Rindu took up the handful of bronze throwing spikes they had brought and tied a rope around his waist. He looked quickly at each of the others, nodded, and set to work. Sam was anxious to see if Rindu could really pull off what he planned. Knowing it was the only way, Sam said a little prayer for luck under his breath and prepared to feed the rope out to the Zouy as he ascended.
Rindu stood motionless, eyes closed, gathering his energy. Then, he moved through some of the movements of the kori rohw, moving his arms in circular patterns, gathering energy from his surroundings. Sam watched as the monk gathered more and more energy, causing his hands to glow. He was glad there were no Arzbedim left in the fortress and at the same time hoped the Gray Man was not looking at the wall at the moment or Rindu would have been seen from a distance.
When he had gathered enough energy, Rindu poked two of his fingers into the stone of the wall with such speed that Sam didn’t even see the movement until it was done. The Zouy had punched his fingers into solid stone up to the second knuckle. Reaching up with his left hand, he repeated the motion and punched two more fingers into the stone. He started to climb.
Sam shook his head in disbelief. He had seen the Zouy break stone and do other amazing things, but this defied reason. Dangling by two fingers, Rindu punched holes in solid stone with two fingers on the other hand, then lifted himself up to repeat the process. Every ten feet or so, he would stop his smooth motions to remove a throwing spike from his belt pouch, concentrate, and drive it into the rock so he could stand on it for a short rest.
As he stood on his spike, Rindu would shake his arms and hands out, look toward the top of the wall to make sure there were not any guards, and then continue on. He did this tirelessly and smoothly. It was as great a feat of physical achievement as Sam had ever seen. He wondered if there were limits to the mage’s power. It seemed that there were not.
Sooner than could be expected, the Zouy was at the top of the wall. He looked along the walkway, first one way and then the other, then pulled himself up and landed softly on the top, appearing not to have lost any strength in his arms at all. Sam heard two soft scraping sounds, possibly the sound of spikes being driven into the stone to set an anchor and then the rope jerked three times.
It was the signal they had agreed upon. Nalia nodded to Sam, who had strapped Skitter into his backpack. Sam immediately started climbing the rope. Absently, he thought of how even a few short months ago, he would not have been able to climb a rope this long, but now he smoothly and efficiently made his way up to the top without fatigue slowing him too much. When he got to the top of the wall and went over the crenelated section, Rindu motioned toward one side of the wall. Sam gave three short tugs on the rope, and headed off to the other side of the walkway on top of the wall.
By the time Nalia crested the top, both had returned, not seeing any guards. They had timed the patrol and didn’t expect them for two more minutes, but had checked just to be sure. Before leaving, Rindu scurried down the rope to retrieve the handful of spikes he had driven into the wall, extracting them with the same energy-infused strength he had used to drive them in. He was soon at the top of the wall again and extracted the anchor spikes as Sam coiled the rope and put it into his backpack in the space Skitter had just vacated. Now it was on to the interior of the fortress.
52
They found a stairwell that led to the ground level. The four shadows slipped silently down to a courtyard separating the wall from the actual fortress building. Hiding in a patch of darkness, Rindu motioned them close. “We have but one thing left to do. We must find the Gray Man and Dr. Walt. I would prefer we find Dr. Walt first and free him before confronting the Gray Man, if possible.
“We have two problems with this, however. We do not know where they are and the fortress contains many of the enemy forces. I believe I can home in on the leader because of the powerful vibrational energy that he emits, but we must be stealthy to avoid the soldiers.”
Sam nodded and swallowed. Twice. The gravity of the situation was settling in on him, making it difficult to speak. “We can go toward the Gray Man and hope that we find some clue as to where Dr. Walt is along the way. We may have to fight the Gray Man and his forces before looking for the doctor. I assume that the Gray Man can sense you and your power as easily as you sense him?”
“Yes, I believe that to be so.”
“Then we have no choice. Lead us to our enemy before he can sense you and prepare.”
