“Well, I have to go, but I’m glad to know you’re back among us here in Goldenfields. Let us know when you’re ready to get together,” Natha said as he stood up.
“I’ve got one question,” Alec asked. “Have your ships brought any mercenaries to the city at all?”
“No, as a matter fact we haven’t. Like I said, we mostly ship folks out right now, not in. But that will change and folks will return when this settles down, I’m sure,” Natha replied.
Alec walked him to the door and saw him out, glad for the visit. He stood in the parlor and pondered what he had heard, mostly concerned that only the Locksforts were shipping in fighters for an unknown purpose. The name reminded him of Noranda, and he stood in a reverie for a long minute.
As he stood there, another knock came at the door, a violent pounding that left Alec alert to danger. He opened the door to find Ellison, who for the first time in Alec’s knowledge was out of breath.
“Alec, the palace is under siege! Armed men have stormed and overwhelmed the Guard. The Duke is reported trapped in the palace, and a number of Guards are trapped in the armory,” Ellison panted. “Come quickly.”
“Oh dear God!” Alec ran and got his sword, shouting to Leah and Ellen, “I’m going to the Palace! The Duke is in danger!”
Leah came as fast as she could, “Alec, what’s happening?”
“Ellison says that men have taken over the palace. Stay here and keep the doors locked. Don’t let any strangers in. We don’t know what’s going on,” he advised. “I’ll be back when things get straightened out,” he told her.
Leah started to cry. “Take care, Alec, and be safe. Save the Duke!” she called as he ran from her hug.
“I came out through the safe house,” Ellison said as they started running up the street.
“Where’s Colonel Ryder?” Alec asked.
“He’s disappeared,” Ellison said in a choked voice. “These men must have started coming across the bridge in small groups and suddenly a large group overwhelmed the guard there, then they all poured in. They seemed to have a good idea of the layout of the palace, and several of them came to the Guard quarters and caught us unprepared.”
“Ryder tried to lead a group of our folks into the palace to find the Duke, and he told me to come get you. I can’t say whether they made it into the Palace, let alone found the Duke or not.”
They reached the tavern and went tearing inside, then ran hastily through the tunnel to come up inside the Guard section of the palace island.
They stopped inside the hidden room. “What do you think the situation is likely to be outside? Where would you guess our people are? We need to save our folks, and get them together in the palace, then find the Duke, in that order,” Alec said.
“We’ll come up about forty yards from the armory, and there were some of our folks holding out inside there, maybe a dozen. I can’t say where the marauders are,” Ellison said.
“Alright, let’s go to the front of the building so we can look out the windows. If our folks are in the armory, the building will be under attack, and we’ll be able to hit the marauders from the rear so we can spring the Guards free. Let’s go see what we face,” Alec said, and shifting his warrior energies to a high level, he opened the door and led the way to the front of the building.
Alec and Ellison knelt on the floor looking out at the scene in front of them. Across the open square in front of them he saw two groups of attackers, a dozen in each, attacking two doors to the armory. Another group of attackers, a half dozen in number, was in front of the infirmary. Bodies lay on the ground, including several in Guard uniforms.
“There’re thirty of them out there,” Alec said. “We’re going to attack the dozen over there at the near corner,” he gestured. “I have some ingenaire tricks that will help us succeed. I’m going to give you a five step head start, then I’m going to go at them full bore. We should be able to kill half of them before they know we’re there. We just need to get inside, then rally our folks to go out the other door, and go fast while we’ve got the element of surprise. My guess is that our attack will draw the other marauders away from that far door and we will be able to rush it. As soon as you get inside the armory, start leading our people to the attack at the other door, and tell them we’re going to go to the palace to rescue the Duke.”
“Don’t give anyone time to do anything but follow. We’re outnumbered so badly we have to use surprise and speed as our greatest weapons,” Alec said.
“What about you? You’re the leader,” Ellison said.
“If I don’t make it in, or if we’re separated, or if anything goes wrong, we have got to get our people moving to save the Duke. That’s the only thing we’re here to do,” Alec said.
