Later that night, six shadows detached themselves from a hidden door at the base of the cliff. One of the shadows was larger than the others. From another door a half mile away, six more wraiths made their way out onto the barren stretch of dirt between the cliffs and the Undead Forest.
The secret doors led to narrow stairs that scaled the cliffs inside the rock itself, ending where the walls started. Rindu had shown Chisin Ling where they were and how to operate them. Though they were made for rohw users, there was a mechanical trip as well, obviously put in place for operatives that did not use the vibrational energy. They came in handy now.
The two small groups skirted the camp of the besiegers, going around it and entering the forest itself, though not deeply. They would do their work there.
Captain Chisin Ling scanned the area around her. She and the five members of her squad were close, but she could barely pick them out of the surroundings. They were wearing special tactical clothing she had a tailor make for them. It was snug, yet allowed free movement. She had patterned them after the garb of the Sapsyra, with one exception: instead of mottled gray, they were a very dark blue color. The color would fade into the nighttime landscape better than black, which could be too dark for surrounding shadows if the moon was bright, as it was tonight.
The uniform was all one piece, long-sleeved, and had armguards that covered the forearms and the backs of the hands while still leaving the hands free. Gloves could have compromised dexterity. Finishing off the ensemble were tight hoods and a scarf-like piece of clothing that covered the neck and the bottom of the face. In the darkness, it appeared as if six sets of disembodied eyes were bouncing about.
The captain made a few sharp gestures with her hands, and they all moved off as one, picking their way through the trees—not quite so dense at the edge of the forest as in the heart of it, she’d heard—toward the light of the enemy camp.
As she came closer to the edge of the trees, her mouth dropped open. She had seen the milling masses of the enemy and the hundreds of campfires now in front of her from the walls, but being here, a stone’s throw from them, she got a real sense of the immensity of the force against them. Thousands of creatures, including some humans, spread across the landscape.
The flickering firelight threw shadows across the bodies of the besiegers. Most were humanoid, obviously having been mutated from humans with qualities added from animals or other creatures. There was fur, feathers, leathery skin, scales, and what seemed mixtures of two or more of these coverings. It was, in a word, intimidating.
Even worse, the mutants had faces, heads, and limbs of different animals. Here was a feathered head with a beak, there was a snout and fur, and over there some monsters prowled about on four legs, though the front legs looked sickeningly like human arms on some of them.
Chisin Ling shook her head. She was letting her thoughts wander, something she could not afford during this mission. She turned her attention instead to the habits of the enemies she saw. They seemed to congregate according to their animal natures. Wolf creatures stayed together, bird creatures seemed to stay in a group, and it was the same for those with other attributes. She wondered if that information could be useful. Dr. Walt could probably tell her. She and her five shadows moved on.
The captain thought back to the conversation with General Kemp earlier.
“Tonight’s mission has two purposes,” he said. “The first is to scout out the camp, study its configuration, and figure out if there is any useful information to be found. The second is to make things uncomfortable for the enemy. Make them see that they are not welcome and they are not safe camping on our doorstep.”
“Yes sir,” she had responded.
Danaba Kemp looked thoughtful. “And a third objective should probably be added. Don’t die.”
“That’s affirmative, sir,” Chisin Ling said.
As she circled the camp, she noted how it was laid out and what types of creatures made up the army. She saw surprisingly few pure humans, but then realized that they would probably be in the center of the camp where conditions were better and more of the officers were safely nestled. The mutants were merely chattel for the war machine.
After almost an hour of collecting what information she could without actually entering the camp, she was ready for her second objective. The other team should be in place, so she motioned to her soldiers to settle deeper into the trees to wait. She didn’t have to wait long.
A loud bang pierced the night, and light flared from the camp farther down the line of the forest. Screams and yells followed immediately, only to be drowned out by more explosions. The captain couldn’t see details at that distance, but creatures were scurrying around like ants from a kicked hill. She smiled under her mask.
Taking out a round object, Chisin Ling smoothed the long, flexible tail of the item—the “fuse,” Emerius Dinn had called it—and reached into one of her pockets. She drew out the thick leather pouch padded with cloth and exposed the hard container within. She removed the cap to reveal the small coal inside, still glowing faintly. Blowing on the coal lightly caused it to flare up. The fuse she touched to it, just lightly, and it began to hiss. With careful aim, she drew back her arm and threw the item and its burning fuse toward the camp.
The creatures in the camp in front of her were rousing themselves because of the noise, but it was the milling type of action of a crowd wanting to see something of interest, not that of an army preparing for battle. Heads swiveled to the other side of the camp where noise and a few loud bangs and flares of light punctuated the quiet darkness. All that changed when the fuse on the item Chisin Ling threw reached the main body of the device. It exploded with deafening force, tearing apart the closest creatures and immediately increasing the urgency with which the others were moving.
Several more explosions crashed around the camp nearby, as Chisin’s squad threw more of the things called “bombs.” A few more tossed devices, and then she and her five soldiers slipped deeper into the forest and began to make their way back toward the edges of the encampment, careful not to go too deeply into the forest lest they be attacked by some of the denizens rumored to live there.
