by Jim Galford
Returning his attention to Estin, the man said softly as he motioned them past, “Welcome back, council master. Not everyone is loyal…be careful.”
The group moved into the city, not so much as given a second glance by the guards. They hurried into the streets, Estin steering them toward the old house where Sirella’s people had been holed up.
Unlike during Estin’s last visit to town, larger patrols of city guards moved through the desolate center of the city, searching actively for something, though they went right by his group.
Despite this, Estin realized Phaesys was sinking farther into his hood each time a group of elves passed them. Whether the elves were looking for him or not, he sure seemed to think that they were. They had been in the city no more than ten minutes before Estin realized that things were not the way he had left them. By this time of morning, the streets should have been full of people. Today, the place was as vacant as it would have been at night.
Looking around for any sign of what might have happened, he saw the simple wanted posters on the sides of most buildings that he had often ignored in the past. Sketched on them was a very rudimentary picture of a fox wildling that looked much like Phaesys.
“My family will be executed on sight,” offered Phaesys, apparently noticing what Estin was looking at. Raising a finger toward the northwest, he added, “However, I would be more concerned with that.”
Following the gesture, Estin saw a plume of smoke that rose from the section of town where government buildings stood. As he watched, a rumble shook the ground and a second black cloud began to climb over the buildings.
“Your friends?” asked Phaesys.
“Probably. That looks like their kind of work.”
“Then they pick their targets well,” noted Phaesys, as the two columns of smoke began to merge high over Corraith. “My understanding is that the one on the left is where Arturis rules from. The one on the right is the council’s hall. The city will see this as war, even if they do not believe Arturis conquered them previously.”
Hurrying, Estin made for Sirella’s hideout, hoping to reach it before anyone came looking for the attackers. The last thing he needed was to get caught with Sirella’s group in the open. With them having just attacked, there would be far more scrutiny than usual.
Offhand, he realized that he had failed to mention the fact that many people might see him as a council member and thus nobility to Feanne. He thought he should at least let her know about it. Then again, she might not stop laughing if he did.
He led the others around the side of the house, taking the specific path over the wall and through the small yard that he knew would not set off any traps. As he approached the house, Estin had to slow the others to make sure no one stepped on the densely-arranged tripwires that littered the area, slid among the loose rocks in the yard.
“Follow very closely,” he warned, bending over and tapping a nearly-invisible string for emphasis. “I have no idea what these are attached to, but we don’t want them going off. They put them down to stop ghouls, so I think they’ll be pretty dangerous for us.”
Everyone in the group except Oria went wide-eyed, looking around at the many thin lines that ran into shadowed areas of the yard, or attached directly to the house.
Oria appeared fascinated, her eyes carefully tracing each wire, as a grin spread across her face. She knelt beside one, leaning to stare down the length of the wire. Pulling out a handful of papers, she scribbled a few quick notes and then stood back up, her attention back on Estin.
“In through the window,” Estin told them, holding the window shade open part way.
Estin knew that if he opened it the rest of the way, or closed it completely, a series of blades would sweep across the opening. Telling the others would only worry them, so he kept his mouth shut and his hand firmly on that shade to keep it from moving.
After Atall had climbed inside, Estin followed, pulling the shade mostly closed behind them.
The inside of the house was much as he had left it, though if possible, it looked like more people had camped out there recently. Estin could smell dozens of distinct scents, not all of which he recognized. As it had been during his last visit, Sirella’s people kept changing from day to day.
“Stop right there, furballs,” came a woman’s voice from one of the side rooms.
An elderly woman eased herself into view, holding a massive crossbow, which was aimed at Phaesys. At first, Estin wondered why she had picked him out of the group, but then realized that everyone else was either a child, a female, or Estin, who hardly looked intimidating. That made Phaesys the most imposing figure in the group, even as he raised his empty hands in surrender.
Lorne squeaked somewhere behind Estin, almost in unison with the kits.
“Don’t I know you?” asked the elven woman. She eyed Estin, but kept the crossbow aimed at Phaesys.
As Estin met the woman’s stare, he noticed Oria slipping slowly along the wall away from the group, getting close to the woman’s side. He kept his eyes on the woman, letting Oria have the time she needed. In seconds, she had moved around behind the elven woman.
In a blur, Oria moved from the wall to the woman, snatching the bolt out of the weapon. The weapon clicked harmlessly without its ammunition as the woman pulled the trigger.
“Never point a weapon at my family,” growled Oria, still holding the bolt.
Estin looked over at Feanne to gauge her reaction and found her smiling. He had to admit that he was not surprised…Feanne would of course be happy to see that Oria had become deadly. Then again, if she was going to accompany them somewhere dangerous, Estin was glad for it on some level, too. He hated to risk his children, but having them able to fight in a pinch was a blessing.
“Crazy little monster,” muttered the woman, rubbing her hand. “I’m guessing you’re the ones Sirella said might come back. She wasn’t specific.”
Estin stared at the woman in annoyed disbelief. “There are so many wildlings running around town that you couldn’t be sure?”
