“Geraine knew about your plans?” he asked over his shoulder. Ira’s mumbled curses let him know he probably had. “What’s the new plan?”
“Side entrance,” Ira explained as Thomin and Estin came up beside her. “Cut around to the right side of the temple and there will be a door near the next alley. It will be locked but not barred. If you can kick it open…”
“I can,” Raeln assured her.
“…there’s a second door one room in that was meant to be a fallback point if the temple was invaded,” she said. “The oracles never trusted the politicians, which in hindsight seems to say something about situations like this one, yes? We need to get through that first door and bar the second. It will take them time to get someone with an axe to break it down. By then, we should be to or past the walls.”
“We’ll have to go through the soldiers,” Raeln warned, getting nods of acknowledgement from Estin and Thomin. Ira seemed less sure, but she kept quiet. “What about Yoska and On’esquin?”
“Have you met my bandoleer?” asked Ira, laughing nervously. “Lock the door and he will still get to us. This I promise on my ancestors’ blood. He could likely lead a full clan past these soldiers, though I have never learned how he does such things.”
Nodding, Raeln studied the soldiers for some gap in their watch. He soon spotted a pattern in the way the soldiers farthest to the east swept their attention across the occasional living travelers on the street. If he could cut to their right, they would not be spotted until they reached that side of the road. By then only a handful of soldiers would be able to reach them before they could get into the alley.
“Follow close,” Raeln warned the others, bracing himself. He had to time things perfectly or risk losing the one small advantage at their disposal. “We walk and then run. When I stop, stop with me.”
Not waiting for them to acknowledge him, Raeln began walking into the street, keeping his eyes low to avoid undo attention. He walked quickly, moving past dozens of humans as he used them as shields against being spotted by the soldiers. Only a few more steps and they could begin running at the soldiers, and with luck, they would punch through the thin defenses near the far eastern edge of the temple.
“Oh my gods!” shouted a woman somewhere off to Raeln’s left. “Animals! Guards! Wild animals!”
Raeln had completely forgotten about his appearance, having spent his whole life accepted by his village of elves. He realized how stupid he was for expecting other lands to overlook him when he really knew better. Snarling in frustration, he launched himself toward the closest soldier, who had already noticed him.
Pushing past terrified citizens, Raeln ran straight at the nearest undead, who raised his weapon without any hint of fear. Within seconds Raeln reached him, ducking a wild swing and coming up with his own sword to nearly sever the corpse’s head. Spinning as his sword connected, he backhanded the other soldier within reach, sending him sprawling as his helmet turned sharply. Undead or not, without eyes the soldier was no threat.
Raeln looked back and saw Estin and Ira were holding their own against two more undead that had tried to circle in and trap them. Thomin stood between Raeln and them, his hands moving nervously, as though he were waiting for the right chance to strike with magic but unsure what to do until then.
Unlike Thomin, Estin did not hesitate. He dropped a sword and flung his hand toward a group of undead, using some form of magic to cause them to instantly crumble to ash, their armor and weapons hitting the ground with the clatter. Snatching his sword before more could come, he ran to catch up with Raeln.
“Keep going!” Raeln called out, grabbing the sword of the next undead with his off-hand and sweeping his own weapon across the man’s chest, tearing open his ribs and crippling his arms. “Push through!”
With the undead line broken, Raeln held his position while the others caught up. Ira, Thomin, and Estin raced past him toward the wall of the temple, while On’esquin and Yoska ran across the street to catch up. Four undead moved from their line, trying to intercept the gypsy and orc, and Raeln could see they would reach the two men before he could.
Raeln reached down to one of the corpses that continued to flail blindly around near his feet and grabbed a small axe at its side with his off-hand. Without aiming, he hurled the weapon at the lead zombie in the group headed for On’esquin and Yoska, taking it right off its feet. The others were several feet behind, giving Yoska and On’esquin time to reach him and run past toward the rest of their group.
Swinging his sword wildly, Raeln kept the growing numbers of undead at bay as he backpedaled, moving into the hall-like alley that led to the side door into the temple. He could hear the telltale sounds of a lock being forced.
A second later Ira spat, “Ancestors’ asses…this lock is tougher than I expected. Yoska?”
“There is no time for this!” Raeln shouted, cleaving the shoulder and chest of the nearest zombie. Spinning and running toward the door where the others were all huddled, Raeln shoved them aside and kicked the door. The thick wood shuddered, the area near the hinges splintering. His next kick took the door out of its frame, while undead poured into the alley. He stepped away as the rest of the group piled into the temple, ready to stop the undead if they got to him before the others were safe. Thankfully, they were quick this time and Raeln backed into the temple with them as the undead closed on him. The doorway forced the undead to come in one at a time, but they fought one another to get through, slowing them considerably.
“Keep coming straight back,” Estin called out to Raeln.
Following the voice, Raeln backed through a supply room of some sort, though it appeared to have been largely ransacked before their arrival. He continued back and soon passed through another doorway as the first slack-jawed undead pushed through the outer door. He took two more steps and Estin threw a door shut and slid a bar across it, cutting off the undead.
Almost immediately, claws scratched at the door and Raeln could hear the dull thumps of hands on the other side. They would break through it eventually, but it would hold for a time. So long as only mindless zombies were out there, it might delay them quite a while.
