The Edge of Shadow, page 33
part #5 of The Kin of Kings Series
He ripped open the gateway. After men slid in the battering ram endways to fit it in the opening, Henry and his troops were the first ones in. Basen’s swelling pride gave him strength as he watched person after person rush into his portal with the same determined look.
Then the citizens of the capital started showing up in line, scattered among the soldiers. Even after Henry’s warning, some hesitated with obvious trepidation. Others were struck with awe and momentarily forgot they were supposed to run into the portal instead of admire it.
Greg stood out among everyone. Without Cleve here, he might’ve been the tallest one. But nowhere near Rockbreak’s height. The giant was the only one with the potential to wreck Basen’s plan worse than the psychic officer.
It was Alabell who’d told Basen how the castle called for help when it came under attack. There were launchers on top of the castle designed to fling burning clusters of some kind of plant high into the air, leaving trails of smoke thick enough to be seen from the other cities. He asked Alabell if Cleve’s cousin might be able to enter the castle disguised in enemy uniform and stop these flares from launching, but Alabell had told him it would be impossible to convince anyone to let her near the flares. So the flares would be launched no matter what; Basen would have to take the castle before help arrived.
As he strained to keep the portal open, he wished he’d had more time to keep up his battle casting training. Perhaps if Abith had made it to the city…Basen hoped to see the sword master today, but more than that, he hoped to see the rest of his army alive when everything was done.
“How many more?” Alabell asked from the bottom of the stairs.
“About a third,” Wilfre called from outside headquarters. “The flares have been launched.”
Already? They must’ve spotted the armored troops pouring out of Basen’s portal into the training center. We should’ve waited longer to make sure Sneary had reached the wall by now.
Basen focused his mind on the task at hand as the portal became heavier and harder to manage.
Eventually, Wilfre called from outside, “That’s almost everyone.”
Soon Vithos came down the stairs with his febeetles in tow. Cleve’s cousin, Quessa, took her place at the top of the stairs when the febeetles had cleared. The enemy uniform was slightly too large for her, but she’d convinced Basen earlier it wouldn’t keep her from getting into the castle.
Now that the flare had gone off early, however, he wasn’t so sure.
“We are last,” she said. The three of them were the only ones in enemy uniforms.
Basen would gladly let the portal close but not before taking his first and only glance within. Alabell had watched for him to ensure everyone tumbling through the portal was able to move out of the way quickly enough, and now they all appeared to be drawing their weapons in preparation for battle.
Basen discarded the used akorell bracelet. He still had two on each arm but he used another to open a portal to the back of the castle. Vithos sent in the febeetles first, then followed them in. Quessa went in afterward.
“I’ll be safe,” Basen told Alabell as Wilfre came into the basement to watch from the stairs.
“I’m in love with you,” she blurted.
“Alabell!” Wilfre scolded as Basen went into shock. “Now is not the time!”
Alabell ignored him. “I needed to tell you before you left. There was no time earlier. Go, don’t let the portal close.”
“Go, Basen!” Wilfre demanded. “Vithos is vulnerable behind the castle right now.”
Wilfre was right. But the delay had given Basen enough time to realize that he couldn’t imagine his life without Alabell. If that wasn’t love, he wasn’t sure what was.
“I’m in love with you, too.”
Alabell squeezed his arm before running up the stairs.
Basen walked into the portal and then tumbled out. Overwhelmed by the dizziness of his emotions, he barely felt the vertigo.
“Why you smile?” Vithos asked. “We still need hurry?”
“Yes.” Basen focused on his task, searching the stone wall for any kind of discoloration.
“It’s here.” With what appeared to be a bored look, Quessa pointed at a circle that was lighter in color than the rest.
Basen stabbed his sword into it as he heard shouting from within the castle. The febeetles squirmed around their feet while Basen took out a chunk of partially melted stone.
“That’s it?” Quessa complained. The hole only appeared deep enough for a finger. “The wall is at least three times as thick as that hole!”
“No that’s not it.” Basen stuck his sword deeper into the wall and scraped it around to loosen the rock shoved in by his allies to hide the hole. Every night, he’d made a portal for a mage in enemy uniform to spread Jack’s stone-softening substance deeper into the hole. Then the mages would push energy as far into the hole as possible. It was up to them when to walk back to H district.
Basen scraped out all the loose rock he could, then pointed his wand over the hole and made light for a look. It was deep but stopped short of opening up into the great hall of the castle.
Basen stepped back and put his hand over the small opening. Quessa stood right beside it with a scowl.
“Move,” Basen said.
She took a single step away, not even glancing down to ensure she didn’t crush the febeetles.
Without using any of the four akorell bracelets remaining, Basen gathered bastial energy into the hole. He packed it together as deep as he could, then opened a portal inside the wall. He forced it to expand. It ate away at the edges of the wall weakened by potion.
The stone creaked in complaint.
“The whole wall is going to come down,” Quessa warned him.
“It won’t. The portal isn’t strong enough to eat solid blocks of stone, only the loosened parts.”
