Stones Unbound (The Magestone Chronicles Book 1) (27 page)

Yulah walked the ramparts of Farad’avor on guard duty.  He
really did not understand the reason for it, being about fifty spans in the air
above The Fort.  He looked down at the valley leading east from the pass, now
covered in an eerie fog, filling it side to side.  The fog came almost to the
walls of The Fort below, or at least he assumed it did, as that was below his
line of sight.

Other than that excitement the other night, which rumor had
it the commotion was caused by traitors to the Empire, nothing had ever
happened in the five years or so he had been on guard duty on the sky citadel. 
In fact, it had been rather boring with nothing much to do at all, other than
the constant training when not on guard duty.

Yulah turned from looking over the battlements to continue
his rounds, moving from tower to tower along the outer wall.  He was happy for
the movement, as it kept him warm in the cool of the evening.  It was still,
but clear skies allowing him to see his breath.  He shook his head;
Spring
Planting's Eve should not be this cold, even up in the mountains
he
thought, as he rubbed his hands together for warmth.

Captain Keyth had increased the watch ever since those
traitors had gotten away with the sky skiff, and he nodded to the soldier
patrolling in the other direction.  The response was a nod back as they stopped
to converse for a few moments to break the monotony of the night.  They each
had only another hour before they could go in and have their supper.

"Nice night," the other, named Jorgen stated as he
leaned against the battlements.  They were now on the eastern wall, facing into
Goralon.

"Yep," Yulah responded.  He was not one to overuse
his words as he stood beside him.  Leaning would just make his hands cold, and
he had just gotten them warm.  Besides, he had just looked over the wall a few
minutes ago.  Jorgen pulled out his chew, and took some out and put it under
his lip.  He offered some to Yulah, who declined. 

"That stuff'll kill ya," he responded as the other
man put it away, and shrugged.

"Somethin' will, why not somethin' you enjoy?"
Jorgen rebutted spitting a large gob over the wall. 

Yulah shuddered as he thought of those below that might have
that land on them.  "I suppose," was all he would offer the other
man.

"Well, this or in bed with a lively woman!" Jorgen
let out a guffaw at his own joke and bent over as he slapped his knee.

Suddenly something out of the corner of his eye caught
Yulah's attention.  It sparked in the clear air as it arced up out of the
mist.  A signal arrow!  It reached its peak and began to drop back towards the
mist before it exploded into a huge shower of sparks, followed moments later by
a loud pop!

Yulah turned to Jorgen who was standing still, staring at
the dissipating sparks with his jaw hanging open.  "They must be
insane..."

"Doesn't matter!  Go raise the alarm!" he said as
he turned the other man and pushed him so hard he just about fell.  He turned
and ran for the tower that he had passed only minutes ago, looking sideways
over his shoulder towards the last raining sparks.

Jorgen shouted after him, "What's the hurry?  They
can't get us way up here!"

Yeah, but they can kill a lot of people down below
he
thought as he ignored the brute and continued to run, saving his breath.  The
wall was about two hundred paces between towers, and six paces wide, making it
an easy, level run.  That was the reason he was confused as he tumbled to the
top of the stone wall, barely managing to protect his face with his hands. 
Pain flared in his leg, and as he looked, he saw a crossbow bolt protruding
from just above his knee.

He looked around, confused.  He saw several sparks of light
float upwards in the sky.  Suddenly the darkness revealed a figure in dark flowing
shadows as it dropped gently from the sky, wearing some sort of harness with a
glowing stone in the middle.  The face was covered in charcoal and swirling
shadows obscured its face, but he could tell it was a man.  Yulah looked past
the man to see more shadowy figures drifting down from the sky to the top of
the wall.  Yulah watched as one of the figures shot Jorgen in the chest with a
crossbow before he could draw his sword.  He dropped silently to the top of the
wall.

 Yulah stared at the figure standing near him, "How-
Wha- How did you do that?" he asked, dumbfounded. 
Men who could fly!
 
Now he had seen everything.

The man stepped forward as he loaded another bolt into the
groove and cranked the string back.  Yulah saw one of the other figures run
towards the far tower as the remaining figures strode across the wall and
stepped off, dropping the five or so spans to the courtyard below as silently
as they had arrived.

