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Back to the previous chapter: Holds
First Draft
A light snow had started by the time the party had returned to the Sun's Shadow Inn. The hearth fire was warm in the common room, and it quickly cut through the chill of the night air. No one else was in the common room -- indeed, none of the inns near the Sunkeep seemed to show signs of business. It was far quieter than the last time the party had visited Llwelyn.
The party had gathered around a large table, and the innkeeper had supplied mugs of warm, spiced cider.
Bilbus proposed his plan: "Kasey and I can sneak in the back, through the dock door. The rest of you will wait outside to help the escape. Just the two of us should make it easier to avoid detection."
Adria thought for a moment about the plan. It lacked details, of course, and it was questionable whether it had any merit. "What about telling the Sun Knights that the Church Knights are helping the rebels, and that they are riding into town to attack?"
She expanded on the plan. "Bilbus can act as a servant from the Church Knight caravan. He can tell the Sun Knights that the caravan met with the rebel Sun Knights, and that the Church is going to help the rebels. Kasey's escorts will show up sooner or later, which will give some credibility to Bilbus's report."
"I still like the breaking in plan," Bilbus groused.
Adria ignored him. "We can use some flare arrows in town to scare them, to convince them it's the Church Knights coming to attack."
Everyone sat in quiet for a minute. Eric asked, "What if we use Rishala's climbing magicks to go over the wall? The guards on the wall are not being particularly attentive."
Bilbus grinned. "I could go over the wall and let the rest of you in."
"We would need something that would put the guards to sleep," Eric speculated.
"No problem," Adria assured the explorer.
"Knock them out, not kill them," Eric warned.
"If they have a headache and stomach cramps when they wake up, is that okay?"
Eric sighed quietly. "If that's what it takes to make the concoction work."
Adria returned to Eric's plan. "Bilbus should take Rishala with him, to use Rishala's invisibility magicks."
"But they might detect the magick," Breanna protested.
Bilbus grinned. "They have to use magick to detect magick. And we're talking Inquisitors here." His grin widened. "We can stage a dramatic rescue at the time of the execution, while the prisoners are on the gallows or whatever, just to hurt their cause. We can show how inept they are, which would have to help the rebels."
Eric grinned. "I like the idea. They are going to make the execution a show, just to prove their own power. Rescuing the prisoners right under the noses of the Inquisitors would be damaging to their cause. It makes the escape much more difficult." He paused for a moment. "What if we put a ringer on the platform?" He looked pointedly at Bilbus. "With the rescue being a saving shot through the rope from Adria?"
"I like this plan," Bilbus admitted.
"This is worse than Bilbus's plan," Adria groaned.
Eric added to his idea. "We will all need to sneak in. When the rescue happens, it will take everything we have to get out of the castle in one piece."
"Another round of drinks!" Bilbus called out. "Bill the Sun Knights!" Once the innkeeper brought out fresh mugs of cider, Bilbus said, "I'll disguise myself as a Sun Knight and steal a boat to get me to the docks."
"Why not hire a boat, or buy it?" Kasey asked.
"Because the endless Bank of Bilbus is empty. I can't afford to buy a boat."
"Why didn't you say so?" the Church Knight asked. He reached into his coin pouch and grabbed some coins. He slid them across the table to Bilbus. "That should be enough."
The party worked out the details of the plan until well after the Church bells struck Matins.
Bilbus stood and stretched. "Well, I'm going to go buy a boat." Whispering to Eric, he corrected, "Steal a boat."
The rest of the party went with him. There really was no point wasting time having Bilbus find the boat, come back for the party, then start the plan. There were not enough hours left in the night. The party walked down a side street near one of the river banks as Bilbus ducked down alleys to search for unguarded boats that would suit the party's need. The metallic ringing of Farran's hooves on the paving stones was the only sound for much of the walk.
As they walked, Adria proposed a new idea. "I have a great plan where we all wear mustaches as disguises."
"All of us wear mustaches?" Eric asked. "Even you and Bree?"
"Hey, my last plan worked, when we dressed as pirates."
"Arrrr," Kasey chimed in.
Bilbus came out from a narrow alley and waved to Eric. He pointed to Kasey, who had not noticed him. Eric nodded.
"Kasey, is my armor good? Does it need adjusted?" the explorer asked.
Kasey checked the armor, tugging on straps and checking where the metal armor hung on the Azirian. "Looks good to me."
Bilbus stepped back out of the alley. "I have found a fine boat!" He led the party down the alley to a low spot on the shore. A large rowboat had been dragged onto shore. "Just ignore the dry rot," Bilbus added when the party got closer to it.
"There's no room for Farran," Bilbus warned.
"If he wants to come along, he can swim," Kasey said.
The party climbed into the boat, and soon they were drifting down the river towards the Sunkeep. Rishala used some Heka to render the boat and its occupants invisible, and they drifted in silence for a distance. The story teller then used some more Heka to shape a clairvoyant viewpoint, which he flew to the Sunkeep. It would be helpful to know what was in the castle before the party reached it.
The Sunkeep was a long, tapering rectangle, with its long sides along the rivers. The narrow end was at the confluence of the rivers, while the wider end faced Llwelyn. There were towers at each of the four corners of the keep, and another pair at each end of a wall that separated the outer bailey from the inner bailey. Smaller towers flanked the gate between the two baileys, as well as the gate and drawbridge that connected the Sunkeep to the city.
Guards bundled against the cold walked the walls, two men for each section of wall between a pair of towers. Most of them walked alone in the dark, but two or three carried lanterns with them. One pair stood in the middle of their section of the wall and talked. Lanterns hung on hooks at the doorway of each tower, but the upper reaches of the castle were otherwise dark. The clouds and light snow overhead blocked the full moon that shined above the cloud layer.
