The Crown and the Sword tros-2

by Douglas Niles

  “The king? Of what?” one of the knights spoke up.

  “I’m not sure,” Jaymes replied. “But I think it springs from far underneath the ground. It embodies many of the fundamental elements, and seems to be a kind of king of elementals.”

  “A king? How can we fight a king of elementals?” Brianna asked.

  “These three leaders of the enemy army are the controllers of the elemental. They are the key. They are moving about recklessly and are not themselves very well protected. They have a small bodyguard, according to the kender, and have remained well to the rear of the front line. But if we could get close enough to them…” Jaymes said. “I propose we try to strike them down. Their deaths cannot help but throw the enemy army into disarray, and I believe it may disrupt their control over the monster.”

  “Assassinate them!” exclaimed Lord Harbor, frowning. “It is dishonorable!”

  Jaymes quickly glared the man into silence.

  “How could you get to them?” asked Brianna.

  “The same way I found them-underground!” Moptop retorted.

  “How do you know this?” demanded Lord Harbor. “And why should we trust the word of a kender?”

  “ I trust him,” Brianna said sternly. Her tone softened as she looked at Moptop, her smile briefly flickering. “Still, I, too, would like to know how you came by this information, little one, and how you think you might be able to find these three behind enemy lines”

  “I found them before-through the sewers! I was mapping the sewers-that’s what I do, usually. I’m a pathfinder extraordinaire. The White Wizard calls me that! And I was going along under the city, and I saw the giant go by, and then the ogres, and then came Ankhar and his friends. So I just listened real hard while they were talking. Kind of like a spy. A very brave spy who laughs in the face of danger. Ha!”

  “I believe you are a brave spy,” the duchess said. “And I believe you are very good at finding things. I’m impressed with your boldness and would like to try your plan.”

  The kender glowed, nodding his head and looking around at the other men in the room, daring them to contradict the duchess. Most of them, unfortunately, were looking at their feet.

  The duchess raised her eyes, looking at Jaymes speculatively. “How do you suggest we proceed?”

  “First, your forces must stand firm against the enemy army; any success against the giant will mean nothing if Ankhar’s troops are running amok in the city. The inn here is a strong point, and there are others around the periphery of the plaza. The first column of ogres is already heading down the avenue toward the palace, but there’s a good captain rallying some knights. They’ll try to hold them at bay. I just saw a small party of knights ride out to hold a side street. You need to keep up that kind of pressure on the enemy army while we try something to take away their chief threat-this elemental king.”

  Jaymes turned back to the kender. “I want you to lead a small party through those sewers. We might be able to take Ankhar and his entourage by surprise if we can come up out of the ground, behind his lines, without warning. I’ll strike down the Thorn Knight first, he’s a magic-user and needs to be dealt with. Then let’s go after the half-giant and the witch-doctor, they’ll be trickier. It’s likely we will be able to disrupt their leadership and disperse the attack, and it’s even possible that we can turn back the elemental king.”

  “How do you propose to do that-oh, never mind,” Brianna replied, nodding decisively. “I agree. Time is short, and the risk is worth taking.” She turned to one of her officers. “Sir Michael, what’s the latest word on the whereabouts of the elemental?”

  “North of the Duke’s Avenue, the report came just moments ago. It’s wrecking the manors of many of the mercantile nobles, after going through a block of laborers’ houses.”

  “And moving east from there, Your Grace,” added a young knight-it was Sir Maxwell, the only one present clad in the garb of the Kingfisher instead of the Sword. He held up a small disk that looked like a compass. “I was able to place an enchantment upon him. It has limited value, I’m afraid, allowing me to track his position with this.”

  “That might prove very useful. Now it’s time to go,” Brianna declared. She picked up a pair of gauntlets and slid her delicate hands into the metal gloves. She looked at Jaymes with a glint of challenge in her eye. “I’m coming with you.”

  “But, Your Grace!” objected Sir Michael. “I won’t allow it! The risks are far too great!” His words were swiftly echoed by the other knights who were gathered around the table.

