by Brian Keller
They walked, crouching low through the grass. By the time they could make out the quarry they were already within sight of the buildings. As they’d drawn closer, it became obvious that the hill shielded the quarry from the worst of the winds. They split into two groups; Spen and Naro moved toward the stable and skirted along, inspecting each stall. Cooper lost sight of them quickly but knew that they’d move to the end of the stable and watch the guard house from that side. Cooper, Loryn, Rukle and Gaff moved through the camp and paused near the stockade to drop off Gaff and Rukle, then Cooper and Loryn crept over closer to the workman’s house. They spotted two guards tucked up under the eaves on the north side of that building. He pointed them out to Loryn and she nodded. She’d already started raising her bow. Apparently she’d noticed them as well. He placed a hand on her arm as he studied the rest of their surroundings. Even through the rain he heard the restless sounds of a horse or two, but no shouts of alarm. He had to trust that Spen and Naro were already in position, and that they’d handle any guards who might come in from that direction. He whispered to Loryn, “Only two there that I can see. You take the one on the left. Arrows will fall faster in the rain, and mind the winds.” She uttered something between a grunt and a growl. He assumed that meant she acknowledged what he’d said, and resented being reminded. He raised his bow and pulled the fletching to his ear. Loryn did the same. Cooper said, “Release.” One arrow followed a hairsbreadth behind the other. As soon as the arrow left the string, they were reaching for the next while striding quickly to follow their arrows. For the first few steps, he watched to the right while she looked left. Then both focused briefly on the guards they had shot. Both had crumpled but one was still trying to rise. He hadn’t tried to shout a warning yet, but that was sure to happen unless they could silence him quickly. Cooper paused long enough to take aim and send a second arrow into the man, then sprinted to the corner, fumbling to nock another arrow as he ran in case there were others around the side of the building they hadn’t yet seen. There weren’t any. The reason the man hadn’t called out was immediately obvious. The arrow had entered his windpipe but missed his major blood vessels and vertebrae. Only the fletching was visible from the front. The second arrow Cooper fired had punched through the man’s breast plate and ended his life. He checked the other man for any signs of life then told Loryn, “Keep an eye out as I pull these arrows. Once I have them, we’ll go back and cover the stockade.” She glanced around, to make sure they weren’t vulnerable, then backed away so she could widen her field of view, limited as it was by the rain. The arrow that had pierced the guard’s neck needed to be pulled the rest of the way through. The other two came out with some effort. He handed one to Loryn and dropped the other two into his quiver as they backed away toward the stockade. As they neared the gate, Gaff brought his bow up suddenly and dropped just as quickly when he recognized them. Cooper hissed, “You’re supposed to be in there unlocking chains!” Gaff nodded and stepped into the stockade. Cooper saw movement from the center of the work area and gave Loryn a nudge. She followed his line of sight and gave him a nudge in return. Cooper began to creep toward it, putting a little tension on his bowstring as he did. As he drew closer, he recognized that the person he was stalking had a bow. At this same moment he also realized it was Spen. Cooper relaxed his bow and crept forward quickly. Spen noticed his sudden movement and stepped to meet him. Cooper spoke in a forced whisper, to be heard above the rain, “What’re you doing out here? You’re supposed to b-” Spen interrupted him, “Balat’s hurt. He got kicked by a horse as he moved through the stables.” Cooper replied quickly, “Well then. We load him onto the wagon just like we load the freed prisoners.” Spen shook his head, “Sure, but in the meantime, Balat wants to kill the horse. It seems that the horse stepped on him several times after he’d been kicked. Balat’s either taken it personally or he’s just that pissed off.” Cooper was thinking, “I don’t have time for this.” but what he said was, “Tell him to leave the horse alone. It’d make too much noise if he tried to kill it. The wagons should be here any minute.” Cooper paused, “Where was he kicked? In the head? Is he delirious?” Spen shook his head, “In the chest, from the side. He’s got a broken arm, too, I think. Not sure if that happened at the same time, or from the stomping afterward.” Spen seemed to be looking to him for guidance, or maybe a little relief. Cooper told him, “We’ll switch. You go join Loryn. She’s at the stockade gate watching us now. I’ll go to the stable and sort this out.”