The inner bailey of the castle was dark. There was a large keephouse that filled most of the rear half of the bailey, and there were smaller buildings nestled against each of the other two corners. The outer bailey was poorly lit, but Rishala was able to see that there was a large cluster of tents filling a quarter of the bailey. Guards were posted around the tents -- facing towards the tents. Rishala got closer to the guards. Their tabards all had the Enforcer icon stitched onto them.
Rishala relayed what he had seen. "The tents are being guarded, and it looks like the Enforcers are doing the guarding."
Eric contemplated the information. "Maybe the dungeons are full, and prisoners are being kept there. Maybe Sturm is with them?"
The boat was drifting past the Sunkeep.
"Why aren't we using Farran to tow us?" Bilbus suddenly asked. "We're going to have to do something to get to the docks." He tossed the bow line overboard.
The kelpie-horse grabbed the line and started pulling the boat. The sensation was strange, since the kelpie felt like he was trotting under water, and the vibrations transmitted through the rope felt sharper, not like the smoother pull one would get from something swimming.
It took Farran just a few minutes to pull the boat to docks. As soon as the bowline was slack, Bilbus hauled it back onto the boat and tied the boat to the docks.
The party got out of the boat and crept along the wide dock towards the door at the base of the castle wall, five feet above the waterline. They stayed close to Rishala in order to remain within the protective invisibility of his magicks.
Bilbus kneeled in front of the door, one hand lightly touching the handle. "Let me know when the way is clear."
Rishala took control of his clairvoyance orb and moved it through the door and into the hallway beyond. He turned the view around to look both ways down the hall. A lone guard walked towards Rishala's view, passing right by the invisible magickal orb. Once the guard had turned the corner at the end of the hall, Rishala whispered, "You're clear."
Bilbus tried the handle. It did not budge. "It's locked. Rishala, look at the inside of the door and tell me what you see."
Rishala did as instructed. "There is a stout lock above the handle. And there is a bar across the door."
The lock did not have a keyhole on the outside. Bilbus cursed quietly. "I can't pick it. If I use magick, the bar would come loose and fall to the floor. It would make too much noise."
The mountebank looked up. The top of the wall was about fifty feet away. A grappling hook would be noisy, but... "Rishala. Put that spider magick on me. I'll crawl up and over the wall, go inside, and open the door to let the rest of you in."
"Why not just put the magick on all of us?" Adria asked. "We can all go over the wall."
"Because, then we would have to stay close to Rishala or we would be seen."
"I could make all of us invisible with separate castings," Rishala pointed out. "I could put the dweomer on something small that each of us carries. Then we would not have to stay close to each other. Of course, then we also wouldn't be able to see each other."
"I can put some magickal armor on everyone," Breanna offered.
"If we can't see each other, we need to figure out where we're going to go, and how we're going to meet," Bilbus said. "I'd suggest we go up the wall, around that tower," he pointed to the tower to the left, "and meet on the walkway about ten paces from that tower."
"Agreed," Eric said.
Rishala and Breanna set about with their castings, putting protective magicks on everyone, making them invisible, and enabling them to climb the walls of the Sunkeep.
The way was slow going, as the party had to be careful to avoid bumping one another and to avoid making too much noise. At long last, they made it onto the walkway at the top of the wall of the Sunkeep. Bilbus carefully went along the walkway, bumping into his friends to make sure all of them were up there. When he bumped into the familiar curves of Adria, he quietly said, "It's almost as easy as Altspire."
The mountebank glanced along the wall. Both guards were to his right, heading towards the farther of the two towers. Their backs were towards the party.
"You could take out those guards," Bilbus suggested to Adria.
"How can I know if I can hit them?" she asked quietly. "I can't see anyone else."
"We can all crouch," Bilbus offered.
"That's not good enough."
"Well, let's go, then. Follow me." Realizing no one could see him, he added, "I'm heading to the nearest tower and down the stairs to the main floor of the keep."
As he slowly walked towards the tower, Bilbus could feel Adria's hand on his back. Hopefully, the rest of the party had figured out that they could keep together by staying in contact.
They worked their way down the spiral stairs of the tower and into the keep. A guard walked by, missing the party by inches, but he kept on walking.
"We need tabards," Bilbus whispered once the guards had gone far enough away.
"One just walked by," Kasey reminded the mountebank.
"He might be missed."
Bilbus led the party down the hall and around a bend. There was a door next to him. He tried it, and found the latch moved readily. Bilbus pushed the door open and peered in. Several shelves of books lined the far wall, and there were a pair of large tables. Bilbus led the party inside.
"It's a study of some sort," Bilbus said. "We could set up a fireblast trap that triggers at sunrise. With this much paper in here, we would get a good distraction."
"Good idea," Eric agreed.
Breanna rigged a magickal trap, then the party moved on.
The party explored the ground floor of the keep, finding a mess hall, storage rooms, and the like. When Bilbus found the stairs up, he decided it was time to see what was on the upper floor of the keep.
It was soon obvious that the upper floor was small apartments and rooms, with one knight to a room.
"We have the high muckety-mucks here," Bilbus said. "Maybe we should take a hostage."
"Bad idea," Adria said. "Hostage situations usually do not end well for the captors."
"Rishala, can you find the commander?"
Rishala steered the clairvoyance sphere through the rooms of the upper floor of the keep. He found one room that was larger, and had an attached outer room. In the dim light of that outer room, Rishala was able to see Gretorixmar laying on a table. He relayed his discovery to Bilbus.
Bilbus followed Rishala's directions to the outer chamber. He crept in, alone, and used some Heka to create a small flame just above his thumb. It was enough light to see, but not enough to draw attention. Bilbus quickly rifled through the piles of belongings in the outer room, and he stuffed everything into some saddle bags that looked like the ones Sturm had.
