At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion
Page 34
“Have you sent for the bishop yet?” Yula, a plant ingenaire apprentice, asked. “A ceremony of some type to mourn those lost or celebrate the victory would help to send the message through the city that things have settled down. For that matter, you might go address the crowd on the square right now to give them some information so that the city begins to anticipate your victory soon. Better to give them the facts you know than to let them make up things that might not be as favorable.”
“Thank you, Yula,” Alec said as he stood listening, she returned a cool gaze, without any spoken response. She was right on both counts, he knew, and she knew too. He stood and wondered who Ryder would assign the tasks to.
“Mortis,” Ryder turned to the remaining Guard, “I want you to run to the cathedral and see Bishop Theodore, and ask him to come to us tomorrow afternoon for a short public service in the square to do as Yula said. Tell him that Alec has asked him to do so, and send him a message if he doubts. Alec, what message should we send?”
Alec didn’t hesitate, “magna est veritas et praevalebit.”
Alec watched Mortis leave on his task. He walked over and sat with the apprentices. “Roland, could you create a great wind, one that would blow men over?”
“I can Alec. I’ve practiced some winds that can carry furniture off. I can’t maintain the wind for more than a few seconds at a time, though,” Roland answered.
“Could you do it repeatedly, say every five minutes, six or seven times?” Alec asked. “How far away can you be and still knock a man off his feet?”
Roland considered it. “I think probably forty feet or a little less.”
“Colonel Ryder,” Alec called his commander over, “I’d like to take Roland with us to attack the rebels,” Alec announced. “If he can blow them over so we don’t have to fight them, we’ll save several lives. Can you be ready, Roland?”
“I’ll be with you, Alec!” the boy said excitedly.
“Do you really believe this will work, Alec?” Ryder asked skeptically.
“Yes, it will work. I’ve seen air ingenairii do amazing things. I think this will take the rebels by surprise and give us a huge advantage,” Alec replied enthusiastically.
“Colonel Ryder should head out to speak to the crowds now,” Yula said. “He’s in charge here, and the highest ranking member of the Guard.”
“This won’t take long. If any of the others come back tell them where I’ve gone, and ask them to wait for me here. Alec come with me,” Ryder said and he headed out the door.
As Alec returned to the bridge he saw Tarkas and Rail speaking with a group of about thirty of the newest recruits. He walked over to see them. “Ryder is going to let the crowd know that the Duke is safe, and will return shortly, and that we’ll have the palace back in his name before the end of the night. We might as well have the city know this rebellion has been smashed.”
Rail gestured to the bridge. “I think that is becoming evident,” he said, pointing to the dozen rebel heads that had already been hoisted on long pikes along the side of the bridge.
Alec walked over to the side of the bridge where the heads were displayed. He climbed up on the large pylon at the end of the bridge, and banged his sword against the stone to draw attention.
“I am an officer of the Duke’s Guard. I am here to ask you to be silent to hear an announcement,” he turned to Ryder, who jumped up and took his place.
“I want to let you all know that the Duke, Duke Toulon, is alive,” Ryder shouted to the crowd.
A cheer started up, and rolled back through the crowd. “Long live the Duke!” the crowd began to chant.
Alec stood silent and listened. As he heard the chant begin to lose steam, Alec suddenly though again about Leah, lying alone under the cover in the shop with the green shutters. Once they settled into Goldenfields she had blossomed as a healer, had run the shop, and had run her life with success. Leah’s life had gone well, and had climaxed with the birth of her daughter. While at the same time it had come to an end, because he had not had the energy to save her, at the time she needed him. Long live, Leah, he thought to himself; if only she had lived long instead of being another victim of the rebellion.
He felt a tear on his cheek, and wiped it away, once again aware of where he was. He watched as Ryder held up his hand, and banged his sword again to quiet the crowd.
“The palace has been attacked by a band of rebels. We have retaken most of the palace, and we will have full control of the palace completed by dawn tomorrow. These,” he pointed to the rebel heads behind him, “Are some of the criminals who came to our city to be part of this attack.”
There was a growl in the throats of the crowd, but Ryder decided to finish.
“We want you to know that we expect to have a ceremony here tomorrow to celebrate the triumph of the Duke’s forces, and to mourn the loss of many good men and women lost in this evil attack on our Duke,” the colonel said. “We hope you will all pray with us that today’s remaining battles require little further bloodshed. Thank you for your loyalty to Duke Toulon,” he finished, and jumped down to the bridge.
The crowd cheered loudly for the Duke again, and Alec followed Ryder as he returned to the armory to await the next attack. Rail and Tarkas joined him. “Tarkas, send the outside forces around the palace now. Let’s start closing the escape routes, and send some of your new men to provide watches, in groups of at least three, at each doorway they pass and secure, and make sure they have line-of-sight to reinforce each other. When they’ve got all exits covered, tell the rest of them to come back to the palace doors here.”
Ryder, Alec and Rail watched Tarkas leave to set the steps in motion, then the Guardsmen walked back together to the armory. “Our Guard has been hurt by this Rail,” Ryder said. “We’ll have a lot of recruiting to do to fill our ranks after we settle back in. And the army will need to grow as well, if the lacertii and Oyster Bay give us troubles at both ends. If you know any good men, or see any potential recruits in the folks we’re working with here, start inviting them to serve the Duke in uniform.”