They moved to the door. “Alright go now!” Alec urged. “I’ll see you inside the armory.”
Ellison bolted out into the yard and ran directly towards the attackers at the armory. He was more than half way there when Alec allowed his energies to flow, and left his hiding place.
He raced past the blurred figure of Ellison with his sword drawn and began stabbing and slicing with abandon at the backs of the bodies in front of him. Four were down silently in the opening seconds. As the ones in front turned to see why bodies were hitting them, Alec moved his sword against the second rank. He stabbed one man in the chest, sliced another through the neck, kicked another one hard in the groin, and continued to fight through the group.
Ellison arrived and killed two who had turned to fight Alec. Shouts were rising from the other groups in the yard, and as Alec expected, attackers began to converge on the bloodletting.
The last of their targets were down. “Go in and move the Guardsmen,” Alec told him. “I’ll keep the rebels pinned down here while you all go. I’ll meet you inside the palace. Go!”
Ellison wasted no time to marvel at the extraordinary battle he had just seen; he stepped to the door which opened cautiously as the besieged Guards inside tried to figure out what was happening. “Let me in! Safe passage! Let me in! It’s Ellison!” he shouted and ran inside, closing the door behind him.
Alec saw only three attackers remaining at the other door as the others came flying towards him, along with the fighters from the infirmary doorway.
Alec retreated away from the armory, trying to draw the unknown attackers as far from the Guards as possible. The whole group swerved towards him, when a brief shout revealed that the Guards in the armory were making their escape. The three attackers at the other armory door were swiftly cut down, and the Guards were running towards the Palace. Alec counted eleven, including Ellison who brought up the rear.
Alec abruptly stopped his retreat and began to charge towards his pursuers, swinging his sword widely and rapidly as he passed through their midst to rejoin his fellows. In a flash he was past the attackers, with four more dead men on the paving stones as Alec left them behind so that he could catch the rest of the Guards. He caught up to Ellison as they began crowding through the palace doorway. Two attackers who were guarding that door were caught by surprise and quickly killed.
“Where to now?” Alec heard a voice in front ask.
“Where would the Duke typically be at the time the attack occurred?” Alec asked.
“He’d be in the Yellow Room, receiving reports from the finance minister,” Imelda answered.
Alec looked and saw her grim face. “Good, I’m glad you’re with us. I know you’re a dirty fighter,” Alec said to her.
“Where would his Guards have taken the Duke when attackers entered the room?” Alec asked her.
“If it was me, I’d take him into the closet off the back hall,” Imelda said, an angry look on her face showing her distaste for Alec’s comment as well as for the situation. Alec heard murmured agreement from others that it was the best tactic. He suddenly remembered Ryder’s injunction to avoid squabbling with the female Guard, and knew that now was the time to appreciate her strength, not to denigrate her. He snapped his mi
nd back to the matter at hand.
The closet in question was actually a comfortable sized room. It had no other doors or windows. It was defensible, but a trap.
“Alright, I’m going to lead. Ellison and Imelda bring up the rear. We’re going to the Yellow Room up the second stairs and down the great hall. We’re going straight and we’re going fast, and when we get there we go straight in and through. In the event they’re in that closet, we’re going to hit a load of trouble in the back hall.”
“We’ve got to keep hitting them fast. What’s the password of the day?” Alec asked, suddenly unable to remember.
“It’s ‘water barrel,’” Ellison said from behind him.
“When we get to the closet, shout ‘water barrel,’ get the Duke and his folks out, and take him to the Ingenaire’s rooms,” Alec continued.
“We may pick some of our folks up along the way if we’re lucky. If you see someone in a Guard uniform you don’t recognize, kill them. If you see the Duke’s son, kill him or ignore him. We get the Duke, we get him safe, and we make plans from there to get him off the island. Does everyone understand?” Alec asked.
Heads nodded, as they all gratefully accepted his leadership in the moment of crisis.
