by John Booth
Dren spoke in a monotone. “If the Knights have been informed, hopping won’t work and we will give ourselves away. And, even if we can, any future infiltration will take months to set up.”
Ellis was making his way through the crowd to us. When he got to us he spoke in an urgent whisper.
“They are organizing a search. Starting with the workers and then moving on to the wagons.”
“Can we slip away?” Dren asked.
Elis shook his head. “We are the last freight haulers they’re searching and they have deputized everyone they can trust. They have the yard surrounded.”
Lana put her hand on my shoulder.
“Only you could screw us so royally,” she said, and then she grinned, flashing white teeth at me. “We fight our way out. And when we have to, try and hop to safety.”
Esta had already pulled her knife.
Dren sighed yet again. He turned to Ellis. “Get as far away from us as you can. The Goddess will send someone to rescue you when this has all blown over.”
Ellis turned to leave.
“Stop,” I ordered. “I have a daft idea and I need your local knowledge to pull it off.”
Ellis looked at Dren and shrugged. “We might as well hear what he has to say.”
I took the detector out of my pocket. We wizards were shown as dull white dots in the center of the screen.
Holding the detector from below, I fed raw magic over it and bound it with a tiny spell. The screen flashed as the spell took effect. Then I put another spell on the magic, one that converted its energy slowly into heat.
In effect, I had turned the detector into a hand-warmer. However, that magic was all around the detector and it reacted by making the screen glow brightly, totally swamping our dots. I reduced the amount of magic until the screen glowed just enough to cover up the dots.
“The Goddess said you think best under pressure,” Dren said.
Esta grinned, “It may be the only time he thinks.”
I ignored the jibe. I was used to it.
“Ellis, which men came to town today from the same direction we did?”
Ellis looked around. “Therin, for a start.”
Therin stood impatiently a few yards away from us, clearly visible because he was taller than the rest of the men.
“Back in a minute,” I said, heading off in Therin’s direction.
“Bunch of morons,” Therin said as I approached. He nodded at the Sheriff’s men. “Not one of them could do a decent days work. They work for the Sheriff because they aren’t bright enough to be trusted hauling cabbage.”
“Do you think they’ll give that reward to someone finding their magic thing?”
He sniffed. “They might. I wish I had it. I could do with the money, but then, who can’t?”
I slipped the device into his pocket without him noticing. It stuck out a bit.
“You found that on the road today,” I said pointing at his pocket. It wasn’t a question; it was a mind control command.
“What?” He put his hand on the detector and pulled it out of his pocket. He frowned at it. “I found it this morning. I’d forgotten all about it.”
“Go and show them. I hope they give you the reward.”
Therin looked at me in a puzzled way and then grinned. “Why not?”
As he made his way to the Sheriff, I returned to my companions.
“Well done,” Dren said and slapped me hard on the back. “Even if they notice the screen is a bit brighter than before, they won’t think it’s broken.”
Esta frowned. “That magic will wear off in a few hours. Let us hope they reopen the bridge before then.”
I gave her a kiss which drew shocked looks from Dren and Ellis.
“Of course it will.”
Lana put a possessive arm around my waist, confusing the men still further.
“Later, we don’t have the time right now,” I told the girls.
“We don’t have five minutes?” Esta asked innocently.
13. The Temple
“Get on with it you lazy piles of dung,” Trev Bort shouted. He sat driving the front wagon and his impatience was almost physical. It had taken two hours to clear the backlog of wagons at the chain bridge and we were well behind schedule.
Therin made a gesture in Bort’s direction that would have surely got him fired a few hours ago. But that was before the Sheriff gave Therin his reward and Bort made Therin a partner for a share of it.
I sat on a pile of cabbages just behind Therin. The others walked alongside the wagon while giving me annoyed looks from time to time. Therin had decided that I was his good luck charm and insisted that I ride with him. I had not tried to talk him out of it.
“What are you going to do with the rest of the money?” I asked.
Therin turned so he could see me and grinned. “They have houses full of girls dedicated to the Goddess in the Essen Quarter. Girls who will do things with a man, should he have coin to pay. I plan to spend a few hours in their company.”
“Watch they don’t steal your money.”
He laughed. “Oh, I expect they will. They usually do. But a man should spread his wealth around and I will still own half this haulage business even if I lose the rest.”
“You could have bought it all?”
He laughed even harder. “And become Bort? I’d rather slit my own throat. I’ll leave him to shout at my mates and collect half his profits every run.”
Well, that sounded like a plan to me. We were approaching the bridge, which was little more than a heavy wooden frame. Three tree trunks cut square and butted to each other in what looked like mortise and tenon joints if my memories of school woodwork weren’t in error.
Through that frame was another world, quite literally. It was dark in Sanforino, but there were many torches burning on the other side. I suspected the bridge had been created here because the time zones on the two worlds matched. That would make movement of produce into the city much simpler.
The transition was smooth, but the air pressure on Kalman was higher and my ears popped. Chain bridge magic prevented a permanent wind between the worlds.
