“But what am I going on about?” sighed the noble. “It is not your place to be burdened with the rambling of an old man.”
“My responsibility is to the people,” declared Bin-lu. “You certainly are one of them, and you have been kind to me. Plus it is probably my last night of life. Why shouldn’t I spend it consoling a friend?”
“Do not talk that way,” scolded the noble. “The interrogator was impressed with your eagerness to bring death to the enemies of Lanoir. You will do fine tomorrow.”
“Perhaps,” shrugged Bin-lu. “This time tomorrow, we shall know. Why was the attack so short today? It finished only a couple of hours after it began. I expected it to last all day.”
“As did I,” admitted the noble. “When I questioned the emperor about it, he promptly dismissed me. He appears to be in no hurry to conquer Sordoa. I do not understand him any more.”
“The men seem to think that Tagaret is our real goal,” Bin-lu stated innocently. “Perhaps he would be happy if the Sordoans merely ran away.”
“Not Tagaret,” Za-chan shook his head. “At least not yet. Melbin is where we are headed, but I cannot understand what prize awaits us there.”
“Do you mean that we are going all the way to Melbin and not to Tagaret?” inquired Bin-lu. “I agree that that makes no sense. Tagaret is a rich city, or so I have heard.”
“Oh, it is rich,” nodded the noble. “It would be a prize for any army, except this one. We will eventually take Tagaret, but I gather that we must wait for something to occur before we do. We will occupy Melbin while we wait. I wish I understood his plans. I have always offered good advice before, but now I am shut out of the meetings.”
“The war probably occupies his mind,” suggested Bin-lu. “I am sure that he values your advice and will come to call upon again.”
“Perhaps,” sighed the noble as his foot played with the dirt covering the fresh grave. “I wonder who this was?”
“A Black Devil,” offered Bin-lu as he forgot whom he was talking to.
“A Black Devil?” echoed the noble. “How do you know this?”
“I saw him approach while I waited to speak to the interrogator,” replied Bin-lu. “He gave the secret sign, and the guards immediately tied him up and ran to get one of the emperor’s bodyguards.”
“Secret sign?” quizzed the noble. “What sign? How do you know of it?”
Bin-lu made the sign with his fingers. “In Barouk there were some who were Black Devils,” he explained. “They were not so secretive that we did not know what was going on.”
“That is the same sign that Zorn makes when he comes here,” frowned Za-chan. “Are you saying that Zorn is a Black Devil?”
“I do not know this Zorn,” shrugged Bin-lu, “but if he made that sign, then yes, he is a Black Devil. Who is he?”
“He is one of Emperor Hanchi’s closest advisors,” Za-chan chewed on his lower lip. “I must warn the emperor immediately.”
“I would not do that,” cautioned Bin-lu. “Black Devils are not people to antagonize. Plus, it appears that others in close contact with the emperor know the signal as well. Certainly the guards outside do. And at least one of Emperor Hanchi’s bodyguards knows. You would be well advised to think on this before you do anything.”
The noble became quite agitated and began pacing the ground. Finally, he stopped and faced Bin-lu.
“You will not mention this conversation to anyone,” demanded the noble. “Keep your thoughts to yourself. I will find out what is going on around here.”
“You can trust me,” promised Bin-lu. “I am in service to the emperor. Besides, you are the best friend I have in this army. I would not do anything to harm you.”
“I am glad we talked,” the noble smiled weakly. “You have made me see things in a new light.”
“Is that not what an advisor does?” grinned Bin-lu. “Maybe someday I will become the advisor’s advisor?”
“Perhaps,” smiled Za-chan as he led Bin-lu to the flap of the tent. “You should rest up today. Tomorrow is your chance at greatness.”
Bin-lu nodded and started walking away from the tent. He watched as the noble strode off in a different direction. When Za-chan was out of sight, Bin-lu turned and headed towards the winery. He opened his breast pocket as he walked and let Shrimp out.
“One would almost think that you are a Lanoirian by the way you talk to these people,” frowned the fairy.
