Ossendar: Book Two of the Resoration Series (26 page)

The guards remained at attention, as they watched her approach. The plate armor that they wore was beautiful but it was more for decoration than battle. Full face helmets covered their faces and it was difficult to tell one guard from the other. The only part of them that moved was their eyes as they followed her progress.

Kara came to a stop directly in front of the guards. “Tell the arch-bishop that Kara Elba needs to see him.”

The guard on the right shook his head. “It's late and the arch-bishop has to get up early. If you would like to make an appointment...”

Kara stepped up to within inches of the guard, although the effect was diminished by her head only coming to his chest. “Now you listen to me. If you keep me from seeing him tonight, then he will have you flayed alive.” She put her hands on her hips to enforce the point. “If he's asleep then wake him!”

The guard started to retort, but a quiet voice, from the doorway, beat him to it. “Kevin, it's all right. If the young lady wants to see me that much, then perhaps she has a good reason.” Kara started when she recognized the arch-bishop as Simon. When the arch-bishops had summoned her, he had seemed nice.

Kara opened her mouth to speak, but the arch-bishop turned and walked back into his room, leaving her to follow. Simon walked slowly, limping as he moved to a padded chair near the fireplace. “You'll have to pardon me,” Simon said, lowering himself into the chair. “My old bones need the warmth.” The old man's eyes studied Kara, trying to peer into her soul. “So, what is so important that you had to disturb me at this hour?”

Kara moved closer and stood in the flickering light. “My apologies, Sir. I felt that what I had to tell you was too important to wait.”

Simon nodded, “Fine, what is it?”

The urge to turn and leave the room without discussing the mission came over her, but she pushed it back down. She knew what she had to do. Her first loyalty had to be to the church. “Sir, the king is sending Flare and the guardians to retrieve Ossendar,” she paused before adding, “the sword of Osturlius.”

Simon couldn't help but smile, “Yes, my dear. I know what Ossendar is, but I must say that I was starting to worry about whether or not you would come to tell me all this.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in, “What? You mean that you already knew?”

Simon's smile got a little bigger, “Yes. The church is aware and has given the king its blessing.”

Kara blinked, “But sir, I don't understand. Isn't this what you feared?”

The smile disappeared from Simon's face. “No! The church does not believe that Flare is the one. However, he is dangerous and may be a forerunner of the one that will try to restore the order. He must be watched closely, and that is exactly what you are to do.”

“Yes, sir.” Confusion flooded over her, they had already known and they had approved it! Another thought suddenly occurred to her, they had approved the mission, but then they had waited to see if she would tell them. They had been testing her! At that thought, anger threatened to wash over her.

“Is there something else?” Simon asked.

Kara struggled to keep her anger in check. It wouldn't do to anger an arch-bishop. “No,” was her only response.

Simon nodded, “Good.” He stood up and moved toward the bed. “I have something for you.” It took a moment for him to find it, but he soon returned with a small silver bracelet. “We want you to wear this on your journey,” he said, handing it to her.

She turned the rather plain looking bracelet over, examining it. “Why? What is so special about it?”

The arch-bishop smiled, “It's magical. It will allow us to track your progress for this mission.”

Kara was dumbfounded. “But if you can track it, surely others can as well.”

He scowled at her, his brow wrinkling as he did so. “It's not a request, it's an order. The order came from Dalin Olliston, himself.” All humor was gone from his eyes, “Do you understand?”

Once again, Kara had to fight to keep the anger from overflowing. “Yes,” was all she said before she turned and marched out the door. She stomped through the hallways, not paying attention to anything around her and not even caring if anyone noticed her. It wasn't until late the next day that she realized she had forgotten to mention that they were splitting into three groups.

Flare felt paranoid, but he spent the next day acting like everything was normal. He wasn't sure, but he didn't think that anyone was bothering to watch. It seemed like there were so many things that he needed to take care of, but he was in such a haze that he didn't seem to get many of them done.

He was excited to be getting back out of the castle and back on a horse, but going after Ossendar wasn't what he had in mind. At times, the day seemed to be speeding by, but at other times it seemed to be dragging.

He made himself eat a good dinner, but each bite had to be forced down. He was nervous, and he was feeling it in the pit of his stomach. Throughout the day, he saw several of the other guardians, and they too looked nervous, or perhaps they actually were excited.

Flare didn't see Kara all day, and that bothered him. He liked her and had trusted her once, but now he was afraid that she might have divided loyalties. He didn't like doubting one of his fellow guardians.

After dinner, he went back to his room and lay down. He wasn't tired, but it was going to be a long night.

He lay there for several hours listening as the commotion in the hallways gradually lessened. Finally, he felt it was time. He dressed quickly and left the room, barely pausing to look back.

They met in the western part of Telur, near a small inn called The Rusty Dagger. People still moved through the street near the inn, so their several small groups didn't seem to draw any attention. Flare arrived last and he didn't even say a word to them, instead he just nodded his head and walked past. Slowly, the groups broke up and followed him down a side street that ran toward the western wall. He paused after a block or two, stopping between several dark merchant buildings, and waited for several of the other guardians to catch up. Atock and Aaron were the first to arrive.

“Anyone following us?” Flare asked.

Atock shook his head, “No, at least not that we noticed.”

Flare nodded and smiled, “Good. Maybe this trip will at least start off in a good way.”

The rest of the guardian's caught up, and Derek moved to the front. “Where to now?”

Flare nodded westward. “There's a public garden near the wall. We just got to find it.”

