by Guy Antibes
Trak took a moment to listen to the silence in the house. He took a deep breath and raised his sword, so that the sharp blade was ready to protect his face.
In an instant, he stood in the Emperor’s sitting room. A single lamp dimly lit the deserted room. Trak lifted the corner of his mouth, wondering if he shouldn’t return and bring everyone back, but they were in no shape to fight. Jojo had returned to the sitting room and had too much to drink. He had passed out on the low couch, together with his ‘headquarters’ littered around him in similar states.
Trak went to the opening that led to the pantry and verified that the secret pathway had been bricked over. He knocked his sword on a brick, discovering that they had put up one layer. He could nearly destroy that with a gust of wind. That could serve as an emergency entry or exit. He hoped his enemies had used poor judgment rather than set up a trap.
He slipped to the doorway leading out of the room and put his ear to the door to listen in. He spelled enhanced hearing and could only make out two sets of footsteps some distance away. The door was unlocked, so he created a silence spell that he perceived as a shield for sound, before he slid the door open.
A bell clanged, but Trak looked up and hoped that his spell muffled the noise. He stepped out into the hallway, keeping on the carpet as best he could, even though the soft boots that he wore would be virtually silent. Trak walked away from a stairway leading down that began on this floor. That meant that the steps to the upper level would be somewhere else.
He leaned over the railing and saw two guards standing at the bottom of the stairway on the level below. That must have meant that the Emperor enjoyed two levels of privacy. He looked up at the ceiling, wondering if everyone slept on the top floor.
Trak spotted an alcove lined with windows looking out over Beniko. There was room enough for them to appear in that spot, out of the way, yet able to move in either direction. If they wanted, they could destroy the stairway and keep the guards from rushing them from below, if there weren’t servant stairs. Trak recalled Nashi’s plans had a space where such stairs might be. Trak moved across the hallway and found a bend in the wall. He lit a mage light and could see the seams of a door. He pushed on it and the door popped open. The stairway went up and down. The walls weren’t dressed smooth like the hallway. This had to be a servant’s entrance. He entered and closed the door. He had seen enough of this level and decided to peek in at the top, using the back stairs.
Trak could feel the rough stone steps through his boots as he ascended, his sword held in front of him. He called another mage light, as tiny as he could make it, and continued up past a landing and to a door. Unfinished wood, aged to a dark red, led out into the top level and the princess.
Trak fought with himself. Should he go further and risk detection or return to Mori’s house, still calling his trip a success? Curiosity won out, and Trak found a handle. He pulled it towards him, since he remembered the door was spring-loaded. He heard the faintest of clicks, and the door released. He looked through the open crack. The upper level seemed deserted, dimly lit by flickering amber lamps. Trak slipped out and closed the door, noting that the hinges and locking mechanism were well-oiled. He shook his head slightly and realized that the Emperor wouldn’t want to be disturbed by the movements of servants.
Light from the edges of the door in the Northeast corner leading from a square central hall was enough to illuminate Trak’s way. He heard voices arguing in whispers coming from that door. It opened. A man walked out holding one side of his face. A woman of incredible beauty, marred by an angry face, shut the door as soon as she could.
Trak listened for any other noises. He heard the sound of sobs coming from the room, and that generated anger towards the man who approached him unknowingly in the dark.
“Who is there?” the man said in very poor Benninese. Trak squinted his eyes but couldn’t make out the man’s features. He certainly knew the owner of the voice and made an instant decision.
Trak grabbed the man’s hand when light came from another room at the sound of Lenis’s voice.
Lenis tried to throw off Trak’s grip, but then he gasped as he realized who held him in the Emperor’s quarters. He looked uncomprehendingly at Trak. “You!”
“Me!” Trak said, bringing his sword up to caress Lenis’s neck with the sharp edge. He teleported.
Tembul struggled to his feet and rubbed sleep from his eyes.
“I brought along a visitor…an old friend.” Trak pushed Lenis down on his bed. “Tembul desperately wants to take you back to Torya.”
