Rohvim #1: Metal and Flesh (15 page)

“Well, I’m sure he is, for Clara to associate herself with him, and he is greatly respected in this city.”

The sun had steadily approached the horizon during their conversation and now touched the line of rolling hills to the west, casting its golden light eastward, towards the pair next to the fountain, but just missing the falling water due to a shadow from a spire on one of the great granite buildings below them on the next street.

“The night approaches, my lady. I must return to my mother, who is alone and must be worried about my absence.” He stood and bowed low to the lady of the city of Ramath, who also got to her feet.

“Before we part—may I ask a favor of you?” Her look had changed. The elegant lady from before now looked hesitantly at the boy, obviously conflicted.

“Of course, my lady.”

“My daughter. She … she is in Elbeth. She is the wife of the brother of the second duke. I fear greatly for her life, and I, well, would you, if you go back, would you look for her? I know the Lord Whitehall had forbidden all to travel to Elbeth, but I can only hope that there will eventually be a liberation army, and you said yourself that you intend to be there when it is liberated. Do you think you could look for her? For me?”

Aeden bowed low to the lady. “I will do all that I can. What is her name?”

“Lady Markham. Not
the
Lady Markham, of course, but the other one—I believe the second duke has three brothers, but only one of them is married.”

Aeden’s heart sank. The sight and smell of blood and death from the great hall at the Markham estate still seared themselves into his memory.
I didn’t recall seeing the lady there
, he thought,
but there was no other place she was more likely to be
. “When I return to liberate the city, I will find her for you.”

The lady straightened up, composing herself and wiping an eye with the back of her hand, saying, “Very delighted to meet you, Aeden Rossam. I hope you find rest during your time here. And please feel free to come here to the fountain often—I will look for you. Good night.”

The two separated, she to the castle and Aeden back to the small building where his mother was finally stirring from sleep. She looked groggily up at her son entering the house.

“How long have I slept?”

“The sun is setting now, mother. Would you like some food?” The boy picked up the plate he had prepared and set it next to her on the bed. She began eating right away, and glanced at the clothes the servant had brought.

“How wonderful of the lord to grant us such kind hospitality. I shall have to think of a way to repay him.”

Just then, someone gently knocked on the door. Aeden opened it, and before him stood the lord’s steward.

“Lord Rossam. The lord of the city desires to speak with you again tomorrow morning. Will you be available?” he asked in an official sounding voice.

“Available?” Aeden began. “I believe I will be available. Shall I come to the castle?”

“No. The lord will come here. He wanted to see how the lady was settling in, and decided to just talk with you here.”

Lady Rossam stood and inclined her head slightly, speaking to the steward, “Please tell your master that he is a most gracious host. We are greatly in his debt.”

The steward bowed, and walked out the door, calling back, “I will relay your words, my lady, and I shall tell the lord that you will expect him in the morning.”

Chapter Nine

“… the eleventh shall love, and the second complete. But the first and the second may become twelve, and stand

over all …” —Prophecies of Tilda the Scribe, 32:67

When day broke, Aeden awoke to see his mother furiously pacing the small room, muttering to herself quietly. She saw Aeden’s eyes open, and stood over him by his bed.

“We need to go back to Elbeth,” she declared matter-of-factly.

“What? Why?” he asked hoarsely, rubbing his eyes and sitting up in alarm.

“We need to get Cassandra.” She folded her arms, staring at her son expectantly.

Hesitantly, he looked up at her. “Mother? Are you alright?”

She forced herself to smile. “I’m fine! I was just thinking, that maybe, just maybe, she’s still alive. I saw them slash her from behind, and I cradled her in my arms and the breath was gone from her, but, Aeden, what if … what if she wasn’t dead? What if they have her now?”

Aeden thought on this, and slowly got to his feet, dressing himself in the new clothes from the lord of Ramath and pulling on his boots.

“Well? Will you help me rescue her?”

He came to her side and touched her arm. “Mother. She’s gone. You saw her yourself. She was dead. We can’t go back—if we did, we would surely be killed.”

She pulled away and continued. “I know I saw her. And I don’t mean that I know she’s alive, but there is the chance. And Alastair … the master healer said he saw him dead, but maybe he was mistaken too. Son, we have to go back. Gather your things, and I will go and ask the lord if …”

“Mother! He’s dead! She’s dead! We’re not going back because they are not there!”

“You don’t know that!” she screamed.

“I do! You do! Why are you doing this?’

She started sobbing, and sat on his bed, holding her mouth. After a minute, she calmed herself and said, “I know. I know they are probably dead. But at the least, we can retrieve their bodies and give them a proper burial. Just the thought of my baby lying there, trodden under by that filth—” She started shaking again. Aeden approached and sat next to her.

“Mother. It’s hard for me too. I want nothing more than to go back at the head of an army and slaughter every last one of them. But, there is no army. At least, not yet. Mother, I swear to you, we will go back, and we will take our city and have our home once more. And we will make them pay.”

She looked up at him, locking him in her teary gaze, their clear eyes meeting. “Son. I don’t want to make them pay. I want my daughter. I want my husband.”

The sound of knocking at the door silenced them both. “The lord.” Aeden said, as he jumped to his feet. “Are you feeling up to this?” he asked her, his hand resting on the handle.

“Yes. Let him in.” She stood, and walked to her son’s side. He opened the door, and the lord of the city stood before them, greeting them both and requesting permission to enter. They stood aside, and the man entered. The small table had only two chairs by it, so Aeden dragged his trunk over and sat on that while the two elders took the chairs.

