by PT Hylton
They passed through the next two guard stations without much incident. The guards at the first station took a cursory glance into Fannar’s bucket—making Abbey happy she’d ignored Olaf’s suggestion that they just carry empty buckets—then motioned them on their way. The guards at the second paid them even less mind.
When they were halfway between the third and fourth guard stations, they rounded a bend and Abbey told them all to stop. She looked up the mountain, then down it, making sure they couldn’t be seen from either direction.
“Everyone ready to do this thing?” she asked.
“I’d face eight hundred Barskall if it meant I didn’t have to carry these buckets anymore,” Olaf grumbled.
Fannar looked her in the eye. “I’m ready.”
“Ready,” Clemens confirmed.
Abbey turned to Dustin. “How about you? You’re kind of key to this whole thing.”
Dustin took a deep breath. “Fannar’s elder ma said there was going to be a storm. Let’s prove her right.”
***
A short while later they reached the top of the staircase.
“So there is an end to this thing,” Olaf remarked.
To Abbey’s surprise, there were no guards waiting for them, just a giant oak door.
“Huh.” Dustin turned to Abbey. “Think we’re supposed to knock?”
Before Abbey could reply, the door let out a groan as it began to open. Eight guards filed out, looking annoyed.
“How many you got?” the first guard asked. He was a short, stocky man with an impressive bushy mustache.
It took Abbey a moment to understand what he was asking. “We have ten buckets.” She kept her voice meek, hoping it would put him at ease.
“All right, set them down,” the guard said with a sigh.
Abbey and her crew lowered their buckets to the ground. She’d shifted her sword to the back of her belt, hoping the guards wouldn’t notice. Clemens and Olaf had done the same. Fannar wore his seax openly, but since it was a traditional Barskall weapon she hoped the guards wouldn’t give it more than a passing glance.
The first guard nodded toward the others, and they marched forward and grabbed the buckets.
As soon as they had the buckets in their hands, Abbey yelled, “Now!”
She drew her sword and lunged at the nearest guard. He never saw her coming and fell quickly, dropping his bucket and sending seawater cascading down the stone steps.
Dustin grabbed his staff and moved into position behind the others. When the butt of his staff touched the ground, his eyes began to glow.
To the guards’ credit, they responded to the attack quickly. The two Clemens and Olaf had attacked managed to get their weapons out and defend themselves. Fannar’s target was on the ground clutching the seax wound on his leg. It was now six on five, with the odds in the guards’ favor.
The guard with the impressive mustache charged Abbey. She held her ground until the last possible moment and then sidestepped, deflecting his strike and moving his body toward the edge of the steps and the empty space beyond.
The others were doing the same, working their opponents into position near the edge.
“Anytime, Dustin,” Abbey called through gritted teeth.
“Here we go,” Dustin responded. He sent a mighty gust of wind blowing across the steps toward the outside edge.
The wind combined with the well-timed attacks was enough to send three of the guards reeling over the edge. They screamed as they fell, but their cries were silenced when they landed on the rocks far below.
Abbey’s crew made short work of the three remaining guards, and soon they stood alone at the open door to the school.
“A worthy start,” Fannar declared.
Abbey nodded. “But that’s all it is—a start. Dustin, you good?”
In response, Dustin began to call a storm. A sudden hard rain began to fall on the lower portion of the mountain. “Anyone who wants to come up these steps will have to do so in some seriously adverse conditions.”
She looked at Clemens. “You got his back?”
Clemens nodded grimly. He’d be staying out here with Dustin, just in case anyone made it up the stairs and it came to a fight.
Abbey didn’t like splitting up the group, but she needed someone to cover their backs. According to Petur, there were about twenty guards spread throughout the school. They’d already taken out eight of them. As long as Abbey, Fannar, and Olaf moved quickly and avoided raising any major alarms, they should be able to handle any guards they encountered.
