At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

by Jeffrey Quyle

  The window high up on the wall had a chest dragged beneath it, and Alec saw Roland poised at the window waiting to jump. Alec wondered if they were being watched by anyone in the palace. He was worried that a rain of arrows would come down on them at any moment. Looking at the window location, Alec judged that they would be heading into the river facing away from the heart of the city.

  Alec’s turn came at last. Looking at the pile of swords and boots left behind by the folks leaving the palace, he grabbed several swords and stuffed them under his belt, then climbed up to the window. Looking out he saw no sign of attack from the palace. An irregular drawn out string of people were swimming and being swept downstream, hitting the bank two hundred yards or so past the palace. Bringing his powers to bear, sluggishly, Alec dove far out into the river and began swimming, carrying the weight of the extra swords with him. He tried to maintain as true a course as he could, feeling the current carry him downstream. The water was cold with the winter rains, and Alec felt the chill in his bones.

  At last he struck the shore and pulled himself up. He saw the knot of survivors gathering downstream from him, and trotted down. “Whose are these?” he asked, holding up the swords he had salvaged.

  Grateful Guards took all but one of the extras he held. “Did we lose someone?” Alec asked, looking at the unclaimed sword. “Rourke and Maelly haven’t shown up yet,” Imelda told him.

  That left Alec and twelve Guards, including Colonel Ryder, along with the ingenairii.

  “Let’s get off the bank and out of sight. Does anyone know if there’s a livery or stable nearby?” the Colonel asked.

  “Aye,” said Fayette, Alec’s former teacher as an apprentice. “There’s a stable and an inn not far. Shall I lead you there?”

  “Lead away,” Ryder ordered him. “Ellison to the rear, Imelda with the Duke, Alec in front behind Fayette. Let’s move fast; we’re almost out of here.”

  They scrambled up a muddy path on the riverbank and over the top of the levee into a district of small low cost shops and factories. Fayette moved along one street, then cut up an alley. “Go faster Fayette! We have to run!” Alec told the panting young man.

  Two minutes later they were on the main avenue that led to the bridge over the Gwinnup River, and they halted in front of a stable. As he arrived with the main group of refugees, Ryder looked around as the wet, bedraggled group came panting up. “Everyone into the stable yard,” he urged.

  “Ellison, Imelda, take two others and start bringing out all the horses you can find,” Ryder ordered.

  The four Guardsmen entered the stables. Moments later loud voices of protests started, but quickly ended in a squawk, and the Guard members started leading out horses, with their swords at the back of two groomsmen also leading out horses.

  “I presumed you were looking for direct action instead of a debate,” Ellison said as he kept his sword point against the back of a groom.

  “We don’t have time for social niceties. Duke Toulon, grab a horse. Ellison, go bring out four more,” the colonel told his aide.

  “Alec, Ellison, Imelda, and four other Guards get on horses,” the colonel said loudly. “You are to take the Duke straight up the river until you find the Army that’s coming back in this direction. When you reach them, tell whoever’s in charge what has happened here and come back.” He looked at the Duke, who bit his lip.

  “I’m going to stay here with these others and the ingenairii, and try to find out what forces are in the city that we can use,” Ryder said. “Don’t listen to him,” the officer pointed at the Duke, “if he tries to stop you in your mission. Tie him up and throw him across the saddle if you have to, but go straight to the Army and the Guard that’s returning. Ellison, you’re in command. Alec, you’re number two.”

  Alec felt an instinctive protest jump from his throat. “Sir, I think I’m the best suited for staying behind. All you really need for the Duke’s escort is speed. Back here you’ll need battle ability in the palace. Send another with the Duke.”

  Colonel Ryder appraised Alec for several moments. “You can use the time riding to rest and regain your strength, so that you’ll be fresh when you return with the Duke and the army. There’ll be enough fighting even then to satisfy you,” he said.

