Empire Rising es-2

by Sam Barone

  The second man proved quick in his reactions. A hand struck Eskkar in the face, a thumb nearly in his eye, and Eskkar was pushed back before he could thrust with his own blade. He dropped to his knees, swinging his sword as he did so. The attacker grunted as Eskkar’s blade struck the man across the leg, but the tip of the sword struck the wall, weakening the blow.

  Still, it did enough damage to allow Eskkar to dart away, this time back toward Grond.

  The shouting and clash of swords in the square had raised the alarm, and even in the confusion, Eskkar heard men stumbling about inside the house behind him. He half expected the assailants to flee, but these two men were determined, and they again pressed the attack. From the darkness, Lani threw herself in front of one of them, tripping him up. That one cursed as he stumbled and fell, though Lani’s cry mixed with the assassin’s oaths.

  The other man kept coming, and Eskkar swung his sword at the assailant’s head. The man parried the blade, but Eskkar took control now, his feet firmly planted as he disengaged his blade, rolling it around his opponent’s weapon with a motion trained in hundreds of hours of practice, and thrust hard, brushing aside the parry and sinking the blade deep into the man’s chest.

  He didn’t dare risk a moment to withdraw it, just ducked immediately to his right, half expecting another blow from the other man, but Grond arrived now. He had no weapon in his hand, but he caught the second man from behind, his arm around the man’s neck. Grond twisted him against his hip and flipped the man over. The sound of the man’s neck breaking carried over the rising din in the square.

  Eskkar wrenched his sword free and looked up, as a tiny bit more light filtered into the square from the main house as the door flung open.

  Another assailant stood there, backing away from the opening as men stumbled out, swords in their hands. The man looked toward his fallen companions, then turned and raced away, but Sisuthros and two men burst from the house and pursued him.

  The assassin ran for his life, dropping his sword and taking to his heels.

  With a burst of speed, he darted down one of the lanes. But a doorway opened ahead of him and a woman stepped out to see about all the commotion. They collided, both crashing to the ground. The man got up in a moment, but Sisuthros had closed the gap and flung his sword at the running man’s back. The blade landed nearly true, and the blow, while not deep enough to be mortal, made the runner cry out and stumble. Drakis and another man dashed past Sisuthros and even across the square, Eskkar heard the sound of the blade as it crunched into the man’s shoulder. A scream rent the air, cut short by another blow, and then it was over.

  Eskkar stood in the same spot, breathing heavily, his back to the wall, the great sword held out in front of him. He heard Lani crying on the ground, and remembered that she had managed to trip one of his attackers. Grond moved toward him, gathering up Lani as he came to Eskkar’s side, then pushed her roughly behind them. He’d picked up the fallen man’s sword, and the two of them stood in front of Lani, swords glinting in the starlight as the blades weaved back and forth in the empty space before them.

  Another soldier came out of the house, a newly lit torch in his hand, its flame reaching full illumination as he raised it above his head. In the flickering light Eskkar could see the bodies of three men. He saw Tippu huddled against the next house, her hands up over her head. More of Eskkar’s soldiers rushed into the square, those who had not gone to the local taverns and alehouses rushing out of the nearby houses where they were quartered, swords or knives in their hands.

  In a moment a line of men stood in front of Eskkar, and he allowed himself to relax a little. He turned and found Lani slumped to the ground, her back against the wall. He reached down and picked her up with one hand, then pulled her along the wall until they reached the house’s entrance.

  She stumbled and would have fallen if he hadn’t clasped her around the waist. Inside, he saw blood oozing from her forehead and cheek. Someone lit another lamp inside the house, and it gave him enough light to see. He pushed her hair aside to examine her injury. Eskkar found a welt and a bloody scratch, but no wound, so he carried her into the bedroom. Someone brought Tippu inside, and she rushed to join her sister.

  “Take care of her, Tippu. Close the door!”

  When Eskkar went back outside, Sisuthros rushed up to him. His subcommander had recovered his sword, and Eskkar saw blood still on it. Drakis, a few steps behind him, dragged the body of the assassin who had nearly escaped. Eskkar remembered that Drakis had been the first one out of the house at the sound of the attack; he hadn’t bothered with any clothes.