“Get us out of here, humans,” Raeln snapped, hesitant to take his eyes off the door, even though he knew he had a while before the undead got through. “How far to the outer exit through the walls?”
Ira spoke up, touching Thomin’s arm to keep him quiet. “We need to swing through the atrium to see if any oracles are still hiding in here,” she told him while the others moved out of Raeln’s field of vision. “Once we’re through that room, it’s no more than three rooms like this. The atrium is large, but will not take us long. Even if the undead come through the main doors, we should beat them to the wall.”
“Go,” he told her, lowering his weapon. “Lead us and make this quick.”
The woman ran past the others, taking the lead as they ran through winding halls and past several more rooms. Raeln soon lost track of where they were or how to get back, making him even more nervous about the closed spaces of the temple. He could easily have wandered for hours within the building and not found his way out.
A distant boom somewhere behind them gave Raeln his first warning that the undead had gotten into the temple. Assuming they would have to traverse an area roughly as long as he had, that gave him mere minutes before the undead might arrive.
Shortly after hearing the doors of the temple break open, Ira led the group into a large round room with no ceiling. The whole place was decorated with lavish sculptures, though they were abstract enough that Raeln could not guess at what they were meant to depict. Above those, a thin line of faded writing on the stones ringed the room. His only thought was for escape and that left him eyeing the five different doors along the walls, aside from the one they had entered through.
“No one here, so we can go,” announced Thomin, running past the others toward the far end of the room, where only one door stood.
On’esquin made no attempt to follow, instead wandering over to a bare section of wall, where Raeln could see faint patterning, as though the wall had been engraved and then worn down. It was this patterning On’esquin stared at, even going so far as to pull off his gloves and touch them.
“Anyone want to be somewhere else?” Thomin asked, standing halfway across the room, giving them all impatient glares, including Ira, who was waiting for Raeln, Estin, and Yoska.
Both Raeln and Estin sniffed almost in unison, and Raeln realized he smelled a new human scent. There was someone else in the room. However he did it, Yoska seemed equally aware, drawing his knives.
“Visitors?” came a soft voice that cracked. Coming around one of the larger sculptures, an old woman in heavy grey robes and hood limped toward Ira. “I thought I was the last one here.”
Raeln raised his weapon, but Ira put a hand up to stop him.
“An oracle,” Ira warned him, gesturing for him to lower his weapon. “Her robes are old, but I can still see the pattern that marks her as an elder.”
Raeln glanced over at Estin and saw Estin was watching him for an idea of what to do. The man appeared ready to attack the old woman and his eyes told Raeln that if given the cue, he would. Begrudgingly, Raeln brought his sword down and watched Estin pretend to relax. Yoska made no such effort.
“My children,” the old woman whispered, coming up to Ira. “You come during troubling times. What would you ask of me before the enemy comes?”
In the distance Raeln heard boots as a large group approached. The echo meant they could still be a ways off, but time was running out. Checking on Estin again, he saw the other wildling’s ears were tilted toward the same sounds.
Ira leaned toward the oracle, but the old woman stayed out of reach. “Elder,” Ira said nervously, motioning for Thomin to stay back. “We want to know how to fight the Turessians and free the city. What can you see? Tell us how to save the city.”
Chuckling, the oracle nodded her hood, approached Ira, and took her hand. With a sudden lunge, the old woman yanked Ira off her feet, pulled her close, and clamped a hand to her throat and used her as a shield.
“You could start by running like craven beasts, but that much was evident by the company you keep,” the oracle snarled, and Raeln thought he saw red eyes under the hood, though he could not be sure. “My children, come and greet our guests.”
Raeln looked around and saw one of the other doors had opened silently and a black-robed woman was approaching, with a similarly robed man following her. The two stopped once attention was drawn to them and the hood of the woman swiveled to look toward the oracle.
“You will all drop your weapons and surrender yourselves,” the robed man announced, raising a hand toward Thomin. As he did so, Thomin threw a ball of flame toward him, but it hissed and faded away inches before hitting the robed man’s outstretched hand. “Continued resistance will ensure your deaths. You have thirty seconds and the woman dies. If you surrender, I can promise that you will live through this day.”
Raeln’s hand ached as he tightened his grip on its hilt. He was much too far to help Ira, and with the hold the oracle had on her, there was no way he could run over and strike before she had been killed. Estin seemed to realize the same, immediately bending down and putting his swords on the ground. On’esquin remained near the wall, pulling his hood lower over his face to hide his tattoos. Yoska and Thomin did not lower their weapons, but both appeared to Raeln to be struggling with how to save Ira without directly causing her death.
“Twenty seconds,” the Turessian man announced and the oracle’s grip on Ira tightened. “Do not tempt me. We have burned cities for far less. The oracle is under our control and will do as we say.”
Ira closed her eyes and Raeln thought he saw a tear run down her cheek. When she opened her eyes again, she looked first to Thomin and mouthed, “I’m sorry.” Turning her attention to Yoska, Ira subtly drew a knife from her sleeve.
“No, by our ancestors, don’t,” Yoska whispered, though Raeln knew Ira was too far away to hear. “Please…”
Without any further hesitation, Ira brought the knife up…and plunged it into her own chest. She choked on her own blood and the oracle let go, allowing her to flop to the ground, coughing up blood.