Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (36 page)

“Also, if we find any seeds whatsoever, we take those, too, if only a couple of hands full. The garden platforms can use some fresh crop seeds,” added Twan.

“After we have enough sacks, the men on the ground will be reeled back up—one by one—to minimize any noise, and then we’re off,” finished Sebastian.

“It’s not a bad tactic,” said Gavin, “if you can stay hidden. What is your fallback plan?”

“We’ve never had any trouble before,” said Twan.

“Not good enough,” said Gavin, as he shook his head. “You need an exit strategy, in case things go wrong. And where is your entry point, precisely? As far as I can see, there is no other door besides the one in the front of the food storage depot and that faces the inner yard.”

“Why don’t we go in through the roof? No one is on the walls. They don’t have a tower. The roof is not that high, and there is a latch in it on the far side. It will be out of sight of the main gate, and the lighting is low…there should be enough cover of darkness to stay put. One or two people can be lowered into the hatch, and then they can pass the food up onto the roof. The others can hook them up to the cables,” suggested Raylan, before Sebastian could answer.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” said Sebastian, smiling.

“As for your exit strategy, enemy contact means getting out of there as soon as possible. The rope should be ignored, if possible; we don’t want to risk them knowing we move through the trees. Retreat on ground level, toward the west, back in the direction of the settlement. It won’t be easy to keep up in the trees, but we’ll try to cut ahead and set up a cover ambush with our crossbows,” added Sebastian.

Raylan saw his brother think on this for a while.

“That’s not much of a reassurance,” spoke Gavin.

“We all know it is a risk, but it is how we’ve survived for a long time. We know what we’re doing,” said Sebastian.

“And who’ll go down into the compound?”

“I want two of my guys up in the trees, so that we experienced men controlling the descenders if anything goes wrong. Three of you can help man the other descenders and move the food out of the way as it is brought up. The other two will need to come down with us. It’s up to your lot to decide who that’ll be.”

“I’ll go down,” said Raylan, right away.

“I have no problems with heights either…not anymore, at least,” said Ca’lek, volunteering.

They spoke some more on the precise details of the plan and spent time practicing knots, tying the cable and using the mechanisms of the descenders. They used the remaining time catching up on sleep, until it was time to move. Otis offered to take first watch.

By the time the moon had fallen halfway in the sky, the sounds from the compound had finally died down. Everybody was getting ready. Raylan secured the cable to his harness and stepped up to the edge. It took his mind some time to convince his body to take that final step and hang into the harness; but before he knew it, he was dangling a hundred feet above ground. It was a strange sensation to have no control over your movement as he saw Rohan control the lever that let him descend softly toward the compound.

They landed on the roof of the food building with the softest of thuds, something to be admired as the person doing the lowering was quite a long way from there. They unhooked the cables and passed them to Otis and Ivar. Raylan, Ca’lek and Sebastian moved toward the hatch in the roof to get it open. As they pried the blade of a sword into the crack in the hatch, the wood creaked loudly. They all froze. No reaction was heard. They pushed open the hatch and quickly lowered themselves into the food building, disappearing out of sight.

After his eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings, Raylan saw there was a lot more food present than they would be able to take with them.

“Why is all this food here?” he whispered.

“You’ve got these kinds of food stores all over the roads of the Dark Continent, although most are far from the coastal areas. They’re used to feed soldiers on patrols, to act as food reserves or as temporary stops for traveling replacement forces. They’re usually very well stocked and too good of an opportunity to pass up on.”

They quickly chose the sacks for the first haul and lifted them up through the hatch in the roof. Otis and Ivar hooked them and gave the signal to reel in the first ones. Raylan saw the sacks disappear into the darkness with little fits and starts. Sebastian had been right though, no whirring sound was heard from the packs nor from their men up in the tree.

Working in the back of the storage depot, they moved quickly, checking crates and sacks for the most useful food to take. After the second haul, Ca’lek returned to the trees again, slowly ascending upward. Shortly after that, Otis and an extra sack on Ivar’s cable went up. And after that, Ivar and another sack.

Checking two of the last crates, Raylan and Sebastian saw a big sack with seeds. Grabbing two empty sacks and tying them together to hang around their necks, they scooped in as much seeds as possible.

As they walked to the back of the storage depot, a loud clang startled them. They heard the door open and barely jumped behind a few stacks of crates in the back of the storage room, before two dark silhouettes walked inside and closed the door.

The sound of a fire stone sparking was heard and a soft flame came to life, illuminating the room. The two men started a discussion, in Kovian, which was, from the sound of it, quite heated. One of the men had his sheathed sword in hand. The conversation got so heated, he slammed his sword,
bang
, on top of one of the crates and left it there while his hand wildly moved through the air, emphasizing his words. The sound made Raylan slowly move sideways to peek between the crates and to see what was going on. He saw Sebastian do the same. As the two soldiers came into view, both their eyes grew wide with recognition.

On his armor, Raylan saw the small diamond-shaped emblem, twinkling in the oil lamp’s light. As the soldier turned, the light of the lamp also illuminated the soldier’s face. It was the skinny commanding soldier that they had faced at the stone arch.

What the hell’s he doing here?

The argument went on for some time, while Raylan tried to keep his heartbeat from growing too loud, forcing himself to take slow, shallow breaths. Finally, the commander and the other soldier concluded their discussion, blew out the lamp and snuck out the door again.

Raylan and Sebastian each let out a breath, simultaneously.

“We need to get out of here. That’s the guy that has been chasing us all this time,” whispered Raylan.

