Will (Book 2)

by S. F. Burgess

  After a moment, Conlan realised Will was not going to defend himself or speak about his actions and behaviour. He sighed and pulled Will into a brief, tight embrace, then released him and followed Eleanor and Freddie into the camp.

  Will stood beneath the tree, the sun rising behind him as his emotions ripped at his insides. The only evidence of his turmoil was the trembling of his body, which was translated to a quivering in the long, stretched shadow on the ground before him. Conlan had hugged him four times in the ten years he had known him; it was the strongest declaration of affection he had for everyone but Eleanor, and he used it sparingly. Will tried to remember the feeling, as if Conlan’s warmth and strength were flowing through him.

  I’m addicted to lepdrac.

  It was a truth he had tried hard to ignore, telling himself the lepdrac was the only thing keeping him semi-functional. In the beginning it had helped him to fight against his energy when it tried to rise out of his control. Eventually he had found that if he rarely pushed out his energy strings, he could keep his energy in a dormant state with much less effort… yet this realisation had not stopped him from taking the lepdrac. Several months earlier, he had tried living through a day without the drug, and by evening the pain slamming through his brain had driven him to the absolute edges of his tolerance. Eleanor had found him collapsed behind their cart, his arms wrapped round his head, sobbing. She had assumed that the dragon was interfering and had given him the lepdrac bottle, but it had taken days before he had felt anything like himself again.

  Will sighed; he could not blame Conlan for his decision or Eleanor for her words. He had chosen to take a step back from the responsibility of being Conlan’s advisor, and this was the price he had to pay.

  They gathered for breakfast a few hours later. When the meal was done, Conlan outlined the new plan. Will and Arran knew that this was the fake plan for the benefit of the ‘spy’ in Moylan’s head, but it was still fairly convincing and well thought-through. Conlan explained that there were very few Protectors on guard on the tower wall, so they were clearly not expected. In fourteen days’ time, on the full moon, they would attack, with most of their number going in through the tunnels under the wall, led by Conlan, with air support from Davlin, Will and Mickle, who would fire arrows from the two balloons they had. Mickle muttered a prayer to the Goddess Ethrel, the ancient Avatar goddess of Air, for a calm flight, but otherwise made no objections. The whole plan relied completely on their attack being a surprise and there being few Protectors.

  Nothing happened that night or the following night, but the night after that Moylan had a seizure that lasted almost seven minutes. Will had not felt the presence, but given the amount of lepdrac he was taking, this did not surprise him. However, when asked in private, Arran confirmed that he had indeed felt the madwoman’s seething rage. It was almost lunchtime the following day when Moylan came out of the disconnected daze his fits always left him in. Once Moylan was feeling more himself, Conlan took Will to one side, explaining that they would give the woman a day to pass on the information they had fed her. Then Will was to sedate his slowly recovering patient in his meal the following lunchtime, using enough sedative to ensure Moylan would not wake up until well into the following day. Will had wanted to ask questions, to understand what was going on, but instead he accepted his position, followed the orders he had been given and held his tongue. He would do the best he could within the constraints he had set for himself.

  The next day they had lunch earlier than usual, and Will sedated Moylan as planned. Afterwards, Will confirmed that Moylan was asleep and was likely to remain so for the next twenty-four hours or so. Putting the first stages of their plan into action, Conlan then explained that he wanted Amelia, Eleanor and Freddie to drain down their energy so that their presence would not be obvious to any Enforcers they might want to sneak past.

  This would have to be done with great care. For Freddie and Amelia, it would be a very fine balance between making their energy hard to spot and holding on to enough energy such that they could still control the hot air balloons. They had also discovered that it was impossible for them to take each other’s energy while everyone maintained a low level. Thus, no matter how hard they tried, to drain down everyone’s energy meant leaving someone with too much, which risked a dangerous and possibly noticeable release. Arran was called in to offer advice. After a little thoughtful consideration, the former Enforcer suggested that he and Conlan drain down the Avatars’ energy. Arran explained that while the energy Conlan held looked odd, just as his own would if he took too much, and that this might draw attention, it was not nearly as noticeable as the very obvious signature of an Avatar.

