If Crows Know Best (Mage of Merced Book 1)

by Aimee Gross

After they dragged the soldiers farther down the slope, and separated them by greater distance, Annora and I pulled the driver to a spot by a seep so he could wet his gag and not go entirely thirsty. He blinked and nodded thanks, as I took it.

  We gathered the weapons, and Beckta’s and Miskin’s clothes and boots, and set out for our wagon and team. Not until we were some distance from the scene of our triumph did Wils clap Perk on the back and vent a quiet “well done!” my way. He kissed Annora on the cheek, and whistled tunelessly as we walked on. And that was Wils when something suited him, well and good.

  Wieser greeted us with extravagant wagging, and we soon had the team harnessed and set off to follow the hijacked wagon to the tunnel mouth. Annora sent Clock with a message for Virda about life on the road, with subtext of our success.

  Dusk was falling when we arrived at the valley floor. Wils made quick work of steering us to the far side, where we found Joren, Beckta and Miskin busily shifting the sacks of oats into the tunnel. We fell in with them at once, Wils organizing a line of us to pass the bags along all the faster. As soon as the wagon was emptied, Joren rolled up and tied the canvas cargo cover, mounted the seat with a lantern, and made for the river midvalley.

  Wils and Annora wanted to take our wagon to hide it where the trees were thickest, as the slope rose to the pass. First, we had to unload the arrows we had brought from the Keltanese stockpile by home. As we shuttled these into the tunnel, I began in earnest to chew on Wils’s ear about being allowed to go up to the fort with Miskin, Perk and Beckta.

  “I can find out what Da wants to do. I can be more use carrying some of the oats up and seeing what’s going on within than I would be out here with you. I’ll come and report to you—”

  “Enough and more! I should have sent you to help Joren make it look like the cargo was sent downriver. Still, you are underfoot here, I imagine,” Wils continued, with a sidelong look at Annora.

  She looked to me to be on my side, when she said, “Wils, he hasn’t seen his da for so long …”

  “See you do not annoy everyone into distraction, eh?”

  “You mean I can go? I’ll never forget this.” I felt my smile stretch wide.

  “I’ll wager none of us will. Try not to set the place on fire, or topple the ancient stones on all the fort’s men. Be a credit to Da,” Wils admonished. I was scarcely listening by then.

  I shouldered my as-yet-unused crossbow, and called Wieser from lookout to join me. “Shall Gargle wait with you, to be dispatched to bring Joren and the wagon back?” I said, and saw Wils stood holding my sheathed obsidian knife out to me. That made me think of the spirits, and I added, “Have you left any offering for the kavsprit in this cave? I can give them some oats. Give me some of the nuts, as well.”

  Annora quickly put nutmeats in my hand, while Wils secured the other two horses’ reins to the back of our Traveller wagon. Beckta handed me the lantern, and allowed as how he could carry more if I held it instead of him. We ducked inside before lighting it, and I waved farewell in the last of the evening light to Wils and Annora boarding the wagon. Miskin grunted as he hoisted two bags of grain, one on each shoulder, while Beckta gathered armfuls of arrows with Perk. I managed one bag with the lantern, and we set off deeper into the tunnel. Wieser sniffed the air warily, and walked beside me.

  I found a place by a seep for the kavsprit offering, and as I knelt to make the sign, could swear I felt my knife almost thrumming, restored to its spot in my boot. It vibrated like a plucked string. Perhaps it greeted the folk below the earth who treasured it before gifting it to me. I still had so much to learn about magic ways.

  The passage was as Wils had described, natural in some places and bearing pick-marks and strewn rubble in others where men had enlarged the way. Miskin had to put down his sacks and drag them through after him at the snuggest areas. We would have to make many trips to shift the whole load to the fort. I should have brought along more lantern oil.

  The lantern light picked out flashes of pyrite, quartz and mica, and a time or two I thought I saw reflected eyes in the darkness, small and green.

  The air grew chill the deeper we walked into the mountain, and at times we had to clamber over water-slicked rock to gain the way higher. The fort sat overlooking the road through the pass, so we had to climb without pause the last half of our journey. All of us were winded when we reached the great cisterns in the cavern beneath the fort.

