They watched for a short while as nine men on horseback toiled slowly and openly up the slope toward the gate, the dust from their hooves creating thin clouds that drifted across the valley as they travelled. Finally they approached the gate. The lead soldier made a quick study of the defences, noting with interest and approval the narrow approach to Hadrus and its strong walls. Guards manned several huge bolt-throwers on the top of the gate, which were aimed directly at the approaching riders, though the gates themselves remained open and surprisingly welcoming.
Kiva took a couple of steps forward, Athas and Tythias at his side.
“State your business” he called.
A smaller man rode out around the side of the lead soldier and dropped the travel-worn and dusty cloak from his head and the scarf from his face. He was clearly Pelasian; one of Ashar’s. “General Caerdin… I believe you will know at least some of these men. Sergeant Cialo if no others?”
Kiva nodded. “Cialo. I’m surprised Velutio would send you rather than one of his politicians or spies.”
Cialo saluted; a traditional Imperial salute. Sliding from his saddle he motioned his men to follow suit. The Pelasian remained seated as he looked across the others at the general. “If you will excuse me general, my Prince must know of this?”
Without waiting for Kiva’s absent wave of a hand and nod of assent, the man wheeled his horse and began to ride as fast as safety would allow down the narrow path. Cialo, with his seven other men at heel stepped slowly forward, their hands staying well clear of the sword hilts at their waists. The sergeant smiled at them. “General Caerdin, it’s a pleasure. I can assure you that it was Commander Sabian that chose who delivered the message, not his lordship.”
Kiva nodded. “I realise that you’re here under a flag of truce and have no real reason to trust me, but the Emperor is here and I must ask you to surrender your weapons for the time being.” He clicked his fingers and a number of the guard stepped forward to receive the items.
Cialo nodded. “Of course, general. I understand completely. Darius must not be harmed.” He turned and made beckoning gestures to his men. “Crispin? Collect the weapons.”
As the Imperial party stood waiting, the sergeant turned, drawing his sword from its sheath. The men of Hadrus around them were already fully alert with their weapons trained on the visitors, clustering defensively around the commanders and watching every move the sergeant and his men made. Cialo spun round, whipping out his short-sword and jammed it with a smooth blow into the neck of the soldier behind him just below the chin, who was busy relinquishing his weapon fully sheathed. The man gasped and gurgled in panic and surprise as the sergeant put all his strength behind the weapon and drove it home to the hilt, the tip emerging from the man’s spine red and dripping. Behind that and to one side, Crispin received a blade from one of the other soldiers and in a swift move drew the blade and cut across the man’s throat, deep and hard before pushing him away.. Kiva watched with surprise as the party of eight dropped to six and the two limp bodies collapsed to the ground with sprays of blood.
“Interesting, sergeant. And why may I ask?”
“These are not my men.” Cialo said loudly. “I chose my men personally. These two were sent along with us at his Lordship’s request. I expect I needn’t explain that to you?”
The general raised an eyebrow but said nothing, so Cialo shrugged, wiping his blade on the hem of a fallen soldier’s cloak. Standing once more, he reversed his blade and placed it over his other arm, offering the hilt to Kiva. The general merely stood his ground, brow still raised.
“If I must spell it out, general, I offer you my sword and my loyalty, as well as that of my men. These two assassins spoke and boasted far too much after a jug of ale during the nights on the journey. I’m surprised your little Pelasian didn’t deal with them. He must have known. But then perhaps he feared reprisal from the rest of us.”
Kiva smiled. “I think you underestimate Ashar’s men.” He pointed behind Cialo and the sergeant turned his head to see the small Pelasian, still on horseback some distance away but with a bow trained on the group and an arrow nocked. “I don’t think he had any intention of letting these two get away.”
Cialo nodded. “Nevertheless, I surrender my arms and that of my men to you and formally seek sanctuary with you.”
Caerdin shook his head, his eyes narrowing.
