“I’m more than curious about that myself. How is the barrier holding up around Estole?”
“Fit as a fiddle,” Gerrard answered confidently. “We had plenty of time to set that one up. Ganforth’s was a makeshift affair, hence why it failed.”
“Ah, is that right? I’d wondered what went wrong. Alright, if that’s the case, I’m not going to approach the front door. I think you’re correct, guerilla tactics will suit us better. It will be very difficult for me to take any men up to Ganforth. Can I depend on you to handle the north?”
“Of course,” Gerrard assured him, brightening visibly. Then again, he was only mildly better at waiting than Ashlynn was.
“Then we’ll divide this up and have some of us harry the troops north while the rest take the south.”
Gerrard had a look on his face that reminded Broden of a wolf spotting interesting prey. “Hendrix, do you have a designated man that could lead the northern side?”
“Ah, that was my second problem. I’ve been debating a few candidates. Why?” The prince was quick on the uptake. “Oh! I see what you’re getting at. Broden, why don’t you lead them?”
That would certainly be the better way to do this, to his mind. Broden would rather be out fighting anyway. “Gerrard, can ye let me out of this barrier?”
“I have a way of getting you out, yes. If you’ll take the troops we have here for the longer forays, I can manage good distractions here to keep them from noticing you until it’s far too late.”
“Good. Then, lad, ye can expect both Ashlynn and I to take charge of the fighting up here.”
“Is Ashlynn going too? Really?”
“Lad, I do no’ think of meself as a suicidal man. If I left yon lass here by her lonesome and went out to have fun, do ye think I’d survive to see the next sunrise?”
Both men laughed and neither denied it. Candidly, Gerrard added, “At least this way we can stop hitting her with sleeping spells. I was starting to run out of tricks.”
There was a pregnant pause as Hendrix mulled that over. Almost incredulously he demanded, “Wait, you’ve been bespelling her to sleep on a regular basis?”
“Lass be going stir crazy in here,” Broden justified, a trifle defensively.
“Broden, I thought you said you weren’t suicidal. How in the world did you get by with doing that and live to tell the tale?”
“She loves us too much to kill us.” Gerrard ruined this confident statement by adding, “Although we just about hit the limit of her affections. Leaving her behind to fight would definitely mean the end for us.”
“Then by all means, give Ashlynn an outlet for her pent-up frustrations.” Hendrix paused and added in a softer tone, “I saw Ash and Riana when I was in Kremser. They’re doing very well.”
It was kind of Hendrix to give him such an update, as Broden did sorely miss and worry about his daughter. The only thing that helped him were the sporadic messages they sent to Troi. At least those told him they were alive, well, and succeeding. “Thank ye, lad,” he responded huskily.
“Riana had a message for me to pass along to you as well. She said, and I quote, ‘I finally got him, Da.’ Do you know what she meant by that?”
Broden barked out a laugh. “It means she finally got Ash to the stage of lovers, lad.”
“Truly?!” Hendrix sounded perfectly amazed by this but immediately counteracted his own outburst. “Actually, come to think of it, they did look rather intimate together when I last saw them. I’d wondered if something was going on, but they weren’t overt about it.”
Likely not; they were in the middle of serious business after all. “Well, I be looking forward to hearing the story properly later. In the meantime, lad, let’s clear our doorstep, shall we?”
Gerrard’s ‘way out’ was a small trap door and tunnel that led into a wine cellar and tapped into a cold spring that, with the right levers, could be shut off and used as a tunnel out. The sides of the waterway were stone, slippery and cold from water residue, but an easy enough climb out. Using it meant compromising the barrier, however, as he had to drop it temporarily to let them out. Even if it was no more than five minutes, it was five minutes of vulnerability that sent a cold chill up his spine. Fortunately, Broden and Ashlynn slipped outside with their hundred rebel soldiers without spotting a single enemy.
Before leaving the academy, Broden had taken an hour and split them up into different groups of ten, each responsible for a different area, and they were to go and come back as stealthily as possible.