  We surprised two guards on the far side of the cisterns, drowsing at their post, lulled by the sound of streaming water. They sprang to their feet as Miskin, Beckta and Perk laughed.

  “You’d be sunk if we were enemy soldiers come calling,” Beckta snorted. That’s why, I realized, they had taken time to change back into their own clothes, and left the outrider guards’ tunics at the entrance. He freed a hand to grip the arm of the shorter of the two men, and nodded to the other.

  “By the gods, it’s good to see you,” said the short, bandy-legged man. “Have you brought Wils and an army with you?”

  Miskin put down his sacks. “No army yet, we’re working on that. We have brought you food and arrows, though.”

  “Keltanese arrows, by the markings,” said the other man, bending to take a closer look at Beckta’s burden. “Wonder what they’ll think when we fire these at them?”

  “My brother thought you might be running low, since once you shoot them, they’re gone for good.” I stepped up to set my bag with Miskin’s, and Wieser sat at my side. “There’s more oats and arrows at the mouth of the tunnel. I’m Judian Lebannen. Where’s my da?”

  “Ahh, young Judian. Charged with the safety of the new bride and the little sister. Did you all fare well?”

  “Well enough, but I need to find out what Da wants us to do now. Wils is waiting outside.”

  “I’m Rews. Come on with me, we’ll find your da and get some men to carry up the rest of this welcome load,” said the short guard, taking up a tallow candle. They had been making do with only candles for light in the vast dark of the cavern, I saw, not lanterns.

  He led me to the steps, and we left Perk, Beckta and Miskin with the other man, beginning their story of what had befallen them since they left the fort months ago.

  I understood what Wils meant about the fort being built on the bedrock—we went up twisting stairs carved out of the walls. We climbed a long ways before the bare rock gave way to dressed stone blocks, and the stairs stretched further still.

  “Who made this place?” I asked Rews.

  He glanced back at me. “It was so long ago, who knows? The ancients built it, long before there was Merced or Keltane thought of. Stone meets stone, enduring on.” He laid a hand on one of the immense rough-hewn rocks as he passed. “We’ve all been grateful for the old ones’ craftsmanship, keeping us safe from the enemy.”

  “Has there been any damage from the siege?”

  “They have flung the biggest rocks they could load and it has not shifted a single stone. They keep us penned within but have left off trying to come in after us!” He sounded as cheerful as a farmer describing a soft soaking rain on newly planted fields.

  When we emerged at length into a sunken kitchen, I was amazed to hear the sound of a feddle and flute coming from the courtyard a few steps above. A hearty male voice joined in, and the music swelled and ebbed. I had been expecting all to be in despair from their long isolation.

  “Where’s the paladin to be found?” Rews called to the merrymakers.

  “Out watching the night take shape,” answered a soldier with a bristly red beard. “Find him above the main gates. Who’ve you got there?”

  I reckoned a new face would stand out, since they had all been cooped here for months despite the apparent size of the place. “I’m Judian, his younger son.”

  “In truth? I look forward to hearing how you’ve come to join us. We’ll see to it your bow gets some use!” For I carried it still. Others waved from across the yard, and called out greetings. No one seemed grim.
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br />   “Can your dog climb a ladder?” asked Rews, steering me to the north wall.

  “I expect so, though I can’t say as I’ve ever seen her try. She’s not likely to want to wait below unless I bid her to.”

  “She is … unusual to look at,” he said.

  “In more ways than looks, she’s something unusual.”

  We wound our way up enclosed stone steps until we came to the ladders that led to the top of the crenellated wall. Wieser thoughtfully watched Rews climb, then mounted the rungs when I told her to follow. It did not look easy for her, but she met me at the top with her tongue lolling when I came up behind.

  Dozens of men lined the battlements, illuminated by only a few torches placed low. I picked out Da readily as the tallest among them, and was off to his side as fast as I could push through the others.

  “It’s Judian!” he cried when he saw me, and lifted me up to squeeze the breath out of me. A dog less aware than Wieser might have thought this a bad thing, but she seemed to know it was what I had been wanting for months. He wore a full beard, and smelled of wood smoke and sweat, but all seemed right with his strong arms about me. Still, I could not act the child in front of his soldiers. I hugged him back but then straightened my arms, and he set me on my feet.