The figure leaned down and whispered in a thick Goralonian
accent, "Not for ya to be knowin'."  He stood up and fired the
crossbow bolt into Yulah's chest.  He could now hear alarm bells ringing as he
sagged to the cold stone wall.  He saw the frustration on the man's shadowy
face as he stepped past Yulah and moved beyond his sight swearing quietly.

Yulah lay back on the wall, his body now numb, his breath
coming in ragged gasps and looked up at the clear sky, the stars dancing into
blurry dots as he died.

Captain Keyth of the Fort, Commander of Farad'avor, was
reading the note that Hoyle had left for him the night they had stolen the sky
skiff.  He chuckled again, as he did every time he read it.  He put it back in
the drawer to his desk and locked it.  He did not really think that would stop
anyone who really wanted in, but it would stop a casual observer.  He ran the
words through his mind;

Captain,

I must inform you that it is the five of us who are stealing
the sky skiff attached to the western side of your magnificent citadel.  I
suspect it will take some time for you to receive this note after we board the
vessel, which will make it appear more like a real escape.

I am really hoping your men do not damage the vessel overmuch
before you recall them back, as I would very much like to return it to you in
the condition in which it was liberated.  With all that being said, I hope you
do choose to have your forces stand down, but will understand if you don't.  We
will be ever cautious about killing them, but accidents do happen, so I make no
promises.

Please force our 'chaperones' to wait a day or two before releasing
them after us.  Hopefully we will be in Karvesh and have located the warlock by
the time they manage to track us down.  I suspect we will need their help
before the end.

My compliments on your hospitality.  Trust me when I say that I
hope to enjoy it again soon, under different circumstances.  Drinks are on me.

                                                             Hoyle

P.S. Keep Thandria ever close, it could save your life.

He did not know exactly what those five had done to earn the
Emperor's ire, but then sometimes it was better not to know.  Based on his
assessment of this man and his friends, minders aside, he felt that the man had
a sense of honor deep down.  Thus he had honored Hoyle's request to keep the Fear
Squad aboard for two extra days before drakes could be 'spared' to transport
them to the ground in order to track down the escapees. 

One of the servants brought him dinner that consisted of a
hearty stew and crusts of bread.  He ate what his men did.  It earned him their
respect, and besides, he liked the simple food.

He ran the last line over in his mind several times. 
Keep
Thandria ever close, it could save your life.
  As if thinking about her
summoned her, she stepped through the door for the evening report.  She walked
forward and stood in front of his desk, always at attention.  Before she could
begin, he asked her, "Did you know any of our 'guests' before they
arrived?"  He didn't have to specify who specifically, as they had no
other guests recently - especially ones who left in such a spectacularly
memorable fashion.  It made things damn inconvenient, not having the sky skiff,
but it was definitely memorable.

"No sir." Thandria responded brusquely.  "Why
do you ask?"

"No specific reason," he answered, "just curious. 
Begin."  He gestured for her to sit in the chair opposite as he did every
night, and she ignored the suggestion and stood as she did every night.

She began her daily report, starting with incidents among
the men, injuries during practice drills, daily stores inventory, preparations
for Spring Planting festival on the morrow, and more.  Captain Keyth listened
with one ear, knowing that Thandria and the quartermaster could deal with most
of the issues that arose on a daily basis.  His mind wandered to what Hoyle
knew about Thandria, or maybe just suspected, and how he would know or
suspect.  His speculation continued as Thandria listed off the day's events.

"- and there is a thick fog rolling up the valley from
the east, and tonight's the new moon," she concluded.

"Pardon. What did you just say?" he asked as his
attention focused back on his second-in-command.

"I said 'there is a thick fog rolling up the valley
from the east, and tonight's the new moon'.  Why, what do you make of
it?"  She looked at Captain Keyth, suddenly wary, as if they were about to
be attacked in his study.

