by Ed Gentry
Taennen looked up at the impressive height of Neversfall tower and wondered about Khatib. Despite his confidence before the battle that he could wield the tower's weapons, Khatib hadn't managed to keep the gates closed, let alone fire off the flurry of missiles he'd promised. Taennen scowled.
He would need to get a better sense of what Khatib could and could not do with the tower before another attack.
"Haddar!" Taennen called. The muzahar trotted over and saluted. "Send your men out to find Khatib. We need him to help search the bodies of the attackers. You four"- Taennen gestured to a group of Durpari-"go check on the prisoners. There's no telling what happened to them in all that chaos. Secure them and make sure no one's hurt."
Chapter Seven
"Sir, are you well?" Taennen said to his commander as Jhoqo approached, waving off the attentions of one of the Durpari healers. Blood trickled from his right wrist, the crimson stain spreading through the colorful silk cuff of his undershirt. Adeenya approached looking weary but otherwise well.
"A few cuts," Jhoqo said. "And you, son?"
"Same, sir, but nothing serious," Taennen said. He had received worse in his time, but the wounds ached already. His stomach wound had reopened in the battle. With the rush of battle over, he was fighting to move past the pain. By morning it would be debilitating without aid. "I can wait. And you, sir?" Taennen said, looking to Adeenya.
"Fine, Durir, thank you," she said.
"Get a count of our liabilities, Durir," Jhoqo said. "We need to know where we stand as soon as possible."
"What in the…" Adeenya said, turning around.
"Sir?" Taennen said, his hand going to the hilt of his khopesh.
"Where are they?" Adeenya asked.
"Who, Orir?" Jhoqo said.
"The bodies. The attackers we just killed."
Taennen released his weapon. "I saw them collecting some of the fallen as they fled."
"But why pause for your dead when you're being pressed?" Adeenya said. "And how did they get every one?
Taennen shook his head. Recovering fallen comrades was a priority, but given the circumstances of the routed attackers, their care with their dead was surprising. Taennen turned when he heard Loraica curse behind him. The woman stood next to Haddar who limped out of the central tower with Khatib's lifeless body cradled in his arms.
Taennen stared at the corpse of the wizard with whom he had spoken only a short while before. Haddar's broad chest served to miniaturize the man's body. Khatib's face was pale, his blood lost through a slit in his throat. The wound spanned the breadth of his jaw, leaving a flap of skin hanging wide open.
Taennen stood silently and took the corpse from Haddar when the soldier offered it. Loraica ordered Haddar to have his leg examined. Haddar saluted and shuffled away, his head hanging low.
Taennen felt the damp coolness of more blood along Khatib's lower back, and his fingers found a wide, deep gash there. His digits explored the cavern of their own will, Taennen's bile rising. Though he had never felt particularly close to the wizard, the man's death, so cowardly in its execution, angered him, and he felt a pang of loss for the comrade whose excitement about the workings of the tower he had found so engaging just moments before.
"They breached the tower," Jhoqo said, staring hard at Khatib's body.
"This…" Taennen started. "This can't be."
Jhoqo reached over the wizard's cradled body and patted the younger man on the back, but Taennen shrugged it off. "No. I mean, he was safe. He locked himself inside the top of the tower," Taennen said, taking a step back.
"What?" Loraica said.
"The tower. The room at the top can be magically sealed. I was with him when the attack started. He locked the door behind me."
Jhoqo looked puzzled. "So someone broke in and killed him."
"No," Taennen said. "He said someone would need to know the proper way in once it was locked. There was a passphrase." He lowered his voice and looked to Jhoqo, forgotten hurt resurfacing. "He said you told only him what it was."
Jhoqo's lips twisted tighter into a frown. "He must not have locked it, or perhaps the damnable invaders had a more powerful arcanist with them."
"If that's so," Loraica said, "we are in a lot of danger without Khatib."