Esta pulled herself up the side of the cart so she could talk to me. “Is his majesty comfortable up here?”
I smirked. “He is, but there is constant moaning from the servants, which can be a bit annoying at times.”
“Dren would like you to know we are leaving now.” Having said her piece, Esta dropped back to the road.
“I’ve got to go,” I said to Therin.
“Don’t forget to come and try those girls,” he shouted as I jumped over the side. “The Essen Quarter. Tell them you’re with me. I’ll see you all right.”
I saw dark shadows moving towards an alley and followed them. Sanforino was a big imposing place; with stone buildings several stories high and built close together, creating a maze of narrow alleys. My companions had disappeared into one of the narrower passages and I ran to catch them up, running straight into Lana in the darkness.
“You have decided to join us, My Lord?” Sarcasm dripped from every word.
“Look, he offered me a lift. Was I supposed to refuse?”
Lana snorted. “Always putting yourself first.”
“He always does,” Esta agreed.
“Now hold on a minute.”
There was some shuffling about in the darkness and Dren spoke.
“It is nearly two miles from here to the Temple. Do you think you people could walk there without all this bickering? Form a human chain and hold onto each other because these side streets are easy places to get lost in.”
“I suppose a lantern is out of the question?”
My question was ignored and Lana grabbed me by the shirt and began to drag me through the alley. I switched to magic sight and found it didn’t help very much. I kept bumping into things that had no magical visibility.
Every so often we crossed a major road where there was sufficient lighting to see where we were going.
There were three large moons in the night sky, and even without torches they lit the main streets well enough. But the buildings between the alleys were close enough to obstruct most of the light from above. I wondered if people managed to navigate them in daylight without the aid of a lamp.
“Stop,” Ellis ordered from the front of the line.
I bumped into Lana and had to grab onto her to avoid falling.
“Are you that desperate?” Lana whispered. I reluctantly let go of her breasts.
“Where are we?” I asked. There was a great deal of torchlight streaming into the alley from whatever was beyond it and as we inched forward it soon became clear.
The alley ended at a large square. Like Trafalgar Square in London there was a large stone plinth at its center. At the far end of the square, a road tracked along the edge of a forty-foot high wall. The wall joined a massive tower at the other side of the square. In the middle of the tower was a massive pair of golden gates. The gates opened onto a tunnel that cut through the tower all the way through to the other side. The wall ran on both sides of the tower as far as it was possible to see. Men in armor patrolled the top of the wall in pairs.
“Those gates are only gold plated,” Ellis said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Iron beneath thin plating. What use is that?”
“Ellis used to be a thief,” Dren explained, “until the Goddess sorted him out.”
“Is that the city wall?” I asked. Ellis laughed.
“That is the Temple wall. It forms a perfect square, over a mile on each side. Through those gates and beyond the tower you will find accommodation for the Knights, mansions for the most senior, a farm, barracks with parade grounds, burial grounds, and even a church. The Temple provides for all the needs of the Knights.”
“There isn’t an actual temple then?” I asked.
“There is an Inner Temple within the Temple. That is where they track the use of magic within the Diamond Worlds and from where they send out raiding parties. It is also the source of the wizard detectors.”
Lana laughed. “I don’t think medieval knights make high tech goods in their temples.”
“Neither do we,” Dren agreed. “But this is where they come from, nevertheless. Nothing goes into the Temple that we haven’t checked and yet new detectors are issued from it at regular intervals.”
“They could be using a tunnel,” I suggested.
Dren gave me a look. I guessed they had searched for tunnels and eliminated them.
“So, it must be a chain bridge,” Esta said.
Dren nodded. “That is the Goddess’s supposition. And we have bribed enough people to be sure that the bridge must be hidden somewhere inside the Inner Temple.”
Now I knew the scale of the task, it was obvious we were on a fool’s errand. Typical of Bronwyn, she had tricked me into coming here to attempt a mission impossible. All that was missing from this quest was the theme tune.
“And all we are expected to do is wander over there, break into the Inner Temple, find the chain bridge and see where it goes?” I asked.
“The Goddess said you were a good tactician,” Dren replied. There may have been a touch of sarcasm in his voice. There was certainly a smirk on his face.
“Do you have a way in?” Lana asked. Dren shook his head.
“Let us go back to Balmack, Jake,” Esta suggested. “This mission is madness.”
If it wasn’t for my wives and their never ending pregnancies I would have agreed. We couldn’t use magic without revealing ourselves and once in that place we would be vulnerable to their magic sucking swords. Defeating a single Knight or even a small group on open ground was one thing; to attempt it in a stronghold full of them would be nothing short of suicidal.
“And what are you two planning to do?” I asked Dren.
He gave me a deep bow. “We have completed our mission and will go back to the safe house. Good luck with your mission.”
Ellis and Dren set off back the way they had brought us. There may have been the sound of laughter coming from them, but it was too faint be certain.