“Not you, Cialo. I can’t believe that. You’re old school and I can’t see you betraying Sabian. This is some sort of a trick.”
Cialo shook his head in return. “No trick I assure you. You will find that these terms are dishonourable and unacceptable. My Commander is an honourable man, but his lord is not. I cannot take an oath to put a man on the throne who takes advantage of a truce to send assassins. I have no wish to betray my commander, but the fault must lie with him. He should have walked away from Velutio a long time ago.”
Mercurias appeared from one side and leaned close to Kiva. “If you want to be sure whether he’s telling the truth or not, give Favio and me half an hour with him. I’ve got compounds that’ll make him sing the truth like he’s talking to his mother.”
Kiva smiled. “And if that doesn’t work, ten minutes with Brendan and a hammer should do it.” He turned back to Cialo. “It is not I that can grant mercy here.”
Cialo nodded. “Another reason I must abandon my position. I can find no reason in my heart to make war on young Darius.” He straightened. “But before any of this, there’s something else I must warn you of. I see you all wear an imperial uniform. We saw several men down the valley and I presumed them your scouts and outriders, but they were in no uniform, so I assume they are not friendly. I would strongly urge you to send some scouts down to the narrow part of the pass and investigate.”
Kiva narrowed his eyes again and watched Cialo for some time, weighing the odds of a trap. Finally he turned to Athas. “Have a dozen men fall in in the square and send for Phythian’s crossbowmen. I’ll check this out personally.”
As he stepped to one side, Darius walked out ahead of his guards. Soldiers around the gate had now removed the weapons from Cialo’s group and had taken them for storage. Darius stepped up to the grizzled sergeant and stared down into the man’s eyes.
“It’s been a long time Cialo. I have always held you in esteem and would hate to think I couldn’t trust you. I will not let Mercurias drug you or Brendan beat the truth out of you. If all of you will willingly take the imperial soldier’s oath here, in front of me, my staff and the army, I will place my trust in you and your weapons will be returned.”
Cialo grinned. “D’you know, I always had a feeling that you’d turn out something like this young Darius. I’ll gladly take your oath, but it’ll take some doing to start using a title for you, so you might have to be lenient with me for a while… your imperial majesty!”
Darius smiled back at him and leaned in close to speak in a low voice. “You have no idea how hard it is to remember to be an ‘imperial majesty, Cialo.”
As the turncoats of Velutio’s army stood in the afternoon sun and roared out the traditional soldier’s oath, along with the secondary oath Kiva had demanded to him and his command unit, Athas’ quartermasters went about the business of finding uniforms and equipment for them.
As the large, dark-skinned sergeant finished bellowing at an unfortunate blacksmith and turned to face the square once more, Kiva approached him, grinning.
“I think another piece of the plan is falling into place. Don’t have the uniforms issued just yet. I have plans for Cialo and his unit. I think things are coming together. Just hope it happens in time.”
Athas nodded in agreement as he watched Cialo and his men saluting their new Emperor and a score or more of men scrambled to fall in near the gate.
Chapter XXX
In the end, Kiva had capitulated and let Tythias take the unit down the path form the gatehouse. His second in command had refused to let the army’s senior commander ride into what co
uld still very well be a trap and Kiva had reluctantly had to agree with the logic.
There were almost a score of crossbowmen and a dozen good soldiers from Sithis’ elite unit, as well as Tythias himself, standing on a rock be the side of the trail. At this point the path narrowed before it entered a stretch known as snake canyon. Here the trail was only wide enough for a single cart or three men in safety and the southern side of the path fell away into a steep scree slope that tumbled down to the river far below. Tythias was sure a fall from here would be fatal since, though the fall was sloping rather than vertical, it was long and jagged shards of rock stood proud from the scree in places. A man would be lucky to reach the bottom alive, let alone intact. And of course, the chances of making it back up to the path afterwards were less than good. The other side of the trail was often sheer cliff face, occasionally dropping to low boulders and small fissures that disappeared up from the trail toward the mountains.