"Relax, it may be nothing.  But fog on the Goralonian
side of the pass, and no moon in the sky tonight... would they?"  He sat
back in thought.  As a caution he stood and walked to the peg on the wall,
removed his weapon belt and belted it on.  "Have the guard on the wall
doubled immediately, just as a precaution.  They are to look for movement on
the ground that might threaten the Fort.  Double rations for them all in the
morning and half duty tomorrow for all that volunteer.  The rest do it anyway,
and get double duty tomorrow."

Thandria turned to carry out his orders, her long legs
taking her briskly from the room.  He watched her as her golden locks
disappeared into the hall and the door closed behind her.  He went and stood in
front of the glass door to his balcony, staring out into the clear night sky. 
He looked down into the courtyard and watched as several men walked from the
feasting hall back to their barracks.  He smiled as he saw Thandria approach
them from the tower entrance below, their salute, and the uncomfortable
shifting of their bodies as she gave them their orders.  They both saluted
again, and hurried off towards the barracks, most likely to retrieve their weapons. 
Thandria followed.  They, nor others, would welcome the extra shift, but would
be rewarded the following day - if they chose to volunteer that is.

This tower was on the north side of Farad'avor, and his
study faced the central courtyard so he could watch the practice drills in the
yard, and was on a level to the main control room of the central spire.  The
central spire housed the largest magestone that Keyth had ever seen, about as
big as his torso, that glowed bright enough that light leaked through the
mortar holding the tower together.  Standing in the control room was only
possible by employing some sort of magic to shield your eyes from the effects. 
This also meant that Dar'Shilaar were required to operate them, a carefully
designed symbiotic relationship he suspected was very much the only reason the
Shilaar were not banished from the Empire.

Suddenly he heard an alarm bell ringing, so threw back the
bolt and stepped through the glass door onto his balcony to better see what was
occurring.  He felt the cool air as he stepped onto his balcony and looked
around.  It seemed there was a commotion over by the east wall, with several
soldiers running that way.  He saw Thandria running from the barracks, with a
dozen or so men, directing them with her hands and shouted orders he could
barely hear over the bells.  More towers had taken up the call, rousing the
men, but causing confusion, as it was not apparent what was actually happening.

Thandria gave the last of the orders, intercepted several
more soldiers, including a drake rider, and sent them all off in different
directions.  She then looked up at Keyth and waved him inside.  He looked
around once more, trying to spy any hint as to what was happening.  He focused
on the eastern wall, but could not see anything other than flickering shadows.

He stepped back into his study and grabbed his spy glass
from a shelf to one side of his study.  He stepped back out onto the balcony
and brought the glass to his eye and focused on the east wall.  He noticed the prone
bodies of two of his men between the eastern and northeastern tower.  He pulled
his eye away as he could hear Thandria yelling at him to get inside from ten
spans below.  He thought he saw something moving at the base of the wall below
where the bodies had fallen.  He looked through his spy glass again, and caught
several shadows moving away from the wall towards the center of the citadel. 
He continued to watch in fascination turning to horror as a group of soldiers
spotted one of them and charged weapons drawn.

The shadow, which appeared to be human, moved like nothing
Keyth had ever seen, sidestepping every attack, and returning a fluid one of
its own, slicing throats, hamstringing legs, never once being hit, but dropping
all five soldiers in just five moves.  It turned and disappeared into the
shadows behind one of the inner courtyard walls.  He yelled down to one passing
soldier below "Drop the inner gates!  That's an order!"  And one he
didn't take lightly. 

There were eight walls that ran in each cardinal direction
from the central spire that housed the sky citadel control room, to a tower on
the outer wall.  Each wall had a large, heavy portcullis in about the center.  Each
portcullis, when open, allowed large amounts of men to move around unimpeded
within the citadel, as opposed to a series of man doors that opened through
tunnels in the walls, making easier defendable choke points.  However, there
was a mechanism, located in the central control chamber that could drop all
eight portcullises at once.  The catch was it was more or less permanent, until
you could attach a winch and pulley system and manually raise each portcullis
by hand and reconnect their chain mechanism.

The soldier hurried off to the nearest outer tower to get the
word out.  Men were streaming all around, looking for the attackers, weapons
drawn, as word of mouth spread.  Keyth turned to look in a different direction,
and felt, more than heard the crossbow bolt as it passed his temple and
shattered a pane of glass in the open door behind him.

