Andalon Awakens

by T B Phillips

  Eusari stood atop the city walls, surveying the first phase of her night’s work. By now the murder holes and cannon outposts were neutralized and she scanned the night seeking confirmation. She smiled as she recognized six columns of gray gas and smoke billowing up, kept low and mixing into the storm clouds. She was pleased that the blinding snow had given extra cover as her teams entered the next stage of the operation.

  On cue, she heard the retort of cannons from the harbor. Braen and Ice Prince had a difficult job of taking out the Imperial vessels, and she prayed that the primers had been properly placed by her team. Her friend and his crew would be sitting ducks for the large guns if they were recovered after the gas dissipated. None fired, so she felt satisfied that the water assault had worked. Silently praying that Shon’s soldiers would be in position at the northern gate, she rushed to meet up with Jacque.

  Everything had worked according to plan. Her team met very little resistance at the gate, as most of the city guard rushed to the waterfront. Braen would pin them down with grapeshot and more carcass rounds from the ship’s guns, giving Shon’s men easy access to the armory. She saw a small skirmish on the wall across from her, and worried that the other team couldn’t get through. Finally seeing Jacque and his team break free, she let out a breath. He ran up to her with a quick salute, proudly reporting that not a single man was lost in the first phase.

  They quickly threw open the gates and signaled twice with a directional lantern. She marveled at the mind of Sippen who had invented the device. He told her that he had “whipped it up just for tonight.” So far, his gadgets were the main reason that the attack was going well.

  She tired of waiting. She was starting to doubt that Shon’s men had seen the signal through the storm and prepared to send a second set of flashes, but finally a response came. One. Two. Three lights. They were ready to begin the frontal assault.

  Without a sound, the men rushed the front gate, sprinting through and fanning out to the armory and several resource-filled warehouses. Any guardsmen caught out in the streets were cut down immediately by well-trained crossbowmen. More men drove wagons behind the first wave ready to load the night’s spoils. Eusari and Jacque followed these, providing cover. When they reached the armory, Eusari noted that the men had already hauled out most of the armor and weapons onto the lawn. She ordered her team to load the piles into the wagons for extraction.

  Looking up, she saw Porter rushing down the street with his team intact. A mass of people followed behind them and she strained her eyes to get a look at the freed prisoners. Expecting to find fighting men, she was shocked to count thirty children, running after Porter. Blinking in amazement, she noticed that some were little more than toddlers. They arrived at the armory panting and breathless.

  “What the hell is this, Porter?” She pointed at the children. “Where are Shon’s captured troops?”

  “Ma’am, this is all we found. The jail was empty except for them, and I couldn’t leave them.”

  “Holy hell.” She couldn’t believe the mess. “I guess we take them with us and sort it out later. Get these children to Braen and load them aboard Ice Prince. There won’t be time to get them on She Wolf.” He saluted and took off running. Turning to Jacque, she added, “Take my team and rejoin the extraction. I need to go see what other surprises Shon has for us.”

  “Aye mum.” He ran off to round up both teams, who were busy loading wagons.

  “And Jacque!” He skidded to a halt and spun around. “Be very leery of Falconers. I’m surprised we haven’t seen any yet.”

  Eusari sprinted toward the Rookery, cursing under her breath as she ran. Rounding the last corner, she stopped to let her lungs catch up. She observed that the building, although fairly large, was not elaborate. There were no windows on the first floor, and several large ones on the second. Two city guards lay dead in front of the building, crossbow bolts sprouting from their chests. She saw that the doors had been kicked open and Sippen’s gas filled the foyer. She donned her mask and entered carefully.

  Once inside she stepped over a dead bird sprawled on the floor. A few feet away she saw her first Falconer of the night. He had died with his hands clutching his throat, obviously having breathed in a full dose of the lethal smoke. They can be killed. Good. She picked her way carefully, irritated that her vision was poor in the mask. Reaching the other doorway, she braced herself for what lay on the other side and then pushed it open.

