by Lee LaCroix
“I think we’re too exposed here. If we’re spotted in the middle of the field, we’ll have nowhere to run. We should continue to the coast and head northwards up the beach,” Garreth explained as he pointed upstream.
The rest agreed that this was a sound plan, and they walked a stony path alongside the stream until they met the sea. The waterway cut into the land where it met the coast, and its sharp embankment rose like a canyon. The four followed it down to a rocky beach and began their way northward because they were wedged between the sea and the cliffside. Novas had never been on a beach before, for the sea closest to his forest home was divided by a dangerous drop and churning waters below.
As Novas waded near the shallows, his leather boots seemed impervious to the water. He looked out onto the endless stretch of water and beheld the coloured sand that faded further from shore. If the sea was so large, he wondered how deep the seas could really be. On the shore, Novas passed a fish or two whose silver skin was flaky and bleached by the sun. There was a crab that they saw with bright red shell and orange spines upon its back, which scuttled into a crack in the seawall as they passed. Novas kicked off a strand of seaweed that had stuck to his boots. The slimy plant seemed to litter the beach quite profusely, and the other three avoided it with their precise steps. Novas looked towards the bay that served as a harbour for those sea vessels and noticed an oily shine upon the surface of the calmer water, which glimmered a multitude of colours unlike the white reflection of the moonlight on the sea. Garreth, Domminal, Ilsa, and Novas came to the end of the beach and the mouth of the bay, and Garreth held a hand up to halt them.
“It seems the beach drops off here. We’ll have to scale the ridge and proceed on the grassland,” Garreth explained as he pointed to the darkness in the water and the change in the current.
The four pulled themselves up over the ridge, passed sea-worn boulders, and climbed over a dirty length where they clung to roots and long grasses to throw themselves up over. Peering down the bay, the first thing they saw were the tall sailing ships. Novas recalled the Obsidian that was docked the Amatharsan harbour. It must be a similar make, he thought. As they trekked past the first ship, seemingly anchored a ways from the dock, they glared up onto the deck as well as they could from the ground and only glimpsed one sailor on the upper deck that was keeping watch. They continued northeast towards Deepshine but were halted by an unexpected obstruction.
As far as Garreth could see, a trench was dug. It seemed to surround Deepshine entirely, its length stretching far around the corner of the camp. Extending out of the south side of the trench were logs with notches, supposedly to scale the deepening pit, and the ends were sharpened to a point. The logs were stacked so close together that it was probable that only a single body could fit through at a time. A gathered bunch of assaulters would take care not to impale themselves in their haste, Garreth noted. The four hopped into the trench and made their way down its length for a while before finding a ramp leading out the north side.
They emerged from the trench not far from the dock. There seemed to be two types of workers at the dock that day. There were the usual brigands of darker attire, the common labourer of the Blackwoods. There was also the imported help from over the sea, a group wearing billowy garments coloured sand and orange. The darker dressed seemed to the carrying crates from the dockyard into the camp, and the lighter appeared to be helping unload the boat. Rolling down the ramp were machinations unlike Novas had ever seen. To his father, however, they were all too familiar. The first type rolled off the boat on four wheels and had a rectangular base. A system of ropes, pulleys, and cranks tightened a flexible scoop to its base that could be unleashed to launch a weighted payload. These catapults were being rolled off the dock and lined up behind the trenches.
Between each of these catapults lay a second type of siege instrument. They were once again powered by the tension of horse hair rope, pulleys, and cranks, and between two panels of wood and metal, a recess for a heavy bolt lay. The ammunition for the device laid stacked nearby. Its thickness was almost as large as the trench spikes, and they featured a fearsome and metallic serrated edge at its tip. It looked like a massive crossbow to Novas, and indeed, the ballista was. The southern face of Deepshine was not yet covered in these war machines, but their numbers seemed to be in no short supply. Garreth felt a quip of anxiety at the presence of these weapons but was glad that he had discovered them; marching into Deepshine unaware would truly have been a catastrophe.
They skirted the border of the dock, continued to the beaten path that connected the dock to the Deepshine area, and then fell into traffic with the rest of the Blackwoods labourers moving about. As they approached, Garreth was amazed at the changes that had the compact mining operation had undergone. While the original buildings remained, like a supply depot for equipment, the sunsteel refinery, and Lord Vyse’s manor tucked away in the northern corner, many new constructions had arisen since then. With two near the dock, and another two bordering the entrance heading towards the mine, four new watchtowers stood. The entire camp was surrounded by another row of spiked log fence. Inside the perimeter, four new domiciles stood, which Garreth guessed could be barracks, a tavern, dungeons, or further supply depots. He figured they’d have to enter the camp to find out.
“We’re going to make a sweep of the camp and walk from one end of the camp to the other. We’ll walk out the north end closest to the mine, hop the trench, and then make our way back to the shore. Keep an eye out for anything that looks important or where they may be keeping Ilsa’s folk,” Garreth ordered, and the rest of his team gave him a collective nod.
