Authors: Ed Gentry
“I agree, Terir. That’s why I need your help. I don’t believe any of my soldiers would have given out that information. Nor am I suggesting that Khatib betrayed us,” Adeenya added, cutting short Loraica’s objections. “But he knew about it and now he’s dead. Perhaps whoever killed him didn’t want him able to talk anymore.”
Loraica drew herself to her full height again and spoke. “If the formian is telling the truth, then who would be fool enough to show themselves as Khatib’s killer, regardless of what lure you use?” Loraica said.
Adeenya said, “I find foolishness is never in short supply.” Before Loraica could respond, Adeenya continued. “They’ll reveal themselves if they think we already know who they are. If we spread the word that the formian knows who did it, then Khatib’s killer either takes the chance that he or she
won’t be discovered… or eliminates the threat the formians knowledge represents,” Adeenya said.
Loraica shook her head. “No. Jhoqo would never allow it. We’re responsible for the prisoners and their safety.”
Adeenya agreed and said, “There’s no doubt that it’s risky, but if there is a traitor among us, isn’t it worth risking the life of a prisoner?”
Loraica continued shaking her head. “As a Maquar, a true soldier, we understand that the way we treat our prisoners indicates our own worth,” the large woman said, folding her arms across her chest.
Adeenya took a deep breath and released it, holding back her barbed retort, before saying, “We do not kill our prisoners, and many Durpari have died protecting their prisoners in the past, as I’m sure have many Maquar. But we’re talking about risking the formian for the safety of everyone in this citadel.”
“This plan is the same as murdering the formian. He would become a target for Khatib’s killer,” Loraica said.
“For the traitor,” Adeenya said. “Remember that. If there is a traitor among us, we need to lure him or her out before this goes any further. Before anyone else dies.” She paused, letting her words sit on Loraica’s mind. She wished she could make Loraica see what she saw, but knew it just wasn’t possible. Adeenya cherished freedom and righteousness but knew that sometimes, the rules needed to be bent to achieve them. That was something a Maquar could never see.
Adeenya continued. “We will do everything we can to protect the formian until the traitor reveals himself. What’s the other alternative? You agree we must reveal the traitor if there is one, yes?”
“Of course,” Loraica said, pushing herself away from the wall to stand upright.
“And it seems quite possible that there is one, given Khatib’s death, the attack, and my pendant, right?” Adeenya asked.
Loraica rolled her head from one shoulder to the other and ran a hand through her dark hair. Her lips curled and she asked, “And if we cannot protect the formian? If it dies?”
“Then we will have failed,” Adeenya said, pausing for a moment. “But we’ll have our traitor. It doesn’t matter anyway, does it? There is no traitor.” Adeenya grinned. “Right?”
Loraica’s face showed her struggle with the idea. Adeenya wanted no one to die, but she was willing to let the formian die if it meant revealing the traitor.
“What would I need to do?” Loraica asked at last.
“Just tell a few of your soldiers that one of the formians knows who killed Khatib. Word should spread easily enough from there. And, before you ask, I’m not suggesting that it was one of the Maquar,” Adeenya said.
“If the prisoner dies it will be on your head,” Loraica said before turning to leave.
Adeenya watched her go, wondering if she had made the right choice in sharing her plan with Loraica. Adeenya did not doubt that Taennen would also have disliked her plan, so her odds of succeeding were about the same either way. Adeenya sighed and walked the opposite direction along the wall, headed toward the stairs that would lead to her quarters. It had been a long day, and she looked forward to some dinner and a chance to set aside her troubles.
Adeenya exchanged pleasantries with the guard at the northwest corner before descending the stairs. The fading light of the setting sun and the soft glow of Lucha gleamed on the polished stones of the citadel walls. She emerged into
the courtyard. A Durpari soldier named Obeidat passed her, offering a salute, which she returned. Her movement was interrupted when she heard a dull thud behind her and spun on her heel to find Obeidat lying on the ground, an arrow shaft erupting from an eye socket. She sucked in a breath to shout an alarm, but was cut off by another arrow passing within inches of her face. She threw herself to the ground and shouted an alert. Her eyes cast about, looking for the source of the attack. When she found it, any doubts about her plan to ferret out the traitor flew far from her mind, and her resolve firmed.
