The guard swung the gate open for me. "Who do you need, Lieutenant?" he asked.
"Nain of Karatel."
"Prince Nain?" the second guard exclaimed. He laughed. "He's been down here since the day he came."
"I suppose he'll be pleased about the trip out then," I said meaningfully.
The guard sucked back his laugh.
The first frowned. "I'll need to check with the warden, first?" His tone was wary.
I noticed his foot had already shifted. I measured him with a steady gaze, then nodded my head in that direction. "Go on about it then. And tell your warden that Commander Lox is the one who's waiting for him."
A few minutes later, I was leading Nain out ahead of me. His wrists were cuffed and bound in chains in front of him that more or less, or more, reminded me of the way that Ellia had hugged him after he'd been captured—it wasn't really an image that I'd ever gotten out of my head. When he'd first been led out of the cells, I'd heard a commotion of insults, and he hadn't spared them with me either; all in his high, royal, accent. His hair was matted and he was dirt-smudged, but his sharp features and ruddy energy had remained intact enough to keep him princely.
He'd grown quiet as we walked out, and once we'd gone a ways out of sight of the last guard, I could see he had no plans of coming willingly to Lox.
I blocked his blow before he even got close to me. Then I pulled his chain down, yanking his arms along with it. He opened his mouth, I covered it, then I put a finger to my lips, shushing him, all very calmly, which seemed to be confusing enough for him to make him hesitate. I thought about now, that he wasn't likely one of the warring sort of princes.
"Do you know who I am?" I asked strictly.
He tried to wrangle his arms free. I shook my head.
"Do you know who I am?" I repeated.
His jaw clamped. He looked me over. "You're one of Lox's Lieutenants."
"You know which one?" I led on; I already knew that he did.
He narrowed. "You're not an Akadian...," he admitted.
"Not like any Akadian I've known," Tarful added, entering from the shadows. Nain jerked back against the wall of the cave in surprise. Tarful went on. "Akadians use strength to over-power and win their wars; they've no talent for subtlety."
While he nodded to Nain, I grew a smile. Firstly, because I thought that if Tarful considered my plan subtle, Akadians really must think on a different level than I did. Second, because it was just the sort of thing Ellia would have liked to hear.
And that reminded me that I was nearly two for two.
Nain had obviously been disabled by Tarful's half-jesting comment. Driven by my most recent chain of thoughts, I turned on him, ready to be done with talking.
"Nain, we don't have a lot of time. And it's not as if you're going to be able get free of both of us.... You have a princess waiting for you in Yanartas, yeah? If you trust me, I'll get you back to her."
For the first time, Nain went very still. Leaving off my hold on his chains, I stretched my hand out in front of me. It wasn't that I was sure I knew Nain or what he'd do, but I knew Ellia and I knew the type of friends she chose, and the type she hugged even better. If I was right, it would be enough.
His gaze drifted from Tarful, who tipped his head, then back to me. He took a breath then he locked his hand with mine. Without a pause, I turned it over and slid my key inside the cuff's lock. The chains fell away and he rubbed his wrists, staring at me with more shock than ever.
I held my hands out for my bag and Tarful tossed it to me, then I directed Nain to gather his chains up till we found somewhere to hide them. He fumbled with it, and I reminded myself—for patience's sake—that he really had no idea what was going on at all.
"Was the way clear?" I checked with Tarful.
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
I nodded, shrugging on my bag; then with me in the lead, we all started off. It wasn't long before we found a tunnel to dump the chains in. Free of the burden, Nain gestured to Tarful. "Who is this?" he asked.
"Commander Tarful," Tarful answered for himself.
"Of... Akadia?" Nain asked, skeptic.
"Retired," Tarful dismissed.
Nain reared his head back.
"Save your breath, boys," I said, "We're moving fast from here."
And so we did. From tunnel to chamber to tunnel. It was harder to hide with Nain, but on the upside the paths we took now were nearly abandoned; neither close to the miners, or the jails, or anything else that was active. The only hard part about this was some patches of darkness where I couldn't see, but here Tarful would move out in front without a word, and I could follow the sound of him well enough. Nain was faster than he had been trying to attack me. And you wouldn't know that Tarful was old from his speed.
