Heirs of the Enemy (64 page)

“The Badgers have entered the ravine,” Peanut said softly.

“Are they wary?” asked Clint. “Did you detect anything from their words?”

“They do not speak,” answered the fairy. “They do not appear to be overly concerned. Their outriders returned to the main body, but I think that move was expected.”

“They must have used this route before,” mused Clint. “That should make them wary when they approach this end of the ravine. Still, if our men stay silent and unseen, we should be fine.”

“What do I do?” asked Peanut.

“You get to start the battle,” answered Clint. “I want you to hover high over the narrow end of the ravine. You must be high enough so that I can see you, and I will be up on the eastern ridge, but not overly high. As long as it is safe, try to keep even with the ridge. When the lead rider gets within fifty paces of the end of the ravine, cast a fairy light. It need not be bright, nor should it last long enough for them to notice you. When I see your light, I will start the attack.”

“I shall start the battle,” grinned the fairy.

“Go now,” ordered Clint as he turned and walked back towards the ambush site.

He climbed up the eastern ridge and began issuing orders to his men. The men spread out along the ridge with the same instructions previously given to Sergeant Treman. General Forshire positioned himself as the last man in line, looking down at the narrow path leading out of the ravine. Less than thirty minutes later, he heard the first sounds of the Badgers. The assassins moved quietly, and Clint doubted that anyone camped more than a few hundred paces away would even have heard them. Clint turned his head and stared into the darkness where he thought the fairy light would come from. The wait was agonizingly long as he listened to the sounds of the seasoned warriors approaching the narrow end of Dead Man’s Gully. When the sounds grew so near that Clint felt as if he could look down and see the leader’s head, the tiny fairy light flickered in the darkness.

“Attack!” Clint shouted as he pulled back his arrow and looked over the edge.

Instant chaos erupted in the ravine as arrows started streaming into the ravine from both sides. Shouts of surprise and death echoed off the walls of the ravine. Clint wanted to search for the women, but the Badgers were in a rush to flee the ambush. He concentrated on the neck of the gully as the assassins tried to escape. Firing arrows as fast as he could, Clint began to fear that some of the assassins would escape, and that would not bode well for getting the women back to Despair. He abandoned his bow and slid down the side of the ravine. Pulling his long two-handed sword, Clint placed himself squarely in the neck of the gully. A riderless horse charged towards him, and he waved his sword high. The horse reared, and Clint shouted at the beast. Unexpectedly, the horse suddenly fell to the ground, several arrows protruding from its head.

Clint braced himself for the next rider, but none came. There were still sounds of battle in the ravine, but they were few and distant. Clint held his ground, not wanting to go against his own orders by moving further into the ravine. Slowly, the sounds of battle died out.

“Swords,” shouted Clint. “Into the ravine.”

The men of the A Corps slid into the ravine and started checking the bodies. Clint made his way forward, checking every body he passed, and ending the life of any wounded Badger he came across. He was halfway through the assassins when he came to a group of his men defensively surrounding three women.

“Are the women hurt?” he asked as he advanced.

“Not a scratch,” one of his men answered.

The men parted as General Forshire approached the women. They were bound to their mounts with sacks over their heads.

“Remove their bindings and get them down,” ordered the general. “I also want the horses rounded up, and every single body checked before we leave. There are to be no survivors.”

The men cut the bindings and helped the women off their horses. The sacks were removed from their heads and they all stared at the Federation soldiers around them. Clint walked to the oldest woman.

“I am General Forshire. Emperor Jaar has sent me to rescue you.”

“Praise the gods,” the woman replied with a sigh of relief. “I am Janay, and these are my daughters, Samana and Rynda I am sure that the emperor will see that you are rewarded.”

“Please,” General Forshire said with respect, “walk with me.”

The general guided the women through the maze of bodies and out of the ravine. When he reached the base camp the A Corps had set up, he invited the women to sit.

“I am not sure how much you know about what is going on,” the general began, “but your husband is being held captive in the Imperial Palace.”

“Captive?” frowned Janay. “I do not understand. If he is captive, how could he order you to rescue us?”

