“What was that?” Catelyn hissed under her breath.
“The Emperor’s supply of fireworks. They didn’t just hold public executions here back then, there was the occasional celebration.”
Catelyn could hardly picture the people of the Seat celebrating anything, but she didn’t question Ortis about it further, she simply walked to the door, eager to leave. Against the backdrop of flashing lights in the sky and popping explosions, Ortis led them out of the building and across the courtyard, sticking as much as possible to the shadows, and they quickly reached the other side of the open space. Catelyn didn’t see anyone left in the courtyard, and as she looked back toward the holding area where her prison cell had been, behind the building she could see the sky lit up in brilliant colors, as the fireworks continued to burn and explode.
She could see a handful of workers at the edge of the courtyard, but they were watching the brilliant display at the south side of the Citadel.
The trio moved along one of the inner walls of the fort now, and they soon came upon a gate leading to the outer courtyard. The gate was raised, but in the open were a number of additional Imperial soldiers. Many of them were also looking to the sky, watching the light show, but just as many were rushing around, and Ortis pushed Catelyn and Silena back against the inner wall to keep them out of sight.
The fireworks he had set off had effectively distracted the workers and soldiers in the inner courtyard, and they were all working to contain the damage and ensure that any fires from the explosions didn’t spread, but it had also stirred up the men in the outer courtyard, who were now on alert, complicating their escape route.
Catelyn tried to analyze her surroundings again, hoping to see something that could help them escape. She had never been inside the Citadel before, but she now had an ability that she hadn’t had before, and she expanded her bubble as widely as she could. As she did, she realized that it wasn’t only her vision which had improved. All of her senses had.
She could hear farther, and with greater clarity. She could detect the faintest odors at distances she never would have been able to before. She had always visualized her bubble as being like a rough painting in her mind, encompassing only select portions of her surroundings. Now, couple with her restored vision, it was like a slice of reality, a slice that she could move through in her mind and use to inform her of all of their possibilities.
“Ortis, I’ll find us a way out,” she said.
The older man looked at her, and again simply nodded his head.
He’s certainly a man of few words, she thought.
Within her bubble, she could see and smell and hear the position and alertness of every soldier in the outer court. She scanned through them as quickly as she could, and assessed which of them might be the least likely to spot them if they walked close enough for them to be seen. Her list complete, she told Ortis, pointing them out, and together, they designed a route through the outer courtyard to the main gate leading back into the Seat.
Catelyn looked to Ortis and Silena, and all three of them nodded. It was time to go.
Ortis led the way, Catelyn following behind, and Silena at the back. As they moved toward the first guard Catelyn had identified as being partly sleep deprived, her heart began hammering, and she kept her bubble trained on the few men close enough to potentially glimpse over at the trio moving through the outer courtyard.
Ortis’ armor was standard Imperial issue, allowing him to at least superficially blend in. Silena was ordinarily dressed, but she looked like just like any of the hundreds of the Citadel’s workers and wouldn’t stand out. Only Catelyn, with her plain black prison clothes, and the only person in the Seat with hair beyond a finger’s length, would look obviously out of place. She hoped that by sticking close to Ortis’ back, his size would effectively block most of the guard’s vision of her.
They moved swiftly, but not carelessly, and Catelyn had to fight the urge to simply run as fast as her legs were able to carry her, toward freedom. Of course, she had not a single idea what they would do if, by some miracle, they actually escaped the Citadel and returned to the Seat.
She hoped that Silena or Ortis had come up with some sort of idea of what to do and where to go from there. Catelyn tried to reassure herself as they walked, before her nerves won out. It would have been foolish for them to have mounted a rescue only to have no idea what to do afterward.
They successfully skirted the first three of the guards Catelyn had identified as being less than alert, but as they arrived at the fourth, leaned up against a wooden fence enclosing a pen for livestock, the overall configuration of all the guards had shifted, and a pair of alert guards had now shifted directly into their path.