The one armed, one eyed prefect pulled from his pocket the spyglass he’d been given by the Pelasian prince and extended it, raising it to his eye and scanning the rocks to the north. Here, one of the wider fissures ran up into the rock. With a cluck of irritation, he compacted the device and sheathed it once more in his pocket.
“Still no sign of life,” he said in a low voice to the sword captain alongside him. “I think we need to move up into the mountains now and work our way around the back.”
The captain nodded. “As you say sir,” he repeated in an equally low voice. They’d been as quiet and unobtrusive as possible during their journey down from the gate, hoping not to disturb the mysterious visitors until they could determine what they were doing.
With a sigh, Tythias dropped down from the rock and the party of soldiers began to pick their slow and difficult way among the boulders and rocks up into the mountains above the trail. It was slow and painful going and the sun was starting to get very low on the horizon. Tythias cursed both Kiva and himself for agreeing to take a group out down the trail this late in the day. It was stupid and dangerous and they should both know better. Still, they were here now and, if necessary, would have to camp among the rocks. At least the army had been trained in the traditional fashion and marched with everything they needed to set up camp strapped to their backs.
He sighed again and made a low whistling noise, a prearranged signal to gather on the prefect and take a rest. He’d not realised how much he missed his left arm until it came to things like climbing among rocks. He took a swig of something sharp Athas had filled his flask with and, wincing, watched the men catching up from behind and crawling back down the slope from ahead. He made a quick head count to check they were all there as he took another pull from his flask and one of Sithis’ swordsmen came jogging energetically down the slope and across to where he sat.
“Signs of life just up ahead, sir” the man whispered. “I can hear voices and sounds like there’s a work camp up there. I don’t think we’re in danger of being heard with the noises going on.”
Tythias frowned. A work camp? What the hell was going on here? He nodded at the swordsman. “Good work. We’ll take a ten minute rest and then we’ll all creep up there and take a look.”
They sat around in virtual silence, taking the occasional swig from a skin or flask and a bit of the emergency rations they carried. Tythias regarded the men around him. While he had no love for the crossbowmen, they had proved to be very good with their weapon of choice and had shown nothing but loyalty to their new commander. The swordsmen Sithis had trained and selected as the best of the recruits were as good as Tythias could hope. With the two groups he should be able to deal with anything short of a small army.
He leaned back for a moment against the rock and relaxed for a few minutes as best he could before standing once more with a stretch and whistling.
“Time to move on gentlemen. Let’s get up to that point.” He gestured at the man who’d informed him of the noises. “You take the lead and get us up to where you were. Everyone else stay behind him and as soon as you sight anyone, get down and into cover.”
As the swordsman moved off at the front, Tythias and the others came up behind him and began once more the tedious and unpleasant crawling between boulders. Time dragged and the sun dipped lower, now touching the peak opposite. Another fifteen minutes or so and there would be only a difficult half-light. He was still grumbling when he noticed the front men up ahead dropping to the ground among the rocks. Picking up speed, he rushed ahead of the men around him and dropped to the rocks at the top with the lead men. Lifting his head, he peered over the rocks.
There were perhaps thirty or forty people around below them in a large depression separated from the gorge by a rock of immense proportions that must reach most of the way back to the gorge. Many of the men were around small camp fires in the depression and wore a black and silver uniform. The rest appeared to be barbarians in their dishevelled furs and leathers who stood guard around the edge end disappeared around the sides of the rock for minutes at a time before returning.
“What the fuck are they doing?” Tythias grumbled as he reached into his pocket and once more removed his spyglass. The swordsman next to him shuffled back from where he too had been scanning the area.
“They’re quarrying, sir.”
Tythias blinked. “They’re what?”
