“Naw, you couldn’t have been there four days ago; it’s a five- to six-day march to get here from there,” said one of the men.
Lady Ellyn walked over to the leader of the men and put the point of her sword on his chest. All of a sudden, he didn’t look bored anymore; now he looked scared. Lady Ellyn looked at the rest of the men. “Which one of you would like to spare this soldier’s life by going to get the Sergeant of the Watch, right now?” she asked.
“Me!” said two of the men, not wanting to be in her presence anymore. They jumped up and ran inside the gate. Lady Ellyn removed the sword from the leader’s chest, but kept it close by to let him know she was serious.
Within five minutes, the two men came back with the Sergeant of the Watch, who was armed only with a turkey leg. By the ruins of it on his face and hands, it was obvious that he had been interrupted at lunch. He had the foresight to bring along another six men in addition to the two that had gone to get him. All of the new men were armed with halberds, two-handed pole weapons that had an axe blade topped with a spike on one side and a hook on the other for grappling mounted warriors. The eight soldiers had on pieces of armor, but none had on a complete set. Even though their weapons were deadly, the men looked sloppy, just like their sergeant.
“Now, what’s this all about?” asked the sergeant between bites. “These men ‘ere said someone’s been threatenin’ the watch. We can’t be havin’ that in this town. We’re an orderly sort, here.”
“I was the one threatening him,” said Lady Ellyn. “I wanted to know what kind of worthless piece of animal dung was running this watch. Now I know. For your information, oh piece of dung, there is a Salidarian army that is an hour and a half from here, and if you don’t start organizing right now, you will all be dead within two hours.”
“Hey now, for guests, you’re not being very nice,” said the Sergeant of the Watch. “Men, arrest the foreigners and take them down to the jail until they learn some manners.”
The men with halberds lowered the points and advanced on the companions.
“By the seventh level of hell,” spat Dantes. “This is not helpful. We should all be preparing for war, not fighting with each other.”
“There is not going to be war,” said the Sergeant of the Watch. “A knight arrived here a couple of days ago, and he let us know that not only were the Salidarian forces driven back, but the army of Norlon took so few casualties doing it that they were sending a contingent to help defend Harbortown, too. You are wrong, you have no manners, and you need to cool off. Men, take them to jail.”
“Perhaps you’d like to re-think that last order?” asked Fitzber, materializing in front of the Sergeant of the Watch. His dagger was within a hair’s breadth of the sergeant’s crotch. “If you have any intentions of having children in the future, anyway, that is.”
“All right, men, no sense getting hasty,” said the Sergeant of the Watch. “Perhaps we might be better served by taking these people to the mayor’s office and letting them hear it from him. Maybe then they will believe it.”
“That would be fine,” replied Lady Ellyn. “I would also like to meet this knight that came from Norlon.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, ma’am,” said the sergeant, sounding more comfortable now that the dagger had been removed from his privates. “The knight hasn’t left the mayor’s side since he arrived, I don’t think.”
The group headed through the gates and into the city. As they cleared the gates, Dantes felt a slight tug on his sleeve. “I will meet you on the other side of the merchant’s quarter,” said Fitzber. “At the base of the hill prior to the port complex.”
“Aye,” whispered Dantes, wondering where the gnome was off to. It was information they needed most, though, and the gnome was able to get it best on his own, so he let the ranger go.
The companions were led through the town to the new mayor’s office. “Things have changed since the last time I was here,” said Dantes, looking up at the official-looking building. The white structure was as big as the king’s castle in Norlon.
The Sergeant of the Watch didn’t answer. He had dropped his turkey leg on the way and spent most of the journey trying to wipe the grease off his hands and face, with limited success.
“No weapons inside the mayor’s office,” said one of the two sentries at the door going into the building. Unlike the city watch, these men’s uniforms were crisp and their weapons spotless. “You can leave all of your weapons in here,” he added, pointing to a table in a small anteroom.
