 |
  |
 |
|
|
|
Back to the previous chapter: Pursuits
First Draft
Sir Artgal jumped down from his horse. "You will follow me to the commander's office." He waited for the party to dismount. Breanna wobbled in her saddle, but no one budged. "If you prefer the cold, so be it. The commander will not be pleased." He turned sharply and strode towards the front door.
Bilbus sighed loudly, the exasperation that may have been in his breath quickly turning to exhaustion. He pulled his right foot free of the stirrups, leaned back, and swung his leg over Acquisition 2's neck. Sitting sideways in the saddle, he slid off the side of his horse, his feet making "squishing" noises when they hit the cold mud. Straightening, and adjusting the orc officers' insignia on his shoulders, he strode after Sir Artgal.
"Someone better go with him," Rishala muttered under his breath. He dropped from his horse and followed the mountebank.
"It's warmer in there, anyway," Adria mentioned as she folded her arms tightly to fight the predawn chill. She exhaled sharply, watching the mist in the dim lantern light, then climbed down from her horse and walked quickly for the door and the warmth inside.
The rest of the party likewise followed Sir Artgal into the building.
Once in the commander's office, Kasey went to a small iron stove in the corner of the room. It had cooled overnight, so the Church Knight industriously loaded wood into the stove, packed some tinder underneath it, and lit it using the striker sitting on top of the stove. The tinder quickly ignited, and the wood soon was alight, warming the corner of the room.
Kasey herded Breanna and Adria towards the stove to thaw them out. Breanna held her hands out towards the stove, feeling the first real warmth in days. She snorted, then giggled to herself. Adria glanced over at the noblewoman. Breanna giggled maniacally, shaking her head and trying to apologize, but utterly unable to form a coherent word around her giggles.
Bilbus looked at the two women standing in the corner. Adria glanced back at her husband and shrugged. To no one in particular, Bilbus said, "Bree's gone."
He withdrew a flask from a belt pouch and opened it. He took a deep sip of the wine he had in the flask -- not a good wine, not even a Scowling Knight wine, but it was all he had left after all this time. He offered the flask to Eric, who gladly took a drink.
The warmth from the stove permeated the room within minutes. The fatigue from hours of flight and the warmth after days of cold weather assaulted the party. Breanna had dropped to her knees in front of the stove. Adria was leaning against the wall. Sturm's eyes stayed closed too long when he blinked. Kasey stood straight, his posture wary but his eyes no longer alert.
Fifteen minutes after Kasey had lit the stove, the base commander entered the office. She was well-weathered, perhaps forty years old. Her hair was a sandy blonde color, of medium length and incredibly unkempt, even allowing for her having just come from a bed. She had a dark robe wrapped tightly about her, hiding all but her head and neck, her hands, and her feet. Her feet were bare. As she shut the door behind her, she rubbed an eye with a callused hand.
She turned to regard the party. They were a motley bunch, muddy and tired. As she glanced at Bilbus, he winked and managed a half-smile. She kept looking over the party, pausing when she made eye contact with Eric.
The Karasimian said, "There is a platoon of forty drow following us, about..." He looked towards the ceiling, as if he were looking for the sun, even though the sun had yet to rise. "...about forty-five minutes from here now."
Bilbus quickly added, "That's the name of our group."
The entire party laughed.
"We're all going to die when they get here. Can you hold them off for eight hours while we get some sleep?"
She turned to Sir Artgal and lifted an eyebrow quizzically.
"Dame Dyer, we intercepted them as they were approaching, a half hour east of the hold. They knew about the Tree Eaters. They said they were here two months ago when the Tree Eaters defected."
Eric added, "We've been on the run for about forty-eight hours, with maybe six hours of sleep."
"Try closer to sixty hours," Bilbus corrected.
Slowly, Eric repeated, "On the run. Not sleeping. There are drow forty three minutes out."
Sturm stared at Dame Dyer. "Where are the orcs?"
Dame Dyer replied, "They left over a month ago, in the middle of the night. They gave us no warning they were planning to leave, and they told us nothing of where they were going."
Kasey shook his head quickly, as if he were trying to clear it. "They may have orcs with them, too. The drow."
Sturm ignored the Church Knight's interjection. "What about Atenburg? What happened there?"
Eric asked, "Was he captured?" He glanced at Sir Artgal, then back at Dame Dyer. "Hey. You aren't wearing standard Sun Knight outfits." Dyer raised an eyebrow. "I mean the dressed ones out there aren't. And he isn't." He felt a slight creep of red on his neck. He needed sleep.
Dame Dyer nodded. "We no longer consider ourselves part of the Order of the Knights of the Sun. We are calling ourselves Cunnick's Regiment, after the knight who founded our order. The Sun Knights don't hold to their original mission." She turned back to Sturm. "As for Sir Atenburg, he went to a meeting in Llwelyn two weeks ago with sympathizers. He never came back. We suspect he had been betrayed by someone at that meeting. There was a sham trial last week. He was accused of being a spy and sentenced to die."
"When?" Eric asked.
She turned back to him. "No date has been announced, that we've heard."
"He knew the risks," Sturm said dismissively.
"Ass," Bilbus muttered to himself. He glanced up, surprise on his face. "Did I say that out loud?"
"I thought you did," Eric said.
"Aye," Rishala agreed. "I heard it, too."
Sturm took two steps towards Bilbus and slapped the mountebank-noble on the back of his head. Bilbus staggered forward, rubbing his head.
After Sturm stepped away from Bilbus, Eric asked Dyer, "Who is in charge of this group?"
"While Atenburg is gone, I am."
"There are drow coming," Eric repeated again. "Maybe thirty three minutes away. I hope you have mages."
Dame Dyer laughed disbelievingly. The grim expression on Eric's face stopped the laugh.
Kasey tapped a foot impatiently. "I am going to ready defenses. We won't have much time when the drow show up." When no one countermanded him, the Church Knight left the office.
After Kasey left, Dame Dyer gazed at Sturm. She thought the sword on the knight's hip had a familiar crossguard, but she had refused to believe that she actually was looking at Gretorixmar. Still, no one would have the gall to wear a replica of that sword into a Sun Knight -- former Sun Knight, she corrected herself -- compound.
Eric watched her looking at the scowling knight. "See something you like?" The exhaustion had chipped away at his normally reserved bearing until little was left.
Breanna snorted loudly. Embarrassed, she covered her mouth with both hands, but continued to chuckle.
"Perhaps Atenburg was right," Dame Dyer said. She nodded towards the sword. "You must be important."
Crossly, Sturm demanded, "What did Atenburg say about me?"
Breanna uncovered her mouth. "That a girl -- an apothecary -- could best you sparring with a two-handed sword." Bilbus and Rishala guffawed loudly.
Sturm had given Breanna pointers in swordplay, but always with a rapier or a knightly sword. Any time she tried to get Sturm to show her fighting techniques for the large swords, he was less interested in sparring. The one time Kasey had interfered and Sturm crossed practice swords with the Church Knight, it was clear why. Sturm was a deadly swordsman, with a technique as fluid and deadly as any Breanna could imagine, with a single-handed sword. With larger swords that required both hands to wield, he looked decidedly less graceful -- certainly not incompetent, by any means, but Kasey was besting him consistently. Sturm had focused his training devoutly on lighter, faster swords.