+ + + + +
Taennen sprinted forward, dirt flying into the air under his swift feet. Bringing his left arm up to cover his face with his shield, he reached out to grab Adeenya’s belt. One arm would not carry her, but his momentum dragged her from her place out in the open courtyard just as an arrow struck the space. She continued to shout an alarm to the rest of the citadel.
Taennen dragged her several paces, stopped, and yelled for her to regain her feet. He looked over his shoulder to see the attackers, perhaps a dozen of the same masked invaders as before, in the middle of the courtyard. They carried long bows and loosed their arrows in every direction, showering the interior of the fortress with deadly shafts. They stood back to back in small groups, covering every direction, protecting one another from unseen reprisals. The invaders looked like statues in the garden of a wealthy merchant.
“Get down!” Adeenya knocked Taennen’s leg from underneath him, toppling him to the ground. An arrow struck the building nearby. The archers had spotted them.
“Move!” she shouted. He rolled to his feet, and they ducked into the cover of the nearest building.
Taennen peered through to the other side to find two of the enemy archers had fallen to bowshots from the defenders, but sprawled about the courtyard at least three times that many Maquar and Durpari were dead or injured. Taennen stood flat against the wall again and forced a deep breath. His eyes came to rest at the top of the northern wall where he saw Loraica positioning Maquar archers. He made hand signs indicating that he would try to make it to the western wall to muster more fire power from there. Loraica nodded at this communication and turned her attention back to the men with her.
“Get to the eastern wall. I’ll head for the western,” Taennen said to Adeenya.
Adeenya nodded. She patted his shoulder and ran east, leaving the safe cover of the structure. He watched her dash across the courtyard, arrows thunking into the dirt behind her as though she were dropping them as she ran to make a trail she could follow back.
Loraica’s archers loosed enough arrows to cover Taennen as he made his move to the western wall. He breathed a sigh of relief as his foot made the bottom step of the northwest stairwell. He scanned the area for ally troops and saw a pair of Durpari soldiers running toward him. Taennen waved the men on and ordered the two to follow him up the stairs.
When they reached the top of the wall, they found that more of the enemy bowmen had fallen, but over half a dozen still remained. Taennen ran along the wall, the Durpari soldiers following him. He stopped at a point from where the two soldiers with him would have clean shots to the center of the courtyard and barked the order for them
to attack. Farther down the wall, several Maquar were already loosing their weapons at the invaders.
At least ten Durpari and Maquar soldiers were dead in the courtyard, having attempted to charge the enemy archers. An arrow sailed high toward the wall, and Taennen shouted for the two Durpari men to lie flat. The missile flew wide of its target and bounced off the wall behind him. The Durpari men found their feet, offering their thanks for his intervention, and set about firing at the invaders.
Two more enemies fell. Their attack would have to end soon. One of the invaders made a noise, an unintelligible shout to the others. Two of the archers shouted back and pulled arrows from their boots, firing the missiles perhaps twenty paces from their position, straight into the ground. The courtyard suddenly filled with an unnatural darkness, which covered a large portion of the interior of the fortress from the ground to halfway up the walls. The citadel defenders stopped firing, no longer able to see their targets within.
Many tense moments passed before the uncanny darkness dissipated. Taennen loosed a breath and felt his shoulders relax, though only a little. He looked to the two men with him. “That was excellent work, men. Well done,” Taennen said.
“Thank you, sir,” they said in unison.
Taennen took in the scene around him and shouted to all within the sound of his voice, “Hold the wall! Keep your eyes alert both inside and outside the citadel. We cannot be surprised again.”
Returned shouts of “Aye, sir!” came to him and he headed to the courtyard, offering more complimentary words to those he passed. Adeenya and Loraica were headed toward the courtyard from their perspective places on the wall as well, and each offered him a nod as they approached.
All around him in the courtyard were the bodies of his comrades and those left alive tending to them. He walked to where the attackers had been cloaked in their darkness and crouched to examine the ground.
