Mitchell Graham - [Fifth Ring 01] - The Fifth Ring (v1.0)

by Mitchell Graham

  "We can talk about it later," Mathew said. "Do you know how long we have until the Orlocks get here?"

  Val nodded slowly. "It was planned that both our army and Alor Satar would strike the front of Elgarian lines on the eighth hour after midday." Val paused and looked out the window. "I'm afraid you do not have much time, per­haps three hours, no more."

  "Where will they be coming from?" Father Thomas asked.

  "I don't know the exact location of their caves. Orlocks are not forthcoming with such information. The plan was of their making. I only know that one of the caves lies to the southwest of the town. If possible, I would like to re­main and fight with you."

  "Against your own people?" Collin said.

  Instead of replying, Darias Val smiled, showing a full set of very white teeth. "Never."

  "Then what's so damned funny?" Collin asked irritably.

  "I was amusing myself to think that the great and per­fect lord of Alor Satar has made a small mistake."

  "Mistake?"

  "It is a custom among my people that when a Kalifar dies, the faithful honor him by observing a mourning rit­ual for a period of seven days." Val's smile became even wider and he crossed his legs, looking extremely smug.

  Father Thomas blinked as the impact of his words sunk in. "Then?"

  "My people will not fight while they mourn then-leader. It seems your odds have just gone up—assuming your legions can get here in time. Otherwise, this is as good a day as any to die."

  Father Thomas put his hand on Val's shoulder and said, "Thank you. We would be honored to have you with us. But if you will pardon me, there is much I need to do now."

  Val nodded soberly. "I would accompany you and lend what little help I can."

  "And you, my son," Father Thomas said, turning to Mathew, "is there anything that ring of yours can do to help?"

  "I'm not sure. But I intend to try, Father,"

  "That's all anyone can ask. Get Lara and Daniel and meet us at the north gate as fast as you can. If they're coming at us from the south, we'll make them fight then-way up the streets and alleys. The people who live here know the layout of their town, and the Orlocks do not." "Can we use that old castle up there on the hill?" Collin asked, looking out of the window.

  Father Thomas and Akin came over and peered out the window with him. Val pushed himself out of his chair to join them and examined the site with a professional eye.

  "Better still," he said eventually. "The creatures would have to attack uphill, and except for that breech in the side wall there, most of it appears intact. It is only that..."

  Val's voice trailed off, and he turned to look at Father Thomas. The priest finished the sentence for him. "It may turn into a box with no way out."

  Val spread his hands. "Still, it's better than having your people with their backs to a wall."

  Father Thomas closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Let us hope the Lord is watching Tremont today. Akin, get those soldiers to spread the word. Have them get everybody up to the cas­tle. Collin, off with you. Get Lara and Daniel up there as quickly as you can."

  The boys nodded and made for the door.

  "Where are you going to be, Father?" Akin asked.

  "I will remain here in the town with the men. We will gradually fall back before the Orlocks, until we reach the castle. If they want this town, they will have to take it inch by inch. Hopefully, we can buy enough time until Delain returns."

  Listening to the plan unfold, the Bajani general stuck out his lower lip and nodded in approval. "You have such interesting priests in your country," he observed.

  "You have no idea," Akin said over his shoulder, leaving Father Thomas and Darias Val in the room alone together.

  Father Thomas was about to say something when he noticed Val looking at him strangely.

  "Would you not say it is a strange thing for the prince to leave a priest in charge of defending this town?"

  Father Thomas raised an eyebrow but didn't reply.

  "You appear most well-informed for a man who fol-

  lows your profession, Father," Val went on. "It has been many years since I had contact with the Elgarians, but I seem to remember that Malach had a brilliant young gen­eral. I believe his last name was Thomas as well. He com­manded the southern armies of your country. By any chance, did you ever make his acquaintance?"

  Father Thomas looked down at the ground, then out the window. "We meet many people in our lives."

