The Last King's Amulet Part 25

I already was.

The first scream got our attention. There were others, maybe three voices, a woman and certainly one girl child. I was moving before I thought about it, turning recklessly off the path and kicking the dray into a canter, it couldn't go faster. Some horses cannot gallop and the dray was one of them. The pasture ran slightly uphill for a hundred yards, then fell away. I crested the brow and didn't hesitate even though I should have. At the bottom of the slope the pasture ended in a cottage behind a small plowed field, some parts under cultivation, some bare and ready for planting. There were maybe half a dozen men that I could see or guess at; Alendi by the look of them. One held a struggling girl and was carrying her inside. The other five were busy, one way or another. One had a woman on the ground. At a window one was throwing goods out into the yard for inspection by the others. Another leaned against a wall and cut slices from a ham, stuffing them into his mouth.

A girl's scream came from inside the house. I couldn't move any faster. Anger doesn't describe what I felt, it was a cold and vicious emotion that filled me and overflowed. This was everything I hated about foreign soldiers, they rape and take, ruin and destroy, and have not the wit to build anything stable and good. They deserved to die or be made slaves for the mines, their territories ruled by the city whose laws protected people from violence against their person and theft of their property. At that moment I hated barbarians and their log longhouses and their short brutal pointless lives, and these would have shorter lives than most. Half of them were younger than me I saw as I thundered toward them, the heavy dray giving them plenty of warning of my approach. They were aware of me but not worried, the one with the ham didn't even put it down. The man on the ground on the woman barely looked up and made no attempt to stop what he was doing to her. Two reached for their spears and moved forward. I hit the plowed earth and the hooves of the dray threw up great clods of earth. One of them appeared at the door and another stuck his head out the window and watched. I wasn't stopping and of the two who faced me one shouted a warning, then I had my sword out and was on top of them.

I turned the dray at the last moment, let his spear thrust pa.s.s my side and slashed at his head, opening a wound that took his ear away with it. I spun the dray about and saw that Sapphire was there and the other one down. Sapphire was already off his horse, his sword in the man who had been raping the woman, the thrust of the sword almost casual as he pa.s.sed. The barbarian with the ham had dropped it and s.n.a.t.c.hed up his own spear, stepping forward. I didn't see what happened to him as I kicked myself off the dray and landed with a stumble. The boy with half his face gone was howling but still had his spear in hand; looking at me he launched himself forward and I spitted him, twisted and pulled the blade free, heading for the doorway. Sapphire leaped through the window, leaving no enemy alive outside. I went through the door, dodged at the last moment as a naked girl hurtled out the door, stepped in to the bad light and nearly took a spear in the gut. I twisted desperately and the blade of it scored me in pa.s.sing, I ignored it then, stepped in and hammered my forehead into the barbarian's nose, feeling his rough beard against my face. He grunted and staggered back and I moved with him, bringing the point of my sword up level with his belly and thrusting hard. Grabbing his arm with my free hand I pushed the blade deeper and twisted it, the deep breath he gasped in would have turned into something if I'd let it. Instead it froze in his lungs when I shoved the edge left and right and I let him fall away from me, tugging my sword free through a wall of blood.

Only Sapphire and I were in the room.

"Better," he said, calmly. "Just get the blade in them. Hit them with anything anywhere and if you can target a fatal spot so much the better but don't let it take up s.p.a.ce in your mind, you need to be aware of everything and reacting to everything but most of all you want them to be reacting to you but not for long..." He kept up the indifferent monologue as he followed me out of the room. The woman was sitting up, her skirts pulled down over her legs, holding her girl children as all three wept, though she was trying to comfort them. "...kill them fast and move to the next," he finished. "Anything we want here?"

"Give them some scrip."

He looked at me, looked at them and frowned slightly, then nodded. As he went for that I brushed aside the woman's near hysterical thanks and overrode her words with mine. "There will be more. Head south, and east. This scrip is worth coin, enough to start again. Get closer to the city, it's safer. This sort of thing doesn't happen there." She was nodding but I don't know how much she was taking in or what she would do. "Go now," I told her and headed for my horse, who was standing nearby, stamping his feet and snorting anxiously.

"Wait!" She called out, scrambling to her feet. "Can we go with you? Please please please..."

"We are going north. Go south and east, as I said." I looked them over, wondered at their fate for just a moment, but you can't save them all and you can't protect them all, who knew how many horror stories there would be told after this war was done. What I could do I would, but I couldn't do more and still do what I needed to. "I'm sorry."