“No!” Lenis said. He tried to rise to his feet, but the tip of Trak’s sword made him shrink back down.
Hana ran into the room. “Lenis!” she said in anger. She looked at Trak. “Why did you bring him here?”
“Tembul knows why. The opportunity came, and I grabbed it, literally,” Trak said. “Get some rope and tie him up.”
In no time, Tembul bound and gagged Lenis. Trak dragged him into the sitting room to the music of Jojo’s ‘headquarters’ snoring away.
“Good night. We will talk tomorrow,” Trak said before he laid a sleep spell on the Toryan.
He returned to his room. Tembul sat listening to Hana complain about Lenis’s abuse as her self-appointed jailer. He’d probably hear much the same tomorrow from the Vashtans.
She looked up at Trak. “You’ll regret it if you take him along with you. I know that man, and he is trouble!”
Trak nodded. After all the late-night activity, he suddenly felt very tired. “I share your sentiments, my lady. I have a few items to discuss with Tembul before I faint from lack of sleep. If you will excuse us?”
Hana huffed her way out of Trak’s bedroom. Trak took off his black clothes and sat on his bed, rubbing his head. Maybe that could keep him awake for a few moments longer.
“I learned a lot. A single layer of brick blocks the secret stairway from the pantry. I think that might be a trap. A strong man could kick it in. I found an ideal alcove to teleport to. I think it is an observation area, since the wall has glass windows.” Trak rubbed his eyes. “There is a servants’ stair. Don’t let me forget that. We can use that rather than the main stairway, and there is only one set of formal steps up to the Emperor’s level. I could destroy that to prevent any pursuit while we make off with the princess.”
Trak fought to keep his eyes open. “I think I saw her. She was, is stunningly beautiful. Hopefully, I’ll remember her well enough to verify from Hana and Sirul that she is the one. Lenis and she were having words very early in the morning.” Trak yawned. “That’s enough for now. I’m going to sleep.”
~
Hana made a face, like she usually did, when Sirul admitted that his cousin looked like the person that Trak had glimpsed in the middle of the night.
“A sweet face, yet a poisonous personality,” Hana said. She made another face at Sirul, “You should know that well enough.”
“It’s true,” Sirul said. “My uncle didn’t sell his daughter into slavery for political purposes alone.”
“Then why does everyone want her to return?” Trak couldn’t understand any of this, except he wanted his fathers released.
“Lenis will probably confirm what I said.” Sirul looked across the room. Lenis still slumbered under Trak’s spell, even though he had been dragged from Trak’s bedroom to the study.
“I’d just as soon keep him under until the princess is in our hands,” Trak said.
“I agree,” Jojo chimed in. He looked tired.
Mori walked in with breakfast. She ended up not wanting any more damage to her cooking area, so she proclaimed herself the owner of the kitchen. Trak thought her taking over the premises helped her shake off the shock of her abduction.
“Eat first. I’ll serve the others in a second shift,” she said, eyeing Tembul and shaking her head in the direction of the food.
“So when should we move?” Trak said. Tembul had suggested that he give Jojo as much decision-maki
ng as Trak could stand. Jojo might still become an ally, if he succeeded, and there was no question that their relationship needed some mending.
“Tonight, just as everyone settles down to sleep. They will have had food and drink enough to dull their wits. I agree with your plan except to destroy the main stairway,” he said.
Trak disagreed and mulled over Jojo’s change. “What if we destroy the stairway after we have taken the Emperor and the princess? We can teleport you to the upper two levels, if needed.”
Jojo pursed his lips. “You will guarantee that?”
“There will still be two stairways, the servant stairs and the passage to the pantry. Those can be easily defended,” Trak said. “But if you can get your side ready to move three or four hours after dusk, we will work with you to secure the upper parts of the castle while your forces come up from below. With the stairs gone, Shinowa and the Vashtans will be squeezed together.”
Jojo raised his hands. “I surrender, but I want the Vashtans taken out.”
“Thoroughly,” Ferikan said. “Now that we have the strength and the opportunity to strike back, we will.”