  The next room served as either a dining hall or a meeting room. A long table ran the length of the floor, with a set of double doors on the other side. Two more guardsmen had bled out in front of the doors, swords drawn and laying on the ground. One of the doors was slightly ajar, and she gently slid through.

  Eusari emerged into the strangest room she had ever laid eyes on. There were no candles or torches that she could see, but the entire room glowed with a strange light emanating from the ceiling. At first glance she assumed it was a room for the distillation of alcohol, as she traced hundreds of feet of glass and copper coils. These tubes connected vats of various sizes that sat atop small burners and drips. She silently wished that Sippen had been along to help her decipher the purpose of the room.

  There were two additional doors that opened into the laboratory, one of which was a supply closet and the other another room. The door to the closet looked heavy and had once held a strong lock that now lay forced open on the floor. Sounds of movement from within reached her ears and she crept in that direction, careful not to give away her approach.

  She slowly turned the handle and pulled open the door. As she peeked in, she immediately saw Shon and all four of his men filling their leather satchels with small objects, pouring them out of jars. She watched in silence as they dumped the contents into their bags and discarded the empty containers on the ground.

  “What’s all of this then?” Her voice startled the men and caused one to miss his satchel, pouring hundreds of small black rocks onto the floor.

  All five men froze at the presence of Eusari. Shon quietly cleared his throat, taking a step toward his niece. “You aren’t supposed to be here, dearie. You should be opening the gates and getting your teams out.”

  “I can be anywhere that I choose, Shon.” She bent low to pick one of the black beads, rubbing the oddity between her fingers. It was perfectly smooth and round, about the size of a pearl. “I came to give you guys a hand, but it appears you don’t need any help to steal rocks.”

  “Not rocks, dearie.” Wembley carefully approached Eusari.

  “Then what? Are these jewels? Some valuable commodity to help finance the coming war?” She slipped the black pearl into her pocket and placed her hand on one of her knives.

  Shon’s eyes shot to her hand as she did, halting his approach.

  “Start talking, Shon Wembley. You need to explain what’s so important that we risked an entire operation.”

  “To do that, I need you to follow me.”

  Eusari stepped aside, allowing him to enter the laboratory. She glanced back into the storeroom, noticing that Shon’s men immediately went back to work pouring the rocks into their satchels. Curious, she followed him through the other set of doors.

  Lights turned on, illuminating the next room as soon as they stepped inside, and Eusari gasped in shock and disbelief. Rows of slab-like beds lined the room with hundreds of people lying atop them, nude and in a deep slumber. Tubes ran from every orifice of the sleeping subjects, and no effort was made to cover them. Eusari walked down the first row immediately noticing that there was no regard to age. She saw infants, adolescents and elderly mixed in with adults. Tears welled in her eyes as she walked.

  Pausing next to a male infant, she ran her fingers along the tubing. She had never seen anything so miraculous as the thin and flexible lines that ran from the base of the child’s skull into a collection box nearby. She could clearly see that various fluids were r
emoved from the body and then returned via this device. Another line ran into the left hand while one more terminated as a mask that covered his mouth and nose. Looking around confirmed that every person in the room was similarly attached.

  “The Rookery is a farm, dearie. They harvest fluids from the subjects and extract what they need. One of their books spoke of ‘adrenaline’ and ‘cortisol,’ whatever those are.” Pointing at another tube that ran from the apparatus to the ceiling, he added, “They somehow separate this clear fluid and transfer it to the laboratory. That’s where they make the beads.”

  Eusari was too shocked to comprehend. “What are they used for?”

  “The best that I can figure is that the Falconers swallow the beads. I think that’s how they get their powers, but it was mostly a theory until tonight.”

  “But you convinced us to risk the attack anyways. On a hunch?”

  “Yes. Well, more than a hunch really. I found some of the beads and several books during one of my raids. Look, we don’t have much time and need to get what we have back to the extraction point. Can we discuss this back at the Landing?”