"It has been a busy twenty four hours," Dyer said tiredly. "There is an emissary from King Kelaghan sleeping in one of the officer's quarters upstairs. He arrived yesterday with an offer from the king to recognize us as an independent Royal Order, provided that we would relocate south."
"An emissary from King Kelaghan?" Bilbus asked. Kelaghan was the king of Eiresud.
"Why are you still here?" Eric asked. "You're two days' ride from the headquarters of the Knights of the Sun. It can not be safe to remain here."
Dyer sighed. "We're here because Sir Atenburg wanted to remain close to Llwelyn to make it easier for us to pick people up who left the Sun Knights."
"Stay here and pick up strays," Bilbus observed. "How many strays are here?"
Dyer looked at him. "About three hundreds Sun Knights, almost all of them footmen, plus supporting personnel."
A smile spread across Bilbus's face. "Eric, I have a plan."
"Damn it," Adria blurted.
Kasey found the duty officer outside, near the stables. The Sun Knight had been overseeing some pages who were tending to the party's horses. Judging from the wary eyes the pages kept on Farran, one of them had already gotten to close to the foul-tempered kelpie/horse. Kasey spent several minutes explaining to the duty officer that there were drow approaching, and that the hold had best ready itself for attack. The duty officer ignored the knight's pleas until a lone Sun Knight approached the keep on a galloping horse.
The sun was just above the trees to the east when the knight leaped from his horse and ran to the duty officer. "Sir Meikle! Dark elves approach from the east!"
The duty officer looked gravely at Kasey. He started barking orders to the knights. "Barricade the gates! Man the palisades! Pages! Bring arrows and bolts from the armory! You! Move the ballistae to cover to the east!"
Men and women scurried about, readying the hold for battle.
Kasey watched the preparations for a moment, then bellowed, "BILBUS!"
Moments later, Bilbus ran outside; his comrades were seconds behind him.
"What?" the mountebank asked. From somewhere, he had liberated a bottle of Scowling Knight wine that he held with one hand.
"That thing you did to the arrows? Can you do it to ballista javelins?"
Bilbus set the wine down at his feet. With a cocky smile on his face, he cracked his knuckles. "Yep." He looked over his shoulder. "Bree! Rishala! Go make those javelins do something drastic!"
Rishala made an obscene gesture towards Bilbus, but he hurried for the steep stairs to the palisade. Breanna followed the Caledonian. Bilbus picked up his bottle of wine and followed them onto the palisades. Imperiously, he ordered knights about, unmindful that they ignored him outright. Kasey soon found himself on the palisades as well, but his suggestions were heeded -- he knew what he was doing.
The bustle of activity quickly subsided as the knights began to wait.
Eric joined Bilbus on the wall. The mountebank was drinking deeply from his bottle of wine. In mid-swallow, Bilbus heard a horn sound from nearby, in the trees. The drow were very close. Bilbus coughed and sputtered, choking on the bitter wine.
"I thought you said we had twenty minutes left," Bilbus snarled accusatively.
Eric shrugged.
A man's voice shouted from the trees in the familiar threatening sing-song of the drow, "Humans within the hold, we are no threat to you if you comply with our requirements!"
Bilbus made an obscene gesture and directed it towards the trees as he put a mocking sneer on his face.
Quietly, Eric suggested, "Maybe we should hear their requirements first?"
Bilbus waved towards the trees, a sheepish grin on his face.
Dame Dyer had run onto the palisade, still wrapped in her robe. Her bare feet now had freezing mud caked on them. One of the Sun Knights briefed her on what the knights knew, which was very little.
"What are your requirements?" she shouted after the knight had finished his explanation.
"We know that thieves whom we have been pursuing are within your walls. Deliver them unto me, along with the property that they have stolen, and we shall leave. Refuse, and you shall all die."
Kasey was moving among the knights on the wall, uttering quiet encouragement to each of them. After the drow made his threat, he stopped to look at Dame Dyer. She looked around at her troops and the visitors who had led the drow to the hold. In the grounds of the hold, below the palisade, a dozen knights stood ready with longbows to blind-fire into the trees. Others on the palisades searched for targets, squinting as they stared into the sun. South of the hold, knights were still organizing themselves in the tent encampment. Kasey nodded at her, ready to fight.
Looking back at the forest, she sternly commanded, "Light them up."
Several knights on the palisades grabbed large, rectangular shields. The shields were metal, and highly polished. The upper and lower sides were curved outwards, making them awkward to control with one arm. The knights raised the shields and turned towards the sun. Soon, the rays of the sun were being reflected into the trees, revealing the dark elves who were hiding just beyond the treeline. Drowish curses echoed out of the trees as sensitive eyes, unused to such harsh light, were temporarily blinded.
Bilbus sidestepped a few paces to a flagpole on the palisades. He unfurled the Sun King's battle banner and ran it up the pole.
The first volley of arrows flew from the drow bows. Fully half of them were directed towards the exposed knights of the encampment south of the hold, while the rest fell on the hold itself. As the arrows struck, they exploded violently.
Bilbus cursed. The drow were using the same magicks that he had used on arrowheads months ago. As the first countervolley shot skywards, Bilbus danced back and forth on the palisades, shouting to the drow mockingly, "Is this what you want? Why don't you come and get it!" Overhead, he waved the banner of House Eilservs, still tied to Rhongomyant.
As the arrows flew, Breanna ran up the stairs to Kasey. Concentrating desperately, she shaped Heka into protective magicks around the Church Knight. She then used more Heka energies to speed the knight. She then ran towards Eric, who had strung his longbow and was watching as the beams of light from the mirror shields sought targets in the trees. Breanna stepped in front of him and slapped him on the chest.
"No more holes," she demanded.
She glanced towards the nearest ballista. Rishala was kneeling next to it, in front of a batch of javelins. He gestured to her, then pointed at the javelins. She hurried towards him, stumbling as the drain from the magickal castings compounded her exhaustion. Adria, who had just reached the palisades, steadied her.
"I don't know how much I'll be able to help," she admitted.
"Do what ye can, lass."
Bilbus realized that another volley of arrows was falling. He ducked to get his head below the palisade wall. A thundering explosion left his ears ringing and his hair covered in dust and splinters. He stood up and faced the trees.
"Hey!" he shouted indignantly. "You're not supposed to blow up the spear!" He then turned to Eric. "Eric, use the flare arrows!"
"What good will they do? We're facing into the sun, Bilbus."
"The flares burn, right? Burn the trees, they lose their cover!"
Eric grabbed one of the flare arrows that the party had captured. He stopped to watch the Sun Knights on the walls. Most of them were firing blindly into the trees, hoping that the sheer volume of arrows might slow the drow. He then watched carefully as the reflected sun beams danced across the treeline. When he spotted a drow in a sun beam, Eric loosed his flare arrow. The arrow struck near the drow, burning bright green.
"Knights!" he shouted. "Concentrate fire where I place these flare arrows. I'll find targets, you kill them!"
Several knights saw the sparking green of the arrow he had already fired, and they quickly sent a barrage of arrows into the area around the flare. Adria joined the volley of fire with her own.
Eric readied another flare arrow and watched the beams of light for another target. When one appeared, he loosed the arrow. A hail of other arrows soon followed. Within a few minutes, Eric realized he was running out of flare arrows; however, the drow had caught on to his coordination of the knights' fire, and they were starting to concentrate more explosive arrows on the hold. One of the knights with the reflective shields flew from the palisade as an arrow exploded on his shield. Several other knights had fallen with gaping wounds.
