Foundations Broken and Built

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “In time for what?” Reese asked.

  “The battle; there’s a battle coming, and Silas needs help,” she answered.

  Chapter 13

  Two days later, Silas and his small group stood on a mountainside to the east of Heathrin looking at the village and the Guild campus in the warm light of the morning sun.

  “Have you had any luck Speaking with any of your contacts in the Guild?” Silas asked Jimes.

  “Only one, and I don’t know who he or she is. I think it’s a he, but he disguises his voice very well. He was the first person I heard speaking out about the need to resist the Ivaric control, and we’ve maintained contact ever since. He calls himself the Mule.”

  “What does the Mule tell you?” Silas asked as the pair stood in front of the others, on the edge of the campsite where they had spent the night with the group.

  “He told me last night that the local garrison is going to be reduced tonight because some of them are being reassigned to some place west,” Jimes replied.

  “So tonight would be a good time to launch our attack?” Silas suggested. “Let’s talk to Wither and Lexy and the thieves.”

  The small band gathered together and began to plot strategy.

  “Stash and I will enter the Guild campus through the eastern gate. The rest of you wait near the western gate,” Silas suggested.

  “Why are you taking Stash with you?” Lexy asked.

  “He’s sneaky,” Silas grinned. “We need to be sneaky. We’re going to cross the campus and see where the guards are located, then come to the western gate and let the rest of you in so that we can put the Ivaric guards under control quickly.”

  “And you want to do this just before sunrise?” Wither asked. “So that we can wake up the Speakers and have their support as soon as we’re in control.”

  “Yes,” Silas agreed.

  “There’s a separate garrison of Ivaric guards in the village, so we’ll have to immediately go take them by surprise as soon as we know the Guild is secure,” Jimes chimed in.

  “And then the Guild will broadcast the news to all the Speakers around the world?” Stash asked.

  “That’s the idea; the Speakers will be able to report that the Guild is free, setting off uprising and discontent with Ivaric,” Jimes confirmed enthusiastically. “And the Guild will defend its campus against the next attempt to control it.”

  “And with all that underway, I’ll be on my way to Avaleen to stir up the opposition to Ivaric so that the nation can be free again,” Silas discussed the next steps. “We’ll see how that works out, but I’m sure it will somehow. There are too many people ready to stop the tyranny and not enough Ivaric forces to maintain it everywhere.”

  “You’re counting on a lot happening with only six people in our group,” Wither pointed out. “We know what the situation is now; we could go back to Barnesnob and gather up a couple of dozen lads and lasses who’d be happy to play and rumble in this game,” he suggested.

  “No, we’ve come this far, and I’ve told the Mule we’ll be here any day,” Jimes tried to cut short the option of backing away from the attack he had waited so long for. “We can do this; we’ll have support when it commences.”

  “Support from where?” Stash asked.

  “The members of the Guild, the ones who know right from wrong. They’ll support us, and so will the people of the village,” Jimes generalized.

  “That sounds more like a wish than a strategy,” Wither muttered.

  “We’re going to try it,” Silas spoke up, ending the debate. “At least, I’m going to. If you aren’t comfortable joining, you don’t have to,” he stared down at the village as he spoke, making eye contact with no one in the group.

  “When you’re ready to lead us down there, I’ll follow,” Lexy immediately responded.

  “Well of course we all will,” Wither spoke up. “If you’re going to fight, I’m going with you,” he said stoutly, as the others nodded their heads in agreement.

  Without any further dissent, the small group returned to its camp site and settled into impatiently waiting for the night to fall and the time of the attack to arrive. They took turns at guard duty during the darkness, though no one slept well, and they finally abandoned their campsite two hours before dawn and began to follow Silas through the dark landscape of the mountainside terrain.

  He led them down to the village outskirts – to the open field where he had first met Prima and his caravan – to let Jimes lead the group that was assigned to go to the village-side gate of the Guild campus, while Silas turned to lead Stash back to the eastern mountain-side gate that he intended to enter through. The gate was the little used way that was reserved for the Guild students who were on their way to becoming full-fledged Speakers, but Silas intended to reverse the flow of traffic for a moment and let himself in through the gate.

  “Silas, do you need anyone to go with you?” Lexy let out a hoarsely-loud whisper. As Silas and Stash began to turn to circle around the campus. “Besides him?” she added.

  Silas looked at Stash. “No, he’ll be enough; our part is easy. We need to have enough force ready outside the western gate to rush it when Stash and I begin our assault.”

  “If there’s going to be an assault, maybe you should take the guard girl,” Stash gave a low laugh. “I can watch and avoid potential injury.”

  “No,” Silas replied. He reached out and grabbed Stash’s arm. “You’re coming with me, and we’re leaving. See the rest of you in half an hour,” he advised, and then he pulled Stash away with him, as the thief gave a shrug of his shoulders to Lexy before disappearing into the darkness behind Silas.

  “Let’s go this way,” Jimes spoke to Lexy, Ditto, and Wither, as he entered the village and began moving toward the entry to the Guild.

  “Is there a bank in the village?” Ditto whispered the question as they walked stealthily.

