This would be the most dangerous part of their trip. They had flat land to cover now and nothing but darkness to hide them. And it wasn’t that dark. Their best bet was to go well behind the army, by at least a thousand feet, and approach them from behind. With the city right in front of them, the whole army would be hyper aware of it, but shouldn’t have any concerns for anything behind them. Why would they? Their enemy was within plain view.
At least, that was what Rune and Fei were banking on.
They ran through the knee-high grass as fast as they could go. Alexander bounced a little on Rune’s back, but he held on admirably and didn’t utter a word of complaint at the jostling. Rune’s arms were starting to ache at carting the kid around. He didn’t weigh much, but after six hours of running with this monkey on his back, Rune’s body was sending up complaints.
No matter what Fei said, it was his turn on the way back.
The closer they got to the camp, the louder it became with people talking to each other, the crackling of fires burning, and a dozen other sounds, too blended for Rune to separate out. He didn’t care to, either. All he was interested in were sounds of alarm, and he didn’t hear any of those.
His nerves jangled the closer they came, but no one seemed to notice them. Fei didn’t slow his pace until he was almost on top of that bright red tent. It was noticeable even in this night air, gleaming under the firelight in sharp hues. Rune skidded to a stop right next to him, the grass slick enough to make his footing slightly tricky.
Fei dropped to the ground, belly flat on the grass, and pulled up the tent wall just enough to get an eye under it. He studied the room for a long moment before he pulled the fabric even higher, making the rope lines twang, before rolling underneath.
Rune didn’t try to follow immediately, just sat Alexander on his feet, tracking the situation inside the tent by sound. That meaty thunk was Fei taking out a guard, or someone equally unimportant, and so was that thunk, and then something fell over before a strangled shout was abruptly cut off. He had found a person to silence but not knock out? Oh, maybe they got lucky and the right person was in the tent. Rune waited three seconds, but when there were no other sounds, he assumed it safe and pulled the fabric up, pushing Alexander under it.
Being small, Alexander had no trouble rolling underneath and into the tent. Rune had more of a squeeze, but he managed fine, coming to his feet smoothly. As he did, he took in the situation.
For a command tent, not much was in there. A simple folding table, two rolled cots on either side, with a small brazier in the middle for light and warmth. That was it. Rune had expected something more…grand. Next to the brazier stood Fei, who had a man’s arm twisted up behind his back and a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.
A smile blossomed over Alexander’s face. “Lorcan.”
Far from seeming relieved by Alexander’s appearance, Lorcan’s brows snapped together in a murderous scowl. Rune studied that angry, frustrated expression and had a sinking feeling that he knew what was going to happen next.
Fei, behind the man, couldn’t see that face and so dropped the hand gagging the man.
“So. You didn’t die,” were Lorcan’s first words, sneered out.
Alexander went abruptly still. “No. I didn’t.”
“We thought you were assassinated.”
“An assassin did come,” Alexander responded, voice unsteady. Rune felt a twinge of sympathy for the kid. He too had had a man he (semi) trusted turn on him unexpectedly. He knew exactly how that felt. “But he said I was too young to kill so he kidnapped me instead, to show me, to teach me, so I’d be a better guildmaster in the future. But none of that matters…does it?”
Lorcan wasn’t paying him much attention; instead his eyes were bouncing between Rune and Fei, trying to figure them out. “Who are these men? Why are you here, anyway?”
“They’re friends,” Alexander explained simply.
Rune looked down at him in surprise. Friend? They were…friends? When had that happened?
“Friends. You don’t have friends.”
“It was weird to me, too. At first.” Alexander’s chin quivered as if he were suppressing the desire to cry. “They brought me here, so I could talk to whichever advisor was in charge, and convince them to stop. But you won’t stop.”
“Stop? We only got half of Goldschmidt’s wealth and you want us to stop?” Lorcan gave a disbelieving laugh. “Why should we? These ‘friends’ of yours are welcome to take part of the spoils, if they like, but we’re not stopping.”