  More torches flamed up, and Hamati arrived at a run from the local alehouse with another dozen men. Sisuthros shouted an order, and the trumpet rang out, its notes summoning every soldier to the house. Lamps and candles started to burn in all the houses around the square, adding their light to that of the flickering torches.

  Soldiers dragged the four bodies from where they had fallen and lined them up next to the table Eskkar had fl ipped over. Another body lay near the doorway, that of the guard stationed at the door to the house; he’d attempted to reach Eskkar, but had been struck down from behind by the fourth assassin.

  Eskkar grabbed the arm of a soldier bearing a torch, and ordered him to hold the light over the bodies. Eskkar studied each face closely, as did Grond and Sisuthros, but they recognized none of them. The torchlight showed that all the dead men looked hard and fit. They certainly had not backed off in their attempt to kill him, even after their initial attempt had failed.

  “Sisuthros, get men out on horseback. They must have had horses hidden somewhere. Find them. Use torches to check for fresh tracks around the village. And secure every horse in Bisitun. I don’t want anyone getting away. If any have left the village, ride them down at first light, if you have to kill every horse.”

  “I’ll do it,” Hamati said. He issued orders to his men, and they all raced off toward the stable.

  Eskkar nodded and turned back to Sisuthros. “Have the rest of the men take a look at the bodies, see if anyone recognizes them. First thing in the morning, get every innkeeper… shopkeeper… no, get everyone in the village to look at these bodies. Somebody must know who they are, or where they stayed.”

  “Yes, Captain.” He hurried off, giving orders to waken every member of the village council. The sound of hoofbeats rang out, and a single rider came back into the square, shouting for torches. He took two in his hand, struggling to keep control of the nervous horse spooked by the crackling and flickering torches. But the man retained his seat, and in a moment the horse steadied, and they galloped off down the lane.

  “Grond, have a guard stationed behind the house tonight. And search inside, to make sure no one’s hiding with the women.”

  Drakis came from the house, now dressed, with his sword belted at his waist. “Captain, why don’t you go back inside and let the women look at that arm. There’s nothing more you can do out here. I’ll send a healer to you.”

  Eskkar stared down at his left arm, and found it dripping blood. He’d moved aside, but not quite fast enough, and the thrusting sword had lanced the outside of his arm. Looking at the wound, Eskkar realized it stung painfully. “I’ll go inside.” He looked at the other guards, their eyes wide with excitement. “You men sweep the square and the nearby houses. Make sure there are no others hiding inside.”

  Grond followed him into the house, and once there, Eskkar saw that the palm of Grond’s left hand was bleeding as well. He must have grasped a blade during the struggle. Lani came out of the bedroom, still shaking a little but insisting she was all right, and sat down at the table. Tippu followed her, trying to wash the cut on her sister’s head. Another woman came up and ordered all of them to sit. In a moment she’d brought wine and cups for the four of them.

  Eskkar took two mouthfuls of wine, then set the cup back down. He needed to think clearly, and he’d already had one cup of wine during his dinner.

  The healer
arrived, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, a big wooden box of implements slung from his shoulder. An old man, he’d no doubt gone to bed early and heard nothing of the disturbance. He attended to Eskkar fi rst.

  “I need more light, Lord Eskkar,” he announced. Another woman fetched a lamp from Sisuthros’s room, and placed it on the table. “And a cup of wine, if I may. And a bucket of fresh water from the well. Now, Lord Eskkar, put your arm on the table.” While the healer spoke, he pulled the two lamps close to Eskkar’s left side.

  Eskkar leaned forward, his arm outstretched and flat on the table.

  Pushing up the tunic’s sleeve, the healer looked closely at the wound, moving the separated skin around and causing Eskkar to flinch, though he made no sound.

  “It’s nothing serious, Lord Eskkar. Let me look at the others.” He spent more time with Grond, and a few moments with Lani. As he finished with them, a soldier came in carrying a bucket of water. The healer took an empty wine cup from the table, filled it with water, then poured the contents over Eskkar’s arm, dribbling the water into the wound, his face inches above the gash as he examined it. The blade had sliced along the outer forearm, carving a furrow nearly a hand’s width long.