He then went to the table on which Gretorixmar rested. Chuckling to himself, Bilbus put a bottle of Scowling Knight Wines on the table, carefully turning the label to face the door to the commander's inner chamber, and took the sword. He then slipped over to the door to the bedchamber. There were no hinges visible on this side of the door. It opened into the bedchamber. Bilbus grinned to himself as he carefully pushed a pair of nails into the wood of the door frame, six inches above the ground. He then wound a wire about each of the nails, creating a tripwire.
He gathered all of Sturm's and Atenburg's belongings, then slipped back into the hallway. "I have everything. Let's go."
He led them back into the stairs. Several steps down, he paused. "What if Bree sets up another fireblast in these stairs, set to go off after sunrise when the Lord High Commander is in the stairs?"
Breanna did so.
Once downstairs, the party slipped out into the inner bailey.
"What is in that building?" Eric asked. "The one that does not look like a smithy?"
Rishala flew the clairvoyance orb through the building and into the tower beyond it. "Barracks. Lots of sleeping Sun Knights. But their armory is in the tower behind the barracks, and there are stairs down."
"The dungeon?" Eric asked.
"That would be my guess, aye."
The party crossed the grounds to the far side, crawled up the wall to the walkway, then went into the armory tower. Breanna set another trap while Rishala recharged the invisibility magicks on everyone. The party then continued down the stairs to the ground floor of the tower and the armory therein.
Eric found the supply of arrows and replenished his quivers -- he had spent a lot of arrows fighting the drow, and he had never had a chance to recover most of them.
While Eric gathered arrows, Bilbus went to the stout iron door that led to the barracks building. With a quick stab of Heka, the mountebank entangled the lock such that it would not be able to be unlocked. He then quietly scampered back up the stairs until he found an arrow slit that looked down on the tents in the outer bailey. The tents were still dark, and they were still under guard.
Once Bilbus was back in the armory, he whispered, "Shall we see if Sturm is downstairs?"
The rest of the party gathered at the stairs, bumping into one another as they did so. Bilbus led them down the spiraling stairs into the dark, chilly dungeons of the Sunkeep. The corridor at the base of the stairs had been carved out of bedrock, and Bilbus could feel cold water on most of the surfaces. The air was damp and frigid and still.
At the end of a short passage was a heavy iron door with a small grate at eye level, guarded by two Enforcers. A lone lantern hung from a post above the two men.
Very quietly, Bilbus whispered, "Bree, come with me. We can put both of them to sleep."
He felt some shuffling as Breanna slipped past the rest of the party. The two slowly walked forward, towards the two unaware guards. Within a couple of seconds, both guards had collapsed, rendered unconscious by the magicks Breanna and Bilbus used.
Someone sneezed from beyond the iron door. "Keep it quiet in there!" Bilbus snarled.
Bilbus found the key ring on one of the guards. He tried each of the seven keys until he found one that unlocked the iron door. He then opened the door and walked down the corridor beyond. There were six iron doors, much like the outer door, arranged three on each side of the corridor. Bilbus could hear noises coming from the two doors at the end of the passage.
He unlocked the door to the left and stepped in. Sir Richard Atenburg huddled in one corner of the cell, dressed only in smallclothes. He shivered and sniffled, and Bilbus could see abject panic on the knight's face when Bilbus stepped in. Atenburg could not see Bilbus, but he could hear the mountebank.
Bilbus dropped the dagger on which Rishala had placed the invisibility magicks. Atenburg's eyes widened. "Atenburg, are you ready to get out of here?"
"Bilbus, give me the keys," Rishala instructed. Bilbus held them out until he felt a tug, then released them.
The door to the cell behind Bilbus opened. Bilbus heard Sturm cursing to himself from the cell beyond. There was a dull whack, followed by more cursing.
"Why did you hit me?" Sturm snarled.
Breanna replied, "Because I'm tired of rescuing you."
"We can save this for later," Eric said. "We need to get out of this castle before sunrise." He noticed that both Sturm and Atenburg were in small clothes. "We can dress you in the guards' outfits for now."
Bilbus chuckled. "Bree. You can disguise the guards to look like Sturm and Atenburg, right?"
"I think so," Breanna said uncertainly.
"Do it. Now, if we only had ash piles. We could make it look like the guards had turned to ashes, leaving the fake prisoners in the cells. It will really confound them." He stopped to look at Sturm, who was busily pulling on the clothes of one of the guards. "It was very nice of you to come back to rescue your foster father."
"Shut up," Sturm growled.
"Hey, Bilbus," Rishala called from the outer room of the dungeon. "I have your ashes."
Bilbus ran out to look. Sure enough, two piles of ashes now stood to either side of the cell door. "How?"
Rishala wiggled his fingers. "Remember when I made the rope?"
Bilbus laughed. "Great. Let's put some personal effects, and the cell door keys, in the piles, too."
"We should arm the prisoners in those tents," Bilbus said as the party went back up the stairs to the armory. "We could use some Heka to make the bag quiet and invisible, fill it with weapons, then drop it down by the tents."
Once at the main floor, Bilbus kept going until he could look out the arrow slit again. "Or perhaps not. They are stirring down there, and the Sun Knights in the tents are armed."
"It's time to leave," Adria insisted.
Rishala placed invisibility magicks on Sturm and Atenburg, followed those magicks with spider walk dweomers, then gave Atenburg instructions for how to walk on the walls and stay with the party.
The party slipped out of the tower and onto the walls of the Sunkeep. They hurried over to the narrow wall, crawled down it to the docks, and got back into their boat. Bilbus untied the line and tossed it into the water. Farran grabbed the tow rope and quickly dragged the boat away from the Sunkeep and downstream.