They formed up, wandered into the camp, and passed the steel-plated guards at the entrance. The camp was a beehive of activity. It seemed everyone was very busy doing something, for some men barked orders while others laboured without rest. Novas kept his eyes peeled as they made their way through the strip of buildings on one main road that snaked its way through the length. He scanned the sides of buildings and any signage they had and tried to peer into windows as they passed. As everything seemed so uniform, it was hard to make a decision to the true nature of the buildings. He figured they’d have to go inside to be sure, but he knew that wasn’t an option. On his left, came another squat and square building that he assumed to be the barracks because he saw men inside sitting around tables. The shape of it seemed very similar to the one at the Southbriar Crossroads, but there was a key difference to this one. Where the wood met earth, there was a set of metal bars that formed an open window, and they made up the entire side of this house in particular. They reminded him of the cliffside cells of the dungeon in Amatharsus, for the thickness and placement of the bars was almost exactly the same. He wanted to bring his revelation his father but retained his excitement and carried on as he did not want to attract undue attention. Novas maintained his watchful vigil of his surroundings. They passed through a clearing that separated the rest of the buildings from Lord Vyse’s manse. To the north, they all saw an astonishing site.
Chapter Ten
An entire field of tents was erected, rows upon rows of them sitting north of the camp. Innumerable soldiers of unfamiliar armour with chest and legs of sandy leather and scale mail and pauldrons of a dark gray metal like cobalt stood nearby. It was as Garreth had feared; Vyse had not just brought workers to fuel his greedlust but also soldiers to put to the sword all those who opposed him. As Lord Cross had foretold, Vyse would not lose again. With the near thousand soldiers, it was difficult to imagine he would. Garreth hurried the group on towards the manor.
The mansion was surrounded by the only still standing trees in the entirety of the area. Tall and thick pines rose up around the side and the back of the three story residence. A wide set of stone stairs led to a short landing before leading to a towering door with a golden knocker. The stairway was flanked by two monumental statues, alight with bodies of pure sunsteel that reflected and shimmered so bright on a sunny day that it was har
d to behold for a time. The left featured a man in a flowing leather jacket who held a hammer aloft and an axe swung over his shoulder, and he looked towards the skyward tool with stern determination. The right depicted a likewise rigid man with a sword pointed in the same direction with a scale hoisted in his other hand. He was dressed in full battle regalia with long hair extending from an ornamental helmet. They were an intimating and iconic pair and must have cost a fortune to build, Garreth thought. The manse itself was primarily coloured dark gray with many sunsteel ornaments, glinting swirls along windowpanes, half arches extending from the rooftop, and decorative spines along the division between floors. The manse was dark and foreboding as well as shining and decadent.
They continued northeast a ways from the haunting splendor of the manor and headed towards the refinery and their point of exit. The first thing they noticed was the thick smog that arose from the facility’s three chimneys and a similar smoke that billowed out from the open doors of its eastern face. Bars of sunsteel were being carried out of this service exit and being packaged upon horse-drawn cart to be taken to the dock. Resounding from within were the ringing of innumerable anvils, the hiss of rising steam, and the shouting of smithies within the feverishly busy and scalding hot workplace. The windows were coated black with soot and to see through them was impossible. They walked along its side past a cache of broken tools and timber and came to its northern face.
Three mine cart tracks led from the refinery and down a slope into the infamous Deepshine mine. The moniker arose from the extraordinary abundance of sunsteel that was found within, which would multiply any light that was brought inside the mine to an illuminating splendor. Workers, both domestic and foreign, sweat themselves drenched through their dust-clogged pores. With shouts and groans, they pushed carts up the hill and into the sweltering facility. A wood-panelled ditch ran out of the side of the refinery, down along the walls of the camp like a small moat, past the Vandarian encampment, and sunk beneath the docks to meet the bay’s shore. They each had noticed it before but never realized its origin. The grime poured out of the refinery in colourful clumps of grease and liquefied as it made its way towards the water. With the culling of the land and the dirtying of the air and water, the machine of industry seemed quite displeasing to the four.
Before long, the four travelers were at the coastline again and traveled some distance southward before setting up a tiny fire. They finished what little they had left of the dried ham and sated the rest of their hunger with their sticks of deer jerky. With their backs to the sea boulders, they sat around the campfire and warmed themselves as the sun went down over the sea, and a brisk wind came off the water.
“I suppose I’ll begin,” Garreth stated as he folded his hands together. “The camp has expanded two or three times its size since the last time I’ve been here. By the looks of the fortifications, they are definitely digging in to defend themselves. They have been very busy indeed, and still are.”
“I have never, ever seen so many siege fortifications, never in the capital and neither at the southern castles. If they were to move them against Amatharsus, the effect would be devastating,” Domminal added.
“I agree, but I hope it will not come to that. The tent pavilion north of there does go against my hopes greatly, though,” Garreth replied. “Many of these buildings are so similar, I fear we may have to search them all for answers.”
