Alutar: The Great Demon (24 page)

“This was just catapulted over the wall,” the corporal reported. “It is Colonel Atman’s head.”

“I can see that,” snapped the general. “Who sent it, and how did they manage to get a catapult within range of the city walls?”

“It was a miniature catapult,” answered the corporal. “It looks like it could easily be carried by a lone man. When the fog cleared moments ago, a single black-clad man stood in the middle of the road. He sent the head over the wall. He also has a white flag planted in the ground.”

Runners from various areas of the wall began running into the castle, and General Salaman glanced away from the corporal to see what they wanted.

“There is an army in the forest north of the city,” reported one of the new arrivals.

“East of the city as well,” added another.

“And in the south,” declared a third. “The men wear some kind of black uniform.”

“There aren’t enough rebels in all of Karamin to surround this city,” scowled the general. “You men are seeing ghosts. Where is my personal escort?” he shouted.

Six soldiers came running down the stairs. They took up positions around the general and awaited his orders.

“I want all of the city gates closed and barred,” ordered General Salaman. “No one enters or leaves the city without my permission. I want every available man to report to the walls immediately. Get moving.”

The runners turned and raced out of the general’s presence. When they were gone, he instructed his escorts to take him to the parley north of the city. The seven men walked through the still open doors of the castle, unaware of the invisible figure lurking near the entrance. While the general did order the doors closed and barred as he left the castle, he did not do so before the invisible man had slipped inside.

General Salaman and his escorts reached the northern gates of the city and ordered them to open. He stood staring at the distant black-clad figure for several moments before exiting the gates and marching one hundred paces away from the city wall. There he halted and waved for the distant figure to come to him. The Ranger responded by walking one hundred paces closer to the general, but then he also stopped.

“We can play this game all morning, General,” Mitar Vidson called out, “but I will not be stepping within range of your wall archers. Leave your escort where they are and meet me half way. I will guarantee your safe return to Calusa.”

“The same return you provided for Colonel Atman?” snarled the general.

“Colonel Atman offered no flag of truce,” Mitar replied. “Nor did we offer one to him. He came to destroy us, but the result was not what he expected. Shall we continue to yell at each other?”

“What do you want?” shouted the general.

“We want your surrender, General,” Mitar called back. “Surrender Calusa and your men will live. Force us to attack, and they will die. It is a simple and generous offer. You have until high sun to comply.”

“You are bold,” retorted the general, “but boldness alone will not win this battle. Your men are spread thin, and you are incapable of entering this city.”

“You know nothing of my men,” Mitar called out. “You think we are rebels, but you are wrong. We are Alcean Rangers, the most elite fighting force in the world. We helped to defeat your armies in Alcea, and now we are here to liberate Karamin. You will surrender or you will die. You have only hours to decide.”

Mitar Vidson immediately turned and walked into the forest. General Salaman stood staring at the road where the black-clad man had stood. His first impulse was to ignore the man’s ramblings as those of a demented old man, but he shook his head in acknowledgement of such a folly. The man he had parleyed with had been a warrior. Of that there was no doubt. His every movement spoke of strength and stealth, and his voice held a confidence that was far more than mere bravado. Whoever the black-clad man truly was, General Salaman considered him a worthy opponent. Still, he saw no siege engines, and he had to believe that the enemy’s force was spread too thin to attack from all sides of the city. That would take an army of many thousands, and he did not believe that such an army was out there. The general sighed and turned back towards the city. With his escorts, he returned to the castle and met with King Vlador.

On the third floor of the castle, two maids moved quietly along the corridor and stopped outside a nondescript door. One of the maids handed the bundles of cloth she had been carrying to the other maid. She then reached up and unclasped her necklace and let two keys slide into her hand. She used one of the keys to open the door to the small armory room. Both maids moved into the small room and closed the door. The bundles of cloth were discarded on the floor while the maid with the keys opened the locked weapons closet. Together they pulled weapons out of the closet and placed them on the table where they could be handed out quickly. Within moments, other members of the castle staff began arriving outside the small room. The maids quickly dispersed the weapons and then locked the weapons closet and the door to the armory as they left the room.