  “Yes, a block away from the gate. Why?” Silas asked.

  “Oh, I was just wondering,” Ditto spoke without apparent concern.

  “What kinds of shops are those? The goods look expensive,” he commented a minute later as the small group snaked around a corner in the high street of the village.

  “You keep your eyes off the shops and look out for guards,” Wither growled, causing the boy to move away from the guard and move closer to Jimes.

  “Here we are,” the budding revolutionary Speaker said softly when they paused in the shadows of an alleyway soon after that. “There’s the gate to the campus over there,” he pointed across the street to a dark opening in the gray stone wall that separated the Speakers Guild from the village proper. “Now we wait.”

  At the same time that Jimes spoke, Silas and Stash stood a few hundred yards away, standing in the thick undergrowth that lined the path leading from the dark gate that broke the uniform light appearance of the wall around the campus.

  “You’re going to break the gate down?” Stash asked with interest as he examined the wide slab of lumber that barred their entry into the Speakers campus.

  “No, I’m going to lift us over the wall,” Silas replied.

  Stash turned to look at Silas in confusion, and as he did, he squawked in surprise, while he floated upward and over the top of the wall. Moments later he settled into the crushed gravel surface of the walkway inside the wall and looked at Silas in shock as the Speaker-and-Mover settled in next to him.

  “That was quieter and easier, don’t you think?” Silas asked.

  “I didn’t like it; that was too easy,” Stash announced flatly. “Where’s the challenge?”

  “I don’t want a challenge. Let’s get going,” Silas replied, and he began walking, with Stash on his heels.

  The campus brought back memories. Silas had lived there, studied there, expected to succeed there, but all had been taken away from him by Botton, an instructor with an inexplicable grudge against Silas. The boy had come into his powers and eventual success only through unexpected divine intervention
days after his banishment from the Guild.

  But there were memories of friends and pranks and lessons.

  “Where are we going? Do we need to hurry?” Stash’s whispered questions interrupted Silas’s wool-gathering.

  “We’re going this way,” Silas replied, focusing on his mission once more. He led Stash into the shadows of buildings and around shrubbery, without seeing another person awake on campus. They passed by the tree beside the blue dorm, the tree where he had escaped from Sloeleen’s room when Botton had come looking for him. Sloeleen had been less than gracious about his visit to her room, a visit she had requested to help her solve a problem of her own.

  He’d had little to do with her after that while he’d remained at the campus, but their relationship had proven to be more positive since they’d reunited on Amenozume.

  “What is it?” Stash asked. “Do you see someone?”

  He’d stopped again to relive his memories, Silas realized.

  “I thought I saw something,” he fudged, and resumed moving forward, until they rounded a corner of the administration building, and faced the gates for the first time, the gates that led to the village.

  The wrought iron gates were pulled shut, while the darkened gatehouse presumably contained one or more guards on duty. And somewhere outside the gates, in the darkness of the village, Jimes and the others were waiting.

  “Jimes,” Silas called quietly, “we’re in position, ready to open the gates. Have you seen anyone, any guards moving around?”

  “There’s been no movement, nothing,” Jimes immediately answered.

  “You slip around to the right and be ready when the guards come out to see me,” Silas directed Stash just before he stepped out and began to walk towards the gate.

  The thief skulked along the edge of the building quickly, to take his place behind the guards.

  As if on cue, the pair of uniformed men emerged from the dark doorway of the guard house structure.

  “What are you doing out during curfew?” one of them asked roughly, speaking to Silas.

  “Are you two the only guards on duty?” Silas asked the pair.

  “Who are you to question us? Put your hands on your head,” one guard snarled as they came within feet of Silas, lit only by the starlight and the first rays of dawn.

  “Rise up into the air,” Silas replied, and motioned with one hand, causing the two guards to suddenly lift upward and then dangle several feet above the paving stones.

  “Stash, open the gates,” he called out loudly, over the shouts of dismay from the guards.

  “Jimes, we’re opening the gates now,” he then spoke with Wind Words, telling the small squad outside the campus.

  “Here it is,” he heard Stash grunt. There was a metallic cracking sound, and the gates creaked as they were released from their restraints. Silas walked over to the gates while the guards remained suspended in the air, and he began to pull one of the gates open, as he saw a small band of shadowy figures come racing towards the gate.

  “Mule!” he heard Jimes call excitedly to the presumptive leader of the rebel Speakers inside the campus. “Mule! We’re here! We’re on campus; the uprising has begun! Bring reinforcements to the gates of the village.”

  “Here? Now?” the Mule’s voice filtered through to Silas, and it rang a dusty note of familiarity. He had met the person, known the person who was the Mule, during his time as a student at the Guild campus.

  “I’ll be there in a few minutes, and I’ll bring extra bodies,” the Mule replied.

  “We need them; we need to go capture the other guards on campus, and we need to confine the guards in the village constabulary,” Jimes replied. “Hurry, while we have the element of surprise.”

  “Who is he?” Silas asked.

  “Who is who?” Wither joined the conversation between the two Speakers.

