Arrows Of Change (Book 1) (21 page)

“I wish I could just put a hole in the wall,” Ashlynn
grumbled again.

Broden was fairly sure she was not kidding. Worried the idea
might be too tempting, he reminded her patiently, “We only have an idea where yer
sisters be in that abbey.”

“I know,” she growled, expression tight with anger.
“Otherwise, I’d destroy the place brick by brick. But we have to find them
first.”

Glad she saw reason in that, he let out a covert breath of
relief.

After he and Ashlynn had returned from their tour that
morning, they’d spent the entirety of the day making plans. Ashlynn used a
spell that put the image of the abbey up on a blank wall, which boggled his
mind. He watched it play out as if he were walking through the abbey all over
again. For several minutes he just watched, entranced with the spell, until she
grabbed an arm and tugged him away from it.

As the abbey tour played out, they debated on what to do,
but really they did not have much in the way of options. Only a fool would
retreat back the way they had come, so returning by the highway would be the
wrong move. They chose instead to go south, just as far as the Trilakes, and
take a boat there. They could either take the Grove River up as far as The
Grove, which would bring them halfway up through Trenena, or they could take
the boat all the way to the Eastern Sea and simply sail around and back to
Estole. Either way, it would be an easier journey, and a safer one to boot.

The idea of going by ship, at least at first, was urged on
by Ashlynn. Oh, none of them wanted to spend another two weeks or more in the
saddle, make no mistake. But Ashlynn feared for her sisters’ wellbeing. With
the storm overhead, it would make a fine cover for them to break in with, but a
poor thing for their escape. It would surely lead to muddy camps, which led to
infections, and even Ashlynn’s magic could not do much about such conditions.
Better to take a ship, avoid the mud and misery of riding in the wet
altogether.

Now, the arrangements had all been made. A ship was paid for
and waiting on them toward the south. Their bags were packed, horses saddled
and tied up on the southern end of the abbey. They all kept an eye on the sky,
waiting. From the dark grey color of the clouds, and the heavy feeling of the
air, Broden judged that the heavens would break free any minute now. They
waited in the shadow of a building, anxious, fidgeting, fighting the urge to
just go
now
.

When the first raindrop hit Ashlynn’s head, she looked at
Broden and ordered, “Go.”

He went, running at a half-crouch, keeping as low to the
ground as he could.

When breaking into a fortified location, rain was a man’s
friend. There were two reasons for this—one, the sound of the storm overhead
covered the noise of breaking through the defenses. The second was that it
encouraged the guards on patrol to seek shelter, and not be as watchful as they
should.

In the past, Broden had liked using a storm as cover, but
also cursed it because he could not use his bow while it rained. But now, of
course, there was a bit of magic on his bow so that it could not get wet no
matter what happened. (Bless Ashlynn for that.) It gave him all the advantage
he needed.

With a silent tread, he climbed up the half-decayed wall on
the outer edge of the old abbey, and made his way to perch near the top. The
way the storm clouds rolled and twisted overhead blocked the moon, and so cast
the roof in thick shadow. With a huff, he settled himself right next to the
turret wall so that he had cover if he needed it.

This cat-vision that Ashlynn had cast on his eyes felt
beyond strange. Everything glowed with a slightly greenish tint, making things
overly sharp around the edges. He could not complain, though. It was certainly
better than trying to determine friend from foe in near darkness. The wind
whipped around his head, bringing the scent of a cook fire and tea brewing,
which told him the guards were well settled.

He unwound the cord from around his quiver, letting him draw
out multiple arrows all at once. Flipping one in his hand, he nocked an arrow
and set his sights on the small turret room that served as guard house on the
adjacent wall. There were more than a dozen guards in this place, six of them
on top of the wall keeping lookout. Broden had to take out those six before the
rest of his group could move about freely.

One guard came out, an oiled cloak wrapped tight around him
to ward off the falling rain, and took a quick peek around. Broden lost no time
in targeting him, drawing the bow back, and firing. At this distance, even a
man with poor skills could have hit him.