Fei swore softly in his native tongue. “Alexander-xian, I take it this man was the one that convinced you to raid the cities in Robarge?”
Alexander’s nod of admission was unnecessary. They all knew what the answer was.
For that alone, Rune was ready to kill the man on the spot. His greed had done too much damage and he had much to answer for. Rune had made several promises that he would only kill when necessary. Would this situation count as ‘necessary,’ though, that was the question. Rune felt like he’d better ask. “Fei, I can kill him, right?”
It was the wrong thing to say in that moment. Lorcan panicked and started screaming for help. His words were garbled, but tone was enough to call people to him in a hurry. Rune had no time to debate the moral dilemma of killing him or not so instead darted forward and broke three of the man’s ribs as a compromise.
Lorcan screamed in real pain before sinking down to his knees, hands cradling his injured side.
That would have to do, as Rune frankly didn’t have time for anything else. Fei beat him to the back of the tent, where he yanked it up, gesturing impatiently for Alexander to go through. The kid was in shock, and tears were in his eyes, but he obediently rolled underneath and up to his feet again. Rune followed them readily and was relieved that Fei had already scooped Alexander up and was running for the coastline.
At least he didn’t have to argue about that.
Growling a few choice words to himself, Rune caught up and ran at Fei’s side, keeping an ear out for pursuit as he moved.
Why did the simple solutions never work?
“Love, stop wringing your hands. They’ll be fine.”
“I’m not wringing them.”
“What do you call that, then?”
“Gripping.”
“Is that right.” Wolf sounded distinctly amused.
Siobhan shot him a dirty look. How the man could be so calm and collected right now was beyond her. She had sent two men and a small boy into an army camp of three thousand. That was the antithesis of ‘favorable odds.’
“Remind me why I love you again.”
“It’s my devastating charm and good looks,” he replied with a sunny smile.
She had a moment’s impulse to kick him over the wall. Before she could do so, there was a call of, “Siobhan!” Her head snapped around and she saw to her relief that the skulking trio had returned and none of them looked injured. Turning, she held out her hands, gripping one of Rune’s and one of Fei’s. “You’re back.”
“We are well, Siobhan-ajie, do not worry.” Fei’s tone was kind, soothing, but he still had that flush to his cheeks that suggested he was on an adrenaline high.
“How was it?” she asked in concern.
“Quite fun,” Rune answered. There was sweat beading on his forehead and he was clearly tired from all the running, but he had that same look on his face that Fei did. “Wolf, you really should try this with me tomorrow night. I haven’t had a thrill this good in months.”
“Denney will murder you before you could do it again,” Siobhan rejected automatically before her brain caught up and latched onto the first part of that. “Wait, again tomorrow night? Did the plan not work?”
It was Alexander that answered. He couldn’t seem to look at anyone, his eyes trained at his boots as he said in a small voice, “It worked. We met him. But…he didn’t want to stop. He wasn’t happy I was alive, either.”
Ahhh. So, the corrupt
ion among Alexander’s advisors was as deep as she’d suspected it was. Siobhan wasn’t too surprised by this but for Alexander, it must be devastating. Not knowing what to say, she dropped to one knee and drew him in for a hug. He came readily, arms around her neck, and held on like she was a lifeline.
Wolf put a hand on the boy’s shoulder in a gesture of comfort even as he said, “We’ll have to come up with another plan, then. Darrens came and spoke with us while you were gone. Right before you left, he got a message from Nuel Hammon saying that if we need help from Silver Moon, we’ve got it. I think we’ll need to borrow men again so we can flank them around the back and crush the army against our walls.”
“Is that Hyun Woo-zhi’s strategy?”
“It is. Rune, you’ll need to leave at first light to go pick them up. The only way this will work is if we get help here before the army below thinks to spread out and try their luck at other gates.”
“I will,” Rune promised.
Siobhan was more than worried about sending Rune out. He had been running or sneaking around a camp for nine hours now. It was barely three hours until dawn. Would he even have the energy or focus to work a path with?
