Shards of a Broken Crown (30 page)

Dominic looked
into the darkness. “It is natural, but it has been ‘improved’
by the Brothers of Ishap. Notice, it’s wide enough that a monk
carrying books or pulling a hand-cart can negotiate the turn, but
there’s not enough room to turn a ram to break down the door.”

“What
door?”

Dominic closed
his eyes, chanted almost silently, then held up his hand. A nimbus of
pale yellow light grew from his hand, casting enough illumination
that Arutha could see a large oak door ten feet inside the entrance
of the cave. It was without latch or lock. Across it three large iron
bands showed it was heavily reinforced. Arutha said, “You’re
right. You’d need a heavy ram to knock that down, and there’s
no room here to swing it.”

Dominic said,
“The latch—”

Arutha said,
“Indulge me a moment.”

He inspected the
area, running his hand above a ledge, and then below another, and
over the surface of the door. Finally he said, “My father told
me stories of his days as a thief. Often I imagined myself in his
shoes, doing just this sort of thing, attempting to enter somewhere I
was not welcome. I wondered if I would be equal to the task.”
He knelt and inspected the ground before the door. Off to one side, a
small rock lay nestled against the overhanging stone wall. Arutha
reached for the rock.

“I
wouldn’t do that,” said Dominic.

Arutha’s
hand hesitated. He then said, “I must concede I lack my
father’s gifts.” Smiling, he stood and said, “My
grandfather tells me I have more of my mother in me than my father.
Perhaps he’s correct.”

“That’s
a trap, almost concealed. Over there is the true release.” He
moved to a small recess and put his hand inside. Feeling around he
grasped a small latch, then moved it. “Now pull that rock.”

Arutha did as he
was bid and discovered the rock was attached to a steel cable, by a
large bolt at the back. The rock traveled only a few inches, but as
soon as he pulled it a deep rumble could be heard from the other side
of the door. The door moved, ponderously, but it moved. Slowly it
retracted to the left, leaving a narrow dark passage leading upward
into the mountain.

Arutha turned
and said to Captain Subai, “It’s open. Send a messenger
and bring up the men!”

He followed
Dominic into the passage. The cleric pointed to a lever. “Don’t
touch that. It will close the door behind us.” He continued
walking up the passage. After nearly a hundred yards, the passage
widened into a large gallery, where footprints and signs of recent
passage could clearly be seen. Arutha inspected them and said, “These
aren’t boot marks. These look like sandals.”

Dominic said,
“We kept books, scrolls, and other tomes stored throughout the
mountain, even this close to the escape route.” He pointed
upward. “But nothing was taken out that way. My brothers quit
the abbey in good order, so whatever was kept here was hauled up the
mountain, put aboard wagons, and taken to our new abbey, That Which
Was Sarth.”

“Where is
the new abbey?” asked Arutha.

Dominic smiled.
“For reasons that you may understand more than most, my order
has decided that the information contained within that particular
abbey is too dangerous in the wrong hands. Therefore, only those
within our order know the exact location of That Which Was Sarth. All
I may tell you is that while it is in Yabon, it is safe from
Fadawah.”

Arutha said, “As
an officer of the Royal Court, I am not pleased to hear of this. As
the grandson of Pug, I understand.”

Boots upon the
stone heralded the approach of the first band of Subai’s
raiders. The man in the van carried a torch and behind him came
others holding bundles of supplies.

The timetable
was critical. Greylock would begin his approach to Krondor in a
week’s time, but just before the city gates, he would wheel to
the north and launch a flying attack up the road to Sarth, striking
the first two defensive positions without stopping. They were
relatively light positions, from Duko’s information, and would
provide scant resistance. It was at the southern border of Sarth they
would meet the first major resistance.

From there the
fight into the town would be difficult, but if Nordan’s forces
up in the abbey were to sally forth, Greylock’s army would
suddenly be caught between a stout defensive position and an army
charging down a mountainside. If Greylock turned up the mountain road
to attempt to seize the abbey, he would be fighting up a road that at
several places narrowed so that only a single wagon or two men on
horse could pass, with the town garrison at his back.