The guard clutched his chest with a half-muted gurgle before
toppling out over the side and to the ground below. Broden had timed his shot
so that the man’s balance leaned toward the outside of the abbey instead of the
inside, but there was always a chance the man wouldn’t fall the way he wanted
to. This time he was lucky, as the guard tumbled out of sight.

Good. That trick should work at least two more times, and
then he would have to change vantages to take out anyone still left in the
guardhouse.

Minutes passed in silence. Finally someone inside noticed
that their companion had been gone too long, and this time two of them came out
to check. Broden let them get several feet away from the door before firing,
taking them down in quick succession. There was no way to cover up what he was
doing, and of course they fell into the main courtyard instead of over the
other side. Three down, but that still left three more to go.

“
Broden, you need to talk to me,”
Ashlynn chided. “
What’s
going on?”

“Three down,” he murmured toward the amulet hanging about
his neck. “Three still left.” And short of somehow smoking them out, he wasn’t
sure how to get them out of there anytime soon.

“
Are they all in one place?
” Konrath asked, voice
deep.

“Aye.”

“
Can you keep them pinned there?
”

Ah. He saw what the man was driving at. “Aye. Come ahead. I
will keep the path clear.”

Because of the rumbling of the storm overhead, and the way
the wind whipped around his head to steal the sound before it could reach his
ear, he did not hear Ashlynn break open the front gates. But he knew she must
have, as he saw several cloaked figures dart along the far wall of the main
courtyard. They went directly for the kitchen door with his wizard leading the
way.

He kept one eye on the turret doorway, one eye on the
courtyard below, not wanting any guards to sneak up behind his people and take
them unawares. The roof overhead was not wide enough to shield him completely
against the rain, so his left shoulder quickly became drenched, but he paid it
no heed. With an arrow nocked, he stayed vigilant, willing to shoot the first
thing that moved.

As he stood and watched, he listened as the tiny voices came
from the amulet on his collarbones.

“—
doesn’t matter who it is,”
Marissa said in
exasperation. “
Anyone living here will know. We just need someone who can
tell us which room they’re in.”

“I can’t imagine that the abbot will broadcast he has
three political prisoners in here,
” Seth argued. “
I don’t think most of
the people here will know. I mean, Lugh is the God of Light and Death, after
all. He frowns on this sort of thing.”

“Not enough, apparently,”
Tant grumbled. “
Otherwise
His abbot wouldn’t be getting by with it. But I’m with Seth, I can’t imagine
that this is a well-kept secret. I think we can grab anyone and they’ll be able
to tell us.”

“Whatever we do, we have to be quick,”
Konrath
warned. “
We spend too much time in here, and the whole place will be up in
arms.”

Broden rolled his eyes. They might do that anyway if those
chatterboxes didn’t keep quiet.

“
Hey! What ye people doing in here?!”

“
Found someone,”
Ashlynn said happily.

There were several thumps, a loud curse, and then a
choked-off gasp, as if something had hit a man hard in the throat. Broden could
more or less picture what was going on below just by the sounds. Ashlynn had
used a combination of her staff and magic to tackle the poor sod and ram him
into the wall, the staff belike held at his throat like a drawn sword.

“
I am looking for three young women that are from Iysh,
and held captive in these walls,”
Ashlynn purred, her tone menacing. “
You’re
going to guide me to their room. If you take me to the wrong room, you and
whoever is in it, dies immediately. Take me to the right room, I chain you in
their place and you live to see tomorrow. Which shall it be?”

The man thought it over for a full second before stuttering,
“
I-I do no’ have the right keys to get ye there. There be three doors to
pass through, and a man can no’ enter the tower without them.”

“Don’t worry about the locks, I can get us through. You
just show me the way. Fast and snell, now!”

Broden’s mouth twitched. Ashlynn really did like mimicking
him, did no’ she just. A man had to wonder why, though.

