Escana (73 page)

Garth let out a deep breath, Thom
felt a surge of panic as the next inhalation seemed to stall.

'She deserved you, and you were
my friend. You deserved the best in life after everything you've been
through.'

Thom found that he couldn't
speak, Garth's voice was fading into a bare whisper.

'I've beaten you to her this
time. I can't keep you out of trouble any more, Thom. We'll be
waiting for you, do what you must to avenge her.'

It was his final breath.

Thom felt a tugging sensation, he
found that he was ramming his fists against anything in sight and
yelling at the top of his lungs. Pieces of debris had gone flying
everywhere and one side of the tent had a large tear in it. Gadtor
was trying to restrain him, yet it seemed like everything was
happening from a great distance. There was a finality to his friend's
passing that had solidified his purpose, he didn't believe in an
afterlife but if Garth's quaint beliefs turned out to be true then
Thom found himself ready to join them.

He realised he was still thinking
about the man as if he were alive, he was gone now.

Eventually he let Gadtor restrain
him, a distressed looking soldier had come in and had hold of his
other arm, Skullcleaver was on the floor covered in sand from the
struggle.

'It's alright,' he finally said
to them. 'The moment has passed.'

When he looked back down at the
corpse in the tent he knew that it wasn't Garth. Whatever had made
that collection of sinew and bone and flesh the man he cared about
had gone.

He reached down and wiped the
sand off Skullcleaver, strapping it to his back once more and
straightening up, all eyes were on him.

'How do we proceed, General?'
Gadtor prompted.

'We carry out the orders brought
to us by the Imperial liaison.' He turned to the other young soldier.
'What's your name, son?'

'Inglewood, sir.'

'You're either a fool or a brave
soul, often the line between the two is very thin, thank you for
letting me have a chance to speak to the General one last time.'

The boy didn't know what to say
to that, rapping off a smart salute instead.

'I want you to run through the
camp and assess our losses, send any men of authority in the
direction of this tent, I shall be meeting them outside it to discuss
our orders.'

'Yes sir!' With that the boy was
off, clearly eager to leave the scene behind him.

'So in spite of surviving, we
march out together and die fighting like you always said we would,'
Gadtor said, the resignation in his voice quite obvious.

Thom felt it then, knew in his
heart of hearts what he been left behind to do.

'I don't plan on dying, Gadtor.
Not until whatever spooked the lizards in this forsaken place lies
dead at my feet.'

He motioned his leg forward and
Gadtor followed in his wake as they met the sun and readied for the
final assault.

A
fter the
attempt on his life Jimmy didn't much feel like returning to his
small and vulnerable room, instead he was aimlessly wandering the
corridors of the fort and hoping that somehow The Hermit would
appear.

It was an entirely fruitless
search and the reality of that was starting to dawn upon him. Was he
not more likely to bump into his would-be assassin out here than if
he returned to his room and waited the night out?

It was almost as if he could
still feel the cold steel against his neck, some irrational thought
pressed him into taking action. He couldn't go back there to that
small, dark room and fret over his fate. He had to take action, even
if he wasn't sure what to do.

His racing heart had started to
slow and his initial hopes of discovering where his saviour had
vanished to dimmed. He found he couldn't bring himself to start
opening doors for fear of what he found inside. Had the assassin
truly done away with all of the fort's guard? It seemed
incomprehensible that one man could cause so much devastation when
given the freedom to walk where he willed at night. Why had none of
A-Company attempted to do so before if it had been possible?

He was beginning to think that
the feats this killer had claimed to perform were beyond a simple
arena fighter, the foreigner had a certain set of skills that had
gone by undetected somehow. He only hoped that man had been bluffing,
but then how did he manage to get to Jimmy's room undetected? How did
The Hermit manage it too? Something was missing, yet another vast gap
in his knowledge where an explanation was lacking.

Footsteps and voices sounded from
just ahead. Jimmy instinctively ducked into a passageway and hoped
that they wouldn't spot him, who else was awake in the fort at this
time?

The sound now came from behind
him, had they taken some other turn? No, the original noise was
growing too, that meant there were two different forces about to
collide where Jimmy stood, he had no way out.

Panic set in once again, either
he dash out and encounter the original patrol or run back and
intercept the second one. He chose the latter, walking further down
the corridor in a motion he hoped wouldn't scream 'escaped prisoner'.

They were guards, he didn't
recognise them but their uniforms brooked no argument. They sighted
him and proceeded toward his general direction, Jimmy determinedly
fought down the urge to flee.

The man at their head roughly
jostled him, sending him into the wall of the corridor. 'Out of the
way, dog,' he snarled.

Jimmy couldn't believe his luck,
they were marching past him as if he wasn't there. They didn't care
that he was wandering around the corridors of Greyhawk in the middle
of the night, apparently they were searching for his assailant.

The two groups of guards
converged at the end of the corridor, Jimmy stayed against the wall
and hazarded listening in to their conversation.

'I checked with the companies
sir, they said there was no sign of any intruder. Looks like a
coordinated assault on the guards from someone outside of Greyhawk.'

Jimmy was startled when he heard
the other man's voice, it had the exact same accent as the foreigner
that had attacked him.

'The only person that leave
Greyhawk since the Praetor has been that lizard fucker. Why would he
return and where be his scaly friend? I'll relay my suspicions with
the guard Captain, he says whoever it is can't kill us all if we stay
together.'

