Wall of Spears (16 page)

Caelin said nothing. Edmund, meanwhile, jumped onto the Council table.

‘Get the fires going and then we get out of here. Back to the oak tree fast and stop for nothing. If a man goes down wounded, we put a bolt into his chest and keep going,’ Edmund said.

Soldiers began hurling their casks of Breconian brandy over piles of wooden chairs, benches, railings and doors.

‘This is a terrible waste, sarge,’ Harald moaned as the huge hall began to reek of spirits.

‘Set the fires at the far end. We don’t want to be trapped in here,’ Edmund ordered.

Caelin joined Harald and Ruttyn in getting the prisoners moving. Most were dazed but relatively unhurt, while others were wounded. Only a couple, like the one Caelin had protected from the traitor Oroku, were still unconscious. The unhurt captives were made to carry the unconscious ones.

‘What do you plan to do with us?’ a female elf in a glorious dress asked Caelin fiercely.

‘You will be unharmed as long as you do what we say. You are our hostages and will be ransomed back to your families,’ Caelin told her.

‘You will pay for this,’ she promised.

‘Perhaps we will. But only after your people have paid for you,’ Caelin replied. ‘Now get moving.’

‘And what if I refuse? Will you cut me down or will you try to carry me?’ she challenged.

Caelin glanced over at Edmund, who in turn looked to Oroku.

‘That is Tadayoshi Noriko, the wife of the Elder Elf Jaken and the most important prisoner we took,’ Oroku said grudgingly.

‘You are coming with us, one way or another,’ Caelin replied.

‘But I do not intend to make your job easy, gaijin,’ she spat at him.

Caelin hesitated, then remembered how she had tried to defend an older male elf during the short battle. That elf was still unconscious, being dragged along by a pair of bruised councillors.

He pointed. ‘You will do what we tell you to, or we shall cut the throat of that warrior and leave him behind.’

The elf’s defiance crumbled as she followed Caelin’s gesture.

‘Keep him alive, gaijin. Or I swear I shall kill you before you even have a chance to draw your sword,’ she said.

‘Do what we say and it won’t come to that,’ Caelin replied.

Behind them, the smoke was beginning to rise as men set flames to the piles of brandy-soaked wood. These had been placed beneath tall tapestries, which ran all the way up to the wooden rafters. If the flames got into there, the whole place would go.

‘Sergeant! Let’s go!’ Edmund called.

Caelin hefted his crossbow and ducked back out onto the street, flanked by Harald and Ruttyn, a knot of swordsmen right behind them. They were the armoured fist, to punch the way through any resistance on the way back. Edmund would look after the prisoners, who were the whole point of this mission.

There were a handful of elves on the street, pointing at the smoke beginning to wisp out of the chamber windows, but they were not armed and scattered before Caelin.

‘Gaijin! Gaijin are loose in the city!’

The call went up from these first few elves and then was taken up by others, until they could hear it from all directions.

‘Move it!’ Caelin snapped. It was only a matter of time before they came back with weapons.

Even as he thought that, an elf with a long bow in his hands appeared from out of a side lane and loosed an arrow at him. He jerked backwards, feeling the whistle of the shaft as it passed by his face, splintering and bouncing off the wall behind him.

‘Got him!’ Ruttyn called, loosing his crossbow and catching the elf in the act of reaching for another arrow. The bolt struck the elf high up in the chest and he fell backwards, his second arrow flying up into the air.

Caelin did not spare the elf a second glance, instead leading the rush down the wide stone path. There were dozens of windows facing onto the cobbled street and any of them could be hiding an archer, while warriors could come pouring out of other streets at any moment. The plan had been to run out of there but that was proving impossible — the rest of the column moved only as fast as the slowest elf prisoner they were bringing along. Even as he thought that, he saw the traitor Oroku race off down a side street.

‘Where’s he going?’ Ruttyn asked.

‘He’s a traitor. We could never trust him. Forget about him.’

‘I’m not sure we’ll have enough time left to forget anything,’ Harald muttered, loosing his crossbow at a shouting elf. The bolt missed but the elf ducked back into a building.

‘Use your crossbows — don’t get into fights with elven warriors!’ Caelin yelled.

He had barely finished speaking when a pair of elves rushed out of a building and at them. A blade swung for his head and he instinctively blocked with his sword then kicked the elf in the groin. The second one stumbled over the screaming first and he levelled his crossbow and put a bolt into the elf’s head, the heavy iron head shattering the face and skull, sending brains in all directions, then he stabbed down with his sword to finish the one he had winded.