  "There was also something else about a duel and a baron's son, but alas, the details escape me now."

  Father Thomas shook his head slowly and the two men looked at each other for a time.

  "The Bajani army is one of the best trained in the world. Do their generals fight as well as the soldiers?" the priest asked.

  "Ah . .. that we shall see." Val smiled. "With your god and mine watching over us, victory is assured."

  Father Thomas was not sure about the last statement. As they left the room together, he hoped that God was watching very closely indeed.

  36

  Tremont

  Mathew and Collin bounded up the stairs at the back of the common room. They found Lara and Daniel together in his room, watching the pandemonium that had broken out below from a window. Daniel's leg was set between two wooden splints and heavily bandaged. Though obviously in pain, he was able to move around with help. In minutes they managed to get him down­stairs and on his way to the other end of town, where the North Gate was located.

  Tremont had only one main street. It wound through the town in a long S shape. A number of smaller alley­ways and warrens branched off at different junctures, but all eventually returned to it. Word of the impending at­tack spread rapidly, and the townsfolk responded without hesitation.

  Collin stopped a man on a wagon and asked him to give Daniel a ride to the castle. The man agreed and told them to get on. Daniel, wanting to stay and help, com­plained bitterly and had to be persuaded. They had less luck with Lara.

  "Mathew Lewin," she said hotly, "if it weren't for me you'd be in jail or dead now, so I think the least you would do is welcome my help."

  Mathew winced. Her statement may have been literally true, but still it didn't sound particularly good when she said it. Realizing it would be pointless to argue with her any further he threw his hands up in frustration. Collin, who believed that a battle was no place for a woman, was

  about to add his agreement, but a glare from Lara that could have started a fire changed his mind. The fact that she was carrying a sword may have also had something to do with it.

  Men and women were busy blockading the street with wagons, bales of hay, wine barrels, and anything else they could find. The North Gate was only a five-minute walk from the tavern. Twice along the way they saw Fa­ther Thomas and the Bajani general instructing men where to place the barricades and positioning the archers. Mathew also noticed that five or six women were present with bows of their own, but wisely chose not to say any­thing about it. A small "Hmph" from Lara told him there was no need.

  While they were walking, he made a rough count in his head and estimated that they had about eighty alto­gether, not the ideal defense force, considering what they would be facing. It will have to do, he thought. At the gate they found more hastily erected barricades. The people of Tremont lined them, stern-faced, ready to de­fend their families and their town. In age, they ranged from younger than Mathew to at least as old as Silas Al-man back home.

  The road from the gate up to the castle was lined with the elderly and with mothers carrying their children. Lara noticed one woman struggling with two small infants in her arms and went over to help, taking one of them from her. Collin and Mathew spotted another young woman with three children trailing after her and scooped up one in each arm. All of them trudged up the hill together.

  The woman turned out to be the children's eldest sister, the same age as they were. Her mother was still down in the town with her fa
ther.

  "I'm Erin Cardith," she said, smiling at Collin. She was a pretty girl with a fine figure and long dark hair.

  "Collin Miller, from Devondale. This is my friend, Mat Lewin. That's Lara Palmer over there."

  "Pleased to meet you. Are you with Prince Delain's people?"

  "No. We're just here to help out with the town's de­fenses." Collin grinned.

  Erin's eyes got a little wider. "Oh, I see." Mathew's eyes got wider too, but he rolled them sky­ward and kept quiet.

  At the top of the hill they passed through a large stone archway that marked the entrance to the castle. Erin ex­plained to them that the structure was once an old abbey, abandoned after a fire more than three hundred years ago. No one in Tremont could remember when they started calling it a castle, but everyone had done so for as long as she could remember. It actually consisted of four separate buildings surrounding an expansive courtyard made of gray rectangular stones. Grass grew in those places where the stones didn't quite meet.