“That was damned effective,” Loraica said, standing next to him.
“How in the hells are they doing this?” Adeenya asked. “The darkness is no real feat. Any arcanist worth his salt can do that. But how do they enter so easily?” Her voice dropped. “Do you think someone is letting them in?”
“Twice they’ve hit us here in the supposed security of our citadel,” Taennen said as he stood. He noticed a few other soldiers standing nearby had heard him and listened to his words. He raised his voice for more to hear. “Twice, they’ve invaded our safety. They will surely come again,” he said.
One of the nearby Durpari blurted out, “No! We can’t let that happen.”
Taennen nodded at the man. “He’s right. We can’t let them do that. We can’t do that to ourselves. We will figure this out. We will stop them,” he said.
Several heads nodded but a few muttered amongst themselves, their reservations clear.
“There is nothing we cannot do if we stay united, if we stand up to what appears to be hopeless,” Taennen said. “Trust in me and I will trust in you, friends. That trust will be a wall that these heathens will not break, will not pierce. They will assault it and be turned away by its strength.”
Subdued cheers came in response and more heads nodded. That was the most he could hope for The coming night would be a long one as the dead were identified and sorted out. Hope would be important.
+ + + + +
“Make sure shifts are changed every six bells. I can’t have anyone missing something because they’re exhausted,” Loraica said to a subordinate soldier as they both looked over a duty roster. Several more names had been crossed out.
The man affirmed her orders and left for the wall.
“What have you learned?” Jhoqo said from behind her.
Loraica turned to face Jhoqo, reminded of the last time he had sneaked up on her. His face was plain, his gaze locked onto hers. His stealth wasalways disconcerting no matter how long she’d known the man.
“Sir, I have important news from the battle. I was just coming to see you.”
“First, what have you learned about the orir?” Jhoqo said.
“Sir, before the attack, I saw Taennen and the orir talking extensively,” she said. “After they separated, the orir approached me and told me of a plan to lure out a possible traitor that might have killed Khatib. She wants to spread word through the ranks that one of the formians witnessed the killerone of our ownentering the tower during the fight.”
“That would be pointless. There was no traitor,” Jhoqo said, resting against the wall. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Loraica agreed. “Yes, sir, but the orir thought it worth a chance in case there really was a traitor, and she said that if there wasn’t one, then there would be no harm done. And an item was stolen from her during the battle.”
“What item?” Jhoqo said.
“A magical trinket used to contact her commanders,” Loraica said.
“Hmmm. That’s unfortunate, but I don’t see how that figures into these attacks,” Jhoqo said.
“Sir, she thinks it might mean that someone knew about her device, and might have betrayed us,” Loraica said.
“Nonsense. They’re wildmen. They just saw something shiny and valuable and took it,” Jhoqo said.
Loraica nodded. Jhoqo might have been right, but Loraica found all of the pieces of the puzzle harder to deny than he did. She decided to think on it further and said, “Sir, I think the orir just needs to feel useful, to be honest with you.”
“You’ve done well, Loraica. You’re a fine terir,” the man said.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Does Taennen know of this plan?” Jhoqo asked.
Loraica shook her head and said, “I do not believe so, sir.” Her guts wrenched, and in that moment she knew why. She wanted to tell Taennen, to let him know that she hadn’t gone over his head by approaching Jhoqo directly, that she wasn’t excluding him over his mistakes. She tried to comfort herself with assurances that she had done so on a direct order from her commanding officer.
“Let’s keep it that way for now. I’ll approach him with this,” Jhoqo said. “This mission has been a struggle for him. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” Loraica replied.
“You also understand that this plan of the Durpari woman is unnecessary, don’t you?” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she said, uncertain for the first time in a long while.
“Good. Where would we Maquar be without our honor? Our prisoners are as good a measure as any by which we gauge ourselves,” Jhoqo said. “Using them as bait, even
when we feel there’s no danger… it’s just not right.”
Loraica nodded, hoping she could share her news soon.
“With this latest attack, morale will be low,” Jhoqo said.