Bone Magic (13 page)

Tam reddened a
bit, and shrugged.

"My name is
Elanyn," the elf said. "I've been trying to… discourage this
necromancer since I became aware of his existence. Recently,
though, the scope of his activities has increased." She glanced in
the direction of Aronia. "I will not be able to stop him without
help."

"You can rely
on us," said Tam. "I'm sorry about what I said before."

"You found the
necromancer's old lair," the elf said. It was not a question.

Tira
nodded.

"I believe he
is within the walls of Aronia now. You can seek him there more
easily than I can."

"How?" said
Tam. "We don't look any more like goblins than you do."

"By my
calculations, there are between two hundred and five hundred human
prisoners still within the city walls. You can blend among
them."

Unless the
humans had all been locked up, or killed. Tira could see a thousand
problems with Elanyn's plan, but it didn't matter. She was going
after the necromancer, no matter what. "How do we get inside?" she
asked.

"We wait for
full dark," said Elanyn. "It will give the goblins an advantage,
because their night vision is better than ours. However, it is our
best chance to make it over the walls unobserved. Goblins are not
disciplined by nature. The walls will be watched, but not well.
They fear an army storming the city. They do not fear a small group
sneaking in."

"Are you coming
with us?" Tam asked.

She nodded. "I
will stay on the rooftops and provide support with this if I can."
She held up her bow.

They left the
animals in the clearing beside the coals of the signal fire and
worked their way on foot to the edge of the trees. They hiked along
the tree line, where the dark bulk of the trees behind them would
obscure them from watching eyes on the city walls. When they were a
fair distance from the road, they set off across the open grass
toward the city.

There was a
crescent moon low in the sky, giving off just enough light for Tira
to feel exposed but not enough to help her navigate. She stumbled
across the grass, one hand holding her bow, the other hand clapped
to the hilt of her sword to keep it from rattling. Tam was directly
behind her, close enough that she could hear him breathing. Elanyn
was ahead. She didn't seem to make any sound at all.

A cool breeze
blew into Tira's face as she walked, making her hair tickle the
sides of her neck. She could smell grass and a hint of wildflowers,
and an occasional hint of the ugly stench that always seemed to
come when too many human beings lived together.

Sometimes the
sound of a shout or a metallic clang would drift across the grass
from the city before them. There were no cries of alarm, which was
almost disappointing. If the goblins spotted them, they could flee.
They would only be in real trouble if they had been seen, and the
goblins were waiting quietly for them to arrive.

They reached
the base of the wall midway between two towers. They stood close
against the stone expanse, where a goblin would have to lean far
out to see them. Then they waited. Tira's heart was thumping as if
she had run all the way from the trees. She felt like running all
the way back, mounting her horse and riding away. Goblins were
dangerous, for pity's sake! This plan was madness. It was time to
acknowledge that they had made a mistake, and flee while they were
still able.

The moon slid
behind a curtain of cloud and the darkness grew deeper. Elanyn's
hand, invisible in the darkness, closed on Tira's shoulder and gave
her a gentle push. She took a deep breath and crept along the base
of the wall, counting her footsteps. A hundred paces, that was the
plan. Tam would be moving a hundred paces in the opposite
direction. At seventy paces, she slipped her hand into her pocket
and took out a small stone. If she knew Tam, his steps would be
slow and cautious. She decided she would give him a few more
seconds after she reached a hundred paces, to let him catch up.

At eighty paces
she heard a distinct thud of stone on wood, then a clatter as if a
stone were bouncing across a rooftop. She swore under her breath,
stepped back from the wall, and hurled her stone. A second stone
followed the first, she heard it clatter somewhere inside the city,
and she darted back to the base of the wall. Then she hurried back
toward the others. Too late she realized that she should be
counting her steps. Instead, she reached a hand out and trailed it
along the wall as she walked. She stopped when her fingers hit a
strand of rope. Tam loomed out of the darkness a moment later.