Abbey clapped Dustin on the shoulder. “We’ll be back soon. And you’d better watch yourself, because we’ll have another Storm Caller with us. We might like him better than you.”
Dustin grinned. “Unlikely. I’m quite lovable.” With that, he closed his eyes and started casting.
Abbey turned back to Fannar and Olaf. “Let’s go.”
Petur had drawn them a map of the facility and told them there were only three places Viktor spent any significant amount of time. The first was in his private chambers. Given that it was mid-morning, Petur had told them that was where Viktor would most likely be. He got up early to train his pupils, then spent time alone in his chambers before lunch.
They moved quickly through the wide, empty corridors, checking every doorway and hallway they passed. It seemed a terrible waste to Abbey that this vast building was being used only to house a dozen prisoners and two dozen guards, especially when villages like Fannar’s were struggling to get by.
They rounded a corner and saw two guards walking toward them. The guards’ eyes widened when they saw the strangers.
Abbey raised her sword, but Fannar was already moving.
“Mine.” He dashed toward the guards and plunged his seax into the first one’s chest as he reached them.
The second guard recovered quickly. He managed to draw his sword, but Fannar was already turning toward him and slashed at his throat. The guard fell to his knees, and Fannar finished the job.
“Damn!” Olaf marveled. “I’m glad he’s on our side.”
“Me too.” Abbey checked down the hall, but there were no other guards in sight. With the eight they’d fought outside and these two down, that left only fourteen more. Their odds were getting better by the minute.
They found Viktor’s private chamber just where Petur had told them it would be. Abbey went first, moving quickly but trying to appear as unthreatening as was possible for someone holding a bloodstained sword.
The room held a large desk and a canopy bed and there was a beautiful mural on the wall, but no Viktor.
“Damn it.” That left two other possible locations. Abbey prayed the Storm Caller was in one of those, or they’d have to search the school. The less time they were up here, the better.
Olaf scratched his head. “If this guy’s a prisoner, this is the nicest cell I’ve ever seen. Maybe I should get myself captured.”
Fannar wore a somber expression. “Make no mistake, it’s a prison. And from what Petur says, Viktor has been through plenty.”
“Let’s keep moving.” Abbey led them out of the room and down the hall toward the next likely location.
They passed a corridor heading toward the western part of the building, and Abbey held up a hand. Fannar and Olaf halted.
“What is it?” Olaf asked.
Abbey frowned. “I thought I heard footsteps.”
“Do we go after them?” Fannar asked. “If they saw us…” He left the rest of the words unsaid.
She considered for a moment. “No, it was probably nothing. Let’s keep moving.”
They entered the next room Petur had told them to check. It was dominated by a large, shallow pool, and a tall, beardless man stood in the water at the far end. His long, stringy hair hung down over his face.
He looked at them with his mouth open in surprise but said nothing.
Abbey marched to the edge of the pool. “Viktor?”
He nodded slowly.
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“We’re friends of Petur,” she stated. “We’re here to rescue you.”
His eyes widened. “Petur? Is he safe? Did he make it to the people?”
Abbey hesitated, not sure what he meant by that. He had a strange, distracted way of speaking that made her think the words he spoke were somehow different from the ones he intended. “Yes, he’s safe. We’ll explain later, but right now we have to leave. Come on.”
Viktor broke out in a wide smile. “Thank you.” He paused. “Wait. The guards. They’ll be angry.”
Abbey was starting to get nervous. Every moment they spent standing here was another moment the enemy could find them, and she was becoming more and more convinced that the steps she’d heard in the corridor were real. “It’s okay. We’ve already killed half the guards. Let’s get moving.”
“Half?” His eyes widened in amazement. “But why now? Why did you come when she’s here?”
Something inside Abbey went cold. “She?”