He kept the last group of ten and looked about him. The moon overhead hung slim indeed, not giving them much in the way of light, and the darkness was like a welcome cloak about them. It would be easy to pull shenanigans tonight, but it was also easy to mix up friend with foe. Broden prayed that would not happen but was realistic enough to realize it would.
“Alright,” he said in a low tone to his huddled group, “we be having the most interesting task of all. We be a-hunting for a prince.”
One of them, a stout man with a raspy voice, spoke up. “Prince Hendrix said his brother was up here somewhere. You sure on that?”
“We are. Information came from an eye witness,” Ashlynn confirmed. “He hasn’t once been with the force around the academy, which means he’s off elsewhere. We’d like to find his camp and, if at all possible, do our best to dish out some damage. If we’re going to do anything to him, now is our best chance.”
There were a few ginger nods as none of them were particularly keen on tackling a prince in the dead of night. Broden could hardly blame them. Maddox would only have the very best of bodyguards around him, and the prince himself was a good fighter. He was not easy prey. Still, no one protested, so Broden silently led off and was pleased when eleven people followed him.
It had been quite some time since he had skulked about the woods in the pitch black of night. Broden felt a familiar thrill go up his spine as adrenaline started churning. It felt somehow right to be out here, with the night song of insects and birds, the scent of ice and snow, all of it filling his head. His work in Estole was vitally important, and he respected the position he had there, but at times he truly missed just being out in the mountains.
They took a roundabout trail to go far north of where they knew the soldiers’ camp to be, as Broden did not want to tangle with any night patrols or his own groups trying to work. It took them a little longer than he had planned, so that they were in the wee hours of the morning before they came all the way around. They had had a recent snowfall, little more than a light dusting, but it was enough to cushion all of the leaves and deadfall so that it made a noiseless carpet to walk on. Broden used that to his advantage as he stopped, crouched, and listened hard. Had they gone too far? He could not hear or smell anything that suggested men.
Ashlynn paused next to him, also kneeling, and pulled a pair of her magical glasses out of a shirt pocket. She put them on and panned the area first one way, then another, and back again. “I don’t see anyone,” she breathed to him.
This was becoming stranger by the minute. They had spent five days studying the enemy camp from the top of the academy; they knew that Maddox was there. They had assumed since he was not at the south barrier either, he had to be camped just a little farther out, far enough that even with magical enhancements, they could not see him.
An uneasy pit formed in his stomach. Broden motioned people to stay low and whispered, “Fan out in pairs. His camp is here somewhere. If ye find it, meet back here and wait. Everyone return in one hour.”
There were grunts and silent assents before people split up and drifted off as silently as ghosts. Broden silently reminded himself to thank Edvard for sending him good men to work with. Otherwise he would never have given that order and would have ended up searching the woods himself.
Turning back to Ashlynn, he whispered, “No sign of a camp at all?”
“Not that I can see. Why did you think he was here, anyway? Why this exact spot?”
<
br /> “Only clean water source available that his men had not already taken,” Broden explained. “There be others, but they be farther north, past yon rise. Or much closer to the channel, which would make his camp visible to the shoreline.”
“Which he wouldn’t want to do,” Ashlynn concurred thoughtfully. “I see. Let’s move forward, see if we can find anything.”
Broden had no intention of just sitting there and waiting for people to come back. It was bitterly cold outside, even with warming spells on him, and movement would keep him warmer. He got back to his feet and went along, carefully, as it was easy to miss things in the dark. Ashlynn had spelled his eyes so that he had night vision like a cat would, which helped. After her doing the spell on him so many times, he had adapted to it, mostly. Still, this was not the time to be careless and assume he could see everything.
They separated a little, no more than twenty feet, as both wanted to react if their partner suddenly fell into danger. Broden’s internal clock ticked as he searched the ground. The snow from the other day had mostly melted and refrozen as ice, or stayed frozen in the thicker shade of the trees, which made for some interesting patterns.
“Broden.”