"We will avenge him. Do not doubt that," Jhoqo said. He stepped in close, placed his hand on Khatib's head, and whispered something so soft that even Taennen could not hear.
"Get me the counts, Durir," Jhoqo said. "Terir, liaise with the Durpari dorir to ensure that the healing needs of everyone are met as well as we can accommodate."
"Aye, sir," Loraica and Taennen both barked.
"Sir, permission to follow the invaders," Adeenya said.
Jhoqo looked at the woman for several moments but said nothing.
"Not to engage them, sir. To scout the area, to figure out where they are coming from so that we might launch an attack of our own when we muster our forces," Adeenya said. She stood straight and tall, her face solemn, as though she were not asking the impossible.
"Reconnaissance, then?" Jhoqo said. "Very well. Take a small contingent of both forces. Do not be seen, Orir, and do not go far."
"Aye, sir. Thank you, sir," she said.
Jhoqo nodded and took a step before Adeenya stopped him.
"Sir, one more thing." "Yes, Orir?"
"Sir, the halfling. He told us he was a woodsman who knew this area. He might be able to help," Adeenya said.
"You want me to release a prisoner, Orir?"
"Not release, sir. Just make use of a resource on hand in a bad situation, sir."
She was clever, no doubt about that, Taennen thought. Jhoqo could not deny her request of a useful resource given the circumstances. Taennen had not realized until that moment how brave Adeenya was. And clearly it had worked. She had done the impossible.
Jhoqo squinted at her a moment before chuckling a little. "Very well, Orir. Take the halfling, but I hold you responsible for the safe return of the prisoner. We hold their safety in our hands, after all."
Adeenya nodded. "Yes, sir. Thank you sir." She saluted and turned to gather her forces.
After Jhoqo had walked away, Taennen looked to his friend and said, "Somethings not right, Lori."
"Agreed," she said solemnly. "Let's check the tower."
Taennen placed his hand on Khatib's forehead, uttering a prayer to the Adama. He set the wizard's body beside the half dozen others laid out in the yard, ordering a nearby
Durpari soldier to give the man a burial proper for his order and position.
"No rank. He was a wizard."
"Yes, sir," the Durpari soldier said grimly, then added, "Bad day for magic users."
Taennen looked down at the bodies. Two of them were Maquar clerics. Taennen swore and turned back to Loraica.
Taennen walked beside Loraica to the central tower. The courtyard was alive with activity, but the air was heavy with caution and fatigue. They had been surprised and significantly damaged in a fortress that they had believed was theirs. The attackers had come in undetected, despite the measures available to prevent such an ambush.
As he pushed open the door to the tower, Taennen faced Loraica. "Kill anyone you don't know."
Loraica nodded and drew out her heavy falchion. Taennen crept up the stairs, listening after every few steps for the sounds of anyone moving around at the top of the tower. His pace increased as he continued. They reached the top of the tower to face the door he had seen for the first time earlier that day. The door no longer sparkled with the glow of possibility and mystery. Instead it hung open, dull and uninviting.
"I saw him close it," Taennen said.
Loraica knelt on one knee, examining the door and its jamb. "It doesn't look like it was forced. They must have figured out the passphrase," she said.
Taennen shook his head. "Khatib said one had to know it ahead of time."
"Do you think the invaders tortured the phrase out of the last regiment?" Loraica a
sked.
"If so, then why not occupy the citadel? Why keep to the woods?"
"They are wildmen, sir," Loraica said. "You saw them fight, Lori. They're no wildmen." She conceded the point. "They did seem too organized, didn't they?"
Taennen nodded.
"What is all this?" she said, motioning around the room.
Taennen smiled, thinking of Khatib's enthusiasm for the crystals. "This is the heart of Neversfall."
"Well, how does it work?"
"It needs a brain."
"It doesn't have one?" she asked.
"He's being buried right now," Taennen said, leaving the room. "There's nothing here to see. Coordinate with Marlke, Lori. I'm going to get a count of our losses."