The Kingdom’s
only hope was for Subai’s force inside the mountain to seize
the abbey, or at least tie up the forces within long enough for Owen
to take the town. Once the town was in Kingdom hands, the abbey could
be isolated and its garrison starved out, or it would have already
fallen to Arutha’s forces.

Arutha
considered this as the men started to filter into the chamber. It was
possible they would be facing odds as high as four to one. No one
knew how many men were billeted within. Nordan had not seen fit to
share that information with Duko. Their only advantage was surprise.

The night before
Greylock’s assault from the south, the Kingdom forces below the
abbey would launch their attack. Arutha knew he had the Kingdom’s
best men for the job, handpicked by Subai. The Pathfinders were
trained for resourcefulness. To a man they were tough, resilient, and
efficient. The Crimson Eagles were veterans of a series of brutal
campaigns, men who would do exactly as needed and without hesitation.

At an hour past
dawn in three days’ time, they must either be in control of the
abbey, or creating enough trouble the garrison would be unable to
respond to any call for help from the town below. Arutha found a spot
near the next tunnel leading up and sat down, conserving his energy
until it was time to move. The balance of Subai’s forces would
be hours in reaching the cave, so there was nothing to do but rest,
and wait.

Erik grunted and
made some notes. John Vinci said loudly, “I’ll need a
larger storage room back here, and probably want to widen the gates
so I can get bigger wagons in and out!”

Softly, Erik
said, “Keep it down, John. We’ve been doing this for
three days and no one has questioned us so far. Unless they’re
starting to think you’re getting hard of hearing.”

With a pained
grin, Vinci said, “Just trying to be convincing.”

“We’re
done,” said Erik. “Let’s get back to your shop.”

They walked
through the surprisingly bustling streets of Sarth. The town was
always a fairly busy one, with many fishing villages bringing their
catch to market. It was also an important secondary port between
Ylith and Krondor, one which many traders and not a few smugglers
from the Free Cities or Queg visited. Kingdom customs had been more
lax there, and as a result the city had quite a large population of
people who were enterprising, irrespective of who was governing,
Kingdom or some recent invader.

Armed men were
everywhere, yet the mood was relaxed. The mercenaries from Novindus
who were billeted in Sarth obviously felt they were far enough behind
the lines to not be taken unawares.

Erik and John
hurried back to John’s business, and moved through the front,
then into the rear storage room, where a very bored Roo sat in a
corner, half dozing. Without preamble, he said, “Are we
leaving?”

Erik nodded.
“Tonight.”

John said, “I’ll
have a boat down at the smugglers’ cove. You’ll carry
cargo, and the two men who we left down there will be happy to get
back home.”

Erik said, “Roo,
look at this.”

Roo stood and
came to where Erik opened up his sketches. He moved them around until
they formed a map of the region around the town of Sarth. “You’ll
need to memorize this, so if you get back and I don’t, you can
redraw it.”

“What are
you talking about?” asked Roo.

“I can’t
risk carrying these.” He looked at Roo and John. “If we
get stopped, and we’re carrying these maps, we’re going
to be dead before anyone blinks. If we don’t have them, we
might be able to bluff our way out.” He looked at John. “If
you hear we are caught, John, you’re going to have to try
tomorrow night to get down to Krondor.”

“Me?”
said Vinci.

Roo said,
“That’s all right, John. It’s not going to happen.”

“But if it
does,” said Erik, “you’re going to have to carry
word to Duke Duko and Owen Grey lock.” He pointed to the
assembled pieces of paper. “Look at this, and remember
everything.

“Natural
terrain is the enemy,” said Erik. His finger showed a point
where the checkpoint had been erected. “This is a bottleneck,
this gap where the road runs atop the cliffs above the ocean and hard
against the steep hillside.”

Sarth was built
north of that gap, where the road swung suddenly westward and through
the town. The southern edge of the town was hard against a cliff
face, dropping down into a rocky beach where, even at low tide, there
was no decent footing. The coast turned northwest after a while, and
there Sarth’s harbor could be found, with a long sandy beach
and several fishing villages to the north.

“Even if
we landed support troops at the smuggler’s cove, we are still
south of that gap,” said Erik.