“I am Lanoirian,” sighed Bin-lu. “I want you to scout out that building ahead. Be very, very careful. I suspect that the guards there will be watching for any uninvited visitors. I will be on the other side of the building.”
“Fairies do not get noticed easily,” scowled Shrimp. “You did not see anyone have me tied up, did you?”
Bin-lu shook his head as the fairy flew off towards the building. Bin-lu made a wide sweep around the building to avoid drawing attention to himself. Behind the building were several small shacks and a withered vineyard. He checked the building out as he walked around it and saw that there was only one door on the ground floor. The rear of the building did have a door on the second floor. The stairway that used to ascend to it had rotted away long ago.
The Lanoirian encampment surrounded the vineyard, but nobody was anywhere near it. It certainly would not be hospitable ground for anyone pitching a tent. Bin-lu crouched between two sheds and waited for Shrimp to return. He did not have long to wait.
“You are hiding in plain sight,” sighed the fairy. “Anyone who flew over would see you.”
“These people don’t fly,” sighed Bin-lu. “Tell me what is inside, Shrimp.”
“Three floors,” the little green man reported. “One is underground. It appears to hold a series of stone storage rooms. On the floor above that are rooms for living. There are cooking facilities and beds. There is also a large room with a long table. There are nine men seated at it. One looks special. He may be the emperor.”
“And the top floor?” asked Bin-lu.
“I am getting to that,” scowled Shrimp. “There is nothing on the top floor except empty rooms. They have not been cleaned in years. The spider webs are monstrous. I almost got caught in one. The things I do for you.”
“Just remember that you are responsible for me,” grinned Bin-lu. “Your Bringer will be mighty angry if you don’t watch over me.”
“At least in Tagaret there were other fairies,” sighed Shrimp.
“Girl fairies you mean,” chuckled Bin-lu as he gazed up at the Darkness and estimated his wait until he could enter the building unseen. “Be nice to me and I may take you see Button.”
“That is a rough request,” frowned Shrimp, “but Button is worth it. Have you ever seen anything so cute?”
“I think you are cute,” laughed Bin-lu.
“You are weird,” the little fairy shook his head as he climbed into Bin-lu’s pocket. “Wake me up when the action starts.”
“The action starts as soon as it gets dark,” informed Bin-lu. “I am going into that building tonight and we are leaving this camp before first lightening. I would do anything for King Arik, but I am not charging the Trekum wall for Emperor Hanchi. By morning, we will be on the way to see Button.”
Chapter 14
Nothing Lasts Forever
Bin-lu crouched between the two shacks on the edge of the vineyard. His eyes had continually scanned the surrounding Lanoirian encampment, but now it had become too dark to see. The Knight of Alcea rose quietly from his hiding spot and crept stealthily towards the rear of the winery building. He slipped his boots off and clipped them to his belt. His gloves followed, and Bin-lu placed his sticky hands against the wall of the old building.
With an ease born by constant practice, Bin-lu climbed the wall to the doorway on the second floor of the building. The old door had disintegrated years ago, and Bin-lu stepped into the building. He opened his breast pocket and allowed his fairy companion to fly freely.
“Keep a watch outside,” Bin-lu ordered softly.
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Shrimp hovered in the air for a moment before darting out of the building. Bin-lu shook his head and pulled down the large spider web in front of him. A large spider skittered across the floor and out of sight.
As Bin-lu stepped further into the building, he heard a snap under his feet. He halted with one foot in the air and looked down at the old wooden floor. Cracks riddled the old floorboards, and wind-blown debris was scattered around the room. He carefully moved his free foot far to the right where the wood appeared more stable. He slowly shifted his weight off of the cracked floorboard.
Testing each board beneath his feet before he placed his full weight on it, Bin-lu made his way to the staircase leading to the lower floors. It took him several long minutes to reach the staircase, and when he did arrive, he sighed with resignation. The old wooden staircase had collapsed. While there were portions of the structure intact, the staircase was obviously unusable. Bin-lu gazed down towards the torch on the floor below. He weighed the decision of descending without the use of the staircase, but eventually decided that he could not accomplish it silently.
