leaving Nathan and Jeff looking at each other, Jeff’s wide open eyes catching a stray beam of light and registering his bemusement.
‘I guess Decker got it wrong,’ Nathan whispered.
Jeff nodded, then pointed. Nathan followed his gaze to see movement on the plains. An unidentifiable night animal was scurrying away.
‘Or perhaps our luck is evening out,’ Jeff said. ‘The moon came out at just the wrong time to let Decker see us, and this time, something moved at just the right time to distract him.’
From further into the fort men shouted as the pursuit started up. So they slipped around the corner of the fort to reach the back and thus be furthest away from the gates.
Here, the plains stretched ahead of them, impenetrable in the darkness but even as they searched for somewhere to hide the light-level grew and it wasn’t from the moon.
People were lighting brands as they emerged through the gates, illuminating the surrounding land. With the fort sitting proudly in a flat area, there was no direction they could go that wouldn’t be seen from the tower. Neither of them had any doubt that the tower would now be manned with people looking in all directions.
So they moved closer to the wall and lay on their fronts in the loose dirt, then snaked down into it, covering their legs, then bodies, and leaving just their faces peering out. Nathan didn’t hold out much hope that this tactic would work, but they had no choice.
In close succession Decker’s raised voice came from the gates, then men galloped away. Later those men returned, their faint voices sounding low and disgruntled.
Nathan’s hopes swelled, but then were dashed when Decker ordered his men to head around the outskirts of the fort and search the surrounding area. With his view limited to just a short stretch of the wall, he could only judge the searchers’ positions from the sounds they were making.
Voices closed, the men walking slowly. They called to each other as they looked behind any rocks in their path while others hurried off to search further away.
The procession took ten minutes to reach the back wall. Decker’s orders and his men’s responses confirmed that they were being thorough and Nathan reckoned their capture was imminent.
Even with his limited view, Nathan saw the land beyond the corner lighten up as the brands approached. Every rock stood out in sharp relief as Decker and the first people emerged into his view.
They trailed around the corner, but they were walking thirty yards from the wall and looking to the plains and not towards their hiding-place at the base of the wall. Then they moved out of Nathan’s view as they walked past him and all he could do was listen to them traipse along and hope they wouldn’t think to look by the wall.
After they’d passed, they met a noisier group led by the returned Sheriff Buckthorn, which had headed off to circle the fort in the opposite direction.
Around forty yards from where they were hiding they stopped and debated what to do next. Although Nathan couldn’t hear everything th
ey said, he heard Decker state that his quarries must have gone back into the fort.
So the search-parties headed off. Jeff murmured a few contented words, but neither man risked talking and instead waited until they were sure they were safe.
The sounds of a search continued unabated for the next hour, then for the next hour intermittently. Then there was silence.
Only then did they emerge from the ground to consider their next actions.
‘I just can’t believe Decker didn’t capture us,’ Jeff said, batting the dirt from his clothes.
Nathan shook his head as he glanced at the arc of light on the eastern horizon.
‘Say that when we’ve got away from the fort.’
Jeff joined him in considering the light which heralded the start of a new day and which, if they were to stay here, would surely bring capture.
They knocked around their limited options.
Hiding in the dirt under the baking heat of the sun was likely to kill them even if nobody found them. The growing light showed that the nearest cover was at least a mile away over open land.
They worked their way around the walls, hoping to see a hiding-place they could reach. Each corner failed to reveal any cover in any direction and they reached the settlement that surrounded the gates with no ideas coming to them.
Both men were still loath to sneak back into the fort to steal horses, but reluctantly, they edged closer to the gates and the settlement.
Sun-up was now imminent and people were stirring. As folk from within the fort had raised most of last night’s commotion, they hoped that if any of the people in the settlement saw them they wouldn’t view their presence as suspicious.
They were within twenty yards of the gates when wheels rattled. Then a wagon emerged through the gates.
They were in full view and the driver couldn’t help but see them if he looked their way, but he had his gaze set on the trail ahead. Then he pulled back on the reins, halting the wagon beside the first building on the edge of the settlement.
He called out, a man coming out of the building, and the two men chatted with much good-natured gesticulating.