A Darkness at Sethanon

by Raymond E. Feist

  When the Seventh Company had been reported safely away, a soldier entered the room. He was dressed in leather, but it was clear he was an auxiliary, one of the herders or farmers. His red hair was tied back, falling past his shoulders, and his face was covered by a full red beard. ‘Protector! Come, see this!’

  Guy and the others hurried out after the warrior to a window in the long hall, overlooking the burning city. The insane inferno had subsided, but fires still burned out of control throughout the city. It was supposed that it would be another hour before Murmandamus could send more soldiers in to make their way along the gutted streets. But now it seemed they had misjudged. Between the still burning buildings near the market, figures could be seen moving toward the citadel.

  Guy quit the balcony, hurrying toward the wall. When he reached it, he could see a company of soldiers in black silhouette against the flames. They moved at slow pace, as if they were being careful to stay within a clearly defined area. While they watched, another courier reported that the Eighth Company was beginning to move out of the citadel. The approaching figures came to the edge of the outer bailey, and Guy swore. Large companies of goblins stood within protective fields, invisible except for an occasional glint of reflected light upon the surface. Murmandamus came riding into view.

  Jimmy said, ‘What is he?’

  Without any apparent difficulty, the moredhel leader rode unprotected, ignoring the still-intense heat, and the beast upon which he rode was terrifying to behold. Shaped like a horse, it was covered in red glowing scales, as if some serpent skin of steel had been heated to near-melting. The creature’s mane and tail were dancing flames and its eyes were glowing coals. Its breath seemed explosive steam. ‘Daemonsteed,’ said Amos. ‘It’s a legend. It’s a mount that only a demon may ride.’

  The creature reared and Murmandamus pulled out his sword. He waved it, and before the first companies of his army a black something came into existence. It was an inky darkness that obliterated light. It formed a pool on the stones of the bailey, flowing like quicksilver, then it ceased movement, forming a rectangle. After a moment it was apparent to those on the citadel wall that it had become a ten-foot-wide platform of jet blackness. Then it slowly rose, foot by foot, forming an ebon ramp above the moat. A piece of blackness broke away from the base of the ramp and flowed a short distance from the rising bridge. It stabilized into another block and began to grow. Another bridge began to form from it. After another wait, a third, then a fourth span began to form. Guy said, ‘Damn! He fashions some sort of bridges to the wall.’ He shouted, ‘Pass word to hurry the evacuation.’

  When the ebon bridges were near the midpoint of the moat, the first companies of goblins mounted them and began to move slowly toward the leading edge. Foot by foot the black bridges advanced toward the defenders. Guy ordered the archers to fire.

  The arrows sped across the gap but were deflected away, as if hitting a wall. Whatever protected the attackers from the heat also protected them from bow fire. Lookouts atop the citadel reported that the fires in the outer city were dying and more invaders were entering Armengar.

  Guy shouted, ‘Off the wall! Rear guard to the first balcony. All other units to evacuate at once! No one is to wait!’

  The now orderly evacuation would soon turn into a headlong flight. The invaders were going to breach the last defence an hour or more before Guy had thought possible. Arutha knew it possible there would be room-to-room fighting within the citadel, and he made a mental promise to himself that if it came to that he’d wait to face Murmandamus.

  They dashed across the courtyard and hurried up the inner stairway to the first of the three balconies, to the sound of windows and doors being shuttered and barred. As they left the long front hallway, Arutha noticed a stack of barrels placed before the lift opening. More barrels were placed at each doorway, and everything that could burn had been left in doorways, all blocked open. Arutha knew that the last act of Guy du Bas-Tyra would be to fire the citadel in the hope that more of Murmandamus’s army would be taken. For the sake of the Kingdom, Arutha hoped there was some limit on Murmandamus’s ability to shield his soldiers from fire.

  Soldiers came running down the hall, smashing odd-looking panels in the wall, covered by simple boards painted to match the white stones. Behind, black holes could be seen. The faint odour of naphtha could be detected as the breeze from the open bolt-hole pushed the pungent fumes up the vents. As they walked out upon the balcony, Amos noticed Arutha looking back. ‘They run from the basement to the roof. More air to feed the flames.’