Bin-lu breathed a sigh of defeat and turned his thoughts to escaping the Lanoirian encampment. While he was tasked to find out as much as could about the Lanoirians and their goals, he had not anticipated being recognized by the noble, Za-chan. He knew that he could only fool the noble for so long before his true allegiance was discovered.
As Bin-lu was carefully retreating to the room with the open doorway, he heard voices from a room down the hall. He froze with one foot in the air as he strained to listen. Satisfied that the voices were not coming closer to him, Bin-lu allowed his free foot to lower to the floor. With excruciating slowness, Bin-lu stealthily crept towards the room where the voices were emanating from.
The door to the room was neither open nor closed, but Bin-lu could see spider webs spanning the opening crack, which indicated that the door had not been used in some time. He frowned as he thought about the dangers of another entrance to the second floor. Slowly, he eased the door open further. The spiders protested by scampering away.
The room was totally dark. The light from the torch near the staircase did nothing to ease the blackness as it did in the hallway. Bin-lu stood in the dark doorway with a puzzled expression on his face. The voices were louder, but it was obvious that they were not coming from this room as he thought they had been. He tried to listen to the conversation, but he could only pick words out. That whetted his appetite all the more.
Bin-lu slipped into the dark room, one slow step at a time. With each step the voices became a little louder. Bin-lu nervously looked around the room expecting to find people in it, but he could see nothing in the dark. Eventually, his eyes were drawn to a small speck of light in the center of the floor. The pinprick of light was like the tiniest of fireflies, but it became the center of Bin-lu’s attention as he crept slowly towards it.
When he reached the center of the room, he gazed down at the small light and realized that he was looking at a small hole in the floorboards. The voices were almost understandable, and the Knight of Alcea smiled inwardly as he realized that the meeting was taking place directly below him. Silently, he lowered himself to the floor and peered through the hole.
The room below was sparsely furnished, but it did have a long table in the center of it. Men sat around the table, and a shudder of recognition ran through Bin-lu’s body. He stared through the hole at Emperor Hanchi and his eight bodyguards. Giddy with excitement, Bin-lu twisted his head and placed his ear against the hole.
“I am sure that he was one of Lattimer’s men,” said a voice. “I have seen him at Sarac’s castle.”
“We have all been at Sarac’s castle at one time or another,” countered another voice. “That means nothing. He could have been sent by Tashlan.”
“Tashlan would never compromise my security in that fashion,” stated a voice that Bin-lu recognized as the emperor’s. “He was given a specific task to accomplish, and that is what he will do. He would not leave Tagaret until I tell him to, and he would not send anyone down here.”
“Then we are right back where we started,” sighed a different voice. “Black Devils are coming here with increasing frequency. Somebody is sending them.”
“It is Sarac or Lattimer that is sending them,” sighed the emperor. “There can be no other explanation.”
“Do you think they know that you have taken over Emperor Hanchi’s body?” questioned a voice.
“No, I don’t,” answered the emperor. “I think Sarac is attempting to do the same thing. He is trying desperately to take control of this army. He wants to use it to crush Tagaret and end the Ancient Prophecy.”
“So he keeps sending Black Devils to cast Reflecting Pool on you,” chuckled a voice. “If only he knew who he was dealing with.”
“That is something that he must never know,” scowled the emperor. “Nobody must know until the time is right. Why do you think we are going through all of this trouble to eliminate the people Sarac sends down here, instead of trying to convert them to our side? One slipup and Sarac will send his minions against us instead of against King Arik.”
“He could not afford to,” countered a voice. “If he wasted his resources on us, King Arik would fulfill the Ancient Prophecy. He would die if he did that, and Sarac thinks of himself first in all occasions.”
“Of course he does,” sighed the emperor, “but he would also realize that we are helping King Arik to root out his men in Tagaret. He could not afford to let us continue with my plan. Besides, he would gain this army by coming after me. Don’t you think he could crush Tagaret with it? I certainly could.”
“And will,” cackled another voice.