Catelyn scoured her bubble again, looking for another way through, but there was no other option that she could sense. They would have to walk right past this new pair of soldiers. They stood in the open, discussing the merits of polearms in battle, and Catelyn’s sense of them was that they would certainly spot the three intruders and would not be fooled by their attempts to hide.
The sky was definitely lightening now, and soon the outer courtyard would be full of activity, and they would almost certainly be discovered. Ortis made the decision for them by walking straight out into the open, directly toward the pair of soldiers.
“Ortis...Ortis,” she hissed, trying to get him to stop, but she followed behind, knowing she had no choice but to trust the man, or risk alarming the guards.
Ortis moved with purpose, and she could hear his heart beating strongly as he prepared himself for the encounter. Catelyn stuck to his back, literally hiding behind the man’s big frame. When they were within a few paces, she heard the two men shift in their direction, and she heard one of the guards say to the other “Hey, is that…”
Ortis lunged away from her with a speed that surprised Catelyn, and she saw him reach out with his right arm in one direction, then another. In a breath, both men crumbled to the ground, their eyes glazed over in death, and Ortis then made a flicking motion with his arm, and grabbed her by the wrist and ran.
As they ran she looked at the two dead men on the ground, each of them with their own steel having been turned against them. The first with his throat laid open so deep his head was hanging lopsided from the rest of his body, and the other with his sword impaled through his head, entering below his chin and exiting through the top of his head. Catelyn felt herself gag at the sight of the carnage, but with no food in her stomach all that came up was bile, and she swallowed it back down, placing her hand over her mouth.
They then passed a third guard, the one that they had been attempting to circumvent with stealth before this new pair had turned up. He sat slumped on the fence, his head lolling on his chest, and Catelyn could make out a long handled knife protruding from his right eye.
Catelyn knew then, how Ortis had earned his moniker of the “Butcher”. Seeing the dead guard, highly trained men who had been alive just breaths ago, she was reminded of this man’s many crimes, the thousands he had claimed to have killed, and many of them no doubt innocent men and women from the Seat simply trying to live their lives. To survive. Just like Silena’s family. She felt disgusted with herself that she was forced to rely on such a man, that she could stomach more deaths in her name, but she had little choice. She would use him to get her out, and then she and Silena would leave him.
She considered the different ways that they might use to get away from him as they moved quickly now towards the main gate.
The rest of the path out was uneventful. Ortis steered them away from confrontations which extended the time it took to reach the main gate, but Catelyn was happy that Ortis hadn’t needed to kill any other soldiers in the process. Catelyn looked up and saw the rust colored haze over the Walls as the sun rose on another day.
Then she looked down toward the gate, and she felt her heart sink. Already, a handful of Imperial soldiers were milling about, preparing to let in the few workers that didn’t li
ve on the grounds of the Citadel, as well as raising the portcullis and extending the drawbridge, both of which were affixed to a small outbuilding.
Ortis turned and looked at them both, but his eyes lingered on Silena.
“We’re going to have to run through, as soon as the bridge is down. Don’t stop, don’t look back. Just run. Can you do that?” he asked.
Both women nodded, and Catelyn reached out and squeezed Silena’s hand, reassuring her that she would not leave her behind. They exchanged a look, and Catelyn realized there was something that she needed to say to her friend.
“Just in case we don’t make it out…” she began, but Silena waved her off.
“We’re going to make it. I don’t want to hear any of that talk.”
“I still need to say thank you.”
She reached out and pulled Silena to her in a tight hug, the way that she had once done with her mother. The older woman seemed surprised by the motion, but Catelyn could smell the woman’s satisfaction, and she returned the embrace. Catelyn wished that she could just lose herself in this feeling. Something so simple, and yet so powerful.
