“Still, our thanks to you. We’ll thank Quillin as well when we catch up with him.”
“N-not at all,” Halloway managed, still breathless.
“He’s a little out of air at the moment,” Edvard explained, tone amused. “The man did a mad sprint from the docks all the way around the wall to get to us. He barely had the breath to explain what we needed to do.”
Made sense. If the talisman dropped him on the docks, then he would have had to run around a fourth of the city to reach Edvard and Hendrix, and that was not a small distance. In fact, Halloway’s stamina must be impressive to pull it off.
“Ash, I need you and Riana at Baker Street, but don’t engage just yet. Ashlynn, Broden, don’t move. I need you to hold position and protect us while we deal with that right enemy group.”
“Understood, we’ll do that.” Ashlynn kept the caller up in her hand, listening as Hendrix gave individual commands to his troops to support Ash and Riana as they dealt with the enemy. She didn’t try to speak, however, as there was no need to. Hendrix had it all well in hand.
Four squadrons of troops, mostly formed out of the retired soldiers and guardsmen, jogged past them and went into a side street leading to Baker Street. Broden sent up several prayers as they went past but did not dare try to speak to Ash or his daughter. They did not need distractions at this point.
A mighty clash sounded several minutes later, screams and metal clanging against metal; the sounds of war. Broden saw magic flaring up into the sky like northern lights and knew that Ash was in the middle of battle, Riana undoubtedly with him.
It felt another small eternity before the sounds died out and Ash’s voice came across, “They’re down. Ashlynn, I’ll meet you at the main force. We had very little casualties, I think we can be the rear attack.”
“Do so,” Hendrix ordered. “We’ll reinforce Ashlynn’s squadrons.”
In a softer, kind voice, Ash added: “Riana is fine.”
And this was why Broden liked Ash. “Thank ye, lad.”
“Ash, Ashlynn, time your attack for the noon hour precisely if you can. Let’s not give them any openings. Halloway, I’m counting on you to give the signal for when our people drop their barricades.”
“They have orders to do it the very minute they hear me, Your Highness. If one of your wizards can give my voice a boost?”
“Of course,” Ashlynn assured him. “Catch up with me.”
“Then we all know what to do,” Edvard said with immense satisfaction. “Go.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Things did not go that smoothly, of course. In war, plans never do.
While they were able to deal well enough with the enemy on the main road, the same could not be said of the last group of enemy troops. They apparently had put together fairly quickly what was going on with the other two, and upon not receiving any orders, had rightly assumed that their commander had fallen in battle. So they did the very thing that Hendrix did not want them to do—they took over one of the monasteries nearby and holed up in it.
Ashlynn was all for blowing the place silly and charging through, but the monastery was so closely integrated into the city’s infrastructure that doing so would cost thousands upon thousands of trillina to fix it again. Hendrix wasn’t willing to do it and Broden did not blame him. There was no point in conquering a place if you were going to destroy it in the process.
Because of their caution, it took the rest of the day of slow siege warfare and some trickery on Ashlynn’s part to be able to get the gates of the monastery down. Once inside, it took even longer to finally get all of the enemy routed out. While they had dealt with the enemy, night had fallen, and no one wanted to try and take the palace in the middle of the night.
Well, no one except Ashlynn. The wait chaffed at her sorely but she bowed to everyone else’s opinion (with vast reluctance) and they stayed the night in the monastery instead. There was a defensive position, almost enough beds, and even a goodly amount of food in the storehouses to feed people with. Really, it could not have been a better location to hole up in, which was likely why the guardsmen had chosen it to begin with.
Under the cover of darkness, two visitors arrived. One of them, with his fair hair and magic, was well known to every person and the sentries hailed him gladly, letting him through the gates. Broden caught the side gate opening and two people with hoods up coming in. This struck him as odd, as all of their people were already inside, so who were they letting in?
Worried, he snatched up the bow and quiver of arrows laying at his side and hurried down the stairs, waylaying them before they could get more than ten steps in.