  “Do not forget, sir, I command here!” she replied tersely.

  “I won’t allow it either,” Jaymes said. “You’re needed here.”

  Brianna’s cheeks flushed, but her tone was icy. “You presume to-”

  “I presume to understand how important you are to this city. The people need you. They need to see you, rally around you. If we can strike down the commanders of this army, we will have a chance to win! It would be foolish for you to risk your life with us-”

  “On a wild-ass, insane gamble that has a miniscule chance of success!” Sir Michael completed. He glared at Brianna then shifted his attention to Jaymes. “However, I must insist on coming along with you, my lord,” he said in a more level tone.

  “Naturally,” Jaymes agreed, nodding his head and almost cracking a smile.

  “I acquiesce,” the duchess snapped. “Let all who are here understand that I do so, unwillingly and reluctantly. But, please Jaymes, take a few more men with you.”

  “I’d like to come,” said the Kingfisher eagerly. His eyes were wide, but his voice was confident.

  “Good. We could use a wizard to hunt a wizard,” Jaymes agreed.

  A chorus of others, virtually all the men in the hall, quickly offered their services to the risky mission. Sir Michael quickly pointed to the Kingfisher and two other burly swordsmen. “That makes five men… and er, a kender,” he appended, as Moptop tugged anxiously on his sleeve. “Is that enough?”

  Jaymes nodded. “It’ll have to be. Where do you suggest we start from?”

  “My temple is just this side of the palace. We can climb the steeple there and try to get our bearings. From there we should be able to spot these three leaders,” said Maxwell.

  “Lead the way,” said the duchess. She stared challengingly at Jaymes and Michael. “I daresay you won’t forbid me to come along that far, will you?” she challenged.

  With a shrug, the lord marshal started for the door, and the rest quickly followed him.

  “I can have a ton of it here by tomorrow morning, if the price is right,” said Rogard Smashfinger, master forger of Kaolyn. He stroked his blunt fingers through his gray beard, and waited for Dram Feldspar to reply, his expression guarded

  The pair were meeting at a table in a clearing of the New Compound. All around them, chimneys smoked, axes thunked, and dwarves bustled about to build the new town in the Garnet range. Even as the town took shape all around them, work progressed on manufacturing more of the black powder, and a new, even stronger bombardment device.

  Immediately upon his arrival here, Dram had sent word to his old homeland of Kaolyn-the dwarf kingdom underneath the highest mountains of the range-and he was pleased to see that Rogard Smashfinger personally had come to talk some business.

  The two mountain dwarves were old acquaintances, and Dram knew that the smith could be trusted but would demand an exorbitant price. But the steel forged in that mountain dwarf kingdom was without peer, so Dram didn’t hesitate to reach down to the floor and lift up a small sack of jewels he had prepared for just this moment. He raised it to the table, upended it, and watched with satisfaction as Rogard’s eyes grew wide.

  “That’s for the first ton, and a comparable sum will be set aside for every ton that follows. And just this season alone, I’ll need at least ten tons, as soon as possible.”

  Rogard reached into the sack and picked up several stones for inspection-a mixture of rubies,
emeralds, and diamonds. He held them, one by one, up to the sun. He squinted suspiciously, muttering to himself as he appraised the stones. His tongue emerged from between his teeth as he beheld a particularly splendid emerald, and he couldn’t help but lick his lips again as he scrutinized the largest stone, a diamond.

  “Aye,” he said grouchily. “I suppose these’ll do.” He scooped the gems into the sack and was about to tuck the bag into his pocket when Dram plucked it out of his hand, grinning.

  “Tomorrow morning, then?” he said, chuckling. “You can take this away with you when I have the Kaolyn steel.”

  “All right!” Rogard huffed. He had, of course, expected nothing less from such a tough businessman as Dram. “Just let me have another look.”

  “Be my guest,” Dram offered, watching as the master forger carefully counted out the stones and once more hefted the bag, feeling its reassuring weight.

  “We have a deal, then?” Rogard said, handing the sack back to Dram.