Farran walked onto the shore near the base of the bridge from which Bilbus and Eric had surveyed the Sunkeep early the previous evening. Farran still towed the boat, and he dragged it up onto the shore. Once it was securely beached, the kelpie-horse dropped the tow rope and shook himself, spraying water. Farran snorted, then walked the rest of the way up to the narrow road that followed the shore in this part of the town. The rest of the party, along with Atenburg, got out of the boat and followed the horse onto the road.
"We need to get back to the church soon," Bilbus said. "It's almost daybreak." He led the party back towards the church. "Rishala, you will have to enchant a bowl so we can watch the fun. Hey, we could go up into the bell tower to watch the fun, as well."
When the party reached the church, they hurried into it. Bilbus glanced around for a large enough bowl to use for scrying -- one that everyone would be able to watch -- and found only the two fonts containing blessed water. "They can make more," he said to himself as he grabbed one of them from its pedestal. "Rishala! Will this work?"
Rishala groaned to himself when he saw what Bilbus had. "Aye."
"Good. Stairs to the tower are over there." Bilbus nodded to a corner of the room. He noticed a priest walking towards him from the front of the temple. "Kasey! Ask the priest for breakfast. We'd like it in the bell tower."
Kasey intercepted the priest and relayed the request. When the priest asked why Bilbus was taking a bowl of holy water, Kasey replied truthfully -- the party wanted to watch what was going to happen in the Sunkeep. Kasey asked again about breakfast. The priest sighed and led the Church Knight to the residence kitchen.
Kasey reached the top of the tower minutes before sunrise. The rest of the party had gathered around the font of holy water, which Rishala now used as a viewing surface for his scrying magicks. Kasey set a platter of hot breads next to the font, then glanced up.
"Hey, that's a neat bell. How big is that? Four paces wide?"
Rishala glanced up at the large bell, hanging ten feet above the party. He glanced around quickly and found the pull ropes. Hastily, Rishala hauled the ropes up, so there would be nothing for a bell-ringer to pull.
"Hey!" someone shouted from the bottom of the tower. "It's Prime! I need to ring the bells."
"We're up here right now," Bilbus shouted back. "Shove off. You can have them when we're done."
"Look. He's awake," Rishala said in a hushed tone.
The surface of the water in the font showed the bedroom of the Lord High Commander of the Sun Knights. Sir Vauhan got out of bed and stretched, then took his time dressing. He lit a lantern and walked towards the outer room of his chambers. He opened the door and looked smugly towards the table on which he had left Gretorixmar. His grin vanished when he saw the bottle of Scowling Knight Wines that had been left in its stead. Sir Vauhan ran towards the table, cursing, and stumbled over the tripwire that Bilbus had secured to the doorway. The lantern he carried fell to the floor and spilled, starting a small fire. Sir Vauhan hit the ground hard, but picked himself up quickly and ran to the table.
He picked up the bottle of wine and glared at the drawing of Sturm that adorned the label. He shouted for guards -- silently, since Rishala's scrying magick did not carry sound, only images -- and ran towards the door of his apartment. He hurled the bottle of wine at the wall, where it shattered, spraying dark red wine all over the room. Sir Vauhan ran into the hallway, shouting orders to the confused guards who were responding to him. He shoved them aside and ran into the stairwell to the ground floor. Three paces down the stairs, Breanna's trap detonated, throwing the seared body of the Lord High Commander into the wall, killing him.
Looking up from the scrying font and looking towards the Sunkeep a couple of miles distant, the party could see several other brilliant balls of flame erupting from locations around the castle.
"Well, that should keep them confused," Eric said. "We should get some rest. I think we should stay here, in the church residences, for the day. We can figure out where to go next tonight."
The party had gathered in a sitting room early in the afternoon. They were all tired from the previous several days of excitement, but they knew there was much left to do before their adventure would end.
"We need to head south," Eric pointed out. "We will have to get to Brallian to find a ship that can take us to al-Rhayidh."
"That means going past Arabel Cinlu," Bilbus reminded his friend. "And the drow are looking for us now."
"Mustaches!" Adria blurted. "We can go in disguise!"
"We could hide in plain sight," Bilbus suggested. "We can act like we're a noble caravan, being haughty and arrogant. The Church Knights can be our escort." Bilbus thought through his plan a little more. "Eric is the exotic noble, looking for wives. Adria and Bree can be handmaidens in revealing outfits, so the guards do not look so closely at the rest of us. I will be Eric's advisor and translator. Kasey's a Church Knight, so he would be part of the escort. Sturm is obviously a guard."
Breanna leaned close to Adria. "You don't want to be wearing revealing outfits right now, I think." Adria would not be able to hide her pregnancy for much longer.
Bilbus did not hear the comment. "You would be Lord Pandah. No, what's it called in Karasimian?"
"Daimyo Pandah," Eric translated.
"It's a bad idea," Sturm growled. "The Church Knights need to be disguised. They wouldn't just escort a foreign noble."
A priest was walking past the sitting room. "Excuse me, Father?" Eric called out. When the priest stepped back and looked into the room, Eric asked, "Does the Church ever provide Church Knights for escorts? Say, for a noble entourage?"
The priest considered an answer. "The mission of the Shield of the Church is to protect the children of the Church. A wealthy noble, with the proper donation, could get an escort of knights, provided things were otherwise peaceable at the time."
"Adria and I will need to get material for these outfits," Breanna said.
"Why?" Bilbus asked. "You could wear those Hellenic dresses. That will distract any guards we meet."
"Have you been outside, Bilbus?" Breanna snapped. "I am not wearing something like that when there is snow on the ground. Come on, Adria." Breanna left quickly, preventing any further argument.
Outside, Breanna slowed to a leisurely walk.
"Are you all right?" Adria asked.
"I'm fine. It's just that he... And you can't... If he would have asked..." Breanna stopped babbling. "Never mind. But it's too cold to wear anything like that, anyway. We can find something warmer, less revealing, and looser fitting than Bilbus wants."