  “Nothing inside the flesh, lord. That’s good. I don’t think it will even need to be stitched. Binding will do. A clean wound, bound up in its own blood, should heal quickly enough.”

  Eskkar felt relieved, though the gash stung even more after the healer’s examination. The old man dipped another cup of water from the bucket and again washed the blood away. Another woman arrived with clean binding strips, and the healer looked at them carefully before selecting one. Then he took the cup of wine that had been poured for him and clasped his other hand firmly on Eskkar’s wrist. “Don’t move now. This will sting.”

  A lance of pain went through Eskkar as the wine trickled into the wound, and he had to bite down hard to keep his arm immobile. The pain faded after a moment, but the healer continued until he emptied the cup.

  He wiped the excess from Eskkar’s arm, and with considerable dexterity for an old man, tightly bound the long cloth around the lower arm, pulling firmly as he did so.

  “I’ll need to change that in the morning, Lord Eskkar,” he said. “Try to move the arm as little as possible until the flesh has time to heal.”

  Eskkar grunted at the man’s advice. Lani came over and sat next to Eskkar, holding on to his hand while the healer examined her head. When he finished, he merely washed it out with water from the bucket. “Nothing to do here,” he said. “Just a bad bruise.”

  Grond’s hand didn’t take long. The healer rinsed it clean with a cup of water, inspected it carefully, then made Grond open and close his fingers several times. The healer treated the cut with water and wine, then bound it up, using enough wrapping to make sure Grond wouldn’t move it for a few hours. “Keep it bandaged until it heals,” the healer ordered. “And change the bandage every day.”

  The healer finished up and slung his unneeded box of instruments back over his shoulder. While he was doing this, Lani went into Eskkar’s room. She returned in a moment, with two silver coins in her hand. The healer took up the wine cup and refilled it. This time it didn’t go to waste, as he drank it down in four loud gulps.

  “That was good wine, Lord Eskkar. Perhaps I should have spilled less on the floor.” He took the silver coins from Lani and bowed thankfully. “I’ll return first thing in the morning, to see to the wound and change the bindings. You should be more careful in the future, lord. It would be a shame for you to be killed so soon after having rescued us.”

  Eskkar thanked the man, but didn’t say anything else until the healer had left. When the door closed, Eskkar turned to Grond.

  “Well, what do you think?”

  “Those men… they were good. Very quick. If you hadn’t shouted … I’d have been butchered, and probably Tippu, too.”

  “Don’t thank me, Grond. I never heard a thing. Those men knew how to move quietly. The damned cat heard them creeping up.” Eskkar shook his head in disgust. Angry now, he cursed himself for a fool, taking his ease, his hands on a woman, while two men with naked swords in their hands walked within six paces without him noticing. He turned to Lani, put his good arm around her, and pulled her to him for a moment.

  “Tomorrow, I want you to feed that cat a whole chicken, Lani.”

  “You’d better sacrifice something to Ishtar, then, for sending the creature to guard you,” Grond answered. Everyone knew he didn’t care much for animals. “Now I’ll have to bow politely the next time it hisses at me.”

  “No, I’ll thank Lani instead. She threw herself in front of one and tripped him up.” He kissed the top of her head.

  “We were lucky, Captain. We’ve been idling and careless. I should have been more alert.”

  Shouts from the square made both men look up, and in a moment Sisuthros came striding into the room. “Hamati found the horses. There were four of them, tied up about two hundred paces from the palisade, near the river, near the southern road. And one of the guards found a rope fastened to the fence, just opposite where the horses were.”

  “Could there have been more men? There might have been one with the horses.”

  “Hamati didn’t think so. The horses were well tied. He’s still out there looking. We’ll know for sure in the morning. It’s too dark to see tracks now.” He noticed the bandages for the first time. “Are you well?”

  “Well enough,” Eskkar answered. “Now we have to find out who to kill for this.”