  “Let’s make it official. Sally!” he called.

  His wife scrambled up from the nearby stream bank. Her face was smudged, her hands and apron covered with fish scales and guts-she had been helping to clean the catch for this evening’s supper.

  “How about a couple of cold tankards to close this deal between old friends?” Dram asked breezily.

  “Get your own damn tankards!” she snapped. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  Dram blinked in surprise then looked at Rogard sheepishly. “That’s what I get for marrying a hill dwarf,” he admitted with a pang in his heart, making a joke of it even as he watched her stomp back to the stream.

  “Let’s have a drink when I bring the steel down,” Rogard said diplomatically, rising to his feet. “I’d better get moving. Tomorrow morning it is!”

  The steeple of the temple, a shrine dedicated to Kiri-Jolith, gave them a chance to look over much of the western half of the city. They could see violent skirmishes raging in the street below as a line of knights stood behind a makeshift barricade of wagons and upturned tables removed from a nearby inn. The men were armed with swords and shields and fought valiantly against a press of goblins that had surged up against the obstacle.

  Howling and jeering, the attackers pressed between the planks, crawled under the wagons, and thrust spears and swords at the knights. But the men gave better than they got, cutting down the few gobs who pushed through the barricade, chopping at the hands and heads of those enemy warriors thronging on the other side. Their discipline was admirable and for the time being, that particular group of attackers was stymied.

  Things were worse down the adjacent street, they could see, where a platoon of ogres lumbered toward the palace, chasing the last survivors of a collapsed position. One knight, on foot, stood in the path of the attackers. He cut down the first ogre with a lightning-quick slash of his two-handed sword, and crippled two more with swift stabs at their legs. Even as the brutes tumbled, bellowing in agony, he was borne down by a trio of the hulking warriors, each smashing him with a crude axe until the remains were bloody.

  Before the ogres could regroup, however, three mounted knights charged in from a side street. They rode in a line abreast, blocking any further advance. The horses kicked out, driving several ogres back, and the knights bore home their attack, holding their tenuous position and slowly pushing the ogres away from the palace.

  “There!” cried Sir Maxwell, examining his magical compass. “Look to the north, past the armory!”

  The elemental king came into view a few blocks away, striding out from behind the tall, square fortress. The giant reached out to smash down a three-story stone building, crushing the roof with a hammer blow, then pummeling the rest of the sturdy structure into rubble. Flames surged from its eyes, and immediately the interior of the broken building erupted into a conflagration. Black smoke billowed skyward, forming another of the pyres that already burned in a dozen places around the city. Stepping through the inferno, the elemental king crossed to the next block and began smashing a warehouse.

  “Ankhar won’t be very far away, if the kender’s report is accurate,” Jaymes noted.

  “It is!” protested Moptop.

  “There’s the half-giant!” Brianna said, pointing toward the Duke’s Avenue, the wide street where goblins were hurling themselves against the barricade.

  Now they could clearly see Ankhar swaggering along, several hundred yards behind the skirmishing. He was accompanied by several humans in black armor-former Dark Knights-as well as by the gray-robed Thorn Knight and the huddled, decrepit figure of the old witch-doctor. They were several blocks away from the temple, in a section of the city where all the human defenders had apparently been slain or driven out.

  With his fists planted on his hips, the half-giant commander looked first toward the line of battle and the palace. Then his head quickly swiveled to the north. “He’s searching for the elemental,” Brianna guessed. The other men murmured agreement.

  As they watched, the conjured creature left the wreckage of the burning building and once again passed behind the armory, heading toward the northwest. It was backtracking through its path of destruction, entering another quarter, a long block of tall buildings housing formerly prosperous mercantile shops. One sinuous limb tore through the front of a weaver’s store and cast a rainbow array of colored woolen fabrics into the air.

  Ankhar and his party started after the creature, but they halted as the half-giant indicated a large, undamaged inn on a corner of the Duke’s Avenue. The watchers on the temple spire observed the bodyguards enter the stone-walled building, which was dominated by a thirty-foot tower at one corner. A moment later one of the men emerged and gestured, and the half-giant, with his wizard and shaman, followed them inside.