  Arutha nodded and watched as Murmandamus’s first wave breasted the wall to the citadel. As soon as they stepped upon the wall, the field about them vanished and they spread out, ducking for cover as the archers upon the balcony opened fire. The catapults were useless, for the range was too short, but a dozen ballistae, looking like giant crossbows, hurled huge spearlike missiles at the foemen. Guy ordered the ballista crews to quit the balcony.

  Guy watched as his bowmen held the invaders at bay. Arutha knew he counted every minute, for as each passed, another dozen of his people were leaving the city.

  Behind the advancing goblins, more could be heard scaling the walls. Murmandamus’s soldiers overran the gatehouse, extended the bridge, and opened the gate and an army came flooding in. The fires in the city were dying, so more companies of invaders were rapidly approaching the citadel. At the last, Guy shouted, ‘It’s over! Everyone to the tunnel!’

  Each bowman took one last shot, then all turned and fled inside. At his word, Guy waited until everyone was inside before he came in, bolting the last door behind. Shutters covered every window on the balcony. The sound of pounding came from below as the invaders struggled with the bolted doors to the courtyard.

  ‘The lift is rigged,’ shouted Amos. ‘We’ll have to take the stairs.’

  They rounded a corner into another corridor, slammed and barred a door, then ran down a narrow flight of stairs. At the bottom they reached the huge cavern. Every one of the special lanterns had been lit, illuminating the cavern with ghostly light. Arutha’s eyes smarted from the sting of fumes, stirred up by the breeze from the bolt-hole tunnel, where the last of the reserve company was entering. Guy and the others ran toward the door and had to halt, for the tunnel could accommodate only two abreast. From above came the sound of shouting and pounding on the door at the top of the stairs.

  Again Guy insisted on being the last to enter, and he closed the door behind, placing a huge iron bar across it. ‘This should take them a few minutes to get past.’ As he turned to flee up the tunnel, he said to Arutha, ‘Pray none of those bastards brings a torch into that cavern before we clear the tunnel.’

  They hurried along, closing several intervening doors, each being locked by the Protector. At last they reached the end of the tunnel, and Arutha entered a large cavern. A short way off, the yawning mouth of the cave revealed night. As Guy bolted this door a dozen bowmen of the rear guard remained ready against the possibility of the Protector’s having been overtaken. Another three or four dozen soldiers were moving off, attempting to wait a minute or so before leaving, so that each group of men might not stumble upon the heels of those before. From the odd noises in the night, it was clear that a few of those fleeing had encountered units of the enemy. Arutha knew it was likely that most of those leaving the city would be spread throughout the hills by sundown tomorrow.

  Guy waved the bowmen out of the cave, and soon the last of those not with the rear guard were off, and only they, Locklear, Jimmy, Arutha, and Amos stood with Guy. Guy then ordered the rear guard away, and soon only the five were in the cave. Another figure came out of the gloom, and Arutha could see it was the redheaded warrior who had brought news of Murmandamus’s approach through the flames. ‘Get away!’ ordered Guy.

  The soldier shrugged, seeming unconcerned with the order. ‘You said every man for himself, Protector, I might as well stay.’

  Guy nodded. ‘Your name?’
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br />   ‘Shigga.’

  Amos said, ‘I’ve heard of you, Shigga the Spear. Won the Midsummer’s games last year.’ The man shrugged.

  Guy said, ‘Did you see de Sevigny?’

  Shigga pointed toward the cave entrance with his chin. ‘He and some others left just before you came out, as you ordered. They should be well past the highest redoubt, about a hundred yards down from here.’

  The sound of wood tearing came faintly through the tunnel.

  Guy said, ‘They have reached the last door.’ He grabbed a chain that ran from under the footing below the door, saying, ‘Help me with this.’ They all picked up the chain and helped him pull it taut, until he could attach it to a ballista pointing away from the door. The ballista had been fastened to the rock floor of the cavern. There was no bolt set in the war engine, but as soon as the chain was attached, Arutha saw its purpose.

  ‘You fire the ballista and collapse the tunnel behind?’