“Do you have a plan?” Lana asked.
I grinned. “I always have a plan.”
14. Inside the Walls
“Are you going to tell us what it is?” Esta asked. The girls had been standing staring at me since I announced I had a plan while I had been desperately trying to think of one.
“One of us should go through the gates,” I extemporized.
Lana glared at me as my voice tailed off. “And then?”
This was no time for hesitancy. What we needed were straightforward heroics and I was just the man for the job.
“I’ll go in and have a look round while you two wait here as backup. They must have tourists and you two should pretend to be some.”
Lana put her hands on my shoulders and stared me. “Jake, if they have one of those detectors at the gate they will spot you before you get through that tunnel. And of all the places they might have shielded from hops on this planet, inside the Temple is the most likely.”
“I’m shielded too, remember,” I said putting on my confident voice. “They’ll just think I’m someone who didn’t have enough power to make it as a Knight. If they do a tour of the Inner Temple, I’ll nip in and get the lie of the land.”
“I am far from convinced they have tourists here,” Esta said. She had a point. There were people and carts moving in the square and none of them looked the slightest bit touristy.
“There might be people on pilgrimages?” Lana suggested.
“Whatever.” The more we talked, the more nervous I felt. All the confidence I had when we started this mission had ebbed away in the face of that enormous tower and wall. The Knights had been killing dragons for millennia, and killing a dragon is much more difficult than killing a wizard. I had to do this before I thought about it too much and trust in my magic to see me through.
“If I’m not back in a couple of hours, come up with a plan to rescue me.”
Before the girls could think of any more reasons for me to give up, I started walking across the square.
Looking back when I reached the plinth, I could see no sign of the girls. The alley was a black slot between the buildings and looked devoid of life. I carried on walking until I reached the gate.
Two guards in gleaming armor came towards me as I approached the gate. They looked more civilized than I expected. Clean shaven and short haired, they could have been guarding Buckingham Palace. They were big men though, big and ugly. Most importantly, they weren’t wearing helmets.
“Your pass?” the taller guard asked.
“I just want to take a look around inside.”
“Look all you want; provided you move away from the gate. It’s a nice walk around the wall. You’ll enjoy it.” The guard made a gesture implying I should get a move on about it.
I darted the smallest burst of mind control at the men.
“My pass is in order,” I said quietly, manfully resisting the sudden urge to add, ‘These are not the droids you are looking for.’ Sometimes I think I’m a little bit crazy.
The guards escorted me to the gates and they opened just enough to let me through. I walked into the archway come tunnel as nonchalantly as I could.
My footsteps echoed as I strode through the tunnel, my nerves stretched to near breaking point. I readied spears of raw magic, expecting an attack at any moment.
Thus it was an anti-climax when I got to the end of the tunnel without anyone so much as saying a word. Despite being night, the three moons lit the landscape well enough for me to make out the layout beyond.
The ground sloped away in front of me dramatically as the temple complex was at a much lower level than the wall. The outer wall surrounded an artificial valley, a perfectly round bowl with steep sides within a perfect square. I could see the whole outer wall from where I stood. There was no sign of the city beyond, despite the height of its buildings. The valley was deep enough for me to be able to loo
k down on the temple buildings.
A wide cobblestone road ran around the complex beside the wall, Stone steps led down to the lower ground level, though there was also a road that wound down the slope at an incline that a horse and cart could cope with. In the exact center of the valley was an oriental looking square palace, spires at its corners. Its many stained glass windows lit up the night. It looked like something Disney might have created for an Aladdin movie.
The Palace was surrounded by water. It was at one edge of a large lake. A single stone bridge maybe a hundred feet long joined it to the land. There were many other buildings surrounding the lake. What looked like a farm stood on the opposite shore to the Palace.
The land behind the farm was cut into fields each apparently growing different crops, though it was difficult to be sure in the light from the moons. To the left of the farm was a large rectangular building that had the look of army barracks. There was something I would have assumed was a parade ground or a very large car park in front of it. To the other side of the farm were a series of mansions, each with its own formal garden. There were other buildings nearer the Palace that all said ‘military’ to me.
The road leading to the Palace branched at the lake, circling the lake and joining all the different buildings together.
As far as I could tell, I was the only person on the road. The moons didn’t provide enough light to be certain, but I was sure there were no carts or carriages in motion on any part of the road.
“Okay. That must be the Inner Temple,” I said a little louder than I had intended. Humming softly to myself, I made my way down the steps and then along the road at the bottom. Switching to magic sight reassured me that there were no obvious traps. In fact, the temple complex was devoid of magical traces.
However, the Inner Temple proved to be a major mystery. As I approached the bridge it became clear that its walls were impervious to magical sight. Whatever was inside was hidden more perfectly than I’d ever seen it done before. I suppressed an unwanted shiver. This place was spooky.
A wooden drawbridge in the middle length of the bridge could be raised by ropes and pulleys, so the Inner Temple could be isolated from anyone who wasn’t prepared to swim.