We stopped against the wall of a cave, each of us flattening our backs against it, our breaths labored. Just beyond it was a platform, and beyond that was shroud of bright orange smoke. Both Tarful and Nain drank in deep lung-fulls of air.
"It's fresh," Nain whispered, and he started to add something more, but I shushed him first.
I craned my head around the wall. There was—as there would be in many places soon—a guard standing watch, at the edge of the platform. Really it was the lift that he was watching; it was the only one that led out from the tunnels. I could see him easily, a black silhouette against the orange smoke. He carried a sword, a knife. He was impressively alert, turning periodically. Any other day I would have commended him.
I slipped my pack off for the third time and crouched around the corner, onto the platform. I heard Tarful whisper something to Nain, but I didn't catch what; I knew they wouldn't interrupt me anyways.
The guard made a half turn, going from facing off the platform, to just to the right of it. Keeping my steps light, I increased my speed here. He heard me, but not until I'd swept down to grab a crate lid off the lift, and before he could turn I knocked it over the top of his head. Out he went. I stayed ducked and moved to the edge of the platform, searching all directions. Once I was sure all the guards were too high or too low to have seen, I bent down to the knocked out guard and hulled him onto the lift. Nain and Tarful headed over. I let Tarful keep my bag this time.
Nain's eyes got caught straightaway on the sky. I had the urge to ask him if it was clear, but dismissed it. Tarful moved to the front of the lift, looking out as I had before. I unhooked the winch and we started rolling. It didn't take Nain long to turn back to us skeptically. "Shouldn't we be going up?" he asked.
I allowed myself a pause for breath, then bent down to grab the sword off the fallen soldier.
"Wouldn't that be a nice idea," Tarful commented.
"Take this," I said, holding the sword out for Nain. He was still narrowing, but he seemed to resign himself and took the hilt, testing the weapon's weight. "Just don't kill anyone with it," I added.
He frowned. He looked from me to Tarful. Tarful shaped his hand into a fist and mocked a knock to the top of his head. Nain blinked with confusion.
I bent down to the fallen soldier and wrapped his mouth then bound him up. That done, we were only a number of seconds from the ground floor. I went out to stand beside Tarful, my hands on my sides. The creaking of the lift was barely audible, drowned in the hiss of the flame river. I couldn't see all parts of the cavern, but what I couldn't, I knew well. I looked to the furnaces, far to the left, back towards the city, that were being loaded even now. Then the river, surrounded by its forges, crates of metal, and half-made weapons. I looked up above where guards watched every exit to the desert. Then I looked to the behemoths, fenced in against the south wall.
I turned to Nain. "Pull the guard off the lift after us."
He glanced down at the body, then nodded.
The lift broke to a stop. I waited for Tarful to leap off first and once he had, I jumped after him. The cavern floor took much longer to cross than it seemed it would from a high view—that's why the behemoths were so invaluable—but we had only a small
portion of it to go; the lift had brought us close. Tarful and I divided at Silos' tent. I glanced it over as I passed, wondering how deeply the Kanthian slept, and if I should have tied him up before everything as I'd considered doing. I figured it was too late now.
The Behemoths slept standing, so it was hard to tell if they were awake or not —some of them clearly were. Their pen was surrounded by four torches and posted at each of these was a guard. I swept up a rock as I came around the east side and tossed it against the cavern wall. It pulled the attention of the farthest guard. He left his post to inspect it, and once he'd turned and walked into shadow, I took him out. I didn't hear any sounds from Tarful's side of the pen, but if things were going well that was how it should be. The next guard was more difficult. He got a shout off before I crashed into him, and then we rolled into the ground. I heard heavy footsteps and looked up to see a third guard, but just behind him was Tarful, and the old Commander took him out with a deft swipe. I punched my fist into the soldier below me, then I took his head and slammed it against the earth. He went limp.
I rose to my feet as Tarful walked a ways back to the center of the cavern. I pulled out my rope and started to tie up the solider.