“Are your lodgings sufficient?” the lord asked.

“They are, my lord. You have been most generous since we arrived. I don’t know how we can thank you enough,” the lady gushed, her eyes still a little red.

“Good. Let the servants know if there is anything you need. Anything at all. Now then, Aeden. I wish for you to tell me more of this army that now occupies Elbeth.”

“Yes, my lord. What would you like to know? I’ve told you already that they looked northern in appearance, but that no one knew from whence they came.”

“Tell me how they fought. Tell me their strategy in taking the city. Tell me what happened, moment by moment, and I will often interrupt you for clarification—I must know everything if I am to make adequate preparations for my city, and to warn the king.” The lord leaned back in his chair, and waited for Aeden’s reply.

“Well, I had just won the tournament, and the following day …”

The lord interrupted, “Congratulations, my boy.”

“Thank you, sir. The following day I was going to the master healer’s clinic to discuss his invitation to join the healer’s society, when midway through our discussion we were interrupted by a city guard. He said the army had been sighted twenty or so miles away and was approaching quickly, and that the lord of the city required his presence in the castle. So, I followed him there, and the nobility had gathered in council with him to figure out what was going on—where the army came from and the defense of the city and such. The lord gave the order for a muster, and the steward laid out the exact plans for the defense. I believe he put about a quarter of the nobility’s forces at the eastern gate to fortify the city guard there, another quarter he put at the castle to assist in the defense there, and the rest were scattered among the city, ready to fall upon the enemy in the streets should they make it that far. So I went home, and on the order of my father, I mustered our own men, and when my father returned home after his business with Lord Markham, they left for the castle.”

“What was his business with the Lord Markham?” asked the lord.

“I don’t know for sure. He arranged for many of the noble’s families to be sheltered at his estate during the attack, but that was not all. He said he would tell me after the attack, but never got the chance.”

“Very well. Go on.”

“They went to the castle, and I started escorting my mother and sister to the Markham estate, but I decided to go to the east gate first and see how the defense was coming together. The guard and the nobles’ men were arrayed before the wall, maybe six or seven hundred, I can’t be sure, and there were at least one hundred on the wall itself, and then the guard on the wall announced the arrival of the invaders …”

“How much time had passed?”

“Since the lord’s council? Oh, I don’t know, maybe two and a half hours.”

“So, you’re telling me the invading army traveled the remaining twenty or so miles in two and a half hours?” the lord asked incredulously. “My fastest messenger runs one mile in four minutes, but even he can only sustain that for four or five miles, and that is with no sword or armor. For an entire army to maintain the pace you claim is, well, quite extraordinary.”

“The guard on the wall did say that the army approached incredibly fast. They must have sprinted that last stretch to the city because the time from when he sighted them to when they started scaling the walls was but a minute.”

“I do not understand all of this, but go on. What did the army do?”

“Well, like I said they climbed up the wall, hundreds of them, with ropes. The guards on the top of the wall tried to cast the ropes back down, but there were far too many of them, and they were quickly overwhelmed. Once the enemy had the wall, they cast our own rocks and oil down at the defenders holding the gate, and then jumped down to open it.”

The lord gasped, “They jumped? How tall is the city wall in Elbeth?”

“Oh, maybe thirty feet. Now that I recall the events, I do remember many of them injuring themselves in the jump, but those that successfully made the leap managed to open the gate to allow their comrades in.”

“What manner of army is this that can run quickly over long distances and be willing to jump thirty feet onto well armed defenders?”

“When they came through the gate, most of them had very grim faces. Almost like faces of stone. They were silent, and neither yelled, nor cried out, nor even talked. And that is a strange thing, for as fast as they apparently ran, and as willing as they were to jump from such heights, they were very poor swordsman. I could stand against a group of five at least, and not fear for my life. And so masses of them fell dead against the swords of our defenders, but the sheer number of them made up for their lack of skill. But there were others among them that had far greater talents. A smaller group came through the gate, and nearly all fell before them. They came upon the defenders, and struck so hard that their swords sparked.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “Aeden, swords do not spark. At least, I have never seen a sword spark when struck against another. Against stone, perhaps, but not metal. They must have been swinging hard indeed!”

“But that’s the thing, they weren’t swinging all that powerfully, well, many of them did, but some of them had great finesse and swordsmanship skills, and their swords flashed just the same.”

The lord sat silent, deep in thought. “Witchcraft. Sorcery. That is the only explanation for this.” He thought more. “Go on.”

“Well, the defense of the east gate finally folded, and I was wounded in the process, but the master healer healed me quickly and sent me off to gather who I could at the Markham estate and begin a retreat. I ran through the city, and it became apparent to me that the army, which had split into three groups just before they reached the wall—I had forgotten to mention that, the army was already in the city, having scaled the walls on the south and north, and probably the west gate as well. And I also noticed that they focused their assaults, once within the city, on the estates and houses of the nobility. They seemed to leave all else untouched. When I arrived at the Markham estate, they had broken through the defenses already, and most lay dead. Including my sister. My mother here was on her feet, sword in hand, delivering death to scores of the enemy before I helped her finish them off.”

The lord looked at Lady Rossam in surprise. “My lady? I did not know that you are a swordswoman.”

She shook her head, “I am somewhat skilled with a blade, but am no swordswoman. But after seeing them take my daughter, I had to rid my sight of all the stone-faced filth.”