“Do we trust them?” asked Ghorza.
Lady Ellyn walked over to the sentry that had spoken. Taking hold of the front of his uniform lapel, she pulled his face close to hers. “This sword was given to me by my father,” she said in a voice laced with menace, “who got it from his father, who got it from his father. I will be back for it. If anything happens to it, I will kill you, then have Father Telenor raise you from the dead so that I can kill you again. Slowly. Am I clear on this?”
“Yes, m’lady,” said the sentry. “I will guard it as if my life depended on it.”
“See that you do,” she said, “because it surely does.” She glanced at Ghorza while still holding his uniform. “I think we can trust them,” she said. The man nodded, and she let him go.
After the companions had stacked their weapons, they were led into a large open room. All of them drew a breath as they entered; the room was an exact replica of the throne room in Norlon, complete with a throne on which the mayor sat.
A majordomo stood at the door. He took their names and announced them, and then they were led forward to stand in front of the mayor. They got their second surprise in quick order as the mayor’s advisors walked out to stand next to him. His chief advisor was a halfling, who stood to the right of the mayor’s throne; to the left of the mayor stood a knight in dark armor. The man was easily six feet tall and looked incredibly strong. His dark hair, dark mustache and dark eyes complemented his dark aura. Lady Ellyn didn’t need a Detect Evil spell to know the knight was evil; he radiated it from every pore of his being.
She also knew instantly that this wasn’t going to end well. “We should leave now,” she said under her breath.
“Kneel,” said the majordomo.
“Why should we kneel?” asked Dantes. “He is the mayor, not royalty.”
“In Harbortown, the mayor is royalty,” replied the majordomo.
“We will not kneel to the mayor,” said Lady Ellyn, eliciting a smile from the dark knight.
“If they will not kneel,” said the mayor, “throw them out of town.”
“We come with information that is vital you hear,” said Father Telenor. “It would be best if you take a minute and listen.”
The halfling leaned over to the mayor’s ear and whispered something that the group couldn’t hear.
“Take them outside of the gates,” said the mayor. “If they won’t go, kill them. If they try to come back in, kill them. If they try to talk to any of the city’s inhabitants, kill them. They are known agitators that go around trying to incite riots. If they do anything out of line, kill them!” Before they could move, the companions were surrounded by ten men who had been standing guard in the room, each carrying a halberd. It was obvious that they weren’t the first people to be expelled from the city; the men performed the drill better than anything else the companions had seen any of the city’s soldiers do.
“Should we attack?” whispered Ghorza. “Even unarmed, we could still probably take these buffoons.”
“No,” said Lady Ellyn. “These men are basically good, they are just poorly led. I will not kill them. The city will need them soon.”
“Soon?” asked Dantes. “They’ll be dead inside of an hour.”
“That is true,” agreed Lady Ellyn, “but it won’t be by my hand.”
“How are we going to get to the port?” asked Ghorza.
“I don’t know,” said Dantes, “but we’ll figure something out.”
The soldiers escorted the companions out of the audience room. Although they were initially worried about getting their weapons back, the soldiers stopped and let them pick them up, perhaps to prevent problems with them in the small room.
The companions were then marched to the gate, very much aware of the passage of time.
“The mayor said that I wasn’t allowed to talk to the citizens of the city, correct?” Dantes asked the Sergeant of the Watch, who had been put in charge of their expulsion. “He didn’t say that I couldn’t talk to you, right?”
“That’s true enough,” said the sergeant. “But if I were you, I’d be watchin’ my tongue.”
“Okay,” said Dantes, “then I won’t talk badly about the mayor, or the fact that his chief advisor looks to be the brother of the halfling that led the attack on Norlon. I won’t even talk badly about the dark knight that is advising him.”
“That’s good,” said the sergeant, “because if you do, me boys will have to stick you with their halberds.”