Their footsteps as they ran through the stone hallways
sounded raucously loud to his ears, but like as not, it was the amulets
amplifying the sound, as no one else seemed to hear them. At least, no alarm
was raised.

A guard came out of the turret, calling out someone’s
name—likely one of the men he’d already shot. Broden took aim and fired, the
arrow whistling as it cut cleanly through the air. The man half-folded over the
arrow in his chest before hitting the ground, but unlike the previous three, he
did not fall off the battlement. Broden cursed his luck as it became obvious to
the two still inside the turret that they were under attack.

He could do nothing to stop them as they rang a bell, a low,
ponderous sound that sent shivers up his spine.

“
Broden. What was that?”
Ashlynn demanded.

“Alarm,” he admitted a trifle grumpily. “The last two
finally noticed and rang it.”

She let out several choice words that no young woman should
know.

“I need to change locations,” he informed her as he left his
perch and darted for the far side of the wall.

“Are you going for the horses?”

“Aye. Someone needs to keep an eye on them and keep the door
clear for ye lot.”

“
Good plan,”
Konrath approved. “
Do that. In fact,
I’ll keep this doorway clear for you to come back out of.”

“Yes, that’s a good plan. Ashlynn, I’ll stay with him,”
Marissa
volunteered.

Broden silently agreed with all of this even as he kept
running. When he’d almost reached the southwestern turret, the guards on the
far side came out of their turret room and finally noticed they had someone up
on the wall with them. One of them had a crossbow, and Broden heard the crank,
even above the wind. (The idiot really should have oiled that.) The sound was
warning enough for him to turn sideways as he ran, flipping up arrows into position.
He nocked and drew the bow with deadly efficiency, felling the last two guards.

Well. At least up here, it was clear.

He started running again for the southern edge, although not
at the same breakneck speed as before, as he did not want to chance slipping
and falling to his death when he did not have to.

The bell did its damage. Several armed men, not completely
dressed, started pouring out of different side doors. Broden stopped here and
there to fire, taking them down as he could, but there was no way to take out
this many with just a single bow. He mostly kept his head down and muttered
warnings to Marissa and Konrath as he saw the enemy re-enter the building and
head for their location.

From the amulet, he heard a sharp crack as metal broke, then
a door slammed against a stone wall.

“
Ashlynn!”
three different female voices exclaimed
all at once, surprise and relief clear in that name alone.

He puffed out a breath, glad they’d found the girls. He kept
an ear on the conversation as they asked questions on top of each other, gave
answers, and he suspected a hug or three was exchanged as well, as Ashlynn
broke them out of their chains. But he did not let the reunion distract him as
he kept his eye on the courtyard inside, and the horses still waiting patiently
outside. If they could not get to the boat, this whole thing was useless.

Anyone that neared the door leading out toward the south was
shot down immediately, but other than that, he let them run around in mad
circles inside. He did not have enough arrows to just fire indiscriminately
after all.

“
Broden, we have them,
” Ashlynn told him, her breath
puffing a bit. She sounded winded after running up and down the stairs, but she
did not stop talking to catch her breath again. “
Is the southern door
clear?”

“Aye, lass, but ye best pick up the pace. That alarm got all
sorts of guards running about down here, looking for intruders, and I be a mite
short on arrows.”

“
We’re almost down to the main level again. Marissa,
Konrath, is the door clear?”

“No,”
Marissa denied in a snarl. “
We’ve got three
down here.”

“Time for me to make a new door, then. Broden, get off
that wall. NOW.”

Realizing what she was planning, it was his turn to swear
viciously even as he scrambled to race down the stairs. The set near him was
worn from use, the middle of the stairs dipping in odd ways, and he hugged the
wall even as he tried to take them two at a time. He tripped now and again,
just barely catching himself before falling head first, but he was not about to
slow his pace. When Ashlynn was in a mood as fine as this, she had no patience,
and would not wait more than a few seconds before making that new door of hers.