  “How have you come? Where’s Wils?”

  I told him all in a rush and tumble. Wieser came and nosed at his hand as I spoke, and he petted her absently. I heard Rews take his leave from another man who bid him go organize men to carry up our delivery. Da nodded, much pleased to hear what we had brought.

  When my tale ran down, Da drew me to look over the wall at the field below. Campfires dotted the grass in the distance, surrounded by the humped shapes of tents. Men gathered on the flat ground immediately outside the fort’s gates where the road cut through. All were grouped around an open area where two robed men carrying long sticks paced to and fro, accompanied by two other men who held lanterns aloft to light the way. When the lantern-bearers passed close to the encircling men, I could see that the group bore weapons aimed our way.

  “What do you make of that?” mused a deep voice beside us.

  “Mages,” I said, my voice sounding hollow. “Plotting the ley lines in the earth.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Da and the other man both stared at me.

  “What do you know about mages?” the deep-voiced man asked.

  “I know the Scytheran mages came to our province to hold back the winter so Keltane could invade us through the northwest pass,” I said, meeting Da’s steady gaze.

  Da turned to lay a hand on the shoulder of an officer behind him. “Watch closely. Send for me at once if they begin to do anything different from what they’re about now. We’ll be in the fortmaster’s study.”

  He waved a hand at me and the other man I had answered, so we fell in behind him, with Wieser behind me. There ensued a bit of dither at the ladder, for Wieser could not make out how to climb down it. I was trying to coax her to start backwards, when a pair of strong fellows collared by Da lifted her into a giant bucket and lowered her with rope and pulley. I clambered down the ladder beside her. She licked her nose often as she descended, but sat still and did not tip the bucket at all. She wasted no time hopping out by the stairs, while I thanked the men. They chuckled and waved at me from the height.

  Da led us deep within the fortress walls, where corridors intersected and arched doorways led to a plethora of passages. It would take long and long to explore this place. Da spoke to many men as he passed, but the other man walked silently, head down. Both Wieser and I had to trot to keep up.

  At last, we went through a thick door of peeled logs, into a rounded room with a banked fire. A broad slab table stood by the hearth, with a trio of chairs pulled up to its map-strewn surface. Da used the tallow candle he carried to light the candles on the table, while the other man shut the door.

  “Sit here, Judian, and tell us about the mages. This is Fortmaster Cochren Luppes.” Da pulled out a chair for me, then he and the fortmaster sat in the others. Wieser crawled under the table to lie at my feet.

  I cleared my throat, and told what I knew of weather-workers from Virda, and how I had seen them marking out the lines of power when we were hiding in the mountain caves. “Have you never seen them at this pass before?” I asked Da.

  “No, only Keltanese troops. Though during the build up to the invasion, some heard rumors the mages were responsible for the illusion of enemy forces beyond their true number.”

  “I have always seen two mages at a time. Well, both at home and tonight. Whether they work in pairs and there are many of them, or just two traveling the country, who can say?”

  “I have not heard of or seen any uncanny weather or unseasonable occurrences such as you describe,” said Cochren Luppes, his bass voice rumbling. “Are you sure the snows did not come late naturally?”

  I had no patience left for being thought only a boy who knew nothing. “The enemy soldier I captured admitted as much,” I said, which changed his doubtful expression to one of shock, “but I have not had chance to get a confession from a mage, no.”

  Da was biting his tongue inside his cheek, by the way it looked. “Can you speculate what they might have come here to do?”

  “Eliminate your threat to the pass. Take the fort. Through some form of magical attack, is my wager. You need a plan to loose the rockslides before the sorcerers make it impossible, somehow.” I felt more certain as I said it.

  “This isn’t even your grown son,” protested Fortmaster Luppes.

  “He knows more from traversing the countryside than we know from months behind these walls. I can think of a plan, using your stolen cargo wagon and uniforms to get a team of men to the other wall of the pass.”

  “We sent the wagon to the river, as I said.” I went on, ignoring Luppes’s scowl, “I can go back outside to summon it and bring Wils and Annora within. How soon can you act?”