His finger
indicated the harbor. “They’ve only got one ship in the
harbor, but look where it is.”

Roo said, “So
if anyone sees a Kingdom fleet rounding the point south of town, they
can move the ship to the mouth of the harbor and sink it.”

Erik said, “I’m
no sailor, but I don’t think any ship we have can come from the
south and make it through the harbor before they can move that ship
and scuttle her.”

Roo said,
“Unless we take her first.”

“We?”
asked Erik.

“Figure of
speech,” said Roo with a grin.

Erik shook his
head. “We can’t get a message down to Krondor and return
with a squad to take that ship. Owen will reach Krondor in three
days’ time. We need to be down there in two, so we can give him
the latest intelligence.”

Roo said, “If
you stay and use that band of thugs John hired, you could take that
ship.”

Erik said, “No.
Orders. I’ve got to be back day after tomorrow.”

Roo looked at
Vinci. “John?”

John held up his
hands. “Not me!” He patted his ample gut and said, “I’m
an old fat man, Roo, and I never was a fighter on my best day.”

Then Erik looked
at Roo and said, “Would you care to volunteer for one last
mission for King and Country?”

Roo frowned. “To
what good?”

“You might
save the lives of a lot of good men, shorten the war, and regain your
lost wealth that much faster.” Erik pointed to the northeast
end of town. “If we can chase Nordan’s soldiers up the
coast and get ships up from Port Vykor into that harbor, we can
resupply and move north that much faster.”

Roo said, “How
many men do they keep on that ship, John?”

“A light
crew, from what we can see. It’s been sitting there since
winter. Every once in a while someone rows back and forth between the
ship and the town, and we think they’ve loaded some ballast on
it, but we’ve never seen any significant cargo; just a box of
provisions now and again. So maybe it is a blockade ship.”

Roo scratched
his head. “I’m an idiot for this, but I’ll take
that ship for you, Erik. When is Greylock supposed to get here?”

“If he
turns northward at sundown in three days, he’ll be here by dawn
of the fourth.”

“Three
more days in that shed?”

“We’ve
slept in worse,” said Erik.

Roo nodded.
“Don’t remind me.” He sighed. “Four days from
now, just before dawn, I’ll row out and take that ship.”

Erik said,
“Good. Now, John, you’ve got to memorize this map,
because you’re coming with me.”

“Me?”
said Vinci.

Erik smiled, and
it was a smile filled with menace. “Your choice: come with me,
or take the ship.”

Vinci swallowed
hard. “I’ll visit Krondor.”

“Wise
choice,” said Erik.

Roo said to
John, “I need at least a dozen reliable men, twenty would be
better.”

John shrugged.
“I can get a dozen. Twenty? I’ll see.”

“I’ll
need two large skiffs hidden nearby until it’s time to leave.”

“I have a
warehouse near there. I’ll have the boats taken there tonight.”

Roo said, “Well,
then, I guess it’s decided. At least it will be over in five
more days.”

“With
luck,” said Erik.

His finger
stabbed at the road leading from the town to the abbey. “If
Arutha and his company can neutralize Nordan’s forces up there.
From the lack of troops down here I must assume he’s got at
least three or four hundred soldiers up there. If they come down that
road and hit Owen from behind as he’s trying to get into the
city, they could throw us back south of the gap, and that would cost
us dearly.”

Roo sighed. “We
can only hope. That’s all we ever could do, even when we were
running for our lives across Novindus: do our best and hope.”

Erik was forced
to agree. “A prayer might be in order, too.”

Arutha listened
at the door. On the other side he heard voices. For the last day they
had scouted out the lower basements of the abandoned library at
Sarth. Dominic had estimated that as many as a thousand men could be
housed at the abbey if they filled every empty chamber, even though
the dormitory in the abbey itself was built for only forty monks.

They had
calculated that stabling of horses dictated that the majority of
soldiers in the abbey be foot soldiers, as no more than forty or
fifty horses could be crowded into the courtyard of the abbey. The
problem of providing fodder for the horses, and wagons full of hay or
grain every week, probably kept the number down to a couple of dozen
animals.