“No problem,” Derek said, a smile growing on his face, “It's right over here.” As he spoke, he pointed to the west and south. Several of the guardian's looked questioningly at him. “What? I grew up in Telur and I've been in this garden before.”

“Good,” Flare said, smiling at Derek. “You take point and lead the way.”

With Derek leading the way, it only took the group several minutes to find the public garden. Once the garden had been located, Flare took the lead and moved them toward the western wall. Lord Jared had given him detailed instructions on how to get out through the drainage gate. Relieved to be out of amongst the buildings, Flare quickly moved the guardians through the garden to the point where the garden was up against the western wall. Then they located the small drainage pipe that allowed the spring water to flow through the wall. Trees grew all along the wall on the edge of the garden, which should keep the guards on the wall from seeing them.

“We'll never fit through that!” Enton exclaimed.

Flare flinched at the sound of Enton's voice, as it seemed to echo off of the walls. He sincerely hoped that if there were any guards passing by on the wall, that they didn't overhear. He moved closer and peered down at the drainage pipe, the first pangs of worry growing in his stomach. The pipe would be tight for a normal sized man, but for someone of Enton's size, the pipe seemed almost impossible. He looked back up at the guardians, “Enton, Lord Jared assured me that we could all fit. He said that both ends are the narrowest part of the pipe.”

“He's right.” Aaron called out softly from near the wall. He was bent down with his head up against the metal grate that covered the pipe. “It looks to open up, and it's not too long.”

That made sense. The wall was about fifteen feet thick, so the drainage pipe had to be about the same. Flare turned back to Enton, “All you have to do is squeeze through the opening and then back out the other side.”

Enton didn't look reassured; in fact he looked a little scared. “Enton, you don't like tight places?”

“I don't mind tight places, but I just don't want to get stuck.”

“Flare, Do you know how to get this grate off?” Aaron asked.

Flare moved down to join Aaron, who was standing in ankle deep water near the drain pipe. “Yes. Jared said that there is a hidden lock.”

“Hidden lock?” Aaron asked, looking puzzled.

“Well, I guess that they don't want everybody to see that the drain grate can be moved.” Flare said as he kneeled down and began pushing on several of the bars on the grate. Jared had said that four specific bars had to be pushed. The four bars had to be pushed on the edges and in a certain order or the grate wouldn't open. He started by pushing the second bar on the bottom from the left, and then he moved to the top of the grate and pushed the bar all the way to the left. The last two bars were on the right side, the second and third from the bottom. As he pushed the last bar, the grate made a soft popping noise, and he was able to swing it out.

Flare turned back toward the guardians. “Enton, trust me. You will be able to fit through.” He paused just a moment, but Enton didn't respond, “All right, I'll go through first. Atock, you bring up the rear and be sure to close the grate behind you.”

He took a deep breath and squeezed into the darkness, using one hand to hold his spare clothes above the ankle deep water. The tunnel was dark, and the walls were plenty wide enough for him to crawl through. He quickly became soaked and was greatly relieved when he reached the other side and opened the other grate with the second sequence that Jared had given him.

He pushed himself out and quickly stood up out of the water. It wasn't as bad as he had expected, it seemed to be mainly spring water that he had crawled through, and not sewage. Looking up, several bushes and small trees blocked the top of the wall from view, just as Jared had described. The area that was around the grate was wet and swampy, but that was good since it kept the away the poor people who camped outside the walls. No one wanted to sleep in the muck.

He was glad that the temperature had warmed back up after the first couple of snows. The water was still cold, but at least it wasn't freezing.

Several grunting noises from around his ankles brought him back from his thoughts. Aaron was busy trying to push himself out of the tunnel, and keep his spare set of clothes dry at the same time.

Flare set his clothes down on a bush and then bent down to help Aaron out of the tunnel.

It took a good ten minutes to get everyone through the tunnel, but they eventually made it. Enton had the hardest time, but even he soon forced his way out, albeit covered in mud and grime. Kara had coated him in the muck to help him slide through. The mud may have helped him get through the tunnel, but it certainly hadn't helped his mood. He wore a sour expression on his face, and was rather short with everyone.

They quickly and quietly changed into the spare set of clothes that they had brought, and then in groups of two and three, they left the small group of bushes and trees heading toward the western road. They carried their dirty wet clothes with them, just as Jared had requested. He didn't want people looking too closely at the drainage grate, which they just might if someone found a large pile of wet clothes next to the grate.

There was a half moon out, and it gave plenty of light to see. It wasn't a cause for concern though, since quite a few people moved outside the walls. People passed as the guardians walked toward the road, but no one approached them. Even in groups of two or three, the guardians had the look of people that could handle themselves.

They took great pains to avoid being noticed, each group taking a different path toward the western road. Some went directly west, and then eventually turning south, while others went south first. No one paid them any attention.

Flare walked with Enton. They had headed west first, and planned to turn south after half a mile or so. Enton had been quiet the whole way, seeming to be in a sulky mood.

“Enton, I'm sorry that I didn't realize that you would have issues following the orders of a woman. Are you still upset by that?”

Enton walked another few steps before answering, “No. I was furious at first, but that was just my pride. Heather is a good warrior and I think she will be an excellent leader,” he paused for a moment and then quickly added, “Just don't tell her that I said that.”

Flare smiled, glad to hear that there wasn't going to be a problem between the two of them. “Good.”

There was quiet between them for a moment. “Tell me Flare, why did you put her in charge? Do you think I'm reckless?”