  It surprised Mathew that the two large wooden doors guarding the entrance were still there at all. They were badly weathered and cracked. After a closer inspection, he had little hope of their withstanding much force. But they were better than no doors at all. He and Collin tested the hinges and found that with a little effort they could get them to close.

  The buildings were all constructed of yellow and brown brick, and almost all of the windows on the first floor had rusted iron crossbars in front of them, which Mathew thought unusual for an abbey. Odder still were the windows on the second floor, noticeably narrower than the ones below. Portions of faded red and white tile roof still remained on three of the four buildings. The building to the left of the entranceway's roof was almost completely gone. Not much more remained of the origi­nal structure than the outer shell. Through the window openings, Mathew could see that the timbers were black­ened, which was consistent with the fire Erin had told them about.

  What attracted his attention most was the old bell tower at the rear corner of the courtyard. Shaped like a

  large rectangular column, it was the most prominent fea­ture of the complex, rising at least fifty feet above the tallest building there, the most castlelike. Staring up at it, he imagined that at some point in the past it must have been used for more than just ringing a bell. Evenly spaced stone ramparts ran completely around it.

  At least a hundred people were in the courtyard now, with Delain's soldiers busy directing and positioning the men. Women ushered younger children to the rear of the buildings and then returned to help. Most of the men had axes or swords, and a few had pikes and halberds. Mathew was pleased to see that better than thirty of the townspeople were also carrying longbows. Off to one side, in the doorway of a building, four younger boys were busy piling arrows and spare swords into stacks un­der the direction of an elderly white-haired man on crutches. Everyone went about his or her task quickly and without comment.

  "How can I get up that tower?" Mathew asked Erin.

  "Through that door there in the middle of the building, I think," she said, pointing. "There's an old staircase at the very end that goes up to the top, but you'll have to be careful. I'm not sure how strong the steps are. We used to play here as children, and they weren't very sturdy back then."

  Mathew and Collin looked up at the tower.

  "Oh, one more question," Mathew said. "Do you know of any caves south of the town?"

  Erin frowned and made a clicking sound with her tongue. Mathew suppressed a smile—Lara had the same habit when she was concentrating.

  "Um-hmm," she said after a moment. "There's one that I remember. Some of the boys liked to camp out in it, though I could never understand why. I guess they wanted to do whatever boys do when they camp. They tried to get me to stay the night once, but it was so yucky I decided not to."

  "Yucky?" Collin asked, raising his eyebrows.

  "You know, just. . . icky."

  Mathew and Collin exchanged puzzled glances. Lara, however, nodded in agreement, apparently understanding what Erin meant.

  "How far is that cave from here?" Mathew asked.

  "Not far. I'd guess it's just about two miles .. . proba­bly less. It couldn't be much more than that."

  "Do you think I'd be able to see it from up there?" Mathew asked, looking up to the tower.

  "I'm really not sure," Erin replied. "You might. It's be­tween two hills, partway up. I haven't been there in a long time, but I remember the trees covered the entrance until you're almost right on top of it."

  That's just wonderful, Mathew thought. He was about to ask something else when Lara said, "There's Daniel. I'd better see how he's doing. He doesn't look happy."

  "And I'd better get the children settled," Erin said. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

  Collin watched her walk away and said, "Do you know, I always suspected they have their own language."

  Mathew shook his head. "Let's go see what it looks like up there."

  "Only if it's not too icky. Hang on for a second. I have an idea."

  Collin dashed across the courtyard to Daniel. He re­turned a few seconds later carrying the farsighter.

  The door Erin had pointed to was made of a heavy dark wood, reinforced with two bands of rusted iron and nails across it. Like everything else in the castle, .it was badly weathered, but surprisingly, it swung aside with only a lit­tle effort. The hinges made a creaking sound that seemed unnaturally loud in the confines of the building. When they were inside, they paused, allowing their eyes to ad­just to the dim light. A central hallway ran down the length of the floor, with a number of smaller rooms on each side. It was made of stone, as were the walls, and seemed solid enough. A dank, musty smell hung in the air.