  Alec stuck to his point, emboldened by the leadership he had been called to provide. “Every traitor we can kill now will make their defenses that much weaker before the army returns. We might even be able to scare them out of the city, once they realize they’ve lost the Duke and are already under siege. Let me stay and we may have this finished before the army even returns,” he pleaded.

  “Imelda, you’ll be number two for Ellison. Raoul, you take Alec’s place with the Duke,” Ryder said as everyone looked from Alec to him in silence. Alec felt his heart lift with elation and he gave a grateful grin to the colonel.

  Sensing that the time was right to move, Ellison spoke. “Troops form up. Kahlie, Marshal, take the lead. Imelda and Raoul, flank the Duke. I’ll take the rear. Let’s ride!” Seconds later the horses trotted out of the yard and began their trek south.

  “Tell us what you know about the attack on the palace,” Ryder said, turning to the stable hands who had been forced outside with them.

  “We don’t know anything about such an attack. All I know is that our horses were just stolen,” one of the youths retorted angrily.

  “The Duke will make their owners whole when he returns,” Alec said. “Here’s something to tide folks over,” he added as he pulled two golds out of his pocket. It wouldn’t begin to cover the cost of that much horse flesh, but it was all he had.

  “We need to get moving. Follow me,” the colonel said as he walked out into the street and started to trot away.

  The rest of the band of escapees obediently followed Ryder down the street and around a corner. He apparently wanted to get out of sight of the stable they had raided as quickly as possible.

  He led his group in a direction back to the river shore, almost a mile downstream from the palace. “We need to get back across the river. Let’s start looking for a boat we can use.”

  Another half mile down the river they found a fishing boat tied to a tree stump. “Five of you get in to go over, and one of you bring it back,” Ryder said.

  They ferried back and forth across the river until everyone was across. Alec pulled the boat up and tied it to a tree. “That’s someone else we owe,” he said under his breath.

  “If you don’t have any other plan, why don’t we go to Natha’s dockyard to lie low and find out what is going on,” Alec said quietly to the colonel. “And maybe get some dry clothes,” he added with a slight smile, seeing Yula shivering.

  Ryder smiled a humorless smile back. “Group form up and follow Alec. Let’s move out,” he told his tired troops.

  They walked up the river, exhausted, cold, and wet, until they reached Natha’s yard. The gates were closed and guarded. “We seek entrance,” Alec told the burly men standing guard at the gate.

  “We aren’t to allow anyone in,” the chief of the gate watchers said bluntly. “Move away, now.”

  “Is Natha here, or Drawr, or Tarkas, or some other?” Alec asked. “They’ll vouch that I’m a friend of the family and a partner in business with Natha.”

  The watchman looked less certain. “Go check now, or in five minutes I’m coming in anyway,” Alec said.

  One of the men left to go check on what to do about the armed soldiers at the gate. Three minutes later he returned with Tarkas, one of Natha’s sons. “Alec, are you the cause of all this trouble?” the son asked, walking up to the gate and opening it. “Come in and tell us what’s happening.”

  Ryder and his followers filed inside the gate and followed Tarkas to a warehouse. They all slumped to the floor. “Do you have blankets or dry clothes we could use?” Alec asked. Tarkas turned to a man next to him, spoke briefly, and the man left.

  “Can you tell us what’s happening?” Tarkas asked the Guardsman.
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  “Thank you for your hospitality, Tarkas. You may have saved our lives,” Alec began. “We have fled the palace after it was attacked, and split our forces. The Duke and several Guards are heading up river to meet the army units returning to the city. We’re here with Colonel Ryder, head of the Duke’s Guard, and we’re trying to find what forces are available in the city and what has happened this afternoon.”

  “We’d all like to know what has happened,” Tarkas said. “The city knows that the palace was attacked, and many believe that the Duke was killed. Are you sure he lives?”

  “We parted from him just half an hour ago, and he was with a mounted Guard and heading towards nearby army units. He already had ordered the return of those army units to the city anyway,” Ryder confirmed. “Of course we don’t want information about the direction of his escape known.