“Good. For Duke Toulon!” Alec shouted, and he led the squad towards overwhelming odds. They raced forward towards the stairs, and ran up them. Alec killed two enemies at the top of the stairs and turned left, beginning the charge down the deserted Great Hall. He heard men and women running behind him.
Alec stopped for three seconds before entering the Yellow Room, wanting his supporting ranks as close together as possible. Inside the room a dozen marauders were indolently lounging on the furniture. Alec killed two as the rest of the Guard came racing in claiming victims of their own. A few loud shouts echoed briefly, and then the Yellow Room held only living Guards and dead victims.
Alec motioned them all together and ran towards the back hall. He rounded the corner of the doorway and saw a dozen of the mercenaries standing outside the closet door, stymied by the besieged Guards and Duke inside. Alec felt his heart lift in joy at the clear indication that the Duke must still be alive, just where the Guard had predicted he would be. He began a bloodcurdling scream and rushed at the unprepared attackers. The other Guards took up the berserk scream as they entered the hallway as well.
Alec ran past the attackers and the closet door, killing two of them as he passed to attack from the other side.
Alec on the left and the other Guards on the right fought loudly and furiously to set the Duke free. Alec saw one of his Guards go down, and then another, but the attackers were dying quicker. No quarter was given, and the doorway was soon freed from attack. “Duke Toulon! It’s me Alec the healer. We’ve come to set you free. We have to get out of here fast before we’re caught. We’ve got little time and far to go.”
“What’s the password?” Alec heard a voice inside the closet ask.
“It’s water barrel!” several voices shouted.
The door quickly opened, and Colonel Ryder with a sword looked out. “It’s true!” he shouted back over his shoulder. “Get the Duke moving! Where are we going Alec?”
“We’re going to the ingenaire’s rooms, sir, if that’s alright,” Alec said.
“Are you a warrior ingenaire now?” Ryder asked.
Alec nodded affirmatively.
“Thank the Lord! Very good,” Ryder said. “Then you take the lead.”
“Form up around the Duke,” the colonel spoke loudly to the group. “Keep him in the middle. Alec’s in front. Ellison and Imelda, hold the rear, at all costs. Out of the closet now,” he shouted. Four other Guards and the Duke came out.
“Alec, I’m…” the Duke began.
“Let’s move,” Ryder cut him off. “Fast!”
Alec began at a fast pace down the back hall. No other people were in it, and they ran rapidly down its length to a staircase at the end. Alec turned and went down the stairs three steps at a time, down three flights to the unadorned stone bottom level, as he had planned. There too he found no resistance. Once he reached the bottom level he felt comfortable, because he knew these corridors well from his time with the ingenaire.
Alec moved down a short distance from the stairway to allow space for all the squad to arrive. “Alright, we’ve only got a short distance to go. Suck it up and run fast!” he urged, and led them through the warren of turns to the ingenaire’s suite.
Alec was startled to see five attackers standing outside the doors to Merle’s domain. He ran at them and attacked them ferociously, killing them all in his anger at the thought of the ingenairii facing danger.
“Open up!” he shouted at the doors. “It’s Alec! Open up. We have the Duke safely here with a dozen Guards. We need sanctuary! Merle open up!” he banged on the door.
A sound of metal bars lifting stopped his shouting. The door opened, and Merle stood in front of his apprentices.
“Alec, bring the Duke and your refugees in. Quickly!” the ingenaire urged.
Alec stepped aside and let the group of Guards and the Duke enter the room. An apprentice, Michael, Alec remembered, started to close the door behind them.
“Wait!” Colonel Ryder ordered. “Don’t close the door. Standil, take up position twenty paces to the right of the door. Pom, twenty paces to the left. As soon as you see movement, shout at the top of your lungs and both of you retreat inside. We’ll bar the door then.”
Alec let his energies drop away. He fell to the ground, exhausted, but still conscious.
“Dear God, what do we do now?” Merle asked him. “Can you survive?”
