by Rick Shelley
"We'd better get our horses saddled," Annick said. She turned away, and we had enough to occupy us until I could start on the doors.
Sir Hambert and his men were just moving into the orchard when I decided that I had enough light to work. I used the cottage's front door for the link to Arrowroot. I applied the sea-silver and stood looking into the cottage when I reached for the tracing so the men and horses would be coming out of the cottage as they arrived. It would have been incredibly stupid to get that turned around. The actual connection came quickly with only slight effort and a sudden twinge of hunger. Parthet was there, his hands touching mine, his face looking up and grinning.
"Your mother is at Coriander," Parthet said. "We decided that that would be faster than me popping over there after we did this door. I've got Resler and his soldiers here, ready and waiting. I'll hold this way open while you do the other." He looked quite his old self, fully recovered.
"Right." I grinned back at him.
I used the stable door for the second passage. There wasn't much choice, but this door wasn't much wider or higher than the cottage's front door. Even Parthet could have spanned it without difficulty. Lining two doors and opening the passages took less than twenty minutes. Not bad, I thought.
When the men started coming through from Arrowroot and Coriander, I had new responsibilities. The biggest "command" I had ever held was captain of a tug-of-war team in high school. And all that meant was that I got to hold down the tail end of the rope and get dragged across the line last when we lost. We always lost. But now, I had the entire army of Varay to command, and the stakes were enormous, more than just getting dragged through the mud. I would have help, but everyone would look to me for a battle plan and for any tactical decisions. After all, I was the hotshot Hero, whether I was qualified for anything or not. Barons Resler and Dieth came through with their men. I expected Dieth to be helpful, but I wasn't sure about Resler. Annick didn't think he was worth much. And Parthet came through with the last of the men from Arrowroot. So did Baron Kardeen, with another score of Basiliers. And I had Harkane, Lesh, and even Timon with me again.
Kardeen set up a headquarters for us in the orchard close to the cottage. He had a large-scale map of the area right around Castle Thyme, both sides of the border, showing considerable topological detail. Kardeen took care of administrative details too, finding out just how many men we had-mounted and on foot, archers, lancers, that sort of thing. He was damn efficient. In thirty minutes he had messengers running and we were getting organized. I told him that we needed to find out where the Dorthini army was and how many men were coming. He got word to Baron Dieth and scouts were out in five minutes.
"How do you do it?" I asked Kardeen.
"Experience. I've been making sure that things get done for twenty-five years."
"You should be running this show instead of me."
He shook his head quickly. "I'm an administrator, not a general. But you tell me what you want and I'll find a way, or find the people who can find the way. If there is one."
I nodded. "Right now, a lot depends on how far off the Etevar's army is. If we've got time, it would be nice to get inside Castle Thyme before his main force arrives." I shrugged. "We probably won't have that kind of time, but just in case we do get the chance, it would help to know the layout inside the castle."
"Give me ten minutes and I'll have the floor plan." Kardeen laughed. "That's an easy one. Try something harder."
"Okay, how about a simple way to get inside?"
"That's military. I'll have to find you someone who knows the castle for that."
There was a commotion at the edge of the orchard, and I went to see what that was about while Kardeen went to find someone who knew Castle Thyme. One of our patrols had surprised a Dorthini patrol and taken a couple of prisoners. No one had escaped to carry the news of our presence back to Castle Thyme or to the approaching Dorthini army.
Our scouts didn't get back until midafternoon, and by then I was ready to start swinging in the trees I was so nervous. The early reports that the Dorthinis would reach us somewhat after noon hadn't been borne out, but I still thought that our scouts should have had time to find the enemy and get back… if any of them were going to get back. When the scouts did return, they brought both good news and bad news. The bad news was that the Etevar had four thousand soldiers. The good news was that they wouldn't reach Castle Thyme until the next morning. They were moving slower than expected and the only logical place for them to bivouac for the night would leave them with three hours' marching to reach the castle.