When Emerius Dinn had suggested his “explosives,” Chisin Ling was skeptical. Gourds filled with powders made from urine and bat guano held no interest for her. She was more concerned with weapons, things that could be wielded to defeat one’s enemy. The first demonstration made her reconsider. The bomb he had made, smaller than the ones she was using tonight, blew apart a heavy wooden chest, sending shards flying in all directions.
“I can also add small stones or bits of metal so that when it explodes, it shoots the projectiles in all directions, causing even more injury.”
Chisin Ling had many questions, but she no longer questioned the little items’ usefulness.
Emerius was bored. He took his turns at wall duty, helping to repel some of the many attacks the invaders mounted, but he needed to keep busy. So he made several dozen of the small bombs for Chisin Ling. She had known it was only a matter of time until she convinced Danaba Kemp to give her new stealth unit a try. When he did, she would give him a display that would cement her squad’s place in the Republic’s forces.
As she and her squad ghosted through the forest and back toward where she could cross the barren stretch of land to the secret door to Whitehall, she grinned madly. This small attack would make the besiegers stop and think. It definitely would.
Chapter 39
Sam watched as the others entered the room behind. They were two layers into the big circle of the keep and they hadn’t seen anyone or anything yet. He was uneasy about it.
The chamber they were in was similar to the others they had passed through. It was longer than it was wide, with a heavy wooden door at either end. In the middle of one of the long walls was another door, all three identical. There were a few chairs scattered about a long table in the middle of the room, and books and maps sat on a table. The bookshelf lining on
e of the shorter walls, beside the doorway, had spaces where the tabled books obviously belonged.
The maps seemed to be of the areas between where the keep was, and the areas around Whitehall. Sam fingered them. They weren’t the best maps he’d seen. The army had probably taken finer with them on their march.
“Why isn’t there anyone in the keep?” he asked. “The number of sentries on the walls seemed a little low, but I figured that was just because most of Dal’s forces were with the main army at Whitehall. With what we’ve seen so far—or, rather, what we haven’t seen—it seems like the entire keep is abandoned.”
“Do not worry yourself overmuch, Sam,” Rindu said. “As you say, many of the soldiers and creatures are probably with the army. We have perhaps been lucky, or had good timing, as we traversed the keep. I can sense that there is life yet in this building, though I cannot tell you more than that. It is said, ‘Do not wish for the battle; it will come soon enough.’”
Sam nodded and went to the door on the other side of the room.
Before he could open it, the latch moved and the door swung inward. He found himself face-to-face with two human guards holding chains attached to collars on two mutant creatures on all fours like dogs.
Sam was first to move. He jerked the door out of the man’s hand, grabbed him and his companion by their leather breastplates, and pulled them into the room, past Sam and into the center of the room, where the rest of the party surrounded them. The creatures, surprised but apparently trained to submit when their leashes were pulled, came through the door after them. By the time Sam closed the door and turned around, the men were unconscious and both of the creatures lay unmoving on the floor.
Ix pulled one of her ring daggers from the base of the skull of one of the mutants, and Emerius cleaned his knife on the fur of the other. Its head was barely attached, a small flap of skin the only thing holding it on.
“There,” Ix said, “are you happy? Now you’ve seen guards.”
Sam looked again at the humans. “You did just knock them out, right? They’re not dead?”
“They are not dead, Sam,” Rindu said. “I believe we can bind them and gag them. The risk is small that they will sound an alarm.”
“Okay, good.” Sam wondered who had knocked the men out. It was only a second or two from when he pulled them in and when he turned back around. He looked at Rindu, Nalia, Torim, and Regi. They all lacked expression, as if they had just been standing around waiting for a half an hour. Well, all except Regi. She had the ever-present mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
The others bound and gagged the soldiers as Sam slowly opened the door to look into the hallway. He didn’t see anyone. He was either quick enough in bringing the men and creatures inside the room, or there was no one around in any case. Either way, it was good. At least he felt better about how eerily quiet the keep was. It wasn’t that he wanted combat. But it seemed too easy, like some sort of trap. It still could be.
Glancing back at the rest of the party and seeing that they were ready, he left the room and crossed the hallway to the closest door on the other side. His eyes darted from side to side, up and down the corridor, looking for soldiers, but there weren’t any. He tried the latch. The door was unlocked. With barely a thought, he opened it and walked into the room. Right into a group of more than a dozen of the mutant creatures.
Sam went into action, breaking Ahimiro into its two halves and rushing toward the creatures to allow those behind him to enter the room. It was a large chamber, probably twenty feet wide and fifteen feet long, but it seemed crowded with bodies.
He attacked a knot of three first. They were surprised at his sudden appearance and more surprised by his attack, but their hesitation lasted only a few seconds. Time enough for Sam to strike one on the back of the head with one stick and the throat with the other simultaneously, and then move on to the creature to his right and deliver a backhanded strike to the throat while jabbing his other stick into the mutant’s eyes. Both would be out of the fight for the time being.
The third monster finally realized what was happening and struck out at Sam with its claws. All of the enemies in the room seemed to be some sort of wolf and human mix. They were covered in fur, had strange luminous eyes, and attacked with front claws and fangs.