The rope was
thin enough that she hesitated to trust her weight to it. Still,
there wasn't far to fall. She gripped the rope and started to
climb, bracing her feet against the wall, careful to keep her boots
from scuffing on stone. The rope was knotted every foot or so, and
she climbed quickly. The top of the wall was no more than ten or
twelve feet above the ground, and Elanyn was there to help her over
the crenellations and onto the walkway inside.

A goblin lay
near her feet, arms outflung, unmoving. She ignored it, reaching
down to help Tam as he reached the top. Once he was onto the
walkway, the three of them dropped into a crouch.

Stairs at
regular intervals led down to an alley with wooden row housing on
the far side. Every window was dark, but other lights burned,
deeper in the city. Elanyn slung her bow across her back, put her
back against the outer wall, and took several deep breaths. Tira
followed the direction of her gaze, confused. She was staring at
the row housing, acting as if she was going to jump. But she was
facing a blank wall, a full story plus an attic level looming above
her. The alley was a good eight paces wide, to boot. Tira
whispered, "What-"

Elanyn moved.
One step brought her to the edge of the walkway, and she leaped
into space. She made it look almost easy. She sailed forward, hands
outstretched, her body as straight as an arrow, and her fingers
caught the sill of a second-story window. Her feet hit the wall
with a soft thud, and she seemed to swarm upward. In a moment she
was over the edge of the roof and gone from sight.

Tam and Tira
met each other's eyes. He shrugged, and she led the way to the
stairs.

Tira started to
creep down the alley, then made herself straighten up and move away
from the wall. The two of them were in plain sight to any goblin on
the top of the wall or in a tower. Trying to hide would only draw
unwanted attention. Her best bet was to act as if she belonged. So
she sauntered down the middle of the alley, with Tam emulating her
a step behind. She still stepped softly, but she tried not to
skulk.

When the row
house ended she leaned against the wall, trying to look casual, and
peeked around the corner. She was looking onto a winding cobbled
street, with light glowing from several windows. Nothing moved that
she could see, but she could hear the scuff of footsteps. She
waited, and a pair of goblins came into view from around a curve in
the street. They were the size of dwarves or a bit shorter, and
less stocky, with green, hairless heads and wide, toothy mouths.
They wore mismatched armor of boiled leather reinforced with metal
studs. One goblin had a sword belted around his waist. The other
carried a chipped war axe over one shoulder. They were talking as
they walked, an unintelligible string of grunts and croaks.

Tira pulled her
head back and held her breath as the goblins came closer and
closer. She could trace their progress by sound, and she didn't
breathe until they turned into a gap between buildings. She waited
as their footsteps and voices faded into the distance.

"Let's go."

She walked down
the street, trying to look confident, doing her best to avoid the
light without seeming to. Her eyes scanned the shadows, and she
sniffed the air on the off chance that the stench of death might
lead her to the necromancer's lair. She had an idea where to look,
but it was a long shot.

The street grew
straight, which made her nervous, because the lines of sight were
longer and there was no place to hide. However, there were no more
lit windows. The bulk of the castle loomed straight ahead, only a
few windows showing light, so she murmured a prayer to Neris and
kept walking.

There were no
gaps between buildings. At street level there would be a shop next
to a tavern next to a workshop. The second story seemed to be all
residences, most of the windows dark, a few showing the faint gleam
of a single candle. Above that was a single continuous roof pierced
at regular intervals by dormer windows.

Light flickered
to her left in the windows of a tavern. The sign in front displayed
a dancing pig with a mug in the crook of one arm. One of the
supporting chains had broken, so the sign hung at an angle, giving
the pig an even more jaunty air. Raucous goblin voices came from
inside the tavern, so Tira picked up her pace. Just as she passed
the entrance, the door flew open and a trio of goblins came
stumbling out.

The lead goblin
had a mug in one hand and a dagger in the other. He staggered
across the cobbles and bumped into Tira, then gaped up at her in
astonishment. All three goblins went silent, staring at the two
humans.