"Leave that to me," Tarful said. He held my pack out to me. "Remember we only have an hour before the next guards."
I stood, took the bag, and started backing up. "When Nain gets here—"
"I know. Go on, boy."
I turned, then broke into a run. I went to the east side of the Behemoths' fence first. I knelt down to the ground then opened up my pack, but before I could reach inside a gurgled call drew my attention. I looked up to see the animal that had made it. It was just one of the Behemoths, a fully grown one. It was definitely awake because its eyes blinked in and out of view, rimmed in stains as they were, almost as dark, once more, as they'd been getting before Lox had opened up the cavern. Kneeling as I was, it was triple my height. I thought of the first time I had seen them, pounding the underground and making the same sort of groggy sound as it just did, and I remembered watching Silos slide his hand over the young Behemoth's leg, and I remembered lying beside Ellia and looking up at the tiled painting of the Behemoths. A second Behemoth came up beside the other, rumbling the ground. It faced me and called out as the other had, as if they'd mutually decided that I was getting too close to their space. I gave them a smirk, then turned back to my bag and pulled the contents.
A few minutes later I was racing up to Tarful from the far side of the cavern. He stood at attention, near the front of a cave beside to the Behemoths' fence.
"Is it done?" he asked.
I held out my empty pack in answer, then tossed it to the ground. "Where's Nain?"
"Inside. We drug the soldiers in there. He's making sure they're secure."
I glanced behind Tarful, into the chamber. It was the one Silos used to administer remedies to the behemoths, or to inspect them. "Did you see the horses?"
Tarful nodded calmly.
I took a breath. It was too dark for me to see inside the cave, but I thought of Tosch and the other two, and how none of them were white. It had been the failure I'd pushed from my mind. I supposed I was 2 for 3 really, or perhaps now 3 for 4—because for the behemoths it was all as ready as it could be.
I gripped my jaw, and looked up at a hole in the wall of the cavern.
"Rest first," Tarful said.
I shook my head. "There's not time." I put my hands on my knees, trying to still my breaths, and not to allow my mind to become bogged by the night's long chain of events.
"Walk me back through the steps," I said.
"You know them."
"I want to hear you say them."
Tarful waited until I'd looked up at him; he was narrowing like he didn't like what I was asking him to do, or rather why. But I didn't relent.
"Open the behemoths gate," he said, "On the west side."
I nodded him on.
"Use the flint. Light the sparks."
"Starting with..."
"Starting with the ones closest to the behemoths. And the next to the right of the path."
"You have to make sure to set those ones only a few seconds afterwards, or else the Behemoths will just run into the cavern. I set an extra pile near their cage in case something goes wrong. Keep the horses tied until you've lit them; it's a whole bunch so it's going to be loud, and it'll panic them as badly as the behemoths. But be sure you're riding out as soon as they're headed up the ramp. Don't worry about staying with the behemoths. Once they're moving, nothing's going to be able to stop them. And remember the guards will know something's wrong as soon as the first set goes off."
"You don't have to tell me all of this," he said.
"Just make sure that you and Nain get clear. If something goes wrong—"
"It won't go wrong," Tarful assured.
I let myself meet his gaze for a long moment. Then I glanced at the cave over his shoulder, then I took a breath.
"Don't wait longer than twenty minutes," I told him.
I had my gaze up and was already running off, so I didn't notice when I passed Nain.
"Look, I was wondering..." he said, but I didn't stop, "Wait? What's going on? I thought—"
"Ask Tarful," I called back.
His tone was full of distress. "But where are you going?"
My mind was already in another place. I kept my eyes on the hole in the wall of the cavern; it was fifty or so feet up. It had a ledge sticking out from it, and a half-wall of stone around that. I picked up speed as I watched it and gained so much momentum that by the time I leapt for the wall I landed four feet off the ground, and I didn't pause, I just kept climbing and kept my gaze up.
Finally I was hulling myself over the wall of the viewing platform. The moment I landed, everything seemed to go silent; and for me, it may as well have been. I picked myself up straight, not hesitating; then I walked into the tunnel beyond.