"Bree, Rishala! If you're going to ready those javelins, soon would be good!", he yelled. He then shouted, "Is there any coffee in this gods-forsaken place?"
One of the knights near him shouted, "Yes, in the mess hall!"
"Can I get some?"
The knight glanced back and down into the grounds of the hold. Spotting a page looking towards the ramparts, he shouted, "Page! Get coffee for this man!"
The page ran into the hold.
Bilbus had his spyglass out, scanning for drow in the trees. When he spotted one, he focused on the quiver of arrows at the drow's hip. With a violent shaping of Heka, he tried to steal the arrows away from the drow to place them at Eric's side. However, the Heka lashed back at him, giving the mountebank a brief wave of nausea and a harsh reminder of why he no longer wanted to use Black School magicks.
The loud whunk of a ballista launching a javelin rolled over the sounds of arrowfire and wounded. Bilbus glanced up to see the javelin skewer an unfortunate drow who had been unable to evade the reflectors and had already been the target of Adria's withering fire.
Bilbus glanced up. "Daylight." He turned to Eric and shouted, "Daylight! I've never used this spear in daylight!" The enchantments on the spear all relied on it being used during the day.
Eric kept watching for targets. As fewer beams of light danced across the trees -- the drow were targeting the large metallic reflectors -- Eric realized that few drow had fallen. As one drow was illuminated in sunlight, several arrows struck the drow, stopping inches short of skewering the black elf. They were using magickal protections. Of course.
"We need to get more knights in here," Eric observed. "The drow will rush us eventually, and we don't have enough people to fight all of them."
Breanna had expended as much as she could on casting magicks. She heard Eric's concern and glanced around. To the west of the hold, shielded from the drows' exploding arrows, were most of the rebellious Sun Knights. If they could get over the wall, they could help protect the hold. She noticed Sturm in the muddy grounds of the hold.
"Sturm! Get ropes! Eric says we need more knights in the hold. They're right over there!" She pointed towards the far wall. "They could climb over the wall and in if we drop ropes."
Sturm nodded, then quickly fetched some ropes. He met Breanna on the palisade wall opposite the drow. The two tied several ropes to the wall and threw them over. Sturm climbed down the ropes and gave orders to the knights seeking shelter from the drow arrow fire. Soon, a number of the men were scaling the walls. Breanna returned to helping Rishala as best she could. The first batch of magickally enhanced ballista javelins were ready.
Rishala offered the first of the javelins to the ballista crew. A knight took the javelin and placed it on the firing rail of the siege engine. Another crew man adjusted the aim of the ballista, pointing it towards a large bush where he had seen a pair of drow hiding.
Once the knight had the weapon aimed, he shouted, "Ready!"
The first knight pulled a lanyard.
Whunk!
The javelin shot from the ballista into the trees.
Whoom!
A ball of fire erupted where the javelin struck, igniting the brush and sending wounded drow scattering. A cheer erupted along the palisade as the ballista crew worked feverishly to ready the weapon to fire once more.
Lord Silverthorn's head snapped to the left. The ball of fire that erupted had to have been from the human siege engine's projectile. The drow were solely using explosive magicks to chip away at the wooden fortifications; they had not resorted to trying to burn it down. The humans were using magicks to defend their structure.
"Lieutenant!" Silverthorn shouted, calling for the military commander of the drow.
A dark elf quickly moved through the brush to Silverthorn's side.
"You assured me that these men would be no threat. That the only ones who may be problematic were the thieves who used magicks. Will you heed my warnings now? The thieves are using their magicks on human military weapons!" Silverthorn backhanded the lieutenant, hard enough to knock the drow off balance. Lord Silverthorn launched into a string of drow curses as he darkly watched the human weapon launch another fire-blasting javelin.
Whoom!
"Destroy that damned weapon!" Lord Silverthorn bellowed.
Arrows fell closer to the ballista. Not all of them were explosive, now. Some struck the palisades and plunged into the logs, not exploding. The crewmen had ducked to avoid the barrage of arrows. Once they were up again, they quickly resumed readying the ballista. One snapped his head up, facing north past the hold. He pointed at something outside the hold. "Look!"
Eric ran north along the palisade wall, unmindful of the arrows that struck. He spotted mounted knights charging across the field, using Hold Asam to hide them from the drow forces. Most of them had lances lowered.
"Who are they?" Eric wondered aloud.
Kasey, nearby, looked at the similar styling of the armor the twenty knights wore. "Church Knights!" He ran towards the stairs of the palisade. "Open the gates!"
The Church Knight scrambled onto Farran's saddle. "Open the gates! Let me out!" He brandished Caladbolg, holding it over head and circling the tip of it.
A page opened one of the doors of the gate. Farran raced through the narrow opening at a full gallop, neck straight out and mane whipping in the wind as he ran to catch the line of knights on their charge.
On the wall, Eric watched the drow immediately shift fire to the charging knights. A barrage of arrows fell on the Church Knights, exploding harmlessly in the air or bouncing off an unseen shield. Some of the knights made gestures, and bolts of magickal energy shot from the knights into the trees.
With the Sun Knights and Hold already forgotten, Dame Dyer shouted, "Regiment! Charge! Open the gates!"
Pages flung open the gates, and Sun Knights charged out on foot. More ran around the side of the hold. Over two hundred men raced across the opening on foot, heading for the treeline that hid their enemy. Sun Knight archers quickly organized themselves and volleyed arrows into the tree line en masse to soften the drow before the Church Knight charge reached the dark elves.
The drow archery was quickly losing cohesion. Instead of concentrated fire, the arrows fell indiscriminately, some bouncing harmlessly off of the Church Knight magicks, some plunging into the charging Sun Knights, still others falling ineffectively in the tent encampment south of the hold.
Rishala left the ballista crew to their duty -- they had enough javelins to make the drow miserable. He looked into the treeline, seeking any signs of drow still holding their position. When he found drow, he quickly directed Heka at them. The magicks coalesced into sparkling motes around the drow that glittered in the shade of the trees. The drow stumbled within the glittering dust, choking as they breathed and blinded as they walked. They were easy targets for the Sun Knight archers and the ballistae.
As Dame Dyer bellowed orders to her knights, Bilbus looked about on the ramparts. Near the dame was a shouting cone that she left unused. Bilbus grabbed it and started shouting "Retreat!" in the orcish tongue, pointing the shouting cone in different directions towards the trees. If there were orcs nearby in the trees, perhaps they would hear the command and fall back.
Hearing his friend shouting in the guttural tongue of the orcs, Rishala decided to shift his efforts towards finding the orc forces. He quickly shaped a clairvoyance magick and sent it into the trees, starting at the battle line. The Church Knight charge had found targets -- there were a number of drow pinned to trees or to the ground by lances. Most of the knights were on foot, chasing down individual drow. Rishala flew over Kasey as the knight swung Caladbolg and decapitated a lone drow who was still drawing his sword.
Sending the clairvoyance orb farther east, Rishala flew past trees, seeking signs of other forces. There was a quartet of dark elves who were running east, terror on their faces as they fled the battle, but still no orcs. Rishala moved the magicks farther along.
With the battle little more than a mopping-up operation, Kasey felt his exhaustion once more surging. He sheathed Caladbolg and climbed slowly back into Farran's saddle. The Sun Knights had reached the trees, and they were handily eliminating the remains of the drow forces. One knight withdrawing would have no impact on the outcome, now.