“It may not come to that, father. I spied the bars of an enclosure under one of the barracks. They seemed so similar to the ones of the Amatharsan dungeon, and they were all around its base,” Novas proclaimed.
“It could be them. It could be my family!” Ilsa spoke.
“Yes, it could be. Novas, would you remember the spot if you took us there?” Garreth queried.
Novas nodded in response, and they all shared a collective sigh of relief.
“We will wait till the camp is at its darkest then make our approach. Till then, we should rest and get our bearings,” Garreth concluded.
Some with patience and others with anxiety, the four waited until the sun went down. It was a cloudy night with thick masses obstructing the gaze of moonlight. They made their way north between the faint glimmer of the waves and the slippery smoothness of the rocks. They paced along the grassland and made their way to the docks, entering the light’s embrace from torches set up on each corner. Between the tent encampment and the buildings, they made their way and snuck between the spiked deterrence. Novas led them to the building of his description. To their satisfaction, there was a dim light radiating from those bottom windows, one which was fit for a cellar or a dungeon. They looked inside each window, but it was too dark and obscured to see inside; they deduced they’d have to try their luck inside. Garreth led the three from the side of the building to the front where two black-clothed sentries were standing, and Garreth nodded to one before heading up the steps.
“Mind yourself,” the voice called out before he reached the door, and Garreth opened it and changed his pace entirely.
Built from a shallow frame smothered in lush furs, sleeper’s structures filled the entire floor of the building from end to end. In middle of each, a man slept with a sword, an axe, or a mace set to one side. Three rows of at least fifteen extended into the darkness of the far wall. Garreth looked back at his companions and put a finger to his mouth for silence. The four softened their steps as they entered the room, but the wooden floor still creaked in protest. The few sleepers closest to them twitched and turned in response, but none of them woke. The four made their way down the stairway to the immediate right and their steps were even noisier than the floorboards. A burly, hooded man sat up from his stool at the bottom of the stairs and stared up at them with annoyance. They continued down the floor, and he stared to address Garreth.
“What tar ya doin’ here at this hour?” the man grumbled, his voice low and angry.
“We’re here to inspect some prisoners,” Garreth whispered as he spotted the telltale sign of prison cells and led the man away from the stairs.
The four spread out around the prison floor. Ilsa passed Garreth and then pointed into a prison cell while looking back at him.
“No one comes in here for prisoner duty at this hour. What are you playing at?” the man demanded as his voice rose in volume.
Garreth looked at the man in the eyes and then back to Novas who was standing behind the jailer.. Novas withdrew his hunting knife and slammed the hilt onto the back of the warden’s head. Novas caught the man as he fell and placed him on the floor without a sound. Ilsa searched through the warden’s pockets and pulled out the key ring from his back pocket. She paced over the cell and attempted to open the gate with care, for the iron hinges creaked like a makeshift alarm due to a purposeful lack of oil. Garreth and Novas entered with their swords drawn and pointed them at the prisoners, raising their fingers to their lips to demand silence. The cellmates awoken by the disturbance made their eyes bulge wide but said not a peep. Ilsa paced to the corner of the room where her family sat with their backs against the wall. With a tender hand, she raised their sleeping faces to hers. As they met her gaze and recognized her, they were shushed before they could cry out in joy. Ilsa embraced her family and brought them to their feet.
“We’re gonna get you out of here. Somehow. Keep quiet and leave it to us,” Ilsa whispered as they all bowed their heads close.
They all left the cell, leaving the keys in the lock, and stood shy of the stairway. Garreth began to think of a plan to get them away from the camp unnoticed. When his eyes came across the unconscious warden, he suddenly had an idea. Garreth was met with a peculiar set of stares when he began to disrobe the jailer, but the party understood his method. He went over the next step of his plan with Ilsa, Novas, and Domminal, and everyone got in position.
Domminal opened the front door a crack and lightly rapped upon it. The two sentries turned and stared with questioning gazes.
“The prisoners are getting out of control.
Can you give us a hand?” Domminal asked.
The two guards shrugged and made their way up the steps and into the barracks. Domminal moved out of their way as they approached the stairs, and he and Ilsa stood against the wall behind them. As soon as the guards moved to descend the stairs, Novas and Garreth fired their arrows, and Domminal and Ilsa stepped forward to catch the bodies and shield their mouths. There was more murmuring from the sleeping soldiers as Garreth and Novas ascended the stairs and helped the two others carry the bodies into the basement. Before long, the three Blackwoods had been stripped, and the Vemsdowers had equipped the dark garments and were ready to travel. Novas took off his hood and cloak and gave it to Mrs. Vemsdower to conceal her identity. Together, they all crept up the flight of stairs and out the front door again. They walked by the side of the barracks, and Ilsa guided her family past the wooden barricades. Vandarian soldiers stood at the edge of the encampment and stared at them with unblinking eyes. Garreth waited till Ilsa had caught up to him and walked beside her.
“Pray be careful with your actions. We’re all just soldiers until we quit the camp, and we must maintain the illusion of such,” Garreth whispered to her.