  “I hope that we may be able to create a diversion here in the city to keep the rebels tied down here, and weakened,” the colonel said, apparently making decisions on the spot. “Who are these rebels, do you know Tarkas? Is there any clear information?”

  “Well, it’s said that it’s both sons of the Duke, acting together against their father because they think he’ll lose the war with the lacertii. No one believes that part – it’s about the sons wanting the power of the palace, we all know,” Tarkas said.

  “Your father told me just this morning that the Locksfort ships had brought 200 or so men to the city recently. Do we know if they’re the attackers, or the only attackers?” Alec asked.

  “I’d guess they are the only forces being used. No one I’ve talked to saw any familiar faces going into the palace. The Duke cleared out the last nest of troublemakers pretty well when he sent them to the road crew months ago, plus the jailbirds he emptied out. So obviously they had to bring new armsmen to fight their battle for them,” Tarkas said. “The city didn’t know anything was happening until at least an hour after it started. There was a rush at the bridge, and then fighting that seemed to be brief around the palace, and the rebels seemed to have things pretty well under control. Then the rebels started rushing around again, looking agitated, and that’s the last I heard.”

  “Which son is in control, Airmed?” Ryder asked. “Are you sure Elgin is involved in this?” Alec cringed at the implications of Noranda’s fiancé now acting to usurp his father.

  “I’ve heard it’s both of them. Airmed is presumably the leader, since he’s the oldest and took the chance last time, but no one has said for sure. Elgin is considered the brighter of the two.”

  “Can my people stay here and rest for a couple of hours while we scout some things out?” the colonel asked.

  “Of course you all can stay. The city is a dangerous place right now sir, although I suspect you can handle yourself pretty well. If you’re going out, best be careful of yourself; we’ll watch your people for you,” Tarkas said.

  Ryder looked at the group of ingenairii and guards in the room. “Alec, Mortis, come with me,” the leader said. “The remainder of you rest here. It’s going to be dark soon. We may not be back until almost morning.

  “Tarkas, if you can round up fifty fighters for me, have them here before dawn. That’s when we’ll attack if we can,” Ryder told his host, drawing a look of surprise but no comment.

  As the three Guardsmen slipped out of the dockyard, Alec felt an uneasy sense that he was missing some duty, but didn’t know what it was. Alec didn’t know Mortis well, but knew that he was a friend of Ellison’s.

  “Mortis, have you ever taken the tunnel out of the Guard section?” Ryder asked as they entered the tavern with the landside tunnel entrance. The Guard shook his head as he followed Alec down the hall. “Well, you’re about to, and you must promise not to reveal it to anyone,” the colonel warned him as they entered the room where the tunnel opened.

  Alec led them along the dark tunnel, not bothering to light the way, though he heard Mortis stumble often in the darkness. They climbed up the ladder inside the palace, and entered the office it was located next to.

  “We’re going to catch a few, interrogate them, and kill them,” Ryder told the other two. “Then after dark, if the chance comes, we’ll kill as many of them as we can.” Alec felt a chill in his heart at the cold-bloodedness of the plan, sensible as he knew it was.

  They looked cautiously out a window and saw a few rebels walking about the yard. Alec saw that at times only a single man was present. “When it gets down to just one man in the yard, if he is anywhere nearby, Alec, I want you to drag him in,” Ryder directed.

  They sat by the window and kept watch. Twice they saw only a single man in the yard, but not close enough to suit Alec.

  Finally, as the sunlight was fading, the third time it happened the man was near their building. Alec stepped to the door and opened it. “In here, look at this coin!” Alec told the man excitedly, guessing that plunder was dear to the rebel forces. The rebel incautiously walked over and into the building, where Mortis grabbed him and pulled him down.

  “Tell who you are and why you’re here,” Alec said standing over the man with his sword point against his chest.

  “How’d you get in here?” the man asked.

  “We’ve been hiding in the attic,” Ryder told him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Lord Elgin recruited me from Oyster Bay,” the man answered.