The two walked along the road, stopping at several seamstress's shops along the way. Nothing quite worked for an exotic costume. At long last, they found enough material to create something that would work for the both of them.
As they walked back towards the church, Breanna heard the thunder of galloping horses approaching from behind. Afraid that the Sun Knights had somehow found out what she had done to them, she jumped to the side of the road, ready to flee down an alleyway.
"Hold up!" a voice shouted from the onrushing column of horses.
Breanna instantly recognized her brother's voice. Unmindful of the approaching horses, she strode out into the middle of the road. Jamie Ceiturin led the column of horses, a broad grin on his face. His dark hair was tousled and unkempt almost beyond repair, as if he had done nothing with it for several days. Behind Jamie was a column of twenty other horses, all ridden by people Breanna recognized from Armagh. One of them carried the Armagh city banner on a flag pole. The Ithell family crest, with its orange-and-black striped Azirian tiger, dominated the city insignia. With a start, Breanna realized that Adria's brother, Matthias, was riding with the column of young men from Breanna's home town.
Jamie stopped his horse five paces from Breanna. "We caught up with you!" he beamed.
"Jamie! What are you doing here?" Breanna was nearly breathless from the surprise.
"Father is mad. No, he's furious. Sis, do you realize that we haven't heard anything from you in weeks? He's threatening to hire men to track you down and bring you home. So, I'm here to protect you from the likes of me." He smiled smugly. "Besides, we were supposed to go adventuring together, remember? We always used to talk about it. And you took off for the adventure of a lifetime, and I got stuck in Armagh. The most exciting thing to do there now days is tease the pickpockets who moved in from Londoun."
"But... Why are they all here, too?"
"Some Church Knights rode into town a few days ago. That's always unusual, so Sir Ithell invited the commander to dinner. Father and I were invited, as well. The knight said he had been sent from Londoun to find a Church Knight. A big, tall, blond haired Church Knight. The one you've been riding with. They were looking for him to escort him. Well, if a big knight like that needs protection, you certainly do." Jamie leaned back in his saddle, beaming proudly. "I talked to a few of my friends, and they all agreed to come along. So, Jamie's Band is here to escort you, m'Lady."
"You realize dad is going to kill you," Breanna stated.
"You don't know the half of it, sis." Jamie patted the hilt of the sword he wore at his side. Breanna let out a wordless shriek when she recognized her father's family sword. "Dad will be too busy being mad at me to even yell at you," Jamie assured his sister. "I was on my way out, about two hours before dawn, and I realized that I really should carry something more than just a bow and rapier. After all, I'm leading these men."
Breanna was wordless. Her mouth moved a few times as if she were getting ready to speak, but nothing came out.
Adria finally realized that her brother was riding with the young men from Armagh. "Matthias, why are you here?"
Matthias shrugged. "Things were dull in Portsdale. Some administrators from Armagh showed up, saying that Lord del Cartach requested that they get the city's affairs in order. Some men from Baron del Bartholo came through town, saying del Cartach had agreed to support them for some sort of Council intrigues. I was left out of the discussions. Whatever was going on in the Council was different than it had been in the past. It involves real violence, not the usual petty games. Someone tried firebombing our home a couple of times. There's a little fire damage. The Baron has supplied some troops to help protect Portsdale.
"I got a letter from Felicia. She's been in Armagh, so I decided to pay her a visit and see what was so special about the town. She sends her regards, by the way. While I was in Armagh, I met Jamie. He reminds me of some of my friends back home. When he suggested this grand adventure to find Breanna, I decided to come along. After all, Armagh is a quiet town, and I really didn't want to go back home yet. So, here I am."
"So, all these boys came to protect Bree," Adria stated. Jamie nodded enthusiastically. Adria turned to her friend. "So much for not drawing attention."
"I... I still need to get some supplies from an apothecary," Breanna stammered.
"So do I," Adria said. "Tell me what you need, and I can pick it up for you. You can herd these boys back to the Church."
"But... You can take them there, and I can go to the shop."
"No, Bree. They're here to protect you, not me. They are going to follow you around. We need to get them off of the streets before the local nobles start wondering. Take them back to the Church."
"Okay." Breanna scribbled out a list of herbs that she needed, then gave the list to Adria. Adria wandered away, looking for an herbalist shop.
"Let me ride," Breanna ordered Jamie.
"What?"
"You're here to protect me. It wouldn't be meet to make me walk while you are on horseback. Protect my feet and let me ride."
Jamie grumbled under his breath, but hopped down from his horse. Breanna climbed up and tossed the reins down to him. "That way," she said, waving her hand forward. Jamie led his horse and the column of his friends down the road.
When they reached the church, Breanna noticed that the wagons of the Church Knight escort had arrived. Several Church Knights drilled within the walls of the residential complex. From the hushed, excited murmur of several of the young men with Breanna, they had noticed the knights as well.
Breanna ordered Jamie to stop outside of the residence where she and her friends were staying. "Wait here," she said as she climbed down.
"It's cold out here," Jamie protested.
"Yes. It is. But I have to get you permission to stay here. So wait here."
Breanna went into the residence. She found Bilbus and Eric in a sitting room, intently planning. They did not see her standing in the doorway.
"There was no Sun Knight response after the blasts," Eric said. "I find that odd."
"They are probably stunned," Bilbus pointed out. "Their Lord High Commander went up in a flaming blast this morning, and they don't have any idea what happened."
"True. Now, how are we going to speak while we're in disguise. You don't speak Karasimian."
"Do you know elven?" Bilbus asked.
"Yes. But what if they know it as well?"
"We could speak gibberish. Adria and I could teach you our sign language, so we can communicate our intent."
From out in the hall, Jamie's voice echoed. "Bree? Where did you go? The knights say we have to move the horses. They're in the way."