I belong
here. I have nothing to fear.
She glared at the goblin who had
bumped her, snapped, "Watch where you're going," stepped around
him, and kept walking.

Tam was at her
elbow, his eyes fixed on the street ahead, his shoulders rigid with
tension. There was dead silence in the street behind them.

"Keep walking,"
she murmured. "Don't look back. Don't hurry. Act like you
belong."

He gave the
merest hint of a nod, but she was speaking more for her own benefit
than his.

A goblin voice
spoke behind them, another goblin laughed, and she heard the scuff
of feet as the goblins walked off in the other direction. Tam's
shoulders drooped a bit as some of the tension left him, and Tira
took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Goblins are dangerous,"
Tam whispered. "Those three almost scared me to death."

They were about
halfway from the city walls to the castle, and Tira was beginning
to let herself hope that this absurd plan might actually work, when
the sound of breaking glass made her stiffen. The door of a shop
flew open and goblins came pouring out. Six, eight, a dozen, then
more. They milled around in the street, then headed for the next
shop, kicking at the door. There was a long line of broken doors
behind them, showing their progress down the street.

A few goblins
stared at the humans, some of them grabbing their friends and
pointing. Tira and Tam ignored them, marching straight ahead as if
they didn't have a care in the world, and somehow it worked.
Goblins lost interest and turned away, crowding into the shop.

As Tira and Tam
drew level with the shop, she could hear things breaking inside.
Goblins called to each other, wood splintered, and the front window
shattered outward as someone threw a cup through it.

Then a woman
screamed somewhere inside the building, and Tira froze.

There was an
excited babble of goblin voices, a man's hoarse cry, and the sound
of something hard striking flesh. Tira's eyes met Tam's. She opened
her mouth to tell him that they couldn't do anything, couldn't save
everyone, but he was already moving.

The street was
empty, the last goblin standing in the doorway of the shop,
standing on his toes, trying to see over the crowd. Tam drew his
sword, and the sound of steel on leather made the goblin's ears
twitch back. One green hand closed on the hilt of a sword and the
goblin started to turn as Tam's sword slammed into his back.

The goblin
fell, Tam pulled his sword free, and the woman screamed again. Tam
stared for a moment at the goblins crowding the doorway, then
turned aside and leaped in through the broken window.

Tira fired an
arrow into the doorway, taking a goblin in the center of his back.
She fired another arrow blindly, the goblins so thick she could
hardly miss. Goblins came pouring out the door, and she killed them
as they came. Three arrows, three goblins, and suddenly the street
was still.

Steel clashed
against steel inside, goblins screamed and bellowed, and Tira ran
to the broken window. She couldn't tell what kind of shop it was;
any displays had been trampled and broken. The only source of light
was a lantern held in the air by a goblin in the middle of the
crowd. Shadows waved and danced as the goblin with the light was
jostled back and forth.

She saw Tam in
one corner, ringed in by goblins, flailing with his sword to keep
them back. On the far side of the room a goblin with a bow stood on
a table, pulling an arrow back to the corner of his grinning mouth.
Tam, head and shoulders taller than the goblins around him, made an
excellent target.

So did the
goblin on the table. Tira's arrow took him in the ribs and he
flopped back, his arrow going wild. She drew another arrow, stepped
onto the windowsill to get a little more height, took aim at the
goblin holding the lantern, and put an arrow through the side of
his head.

The room went
dark, and Tira stepped back into the street. She would be
highlighted against the glow from the street, so she stepped to the
side, away from the window, slung her bow over her shoulder, and
drew her sword. A moment later, the first goblins came through the
window.

She slashed,
hoping to catch the first goblin by surprise, but he blocked her
blow, and his riposte sliced a bloody gash across her thigh. She
danced back, the goblin advanced, and several more goblins
scrambled out the window and hurried to surround her.