Dark Quest (30 page)

The noise of someone coming down the corridor sent Alex into one of the book rooms and he lay on the floor between stacks of books. The musty smell of the books was nauseating as he lay there waiting for the visitor to pass by. Instead, the person entered the room where Alex was. The visitor’s candle flickered as he walked past Alex’s hiding spot and went deeper into the room. He appeared to be looking for some particular book and he wasn’t in a hurry. Alex was. He didn’t have much exploring time left if he wanted to get out of the castle. Within the hour, David would once again distract the tower guards. If Alex wasn’t back over the wall when the distraction ceased, he would never get over.

The visitor was searching each aisle and he was getting closer to Alex. When the visitor entered the aisle next to Alex’s aisle, Alex rose and stood waiting. When the man was even with Alex’s position, Alex pushed the stack of books onto the man. The man and books crashed to the floor, his candle going out. The man started cursing to himself and Alex figured it was time to leave. He silently crept to the door before the man silenced himself. Evidently, the visitor was more concerned with being caught in the room with the mess of books then how the stack happened to fall on him.

Alex stole his way down to the first floor, blessing his days in the forest where he learned to be quiet. The inner rooms on the first floor were mostly empty. The Great Hall had scores of tables laid out with small piles of books on them. Alex reasoned that the books were stored in the upstairs rooms and then examined down here in small lots. The Captain made his way to the front doors and squeezed into an alcove behind one of the doors. He could hear the outside sentries talking to each other. From behind the door, Alex could see the large metal braces that held a timber to bar the door to attackers. He reached into his pouch and withdrew a jar of Fire Glue. He very carefully smeared a layer of Fire Glue on each of the metal braces.

After the roving first floor sentry passed, Alex moved over to the other door and repeated the process. If, during the attack, someone chose to throw the timber into the braces to bar the doors, the timber and braces would burst into flames. Alex waited a long time for the roving sentry to return, but the man never appeared. Alex’s time was quickly being lost and he decided he had to leave now. He moved quietly down the hall towards the rear room where he had made his entrance.

As Alex turned the corner the roving sentry was just closing a door, his back to Alex. Alex didn’t hesitate and quickly grabbed his knife and brought the handle down on the back of the man’s skull. He caught the sentry and lowered him to the ground. He ripped the man’s money pouch off of his belt and emptied it into a small pouch of his own. He tossed the man’s empty pouch on the floor and headed for his escape room. Hopefully, Mordac would learn that one of his Black Devils is also a thief in his own castle.

Alex made it to the room with the four sleeping men and stood next to the window so he could see the roving sentries below. He gazed up at the moon and knew his time would be up in minutes. He silently took the coins out of his pouch and placed them in the nearest shoe, covering them with a garment.

When the sentries were properly positioned, Alex hung himself out of the window and dropped to the ground. He scampered to the tower and wedged himself into the now smaller shadow. In another hour, there wouldn’t be enough of a shadow for him to hide in.

After ten minutes, the tower guard shouted and moved to the edge of the tower closest to David’s ridge. This time the roving sentries cooperated and both the rear and side sentries stood on the side of the castle staring at the strange reflections. Alex thanked the gods and quickly scaled the wall and dropped over the other side. Two hours later, Alex was back in his camp, totally exhausted.

Alex called a meeting and Egam and Jenneva joined with the Ranger officers to hear the details of his reconnaissance. After Alex had disseminated the information he went to sleep.

Alex awoke with Jenneva sitting by his side. “Good morning,” the groggy captain greeted his friend.

“Good morning, Captain,” Jenneva replied. “That was a pretty foolish maneuver last night, wasn’t it?”

“Not really,” Alex stated. “We needed to get the information and I was the most skilled to do it. I always choose the proper Ranger for the job. It just so happens that I am the quietest. If it required someone who spoke Sordoan, it would have been Mitar. Another skill would have been a different Ranger. Mordac would have detected you or Egam. He even felt me watching him, but his feeling wasn’t strong enough to call the guards.”

“I guess you are right, Alex,” she admitted. “I forgot about the possibility of Mordac sensing me. Still, I don’t like to see you taking unnecessary chances.”