Balat did indeed appear incensed, though he was leaned forward and to the right as he cradled his right arm. Naro was trying to calm him down. Neither of them were keeping their eyes where they needed to be, so neither of them saw him approach. As soon as he’d stepped under the roof and out of the rain, both of them noticed him and became silent. Cooper turned to Naro, “Keep watch. We all shouldn’t die because of a horse.” He then turned and surged forward to invade Balat’s personal space. In his injured state Balat could only cringe. Cooper’s voice was almost a growl, “Is this what we should expect from you? We come here to free some of our own people, and you want to kill a horse?!” The animal was obviously still in an agitated state and Cooper guided Balat further away. Balat muttered a reply, “I didn’t do anything to it. I just moved around it to the rear of the stall to slice the girth strap, like you told me to. Next thing I know-” Cooper interrupted him, “You can tell me all about it later. Right now I need to know whether you can remain focused on the matter at hand, or do I need to paralyze you and carry you out?” Balat’s eyes got big, “Paralyze!? What’re you-?” He shook his head rapidly from side to side, “Never mind. I’m alright. It just hurts. A lot.” Cooper set his bow down and held palms toward Balat. Balat started to shy away. Cooper told him. “I’m just going to check your ribs. I need to know how badly you’re injured.” Balat took another step away and replied, “It’s mostly my arm that hurts. I saw the movement, the horse kicking, it was so fast. I only had time to raise my arm a little. My arm took most of the foot. Hoof. Whatever. My ribs are bruised. I don’t think any of them got cracked.” The horses in the stable all became a little agitated during the next minutes while Cooper helped him fashion a sling from his cloak. All the movement of the horses seemed to bother Balat, he glanced around as if expecting the horses to charge the walls of their stalls at any moment. Cooper finished tying off the sling, then said, “The wagons should be here in a minute or two, if they’re not already pulling into the quarry. You just collect your stuff and climb into one of the wagons and get comfortable. The rest of us will handle getting the prisoners loaded.” Balat nodded and Cooper added, “If you try killing that horse while my back is turned, you’ll walk home.” Cooper didn’t wait for a reply as he turned away to join Naro.
Naro pointed toward the stockade. The wagons had already arrived and prisoners were being led out. Cooper thought, “That must’ve been why the horses became agitated. I thought it was because of Balat and me.” Some prisoners were helping others, some were being carried completely. Several of the prisoners were grasping hands, placing grateful hands on shoulders or even hugging Spen or Rukle before being assisted into the wagons. Loryn remained at the stockade gate and Gaff had positioned himself next to the wagons. Gaff had his bow already half drawn as he scanned the grounds. Balat had climbed into Dailen’s wagon and was helping some prisoners climb in to join him. Cooper looked away from the prisoners and concentrated on the guard house. This was the riskiest part of the venture. A few fresh peals of thunder did nothing to calm the horses. Those hitched to the wagon were startled and caused the wagons to shift slightly in the mud, causing a couple prisoners to fall while trying to climb in. A few of the horses in the stable snorted and made noises, but so far none had issued a full whinny. Cooper clapped a hand on Naro’s shoulder, “Keep watch. I’ll try to calm the horses. We’re definitely too far now to turn back.” He pointed to the guard house, “Anyone comes out, put an arrow in him and shout at me.” Naro’s mouth
tightened and he gave a terse nod, never taking his eyes off the guard house door as he replied, “Spen and I already dropped two guards, and retrieved the arrows. Dailen was right. Cheap armor.” Cooper made his way back to the stall doors, speaking to the horses in a gentle voice and rubbing the noses of those that approached close enough. His presence seemed to help but a couple of them needed more attention. For those horses he entered the stalls, careful to approach the horse from the front, place a hand on its muzzle and leave it there while he stroked the animal’s neck. The animal made a quiet, high-pitched squeal, as if to complain about all the activity. Cooper had to stretch a little to keep his muzzle hand in place while he rubbed his other along the horse’s back and shoulders. The horse made another noise through its nose, this one like a repeated throat-clearing sound.