When Catelyn let Silena go, she noticed that Ortis was watching them. He turned away when she looked at him, and for reasons she didn’t fully understand, she wondered what he was thinking. He turned back when the drawbridge was fully extended, and the first workers of the morning began crossing from the other side, walking from the Seat into the Citadel. Ortis held up his hand, and then began to count off with his
fingers...four...three...two…
Ortis sprang forward, and Catelyn leapt after him, her own hand extended behind her, holding Silena’s. The two of them gripped each other tightly, as Catelyn led them behind Ortis who was barreling ahead. As soon as Catelyn felt the wood of the drawbridge under her feet, the call went up from the Imperials at the portcullis, and she heard the rattling of a number of men in armor as they took off after them.
Catelyn did not look behind her, but focused all of her senses on the end of the bridge in front of her. Coming across the bridge, tens of ordinary men and women looked startled as this bizarre trio came bounding across the bridge, headed in their direction. Ortis loped ahead, not waiting for them, and Catelyn briefly wondered if he didn’t plan to abandon them now, but he angled towards the side of the drawbridge instead, which baffled her.
It became clear soon enough, as Catelyn suddenly felt a lurch beneath her feet, and the far end of the drawbridge began raising up in front of them. Workers that were already on the bridge fell forward, and Ortis stumbled to the side, almost falling over into the moat, which was dry. Catelyn could still hear armored men approaching from behind them, and decided to chance glancing behind her. Two soldiers were bearing down on her and Silena, and were about halfway between where they were and the far end of the drawbridge. She saw the men at the drawbridge controls behind were heaving the pulleys for everything they were worth, trying to raise the drawbridge and trap them on the bridge or slow them enough to catch up with them.
The drawbridge was about forty paces long from end to end, and Catelyn and Silena were just over halfway across. Ortis was already at the far end, and Catelyn could see now what he was doing. He had drawn the dagger on his belt and was trying to saw the heavy rope connecting the drawbridge to the pulley. Catelyn felt another lurch as the men behind pulled the winch another turn, raising the end of the bridge roughly another pace.
Catelyn could feel the extra effort now of running uphill, especially after being so weakened from her time in captivity, but with her life and Silena’s life at stake, she refused to simply give in and found reserves inside she didn’t know she’d had. They were nearing Ortis now, and the workers on this end of the bridge were running past her, trying to get off the bridge before it raised any further or sent them over the side.
She finally got to Ortis, and tapped him on the shoulder, just as the bridge lurched another time, sending two of the workers stumbling off the side of the bridge and into the pit that had once been a moat. Catelyn could hear the people fall the thirty or so paces down to the dry moat bed below, and she tried not to think about the fact that they were no doubt either dead or horribly injured. She tried not to dwell on their deaths, but she felt a stab of guilt that again, innocents had died because of the Empire’s actions in their pursuit of her.
“Give it to me,” she yelled, holding her hand out for the dagger.
Ortis turned and looked at her, but did not stop his sawing.
“You can’t do this part, girl.”
She knew Ortis was right, the rope was massive. In truth, she even doubted whether Ortis himself could sever the rope either, but the two Imperial soldiers were just paces away now. They too were breathing heavily from the effort of chasing the three fugitives while running up an inclined drawbridge, and they were almost upon them. They did not look happy.
“Well, I can’t do that part, either,” she said, pointing at the two approaching soldiers.
“You’ll have to,” was all he said, and continued to saw at the rope. Just then Catelyn heard bells ringing in the inner courtyard. One of the soldiers must have been sent to sound the alarm. As if things weren’t bad enough, in whispers now, the entire area would be crawling with Imperial soldiers.
They needed to get out and there was no more time to waste.
She had to buy Ortis the time he needed.
Silena looked at her, and must have recognized the look in Catelyn face because she said “Catelyn, no…”
Catelyn squeezed her hand, let go, and turned to face the two men. They were now within spitting distance of her, and they drew steel, slowly. Both men had expressionless faces, but Catelyn could smell their determination. These were highly trained men, and in a straight fight she would stand no chance. But maybe, if she could keep them busy long enough, Ortis could do what he needed to do, and perhaps he could get Silena out at least.
