Neversfall c-1

by Ed Gentry

  "Then we will have failed," Adeenya said, pausing for a moment. "But we'll have our traitor. It doesn't matter anyway, does it? There is no traitor." Adeenya grinned. "Right?"

  Loraica's face showed her struggle with the idea. Adeenya wanted no one to die, but she was willing to let the formian die if it meant revealing the traitor.

  "What would I need to do?" Loraica asked at last.

  "Just tell a few of your soldiers that one of the formians knows who killed Khatib. Word should spread easily enough from there. And, before you ask, I'm not suggesting that it was one of the Maquar," Adeenya said.

  "If the prisoner dies it will be on your head," Loraica said before turning to leave.

  Adeenya watched her go, wondering if she had made the right choice in sharing her plan with Loraica. Adeenya did not doubt that Taennen would also have disliked her plan, so her odds of succeeding were about the same either way. Adeenya sighed and walked the opposite direction along the wall, headed toward the stairs that would lead to her quarters. It had been a long day, and she looked forward to some dinner and a chance to set aside her troubles.

  Adeenya exchanged pleasantries with the guard at the northwest corner before descending the stairs. The fading light of the setting sun and the soft glow of Lucha gleamed on the polished stones of the citadel walls. She emerged into the courtyard. A Durpari soldier named Obeidat passed her, offering a salute, which she returned. Her movement was interrupted when she heard a dull thud behind her and spun on her heel to find Obeidat lying on the ground, an arrow shaft erupting from an eye socket. She sucked in a breath to shout an alarm, but was cut off by another arrow passing within inches of her face. She threw herself to the ground and shouted an alert. Her eyes cast about, looking for the source of the attack. When she found it, any doubts about her plan to ferret out the traitor flew far from her mind, and her resolve firmed.

  Taennen sprinted forward, dirt flying into the air under his swift feet. Bringing his left arm up to cover his face with his shield, he reached out to grab Adeenya's belt. One arm would not carry her, but his momentum dragged her from her place out in the open courtyard just as an arrow struck the space. She continued to shout an alarm to the rest of the citadel.

  Taennen dragged her several paces, stopped, and yelled for her to regain her feet. He looked over his shoulder to see the attackers, perhaps a dozen of the same masked invaders as before, in the middle of the courtyard. They carried long bows and loosed their arrows in every direction, showering the interior of the fortress with deadly shafts. They stood back to back in small groups, covering every direction, protecting one another from unseen reprisals. The invaders looked like statues in the garden of a wealthy merchant.

  "Get down!" Adeenya knocked Taennen's leg from underneath him, toppling him to the ground. An arrow struck the building nearby. The archers had spotted them.

  "Move!" she shouted. He rolled to his feet, and they ducked into the cover of the nearest building.

  Taennen peered through to the other side to find two of the enemy archers had fallen to bowshots from the defenders, but sprawled about the courtyard at least three times that many Maquar and Durpari were dead or injured. Taennen stood flat against the wall again and forced a deep breath. His eyes came to rest at the top of the northern wall where he saw Loraica positioning Maquar archers. He made hand signs indicating that he would try to make it to the western wall to muster more fire power from there. Loraica nodded at this communication and turned her attention back to the men with her.

  "Get to the eastern wall. I'll head for the western," Taennen said to Adeenya.

  Adeenya nodded. She patted his shoulder and ran east, leaving the safe cover of the structure. He watched her dash across the courtyard, arrows thunking into the dirt behind her as though she were dropping them as she ran to make a trail she could follow back.

  Loraica's archers loosed enough arrows to cover Taennen as he made his move to the western wall. He breathed a sigh of relief as his foot made the bottom step of the northwest stairwell. He scanned the area for ally troops and saw a pair of Durpari soldiers running toward him. Taennen waved the men on and ordered the two to follow him up the stairs.

  When they reached the top of the wall, they found that more of the enemy bowmen had fallen, but over half a dozen still remained. Taennen ran along the wall, the Durpari soldiers following him. He stopped at a point from where the two soldiers with him would have clean shots to the center of the courtyard and barked the order for them to attack. Farther down the wall, several Maquar were already loosing their weapons at the invaders.