  "Nobody's been in here for years," Collin said, looking at the layer of dust on the floor.

  Mathew nodded, turning to look at their footprints. Some kind of gray-green mold grew on the walls, and cobwebs stretched between the doorways and across the corridor. Behind him, he heard Collin muttering under his breath. Ever since they were children, his friend had disliked spiders, snakes, and other things that crawled. Though Collin would no doubt have resisted saying so, the place was, well. .. yucky.

  Exactly as Erin had said, there was a stairway at the end of the building. Mathew tested the first few steps. The wood groaned but held under his weight. Behind him, Collin walked into another cobweb and cursed again. Vines of ivy, untended for ages, crept up along the outer walls, and grew in through broken windows. The steps themselves were covered with leaves and debris blown in over the years by the wind. They proceeded cau­tiously, stepping over parts of an iron handrail that lay on the steps between the first and second floors.

  When they finally reached the roof, they both took a deep breath, grateful to be out of the stale air. It was obvi­ous to Mathew that whoever built the castle had done so with its defense in mind. Because of its elevation, the tower provided a clear view of the town and surrounding area for miles in every direction. He could not remember ever having been in a building quite as tall before. Be­neath them in the courtyard, preparations were still going on as people readied themselves for the imminent attack.

  The sinking sun was just above the tops of the moun­tains, bathing the landscape in warm reds and purples. He walked to the south side of the tower and gazed out over the countryside, searching for the cave Erin had told them about. Collin joined him. He rested his elbows on the edge of an opening in the wall and lifted Daniel's far­sighter to his eye, scanning slowly back and forth over the hills. They looked for a full minute without any success.

  "The damn trees are so dense, it's hard to see anything clearly," Collin said irritably. "They could be just about... wait... see there? At the base of the hill on the left."

  He handed Mathew the brass tube.

  Though no cave was visible, he could clearly see a number of white shapes moving in the trees. Mathew felt his stomach tighten, remembering the Orlocks' ghastly faces. He
handed the farsighter back to his friend.

  There was a pause before Mathew spoke.

  "Collin, do you think Karas Duren is a monster?" he asked, running his fingers lightly over his ring.

  "What? Yeah, I guess so. He kills for no reason at all. It's like you said earlier, the man just... hates."

  Mathew nodded and went silent again, staring out across the landscape.

  "My guess is the cave's got to be just beyond those trees," Collin said. "It looks like there's a farm of some sort over to the right. That first group is probably a scout­ing party they sent to check the area before the rest ar­rive. I was just thinking ..."

  Collin's voice trailed off as he looked around. He was alone on the roof.

  "Mat?"

  Collin walked around the tower to see if Mathew had wandered to the other side, then returned to his spot on the south wall and looked over the edge of the ramparts. Down below in the courtyard he saw Mathew run out of the building and dash past several surprised villagers, who had to jump to get out of his way.

  "Damn!" Collin shouted, pounding his fist on top of the wall. A second later he was racing down the steps.

  When Lara saw Mathew burst out of the doorway of the building, she jumped to her feet to ask what was wrong, but he was gone so quickly she never had a chance. Not long afterward Collin came tearing out of the same door.

  "Collin," she called, taking a step forward.

  "Stay here!"

  "But—"

  "I said, stay!" he roared at her. Then he was gone.

  * * *

  Mathew raced down the hill toward the town. The men at the North Gate called after him, but he didn't have time to slow down and explain. He knew there wasn't much time left. His first thought was to reach the stables and his horse as quickly as possible. Then, directly ahead of him, he saw a merchant was loading his possessions onto a flatbed wagon in front of a shop. A second horse was tethered to a post on the opposite side of the wagon. In three strides Mathew bounded up and across the wagon and onto the horse's back, knocking the startled man to the ground in the process. A sharp tug on the reins, and Mathew wheeled the horse around and charged off down the street.