Now that Sam was engaged in combat and not distracted by surprise, the smell of the room hit his nose like a punch. It was the smell of musky, unwashed fur and the gamey animal smell of predators. It threatened to sicken him, but he pushed it from his mind and focused on the combat.
Rindu and Nalia had entered the room and engaged a few of the creatures in combat. The others were close behind them. The one remaining mutant in front of Sam was joined by another, both of them closing on him. In his peripheral vision, he could see another two angling toward him, but they wouldn’t reach him for a few more seconds.
Sam sidestepped a swipe from the claw of one of his attackers. He parried the limb with the stick in his left hand while striking the jaw of the other creature with an upward strike with the other weapon. The impact of the stick slammed the monster’s jaw closed with a clack as it tried to bite at him. He wasn’t sure if the strike broke its jaw, but by the whine it emitted, Sam knew it hurt.
Without pausing, Sam struck hard with his sticks: outward strike with the right stick, inward strike with the left, and then an inward strike with the right, all to the exact same spot on its torso. The ribs gave on the second strike, and at least two broke on the third. Another blindingly fast downward and diagonal strike with the left stick sent the creature sprawling.
Turning toward the creature still dazed from his strike to its jaw, Sam rained quick and powerful blows to the head, four in rapid succession. When the creature raised its arms to ward off the blows, Sam shifted his weight, rotated his hips, and jabbed one of the sticks hard into its eyes. A few quick strikes to the abdomen so it lowered its arms again and Sam whirled, striking its throat with a left outward strike, right inward strike, and another of the same movement while spinning in a circle to lend power to the weapons from his momentum. There was a sickening, crunching sound as the creature’s throat was ruined. It dropped to the ground, wheezing and pawing at its throat, not understanding why it could no longer breathe.
Sam stopped his turning, sticks at the ready in front of him, assessing which attacker he would engage next.
There were none left.
All of the creatures were on the ground, some obviously dead and some on their way there. All of the other party members were in the room now, the door closed.
“Did we make a lot of noise?” he asked anyone who would answer.
“No,” Torim Jet said. “It was not loud, and the walls are thick. I closed the door as soon as I entered the room. I do not believe we have been heard. We shall see, however, within the next minute or two.”
“Was anyone hurt?” Sam asked. He was greeted with blank looks as if he’d asked something ridiculous.
“I almost turned my ankle when I stepped on one of the first monsters you took down,” Emerius said with a frown. “Sloppy, sloppy. Try to be more organized and tidy in the future.” His face twitched as if it wanted to smile, but it didn’t.
“Sorry,” Sam said, “I’ll try to do better.” He did smile.
A few minutes and two dead human guards later, the little party gathered in front of a large set of double doors.
“Only two guards seems a pitiful defense for something important,” Ix said, “but it’s obvious that this is not an empty room. Shall we see if Chetra Dal is home?”
Sam noticed the others only paying slight attention to the door. Their eyes were doing as his were: scanning the corridor on both sides of them, looking for sentries or patrols. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s finish this.”
He put his hand on the door latch, but Rindu laid his own hand on Sam’s. “Sam,” he said quietly. “If our foe is indeed Master Chetra Dal, I would speak with him. May I have the honor of entering
first?”
“Of course, Master Rindu,” Sam answered, stepping back from the door. “Master Jet, would you do likewise?”
The white-haired Zouy put his hands together in salute in front of him and bowed to Sam. “I would. Thank you, Sam.”
Rindu looked to Torim Jet, nodded slightly, and opened the door.
Sam caught a flash of movement and spun to the side. Rindu was standing there, as calmly as if he were in the doorway of his own room at the fortress, a crossbow bolt in his hand. He darted into the room, Torim Jet following him. Sam was right on their heels, and as the other two moved out of his line of sight, his mouth dropped open.
The room was some type of laboratory, with glass vessels of liquid and tubing everywhere. Cages of different sizes were scattered about, as were tables that looked all-too-familiar, like the ones they had seen in Baron Tingai’s fortress with failed mutations strapped to them. There were what looked like crude machines, too, with pumps and gears and tubing going to and from them. This was a mutant factory.
A thin, lanky man with greasy, unkempt hair was picking up another crossbow and raising it toward them. Around him were at least twenty soldiers, big men with boiled leather armor and swords upraised. In front of them were at least as many snarling creatures of all shapes and sizes. Sam had no doubt that this was Baron Tingai, the one responsible for the mutant creatures they had become so familiar with.
“Kill them all,” Tingai said in a conversational tone as he fired the bolt at Rindu.
Chapter 40
It was as if everyone in the room was frozen until that one crossbow bolt went into motion. When it did, it acted like a trigger that spurred everyone to move at once.
Rindu was already in motion when the quarrel left the crossbow. Not wanting any of the party behind him to be injured, he spun counterclockwise and brought his hand up, paralleling the projectile coming at the space he just vacated. As it passed, he reached out and snatched it out of the air, allowing the momentum of it to spin his body in a full circle. He released the bolt back toward Tingai.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 131