  “Is Elgin in charge or Airmed?” Alec asked.

  “We all were recruited by Elgin, although he’s told us to answer to Airmed until told otherwise.”

  “What does the Locksfort clan get out of serving your cause?” Alec asked.

  “I don’t know,” the man replied.

  “How many of you are there, and where are Elgin and Airmed?”

  “We had 270 to start. About fifty have died so far. The heads are looking for the Duke or his body, wherever he is hiding on the island.”

  “Are there any prisoners being held anywhere?” Alec asked.

  The man looked at him bleakly. “We took no prisoners,” he answered.

  Alec looked at Ryder, standing in the corner. The colonel drew his finger across his throat; Alec look a deep breath and thought a silent prayer, then slipped the sword blade quickly into the man’s chest. The victim looked surprised for a moment, then spewed up blood and died. Alec turned away and vomited in a corner, disgusted by his act of murder.

  He turned around and tried to refocus on the crisis at hand. “They’ve got more left than I knew they started with,” Ryder told Mortis, as Alec wiped his blade clean on the dead man’s shirt.

  “Alright, so far we’ve learned that Elgin is behind this, and that they think the Duke is still on the island, dead or alive. We’re going to wait here until dark and then go attack the palace so that they think Death walks among them. Mortis, I want you to go back to the dockyard and tell Tarkas that if he has fifty warriors available, I’ll open the gate for them to enter the palace tomorrow morning when I drop the torch by the gate on the bridge,” Ryder instructed Mortis. “I want you and the other Guards to come back through the tunnel, and when you hear the battle start, come out and fight your way into the palace from that direction. Kill as many as you can, and don’t rely on honor; you saw what we just did. Now get back and get some rest for yourself. Tomorrow will be bloody work.”

  Mortis saluted and departed silently. Alec noticed how silent the man had been the whole time they were together, and how little any of the other Guards had spoken to him during the afternoon of action. He understood that he still was being ostracized for Inga’s departure from the palace; he remembered Inga‘s warning that an ingenaire could never have friends, and felt his heart give a melancholy shudder. Alec looked at Ryder for an okay, then sat back and rested for a moment, feeling depleted by the long period he’d spent carrying great doses of ingenaire powers with him. His exhaustion overcame him, and he fell asleep.

  Ryder awoke him after dark; he was surprised that he had been able to nap, but felt a bit refreshed. “It�
��s time to go Alec. Let’s go take out the three in the yard, then head to the infirmary to plan the next step.”

  Alec looked out the window, and saw three rebels alone in the courtyard, walking away from him. Ryder pulled the door open, and let Alec out to fight in the yard while he headed towards the infirmary. Without using his ingenaire energy, Alec ran towards them, stabbed one quickly in the back, sliced another down, and thrust at the third as he attempted to engage. Alec then ran to the infirmary and shut the door as he entered behind Ryder. Inside they found two more rebels, and Ryder killed them before they realized he was not another member of their side entering the building with them.

  After a brief discussion, Ryder and Alec worked their way from building to building in the Guard sector, walking so as to not draw attention, systematically killing rebels one and two at a time as they found them isolated in various locations. While in their sixth building, they heard a shout outside. Looking out Alec saw a dozen rebels in the courtyard, two of them kneeling by the three he had killed first, while the others were looking around. They split up into two groups of six each as he watched, and started in opposite directions around the courtyard square, apparently searching for whoever was responsible. Ryder decided to wait and fight in the building he held. Several minutes later, six rebels entered the building, where the two Guardsmen were hiding in a back room.

  With his ingenaire powers attuned, Alec led the way out of the room, killing two searchers quickly and quietly, then entering the front room and killing two more. He heard a shout behind him and found Ryder had killed the last two.

  Ryder decided the time was right to enter the palace and spread fear among the rebels there. The two men loyal to the Duke calmly walked out of their hiding place into the dark square and went to the door of the palace. Inside were two rebels guarding the doorway. “We haven’t found anyone yet,” Ryder told the two as he casually walked in.