In the doorway, Breanna screamed. Bilbus cringed, reaching for his sword. Eric snapped his head towards her.
"I'm going to kill him!" Breanna shouted.
"Who?" Eric asked calmly.
"Jamie! He found me. And he brought friends."
"Jamie?" Bilbus asked. "Your brother?" He smiled, remembering soaking poor Jamie in freezing water last time the party had been in Armagh.
"Yes!" Breanna said. "They saw the Church Knights who were looking for Kasey, and they decided I needed an escort, too. And they are going to drive me insane."
"How bad is it? How many?" Eric asked, still speaking in a calming voice.
"Bad. Twenty of them, all his friends. His whole circle of friends just showed up on horses, with bows. And Jamie stole dad's sword."
Bilbus grinned.
"Send them home," Eric suggested.
"They won't listen. They think we're having a grand adventure, and they want to come along."
"We are having a grand adventure," Bilbus reminded her.
"I know, but..."
Jamie finally found his sister. "Sis. The Church Knights say we have to move our horses. They're in the way. Where do we put them?"
"Armagh?" Breanna tried desperately.
"Ha, ha. Funny."
Eric got up from the chair he occupied. "Jamie Ceiturin, good to see you again."
Jamie grinned in recognition. "Lord Ithell!"
"Jamie, gather your men and meet me downstairs on the grounds."
"They're already there."
"Good. Go down with them. I will be along shortly."
"We need to move the horses," Jamie protested.
"I know. We will take care of that. Go along, now."
Once Jamie left, Eric tracked down a priest. "Father, do you know where Sir Goudge is? He is the head of the Church Knight entourage who arrived this afternoon."
"I believe he is downstairs in the lunch hall."
"Excellent. Thank you."
Eric found the commander in the lunch hall, eating some hot soup. Eric sat down opposite the knight. "I hate to interrupt your lunch, Sir Goudge. I need to ask you a favor."
"Yes?"
"A group of young men from my home town showed up today. They're the ones standing around outside in the middle of your knights' drill area. They insist on escorting Lady Breanna. I doubt that we will be able to convince them to just return home now." Sir Goudge took another sip of his soup. "You've seen some of what we've been up against. The drow are only part of the problem. If these men are going to ride with us, we need to know if they are worth anything in battle. I don't want to lead a group of men from my town to their deaths. If the Church Knights can evaluate them, and start training them, I would appreciate it."
"You want us to train them, as well? We don't train lightly."
"I was hoping you did not. I would like you to train them as hard as possible, with the intent to get rid of as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible, while they still have a chance to get home safely."
Sir Goudge nodded. "I understand. You will need to talk to them before the training starts. Warn them that they have to give absolute obeisance to me and my men during the training. I can have some of my men evaluate them this afternoon. It should not take long. I'll have them start as soon as I finish lunch."
"Thank you, Sir Goudge." Eric took his leave.
After the knights had evaluated Jamie's Band, Eric had the men from Armagh gather in the lunch hall for an early dinner. While they ate, he talked to Sir Goudge.
"Those boys did well enough with bows," Sir Goudge began. "It looks like Armagh takes archery seriously, from what they were saying." Eric nodded. "However, most of them have medium bows. Those aren't going to hold up against heavy armor. I don't think most of them with medium bows have enough strength to use a good long bow, either. The bows are in decent shape -- well cared for, and reasonably well made.
"As for close quarters fighting..." Sir Goudge shook his head. "Most of them have hunting spears, and they handle them like hunting spears. Fine if they are going after something that won't fight back. A few boys have swords. Jamie tries hard to do well, but he doesn't have enough training. Another one, Matthias del Quintin, handles himself well. His fighting technique is definitely urban, but he is adept and I think he will do well. He is probably the only one who will be able to keep up with the training without a lot of work.
"Lord del Quintin and Lord Ceiturin are the only ones with armor that is in decent shape, and both of them are wearing heavy leather. The rest of the boys have leather that's in varying conditions, from adequate to bad. Overall, they could shape up to be a very good light force, but not a group I would put on the battle line against anything that's organized. Most of our pages could best most of them. In their defense, they are all very enthusiastic and very willing. If they can survive a few days of hard training, I think they will come along nicely."
"Thank you, Sir Goudge," Eric said quietly. "We will have a talk with them, and hand them back over to you for training."
Eric searched through the residence for Rishala. He found the Caledonian story teller with a priest, going over a book. Eric coughed quietly.
"Aye?" Rishala asked.
"I don't mean to disturb you, Rishala. I'd like you to talk to Jamie's Band. We need to scare them off now, before we get underway, if they are going to make it back to Armagh."
"You're not disturbing me," Rishala assured the explorer. "The priest was teaching me a few things I hadn't learned before. It's hard to get formal schooling in certain magickal techniques around here. Where are these boys?"
"They're having an early dinner. I figured you and I could talk to them, to try to scare them off. If that doesn't work, they get to drill with the Church Knights. And I've already asked Sir Goudge to try to get them to quit as soon as possible."
"Ouch."
"That's the idea. I'd rather convince them to go home now, while they can still make it, instead of later, when they may not be able to make it home alive."
"Well, let's talk to them."
Eric and Rishala went to the lunch hall. Bilbus had already taken a seat on one side of the room, casually smoking a tabac stick as he surveyed the young men disapprovingly, his arms crossed across his chest. Jamie's Band tried to ignore him, but they all looked up at Eric and Rishala when those two entered.
"I am Rishala of Orkney," Rishala began. "I have been traveling with Eric Ithell for nigh but ten months. We have visited Londoun. We have seen the Nomad Steppes. We have been atop the great dwarven Citadel Altspire as it burned. We have seen the Academy of Hellenas.
"We have fought thieves, cutthroats, pirates. We have battled orcs. We have nearly died fighting dark elves." There was a small murmur in the room. The young men were enthralled.