I went looking for Parthet and found him just returning from Arrowroot.
"Let's put together a think tank," I told him. "I want to find a way to get inside Castle Thyme before the Etevar gets here."
Parthet nodded, and we gathered the three barons, Sir Hambert, and two soldiers who had once been garrisoned at Thyme. My people were all there too, but only Parthet took part in the conference.
"I want to take Castle Thyme before the Dorthini army arrives, and I don't want the Etevar to know that we've done it," I started. "We get part of our force inside the castle and put the rest around it as if we have it under siege. The army outside retreats from the approaching Dorthinis tomorrow. Once the Etevar's army moves past the castle, we move the men inside out against the rear of the Dorthini army, put the Etevar in the middle." Turn the ambush idea back against him.
Everybody claimed to like the idea even though it didn't alter the fact that we would still be outnumbered by about three to one when the main Dorthini army arrived. A practical way to get inside Castle Thyme was harder to find. I was counting on Parthet, but his reaction to most of my suggestions was "I've got to be able to see what I'm doing to do it," and we had to make our move against the castle during the night.
"Other than you climbs the wall," one of the soldiers who knew the castle well said, "they's jest two ways in, the main gate and the postern. The gate's gotta drawer-bridge and por'cullis. Postern's jest a thick door. When they's fixin' to use that, they shoves a plank acrost the ditch or jest climbs down through it."
"The postern, it's a wood door?" I asked.
"Aye, wood a foot thick wi' a wood bar and leg-sized metal hinges."
I turned to Parthet. "If we get you close after dark, you think you could conjure us something to get us through that postern fast? Something like an explosion or a cutting torch?"
"Gots to be real fast," the soldier said. "That door's hard by the guards' room. They hears anythin' faster'n the Great Earth Mother can scratch her grabber."
"No light at all?" Parthet asked.
"We can't afford much," I told him. "No more than my flashlight, with some kind of shield over it."
He took a long time thinking. He shoved his glasses up on his nose. His eyes moved around as though he were studying the rims. "A flash fire," he muttered. "Once it starts, I've got light." His voice trailed off, but his lips kept moving. After a couple of minutes of that, he looked at me and nodded. "It may be possible."
"What then?" Kardeen asked.
"We probably won't be able to get a lot of men up to the postern in advance-too much chance of discovery-but once Parthet forces the door and we get inside, we'll need reinforcements in a hurry. Any idea how large the garrison is?"
"No, but we have a couple of prisoners who might be persuaded to talk," Kardeen said. I thought about splinters under the fingernails, hot branding irons, that kind of thing. I doubt that I would have objected to them, which bothers me now that I've got time to brood on it.
"I'm sure we can persuade them to chat," Parthet said before I could put in any comment. "I've got a jim-dandy truth spell that'll get all the answers we need."
There were thirty-two men left inside the castle. The patrol we had intercepted would be missed when they didn't return by sunset. Their orders were to get back before then, and orders weren't disobeyed lightly in the Dorthini army. The garrison had been drawn from the Etevar's p
ersonal guard, the men he had trusted to waylay and kill the Hero of Varay. My father. There were always three sentries on duty on the battlements, relieved every two hours during the night. The rest of the garrison was quartered in the keep, and there was always a sentry on duty there during the night as well. He would hear any commotion when the postern blew.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for the night's foray and the morrow's battle. I picked a dozen hard types to go with Lesh and me in the first "team" that night. Dieth furnished the men to wait in position to reinforce us as soon as the postern was open. We went over the plans of the castle that Kardeen provided. The layout was simple, straightforward, utilitarian. The keep was a small inner circle tangent to the larger outer circle of the curtain wall. A tiny courtyard. A dry ditch around the castle. We put together several ladders to speed our way into and out of the ditch.
