by B J Hanlon
“How do we get to him?” Arianne asked. “He’s surround by guards and even if we do, we’ll never get out alive.”
“A distraction so we can slip over the walls…”
“Maybe if we had Le Fie…”
Caesum looked toward Laural. They seemed to share some unspoken words. “There’s a network of tunnels beneath us. Leagues of them…”
Placisus shook his head, “it is a maze, impossible to traverse. We’d get lost before we got a hundred yards from the entrance.”
“And aren’t many filled with sewage?” the young guard said.
“Among other things,” Laural said. “I know of one route from a building in your neighborhood Belo…”
“Not from my place.”
“From mine. The Harlscots.”
Edin looked up, curious at first as he guessed she was family, then he knew it didn’t matter. “They’d never let me in the door,” Edin said.
“They would me...” Laural said as she turned toward Edin and sighed. “Our family isn’t all as dumb as Rube.”
Laural wasn’t known to the broson men guarding a small road blockaded with overturned wagons, large crates, and household furniture. They gave her a difficult time as she tried to exit the area so she caused a large commotion with a group of four guarding an alleyway.
An archer was posted on the roof, but he was staring down at the commotion as Edin slipped behind him, put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he fell asleep.
They leapt between three more buildings until they were blocks away and outside of the perimeter. Then they shimmied down to the street.
They stuck to the shadows, following the smaller alleys up toward Alcor’s Row.
Laural continued walking through the streets as if she was just a woman out for a stroll. It took some time before they came to the gate that abutted the rear of the estates. The guard was missing.
“Probably sent to the siege,” Placisus explained as he unlocked it. They walked past Mersett’s to the neighboring building. A coat-of-arms with a bird, long and thin spreading its wings about to take off. There was nothing in its grip like the bird of Alestow had. “Reach for the heavens.” Placisus said. “Your family’s motto.”
Laural had went to the front door and now they waited for the rear gate to be opened. The entrance to the underground was beneath a stone pagoda in the yard.
After about fifteen minutes, they heard feet crunching on gravel and the latch being opened. The wooden gate swung in and beyond it, a man in servant’s garb was walking away without a word.
In a window, they saw Laural in deep conversation with a man and woman who were turned away.
“Come,” Placisus whispered waiving them toward pagoda. He pushed in a square on one of the pillars, then went to the center, a stone chest with four T shaped handles coming out from them. He pulled on one. A square of stone screamed open near the base. They looked back at the window, the people were gone.
“Now.”
Edin went first down a long ladder. The smell was exactly as he’d imagined, wet, poo like and putrid. He summoned the ethereal orb and waited as Placisus, Arianne, and two soldiers climbed down after him. The panel closed and the sound of it was much louder down here.
They followed the directions turning at forks and crossroads. After about twenty minutes, the fumes were causing him to get lightheaded and his orb blinked in and out like the flashing signal back at the dry docks. Someone crashed into his back.
“Blast it,” a soldier said.
“It’s the odor,” Placisus said, “the gas is flammable.”
“Like holding a torch under your butt and letting one go.” The soldier snickered.
“Gross,” Arianne said.
“There’s the door,” Placisus said and pushed past Edin toward it. Placisus tried a key but it didn’t fit. He tried another and soon went through his dangling ring.
“I don’t have it…”
Edin pulled out the small lock pick set from Flack and started to work. After about five minutes of sweat and frustration, it opened.
“When did you learn that?” Arianne asked.
Edin opened the door and felt the silencing of the talent. His orb blinked out. “Recently,” Edin whispered then added, “there are wan stones here.”
“So magi don’t break in,” Placisus said.
“I thought this place was peaceful… everyone gets along?” Arianne asked.
“When have you ever known everyone to get along?”
“Under my father’s rule…”
“Quiet,” Edin whispered. In front of him was a small room with a sewer grate overhead and a ladder leading up to it. Soft moonlight peaked through casting long shadows of the bars near his foot.
Someone sneezed, or maybe snorted in the darkness. The odor was getting to them. His head was woozy as he began to climb. “A garden,” Edin called back.
“I love the garden, Casitas took me…” Arianne started and then stopped immediately.
Edin said nothing, he didn’t even look at her. They didn’t talk after the meeting. A part of him didn’t want anything to do with her. She got engaged to a vile creature and then denounced him… for good reason, but it still hurt.
Why was she even here? he wondered. Was she one of Casitas’ spies?
“Let me look,” Placisus said and switched places with Edin. The former guard captain put his head to the grate and moved it around as if he were wiping it with his face.
“Behind some boxwoods…”
“The iris section,” Arianne whispered. “It’s surrounded by a wall of shaped shrubs.”
Placisus nodded. “I’m moving it.”
Tense moments went past as he slowly and methodically pushed up the grate and moved it a half an inch at a time. It scraped and groaned far too loud for Edin’s taste, but no one appeared to investigate.
When it was gone, Placisus disappeared followed by the rest. Edin went last. First in, last out. Wasn’t that from accounting?
The smell was much better, heavenly compared to where they’d been. The flowers were overwhelming, birds tweeted, crickets chirped, and small fireflies glowed in the air.