  Amos said, ‘The chain runs under the supports of the tunnel, all the way back to the cavern, connecting them. It should all come down with several hundred of the scum covered rats inside. But there’s more.’

  Guy nodded. ‘Start running from the cave, and when you reach the mouth, I’m going to pull this.’

  A rhythmic pounding sounded on the last door; some sort of ram was being brought to bear. Arutha and the others hurried outside the cave mouth and halted to watch. Guy triggered the ballista and it seemed to hesitate, then with a jerk it snapped the chain forward only a few inches. It was enough. Abruptly the door erupted outward as Guy sprinted for the cavern mouth, a rolling cloud of dust behind. A few bloodied and pulped goblin bodies fell out as rocks came rushing out of the tunnel.

  They all ran with Guy away from the cavern. He pointed up, where a path led above the cave. ‘I want to go up there awhile. If you want to head out now, go, but I’m going to see this.’

  Amos said, ‘I wouldn’t miss it,’ and followed after. Arutha looked at them, then followed.

  While they were climbing above the cave mouth, a rumbling beneath their feet could be felt as a series of dull explosions sounded. Amos said, ‘The lifts were set to fall when the tunnel was collapsed. They should have ignited the barrels on each floor of the citadel, all the way down to the cavern.’ Another series of explosions could be heard. ‘Seems the damn contraption worked.’

  Suddenly the ground heaved. A sound like the heavens opening rang in their ears as they were slammed to the earth, and a concussion of enormous power stunned them all for a moment. From beyond the edge of the prominence they were climbing, an astonishing, roiling ball of orange and yellow flames rushed heavenward. It rose at rapid rate, expanding as it went, and in the terrible beauty of its glow they could see trailing debris being lifted upward. Dull thuds rang through the ground beneath them as the last reservoirs of naphtha began to ignite, ripping the keep apart. Stones, charred fragments of wood, and bodies were being sucked skyward as if some giant wind blew straight up.

  Arutha lay upon the ground, staggered by the display. A shrieking wind passed him, then there came an immense blast of heat. For a moment the air burned their noses and stung their faces, as if they stood within feet of the mouth of a giant furnace. Amos had to yell over the noise. ‘The storage below the citadel blew. We were venting it all day and night, so it would become explosive.’

  His words were faint, as ears rang, then were drowned out by another titanic explosion as the ground bucked and heaved under them, followed instantly by a series of lesser detonations, the concussion of the reports hammering at them like physical blows. They were still two hundred yards from the cliff overlooking the city, but the heat was nearly unbearable where they lay.

  Guy shook his head to clear it and said, ‘It’s … so much more than we had thought.’

  Locklear said, ‘If we had reached the edge of the cliff we’d have been cooked.’

  Jimmy cast a glance backward. ‘It’s a good thing we got out of the cave, as well.’

  They all craned their heads around to look back to where he pointed. The ground continued to heave and more explosions sounded as rocks and debris rolled down the slopes past them. Below, the hillside had changed. The entire contents of the tunnel had been blown clear by the first massive explosion, covering the hillside opposite the cavern with a litter of body parts and rubble. Then the ground heaved and pitched as another massive explosion sounded. Again a fireball rose high overhead, though not as massive as the last.

  There was a surging, rolling motion of the ground and a third tremendous explosion came, then some minor trembling. They all lay still, lest they be tossed down again by the shaking earth. After a time the ground only echoed with dull thuds, and they stood. Still two hundred yards or more from the edge of the cliff, they gathered and watched as the utter destruction of Armengar was accomplished. In only a few terrible moments the home of a people, the centre of their culture, had been swept away. It was an obliteration unmatched in the annals of Midkemian warfare. Guy watched the angry, glowing sky. He attempted to walk closer to the edge of the cliff, but the heat, an almost visible curtain of superheated air rising before the cliff face, forced him back. For a moment he stood, as if resolving to brave the inferno and glimpse the remains of his city, then he relented.

  ‘Nothing could have survived that explosion,’ said Arutha. ‘Every goblin and Dark Brother between the citadel and the city wall must have been killed.’

  Amos said, ‘Maybe his bastardness got caught with his pants down. I’d love to think he had a limit on how much his magic could handle.’