Thanks to Kardeen's efficiency, we had a hot supper, all thirteen hundred and more of us, even though I wouldn't let anyone light fires that might give away the fact that we were around. The kitchen people at four castles did the cooking. Mother and Parthet tended the doorways while the food was carried through. The meal wasn't as plentiful or varied as the repasts at Basil, but it was a decent enough meal, in both quantity and quality.
After supper, we went over the plans for the assault on Thyme again. Lesh, Hambert, and I would be the first through the door-underscore the I. Two men would escort Parthet to safety as soon as he blew the postern open. If he could. More soldiers would pour into the castle as quickly as possible, fanning out to meet the garrison. It was a nice, simple plan-put the spearhead in, then hurry to overwhelm the defenders through sheer numbers-provided it worked. As soon as the postern blew or burned, the rest of our army would surround the castle, first to make sure that none of the defenders escaped and second to put our phony siege in position.
Then there was just the waiting. We didn't want to move until we could expect most of the garrison to be asleep. I tried napping, but I was too keyed up to stay down for long, and anyway, every time I closed my eyes that dream from the night before was ready to jump out at me. I certainly didn't need that.
We didn't have a lot going for us in the coming battle against the Etevar, and if we didn't grab the castle, the odds would be insane… well, more insane. But taking Castle Thyme was no guarantee of success-not by a long shot. There was no way that one man, even a regulation Hero, could make up for all the numbers unless he had a few rabbits in his hat and a lot of luck. The Etevar had a better-trained and much larger army, and a better wizard. Parthet was the first to concede that.
"Let's get started," I said-somewhere around eleven o'clock. Keeping track of time was still a hassle. My watch had started running again after we left Fairy, but it acted strange. Once it had even run backward for an hour.
We walked from the orchard to the castle. Horses would only be a giveaway on this raid, and our army didn't have many horses to start with, only about three hundred. Most of our fighters were foot soldiers, infantry. We moved as quietly as you could expect several dozen men in armor to move. Annick picked our way through the woods. I hadn't included her in my plans for the raid, but she dealt herself in and silently dared me to try to keep her out of the fight. I didn't try.
The castle was also silent. I didn't expect to hear carousing. A drunken debauch would have been asking too much of luck. Lurking in the shadows forty yards from the ditch, we watched one of the sentries walk his post on the parapet, visible only when he passed one of the crenels. The postern faced west, the main gate south. Two of my men scurried across the open stretch with ladders while Annick and several others covered them with bows, just in cast the sentry caught on. He didn't. In twos and threes, the rest of us crossed the clearing, timing our moves with the sentry's tour on the wall, then we jumped down into the dry moat. Dry? There was muck and mud a foot deep in it. The smell left no doubt as to what we were wading through. Castle Thyme didn't have a sewer system.
Getting our people up near the postern wasn't all that easy. There was only a narrow ledge at the base of the wall, not wide enough for safety, let alone for comfort, and no one wanted to fall in the crap below.
Parthet had to go at one side of the door, close enough to work his hocus-pocus. I was at the other side so I could charge in first when the door opened-my "right" as Hero. Annick had wormed her way right behind me, even ahead of Lesh and Hambert. Altogether, there were eight of us up on the ledge. A dozen more soldiers waited in the bottom of the ditch or on the ladders, and about the same number crouched on the other side of the ditch, trying to look invisible. The rest of our strike force was in the trees, forty yards away, with a rough plank bridge to throw across the ditch as soon as we were inside keeping the defenders from dumping their end of the bridge into the crap.
"Okay, Uncle. Your show," I whispered.
He grunted. "You have that flashlight?"
"If you need it."
"I need it. There's not enough starlight to conjure a good fart. Play the light along the hinges, slowly, while I get started."
I had fitted a half-shield of leather to make the light harder to spot from above. I turned the light on and moved the beam the way Parthet directed. The hinges were large metal strips that extended almost the entire width of the door. Smooth rounded boltheads were visible, but there was no way to dismantle the hinges from the outside.
