The Lost Star's Sea

by C. Litka

  05

  Tey Pot Wanderer struck me as an older edition of LinPy - a kindred spirit. Which is to say that he seemed to regard our position - trapped and facing the prospect of leaping into a moat in a hail of crossbow bolts, to say nothing about a deadly pursuit once we landed - as something of a lark. He was cheerful and carefree as we lingered under the trellis waiting for our comrades, eager to learn what had transpired since he had set out for Zandival. Trin - who was not cheerful and carefree - was too intent on watching the terrace walls above us and the unseen, but imagined adventures of our comrades, to pay attention to Tey Pot's questions, so it fell to me to bring him up to date. And so, under a barrage of cheerful questions I filled him in on the chain of circumstances and adventures that had lead us to the secret door of his quarters. I didn't mind. It passed the time while we waited for the rocket to lift, one way or the other.

  'Tell me, Tey, why did the Governor lock you up? What purpose did that serve?'

  He laughed. 'Believe it or not, DrisDae knows his daughter well. There's a lot of young Dae in MossRose. He knew that the best way to bring her back to the palace was to ignore her demands completely. And the best way to do that, was to invite me, or rather, insist, that I stay for a while - in quarters with a door that locked from the outside.'

  'Wasn't he worried about her at all?'

  Tey Pot shrugged. 'Hard to tell, but I think not. You see, the Kandivar "bandits" and their ways are part of the local culture, and he calculated, quite accurately, that they would do her no harm - even in the unlikely event that they had abducted her for ransom - without giving rise to consequences that jeopardize their semi-demi tolerance in Zandival. The fact that she was demanding her dowry in her own handwriting put his mind to rest as to her personal safety. And, so as long as he paid no mind to the demand, he was certain that, sooner or later, she'd come back in person to demand it, as he would've done in his youth. And he was right.

  'He may have even anticipated she'd come back secretly. But he didn't know that she'd be able to enlist experts in abduction and barbarians with strange and powerful magic,' he said with a sly glance. 'Neither did I, for that matter. But here we are. Hopefully your friends are expert enough, and MossRose is wise enough, to carry this affair off, or abandon it, before anyone gets hurt or killed.'

  'I hope so, too. The two advocates should know what they're doing, and with MossRose who knows the palace, they should be safe enough... If they don't take too many chances.' Tey Pot and I shared a look of doubt on that score.

  'What did the Governor plan to do when she returned?'

  'Oh, he'd send her off somewhere. He has an uncle who's a diplomat stationed on the other side of Windvera, in Solantra. A few thousand rounds in Solantra would cure any infatuation with a bandit chieftain, or so he thought.'

  We talked went on to talk of Solantra, I, to keep my mind occupied. The longer we delayed, the more time it gave the Chancellor and the Palace Guard to seal not only the palace, but the park below as well. Still, we had two darters to deal with whatever the Guard could bring to bear? Fortunately for all, the Guards on the two surrounding walls seemed to be unaware of us, and content to wait on events.

  Trin said we waited less than ten minutes. Tey Pot and I were still talking when we heard the faint sounds of an uproar - men shouting - drifting down from the terraces above. Trin was off in a shot, racing back towards the upper wall, and then, out from under the trellis and swiftly climbed up the vine covered wall to get a clear look at what was going on. Tey Pot wasn't far behind, and I brought up the rear.

  This upper wall was only lightly guarded - eight guardsmen and an officer. Their backs were to us, as they too, were looking up the steps of terraces to see where the shouting was coming from. Two walls up we could just see the tips of the pikes of the guardsmen pouring out of the palace, and then, a moment later, our companions appeared on the top of the stone parapet at the far end of the wall. MossRose and Py with a third figure between them - the Governor, no doubt subdued with a dart. Naylea, beside them, turned and sent a stream of darts into the pursuit. Pikes tumbled as the first rank of guardsmen fell, slowing down their pursuit. The wall between them and the one we were on was lined with a forest of pikes above a gleaming line of helmeted guardsmen. They'd have to jump for the lake, or fight their way though that heavily guarded wall to reach us.