The shorter of the two let out a laugh he knew well. “See, Ash? I told ye Da would catch us afore we got a dozen paces in.”
Pulling his hood back, Ash grinned at Broden. “And I was so sure he’d be too busy to notice our entrance.”
Broden lit up in relief and joy in seeing two of his favorite people in the world. Laughing, he threw both arms wide and caught them up in a bear hug. “Ah, it does an old man’s heart good to see ye.”
His daughter hugged him back hard, giving the same sigh, as if she had returned home after a hard journey. “Da.”
“Aye, daughter.” No other words needed to be spoken. For a time, he just held the pair of them and let his heart feel at ease.
“Is that Ash and Riana?” Ashlynn nearly flew down the stairs, taking them two at a time and hopping the last three, joining in on the hug with a bound. “How did the two of you get in?!”
“I think we said please,” Ash answered, snaking an arm free to hug his twin to him. “Was that what we said, Riana?”
“Fairly sure the please did it,” she agreed happily. “Ashlynn. Did Halloway make it to ye?”
“He did, and General Quillin, whoever that is, helped as well by putting up temporary barricades.” Ashlynn drew back to look at the two of them. “Did you plan all that?”
They shook their heads in denial. “Had no part in it,” Ash denied. “But we did get the report of what was happening. We were actually desperate to get Halloway out, as he had vital information, but he was locked tight in the palace. How did he manage it?”
“He stole the king’s magical escape route,” Ashlynn responded, sniggering.
Riana’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Zelman finds that out.”
“Right?” Ashlynn said in perfect agreement. “I’m soooo disappointed I’ll miss it. But more importantly, I heard rumors that you’re together now! Officially! Come, sit down and tell me every single detail.”
“Well, we can,” Ash turned to Riana with a mock-frown on his face, as if unsure of how to proceed, “but I would think she’d be more interested in us attaining the final level in our bond, wouldn’t you?”
Riana gave a hum of consideration. “You’re right, but let’s not overwhelm her by telling it to her all at once.”
Broden’s eyes threatened to pop right out of his head. Ashlynn looked like a landed fish. “Ye did no’,” he breathed, flabbergasted at this news. He had known that they were working on it, but still!
“Let’s sit down, Da,” his daughter suggested with a wicked gleam in her eye. “And I’ll tell ye the whooole story.”
They stayed up late talking, swapping stories and catching the other up to date. Still, at sunrise people were up, ready, and on the move. And while Riana and Ash were wonderful distractions, the twelve hour delay meant that Ashlynn was fit to be tied.
Everyone within range of her could tell. Even Ash could see it and he wasn’t even on the same side of the palace wall as she was. They were stationed on the south side, around the corner from Broden and Ashlynn, while the others were on the east. But even from that distance, he could feel waves of palpable, taut energy, and the feedback resonated to Riana. It was likely a combination of stress, frustration, and worry over Bria, as they still had no idea where she was. Whatever the underlying cause, Riana knew this for certain: Ashlynn
was going to be destroying things right, left, and center.
The doors and gates into the palace compound were guarded tightly. It would be near fatal to go through any of them. That was why Hendrix had vetoed the traditional method of siege warfare and chose to cheat outrageously with his two wizards. They lined up in three different areas of the wall, in between the gates, and waited with their troops poised and ready to enter.
“Now,” Hendrix commanded calmly.
Ash lifted a hand and spoke a spell, the rock wall exploding into multiple pieces, showering dust and pebbles. Before the air had even cleared, people were piling through, shields up in defense. Ashlynn’s side exploded at the same time as Ash’s, and barely a minute passed before another concussion rocked the main courtyard as she blasted another section of the wall to smithereens.
Riana kept her eyes peeled and her bow at the ready as they went through the wall. Multiple enemy guardsmen ran their direction.
