Tam and Tira met each other's eyes. He shrugged, and she led the way to the stairs.
Tira started to creep down the alley, then made herself straighten up and move away from the wall. The two of them were in plain sight to any goblin on the top of the wall or in a tower. Trying to hide would only draw unwanted attention. Her best bet was to act as if she belonged. So she sauntered down the middle of the alley, with Tam emulating her a step behind. She still stepped softly, but she tried not to skulk.
When the row house ended she leaned against the wall, trying to look casual, and peeked around the corner. She was looking onto a winding cobbled street, with light glowing from several windows. Nothing moved that she could see, but she could hear the scuff of footsteps. She waited, and a pair of goblins came into view from around a curve in the street. They were the size of dwarves or a bit shorter, and less stocky, with green, hairless heads and wide, toothy mouths. They wore mismatched armor of boiled leather reinforced with metal studs. One goblin had a sword belted around his waist. The other carried a chipped war axe over one shoulder. They were talking as they walked, an unintelligible string of grunts and croaks.
Tira pulled her head back and held her breath as the goblins came closer and closer. She could trace their progress by sound, and she didn't breathe until they turned into a gap between buildings. She waited as their footsteps and voices faded into the distance.
"Let's go."
She walked down the street, trying to look confident, doing her best to avoid the light without seeming to. Her eyes scanned the shadows, and she sniffed the air on the off chance that the stench of death might lead her to the necromancer's lair. She had an idea where to look, but it was a long shot.
The street grew straight, which made her nervous, because the lines of sight were longer and there was no place to hide. However, there were no more lit windows. The bulk of the castle loomed straight ahead, only a few windows showing light, so she murmured a prayer to Neris and kept walking.
Chapter 9
There were no gaps between buildings. At street level there would be a shop next to a tavern next to a workshop. The second story seemed to be all residences, most of the windows dark, a few showing the faint gleam of a single candle. Above that was a single continuous roof pierced at regular intervals by dormer windows.
Light flickered to her left in the windows of a tavern. The sign in front displayed a dancing pig with a mug in the crook of one arm. One of the supporting chains had broken, so the sign hung at an angle, giving the pig an even more jaunty air. Raucous goblin voices came from inside the tavern, so Tira picked up her pace. Just as she passed the entrance, the door flew open and a trio of goblins came stumbling out.
The lead goblin had a mug in one hand and a dagger in the other. He staggered across the cobbles and bumped into Tira, then gaped up at her in astonishment. All three goblins went silent, staring at the two humans.
I belong here. I have nothing to fear. She glared at the goblin who had bumped her, snapped, "Watch where you're going," stepped around him, and kept walking.
Tam was at her elbow, his eyes fixed on the street ahead, his shoulders rigid with tension. There was dead silence in the street behind them.
"Keep walking," she murmured. "Don't look back. Don't hurry. Act like you belong."
He gave the merest hint of a nod, but she was speaking more for her own benefit than his.
A goblin voice spoke behind them, another goblin laughed, and she heard the scuff of feet as the goblins walked off in the other direction. Tam's shoulders drooped a bit as some of the tension left him, and Tira took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Goblins are dangerous," Tam whispered. "Those three almost scared me to death."
They were about halfway from the city walls to the castle, and Tira was beginning to let herself hope that this absurd plan might actually work, when the sound of breaking glass made her stiffen. The door of a shop flew open and goblins came pouring out. Six, eight, a dozen, then more. They milled around in the street, then headed for the next shop, kicking at the door. There was a long line of broken doors behind them, showing their progress down the street.
A few goblins stared at the humans, some of them grabbing their friends and pointing. Tira and Tam ignored them, marching straight ahead as if they didn't have a care in the world, and somehow it worked. Goblins lost interest and turned away, crowding into the shop.
As Tira and Tam drew level with the shop, she could hear things breaking inside. Goblins called to each other, wood splintered, and the front window shattered outward as someone threw a cup through it.
Then a woman screamed somewhere inside the building, and Tira froze.
There was an excited babble of goblin voices, a man's hoarse cry, and the sound of something hard striking flesh. Tira's eyes met Tam's. She opened her mouth to tell him that they couldn't do anything, couldn't save everyone, but he was already moving.
The street was empty, the last goblin standing in the doorway of the shop, standing on his toes, trying to see over the crowd. Tam drew his sword, and the sound of steel on leather made the goblin's ears twitch back. One green hand closed on the hilt of a sword and the goblin started to turn as Tam's sword slammed into his back.
The goblin fell, Tam pulled his sword free, and the woman screamed again. Tam stared for a moment at the goblins crowding the doorway, then turned aside and leaped in through the broken window.
Tira fired an arrow into the doorway, taking a goblin in the center of his back. She fired another arrow blindly, the goblins so thick she could hardly miss. Goblins came pouring out the door, and she killed them as they came. Three arrows, three goblins, and suddenly the street was still.
Steel clashed against steel inside, goblins screamed and bellowed, and Tira ran to the broken window. She couldn't tell what kind of shop it was; any displays had been trampled and broken. The only source of light was a lantern held in the air by a goblin in the middle of the crowd. Shadows waved and danced as the goblin with the light was jostled back and forth.