  Our companions paused for a second on the top of the parapet to look down. Even from our position I could see that the palace-rock did not fall sheer to the lake from that terrace, making any jump iffy, especially with the Governor's dead weight. They spent only a second deciding. MossRose and Py turned and jumped down into the terrace, disappearing from view. Naylea held her position sending a stream of darts first into their pursuers and then towards the wall - they had to fight their way across to reach a position where they could jump for it.

  Trin didn't hesitate. She drew her darter and silently gave each of the guardsmen before us a dart in the back before jumping over the parapet onto the wall's broad deck.

  'Hold this position, Captain. And that's a real order!' she snapped, flung off her captured helmet, (so as to be recognized as a friend in her captured uniform) and pushing aside one of the slowly falling guardsmen, disappeared over the far side.

  I glanced back at the heavily garrisoned wall behind us. From their position it was unlikely that they could see either the now inert guardsmen on the far side of our wall, nor much of what was going on above us. If they saw us climb up the wall, they may've wondered what we were up to - but dressed as guardsmen ourselves, no alarm bells seem to have been rung.

  I climbed over the parapet and hurried to its far end. Yes, we could jump from here. So, stepping over to the up-facing side, Sissy in hand, I considered my prospects of hitting anyone 40 meters away. Since they were above us and protected by the parapet I could only see heads and shoulders of a few guardsmen - those on our side of the wall. And they quickly disappeared when they surged forward to meet the fugitives charging them from the terrace beyond. No matter, by that time Trin had crossed the terrace and reached the far wall. In the light gravity, leaping to the lowest crossbow slit and then to the upper one was easy enough - when highly motivated - so she reached the top of the parapet in seconds. Straddling the parapet, she began sending a steady stream of darts into the unseen backs of the guardsmen before her, their attention focused on our comrades on the far side.

  Since she had matters well in hand on that side, I stepped back to the other side of the turret to see what the large guard contingent was up to on the line below us. They were still standing firm unaware of what was going on above us. I gave them a reassuring wave, and stepped back, out of sight.

  Faced with a rain of darts from both sides, shouting officers, and roaring men, swords and pikes, they were unable to prevent our companions from scaling the wall. By the time I rejoined Tey Pot at the other side, our companions had reached the top of the wall. I could see pikes falling all the way back to the palace entrance. Py and MossRose, with her father between them, appeared on the top of the bulkhead next to Trin. And with a glance backwards they leaped for the terrace below just as Naylea appeared on the wall beside them. As they set out across the terrace, Trin and Naylea sent a few more darts into the jumble of guards before jumping down as well, and took off running towards our position.

  Darters and darts, had been very effective against swordsmen and pike-men, but they offer little protection from crossbow bolts. Whatever restraint the Guard may've been acting under before, was now abandoned in the heat of the battle and in the face of their apparent losses. If swords and pikes could not stop the fugitives, crossbow bolts must - at any cost. Their officer roared out a string of commands, and the remaining guardsmen - a dozen or more - grabbed the crossbows slung over their backs, formed a hasty line along the opposite wall and slotted bolts into their crossbows.

  As MossRose and Py, with the Governor between them, reached the base of the wall below us, Tey Pot
swung one of the pikes down to give them something to grab and help pull themselves up. I grabbed another. They leaped to grab a hold on the pike staff. As we started pulling them up, the officer across the terrace roared a command - 'Fire!' - and a dozen crossbow bolts clattered against the stones of the turret wall.

  Py let go of the pike and his hold on the Governor, and with a startled look on his face, slowly dropped back to the ground, the tip of a bolt sticking out of his chest.

  Trin, along with Naylea, had just arrived at the base. She cried 'Py!' and caught him in her arms as he fell.

  'I'm fine!' I heard him say, trying to give her a smile as the red spot grew around the tip of the bolt.

  Tey Pot and I helped MossRoss, still holding her father with one arm, over the side of the parapet and then swung our pikes back down for Trin and Naylea who now had Py held between them.

  They jumped and grabbed our extended pikes with their free hands. Tey Pot and I heaved them up the side of the wall and over the parapet as another rain of bolts clattered against it, this time hitting no one.

  'I'm fine,' Py said again as he was set down under the cover of the parapet, the bolt, sticking out of his upper back, scrapping against the stone wall. He wasn't fine.

  We all settled behind it as well, staring at our stricken companion.