As he stepped out of the stall, he saw movement from the Workmen’s house. The door was opening. The men inside that building weren’t soldiers, but they could certainly shout and alert them. Cooper didn’t think, he drew power from the falling rain and the storm-tossed energy in the air and surged to the opened door. The man almost fell backward in response to his sudden appearance, a nudge from Cooper assured that he did fall. Cooper growled over the noise of the storm, “Remain silent. Don’t come out until dawn or you’ll all be killed.” He abruptly pulled the door closed behind him and thought, “If I were a mason, that would be enough to keep me quiet for an hour or two.”
As he turned to face the wagons, another problem became obvious. There were too many prisoners to have them all laying down in the bottoms of the two wagons. Everyone that could maintain that position would need to be seated upright. Even with everyone seated, the wagons were filling up so fast he wondered if he wouldn’t be walking home himself, or if the horses could even pull such heavily laden wagons down the muddy roads. Loryn had closed and locked the stockade gate. Probably an unnecessary measure considering the four dead guards and the terrified masons, but maybe it would help pass a cursory search if a guard merely opened the guard house door to glance outside. Birt was turning his wagon to align with Dailen’s when Cooper retrieved Naro. “Time to go.” he told him. As they approached, Dailen was staring at Cooper, his eyes wide.
When they got to the wagons, Rukle was shaking his head, “Looks like we’re walking back. Besides, we’ll probably be needing to push to get the wagons through the low spots.” One of the prisoners crawled down out of the wagon and shuffled through the mud. In a hoarse voice he called out, “Coo-, uh, Kinsman?” Except for the mannerisms and inflections in speech, Cooper couldn’t be certain he’d have recognized the man, “Mister Ysel.” Cooper clasped the man’s outstretched hand, then spoke abruptly, “Please climb back into the wagon, sir. We need to leave. Just know that you are one of the reasons we’ve come tonight.” Mister Ysel's face displayed a sad, pained expression as he tucked his chin and did as he was asked. Loryn stepped close, “What’re we going to do to get through town? City Watch are sure to notice two carts filled with people, thunderstorm or no.” Cooper raised his voice to be heard, “One crisis at a time, please. Let’s just get out of the quarry.” No one replied and Cooper gave Dailen a wave. The horses snorted as they started pulling. Perhaps it was the rain, or the mud, or maybe they were just protesting the added weight on the wagons.
*****
Chapter 10
Iona sat bolt upright in bed. She’d almost drifted off to sleep a half dozen times tonight, but every time a flash in the clouds or a peal of thunder would jar her back to consciousness. This time it was no flash or rumble that jolted her awake, “He’s alive!” she thought, almost exclaiming it out loud. Oddly enough, he was a fair distance to the northwest, “Which means he’s outside of the city.” She pulled on her robes and absently tied the sash around her waist as she wondered, “Northwest of the city…what’s out there? And what would cause him to use his Gift?” She knew it would be nearly impossible to convince anyone to go out in this storm, but she had to at least inform Yoren of what she’d felt. She hadn’t detected the boy since just before the Guild had been raided. She was certain that her Gifted target belonged to the Guild. It had been months since she’d felt any indication of him. She had begun to wonder whether he’d fled, or had been killed during that raid.” The fact that he was still around was remarkable. She found herself wondering whether the boy had some plan, or if he was merely surviving as best he could. As she vigorously knocked on Yoren’s door, she considered how to describe what she’d felt. After the second time she knocked, the door was pulled open revealing a very disheveled and irritated Spymaster, “What do you want?!”, then he recognized it was her, and his tone changed to one of interest and curiosity, “I can only think of one reason for you to wake me at this hour.” She nodded, “It’s him. He’s alive and somewhere northwest of here. His power feels different somehow. Smoother, if that makes any sense. But there’s no mistake. It’s him.”
*****
Cooper’s mind was running through several possible solutions. Every person in the wagons was now relying on his ability to get them somewhere safe. At least the storm had given them a chance to start early. Even if the storm passed and the sky cleared, they still had most of the night.
