by Ben Hale
Braon’s smile returned as he moved his first piece, and as they played the conversation shifted to lighter topics. Trin, however, was left to wonder what kind of life lay in store for such a unique young man. No army would ever rank a person without a shred of combat skill, yet the overweight youth in front of him, even at his current age, would far surpass the strategic ability of anyone alive.
But would anyone ever see it outside of a child’s game?
Chapter 15: Impregnable
Taryn awoke groggy and sore. Recalling the previous night’s conversation with Liri, he realized he still had a few questions for her. Resolving to ask her when he had the chance, he made to sit up but the soreness in his body caused him to wince. The effects of climbing the cliff would take time to heal, and until then he would just have bear it. Gingerly stretching, he stifled a yawn and checked his weapons before getting dressed. Unbidden, Murai’s words came back to him: “Always keep your weapons close at hand. They are your life.”
The memory of his uncle elicited a pang of regret. He missed Murai more than he thought he would, and for the first time he considered whether his quest was worth it. He knew in his heart that it was unlikely at best that he would discover anything about his family, and perhaps he’d said goodbye to the only family he would ever have. Despite its shortcomings, Sri Rosen had felt like a type of home, and he wondered if he would ever feel that again.
Sighing, he strapped on his katsanas and went to the door before realizing he had no clue where he was in Liri’s home. Hoping for direction, he swung open the door to see an armed elf standing at attention. Eyes narrowing at the sight of him, the lean figure said, “If you are ready, the Lady Liriana requests you join her for breakfast before a tour of the city.”
Taryn responded with a warm smile. “Lead on,” he said, indicating his readiness with a sweep of his hand.
Instead of heading down the corridor, the elf gave a short bow without taking his eyes off Taryn and replied, “You may go first, guest of Runya, and I will direct your path.”
Smiling at the elf’s choice of a tactically superior position, Taryn nodded and headed down the corridor. Approaching a turn, his guide would quietly indicate a direction. As Taryn led the way, he pondered the behavior of the elf behind him. His demeanor had been controlled, but there was a layer of extreme caution just beneath the surface, as if he expected to be attacked at any moment. He was left to ponder on the odd behavior for only a few moments. On a particularly long corridor, his guide broke the silence.
“I heard about your effort to scout the walls above the cliff.”
Ah, Taryn thought, that explains everything. Then he stopped and turned around. The elf dodged a step back and palmed the hilt of his short sword.
“And . . . ?” Taryn asked with raised eyebrows.
The elf’s eyes were hard. “So how did you get into the city? Last anyone saw, you dropped off the shelf. When the home guard reached the edge, you had disappeared, and even when they searched with magic, you were nowhere to be found.”
Taryn furrowed his brow, considering whether or not to tell the young man. Impulsively he answered, “I used a rope and swung in front of the falls.”
The elf snorted in disbelief but his demeanor appeared to lighten. After a moment of silence he said, “I can’t believe you made it.”
Taryn laughed, uneasy at the exchange. “Me neither, but it was the only way in, so I took it.”
His guard slowly removed his hand from the sword, “My name is Rokei. I am one of the personal guards of Lady Liriana.”
Taryn smiled as the conversation shifted to a more comfortable topic. Moving to stand beside the guard, he ignored him when he stiffened and grabbed his weapon again. “Then we shall get along fine. There is no one I am more dedicated to protecting than Liri.”
Rokei’s eyes went wide at the familiar use of his princess’s name. In that moment he seemed to decide that Taryn was no enemy, and his posture relaxed. “Let me lead you to breakfast then.” With that, he moved in front of Taryn and led the way down the corridor.
When they arrived at the now familiar dining hall, the enchanted ceiling shimmered and glowed as sunlight danced into the vaulted space. Somewhere above, a flock of birds winged its way west, their small shapes reflected deep in the blue sky. To the south, the rolling green of the forest of Numenessee stretched as far as he could see, and when the wind rippled the treetops, Taryn almost felt the breeze on his face. He looked at the clouds and the rising sun on the eastern wall, shaking his head in wonder until a sudden call broke him from his amazement.
“Taryn! It’s about time you got up. I can’t believe you slept for ten hours.” Liri stood halfway up the hall with another guard standing behind her. Her tone of astonishment made Taryn grin, and he moved to sit across from her. Rokei discreetly moved to stand behind his ward.
“Grab some breakfast quickly,” she said. “I want to show you around.” She emphasized her point by retaking her seat and resuming her breakfast.
He nodded with a grin and wolfed down the bread and fruit placed in front of him. Liri waited for him to finish, but as soon as it looked like he was satisfied she bounded to her feet with an impish grin. “Let’s go!”
Something in her second guard’s eyes quelled a part of his excitement, but it was hard to stay discouraged next to Liri’s bubbling joy at showing off her beloved city. She could barely contain herself as she raced to the front gates of her house—towing him by the arm.
They burst into the sunlight, and Taryn laughed out loud. “Is there any way I can see the tree first . . . what did you call it?”