Farran carried Kasey back to the hold. Within the confines of the walls, Kasey drunkenly dismounted, falling to his knees in the sticky mud. He dropped the rest of the way down, laying on the mud and starting to snore. Farran nudged the knight, snorting loudly next to Kasey's ear. Without rousing, Kasey reached up and undid the saddle straps, leaving the saddle and bags loose on the warhorse's back. Farran walked several paces away, flopped onto the mud to lose the tack, then rolled over in the mud, bare back quickly caking. The half-kelpie exhaled loudly, a contented sigh as it finally had a chance to sleep.
From the palisade, Eric watched as knights started dragging drow bodies and equipment from the trees. "You know, we could probably find some armor that we could use. The drow breastplates are a lot lighter than anything we have."
Bilbus nodded. He and the Karasimian climbed down from the palisade and walked across the field towards the collection of bodies.
A thought occurred to Eric. "Where's Sturm?" He had not seen the knight through most of the fight, and he would have expected Sturm to help mop up the drow.
"I dunno," Bilbus said. He was too tired to care.
Once they reached the bodies, Bilbus realized that there were female drow among the dead. "We could get breastplates for Adria and Bree." He opened his hand into a groping position. "If you see any about this big, let me know. That should be about right to fit her chest."
Eric nodded to himself. "We should try to find enough for everyone." The two started searching the bodies, looking for armor that would be close enough fits for their companions.
Rishala searched to the extent that his control of the clairvoyance casting would allow east of the hold. Finding no signs of an approaching orc army, he brought his viewpoint back to the hold, then circled about it in an expanding spiral. When he found no indications of orc within a half mile, he concluded that there was no orc army approaching. He leaned against the wall of the palisade, near the ballista, and passed out.
Sir Goudge, head of the detachment of Church Knights who had broken the drow attack, led his horse into the grounds of Hold Asam. Eric trailed behind a number of paces, curious to see what the Church Knight was doing. The grizzled knight stopped over the unconscious Kasey.
"I see we've found Sir Kasey," he said to no one in particular.
Dame Dyer approached the Church Knight. "We are glad to see you, Sir Knight. I don't know how well we would have lasted against those drow had you not arrived when you did."
"You are the commander of this garrison?" Sir Goudge asked as he eyed the dirty robe and muddy feet of the woman facing him.
She nodded. "Dame Dyer, acting commander of Cunnick's Regiment."
Goudge raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. I am Sir Goudge, out of Castle Treasa. I would have a word with you."
"I will have you taken to my office. Excuse me while I clean up. I was not expecting this."
A page escorted Sir Goudge to Dame Dyer's office. Eric followed them in. Dyer herself had returned upstairs to get dressed.
Sir Goudge eyed the Azirian. "You're no Sun Knight. Are you traveling with Kasey?"
Eric nodded. "Why are you here?" he countered. "Who are you looking for?"
"I'm here to escort Kasey."
"Escort him where?"
"Where ever he is going."
"He's not going anywhere today. We've been on the run from those drow for well over two days. We all need sleep." The explorer yawned loudly. "If you will excuse me."
Eric wandered back outside and looked around the grounds for his friends. Breanna was curled up behind some barrels in one of the only dry spots in the grounds of the hold. Carefully, Eric scooped her up and carried her inside. He reached the base of the stairwell just as Dame Dyer did.
"You can use the first barracks at the top," she offered. "I'll keep it empty to give you all some rest."
"Thank you," Eric said. He carried Breanna to the barracks -- the first door on the left -- and laid her on the bottom bed of the first bunk. He went back outside to find Bilbus and Adria stumbling towards the hold.
"Upstairs, first room on the left. Bree's already there." Eric waved vaguely back towards the building.
Bilbus grunted and walked past Eric towards the building. Adria followed him silently. Eric found Rishala sleeping on the palisades and roused the story teller with some difficulty. The two then woke Kasey. The three staggered into the hold and up the stairs. Within minutes, all were asleep.
Soldier Nathas Balort surveyed the scene ahead of him in the dwindling light. The drow warrior had visited several of the orc towns sequestered in the Middle Ranges during his decades of service, and he was sure he had been to this particular village before, but the calamity that had befallen the orc village had rendered it unrecognizable. Buildings had been burned. Those that still stood had multiple burn marks on them, as if someone had been trying to raze the village. The well near the center of town had been partially collapsed, and Balort was sure he had seen bodies in the depths of it. Orc bodies were everywhere. Few of the orcs bore any sort of armor, and none carried weapons larger than the enormous daggers typically carried by off-duty orcs. Many of the orcs had died from arrow fire; the arrows were large -- mostly from orc field bows, with a number of larger siege bow shafts as well. It looked like orc had suddenly turned upon orc.
Balort jogged through the village, looking for his companion. Lord Lotyas Silverthorn had sent Baltor and another drow, Mahnoyt, to this village to get a finger of orcs -- over one hundred and thirty orcs -- to help pursue and capture some humans. Balort saw no reason to demand such a large force when forty drow soldiers were already tracking the humans, but Balort saw no reason to question the orders of a noble who would readily order his execution, either. But reporting the orc village obliterated would not bode well for Balort.
Balort found Mahnoyt sifting through the rubble of one of the villages. In the menacing, melodic tongue of the drow, Balort asked, "Did you find any survivors?"
Mahnoyt straightened, tossing a charred timber aside. "No. But I did find this." He pulled a bundle of cloth out from under his belt, where he had tucked it. He unfurled the cloth, revealing a filthy, stained white banner. In the middle of the banner was an orange ball with rays around it.
"What do you make of this?" Mahnoyt asked as Balort studied the banner.
"It is a flag of some sort. The emblem is similar to the humans' Knights of the Sun, but not identical."
"It was carried by an orc. One of the few in battle armor."
"Are you certain? Orcs always carry the banners of their tribe. This is no orc tribe's banner."
"I know. It was born by an orc. The tribal tattoos on the orc were those of the Tree Eaters Tribe. I had heard that they had mobilized out of the forests to join the Stone Fists Tribe in the Middle Ranges."
"It looks like the tribes fought." Balort looked around at the ruined village.
"It looks more like an ambush," Mahnoyt corrected. "The Stone Fists were caught unprepared and slaughtered."
"We will have to report to Lord Silverthorn," Balort sighed. "I do not envy us."
The two drow left the village, heading north towards the last place they had seen their commander.
Eric sat up abruptly. He quickly gathered his wits about him as he remembered where he was. Hold Asam. Church Knights broke up the drow attack. We needed sleep.
Judging from the light peeking through the cracks of the shuttered windows of this barracks room, it was late in the afternoon, perhaps less than two hours until sunset. In the dim light, Eric could see most of his friends sleeping. But Sturm was missing.
A deep rumbling sounded through the room. Eric glanced towards its source: the sleeping bulk of Kasey. The Church Knight's stomach was growling. Looking around at the rest of his companions, Eric saw Bilbus peering out from under disheveled covers, one eye glancing around for the source of the sound.
Breanna stirred on the bed next to Eric. She sat up, stretching as she looked around at the unfamiliar room. She got up and walked hesitantly to an adjacent room. She poked her head back into the barracks and said quietly, "There's hot water in here. And four bathing tubs." She went back to her bed and opened her saddle bags, which had been placed at the foot of the bed. She pulled out a clean shift and went back into the bath room.