She saw Tam in one corner, ringed in by goblins, flailing with his sword to keep them back. On the far side of the room a goblin with a bow stood on a table, pulling an arrow back to the corner of his grinning mouth. Tam, head and shoulders taller than the goblins around him, made an excellent target.
So did the goblin on the table. Tira's arrow took him in the ribs and he flopped back, his arrow going wild. She drew another arrow, stepped onto the windowsill to get a little more height, took aim at the goblin holding the lantern, and put an arrow through the side of his head.
The room went dark, and Tira stepped back into the street. She would be highlighted against the glow from the street, so she stepped to the side, away from the window, slung her bow over her shoulder, and drew her sword. A moment later, the first goblins came through the window.
She slashed, hoping to catch the first goblin by surprise, but he blocked her blow, and his riposte sliced a bloody gash across her thigh. She danced back, the goblin advanced, and several more goblins scrambled out the window and hurried to surround her.
Tira was competent with a sword, but she was no expert. Her opponents were hardened warriors, and she was badly outnumbered. She backed rapidly down the street, then stepped into a doorway that gave her at least a little bit of cover.
A goblin darted in close, Tira's blood glistening on the tip of his sword. She lunged, stabbing for his wrist, taking advantage of her superior reach. He twisted back, and a goblin attacked from the other side, swinging an axe for her knee. She jumped back, her shoulders hitting the door behind her, then slashed at the goblin with the axe, driving him back.
The goblin with the sword moved him, she swung at him, her sword bounced from his helmet, and he gave her another cut on her injured leg. She lashed out with a kick, catching him by surprise, and sent him crashing back, but there were more goblins waiting to take his place. The one with the axe came at her, and there was no time to dodge or block.
The axe stuck, the handle slipping from Tira's hand as the goblin fell. She sprang back to her doorway, and another goblin fell, pierced by an arrow from above. Now only one goblin faced her. There were two more goblins in the street, both of them watching the rooftops, darting from side to side to make poorer targets.
Tira realized she was facing the goblin who had wounded her twice, and she went on the offensive. He might have been a better swordsman than she was, but he was distracted and she was ferocious. She chopped at him with her sword, great swinging blows, and he fell back. He was always able to block, but she drove him backward. He was retreating blindly, and she guided his steps. There was a dead goblin behind him, and she drove him back until his foot came down on an outstretched leg. He stumbled, and that was when she struck.
She left him draped across the body of his companion. Another goblin was down, clutching a shoulder that sprouted an arrow. The last goblin stared wildly at the roof line, eyes wide, on the verge of panic.
Glass shattered above Tira, bits of glass and wooden window frame raining down onto the cobbles in front of her, and Tam came flying out of a second-story window. He landed hard, coming down on one knee and both hands, grunting with pain. He straightened his back, pivoting around on one knee until he was facing the window, and stuck out his arms as a small child came sailing out the window and plunged toward him. He caught the child in his arms, a little girl no more than two years old, and set her on her feet beside him.
He stood, and Tira saw a woman at the broken window above him, another child in her arms. The woman threw the child out the window, and Tam took a quick step to the left, snagging the child out of the air. It was a little boy this time, even smaller than the girl and crying with great enthusiasm. Tam plunked the boy down on the cobbles as the woman put one leg over the windowsill. She had an infant in the crook of her arm, and she leaned down as far as she could, one hand gripping the window frame.
An arrow flashed through the air, coming from the rooftop across the street. The arrow sailed into the window, missing the woman by inches, and a goblin cried out. The woman held the infant by one arm, and Tam stood directly underneath, his outstretched hands a few feet below the baby.
For a moment a goblin loomed behind the woman, a knife in his hand about to plunge into her back. An arrow slammed into the goblin, the fletching hitting the woman's cheek as the goblin stumbled back into the room.
The baby fell, and Tam caught it. The woman slid farther out the window, caught the sill in both hands, let her feet drop, and hung for a moment by her fingertips. Then she let go, and landed sprawling in a heap.
Tira could hear goblins shouting inside, their feet thumping on the stairs. She ran across the street, shook the first door handle she came to, and found it locked. She used her sword to break a window instead, and knocked most of the glass out of the frame.
Tam came hurrying across the street, a child in each arm. Tira climbed through the window, and he passed the children to her. They clung to her jacket, the boy still crying, the girl wide-eyed and solemn.
The woman was next. She was older than Tira, with gray streaks in her long dark hair. She wore a blue dress with half a dozen bloody cuts in it, whether from broken glass or goblin weapons, Tira couldn't say. She held the infant in her arms, and Tam scooped her up, baby and all, and put her feet-first through the window frame.
Goblins erupted from the building across the street, and arrows flashed down from above. A goblin fell, and a goblin woman with a knife in each hand took an arrow through the top of her foot. She screeched, lifting her foot and clutching it with both hands without dropping her knives, hopping around in tight circles as she screamed.
Tam dove through the window head-first. He landed on his hands, tucked in his head, and started to roll. He might have come up on his feet if he hadn't crashed into a display rack.
