“I’m here, Alex. Anatoly is setting up defenses. He seems almost happy to be preparing for a battle.” She smiled as she shook her head. A long lock of her silvery blond hair fell free and she hooked it behind her ear before she continued. “Jack is following him around and taking orders like a trained soldier. The Reishi are about half an hour away and riding by torchlight.”
He felt like he was listening to his sister from underwater. He could hear what she said and knew it was important but just couldn’t make his mind translate the words into meaning. He smiled and nodded as he gave her hand a squeeze.
Lucky took a good look at Alexander, then turned to Abigail and said, “It’s time.” She nodded and switched from kneeling to sitting cross-legged with her brother’s hand held firmly in both of hers, then nodded at Lucky. He gave her a little smile. Lucky had helped raise both of them. He loved them like they were his own children.
First, he removed the leather thong that was holding the tip of the crossbow bolt in place. Alexander closed his eyes in anticipation of pain but it didn’t come. Next, Lucky splashed some spirits on the area of the wound. Alexander winced and bit down on the dowel in his mouth. The pain was hot and sharp even through the numbness.
Lucky took the smaller of his two little knives and carefully washed it with the spirits. He examined the wound to see where the blades of the bolt were. It was a three-bladed bolt. He would have to make three cuts, one for each blade, so he could draw the bolt out without ripping a chunk of flesh from Alexander’s shoulder.
“This is going to hurt. Are you ready?”
Alexander nodded tightly.
Lucky took a deep breath and began.
The shock of the first cut was stunning. Alexander bit down hard on the dowel and gasped. In that moment, the effects of the numbweed seemed to evaporate in the face of a pain they couldn’t contend with. The second cut sent shooting, white-hot agony into every recess of his body. He felt like he was drowning in an ocean of torment. There was nothing but pain. No enemy. No fear. No grief for his dead brother. Everything in his world, every part of his awareness was filled to overflowing with agony. The third cut threatened to claim his consciousness. He held his eyes clenched shut. His teeth clamped onto the wooden dowel in his mouth and his breath came in quick little gasps. He felt like he was sliding into an unforgivable darkness, and then he heard his sister whimper ever so slightly and he realized he was crushing her hand.
He focused on her, on his need to not hurt her, and forced himself to relax his death grip on her hand. In that moment of distraction, Lucky drew the head of the crossbow bolt out of his shoulder. He nearly screamed. His eyes snapped open and he started panting around the dowel.
Lucky was talking him through the operation gently while he worked. “The bolt is out, now I just have to clean the wound, pack it with healing salve, and bandage it.” He sounded very reassuring somewhere off in the distance past a battlefield of pain.
It wasn’t long before Alexander was lying quietly with a fresh bandage around his now much-improved shoulder and Lucky was packing his things back into his travel bag.
Alexander felt as if he were floating gently on an ocean of agony that only moments before he’d been drowning in. The pain was still there. It still occupied the very center of his awareness but it was not nearly as insistent, not nearly as urgent as it had been. He focused on his breathing in an effort to wrest his consciousness away from the pain and exert some form of control over his experience of the moment. Second by second he began to have little bits of success. He wasn’t sure if it was from his efforts or the result of the healing salve that Lucky had liberally packed into his wound before dressing it with a clean bandage.
Anatoly came to the doorway but didn’t disturb the blanket. “The Reishi have turned off the road and are approaching. Douse the light if you can.” Alexander heard the big man-at-arms move off into the night just before the world went dark.
Lucky spoke in hushed tones. “Abigail, you should go help Anatoly. I’ll sit with Alexander while the salve does its work. It shouldn’t be too long before his shoulder is mended.”
Alexander felt his sister pat the back of his hand before she stood and left the pitch-black tower. His shoulder felt warm and it was itching but he didn’t seem to have the energy to reach up and scratch it. He drifted somewhere on the edge of sleep for what seemed like a long time. When he woke, the pain was nearly gone and his shoulder felt almost whole again.
Chapter 15
He lay still in the dark, listening. He could hear the shadow of voices drifting up from the plain below. “Lucky?”
“I’m here,” he said in a whisper.
“How long have I been out?”
“Several minutes. The healing salve renders you unconscious briefly while it finishes its work. How does your shoulder feel?”
“Much better,” Alexander said as he sat up. He could still feel a slight pain where he’d been injured but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. “What’s happening?”
“The Reishi are at the base of the plateau. I suspect they’ll send some men up to search the ruin within minutes. Normally, I would insist that you rest for at least a full day before doing anything physical but under the circumstances, perhaps we should go see if Anatoly could use our help.”
Alexander rubbed his shoulder. Magic always amazed him. The wound was completely closed over. Only the roughness of a scar remained where less than an hour before a crossbow bolt had been buried in his flesh. He stretched his arm gently this way and that, then rolled his shoulder to get an idea of his limitations. The shoulder was stiff and still hurt when he put a strain on it, but otherwise it felt better than he could have hoped for.
He dug into his pack and found his spare shirt and his cloak. The air was cold and he started to shiver almost as soon as he sat up from under the blanket Lucky had draped over him.
Alexander crept up behind Anatoly, who was kneeling behind the eastern edge of the low wall that ringed the top of the plateau.
Anatoly glanced back and whispered, “Good to see you up and about. How’s the shoulder?”
“Not quite mended but well enough. What’s the situation?”
Anatoly motioned over the wall, “There’s about a dozen of ’em and that fire wizard is with them. They just started picketing their horses.”
Alexander peered carefully over the low wall. He let his vision go out of focus but didn’t see any more than he expected. There were twelve men and twelve horses. He could hear someone barking orders and then half a dozen men with torches started out toward the plateau.
“What are our defenses?” Alexander asked quietly.