“It wasn’t unnecessary,” stated Alex. “My visit to the castle last night gave us enough information to lessen the number of Ranger deaths and that is something that matters a great deal to me. Let’s get some breakfast. We need to have a full strategy meeting right away. Now that you and Egam are here, I don’t want to wait much longer before closing Mordac down. Tonight we attack.”

The meeting lasted all morning. Alex described the inside of the castle and the number of men on each floor. The attackers memorized the locations of all of the books, so that the Rangers would damage no books. The role of each group of Rangers was laid out in the finest detail. Egam and Jenneva explained to the Rangers the type of spells that would probably be used against them and what the two Masters would be doing during the attack.

Alex opened the meeting to all of the Rangers and invited their questions and comments. They all knew that come morning, some of their friends would be dead. How many were dead would depend on the skill and precision of the attackers.

The early hours of the afternoon were spent checking weapons and writing letters to loved ones. The encampment was unusually quiet as each member of the Rangers made his final preparations. By mid-afternoon only the sentries were still awake. When they next awoke, the Rangers were going into battle.

The horrible scream echoed through the valley and Sergeant Witzak grabbed the scope and scanned the castle grounds. Outside the front doors to Mordac’s castle, Randi spotted a man strapped to a table, his arms extended over the edges. Mordac was standing on the front steps to the castle, his arm extended towards the screaming man. A brilliant sparkle of blue light emanated from the captured man’s right hand and his screams grew louder, sounding more like an animal sound than that of a human. Randi watched, his eyes transfixed on the man writhing in agony, as the blue light spread up the man’s arm leaving his skin an icy blue as it passed. The crowd grew around the demonstration as the entire Black Devil encampment scurried to find the source of the screams.

Mordac lowered his hand and the captive’s cries diminished, but the blue sparkle of his arm remained. Mordac raised both hands and started shouting something to the assembled crowd, but Randi was too far away to hear the words. The evil magician walked over to the captured Black Devil, stopping to pick up a long thin stick. Randi could see Mordac’s mouth moving and the man with the sparkling blue arm started screaming again. Very slowly and very deliberately, Mordac lowered the stick to the man’s arm. When the stick touched the man’s blue skin, his arm cracked like the thin ice of a pond that was stepped on. The arm shattered and fell to the ground, scattering into a thousand pieces like fine glass smashed against the cobblestones. The wailing scream was like the sound of a terrible nightmare, reverberating inside Randi’s head.

A Ranger corporal crawled up beside Randi and asked, “What is going on down there? It sounds like somebody is dying.”

Randi handed the corporal the scope and started crawling back to his camp. “Worse than dying. Mordac just demonstrated the penalty for stealing within his castle. I’m going to get some sleep if I can. Keep a watch until you’re relieved.”

Alex sat by the campfire with his officers and magicians, going over the final details before the strike at Mordac’s castle. The sky was overcast, blocking out the stars and the moon. The firelight flickered across the stern charcoal-darkened faces of the Rangers, giving them a ghastly appearance.

“Are there any questions?” asked the leader of the Rangers.

“How can we be sure if the towers are occupied by Black Devils or our magicians?” asked a Sergeant.

“All of the towers will be taken out at the same time,” answered Alex. “If there is anyone in the tower after that time, it will be Egam and Jenneva, even though they will look like Black Devils. Under no circumstances are the left side towers to be attacked after the agreed time. Our magicians will not leave the towers until I give the signal that the fighting is over.”

Alex waited for more questions and after receiving none, he continued. “Okay, we all know our assignments. Form the attack groups. The counting begins when I give the order to move out.”

“I am going to feel awfully restricted up in the tower, Alex,” Jenneva declared.

“We’ve been through this already, Jenneva,” stated Alex. “You and Egam can not withstand the attack of five hundred magicians, no matter how good you are. By impersonating the Black Devils, very few of them will realize that you are with us. You will be free to cast spells down into the courtyard and no one will realize that your targets are not Rangers. The left side is also where Mordac’s study is. I have no doubt that he will stick his ugly head out of that window and we can’t have him recognize you or your ability to help me will be lost. By staying in the towers, you are guaranteed that my men will not mistake you for a Black Devil.”