She knew full well that the men with her didn’t have much in the way of fighting experience. Riana’s first priority was always Ash, but she tried to look out for the others, too. Her hands blurred as she felled one guardsman after another, taking them down as quickly as she could.
Hendrix had said that the palace had a skeletal crew in place because Maddox had drawn upon it heavily in order to march against Estole. She saw now what he meant, as it seemed that she’d barely blinked before the guardsmen were down. In the midst of all that fighting they had made it all the way to the very interior courtyard without her realizing.
“How many did we lose?” Ash demanded, turning to take in a headcount.
“Two, sir,” one of the men responded sadly. “Peter and Jim.”
Riana swore aloud at the loss but was privately amazed that they had only lost the two.
Ashlynn and Hendrix’s groups came up to the same point, all of them coming in slow to avoid running into each other. Ash turned and gestured. “Reynolds, you take command here.”
Reynolds was one of the few who was a retired soldier and knew what to do. He gave Ash a salute, sharp with military precision. “Yes, Wizard Fallbright.”
The same order was given to others, the command changing to another sub-captain, and only four squadrons detached from the group to go into the palace interior. Riana wasn’t sure they actually needed four—not with two wizards in the group—but wasn’t about to take chances. They basically had two kings to protect after all.
They had no way of knowing how many guards were still left inside the palace. Riana privately bet not many. After all, what would be the point of staying on guard inside the palace interior when the exterior courtyard had fallen? The palace was not fortified in any real sense of the word. It was huge and labyrinthine and even in the best of times, difficult to protect. Most of the guards would automatically be allotted for the exterior walls.
Forming up ranks, they carefully broached the side entrance that Riana knew so well. Since she was one of the few in the group that knew the palace—aside from Hendrix—she led the way, Ash right at her side. He had a barrier spell up like a battering ram in front of them, to attack or defend with as needed.
The halls remained eerily quiet and still. Riana had never seen the palace like this before. Every sound rang and echoed down the corridors, speaking of abandonment and loss. They came around each corner, one high, one down on a knee, the squadron slowly fanning out to cover branch hallways to prevent anyone sneaking up from behind. The precaution was necessary but after twenty minutes of walking about inside, Riana almost felt it foolish. Either this place was entirely abandoned or quite the ambush waited for them ahead. Either way, their precautions might be for naught.
“Where?” Edvard asked Hendrix and Riana, looking to them for an answer.
“Study?” Riana offered hesitantly. She was more familiar with the palace than Edvard, certainly, but only parts of it and did not pretend to know Zelman as much as his own family did.
“Study or throne room,” Hendrix agreed, expression closed off. “He always retreats to places of power when he feels threatened. I’m betting throne room, but let’s check the study first. We’ll pass it going to the throne room anyway.”
No one saw any problem with this plan and followed Hendrix. They found the study empty of any living soul. Hendrix didn’t seem surprised and headed toward the better bet. Riana privately wondered what they would do if Hendrix’s guess was off. Did that mean they would have to search the whole palace? Sea monsters could get lost in this place.
The throne room of the palace was not actually connected to the main building. It was a separate room that shared the same roof, but not the same walls. There was an open grassy and flowered courtyard that separated the area, a garden spot that Riana knew people waited in while the king made judgments inside. Here, they finally encountered the palace guards.
Riana lifted a bow, ready to shoot immediately, but the guards didn’t engage them. There were only eight to begin with, stationed along the wall, but upon seeing the Estolians advancing, their nerve broke. Tossing down weapons, they lifted their hands above their heads in a silent plea for surrender.
If they didn’t want to fight, everyone was willing for them to surrender.
Hendrix signaled to the group. “Four to each corner. Two guard the hallways leading in. No one in or out but try to keep bloodshed to a minimum. Take these and put them on the bench over there and guard them until this is over. Ashlynn, Broden, there are several wizards employed for my father’s personal protection.”
“We’ll guard the outside,” Ashlynn assured him, already taking a position to do so.
The way Hendrix phrased this made Riana think. “Odds are he has wizard guards inside with him, then?”