Evening was consuming daylight as Adeenya stalked the plains. Even with Neversfall within sight behind her, she felt conspicuous and naked in the open. The Aerilpar was nearby, promising no end of dangers, yet that was where the tracks of the invaders seemed to lead.
She sought not only an end to the attacks and revenge for her dead but answers to a personal mystery that took precedent in her mind. Not long after the battle had ended, Adeenya discovered that her pendant, the magical device she used to communicate with her superiors was missing. The attackers who groped at her were not interested in her body but her pendant.
She remembered their probing hands and wished she could hack them off. How could they have known about the pendant? What did they want with it? True it was magical, but its power was not difficult to come by. Other than her own soldiers and the sly wizard Khatib, no one had known about the pendant. Khatib was dead, which left only her own soldiers under suspicion, and Adeenya did not want to travel that road. She refused to believe that random chance had allowed the attackers to find her pendant. She would be all the more wary until she could figure out for certain how they had known.
"Here, Orir," Corbrinn said, interrupting her thoughts. "Two dozen or more."
"More than two dozen? You're sure?" she asked the halfling, who crouched on the ground before her examining tracks.
Corbrinn stood and nodded before continuing toward the forest. "At least two dozen left the citadel on their own feet," Corbrinn said. "Some of these are deep, too heavy. Those are from the ones carrying fallen comrades on their shoulders."
Adeenya motioned to her squad to follow and prompted the halfling to lead the way. At the edge of the woods, huge, dark trees loomed overhead and seemed to speak to her of the many lifetimes that had passed before their watch.
Violent lifetimes, she thought, keeping an eye out for the Aerilpar's monstrous inhabitants.
Tall undergrowth in every shade of green blocked their way but also showed signs of recent passage, indicating the attackers had fled this way. A few of the soldiers cut a path with their swords, but the going was slow.
Corbrinn seemed frustrated, climbing to the low branches of a tree to look further into the forest, confirming the path they followed. He hopped down and pushed to the head of the line. "Out of my way, boys," Corbrinn said, taking the lead.
The small man seemed to be swallowed by the plants all around him as he plunged forward. Adeenya followed closely behind so as not to lose track of their guide.
She followed the squirming weeds in front of her for several paces, and she was growing concerned about finding their way back. She could no longer see the edge of the woods behind them, and she did not much care for the notion of getting lost in the Aerilpar forest.
The brush before her stopped moving and she bent down, pushing some of the plants from her path. Corbrinn was there on all fours, and he looked over his shoulder at her, a finger to his lips. She squinted to look past him into the murkiness, the forest canopy letting in very little light by which to see. She jerked back when she saw motion, but she didn't think her movement had been detected. With hand signals, she ordered the troops behind her to move back quietly before crawling away herself.
Corbrinn was right behind her, and after a short distance he spoke. "A clearing ahead. It's them. Maybe a dozen or so.
Those were the types of odds she liked. She began to stand but stopped, a thought nagging at the back of her mind. Only a dozen?
"You said two dozen came through here, didn't you?" she asked.
The halfling nodded.
"Trap?" she askedjhe halfling.
Corbrinn shrugged in response.
"Can't be certain in all this brush."
She had no choice. They needed more information, and if this bunch were alone, she could wipe out a large number of the wildmen in one quick sweep. Passing the word quietly through the ranks, she waited until it reached the last of them before holding her spear high and dashing forward past Corbrinn. The undergrowth pounded her face, the edges of the leaves making tiny cuts across her nose and cheeks. She set foot into the clearing and whirled her weapon high over her head in an intimidating flourish.
She felt her stomach drop to her knees as she looked around and saw nothing but more trees and dense plants. The soldiers with her came to a stop and fanned out to search the clearing. The halfling entered with a confused look on his face.
"They were here. Right here," he said, bending down to examine the tracks.
After a few moments he stood, his face flushed. "I just don't understand."