Adria rolled out of bed and walked towards the bathing room, loosening the leather armor that she still wore as she went towards the baths. Bilbus followed his wife, rubbing his eyes with one hand. After a few moments of thinking, Eric decided to take advantage of the fourth bath.
Breanna had already stripped by the time Eric had joined her. She did not care that Bilbus was in there, trying not to ogle her as she climbed into the bath. The noblewoman settled into the hot bath that she had poured and sighed loudly.
In the barracks, Kasey sat up and scratched his scalp. He took a couple of experimental sniffs. The distant smell of warm meats drew the knight from the bed, and he followed the smells down the stairs to the ground floor and the mess hall. Knights filled the room, eating, drinking, and carousing. Freshly roasted mutton filled one table, and Kasey immediately grabbed a leg. He tore bread from a nearby loaf, then wandered back into the hallway.
The Church Knight went outside to the watering trough kept for the horses. A quick tap determined that the water had not iced over. Kasey dunked his head into the trough. When he came up, he took a bite of mutton, then wiped his face. Seeing the mud on his hand, he dunked himself again. When he came up, he took another bite of mutton, then wiped his face. The knight repeated dunking until he did not see a trace of mud when he wiped his face. He stood up and looked at the filthy water. Grunting to himself, he tipped the trough over to empty it of the mucky water.
Kasey went back inside and up the stairs to the barracks room. He had finished the mutton leg, so he tossed the bone on the floor.
From the bath room, Breanna shouted, "Hey!"
"Sorry, m'lady," Kasey said as he kneeled to pick up the bone. He found a bucket near the door and dropped the bone into it.
Breanna climbed out of the bath, still ignoring Bilbus, and swiped at herself to wipe the water away. She pulled on the shift and followed the knight back into the hallway. Breanna laced her shift, ignoring the chill she felt as she walked down the stairs to the ground floor. There was a bit of a draft in Hold Asam, and she was still quite damp.
Kasey led Breanna to the mess hall. The Church Knight grabbed a large plate and piled food onto it. He took a seat at a table that had several Church Knights. Breanna sat down with him a few moments later, with her own plate of food. The rest of the party joined the two a few moments later at the table.
Breanna looked at her friends. "Where's Sturm?"
Bilbus glanced around the mess hall. The dour Sun Knight was not at any of the tables. "Hmph," Bilbus grunted to himself. To Breanna, he asked, "Do you know who knows everything?"
"Who?" she asked.
"Rishala." Bilbus turned to Rishala, who had made the mistake of sitting next to the mountebank. "Rishala, where's Sturm?"
Rishala opened his mouth to answer, but he paused, instead. He glanced around the room. "I don't know. I have nae seen him since the drow attack."
"Maybe we better look for him," Eric muttered. He picked a pair of sweet rolls from his plate and stood up again.
Bilbus sighed to himself. He looked at the hot bowl of porridge sitting in front of him, then glanced at the bottle of wine he had confiscated. Shrugging, the mountebank poured some wine onto the porridge. He mixed the concoction, then spooned a sample. Raising his eyes in surprise, Bilbus offered a spoonful to Breanna. She screwed her face in disgust.
"Yuck."
Bilbus shrugged again, then got up to follow Eric into the hallway. The two wandered through the mansion that had become Hold Asam, finding no signs of Sturm. The two stepped outside into the grounds of the hold. A page carrying a large bucket was running towards the horse trough, which was nearly empty. The boy dumped the bucket into the trough, then turned to run back towards the stables to fill it once more.
"Hey, page boy," Bilbus blurted.
The page turned around. "What?"
Bilbus chuckled. To Eric, he muttered, "They never answer me." He held up a bottle of Scowling Knight wine. A fairly good drawing of Sturm adorned the label on the bottle. "Have you seen him?" Bilbus pointed at the picture of Sturm.
"Oh, him? Yeah, I saw him this morning, ordering knights to climb the ropes to get into the hold. He took off on a horse, heading north." The boy waved towards the stables.
"Hells," Eric cursed quietly. He strobe back into the hold, with Bilbus close behind.
The Azirian went back to the mess hall. Dame Dyer was sitting at a table adjacent to the party. She looked up curiously when Eric stopped next to her.
"This was great food. We like the hospitality. But we need to leave."
The dame raised an eyebrow.
The rest of the party was looking at Eric now. "Sturm left during the battle. A page saw him riding north. There are two things in that direction. A day away is his vineyard. And two days away..."
"...the Sunkeep," Dyer finished.
Eric nodded. "And the man who is the closest thing Sturm has to a father is imprisoned there and scheduled to be executed. We are going to have to catch him, or we will have to spring him from the Sunkeep."
Bilbus looked levelly at Eric. "So, you want us to break into a huge, heavily defended fortress to break someone out of a dungeon."
"If need be."
Bilbus cracked his knuckles. "Okay. Let's go."
"Dame Dyer, I suggest you leave. The drow will return, and they will most likely return in a larger force."
"We were leaving anyway. Sooner is better than later, as far as I'm concerned. Tell Sir Atenburg that we're headed to Brallian. He should be able to catch up."
The sun was about to set. The party was making ready to leave when a column of wagons rolled up to the hold. Church banners hung from each wagon. The Church Knights in the hold went out to greet their support personnel.
Kasey looked at the people on the supply wagons. He recognized nearly all of them from Castle Treasa in Londoun. He was about to go back into the hold when he recognized a young boy on one of the wagons.
"Merek?" Kasey shouted. The boy waved to him, grinning.
Kasey ran to the wagon and lifted the boy from the drivers' bench and hugged him. "Merek! How are you?" Kasey set Merek back on the bench.
Merek shrugged and rubbed his eyes.
"You had to have been traveling pretty hard to catch us here. The knights were, what, ten hours ahead of you?"
Merek nodded.
"Hey," Kasey called to his friends. "Maybe we should stay the night and get some more sleep. We're all still exhausted."
Eric shook his head slowly. "We should travel now. We are near the full moon, so we will have enough light. Sturm has at least a ten hour lead on us already."
"The trains will slow us down," Kasey observed. "And the Church Knights can't just leave them behind."
"The trains will have to catch up. We'll head to the Scowling Knight Vineyards and leave instructions for where to find us."
Broedrick walked out to stand next to Kasey, looking at the column of wagons.
"You might stay with the Sun Knights," Eric suggested. "They could use a drow expert."
"I was hired to get you out of Erelhei Cinlu," Broedrick protested.
Kasey replied, "And you have done that. Your contract is completed. You can travel with Cunnick's Regiment, or you can join my household. For now, you would have to travel with the support wagons. It's your choice. Unless you would rather return to the caves."
Broedrick considered the offer. Even the brief time he had spent out of Erelhei Cinlu had been incredible, despite the overwhelming exhaustion and the drow pursuit. The thought of returning to the ghettoes of that cave city had no appeal.
"I can join your household?"
"Sure! Miss Ciara can always use an extra hand. When we get back to Londoun. For now, you can ride with Merek on my supply wagon. Oh. Broedrick, this is Merek. He's my page. Or maybe he's my caretaker and Farran's caretaker. He really isn't trying to become a knight. Merek, this is Broedrick. He helped us escape a drow city."
Merek waved in greeting.
"Merek does not talk, Broedrick. Just so you know."
"Kasey," Eric interrupted softly, "we need to get underway."
"Okay. Merek, I'll see you soon. Broedrick, thank you."