“Okay,” said Dantes. “Good to know. I won’t mention that you are being led astray and are probably going to be dead inside of an hour.”
“What? What’s that all about?” asked the sergeant. “That almost sounds like you’re doin’ that instigatin’ thing that the mayor warned me about.”
“Nope, not me,” replied Dantes. “I won’t say a word about the fact that you’re all being tricked. I also won’t tell you that the city of Norlon is no more, nor that the army that is approaching is led by dark knights that are dressed just like the dark knight in the mayor’s audience room. I’ll just keep my lips shut about all of that.” John could see that his words were having an effect on the men. The sergeant hadn’t noticed, but some of them were starting to look very nervous.
The group reached the gate. In the distance a dust cloud loomed over the forest, the kind of cloud made by thousands of marching feet.
“I’ve got another question for you,” said Dantes. “The mayor said to expel us, but he didn’t say that you had to do it right away, did he? Maybe it would be better if you waited to see who was in the army drawing near. If it is an army from Norlon like he said, we’ll leave, just as nice as can be. If, however, the army turns out to be one from Salidar, I’m sure you’d like to have our assistance in helping to turn it away.”
“Gee, Sarge, a devil would be awfully handy to have in a fight,” said one of the original soldiers. “I hear they’re really hard to kill.”
“That’s true,” said Dantes. “I am pretty handy in a fight.”
“I don’t know...” said the sergeant, not wanting to lose face in front of the men, but also not wanting to give up six experienced fighters. Wait. He counted again. “Where did the other one of you go?” he asked. “Where’s the one that threatened me family life with his dagger?”
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know where he went,” said Dantes. “He was going to try to find out what was going on in town. Does it matter? He wasn’t with us in the audience room, so the mayor didn’t really expel him now, did he?”
The sergeant looked confused. Although the mayor had expelled the group, the gnome hadn’t been with them when the mayor had done so. Still, he was part of the group that had threatened the soldiers (and he had definitely threatened the sergeant), so he probably should be expelled, too. But how could he expel the gnome, if he wasn’t around to kick out? In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the little troublemaker.
Dantes smiled to himself, he could almost see the wheels in the sergeant’s head turning. Before he could pose his next question, the sentry on top of the wall called, “Sergeant, I’ve got movement in the distance.”
“Well what is it?” asked the sergeant. “Tasidaran troops or Salidarian?”
The sentry peered harder into the distance. “Sergeant, I can’t rightly tell. They don’t even look like soldiers at all. If anything, it looks like a couple of farmers walking their dogs.”
“Farmers walking their dogs?” asked one of the men. “At midday? That’s odd. I grew up on a farm, and all farmers do is work the farm. They don’t take afternoons off to walk their dogs.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling,” said Ghorza. “Sergeant, I have a spell that will help me see farther. May I go up on the wall to look?”
“Yes, but don’t be thinkin’ of doing anythin’ tricky,” said the sergeant. “If you do, your friends here will pay for it with their lives.”
“I understand.” Ghorza left for the stairs at a run.
The soldier met her at the top of the stairs and pointed to where he was looking. “See, they’re farmers,” he said. “Now that they’re a little closer, I can tell for sure. They both have big straw hats on, like farmers wear. The woman is wearing a red dress and the man is wearing a brown tunic. They’ve each got two dogs that they’ve got on leashes. They must be coming into town for supplies or something.”
Ghorza looked and saw that it was pretty much as the sentry described. Still, something was wrong. The soldier down below was right. Farmers didn’t take afternoons off during the harvest. Ever. Especially with an army coming that was going to eat them out of house and home. If anything, they gathered their crops faster so that they could hide them away for their own use.
“Focus!” Ghorza cast the far-seeing spell, and the two farmers seemed to jump closer as the air magnified the light rays. The two people approaching the town were dressed very much like the two farmers that had been working in their bean field. She couldn’t see their faces because of the big straw hats, so she couldn’t tell for sure. The only difference was that the woman had been wearing a white dress, not a red one. Looking closer, she could see that the dress had white spots on it; it wasn’t uniformly red. Something seemed odd, but she couldn’t place it.