  Trin, ashen faced, oblivious to anything else but Py, took charge. 'Let me get at it,' she commanded, gently shifting him so she could get at the bolt. She studied his wound for a moment and then said, 'This might hurt.' before snapping off the shaft at the back, and then grasping the bolt protruding from his chest, quickly drew it out, as Py jerked and gasped.

  'Undo his sash,' she ordered, as she undid his blood stained jacket to get at the wound. Tey Pot swiftly complied, untying it and pulling it out from around him.

  'You're lucky. It looks to have missed your lung,' she added with a grim grin to Py. 'Now you mustn't bleed to death. Hold you hand here. Now, let's see that sash.'

  'I told you I was fine,' he said with a faint smile.

  He may not have been fine, but he was lucky. The bolt had struck his side just under his shoulder and went through the muscles under his shoulder, which he had extended when climbing up the wall. It looked to have missed his lung cage entirely. No doubt painful, but likely not life threatening. Trin tied his sash firmly across his chest

  'This is a real adventure, Wilitang!' he gasped, catching my concern in my eyes as she worked over him.

  'Only if we get out of it alive,' I replied. That was still far from certain.

  I looked around. Naylea was crouched low behind the parapet, still sending darts back towards the upper wall, carefully picking off the guardsmen with the crossbows. MossRose was slumped behind the stone parapet, trying to catch her breath. The Governor, with his hands bound behind him and his face partially obscured by the bandana tied around it, was calm and serene. And unconscious.

  'Did they know they were shooting at their Governor?' I wondered out loud.

  'The heat of battle,' laughed Tey Pot. 'But then again, he's not all that popular?'

  There was a roar from the line above, which was answered from the one below us.

  'We might not want to linger too long,' said Naylea as she cautiously rose to take a peek over the parapet at what the roar was about. 'They've got reinforcements and will be after us in a moment. What's the plan?'

  'We can jump to the moat from here, as soon I've got Py patched up. The next wall down is as heavily manned as the last one,' said Trin. 'You can start whenever you want. I'll have Py ready to travel in a minute.

  I peered over the parapet. Red uniformed guardsmen were now pouring over the side of the wall - there had to be fifty or more of them. 'They're starting over the side,' I said, and scurried over to the downward side to see what the guardsmen below were up to.

  They had also been stirred into to action and were now pouring over the side of their wall towards us as well. Say what you want of the guardsmen of Zandival, they didn't lack courage. Undeterred by the many casualties they'd taken, they were still game.

  The crossbow men above caught sight of me and sent another flight of bolts our way. Once more they clattered against the stones, missing me, but not by much. I quickly scurried back under the cover of the parapet.

  'They're coming for us from below as well. We need to jump - now.'

  'Are we ready?' asked Naylea, looking about.

  'Py?' asked Trin, finishing knotting the sash across Py's chest. 'Do you need help?'

  'I'm fine,' he said again, painfully gathering his feet under him. 'You and MossRose look after the Governor. I'm fine.'

  'Right,' said Naylea. 'The four of you go over first. Litang and I will cover you. Natta, cover us from below when you get on shore.'

  'I'll take half of DrisDae. Trin can't swim. Py, look after her,' said Tey Pot. 'Ah, you can swim, can't you, Py?'

  Py nodded and smiled. 'I'll look after her.'

  'Right. Now, into your positions and be ready to jump when I say go.' said Naylea, and then waited until they were crouching the outer end of the wall. When they seemed set to go, we rose and started sending darts into the charging guardsmen in the terrace below, which brought another rain of bolts down on us. 'Now go, while they're reloading!'

  They needed no urging, Rising, MossRose and Tey Pot picked up the unresisting Governor, climbed to the top of the parapet, and disappeared over the side. Py, holding Trin's hand, followed them down.

  'I'll buy some time for them to get out of the lake,' said Naylea. 'You go next.' She stood and started sending darts down to the charging guardsmen.

  'We'll both go,' I said, standing and sending my darts their way as well. They were well within my range now as the leading guardsmen had reached the wall's base. Our fire staggered and momentarily stopped the charge. It also brought another rain of bolts. Fortunately we had ducked at the shouted order, since the guardsmen had settled down, and the bolts were well aimed and in a much tighter flight.

  I grabbed the helmet of one of the fallen guardsmen and shoved it on Naylea's head. 'At least wear this!'

