Mindbender (55 page)

“How are you feeling?” Evelyn asked.

“Sore, but better,” Alexander said as she handed him a waterskin. “What’s been happening while I’ve been out?”

“The soldiers have stopped coming down the staircase for now, but Anatoly says they’re probably just working on a new strategy. Aside from Conner and Anatoly who are watching the staircase, everyone else is resting.”

“Good,” Alexander said, easing himself back down on his bedroll. “You should get some sleep, too. Once we start moving again, it’ll be at least a week before we reach safety.”

“Thank you for rescuing me,” she whispered.

Alexander smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“I realize how much you risked coming here, even if it wasn’t just to get me, and how badly you were hurt. I feel bad that I sometimes don’t think about how things affect other people. I just wanted you to know that I’m grateful.”

“I do. All of this is a lot to endure for anyone. I don’t blame you for feeling a bit overwhelmed. Now, get some rest, we’ll be moving in a few hours.”

When Alexander woke several hours later, Lucky was busy preparing a cold breakfast and the others were packing their bedrolls.

“Ah, you’re awake,” Lucky said with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

Alexander took a quick inventory of his injuries and found that he was still a bit tender, but the feeling of burning inside was mostly gone. The burns on his chest and feet were almost completely healed.

“Good, considering. And hungry.”

Lucky chuckled and handed him a bowl of dried fruit and nuts.

After breakfast he went to see Anatoly and Conner in the entry hall. The scene was one of horror and carnage. There was a pile of corpses in front of the staircase taller than a man. Dozens of soldiers were dead. Alexander understood why they’d stopped to reconsider their approach.

“I thought we’d lost you for a minute there,” Anatoly said grimly. “If your sister were here, she’d tell you to be more careful.”

Alexander smiled and nodded. “I suspect she would. Who got to that wizard?”

“Jack stuck him in the back a moment after he zapped you,” Anatoly said. “He’s managed to bag two wizards on this trip. Not bad for a bard.”

“Not bad at all,” Alexander said. “We’re about ready to move. That passage leading out of the cavern back there has air flowing into it so I’m hoping we can find a way out. If not, we’re going to have to fight our way up these stairs.”

“I wasn’t even looking forward to walking up those stairs, never mind fighting my way to the top,” Anatoly said.

They returned to the cavern and made ready. Evelyn had taken a pair of pants from one of the dead soldiers and put them on under her dress. Alexander couldn’t help but smile at her. She had a sword strapped to her waist and wore a pair of heavy boots.

He adjusted his swords, putting the Thinblade on his back and Mindbender on his left hip so he could grasp the hilt with his left hand. He found that the magic of the sword didn’t require the blade to be drawn.

Jataan led the way into the natural passage that drained the excess water from the small underground lake. It was slow going. The tunnel was about six feet high with a rivulet of water flowing down the center. Slime had formed along the floor, making it slippery and treacherous. After an hour of walking through the gloomy underground, Alexander was exhausted and chilled to the bone. He’d hit his head on the low stone ceiling several times but not nearly as often as Boaberous had. The giant was having a particularly difficult time negotiating through the cramped space. Alexander slipped and fell several times. He was wet and sore but determined to find a way out that didn’t involve fighting through two hundred soldiers.

As they progressed deeper, the passage narrowed. In the distance they heard the sound of rushing water, and the air began to flow past them more quickly. They pressed on until they had to crawl through the constricted space with chilled water flowing through their clothes. Finally they reached a place where the water flowed over the edge and into another underground lake a dozen feet below.

Alexander peered over the edge and saw a pool of water with several inlets feeding it from a number of small underground streams. There was an opening on the far side with the faintest hint of light shining through. Alexander slipped over the edge and fell into the water.

The icy cold of the underground lake burned against his skin and his body temperature plunged even further. He was exhausted and his strength was failing, but he held onto the vial of night-wisp dust as he surfaced, looking desperately for a place out of the water. His light shimmered on wet stone and revealed a rock shelf a foot or so above running along one wall. His boots pulled at him and his clothes weighed him down, but after a struggle he made it to the shelf and crawled out of the water. Jataan reached the shelf next. With an act of will, Alexander rolled to a sitting position and brought his knees to his chest as he held the light high to illuminate the way for his friends.

One by one, they plunged into the icy water and swam for the shelf. Anatoly struggled under the weight of his armor but Jack was there to help him. Boaberous was the last man through, squeezing and struggling to fit his enormous body through the narrow gap until he slipped free and crashed into the water. Jack helped him remain afloat as well until all of Alexander’s friends were huddled, soaking and freezing, on the wet stone shelf that ran alongside the little underground pool.

Jack crawled to the opening, looked out and swore. He returned, shivering and shaking his head.

“We’re about forty feet over a small lake,” he said through chattering teeth. “The water runs down the face of the cliff. The only way down is to risk sliding down the cliff into the lake, but there’s no telling how deep it is or if there are any rocks we might hit on the way.”

Alexander nodded and spoke to Chloe in his mind, “Can you scout the way ahead, Little One? We need a way out into the forest so we can make a fire and get warm.”

“Of course, My Love,” Chloe said.

She returned after only a minute. “The way is clear of stones but the water is very deep. You will need to swim to shore. Are you strong enough to make it, My Love?” she asked with worry.

“We don’t have any choice,” Alexander said.

He was shivering violently and wasn’t looking forward to getting into the water again but he knew they needed to get to dry ground and make a fire or they wouldn’t last the night.