“Not until Sarac is gone,” warned the emperor. “Let us never forget that timing is everything here. We cannot get lost in our zeal to conquer Sordoa. If we arrive at Melbin too soon, many will wonder why we don’t press onward to Tagaret. We must make it appear that Melbin is our true goal. Perhaps we will even suggest a treaty with Tagaret to lure them into a false sense of security.”
“So that is why you called off the attack after only two hours?” questioned a bodyguard.
“Yes,” answered the emperor. “I am not in a hurry to take Trekum. If we did not attack at all, it would be suspect. We can stretch this siege out as long as we need to. We have the Sordoans surrounded. They aren’t going anywhere, and they certainly can’t do anything to hurt us. Perhaps we will attack them for two hours every day. They will plead for death by the time we are through.”
“How will we gauge the timing, though?” asked a voice. “I mean, when do we need to finish here at Trekum?”
“King Arik is working on restoring the Dragons’ Onyx now,” replied the emperor. “We do not need to be at Melbin before he restores it. We will dally here at Trekum for a while and then move on at a leisurely pace. We must let the men get their thrill of ravishing the Sordoan countryside before we reach Melbin. Once we are there, we must act like we have come to rule Sordoa. There will be no more pillaging or plundering. We want Alcea to look upon us as a neighbor. Not necessarily one that they trust, but certainly one that they don’t see as an imminent threat.”
“And King Arik will be so absorbed with completing his quest for the last gem that he will not think much about us?” questioned a bodyguard.
“Exactly,” agreed the emperor. “By then Tashlan will have exposed all of Sarac’s Black Devils in Tagaret. There will be nobody to oppose us except their puny army.”
“What about Jenneva?” asked a voice.
“She could become a problem,” sighed the emperor, “but she cannot stand up to the nine of us. Eleven if you count Tashlan and Zorn. I may even have Tashlan try to take her out by himself before we arrive at the city walls.”
“Do you think he is capable of that?” inquired a voice.
“Only if he can surprise her,” replied the emperor. “Do not underestimate that woman. She has powers that are enormous.
Still, no magician can stand up to multiple threats for long. That is one thing that Sarac proved to the world when Jenneva was forced to use the Origin Scroll. His defense of concentric circles is one to be studied by everyone. He defeated three very powerful mages at the same time utilizing that defense.”
“We are fewer in number, though,” a bodyguard pointed out.
“We are now,” agreed the emperor, “but after Sarac dies, we will be free to recruit his people. They will have nowhere else to go. Our ranks will swell quickly. Enough about Sarac and his infiltrators. We will continue to deal with them as they come. I like this arrangement of setting up the imperial tent as a lure for intruders. It shall become our standard procedure whenever we camp in the future.”
“I will see to it,” assured a bodyguard. “What schedule of attacks do you want for tomorrow? The same as today?”
“No,” replied the emperor. “I do not like being predictable. Set the attack for midday with a duration of three hours. That will keep them guessing.”
Bin-lu felt something crawling along his arm. As much as he tried to ignore it, visions of poisonous akatids whirled in his mind. Finally, he used his other hand to swipe the unseen creature away. As he moved, the floorboards underneath him creaked loudly. Bin-lu froze with one hand in the air. He heard the men below questioning the sound with alarm in their voices. The Knight of Alcea knew it was time to go.
As Bin-lu arched his back to move away from the hole, the boards cracked again. Chairs were being knocked over and abandoned in the room below as the Black Devils rose from their seats. Bin-lu cringed with fear as another crack resounded through the dark room. With a sinking feeling in his heart, he felt the floorboard giving way beneath him.
As the old wooden floorboards cracked and snapped, Bin-lu’s body started slipping through them. A burst of light from the torch below invaded the dark room, and Bin-lu fell amidst a shower of decrepit wood. His eyes took in the meeting room as he plummeted. The Black Devils were all standing and looking up. The table was directly below him and rising quickly. Bin-lu stretched his feet out to let them take the impact. As he landed in a crouch, swords flew for sheaths at the bodyguards prepared to attack.
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