The couple stopped and bent down to pet their dogs, and Ghorza’s focus was drawn to the dogs, which seemed to be a little bigger than usual. Still, on the frontier, some people owned deer hounds or other big dogs for protection or to help them hunt. Deer hounds were big dogs, too, but these dogs were shaggier, almost wolf-like. And they had red eyes. And the farmers’ hands that were holding the leashes, the only skin she could see, was green.
Realization hit her as the ‘farmers’ loosed their ‘dogs’ and began running after them toward the gate. “Orcs and worgs!” she cried. “Get inside and close the gates!”
“What’s it going to be, sergeant,” asked Dantes as the other members of his group started readying their weapons. “Want to let us in, or do you want to die out here?”
“Umm...umm...umm...” the sergeant stalled, unable to make up his mind.
“Sarge, I don’t like this,” said one of the soldiers. “I think they’re right. We need to get inside.” All 14 of the soldiers started edging toward the gates.
“Globus Incendi!” shouted Dantes, casting a fireball. The bead of flame streaked toward the four worgs and burst, enveloping all of them. Only two of the worgs emerged from the fireball, and both were injured.
“Missilis Magici!” John cast. Two missiles jumped from his finger and hit the worg in the lead, killing it. It rolled to a stop, and the last one vaulted over it.
“Flagra!” commanded Father Telenor, calling down a flame strike on the last worg. A vertical column of divine flames roared down from the heavens to strike the last worg. It was overkill for the already wounded worg, but served its purpose. When the flames cleared, there wasn’t much left beyond the smell of burnt hair.
Suddenly outnumbered, the two orcs skidded to a stop. In their haste to charge the gate, their hats had come off, exposing them for what they were. They turned and began running back the way they had come. By now everyone could see that the dress was red with blood; it was the farmer’s wife’s dress.
“Umm...I think we should get inside and close the gates,” said the sergeant, making up his mind. “Call out the alarm! Ring the bell! To arms! To arms!”
The companions r
ushed inside the gates and helped shut and bar them.
Ghorza, still on the wall, glanced up from watching the gates shut. She didn’t need a spell to see the next creatures coming out of the woods. “Ready the fires!” she yelled. “Trolls!”
Chapter 40
“You there!” shouted Lady Ellyn. “Take that vat of acid to the wall.” A natural leader, she easily slipped into the vacant leadership position and started organizing the defense. With mere minutes until the trolls arrived, she already knew there wouldn’t be enough time. If the orcs and worgs had taken the guards unaware and been able to keep the gates open...she shuddered at the thought. Now at least they had a chance. She laughed. The only chance they had was to kill a few of the enemy before the walls fell and they were overrun. And they were going to be overrun, she knew. Of that, she had no doubt.
“You five with halberds, get to the left side of the gate,” she yelled. She started to go redirect a load of crossbow bolts, but Dantes grabbed her.
“We’ve got to go!” he urged. “We’ve got to get to the port.”
“Without me, they are going to lose the wall,” Lady Ellyn replied.
“They’re going to lose the wall even with you,” said Dantes. “If there were 50 of you, even 100 of you, they’d still lose it. They’re not ready, and the wall is going to fall!”
“He’s right,” said Father Telenor, “and you know it.”
“I know...,” said Lady Ellyn, “just as I know they’re all going to die. Everyone here is going to die. I just want to give them a chance.”
“All you’re doing is ensuring that our quest will fail,” said Dantes. “Even with your aid, the wall may hold for 10 minutes, but no more. At that time, the enemy will be inside the city, and everyone is going to go to the port to try to flee. It will be a madhouse, and no one is going to make it out of here alive.”
Lady Ellyn sighed again. “You’re right,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) Page 15