Trak admired the look of determination on Ferikan’s face. Everyone’s time to act had finally coincided, and they had to move before anyone had second thoughts.
After breakfast, the others napped or sharpened weapons. The Vashtans looked over the castle plans for the areas that Trak had verified in his earlier trips.
Jojo and his ‘headquarters’ left to arrange their local forces at midday; they wouldn’t be returning one way or another. Trak walked into the room the Vashtans had taken over. “Remember to use the worry spell whenever you can. It may save lives. That includes Jojo’s men and Jojo. The last thing we need is to have them ensorcelled again.”
The Vashtans all nodded. Ferikan gave Trak an amulet. “I kept this hidden in the cells. I won’t tell you where. Place this in the alcove, so we can teleport safely, using it as a guide.”
Mori walked into the room and dumped blue robes, rather than the more common color of black, onto the floor. “Wear these, so Trak and Jojo don’t mistake you for your misguided brothers.”
Ferikan smiled. “Blue for Blue Swans. I like it.”
~
Mori had just fed Lenis in the later afternoon after the Toryan woke up. Trak sat on his haunches and looked into Lenis’s angry eyes. “I’m taking you back to Torya with the princess. You might not like it, but you will go all the way trussed up or under a spell. I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you.”
Lenis spit in Trak’s face. “Foreigner!”
Trak wiped his face. “We are both foreigners here. What was your purpose other than to betray our mission and Torya?”
Lenis looked away, clamping his lips shut,
Without a second thought, he put Lenis under a poseless truth spell. “What have you been doing for Shinowa?”
After twisting back to look at Trak, Lenis’s eyes became calm. “I interpreted for them. The princess had refused to learn Benninese. For that I was given a gilded, unlocked cell, but a cell nevertheless.”
“Paka, what was his role?”
“Hokono worked for Shinowa.”
“Worked?” Trak asked.
“Nashi had him killed when he took Hokono’s place.” Trak thought the bitterness in his expression was genuine.
Trak sat back and crossed his legs. Nashi was one that Jojo could take care of. “What were you doing in the princess’s room before she kicked you out?”
Lenis’s face turned red. “I tried to take advantage of her. She is quite beautiful.”
“I understand that her beauty has quite a bite.”
Lenis seemed to relax, just a bit. “It does, and I was unsuccessful.”
One more question and he would put Lenis back to sleep. “Does the Emperor or Shinowa expect us to attack?”
“Nashi does, but it doesn’t look like the Emperor or Shinowa believe that you have the ability. I am not in on their meetings.”
Trak could sense some bitterness in that declaration, since it appeared he was only a tool.
~
Trak appeared in the alcove and immediately dropped the amulet. No one walked the hallway, so he returned to the house, facing the three Vashtans, now wearing blue robes.
“The amulet is in place. Go now and destroy the stairway right across from the alcove,” Trak said. Tembul and Sirul stood ready for Trak to teleport them as soon as the Vashtans left.
Markik and Boriak held onto Ferikan as he crouched down to teleport. Nothing happened. Ferikan looked helplessly at Trak. “The amulet has been moved to where we can’t teleport or it has been destroyed.”
Trak furrowed his brow. Not now, he thought, but as he furiously searched for a reason it might not have worked, he shouted out, “Worry!” Trak clutched his fists in frustration and brought them to his temples. “What an idiot! When I cleaned you of any spells, did you have the amulet on you?”
Ferikan nodded. “I did.” He looked dejected.
Trak took a deep breath. “I deactivated it. All of you hold on to me. I’ll take you there in one jump.”
Once back in the alcove, Trak picked up the amulet and handed it to Ferikan and put his finger to his lips. “Go!” he mouthed and disappeared.
Tembul stood with his arms folded. “That seemed to work,” he said drily.
Trak grinned and shook his head.
The Vashtans had already moved to the stairway and assumed poses that looked like the destruction pose that Trak had learned. They said a power word that was quite different from the one Trak learned, and the stairway collapsed in what sounded like an explosion. They had passed the point of no return, since everyone in the castle would have heard that.