“Pharont is probably in his chambers at this time but he’s bound to be guarded. Now we wait.”
The little war council had devised an attack strategy, they slipped most of their defenders toward the southern side of the isle and take the docks. That attack would begin at five, just before sunup.
Now they waited, only a small crack of moonlight still shown in the garden. They hid behind a row of trimmed ornamental bushes.
Arianne crouched next to him, she turned her head as if to speak, but didn’t.
Edin didn’t acknowledge her. He didn’t need the distraction and didn’t know what to say.
It was still dark when they heard the pealing bells going off somewhere in the distance. The ‘we’re being attacked bells.’
After a few more minutes, they darted over manicured grass, through small gravel pathways to the looming castle.
Placisus led them to a small door near the northern side of the tower between the mountain and the castle. He checked the door and yanked it open.
They burst in, shocking a couple of cooks who were half asleep until that moment. The guards quickly tied them up and then pushed through to a dark corridor. This was the first time he was actually in the main part of the castle. The dungeons and that store room weren’t exactly fit for a prophesized hero. He mused. Then shook it out. That was a dumb thought, he scolded himself as they cruised through the servant’s halls.
The bare and dusty halls were built into the palace as a way for the servants to be unseen as they did their duties. Guards used them too sometimes as they were faster. A person could pop out from hidden doors.
They climbed thin stairwells and long corridors but somehow, they saw no other humans. It was eerily quiet.
Edin was covered in sweat and his legs burned as they reached the closest exit to Pha
ront’s chambers. A small door between two guest rooms a few yards to the right of the FAE’s room.
Placisus tested the door. He pressed it slowly and it creaked open.
He looked toward Edin, in the dim light it was hard to read his face. Edin felt his heart thumping and he wanted a few moments of rest but they didn’t have it. Soon, they’d be face-to-face with the Premier.
The young soldier went out first and Edin felt dread. His hair stood on end and he tasted the electrical feeling rising.
It was too late. Edin felt a surge of energy. Then a yellow arc caught the soldier in the chest and he flew backward out of sight.
Placisus and the other soldier leapt out where he’d just been.
Edin followed. He summoned an ethereal wall before them and a moment later, the room was awash with bolts of electricity, flying arrows, and whipping black stones. Smoke began to cloud the room, a ball of fire hit the wall and burst but Edin felt no heat. He kept moving forward, pushing.
The wan stones were trying to take effect, they struck the wall noiselessly and clattered to the ground. Edin kicked one forward toward the unseen attackers.
He was flanked by the two soldiers. They had their swords and shields out but were looking at him warily.
He tried to summon water, if it covered them, he thought they wouldn’t dare use lightning, but he felt as if someone was fighting him for control. Gales of wind pressed at him from both sides, fireballs flew and dissipated.
“Behind…” Arianne’s voice.
“We’re surrounded,” Placisus called.
Edin didn’t turn, he couldn’t. “Help her,” Edin said. They were already about ten yards from the hidden entrance.
The magi attacks slowed and then stopped. Edin saw he was standing over a wan stone and had pressed Pharont and his men back. His talent was weak and hard to keep up, he glanced through the white haze and saw them gaping at him. About ten broson men, with Pharont at the rear.
“Kill him!” he shouted.
He had little time and energy. Edin let loose the culrian and instantly felt nude. Edin drew his sword and attacked.
There was an instant clashing of blades as four Brosons tried a simultaneous assault. Edin stepped over one at his ankle and threw the foot into another. He was off balance and just barely was able to parry a third strike. The fourth missed by a finger.
His chest beat harder and time slowed. Edin watched as the men’s faces changed. He used that moment of shock to slam a fist into a man’s face then pushed him into two of his comrades. Edin took the third by the sword arm and twisted him around trying to toss him into the other defenders.
The man’s feet lifted off the ground and for a moment, Edin felt a lessening of the wan stone’s suppression. He raised his arm and let loose as strong a wind as he could from his open palm.
It caught the man in the chest throwing him at Pharont. The large man was now retreating behind his men with a slow and wobbly gate.
The projectile-man slammed into four brosons and Edin dove into the melee. He kicked out to the inner side of the knee and noticed it was Worian, the man whose foot he broke. Edin caught more with elbows, knees, and fists. He hit a few others with the hilt of his blade, and headbutted one on the bridge of the nose.
He was tiring far too quickly, he needed to slow or he’d burn out. Edin leapt backward away from the fight and took a deep breath.
The world sped up to normality and a group of broson men and Pharont were staring at him. Edin took a moment to breathe.
“Behind,” Arianne called and Edin dropped. An arm clutching a blade flashed over his head for a moment, then suddenly, he and an attacker, were flying hard and fast toward the gaggle of brosons.
Some of the men ducked but Pharont was too slow.
Edin landed on the man’s enormous belly and bounced off of him. Another cry from beneath him. He was sitting on a broson’s chest. Worian’s.
A moment later, he saw a broson with a quarterstaff about to strike him.
Edin shifted and the quarterstaff glanced off his shoulder and cracked Worian’s chest.