  “Perhaps I’m less noticeable,” Conlan muttered. “Until I open my eyes and they look over the wall and see me coming in the dark!”

  Arran had shrugged. “Do you need to remove all your Avatar energy to stop your eyes from glowing? Eleanor has told me she believes it to be a side effect of holding the energy of all four elements; so would the effect not be removed by losing just one Avatar’s energy?”

  Conlan and Eleanor exchanged looks. It seemed like such a simple solution; why had they never tried it?

  “We can test it easily enough,” Eleanor said, still looking at Arran with surprise. “Conlan, whose energy should we remove?”

  Conlan frowned. “They are all valuable to me.” Eleanor held his gaze, a soft smile curling her lips.

  Conlan is going to find more use for Eleanor’s energy than mine, Will thought. “Conlan, Arran can remove mine,” he said, before Eleanor was able to offer. “It is not a great choice of ‘weapon’ for the battle you are going to fight, anyway.”

  Conlan nodded. “Arran, can you remove the Water energy?”

  Taking a deep breath, Arran closed his eyes and screwed his eyes up in concentration. Conlan staggered, but remained standing, and Will watched with amazement as the intense glow in his eyes faded back to his normal bright green. That problem sorted, they returned to the Avatar energy issue. Conlan pointed out that he could not afford to have Arran take all the energy and remain in the camp, as he needed everyone. In compromise, Conlan elected to reduce Freddie’s energy levels and some of Eleanor’s, with Arran taking the rest of Eleanor’s and Amelia’s.

  Nobody mentioned Will at all, and he winced at how easily they accepted his situation. That’s because they trust your lies, hissed his father’s bitter voice in his head. He ignored it, watching Conlan, who was whispering to Freddie and laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Freddie nodded and a moment later staggered, dropping onto his hands and knees in the snow before Conlan, his shoulders heaving as he took slow, deep breaths. Arran turned to look questioningly at Amelia. She smiled, speaking in slow, deliberate Dwarfish.

  “Maybe I can make this easier for you by sending you as much energy as possible before you have to start pulling it?”

  “Very well,” Arran agreed.

  Amelia closed her eyes, and Arran’s entire body reacted like he had been hit by lightning. He gasped and cried out, collapsing, wrapping his arms around his slim frame. Will ran forward and crouched at Arran’s side. Hazel eyes looked at him with dazed confusion.

  “Arran, are you well?” Eleanor asked.

  She, Conlan and Freddie had come to stand over him. Amelia joined them, a horrified look on her face.

  “Yes,” Arran whispered. He coughed, and his voice was stronger when he spoke again. “I was simply not prepared… Let us continue.”

  Will watched, feeling strangely disconnected as Arran and Conlan reduced Eleanor’s, Freddie’s and Amelia’s energies. Once Arran was happy that they were all well hidden from possible Enforcer scrutiny, yet maintained enough energy to do what they needed, Conlan led them all back to camp.

  Tired and lagging behind, Will found himself at the back of their group with Arran, who had stopped to push his right sleeve up and rub his arm. Will found it was hard to tell why from behind.

  “Are you injured,
Arran?” Will asked, coming alongside him.

  Arran shook his hands out and down to his side. “No, but thank you for asking,” he replied, smiling. “I just collapsed onto my wrist and it was hurting a little, but it is fine now.” Will nodded, and Arran walked quickly away before Will could ask him any further questions.

  He has a high tolerance for pain, Will considered, worried that he could have hurt himself more severely than his comment implied. But why would he hide it?

  When he got back to camp, Will handed out mugs of tea with large amounts of honey stirred in, explaining that the sugar would help keep them going until they were able to push their energy back up. They drank greedily, and then Eleanor, Freddie, Amelia and Davlin disappeared with half of the gunpowder explosives. Seeing the confused, curious looks and hearing the comments about his eyes no longer glowing, Conlan gathered everyone else into their cart. He stood to speak, looking each of them in the eye, putting as much strong, confident determination into his words as he could.