When Eric and Kasey had reentered the grounds of the hold, the rest of the party was ready to travel. Bilbus was grumbling about the rebel knights being unwilling to part with their meager stocks of Scowling Knight wines, forcing Bilbus to take some different wines, instead.
Sir Goudge waited at the entrance to the hold, watching the party leaving.
Eric stopped next to the knight. "We will leave word at the Scowling Knight Vineyards for where to find us."
Sir Goudge nodded. The party rode out of the hold and turned north, following the trail towards Sturm's home, as the sun settled to the horizon.
Nathas Balort approached the clearing where the humans had left the magickally trapped spear. As he and Mahnoyt approached the clearing, he heard quiet cursing in the drow tongue. Cautiously, the two soldiers crept towards the clearing, eyes wide in the darkness that followed sunset.
There were four drow in the clearing. Two of them rested. Another was on watch, and the other -- Lord Silverthorn -- paced back and forth, talking to himself. Balort paused to listen to Silverthorn.
"...An easy pursuit. All we have to do is chase down the thieves and bring them back. Heka use is an anomaly. They had help. Humans don't have the will to fight... Bah! The baroness was wrong on all counts! I've lost an entire platoon of drow -- drow! -- chasing these humans. They wield magick as readily as my soldiers. They refused the chance to give up those thieves to avoid bloodshed." The drow lord glared skywards. "They use that damned sun of theirs as a weapon!" He scowled at the other three drow in the clearing. "It will take days to get more troops here. The thieves will have surely fled before we can get to them. I rue the thought of chasing them into one of their cities. Even if the finger from the Stone Fists gets here, they will not be enough."
Balort cleared his throat and quickly stepped into the clearing. Lord Silverthorn snapped his head towards the interruption, one hand reaching for the adamantine rapier he carried.
Balort bowed his head. Keeping his head down, he spoke quickly. "My Lord Silverthorn, there will be no orcs from the Stone Fists. We are just returned from their nearest village. It has been destroyed. Bodies remain where they were slain. Most of the dead were Stone Fists, none of them battle ready. We found a number of Tree Eaters, as well. They bore battle armor. Mahnoyt found this, as well." He held out the banner with the sun emblazoned on it. "It is similar to the human Sun Knight banner."
Lord Silverthorn harshly took the banner from Balort and studied it. "It is the battle flag of King Paendroeg, the king who Sultan al-Hatsreod defeated two millennia ago. The king whose followers imprisoned Sultan al-Hatsreod." Silverthorn threw the banner to the ground. "So, we have no orcs. It will take days to get back home to get an army. And we will have to report our failure to the baroness."
He walked across the clearing to a pine cone and kicked it savagely.
The sky was just starting to show the first graying of dawn when the party reached the Scowling Knight Vineyards. The snow on the ground was nearly gone, and the vineyards had a tranquil feel about it in the still of pre-dawn. The silver orb of the moon was settling close to the western horizon, casting long shadows across the vineyards. The fatigue that had briefly left the riders the previous evening had returned. The chill added to the fatigue left no one in a mood to talk. The riders stopped their horses next to the stables.
Eric climbed slowly from his saddle and looked into the dark stables. He felt around just inside the door until he found a lantern hanging from a hook in the wall. He struck the flint to the steel, lighting the lantern. Adjusting the wick to keep the flame low, he walked into the stables.
There was one horse in the stables. From the matting on its back, it had been ridden hard and not groomed or cleaned afterwards. The saddle that straddled the half-door of the stall had Sun Knight markings.
Eric went back outside. "It looks like he was here. There is one horse in the stables. I am going to check the house to see if he's here."
"Good idea," said Bilbus. He climbed down from Acquisition 2. "I'll check the presses." He walked towards the wine press building as Eric went to the house.
Bilbus grumbled to himself when he realized the door to the wine presses was locked. His fingers were too numb from the cold to pick the locks, so he resorted to kicking at the door out of frustration.
Eric reached the door of the house when he heard the thumping. He glanced back at Bilbus, shook his head, and opened the door to go inside. He worked his way through the darkened house towards the staffs' rooms.
The door to the staffs' part of the house flew open. One of the vineyard tenders, holding a lantern, rushed out the door and nearly ran into Eric. When he saw the armed man facing him, he blanched.
Eric opened his hands towards the man, showing that he held no weapons. "We are looking for Sturm. Is he here?"
The man shook his head frightfully.
"Was he here? He is in danger, and we need to stop him before he reaches Llwelyn."
"He was here," the man admitted hoarsely.
"When? What did he do?"
"He stopped briefly before sunset and changed horses, then kept going. He did not say what he was doing."
Bilbus wandered into the house. He stopped when he saw Eric. "Hey, Bree is trying to pick the locks. Tell her not to quit being an apothecary." He continued on, down a narrow stairwell.
Eric gave the keeper some coin. "There will be a column of Church Knights arriving later today. When they arrive, tell them to meet us at the church in Llwelyn. Can you do that?"
"Of course."
Eric yawned. "On the other hand, we need sleep. We can camp here for the day and get some rest."
Bilbus overheard the last part of that statement. He had returned from the basement, carrying some old, dusty bottles. "Sturm isn't here. We can take his room and sleep inside. No sense being cold if we don't have to."
"Good idea," Eric agreed.
Once Eric had relayed the plan to his friends, Adria and Breanna claimed Sturm's room. Once inside, they realized the bed was spacious enough for both of them as well as Eric and Bilbus. The rest of the party took up space in the servants' wing, which was three small bedrooms. Soon the party was once more resting.
The sun was well on its way into the sky when Sturm walked towards the outer gatehouse of the Sunkeep. He had left the horse he took from the vineyards at the Sun's Shadow Inn, where he and the rest of the party stayed last time they were in Llwelyn The party would think to look there. Golden rays lit the eastern face of the Sunkeep, where the entrance to the castle was. The enormous castle was closed -- the drawbridge was raised, cutting off the only land access to the Sun Knights' home castle. On the near side of the cut that separated the Sunkeep from the rest of land was a pair of towers that supported a short stretch of wall. When the drawbridge was down, the end of it rested in the gateway between the two towers.
Sturm walked towards the entry gate, fighting to keep his pace steady. The last sixteen hours of riding had been grueling at best. Sturm had lost count of the hours of sleep he had had since leaving the accursed drow city, but he was sure he could count them on both hands, with fingers to spare.
Two guards stood on the wall of the entry gate. When they realized Sturm was standing there staring at them, they both looked at him.
"The Sunkeep is closed! Move along!" one of them called out.
"I am Sir Sturm Sunblade. I demand to see Sir Richard Atenburg."
The two guards exchanged glances, then one of them turned back to the castle and gestured. A minute later, the drawbridge lowered.
When it touched ground, the guard shouted, "Proceed!"
Sturm crossed the drawbridge, into the castle where he had spent his childhood. The outer bailey stank of horses, and he could see that the stables were full to capacity. On the far side was a collection of tents guarded by knights wearing Enforcer tabards. There was an excess of knights in the castle. He continued straight, towards the gate to the inner bailey.
A pair of Enforcers scurried towards the exhausted Sun Knight. "Hold! Who are you?"
"Sir Sturm Sunblade. I will see Atenburg."
The Enforcers exchanged wary glances. Keeping their distance from Sturm, they turned back towards the inner bailey gate. "Follow us."
The Sun Knight followed them into the inner bailey, and on into the keep. They led him to the day offices of the Lord High Commander of the Sun Knights. "Wait here," one ordered. They left Sturm alone in the office.