“Survive? He’s indestructible! He’s not a healer, he’s a demon!” Alec heard Ellison say.
“Right now, the question is, what do we do next?” the Duke spoke loudly.
“Merle, approximately 200 men under the command of the Duke’s son, I presume, have invaded and overtaken the palace. They knew the layout of the building, and they knew we were undermanned,” Ryder explained the situation. “Thanks to Alec we’ve managed to bring the Duke here. We need to get him off the island, out of the city, and out to the army that should be on its way back here from the south, so that we can organize our forces to retake the palace.”
“I won’t retreat from this palace!” the Duke said.
Alec looked around at the knot of Guards that were watching intently, sensing the quick rise in tension.
“How many of you think we can indefinitely hold out here?” he asked them.
All heads held silently still.
“How many of you agree with Colonel Ryder that we need to take the Duke to the Guard battalions that should be returning to the city soon?” Alec asked.
“It’s all we can do,” he heard Imelda’s voice say, and many others nodded.
“Duke Toulon, my lord, we are sworn to save you, and as of now that vow outranks your wishes. We need to get you out of here as fast as possible,” Alec said, looking squarely at the Duke. “We’ve got a dozen plus. Natha told me that the Locksfort ships have brought two hundred unknown fighting men to Goldenfields in the past few days. There may be more of them already here. Colonel Ryder has the only plan that we can follow.”
Toulon looked around at the cluster of uniforms. “You’ve made up your minds, haven’t you?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” many of them responded.
The Duke looked around and weighed the opinion of the group, then sighed. “Very well, you all are correct and we’ll do as the colonel suggests.”
“Merle, you and all yours are welcome to join us. I encourage you to join us. When Airmed finds out that his father has escaped, his wrath will not be a pleasant thing for anyone in this palace,” Ryder said, directing his glance at the ingenaire.
“Colonel, we’ll join you, but before you go, I think you and the Duke need to know that I received a note by pigeon this morning. The king has been assassinated, and a power struggle is underway in Oyster Bay,” Merle said.
“Lord above us,” Alec heard a Guardsman say.
“What news of Aristotle?” Alec asked.
“He wrote the note that told me the news,” Merle replied. “It’s dated five days ago.”
“We’ll have to sort that out later,” the Duke said out loud.
Colonel Ryder spoke up immediately. “Alright. We assume there are two hundred of the enemy. We killed close to fifty getting to the Duke. There are still about ten out there for every one of us. Merle, how many do you have to come with us?”
“We have a dozen altogether,” the ingenaire replied.
“That means we’ve got over two dozen altogether, but effectively only a dozen or so that can fight at one time,” Ryder decided. “Merle, is there a back way out of here?”
The ingenaire looked at him. “Yes, there is.”
“Can we all take it?” Alec asked.
“Yes, if everyone can swim,” Merle answered.
Ryder looked around the room. “If you can’t swim, say it now,” he ordered.
“Good,” he said as he saw six hands go up. “That’s not too bad. Are there six people who know they can swim well enough to take another with them?”
Alec saw the hands rise. “Then you go with you, you with you, you with you…,” Ryder pointed out pairs. “If you can’t swim, take off your boots and swords to lighten the load for your companion. Leave everything in a pile before you hit the water.”
“Alright, Ellison, take the lead behind Merle, Imelda, you stay with the Duke and me no matter what. Otherwise let’s try to alternate Guardsmen and ingenairii. Alec will bring up the rear. Merle, lead them out. Go call in the sentries, and we’ll leave no trace that we went out this way,” the colonel instructed.
Merle led the line back into the bowels of his suite, while Alec went out into the hallway and silently tapped the sentries to come back in. They joined the line of escapees, while Alec watched the door for signs of pursuit.
A minute after the last member left the front room, Alec bolted the door, fell back and joined the group as the members of the line waited their turns to go through the room ahead. Slow seconds passed for each member to advance. Finally, the last in the line left the second room, and entered the room where Alec had first practiced learning to reach for his ingenaire powers.
At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Page 30