  At least ten Durpari and Maquar soldiers were dead in the courtyard, having attempted to charge the enemy archers. An arrow sailed high toward the wall, and Taennen shouted for the two Durpari men to lie flat. The missile flew wide of its target and bounced off the wall behind him. The Durpari men found their feet, offering their thanks for his intervention, and set about firing at the invaders.

  Two more enemies fell. Their attack would have to end soon. One of the invaders made a noise, an unintelligible shout to the others. Two of the archers shouted back and pulled arrows from their boots, firing the missiles perhaps twenty paces from their position, straight into the ground. The courtyard suddenly filled with an unnatural darkness, which covered a large portion of the interior of the fortress from the ground to halfway up the walls. The citadel defenders stopped firing, no longer able to see their targets within.

  Many tense moments passed before the uncanny darkness dissipated. Taennen loosed a breath and felt his shoulders relax, though only a little. He looked to the two men with him. "That was excellent work, men. Well done," Taennen said.

  "Thank you, sir," they said in unison.

  Taennen took in the scene around him and shouted to all within the sound of his voice, "Hold the wall! Keep your eyes alert both inside and outside the citadel. We cannot be surprised again."

  Returned shouts of "Aye, sir!" came to him and he headed to the courtyard, offering more complimentary words to those he passed. Adeenya and Loraica were headed toward the courtyard from their perspective places on the wall as well, and each offered him a nod as they approached.

  All around him in the courtyard were the bodies of his comrades and those left alive tending to them. He walked to where the attackers had been cloaked in their darkness and crouched to examine the ground.

  "That was damned effective," Loraica said, standing next to him.

  "How in the hells are they doing this?" Adeenya asked. "The darkness is no real feat. Any arcanist worth his salt can do that. But how do they enter so easily?" Her voice dropped. "Do you think someone is letting them in?"

  "Twice they've hit us here in the supposed security of our citadel," Taennen said as he stood. He noticed a few other soldiers standing nearby had heard him and listened to his words. He raised his voice for more to hear. "Twice, they've invaded our safety. They will surely come again," he said.

  One of the nearby Durpari blurted out, "No! We can't let that happen."

  Taennen nodded at the man. "He's right. We can't let them do that. We can't do that to ourselves. We will figure this out. We will stop them," he said.

  Several heads nodded but a few muttered amongst themselves, their reservations clear.

  "There is nothing we cannot do if we stay united, if we stand up to what appears to be hopeless," Taennen said. "Trust in me and I will trust in you, friends. That trust will be a wall that these heathens will not break, will not pierce. They will assault it and be turned away by its strength."

  Subdued cheers came in response and more heads nodded. That was the most he could hope for The coming night would be a long one as the dead were identified and sorted out. Hope would be important.

  "Make sure shifts are changed every six bells. I can't have anyone missing something because they're exhausted," Loraica said to a subordinate soldier as they both looked over a duty roster. Several more names had been crossed out.

  The man a
ffirmed her orders and left for the wall.

  "What have you learned?" Jhoqo said from behind her.

  Loraica turned to face Jhoqo, reminded of the last time he had sneaked up on her. His face was plain, his gaze locked onto hers. His stealth wasalways disconcerting no matter how long she'd known the man.

  "Sir, I have important news from the battle. I was just coming to see you."

  "First, what have you learned about the orir?" Jhoqo said.

  "Sir, before the attack, I saw Taennen and the orir talking extensively," she said. "After they separated, the orir approached me and told me of a plan to lure out a possible traitor that might have killed Khatib. She wants to spread word through the ranks that one of the formians witnessed the killer-one of our own-entering the tower during the fight."

  "That would be pointless. There was no traitor," Jhoqo said, resting against the wall. "That doesn't make any sense."

  Loraica agreed. "Yes, sir, but the orir thought it worth a chance in case there really was a traitor, and she said that if there wasn't one, then there would be no harm done. And an item was stolen from her during the battle."