  “Two teams of men are already chosen and trained, but we must have light of day for the climbing on both sides of the pass. Will the wagon hold a dozen men under the cargo tarp?”

  I nodded. “Yah, it’s one of the big rigs meant for hauling across the mountains.”

  “We’ll load the team at the tunnel mouth, then send the wagon across the valley to join the roadway headed west. I’ll school your driver where to leave the road to let the men off to begin their ascent. We’ll need to time carefully, Cochren,” Da said, including the fortmaster at last.

  “What about the team for this south side of the mountain?” I asked.

  “They will have to leave by the tunnel and climb up behind the fort, which will take longer.” Da pulled a map toward him, and pointed to the pass.

  “We haven’t been able to get men to the north side, y’see,” Cochren Luppes said, an edge of defensiveness to his low voice. I recalled Wils had not held a high opinion of him, for wanting Da to stay and do the job of closing the pass. “Now we can move at last, if all comes together.”

  “We’ll make it come together,” Da said, and pushed the map under Cochren’s gaze.

  A quick rap at the door, and a breathless soldier entered when Da said, “Come.”

  “They’re doing something queer, sir, the mages.” He paused for a gulp of air. “Chanting, and the wind is rising fast. You’d best come …”

  We all rose at once, and went as quick as we could to the top of the wall. This time I bade Wieser wait at the bottom of the ladder, and climbed up with my crossbow slung behind me. The air had grown cold and black clouds billowed above, driven by a fierce wind. The mages moved farther from the gates, and stood some distance away, still surrounded by the cadre of Keltanese soldiers. A bonfire burned in the field beside them. By its light, I could make out a pale flapping shape spread out on the grass that looked like a ship’s sail, and was of similar size to the sails I had seen at Bale Harbour. Men worked beneath it, slinging ropes and tying a dark shape about as big as a pig to the underside.

/>   The ropes led to a giant wooden wheel, like a thread spool. Half a dozen men stood beside the wheel, holding the ropes. I pointed to them, and said, “Can you see, the wheel—there’s rope wound all around the middle!” I had to shout over the keening wind.

  “This is not what I expected for an attack by magic,” Luppes called in Da’s ear.

  “No, it’s the wind, that’s the magic,” I answered, but felt the whip of the air carry my voice away into the night sky.

  Da reached out and caught a soldier by the arm, and pulled him near so he could cup hands to his ear to shout over the wind, “Get down to the cisterns and send Beckta and Miskin out the tunnel to get Wils, and tell them to call the wagon back. Go now!”

  The man sprinted over the stones and down the ladder at once.

  Next Da pointed at me and then the ladder. I shook my head. I knew he wanted me to get below for my own safety, but I could not leave him. I could not make my feet move.

  “I can do magic!” I called out in desperation. “Let me stay! See if I can help!”

  Da was lifting his hand to point at the ladder again, when the officers began to shout, “It’s flying! It’s in the air!” waving their arms frantically at the field to the north. I rushed to the wall with Da, and saw the snapping, jerking sail rise into the howling wind.

  The mages strode out to stand beneath the sail as the men by the wheel strained to hold it in place in the air, hauling on the ropes. They looked to be shouting to one another, the sound drowned by the gusts.

  I could only just see the mages in the firelight, raising their arms; each held a long staff in his right hand. Wind whipped their robes about them, as they faced each other and struck the two staves together over their heads, loosing a shower of bright sparks. A shaft of golden light sprang from the crossed staves to strike the underside of the sail, where the dark object I had watched them tie in place earlier was held.

  A boom I felt in my belly echoed off the sheer mountainsides, as the shape exploded into flame.

  The men straining to hold the sail now let it fly up, over the fortress wall, fire raining from beneath. Soldiers on the battlements screamed and fled, trying to escape the streaming flames. Da and some others drew bows and let fly at the wings of the thing, but how could they hope to bring it down in a wind so fierce? I had to turn my eyes southward so I could open them wider than mere slits. I saw the purpose of the attack then: wooden roofs within the fort, over the stable yard and more. Thatch and haystacks, too. I looked for Da to tell him, but I was shoved aside by the soldiers jostling, seeking some way to fight the great winged thing.