“Dahlia. She’s here. She and her army are here at the school.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dustin leaned over and peered past the edge of the stairs. To the left he could see the deep chasm careening down hundreds of feet where the guards he’d pushed over the edge had fallen. If he craned his neck, he could see one of the guard stations off to the right. All was calm down there from what he could see. Apparently they hadn’t heard the commotion of the battle, likely because of the storm Dustin had called down on them.
It was raining lightly where Dustin and Clemens stood, but the eastern face of the mountain where the guard station was positioned was taking the brunt of the storm. Dustin hoped it would be enough to keep them from going outside if they didn’t need to.
He took a step back from the edge, and noticed Clemens carefully keeping his distance.
Dustin raised an eyebrow. “You afraid of heights, Clemens?”
The first mate’s cheeks reddened, which was answer enough. “When I signed up to work on a stormship, I didn’t know it would involve climbing mountains.”
Dustin chuckled. “Don’t be ashamed, man.”
“I’m not!” Clemens snapped. “I mean, you put me on a ship, have me climb to the crow’s nest, and I’m fine. As long as the sea’s below to catch me if I fall, I don’t get jumpy. But have you looked over the edge? If you slip here, not even the sea herself could save you.”
Dustin thought about the climb up to the school. It had been a treacherous path, some of it quite narrow. Dustin wasn’t afraid of heights, and even he’d been nervous a time or two. And yet Clemens hadn’t voiced one complaint the entire trip up in spite of his fear. Dustin had to admit that the man was made of stern stuff.
Still, that didn’t mean Dustin wasn’t going to give him a little shit about it. He crept even closer to the edge and saw Clemens look away. “Does this make you nervous?” He dangled one foot over the edge.
“I hope a stiff wind knocks your ass over the edge,” Clemens grumbled. “It would serve you right.”
The Storm Caller laughed. “Not likely. The wind wouldn’t dare blow without my permission.”
He glanced down toward the guard station and froze. All six guards had come out of the small building and were heading up the stairs at a fast clip.
“Shit.” He took a step back from the edge and planted the butt of his staff on the ground. “We’re about to have company, Clemens.”
Clemens cursed under his breath. “How do they know we’re here?”
Dustin shook his head. He wished Petur had known more about the security setup. Was it possible that the school had some way to signal the guard stations below? It didn’t seem likely they’d have magitech on the relatively isolated island on Barskall, but if the king was working with Tor and Dahlia, it was possible they might have brought some here.
But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was surviving the coming fight.
Dustin turned to Clemens. “I’m going to focus my efforts on the guards on their way up. I’ll empty the heavens on them right now, and when they get here I’ll blow as many of them off the edge as I can. You’ll have to take care of any that get to me, but keep an eye on the door. If the guards down there know about us the ones in the school might too, and I don’t want to get stabbed in the back while I’m looking down the mountain.”
“Aye aye.” There was no fear in Clemens’ voice, just grim determination.
Dustin closed his eyes and called down the storm. Lightning crashed, and the sky grew dark almost immediately.
Clemens glanced nervously skyward as the rain began to fall in earnest. “No one’s going to mistake that for a natural storm. If they didn’t know we were here before, they do now.”
Dustin didn’t disagree, but it couldn’t be helped. It had taken them fifteen minutes to get from the third guard station to the top, but they’d been carrying heavy buckets. The guards would likely make it in ten. Anything Dustin could do to make their trip more difficult was worth it.
He turned and glanced at the empty doorway. Part of him wanted to run inside to find Abbey, both to warn her of the danger headed her way, and because they’d have a better chance if they were together, but he quickly pushed the thought away. Abbey had left him here for exactly this purpose, and he wasn’t going to turn his back on his duty.
The wait seemed endless. The path below snaked toward the east side of the mountain, so it was hidden from Dustin and Clemens’ view. They also couldn’t hear because of the storm. All they could do was wait.
After what seemed like forever, the six guards charged around the corner and ran at Dustin and Clemens with their swords raised.
Dustin was ready, and he hit them with a powerful gust of wind. The gale combined with the rain-slicked stone path was enough to send two of them flailing over the edge. The other four managed to keep their feet, and they descended on Dustin.