The woman grinned and cackled, shaking her head. “Nah. Crazy human bastard in charge is killing anything with fur. I’m surprised you made it this far. We found a few wildlings last week…yesterday they were skinned and hanging from the outer walls. He’s leaving the scaled ones, but your kind won’t live long out in the open.”
Outside, the sound of voices grew louder.
“You’re guarding the fort while they try to really upset Arturis?” he asked the old woman.
“Yeah,” she replied, pulling up a chair and slowly sitting. “Should be an awful blazing mess for days after this one. Damn girl doesn’t know when to stop. None of them do.”
Estin motioned to the rest of his group and then at the door to the house’s basement.
“Head downstairs,” he told them. “It’ll give me more time to explain to Sirella and keep you all from getting trampled when she brings in her little army.”
Feanne led the others past the scowling old woman, taking the group down the dark steps. Almost as soon as the last tail—Lorne’s—vanished into the dark, elves began scrambling through the window near Estin.
“What in the…?” The lead elf demanded, as he stood up and found himself staring at Estin. The man put a hand to a sword at his side. “Sirella!”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Estin waited as the group at the window parted and Sirella practically leapt inside, one hand on her weapon. When she saw Estin, she broke into a malicious grin.
“About time you came back,” she said, waving the others into the house. “We could use the extra hands. All of you, leave the furry one alive. He’s with us.”
Estin watched as no more than a dozen people crawled in through the window, several bleeding and one being carried. The carried man looked as though he had been mauled by animals. Judging by how limp he was, Estin guessed they had run into ghouls.
“You got caught,” Estin noted, recognizing few of the faces. Most of t
he people he had known were not among this group’s members. “How many did you lose?”
Her smile fading, Sirella checked over her shoulder, as though quickly counting the people still with her. Unfastening the clasp that held her long hair back, she shrugged. As she pulled tangles out of her hair, Estin saw that she also had cuts both on her exposed skin, as well as several deep gouges in her armor. Her small shield had two broken arrows sticking out of it.
“We’re fighting a war for our home,” she said dismissively. “Besides, we had to put him on the defensive.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s raided this house twice, looking for you,” Sirella snapped. “We managed to clear the place both times, but we’re losing control. These deaths were necessary. Twenty dead is a small price to pay to free the town and keep us hidden.”
“Every life is a large price. Did Arturis bother to face you himself, or did you find his army?”
Sirella’s face crinkled in confusion. “We fought a dozen ghouls, which was the most I’ve ever found in Corraith. All of them are dead, so I doubt he has many left. That’s assuming he survived the explosions.”
Picking up one of the wooden chairs, Estin turned it around—the only way he could sit on human or elven-made chairs without the size of his tail causing issues—and sat down.
“Under the desert, he has a cave filled with every person he has killed since he arrived here,” Estin explained, seeing the full horror of what that meant sink into the faces of the men and women behind Sirella. “If he wants, he can bring hundreds, maybe thousands, into this fight. One entrance was partially collapsed, but I know where another is.”
A line near Sirella’s right eye twitched and she went from standing with her arm casually placed on the wall, to using that arm to support her weight. Overall, she hid her reaction well and Estin doubted the people behind her noticed any change.
“A couple dozen untrained soldiers—yourself included in that number,” she told him, blinking hard, as though she were actively trying not to picture Arturis’ forces, “will never even slow a group like that. If you’re telling me, I assume you have something in mind, possibly reckless or suicidal?”
“I do, as well as a few more people.”
Estin got up, taking Sirella by the hand and leading her toward the basement. Through the touch, he could feel her trembling. She might look to anyone else as though she was unshaken and annoyed, but he knew better.
“I found my family,” he told her as they neared the bottom of the steps. A light ahead told him that either they had found the lamps, or Atall had used magic to light the place. “Everyone but the children and one friend that you might remember will be joining us.”
They came around the turn at the bottom of the stairs and had to stop at the doorway into the old study. With Feanne and Oria seated at the table, Atall looking over the bookshelves, the kits sitting in the middle of the floor, and Lorne with her back against one of the empty bookcases, there was no room for anyone else. Estin briefly wondered where Phaesys had vanished to, but figured he must have stayed upstairs somewhere.
“How many are trained to fight?” asked Sirella immediately. “I already have enough fools at my disposal who can’t figure out which end of a sword goes into the enemy. I appreciate your attempts to get us more people, but I’m not bringing children into this, nor am I able to arm and armor all of them.”
Feanne’s muzzle tensed as though she were trying not to snarl. Sirella had been looking at her during the comments about equipment.
“My mate and older children are ready and able to fight and have all that they need to do so,” Estin explained. Moving carefully into the room to avoid stepping on anyone, he went to the fake wall behind the desk. “Lorne and the kits will need to go into hiding, at least until we finish destroying Arturis’ army.”
“Oh, just until then? So not long?” snapped Sirella, crossing her arms. “Without a lot more, I doubt we stand a chance.”
Estin motioned Sirella closer and then beckoned Feanne as well, as he found the hidden locks on the wall and released them. They felt stiff, confirming that no one had touched them in his absence.