"You lost the trail?" she asked but could not make herself upset. The ground here was muddy. The interior of the forest was far moister than the fringe where they had entered, but even that could not account for the wet ground. The forest floor looked more like a soup than a trail riddled with tracks.
"No!" Corbrinn said, with a huff. "I lost nothing. It just ends here."
Adeenya spun all around, looking for any clues at all. The men they'd been following had simply disappeared, it seemed. At Corbrinn's insistence, she gave the halfling more time to examine the area, but she was not hopeful that they would find any sign of the vanished band. She looked at the faces of the men with her, all of them hungry for revenge, knowing that she could not sate their hunger that day.
"We should return," Adeenya said.
A soft click answered her.
"Run!" Corbrinn shouted as he brushed past her leg. Adeenya spun to face the direction the halfling had come from to see bright orange flames rising from the ground and growing steadily stronger. She moved to follow Corbrinn, shoving some of her soldiers along with her until more flames appeared before them and on every side.
"Yes, it's a trap," Corbrinn said over his shoulder.
The flames formed a nearly perfect circle. Several of the soldiers lobbed mud at the wall of flames chasing them to no avail. The fire was not spreading on the moist forest floor but that was little comfort to those trapped inside the burning circle.
"I'm sorry, miss," Corbrinn said. "I should have smelled the oils."
"Let's just get out of this," Adeenya said. "Ideas?"
Corbrinn stepped past the soldiers and stopped a few steps from the fire. His hands moved in strange patterns, and he mumbled something indistinguishable. Above the blazing orange light, a large quantity of water appeared, hanging in the air for a moment before crashing down, extinguishing the flames and creating a plume of smoke. A gap large enough to accommodate their passage opened before them, and several of the soldiers thanked Corbrinn as they fled the trap.
The circle of fire still burned, and although the plant life there was mostly protected by the moisture, leaving the forest ablaze seemed unwise. "Spread out, douse the flames with mud and dirt as best you can from the outside, and then we head back to Neversfall," Adeenya said. "We can't let it spread to the citadel."
"And the invaders?" Corbrinn said.
"They're gone. We won't find them this day."
"How do you know?" the halfling asked.
"If they were still here after that fire," she said, "they wouldn't have left us alive."?* + + +
Taennen and Loraica's examination of the tower had revealed no clues to Khatib's death. When they returned t
o the courtyard, word was waiting for Taennen to join Jhoqo in the formians' prison.
By the torchlight, Taennen saw Neversfall with all its dancing shadows. He found that he had no taste for the place. He accepted the salutes of the four guards outside the low stone structure and pushed the heavy door open. The smell inside nearly caused him to retch, and he took a step backward.
"Close the door," Jhoqo's voice came from the dimness of the interior.
Taennen lifted an orange silk sash to his face and tried to breathe through it, hoping to dull some of the stench. His eyes adjusted to the low torchlight, and he saw the formians divided among cells. Their feces and waste were in one corner of each cell and, although there was very little of it, the stench burned Taennen's nostrils.
"We'll get them outside for that in the future, sir," Taennen said, indicating the mess.
Jhoqo shook his head. "They stay in here. Under no circumstances are they to leave this building."
One look at Jhoqo's face told Taennen not to argue the point. He acknowledged the order with a nod and turned his attention to Guk.
"Has he said any more?" Taennen asked.
"He's talking. In fact, he'll answer nearly any question you ask him."
Taennen's eyebrow went up. "Do they know who attacked us?"
"Ask him," Jhoqo said, anger rising in his voice.
Taennen knew the anger was not directed at him, but he wondered what the formian had done to provoke Jhoqo. He turned to the big formian. "Do you know who attacked us?
"It does not matter. You and they will all become part of the hive," Guk responded. He looked smaller, locked in the cell. He was still bound and blindfolded, the gag hanging loose around his neck.
Jhoqo snorted. "That's his response to everything," he said.
"It is the truth," Guk said, his grating voice setting Taennen's ears vibrating.