  “I am sure you are all a little confused, but this deception has been necessary. The plan I gave you three days ago is fake. It was given to deceive the spy watching us.”

  “Moylan is a spy?” Elroy asked in horror, making a few impressive mental leaps.

  “No!” Conlan snapped. “Moylan is a loyal, valued King’s Man. However, his mind has been compromised against his wishes, and without his knowledge, by someone who is using him to spy on us and then giving him fits to erase his memory of their presence. This is not Moylan’s fault. Is everyone clear on that?”

  Elroy looked contrite, and they all nodded.

  “So, what is the real plan?” Mickle asked.

  Conlan’s gaze moved across all of them before he spoke. “We are going to attack tonight. This is why we have set our energy so that it is not easily spotted by an Enforcer, and reduced the glow in my eyes so that they will not give me away.”

  There was a stunned silence, as a lot of thoughts ran through a lot of heads. It was Teris who finally spoke.

  “If they have been spying on us, they know we are coming. I imagine there are hundreds more Protectors than usual hiding in the tower, not to mention the servants, Enforcers and the four Lords of Mydren that are in residence. With Moylan incapacitated, there are ten of us. We have no real surprise, and they know about the balloons, which were our greatest advantage. They are going to slaughter us.”

  Teris had spoken with a heavily fatalistic tone. Understanding why Teris was wrong, while also seeing why the others would accept his comments, Will wondered if Arran, Mickle and Elroy thought the same way.

  “You need to have a little more trust in me,” Conlan said. A deep snarl running through the Dwarfish made it a reprimand.

  “So tell us, how we are going to pull off this miracle?” Mickle asked.

  Conlan gave Mickle a hard glare until the man shuffled uncomfortably, lowering his eyes to the floor. “As we speak,” Conlan said, “Davlin is sneaking over the North Tower walls in a balloon that Amelia is hiding behind a shield. He is going to lace the Protectors’ food with large amounts of Will’s infamous laxative, and their mead with sedative. Their evening meal tonight will have some unpleasant aftereffects.”

  “Laxative?” Teris asked, screwing up his face in disgust. “Why not just give them lots of sedative?”

  “I am hoping the problem will be seen as nothing more than food poisoning until it is too late, helping to maintain our element of surprise, with the sedative as a precaution, hitting anyone who decides not to eat,” Conlan explained. “Besides…” he added with a grim smile, “we have much more of the laxative than we do the sedative.”

  “Tainting their food? That is a coward’s weapon,” Mickle spat in disgust. “Or a woman’s weapon, as Davlin knows well! You expect us to simply walk around killing our former brothers as they lay unconscious in their own shit?”

  Will knew that Conlan would not approve of the coarse comment, or Mickle’s dig at Eleanor’s having sedated Davlin, but he wisely ignored this in favour of getting Mickle and the others to understand what his aims were.

  “No, Mickle, I expect no such thing from you. I would like to take the North Tower with as little blood spilt on either side as possible. I do not want to annihilate the Protectors or the Enforcers. I would like to give them the chance to join us.”

  “And what happens if they do not wish to?” Arran asked.

  Conlan shrugged. “Then they are free to go.”

  Teris, Mickle and Arran exchanged wide-eyed looks. Even Will felt a creeping unease with this plan. They were not ready for a large leap in their numbers. There needed to be a firm chain of command. It’s going to have to start with us, Will realised. Conlan’s power came from them; they were going to have to start acknowledging him as king. Maybe it won’t come to that. Maybe no one will join us.

  “You do realise that they will most likely move on to swell the ranks of the other towers,” Teris said, his comment mirroring Will’s thoughts.

  “Yes, I know,” Conlan replied.

  “So we get to fight them again, and next time they will have installed food tasters!” Mickle said, his tone the argumentative belligerence of old.

  “Mickle, we have a few surprises. I expect the residents of the North Tower to be shocked and frightened by our attack—hopefully enough so that the majority decide to either join us or just go home. Those who do not will carry with them the story of the fall of the North Tower, and with each telling it will become more frightening, perhaps scaring off other Protectors in the future, make them doubt their courage when they face us.”