Parthet chanted softly. I couldn't understand a word of it. Either magical formulas were exempt from the translation magic or it was just gibberish Parthet used to psych himself up. As he continued, he got louder, making me worry that the sentry would hear. But before I could work myself up to shushing Parthet, the top hinges started to glow a dull red and I smelled wood burning-like old railway ties. Then the second hinge started to glow and the first got brighter, and hotter. I turned off the flashlight and stuck it in my hip pocket when the metal was light enough to see by. Tiny flames became visible around the metal, then large streaks of the door charred visibly.
"Put your shoulder to it," Parthet said. "A sharp rap." I edged sideways. Bashing into glowing metal didn't seem very smart even though I had leather and chain mail to protect me, but we had to get inside, and the longer I hesitated, the more chance there was that the sentry would see us.
My shoulder scarcely touched the door before it popped inward, hinges and all, so quickly that I almost fell into the castle. I caught my balance against the far wall, getting my hands out before my head could slam into the stone, before I could hit hard enough to jar my bad ribs. I drew Dragon's Death and turned toward the guardroom and great hall of Castle Thyme, where we expected the first challenge. I didn't have much room to swing the elf sword in the hallway, but it would make life problematic for any defenders who tried to get too close to me.
Lesh and Annick were in the corridor with me by the time I got set, before the first defender appeared. He shouted an alert, then charged, even though my sword was twice the length of his and he couldn't get close without opening himself to the bite of Dragon's Death. But I was limited too. All I could do was keep prodding, making short jabs at him, forcing him to back off while I looked for swinging room. The guard tried to stall me long enough for his help to arrive. When he was nearly back to the room behind him, he made a desperate attempt to get past my blade. His maneuver didn't work. I sliced at his head, backhanded, and he went down to stay.
After that, it was one short duel after another until all of our strike force got into the fray. I had to fight two more Dorthinis, but the encounters were nothing to write home about. Against these enemies, Dragon's Death was once more almost weightless. At need, I could handle it with one hand, as easily as I could swing my own smaller sword.
Then the fight was over. The rest of the garrison surrendered when it was obvious that we had the numbers. These Dorthinis were all good soldiers. There was no "fight to the last man" nonsense. Just as well. I had no stomach for a massacre, not even of the men who had amb
ushed and killed my father. But I didn't waste any grief on the Dorthinis who died before the surrender.
Once we had accounted for every member of the garrison, we lowered the drawbridge so our reserves could come in with the horses to wait for the Dorthini army to arrive and pass. The rest of our troops moved into their phony siege positions. We raised the drawbridge again well before dawn.
When the first Dorthini scouts arrived in the morning, they saw the Varayan army besieging Castle Thyme. We sent a cavalry patrol to chase the Dorthinis, with instructions to make sure that they didn't catch them. We wanted the Dorthini scouts to escape and carry the news of the siege to the Etevar. We had our slim surprise primed… if we could make it count.
20 – The Dance of Ghosts
We left the Dorthini flag flying over Castle Thyme, seven gold lilies-stylized like the French emblem-on a black field. Harkane had my pennant ready to replace the Etevar's when we "announced" ourselves. I slept for a short time, but managed to wake myself when I started to slip back into the dream that had captured me the night before. I was walking down the steps to the crypt and, somehow, managed to stop and wake before I found myself in the company of all my predecessors again.
I didn't try to sleep again after that.
The morning dragged on. The van of the Dorthini army was two hours away, then one hour. Parthet used some of the sea-silver to open a passage between the castle and the cottage in the orchard so we could keep abreast of the news… and so we would have a bolt-hole in case of disaster. A small band of our cavalry skirmished with Dorthini outriders a couple of miles from the castle, then retreated in good order. We wanted to harass the enemy just enough to keep them from trying to make contact with the castle garrison. Castle Thyme was our Trojan Horse, and we couldn't afford to give away the secret too soon.