I turned away from the pain and despair, the red face and the tears, away from the children, one of whom was not a child any more. There must be hundreds like this.

The dogs barked frantically in my head, suddenly wild with excitement. I c.o.c.ked my head to one side and she thought I was considering, maybe changing my mind. I hushed her as she began to beg again to go with us. Sapphire pressed a scrip into her hand and she closed it into a fist. "If there is money on these men, take it. Do as he says, south and east. Go."

I was watching, standing near the dray, I hadn't even made it to her head. I was listening, frozen. Then the baying began and I knew they were loose and coming after me.

"Sapphire, we have to run."

He looked at me, saw the fear on my face, yet still asked me calmly why we had to run.

"The dogs. They are loose and they know where I am," I touched the stone embedded in my forehead.

He nodded. "For now we run."

So we mounted up and ran.

"You think you are never going to have to kill when you are tired and drunk? Think again."

I think he was angry. He'd thrown the practice sword at me and I'd dropped it. I could barely stand up. I was pretty wasted. The light of dusk was all we had and I could hardly see. I'd nearly fallen off the dray for the tenth time and the sun was setting. He'd dragged the packs to the ground, thrown me a bottle and walked the horses till they cooled down, then let them drink, gave them some oats and let them crop at the gra.s.s when he came back to where I lay, calling curtly for me that I get to my feet.

Now I stooped, swaying, and got a grip on the practice blade. I was down before I knew he wasn't going to wait for me.

"Get up."

I did, slowly, watching him carefully.

It went on for a while and it wasn't pretty. The beating - who can call it anything else? - went on long after I couldn't see for lack of light and only ended when he couldn't see. I was a mess of bruises when he finally stopped. He was angry okay, but it wasn't my fault as such. Drunk worked, that's all.

I'd half noticed it before but thought nothing of it. The idea occurred to me and I thought it was worth a try. I'd been struggling to drink as little as possible, fighting the addiction as long as I could and ruthlessly putting the bottle away each time I took a pull. It was hard, especially that part. I wanted to keep drinking till the bottle was empty and then open another. This time I had.

I thought it was worth a try. When I had had a drink before, still in the prison of my room when I had caved to the demands and taken that first drink after days of deprivation, the sound of the dogs had faded a little. It happened again, the next time. And each time. I thought it was worth a try. Each sip, each addition to the alcohol in my belly and the sound of the dogs faded, they seemed more confused, whimpering, the baying gone and replaced with whining and snuffling. When I was drunk they lost the smell of me, they couldn't find me while I was drunk.

Well, so much for my good intentions.

"How many are there?"

He had asked the question before and I had given him the same answer before. "I don't know. Larner showed me the two, but they were the first two. I can hear a pack, eight or ten or twelve, I don't know. Not many more than that, I think." I spoke very slowly. He grew visibly stern when I slurred. I didn't want him to be more angry than he was. It hurt.

We sat in the dark, not wanting to attract attention with a fire, and ate cold meat. The nights were cool but not seriously cold. I didn't mind that. Wrapped in my cloak I was warm enough, covered in dew at dawn but soon dried by the sun and breeze as we moved. I didn't want the meat but forced it down.

"How much do you know about the Eyrie? Tell me everything."

I did. Slowly. The Eyrie was a fortress atop a flat topped hill that might have been natural or not. The walls were twenty five feet and it was the stronghold of the Alendi tribe, big enough for all of them in times of severe threat. The people and livestock both. It was as big as a city but usually nearly empty, the province of the Erdrun clan, the clan with the distinction of having the most kings in Alendi history. A king was a temporary thing, a warlord under whom the tribe united for war and then he stepped down when the war was done. Less than a thousand men, women and children made the Eyrie their permanent home, maintaining it in case of need, making weapons and missiles and stockpiling them there. A great pasture spread from the walls to the center of the Eyrie, and there there was a keep inside a moat. That is where our man would be, if he was anywhere. It had, after all, been some time since I had word he was there.

I wanted to sleep, but he kept me talking long into the night, asking questions, seeking details. Yes, they made weapons; there were forges and blacksmiths. The tribe was wealthy from selling what they considered to be surplus weapons. Good steel but not as good as we made, clearly.

"I need shleep," I couldn't help slurring.

"So sleep."

You think you are never going to have to kill when you are tired and drunk?