“It will take them time to get rope and grappling hooks.” Trak said. “Go to the sitting room.” Trak led the way. The sitting room was empty.
He left the Vashtans and assigned Sirul and Tembul their positions at the servant stairway while Trak took the stairway up to the Imperial sleeping quarters, three steps at a time, and arrived at the top of the stairs. He opened the door to the Emperor’s quarters. Empty. He opened the door to the other five rooms at the top and clamped his lips together in front of the princess’s door. Fearing that she wouldn’t be in, he slid it open slowly, and his stomach dropped. It was empty as well.
~~~
Chapter Thirty
~
TRAK’S PLANS WERE RUINED. One of Jojo’s men must have alerted the Emperor. He took a deep breath, teleported to the sitting room, and grabbed the Blue Swans. They met with Tembul and Sirul. So far, no one had bothered to attack them.
“If there is no one up here, why should they?” Tembul said. The upper floors have no strategic function in a hand-to-hand fight. We are essentially isolated up here.”
“They may think that,” Trak said. “Perhaps they are thinking like Vashtans. I can teleport us anywhere in the castle where I’ve been before. Everyone hold hands.”
Trak could feel the power of every magician as he teleported the entire group down to the next level.
“We are five levels from the main floor,” Trak said. “Let’s fight our way down.” Trak pulled his sword, ready to skewer any attacker with a pulse of power. This time he wouldn’t need to pose. He clamped his lips tightly, steeling himself for the task and the loss of life that would likely occur.
He heard something outside and ran to a window. Down below, men and women clashed against the palace guard. At least Jojo hadn’t turned on him.
Shouting erupted from a lower level. Men ran up the stairs as the Blue Swans threw bolts of power towards the oncoming guards. By the time Trak had made it to the bannister, the guards had withdrawn.
“Tembul, the servant stairway!” Trak said from across the wide stairway. The Toryan nodded and pulled on the Sirul’s sleeve. He looked at Ferikan. “Two of you keep up your poses towards the stairway, and the others create a shield now. Don’t lower your defenses until you h
ave to fight.”
“You’ve done this before,” Ferikan nodded.
“I have, this and worse,” Trak said as he began to search the floor. As they descended, each level took up more space, but he quickly made his way around the perimeter, finding a few servants and poorly-dressed bureaucrats huddling in closets and under furniture.
Trak herded them towards Tembul. “Let them go. If the guards try to use them as shields…” Trak shook his head. The terrified Benninese rushed down the stairway.
One door remained for Trak. He ran to the Emperor’s pantry door and opened it after creating a shield.
A bolt of lightning splashed against him, forcing him back a few steps. He poked his sword through his shield and sent a needle of energy through his sword into the darkness, and then he lit a mage light to see what damage he had done.
A Vashtan, glazed eyes open, looked up at the ceiling. Trak ran through the pantry and opened the door to the passageway, staying out of the way. A sheet of fire lit up the door, and through Trak’s new shield, he saw two Vashtans struggling to get through the brick wall at the top of the stairway.
He had no idea how many of the Yellow Fox clan inhabited the castle, but soon there were three less. Trak realized he didn’t suffer from much regret at ending their lives. He gazed up at the brick wall that the Vashtans couldn’t break through, or hadn’t thought to, given their panic. Ironic, he thought. It had become a barrier to their survival.
Trak chided himself for standing and thinking rather than acting. Now that the Vashtans had been taken care of, he ran back to the stairway. Two more black-robed Vashtans lay on the floor along with one in blue.
Ferikan turned, breaking his shield pose and rushed to Trak. “I don’t know where they were hiding, but these two were able to pierce Boriak’s defenses. Markik and I…”
“I can see,” Trak said. “I took care of three more. I don’t know where those two were hiding.” He looked over the bannister and saw the stairway littered with bodies. At least twenty men decorated the steps. Trak felt frustrated. He couldn’t retrieve the princess stuck up here. With regret, he destroyed the stairs, and they all joined Tembul and Sirul at the servant’s stairway.