While similar weapons disbursements were happening on the other floors, these two particular maids had an additional task to perform before the fighting started. Leaving the third floor armory, they made their way into the servants’ passages. They hurried up the stairs to the highest level of the castle and then split up. One of them moved towards the tower near the front of the castle, while Panas moved towards the tower at the rear.

When Panas reached the door to the tower, she opened the door and stepped through it. She quickly stripped off the weapons she had just taken from the armory and set them on the landing of the circular stairwell. She bent down and picked up a tray that had been left for her. Pulling a knife from underneath her uniform, she held it carefully underneath the tray of food and forced a cheerful smile to her lips. She hummed a cheerful tune as she climbed up the steps to the lookout post at the top of the tower. The guard heard her coming long before he saw her. When he saw her cheerful face appear at the top of the stairs, he smiled at the intrusion.

“Is that for me?” the soldier asked.

“It is,” smiled Panas. “There is some kind of a disturbance outside the walls today, so it was thought that you might like to have something brought up. I hope it is to your liking.”

“There are rebels outside the walls,” the soldier offered as he reached for the tray. “Imagine those fools actually trying to threaten this city. They will all be dead before high sun.”

“I think not,” Panas said with a smile as she felt the soldier take the weight of the tray.

The Rhodan warrior shoved the knife into the soldier’s body and ripped upward. The soldier’s face showed surprise and then shock as his body sagged and then dropped to the floor. The tray and everything on it fell noisily to the floor, but Panas had no concerns about anyone hearing the noise. The tower was fairly isolated.

Panas pulled a red scarf from under her clothes and moved to the edge of the tower. She looked first towards the tower near the front of the castle and then down at the roof of Sidney Mercado’s warehouse. She waved the red scarf at the man lounging on the roof of the warehouse and saw another red scarf waving from the front tower. With the task complete, Panas hurried down the stairs and retrieved her weapons. She hurried back up to the lookout and peered down at the warehouse again.

The roof of the warehouse had become a hive of activity. Men scurried over the roof and pushed a large contraption into place. Panas watched as men started turning a large crank. With each turn of the crank, the contraption grew longer, and a platform soon extended over the metal fence surrounding the castle. The men continued cranking and soon the platform stretched all the way to the side of the castle. Panas leaned out of the lookout to see how the platform was being attached to the castle, but she could not lean out far enough to get a good view. She had heard Max Caber describe the contraption, but she had had a hard time picturing it. Now that it was in place, she marveled at its simplicity. Within moments, the platform was locked in place and men began running across it and into the castle. Panas tore her eyes away from the contraption and scanned the area, looking for anyone who might have a chance to see what was going on.

Down on the third floor of the castle, Max Caber stood with Boric and Yortana. He was not as concerned about anyone seeing the maneuver as Panas was. Over the previous months, Max had managed to purchase all of the buildings surrounding the warehouse. He knew that the only chance of anyone seeing the infiltration was from nearby castle windows or people passing by the open space at the front or rear of the castle. He had assigned staff members to make sure that all of the windows were shuttered or guarded, and he had men staged outside as distractions for anyone passing by the open spaces. He had timed the maneuver several times, and he felt confident it could be accomplished undetected.

“That’s the last of them,” Boric declared as a Karaminian patriot stepped off the platform and into the room. “I am having the platform withdrawn.”

“Excellent,” smiled Max. “I will leave you two to command your troops. I have a mission of my own to accomplish.”

“K’san?” asked Boric.

“Yes,” nodded the Ranger. “Remember to warn your people to stay away from him. Only an enchanted blade can kill him.”

“Stay safe,” Yortana said warmly. “I want you around to celebrate our victory.”