“Le Runtáriel, and no, we can’t go see it first. I am going to take you from the bottom to the top and show you each tier. Just hitting the highlights we will need to hurry if we are going to make it before dark.” She bit her lip to consider something and then pulled him towards the nearest stairs, fastening an emblem onto his shoulder as she went. “This will keep you safe in the city and identify you as a member of the House of Runya.” Something about the way that sounded made her chuckle to herself and blush ever so slightly.
Taryn thought her behavior odd, but didn’t have time to dwell on it as she led him down multiple flights of stairs. It seemed like she was leading him away from the bowl so he didn’t get many chances to see the great tree. The whole time he was very aware of two pairs of feet treading softly behind them, and he didn’t need to turn around to know it was Rokei and the other guard, which reminded him . . .
“Why was Rokei so strange earlier?” Taryn asked.
She slowed down enough to walk beside him. “What do you mean?” she asked as she cast a dark glare behind her, and he heard someone’s footfalls falter.
“Nothing big, it just seemed that he was a little bit . . . wary.”
“Oh,” she chuckled, “the Home Guard is a little bit . . . er, angry at you. They don’t know what you did to get into the city. They saw you fall off the cliff but had no idea what happened to you. When they found out you got into the city somehow, they were . . . furious, to put it lightly.” She glanced at him with a wry grin. “Azertorn is impossible to get into under normal circumstances—and last night was not normal. Home Guard and almost the entire army were on alert and prepared. I do believe you are the first person to ever sneak into the city, or at least with everyone on high alert.”
Taryn coughed and changed the subject from himself. “So remind me why you have two guards today?”
She grimaced. “Two is better than ten.” Seeing his confused expression, she explained, “My mother wanted to send ten guards, but I talked her down to two. She was less than pleased that the intruder just happened to be my friend.” She laughed at the memory, her eyes sparkling.
The two of them turned a corner and encountered a large ironbound door flanked by two guards. Liri’s expression changed to serious as they approached the armed elves.
“I am Liriana Alasse Tel’Runya of the House of Runya. I have come to
inspect the city’s defenses. Let us pass.”
Her tone allowed no room for dispute, but the elven sentries still hesitated and Taryn didn’t miss the loaded glance in his direction. After a moment one of them gave a curt bow and replied, “I will ask the leave of our captain.”
Liri’s expression darkened but she nodded in response, so the guard knocked on the door and slipped through when it was opened from the other side. A few minutes later another elf, dressed in blue armor, came through the door and addressed Liri. “I beg forgiveness, my lady, but we are not prepared for someone to see the fortifications of this city . . .” He trailed off with his eyes on Taryn.
Liri’s expression clouded in fury, and her voice turned to a steel that Taryn had never heard before. “Captain, that was not a request—and please do not disrespect a guest of the House of Runya.” He started to protest, but she cut him off before the words left his lips. “An immediate response would be appreciated, Captain.”
Furious at the rebuke, the elf nevertheless signaled for the door to be opened and Taryn followed Liri through. With her personal guard behind them, she began leading him through a maze of barracks and armories.
As they walked, Liri began explaining their surroundings in more detail. “This is where the Second Legion is housed, on the second tier of Azertorn. In a minute we will go down to the Hall of the First Legion. Technically there are four arms of the elven military: the First, Second, and Third Legions comprise the army, and the Home Guard protects the interior of the city. Each legion boasts twenty thousand elves and the Guard contains half that number. Most of the time there are only a few thousand of each legion on duty at one time, while the rest live in the forest in any one of the smaller elven settlements.”
Her expression shifted to thoughtful. “In times of war or danger though, the entire army is brought in. For some reason that no one can explain, now is such a time. This tier alone contains the entire Second Legion living, training, and readying themselves for battle at a moment’s notice. Each tier, if necessary, could house three times that number, although as far as I know those areas have never been used. ”
“What do the different colors of armor represent?” Taryn asked as they passed a scowling elf outfitted in blue.
"Green armor indicates a soldier, blue armor represents an officer. The darker the shade of color, the higher up the chain of command.”
“So a captain and higher wear blue?”
She nodded and then pointed to a corridor that curved away from them to the north. “These bottom tiers mirror the shape of the city, a series of half circles that wrap around a large, open space. The only difference is that the barracks focus on a cavern in the center. Each of the rings houses the soldiers’ quarters and the armories, while the center cavern contains mess halls, training areas, and other structures for the general use of the army. We are passing through the rings now,” she said as she indicated the rooms on either side. Each one looked to have two beds and was relatively small.
“These tiers are built so that the elves can retreat backward through the barracks before going up a floor. There are only three entrances to the barracks from above, the eastern, northern, and western gates. We came through the eastern gate.”
It took them longer than he would have expected to reach the center of the second tier, but when they did, he realized that the level was taller than he’d imagined. The center cavern, or the Second Great Hall, as Liri was in the process of describing it, stretched at least fifty feet high, and at least a half a mile across. It was extremely well lit, although he couldn’t place the source of the light. At the moment they were facing west, so the cliff must be immediately to his left.
“How thick is the cliff face?” Taryn interrupted her description of the Second Great Hall.