“He’s right,” added Egam. “We can do the most damage from the towers without the Black Devils knowing what is happening to them.”

Alex stood and helped Jenneva to her feet. He led the two magicians over to Mitar and bid them farewell. With a wave of his hand, the Rangers split into four groups and headed off into the woods. Numbers ticking off inside his head, Alex led his small group of Rangers into a jog towards the rear of the castle.

At the rear of the castle, Alex and two of his men lie in the woods. The other eight of his Rangers were spread out, ready to take out the four roving outer guards at the appropriate time. Alex mentally walked through his plan one more time. His force was going to infiltrate the interior of the castle. One small team on each side of the castle was to take out the roving sentries and eliminate the tower guards. The main force of the Rangers, under Lieutenant David Jaynes, was to start replacing the occupants of the tents on the estate lawn. The open fighting would not begin until the forward attack was noticed. With luck, David’s group would replace half of the Black Devils in the tents on the lawn with Rangers. When the attack was spotted, the Rangers would be close enough to attack quickly before the Black Devils started to retaliate with magic.

The numbers struck and Alex and his two men moved forward to the tree line. Alex stared at the nearest tower until he saw the guard disappear. He had heard no bowstring sing, but knew the Ranger assigned to the tower guard had done his job. Alex leapt forward and threw himself onto the wall, his hands and feet fighting for any small perch they could gain as he scrambled up the stone cliff. As he reached the top of the wall, Alex saw his ten men also gaining the summit of their spots on the wall. One of the men tossed a Lanoirian Star and took out the rear roving guard. All eleven men hopped over the wall and landed in the courtyard. His men started scaling the rear of the castle, heading for the windows. Alex glanced up to the far tower on the left side of the castle and saw a Black Devil watching him. He gave a slight wave as he started climbing up to a window. He knew Jenneva was in place.

Out front, David’s men were slowly infiltrating the camp. Having taken out the guards, four of the Rangers crawled through the arch of the castle wall and used myric quills to take out the sleeping Black Devils in the first tent. That first group immediately set out for the next tent, even as four more Rangers were crawling in to occupy the one they had just left. David’s Rangers would continue coming in by fours until someone detected the infiltration.

The two side teams had scaled the wall and were lying in darkness alongside the castle itself. They would remain there, immobile, until the fighting began. They would attack the Black Devils from behind when the defenders rallied to attack David’s force.

Alex climbed through the window and surveyed the bodies his men had killed. Two of his men were pressed against the wall by the door to the corridor, waiting for the floor sentry to appear. As soon as the sentry was killed, his men would split up. Alex had assigned four men to the first floor and four to the second. He would take the remaining two men with him to the third floor. The lack of sounds from outside was pleasing. He knew David’s men were doing better than he had hoped.

The sentry came down the corridor and turned the corner. Alex watched one of his men toss a Lanoirian Star as the other raced out into the hall in an attempt to catch the body before it hit the ground. He wasn’t fast enough and the body hit the floor with a dull thud. The Rangers froze, waiting for a reaction to the sound. Alex moved out into the hall and saw the rest of his men emerging from rooms they had entered through the windows.

Alex heard the shouting from outside and led his men to the stairwell. They might have to help out the second floor team, before heading to the third floor.

David’s men had done extremely well. Over half of the tent occupants had been eliminated before the door guards spotted a movement. Now the entire courtyard was being roused from sleep by the shouts of the Black Devils. The enemy still didn’t know the extent of the infiltration and this bought the Rangers some more time. The Rangers quickly extracted their jars of Fire Glue and dipped their arrows. Within seconds of the first shout from the door guard, flaming arrows were on their way to every Black Devil tent that had not been already taken. Those Black Devils who were slow in getting out of the tents, were burning along with the fabric shelters. The door guards were tossing fireballs and soon the second and third story windows were filled with enemy magicians tossing flaming projectiles. Egam blasted the door guards with his own fiery missile and Jenneva opened up on the Black Devils closest to her.