Rindu turned to go, then stopped. Looking at Sam, he said, “Sam, I am proud of your progress and the man that you are. You are honorable and it has been my pleasure and my privilege to have trained you. I know you do not think so, but it is you who must face the Gray Man. My power is not sufficient and Nalia’s power is not sufficient. You have the potential to defeat him where we do not. Allow us to protect you from the others and go straight for him. Do you understand?”
Gulping again, Sam nodded. “Yes. But please, Master Rindu, don’t talk like this is the end. We’ll make it through. We’ll win. Somehow.”
The Zouy only nodded back, clasping Sam’s shoulder. The corners of his mouth twitched up briefly, but never quite formed a smile. Then he turned and headed toward a door at the edge of the courtyard.
Nalia came up to him and hugged him. Taking off her mask, she looked into his eyes, put both hands on the back of his head, and pulled him into a long kiss. “Do not die tonight, Sam. I would spend more time with you and death would make that difficult.” Kissing him again, she replaced her mask, released him, and headed off after her father.
“I, uh, you too,” he sputtered after she was too far to hear him. Please, Nalia, you stay alive, too. I can’t even think of living without you. For a wonder, Skitter didn’t say a thing. Sam felt affection, worry, and a determination to see the night through seeping into his mind from the hapaki. It was enough. There was no need for words. The two followed Nalia and Rindu.
For a change, the door from the courtyard into the hallways of the fortress main building was unlocked. The four slipped into the passageway into which the door led. This was apparently a side door and so emptied directly into a hallway going to the right and left. Rindu led the way, heading down the right side of the passage.
The hallway went on for some distance, doors and side passages every few feet. Their luck was in, it seemed, in that they found a main passageway. Sam kept fearing that one of the doors would open or that someone would suddenly appear in one of the side passages, but they saw no one and heard nothing of others. For all it seemed, the entire fortress could be abandoned.
Rindu stopped and swiveled his head left and right at the juncture of another passageway that cut directly across the hall they were in. Finally deciding on a direction, they took the hall to the right and went for a short distance before they heard men talking. Stopping and listening for a moment, Sam could pick out at least four distinct voices, but there were many other sounds that indicated that there could be more than four people in the room ahead.
Backtracking, Rindu brought them back to the hallway they were originally following and went down the other passage, continuing in their original path. After passing several more doors, Rindu brought the party up short again because of voices ahead of them. He motioned for them to come close and spoke. “I do not believe there is any way around it. In order to get to where we are going, we must get through one of these two areas. They both seem to have a half dozen soldiers, at the least, but I am unsure if there are others beyond that could hear if we attempt to engage them. Sam? What would you have us do?”
“There isn’t another way to get to where we need to go?”
“The two passages through which I sense the Gray Man have men in them. I believe we are at a point where we will no longer be able to use stealth. We can try to find Dr. Walt instead, but if we want to go to the Gray Man, the path lies through one of these groups of soldiers.”
Sam looked at his feet. He wasn’t sure what to do. He knew t
hat they would eventually have to fight their way through but he had hoped it wouldn’t be until much later. He also didn’t like that the number of men was unsure. If only they could get more information on what they would face.
I can slip around the corner and let you know how many there are, Skitter sent to him. In fact, I can let you see directly what I’m seeing.
That’s a great idea, he sent back, but dangerous. I don’t want you to put yourself at risk.
Humor radiated from the hapaki. They will not see me. I am too small for them to notice and I know well how to hide and move stealthily. It’s what we do, my people and I. Without waiting for an answer, the hapaki moved slowly to the corner of their passageway and the wider area ahead and slunk out of view.
Sam informed the other two humans what the hapaki was doing. Within seconds, he saw in his mind what his friend was seeing. Four men sat at a table playing some sort of game involving small rectangular tiles, almost like dominoes. Two men sat against the wall, one cleaning a weapon and the other picking his nails with a small dagger. Two more stood on the other side of the room, near a door, chatting quietly. Once Sam let Skitter know he had seen everything, the hapaki slunk back out of the room and back to the others.