Lucky started rummaging around in his bag. He pulled out six waterskins and a roll of cord. With shaking hands, he emptied the water from the skins and blew air into them, capping them quickly to keep them inflated. He tied two together with a length of cord and handed it to Anatoly. The next he gave to Boaberous and the final one he gave to Conner. Each of the three wore a breastplate that weighed him down enough to make the swim a struggle.

“Put the cord across your chest and the skins under your armpits to help you float,” Lucky said.

“I don’t know if I can make it,” Evelyn said with tears in her voice. “I’ve never been so cold.”

“We’ll help you,” Alexander said.

Jack went first, sliding on his backside for almost thirty feet down the water-slick cliff face, then over the edge to plunge from a height of about ten feet into the lake below.

Lucky was next. He strapped his bag to himself and carefully closed it to prevent water from getting inside, then went over the edge. Alexander heard a splash from below and waited a count of ten before he sent Evelyn.

She was clearly afraid and nearly in tears but she did as he instructed and was soon sliding down into the lake below.

One by one they went. Alexander could see with his second sight the colors of his friends as they struggled to make it to shore. Jack stayed in the water and helped each one reach the shallows before he returned for the next.

Alexander motioned for Jataan to go but he shook his head through his shivering. “You must go next, Lord Reishi. I will follow after a count of ten.”

Alexander was too tired and cold to argue, so he nodded and slipped over the edge. The water at his back and the rushing air flowing over him chilled him even more. Then he hit the water and felt the burning cold of the mountain lake sap what little strength and warmth he had left. For what seemed like a long time, he struggled to orient himself and kick to the surface. His lungs burned with the need for air and his body felt heavy and spent but he finally broke through.

Lucky stood on the shore that looked very far away, holding his light high to guide everyone to safety. Alexander kicked his way clear of the shower of water raining down on him and struggled to swim toward the light. He felt like he was treading water without making any headway. Behind him he heard Jataan crash into the water, then he slipped under again.

With the sudden strength of panic, he kicked to the surface and started swimming toward shore again as Jack reached him and strapped a set of waterskins under his chest. Together, Jack, Jataan, and Alexander struggled to make it to the shallows where Anatoly and Boaberous pulled them from the freezing water and dragged them to shore.

Conner and Evelyn doggedly dragged a dead tree branch into the little lakeside meadow and Lucky produced a flask of oil. He dumped it on the wood and ignited it with a whoosh. They all huddled around the fire until it started to fade. Anatoly unbuckled his breastplate and dropped it before he stumbled into the woods to look for more wood. Boaberous went to help him. Between the two of them they carried a log into the fire pit and placed it atop the flames. It took a while for it to catch but when it did, it burned hot and bright.

Slowly, they began to regain some of their warmth and their clothes began to dry. After an hour or so, Alexander clumsily opened his pack and dumped the contents out in front of the fire. They struggled all night just to stay warm and to dry their things as best they could. When dawn came, they could see that they had traveled through the entire mountain and come out on the side opposite the ruined fortress. Alexander was glad for their position. They were far too exhausted to travel and they were still chilled, not to mention that their things were still wet and heavy. He hoped the enemy wouldn’t find them before they had a chance to regain some of their strength.

They spent the day at their little makeshift camp feeding the fire. Alexander didn’t feel warm until the middle of the afternoon and then only after he’d eaten three times and wrapped himself in every blanket he had.

His friends were in no better shape. Jack was especially worrisome. He didn’t stop shivering until sometime in the early morning. Lucky wrapped him in an extra wool blanket and poured a healing draught into him. It wasn’t until dinnertime when Jack woke that Alexander stopped worrying about his friend. For several hours, Alexander could see the colors of his aura waning and he feared for his life. Jack had spent more time in the water than any of them, swimming back and forth to make sure everyone got to shore. Without his help, Alexander was sure he would have drowned in the icy water.

By morning of the next day, everyone had recovered their strength and dried out their belongings. They set out an hour after dawn toward the east coast of Grafton Island. It was slow going and only got more difficult as the forest thickened. Just before dusk, they reached the road that connected the island’s many small fishing villages and stopped to wait for dark. From their vantage point in the trees, they watched a patrol of a dozen soldiers on horseback pass by. The enemy was still looking for them.

An hour after dark they slipped across the road, one by one. Once on the other side, they headed for the coastline and then north. By midnight they saw the lights of a small village. They crept through the shadows and found a small dock with a fishing boat tied securely alongside.

“Jataan, make sure there’s no one aboard,” Alexander whispered. “Anatoly, help me with the ropes.”

Once everyone was aboard, Alexander dropped his money purse on the dock. He wasn’t sure the owner would have agreed to the sale, but he didn’t like taking someone’s property without paying for it, and he reasoned that the gold he left was a fair price and then some.

More importantly, the owner of the boat would be enslaved or worse if Alexander failed to prevent Phane from conquering Ithilian and the rest of the Seven Isles. He didn’t like the circumstances but he needed to get off Grafton Island and couldn’t risk hiring a boat for fear of being turned over to the soldiers.

The little fishing boat had a single sail and one pair of oars. It wasn’t fast but the wind was blowing them in the right direction.

They weren’t a thousand feet from the dock when they heard the cries of alarm coming from shore. Alexander just hoped the enemy didn’t have a warship at any port near enough to give chase.

They rowed through the night, taking turns at the oars and tiller. By dawn they could see the shore of Grafton Province growing closer and a warship in the distance behind them closing fast. They were a hundred feet from shore when the first ranging shot from the warship’s fore catapult splashed into the water fifty feet behind them. They made straight for the beach and ran aground in two feet of surf. The water was cold but not as bone chilling as the water of the mountain lake. They waded through the surf as the warship landed a direct hit with a firepot and the fishing boat caught fire with a whoosh.