‘I thought you said not to get into any fighting with them?’ Harald grinned as Caelin wiped blood and brains off his face.

‘This is not the time for jokes,’ Caelin said grimly. He spat to clear the coppery taste of blood from his mouth and looked back down the street. A mass of elves was hurrying after them, all carrying swords.

‘We’re dead unless we get moving,’ he warned, glancing to where Edmund was shoving unwilling elves down the street. ‘We’re not moving fast enough.’

‘Sarge!’ Harald pointed to their left, where a crowd of elves was moving along a side street towards them, carrying a mixture of bows and swords.

‘Stay here.’ Caelin turned and raced back to Edmund.

‘How are you feeling?’ Bevan asked.

Rhiannon groaned and forced her eyes open. ‘Bloody horrible. Gaibun hit me on the head and it feels like someone’s beating a drum in there.’

‘What! Why did he do that?’

‘Long story. Hurts too much to talk.’ She closed her eyes and then felt his hands gently press on her head. They grew warm and the throbbing headache receded.

‘That feels better,’ she sighed.

‘Sendatsu showed me that trick. I’m glad it could help,’ he said huskily.

She opened her eyes to see him lying beside her on the bed.

‘Is there anywhere else that hurts, that I can lay my hands on?’ he suggested, tracing his hand down her face to her neck and then her shoulder.

Tired as she was, Rhiannon felt the temptation to let that hand slip lower. He was good looking, gifted with magic, and worshipped the ground she walked on. But it felt wrong. When it came down to it, he was not Huw. It was as simple as that, she realised.

‘No, I am fine now,’ she said briskly, moving his hand away and pulling the blanket up to her neck. ‘You may leave.’

‘I don’t think you want me to,’ he said softly.

‘Yes, I do. And right now or you will find out how much you still have to learn about magic.’

Bevan swung his legs off the bed and stood, his face ashen.

‘But I thought —’

‘You thought wrong. You are the best Velsh Magic-weaver and my favourite student. But no more than that.’

Bevan nodded slowly. ‘It seems I have much to learn still.’

‘That’s right,’ she agreed, watching him turn and walk out of the hut, his shoulders slumped.

She dropped the blanket and sighed. She hoped she had not left things too late with Huw.

Sendatsu left Huw and the only two headmen close enough to hear about the elven arrival — Kelyn of Patcham and Dafyd of neighbouring Crumlin — arguing about whether it was a genuine treaty or not and hurried to find Rhiannon. If all had gone to plan in Dokuzen, Sumiko’s plotting had been exposed and she was merely turns of the hourglass away from being arrested for being a traitor. Then everything would change and a treaty could happen. Until then, it was all pointless.

But he did not get to Rhiannon’s home before running into Gaibun. His erstwhile friend held out his hand as soon as he saw Sendatsu.

‘Sendatsu — I am so sorry,’ he said immediately.

The memory of the way Gaibun had nearly killed him and then revealed that Asami was pregnant with Gaibun’s child was far too fresh for Sendatsu to greet him with much enthusiasm.

‘I know what you must think of me but I wasn’t myself last night. Sumiko got inside my head and put thoughts in there that I would never normally have,’ Gaibun continued.

‘Really? I thought Rhiannon said Sumiko could only push you down a path you had already begun walking?’ Sendatsu said stiffly.

Gaibun flushed. ‘Then maybe that is true. Maybe I had begun to see you more as a rival than a friend. I said things to Asami about you that I am ashamed of.’

‘As you should be! You made out I murdered Hanto to protect Rhiannon, and told her I had slept with Rhiannon!’

‘Well, you were trying to steal my wife from me,’ Gaibun pointed out.

‘So you are not that sorry after all,’ Sendatsu said.

Gaibun held up his hands. ‘No, I am truly sorry. It was like last night lanced all the poison inside me and it has all drained out. Neither of us chose this. We have to step back and let Asami decide. Meanwhile, Sumiko is the real enemy and I don’t want us to be fighting when we should be united against her.’

‘I agree with that.’ Sendatsu nodded.

‘Then I ask you, for the sake of our years of friendship, to take my hand now. I will do everything I can to make it up to you.’

Sendatsu wanted to stay angry but the misery in his friend’s eyes, along with the memories of all the times Gaibun had helped him over the years, got the better of him. He held out his hand and Gaibun clasped it swiftly, pulling Sendatsu into an embrace.