“He did so covertly. Grand General Kyrga is one of the conspirators. He keeps everyone away from your husband, but the emperor managed to sneak a message to me. I was able to get into his suite without anyone knowing, and he gave me instructions on how to find the estate where you lived. We have been trying to find you ever since.”

Janay looked at the general with suspicion. “And what are you to do with us?”

“I plan to take you back to Despair if I can.”

“If you can?” frowned Janay. “Explain.”

“The Badgers we killed tonight are only half of the group that was holding you and your daughters prisoner. The other half continued eastward which puts them between us and the city. I am also not sure who to trust in the palace. Your husband stressed that I should trust no one. Having saved you once, I am not anxious to lose you on the way to the palace.”

Janay nodded in understanding, but her expression of suspicion did not lessen. Clit frowned as he tried to understand why the woman was not trusting of him.

“I have tried to keep up on things in the palace,” Janay said. “I have never heard of a General Forshire. How is it that my husband chose you to rescue me?”

“I am Tyronian,” stated Clint. “When Tyronia joined the Federation, I was sent to Despair as a replacement for King Mectin should something happen to him. While I suppose that was quite an honor, I am a military man. I fought to have my own Corps, and it was finally allowed. I would like to think that my service to the emperor gave him faith that I was loyal. As an honest answer to your question, I don’t know why the emperor chose me. I can only assume that he didn’t trust anyone else, and that now becomes a problem.”

“Grand General Kyrga could not possibly become the Emperor of Barouk,” stated Janay. “There is obviously someone behind him. The emperor needs to know who that is.”

“I agree,” nodded Clint, “but I have been unsuccessful in discovering who is behind it. I do know that a Priest of Balmak is involved, but he is also an unlikely candidate for emperor. Without knowing who to trust, I have to devise a plan to smuggle you into the palace.”

“With an army at your back, General, you should be able to march me into the palace. I do not understand the problem.”

“My army is small,” answered the general. “At full strength, the A Corps only numbers two thousand men, and most of them are in Olansk. I only have one hundred fifty men with me, plus a like quantity a day’s ride from here. Grand General Kyrga could easily crush my army if he found out that we were coming.”

Janay remained emotionless upon hearing the news, but Clint saw fear etched into the faces of the daughters. He was sure that Janay was just as scared as the daughters, but she refused to show it. As this was probably the last time he would be alone with the emperor’s wife, he decided to ask about the one piece of information he had not been able to obtain.

“I am Tyronian, Janay. As such, I am not entirely familiar with the customs of the empire, but one thing has been bothering me. As I understand it, anyone trying to oust your husband from his throne has to eliminate the emperor’s entire family. Obviously, that is why your estate was attacked. Yet you are still alive. That tells me that there is more to your family than just your daughters. Where is your son?”

Janay’s stony façade immediately crumbled. Fear was evident in her eyes no matter how much she tried to suppress it. “My son died six years ago of a fever. We are all that the emperor has left. Who are you to question such things? You are but a general.”

Clint was not entirely surprised by her adamant denial, but he also knew that she was lying. Clint sighed and looked up. As he did, he saw Sparky hovering behind the woman. The fairy looked anxious and Clint nodded subconsciously.

“Wait here,” he said to the women. “I will want my men to set up a defensive perimeter around this camp. I will be back shortly.”

Clint strode out of the clearing, and Sparky landed on his shoulder almost immediately.

“Colonel Hardi wants to join his group to yours because the other group is pushing them further north. What am I to tell him?”

“What are you to tell him?” frowned Clint.

“Morro had to tell him about me. The colonel threatened to attack the other group and then come to your aid if he did not reveal his secret. He did promise to keep the secret from his men.”

Clint sighed and nodded in resignation. “Alright. Tell the colonel that we have ambushed the Badgers and have the women with us. There is no longer a reason to pursue the other group. Have his men rest for the day and then move towards us tomorrow night. We will move towards him and reunite our forces. Hopefully by then I will have some plan to get the women into Despair.”