Immediately, he turned and lifted his head up. “What, lass?”
“I think Maddox was here.”
He crossed to her in long strides before kneeling and carefully studying what she pointed at. The remains of a cookfire lay nearby, nothing more than a ring of stones now, as well as disheveled dirt and a half-burned bone sticking out of the soot.
“Aye, lass, I agree it be a campsite no’ used long ago. But why Maddox’s?”
She pointed again, more empathetically, then lifted her hand away altogether. He had to tilt his torso and cock his head a little to finally see what she did, as he only caught an edge of it from his angle. There, in the snow and ice, was the half-imprint of Maddox’s crest. It looked to have been left there by a sword lying in the snow.
“The only one that would have that crest on a weapon would be Maddox himself. It’s treasonous for anyone else unless he’s given them express permission.”
That imprint was indefatigable proof alright. “I’m amazed ye saw that, lass.”
“Why do you think I use the glasses and not the spell? They're able to pick out finer details.”
He actually had wondered about that. Broden bent lower and put his nose a scant inch away to study it better. “Print’s mayhap two days old.”
“That’s more or less my guess as well.” Ashlynn rocked back to sit on her heels, looking at the abandoned camp site. “So the prince was here. Now where did he go?”
Chapter Thirty-One
What followed was a grim game indeed. Now that they knew that Maddox was truly in their area, it affected the morale of Estole. After Broden and Ashlynn’s reconnaissance of that night, several of the refugees joined Hendrix’s rebel army. Hendrix’s men performed guerilla fighting that made a hash of the Iyshian ranks. All of the northern troops were forced into a retreat as their forces were whittled down, until they joined the southern army at Estole’s border. Hendrix’s men did not let them rest but followed, sabotaging food supplies, setting fire to the tents, destroying any caches of arrows, and creating general mayhem.
It helped, but did not solve the problem.
Someone over in the enemy’s camp understood magical barriers. Or at least, understood magical theory enough to figure out that what they fought against was not the standard barrier but instead a hybrid concoction of some sort. Broden had to assume that after that first week, when they did not make any headway, they must have sent for someone with magical expertise. It would naturally take time for him to arrive, especially while traveling on these winter roads, but arrive he did sometime after the northern barrier around Ganforth fell. It was at that point the southern border began to be battered in all the wrong ways.
Ashlynn stood next to him at the top of the wall, watching in grim anger as the enemy below her systematically hit the weakest points of the barrier in near unison. Broden understood enough about the barrier’s construction to realize: “This be bad.”
“Extremely so. Even the word ‘bad’ is an understatement.” Ashlynn growled, the sound eerily like a cornered injured wolf. “I don’t know who they got up here to help, but he’s analyzed the barrier to perfection. With them strung out like that, hitting the point right in between the barrier’s posts, they’re literally hammering at the weakest point of the joints. Curse that man and the dogs that bred him!”
“I would offer to shoot him,” Broden stated in equal frustration, “but it be worlds too late by now.”
“I know it. They already know the weak points, it doesn’t matter if we kill him now.” Ashlynn slammed a fist on the top of the wall, angry and resigned all at once. “Broden, the barrier won’t be able to hold out long under this pounding. This is one of its weaknesses and the reason why magicians normally don’t use it. Under the right pressure, it’ll break.”
Broden had a feeling he already knew the answer, but had to ask anyway, “What can we do?”
“Not a thing. Not a thing that we aren’t already doing. We’re pouring more magic into it, shoring it up where we can, but we can’t do that for much longer. It risks draining our wizards to the point that they’ll suffer magic deprivation and collapse.”
Having seen exactly what happened to Ash, Broden did not think that wise. They needed their wizards fighting fit more than anything. At the same time…. He turned and regarded Estole as a whole. There was no way to retreat anywhere. There was not a safe place to send anyone to. They had retreated as far as they could and even putting people inside of a building with physical walls would be nigh impossible with all of them.
Perhaps Ashlynn could read his mind or perhaps she simply had the same thoughts. Either way, she turned and said exactly what he was thinking: “When the barrier falls, there’s no way to protect all of them.”