‘I promise I shall never let anything get in the way of our friendship. After all this is over, the three of us will sit down and talk. It is Asami’s choice who she is with and we will let her make it. Meanwhile I tried to kill you, now I shall try to keep you alive.’

‘You don’t have to —’

Gaibun cut him off. ‘I do. Sumiko just pulled together what was already there. That will be to my eternal shame. I have to clear my conscience and this is the only way.’

Sendatsu smiled. ‘Then let your conscience be clear — you are forgiven by me.’

They patted each other’s backs awkwardly.

‘You might have forgiven him, but I haven’t. My head still hurts and, when I try to rest, I am disturbed by the pair of you carrying on like a pair of love-struck maidens.’ Rhiannon emerged from her home looking tired and grim.

‘Rhiannon, please forgive me. Let me use my crude magic to help you,’ Gaibun begged.

Rhiannon let him place his hands on her head and use his magic to take some of the pain away. She winked at Sendatsu and mouthed
Bevan already helped do that
while Gaibun stood behind her.

Sendatsu held his smile back and wondered what Huw would think of the handsome Bevan placing his hands on Rhiannon. It was not something he wanted to get involved in — he was having enough problems with Asami.

‘And now I suppose you want me to send you to Dokuzen?’ Rhiannon asked when Gaibun finished.

‘Please. We need to know if Sumiko’s plotting has been finished.’

‘And quickly. There is a party of elves led by Asami’s father Nagata waiting outside the village, claiming to be here to negotiate a treaty with the Velsh,’ Sendatsu added.

‘What?’

‘And a message arrived from Queen Mildrith of Forland, warning us of treachery and saying if we discovered her words to be correct, we would know she is to be trusted.’

‘How long was I asleep?’ Rhiannon tapped her head. ‘A moon or more?’

Sendatsu smiled. ‘Just the one night. But a busy one.’

‘Come on then.’ Rhiannon waved to Gaibun. ‘Time to ride back to the oak tree.’

‘Wear cloaks,’ Sendatsu advised. ‘We don’t want Nagata and his escort to know what is going on.’

Rhiannon nodded. ‘Fine. I’ll send you back to your house. Find out the news and send us a message through Asami as soon as possible.’

‘I promise.’ Gaibun nodded. ‘But what if I cannot find her?’

‘Then I shall open the oaken gateway in a turn of the hourglass.’ Rhiannon sighed. ‘But I don’t expect to. After all, how bad can it be in Dokuzen now?’

‘What do we do, sir? We’re going to be cut to pieces unless we can move faster,’ Caelin asked quietly.

Edmund looked up and down the street. Only a handful of the elves in the mobs that were forming had swords or bows but more were arriving every moment, while others were slipping away, presumably to get armour and weapons. Most seemed to be either boys or old men and there was no organisation but a big mob could destroy his little company just as easily as a disciplined army.

‘What’s the chance we can get back to the gateway before they charge us?’ Harald murmured.

‘About the same chance as your wife’s mother has of being chosen as Forland’s most beautiful woman,’ Ruttyn suggested.

Edmund stared at them but Caelin did not have the chance to explain. They reached a street corner and the sound of galloping hooves made them all turn and drop into a defensive crouch.

It was not a cavalry charge, but a herd of horses, led by Oroku.

‘Get on, you fools!’ Oroku snarled at them. ‘I am using magic to control them but it will not last!’

They needed no second invitation. Men climbed onto the strangely docile horses, and others lifted captive elves into their arms before clambering into the saddle themselves.

‘Just hold on — I shall do the rest!’ Oroku said.

The horses stood like statues, then, without a word of command, they broke into a gallop. Caelin, Harald and Ruttyn’s horses took the front, Oroku just behind them.

‘You need to protect me,’ Oroku cried. ‘Watch left!’

Caelin swivelled to see a group of elves with bows pointed at them. Their arrows leaped off the bow and concentrated on the four of them. Oroku held up a hand and the arrows went wild. Caelin loosed, followed a moment later by Harald and Ruttyn, and their bolts converged on the small group, scattering them and leaving two screaming on the cobbles.

‘If you want me to have enough power to send you home, keep a better watch,’ Oroku cried.

Caelin ignored him, concentrating on loading his crossbow in the saddle.