Her concern was needless as Rune himself realized what condition he was in and what he needed to do. “I better take a nap, then. Someone wake me up at dawn.”
“I will,” Siobhan assured him. She watched Fei and Rune move off, heading for bed, before she turned back to the little boy still clinging to her. “Alex?”
He straightened and used his fists to dash tears from his eyes before they could fall. When he looked up at her, he tried to put on a firm face, but his lips quivered and his eyes were too bright. All she saw was a wounded child that had just had the world yanked out from underneath him. “I’m…” he sniffed, took in a breath, and tried again, “I’m not going back.”
Siobhan’s jaw dropped. “WHAT?”
More firmly this time, he repeated, “I’m not going back to Fallen Ward.”
“Alex, back this up and explain,” Wolf requested, sounding just as confused as Siobhan felt. “Ever since Rune brought you here, you’ve been adamant about returning home. You’ve learned things so you can be a better guildmaster, you asked a million questions of us toward that end, and now you’re saying the exact opposite. Did that man’s betrayal shake you that bad?”
“It’s not just him.” Alexander’s eyes fixated on a point over her right shoulder as he once again couldn’t seem to meet either of their eyes. “As we were running back, I was thinking. It didn’t make sense, what Lorcan said. Not at first. Then I started remembering things, things he said, and some of the things he did, and I realized. He never liked me. He just had to use me.”
Poor child. Siobhan wanted to hug him again, hug him hard until all the hurt was gone, but she had a feeling that he was going somewhere with this, so she held still.
“And when I realized that, I thought about my other advisors, and they did the same things. Said the same things.” Alexander turned hollow eyes to Wolf. “Lorcan wasn’t happy I was alive. If I had gone by myself, I think he would have killed me.”
Wolf was not one to soften the truth, even if he was speaking to a child. “He probably would have, kiō.”
“If I go back home, they might kill me too.” Alexander shook his head roughly. “I was never their guildmaster. I was their puppet. Now that they’ve gotten rid of me, they don’t want me back.”
He was just an excuse for the army to come out and attack Goldschmidt again. Siobhan had harbored that suspicion for some time, but now it was confirmed for all of them, and in the worst possible way for Alexander. He was likely right. If he returned home, he would probably be assassinated by his own people before he even made it back to Coravine.
But that opened up a whole other question: Where would he go now?
Wolf must have been thinking the same question but he spoke another. “Alex, is there not one of those advisors that you can trust?”
Alexander gave a sad shake of the head. “No. Two of my lieutenants I think can still be trusted. But they can’t protect me from my whole guild.” Showing his hard-won maturity, he added, “And what kind of guildmaster am I, that I need to be protected from my own people?”
“Point made, Alex.” Wolf slapped a hand against his thigh and sighed. “Well. There’s that. We’ll have to fight them off after all. Siobhan, I’ll send a message to Darrens explaining. Why don’t you two get some sleep while you can?”
After being up for nearly twenty-four hours straight, Siobhan would love to be horizontal for a while. And by the way Alexander was swaying on his feet, he was beyond tired. It was strung out nerves keeping him upright. “We will. But what about you?”
“A good plate of hot food will set me to rights. I’ll be fine.”
Well, he was used to long watches and all day battles. She wasn’t, so left him to it. “Come on, Alex.”
Normally Alexander scorned holding hands with anyone, but at that moment he seemed desperate for any contact. His grip was firm as they walked back together in companionable silence to the Rose and Crown. Siobhan was sure that the emotional wound he’d gotten this night would stay with him for years to come, but there wasn’t a thing she could say to make it all better. He would just have to let time run its course. It would scar over and fade away eventually.
She put him to bed in the same room as Beirly, the other man snoring softly. Alexander rolled over, clutching the blanket to his chest, and even as he fell asleep tears ran out of the corners of his eyes. Feeling twenty years older than her twenty-eight, Siobhan went across the hall to her room, pausing only long enough to pull her boots off before falling into her own bed. She fell asleep knowing that things likely wouldn’t be any better in the morning.