He grabbed hold of the side of the wagon and pulled himself up beside Mister Ysel, “Sir, we’ve got a couple places ready for all of you. Non-Guild gets off at the first house. I want you to help point out who gets off first.”
They’d had to push each wagon four times so far, to free it from the mud in low lying areas along the road. They simply trudged behind the wagons waiting for the next occasion when they’d have to exert what little strength they had remaining. The rain was falling hard enough that they were almost entering The Heights before they realized they’d reached the city. Dailen quickly turned his wagon south to skirt along the city’s edge toward the University. Birt followed right behind. Cooper had decided on a plan. He quickly slogged to Dailen’s wagon and gave him brief instruction, then told Birt simply, “Follow Dailen.” Cooper waved to those on the ground and told them, “They’ll drive onto the cobblestones just far enough to lose the tracks, then swing around and skirt along the University like we first planned. We’ll try to stomp out and obscure the wheel and hoof tracks as much as we’re able, and trust the rain to take care of the rest. We’re not keeping the wagons anyway.” Everyone smiled. Simple was best, it would just take a little effort to make sure “simple” would be enough. After circling, as they passed along the walls at the western end of the University, most of them placed their feet along the edges of the ruts as they walked. The others focused on the divots made by the hooves. Cooper caught up with Rukle, “We’ll follow the wall as it turns east. About halfway along the southern wall, there’s a bend. Once we reach that bend, you run ahead and gather up the kids from both Dreg’s Houses and meet us at the new House in Miller’s Flats, near the Brickmaker’s kilns. We’ll buy the kids some new clothes and feed them two meals tomorrow. All they need to do is walk around in the rain for a couple hours. I want them to blot out the wagon tracks, and the footprints that these people make as they shuffle from the wagons to the Houses.” Rukle laughed, “You think me telling them to come out into the rain is going to make me ‘the good guy’?” Cooper smiled, “You will be when you show up tomorrow with a pouch of coin to buy clothes and food.” Rukle clapped a hand on his shoulder, “You may just be right. What about the wagons?” Cooper shrugged, “I haven’t decided. Maybe we’ll just drive to a stable in the Trade Quarter. Unhitch the horses, put them up, and leave.” Rukle asked, “And if the stable owner or one of the hands wakes up?” Cooper shrugged, “Then we sell them for whatever they’ll pay for them.”
It was slow going, through the deep mud. Often the wagons would slip into existing ruts and get bogged down. On those occasions, they’d abandon the attempts to obscure the tracks, and merely focus on keeping the wagons rolling by pushing them or on the wheels themselves. Ruts that were that well-established were already
filled with water. The muddy water made any new tracks almost invisible. After pushing Birt’s wagon from a particularly deep rut, Loryn looked behind them and Cooper heard her telling Spen, “I don’t think even Utsef could track us through that slurry. Look how it fills in behind us.” Cooper followed her gaze and had to agree. A yell from the first wagon drew his attention. The horses were tiring and the wagon needed a push.
It took longer than expected and he knew that the freed prisoners were cold, wet and utterly miserable. After slogging through mud, repeatedly sinking in well past their ankles while pushing wagons, he and his colleagues were more than a little relieved when they stopped along the south edge of Miller’s Flats. It was time consuming, and it was the only time during their trek when he’d wished for more light, but they managed to sift through which passengers weren’t Guild members and lead them to the first house. Rukle supervised while the Dreg’s kids played a spirited game of Tag where the wagon had dropped them off. It might have been the knowledge that they’d have fresh, dry clothes tomorrow, or that they’d been guaranteed two meals, but the kids didn’t seem to mind the rain. Rukle had to quiet them down a few times. Too much noise might wake the nearby residents and bring them to their windows. While the first group was moving, the Guild prisoners were divided between the two wagons; eight in one and nine in the other. At least half of them couldn’t move without assistance. Three or four of them weren’t expected to last the night. Spen stayed with Naro at the first House, but before he left the wagon Cooper watched Spen look over some of them and heard him comment, “The excitement will either kill them, or save them. At least now they have something to live for, perhaps that’ll be enough.”