  That reminded Sisuthros of something. “I found gold on the men, Captain. On all of them. One man had ten gold coins, the other three had five each. Someone with wealth wanted you dead, it seems.”

  More than enough gold to buy anyone’s death, Eskkar knew. And that meant… What did it mean? He didn’t know. “That’s a lot of gold for anyone in Bisitun to pay for a murder.”

  Sisuthros picked up Eskkar’s empty wine cup, poured himself some wine, and sat down facing his captain. “Twenty-five gold coins… nobody in Bisitun has that kind of gold, Captain, not after the Alur Meriki and Ninazu. Believe me, I’ve worked with every merchant and trader in the village. Even if someone wanted you dead… Besides, you’ve treated everyone here fairly, more than fairly.” He shrugged. “They’d be more likely to try and kill me.”

  “And Ninazu didn’t have any other kin,” Grond offered, “and even if he did, they wouldn’t be the kind to spend gold to get their revenge.

  They’d do it themselves.”

  “Akkad. That much gold had to come from Akkad,” Eskkar said with understanding, his lips tightening. “What about the marks on the gold?”

  Sisuthros shook his head. “At least ten different merchants, and I only recognized about half of them. No way to tell from that.”

  “Something must be going on there,” Eskkar said.

  “There’s nothing happening in Akkad, Captain,” Sisuthros said. “Yesterday’s messenger said the city was quiet. And Bantor is due back any day.

  He might even be back by now.”

  Eskkar had talked to the messenger himself. It had been one of the regular couriers, carrying routine messages, even a personal message from Trella. “Sisuthros, make a head count. See if anyone is missing. Check the scribes and traders, too.”

  The sons of Akkad’s merchants that accompanied them to keep the records might be involved in some scheme or another. Damn the gods that they hadn’t taken one of the attackers alive. Even one would have been enough.

  Sisuthros got up. “I’ll take the count. Is there anything else we can do before daylight?”

  Grond looked at Eskkar and shook his head.

  “No, I can’t think of anything else,” Eskkar said. “We’ll know more in the morning.” He stood up as well. “I need to think about this. Wake me an hour before dawn.”

  When he and Lani were alone in the bedroom, the door barred, Lani sat on the bed, trembling, and he saw the tears glistening
in her eyes. “Don’t be afraid, Lani,” he said. “We’re safe enough. There are two men standing guard right outside the door.”

  “I am not afraid, Eskkar. But now the fighting will start again. You will go off to kill your enemies.”

  “That’s what I have to do.” He sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take care of whatever has happened in Akkad, then I’ll send for you. You saved my life tonight, Lani. I won’t forget that. Now, put out the lamp and lie beside me. I need to think, and I’ll do it better in the dark.”

  Eskkar had already finished dressing when the guard knocked on the door. Lani had cried herself to sleep while Eskkar lay beside her, questions churning in his head. He hadn’t slept much, dozing and waking throughout the night. In the end, he couldn’t wait for the summons to arise.

  In the outer room one lamp burned. Sisuthros sat at the table, talking to Grond and Hamati. Sisuthros looked weary, and Eskkar knew he’d stayed awake all night as well. One of Lani’s women had built a fire and heated water, so the men would have something warm with their day-old bread. Glancing out through the open door, Eskkar saw half a dozen soldiers gathered beneath a flickering torch, all of them alert and ready.

  Taking a seat, Eskkar faced Sisuthros across the table. “Anything new?”

  “Not much,” Sisuthros answered with a yawn. “We didn’t find any more horses, and there was no sign of a trail heading south. I had men walking patrols throughout the village. We’ll do another sweep at dawn, when we round up the villagers.”

  “That should turn up something,” Eskkar said. “Whoever else wanted me dead might still be in Bisitun.”

  “And if there are more outside the village, they might not know the attack failed.”

  That news helped Eskkar breathe a little easier, and he forced himself to eat some bread. By the time he’d finished, the sun had risen. Taking a piece of bread with him, Eskkar walked out into the square. Grond and two soldiers stayed beside him as the first villagers arrived to view the bodies. Eskkar insisted they wait until the sun had cleared the horizon and the torches could be put out.