“We piled a bunch of stones in the gatehouse tunnel to slow them down and create a choke point. There are arrow slits all along the entrance tunnel so we can probably hold them there. We also put stacks of stones the size of a man’s head all around the perimeter wall and on top of the gatehouse. If we do it right, they won’t be able to get enough men up to the top of the ramp to be a problem. My only real concern is that wizard.”
Alexander took another look at the group of men approaching. He let his vision go out of focus so he could see their colors. He’d used his little bit of magic so often that he just took it for granted. He couldn’t imagine how limiting it must be to only see with normal vision. He could tell by the colors of the six men headed their way that the wizard wasn’t among them. People who’d been through the mana fast had a deeper mix of colors with more intensity and their aura usually extended farther around them, giving off a brighter glow. Just one more little piece of vital information that he could see and others could not.
“We may get lucky. The wizard isn’t with the group that’s on the way up.”
Lucky came up alongside them and carefully peered over the wall. “Abigail is on the gatehouse with her bow, and Jack is at the western perimeter wall with a large stack of rocks. I’ve quieted the horses and given them something to soothe their nerves so they won’t get spooked and start running if we have to fight. You say the wizard isn’t with that group headed our way?”
“No, it looks like he’s still back at their camp.” Alexander tested his shoulder again. He was feeling stronger despite his fatigue.
“Odds are they don’t know we’re here, probably just sending scouts to make sure,” Lucky mused.
Anatoly spoke softly, “Agreed. We can make short work of these six from Jack’s position. I recommend we hit them by surprise and thin their numbers. The rest of their soldiers will be here in the morning, no doubt. The fewer men we have to face in the light, the better our chances.”
Alexander nodded, “Lucky, stay here and warn us if the other six head our way. We’ll throw a few rocks at them and see if we can’t knock them off the path before they know what hit ’em.”
Anatoly and Alexander stayed low and close to the tower. The element of surprise was their best weapon and they didn’t want to squander it with carelessness. They gave the picketed horses a wide berth and made their way through the darkness to Jack’s position.
“Alexander, it’s good to see you up and about. You gave us quite a scare back there,” Jack whispered. He was sitting with his back to the low stone wall between two stacks of rocks. He had also lined the top of the wall with a rock every foot or so for a dozen feet in each direction.
Alexander peeked over the wall. It was twenty feet to the narrow path below and another thirty feet from the path to the ground. There was no cover. It was the perfect place for an ambush.
He thought back to his childhood lessons. He could hear the words of his father’s lecture in his mind: “Surprise and deception are two of the most formidable weapons you will ever have. More battles have been won by clever use of surprise or deception than by larger numbers, superior weapons, greater skill, or even magic. Each depends on the essential element of belief. If you can create a false belief in the mind of your enemy and exploit that belief, they will fall and you will prevail.”
Alexander knew that they would win this battle and they would win because they had the element of surprise. It suddenly occurred to him that he had lost the last battle, in large part, because he had allowed himself to be surprised and it had very nearly cost him his life.
When he heard the six men coming up the path, his mind snapped back to the present. He relaxed his vision and scanned all around for any sign of life that he wasn’t aware of, but saw none. Six men came around the corner of the plateau and into view. They were walking single file, each carrying a torch, and they were complaining about being assigned to scout the plateau. Each wore the crest of the Southport city guard. Alexander supposed they had been bought by the Reishi just like the other guards. He wondered if the Regent of Southport was actually the one who was in league with Phane. It made sense. The Reishi Prince would bribe the most powerful and influential people he could in order to secure power over the Seven Isles.
Alexander, Jack, and Anatoly each stood quietly in the darkness and each took a heavy rock from those placed along the top of the wall. They waited until the first three soldiers passed and the remaining three were directly below them. As one, they carefully tossed their rocks into the night. There was no need to heave them. They didn’t need to add any force or power to their impromptu weapons. Each rock weighed a good twenty pounds or more. All they needed to do was toss them accurately and let gravity do the rest. Each small boulder sailed through the darkness, gathering frightening speed. Smoke swirled violently when the rocks passed out of the darkness and into the sphere of light cast by the enemy’s flickering torches.
The first rock was a direct hit. The soldier crumpled to the ground in a heap as the rock caved in his skull despite the protection of his helm. The second rock struck the next in line on the back of his left shoulder. He pitched forward in surprise and stumbled right off the edge of the path, plummeting thirty feet to the ground without so much as a whimper. The third rock smashed squarely into the base of the last man’s neck. He fell forward flat on his face and didn’t move again.
The next salvo of boulders was away before the first three had a chance to understand or react to the attack. One took a direct hit to the face when he spun and looked up. He fell in a broken and bloody mess. The next dodged quickly enough to avoid the boulder hurtling toward his head but lost his balance in the bargain and went over the edge, screaming briefly before the ground silenced him. The third managed to leap backward and get his shield up just in time to take a solid hit. He fell backward but the heavy rock glanced off his round shield. He was back on his feet more quickly than Alexander would have thought possible. The last man standing ran for his life.
Anatoly was ready. He cast his next stone off the edge in an arc that brought it down in front of the fleeing guard. The moment the rock was away, Anatoly raced along the wall to the next position where he’d placed stones. The rock he tossed missed but he hadn’t been trying to hit him. He wanted it to come down in front of the fleeing soldier to slow him down and it worked like a charm. The soldier stopped short when the rock shattered on the path in front of him, and then he looked up, raising his shield, for the next attack. Anatoly cast a stone aimed for the glint of moonlight off polished steal. The rock scored a direct hit against the shield. The force of it propelled the soldier off the path as if he’d been tossed by a giant. He hit the ground with a terrible thud and the night went silent.