She pursued her lips in disapproval to which he shrugged sheepishly. “I just explained that. The rock behind the face is fifty feet thick at every point below the sixth tier.” Then she turned and directed his attention to the rock structures carved out of the walls and the massive pillar in the center. “As I was saying before I was interrupted . . .,” she continued, grinning at him, “the center column is the main command of the Second Legion, and it helps support the roof. You’ll notice it is located directly below the great tree Le Runtáriel. It is called the Second Pillar because it is carved from a single pillar of stone.” She went on to describe the four floors of the Second Pillar and the structures ringing the open space.
Taryn only half listened to her description, his attention drawn to the thousands of elves in the cavernous space. Lean fighters were spread out in various activities, but by far the bulk of the activity going on could be described in a single word—training. Swords clashed in hundreds of sparring matches while the twang of longbows could be heard as a soft backdrop to the ring of steel. Taryn had trained with weapons his entire life, but he’d never seen so many people training at one time. The sight of so many elite warriors perfecting their craft was impressive—and intimidating.
Liri finished her description of the Second Great Hall and indicated for him to follow her to the First Legion, still describing the defenses. “Right now we are a little over a hundred feet above the forest floor. As we go down to the First Great Hall, you will see even stronger defenses.” She smiled at his expression and led them to a descending ramp that led back into the cliff. They had to pass several gates and portcullises before they reached the bottom—again at the rear of the barracks. It then took another few minutes to go through the First Legions’ quarters—passing even more gates. It was clear the corridors of both barracks had been designed to bottleneck an invading army and allow the defenders an advantage during every inch of a retreat. Taryn shook his head in amazement. He couldn’t imagine any army to ever breach the city—let alone take it. The city’s fortifications were just . . . overkill. It would a take an army centuries to defeat even an unprepared people.
They arrived at the First Great Hall and Liri gave an abbreviated description of the few differences between the two halls. “The First Legion unquestionably has the best warriors, and it is a great honor to be a soldier or an officer within its ranks. Other than that, the only real difference is the wall and the main gates of the city.” She led the group past several training rings, and as they approached the First Pillar he saw what she meant about the wall.
A wall, shaped like a half moon, curved out of the back of the cliff, merged to the First Pillar, and then continued its curve until it fused into the rear of the cliff. Formed of interlocking stones instead of solid rock, it served as an extra line of defense behind the front gates. Soldiers were prominent at strategic battlements, with longbows in easy reach. Liri led them through the first floor of the First Pillar and under a massive gate to pass through the only opening in the wall. A hundred feet of flat stone separated the wall from the back side of the cliff face—except for the contingent of elves armed to the teeth. With a start Taryn realized the elves in this position would have been the ones that chased him the night before. Their eyes certainly betrayed their suspicion of him, and a few shifted uneasily.
Liri touched his arm. “Don’t worry Taryn, they won’t attack you.”
As she said it, he became aware of his own tense posture and that his hands were moving towards his weapons. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to relax. After a moment she tugged on his arm and pulled him towards the enormous main gates. At first he was surprised that the gates were open, until he realized that these were only secondary gates, not the large doors he’d seen from the exterior. Through the opening he was amazed to see in place of a corridor, a pillar of solid stone blocking their view. Past this reserve gate, wide corridors to either side curved around the column towards the cliff face. Following Liri they walked down the left path until they promptly came to a dead end.
A little confused, Taryn looked at Liri with a raised eyebrow. She laughed mischievously and pointed towards the blank wall to their right. Several elves move
d forward and opened a hidden stone door! Taryn’s eyes widened as he watched the portal open to reveal the side of the road. When they walked through the secret portal, he was astonished to see that the outer doors at the end of the bridge were actually false. Liri saw his expression at the sight and laughed lightly.
“Amazing isn’t it?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
“Amazing doesn’t cover it,” he breathed.
From the front, the main gates were set into the wall about twenty feet—but the ironbound wooden gates were actually backed by a column of solid rock. On either side of the false main gates were smaller doors that were made of the stone itself and, when they were closed, blended in perfectly with the surrounding rock. To get into the city you had to walk towards the false doors and then turn left or right to go through the hidden real ones. After going through the hidden entrance, you would curve around until you came to the second gates set directly behind the first gates—fifty feet behind the fake ones.
A battering ram would never truly break through because it would be hitting doors backed by thirty feet of unyielding stone! Taryn shook his head, stunned at the sheer magnitude of the city’s fortifications.
Liri chuckled in satisfaction. “Only the elves are aware of the false doors. That is why no other race is allowed entry to the city through this way.”
That reminded Taryn of a question that had been bothering him. “Liri, did you get a chance to find out why everyone is so afraid?”
She turned to face him with a thoughtful expression. “I did ask my mother when I arrived within the city, but she had no answer to give. She said she could ‘feel the fear seeping into the city like a thick smoke,’ yet no elf knows its source.”
He bit his lip in thought. Not even the elves know what causes this unnatural dread.
Liri shifted next to him. “We had better go back into the city, or we are liable to be shut out.”