  She rolled her eyes, but put it on and rose again, to keep the guardsmen at bay a few moments longer, as did I.

  This time they were ready for us. As soon as we rose, we heard the twang of the crossbows firing and the bolts were on us. I ducked back under the parapet.

  There was a clang of metal and a helmet clattered across the stones of the wall to the opposite parapet along with a feather wig. I looked to Naylea, now behind the parapet as well. She was no longer wearing the helmet. She looked back at me, her eyes wide. And then she smiled, and shook her head.

  'Are you alright?' I gasped, scurrying next to her.

  'To quote Py, I'm fine. Thanks for giving them a target,' she laughed.

  I saw a trickle of blood forming on her forehead. 'You're bleeding!'

  'I am?' She reached up to touch her scalp. 'A scratch. The tip of the bolt must've penetrated the helmet as it took it off. I'm not dead - Behind you, Wil!'

  I spun about to see half a dozen guardsmen from the lower wall had climbed to the top of the opposite parapet. Naylea snapped off several shots, as did I. They slowly fell back and disappeared from sight.

  'I think its time we be going,' she said climbing to her feet and keeping low, pulled me up as she passed. 'Don't hesitate.'

  The guardsmen, now climbing up the wall may've prevented the crossbow men from firing on us as we climbed to the top of the parapet. I flung off my helmet as I slipped over the side. Quickly crouching, I kicked off and down from side of the parapet hoping to reach the moat lake as far out and as fast as I could. In the light gravity, merely jumping would've made for a leisurely journey down - and a fine target for the cross-bow men.

  It took several very long seconds in the air to reach the lily-pad covered lake, still surging about from the impact of the first party. I plowed through the lily-pads, losing my feather wig on impact and then down into
the forest of their stems. Pushing my way through them, I swam under water for as long as I could hold my breath. Naylea had landed only a few meters away, and like me was swimming through the surging, murky water. Water in low grav reacts emphatically, so the lake water was surging in high, smooth waves against the rock of the palace and rolling over the park shore. By the time I was needing air, several streaks left by bolts had gone by, not too far off.

  I rose to the surface with a gasp and shook the water from my eyes. I found that I was less than 10 meters from the shore where Trin was standing, darter in hand, firing up at the palace. I struck out for the shore alongside Naylea, carried along by the smooth, surging waves, as fast as I could. We were half washed over the stone wall bank of the lake by the waves we'd created. As soon as we gained our feet the three of us were off, running for the far park wall in long loping strides, wasting no breath on talk.

  Ahead, we could see the rest of our party scattering the strollers as they cut across the wide paths. No one attempted to stop them, or us, so we reached and passed through the park gates without hindrance - only the shortness of our breaths slowing us down.

  'My, you're early! And you're all wet!' exclaimed PisDore when we interrupted his gang's card game in the copse.

  'Nothing gets by PisDore,' panted MossRose. 'Now, unless you care to fight the Guard Cavalry, help me tie Father to his lopemount and get everyone mounted up. They'll no doubt be here shortly.'

  They weren't, but we rode back to the Rider dragon pasture as if they were. Hanging grimly to my lopemount, I just let her run with her stable mates.

  Without pursuit, we had time to catch our breaths, and exchange stories of our adventures while Trin renewed Py's makeshift bandage with supplies out of one of the dragon's saddle bags. The Kandivarians, in the meanwhile, had to saddled up their dragons, since they had not expected to see us for another six hours or so.

  Naylea filled Tey Pot and me in on their end of the mission. They had located the Governor as he was preparing to eat. They silenced him and his attendants with a few darts, and had him secured and in the secret passageways within minutes, giving them hope that they could outrun the news and any guardsmen that had been turned out. They made good progress down towards the infirmary using back passages until their luck ran out. Like us, they stumbled into a contingent of guards. Theirs was too large to entirely disable, so they had to run for the terraces, with dozens of guardsmen in close pursuit - Naylea's darts only just keeping them at bay. We knew the rest.

  The Governor still unconscious, probably half-drowned from his unconscious swim in the moat, was secured to the saddle behind PisDore. I rode behind Kroc, giving Abbis a friendly greeting as I climbed on board. She gave me a vaguely contemptuous look with her big brown eyes.

  Chapter 44 Over the Edge