  “There’s someone here on the campus who has kept Jimes informed of the situation here, and promised to help us. Now’s the time for him to bring help,” Silas replied.

  “Silas, there’s someone coming,” Ditto tugged at Silas’s shirt.

  The guards in the air were still shouting, and a pair of guards were coming to the scene to investigate the cause.

  “Move away, you two,” Silas casually swept his hands across the air in front of him and the two floating captives yelped as they were suddenly whisked over the wall of the campus compound and out into the air over the nearby street.

  “Wither, take Lexy and Stash and go take those two captive,” Silas directed, indicating the approaching guards.

  “What about me?” Ditto asked.

  Silas looked at the youngster; he had no desire to place the small thief in the way of danger.

  “You stay with me; we’re going to have to go find where the other guards are housed here on campus,” Silas replied.

  The three invaders from Silas’s tiny squad encountered the approaching guards and ordered them to drop their weapons. A battle immediately ensued, and the sounds of metal blades clashing echoed sharply.

  “Jimes, this is the Mule. We have a half dozen volunteers; we’re in the northwest corner of the campus at the garrison for the guards, and they’re stirring. They can hear your battle. Tell me if you want us to fight them,” the Mule spoke up.

  “I’ll go join them,” Silas volunteered to Jimes. “You stay here and help tie up those two. Ditto, come with me,” Silas began to walk rapidly.

  “What about the ones in the air?” Ditto asked as he hurried to catch up to Silas.

  Silas didn’t bother to look at the floating captives. “They won’t go anywhere,” he advised.

  He led Ditto towards the northwest corner of the campus, an area where the faculty had lived in nice row homes, and where Silas had seldom ventured as a student.

  “What’s the noise?” Ditto asked moments later.

  “It’s the remaining guards, fighting with the Mule and his volunteers,” Silas answered. The Mule’s men hadn’t waited, and the guards had been alerted by something, some noise from the shouting gate guards perhaps; the result had turned into a melee between the trained and aggressive guards versus the enthusiastic but hapless rebels.

  “Guards, rise in the air!” Silas ordered as his keen vision showed him how the battle was progressing.

  A handful of bodies lifted up, drawing the same shouts and screams – predictable and unoriginal in Silas’s jaundiced opinion – that his lifting of fighters always produced.

  “Who here’s the Mule?” Silas asked as he approached the startled small mob on the ground, most of whom were staring upward into the night sky.

  “I am. Is that you, Jimes?” a familiar voice answered. “Is the campus secure?”

  Silas knew. He recognized the Mule. It was Botton, the very teacher he had thought about earlier.

  “I’m not Jimes,” Silas answered quietly. “He’s up at the gate. All of you should go join him.”

  “Who are you? What’s happening to them? Are you a sorcerer?” the Mule asked, not yet recognizing Silas.

  Silas shook his head. Of all the people he would have expected to be the Mule, his former teacher Botton would have never occurred to Silas as a candidate. Botton had been far too self-satisfied and self-pre-occupied to ever work on behalf of a concept like freedom. Yet here was Botton, apparently heroically working against the Ivaric occupation.

  “I’m a Speaker. I have telekinesis,” Silas replied, using the vocabulary that the Speakers would understand. “I’m holding them in the air for now. Let’s go forward and I’ll pull them along.”

  He would do it too, he realized with a momentary flash of surprised insight. He felt perfectly strong and capable; he felt no drain on his reserves of energy at the moment.

  “What? Another McCane?” a voice asked incredulously, referring to the only previously known Speaker who had been able to practice telekinesis. “I don’t believe it!”

  “You don’t have to, but I do what I do,” Silas turned to go. H
e waved a hand in the air, and the suspended guards shouted in terror with renewed vigor as they began to float along behind Silas, who was walking back towards the gate to the village. He had all the guards gathered up. He just needed to decide what to do with them.

  Dawn’s light was starting to turn the darkness to shades of gray, and colors were ready to hint at their presence. The invaders needed to act quickly if they were going to be able to follow the success on campus with a successful capture of the guard garrison in the village as well.

  “Mule, come with me,” Silas ordered. It gave him a small sense of pleasure to order the sadistic teacher who had tried – and seemingly succeeded – to ruin Silas’s life. “Bring your people. We have urgent need to carry out the next task.”

  “What is it?” Botton asked as he hurried up towards Silas. “Do you truly have telekinesis? What is the secret?”

  “We’ve managed to capture all the guards here on campus it appears,” Silas ignored Botton’s question as he began to speak. “We need a place to hold them as captives. We need that right now, because we’ve got to go capture the village garrison too, before they get wind of what’s happening.

  “Where can we hold these men captive?” Silas emphasized what he wanted to know. There were a few buildings on campus with basements and sub-basements that might be appropriate places, but Silas couldn’t guess which would be best.

  The shadowy silhouettes of the rest of Silas’s band came into view as he rounded a corner.

  “Alright Mule, we’ve got all the captives here; where do we put them?” Silas repeated.

  “Take them to the basement of the music school,” Botton answered.

  It was a good choice, Silas realized. The music school building was constructed to keep its sounds contained and isolated. There were few windows or doors, and it had a basement.