The two poked their heads above the crest once more and the swordsman started to point. “I worked in the quarries at Carira sir. That’s how you quarry; or one of the ways anyway.” He gestured to the sides of the gargantuan rock. “You can just see the glow from the fires if you really strain. It’ll be easier as it gets darker. They set fires all over the cliff face and heat the rock up for days until it almost glows itself and then douse the rock with huge amounts of cold water. The rock just cracks and falls away. Only real way to quarry hard stones like granite. See?” he gestured to another place. “Loads of barrels of water and they’re being hauled up to the top ready to split the rock. They probably won’t do that ‘til the morning, cos it’ll be quite dangerous and they’ll have to be able to see what they’re doing.”
Tythias peered at the swordsman beside him. “You’re an absolute mine of information. And can you tell me why they’re doing that?”
The swordsman tapped his finger against his lip. “Well you’d think they’re trying to block the pass, but there’s no way the stone from the sides of this rock is going to come down on the trail. Unless…”
Tythias blinked in surprise and then frowned in annoyance as the soldier plucked the spyglass from his commander’s hand and scanned the area closely. The man grinned.
“They are going to seal the pass. They’re not trying to use this rock to block it, but if they’ve set their fires where I think they have, they should just get it right to collapse that entire rock against the next one.”
“And?” asked Tythias in annoyance, snatching back his spyglass.
“And this rock is granite, I think; or something like. The ones by the gorge are much softer rock. If they bring this big bastard down against the next one, they’ll both fall across the trail.”
“Shit!” Tythias compacted his spyglass again. That would delay us for weeks and give Velutio the chance to get prime position on the plains and deal with all the other lords before we get there. We’ve got to stop them destroying that rock.”
He turned to the others clustered below and behind him.
“There’s quite a few people down there and we need to get rid of them all. This must be the only way out, cos the next fissure upwards isn’t for a mile or more down the gorge. I want all you crossbowmen to get to high points and find yourself a good position as quietly and unobtrusively as you can. I’ll give you twenty minutes to get in position. Then I’ll give a hawk’s call. That’ll be your signal. You should each mark a man and fire as soon as you hear the signal. Then reload and try to get another shot off. It’s quite likely they’ll get into cover after the first shot, but by then the rest of us
will be making our way down there. Try to take down the men in black and silver first. They’re Janus’ spearmen and they’re good. If you spot a man dressed like them but with a red cloak, take every effort to kill him. Captain Janus gets you fifty corona when we get back as a reward. We’ll move round the edge and deal with these barbarian hirelings of Janus’.” He looked around the faces of the dozen swordsmen. “We need to take them out and then we’ll split into two. Half of you will stay with me and we’ll cover this exit so they can’t get away while the crossbowmen still pick off any target that presents itself. The rest of you will go with…” He looked down at the man next to him that had explained the quarrying. “What’s your name?”
“Velitus, sir.”
“The rest of you,” Tythias repeated, “will go with sergeant Velitus and dispatch any men you come across at the quarrying site and tear down the fires and dispose of the water safely. I’m not sure how you’ll go about that, but I’m sure Velitus can figure it out and that’s why he’s just been made a sergeant.”
He glanced around the assembled men. “Any suggestions or comments?”
The captain of the Swordsmen nodded and tapped his fingers on his sword pommel. “I think we need to get someone up to the top of that rock sir. They can cut the rope they’re using to haul the water up and sabotage the barrels so they pour the water back down into the camp rather than the other way.”
“Good,” accepted Tythias. Pick the best man you have for the job. I’d have liked to send back to Hadrus for more men, but we need to stop this as soon as we can. I can’t risk them blocking the gorge.”
He smiled as he drew his sword. “At least I’m getting convinced that sergeant Cialo is on the level now. Ok. Move!”
He watched with interest as the crossbowmen started to climb the rocks and scree slopes around them, struggling to find the best vantage point they could. Further across the ridge, the man chosen to deal with the water barrels sheathed his sword and spat on his hands before rubbing them together. Several men patted him on the shoulders as he moved among them and then disappeared out into the dusk, remarkably light on his feet.
Interregnum Page 45