  Before she could answer, Eusari heard a groan from one of the tables. Turning, she strained to see movement in the back of the room. One subject was fully dressed and without tubes in his body. Her hand came up to her mouth as she recognized Samani Kernigan lying atop a slab, hands and feet bound by a swirling substance. She rushed over, reaching out to touch the shackles, recoiling when she realized that the man was bound by wisps of air. Unlike the others, he was awake and staring up at her with a blank expression. His eyes were wide open.

  “Sam? Can you hear me?”

  Without nodding, Sam answered in a voice that sounded trance-like. “Eusari? Thank heavens. Get me out of here before he returns.” She shouted for Shon to help her. The other men had finished loading their bags and two of them picked the man up off the table, grunting under his weight.

  Eusari looked with pity around the room, trying to form a plan that could get all of the people out of the Rookery.

  Reading her expression, Shon looked around and shook his head in a sad, “no.” Motioning to the tubes he said, “We don’t know how to safely detach them, not without killing them. Besides, how would we get them all out of the city?” With urgency in his voice he declared, “We have to go.”

  Samani answered him, “He’s right, Eusari. These people are little more than husks now that the extraction process is so advanced. The thirty children that I saw Jacque rescue will have to suffice as tonight’s humanitarianism.”

  “How did you…?”

  “I’ll explain later. We have very little time. Kestrel is down at the docks with the two remaining Falconers, and they’re facing off with Braen. You have to distract them and the Imperial troops so that we can get to Ice Prince.”

  Looking around remorsefully, Eusari nodded and swallowed back the tears. “You heard the man, let’s carry him to the docks.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The air filled with swirling snow and smoke as the cannon roared. All around him, Braen smelled gunpowder as cries rang out through the city, sounding the alarm. He stood atop Ice Prince calling out shots to Krill. After he had seen the gas atop the wall, confirming that the guns were neutralized, he had begun firing upon the Imperial ships berthed in the harbor. Krill and his gunners made quick work of the other vessels, destroying them before they could even call away battle stations. Now, his crew focused all of their attention on the harbor gate.

  Looking around, he saw a squad of twenty soldiers exiting the harbor master office, trudging through the piling snow. He pointed them out to his Gunnery Sergeant and waited. Just when they were within crossbow range, he gave Krill the second signal. Another set of guns erupted with a salvo of grapeshot that tore the advancing men into pieces. As soon as they were cut down, he saw several of Eusari’s men rush into the street, making a dash for the harbor.

  Among the men, he recognized Porter carrying a little toddler in his arms. Braen could not believe his eyes, staring in disbelief as twenty or more children followed, ushered through the gate by the black-clad crewmembers of She Wolf. “Holy hell. Cover those kids, Krill!”

  Krill and his gunners worked fast to load the children, stowing them below decks and away from the fighting. Looking at Porter, he asked over the noise of the night, “What the hell? That wasn’t part of the mission!”

  “They’re what we found in the jail, Braston. Eusari told us to get them to you, and so we did.”

  “Where is she? Did she get out with the longboats?”

  “Negative. She went alone to the Rookery to check on Wembley. Haven’t they extracted?”

  “Shit. Krill hang on! We can’t go yet. We still have a team in the city!”

  The Gunnery Sergeant turned his single eye toward his captain, pointing at the gate. “Well she best damned find another way out, Cap’n!”

  Braen saw a platoon of Imperial troops forming up at directly where Krill had pointed. These men would be more cautious and would carry more firepower. He counted about fifty men in all, approached closely from behind by three Falconers. Those are a problem, he thought, and cursed under his breath as he wondered how he would fight three at once. Looking up, he saw three hawks struggling to stay aloft in the storm, getting tossed around like leaves. They quickly returned to their masters, perching atop their shoulders. She still has a chance, he realized.

  “Krill,” he yelled over the explosions, “keep your eye peeled for any more teams who have to egress via the harbor. Most of them have already started back to the boats, but I don’t want to leave any stragglers.”