Sir Morys Vauhan entered a few minutes later with half a dozen knights. "Sturm Sunblade returns," he said mirthlessly. "And he wants to see Atenburg."
"You will take me to him," Sturm commanded.
"Of course, of course," Vauhan agreed. "First, the guards will take your weapons. Then, they will take you to the dungeons. It is dark in there, so you probably will not see Atenburg. But you will hear him. Enjoy your talk, for he dies tomorrow at sunrise. As will you."
The guards closed to disarm Sturm. He was too tired to even try to stop them.
Near mid morning, Bilbus rolled out of bed. In his exhaustion, he had not bothered to undress, beyond removing his stiff leather jacket. He stripped to his smallclothes, taking one glance to make sure Eric and the two women still slept, then stripped and changed into clean underclothes. When he glanced back at the bed, his wife was watching him, a mischievous look in her eyes.
"You could make yourself useful," Bilbus said. He saw Breanna and Eric stirring -- they were not as asleep as he thought. "You and Bree could go sweet talk the staff and ask about Sturm, just to make sure the story they tell is the same as the one Eric heard."
Adria shrugged and sat up. "You and Eric need to leave so we can get dressed."
"You are dressed," Bilbus protested.
"You want us to sweet talk these men dressed like this, smelling like we rode all night in these clothes?"
Eric had propped himself up to watch the discussion.
"Fine," Bilbus said curtly. "Some on, Slanty."
Eric frowned to himself, but he got out of bed and followed Bilbus into the hall. They wandered down to the front room and slumped into two of the seats. Twenty minutes later, Breanna and Adria sauntered by, dressed for riding.
"Twenty minutes for that?" Bilbus complained to no one.
Adria flashed a crude message in Thieves' Sign as she walked by.
The staff -- there were two men at this time of year -- were out in the winery. When Adria spotted them, she swayed her hips a little more. Breanna followed behind her, mimicking the younger noble's movements. The two men stopped and watched the two women warily.
"Sturm really was here yesterday?" Adria asked. "He didn't stay or anything?"
"Yeah," one of the men answered. "He rode in late in the afternoon, tacked my horse, went into his room to grab some things, and took off. He left that the warhorse out there. Didn't say anything to us. I took the tack off the warhorse."
"Didn't say anything? How rude." Breanna scowled.
"He's not nobility," Adria said. "He's not allowed to be rude to the staff."
The two men looked amused.
The creak of numerous wagons approaching outside interrupted their mirth. They went outside, with Breanna and Adria close behind, to find the source of the noise.
The column of Church Knights and their support wagons had reached the Scowling Knight Vineyards. Eric was already on his way out to meet the commander of the detachment. Breanna joined him at the head of the column of horses.
"We will be resting today, then setting out tomorrow at first light for Llwelyn," Eric said. "Sturm has gone to the Sunkeep, I believe. We need to get him out of there. When your men are ready to travel, have them head for the church in Llwelyn. We will meet you there."
Sir Goudge nodded.
Eric went back inside to join his friends for breakfast.
Sir Richard Atenburg stayed huddled in one corner of his cell. After an endless imprisonment in the dark dungeon of the Sunkeep, he had more than enough time to find the driest spot of bedrock in the prison. The dungeons of the Sunkeep had been carved out of bedrock, below the waterline of the rivers, and water seeped in continuously. The cell was cramped, barely more than seven feet to a side, and chilly. It did not help that his captors had stripped him to his smallclothes. The conditions were horrific. As if the cold and wet were not enough, there was no chamber pot. There also was almost no light. The guards at the end of the short hall had a lantern, but there was only a small grate in Atenburg's cell door and a small grate in the door at the far end of the hall, so little to no light ever found its way to Atenburg's cell. The Sun Knights had stopped using the dungeons years ago, but the new Lord High Commander had found it fit to use them once more.
The imprisonment had taken its toll on the former head trainer. His nose was always running, and he sneezed frequently. A cough had crept into him, and it got worse as time progressed. The food he got was meager, barely fit to eat.
Sometime in the recent past, guards had delivered someone to the cell across from Atenburg. Whoever it was fell into a deep, snoring slumber almost as soon as he or she had been locked in. Atenburg had tried to imagine the exhaustion needed to sleep that readily in these conditions. He had nothing else he could do.
The snoring had stopped, and Atenburg could hear sounds of the new person stirring.
"Welcome, visitor," Atenburg said hoarsely. He had not spoke much recently, and his throat was sore.
"You sound bad, Atenburg," Sturm's familiar voice growled back.
"Sturm? How the Hells did you wind up here?"
"I told them I was here to talk to you."
"You walked up to the Sunkeep and told them who you were?"
"Yes."
"Sturm, why did you let yourself get captured?"
"I told you. I wanted to talk to you. I want to know what the Hells is going on. I have had dreams, Atenburg. Unpleasant dreams in which the world went to Hell at the Dark One's own hand. The Dark One has talked to me in the dreams. He has mocked me. I found Gretorixmar two months ago."
The shock of hearing Sturm's voice compounded with the shock of what Sturm had said. "I was told you were important to the world."
Sturm's voice darkened. "What did you know about me? Who am I?"
"I was told only what the Church wanted me to know. You were important. I had to raise you well to face your fate. The world depended on it."
"What is my fate?"
"I don't know. They did not tell me."
"I'll tell you what my fate is, Atenburg. I'm not here to save the world. I won't defeat the Dark One, much less confront him. I have to kill myself to keep the Dark One's prison from failing. I get to buy the world time so someone else can defeat the Dark One." His voice had become angry.
"I didn't know," Atenburg confessed quietly.
"You're a spy of the Church, and you didn't know? Half the Church seems to know who I am." The anger had become bitterness.
Atenburg became angry. Hoarsely, he barked, "I am not a spy! I never was. I have always been friendly towards the Church. Most Kellts are. A priest came to me one day and asked if I could do something. Something important for the Church, and for the world. I agreed. The priest told me that a baby would arrive at the Sunkeep, abandoned at the front gate. I had to raise that baby to be the best man that I could. Then you showed up at the Sunkeep. I took you in and raised you the only way I knew how, to be a Sun Knight. After you arrived, the priest who had talked to me disappeared. No one at the Church knew anything about him. And no one from the Church ever asked me anything specifically about you."
"You knew, but you never said anything."
"Say what? To a child? You might have said something to the wrong people, and we would both have been expelled. Or you would have been marked as crazy and kicked out. You were too headstrong as a teen to get much of anything through to you. When you rescued me from the cell in Hold Asam, I thought you already knew something about what was going on, considering that odd bunch you traveled with, but you said nothing, so I didn't breach the subject."
"You should have told me something," Sturm insisted.
Atenburg slumped against the damp, cold stone wall. "Maybe so. But I did not know what was going on. You understand the concepts of operational security. They apply here, as well. You were important to the future of the world. That was all I needed to know. To tell me all the details would have made me a liability. And for me to tell you, when you were a child running around blathering at everyone, would have been utterly inexcusable. I can't change the past, and neither can you. If you are going to hold this grudge, so be it."
The silence in the cell block continued for a long time.