Alec listened, impressed that Ryder was already starting to plan the revival of the Guard. “That goes for you too, of course, Alec,” the colonel added as they reached the armory.
Toopane was waiting back in the armory already, his grisly task completed.
Tarkas returned minutes after Alec and Ryder. Mortis also returned from his mission to the cathedral. “The Bishop will arrive at noon tomorrow, and he says we will be in the prayers of him and all his priests tonight,” he reported.
Tarpa returned too, and reported that a dozen caskets were already being shipped to the palace, and the others were being constructed for delivery as soon as possible.
“Alright, we have everyone we need to set this last operation in motion,” Ryder said. “Let’s go people.”
When they arrived back at the palace doors, the colonel started making assignments. “Tarkas, can you give ten men each to these four Guards?” Ryder asked, indicating Mortis, Rail, Toopane, and Tarpa.
Tarkas made the assignments. “Alright, we’re going to clear the basement first, then the ground floor. Guardsmen, take your squads down to the basement. Mortis, you take the north quadrant, and each of the rest of you take your own sections. Don’t leave the basement until you’re sure you’ve all covered your areas, then come up all stairways simultaneously. Call out when you’re back upstairs,” Ryder directed.
“There shouldn’t be anything significant in the basement, unless it’s a couple of deserters. We’ll do the same thing for the first floor, and then we’re going to go up all the stairs to the second floor at once, and establish control of those stairwells. As we go up, none of your men should advance beyond the top of the stairs, and shout if you need help. I’ll lead the main attack from the main stairs, and we’ll either drive the rebels into the Formal Hearing Room or to you at the stairs.
“Alright, everyone say your prayers, then take your men and go.”
Half an hour later the squads came up from the basement. “We found two rebels hiding down there sir, and nothing else,” Mortis reported, shoving the deserters forward. They were taken away as the squads starting searching through the first floor.
An hour later shouts indicated that the first floor was cleared as well. “Tarkas, bring in the men from outside now, we’ll need them for this effort,” the colonel said and he sent a messenger to tell all stairwell groups to hold steady for fifteen minutes.
As Tarkas brought back the men from outside, Alec gathered them to the group going up the main stairwell. “All groups climb up!” he set out the message when Ryder signaled him, and he led his men upstairs. As they turned the sweeping turn in the flying staircase, they saw they faced a group of at least thirty at the top of the stairs. “Roland, are you ready?” Alec asked as they came into direct view. The air apprentice nodded. “Then go!” Alec told the apprentice. “Charge!” he shouted to the men and they started to climb the stairs rapidly, only to stop for a second as the men watched in amazement while the rebels above them were knocked down helter skelter by an unseen wind. “Come on!” Alec shouted again and his men rapidly climbed up among and pinned down the shaken rebel force. Few swords clashed as Alec and the Duke’s men won their first skirmish in the battle for control of the palace.
“Disarm them, strip them, and take them down to the bridge for holding,” Ryder instructed Alec’s men a minute later, who looked bemused by the strange and virtually bloodless victory they’d just won.
“Now, Roland will stay here. Tarkas, take half the men and go clear out the second floor rooms behind us. The Formal Room is in front of us. When you have the rooms behind us clear, send the squads on the stairs up to the top floor and tell them to start sweeping it forward. You bring your men back here, and then we’ll go forward,” Ryder said with growing confidence.
Twenty minutes later, as the palace darkened at the end of the day, Tarkas returned. “They must all be huddled together now. That end was empty,” the trader reported.
Chapter 25 – The End of the Coup
“This is it then,” Alec said, as the Duke’s supporters in the palace prepared for a battle to capture and oust the rebellious forces.
“Let’s move forward to the Formal Room and call in the squads from the stairs. Tarkas, send twenty men into the back hall so they don’t try to escape there,” colonel Ryder ordered.
The group traveled up the hallway, small bands going into each room along the way and coming back empty-handed.
When they arrived outside the lair of Elgin and his rebels, the colonel stopped. “I’m going to offer them a chance to surrender. If they don’t take it, we go in fighting. I want Elgin kept alive. He has a number of questions to answer before his father gets his shot at him.”
Alec sensed a trickle of his ingenaire powers flow back through him for the first time since he has stalked the halls the night before. He stood before the doors as Ryder shouted ‘Parley.’, then cautiously pushed one door open.
Alec stepped inside behind Ryder and faced the room full of defiant rebels that surrounded him. He spotted Elgin sitting on a raised platform at the far end of the large room.
“Any of you who throw down your weapons and surrender now will not be executed. If you deliver Elgin to me alive within five minutes, you will be allowed to depart the duchy alive tomorrow. You have five minutes to decide, and if you don’t send a message out by that time, we will come in without mercy,” the Colonel announced in a flat voice. Looking around, he motioned to Alec and stepped back out into the hallway.