He could feel the portal pushing against the edges like water pressing against his head in a deep lake. He pushed harder and harder until he felt something give in front of the portal. He let go and the portal devoured the energy and sucked up some of the pebbles remaining in the tunnel. Basen put his eye against it and could see light coming through from the other end.
He heard movement behind him and turned to see Vithos aiming his hand straight up. “Quiet,” the Elf whispered. “Scout on edge of top.”
“Quessa,” Basen whispered, “go around and get in the castle now. Find Reela and Annah.”
She rushed around the castle. Eventually Basen heard her shouting at the uniforms guarding the entrance.
“Let me in! I know what the rebels are planning.” She sounded so angry yet sure of herself that Basen had trouble believing it was the same emotionless woman.
He looked up with Vithos, ready for someone to peer over the edge. “Can you pain him from here?” Basen asked.
“Yes but only—”
A head appeared. “What are you doing down there?”
“Wait,” Basen whispered to Vithos. He called up to the watcher, “Finally, you heard us calling to you. We will ambush them when they attack. I have many more waiting for instruction. Are the others coming from the wall or are they still engaged in combat?”
“What is that on the ground?” asked the watcher.
“Beetles!” Basen yelled with annoyed urgency. “We must’ve disturbed a colony down here, so hurry up and answer me.”
“They’re coming from the wall. Join them when they get here.”
Basen muttered a curse. “We have to do everything at twice the speed we planned. Now, Vithos.”
Vithos grunted and gave his arm a shake. The watcher screamed and fell, but the parapets caught him. Basen fired straight up. The enemy caught the fireball with his face and stopped screaming.
He disappeared, only smoke remaining. Probably dead. Basen wouldn’t let himself feel guilty about any of this until the end.
Vithos put his hand against the wall. The febeetles moved at blinding speed in a line of pure black up from the ground into the hole. Basen cursed again. In all their haste, he’d forgotten a plug for the hole. Vithos would lose control of the febeetles shortly after sending them through. They could go anywhere within in the castle, even back from where they came. Hopefully Reela and Annah would take control sooner rather than later.
Basen figured Quessa would still be shouting for their enemies to open the door if she hadn’t gotten inside yet. She would now fight her way to Reela and Annah to protect them, while the febeetles should give her the distraction she needed.
“Done,” Vithos said.
Basen found a rock that should do. He jammed it into the hole. There were two gaps on either corner, none big enough for the large beetles.
“Let’s go.”
The two of them ran around the side of the castle.
“What are you doing?” shouted someone from above as they came around front. Basen looked up to see a team of archers on top of the castle ready to shoot at his approaching allies.
“Too far for pain,” Vithos told Basen quietly. “And too many.”
Their uniforms should protect them for now. “We’ll kill them all!” Basen shouted to the archers.
The enemies’ confusion lasted long enough for Basen and Vithos to get all the way down the hill the castle was built upon before arrows began breaking against the ground around them. They took the first turn available to put shops between them and the castle. Here they shed the blue uniforms and rejoined their army.
“Their archers are ready for us, unfortunately,” Basen informed his father. “Can febeetles get to the top of the castle?” Having spent some time inside, Henry knew the layout better than Basen did.
“Unlikely. They’d have to climb a ladder. I don’t imagine our psychics having the time to stand nearby and direct the beetles up one.”
“Then we’ll need to counterattack the archers as we approach.”
The entirety of their plan revolved around getting into the castle before enemy reinforcements arrived. The door had to be opened.
Basen’s officers helped him organize their ranks quickly. Then they marched down the main road as the frightened and unaware citizenry ran past them the opposite way. Basen let loose soaring fireballs with his fellow mages as their ally archers shot into the sky. With numbers on their side, the archers atop the castle disappeared far behind the parapets, hopefully taking cover in the castle rather than attempting to fire back.
“We rush!” Henry commanded.
They sprinted up the hill, the drum of their boots making Basen feel as if they could storm right through the ironbark door. He dispelled that foolish thought as soon as it came.
Once they made it to the top, they circled around the door. Basen moved close to one of the arrow slits beside it. Everyone waited for his order.
He witnessed an empty great hall. Distant shrieks echoed. Something moved in front of him. Basen spun away as a sword stuck through. He kicked the flat end before his attacker could pull it back. It dropped and fell out of the thin opening. The fool ran up the stairs.
Quessa and our psychics must be busy elsewhere. He had hoped to get into the castle while keeping the massive ironbark door intact, but there was no time to waste on hope.
“Break it down,” Basen said.
The strongest of their men were still making their way up the hill with the battering ram. Basen turned his attention back to the arrow slit. Perhaps the febeetles weren’t as vicious and terrifying as he’d thought. They were supposed to drive the castle folk and troops out, opening the door for Basen’s army to come in swiftly and kill Ulric. Or perhaps the task was just too much for Quessa, Reela, and Annah to handle on their own.
Basen started to step back as his men got the battering ram in place but something within the castle caught his eye. “Wait. They’re coming.”
Quessa and the two psychics bounded down the stairs. “Behind us,” Quessa announced.
Reela turned and thrust out her hand. Two soldiers upon the balcony collapsed. Quessa started up toward them, but they crawled away as they screamed, and she soon gave up.