ӜӜӜ
A hand on her shoulder roughly shook her awake. “Siobhan!”
“Five more minutes, Grae,” she mumbled into her pillow. Or at least, she tried to mumble that. Her mouth was usually the last thing to wake up.
“No, now,” he corrected, shaking harder. “A development has happened.”
That sounded somewhat important. She pried open an eyelid. “Develo…” No, the word was too hard to say. Go for something easier. “What kind?”
“One of Alex’s lieutenants has managed to sneak over the wall. He’s demanding to see his guildmaster.”
That processed, or tried to, before failing. The effort of trying to make sense of what Grae was saying boosted her brain into a more semi-awake state. Siobhan managed to get both eyes open this time and she flipped onto her back to stare at him blearily. “Alex’s lieutenant?”
Grae gave an impatient tap of the toe. “Just how late were you up last night?”
“I went to sleep this morning,” she corrected grouchily. “Start again. Alex’s lieutenant?”
“Troy Dahnner is what he’s calling himself. He’s asking for Alex.”
“We sure this isn’t an assassin cloaked as a lieutenant?”
“He’s asking for Alex,” Grae repeated intensely, “by name.”
The import of that sank in and Siobhan swore, throwing back the covers and attempting to roll out of the bed at the same time. She had trouble with that, as the end of the blanket was rolled around her ankles and seemed determined to keep her in place. Impatient, she yanked the material free roughly, making a few seams pop as she did so. “Is Alex awake?”
“I wasn’t sure if I should. Rune filled me in on what happened last night.”
Well, granted, under normal circumstances she’d let the kid sleep. But right now they didn’t have that luxury. “He’s the only one that can confirm who this man is. Get him up.”
Grae jerked out a nod before spinning on his toes and quickly crossing into the next room.
Siobhan was tempted to just go as she was, but had a moment’s pause before just shoving her feet back in her boots. Going around in clothes she’d worn the previous day would not be comfortable later on and she doubted t
hat there’d be time enough to come back and change. Making a snap decision, she slammed her door shut and stripped quickly before yanking on the last set of clean clothing she had. With that done, she grabbed a tie and threw her hair into a very messy ponytail at the base of her neck. Good enough for today.
Wrenching the door back open, she found Grae had managed to get Alexander out of bed and moving, but only by steering the boy with his hands on both shoulders. Alexander was blinking and trying to focus his eyes, stumbling from side to side, so tired he couldn’t keep his balance. Siobhan felt a twinge of sympathy.
Pointing a finger at the boy, she ordered, “Just pick him up. Let’s go. Where is this man?”
“Ryu Jin Ho has him.”
The far side of the city, in other words. Of course. Mentally grumbling, she led the way down the stairs and out the door. As they rushed through the streets, heading for the north gate, she heard the sounds of battle from outside the walls. The sun had barely risen in the sky, it couldn’t even be described as dawn, and already they were fighting? Worried, she asked Grae, “How close are they to breaching the walls?”
Grae snorted. “Nowhere close. They’re still bunched up in front of East Gate. Most of their manpower is wasted because they can only fit so many men in front of the gate at a time.”
Really? Then they stood a chance of holding them off until reinforcements could arrive. Siobhan was under the impression that they had just enough men to defend the walls, but if the enemy ever breached, then it would quickly become a difficult battle. She’d feel better if they had more fighters on hand.
The sounds of metal clashing and yelling grew louder as they passed East Gate, then faded when they were halfway to North Gate. Siobhan could tell, just from the noise levels alone, that Grae was right—they really were focused on just the one gate.
Were they stupid? Or just that inexperienced, thinking that using all of their strength on one gate would force it open faster than trying to attack all gates?
Shaking the thought off, she focused on reaching the North Gate. Grae’s directions were beyond vague, so she wasn’t sure if this man was still on the top of the wall, or on the ground level. She would have asked, but before she could, she spotted Ryu Jin Ho standing on the ground, near the guardhouse, with a man she didn’t recognize held at sword point by two other men. That had to be the lieutenant.
Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) Page 24