"Let me tell you of the last battle we had with the drow. It was just a handful of days ago." Rishala launched into a gruesome description of the fight at Hold Asam, detailing the men who had been killed by the drow magicks, and the struggle to keep some of the wounded alive despite the horrific nature of their injuries. The initial enthusiasm had wavered, but Rishala held their rapt attention for over half of an hour. When he finished, Rishala left.
Eric took his turn. "We have been on the run for days, with little rest and no shelter. We have slept on the cold, hard ground with no cook fires, for we could not risk drawing attention to ourselves. Our horses nearly died of exhaustion, and it was only Breanna's skills as an apothecary that has kept them, and us, for that matter, alive.
"The danger will only get worse from here. Those who oppose us have become desperate in their attempts to stop us. Our journey will be dangerous. You will be miserable, and cold. You will be sleeping on the ground more nights than not. And, honestly, most of you are not likely to return from where we must go." As much as he had hoped they would run screaming, Eric saw that they had not. And he could not lie to them. "But, those of you who make it back home to Armagh alive will have stories to tell your children and grandchildren the likes of which have not been told in two thousand years. Those of you who make it home will have saved the world."
Eric could see it in their eyes. Every one of them had just committed to the journey.
"Hear me well, my fellows from Armagh. I am not exaggerating about the danger. I am not exaggerating about the misery. If you choose to travel with us, you will swear absolute fealty to us. If you are given an order, you must obey it without question, no matter who gives the order, whether it be me, or Sir Goudge, or a page. There is too much at stake for us to be able to take along unreliable boys.
"Sir Goudge evaluated all of you this afternoon. We need to know how well you can fight, for we will be fighting. He has respect for the archery programs in Armagh, but he says that most of you handle spears like hunting weapons. We're not hunting deer any longer. Those whom we face will skewer you faster than you can scream for help. Sir Goudge has agreed to train you, in the hopes that you will be able to learn enough to survive on the battlefield. That training starts now. If any of you refuse his training, no matter how rough it is, you will go home. If any of you decide to quit the training, you will go home. If you decide not to take the training seriously, you will go home. Do you understand?"
The young men of Jamie's Band nodded.
"Good. Wait here."
Eric stepped into the hallway. Bilbus followed him. Sir Goudge was waiting several paces down the hall.
"They still want to go," Eric said. "They're all yours, now."
Sir Goudge grinned darkly. "We'll have them on their way home by tonight."
The Church Knight strode into the lunch hall, stamping his boots on the wooden flooring to create a thunderous noise. "What are you doing sitting around? Get your asses outside. NOW!!"
The cacophonous scuffle of feet and chairs sliding in the lunch hall lasted for just a few seconds, but Sir Goudge's booming voice chased Jamie's Band out into the cold.
Once the young men were under the harsh supervision of Sir Goudge, Atenburg approached Eric. "I need to return to Hold Asam. I don't think we want to remain this close to the Sunkeep any longer, so I will order my men to move out. Thank you for rescuing me once more." He glanced around. Sturm was not in sight. "Tell Sturm I had to leave. He will understand."
Bilbus interjected, "We'll let him know this afternoon. He needs to go with us to get provisions."
Atenburg regarded Bilbus, then nodded. "Until we cross paths again."
"Good journey, Sir Atenburg," Eric said.
Atenburg turned and left, his pace fast.
"What provisions do we need?" Eric asked once Atenburg was gone.
"I don't know yet," Bilbus said tersely. "It depends on where Sturm's spear is. He's mentioned dreams, but he hasn't told us anything. So, we'll go looking for supplies, and I'll find out where we're going."
The dark tone in the mountebank's voice concerned Eric. "Perhaps Rishala and I should go as well."
"Fine," Bilbus said. "As long as he talks to us. Let's find him."
He and Eric went searching for Sturm. Rishala got up as they left the room to follow them. After quite a few minutes of searching, they found the dour Sun Knight on the upper floor of the Church residences, watching Sir Goudge training Jamie's Band.
"They need a lot of work," Sturm observed.
"Atenburg left," Eric said.
"I know. I saw him riding off. Maybe this time he won't get himself captured again."
"Yeah," Bilbus said dismissively. "We need to get provisions. You need to help."
Sturm looked at Bilbus, curious about the odd tone in the mountebank's voice. He said nothing.
The four went out into Llwelyn to find shops for supplies. After wandering the streets for about twenty minutes, Bilbus led the other three men down a narrow side road that was little more than an alley.
Abruptly, Bilbus turned around and walked right up to Sturm. The Sun Knight was startled enough that he did not react immediately.
"Where the Hells is the spear, Sturm?" Bilbus growled.
"What spear?"
"The spear you've had dreams about. Your spear. We have both swords, and we have Rhongomyant, but you have not told us what you know about where your spear is. Time for you to start talking."
"It's not here."
"I know that," Bilbus snarled.
"I mean I don't think it's on Oerth. The stars were all wrong. None of them were familiar."
"How do we get there?"
Sturm took a slow breath. "There was a Portal."
Surprise flashed in Bilbus's eyes. "What else? Where is it?"
"The world looked dead. The leaves were dry like fall, the grass was brown. It was too warm to be fall, though. I never saw a moon or sun. One other thing." Sturm kneeled in the mud of the alley. He drew shapes with his finger. "That's all I know. Orc letters."
Bilbus's face turned white. There were three orc letters. They were gibberish by themselves. But he had seen three letter combinations before. When he spoke, his speech was clipped. "We need to get back to our rooms. I need to check my notes."
He rushed past Sturm and back onto the avenue, heading quickly for the Church residences. The other three followed him back.
Bilbus and Rishala sat at a table. Bilbus had a stack of paper to one side of him. He had a single sheet of paper on the table. He sketched on it as he talked.