“Alec do you feel your powers?” Ryder asked. The warrior nodded, certain that he didn’t really have enough energy to use his skills, but not willing to admit his weakness now. “Roland,” he then said, turning to the apprentice, “If they don’t come out, Alec will go in first, with you right behind. As soon as you get in there, you start blasting them down, and we’ll get our people in to finish this off. Are you ready?”
The apprentice nodded, his face pale. Alec realized that only a few months ago he had thought of Roland as virtually his peer, a situation that was no longer the case.
Alec’s forces waited in the hallway, listening to the voices inside the room loudly debate what to do. A man came out, “Elgin wishes to speak to you. Will you give him three minutes to do so inside the room?”
Ryder nodded. “I’ll step inside the door, and it will remain open. Have Elgin meet me there.”
The messenger went back in the room, and a minute later, Alec opened the door for his leader. Elgin stood inside, facing him.
“Colonel, you’ve got some good men fighting for you,” Elgin began.
“They’ve fought for your father, not for me,” Ryder said.
“So you say,” Elgin dismissed the quibble. “If you will allow me to leave with the others, there will be no battle and no further bloodshed or damage, plus I will tell your young swordsman here who it was that attacked my former betrothed, Noranda. Is that something you’d like to know, Alec?”
“What were the Locksfort traders going to get from you in exchange for helping you take your father’s seat?” Alec asked, delaying because he wanted to avoid the painful lure Elgin had thrown in front of him.
“I’ll tell you that as well,” Elgin parried, keeping a neutral expression on his face.
Ryder held up his hand to forestall any further comment from Alec.
Alec stood and stared at Elgin. With the power of Roland’s energies and his own sword he could win this battle with little loss of blood on his side, but he wouldn’t learn the answers that Elgin was holding out as temptations. He could alternately watch Ryder negotiate to avoid further bloodshed and empty the palace of rebels within an hour, and have the answers he sought through a bargain. And then someday he could do the other things he hoped he was fated to do, like find Noranda and save her, or truly finish this business with Elgin in some other place, under different circumstances.
“Alright, have all your men disarm and strip to pants only and line them up out here. Twenty at a time to march down to Locksfort’s yard,” Ryder agreed. “Alec,” the colonel called over his shoulder, “you stay right here with me. Tarkas, call in the guards on the stairwells, and send someone to clear out a safe path to Locksfort’s yard. We’re going to commandeer every ship in that yard if we have to in order to get these failures out of here as fast as possible.” He walked to the top of the stairs with Tarkas.
“So how did a healer with a sword wind up in charge of this motley band?” Elgin asked with a smirk.
“You killed the better men, so I was all that was left, but I’m not in charge, the colonel is,” Alec said. “Now tell me what you promised.”
“The Locksforts were going to be given the exclusive rights to that lucrative water your friend Natha is making so much profit from right now. It’s a straightforward business agreement,” Elgin said. “I’ll tell you about Noranda when I’m safely aboard a ship on the river.”
Alec watched the first twenty rebels file out dispiritedly.
“Take these away, put them on a ship, and tell the captain not to touch shore on the River Giffey,” Ryder ordered, and watched the men file away under guard.
“Bring out the next twenty,” Alec ordered a few minutes later, and he walked away from Elgin. He didn’t want to see the renegade son again until he was escorted out with the last of the rebels.
“Alec, are we allowed to do this?” Mortis asked him quietly, out of the Colonel‘s hearing. “Shouldn’t the Duke decide how to handle these rebels?”
“I don’t think we’re authorized to do this Mortis,” Alec admitted. “But
it solves a lot of problems,” Alec answered. “The palace will be ours for the Duke to return to, we’ll have answers to a few questions, and the Duke won’t have to face the son who tried to kill him. I think Ryder is doing the right thing doing this.”
Ten minutes later Ryder ordered the next group of prisoners to be escorted out. “Walk them slowly, so that they don’t have a chance to meet their companions,” Alec ordered the guards taking the rebels. “When you get them on the bridge, stop them there and let them look up at their late companions for a few minutes before you proceed.”
The following twenty prisoners emerged into the hallway, and after some time, Alec ordered them away too.
In time the last group of prisoners came out of the besieged room, and lined up in the hallway. Elgin was with them.
“Alright, time to get these out as well,” Ryder said. He turned to Tarpa. “Go find the Duke’s pennants and make sure they fly from every pole you can find around the palace. Alec, you take this lot to the piers and ship them out. I’ll start cleaning up here.”
“Let’s move these vermin out,” Alec said, and he joined the group that moved out of the palace. As they crossed the bridge, Alec observed the captives looking at the torch lit heads on the long pikes. A large crowd continued to wait in the square and jeered the captives as they were led through the city streets near the river to the Locksfort dockyards.
Alec observed a number of Duke’s men holding the gates to the yard, and speculated that the Locksfort dockyard operators had not been willing partners in the decision to send the rebels away on their ships. “Where do we take this group?” Alec asked a man at the gate.
“Tarkas has a boat selected down at the last pier,” the man told Alec.
When they arrived at the pier, the prisoners were marched onto the boat, under the sullen watch of the officers of the ship.
“Alright Elgin, first why did you do all this?” Alec asked as the Duke’s son stood next to him.