The words haunted me as I swung wildly, barely able to keep my feet. I'd put my back to a tree to help. Three spears kept probing and seeking a way to my body and I kept them at bay, mostly, taking a shallow wound here and there, arms and legs dripping and stinging. I was vaguely aware of what was happening behind them but they were not. If they had been they would have been running and not trying to get their spears into me. Sapphire had been killing while I had been surviving. The middle of the three collapsed without a sound, his spine severed at the neck; he pitched forward into me, incidentally shielding me from a spear thrust his body turned aside. The one to my left flew back, a spry of blood from his face telling all anyone should want to know about his story. The third had spun and backed a pace. Sapphire, standing exactly in front of me, blade extended in front of him, moved forward a pace, and the barbarian turned and ran. Sapphire threw his sword and reached out for mine, which I surrendered, turning my head and struggling to focus on the Alendi as he staggered back to his feet, his back laid open from shoulder to hip and the sword nowhere in sight. Sapphire went after him and I staggered away from the tree, looking around drunkenly. I counted. Seven, making ... I thought about it. Ten. That was right. "d.a.m.n, you're good," I mumbled.

He pa.s.sed me back my sword without comment and I sheathed it on the third attempt.

"I think the dogs would be better," I heard him mutter as he went after our horses.

Well I didn't. I'd seen them. Great big slavering monstrosities as big as any dog I could imagine and not the thin lanky type of dog either. I imagined ten of them breaking through the undergrowth and heading our way. Ha! See how well you do against them, tough guy! b.a.s.t.a.r.d. "Sorry." I didn't think I had been speaking loud enough for him to hear. I shook my head. d.a.m.n, I was drunk.

I'd fallen off my horse avoiding the first spear thrust as they burst through the undergrowth. They'd been laying in ambush, like they knew we were coming. I swear Sapphire killed the first one as though he'd been laying in ambush for them. Wasn't sure. Too busy falling off my horse. He'd come back for me though. "Good man, Shapphi," I muttered to myself as I staggered away from the tree.

"Can you get on?"

He was there with the horses. I shrugged. "No idea. Let's see."

The drubbing he gave me that night made the other pale into insignificance. I think he may have knocked me out, but I'll never be sure.

"I think we are in trouble."

Sapphire looked at me, then back to the Eyrie. The Eyrie was a stronghold built to be big enough to house the whole Alendi people, and it looked as though they were all there. Smoke hung over it like a cloud, slowly drifting overhead. We'd seen it at dawn, high and slowly dissipating, and followed it all the way here. Twice we had come across groups of barbarians crumpled in heaps, a day or two old. We'd pa.s.sed the first without comment.

"Looks like the alliance is breaking up," Sapphire had said after we had skirted the results of a second skirmish.

"They must be losing," I said. Not that I had ever had any doubt that they would. It was always a matter of when, not if. Even if all the barbarians as far as the kingdom of Rancik in the west and Fortherria in the east rose against us, I would still place a good wager on the outcome. "Turning against each other."

"Or whatever held them together is gone,"

"Kukran Epthel," I said.

"It doesn't make a difference to us, not right now."

"True. I need to get in there and get him out," I didn't need to say who he was.

"You are not going in."

"What?"

He dismounted and I slithered down to join him, meeting him at the horses' heads. "Of course I'm going in."

"The booze has addled your brain, Sumto." He reached up and tapped my forehead. "How are you planning to hide that? Headscarf?"

d.a.m.n. I hadn't given it a moment's thought. Most of the time I don't even remember it's there. I thought about it now. Men don't wear headgear. Not in the north. Not ever. "Bandage."

He just stared at me.

"You didn't want me to think of that did you?" I accused him.

"No."

"You think I'm a liability."

"You are a liability. Stay here. Wait for me."

"No."

"Then if there's any fighting, for G.o.ds' sake stay out of the way."

He mounted up and rode on. A little subdued I followed him.

The gate to the Eyrie was reached by a long, uphill, switchback road, banked and walled on both sides. The guards on the walls could face into the road and out to any enemy that might threaten it. Either side of the gate two fat towers provided an escape route for those stuck on the long walls should they fall. Each and every soldier on the walls, and they were a mile or more long so there were many, had a bow and I knew from my readings that they had stored a couple of thousand arrows for every bow. Doubtless there were some crossbows as well, though good spring steel is something we make in the city and sell at a price.

We looked like them. Pale hair and pale eyes. We wore their clothes. But just because they are barbarians doesn't make them fools. The gates were opened but we were stopped, along with a steady stream of Alendi making for the Eyrie, men women and children and all they could carry or drag with them.

"What clan?" A guard called to us at the gate.