  "What item?" Jhoqo said.

  "A magical trinket used to contact her commanders," Loraica said.

  "Hmmm. That's unfortunate, but I don't see how that figures into these attacks," Jhoqo said.

  "Sir, she thinks it might mean that someone knew about her device, and might have betrayed us," Loraica said.

  "Nonsense. They're wildmen. They just saw something shiny and valuable and took it," Jhoqo said.

  Loraica nodded. Jhoqo might have been right, but Loraica found all of the pieces of the puzzle harder to deny than he did. She decided to think on it further and said, "Sir, I think the orir just needs to feel useful, to be honest with you."

  "You've done well, Loraica. You're a fine terir," the man said.

  "Thank you, sir."

  "Does Taennen know of this plan?" Jhoqo asked.

  Loraica shook her head and said, "I do not believe so, sir." Her guts wrenched, and in that moment she knew why. She wanted to tell Taennen, to let him know that she hadn't gone over his head by approaching Jhoqo directly, that she wasn't excluding him over his mistakes. She tried to comfort herself with assurances that she had done so on a direct order from her commanding officer.

  "Let's keep it that way for now. I'll approach him with this," Jhoqo said. "This mission has been a struggle for him. You know that, don't you?"

  "Yes, sir," Loraica replied.

  "You also understand that this plan of the Durpari woman is unnecessary, don't you?" he said.

  "Yes, sir," she said, uncertain for the first time in a long while.

  "Good. Where would we Maquar be without our honor? Our prisoners are as good a measure as any by which we gauge ourselves," Jhoqo said. "Using them as bait, even when we feel there's no danger… it's just not right."

  Loraica nodded, hoping she could share her news soon.

  "With this latest attack, morale will be low," Jhoqo said.

  Loraica agreed. The soldiers of both nations would be demoralized by their inability to understand how the attackers had twice gained access to the citadel and how they remained so well hidden in the wilds.

  "We need to strengthen the resolve of the soldiers to protect Neversfall and everything it stands for. We must defend our position regardless of the cost. This is too valuable an asset to our nations to let it slip through our hands," Jhoqo said. "We need to figure out how these barbarians are gaining entrance to the citadel and how they killed Khatib."

  "Sir, that's where my other news is important."

  "Of course, Terir. Please, what is this other news?"

  "Sir, I believe I saw some of the invaders coming from one of the buildings in the courtyard."

  "Hmm. You're sure?"

  "Yes, sir," Loraica said. "Very sure."

  "Maybe they were raiding it, or hiding there?" he said. "Well, it's circumstancial, I suppose, but definitely worth looking into. Which building, Terir?"

  Loraica turned and pointed to one of the smaller vacant quarters.

  Jhoqo nodded. "I hope you're right, Terir. If so, we can stop the orir's nonsense about a traitor. The idea of a traitor in our midst only hurts morale more. If you're right about that building, then we can firm up morale by reassuring everyone that the threat does not come from within," he said. "And if the men discover for certain that the enemy is on the outside, they'll stay alert and anxious to exact retribution."

  "Yes, sir," Loraica said. "But it could be possible that they have an accomplice inside. It's unlikely, but possible. Shouldn't we at least consider it?"

  "When you are a leader of men, Terir, you realize that belief is a stronger tool than truth," Jhoqo said. "Uniting men in a cause by appealing to their morale is the single most effective weapon a commander has at his or her disposal. Remember that. Sometimes that means giving them all something to care about. Other times it means taking that something away."

  They stood there, facing one another for a long time before Jhoqo spoke. "You have wall duty this night?" Jhoqo asked.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Good. I will sleep more soundly knowing that," Jhoqo said with a smile, and he clapped her on the shoulder. "I will order an examination of the building you suspect is the invader's entrance. Until we can prove something, though, please don't share this with anyone else. I don't want a panic, tearing buildings down looking for the attackers."

  "No, sir."