Once more the sun was settling to the western horizon. Clouds had been rolling in during the day, and the night promised to be chilly. The party rode through Llwelyn, across the bridge spanning the River Chuthaim and into the heart of the city. A broad road led towards the Sunkeep, which stood at the confluence of the Rivers Chuthaim and Llwelyn. On that road, close to the Sunkeep, was the Sun's Shadow Inn. The party had stayed there the last time they were in Llwelyn, and they decided to stay there again. It was the closest inn to the Sunkeep.
After they had taken rooms, the party retired to the common room. No other guests were staying at the inn, and the innkeeper was more than happy to give the party privacy after he brought them warm food.
Adria glanced at her companions. "Did you notice that we passed no Sun Knights, even on the road outside that leads to the front gate?"
Eric nodded. "And the Sunkeep is closed tight, with a light patrol on the walls. There might have been six knights total on the walls facing us."
"This may be easier than I thought," Bilbus observed. "They are not being very alert."
The innkeeper stepped in to refill mugs.
"What news of the town do you have?" Bilbus asked conversationally. "We have been on the road."
The innkeeper filled Bilbus's mug with ale. "Word is that there is an execution in the Sunkeep at sunrise. Some traitor or spy or somesuch. It's what everyone was talking about today."
Once the innkeeper left, Bilbus sniffed at the ale. He set the mug down in front of Kasey and produced one of the dusty bottles he had taken from Sturm's house. He read the label. "Well! Founder's Reserve, indeed. This bottle is from his first vintage." He carefully pried the bottle open. He let the bottle breathe for a moment, then took a sip. His face twisted horribly. "And I thought the newer vintages were bitter!" He put the cork back into the neck of the bottle. "I'm going to take a walk and check out the castle."
"I'll go with you," Eric offered.
The two went out, found a bridge to the far bank of the River Llwelyn, and walked downstream to the vast Via Avillonia bridge that spanned the conjoined rivers.
"Who would know the layout of the castle, other than a Sun Knight?" Eric asked.
Bilbus snorted. "The Sunkeep is too old to talk to the original builders. It has to be maintained, though. Carpenters, blacksmiths, locksmiths, stonesmiths..."
"Maybe they have added more prisons recently, with their new commander. They would need extra locks. Perhaps we should talk to some locksmiths."
"We could disguise ourselves as Sun Knights to get in," Bilbus suggested.
They reached the broad span over the river. Once they were part of the way across, Eric stopped to watch the castle. He drew his spyglass and gazed upon the castle, cursing the poor light. The full moon was covered by clouds. Eric swept his spyglass back and forth slowly, making sure he looked past the castle at other parts of the town, in case anyone was watching him.
"Those guards are not even remotely alert," Bilbus smirked as he lowered his own spyglass. "I could walk up those walls and right behind them, and they wouldn't notice."
"Maybe so," Eric said, not really paying attention. He was focused on the castle.
"The castle has six towers," Eric stated. "Walls are about twenty paces tall, and there's not much room from the base of the walls to the waterline. It is wider on the other side, where the drawbridge is, than it is on this side, which is surrounded entirely by water. There are two piers off the narrow end. Both of them lead up to a door in the wall."
He lowered his spyglass. "I have seen enough. Let's go back to the inn and let everyone know what we've seen."
Once at the inn, Eric and Bilbus relayed their observations of the closed Sunkeep and the lax vigilance of its guards.
"They may be guarding Sturm and Atenburg closely," Adria warned. "What if they were ready for a jailbreak? On the other hand, it would be a major blow to their cause to have the leader of the rebel faction escape from their clutches." She paused contemplatively. "What if we present celebratory wine to the Sun Knights. We would poison it. It could get us in."
"We don't know enough," Bilbus groused. "What if we bribe the guards to get some information. I still have Hellenic scrip." He pulled out a handful of the paper notes.
"Will ye shut up about your script if I give you twenty-to-one for it?" Rishala groaned.
Bilbus ran the numbers through his head. "You will give me forty-four hundred Common for the two hundred twenty Drachma I have?"
Rishala sighed. "No. I will give you eleven Common for the Drachmae."
Bilbus grumbled under his breath. "Okay." He gave Rishala most of his scrip in exchange for a couple of copper coins.
Eric waited for the exchange to stop. "Could we talk to the Church to ask for their help? They know how important Sturm is."
"Kasey has inborn Church sense," Bilbus quipped. "He'll lead us to one. Follow him." He turned to Kasey. "Kasey, let's go find the church."
"Okay," Kasey said uncertainly. The party followed him out into the chill Saille evening.
Kasey meandered down the road. After several turns, he walked into a bakery that was getting ready to close. He purchased some bread and meats, then resumed his walk. Another twenty minutes of aimless travel led the party to a tavern. Kasey had finished his snack, so he purchased an ale. After he quaffed the drink, he went back into the dark streets. From somewhere ahead, bells tolled Vespers.
"Oh, there's the Church," Kasey said, heading towards the nearby ringing.
"'Inborn Church sense', huh?" Adria asked.
Bilbus ignored the jest.
The church was sizable, although nowhere near as enormous as the Cathedral Treasa in Londoun. Bilbus took a seat in the farthest back row of benches and pulled out some thin paper. He sprinkled some tabac weed on the paper and rolled it, then held the tabac stick as if he were waiting for someone to light it.
"What are you doing?" Adria asked.
"Someone from the Sword will show up. This always works," Bilbus insisted.
Adria sighed to herself and sat down.
A priest approached the party. Bilbus looked triumphantly at Adria.
"May I help you this evening?" the priest asked.
"I am Bilbus the Great. Perhaps you've heard of me?"
"We don't have time for this," Eric warned.
Bilbus changed tacks. "We're here with the Sword of the Church."
Simultaneously, the priest and Kasey said, "There is no Sword of the Church."
"Fine," Bilbus sighed. "We're here to see the head priest."
"He's at dinner."
"This is very important," Bilbus insisted. "It can not wait."
"Okay... Follow me."
The priest led the party out of the church to a spacious residence next door. He went through the front door and down a hall. He paused to rap on a closed door, then opened it and led the party in. The dinner room was roomy, with seats for a dozen people. Only one man ate at it at the present. The head priest scowled at the junior priest for interrupting dinner. Kasey shrugged apologetically.
"I am sorry, Head Father Carbic. These people were in the church. They wanted to see you. They insisted it was crucially important."
Father Carbic surveyed the party. "Well?" He dabbed at the corners of his mouth with a napkin.
"We need help getting into the Sunkeep," Eric said.
"What we really need is a safehouse," Bilbus corrected. "We can get in, but we need somewhere to go to get away from pursuers."
Eric explained. "Sir Richard Atenburg, the former head trainer of the Sunkeep, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow morning. Sir Sturm Sunblade is also imprisoned in there, we believe. He very well may get executed, as well. It is very important for everyone that he is not killed."
"One may always seek sanctuary in the Church," Carbic said.
"We will be trapped here, though," Eric pointed out.
"One would not have to be trapped. The Church has ways to get you out." He looked meaningfully at Eric.
"Thank you, Head Father," Eric answered.
"Thank you, Head Father," Kasey repeated. "Sorry to interrupt dinner."
The party took their leave of the priests' residence and made their way back to the Sun's Shadow Inn. The clouds were much thicker, and there was the hint of snow on the breeze.
Back to the previous chapter: Pursuits
Continue to the next chapter: Interventions
Back to the Book IV Index.
Back to the Dark Mysteries Campaign Chapter Index.
Original Draft 22 November 2003
Contact for this page: JourneyMaster@BabylonByCandlelight.com