“We have one thing that he doesn’t,” he told them, swinging open the fake wall. “If both of you will follow me…”
Leading the way down the dimly-lit passage, Estin felt the serenity of the place wash over him as soon as he left the house proper. The cool damp air mixed with the touch of magic that the place held called out to him, making him feel at home again.
“What is this place?” asked Feanne.
“You had a secret little burrow the whole time?” added Sirella. “I hate secrets, Estin, and…by my father’s ass, what is that?”
The two women stopped in their tracks as Estin moved into the larger round room, with its circle of moss and polished stones.
“A resurrection circle,” he told them, gesturing broadly. “This is why Arturis is here. From things he said, I believe he can feel it’s in the city, but hasn’t figured out exactly where it is. Even if this isn’t what he’s looking for, it’s at least something he would kill to get.”
Sirella piped up, demanding, “Then we give him this and he goes away?”
“Not even close,” answered Feanne softly, taking a knee to more closely examine the circle’s decorative stones. “The Turessians will destroy every creature in a land to find an area where healing magic is focused. They destroyed our people to get to ours, not realizing that it had lost its power with the coming of the mists. When the circle went dormant, they continued attacking anyway.”
“What we have is a way to save your troops, if we can get them back here without Arturis following,” Estin explained. “He can keep raising the dead to serve him. Now, I can bring back our fallen, at least as long as their bodies, minds, and spirits can handle it. It’s a last resort, but it’s one more thing we have going for us.”
Feanne added, “It is not pleasant to have died. This is better than death, but some are too weak to come back. Also, if we lose their bodies, we cannot do much for them. He will watch us to see if we bring the dead back…we must be discrete.”
That last comment seemed to derail Sirella’s thoughts and she just stared at the back of Feanne’s head for a moment.
“What of the army?” asked Sirella, her voice confident again. “You said you had a plan. I want to hear it, so we can start working out the details.”
Sitting down in the circle of stones, Estin felt as though his body was being bathed in a mix of a relaxing breeze and the tingle of magic. It was distracting, but he ignored it for the moment.
“We know where the cavern is that holds Arturis’ army, but Arturis knows that we found it,” he explained, brushing one of his hands across the soft moss on the floor’s edges. “I doubt he has moved it, though. There are just too many bodies. He likely thinks we’re too scared to come back.”
“You should be,” noted Sirella dourly.
Taking a seat against the cave wall, Feanne told her, “Estin is an idiot when it comes to danger and this is one of many reasons I love him. Every fool has great ideas from time to time. He has more than his fair share, when it is most needed.”
Ignoring Sirella’s laughter, Estin went on. “Your people work with explosives. Using them, we will bring the cavern down on Arturis’ army, after I steal something else in there that I want. Then, we run. Arturis can survive that, but I doubt any of his creatures can. The loss of so many will put him on the defensive.”
“That sounds entirely reasonable and not too risky,” Sirella said, putting her hands on her hips. “I was expecting something far more dangerous.”
“If we aren’t caught, this should be easy. If we are…we might all die.”
“Or be buried under the desert when the explosives go off,” added Sirella.
Feanne appeared to have relaxed completely, leaning against the cool damp walls with her eyes drifting shut. Seeing that amused Estin, as the place had alw
ays had a similar effect on him. She likely could not feel the magic of the cave, but its calming influence still worked.
Sirella then asked, “When do we go?”
“Tonight,” he told her. “Just as soon as you send Lorne and the kits somewhere safe.”
“I can’t get them out of town until late tomorrow, but we do have Marra’s inn at our disposal. Most of our injured have been staying there. In the morning, we have several people that are done fighting for good and will be traveling out to the desert hideout. Your people can go with them. I’ll get that underway right now.”
Sirella hurried out of the cave and out into the more brightly lit basement. Seconds after she disappeared, Atall and Oria came slowly down the hall, staring in wonder at the cavern.
“He’s killing people just for this?” asked Oria, smiling down at her mother, who was sleeping soundly. “It’s nice and all, but is it worth all that?”
“You were listening in?” Estin asked. “Yes, this is what he wants. Everything he’s done to the city was to find this place…or some other spots in the tombs outside town. Places Atall can’t seem to remember.”
Atall glared at Estin, but answered, “I still think he imagined it.”
“Go get some rest or whatever you need before we do this,” said Estin, looking pointedly at Feanne. “We probably only have a couple hours before Sirella finds enough explosives to bring down the whole city. She’ll be eager to use them.”
*
When Sirella left a little later to ready her people and gather the supplies they would need, Estin gently woke Feanne. After she had dozed off, the kits had curled up in her arms, all of them relieved to finally be far from the heat of the desert.
“Is it time?” Feanne said as she jerked slightly. She looked around the hall, then refocused on Estin.
“Not quite.” He sat down across from her on the damp stone floor. “We have about an hour before they send the group into hiding. I don’t even know where they’ll be by tomorrow.”
Sitting up slowly, Feanne jarred the three kits awake. They stared around in confusion, blinking in the dim light until they were able to see both their mother and father.