Tira put the children down behind her, got her sword out, and stood to one side of the window. A goblin grabbed the windowsill and started to climb in, and she chopped at his fingers. The window was wide enough for two goblins to come through side by side, and it was good that Tam was back on his feet. He planted his foot in a goblin's chest and knocked the creature flying back into the street.
The door shook as goblins pounded on it. "We can't hold them," Tira panted.
"I know," Tam said, chopping at a goblin and driving him back.
"There is a back door," the woman said. "I looked out, and the alley is clear."
"Go," said Tira instantly. "You can't help us here. We'll hold them off as long as we can."
"Mystra bless you," the woman said. "I'll never forget you. Come, children, we have to go. Narina, take your brother's hand. Toram, you have to stand up now. Stand up, Toram! Now, come with me. Come on, you can do it."
Tira kept her eyes on the window, but she could track their progress by the sound of Toram crying. He seemed to be winding down, crying less as they moved deeper into the building.
The goblins were pressed close against the side of the building on either side of the window now, out of reach of Elanyn's arrows, not pressing their attack. The door still shook with blows, however, and Tira could hear the doorframe starting to crack. As soon as the door gave way they would be overwhelmed.
"I'm sorry we didn't get the necromancer," Tam said.
"We're not dead yet," Tira told him.
The door crashed open, and a goblin with an axe in his hands came stumbling in, falling to one knee. Tira skewered him before he could recover, then turned and fled deeper into the shop. A doorway on the right had to lead to the alley, so she turned left, Tam right on her heels, the goblins swarming behind him. She saw a staircase leading up into darkness and took it.
They stopped at the first landing, standing shoulder to shoulder to meet the goblin charge. She slashed blindly into the darkness with her sword, and a goblin parried. Tam grunted as a sword scraped across his arm, and Tira knew the darkness was giving the goblins too much of an advantage. She yelled, "Come on!" and led the way up the next flight of stairs.
They reached a long corridor with a single open door at the far end. A faint glow from the open door was the only source of light. She ran toward it, the floorboards thumping behind her as Tam and the goblins followed.
Tira flung herself blindly into the room, then slammed the door shut the instant Tam was through. It was a sitting room, unoccupied, with a candle burning on the mantle over a simple fireplace. Tam plucked a chair from beside the window and jammed it under the doorknob.
Another doorway led to an adjacent room. Tira took another candle from the mantle, lit it from the first one, and went exploring as Tam held the chair under the knob. The next room was a bedroom with a steep, narrow staircase leading upward. She sheathed her sword, grabbed the railing, and started to climb.
She found herself in a cramped attic room, empty except for some battered stacks of chairs. The front and back walls sloped inward and met above her, and a ladder on the end wall led to a roof hatch. She set her candle stub on the floor, climbed the ladder, unlatched the hatch, and swung it open.
Elanyn was perched on a gable not six feet away, bowstring taut, with an arrow pointed at the hatch. She lowered the arrow when she saw Tira.
"You've poked the wasps' nest with a stick," Elanyn said. "I can hear goblins converging from half the city."
Tira glanced past her. "We'll have to escape across the rooftops."
"It might be too late," Elanyn said. "They know I'm up here. They'll be putting archers in the windows across the street soon."
Wood splintered somewhere inside
, and Tira pulled her head in, climbing down the ladder. She found Tam running up the steep, narrow staircase. He stopped at the top, and the first goblin came running up. As Tam and the goblin crossed swords, Tira ran in and booted the goblin on the side of the head. The goblin rolled backward down the stairs, and she heard cries from the other goblins on the steps.
Elanyn slid through the hatch and dropped lightly to the floor, disdaining the ladder. "We can hold them here," she said. "A thousand goblins are no stronger than one, on a staircase like this. Tam can keep them at bay, and I can help." She turned her cool-eyed gaze to Tira. "If you leave now, you can still find the necromancer."
"But-"
"Two can hold this staircase as well as three, Tira. If you don't stop the necromancer, this has all been for nothing."
"Maybe we can all go." Even as she said it, though, she knew it was hopeless. The moment Tam stepped away from the top of the stairs the goblins would swarm into the room, pulling him off of the ladder as he tried to climb.
Elanyn had her back to Tira, all her attention focussed on the stairs and the goblins who were building up their courage for another rush. "Go," she said. "Go!"
The goblins charged, and Tam rammed his foot into the first green face, knocking the goblin back into his companions. One goblin tried to wriggle up onto the floorboards from several steps down, and Elanyn killed him with an arrow.
Tira reached a hand over her shoulder, counting her arrows by touch. She had nine left. She took out five of her arrows and laid them on the floor by Elanyn's feet. The elf nodded her thanks, and Tira gave the two of them one last look, then turned to the ladder and started to climb.
There was blood on the rungs. Tira looked down at her legs. The cuts on her thigh were bleeding, and now that she looked at them, they stung madly as well. Blood soaked her trouser leg below the cuts. One boot was red, and she felt blood squish under her toes as she climbed.
Bone Magic Page 10