  “Looks like he’s going to set up a temporary headquarters,” Jaymes said. He touched Moptop’s shoulder. “Do you think you can find a way over there through the sewers?”

  “Sure! I can find my way anywhere; that’s why I’m called a pathfinder. We can go down through that grate that’s right over there in front of the temple. And we’ll have to find a place to come up over by that inn, but it shouldn’t be difficult. Just got to consult my maps,” he said, reaching into one of his pouches as one of the Solamnics could be heard to sigh deeply.

  “Some of the grates are settled so firmly they can’t be removed,” Brianna cautioned.

  Jaymes raised a hand to the hilt of his sword. “I can cut through steel, if need be,” he assured her.

  “Good luck,” she said, placing a hand on his arm, squeezing him with surprising force. “And be careful.”

  “You too,” he said, placing his own hand over hers then quickly breaking from her clasp, grabbing the kender by the shoulder, and pushing him into action.

  The three Sword Knights, the Kingfisher, Moptop, and Jaymes quickly descended to the street level. Passing out through the front doors of the temple, they found the temple grate in an alley just to the side of the building. Two of the knights lifted off the heavy iron grid, exposing a shaft descending into the darkness. Rusty iron brackets set in the wall of the shaft held a ladder that looked to have been installed before the Cataclysm.

  “This will do,” Jaymes said, the first to sit on the edge of the hole and drop his feet toward the first rung.

  “Can’t I lead the way?” the kender complained plaintively, plopping down to sit beside the lord marshal. “I’m the pathfinder, remember?”

  “I’ll go first,” Jaymes interjected, winking at the others. “The pathfinder must be protected. When we get below safely, you can advise me which way to go.”

  With a shrug, the kender moved his legs to the side and allowed the lord marshal to precede him into the darkness. He came swiftly behind, however, followed by Sir Maxwell and the three Knights of the Sword. The kender, as usual, had a supply of small torches and passed a pair of them to two of the knights. They were ignited by the touch of one of his matches, and when held aloft produce
d enough illumination to tolerably light the way. Sir Maxwell, meanwhile, cast a light spell on the blade of his dagger, and held the weapon before him to add its cool, milky illumination to their mission.

  Jaymes went in the lead, holding one of his small crossbows cocked and ready. Sir Maxwell, with his lit blade, advanced beside him, followed by the kender and the other knights. The passage was roughly cylindrical, with an arched ceiling and walls, though the floor was solid and flat. Muddy puddles of water reflected the torchlight, but they were able to step around these and for the most part, keep dry.

  Moptop pulled out a long sheet of parchment and scrutinized it under the torchlight. “Now, we follow this until it ends up ahead, and then we take a left,” the kender said.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” grumbled Sir Michael, holding the torch high with his left hand while his right rested on the hilt of his sword.

  “I can attest that he has a way of finding paths,” Jaymes said quietly.

  They advanced in silence for perhaps a hundred paces to discover that, true to Moptop’s prediction, the tunnel did end in a T-intersection. They took the left branch and continued for a similar distance, past several small tunnels shooting off in different directions. When they came to a larger juncture, with three full-size passages leading away, the kender silently pointed them to the right, and they continued on for a short distance.

  Moptop gestured to Sir Michael, and the knight lowered the torch for the kender to squint at his parchment again. Looking over the pathfinder’s shoulder, the knight shook his head in dismay as he saw the tangled patchwork of charcoal marks. But he bit his tongue, as Moptop curled up his parchment and tucked it back into his pouch.

  “Right this way,” he said in an exaggerated whisper. “Now is when we should start looking for a way up and out of here.”

  They found a way up in only another fifteen paces, tucked in a small alcove to the side of the tunnel, where a series of rusty rungs similar to the ones they descended led toward a metal grate overhead. No sunlight illuminated this grid, so Jaymes guessed they were either under a building or a roof’s overhang or perhaps in a narrow alley. Any of the three boded well for a surreptitious exit.