Clemens started to charge, but Dustin held up a hand, letting him know to hold off another moment. Dustin had one more trick up his sleeve.
Just before the guards reached him, he lowered his staff, pointing it at them. He activated the amphorald Benjamin had embedded in the top of the wood.
A concussive wave shot out of his staff, sending the four guards to the ground. One slid off the edge, but the other three were on their backs, slowly trying to stand in the driving rain.
Clemens wasted no time in making his move. He finished one of them with his sword before the man even made it to his feet.
Now it was two on two. Dustin knew it would take his amphorald a few minutes to recharge, so he couldn’t count on using that trick again.
The final two guards were on their feet, their swords held high, but there was fear in their eyes.
Clemens stood at Dustin’s side as the two groups faced each other.
Suddenly the two guards smiled, and their swords dropped a hair.
“You ready to surrender?” one of the guards asked.
Clemens let out a laugh. “You kidding me? Did you see how many of your friends we just took out?”
“I did,” the guard answered, “but I suddenly like our odds.”
They weren’t looking at him or Clemens, Dustin realized. They were looking past them.
Dustin spun toward the door, and what he saw made him freeze.
A battalion of twenty-four Barskall warriors stood just inside the doorway.
***
“Dahlia’s here?” Abbey asked. Her first reaction was delight. After all, hadn’t their whole goal in coming to Barskall been to find Dahlia and figure out what she was up to? Now they learn she was in this very building.
But then there was the other part about her army.
Abbey looked at Viktor pointedly. “How many men does she have with her?”
Viktor looked skyward for a moment, as if calculating. “I haven’t counted them. I did see them at dinner last night. I suppose it wouldn’t be exact, but if I consider the number of tables—”
�
�Just give us an estimate,” Olaf barked.
Viktor moved his lips silently for another moment, then looked at them. “I would say about a hundred and twenty warriors.”
“Hellfire!” Fannar cursed.
Abbey didn’t say anything. One hundred and twenty Barskall warriors? This changed everything. Even if the warriors didn’t use seiderdrek—and there was no guarantee they wouldn’t, considering they were inside rather than on the narrow, wet mountain steps—those were impossible odds.
“At least we made it here without them detecting us,” Fannar declared. “Perhaps we’ll be as sea-blessed during our escape.”
Abbey wasn’t so sure about that. She thought about the footsteps she’d heard in that corridor. “Viktor, why the hell does she have so many warriors in a mountain school?”
Viktor looked troubled. “It’s a question I had, too. Or did, until I got the answer.”
Olaf looked at Abbey and raised an eyebrow as if to say “this man isn’t right in the head.”
Viktor continued. “They came a few days ago and took away all my students, the experts and the novices alike. They told me it was time for them, whatever that meant, but they left me, since Dahlia said I couldn’t be trusted in combat.”
Abbey’s mouth went dry. Dahlia was making her move.
Viktor cleared his throat and spat on the ground in anger. “She and her warriors stayed and took over the school. She said she needed to train her warriors on how to work with a Storm Caller, and that she’s had trouble not being protected when she was stormcalling in the past.”
Olaf chuckled. “Damn right she has.”
The Storm Caller waved an impatient hand in the air. “Now I’m only allowed to use my pool a few hours a day. The rest of the time she’s using it to teach her warriors defensive maneuvers. It’s enough to make me want to leave this place and never come back.”
“Uh,” Abbey interrupted, “we thought you did want to leave this place. We heard you were a prisoner here.”
Viktor tilted his head and thought a moment. “Oh. Right. I forgot.”
Olaf rolled his eyes.
Abbey looked at Olaf and Fannar. “We’re getting out of here. We’ll go the way we came. Be fast, but more importantly, be silent. As much as I enjoy fighting Barskall, I’d rather not take on a hundred and twenty of them.”