Max smiled and nodded as he slipped out of the room. He moved swiftly to the nearest stairwell and took off his cloak. He reversed it and pulled it back on, making him invisible. He pulled his sword from its sheath and held it alongside his body before heading down the stairs. When he reached the ground floor, he watched the corridor before moving into it. There was an unusually large number of soldiers moving about the castle. Max imagined that General Salaman was receiving constant reports from each of the city walls, and he was probably using runners to reposition his troops depending on the reports coming in.

The invisible Ranger moved cautiously, but also as quickly as he dared. With so many patriots inside the castle, Max knew it was only a matter of time before some of them were discovered. When that happened, chaos would reign throughout the castle, and that was when he expected the demonic priest to emerge from his office.

Max almost made it to the priest’s office before shouts were heard from both the front and rear of the castle. Soldiers who had been walking started running, and the corridor became a dangerous place for the invisible man. He barely avoided three collisions before he caught sight of the priest emerging from his office. K’san stood for a moment outside his door, as if trying to decide which direction to go. Max froze. Almost as if sensing the Ranger, the priest turned towards Max, his eyes scanning the corridor and his brow creasing with concern. K’san strode directly towards Max as if he could see him, but then the Ranger saw the priest’s eyes flick past him towards some distant sound near the front of the castle. K’san moved quickly towards the noise.

As the priest grew close, Max turned and shoved his enchanted blade out of the cloak and into the side of the demonkin. K’san howled with anger as he turned his head and reached out, seeking his hidden opponent. Max dropped to one knee and shoved the sword upward as hard as he could. The demonkin hissed loudly and collapsed to the floor. Max heard the nearby shouts as he was pulling the sword out of the priest. He whirled to find three soldiers racing towards him, their swords drawn. Max immediately leaped backwards, placing the body of the priest between him and the soldiers. Two of the soldiers veered to run around the body, but the middle one jumped over K’san. Max stepped forward and skewered the jumper as he landed. Abandoning his sword, the Ranger dove and rolled to his right, his body connecting with the legs of one of the other soldiers. As the soldier tumbled to the floor, Max reached into his pouch and pulled out two Lanoirian stars. He tossed one of the stars at the third soldier and then scrambled to his feet. As the second soldier picked up his sword and turned towards Max, the Ranger let the second star fly.

Max moved towards his sword, but he halted and checked the corridor in both directions before reaching out and pulling it out of the body of the first soldier. There were no more soldiers running around the corridors, and Max noted that the shouting was now distant. He wiped the blood off his sword and concealed it before moving towards the nearest stairwell. He hurried up to the second floor where General Salaman had his office, but the door was ajar and the room was empty. The Ranger turned and headed for the king’s office.

* * * *

King Vlador sat at one end of the table, and General Salaman sat at the other. The six soldiers who made up the general’s escort stood along the wall looking bored. Without warning, the door to the corridor opened and a servant stepped into the room with a tray of beverages.

“Oh, I am sorry,” the woman apologized loudly. “I had no idea that there were six extra men in here. I will have to go back for more drinks.”

“What are you doing in here?” scowled the king. “Get out!”

“I am sorry,” the woman apologized again as she knelt and placed the tray on the floor. “I will just leave these here and go get the other six.”

While everyone was focused on the kneeling woman, patriots and Rhodan warriors surged into the room, their arrows streaking into the soldiers. King Vlador gaped at the intruders, but General Salaman rose to his feet, knocking his chair over. His hand started going for his sword, but his cause was hopeless. He held his hands away from his body as one of the patriots stepped forward and relieved him of his sword.

“You will never get away with this,” snarled King Vlador. “I will enjoy watching every one of you tortured to death.”

“I think not, cousin,” Boric said as he entered the room. “You have tortured your last victim. You are no longer King of Karamin.”

Before the king could respond, a knife flew from Boric’s hand and imbedded in the king’s chest. King Vlador gasped briefly and then died. Boric pulled a chair away from the table and sat down facing the general. He waved to indicate that the general should sit, and General Salaman complied.