"When I left with Sultz at Camelough, he explained the Portal system to me. Each island has a signpost in the middle which names each tunnel that leaves the island as well as the door on that island. There's only one door per island, and I think there are always three tunnels, too. Camelough was 'HKN'. We went to 'BHJ', then on to 'ABE' -- Erelhei Cinlu.
"When I left Erelhei Cinlu, I went to some other islands, including the one that led to the witch's tower in Hillsdale. But I haven't seen this one before. Maybe it goes here." He pointed at a spot in the diagram that had nothing in it. "It's going to take us a few days to get to it, and we'll face orcs or drow in there."
"We're going to have to find a Portal," Rishala observed.
"We know where several are," Bilbus pointed out. "Camelough. That's probably a week and a half from here with the Church Knights' wagons. Erelhei Cinlu is over a week away, and there's no way in any of the Nine Hells that we can get in there with twenty Church Knights. Even without them, we can't get in there. There's Hellenas. That Portal probably survived the collapse of the museum on top of it. That's too far to go. The witch's tower had one. We could be there in under a week, but we would have to dig it out."
"Bilbus, stop," Rishala interrupted. "There are other ways to find the nearest Portal. The priests taught me a few things today. One of them I can modify to find a Portal." He concentrated for a few moments. "I'm going to go outside and see if the clouds have cleared enough for me to see the stars. If I can fix the time, I might be able to fix the location of the nearest Portal."
The Caledonian went out into the chill air of night. When he returned fifteen minutes later, he hurriedly searched the drawing room for a map. He took a stylus and drew lines on the map, leaving creases since he did not want to use ink to mar the Church's map. Once he had drawn the lines, he stopped to look at where they intersected.
"Well..."
"What?" Bilbus asked. He got up from his chair to stand next to Rishala. He studied the map as Rishala pointed at the location.
"The nearest Portal is here." He pointed at another location nearby. "Hold Asam is here."
"Is that close?" Bilbus had not looked at the scale of the map.
Rishala pointed at another location. "Sturm's vineyard is here."
The distance from the hold to the Portal was about half the distance from the hold to the vineyard.
"That close to Hold Asam?" Bilbus asked incredulously.
"Aye. Perhaps a day with the wagons. If we left them behind, maybe a half day's good ride."
"I guess we're going back to Hold Asam, then."
"Aye. We should get some sleep, first."
Bilbus nodded and yawned. The exhaustion still was far from being gone, and several more nights of cold nights would not help matters. He retired upstairs to the guest room he and Adria had been given. He stripped down, crawled under the warm covers next to Adria, and promptly fell asleep.
The ride south had been uneventful. The Sun Knights had remained sequestered in their Sunkeep, recovering from the surprise of the magickal attacks, so leaving town was not a challenge. Two days of slow riding passed before the party reached the Scowling Knight Vineyards. Sturm checked his personal stocks while there, and he scowled at Bilbus for much of the evening. The column spent the night at the vineyards, then set out the following day. Two days of warmer weather had seen the snow melt away, and the trail to the hold was becoming of a mud track than anything.
Late in the morning of the third day of travel, the party spotted a large column of soldiers marching north, towards them. One of the footmen carried a banner, the sun over a sword. The banner matched the tabard of the rebel Sun Knights, Cunnick's Regiment.
Eric stopped to observe the column through his spyglass. Several men on horseback led the column. Sir Richard Atenburg was one of them. Eric started to count the number of men in the formation, then resorted instead to a guess. About four hundred footmen were marching. Behind them, a long train of carts and wagons rounded out their support trains.
Eric noticed that Sir Atenburg had raised his hand in greeting. He must have recognized the column of nearly fifty horses approaching. The party rode forward to greet Atenburg.
"We're abandoning the hold," Atenburg said when the party was close. "I've accepted the Eiresudians offer of safe haven."
"We're continuing our quest," Eric said. "We have to travel into the Middle Ranges to find something. Bilbus thinks it's in an orc town."
"There are orcs out there. Even with the Church Knights, you don't have enough bodies to fight your way into an orc settlement. You need more troops." He thought for a moment. "We weren't planning a direct route to Eiresud. But it will save a few days from our trip by avoiding having to travel east to Arabel Cinlu. We will march with you."
"Thank you," Eric said.
Atenburg called out orders to his troops, telling them that they were turning back south to travel with the party. The party rode onward.
As the party rode past Cunnick's Regiment, Bilbus tied his copy of the Sun King's battle flag to Rhongomyant. He slipped the butt of the spear into his left stirrup and held the spear upright. The banner hung limply from the spear; the wind was too calm to lift it. The mountebank looked up at the spear and suppressed the sudden giddy urge to laugh. Here he was, carrying the pennant of King Uther Paendroeg, at the head of a column of armed men. It was the first time that men had marched under that banner in over two thousand years. And Bilbus was using the Sun King's own fabled battle spear as the flagpole.
Bilbus sped Acquisition 2 up a little, until he was at the head of the column. Behind him was the rest of the party, some riding beside another, others riding alone. Behind them was Jamie and his band of friends from Armagh. One of the youths carried the Armagh city banner. The Church Knights followed Jamie's Band, a small forest of lances pointed skywards; one of them had tied the Shield of the Church's standard to his lance. The ox-drawn wagons of their support train had stopped to allow the footmen of Cunnick's Regiment to take their position behind the mounted troops. The Regiment carried their own battle flag, the Sun Knight's stylized sun superimposed in front of Gretorixmar. The Regiment's support wagons, laden with supplies from Hold Asam, fell in behind the Church Knights' wagons. Between the knights, the footmen, and all the support personnel, over a thousand men and women marched behind Bilbus as he led them towards Hold Asam and the Portal beyond it.
Bilbus giggled despite himself.
Back to the previous chapter: Holds
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Original Draft 11 December 2003
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