“Odds are.”
Men moved out under his direction and Hendrix strode for the door. Riana expected a strategy session of how to handle Zelman, at least a conference between kings, but neither man tried to speak to each other. Did they talk about this on the way in? They must have.
Ashlynn, at some silent signal, moved ahead of the two men and threw open the doors before erecting a magical barrier around them, ready for attack just in case.
Riana and Ash, in mutual agreement, went through first. It was just as well that Ashlynn had prepared that shield, as they were immediately attacked. Ash swore and put up his own protective shield, shouting at his twin, “GUARD THEM!”
Snatching three arrows from her belt quiver, Riana nocked and let fly. The wizards here were smart enough to have a physical shield to protect against weapons, and they were quick to duck behind them. Her arrows splattered off them uselessly but it bought Ash precious seconds to react with, which was what she was truly aiming for.
Zelman sat on his throne, Queen Rosalind on one side, Savir on the other. A wizard kept a protective wall up in front of them, a portable version instead of fixed—Riana could recognize that spell in a glance. It was exactly like the one Ashlynn and Ash were both using. She caught Savir’s eye and found him difficult to read, as usual. And yet…there was something about his eyes on her that seemed intense, like he was trying to tell her something. Why?
Riana’s eyes went to Rosalind and found the queen openly pleading with her expression to not be reckless. Was it because they’d become friends? Or was there some other game afoot she didn’t know about? With Savir, it was highly possible.
Standing, the king bellowed, “CEASE! I will not allow any fighting until I have answers!”
The wizards fell into a pre-battle readiness, not attacking, but not lowering their guard. Ashlynn shared a speaking glance with her brother and backed out of the room, releasing her protective shield as she did so, shifting that responsibility over to Ash, which he picked up smoothly.
Riana would be just as happy to get out of this without any more bloodshed. She didn’t see a very high probability for it, granted, but was willing to play along and hope for the best. She put her arrows back in the quiver but left the bow in h
er hand. It would take only a moment to rearm and fire if needed. It was as much of a compromise as she could manage in this very taut situation.
Zelman stood, nearly shaking with rage, his face an apoplectic hue of purple. Stabbing a finger in Edvard’s direction, he demanded, “Why aren’t you dead yet?”
Edvard pretended to think about this for a moment. “Because my people are more capable than yours?”
The Iyshian King actually let out a wail, a demonic, screeching sound that hurt Riana’s ears. “I WANT YOU DEAD!”
“Oh, do pipe down,” Edvard drawled sarcastically, “you sound like a three-year-old. Hendrix, do something with him before I’m forced to stick a gag in his mouth.”
Hendrix did not look at all pleased to take lead on this but gamely stepped forward. “Father. I have a petition here—”
“Petition,” Zelman scoffed, throwing a hand into the air and looking away from his son as if he didn’t even warrant the king’s attention. “I exile you, disinherit you, and all you can think to do is get a petition from a bunch of peasants and rebels.”
“I have a petition here,” Hendrix continued with quiet authority, “from the dukes, marquees, counts, viscounts, and barons of Iysh. Most of them, anyway. They are tired of your rule and want you overthrown.”
Zelman froze, his breath coming out in progressively harsher gasps. “…What did you just say?”
“I said the majority of the nobility in this country want you off the throne.”
“You poisonous creature,” Zelman breathed, his rage so great that he looked ready to explode with it. “I can’t believe I bred something like you. You expect me to believe this? That my own will turn against me, after all I did for them? You forged those signatures! I won’t believe such an obvious lie.”
Riana hadn’t actually expected Zelman to meekly step down just because of a petition. Men in power tended to stay in power.
Hendrix wasn’t surprised either. He took two steps forward, facing off with the man that sired him. “I don’t really care if you believe it or not. What matters is that no one really wants to suffer under your rule any longer. Haven’t you wondered where your guards and staff are?”
Arrows of Revolution (Kingmakers Book 3) Page 30