  “Aye, Cap’n!”

  Braen strained his eyes down river, waiting for the first signal from the shore. One flash. Two flashes. Three. There it was. The first teams were ready for their extraction, so he waited for the answer from She Wolf. “Hurry up,” he thought impatiently. He finally saw two flashes as the ship began its approach back upriver. Picking up the boats while riding the current would be trickier than when they deposited, and he prayed that they had timed it well. Peeling his eyes away, he again checked the gate.

  “How many’ve formed up, Krill?”

  “About one thousand men, Cap’n. I also saw a squad moving to the harbor guns.”

  Braen strained his neck to see atop the walls. Twenty men ran along the parapet to the first pair guns. Looking right he saw another twenty men running for the others. “Brace for shock, gentlemen! This is going to shake the harbor!” He watched as the teams fanned out, manning all four guns. Braen lashed his arms to the rail. “Hold on, men!” He bellowed into the night. His cry was met with four tremendous explosions as Braen prayed for the second time in two years.

  Eusari and Shon emerged from the Rookery, scanning and taking in the scene. The snow had piled up fast, burying the city in a blanket of white. Bells rang a cacophony of alarm that mixed with shouts and the report of cannons from the waterfront. Straining her eyes, Eusari confirmed what Samani had predicted; three Falconers stood with a line of Imperial soldiers at the gate.

  Shon spied a vegetable cart across the street and ran toward it, dumping out the contents and rushing back. After helping his men set down Kernigan in the wagon, he asked, “How the hell are we getting past them, dearie?”

  Eusari didn’t know the answer. She desperately took in the scene, until she noticed two squads atop the wall running toward the gun mounts. “Shit. Take cover, gentlemen.” Just as they ducked behind the wall of a shop, four explosions rang out.

  Shon’s eyes grew large. “Sippen’s primers?”

  Eusari smiled back and nodded. “We placed one inside each cannon, in case they tried to use them against us. As soon as they loaded, the cannons and powder blew.”

  They both peeked around the corner, happy to see that the four-gun mounts were gone. Eusari peered forward. She could se
e large cracks and fissures all along the length of the wall, badly damaged from the blasts.

  Shon pointed at the soldiers near the gate. The entire line had been blown backward, many of the men hit by debris. The Falconers were slowly getting up from the ground, trying to rally the troops back into formation. “This is our chance, Dearie. I think we can make a run for it!”

  Eusari nodded and pulled her satchel close, peeking in to find four gas grenades. She passed these to the other men and said, “On the count of three we’ll run for it. They all slipped masks and she showed the others how to pull the charge. “Throw on two. One. Two.” Four grenades lobbed through the air toward the squad of soldiers.

  The soldiers barely had time to turn as four tiny explosions released a grey cloud, causing them to choke and gag. Shon and the men pushing the cart sprinted by, making it onto the pier. Eusari was not so lucky. She felt tiny ropes lash around her as she tried to run past, pulling her to the ground. Through the eyes of the mask, she saw a tall Falconer looming over her. She struggled against her invisible bonds, recognizing the same wisps of air that bound Samani.

  Rolling over so she could see the harbor, she watched as Shon and his men loaded Kernigan onto Ice Prince. At least they had made it, she thought. The Falconer was closer now peering down at the mask. With a quick swipe, he ripped it from her face, causing her to choke and gag as she breathed in. How was he not affected? She squinted her eyes and saw wisps of air around his head, as if he were wearing a helmet.

  “What have we here?” When he spoke, his voice was distorted through the bubble of air. “So, you are the cause of my trouble tonight.” He reached into her pocket, pulling out the black bead. “And it appears that someone has been where they shouldn’t. Seen things that they shouldn’t see.” The wisps of air constricted tighter against her skin causing her to scream out in pain, thereby breathing in more of the gas.

  Eusari’s vision was beginning to blur. The edges were dark, and she felt like she should close her eyes and give in to the darkness. It would be so easy to just sleep. Everything went dark.