Elves ran out of a building and jumped in front of the horses, waving their arms, trying to get them to turn or stop. With normal horses that would have worked but Oroku sent his herd running onwards and the elves had to jump for their lives. One was too slow and was thrown aside by the shoulder of a horse; a second went beneath the flashing hooves, his scream cut short.

Arrows flickered in from the side or above, but the group was moving so fast they were a difficult target. And the horses did not even react if they were struck, continuing as if nothing had happened. The men were not so lucky. A captive shrieked as an arrow went through his leg, pinning him to the saddle, while a Forlish soldier did not have time to cry out as another went through the back of his head, bursting out the front and sending his left eye spraying over Edmund’s face.

Caelin, Harald and Ruttyn loosed bolts in all directions, hunched up in fear of the arrows coming in. But although plenty were aimed in their direction, none of them found their targets. The horses had all been struck at least once but still plunged onwards silently, almost as unnerving as the elves trying to kill them.

Screaming elves rushed at them from the side, trying to grab the bridles of the horses but the horses would not be stopped and those elves were trampled if they did not let go.

Caelin sighted on a shouting elf and loosed, only to miss as his horse slowed dramatically, throwing out his aim.

‘We are here,’ Oroku said.

From out of the doorway came the four men they had left there to guard their escape.

‘Go, go!’ Edmund roared at them, his face still spattered with blood.

The soldiers jumped down, grabbing the prisoners and dragging them inside the house. There were still elves attacking and arrows were flickering in at them from three sides. Harald shot one down, then jumped into the doorway as an arrow sank into the wall where he had been standing.

Then the horses either collapsed, screaming, or galloped away, the effects of their magical run and the arrows they had taken catching up with them.

Caelin grabbed the well-dressed female elf and hustled her into the reeking house, following shouting soldiers and the thump of booted feet on tiles out into the garden.

‘Same as before. Hold the staff and do not let go,’ Oroku instructed, standing beside a tall oak tree.

As soon as the prisoners saw they were being taken through an oaken gateway, several of them started struggling and swearing. Soldiers hit them with clubs once more, stunning them.

‘Will we ever be coming back or do you take us to our deaths?’ the elf asked Caelin.

Caelin looked down at her. The sounds of pursuit were getting closer, angry shouts and horns were blowing in all directions.

‘You will be back, as long as the Elder Elf gives us what we want,’ he replied.

At this, she closed her eyes briefly, then looked up at him. ‘He is my husband. He will give you nothing but death.’

Caelin saw the coldness in her eyes and it made him shiver.

The prisoners were no longer fighting, as any who did were brought under control with a few blows from the clubs. But that meant each one had to be carried through the gateway by a pair of soldiers. The sound of fighting back in the house told them the rearguard was under attack and time was running out.

Harald helped one through, while Ruttyn picked up the unconscious female elf who had used both magic and the sword on them and proved such a handful to capture. He slung her over his shoulder and walked through.

A scream from behind made Caelin and Edmund turn to look back at the house. They were the last Forlish, with the last prisoner.

‘Break off! Run! We are away!’ Edmund roared back at the rearguard. He nodded to Caelin. ‘You go. I’ll be right behind.’

‘Come on.’ Caelin grasped the elf around the waist, amazed at how small she was after the way she had fought earlier. He kept hold of the staff, sliding his hand along it as he stepped into the tree. He closed his eyes and prayed he would open them again in Forland.

‘Your house is full of death, unless your father cleaned it up,’ Rhiannon warned.

Gaibun shrugged. ‘I think he’s probably been too busy for that. But I can stand to see a few more dead bodies.’

‘I’ll open the gateway again in a turn of the hourglass — if you don’t come through then I will wait until I hear from you and Asami,’ she said.

‘You’ve already told me that. I am not an idiot,’ he said with a touch of irritation.

Rhiannon smiled. ‘That’s better. For a while there I didn’t recognise you as Gaibun.’

‘Very funny.’

Rhiannon opened the gateway but everything seemed to shudder and she felt as though she was in three places at once: the clearing; Asami’s garden but somewhere strange; and a field filled with shouting men. Then that doorway closed off and she had to grit her teeth and fight to keep everything steady.

‘What was that?’ Gaibun asked.

‘I have never seen that before. I think someone else was using the oak tree in your garden as a gateway when we opened ours.’

‘But where was that?’

‘I don’t know. Gaibun — go through but I won’t wait a whole turn of the hourglass. I’ll wait to a count of five hundred and then open it again. I don’t know what you’ll be going back there to face.’