“Lass, there has to be a way. If we can no’ find one, we make one, but there has to be a way.”
Ashlynn stared out sightlessly for several long minutes before she picked up the caller around her neck. “Edvard. Tierone. Hendrix.”
She waited, then repeated the names again, louder, until all three men responded. “You can all hear me?”
“We can,” Edvard answered, sounding subdued. “How bad is it?”
“I give it two days before the wall breaks entirely.”
All three men growled out a curse. Tierone demanded, “Nothing can be done on our end?”
“We’re already doing what we can, but if we push ourselves recklessly then we’ll be magically drained and you don’t want that.”
“No, indeed we don’t,” he immediately agreed, disturbed at the thought. “How much time do we have before the wizards have to stop?”
“Why do you think I said two days? As soon as we stop patching it with power, that thing will collapse like a house of cards.”
Hendrix piped up: “I’m doing all I can to harry them from behind but they have a large enough force that they can protect the ranks battering at the wall. I literally cannot reach them from here. Edvard, Tierone, can your men attack from the wall? Even shooting people will help.”
Ashlynn shook her head even though none of them could see it. “The way this barrier is constructed, we can’t pass anything through it. It’ll compromise the integrity of the wall if we try.”
“Well, that’s out, then.” Edvard pondered this for a moment. “What can we do?”
“Broden,” Hendrix spoke slowly, as if he were thinking aloud, “Didn’t you say that Cloud’s Rest has allied itself with us?”
“I did, aye.”
“Let’s do this. Let’s gather up everyone that is mobile enough to move quickly and send them to either Cloud’s Rest or Senn. If we can empty the city enough, we can put the rest inside of the buildings with permanent barriers erected, protect the citizens that way. Then we can fall to street fighting. It’
s dirty, but a wonderful delaying tactic.”
“Wait,” Edvard protested, “I agree we need a delay, but to what end? Are we just delaying the inevitable?”
“Heavens no, man, I wouldn’t suggest this just to see an ugly end. I think I have the support I need. Let’s take advantage of the barrier going down to get you out. We’ll head straight to Kremser and wrest control of Iysh from Zelman. We can stop this army in its tracks that way.”
“I feel bad about abandoning my people right as things go from bad to worse…” Edvard trailed off uncertainly.
“We need to move before it becomes a massacre,” Hendrix argued. “I only came up here to help shore up your defenses. I didn’t plan to stay for even this long. Edvard, if we stand still, we lose.”
There was a pause as everyone held their breath, waiting for Edvard to make a decision. He blew out a noisy breath. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. This is the only option. Alright, I’ll go with you.”
Broden personally felt that was the only viable option. Apparently Tierone and Ashlynn agreed, as they both voiced sounds of approval. Tierone added, “I think I should stay here. There needs to be at least one king on site to make decisions. But I agree, Edvard should go, one of us has to make a formal truce with you in order for this to be legally binding.”
“Edvard, in the sense of expediency, Broden and I will be your bodyguards for the trip,” Ashlynn volunteered. Or voluntold in that no-nonsense voice that Broden knew from experience all too well. “You can’t afford to send a full entourage so you’ll have to make do with the two of us.”
Being a wise king, Edvard immediately agreed, “I wouldn’t choose anything differently. Tierone, you’re sure that you’re alright staying here to deal with this madness?”
“We don’t have any other choice, really. Besides, don’t you want to see this through all the way to the end? You started this fight with Zelman in person. I think it should finish the same way.”
Edvard let out a very evil chuckle. “I do admit I’m looking forward to a final showdown. Alright, Hendrix, we’re in agreement. Hash out a plan for all of this and run it by us tonight. We need to move soon if we’re to do this. Broden, I realize it’s going to be a lot of travel back and forth for you, but I’d feel better if you and Ashlynn led the group towards Cloud’s Rest. At least part of the way.”
Arrows of Revolution (Kingmakers Book 3) Page 26