This way had once been more easily accessible by tunnels leading out of the Behemoths' cavern, but around the same time the cavern had been opened, Lox had blocked up those paths. I'd spent a lot of time exploring the mazes below Akadia, trying to find the other routes in, but I hadn't been able to.
The tunnel was pitch black. I walked it holding my hand against the right wall as the ground slanted down, remembering not just the time that Lox had brought me here, but the times I'd come since, in the past weeks.
I saw a glow of light ahead. The silence turned to muffled chatter.
I would have done this first given the choice. I had even thought that it would be the easiest, but when I'd come—only a short while after the palace had exploded—Lox had changed it. He'd made it so hard.
As my steps padded me down, the ceiling lifted and the next chamber came into view—what had once been a cave of carts and tracks with some miners and workers. It was pooled now with torchlight, and its ground was smooth, as were its walls, and between me and the large door opposite to me, there were a score of guards, all dressed in plate-mail, undented and polished. Most stood around the door. A few sat leaning against the cave wall. None of them had their armor off. There were other things in the room, but I didn't see them. If there were more guards coming from one entrance or another, it wouldn't matter, because I couldn't do anything to stop it.
I hadn't slowed my pace and I kept my eyes on the door, but now the first of them saw me. With loud calls and a clank of metal as men moved to attention, they were all on their feet, clustering between me and the door. My eyes sank into focus. I'd heard my name whispered, and I'd heard demands for my presence.
"How did you get in here?" one shouted, at the head.
I stopped walking. I looked steadily at him.
"If I told you that Lox wanted you to let me behind that door, would you?" I asked. My tone was calm.
The soldiers looked between one another. Some narrowed uncertainly, some looked angry, some fearful, some indignant.
The one at the center waved the
m quiet, then he jutted his chin up and answered. "We were told not to let anyone back here. Except for Lox himself." Not even you, Lieutenant was implied, with his added glare.
I looked him over. Then I looked at those around him, their faces set, crowding closer together.
"Right," I said plainly.
I reached for my sword with one hand and my knife with the other.
The soldiers turned from uncertain to frantic. There was a silence, and they stayed perfectly still. Then one of them made a slow draw of his sword, causing barely a whisper of noise; he held it out looking around, like he hadn't even planned to use it.
But it didn't matter.
They rushed forward with shouts and cries and drawing swords, all aimed for me. My aim was for the door. I ran up headlong into the first, ducking under and flipping him over with his own force, and then I turned and stabbed his chest, under the top edge of his armor. I held my knife up behind me at the same time to block a blow, and then I had to drop and twist to avoid a half-dozen more. I craned my sword free as I rolled away, between a pair of men. I came up behind another, stabbing him quick in the side, in the gap near his shoulder. I felt a hit to the leg, then a swipe at my chest. Neither had penetrated my armor. I locked swords with two more men before they could surround me.
In my planning, I'd considered having Nain and Tarful come with me for this, to help fight. I'd known there would be around twenty or so men. The old commander, especially, would have been a great help. I'd sorted through it from every angle. In the end, I'd realized it would have meant coming here before the behemoths. And if we'd done that, if I'd risked Nain, and risked Tarful, and we'd failed, it would have meant the loss of everything.
I ducked two more successive swipes, then leapt over a fallen body and bore down with my sword, down through a shoulder. I was lighter and faster than even I was used to being. I spent most of my time avoiding hits, but when I could I took a killing blow and their numbers were falling.
Surrounded like this, exhausted even at the start, I thought inevitably of fighting in the forests outside of Uldin Keep. It was just the same, with men coming after me, one after the other, and no other choice but to keep on. Lox had commended me for that many times. Probably he hadn't known though, probably Ellia hadn't either, that I'd killed my first man in that fight, and one had quickly led to more. I'd killed goblins before of course; which made up most of the battles Shaundakul fought. Very rarely had there been battles against men, usually small tribes from the west or revolts and I'd managed to avoid them. I didn't like the idea of killing a man. Maybe because of my father; I was afraid of it, afraid what it would make me do, turn me evil, make me like him.
Fallen Warrior (Fallen Trilogy book 3) Page 7