He felt the rumbling cry reverberate through his body. Edin kicked at the attacker’s leg, catching it at the knee and hearing a snap as the man dropped. Edin caught the quarterstaff and yanked it from the grip.
Rolling to the other side he saw one man staring at him with widened eyes.
Edin recognized him as one who’d escorted him to the jail weeks ago.
Without a word, he turned and fled.
Edin turned back to the fight.
Pharont was trying to get to his feet, though it was difficult for him to roll over.
Edin put the point of his blade in front of the Adam’s apple. It took Pharont a long moment to recognize what was happening, his looked shifted quickly between, fear, anger, something else, then back to fear.
“Stop, or I will execute him,” Edin yelled down the hall where Arianne and Placisus were still fighting. The other soldier was gone, possibly in the pile of bodies.
Everyone stopped, they glanced over and after a moment, lowered their weapons. There were four more brosons still standing, at least five were down on their side. Arianne’s bow was gone and she held her quarterstaff, Placisus grinned, though he looked to be in pain.
“Tell them to drop their weapons and go into that door,” Edin said loud enough for all to hear.
“Drop… the weapons…” Pharont’s shaky voice called out. His words were sporadic like a drunk woodpecker. “Go into the closet…”
The remaining dropped their weapons and walked toward an open door. Their metal covered greaves clanking the floor.
Edin looked around, near his feet and spread out in a sunflower like pattern, men groaned and sobbed but they did not get back up. There was blood, yes, bones poking out and limbs turned to angles they shouldn’t be… but he didn’t kill anyone. A smile came over his face.
“On your six,” Placisus called.
Edin twisted his legs and dropped. He thrust his blade up as Berka had done once in the forest what was at least a lifetime ago. It caught the attacker in the gut.
The guy was huge, a monster even. He grabbed the blade of the weapon as blood started pouring from his mouth.
With his other hand he reached for Edin’s neck. With his legs tangled, and his blade caught, he couldn’t move fast enough. The man’s meaty hand wrapped around his throat like a normal person would a fishing pole and started to squeeze.
Edin swung the quarterstaff into his head and tried pushing the blade further in. It did nothing. Despite the wound, the man was still stronger than Edin.
Edin let go and began to see black dots around his vision. He groped behind him, looking for anything, but all he felt was flesh and blood.
A burst of wind blasted into Edin and he lifted from the ground and into the giant man. A sloshing and gurgling came from outside his vision and a few moments of silence before the huge paw finally released.
Edin felt like he had spikes in his head for a moment as he tried to get his equilibrium back. He was a foot off the ground, lying on the giant. The black dots began to fade and his breathing normalized. He still somehow had his hand on his blade and pulled it out.
The huge broson was trying to breathe, but there was something metal stuck in his throat. He pulled his blade from the man’s chest and turned to see Arianne with a small metal shard hovering above her hand.
Some of the other brosons were trying to get up but due to broken limbs and other injuries. They were struggling. It was then that Edin noticed the alarm bells pealing throughout the castle and he knew they had little time.
He bent down and grabbed Pharont’s large arm and with the encouragement of his blade, he helped the man to his feet. Edin shoved a wan stone into a loose pocket on the Premier and hoped he wouldn’t notice.
Edin had never stood next to the man, and only saw him standing on the makeshift stage at Belo’s party. He noticed that his body shape was more ball li
ke than squash, maybe an eggplant.
“Come on…” Edin said through gritted teeth as they filed into Pharont’s chambers.
It was a wide room, large and of an odd shape, not quite a hexagon but very near it. Great windows pierced the sunrise and to the south and east.
They were high up, a hundred yards or more.
Pharont ambled over and sat on his bed. Placisus tied his arms to a post like a beast tied to the stake before the slaughter.
They then began the task of looking for any secret entrances. Placisus had been in here before, though he didn’t know any entrances and after their cursory glance, they couldn’t find any.
Edin had a feeling there was at least one around. He was about to take a seat, just to get off his feet for a moment, when he heard pounding on the door. A metal bar lock had been set and the strikes rang with metal.
“Father, open… it’s me…” Casitas said.
Edin pulled himself near the door and glanced at Arianne sitting on a plush purple chair and Placisus leaning against a bookshelf and holding his arm. Edin felt like he’d just run a thousand leagues and could sleep for weeks.
“Tell him you are in a meeting of grave importance,” Edin said softly. “If he enters, I’ll kill him and the rest…” Edin lowered his blade to Pharont’s jugular. “Then you last.”
“You are him… the Ecta…” Pharont paused then turned his head calling out to his son. His voice was that of a man still in command despite the circumstances.
A moment later, Casitas agreed to wait in the hall.
Edin felt that Casitas was lying. He found a tall back chair with a large Ơ on fuzzy green velvet. Edin shoved it under the handle as an extra brace.
Edin moved before Pharont and watched his eyes, but the man gave nothing away. He sighed, sheathed his blade and moved toward the bed.
They didn’t have much time and the only route for escape was a southern window. There was a trellis a few yards below with stairs that descended toward the southeast gardens.
“I would like to be honest with each other,” Edin said, it was the only way he knew to start this type of conversation. “You have treated me poorly since I came to the island… yes.”