So the guards thought the
foreigner was either sparing the slaves or leaving them until last.
Jimmy knew the answer but also knew the consequences of his butting
in on their conversation. He had to get to the companies and warn
them, perhaps if they knew what was coming they could do something
about the threat of this mad man.

He made his way through the
corridors at a light jog, trying his best to balance his sense of
urgency with the fear of being waylaid unexpectedly. He was so
preoccupied that he only realised the door to C-Company was locked
shortly before arriving.

Grabbing the handle in
frustration he pushed against it with all his might and to his
surprise the door flew open, revealing a figure crouched over the
sleeping form of Darinnis with an all-too-familiar sword.

The figure leapt towards him and
Jimmy flinched with a yelp, stumbling backward and out of the
doorway. His legs gave under him as he expected the cold bite of
steel, it never came.

He opened his eyes and there was
a muttering coming from the room as several members of C-Company
found their feet.

Eigani was first to the door,
looking out in bewilderment at Jimmy slumped against the far wall.

'What are you doing up so late
lad? Miss our company? How did you get a key to the door in the first
place?'

Jimmy patiently explained to the
gathering members that he had saved their lives from an assassin who
was bent on killing everyone in the fort. A cursory inspection of the
lock from one of more knowledgeable members of C-Company confirmed
his story. Anyone who wanted to kill a member of C-Company, guard or
otherwise, would simply do so without provocation or consequence. The
idea of someone stealthily invading their locked sleeping area to
kill one of them was preposterous.

'So you came here to warn
us?'Darinnis asked, his tone was gruff but Jimmy knew it was his way
of thanking him.

'Yes, he's still out there and
the guards have split into patrols to canvass the fort in an attempt
to find him. If they don't succeed he will continue to kill until
none of us are left alive.'

Eigani grew more sceptical with
each word. 'Jimmy, are you suggesting that we leave the relative
safety of our room and aid the guards in their search?'

'There is no relative safety so
long as he's alive, you saw what he had planned for you. As soon as
he feels it's safe enough he'll come back to finish the job.'

'The boy has a point.' Darinnis
replied, though Jimmy wondered if it was just for a chance to be
contrary to Eigani. 'We're C-Company, it's not like the guards are
going to protect us if he comes back. In their eyes he'd probably be
doing them a favour by getting rid of a few extra mouths to feed.'

It was a grim bit of speculation
but it aided Jimmy's cause and it also had a ring of truth about it
that none of the men in the room could ignore. They had to make a
move from the confines of their sleeping area and try to deal with
this threat.

'What of B-Company?' one of them
asked, Jimmy couldn't tell who it was in the gloom. 'Should we warn
them?'

He knew that only the members of
A-Company had the privilege of rooms they could lock from the inside,
if they ventured out to find B-Company they'd probably run into a
locked door. Even if they couldn't help it seemed inhumane to not
warn them of their potential fate though, that feeling overrode any
other actions.

'That's where we're headed next,
to B-Company's quarters and then on to the armoury and the nearest
group of guards we can find.'

He saw heads nodding in assent,
it seemed that hiding in a dark room waiting for the assassin to
return held just as much appeal for them as it did for Jimmy. At
least in their numbers they may stand some ghost of a chance should
they encounter the foreigner unarmed.

They made their way down the
corridors at a torturously slow speed, there were no calls to abandon
those that could barely keep up a walking pace. Either they all made
it to B-Company's door or none of them did.

Eventually Eigani suggested that
Jimmy run ahead, there was no sense in arriving late to find
B-Company slaughtered because they weren't warned. He broke into a
brisk pace and left his former room mates behind, anxiety growing in
him once more at both how exposed he felt on his own and the
possibility that the foreigner had beaten him to B-Company's room
already.

His fears were realised when he
saw the door slightly ajar, he hoped against hope that a guard had
generously unlocked it but he knew that was a slim possibility at
best.

He carefully opened the door
enough to ease himself in, the darkness greeted him and he feared
shedding any further light.

'You can't have killed them all
so quickly,' a voice said.

Jimmy leapt back and banged his
heel off the door, he cursed in surprise and as he found his balance
he saw a lantern being lit to reveal not a massacre but a large group
of men in various states of wakefulness.

'Who the fuck are you boy and
what are you doing in our room?'

'No time for explanations,
there's an assassin loose in the fort and he plans on killing
everyone.'

'We know,' another voice said.

They knew? The reason their door
was open became apparent, they had already been paid a visit and the
foreigner either didn't like their numbers or was detected before he
could kill anyone.

'Why aren't you out looking for
him then?'

The first man laughed. 'Why in
Torr's name would we do that boy? Let him have his fun, he's out
there slaughtering guards. Sounds like a reasonable plan to me.'

'He's the lizard man,' said
another. 'Treated him pretty badly so they did, now he's come back to
kill them and we'll just wait until he's off into the desert again.'

Jimmy knew from the older members
of C-Company that there had been a time when the ownership of
Greyhawk was in a constant state of flux. Were this group of men
expecting the foreigner to do their dirty work for them and simply
leave them unscathed?

'He's going to kill you all, he
told me on his honour that he couldn't leave a man alive.'

The man laughed. 'So fucking
what?'

The second voice wasn't so sure.
'Armand, he's one of them Je'darans, they've got a funny notion about
honour. If he said he has to kill everyone I'd be inclined to believe
him, they don't fuck around when it comes to honour. Think of that
there guard, Jadil.'