“Give it up, girl. No where’s else t’ run,” one of the men spat at her.
Catelyn simply planted her feet sideways to offset the tilt in the drawbridge, and waited for them to make a move. She focused her bubble on them both, and she could not only hear their hearts beating excitedly, but she could smell their sweat, could taste their anticipation and now, she could see the darting looks they gave each other, the spasms in the muscles as they launched their attack, and for Catelyn it felt as though time had suddenly slowed to a crawl. She saw, with perfect clarity, the tightening of the closest man’s neck muscles as they engaged, signaling that he was pulling his arm upward for a swing, and as he did so, Catelyn’s bubble shifted and it was like he was moving underwater. Catelyn easily sidestepped his thrust, bringing her close to the other man.
She turned her bubble on him, and again she could see the way that his muscles flexed as he committed his attack, and she knew precisely where he was going to move with his sword arm. He swung, and again she felt her bubble subtly shift, her perception of time changing as he stabbed at her. It was child’s play to move aside, out of harm’s way. After she avoided their first attacks, her bubble shifted back and time seemed to return to normal. The two men stood looking at her, unclear how they had both missed, but they quickly re-engaged and lunged at her a second time.
Again, as they closed with her and raised their swords to kill her, her bubble reacted, and time seemed to compress, and she once more saw each of the men’s attacks before they had time to react, and she slipped under one of the men’s horizontal cut and spun around the other’s vertical slash, and danced away to come to rest a pace away from them. The men had overcommitted themselves and one stumbled to his knee while the other lost his balance altogether and dropped to his bottom to keep from sliding down the incline back toward the gatehouse.
She heard Silena gasp as her bubble shifted, and time once more resumed at its normal speed. Catelyn felt a rush of exhilaration at this newfound aspect of her ability. This new “shifting” of her bubble was nothing short of miraculous, but sh
e didn’t have time to stop and think about the possibilities. She was acting on instinct, letting her talents manifest themselves out of sheer need. She knew that time was not actually moving at different speeds of course, but that her bubble shifting seemed to have altered the way that she perceived time. She reasoned that her senses had become so honed that the subtlest movements were now able to be taken in, allowing her to see things and experience things differently from what others were capable of.
As the two men regrouped, trying to devise an attack that would not have them looking like rank amateurs, Catelyn looked toward Ortis. He had made surprising progress on the rope, as it was looking more frayed and she could see the weight of the drawbridge continuing to do part of the work for him.
However, it appeared that the Imperials at the gatehouse were growing impatient now, as they cranked the winch another turn, raising the drawbridge even further and sending everyone stumbling. Silena dropped to the bridge’s surface and held onto anything she could, and Ortis grabbed the rope with both hands momentarily. Catelyn herself swayed on her feet as the bridge lurched, but she was so used to standing and leaping on strange angles like rooftops and eaves under her feet, that this change barely registered.
She could not say the same for the two Imperials she had been fighting. One of them slipped and rolled down to the base of the bridge and the gatehouse, and the other dropped to his stomach and planted his sword in the wood, stabilizing himself.
Once the bridge stopped shaking, Ortis repositioned himself and once again resumed sawing at the rope. It was at least half way cut through at this point. Catelyn actually began to wonder just what his plan was once he’d severed one of the ropes.
“Ortis, I hope you know what you’re doing,” she called.
He simply glowered at her, and resumed sawing. She looked to Silena, who was holding on with everything that she had, her fingers white from gripping a whorled knothole on one of the wood beams that made up the bridge. Catelyn slowly and carefully took a step towards her, but it was going to be slow going. Catelyn turned to look at the soldier, but he was sweating from the effort of keeping himself in place. His armor was not doing him any favors here, as it was heavy plate and boiled leather, and the weight of it was pulling on him, trying to drag him down slowly but surely.
Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) Page 37