After discussing it briefly, they had a plan of attack. They readied their weapons and waited for Rindu’s signal. When it came, they burst into the room, surprising the eight soldiers. Before the soldiers could move, the two by the door across the chamber dropped to the ground, both clutching the throwing spikes embedded in their throats. They didn’t make a sound as they burbled their last breaths and died.
The two bodies had not even hit the floor when Nalia dove across the room, rolling into a perfect somersault and landing on the table, scattering the game tiles and cutting down all four men with savage slashes to their throats with her shrapezi as she spun around, whipping the swords out to attack. The blows were so fast and powerful that two of the men’s heads flapped backward, almost completely severed, hanging on by the smallest bits of skin.
That left only the two with weapons at the ready. Before the man picking his nails with the knife could utter a sound, another of Rindu’s throwing spikes sprouted from his throat, severing his windpipe and silencing him for good. Sam had separated his staff into sticks and threw one, adding to the force with his rohw, at the remaining man’s head. The man moved slightly, causing the stick to bounce off, only landing a glancing blow to his head. Disoriented, he screamed a loud warning before Sam had closed the distance and rendered him unconscious with a strike from his other stick.
The three humans and the hapaki stopped and looked at each other, waiting to see if anyone had heard the soldier. Rindu reached down to the bodies of the three men and took back his throwing spikes, cleaning them on the men’s clothes.
One breath. Two. Three. Then with a flood of footsteps and yelled alarms, the party knew they were in for a fight. Seconds later, a rush of men came through the door at the far end of the room, brandishing weapons. With a shrug of apology, Sam threw himself into the fray. Sealing his staff back into one piece, he used it to deflect weapons and keep soldiers at bay in the cramped chamber. Rindu had put his spikes away and was fighting unarmed, as he normally did. Nalia’s shrapezi were flashing as they spun so quickly Sam could not follow them. Before ten seconds had passed, all the soldiers were dead or incapacitated.
“It is time to move on,” Rindu said as he heard alarms being repeated down distant corridors. “They know we are here, so the time for stealth is past. We must finish our mission now.” Bending down to pick up one of the fallen soldier’s swords, he ran through the door and toward where he sensed the Gray Man.
As the party passed through different rooms, halls, and chambers, waves of soldiers came at them. At times, the enemies had a crossbowman or archer with them, but one or two arrows were easily deflected by Rindu’s sword, Nalia’s shrapezi, or Sam’s staff, much to his own amazement. He hadn’t known that he was able to do that, thinking maybe the one he deflected in Medit was a fluke, but an arrow coming at him that was swept out of the air by the swirling edge of his staff without conscious thought settled the matter.
They fought through the groups of soldiers and pressed to move forward as quickly as possible so that they would not be attacked from behind. Each chamber they went through was closed and locked behind them, if possible, to prevent that from happening. Though the stream of enemies seemed endless, the restricted corridors and rooms made it possible for them to fight the enemies coming at them in small groups. Sam just hoped that the numbers of soldiers would give out before his strength did.
Even now, he had several small cuts to his arms and one not so small to his right leg. None of them were affecting him yet, but he knew that if he bled enough, he would be weakened. He wondered if he would have any strength left to fight the Gray Man. For that matter, he wondered how he would fight the villain. Despite what Rindu said, Sam felt completely inadequate for the task. Narrowly avoiding a sword cut to his head, he decided that he had better things to think about at the moment. Focusing on the song of battle, he continued on.
Skitter somehow was avoiding conflict of any type. He was small and agile and seemed always to know where to be to prevent being attacked or stepped on accidentally. At times, he would jump at a soldier attacking Sam, even going so far as to scratch the face of two of them, just at a time when Sam needed it most. He thanked Skitter silently for watching out for him and admonished him to be careful.
Rindu, still apparently sensing the Gray Man’s power, turned them sharply right into another corridor. Less than twenty steps later, he burst through a door on the left side of a passage and the four spilled into a massive chamber.