Instinct took over, reflexes forcing Keyth to draw his
longsword, immediately deflecting the blow of a shorter single bladed sword
wielded by a shadowy form floating over the balcony balustrade.  Shadows
surrounded the figure, moving as if of their own accord, obscuring the person's
movements.  It appeared that the figure wore a harness with a magestone in the
center that glowed through the enveloping shadows.  Keyth stepped backwards
into the door frame, limiting his attacker into using straight-in attacks.  He
parried and riposted, trying to keep his attacker off balance, but his opponent
was impossibly fast, and managed to twist their weapon and strike a couple of
shallow cuts along his forearms, drawing blood.  He could only see the glowing
eyes of his attacker and they immediately reminded him of the Rak'soraa of the Fear
Squad that he had sent after Hoyle and his companions just yesterday.

The blades flew back and forth furiously, and he used all
the skill he possessed to keep from dying, while it seemed like his opponent
was merely playing with him.  He was getting worried, slowly losing ground into
his study.  He sidestepped to his left, moving around his large, heavy oak
desk.  The shadowy figure stepped around the other end of the desk, allowing
Keyth a brief respite in which to catch his breath, which to his embarrassment
was coming in gasps.

He feinted right, causing the other to start in that
direction, but Keyth then turned the other way and flipped his meal dish at the
attacker with the end of his sword.  The other swore with a heavy male Goralonian
accent as he stepped easily out of the way of the clumsy projectile.  Keyth was
running out of ideas - and energy - fast.  He knew he would not survive a
direct confrontation with this now obviously magically aided assailant.

To his relief, the door burst in at that exact moment, and
Thandria and two soldiers burst into the study.  The two soldiers move to
confront the attacker, while Thandria looked at Keyth and said, "Time to
go sir."

"Your timing is perfect as always," he said as the
soldiers stepped between him and the shadowy figure, allowing him a route to
the hallway door. 

As he reached Thandria, she grabbed his arm and pulled him
into the hallway as Keyth heard the dying gurgles of his two soldiers a mere
second apart.  She pulled the door shut behind her and wedged a small knife
into the door lock.  She then pushed Keyth towards the stairs, "Run!"
she yelled at him as she followed more slowly, looking behind.

She had her rapier in her left hand and a long slim dagger
in her right, as she slowly backed down the hall towards him. 
"Move!" she whispered again.  "We have to find a safe place to
defend!"

"The spire.  But not without you." He stated
simply in his brook-no-argument voice.

She turned to face him and saw that he was not joking. 
"Fine, but you lead, and I will cover you," she stated.  The door
behind her shuddered as if it had been kicked.  "Let's go!"

---o---

They reached the courtyard below to find chaos ensuing. 
They moved steadily through the mess of soldiers, Keyth patting backs and
rallying the troops. 

"Form lines, square formation!" he shouted above
the milling confusion.

Thandria saw what he was doing, and repeated the order.

"Lieutenant!" he yelled over the tolling bells as
men began to form lines.  A hardened soldier stepped forward and saluted.  It
was his training officer Korigan.  He was stubborn, dutiful, and amazing with
weapons of all kinds.

"Korigan, we have an unknown number of intruders within
our walls.  They are fast and are using some sort of shadow magic, but they are
only men.  Arm your men with bows and crossbows and kill them from a distance. 
Do not approach with arms, as they are deadly in close combat."  There was
a shout as he finished.

He turned toward the tower he had just come from to see the
shadowy figure of his attacker float down from his study balcony.  Apparently
he had given up on the door.  A second figure floated down from the wall
nearby, several bodies obvious on the ramparts.  Men gasped and prayed under
their breath.

"They are just men, wrapped in dark magic!" he
yelled as the men formed a square formation around him and Thandria.  "Use
your bows or crossbows if you have them!  Kill them from a distance!"

Several men stepped out of formation as the attackers began
to run at the ranks of soldiers.  As two men loosed arrows at them, the
attackers leapt, driving incredibly far up into the air, arcing over the arrows
and men, landing quickly in the center of the formation, where missing with an
arrow meant killing a comrade.