  "Good. Thank you, Terir. I believe firmly that morale will benefit if you are right. But if we get hopes up among the troops only then to dash them if we find nothing, I fear a greater plunge in spirits," Jhoqo said. "Let me know if you learn anything else. Have a good night."

  "Yes, sir."

  Jhoqo smiled again and walked away. Loraica looked back at her dwindling list of soldiers' names and pondered what the man had said. She had expected him to show a little excitement at her discovery, instead of launching into one of his speeches.

  She sighed. If holding her tongue for a short while would keep the list in her hands from growing shorter, then that's what she should do. But she wasn't sure it would help to pretend there was nothing strange going on.

  In the end she had made a commitment to Adeenya. With any luck, Jhoqo was right and it was pointless, but if he were mistaken, something needed to be done. Loraica settled into her pace atop the wall, watching the stars come out and wishing she had answers. Moreover, she wished she didn't have the questions.

  Chapter Ten

  The dim light of the morning peeking through the high windows in the small stone room made Marlke s frown difficult but not impossible to see. His lips were as square as the stones that made up the walls.

  "Are you sure, sir?" the dwarf asked as he knelt to continue lacing his boots.

  "Yes. The formian was very clear," Adeenya said.

  The room was clean and orderly. Marlke was discipline incarnate and always kept his quarters neat, as all soldiers were required to do in training, but few managed once they were in the field. He said it was good for morale, and Adeenya figured if it worked for Marlke, he was welcome to it.

  "I don't know," Marlke said. "It sounds too convenient to me, Orir. They're prisoners looking for a bargaining chip."

  "We can't take that chance. They saw the traitor," Adeenya said. "Until we can pry the identity from them we need to be on guard for treachery-all of us. Getting the information shouldn't take too long."

  "It's risking a lot on nothing," Marlke said. Adeenya raised an eyebrow and the dwarf added, "Begging your pardon, sir."

  "I agree that it's risky," she said, "but it's what we must do."

  Marlke grunted and shrugged before saying, "Fine, sir. I'll spread the word this morning during the meal."

  Adeenya nodded. Withholding information, especially from her own second, felt wrong and unbecoming to a leader, but she saw no choice given the circumstances. She had considered letting Marlke in on her
plan, but had decided that the fewer people who knew, the better the chances of the plan working. And the plan needed to work. The mystery of her missing pendant still burned in her mind. She hoped she would not cross the boundary between caution and paranoia.

  She thanked the dwarf for his cooperation and took her leave of him. The sun had just passed the horizon, but the morning air still bit at her cheeks as Adeenya strode across the courtyard toward her meeting with some of the jail guards. She paid no heed to the soldiers around her who were still cleaning up the mess from the previous evening's attack. The dirt was still black where her comrades had fallen. She mouthed a prayer and continued on her way.

  Adeenya moved around the side of the structure built to serve as the armory, reaching her quarters. The gray stone matched her mood. She disliked subterfuge and resented having to play at it. She passed through her door and sat at the desk on the right side of the room. Its light wood, polished to a high sheen, shone in the sunlight streaming in through the eastern windows.

  She had found no rhyme or reason to the placement of buildings with different features in Neversfall. Some had tiny windows, others were normal. Some had heavy, solid doors and locks while others were secure but minimally so.

  Adeenya sat at her desk to review her schedule for the day. After her meeting with the jailors, she would speak to the supply officer and then the cartographer. Every officer in her unit knew their job and did not need to be managed, but Adeenya had found her people often appreciated it when their she checked in with them. There was a fine line between going too far and riding ones subordinates to the end of their wits and letting her presence be known. She made every attempt to make her expectations clear and her support obvious without crowding anyone's efforts. A quick meeting once a tenday kept her informed and her subordinates on their toes.

  She set her papers aside when a knock sounded on the door. "Enter," she said.

  Two jail guards entered and stood attention. The first was a tall Maquar, lean and trim with a seasoned and disciplined stance. His face was clean-shaven and his hair short and trim. The personnel records on her table showed his name was Initqin, though Adeenya could not recall having met the man.