As the three women got the door open from the other side, and Basen’s army started to pour in, he took time to scan the city. Black smoke rose up from the east. He could not see the wall past it. Citizens fled, no doubt as word got around of the psychic officer’s interrogations in which homes would be burned when no answers were provided. But the streets were clear of soldiers as far as Basen could see. They must’ve been summoned to defend the wall against Sneary’s attack. Good.
Basen was the last one in the castle. “Help me get the door shut.” Members of his army helped him close the heavy ironbark door and shift the nearby lever to raise unseen locks from the ground. Then they moved the battering ram to sit just in front of the door.
His army knew to search the castle in teams and began this task without delay. Basen found Reela and Annah in the great hall catching their breaths. Before he could ask about Ulric, Reela was already telling him what he needed to know.
“He’s gone to the top of the eastern tower with a few hundred below ready to fight for him. We sent those beetles after every soldier we could find and managed to kill quite a few, but every enemy still alive should be gathered below the tower now. The beetles will probably be dead by the time we get there.”
“How many mages, archers, and psychics do they have?”
“A few mages, a dozen archers, and one psychic,” Reela said.
“Any chance of a trap?”
“No. You took them by surprise.”
“What now?” Annah asked.
“We kill Ulric.”
Basen chose a small team to remain around the door while everyone else rushed up the stairways. Jack volunteered to head the team.
“I’ll shout when we see them coming,” Jack said with a proud grin. “I have an excellent shouting voice that’s rarely used.”
It was a long way up, and not a single person made it to the top without gasping for breath. Basen bolted around the slow-moving line of his troops and eventually came to his father and a group of soldiers standing at the edge just before another hall. The rest gathered behind Basen. He figured the enemies must be waiting right around the turn.
“No more beetles to distract them,” Henry informed him. “The hall is wide enough for five men. We’re waiting on shields.”
Greg appeared to be the most competitive of their army to get at the front, shoving his way there and then peering around the corner. “They come!”
Basen heard a stampede of boots. They know most of us are tired from the stairs.
“Back away from the corner,” he ordered. “Give me space.” They moved behind him.
“What are you doing?” his father asked in horror.
Basen was too busy concentrating to answer. He drew out the energy from one of his four remaining akorell bracelets as he stepped into the hall. Basen fed sartious energy to the heavy cluster of swirling white energy while his charging enemies let out a roar of aggression. He willed it forward as it caught fire.
Heat rapped against Basen’s back as he turned. The fireball growled as it exploded. Then it crackled and sizzled.
Basen turned back. It had cleared half of the hall, the troops in the other half stunned. As their wits returned, archers and mages lining up their shots, Basen fled around the corner. A barrage of arrows and fireballs pelted the balcony, others exploding against the far castle wall.
“Shields ready,” Henry announced. A swarm of his troops came together in front of Basen. Archers took to his sides. Vithos, Reela, and Annah squeezed in behind him.
“Now,” Henry said.
They made their way around the corner and immediately blocked an array of arrows. Basen and the archers beside him shot over the heads of his ally shield bearers, but their enemies had lined up shields as well.
There was a flash of light as an enemy mage let loose a fireball. The shield bearer in front of Basen intercepted it but fell backward into him. Basen caught and steadied him, but the shield slipped free from his hands. Two arrows pelted the man’s torso, felling him. Before Basen could reach down to grab the shield, Greg had already taken it and stepped into line. He blocked the few arrows that would’ve pierced Basen, then broke into a sudden charge.
Everyone followed suit, enemies included. Basen put away his wand and drew his sword. Shields clashed as swords found flesh. Basen stabbed around Greg and felt his blade slide into something that screamed.
They tore through the first line of enemies, and their psychics took down the next. Now with no shields in their way, their attacking army plowed through the third and fourth lines.
They ravaged their enemies and soon came to the end of the hall. Littered among the corpses were hundreds of dead febeetles. A short ladder rose up to a closed hatch made of black ironbark.
“Ulric is up there,” Reela said.
Greg was the first one on the ladder, practically snarling at Basen when he put his hands on the rung.
“Let me,” Greg said. “My parents were killed because of him and Tauwin.”
Basen backed off. Greg climbed up and pushed against the square hatch. Metal clinked louder the harder he pushed, no doubt locked from above. He groaned as he shoved even harder, veins bulging in his neck. Basen feared Greg might fall as he thrust his sword against the wood with Cleve-like strength.
Basen turned and asked his father, “Is there another way up?”
“Not to that platform, but to another that might give us a line of sight. Follow me.”
Jack Rose was screaming from the great hall as Basen followed his father along the balcony.
“They’ve arrived!”
“How many?” Basen shouted back.
“Too many.”
“We need more time. How long until they get here?”
“Minutes.”
Basen gave his father a dire look.
“There might be enough time,” Henry said.
They broke into a sprint.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Cleve felt as if he could barely breathe. The buttons of his pilfered uniform dug into his chest each time he took a deep breath. It was the largest they could find on any of their slain enemies, and it had been cleaned and altered with a hawk on its back.