  “Or it might just make them more determined to destroy us,” Teris muttered, and Will was certain that the scorn in the man’s voice was driven by his fear.

  There was a moment of silence as Conlan seemed to be trying to decide how best to respond, but the issue was taken out of his hands by Elroy’s soft, respectful question.

  “Conlan, please can you explain the rest of the plan to us? Perhaps it will be easier for us to understand then.”

  Conlan nodded. “Once Davlin is inside the tower he will incapacitate the Protectors and Enforcers—if he can; Arran has said the Enforcers eat separately, so that might be difficult. Eleanor, Amelia and Freddie will come back here when Davlin is inside the tower, and when it is dark we will all return. Davlin is going to open the front gate and let in Eleanor, Arran, Elroy, Teris and me. Mickle, you and Will are going to be in the balloons overhead, so you can take out any Protectors still standing guard on the wall and fire arrows down onto the tower, should we need help. Amelia and Freddie will be with you, controlling the balloons and helping out. Arran, when we get into the tower, you, Davlin and Eleanor are going after the Enforcers. The rest of us are going to round up any Protectors who did not fall to the laxative or the sedative, and deposit as many as we can in the dungeons. If we find my grandfather while we are there, this will be good, but I doubt it will be the case. Once we control the tower, I will deal with the Lords and find my grandfather.”

  Will shuddered at the vicious look in Conlan’s eyes when he spoke of ‘dealing with the Lords’, but the others just nodded.

  “So Moylan is staying here on his own, unconscious?” Elroy asked.

  Conlan nodded, looking guilty. “I cannot spare a man to stay with him.”

  “Perhaps Lady Eleanor could ask Meran to watch over him while we are gone,” Arran suggested.

  Conlan smiled. “Excellent idea, Arran. Please can you ask Eleanor to do this before we leave.”

  With the plans in place and their tasks assigned, there was nothing more to do but wait until the sun set. Wanting to escape the biting cold, they were heading for their separate carts when Will noticed that Conlan was walking off in the opposite direction. Curious, and with a vague notion that spending some time together might make Conlan trust him a little more, Will followed at a discreet distance through the frost-coated trees, which looked like they had been dipped in icing sugar. Conl
an stopped when he reached the deep, barely moving stream they had been taking their water from. At its head stood a waterfall, the water mostly frozen solid. The natural ice sculpture rose above them and was reflected in the surface of the still pond below. It was beautiful, the suspended water a complex range of blue hues dusted with white powdered frost that sparkled in the sun. It fell in lines of ice that showed the movement it would have had—and would have again once spring returned. It gave Will a profound sense of just how small he was, a tiny insignificant cog in time. Whatever the outcome of their attack, spring would come, and this waterfall would wake from its winter nap; the world would keep on turning.

  He was brought out of his contemplation when Conlan moved to sit on a large hillock of snow, pulling his cloak tightly around himself and looking up at the waterfall. Will was just about to join him when Conlan reached up a hand to his neck. His searching fingers came away empty, and Will saw the look of sadness that passed over his face. His pouch—he’s looking for his pouch! Will had completely forgotten to give the red leather pouch back after their capture. Suddenly wanting nothing more than to see Conlan’s smile when he handed the item over, Will dashed back to their cart, charging up the steps two at a time, frightening Arran, who was sat on his bed practicing his writing. By the time Will had found where he had put the pouch and made it back to the spot where he had left Conlan, he was panting, his body telling him in no uncertain terms that he did not have the strength to rush about like this. He took a few moments to catch his breath.

  “Back again?” Conlan asked, not turning to look at him, his voice echoing off the wall of ice in front of him. “Was there something you wanted to say, Will?”

  Will smiled and walked over. Conlan shuffled over to make room on the hillock, and Will took a seat beside him.

  “No, there was something I wanted to give you.”

  Conlan looked at him, surprise and curiosity making his eyes a more intense shade of green. Will’s smile got wider and he opened his hand, presenting the pouch.