"Liani," Sapphire told him so fast he sounded defensive. I guessed he made answer before I could.

"All two of you, eh?" The guard laughed.

I scowled. "Two of us are worth twenty of you, sc.u.mbag," I told him with some authority.

He laughed. "Get on, you're holding everyone else up," he waved us through and we went.

Inside the gate a vast pasture spread for what seemed like forever. The far wall was invisible. The pasture was filled with cattle, thousands of them. Fences were still being made, hundreds of miles of fences, to make enclosures of varying size depending on the size of the tribe, the size of the herd. Makeshift villages of tents were packed tight everywhere else, they seemed small but there were thousands of people on the move. A city of tent villages spreading out as far as we could see. There were enclosures of horses but far fewer of them. Only the chieftains and their families could traditionally enjoy the luxury of riding. We rode and were conspicuous because of it. We had hardly gone a few dozen yards before we were offered a price for them, drays though they were. We declined and rode on, heading for the center of things, the great stone stronghold that sat in the middle of what I suddenly thought of as a spider's web. It wasn't a comforting thought.

I reached for the bottle and Sapphire frowned as I upended it. "What will you do when you run out?"

"Drink beer."

"You will have to face them someday."

I shook my head. "When I have an army around me they can come."

He made no response and we rode on down a narrow avenue between fenced enclosures. There were fires everywhere, in every camp, and the cattle were restless, noisy. They pushed against the fences here and there but the enclosures looked stout enough to prevent stampede. The wood of them was old and had seen use before. I guessed they were stored in the stronghold and only a.s.sembled in times such as these.

"I'd like to get some news," I said.

He made a random gesture to the sprawling camps. There were thousands of people to ask. Go ahead, he didn't say, go talk to anyone you like, they'll all have news.

"He'll be in the stronghold," I said.

Sapphire nodded.

"This is madness."

He turned to look at me. "You only just thought that?"

The makeshift villages were largest toward the center of things. In the shadow of the stronghold there was a dense ring of them melding into each other. We sold the horses. We could always steal others if we needed them. I had imagined the Eyrie as I had read of it; a vast empty walled pasture with a spa.r.s.ely populated stronghold at the middle. What I got was the whole Alendi nation crushed into a couple of square miles. A hundred thousand people or more. Getting him out of the stronghold, which would be equally full, would only be half of it. We could make him disappear for a while amongst so many, maybe, but ultimately we had to get him through the gates and no one was going to be leaving for a while.

We set up our new tents in sight of the gate to the stronghold amongst a hundred others and settled down to watch and think. We took it in turns to look and watch, sitting either side of a small fire, swapping places occasionally. There was a moat about the stronghold and a narrow bridge wide enough for one man to walk across comfortably. It was of wood and could be burned. The gate was small, also. Just a door, really. The stronghold was low and square. I remembered what I had read of the inside. A courtyard, surrounded by forges, and a single building running all around the walls and as high. In essence the walls were the building, peppered with arrow slits. A small army could stand on the roof and repel attackers. I measured one wall's length by eye, making it just under three hundred feet. Guessing the courtyard was half the size that made one hundred and fifty by three hundred twice, or ninety thousand feet, and one hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty twice, or forty five thousand. One hundred and thirty five thousand square feet. Well, let's say it takes three feet square for a man to stand and fight, that would give enough room for fifteen thousand men on the roof. Not that they could all fight of course. That would be...

"Thinking of climbing in?"

"Eh? Oh, no. We would be seen for certain." I looked back at the bridge. There was a guard detail, four men, pa.s.sing people on and turning them back in equal measure. Clearly you had to have business inside if you wanted to pa.s.s. Most of the men coming out carried bundles of arrows and a.s.sorted weapons. Some carried food. What I was trying to get an idea of was what the magic word was. Who was pa.s.sed and who turned back.

My attention drifted back to the roof. That would be only four hundred men usefully at the wall at any one time. That didn't seem enough out of fifteen thousand. Had I calculated right? Fifteen thousand sounded like a lot. Would the roof hold under their weight?

"My turn," Sapphire said.

I nodded absently and changed places with him.

"Wake up." A kick in the ribs reinforced the instruction. "Now!"

It was the middle of the night. The air was full of the already familiar sounds of cattle making the noises they make multiplied by thousands and spread out in the night. As I struggled to awaken I could hear the sounds that the dogs made in their sleep, the odd whimper, the occasional sleepy growl. I ignored them. I'd have a drink in a minute. I felt about as rough as I ever had and really didn't want to be awake.