“The long, skinny one?” asked Sebastian. After a confirming nod, he added, “That…was High General Corza Setra. If he is chasing your group, you’re in some real trouble. He’s one of the most ruthless High Generals in the dark army. You have no idea what kind of evil he is. He was often found in the mines, experimenting on slaves. I even heard their screams when I was working in the furthest tunnels.”

“Yeah, well let’s not hang around, let’s not allow him find us,” said Raylan, as he boosted Sebastian upward through the roof hatch.

He was about to jump up, when the clang of the door startled him. As he turned around, Corza burst inside and reached out to pick up his sword from where he left it on the crate. The High General froze as he saw Raylan standing there.

“You!”

Raylan briefly glanced at his sword, while still holding open the hatch in the roof. He would never get it out fast enough, and he would expose Sebastian and the cables, too.

No other choice.

He ran straight at Corza. His only way out was through the door that the High General blocked. As Corza scrambled for his sword, Raylan ran at him, planning to smash his full body weight into his obstacle. Grabbing the small sacks with seeds from around his neck, he hurled them at the High General’s head. The sacks missed their target, as Corza dodged out of the way. Hitting a crate, the sacks ripped open as an eruption of small seeds flew through the air.

With the sword too far away now to be of use, Corza went for his alternative, a long straight-pointed dagger from the side of his belt. As Raylan slammed into Corza, he felt a sharp pain cut along his leg. Corza crashed sideways into the crates from the impact, and within moments, Raylan was out the door.

Outside, he quickly looked around.

No other soldier...?
He must have returned to the main house.

His hand pressed on his leg where the dagger had cut him. Blood ran down his leg. He did not have time to stand around and wait for Corza to call for help. He had to find a way out.

He heard one of the horses whinny nearby and hurriedly limped in its direction. As he crossed the inner yard, he checked over his shoulder and saw Sebastian go up into the tree. He barely had time to make a quick hand gesture to go up faster, when Corza came running out of the food storage depot, screaming things in his native language.

Raylan had never untied a horse so fast. He had to hop a few paces, as the horse sped toward the gate; and he barely got into the saddle, as his leg gave way. As the sentries entered into the courtyard to see what all the shouting was about, Raylan spurred his horse straight past the two surprised guards. He was out of the gate, and into the forest, within a heartbeat.

Distance, I need distance,
he thought, as he steered the horse through the forest.

He heard the shouts of his pursuers. The shouts were accompanied by the barks from dogs. Things went from bad to worse.

Raylan ran the horse to the point of exhaustion, but could not outrun the hounds on his tail, nor his pursuers on their tails. He had no idea where he was going. He circled back a number of times, trying to escape; but every time, the dogs kept up with his direction changes. They were gaining on him.

Three riders came into view, led by the dogs. The sound of the horses echoed through the forest, as their hooves stomped through the soft layer of needles on the ground, running past the trees and rocks. The dogs were right in his wake, snapping at the horse’s legs.

Raylan pulled the reins to change direction, but instead of the given command, he felt himself suddenly launched forward as the horse stumbled and crashed, headfirst, into the ground. Raylan tumbled a few times before sliding to a stop. Scrambling to his feet, looking for the dogs that had been following him, he felt a jolt of pain in his leg and pressed his hand on it again. His horse must have tripped over one of the dogs, or missed a step because of the dog’s biting.

There!

Two dogs with wide thick heads raced toward him. Their white, short-haired pelts glimmered in the moonlight. As they approached the horse, one went around and one jumped over the fallen animal. Blood was visible under the horse as it thrashed around, trying to get up again. Raylan braced himself, automatically reaching for his sword; his hands found nothing but an empty belt.

Things suddenly happened at lightning speed. Raylan saw Corza and two other soldiers on horses come around one of the bigger tree roots. The dog, which had jumped over the horse, barely touched the ground when a spray of dust flew in the air, swallowing up the dog. The high-pitched yelp made the other dog hesitate, for a fraction of a moment; then it, too, disappeared into an explosion of sand and dust.

Before the riders could react, their horses saw the danger and skidded to a halt. The front horse, having too much momentum, toppled forward and threw its rider off in the process.

“Kzaktor!” shouted the soldier still on his horse, as the other soldier scrambled to his feet.

For the first time, Raylan saw the creature clearly. It came up next to the second fallen horse, in a cloud of dust, and dug its enormous pinchers into the soft belly of its prey. Sebastian’s description had not done the creature justice. It was a squirming bundle of teeth, legs and ring-shaped body pieces all stuck together. The horse was quickly dealt with, and as soon as it stopped moving, the creature dove back into the ground.

Corza and the other man tried to keep their horses under control, but it was nearly impossible, as the animals went mad with fright. Corza was thrown backward, out of the saddle, while the other soldier was flung sideways. His foot was still stuck in the crampon as the horse took off. Raylan saw a trail in the sand dash after the running horse, as the soldier was dragged across the ground, helplessly.

Another sand devil rose from the ground and killed Raylan’s horse, while the three men stood frozen on the spot. Raylan looked around, searching for a safe way out of this. A rocky formation, only forty feet away, could be a safe-haven.

But will I be able to reach it?

Suddenly, the soldier yelled loudly and then ran, in a panic. Instantly, the sand on the ground shot toward him as he tried to run off. Raylan did not hesitate for a moment; he dashed the other way. Shifting right, to dodge a patch of moving sand, he used a few small rocky patches to keep out of the sand as much as possible. Making one final jump, he reached the rock formation, out of breath. Checking behind him, he saw the sand move beside the rocky edge of the boulder.

Safe.

As he dropped on his back, panting, he suddenly remembered he had not been alone. He shot back up, looking for Corza. The High General had followed Raylan’s example, seeing as the soldier had volunteered himself as bait by running. However Corza had ended up on one of the large tree roots of a nearby tree.