“Ah, I see our visitors have arrived,” said a rich voice coming from a raised section of the floor on which a table and several chairs were placed. From a large stuffed chair at the end of the table, a man stood up. His red-rimmed eyes bored into Sam’s eyes and Sam swallowed hard.
53
Sam looked the man over. He was of average size and build, fit, and appearing to be in his late forties, though it was hard to tell. He was completely bald, with skin the color of wet ash. His eyes, dark enough that they could probably be called black, were rimmed in red and his gaze burned into Sam when their eyes met. He had no weapon, and his demeanor seemed to indicate that he didn’t need one. To Sam’s rohw sensitive sight, the man fairly glowed, outshining the brazier light that flooded the room.
Movement caught Sam’s attention from the side of the chamber. He looked over to see that Dr. Walt was in the room as well. He was strapped down to a table that was tilted so that he was almost standing, but his weight was entirely supported by the straps. His eyelids fluttered weakly and the profusion of cuts all over his body told Sam that they had been torturing him even as the party was infiltrating the fortress. On either side of the table stood the giant Shordan Drees and the assassin woman.
The Gray Man continued, “It is very rude of you to break into my fortress like this when you could have come in a civilized manner.” His demon eyes locked on Sam. “At least, you could have come in a civilized manner, Sam. These other two I have no need of. They are merely loose ends I should have snipped years ago. It is a problem I will remedy now.”
With a nod toward Shordan Drees, the Gray Man sat down, steepled his fingers in front of him, and watched. They didn’t have to wait long. Drees shouted a command and dozens of soldiers flooded into the chamber from the side doors.
Sam looked to Rindu, who looked wearily back, saluted with his sword, and gave Sam a small bow. Sam held his hands, one still gripping the staff, in the formal salute of honor, and bowed back. He looked to Nalia, wished he could just have a few more moments to talk to her, smiled, and bowed to her as well, still saluting. She returned the formal salute with her shrapezi and faced the mobs rushing in. Sam could not locate Skitter, but sent him a mental message. It has been a privilege to know you, my friend. Please escape if
you can. And then he was fighting for his life.
The Gray Man sat perfectly still, fingers still together in a casual triangle, watching every movement in the battle. He seemed not to care that blood was splashing and that men and women were dying only feet away from him. He, Dr. Walt, and his two minions remained still, some watching with more intensity than others, as soldiers tried their best to kill the three warriors.
Cutting, slashing, spinning, striking, the three formed a triangle so that at least one side was guarded by an ally. Going near that triangle was death for the soldiers, and the three had to shift it around the chamber several times when the bodies surrounded them piled too high for them to move as they wanted.
Rindu’s borrowed straight sword claimed lives as he slashed and stabbed. Occasionally, he would snap a neck or break bones with kicks or with his other hand as well, but the range of the sword was helpful in keeping people away from him.
Nalia’s shrapezi, on the other hand, slashed in wide swaths, following her spinning body or striking in opposite rotation, seeming to defy the laws of momentum. She would hook weapons or body parts with the razor sharp pointed hooks and then draw the soldier in for a killing blow, sometimes lopping off of part of their body and sometimes stabbing through a vital area with the end spikes.
Sam had separated his sticks again, not having the room to use the staff with the multitudes of soldiers rushing in on him. Being past the situation where he would hold back killing blows, the porzul wood shattered weapons and bones, blocked strikes that normal wood could not have withstood, and caused death and devastation not only from the force of the blows, but the rohw energy he ejected out of the end of the sticks as he struck to make his strikes more powerful.
All three fought valiantly and heroically, though with their fatigue and the sheer numbers of soldiers they had to fight, it seemed as if they were fighting a losing battle. As Sam blocked a sword strike with one stick, disarmed and crushed the swordsman’s hand with the other, and then crushed his skull with the first stick, he suddenly realized that there were no more soldiers rushing in. Looking around, he saw nothing but bodies and blood.
Vibrations: Harmonic Magic Book 1 Page 35