Sparky leaped into the air and disappeared. Before Clint could return to the women, Sergeant Treman caught up to him.

“We lost twenty men, General. Most of them died from throwing knives. I find it hard to believe that they could kill so many of us with knives.”

“I would expect them to be experts at throwing knives,” Clint replied. “They are assassins, not soldiers. Have the men gather what they can, and remind them not to prick themselves with the Badger pins. That would be a deadly mistake. Add their horses to ours, and set up a perimeter around the campsite.”

The sergeant saluted and hurried off. Clint slowly walked back to the campsite as he pondered the problem of entering the palace.

* * * *

The Badger crawled slowly from one tree to the next. He moved with a silence learned over the years, and he kept to shadows cast by the afternoon sun. When he was within throwing distance, the assassin rose to his feet, keeping the tree between him and his target. He carefully looked around the tree and saw the Federation sentry. The soldier was more alert than most soldiers, but the assassin did not think of the sentry as a difficult kill. He had executed targets far more challenging. The Badger watched the sentry for a while, noting the patterns with which the sentry looked around and moved. When he was satisfied with the opportunity, he stepped out and threw his knife. The blade plunged into the sentry’s forehead. As the sentry wavered, his body tilted backwards to lean against a tree. The Badger raced forward to catch the falling body. He quietly lowered it to the ground and then dropped to his knees. Crawling forward again, he soon came to the main campsite of the A Corps.

The Badger studied the bodies in the campsite. Few of them were awake, and he noted them. Holding a throwing knife in each hand, the assassin waited for the signal. He did not have long to wait. One of the soldiers who was awake suddenly crumbled to the ground. That was the signal, and the Badger rose up on his knees and threw a knife at the closest awake soldier. All around the campsite, bodies fell as the Badgers attacked. Two of the stricken bodies fell on other soldiers, waking them up, but waiting knives instantly targeted them, and they also died. With no one awake in the campsite, the Badgers crawled forward to assassinate the sleeping soldiers. The assassins were swift with their attack. Each of the assassins crawled to a sleeping body and sliced its throat, quickly moving on to the next.

Clint wasn’t sure what had woken him, but he opened his eyes to see the sun filtering down through the trees. His first thought was to check on the women, but a subtle sound caught his attention. He glanced towards the center of the campsite and saw the Badgers crawling among his men. He shouted an alarm even before rising to his feet, a decision that probably saved his life as more than one knife would have been hurled in his direction. The camp descended into instant chaos as the soldiers woke to find the enemy among them. They scrambled for their weapons, but the enemy was all around them. Sergeant Treman had been sleeping next to Clint, and the soldier started to rise. Clint grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

“We have to get the women to safety,” Clint said urgently. “You gather them, and I will cut our way through the Badgers. Put all three of them on my horse. Go!”

The sergeant nodded and leaped to his feet, heading straight to where the women were sleeping. Clint rose and swiftly followed him, his hands reaching into his pouch for some Lanoirian stars. A Badger saw the sergeant running and swiveled to throw a knife, but a Lanoirian star struck his face before he could release his weapon. Another Badger loomed ahead of the sergeant, and Clint threw his second star, his hands already reaching for more. The women were terrified, but they were silent lest they draw attention to themselves. Sergeant Treman pulled the two daughters to their feet and shoved them towards the tether lines. He tried to reach down to grab Janay, but she was already on her feet, racing after her daughters. The sergeant ran after them. Getting the women up had slowed the sergeant, and Clint caught up to him. Together they raced after the women. Clint heard a noise off to his left. He did not turn his head to look. Instead, he immediately dove to the ground, blindly throwing a star towards the sound he had heard.

Clint slid along the ground, twisting his head to see if his star had hit the enemy. It had not, but the assassin had turned his attention to the fleeing sergeant, probably thinking that he had hit Clint. The Ranger let another star fly, catching the Badger in the neck. The assassin halted, turning in shock to stare at Clint before his body fell to the ground. Clint jumped to his feet and raced towards the tether line, drawing his sword on the run. When he arrived, the sergeant was just hoisting the third woman onto the unicorn’s back.