  Arutha said, ‘His soldiers may have died, but I think he will somehow escape. I don’t think that beast he rode minded the fire.’

  Jimmy said, ‘Look!’ and pointed skyward.

  The cloud of smoke that hung above them was glowing red from the reflected light of the fire below as a giant column of flames still rose toward the heavens. Against that angry backdrop a single figure could be seen riding in the air upon the back of a glowing red steed. It seemed to be descending, as if running downhill in a circle, and it was clearly making its way back to the heart of Murmandamus’s camp.

  ‘Son of a mangy bitch!’ swore Amos. ‘Can’t anything kill that dungeater?’

  Guy looked about. ‘I don’t know, but now we have other worries.’ He began to climb down, and they discovered that the entire cavern had collapsed beneath them. Where the cave mouth had been, only a mass of rubble extending out into the gully could be seen. They picked their way through the debris, passing beyond several collapsed stone redoubts that had protected the city from attack from above, and at last reached the wash leading down into a canyon where horses were hidden.

  Guy said, ‘The first four or five canyons will have been picked clean by those first to flee. If we’re to find mounts, we must look farther out.’

  Arutha nodded. ‘Still, we have a choice: west toward Yabon, or east toward Highcastle.’

  ‘Toward Yabon,’ answered Guy. ‘If help’s coming, we have a chance of meeting it along the road.’ He scanned the area, looking for some sign of which was the most likely direction to travel. ‘Whatever units Murmandamus had up here will likely be disorganized now. We may yet get free of them.’

  Amos chuckled. ‘Even his larger companies will be reluctant to stand in the way of a rout army. It isn’t exactly healthy.’

  Guy said, ‘Still, if they find themselves cornered, they’ll fight like the rats they are. And at first light there’ll be thousands of reinforcements up here. We have only a few hours at best to get away.’

  The sound of movement from the canyon caused all to draw weapons and move back into what little shelter was provided by the fallen rocks. Guy signalled for everyone to be ready.

  They waited silently, and from around the corner a figure emerged. Guy sprang forward, halting his blow in midair.

  ‘Briana!’

  The commander of the Third Company looked slightly dazed, blood flowing from a
cut upon her temple. Seeing Guy she relaxed. ‘Protector,’ she said with relief. ‘We were forced to turn back. There was a patrol of trolls at the lower end of the canyon who were attempting to flee back to their own lines. We seemed to be fighting to get past each other. Then the explosion … we were showered with rocks. I don’t know what happened to the trolls. I think they fled…’ She pointed to her bleeding forehead. ‘Some of us were hurt.’

  ‘Who is with you?’ he asked.

  Arutha stepped forward as Briana shook her head to clear it, then motioned, and into the glow from the conflagration in the city came two more guards, one obviously wounded, and a dozen or more children. With wide, startled eyes they regarded Arutha, Guy, and the others.

  Briana said, ‘They had been trapped in a draw by some Dark Brothers. Some of my soldiers killed the Brothers, but we were separated. We’ve been finding stragglers for the last hour.’

  Guy counted. ‘Sixteen.’ He turned to Arutha. ‘What do we do now?’

  Arutha said, ‘Every man for himself or not, we can’t leave them.’

  Amos turned, alerted by some approaching sound. ‘Whatever we do, we’d best do it somewhere else. Come along.’

  Guy pointed over the rim of the draw and he and the others began helping the children climb. Soon they were all above the canyon rim and moving off toward the west.

  Arutha was the last to reach the rim, and as the others vanished out of sight he dropped to his knees behind an outcropping of rock. Into view came a company of goblins, moving cautiously as if expecting attack at every turn while they attempted to return safely from their lines. From their bloodied appearance, it was clear they had already encountered some elements of the Armengarian rout. Arutha waited until he was sure the children were safely along, then took a rock and heaved it as far past the goblins as possible. The stone sped unobserved through the dark and clattered behind them. The goblins spun around and hurried along, as if fearing attack from behind. Arutha ducked along the ridge, running in a crouch, then jumped down to the next trail. Soon he overtook the last of their party, the man called Shigga, acting as rear guard.